Henry III’s HarpsichordThe following fact is a continuation of the interesting story of the music and lyrics of Henry III reported in the July 1865 issue of the magazine. Since then Mr. Bach turned into a writing medium, not practicing much due to the resulting fatigue. He only does that when excited by an invisible force, translated into a lively agitation and a trembling hand, from which the resistance is more painful than the exercise. He is a mechanical medium, in the most absolute sense of the word, and has no awareness or recollection of what he writes. One day, in such a state, he wrote this stanza:
“Le roy Henry donne cette grande espinette
A Baldazzarini, très-bon musicien.
Si elle n'est bonne ou pas assez coquette
Pour souvenir, du moins, qu'il la conserve bien.”
“King Henry gives this great harpsichord
to Baldazzarini, a very good musician.
If it is not good or elegant enough
as a gift, may he at least keep it well.”
The explanation to these verses, that made no sense to Mr. Bach, was given to him in the following text.
“King Henry, my lord, that gave me the harpsichord that you have, had written this in a piece of parchment paper to be fixed on the case, and had it sent to me one morning. A few years later, I was traveling with the harpsichord to make music, and fearing that the parchment would come out and get lost, I removed it and in order not to lose it I inserted it in a small niche, to the left of the keyboard, where it still is.”
The harpsichord is the origin of the modern pianos, in its simplicity. It was played in the same way. It was a small clavichord of four octaves, about one and half meters long by forty centimeters wide, with no feet. The strings inside were laid down like in the pianos, played by keys. It was easily transported in a case, like the double basses and cellos. It was played on a table or a tripod. The instrument was then in exhibition in the retrospective museum, at the Champs-Élysées, where the indicated search could not be done. When it was possible, Mr. Bach, with his son, promptly examined all corners of the instrument, but found nothing, then thinking that it was a case of mystification. Yet, for completeness, he disassembled it totally and found, to the left of the keyboard, between two little wooden beams, a groove so narrow that could not be reached by the hand. He examined that dusty spot, full of spider web, and extracted a folded parchment paper, darkened by time, with thirty-one centimeters by seven, on which the following stanza was written, in large characters of the time:
Moy le Roy Henry trois octroys cette espinette
A Baltasarini, mon gay musician,
Mais sis dit mal soñe, ou bien ma moult simplette
Lors pour mon souvenir dans lestuy garde bien.
Henry
I, King Henry III, give this harpsichord
to Baltasarini, my joyful musician,
for good or worse, but much simply
as a memory from me, keep it in the case.
Henry
The parchment has holes on the four corners that are evidently due to the nails that fixed it on the case. Besides, it has several holes regularly aligned and spaced on the borders, apparently made by small nails. It was exhibited in the sessions room at the Society, and we all had the pleasure to examine it, as well as the harpsichord, on which Mr. Bach played and sang the aria that we referred, and that was revealed to him in his dream. The verse dictated verses, as it can be seen, reproduced the same thought as in the original, translated into modern language, and all that before the latter was discovered. The third verse is obscure and contains the word “ma” that seems to have no meaning and not be connected to the main idea, and in the original it is on a thin thread. We tried unsuccessfully to find an explanation for that, and Mr. Bach did not have one either. One day, I was in his house, and he spontaneously got a communication from Baldazzarini, in my presence and in our intention, in the following terms:
“My friend,
I am happy with you; you wrote those verses on my harpsichord; my promised was accomplished and now I am tranquil. (reference to other verses dictated to Mr. Bach and that Baldazzarini had asked to have them written on the instrument). I am to have a word with the wise President that is visiting you.
“O toi Allan Kardec, dont les travaux utiles
Instruisent chaque jour des spirites nouveaux,
Tu ne nous fais jamais des questions futiles;
Aussi les bons Esprits éclairent tes travraux.
Mais il te faut lutter contre les ignorants
Qui, sur notre terre, se croyeyen des savants.
Ne te rebute pas; la fâche est dificile;
Pour lout propagateur fût-ce jamais facile?”
Oh you, Allan Kardec, whose useful works
instruct new Spiritists every day,
never addresses us with useless questions;
May the good spirits, therefore, illuminate your works,
but it is necessary to fight against the ignorant
that, on Earth, believe to be wise.
Do not be discouraged; the task is difficult;
Has it ever been easy to the propagators?
The King used to make fun of my pronunciation in his verses; I always said “ma” instead of mas. Good-bye friend.”
Baldazzarini
That is how the explanation of this word ma was given, without any prior question. It is the Italian word meaning but, sprinkled with jest, by which the king designated Baldazzarini, who, like many of his nation, often pronounced it. So the king, giving this token to his musician, said to him: If it is not good, if it sounds bad, or if my (Baldazzarini) finds it too simple, of too little value, let him keep it in its case, as a memory from me. The word “ma” is surrounded by a rule, like a word in parentheses. We would certainly have sought this explanation for a long time, which could not reflect the thinking of Mr. Bach. since he himself did not understand it. But the Spirit saw that we needed it to complete our report, and he took the opportunity to give it to us without us thinking of asking him, for when Mr. Bach began to write, we did not know, like him, what Spirit was communicating.
One important question was still open, to know if the handwriting on the parchment was, in fact, that of Henry III. Mr. Bach searched the Imperial Library to compare it to the original manuscripts. Some were found, in the beginning, that did not show perfect similarity, but only the same type of letter. With some other pieces, the identity was absolute, both to the body of the text as well as the signature. The difference resulted from the fact that the King’s calligraphy was variable, a circumstance that will be explained later.
