In our days, vocal music is beginning to assert in this country the
place it has long held abroad as a great moral educator; no longer
regarded as a superfluity of the rich, it is now established as a
branch of instruction in almost every school, and is gradually finding
its way into many nooks and corners, where it will act as an antidote
to grosser pleasures, by supplying the means of an innocent and
elevating recreation.
The apostle of music, considered as a boon and privilege of 'the
million,' has lately passed away from the scene of his active labours;
and it is but a tribute due to his memory as a philanthropist and man
of genius, while we deplore his loss, to pause for a moment and
briefly trace his career.
Joseph Mainzer was born, on the 21st October 1801, at Trêves, of
parents in the middle rank of life. When quite a child, the
predominating taste of his life was so strongly developed, that in
spite of harsh masters he learned to play on the piano, violin,
bassoon, and several wind-instruments; and at the age of twelve could
read at sight the most difficult music, and even attempted
composition. Music, however, was not intended to be his profession,
and was only carried on as a relaxation from the severer studies to
which Mainzer devoted himself at the university of Trêves, where he
took the highest degree in general merit, and the first prize for
natural science. At the age of twenty-one, he left college to descend
into the heart of the Saarbruck Mountains as an engineer of mines,
where, according to custom, he had to commence with the lowest grade
of labour, and for months drag a heavy wheel-barrow, and wield the
pickaxe. Yet here, in reality, dawned his mission as the apostle of
popular music: he relieved the tedium of those interminable nights of
toil--for days there were none--by composing and teaching choruses,
thus leading the miners both in labour and in song. This underground
life, however, was too severe for his constitution; and he was obliged
to return home in impaired health. He now studied divinity and music;
and, after a time, was advised to travel in order to perfect himself
in the latter branch of art. Under Rinck at Darmstadt, and at Vienna
and Rome, he enjoyed every advantage; and, on leaving the Eternal
City, was invited to a farewell _fête_ by Thorwaldsen, where all the
eminent artists of the day were present, and joined in singing his
compositions. On returning home, after two years' absence, he adopted
music as his vocation, and published his first elementary work--the
_Singschule_, which was introduced in Prussia and Germany as the
_méthode_ in schools; and soon after, the king of Prussia sent him the
gold medal awarded to men eminent in the arts and sciences. Paris,
however, soon offered more attractions to Mainzer than his native
place, and thither he repaired and pitched his tent for ten years.
During this period, he established his reputation as a composer of
dramatic, sacred, and domestic music, and as an acute and elegant
writer and critic. His opera of _La Jacquerie_ had a run of seventeen
nights consecutively at the theatre. He was soon welcomed into the
literary and artistic circles of Paris; and one evening, at an elegant
_réunion_, being invited to play, he _improvised_ a piece, which was
taken for a composition of Palestrina's. Many were moved to tears, one
pair of pre-eminently bright eyes especially; and the consequence was,
that the composer and the bright eyes were soon after united in
marriage!
But amid these captivating _salons_ and congenial occupations, what
had become of the apostle of popular music? He was not asleep; only
digesting and preparing a system which should, by its simplicity and
clearness, bring scientific music within the reach of the humblest as
well as the highest classes of society. At last it was matured, and
the working-classes were invited to come and test it--gratuitously of
course. A few accepted the invitation; but their success and delight
in the new art thus opened up to them, was so great, that the 'two or
three' pioneers soon swelled into an army of 3000 _ouvriers_! But a
band of 3000 workmen in Paris was considered dangerous: it could not
be credited that they met merely for social improvement and
relaxation; some political design must surely lurk under it:
government was alarmed, the police threatened; and it was left to
Mainzer's choice either to remain in Paris without his artisan
classes, or to seek elsewhere a field for his popular labours. He
decided at once on the latter alternative, and departed for England,
amidst the heartfelt regrets of those whom he had attached so strongly
to himself, while he inculcated peace, order, and every social virtue.
On his revisiting Paris long after, his old pupils serenaded him
unmolested; and in 1849, the Institute of France voluntarily placed
his name on their list for the membership vacant by the death of
Donizetti; yet he would not accept the proposal of a later French
government to return and establish his system: he preferred the
freedom of action which he enjoyed in Britain.
