Old Fogy

His Musical Opinions and Grotesques

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About this book

Old Fogy: His Musical Opinions and Grotesques is edited by James Huneker, with an introduction. The introduction speaks of Old Fogy, whose letters aroused much curiosity and comment when they appeared from time to time in the columns of The Etude.

One voice in the text passes to the Hungarian piano-virtuoso who posed as a composer and says, "That he lent money and thematic ideas to his precious son-in-law, Richard Wagner, I do not doubt." A passage names pieces, among them the Nachtstücke, the Vienna Carnaval, opus 26, the idylls of childhood called the Kinderscenen, and the half-crazy Kreisleriana. A passage says that, from five hours a day in the beginning, a person actually succeeded in practising eighteen hours out of the twenty-four.