52 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



The first were written at the time of Agassiz's fiftieth birth- 

 day (May 28, 1857), which his students celebrated by a 

 serenade on the birthday eve, arranged with the advice of 

 Mr. Otto Dresel, an occasion for which Longfellow's 

 well-known verses, The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz, were 

 written. Mr. Dresel's name deserves more than a passing 

 mention here. A favorite pupil of Liszt and an intimate 

 friend of Robert Franz, he had come with an established 

 reputation to Boston, where he became an important in- 

 fluence in musical circles. Pupils quickly sought him for 

 both vocal and instrumental lessons, among others Mrs. 

 Agassiz and her sisters. In their case the friendship which 

 usually developed between himself and his pupils was 

 made the closer by his marriage with one of their friends, 

 Miss Anna Loring, which led to his being a welcome and 

 frequent visitor in the Agassiz and Gary households, where 

 he usually added the pleasure of good music to that of his 

 presence. It was, perhaps, in the course of the lessons men- 

 tioned by Mrs. Agassiz in this letter, that once when she 

 was trying to take a very high note, Mr. Dresel exclaimed, 

 "Ah, Mrs. Agassiz, keep that note for a fire." But her voice, 

 a soprano, was considered very sweet and blended delight- 

 fully with Mrs. Felton's deep contralto and Miss Sallie 

 Gary's mezzo-soprano when the three sisters sang, as they 

 often did, in trio. 



TO MISS SARAH G. GARY 



Cambridge, May 24 [1857] 



. . . ANNA has promised to come and hear the sere- 

 nade. As I wrote to you, Longfellow's words do not 

 work very well for concert music, and Dresel was 



