Music Appreciation

Music Appreciation

Selected Authors

Music Appreciation Appreciation Series

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Cover Image: A Music Party, by Arthur Hughes, (1864). In public domain, source Wikimedia Commons.

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Music Appreciation

A Compilation of Books to Encourage the Appreciation of Music in Young Hearts

The Music-Lover

The Lover of Music had come to his favorite seat. It was in the front row of the balcony, just where the curve reaches its outermost point, and, like a rounded headland, meets the unbroken flow of the long-rolling, invisible waves of rhythmical sound. The value of that chosen place did not seem to be known to the world, else there would have been a higher price demanded for the privilege of occupying it. People were willing to pay far more to get into the boxes, or even to have a chair reserved on the crowded level of the parquet.

But the Lover of Music cared little for fashion, and had long ago ceased to reckon the worth of things by the prices asked for them in the market. He knew that his coign of vantage, by some secret confluence of architectural lines, gave him the very best of the delight of hearing that the vast hall contained. It was for that delight that he was thirsting, and he surrendered himself to it confidently and entirely.

He had arrived at an oasis in the day. Since morning he had been toiling through the Sahara of the city’s noise: arid, senseless, inhospitable noise: roaring of wheels, clanging of bells, shrieking of whistles, clatter of machinery, squawking of horns, raucous and strident voices: confused, bewildering, exhausting noise, a desolate and unfriendly desert for the ear.

Now all that waste, howling wilderness was shut out by the massive walls of the concert-hall, and he found himself in a haven of refuge.

But silence alone would not have healed and restored his spirit. It needed something more than the absence of harsh and brutal and meaningless noise to satisfy him; it needed the presence of melody and harmony: tones measured, ordered and restrained; varied and

blended not by chance, but by feeling and reason; sound expressive of the secret life and the rhythmical emotion of the human heart. And this he found flowing all around him, entering deeply into him, filling all the parched and empty channels of his being, as he listened to Beethoven’s great Symphony in C Minor.

There was nothing between him and the orchestra. He looked over the railing of the gallery, which shaded his eyes from the lights above the boxes, straight across the gulf in which the mass of the audience, diminutive and indistinguishable, seemed to be submerged, to the brilliant island of the stage.

The figure of the conductor, dressed in black, stood in the center; silent, impassive, firm, eloquent in his tranquil poise. With slight motions, easy and graceful as if they came without thought and required no effort, his right hand, with the little baton, gave the time and rhythm, commanding swift obedience; while his left hand lightly beckoned here and there with magical persuasion, drawing forth louder or softer notes, stirring the groups of instruments to passionate expression, or hushing them to delicate and ethereal strains.

There was no labour, no dramatic display in that leadership; nothing to distract the attention, or to break the spell of the music. All the toil of art, the consideration of effects, the sharp and vehement assertion of authority, lay behind him in the rehearsals.

Now the finished work, the noble interpretation of the composer’s musical idea, flowed forth at the leader’s touch, as if each motive and phrase, each period and melody, were waiting somewhere in the air to reveal itself at his slight signal And through all the movement of the Allegro con brio, with its momentous struggle between Fate and the human soul, the orchestra answered to the master’s will as if it were a single instrument.

And so, for a time, it seemed to the Lover of Music as he looked down upon it from his lofty place. With what precision the bows of the violins moved up and down together; how accurately the woodwinds came in with their gentler notes; how regularly the brazen keys of the trumpets rose and fell, and the long, shining tubes of the trombone slid out and in. Such varied motions, yet all so limited, so orderly, so certain and obedient, look like the sure interplay of the parts of a wonderful machine.

He watched them as if in a dream, fascinated by their regularity, their simplicity in detail, their complexity in the mass watched them with his eyes, while his heart was carried along with the flood of music. More and more the impression of a marvelous unity, a mechanical certainty of action, grew upon that half of his mind which was occupied with sight, and gave him a singular satisfaction and comfort.

It was good to be free, for a little while at least, from the everlasting personal equation, the perplexing interest in human individuals, the mysterious and disturbing sympathies awakened by contact with other lives, and to give one’s self to the pure enjoyment of an impersonal work of art, rendered by the greatest of instruments. But presently the Allegro came to an end, and with the pause there came that brief stir in the orchestra, that momentary relaxation of nerves and muscles, that moving and turning of many heads in different directions, that swift interchange of looks and smiles and whispered words between the players, which seemed like the temporary dissolving of the spell that made them one. And with this general but separated and uncertain movement a vague thought, an unformulated question, passed into the mind of the Lover of Music.

How would the leader reassemble the parts of his instrument, in a few seconds, and make them one again, and resume his control over it? How would he make the pipes and strings and tubes and drums answer to his touch, though he laid no hand upon them? There must be some strange, invisible keyboard, some secret system of communication between him and those various contrivances of wood and wire and sheep-skin and horse-hair and metal (so curiously and grotesquely fashioned, when one came to consider them), out of which he was to bring melody and harmony. How should one conceive of this mysterious key-board and its hidden connections?

How should one comprehend and imagine it? Was it not, after all, the most wonderful thing about the great instrument on which the symphony was played?

While the Lover of Music, leaning back in his seat, was idly turning over this thought, the Andante began, and all definite questioning and reasoning were absorbed in the calm, satisfying melody which flowed from the violas and cellos.

But now a singular change came over the half-conscious impression which his eyes received as they rested on the orchestra. It was no longer a huge and strangely fashioned instrument, intricate in construction, perfect in adjustment, that he was watching.

It was a company of human beings, trained and disciplined to common action, understanding one another through the sharing of a certain technical knowledge, and bound together by a unity of will which was expressed in their central obedience to the leader. The arms, the hands, the lips of these hundred persons were weaving together the many-coloured garment of music, because their minds knew the pattern, and their wills worked together in the design.

Here was the wonderful hidden system of communication, more magical than any mechanism, just because it was less perfect, just because it left room, along each separate channel, for the coming in of those slight, incalculable elements of personal emotion which lend the touch of life to rhythm and tone.

The instruments were but the tools. The composer was the master-designer. The leader and his orchestra were the weavers of the rich robe of sound, in which alone the hidden Spirit of Music, daughter of Psyche and Amor, becomes perceptible to mortal sense. The smooth and harmonious action of the players seemed to lend a new charm, delicate and indefinable, to the development of the clear and heart-strengthening theme with its subtle variations and its powerful, emphatic close, like the fullness of meaning in the last line of a noble sonnet.

In the pause that followed, the Lover of Music let himself drift quietly with the thoughts of peace and concord awakened by this loveliest of andantes. The beginning of the Scherzo found him, somehow or other, in a new relation to the visible image of the orchestra. The weird, almost supernatural music, murmured at first by the cellos and double-basses, then proclaimed by the horns as if by the trumpet of Fate itself; the repetition of the same struggle of emotions which had marked the first movement, but now more tense, more passionate, more human, the strange, fantastic mingling of comedy and tragedy in the Trio and the Fugue with its abrupt questions and answers; all this seemed to him like a moving picture of the inner life of man.

And while he followed it, the other half of his mind was watching the players, no longer as a group, a unit of disciplined action, but as individuals, persons for each of whom life had a distinct colour, and tone, and meaning.

His eyes rested unconsciously on the pale, dreamy face of the second violinist; the black, rugged brows of the trumpeter: the long, gentle countenance of the flute-player with its flexible lips and blond beard.

The grizzled head of the ‘cellist bent over his instrument with an air of quiet devotion; the burly form of the player of the doublebassoon, behind his rare and awkward instrument, waiting for his time to come in, had the look of a man who could not be surprised or troubled by anything; one of the bass-violinists had the rough-hewn figure and the divinely chiseled, sorrow-lighted face of Lincoln, the others were children of the everyday; the clarionettist, with his dark beard and high temples, might have sat for Rembrandt’s picture of “The Philosopher”; and the rotund kettle-drummer, with his smooth head and sparkling eyes, restlessly turning his little keys and bending down to listen to the tuning of his grotesque music-pots, seemed impatient for the part in the score when he was to build the magical bridge, on which the symphony passes, without a break, from the third to the last movement.

“All these persons,” said the inner voice of the Lover of Music (he listening all the while to the entangling and unfolding, dismissing and recalling of the various motives) “all these persons have their own lives and characters. They have known joys and sorrows, failures and successes. They have hoped and feared. All that Beethoven poured into this music from his experience of poverty, of conflict with physical weakness and the cruel limitations of Fate, of baffled desire, of loneliness, of strong resolution, of immortal courage and faith, these players in their measure and degree have known.

“Even now they may be in love, in hatred, in friendship, in jealousy, in gloom, in resignation, in courage, or in happiness. What strange paths lie behind them; what laughter and what tears have they shared; what secret ties unite them, one with another, and what hidden barriers rise between those who do not understand and those who do not care! There are many stories running along underneath

this music, some of them just begun, some long since ended, some never to find a true completion: little stories of many lands, humorous and pathetic, droll and capricious legends, merry jests, vivid romances, serious tales of patience and devotion.

“And out of these stories, because they are human, has come the humanity of the players: the thing which makes it possible for them to feel this music, and to play it, not as a machine would play, grinding it out with dead monotony, but with all the colour and passion of life itself.

“Why should we not know something of this hidden background of the orchestra? Why should not somebody tell one of the stories that is waiting here? Not you, but some one familiar with this region, who has trodden its paths and shared in its labours; not a mere lover of music, but a musician.”

Here the inner voice which had been running along through the Scherzo and the Trio and the Recapitulation, died away quietly with the pianissimo passage in which the double-basses and the drum carry one through the very heart of mystery; and the Lover of Music found himself intensely waiting for the great Finale. Now it comes, longexpected, surprising, victorious, sweeping ail the instruments into its mighty current, pausing for a moment to take up the most delicate and mysterious melody of the Scherzo (changed as if by magic into something new and strange), and then moving on again, with hurrying, swelling tide, until it breaks in the swift-rolling, thunderous billows of immeasurable jubilation.

The Lover of Music drew a long breath. He sat motionless in his seat. The storm of applause did not disturb him. He did not notice that the audience had risen. He was looking at the orchestra, already beginning to melt away; but he did not really see them.

Presently a cane was stretched out from the second row behind him, and touched him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw the face of his friend the Dreamer, the Brushwood Boy, with his bright eyes and disheveled hair. And beside him was the radiant presence of the Girl Who Understood, “Lieber Meister,” said the Boy, “you are coming now with us. There is a bite and a sup, and a pipe and an open fire, waiting for you in our room. Bitte komm!”

Music

in the Home An Aid to Parents and Teachers in the Cause of Better Listening

In my long and varied experience as lecturer on musical subjects before clubs and schools, I have frequently been told by members of my audience: “You know I am not musical, but I love music.” It seems to be a very well defined theory that unless one can claim some technical accomplishment in music, one has no right to acknowledge even a love for the art, or to claim the right of being “musical.” It has always seemed to me that one who loves music is really often more truly musical than are some artists, whom God has given a pretty talent for reproduction, but who have not the true understanding of the music which they are trying to interpret.

We have had in America for so many years the wrong idea as to music, that it is hard for us to realize even today that it is not an art to be approached with sighs and tears any more than it is something we must technically analyze, before we listen to its message. When it is realized that music has been in the past a most important factor in the history of the world’s civilization and that it may be correlated with all our knowledge of the other arts, we are then ready to listen as the truly musical should.

Many mothers and teachers ask me: “At what age should a child begin to study music?” I always reply: “When your child has learned to listen to music in the home and has learned to love good music, he will want to learn to play or sing good music.”

It has always seemed to me such a pity that we have made our

eyes do so much more work than our ears. Is this perhaps the reason for the increasing need of glasses among our children? Is it responsible for the lack of attention in the family circle as well as at school? Have we sacrificed one sense that the other may be over-developed?

In these days, when the spoken drama is being so largely superseded by the moving picture, it is self evident that the ears of our children will require more careful training than ever before. How is this easier than by teaching them to listen to good music in the home? But there are many parents who do not play or sing. Yes, but how few of them realize that the player-piano and the phonograph were not invented solely for the purpose of amusement, or to serve as accompaniments for the dance. It is quite possible through the medium of these so-called “Mechanical” instruments to bring all of the greatest musical literature, interpreted by all the world’s greatest artists right into our home circle.

It is the purpose of this book to serve as a guide to those parents and teachers, who desire to make the home study of music a vital part in the general education of their children. It will be possible to obtain practically all of the illustrations which are suggested, in the form either of rolls or records, should the actual performance of the music be too difficult for any member of the family.

It is my great pleasure to dedicate this book to the humble parent, who loves music and is therefore musical!

CHAPTER 1

The Home Education of the Music Listener

Music is no longer considered as a luxury in our homes. It has become a necessity, which is recognized by rich and poor alike as one of the most important impulses for better living. At the present time there are more musical instruments in the homes of America than in those of any other country in the world. This is especially true regarding the so-called “mechanical instruments,” such as the player-piano and the phonograph, which have made good music available in every home in our land. Yet the majority of these instruments are used merely as play-things of the moment, instead of in their proper capacity as the medium for a wider and better knowledge of the true beauties of musical literature. Few parents seem to realize that by a judicious use of these instruments in the home circle a broader intellectual horizon will be opened to their children, not only in music, but in a truer appreciation of all that is beautiful in art.

In the majority of our homes, music is considered as apart from general education, instead of as a part of the knowledge of every well educated man or woman.

The average American has a very unfortunate attitude toward music: in that he considers it is impossible to learn to listen to the art, unless he can technically reproduce the compositions for himself. This has erected a barrier, which has kept many good listeners and true music lovers fancying that they can only enjoy the so-called “popular” music. Now this is an entirely unnecessary and absurd condition, for it really should be no more unnatural for us to use our ears than it is to use our eyes.

A technical training is not necessary to insure an appreciation of the great works of art, although we are all willing to concede that it will aid greatly toward a better understanding. Yet how few of the many real lovers of architecture, sculpture, painting and literature would ever be able to create these masterpieces themselves! They

have the power to appreciate the work without the technical skill necessary to reproduce it. Why then should we feel that we cannot enjoy good music unless we can play or sing ourselves? It is partly because we have never realized the importance of training our ears to listen; and also because we have had a serious handicap in not being able to ask questions regarding the music that we have heard. If we learn to listen to good musical compositions in our homes we will soon find that their true message may be understood and appreciated even if our fingers or our voices are not technically equipped to perform the music.

One of the most interesting phases of psychology is the pleasure which anticipation brings. If one becomes familiar with a musical composition how quickly each tone is anticipated before it is actually produced. And, if our first model has been a good one how quickly we instinctively know whether the repeated hearings are well done.

One of the first instincts of a child is to imitate, and it is the duty of the parents to see that the example before the youthful mind is worthy of imitation. Therefore, when the child begins to realize the true importance of music, he will desire to overcome the technical difficulties, that he may be able to reproduce the musical message for himself.

To any child, music can be made the most fascinating of all arts or it can become the most difficult and tedious. Let us remove the purely technical difficulties by teaching the children, first how to listen to music, and by bringing to them all the fascinating stories of imagination and fancy which music can so easily portray.

Not only can there be developed a sense of rhythm, balance and form by the proper listening to music, but story and legend will become newly alive. Not only will the beauty of tone be recognized, but the hearer’s growing ability to catch variations of sound will result in better spelling lessons and far better English, Latin, French and German lessons than ever before.

The first thing that a listener must remember is, that when music speaks all other voices must cease. It is not alone for future concertgoers that this principle is good, it is an excellent maxim for the home circle. The child, who really learns to listen, learns to pay attention, has more respect for what he hears, whether it be conversation or

music.

There are no school studies, that can be made more fascinating than geography and history, yet few parents seem to realize how much music can aid in making these subjects vital and real. At school, children are no longer taxed to remember long tables of exports and imports, but by means of story and picture, the stereopticon and often the moving picture, facts and dates become clearly defined to the childish comprehension. Yet the home influence of music can help to carry these messages even farther. The national music of each land should be known just as well as its boundaries and cities. In after life, is it a knowledge of the population of the principal cities of Norway that is to give the greatest pleasure, or the mystic charm of the Norse legends, as they have been reflected in the music of her folk, and by her great composers, Grieg and Sinding?

The history of civilization is absolutely reflected in music. The days of Israel, of Greece, of Rome, the Crusades, the Renaissance, Elizabeth’s golden reign are only a few of the many chapters of history, which may become again alive through the listening to music. The compositions which belong to these periods can easily be given to the youthful student at home, at the time he is studying the topic in the school room, yet much of it can be taught him even before school days begin.

Many well-meaning parents begin a child’s musical education, by taking him to concerts and recitals. Unfortunately few parents realize that the questions, sure to arise in childish minds, must be answered before the concert is heard. There is no greater torture for a child, than to be forced to curb the torrent of questions, which arise from seeing or hearing something new. In an art gallery, a child may be able to vent his enthusiasm and his questions can be answered, but in the concert room he is forced to be quiet and to stifle all the intelligent interest which has become awakened within him. Music becomes an evasive enigma, which in most cases is never really understood.

It is now possible for the youthful concert-goer to learn to know what he is to hear in advance, and to listen to the music in his own home where he may ask all the questions he desires and may learn to know the real meaning of the music. He may also become acquainted

with the personality of the artist that he is to hear. In fact it is possible for him to become so familiar with the greatest artists of the day that he can compare their own individual styles, and the meeting with them in the concert room becomes a non-forgetable event. What dreams will arise in the childish imagination! What longings to imitate the great models before him! The child, who learns to listen to good music will desire to learn to play or sing good music and much of the drudgery of practicing torture will be eliminated.

Theodore Thomas once said: “Popular music is only familiar music.” We should make all the great music of the world so familiar to us in our homes that we may bring to all the American concert halls from all American homes a true appreciation for the really worthy “popular” music.

A child should be interested in good music in the home just as soon as his consciousness is awakened and his sense of correlation established. He must of necessity begin to study the language of music in the simple language which he, himself, understands; but let him always feel, even in the first simple lessons that music is as tangible as sculpture or painting. As you surround him in the home with the best in art, so should the music that he hears be really good music. Let him learn to know the meaning of the truest and the best in musical literature.

Lord Lytton told us: “the Nine Muses are one family,” but we have long regarded music in the light of the unpopular step-child, because we have never been taught to use our ears in the same manner as we have our eyes. If we but try, how easily we may bring music into its proper place as the greatest pleasure of the home as well as the greatest aid to the proper realization of all that is beautiful in every art.

CHAPTER 2

The Language of Music

The most natural impulse in the human race is imitation, and the child’s language and habits are early formed by imitating what his parents and teachers are saying and doing. So, the first impressions of music are obtained by a child through the power of imitation, the stories that music can tell, or the pictures that music can paint. We speak of music as a “universal language” but we rarely realize how this language is constructed, or what its true message can be. We are so apt to be over technical and analytical, that often in trying to listen too much, we lose the real message that music should bring to us.

Let us first consider the simple elements of music’s language and then see how music’s message can be conveyed through them.

Of the three elemental parts of which music is constructed — rhythm, melody and harmony — the first to make a direct appeal to youthful minds is rhythm. Even a baby is attracted by the recurrence of sound, while the actual feeling for rhythmic motion has ever been recognized as an influence in the quieting of youthful nerves. The older child is attracted to rhythm in a more aggressive way, the beating on a drum making a direct appeal to the simple barbaric impulse of childhood, but this phase of rhythmic expression becomes but noise, unless it be linked with true beauty of melody and harmony and a child can quickly learn to differentiate between them.

As all compositions must have all three of these elements, it will be well to have a clear idea as to their exact meaning before attempting to distinguish them, as we listen with our children.

Rhythm is the systematic grouping of sounds in time units; in one sense the rhythm is the metre of music and bears the same relation to time, that metre in poetry, does to quantity. No matter how originally the time units might be divided, rhythm would be exceedingly tiresome if the same tone were to be constantly reiterated, therefore it is necessary for a succession of musical tones to be heard, although

they are governed by rhythm. Such a succession of tones is what we know as melody. Melody is heard in only one voice but when several voices are heard simultaneously, we have what is called, harmony. Harmony is the term applied to the science of arranging these several tones that are sounded together, so that they make a combination that is pleasing to the ear. It will therefore be easily understood why it is practically impossible for rhythm, melody and harmony to be dissociated, although it is often noticeable when we listen to music, that one element overshadows the other two.

One of the first lessons in listening should at once make apparent the difference in the three elements and give a child a definite feeling for rhythm, melody and harmony. You can make this clear, even to children of kindergarten age by the use of three records. First, the actual bird song (that recorded by the caged nightingale has proved to be most satisfactory), follow this by a whistling record, which although a bird imitation, is in the definite rhythm of a waltz; last comes a record about a bird, either the aria from “Perle de Brazil” or “Sweet Bird” from Handel’s “Il Pensieroso.” Explain to the children that first we will hear the actual bird, it is like having before us a real living bird; then we are to have a picture of the bird and then a story about a bird. What is the difference between them? The children instantly see that when the first simple song of the bird is imitated in music another element is added, and, having chosen a record in which the rhythm is clearly defined, there is little difficulty in hearing the difference between the two. In the last record the chord harmony makes a distinct impression, and the children are also intensely interested in the imitation of the bird by the flute, and by the voice and flute as they imitate each other. It is something definite to listen for and a step has been made toward the possibilities of music as a universal language.

There is another test which also serves to bring out this point clearly; we will listen to four more records, this time, all of American music. First the “Gambler’s Song” of the Blackfeet Indians, in which the simple rhythmic reiterance becomes almost monotonous; next, a group of Navajo Indian songs in which different rhythms, peculiar to the American Indian can be distinctly noticed; then the beautiful song by Charles Wakefield Cadman “From the Land of the Sky Blue

Water.” In this song the composer, who is one of the best authorities on the music of the Indians, has used an Indian theme, and has shown us how exquisitely beautiful Indian melody can become in modern usage. For the last record we will choose one of the Negro Spirituals sung by the Tuskogee Institute boys. The remarkable use of the high close harmonies to be heard in “Live a Humble” or “I Want to Be Like Jesus” will certainly give a clear idea to children of the true meaning of harmony.

Just as genre paintings always make the strongest appeal to youthful minds, so the music that tells a story is always the first to make a definite impression on young listeners. For the kindergarten or primary group, there are numberless songs and short instrumental compositions, which tell us a story, or imitate in music some animate or inanimate thing but how? What is it in the music that tells of a mother rocking her baby? What is it that makes us feel that we are in a boat? Or a swing? Which element depicts the busy whir of the spinning wheel? The gallop of the horse? The fluttering of butterflies? Rhythm, always ever present, is the most natural force which we have in music and is therefore the easiest for the childish mind to comprehend. It can be brought to his consciousness by means of listening to records and player rolls, or by mother’s simple songs and pieces on the piano, but just as soon as it is possible he should be encouraged to reproduce it for himself, with his own little hands. But there is a difference in lullabies, there is a difference in boat songs. Let us listen to three cradle songs, “Wiegenlied” by Brahms; “Bohemian Cradle Song” by Smetana; and “Cossack Lullaby,” an old Russian folk song. The rhythm of the rock-a-bye is present in all three, then what is the difference between them? Are the mothers of the three countries alike in their mother-love and the way that they hold their babies? Yes. But do they speak the same language? Do they and their babies wear the same style of clothes? No. Another element has entered, to become, with the rhythm, an equal force, and this element is melody and the melodic difference to be noted in the music of different lands.

The same idea can be worked out with boat songs. “Santa Lucia” the Neapolitan folk song may be contrasted with the charming song of Grieg’s “In the Boat” or the tragic sorrow of the Russian “Song of

the Volga Boatmen.” Then there are the songs telling of the pirate chiefs, and yet, as an underlying element in them all is the ever present rhythmic feeling of the rocking of the boat on the waves.

Butterflies, bees and birds can all be visualized for the child in music by means of the simplest rhythmic development, but when mood pictures are to be painted the elements of melody and harmony must be taken into serious consideration, for they will frequently overshadow the rhythm. What is the difference between a “Spring Song” and an “Autumn Day”? Possibly the rhythm may be almost identical in two compositions of this character; what, then gives us the joyful, happy feelings of the spring, and what the melancholy of “the saddest days of the year”? It is the melodic and harmonic construction of these works that plays the important part. It is interesting to see how easily a child will recognize this and how naively he will describe it.

A well-known and justly popular instrumental composition, “The Peer Gynt Suite No. 1” by Grieg, will serve as an excellent illustration of the elements of music. This work is composed of four short numbers, entitled: “Morning”; “Aase’s Death”; “Anitra’s Dance”; “In the Halls of the Mountain King.” In “Morning” melody is the most apparent and the repetition of the simple melodic phrase, gives an excellent picture in tone of the first rays of pink morning light, as they spread through the entire horizon and the sun lights up the world. In “Aase’s Death” Grieg portrays the tragedy of the death of the good old mother, and it is natural that the harmony is the most apparent element used in the composition. “Anitra’s Dance” is obviously a rhythmic expression and one can almost see the graceful dancer of the desert, as she circles about the infatuated Peer Gynt. “In the Halls of the Mountain King” describes the uncomfortable hours that Peer Gynt spent pursued by the imps and the elves in the abode of the king of the Dovre Mountains. It is a most remarkable example of rhythmic reiteration, the short phrase being repeated with ever growing intensity.

The child likes best either music that is very gay or music that is very sad, in this he but reflects the taste of the grown-up, but he should learn from his earliest experiences in listening that the character of a musical composition is established by the accentuation of

one of music’s elements.

In musical history we will find that the evolution of musical instruments began with the beating on drums and tom-toms, by the barbaric races; then men began to try and imitate the voices of nature, with the means that nature had herself provided, the horns of beasts which were duplicated in metal, and the softer voices of nature’s reeds; last, we reach the culmination of development, in the vibrating of attuned strings, the greatest and truest of musical instruments. So, in musical listening we pass through much the same development; first, attracted by rhythm, then by melody, we learn to appreciate the true beauties of harmony, and to know that each one of the three elements of music is of equal importance in the building of a musical composition.

CHAPTER 3

What Music Tells Us

We have found that the three most important elements of the language of music are rhythm, melody and harmony. Let us now see if we can discover how these are used in the message that music brings to us. When we listen to music we find that it speaks in many ways and that often our own mood is reflected in the music that we hear. But after all there are certain differences that are clearly apparent to every one and therefore there must be some definite principles on which music is constructed, which we must learn to differentiate.

When we listened to the three lullabies, we found that no two were alike in melodic contour. What was the reason for this? Do you remember that we spoke of the difference in the dress, customs and language of these three mothers? Each one came from a different land. So we shall find that the music of each nation has its own particular language, and that rhythm, melody and harmony are in each musical speech, just as nouns, verbs, prepositions and adverbs are to be found as the basic elements of all language. But there is a difference in the music of the various peoples of the world, just as there is a difference in their speech. This difference is called Nationality, and we designate as national all those peculiar rhythmic and melodic changes, which are to be noted in the music which comes from certain localities and peoples. For example, the music of Scotland is easily recognizable because of a peculiar rhythmic effect, known as the “Scotch Snap,” and also because many melodies are restricted to the use of a five or six tone scale; both of these peculiarities being due to the influence of the bagpipe, which was for so many years the national instrument of Scotland.

All language has form and each sentence has a subject and a predicate. We also know that in poetry each line must balance and that certain words must rhyme. When we write a composition in

school, we know that we must follow a definite formal outline. In fact all the other arts must have form and balance. We do not care to hear music that does not sound finished or complete. So, it is quite apparent that Form is a principle, which is absolutely essential to music. Form in music is the definite pattern on which all musical composition is built. All dances such as jigs, waltzes, minuets, gavottes, etc., marches, songs, and the larger forms of instrumental music: overtures, sonatas, quartettes, concertos and symphonies are examples of form in music.

All musical compositions must have form, although in some the musical message overshadows the formal pattern. As an illustration of this let us first note the accent and rhythmic feeling of the march by listening to the stirring “Stars and Stripes Forever” by our American “March King,” John Philip Sousa. A march is a pretty definite form; yet when we hear the five following marches by Richard Wagner; each tells its own definite story.

1.A wedding procession.

2.A band of pilgrims marching to Rome.

3.A procession of knights and their ladies entering the hall of a castle.

4.A group of happy townspeople led by the pompous burghers of the town.

5.Procession of the Knights of the Grail who come into their castle carrying the Holy relic.

Now plav the marches from “Lohengrin”; the two from “Tannhauser”; “Die Meistersinger,” and “Parsifal.” It is not necessary to play them in the order that they have been described, for you will find that a child will be able to tell at once which music fits each march.

We therefore have found that music is also able to give us a pretty definite description. This style of music is classified as Expression, and it exists in two different types; the music that is poetic in conception, which is designated as Poetic Expression, and the music which imitates or describes, which is called Program music or Descriptive Expression. In Poetic Expression pure melodic thought is the chief consideration of the composer. Sometimes a work of this style has a title, but the real meaning of the composer is left largely to the fancy

of the hearer.

Descriptive music is the name given to compositions that paint a definite picture or tell a story in tone, through the medium of musical imitation of some animate or inanimate object. The composer designates the meaning of his composition by giving it a definite title. Naturally, most of the song literature is classified as descriptive music; but instrumental music of this kind is designated as Program music.

Now let us listen to several instrumental selections and see if we can tell which principle is illustrated in each. For the example of Nationality, we will hear the “Second Hungarian Rhapsody” by Franz Liszt, the great Hungarian pianist, who was so desirous that the world should know the beauties of his native land that he wrote fifteen of these Hungarian Rhapsodies. They were originally written for the piano, but owing to their great popularity, they have been arranged for many different combinations of instruments. In these Rhapsodies Liszt makes use of the peculiar rhythms and characteristic melodies of the Hungarian Gypsies. There are two distinct types of dance in Hungary; the slow, majestic “Lassen” of the Magyar nobility, and the more animated “Friska” which is taken from the “Czardas,” the national dance of the folk. Liszt begins his Rhapsodies with a “Lassen” and follows it by a “Friska,” alternating between the two. The Second Rhapsody is the most popular of the series; it follows Liszt’s customary pattern, the theme of the first “Lassen” is taken from one of the best known Hungarian songs, which is entitled, “Hungary My Treasure.”

Let us now hear an example of Nationality in a song. There are a great many selections to choose from, but we will listen first to one in which the rhythm is distinctive. The “Tarantella” is the most popular dance song of Southern Italy and takes its name from the city of Tarante in the old province of Apulia. There is a curious old tradition regarding this dance song, that anyone bitten by a tarantula spider could be cured, if they would dance the “Tarantella” until they were overcome by fatigue. The “Tarantella” is still sung by the dancers, who accompany themselves with the castanets and tambourines. The tempo constantly increases until the dancers are exhausted. The best example of the “Tarantella” is that arranged by Rossini, and there have been several excellent records made of it by well known singers. Another type of Nationality in song is the ever popular “Loch

Lomond,” an example of the Scotch folk song, which dates back to the days of the Jacobites (early eighteenth century). This song is a typical Scotch air, being built on the old six tone scale, the seventh tone of our regular scale being entirely absent from the melody. Lomond Lake is the largest in Scotland and is known as “The Queen of Scottish lakes.” Ben Lomond, the highest of the Scottish Highlands, towers at the head of the lake. There have been many explanations as to the meaning of the words of this song. It is popular tradition that it was the song of a proscribed fugitive and the lines “I’ll take the low road” seem to indicate that he must travel by hidden roads back to the meeting place, “On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.”

As a popular example of Form in music we will hear first the famous Strauss waltz “On the Beautiful Blue Danube.” It seems hard to realize, as we listen to the infectious gaiety of this dance, that it was written in 1866, soon after the Battle of Koenigsberg, when the entire city of Vienna was saddened and depressed. Strauss originally wrote this composition for a male chorus, but it never became popular until the “Waltz King” played it with his own orchestra. America heard it first in 1867, when the great Theodore Thomas gave it for his American audiences. Since that day it has been acknowledged as the most popular waltz of the entire world.

For the vocal illustration of Form we will also hear a Waltz; the charming “Waltz Song,” from Gounod’s opera “Romeo and Juliet.” This song is sung by Juliet in the first act of the opera, the scene of which takes place in the ballroom of the Capulet palace. After she has been presented to her guests by her father, Juliet sings this waltz song in which she voices her delight at thus meeting her friends.

Poetic Expression is to be found in so many examples of both the instrumental and vocal schools that it is hard to make a definite selection. Mendelssohn was one of the first composers to realize the importance of pure beauty of tone, therefore, it is not surprising to find the principle of Poetic Expression in almost all his compositions. His “Songs Without Words” are a number of short pieces for the piano, which, although they bear titles, such as “Spring Song,” “Sorrow,” “Consolation,” etc., are not Program music, because they do not tell definite stories in tone, but suggest the poetic quality of tone.

Possibly the most popular of this series is the beautiful “Spring Song,” which serves as a well nigh perfect example of the principle of Poetic Expression.

There are also very many songs that illustrate this principle of Poetic Expression. Let us, however, hear something we already know; so we will choose the Brahms “Lullaby” as our example of poetic thought in vocal music. As we listen to this beautiful melody a picture arises in our fancy of a mother rocking her child. No more simple and exquisite use of the cradle song is to be found in all song literature.

We have already discovered that when Descriptive music is written for instruments the term “Program music” is given to the composition. This type of musical writing has been very popular in the modern school. Most of the modern composers have called their works of this character “Symphonic Poems.” As an example of Program music a symphonic poem entitled “Danse Macabre” by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens, is excellent. This music was inspired by a poem by Henri Cazalis, who has modified the old legend of the “Dance of Death.” As the composition begins, the bell strikes the hour of midnight; Death then begins to tune up his violin; from their tombs the skeletons appear; the rattling of their bones is heard as they begin their uncanny dance; the waltz becomes more and more animated; a musical caricature of the famous Latin Hymn for the dead, “Dies Irae,” is played; the cock crow announces the coming of dawn; the grewsome revelers disappear.

As we have already remarked, in a certain sense all songs tell us a story; but some songs are so definite in their powers of description that they are at once classified as examples of Descriptive music. Such a song is Schubert’s “Erl King.” Schubert was the greatest of song writers, and in this song he has chosen for his story a poem by Goethe, one of the greatest of dramatic poets. It is therefore not surprising that the “Erl King” should be regarded as one of the best illustrations of the Descriptive ballad, or song. The story tells of a father who is riding on his horse with his child before him, through the storm on a dark, windy night. The boy cries that the “Erl King” is following after them. The father tries to calm his fears; he tells him that he sees naught but a cloud. The child insists that a soft voice is singing to him of the joys to be found in the Erl King’s domains and

begging him to come and play with the beautiful maidens there. His father assures him that it is only the voice of the wind that he hears. As the child becomes more and more terrified the anxious father rides faster and faster. But alas! when he reaches his home, he finds that he is holding in his arms the dead body of his child. Liszt has made a wonderful transcription of this song for the piano. If you listen carefully you will find that you will be able to distinguish in the music the voices of the father, the child, and the Erl King.

Sometimes two or more of the principles are of equal importance in a composition. Of course Form is always present, but two good examples that show Form and Nationality of equal prominence are:

“Swedish Wedding March” by Sodermann, and “Habanera” from “Carmen” by Bizet. In the first the Form of the march is distinct and definite, but the Nationality of the composer is also stamped on the music. All of Bizet’s opera of “Carmen” is typically national in character. The “Habanera” is, however, one of the most important of the Spanish national dances, therefore, when Carmen sings this famous dance in the aria in the second act of the opera, one naturally thinks of the Form as well as the Nationality of the composition.

It is but natural that many of the folk songs should reflect the principle of Poetic Expression as well as Nationality; two excellent examples are: the old Welsh love song “All Thro’ the Night,” and the beautiful Hawaiian melody “Alohe oe,” which latter is at the present time holding an important place in popular favor.

It is also easily to be understood that national music can be Descriptive. In fact one of the most popular conceptions of the modern national composer is that he can best describe the legends or history of his native land by the use of the folk song or folk dance. An excellent example of this is to be found in the song by Schumann, “The Two Grenadiers;” this song is a setting of Heine’s poem which tells of two French grenadiers, who are left in Russia at the time of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, and of their attempts to return to their own land. The use of the “Marseillaise” gives a remarkable idea of the love and patriotism of these soldiers for their native France. This is an example of national composition which is the work of a composer of another land, for although Heine and Schumann were both Germans, they have caught the real national feeling of French

patriotism. Another illustration of Description and Nationality is to be found in the overture “Finlandia” by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In this work the composer has pictured the beauty of Finland’s scenery, and the passionate heartaches and struggles of her people, who have been for so long the vassals of autocratic Russia. Sometimes the Form becomes of equal importance with the Nationality and the Poetic or Descriptive principles. An example of Form, Nationality and Poetic thought is the “Bohemian Cradle Song” by Smetana, the first great composer of the modern Bohemian School. An illustration of Form, Nationality and Program music is Tschaikowsky’s great Overture 1812, which tells of the fatal attempt of Napoleon to reach Moscow. The dread and fear in the hearts of the Russian people is described at the beginning of the overture by the use of the old Hymn “God Preserve Thy People,” this is given out by the basses; then the “Marseillaise” Hymn as depicting the varying fortunes of the French is heard; the Russian national Hymn “God Save the Czar” is then sounded by the brasses, and the battle is described by the conflict between the two national hymns. To depict the retreat of the French, “God Save the Czar” is played as a hymn of triumph at the close of the overture and a clever imitation of the bells of the Kremlin, pealing forth the victory of Russia. It is certainly a very simple matter to apply these four principles and their combinations to all the music that you are hearing, and you will find that every composition reflects at least one of these principles and that after you have learned to listen for them, it makes the hearing of music much more interesting.

CHAPTER 4

The Architecture or Form of Music

We have found that of the four principles of music, Form is always present, even if it is sometimes overshadowed by the other principles. All compositions must, however, conform to some definite pattern, just as every other great art work must do and it is naturally very important that we learn to distinguish some of these simple forms or patterns, because by so doing we will find that the listening to music becomes a much simpler matter. Music has frequently been compared to architecture. One writer has called architecture “frozen music.” Possibly the chief similarity between the two arts lies in the fact that Form must be the basis of both, no matter how elaborately it may be afterward embellished.

We all know that the simple form of the plain square developed in architecture into the marvelous Gothic Cathedral, with its multiplicity of details, all worked out to form one perfect whole; so in music, the simple folk song develops into the most elaborate of instrumental forms, the fugue.

When one reads of the development of music, one finds that music and architecture have much more in common than the mere ground plan or pattern. But in speaking of the architecture of music we mean the importance of the Form, and we must learn to listen for the Form of the composition as well as the message which the music is to bring.

We have already compared music to language and have found that music has a speech of its own that is constructed on the same principles as every other language. In studying grammar one often wonders if its rules are made simply that they may be broken. So, in the following through the different patterns of music, we will find that Form seems only to exist that it may be changed or adjusted to suit the needs of the composer.

Just as the smallest child will recognize jingle and rhyme, so in

music, he feels the need of balance. As in our childhood we loved best the tales in which reiteration plays an important part, so in our musical development we like best the music where the theme is given frequent repetition.

The orderly arrangement of the three elements of music Rhythm, Melody and Harmony gives the definite Form or pattern for music, for the repetition of certain short melodies gives to music the same balance that rhyme does to poetry. Music must have its phrases so arranged that they form the sense of a question and answer, in the same way that the subject and predicate do in a grammatical sentence.

Let us take the familiar old Welsh song “All Thro’ the Night” and see how the three elements are worked out to build a definite pattern. It will be helpful to look at the actual printed music as one listens to this song, for it will make it even clearer if one can see the form as well as hear it. We give here the Walter Maynard translation of the words:

A. (Love, fear not if sad thy dreaming, (All thro’ the night;

A. (Though o’er cast, bright stars are gleaming (All thro’ the night.

B. (Joy will come to thee at morning, (Life with sunny hope adorning,

A. (Though sad dreams may give dark warning, (All thro’ the night.

Let us consider first simply the words alone; the first two couplets and the last one have practically the same meaning; we will call them A.; the third couplet brings a new idea; we will call it B. The last line of each of the A. couplets is the same, in fact, the second A. couplet is practically a repetition of the first. In the B. couplet the two lines rhyme.

Now let us listen to the music. The first phrase fitting the words “love, fear not if sad thy dreaming” is answered by the phrase, “All thro’ the night,” which bring a complete ending; the second couplet

A. is an exact repetition of the first, but the music for the B. couplet is different; the two phrases here are so similar that they preserve the balance, but we do not have the feeling of completeness and finality

and we feel the need of another musical phrase to complete the sense, so A. is again repeated, bringing a complete ending. In music the terms “Complete” or “Full Cadence” are used to designate this feeling of tonality, which is felt at the end of the A. couplets, and the unfinished feeling is called an “Incomplete” or “Unfinished Cadence.” It is the harmonic relationship of tones, which produces this feeling in the cadences. There is much the same idea in the construction of a sentence in grammer. Take this sentence as an example: “The man is planning to buy a piano.” “The man is planning” is the first phrase and it is incomplete; if it were music it would be called a half-cadence; the sense of the sentence must be made complete by an answering phrase “to buy a piano,” which brings a complete ending, and in music is the same as a “full cadence.” Now let us note the Welsh song again. The first phrase A. “Love, fear not if sad thy dreaming,” is incomplete, but the phrase “All thro’ the night” completes it and brings a full cadence. The same idea is repeated in the second A. couplet; in the B. couplet both phrases are incomplete and are brought to their complete ending by a repetition of the A. couplet. This makes the simple pattern of this folk song A. A. B. A. This is one of the most popular of the folk song forms; other well known folk songs that follow this same model being: “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye,” “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,” “Loch Lomond” and “The Minstrel Boy.”

Some of the old folk songs are balanced by the repetition of A. and of B., the second B. being brought to a full cadence. The pattern then becomes A. A. B. B. The Neapolitan boat song “Santa Lucia” is a good example of this form; here each of the A. phrases ends on a half-cadence, but the B. phrases which follow end on a full cadence, and the B. is simply repeated, that the balance of the parts shall be maintained.

A number of the oldest folk songs were in the form of A. B. A., though this is the pattern which is found more often in old dances. When the folk danced, one group danced first, then an alternating group, then both groups together; usually the first group were accompanied by two instruments, the second group by three, hence the name “Trio” was given to the second or alternating dance. That is the form which is still found in minuets, waltzes and marches today. Some of the very early folk dances followed the song patterns, A. A.

B. A. or A. A. B. B., this being especially true of the Court dances of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In many of the composed dances, such as those in the works of Bach, the Minuets by Haydn, Mozart, Boccherini and Beethoven, the general plan of Dance-TrioDance (A. B. A.) is used; it is preceded by a short introduction and ends with a short coda. Each of these parts will, however, be built on its own pattern; the Trio usually being a slight variation in form from the first dance, while the return of the first dance is usually an exact repetition of the first.

One of the most interesting of the early patterns of the dance also had its origin in the song. This is the form known as “Rondo” which originated in the old custom of singing Rounds, the first voice beginning with a new musical theme as the second voice began the first melody. When this was duplicated in a form for the dance it existed in several different patterns, the most popular being A. B. A.

C. A. The first melody A. is followed by a contrasting melody B., then A. is repeated, a new melody C. enters and then A. is again brought back for a complete ending. This form is a very popular one in verse. We quote a little poem by H. C. Bunner to illustrate a perfect miniature Rondo, in verse form:

A. (A pitcher of mignonette

(In the tenement’s highest casement:

B. (Queer sort of a flower pot, and yet

A. (That pitcher of mignonette

C. (Is a garden in Heaven set,

(To the little sick child in the basement,

A. (That pitcher of mignonette

(In the tenement’s highest casement.

The Rondo was a very popular form among the early musical composers, and there are several that should be known in every home. One of the earliest to be found in use among the folk is “Sellinger’s Round,” which the present-day English composer, Cecil Sharp, has arranged in a remarkable manner. One of the most popular of the early Rondos is “Amaryllis” by Ghys, this is an excellent example of the A. B. A. C. A. pattern.

Then there is the lovely Rondo by Couperin entitled “The Carillon of Cythera;” in this composition the composer imitates the

bells of Cythera, and we have not only the Form, but the principle of Program music to hold our attention as we listen.

We have considered only the most essentially simple of the patterns of music, the larger forms we must learn to distinguish at some later time. There is, however, one precaution, which we must remember every time that we listen for Form in music. DO NOT BECOME OVER ANALYTICAL. Any great art work, be it literature, architecture, sculpture, painting or music can be hopelessly ruined by being dissected and never being reconstructed. This is particularly true of music. After listening for the formal pattern of a musical composition never leave it without again hearing the work in its entirety. Never feel that each division of the composition must come as a distinct shock to your consciousness; that you must be able to tell instantly which is A. or B. or C. It is far better never to notice any pattern, than to spend your time, while listening to great music, trying to decide as to the divisions of a composition. But if you will take a few simple patterns and listen to them carefully, you will find that the sense of balance and form enters your mind almost subconsciously and that it will aid you greatly in listening to all music.

CHAPTER 5

The Importance of Nationality in Music

We have already discovered that one of the most important of the fundamental principles of music is Nationality, and that it is possible to express each one of the other three principles in the domain of National music. As all the larger forms of music have been developed from the simple folk dances and folk songs, we will therefore listen to folk music first, because it is in some respects, the most important phase of our listening development.

There are several different types of national music, which we must learn to recognize; the Dance Song; the Folk Dance; the Legendary Folk Song; the Composed Folk Song; the Patriotic Song, and National Composition.

The first form to claim our consideration is the “Dance Song,” which was sung by the dancers as an accompaniment to their dances and later played by the instruments, becoming the “Folk Dance,” from which the early instrumental forms were evolved. Good examples of the Dance Song are: “St. Patrick’s Day” and “Wearing of the Green,” the Irish dance songs still in use today; “Tarantella,” Italian; “On the Bridge at Avignon,” French; “Dixie Land,” American.

The earliest dances came originally from the daily life of the folk, they naturally express all the customs and occupations, as well as the festivities of the people. Many of the old dance songs were descriptive of the work of every day. Such dances as “Gathering Peascods,” English; “Reap the Flax” and “Weaving Dance,” Swedish; “Shoemaker’s Dance” and “Tinker’s Dance,” Danish, are excellent examples of this. The festivities and customs of the people are reflected in such dances as these: “Carrousal” (Merry-go-round), Swedish; the “Sword Dances” of Scotland and the “May Pole Dance” and “Morris Dances” of England. Then there are the dances which are typical of certain lands and peoples, such as the “Czardas,” Hungary;

“Mazurkas” and “Polonaises” of Poland; the “Schottiches” from Scotland; the “Horn Pipes” of England, etc.

The next department of national music is the “Legendary Folk Song”; these songs are usually the work of an unknown composer, although occasionally his name has been remembered. This type of folk song generally follows the patterns which we have just considered A. B. A. A. A. B. A. or A. A. B. B. It will be a good plan to see if we can recognize these simple patterns in the following illustrations of the legendary song. “The Last Rose of Summer,” Irish; “The Ash Grove,” Welsh; “When I was Seventeen,” Swedish; “How Can I Leave Thee,” German.

The “Composed Folk Song” may generally be traced no earlier than the eighteenth century and the composer’s name is usually known. These composed songs frequently describe some phase of folk tradition and custom, but often are only a reflection of some Poetic Expression. Good examples of the Composed Folk Song are: “Annie Laurie,” Lady Scott (Scotch); “Killarney,” Balfe (Irish); “The Lorely,” Silcher (German); “La Mandolinata,” Paladilhe (Italian); “Swanee River,” Foster (American).

The “Patriotic Song” is expressive of the love for home and country and the desire to serve her. Many of the compositions of this type are of unknown origin and therefore belong to the group of legendary songs, but the majority of them belong to the composed song division and reflect the style and period of their composer. The best example of the legendary patriotic song is “Men of Harlech,” the national hymn of Wales. Other good examples of this type are: “The Minstrel Boy,” Irish; “The Campbells Are Coming,” Scotch. In the division of composed folk song is found the greatest of all patriotic songs “The Marseillaise” by Rouget de Lisle; in this great hymn to freedom the true spirit of patriotism still resounds. Almost all of the other examples of the composed song group reflect the manner of their composer to the detriment of their patriotic feeling. “Rule Brittannia,” Dr. Arne (English); “Austrian Hymn,” Haydn (German); “Garibaldi Hymn,” Olivieri (Italian), and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was an eighteenth century English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which Francis Scott Key used as a setting for his immortal verses.

The last division of national music is termed “National Composition;” by this we mean the works of composers who have taken their themes from the folk music of the people. National composition must be distinguished from the folk dance or the folk song, for, although it always reflects the national characteristics to be found in the simple airs, it has been developed by the great modern masters, who have established the national schools of the present day. Many of these composers have written Descriptive music and have told in musical story the legends of their native land or historical events. Some composers have written their individual conception of the music of other lands than their own. Bizet’s opera “Carmen” is a most remarkable example of this type of national composition; belonging to that class also is Schumman’s song “The Two Grenadiers,” and “The Hungarian Dances” by Brahms.

Although this movement has been chiefly identified with the modern school, the use of national music as the basis of composition is not a new idea. Beethoven used Scotch and Irish melodies in the settings of several of his works; his charming song, “Faithfu’ Johnnie,” is so essentially a Scotch folk song that it is hard to believe that it was written by the immortal Beethoven. Mendelssohn, in two of his symphonies, employed the national idiom, the “Scotch” and the “Italian” symphonies both being based on folk melodies, while the movements are descriptive of the scenes, legends and historical events of Scotland and Italy. But national composition in its strictest sense, came into being with the Polonaises and Mazurkas of Chopin and the Hungarian Rhapsodies of Liszt. Since the middle of the nineteenth century Nationality has been considered as one of the most important phases in all musical composition. The great modern schools of Russia (Rubinstein, Cui, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakow, Tschaikowsky, Glazounow, Rachmaninow); Bohemia (Smetana, Dvorak and Suk); Norway (Gade, Ole Bull, Grieg and Sinding); Sweden (Sodermann, Sjogren), and Finland (Sibelius) have all achieved their important place as among the greatest schools of music of today, because of the use of their own individual music. It is but natural that this movement should be an influence on the older schools of music and the composers of the present time in Italy, Germany, France, England and America are all turning to the music

of their respective folk, for their inspiration. There are so many illustrations to choose from that it is almost impossible to make a selection. Let us first consider those compositions which we have already heard, that should be grouped under this heading. “From the Land of the Sky Blue Water” is a song by the American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman, who here uses an Indian theme as the melodic basis of his song. Smetana, the first of the great Bohemian composers wrote the “Bohemian Cradle Song,” which we have already learned to love. The “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1” by Grieg is one of the most essentially Norwegian compositions in all musical literature, for Grieg has not only made use of Norwegian folk tunes but he has also immortalized in music that strange and fanciful creation of Ibsen’s, “Peer Gynt,” the embodiment of the Norwegian national temperament. We have already discussed at length the “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” by Liszt; the “Swedish Wedding March” by Sodermann; the “Finlandia” by Sibelius and the “Overture 1812” by Tschaikowsky. These are all excellent examples of National Composition. Other popular illustrations are: “Slavonic Dances” and “Songs My Mother Taught Me” by Dvorak; “Orientale” by Cui; “Chanson Indoue” from the opera “Sadko” by Rimsky-Korsakow; “Marche Slav” by Tschaikowsky and the “Norwegian Wedding March” by Grieg. These are from the modern national schools.

As illustrations for the national music from the older schools, the lovely Intermezzo No. 2 from “Jewels of the Madonna” by WolfFerrari is a remarkable example of Italian national music. The overture “L’Arlessienne” by Bizet makes use of some very old French folk songs. Goldmark’s overture “Sakuntala” tells an Oriental legend with the Oriental strain in the music as a recognizable feature. By setting four old Morris airs together Percy Grainger has given us a charming example of English national composition in “Shepherd’s Hey.”

CHAPTER 6

The Characteristics of Folk Music

We have already discovered, that, although music is called the “universal language” there are many different dialects to be noted in its speech. Just as the English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish and Americans speak the English language in different ways, each with their own distinguishing characteristics, so in the music of different countries individual traits are also noticeable.

When we are studying the folk music of the different lands, we will often find that the music of one country is very similar in character to that of another. The same thing may be noted in the language, and it is especially true of the folk tales. It should not be forgotten that many of the peoples of Europe came originally from the same race, and that, although climatic and political conditions have affected their language, customs and habits, as well as their arts, it is but logical that certain fundamental characteristics will not be entirely obliterated. For example, in all the branches of the Latin people, a love for gaiety and pleasure is found, so it is but natural that the rhythmic element is a pronounced feature in the music of the Italians, Spanish and French. The Teutons on the other hand, are much more stolid and, while less temperamental than the Latins, they have a deeply sentimental vein, which is noticeable in the folk music of the Germans, the Norwegians and the Swedes. All the Slavic countries reflect in their music the bold and free spirit, which has ever been a synonym of their race. Yet there are great differences in the music of all these Slavic peoples. We find that the Russian art in all its forms, symbolizes the traditions and customs of the Orient, therefore, it is much more bizarre and barbaric than that of the Bohemians, Hungarians and Poles, who have met with other conditions.

The geographical position of certain lands has affected the arts as well as the customs, to a remarkable degree, and climatic conditions cause the music of the seacoast to be more varied and of an entirely

different character to that found in the mountains or heard on the plains. The influence of the neighboring countries is as apparent in the music, as in the speech, customs and literature. Political conditions also play a very important part in the development of all art. A very good illustration of this is to be noticed in the story that is commonly called the “Faust Legend.” This folk tale of a man who has sold his future life to the Devil, but who is redeemed by the pure love of a woman, is a popular legend among all peoples. In the South lands the story becomes that of “Don Juan”; in the mountains, “Manfred”; on the sea, “The Flying Dutchman”; in the country towns of Germany, “The Free Shooter”; in the scholastic towns, “Dr. Faustus.”

There are certain characteristics, which are distinctive to national music and which we must learn to distinguish.

First: The individual instruments 1 which are used by certain peoples.

The rhythmic instruments:

The tom-tom — although belonging to all primitive people, is now associated with the North American Indian. Example: “Gambler’s Song” of the Glacier Park Indians. The tom-tom has developed into the drum of today.

The tambourine and castanets — are found in the folk music of Spain although also noticeable in certain parts of Italy and France. Example: “Linda Mia,” a folk song of the Pyrenees, in which the clicking of the castanets provides the rhythmic accompaniment.

The melodic instruments:

The harp — although used in many lands the harp is now associated chiefly with the folk music of Ireland. Example: “The Harp That Once Thro’ Tara’s Halls”; even if this old Irish song is not recorded by the harp, it is sure to make an impression on youthful listeners, because it glorifies in song the annual contests of the harpers at Tara Castle in Ireland.

The bagpipe — A popular instrument of all the British Isles, but now regarded as the national instrument of Scotland. The origin of the bagpipes has never been definitely traced. Instruments of this type

1 It will be possible to hear the distinctive tone qualities of these instruments in your own home, by listening to records made by the actual instruments.

are found in Asia, Africa and Europe. They were very popular in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and were used at court as well as among the common people. The bagpipe undoubtedly reached its perfection in Scotland, where it has had a direct influence on all the folk music of that land. Example; there are a great many excellent records made by the bagpipe, but the best to reflect the true spirit of the Scotch people is “Will Ye No Come Back Again,” which is recorded with the “Battle of Killiecrankie.”

The lute — an instrument of the Latin countries of Medieval days, which curiously enough has been retained by the folk in certain parts of Scandinavia. An excellent record, in which the songs are accompanied by the lute is the song from “Fredman’s Epistle” by Bellman.

The guitar — This instrument has superseded the lute in many Latin countries of today. It is exceedingly popular in Spain and Portugal as well as Southern Italy. “Guitarrico” a Spanish imitative song by Soriano is a good example of the accompaniment as played on the guitar.

The mandolin — This instrument is like the guitar, an outgrowth of the lute type of instrument, and is found in all Latin countries. “Mandolinata” by Paladilhe and “Mandoline” by Debussy are both splendid illustrations in imitative music, of the effect of this instrument. “Clavecitos” (“Carnations”) a Spanish song by Valverde has been recorded with Mandolin accompaniment as has “Comme se canta a Napule” (“As They Sung in Naples”), a Neapolitan folk song. The banjo — the popular instrument of the American negro, doubtless brought by him in a simple form originally from Africa, where a primitive type of lute has been observed. A splendid illustration of the tone and rhythmic qualities of the banjo will be found in a recording of “Medley of Southern Melodies.” An imitative song reflecting the banjo’s characteristics is “A Banjo Song” by Sidney Homer.

The balalaika — one of the earliest instruments of the Russian folk was regarded as obsolete until recent years. Example; the two Russian folk songs “Molodka” and “Sun in the Sky Stop Shining” are the most characteristic records of the tone quality of the balalaika.

“Let Joy Abide” is a Russian folk song, sung with balalaika

The ukelele — the guitar-like instrument of the South seas which the native Hawaiians have made popular in America. Example; a very good ukelele record is the “Aloha-oe,” which is recorded with the native plantation air, “Kuu-Home.”

Second: The effect which the use of these and other instruments have made on the music of different lands.

We have already noted the rhythmic effect of the tom-toms and the tambourines and castenets, but we will find that certain races have also used distinct rhythms for so long that they have made them practically their own.

The “Scotch Snap” is one of these distinctive rhythms, it is said to have been developed through the use of the bagpipe and drum. This rhythmic peculiarity is easily recognized, as the first tone has but half the duration of the second. In early days the “Scotch Snap” was rarely used except in folk dances, but as many of the Scotch poets have used old dance tunes as the settings for their ballads, it is therefore to be noticed in such songs as “Scots Wha Hae Wi’ Wallace Bled” and “The Campbells Are Coming.”

One of the favorite rhythms of ancient Greece was 5/4 and it is interesting to note that this peculiar rhythm is now used by the Russian folk, who have doubtless become familiar with it through the influence of the Greek Church in Russia. An excellent example of this rhythm is found in the second movement of Tschaikowsky’s symphony “Pathetic.”

Hungarian music shows in its rhythm, the influence of the dulcimer, an instrument made of metal strings, which are struck with a padded hammer. Almost all Hungarian airs begin on the down beat and are in dual time, in contrast with the triple time, which is found in many of the other Slavic countries. The Hungarian gypsies never use notes, the leader of the orchestra plays the violin, and with the true gypsy love for meaningless decorations, he embellishes all his melodies with improvised trills and cadenzas. A characteristic of Hungarian music is the accented grace note, which is particularly effective on the violin. The Hungarian language also heavily accents its first syllables, so it is quite natural that this peculiarity should be a feature of the music of the people. This is noticeable in any of Liszt’s

“Hungarian Rhapsodies,” the “Hungarian Dances” by Brahms, and in several records that have been made by native Hungarian orchestras.

Third: The use of different scales and modes than ours.

When we come to study the history of music we will find that the ancient Greek scale was based on the position of the half tone in a scale, which consisted of but four notes, and that different scales (or modes) were native to the various localities of Greece. These scales were used by the Early Church composers and during the Medieval period they were frequently used in the songs of the people also. In Russia today several of these old “modal-scales” are still found in the folk music; this being unquestionably due to the influence of the Greek Church.

The Hungarians in their folk music frequently use a peculiar minor scale, which has a flatted sixth tone and a raised seventh.

Fourth:

The constant mingling of the major and minor with a decided preference for the minor. This is a striking characteristic of all Russian music and we frequently find in one folk song that the music expresses the deepest gloom, the tenderest sentiment, and the fiercest exhilaration.

These characteristics are the real basis of all national music. However, it is but natural that they are more easily recognizable in the music of those countries where the schools of musical composition have not been a definite part of the actual development of music history. The individual national traits of Italy, France, Germany and England were long ago assimilated by their great schools of music. On the other hand Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and Scandinavia have retained many of the primitive musical expressions in the music of their folk.

CHAPTER 7

The Message that Music Brings

We have found that the four principles of music — Form, Nationality, Poetic thought, and Descriptive music — afford a most adequate medium for the expression of man’s deepest feelings. We have discovered that all music follows a definite formal pattern, and we have learned to distinguish between some of the simplest of these forms.

Through our listening to the music of the different countries, we have found that each nation expresses its musical thoughts in its own individual way; and we have seen that the characteristics of the people are all reflected in their folk music.

When we come to consider Descriptive music, we shall find that it includes all music which imitates animate or inanimate things, or which describes, or tells a definite story in music.

We are now ready to try to analyze the thoughts that music brings to the listener through the medium of poetic expression. These thoughts are almost too subtle to be defined; for they are apt to vary too greatly with the listener’s own mental attitude, because they are often associated in our minds, with thoughts that are purely personal in character. It is, however, in the province of this department of music, that grief, joy, love (either the love of nature, of home, of parents, children, or of sweetheart), and religion are most adequately expressed.

The uninitiated in music likes best those compositions that are either very sad or very gay; because the most natural impulse of the human heart is to either laugh or cry, and it therefore follows that whenever grief or joy is expressed in art, especially if it be the drama or music, that one is sure to respond to it at once.

We have already seen that Poetic thought is often expressed in national music as being of equal importance with the national feeling. But there are certain things which overstep the bounds of Nationality

and become universal in character. Grief, joy, love, patriotism and religion are all universal, and become larger than the confines of any one land.

The tragedy of grief is universal. One does not stop to analyze the Nationality of the death march; it is too much a part of the experiences of every life. Let us listen to five great funeral marches and see if it is not the poignant sorrow that speaks to us the most emphatically: “Dead March” from “Saul,” by Handel; “Funeral March” from the “Eroica” symphony, by Beethoven; “Funeral March” from “Sonata B Minor,” Chopin; “Aase’s Death” from “Peer Gynt Suite,” by Grieg; Siegfried’s “Death March” from “Die Götterdämmerung,” by Wagner.

Joy is another characteristic of all nations, and these songs of happiness are unmistakable: “Let Joy Abide,” Russian; “Voices of the Spring,” Strauss; “Brindisi” from “Lucretia Borgia,” by Donizetti; “Villanelle,” by Del Acqua.

We will now listen to a group of love songs and see if it is the sentiment expressed or the Nationality that makes its first appeal. Of course we will naturally think of the national expression the second time we hear these compositions, but it is the expression of love in the music which makes the first appeal. The songs we have chosen, rank as the most famous love songs of all time: “Kathleen Mavourneen,” Irish; “O Sole Mio,” Italian; “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes,” English; “Annie Laurie,” Scotch; “All Thro’ the Night,” Welsh; “Du, du liegst mir im Herzen,” German. We have already found that in listening to a number of lullabies that the Poetic thought was apparent first, although the difference in Nationality was also to be noted.

Although patriotism is naturally a very important part of national expression, it is also a universal sentiment. We all recognize this and we know that music is a necessary part of all military life. It is in fact one of the most important influences in the camp and on the battleground, because of the feelings of valor and courage, which the hearing of martial music always arouses. We must try to dissociate the words from the music, and think of simply the character of the tune when we listen to patriotic music. If we do so, we will find that all music of this type inspires the same feeling in our breasts, whether

it be our own national hymn, or that of some foreign nation. This is the reason why the most universal of patriotic hymns is now the French “Marseillaise,” which has become the battle cry of freedom for the whole world, and has been universally adopted by all the Allied armies. The Russians discarded their “God Save the Czar” because of the words, but the music is stirring and virile and well deserves to be retained. In the patriotic songs of our own land, were it not for the association of the words, the two most inspiring examples of patriotic music are “Marching Through Georgia” and “Dixie Land.” In fact these two airs, judging them for their musical worth alone, are far more patriotic in character than “America” or “The Star Spangled Banner,” which evoke our patriotism only because of the association of the words. We have already spoken of the difference to be noted in the traditional patriotic song and the composed patriotic song.

Religious feeling as expressed in music is respected by all, regardless of race or creed. It makes its appeal without consideration for any of the other principles save that of Poetic thought. There is always a chance for a discussion as to just what it is that makes any art religious. Many paintings of religious subjects are in reality mere reproductions of textures or faces revealing the art of the painter, but not in any deep sense religious. The same thing is true of much of our religious music, the words are the only part that have any religious significance. Possibly the best definition we can give of religious music is that it is the music which lifts one above oneself and inspires in one a love for self effacement. Many of the hymns in the Church hymnals do not in any sense reflect the true spirit of the words. In the Protestant Hymnals some of the songs are a result of Luther’s campaign to make music a part of the Church service. It is, therefore, naturally, a shock for the staid church member of today, to discover that many of his favorite hymns were originally German popular songs, which, when they are deprived of the religious association of the words, and sung in the original tempi, are jn fact, excellent examples of the student drinking song still sung today.

There are, however, a number of our hymns that are religious in true musical feeling as well as the sentiment of the words. A few which are especially worthy of our consideration are: “Adeste

Fideles” (“O Come All Ye Faithful”), the old Latin hymn of Christmas; “Crusader’s Hymn” (“Fairest Lord Jesus”), old French; “Ein Feste Burg” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”), German Chorale by Luther; and “Onward Christian Soldiers” by Sullivan of our own day. Songs of this type are truly religious in both music and text. There is always a controversy as to whether opera can ever be religious in character, or if operatic airs should ever be heard in church. While the association of ideas says “No” the musical feeling expressed by many of the great composers is far more religious in character than are many of the airs from oratorio. Take as an example the music of Handel; surely every one will agree that the “Largo” is a religious expression in music, yet in its original version this beautiful air is from the opera “Xerxes” and is sung by the tenor hero, who enters a garden and enraptured with delight by the sight of a plane tree sings this famous and ever popular aria. There is much in Handel’s oratorio “The Messiah,” which is exactly the same in character, as that which is used in his operas, and in most instances the religious feeling was of far less importance than the composer’s desire to give the singers an opportunity to show their remarkable vocal attainments. This is equally true of most of the opera composers, who have written oratorios or have made settings for the Mass. Rossini in his “Stabat Mater” has chosen the most sacred of all the texts of the Church for a composition of music, which is no more religious in its character than is the music from any of Rossini’s operas. Of all the great opera composers Wagner seems best able to combine religious feeling in his music. As examples, listen to Elizabeth’s imploring “O Blessed Virgin Hear My Prayer” and the chanting of the “Pilgrim’s Chorus” in “Tannhauser”; “The Prayer of the King” in Lohengrin”; and the “Good Friday Spell,” “Amfortas’ Prayer” and “March of the Grail Knights” from “Parsifal.”

To determine the true religious feeling of music one should begin at the beginning of music’s history and study the old Hebrew chants; the old Greek Church choruses and the Gregorian chants, and when one has steeped oneself in these, see how the same ideas have been expressed by the great composers. To the owner of a phonograph the hearing of these old religious airs is a very simple matter, for a number of the Orthodox Jewish cantors have made records of the psalms and

the prayers of the Hebrew service. The best example of what pure religious expression in music can be, is the arrangement that Max Bruch made of the “Kol Nidre.” There are a number of the Gregorian chants, which have been recorded for the phonograph. It is hard to realize the true significance of these early Christian hymns, unless they are heard in their own particular environment, in the great old cathedrals. Yet it is interesting to compare the Greek and Roman Church music of the Medieval days and it is quite possible to do so by the means of records. The “Kyrie Kekraxa” of the Greek Church presents an excellent opportunity to note the deep bass voices, that are a striking characteristic of the Greek Choirs, and it will be interesting to contrast this form of the Kyrie with the “Kyrie Eleison” of the Gregorian service. Several later examples of religious expression in music are; “Filiae Jerusalem” by Gabrielli (1510-1586), “Joseph Mine” (Old German Christmas Song) by Calvisius (1556-1615); “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and “To Us Is Born Immanuel” by Praetorius (1576-1621); and the “Gloria Patri” and “Popule Meus” by Palestrina (1514-1594).

