learning and fancy in developing his thematic material. He is now
entirely free to send it through long chains of keys, to vary the
harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation, to take a single pregnant
motive and work it out with all the ingenuity he can muster; to force
it up "steep-up spouts" of passion and let it whirl in the surge, or
plunge it into "steep-down gulfs of liquid fire," and consume its own
heart. Technically this part is called the "free fantasia" in English,
and the _Durchführung_--"working out"--in German. I mention the terms
because they sometimes occur in criticisms and analyses. It is in this
division that the genius of a composer has fullest play, and there is
no greater pleasure, no more delightful excitement, for the
symphony-lover than to follow the luminous fancy of Beethoven through
his free fantasias. The third division is devoted to a repetition,
with modifications, of the first division and the addition of a close.
[Sidenote: _Introductions._]
[Sidenote: _Keys and Titles._]
First movements are quick and energetic, and frequently full of
dramatic fire. In them the psychological story is begun which is to
be developed in the remaining chapters of the work--its sorrows,
hopes, prayers, or communings in the slow movement; its madness or
merriment in the scherzo; its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in the
finale. Sometimes the first movement is preceded by a slow
introduction, intended to prepare the mind of the listener for the
proclamation which shall come with the _Allegro_. The key of the
principal subject is set down as the key of the symphony, and unless
the composer gives his work a special title for the purpose of
providing a hint as to its poetical contents ("Eroica," "Pastoral,"
"Faust," "In the Forest," "Lenore," "Pathétique," etc.), or to
characterize its style ("Scotch," "Italian," "Irish," "Welsh,"
"Scandinavian," "From the New World"), it is known only by its key, or
the number of the work (_opus_) in the composer's list. Therefore we
have Mozart's Symphony "in G minor," Beethoven's "in A major,"
Schumann's "in C," Brahms's "in F," and so on.
[Sidenote: _The second movement._]
[Sidenote: _Variations._]
The second movement in the symphonic scheme is the slow movement.
Musicians frequently call it the Adagio, for convenience, though the
tempi of slow movements ranges from extremely slow (_Largo_) to the
border line of fast, as in the case of the Allegretto of the Seventh
Symphony of Beethoven. The mood of the slow movement is frequently
sombre, and its instrumental coloring dark; but it may also be
consolatory, contemplative, restful, religiously uplifting. The
writing is preferably in a broadly sustained style, the effect being
that of an exalted hymn, and this has led to a predilection for a
theme and variations as the mould in which to cast the movement. The
slow movements of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies are made up
of variations.
[Sidenote: _The Scherzo._]
[Sidenote: _Genesis of the Scherzo._]
[Sidenote: _The Trio._]
The Scherzo is, as the term implies, the playful, jocose movement of a
symphony, but in the case of sublime geniuses like Beethoven and
Schumann, who blend profound melancholy with wild humor, the
playfulness is sometimes of a kind which invites us to thoughtfulness
instead of merriment. This is true also of some Russian composers,
whose scherzos have the desperate gayety which speaks from the music
of a sad people whose merrymaking is not a spontaneous expression of
exuberant spirits but a striving after self-forgetfulness. The Scherzo
is the successor of the Minuet, whose rhythm and form served the
composers down to Beethoven. It was he who substituted the Scherzo,
which retains the chief formal characteristics of the courtly old
dance in being in triple time and having a second part called the
Trio. With the change there came an increase in speed, but it ought to
be remembered that the symphonic minuet was quicker than the dance of
the same name. A tendency toward exaggeration, which is patent among
modern conductors, is threatening to rob the symphonic minuet of the
vivacity which gave it its place in the scheme of the symphony. The
entrance of the Trio is marked by the introduction of a new idea (a
second minuet) which is more sententious than the first part, and
sometimes in another key, the commonest change being from minor to
major.
