|
Of his calling and opportunities as an artist he had a very high
idea. Acknowledging a compliment paid to him in 1802 by the
members of the Musical Union in Bergen, he wrote of the happiness
it gave him to think of so many families susceptible of true
feeling deriving pleasure and enjoyment from his compositions.
"Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed
to my work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed,
and I felt it a hard matter to persevere in the course I had
entered on, a secret feeling within me whispered, 'There are but
few contented and happy men here below; everywhere grief and care
prevail, perhaps your labours may one day be the source from
which the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs may
derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful
motive to press onwards! And this is why I now look back with
heartfelt, cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have
devoted such a long succession of years with such persevering
efforts and exertions."
With this high ideal was combined a constant effort to perfect
himself in his art. To Kalkbrenner he once made the touching
remark: "I have only just learned in my old age how to use the
wind instruments, and now that I do understand them I must leave
the world." To Griezinger, again, he said that he had by no means
exhausted his genius: that "ideas were often floating in his
mind, by which he could have carried the art far beyond anything
it had yet attained, had his physical powers been equal to the
task."
|
|
