Wagner—the Wizard
WILHELM RICHARD WAGNER
1813–1883
Richard Wagner, the Wizard, called out of the past a vast company of
gods and goddesses, giants, knights and heroes, kings and queens. He
made them live for us with all their joys and sorrows, loves and hates,
in his great music dramas, for which he has been recognized as one of
the rare geniuses of the world.
Evoked by his music-magic they pass before us,—the gods and heroes of
Walhalla,—Wotan, Brünnhilde, valiant Siegfried, Pfafner the giant who is
turned into a dragon, Mime the dwarf, the Rhine Maidens and the
Valkyries; Parsifal the guileless youth who became the Knight of the
Holy Grail, and Lohengrin his son, the beautiful knight who marries
Elsa, a lady of rank of the Middle Ages.
We see the minnesingers Tannhäuser and Wolfram von Eschenbach in one of
their famous Minstrel Tournaments with the hand of the lovely Elizabeth
as a prize; we also meet the lovable shoemaker-mastersinger Hans Sachs
in Nüremberg, of the 16th century, and David his merry apprentice,
lovely Eva Pogner and the charming knight Walter von Stolzing, and
Beckmesser the clownish mastersinger; then there are the imperious Irish
Queen, Isolde and Tristan, her lover, with Kurvenal his faithful
servant. Wagner makes not only the mythological persons relive but he
brings back realistic pictures of the everyday life and customs of the
German people of the Middle Ages.
Wagner had his idea of what opera should be and nothing short of his
ideal interested him. He kept to his purpose and accomplished miraculous
things whether he suffered or starved or was banished from his country.
Richard was born at a time, favorable for hearing and knowing the
Viennese composers of the 18th and early 19th centuries, who had
increased the importance of the orchestra. He could hear too the music
of Schumann and Schubert, with all the new beauty and warm feeling they
radiated. This new depth appeared not only in the orchestra but also in
piano and vocal music. In Wagner’s time, people felt deeply about
everything,—science, philosophy, literature, and especially politics;
and many were the quarrels and discontents among nations. Even our own
country was torn by a cruel war.
Wagner listened to the works of Mozart and of Beethoven, whom he admired
immensely. He approved of Beethoven’s use of the chorus in the _Ninth
Symphony_, which had no little effect on his work and ideals.
Among the people who most influenced Wagner was Gluck, who first fought
for sincerity and truth in opera drama. Gluck did not have the advantage
of the grown up orchestra and freer forms, yet Gluck did so much to free
opera that Wagner was fortunate indeed to have come after him. Another
great influence was Weber, who mixed everyday story in a delightful play
of fancy and picturesqueness. Wagner, after hearing Weber’s _Die
Freischütz_, was very much impressed.
Meyerbeer, a contemporary, although rather artificial and always working
for effects, nevertheless showed Wagner the value of gorgeous scenic
productions. Wagner was fond of the stage, and Meyerbeer’s big scenes
sank into the mind of the young composer-poet, who liked to be called a
poet rather than a musician!
Musically, Franz Liszt was probably the greatest influence in Wagner’s
life and we often hear in Wagner’s works bits of melody which remind us
of Liszt.
It is not fair to say that he was great just because he followed Gluck,
Weber, and Mozart, for he brought music out of its old ruts and was
copied by hundreds of composers.
The hero of this chapter was born in Leipsic in 1813 and was the
youngest of nine children. His father died shortly after his birth and
his mother married an actor playwright named Geyer and they all went to
live in Dresden. His stepfather felt that Richard had musical gifts and
he proved a very kind and wise parent. He died when the boy was only
eight.
Richard must have been a most interesting little chap, for he always did
everything with what we would call “pep” and persistence. He loved
poetry and was devoted to the theatre. His stepfather had always allowed
him to go “back stage” at the playhouse, so the youth became familiar
with stage craft, which he used later in producing his music dramas.
He read the Greek and German poets and dramatists at a very early age.
He was the first of the musical geniuses to be trained in the arts
before he started music. So we can picture a little chap,
“stage-struck,” studying when he should, seeing plays when he could, and
listening to the works of Weber and Beethoven which enchanted him, and
storing up ideas, but as yet showing no great leaning toward music as a
profession.
The family moved back to Leipsic in 1827 where he went to school until
he entered the university in 1831. He heard much orchestral music and
became so deeply charmed with Beethoven, that he copied the _Ninth
Symphony_ from a score, to become familiar with it. The _Ninth
Symphony_ with chorale takes about two hours to perform, imagine how
long it took to copy it! An instance of the wizard’s energy and
“stick-to-it-iveness”!
A KILLING PLAY
He began to study music with C. G. Müller, for Beethoven’s works made
him decide that he wanted to know more. He also was taught by Theodore
Weinlig, the cantor or singer of St. Thomas’ school. At sixteen, he
wrote a play which had so tragic a plot that he killed off forty-two of
the characters, and afterwards said, he had to bring some back as ghosts
to wind up the drama, for there were no characters left alive! His drama
reading made him exaggerate tragedy in his own play! After this he wrote
a sonata, a polonaise and a symphony, in classic style, performed in
1833.
In 1830 there had been a political revolution in Germany and it greatly
impressed the young man for he was an independent thinker in politics as
well as in music.
He visited Vienna in 1832 but he found it so appreciative of Hérold’s
opera _Zampa_ and Strauss’ waltzes that he could not bear it and left
almost immediately. He was much like Beethoven in disposition for he was
quick to anger and kind in great gusts, and could be most agreeable to
his friends.
HIS EARLY OPERAS
He had gone to Vienna with his symphony but showed it to no one; it is
said that Mendelssohn saw it but forgot about it. Here he wrote the poem
and some poor music for an opera _Die Hochzeit_ (_The Wedding_) which he
tore up the next year.
Then off to Prague went he (1832), and wrote his first libretto, for you
must remember he did not go to people like Metastastio or Molière for
his libretto but wrote his own. Had he not been a composer he certainly
would have been a literary man. In fact, he was, for he wrote more
pamphlets and books than many a writer! Yet, he showed his real genius
as a composer.
But he was so poor now that he was glad to get a job as a chorus master
at the mean salary of 10 florins ($5) a month! It was here he wrote the
opera _Die Feen_ (_The Fairies_) a wildly romantic work, after which he
returned again to Leipsic. For the first time he heard Wilhelmine
Schroeder-Devrient sing, whose marvelous talent influenced him all his
life. In 1834 as a conductor of a troupe with headquarters in Magdeburg,
he tried to produce his second opera the tragic _Das Liebesverbot_
(_Forbidden Love_), modeled after Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_;
but it was so badly given that it was a dismal failure. The second was
like Bellini and Auber, both of whom he admired and it was too early in
his life (twenty-one) to show new ways of composing.
Soon he went to Königsberg, where (1836) he married Wilhelmina Planer, a
young actress whom he met in the theatre, and he spent the year trying
to get his Magdeburg troupe out of difficulties. Later he was given a
post in Riga.
While at Riga his duty was to lead orchestral concerts, at many of which
Ole Bull the Norwegian violinist played, here too, he read _Rienzi_ of
Bulwer-Lytton, the English writer, and wrote a libretto and opera on the
showy model of Meyerbeer. He said himself that it “out-Meyerbeered
Meyerbeer.” Leaving hastily, debts and all, with _Rienzi_ in his hand,
he went to Paris (the goal of all composers) in a sailing vessel, with
his new wife and a dog named Robber, stopping over in England. The trip
took four long perilous weeks. From the sailors he learned the story of
the Flying Dutchman, which he afterwards used in his opera of that name.
We wish we could tell you the whole story of this gale-tossed, unhappy
mariner, the Flying Dutchman, and how at last he found happiness and
relief from storms and troubles of life by finding his mate in the
maiden Senta. You will love the music and the story which is woven about
Senta in the beautiful ballad bearing her name.
In this opera, Wagner first used the _leit-motif_ or leading theme
(particularly in the overture) which he used as we use a name or
description of a person, idea or thing, except that he used them in
music instead of in words. For example, when Senta comes in to the
story, either as someone’s thought or as a person, or when she is spoken
of, her theme is heard, woven into the music. So it is when Siegfried
appears in the operas of the _Ring of the Nibelungen_, you hear the
Siegfried theme; when the Gold is mentioned, you hear the Gold theme; or
if the Giants appear, their theme is heard,—so it is with the Dragon and
everything connected with the story. You hear in some form, their name
plates, as it were, and so by listening, you can follow just what is
going on through the music. This is one of the things that Wagner
developed, though Gluck and others had attempted to use it.
During his stay in Paris, he had a struggle for existence and did
everything possible to gain a livelihood, while striving to get a
hearing for his compositions. He wrote, in his misery, the _Faust
Overture_, the first work to win recognition.
He went to see Meyerbeer on his way to Paris, for Meyerbeer was very
popular and his approval could have aided poor Richard. Some say
Meyerbeer helped him and others say he did not. Wagner gained little
from him. Even when he first went to see Liszt, who later became his
best friend, it is said that Liszt snubbed him. Wagner never stopped
writing his theories for the papers, and a hot-headed young scribbler he
was! Yet withal he submitted the story of _The Flying Dutchman_ to the
director of the Paris Opera House who rejected it as an opera, but gave
the story to Dietsch, the conductor, to write the music. This did not
daunt Wagner, who, after a defeat, worked harder or his next task. So he
wrote another _Flying Dutchman_, story and music and orchestration in
seven weeks!
However, luck began to favor him, and _Rienzi_ (1842) was accepted by
the Dresden Opera and was so successful that he became conductor in
Dresden, which saved him for a while from money worries, and _The Flying
Dutchman_, which had gone begging so long, was loudly demanded. Strange
to say, this wonderful legend did not succeed, for the people missed the
little tricks of Meyerbeer and they could not understand the flowing
music in new form. Wagner was very disappointed for the story was one of
the old German (Teuton) legends and he thought the German people would
love it.
Later, however, Spohr gave it with great success at Cassel, and won
Wagner’s gratitude for his understanding and kindness.
Now comes _Tannhäuser_, an entrancing legend which inspired him to study
more deeply into the Teutonic legends. This he produced in Dresden, and
other German cities played it later. Everything became topsy-turvy in
the musical and political world. Wagner was writing fiery things about
freedom in music and politics, nothing to amount to much, but enough to
rouse his enemies, who became hateful and hissed _Tannhäuser_,—calling
it nerve-killing, distressing music without melody. How could anyone
fail to find melody in _Oh Thou Sublime Sweet Evening Star_, the
_Pilgrim’s Chorus_, the _Venusburg_ music and the colorful overture with
themes of the whole opera? Yet music affects people this way when it is
new in structure. “There is no melody” is said today when the so-called
modern music is played. This should make us stop and listen carefully
and look back on what happened to the writers of the past when they
dared differ from the crowd. Perhaps calling your attention to this will
make you listen with open ears and open minds to the new, which so soon
becomes the familiar.