[Sidenote: _The Finale._]
[Sidenote: _Rondo form._]
The final movement, technically the Finale, is another piece of large
dimensions in which the psychological drama which plays through the
four acts of the symphony is brought to a conclusion. Once the purpose
of the Finale was but to bring the symphony to a merry end, but as the
expressive capacity of music has been widened, and mere play with
æsthetic forms has given place to attempts to convey sentiments and
feelings, the purposes of the last movement have been greatly extended
and varied. As a rule the form chosen for the Finale is that called
the Rondo. Borrowed from an artificial verse-form (the French
_Rondeau_), this species of composition illustrates the peculiarity of
that form in the reiteration of a strophe ever and anon after a new
theme or episode has been exploited. In modern society verse, which
has grown out of an ambition to imitate the ingenious form invented by
mediæval poets, we have the Triolet, which may be said to be a rondeau
in miniature. I choose one of Mr. H.C. Bunner's dainty creations to
illustrate the musical refrain characteristic of the rondo form
because of its compactness. Here it is:
[Sidenote: _A Rondo pattern in poetry._]
"A pitcher of mignonette
In a tenement's highest casement:
Queer sort of a flower-pot--yet
That pitcher of mignonette
Is a garden in heaven set,
To the little sick child in the basement--
The pitcher of mignonette,
In the tenement's highest casement."
[Sidenote: _Other forms for the Finale._]
If now the first two lines of this poem, which compose its refrain, be
permitted to stand as the principal theme of a musical piece, we have
in Mr. Bunner's triolet a rondo _in nuce_. There is in it a threefold
exposition of the theme alternating with episodic matter. Another form
for the finale is that of the first movement (the Sonata form), and
still another, the theme and variations. Beethoven chose the latter
for his "Eroica," and the choral close of his Ninth, Dvorák, for his
symphony in G major, and Brahms for his in E minor.
[Sidenote: _Organic Unities._]
[Sidenote: _How enforced._]
[Sidenote: _Berlioz's "idée fixe."_]
[Sidenote: _Recapitulation of themes._]
I am attempting nothing more than a characterization of the symphony,
and the forms with which I associated it at the outset, which shall
help the untrained listener to comprehend them as unities despite the
fact that to the careless hearer they present themselves as groups of
pieces each one of which is complete in itself and has no connection
with its fellows. The desire of composers to have their symphonies
accepted as unities instead of compages of unrelated pieces has led to
the adoption of various devices designed to force the bond of union
upon the attention of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in his symphony in C
minor not only connects the third and fourth movements but also
introduces a reminiscence of the former into the midst of the latter;
Berlioz in his "Symphonie Fantastique," which is written to what may
be called a dramatic scheme, makes use of a melody which he calls
"_l'idée fixe_," and has it recur in each of the four movements as an
episode. This, however, is frankly a symphony with programme, and
ought not to be treated as a modification of the pure form. Dvorák in
his symphony entitled "From the New World," in which he has striven to
give expression to the American spirit, quotes the first period of his
principal subject in all the subsequent movements, and then
sententiously recapitulates the principal themes of the first, second,
and third movements in the finale; and this without a sign of the
dramatic purpose confessed by Berlioz.
[Sidenote: _Introduction of voices._]
[Sidenote: _Abolition of pauses._]
In the last movement of his Ninth Symphony Beethoven calls voices to
the aid of his instruments. It was a daring innovation, as it seemed
to disrupt the form, and we know from the story of the work how long
he hunted for the connecting link, which finally he found in the
instrumental recitative. Having hit upon the device, he summons each
of the preceding movements, which are purely instrumental, into the
presence of his augmented forces and dismisses it as inadequate to the
proclamation which the symphony was to make. The double-basses and
solo barytone are the spokesmen for the tuneful host. He thus achieves
the end of connecting the Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio with each
other, and all with the Finale, and at the same time points out what
it is that he wishes us to recognize as the inspiration of the whole;
but here, again, the means appear to be somewhat extraneous.
Schumann's example, however, in abolishing the pauses between the
movements of the symphony in D minor, and having melodic material
common to all the movements, is a plea for appreciation which cannot
be misunderstood. Before Schumann Mendelssohn intended that his
"Scotch" symphony should be performed without pauses between the
movements, but his wishes have been ignored by the conductors, I fancy
because he having neglected to knit the movements together by
community of ideas, they can see no valid reason for the abolition of
the conventional resting-places.