With the beginning of opera, 1600, there came a change in the simple direct beauty of religious expression and with but a few exceptions the early opera and oratorio composers wrote their compositions for vocal display rather than for the dramatic or religious expression. In some of the choruses from one of the early German Oratorios, the work of Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), entitled “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” there is a wonderful simplicity and a true religious feeling. This is also true of the religious compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), for all the works which Bach wrote for Church service, bear the inscription “To the glory of God, Alone.” Much of the music in Handel’s oratorios is, as we have already stated, exactly the same type of music that he wrote for his operas. There are of course several notable exceptions; every child will feel the strength of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from the “Messiah”; and such arias as “He Shall Feed His Flock” and “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” both also from the “Messiah” should be in the listening library of every home. There is another Handel aria which is not so well known, which should however be heard in the home circle frequently, this is “Total Eclipse No Sun No Moon” from

Handel’s “Samson”; and is the air sung by Samson, when he realizes that he has become entirely blind.

There are two songs of a later date that are most remarkable examples of true religious expression in music: “The Love of God in Nature” by Beethoven and “The Almighty” by Schubert. Two arias from Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” “If With All Your Hearts” and “Oh Rest in the Lord,” and the famous aria from Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul”

“But the Lord Is Mindful of His Own” should also be known in every home as examples of religious expression.

CHAPTER 8

The Stories That Music Tells

We have found that the power of Description in music is one of the fundamental principles, which music may express. It is always a popular principle, for story telling in any branch of art is sure to make a strong appeal. To the layman, genre painting, simple dramatic situations in literature, and the Descriptive in music make the first impression; later he will come to a realization of the true value of Form, Nationality and Poetic thought, as they are expressed in all the other arts.

Instrumental music that reflects the Descriptive element is designated as “Program music,” in contra-distinction to “Absolute music,” which is the name given to all the forms that do not tell a definite story or paint a distinct picture in tone.

In a certain sense all songs tell us stories, and yet you can easily divide the songs, with which you are familiar, into the two divisions of “Absolute music” and “Program music.” Compare for example the most popular songs by Schubert; “Serenade” and “Erl King.” In one, we have the Poetic thought of love, and although a picture of a serenader before his lady’s window may arise in our fancy, it is not inherent in the music itself, while the story of “Erl King” is definitely portrayed in the music. Or we can take two American songs, which are both setting of Kipling’s poems; there is a great difference in the character of the words, as well as the music, of “On the Road to Mandalay” from that of “Danny Deever.”

The same idea can be traced through the division of national music; we have already found in the folk songs that we have considered, that there is a constant desire to tell stories in music. This is especially true of the Latin race, yet there are “Dialogue Songs” to be found in Scandinavia, Russia and Germany as well as in France and Italy. Two excellent illustrations of the dialogue song are: “Au Claire de la Lune” (“By the Moon’s Pale Light”), French; and “Astri, My

Astri,” Norwegian. Let us consider a few well known examples of folk songs which reflect the same poetic and dramatic qualities, which we have just classified in instrumental music, as “Absolute” and “Program” music.

Irish “Kathleen Mavourneen” (Absolute)

“The Minstrel Boy” (Program)

Scotch “Annie Laurie” (Absolute)

“Jock O’Hazeldean” (Program)

German “The Soldier’s Farewell” (Absolute)

“The Loreley” (Program)

French “Bergere Legere” (Absolute)

“Au Claire de la Lune” (Program)

Because the trend of modern times has made demands on the dramatic instincts of all creative art, many music lovers have the false idea that Program music was unknown before the nineteenth century, and that it was a result of the breaking away from the formal restrictions that came into being with the creation of the modern school. It is true that the tendencies of modern music show a marked preference for the dramatic qualities, which are apparent in all Program music, but the fact remains that story telling in tone was attempted in very early days. It is but natural, however, that, during the period of music’s history, which is designated as “Classical” (late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) when all society was bound by the conventions of Court etiquette, that the development of Form should have been considered of more importance than any of the other principles of music. Therefore, when these early instrumental composers wrote compositions which they wanted to have tell a story, they still clung to the old formal traditions of the past, and their compositions, when viewed by the music lover of today, seem far removed from what he has come to recognize as Program music. Program music, first of all must have a title, which gives it at once a definite character. True, titles are sometimes given to compositions which are rather a poetic reflection than an actual story told in tone, yet the music is more a mood picture than an actual imitative description in music. Sometimes the barrier line is not very distinctly defined and we find that there is much difference of opinion as to what music is really an example of poetic description, and what is truly dramatic

description. If one compares the musical compositions to actual paintings it is easier to recognize the true distinction. Take for example a composition with a title like the “Spring Song” by Mendelssohn, and compare it with the same composer’s overture, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In one the same idea is presented that a painter would portray in a beautiful landscape, and there arises in our minds an image of a spring scene, which might have been conceived by a Corot. In the overture, however, Mendelssohn has given in tone a real description of the story of Shakespeare’s great comedy, which brings up a picture of fairy-land as distinct and definite as any genre artist could paint.

The early composers used the imitative idea in their Descriptive music, and it was therefore quite possible for them to remain within the precincts of formal construction at the same time.

Even before the days of instrumental musical composition, when men were writing music only for the voices, there was an attempt to imitate in music the songs of birds and the cries of other animals. Clement Jannequin, who lived in the early part of the sixteenth century and of whose music little has come down to us, was one of the first composers to give his vocal compositions names and also to try to imitate various sounds in his music. There are a number of such works as these listed in Jannequin’s compositions: “War,” “The Chase,” “The Song of the Birds,” “The Siege of Metz,” “The Cries of Paris.” In the last named composition the voice sings, “Listen to the cries of Paris,” after which all the street cries are introduced and made to form a harmonious whole, the voices advertising such delicacies as “hot pies, delicious tarts, fresh herrings, fine mustard, new vegetables” and then beginning with “old shoes, old clothes,” etc. Some of the early vocal composers of this time also imitated the cries of the animals; there is one composition of an Italian, Adriano Banchieri, who put in the form of a vocal madrigal, an imitation of a dog, a cat, a cuckoo, and an owl. With the beginning of instrumental music this idea grew apace and we find a number of compositions of. the early seventeenth century with titles which were really attempts at Program music, although it is highly improbable that from hearing the work, alone, without the titles, one could tell what was being described. In the English school at this period there lived one, John

Munday, whose titles for a composition called “Fantasia” read like a weather map; “Fair Weather, Lightning, Thunder, Calm Weather, Lightning, Thunder, Fair Weather, Lightning, Thunder, A Clear Day.” Without these titles it would be hard for the hearer of today to imagine all these sudden changes of temperature that the composer so evidently gloried in. During this period, the French instrumental composers reveled in imitative compositions although they also gave titles to compositions, which were purely poetic in character. Couperin, who was called “The Grand,” because he was the most famous master of the clavecin (the French procursor of the piano) wrote almost all his compositions in this manner. “The Hen,” “The Butterflies,” “The Little Wind Mills,” “The Carillon of Cythera” are some of the many tone pictures to be found in the classification of the Couperin compositions. You will easily see that the element, which is of the greatest importance in all these works, is the rhythm.

“The Carillon of Cythera” has been already suggested as an excellent example of the Rondo form, but as you listen to this dainty composition you can also hear the chiming of the bells.

Of all the composers of music, Bach is considered as the greatest master of Form of the Classical School, and one thinks of the Bach compositions as being practically synonomous with the term “Absolute music”; yet Bach left one work which is a clever piece of Program music. It is entitled “Capriccio, On the Departure of a Brother”; and throughout the composition Bach designates by titles, the meaning of his story; “His Friends Try to Dissuade Him From Making the Journey,” “The Different Accidents, Which Might Befall Him,” “The Laments,” “Farewells,” “The Post Horn,” “The Journey” (A fugue based on the post-horn call).

But the real appreciation of the power of music, in the province of story telling came with Beethoven (1770-1827), who, with his sixth symphony “Pastoral” opened the gates to the domain of modern Program music. Beethoven tells us that in hearing this work “the hearer should make out the situations for himself,” but he gives us definite titles for each movement and he also adds an extra movement to the regular form of the symphony, which consists of but four. These movements are called “Cheerful Impressions on Arriving in the Country,” “Scene By the Brook,” “Peasant’s Dance,” “Storm” and

“Shepherd’s Hymn of Thanksgiving After the Storm.” In all his overtures Beethoven gives a musical description of the real content of the work itself, so that as these compositions are heard in our concert rooms today, they have become practically Program music. “Egmont,” “Leonora No. 3” and “Coriolanus” are all excellent illustrations of this type of overture.

Beethoven’s two greatest contemporaries, Von Weber and Schubert, were both imbued with this spirit of writing Descriptive music. Von Weber’s opera overtures are of the same type as Beethoven’s, in that the story of the entire work is told in the prelude, although this always retains the form of the Classical overture. The two best works by Von Weber of this type are: “Der Frieschutz” and “Oberon.”

Schubert gave his genius in this direction an outlet by writing songs, which are designated as “Art Ballads” and in which the accompaniment becomes a most important factor in the telling of the story. “The Erl King,” which we have already discussed, is the best known work of Schubert’s, which would qualify under this designation,” but “The Wanderer” and “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel” are also good examples. Schubert’s follower in the development of the Art Ballad was Carl Loewe, two of his great songs should be heard in this connection: “The Watch” and “Edward.”

With the development of that artistic impulse of the middle nineteenth century, which began with Beethoven, and which is known as the Romantic School, Program music became the most important of the principles of music to be developed by all composers. The Art Ballad was the most popular type of song, while in the instrumental school form was adapted to suit the needs of the composer. To this period belong Schumann and Mendelssohn of the German school, and Berlioz, Chopin and Liszt of the French school. The German school of this period did not go to such extremes as did the masters of the French Romanticism, but it must not be forgotten that the French public had been so satiated with horror and tragedy, as a result of the Revolution, that it was but natural that in all forms of art, the public should demand the sensational and bizarre. When we come to study instrumental forms we will find that to suit the needs of the Romantic composer of Program music two new forms

came into being, the “Concert Overture” and the “Symphonic Poem.” During this period, the composers began to make a great feature of the importance of Nationality, and that division of Nationality, which we have already designated as “National Composition,” dates from the Romantic School. New effects in the use of instruments were also attempted, in order that the story might be better told in music and many of the modern instrumental uses began at this time. The Schumann song “Two Grenadiers” is an excellent example of the use of the Art Ballad in combination with the principle of national expression. “Genoveva” overture, also by Schumann, is a good illustration of his story telling in instrumental music. Mendelssohn’s overture “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” belongs to the type of compositions which tell the story of the work that they prelude, but “Fair Melusina” and “The Hebrides” are both excellent examples of the Concert Overture form. In the French school the idea of Program music was carried to a greater extreme. Berlioz, who was called by Schumann “the uncompromising champion of Program music,” wrote all his works with this end in view. He used the instruments in many new ways and made the orchestration of his compositions a vital part of his story telling in music. He also made use of characteristic themes, which he used to depict the characters, that he was describing in music. Berlioz also recognized the importance of Nationality and introduced it as an important feature in many of his works. The “Minuet of the Will o’ the Wisps” and the serenade of “Mephistopheles,” both from the “Damnation of Faust,” are remarkable examples of Berlioz’ power of instrumentation. The overture “Carnival Roman” and the arrangement of the Hungarian “March Rakoczy,” which Berlioz introduced into the “Damnation of Faust,” are both splendid types of national composition. Of his larger symphonic works, the best from a Program point of view, is “Harold in Italy,” which describes Byron’s melancholy wanderer. The four movements of the symphony are entitled: (1) “Harold in the Mountains,” (2) “March of Pilgrims Singing the Evening Prayer,” (3) “Serenade of a Mountaineer of the Abruzzi to His Mistress,” (4) “Orgy of Brigands.” Although Berlioz was important in the development of Program music, the genius of Liszt overshadows him. Liszt gave to his large forms of symphonic expression the title of

“Symphonic Poems” 2 and he left thirteen of these compositions. The best and most popular are: “Orpheus,” “Tasso,” “Mazeppa” and “Les Preludes.” Liszt was greatly influenced by the genius of his friend and contemporary, Wagner. Although Wagner is naturally associated entirely with the Opera School all his instrumental compositions reflect the best principles of Program music. Wagner’s musical works make use of the “leit motif” or characteristic theme, which describes each person or inanimate thing, which assumes dramatic importance in his compositions; these themes are usually given by definite instruments, Wagner also preludes each act of his operas with an overture, which is to prepare the hearer for the dramatic action which is to follow on the stage, or the deep underlying poetic thought, which is formed in the whole work. The “Ride of the Valkyries” is an excellent illustration of this type of Prelude, which prepares the hearer for the action of the act to follow. This composition is the Prelude to the third act of the opera “Valkyrie,” the scene of which takes place on the Valkyrie’s rock. An illustration of a Prelude, which is used to prepare the hearer for the poetic thought which underlies the entire composition, is “Vorspiel” to “Lohengrin.” This lovely composition paints in tone, a picture of the angels bringing to Earth the Holy Grail and the Sacred Spear and of their giving these relics to the Knights of Montsolvat. Wagner’s great operatic arias also become programmatic, by the use of the leit motif in the accompaniments. A good example of this is found in “Wotan’s Farewell” from “Valkyrie” and in “Amfortas’ Prayer” from “Parsifal.”

Modern composers have used Program music as their principal vehicle of musical expression, although the Concert Overture and Suite form have also been employed. They have combined Nationality, “leit motif” and characteristic instrumentation, and have generally followed the free pattern of Liszt’s “Symphonic Poem.” In national composers like Smetana, Dvorak, Grieg, Tschaikowsky, Rimsky-Korsakow, etc., have generally employed Program music as a means toward the furthering of a knowledge of national musical

2 As almost all Symphonic Poems are too long for records and too difficult for the home pianist, the use of the player-piano to furnish these illustrations is recommended.

expression. They have used as subjects historical events or the legends of their native land, and have incorporated folk melodies into their compositions.

The greatest master of Program music of today is Richard Strauss; all his works follow this plan, and his stories are most realistically portrayed in tone. His greatest works are: “Don Juan,” “Till Eulenspiegel,” “Death and Transfiguration” and “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” Saint-Saens is more imitative in his development of the idea as will be noticed in “The Spinning Wheel of Omphale,” “Phaeton” or “Danse Macabre.” The Impressionistic School of French composers are naturally more vague in their melodic description, for they are depicting ideals and poetic fancies rather than reality. The greatest modern work of this type is Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun.”

Many musicians feel that Program music is not as great an expression of the true power of the art as is Absolute music. Yet, after all, Program music makes more of a demand on the intelligence of the listener. For to really appreciate such works as Beethoven’s “Egmont,” Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides,” Liszt’s “Mazeppa,” SaintSaens’ “Danse Macabre” and “Tschaikowsky’s “Overture 1812,” one must have a knowledge of legend, geography and history in order to really appreciate the true message of the music, as the composer intended it.

CHAPTER 9

The Correlation of Music in the Home with the Studies of School

During the past decade there has been a great interest in the music work in the public and private schools, and in many institutions the “Appreciation of Music Course” is considered as of as great importance as the actual sight singing and sight reading courses, the chorus, or the student orchestras. But the true worth of music has not yet been fully recognized. It will ultimately be realized that the music study in school must be correlated with the other subjects in the curriculum. This is of course a problem which in some ways it is difficult to solve. The busy music supervisor has to look after the music study in a number of schools. Sight singing, choruses, orchestras, ear training, the study of notation, and simple harmony, all must be outlined for the teachers. It is also almost impossible for the supervisor to keep in touch with all the daily studies in the school room. This is where the true worth of music in the home circle really begins. Every parent desirous of serving the best interests of the children in the home, should keep informed as to the daily lesson work at school of the young people of the household. It will then become but a comparatively simple matter to devote a short time each day in the home circle to the listening to music, which can be correlated with the geography, history or literature lessons of the youthful student.

We must come to realize in the homes of this country, that music is a part of daily life and the sooner that we can correlate the music that we hear, with the other things in life, especially the studies of the school room, the sooner will we accomplish this end. Wise parents wish their children to be surrounded in the home with the best in art and with the pictures and books that will help them in their school work. Why should music not be used as a means to the same end? In the story telling in the home circle, wherever there is

an allusion to music, it is often possible to give a musical illustration, which will make the point even clearer to the children. Almost all the old legends and fairy tales can be associated with music, in some way. It has been the author’s experience that the Wagner stories and music are much clearer to the childish comprehension than they are to many grownups. Many of the opera stories can be told to children in a simple manner and these can be correlated to geography, history or literature. The love for the poets can be greatly stimulated by the hearing of songs set to the words with which children are already familiar. When the youthful listener is taught to realize that music will help in the understanding of school studies, it is amazing how quickly he will begin to correlate for himself, the music he hears with other things in life.

It is not a good plan for any one to play or sing a musical composition to a child, unless one knows about it oneself, for questions are sure to arise that must be answered. But if the parents and teachers are able to carry out the plan of musical listening as correlated with school studies, they will be amazed to find how much they have learned themselves regarding music. And if this work is carried on systematically, it will surprise them to find how their own personal attitude toward music has changed, and their children when they begin to understand that music belongs to other things in life, will show a far different attitude toward their own music lessons. When parents come to appreciate this point, they will realize that music study is just as important as “the three It’s” in the general plan of education of our children, and music, which has before been a separate and rather vague art, will take its place as a true member of the family of the Nine Muses.

CHAPTER 10

Music in Its Relation to Geography

We have already considered the importance of Nationality as one of the fundamental principles that music can express. The characteristic differences in the music of the European countries as it has been attested by the folk instruments has been made apparent. We have traced Nationality in music through its various forms; Dance song, Folk dance, Legendary song, Composed song, Patriotic song and National composition. Let us now see how we may aid our young people to come to a better realization of the importance of music, by correlating the listening to music at home, with the geography lessons of school.

The picture post cards, the stereopticon and the moving pictures are all used to promote an interest in foreign lands, we will now consider the importance of music in this connection. It will be a great aid if you will use your maps as well as your musical instruments.

The different European cities are, of course, all associated with the lives of the great composers, or with events in music’s history, but it is first necessary to study the simple folk song, as this best reflects the true association between geography and music.

It must also be remembered that all the arts of the various nations have been more or less influenced by the climatic, as well as the racial and governmental conditions. The primitive type may be the same, but it shows itself in various forms. Just as there is a difference in the speech of the various peoples, so is there a variety in their costumes and their customs, and this is especially noticeable in their art.

Neither do all nations use the instruments that we know, and it is but natural that countries having similar instruments for the presentation of their melodies, will reflect many of the same tendencies in their music. A similarity in language is also responsible for a similarity in musical characteristics. For example, one finds strong points of similarity in the music of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, countries

that all used the bagpipe and the harp as their early instruments. And, although many of these songs have been associated with the English folk songs, because they have so long been sung in the English language, they have distinct and individual characteristics of their own, just as an Irishman, a Scotchman or a Welshman, each has his own accent in speech.

The music of Ireland is said to be the oldest of the British Isles, yet many of the Gaelic airs are native to both Ireland and Scotland. There is proof that a famous harp school existed in Ireland as early as the sixth century. The song “The Harp That Once Thro’ Tara’s Halls” commemorates the famous gathering of the harpers for their annual contests in the famous minstrel hall of Tara Castle. Besides the harp, the Irish also used the bagpipes, and a peculiar kind of fiddle called the Geige, from which the most popular of the Irish dances, the Jig (as we now spell it) took its name.

The Irish, being of the Celtic race have a strange faculty of combining joy and sorrow and this is noticeable in some of their drinking songs and jigs. Like many of the other peoples, who have retained their primitive customs, the Irish describe all their homely, everyday work with musical tunes. “The Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow” and “The Irish Washerwoman” are good illustrations of this. Excellent examples of Irish song, which will accent geography as well are: “Bendemeer’s Stream,” “Where the River Shannon Flows” and “Killarney.”

The music of Wales dates back almost as far as does the Irish, and the use of the harp and bagpipe was also popular there. So many of the Welsh songs like “All Thro’ the Night,” have been sung for so long in England that they are often mistaken for English songs. The Welsh national anthem, “Men of Harlech,” makes the youthful listener anxious to know, just where Harlech is and what its men did. Scotland has a peculiar fascination for the young musical listener. The bagpipe, with its restricted tonal scale has, as we have already seen, left a direct influence on the Scotch airs, and the rhythmic peculiarity known as the “Scotch Snap,” is also due to the use of this instrument. The “Highland Fling” and the “Sword Dances” well reflect these characteristics, while the more sentimental side of the Scot and his love for his native land is to be noticed in “Loch

Lomond,” “Coming Thro’ the Rye,” “Ye Banks and Brakes of Bonnie Doon” and “Flow Gently Sweet Afton.” The “Border Ballads” also make a strong appeal to children, especially to the boy of the family. “Jock o’Hazeldean,” “Wha’ll Be King But Charlie,” “The Campbells Are Coming” and “Scots Wha’ Hae Wi’ Wallace Bled,” all take on a new meaning when one knows, where and when they actually originated.

In England music held a much more important place in past days than it has since, until the present day. The Puritans did away with many of the old songs and dances and it has been only in the last few years that these have been revived. The May Pole dances and the Morris Dances, as well as the old Rounds that are now attracting the attention of the modern composers, are reminding us of the past music of England. The “Border Ballads” really belong quite as much to England as they do to Scotland.

In France many of the old songs reflect that part of the land from which they originated. For example the music of Alsace and Lorraine naturally shows the influence of Germany, while that of Provence is distinctly reminiscent of Spain. There are many of the old French songs of the time of Charlemagne still in existence, and there are also Crusader’s Hymns and Troubadour Songs that we may hear and learn to know. Then there are the charming Begerettes and dances of the Court period to consider. Many of the modern composers are returning to these old sources for their inspiration. Among the many illustrations that would be possible to hear in this connection are “Aubade Provencal” by Couperin; “Chanson Lorraine”; “On the Bridge at Avignon”; “March of the Three Kings” (used by Bizet as the basis for his overture to “L’Arlessienne”); and the marvelous “Marseillaise.” We read much in the present war reports regarding the little town of Arras. It was here in the thirteenth century that there lived a curious humpback named Adam de la Halle. He became the most famous composer of his day and wrote the first Pastoral Opera, which is known as “Robin and Marion.” Many of the songs from this work are recorded and are possible for us to hear in our homes today.

Belgium and Holland have little music that is distinctly national in character, for the influence of both France and Germany is

reflected in their music as well as their language. In the early days of music’s history the great school of the Netherlands was the most important in the development of counterpoint and there was laid the foundation for all musical composition. The action of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” takes place in Antwerp, Elsa’s castle being now the Steen Museum.

The folk music of Germany sounds more familiar to us than that of any other land, because so many of our hymns and school songs are taken from German sources. All German folk music is of a homely and intimate character. The emotion, while intense and elevated, is always expressed in simple phrases. Many of the folk songs reflect a somewhat exaggerated sentimentality, but there is always a very close connection between the words and the music. There are a number of German songs that impress us with the geography of the land; but the three following are excellent examples: “Lorely,” “The Watch on the Rhine” and “Eine Feste Burg” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”); this latter song was written by Martin Luther in the famous Wartburg Castle, which stands just outside of the little town of Eisenach in Thuringia. Here also the Minnesinger Knights used to hold their annual contests of song, which Wagner immortalized in his “Tannhauser.” In Wagner’s “Meistersinger” the action takes place in Nurenburg; the legends of the Rhine were the inspiration of “The Ring of the Nibelungs.” The story of “Hansel and Gretel” is one of the tales of the Black Forest and the music by Humperdinck is all taken from folk sources. One can go on through the whole of the modern German musical literature and find a very close association between the places and events and music.

Swiss music reflects the influence of the Italians, the Germans and the French, just as its speech and its folk stories are also borrowed from its neighbors. The Alpine yodel-call is practically the only distinctly national music of Switzerland, although we will find the yodel used also by mountaineers in other parts of Europe. The “Swiss Echo Song” by Eckert gives a good idea of the yodel call as used in imitative music. The Swiss have one national song, which is called “Kuhreigen” and which the Swiss Guards, those subsidized soldiers of past Court days, were not allowed to sing because the music of this air always made the soldier so homesick that he deserted his post.

Kiensl, the modern German opera composer, has written an opera, called “Kuhreigen”; the story of this takes place in France during the Revolution, the hero is a Swiss soldier, who sang the “Kuhreigen,” and was condemned to death.

Hungary and Bohemia, both have distinct types of music. The Hungarian gypsies tinge all of their music with a coloring that is most unusual. The “March Rackoczy,” the “Hungarian Rhapsodies” by Liszt and the “Hungarian Dances” arranged by Brahms, all show these characteristics. Bohemian music has many points in common with the other Slavic nations, but she has been under the domain of Austria for so long that many German tendencies are found in the folk music of Bohemia today. As Bohemia has always looked to the West for her culture her arts reflect the West far more than they do the East.

Smetana in his opera “The Bartered Bride” has set a Bohemian folk story to Bohemian folk music, and the result gives the hearer an excellent illustration of the possibilities of the Bohemian national music. This composer, in his symphonic poems “The Moldau” and “Vyserhad,” pictures in music the scenes on the banks of the famous river of Bohemia and the strength of the mighty fortress of Prague. The “Slavonic Dances” arranged by Dvorak are good illustrations of Bohemian national music. Both Smetana and Dvorak restricted themselves almost entirely to the writing of Bohemian National Composition.

To continue our interest in Slavic music let us now journey to Russia, that vast land which in its speech, customs and arts links the Occident with the Orient. Russia’s enormous size gives an immense variety to her art and music. There are songs very similar to the French and Italian folk songs, doubtless due to the influence that these lands had on the early Russian court. Then again there are songs and dances almost barbaric in their coloring and reflecting the Cossack influence of the South and East. The most interesting folk songs come from “Little Russia,” a district of the Ukraine that borders on Poland. Here we find an instrument that is individual to the people of this locality, the balalaika. The balalaika was believed to be obsolete, until a few years ago, when it was rediscovered by M. Andreef, who also found many interesting old tunes that were

distinctly influenced by this instrument. The “Cossack’s Lullaby,” “Mother Moscow” and “Song of the Volga Boatmen” are the best of the Russian songs to associate with geography.

Polish music is characterized by its “Krakowiaks,” “Polonaises” and “Mazurkas,” which Chopin was the first to give to the world. There is a great variety and delicacy to be noticed in the distinctive Polish rhythms. It is natural that much of the music of Poland has been influenced by both Germany and Russia. But as Poland has been for many centuries a Catholic country the influence of its religious music is very apparent in many folk songs. In fact the Polish folk song is either a frank copy of a hymn of the Church, or a dance song, in which the rhythm of the Krakowiak, the Polonaise or the Mazurka is to be found.

In Scandinavia there are three distinct schools Sweden, Norway and Finland. Sweden reflects the influence of Germany far more than does Norway, which has always maintained a certain independence in art. A number of the mountain songs of the Swedes suggest the Alpine yodel-call, while the folk dances possess many points of similarity with these of Germany. Norway on the other hand has a different music in the forest lands from that to be found in the sea coast; all Norwegian folk music possesses a bold and vigorous character which is distinctive. We are already familiar in our study of the music of Sweden and Norway with the works of Svendsen, Grieg and Sinding. Finland has only recently become of serious importance in the modern National Schools. “Finlandia,” by Sibelius, a work which we have already heard, is an unusual example of the geographical music of this far away land.

In the south of Europe a far different character is noticed in the music than in that of the north. While there are some points of similarity to be found in the music of Spain and Italy, much of the Spanish music is reflective of the Moorish invasion and shows the influence of the Moors to almost as great an extent as does the architecture of Spain. The song “A Granada” tells of the glories of the old Moorish Capital. There are many gypsies throughout Spain and they have also influenced her music, although not to the extent to be noticed in the music of Hungary. The most beautiful legendary folk songs of Spain are found in Andalusia, while the people of the north

revel in the dance song. Sarasate’s “Romanza Andalusia” is an excellent example of national composition based on the Southern folk song, while “Linda Mia,” with its clicking castanets, is distinctly a folk dance song of the Pyrenees. Legend tells us that it was in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, that the castle of the Grail Knights were hidden. There is a town called Montsalvat, still in existence, where there is located a wonderful temple said to have been the Grail castle of Medieval days. Although the work of a Frenchman Bizet’s opera “Carmen” is so distinctly Spanish in its character that the “Seguidilla” and “Habanera” as well as “Toreador Song” can all aid the childish imagination as to the music of Spain. Wherever Spain has left her mark in the new world because of her colonies, the characteristics of her musical speech can be traced. This is of course noticeable in the music of many of the South American countries, also in Mexico and Cuba. The folk music of Spain has also been influenced by that of her colonies; a striking example of this being the “Habanera.” This dance was originally introduced into Cuba by the African negro slaves, and in its oldest version it was called “A Creole Country Dance.” It became so popular in the city of Havana, that when it was taken to Spain, the name “Habanera” was given to this form, which for many centuries has been the most popular dance of the Spanish folk.

The folk music of Portugal is very similar to that of its more dominating neighbor. The dance songs of the two lands are almost identical, but as the Portuguese is more pensive and tranquil by nature than the fiery and excitable Spaniard, so in many of the songs of Portugal there is noticed a repose and subdued melancholy, which is absent in the Spanish folk song.

Like the German music, the Italian seems also so familiar to us that its national flavor is practically lost. Yet there is much difference to be noted in the music of Northern Italy, with that of the Southern provinces. The songs of the seaports are very different from the music that is found in the interior. Such folk songs as “The Dove” (Tuscany) are quite distinct from “Santa Lucia” and a O Sole Mio” of Naples. “The Fair Maid of Sorrento” brings up a picture of the cliffs surrounding the Bay of Naples; the later folk song “FunicoliFunicola” is descriptive of the trip to Vesuvius on the funicular

railway. When one starts to compare the music of Italian opera many more analogies are possible. The Italian folk of today sing the airs from the Italian operas, and one can truly say the folk music of Italy today is the Italian opera from Rossini to Wolf-Ferrari.

In the small mountain towns of Greece the folk still sing the old tunes of by-gone days and the ancient modes on which our first system of Church music was founded are still in use by some of these primitive people. We trace from Greece our first development in the history of modern music. Some of the Greek mountaineer songs, so primitive in character that they might have been used in ancient days, have been preserved by the means of phonograph records.

In America the folk music has been greatly affected by geographical conditions. The French influence is to be found in the songs of Canada and in the music of the Creoles. In Southern California the influence of Spain is as apparent in the music as in the architecture. The dance song and the plaintive minor harmonies of the negro, color all the music of the South. The future American composer will, naturally, combine in his music the characteristics of all of the peoples of the world, yet his compositions will undoubtedly reflect the true strength and virility of a free born race.

CHAPTER 11

Music and the History of the World

In considering the relation of music to history, we do not mean the study of musical history in the accepted terms of the music student, but the correlation of the music that we hear, with the greatest events of the world’s history. Until a short time ago, our music students, in their study of the history of music, had little or no conception of the true meaning of the term “History.” The course of music history consisted almost entirely in a series of studies of the biographies of the great composers, and, in many instances, the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of the individual were given far greater emphasis than the effect which the events of the time produced upon his works.

The mother in the home, or the teacher in the school, may make the historical event and the musical message of far greater importance, if she seeks to correlate them, for the child is far quicker to recognize this relationship than one can realize. The music of ancient days is largely a matter of conjecture. We know from Assyrian bas reliefs that the instruments of the Assyrians were of the, noisemaking, rhythm-marking type; the wall paintings of the Egyptians, by the use of the wind instruments of the reed family, and the long stringed harps, depict the love of the sensual in music. This simply accents what history tells us regarding the Assyrian and Egyptian races. As the Hebrews took their arts from both of their more dominating neighbors, it is but natural that their music was an adaptation of the best of both the Egyptian and Assyrian systems. History has proved that the Hebrew race is the most musical on earth, and it is safe to assume that this characteristic, so noticeable today, belonged to that race in ancient days as well. We, therefore, have to look to the Orthodox Jew, who has kept his music with as great a care as he has the Mosaic law, for in the collection of the Orthodox cantors many of the settings of the psalms and prayers of the priests

are still to be found. As one listens to “Birchos Kohanim” (Benediction of the Priests) or “Kawokores Rohe Adre” (Like a Shepherd), one realizes the glory of the music of the great days of Israel.

The “Kol Nidrei” is the most sacred of the Jewish hymns, and is only sung once a year, on the evening of the Day of Atonement, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar. The Orthodox cantors will not sing it on any other occasion even for the purpose of making a record. We have, however, the beautiful modern version of the theme in the arrangement made by Max Bruch.

The Greeks, as we know, considered music of great importance, and their systems of musical science were different in the various localities of Greece. In the education of the Greek youth there were but two courses of study music and athletics; all the sciences and arts being grouped under the term “Music.” Of the Greek music which has come down to us, the most authentic is “The Hymn to Apollo,” which was found in 1893 at a shrine to Apollo on the island of Delos. The words and music in the old neume notation were graven on a stone and were easily deciphered by the modern scientists. It is interesting to notice that the rhythm of this hymn, 5/4, is the peculiar rhythm of the Russian folk song, which has been so frequently remarked. That the influence of the Greek Church is responsible for the use of this rhythm among the folk of Russia of today is more than self-evident.

The real development of modern music began in the Christian Church, which for many centuries was alone in the sustaining of all forms of art. One traces in the early Church Chant the influence of the Hebrew and Greek music, but history tells us that this was far more evident in the Ambrosian Chants, which were destroyed by order of the Church, than in the later Gregorian Chants which are still in use in the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Gregorian Chants may be heard in our homes by means of records, but since their chief interest is only due to their historic origin it is only when they are heard in the vaults of some great cathedral that their true significance can be appreciated. We know that the early Church missionaries considered music of great importance and that they sent singers as a part of each mission. History tells us that after the conversion of Britain many of the best teachers came from Ireland, which

is known to have had a very early school of music. Although the song “The Harp That Once Thro’ Tara’s Halls” belongs to a later period, it commemorates the days of the Irish harpers and may well be heard as an illustration of the importance of music in the early days in Ireland.

When we come to the period of Charlemagne (744-814), we find that the great master of the Holy Roman Empire realized full well the importance of music as an influence in civilization. He caused music to be made a part of school study, and even founded special schools for the training of the Church choristers. We can hear two songs of his day, the “Hymn of Charlemagne” and “The Lament for Charlemagne.”

The interest in the development of the science of music continued in the Church, and that it was widely known throughout Europe is evident from the fact that we find first, Hucbald, a monk in Flanders, then Guido of Arezzo, and, later, Franco of Cologne, all working for the same ends. Of these three, the most important in relation to the modern school was Guido, who lived in the eleventh century. His famous hymn to “St. John the Baptist,” on which he founded the present system of solfeggio, can be heard by means of an excellent record. There has also come down to us from this century “The War Song of the Normans,” which historians tell us was actually sung by the army of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings (1066).

The influence of the Crusades is apparent in the music of the Troubadours, who brought back to Western Europe the most beautiful of the melodies of the Orient, as well as many of the Eastern instruments. The Crusade of Godfrey of Bouillon (1096) first made popular that most universal of folk songs, “Malbrouk.” The words, “To war has gone Duke Marlborough,” were set to this tune after the victory of Duke of Marlborough at Malplaquet in 1709. We have also many later eighteenth and nineteenth century settings to the air and know it by many titles, including “We Won’t Get Home Until Morning,” “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” and “Me and My Mother are Irish.” It is said that Marie Antoinette sang it as a cradle song. When Napoleon’s armies went into Egypt it was their most popular marching song and was at once adopted by the Arabs, who still sing

it as one of their most popular songs. Beethoven uses it in his battle symphony, “Wellington’s Victory at Vittoria.” But to return to the music of the Crusaders, the “Crusader’s Hymn” (Fairest Lord Jesus), still sung in our churches today, is a better type of the religious spirit of the times than is the old marching song, “Malbrouk.”

That France, during this period, recognized the power of music is evident from the fact that with the establishment of the University of Paris in 1100 we find that the chair of music was given equal rank with that of science and history.

The most famous of the Troubadours, Adam de la Halle, “The Hunchback of Arras,” who was the composer of the first pastoral operetta, “Robin and Marion,” lived in the thirteenth century in the little town of Arras in France. Several of the selections from this work now can be heard in our homes through the medium of records. Then there are also several of the most beautiful of the songs of De Coucy and Thibaut of Navarre, that we are able to hear today in the same manner.

The importance of secular music was not only confined to France, but also is manifest by the contests of the Minnesingers of Germany, which were held in the famous old Wartburg Castle in Thuringia. Wagner has immortalized this event in his “Tannhauser” and has, in his other operas, used the legendary material which the Minnesingers wrote.

After the Crusades drew the nobility to the Orient, music became the heritage of the common people and the Jongleurs in France and the guilds of Meistersingers in Germany were a result. Massenet in his opera, “Jongleur of Notre Dame” has given an accurate picture of the life of this period; Wagner’s opera, “Die Meistersinger of Nurnberg” also brings before us the work of the most famous of these guilds, which remained in existence in Germany until the middle of the last century. The true hero of Wagner’s opera, Hans Sachs (14961576), is a character in history who is sure to make a personal appeal to the youthful mind.

After the signing of the Magna Charta there began an immediate development of art in England. We have the unquestionable proof that a great school of music existed in England in the manuscript of the famous old canon, “Sumer Is a Cumen In.”

The days of Wallace and Bruce are all commemorated in the Scotch songs dating from the early fourteenth century. “Scots Wha’ Hae, Wi’ Wallace Bled,” is said to have been sung at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314).

The Hundred Years’ War naturally retarded the progress of art, but at its close there began a renewed interest in music throughout Europe. The invention of printing spread knowledge to an extent undreamed of before. The fall of Constantinople gave a new impetus to the study of the ancient arts.

It is but a natural result that secular music should now claim equal rank with religious music. Therefore, when Martin Luther began his reforms of the Church he laid great stress on the importance of music. Neither is it strange that the Catholic Church should also realize this principle. One of the most popular airs from Adam de la Halle’s “Robin and Marion” had long been a part of the ritual of the Church. It was now abolished, and when the famous Council of Trent met in 1563, Pope Pius requested the composer Palestrina to write him a mass, which should be “both religious and popular.”

As the Netherlands was ranked as one of the most important countries commercially during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it is natural that the greatest school of art and music during this period should have been developed there. The most important of the early masters was Josquin des Pres, who was the contemporary and friend of Luther. It was doubtless true that Luther obtained much of his knowledge and enthusiasm for music from him. The late masters of the Netherland school, like their contemporaries in painting, went to Italy for further inspiration. These men laid the foundations for the great schools of Venice, Rome and Naples.

One of these masters, Adrian Willaert, found in Venice, in the Church of St. Mark’s, two organs, and at once decided that instrumental antiphonal choirs were quite as possible as vocal ones. His followers used all the instrumental voices in the same manner, thus laying the foundation for the orchestral choirs of today.

Music continued to be regarded as of importance in England and at the time of Elizabeth one deficient in a knowledge of music was looked upon as lacking in education and culture. It was probably due to the interest of King Henry VIII that this condition prevailed during

the reign of his brilliant daughter. King Henry was known to be a lover of music and of the dance. Many of the Morris and May Pole dances still in use today date from his reign, a notable example being “Bluff King Hal.” Shakespeare was a great lover of, as well as an authority on, music. We note frequent proofs of this in his works, and we are also fortunate in that many of the authentic airs of Shakespeare’s day have been preserved. Almost all those known to have been the tunes of his period, as well as some musical settings of his words that belong to a later day, are available through the medium of records.

The first existing opera dates from the dawn of the seventeenth century and was written for the marriage of Maria De Medici and Henry the Fourth of France. Many of the airs from this work, as well as from the operatic works, which were its immediate followers, are possible for us to hear today in our homes.

Louis XIII was a great lover of music, and several compositions, including “Amaryllis” and “Chanson Louis XIII,” are said to have been composed by him.

The Thirty Years’ War, while it retarded the operatic development in Germany, was responsible for the great interest in instrumental music, which was the result of the activity of the town pipers in reproducing the songs and dances of the various nations which were involved in the conflict. The form of the Partita or Suite was the direct outgrowth of this time.

The advent of Cromwell did much to destroy all art in England, but with the Restoration an interest in music again was renewed, which is reflected in the works of Henry Purcell, the advent of Italian opera, and the later enthusiasm for the works of Handel.

During the early eighteenth century the court of Frederick the Great showed unusual interest in the art of music, and it is significant to recall that Bach was the friend and musical counselor of the strange old king. Peter the Great, in Russia, now introduced music as an important art to the Russian court.

All of the court etiquette and custom is reflected in the music from Bach to Beethoven, the period which is designated as the “Classical School.”

The true revolutionary spirit of the late eighteenth century is

apparent in the music of Beethoven, whose compositions are a direct outgrowth of the feeling of independence and equality which gave democracy to the world. Beethoven’s admiration for Napoleon, whom he regarded as “the God-sent deliverer of Europe from the decay of the Middle Ages,” is manifest in the “Eroica” symphony, which the master originally dedicated to Bonaparte. After Napoleon’s betrayal of Democracy, Beethoven destroyed the original dedication and the score now bears the inscription, “To the memory of a great man.” It should also be remembered that Beethoven’s “Seventh Symphony” was written during the siege of Vienna and that it was originally produced at a concert given for the benefit of the soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau.

The court of Louis Philippe brought back to Paris many of the past splendors of other days and the two opera houses still in existence were established. Naturally, musicians from all over Europe flocked to Paris, and the French Romantic School was the result. Just as the French authors after the Revolution realized that they must describe in detail the horrors of life to a horror-satiated public, so the musicians of this period were popular because of their extravagance of expression. In the opera this took form in intense melodrama: in the orchestral music of Berlioz, the bizarre and extravagant use of the instrumental effects; while in the virtuosity of Paganini and Liszt the same spirit is apparent. The feeling for National expression also becomes paramount at this time. The “Polonaises” and “Mazurkas” of Chopin and the “Hungarian Rhapsodies” of Liszt reflect this influence.

The wars for United Italy have resulted in a modern school of opera from Verdi to Puccini, which holds the stages of the world today. It is interesting to recall that the Government of Italy once forbade the performance of one of Verdi’s operas because it was feared that it would stimulate too great an interest in military affairs.

One recalls that Wagner was an ardent revolutionist and was actually banished from his native land because he took too active a part in the uprising of 1848. In spite of the fact that Wagner wrote the “Kaiser March” for the ascension of William I, the student of Wagner’s political writings cannot help but realize that Wagner was at heart an ardent advocate of democracy.

In the study of musical literature, we will find that history has ever been a constant source of inspiration, and when one feels that this historical significance is strong, it must be given consideration in our listening to music in the home.

The music of today is expressive of the spirit of the times to a remarkable degree. We are too close to the great conflict to realize yet its real significance, yet there can be little doubt that, as it has already resulted in a simpler form of living for mankind, it will undoubtedly influence the art of the world in the same manner.

CHAPTER 12

The Literary Sources of Music

A child is quick to realize the beauty of a simple poem, or the dramatic importance of the larger works of literature, whenever this interest is correlated with the actual listening to music, it will be found to be a most remarkable means of education. Beginning with the Bible, there are constant allusions to music, especially in the Old Testament, which is of course but natural, for the Hebrews were without doubt the most musical of the ancient people. Unfortunately the Bible was translated at a period when little was known regarding the ancient instruments, and we therefore have a rather distorted impression as to what the music of the time really was. We have still retained the chanting and reading of the psalms after the old antiphonal manner of the Hebrew service, and these are some of the old Hebrew chants that have come down to us so directly that we can almost imagine that they were in use in Biblical days. The chants that we heard in Chapter Seven are the best to hear again in this connection.

Biblical as well as Apochryphal subjects have inspired many great oratorios. The stories of “Israel in Egypt,” “Samson,” “Saul,” “Joshua,” “Joseph,” Solomon” and “Judas Maccabeus” have been immortalized in music by Handel, although they never reached the popularity of his greatest work “The Messiah.” Bach, in addition to his “Christmas Oratorio” set all the stories of the passion of Christ, as related by the Apostles. Haydn’s “The Creation” was not directly inspired by the Bible, but is a poem based on material from Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Beethoven’s only oratorio is “Christ on the Mount of Olives.” Schubert wrote a cantata on “Miriam’s Hymn,” Mendelssohn’s two greatest musical monuments are “Elijah” and “St. Paul,” the two best oratorios since Handel; Mendelssohn also left music for a stage work based on the story of “Athalia.” A less known work by Mendelssohn is “Christus,” a subject that also inspired Franz Liszt. “The Tower of

Babel” is Rubinstein’s best known oratorio. Gounod’s “Redemption,” always a popular work, is based on a Biblical text. The story of the “Prodigal Son” has been very popular with artists, but the two best musical works on the subject belong to the modern school, one being the composition of Sir Arthur Sullivan, the other the setting by Claude Debussy. The Queen of Sheba has been also a favorite subject with composers. Guonod and Goldmark each wrote an opera based on the story of the wonderful queen and her visit to Solomon. There are numberless other works less well known, which are taken from Biblical material. But there are two works of the modern French school that must be classed as among the most popular works of this type: “Samson and Delilah” by Saint-Saens and “Mary Magdalene” by Massenet. The ever popular song by Salter, “The Cry of Rachel” always makes an impression on youthful minds. The story of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, who danced before the King and won for her prize the head of John the Baptist, has been an inspiration for many great works of art. Through the Medieval days the story assumed many legendary forms, but the gruesome prize won by the dancing maiden has held a fascination for artists, poets and musicians of all time. The two greatest operas founded on this story are: “Herodiade” by Massenet, and “Salome,” the setting of Oscar Wilde’s drama, by Richard Strauss. In all of the earliest stories of mythology, music plays an important part. Almost all the legends of the Greeks tell of the relation of music to the other arts. There are two well known stories of Apollo that are excellent examples of the esteem in which music was held by the Greeks. One is the story of the discovery of the lyre. It is said that Mercury, walking on the banks of the Nile, found an empty tortoise shell, the sinews of which had dried into four strings; when he touched these strings with his toe, Mercury found that the vibrations made a pleasing sound, so he brought the instrument back to Greece to Apollo, who at once adopted it as his own individual instrument. This is the Greek manner of acknowledging an indebtedness to the Egyptians for the invention of the stringed instruments. Then there is the story of Marsyas, who after he had found the flute, discarded by Minerva, became so elated at his success as a performer on this instrument that he challenged Apollo to a musical duel. Apollo won the duel but because King Midas had

judged in favor of his opponent, Apollo changed the ears of Midas to those of an ass. The defeat of Marsyas proved for all time the superiority of the strings over the wind instruments.

All of Greek mythology is full of allusions to music, and it will he helpful if the youthful student is encouraged to try for himself to correlate music with these stories. Orpheus is the most popular of the early musical heroes in opera, and we find almost all the opera composers up to the middle of the eighteenth century made musical settings for the tragic story of the search for the lost Eurydice. It is interesting to compare the way in which this situation inspired the music of Peri, Caccini and Monteverdi, of the seventeenth century, and was also used by Gluck as the setting for his most famous air, “Che faro senza Euridice” (“I Have Lost My Euridice”).

We have already heard the “Hymn to Apollo,” which is one of the few authentic examples of Greek music that has come down to us.

The stories of Acis and Galatea, Anacreon, Antigone, Aphrodite, Ariadne, Bacchus, Dafne, Euterpe, Hercules, Medea, Odysseus, Phaeton, Philemon and Baucis, Prometheus and Sapho have all been the source of inspiration of many musical composers. Saint-Saens symphonic poems “Youth of Hercules,” “Spinning Wheel of Omphale” and “Phaeton” and the lovely song by Brahms, “Sapphic Ode,” should be heard in this connection, for they are easier to present and not difficult for a young person to comprehend.

The Greek dramas have contributed many librettos for operas, the most famous being the works of Gluck on “Iphigenia in Aulis” and “Iphigenia in Tauris”; “Les Troyens” by Berlioz and Massenet’s “Les Errynnes,” the subject of which is from the Greek tragedy although the play is by the modern French writer Le Count des Lisle.

The mythology of the Norse has been brought into opera by Richard Wagner, all of whose works are based on the greatest legends of literature. Wagner adapted the Eddas and Sagas of the Norse, with some of the Teutonic tales of the early Minnesingers and his great Tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelungs” was the result. In his first successful opera “Rienzi” Wagner was inspired by the historical novel of the same name by Bulwer Lytton; his second work “The Flying Dutchman” is based on the old legend of the “Wandering Jew of the

Sea.” From the Minnesinger Knights Wagner received his material for “Tannhauser,” which also combines the legend of St. Elizabeth with that of the Venusberg. From studying the works of the Minnesingers, he obtained the literary material which he uses in “Lohengrin,” “Tristan and Isolde” and “Parsifal.” “Die Meistersinger” was a result of his contrasting the literary and musical works of the Minnesingers and the Meistersingers. Of all the great composers Wagner had a most remarkable understanding of legendary lore. In “Parsifal” is an unusual example of this, for there is not a phase of the Grail legend as it has been used by all peoples, that Wagner does not suggest in his last great dramas.

From the earlier folk tales told in the Kindergarten, to the days of the serious study of literature in the University, music should play an important part in the study of all literary works. The fairy tales of “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Nut Cracker and the Mouse King” both inspired Tschaikowsky to write beautiful compositions, which never fail to meet with popular favor from youthful hearers. Massenet wrote a pretty opera on “Cinderella.” The most simple and beautiful of all the fairy operas is, “Hansel and Gretel” by Humperdinck, who has reflected in his music the true feeling of childhood for this charming old folk tale. In his opera “Koenigskinder,” although it is based on another folk story, Humperdinck had woven into the libretto an allegorical meaning, which is not entirely understood by the youthful hearer.

The stories from the Arabian Nights are frequently used by composers as the basis of musical inspiration. The best known being the “Scheherazade Suite” by Rimsky-Korsakow.

There are many legendary tales of different lands that have inspired musical composition. The “Lorely” we know best because of the old German folk song which Silcher set to the Heine poem, but we should also know the later song by Franz Liszt, which is set to the same words. The story of Melusina the Mermaid has been immortalized in music by Mendelssohn in his concert overture. Hofmann also wrote a contata on this subject. Another folk tale is “Till Eulenspiegel” or “Tyll Owlglass,” which belongs to many countries, but is most popular in Germany. In his tone poem entitled “Till Eulenspiegel” Richard Strauss paints in tone a non-forgetable picture

of this merry mischief maker. Another well known folk tale is that of the Sorcier’s apprentice who, by means of his master’s charms succeeds in forcing the broom to do his bidding. This humorous tale has been delightfully portrayed in music in the Scherzo “L’Apprenti Sorrier” by Dukas. A distinctly Russian folk tale is “Baba Yaga” and several of the Russian national composers have told us of this horrible old witch in their music. The story of the “Wild Huntsman” is found in a number of lands, but is unusually popular in the country towns of France; the tone poem by Cesar Franck entitled “Le Chasseur Maudit” pictures this legend in a musical composition. There is a very remarkable example of the close relationship between legend, nationality and music in the two symphonic poems by Sibelius, which are based on the “Kalevala.” No more beautiful piece of modern music exists than the tone picture which Sibelius gives us of “The Swan of Tuonela,” taken from this remarkable national epic. When the children are in the grades and are becoming familiar with the simple and beloved poems of childhood, try whenever it is possible to aid them in a correlation of literature and music. Many of the best known poems have been set to music and are the most popular songs with children because they know the words. It should be also suggested to the child that he note the class relationship that exists between the words and the music.

Browning — “The Year’s at the Spring” from “Pippa Passes” Mrs. Beach

Burns — “Auld Lang Syne”— Set to an old Scotch air by Burns himself — “Bonnie Wee Thing” — Lehmann

Eugene Field — “Little Boy Blue” Nevin “Wynken

Blinken and Nod” — Paissiello

James Whitcomb Riley — “There Little Girl Don’t Cry,” — Ward-Stephens

Kipling — “Danny Deever” Damrosch — “On the Road to Mandalay” — Speaks

Longfellow — “Day is Done” Lohr — “The Arrow and the Song,” — Pinsuti

Tennyson — “The Brook” Dolores — “Ring Out, Wild Bells” —Gounod

The study of “Hiawatha” becomes much more real to a child that has heard the actual Indian chants; this story has inspired many musical composers, but every child should know the beautiful air for tenor “Onaway Awake Beloved” that is from Coleridge-Taylor’s “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” When reading “Miles Standish” some of the old songs of the Puritans can be heard and the French Canadian folk songs will also make the study of “Evangeline” more interesting. “The Golden Legend” suggests the folk music of Naples. This story inspires Dudley Buck’s cantata on the same subject and there is much of his music, which will appeal to the youthful listener. No child should fail to connect the poem of “Nurenberg” with the music of the Meistersingers, and Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersinger.” In “Walter von der Vogelweids” Longfellow tells of one of the last of the Minnesingers and if you but compare the poem with the aria “Am Stillen Herd,” from the first act of “Die Meistersinger” you will find that Wagner’s young hero Walter von Stolzing tells the Meistersingers that “Walter von der Vogelweide has been my master truly.”

Lowell’s “Vision of Sir Launfal” is always a popular favorite and gives an opportunity to again hear the Grail music of Wagner. The Troubadour songs of this period also illustrate this work as well as the Arthurian legends which Tennyson tells us in his “Idylls of the King.”

Dickens is not known to the children of the present as he was to the past generation, yet “The Cricket on the Hearth” is still a popular favorite with young people. There is a charming and simple opera by Goldmark, which is based on this story. Boys are always thrilled by “The Tale of Two Cities” and a rehearing of the “Marseillaise” at this time is sure to make an appeal, while the court dances of Gluck and Mozart will help to bring back the remembrance of the luxury and grace of the life at the court of Marie Antoinette.

Scott is another of the favorites of the past generation, but possibly a renewed interest in “Ivanhoe” may be brought about by hearing the songs of the Troubadours and the Crusaders. There is also Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” which embodies the best of the old days of Scotch minstrelsy; “Hail to the Chief” has been set to music by Sanderson and gives an excellent musical idea of this spirited poem. The famous novel “The Bride of Lammermoor” inspired Donizetti to write his famous opera “Lucia di Lammermoor,” while

“La Dame Blanche” by Boieldieu is adapted from Scott’s novels, “The Monastery” and “Guy Mannering.” De Koven’s modern operetta “Robin Hood” also recalls the works of Scott.

We have already spoken of the importance with which music was held at the time of Shakespeare, and have found that many of the actual tunes of this period as they were heard in the original Shakespearean performances, can be reheard in our homes today. But the vast inspiration that Shakespeare has been to all the great composers gives one material to fill many books. A child, who is reading “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” should be given the opportunity of hearing the marvelous fairy music of Mendelssohn, and no reader of “Romeo and Juliet” should forget that this work has been the inspiration for great musical works by Berlioz, Gounod and Tschaikowsky. There are also excellent musical compositions that have been inspired by “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Othello” and “The Tempest.”

When we come to a chronological study of literature there is also much music to hear. The time of Chaucer is brought directly to us by the famous old Canon “Sumer is icumen in,” which belongs to the same period and which is in the same old English as “The Canterbury Tales.” Dante and Chaucer both lived during the time of the greatest of the Troubadours, and many of their songs can be heard in this connection. Dante’s story of “Paola and Francesca” has been a constant inspiration to artists, poets and musicians since his day. Tschaikowsky has written a very beautiful Symphonic Phantasia, “Francesca de Rimini” which follows the lines of Dante as its program. The story inspired D’Annunzio in the writing of his play of the same name, which has been used as the libretto for Zandonai’s opera “Francesca di Rimini.” Dante’s “Divinia Commedia” is also the program for a symphonic poem by Liszt.

Boccaccio gives the version of the story of “Griselidis” which Massenet has used for the libretto of one of his most beautiful operas. The student of Shakespeare will be interested in finding a great number of musical compositions, either belonging to this period, or have been inspired by the Shakespearean works, in the roll and record catalogues.

Cervantes’ immortal “Don Quixoto” has been made an operatic

here in one of the later works of Massenet; while Richard Strauss has pictured the “Knight of the Woeful Countenance” and his faithful Squire, Sancho Panza, in one of his greatest tone poems.

Milton’s “Masque of Comus” was originally produced with a musical setting by William and Henry Lawes, while “II Pensieroso” and “L’Allegro” were both set to music by Handel. Much of this music has been recorded.

Handel also used Dryden’s “Alexander’s Feast” as the basis of a musical work.

Moliere’s “Le Amour Medicin” has been used as a libretto by many composers; a recent opera by Wolf-Ferrari is based on this story.

Abbe Prevost’s novel of “Manon Lescaut” has inspired several opera composers; and there are three well known operas on this subject by Auber, Massenet and Puccini.

Voltaire’s “Semiramus” provided the libretto for Rossini’s opera “Semiramide.”

Schiller gave Rossini the story for “William Tell”; Tschaikowsky the version he used for his opera “Jeanne d’ Arc”; and Smetana and D’Indy the material for their tone poems of “Wallenstein.” Beethoven tells us that his earliest ambition was to write a fitting setting for Schiller’s “Ode to Freedom” which he uses as the chorus ending for the “Ninth Symphony.” There are many of Schiller’s shorter poems that have become songs at the hands of the great German composers. Goethe in his “Egmont” was assisted by the incidental music of his great contemporary, Beethoven. Goethe’s version of the Faust legend has been the inspiration of many musical composers; “The Damnation of Faust” by Berlioz and the opera “Faust” by Gounod, both curiously enough the works of Frenchmen, and “Mephistophele” by the Italian composer, Boito, are the greatest operatic works on this subject. Goethe’s “Faust” has, however, been programmed in the music of Schumann’s cantata, the symphony with chorus by Liszt, and the Overture by Wagner. “Werther” becomes an opera personage at the hands of Massenet, and it is interesting for the student to know that the lovely “Ode to Spring,” sung by Werther, to the verses of Ossian, is based on an old Gaelic tune, which is said to date back to the time of the old Bard. It is natural that the poems of Byron should have appealed very strongly to musical composers.

His poetic drama “Manfred” was used by Schumann as the foundation for a great musical composition, and again by Tschaikowsky for a very remarkable symphonic work. “Childe Harold” inspired Berlioz in the writing of “Harold in Italy,” a symphony, telling of the wanderings of Byron’s hero. “Mazeppa” was used by Liszt as the dramatic basis of one of his best symphonic poems, and it was Byron’s “Lament of Tasso” which also inspired Liszt in the writing of the Symphonic Poem “Tasso.” While Byron’s “Don Juan” has not been the direct inspiration of many of the composers, who have used the story, the opera by Mozart may be used in this connection, as both were taken from the same original source.

Thomas Moore’s songs are well known to the lover of Irish folk music. “Paradise and the Peri” from “Lalla Rookh” was used as the libretto for a cantata by Schumann.

Many of the poems of Heine will be found in the song collections of Schumann and the later song composers. “The Two Grenadiers,” which we have already discussed is one of the best known of the Heine poems in a great musical setting; this is by Schumann. But Wagner also wrote a song to these verses. “Der Asra” by Rubinstein and “Du Bist Wie Eine Blume” by Schumann are two other wellknown songs set to Heine’s verses.

Victor Hugo provided Verdi with two of his best librettos: the opera of “Ernani” being based on the novel of “Hernani,” by Hugo, and “Rigoletto” being a setting of Hugo’s “Le Roi Amuse.” “Lucrezia Borgia” inspired Donizetti in the writing of the opera of the same name.

Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” inspired the opera of the same name by Tschaikowsky.

Of the modern literary works which are associated with music, Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” is the best known, for Grieg’s incidental music, originally written for the stage performance of the play, has become very popular. Anatole France, the gifted French satirist, gave Massenet the stories for this opera of “Thais” and “Jongleur de Notre Dame.” The dramas of Maeterlinck have been the inspiration of a type of music, which is as impressionistic in character as are the mystic poems themselves; the best known of these works being the operas “Pelleas and Melisande” by Debussy, “Ariane and Blue Beard”

MUSIC APPRECIATION

It is safe to assert that all literary productions wherein the thought-contents are profound will lend themselves well to musical expression. And music seems to be a more adequate medium for this type of expression than are the other arts. As Carlyle said, “All deep thought is musical.”

CHAPTER 13

Music Every Home Should Know

These lists have been prepared in order that the selections already discussed may be more easily classified. Those marked with an * are the compositions, which, generally speaking, should be in the listening library of every home.

Elements of Music

Examples of Rhythm

Any Folk Dance

*Anitra’s Dance, “Peer Gynt Suite” Grieg

The Bee Schubert

Danse Macabre Saint-Saens

Gambler’s Song Blackfeet Indians

In the Halls of the Mountain King, “Peer Gynt Suite”. Grieg

*Largo al Factotum, “Barber of Seville” Rossini

Navajo Songs Navajo Indians

*On the Beautiful Blue Danube Strauss

*Pathetic Symphony (Second Movement) Tschaikowsky

*Ride of the Valkyries, “Valkyrie” Wagner

Examples of Melody

*Air, D Major Suite Bach

*Andante, “Fifth Symphony” Beethoven

*Elegie “Les Erinnyes” Massenet

*Intermezzo, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. . .Mendelssohn

Intermezzo, “Cavalleria Rusticana” Mascag’ni

*Le Cygne Saint-Saens

Morning “Peer Gynt Suite” Grieg

*Melody in F Rubinstein

*Nocturne, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”… Mendelssohn

*Walter’s Prize Song, “Die Meistersinger” Wagner

Examples of Harmony

*Funeral March, B Minor Sonata Chopin

Hallelujah Chorus, “The Messiah” Handel

*Largo, “Xerxes” Handel

Liebestraum Liszt

Prelude C Sharp Minor Rachmaninoff

*March of the Grail Knights, “Parsifal” Wagner

Negro Spirituals Good News, the Chariot’s Coming

I want to Be Like Jesus

Live a’ Humble

Nationality

Folk Dance Songs

America *Dixie Land

England London Bridge

Mulberry Bush

France *On the Bridge at Avignon In the Spring

Ireland *St. Patrick’s Day

*Wearin’ o’ the Green

Italy *Tarantelle

Russia Let Joy Abide

*Molodka

Sweden I See You

Dance of Greeting

Folk Dances

Denmark Ace of Diamonds

Three Man’s Reel

England Bluff King Hal

*Sellinger’s Round

*Shepherd’s Hey

France *Amaryllis (Rondo)

Gavotte

Minuet

Germany Dance, “Hansel and Gretel”

Kinderpolka

Hungary Cshebogar

Czardas

Ireland Hornpipe

Irish Washerwoman (Jig)

Rinnce Fada

Italy Salterello

Tarantelle

Norway Mountain March

Poland Krakowiak

Mazurka

Polonaise

Russia Kamarinskaia

Sweden Bleking

Oxdansen

Mountain Polka

Scotland Highland Fling

Sword Dance

Folk Dances of Custom

Sweden *Carrousel (Merry Go Round)

Finland Harvest Dance

England Gathering Peascods

May Pole Dance

*Morris Dance

Sweden Reap the Flax

Denmark Shoemaker’s Dance

Scotland Three Jolly Sheepskins (Sword Dance)

Denmark Tinker’s Dance

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Legendary Folk Songs

America Negro Spirituals

Bohemia Good-Night

The Wedding

England *Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes

O Willow Willow

France *Au Clair de la Lune

Bergere Legere

Germany *Du, Du Leigst Mir im Herzen

Tanrienbaum

Hawaiia

Knu Home

Ireland *Molly Bawn

*The Last Rose of Summer

Italy *Santa Lucia

*The Dove

Norway

Astri, mi Astri

Ole, Ole

Russia *Song of the Volga Boatmen

Sun in the Sky Stop Shining

Scotland *Loch Lomond

Jock o’Hazeldean

Spain Linda Mia

Teresita Mia

Sweden Bellman’s “Fredman’s Epistle”

When I Was Seventeen

Wales *All Thro’ the Night

Mentra Gwen

Patriotic Songs

America Dixie Land (Emmett)

Marching Through Georgia (Work)

*The Star Spangled Banner (Key)

Belgium *La Brabanconne (Campenhout)

God Save the King (Carey)

England *Rule Britannia (Arne)

MUSIC IN THE HOME

France *To War Has Gone Duke Marlborough (Legendary)

*Marseillaise (de Lisle)

Germany The Watch on the Rhine (Wilhelm)

Deutschland uber Alles (Austrian Hymn) (Haydn)

Ireland The Harp That Once Thro’ Tara’s Halls (Legendary)

*The Minstrel Boy (Legendary)

Italy *Garibaldi Hymn (Olivieri)

Norway Norwegian National Hymn (Blom)

Russia God Save the Czar (Lvoff)

*Hymn of Free Russia (Gretchaninoff)

Scotland *Scots Wha’ Hae Wi’ Wallace Bled (Legendary)

The Campbells Are Coming (Legendary)

Spain Soldier’s Thy Fatherland Calls

Sweden From Swedish Hearts (Lindblad)

Wales *Men of Harlech (Legendary)

Composed Folk Songs

America *Swanee River (Foster)

*My Old Kentucky Home (Foster)

Bohemia *Cradle Song (Smetana)

England *Sally, in Our Alley (Carey) Home, Sweet Home (Bishop)

France Mignonette (Le Roux)

Germany *Haidenroslein (Werner)

The Loreley (Silcher)

Ireland *Kathleen Mavourneen (Crouch)

Killarney (Balfe)

Italy La Mandolinata (Paladilhe)

*O Sole Mio (di Capua)

Russia Kolebalnia (Bachmetieff)

Sea Gull’s Cry (Grodski)

Scotland Annie Laurie (Lady Scott)

Mary of Argyle (Nelson)

Spain *La Paloma (Yradier)

Clavelitos (Valverde)

National Composition

America Dagger Dance, “Natoma” (Herbert)

*From the Land of the Sky Blue Water (Cadman)

Bohemia Slavonic Dances (Dvorak)

*Songs My Mother Taught Me (Dvorak)

England Shepherd’s Hey (Grainger)

Finland Finlandia (Sibelius)

France *Overture L’Arlesienne (Bizet)

Legend of the Sage Bush, “Jongeleur of Notre Dame” (Massenet)

Opera, “Louise” (Charpentier)

Hungary *Hungarian Dances (Brahms)

*Hungarian Rhapsodies (Liszt)

Germany Overture, “Sakuntala” (Goldmark)

*Two Grenadiers (Schumann)

Italy *Intermezzo, Acts 2-3, “Jewels of the Madonna” (WolfFerrarri)

Norway Norwegian Wedding March (Grieg)

Poland

“Peer Gynt Suite” No. 1 (Grieg)

*Polonaise Militaire (Chopin)

Souvenir de Moscow (Wieniawski)

Russia *Marche Slav (Tschaikowsky)

*Overture 1812 (Tschaikowsky)

Spain Romanza Andaluzia (Sarasate)

Spanish Dances (Sarasate)

Sweden Swedish Wedding March (Sodermann) Form

(It must always be remembered that Form is the basic principle of all music, however, in some compositions the form overshadows the other principles. We have listed here the compositions in which the Formal pattern is of greater importance than Nationality, Poetic Thought or Description.)