So Wagner, while conducting other operas in Dresden, began on
_Lohengrin_ and finished it in 1847. But he was impetuous and his
written articles irritated the people. His ideas were fiery and his
musical speech so odd, that even Schumann, who was very sympathetic,
only partially understood him or his music. However he did say that
Wagner would have a great influence on German opera, but Mendelssohn,
after hearing _Tannhäuser_, only liked the second finale. Even his
friend Madame Devrient, though she loved and admired him, said: “You are
a man of genius but you write such eccentric stuff, it is hardly
possible to sing it.”
Never did Wagner feel that he was at fault, so great was his faith in
his ideas of doing away with arias, of not having stopping places in an
opera, just to begin some other song, and of making the words equally
important to the music.
THE NIBELUNGEN RING
While working at _Lohengrin_ he had started his studies of the Icelandic
and Germanic Saga, the _Nibelungenlied_. These tales changed under his
pen into the story of Siegfried, which he wove into the trilogy known as
_The Nibelungen Ring_ or _Trilogy with a Prologue_, as he called it, and
as we call it now—_The Tetralogy_ (in four parts).
The four dramas of the _Ring of the Nibelung_ are:
(1) _The Rhine Gold_ (_Das Rheingold_)
(2) _Valkyrie_ (_Die Walküre_)
(3) _Siegfried_
(4) _The Twilight of the Gods_ (_Die Götterdämmerung_)
Many things happen in these tales but it takes the four to tell the one
big story:
Alberich the wicked Nibelung, a gnome, in his greed steals the gold from
the Rhine Maidens who were guarding it, hidden in the Rhine. They tell
him that the one who fashions a ring out of the gold will rule the
world, but must forego love. Alberich makes the ring but Wotan the god
of the gods wrests it from him. During the drama various people secure
the Ring but it had been cursed by Alberich and brings disaster to all
who get it. Finally the very gods themselves are doomed to destruction,
and Brünnhilde the oldest of the Valkyries, the daughters of Wotan,
returns the stolen treasure to the waters of the Rhine.
The Wizard has painted in magnificent music the great Rhine River,
flowing across the stage; the fire surrounding Brünnhilde until she is
rescued by the valiant Siegfried, who knows no fear; Valhalla the home
of the gods; the hunt in which Siegfried drinks from the magic horn of
memory; and his funeral pyre into which Brünnhilde casts herself and her
horse carrying the ring which she has taken from Siegfried’s finger back
to the Rhine Maidens from whence it came.
The scenes are gigantic and so is the music. Wagner, with his ideals for
freedom and the betterment of humanity, used these legends as a cloak to
cover his personal opinions which would have been looked upon as
anarchism if he had not used such clever and artistic symbols. In
Alberich’s greed for the gold, is hidden Wagner’s ideas of the
Government’s greed for power against which he had fought so strenuously.
Another lesson is that anyone possessing the gold is denied love,
showing that greed kills human feelings.
Because the Opera at Dresden did not use the things he liked, he
rebelled openly against the popular political and musical ideas; he was
banished and went to Zürich, Switzerland. Here he wrote more fiery
literature and made more enemies and a few friends, and the enmity he
stirred up against himself delayed his success. He hoped for a better
state of political life in order to write freer and more beautiful
music.
While he was in Zürich, Liszt, in Vienna, produced _Lohengrin_ with
success. It was given to celebrate Goethe’s birthday (1850), before a
brilliant audience, and now Wagner’s fame seemed sure, though his
“pockets were empty.” _Lohengrin’s_ success was slow in Germany, as it
took about nine years to reach Berlin and Dresden. It was thought to be
without melody! Can you hear Lohengrin’s song to the Swan, the Wedding
March or the Prelude? Listen to it in your mind’s ear or auralize it!
Wagner’s themes were so marvelously interwoven and he did such amazing
things with his orchestra, that it was difficult for people to unravel
the torrential new music. They were not prepared for endless music
flowing on like speech, suiting the music to the word and not stopping
the action to show off the singer’s skill. What Gluck _tried_ to do,
Wagner did. His operas were music dramas because the action or drama was
his first thought.
For fifteen years in exile, he gave himself to literary work and
composition. He had ample time now to write of his musical theories and
his feelings about life.
Soon, London called him to lead the Philharmonic Society, which he did
during the time he was completing _Valkyrie_ and sketching _Siegfried_.
He tried to interest the English in Beethoven and others whom he loved,
but of little avail. The people preferred the delightful delicacy of
Mendelssohn to the solidity of Beethoven. So here again he made more
enemies than friends, and his bitter pen did not help to smooth things
over. By the time he left London, he had finished the _Valkyrie_.
In this great music drama, he tells the story of Siegmund and Sieglinda,
Brünnhilde and the Valkyries who carried the dead warriors from the
battle fields on their saddles to Valhalla. You hear in the galloping
music of the _Ride of the Valkyries_ and the _Fire Music_ and _Love
Song_ of the first act, such music as never was written by anyone but
Wagner! Oh, it is a wonderful legend, explaining itself, in Wagner’s own
poems and with the short music name tags (leit-motifs) which are
enlarged and turned around and intermingled with other name tags and
which stand out beautifully when you know how to listen.
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE AND MEISTERSINGER
While in Zürich, Wagner met the merchant Otto Wesendonck, whose
beautiful and poetic wife Wagner loved dearly. She was a great influence
in his life and they were friends for many years. It was during his
friendship that he started the love drama of _Tristan and Isolde_.
In 1859 he finished the love drama which tells of Tristan and the lovely
Queen of Ireland and how they drank the love potion and how they loved
and were separated. A noble story with some of the most grippingly
beautiful music ever written!
But with this masterpiece of masterpieces completed, he could get nobody
to produce it. Everyone said it was impossible to sing it, and we know
even today that it takes very special musical gifts and few can do it
well. For it is quite true that Wagner, with all his theories about
composition, thought little of the singer’s throat muscles and more of
what he wanted to say.
Poor Wagner was disconsolate! He could not get his works performed and
he was still prevented from returning to Germany, the country he loved.
So off he went to Paris and there _Tannhäuser_ failed utterly after
three terrible, turbulent, horrible performances, which almost ended in
riots, no doubt planned ahead by his enemies.
But to offset this disaster, he was allowed to return home and everyone
rejoiced in his arrival. No doubt his treatment in Paris softened the
German heart.
Not long after this Wagner and his wife separated and some years later
in 1871, he married Cosima Liszt, who had been the wife of Hans von
Bülow.
After Wagner conducted opera on a tour through Russia, Hungary, Bohemia
(Czecho-Slovakia) and many German cities, Ludwig II, King of Bavaria,
sent for Wagner and offered him an income, and from this time on Wagner
composed without financial worries. He was commissioned in 1865 to
complete _The Ring_, and _Tristan and Isolde_ was performed by Hans von
Bülow.
Again political intrigues and his enemies drove him to Switzerland, and
after _Tristan and Isolde_ was given and while he was in Switzerland, he
completed _The Ring_ and _Die Meistersinger_, the most beautiful comic
opera in the world, which was also produced by von Bülow in Munich, June
21st, 1868. And now we fulfill our promise to you, which we made in
Chapter VIII about the Meistersinger:
Walther von Stolzing, a young knight, falls in love at first sight with
Eva the beautiful daughter of Pogner, the goldsmith of Nüremberg, who
has promised her to the winning singer in the coming Festival of the
Mastersingers. Beckmesser, the old town clerk, counts on winning as he
also loves Eva. As Walther does not belong to the music guild, he has to
pass the examination. Beckmesser gives him so many bad marks for not
keeping the committee’s rules that he is not admitted.
But Hans Sachs, the greatest Meistersinger of all, the town cobbler,
thought Walther a beautiful singer even though he broke musical laws and
the very freedom and the new loveliness in his music charmed him.
In the evening when Walther and Eva try to run away, Beckmesser decides
to serenade Eva. Hans Sachs, cobbling shoes in his doorway interrupts
Beckmesser’s ludicrous serenade with a jolly song, in which he marks all
Beckmesser’s mistakes with his hammer, just as Beckmesser had marked
Walther’s. The neighborhood is aroused, confusion follows, Beckmesser
gets a beating and Hans Sachs slips Eva and Walther into his own house.
Next day Walther sings a song to Hans which he has dreamed and Hans
writes it down. Beckmesser comes in and finding the words steals them,
sure he could win if he sang a song of Hans Sachs.
Beckmesser fails miserably and Sachs calls on Walther to sing it. Here
he sings Walther’s _Prize Song_, which wins the approval of the
Meistersingers, and the prize—lovely Eva.
Here we get a splendid idea of what Wagner felt about new music, for in
the _Meistersinger_ he tried to picture the jealousies of composers, who
condemned the beauty of his inspiration and new ideas and methods.
Never was there an opera more delightful for young people, who love the
melodies and charming pictures of medieval Nüremberg.
BAYREUTH
About this time the _Valkyrie_ and _Rhinegold_ had been given at the
Court Theatre in Munich (1869–1870). The King gave up his plan to build
a new theatre for these stupendous works, which needed special machinery
because of the elaborate stage effects. Wagner insisted that scenery was
as important as the words and music. So he started to build, by general
subscription over all Europe, a theatre at Bayreuth. He succeeded so
well that not only did Europe contribute but America, too, and groups of
people banded together to collect money for it. Wagner was now the
fashion and finally the new opera house opened August 13th, 1876, with
_The Ring_, for he had finished _Die Götterdämmerung_ the year before.
Artistically it was successful but not financially. If his pen had been
dipped in honey and not in bitters, he would have won his public more
easily, but he seemed unable to be diplomatic. So off he went to London
and other places to conduct concerts to make money to pay the debts of
his new theatre. Later he wrote the Festival March, for the Philadelphia
Centennial (1876), which helped financially.
The people were divided into two camps,—those for Wagner, and those
against him. So strong was the feeling, that during the 1880’s, in
Germany, signs in cafés read: “It is forbidden to discuss religion or
Wagner”! The proprietors wished to save their chairs and china which the
fists of their patrons would destroy.
