taken a very active part in the development of modern music. Without
renouncing its classic traditions, or its delightful repertory of the
old _opéra-comiques_, it has had understanding enough, under the
judicious management of M. Albert Carré, to hold itself open for any
interesting productions in dramatic music. It takes no side among the
different schools; and the representatives of the old-fashioned light
opera with their songs elbow the leaders of the advanced school. No
association has done more important work, among musical dramas as well
as musical comedies, during the last twenty years. In this theatre,
which produced _Carmen_ in 1875, _Manon_ in 1884, and the _Roi d'Ys_ in
1888, were played the principal dramas of M. Bruneau, as well as M.
Charpentier's _Louise_, M. Debussy's _Pelléas et Mélisande_, and M.
Dukas's _Ariane et Barbebleue_. It may seem astonishing that such works
should have found a place at the Opéra-Comique and not at the Opera. But
if two musical theatres of different kinds exist, one of which pretends
to have the monopoly of great art, while the other with a simpler and
more intimate character seeks only to please, it is always the latter
that has a better chance of development and of making new discoveries;
for the first is oppressed by traditions that become ever stiffer and
more pedantic, while the other with its simplicity and lack of
pretension is able to accommodate itself to any manner of life. How many
artists have revolutionised their times while they were merely looked
upon as people who amused! Frescobaldi and Philipp Emanuel Bach brought
fresh life to art, but were scorned by the so-called representatives of
fine art; Mozart's _opere buffe_ have more of truth and life in them
than his _opere serie_; and there is as much dramatic power in an
_opéra-comique_ like _Carmen_ as in all the repertory of grand Opera
to-day. And so the Opéra-Comique theatre has become the home of the
boldest experiments in musical drama. The most daring or the most
violent ventures into musical realism, after the manner of Charpentier
or Bruneau, and the subtle fantasies of a delicate art of dreams, like
that of Debussy, have found a welcome there. It has also been open to
various kinds of foreign art: Humperdinck's _Hänsel und Gretel_, Verdi's
_Falstaff_, the works of Puccini, Mascagni, and the young Italian
school, Richard Strauss's _Feuersnot_, Rimsky-Korsakow's
_Snégourotchka_, have all been played. And they have even given the
classic masterpieces of opera there: _Fidelio_, _Orfeo_, _Alceste_, the
two _Iphigénies_; and taken more pains with them and mounted them with
more pious zeal than they do at the Opera. The operas themselves are
more at home there, too, for the size of the theatre is more like that
of the eighteenth-century theatres. It is true that the stage rather
lacks depth; but the ingenuity of the director and the admirable scenic
artists he employs has succeeded in making one forget this defect, and
accomplished marvels. No theatre in Paris has more artistic staging, and
some of the scenery that has been designed lately is a masterpiece of
its kind. The Opéra-Comique has also the advantage of excellent
conductors, and one of them, M. Messager, who is now Director, has, by
his clever interpretations, greatly contributed to the success of the
works of the new school.
NEW MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS
1. _The Société Nationale_
Before 1870, French music had already in the Opera and the Opéra-Comique
(without counting the various endeavours of the Théâtre Lyrique) an
outlet which was nearly enough for the needs of her dramatic
productions. Even when musical taste was most decadent, the works of
Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, and Massé, had always upheld the name of French
_opéra-comique_. But what was almost entirely lacking was an outlet for
symphonic music and chamber-music. "Before 1870," wrote M. Saint-Saëns
in _Harmonie et Mélodie_, "a French composer who was foolish enough to
venture on to the ground of instrumental music had no other means of
getting his works performed than by himself arranging a concert for
them." Such was Berlioz's case; for he had to gather together an
orchestra and hire a room each time he wished to get a hearing for his
great symphonies. The financial result was often disastrous: the
performance of the _Damnation de Faust_ in 1846 was, for example, a
complete failure, and he had to give it up. The Conservatoire, which was
formerly more hospitable, rather reluctantly performed a portion of
_L'Enfance du Christ_; but it gave young composers no encouragement.