Song Form Patterns

Welsh All Thro’ the Night

Scotch Comin’ Thro’ the Rye

English Drink to Me Only-

Scotch Loch Lomond

Irish Minstrel Boy

Italian Santa Lucia

Folk Dances

(see previous list of the same name)

Composed Dances

Gavotte, E major Bach

Gavotte Gossec

Gavotte Gretry

*Gavotte, “Les Petits Riens” Mozart

*Mazurka, Op. 50, No. 2 Chopin

Polonaise, “I Am Titania”, “Mignon” Thomas

*Polonaise, “Militaire” Chopin

Rigaudon Monsigny

Rigadon Rameau

Scherzo Dittersdorf

*Tambourin Gossec

Minuet

*Minuet in G Beethoven

*Minuet Boccherini

Minuet Gluck

Minuet in F Haydn

*Minuet, “Don Giovanni” Mozart

*Minuet Paderewski

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Rondo

*Amaryllis Ghys

*Carillon of Cythera Couperin

Sellinger’s Round Old English

Waltz

*Minute Waltz Chopin

*Musetta’s Waltz, “La Boheme” Puccini

*On the Beautiful Blue Danube Strauss

Valse Brilliante Chopin

Voce di Primevera (Voices of Spring) Strauss

*Waltz Song, “Romeo and Juliet” Gounod

Marches

Aase’s Death, “Peer Gynt Suite” Grieg

Dead March, “Saul” Handel

*Funeral March, “Eroica Symphony” Beethoven

*Funeral March, B minor, Sonata Chopin

*Hail Bright Abode, “Tannhauser” Wagner

*March of the Guilds, “Die Meistersinger” Wagner

*March of the Grail Knights, “Parsifal” Wagner

*March Rackozy Berlioz

Norwegian Wedding March Grieg

*Pilgrim’s Chorus, “Tannhauser” Wagner

*Siegfried’s Death March, Wagner

“Die Goetterdammerung”

Stars and Stripes Forever Sousa

Swedish Wedding March Sodermann

Poetic Thought

(See also Examples of Melody)

*Largo, “New World,” Symphony Dvorak

Lullaby Brahms

*Meditation, “Thais” Massenet

Serenade Schubert

*Songs Without Words — “Consolation”Mendelssohn

“Sorrow”

“Spring Song”

To a Water-lily MacDowell

Expression of Grief

Aase’s Death, “Peer Gynt Suite” Grieg

Dead March, “Saul” Handel

Funeral March, B minor, Sonata Chopin

Funeral March, “Eroica,” Symphony Beethoven

Siegfried’s Death March Wagner

Expression of Joy

Brindisi, “Lucrezia Borgia” Donizetti

Let Joy Abide Russian

Voce di Primavera, Voice of Spring Strauss

Villanelle Del Acqua

Expression of Love

Folk Songs:

All Thro’ the Night Welsh

Annie Laurie Scotch

Drink to Me Only English

Du Du Liegst mir im Herzen German

Kathleen Mavourneen Irish

O Sole Mio Italian

Opera:

Dupuis le Jour, “Louise” Charpentier

Isolde’s Liebestod, “Tristan and Isolde” Wagner

My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice, Saint-Saens

“Samson and Delilah”

Siegmund’s Love Song, “Valkyrie” Wagner

Walter’s Prize Song, “Die Meistersinger” Wagner

Expression of Religion

*Adeste Fideles Old Latin Hymn

*Almighty Schubert

Amfortas’ Prayer, “Parsifal” Wagner

Birchos Kohanim Hebrew Chant

*But the Lord Is Mindful, “St. Paul” Mendelssohn

Crusader’s Hymn Old French

*Ein Feste Burg Luther

*Elizabeth’s Prayer, “Tannhauser” Wagner

Good Friday Spell, “Parsifal” Wagner

Gloria Patri Palestrina

I Know that My Redeemer Liveth, Handel

“The Messiah”

*If With All Your Hearts, “Elijah” Mendelssohn

Joseph Mine Calvisius

*Kol Nidre Arr. Bruch

Kyrie Kekraxa Greek Church

Kyrie Eleison Gregorian

Lo, How a Rose Calvisius

Love of God in Nature Beethoven

March of the Grail Knights, “Parsifal” Wagner

Oh! Rest in the Lord, “Elijah” Mendelssohn

Pilgrim’s Chorus, “Tannhauser” Wagner

Popule Meus Palestrina

Prayer of the King, “Lohengrin” Wagner

To Us Is Born Immanuel Praetorius

*Total Eclipse, “Samson” Handel

Descriptive Music

Imitation

Banjo Song Homer

*Bee Schubert

Bell Song, “Lakme” Delibes

Carillon of Cythera Couperin

Clavecitos Valverde

*Danse Macabre Saint-Saens

Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel Schubert

Guitarrico Soriano

In the Clock Store Orth

In a Boat Grieg

Minuet, Will o’ the Wisps, Berlioz

“Damnation of Faust”

Mandolinata Paladilhe

Mandoline Debussy

Aria, “Perle de Brazil” Thou Brilliant Bird David

*Ride of the Valkyries Wagner

Serenade Mephistopheles, “Damnation of Faust” Berlioz

Spinning Wheel Spindler

Spinning Wheel Quartette, “Martha” Flotow

*Sweet Bird, “Il Pensieroso” Handel

Swiss Echo Song Eckert

Art Ballads

*Danny Deever Damrosch

Edward Loewe

*Erl King Schubert

Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel Schubert

*Two Grenadiers Schumann

*The Watch Loewe

The Wanderer Schubert

Program Music

Afternoon of a Faun

Debussy

Capriccio on the Departure of a Brother Bach

Carneval Romain, Overture Berlioz

Coriolanus, Overture

Beethoven

Danse Macabre Saint-Saens

Death and Transfiguration Strauss

Don Juan Strauss

Egmont, Overture Beethoven

*Fair Melusina, Overture Mendelssohn

*Frieschutz, Der, Overture von Weber

Genoveva, Overture Schumann

Harold in Italy, Symphony Berlioz

Hebrides, Overture Mendelssohn

*Les Preludes Liszt

* Leonora No. 3, Overture Beethoven

*Lohengrin, Vorspiel Wagner

Mazeppa Liszt

*Midsummer Night’s Dream, Overture Mendelssohn

Minuet, Will o’ the Wisps, Berlioz

“Damnation of Faust”

Moldau Smetana

Oberon, Overture von Weber

Orpheus Liszt

*Pastoral, Symphony Beethoven

Phaeton Saint-Saens

Prologue, “Pagliacci” Leoncavallo

*Ride of the Valkyries Wagner

Spinning Wheel of Omphale Saint-Saens

Tasso Liszt

Toreador Song, “Carmen” Bizet

Till Eulenspiegel Strauss

*Wotan’s Farewell Wagner

When I Was Page, “Falstaff” Verdi Geography

America Dixie Land

Swanee River

Bohemia Moldau

MUSIC IN THE HOME

England Border Ballads

Finland Finlandia

France Aubade Provencal

Chanson Lorraine

On the Bridge at Avignon

Germany Watch on the Rhine

Loreley

On the Beautiful Blue Danube

Ireland Bendeemer’s Stream

Killarney

Where the River Shannon Flows

Italy The Dove

The Fair Maid of Sorrento Funicoli-Funicola

Russia Cossack Lullaby

Mother Moscow

Song of the Volga Boatmen

Scotland Loch Lomond

Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doone

Flow Gently Sweet Afton

Spain A Granada

Romanza Andaluzia

Sequidilla (from “Carmen”)

Habanera (from “Carmen”)

Wales Men of Harlech History

Birchos Kohanim

Kawokores Rohe Adre

Kyrie Kekraka

Hebrew Chant

Hebrew Chant

Greek Church

Kyrie Eleison Gregorian

Hymn to Apollo

Hymn of Charlemagne

Hymn to St. John Baptist

Lament for Charlemagne

Ancient Greek

Old French

Guido of Arezzo

Old French

War Song of the Normans

French

Filae Jerusalem Gabrielli

Popule Meus

Palestrina

Gloria Patri Palestrina

To War Has Gone Duke Marlborough Old French

Songs from “Robin and Marion”

Adam de la Halle

When the Nightingale Doth Sing De Coucy

Scots Wha Hae’ Wi Wallace Bled Scotch

Ein Feste Burg Luther

Huguenots Les Meyerbeer

Bluff King Hall

Old English

Amaryllis Old French

Chanson Louis XIII

“Eroica” Symphony

Kaiser March

Hymn of Free Russia

Old French

Beethoven

Wagner

Gretchaninoff

Literary Significance

Am Stillem Herd “Die Meistersinger” Wagner

Brindisi “Lucrezia Borgia”

But the Lord, “St. Paul”

Donizetti

Mendelssohn

Casse Noisette Suite Tschaikowsky

Che Faro Senza Eurydice, “Orfeo” Gluck

Cry of Rachel, The Salter

Du Bist Wie Eine Blume

Fair Melusina Overture

Funeste piaggie “Eurydice”

Hail to the Chief

Hymn to Apollo

If With All Your Hearts, “Elijah”

II est Bon, “Herodiade”

Schumann

Mendelssohn

Peri

Sanderson

Ancient Greek

Mendelssohn

Massenet

Legend of Sage Bush, Massenet

“Jongleur de Notre Dame”

Loreley Liszt

Mad Scene, “Hamlet”

Thomas

Masque of Comus Lazves

Mazeppa Liszt

Meditation, “Thais” Massenet

My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice, Saint-Saens

“Samson and Delilah”

Non piango, “Eurydice” Caccini

Onaway Awake Beloved, Coleridge-Taylor

“Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast”

Ode of Ossian, “Werther” Massenet

Overture, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Mendelssohn

Overture, “Egmont” Beethoven

Overture, “The Flying Dutchman” Wagner

Overture, “Merry Wives of Windsor” Nicholai

Overture Rienzi Wagner

Overture, “Tannhauser” Wagner

Overture, “William Tell” Rossini

Pastoral Symphony, “The Messiah” Handel

Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1 Grieg

Phaeton Saint-Saens

Reve II “Manon” Massenet

Ride of the Valkyries Wagner

Sapphic Ode Brahms

Scheherazade Rimsky-Korsakow

Sextette, “Lucia di Lammermoor” Donizetti

Sound an Alarm, “Judas Maccabeus” Handel

Spinning Wheel of Omphale Saint-Saens

Swan of Tuonela Sibelius

Sweet Bird, “II Pensieroso” Handel

Sumer is Icumen In Old English

Total Eclipses, “Samson” Handel

Troyens, Les Berlioz

Tu se Morta, “Orfeo” Monteverdi

Two Grenadiers Schumann

Till Eulenspiegel Strauss

Vorspiel, “Lohengrin” Wagner

Vorspiel Meistersinger Wagner

Vorspiel Parsifal Wagner

Vorspiel Tristan and Isolde Wagner

Witches’ Dance, “Hansel and Gretel” Humperdinck

Year’s at the Spring Beach

Youth of Hercules Saint-Saens

The Enjoyment of Music

Dr. Pollitt does well to advocate the enjoyment of music. Music is too often regarded as the stock-in-trade and the tool of professional musicians or as the plaything of amateurs. It is accepted by many persons as the customary accompaniment of religious ceremonies and of social festivals; it affords to some of these the satisfaction which the observance of custom brings; music they have always had on such occasions, and not to have it would jolt them painfully from their routine; it may even give them a keener and more active pleasure. By others it is endured as they endure other things which are customary with fortitude and without complaint, for they think it is not worth while to quarrel with what is well established. Some people dislike it and as much as they can avoid it. To all of them Dr. Pollitt declares that music is something which may be and ought to be enjoyed — enjoyed by those who profess it, by those who play at it, by those who accept it with a polite tolerance, and, perhaps, even by those who now dislike it. There may, indeed, be men and women who are deaf to music, and perhaps it is too late to remedy their defects; yet it is certain that many adult persons who say that they are insensitive to music, or being sensitive receive pain and not pleasure from it, are not naturally deaf or naturally unable to enjoy it — they have never been taught how to listen to it. There may be children who will never be touched by music, some deficiency of nature may keep them from it; but it is certain that many others will be robbed of their share in a large and general inheritance — unless they are taught how to listen. What then is meant by listening? Something much more than the mere reception of sounds by the ears. To listen is to attend, to stretch

and bend the mind with the sense of hearing to what is offered. It means, therefore, the effort to exclude other things; the listener attends to what he desires to hear and tries not to hear other sounds. He gives himself to this and for the time takes himself away from the rest of the world. If we are to listen to music we shall repeat this double process of attention and of reservation over and over again for the same sounds, the same groups and sequences of sounds, the same “piece” or “work.” From this repetition two results must follow; first, we get into the habit of listening to this work as a whole, and second, within the work as a whole we learn to distinguish various parts; we learn, in fact, what to listen for, and we listen for that. But we shall not always listen to the same work, when we are listening to music; we shall hear various works by various writers. To all of them we shall come with the determination to attend, with the willingness to yield ourselves to them, and yet with the sturdy purpose of retaining our judgment and our self-respect. We shall listen for what they have to say.

As in listening to an orator we are not content to have our ears delighted with the notes of his voice, but also insist on knowing what he means, so in listening to music we are not, or ought not to be content with sounds, but must know what the musician means by them. Yet here a danger threatens us. The musician means what he says in sound, that and nothing else; music must be musically received. It is not to be translated into the language of words. Words may certainly help us to get and to give to other people an interpretation of a musician and his work; and interpretations may have a high value. But a musician wants to be understood far more than he wants to be interpreted; and to be understood he must be accepted in the form in which he comes, in the dress which he wears, there are critics of music and interpreters who forget this. Dr. Pollitt is not one of their number. He has indeed shown great skill as a commentator; but he knows that the supreme use of a commentary is to conduct the reader to the original and to leave him there.

All this is true of the orator and of oratory; what a great speaker means is what he says and as he says it. He will not permit us to divorce his style from his matter, the two together are himself as in a moment of self-discovery he discovers himself to his rapt auditors.

“Rapt” they are; in that great experience shared with a master they are taken up and away from the world in which they were decent and law-abiding citizens into a new world in which propriety has a fresh and different connotation; yet to the Did world they are restored, or dropped; to it they must make their way back, not all unmindful of what they heard md felt when for a brief passage they trode the path and lived the life of that artist. Will they ask for a translation of what he said? Not if we have justly maintained that for a time they shared his life. No; what they are sublimely aware of is that for that time they were translated; they were “translated and were not” in their former world; and low when they are put back again into it they feel a change A atmosphere, for they have themselves suffered a change. Dr. Pollitt tells us that we must habituate ourselves to the atmosphere of great music. For this purpose we must go often and stay long in the region of that atmosphere. We cannot quickly and hurriedly achieve familiarity with greatness. The great are also the leisurely; and a first condition laid upon us if we seek their company is that we should get with the manner the temper also of leisure. We must be prepared to wait in an ante- chamber before we are granted an audience; we must seek an audience often before we are permitted to enter even the ante-chamber and if at last an audience is given, we must not interrupt the gracious and sovereign speech. Our metaphor may serve us still further. We shall need an introduction. Musical education begins with the introduction of those who come for the first time by those who have come before and acquired the right to come into the presence of musical ideas. These ideas may be veiled, they may be revealed in sounds; majesty is robed; but the robes do not make majesty. Yet the dress, the sound may properly attract the eye, and hold the ear of those who are still unable to perceive that the dress at once shields and embellishes a living spirit, or that the sound in expressing gives protection to ideas. Education which begins with authority imposed is complete when at last ideas once declared great by persons to whom we are bound to listen speak to us for themselves. To say so much is to say that education, of course, is never complete; yet this is the direction in which it carries us. The nearer we are brought to the goal, the clearer the certainty with which we apprehend the ideas which in many forms of

beauty we have been learning to revere. And when they speak to us, the strange thing is that they speak within us, so that we seem at last to be speaking to ourselves. We went out to seek what now we discover in our own hearts. This is the violence which the kingdom of God or the kingdom of music suffers. Understanding first penetrates through form to meaning, and then enshrines meaning in mind of the listener. Yet this is a slow transformation; and long before it is fully made men catch, and repeat in their own more and more felicitous rendering, the sounds of a music which they themselves never composed, because they never thought or felt it. They give with amiable docility and without affectation or insincerity, what Newman called a “notional” assent. “This,” their teachers tell them, “is great; listen to it; model yourselves by it; learn its idiom.” And the pupils try to do what they are told; they make laudable efforts which win a success appropriate for beginners. But time and experience; time spent in listening to this idiom, experience got in practising it; absence and restoration; lapses and recoveries — all these are needed before the foreign language admired (and justly admired) becomes native (by a naturalization of the spirit) to the lips which use it, and to the ears which have grown quick to seize its intimate quality, its real significance. Then their assent is “real.”

But Newman, whose prose is music, shall speak for himself: “Let us consider,” he says, 3 “how differently young and old are affected by the words of some classic author, such as Homer or Horace. Passages, which to a boy are but rhetorical commonplaces, neither better nor worse than a hundred others which any clever writer might supply, which he gets by heart and thinks very fine, and imitates, as he thinks, successfully in his own flowing versification, at length come home to him, when long years have passed, and he has had experience of life, and pierce him as if he had never before known them, with their sad earnestness and vivid exactness.”

Yes, but experience of life could not bring these passages “home” to the man unless as a boy he had known them at least as “rhetorical commonplaces.” As a boy he learned them “by heart,” now after many years they teach him his own heart by showing him that they

express the delight or the unfulfilled yearning of the hearts of men everywhere and at all times. “Commonplaces” they were; but now they are common in another sense; it is “their vivid exactness” which in assuring their personal appeal prove their universal truth. Is it amiss that the young should have their minds stored with these “commonplaces”? Custom dies hard, not because the hand of innovation is gentle or directed by scrupulous justice or any very delicate sensibility; custom dies hard because, to be sure, with much that is obsolete (for persons, that is to say, who have no historical imagination) it carries on the tradition of life. The love of letters has, in fact, been fostered and kept alive by the custom of equipping the young with models, with examples, of literature, which persist with amazing vitality and hold their ground in the memory of men who have no professional concern with literature.

Dr. Pollitt, unless I mistake his intention, would have the young equipped with “commonplaces” of classical music; he trusts that time and experience, once this equipment has been made, and these commonplaces have been firmly fastened in the mind, will have for music the result which Newman has described and claimed for literature. Pupils who have given a “notional” assent, will presently give a “real” assent.

It would be foolish to ignore a difficulty which is raised, which indeed presents itself at this point. If we speak of “great” music, or of “classical” music, who are the judges? Or again, what is the definition or canon of the “classical”? May not the whole argument which has been traced in the preceding pages be the argument of a selfish reaction, of a dull and pompous pedantry? May it not be the engine of an artistic tyranny, imposing a taste, a standard which is not their own upon people, of whom many know nothing of what is being done to them and are unhurt by the outrage, many with unintelligent acquiescence yield, and a few raise lamentable but unavailing cries of protest? It is a real difficulty; these are genuine questions; and if they are to receive the genuine answers which they deserve, we must admit that often indeed all that has here been urged has been used for reaction, for pedantry, for tyranny, and will be so used.

Dr. Pollitt and his colleagues who hope for a revival and a wide extension of musical studies may recall that the advocates of classical

studies, in Greek and Latin, have been derided as reactionaries, pedants and tyrants, and quite certainly some of them have been fit targets for the shafts which have shrewdly hit them. Yet the claim which it is worth while to note, incidentally and in illustration of another theme is made for classical studies has been confirmed by criticism and inquiry. It may be put forward by poseurs in their own interest; but when it is made for those studies themselves and for the sake of men to whom it is believed they will, with time and experience, bring both the harvest of age-long wisdom garnered in storehouses of imperishable beauty, and the trained ability to use this as human nature’s daily food, then the claim is justified. Crowds may not acclaim it; but few witnesses are sufficient. Every one of these “comes to understand how it is that lines, the birth of some chance morning or evening at an Ionian festival, or among the Sabine hills, have lasted generation after generation, for thousands of years, with a power over the mind, and a charm which the current literature of his own day, with all its obvious advantages, is utterly unable to rival.” The great music lasts, it has been tried and proved, and it comes to minister to the needs of the present hour refined and enriched by tradition.

Another difficulty is sometimes raised. Why, it is asked, should we ask for the cultivation of “great” music? Not all poems are great; some are slight and yet beautiful! playful but pleasing. If we delight in little beauties of literature, may we not also permit ourselves to delight in little beauties of music? Poetry may take the form and wear the proportions of an epic; but there is room surely for comedy, for satire, for the epigram, and for the monument of a moment’s passion, the lyric? Can musicians never laugh, and may we not laugh with them? Must we only laugh at them?

There is good sense in all this, and it is, of course, welcomed by such teachers of music as Dr. Pollitt. Greatness is not bulk, nor seriousness another name for inflexibility! We must have variety; we must get and gratify a catholic taste. But catholicity demands a standard; and the standard is plain: we must get and gratify a taste for food and not for poison. Food is of many kinds and may be cooked and served in many fashions. Food is whatever has nourished our fathers, whatever quickens and increases our own vitality. Poison

may be offered under the semblance of food, but it is known by its results. There is this further to be said. Appearances may be deceptive, but persons who have been accustomed to what is wholesome, though they may not be able at once, or ever, to analyze with accuracy all that is offered, yet have a predjudice in favour of the wholesome and against the unwholesome. They feel, before they can reason; they have what Plato calls a “repugnance” against bad form however skilfully it may counterfeit good form, however boldly it may arrogate the titles of newness and progress. What Dr. Pollitt desires, I make out, is to establish by habituation with that music, which in manifold forms has proved and is proving itself to be wholesome, a standard of criticism, at first unconsciously applied, and afterwards consciously used. This is the safeguard both of a rational conservatism and of an intelligent liberalism. The standard is not fixed, it advances; the catholic taste is not rigidly exclusive, it; grows wider and includes new things; but only upon the: condition that the new things are food and not poison.

But if it can be rightly maintained that music is the food of life if this is true, then to be deprived of music or to have no opportunity of receiving it, is to be robbed not indeed of every kind of nourishment, but of one of the elements of a proper diet. There are other elements; there is no need for exaggeration, and in defence of music no excuse for it. Music is at least one of the elements of food for the human spirit, and if we miss it we miss something which is necessary for our health. Music may be more than this; it may be a basal element necessary for all other elements if they are to have their right effect and contribute their best properties to the upbuilding and sustaining of the human spirit. Then how many of us are half-starved! There are advocates of music who speak of it as if it were an innocent but an idle decoration, to be worn by persons who are attracted by it and can afford time and money to collect trinkets. But there is nothing innocent which is idle; that is no decoration which is not essential to structure or which does not elucidate meaning and purpose, or which does not give simplicity and grace to function. Health is the supreme ornament; and, so we come back to our theme, for health we must have food, various, plentiful. Music is a part of our food, and we have taken it too little, irregularly, or not at all.

It is pleasant to know that to music is now accorded a larger space in the programme of schools; it is reasonable to hope that it will soon have more consideration in our universities. It has, as Dr. Pollitt shows, incontestable claims for inclusion in the list of academic subjects. The history of music, the analysis of musical form are subject not less worthy of study and research than the history of literature and the analysis and criticism of literary form. We have only to hope that music will not be tool “academically” treated. It is sorry forecasting a day when music with poetry may be professed by men who have no music in their souls, and become the dusty arena of examiners and examinees. Let us put away an evil dream, or remember it for nothing save the warning it gives. The highest emotions are raised to their sublime eminence upon the discipline of habit and the laborious exercises of intellectual analysis and reconstruction; but if we are not to despise the foundations or to forget the toil, happy though severe, by which they were laid and the building erected upon them, neither are we to suppose that a laboratory offers the large view of a high tower, though in a tower we may use the instruments which a laboratory has furnished for extending the range and sharpening the accuracy of our vision. And we must continue to be listeners to music, giving ourselves up to it; not merely critics of music.

Dr. Pollitt in an amusing passage tells us that a teacher of literature is not held up to obloquy or regarded as having failed in his business if among his pupils he does not produce a Shelley or a Keats. This is very readily conceded; yet we should have had no Shelley, no Keats if these men had not been habituated to the atmosphere of great poetry. They illuminated a tradition because they maintained a tradition the fires of which themselves did not first kindle. Genius, it is said, can take care of itself; care is taken by the consuming of proper food, and by taking of proper exercise. Teachers of literature do not bid their pupils to become Shakespeares or Miltons; but they give their pupils exercise in “composition”; in prose without exception, in poetry, sometimes. to learn music has too often meant nothing more than to acquire some dexterity, contemptible or laudable, in the use of a musical instrument the piano, the violin or mother. The flute has its melancholy votaries, the drum its devotees. To think of the pain which has been suffered and caused by “learning music” is to be

tempted to give too quick an agreement to the advocates of musical appreciation,” to those who tell us that we and especially the young should learn to listen rather than to perform. But listening to music is storing and heightening emotion, and emotion needs the relief of expression, of action. The poor exercises of persons who are learning to “play the piano” may be as poor an expression, as pitiful a mode of action as the exercises themselves. Yet, of a sort they are expression, they are action. No doubt it may be said that the emotions gathered and trained by listening may express themselves in the melodious, the harmonious, the musical activities of an orderly life, lived simply and usefully by the law-abiding and pious householder. This may be said sincerely and with significance; but it may be said without any significance at all; it may, in fact, be sheer nonsense. It is quite true that any discipline of the mind and any enrichment of the spirit affect the whole of a man’s life; but it is also true that every discipline is proved by a kindred activity, and every enrichment calls for the use of that special wealth in which it consists. Musical appreciation calls for musical activity. We must remember that the strain which listening imposes upon a person who listens and does nothing else is far greater than the strain which listening imposes upon persons who are obliged or are free to give way to the impulse for action which listening provokes.

The intelligent and “appreciative” witness of performances such as those with which the pupils of M. Jacque Dalcroze from time to time astonish and delight us, suffer fatigue as the performers themselves do not, because they are at liberty or are under constraint (and here constraint is one with perfect liberty) to express in movement the emotions which the music creates, while he is bound to sit still; emotions are stirred in him, which he has to check. Children, little children certainly, cannot sit still while they listen to music; it sways their bodies with their minds. We may, if we choose, regard listening as a type of “contemplation” and so argue that it is the noblest and most complete activity; but not all of us can yet scale the serene heights of contemplation. In the course of our gradual ascent we have still to distinguish between food which gives us energy, and exercise which releases energy Before music can fulfil its proper part in education teacher of music must provide us with opportunities not

only for listening to music, but for, what we may call, “doing” music. Else, with a “surfeit” our souls will “sicken and so die.”

Perhaps the cheapest and commonest of all musical instruments, the human voice, will come to be more freely and also more carefully employed for this purpose. The countryside may offer again, as it has offered in the past songs to match the colour of its flowers, drawing their life from a potent soil; and in English cities crowds may sing in spontaneous concord, as crowds sometimes sing in Wales. The costly music of the “concert” hall, the cloistered music of the studio are too costly and too cloistered to fasten upon the public taste, to catch the public ear, and tune the general voice. Music must be brought within easy hearing, yet those who bring it must use a generous discretion. Great music is not all simple; but some simple music is great. Doctrinaires will not convince the populace; a propaganda even if successful often debases what it was intended to make widely known; compulsion rouses enmity or ridicule. If we look to our schools and universities, we are aware of the limitations of both; yet to both are striking their roots deeper and spreading wider branches. Already there is a fresh realisation that music is a part of our heritage, that through music we can trace ‘the lineage of the liberal arts; already the distinction, which still has and must retain its value, between the sciences and the arts is getting a fresh significance from the attempts which men are making to draw both into a large unity; music which claims kindred with both may well re-establish an ancient alliance; already recreation is coming once more to be literally understood as the refashioning, the rebuilding of the human spirit, and the musician of whom we say that he plays when he is doing his work may restore to study the meaning of delight.

The object, as I conceive it, of Dr. Pollitt’s book is to draw notice to these tendencies, to persuade us of their importance, and to turn them into channels in which they will keep their natural force and gain added power from well-planned organization and direction.

February 14, 1921

CHAPTER I Preamble

What is the driving force behind all Art?

It is the desire to express something deeper than the normal, something that transcends the everyday happenings of life: a flash of beauty, a moment of pain, a thrill of joy, even the consciousness of the desire to search for something unconventional and uncommon. These impulses have moved in the minds of men for countless generations, but the attainment of anything approaching a perfect expression has been a matter of slow growth — and painful withal. Painful, because the human race is essentially conservative. Progress is painful to the multitude because the case for progress is often but poorly presented.

Now in order to make it possible for Music to take its right position in the life of the people, it is necessary to revise our methods. What have we done so far? We have systematically had our children taught to play the pianoforte more or less well, or badly, and we have fondly imagined that to be the Alpha and the Omega of musical education. But the mischief inherent in such a position lies in the fact that the pupil can perform, and yet hate the whole thing. Such a condition is common, and obviously leads to nothing. But if, instead of following such! a course, we say, “We will try to show our people what, music really means, what there is in it, and how it is put together,” we at once open the gate to the New Jerusalem.

But we cannot do more than open the gate, and indicate; the path. It must be trodden individually and conscientiously, for there is no “royal road” to the desired goal. It is quite impossible for the writer to furnish the reader! with a species of mental yard-stick with which to measure out good music. The qualities that make for greatness in music are beyond description. They baffle analysis, and yet they are quickly recognized by the practised listener.

Tennyson’s line —

We needs must love the highest when we see it presents the case for the practised listener in its essential truth. The power of association, of habit, is, in this matter of the formation of taste, of prime necessity. If we live with the best: if we constantly hear the best thoughts of the great masters of music, our own thoughts become, in time, attuned to theirs. It is a process of absorption, of assimilation; a process which is now recognized as of supreme importance.

If we desire to appreciate a beautiful building, what is our method of procedure? Do we say, “The result is all that matters; we are not concerned with the method — with all the detail that creates the total effect — we are content simply to gaze at it as a finished work of art”? Certainly not! We study it in detail from the crypt, or basement, to the summit, be it roof or spire: and the more we study it, the more solid is our satisfaction and pleasure.

I think it was Georges Sand who referred to architecture as “frozen music.” The simile is an arresting and a suggestive one, because music would be robbed of all logical significance, all intellectual appeal, if its structural aspect were ignored. A composer must give the most careful thought to the plan of his work if it is to make an enduring appeal: and this applies just as much to the modern as to the classic writer. It is not so much a matter of following certain prescribed rules, as of developing his thought in a logical and satisfactory manner by presenting it as a unified whole; that is, as an artistic creation evolved from certain definite material.

The architectural side of music plays a great part in securing its permanent value: and the power to comprehend it is the first step to appreciation. Such comprehension, however, can only be the result of hard thinking — of concentration — and of developed memory and powers of listening.

Music is a language, and as such requires steady and persistent study like any other language. But it has special and unique qualities of its own, inasmuch as it can and does express things which are beyond the reach of words. It was not a musician, but a poet, who said, “Music begins where words end.” So it is that music, while possessing the power to intensify the emotional content of words, goes far beyond their scope in expressing emotions which are too deep, or

too subtle, for verbal utterance. The modern practice of indicating the subject of a musical discourse is an apparent but not a real contradiction; doubtless the general subject of treatment may be given in words, and yet the treatment itself may be anything the composer feels.

Thus music is essentially the language of emotion not exact like other languages, but suggestive: appealing to our emotions and imagination as no other language has succeeded in doing, and yet satisfying our intellect just as much as any other language, if we will allow it to do so!

No claim to originality is made for this work. It is simply an attempt to present, in compact form, the fundamental facts of music which concern the ordinary listener, and to suggest for those who desire further study possible lines of research.

CHAPTER 2 Music and Culture

Doubtless there are many who wonder what possible connection there can be between Music and a University; they are sealed of the type to whom Music is simply a pleasant vehicle of conversation, or a vague but agreeable stimulant to the senses; people who would get precisely the same kind of pleasure from a concert as from a succession of perfumes! Therefore one feels a sense of obligation in the matter of defining the relationship of University and Music. The very name, University, gives us the answer: for its function is to supply a knowledge of the “Arts and Sciences,” i.e. anything of universal interest.

Now music is not only the universal language, but it is, peculiarly and uniquely, a combination of Art and Science. Thus there is every reason why music should be closely connected with the universities; and although Oxford and Cambridge have had Chairs of Music for hundreds of years, and Dublin, Durham, Edinburgh and London for a considerable number of years, yet hitherto no English “university has attempted to influence the public knowledge of, and taste for, music, by the establishment of a regular and systematic course of lectures.

Goethe was the first of the moderns to emphasize the high value of music as a factor in education. In summing up his system he says: “Among all imaginable things, accordingly, we have selected music as the element of our teaching; for level roads run out from music towards every side.” American universities have testified to their faith by making Music an ordinary subject in the Arts course. Already Cambridge has followed their lead. May it not be long ere all our universities fall into line.

Of course if music were merely a product of the senses, and an appeal to the senses only, it could make no claim for recognition in any scheme of higher education. Moreover, if the appreciation of music were only possible in combination with the practical study of a

musical instrument, it could not have a place in the curriculum of a musically non-technical institution. The most extraordinary fact about musical education, however, is that until recently we have never applied to it the methods which have been used with success in teaching literature. We all realize that a Professor of Literature is not expected to manufacture Paters, or Stevensons, and that the holder of a Chair of Poetry cannot produce Shelleys to order. But we know it is possible to foster a taste for the best in Literature and in Poetry, and that is the aim of the movement which seeks the recognition of Music as a necessary part of a liberal education; not, be it noted, with any reference to the ability to perform, but as having cognizance of the principles of music-construction, and a general knowledge of its growth and development, with perhaps a special knowledge of some particular phase. Old ideas of teaching music were concerned with the attempt the hopeless attempt to manufacture thousands of pianists, violinists and vocalists. It would be no exaggeration to say that the money so squandered would go far towards wiping out our Pre-War National Debt. One inevitable and dire result of the system was that far too many children and young people grew to regard music with positive distaste, instead of with affection. In other words, it created a spirit of hostility, instead of an appreciation of beauty and order. It postulated that in some miraculous way a sense of beauty would be ultimately acquired as the result of painful perseverance in daily drudgery, instead of affirming, as we now do, that only by way of a realization of beauty can love grow at all.

The principal universities and colleges in America use music as a means of promoting aesthetic culture and appreciation. Their attitude has been well defined by one of their leading educationists in these words: “The world uses vocations as a means of bread winning, but the world also uses music, art, literature, and drama, just as intensely, just as essentially, just as relevantly. Because the world uses religion, art, music, the drama, civil ideals, etc., these are as legitimate and important goals of education as bread winning.”

The attitude of English educationists has left much to be desired. Music has been regarded primarily, if not indeed entirely, as a means of recreation. Educated men, and women, who would have blushed

to be caught napping on a matter concerning great poetry, or painting, have not hesitated to confess their entire lack of acquaintance with great music. Not only were they ignorant of the principles of music: they were, indeed, quite unaware that music had any principles at all. It was accepted as the product of peculiar and excitable people, and was regarded as having no appeal save that of a purely sensuous character.

It would be foolish to attempt to deny the fact that music has a sensuous appeal: that it can, and does, act upon jaded nerves as a tonic and a stimulant. Indeed one is glad that such is the case; but the appeal of the sensuous element is the very lowest possible appeal. If we are to enjoy music at all adequately, we must have feeling plus knowledge. In other words, music should make its appeal through three avenues, e.g.:

(a) The senses.

(b) The emotions.

(c) The intelligence.

It is probable that comparatively few people get the maximum amount of joy from the music they hear. That which is as the very breath of life to A, may leave B quite cold; while B may be roused to a pitch of enthusiasm by something which may lacerate A’s sensibilities by its sheer vulgarity. Boswell may serve as an example of the purely sensuous appeal. He tells us that music affected him to such a degree as often to agitate his nerves painfully, producing in his mind alternate sensations of painful dejection, so that he was ready to shed tears; or of daring resolution, so that he was inclined to rush into the thickest part of the battle. Thoreau represents another type. “I hear one thrumming a guitar below stairs,” he says; “it reminds me of moments that I have lived. What a comment upon our life is the least strain of music! It lifts one above the mire and dust of the universe.”

That such an utterance could be evoked by the strains of a guitar does more credit to Thoreau’s emotions than to his musical intelligence. Yet another type is represented in the following lines by Arthur Symons:

The sounds torture me: I see them in my brain;

They spin a flickering web of living threads, Like butterflies upon the garden beds, Nets of bright sound. I follow them: in vain.

I must not brush the least dust from their wings: They die of a touch; but I must capture them, Or they will turn to a caressing flame, And lick my soul up with their flutterings.

The sounds torture me: I count them with my eyes, I feel them like a thirst between my lips; Is it my body or my soul that cries With little coloured moths of sound, and drips In these bright drops that turn to butterflies Dying delicately at my finger tips.”

It is a simple fact that music bears the same relationship to the mental and spiritual life of many people, as sunshine bears to their physical well-being. Its effect is not merely to invigorate, but also to illuminate, to flood all life with a consciousness of beauty and order, to reaffirm eternal verities, and to quicken the life of the soul. It is a spiritual adventure, in which enthusiasm holds the balance between the known and the unknown: for enthusiasm is the searchlight which illumines not only the familiar paths, but which lights up the vistas of the yet untrodden ways. Indeed, here is the crux of the whole matter. Our old methods stand condemned, if for no other reason than for their failure to foster the precious element of enthusiasm. Lacking that, people will tolerate only the familiar, will resent strange harmonies and unexpected twists of melody, and will continue to act on the assumption that all music should flow in one mould, regardless of the great lesson of history which asserts that a live Art must be in a constant state of flux. “Art should always have a continual slight novelty,” said Aristotle; and Bacon’s expression of the same thought — “There is no exquisite beauty which has not some strangeness in its proportions” — serves but to emphasize the point.

The true function of the university, as regards music, is to arouse and foster the spirit of enthusiasm, to affirm the intimate connection between Art and Life, and to link up past and present achievements with future possibilities.

CHAPTER 3 The Lesson of History

History teaches us that every great intellectual effort has, of necessity, been brought to birth with pain and suffering. It teaches us also that few people have been able to gauge the intrinsic and ultimate value of a new movement, at any period of the world’s history. All great upheavals, whether of society or of intellect, are bitterly resented in their early phases; and often their real significance and potentiality is beyond the vision of even the most ardent apostles of reform. Witness:

The French Revolution, The English Civil War, The Birth of Dramatic Music, The Regeneration of Letters,

and countless manifestations of the same order. In all these movements we find the small beginning, the gradual growth, the wonderful influence of enthusiasm, and the eventual irresistible flow of settled conviction and truth. Why are men so foolish as to initiate and propagate reform? Certainly not because of any material advantage to be gained by so doing; in fact the reverse holds good in almost every case one can call to mind. Think, for instance, of the fate of Savonarola, Jeanne D’Arc, Cranmer, and in our own time the discoverer of ether, who died of a broken heart because of the world’s indifference to his efforts. And think further of the odium that such men as Monteverde, Gluck, Beethoven, Berlioz and Wagner had to suffer because of their inability to pander to popular taste. Such has been the treatment consistently meted out, in a more or less varying degree, to the original thinker: the man who has something to say which nobody else can say in quite the same way. A typical case is that of a wellknown clergyman who, thirty-five years ago, preached truths which brought him the anathema of most of his clerical brethren, and earned for him the title of heretic. Yet to-day those same truths are a

recognized part of every preacher’s stock-in-trade, and doubtless all honest clergymen would be glad to acknowledge an indebtedness to a man who, in his day, was reviled and ostracized. After all, is not this what all the thousands of people who call themselves Christians are doing, or should be doing, at the present time, i.e., following the principles and practices of one who, scoffed at by the multitude, suffered a shameful and ignominious death because he pointed out a more excellent way, which they, in their blindness, were quite unable to discern.

It must be obvious to any right-thinking person that it is far easier to follow the conventional line of thought and action to conform to the demands of the majority than to think and act on the promptings of one’s own inner consciousness. Therefore our sympathies should always be alive to new thought, and to new manifestations of old thought. If we do not understand, we should realize that we are, perhaps, deficient in vision; and we should not presume to condemn a new work simply because its idiom is strange to us. After hearing a work six times it frequently happens that much that was obscure becomes clear and beautiful!

Many people maintain that Art in general has seen its best days; that we live in a degenerate age; that the wealth of colouring of a Titian, the singleness of eye of an Apelles, the mighty intellect of a Da Vinci, the keen insight and power of a Shakespeare are manifestations which the world cannot hope to see repeated. This may or may not be true, but if we grant that drawing, painting, carving, designing, sculpture, and all their offshoots have seen their best days, it is no logical reason why the same can be said of music. It may be urged that intellectual activity runs in cycles, and affects all the crafts and arts in turn. How then can an exception be made in the case of music which has existed for thousands of years, and cannot have been ignored in the many upheavals and continued efforts towards a higher and purer medium of expression? We know, for instance, that good Bishop Ambrose, of Milan, concerned himself with the development of church music in the fourth century A.D., and that Pope Gregory followed his example 200 years later. We know further, our critic will say, that such men as Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni, Di Lasso, Willaert, Palestrina, Monteverde, Scarlatti,

Lully, Gluck, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, all concerned themselves in the advancement of musical art; that its advancement did not by any means end with Beethoven; that the work of Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, and others, has carried music yet another step towards its goal, if not indeed to its ultimate.

All these objections may be freely granted. But what are the efforts of these men and a hundred others, in the thousands of years which have elapsed since music had its origin in the utterance of joy or sorrow on the part of primeval man? Truly it is a far cry to the beginnings of music; nay, it is even a far cry to the time when sounds were first systematized; but it is not yet 500 years since music as we know it began to develop: and it is certain that more progress has been made in the last 150 years than in all the centuries since its inception.

It is interesting, and instructive, to compare the growth of Architecture, Painting, and Music. In the first case we find that the imperishable pyramids date from at least 3000 B.C.; and in recent years palaces have been excavated in Assyria and in Persia dating from 884 B.C., and Greek Temples erected in the period 650-324 B.C. Its development, through Byzantine, Romanesque, Saxon, Norman, Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular, and Flamboyant, culminated in the sixteenth century, and represents a magnificent record of imagination and skill. The pinnacle of beauty was reached hundreds of years ago; the science and craft of 5,000 years ago is a closed book to us, and the best modern work is merely adapted from one or other of the aforementioned styles, and, more often than not, is of a decadent character.

As regards painting — there are extant to-day examples of Egyptian and Assyrian mural art, though of a primitive and formal kind, dating as far back as the palmy days of Babylon’s prosperity. In Egypt, painting and sculpture were intimately combined: we may say that the Egyptians enlivened every work of art with colour. Colour was everywhere! The Greeks advanced the art by the introduction of Chiaroscuro; and Polygnotus, who lived during the fifth century B.C., established painting as an independent art, on an equal footing with Architecture. Pamphilus — fourth century B.C. — insisted that every kind of knowledge was necessary to form a perfect artist. The

revival of painting, in the thirteenth century, marked a great step forward; and the next two centuries saw the introduction of oil painting, and a tremendous advance in knowledge of perspective and chiaroscuro, as well as in earnestness, devotion, and general development. The works of Bellini, Giorgioni, Carpaccio, Perugino, Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and, greatest of all, Titian, represent a standard of achievement which no man has been able to surpass. It is generally agreed, therefore, that Italian painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is the supreme effort of the human mind in that direction.

How does music compare with these records? It would be useless to assert that it had not its origin as far back as human knowledge has penetrated: but how slow has been its growth; how tardy have been its votaries to make any improvements upon the conditions as they found them. Unlike the sister arts of Architecture and Painting, we do not find evidence of a steady growth which reached full flower centuries ago; but we do find evidence of a torpidity a blight which made men and women satisfied with bald successions of notes as the highest expression in music.

The sixteenth century saw the climax of painting, but only the beginning of music as we know it. One can only conclude that the portion of the human brain which responds to music must have lain dormant for centuries. It is an arresting thought, because, logically pursued, it suggests that a future generation may regard our generation as being in quite a rudimentary stage of development. It is within the bounds of possibility that new faculties, of which we now know nothing, may spring into being. Applied to music, it suggests that a fuller and deeper significance for the whole human race may be found in its practice; a comprehension deeper than appreciation; in fact, a spiritual force, which, because of its universal appeal, may easily succeed where religions have lamentably failed.

To return to our comparison of the three forms of Art: we know that the Ancient Egyptians found in music food for speculation and thought; it offered a ready medium in all their emotional expressions; and it is true that some attempt was made to systematize musical sounds, and to explain the relationship of one note to another; but we look in vain for any indications of progress in other directions. In

spite of all their marvellous accumulated knowledge and scientific skill, the Ancient Egyptians left music in much the same condition as they found it. The brains which conceived and carried out the erection of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and other colossal works which still continue to perplex the specialists of our day, had no conception of music beyond a bare succession of notes, and those of restricted range.

The Israelites used music to a great extent at religious as well as at secular functions. They were fond of effects conceived on a grand scale; indeed, they frequently employed choirs numbering four or five thousand voices; but there is no evidence that they ever attempted to sing in parts. Probably all the voices sang the same succession of notes, and the instruments merely doubled the voices, and supplied interludes.

The Greek era was responsible for the union of poetry and music, upon a system which aimed at the development of the principles underlying the natural inflections of the human voice in speech. Gregorian Plainsong is a descendant of the Greek system, and shares with it the honour of occupying the serious attention of musicians and scholars, to the exclusion of any other form of development, for a period of 1,600 years!

The art of setting down music upon paper was not mastered until the tenth century, and it was not until the thirteenth century that musicians began to realize that more than one tune could be sung at the same time.

Then began the development of that Counterpoint (the art of combining melodies, or of writing melodious parts), which reached its culmination in the works of the Elizabethan Madrigal School in this country, and of Palestrina and his school in Italy. Thus the coping-stone was added to the great Polyphonic Choral School of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Bach added that to the Polyphonic Instrumental School, Beethoven and Brahms to the Symphonic School, and Wagner to the Dramatic School.

What is there left?

The year 1830 roughly marks the starting point of a new path in musical composition, the practical outcome of which, at the present time, is the music we denominate:

(a)Atmospheric.

(b)Realistic.

They are both branches of the same tree, and indicate in no uncertain manner the general trend of modern music, which is the result of a striving against convention, and the often painful obviousness which permeated so much of the work of the old schools. Whatever the final verdict may be with regard to the artistic permanence of the work of such men as

Stravinsky, Debussy, Delius, and others,

they deserve, at least, consideration, because of the sincerity of their ideals, as well as for the special gifts which raise them above their contemporaries. We are at the present time experiencing the difficulties — which others have experienced in the past — of trying to gauge the tendency of the newest phases of current musical thought. For the seekers after new light have had in the past, and as far as we can foresee will always have to give rise to much in the way of heartburnings and solemn finger shakings, and wagging of heads; but if the past is to be allowed to teach us anything, it should teach us the folly of hasty conclusions.

Unlike the other forms of Art, music is always changing: it is in a perpetual state of transition; and it is as impossible to control the minds of music-makers as it is to foretell where their efforts will eventually take us. Painters — and Sculptors, and Architects — turn to the great masterpieces of the past for guidance and for inspiration; and they consider themselves fortunate indeed if they can catch some echo of their past glories, or, by much labour and experiment, light upon a medium that will be the means of preserving their work for posterity.

But for the modern composer there is no such Mecca; there are no achievements in the past that can make him wring his hands in despair that such a secret, or such a medium, has passed beyond the ken of man. We are still in the laboratory of music; fresh colours are constantly being invented; new schemes for music’s advancement are still being put to the test. After mastering his mode of expression, the

modern writer has unlimited scope for the play of his imagination. The shackles of conventionality and pedantism have been broken down; the domain of the art has expanded to an unconscionable degree: what it will eventually reach is more than any man can say.

At any rate let us see that we all realize the true condition of things, and let us resolve to keep open minds. No real progress is unaccompanied by failure: there have been, and there will be, mistakes errors of judgment that is inevitable. But that which was incomprehensible to a past generation is now an open book: in fact, it has already begun to sound a little old-fashioned; so, in spite of stupid censures, and with the incontrovertible lesson of history before us, we may hesitate before we presume to dogmatize as to what is right, or wrong, in music.

I would plead very earnestly for the cultivation of a Catholic taste in Art, because I find that the people who dislike new music, also dislike old music; in fact, their sympathies are generally confined to the small group of composers that flourished during the early part of the nineteenth century. A spirit of tolerance, and the desire to see beauty in all phases of music, would open the door to unknown joys. There is a profound significance in the old promise, “Seek, and ye shall find,” for the real beauties of music must be sought; they are not revealed to the merely casual listener; indeed, they can only be found by those whose emotions and senses are alert, and yet under the control of their intelligence.

“As Wagner grew from the classic tongue of the late Sonatas and Ninth Symphony of Beethoven to Tristan, the Ring, and Parsifal as Strauss traversed the circumscribed paths of the symphonists only to quit them for a land of freedom and fecundity, so may we, if we will,” says Edmundstone Duncan, “go forward in the sun and breeze of the passing day, leaving artificial lights and vaulty airs behind us. After all, the great things of the past are always within reach, when wanted. Music has become more conscious of her powers. And although we do not make the mistake of supposing that because the language is developing and changing, that therefore modern masters are greater men than their predecessors, let it be clearly asserted that their work is worthy of our best sympathies. The ultra-modernists are unrolling a new vision before our eyes. If all we see does not please us, that is

only in conformity with life and experience. Let us travel then in this new country, striving after the good, the true, and the beautiful. The good is that which uplifts and purifies. The beautiful rivets attention by its inherent compelling force. Its spell, its aroma, charms the soul through the senses. But what is truth in music? The answer to that question is the quest of history. And we need not attempt to anticipate it.”

CHAPTER 4 On Listening I

Many years ago two young men one German, and the other English had a warm discussion on the subject of Hymn Tunes. Naturally, the German claimed superiority for his beloved Chorales; equally naturally though not as reasonably the other upheld the merits of the collection of tunes known as “Ancient and Modern.” Finally, in order to bring matters to an issue, the German asked the other to whistle the melody of his favourite tune. To this the Englishman gladly assented, and gave effect to the following:

Example 1

but was unable to proceed further, because his friend was convulsed with laughter. Recriminations followed, but at length the Englishman was made to see that his “favourite tune” was no tune at all, that the interest lay in the lower parts.

Example 2

In short, he was proved deficient in the art of listening. From his youth up he had heard the tune, and yet had never realized that it is the harmony which supplies the attractiveness of these two lines, and not that part which is usually sung by the people. A modern writer has made the startling assertion that “the cap-

acity to listen to music is better proof of musical talent in the listener than skill to play upon an instrument, or ability to sing acceptably, when unaccompanied by that capacity.” Startling as it is, there is not the slightest doubt that it contains the germ of truth, for how many people do really listen? How many know how to listen, and for what to listen? The average concert-goer is too often like the traveller, who, with a wonderful panorama of Nature generously outspread before him, sees only the obvious and the commonplace. For him the beauties of form, the infinite varieties of colour, the delicate effects of light and shade, and the riot of detail — so dear to Nature — is a closed book. It is non-existent. He looks but does not see. So the average concert-goer hears but does not understand: and because he does not understand he must frequently suffer agonies of boredom. To listen without method is truly a dull affair, but with method it becomes an adventure; and moreover an adventure which may be undertaken again and again, and each repetition will reveal new interests and new beauties. And the rules of the game are so simple; simpler in modern music than ever before, because it is so much more concise. Consider, for instance, the beauty of the following fragment, evolved from two notes:

If it is an adventure to follow the melodic and rhythmic development of the above extract, it is no less so to discover the exquisite harmonies written by Grieg to this folk-song.

In these illustrations there are three points of contact which may be made by any person, no matter at what stage of musical develop-

ment, i.e., a consciousness of —

i.melodic evolution,

ii.rhythmic development,

iii.harmonic interest.

Each department offers a fascinating field of interest, and each will be treated in detail in due course. All I wish to establish at the moment is the need for a type of education in music which will make it possible for people to discuss it as intelligently as they discuss other branches of Art. This entails a knowledge of fundamentals, and the ability to listen properly.

At any social gathering there are usually people who can discuss novels, prose, pictures, or poetry, with a certain amount of discrimination. Why not music?

One reason is that we are still suffering from the eighteenthcentury blight, when performers arrogated to themselves first and foremost place in music. Traditions die hard, and it is perhaps for this reason that the whole conception of concert-going still appears to be based on the principle of hearing a certain singer or player, or of watching a certain conductor, rather than the desire to hear certain music, apart from, or in spite of, possible excrescences known as modern “readings.” Thus the greater part of our music criticism is concerned with the discussion of the merits or demerits of performers. In this way the pernicious system is perpetuated.

When considering the attractions of a concert, the average person seeks information in the following order:

i.The identity of the singer or player.

ii.The name of the conductor.

iii.The details of the music to be performed.

Then, having decided to purchase a ticket, his next care is to secure a seat from whence he may see the singer, watch the hands of the performer, or observe the antics of the conductor, with the minimum amount of discomfort. He is then prepared to enjoy the performance.

Surely the ideal conditions for hearing music would include:

i.Invisible and unidentified performers.

ii. No applause.

iii. A soft and restful light, instead of the glaring brightness which characterizes our concert-rooms.

Under such conditions the right perspective might bell possible, as music, qua music, would have first consideration, and personality would be limited to its proper function of serving Art for Art’s sake, free from the lure of specious applause and press notices. The cult of personality in the performance of music is just as dangerous as it is in the exposition of religion: indeed, the popular performer is the counterpart of the popular preacher inasmuch and in so far as he attracts people who adore the “letter” [and cannot attain the “spirit”] by a conscious display of mere pyrotechnics or rhetoric.

II

Song is emotionalized speech. It is the universal medium of utterance, because emotion is common to all peoples and all ages; moreover, participation in song imparts a strong sense of spiritual unity. Turn where you will in the history of the world, and you will find ample testimony to the power of singing to unite people in a bond of fellowship, or of common endeavour. Tacitus tells us of leaders who flung their men into battle singing. Even as far back as the eighth century people were enticed to church by means of singing. Luther knew that his great fight was won when the people sang his Chorales. And as with people in the mass, so with the individual. One of the chief of social virtues is the ability to sing. We recognize this quite early in life in fact, before we have acquired articulate expression; for the soothing voice of a mother, or nurse, lulls us into a condition of ecstasy which gives a peace passing all more mature understanding. So it is that as we pass down the years, we have so much singing, and we take part in so many performances, that we unconsciously assume a critical attitude when singing is concerned. We may think we are being especially honest if we say we are quite unable to judge an instrumental performance, and yet do consider ourselves competent to pass judgment on a vocal or choral performance. Yet the general public applauds, with lamentable lack of discrimination, the performance of singers of all types good, bad, and indifferent.

THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC

Our opinion is often based on externals; for instance, on the appearance of a singer, the quality of the voice: even the charm of sex has its appeal, and this possibly supplies the reason why men generally prefer a woman vocalist, and vice versa. Purely physical charm of manner, dress, voice, or personality, frequently hides a multitude of sins of artistic omission and commission. The joy is confessedly a physical one, and anything that diverts the attention from it is regarded with distaste. Yet these things are but fundamentals; they are the decorations of the tonal edifice: important, I admit, but only a part of the whole.

Beauty of tone is invaluable, but it is not the most precious part of a singer’s equipment. One sometimes hears fine singing without any tonal beauty, as for instance in the case of Mr. Santley in his latter years, when — although his voice was worn out — he could still command our admiration by his keen intelligence and perfect technique. Modern conditions demand these qualities. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it was considered sufficient to possess beautiful tone and technique. A singer was not expected to be intelligent. The emotional basis of song was forgotten in the pleasure derived from the performance of trills, roulades, skips, and jumps innumerable. But the advent of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann marked a return to first principles — the recognition by composers of the emotional basis of all true song — and the realization of the absolute necessity for the exercise of intelligence in performance. There are still many popular performers who endeavour to prove this to be a fallacy, and who reap considerable financial reward in the process.

The number of points to be noted in good singing are so many that the untrained listener may well be excused if he misses some of them, especially when the purely sensuous charm of beautiful tone captures his attention and lulls his critical faculty.

Technique in singing includes:

i.Correct breathing: which should be adequate, but not audible.

ii.Pure tone: not breathy, but flexible and forward (not in the throat, but well to the front of the mouth).

iii.An equally developed voice throughout its range.

iv. The ability to sing in tune. (This precludes the use of the horrible device known as “vibrato” which was invented by a famous singer named Rubini to hide the deterioration of his voice in his old age.)

v. The ability to shade the tone, i.e., to pass easily from any grade of tone to another, without changing the quality.

vi. Legato the foundation of all good singing i.e., the ability to pass smoothly and connectedly from one note to another.

vii. Correct pronunciation and enunciation.

viii. Good phrasing.

ix. Balance of tone (in concerted music).

x. Attack and release.

The problem of the right relationship between text and music is one of long standing. It is desirable that we should have clear ideas upon this matter, as the whole realm of vocal and choral music is involved. Broadly speaking, there are three types of listener:

1st. Those who avowedly find their joy in the music, and care little or nothing about the text.

2nd. Those to whom the text is of paramount importance.

3rd. Those who desire the union of music and text to be an equal one, i.e., one in which the two elements are of equal importance.

The third method and the only justifiable method of setting words to music aims at enforcing, by means of music, the underlying emotion of the text. Its changing lights are captured and transformed; its passing moods are caught and reflected; and thus the interest becomes two-fold, the emotion of the poem being intensified by the emotion of the music.

And what of the singer?

Here a third element enters, and it is vitally important that it shall in no way minimize either of the other two, for the singer who undertakes this class of work must aim at complete subordination of self. The old type of smug and self-conscious arrogance must give place to sincerity, and a high sense of calling. Vanity and conceit (the qualities of so many of the older type of singer) would not serve one who

attempted the role of Gerontius, or the songs of Brahms, or of Hugo Wolf. Such music requires an educated brain to direct the voice, and to inspire the general attitude of the performer — as to style, tone colour, choice of speed, and points of climax.

Under such conditions it is possible for poet, composer, and performer to be unitedly concerned in creating a definite impression, in conveying a conscious emotion; and only in the fulfilment of such an aim can song be justified.

III

Mechanical music has attained such a degree of excellence, that one does not hesitate to claim for a good “player” performance a more satisfying result than can be attained by the ordinary pianoforte student. It has, moreover, the great advantage of making the literature of music available to everybody, without demanding any skill save that entailed in the conservation of muscular energy in the pedal extremities of the worker, and careful attention to printed instructions. This is all to the good.

Formerly Ethel — or James — was forcibly persuaded to practise a prescribed number of hours per week, for a prescribed number of years, and at the end of the period played, more or less accurately [generally less], a strictly limited repertoire of music; and the only satisfaction fond parents could claim, was that involved in the thought of expensive fees, trustfully, but wastefully, disbursed.

The moral of this is that education in music is far more necessary than education in pianoforte playing. We can also deduce from these melancholy facts, proof of a widespread ignorance of the essentials of good pianoforte playing.

The “player-pianoforte,” notwithstanding its obvious defects, sets a standard of performance; it may be a minimum standard: but it is a long way ahead of the average standard of playing in the average home. But valuable as it is in many ways, it is still separated by a great gulf from the best in pianoforte playing. Human fingers, backed by artistic intelligence, can still hold the fort against the attacks of mechanism.

Touch and temperament are better than wood and wind. What is required of a pianist is that he shall interpret music: not dazzle us

by sheer physical force, nor charm us with mere sensuous colour though he may do either or both if they are “in the picture” and in order to interpret, five things are essential:

i. A right choice of tempo.

There is a delightful story of a world-famous organist, who, on a certain occasion, was asked to give his opinion of a newly completed instrument. When he arrived at the building in which the instrument was housed, he was met by a deputation of obsequious committeemen, and the following dialogue ensued:

Great Man: “Ah! I hear some one is playing the instrument.”

Committee-Man: “Yes it is Mr. Blank” [naming an enthusiastic amateur musician: by trade, a restaurant keeper].

G. M.: “Oh Mr. Blank, the Pieman”! (After listening for a short time) “Well, you know, I cannot play as fast as Mr. Blank”!

It was a caustic comment on a common condition.

The performer who lacks the “time-sense” which means neither more nor less than the “artist-sense,” as the greater includes the less generally tries to “camouflage” by a display of facility: by showing how fast he can play.

Howbeit, right tempo implies not only right speed, but right flexibility. A composer cannot possibly indicate all the variations of time that his composition demands. Seldom does a piece of music require a clock-work-rigidity of time in its performance; yet the composer gives but little help in such matters: so it is matter for small wonder that with varied “talents,” we get varied “readings.” “I have often been astonished,” says Wagner, “at the singularly slight sense of tempo evinced by leading musicians”; and again, “With good players the true tempo induces correct phrasing and expression.” The inference is clear.

ii. The possession of a sense of rhythm which makes ill impossible for a player to “run amok” in the matter of time-flexibility. Flexibility entirely fails to achieve its purpose if it entails loss of rhythm. A good player will hurry a little here, retard a little there, dwell lovingly on some particular note or passage, without upsetting the proportions of the whole. A sense of rhythm enables a player to balance his phrases, and present the music in clear outline. Per

contra, deficiency in rhythm inevitably produces bad phrasing and blurred outline.

iii.The power to produce beautiful tone under all conditions. C. P. E. Bach, the ablest of the sons of the! great John Sebastian, avowed it to have been his “chief endeavour to play the pianoforte, in spite of its deficiency in sustaining sound, as much as possible in a singing manner.” There is more in this than meets the eye. Pianoforte tone only sings when the strings are set in motion properly. Singing tone is not only pure tone, but carrying tone and pleasing tone. The necessity for fortissimo playing is no excuse for the production of hard and unpleasant tone. All the great masters of pianoforte style and technique, from C. P. E. Bach to Franz Liszt, have aimed at the development of singing tone. Hard tone, therefore, indicates faulty technique.

iv.The ability to use right tone colours.

I remember hearing a well-known accompanist play two songs for a famous singer: the first — by Schubert — required simply a delicate background of sound; the second — by Brahms — demanded sonorous tone and rhythmic grip, because the pianoforte part was even more important than the vocal part; it was really a duet in which the pianoforte had the “lion’s share.” But the poor man, having no sense of colour, and little intelligence, treated the second song exactly like the first: with disastrous results.

Tone colour — a convenient term for the whole realm of expression, light and shade, and dynamics — demands emotion and intelligence on the part of the player. Emotion — to enable him to feel and interpret the emotional ebb and flow: and intelligence — to focus it, so that the whole work is presented as the sum of all its parts. His use of crescendo and diminuendo, of forte and piano, of staccato and legato, must be such as not merely to charm at the moment, but to produce an effect of co-ordination and unity.

v.Discrimination in the use of the damper pedal.

In nothing more than in the use of the damper pedal is the fine flavour of an artist’s playing revealed. It has been described as “the soul of the pianoforte,” and the term is certainly not an exaggeration. All the best pianoforte music would be absolutely ineffective without it, for it links up harmonies, sustains chords, adds a new richness to

cantabile melody, and is responsible for wonderful effects of chiaroscuro which could not be obtained from any other instrument. Bad pedalling produces a musical “smoke screen” which effectually hides faulty technique, and other deficiencies.

No mention has been made of accuracy: but that is assumed. The accuracy of the “player-piano” is the starting point of the fine pianist.

If it be allowed that the damper pedal is the “soul of the pianoforte,” then the same relationship must be claimed for the bow in connection with the violin: for good bowing is the secret of good fiddle-playing. The outstanding features of good pianoforte playing which we have already noted, viz. choice of tempo, sense of rhythm, right tone-colour, and the ability to produce beautiful tone under all conditions, apply equally well to violin playing.

Of course it is more difficult to play notes correctly on a stringed instrument, because the precise pitch of the notes played depends on the placing of the fingers on the strings: the technical name for which is “stopping.” If more than one sound is produced at a time, it entails “double stopping.” Inaccuracy in “stopping” results in playing out of tune: therefore accuracy is of the first importance.

A violinist must not only make the notes, but the quality also, and this depends upon three things:

i. The character of the finger-pressure in “stopping.”

ii. The quality of the bowing.

iii. The excellence of the instrument.

The bow is the most delicate and sensitive of implements: it responds to the slightest pressure; muscles of hand, forearm and upper arm all require to be under perfect control, as the smallest impulse, from any part of the limb, is instantaneously reflected in the tone. Nothing is more unpleasant for the listener than the efforts of a tyro to master the intricacies of bowing: and it is not until the bow becomes a part of himself that his efforts are tolerable. The bow of a master is simply the nerve that connects the strings with his brain.

An artist will always produce beautiful tone, and he will instinctively avoid the error of treating the violin as a species of glorified

banjo for the display of pyrotechnics. The true violin tone is singing tone — full, free, and vibrant — and all technical work should be a means of attaining such tone, even in the most exacting of difficult music.

The profound truth contained in the dictum “Art conceals Art” applies with even more force to the violinist than to the pianist, because of the essential nature of the tone, which can only exist as the result of technical facility, temperament, and mental poise.

VA first-rate orchestra is the most perfect of instruments, and its conductor the happiest of performers. It consists of three families of tone — Wood-wind, Brass, and Strings. In a score the Wood-wind parts are always printed at the top, and the normal use includes two Flutes, two Oboes, two Clarinets, and two Bassoons. To these are frequently added, for special effects, Piccolo, a third Flute — sometimes even a fourth — Cor Anglais, and Contra Fagotto.

Speaking broadly, the Piccolo, Flutes, and Oboes may be regarded as the Treble; the Clarinet and Cor Anglais as the Middle; and the Bassoons and Contra Fagotto as the Bass of the Wood-wind family. They are used in many ways: singly, as in the opening of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony; in groups of two or three, as in Mendelssohn’s A minor Symphony; and in full harmony, as in the opening of Wagner’s Tannhauser Overture.

The listener should learn to distinguish the tone of each instrument. This can be done either by the help of a musical friend, or by following the performance of a work from a score.

The “Brass” family — next in order below the Woodwind — consists of four Horns, which are used for sustained effects of harmony, as well as for “solo” and “combined” effects in conjunction with other instruments: two, three, or four Trumpets — Treble instruments of most penetrating and brilliant tone; and Alto, Tenor, and Bass Trombone, supplemented, in large scores, by Bass Tuba. The Trombone group has a wonderful range of tone, and is even more effective in soft sustained passages than in those of the more familiar loud and aggressive type.

Next in order come the percussion instruments, consisting of two,

three, or four Tympani (tuned drums), Side Drum (the common type familiar in street bands), and the “fancy instruments” (usually called “Kitchen furniture”), including Triangle, Gong, Cymbals, etc., used only for special effects.

In modern music one or two Harps are frequently introduced, and there is often an effective use made of the unique and characteristic tone of the deep pedal stops of an organ.

The String family is always placed at the bottom of a score. It consists of first and second Violins, Violas, ‘Celli, Double Basses; and a first-rate orchestra will have from twelve to sixteen first Violins, twelve to sixteen seconds, nine to twelve Violas, eight to ten ‘Celli, and six to eight Double Basses. This family supplies the foundation tone of the orchestra, because it is not only the most flexible of the families, but it has endless possibilities of colour, shading, and emotional expression; and its very flexibility makes it, of all media, the least tiring when constantly used. It is possible to have a surfeit of “Brass” and “Woodwind”; but the String tone, like the light of the “rosy-fingered dawn,” is ever welcome. Special effects can be obtained by different uses of the bow: for instance, the bowed tremolo that is, the rapid alternation of up and down strokes described by Berlioz as expressing “trouble, agitation and terror in the respective shades of piano, mezzo-forte, and fortissimo, when it is not carried much above middle B flat”; as “expressing something of a violent, stormy character, in the fortissimo on the first or second string”; and as “aerial, angelic, when employed in several parts, pianissimo, on the high notes of the first string.”

Saltato is the name given to an effect caused by allowing the bow to “jump” on the strings. The middle of the bow is used, and at each stroke the bow rebounds immediately the string is set in vibration. This style of playing is “the daily bread-and-butter of all orchestral players for light passages.” Then there is the “long-bow” stroke, and the “staccato,” which entails a distinct stoppage of the bow after each note. Col legno is the name for a grotesque effect produced by tapping the strings with the wooden part of the bow. In “Also sprach Zarathustra,” Strauss has gone the length of introducing a tremolo played with the wood of the bow! In addition to the ordinary bowedtremolo, there is the fingered-tremolo, which consists in the rapid

alternation of two notes by the fingers of the left hand, and the bowed-and-fingered-tremolo, which combines both methods.