PARSIFAL
During this time he was at work on _Parsifal_, a drama in music as
serious as oratorio yet with the most thrilling stage effects and
richness of music. _Parsifal_, _Tristan and Isolde_, _The Ring_ and _Die
Meistersinger_ are to every other opera what a plum pudding is, compared
to a graham cracker. In fact, all Wagner’s late music dramas are like
plum puddings, so rich and compact are they.
_Parsifal_ was produced in 1882 in Bayreuth and was not given again for
six years. Later it was the occasion for yearly pilgrimages to Bayreuth,
as if to a shrine. It is so long that it takes the better part of an
afternoon and evening to perform it, yet you sit enraptured before its
gripping spell of beauty and holiness.
In 1903 the musical world was startled by the first performance in
America of _Parsifal_, as Wagner, in his will, had forbidden a stage
performance outside of Bayreuth. It was covered by copyright until 1913,
which was supposed to have protected it from performance. Heinrich
Conried, director of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City, in
his eagerness for novelties, disregarded the master’s wish, and mounted
an elaborate production under the direction of Alfred Hertz. This so
offended the Wagner family that they refused to allow anyone who had
taken part in that performance to appear in Bayreuth.
Bayreuth became a Mecca, to which pilgrims went every other year, to
attend the festivals. After the World War, Wagner’s family turned to
America for help to continue these festivals, interrupted by the war, as
the Wizard himself had done, when building his theatre. In 1924 his son,
Siegfried, visited America, conducted some symphony concerts and secured
funds to carry on the festivals.
_Parsifal_ is a combination of three legends—of which one is the
_Parsifal_ of our old friend the Minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach
(1204). (Chapter VIII.)
It is the story of the Redemption of Mankind, told in symbols with great
beauty of poetry, music and scenery. It is certain to fill you with
religious fervor, for it reaches the depths of your soul and raises you
above the things of the earth. Amfortas, the guardian of the Holy Grail,
whose wound represents the suffering of mankind, hears the mystic voice
of his father, Titurel, who tells him that not until a sinless one comes
with pity in his heart will the wound be healed. Parsifal, “the
guileless fool,” is his redeemer.
The year following the first production of _Parsifal_ Wagner’s health
began to fail and he went to Venice where he died suddenly in 1883. He
was buried with fitting honors at Bayreuth which always honors the
memory of the Great Master of German Opera.
Here is a picture of Wagner in the words of his brother-in-law: “the
double aspect of this powerful personality was shown in his face; the
upper part beautiful with a vast ideality, and lighted with eyes which
were deep and severe, gentle or malicious, according to the
circumstances; the lower part wry and sarcastic. A mouth cold and
calculating and pursed up, was cut slantingly into a face beneath an
imperious nose, and above a chin which projected like the menace of a
conquering will.”
HOW THE WIZARD CHANGED OPERA
When Wagner reached his full power, he composed drama rather than opera
in the old sense.
His music explained the words and action and expressed the state of mind
of the character.
The melodies are used very much like the theme in a sonata. These
leit-motifs (leading motives) are usually carried, as we told you, in
the weavings of his wonderful orchestral webs. This theme or leit-motif
or name tag, is tossed from instrument to instrument in numberless
entrancing ways. Sometimes he uses a flickering theme for flames as in
the fire music of _The Valkyrie_ or glorious chimes or trumpetings as in
_Parsifal_ to cast a holy spell; but, whatever he uses, he charms and
holds you spellbound.
He combines the counterpoint of the 16th century masters, with a most
modern feeling for harmony, inherited from the classic Germans. He used
harmony in a new way with a freedom it never before had reached, and
pointed the way for modern composers of today.
As the Wizard, Wagner throws a glamor over the most mystic happening, as
when Siegmund, in _Die Valkyrie_, withdraws the Sword from the tree; or
in the most commonplace fact as when Eva tells Hans Sachs that she has a
nail in her shoe. In _The Meistersinger_, you can always tell that he is
making fun of Beckmesser, because his name tag shows him to be petty and
ridiculous.
Although Wagner’s music is rich, very clear to us and beautiful, in his
day it seemed complicated and discordant, because of its great volume
and sonority, the result of the perfect part-writing.
For the first time, he makes the brasses of equal importance to the
string and wind instruments. It is thrilling to hear the trombones and
his beautiful use of trumpets. He used many of Berlioz’s ideas in
muffling horns and added new instruments, too, among them, the bass
clarinet and the English horn (_cor anglais_), which is a tenor oboe and
not a horn at all!
Wagner had a beautiful way of dividing up the parts for violins and
other instruments into smaller choirs which answered each other and with
which he could get special effects. For example, the Prelude of
_Lohengrin_ is probably the nearest thing in shimmering music to what
the angels must play, so heavenly is it. Here he divides the violins
into many parts and it is far more beautiful than if they all played the
same thing. Thus, he gave more value to the instruments and greatly
improved the orchestra.
His preludes in which you hear the leading motives or name tags, are a
table of contents for what follows.
Wagner did not use tricks of decoration like Meyerbeer nor did he give
show-off pieces for his singers’ benefit. His idea was to use sincere
musical speech to tell the story and not one bit did he care how hard
the singer worked to carry out his idea.
Wagner, above all, was a dramatist, choosing lofty and noble themes of
heroic and ideal subjects in which his imagination could play. He loved
the sublime and the great spectacle.
The chief interest of Wagner’s opera is in the orchestra which carries
the theme webs. He used neither the folk song in its simple beauty nor
accepted classic arias which could be taken out and sung. His song is
often declaimed and appears not to sing with the orchestra, for the
voices are used as instruments and not to show off vocal skill. Yet,
Liszt was quick to take out from the operas and transcribe for piano the
Fire Music, the Ride of the Valkyrie and many others which we now sing
and whistle.
Finally, Wagner by his example has given courage to the man of ideas, if
he will believe in himself and work without ceasing.
CHAPTER XXVI
More Opera Makers—Verdi and Meyerbeer to Our Day
After reading about the feats of the Wizard it is not surprising that he
had many followers,—those who openly claimed to take him for an example,
and others who did not realize how much they received from him and would
not like to have been called his followers!
VERDI—THE GRAND OLD MAN OF ITALY
After following the Italian methods of writing opera and having become a
very famous composer, Verdi received inspiration from Wagner in the last
three or four years of his very long life. He was much loved and it is
difficult to tell whether it was his operas or his beautiful character
which prompted the affection. He was called “the Grand Old Man of
Italy.” A national hero was he, and the Italians’ idol. Praise and
flattery did not make him proud but spurred him to work through trouble
and good fortune, and so he became one of the greatest opera writers. He
was born a few months after Wagner, in the village of Roncole near
Parma, and his life was interesting, for he lived at the time when opera
was popular and was going through the Wagner upheaval which spread all
over Europe.
He had a unique chance to make opera more important in Italy, and
succeeded in giving it a new impetus, even though in the beginning his
popular things followed popular patterns.
VERDI AND THE ORGAN GRINDER
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) was the son of an innkeeper and, as a little
boy, showed marked musical talent. He was a good obedient little fellow,
but always rather melancholy in character and never joined the village
boys in their noisy amusements. “One thing only could rouse him from his
habitual indifference, and that was the occasional passing through the
village of an organ grinder. To the child, who in after years was to
afford an inexhaustible repertory to those instruments for half a
century all over the world, this was an irresistible attraction. He
could not be kept indoors, and would follow the strolling player as far
as his little legs could carry him.” (Grove’s Dictionary.)
Who has not heard the _Miserere_ from _Il Trovatore_ played, all out of
tune, by an Italian organ grinder who sends a little monkey around with
a cup to gather in the pennies? We remember an organ grinder in San
Francisco who ground out the _Miserere_. Each year or two that we
returned there were more of the notes missing. Ten years later, the
performance was quite “toothless” and sounded very funny.
All his life, Verdi kept a little spinet that his father bought for him
in 1820. We see him then, at seven, deep in musical study and at ten he
was the organist of Roncole, going to school in Busseto, a nearby town.
One night when he was walking the three miles to go back to Busseto
after church, the poor little fellow was so weary that he missed the
road and fell into a canal, narrowly escaping death! Is it not splendid
that his village appreciated his talent and gave him a scholarship which
made it possible for him to go to Milan to continue his musical studies!
HIS OPERAS
He did not compose an opera until 1839 when his _Oberto_ in the style of
Bellini was produced in Milan with such success that he received orders
to write three more from which he gained much good-will and fame.
It must have been a thrilling time for opera writers, because Wagner was
composing, too, and you know the great excitement he caused. Amidst this
interesting whirl of opinion, Verdi wrote one of the operas ordered by
the Milan director, and during this time he was sorely stricken by the
deaths of his wife and two lovely children. Besides this, his opera
failed and in his discouragement the poor young man made up his mind to
give up composition. However, a rare good friend coaxed him back to his
work after a little rest, and he produced his successful _Nebucco_
(_Nebuchadnezzar_) (1842), _I Lombardi_ the next year and his well known
_Ernani_ (1844). In this, his first period, he used as models, Bellini
and men of his type, not writing anything startlingly new.
In his second period he wrote operas nearly as fast as we write school
compositions, and among the famous things are _Rigoletto_ (1851), _Il
Trovatore_, _La Traviata_ (story from Dumas’ _Camille_ or _Dame aux
Camelias_), (1853), and _The Masked Ball_ (1859). _Ernani and Rigoletto_
are founded on stories by Victor Hugo. The first performance of _La
Traviata_ in Venice was a failure due more to the performers, than to
the opera itself which still crowds opera houses of the world.
The greatest opera of his third period is _Aida_ (1871), one of Verdi’s
masterpieces. An opera on an Egyptian subject was ordered by the Khedive
of Egypt for the opening of the Italian Opera House in Cairo, for which
Verdi received $20,000. Mariette Bey a famous Egyptologist made the
first sketch in order to give the right local atmosphere to the
libretto. Curiosity ran so high that every seat was sold before the
first night and it was a great success. Think how electrified the
audience must have been by the tenor solo, “Celeste Aida,” one of
Caruso’s greatest successes; by the realistic Nile scene; the voice of
the priestess in the mammoth Egyptian temple, and the famous march with
trumpets made specially for it!
Dear old lovable Verdi was a wise man as well as an accomplished
composer. He used more modern methods in _Aida_ to hold audiences who
were hearing about Wagner and his startling innovations.
