



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive







Transcriber's Note:
   1. Page scan source:
      http://www.archive.org/details/storyageniusfro00lockgoog

   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].

   3. There are three stories included in this volume:

      (a) The Story of a Genius
      (b) The Nobl' Zwilk
      (c) What Happened to Holy Saint Pancras of Evolo




                                  THE

                           STORY OF A GENIUS



                           FROM THE GERMAN OF
                             OSSIP SCHUBIN



                              ENGLISHED BY
                             E. H. LOCKWOOD





                   R. F. FENNO & COMPANY: 9 and 11 E.
                   SIXTEENTH STREET    ::    NEW YORK
                                  1898






                            Copyright, 1898
                                   BY
                         R. F. FENNO & COMPANY






_The Story of a Genius_






                         The Story of a Genius




                                   I


Monsieur Alphonse de Sterny will come to Brussels in November and
conduct his Oratoria of "Satan."

This short notice in the _Independence Belge_ created a general
sensation. The musicians shrugged, bit their lips, and sneered about
the public's injustice toward home talent. The "great world,"--between
ourselves the most unmusical "world" in the universe,--very nearly
stepped out of its aristocratic apathy. This is something which seldom
happens to it in artistic matters, but now, for a whole week it talked
nothing but de Sterny: of his octave playing a little, and of his love
affairs a great deal. In autumn Brussels has so little to talk about!

Alphonse de Sterny had been in his day a great virtuoso and a social
lion. Reigning belles had contended for his favor; George Sand was said
to have written a book about him, nobody knew exactly which one; the
fair Princess G---- was supposed to have taken poison on his account.
But five years before the appearance of this notice in the
_Independence Belge_, de Sterny had suddenly withdrawn from the world.
During that time he had not given any concerts, nor had he produced any
new piano pieces, in his well-known style, paraphrases and fantasies on
favorite airs.

Now, for the first in that long interval his name emerged, and in
connection with an Oratorio!

De Sterny and an Oratorio!

The world found that a little odd. The artists thought it a great joke.




                                   II


It is November fifth, the day on which the first rehearsal of "Satan"
is to be held, under the composer's own direction.

In the concert hall of the "Grand Harmonic" the performers are already
assembled. In honor of the distinguished guest half a dozen more gas
jets are burning than is usual at rehearsals, yet the large hall with
its dark auditorium and the dim flickering light on its stage, has a
desolate, ghostly air. A smell of gas, dust and moist cloth pervades
the atmosphere.

A grey rime of congealed mist clings to and trickles down the clothes
of the latest arrivals. One sees within the hall how bad the weather
must be without. The lusty male chorus, with their pear-shaped Flemish
faces, their picturesquely soiled linen, and their luxuriant growth of
hair, knock off the clay from their boots and turn down the legs of
their trousers. The disheveled female chorus, on whose shoulders the
locks are hanging out of curl, complain of indisposition, and exchange
cough lozenges. The members of the orchestra work away sulkily on their
instruments. Across the dissonance of the thrilling fiddles darts the
sharp sound of a string that breaks.

Two dilettanti have slipped in by favor. One is a young piano teacher
of German extraction, who raves about the music of the future. The
other is an amateur, well known in Brussels by the nickname of "l'ami
de Rossini."

The instruments are tuned; here and there a violin practices a scale.
The gas jets chirp faintly. The male chorus stamp their feet to keep
warm, and rub their red knuckles together. De Sterny is letting himself
be waited for.

The friend of Rossini makes up to the lady soloists.

"Madame," he says to the Alto, whose engagement at the "Monnaie" he had
helped to bring about, "Madame, I pity you. De Sterny is an exponent of
this new music of the future. His compositions are among the most
ungrateful tasks ever set the human throat. One only needs to sing them
to expiate by penance all one's musical pleasures."

"You are too severe, monsieur," said the Alto. "No one can wonder at
the 'friend of Rossini' for hating the music of the future, and I grant
that some numbers of this Oratorio are quite astonishingly dull. But