“Harmonics” is the name given to soft flute-like tones which are produced by touching the strings lightly with the fingers of the left hand. Veiled tone is produced by the use of a Mute, a small metal, wood, or ivory clamp, which grips the bridge of the instrument, and deadens the vibrations. String players sometimes pluck the strings with the fingers of the right hand, a device named pizzicato. Another device, which is common to stringed instruments and trombones, is that known as portamento, i.e., the sliding from one note to another. It is an unpleasant but arresting feature of the trombone playing in “syncopated orchestras.”

When the listener has acquired the necessary skill to recognize the tone of each instrument, he should proceed to note the effect of combined tones. Violins playing a melody in unison produce a different tone colour from Violins and Clarinets, or Violins and Flutes; and Violins, Clarinets, and Flutes, used in combination, still further accentuate the distinction. Every new combination produces a new tone colour, and the ability to recognize the ingredients of delightful tone colours is one of the most fascinating of occupations.

The qualities that make for good performance are:

1.Right choice of tempo.

2.A fine sense of rhythm.

3.Beautiful tone.

4.Well-balanced tone.

The first three have already been treated in the section devoted to pianoforte playing. Number four entails careful work on the part of the composer, who, if he is a master of orchestration, inevitably saves a conductor much trouble and anxiety at rehearsal. Thickly scored music, i.e., music written for a large number of instruments, often requires much elucidation on the part of the conductor, who must decide what to “reveal” and what to treat as mere background or accompaniment. Strauss’ “Heldenleben,” when performed under the baton of an inferior conductor, is pure cacophony; but, directed by a Richter, it becomes one of the most convincing things ever written. A good conductor must possess the art of balancing his forces, of never allowing any part of his orchestra to predominate

unduly; but although he may tone down excessive scoring, he cannot make really bad scoring sound effective.

5. Precision of attack and release is of primary importance. It is the result of perfect unanimity of seventy playing like one and its result is a solidity and a brilliance which nothing else can produce.

6. Solidity, however, does not imply rigidity. There must be flexibility in all good orchestral playing, and this to a large extent depends on the temperament of the conductor. Given the same orchestra, the phlegmatic conductor will produce rigidity, where the man of temperament will get flexibility.

7. Light and shade the observance of crescendo and diminuendo, of time variations, and the general attention to details of tonal gradation.

“The orchestral conductor,” says Berlioz, “should see and hear; he should be active and vigorous, should know the composition and the nature and compass of the instruments, should be able to read the score, and possess other almost indefinable gifts, without which an invisible link cannot establish itself between him and those he directs. If the faculty of transmitting to them his feeling is denied him, then power, empire, and guiding influence completely fail him. He is then no longer a conductor, a director, but a simple beater of the time, supposing he knows how to beat it, and divide it, regularly.

“The performers should feel that he feels, comprehends, and is moved: then his emotion communicates itself to those whom he directs, his inward fire warms them, his electric glow animates them, his force of impulse excites them; he throws around him the vital irradiations of musical art. If he be inert and frozen, on the contrary, he paralyzes all about him, like those floating masses of the polar seas the approach of which is perceived through the sudden cooling of the atmosphere.

“His task is a complicated one. He has not only to conduct, in the spirit of the author’s intentions, a work with which the performers have already become acquainted, but he has also to give them this acquaintance when the work in question is new to them. He has to criticize the errors and defects of each during the rehearsals, and to organize the resources at his disposal in such a way as to make the best use he can of them with the utmost promptitude.”

CHAPTER 5 The Materials of Form

Form, or Design, is essential to music’s very existence. Vague sounds are fleeting; they leave no impression on the mind; but repetition makes of them a concrete entity. Repetition is essential; indeed, the necessity for repetition really led to the discovery of Form, which is concerned with the construction of sentences, the balance of parts, and the total structural outline of a composition. The power to recognize Form is the first condition required for intelligent listening. We can let music filter through our brains and get a certain amount of enjoyment from it; but if we would really appreciate it, we must exercise our powers of concentration and memory. No intelligent person would look at a picture without thinking about its work in detail — the admixture of colours, the relationship of lines and curves, the right proportions of figures, etc. Such a condition of mind, such an exercise of critical faculty, is a necessary preliminary to a proper realization of beauty. So it is in music, save that memory must take the place of eye.

Music is essentially a thing to be heard, not read. It is quickly heard: hence the necessity for quick perception, and for retentive memory. Any forgotten point in a book can be re-read: a picture may be revisited and gazed upon at pleasure: but music ceases with each performance; if we want more of it, it must be re-created, and that is seldom possible.

The materials of Form are Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony. Rhythm refers to the grouping of bars into sets, by means of regularly recurring accents. It is the basis of all music, and its earliest form of expression was through the medium of that oldest of all instruments — the Drum. We find Rhythm all through life, in the little as well as in the big things: for instance in the dripping of a tap, and the wagging of a dog’s tail; in our own pulses; in the bark of a dog, and in the ringing of a church bell; in the snore of a sleeper; in listening to wind among trees, and the lap of water against a boat: in all these we find

the pulse of nature manifesting itself in various forms. Rhythm, however, is a much misunderstood term, being frequently confused with Accent and with Time. Such a confusion is unfortunate, but inevitable, until a study of the principles of Form reveals what is the difference, and wherein it lies. If, for example, we take a number of notes of equal length, and emphasize every two, three, or four, we get what is often incorrectly termed two-pulse, three-pulse, or four-pulse Rhythm, whereas in reality it is simply Duple, Triple, or Quadruple Time, i.e., beats or pulses grouped in twos, threes, or fours. But if we take a number of such groups (each group really makes a bar) and emphasize them in the same way that is, in twos, threes, or fours, and so on the same term is still employed to describe the result. In this case, however, it is correct. Accent is concerned with the arrangement of beats into strong and weak. Time groups such divisions into equal bars or measures. Rhythm does for bars or measures, exactly what Accent does for beats: it is concerned with the arrangement of bars into strong and weak. It is the Metre. of Music.

Here are some examples of Rhythmic groups:

“In the erection of an edifice,” says Vincent d’Indy, “it is first of all necessary that the materials should be of good quality and chosen with discernment. In the same way a composer must be very particular in the selection of his musical ideas if he wishes to create a lasting work. But in building it is not sufficient to have fine materials without the knowledge how to dispose them so that by their cohesion they shall form a strong and harmonious whole. Stones, no matter how carefully hewn, can never form a monumental edifice if they are simply superimposed upon each other without due order; neither will musical phrases, however beautiful in themselves, constitute a great work unless their distribution and concatenation follow some definite

and logical order. Only on these conditions can the structure be raised, or if the elements are good and the synthetic order harmoniously contrived the work will be solid and enduring.”

CHAPTER 6

The Relationship of Melody and Harmony

There can be little doubt that Rhythmic Melody is the most arresting feature of music’s many-sided attractions. The reason is not difficult to supply; the average person can sing, hum, or whistle a melody with a certain amount of completeness and effect. Not so with Harmony — which deals with combinations of sounds: and not so with Tone Colour — which varies according to the instrument or instruments used. It is true that Rhythm can be thumped out on a table, or tapped on one’s teeth; but Rhythm alone cannot be said to produce a musical result, any more than can a succession of notes, minus Rhythm.

Example 11

But a blending of the two enables a composer to express a definite musical thought.

Example 12

In listening to new music, nine people out of every ten will judge it first and foremost by its Rhythmic Melody. Melody is the silver thread which unifies the component parts of a musical composition. If one is asked to recall a certain piece of music, it is the Melody which first springs up at the call of memory. Harmony follows in its train. Again, a Melody, played or sung, will often suggest its own

Harmony. Consider the following examples:

Example 13

(a) consists merely of the notes of a “Common Chord” (a note with its 3rd and 5th) of E♭; (b) centres round the common chords of G and D; (c) and (d) a chord of C; (e) a chord of D; (f) the chords of E and B.

But Harmony cannot suggest its own Melody though it can, and does, sometimes affect melodic shape. In the sixteenth century, for instance, it was a common practice to invent melodies that would allow of close imitation between the various parts, or voices, concerned.

Example 14

This device is a feature of Choral writing that has steadily persisted to the present day. If we study the melodic subjects of Handel’s Choruses, or of the Choruses of Bach, we shall find that they are influenced very considerably by their harmonic substructure: that is to say, the melodies are constructed [whether consciously or unconsciously! does not affect the case] around the notes of a chord. This principle, which was perchance an instinct with early writers, is now deliberately used, and consciously valued as a precious device in Choral writing.

We must not make the mistake of assuming that the acceptance, and continuance, of such a tradition spells stagnation. When tradition is blindly followed this is usually inevitable; but in the case of music such a deplorable descent has not been possible, for the simple reason that our harmonic material has been constantly and consistently expanding all the time. Not only have we more notes in our chords, but we have more chords. Combinations of notes that were formerly placed outside the range of possibilities are now accepted as the every-day material of the modern writer.

Similarly, melodic possibilities have increased in direct ratio to the harmonic material. With a limited choice of chords, we had a limited range of available notes for melodic purposes. Not only have we evolved richer chords, but we have discovered new methods of “decoration,” new treatment of “discords,” and of “passing notes,” all of which have added enormously to the available material of melody. Melody is also affected by purely National characteristics. In the matter of Rhythm, for instance, language is a potent factor, and so also are National dances. The close connection between dancing and popular song has inevitably affected the style of the music of different countries. Think, for instance, of the Mazurkas and Polonaises of Chopin; the Hungarian Dances of Brahms; the Slav Dances of Dvorak; the Norwegian Dances of Gieig; the Spanish Dances of Arbos and Granados; the English Dances of Cowen; the Irish Melodies of Stanford; and the Welsh Rhapsody of German.

Since Melody is the first thing to be consciously heard, the question naturally arises as to whether we can formulate rules for distinguishing good from bad melody? Can technical explanations foster a love of good melody? Can the essential points of superiority

in some melodies be so indicated that a general principle may be established for a right judgment of all melodies? The answer is No! for if one attempts to analyze poor melodies, in the hope of indicating the sources of their weakness, it is immediately evident that certain good melodies possess precisely the same characteristics. If, for instance, we postulate that a restricted range of notes is a source of weakness, we are immediately confronted with this:

Example 16

Rhythmic monotony may be indicated as a fault, or a combination of melodic and rhythmic repetition, and at once we are faced with these living contradictions:

Example 17

It is useless to argue with a person who asserts that “Keep the home fires burning” is, from a melodic point of view, equal to anything we may find in Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. The best way to deal with such a person would be to give him a course of great

melodies culled from the works of the great masters and if he desired to understand the principles underlying our choice of tunes, we should have to fall back on the position that the general consensus of opinion has accepted them as good. We feel there must be standards of good and bad melody, but when we try to formulate them we are faced by the steady growth of musical expression: by the fact that what is beautiful in one age, is, perchance, commonplace in the next, and that a work of genius that has been received with derision in one decade has been acclaimed as great in succeeding decades.

What is the explanation? In a word, it is Habit. That to which we are accustomed is inevitably that which forms the basis of our standard of judgment, so that when we hear something new, we are plunged into obscurity, or semi-obscurity, according to the quality and quantity of the element of “newness.” Wagner’s melodic gift was not acknowledged because it was new At did not follow the “beaten track” and the same may be said of Debussy, Ravel, and many other moderns. The average person can only accept those progressions, those movements from point to point, which habit has rendered familiar. Anything beyond outside the familiar landscape must be allowed time for a re-adjustment of his mental vision. His horizon can, and must, increase; but time and association are absolutely necessary for the purpose.

A great melody is the product of inspiration, which may be vouchsafed to the unskilled as well as to the skilled musician; but its intrinsic value, as music, lies in the manner of its presentation in the way it is harmonized, developed, and combined with other melodies in short, in its treatment as material out of which a whole composition is evolved. The unskilled listener craves for “a tune,” and his chief complaint about modern music is that it has no tune. What he really means is that he does not know how to find it, for “tunes” abound in all good music, but they are not confined to the top (or treble) part, and therein lies the source of confusion and annoyance.

Not only is it necessary to be able to locate the tune; it is even more essential to remember it, and to recognize it when it re-appears, as it must inevitably do, later on, in its original form, and probably in altered versions as well. Sometimes there are two tunes played (or

sung) at the same time, and even three separate melodies must sometimes be simultaneously followed if the full flavour of the music is to be realized.

There is, too, a certain orderliness in melodic construction, the recognition of which yields its own special interest and pleasure. Melody falls into balanced periods in exactly the same way as poetry, and a complete thought is terminated by the harmonic device known as a full close, or perfect Cadence.

If we take the first complete thought in the Epilogue to Pill Eulenspiegel (Strauss): [See Example 20] we find that it occupies twelve bars, and ends with a perfect cadence. The whole passage is technically termed a Sentence. The literal meaning of the word Cadence is, a falling. It is a breathing place a point of repose and is analogous to a point of punctuation in literature. Cadences are used to divide music into regular periods. The normal period consists of four bars, and is called a Phrase. In Example 20 there are three equal Phrases of four bars each, six Sections of two bars each, and twelve Figures of one bar each.

In spite of the fascination of Melody, and of Rhythm, there is

Example 20

more solid joy to be derived from good Harmony. Poor harmony will make the divinest melody sound commonplace, but good harmony will make indifferent melody acceptable.

The ability to use fine harmonies is one of the surest signs of musicianship. Set a man to improvise at a piano-forte or organ keyboard, and in the course of a few minutes he will reveal himself either as sealed of the tribe of craftsmen, or as a “journeyman” whom no amount of hard work will ever make into an artist.

There is more sustained mental effort required to appreciate harmony than is the case with either Melody or Rhythm, because it deals with combinations of sounds, which need disintegration from the massed effect, in order that the ear may follow the parts as separate entities. Harmony can only be properly heard by listening first for the bottom part, and by realizing that each bass note is the foundation of a chordal superstructure. It is the Bass part that matters. Follow that,

and you will, in time, be able to keep in touch not only with the harmony, but with the modulations, and with all the various devices which make up the orientation of the homophonic or harmonic style, i.e., the music that is concerned with successions of chords.

Polyphonic music such as the Fugue and the Canon deals with a different set of conditions, and requires to be followed vertically, not as harmony, but as a combination of melodies. In Example 20 we have an Example of the Harmonic or Monophonic style, and in Example 18 of the Contrapuntal or Polyphonic.

Inexperienced listeners are often so carried away by the melody of a song, violin solo, or opera excerpt, that the harmonic beauty is entirely lost to them. They lose as much of the real glory of the Art product as would any one who gazed at a gorgeous blend of colours by Titian, and was able to see but one.

Practice, and practice alone, will enable the listener to follow the movement of different parts; but with this ability, music will assume new proportions, yield hitherto unsuspected joys, and will prove itself to be one of the finest of mental recreations, as well as a source of spiritual contentment and inspiration.

CHAPTER 7

The Suite — Ancient and Modern

The origin of dancing is shrouded in the mists of the prehistoric. So also is the origin of music. But we know that a dance implies three things: (1) Rhythm; (2) Movement; (3) Tune: and we know that the practice of Rhythm is associated with the very lowest types of human life, as well as with animal life.

Therefore it is reasonable to infer that the first musical instrument was one that was concerned wholly with rhythm; something to emphasize the mad throb of the pulse of prehistoric man in moments of high emotion, when the life of the family, or of the tribe, received a forward or a backward impulse. Later, it would be used to emphasize the joy in the thought of the great event: and the intoxication of the thought would be further accompanied by violent bodily movements.

Thus we see the natural union of (1) and (2) — of Rhythm and Movement. As regards (3) — Tune — perhaps the less said the better! We must accept the wild guttural cries of victory or revenge as the forerunner of tune, which is a product of much slower growth than either Rhythm or Movement, for the simple reason that Tune implies thought and powers of organization, and therefore demands a certain amount of intelligence and imagination.

The story of the growth of Tune is intimately bound up with the story of the old Bards of Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany, who sang, in a species of monotone, not only of the doings of their fellows, but who frequently inspired them to deeds of prowess, to the redressing of human wrongs, and to the succour of the helpless.

As the general level of intelligence grew, so did the power to invent little tunes — melodies consisting of but a few notes. Later, they would 6e repeated, at a higher or lower pitch, and thus would emerge the first organized melody.

The writings of the early Bards, Harpers, and Troubadours had a direct influence on music, because they suggested definite rhythms, which were translated into terms of music in the shape of popular

melodies. The result was the Folk-song. The melodies of folk-songs were used to accompany dances: consequently their shape was affectted by the dance as well as by the swing of the words. Excrescences such as “Ri fol, ri fol, tol di riddle di do” and other familiar jingles are thus easily accounted for.

Not until the sixteenth century did composers set themselves the serious task of writing instrumental music. The improvement in the character and quality of stringed instruments made them realize the need for something different from the existing type of Choral composition. The dance supplied the required stimulus; so that instrumental music may be said to owe its origin to the rhythm of the dance; and one of the most interesting facts about its growth is the simultaneous interest in dance tunes, and the simultaneous development of dance forms, that took effect during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the principal countries of Europe. When one considers the difficulties of travel in those days, it seems incredible; but the key to the riddle is to be found in the itinerant musician the travelling performer who passed freely from one country to another, and carried with him his samples of dances. Certainly the various dance forms were adopted in all the countries, quite irrespective of their origin.

One of the earliest dances was that known as the Pavan a slow and stately dance in duple time, of Italian origin. Rabelais tells us it was one of the 180 dances performed at the Court of the Queen on the visit of Pantagruel and his friends. The dancers wore long robes, caps, and swords; and like all early dances, it was originally sung.

Composers were not long in discovering the good effect of contrast of mood and style, for we find the stately Pavan was usually followed by the lively Galliard another dance of Italian origin, in triple time, with plenty of movement. “I did think,” says Shakespeare, “by the excellent constitution of thy leg that it was formed under the star of a Galliard.”

The custom of alternating Pavans and Galliards was popular in Germany as well as in this country, and in this way the idea originated, and developed, of stringing movements together to make a wellbalanced whole a step that led to the Suite, and later to the Sonata and Symphony. The Pavan and the Galliard were soon abandoned in

favour of the Allemand and Courante; and to these were added, after due experiment, the Sarabande and Gigue. These four movements made the regulation group, and were adopted in all the European countries concerned with music during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In England, such groups of movements received the name of Lessons, or Suites of Lessons; in France, they were known as Ordres; in Germany, as Partitas; and in Italy, as Sonate da Camera.

The Allemand (not originally a dance) is of German origin. It is in moderately quick 4/4 time, and usually begins with a quaver, or a semi-quaver, at the end of a bar. It consists, as do all the old dance forms, of two equal parts, each of which is usually marked to be repeated. The Courante is of French origin. It is in quick 3/4 or 3/2 time, and its outstanding feature is the prevailing use of dotted notes. There is sometimes a peculiar blending of the 6/4.

The Italian Corrente is in quick 3/8 or 3/4 time with a steady semi-quaver or quaver movement.

The Sarabande was a stately dance, at one time very popular. Some writers trace its origin to an Oriental source, whilst others affirm it to have had its origin in Spain. Anyhow, it appeared in Europe in the sixteenth century, and owing to certain objectionable features which the early dancers introduced into its performance, it was suppressed during the reign of Philip II. De Vega waged wordy warfare with Cervantes in its defence, and it reappeared in purer form at the Court of France in 1588, when the great Cardinal Richelieu “wearing green velvet knee-breeches, with bells on his feet, and castanets in his hands” danced it before the Queen, Anne of Austria. The Gigue, Giga, or Jig, is said to have derived its name from the early fiddle called the Gigue or Geige.

Pope’s line “Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven” suggests a condition of buoyancy entirely free from the carking care of mundane things. The Gigue was usually written in quick 3/8, 9/8, or 12/8 time, and it made a very suitable finish to the Suite because it sent people away with a happy flavour on their mental palate. After all, Art is fulfilling a very important function when it washes the mind clear of morbid thoughts, and gives to the soul that uplift which it undoubtedly needs to carry it over the rough places of life.

There were other dances which composers, and more particularly

German composers, were fond of inserting between the regulation four movements. Of these, the most important were the Gavotte and the Minuet. The Gavotte is a dance of French origin, and is remarkable for the fact that in its original form the dancers lifted their feet from the ground, instead of shuffling them as was the custom at that time. It is written in moderate 4/4 time, and starts on the third beat.

The Bourree is, to all intents and purposes, identical with the Gavotte, except that it starts on the fourth crotchet of the bar instead of the third.

To France belongs the credit of the invention of the Minuet, originally a stately dance in 3/4 time. Its date is uncertain: some say it originated in the province of Poitou; others credit M. Lully, the chief musician of the Court of Louis XIV, with its invention. Certainly Lully distinguished himself as a writer of Ballet Music, and as I cannot find anything more ancient, I print herewith a very charming Minuet from his pen. You will notice it is in 3 time, and starts on the first beat of the bar.

Picture for yourselves the characteristic atmosphere and surroundings of this little piece of music a gay Court, that of the “first gentleman in Europe,” with beautiful, highly cultured women, and gallant, gaily dressed men; a gathering of proud aristocrats, keen in the pursuit of pleasure and of the latest novelty. You are to imagine the patrician grace of their movements, the sweeping curtsy and the stately bow; a leisured performance, which left the wits of those concerned free play to charm or to wound: to bind still closer in the bonds of friendship, or to shoot swift darts of hatred into minds already aflame for revenge. Truly a dance of the ultra- refined classes, and as far removed from the vulgarities of our modern “Cake Walks” and “Bunny” Hugs as can well be imagined.

[See Example 21]

The great importance of the Minuet lies in the fact that it is the only dance that still forms a part of the modern Sonata, Symphony, or String Quartet. It is true that its spirit has entirely changed; but that is a sign of the times. Our spirits are too feverish to enjoy for long the graceful Gavotte and the stately Minuet. They are charming as a contrast to other music, but they are too thin and attenuated to satisfy the full-blooded taste of the modern generation. From being a

Example 21

slow and dignified production, it became, in the hands of Haydn, light-hearted and humorous, sometimes indeed developing into downright fun. On this feature we find the later work Beethoven foreshadowed. Mozart’s Minuets, although identical in form with those of Haydn, are entirely different in spirit, being suave and graceful — sometimes indeed quite tender in their appeal, as in the following example [See Example 22].

It was left to Beethoven to carry the Minuet to its highest pinnacle of development, and to evolve from it a new form of very great importance and usefulness.

The Scherzo, as developed by Beethoven, is identical with the Minuet in form, but its spirit is entirely different, and it is not tied to any one time signature, nor to a particular beat in a bar for its first note. It is free, and its spirit is free — frequently freakishly so: its tempo is quicker, and its rhythm more varied.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Example 22

Other dances include:

The Hornpipe of English origin rapid 4/4 time.

The Passepied of French origin moderate 3/4 time.

The Loure of French origin slow and stately 6/4 and 4/4 time.

The Brawl of English origin quick 4/4 and 3/4 time.

The Polonaise of Polish origin dignified 3/4 time.

The Mazurka of Polish origin varied 3/4 time.

The Polka of Bohemian origin lively 2/4 time.

The Waltz of German origin graceful 3/4 time.

The Bolero of Spanish origin vigorous 3/4 time.

“The Tarantella of Italian origin animated 6/8 time.

MUSIC

The Suite is interesting as being the first form in which movements of varying types were strung together. It is the connecting link between the old type of organ voluntary (which was definitely based on the old Choral style) and the later and more developed Sonata; and it marks music’s definite break with Church traditions, and the inauguration of the systematic development of secular music. Its weakest features were: (i) the monotony of its tonal scheme — all the movements of a Suite being written in the same key; (ii) its rigid formal construction — being almost always a two-part affair, with the first half modulating to the key of the Dominant, and the second returning m the Tonic.

Modern Suites are not restricted to dance forms, nor are they limited in the matter of keys. Thus, for instance, Tschaikovski’s fourth Suite for orchestra contains: (1) Gigue (key G); (2) Minuet (key D); (3) Prayer (key B flat); (4) Theme with variations (key G); and the same composer’s second Suite for orchestra has the following movements: (1) Jeu des sons (key C); (2) Valse (key A) (3) Scherzo

Burlesque (key E); (4) Reves d’Enfant (key A minor); and (5) Danse

Baroque (key C).

Grieg’s well-known “Peer Gynt” Suite is an attempt to illustrate certain phases of Norwegian life, as depicted by Ibsen; and RimskyKovsakoff’s Symphonic Suite “Scheherazade” does the same for certain stories in the “Arabian Nights.” Other modern composers who have been successful in writing Suites are:

Albeniz (Catalonia).

Arensky (Suite for Pianoforte).

Bizet (two L’Arlesienne Suites).

Borodine (Suite for Pianoforte).

Charpentier (Impressions of Italy).

Cowen (Language of Flowers).

Davies (Suite for small Orchestra).

Debussy (Petite Suite).

Delius (Folkeraadet).

Elgar (Wand of Youth).

Farjeon (Hans Andersen).

Glazonnov (Chopiniana, Scenes de ballet, and others),

MacDowell (Indian Suite).

O’Neill (Suite for String Orchestra).

Parry (Lady Radnor’s Suite).

Roger-Ducasse (Suite Francaise).

Sibelius (Karelia, and Pelleas and Melisande).

Sgambati (Suite for Pianoforte).

York Bowen (Suite for Pianoforte).

CHAPTER 8

The Fugue: Its Form and Content

There are two broad types of Composers: 1. Those who express themselves naturally and honestly, having perception of the true and beautiful, and the courage to express it sincerely, and 2. Those who avowedly write to please others, to supply a public demand, and to draw royalties and fees.

All the humbugs are in the second category, and all those in whom the impulse to self-expression has worked belong to the first. But why need we draw such a line of distinction when the subject of our talk is Fugue? The “man in the street” thinks the Fugue is “beyond the pale” of interest. He will tell you that the best and the speediest method of emptying a church is for the organist to play a Fugue, forgetful of the fact that there are Fugues — and — Fugues; and, incidentally, Organists — and — Organists. The more intimate the art, and the more personal the expression, the more there is of unexpressed thought behind the thought that is expressed. This is particularly true of Fugues: for by the rules of the same the composer must be strictly logical in his working out of ideas. Each part of a Fugue is inevitably related to each other part: the moment its strands show inequality, that moment we know it to be a sham; we realize that its texture is not that of the real Fugue. If we trace any one melody, or melodic line, in a Fugue, and we find that it loses its vitality, its point, we may be assured thereby of an element of weakness. The fundamental basis of fugal art is the combination of melodic lines, which are evolved from a single thought. This thought is called the Subject, and it is always announced by a single voice, or part, followed in turn by other single voices, or parts. One voice, or part, flees from another — hence the derivation of the word from the Latin fuga. It has been humorously described as a composition in which the voices, one by one, come in, and the people, one by one, go out! The Subject of a Sonata is a fully-organized tune, with harmony to

match;.but the Subject of a Fugue is simply a few bars of melody a fragmentary thought incomplete and suggestive. The one states a complete thought, the other challenges discussion. Here are some characteristic subjects of varying length:

Example 23

Every Fugue is written in a definite number of parts or voices it may be two, three, four, or more at the discretion of the Composer; but he must decide at the outset, and not introduce any others: neither may he drop any out of his scheme.

A Fugue, then, is written in a definite number of parts, and is based on a fragment of melody; each voice enters in turn, and alternates between the Tonic or Doh key, and the Dominant or Soh key (we shall refer to these as the “Home” keys). The alternate entries are known as the “Answer,” and the entries generally occur in the following order, in a four-part Fugue:

Subject (in tonic).

Answer (in dominant).

Subject (in tonic).

Answer (in dominant).

Browning’s description of the opening section of a Fugue is well known, and apt:

THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC

First you deliver jour phrase — Nothing propound, that I see, Fit in itself for much blame or much praise — Answered no less, where no answer needs be: Off start the two on their ways. Straight must a third interpose, Volunteer needlessly help; In strikes a fourth, a fifth thrusts in his nose, So the cry’s open, the kennel’s a yelp, Argument’s hot to the close.

Life would become a dull affair if its interests were exclusively centred in the home. We all need recreation and change of scene. So does a Fugue. As long as it remains in the central keys [the Tonic and Dominant, or “Home” keys] it is said to be in the Exposition Section. But when it takes an excursion, and ventures into other regions, it is dubbed the Middle, or Modulatory Section, and the vehicle that conveys it to the new region is called an Episode. An Episode is usually made out of material already used — a strictly economical process; but a Fugue is the most economical form in music. Contrast is found not by inventing new themes, but by taking old themes, or parts of themes, and presenting them in other keys; by twisting them about; by stretching them, so that they fill double the number of bars; by crushing them, so that they occupy only half the number; by turning them upside down, and so on. All these are regularly practised methods of treatment, and they add enormously to the interest and excitement of listening to a Fugue. Such practices are confined to the “Holiday” period of the Fugue, i.e., to the section that is right away from the “Home” keys; and here again, the Fugue displays its innate human qualities, for “high jinks” are inevitable in holiday time.

Then comes the return journey, and the re-establishment of the “Home” keys: very frequently the parts are so eager to express their joy at the home-coming that they are unable to await their proper turn; before one has finished his say, another begins; before No. 2 finishes, No. 3 begins, and so on. Such a group of entries is called a Stretto — a drawing together.

In outline, therefore, the Fugue is identical with Sonata Form, inasmuch as it consists of three principal divisions:

1. The Exposition in which the material is “exposed,” each voice having its say.

2. The Middle Section or period of travel to other keys in which all kinds of clever and witty things may be done.

3. The Final Section in which the home ties are reestablished.

1 is connected with 2 by an Episode, and 2 and 3 are linked up in the same way, generally by using some already familiar material, and by developing it in conformity with the general scheme. This is all that any one need know in order to enjoy listening to a Fugue. Of course, complete criticism demands complete knowledge of the laws of Fugue, but I venture to say that an intelligent criticism is possible on these simple lines. Listen first for the Subject, then identify the Answer; note carefully the material that accompanies the Answer, and bear it in mind as a possible Counter-subject. Then follow the interweaving of the parts, and note evidence of ingenuity, or of clumsiness; of freedom, or of stiffness; of real power, or of barrenness. Above all and before all ask yourself the question, “Does it make music?” Is it beautiful within the possibilities of its style? Does it bear the impress of clarity, balance, symmetry, and logical development? If so, it will at any rate possess the necessary ingredients to make the perfect whole.

In analyzing music we can only deal with the living body we cannot attempt to analyze the life. But if we understand the living body and its constituent parts (the various Forms) we shall be clear on the fundamental basis of musical expression, for the laws which deal with this matter are enshrined in the greatest work of the greatest masters, and they are based on the fundamental needs of human nature.

Essential principles have changed little during the course of the centuries. Change and decay we see on every hand, but the supremely beautiful like the Architecture of Athens, and the supremely true like the experiences of the wandering Ulysses, remain for all time a priceless standard of achievement and experience; so that in

analyzing we are not groping among the dead bones, we are not forsaking the spirit for the letter, but we are following that thin and continuous line of evolution that leads us, with unmistakable clearness, from the earliest attempts at Musical Art, to its latest manifestations.

It is essential to remember that the language of the Fugue is that of another century; that it represents an entirely different outlook on life; that it is primarily an intellectual product, and its appeal is mainly an intellectual one. Rhythm and Melody, as we understand them today, are foreign to its nature, which is perhaps rather austere and remote.

The exact relationship of the Fugue to Modern Music may be made clear by a simple illustration. The difference is simply the difference between an exquisite product of the old noblesse, and a modern Society dame. The comparison may be crude, but it will serve as a general indication.

Expressed concretely, the difference is one of texture. A Fugue is contrapuntal in texture, whereas a modern movement is harmonic; a Fugue is a continuous thing, the other is broken up into sections by means of cadences; one may be said to be woven, the other stitched together.

Bach is the great genius of fugal art. It was he who first applied, with complete success, the principle of Unity in Diversity on which the Romantic School is based. The application of this principle is evident in all his work, and especially in his fugues, which represent the highest stage of perfection in fugal art. Before Bach began his great work, the Fugue was a mathematical treatise: he raised it from the dust heap of pedantism and made it a potent factor in art and life; a mighty vehicle, capable of infinite variety, worthy to carry the sublimest and deepest thought, and, in its vastness and complexity, akin to the best types of Architecture. In Bach’s fugues, beauty of outline takes second place. He does not work to a definite design, but his design waits upon the demands of harmonic detail. Nothing has been added to the Fugue since Bach’s time, although many have used it with success, including Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and many others.

CHAPTER 9

Simple Forms— Binary and Ternary

Form is concerned with the balancing of Units, and the number of the Units is proportionate to the length of the whole composition or movement. Thus the following folk-tune naturally falls into four Units of four bars, each Unit ending with a prolonged note suggesting a breathing place, or point of repose or, to use a technical term, a Cadence and the whole tune, being composed of four Units, naturally divides into two equal parts and thus falls into the category of Two-Part or Binary Form. If we label each Unit, we get the following formula A.A2||B.A3||.

Example 24

You will note that the second Unit is like the first, except for the ending; and the fourth Unit likewise; while the third breaks quite away, and attains a new melodic height, thus giving an element of contrast. Now Form is concerned with Contrast, as well as with Balance, and it did not take primitive musicians long to realize that after singing one little tune it was pleasant to have another, and pleasanter still to return to the first, by way of finish. Here is an example of Three-Part or Ternary Form:

Example 25

Expressed in formula it is A: B: A — Statement: Digression: Restatement — so that in addition to Balance and Contrast, we find a third element, and the most important of all, i.e., Repetition.

Repetition is the device adopted for securing Unity. It is to be found in every type of music, from the simplest folk-tune to the most elaborate Symphony or Symphonic Poem. The student should carefully examine the following Analyses, and, on the same plan, endeavour to trace the general outline of other pieces. It will be time well spent, because it will result in the formation of a sub-conscious sense of order, and of logical development.

Mendelssohn’s “Lieder ohne Worte”:

A is evolved from the germ — A G# F# E. Watch it as it develops.

B in the same way grows out of this fragment — F# G F# E A.

A begins in the key of E and moves to key B.

B travels about through several keys, but leads back to A in the “Home” key.

It will be observed that not only is there repetition of idea, but

there is also repetition of key. There would, for instance, be a sense of incompleteness if we stopped at bar 29, because the ear craves for the re-establishment of the “Home” key, as well as for the restatement of the original theme.

The object of the Coda is to avoid any abruptness of conclusion. It is if one may be forgiven the metaphor the place where the break is applied to bring the journey to an end without any sense of jar, or shock.

Part 1 is made up of two periods (1 being repeated), beginning in key A and ending in key E. Part 2 balances Part 1, and re-establishes the “Home” key, and the original theme.

Chopin’s Preludes:

A starts in the key of G and moves to key D.

A2 re-establishes the original key.

The whole piece is evolved from the left-hand figure in bar 1, the melody in the right-hand simply representing the outline of it, viz., the 1st, 5th, 8th and 9th notes.

[See No. 15. Binary Form]

The emotional climax is reached at bar 59, and the remaining bars 60-75 form a link by means of which the emotional mood of Part 2 is imperceptibly fused into the quiet tenderness of the final section. The Coda is based on the first tune, and on the quaver figure

which unifies the whole of Part 2.

A new feature is here disclosed, viz., the inclusion of smaller forms within a larger form. The whole piece is in Two-Part Form, but each part has a Ternary subdivision. Note particularly how the element of Unity is secured in Part 2 by key repetition, and not by thematic repetition.

Chopin’s Nocturnes:

Part 2 is entirely based on a four-bar phrase, which is enunciated in C sharp major and repeated three times, with varied harmonic treatment, gradually rising with each repetition, until the climax is reached at bar 42 when the emotional mood relaxes, and the melody gradually falls from high C sharp, in lingering cadence, to middle C sharp, where it melts in silence.

It would be easy, and delightful, to go on multiplying illustrations, but perhaps enough has been said to show the general outline of Binary Form and of Ternary Form, and to indicate the wonderful variety of treatment which is possible while still preserving artistic proportions.

From the historical point of view it is interesting to note that until about the middle of the eighteenth century, practically all instrumental music was written in Binary Form. Whether a dance, an air with variations, or a more extended movement, the music will be found to divide itself into two practically equal parts; the first half starting from the Tonic and moving to the Dominant, and the second half making the return journey! The only exception to this general custom was in the case of Rondo Form, which we shall deal with next.

After J. S. Bach’s death, composers realized that the Two-Part Form had been fully exploited for the time being, and that which happened is what inevitably happens in all processes of intellectual development. Just as the Greek Philosophers who evolved the Systematic or Personal School returned upon the tracks of thought to the earlier schools of philosophy as represented by the Sophists and the Naturalistics, and out of their methods evolved a third method, so did the composers of the second half of the eighteenth century return upon the tracks of music for a formula which would enable them to branch out in another direction.

Although the Ternary principle had been used to a considerable extent in vocal music, it had not been applied to instrumental music, except in a few isolated cases. The result of the development of musical thought upon this new line was epoch-making, for it led, by way of C. P. E. Bach, Hasse, Paradies, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, direct to the perfect Sonata Form, in which some of the greatest and most beautiful thoughts have been bequeathed to the world.

CHAPTER 10 The Rondo

Rondo Form originated in an old French dance, which consisted of the alternation of Choral Dance and Solo Song. First the performers danced (and sang in chorus) in a circle, holding each other’s hands: then one of them sang a solo, after which followed dance and chorus again, succeeded by other solos, after each of which the dance was repeated.

The name is derived from the French Rondeau — a short poetic form, so arranged that the opening and closing two lines are the same: they are also repeated in the middle, as in the following example by Austin Dobson:

You shun me, Chloe, wild and shy

As some stray fawn that seeks its mother

Through trackless woods. If spring-winds sigh, It vainly strives its fears to smother; —

When lizards stir the bramble dry; —

You shun me, Chloe, wild and shy

As some stray fawn that seeks its mother.

And yet no Libyan lion I, —

No ravening thing to rend another; Lay by your tears, your tremors by —

A husband’s better than a brother; Nor shun me, Chloe, wild and shy

As some stray lawn that seeks its mother.

Notice how naturally the first two lines recur. The same feature is to be found in the Rondo in music, which in its original form consisted of one theme, used three times, with two intervening passages.

The Rondo was a favourite form with all the early- harpsichord composers, including Couperin, Rameau and Bach; and also with Haydn and Mozart, who retained its characteristic feature

unimpaired, the formula being A X A X A.

But the work of Beethoven caused a gradual change which has resulted in a form of Rondo closely akin to Sonata Form called Modern Rondo, or Rondo-Sonata, of which more anon. Let it suffice for the present to say that Beethoven found the Rondo with one subject, and left it with two the new formula being A B A X A B A. Beethoven developed the passage following the first subject into a second subject [the difference between an episode and a subject being simply that the former occurs only once, while the latter occurs at least twice] and added another entry of the principal subject, thus making four entries instead of three.

Here are some analyses of modern examples of old Rondo Form, based on one subject, with intervening episodes:

An interesting example of the more developed type — with two subjects and only one episode — is to be found in

Other examples, which the student is advised to analyze for himself, are:

Schumann — Aufschwung (F minor).

Novellette (D minor).

Arabesque (C major).

Kreisleriana (2 and 8).

Beethoven — Sonata Pathetique (Slow Movement).

Waldstein Sonata (Finale).

Sonata in D — Op. 10, No. 3 (Finale).

Sonata in E — Op. 14, No. 1 (Finale).

Sonata in G — Op. 79 (Finale).

Weber — Sonata in C (Finale).

Brahms — Sonata in F minor (Finale).

Tschaikovski — Symphony No. 4 (Finale).

Chopin — Impromptu in G flat.

Fantasie Impromptu.

Nocturne in B (No. 3).

Strauss — Don Juan.

Till Eulenspiegel.

CHAPTER 11 Sonata Form

Sonata Form grew out of the old Ternary Form by a perfectly logical process. It is of course larger in scale, and more complex in detail; but it is much more unified.

Diversity is obtained not by introducing new material, as in Ternary and Rondo Forms, but by “juggling” with material already used; it is another illustration of a return to “first principles,” and is analogous to the treatment of material in the Middle Section of a Fugue.

The following diagrams will show that Sonata Form is really a combination of the best features of Ternary Form and Fugue the two-theme principle of Ternary being combined with the development principle of Fugue.

Plan of Ternary Form

Plan of Fugue

Plan of Sonata Form

The first subject is usually quite short — about one sixth of the whole Exposition — and ends with a perfect cadence. It is followed by a passage which leads easily: without any impression of jerkiness, to the key of the second subject. This feature was evolved gradually. In his earlier works, Haydn plunged at once into the key of the second subject; but such a procedure was afterwards felt to be unsatisfactory. It was abrupt, and lacking in finish: like a wooden partition constructed without the simple but necessary device of dovetailing.

In many of Haydn’s and Mozart’s works, the transitions are of a purely formal character [Wagner once described them as “the clatter of dishes at a royal banquet”], but in their more mature work, the texture is well-knit, and the change is skilfully contrived. Beethoven further developed this contrivance; indeed so well did he eventually dovetail his sections, that it is almost impossible for a listener to mark off the sections as they appear, without some previous study of the work.

The most important part of the Exposition is the second subject. It consists of several sections, more or less independent, and it covers all the ground from the passage of transition to the double bar, which in all classical music marks off the Exposition for complete repetition. The reason for the complete repetition of the Exposition is not at all complimentary to the intelligence of the listeners of the period. It was felt that a second hearing was absolutely imperative in order that audiences might mentally grasp its material, and appreciate the composer’s skill in his treatment of it in the “development” section. In modern works this custom is not retained. Rightly or wrongly we credit our audiences with sufficient intelligence to follow the progress

of a work without the need to call a halt so that all that has been already said may be repeated! Of course the custom of printing the principal themes in our modern annotated programmes is a great help in this direction.

Although the different sections of the second subject may be in different keys, yet the subject as a whole centres round one definite key usually the Dominant. A curious survival of old Binary Form is to be found in some of the early Haydn and Mozart Sonatas, where we find the second subject starting, in the key of the Dominant, with the theme of the first subject. Beethoven settled the problem finally, by never using as second subject any existing material.

The old rule as to the key of the second subject was inflexible. If the movement was major, then the second subject would be in the Dominant key: if minor, it would be in the relative major. But Beethoven broke down that convention like many others, and established the right of free speech.

In the work of Haydn and Mozart we find the best material of the second subject concentrated at the beginning, after which follow meaningless successions of scale passages and arpeggi; but Beethoven, and later writers, keep something “up their sleeve” for the end, so that our interest is sustained.

With the end of the second subject we reach the conclusion of the first part of Sonata Form the part that corresponds to the clause of assertion in Ternary Form. The next part the clause of contrast is termed the Development Section. In it is shown the composer’s skill, for it is usually constructed out of the materials of the Exposition. Applied with reference to the work of a composer who is really an “artist,” and not merely a “journeyman,” the keynote of the Exposition is inspiration: that of the Development is craftsmanship. The material of the former springs into his mind spontaneously, but the latter has to be evolved with all the skill and craft that his experience suggests.

For the Development section there are no cut-and-dried rules: the composer is free to do just as he likes, provided he bears in mind the due proportions of the whole structure. The function of this section is to afford tonal relief after the more or less settled condition of Tonic and Dominant found in the Exposition. This relief is obtained

— as in the case of Fugue — by a free process of modulation: by wandering far afield from the original key, and by keeping away from it during the whole of the section.

The Recapitulation re-establishes the home key, and re-asserts the material of the Exposition in that key, followed by a suitable Coda which is simple or elaborate according to the taste of the composer.

Rondo-Sonata Form has all the features of Sonata, but in addition there is an extra entry of the First Subject at the end of the Exposition and Recapitulation.

Plan of Rondo-Sonata Form

The production of a great work of art demands something that defies analysis: yet analysis can be used as a standpoint for intelligent criticism. The difficulty lies in making people think at all on matters of art. The man or woman who frankly announces the fact that art means nothing to him or her, is really a better friend to art than the man or woman who has to wait for authoritative opinion before he or she knows whether a work is good or bad.

Music is so peculiarly subjective; so essentially a thing of the spirit; so obviously independent of concrete models, that one of the factors we must take into consideration in any endeavour to assess values, is that of the practice of the great masters: not of any one great master, but of the results of a period of labour in which some phase of music has been brought to perfection.

We have traced the growth of Sonata Form from the simple form of the folk-song, and in the process we have realized, I hope, that no individual man is responsible for the invention of any form in music. All forms are the outcome of a gradual evolution. The invention of a

new and satisfactory form would appear to be the most difficult of any invention in music: far more so than the invention of new harmonies, or new types of melody. Indeed the composer who deliberately set out to discover a new form would probably experience the fate of Captain Scott and many another explorer, and find that some one had forestalled him.

There is an idea abroad that the possibilities in music are endless. It may be so. But the thing we should realize is that art never progresses on revolutionary lines. It progresses on lines which open out as a result of the gradual unfolding of definite principles. So it is that Form, whether Sonata Form or any other kind of Form, is based on a firmer foundation than mere whim or caprice: and it will require something more dynamic and far-reaching than whim or caprice to shake the edifice that has been so firmly built by the greatest architects in the world of music.

Gautier says: “Every one has his measure of inspiration.” It is very true; for there are moments when we are all conscious of a sense of joy which immeasurably transcends both senses and intellect. This is the quality that defies analysis. It may be that one’s soul, reverting to some ancient habit, steals away, and, Prometheus-like, brings back the fire from heaven. In any case it springs out of the unknown, and if we are not quick to seize the moment, it passes away into the unknown. The fundamental difference between a man of genius and an ordinary man lies in the frequency of such visitations: the former deliberately invites them; the latter, by the systematic regularity of his daily avocations, as systematically repels them.

Yet it is not enough for the man of genius to be in touch with this supernatural force; the flash of vision is necessarv for the hearer as well; how else can one account for that immediate apprehension of vitality in the best work? Our own dying fire is re-kindled by a spark, and our being is suffused with the warmth and glow of beauty; at such moments the highest chord in man’s nature is touched. True, such moments are of rare occurrence; but it is not possible to mistake them for anything lower: e.g., an appeal to the senses. The gulf which divides these two experiences is as wide as that which divided Lazarus from Dives: and the intervening space is available for rational analysis.

We cannot analyze inspiration; but that is the smallest part of the composer’s equipment though, of course, the most precious. A modern writer has flippantly expressed the ratio as “Two per cent, inspiration: ninety-eight per cent, perspiration.”

Edgar Allan Poe, in his essay on the Philosophy of Composition, says: “I have often thought how interesting a magazine paper might be written by any author who would that is to say, who could detail, step by step, the processes by which any one of his compositions attained its ultimate point of completion. Most writers, poets in especial, prefer to have it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy an ecstatic intuition and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought at the purposes seized only at the last moment at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view at the fully matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable at the cautious selections and rejections at the painful erasures and interpolations in a word, at the wheels and pinions the tackle for scene shifting the step ladders and demon traps the cock’s feathers, the red paint, and the black patches, which, in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred constitute the properties of the literary histrio.”

CHAPTER 12

The Sonata as a Whole

The principles of construction already outlined apply to all forms of instrumental compositions. On the one side lie the smaller forms, such as Nocturnes, Preludes, Romances, Intermezzi, and so on, with their simple two-part or three-part construction; and on the other side lie the extended forms of Sonata, String Quartet, Symphony, and Concerto.

The Sonata offers a new set of conditions; in it we find not one extended movement, but several. Briefly defined, a Sonata is a collection of pieces (or movements, as they are called), each complete in itself, yet all combining to make a satisfactory whole. A Symphony is a Sonata for Orchestra; a String Quartet is a Sonata for Strings; and a Concerto is a Sonata for a Solo instrument, with accompaniment for orchestra.

The number of movements varies. Before Beethoven’s time three was the accepted number for a Sonata, and four for a Symphony. Now there is no definite rule: there may be three or seven it is left entirely to the discretion of the composer; but the average Sonata consists of four movements.

A composer is quite free to cast his movements in whatever form he chooses, but it is generally expected that his first movement shall be in Sonata Form. It would be undesirable that all the movements should be in the same form. Contrast of design is essential, as well as contrast of key and of style. Generally speaking, the first movement is an Allegro (in Sonata Form); the second, a slow movement in one of the simple forms; the third, a Scherzo; and the last, a Rondo or Rondo-Sonata. The first and last movements will be in the same key; the other two movements will be in related keys. Of course much depends on the mood of the piece as a whole. If it be tragic, there will probably not be any Scherzo; if it be light, there may not be a slow movement of the usual type, but perhaps an Allegretto. The old convention which required every complex work to have its “grave

and gay” movements, has been relegated to the scrapheap; a composer is now free to choose exactly as he likes, and his responsibility is, of course, in direct ratio.

Plan of Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Plan of Sonata Pathetique, Op. 13.

First Movement Sonata Form, with an Introduction.

Second Movement Rondo Form.

Third Movement Developed Rondo Form (2 subjects).

Plan of Sonata, Op. 109.

First Movement Rondo Form.

Second Movement Sonata Form.

Third Movement Air with variations. The Air is Binary in construction. There are six variations, after which the Air is repeated in its original simple form.

Plan of Sonata, Op. no. 110

First Movement Sonata Form.

Second Movement Ternary Form.

Third Movement Binary Form.

Fourth Movement Combined Rondo and Fugue.

CHAPTER 13 The Symphony

One of the chief lessons which a study of the development of any branch of art teaches us is that of the folly of partisanship. The sane person will accept the music of all periods for what it is worth, remembering what part it has played in the general development of the whole.

The Symphony — although similar in form to the Sonata — covers a much wider area. The Sonata leads us to the end of a period — speaking generally; but the Symphony bridges that period, and carries us into another phase of music’s development. The name given to the first period is “Classic”; the next phase rejoices in the name “Romantic,” and as there is much to be desired in the general understanding of these terms, it would be well to re-affirm the fact that Art is a slowly evolving affair; it is not concerned with opposites, and it does not thrive upon a system of “party politics”; so that labels, such as “Classic” and “Romantic,” should be clearly understood as representing different phases of musical development, and not as shibboleths for duels a Voutrance. Moreover, it is well to note that such terms are purely artificial and arbitrary. Each generation makes its own classifications, and it is quite possible that the number of names relegated to the classical list will be much more numerous fifty years hence than it is to-day.

There is a vagueness about the term “Romantic,” and certainly more can be said on behalf of “Classic.” Archbishop Trench traces its use from the political economy of Rome. “Such a man was rated as to his income in the third class; such another in the fourth, and so on, and he who was in the highest was emphatically said to be of the class, classicus: a class man, without adding the number, as in that case superfluous; while all others were infra classem.” That is the true significance of the term, and it seems to me much more worthy of general use than that interpretation which limits it merely to one phase of development.

A practical alternative would be the use of the term “formal” to describe the period which is now loosely named “classic,” reserving the latter name for the giants of all periods.

In the common acceptance of the term, “classic” composers are those of the first rank who have cultivated the formal side of the Art, and who have preferred abstract beauty to emotional expression. “Romantic” composers, on the other hand, are those who have sought to express, in music, definite ideas and emotions, regardless of the primary claims of form: they are men to whom content outweighs style.

It is easy to see how thoughtless people have seized upon this apparent (though not real) cleavage, to dub the former Conservative and Reactionary, and the latter Progressive and Creative. But the truth is that one is simply the logical development of the other; without the one, the other could not be; nothing remains still, therefore it follows that forms which were suitable for one style of expression require expansion, or contraction, to meet the needs of another.

Old Bach was certainly a “Romantic,” and so was Beethoven; it is clear, then, that what is “Romantic” to-day will be “Classic” tomorrow.

A Symphony is a Sonata for orchestra. But it has not always had that meaning; originally, it was the name given to an ancient instrument a sort of Lyre; later, it was the Greek term for “harmony” (sum with: phone sound = concord); later still, it has indicated:

i. An Overture,

ii. An Interlude,

iii. The Introduction to a Song.

Haydn is commonly credited with the “invention” of the Symphony, as we understand the term, but like many other popular beliefs this one has no foundation in fact; all Haydn did was to gather together the threads of the best work of his predecessors and contemporaries, and weave them into a unified fabric.

Of course the orchestra of the eighteenth century was a different affair from that of to-day. Haydn and Mozart wrote for Strings, Flutes, Oboes, Horns, Trumpets and Bassoons. Before their time there was

little attempt to secure contrast of tone between the different groups of instruments; the strings played throughout, and the effect must have been extremely monotonous.

Haydn wrote 118 Symphonies, of which about twenty are interesting. Mozart wrote forty-nine, mostly in three movements, but latterly in four movements — with the Minuet and Trio added. The improvements made by these men, acting and reacting upon each other, may be summarized as follows:

i.Better treatment of instruments,

ii.A greater freedom of style,

iii.A tremendous advance in vitality, and in development of ideas,

iv.Better distribution and contrast of tone.

Haydn and Mozart gave the Symphony a dignity which it did not possess before, a dignity which has greatly increased since their day.

Beethoven inherited their form, but considerably expanded it by adding the Introduction and Coda, by joining up some of his movements, by a greater freedom in the use of keys, by setting his face steadily against conventionalism, by a powerful infusion of emotion and imagination, by the co-ordination of all component parts, and by developed orchestration. He used Clarinets and Trumpets from the outset, and later introduced Trombones.

Schubert was a “Romantic.” Form meant less to him than content and colour. He aimed at a personal utterance and at the deepening of the means of expression. That he was successful is evidenced by his exquisite “Unfinished” Symphony, and his fine one in C major — his eighth and ninth respectively.

Mendelssohn was an out-and-out formalist. He added nothing new to the Symphony, but relied upon sparkling diction and highly polished form, upon rich orchestral colouring and facile technique. His music is never intense because he never “let himself go”: emotion always gave place to style; convention was never disregarded; in short, he was a “safe” man because he was of those who “blow neither hot nor cold.” This may account for his popularity. He filled a gap. Beethoven’s intensity was at that time beyond the ken of the average person, and it proved an admirable foil to the light and pretty music

of Mendelssohn which was easily understood, which made no excessive demand upon the emotions, and which was thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of the age an age which respected conformity to convention.

The influence of Robert Schumann is in startling contrast to that of Mendelssohn. It was not enough for Schumann to know that “such and such a course” was correct and traditional. Everything must be tested anew. He possessed a sense of beauty which impelled him towards an individual style of utterance: the seal of the truly great. In the development of the Symphony Schumann must undoubtedly rank as a pioneer, not on account of his technique for Mendelssohn possessed far more of that commodity but because emotion drove him on to express himself in his own way.

The case of Mendelssohn and Schumann is but one example out of many, of the inability of the public to estimate correctly contemporary art and artists. Mendelssohn was fashionable and popular. Schumann cared naught for fashions: he was a dreamer, unpractical, with queer ideas. Mendelssohn wrote pretty tunes in conventional patterns. Schumann, realizing that Beethoven had shaped existing forms to a state of perfection, sought to evolve new formal shape by a process of unification. Beethoven established the fact that a pretty tune is not the stuff out of which a great Symphony is made, but that the need is for an arresting idea. Schumann went a step further and sought a dominating idea, one capable of much reiteration, of modification and of expansion; and he developed this practice to such an extent that his principal subject-matter is sometimes used throughout an entire movement. It is perhaps modified to suit the special needs of the moment, as in the D minor Symphony, where the subject is first introduced in the Introduction and appears in several forms throughout the movement, and also in the second and last movements, either as actual subject matter or as accompaniment to new material. In this way he secured unification and demonstrated the growing importance of subject-matter in relation to form, insisting that the latter must be shaped to meet the needs of the former.

This impulse towards freer form finds fuller expression in Berlioz’s “Symphonic fantastique Episode de la Vie d’un Artiste,” in which the artist’s affections are represented by a musical figure called the

“idee fixe,” which by its constant re-appearance serves to unify the work. In the laying out of the movements it bears some resemblance to a Symphony, but it is the pioneer work in a new departure i.e., the attempt to illustrate a definite story, by means of music denominated Programme Music. The movements are five in number:

(i) “Reveries passions” (corresponding to the usual slow Introduction and Allegro); (ii) “Un Bal” (takes the place of the Minuet and Trio); (hi) “Scene aux champs” (supplies the slow movement);

(iv) “Marche au Supplice” v. “Songe d’une Nuit du Sabbat.”

“Harold in Italy,” another work on similar lines, is divided into four scenes: (i) “Harold in the mountains” (Harold is indicated throughout by a Viola solo); (ii) “March of pilgrims singing the prayer of evening”; (iii) “Serenade”; (iv) “Orgy of brigands.”

Franz Liszt adopted the principles of Berlioz, and was the first to use the name “Symphonic Poem,” of which type he wrote several examples Mazeppa, Prometheus, Orpheus, Les Preludes in addition to a “Dante Symphony” and a “Faust Symphony.” In Liszt’s work, the subjects have no connection whatever with definite form: they are used to indicate individuals, ideas, or circumstances. Themes are used, for instance, to express “bewildered inquiry,” “anxious agitation,” “love,” and “mockery,” as well as to indicate each person concerned in the story.

The difference between the Symphony and the Symphonic Poem is simply that the former consists of a group of movements which are united by ties of key relationship and general mood, and expressed in recognized forms; while the latter is the continuous exposition of a story, or poem, in which the old method of development of themes gives place to variation of themes, and where the form is conditioned by the demands of the text.

Doubtless the appeal of the Symphonic Poem, during the last fifty years, has predominated. Formal perfection on the old lines was achieved by Beethoven, and the movement in which he had a share towards a fusion of the different branches of Art, has gained ground year by year.

Abstract music conveys its own message to every worthy listener. It can, at best, be only an indefinite message. Why not make it potent by every possible means? If poetry will help use it. If colours will

help use them. There can surely be no loss of power involved in announcing the subject of a discourse, whether musical or otherwise; and if it is still true that music begins where words end, there is all the more reason for defining our starting point. It becomes more abundantly clear that Art is not confined to one medium, or to one group of media, but is the general result of that tremendous force which impels man to express his sense of beauty in different ways. Thus there is not an Art of Painting, another Art of Music, and another Art of Poetry, but all are part of the great Spirit of Art, and all are essential for the transmission of the complete message of Art. The Symphony has undergone certain changes since the middle of the nineteenth century. Brahms substituted an Allegretto type of movement for the Scherzo, and the Russian, Bohemian and Finnish composers have introduced a national note into some of their work. It is conceivable that the Symphony and the Symphonic Poem may continue to thrive, side by side; they appeal to different types of creative mind, and if they can both continue to serve the cause of Art, there will always be appreciative listeners. On the other hand, it may be that the modern tendency towards fusion in Art, in Religion, and in Politics may result in the total rejection of the set forms in music, and the general acceptance of a freer form of utterance, impelled by existing beauty, or truth, in some other manifestation.

The way has already been indicated by Edward Elgar in his first Symphony, where he boldly discards the old formula. Beethoven aimed at making his movements organic. Elgar by an application of the methods of Schumann, Liszt, Franck and Wagner has aimed at organic unity in the whole work. The movements have themes in common, and the principal theme that of the Introduction pervades the whole work.

Bantock’s Symphony “Atalanta in Calydon” for voices alone, Vaughan-Williams’ “Sea Symphony” for voices and orchestra, and Delius’ “Song of the High Hills” for orchestra and voices (without words) suggest a possible line for future development. Saint-Saens describes the ultra-modernist as one “who abandons all keys and piles up dissonances which he neither introduces nor concludes, and who, as a result, grunts his way through music as a pig through a flower

garden.” It is a sweeping statement, and unwise, because the dust of conflict that is still in our eyes blinds us to many beauties that time alone can reveal. It is quite possible that the new forward impulse in music may take such shape as to completely revolutionize not only existing forms, but existing tonal conditions. If so, it will be the result of a process of gradual change, and not of sudden upheaval. Artistic achievements are built on a firmer foundation than mere caprice, they rest on the practice of great men who have achieved their position as the result of years of thought and labour. In the past, the really great men have advanced the Art of Music by building on the work of their predecessors. In the present, the really great men, as far as one is able to judge, are following the same process; and after all, it is a process that is in complete conformity with the fundamental laws of Nature.

Chronological List of the Chief Writers of Symphonies

Eighteenth Century.

Alessandro Scarlatti — wrote 12 “Symphonies for small orchestra.”

Niccola Antonio Porpora — wrote “chamber symphonies” for 2 violins, ’cello, and continuo.

Johann Grann — wrote 40 Symphonies.

Giovanni Sammartini — wrote 24 Symphonies; he has been called “the precursor of Hadyn in symphonic and chamber music.”

Ignaz Holzbauer — wrote 196 Symphonies which were commended by Mozart.

Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach — directly influenced Haydn and Mozart in symphony writing.

J. K. Stamitz — wrote 45 Symphonies. He was one of the first to use a definite second subject.

Joseph Haydn, commonly called the “Father of the Symphony” — wrote 157 Symphonies.

Michael Haydn — a younger brother of Joseph — wrote some 30 Symphonies.

F. J. Gossec wrote 27 Symphonies.

K. D. von Dittersdorf a pioneer in writing Symphonies based on a “programme,” or with a distinctive title.

Luigi Boccherini wrote 20 Symphonies.

Justin Heinrich Knecht wrote a number of Symphonies with distinctive titles.

W. A. Mozart one of the greatest masters of Symphony. Andreas Romberg wrote 6 Symphonies which are forgotten. He is remembered by his “Toy” Symphony.

Nineteenth Century and after.

L. van Beethoven wrote the “Famous Nine.”

George Onslow wrote 4 Symphonies, one of which was formed by the Philharmonic Society, in London.

Louis Spohr wrote dramatic Symphonies.

F. Schubert wrote 9 Symphonies, of which the “Unfinished” is most popular.

John L. Ellerton wrote 5 Symphonies, of which one was named “The Forest.”

Hector Berlioz “Symphonie Fantastique”; “Harold in Italie”; “Romeo and Juliet.”

Franz Lachner wrote 8 Symphonies.

Julius Benedict wrote Concertos and Symphonies.

Michael Costa wrote 3 Symphonies.

F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy “Reformation”; “Italian”; “Scotch”; “Hymn of Praise.”

Robert Schumann wrote 4 Symphonies: “Spring”; D minor; C major; “Rhenish.”

Franz Liszt the inventor of the name “Symphonic Poem.”

Wm. Sterndale Bennett wrote a Symphony in G minor.

Cesar Franck Symphony in D minor and Symphonic Poems.

Joachim Raff “Leonore” Symphony.

Anton Bruchner 9 Symphonies.

Friedrich Smetana Symphonic Poems.

E. Silas Symphony in A.

THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC

Anton Rubinstein — “The Ocean” Symphony, and others

Karl Goldmark — “Rustic Wedding” Symphony.

Johannes Brahms — C minor; D major; F major; E minor.

Peter Benoit — “Choral” Symphony.

A. P. Borodin — 3 Symphonies and a Symphonic Poem.

C.Saint-Saens — Symphonic Poems and Symphonies.

Ebenezer Prout — 4 Symphonies.

M.A. Balakireff — Symphonic Poems and 1 Symphony.

J. F. Barnett — Symphony in A minor.

Alfred Holmes — 4 Symphonies with titles.

V.de Jonciere — “Choral” Symphony and

J. K. Paine — an American composer of Symphonic Poems and Symphonies.

Joseph Rheinberger — “Florentine” and “Wallenstein” Symphonies.

Hermann Goetz — Symphony in F.

J. S. Svensden — Symphony in D.

P.I. Tschaikovski — 6 Symphonies, of which the well-known “Pathetique” was the last.

Anton Dvorak — 5 Symphonies, of which the G major and the “New World” are best known.

A. S. Sullivan — wrote 1 Symphony.

N. A. Rimsky-Kovsakoff — Programme Symphonies.

Gabriel Faure — 1 Symphony.

Ch. Marie Widor — 2 Symphonies.

Hubert Parry — 4 Symphonies.

Ole Olsen — Symphonic Poems and 1 Symphony.

F.X. Scharwenka — A “Polish” Symphony.

Vincent d’Judy — Symphonic Poems.

F. H. Cowen — 6 Symphonies.

C.V. Stanford — 5 Symphonies.

Ernest Chausson — 3 Symphonic Poems and 1 Symphony.

C.Sinding — Symphony in D minor.

S.I. Taneiff — 2 Symphonies and a Symphonic Poem

Edward Elgar — 2 Symphonies.

Frederic Cliff e — Symphony in C minor.

Gustav Mahler — 6 Symphonies, the 4th ending with a

soprano solo.

Gustave Charpentier “Symphonie-Drama” “La Vie du Poete.”

William Wallace Symphonic Poem and 1 Symphony.

A. Arensky 2 Symphonies.

E. German Symphonic Poems and 2 Symphonies.

Frederick Delius Symphonic Poems.

Felix Weingartner 2 Symphonies.

Richard Strauss Symphonic Poems.

Paul Dukas Symphonic Poem and Symphony.

A. Glazonnoff Symphonic Poems and 7 Symphonies.

Jean Sibelius 2 Symphonies and Symphonic Poems.

G. Bantock Symphonic Poems and Hebridean Symphony.

A. Jarnefeldt Symphonic Poems.

A. Scriabine Symphonic Poems.

R. Vaughan Williams “Sea Symphony” and “London” Symphony.

S. Rachmaninoff 2 Symphonies.

E. von Dohnanyi Symphony in D minor.

Igor Stravinsky Symphony in E flat and wonderful “Ballet” Music.

Joseph Holbrooke “Choral” Symphony and Symphonic Poems.

Cyril Scott Symphony.

Balfour Gardiner Symphony in D.

Hamilton Harty Irish Symphony and Symphonic Poems.

W. H. Bell 6 Symphonic Poems and 2 Symphonies.

Ernest Bryson 2 Symphonies.

E. L. Bainton Symphony: “Before Sunrise.”

CHAPTER 14 Oratorio

Doubtless the recognition of a Trinity in Art is really important, for only on such a basis can the work of the Artist be adequately judged. It is precisely on this count that so many people fail in attempting to assess the value of an artistic product; they fail in insisting upon the absolute value of any phase of Art irrespective of any other association; in stating, for instance, that Poetry contains the whole truth of Art, or that Pictorial Art attains the ultimate expression of beauty, or that Music, in and by itself, succeeds where others fail.

The simple truth is that Art is neither Painting, Music, nor Poetry, but an expression of all three. It is an act of creation in which all three have their share. Does not poetry paint pictures which need to be visualized, and suggest the music of Nature? And does not painting suggest an underlying poetic feeling, and also colour-sounds? And cannot music suggest underlying poetic emotion, and also depict glowing colours and rich contours?

Can any person who is really alive to beauty, and to the appeal of Art, look at a fine picture without hearing, say, the v bid among the trees or the hum of bees among flowers, of creeping things innumerable, of the delicious Music of a softly purling brook, or of waves rushing into rock crevices, and flinging themselves high in myriad colours, with the very joy of life? So in Music. Association of idea is inevitable where there is real sensibility. As surely and inevitably does Palestrina’s music suggest the dignity and beauty of the old Catholic Ritual, as Bach’s music makes us conscious of rich colours and gorgeous tracery; of the kaleidoscopic effect of an old French stainedglass window plus the glories of the architecture of Chartres.

All Art is symbolical: it conveys more by what is implied than by what is expressed. If we take the words of a fine poem as words, the result is sadly disappointing. But if we measure their value by the wealth of association which they conjure up within us, they assume totally different proportions. Again — think for a moment of the

demand made upon our imagination by a simple etching. “The inexpressible itself speaks to us in secrecy.” When great music is wedded to great poetry, the potentiality of the element of symbolism becomes vastly greater; more particularly is this true in the case of Religious Art, and great leaders, in all ages, have been quick to recognize the tremendous symbolic value of Art, and to utilize it to serve their purposes. In just such a way was Oratorio born.

In its inception it was intended by its founder San Filippo Neri, founder of the Congregation of the Oratorians to be a means of attracting and instructing the poorer youth of Rome. A portion of Scripture was acted, and accompanied or interspersed with hymns, and as the performances were associated with the new oratory of San Filippo’s Church, they became known as Oratorios.