The first man who attempted to make the symphony popular, M. Saint-Saëns
tells us in his _Portraits et Souvenirs_, was Seghers, a dissentient
member of the _Société des Concerts du Conservatoire_, who during
several years (1848-1854) was conductor of the _Société de
Sainte-Cécile_, which had its quarters in a room in the rue de la
Chaussée d'Antin. There he had performed Mendelssohn's _Symphonie
Italienne_, the overtures to _Tannhäuser_ and _Manfred_, Berlioz's
_Fuite en Égypte_, and Gounod's and Bizet's early, works. But lack of
money cut short his efforts.
Pasdeloup took up the work. After having been conductor for the _Société
des jeunes artistes du Conservatoire_ since 1851, in the Salle Herz, he
founded, in 1861, at the Cirque d'Hiver, with the financial support of a
rich moneylender, the first _Concerts populaires de musique classique_.
Unhappily, says M. Saint-Saëns, Pasdeloup, even up to 1870, made an
almost exclusive selection of German classical works. He raised an
impenetrable barrier before the young French school, and the only French
works he played were symphonies by Gounod and Gouvy, and the overtures
of _Les Francs-Juges_ and _La Muette_. It was impossible to set up a
rival society against him; and an exclusive monopoly in music was,
therefore, held by him. According to M. Saint-Saëns he was a mediocre
musician, and had, in spite of his passion for music, "immense
incapacity." In _Harmonie et Mélodie_ M. Saint-Saëns says: "The few
chamber-music societies that existed were also closed to all new-comers;
their programmes only contained the names of undisputed celebrities, the
writers of classic symphonies. In those times one had really to be
devoid of all common sense to write music."
A new generation was growing up, however,--a generation that was serious
and thoughtful, that was more attracted by pure music than by the
theatre, that was filled with a burning desire to found a national art.
To this generation M. Saint-Saëns and M. Vincent d'Indy belong. The war
of 1870 strengthened these ideas about music, and, while the war was
still raging, there sprang from them the _Société Nationale de Musique_.
One must speak of this society with respect, for it was the cradle and
sanctuary of French art.[215] All that was great in French music from
1870 to 1900 found a home there. Without it, the greater part of the
works that are the honour of our music would never have been played;
perhaps they would not ever have been written. The Society possessed the
rare merit of being able to anticipate public opinion by ten or eleven
years, and in some ways it has formed the public mind and obliged it to
honour those whom the Society had already recognised as great musicians.
[Footnote 215: The facts which follow are taken from the archives of the
_Société Nationale de Musique_, and have been given me by M. Pierre de
Bréville, the Society's secretary.]
The two founders of the Society were Romaine Bussine, professor of
Singing at the Conservatoire, and M. Camille Saint-Saëns. And, following
their initiative, César Franck, Ernest Guiraud, Massenet, Garcin,
Gabriel Fauré, Henri Duparc, Théodore Dubois, and Taffanel, joined
forces with them, and at a meeting on 25 February, 1871, agreed to found
a musical society that should give hearings to the works of living
French composers exclusively. The first meetings were interrupted by the
doings of the Commune; but they began again in October, 1871. The
Society's early statutes were drawn up by Alexis de Castillon, a
military officer and a talented composer, who, after having served in
the war of 1870 at the head of the _mobiles_ of Eure-et-Loire, was one
of the founders of French chamber-music, and died prematurely in 1873,
aged thirty-five. It was these statutes, signed by Saint-Saëns,
Castillon, and Garcin, that gave the Society its title of _Société
Nationale de Musique_, and its device, "_Ars gallica_." This is what the
statutes say about the aims of the Society:
"The aim of the Society is to aid the production and the
popularisation of all serious musical works, whether published or
unpublished, of French composers; to encourage and bring to light,
so far as is in its power, all musical endeavour, whatever form it
may take, on condition that there is evidence of high, artistic
aspiration on the part of the author.... It is in brotherly love,
with complete forgetfulness of self, and with the firm intention of
aiding one another as far as they can, that the members of the
Society will co-operate, each in his own sphere of action, for the
study and performance of the works which they shall be called upon
to select and to interpret."
