It was in Darmstadt also that I first heard a really fine orchestra powerful and well trained, to which our homely orchestra in Hagen could not be compared. The then grand duke was a great lover of music, a musician himself, and under his watchful care Hofkapellmeister Mangold had brought together a band equal to any of the best in Germany. To my great joy I was allowed to attend the rehearsals ; and these were most numerous, taking place almost daily, and apparently merely for the pleasure of the practice. They seemed to be the only occupation of the members of the orchestra; in fact in quiet Darmstadt nobody appeared to have anything in particular to do, and nothing could exceed the stillness of its vast and regular streets. I remember up to the present day the deep impression which Beethoven's Eroica Symphony made upon me, especially the marvellous Funeral March. Sitting in a dark corner of the half-lighted theatre (the rehearsals took place on the stage), I was rapt in wonderment and trembling all over. There is in particular a long A flat for the oboe, about thirty-four bars before the close of the march, for which I always waited with perfect awe, and which made my flesh creep. The rehearsals of this one symphony were continued a full month, by the end of which I knew it by heart, not having missed a single one. << less