Oratorio and Opera really spring from the same root (the old Miracle Play), and both travelled along the path up to a point, the only difference being that on was concerned with “sacred” and the other with “secular” subjects. The same year 1600 saw the firs example of both forms Peri’s Opera “Euridiee,” and Emilio del Cavaliere’s Oratorio “La Rappresentazion dell’ Anima e del Corpo.”

The composer of the latter work died before it was produced, but he left detailed instructions concerning the scenery and action. There was, for instance, a ballet, and certain scenes were marked to be enlivened “with capers, without singing.” The orchestra consisted of one Harpsichord (the predecessor of the pianoforte), one doublenecked Lute, one double-necked Bass Viol, and two Flutes; and a note was added saying that “a good effect may be produced by playing a Violin in unison with the Soprano voices throughout.”

Carissimi first introduced the Narrator, and thus paved the way for the elimination of the spectacular element: his pupil, Alessandro Scarlatti, established the Aria, an improved the general character of the accompaniments. In Italy, however, Oratorio was too much akin to Opera in its general treatment, the reason being that the real spirit of religious music, as exemplified in the work of Palestrina, had passed out of Italy, just as the real spirit of dramatic music, as exemplified in the work of Monteverde, had passed out of Italy. In the case of Opera it passed to France, but in the case of Oratorio it passed to Germany. The fundamental difference between Italian Oratorio from

Cavaliere to Rossini, and German and English Oratorio from Schutz to Elgar, is that the former has primarily, a sensuous appeal, whilst the latter has primarily an intellectual appeal. In other words, the Italians seek to please; whereas the others, by reason of the intensity of their northern temperament, seek to uplift. About the one, there is almost invariably a sense of ostentation or of triviality; but the other is dignified or tender, and in unison with the inner spirit of religion.

So the religious spirit of Palestrina passed to other countries and other creeds. Theologically, Bach and Palestrina were poles asunder, but in spirit they were brethren, which only goes to prove how puerile religious divisions really are. On the other hand, though Palestrina and Rossini were of the same race and religion, they speak different spiritual languages.

The link in the passage of Italian methods to Germany was Heinrich Schütz, who studied with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice from 1609 to 1612. Schütz mastered Italian methods, returned to Germany, and there produced the first six German Oratorios, which differed from their Italian prototypes in the following important essentials:

i.No stage was used.

ii.The popular type of melody was entirely eschewed.

iii.Everything of a sensuously attractive nature was deliberately avoided.

iv.The key-note was not “Recreation” but “Reverence,” and this epitomizes the fundamental difference in the attitude of the two schools of composers.

The Italians regarded Oratorio as a means of Collective Religious Recreation, the Germans as an opportunity for Individual Introspection and Aspiration. After Schütz the use of Plainsong was discontinued in Germany, and its place was taken by that wonderful and characteristic growth — The Chorale — around which the special German type of Oratorio — The Passion — developed. Bach wrote four Passion Oratorios, of which two only have come down to us (the other two being lost), e.g., the “S. John” and the “S. Matthew.” Bach’s Oratorios differ from those of the Italian School in plan as well as in treatment. He breaks up the whole work into

sections; at certain points the narrative ceases, and the scene that has just been described is made the subject of a meditation by means of an Air or Arioso-Recitative; at other points the feelings of the spectators are expressed in appropriate chorale form, The “S. Matthew” Passion incomparably the greatest of all Passions consists of twenty-four scenes, twelve smaller ones rounded off by Chorales, and twelve larger ones marked by Arias. The text of the “S. John” Passion has neither the variety nor the simplicity of that according to S. Matthew: it is more continuous and dramatic, and lacks the points of repose which call for the insertion of meditations: the Arias would almost seem to have been inserted by force.

In the “S. John,” Bach insists on the cruelty of the mob, the physical suffering of Jesus, the supposed remorse of mankind whose guilt occasioned that suffering, and finally, an expression of hope, praise and gratitude for the gift of the Redeeming Christ. The “Matthew” Passion, however, is the expression of a more mature understanding, and insists on love, infinite tenderness and sorrow; indeed, the outstanding features of the “John” are quite subordinate to these, and one infers that Bach’s intellectual condition in 1723, when he wrote the “John,” prompted him to use the familiar evangelic method of driving a lesson home by arousing terror, remorse and hope; while in 1729, when he wrote the “Matthew,” he had forged ahead of contemporary dogma, and realized that love and service alone raise humanity near to God.

English Oratorio, curiously enough, was established by a foreigner. Nothing in the nature of Oratorio existed in this country before the advent of Handel; indeed, its origin was absolutely and entirely due to an unsuccessful business speculation! Handel came to this country in 1710, and for twenty-three years sought faun and fortune by the production of a string of Operas in the Italian style. But fortune withheld her smile, and he was reduced to destitution by the failure of his operatic enterprise; so much so, that he was glad to accept a “benefit” performance in order to replenish his purse and re-establish his financial position. After a second lapse into bankruptcy, due to his persistence in striving to make Opera successful in London, Handel tried Oratorio, with satisfactory results. Then he produced a steady stream of! Oratorios, not be it noted because of any

inner prompting to convey a religious message to the world, but like his Italian prototypes to supply a public demand. There is an ironic flavour in this fact when one thinks of it in conjunction with the public estimate of the “Messiah” and the “S. Matthew Passion.”

Handel had not a religious temperament: he never troubled about problems of metaphysic, but he had a tremendous imagination and a wonderful power of projecting his imagination in vivid musical colours. Where Bach expresses an inward belief, Handel translates a mental picture, and it is quite immaterial whether the picture be of sacred or secular significance the treatment is precisely the same. Thus Bach’s method is Subjective, revealing the state of his own mind, and Handel’s is Objective, depicting scenes created by his imagination; and it is safe to say at where two or three musicians are gathered together, the spirit of Bach will be in the midst of them, apart from England, Handel’s influence on music and musicians has been slight, yet in England it has been enormous; in fact, cripplingly so, for he has dominated the musical taste of this country for 150 years. Even now we find that certain Choral Societies are able to thrive solely by reason of their willingness to perpetuate this tradition, by setting up, annually, their sacred fetish for the worship of the masses. No belittlement of Handel’s towering genius is here implied, but rather a lack of vision on the part of those who are content, year after year, to hold up for the admiration of the public one masterpiece, or one type of musical art, to the exclusion of others equally great .

Handel and Bach obtained their wonderful effects by different means, the former by bold strokes, the latter by wealth of detail; and Handel’s failure to influence his successors is due to the fact that he stands at the end of a line of development, whereas Bach stands midway Handel exploited his particular medium to the full, but Bach suggested untold possibilities “for them that come after.”

The text of Haydn’s Oratorio, “The Creation,” trivial and puerile as it frequently is, simply serves as a peg for some of Haydn’s most characteristic and naively delightful music. It is only natural to expect that the man who did so much to place the Symphony and the String Quartet on a solid foundation would find his chief interest in the instrumental part of an Oratorio. For him music, qua music, and not

as a means of intensifying words, was the thing; so we find in the pictorial aspect of the “Creation” in the “Representation of Chaos,” and the illustration of the words “And there was light”; in “awful thunders” and “foaming billows”; in “flowers, sweet and gay,” and in the cooing of “tender doves” a perennial beauty without which the world of music would be the poorer. But beyond affording an opportunity for picturesque effect, words meant little to Haydn, as is clear in his earlier work “The return of Tobias,” where “the singers beseech the Almighty to hear their prayers and tears, in an Allegro in D major, forte, with nice running fiddles, and everything very charming and cheerful.”

The work of Beethoven, Spohr, Liszt, and Dvorak does not advance the story at all.

Mendelssohn’s “S. Paul” is obviously based on the “S. Matthew” Passion as regards its general treatment. A scene is described, and then follows reflection and the pointing of the lesson. “Elijah” is, of course, more dramatic, but the same method of treatment underlies is more popular features.

The French School has not distinguished itself in the writing of Oratorio. Berlioz’s “L’Enfance du Christ” and Franck’s “Les Beatitudes” are noteworthy as containing less choral dullness, or cloying sweetness, than the average example; but it is clear that the genius of both men lies in the department of instrumental music, one feels concerning their choral writing as one feels about that of Beethoven, that it is not a natural expression, but an instrumental idiom forced into a choral channel.

In the English School there is nothing of outstanding merit, nothing that really strikes a new note, until we reach Elgar’s “Gerontius,” and to no work more than to the “Dream of Gerontius” do my introductory remarks apply.

Here we have an example of articulate expression in music and in poetry: a great poem set to great music, and it would be strange indeed if the third dimension were not in evidence from beginning to end. Doubtless, the pictorial element is of a most vivid and remarkable type from the outset, where the poignant cry of the dying man at once thrills us and gives us a vision of the whole scene: “Jesu, Maria: I am near to death, and thou art killing me!”

If the function of Æsthetics is “to inquire with what eloquence and sincerity the artist communicates his feelings,” then must “Gerontius” be placed on the highest pinnacle. The music is, in a way, self-abnegatory, but paradoxical as it may seem, it is all the greater in consequence, for the music expounds the poem not parts of it, but the whole spirit and intention. We have the last agony of the sick man, his death, and his passage to the unseen, not merely described in words, but expounded in an entirely individual idiom in the peculiar language of emotion. We have, successively, the Chorus of Demons and of Angels singing “Praise to the Holiest in the Height and in the Depth”; of the prayers and aspirations a humanity; and finally we have the lovely the surpassingly lovely music where the soul is “softly and gently” dropped into the waters of Purgatory. So tremendous is the appeal of sincerity and beauty in this conception that it is no uncommon thing to hear of Welsh Calvinists of the most staunch Protestant spirit singing the work with intensity and power, and giving voice to sentiments which are absolutely at variance with their professed religious belief. But this again is only another instance of the tremendous unifying quality of Art. Religions divide, but Art unites. It exercises its spells upon all who are susceptible to the call of beauty. Is there not an even greater need of Art to-day than ever before, and may not its function be to succeed where Religion has failed?

CHAPTER 15 Chamber Music

Chamber music includes all music of a concerted nature suitable for performance in a room. It excludes music for large bodies of performers, ecclesiastical music, and dramatic music. Strictly speaking, a Pianoforte Recital is not a Chamber Concert; but a Recital for Violin and Pianoforte may be. Whether it is or not depends entirely on the character of the music that is performed. If it consists of Violin Solos with accompaniment for Pianoforte it certainly does not belong to the category of Chamber Music; but if each performer has an equal share in the music, neither being subordinate to the other, the primary condition is fulfilled. The term really implies concerted performance by solo players, and it demands a more intimate style than is possible in a large Concert Hall.

The modern acceptance of the term implies a performance by three or more string players with whom may be associated one or more other instruments. Thus the most common forms are String Trios, Quartets, Quintets, Sextets, Septets, Octets; or Pianoforte Trios (i.e., Pianoforte with Violin and ’Cello), Quartets, etc.; Clarinet Quintets, etc., etc.

For the proper enjoyment of chamber music the room should be one in which every person may be able to hear the full tone of each instrument. The element of virtuosity should be entirely absent, and the listeners comparatively few in number. Chamber music is not for a crowd physical contiguity destroys the “atmosphere”; it has no glamour of vivid colouring, bearing the same relationship to a glowing orchestral composition as an etching bears to a masterpiece in oils. The whole scheme is subdued, reduced in size and in scope, and its appeal is more intellectual than emotional.

The most popular form of chamber music, and that which requires the most perfect balance, is undoubtedly the String Quartet, which consists of two Violins, Viola, and ’Cello. The String Quartet was invented by Haydn, whose early examples are an adaptation of

orchestral writing for strings alone. In most cases the principal interest of the early specimen lies in the first Violin part, the other instruments doing little more than accompany. The need for a more equal distribution of interest was, however, soon realized, and was fully developed in the mature work of Beethoven. Haydn and Mozart were the first to write freely for the lower instruments, thus establishing a principle which is now regarded as an essential feature in the best type of String Quartet. If we hear a work in which three of the parts are subordinate to the fourth, we may safely assume that it is poor chamber music. Not only must the parts be equally free, but one must be conscious of the four individualities concerned in the performance. A keyboard instrument is manipulated by one person; so is a Violin. An orchestra is controlled by one person. But in a Quartet there are four personalities merged and blended in one expressive utterance.

The character of a Violin is brilliant, agile, or expressive. It commands a more extensive range of colour and expression than any other stringed instrument. The Viola, whilst capable of much that is dexterous, is usually more effective in a broader style of treatment. Its sound box is very flat in proportion to its size, and this is sometimes responsible for a nasal quality which many attempts have not succeeded in rectifying. Owing to the better proportions of the ’Cello its tone is more akin to that of the Violin than is that of the Viola.

To Beethoven’s first period belong the six quartets Op. 18. To his second period belong the set Op. 59 which reveal a tremendous growth in the power of expression and organization. No one has more cunningly extracted the last ounce of possible effect from the String Quartet than Beethoven. He and Schubert carried it to its highest point of perfection because they realized its possibilities and its limitations. Certain modern composers have made the mistake of treating the String Quartet as they would an orchestra, in endeavouring to obtain effects which can only be supplied by a body of players to each part. It would be foolish to ignore the fact that change is a sign of health. Flux is essential to vitality. In the String Quartet, as in every other type of music which we have considered, we find that in order to retain the interest of creative minds, new forms of expression are necessary.

Thus, modern chamber music concerns itself more with colour, complex rhythm and mood; and the lyrical type of melody of the older writers has given place to something much more tense and concentrated. Schubert, for instance, makes his appeal by means of pellucid melody and transparent simplicity; Debussy, on the other hand, relies on “atmosphere” and subtle harmonic treatment. The modern French School seeks expression in “a pale symbolism a reflection of shadows”; but the modern German and Russian Schools affect an amount of sonorousness almost out of keeping with the medium, suggesting indeed an attempt to produce orchestral effects without an orchestra. As illustrating the concentrated method of treatment of material, Example 26 (a) is the opening figure of Ravel’s

Example 26

beautiful Quartet in F major. At bar 24 it appears as (b). Later again as (c), and the whole movement is evolved from this material and the following subsidiary subject (d).

In the slow movement we find it as (e), and it is given chief place

in the third movement as (f), while in the fourth and last movement it appears under the guises (g) and (h).

In Cesar Franck’s fine Quartet in D major the theme of the Introduction which appears as (i) forms the principal theme of the last movement as (j), and the figure on which the transition is based in the first movement (k) becomes the second subject in the last (l). The technical name for this method of treatment is Theme transformation.

That the best examples of the String Quartet are the product not of youthful impetuosity, but of the mature experience of the best composers, probably accounts for the well-known fact that this medium appeals only to the “select few” those who are, in matters musical, intellectually maturer than the “rank and file” of musiclovers.

Some Famous Symphonies

How to Understand Them, with Their Story and Simple Analysis

The orchestra is the supreme vehicle of musical expression, and the symphony is the greatest form of orchestral composition. In the present book will be found descriptions of symphonies by Austrian, Bohemian, English, French, German, Irish and Russian composers, sufficient indication indeed of music as an international factor. Without doubt an appreciation of the larger forms of orchestral music is making its way into many minds hitherto isolated from it either through diffidence, or owing to the opportunities of hearing such music worthily rendered being few and far between. Amongst the various agencies helping to remove these hindrances to a due appreciation of the symphony are the gramophone and radio telephony. It is to be hoped that these will be a means of encouraging further attendance at high-class orchestral symphony concerts when available. The present book is mainly intended for the larger and newer musical public. For the purposes of affording the reader easier reference, the analytical sketch of each symphony discussed is separated from the descriptive matter which precedes it. It should, however, be realised that this does not indicate a definite distinction between the two aspects, which naturally intermix. Each analysis professes to be no more than a sketch that will enable the reader to follow the main structure of the symphonies. Anything in the nature of completely detailed reviews in this respect would require a larger volume, of interest only to the advanced and close student of musical form.

Technical terms and considerations have been purposely reduced to a minimum, but the original standard Italian indications of speed, expression, etc., are given. The symphonies are not treated in chronological order, as the present book is not an exposition of the development of form. The treatment of each composition here stands completely by itself; but any reader is of course at liberty to say that he prefers one to another. Individual appreciation and judgment are sources of the greatness of true art.

Gramophone records of many of the symphonies discussed in the present book are available as rendered by fine symphony orchestras under distinguished conductors. Certain of these are referred to under the headings of the particular symphonies concerned. These can be recommended for home enjoyment and study, as their degree of general faithfulness to the original will not lead the hearer to a poor idea of the music as it may sound in performance.

The following books can be used in valuable conjunction with the present one:

“How to Listen to Good Music,” by K. Broadley Greene.

“The Orchestra and How to Listen to It,” by M. MontaguNathan.

“Musical Pronouncing Dictionary,” by Dr. Dudley Buck.

The author’s best thanks are due to the following firms for their ready help in placing gramophone records for his use in connection with the present book:

The Columbia Graphophone Company, Limited. The Gramophone Company, Limited (“His Master’s Voice”). Edison Bell, Limited (“Velvet Face”). The Parlophone Company, Limited.

Symphony No. 5, in C Minor, Op. 67

Beethoven (1770- 1827)

Beethoven’s Fifth, as often referred to as the “C minor,” is one of the best known symphonies in the world. Its general popularity as a symphony is equalled only by Schubert’s “Unfinished” and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique.” So much has been written in the past about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony that were it not that the present book is written especially for the general reader, I should feel that any descriptive notes of mine would at this period be superfluous. The general reader, however, is probably more desirous of getting some ideas as to what the symphony is about than of perusing even an excellent technical analysis. Nor is this desire so wrong as at first sight may appear to the critical musician. In attempting a guide to the inner meaning of the symphony it is inevitable that at least the skeleton of its construction will be shown.

Before attempting any description of this symphony, a certain fine point has to be considered. The work is of a specified quality known as “pure” or “absolute” music. This means that it possesses no literary description and must therefore be listened to purely as music This particular quality is the opposite to “programme” music, which has a literary description furnished or indicated by the composer. The furthest that “absolute” music dares to go on these lines is the possession of mere titles, leaving the music to suggest its own message to the hearer. Very few writers have resisted the temptation to try and read a definite meaning in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and that this should be so is quite natural. Music at its best is essentially spiritual, and should therefore convey seme sort of message or even picture to the hearer’s mind. Certain aspects of the symphony under discussion have effected a similarity of impression upon the majority of writers, and the following account is mainly based upon its generally accepted spiritual conception. The hearer is quite at liberty to supply his own meaning of the work, although it is certainly an outpouring of Beethoven’s soul and can be best understood by considering the

aspects of his life at the period of the symphony’s composition.

Beethoven’s growing deafness was at this time an increasingtragedy in his whole outlook. Add to this the pathetically recurring thoughts of a woman he hoped would prove to be his “eternal beloved one,” and the always stormy aspect of his innermost nature, and we may then form some idea of the mighty struggle of feelings undoubtedly expressed in this symphony.

Few people possessing a real love of music can fail to be thrilled by Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Its appeal can never be confined merely to the initiated; nor would Beethoven have wished this. His recognition by the people gave him more genuine delight than did the appreciation of the connoisseurs. Pedantic opinion was not always favourably disposed towards the fire of Beethoven’s genius. Lesuer, a teacher of Berlioz, heard this Fifth Symphony for the first time in Paris. Although strangely moved, he said to his pupil: “One must not make music like that.” “Be easy, dear master,” replied Berlioz, “one will not make much like it.” The great French composer was a man of remarkable power of critical estimation, and his studies of Beethoven’s symphonies were made when these were comparatively new and strange to French musicians; but posterity has seen no reason to do other than endorse his keen judgment. Berlioz’s “A Critical Study of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies” has been translated into English by Edwin Evans, senior, and is of interest to all Beethoven lovers.

The first performance took place on December 22, 1808, and the dedication is to two of the composer’s patrons and friends, Prince Lobkowitz and Count Rasumoffsky.

The orchestra consists of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two French horns, two trumpets, two tympani (kettledrums), and strings (first and second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses).

1. The opening figure of three short notes followed by a longer

one is most important, for it dominates the entire movement. Schindler once questioned Beethoven as to the meaning of these prophetic opening notes and received the reply: “Thus fate knocks at the door.” On the other hand it has been said that the composer, always sensitive to rhythmic figures, derived this particular one from the call of a bird he had heard in the Prater. Whatever may have been its origin, this simple phrase, transformed by Beethoven’s imagination, assumes an almost fateful significance. In the calmly flowing second subject, which will be easily recognised because of its contrasting character with the opening one, the fateful figure is heard as an insistent accompaniment in the basses. It is always dominating the music. Notice how it is bandied to and fro between wind and strings. In one part of the movement we come to a procession of solemn chords, gradually growing softer until the prophetic figure suddenly bursts in. Later on there is a little solo for oboe which, occurring after a loud chord, is like the faint cry of a sorrowful soul. We eventually come to a gradually mounting passage based on the second subject. The fateful motive is thundered out, poignant little interjections from the wood wind are heard, and the movement comes to a stern close. A feature of this movement is its restless, striving spirit, coupled with an unmistakable suggestion of indomitable will power.

2.“The sorrow-laden soul derives a rapture of resignation which has never found utterance in such intimate tones as here,” says Otto Neitzel. The first subject is announced by violas and ’cellos followed by “the comforting reply” in the wood wind. The second subject will be recognised by its triumphant tone, especially when restated by the brass. It seems to express an uplifting of the stormy soul. The soft chords that follow have a poignancy of expression that is beyond literal translation. Most people find passage after passage in this symphony which moves them in an inexplicable way. The rest of the present movement, with its variation form, needs no written description here. Note, however, the expressive little bassoon passage not far from the end, where the music begins to quicken its pace (piu mosso); this instrument in its higher register has anything but the comic character that is often attributed and sometimes assigned to it.

3.This is really the scherzo movement found in most symphonies, although here not so entitled. The first subject, sombre and fateful,

enters softly in the lower strings. “Fate has followed the tortured soul even here; pale, spectral shadows haunt his imaginations,” says Otto Neitzel. The second subject, loudly announced by the two horns, has an affinity with the significant figure of the first movement, although the first three notes are now more deliberately stated, and all four sound the same note. The two subjects of the present movement are greatly contrasted, the first always appearing dark and shadowy, while the second is like a deliberate, fateful knocking.

The second section replaces the conventional trio portion. It abruptly starts off with a rapid passage for cellos and basses which Berlioz likens to the gambols of a delighted elephant. The tune is agile for the double bass players. It soon runs its course, dying away high in the flute, and the opening subject of the movement returns. The four-note figure follows chiefly in plucked strings (pizzicato). A gloom now settles over the music. Darker and darker grows the atmosphere until we come to one of the most remarkable passages in Beethoven’s music; a tonal effect that has not been surpassed even to this day. The music sinks into what has been described as a “twilight atmosphere.” The strings softly hold a long sustained chord, while the persistent tap of the fate rhythm is heard from the drum. The first violins now breath the sombre first subject, and the relentless drum taps, backed up by the lower strings, now become ceaseless. The whole effect is one of thrilling apprehension. But the music grows louder and, as other instruments return, the dark curtain lifts and we are transported into:

4. The great, triumphant finale. Piccolo, double bassoon and three trombones are now added to the orchestra. Little else in music is more exhilarating than this bright march-theme breaking out of twilight. The second subject is given out by violas, clarinets and bassoons, and can be recognised by its descending figure contrasting to the ascending character of the first. Its heroic quality becomes apparent when it is restated by the full orchestra. After a time the fateful figure suddenly reappears. Its presence instantly damps the triumphant mood. Notice the sustained accompanying notes of that “silver thread” in the orchestra, the oboe. The music soon breaks into the sunshine of the march-theme and again proceeds in triumph. A new and bold tune is later announced by the bassoons, and some play is made with

this before a presto enters in the form of an accelerated version of the second (descending) subject. The music grows more and more triumphant, the first (ascending) subject is vigorously recalled, and the symphony comes to a stirring conclusion. The movement has been likened to an expression of the soul’s freedom after a hard won victory over a relentless fate.

For the musician desiring a full description and completely illustrated analysis of the Fifth and other symphonies by Beethoven, there is the fine volume, “The Immortal Nine,” by Edwin Evans, senior.

The Fifth Symphony has been played many times for radio transmission in England. It is available in complete form for the gramophone in an efficient rendering by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Landon Ronald, on “His Master’s Voice” records. The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Felix Weingartner, play the work on “Columbia” records. Herr Weingartner is distinguished for his readings of the Beethoven symphonies. The orchestra of the State Opera House, Berlin, give a sound and characteristic performance under Dr. Weissmann on “Parlophone” records. The fine Philharmonic Orchestra of New York, directed by Josef Stransky, give an isolated and abridged, but nevertheless impressive rendering of the second (andante con moto) movement on a further “Columbia” record. The repeat of the opening pages of the first movement is played by Sir Landon Ronald and Herr Weingartner. Dr. Weissmann goes straight on without repeat; neither do his records take the shorter repeats in the trio portion of the third movement. These omissions do not affect the structure of the symphony in a manner that would justify the version being described as abridged. To avoid confusion it should be noted that the “Columbia” records label the third and fourth movements as “finale,” parts one to four. The performance is of course unaffected as there is no break between the third and fourth movements.

Symphony No. 6, in F, “Pastoral,” Op. 68 Beethoven (1770-1827)

The Sixth, “Pastoral,” Symphony of Beethoven was composed almost at the same time as his wonderful “story of the soul,” the Fifth (C minor). Together they present a wonderful contrast, each perfect in itself. In the Fifth we have the spiritual conflict, and an ultimate triumph over fate that thrills the hearer. In the Sixth, fate no longer “knocks at the door.” The spiritual conflict is stilled, and the fiery, suffering temperament of Beethoven finds peace in the contemplation of nature, which he loved above all things. Wagner said that Beethoven turned from the inner struggles of the Fifth Symphony to the fellowship and consolation of nature and the simpler folk who lived in communion with her. I often think that the “Pastoral” is a truer expression of the inner soul of Beethoven than any other of his nine symphonies; it shows the real joy and content for which he longed. He once said, when complaining that he could see no trees from the window of a lodging offered him: “I love a tree better than a man” How he must have loved the associations and inspirations of his “Pastoral” Symphony! Indeed, we know what it meant to him from the testimony of his friends, and from his own letters and notebooks: “It is as though every tree in the country said to me: ‘Holy, holy,’” he wrote. “O God, in such a forest, on the heights, is found peace for Thy service.”

The milder moods of this titanic man are infinitely touching. The great French composer, Berlioz, declared that the “Pastoral” Symphony affected him more deeply than any other of the nine. He speaks of it as follows: “This astonishing landscape seems as if it were the joint work of Poussin (the French landscape painter) and Michael Angelo.” Beethoven told his friend Schindler that “malevolent interpretations” prejudiced the success of the symphony. He added the following words to the title: “More the expression of feeling than painting.” Even if we keep these words in mind, the symphony must surely suggest visions of nature, especially as the movements bear

explanatory titles by the composer. The work was composed in the summer of 1808 at Heiligenstadt, near Vienna, and first played in the latter on December 22 of the same year. The first performance in London was at the old Hanover Square Rooms on May 27, 1811, and the Philharmonic Society first played it on April 14, 1817.

1.Allegro ma non troppo. Joyous sensations roused by arrival in the country.

2.Andante molto moto. Scene by a brook.

3.Allegro. Merry gathering of country people, leading into

4.Allegro. Thunderstorm, leading into

5.Allegretto. Shepherd’s song. Glad and grateful feelings after the storm.

I.The opening melody is a Croatian folk-tune. Sir George Grove described it “as sweet and soft as the air of May.” The whole movement is clear and its meaning easily understood. An analysis of this would indeed be a dry explanation. Berlioz, in his delightful “A Critical Study of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies,” says of it: “The herdsmen begin to appear in the fields. They have their usual careless manner, and the sound of their pipes proceeds from far and near. Delightful phrases greet you, like the perfumed morning breeze; and swarms of chattering birds in flight pass rustling overhead. From time to time the atmosphere seems charged with vapour; great clouds appear and hide the sun; then all at once, they disappear; and there suddenly falls upon both tree and wood the torrent of a dazzling light.” Such a pictorial description provides a most excellent insight into the spirit of the music.

2.The “Scene by a Brook” brings a change of feeling. Shadows draw near. The scene is always peaceful, but charged with deep feeling. It is the very essence of quiet nature, even to the twitter of the birds. At the close we hear the calls of the nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and cuckoo (clarinet). Some years afterwards, Beethoven pointed out to Schindler the exact spot in the valley of the Heiligenstadt, near Vienna, where he composed this movement. “A limpid stream descended from a neighbouring height, shaded on both banks by leafy elms,” is Schindler’s description.

3.The peaceful solitude of the preceding movement is now rudely

invaded by rustic jollity. The simple boisterousness of the first part and the grotesque clumsy rhythm of the ensuing dance show, I think, how in his humour Beethoven was much more akin to his Netherlands ancestry than his German birth. The quaint awkwardness of certain passages will be noticed. They are said to be an intentional caricature of the village band at “The Three Ravens” Inn at Modling, for which Beethoven was not too lofty to write country dances. The merry-making returns. Suddenly, a soft tremolo in the lower strings breaks in, suggesting the approach of the storm. The merry-making is at once hushed, and the fourth movement entering without a break:

4. “I despair of being able to give an idea of this prodigious movement,” says Berlioz. “It must be heard in order to form an idea of the degree of truth and sublimity that descriptive music can attain in the hands of a man like Beethoven. Listen! listen to those raincharged squalls of wind; to the dull grumblings of the basses; also to the keen whistling of the piccolo, which announces to us that a horrible tempest is on the point of breaking out.” The storm grows nearer and more furious. Trombones now appear for the first time in the symphony. There is an uncanny stillness between the outbursts of thunder. “Beethoven’s thunder put to silence all the tempests and storms that music had ever produced before his day,” said CastilBlaze. The movement is indeed a wonderful picture, vivid and thrilling in its suggestion, and it is doubtful if it has ever been surpassed, even by the “Royal Hunt and Storm” of Berlioz himself. The storm subsides, and, without a break, we are gently conducted into the final movement:

5. A short prelude introduces a tune in the style of a “Ranz des Vaches” (Calling the Cows), played by clarinet and repeated by horn. A hymn of thanksgiving enters quietly in the violins at the ninth bar. This is afterwards taken up in turn by various instruments. “The herdsmen reappear upon the mountains,” says Berlioz, “calling together their scattered flocks; the sky is serene, the rain has almost disappeared and calm returns.” The theme is taken up by various instruments in turn. Two subsidiary themes lead to a full repetition of the “Ranz des Vaches” and the chief theme. The charming second subject is in B flat, and announced by clarinets and bassoons against semiquaver figures for violas. The rest of the movement consists of

variations on the foregoing material and may easily be followed. In the peaceful coda the hymn of thanksgiving appears in all the sublimity of one of Beethoven’s loftiest moods; but the “Ranz des Vaches” is heard in the last few bars from a muted horn against scale passages in the strings, thus giving a prosaic conclusion to the symphony. The final chords are typically abrupt, as if the composer closed with a snap this wonderful view of nature before returning to the troubled career of his everyday world. For those who require a fully illustrated analysis of this symphony there is “The Immortal Nine,” by Edwin Evans, senior.

The symphony has been recorded for the gramophone by the orchestra of the State Opera House, Berlin, conducted by Dr. Weissmann, on “Parlophone” records. These enable us to hear some very fine German orchestral playing, and Dr. Weissmann gives an intimate, satisfying interpretation of the symphony. The village band in the scherzo movement is delightful, while the ensuing storm is magnificent, and we can understand the thrill experienced by Berlioz.

“Symphonie Fantastique,” Op. 14

“Episode from the Life of an Artist”

Berlioz (1803- 1869)

Berlioz may be viewed as the great French classic in music. His nature was exceedingly excitable and subject to intense emotional storms in various moods. His frenzies sometimes verged on insanity and almost drove him to suicide. He was, nevertheless, a man of great intellect and passionate artistic feeling. Tchaikovsky rated him as both a brilliant and exceptional phenomenon in the history of music, and as one who, in certain spheres of his art, reached ideal heights not attained by other artists. Berlioz, indeed, aroused interest everywhere, but he never succeeded in attracting a warmly admiring public as did Beethoven, Schumann and Wagner. Like them, he fought conventionality and obtuseness, but he was misunderstood and depreciated, especially in his own country. It is only of late that we have come to regard him as a neglected genius, and even now he can hardly be considered popular when compared with Beethoven and Wagner. In one branch of his art, orchestration, Berlioz, however, has long been recognised as a very great master. His treatise on the subject stands with that of the Russian, Rimsky-Korsakoff, as a classic.

The “Symphonie Fantastique” is inseparably connected with an Irish actress who aroused a passionate affection in Berlioz. This was Henrietta Smithson, who came to Paris in the autumn of 1827 with a company of English Shakespearean players. Her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet and Desdemona fascinated the Parisians. The tempestuous character of Berlioz’s love for her can be seen in a letter he wrote to Humbert; I quote from the “Lettres Intimes”:

She remains in London, yet I feel her always about me; all my recollections awake and join to distract me; I hear my heart beat, and its pulsations shake me like the strokes of the piston of a steam engine. Each muscle of my body trembles with. pain. Useless! Frightful! Oh! unhappy one! if she could for an instant

imagine all the poetry, all the infinitude of such a love, she would fly to my arms — she would be ready to die in my embrace. I was on the point of beginning my big symphony (‘Episode de la vie d’un artiste’), in which the development of my infernal passion will be painted; I have it all in my head, but I can write nothing. Wait!

The love not being returned, Berlioz designed the symphony as an instrument of revenge; all Paris should know who was the beloved one. Humbert warned Berlioz not to become morbid over Miss Smithson; but the composer had meanwhile found a fresh love, who had playfully been instructed to make affectionate overtures to him. He replied to Humbert as follows (“Lettres Intimes”):

I do not intend to revenge myself. I pity her and despise her. She is an ordinary woman, gifted with an instinctive genius for expressing distractions of the human soul which she has never felt, and incapable of imagining such an immense and noble feeling as that with which I have honoured her.

At the symphony’s first rehearsal in 1830, some trouble was experienced in finding enough chairs and desks for the big orchestra required, and the managers backed out of the project. The composer altered the work a great deal, and the new version was first played on December 9, 1832, together with “a melologue to follow,” “Lelio, or the Return to Life.” Berlioz, having lost his substitute love, arranged for Henrietta Smithson, then getting into poorer circumstances, to be brought to the performance. She recognised the allusion to herself in the work, and was even excited and joyful when she received an ardent love letter from the composer. Her theatrical enterprise finally collapsed, and she had the additional misfortune to slip and break her leg. Her star was now set with the fickle Parisians, but, to his honour, Berlioz married the ruined and only half-cured girl.

The great violinist, Paganini, was so impressed by hearing two Berlioz symphonies, the “Fantastique” and “Harold in Italy,” that he knelt and kissed the composer’s hand before a group of musicians. Berlioz later received the following letter from Paganini:

My dear Friend, Beethoven dead, only Berlioz is able to make him live again,

and I, who have tasted your divine compositions, worthy of a genius such as you I believe it my duty to beg your kind acceptance, as homage on my part, of twenty thousand francs, which will be paid on presentation, of the enclosed. Believe me always your affectionate Nicolo Paganini.

The symphony presents a series of highly imaginative animated tone-pictures, and is scored for a large orchestra. It has five parts:

1. “Reveries and Passions.”

2. “A Ball.”

3. “In the Fields.”

4. “March to the Scaffold.”

5. “The Witches’ Sabbath.”

Berlioz supplied an elaborate programme to the work:

“A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of despair caused by love. The dose of the narcotic is insufficient to kill him, but it plunges him into a heavy sleep, accompanied by strange visions, during which his sensations, his sentiments, and his recollections take the form, in his sick brain, of musical thoughts and images. The beloved woman herself becomes a melody a kind of fixed idea, that he finds and hears everywhere.”

“I. Reveries and Passions. First he remembers the uneasy state of the soul, the vague desires, the melancholy and elation without apparent cause, which he had experienced before he saw his beloved, then the volcanic passion she suddenly inspired in him, his delirious torments, his furies of jealousy, his reversions to tenderness, his religious consolations.”

The introductory largo shows us the disturbed state of soul. In the succeeding agitated and passionate allegro, the theme announced in flutes and first violins should be well noted, as it represents the beloved the “fixed idea” of which the composer speaks in his introductory programme notes. The movement shows the influence of the beloved and the anguish of the lover. The few solemn chords at the end suggest the “religious consolations.”

“2. A Ball. He finds the beloved one again at a ball, in the tumult

of a brilliant fete.”

The moving figures in the ball-room are delicately suggested. A waltz follows. The theme of the beloved appears, but the dance goes on with greater vivacity. Again the beloved is seen, only to disappear once more in the tumult of the fete.

“3. In the Fields. On a summer evening, in the country, he hears two shepherds calling and answering each other with the “Ranz des Vaches.” This pastoral duet, the surrounding scene, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some prospects of hope he has recently come to entertain, all combine to bring to his heart an unaccustomed calm, and to tinge his thoughts with brighter colour. But she appears again. His heart throbs, he is racked with painful forebodings…. If she should deceive him once more! … One of the shepherds resumes his simple melody, but no reply comes from his companion…. The sun is setting Distant thunder Solitude…. Silence.”

A “Ranz des Vaches” (Swiss; calling the cows) is found in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, No. 6. Oboe and cor anglais (alto oboe) give out the calling and answering of the two shepherds. A quiet melancholy spreads over the music; but, as the artist’s thoughts wander, the theme of the beloved appears, bringing a moment of agitation. The quiet mood returns as the pastoral surroundings comfort the artist. The theme of the beloved now appears in harmony with the peaceful scene. “Distant thunder” is skilfully suggested on the four kettle-drums.

“4. March to the Scaffold. He dreams he has killed his beloved, and that, condemned to death, he is being led to the scaffold. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is now sombre and wild, now brilliant and solemn, and in which the loud outbursts are followed, without a pause, by the heavy sound of marching feet. At last the “fixed idea” reappears for a moment, like a last thought of love, and is cut short by the fatal blow of the axe.”

Drums beat a tattoo and horns give out sombre, sullen chords. A strange theme lurches along as the horrible procession to death approaches. The march bursts out and the whole passes on to the scaffold. A hush comes, when the theme of the beloved is about to be stated; but the knife drops, the head falls, and the crowd expresses satisfaction.

“5. The Witches’ Sabbath. He finds himself at a witches’ revel, in the midst of a frightful troupe of spectres, sorcerers and monsters of every kind, who have come to attend his funeral. Strange noises are heard, groans, bursts of laughter, and distant shrieks that are answered by others. The beloved melody reappears, but it has lost its character of nobility and gentleness; it is now nothing more than an ignoble, trivial, grotesque dance-tune; it is. She coming to the revel… Howls of joy at her coming. She joins in the diabolical orgy. Funeral bells. A caricature of the ‘Dies Irae.’ A Witches’ Dance…. Finally the Dance and the ‘Dies Irae’ together.”

A riot of sounds is heard; then follows the theme of the beloved, now horrible and bewitched, heard in the distance. Bells lend an unearthly colour to the witches’ dance. The “Dies Irae” follows. (This Latin hymn, “Day of Wrath,” is said or sung as a sequence in the Roman Catholic Church at funeral masses.) A vivid and highly imaginative tone-picture, sinister and malevolent in humour, is built up. The Witches’ Dance makes horrid sport of the “Dies Irae.”

The symphony is available for home enjoyment and study in a form that is unique in its perfection of interpretation. It has been recorded for the Gramophone Company, Ltd. (His Master’s Voice) by a famous French orchestra and conductor Orchestre Symphonique des Concerts Pasdeloup, conducted by M. Rhene-Baton. It is my strong belief that, of all French composers, Berlioz especially needs a French orchestra and conductor to show him as he really was. The essential differences of outlook in French and Teutonic music are not always sufficiently considered, largely because we were all brought up mainly on German music, which has somehow become a standard of judgment for the art. There is no need for newcomers to carry on the false idea that German music is deeper, and therefore greater, than French music. The two are different.

The gramophone can bring to our own homes an entirely authentic performance of Berlioz’s famous symphony; such a performance would have formerly entailed a journey to Paris. An extremely interesting, big-toned interpretation has since been secured by the London Symphony Orchestra under Felix Weingartner on “Columbia” records.

Symphony No. 2, in B Minor

Borodin, 1834-1887

Borodin was one of the Russian nationalist composers, with whom Tchaikovsky did not entirely associate himself. Like his fellownationalist, Moussorgsky, he was really an amateur musician, his special occupation being scientific work and chemistry. While a military doctor he met Moussorgsky, who was an officer. Borodin became Professor of Chemistry at the St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) Academy of Medicine, a post which he held until his death. His most famous musical composition is the opera, “Prince Igor,” completed after his death by Rimsky-Korsakoff and Glazounoff, who also revised and edited the Symphony in B minor. The skilled technical hands of these two composers, the latter still living at the time of writing, were of great help to the polished presentation of the genius of Borodin and Moussorgsky, whose musical training was not always extensive enough to do justice to their inspirations. Rimsky-Korsakoff was a very great master of the orchestra and a nationalist composer of repute. His recognition is universal.

Russian folk-music is one of the most interesting types to be found in Europe. It has instinctive melodic beauty, latent harmonic richness and restless rhythmic individuality. Its two main features are contradictory in feeling; the one sombre and melancholy, the other gay, reckless and wild. Borodin’s Second Symphony clearly expresses these contrasting moods, which are undoubtedly related to the Slavic temperament and poor social conditions of the country, but his nationalism is hereditary, whereas that of Rimsky-Korsakoff is more the result of drawing on actual folk-tunes. The history of Russian music is a fascinating and essential part of musical education, and I warmly recommend the student to read M. Montagu-Nathan’s “A History of Russian Music.” The book is extremely pleasant to read, and covers the whole range of Russian music from early prenationalist times to Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and others of modern date.

Borodin apparently gave no title to his Second Symphony,

although at a London performance under Albert Coates, a first-hand authority on Russian orchestral music, it was described on the programme as “Heroic Symphony.” Finished at the end of 1876, the work received its first performance early in February, 1877, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society under Napravnik. The same year, incidentally, saw the first performance of another famous symphony, Brahms’s No. 2, in D, which was produced in Vienna. There is a certain picturesque quality and Oriental tendency about much of Borodin’s work, and it is evident in the symphony under notice. The barbaric splendour of the first movement, the peculiar colouring of the second, the dreamy sadness of the third, and the wild, rhythmic gaiety of the fourth, all combine to present music which, outside Russia, is like no other. Above all hovers that vastness, that air of latent might, tinged with gloom, which is more an expression of Russia itself than of the composer. In this particular respect, Tchaikovsky fades before it the musical expressions of individuality by the skilled composer pale before those of a mighty and harsh national history by the lesser expert who painted with inherent national feeling. “Listening to this music,” said one of the Russian critics after hearing the symphony for the first time, “we recall the memory of the old Russian warriors in all their uncouthness, but also in all their grandeur of character.” At the time of this symphony’s conception, Borodin was still haunted with those visions of mediaeval Russia that took such vivid and picturesque shape in his opera, “Prince Igor,” and in many respects it must be regarded as painting much the same period (twelfth century) in Russian history. The composer had commenced the opera about ten years previous to the production of his Second Symphony, and at his death another ten years afterwards it was still unfinished; but it should be remembered that his occupation as professor of chemistry did not allow him to give his whole time to musical composition. His intimate friend, Stassov, told Mrs. Rosa Newmarcb, an English translator of “Prince Igor,” that the composer had some definite picture in his mind when he wrote his Second Symphony. The first movement represents the assembling of the Russian princes and warriors of the tenth-eleventh centuries; the slow movement recalls the songs of the Slavonic bayoni (troubadours); the finale shows the banquets of the heroes of the Cycle of

Kiev, enlivened by music of guslee and flute, amid the acclamations of the populace. Kiev is “the mother of Russian cities,” and in the tenth century was the most important in the country.

Belgium was one of the earliest countries outside Russia to appreciate Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakoff. That this appreciation was genuine is shown by the fact that the composers were not merely personally acclaimed, but their works were regarded as classic. The Borodin symphony still holds this position in Belgian symphony repertoire.

The work is well known to London patrons of orchestral music through Sir Henry J. Wood’s frequent performances at Queen’s Hall Promenade and Symphony Concerts; but its first hearing in Newcastle was as late as December, 1924, when Sir (then Mr.) Hamilton Harty presented it to a large and delighted audience.

1.Allegro.

2.Scherzo. Prestissimo.

3.Andante.

4.Finale. Allegro.

1.The main theme of the movement, directed to be played resolutely, is announced immediately by strings in unison, supplemented later by wood-wind and horns. Its stern, bold accents might well represent the barbaric grandeur of mediaeval Russia. A more animated theme follows at once in the wood-wind. These two strikingly powerful melodic figures are reiterated with picturesque changes of rhythm and variations of tonality, as if emphasising the coloured, but fierce splendour of the assembled princes and warriors. The ’cellos introduce a much milder theme in the relative major key (D). The influence of the main theme is soon felt again, but the atmosphere grows dark and sombre. The tune is heard in sinister tones in the bass, and we surely pass one of the darker pages of mediaeval Russian history. Instead of working out his themes, the composer seems more intent on repeating them. This he does with ingenious rhythmic modulations and variations of tonality. The main theme is transformed by a change of time. The drums start a characteristic rhythm, which is caught up by clarinet and bassoon; strings are still occupied with the main theme. The more animated tune is recalled, as is the

second subject, which is now vigorously presented; and finally the main theme is given out in brazen accents by the brass. All three themes are now recapitulated; near the end the music becomes agitated and rushes quickly to a last statement of the main theme, which, given out in unison, has a most striking attitude of immense, barbaric force. Thus ends this fine tone-picture of the savage splendour of a dawning civilisation, the sinister annals of which are often dark with blood.

2. The scherzo (prestissimo very fast) commences with an arresting dissonant chord for brass. Horns follow with a persistent figure which serves as an accompaniment to a spirited subject for strings. A flash of quick wood-wind treatment foreshadows, or may perhaps be the editorial work of, Rimsky-Korsakoff. Following this comes a syncopated theme for strings in unison, accompanied by brass harmony.

The trio section is much slower (allegretto) and constructed on an oboe solo. The orchestral colouring becomes more glowing, and is enhanced by triangle and harp. The oboe theme is discussed for a while, and then the persistent horn figure returns. The scherzo is repeated, and the movement ends with a softly dying allusion to the syncopated theme. This movement seems to suggest the assembling of the princes and warriors to hear the songs of the bayani. Hastening movement, blending in glowing colours, is ultimately brought to a gradual hush as if the bayani are about to give their songs of love and heroism.

3. A plaintive introductory phrase for clarinet accompanied by arpeggios from the harp, curiously suggests the troubadour, whose song we can imagine in the ensuing dreamy horn solo. Borodin, like his fellow nationalists, had a subtle instinct for picturesque orchestral effects. A feature of the solo referred to is the alternation of 3/4 and 4/4 times. A short, but striving four-note figure, later to become prominent, follows. Its feature is in ascending the last three notes of a major scale (6, 7, 8), and then dropping a major third to the flattened sixth of the minor scale. It seems a sort of heavy commentary on the solo. The music loudens, but quietens again when an episode is reached. Here the pace quickens and a passage is discussed between strings and wood-wind. The four-note figure becomes

increasingly prominent until it reaches a big climax — a grim commentary, as if the song aroused glowing memories of love and heroism in the fierce hearts of the assembly. The figure that is passed from group to group reappears quietly, but it is dismissed, and the opening horn solo now appears in a heroic, richly-clad version. The quieter figure is heard, as is also the inevitable four-note commentary, and the discussive passage of the episode. The movement ends with the opening clarinet and harp phrase; the troubadour finishes as he began. The music very softly leads without a break into the next movement.

4.This commences with an establishing of the quaint dance rhythm, and first one group and then another hint at the principal theme which ultimately bursts in at the eighteenth bar. The whole atmosphere is gay, reckless and typically Russian. The second subject, which appears in the clarinet, is no contrasting mood, but adds to the general gaiety. It is continued by flute and oboe, and cleverly elaborated. Passages in this movement set the body pulsating with the reckless rhythm of the dance. In one place a loud lento (slow) version of the first subject solemnly interrupts the gaiety. The rhythmic treatment throughout this movement is remarkable, and frequent changes of time signature to suit the dances are noted. A bold passage for trombones in a new version of the first subject will strike the listener’s attention. The gay spirit is too reckless to be dispersed, however. Near the end, the music has an urge to grow faster and wilder, and after a couple of restraints it rushes to an extremely exhilarating close.

Symphony No. 2, in D (Op. 73) Brahms (1833-1897)

Brahms is generally considered to be the last of the “classical” composers. That is to say, he is credited with having carried on the development of the symphony from where Beethoven left it. As the latter wrote nine symphonies, the first of Brahms was enthusiastically hailed by admirers as “The Tenth.” Whether Beethoven would have considered Brahms his successor is somewhat doubtful. The two have little in common, for where the former seldom hesitated to develop, stretch, or even break tradition to suit his ideas, the latter was careful to preserve the form of the great past, catching its letter rather than its spirit. He was like the Conservative who comes along and preserves some great past Radical traditions, oblivious to the fact that the true spirit of Radicalism is always going on ahead, although not in the impetuous fashion of the revolutionary. The longer Beethoven had lived the further would he have gone beyond the fixed form of classicism. Brahms happened to live during a period of considerable unrest in German music. The revolutionary tide of Liszt’s symphonicpoems and Wagner’s music-dramas was rising fast. The academical musicians saw in Brahms a reverence for form and tradition, so they flocked to his aid and hailed him as the true representative of the classical spirit. This was just what Brahms could never be; at heart a romantic sentimentalist, his works in the classical form have hardly anything of that purity, clarity and spontaneous expression that distinguishes the best symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, or even the “advanced” Beethoven. These composers used the symphony as a perfectly natural vehicle for self-expression; but Brahms made it a rigid formality which influenced and controlled the expression of his inspiration. He is best known to the general public by his delightful Hungarian Dances.

It is true that this master from Hamburg made a very good show out of his self-imposed limitations. His use of the brass instruments is often positively antiquated; he wrote for the limited effects of the

valveless trumpets of Beethoven’s day, although he must have been perfectly aware that the parts would be played on valve-trumpets capable of something less simple. Yet his writing for horns is often extremely beautiful. Brahms, as we can see him to-day, was a great composer in spite of his friends and himself. His D major Symphony (No. 2) has a special place in the affections of lovers of orchestral music. Its first movement shows the composer at his best, and, significantly enough, is romantic in spirit. His writing for the orchestra is, as usual, thick and heavy; yet it is unable to obscure a noble romanticism and lofty thought. It may be that the dull, grey tint of Brahms’s orchestra is but the reflection of his austere thought; and it is obvious that he did not need the gift of brilliant instrumentation in order to disguise poverty of material.

From a purely constructive point of view, the D major Symphony is ingenious. Above all, it is logical, utterly sane and unforced, and undoubtedly the work of a man with immense concentration of thought. This latter point enabled him to allow the plan to control the inspiration. As music, the symphony is genial and melodious, imposing no great strain on the casual hearer. There was a time when a Brahms symphony was considered to be mental food only for the initiated musician. The popular Promenade Concerts, under Sir Henry J. Wood, at the Queen’s Hall, London, and frequent performances elsewhere in England, and, indeed, throughout the musical world, have made at least the second of Brahms’s symphonies well known. More lately the advent of radio concerts and the gramophone have introduced the same work to a larger public.

1.Allegro non troppo.

2.Adagio non troppo.

3.Allegretto grazioso quasi andantino.

4.Allegro con spirito.

1.The opening bar has a phrase of three notes, given out by the basses, which plays an important part in the building up of the movement. Horns enter in the second bar with a theme of quiet beauty. The serious character of Brahms is soon evident, and bars of soft solo drum-rolls add to the general austerity. A smooth tune for violins follows. The music works up to a vigorous passage in which the figure

of the opening bar is prominent. The second subject is as serenely beautiful as the first, and presents no emotional contrast. There is much that is noble in these dignified, thoughtful beauties of Brahms, especially when compared with the respective frank emotionalism and sensuosity of his great contemporaries, Tchaikovsky and Wagner. A passage marked quasi ritenente brings a vigorous, striving tone to the music. The beginning of this will be easily noticed by the instruments leaping upwards in octaves, with trumpet prominent at the top. Two more tunes are included, one of which can be recognised by its quick rhythm of “RUM, ta-ta-RUM, ta-ta-RUM, ta-taRUM, etc.,” and the other by its striving upward passage in the bass, treated in imitation by higher instruments. The latter tune has a syncopated accompaniment for clarinets, horns and violas.

The development of the themes is very skilful, ingenious and closely knit. The recapitulation is with different instrumentation. The coda includes a lovely horn solo, and some playful treatment for flutes and clarinets, echoed by horn and bassoon.

2. The brooding opening is characteristic of the composer. ’Cellos play a descending phrase while bassoon has a counter ascending one. The former instruments continue with a lovely melody. A swaying hgure for solo horn, taken up by oboe, which appears later should be noted. The middle section begins L’istesso tempo, ma grazioso, in 12/8 time. It may be recognised by a change of mood shown by a lilting tune in the wood-wind, accompanied by pizzicato ’cellos. After a time there is a short, but perceptible period of silence, and then strings give out a flowing, if sad, tune. This becomes slightly impassioned, and then brooding. Fragments of it continue for some time after the opening tune has reappeared.

A calm mood settles over the music. Violins play the first subject, followed by the swaying figure in flute and horn, and taken up by cellos and basses. An arresting trumpet and horn call, backed up by violas and cellos, takes the music into a surging passage. This is quieted by the flowing, sad melody for violins. The phrase from the opening of the movement becomes very prominent before the end, and its brooding mood brings the close.

3. The quiet opening theme of this delightful movement is first given to oboe, clarinet and bassoon, with pizzicato cello accompa-

niment; the triplet phrase in the fourth bar is to become prominent later on. The theme is treated with some charming key transitions. A presto ma non assai, founded on the foregoing tune, follows in the strings. Entering quietly, it soon takes on a joyous mood. This subsides and the first part of the presto is bandied to and fro between strings and wood-wind. The opening theme returns, and much use is made of its triplet phrase, which develops into another jolly presto ma non assai. There is no dry Brahms here! The opening tune returns, and the movement ends with a touch of sentiment.

4.The finale is one of Brahms’s finest movements. The first subject enters quietly, without preamble, and suggests great latent strength. Its power is more apparent when it is vigorously repeated. A new theme appears amid the general vigour of the music. It may be recognised by its downward step of a fifth in the treble, answered by an upward step back again in the bass. The music quietens, and the broad, simple tune of the second subject is heard from the quartet of strings. It is hardly possible to enumerate on paper the ingenious and beautiful development of the foregoing thematic material. If the listener has grasped these tunes, the further progress of the movement will enable him to see for himself what a very great master musician Brahms was. He will note that the ending shows a triumphant version of the broad tune of the second subject.

The symphony has been played for the gramophone by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Landon Ronald, and recorded in complete form by the Gramophone Company, Limited (“His Master’s Voice”). Sir Landon may be described as a safe conductor for a Brahms symphony. He does not force his own personality on the music, but occupies himself with obtaining clarity and precision in his rendering, thus allowing the symphony to present its noble classic beauties and masterly construction in the composer’s absolute language. This is perhaps the best possible interpretation, for Brahms does not call for emotional treatment. The second movement is played a little faster than usual. Owing to the thickness of the orchestral writing, the present good recording of this symphony must have been peculiarly difficult.

Symphony in B Flat (Op. 20)

Chausson (1855-1899)

French music has in this beautiful work a symphony that can take its place among the world’s finest examples in its form. Unfortunately it is very seldom played in England, although I believe it only needs to become known to be appreciated. If we can take Franck’s symphony so warmly to our hearts, we can surely take this one of Chausson as equally beautiful in all respects. Its somewhat richer, Wagner-like scoring, generally bigger tonality and more dramatic content make me prefer it to the Franck work; but this may be only a personal preference. We were indebted to the British Broadcasting Company for a London performance of this symphony. M. Pierre Monteux conducted it at their International symphony concert of December 10, 1924, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The evening was unfortunately the occasion of one of the worst fogs in London for many years, but although this naturally affected attendance at the concert, the advantage of being able to “listenin” independent of the weather, was very apparent, even though such hearings are imperfect realisations of large orchestral works. M. Monteux had then lately relinquished his post as conductor of the Boston (U.S.A.) Symphony Orchestra.

Ernest Chausson was a pupil of two well-known French composers, first of Massenet and then Franck. The music of the former is light and tuneful, but extends to opera. That of the latter is of more austere and serious thought. Chausson gave himself earnestly to study and creative work, although as a man of considerable private means he was not dependent on his art. His opus number extends to 38, and Opus 20 is his only symphony. He is perhaps best known in England by his “Poem” for violin, which has been played by many distinguished violinists, including Albert Sammons. At the age of forty-four, a cycling accident brought his life to a sudden end. Estimating from the music that he left, and the symphony especially, Chausson might have become a great figure m musical history.

Indeed, those who knew him closely say that a great development in his genius would have been almost certain had he lived. Among these is his fellow-pupil under Franck, Vincent D’Indy, the master’s biographer and well known as a composer.

The symphony was written in 1890, between eight and nine years before its composer’s death. It has, like Franck’s symphony, only three movements instead of the usual four.

1.Lent. Allegro vivo.

2.Tres lent.

3.Anime: tres anime.

1.The slow (lent) introduction opens with a theme that derives significance from the fact that it is heard again at the end of the symphony. It is given out by clarinet, horn and lower strings, punctuated by soft, yet threatening chords for trombones. The atmosphere is charged with dramatic feeling. The theme is accorded a variety of treatment until a powerful climax appears. The excitement dies down to a passage in which a soft drum roll is very evident. An upward dash of violins, reinforced by wood-wind, takes us into the allegro. Horn and bassoon give out the first subject against a string tremolo accompaniment. It is taken up by cello and oboe, and a harp accompaniment is added. This is the beginning of a variety of instrumental treatment until the theme is taken up in stirring fashion by the full orchestra, the harps playing a sweeping arpeggio accompaniment. The vigorous treatment subsides and a little melody in detached notes for the wood-wind leads to the second subject. This is a placid, graceful theme given out by clarinet and lower strings, with a soothing background of soft horn tone. The rest of the movement, with its development of the three tunes, and their recapitulation, can easily be followed. The hearer will hardly fail to notice a beautiful horn solo in the development portion.

2.This movement, very slow (tres lente), is somewhat in the style of a funeral lament, and extremely beautiful and moving in its poignant thoughtfulness and deep, underlying poetry. As in the first movement, the composer writes some lovely passages for horn. The solemn first subject, in the minor key, enters at once low in the strings, slightly reinforced by wood-wind and horns. It has steady,

march-like accents that may suggest a funeral procession. After it has gone its course, a rising phrase for cor anglais (alto oboe) over a throbbing string accompaniment is noticed. This is immediately followed by another, but more rapid, rising phrase heard from the clarinet. These are accorded a variety of instrumental treatment. First violins play the first phrase, to which the flute, accompanied by other wood-wind, responds; second violins play the second, and so on until the first subject returns. The latter is a little changed and now clothed with rich, but quiet harmonies in the horns, effectively aided by extra brass quality from trombones and tuba. It has an accompaniment that runs among the wood-wind, and a sort of basis of lower strings. In the latter part of the tune the brass tone is completed by the trumpet, doubled in lower strings, joining in. The speed quickens somewhat (un peu plus vite), and the second subject enters in cor anglais and cellos, with an accompaniment of string arpeggios and a continuous soft drum roll. It is taken up by violins, cellos and horns, with a colouring accompaniment of wood-wind, and gradually works up to a noble climax in which the brass instruments have a sonorous and stirring prominence. The first subject is thundered out by all the brass instruments (horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba).

The tone dies away and the speed slackens, but near the end the music swells out again with moving expressiveness. The movement has thus no placid conclusion; a fact in which we are able to see the force and reality of Chausson’s artistic scheme in this symphony of striving and serious idealism.

The movement may, at the option of the conductor, pass without rest into the finale:

3. This is entered in a whirl of strings in octaves, through which trumpets, aided by some wood-wind, make a bold forecast of the first subject of the movement. Drum rolls add to the general animation. Violins fly up the chromatic scale, wood-wind take up the whirling figure, and horns, followed by violins and trumpet, give out the prophetic phrases. The full orchestra has two loud chords, wood-wind play the ascending chromatic flight, and then the movement proper enters (tres anime). The forecasted first subject enters immediately, but rather softly in cellos and basses with a repeated chord accompaniment for horns. Its character is agitated. Some wood-wind quietly

join in, and, after a time, violins, high in the scale, double the cellos. Some connective matter leads to the second subject, where the music becomes still more animated (encore plus anime). The syncopated character of this new theme, mostly favoured by the full orchestra, adds to the striving vigour of the movement. Its mood appears changed when it takes the form of a solo high in the oboe, later transferred to the clarinet, beneath which the two flutes play a long double trill, three notes apart.

The two subjects are developed and recapitulated according to the “classical” plan of a symphony. Near the end, trumpets and horns, soon reinforced by trombone and tuba, make a solemn (grave) reference to the theme heard at the commencement of the symphony. It is taken up by violins and wood-wind, while the basses suggest the first subject of the present movement. In the concluding bars the reference to the introductory theme is solemnly repeated by the lower strings, double-bassoon and horn over a soft, sustained chord from the rest of the orchestra. In this ultimate concluding mood of calm reflection we may again see the soundness of Chausson’s artistic scheme of the symphony. The first movement, agitated and striving; the second, noble, sorrowful, but concluding in forceful tones; the finale, animated, vigorous, and ending in calm reflection with the memory of the symphony’s commencement: all together show the artist in his passionate pursuit of the ideal, and, at the end, his sane and convincing mellowed mood when he recalls his setting out. This may not, of course, have been Chausson’s plan when composing his symphony, but its suitability is a tribute to the unconscious perfection and balance of his genius.

Symphony No. 5, in E Minor, (From the New World”), (Op. 95) Dvorak (1841-1904)

Anton Dvorak was a Bohemian composer, the son of an innkeeper at Mühlhausen, and obtained his musical training in Prague, now the capital of the republic of Czecho-Slovakia. His strongly marked rhythms and striking harmonic flavours show him to be essentially a national composer. This should be borne in mind, because the title of the present symphony is apt to divert attention from its true idiom. “From the New World” is mainly an indication of the source of inspiration of most of the themes and the emotional content. The composer heard negro folk-melodies during his sojourn in America from 1892-95, as Principal of the National Conservatoire of Music, New York. He was impressed by reading Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” and seeing the vast solitudes of the American forests. Nevertheless, in the composition of his “American” symphony it was not to be expected that he could entirely eradicate his habitual national rhythms.

The production of the symphony by the New York Philharmonic Society on December 15, 1893, evoked much discussion and even annoyance. It was hotly contested as to whether the songs of the negro slaves of the Southern States could in any way lay claim to be regarded as genuine folk-tunes. It is interesting to recall the remarks made a few years later by MacDowell, the famous American tonepoet: “We have here in America been offered a pattern for an ‘American’ national musical costume by the Bohemian, Dvorak though what the negro melodies have to do with Americanism in art still remains a mystery. Music that can be made by ‘recipe’ is not music, but ‘tailoring.’ To be sure, this tailoring may serve to cover a beautiful thought; but why cover it? and, worst of all, why cover it (if covered it must be: if the landmark of nationality is indispensable, which I deny) why cover it with the badge of whilom slavery rather than the stern but at least manly and free rudeness of the North

American Indian? … Masquerading in the so-called nationalism of negro clothes cut in Bohemia will not help us.” It will be seen that Dvorak’s idea of writing an “American” symphony at once furnished a problem as to what could truly be described as American music — and that problem exists to the present day. It is notable that MacDowell himself made use of North American Indian tunes in his “Indian” Suite for orchestra, and that other American composers, Charles Wakefield Cadman especially, have followed his example. Cadman has tried to find the real American spirit in music that expresses the spaciousness of the great Western “out-of-doors,” and by the use of “idealised rag-time” for suggesting the restless energy of the great “melting-pot” of nationalities. Negro folk-songs, known as “Negro Spirituals,” have become very popular vocal items in the concert-room; but they can never represent American music. The “New World” Symphony stands, therefore, a lone, forsaken prophet in this respect. From a purely musical point of view, however, it is one of the world’s most stirring and brilliant symphonies.

I have given an explanation of the discussion over the source of the inspiration of this symphony in order that the hearer should not attach too much musical importance to its title. The work is best appreciated by a realisation of its essentially Slavonic idiom. Apart from the derivation of some of its themes, the work is not far removed in spirit from its composer’s popular “Slavonic Dances.” Dvorak was more cosmopolitan than his great nationalist compatriot, Smetana, just as Tchaikovsky was in relation to Glinka in Russia. In consequence, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky were famous in their lifetimes, while their nationalist compatriots were venerated after death. He who hears Dvorak should also hear some of Smetana, or he knows the musical Czech no more than he who hears only Tchaikovsky knows the musical Russian. The outstanding characteristics of the “New World” symphony are strongly marked rhythms, glowing emotion expressed with frank sincerity, deep underlying poetry, and lavish harmonic and orchestral colouring; all provide a continuous delight for the ear.

1.Adagio. Allegro Molto.

2.Largo.

3. Scherzo — Molto vivace.

4. Allegro con fuoco.

1. The solemn introduction contains no vestige of popular melody. Commencing softly, a sudden climax is reached. Following this, the first section of the principal subject of the allegro molto is foreshadowed in two horns, violas and ’cellos. A short vigorous passage leads to the allegro molto, where the principal subject appears in two sections, the first in the horns and the second in the wood-wind. The first section should be well noted as, with modifications it appears in various places throughout the symphony. For the purpose of convenient recognition, it will be referred to henceforth in this account as the “main” theme. The theme is syncopated. After it has been fully elaborated, flutes and oboes introduce a gay subsidiary theme. The second subject proper is announced in a flute solo, and will be easily recognised by those who know the “negro spiritual,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” to which, although in faster time, it has a close resemblance. It is taken up by the violins. Keeping the foregoing tunes in mind, the listener should have no difficulty in recognising their ensuing “working out,” and following the movement to its extremely vigorous conclusion.

2. The largo is a famous movement, said to have been partially inspired by Longfellow’s “Hiawatha’s Wooing.” The solemn and impressive opening chords are thought to be a musical suggestion of the silent majesty of the great American forests, and are played by clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba. The principal melody is romantic and lovely, and announced by the cor anglais (alto oboe), accompanied by muted strings. After a time comes a sudden change of key and a slight quickening of speed. Flute and oboe give out a short, but haunting new tune. This is immediately followed by the second subject, a little slower in speed, given out by clarinets and answered by flute and oboes, the bass strings accompanying pizzicato (plucked). The oboe later announces a pert little passing tune. Some play is made with this, and a climax is reached in which trombones make a brief reference to the “main” theme. The cor anglais solo returns, is taken up by solo violin, and, after recalling the solemn opening chords, the movement closes quietly.

3. The scherzo abounds with a quaint liveliness, gay in instrumental colouring. After a few hints, the first theme is announced by

flutes and oboes, imitated by clarinet. It is very short and sprightly, but of much rhythmic importance and abundantly used in imitation among the various instruments. The second subject is quieter and slower, and, like the first, announced by flutes and oboes. Its accents are inclined to be lively. The first subject returns and leads to the trio section, two references to the “main” theme, first in cellos and then violas, being heard on the way. The trio enters with a charming theme in the wind, followed by an equally delightful one in the strings. The scherzo is repeated, and in the coda we notice very definite references to the “main” theme. Near the end the sprightly tune appears to dissolve into fragments until it is finally banished by a loud chord.

