However, his operas are a tableaux of gorgeous glowing pictu_The Development of Certain Tendencies in Modern Opera Thesis for the degree of Bachelor of Music

has had no successful imitation. His scheme of thematic identification

and development in its union of calculation and reflection and musical

inspiration, is beyond the capacities of those who have come after him.

Musical critics and historians have been occupied with the question as

to whether or not the progress in operatic composition is possible on

the lines laid down, although his influence is a modification of the old

method rather than the invention of new ideas. We look to the theatres of

Paris for his influence in corrections and technical finish. The clear

musical phrases of the "Flying Dutchman" are presented in symphonic

way and there is an introduction, aria, scene, duet and chorus. The

commencement of each of the three acts with a chorus was a mannerism, but

Wagner scarcely ever employed it. In "Tannhauser" there is only one duet.

He advanced individualism of the dramatic mood by banishing the aria. He

made the orchetra the chief sustainer of the musical framework with the

voice for the dramatic organ. The lyric recitative is reechoed at times

by melodic phrases and developed motives. The extreme limit of Wagner's

methods is "Salome", which is really a symphonic poem for a gigantic

orchestra to the accompaniment of dramatic action with a voice obligato.

Gounod did not use prolonged themes unless for a dramatic or purely

ethical reason. "Faust" is the best suited for the human voice. The

orchestra never submerges the voice and is only a factor and not a sum

total. At this time the Italian school was at the height where flimsy

librettos only served to string together duets, quartets or choruses. In

"Faust" there is the first artistic union of score and words.

Verdi had a keen dramatic vision and assigned greater importance to the

orchestra than his Italian predecessors. There is an absence, for the

most part, of set airs, and there is a continuity of musical structure.

The orchestration is wonderful, but the voice still remains the centre of

the musical system. The style is more that of Donizetti's than Bellini's,

although critics declare the music of "Ernani" noisy and commonplace,

with too much brass in the orchestra. His chorus was written in unison,

and passed too abruptly from one piece to another, and his effects were

not sufficiently prepared, but under his direction the brassiness was

kept down, and a proper balance maintained. There is genuine emotion in

his strains, significance in his melodies, characterization of personages

and forcible construction of scenes, though he did not surpass "William

Tell". He neglected concerted music and does not include one separate

regularly constructed piece. His solo melodies are beautiful. His

"Aida" is saturated with local color, Egyptian music, with a masterly

combination of strings, woodwind and voice. "Il Trovatore" is not an

opera but a set of detached pieces held in loose contact on a string.

There was little action and we find page after page to be sung at the

footlights with only mechanical gestures. Verdi avoided the "leitmotiv",

and relegated mere tune to the background. In "Falstaff" there is a

complete independence of restrictive formalism that modern music drama

requires to illustrate the play, which enhances the significance of the

situations.

V. POST WAGNERIAN SCHOOL--INCLUDING MODERN RUSSIAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN,

GERMAN, AND AMERICAN COMPOSERS.

Michael Ivanovitch Glinka is called the "Father of Russian Opera". He

combined the technique, forms and counterpoint of Italy and Germany

with the Russian folksong and rythm. He was choice of his subjects, and

thought that the management of the plots ought to be more simple, and the

music in the style of natural song. There is energy and also vitality in

"La Vie pour le Tsar" and "Russlau et Ludmille". In Russian folk songs we

find the music suitable to the words.

The Russian folk like acting and their customs in their wedding

ceremonies, etc., are an ideal basis for an opera school. Glinka used

the fierce struggle of the contending nations for a background, and let

the story be related and enacted by four central figures. His realism

surpassed the trivial impossibilities of the Italian school. He did not

combine involved themes in a pot-pourri style so that none could be

distinguished, but rather created atmosphere. His instrumentalism is

sonorous and uses five-four, six-four and seven-four time.

The "Pique Dame" of Tschaikovsky has a style like that of other composers

beyond set forms of the older operas though not of the music drama. The

arias, duets, choruses and ballets are dramatically appropriate, and

the orchestra is more of a function than an accompaniment. In "Boris

Godonnow" there is no principle tenor part, no principle contralto part

and no principle soprano part. If it is a singer's opera at all it is

a basso's, but it really is more for chorus. The writing for solo

declamatory passages occassioned the use of the lyric passages in the

orchestra, which was made the purveyor of color. The atmosphere is not

symphonic, though the development is important and we find a remarkable

use of the leitmotiv but the composer never even heard of Wagner.