There could not be any doubt about the authenticity of that piece, although certain persons, that have a radical opinion about things called supernatural, pretended that it was a very accurate imitation. One must observe that here it is not about a mediumistic writing given by the spirit of the king, but an original manuscript written by the king himself, when alive, and that it is not more supernatural than those that fortuitus circumstances allow to discover every day. The supernatural, if it exists, is only in the way its existence was revealed. It is very true that if Mr. Bach had said that he had found it by chance in his instrument, there would not have been any objection raised.
These events had been reported in the session at the Society, on January 19th, 1866, in which Mr. Bach was present. Mr. Morin, member of the Society, somnambulistic and very lucid medium, and that in his magnetic sleep sees and communicates with the Spirits, attended the session in a somnambulistic state. During the first part of the session, dedicated to multiple readings, correspondence and to the report of facts, Mr. Morin, that was not involved, seemed to be in mental conversations with invisible beings. He smiled at them and exchanged handshakes. When his turn came, he was asked to name the Spirits that he saw and that he asked them to transmit, through him, whatever they wanted to say for our instruction. Not a single question was addressed to him. We only summarized some of the past events, to give an idea of the development of the session, and to get to the main subject of our concern.
“It would be impossible to name them all, he said, for the number is too large; as a matter of fact, there are many that you do not know and that come here to get instructed. Most of them wanted to speak but yield to those that at this time have more important things to say. To begin with it is by or side our colleague Mr. Didier, the last to depart to the world of he Spirits, that does not miss any of our gatherings, and that I see exactly as I did when alive, with the same physiognomy; one could say that he is here with his material body; he just no longer coughs. He transmits his impressions to me, his opinion about current affairs, and assigns me with the task of transmitting his words. Then comes a young man that committed suicide recently in special circumstances, describing his situation, presenting a phase kind of new, about the state of certain suicide persons after death, given the determining causes of the suicide and their state of mind.
Then comes Mr. B…, a keen Spiritist who died a few days back following a cardiac surgery, and that had immersed in his faith and prayer to endure his long sufferings with courage and resignation. What a recognition I owe to Spiritism, he says. Without it I would certainly had ended my tortures and would be like this young man that you just saw. The thought of suicide occurred to me more than once, but I always rejected it. If not, my fate would have been very sad. Today I am happy, very happy, thanks to our brothers that assisted me with their charitable prayers. If they only knew the healthy and soothing emanations that their heartful prayers cast upon one’s sufferings!
But then, continues the somnambulist, where are you taking me? To a miserable shelter! There is a dying young man there, the chest in pain… misery is absolute: no heat, nothing to eat! His wife, exhausted by fatigue and deprivation, can no longer work… Ah the last and sad resource… She is bald, her hair sold for a few cents… How many days still to live? It is horrible!”
When asked to provide the address of that poor people, he said: “Wait”. He then seems to listen to what he is told; he takes a pencil and writes a name, with the address. On the following morning it was verified and accurately confirmed.
He got over the emotion and his Spirit returned to the place of the session, and spoke further about other people and several things that were highly significant and served as motive of instruction to our spiritual guides, and that we will deal with on another opportunity.
He suddenly exclaimed: “But there are Spirits of all kinds here! Some were princes, kings. There is one that steps forward; has a long and pale face, with a projected goatee, wearing a cap with a spark on top. He asks me to tell you this: - the parchment that you mentioned was, in fact, written by me and I owe you an explanation about it. In my days it was not so easy to write as it is today, particularly to persons in my position. The materials were less adequate and improved; writing was slower, thicker, and heavier; that I how it reflected the impressions of the soul. As you know, my humor was not stable, and depending on the mood the character of my writing changed. That is what explains the difference in the manuscripts that remains. When I wrote that parchment to my musician, and sent him the harpsichord, I was in a good mood. If you look into my manuscripts and find those in which the writing is similar to this one you will be able to identify my state of mind, by the matters that are treated, and you will have another proof of identity.”
Regarding the discovery of this manuscript, mentioned in the Grand Journal on January 14th, the same journal published the following article on its January 21st issue:
“Let us get to the bottom of the correspondence issue, mentioning the letter from Mrs. Countess of Martino, with respect to the harpsichord of Mr. Bach. The Countess of Martino is persuaded that the supernatural correspondent of Mr. Bach is an imposter since he should have signed Baldazzarini and not Baltazzarini that is kitchen style Italian.”
To begin with this quarrel about the spelling of a proper name is childish and that the accusation of imposter, in the absence of the invisible correspondent in which the Countess does not believe, falls upon an honorable man, something that is not of very good taste. Second, Baldazzarini, just a musician, a kind of minstrel, could not dominate the Italian language in its purity, in times when one would not pride oneself for being educated. Would the identity of a French person be contested on the ground that he writes kitchen style French, and don’t we see people that cannot correctly write their own name? Based on his origin, Baldazzarini would not be much above the kitchen. But such a criticism falls before a fact: the French, not much familiar with the nuances of the Italian orthography, on hearing that name naturally wrote it the French way. King Henry III himself, in the stanza mentioned above, simply write Baltasarini, although he was not a cook. That is what happened to the ones the sent the report of the event to the Grand Journal. As for the musician, in the several communications that were given to Mr. Bach, and from which we have several originals in our hands, signed Baldazzarini and sometimes Baldazzarrini, as it can be verified. It is not his fault but of those that quickly “Frenchisized” the name, including ourselves in the first place.
It is truly remarkable to see the adversaries of Spiritism clinching onto such childishness, an evident demonstration of their lack of good reasons.
