Scan 25
Musical Courier 1896-07-01: Vol 33 Iss 852, 1896
32 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1A Musical Ghost.
3JOHN MALTRAVERS was a musical undergraduate at Oxford, and he had a bosom friend, William Gaskell, who was also musical. Maltravers played the violin and Gaskell the piano. In Maltravers' room there was a large wicker chair of a form then (1841) coming into Oxford. Gaskell has just returned from a visit to Rome, where he was particularly delighted by the music of the seventeenth century composers, of whose works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. But what has the wicker chair got to do with all this, you may ask. Wait! Gaskell calls on his friend on the first evening of his return to Oxford and leaves behind him some of the music of the seventeenth composers, among it being an oblong book, bound in soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was a manuscript copy of some early suites of Graziani for violin and harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in 1744, many years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated notation.
5On this particular night John Maltravers, being restless, had determined to try over some of the music which had been left him by his friend Gaskell. Quite by chance he took up the oblong MS. book of Graziani's suite, and, having tuned his violin, began to play the first movement, a lively Coranto. The light of the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the old world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. The Coranto was followed by a Sarabanda, and the Sarabanda by a Gagliarda. As Maltravers played the Gagliarda the wicker chair, which stood behind him, creaked. The sound was a perfectly familiar one, as of some person placing a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. Maltravers turned around, but saw nothing, and as wicker chairs do creak very mysteriously he paid no further attention to the fact, though it impressed him sufficiently to make him leave off playing, preparatory to going to bed. As he shut the music book a creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from a sitting posture.
7Whenever that Gagliarda is played by Maltravers and his friend the wicker chair creaks in exactly the same fashion, and the young men feel scared, though they give all kinds of reasons for the creaking. One night, however, Maltravers, after playing the Gagliarda, turned suddenly round and, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist or subtle vapor which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. That was rather too much for him and he left off playing for the evening. Of course the young fellows often talked about the creaking chair and the Gagliarda, and Gaskell said that the music was identified in his mind with a revel where several couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number of silver sconces. The dancers are of Italian type as to feature and coloring. At the end of the room is the musicians' gallery, on which is a florid coat of arms. With the last note of the sixteenth bar a veil is suddenly drawn across the scene, and with a sense almost of some catastrophe. It vanishes from Gaskell's mind.
9John Maltravers falls in love with Constance Temple. She and her mother visited the young man during Commemoration week, and on the evening of their departure Maltravers shuts himself up in his room and played the violin part of the Gagliarda. The chair creaks as usual, but, what was unusual, he feels that some one is in the room. Without stopping playing he partly turned round and looked over his shoulder. The silver light of the early morning was filling the room, making the various objects appear of less bright color than usual and giving to everything a pearl gray tint. In this cold but clear light he saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. When he looked a second time he saw quite clearly that it was a man of about thirty-five years of age. The face was long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something of a suppressed sneer. As Maltravers gazed at him the ghost got up, and walked slowly across the room to a bookcase at the side of the room farthest from the window. When he reached the bookcase he vanished like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle.
11Some months afterward Maltravers had the bookcase moved, and was surprised to find that behind it was a cupboard door of which he had no knowledge. When he was alone he forced open the door. He snatched up a candle, and holding this in one hand with the other pulled out an object from the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which is seen adhering to bottles of old wine. The "object" is a violin.
13Maltravers knew enough about violins to appreciate the beautiful varnish and workmanship of his find. The label inside was that of Antonius Stradivarius! Of course the hero ought to have given up his "find" to the college authorities. But he does nothing of the sort. Concealing the violin from his friend Gaskell he takes the earliest opportunity of submitting it to a Bond street expert, who, after examination, proclaims it a genuine "Strad," and a remarkably perfect example. It is even in good enough condition to stand modern stringing without having a new bass bar inserted. Maltravers tells no one of his treasure, and the Bond street dealer suspects nothing. From the day of finding the violin all goes wrong with Maltravers. Formerly he was gay of disposition; now he is reserved and taciturn. The secret weighs on his mind, and his sister is much concerned.
15Shortly after this she and John spend the Christmas with Mrs. Temple at her place, Royston. One night a ball was given, and Maltravers seemed in the best of spirits. After half the evening had gone, however, his sister was informed that he had been suddenly taken ill. She learned from him that he and Constance had been sitting together in the picture gallery and were watching the phenomenon of a thunderstorm in the middle of winter, when, just as he was about to ask her to be his wife, a brighter flash of lightning than the rest burst upon the couple, and he saw the same man he had seen in the wicker chair in his Oxford rooms. Maltravers is very ill for a long while, and his life is despaired of. Of course he recovers, and appears to have shaken off the evil influences which had held him since the finding of the "Strad."