Other operas of this third period were _La Forza del Destino_ and one
given at the Paris Grand Opera, _Don Carlos_, which was not up to his
standard. Until this time he showed great mechanical skill and a sense
of color and melody. The great singers have revelled in the operas of
his second period. In our day Marcella Sembrich, Nellie Melba, Frieda
Hempel, Luisa Tetrazzini, Amelita Galli-Curci, Florence Macbeth and many
others have sung the coloratura,—frilly, soaring, gymnastic-singing,
still very popular. However in _Aida_, Verdi departed much from the
usual, and people said that he was copying Wagner, because they didn’t
know the difference between the influences which change a person’s ways,
and imitation.
So he deserted the old models, Auber, Meyerbeer and Halévy for something
more substantial, his deeper and gigantically conceived _Aida_. James
Wolfe of the Metropolitan Opera said of the bigness of this work as
produced at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York: “I have played
before audiences of 30,000 in arenas in Mexico. I am so at home in the
opera that I do cross-word puzzles waiting for my cue, and yet at the
Metropolitan when I first played the King in _Aida_ with its flaming
music, its hundreds of people and its scores of horses, I was over-awed
and frightened!”
After this, Verdi’s splendid mass, _The Requiem_, was written for the
death of the Italian hero Manzoni. In it he approaches the German school
in depth and seriousness, veering away from the emptiness of Italian
writing.
In his last efforts he seems definitely influenced by Wagner; for, with
his _Otello_ and _Falstaff_ we find a new Verdi, surpassing in form and
sincere melody anything that he had done. He was very fortunate to have
Arrigo Boito, his friend, to write librettos based on Shakespeare’s
_Othello_ and _Merry Wives of Windsor_. When _Falstaff_ was given in New
York (1925) a young American baritone, Lawrence Tibbet, in the rôle of
Ford, flashed into fame.
Verdi was a man of the people, loving Italy and being loved in return, a
master of voice, ready to take good suggestions to improve his work,
always kind, high-minded, and generous. He knew the orchestra and wrote
for it in a way that not only gave, in his last three masterpieces, a
new flavor to Italian opera, but led the way for future composers.
BOITO AND HIS “MEFISTOFELE”
Arrigo Boito (1842–1918), journalist, poet, and composer sprang into
prominence with his _Mefistofele_, in which the Russian singer,
Chaliapin, has attracted huge audiences at the Metropolitan. When it was
first given in Italy, the audiences missed the coloratura arias, and the
critics were very hard on the young composer. So he went back to
journalism for many years. His next opera _Nero_ has a gory plot, but is
real and not embroidered as were most of the Italian operas. Boito had
studied in Germany and had absorbed much of the realism and truthfulness
that Gluck and Wagner, taught. _Nero_ had an elaborate first performance
(1924) by the celebrated Arturo Toscanini, one of the greatest living
conductors, at _La Scala_ in Milan. It is a tremendous stage spectacle,
surpassing in scenic effect many of the older melodramas.
“CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA” AND “I PAGLIACCI”
In 1890 the first truly realistic opera was written in Italy. A prize
was offered by the publisher Sonzogno and an unknown man, Pietro
Mascagni, won it with _Cavalleria Rusticana_ (_Rustic Chivalry_). He was
born in 1863, the son of a baker. He was a musical boy, but his father
wished him to be a lawyer, so he had to work at the piano in secret. One
day when he had been locked up by his father who did not want him to
practise, he was discovered by his uncle, who sympathized with him and
took him to Count Florestan, who helped the young musician to study in
Milan.
Mascagni’s work in _Cavalleria Rusticana_ was vivid and he used both the
old and the new style of writing. It is full of the most entrancing
melody (the Intermezzo, the Brindisi, or drinking song, and Santuzza’s
aria, _Voi lo sapete_). He also wrote _Iris_ and _Amico Fritz_, which
never equalled _Cavalleria_.
With Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858–) it was different, for only after
writing a number of operas did he produce a success in the world-famous
_I Pagliacci_. He wrote the tragic story of these strolling players as
well as the music, which is not as popular in style as _Cavalleria_, but
it is superbly put together and very dramatic. As these operas are both
short, they are often performed together. The rôle of Canio (_I
Pagliacci_) was one of Caruso’s masterpieces. How wonderful to think
that his voice has been preserved for the future generations through his
records of which _Ridi Pagliaccio_ (_Laugh Clown_) is one of the finest.
It is generally admitted that Caruso’s voice was the most glorious of
our age, and certainly there was no artist more idolized than he. In
this same opera Antonio Scotti’s performance of the famous Prologue is
equally beautiful.
GIORDANO
Umberto Giordano (1867) goes into peculiar realms for subjects for his
operas. He uses local political intrigues and literature for his themes,
and is known especially for his _André Chenier_ and _Fedora_ which are
given in many opera houses of the world. In _Siberia_ he uses folk songs
of Russia. He has recently set _The Jest_ by Sem Benelli librettist of
_L’Amore dei Tre Re_ (_The Love of Three Kings_) by Italo Montemezzi.
PUCCINI THE POPULAR IDOL
Now we come to a delightful opera maker, Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). He
is the greatest modern Italian with the exception of Verdi. He has a
distinctive touch that gives him individuality. He keeps a nice balance
between voice, orchestra and melody. His music is always full of color
and feeling. His themes, for the most part, touch the heart and have
gained wide popularity.
His first opera was _Manon Lescaut_, the same story which Massenet used
in his delightful opera _Manon_; _La Bohème_ is his next and is often
said to be his best. It is a tale of artist life in the Latin Quarter of
Paris and is full of romance, color, gaiety and sadness. His story is
taken from Murger’s _Vie de Bohème_, which was a fortunate choice.
_Madame Butterfly_ is another of his glittering successes. It has a
decided Japanese flavor in its musical phrases. It is based on a story
by John Luther Long, which was made into a play by David Belasco.
Butterfly was one of Geraldine Farrar’s loveliest rôles.
_Tosca_, in which Farrar, Caruso and Scotti made a famous trio, is a
blood curdling drama of murder, cruelty and love, full of music which
mirrors the story. The libretto was taken from Victorien Sardou’s _La
Tosca_, a celebrated drama in which the “divine Sarah” (Bernhardt) made
one of her most brilliant successes.
He uses interesting little musical devices which make it easy to
recognize a Puccini piece, and his music has charm. It is built on
Italian tradition but is distinctly of the 19th century. He enjoyed the
greatest popularity of his day, and there have been few, excepting
perhaps Verdi and Wagner, whose operas have been so well known. His
beautiful melody, piquant airs, fine rhythms, clever orchestration and
humanness of plot, make Puccini very often touch the edge of _opéra
comique_. Although he uses a musical phrase over and over again, it is
not like the Wagner _leit-motif_. There are no concerted finales or
clearly defined stopping places as there used to be in earlier operas.
So you see, Puccini profited by Wagner and Verdi.
His _Girl of the Golden West_, a California story of the days of ’49,
had its world première (first production) at the Metropolitan Opera
House (1910). For some time Puccini had been looking for a libretto for
a new opera. While in New York, to be present at the Metropolitan
production of _Madame Butterfly_, he was also searching for material in
the hope of finding an American story. Again David Belasco came to his
aid. His own _Girl of the Golden West_, a picturesque play, was being
given and he invited Puccini to see it. He was interested and turned it
into an opera. The rehearsals at the Metropolitan were most interesting
with Puccini and Belasco working together. Emmy Destinn and Caruso sang
the leading rôles.
It is realistic, dramatic, beautiful in parts, and not written for
coloratura exhibitions! But when it was produced it proved too Italian
for Americans and too American for the Italians, so Puccini was
disappointed in its lack of success.
Puccini’s operas, as well as Verdi’s and others, have a new popularity,
that of the mechanical player audience, the gramophone and playerpiano.
WOLF-FERRARI AND “THE JEWELS OF THE MADONNA”
One of the most delightfully witty opera writers is Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
(1876), son of a German father and Italian mother, and writer of _The
Secret of Suzanne_ (her secret was that she smoked!) a very droll and
amusing story. He is musical grandchild to Mozart, so delicately does he
sketch and so charming is his melody. If you hear his operas, including
the tragic and exciting but beautiful _The Jewels of the Madonna_, you
will certainly say that he can make more out of a little, than almost
anyone. With a small orchestra he seems to work miracles, and his
melodies are gracious and his rhythms captivating.
MONTEMEZZI VISITS AMERICA
Whether it was Lucrezia Bori (Spanish soprano) or Montemezzi who made
_L’Amore dei Tre Re_ (_The Love of Three Kings_) so entrancing, is hard
to say. Here is lovely music flowing on endlessly! It is rich and deep;
the voice is handled delightfully, and the orchestration is masterly and
beautiful throughout. _The Love of Three Kings_ is real music drama and
few other operas have so fine a libretto.
Montemezzi with his American wife paid a visit to America (1925) and was
fittingly received at the Metropolitan Opera House where Edward Johnson
and Lucrezia Bori delighted people with the lovely opera.
Some of the other modern names in Italy are Giovanni Sgambati
(instrumental pieces); Giuseppi Martucci (instrumental pieces); Marco
Enrico Bossi, a famous Italian organist whose visit to this country in
1925 ended tragically, as he died on the boat on his way home, and
Buongiorno, Eugenio di Parani and Franchetti, and Amilcare Ponchielli
(1834–1886), composer of _La Giaconda_.
Now let us turn to what France has done in opera in the second half of
the 19th century.
FRENCH OPERA
When Meyerbeer was musical czar of Paris, we see not only Wagner in
France, but six other important composers. Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
was a tone poet; Charles Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896), Charles François
Gounod (1818–1893), and Georges Bizet (1838–1875) were opera writers;
Charles Camille Saint-Saëus (1835–1921) was a composer of concertos,
piano and chamber music and of one famous opera; and César Franck the
Belgian (1822–1890) who lived in Paris, although not an opera writer,
influenced the composers of opera who lived after him.
_Mignon_ came from the heart of one of these, Ambroise Thomas, winner of
the _Prix de Rome_, and in 1871 the director of the Paris Conservatory.
He wrote several works, among them a successful opera _Hamlet_, yet none
have done as much for his reputation as _Mignon_.
Félicien David (1810–1876) is known for his symphonic poem _Le Desert_
and his _Laila Rookh_, an opera which was given at the _Opéra Comique_.
Another well known name is Benjamin Godard (1849–1895). Do you remember
the _Berceuse_ from his opera _Jocelyn_? He wrote _Le Dante_ and _La
Vivandière_ and many salon pieces for young students of the piano.
GOUNOD’S “FAUST”
_Faust_, in connection with music, makes us think of Gounod. Gounod was
born in Paris and showed musical ability when a boy. He was graduated
from the Conservatory and won the _Prix de Rome_ (1837).