Nicolai Andreyevitch Rimski-Korsakov was a serious student of Russian

folk lore. His music is free and expressive--so much so that when he

studied technique seriously, it was almost impaired. His operas are

versatile, but his "Snow Maiden" is a trifle old-fashioned, although

he fails to express pathos, delicate tenderness etc. The stage

phantasmoriga, of "Christmas Eve or Vakoul the Smith", especially at

the transformation scenes is accompanied with music wild and bizarre,

yet consummate in its descriptive finesse. He was dissatisfied with

the foreign elements of the Italian form of opera which Glinka and

Tschaikovsky could assimilate to excellent purpose. He cannot seem to

decide whether opera is lyrical or symphonic. His orchestra suggests

the soft freshness of a May night atmosphere in the steppes of Russia,

the aroma of flowers, the enchanting long drawn notes of a nightingale

interspersed with the love element, and the vocal characterization of

the Mayor and the Bailiff in this "A May Night" is extremely clever.

Like Strauss, he uses certain themes for certain instruments and has the

Russian desire to mingle meaning and sound.

Wagner laid down the theories but his imitators have failed because they

did not have his genius. Rimski-Korsakov is noted for his brilliant

orchestration and the ugly and cruel music leading up to his situations,

but he combines dignity and simplicity with realism and not with the

romantic. The protogonists of his drama are, the Russian people, and

that is the reason for the extended use of the chorus. There is no

central situation, as the people and one character, or sometimes two,

make up the drama. It is easy to omit or transpose a scene thus showing

the loosenes of the dramatic construction, which is a merit in a musical

play, for the composer can express the central ideas of the drama

without being bound hand and foot by dramatic situations. In the modern

music drama the orchestra expresses all that cannot be expressed by the

dramatic action and the singers. Rimski-Korsakov's is mainly a subjective

expression of composition, while Moussorgsky's orchestra is never

subjective, but always objective. Borodini's "Prince Igor" is a colorful

barbaric ballet while in Dargomysky's "The Water Sprite", "The Stone

Guest" there are interesting intermediary recitative sections, although

the recitative of "La Pskovitaine" is dry.

Xaver Schwarwenka'a opera "Mataswinthe" resembles those of Wagner of the

"Lohengrin" period. They are thoroughly modern. The muted horns in the

orchestra give dramatic expressiveness in harmony and the composer uses

the free arioso style. There is not the set form of the Italian school,

but the modern declamatory arioso, monologues and duets, discarding

recitative, and introducing massive ensembles with key complexity, but

never smothering them with the orchestra.

Balakirew and Borodini employ good airs, especially in the ballet, and

color their orchestra wonderfully. Cesar Cui used melodic recitative with

the interdiction of the repetitions of words, and there is an absence of

duets and trios and every piece of ensemble, and every one affecting a

definite and complete character. "Angelo" and "The Filibuster" are too

extreme, for the three acts of recitaive become monotonous. This school's

form is vague except for the audacious harmonization.

Puccini adds to Wagner's reform, with the peculiar style of modern French

and Italian composers which alternates light and varied orchestration and

melody, with harsh, almost crude instrumentation. He demonstrates that

the orchestra may be made to interpret shades and transitions of rapid

and subtle emotion, and he produced an actual musical diction with some

of the finest passages for the orchestra alone. His sense of melody is

supreme in his combination of Italian and German methods. His impressive

manner of intensifying and underscoring dramatic moments in the action is

unparalleled as is also his capacity for forceful and succinct orchestral

commentary. He uses his music to paint scenes and makes continuous use of

distinctive and rythmic melody and there is an absence of any definite

characterization by means of a leitmotiv, for his work is lighter than

that of Wagner's. He maintains that opera must have local color, so

therefore we find an interweaving of American airs in his "Girl of the

Golden West" and American and Japanese airs in "Madame Butterfly". His

score is genuinely Puccinean and an influence of Debussy is betrayed in

an harmonic way.