17In the meantime his sister has found out all about the man whom Maltravers has seen. Soon after her brother's illness she is strolling in the picture gallery and there she sees a portrait that exactly resembles the man her brother had described. The sitter was painted by the artist with a sheet of music in his hand, and Miss Sophia Maltravers, on closely examining it, finds that the painter has actually copied the first few bars of the Gagliarda of Graziani. She learns all about the subject of the portrait, Adrian Temple. He was a most dissipated scoundrel, clever, cultivated, unscrupulous, and before the age of thirty his name was a byword among sober and upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickedness, until, on one of his Italian tours, Jocelyn left him suddenly and became a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian Temple had shocked even him. About four years afterward Adrian suddenly disappeared and it was supposed he had died in Italy. Adrian was a good musician and clever violinist, having studied under Tartini himself. He was the first possessor of the lost "Strad." A curious history was attached to the instrument. During his lifetime Stradivarius would never part with it, and had given orders that after his death it should be burned. These instructions were neglected and the violin was sold to Adrian Temple.
19John Maltravers and Constance are married as soon as he is quite well. To his sister it is quite evident that he no longer cares for his bride. All his time previous to the marriage is given to practicing on the "Strad," and the Gagliarda is played over and over again. It becomes quite a mania with Maltravers. After the young married couple have been away for a month, letters from Maltravers and his bride become fewer and fewer. When they return it is seen that Maltravers is much changed and looks very ill. He is hardly ever with his wife, and shuts himself up all day long in his study, playing the violin. Then one day he bids his wife and sister good-bye and goes off to Italy. They hear nothing of him for a long while. Then he returns, only to go away again almost directly. His wife, who has given birth to a child, catches cold and dies. Maltravers, who is in Italy, is written to, but he sends no reply. At last they hear from his servant that he is still at his villa in Naples in his usual state of health. He never comes home again, and his sister never hears from him until he writes a brief note saying he is very ill and asking her to go out to him.
21We must here mention that with the violin some old MS. books were found in the cupboard in Oxford. They proved to be the memoirs of Adrian Temple, who seems to have been a kind of Neo-Platonist. The memoirs were full of a sensuous mysticism, and took a great hold on Maltravers' mind, so that his wife and relations were entirely forgotten. The crisis had come one night at Naples, when on his marriage tour with his wife. Maltravers never tells his sister or his friend exactly what happened, but it seems that there was a passage in the memoirs that related to some strange rites; that Maltravers had taken his violin and had gone one night to the place indicated by Adrian Temple; that he had diligently observed all the forms of the rites as prescribed in the memoirs, and that he had seen something so horrible and ghastly that it had changed all his nature. He never would explain what it was, and he tore the pages out of the memoirs that referred to the mystical ceremony. While abroad he finds out that Adrian Temple did not die of plague as had been supposed, but had been stabbed at a ball by an Italian friend whose wife Temple had seduced. The later years of Temple had been growing darker and darker in crime and sensuality. More than once in the manuscript (of the memoirs) he made mention by name of the Gagliarda of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which the enthusiasts revived at Naples, as the air had evidently impressed itself deeply on his imagination. At the ball at which he met his tragic death the licentious Gagliarda was being probably played, as the entertainment took place in the house of one of Temple's closest Neo-Platonic friends.
23One Christmas Eve after Maltravers had been brought home by his sister the invalid rose from his bed in the night and, seizing his violin, began playing the Gagliarda in his sleep. His friend Gaskell thus describes the scene: I was about to wake him gently when he was startled by a strange accident. As I walked toward him the violin seemed entirely to collapse in his hand, and as a matter of fact the belly then gave way and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened the last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in its parting throes the tabernacle that had so long sheltered him." In a few days Maltravers dies just at the moment when he is about to tell his friend the mystery contained in the missing pages of Adrian Temple's memoirs.—London Musical Standard.
25Mr. and Mrs. Toedt.—Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Toedt are spending the summer at Wallingford, Vt.
27J. Lewis Browne.—Mr. J. Lewis Browne, organist, has gone from Griffin to Columbus, Ga., to take the organ of the First Presbyterian Church and a large class of pupils.
29… SIGNOR GIUSEPPE … DEL PUENTE, The Baritone. OPERA AND CONCERTS. Vocal School: 1726 Spring Garden, Philadelphia, Pa.
31AUGUST GEMÜNDER & SONS, —MAKERS OF THE— "Gemünder Art" Violins, "Gemünder Solo" Mandolins and Guitars. Rare Old Violins, Bows, Strings and Repairing. Send for new Catalogue. 42 East 23d St., New York.
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