The first Committee was made up as follows: President, Bussine;
Vice-President, Saint-Saëns; Secretary, Alexis de Castillon;
Under-Secretary, Jules Garcin; Treasurer, Lenepveu. The members of the
Committee were: César Franck, Théodore Dubois, E. Guiraud, Fissot,
Bourgault-Ducoudray, Fauré, and Lalo.
The first concert was given on 25 November, 1871, in the Salle Pleyel;
and it is worthy of note that the first work played was a trio of César
Franck's. Since then the Society has given three hundred and fifty
performances of chamber-music or orchestral works. The best known French
composers and virtuosi have taken part as executants, among others:
César Franck, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Bizet, Vincent d'Indy, Fauré,
Chabrier, Guiraud, Debussy, Lekeu, Lamoureux, Chevillard, Taffanel,
Widor, Messager, Diémer, Sarasate, Risler, Cortot, Ysaye, etc. And among
the compositions that have been played for the first time it is enough
to mention the following:
César Franck: Nearly the whole of his works, including his Sonata, Trio,
Quartette, Quintette, Symphonic Variations, Preludes and Fugues, Mass,
_Rédemption_, _Psyche_, and a part of _Les Béatitudes_.
Saint-Saëns: _Phaéton_, _Second Symphony_, Sonatas, Persian Melodies,
the _Rapsodie d'Auvergne_, and a quartette.
Vincent d'Indy: The trilogy of _Wallenstein_, the _Poême des Montagues_,
the _Symphonie sur un thème montagnard_, and quartettes.
Chabrier: Part of _Gwendoline_.
Lalo: Fragments of the _Roi d'Ys_, Rhapsodies and Symphonies.
Bruneau: _Penthésilée_, _La Belle au Bois Dormant_.
Chausson: _Viviane_, _Hélène_, _La Tempête_, a quartette and a symphony.
Debussy: _La Damoiselle élue_, the _Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune_,
a quartette, pieces for the pianoforte, and melodies.
Dukas: _L'Apprenti Sorcier_, and a sonata for the pianoforte.
Lekeu: _Andromède_.
Alberic Magnard: Symphonies and a quartette.
Ravel: _Schéhérazade_, _Histoires Naturelles_, etc.
Saint-Saëns was director with Bussine until 1886. But from 1881 the
influence of Franck and his disciples became more and more felt; and
Saint-Saëns began to lose interest in the efforts of the new school. In
1886 there was a division of opinion about a proposition of Vincent
d'Indy's to introduce the works of classical masters and foreign
composers into the programmes. This proposition was adopted; but
Saint-Saëns and Bussine sent in their resignations. Franck then became
the true president, although he refused the title; and after his death,
in 1890, Vincent d'Indy took his place. Under these two directors a
quite important place was given to old and classical music by composers
such as Palestrina, Vittoria, Josquin, Bach, Händel, Rameau, Gluck,
Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. Foreign contemporary music only
occupied a very limited place. Wagner's name only appears once, in a
transcription of the _Venusberg_ for the pianoforte; and Richard
Strauss's name figures only against his Quartette. Grieg had his hour of
popularity there about 1887, as well as the Russians--Moussorgski,
Borodine, Rimsky-Korsakow, Liadow, and Glazounow--whom M. Debussy has
perhaps helped to make known to us. At the present moment the Society
seems more exclusively French than ever; and the influence of M. Vincent
d'Indy and the school of Franck is predominant. That is only natural;
the _Société Nationale_ most truly earned its title to glory by
discerning César Franck's genius; for the Society was a little sanctuary
where the great artist was honoured at a time when he was ignored or
laughed at by the rest of the world. This character of a sanctuary was
kept even after victory. In its general programme of 1903-1904, the
Society reminded us with pride that it had remained faithful to the
promises made in 1871; and it added that if, in order to permit its
members to keep abreast of the general progress of art, it had little by
little allowed classical masterpieces and modern foreign works of
interest on its programmes, it had, however, always kept its
guest-chamber open, and shaped many a future reputation there.
