The most famous use of the English horn is found in the third act of
"Tristan," where it plays the "sad lay" while _Tristan_ awaits news of
the ship which is bearing _Isolde_ toward him, and changes to a joyous
strain when the ship is sighted. The bassoon and contrabassoon,
besides their value as the bass of the oboe family, have certain
humorous qualities, which are admirably brought out in Beethoven's
Fifth and Ninth Symphonies and in the march of the clownish artisans
in Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" music. In opera, Meyerbeer
made the bassoon famous by his scoring of the dance of the _Spectre
Nuns_ in "Robert le Diable" for it, and he also used it for the
accompaniment to the female chorus in the second act of "Les
Huguenots." The theme of the romanza, "Una fortiva lagrima," in
Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore," which Caruso sings so beautifully, is
introduced by the bassoon, and with charming effect.
The clarinets have a large compass. Usually three kinds of clarinets (in
A, B flat and C because they are transposing instruments) are employed
in the orchestra, besides the bass clarinet. The possibilities of the
clarinet group have been enormously developed by Wagner. It is
necessary only to recall the scene of _Elsa's_ bridal procession to the
cathedral in the second act of "Lohengrin"; _Elisabeth's_ sad exit after
her prayer in the third act of "Tannhaeuser," in which the melody is
played by the bass clarinet, while the accompaniment is given to
three flutes and eight other clarinets; the change of scene in the first
act of "Goetterdaemmerung," when clarinets give forth the Bruennhilde
Motive; and passages in the second act of "Die Meistersinger," in the
scene at nightfall; while for a generally skillful use of the woodwind
the introduction to the third act of "Lohengrin" is a shining example.
Brass Instruments.
People usually associate the brass instruments with noise. But as a
matter of fact, wonderfully rich and soft tone effects can be produced
on the brass by a composer who knows how to score for it. Just as the
pianissimo of many violins is a finer pianissimo than that of a solo
violin, so a much more exquisitely soft effect can be produced on a
large brass group than on a few brass instruments or a single one.
When modern composers increase the number of instruments in the brass
group, it is not for the sake of noise, but for richer effects.
The trumpet is the soprano of the brass family. The fanfare in
"Fidelio" when at the critical moment aid approaches; the Siegfried
Motive and the Sword Motive, in the "Ring of the Nibelung," need only
be cited to prove the effectiveness of the instrument in its proper
place; and Richard Strauss instances the demoniacal and fateful effect
of the deep trumpet tones in the introduction to the first act of
Bizet's "Carmen."
Although the notes of the trombone are produced by a slide, this
instrument belongs to the trumpet family. For this reason, in the
"Ring of the Nibelung," Wagner, in addition to the usual three tenor
trombones, reintroduced the almost obsolete bass trombone. He wanted a
trombone group complete in itself, and thus to be able to utilize the
peculiar tone color of the instrument; as witness in the Walhalla
Motive, where it is scored for the three tenor trombones and bass
trombone, resulting in a wonderfully rich and velvety quality of tone.
Excepting Wagner and Richard Strauss, there probably is not a
composer who would not have used the bass tuba here instead of taking
the trouble to revive the bass trombone. But Wagner wanted an
unusually rich tone which should be solemn without a trace of
sombreness, and his keen instrumental color sense informed him that he
could secure it with the bass trombone, which, as it belongs to the
trumpet family, has a touch of trumpet brilliancy, whereas the tone of
the bass tuba is darker.
[Music illustration]
Mozart employed the trombone with fine effect in _Sarastro's_ solo in
the "Magic Flute"; Schubert showed his genius for instrumentation by
the manner in which he used them in the introduction to his C major
symphony, as well as in the first movement of that symphony, in which
a theme is given out by three trombones in unison; and another
familiar example of good scoring for trombones is in the introduction
to the third act of "Lohengrin." In the Death Prophecy scene in the
second act of "Die Walkuere," a trumpet melody is supported by the four
trombones, another instance of Wagner's sense of homogeneity in sound,
since trumpets and trombones belong to the same family. In fact,
throughout the "Ring," as Strauss points out, Wagner wrote for his
trombones in four parts, adding the bass trombone in order to
differentiate wholly between it and the tuba, which latter he used
with the horns, with which it is properly grouped.
Wagner has a tremendous tuba recitative in a "Faust Overture," and in
the Funeral March in the "Goetterdaemmerung" he introduces tenor tubas
in order, again, to differentiate between the tone color of tubas and
trombones and not to be obliged to employ trombones in this particular
scene, the general tone color of the tuba being far more sombre than
that of the trombone.
Richard Strauss's Tribute to the Horn.
To mention tubas and trombones before the horns is very much like
putting the cart before the horse, but I have reserved the horns for
the last of the brass on account of the great tribute which Richard
Strauss has paid them. In the early orchestras one rarely found more
than two horns. Beethoven used four in the Ninth Symphony, and now it
is not at all unusual to find eight.