In London, a period of arduous labour commenced. Mainzer arrived
without patronage, without the _prestige_ that his name had earned
abroad, and, what was a greater drawback, without any knowledge of
English! But, nothing daunted, with his usual energy he set about the
task of acquiring the language, which he did in an incredibly short
time--commencing, like a child, by naming all familiar objects, and
going on, until, without perplexing himself with rules or their
exceptions, he had acquired facility enough to lecture in public. His
work on _Music and Education_ shows with what force and purity of
style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same
principle--that of commencing with practice and letting theory
follow--which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the
Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can
read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught
vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony
gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if
it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of
both children and adults, _the voice_ is the best and only instrument,
and one that can be trained, with _very few exceptions_, to take part
in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a
powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we
shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions
introduced into his classes, he says: 'Besides religious compositions,
there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to
the beauty and grandeur of his works. Songs, shewing in a few touching
lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and
cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature's children. Besides
these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic
virtues--order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance,
etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on
immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying
them with the very fibres of the heart.'
With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to
propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a
series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible
by railway--such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc. But this divided
work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field
in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously
introduced Wilhem's system, under the sanction of government. There
was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished
every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for
his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his
thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition,
and warmly received in 1842.
On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his
absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in
congregational classes. Unlike the church-organists of England, the
Scotch precentors are not educated musicians--a naturally good voice
and ear is their only pre-requisite. Dr Mainzer soon repaired this
mistake in those congregations which invited his personal
superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew's) the good effects
of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their
own choir, and singing in _four parts_.
To restore this country to the standard of musical eminence which we
know from old authorities that it held in the sixteenth century, was
the object of Dr Mainzer's energetic endeavours. The elements, he
believed, were not wanting. In Scotland, the musical capacity of the
people he found to be above rather than below the average of other
nations: all that was wanting was to convince the people of this by
the cultivation of their neglected powers. As a preliminary step, he
excited those friendly to the object to found the 'Association for the
Revival of Sacred Music in Scotland,' of which he was the director and
moving spring; and under its auspices he commenced a course of
_gratuitous_ teaching to classes formed of pupils from the parish and
district schools of Edinburgh, precentors, teachers, and operatives.
The success of these normal classes was so great and so rapid, that at
the end of the first year the pupils were able to become teachers in
their turn in their own schools or homes; and at the close of the
second and third sessions, concerts and rural fêtes were held, at
which many hundreds of young voices joined in giving true and powerful
expression to such works of the great masters as _Judas Maccabæus_;
while for the delight of their parents' firesides, and their own moral
improvement, the children carried home with them those simple but
touching and expressive melodies, composed by Mainzer for their use.
At the same time, Mr Mainzer carried on classes for the upper ranks,
especially for young children; gave lectures on the history of music
from the earliest times and in all countries; and published a talented
work on _Music and Education_, of which very favourable reviews
appeared at the time.[1] Mainzer had a peculiar predilection for
Scotland: its scenery, its history, its music, all supplied food for
his various tastes. With a poetic appreciation of the beauties of
nature, he desired no greater pleasure than to wander in perfect
freedom among our lochs and hills; and his descriptions of Edinburgh,
the Highlands, and Western Islands, which appeared in the _Augsburg
Gazette_, have brought some and inspired more with the wish to visit
the Switzerland of Britain. The history and music of Scotland threw
fresh light upon each other under his researches. He delighted to
trace the reciprocal influence of national events and national music,
from the time of the Culdee establishments of the sixth century, when
'Iona was the Rome of the north,' down to the _Covenanter's Lament_,
and the Jacobite songs of the last century. Since these days, the
spirit that invented and handed down popular song has passed away with
the national and clannish feuds which gave rise to the gathering song
and the lament. The age of peace has been heralded in by the songs of
Burns and Lady Nairne, the authoress of _The Land o' the Leal_, who
has done much to restore the taste for our beautiful old melodies, by
wedding them to pure and appropriate verse.[2]
In such pursuits, Mainzer--by this time dubbed doctor by a German
university--passed five years very pleasantly, but, in a worldly point
of view, very unprofitably. He had failed on first coming to Edinburgh
in obtaining the musical chair, which seemed so appropriate a niche
for him; and however reluctant to leave his favourite normal classes
and his adopted home, still when he looked to the future, he was
compelled to think of leaving Edinburgh--for the German proverb still
held true: 'Kunst geht nach brod;' and if man cannot live by bread
_alone_, neither can the artist live _without_ bread! At this
juncture, the Chevalier Neukomm, of European celebrity as a composer
and organist, and a valued friend of Dr Mainzer, came to Edinburgh to
inspect his friend's normal classes. He was so much delighted with
them, and considered Dr Mainzer so little appreciated by the general
public, that he persuaded him to try Manchester as his future field of
exertion.