Nothing is truer. The _Société Nationale_ is indeed a guest-chamber,
where for the past thirty years a guest-chamber art and guest-chamber
opinions have been formed; and from it some of the profoundest and most
poetic French music has been derived, such as Franck's and Debussy's
chamber-music. But its atmosphere is becoming daily more rarefied. That
is a danger. It is to be feared that this art and thought may be
absorbed by the decadent subtleties or pedantic scholasticism which is
apt to accompany all coteries--in short, that its music will be
salon-music rather than chamber-music. Even the Society itself seems to
have felt this at times; and at different periods has sought contact
with the general public, and put itself into direct communication with
it. "It becomes more and more necessary," wrote M. Saint-Saëns, "that
French composers should find something intermediate between an intimate
hearing of their music and a performance of it before the general
public--something which would not be a speculative thing like a big
concert, but which would be analogous to the artistic attraction of an
exhibition of painting, and which would dare everything. It is a new aim
for the _Société Nationale_." But it does not seem that it has yet
attained this goal, nor that it is near attaining it, despite some not
quite happy attempts.
But at least the _Société Nationale_ has gloriously achieved the task it
set itself. In thirty years it has created in Paris a little centre of
earnest composers of symphonies and chamber-music, and a cultured public
that seems able to understand them.
* * * * *
2. _The Grand Symphony Concerts_
Although it was an urgent matter that young French composers should
unite to withstand the general indifference of the public, it was more
urgent still that that indifference should be attacked, and that music
should be brought within reach of ordinary people. It was a matter of
taking up and completing Pasdeloup's work in a more artistic and more
modern spirit.
A publisher of music, Georges Hartmann, feeling the forces that were
drawing together in French art, gathered about him the greater part of
the talented men of the young school--Franck, Bizet, Saint-Saëns,
Massenet, Delibes, Lalo, A. de Castillon, Th. Dubois, Guiraud, Godard,
Paladilhe, and Joncières--and undertook to produce their works in
public. He rented the Odéon theatre, and got together an orchestra, the
conductorship of which he entrusted to M. Édouard Colonne. And on 2
March, 1873, the _Concert National_ was inaugurated in a musical
matinée, where M. Saint-Saëns played his _Concerto in G minor_ and Mme.
Viardot sang Schubert's _Roi des Aulnes_. In the first year six ordinary
concerts were given, and, besides that, two sacred concerts with choirs,
at which César Franck's _Rédemption_ and Massenet's _Marie-Magdeleine_
were performed. In 1874 the Odéon was abandoned for the Châtelet. This
venture attracted some attention, and the concerts were patronised by
the public; but the financial results were not great.[216] Hartmann was
discouraged and wished to give the whole thing up. But M. Édouard
Colonne conceived the idea of turning his orchestra into a society, and
of continuing the work under the name of _Association Artistique_. Among
the artist-founders were MM. Bruneau, Benjamin Godard, and Paul
Hillemacher. Its early days were full of struggle; but owing to the
perseverance of the Association all obstacles were finally overcome. In
1903 a festival was held to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. During
these thirty years it had given more than eight hundred concerts, and
had performed the works of about three hundred composers, of which half
were French. The four composers most frequently heard at the Châtelet
were Saint-Saëns, Wagner, Beethoven, and Berlioz.[217]
[Footnote 216: It must be remembered that the prices of the seats were
much cheaper than they are to-day; the best were only three francs.]
[Footnote 217: There were about 340 performances of Saint-Saëns' works,
380 of Wagner's, 390 of Beethoven's, and 470 of Berlioz's. I owe these
details to the kind information of M. Charles Malherbe and M. Léon
Petitjean, the secretary of the Colonne concerts.]
