A Book of Burlesques | Page 6

and piccolos repeat the theme of brooding
in F major, and then join the oboes in the D minor chord. The horns
and bassoons follow with the motive of disaster and then do likewise.
Now come the violins with the motive of lamentation, but instead of
ending with the D minor tonic triad, they sound a chord of the seventh
erected on C sharp as seventh of D minor. Every tone of the scale of D
minor is now being sounded, and as instrument after instrument joins in
the effect is indescribably sonorous and imposing. Meanwhile, there is
a steady crescendo, ending after three minutes of truly tremendous
music with ten sharp blasts of the double chord. A moment of silence
and a single trombone gives out a theme hitherto not heard. It is the
theme of tenderness, or, as the German commentators call it, the
Biermad'l Motiv: Thus:
[Illustration: Musical Score]
Again silence. Then a single piccolo plays the closing cadence of the
composition:
[Illustration: Musical Score]
Ruhm und Ewigkeit presents enormous difficulties to the performers,
and taxes the generalship of the most skillful conductor. When it was in
preparation at the Gewandhaus the first performance was postponed
twelve times in order to extend the rehearsals. It was reported in the
German papers at the time that ten members of the orchestra, including
the first flutist, Ewald Löwenhals, resigned during the rehearsals, and
that the intervention of the King of Saxony was necessary to make
them reconsider their resignations. One of the second violins, Hugo

Zehndaumen, resorted to stimulants in anticipation of the opening
performance, and while on his way to the hall was run over by a taxicab.
The conductor was Nikisch. A performance at Munich followed, and
on May 1, 1913, the work reached Berlin. At the public rehearsal there
was a riot led by members of the Bach Gesellschaft, and the hall was
stormed by the mounted police. Many arrests were made, and five of
the rioters were taken to hospital with serious injuries. The work was
put into rehearsal by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1914. The
rehearsals have been proceeding ever since. A piano transcription for
sixteen hands has been published.
Kraus was born at Hamburg on January 14, 1872. At the age of three he
performed creditably on the zither, cornet and trombone, and by 1877
he had already appeared in concert at Danzig. His family was very poor,
and his early years were full of difficulties. It is said that, at the age of
nine, he copied the whole score of Wagner's Ring, the scores of the
nine Beethoven symphonies and the complete works of Mozart. His
regular teacher, in those days, was Stadtpfeifer Schmidt, who instructed
him in piano and thorough-bass. In 1884, desiring to have lessons in
counterpoint from Prof. Kalbsbraten, of Mainz, he walked to that city
from Hamburg once a week--a distance for the round trip of 316 miles.
In 1887 he went to Berlin and became fourth cornetist of the
Philharmonic Orchestra and valet to Dr. Schweinsrippen, the conductor.
In Berlin he studied violin and second violin under the Polish virtuoso,
Pbyschbrweski, and also had lessons in composition from Wilhelm
Geigenheimer, formerly third triangle and assistant librarian at
Bayreuth.
His first composition, a march for cornet, violin and piano, was
performed on July 18, 1888, at the annual ball of the Arbeiter
Liedertafel in Berlin. It attracted little attention, but six months later the
young composer made musical Berlin talk about him by producing a
composition called Adenoids, for twelve tenors, a cappella, to words by
Otto Julius Bierbaum. This was first heard at an open air concert given
in the Tiergarten by the Sozialist Liederkranz. It was soon after
repeated by the choir of the Gottesgelehrheitsakademie, and Kraus
found himself a famous young man. His string quartet in G sharp minor,

first played early in 1889 by the quartet led by Prof. Rudolph Wurst,
added to his growing celebrity, and when his first tone poem for
orchestra, Fuchs, Du Hast die Gans Gestohlen, was done by the
Philharmonic in the autumn of 1889, under Dr. Lachschinken, it was
hailed with acclaim.
Kraus has since written twelve symphonies (two choral), nine
tone-poems, a suite for brass and tympani, a trio for harp, tuba and
glockenspiel, ten string quartettes, a serenade for flute and
contra-bassoon, four concert overtures, a cornet concerto, and many
songs and piano pieces. His best-known work, perhaps, is his
symphony in F flat major, in eight movements. But Kraus himself is
said to regard this huge work as trivial. His own favorite, according to
his biographer, Dr. Linsensuppe, is Ruhm und Ewigkeit, though he is
also fond of the tone-poem which immediately preceded it, Rinderbrust
und Meerrettig. He has written a choral for sixty trombones, dedicated