In the autumn of 1848, accordingly, Neukomm introduced Mainzer to the
leading men of that city, who received him so cordially, that he at
once took his proper position, and entered on a career both useful and
profitable, and which continued to be increasingly successful, until
at Christmas 1850, he was laid aside by ill-health. Over-exertion had
brought on a complication of diseases, to which he was a martyr for
ten months, and which terminated fatally on the 10th November 1851.
During that long period of intense suffering, his active mind was
never clouded nor repining, and at every interval of comparative ease,
he read or listened to reading with avidity. During the first months
of his illness, he superintended the publication of a new musical
work, called _The Orpheon_, two numbers of which appeared; and his
last exertion in this way was arranging two songs: _The Sigh_ of
Charles Swain, and Longfellow's _Footsteps of Angels_, adapted to
Weber's last song. Prophetic requiems both!
A few weeks after his death, the hall which had been built in
Edinburgh for the classes of the Association which he founded, was
opened by an amateur concert given as a tribute to his memory. He had
promised to preside on this occasion; but his place was filled by his
aged, but still vigorous friend, the Chevalier Neukomm, who had come
to Edinburgh, at the request of the Association, to compose a series
of psalms, one of which was sung by the pupils. Music for the Psalms,
_adapted to the varying meaning of each verse_, has hitherto been a
desideratum in the musical world; now being supplied in Chevalier
Neukomm's work, and already subscribed for by no mean judges--the
Queen and Prince Albert, the king of Prussia, &c. It was touching, and
yet gratifying, to see one of Dr Mainzer's oft-cherished hopes
realised for the first time that evening--that of the _musical union_
of accomplished amateurs of private life with the pupils of the normal
classes.
Having thus briefly traced Dr Mainzer's life, it now remains to offer
a few remarks on his general character. His talents were of a
diversified and high order; and those who knew him only as the author
of 'Singing for the Million,' were not aware of his general
cultivation of mind. In the dead and living languages, he was equally
at home: now he would be speculating on the formation of the Greek
chorus, and again mastering some dialect of modern Europe, in order to
elucidate the history of the people or their music and poetry. His
literary articles were sought after by all the leading journals in
Germany and Paris; and his volumes of _Sketches of Travel_, and of
_The Lower Orders in Paris_, are graphic and entertaining. A year or
two ago, a _Notice Bibliographique_ of his works appeared in Paris,
which contained a list of above thirty publications. Great diligence,
joined to enthusiasm, enabled him to accomplish so much in these
various departments of literature. His manners, too, were of that
frank, cordial, and agreeable tone which inspires confidence, and
prepossessed every one in his favour; so that from all he could obtain
the information which he wished, and they could afford. Over his
pupils, his influence was immense. He had the rare art of engaging the
entire attention of children; and while he maintained strict
discipline, he gained their warmest affection: his own earnestness was
reflected on the countenances of his pupils.
Those alone who knew him in private life could thoroughly estimate
that purity of mind and heart which eminently characterised him, along
with a childlike simplicity and unworldliness, which often, indeed,
made him the prey of designing persons, but which, joined to his
general information and cheerfulness, made his society most
attractive. His personal appearance was indicative of a delicate and
nervous organisation: slight and fragile in figure, with an
intellectual forehead and eye, that spoke of the preponderance of the
_spirituelle_ in his idiosyncrasy; one of those minds which are ever
working beyond the powers of the body; ever planning new achievements
and new labours of love, and which too often, alas! go out at noonday,
while half their fond projects are unaccomplished, yet not before they
have made a name to live, and left the world their debtors!