52 _ ELIZABETH CARY 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 Cary 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 
Cary’s mezzo-soprano when the three sisters sang, as they 
often did, in trio. 
TO MISS SARAH G. CARY 
Cambridge, May 24 [1857] 
... Awna 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 