Berlioz is almost the exclusive property of the Châtelet. Not only have
they performed his works there more frequently than anywhere else,[218]
but they are better understood there than in other places. The Colonne
orchestra and its conductor, gifted with great warmth of spirit,--though
it is sometimes a little intemperate--are rather bothered by works of a
classic nature and by those that show contemplative feeling; but they
give wonderful expression to Berlioz's tumultuous romanticism, his
poetic enthusiasm, and the bright and delicate colouring of his
paintings and his musical landscapes. Although Berlioz has his place at
the Chevillard and Conservatoire concerts, it is to the Châtelet that
his followers flock; and their enthusiasm has not been affected by the
campaign that for several years has been directed against Berlioz by
some French critics under the influence of the younger musical
party--the followers of d'Indy and Debussy.
[Footnote 218: The _Damnation de Faust_ alone was given in its entirety
a hundred and fifty times in thirty years.]
It is also at the Châtelet that the keenest musical passion has been
preserved in the public, even to this day. Thanks to the size of the
theatre, which is one of the largest in Paris, and to the great number
of cheap seats, you may always find there a number of young students who
make the most interested kind of public possible. And the music is
something more than a pleasure to them--it is a necessity. There are
some that make great sacrifices in order to have a seat at the Sunday
concerts. And many of these young men and women live all the week on the
thought of forgetting the world for a few hours in musical enjoyment.
Such a public did not exist in France before 1870. It is to the honour
of the Châtelet and the Pasdeloup concerts to have created it.
Édouard Colonne has done more than educate musical taste in France; for
no one has worked harder than he to break down the barriers that
separated the French public from the art of other lands; and, at the
same time, he has himself helped to make French art known to
foreigners. When he himself was conducting concerts all over Europe he
entrusted the conductorship at the Châtelet to the great German
_Kapellmeister_ and to foreign composers--to Richard Strauss, Grieg,
Tschaikowsky, Hans Richter, Hermann Levi, Mottl, Nikisch, Mengelberg,
Siegfried Wagner, and many others. No other conductor has done so much
for Parisian music during the last thirty years; and we must not forget
it.[219]
[Footnote 219: It is known that M. Colonne has now a helper in M.
Gabriel Pierné, who will succeed him when he retires.]
The Lamoureux concerts have had from the beginning a very different
character from the Colonne concerts. That difference lies partly in the
personality of the two conductors, and partly in the fact that the
Lamoureux concerts, although of later date than the Colonne concerts by
less than ten years, represent a new generation in music. The progress
of the musical public was singularly rapid: hardly had they explored the
rich treasure-house of Berlioz's music than they were making discoveries
in the world of Wagner. And in that world they needed a new guide, who
had intimate knowledge of Wagner's art and of German art in general.
Charles Lamoureux was that guide. In 1873 he conducted special
performances of Bach and Händel, given by the _Societé de l'Harmonie
sacrée_. After leaving the conductorship of the Opera, he inaugurated,
on 21 October, 1881, at the Château-d'Eau theatre, the _Société des
Nouveaux Concerts_. These concerts had at first very comprehensive
programmes of every kind of music and every kind of school. At the
first concert there were works of Beethoven, Händel, Gluck, Sacchini,
Cimarosa, and Berlioz. In the first year Lamoureux had Beethoven's
_Ninth Symphony_ performed, as well as a large part of _Lohengrin_, and
numerous works of young French musicians. Various compositions of Lalo,
Vincent d'Indy, and Chabrier, were performed there for the first time.
But it was especially to the study of Wagner's works that Lamoureux most
gladly devoted himself. It was he who gave the first hearings of Wagner
in their entirety in France, such as the first and second act of
_Tristan_, in 1884-1885. The Wagnerian battle was still going on at that
time, as the notice printed at the head of the programme of _Tristan_
shows.
"The management of the _Société des Nouveaux Concerts_ is desirous
of avoiding any disturbance during the performance of the second
act of _Tristan_, and urgently and respectfully begs that the
audience will abstain from giving any mark of their approval or
disapproval before the end of the act."