[Sidenote: _Beethoven's "choral" symphony followed._]
Beethoven's augmentation of the symphonic forces by employing voices
has been followed by Berlioz in his "Romeo and Juliet," which, though
called a "dramatic symphony," is a mixture of symphony, cantata, and
opera; Mendelssohn in his "Hymn of Praise" (which is also a composite
work and has a composite title--"Symphony Cantata"), and Liszt in his
"Faust" symphony, in the finale of which we meet a solo tenor and
chorus of men's voices who sing Goethe's _Chorus mysticus_.
[Sidenote: _Increase in the number of movements._]
A number of other experiments have been made, the effectiveness of
which has been conceded in individual instances, but which have failed
permanently to affect the symphonic form. Schumann has two trios in
his symphony in B-flat, and his E-flat, the so-called "Rhenish," has
five movements instead of four, there being two slow movements, one in
moderate tempo (_Nicht schnell_), and the other in slow (_Feierlich_).
In this symphony, also, Schumann exercises the license which has been
recognized since Beethoven's time, of changing the places in the
scheme of the second and third movements, giving the second place to
the jocose division instead of the slow. Beethoven's "Pastoral" has
also five movements, unless one chooses to take the storm which
interrupts the "Merry-making of the Country Folk" as standing toward
the last movement as an introduction, as, indeed, it does in the
composer's idyllic scheme. Certain it is, Sir George Grove to the
contrary notwithstanding, that the sense of a disturbance of the
symphonic plan is not so vivid at a performance of the "Pastoral" as
at one of Schumann's "Rhenish," in which either the third movement or
the so-called "Cathedral Scene" is most distinctly an interloper.
[Sidenote: _Further extension of boundaries._]
[Sidenote: _Saint-Saëns's C minor symphony._]
Usually it is deference to the demands of a "programme" that
influences composers in extending the formal boundaries of a symphony,
and when this is done the result is frequently a work which can only
be called a symphony by courtesy. M. Saint-Saëns, however, attempted
an original excursion in his symphony in C minor, without any
discoverable, or at least confessed, programmatic idea. He laid the
work out in two grand divisions, so as to have but one pause.
Nevertheless in each division we can recognize, though as through a
haze, the outlines of the familiar symphonic movements. In the first
part, buried under a sequence of time designations like this:
_Adagio_--_Allegro moderato_--_Poco adagio_, we discover the customary
first and second movements, the former preceded by a slow
introduction; in the second division we find this arrangement:
_Allegro moderato_--_Presto_--_Maestoso_--_Allegro_, this multiplicity
of terms affording only a sort of disguise for the regulation scherzo
and finale, with a cropping out of reminiscences from the first part
which have the obvious purpose to impress upon the hearer that the
symphony is an organic whole. M. Saint-Saëns has also introduced the
organ and a pianoforte with two players into the instrumental
apparatus.
[Sidenote: _The Symphonic Poem._]
[Sidenote: _Its characteristics._]
Three characteristics may be said to distinguish the Symphonic Poem,
which in the view of the extremists who follow the lead of Liszt is
the logical outcome of the symphony and the only expression of its
æsthetic principles consonant with modern thought and feeling.
_First_, it is programmatic--that is, it is based upon a poetical
idea, a sequence of incidents, or of soul-states, to which a clew is
given either by the title or a motto; _second_, it is compacted in
form to a single movement, though as a rule the changing phases
delineated in the separate movements of the symphony are also to be
found in the divisions of the work marked by changes in tempo, key,
and character; _third_, the work generally has a principal subject of
such plasticity that the composer can body forth a varied content by
presenting it in a number of transformations.
[Sidenote: _Liszt's first pianoforte concerto._]
The last two characteristics Liszt has carried over into his
pianoforte concerto in E-flat. This has four distinct movements (viz.:
I. _Allegro maestoso_; II. _Quasi adagio_; III. _Allegretto vivace,
scherzando_; IV. _Allegro marziale animato_), but they are fused into
a continuous whole, throughout which the principal thought of the
work, the stupendously energetic phrase which the orchestra proclaims
at the outset, is presented in various forms to make it express a
great variety of moods and yet give unity to the concerto. "Thus, by
means of this metamorphosis," says Mr. Edward Dannreuther, "the
poetic unity of the whole musical tissue is made apparent, spite of
very great diversity of details; and Coleridge's attempt at a
definition of poetic unity--unity in multiety--is carried out to the
letter."
