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Peter Gais
Struggling German composer and pianist from the 1897 German novel Der kraft-Mayr. Ein humoristischer musikanten-roman (The forceful[?] Mayr. A humoristic musician novel) by Ernst von Wolzogen (1855-1934).
The novel is set in Berlin in 1879.
Peter Gais in his outward appearance had five-eighths Beethoven, two-eighths Rubinstein, and one-eighth of incongruous elements which were thus probably his own Gaisic contribution. He was barely of medium height, thickset, his head very bulky, still more bulky his nose which was a formless lump ; his forehead was high-arched and displayed striking musical bumps, the blond eyebrows were scarcely noticeable, the round blue eyes strongly protruding, the mouth large and brutal, but the lips firm and energetic; the whole face unhealthy, pale, cheese-colored, and entirely beardless; his yellowish gray hair, smoothed back from his forehead without a parting, was long but not luxuriant. Leaning forward, his lips tightly closed, he stared at his manuscript and manipulated the keyboard with the strength of four hands.
He's composed a "music-drama" called Satan, with a libretto by Herr Emanuel Schrempf of Konigsberg:
"My dear Sir:
Our Peter Gais has just completed his new music-drama, Satan! It is the majestic prelude to the sublimely conceived tetralogy, Man, the creation of which will represent in all probability the culmination of his titanic labors, the coronation of the mighty genius of our demoniac Peter Gais."
Real composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) makes an appearance in the novel.
