CHAP. V - Austrian Influences on Art

Summary

It will be seen by the foregoing notes, that though little or no musical life, in my acceptation of the word, was to be found at Vienna, with the performances I did find there, I had no reason to be discontented,–allowing for the season of the year, the absence from town of most of the resident patrons of Music, and its natural consequence in the avoidance of any efforts at novelty in production. One thing, however, which almost every tourist in turn had bid me to expect, was totally missing from the Austrian metropolis which I saw–namely, that lightness of heart which is said to be the companion of, and apology for emptiness of head. Preparations and materials for the diversion of the idle were on every side; but the idleness was more obvious than the diversion–the ennui than the mirth.

There is, perhaps, a fate in first impressions; yet they are not altogether to be distrusted. Entering the lines on the road from Nussdorf, the man who saluted our clean, talkative Jehu, with a leather-topped stick in his hand, was pointed out to me as belonging to the police. I had not slept a- night in the Austrian capital, before another such civil-looking, middle-aged, tidily-dressed official was allotted to me, as guard of honour.