The same year, in the Eden theatre, to which the concerts had been
transferred, Lamoureux conducted, for the first time in Paris, the first
act of the _Walküre_. In these concerts the tenor, Van Dyck, made his
_début_; later, he was one of the leading performers at Bayreuth. In
1886-1887 Lamoureux rehearsed and conducted the only performance of
_Lohengrin_ at the Eden theatre. Disturbances in the streets prevented
further performances. Lamoureux then established himself in the
concert-room of the Cirque des Champs Élysées, where for eleven years he
has given what are called the _Concerts-Lamoureux_. He continued to
spread the knowledge of Wagner's works, and has sometimes had the help
of some of the most celebrated of the Bayreuth artists, among others,
that of Mme. Materna and Lilli Lehmann. At the end of the season of 1897
Lamoureux wished to disband his orchestra in order to conduct concerts
abroad. But the members of the orchestra decided to remain together
under the name of the _Association des Concerts-Lamoureux_, with
Lamoureux's son-in-law, M. Camille Chevillard, as conductor. But
Lamoureux was not long before he returned to the conductorship of the
concerts, which had now returned to the Château-d'Eau theatre; and a few
months before his death, in 1899, he conducted the first performance of
_Tristan_ at the Nouveau theatre. And so he had the happiness of being
present at the complete triumph of the cause for which he had fought so
stubbornly for nearly twenty years.[220]
[Footnote 220: My statements may be verified by the account published in
the _Revue Éolienne_ of January, 1902, by M. Léon Bourgeois, secretary
of the Committee of the _Association des Concerts-Lamoureux_.]
Lamoureux's performances of Wagner's works have been among the best that
have ever been given. He had a regard for the work as a whole and a care
for its details, to which the Colonne orchestra did not quite attain. On
the other hand, Lamoureux's defect was the exuberant liveliness with
which he interpreted compositions of a romantic nature. He did not fully
understand these works; and although he knew much more about classic art
than his rival, he rendered its letter rather than its spirit, and paid
such sedulous attention to detail that music like Beethoven's lost its
intensity and its life. But both his talents and his defects fitted him
to be an excellent interpreter of the young neo-Wagnerian school, the
principal representatives of which in France were then M. Vincent d'Indy
and M. Emmanuel Chabrier. Lamoureux had need, to a certain extent, to be
himself directed either by the living traditions of Bayreuth, or by the
thought of modern and living composers; and the greatest service he
rendered to French music was his creation, thanks to his extreme care
for material perfection, of an orchestra that was marvellously equipped
for symphonic music.
This seeking for perfection has been carried on by his successor, M.
Camille Chevillard, whose orchestra is even more refined still. One may
say, I think, that it is to-day the best in Paris. M. Chevillard is more
attracted by pure music than Lamoureux was; and he rightly finds that
dramatic music has been occupying too large a place in Parisian
concerts. In a letter published by the _Mercure de France_, in January,
1903, he reproaches the educators of public taste with having fostered a
liking for opera, and with not having awakened a respect for pure music:
"Any four bars from one of Mozart's quartettes have," he says, "a
greater educational value than a showy scene from an opera." No one in
Paris conducts classic works better than he, especially the works that
possess clean, plastic beauty; and in Germany itself it would be
difficult to find anyone who would give a more delicate interpretation
of some of Händel's and Mozart's symphonic works. His orchestra has
kept, moreover, the superiority that it had already acquired in its
repertory of Wagner's works. But M. Chevillard has communicated a warmth
and energy of rhythm to it that it did not possess before. His
interpretations of Beethoven, even if they are somewhat superficial, are
very full of life. Like Lamoureux, he has hardly caught the spirit of
French romantic works--of Berlioz, and still less of Franck and his
school; and he seems to have but lukewarm sympathy for the more recent
developments of French music. But he understands well the German
romantic composers, especially Schumann, for whom he has a marked
liking; and he tried, though without great success, to introduce Liszt
and Brahms into France, and was the first among us to attract real
attention to Russian music, whose brilliant and delicate colouring he
excels in rendering. And, like M. Colonne, he has brought the great
German _Kapellmeister_ among us--Weingartner, Nikisch, and Richard
Strauss, the last mentioned having directed the first performance in
Paris of his symphonic poems, _Zarathustra_, _Don Quixote_, and
_Heldenleben_, at the Lamoureux concerts.