The prelude to "Madame Butterfly" Is not an overture, though it does

state some motives. His songs constantly contain one melody in the

instrumental against the unrelated vocal part, and he reflects the

modern moods and ideas in a score intricate in counterpoint, rich in

embellishment, full of the melodic fluency of the Italian temperament

and strength of the German school. The Japanese effects give beautiful

lyric movements but they are not as great as Verdi's. There is intense

dramatic vigor in "Manon Lescaut" which has spoken dialogue with running

orchestral accompaniment and motives. "La Boheme" has neither overture

nor intermezzo, and lacks sustained melody. Puccini is termed the only

one with as much genius as Wagner, for he agrees that too much realism

is cramping to good music, and he proves that music drama can be loosely

constructed and need not conform to spoken drama standards.

Debussy, in "Pelleas and Melisande" places a statue on a stage, not

a musical one, but one of dramatic action and declamation. The vocal

parts are reduced to a minimum of musical expressiveness and the music,

a sort of rythmless chant, is subordinate to action. He is about the

only composer who makes music dependent entirely on the drama. Wagner's

orchestra is a bug driving force, while Strauss' delicate shifting of the

background of the polyphony does not drown the voices. Debussy does not

compose with the aim of orchestral composition as do Wagner and Strauss.

With Puccini, Debussy and Charpentier, the human voice counts as a real

medium. In "Pelleas and Melisande" there is a tress on the naturalness

of the recitative. Debussy makes music the servant of the drama and

makes a symphonic use of motives which are not developed formally, but

manipulated in an undercurrent of musical thought. He declares melody

anti-dramatic, and in recitative with the orchestra there is freedom for

individual interpretation. His "L'Enfant Prodigue" is composed along the

regular lines and is his best work. He follows Cesar Franck's method

of scattering a number of disconnected themes and leaving them to sort

themselves.

In Dukas' "Ariane and Bluebeard", set melodies are avoided and

everything is in plastic style of music drama, with shimmering tone color

and a wealth of orchestral touches. Louis Aubert's "The Blue Forest",

is an effective combination of modernity and simplicity with much use

of leading motives and some fairly definite numbers. "Les Heretiques"

displays enervating voluptuousness and languor in the duet. There are

grave and large accents for the invocation to Venus by Daphne. The

orchestral lamentation at the close is graceful and the choruses are

charming, but the dialogue is wearisome. He is a disciple of Massenet in

his correct portrayal of the suavity, sweetnes and fascination of women.

In "Le Petite Boheme" the orchestration is rich and effective and the

dramatic action is developed.

Franchetti's "Germania" is a lyric two act drama with a prologue and

an epilogue, aping Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Tschaikovski. Delibes, a

new dramatist, uses unusual discretion in the color expression of the

orchestra but with very little acting. His modulation scheme is rich and

more melodic, but it is almost as declamatory as that of Strauss. Saint

Saens and Massenet are less radical with a light melodic orchestra.

Massenet's music in "Le Jongleur" and "Griselidis" is not strong enough

to atone for tiresome episodes in the plot. The chorus plays an important

but invisible part, throughout.

The Charpentier orchestra and neither Strauss-like nor Wagnerian. His

"Louise" is constructed according to Wagner but creates an atmosphere

rather emphasizing themes. It has musical originality, dramatic

novelty and picturesque reproductions of life, style, and a blend of

romanticism and reality. He is influenced by Massenet in musical speech

and orchestral style. He emphasizes the lyrical element by the use

of melodic recitative rather than by aria. He develops motives for

descriptive importance with polyphonic style. The individual sonority of

the orchestra reduses the stress on the orchestra's departure from the

Wagnerian ideas. He reduced the dependence of these ideas to a minimum,

and asserted the value of reliance on the native sources of music and

drama.

Bruneau was a pupil of Massenet with undistinguished melodic patterns.

He followed Wagner in the close continuity of drama and accurate

characterization in music, fitting a characterization for varying

dramatic atmospheres. His "Kerim" displays militarism and is a contrast

to the pastoral elements in "L'Attaque du Moulin". His thematic

manipulation is not flexible enough but his harmonic idiom is ingenuous

and true to the qualities of race and time. D'Albert's "Tiefland" has

a prologue and two acts, and combines the Wagner and Puccini swift and

pliant orchestra, which colors and intensifies, but dispenses with the

elaboration of Wagner's symphonic chorus. Chenier's "Liberia", strange

to say, has one strain repeated and repeated. Chabrier is noted for

his delicate expression and his fidelity and vigor of delineation. In

"Briseis" the fresh aroma of the sea is suggested by the soft singing of

the sailors without any overture or prelude. Bruneau in "Zola" writes

flexible music and has a capacity for unmetred prose used for vocal

purposes, a caustic rugged sincerity with an element of passion and

little tenderness. Charpentier's "Louise" has the quick lithe movement of

the Parisian character; gay, amused and amusing.

