MY DEAR FRIEND,--How shall I thank you for those two beautiful “Studies”
you sent me! I cannot tell you how much I have found in them to enjoy
and to admire, and how grateful I am that you should select me as the
first to send them to, in advance of the whole musical world, that takes
so lively an interest in all you write. That is truly kind of you.
To tell the truth, it is the one in D minor that is my favorite,
particularly in that modulation on the seventh, after the long F
[Illustration: musical notation], and the return to D minor, passing
through C and E flat. But then there is that lively one in F major,
which I love more and more each time I play it. And
[Illustration]
[Illustration: musical notation
24. Stage Arrangements at Berlin. Fac-simile of Drawing by Mendelssohn.
(See explanation in the List of Illustrations.)]
finally, they are both so truly Moscheles that it is hard to choose!
Well, there they are, both of them; so there is no necessity to make a
choice.
Will you allow me an observation,--the only one that occurred to me?
There is something in the last two bars of the D minor Study, the end of
which I otherwise like so much, that sounds strange to my ear. The long
rest on the seventh, and then the F in the melody (half a bar before the
last) gives to that passage a melodious coloring that does not seem to
me quite in keeping with the general character of the Study. I think
some simpler, bolder final chord would be more in harmony with the
whole. It is a trifling objection, you see, and perhaps I am altogether
wrong; so excuse the liberty and set me right.
It does strut along so splendidly, that D minor Study; and I can play it
pretty well already too. The one in F I cannot manage at all yet,
although I have tried hard.
Your putting at the head of them the words “Without characteristic
names,” is, I can see, an allusion to my pert remarks in Gotha. Well,
you must pardon them, as well as all others in the past, and possibly in
the future. Let me thank you too, my dear friend, in my wife’s name and
in my own, for the dedication of your Songs. It is a kind gift we shall
ever value.
You will have heard that I am going for a year to Berlin. I could not
refuse, but fully intend to return at the end of the time. I would
rather be here than there. To be sure, I am to rejoice in the title of
Kapellmeister, to get a lot of money, and to have no special duties,
either at the theatre or elsewhere,--in fact, to be quite my own master;
but with all that, I don’t quite like it. I shall be there in about ten
days; and as soon as I can tell you more about it, you shall hear from
me.
Yours ever,