His interest always seemed to be in religious music for he went to Italy
to study Palestrina and Bach. His study resembled a church for it had
stained glass windows and an organ, and furnishings which gave it a
religious atmosphere. After he returned from Rome he studied for the
priesthood but soon gave it up.
Gounod’s musical training was very broad for at first he was influenced
by Rossini, Weber and Mozart, and later by Bach and Palestrina.
His _Messe Solennelle_ (_Solemn Mass_) was given in 1861 and his _Faust_
in 1859. This is considered to be one of the most tuneful operas written
in the 19th century, and packs opera houses all over the world. His
_Romeo and Juliette_, though not as popular is still given and his
_Médecin Malgré Lui_ (_Doctor in Spite of Himself_) (from Molière’s
play), “is a gem of refined setting” says Clarence Hamilton.
Among his other operas are _Philemon and Baucis_, _La Reine de Saba_
(_The Queen of Sheba_) both inferior to _Faust_.
During the Franco-Prussian war he lived in London where he produced his
oratorios _The Redemption_ and _Mors et Vita_ (_Death and Life_) with
his Gounod Choir, and held in England a somewhat similar place to Handel
and Mendelssohn, for he, too, had many disciples.
He was a master of beautiful melody and instrumentation.
There is a new school in Paris whose slogan is, “Back to Gounod” in
order to recapture his way of writing melody!
EVERYBODY LOVES “CARMEN”
In Georges Bizet we see a man of genius who produced but one great work.
To be sure he lived only thirty-seven years, two years longer than
Mozart with his hundreds of pieces, yet Bizet is of great importance in
French opera and is looked upon by musicians as a man of rare power, and
he is loved by everyone for his marvelous _Carmen_. Louis Gruenberg, the
American composer, said, “I have looked in vain for a flaw in _Carmen_
but it is perfection throughout. It is the one opera in the world that
wins both musicians and the masses alike, and it disarms criticism.”
Emma Calvé will always be remembered as Carmen, for she not only sang
the part with its intense melody and Spanish color, but she lived it on
the stage.
Bizet is an amazing orchestral tone painter, and one of the greatest of
all opera writers.
The story of _Carmen_ is taken from a novel of Prosper Mérimée and is
full of the sun, the shadows, the fascinating dances, the bull fight and
the romance which belong particularly to Spain. _Carmen_ is an _opéra
comique_, for in the original version as played in Paris it has spoken
dialogue.
His other things full of charm are _Jeux d’enfants_, four-hand pieces,
the _Arlesienne Suite_ (dances) so pictureful and emotional. It is used
as ballet sometimes for _Carmen_.
Bizet was not appreciated and at first _Carmen_ was a failure, but many
geniuses ahead of their time have shared the same fate.
[Illustration:
_After a painting by Giacometti._
_Georges Bizet._
]
[Illustration:
_Vincent d’Indy._
]
[Illustration:
_Camille Saint-Saëns._
]
[Illustration:
_Jules Massenet._
]
[Illustration:
_Gustave Charpentier._
]
_French Composers of the 19th Century._
It seems quite reasonable that after all the experiences France has been
through in the early and middle 19th century she should now blossom out,
not with remodelled Italian opera, but with her own opera and her own
ways of writing music.
The two influences were without doubt from César Franck and Bizet whose
sincerity not only influenced musicians but rather quickly gained the
public. The third influence was of course, Wagner, who, though he
infuriated many, gained followers for his theories everywhere that his
music was heard. In France, Reyer and Chabrier were both Wagner
enthusiasts and did much to bring him finally into the Paris Opera House
a little before the 20th century (adapted from _The Art of Music_). Out
of these influences came a fine group of gifted composers,—d’Indy,
Dukas, Charpentier and others.
Ernest Reyer (1823–1909), who was an ardent follower of Wagner, had a
hard time because of the new harmonies he used. His last opera
_Salammbo_ is better known to us than the others, and his works are
still played in Paris at the Grand Opera.
A man famous as composer of the tone poem, _España_, Emmanuel Chabrier
(1841–1894) must come in here, for at the time of his death he was
writing a most interesting opera, _Briseis_, which was finished by his
pupils. The day before he died Robert Louis Stevenson stopped in the
middle of a sentence, in his novel _The Weir of Hermiston_, one of his
best. The first woman to receive the _Prix de Rome_ in France, Lili
Boulanger (1892–1918) did much of her composing in bed during her last
illness; her devoted sister Nadia, a prominent musician in Paris, and
had received the second _Prix de Rome_, finished the deathbed works. And
did we not see Mozart finishing his _Requiem_ on the last day of his
life? Illness and impending death seem not to matter to men and women
who have genius.
This group was striking out for something new, and was influenced by
Wagner’s theories, Franck’s return to the old classic style, the Russian
school, the re-action against Wagner and the renewed interest in
orchestral concerts in Paris (adapted from C. G. Hamilton).
SAINT-SAËNS—THE CHILD PRODIGY AND OCTOGENARIAN
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) wrote in all styles from classic to the
newest of program music. He is another who gave concerts before he was
twelve years old; he studied at the Conservatory, lived in Paris as a
composer, organist and pianist, was a learned man and a very good
musical critic. Later in life he lived in Algiers, which accounts for
the oriental touch in his music. He journeyed over much of the world and
we heard him in Carnegie Hall, on his last trip to this country in 1915,
on his way to the San Francisco exposition where he played the organ and
conducted his opera _Samson and Delilah_. He played some of his most
technically difficult pieces when he was in his eighties. He wrote some
symphonies, some descriptive symphonic poems, _Le Rouet D’Omphale_,
_Phæton_, _Dance Macabre_ (very weird and rhythmic) and others. Out of
five, his G minor is the most brilliant piano concerto.
He is best known for his opera _Samson and Delilah_ which is carried
into fame by the two arias, _My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice_ and _Love Come
to My Aid_. This last is of the finest lyric writing in French opera and
the first is surpassingly emotional. The choral parts (often sounding
like early Hebrew music) show a real master at work, and the effect of
the whole is very dramatic, whether sung as oratorio or opera.
It is not as an opera writer, however, that Saint-Saëns wished to go
down to history for he threw his whole strength into trying to make the
French public know and love the classics. Paul Landormy says: “From the
historic point of view, Saint-Saëns is a notable figure. Saint-Saëns is
the French Mendelssohn.... He undertook the musical education of France
at the exact moment when Berlioz despaired of succeeding with the task,
and he prepared the public for the great French School of symphonists
which arose toward the end of the 19th century.”
In 1871 Saint-Saëns was made president of the newly formed National
Society of Music of which you will read later.
The ballet was used to advantage by Clement Philibert Léo Délibes
(1836–1891) a master of this form of music and dance. He built up a
certain atmosphere that is particularly French. His ballets, _Coppelia_
and _Sylvia_ and his opera _Lakmé_ are conventional and very popular.
_Lakmé_ is _opéra comique_ because of the spoken words and of its
romantic character. Délibes always has a certain delicacy of color, and
charm which captivates.
Another composer who writes in an exotic vein (or an
out-of-the-nation-to-which-he-belongs way, with all the color of the
other nation in costumes and scenes) is Edouard Victor Antoine Lalo
(1823–1892). Lalo was trained to sincerity by his models, Beethoven,
Schubert and Schumann. This does not mean copying, for his music is not
anything like the music of these men. He skilfully drew a variety of
effects from his orchestration, and his music has individuality. His
best known work in opera is _Le Roi d’Ys_. He also wrote a work for
violin and orchestra _Symphonie Espagnole_ which is a pet of all the
violinists because of its brilliancy and beauty.
MASSENET
Jules Massenet (1842–1912) was something like a modern French Meyerbeer
and an Offenbach combined, yet his work is far more worth while. Before
he died he was at the height of his popularity in Europe and America,
and the repertory of the Hammerstein Opera in New York included many of
Massenet’s works. He composed operas so rapidly that his public could
not forget him!
He built on Gounod and Ambroise Thomas and gained much from Wagner. He
used continuous melody and some of the principles of the leit-motif.
Wagner’s music compared to Massenet’s was thick for Massenet’s is thin!
Whether Massenet will always remain popular is a question. His operas
are engaging and clever, and he knew how to write theatre music to
please the public. The most important of his operas (about fifteen), are
_Manon_ and _Le Jongleur de Notre Dame_. The title parts of both were
sung by the brilliant Mary Garden, in this country. (See Chapter VIII.)
_Manon_ ranks second to the _Jongleur_. You know, too, the Meditation
from _Thäis_, another of his popular successes. It was written for Sybil
Sanderson, an American singer, in Paris. Massenet’s operas did not show
his tremendous knowledge of counterpoint, of which he was professor at
the Conservatory. His position was later filled by André Gédalge who has
taught most of the composers of today. Gédalge is also the composer of
some very fine symphonies, sonatas and an extraordinary _Treatise on the
Fugue_.
Other writers of this period are Xavier Leroux (1863–1919), Gabriel
Pierné, born the same year, composer of a delightful oratorio,
_Children’s Crusade_. He is now conductor of the Colonne Orchestra in
Paris. André Messager, born ten years before these two is the composer
of some very charming light operas of which _Veronique_ is the best
known. There are also the great organists Charles Marie Widor (1845)
with ten organ symphonies and many other works, and Alexandre Guilmant
(1837–1911), a great organist who came to America while one of the
writers of this book (Ethel Peyser) was at Vassar College, where he
inaugurated the new organ.
FOLLOWERS OF CÉSAR FRANCK
Although César Franck was not a successful opera writer, he influenced
composers by showing how to combine modern harmony successfully with the
classic form.
Among the many César Franck’s revival of the classic style influenced
are Gabriel Pierné, Henri Duparc (1848), and Ernest Chausson
(1855–1899), Franck’s pupils. Chausson was first known through _Helen_,
a three-act opera and _Le Roi Arthus_, which show what he might have
accomplished had not an accident caused his death. Besides the operas he
wrote beautiful chamber music, orchestral works and songs. His _Poem_
for violin is full of gentle, yet deep feeling. All his work has veiled
mystery and is very lovely.
The most important pupil of César Franck is Vincent d’Indy (1851), one
of the most important figures in France. He founded, with Charles Bordes
and Guilmant, the organist, the _Schola Cantorum_, and revived interest
in sacred music. He has been in this country and is admired for his
symphonic works, his operas _Fervaal_ and _L’Étranger_ (_The Stranger_),
piano pieces and chamber music. One of his symphonic poems, _Istar_, was
made into a ballet for Mme. Ida Rubenstein and was performed for the
first time at the Grand Opera in Paris, in 1924.