"Of all instruments," says Richard Strauss, "the horn is perhaps the
one that best can be joined with other groups. To substantiate this in
all its numerous phases, I should be obliged to quote the entire
'Meistersinger' score. For I do not think I exaggerate when I maintain
that the greatly developed technique of the valve horn has made it
possible that a score which, with the addition of a third trumpet, a
harp and a tuba, employs the same instruments as Beethoven used in his
Fifth Symphony, has become with every bar something entirely
different, something wholly new and unheard of.
"Surely the two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and two bassoons of
Mozart have been exhausted by Wagner in every direction of their
technical possibilities and plastically combined with an almost
weird perception of all their tone secrets; the string quintet,
through the most refined divisions into parts, and with added
brilliance through the employment of the harp, produces innumerable
new tone effects, and by superb polyphony is brought to a height
and warmth of emotional expression such as never before was dreamed
of; trumpet and trombones are made to express every phase of
solemn or humorous characterization--but the main thing is the
tireless participation of the horn, now for the melody, now for
filling out, now as bass. The 'Meistersinger' score is the horn's
hymn of praise. Through the introduction and perfection of the
valve horn the greatest improvement in the technique of scoring,
since Berlioz's day, has been made possible.
"To illustrate exhaustively this Protean character of the horn, I
should like (again!) to go through the scores of the great magician,
bar by bar, beginning with 'Rheingold.'
"Whether it rings through the primeval German forest with the sunny
exuberance of _Siegfried's_ youthful heart and joy of living; whether
in Liszt's 'Mazeppa' it dies out in the last hoarse gasp of the
Cossack prince nigh unto death in the vast desert of the steppes;
whether it conjures the childlike longing of _Siegfried_ for the
mother he never has known; whether it hovers over the gently
undulating sea which is to bring _Isolde's_ gladdening form to the
dying _Tristan_, or nods _Hans Sachs'_ thanks to the faithful
_'Prentice_; whether in _Erik's_ dream it causes in a few hollow
accents the North Sea to break on the lonely coast; bestows upon the
apples of Freia the gift of eternal youth; pokes fun at the
curtain-heroes ('Meistersinger,' Act III); plies the cudgels on
_Beckmesser_ with the jealous _David_ and his comrades, and is the
real instigator of the riot; or sings in veiled notes of the wounds of
_Tristan_--always the horn, in its place and to be relied on,
responds, unique in its manifold meanings and its brilliant
significance."
Famous horn passages in the works of other composers are in the trio
of the Scherzo in the "Eroica Symphony"; in the second movement of
Schubert's C major symphony, the passage of which Schumann said that
the notes of the horns just before the return of the principal
subject were like the voice of an angel; in the opening of Weber's
"Freischuetz" overture; in the introduction to _Michaela's_ romance
in "Carmen"; and in the opening theme of the slow movement of
Tschaikowsky's Fifth Symphony, which is the perfection of a
melodic phrase for solo horn.
Instruments of Percussion.
In the "battery" the instruments of prime importance are the tympani.
Beethoven gave the cue to what could be accomplished with these in the
scherzo of the Fifth Symphony and also in the octave thumps in the
scherzo of the Ninth Symphony, while for a weirdly sombre effect there
is nothing equal to the faint roll of the tympani at the beginning and
end of the Funeral March in "Goetterdaemmerung." Cymbals are used in
several ways. Besides the ordinary clash, Wagner has produced a sound
somewhat like that of a gong, by the sharp stroke of a drum-stick on
one cymbal, and also a roll by using a pair of drum-sticks on one
cymbal.
Among composers since Beethoven, Weber, Liszt, Saint-Saens, Dvorak,
Tschaikowsky, and, of course, Richard Strauss--it hardly is necessary
to mention either Berlioz or Wagner again--have shown brilliant
technique in orchestration. On the other hand, Schumann and Brahms do
not appear to have understood or to have taken the trouble to
understand the individual characteristics of orchestral instruments,
and, as a result, their works for orchestra are not as effective as
they should be. Their orchestration has been called "muddy."
It is Richard Strauss's opinion that the next advancement in
orchestration will be brought about by adding largely to certain
groups of instruments which now have only comparatively few
representatives in the orchestra. He instances that at the Brussels
Conservatory one of the professors had Mozart's G minor symphony
performed for him on twenty-two clarinets, of which four were basset
horns (alto clarinets), two brass clarinets, and one contra-bass
clarinet; and he suggests that it will be along such lines that the
orchestra of the future will be enlarged. With an orchestra with all
the family groups of instruments complete in the manner suggested by
Strauss, and used by a musical genius, a genius who combines with
melodic invention virtuosity of instrumentation, marvellous results
are yet to be achieved.