of giving one concert in Moscow, he gave six. Later he played
in Bavaria, Saxony and other parts of Germany. He then settled in
Weimar for a time, being made Grand Ducal Capellmeister. Then, in
1844-45, longing for more success, he toured Spain and Portugal.
A generous act was his labor in behalf of the Beethoven monument, to
be erected in the master's birthplace, Bonn. The monument was to be
given by subscriptions from the various Princes of Germany. Liszt
helped make up the deficit and came to Bonn to organize a Festival in
honor of the event. He also composed a Cantata for the opening day of
the Festival, and in his enthusiasm nearly ruined himself by paying
the heavy expenses of the Festival out of his own pocket.
The political events of 1848 brought him back to Weimar, and he
resumed his post of Court Music Director. He now directed his energies
toward making Weimar the first musical city of Germany. Greatly
admiring Wagner's genius, he undertook to perform his works in Weimar,
and to spread his name and fame. Indeed it is not too much to say that
without Liszt's devoted efforts, Wagner would never have attained his
vogue and fame. Wagner himself testified to this.
While living in Weimar, Liszt made frequent journeys to Rome and to
Paris. In 1861 there was a rumor that the object of his visits to
Rome was to gain Papal consent to his marriage with the Princess
Sayn-Wittgenstein. During a visit to Rome in 1864, the musician was
unable to resist longer the mysticism of the church. He decided to
take orders and was made an Abbe.
Since that time, Abbe Franz Liszt did much composing. He also
continued to teach the piano to great numbers of pupils, who flocked
to him from all parts of the world. Many of the greatest artists now
before the public were numbered among his students, and owe much of
their success to his artistic guidance.
In 1871, the Hungarian Cabinet created him a noble, with a yearly
pension of three thousand dollars. In 1875, he was made Director of
the Academy at Budapest. In addition, Liszt was a member of nearly all
the European Orders of Chivalry.
Franz Liszt passed away August 1, 1886, in the house of his friend,
Herr Frohlich, near Wagner's Villa Wahnfried, Bayreuth, at the age of
seventy-five. As was his custom every summer, Liszt was in Bayreuth,
assisting in the production of Wagner's masterpieces, when he
succumbed to pneumonia. Thus passed a great composer, a world famous
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