Alfred Bruneau (1857) links the Wagner period with Debussy’s. His operas
are rarely given outside of Paris. His manner was new and caused much
discussion. He based many of his plots on Émile Zola’s writings, and was
conductor of the _Opéra Comique_. _The Attack on the Mill_ was given in
America.
CHARPENTIER’S “LOUISE”
Gustav Charpentier (1869) comes next. He made his name with the
delightful opera about the dressmaker apprentice _Louise_, a musical
novel on the life in Montmartre, one of the artist quarters of Paris.
Charpentier wrote the book, which was the story of his own life. He also
wrote its sequel _Julien_. No one who has ever been in Paris fails to be
deeply stirred by this picture of the simple home life of the
_midinette_ or sewing girl. Mary Garden created the part of Louise in
America and it was the first rôle of her operatic career. In one scene,
you hear the almost forgotten street cries of Paris. He has also written
a charming work for orchestra, _Impressions of Italy_, which is the
result of his having won the _Prix de Rome_ in his youth.
This brings us up to the 20th century to which we shall devote an entire
chapter. But in order to finish our story of French opera, we will
merely introduce you to Claude Achille Debussy, the ultra-modern
harmonist and weaver of mystery and beauty, who ushered in the 20th
century with his lovely and enchanting opera, _Pelleas and Melisande_
written on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. For ten years the composer
worked over this masterpiece, and it was produced for the first time at
the _Opéra Comique_, in Paris in 1902. Here we find something that never
had been before,—opera completely separated from all the old ideas of
what opera should be. But in tearing down the old, Debussy gave
something very rare, beautiful, sensitive, touching a very high artistic
peak, in its place. This was pure impressionism in music, just what
romanticism was to the early 19th century. This carries the French
School to its highest degree of mystic beauty.
Coming later than Debussy’s opera are Maurice Ravel’s _L’Heure
Espagnole_ (_The Spanish Hour_), Henri Rabaud’s _Marouf_, Paul Dukas’
_Ariane et Barbe Bleue_, also a Maeterlinck libretto and second only to
_Pelleas and Melisande_ in atmospheric charm, Albert Roussel’s
_Padmavati_, an Oriental opera, that has been produced very recently at
the Grand Opera in Paris, and Florent Schmitt’s _Le Petit Elfe Ferme
l’Oeil_ (_The little elf winks its eye_) presented at the _Opéra
Comique_ in 1924.
HUMPERDINCK—THE FAIRY TALE MAN—GERMANY
Outside of the operas of Richard Strauss, of which we have written
elsewhere, there have been few outstanding opera writers in Germany
since Wagner. Among those are Ludwig Thuille (1861–1907), whose
_Lobetanz_ was given at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1911; Eugene
d’Albert (1864), who has lived in Germany most of his life, although he
was born in Scotland, and wrote the lovely _Tiefland_ which was
performed in America; Max Schillings (1868), whose _Mona Lisa_ was
performed at the Metropolitan; Hans Pfitzner (1869), who wrote an
operatic legend based on Palestrina; Siegfried Wagner (1869), son of
Richard; and Leo Blech (1871).
The one great exception was Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921), born in
Bonn, Beethoven’s birthplace. He is perhaps closer to the hearts of
children than any one else who ever wrote music. This seems much to say,
but when you hear that it was he who wrote that beautiful little fairy
story _Hansel and Gretel_, we are sure you will agree. The San Carlo
Opera Company has given special performances of it in English. Would it
not be nice if operas were given in the language you best understand?
You would then find out for yourselves that this is the story of _Babes
in the Woods_. How fine it would have been too, if you had been able to
hear in your own language the other opera written by Humperdinck! This
was _Koenigskinder_ (_Children of the King_), which gave one of the
loveliest rôles to Geraldine Farrar, and brought a large flock of real
geese on the stage to take part in the performance. The other name of
the opera is _The Goose-Girl_, which explains the presence of the geese.
Geraldine Farrar always brought one or two with her when she
acknowledged the applause and there was always an awful squawk! In this
opera too, there is a horrid old Witch. Humperdinck found joy and
inspiration in the folk music of Germany, much of which deals with
fairies, elves, witches and inhabitants of the world of imagination.
Humperdinck was a great musician and he had the honor of being asked to
prepare the score of _Parsifal_ for the publishers.
Because of the beauties of his melodies, the lovely subjects he selected
and his sympathy with the finer and higher things of life, it is a pity
that Humperdinck left so few works.
He was attracted to the theatre and wrote much music as theatre music
for plays. This is called incidental music, that is, it is incidental
and the play’s the thing! Just before he died Humperdinck wrote the
incidental music for the _Miracle_ which is a great spectacle in
pantomime. This means that there is no speaking, only tableaux and
acting. He did not live to finish it, but it was completed by his son,
for the production made by Max Reinhardt.
CHAPTER XXVII
Some Tone Poets
Probably you think that any music on a program is program music! Of
course it is, but not in the special use of the word, for when it is
program music, it has a story of its own and has to be described in more
or less detail so that the audience can understand what it is about.
Therefore, we find two classes of music—_absolute music_, which needs no
story to explain it, and—_program music_, which does. Beethoven’s best
works are known by their opus number while most of Schumann’s have
descriptive titles. Early composers sometimes wrote music describing or
imitating something, like Daquin’s _Cuckoo_, Jannequin’s _Battle of
Marignan_, _The Carman’s Whistle_, etc. These pieces were program music
in a way, but the modern tone poets went further by writing music with
rather extended stories and with music not as simple as it used to be,
but nevertheless an outgrowth of ballad form, sonata and the symphony.
Suppose you wanted to write a tone poem! First you must have a subject
and then you must write music to explain it. Let us say you were going
to write a Subway Tone Poem, your program notes might read something
like this: The hero rushes away from his office, into the hurrying,
scurrying street, down the slippery, crowded subway steps, and when he
reaches the noisy turnstile slips in his fare and meets his young lady.
He leads her through the crowd, protecting her from the jostling mob.
Then they enter the train and above the noise and bustle they cast sweet
glances at each other and converse. The train stops occasionally and
finally they get off at their station. They walk to her home, along an
empty side street where it is quiet and charming. He doffs his cap and
we leave them, both thinking lovely things about each other.
Don’t you think you’re ready now to write a tone poem?
BERLIOZ, INNOVATOR
Up to Hector Berlioz’ time (1803–1869), there was no definite attempt to
write a tone poem with an elaborate story. This man, one of the most
complicated in musical history, did much to help music and future
musicians, for he started to tell stories in music without scenery or
dialogues.
He was born near Lyons, France, the son of a doctor who wanted him to
study medicine, but as he almost fainted several times in the dissecting
room, he gave it up. This was his first rebellion and all his life he
struggled against nearly everything that existed. His was a noble
discontent in many ways, for he believed deeply in his own ideas and
suffered much putting them into practice. He lived shortly after the
French Revolution when everything was topsy-turvy. Many of the old
things that people had looked upon with reverence had vanished and he
tried, as other young men of his day, to forge new ideas according to
his sense of right.
One day he saw some musical score paper and realized in a moment, what
wonderful things might be done with it and exclaimed: “What an
orchestral work one might write on that!” and quite suddenly, he decided
to write music! He could only play the guitar, the flute and the
flageolet and knew practically nothing of harmony. He certainly paid
well for his decision, for he had a hard struggle with himself and
circumstances.
He took one of his compositions to Professor Lesueur at the Paris
Conservatory, and was admitted.
BERLIOZ VERSUS CHERUBINI
Cherubini, Director of the Conservatory, made a rule that men and women
should use separate doors leading into the library. Not knowing this
rule, Berlioz entered by the door reserved for the women and sat down to
read a score of his beloved Gluck. Cherubini, thin, pale-faced, with
tousled hair and fiercely shining eyes, came up to Hector and
reprimanded him for breaking the rule. They had a noisy fight, chasing
in and out among the desks and when Berlioz reached the door, he looked
back at Cherubini and called out: “I am soon coming back to study Gluck
again.” Being a determined boy, he did come back, but Cherubini, on whom
his future depended, was his staunch enemy for life.
His parents were infuriated with Hector for his conduct in and out of
school. His mother, a pious woman, practically disowned him and his
father gave him but a small allowance with the stipulation that unless
he could soon prove his ability in music, he should have to go back to
medicine. So he tried desperately to earn money, by singing in choruses,
playing the flute and teaching, hoping that he could win the _Prix de
Rome_, which would give him a few years in Rome and three thousand
francs. After terrific opposition by Cherubini and held back, too, by
his own lack of diplomacy, either by submitting works that were written
too poorly or too well, he lost many chances for the prize and finally,
after four attempts, he won the coveted award with his cantata
_Sardanapalus_. The amusing thing about this is, that he left out the
parts then looked upon as modern, and difficult, which would have lost
him the prize, but the first time it was played in public, he put them
all in, and the piece was successful.
Then he fell in love, and after much posing and strutting about and
foolish behavior, he married the young Irish actress, Harriet Smithson.
They were very unhappy and unfortunate, but he was good to her and even
gave up composing to earn a living by writing, and he proved an
exceptionally gifted writer and critic.
His autobiography, too, is most interesting for he sees himself as a
romantic hero and tells the tale with great dramatic energy and
exaggeration.
WITH INTENT TO MURDER!
At one time he was engaged to another woman who was unkind to him and he
wrote: “Two tears of rage started from my eyes and my mind was made up
on the spot to kill without mercy.” But being impetuous and quick
tempered, he never reached the scene of murder, for, when about to sail
to where she was, he either fell or jumped into the water, which very
much dampened his ardor for killing.
One night, Chopin and Schumann followed him because he had threatened to
kill himself. But, at the crucial moment Berlioz changed his mind!
Life for Berlioz was a drama in which he was the leading man, and he
watched his own performance, as if he were a part of the audience. He
craved novelty at every turn. He was sensitive, high-strung and vain,
and yet withal, he had the dignity of being loyal to his beliefs in
himself, and did not want to deceive anybody. He wrote with humor,
brilliancy and understanding, he had faith in his work, and was
sufficiently heroic to stick to his course whatever the cost. He was a
martyr, for he suffered in order to do what he wished in music, and was
never appreciated.
Although he went to England, Germany, Austria and Russia, and was very
successful, Paris, only, interested him. In 1863, his opera _The Trojans
in Carthage_ failed and in 1868, he died, a broken-hearted man.