4.The powerful finale commences with nine introductory bars, after which horns and trumpets boldly announce the chief theme of the movement. A feature of this tune is that it relies on bare melody, harmonic dress having no essential part in its existence. A new and vivacious tune in triplets is soon heard in the violins. The second subject is a quiet theme given out by solo clarinet, punctuated in the cellos by fragments of the vivacious tune. A climax, which is said to contain a gay reference to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” is built up. The development is brilliant and warm-hearted. The themes of the movement are weaved into glowing mixtures, and a brighter version of the cor anglais theme may be noted. The bold first subject flirts gaily with the vivacious tune. Reference to the “main” theme is made in a big climax. The music dies down and we come to the appealing cor anglais theme of the slow movement, now punctuated by the sprightly opening tune of the scherzo. The bold theme of the present movement follows in subdued horn tone, but the accents of the sprightly scherzo tune persist quietly from the drum. A sudden climax follows, in which the bold theme asserts its strength. The “main” theme is thrown across the screen, and this brilliant, tuneful symphony moves quickly to a glowing conclusion.

Many radio performances of the “New World” symphony have been given, and interpretations at home are available at will for those who possess a gramophone. The famous Halle Orchestra, of Manchester, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty, gives a glowing rendering of the complete work on “Columbia” records. The Royal

Albert Hall Orchestra (London), conducted by Sir Landon Ronald, gives a well played, slightly abridged version on “His Master’s Voice” records.

Symphony No. 2, in E Flat (Op. 63) Elgar (1857- )

“Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of delight.” — Shelley

This is generally acknowledged as one of the finest contemporary orchestral works. It is often rash to write glowingly of contemporary art, for posterity has a habit of reversing our judgments. Nevertheless, if a present-day work arouses in us a thrill such as that produced by the acknowledged great ones of the past, we should not hesitate to acclaim it. The days when Beethoven was squabbled ever because of his apparent revolutionary proclivities have faded into history; the thousands of Beethoven lovers to-day frankly owe their allegiance solely to the spiritual power of his music. The ordinary initiated music-lover often has an advantage over the probing musical analyst, because he judges compositions according to how they appeal to his ear and his feelings rather than his brain. This is not an altogether faulty mode of judgment if the truest test of music lies in its ability to stir the emotions of the hearer. The importance of so much extremely “modernist” music lies in strikingly “new” harmonies and weird instrumental effects, but its appeal to the ear as music is often a failure; the letter is made more important than the spirit.

It is hardly possible to fully comprehend Elgar’s E flat Symphony at one hearing, for it is very rich in design and of considerable length. More than a dozen themes and motives, striking episodical matter, contrasting harmonic beauties, and superb instrumentation, combine to present the spiritual message of the symphony in a lavish dress, the very brilliance of which is too dazzling for the inner meaning to be clearly felt at first acquaintance. Yet it is possible to realise at once that one is listening to a work of genius that is presented with the finished craftsmanship of an established master.

The work was designed early in 1910, and its dedicatory inscription, to the memory of King Edward VII, is dated March 16, 1911.

Elgar’s reputation had at this time been strongly founded on his famous “Enigma” variations for orchestra, and the oratorio, “The Dream of Gerontius,” the two later oratorios, “The Apostles” and “The Kingdom,” the Symphony in A flat (No. 1), and the Violin Concerto; the last-named had only appeared in November, 1910. He had reached the stage where everything new from his pen was awaited with widespread interest. The Symphony in E flat was ultimately produced by the composer and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra (London) for the first time on May 24, 1911. The concert was the third given in the I,ondon Musical Festival of that year.

After its production the work was strangely neglected, but, in 1920, it met with a brilliant revival, and, chiefly owing to the persistence of Sir Landon Ronald, has since become the best known of Elgar’s two symphonies, hence its place in the present book. Its spirit of unbounded joy is a complete psychological contrast to the A flat Symphony. The reader who desires a more completely analytical account, with musical illustrations, than that following, may be referred to my monograph, “Sir Edward Elgar.”

1. Allegro Vivace e Nobilmente.

2. Larghetto.

3. Rondo. Presto.

4. Moderato e Maestoso.

The poem of Shelley from which Elgar took this symphony’s motto is rather melancholy in character. The symphony does not at first reflect the regret of one to whom the spirit of delight is lost, as expressed in the poem, but is rather an expression of that rare spirit itself.

1. Nobilmente, noble or lofty, is a favourite musical term of the composer. Notice the bounding spirit of delight with which the work opens. The second and third bars are very important, expressing the inner spirit of the work. They are sadly recalled at the very end of the symphony. Three other tunes closely follow, also expressing a joyous spirit; note how the first two of them run in thirds, and incidentally they have that restless energy often peculiar to Elgar. How gorgeous is the harmonic and instrumental colouring, and how the music leaps along with exuberance! Now a quieter tune appears; but its serenity

distinctly echoes the bounding spirit of the preceding tunes. The second subject proper is easily recognised by its contrasting mood, first expressed in a lovely, drawn-out melody by the cellos. The working out of the theme is remarkable for some striking epi-sodical matter. A strange change that comes over the atmosphere will not pass unnoticed. The whole aspect becomes mysterious, and the joyous tunes, although their bounding appearance is still recognisable, are strangely subdued. An enigmatic spirit floats through the music, the colour of which is now unearthly and weird. Piercing discords and a far-away throbbing of the drum suggest fantastic shadows to the hearer.

Later, the joyous spirit seems suddenly to break the shadows and then quickly spread out its light. Note the subsequent very loud and deliberate statement of the important opening theme, the symbol of the spirit of delight. The movement can now be easily traced to its end, the complex and multi-coloured construction only serving to emphasise the contrasting moods, joy being the dominating factor.

2.This slow movement contains some of Elgar’s grandest music. It breathes lofty and tender thoughts, and at times reaches a depth of expression that is among the rare things in music. Softly breathed chords open the movement and lead us to a broad and thoughtful theme which expands to glowing warmth. Mystic chords now lead us to another theme, this time a wistful one in thirds. This is in turn followed by a long-drawn melody. The hearer cannot miss the big Nobilmente section, with its loud tones which soar to lofty heights of expressiveness. The movement proceeds with a richly-garbed thoughtfulness. At the end, its first theme is recalled with quiet dignity and the mystic chords bring the close. This larghetto, with its thoughtful dignity, serenity and loftilyvoiced expression, seems like a profound utterance of wisdom after the exuberance of the preceding allegro.

3.This movement has some very exhilarating, almost breathless passages for the wind instruments. The rondo is in an extended modern form, and the chief tune makes itself very familiar before the movement is over. It appears at once, quietly, but of extremely agile character. Like some of the other tunes in the work, it runs in thirds. A second tune appears, having something of the bounding spirit of

the first movement. It is joined by another which has a contrasting descending motion. The rondo moves swiftly along, dazzling in the quick brilliance of its instrumentation. After a time, a curious fournote figure may be frequently noticed. It sounds out of time with the natural three-note figure of the bar. Eventually a strange force is felt; it has an affinity with the shadowy presence that at one part obscures the first movement. The general gaiety disappears as this dark spirit grips the whole. Shapeless accents in the tympani and bass and sidedrums create a weird effect as they increase in intensity. Once again the listener’s imagination is directed towards the fantastic. The agile tune presently flits, frightened, across the dark shadow, but the latter still persists. It is the second tune of the movement that eventually quietly brings a clearer atmosphere. The rondo then proceeds with contrasts and many deft instrumental figures to a brilliant end.

4. The concluding movement opens quietly with a swinging tune that is typical of the composer. Another, with firmly marked accents, follows. This is in turn followed by a nobilmente tune. Later, a somewhat less spirited theme is noticed. The movement goes firmly on, raising no such dark problems as are found in the first and third movements. Its general trend is a healthy firmness after the exuberance, profundity and excitement, respectively, of the first three movements. Near the end it grows subdued, however, and the opening theme of the first movement now appears transformed into the serenity of a beautiful memory. “Rarely, rarely comest thou….” The symphony concludes in a mood of wistful finality, making slow (molto lento) and distant references to the nobilmente theme and the swinging opening of this movement.

Elgar’s second symphony has received a radio performance under Sir Landon Ronald, who is probably its finest interpreter.

It is available for the gramophone, interpreted by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Sir Edward Elgar, O.M., himself, and recorded for “His Master’s Voice.” The possession of a recording of the symphony actually conducted by its great composer is of historic value.

Symphony in D Minor

Franck was born at Liege, Belgium, and studied at the conservatoire there. After teaching for two years in his native country, he settled in Paris at the age of twenty-two. He is generally regarded as a French composer, and his place in French music is now recognised as one of the greatest artistic influences of the nineteenth century. Duparc, D’Indy, the talented Chausson, Lekeu and Pieme were among his pupils, and Faure, Guilmant, Chabrier.and Dukas are numbered among his disciples. Franck worked from no high official position worthy of his regenerating work for French music; on the contrary he was misunderstood and slighted by his official contemporaries. Living quietly for his art, his warmth and sincerity soon attracted a group of the best young musicians of his day who loved and revered him. He was a fine organist and held a position in this capacity at the church of St. Clotilde, and was later professor of the organ at the Paris Conservatoire.

At the time of its composition (between 1880 and 1888), Franck’s symphony presented the successful solving of the problem of enlarging and reviving the classical form without destroying it. In this accomplishment his influence is felt even as far as Elgar’s Symphony in A flat, No. 1.

The symphony is dedicated “To my friend, Henri Duparc.” Duparc was a pupil of Franck.

1.Lento. Allegro non troppo.

2.Allegretto.

3.Allegro non troppo.

1. Cellos and basses open with a somewhat sombre, yet serene theme that is generic of this movement and is also recalled in the finale. It seems to express the simple life of Franck, subdued, yet deeply charged with the sublimity of the true artist. It is developed until it broadens into a passionate statement as the principal theme

of the allegro non troppo. The lento version is repeated in serenely expressive tones, now in F minor, and the allegro subsequently follows in the same tonality. The strings now introduce a calmly flowing new subject in F major. A big crescendo leads to a heroic and lofty theme justly described by M. Guy Ropartz as the “motive of faith.” It expresses the very soul of Franck the true artist, and plays an important part in what Vincent D’Indy described as the symphony’s “perpetual ascension towards pure bliss and life-giving light.” A lengthy development follows until the lento reappears, where the sombre opening tune is now uttered in loud, stern tones. The allegro is resumed and later the “motive of faith” appears with calm assurance, but the close of the movement comes with a powerful insistence of the opening lento.

2. Much of this movement carries a wonderful mood of spiritual calm, which may be likened to the air of sweet sanctity in an old French church. Sixteen bars of pizzicato (plucked) chords for strings and harps serve as a preludial theme to the principal subject, a soothing and beautiful melody introduced by the cor anglais (alto oboe) and continued by clarinet, horn and flute. The theme of the preludial bars intervenes between this and a new one, smooth and song-like, for the violins. The preludial theme now ushers a new section, in triplet rhythm. Although the music is here somewhat more animated, the quiet peaceful mood is sustained. Soon a clarinet plays a serene melody above the triplet rhythm. After a time the principal subject is heard amid the triplet rhythm, and later the preludial theme sheds its soft light across the whole. The movement ends peacefully. We leave it with regret, but happily both its principal and preludial themes are recalled in the next and last movement.

3. “What can be more joyous, more sanely vivacious, than the principal subject of the finale, around which all the other ideas in the work seem to gather and crystallise, while in the higher registers there rules that theme which M. Guy Ropartz has so truly called ‘the motive of faith’?” asks D’Indy. The principal subject of the movement is announced by ’cellos and bassoons, accompanied by violins and violas. After this has been discussed, the brass announces the second subject, which is taken up by first violins and violas. A fresh motive, suggestive of quiet strength of purpose, appears softly in the lower

strings. After a time the principal subject of the second movement (cor anglais solo) is heard; its preludial theme follows. The first and second subjects of the finale are now developed, and eventually the principal theme of the second movement is heard in the glory of the full orchestra. The music later grows quiet and the “motive of faith” is heard. This is soon followed by the more sombre accents of the opening leyito of the first movement. The “motive of faith” reasserts itself, however, and a vigorous return to the finale’s principal subject makes the concluding pages of the symphony. The work is available for the gramophone on “Columbia” records, played by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra under its famous conductor. Sir Henry J. Wood. Sir Henry, it may be noted, did much to make this once neglected symphony known in London, and his gramophone records of it are exceedingly interesting.

Symphony No. 2, in D, ‘The London’ Haydn (1732-1809)

Haydn is known as the father of both the modern symphony and the modern orchestra. During his later years he was affectionately referred to as “Papa Haydn.” The present book is not a place for fully expounding the exact historical importance of Haydn’s symphonies. Suffice it to say that, while not actually inventing anything new in musical usage, he established the concerted use of sonata form, strengthened the homophonic and harmonic use of material for composition, and indicated the value of orchestral colour on a more equal footing with design as a means of expression and effect. His influence was immediately reinforced by that of Mozart and Beethoven, and thus the great musical art form of the symphony was properly established. Haydn composed one hundred and twenty-five symphonies, but not all are of equal worth. His finest examples are those connected with England. In 1791 and 1794, Salomon, a violinist, but more ambitious as a concert promoter, succeeded in bringing Haydn to London. The famous composer, hitherto used to a comparatively quiet life, was received with remarkable enthusiasm. Overwhelmed with attentions, professional and social, “patronised” by royalty, he was generally lionised like a popular monarch. Oxford made him a Doctor of Music, and one of his symphonies is called “The Oxford.” Spurred on by the worth of Mozart’s works, and encouraged by his warm hearted reception in England, Haydn, although in his “sixties,” now embarked on his finest creative period. For his two visits to London, Haydn composed two sets of six symphonies. Concerning these, Salomon said to him: “Sir, I think you will never surpass these symphonies.” “Sir,” replied the composer, “I never mean to try.” A contemporary newspaper commented on the new works as fellows:

It is truly wonderful what sublime and august thoughts this master weaves into his works. Passages often occur to which it is impossible to listen without becoming excited we are carried

away by admiration, and are forced to applaud with hand and mouth. The Frenchmen here cannot restrain their transports in soft adagios; they clap their hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect.

Some confusion of numbering surrounds Haydn’s symphonies. The present one is generally known as No. 2, in D, “The London”; but it is also marked in Breitkopf and Hiirtel’s edition as No. 104, and in Paxton’s as No. 7, in D. “The London” is one of the finest of Haydn’s symphonies. It anticipates Beethoven in a marked degree, and, quite apart from its own historical interest and that of the composer, is music that can be enjoyed to this day. Ever a sheer, straightforward delight to the ear, it is still, in the words of a French critic, “too dangerous a rival for modern composers.” The outstanding feature is perhaps, in the light of later and more intricate works, the wonderful effects obtained by simple means. The slow movement has a sincerity of expression that is, at root, one of the fine things in music.

The symphony reflects much of the composer’s Croatian origin, especially in the last movement, and we may consider that it is as meaningless to call Haydn an Austrian composer as to call Beethoven a German composer; both frequently expressed a musical idiom entirely natural to their origin, but outside the countries that claim them as Teutons (see remarks on the third movement of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony). No marked problematic matter or emotional conflict is found in this symphony, which should be listened to purely as music.

The orchestra is that of the “classical” period, but not quite so finely coloured as Mozart and Beethoven (the latter a pupil of Haydn) made it; nor is it extended anywhere to trombones, which were not then in general use. It is composed of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums and strings. Horns and trumpets, having no valves at the time, are restricted to open notes, as in Mozart and Beethoven.

There are four movements, but these are not linked up by any main theme such as unifies the whole in many symphonies by later composers.

1. Adagio. Allegro.

2. Andante.

3. Memietto Allegro.

4. Allegro spiritoso.

1. The slow introduction, with its contrasts of sudden loud accents, for full orchestra, and quiet repose, distinctly foreshadows the mightier moods of Beethoven. The allegro opens with a quiet, but cheery theme that is typical of its composer’s sunny nature. Again the contrast of sudden ff for the full band; but there is now no anticipation of Beethoven, and the music goes on in Haydn’s own spirited style. The form is of course comparatively simple, and the listener should have no difficulty in following the movement to its end with wholehearted enjoyment. Note the use of the figure of four notes followed by two longer ones; it assumes much of that rhythmic significance later so favoured and developed by Beethoven. The woodwind mostly doubles the strings, but there are occasional bits of individual treatment

2. The melody given out by the strings is simple, yet sincere and beautiful in its expressiveness. The tonality changes to the minor; flute, oboes and bassoon being noticed to have four bars on their own for the occasion. The full orchestra suddenly bursts in, having the same effect, if not intention, of the slow movement of the “Surprise” Symphony, another of the Salomon series, in which a sudden ff served to wake up the aristocratic audiences who used this part of a work as an opportunity for an after-dinner doze. The present movement, like the first, can easily be traced to its end. Some charming varieties of the opening melody will be noted, including a four bar solo for flute, accompanied only by oboes and bassoons. A little later the flute also has a triplet passage mainly to itself. Apart from these exceptions, the wood-wind is not often trusted alone. Near the end, a simple yet lovely little touch for the two horns will be noted. This of course is quite easy for present day instruments, but the effect, nevertheless, is still charming, creating a lovely and peaceful atmosphere in which to close the movement.

3. The minuets and trios of Haydn’s symphonies are almost unrivalled. There is a world of difference between the polished refinement of a Mozart example and the cheery spirit of one by Haydn, yet

both show the master hand. Beethoven made the third movement a much more extended and significant affair, but, in his eighth symphony, suddenly returned to the Haydn style.

The Memtetto (little minuet) is announced by the full orchestra, and is one of the composer’s best examples of the form. The trio portion is a running theme in the first violins, doubled first by the oboe and then by the bassoon, and accompanied pizzicato (plucked) by the other strings. Clarinets, brass and drums are silent. After the usual repeat, a connecting passage leads back to the Memtetto for the full orchestra.

4.The last movement opens softly with a drone bass in horns and cellos, over which the first violins play an apparently Croatian folktune. The other instruments are all silent, and the general effect has been likened to bagpipes. Other instruments soon join in, and suddenly the full orchestra bursts in with a vivacious continuance of the tune. The opening part returns, soon followed by another vivacious fragment. The second subject will be recognised by its more sustained character; it has a contrasting mood of quiet seriousness. The vivacious tune soon dispels it, and, with its kin, again makes the mood one of general high spirits. The return and development of the tranquil mood brings some quiet chords of almost Beethoven-like solemnity. The first subject reappears quietly, as if loath to disturb the serenity that has settled over the music. The vivacious part breaks in, however, and the movement proceeds gaily, although the tranquil mood is again noticed. One of the few passages for wood wind alone will be noticed where flute and oboes play with the first subject. The symphony ends with decisive chords.

Symphony No. 3, in A Minor, “The Scotch” (Op. 56)

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy presents the case of a man starting as a genius, but, finding his social table well provided, settles down to be merely a comfortable man of talent. In proportion to the boyhood promise of his “Midsummer Night’s Dream” overture, MendelssohnBartholdy developed much less than might have been expected. He was the chief musical apostle of Victorian England, where he was naturally favoured by a court that was largely related to his own country. His association with England fortunately led him to discover a source of inspiration that whipped up his early promise of genius. He travelled on to Scotland, where the wild historical romance of Holyrood and the heavy, heaving sea of the low, grey Hebrides inspired the romantic “Scotch” Symphony and the wonderful tonepicture, the “Hebrides” overture (“Fingal’s Cave”). These two works show us a man with the poetic fire where he is elsewhere generally nothing more than a respectable, amiable, fluent and superficially brilliant composer. His compound name is Jewish-Christian. It is considered bad taste in Germany to refer to him only by his first name even in the merest catalogue, for his family legally added the christian surname of Bartholdy. The composer seems to have definitely found inspiration for his “Scotch” Symphony at Holyrood in the summer of 1829. Describing the scene, he wrote: “Everything around is broken and mouldering, and the bright sky shines in. I believe I found to-day in that old chapel the beginning of my ‘Scotch’ Symphony.” He commenced the work in Rome in 1830, but did not complete it until January, 1842. The first performance was at Leipzig on March 3 following. On June 13 the composer conducted the new symphony in London at a concert of the Philharmonic Society. He was on his seventh visit to England. The orchestra employed is of “classical” proportions, but with four horns. The symphony has four movements, but the composer directs

that there shall be no break between them:

1.Andante con moto. Allegro un poco agitato.

2.Vivace non troppo.

3.Adagio.

4.Allegro vivacissimo. Allegro maestoso assai.

Kretzschmar, having in mind the composer’s remarks I have quoted about the source of the symphony’s inspiration (Holyrood), connects much of his meaning with the tragic history of Mary, Queen of Scots.

1.The introduction opens with a romantic melody, stated by wood-wind, horns and violas, in which an atmosphere of melancholy suggests the dim past of Northern history. The violins follow with a strain that provides a graceful contrast, but the opening theme is the dominating influence. The allegro opens softly in violins, violas and clarinets, and the subject seems to be a quick parody of the romantic melody of the introduction. Kretzschmar considers it a possible indication of the light mind of Mary, Queen of Scots, in face of the brooding storm that was to break over her destiny, the tragedy of which he sees in the last movement. A brilliant ff (assai animato) for full orchestra soon follows. At its climax the clarinet introduces the quiet second subject. The agitated accents are not so easily quieted, however, and it is not until a graceful, fluent melody, typical of the composer, appears. The development, while carrying on the underlying romance and poetry of the movement, is somewhat too fluent and lacks inspiration. The composer was evidently unable to sustain the high promise of the opening pages, and what with a greater mind might have been a movement charged with tragic significance, here becomes mainly the smooth effort of a facile pen, which is, nevertheless, technically weak in development. The filtering inspiration happily redeems itself near the end of the movement, when the assai animato passage is thundered out by the full orchestra and significantly followed by the romantic melody of the introduction. The human appeal of the drama that Kretzschmar sees is thus restored at this point.

2.This scherzo-like movement suggests to me that which MacDowell would have termed an “aside” from the dramatic content

of the whole, and its presence a merely respectable compliance with the usual form and length of a symphony. Moreover, it is extremely superficial music. A Scottish flavour is introduced by its rhythm of a “Scotch snap,” but the rustic theme announced by the clarinet is, for all its obvious attempt at gaiety, exceedingly dull. The whole movement is below the level of the rest of the symphony and shows its composer in his most annoying aspect of mere cleverness and superficial fluency.

3. In the adagio we come to bigger music again. It is one of the best slow movements Mendelssohn ever composed; superior even to that of his violin concerto, for it has an underlying passion in addition to lovely melody. A short prologue recalls the romantic melancholy of the opening of the symphony. The theme that follows is a lovely melodic inspiration stated by the violins. The second subject, presented by wood-wind and horns, is like a summons and charged with foreboding tragedy. It is repeated # by the full orchestra, and later assumes much significance by reason of its threatening accents. The lovely first subject is heard in horns and cellos, and is interrupted later by the second. Violins and cellos give the former a further repetition, but the latter is significantly suggested in the concluding bars by the drum. Two sharp, loud notes suddenly take us into the final movement. The tragedy has begun.

4. Kretzschmar regards this movement as being closely connected with the tragic fate of Mary Stuart, already foreshadowed by the foreboding second subject of the adagio. The first theme is wild and impetuous, and announced, in thirds and sixths, by the violins, accompanied by chords from violas, horns and bassoons. The subject has a second strain stated by violins in staccato tones; this is less agile than the first part. A strong, warlike motive soon appears. This is regarded by Kretzschmar as representing the gathering of the clans for battle. He points out that its introductory bars foreshadow the second subject proper, the melancholy tones of which enter soon afterwards in E minor. There is a haunting sadness about this theme, the appearances of which cast a melancholy romance over the turbulent mood of the movement. A powerful triplet figure for horns and lower strings will be noticed. The listener should have no difficulty in following the further progress of the movement, although its interest

is not sustained in the development section, where the composer’s habit of meaningless fluency is all too obvious.

The epilogue, allegro maestoso assai, enters in A major. I fail to appreciate this tacking and think that the movement would have been more suitably concluded by the dying accents of tragedy heard just before the epilogue enters. This latter is too obviously an attempt to canonise the subject of the tragedy, and is not made in the composer’s most convincing style.

Symphony No. 41, in C (“Jupiter”)

Mozart (1756-1791)

Mozart is, in some respects, still the most sublime, if not the most exciting, of all composers. His best music, pure as a crystal stream, perfect in form, exquisite in harmonic and instrumental colouring, everywhere indicates both a genius and master. He was mortal, however, and not all his music is of equal worth. The “Jupiter” symphony, said to have been so entitled by J. B. Cramer (1771-1858), is the last of his symphonies and one of three that form a remarkable instance of prolific genius. Within the space of about six weeks in the summer of 1788, Mozart gave his last and greatest symphonies to the world. No. 39, in E flat, appeared on June 26, No. 40, in G minor, on July 25, and No. 41, in C (“Jupiter”), on August 10. It would seem as if the creative fire blazed to its utmost in one final effort to accomplish its mission before the early death of the body. Each of the three symphonies shows a different emotional picture while preserving the indelible stamp of their creator. The E flat is joyous, the G minor clouded and anxious, and the C major dignified and even grand. Ambros says of them, “Considered as pure music, it is hardly worth while to ask whether the world possesses anything more perfect.” Perhaps not in instrumental music, but in the art as a whole we have to reckon with the perfect vocal creations of the English late-Tudor and Elizabethan composers.

Mozart’s power to make the orchestra sing was well defined by Wagner, who said that the former gave to melody “by way of compensation for its delivery by mere instruments, the depth of feeling and ardour which lies at the source of the human voice as the expression of the unfathomable depths of the heart.” The flame of Mozart’s genius burnt so strongly in his last symphonies that it had the effect of spurring on Haydn, no longer young, to greater efforts.

The “Jupiter” is generally considered to be the grandest of Mozart’s symphonies. Its effortless eloquence, dignity and power, perfect balance of construction, polished charm and grace, and, above

all, haunting beauty of expression, have caused almost every later composer, including Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Elgar and Strauss, to pay homage to “immortal Mozart.” Its final movement is an astounding example of consummate technical mastery combined with the inspiration of an almost incomparable musical genius.

The “Jupiter” symphony is scored for the orchestra of the period of its composition, consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums and strings. It will be noted that, unlike Haydn’s “London” symphony, it contains no parts for clarinets. Mozart was quite familiar with their use, however, and uses them with charming effect in the first (No. 39, in E flat) of his last three symphonies. His use of the wood-wind shows a much more independent treatment than that found in the “London” symphony of Haydn which is discussed in this book. The fact is no guide, however, for in some of his other later symphonies, the “Oxford” and “Military,” for instance, Haydn’s use of the wood-wind justified a contemporary accusation of his being an apostle of the “new music.”

1.Allegro vivace.

2.Andante cantabile.

3.Memietto and Trio. Allegretto.

4.Finale Allegro molto

2.The movement opens at once with the two principal themes comprising the first subject. The first, perhaps a significant call to attention to the last symphony of “immortal Mozart,” is stated in bold and arresting accents by the full orchestra. The second immediately follows in a pleading phrase from the strings. The sublime purity which characterises the symphony throughout becomes apparent in these first few bars. At the ninth bar the full orchestra bursts in with a triumphant continuation. Flutes and oboes are later heard in an important accompanying figure. After the development comes the delightful second subject, announced by the first violins. This is followed by an episode in which a charming, gay melody, stated by violins, claims the attention; it has an animated second part. The score directs that the whole of the foregoing shall be repeated. The development starts with the episodic melody now transposed into E

flat. The first theme later appears in F, with the important accompaniment, originally played by flutes and oboes, now transferred to bassoons. The rest of the movement can easily be followed to its conclusion.

2. Although this movement has a certain dignity and what has been described as a “large grand air,” there is little in its touchingly human accents that is Jupiter-like. Trumpets and drums are silent throughout. Muted violins give out a serene melody, punctuated at intervals by a loud chord from the full orchestra. After some elaboration, a new theme appears in oboes and bassoons against a syncopated accompaniment for strings. The second subject is a stately theme announced by oboes, bassoons and violins. Note the charming treatment of the instruments in the ensuing exposition. All through this movement Mozart displays a wealth of beautiful melodic and instrumental detail that exceeds even his own preceding works. The absolute purity of the music places its composer on a pinnacle almost by himself. As in the first movement, a repeat is directed. The movement proceeds on its journey, sometimes broken by moments of agitation, but prevailing in its mood of haunting beauty. The conclusion comes in sublimely peaceful accents.

3. The principal theme, given to the first violins, has an appropriate rhythmic grace. It assumes a more energetic appearance on being taken up by the full orchestra. A passage for wood-wind alone is noticeable. The general gracefulness is not free from clouded thought.

The trio portion commences where flute, bassoons and horn have a cadence like an “Amen,” answered by a running passage for first violins. After a repeat, the memietto returns.

The graceful expressiveness, slightly tinged with sadness, of this movement is a distinct spiritual contrast to the corresponding one of the Haydn symphony we have discussed. The two may serve to show the different mentalities of the classics who established the form of that great vehicle of musical expression, the sonata or symphony.

4. The concluding movement is truly Jupiter-like. It contains four important ideas. The principal theme commences at once and consists of a phrase of four semibreves (whole bar notes in this case), played by the first violins, accompanied by the seconds. A bright

connecting passage leads to its repetition by all the violins, the rest of the orchestra accompanying. A second theme appears, planing down to its octave. A moment’s silence, and the second violins start the first subject as a fugue. A third theme, recognisable by a characteristic trill, appears, which is played by the first violins and answered by the basses. A moment’s silence, and a fourth theme, really the second subject of the movement, is announced. It has three long notes followed by a descending run. The exposition of all the foregoing is directed to be repeated. Following this, the music develops with a contrapuntal skill that is remarkable, not merely for its intricacy, but for its clarity and the consummate ease with which every technical difficulty is mastered. Before the coda, a repeat of the development is directed, but the gramophone recording previously referred to does not give this perhaps unnecessary prolonging of the movement. The coda itself starts with an inversion of the opening theme. This is followed by a fugue, in which all the themes are woven with surpassing skill that unmistakably indicates the hand of both a genius and craftsman of the highest order. The symphony concludes in a triumphant strain. We leave this work knowing it to be one of the earliest examples, yet feeling it also as one of the greatest monuments, of its form.

The complete gramophone recording, published by “His Master’s Voice,” of a performance by the Symphony Orchestra, under Albert Coates, gives an almost adequate study of the symphony. Mr. Coates’s interpretation of the first movement is noticeable for fiery vigour rather than smooth polish. The second and third movements are beautifully played, while the finale shows the conductor’s superbly magnetic control of the orchestra.

Symphony in B Minor (“Unfinished”) Schubert (1791-1828)

This is one of the best known symphonies in the world, played by all sorts of musical organisations, from the first-rate symphony orchestra to brass, military, restaurant and kinema bands. The second subject of its first movement is probably the symphony tune best known among the multitude. The shy and awkward manners of Schubert prevented him from ever becoming much known in his lifetime outside the student circle in which he lived a Bohemian life. He was a most prolific composer, and the output of his short career was a powerful factor in bringing German music to the full consciousness of its mission; but he was too unconscious an artist to have ever realised this. He made few preliminary sketches and hated revision, and was in this respect the opposite of his beloved Beethoven. His technical abilities were not great and his construction was illdisciplined. It is in his songs that we find Schubert the great composer. The best of these entirely spontaneous creations proved a mighty stimulant to the building up of German lieder (art-songs). The “discovery” of Schubert was largely due to the researches of Schumann before 1840 and the cordial interest of Mendelssohn soon afterwards; the English writer, Sir George Grove, also played an active part in the matter. The detailed knowledge of Schubert’s works was so long delayed that their historic significance was obscured and, even to-day, may be underrated. His orchestration shows a natural instinct, and he seemed to have a close understanding of the then limited brass instruments, especially displaying a great predilection for the trombones. That he understood the latter better than Beethoven is shown by his orchestral use of them in soft chords and not solely for big effects.

“Why unfinished?” asks M. Bourgault-Ducoudray, dealing with the symphony in his book on Schubert. He then goes on: “Did not Schubert realise how he would be ministering to his own glory in completing a work so highly coloured and so individual?” The answer

is that Schubert was probably too unconscious an artist to do so. An English writer of programme notes suggested that the composer felt he could not keep up the worth of the symphony in succeeding movements. This is perhaps best answered by Schubert’s own method; it was quite like him to dash off two movements of a symphony and then bow to some other inspiration, probably his unsuccessful aspirations to opera. It should further be remembered that there was then little likelihood of a symphony of his being played in public; he had not the discipline of such presentation to urge him. I confess to finding the symphony quite long enough, for although it has many beautiful passages, the style of its structure is not of profound or sustaining interest like that of a symphony by Beethoven or Brahms. We have a complete Schubert symphony in the C major, and this is of inordinate length and so vague in build that even its charming material becomes tiresome. The enthusiastic Schumann, however, spoke of Schubert’s “heavenly length.” The “Unfinished” symphony dates from 1822. The first two movements and nine bars of the scherzo, the latter never played, are available.

1.Allegro moderato.

2.Andante con moto.

1.A grave and foreboding opening in the lower strings is answered by a poignant melody for oboe and clarinet, the violins having a counter subject. The symphony already has that wistful, pathetic charm which is its most compelling feature. The themes are developed until a succession of loud chords interrupts. The serene second subject which follows is one of the most widely known of Schubert’s airs. It is announced by cellos with a syncopated accompaniment in violas and clarinets. A portion of it is used in imitation. The development starts with the grave opening phrase in the basses, which is treated in imitation. Although some charming effects are heard, Schubert’s inability to develop his ideas and put them into anything approaching a fine structure is all too apparent. He seems forced to depend on the great melodic interest of his themes, which are, however, liable to become tiresome without any of the interesting development one expects to find in a symphony; but the charm and simple sincerity of the composer, and also his instinct for the

dramatic, raise him high above his technical limitations. The instant calmings of the strenuous passages by the serene second subject are like spiritual magic. The coda is based on the grave opening phrase.

2. The first subject is one of the composer’s most serenely beautiful inspirations. The second is very moving, both in its manner of introduction and poignant, unaffected beauty. The whole effect is freighted with meaning that may be an unconscious reflection of the composer’s unhappy circumstances; here we meet the Schubert whose genius stands alone. A subsidiary theme appears in the full orchestra. Later on the second subject is used in imitation between basses and first violins, the syncopated accompaniment being present in the “inner” parts. The recapitulation is noticeable for its varied instrumental scoring and the exalted beauty of what M. BourgaultDucoudray described as “these truly celestial harmonies.” With equal truth he refers to the “supreme purity” of this music. Nevertheless, the movement seems to hover on the “heavenly length” in the way it wanders on with no very interesting development of its lovely materials.

The symphony has been played in complete form for the gramophone by the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden, conducted by Eugene Goossens, on “His Master’s Voice” records. Mr. Goossens misses none of the exquisite beauties of the classic work, and the playing has fine precision and is very clear. A distinguished rendering is secured by the orchestra of the State Opera House, Berlin, under Eduard Moerike, on “Parlophone” records. Herr Moerike is well-known in Germany and America as a conductor of German opera. The British Symphony Orchestra gives a sound and thoughtful reading under Dr. Adrian C. Boult, on Edison-Bell “Velvet Face” records. Dr. Boult is known for his work in training orchestral conductors at the Royal College of Music, London. The New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood, play a much loved interpretation on “Columbia” records.

Symphony No. 3, in F Minor (“The Irish”), (Op. 28) Stanford (1852-1924)

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was a distinguished musician of his day, and on his death in 1924 was buried in Westminster Abbey; yet his compositions have been somewhat unduly neglected. He was overshadowed partly by the prolific character of his own compositions, partly by his great work as a teacher, and chiefly by his great contemporary, Elgar. Nevertheless, some of his music has won lasting esteem, the choral works, “The Revenge” and “Songs of the Fleet,” being particularly well known.

Stanford was born in Dublin, and many of his finest works have an Irish idiom. His Irish songs have lately been acclaimed as the most valuable contribution to the realm of the art-song since Schubert. I hope, indeed, that there is still time for the fuller recognition of the poetic genius of Stanford. He has no sensations of npodern “progress” in music to show us, but he can reveal some very lovable characteristics that are entirely his own. Any reader who wishes to read more about Stanford and his music may refer to my own “Sir Charles Stanford.”

Stanford composed seven symphonies, of which the third, “The Irish,” has been the most popular, although in recent years it has been infrequently played in London. The “Irish” symphony was first played on May 27, 1887, at a concert in London conducted by Dr. Hans Richter. Stanford, who was a Cambridge scholar, an M.A., gave the work a Latin inscription, which in English is:

Be thou gracious to my country, and to me who sins, of my country, Phoebus, who thyself singest with the crowned lyre.

The music abounds with poetic beauty that is always lovable, and often moving and stirring; its instrumentation is fresh and charming. The Irish idiom is one which the composer loved deeply, understood intimately, and which was part of his nature and racial fibre. The late Joseph Bennett, a well-known musical journalist, suggested the

following lines as a true motto for the symphony:

Erin, the tear and the smile in thine eyes

Blend like the rainbow that hangs in the skies; Shining through sorrow’s stream, Saddening through pleasure’s beam. Thy suns, with doubtful gleam

Weep while they rise.

The construction of the work is straightforward, and the most brief outline of the movements, which are the usual four in number, will suffice.

1. Allegro moderato.

2. Allegro molto vivace.

3. Andante con moto.

4. Finale. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco.

1. The symphony commences in F minor with a soft romantic theme in the strings. This is presently discussed at some length. The entry of the second subject will be recognised by its dignified flowing melody, the key changing to A flat major. This change from minor to the relative major key is conventional, and easily, because naturally, felt by the listener. Stanford was never a musical reformer! The two themes are developed in ingenious and masterly style. An ultimate coda brings this melodious movement to its conclusion.

2. This is a jolly scherzo, the chief subject of which is in the form of the Hop Jig, an Irish national dance. The second subject, presently heard from the flutes, has a more austere character. The trio portion has a long, lovely melody played by the clarinets. The rollicking dance mood returns and takes the movement to its conclusion.

3. The andante is notable for the poignancy and depth of its expressiveness. A curiously impressive harp solo opens the movement; then follows the first subject, a theme of mournful beauty announced by unaccompanied clarinets. This is fully treated and occupies our attention for some time. The second subject is a plaintive tune given out by the oboes, with which the violas suggest the old Irish melody, “The Lament of the Sons of Usnach.” The music becomes increasingly poignant until it ends in a most moving mood

of quiet sadness.

4.The stirring finale provides a striking contrast to the foregoing andante, thus furnishing the probable explanation as to why Stanford placed his scherzo as the second instead of the usual third movement. After some introductory matter, oboe and clarinet, accompanied by strings pizzicato (plucked), give out the old Irish tune, “Molly McAlpin.” This is presently succeeded by a second subject, which in turn gives place to another old Irish air, “Let Erin Remember the Days of Old,” stirringly announced by the four horns. The movement, which is in the form of a rondo, grows increasingly triumphant. One does not have to be Irish in order to feel the thrill of this intensely nationalist music. The symphony ends in a mood of triumphant splendour.

Symphony No. 5, in E Minor (Op. 64) Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Many critics have considered this symphony to be equal, if not superior, to the more popular sixth and last (“Pathetique” symphony), which followed six years later. It is certainly less generally pessimistic. During its composition, Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend: “I am fearfully anxious to prove, not only to others, but to myself, that I am not worked out as a composer.” The production in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) in 1888 met with hardly any enthusiasm from either musicians or press. Disappointed, Tchaikovsky laid the symphony aside, and it was not until some years after his death that its worth was recognised. In comparison with his fourth and sixth symphonies the composer thought little of it; yet its andante cantabile is now considered to be the finest symphony movement he ever composed. Although the composer seems to have made no special reference to any underlying meaning in this work, nor of any emotional or poetic idea which may have inspired it, the symphony may well suggest, although not intentionally express, the subject of Fate and the artist’s struggle with it. This suggestion may be borne out by the “Motto” theme which, appearing in various parts of the work and ultimately transformed into triumphant accents, gives a continuity to the whole. Edwin Evans, Senr., in his full analysis of this symphony in a supplementary chapter to Rosa Newmarch’s “Life and Works of Tchaikovsky,” regards the treatment of the “Motto” theme as more admirable as workmanship than inspiration, and dismisses any idea of a hidden meaning. He is naturally more concerned with analysing the technical realities of the work than the less rigid task of interpreting its emotional aspects. If the listener is helped to better appreciate the symphony by attaching an emotional significance to its “Motto” theme, he is quite justified in doing so. A similar interpretation is openly given to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The styles of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are vastly different, but it may be said that the Fifth Symphonies of both are to be numbered among the

world’s orchestral masterpieces.

The Russian critic, Berezovsky, regarded Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony in a very critical light, but his account is extremely interesting. Writing of the work as a whole, he said: “The Fifth is the weakest of all Tchaikovsky’s symphonies; nevertheless it is a striking work and takes a prominent place not only among its composer’s compositions, hut among Russian musical works in general…. The entire symphony seems to set forth some dark spiritual experience, some heavy condition of a mind torn by importunate memories which have poisoned existence. Only at the close the clouds lift, the sky clears, and we see the blue stretching pure and clear beyond.” Later criticisms have unanimously endorsed his favourable comments, but have dispelled his reckoning of the work in relation to Tchaikovsky’s other symphonies. It is now almost as well-known as the “Pathetique,” while the first three are seldom heard, and the fourth, although a fine work, only slightly more. Kashkin, in his “Reminiscences of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky,” tells an amusing story of Tchaikovsky dining with Brahms after the latter had heard the former’s Fifth Symphony for the first time in Hamburg. Brahms told Tchaikovsky why he did not like the work. He spoke so simply and sincerely that Tchaikovsky gave an equally friendly criticism of the German master’s music. They parted excellent and understanding friends.

Tchaikovsky was a convinced opponent of the Russian nationalist composers, Glinka, Borodin, Moussorgsky and RimskyKorsakoff, but he could not entirely rid himself of race fibre, and there is much that is truly, although not intentionally Russian in this Fifth Symphony. It is brilliantly scored, for the composer was a great master of the orchestra. The dedication is to M. Ave-Lallement, of Hamburg.

1.Andante. Allegro con anima.

2.Andante cantabile.

3.Valse — Allegro moderato.

4.Finale — Andante maestoso. Allegro vivace (alia breve).

1.Note well the sombre, fateful theme given out by the clarinet. This is the “Motto” theme that, with slight modifications, threads the

work into a unified whole. It eventually makes way for the principal melody of this movement, a dance-like tune announced by clarinet and bassoon.

This theme should also be kept in mind, for it gains a significance by being recalled amid the general triumph at the end of the symphony. It is now worked up with brilliance and energy. The second section follows with a group of three themes. First comes a phrase on the violins like a deep sigh, rounded off by sad little comments from the horn; then follows a dialogue between strings and wood-wind; and finally comes a lovely, but sad melody sung by the violins. Proceeding, the thrills of Tchaikovsky’s orchestra are felt, and it will be understood why the nervous excitement of this symphony makes it such a general favourite. Charming opportunities for individual instruments and stirring effects for the full orchestra take up the listener’s attention, although he will notice the prominence of the dance-tune. This latter ends the movement by dying away in the depths of the bass. The gloomy closet affords a significant reminder of the sombre mood in which the movement opened, which is perhaps forgotten by the listener in the contrasting tunes and somewhat hectic excitement which followed.

2. The ayidante movement is surely one of the most haunting that Tchaikovsky ever composed. It opens with dark, fateful chords; but these are forgotten in the sadly beautiful horn solo that follows. This is succeeded by an expressive one for oboe. The two instruments have a little dialogue in which the listener will note their tonal contrast. After a time, clarinet, answered by bassoon, announces a third expressive theme, the mood of which seems one of wistful resignation. The music becomes more intense, and presently the fateful “Motto” theme breaks the wistful mood. The violins play the first tune, which restores the sad serenity. The second works to an intensity that seems like anguish of the soul. It sinks to peace, but the “Motto” theme bursts in with almost savage force. After this the music has a most poignant expressiveness, concluding peacefully, but sadly.

3. In place of the usual scherzo movement we here have one described as a valse, of which Edwin Evans, Senr., says in his book to which I have already referred: “It is perhaps right that (whether by courtesy or the adoption of an accommodating scale of judgment) we

should not absolutely refuse to admit the title; but the fact remains that this is simply an ordinary graceful movement in 3/4 from which the more characteristic accentuation allied with other dance forms is absent, and which falls under the ‘valse’ category merely by virtue of that fact.” The movement bears the charm that Tchaikovsky infused into his ballet music, including the well-known “Nutcracker” (“Casse-Noisette”). It presents no problems and may easily be followed; but the “Motto” theme makes a baleful appearance in the coda.

4.The finale opens with a stately version of the “Motto” theme in the brighter major key. This imposing introduction eventually gives place to a vivacious tune in the style of a Russian folk-song. A cheerful oboe phrase and a flowing melody in the violins follows The “Motto” theme, majestic and no longer foreboding, appears in the splendour of brass chords. A quieter and wistful mood comes to the music for a time, but a sudden loud chord soon brings back the more exciting atmosphere, the vivacity of which was considered by Brahms to be too lacking m restraint. It is indeed antagonistic to the German master’s serious thought and grey-tinted instrumentation. The “Motto” theme, still in its majestic garb, is heard once more, and the music grows still more glowing in a mighty climax which presents Tchaikovsky in what is perhaps his most thrilling mood. A short presto brings redoubled animation, and at the end the dance-like tune in the first movement is recalled in the brighter major key, giving the symphony a wonderful sense of triumphant fulfilment.

A magnificent gramophone recording of this symphony in complete form, conducted by Albert Coates, is available (“His Master’s Voice”). These records, some of the best orchestral ever issued, give a more vivid idea of the work than is possible at most symphony concerts, for Albert Coates, with his extremely magnetic personality, is one of the greatest exponents of Russian orchestral music; a fact which is partly due to his association with the old Imperial Opera in Russia. An abbreviated version by fifty performers of the famous Milan Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Romani, is available on “Columbia” records. The symphony has been transcribed for pianoforte solo, with indications of the orchestral scoring, by Edwin Evans, Senr.

Symphony No. 6, in B Minor, “Pathetique” (Op. 74) Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

This is one of the best known symphonies in the world. It is highly probable that its success owes much to its title, which has furnished, or seemed to furnish, a key to that “inner meaning” which almost every listener seeks to discover in a large musical work of conflicting emotions. This symphony has been invested with an autobiographical interest for which, however, there is no real warranty. Its tortured phrases have been supposed to foreshadow the composer’s own end, which was at first falsely rumoured to have been by suicide. This theory has been exploded in the “Reminiscences of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky,” by N. Kashkin, one of the professors of the Moscow Conservatoire and a friend and colleague of the composer. He shows that the work was not composed under the influence of morbid thoughts of death, and had Tchaikovsky carried out his idea of writing the programme of the symphony there would have been no fantastic theories spread round it by sensationalists. It may possibly be a pity to spoil a creepy story, but, on the other hand, it is as well that the work should not be misunderstood in the narrow light of a mere personal apprehension of death on the part of the composer, even though we have his own testimony that the unrevealed programme was “penetrated by subjective sentiment.”

The symphony conveys its own message to every individual hearer, but bears a common burden of anguish, calamity and final sense of dismay in the realisation of the tragedy and finality of our striving human hopes. Tchaikovsky’s experiences which inspired this symphony are identical with our own. These thoughts and problems lie deep down in every thinking mortal, even if they do not in every case disturb the surface of life. In providing self-revelation Tchaikovsky gave, therefore, utterances that have wide human application, and here is probably the deeper reason for the widespread appeal of this symphony. The only personal morbidness in the work

is, in Tchaikovsky’s own words, “that desperate, cruel, tyrannical, moral ailment against which I have contended all my life nervousness.”

The French word, “pathetique,” has not quite the same meaning as the English word “pathetic,” but is derived from the Greek indication of something emotional. Tchaikovsky did not speak English, but, like most educated Russians, was conversant with French.

Tchaikovsky seldom travelled far in his music before he struck the note of melancholy, of which he. seemed to know every variation. His pessimism and moods of blackest despair seem only to engage the affections of the public, who are apt to view his music as typically Russian; but their estimation is hardly correct. Tchaikovsky’s despair is in the form of a frequent romantic and emotional mood, whereas the melancholy with which we associate the Russian character is a sober, grey pessimism, and more part of nature than of mood. It should be remembered that Tchaikovsky was antagonistic to the definitely Russian national school of composers founded by Glinka and magnificently expounded by Borodin, Moussorgsky and RimskyKorsakoff. His personal character was Slavic, but his musical outlook was cosmopolitan, and he most reverenced the teachers who leaned towards tradition and authority. He thus succeeded in becoming the best known Russian composer outside his own country; but to know only Tchaikovsky is to know little of Russian music. A full-flavoured Russian symphony by Borodin will be found described in the present book. The cosmopolitan musical convictions of Tchaikovsky happily could not destroy the essential fibre of national character, and in many places in his music it is a Russian voice that is heard, even if it does not speak with a truly Russian accent.

Regarding the idea of the symphony, the composer wrote to his favourite nephew, Vladimir Davidov (to whom the work was dedicated), in February, 1893: “… Just as I was starting on my journey (to Paris in 1892) the idea came to me for a new symphony. This time with a programme, but of the kind which remains an enigma to all let them guess it who can. The work will be entitled ‘A Programme Symphony’ (No. 6). This programme is penetrated by subjective sentiment. During my journey, while composing it in my mind, I frequently shed tears…. You cannot imagine how much joy I feel at

the conviction that my day is not yet finished.” It will be remembered that Tchaikovsky wrote his Fifth Symphony six years previously to prove to himself, as well as to others, that he was not worked out as a composer. He was unusually confident of the value of his Sixth Symphony, stoutly declaring it to be the best thing he had composed or was ever likely to compose. “Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into this symphony,” he wrote to the Grand Duke Constantine on October 3, 1893.

The first performance was conducted by the composer on October 28, 1893, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad). The symphony made no deep impression on this occasion, but, under other conductors, it later grew quickly into favour. Tchaikovsky adopted his brother’s suggestion and called it “Pathetique” instead of “Programme Symphony.” He despatched the score to the publisher Jurgenson in Moscow, but followed this with a countermand regarding the inadequate subtitle. This letter, dated October 30, 1893, arrived too late. On November 2, Tchaikovsky fell ill with cholera, and on the morning of November 6 he collapsed and died in the presence of two of his brothers, three nephews, three medical men, and his faithful servant, Alexis Safronov; sufficient witnesses, indeed, to disprove the sensational rumours of suicide.

The symphony strays far from the accepted form, the opening moyement having various changes of time which give early indication of the erratic character of the work. Symphonic analysis is, therefore, not at the moment suited or particularly helpful to the reader of the present book. Edwin Evans, Senr., in his supplementary part of Mrs. Rosa Newmarch’s book on Tchaikovsky, says: “Noble as the creation may be (and of its title to be so considered there is no question), its claim to the name of Symphony is one based rather upon the respect due to its composer, who so entitled it, than upon any discoverable conformity either with symphonic form proper or with the conventions which have gradually accumulated round it.” For the reader who desires an exhaustive analysis of this symphony, I cannot do better than refer him to the book mentioned. The same author (Edwin Evans, Senr.) has also transcribed the symphony for pianoforte solo, with indications of the orchestral instruments.

1.Adagio. Allegro. Andante, etc.

2.Allegro con grazia.

3.Allegro molto vivace.

4.Adagio lamentoso.

1.The first movement is notable for sharp emotional contrasts. The gloomy introduction speaks of the disillusionment of life. The allegro is feverish and restless, the beautiful second theme providing consolation, yet saddened by vanished hope. The solemn coda brings a sense of desolation. Some of the passages in this movement may even seem brutal, but they are true to human existence.

2.This movement is in the comparatively uncommon 5/4 time. It may be considered a pathetic attempt to turn from the disenchantment of life. The trio is somewhat sadder, but not heavy or depressing. There is a Russian flavour in the lonely twilight of the quiet, but vast spaces that this movement seems to fit.

3.The martial spirit of this movement is well known. Its purpose, gathering in intensity, is stern and steady, even though the cause be a lost one.

4.The steadfast spirit of the preceding movement has not led to triumph. Here is perhaps the truer story of mortal experience. Few composers have been able to write such passages of utter despair as we find in this closing movement. Perhaps it is as well that Beethoven, whose life was much more tragic than Tchaikovsky’s, was able to show us a sublimity of suffering and will to triumph. The revelation of Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony is inspiring in its ultimate victory over Fate, and gives new heart to perplexed humanity; but the composer was a man of more than ordinary strength of will. Tchaikovsky had far less of the unconquerable in his make-up, and his outbursts are rather of the emotion than the will. His expression of Fate as the conqueror rather than the conquered is perhaps the truer interpretation for the majority of humanity. The picture is not pleasant to look upon, and the healthy-minded listener is glad to escape from its moral; yet the “Pathetique” symphony is so vivid in emotion and so powerful in technical construction that it attracts a large number of music-lovers. A morbid picture to some, a revealing mirror to others, and a study for the student of harmony and instrumentation, its popularity is self-explained. The orchestral

writing is richly coloured.

Tchaikovsky’s instrumentation seems particularly suited for gramophone recording. His Fifth Symphony, previously discussed, provided one of the most successful orchestral recordings. The “Pathetique” was recorded in the same series (“His Master’s Voice”); the conductor on this occasion again being Mr. Albert Coates, directing the Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Coates, as we expect, works up the tremendous emotional power of the music. He can always get the last ounce out of Tchaikovsky, and the vitality of his Russian racial fibre, together with his masterly control of sweeping waves of orchestral tone, make these records a very wonderful insight into the composer’s varying moods. The orchestra of the State Opera House, Berlin, is directed by Dr. Weissmann in a thrilling, authoritative and well-controlled rendering on “Parlophone” records. The New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood, give a picturesque performance of an abridged version on “Columbia” records. Sir Henry’s reading realises much of the innate fatalism, besides the emotional excitement of the symphony. The late Beecham Symphony Orchestra played abridged versions of the second and third movements on a further “Columbia” record. Their distinguished conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, first introduced to London the Russian operas of Borodin, Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakoff.

Founders of Music

Life Sketches for Young Readers

1

Palestrina — Polyphonic Music

Since the human voice is older than any instrument, the earliest music was, of course, exclusively vocal; and until about five hundred years ago there was very little of any other kind. Before that time musical instruments were too imperfect to admit of anything that would now be called playing, and they were used merely to support the voices by sounding the same tones. And as the instruments were so very imperfect, composers of course wrote only for voices.

Until about the fourteenth century the singing was almost always in unison — that is, all the voices sang the same part, the higher voices an octave above the lower; but about that time began the development of what is called counterpoint.

Counterpoint is the art of adding to a given melody one, or two, or any number of other melodies, so constructed that they shall all sound well when heard together.

The notes used to be called points, and counter means against, so when one set of notes, or points, was written against another it was called point against point — counterpoint.

At first this art of counterpoint flourished chiefly in the Netherlands; but it was afterwards transplanted into Italy, where, in the sixteenth century, it attained its greatest perfection.

For the foundation of their contrapuntal compositions — which were usually masses, or settings of other words suitable for the church service — composers commonly took one of the old chants, or

sometimes a popular song, and this foundation melody, which was called the cantus firmus, was spaced off in very long notes to be sung by one voice generally the tenor while all the other voices surrounded it with the melodies of the counterpoint.

In the course of time, as each composer endeavored to outdo all the others, the elaboration of the counterpoint became so great that the original melody was entirely covered up and hidden, and the words of the church service, which had at first been set to music in order to render them more impressive, became utterly indistinguishable.

Moreover, if the composition was founded upon a secular song, the singers who carried the melody of the cantus Jirmus were very likely to sing it to the verses to which this melody originally belonged, and thus mingle common and vulgar words with the solemn phrases of the mass.

So great were these abuses that in the latter half of the sixteenth century a church council was on the point of prohibiting the use in the service of any music but that of the ancient solemn chants the plain-song, as they were called; but some of the true music-lovers in the council succeeded in modifying its decision, and the greatest Italian composer of the time was given a chance to show that learned, contrapuntal music did not necessarily interfere with the clear understanding of the words, but might even be made to enhance their meaning and effect.

The musician to whom this task was intrusted was Giovanni da Palestrina; that is, John of Palestrina, or Praeneste, the little town near Rome where the great composer was born.

Beyond the name of his birthplace but little is known of his early days. Even the date of his birth is not fixed beyond dispute, being variously given as 1514, 1524, and 1528.

Palestrina was at first a singer in the choir of one of the Roman churches, and afterwards leader and composer to the Papal chapel.

The Papal chapel the choir of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome is the body of singers to whom, for many centuries, has been intrusted the performance of the music at all services in which the pope personally officiates. It is the oldest choral organization in the world nearly fifteen hundred years old and has always sung

without the accompaniment of any instrument whatever.

Palestrina’s compositions mark the highest development of the strict school of polyphonic (that is, many-voiced), or contrapuntal, music, and the mass (called the Missa Papæ Marcelli, after the pope to whom it was dedicated) in which he successfully proved that artistic music might be used for the highest service of the church, is universally acknowledged to be the greatest musical composition of the sixteenth century.

Of this celebrated mass the pope said, “These are the harmonies of the new song which the Apostle John heard out of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of which an earthly John (Giovanni) in an earthly Jerusalem gives us a foretaste.”

The distinguishing technical feature of Palestrina’s music is the supreme art which so conceals all trace of effort that although his compositions consist of many independent melodies interwoven by the most intricate devices of counterpoint, the beautiful harmonies which result from the union of all these melodies are so smooth and follow each other so naturally as to seem absolutely uncalculated. And instead of neglecting, as did many of his predecessors, the spiritual qualities of the music in the effort to exhibit profound learning, Palestrina — the most profoundly learned of them all — created a type of music which never obtrudes either its beauty or its learning, but in its exalted purity seems to symbolize the mysteries of religious ceremonial.

Palestrina died in 1594, and in the course of the succeeding century the strict counterpoint, in which the cantus firrnus (that is, the melody upon which the composition is based) was always in long notes of equal length, was replaced by a freer style having notes of various lengths in all the parts; and it is in this freer style that the great polyphonic compositions of the eighteenth century (Bach’s fugues and Handel’s oratorios) are composed.

CHAPTER 2 Bach — The Fugue

In the seventeenth century, when all Germany was desolated by the terrible Thirty Years’ War, there lived in the beautiful province of Thuringia, scattered among the various towns Erfurt, Arnstadt, Eisenach, and smaller places a family whose numerous members through many generations, parents, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, uncles and cousins of all degrees, were nearly all musicians organists, singers, fiddlers, or pipers; and into this family, in the town of Eisenach, was born on the 21st of March, 1685, a little boy-baby who was destined to become one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen Johann Sebastian Bach. Although Bach lived only two centuries ago, he is one of the earliest of the great musicians; for music is the youngest of all the arts. Modern music is hardly more than three centuries old. When the great poets, sculptors, and architects of ancient Greece lived and worked, there was nothing in all the world corresponding to what we know as music. When the magnificent cathedrals of the Middle Ages were built, Music was just inventing signs to record her thoughts. When Michael Angelo and Raphael produced their masterpieces, musicians were still experimenting with counterpoint and so gradually evolving the art of harmony; and when Shakespeare wrote his immortal dramas, modern music was just coming into existence with the birth of opera.

If we consider that this last-born of all the arts was yet in its cradle when poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture had already attained their highest development, we can hardly believe that it has even reached its prime; and cannot help wondering to what heights and depths musicians yet to come may bring this wondrous art of tone. But whatever future composers may do, they must still build upon the foundations laid by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach’s father was a violinist, and very naturally taught him first to play on his own instrument; but in his tenth year both parents died,

and little Johann Sebastian went to live with his elder brother, who was organist at Ohrdruff.

Under this brother’s direction he began the study of the clavier (clavier is the German name for any stringed instrument played by means of a keyboard), and his genius was at once discovered. He quickly learned all his lessons by heart, and begged for something more difficult.

In those days there was very little printed music; especially in Germany, where the long war had demoralized all kinds of business. Players made copies for themselves of whatever good music came in their way, and little Johann Sebastian longed with all his soul to be allowed to play from a book in which the brother who was his guardian and teacher had written out pieces by the best composers of the time. This book, however, he was not permitted to touch, and it was kept safely locked up in a cupboard.

But even the severe discipline of a strict German household could not quench the desire that burned in his childish heart. Determined to know for himself the beautiful music shut within its covers, he got up at night when all the other inmates of the house were sound asleep, with his slender fingers managed to draw out the little volume between the strips of wood with which the cupboard door was latticed, and spent all the late moonlight hours during six months in copying it. And when he was finally discovered, his stern guardian was hard-hearted enough to take away from him the copy which had cost him such labor and pains.

When Johann Sebastian was fifteen years old he was sent to school at Lüneburg, where, having a beautiful voice, he earned his schooling by singing in the church choir. In the holidays he used to make long excursions on foot sometimes as far as fifty miles to hear celebrated players and secure, when possible, copies of their works.

At the age of eighteen he became organist at Arnstadt, and while there, having a month’s leave of absence to visit Liibeck and hear a famous old organist, he was so fascinated that he stayed three months instead of one. For this he was reprimanded, but his skill and reputation as a player were already so great that there was no question of losing his position.

At the age of twenty-three he was appointed court organist at Weimar, where he became famed as the greatest player of his time; and there he composed most of his organ music. He used sometimes, when he had leave, to travel about the country giving performances on the organ and clavier; and on one of these tours he found at Dresden a French player named Marchand, who excited much admiration by his performances, but was heartily disliked for his conceit and arrogance.

Some of those who wished to see his pride brought down induced Bach to send him a challenge to a regular musical contest, and to this the Frenchman readily agreed; for, never having heard Bach play, he felt sure of an easy victory.

Time and place were fixed upon, and a large and brilliant audience assembled. Bach appeared and waited, but no Marchand. He had left by the post that very morning; having, probably, heard Bach play, and not daring to risk a contest with such a rival.

During six years Bach was director of the chamber-music of Prince Leopold at Cothen, and there he composed a great quantity of instrumental music, both for stringed instruments and for clavier.

The prince became so much attached to Bach that he took him with him on all his journeys. But such a genius needed a wider field, and after the prince married for his second wife a lady who did not particularly care for music, Bach in 1723 left Cothen for Leipsic; having received the appointment of cantor at the Thomasschule (a school connected with the Church of St. Thomas, for which it furnishes the choristers), and organist and director of the music in the two chief churches.

A cantor is the principal of a college of church music. The Thomasschule at Leipsic was one of the most important and influential, and Bach’s position, which he retained till the end of his life, was a highly honorable one. Here he composed a great quantity of vocal music: cantatas, masses, and several settings of the Passion of our Lord, one of which, the Passion according to St. Matthew, is considered to be his greatest work.

Bach’s life in Leipsic was a pleasant one, though in those old days human nature was not different from what it now is, and there were quarrels and jealousies in church choirs, just as in our own time. Bach

was too strong a character not to have occasional enemies and faultfinders, and, though loving peace, he would not tamely submit to what he considered injustice. On one occasion there was even a lockout, and it is amusing to read that one of the charges brought against Bach was that he had allowed a woman to sing in the choir.

At that time the morning service was so early that during the winter season an extra allowance was made for candles, and the vesper service was at one o’clock in the afternoon!

Bach, who was twice married, had numerous children twenty in all several of whom had a share of the family talent, and were carefully trained by their father. The eldest son was the most gifted, and might have made a really great musician; but, unfortunately, he departed entirely from the reputable and honorable mode of life which had distinguished the Bach family for generations. He was careless and dissolute, sank lower and lower, and finally died in great degradation and want.

Another son, who, after living awhile in Italy, settled in London, was a clever player and composer; but the third son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, a man of high culture as well as a first-class musician, was the only one who had any particular influence upon the development of his art. In his younger days he had a position at the court of Frederick the Great his special duty being to accompany the king, who was an enthusiastic flute-player and during this time Frederick, who had a great admiration for the genius of the elder Bach, invited him to visit the court at Potsdam. Bach arrived in the evening while the king was taking part in a court concert, and Frederick, interrupting the music with the announcement “Gentlemen, old Bach is here” (“der alte Bach” does not sound quite so disrespectful), sent for him to come immediately, not giving him even time to put on a court dress. He was entertained by the king with the most cordial hospitality, and excited the greatest wonder by his playing and improvising.

Soon after his return to Leipsic his eyes began to trouble him, and about a year before his death he became entirely blind. He died on the 28th of July, 1750.

Bach’s reputation as a teacher was great, and pupils came to him from far and near; but as very few of his works were published during

his lifetime, his influence was limited to a comparatively narrow circle. He was so little known and appreciated in his own day that even his grave was lost; and though, nearly a century after his death, a monument was erected to perpetuate his features, the resting-place of his bones was unknown until, a few years ago, the cemetery where they were interred was taken for a public park, when remains thought to be his were discovered and reinterred in the Church of St. John.

It was not till nearly a hundred years after his death that his greatness began to be fully recognized. Since the publication of his works his fame has steadily increased, and there are to-day few musicians who will not say with Schumann, “To Johann Sebastian Bach music owes as great a debt as a religion does to its founder.”

Let us see what Bach did for the art. Before his time instrumental music did not amount to much. The great organists in whom he was so interested in his early days were among the very first composers of independent instrumental works. Before their time keyed instruments were not sufficiently developed to admit of a real art of playing. The violin early attained perfection, and in Italy there were, even before Bach’s time, excellent violinists; but clavier music was comparatively undeveloped.

In Bach’s younger days there were no pianos they were not yet invented only the clavichord and the harpsichord, or clavecin; and the name clavier was applied to them all as a class.

In the pianoforte the blow on the key tosses the little hammer against the string, and so produces the sound. In the harpsichord, spinet, or clavecin, the string was plucked, or twanged, as in a harp, by a quill fastened to what was called a jack; and in the clavichord the tone was produced by the pressure of small brass wedges, called tangents, which not only caused the string to vibrate, but also shortened it to the required length; just as the violinist or cellist shortens the strings of his instrument with his finger.

Bach developed instrumental music in an entirely new and independent manner, and as his compositions were very much more difficult than any which had preceded them he was forced to invent a new method of playing.

Before his day clavier and organ players seldom used either the thumb or little finger. Their scale-passages, which were never very

rapid, and mostly on the white keys, were played by passing the longer fingers one over the other. Bach taught his pupils to play scales by turning the thumb under, as we do nowadays, and to develop the strength and agility of all the fingers equally. It was said of Bach that nothing which it was possible for a human hand to do on the keyboard was at all difficult for him.

Bach’s instrumental compositions consist largely of suites; that is, sets of dances, all in the same key, but arranged so as to contrast the quick movements with the slow, and usually preceded by a prelude. These are all for clavier, or for stringed instruments. For the organ he wrote fugues and toccatas. A toccata is a brilliant piece for a keyed instrument, having usually rapid passages alternating with chords, and especially designed to exhibit the technical skill of the performer.

A fugue is a contrapuntal composition having several different parts, or voices (they are called voices even in an instrumental fugue), one of which begins all alone with a short theme or melody which is called the subject. Then another voice, or part, repeats this melody in the dominant of the key (that is, five notes higher or four notes lower — and this is called the answer ), while the first part keeps on with a melody that sounds well with it and is called the countersubject.

Then, while these two voices go on together, another part begins with the subject and is answered by one of the others. Sometimes a fugue has only two voices, but usually there are three or four or more. After they have all given out the subject and answer (which is called the exposition of the fugue) the composer weaves them in and out together making different harmonies, and every once in a while the subject comes in again, and just after it, in another part, the answer. Toward the end the answer sometimes begins before the subject is finished; this is called by musicians the stretto. And at the close of the fugue there is often a pedal- or organ-point; that is, a long note sustained in one part while the other parts proceed in harmonies with some of which this note does not accord. It is called a pedal-point because on the organ this sustained note is sounded by a pedal.

