href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@45997@[email protected]#Page_ii_302" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">302

Appointment of a second director of the orchestra, Mr. Bott at Cassel 306 1853. Journey to London to direct the performance of his opera “Jessonda,” &c. 308 1854. Journey to Switzerland, Munich and Alexandersbad 314 1855. Journey to Hannover 316 Journey to Hamburg and Lübeck 319 1856. Journey to Dresden, Saxon Switzerland and Prague 321 Journey to the Harz 321 1857. Journey to Holland 323 Spohr pensioned off by the Elector of Hesse 325 Breaks his arm 327 1858. Journey to Magdeburg, &c. 327 Journey to Bremen 329 Journey in Prague to the jubilee of the conservatory 329 Visit to Alexandersbad 331 Journey to Wiesbaden to the musical festival of the Middle-Rhine 331 Journey to Leipsic 331 His Last composition 334 1859. Journey to Meiningen. Spohr directs an orchestra for the last time 336 Journey to Detmold 338 Journey to Alexandersbad and Würzburg 339 Spohr’s last illness and death 341

My father, Carl Heinrich Spohr, Doctor of Medecine, afterwards Medical Councillor, was the son of a Clergyman at Woltershausen in the district of Hildesheim. He married, November 26, 1782, Ernestine Henke, daughter of the Clergyman of the Aegydian church of Brunswick, and at first resided with her parents at the parsonage[1]. I was the eldest child of this marriage, and was born April 5, 1784. Two years later, my father was transferred as district physician to Seesen. My earliest recollections reach back to that removal; for the impression made upon me by my mother’s weeping, after having taken leave of her parents, and our arrival at the simple and somewhat rustic house at Seesen, have remained with me up to the present time. I remember also the smell of the newly whitewashed walls striking me as disagreeable, and even now I still retain an uncommon acuteness and sensibility of the senses.

In Seesen were born my four brothers, and one sister. My parents were musical: my father played the flute, and my mother, a pupil of the Conductor Schwaneberger in Brunswick, played on the piano with great ability, and sang the Italian bravuras of that time. As they practiced music very often in the evening, a sense and love for the art was early awakened in me. Gifted with a clear soprano voice, I at first began to sing, and already in my fourth or fifth year I was able to sing duets with my mother at our evening music. It was at this time that my father, yielding to my eagerly expressed wish, bought me a violin at the yearly fair, upon which I now played incessantly. At first I tried to pick out the melodies I had been used to sing, and was more than happy when my mother accompanied me.

Soon after, I had lessons from Herr Riemenschneider, and I still remember, that, after the first lesson, in which I had learned to play the G-sharp accord upon all four strings, in an extasy at the harmony, I hastened into the kitchen to my mother, and arpeggiod the chord to her so incessantly that she was obliged to drive me out. When I had learned the fingering of the violin from notes, I was also allowed to practise music with the others in the evening, as violinist, and there were particularly three trios by Kalkbrenner, for piano, flute and violin, which, after being studied, were executed in presence of our circle of friends.

About the year 1790 or 91 a French