BERLIOZ’S CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC
It seems strange, but Berlioz disliked Bach and Palestrina and worshiped
Beethoven, Gluck and Weber. He was jealous of Wagner and did everything
he could to make _Tannhäuser_ a failure in Paris.
Berlioz invented new ways, as do our Jazz Bands today, to make the
instruments produce different sounds. He put bags over the horns, hung
up the cymbals and had them struck with sticks instead of clapping them
together, dressed up the drumsticks in sponges, and was much pleased at
the effect made when a trombone played a duet with a piccolo. He made
propaganda for new instruments especially for the horn, invented by
Adolphe Saxe, which was called Sax Horn, and from which descended the
Saxophone, so behold Berlioz, the founder of the Jazz Band!
Where other composers would use four trombones or one, he used sixteen!
In his _Requiem_ for example, he used sixteen trombones, twelve
ophicleides (cornets with extra levers or keys), eight pairs of kettle
drums, two bass drums, a gong and of course, all the regular string and
reed instruments. He boasted after the first performance, that a man had
a fit from the excessive noise!
THE INTIMATE FRIEND OF INSTRUMENTS
He wrote the sort of melody that showed off each particular instrument
to its best advantage. He studied them as if they were human beings, and
he understood their characters and temperaments, what they could do and
at what they would balk. He showed the possibilities of the choirs of
wood wind instruments, a rich heritage for us today. The orchestra
playing a piece of his, directed by him was matchless in its effect.
_Effect_ was the keynote of his writings. As the first great master of
tonal effect, he is unsurpassed, and his book on orchestration is still
one of the most practical text books on the subject.
Berlioz used the _idée fixe_ (fixed idea) or _leit-motif_, not as Wagner
used it later, but quite definitely, twisting a theme in many ways to
bring out different phases of the same subject. Thus, Berlioz founded
the dramatic in music, without scenery and without words, which is the
Symphonic Tone Poem.
The majority of the people did not understand him any more than they
understand Stravinsky today. His greatest work was his _Symphony
Fantastic_ written in 1829, in which he used the _idée fixe_ to tell
about the life of the artist, in true program music style for which he
fought and almost bled. In _Harold in Italy_, he makes a departure by
giving to the viola, the rôle of the “leading lady” which had not been
done up to his day. He often used voices with the orchestra as he did in
his tone poems _Romeo and Juliet_, and _The Damnation of Faust_.
The noisy _Requiem_ is one of the finest things he did, and his
overtures, the best of which is the _Benvenuto Cellini_, are fine works.
The oratorio, _The Infancy of Christ_, written in classic style, was
well received, but his operas never succeeded.
He paved the way for new orchestral effects and prepared the ground for
Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and all the other
orchestral composers. He was a musical Byron, for he was more
interesting than beautiful, more vivid than noble, a sincere _poseur_,
faithful to his ideas and always searching for romance.
[Illustration:
_Hector Berlioz._
(_Father of the Tone Poem._)
]
[Illustration:
_Franz Liszt._
_Sympathetic Teacher, Composer, Pianist and Friend to Young
Musicians._
]
He was well versed in literature, always carried Virgil in his pocket,
and loved and admired Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron, Walter Scott and other
great writers on whose works he based many compositions. In his
fascinating autobiography, he said, “The dominant qualities of my music
are passionate expression, internal fire, rhythmic animation and
unexpected change,” and he was right.
And so we leave this romantic man, craving sensation in his life and in
his music, exaggerated in word and tone, and thank him for what Daniel
Gregory Mason calls, “His contribution to the unresting progress of
art.”
He was not appreciated in Paris until after his death, and some one said
that the stones hurled at him in contempt were soon piled up for him in
the pedestals of his monuments.
FRANZ LISZT
Another Mozart seems about to appear, for Franz Liszt (1811–1886), too,
was an infant prodigy!
He was born in Raiding, Hungary, and his father, Adam Liszt, who was
steward to Prince Esterhazy, gave Franz piano lessons and managed his
first concert tours.
At nine Liszt played in public, then went to Vienna and took lessons
from Carl Czerny and Salieri. When twelve years old he played in Paris
and “set the world on fire” with his brilliancy. Some one said that
after his first concert that he had a triumphal progress to fame over
the laps of great ladies, for he was petted and “bon-bonned” and kissed
by all.
Liszt wanted to go to the Conservatory in Paris, but as he was a
foreigner, Cherubini, though a foreigner himself, would not admit him.
ADVERTISING LISZT
Here is a handbill used for advertising the little boy Liszt:
“AN AIR”
With grand Variations by Herz, will be performed on Erard’s New
Patent-Grand Pianoforte, by:
MASTER LISZT
Who will likewise perform an Extempore Fantasia and respectfully
requests two written Themes from any of the Audience upon which he
will play his Variations
This illustrates two interesting things. The first, the mention of the
_grand pianoforte_, which had not been in use very long; the second, the
fashion in Liszt’s day of improvising before an audience, a “stunt”
almost like solving a cross-word puzzle without a dictionary!
For a long time, he was advertised as two years younger than he was, and
his father carried him to the piano; but he soon rebelled at this
pretense and it was discontinued.
LISZT SHOWS HIS UNSELFISHNESS
After Liszt’s father died in 1827, he gave up concert tours for a while,
and settled down with his mother for eight restful years to study and
teach the piano. Liszt generously gave his mother all the money he had
made in his successful tours because, he said, she had made so many
sacrifices for him. At this time he grew spiritually deeper and well
fitted for the glories to come. Like Berlioz, Liszt was born a short
time after the French Revolution, when new ideas were coming into
literature, religion and art, through which this young and gifted artist
tried to guide himself in a wholesome way that shaped his future life.
Liszt again made concert tours through Europe (1839), and astounded
everyone with his playing and the charm of his personality. Musicians
and audiences were at his feet! He made a great deal of money, too, and
grew so popular that artists painted him, ladies knelt before him in
adoration, tableaux were given in his honor, monuments erected to him
and societies named after him.
His kindness to the poor and needy was unfailing. When Pesth was
inundated by a flood, he sent a generous gift to the sufferers; he
established a fund for the poor in Raiding and completed the necessary
sum for the Beethoven monument at Bonn. He never accepted money for
teaching after he was “grown up” for he wanted to be a help to his some
three hundred pupils. It is said that after 1847 he never gave a concert
for his own benefit! An extraordinary character!
In 1843, he went to Weimar, as a visiting artist. Soon he met Princess
Von Sayn Wittgenstein of Russia who realized his great gifts and
influenced him to become more than a pianist. Later in the year we see
him as Choir Master living at Weimar and attracting the greatest people
of the musical world to him. Here Liszt was able to help young musicians
who came from all over the world. Wagner would never have been so
successful, had not Liszt aided him during his exile. He stood by him
with patience and loving kindness and helped him to produce his operas.
He was of untold assistance to Schumann and Berlioz, Rubinstein,
Cornelius and countless others by performing their works when nobody
else dared to. Liszt was in high favor with society, and having a love
for the new in music, he used his popularity to help music grow. Wagner
himself said: “At the end of my last stay in Paris, when ill, broken
down and despairing, I sat brooding over my fate, my eye fell on the
score of my _Lohengrin_, totally forgotten by me. Suddenly I felt
something like compassion that this music should never sound from off
the death-pale paper. I wrote two lines to Liszt; his answer was the
news that preparations for the performance were being made on the
largest scale the limited means of Weimar would permit.” Liszt’s motto
was, “First Place to the Living.”
LISZT’S PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Liszt’s services were demanded for concerts and festivals in many towns
from 1852–1859. The people, however, could not understand how their idol
could believe in Wagner and Berlioz, and there were many rabid
discussions. Very soon Liszt brought out his own symphonic poems,
_Tasso_, _Prometheus_, _Mazeppa_, _Les Preludes_, and his two piano
concertos (1855–1857), utilizing his romantic ideas.
After leaving Weimar, which some biographers claim was because of the
adverse criticism of Cornelius’ opera, _The Barber of Bagdad_, Liszt
went to Rome. Here his deep mystical nature and his need for rest and
time for contemplation, led him to enter one of the Holy Orders of the
Church, and the Pope gave him the honorary title of Abbé. Pope Pius IX
adored him and called him his Palestrina. The church music which he
composed there included his oratorios _St. Elizabeth_, _The Christus_,
his unfinished _Stanislaus_, the _Hungarian Coronation Mass_ and the
_Requiem_.
Liszt returned to Weimar every spring and summer and conducted many
festivals and concerts, including the Beethoven centenary. He was also
much interested in the National Academy at Pesth, so now he divided his
time between Rome, Pesth, and Weimar.
He wrote many brilliant piano pieces, among them his nineteen remarkable
Hungarian Rhapsodies based on the melodies he heard from the gypsies.
Besides composing music, teaching and helping other musicians and giving
to the needy, he wrote essays and criticisms.
In appearance Liszt was tall and thin with deep-set eyes and bushy
eyebrows and a mouth which turned up at the corners when he smiled. His
charm of manner won all who came in contact with him.
A story is told of him that he as a youth was sitting to the artist
Scheffer for his portrait, and fell into a theatrical pose, probably
with his head thrown back and one hand thrust into the breast of his
buttoned coat, which was characteristic. As this did not impress the
painter, Liszt, realizing it, cried with much embarrassment, “Forgive,
dear master, but you do not know how it spoils one to have been an
infant prodigy.”
In spite of Liszt’s outward affectation and posing, he had a noble
character. He was simple and whole-souled, free from jealousy and the
love of money. He died highly honored in 1886 at the age of seventy-five
at a Wagner festival in Bayreuth. In fact it was difficult to tell who
received more honor at Bayreuth, Liszt in the audience or Wagner at the
conductor’s desk.
LISZT’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
As a pianist, no one has surpassed Liszt and he revealed the piano’s
possibilities. In addition to his pianoforte compositions, he made
“arrangements” of symphonies, chorals, operas, songs and every other
form, which brought them closer to the people. His arrangements are so
brilliant, although over-decorated and cheap in effect, that he shows
that the piano can almost reproduce the orchestra.
Liszt was not as great a composer as he was a pianist and stimulator of
other musicians, and much of his music was written for effect. Yet he
was a great critic and his love of music for the future rather than of
the past, led him to be sympathetic with young composers, for whom he
opened the way. The people who gathered about him disliked old forms and
were looking for new music in which he encouraged them. Among the
musicians who were friends and pupils at Weimar, were: Joseph Joachim
Raff, Peter Cornelius, Eduard Lassen, who took Liszt’s place when he
left Weimar, Leopold Damrosch, the father of Walter and Frank Damrosch
of New York, Alexander Ritter, the pianist and inspirer of so many great
people, and hundreds of others.
