Classic art sought as the only aim in its works to represent
pure beauty. In the compositions of the old masters regard
was had only to the sweetness of melody, and everything was
excluded from them that did not fall agreeably upon the ear.
But in modern music what is even unfavorable to sensuous
pleasure is accepted, and we have accustomed ourselves to
a more vigorous and powerful mode of representation, the
aim being to excite by sudden contrasts.
In so far as music is to represent the most secret life of the
soul, and as in art everything natural, so far as it admits of
being idealized and represented, is allowable, this tendency of
art in music has its justification. But here, as in everything
in which the principles of beauty are concerned, the true limit
must not be overstepped. The old masters composed only in
consonances, and _Helmholtz_ has shown scientifically that
consonances alone have an independent right to existence.
Dissonances, according to _Helmholtz_, are only permissible
as transition points for consonants, having no right of their
own to be. Down to _Beethoven_ we find dissonances correctly
employed by all the old masters. And greater and nobler effects
were attained than are possible to our modern musicians with
their accumulation of dissonances and sudden contrasts.
With the two composers in whom our modern classic epoch reached
its zenith, begins the gradual decline of the art of singing.
_Mozart_ held it necessary to his musical education to study
in Italy the vocal compositions of the old masters, and to make
himself thoroughly acquainted with the qualities of the singing
voice. Hence the vocal compositions of Mozart will remain
beautiful and to be held up as models for all time, for they
unite the sweetest and loveliest melody with an appreciation
of sentiment the noblest and most ideal.
The giant genius of _Beethoven_, inspired and artistic, found
the material developed to perfection by his predecessors, and
with overpowering strength forced it to yield itself to his
service. His masterworks of composition, in the grandeur of
their style, excel everything that had been produced before
him. But he has treated the human voice as a subordinate
instrument.
Because all that _Beethoven_ produced was grand and beautiful,
he has been blindly imitated, and it has been wholly forgotten
that music has in all times drawn its best nourishment from
song, and only by means of song has it risen to its high
estate, and that instruments can never reach what is possible
to a thoroughly educated human voice.
A musician, exclusively devoted to the piano, never dreams of
writing a concert piece for the violin, because he knows that
he is not sufficiently acquainted with the peculiarities of
that instrument; but every musician imagines himself able to
compose for the human voice, although its peculiar qualities
are far more numerous and far more difficult to be rightly
dealt with.
The strictly classical musicians of the present reject all
Italian music as bad. The objection made to it is, that the
music is never adapted to the words, but often expresses
something wholly different and sometimes directly opposite to
their meaning, and that it never gives back to us any high,
poetic sentiment, but aims to bribe us with ornaments only,
and accidents. In regard to modern Italian music this judgment
may be just. These superficial compositions are a product of
Italian music in its decline, and can force for themselves
a certain popularity only by their pleasant and easy melodies.
Even the old Italian music seems at first sight to pay little
or no regard to the sense of the words, especially when the
time, according to the classic German method, is set too
quick. Upon closer study, however, we soon perceive that,
although the music is treated as the chief thing, the meaning
of the words is certainly given when the music is rightly
performed. Were it not so, our music would hardly ever have
been able to form and develop itself upon and through these
old vocal compositions.
As the pictures of Titian, Rubens, and other great painters of that
time, who were masters of form as well as of color, will always be
considered as works of art and models, so the compositions of the
old Italian singing masters and of those who went from their schools
are to be held up as examples for vocal composition. In their works,
as in all the works of art of that time, form takes precedence of
the spirit, that is, the words and their poetic significance are
treated as secondary matters. But all the peculiar properties of the
human voice find therein due consideration; everything at variance
with them is avoided, and every interval, every vowel, is so
introduced that the voice can flow out with the greatest perfection.
These ornamented compositions can be sung more easily and with less
effort than a simple aria of a modern composer.
The fine tact and the correct feeling with which in those old
vocal compositions what nature directs was observed, show that
they are the works of singers of the golden age of the art of
singing, of artists who with an exact knowledge of the beauties
and capabilities of the voice possessed, and in those days were
compelled to possess, the most thorough culture in the theory
of music.
In opposition to this old, classic Italian style of composing
song, which considered and treated music for its own sake alone,
and regarded the words only in so far as they aided the voice
and the expression of the music, stands the classic style of
Germany. In this latter the first attention is paid to the
poetic meaning and expression of the text. Rightly to apprehend
the sense of the words and to give it, by means of the music,
a deeper, nobler expression--to transfigure it, as it were--is,
according to this style, the purpose of the composer, who
commonly has only the slightest reference to the peculiar
qualities of the voice and the fitness of the composition to
be sung. In the classic Italian style the form predominates--in
the German, the inspiration or soul of the composition. In the
Italian the music and the singing capability of the composition
are attended to almost exclusively. In the German, the main
thing is the poetical expression of the signification of the
words. When we now sing the wonderful and exquisite compositions
of _Schubert_, _Schumann_, _Mendelssohn_, etc., we soon feel the
impossibility of giving one or another tone as beautifully as it
should be given according to the quality of the voice, and as we
are able to give it by itself. Or it is hard for us to strike
this or that tone with perfect purity or with the requisite
force, &c. These songs are _not_ adapted to the voice as the old
Italian arias were, but composed without accurate knowledge of
the voice, and therefore cannot develop the voice in its highest
perfection. _Mendelssohn_ often lays the strongest expression
in his soprano songs upon the f♯², the transition tone from the
falsetto register to the head voice. For the expression of the
highest passion, which requires strength, the head voice is not
adapted, at least not in its transition tone. Accordingly, it is
usually sought to sound this tone with the falsetto register, to
which it is not natural, and is therefore hard to be sung, and
also becomes sharp and offensive in the male voice especially,
where this note is formed just upon the transition from the
second chest register into the falsetto. _Schubert_, again, in
his songs commonly so places the words that the favorable vowels
seldom come upon the right tones. _Schumann_ also very often
uses intervals which come upon the boundary tones of the
register, and can hardly be struck with purity. Thus there
are very many hindrances to a fine development of the voice,
oftentimes in the most beautiful compositions of our times,
hindrances, which many of our composers are more or less
chargeable with putting in the way.
It is evident from what has been said that it is by no means
a matter of indifference how the words of a song are translated
into another language. Compositions easily sung naturally lose
by translation, for it is generally left entirely to chance
whether the appropriate vowels fall upon the right tones.
A teacher must take great care, especially in beginning
instruction, to give his pupils compositions adapted to
singing. All the exercises and solfeggi should be expressly
arranged for the purpose, and also so arranged that the pupil
shall have steadily increasing difficulties to encounter, in
order that the vocal _technique_ may be fully illustrated.
Along with these exercises and solfeggi, arias should be
practised, particularly at the beginning. The older Italian
compositions are the best adapted to vocal culture, because
they were made with special reference to the qualities of the
voice. Arias are preferable to songs, because they usually
require more flexibility of voice, and therefore assist the
_technique_. In arias the music is more prominent than in
ballads, and the sentiment more marked and consequently more
easily apprehended. The same words are commonly more often
repeated, and must, of course, be sung differently, and thus
the pupil is brought acquainted at once with the different
external aids to a fine execution.