Richard Strauss uses a more complex orchestra than Wagner and we find

leading motives as in Wagner. He is one of the most severely criticized

composers of modern times. He has been accused of outrageous infraction

of every musical law. The mood in "Electra" is implicit in the play,

but it is reinforced by Strauss' orchestration. Where Beethoven or

Wagner entrances are splendid, the instrumental equivalent of Strauss

grates. He is typical to the moods, etc., of the play. He uses discords

to represent a mad woman, but is musically beautiful in the recognition

of brother and sister and love. The chief characters are depicted by

leading motives, dissonance and orchestral bewilderments, and his power

of characterization is extraordinary. There are forty-five themes in

"Electra". He uses different instruments to represent the different

animals, etc. For instance, the grunting of the pigs is represented by

six bassoons and a flute.

There are one hundred and four musicians in "Salome", with sixty strings

and an organ celeste. Three men carry on an excited conversation, one in

seven eighth time, one in five eighth time and one in four four time,

while the orchestra continues its original tempo.

Puccini, Humperdinck and Mascagni are considered by many to be the

best living composers. "Königskinder" is chiefly declamatory and

never sacrfices the human voice for the orchestra, and expounds and

illustrates, but never fails to support the shapely arioso by rarely

defined melody.

"Conchita" by Riccardo Zandonai embraces a few fragmentary themes

and the voice parts are declamatory without a melodic line or the

shapeliness of an arioso. Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" shows the

introduction of a new device with the performance of the orchestral

interlude and division of the work into two parts, with the curtain

remaining up and showing the empty stage. Both he and Leoncavello have

written short operas with effective librettos, and they stand for

dramatic verities. Our American composers seem to follow different

schools and styles without establishing one of their own. "Mona" by

Horatio Parker assigns not a motive for a label to each character but

a tonality, though only one blessed with absolute pitch can appreciate

this. Walter Damrosch's "Cyrano" is in a post-Wagnerian style, a sort of

melodious arioso frequently broadening into definitely shaped airs, with

numerous ensembles, trios, quartets and choruses and the orchestra plays

an important part, being continuously melodious, but not monopolizing

melodic interest with leading motives attached to characters. "The Pipe

of Desire", by F. S. Converse, has passages in a later Wagnerian style,

and there are four prominent motives while the orchestra is exceedingly

good, especially in depicting the "Naioa" theme. Victor Herbert's music

is replete with local color and drama, and the representative themes are

not developed, although his music is rather light and better suited for

the operetta and the salon.

Thus we see how the musical forms of the opera have changed from the

older more vocal feats to the newer well developed music drama. Gluck

and Wagner brought back the undying principles of dramatic truth. In

the days of Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, melody was supreme and the

dramatic truth was lost sight of. In "William Tell" and "Der Freischütz"

there was a step onward, and with Wagner we find a return to, or reform,

of the first principles of true dramatic art as applied to the opera by

the Bardi coterie. Individualism is the prevailing tendency and succes

depends on the forcibleness of the characters and the development of the

leitmotiv.

In our consideration of the operas, from "Rappresentatione di Anima"

to "Madeleine" we find the number of characters growing larger, the

orchestra more complex and perhaps usurping more time, the solo work

increasing considerably, recitative increasing, ensemble almost vanishing

and chorus work reduced to a minmum. The opera of the future will be

a medium between Wagner and Strauss, orchestral music drama, and the

Debussy incidental music, and the melodiousness of the Italian school.

The most vital music dramas of the day do not abandon nor drown out

the voice, nor do they cast aside all musical connections, but combine

orchestra, voice and dramatic action in an artistic way.

APPENDIX OF TABLES.

Table I. This table is general, comparing, by means of a percentage

system, the amount of space devoted to the orchestra solo, recitative,

ensemble and chorus work in the thirty-four operas considered. The date,

name, composer, number of acts and number of characters is shown.

Table II. This develops column "D" of table I and shows the first

the entire number of characters, and then the number of sopranos,

mezzo-sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones and bass in these same

thirty-four operas.

Table III. This table develops "F" of Table I showing the entire

percentage of orchestration in each of the thirty-four operas, and

further the division of this percentage into that devoted to overtures,

ballets and interludes.