One of Bach’s greatest works is a collection of forty-eight preludes and fugues, called The Well-tempered Clavichord.

The clavichord was one of the old-fashioned keyboard

instruments that were used before the pianoforte was invented. It was the one in which striking the key pressed a little wedge against the string and made a sweet, delicate, tremulous tone. The clavichord was Bach’s favorite instrument. He said that the brilliant harpsichord, the strings of which were plucked, or twanged, by quills, had no soul; and the pianoforte, which he knew toward the close of his life, but which was still very far from the perfection of the modern instrument, he thought clumsy and harsh, and the action too heavy for good playing.

To temper means to modify, to adjust, to fit together, and a tempered musical instrument is one which is tuned by slightly modifying or altering the tones of the scale. C sharp and D flat are really not exactly the same tone, but on the pianoforte there is only one key and one tone for both. That tone is just a little too high for the true D flat and a little too low for the true C sharp; but so nearly right for both that we can use it for either.

If the pianoforte were not so tuned, we should be obliged to have between C and D two keys and two sets of strings one for C sharp and one for D flat and the same between D and E; and so on. Or else, if C sharp were perfectly tuned on one piano, and we wanted to play a piece having a D flat in it, we should be obliged to get another instrument on which the D flat was perfectly tuned.

Before Bach’s day that was just what they did: they tuned a few scales perfectly and did not use the others at all, which limited the music very much; for one of its greatest beauties is modulating that is, passing into different keys in the course of the piece. Or, they manufactured instruments having many keys in the octave and sometimes two or three keyboards, so that all scales could be tuned perfectly. But such instruments were very expensive, very hard to tune, and extremely difficult to play; so of course they were seldom used.

Before Bach’s time there had been a great deal of discussion as to whether keyed instruments ought to be tuned by what is called equal temperament that is, dividing the differences between the sharps and flats so that all scales may be played with only twelve keys to the octave; but Bach, who always tuned his own instruments, and always by this system of tempered tuning, settled the question; and to show

that music in all scales could be played on an instrument so tuned, he composed the set of preludes and fugues which is known as The Well-tempered Clavichord. This great work was written in two parts, one about twenty years after the other, and each part has a prelude and fugue in each key, major and minor.

All keyed instruments are now tuned by equal temperament, and his advocacy of this system was one of the great services which Bach rendered to instrumental music; for it is only the general adoption of this method of tuning that has made possible the present high development of the art.

CHAPTER 3

Handel — The Oratorio

On the 23rd of February, 1685, at Halle in Saxony, was born George Frederick Handel, who, together with Johann Sebastian Bach, represented the highest development of the musical art of his day. These two great composers, the greatest of their time, born within a month of each other in towns hardly a hundred miles apart, never met. Their lives were as different as can well be imagined. Bach was but little known outside of his own circle of pupils and friends, few of his works were published till long after his death, and his influence upon art was greater after the lapse of a hundred years than during his lifetime. Handel lived among the great ones of the earth, amid the bustle of a great city and the splendors of court ceremonial. All his works were known during his lifetime, and his fame and influence reached their height in his own generation. He was the greatest composer of choral fugues, as Bach was of instrumental, and between them they brought this branch of art to the highest perfection.

Handel’s father, who was a surgeon, determined that the boy, the child of his old age, should become a lawyer. In Germany, in those days, the musical profession was none too highly honored. Ordinary players were considered as little better than vagabonds, and even composers who had fixed positions at the courts or in great aristocratic households were reckoned in the list of servants with cooks and footmen. So little Handel’s father was much disturbed at the symptoms of musical genius which early appeared in the child, and did everything in his power to stifle them; not even permitting him to go to school, for fear that he might there learn his notes.

But nature had destined the child for a musician, and was not to be thwarted. Somehow the little boy managed to get hold of an old spinet, and concealing it in the garret actually taught himself to play.

It would, of course, be impossible to carry a modern pianoforte to the top of a modern house without the knowledge of its inmates, and

even more impossible to prevent their hearing it when it was played; but a little spinet of two hundred years ago was a very different affair from a modern pianoforte. Those primitive instruments had tiny little tinkling tones, and any picture of old North German houses will show how far up in the high, peaked roof the garret may have been.

Within less than a hundred years, when a family in one of the smaller German cities moved, the servant-girl has been known to carry the pianoforte from one house to the other the body of it on her head and two legs under each arm! and probably little Handel could almost have carried his borrowed instrument upstairs himself. At any rate, the story is said to be true, and Handel always had force and determination enough to accomplish whatever he set out to do. When he was only seven years old his father started on a visit to an older son who was in the service of a neighboring duke, and when he refused to permit the little boy to accompany him the child persisted in following the carriage on foot, and actually got so far that it was easier to take him on to the end of the journey than to turn back.

It was fortunate for him that he gained his way, for this was a turning-point in his life. At the castle he soon made friends with the duke’s musicians, who allowed him to play on the organ; and one day his playing attracted the attention of the duke. He inquired about the child, and assured the father that his son had genius which should be encouraged rather than repressed; the result being that on their return little Handel became a pupil of the organist Zachau, with whom he studied composition, the organ, the harpsichord, the violin, and the oboe; for in those days no musician thought of confining himself to a single instrument.

After three years he went to Berlin, where he was regarded as a prodigy; and soon after his return his father’s death compelled him to work for the support of both himself and his mother. He went to Hamburg, where he played the violin in the orchestra and later conducted at the harpsichord, and there his first operas were performed. Until about a hundred years ago there was always in every orchestra a harpsichord, at which the conductor sat and led the musicians by playing the harmonies, instead of standing up in front of them and beating time with a stick.

At Hamburg Handel became intimate with a clever young musician named Mattheson, who came very near bringing his existence to a premature and tragic ending; for they quarrelled over the conducting of an opera, and fought a duel in which Handel’s life was saved only by a big brass button on his coat, which turned aside the point of his adversary’s sword.

When Handel was twenty-one he went to Italy, where he was most cordially received. There he made the acquaintance of the celebrated harpsichord player Domenico Scarlatti, who, though a rival, became also a warm friend, and to the end of his days always spoke with enthusiastic admiration of Handel’s playing.

On his return to Germany, Handel was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, who was afterwards George I. of England; and he was permitted, before entering upon his duties, to accept an invitation he had received from some English noblemen to visit their country. In London he wrote (in fourteen days) the opera of Rinaldo, which excited great enthusiasm, and at once established the reputation of the composer.

At the end of six months he returned to Hanover, but finding the stiff and ceremonious little German court unbearably dull after the bustle and animation of London, he soon made an opportunity to return to the land which he afterwards adopted. This time he outstayed his leave and was still in England when, upon the death of Queen Anne, the Elector of Hanover succeeded to the English throne.

For some time Handel did not venture to appear before his Majesty, who was naturally much irritated against his truant Kapellmeister, but forgiveness was finally obtained in the following manner: Handel composed a set of twenty-five pieces since known as the Water Music and on the occasion of an aquatic fete given by the king these were performed under the composer’s direction in a barge which followed the royal boat; the result being a pardon for Handel, with a grant of an annuity.

In London Handel enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of many distinguished men, and for a long time his life was a very pleasant one. He was for some years chapel-master to the Duke of Chandos, a wealthy nobleman who lived in a magnificent palace and

entertained much brilliant and fashionable company; and he taught the daughters of the Prince of Wales, for whom he composed many of his harpsichord pieces. In addition he undertook the direction of the Italian opera, which was then the most fashionable aristocratic amusement, and composed a number of operas which were highly successful.

But those who were jealous of his success, or disliked him personally, formed a party in opposition, and set up the Italian Buononcini as his rival. The excitement in the fashionable world ran high, and many witty and sarcastic things were said and printed, the best of which is probably this epigram:

Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mr. Handel’s bid a ninny. Others aver that he to Handel Is scarcely Jit to hold a candle. Strange, all this difference should be ’Twixt tweedle-dum and tmeedle-dee.

Handel produced opera after opera, but the audiences grew steadily smaller, and when, finally, he quarrelled with his best singer, Senesino, who was the spoiled favorite of the public, all his aristocratic supporters deserted him. He took a theatre on his own account, but soon became bankrupt, and his labors and anxieties seriously affected his health. His next operas were failures, and he finally gave up all connection with the theatre and devoted himself, being already fifty-five years old, to the composition of those great works which have immortalized his name — the oratorios.

They are called oratorios because they were first performed in the oratory, or chapel, of a church. That was about three hundred years ago. For centuries before that time, plays founded on Bible history or designed to teach moral lessons had been acted in churches, but the first one which was associated with modem music was by a composer named Emilio del Cavalieri, and was performed in the year 1600 in the oratory of a church in Rome.

Handel composed seventeen oratorios to English words, the greatest of which are Israel in Egypt and The Messiah; the latter is now more than a hundred and fifty years old, and has been performed

more times and in more countries than any other work of its kind. It was first given in Dublin, Ireland, in 1742, for the benefit of poor debtors in the Dublin prison. At the public rehearsal it was so enthusiastically received and the demand for tickets to the performance was so great, that by a notice published in the newspapers the ladies were requested to come without hoops and the gentlemen to leave their swords at home, in order that a larger audience might be accommodated. It is recorded that the ladies most amiably complied with this request, but nothing is said about the action of the gentlemen; who, however, being warm-hearted Irishmen, would surely not have refused so small a personal sacrifice in aid of such a worthy charity.

After his return to England, Handel produced various other oratorios; but the aristocratic party whose hostility he had provoked by his independence and obstinacy continued to work in opposition to him, and he again became bankrupt. This time he was completely overwhelmed by his failure. He finally, indeed, recovered something of his former energy, and composed yet other oratorios, but before long was attacked by the disease which eventually deprived him of sight, and during his last years he was totally blind. Even by this great affliction, however, his spirit was not entirely broken. He continued to play the organ, and even conducted performances of his own works, and during these last years of his life it is pleasant to know that the animosity which had been excited against him gradually died away, while his fame and popularity steadily increased. He died in April, 1759, and was buried with high honors in Westminster Abbey, where a monument has been erected to his memory.

Handel had a kind heart, but his temper was very irascible, and he was easily excited to fits of passion which, while they lasted, were quite ungovernable. One day when a spoiled prima donna refused to sing an aria, Handel, who had already been irritated by her freaks and arrogance, seized her and dragging her to the window threatened to throw her out; to escape which fate the terrified songstress gladly submitted. Even when conducting at court concerts, if the ladies talked instead of listening his anger would get the better of him, and he would say naughty words and shake his wig in a threatening manner; whereupon the Prince and Princess of Wales, who respected

his real worth too much to be seriously offended by his lack of manners, would quietly hush the offenders.

Handel was most liberal and charitable, and during his long lifetime did much to help the needy. He never married, being wholly devoted to his art. He was a most industrious composer, and worked with amazing rapidity The Messiah was written in three weeks and one of his most successful operas in fourteen days but he never spared any amount of labor to give his works the most perfect form, and altered and corrected until he himself was satisfied.

His rapidity is partially accounted for by the fact that he not unfrequently used portions of his earlier works in composing later ones, and also occasionally which is much more difficult to explain, for a man of his genius and originality certainly had no need appropriated portions of the works of his predecessors and contemporaries; but the real foundation of his wonderful facility was his complete command of all the technical resources of his art, combined with his own richness of invention. He was the greatest choral composer the world has ever known, and his fame rests chiefly upon the colossal choruses of his oratorios.

CHAPTER 4

Gluck — The Opera

Just after Palestrina’s death, which was in 1594, a new kind of music was invented which is called homophonic, or monodic (that is, one-voiced), to distinguish it from polyphonic (or many-voiced). It came about in this way.

Long, long ago, in classic Greece, in the religious services in the temples, myths or stories of the gods were acted in pantomime, with songs and dances accompanied by the flute; and in these performances originated the classic drama, which reached its highest development in the tragedies of the great poets Sophocles, Æschylus and Euripides, who lived four or five hundred years before our era. This Greek drama was not declaimed, like the plays of Shakespeare, but was intoned, or chanted, somewhat as the priest intones the cathedral service, while the choruses were sung to the accompaniment of the flute. The Greek theatres were enormous amphitheatres without roofs, in which merely spoken words could not have been heard; moreover, the music was intended to intensify the effect of the poetry. Although the music of not a single one of the Greek dramas has been preserved, so much has been written about it by Greek authors that, theoretically at least, we are well informed concerning it.

After the decline and fall of Greece and classic Rome, these dramas were for many centuries utterly forgotten; but with the great revival of learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which is known as the Renaissance, the admiration for everything classical began to dominate all the arts; and the invention of the modern opera which is a poetical drama, the words of which are not spoken, but sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments was the result of an attempt on the part of some enthusiastic Italian scholars and musicians to reconstruct the classic drama of the ancient Greeks; that is, a drama in which the poetry was declaimed to musical sounds.

Now, in contrapuntal, polyphonic music, instead of one

prominent and definite melody there are various melodies intricately woven together no one melody any more prominent or important than any other, and all equally indispensable to the composition as a whole. Such music, beautiful as it might be, and, at its best, most appropriate for a religious service, was quite incapable of expressing human passion; so, although the originators of the lyric drama that is, the opera acknowledged the beauty and value of polyphonic music, in their endeavor to restore the musical declamation of the ancient Greeks they found it necessary to invent a new kind of music monodic, or homophonic, music.

In homophonic music there is always one prominent melody to which the accompaniment, no matter how elaborate, is subordinated. Any modern song is a homophonic composition, and so are most pianoforte pieces; but a canon or fugue is polyphonic, or contrapuntal.

The first opera performed in public (at Florence, in the year 1600) was Euridice, by Jacopo Peri. Its success was so great that composers everywhere took up the new style of music, and it rapidly developed. Public opera houses were opened, orchestras replaced the little group of instruments which had accompanied the first performances, and great singers became numerous.

During more than a century the principal parts in an opera were almost always sung by artificial voices; that is, by men whose voices had never changed from the high soprano or alto of childhood. Some of these singers acquired wonderful facility in the delivery of difficult passages in which at that time the art of singing seems to have been thought wholly to consist. Niccolo Porpora, the most celebrated singing-teacher of his day, is said to have kept one of his most famous pupils strictly to one page of extremely difficult exercises for five years, and then dismissed him, saying, “I have nothing more to teach you. You are the greatest singer in Europe.”

One of these great singers, the Italian, Farinelli, had a very extraordinary career. He was the most celebrated pupil of the great singing-master just mentioned, and became famous in Italy while still a mere boy. He sang in competition with a trumpet-player, and is said to have surpassed the instrument in quality, volume, and duration of tone. He was probably the most remarkable singer who ever lived.

Once when in an opera he represented an unfortunate hero brought in chains before a furious tyrant, he sang his aria so beautifully that the furious tyrant, forgetting his character, ran to him and embraced him on the stage.

But even this was nothing to what followed. After years of such triumphs over nearly the whole of Europe Farinelli went to Spain, intending to stay but a short time. But when he arrived in Madrid the king, Philip V., was on the verge of insanity refusing to give any attention to affairs of state, or even to clothe himself properly; and the queen, hoping to soothe the monarch’s disordered mind, arranged to have Farinelli sing in the room adjoining that of the king. Philip was much affected by the music, and sent for the singer, to whom he offered any reward he should name. Farinelli, who knew what was desired, replied that his best reward would be to see the king return to his court and to the care of the state. Philip consented, and allowed himself to be shaved and dressed for the first time in many weeks; and the queen, seeing the good effect of the music, persuaded Farinelli to remain in Madrid; and there for ten years he sang to the king every night the same four songs. His influence over the king was unbounded, but he never misused his power, and, strange to say, seems to have had no enemies.

During the greater part of the eighteenth century these great vocalists, who were not all as conscientious as Farinelli, absolutely ruled the operatic stage. They dictated to the poet what he should write, and to the musician what he should compose; and as the success of the work depended entirely upon their singing, neither poet nor composer ventured to resist. Their excellence as singers was more than equalled by their vanity, and they cared nothing for either music or drama excepting as affording opportunities for the display of their wonderful powers. If in the play opposing armies were just rushing into battle, they must stop and wait while the hero stepped to the footlights and sang an elaborate aria. If the heroine was to be rescued from a burning palace, she must endure to be stifled with the smoke while her rescuer aroused the admiration of the audience with wonderful trills and scales. No matter how critical or intense the situation, everything had to wait while these marvellous arias were sung.

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

But in the middle of the eighteenth century there lived a composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck (born in 1714), who said that these things ought not to be; that the music was intended to increase the interest of the drama, not to hamper its development or minister to the vanity of the performers, and that these great singers had no right to dictate to the composer or to interfere with the action of the play. And he wrote a beautiful opera, Orpheus, and another, Alceste, in the dedication of which he explained his ideas and announced his determination to compose according to the true principle of operatic art; namely, that the music must add to the expression and meaning of the words not interfere with them.

This was in Vienna; but afterwards Gluck went to Paris, where the dauphiness Marie Antoinette, who had been his pupil, became his patroness. His success was great and immediate, but the admirers of Italian music arrayed themselves in opposition, and set up the composer Piccinni as his rival: the result being what is known as the war of the Gluckists and Piccinnists.

The excitement it aroused is amazing. Everybody who cared anything at all about music took one side or the other, and the quarrel raged violently, both in the fashionable salons and in print.

But Gluck, with his Iphigenia in Tauris, showed an incontestable superiority to his rival and his triumph was complete. He died in Vienna in 1787.

CHAPTER 5

Haydn — The Symphony

Joseph Haydn he was baptized Franz Joseph was born on the 1st of April, 1732, in the little Austrian village of Rohrau. His father was a poor and humble but honest and industrious mechanic, and Joseph was the second of a family of seventeen children, one other of whom, his younger brother Michael, also was a musician and a talented composer.

Both the parents sang, and the father, without any instruction, was able to accompany himself by ear on some simple instrument. The little boy, who had a beautiful voice, soon learned all their songs, and used to imitate with surprising correctness and keeping strict time the motions of a neighbor who played the violin.

When he was six years old a distant cousin, a schoolmaster from Hainburg, seeing these signs of talent, persuaded the parents to let the child go home with him and be taught music. He was a very strict teacher, and Haydn said in after years that he got from him more flogging than food, but was grateful for both the discipline and the thorough foundational training. He became an excellent singer, learned to play on various instruments, and spent most of his time practising or in school. In his later years he said, “Almighty God, to whom I render thanks for all His unnumbered mercies, gave me such facility in music that by the time I was six I stood up like a man and sang masses in the church choir, and could play a little on the clavier and the violin.”

Once when a drummer was needed for a procession, his master hastily showed him how to make the stroke and put him into the vacant place; but little Haydn was so small that the drum had to be carried before him on the back of a dwarf which must have been very comical to see.

When he was eight years old the chapel-master of St. Stephen’s

Cathedral in Vienna came on a visit to Hainburg, and hearing Haydn’s sweet little voice in the choir, and finding that he already knew a good deal about music, offered him a place as chorister. This seemed to his parents a great piece of good fortune, and so little Joseph was sent to Vienna, where he entered the Cantorei, or school for choristers, of St. Stephen’s, and where, as he tells us, he learned, besides singing and playing, “religion, a little Latin, writing, and ciphering.”

After five years his brother Michael entered the school, but, though he was very fond of his younger brother, this was not an unmixed pleasure for poor Joseph. His voice began to fail, and he had the mortification of seeing all the parts which he had sung so well given to his brother. He was no longer of any use in the choir, and his boyish pranks soon furnished a pretext for getting rid of him. With a healthy appetite, but no money and few friends, he was turned out upon the world at the age of seventeen to care for himself.

He got a few pupils, hired an attic and a clavier, and started in to learn by diligent study of the works of the great masters especially, so he tells us, those of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach the art and science of composition. A commission from an actor friend to write the music for a comic operetta brought him a considerable sum of money, and he was engaged by the poet Metastasio, who lived on a lower floor in the same house, to give lessons to the daughters of a Spanish family. Through them he became acquainted with the celebrated singing-teacher, Niccolo Porpora, who gave him some instruction in composition; in return for which Haydn played his accompaniments, cleaned his shoes, dressed his wig, ran his errands, and performed all sorts of menial offices.

One by one Haydn procured and thoroughly studied all the known works on the theory of music; and so, though he had very little regular training, became a master of the art of composition. He made the acquaintance of a wealthy and enthusiastic amateur, for whom he composed his first string-quartets, and through him of Count Morzin, who kept a small orchestra at his country-house, and for whom he composed his first symphony.

Having now a modest income from lessons and church work, as well as something from his compositions, Haydn decided to marry.

He was in love with one of his pupils, the daughter of a wig-maker, but she entered a convent, and, curiously enough, Haydn allowed himself to be persuaded by the father, who seems to have regarded him as a desirable son-in-law, into marrying another daughter who was several years older than himself, and who, until he separated from her, made his domestic life miserable. She was heartless, extravagant and quarrelsome, and, as Haydn said, cared not a straw whether he was an artist or a shoemaker. She must have been entirely destitute of any fine feeling; for once, long after they had separated, she wrote to her husband for money to buy a certain house, telling him it would be just the thing for her “when she became a widow!” They had no children, and it was altogether a most unfortunate marriage.

When Haydn was in his thirtieth year he was engaged as assistant chapel-master by Prince Esterhazy, the head of a family who had been musical amateurs for many generations; and in the service of this family he remained till the end of his life. The prince had a magnificent country-seat, at which he entertained in the greatest splendor a constant succession of noble and even royal guests. In the grounds was an elegant theatre with all the necessary appointments, and the prince’s musical establishment was comprehensive and talented enough to give operas and plays in addition to the daily concerts. Haydn soon became head chapel-master, and, though he had to forego his desire to visit Italy, fully appreciated the advantages of his position. His relations with the prince were of the pleasantest, and he was on the best of terms with the players and singers, for whose advantage he was always ready to use his influence.

The famous Farewell symphony originated in an endeavor to persuade the prince to shorten his stay in the country and so enable the musicians to rejoin their wives and families in Vienna. In the last movement of this symphony one musician after another stopped playing, blew out his candle, tucked his instrument under his arm, and went softly out of the room, till only two violins were left to conclude with a mournful strain. The prince seemed to understand. “If all go,” said he, “we may as well go too.”

Haydn’s great influence upon the development of orchestration (that is, the art of writing for the instruments of the orchestra) was largely due to his long connection with the musical establishment of

Prince Esterhazy. He himself tells us that he “could make experiments, observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, improve, alter, and be as bold as I pleased, with no one to confuse or torment me.”

When a later Prince Esterhazy reduced his musical establishment, and Haydn was free to travel, he went to England, where the concerts for which his last and best symphonies were composed were most brilliantly successful. One of these was the celebrated Surprise symphony, in which the quiet melody of the slow movement is interrupted by a fortissimo chord sounded by all the instruments. Haydn said that that would “make the ladies jump.”

While in England Haydn was the object of every kind of attention from persons of rank and distinction, and on a second visit, a year or two later, he was much distinguished also by the court. He used to say that it was not till after he had been in England that he became famous in Germany.

He was a great favorite with the ladies, who fully appreciated the pretty compliments he sometimes paid them. When he saw Sir Joshua Reynolds’ portrait of the beautiful English singer, Mrs. Billington, in which she is depicted as listening with upturned eyes to a group of cherubs, he said to the artist, “You have made a mistake you should have painted the angels listening to her.”

One result of Haydn’s sojourn in England was the composition of the Austrian national anthem, Gotterhalte Franz, den Kaiser, to which he was stimulated by his admiration for God save the King. It is the tune which in the hymn-book is called Austria.

Another result of his visits to England was the production of the two oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons. The text of the The Creation was compiled from the Bible and Milton’s Paradise Lost, and that of The Seasons from Thomson’s poem of the same name. These works of Haydn’s old age brought his already great reputation to the highest point; and even now, after the lapse of a hundred years, they are still full of life and vigor. Of The Creation, which long rivalled Handel’s Messiah in popularity, Haydn said, “I have taken a long while about it, because I mean it to last a long while.”

Haydn, who was always filled with a simple piety and devotion, and used to begin his scores with the inscription In Nomine Domini

(In the Name of the Lord) and end them with Laus Deo (Praise be to God), said on one occasion, “Never was I so pious as when composing The Creation. I knelt down every day and prayed God to strengthen me for my work.” When his sacred music was criticized as being too light and cheerful, he said that at the thought of God his heart leaped for joy, and he could not help his music doing the same.

He was a very kind-hearted old gentleman, and known as “Papa Haydn” to many who were much older than the children of whom he was so fond. “Any one,” he used to say with a twinkle of his kindly dark gray eyes, “can see by the look of me that I am a good-natured sort of fellow.” He was always very polite and ceremonious, never sitting down to work until he was carefully dressed, and when writing something particularly fine, wearing an ornament given him by the King of Prussia.

The Creation and The Seasons were Haydn’s last important compositions. His latest years were weighted with the infirmities of age and troubled by the alarms of war; for he lived to see Vienna bombarded and occupied by the French. He died in 1809.

Haydn is called the father of the symphony and string-quartet. This does not mean that there was not before his time music written for greater or lesser combinations of instruments, but only that he first clearly defined and fixed the form which has been followed by all later composers. At first a symphony meant only an instrumental interlude or introduction to a work that was sung. Sometimes these instrumental portions were played separately in concerts, as overtures or introductions to operas now are, and sometimes composers even wrote symphonies which had no connection with vocal works; but it was Haydn who first developed them into the form which we now know as the symphony. This is a composition consisting of several separate pieces called movements, some quick and some slow, and not all in the same key; the first movement being in the form which is known as first-movement, or sonata, form.

When such a composition is written for a single instrument, as piano or organ, or for two instruments, as piano and violin or violoncello, it is called a sonata; but a work in the same form composed for more instruments is named according to their number trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, and so on and when it is

written for an orchestra, it is called a symphony. So a symphony is really a sonata for orchestra.

The name sonata (literally, “sound-piece”) was at first used merely to distinguish the piece that was played from the piece that was sung. Afterwards it was applied to any instrumental composition in several parts or movements which was not a suite; that is, not made up of dance-tunes. It was really from the suite that the sonata was developed, and one of the old dances, the minuet, which grew into the scherzo, still has a place in many sonatas and symphonies.

But it is the form of the first movement which especially distinguishes the sonata or symphony.

The simplest compositions for the pianoforte consist of a short melody followed by a contrasting melody in another key, which is in turn followed by the repetition of the first; the whole concluding with still another little bit of melody or a few chords which form what is called the coda. This is known in music as the primary form, or songform.

A piece in which the first melody reappears several times with different melodies between the repetitions, is called a rondo (or round), because it keeps coming round to the first, or principal, melody, which is called the subject of the composition; the melodies which appear between its repetitions being termed episodes.

The rondo-form is more elaborate than the primary, or songform; and the sonata-form is the most elaborate and complicated of all, because it is developed from two principal subjects for which reason it is called the binary form (bi meaning two).

In most sonatas after a page or two there is a double-bar with repeat dots, and it is in that first part of a sonata, which is called the exposition, that the two subjects are announced.

If the sonata is in a major key, the first subject is, of course, in that key, but the second subject is in the key of the dominant. The dominant is the fifth note of the scale, the first note being called the tonic, and the key of the dominant has always only one sharp more or one flat less than the key of the tonic; to which it is, therefore, very closely related.

Between these two subjects there is usually a passage which modulates from one key into the other. Modulation is passing from

one key to another by means of chords or running passages which make the change smooth and agreeable to the ear.

If the sonata is in C major, the first subject will be in that key and the second subject will be in the key of G major, and in the connecting passage the composer will somewhere exchange the E natural for F sharp, which is the sign, or signature, of the key of G major.

If the sonata is in a minor key, the first subject will be in that key and the second subject will be in the relative major (that is, the major key having the same signature), and in the connecting passage the composer will, by leaving out the accidental sharp or natural which always appears on the seventh note of a minor scale, modulate or pass from one key into the other.

After the exposition that is, after the double-bar with repeat dots comes what is called the working-out. In this part of the movement the composer takes the two subjects and changes them in all sorts of ways, modulating into any keys that he pleases, but finally returning to the first subject in the same key as at first. This is followed by the connecting passage, which this time does not need to modulate; for in this part of the movement, which is called the recapitulation, the second subject always appears transposed into the key of the first subject, and when it is a minor sonata sometimes having its intervals altered so as to change it from major to minor.

A sonata first movement may be as simple as those of the Clementi sonatinas (little sonatas), or it may be as elaborate and difficult as the Appassionata of Beethoven, but the form is always the same; that is, there are the two subjects announced at the beginning and repeated at the close, and between them the working-out.

CHAPTER 6

Mozart — The Wonder-Child

On the 27th of January, 1756, was born, at Salzburg in the Austrian Tyrol, a child who became one of the greatest composers, and who was the most precocious musical genius the world has ever known — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

When little more than a baby he was famed throughout Europe as a wonder-child, and his whole life-work was finished at an age (he died at thirty-five) at which that of many other great composers has been only just begun.

There was a sister a few years older than the little boy, who was a clever little harpsichord player, and was carefully taught by the father, who was a professional violinist, a first-class musician, and a man of education and ability. By the time he was three years old, little Wolfgang began to show the greatest interest in his sister’s lessons. He remembered the pieces she played, and tried himself to play them; so his father began, not seriously at first, to teach him too. But his marvellous talent was so evident that what was at first merely amusement soon became really work, and the father realized that nature had given him the charge of a genius which demanded the most careful training and thorough development. Wonderful as was Mozart’s talent, scarcely less remarkable was the education he received from this wise and devoted father, to whom alone he owed the training which made him by the time he was twenty-one a master of every form of composition, with such thorough command of all the resources of his art, and such facility in developing his musical ideas that, as his wife used to say, “he wrote music as other people write letters.”

His compositions were frequently entirely thought out before he wrote down a single note, or even tried them on an instrument, and he could compose amid the most distracting surroundings. The overture to his greatest opera was not written out until the night before its first performance, when his wife had to keep him from falling

asleep, so that it might be ready in time. He once excused himself for placing a prelude after instead of before a fugue, by saying that while he was writing down the fugue he was thinking out the prelude in his mind. In six weeks he composed his three greatest symphonies; and the most incontestable proof of his immense facility and entire mastery of the technique of his art is the long list of his works compared with the shortness of his life.

His genius was undoubtedly marvellous; but genius which is only the power of attaining the highest results does not absolve its possessor from the necessity of labor and exertion; and even such genius as Mozart’s would not have been able to accomplish such results without the thorough and patient training which he received from the loving devotion of his father. No other musician, with the single exception of Mendelssohn, ever received so careful and systematic an education in his art.

It is too often thought that great musicians compose because they cannot help it that the music is, as it were, poured into their minds and just runs out of their fingers. In one way it is indeed true that they compose because they cannot help it; that is, they have such an intense desire to produce beautiful melodies and harmonies that they are constantly impelled to do so.

But it is with music as with the other arts. The poet must understand the grammar of his language, must have many words at his command and his taste so cultivated as to be able to choose those which are most melodious and appropriate, before he can express in the best manner the beautiful thoughts with which his mind is filled. The painter must be able to draw correctly all the lines and curves and use with skill all the combinations and shades of color that are needed to put upon the canvas the beautiful objects which he wishes to depict; and the sculptor, though he sees clearly with his spiritual eye the lovely statue which exists in the formless block of marble, must labor unweariedly at the mechanical difficulties and obstacles that have to be overcome before he can reveal it to the eyes of others. Genius is a gift of nature, but the mastery of the artistic means which enable it to produce perfect work is acquired only by hard labor and unceasing exertion.

So little Mozart practised scales and exercises like other little

players, and he practised not only the clavier, or harpsichord, but also the violin and organ, and learned something about all the other instruments; for a musician who writes for an orchestra must understand how all the instruments are played, and what kind of music they are capable of producing.

In those days, too, a musician was expected to be able to play at sight not only from notes, but also from what is called a figured bass; that is, a row of bass notes with figures indicating what chords are to be played with them. All the early operas and oratorios were accompanied by harpsichord or organ in addition to the other instruments, and this one line of bass notes with the figures was all that was ever written out for the organist or harpsichord player; so that although accompaniments were at that time much more simple than they are nowadays it was necessary that a musician should be well trained in thorough-bass, as it was called; that is, the art of deciphering the chords represented by the figures, and putting them together properly.

Then, too, a player was expected not only to play pieces that he had learned, but also to improvise that is, to compose the music as he played and to do this successfully it was of course necessary to be absolutely familiar with the ways and means of composition. And in all these branches of the art of music little Mozart’s father trained him carefully and thoroughly.

By his fourth year he could play little pieces correctly and was able to learn a minuet in half an hour. In his fifth year he played pieces of his own composition, which his father wrote down, and before long he was able to write them out for himself. He even composed a concerto, which was too difficult to be played. “That is why it is called a concerto,” he said; “people must practise it till they can play it.”

One day, when he was six or seven years old, his father was playing trios with two other musicians, and the little boy begged to be allowed to play second violin on a tiny instrument which had been given him; but his father said that was a silly request, for as he had never learned he could not do it to which Wolfgang replied that “One need not have learned to be able to play second violin”; whereupon his father told him to go away and not interrupt any longer. He went off crying, but one of the other musicians begged that he might

be allowed to try; so at last his father said, “Play softly, then, so as not to be heard.” But presently the older player put down his violin, and the child played all alone through to the end. As his father once said, “What costs others months of practice comes to him as a gift of God.”

Little Wolfgang loved his father dearly. “Every evening at bedtime he used to sit by his side and sing with him nonsensical words to a melody of his own; and then kiss him on the tip of his nose, promise to put him in a glass case when he grew old, and give him all honor, and go off contentedly to bed.”

He was very tender-hearted and affectionate, and so docile that even in those days, when a certain amount of thrashing was thought necessary to the proper bringing-up of a boy, he was never whipped. He was always deeply in earnest about learning anything, and when he was taught arithmetic used to chalk figures all over the furniture and floors; but after he began seriously to study music he cared for little else. “Even his childish games had to be accompanied by music, and when his toys were carried from room to room some one had to sing, or play a march.” But he was, notwithstanding his genius, a wholesome, frolicsome boy, and would frequently break off in the midst of his improvisations to career around the room on his father’s walking-stick or play with his favorite pussy-cat.

When Wolfgang was six years old he went with his parents and sister Marianne to Vienna, where the children had already been heard of as prodigies. Their performances at court made a great sensation, the emperor being quite fascinated by the “little magician,” as he called Wolfgang. He told him, jokingly, that anybody could play with ten fingers, and asked him to play with one; which he did, quite charmingly. He also covered the keys with a cloth, and Wolfgang continued to play with the same precision as when he could see them.

Aside from his music he was a simple, unaffected child. He kissed the empress impulsively, and played with the princesses as if he had been their equal in rank. Once when he slipped on the polished floor the archduchess Marie Antoinette she who was afterwards the most unhappy of all French queens helped him up and comforted him. “You are good,” said he; “I will marry you.” And when the emperor played duets with the court composer, little Mozart called out boldly “Bravo” or “That was wrong,” as the case might be.

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

All this was ended by an attack of scarlet fever; but the following year the father took his talented children to Paris, where they played frequently at court, gave public concerts, and excited the most enthusiastic admiration. Afterwards they went to London, where these triumphs were repeated, and returned home by way of The Hague and other cities.

The programme of a concert which they gave at Frankfort says: “The little girl, who is in her twelfth year, will play the most difficult compositions of the greatest masters; the boy, who is not yet seven, will perform on the harpsichord; he will also play a concerto for the violin, and will accompany symphonies on the clavier, the keyboard being covered with a cloth, with as much facility as if he could see the keys. He will instantly name all notes played at a distance, either singly or in chords, on the clavier or any other instrument. He will finally, both on the harpsichord and organ, improvise as long as may be desired and in any key”

After a year of diligent study on Wolfgang’s part, the Mozart family went again to Vienna, where they were beset by misfortunes. Both children took the smallpox, the court went into mourning, and the Viennese musicians, envious and jealous of Wolfgang’s success, did everything in their power to hinder it.

When Wolfgang was fourteen years of age, his father took him to Italy, where they visited the chief cities, his performances exciting everywhere the greatest astonishment and admiration. In Rome, having heard in the Sistine chapel during Holy Week the celebrated Miserere of Allegri that is, the music written by that composer for the psalm Miserere mei, Deus (the fifty-first), which was so jealously guarded that it was almost impossible to obtain a copy he wrote down the entire psalm with hardly a mistake after hearing it sung only once.

This feat made a great impression on the Italian musicians, who at that time led the world in all matters pertaining to their art. They subjected Wolfgang to severe tests, which he endured triumphantly, and then bestowed upon him the highest honors. In Milan he was commissioned to write an opera, which was a great success, being given twenty times the youthful composer himself conducting the first performance, and one of the older musicians saying prophetic-

ally, “This boy will cause us all to be forgotten.”

Here is one of the programmes which he played during this Italian tour, being then but fourteen years of age:

1. Symphony of his own composition.

2. Concerto, to be played from a copy seen for the first time.

3. Sonata, to be read at sight, afterwards played with improvised variations, and then repeated in another key.

4. Aria, the words of which will be given him, to which he will improvise the music, singing and accompanying himself upon the clavier.

5. Sonata, improvised upon a motive given by the first violin.

6. A fugue in the strict style, to be improvised upon the clavier.

7. A trio, in which he will improvise the violin part.

8. The latest symphony of his own composition.

Neither the honors with which he was overwhelmed nor his successes as a performer spoiled the sweet simplicity of his nature, or weaned him from his attachment to home and family; as is plainly shown in the loving little letters which he wrote to mother and sister.

The next half-dozen years were spent quietly in Salzburg, Wolfgang working hard at his studies and at composition, but making occasional journeys to other cities for the purpose of conducting works for which he had received commissions.

He was now fully grown and thoroughly trained in all branches of his art, and his father was most anxious that he should have an opportunity of making a reputation which might gain for him an appointment as chapel-master or court composer; some such fixed position being in those days the aim and ambition of every German musician.

Both father and son were, it is true, attached to the household of the Archbishop of Salzburg, but to Wolfgang, at least, this service under the pompous and overbearing prince-bishop who could not comprehend or appreciate the genius of his youthful concert-master, but classed him with cooks and valets, and rewarded the complete dedication of his time and talents with the most pitifully meagre of salaries had become intolerable. Excepting for his home life, existence in Salzburg had long been thoroughly distasteful to him.

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

The tyrannical archbishop refused to permit the elder Mozart to accompany his son on an artistic tour, so Wolfgang started off alone with his mother. But the youth whose genius had in childhood received such unbounded recognition, who had been everywhere showered with honors and loved for his winning and sympathetic personality, was doomed to a manhood full of trials and disappointments.

At Mannheim he fell in love with a beautiful young singer whom he determined to marry and take with him to Italy; but his father, horrified at so romantic a proposition, hurried him of to Paris, anticipating a renewal of his early successes.

But all his hopes were doomed to disappointment. The musical world of Paris was wildly excited over the Gluck and Piccinni controversy, and scarcely seemed to remember the marvellous child whose astonishing performances had made such a sensation fifteen years earlier. There was no chance of a hearing for any of his compositions, his mother fell ill and died, and with a heavy heart he left Paris, never to return. His beautiful singer proved faithless, and he sorrowfully returned to Salzburg, where his only comfort was found in the love of his father and sister.

He was, indeed, appointed court organist, but his duties were irksome, and service with the archbishop became more and more galling and irritating. His great desire always was to write for the stage, and he gladly welcomed a commission to compose an opera for the carnival season in Munich. His tyrannical patron generously gave him permission to go thither to conduct the performance, which was enthusiastically received, and the opera of Idomeneo definitely decided Mozart’s position as a dramatic composer.

Although a master of every form of composition, it was as an operatic composer that Mozart distinctly excelled. He was not, like Gluck, a reformer; but he developed and brought to perfection the power of music to express dramatic emotion. He also greatly increased the resources of the orchestra, adding new instruments and introducing fresh combinations to enhance the dramatic effect.

From the pleasures of the carnival and the enjoyment of his successes in Munich, Mozart was summoned by the archbishop, who was always his evil star, to follow him to Vienna. There he was made

to eat with the servants, and was not permitted to give a concert, or even to play in any house but the archbishop’s. He felt it impossible longer to endure such treatment, and, although his father begged him to be patient, determined to leave a position in which he was subjected to such indignities.

When he applied for his discharge the archbishop, who will always be execrated for his vile treatment of the great composer, answered him in the coarsest language, and he was finally kicked out of the room by the high steward!

Mozart was thus thrown entirely upon himself for support, and it being summer, with no chance of giving either lessons or concerts, he utilized his leisure for the composition of his first German opera, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, which had great and immediate success.

On the strength of this he decided to take a wife, and a few weeks after the first performance married Constanze Weber, the younger sister of his early love. She was a good and loving wife, and he was sincerely attached to her, but their married life was always shadowed by the bitter trials of extreme poverty. Mozart had no fixed position, no regular income, and had to live on the proceeds of lessons and concerts. His playing was always heard with enthusiasm, and was particularly admired by the emperor, who can scarcely be excused for having done nothing to assist this gifted soul in its desperate struggles with unfortunate circumstances. Mozart’s must have been a peculiarly sweet and sound nature not to be soured and warped by the trials and disappointments of the manhood which followed, in such glaring contrast, the brilliant successes of his childish years.

Not the least of these trials were due to the jealous intrigues of the Vienna musicians, most of whom did everything in their power to deprive him of any honor or profit which might result from performances of his works. Haydn seems to have been the only one who really understood and appreciated him, and the relation between these two great composers is one of the most beautiful in the whole history of art; full of kindness and affection on both sides, and entirely free from any taint of envy or selfishness.

It was also most remarkable as regards their artistic development. When Mozart was born, Haydn was already composing stringquartets and symphonies, and Mozart himself says, “It was from

Haydn that I first learned the true way to compose quartets.” But Mozart’s precocious genius rapidly outran the more gradual development of the older composer, who lived eighteen years after Mozart’s premature death, and in his later works plainly showed the influence of his more brilliant young contemporary, for whom he had the greatest admiration and an almost paternal affection.

He said to Mozart’s father, “I consider your son the greatest composer I have ever known”; and to an admirer who tried to point out to him some defects in one of Mozart’s compositions, “If Mozart wrote thus he must have had a good reason for it.” And Mozart always spoke of Haydn with the affectionate manner of an admiring pupil.

A few years before his death Mozart became associated with the Italian dramatist, Lorenzo da Ponte, who afterwards came to America, and lies buried in a New York churchyard; and this poet furnished him with the librettos for his most successful operas The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

But in spite of these successes, and his constant and unremitting hard work, his affairs became more and more involved, and his debts constantly increased. His wife was ill much of the time, and Mozart himself too entirely occupied with his art to be careful in money matters. Besides, as it was known that he never could refuse any one who was in need, his kind-heartedness was often abused by those who pretended to be his friends. He composed his last opera, The Magic Flute, to help an old Salzburg acquaintance who was manager of a small theatre, and who, though this work proved to be a very great success, was not generous enough to share the profits with the composer.

While working on The Magic Flute Mozart received a visit from a stranger who, compelling a promise of secrecy, commissioned him to compose a requiem mass for an unknown individual. A good price was offered, and Mozart began the composition immediately; but was obliged to put it aside to write an opera for the coronation of the emperor at Prague. Just as he was about starting for that city the mysterious stranger again appeared, and inquired about the requiem; and Mozart, who was already overworked and nervous, was much disturbed by the incident, which seemed to him to have almost a supernatural significance.

Long afterwards the mysterious stranger was discovered to be the agent of an Austrian count who had recently lost his wife, and who, having some pretensions as an amateur musician, resolved to honor or rather dishonor her memory by proclaiming as his own composition the finest requiem, or funeral-mass, which his money could procure.

During the journey Mozart worked hard at the opera, which was comparatively unsuccessful, and returned to Vienna disappointed and exhausted.

He fell into a state of deep depression, and said that the requiem on which he was working was for himself. He recovered somewhat, but the improvement was of short duration, and he was soon unable to leave his bed. The requiem constantly occupied his mind, and he had the score brought to him and sang over a passage with some friends, but burst out crying in the midst and said he should never live to finish it. That night his soul passed away.

His funeral was held in the open air, as was the custom with the poorest classes. A few friends stood around while the service was read, but as a severe storm was raging none of them followed the hearse beyond the city gates; and so, forsaken by all, poor Mozart’s body was hurried to a pauper’s grave.

CHAPTER 7 Beethoven

On the 16th of December, 1770, was born, at Bonn on the Rhine, the great musician Ludwig — or, as he signed himself, Louis — van Beethoven.

From his earliest years his life was shadowed by unhappiness. His mother, whom he tenderly loved, died before he was grown, and his father, who was hard and severe, and given to dissipation, seemed to care less for his gifted child than for the chance of making money by means of his talents. He was himself a musician, and from the time the boy was four years old kept him hard at work; though the little Louis did not love practising any better than other less talented children, and was not seldom thrashed before going to the piano.

By the time he was nine he had learned all that his father could teach him, and then had lessons for a year from one of his father’s dissipated companions who lived in the same house with the Beethovens. Sometimes father and teacher would come home together at midnight from the wine-shop, wake up the little boy, and keep him at the piano till morning. Little Beethoven’s childhood had few happy hours.

At school, to which he went for only a few years, he was shy and silent, and cared nothing for the sports or companionship of the other boys. When he was eleven years old he found his first real friend — Neefe, the court organist, whose scholar he became. Neefe was much impressed with the genius of his pupil, and said of him, “If he goes on as he has begun, he will certainly become a second Mozart.'”

Before Beethoven was twelve he was able, when his teacher was absent, to take his place at the organ; and when a year older he played the harpsichord in the theatre orchestra — which was virtually conducting the whole performance.

When he was seventeen he went for the first time to Vienna, and while there made the acquaintance of Mozart. He played for him, but seeing that Mozart paid little attention to his performance asked for

a theme upon which to improvise, and, his ambition being excited, did this so marvellously well that Mozart, stepping softly to the door of the adjoining room, said to some friends who were there, “Listen to him; he will make a noise in the world some day.”

Beethoven could not afford the pleasure of a long stay in Vienna indeed it is a wonder how he contrived to get enough money for such an expensive journey; but soon after his return to his unhappy home a little brightness began to come into his life. He had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the von Breuning family a widow, several sons, and a daughter -and these all became real and lasting friends. Their home was one of comfort and refinement, and through them he gained some knowledge of literature and arts other than music.

He also made the acquaintance of Count Waldstein, a young amateur musician who did much to encourage and develop Beethoven’s talent. To him is dedicated the beautiful piano sonata (Opus 53) which is known by his name.

Before Beethoven was nineteen his father, who played in the court band of the Elector of Cologne, had sunk so low in dissipation that it was decreed that his salary should be paid over to his son, who was thus compelled to take entire charge of his younger brothers a charge which was more or less of a burden during all the rest of his life.

In the summer of 1792, when Haydn on his return from England passed through Bonn, Beethoven brought him one of his compositions, which Haydn warmly praised, and, very likely as a result of Haydn’s approbation, in the autumn the elector decided that Beethoven should go to Vienna at his expense and study under the famous old musician. So in November Beethoven left Bonn, never to return.

Vienna was at this time the headquarters of German music. Besides the glory of Haydn and Mozart (then lately dead) it was brilliant with a host of lesser lights good composers and really great players and there were among the aristocracy many talented and appreciative amateurs who maintained small orchestras or quartets and had constantly at their own houses performances of the best music. By these latter Beethoven was gladly welcomed, and among

them he found his warmest friends and most devoted admirers.

It was as a piano-player that he was first known in Vienna, and many of those who heard him have left records of the wonderful effect of his performances. One of these says that in the slow movements “frequently not an eye remained dry, and many would break out into loud sobs; for there was something wonderful in his expression.”

Beethoven seems to have completely fascinated his aristocratic admirers by the power of his genius, and they must also have respected the true worth of his strong and honest character and the real kindliness of his nature, else they would certainly never have put up with his manners, which were extremely bad, and his temper, which was exceedingly irritable.

He was absolutely independent, and regarded his art as far higher than either rank or wealth. One evening, while playing at some aristocratic house a duet with a pupil, several persons persisted in talking, and presently Beethoven rose from the piano, saying in a loud voice, “I play no more for such hogs”; and he could not be persuaded to touch the piano again, or allow his pupil to do so.

Sometimes he would extemporize for hours together, and then, after arousing the deepest emotions of his hearers, would burst into a fit of laughter, and ridicule them for being so affected.

No other musician, at least in Germany, had ever ventured upon such liberties with the nobility. Think how poor little Mozart was treated by the archbishop; and even Haydn, who was on such pleasant terms with the prince in whose service he spent so many years, was always respectful and subservient.

Beethoven was almost the first musician who did not seek a fixed position in some great household, but pursued his art at the bidding only of his own genius.

He was never on really friendly terms with any of the Vienna musicians; not even those who were his teachers. He thought that Haydn neglected his lessons, and refused to announce himself as his scholar; and Haydn, who probably found his headstrong pupil rather a trial, nicknamed him the “Great Mogul.”

But although Beethoven was so impatient of restraint, and had such confidence in his own genius as to be ready to question anything that was told him by his teachers, he was not unteachable; being, as

he told one of them much to the disgust of the old contrapuntist willing “to learn what is according to rule, in order to come afterwards to what is contrary to rule.”

Although he could not be induced to model his compositions after the standard of Haydn and Mozart, he was quite willing to put them aside and, with the modesty of true genius, wait until with thorough training and knowledge he was better able to judge them correctly. For several years he worked faithfully and perseveringly under different teachers, studying various instruments and vocal composition as well as counterpoint.

Beethoven was very fond of a joke, but, like many another joker, never could see the point if it was directed against himself. One day a pupil to whom he had just played a new andante played as much of it as he could remember to one of Beethoven’s aristocratic friends and patrons, who, being much delighted with it, learned a portion by ear; and the next day, asking Beethoven to listen to something he had been composing, played him his own andante. Beethoven was furiously angry, and would never again permit that pupil to hear him play excepting in public.

He had many pupils of high rank, among them even the son of the emperor, the Archduke Rudolph, who had more than ordinary musical talent, and the good taste not to be annoyed by Beethoven’s disregard of court etiquette. Beethoven once in a fit of anger told him that he had all due respect for the archduke’s person, but that the observance of such rules was not his business. At which the archduke only laughed good-naturedly, and gave orders that Beethoven should be allowed to come and go in his own way. Beethoven always retained the affectionate regard and sympathy of this royal pupil, who provided him with an annuity and showed in many other ways his respect and admiration for the genius of the great composer.

Teaching was always excessively irksome to Beethoven, though with talented pupils he often showed great patience and extreme conscientiousness; but at the least inattention or failure of comprehension he would even if they were highly born countesses or distinguished court beauties tear up the music and throw it about, and storm up and down the room. And these fashionable ladies seem never to have resented his rudeness or eccentricities.

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

From the age of twenty-one Vienna was Beethoven’s home. He spent the summers in the neighboring villages, and left the city as early as possible; for he dearly loved an outdoor life. In one of his letters he writes: “How happy you are to get away so soon to the country. I look forward to it with the delight of a child.”

Many of Beethoven’s great works were composed while wandering in the country around Vienna; sometimes sitting in the fork of a crooked tree, or resting in the shade of the beautiful woods. He always carried books of music-paper, in which he wrote down any idea that occurred to him; and these sketches he worked over and over until the music at last took the form in which we now know it.

Few musicians have labored over their works as Beethoven did. Some of his compositions, as we know from the sketch-books that have been preserved, were rewritten from a dozen to twenty times, and he never considered anything as finished until he had done his utmost to give it the most perfect form that was possible.

During the first years of Beethoven’s residence in Vienna he went much into society, and occasionally travelled to other cities; but as the deafness which began to threaten him before his thirtieth year gradually increased, he shrank from meeting even those who were his friends, and found refuge and solace only in his work. In one of his letters he says: “I live only in my art.” And in another: “My ears are buzzing and ringing perpetually, day and night. I can say with truth that my life is very wretched. For nearly two years past I have avoided all society, because I find it impossible to say to people ‘I am deaf.’ I can distinguish tones, but not the words, and yet I feel it intolerable if any one shouts to me. How often have I cursed my existence. I shall strive, if possible, to set fate at defiance, though there must be moments when I shall be the most miserable of God’s creatures.”

It is impossible to understand Beethoven without having constantly in mind the terrible affliction the shadow of which fell upon him in youth and gradually settled into the darkness of total silence, torturing him for years with agonizing alternations of hope and despair. Few men have suffered as Beethoven. With his proud and sensitive disposition, prone to suspect even his best friends, as his deafness increased he withdrew more and more into himself, and became at times a prey to such melancholy that his art alone saved

him from suicide.

He struggled heroically with the despair that threatened to overwhelm him. In one of his letters he says: “I will grapple with fate; it shall never drag me down.” Beethoven’s letters are, though often crude and awkward like most musicians he had little power of expression in words most interesting; showing plainly the utter simplicity and intense fervor of his nature.

His simplicity and absence of mind in every-day matters were indeed remarkable. He could not understand why shaving at the window in his night-shirt should attract notice. He once thought of taking horseback exercise and bought a horse, but forgot all about it until he received a long bill from the stable for its board. He would sometimes order and pay for a meal, and then forget to eat it; and once insisted upon paying for one which he had even forgotten to order.

He wrote so illegibly that he himself frequently could not read what he had written, and dropped and spilled everything that he handled. He calls himself “a disorderly creature.” In his room clothes and shoes, books and music, were all in a pile together, or scattered about over the floor, and in his dress at least at home he grew to be extremely careless. Czerny tells of finding him with a beard half an inch long, his thick, black hair standing up all over his head, his clothes of some coarse, hairy material, and his ears stuffed with wool which had been soaked in a kind of yellow ointment his poor ears, which could no longer hear the beautiful music that his brain conceived.

To those who understand little of the art, it seems impossible that a composer should be able to write music without hearing it, but to a musician it is no more difficult than to write a letter without reading it aloud. Beethoven could with his mental ear hear the sounds indicated by the musical characters just as clearly and definitely as an ordinary person hears in his mind the sound of the words which he writes; and as it is possible to know by merely looking at it that a poem is beautiful and correctly written, so a musician knows by merely seeing the notes that a melody is beautiful and the harmonies correct.

But just as it is more delightful to hear a poem recited by some one who has a melodious voice and reads with taste and expression,

so every musician longs to hear the living sound of the notes which are like dead forms waiting to be wakened into life by the breath of sound; and only a musician can fully realize the dreadful character of the affliction which poor Beethoven was compelled to endure.

It is possible, however, that if Beethoven had not been so cut off from society, and shut in, as it were, with no resource but composition, we might not have had so many of those mighty works the nine symphonies and thirty-two sonatas, the concertos and quartets and trios, the opera of Fidelio, with its four wonderful overtures, the masses and oratorios and lesser works which are his most enduring monument. He might, perhaps, have allowed his time to be too much filled up with playing and conducting in concerts; though for conducting he was not well fitted by nature, and for this, of course, was early incapacitated by his deafness. One of his contemporaries says that, although at the piano he sat very quietly, never making an unnecessary motion, yet as a conductor his movements were most extravagant. In a soft passage he would stoop lower and lower, and in a crescendo stretch himself higher and higher till at the climax he would leap into the air and sometimes scream out without knowing it.

Beethoven was full of a rough sort of humor, and was excessively fond of puns and jokes of all kinds. He had nicknames, generally more forcible than elegant, for most of his friends, and spared none of his intimates. His brother once called on him and left a card on which was printed, after the German custom, Johann van Beethoven, Gutsbesitzer (land proprietor). To which Beethoven retorted by returning the card after writing on the back of it, L. van Beethoven, Hirnbesitzer (brain proprietor).

No depth of affection or proof of devotion secured any of his friends against becoming the butt of his wit or the object of his anger. They all in turn suffered from his morbid sensitiveness, which increased with age and deafness, and unjust suspicions. Once when three of them were doing their utmost to arrange for a performance of some of his works, he suddenly dismissed them; writing to one, “Falsehoods I despise. Visit me no more. There will be no concert”; to another, “Visit me no more till I send for you. No concert”; and to the third, “Visit me no more. No concert.”

At a rehearsal where Beethoven lost his temper because of the absence of one of the bassoons, and Prince Lobkowitz treated the matter lightly, Beethoven became so enraged that on his way home he could not resist calling out, as he passed the prince’s house, “Lobkowitzer Esel!” (Ass of a Lobkowitz). And once when visiting at the country-house of Prince Lichnowsky, being pressed to play for some French officers, whom he regarded as his country’s enemies, he made a terrible scene, and went off post-haste in the night to Vienna; being on his arrival still so angry as to smash in pieces a bust of the prince which adorned his lodging.

With his old friend Stephen von Breuning, whose mother had been so kind to him in Bonn, he quarrelled more than once, and the last time would have nothing to do with him for several years. But none of his friends seem to have been permanently estranged by his really quite unjustifiable suspicions or angry reproaches which, indeed, were always followed by most contrite and humbly affectionate apologies and appeals for forgiveness. They seem to have been filled with profound admiration for his genius and respect for the real worth of his character, as well as the deepest sympathy for the unhappiness of his lot, and were always ready to do anything he desired, from cutting quills for new pens to supplying an income.

It was not men only who felt this warm regard for the unfortunate composer. Madame von Breuning and Princess Lichnowsky seem to have had an almost maternal feeling toward him, and good Madame Streicher used often to help him in arranging his household and getting his wardrobe in order.

The question of lodgings was always a trouble to Beethoven, and usually a trial to his landlord. He would come in dripping with rain and shake the water from his clothes all over the furniture, quite unaware that he was doing any damage. Or he would, while absorbed in thought, pour water on his hands till it ran all over the floor and through the ceiling into the room below.

He was constantly changing his lodgings; sometimes because the rooms were not sunny, or he thought that people listened to his playing once because the landlord insisted upon taking off his hat to him when they met; and as he occasionally forgot to give notice, he once had to pay the rent of as many as four at the same time.

And when he tried to keep house for himself he was always in trouble with his servants. Dishonest or unscrupulous ones would, of course, take advantage of such a master, but even the best could hardly be blamed for not over-faithfully serving a man who was likely to throw at them food that did not happen to suit him, and who was suspicious of every expenditure.

Beethoven always kept diaries, or note-books, in which he wrote down all sorts of things household details, quotations, complaints, prayers and aspirations many of the entries being very pathetic, and showing that, notwithstanding his eccentricities and exterior roughnesses, the real foundations of his nature were nobility and truth.

Of his younger brothers, who seem scarcely to have appreciated his affection, he was almost passionately fond; refusing to believe anything against them, and helping them in every possible way. To them is addressed the pathetic letter written when he thought himself doomed to an early death, and known as “Beethoven’s Will.” It begins:

“Oh! ye who think or declare me to be hostile, morose, and misanthropical, how unjust you are, and how little you know the secret cause of what appears thus to you.” And after recounting all that he has suffered from his growing deafness and the prospect of being cut off from everything that he most enjoys: “God looks into my heart, He searches it, and knows that love for man and feelings of benevolence have their abode there. You know that anything you did to give me pain has been long forgiven. My wish is that you enjoy a happier life and one more free from care than mine has been. I joyfully hasten to meet Death. If he comes before I have had the opportunity of developing my artistic powers, then, notwithstanding my cruel fate, he will come too soon for me; but even then I shall be content, for his advent will release me from a state of endless suffering. Come when he may, I shall meet him with courage. Farewell! Do not quite forget me, even in death. I deserve this from you, because during my life I have so often thought of you and wished to make you happy.”

The last ten years of Beethoven’s life were embittered by family troubles and suits-at-law which exhausted his strength and kept him

constantly irritated. His brother Caspar died, leaving his son Carl, then about eight years old, in Beethoven’s care. The boy’s mother was living, but Beethoven disliked her, and, asserting that she was not a fit person to have charge of the child, tried to separate him from her entirely. This gave rise to successive lawsuits, and, moreover, the boy himself was a disappointment. He grew up to be a sort of goodfor-nothing; though in later life he was only eighteen when his uncle died he seems to have reformed, and lived and died as a respectable citizen. Beethoven was excessively fond of the child, though often, no doubt, injudicious in his treatment, and tried to give him every advantage; but the conduct of this unworthy nephew filled his last years with care and sorrow, and was finally, at least indirectly, the cause of the great composer’s premature death. There were lawsuits about money matters, also, which worried and distressed him; but nothing seemed to stop the flow of his ideas, or seriously hinder the progress of his work, in which as he grew older he became more and more absorbed forgetting his meals, shutting himself in his room whole days at a time playing and singing at the top of his voice, stamping about or pounding out the time on the table, and saying and doing most horribly rude things if disturbed.

One morning in the country he got up very early, and, slipping on a wretched old coat and without a hat, went out to take a walk by the canal. He kept on and on and lost his way, and was finally arrested as a beggar, and kept locked up till some one could be found to identify him.

Beethoven never suffered, as have many great musicians, from lack of recognition of his genius. Vienna was proud of her great composer, and even during his lifetime he was famous over all Europe. At the time of the Congress of Vienna, in 1814, when numerous sovereigns and other notabilities were assembled in the city, he gave a concert for which he sent in his own name personal invitations to all these distinguished personages; the government placed a hall at his disposal, there was an audience of six thousand persons, and the receipts, in addition to many presents from royal music-lovers, enabled him to put aside a considerable sum of money. And his great mass and the ninth symphony were first performed at the special request of friends and admirers among the music-loving aristocracy

of Vienna, and received with storms of enthusiasm; the unfortunate composer being turned around by the prima donna so that he might see the applause which he could not hear.

But it was a trial to him that his later works, which he felt to be the best, were not understood and enjoyed as his earlier ones had been. His own generation was not prepared to follow him into the new paths which he opened for his art, and in his later years many thought him crazy, or failing in his powers. To one who called his later quartets “incomprehensible” he said, “I write not for you, but for those who shall come after.”

Beethoven was wholly devoted to his art. He was always more or less in love, and offered himself in marriage several times; but his real mistress, from whose service nothing could long divert him, was music, and music alone.

One beautiful young singer to whom he offered his hand, when asked why she refused such a great man and distinguished composer, said, “Oh! he was so ugly and half-crazy.'” One of his admirers says, “He was very ugly to look at, but full of nobility and fine feeling.” He was short and broad, had an expressive countenance with very bright black eyes, and a genial and pleasant smile, though his look was generally thoughtful and abstracted.

His prodigal nephew, who failed in one examination after another, finally attempted to commit suicide, and was ordered out of Vienna by the police. His devoted old uncle, who never thought of leaving him, whatever his conduct, went with him to the village of Gneixendorf, about fifty miles away, where they spent the summer with Johann van Beethoven, the “Gutsbesitzer.”

Here little attention seems to have been paid to the comfort of the old composer, and when the chilly days of autumn made it unpleasant to be out of doors, he determined to return to Vienna.

But he took cold on the journey and was already ill when they arrived. He sent his nephew for a doctor, but this selfish youth intrusted the commission to some one else, and the needed remedies were too long delayed. The cold settled on Beethoven’s lungs and ended in dropsy. He was ill for several months, and died on the 26th of March, 1827, at the age of fifty-six his soul taking its flight during a terrific storm and just at the moment when the air was rent

by a mighty peal of thunder.

Beethoven composed almost exclusively in the sonata-form the form which was first clearly defined by Haydn and Mozart; but he expanded its limits to the utmost. He was less bound by rules of composition and more governed by the thought he wished to express. He chose the keys for the different movements, and also for the subjects of his first movements, with greater freedom, made the connecting passages more a part of the whole by using for them figures and phrases which are found in the principal themes, and developed the coda, or close, which before his time had generally been merely a few chords or brilliant runs, into one of the most interesting and important parts of the whole movement.

He changed the dainty minuet into the lively and vigorous scherzo, and made many important innovations in orchestration; that is, the art of combining and using the instruments of the orchestra.

CHAPTER 8 Weber — Romantic Music

About a year before the death of Gluck — on the 18th of December, 1786 — was born at Eutin in Holstein the founder of the German romantic opera — Carl Maria von Weber.

A romantic opera is one which is founded upon a romantic story, and such stories are called romantic, or romances, because the earliest tales of fanciful and extravagant adventures, of chivalry and gallantry, brave knights and beautiful ladies, were written in the old Romance dialects or languages (those which during the Middle Ages were used in France and Spain); the languages of the troubadours, who, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, went about visiting the castles and chateaux singing these marvellous and fantastic tales. Nowadays any story of novel adventures — especially those of lovers — is called romantic, and operas founded upon such subjects also are characterized by this adjective. But sometimes music which is not directly associated with words is called romantic. Chopin, who wrote scarcely anything but pianoforte music, is called a romantic composer. That is because in his compositions, instead of strictly following the established forms — sonata, rondo, fugue, and the like — he simply tried to express his poetic imaginings in the freest possible manner. Music composed in the regular, established forms is called classic, and music which does not strictly follow these forms is called romantic. The symphonies and sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven are classical music, and the beautiful little pieces of Schumann and Grieg are romantic.

Classic, which is a word from the Latin, means, really, of the first rank. In ancient Rome the citizens were divided into ranks, or classes, which were numbered; but the man belonging to the highest class was known simply as classicus — of the class — just as we say men of rank, meaning of the highest rank. So a work to be called classical must be not only composed in the regular, established forms, but must also be of acknowledged excellence — of the first rank or class; and

that is why a work is never called classical until time has proved that it really is of the highest rank.

Weber belonged to a musical family. His father was a cousin of Constanze Weber, Mozart’s wife, and Carl had two older stepbrothers, both of whom were good musicians. His father, who was always restless and full of new plans, became soon after the birth of his talented son director of a travelling dramatic troupe; and the child’s early years were spent in wandering from place to place, with small chance for a regular education. His father tried to teach him music, but found few signs of talent, and it is said that upon one occasion his elder brother, who had been taking great pains with him in vain, exclaimed, “Carl, you may become anything else you like, but a musician you certainly never will be.” But when he was nine years old little Carl found for the first time a competent teacher, and after that his talent developed so rapidly that before he was twelve he was able to play in concerts with success. He had lessons from many teachers in many different places one of them being Michael Haydn, the younger brother of the great composer and between them all learned enough of composition to be able at the age of thirteen to write an opera which was performed in several different cities, and seems to have been quite well received. When but little over seventeen he was appointed Kapellmeister at Breslau, and during his two years of residence in that city he developed into an original and brilliant pianist and composer.

Weber was talented in many directions; he had a beautiful voice and played the guitar charmingly. He had great social gifts, and his title of Freiherr gained for him everywhere admittance to the circles of the nobility. He had talent for literature, also, and at one time thought quite seriously of giving up music and devoting himself entirely to literary work. He was the first great composer who was a cultivated man of the world as well as a musician.

In the eighteenth century a musician was expected to be thoroughly master of both the theory and the practice of his art; but beyond that his education was generally deplorably deficient, and he was regarded by his patrons as a servant whose talents, like the uniforms of their footmen, added to the prestige of their domestic establishments. Weber was the forerunner of those brilliant minds of

the nineteenth century Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, and other great composers who were fully developed and cultivated men as well as musicians.

After leaving Breslau Weber spent some time with the Duke of Württemberg at his castle in Silesia, but this happy retreat was broken up by the social insecurity resulting from the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte. Weber then became private secretary to the duke’s brother, who was also brother of the King of Wurttemberg, and went to live in Stuttgart. Here he was in the midst of a dissipated circle, the duke being one of the leaders, and fell into bad ways, though he did not entirely neglect his art. One of his operas was being rehearsed at the theatre when the king, who unjustly held Weber responsible for many of his brother’s faults, had him arrested and thrown into prison; and though his innocence was fully established, both he and his father were banished from Stuttgart.

