| Show THE WORLD OF LETTERS A New Edition of Amy Fays Book Music Study in Germany Special Correspondence NEW YORK Jan 10A new edition has recently been issued of Amy Fays book entitled Music Study in Germany It is now ten years since the first edition was issued and the sale has been steady for the bock ever since Miss Fay is a sister inlau of Theodore Thomas as the great conductor was married to sister of Miss Fay recently in Chicago Mr Thomas is about to give up his New York residence and to remove to Chicago where he is under un-der contract to remain three years and manage the leading musical organization of that city He has lived for ten years in the same house in New York just off Union square It is a house which has the repute of being lucky It is owned by exMayor Grace and lie lived in it when he was elected for the first time mayor of New York When he moved to Murray Hill Mr Thomas became his tenant and it seemed as though from the day he entered that house his fortune became prosperous but his greatest happiness was when a few I months ago he brought the sister of Amy Fay to it as his bride t l a a I AMY FAY The story of Miss Fays little book is a most interesting one and it seems as though her fame was to be established not so much in the direction where her ambition pointed as through the publication publica-tion of this book which was originally written with no idea whatever of publication I publica-tion Miss Fay was a Chicago girl originally origi-nally from the vicinity of Boston She early displayed extraordinary talent for piano playing and a remarkable fondness and understanding of music She had as thorough an education in music as could be given in the Boston conservatories but j did not regard her education as sufficient II I and in 18C9 J she went to Germany At that time the historian Bancroft was the United I States minister to the Prussian government govern-ment and he was an intimate friend of some members of Miss Fays family She was able to enjoy special facilities on account ac-count of his friendship Miss Fay remained in Germany some five years and in that time was brought in professional contact with the greatest musicians j mu-sicians of the world That brilliant genius j Tausig gave her some of the last lessons of his life she saw Wagner many times and I i i was one of the first to appreciate him of all 1 Americans she was in Berlin at the time I of the FrancoPrussian war That great teacher Kullak gave her lessons and she was often able to meet such geniuses as I Joachim Clara Schumann Von Bulow and Rubinstein She was also one of the private pupils of Liszt and saw much of him in his professional and private life I After this training Miss Fay ret rued to America where she probably wortld have been only locally known as a player of extraordinary ex-traordinary gifts had it not been for the i book She became a teacher in the Chicago conservatory and seldom appears as a pub I i lie performer During Miss Fays absence j she wrote letters to her friends at home and these letters were brimful of truce J I I dotes characterizations of the geniuses of i the musical world clever analyses of the i talents of these great men and women and I charming bits of description She wrote them for private eyes alone but the letters I were written with such delightful simplicity sim-plicity of style were so lucid and graphic I and so evidently the reflection of an enthusiastic en-thusiastic soul that they were passed about j I I from friend to friend and were looked for I with the greatest interest When she returned a member of the fam I ily collected the letters and edited them I taking out such comments as were of a private nature purely and they were published I pub-lished in 18SO The literary and musical world recognized the book at once as a work of extraordinary ability unconsciously uncon-sciously exercised as it was The book brought her fame at once and it seems now to have safely passed the test J and become a permanent contribution to our literature It was in 1870 that she wrote of Wagner Wagners melodies are so heavily and intoxicatingly in-toxicatingly sweet that they are almost narcotic His music excites a set of emotions emo-tions that no other music does and he is a great original I always feel as if I would like to swoon away when I hear his compositions com-positions Of Joachim she said that the pathetic tones he draws from his violin go through tide like a knife Twenty years later Miss Fays judgment of Wagner is that of every one although at that tima her opinionwould have been regarded as musical heresy in America Her descriptions Descrip-tions of Liszt are delightful and intensely graphic But we might go on repeating extracts from the work ad libitum It is so free from technical terms that any one may readit with pleasureE E J EDWARDs |