Table IV. This table develops column "G" of Table I concerning solo

works. The percentage of the entire solo work is given and this is then

divided into the percentage devoted to that of soprano, mezzo-soprano,

alto, tenor, baritone and bass.

Table V. In this table column "H" of Table I is developed. A record

is shown of the operas which contain accompanied and unaccompanied

recitative of the thirty-four operas is shown, and this, in turn, is

divided into that of soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone

and bass.

Table VI. Column "I" of Table I is considered here. The entire percentage

of ensemble work is shown, and this is divided into that of duets, trios,

quartets, quintets and sextets.

Table VII. This table develops column "J" of Table I and shows the

percentage of the opera devoted to chorus work and further, the division

into mixed chorus and men's and women's choruses.

TABLE I.

A B C D

Date. Name. Composer. No. of

Characters.

1600 Rappresebtatione de Anima Cavalieri 5

1675 King Arthur Purcell 13

1731 La Serva Padrona Pergolese 2

1762 Orfeus Gluck 3

1767 Alceste Gluck 8

1784 Le Domine Noir Auber 9

1787 Don Giovanni Mozart 8

1762 L'Amant Jaloux Gretry 7

1800 Les Deux Journees Cherubini 6

1805 Fidelio Beethoven 7

1816 The Barber of Seville Rossini 8

1821 Der Freischütz Weber 6

1831 La Somnambula Bellini 7

1832 Le Postilion Lonjuneaux Adam 7

1835 Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti 7

1843 The Bohemian Girl Balfe 9

1847 Martha Flotow 10

1866 Mignon Thomas 8

1867 Romeo and Juliet Gounod 12

1874 Aida Verdi 6

1875 Carmen Bizet 10

1882 Parsifal Wagner 6

1887 Samson and Delilah Saint-Saens 8

1890 Cavalleria Rusticana Mascagni 5

1892 Il Pagliacci Leoncavello 5

1893 Le Cid Massenet 10

1894 Hansel and Gretel Humperdinck 7

1896 Cricket on the Hearth Goldmark 6

1900 Louise Charpentier 8

1904 Madame Butterfly Puccini 10

1905 Eugene Onegin Tschaikovski 10

1905 Salome Strauss 6

1913 L'Amour dei Tre Re Montemezzi 10

1914 Madeleine Herbert 5

GENERAL.

E F G H I J

No. of % of % of % of % of % of

Acts Orchestra Solo Recitative Ensemble Chorus

3 11.6 14.21 30.2 11.6 14.39

5 30.1 21.3 9.73 17.27 21.6

2 14.35 25.73 30.30 19.50 10.2

3 26.85 15.27 11.87 33.13 12.88

3 32.92 23.5 23.82 3.163 18.71

3 23.6 18.68 18.62 15.91 23.19

2 15.91 30.13 31.43 29.31 1.582

3 4.17 6.53 .92 83.4 6.2

3 22.56 13.5 22.8 7.2 36.94

2 26 35.17 10.11 14.66 14.06

2 22.15 17.28 10.00 38.57 12.00

3 51.03 18.9 9.06 4.7 16.31

2 19.61 15.19 30.33 7.523 30.6

3 19.6 12.76 33.8 23.32 26.17

3 8.92 39.83 5.62 10.23 35.4

3 32.6 23.7 10.42 8.38 25.7

4 18.85 8.73 24.03 28.77 25.95

5 19.7 21.42 33.75 9.76 14.74

5 29.6 32.71 17 6.97 13.72

4 29.82 17.405 15.6 7.075 30.1

4 31.6 26.71 15.32 15.05 9.32

3 31.2 28.67 19.82 -- 10.31

3 35.6 25.43 19.71 4.3 15.07

1 31.6 12.3 11.9 12.56 31.64

2 15.77 40.2 11.97 9.18 19.88

4 36.31 25.83 19.78 8.33 9.75

3 36.2 25.47 18.1 14.91 15.38

3 33.6 16.86 38.40 5.54 5.6

4 25.6 23.97 20.32 15.6 15.51

2 33.4 12.87 24.85 4.75 10.03

3 32.4 33.96 15.42 2.93 15.29

1 19.89 46.2 31.62 .93 11.36

3 24.6 32.24 39.62 .07 3.51

1 22.41 50.19 23.04 4.36 --

TABLE II.