=The Romantic Movement=.—The revolutionary spirit which arose in Europe
toward the end of the 18th century had its counterpart in a similar
intellectual and artistic reaction, commonly known as the Romantic
Movement. In Literature, this movement was led by France; in Music, by
Germany. Briefly described, it consisted in casting aside the classical
traditions which the Renaissance had imposed upon art in general and
in a substitution of themes and a treatment more in consonance with
the atmosphere of freedom which had inspired such momentous social and
political changes.
=Its Effect on Music=.—The musician also felt the influence of the
general unrest. In seeking new modes of expression, he rose to a
consciousness of independence both as man and artist; he refused longer
to occupy the position of an upper servant which had been decreed him
by court and nobility. Mozart marked the passing of the old order of
things by his indignant rejection of the humiliating conditions of
service under the haughty Archbishop of Salzburg, only remembered
by later generations through his connection with the musician he
treated so contemptuously. Heretofore music had been the privileged
entertainment of the great and wealthy. Like other privileges, it was
to pass into the possession of the people, hitherto shut out from its
enjoyment save in the Church. It was to draw inspiration from a rich
store of Folk-lore and poetry heretofore disregarded by the scholar
and the musician, but soon to be recognized as a national heritage of
high import; it was to create new forms instead of being dependent on
time-worn formulæ which were repressing growth and development.
=The Romantic Opera=.—The Romantic Movement had the effect of finally
banishing from the stage the characters of classical mythology, the
heroes and personages of antiquity who had been thought alone worthy
of representation by the poets and savants who had thus far prepared
the texts for operas. In the romantic opera their places were taken
by figures of legend or chivalry, elves and spirits of earth or air;
the action paid no regard to the unities of time and place; it was
brisk and animated and the supernatural played an important part in
it. The music, instead of being governed by the restraints of definite
forms, adapted itself to the varying exigencies of the drama; the
sharp division between the recitative and the aria was softened by
the introduction of the Scena, a peculiarly effective mingling of the
features of both; the overture became an integral part of the whole
by the use of themes associated with leading dramatic situations.
The orchestra not only supplied an harmonic and a rhythmically
interesting accompaniment but its power of independent expression was
enormously enlarged; it became, so to speak, one of the _Dramatis
Personæ_ and vied with the singers in indicating psychological and
dramatic crises. This was largely due to the development of a new
phase of instrumentation, perhaps the most striking detail of the
Romantic school—that of novel and original combinations of instruments
to produce varying and expressive shades of tone color. Heretofore
the orchestra had been considered in the main in its more obvious
divisions; sonority and beauty of tone had been the chief aim of the
classical composers. =Carl Maria von Weber= (1786-1826) was the first
to utilize the individual timbres of orchestral instruments to secure
effects of a weird, unearthly character.
[Illustration: CARL MARIA VON WEBER.]
=Weber and the Romantic Opera=.—In his _Der Freischütz_ (The
Freeshooter) we first find the union of all these characteristics.
Hence Weber is rightfully considered the founder of the romantic opera;
but it would be a mistake to assume that he was the originator of all
its features. These had been long in the air. In Haydn, the works of
Mozart and Beethoven, in the ballads of Loewe, the songs of Schubert,
unmistakable romantic traits can often be found, but they are embodied
in established forms. Weber, however, brought together the qualities
now associated with the term romantic in music, and in applying them to
the drama freed them from the restrictions of a fixed musical structure.
=Influence of “Der Freischütz.”=—The effect of _Der Freischütz_ on
its production in Berlin in 1821 was instantaneous. The story of the
hunter’s recourse to unholy arts in order to win success in the chase,
of his rescue from Satanic power and the final triumph of good over
evil; the music, fresh, vivid, essentially national in color, appealed
to the people to whom the legend was well known. It meant the birth
of German opera, German alike in drama and music; it gave the final
blow to the supremacy of foreign influences in Germany. This success
at first, however, was confined almost entirely to the people. Critics
and musicians generally could not reconcile themselves to its mingling
of styles; the supernatural element seemed to them exaggerated, the
introduction of the Folk-song wanting in dignity. Only the greatest
of them all, Beethoven, deaf and cynical as he was, realized the
signification of _Der Freischütz_ as the beginning of a new era for
German art. He said to Rochlitz: “Weber should now write operas—one
after the other without hesitation.”
=Euryanthe=.—Weber’s next opera was _Euryanthe_, produced in 1823 in
Vienna. In this he was hampered by a text of more than doubtful merit
and lacking the national element which had been so strong a factor in
_Der Freischütz_. The story is laid in the medieval chivalric epoch and
strongly resembles Shakespeare’s _Cymbeline_. He also ventured upon
an innovation which was not in favor with the German public: he set
it to music throughout, the place of the dialogue customary in German
opera being taken by accompanied recitative. _Euryanthe_ and Spohr’s
_Jessonda_, which appeared several months before the former, were the
first German operas in this style since Schütz’s _Dafne_. This and
its confused plot kept _Euryanthe_ from the popular success achieved
by _Der Freischütz_, yet it contains some of Weber’s most thrilling
inspirations, and is the direct prototype of the modern music drama.
=Oberon=.—In _Oberon_ (1826), composed for London to an English text,
Weber returned to his former manner, though somewhat against his
will. He found the English opera much the same as in Purcell’s time,
practically a play with music as an incidental feature rather than as
an integral part of the drama. He intended casting _Oberon_ into a
larger mould, reducing the dialogue and adding to the music, but this
was prevented by his premature death in London two months after its
production.