[Sidenote: _Other cyclical forms._]
[Sidenote: _Pianoforte and orchestra._]
It will readily be understood that the other cyclical compositions
which I have associated with a classic concert, that is, compositions
belonging to the category of chamber music (see Chapter III.), and
concertos for solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment, while
conforming to the scheme which I have outlined, all have individual
characteristics conditioned on the expressive capacity of the
apparatus. The modern pianoforte is capable of asserting itself
against a full orchestra, and concertos have been written for it in
which it is treated as an orchestral integer rather than a solo
instrument. In the older conception, the orchestra, though it
frequently assumed the privilege of introducing the subject-matter,
played a subordinate part to the solo instrument in its development.
In violin as well as pianoforte concertos special opportunity is
given to the player to exploit his skill and display the solo
instrument free from structural restrictions in the cadenza introduced
shortly before the close of the first, last, or both movements.
[Sidenote: _Cadenzas._]
[Sidenote: _Improvisations by the player._]
[Sidenote: _M. Ysaye's opinion of Cadenzas._]
Cadenzas are a relic of a time when the art of improvisation was more
generally practised than it is now, and when performers were conceded
to have rights beyond the printed page. Solely for their display, it
became customary for composers to indicate by a hold ([fermata
symbol]) a place where the performer might indulge in a flourish of
his own. There is a tradition that Mozart once remarked: "Wherever I
smear that thing," indicating a hold, "you can do what you please;"
the rule is, however, that the only privilege which the cadenza opens
to the player is that of improvising on material drawn from the
subjects already developed, and since, also as a rule, composers are
generally more eloquent in the treatment of their own ideas than
performers, it is seldom that a cadenza contributes to the enjoyment
afforded by a work, except to the lovers of technique for technique's
sake. I never knew an artist to make a more sensible remark than did
M. Ysaye, when on the eve of a memorably beautiful performance of
Beethoven's violin concerto, he said: "If I were permitted to consult
my own wishes I would put my violin under my arm when I reach the
_fermate_ and say: 'Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the cadenza.
It is presumptuous in any musician to think that he can have anything
to say after Beethoven has finished. With your permission we will
consider my cadenza played.'" That Beethoven may himself have had a
thought of the same nature is a fair inference from the circumstance
that he refused to leave the cadenza in his E-flat pianoforte concerto
to the mercy of the virtuosos but wrote it himself.
[Sidenote: _Concertos._]
[Sidenote: _Chamber music._]
Concertos for pianoforte or violin are usually written in three
movements, of which the first and last follow the symphonic model in
respect of elaboration and form, and the second is a brief movement
in slow or moderate time, which has the character of an intermezzo. As
to the nomenclature of chamber music, it is to be noted that unless
connected with a qualifying word or phrase, "Quartet" means a string
quartet. When a pianoforte is consorted with strings the work is
spoken of as a Pianoforte Trio, Quartet, or Quintet, as the case may
be.
[Sidenote: _The Overture._]
[Sidenote: _Pot-pourris._]
The form of the overture is that of the first movement of the sonata,
or symphony, omitting the repetition of the first subdivision. Since
the original purpose, which gave the overture its name (_Ouverture_ =
aperture, opening), was to introduce a drama, either spoken or
lyrical, an oratorio, or other choral composition, it became customary
for the composers to choose the subjects of the piece from the
climacteric moments of the music used in the drama. When done without
regard to the rules of construction (as is the case with practically
all operetta overtures and Rossini's) the result is not an overture at
all, but a _pot-pourri_, a hotch-potch of jingles. The present
beautiful form, in which Beethoven and other composers have shown
that it is possible to epitomize an entire drama, took the place of an
arbitrary scheme which was wholly aimless, so far as the compositions
to which they were attached were concerned.