After this hard stroke of fate Weber turned his back upon youthful follies and settled down conscientiously to work. For some years he travelled with brilliant success as a pianist, becoming everywhere a great favorite in society; but in 1813 the year of Wagner’s birth his roving career came finally to an end. He became Kapellmeister at Prague, and there laid the foundations of his great reputation as an orchestral conductor.

In the following year, inspired by the victories of the allied armies which rescued his native land from the grasp of Napoleon, Weber composed those patriotic lyrics which so aroused and expressed the popular enthusiasm, and which are still sung in Germany, even after the lapse of nearly a hundred years. Two years later he received the appointment of Kapellmeister at Dresden, which position he held during nine years, until his premature death. He married a charming young actress whom he had known in Prague, and became devoted to his home life, the happiness of which he appreciated all the more because of the homelessness of his early years.

Dresden had long had an Italian opera which was scarcely surpassed even in Italy itself, but Weber was called to organize an institution for the performance of German opera; and this he did so successfully that before long it began to threaten the separate existence of its rival.

In 1821 was produced, first in Berlin (where it has since been given over five hundred times) and afterwards in all the principal cities of Europe, Weber’s greatest work the opera Der Freischütz. Its success was brilliant and immediate; Weber’s fresh and simple melodies, in the style of the popular Volkslied, captivating every hearer.

A Volkslied is, literally, “a song of the people,” a folk-song. Any simple melody which expresses national and popular feeling may be said to be a “song of the people,” but a true Volkslied is a song that has been, so to speak, made by the people. Improvised by some primitive singer, remembered and repeated with changes and additions by others, it gradually grows into the form in which it is at last written down, and never has any recognized composer.

Weber’s next opera was Euryanthe, which, compared with the success of Der Freischütz, was almost a failure. It was first given in Vienna, whither Weber went to conduct it, and he was much depressed by its lack of success, writing home to his wife, “I have not an idea, and cannot believe that I ever composed anything.” He was already in the clutches of the disease consumption which finally ended his life, and knew that he was shortening his days by the strain of composing and conducting; yet, in order to leave a provision for his family, to which he was tenderly attached, he accepted a commission from London to produce Oberon; and, though he realized that his days were numbered, actually systematically studied English so that he might be better able to give the proper musical expression to the sentiments of the words. In the spring of 1826 he went to London, where he was most enthusiastically welcomed. The opera was a great success, but his prediction that he was “going to London to die” was fulfilled, and he never again saw the dear ones for whom he so longed in his last days.

Weber’s best works are these three operas with their lovely overtures, which are full of most charmingly novel and poetic effects. He himself was a brilliant and delightful player, but his pianoforte compositions alone would hardly have placed him in the first rank, though some of them will surely never be forgotten especially the Invitation to the Dance, one of the most beautiful waltzes ever written. In this piece Weber did for dance-music also what he accomplished

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

for opera introducing the freedom of natural feeling in place of the stiff and formal periods of the old-fashioned dances.

CHAPTER 9 Schubert

In the city of Vienna, on the 31st of January, 1797 six years after the death of Mozart, when Haydn was putting the finishing touches to the works of his old age, and Beethoven, already at the height of his fame as a pianist, was just beginning to be known as a composer was born a child whose talent was almost as precocious as that of Mozart and whose span of life was even shorter, whose genius was in its own way as great and original as that of Beethoven, and who, with scarcely any regular musical training or education, accomplished results which have sufficed to place his name in the front rank of great composers. This child was Franz Peter Schubert, the greatest songwriter the world has ever known.

He was the son of a poor parish schoolmaster, and one of a family of nineteen children, most of whom, however, died in infancy. Two of the older sons also were schoolmasters, and from them and from his father little Franz received his first instruction in music, studying both violin and piano.

But he quickly learned all that they could teach him, and was put under Holzer, the choir-master of the parish, who gave him lessons in all branches of the art, but was so astounded at the facility with which his pupil learned as to be incapable of giving him the thorough training which such genius demanded. “When I wished to teach him anything,” the good old man used to say, “he always knew it already”; and when the child extemporized he would joyously exclaim, “The lad has harmony at his finger-ends.”

At the age of ten little Franz was first soprano in the choir, and known for the beauty of his voice and excellence of his singing. He sometimes played violin solos in the church service, and already composed little pieces and songs. Being unable to provide further instruction for his gifted child, the father decided to enter him if possible as a free pupil at the imperial Convict, or school for educating the choristers of the court chapel; so in the autumn preceding his

twelfth birthday little Franz went up with a group of other candidates for examination.

The other boys, as boys will, made themselves merry at his expense, laughing at his old-fashioned clothes and joking about his blushes and embarrassment; but their merriment was lost in astonishment when the little fellow stood up before the examiners and sang at sight the most difficult pieces, and answered all the questions so correctly that he was unanimously elected to the vacant place in the school.

His shabby clothes were exchanged for the handsome uniform of the imperial choristers, and his simple but pleasant home life, radiant with the affection of his parents and the admiring devotion of his brothers, for the discomforts of a charity boarding-school. Between “a poor dinner and a wretched supper” these hungry, growing boys had nothing to satisfy their vigorous appetites, and little Franz frequently appealed to the generosity of his elder brothers for some small coins with which to buy “an apple or something else that would taste so good.” The cold, too, of the room in which they had to practise was sometimes “dreadful,” and the instruction far from what it should have been.

The conductors of the choir were satisfied if the music of the service was well prepared, and the thorough-bass master was so amazed by little Schubert’s talent and facility that he declared that his pupil knew already all he could teach him, and must have “learned direct from heaven.” So this most poetical of all musical geniuses was allowed to take his own way in composition almost unguided, and never gained that control of his art which might perhaps have made him as great in all departments as he is universally acknowledged to be in song-writing.

With its many defects, however, the school offered some advantages. The course of instruction comprised, besides music, all that was necessary for an ordinary education, and in his general studies little Franz at first did well; but as he became more and more absorbed in music and fascinated by composition, he gradually neglected everything else.

There was a small orchestra in the school made up from the best players among the pupils, and in this Franz soon took a prominent

place. The very first day a big fellow named Spaun turned around to see who was playing the violin so well, and saw “a small boy in spectacles, named Franz Schubert.” He soon became intimate with his little neighbor, and being very kind-hearted did him many favors. To him one day Franz shyly and blushingly for he was always very bashful and sensitive confessed that he had already composed a great deal; that really he could not help it, and should write music all the time if only he could afford to buy music-paper. After which the big boy always saw that he was plentifully supplied.

Sundays and holidays Franz spent at home, and then the great delight of the family was to play quartets often those of Schubert’s own composition. The youngest member of the quartet was by far the best player. The father would not unfrequently make mistakes, and if the mistake was repeated Franz would say respectfully, “Herr Vater, something must be wrong there.”

He played first violin in the school orchestra, and sometimes led the band. He had many friends and admirers among his fellow-pupils, who were always eager to perform anything that he composed; and even after he left the school he would often bring his compositions there to be tried over.

He also had opportunities of hearing occasional concerts and operas. Mozart was at this time his favorite composer, but later Beethoven became the object of his reverential worship. He asked a friend who had heard some of his boyish compositions if he thought he himself would ever do anything, and being told that he already could do a great deal, he said, “Perhaps; I sometimes have dreams, but who can do anything after Beethoven?”

There is but one record of a meeting between Schubert and the older master, though when Beethoven was on his death-bed Schubert came twice to see him, and at his funeral was one of the torch-bearers. When he was about twenty-five years of age Schubert dedicated to Beethoven a set of variations, and ventured to present a copy in person. Beethoven’s deafness was, of course, a great obstacle to intercourse, and his manners, at the best, often somewhat disconcerting even to those less bashful and retiring than Schubert; who, when the great man thrust at him paper and pencil with which to write his replies, was too overwhelmed with confusion to be able to command

a single word. And when Beethoven, looking through the variations, pointed out something that struck him, Schubert’s self-control entirely deserted him, and he rushed from the room into the street.

At the age of seventeen Schubert left the Convict, and for three years taught the lowest class in his father’s school. The drudgery was irksome, but outside of school hours he had pleasant intercourse with musical friends, and he continued to compose incessantly. Some of his finest songs were written before he was eighteen, and his first mass was composed at about that age. This work was several times performed in public, and the proud father expressed his gratification by presenting his son with a five-octave piano.

Schubert composed music of all kinds operas, church-music, sonatas, quartets, symphonies, and, above all, songs. Any words that came in his way seemed to suggest a melody. As Schumann says, “he could have set a placard to music.” The rapidity of his composition was marvellous. The Erl-king was written in an hour, and one of his loveliest songs, Hark! Hark! the Lark, in a beer garden when returning from a walk. He opened a volume of Shakespeare which was lying on a table and, seeing the words, said, “Such a lovely melody has come into my head; if only I had some music-paper.” Some lines were drawn on the back of a bill of fare, and in a few moments, amid all the noise and confusion, that beautiful song with its charming accompaniment was created.

Once while calling on a friend he became interested in a little volume of verses, and carried the book home with him; and the next morning when the friend met him he found that he had already composed music for a number of the poems. This set of songs, which is called Die schone Mullerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill), he afterwards completed, and it is probably the most beautiful song-cycle that ever was written. In the first song the miller’s apprentice sings of the delights of wandering, and entreats his master and mistress to permit him to set out on his Wanderjahr the year of travel with which the German apprentices complete their term of service and training.

In the second song, Wohin (Whither), he meets the brook with which thereafter his fortunes are so closely bound, questions if his way lies beside it, and thinks he hears in its murmur the voices of the

nixies calling him to follow. He comes to the mill, takes service with the miller, and falls in love with the schone Mullerin the miller’s pretty daughter; and in one of the most beautiful of all the songs, Der Neugierige (The Inquirer), he asks the brook if his love is returned.

But the course of true love does not run smoothly. The hunter comes and fascinates the schone Mullerin, and the poor little miller’s brain is turned by his trouble. Crazed by jealousy and pride he sings that the hunter’s green is his love’s favorite color, therefore he will dress in green; then that green is an odious color that he would wander far away, but that woods and fields are all of the same hateful hue, and he wishes that winter would come and cover everything with snowy white. Then he confides his sorrows to the brook, which lures him into its cool bosom and sings him a tender lullaby.

After three years of school-teaching Schubert gave it up and tried to support himself by his music. He had a few pupils, but devoted most of his time to composition. Musical ideas seem to have crowded into his mind faster than he could write them down. He composed eight operas in a single year, and a hundred songs, besides other compositions, in less than a twelve-month; “everything that he touched,” says Schumann, “turning into music.”

He began to compose as soon as he awoke, and as he was very near-sighted, often slept in his spectacles to save trouble. “I compose every morning,” said he, “and when one thing is done I begin another.” He simply wrote down what came into his mind, put away the manuscript, and sometimes forgot all about it. Once on hearing one of his own songs he said, “That’s not a bad song; who wrote it?”

When he was twenty-one Schubert was engaged as music-master by Count Esterhazy, and spent several summers with the family at their country-seat. Many of his four-hand pieces were composed for the young ladies of the family, with one of whom he is said to have been in love; but, even if this story were anything more than the invention of a romantic biographer, it must have been from the first a hopeless attachment the difference in social rank being insurmountable.

Schubert was always rather ill at ease in the company of those above his own station in life; shy and silent, and anxious to escape from even admiring notice. Among those of his own class, however,

he enjoyed himself thoroughly. He was very good-tempered and kindhearted, fond of jokes and all sorts of drolleries he sometimes used to play for his friends a version of his own great song, The Erl-king, on a comb!

His whole life was extremely simple. He had little interest in anything but music, and almost no other means of expression words, either written or spoken, being wrung from him with difficulty. All of his attempts to compose for the stage were failures, many of his larger instrumental works he never even had an opportunity of hearing, and during his lifetime his songs were scarcely known outside of his own circle of friends and admirers. Those that were published brought him but little money, for, being pressed by need, he usually sold them outright, and frequently for shamefully small prices; at one time half a dozen for a trifle over a dollar!

But his genius was beginning to be recognized, and had it not been for his premature death he might perhaps have achieved during his own lifetime both fame and fortune. An intimate friend named Vogl, an operatic tenor who sang much in fashionable salons, introduced a number of Schubert's songs, and his performance of them accompanied by the composer was greatly admired. They made a delightful and successful summer tour together, and in 1828, the last year of Schubert’s life, he gave for the first time an evening concert.

He had, however, begun to be conscious of the deficiencies of his early training. “I see now,” said he, “how much I have still to learn, but I am going to work hard and make up for lost time”; and, although he was far from well, he actually made arrangements to begin a course in counterpoint. But it was too late. He died of typhus fever on the 19th of November, 1828 only thirty-one years of age. As the inscription on his tombstone pathetically says, “He was rich in what he gave; richer in what he promised.”

In the delirium of his last illness he murmured something about being buried near Beethoven, and through the self-denial and sacrifice of all his scanty savings this wish was fulfilled by his devoted brother Ferdinand. Schubert’s own effects were valued at only a little over ten dollars; one of the items being “some old music” probably the manuscripts which are now priceless.

The quantity of Schubert’s works is enormous. His compositions

reach the amazing number of nearly twelve hundred, more than six hundred of them being songs. It was the enthusiasm of Robert Schumann, who first discovered the treasures contained in that heap of “old music,” which brought about the performance and publication of Schubert’s works, and the universal recognition of his genius.

CHAPTER 10 Mendelssohn

In the year of Haydn’s death, on the 3rd of February, 1809, there came into the world at Hamburg in Germany, a little boy-baby around whose cradle all the good fairies seem to have gathered in a strife as to which could bestow the richest gift.

Musical genius, talents for drawing and languages, personal attractiveness, a warm heart, a pure mind and upright spirit, parents who were rich enough to command for him every advantage and wise enough to use their wealth for his highest good, loving him tenderly, but keeping him hard at work to develop to the utmost his great gifts, a happy home in which the brothers and sisters, all talented and clever (his elder sister Fanny was scarcely less gifted musically than himself), were sympathetic and devoted to one another, and the father and mother sharers in all their pleasures and centre of all their joys — all these were his from the first; and later, a lovely and loving wife, a peaceful and happy home of his own, and a multitude of devoted and enthusiastic friends and admirers, combined to shed constant sunshine on his pathway.

The family life of the Mendelssohns as revealed in their charming and affectionate letters was most delightful. The grandfather of little Felix was the distinguished philosopher Moses Mendelssohn; and Felix’s father, who, though a fine, strong character, with a good mind, had no particular talent in any direction, used to make a little joke about being known in his youth as the son of his father and in his old age as the father of his son.

The relation between Felix and his father was always most beautiful; that of the warmest friendship intensified by a devoted affection which on Felix’s part amounted to enthusiasm. From London, where Felix had nursed him through an illness, the father wrote: “I can never tell you what he has done for me; what treasures of love, patience, perseverance, grave kindness and tenderest care he lavished on me. Much as I am obliged to him for the thousand marks

of kindness and attention I received at other hands for his sake, the best came ever from himself.” How beautiful for a father to write about his son!

The children, though born Jews, were baptized and brought up as Christians by the advice and persuasion of their mother’s brother, whose name, Bartholdy, they added to their own. This uncle, who was an accomplished and cultivated man, had never been forgiven by his mother for leaving the faith of his ancestors, and a very pretty story is told of Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix’s older sister, who was a great favorite with her grandmother, and often went to see her and play to her. One day she played unusually well, and the old lady was so delighted that she offered to give her anything she should choose.

“Forgive uncle Bartholdy,” said the child; and the grandmother was so touched by the unexpected request that she really became reconciled to her son “for Fanny’s sake,” as she wrote him.

When Felix was two years old and Fanny six the family removed to Berlin, and here Madame Mendelssohn began to teach her talented little daughter to play. With the exception of a few lessons during a short stay in Paris, the children had no music-teacher but their mother until Felix was about eight years old; and for years she always sat by them with her knitting while they practised. The children were kept very closely at their studies, and when he was grown up Felix used to say how much they enjoyed the Sundays, because then they did not have to get up at five o’clock in the morning and go to work.

For years they had lessons from Zelter, a thorough musician and most original character, who was fanatically devoted to the poet Goethe, and became almost as passionately attached to his talented pupil, Felix. When Felix was eleven years old, Zelter took him with him to Weimar, where they spent a fortnight in Goethe’s house, and the old poet quite lost his heart to the fascinating boy.

Although Goethe was not especially fond of music, he was delighted with the playing of Felix, who wrote to his parents in some charming letters which are quite remarkable for a child of his years and show already his delightful talent in that direction: “Every afternoon Goethe opens his instrument with the words: ‘I have not yet heard you to-day; now make a little noise for me.1 And then he

generally sits down by my side, and when I have done I ask for a kiss or I take one. You cannot fancy how good and kind he is to me!”

“Every morning I have a kiss from the author of Faust and Werther, and every afternoon two kisses from the father and friend Goethe. Think of that!” “On Thursday the Grand Duke, the Duchess, and the Hereditary Grand Duke came to see us, and I had to play. And I played from eleven in the morning till ten in the evening, with only two hours’ interruption. Of course, when Goethe says, ‘There is company tomorrow at eleven, little one, and you, too, must play us something,’ I cannot say no.”

A year later, returning from a tour in Switzerland, the Mendelssohns stopped at Weimar to see the great poet who had been so kind to Felix. Goethe, who was never tired of listening to Felix’s playing, said to him one day when something had vexed him: “I am Saul and you are my David. When I am sad and dreary come to me and cheer me with your music.”

One evening he asked him to play a fugue by Bach which Felix did not know by heart. He remembered the theme, however, and on this improvised a fugue, with which Goethe was enchanted. “A charming, delightful boy,” he said to the mother; “send him to me again soon.”

In his twelfth year Felix began systematically to compose, and he had the great advantage of frequently hearing his works performed; for the Mendelssohns had regular fortnightly musical parties for which a small orchestra was engaged, and at these Felix conducted his own compositions even when he was so small he was never very tall as to have to stand on a stool to be seen. Zelter was always present, and Felix had the advantage of his relentless criticism, as well as practice in conducting and playing before an audience.

Under these favorable conditions Felix’s musical talent rapidly developed, and that of his sister Fanny kept pace with his. The beautiful and intimate friendship between this brother and sister, which lasted all their lives, was never touched by any feeling of envy or jealousy. “They really are vain and proud of one another,” their mother used to say. Felix accepted Fanny as his musical adviser, and had always the fullest confidence in her judgment, and she took more pleasure and pride in the development of his genius than in her own.

When Felix was fifteen the pianist Moscheles, who, though but a few years older, was already one of the most distinguished players in Europe, came to Berlin. He gave Felix some lessons, and the foundation was laid for a lasting and most intimate friendship.

The next year the Mendelssohns removed to the house which is so often referred to in their letters Leipziger-Strasse, Number 3. It was then on the extreme edge of the town, and had extensive grounds with beautiful trees, entirely shut off from the noise and confusion of the streets.

Here in the summer of 1826 the Mendelssohn children with some young companions spent the days in one long festival of music, poetry, fun, and frolic. In a summer-house in the garden they kept a blank book in which they wrote down whatever was especially interesting or amusing, and to this, which they called the “Garden Times,” many clever contributions were made by distinguished visitors. The parents numbered among their friends many persons famous in art and literature, and their musical parties were celebrated. Musicians and other persons of note visiting Berlin sought eagerly for invitations, and all were interested in the precocious and talented children.

During this summer they read Shakespeare for the first time, and in the midst of the dreamlike and fantastic existence they were then enjoying, the Midsummer Night's Dream the play in which Titania, Oberon, Puck and all the other fairies beguile and torment the mortals who come within their reach made a particularly strong impression.

It was during these delightful months that Felix composed his famous Midsummer Night's Dream overture; the most remarkable work that was ever produced by a youth of seventeen. The airy, fairy lightness and grace which give it such a peculiar charm and fascination are not more delightful or admirable than the solid construction which betrays the knowledge of the already mature musician; and it is such a perfect illustration of the spirit of the play that when, almost twenty years later, the composer wrote the rest of the Midsummer Night’s Dream music the songs, the clown’s music, and the famous wedding-march he did not change a note of the overture. This music is probably the most perfect expression of Mendelssohn’s genius, and will delight the world as long as Shakespeare is

read and enjoyed.

Zelter, Felix’s teacher, had the most profound and reverent admiration for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and he inspired Felix with an even more enthusiastic love and worship for the grand old master. Zelter had bought at an auction— almost as so much waste paper — the score of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, and this score he gave to his favorite pupil. Mendelssohn studied it with delight, practised it at home with a small choir, and became filled with the desire to have this great work performed in public.

At that time comparatively little of Bach’s music had been published — even musicians knew much of it only by name — and it was at first thought to be an impossible undertaking. But Mendelssohn inspired everybody with an enthusiasm that overcame all obstacles, and the singers studied with ever-increasing interest and admiration. They worked with zeal at the rehearsals; at one of which Felix, the score having been left at home, accompanied the entire work from beginning to end by heart. The success of the first performance was so great that it was repeated on Bach’s birthday; and thus, after being buried for a hundred years, this great work was finally restored to the world. Moreover, the success of the undertaking led to the publication for the first time of the complete works of the great composer.

When Felix was twenty years old he went to England, where his friend Moscheles was settled with his family in London. He played much in public, introducing the music of Beethoven, which was still a novelty to English audiences, but found plenty of time for sightseeing and for dancing at balls and parties. He was always very fond of dancing, as well as of riding and swimming and all outdoor life. He became a great favorite with the English, and heartily returned their liking. He visited London many times, and says in one of his letters, “That smoky nest is fated to be now and ever my favorite residence.”

When the London season was over he made a tour in Scotland, and on his return spent some days in Wales at the country-house of a family he had known in London.

One of the ladies of this family has given us a charming picture of the young musician as he was at that time. She tells how he enjoyed

fun and frolic, picnics, sketching with the girls he was very clever with his pencil bringing music out of an old fiddle with only one string and going into fits of laughter over it, and taking his turn with the rest in playing for dancing in the evenings without any sort of pretension.

He composed pianoforte pieces (Opus 16) for the sisters: for one a rivulet, a real one which had pleased them very much during a ride; for another a piece suggested by some carnations, saying the arpeggios were the sweet scent of the flowers rising up; and for the other a piece which he said was the music the fairies might play on the trumpetlike flowers that he drew on the margin of the paper.

Mendelssohn, the centre of whose life was always the family, entered with enthusiasm into all plans for home festivals, birthday and Christmas entertainments. For these he composed Kindersymphonien (symphonies to be played with toy instruments), songs and cantatas; and for his parents’ silver wedding anniversary, which was soon after his return to Berlin, he wrote an operetta in which he arranged for his brother-in-law Hensel, Fanny’s husband, who had no idea of music, a part to be sung throughout on one note only!

The following year Mendelssohn travelled in Italy and Switzerland, and from these countries wrote most of those delightful letters which have been published.

Soon after this tour was ended he went to Düsseldorf to take charge of the musical arrangements of that city. There he lived about three years, spending much time among the painters, whose society he particularly enjoyed, but always working hard at his own profession.

It was in Düsseldorf that he composed St. Paul, his first oratorio. He had wished to write an opera, but felt that he could not compose music for any but a really elevated and beautiful story, and was not satisfied with any librettos that were offered to him; so he wrote to his father that unless he could find an opera-book of a different tone from those composed by French musicians, he would give up opera and write oratorio, saying, “The Bible is always the best of all.”

In the autumn he went to Leipsic to take charge of the Gewandhaus concerts (so called from being given in the old Cloth Mart, or Gewandhaus) and in November of that year his father

suddenly died.

This was a terrible blow. Felix loved his father with an almost fanatical fondness, and, being separated from the rest of his family, felt his loss all the more. For a time he was stunned, but as soon as he was able, set to work to finish St. Paul, to the completion of which his father had been urging him. It was first performed at Düsseldorf in the spring of 1836, and received with great enthusiasm.

After the festival Mendelssohn went to Frankfort, and there met the lovely Cecile Jeanrenaud, who in the following year became his wife.

The next few years were spent in Leipsic in the midst of constant work. Mendelssohn was both enthusiastic and conscientious, and never spared himself. It is amazing to think of all he accomplished — conducting, composing, playing, carrying on an immense correspondence, travelling to England to conduct his own works, and working with all his might to erect a monument to Johann Sebastian Bach.

“It is not his genius,” his old teacher Zelter once said, “which surprises me and compels my admiration, for that is from God, and many others have the same; but it is his incessant toil, his bee-like industry, his stern conscientiousness, his inflexibility toward himself, and his actual adoration of art.”

In spite of all the hard work, however, Mendelssohn’s Leipsic years were pleasant ones. He was the idol of the town, his orchestra was devoted to him, his charming young wife was a general favorite, and his home life restful and happy.

But in 1840 the new King of Prussia, Frederick William IV., who desired to found an academy of arts in his capital, offered Mendelssohn the post of director of the musical department, and this position Mendelssohn, largely to please his mother and to be able to live near her, after much hesitation accepted.

In the spring of 1842 he went with his wife again to London, and in a letter to his mother he tells of a visit to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace. How they received him in the simplest manner, and all three together picked up the music which the wind had scattered about the room. How the prince played the organ and the queen sang, and they had to carry out a parrot which was in a big cage and wanted to sing too, and how the queen sent

Mendelssohn a beautiful ring with V. R. on it.

Musical affairs in Berlin progressed so unsatisfactorily that after a time Mendelssohn returned to Leipsic, and there, while busy with music for the Midsummer Night's Dream, he received the news of his mother’s sudden death.

He strove to overcome his grief by working harder than ever, and finally saw the accomplishment of one of his pet projects the establishment of the Leipsic Conservatory, or music-school. His old friend Moscheles came from London to be professor in the new institution, and the two families spent many pleasant hours together.

Mendelssohn returned to Berlin to conduct the performances of the Midsummer Night's Dream, which was given first privately in the New Palace at Potsdam and then publicly in Berlin, and was a great success; though some of the highly cultivated persons in the audience were amazed that the king should have patronized such a vulgar piece, and one distinguished personage expressed to Mendelssohn himself his regret that “such lovely music should be wasted on so poor a play!”

Mendelssohn now settled with his family in his old home in the Leipziger-Strasse, but many petty annoyances, misunderstand-ings and misrepresentations combined to make Berlin disagreeable to him. He went again to London to conduct the Philharmonic concerts, and the warmth of his reception there made the irritations of Berlin seem greater by the contrast. He was too conscientious not to do his best, and too sensitive not to be uncomfortable when he was not appreciated. So he returned once more to Leipsic, where he finished his second oratorio, Elijah.

He went to England to conduct it at the Birmingham festival, and returned much exhausted with the hard work and long journey. He had been in Germany but a day or two when he received the news of the sudden death of his sister Fanny. The rare sympathy and friendship which had always existed between this gifted sister and himself made her loss doubly severe, and he was quite overcome by the blow.

As soon as he was able to travel he went with his family to Switzerland, where, although he could not endure to think of music, he did a great deal of sketching. In the autumn they returned to Leipsic, but he still suffered much from headache and depression, and

sometimes could not bear to speak or even be spoken to. In October he had an attack of apoplexy, and on the 4th of November, 1847, he died.

Such was the feeling with which he was regarded in Leipsic that the whole town seemed to have sustained a personal loss. One of the students wrote home, “We feel as if the king was dead.” In England, too, where he had gained the regard and esteem of so many, the feeling at his death was both widespread and deep.

All who met Mendelssohn seem to have succumbed to his personal fascination, and the lasting admiration felt for him by men of the most widely different natures shows that there was a foundation of solid goodness beneath this external attractiveness.

He was always generous with encouragement for talent and perseverance, but toward negligence or stupidity was very intolerant. Like most warm-hearted, enthusiastic persons, he had a great capacity for anger, and anything like meanness or deceit, or any kind of unworthy conduct, aroused his wrath at once; and he sometimes said very severe things which he afterwards regretted.

The charm of his piano-playing was acknowledged by all; but it was limited to the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and his own. Chopin and Schumann he could not understand, and he did not particularly care for their compositions.

His memory was remarkable. Once when Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony was talked of, he played it instantly without notes, and at a trial rehearsal conducted it by heart and sang the part of a missing instrument.

An amazing story is told of Liszt’s playing at Mendelssohn’s house a Hungarian melody with wonderful variations, and afterwards insisting that Mendelssohn should play too; and as he would take no refusal, Mendelssohn finally saying, “Well, I’ll play, but you must promise not to be angry” sat down to the piano and reproduced Liszt’s melody and variations so perfectly that no one but Liszt himself could have told the difference. And Liszt, who was above all petty jealousies in matters pertaining to art, laughed and applauded, and said that not even he himself could have performed such a feat.

Mendelssohn’s own compositions for the pianoforte, some of which, however, are charming, can scarcely be placed in the first rank

though he has written perhaps the best fugues since Bach; but his lovely overtures, particularly the Midsummer Night's Dream, are among the best of their kind, and his two great oratorios, St. Paul and Elijah, have no rivals but the colossal works of Handel.

CHAPTER 11 Schumann

Robert Schumann was born at Zwickau, in Saxony, on the 8th of June, 1810 — about a year after Mendelssohn and Chopin, and a year earlier than Liszt; for all four of these great musicians came into the world within the space of a little over two years.

His family was one of education and good position, and his father, who died in Schumann’s youth, was able to leave a comfortable provision for his widow and children. Schumann never suffered from the poverty which embittered the lives of so many great musicians.

At the age of six he began to play the piano, and at seven made attempts at composition; giving with some of his little companions home performances of music which he arranged to suit their limited capacities. Beyond the home circle, too, he was known as a talented little player who was clever at extemporizing. Even at this early age he showed an inclination toward that excessive and morbid sensibility which characterized his later years — stealing downstairs in the dead of night to play soft chords on the old piano while tears streamed from his eyes.

The best instructor in his native town could not do more than teach him the rudiments of his art, and after a few years Schumann’s lessons ceased altogether, and he made what progress he could alone.

During his eight years of schooling in Zwickau he worked irregularly, playing the piano and writing poems which he set to music, but when, at the age of eighteen, he entered the University of Leipsic, he had piano lessons from Frederick Wieck, at whose house he met Wieck’s talented little daughter Clara, who already gave promise of becoming a great pianist and who eventually became Schumann’s wife.

Schumann was anxious to devote himself entirely to music, but his mother objected so seriously to the career of an artist that she could not be persuaded to give her consent. He decided to study law, but postponed beginning, and spent the whole season practising the

piano and playing chamber-music.

He thought he might perhaps do better at Heidelberg, and changed to that university, but there, too, he was industrious only in piano-playing. He studied the compositions of the great masters, and became, like most musicians, very enthusiastic over the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. In one of his letters he says the Well-tempered Clavichord is his “grammar, and the best of all grammars”; and later, “Bach is my daily bread.” One day some one remarked to him that Bach was old-fashioned. “But,” says Schumann, “I told him that Bach was neither old nor new, but much more than that namely, eternal.”

In his third year at the university Schumann made a final effort to devote himself to serious study, but becoming convinced that his distaste for the law was unconquerable, made a last appeal to his mother for permission to become a musician. She consented to be advised by Schumann’s former teacher, Wieck, who convinced her that her son should be permitted to cultivate the great talent he so evidently possessed; and so, at last, Schumann was free to devote himself entirely to his beloved art.

He was now twenty years old, and if he meant to become a great piano-player, as was at first his intention, there was no time to be lost. He resumed his studies with Wieck, and, anxious to develop his technique as rapidly as possible, devised a mechanical contrivance for raising the fingers; the result being that his hand was so strained and injured that he was compelled to give up all idea of becoming a virtuoso. Without wasting time in vain regrets he then devoted himself to composition, and became much interested also in the project of starting a new musical periodical, Die neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, of which he became, in 1835, both proprietor and editor.

Schumann was one of the few composers who have possessed the gift of a ready pen, and the articles which he contributed to this publication fill several volumes of most interesting reading. He signed his contributions with a variety of names Florestan, Eusebius, Jeanquirit, Raro, and so on and his criticisms are largely in the form of dialogues between these imaginary personages.

In these articles there is frequent mention of the “Davidsbundler”; a purely imaginary league or society of artists and

champions of art. The “Davidsbundler” (The Hosts of David) are arrayed against the “Philistines.” In the college slang of Germany the Philistine is the ordinary, every-day sort of man who, with narrow and prosaic views of life, is contented with things as they are; and the strife of the Davidsbundler against the Philistines is really the strife of poetic idealism against selfish mediocrity.

Schumann’s mind was always full of romantic and poetic ideas, and it is curious to see how his music is pervaded by his intellectual fancies. There is an old seventeenth-century air called the Grossvatertanz (Grandfather’s Dance), which was commonly played or sung at wedding festivities. This is the air:

This commonplace dance-tune seems to have appeared to Schumann the embodiment of Philistinism. The last number of the set of beautiful pieces which he calls Papillons (Butterflies) opens with this old-fashioned air in all its bald simplicity, and then the lovely, romantic theme of the first number reappears and is interwoven with it; seeming to prophesy in musical language the victory of romantic idealism over the Philistine element.

And in the “March of the Davidsbiindler against the Philistines’” which winds up the Carnaval, the antiquated Grossvatertanz appears again, and is gradually surrounded and crushed by the melodious strains of the new allies.

Another of Schumann’s peculiar fancies was that of the musical letters. His very first published work is a set of variations on a theme composed of the notes A, B, E, G, G; which letters spell the name of a beautiful young lady to whom the composition is dedicated.

With one exception the letters which the Germans use to designate the notes are the same as ours — the note which we call B flat they call simply B, while for that which we call B natural they use the letter H; so that the notes A, B, E, G, G, would be

and this is the theme Schumann made from them:

Schumann is not the only composer who has found themes in combinations of notes the letters of which form words. Bach wrote a fugue on his own name and Schumann, also, composed one on this same theme. Once when the composer Gade came to Leipsic Schumann wrote for him a little musical greeting (Northern Song in the Jugendalbum) the first four notes of which are the letters that spell his name

But this fanciful idea Schumann carried to its greatest extent in the Carnaval, a set of short pieces which he entitled Scenes Mignonnes sur Quatre Notes. These four notes are the musical letters that are found in his own name.

The Germans designate flats and sharps by the addition of -es or -is to the letter not as we do by the words “flat” and “sharp”; so that the musical letters in Schumann’s name would be Es (S), C, H, and A, and the combination As (A, S). These letters, A, S, C, H, spell the name of a little Bohemian town, “where,” says Schumann, “I have a musical lady friend; and, strange to say, they are also the only letters in my name which can be expressed in musical notes.”

In the Carnaval he has put them down for one of the numbers in alia breve notes, and calls them Sphinxes, and here are some of the themes he makes from them.

This last one, which Schumann calls Coquette, is on the letters A, S, C, H (Asch), the name of the little town where lived the Ernestine von Fricken to whom Schumann was for a short time engaged to be married; and one is quite inclined to believe that she was the

coquette he had in mind.

No other musician has ever been so influenced in his compositions by his intellectual tastes and fancies as Schumann. He wrote a set of “Davidsbündler” dances, which are “dedicated to Walther von Goethe by Florestan and Eusebius” — the separate numbers being signed with F. or E. — and two pieces of the Carnaval are called by these names. He said that the last of the Papillons was a scene from Jean Paul’s Flegeljahre, and the Kreisleriana are named from the mad Kapellmeister in one of those fantastic tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann which are always so fascinating to musicians.

Schumann’s criticisms of other composers are delightfully and intelligently sympathetic, and without any trace of envy or jealousy. He had a keen eye for genius, and welcomed it most cordially. He hails Chopin’s Opus 2 with an enthusiastic “Hats off, gentlemen; here’s a genius.”

Opus means work, and the number designates the order of publication. It has nothing to do with the order of composition; for the first work of a composer is seldom the first to be published, and among the last to be published might be his very earliest compositions. Many of the greatest musical works have no particular titles, and are known among musicians only by their opus-number and key.

Schumann’s first compositions were exclusively for the pianoforte, and the freshness and charm of these early works have never been surpassed. He himself says, “They are mostly reflections of my wildly agitated former life — man and musician tried to express themselves simultaneously.” And in another place, “There is certainly in my music much of the struggle it cost me to win Clara.” For the course of Schumann’s love did not run smoothly, and he had to wait long

years and encounter determined opposition from the father of his bride before entering upon the marriage which brought him such perfect happiness.

Schumann's musical development was quite different from that of any other composer. Musicians generally begin by using the already established forms of composition, and gradually depart from the recognized models. But Schumann from the first was original. Instead of sonatas, rondos, nocturnes, or serenades, his early compositions are mostly groups of short pieces with no connection beyond their poetic titles; and Schumann himself says these were an afterthought and intended only as a guide to the imagination of the player.

In the first year of his married life he suddenly broke into song, producing in that one twelvemonth more than a hundred of those beautiful compositions which have placed him as a song-writer by the side of Schubert. From this time, too, dates his production of works of larger structure composed in the forms that had been used by his predecessors though frequently with modifications of his own. Schumann’s symphonies are without question the most important since Beethoven, and the best of his chamber-music ranks with the greatest masterpieces in that department of composition.

After his marriage Schumann, who had always led a quiet, retired sort of life, with little social intercourse, being generally silent even in the midst of his most confidential friends, withdrew more and more from society. He accompanied his wife on occasional concert tours, but found such peace and comfort in his domestic life that he became less and less willing to leave home. They lived for a few years in Dresden, where Schumann made the acquaintance of Richard Wagner, and was impressed by his genius, though without fully appreciating it; and afterwards in Düsseldorf, where Schumann had the direction of both vocal and instrumental music a position for which he was by nature utterly unfitted.

It became more and more difficult for him to express himself in spoken words, even to his best friends, and he shrank entirely from any sort of contact with the outside world. One day he went to call on a lady, and when she came into the room he smiled pleasantly, went to the piano and played a few chords, smiled again and went out apparently thinking that he had expressed all that was in his

mind.

Schumann had always been subject to spells of melancholy and depression, and often after any intense nervous strain or excitement endured what he characterized as “mortal anguish of mind.” The joy and peace of his domestic life exorcised the evil spirit, but occasionally, when overworked, there would be a recurrence of threatening symptoms which were undoubtedly precursors of the mental disease that finally overwhelmed him, and during his last years his eccentricities of conduct were apparent even to strangers.

In the winter of 1854, while suffering from one of these attacks of mental anguish, he threw himself into the Rhine. He was rescued by some boatmen, but his insanity was now unmistakable, and the last two years of his life were spent in an asylum. He died in 1856, at the age of forty-six.

CHAPTER 12

Chopin and Liszt— Pianoforte Playing

In the first half of the nineteenth century lived two great pianists who not only were two of the greatest piano-players that the world has ever seen, but who completely revolutionized both the art of playing and the style of composing for that instrument. These were Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt.

It is impossible to realize what they did for their art without first understanding what it was before their day; and to thoroughly comprehend that, it is necessary to go back to the very beginnings of keyboard playing that is, to the earliest known keyboard and trace its gradual development.

But first we must know something about the lives and personalities of these two great artists.

Francois Frederic Chopin was the son of a Frenchman who went to Poland to teach his native language, and there married a daughter of the land; and his gifted child was born at a little village near Warsaw on the 1st of March, 1809.

His talent showed itself early. By the time he was nine years old he was able to play and improvise in public, and at nineteen he was the equal of any contemporary pianist excepting Liszt. He had already composed a number of works displaying his marked originality, and with these he went first to Vienna, where he gave a few concerts, and afterwards to Paris, which became his permanent home.

Paris was at this time the centre of the artistic life of Europe, and such a genius as Chopin was gladly welcomed by the talented men and brilliant women who were the crowning glory of the French capital; and in this stimulating atmosphere of intellectual luxury and refinement Chopin’s genius rapidly developed.

At first he gave concerts; but playing in public was always distasteful to him, and he gradually gave it up entirely. Chopin could play unconstrainedly only to a small circle of chosen friends and sympathetic admirers; for larger audiences he was too painfully

sensitive and fastidious. He once said to Liszt: “I am not suited for concert-giving. The public intimidates me, its breath stifles me. You are destined for it. When you do not gain your public you have the force to assault, to overwhelm, to compel them.”

Of Chopin’s life there is but a single episode to record his connection with the brilliant novelist, Madame George Sand. Their friendship lasted during several years, until his health began to fail and they went together to the island of Majorca to spend the winter. There the discomforts of the rough life which was a delight to the strong and vigorous woman were trying and irritating to the enfeebled frame and sensitive nerves of Chopin, and he very likely was, indeed, as George Sand says, “a detestable invalid.” At any rate, she tired of his companionship and determined to break the tie which bound them. Soon after their return to Paris she published an extremely disagreeable novel, in which, under the name of Prince Karol, she pictures Chopin as a weak-minded, capricious, and irritable invalid, and herself as a kind of martyr to unappreciated devotion.

This was a cruel blow to the sensitive Chopin. His health was already undermined by the strain of Parisian life, and the bronchitis which had impelled him to seek a southern clime soon developed into consumption; although he lived nearly ten years longer. His last years were spent in composing, practising, and teaching a few favored pupils the centre of a small circle of devoted and admiring friends. He died in 1849 barely forty years of age.

Chopin, who was one of the most delightful and original composers for the pianoforte, was the greatest genius who ever devoted himself exclusively to a single instrument; and because of this selflimitation he was, during his lifetime, persistently underrated. Schumann, indeed, recognized his genius, but each succeeding generation accords him wider and deeper appreciation.

The distinguishing features of his compositions are exquisite grace and refinement, with a kind of aristocratic elegance. Most of them are pervaded by the morbid melancholy which seems to be characteristic of the nationality of their composer, and his best works are probably those which express most strongly his national characteristics. His seductive melodies and fascinating harmonies verge at times upon sentimentality, but his bolder compositions are not

lacking in masculine force and vigor, and he was one of the most original masters of rhythm and harmony.

As a composer Chopin was almost painfully fastidious, repeating and changing a phrase a hundred times, and spending weeks over a single page; but few composers have attained such perfection of finish, or succeeded in expressing so much beauty in the limited compass of a small pianoforte piece.

The career of Franz Liszt, who was Chopin’s friend and associate during the early years of his life in Paris, differed as widely as possible from that of the morbid and sensitive young Polish musician. He was a wonder-child, the greatest pianoforte virtuoso who ever lived, and altogether one of the most brilliant and remarkable personalities of the nineteenth century.

He was born at Raiding, in Hungary, on the 22nd of October, 1811. His father, who was an amateur musician, was his first teacher, and trained him so successfully that at the age of nine he appeared in a public concert. His playing was already so remarkable that means were guaranteed by some Hungarian noblemen to send him to Vienna to continue his studies, and there he made such progress that he was soon able to read the most difficult concertos at sight, and on being asked to play a Bach fugue said, “Which fugue shall I play and in what key shall I play it?”

After a year and a half of hard work his father took him to Paris, hoping to enter him at the Conservatory; but from this he was excluded by his foreign birth. He continued his studies, however, making occasional concert tours with flattering success, until the death of his father compelled him to provide for both himself and his mother.

He then settled regularly in Paris, and became intimate with those brilliant minds that were just breaking loose from the restraints of classic form and beginning to acknowledge no rules but those approved by artistic taste Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand, Dumas and others the leaders of the so-called romantic movement which about the year 1830 agitated the literary and artistic circles of Paris. The influence of these romanticists was strongly felt by the impressionable young musician, and is plainly discernible in his compositions.

FOUNDERS OF MUSIC

The years from 1839 to 1847 were spent by Liszt in travelling from one end of Europe to the other, giving concerts in every country and being everywhere received with an enthusiasm unparalleled in the history of pianistic art. Most marvellous tales are told of the excitement which his playing aroused in his audiences, and of the excesses into which his hearers were sometimes hurried by their enthusiasm: how ladies flung their jewels on the stage and sometimes fainted with emotion, or rushed wildly at the close of the concert to snatch pieces of the broken strings of the pianoforte. Even Schumann speaks of his playing with “demon’s power” and completely subjugating his audiences by the spell of his performance.

He not only conquered them by the magic of his playing, he also excited their most profound amazement by offering to perform offhand, without notes, any piece that was called for; a stupendous exercise of memory, even considering that the known literature of the pianoforte did not in those days comprehend more than half that of the present time.

Liszt, whose virtuosity was fully equalled by his generosity, gave princely sums, the proceeds of many concerts, to charity. Through his exertions the Beethoven monument at Bonn was completed, and once when a considerable amount had been subscribed to erect a statue to himself in commemoration of his contributions toward alleviating the distress caused by an inundation of the Danube at Pesth, he insisted that the money should be given instead to a struggling young artist.

What a generous friend Liszt could be is shown by what is perhaps the most important episode in all his interesting career his friendship with Richard Wagner, of which we shall hear more when we follow the life and fortunes of that composer a friendship unparalleled in the world’s history of art.

At the very height of Liszt’s brilliant career as a pianist he suddenly, in 1849, at the age of thirty-eight, retired from public performance and settled at Weimar as conductor of the Court Theatre, devoting all the resources at his command to the performance of such works as were not likely to obtain a hearing elsewhere; and for a time this small provincial city became a great musical centre.

Here Liszt’s exertions laid the foundations of Wagner’s success, and here many and many another musician received the needed encouragement and inspiration. In the summer piano school to which students and amateurs flocked from all over Europe and America, the generous artist, whose patience and forbearance were often much abused, gave freely the criticism and illustration which are the ideal of instruction for those who are able to profit by them.

At Weimar Liszt composed most of his vocal and orchestral works; the latter largely in a form of his own invention the symphonic poem. This is an orchestral composition in several movements played without interruption, and frequently developed from the same theme. It is shorter than a symphony, and is usually a musical illustration of some story.

The last winters of Liszt’s life were spent in Rome, where he took orders in the Roman Catholic priesthood with the degree of Abbe. He died at Bayreuth in the summer of 1886.

The first attempt at a keyboard was a set of eight or nine levers applied to the pipes of the organ, which, when they were pressed down, admitted the wind, or, being released, cut off the supply. These levers, or keys, were several inches wide, and were played by means of hard blows with the gloved fist, or sometimes even by pressure from the elbows. Of course, with such keys as these there could be no real playing. All that was needed was to produce in slow succession single tones to support the voices in singing the chants of the church service the plain-song, as they were called.

As the instruments were improved, the keys were gradually made smaller and increased in number, but they were all of one kind not black and white, upper and lower, as on our present keyboards; so to distinguish them each was marked with the letter representing the tone it sounded.

About a thousand years ago, perhaps nobody knows exactly when a row of still smaller keys was applied to a set of strings stretched over a wooden box; and this was the beginning of the long line of instruments through which the modern pianoforte has been developed.

One of the oldest keyboards of which we have any knowledge is said to have had twenty white keys, from to and

two black keys for the two B flats of the upper octaves. The scales then in use were different from ours, and could be played by using only white keys, excepting where, between F and B, there are three consecutive whole tones, or steps. Everywhere else on the white keys after two whole tones, or steps, comes a semitone, or half-step; and the B flat was introduced to make it possible to sound two whole tones followed by a semitone starting from F, also. Sharps at that time were not used at all.

By the fifteenth century keyboards like our own that is, with five upper, or black, keys in each octave, though sometimes the upper keys were white and the lower ones black were in common use, and both organ and clavier were sufficiently perfected to admit of what could really be called playing. But as the keyboards of the early organs were usually high above the seat of the player, the music very simple, and mostly on the white keys, all the playing was done with the three longer fingers stretched out flat and passed one over the other; and this kind of fingering was used for the clavier also.

But in the early part of the eighteenth century Johann Sebastian Bach, a Frenchman named Francois Couperin, and an Italian named Domenico Scarlatti introduced better methods of holding the hands and of fingering using both thumbs and little fingers, and turning the thumb under in scale-playing, as we do which made possible a rapid and fluent style of execution. The old clavichords and harpsichords, however, had so light an action that the merest touch depressed the keys, while pressure injured the tone; so that delicate movements of the fingers alone were all that was required.

But when the pianoforte came into use, a blow, or stroke, was found to be necessary to toss the hammer against the string; and the possibility of producing a louder or softer tone made a more varied quality of touch necessary. So the style of playing gradually altered, and as the pianoforte was developed and perfected new technical methods were introduced.

An Italian named Muzio Clementi, who was brought as a child to England and spent most of his life in that country, and who was a manufacturer of pianofortes as well as a great player, did more than any one else to lay the foundations of modern pianoforte technique. He wrote a set of a hundred studies the celebrated Gradns ad

Parnassum (Road to Parnassus) which require for their performance movements of wrist and arm as well as of the fingers, and are designed to develop the increased muscular force demanded by modern compositions.

Clementi was followed by a host of pianists who excelled in technical execution but were of little interest as composers; the greatest of them being Sigismund Thalberg, who about the middle of the last century was famous throughout Europe and in America for the perfection of his technique. But the methods of these players though their scales and arpeggios were wonderfully rapid and brilliant, their trills marvels of evenness, and their fingers thoroughly trained for a clear and fluent execution were quite inadequate to the performance of such music as Chopin’s.

When Chopin first came to Paris and played for Kalkbrenner, who was one of the greatest pianists of the older school, Kalkbrenner exclaimed at his irregular fingering, and advised the youthful artist to study his methods. But Chopin, so it is said, put before Kalkbrenner some of his compositions, and Kalkbrenner found that with his own methods it was quite impossible to execute this new style of music.

Chopin’s arpeggios and ornamental passages are so irregular that they frequently compel the passing of the thumb under the little finger or the little finger over the thumb unheard of before his day and his playing was characterized by a freedom of rhythm and phrasing which repelled many of the older players, and to which even Mendelssohn objected.

Chopin, moreover, was the first to compose music which absolutely depends for its effect upon the use of the damper pedal. The older pianists seldom used the pedal, and most of their music can be played just as well without it; but Chopin’s widespread chords and sinuous melodies absolutely require its cooperation.

Chopin was the first composer to recognize the fact that raising the dampers by pressing down the pedal increases the beauty of the tone by permitting the vibrations of other strings which harmonize with the one that is struck. A tone may be prolonged by holding down the key that is, by keeping the damper raised from a single string but such a tone is thin and poor compared to the same tone sounded while all the dampers are raised by the pedal.

Chopin used the pedal to increase the beauty of his lovely melodies; Liszt used it also to make possible the performance of music which without its aid would require twenty fingers to execute instead of ten. His pianoforte compositions are largely arrangements of orchestral or vocal works, and with the cooperation of the pedal he is able to represent on the keyboard every note of a complicated orchestral score. All modem piano-players use the technical methods of Chopin and Liszt, and all later composers for the instrument follow the paths which they first pointed out.

CHAPTER 13

Wagner — The Music-Drama

On the 22nd of May, 1813, in the city of Leipsic, was born the greatest dramatic composer of the nineteenth century who was also one of the most interesting personalities the world has ever seen Wilhelm Richard Wagner.

He was the youngest of a family of seven small children, who soon after his birth were left fatherless. After a year or two his mother married again, and they went to live in Dresden, where the kindly stepfather seems to have taken the greatest interest in the little boy.

Although Wagner in his childish years showed no remarkable talent in any particular direction, all who knew him seem to have been persuaded that he was born to do something great. His stepfather, who was a portrait-painter, tried to teach him to draw, but he was an awkward pupil and the attempt was not very successful. He had learned a couple of little tunes, and says that as he was playing these the day before the kind step-father died he heard him in the adjoining room saying faintly to his mother, “Do you think he might perhaps have a gift for music?”

As a child Wagner’s health was so delicate that until his tenth year he had no regular schooling. He was passionate and self-willed, and his obstinate determination when once he had fixed his mind upon anything could be overruled only by convincing him that the result would be harmful to some one; for he was very tender-hearted, and never willingly injured anybody.

His first great enthusiasm was for poetry. At the age of eleven he wrote verses on the death of a school-fellow which were thought good enough to print, and being then, as he says, “bent upon becoming a poet,” he devoted himself to the study of the Greek classics and to Shakespeare learning English that he might be able to understand him better.

At the age of fourteen he began a monstrous tragedy, inspired chiefly by Hamlet and King Lear, of which he says: “I murdered forty-

two persons in the course of the piece, and was obliged to let most of them reappear as ghosts in the last act for want of living characters.”

Soon afterwards the family returned to Leipsic, and there Wagner first heard the music of Beethoven, who died just about that time. He says his impression of the symphonies was “overwhelming”; and the music to Goethe’s Egmont showed him plainly the necessity of a similar accompaniment to his own drama. Although entirely ignorant of the art of composition, with that absolute confidence in his own genius which characterized him throughout life he boldly determined to supply the need himself; and this led eventually to his adoption of music as a profession.

He read rapidly through some works on thorough-bass and had a few lessons in composition; but his impetuous nature refused to be guided by rules, and his teacher, whom he thought pedantic, found his pupil both wilful and eccentric. He neglected his general studies as well as the theoretical foundations of his chosen art, and spent his time composing after his own fashion. An overture which he calls the “climax of his nonsensicalities” was once performed at the Leipsic theatre, but excited only laughter and derision on the part of the audience.

Undaunted by failure he pursued his own way, but when he entered the university he had the good fortune to find at last a competent and sympathetic teacher, with whom he had a six months’ course of lessons; and these constituted almost the whole of Wagner’s regular musical training. To this teacher he always felt deeply indebted, and speaks of him in the highest terms.

But Wagner’s real musical education was his earnest and thorough study of the works of the great composers; especially those of Beethoven, for whom he had always a most enthusiastic admiration. By the time he was eighteen he was so familiar with the scores of the great master that he could play whole movements by heart, fingering them— for the technique of the pianoforte he always disdained to acquire — after an awkward fashion of his own; and Beethoven and Weber — whom he had, very likely, frequently seen during the years he lived in Dresden — were the only composers in whom he at this time deigned to take the slightest interest.

At the age of twenty began Wagner’s career as a professional

musician. He was at first chorus-master in the theatre with which his elder brother was connected, and afterwards spent a few years conducting opera in Riga on the Baltic; having in the meantime married a pretty little singer who, though a helpmate in the troubles of daily life, was, unfortunately, incapable of understanding her husband’s genius or of sympathizing with his artistic aspirations.

In 1839, having partially completed his opera of Rienzi, Wagner, with his little wife and a big dog he was always very fond of animals set out for Paris and, as he fondly hoped, the Grand Opera. But an unknown German composer had no chance of a hearing in the French capital, and to save himself and his young wife the big dog had been stolen from the death by starvation which they barely escaped, Wagner was forced to do all sorts of distasteful work; even offering himself as a chorus-singer at one of the smaller theatres.

It was in Paris that Wagner came across the stories of Tannhauser and Lohengrin, and was led by them to a whole new world of poetical material for the librettos with which, being poet as well as musician, he always supplied himself. He was encouraged to believe that his sketches for The Flying Dutchman would be accepted by the director of the opera, but, despite his protestations, his book was finally given to another composer, and Wagner was forced to accept the hundred dollars offered as compensation.

With indomitable energy, though despairing of outward success, he removed into cheap lodgings in one of the suburbs, and set to work to compose The Flying Dutchman himself. Having no longer any hope of seeing his work performed, he gave himself up entirely to the guidance of his own artistic instinct, and so unintentionally, almost unconsciously, entered upon his career as a reformer.

The modern opera, born in Florence a little over three hundred years ago, was the result of an endeavor to revive the musical declamation of the ancient classic drama; that is, a drama in which the expression and effect of the words are heightened and intensified by declaiming them to musical sounds. But as the art of music developed, the opera came to be so dominated by the singers that finally words and action seemed to be of importance only as providing opportunities for these wonderful vocalists. And then came Gluck, who resisted this domination of the singers, and showed that music

might add to the interest of the drama without interfering with its action.

But after Gluck came Mozart, who wrote the most perfect dramatic music and Rossini, who captivated all Europe with his fascinating dance-rhythms and Weber, who charmed everybody with his pure and simple melodies and a host of lesser composers, French, German and Italian, all of whom composed more or less beautiful music, but cared little for the drama save as affording opportunities for their own art. Their operas were merely a series of separate pieces arias, duets, trios, choruses and finales with little reference to the action of the play, and connected only by a thread of what is called recitative; that is, words recited to musical tones.

Wagner’s reform consisted in a return to the principles upon which the opera was originally founded; namely, that the music should be only a means of intensifying the expression of the words, and that music, poetry, scenery and action should all work together for the development of the drama with which they were associated.

All the musical forms used by his predecessors aria, duet, and so forth were discarded by Wagner, who follows the dialogue of his dramas with a continuous and unbroken flow of melody, never interrupting the action, and always intensifying the sentiment of the poetry.

Moreover, instead of using the orchestra merely to provide accompaniment and support for the voices, Wagner makes it one of the most important factors in the musical exposition of the drama. This he does by means of what are called leading-motives. With every personage, or situation, or idea of the play is associated a certain musical phrase which is heard sometimes sung, but more frequently in the orchestra whenever the personage or situation appears, or is referred to.

For instance, the musical phrase to which Alberich curses the ring when it is wrested from him by Wotan

thunders in the orchestra when Fafner kills his brother giant to gain possession of the fated circlet. When Hagen greets Siegfried, the curse motive betrays the hatred which is even then plotting the hero’s death for the sake of the ring. When Brunnhilde’s sister beseeches her to restore it to its rightful owners and so avert the doom of the gods, the curse is muttered by the instruments. When the Rhine maidens try to coax it from the hero and foretell the danger that awaits him, the curse threatens in an undertone; and through all the complications of the Gotterdammerung it is heard as a reminder of the doom pronounced by Alberich.

The orchestral portion of Wagner’s operas (music-dramas, he calls them) is like a grand symphonic poem constructed from these leading-motives, which are not labels to mark the appearance of the characters or situations, but rather their musical equivalents, or symbols. They do not always appear in precisely the same form, but change and develop with the characters and situations they represent. This, for instance,

is the simple phrase which the youthful Siegfried blows on his silver horn. From this is developed the motive which is associated with him as hero,

and here is its final transformation in the magnificent funeral music of the Gotterdammerung:

Here is the story of how these wonderful music-dramas were written.

While Wagner was still doing musical drudgery in Paris, Rienzi was accepted by the Court Theatre in Dresden, and he was invited to conduct it himself. Its brilliant success led to his engagement as conductor of the royal opera, and to performances of The Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser. These were, however, a disappointment. The singers said it was impossible to sing “such eccentric stuff,” the hearers were incapable of comprehending his artistic aims, and Wagner began to understand that it would be necessary to educate a new generation of both singers and hearers before he could hope for comprehension and appreciation. However, he continued to work at Lohengrin, although he fully realized that he was in this departing still more widely from the standards of contemporary taste, and consequently from the chance of seeing it performed.

Wagner was interested in politics chiefly from the standpoint of their possible influence upon art; he seems, however, to have had hopes that political reform might lead to a better state of things in musical and theatrical affairs, and he actually himself took part in the insurrectionary movement of 1849. When the riots were suppressed and Wagner realized that he was under suspicion as a “politically dangerous individual,” he thought it prudent to leave Dresden, and went quietly to Weimar, where Liszt was preparing a performance of Tannhauser; but hearing that a warrant was issued for his arrest, he fled to Paris.

His hopes of a hearing in the French capital were again doomed to disappointment, and after a short stay, being forbidden to return to his native country, he went to Switzerland, where his wife joined him, and took up his residence in Zurich.

During his thirteen years of exile Wagner produced, besides his colossal music-dramas, a great quantity of literary work his collected writings fill nearly a dozen volumes which is of value chiefly as it helps us to understand the man and his artistic aims. Wagner was too excitable, too easily governed by prejudice, to be a trustworthy critic. He was almost abnormally sensitive and irritable, always chafing at his enforced exile and the privations of his poverty, often, too, suffering from physical ailments; and he was, besides, for many years “the best-abused man in all Europe,” the constant object of personal and calumnious attacks. It is scarcely to be wondered at

that he attacked in his turn with violence and without discrimination.

Think, too, what he suffered from being condemned by the petty tyranny of a small German state to forego every chance of hearing his own works performed. In one of his letters he speaks almost with anguish of “Lohengrin, which is now more than thirteen years old and has been as dead to me. I shall soon be the only German who has not heard Lohengrin.” Though we may not altogether admire Wagner’s character, we cannot fail to sympathize with the miseries he was compelled to endure.

Wagner’s first real success dates from the production of Lohengrin under Liszt at Weimar in the summer of 1850. To this performance Liszt invited musical and literary friends from all over Europe, and wrote a pamphlet explaining the work, which latter made a strong impression, though it was not immediately given in any other city.

For a number of years Wagner was exclusively occupied with his greatest work, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Nibelung’s Ring). Siegfried's Death, the germ from which Die Gotterdammerung was developed, was begun in 1848; but, as he himself tells us, there was so much to be explained that he found it necessary to write Siegfried, and then, for the same reason, Die Walkure and Rheingold. So Der Ring des Nibelungen was really written backwards.

Despite Wagner’s immense belief in his own genius, and his tremendous energy, there can be no doubt that this colossal work would never have been finished without the encouragement and assistance of Franz Liszt, whose devoted and absolutely unselfish friendship is one of the most beautiful in the whole history of art. From the moment when he first recognized Wagner’s genius, Liszt seems to have regarded it as a privilege as well as a sacred duty to further by every means in his power the creation of those wonderful music-dramas which neither he nor their creator had much hope of ever seeing performed. And Wagner, convinced that he had a mission to fulfil, a new art-gospel to give to the world, demanded and accepted everything as a tribute to his art. In one of his letters he says: “One thing only do I propose to accomplish the performance of my Nibelungen drama as I have conceived it. It appears to me that the whole German Empire is created solely to aid me in attaining my

object.” And when he was offered sixty thousand francs to go to America and conduct a series of concerts, he writes: “Good heavens! such sums as I might earn in America people ought to give me without asking anything in return beyond what I am actually doing it is not my business to earn money, but it is the business of my admirers to give me as much money as I need to do my work in a cheerful mood.”

Despite his courage, however, a performance of his colossal work even if he lived to finish it seemed so impossible that he put it aside for a time to write Tristan and Isolde; hoping that this might have some chance of a hearing. But permission to return to Germany was persistently refused him, the music was declared to be impossible to sing, and all his hopes came to nothing.

But Wagner’s belief in his own genius never wavered. He writes: “I am ill again in body just now, but I will be conqueror. Was ever work like mine created for no purpose? Is it miserable egoism, the stupidest vanity? It matters not what it is, but of this I feel positive that my Tristan and Isolde, with which I am now consumed, does not find its equal in the world’s library of music.”

In 1859 Wagner went again to Paris, determined to accomplish something. There being no chance for him at the opera, he gave concert performances of portions of his works. They made a sensation, but left him in debt.

A most unexpected result followed, however. Inspired by Princess Metternich, the Emperor Louis Napoleon commanded a performance of Tannhauser at the Opera. Every means was placed at Wagner’s disposition; there were more than a hundred and fifty rehearsals, forty thousand dollars were spent in preparations, and success seemed really at last within his grasp.

But some of the subscribers to the opera chiefly members of the Jockey Club insisted that there should be, as was customary, a ballet in the middle of the performance; and when Wagner indignantly refused to mutilate his work or introduce anything so foreign to its artistic spirit, a most disgraceful plot was formed to ruin him.

At the first performance numbers of the seats were filled with hirelings who, armed with dog whistles and noisy toys, actually drowned out the voices of the singers; and this notwithstanding the

presence of the emperor himself, who vainly signified his disapproval. These disreputable proceedings were repeated at the second and third performances, after which Wagner withdrew his work and left Paris, hardly knowing which way to turn.

But a reaction in his favor had already begun in Germany, and in the spring of 1862 he finally received permission to return to his native land “without fear of punishment.”

Yet the next few years were not less full of misery than those which had preceded them. A performance of Tristan seemed to be impossible because of the incompetence of the singers, and Wagner was constantly irritated by inadequate productions of his other works. Much as he was in need of money, he writes: “I care absolutely nothing about my things being given; I am only anxious that they should be so given as I intended. He who will not, or cannot, do that, let him leave them alone.”

He was at this time working on the Meistersinger and earning a precarious living by giving concerts. In his fiftieth year he published the poem of Der Ring des Nibelungen, in the preface to which he says: “I can hardly expect to find leisure to complete the music, and I have given up all hope that I may live to see it performed.” He was deeply in debt, and, his courageous spirit almost broken, he determined to give up the struggle, and accepted an invitation to a country-house in Switzerland.

But now happened something that seems almost like a fairy tale. The youthful King Louis of Bavaria read the Nibelungen poem with its pathetic preface; his poetic imagination was kindled, and he despatched a secretary to Wagner with the message, “Come here to me and finish your work.” When Wagner after a search of some weeks was at length found, he had not money enough to pay his railway fare; but Fortune’s wheel had at last turned, and now all his hopes and artistic ambitions were to be fulfilled.

The king granted him a small annuity and a little house in the suburbs of Munich, and Wagner set to work to complete Der Ring des Nibelungen.

But the youthful monarch became so fascinated with Wagner that he sent for him on all occasions and consulted him upon all subjects. Naturally this made him enemies, and criticisms and

scandals began to be circulated. All the faults of the king and defects of the government were attributed to Wagner’s influence, and most disgraceful personal slanders were greedily heard and believed. His luxurious tastes and extravagances were exaggerated and ridiculed, and most absurd stories were told of his sumptuous living at the expense of the state.

That Wagner had luxurious and extravagant tastes he frankly admits himself. In one of his letters he speaks of his “indefensible liking for a pleasanter way of life,” and of “the demon of luxury” having got hold of him again; but many of the reports that were circulated were far beyond the truth. With regard to his luxurious tastes in the matter of dress we have all heard of the velvet caps and dressing-gowns, and satin sheets and pillow-cases one of his most intimate friends says: “Wagner always had a skin so sensitive that even before he became Fortune’s favorite he wore silk next the body; for he could not endure the touch of cotton, and had even his pockets and the lining of his sleeves of silk.”

The young king remained faithful to his admiration for Wagner, but when he finally proposed to build for him a magnificent new theatre, such a pressure was brought to bear upon him that it seemed best for Wagner to leave Munich for a time.

He went to live at a little place on Lake Lucerne, and there he finished the score of the Meistersinger, which was first performed at Munich in 1868. There also, in 1870, he married Cosima, the daughter of Franz Liszt, his first wife having died several years before.

The theatre which Wagner had hoped to have built at Munich was finally built at Bayreuth, the little Bavarian town to which thousands of music-lovers have made pilgrimages during the past quarter of a century, from funds furnished by subscribers in all parts of the civilized world; and there, in the summer of 1876, twenty-eight years after its first conception, Der Ring des Nibelungen was performed entire the greatest artists of Germany offering their services for the representations.

The music to Parsifal was begun in Wagner’s sixty-fifth year, and it was first performed in the summer of 1882. The following winter he spent in Italy, where he died in Venice on the 13th of February, 1883.

One of Wagner’s most intimate friends says: “It was impossible for those who knew Wagner not to love him, notwithstanding his defects of character; indeed, they disappeared entirely in the love one bore him and in the worship his mighty genius compelled.” And a French critic has said: “Take him as he is, full of faults perhaps because he is so full of genius he is incontestably a great man; one of the greatest and most extraordinary that the nineteenth century has produced.”

References

Van Dyke, Henry. (1907). The Music-Lover. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co.

Oberndorfer, Anne Faulkner. (1917). Music in the Home: An Aid to Parents and Teachers in the Cause of Better Listening. Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour.

Pollitt, Arthur Wermald. (1921). The Enjoyment of Music. New York: George H. Doran Co.

Porte, J.F. (1927). Some Famous Symphonies Part I: How to Understand Them. London: William Reeves, Ltd.

Porte, J.F. (1927). Some Famous Symphonies Part II: How to Understand Them. London: William Reeves, Ltd.

Smith, Hannah. (1903). Founders of Music: Life-Sketches for Young Readers. New York: G. Schirmer