DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

248 GROVE GROVE
symphonies of Beethoven and Mendelssohn,
steejiing himself in the music of Schumann and
Schubert, and in Sept. 1873 announced to his
friends that he liad resigned the secretaryship
of the Crystal Palace in order to edit the
Dictionary of Music ami jWusiciims for Messrs.
Macmillan. Though he had resigned the secretaryship
of the Crystal Palace, Grove maintained
his connection by joining the Board of Directors
and continuing to edit the programmes of the
Saturday Concerts. On June 29, 1875, the
honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred by the
University of Durham, on ' George Grove, the
eminent civil engineer, and the present editor
of Maxinillan s Magazi)i€, for the great services
'
rendered to literature by his writings ; and it is
worthy of remark that the speech of Professor
Farrar, who presented him for his degree, laid
stress on his contributions to Biblical research
and geography, but took no account whatever of
his services to music. His many-sidedness was
happily hit off by Robert Browning in a private
letter, a few months later, when he calls him
' Grove the Orientalist, the Schubertian, the
Literate in ordinary and extraordinary.' In
1876 he found time, amid his work on the
Dictionary, to write an admirable Geography
Primer for Messrs. Macmillan's series, published
in Jan. 1877 ; and in 1877 met Wagner at Mr.
Dannreuther's house in Orme Square, besides
assisting to entertain him at the Athenteura Club.
That Grove was immensely impressed by AVagner
there can be no question, but to the end of his life
he remained in imperfect sympathy with the
spirit and etJws of the music drama. But he kept
his views to himself, and never aired them in
public. Almost the only time he ventured to
discuss WagTier in public was when, in 1887, the
Daily Telegraph had noticed a new opera produced
in Pesth and viore suo praised the composer
' for not being influenced by Wagner : He seems
to his credit to have forgotten Wagner's very
existence.' Grove promptly wrote to point out
that this was incredible. Whatever Wagner's
faults, ' that he has made a revolution in the
form and structure of opera is admitted by ninetenths
of the mu.sical world.'
Intheautumnof 1878 Grove paid a memorable
visit to America with Dean Stanley, meeting
Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson,
Eliot, and other leaders of thought, visiting most
of the great eastern cities, and getting a glimpse
of the South and a run through Canada. 1879
was chiefly devoted to accumulating materials
for his monograph on Mendelssohn, and in the
autumn he visited Berlin and Leipzig to obtain
first-hand information from Mendelssohn's family
and friends. The first volume of the Dictionary,
containing Parts i.-vi., had been published in
1879, and the Part containing the article on
Mendelssohn appeared in Feb. 1880. In July of
the same year Grove was the recipient of a very
gratifying testimonial in the shape of a purse
of 1000 guineas, and an address emphasising
his signal services rendered to Biblical History
and Geography, and to Music and Musical Literature.
The list of subscribers contained the names
of the Archbishojis of Canterbury and York,
Dean Stanley, Millais, Leigliton, Frederic Harri-
son, Arthur Balfour, James Paget, and a host
of other distinguished men. Archbishop Tait
presided : Dean Stanley and Sir Arthur Sullivan
eulogised Grove's services to Biblical research
and Music respectively. The gathering was a
remarkable testimony to Grove's versatility, for,
as Dean Bradley said, it came almost as a
revelation to those who had associated him
chiefly with Biblical research or literature to find
him appropriated by musicians and vic^ versd.
From this time onward, however, his energies
were steadily concentrated in the direction of
music. He was already hard at work on his
article on Schubert, and in the autumn of 1880
paid a special visit to Vienna to gather materials
on the spot, and study the MSS. in the possession
of the Musikverein. Here he renewed his
acquaintance with Brahms, and w-as greatly as-
sisted in his researches by his devoted friend C.
F. Pohl. Schubert proved his chief interest and
anodyne in 1881, a year saddened for Grove by
the death of Dean Stanley ; and in the autumn
his theory of the lost ' Gastein ' symphony took
shape, and his views were embodied in a communication
to the Atlietuvuvi for Xov. 19, 1881
(p. 675). The theory involved, as its corollary,
the renumbering of the C major Symphony
No. 10, a course invariably followed in the
programme-books of the Crystal Palace concerts.
Owing to the entire disappearance of the score,
and the continued failure of all efforts to bring
it to light. Grove's theory still remains in the
category of hypothesis, but his own confidence
in the accuracy of his deductions remained
unshaken. Meantime the movement for the
establishment of the Royal College of Music was
rapidly maturing. A scheme was mooted at a
meeting held at Marlborough House in 1878 to
effect an amalgamation with the Royal Academy
of Music and the Xational Training School of
Music, but the negotiations fell through, so far
as the Royal Academy was concerned. The
Training School, on the other hand, willingly fell
in with the proposal, and in 1880 a draft Charter
was completed, for which the Prince of Wales
(now King Edward VII.) undertook to become
petitioner to the Privy Council, a special feature
of the proposed institution being the raising of
a fund to provide not only for the education but
in certain cases for the maintenance of those
who, having shown themselves by competition
worthy of such advantages, were unable to
maintain and educate themselves. The Prince
of Wales accepted tlie Presidency of the Council,
and the late Dukes of Coburg (then Edinburgh)
and Albany, and Prince Christian took an active
part in the movement. Grove in July 1881 was