[Sidenote: _Old styles of overtures._]
[Sidenote: _The Prelude._]
[Sidenote: _Gluck's principle._]
[Sidenote: _Descriptive titles._]
The earliest fixed form of the overture is preserved to the current
lists of to-day by the compositions of Bach and Handel. It is that
established by Lully, and is tripartite in form, consisting of a rapid
movement, generally a fugue, preceded and followed by a slow movement
which is grave and stately in its tread. In its latest phase the
overture has yielded up its name in favor of Prelude (German,
_Vorspiel_), Introduction, or Symphonic Prologue. The finest of these,
without borrowing their themes from the works which they introduce,
but using new matter entirely, seek to fulfil the aim which Gluck set
for himself, when, in the preface to "Alceste," he wrote: "I imagined
that the overture ought to prepare the audience for the action of the
piece, and serve as a kind of argument to it." Concert overtures are
compositions designed by the composers to stand as independent pieces
instead of for performance in connection with a drama, opera, or
oratorio. When, as is frequently the case, the composer, nevertheless,
gives them a descriptive title ("Hebrides," "Sakuntala"), their
poetical contents are to be sought in the associations aroused by the
title. Thus, in the instances cited, "Hebrides" suggests that the
overture was designed by Mendelssohn to reflect the mood awakened in
him by a visit to the Hebrides, more particularly to Fingal's Cave
(wherefore the overture is called the "Fingal's Cave" overture in
Germany)--"Sakuntala" invites to a study of Kalidasa's drama of that
name as the repository of the sentiments which Goldmark undertook to
express in his music.
[Sidenote: _Serenades._]
[Sidenote: _The Serenade in Shakespeare._]
A form which is variously employed, for solo instruments, small
combinations, and full orchestra (though seldom with the complete
modern apparatus), is the Serenade. Historically, it is a contemporary
of the old suites and the first symphonies, and like them it consists
of a group of short pieces, so arranged as to form an agreeable
contrast with each other, and yet convey a sense of organic unity.
The character of the various parts and their order grew out of the
purpose for which the serenade was originated, which was that
indicated by the name. In the last century, and earlier, it was no
uncommon thing for a lover to bring the tribute of a musical
performance to his mistress, and it was not always a "woful ballad"
sung to her eyebrow. Frequently musicians were hired, and the tribute
took the form of a nocturnal concert. In Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen
of Verona," _Proteus_, prompting _Thurio_ what to do to win _Silvia's_
love, says:
"Visit by night your lady's chamber window
With some sweet concert: to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump; the night's dread silence
Will well become such sweet complaining grievance."
[Sidenote: _Out-of-doors music._]
[Sidenote: _Old forms._]
[Sidenote: _The "Dump."_]
[Sidenote: _Beethoven's Serenade, op. 8._]
It was for such purposes that the serenade was invented as an
instrumental form. Since they were to play out of doors, _Sir
Thurio's_ musicians would have used wind instruments instead of
viols, and the oldest serenades are composed for oboes and bassoons.
Clarinets and horns were subsequently added, and for such bands Mozart
wrote serenades, some of which so closely approach the symphony that
they have been published as symphonies. A serenade in the olden time
opened very properly with a march, to the strains of which we may
imagine the musicians approaching the lady's chamber window. Then came
a minuet to prepare her ear for the "deploring dump" which followed,
the "dump" of Shakespeare's day, like the "dumka" of ours (with which
I am tempted to associate it etymologically), being a mournful piece
of music most happily characterized by the poet as a "sweet
complaining grievance." Then followed another piece in merry tempo and
rhythm, then a second _adagio_, and the entertainment ended with an
_allegro_, generally in march rhythm, to which we fancy the musicians
departing. The order is exemplified in Beethoven's serenade for
violin, viola, and violoncello, op. 8, which runs thus: _March_;
_Adagio_; _Minuet_; _Adagio_ with episodic _Scherzo_; _Polacca_;
_Andante_ (variations), the opening march repeated.
[Sidenote: _The Orchestral Suite._]
[Sidenote: _Ballet music._]