=Recitative and Dialogue=.—The chilling effect of alternating speech
and song has already been spoken of in connection with the English
opera. At that time, both English and German taste was against the
use of recitative in the narrative parts of an opera. The _recitativo
secco_, which it will be remembered is a recitative supported only
by chords on the harpsichord or piano, sometimes accompanied with a
single stringed instrument, has never met with favor outside of Italy,
where its intonations nearly approach the half-singing inflections of
Italian speech. The exclusive use of accompanied recitative—that is,
the recitative accompanied by the full orchestra, however, delays the
action and moreover appears weighty and overwrought unless applied to
subjects of an elevated or heroic character. In Germany and England the
desire to understand clearly the dramatic movement led to the retention
of dialogue in all operas. In France a distinction was made between
operas with dialogue and operas with recitative only. The first is
called Opéra Comique, originally an offshoot from the Italian _Opera
Buffa_, in which the _recitativo secco_ was replaced by dialogue. Later
the term assumed a technical meaning by which it was applied to all
operas containing spoken dialogue whether their subjects were comic or
tragic, in contradistinction to what is known as Grand Opéra, in which
the accompanied recitative is used exclusively.
=The Melodrama=.—The so-called melodrama is a compromise between the
dialogue and the recitative. In this the performer recites in the
speaking voice while the orchestra supplies an accompaniment which
seeks to intensify the dramatic situation. This device originated in
Germany and has found the most favor from German composers. It was
first employed by =Georg Benda= (1721-1795) in a recitation, _Ariadne
in Naxos_ (1744), which created much interest. Two of the most striking
instances of the melodrama are to be found in the grave-digging scene
in _Fidelio_ and in the incantation scene in _Der Freischütz_. But
however effective its occasional use may be, the ear suffers from the
inevitable dissonance between the fixed pitches of the musical scale
and the natural inflections of the speaking voice. This is now so
generally recognized that it has been practically ignored by modern
composers in their works for the stage.
=Spohr and the Romantic Opera=.—=Ludwig Spohr= (1784-1859), Germany’s
greatest violinist and a composer of eminence in many fields, wrote
a number of operas. Of these, _Faust_ and _Jessonda_ stand first
in showing a vein of genuine romanticism, albeit they lack the
Folk-element which brought Weber’s music so close to the hearts
of the people. Full of beauty as they undoubtedly are, like all
of Spohr’s music they are weakened by the constant recurrence of
certain mannerisms, such as chromatic progressions of a persistent
type, enharmonic modulations, the over-frequent use of diminished
intervals. Spohr exercised a strong influence in favor of the new
direction on account of his high position as the most esteemed composer
and performer of the day. His significance in the romantic movement
consists in his being, as it were, an intermediary between the late
classical period represented by Beethoven and the modern music drama.
He knew Beethoven in Vienna, and in his latter days, when director of
the opera in Cassel, did his utmost to introduce Wagner’s early operas
to the German public.
=Marschner, Weber’s Successor=.—Weber’s legitimate successor in the
romantic opera was =Heinrich Marschner= (1795-1861). He had been
associated with Weber as assistant conductor at the opera in Dresden,
and a strong friendship existed between them. Weber’s influence,
however, was wide and far-reaching; it extended beyond the opera.
Marschner’s sphere was practically confined to the stage, which he
enriched with a series of strongly characterized works mainly of a
gloomy, uncanny nature. He shows but little of the genial art with
which Weber avails himself of the supernatural merely as a background
for the doing and striving of his characters, and thus never
compromises the human interest they have for us. Marschner makes it the
salient characteristic of his strongest works. In these his principal
_Dramatis Personæ_ are demons and evil spirits who tempt and torment
the innocent and loving. His first romantic opera was _Der Vampyr_
(1825) composed to a text prepared from Byron’s poem, “Lord Ruthven,”
which is founded upon a Scotch legend. Notwithstanding the repulsive
nature of the subject, its powerful treatment brought it immediate
success in Germany and a little later in England. It was followed by
_Der Templar und die Jüdin_ (The Templar and the Jewess), a version
of Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” This, however, met with less success than _Der
Vampyr_ or its successor, _Hans Heiling_, Marschner’s masterpiece.
=The Spieloper=.—The Romantic school had a strong influence in the
development of a form known as the _Spieloper_ (literally play-opera),
which occupies a place between the works we have been considering and
the _Singspiel_. As thoroughly German as the latter, it shows more
finish and greater elaboration of musical effect. Though essentially
romantic in the freedom of its scope and choice of means, its real
sphere is neither the heroic nor the mystic; it concerns itself rather
with the lighter aspects of life, those which require no exalted powers
of imagination or wide culture to appreciate—humor, good cheer, the
merriment and mirth of the people in holiday mood. =Albert Lortzing=
(1803-1851) is accepted as the creator of this type, of which his most
popular opera, _Zar und Zimmermann_ (Czar and the Carpenter), is the
best known example.
=Influence of the Romantic Opera=.—The value of the application of
all the resources of music to the unfettered delineation of feeling
and emotion in all their phases inaugurated by the romantic opera
can hardly be over-estimated. From the opera it has won its way into
absolute music, creating new and original forms. The change it has
wrought in the progress and development of the art in general is only
second to the revolution occasioned by the birth of the opera itself,
three centuries ago. The impulse of the romantic movement in music
is far from being exhausted at the present day. On the contrary, it
seems to have gathered strength and if it has reached its culmination,
as some would have us believe, the signs are not yet apparent to an
unprejudiced observer.