Liszt wrote many symphonic and choral pieces which showed marked
originality. Although not as profound as Wagner, he helped Wagner so
much that their names would be forever linked, even if his daughter
Cosima had not been Wagner’s wife.
RUBINSTEIN AND VON BÜLOW
Among other friends of Liszt of value to musical history were Anton
Rubinstein (1829–1894) (page 443), the Russian, and Hans von Bülow
(1830–1894), a German. Both these men were great pianists and wrote
noteworthy compositions. Liszt was a great stimulus to them and they had
many points in common. Rubinstein was romantic and von Bülow, classic.
Rubinstein did much to link Germany and Russia musically, which was a
help to both nations. Von Bülow was an illustrious pianist, friend of
Wagner, famous conductor, and editor of many musical scores, among them
an edition of Beethoven’s Sonatas, still in constant use. Both these men
did much for pianists all over Europe.
Other great pianists and composers of their day were: Nikolai Rubinstein
(Anton’s brother) (1835–1881); Theodor Leschetizky (1830–1915), trained
by Carl Czerny, and he in turn trained hundreds of pianists; Karl Tausig
and many others.
Of course, the effect of these pianists was to make music and the piano
more popular, thus adding greatly to the musical culture of the world.
TCHAIKOVSKY
You probably know of Piotr (Peter) Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) as a
great symphony writer, but he was also a successful writer of tone poems
such as _The Tempest_, _Francesco di Rimini_, _Manfred_, based on
Byron’s _Manfred_, _Hamlet_, _The Storm_, _Romeo and Juliet_ and two
incomplete poems, _Destiny_ and _Voievoda_. Tchaikovsky was born in
Russia, he went to the school of Jurisprudence and later entered the
Ministry of Justice but soon began to compose music and took a medal for
composition for a piece which he wrote on Schiller’s _Ode to Joy_, the
poem Beethoven used in his 9th Symphony. He also wrote _The Nut Cracker_
Suite for orchestra, adapted from the score of a Ballet, which includes
a Russian dance, an Arab dance, a Chinese dance, flower waltz, and other
fascinating, whirling, delightful dances.
Many of Tchaikovsky’s things not called tone poems have very definite
programs, such as _The Snow Maiden_ (_Snegovrotchka_) a favorite legend
and music to a fairy tale—the parts are named _Chorus of Blind Gusslee
Players_, _Monologue of the Frosts_, _Appearance of the Wood Demons_ and
so on.
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Boecklin’s painting _Isle of Death_, inspired Sergei Rachmaninov (1873)
to write a most beautiful musical poem about its sombre trees and the
sea. As a distinguished pianist he has glorified the art in all
countries, especially in America. He was a student of Siloti and of
Zvierev, a friend of Tchaikovsky. His masters in harmony and theory were
Taneiev and Arensky. He has held musical posts of honor and has written
remarkable piano concertos, chamber music works, choruses and one opera,
_Aleko_. You probably know his much played C minor Prelude which has
been a sort of visiting card of Rachmaninov to the public.
RICHARD STRAUSS, THE PROTEUS OF MUSIC
In the list of tone poets, Richard Strauss (1864), or Richard II is one
of the most important. It is strange that he should have the same name
as Wagner, for his father Franz Strauss, a skilled horn player, disliked
Wagner and his compositions intensely. Richard’s mother was the daughter
of a brewer and they all lived in Munich, where the son was born.
When he was a little boy, he wrote musical notes before he could write
the alphabet, and at six, composed little pieces. By the time he was
twenty he had written compositions which put him with Schubert and
Mozart, in the ranks of musical prodigies.
Until his sixteenth work _Aus Italien_ (_From Italy_) (1886), his first
tone poem, he did not depart from the classic forms, although there were
a few signs of change in style in a violin sonata which he wrote just
before the tone poem. In fact, he was so much against Wagner and his
innovations, that no one could have guessed that later he himself would
be considered an innovator and would be accused of imitating Wagner.
During his youth, after hearing _Siegfried_ he wrote to a friend about
the music of Mime: “It would have killed a cat and the horror of musical
dissonances would melt rocks into omelettes.”
When he met von Bülow, the old master thought little of his talents, but
the young man gave him a surprise. For, when Richard went to Meiningen
he had never led an orchestra in his life and without one rehearsal,
conducted his _Serenade for Strings_, opus 7. Von Bülow realized his
great ability, made him assistant conductor, and a year later when he
left Meiningen, Strauss took his place.
It was about now that Richard met Alexander Ritter the violinist and
radical thinker who, he said, changed his life by introducing to him new
ideas. He became converted to Wagner. When he heard _Tristan and Isolde_
he was thrilled by it. So, like Proteus, the god who changed his form to
suit his adventure, Strauss, the musical Proteus changed his ideas to
suit his opinions.
Wearied by hard work after writing many classical pieces including a
sonata, an overture, the _Festmarsch_, a violin concerto, songs, a horn
concerto and other things, he became very ill. He said to a friend that
he was ready to die, and then added, “No, before I do, I should love to
conduct _Tristan_.” This shows that the young man could change his
opinion and become devoted to what he loathed years before, a fine
quality which continually brought down upon his head criticism from
smaller folk. Yet this Proteus-like quality was a sign of his power for
growth.
Because he did not gain strength quickly from his illness, he went to
Italy and then wrote his first symphonic poem _Aus Italien_ (_From
Italy_) in a new and modern vein.
When he returned, he led the orchestra in the Court Theatre of Munich
and then went to Weimar for two years, and this former young classicist
was now hailed as the leader of modern composers! He produced, here,
three tone poems: _Macbeth_, _Don Juan_ and _Tod und Verklärung_ (_Death
and Transfiguration_) (1888–1890).
Then, on account of illness (1892) he went to Greece, Egypt and Sicily.
During this tour, he wrote _Guntram_, which he produced on his return to
Weimar.
He became interested in the Bayreuth festivals and in 1894 he conducted
a production of _Tannhäuser_, after which he married Pauline de Ana who
played Elizabeth. Before this, he had made her the heroine of his first
opera, _Guntram_ (1893).
Not long after this he gave up the Weimar post and went to Munich with
his bride. He became the conductor there and at the same time, led the
Berlin Philharmonic concerts until the double work and commuting became
too much for him. He gave up Berlin and Arthur Nikisch succeeded
him,—the same Arthur Nikisch who later took the baton of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in America.
In 1899 he became the leader of the Royal Opera in Berlin in which city
he decided to live and from there made trips all over the world
including the United States, first in 1904 and later, after the World
War. During his last tour, we heard him play the piano for his songs
which are unsurpassed in beauty, and conduct some of his own orchestral
works with skill and enthusiasm.
He is tall and slender, with kindly blue eyes, rather informal in
manner. He has the air of a happy man even if he has received some of
the harshest criticism from friends and foes that any composer has had
from earliest times. His wife used to sing his songs in public. He is
fond of games, especially the card game “skat” and like the true
grandson of a brewer enjoys his glass of beer.
STRAUSS’S CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC
Among Strauss’ greatest works are his operas _Electra_, _Salome_ and
_Der Rosenkavalier_ and his nine tone poems. Despite all the harsh
things critics have said of him, Strauss has always maintained that,
although he did not write in accepted forms, he felt that the form
should always be suitable to the subject, for “as moods and ideas change
so must forms.” This, Ernest Newman said in defence of Strauss, and it
may be applied to all arts.
So Strauss is not formless but like Proteus, has many forms. Cecil Gray
said, “he seems to have an irresistible itch to provoke the amazement
and the horror of the multitude.” This is quite true, especially in
_Salome_, _Electra_ and _Der Rosenkavalier_ in which opera he went back
to Mozart form as a model. It seems incredible that a man who could
write the noble songs that he has written should have chosen such
unpleasant plots for his operas!
In _Tod und Verklärung_ (_Death and Transfiguration_) he was distinctly
a follower of Liszt. His friend Alexander Ritter is said to have written
the poem after the music.
At the time that it was first played, it caused so much comment that
Strauss, like Browning, laughed at people for trying to “read” more into
it than he wrote. Browning was asked whether he meant a certain thing in
one of his poems, and his reply was something like this: “Madam, I never
thought of it, but if you think it is there, I am more than glad to know
it.”
His _Don Juan_ is delightful, too, but his _Til Eulenspiegel_ (1895)
which tells of the mischievous pranks of Til, is one of the finest
examples of _humor_ in music and probably will outlive many works of
this modern period, his own as well as others. He wrote it in the form
of a classical Rondo, because he could picture Til’s ever recurring
deviltry and exploits in this form. Poor Strauss was reviled for this
daringly written music, too, yet this tone poem is an amazing piece of
work and was given gloriously as a ballet in New York City a few years
ago by Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet.
In _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ (_Thus Spake Zarathustra_), Strauss uses
the _idée fixe_ or _leit-motif_. This is based on a prose poem of
Nietzsche.
In _Don Quixote_ he goes back to the form of the classical variation,
for it is an ingenious way of showing the varying sides of the character
of Don Quixote. Here he shows events and not ideas, a most definite
story in tones. You can almost see the attack on the wind-mills and you
can actually hear the sheep bleating, the church music of passing
pilgrims, and the love tale of Dulcinea. In this piece, program music
reaches its height.
In _Ein Heldenleben_ (_A Hero’s Life_) (1898) Strauss frankly quotes
from his musical works. He does not have to prove that he is the hero,
for he admits it! When Strauss was asked what the poem meant, he said,
“There is no need of a program, it is enough to know that there is a
hero fighting his enemies.” In it, you can really hear the carping
critics, his retorts, the triumphs and the defeats. It is very
interesting and amazingly well written.
The _Domestic Symphony_ (_Sinfonia Domestica_) is the story of a family
for one day. There is the father motif, the mother motif and the baby
motif! The final fugue represents education very aptly for you get from
it the sense of flight and struggle and the never endingness of
education.
One of his last works is _The Alpine Symphony_. His other works include
an early opera _Feuersnoth_, and his songs which are among the greatest
ever written by any composer, ranking him with Franz, Schubert,
Schumann, Brahms and Hugo Wolf.
Strauss shows in all his work great pictorial power. He paints in tones
if ever a man does. His humor in music is amazing. He tries to make
vivid in music a thing as simple as a fork and as complex as a
philosophic idea. Some one said of him, comparing him to Wagner, that he
started out to write symphonic poems and really wrote music dramas,
while Wagner started out to write music dramas and ended by writing
_Tristan and Isolde_, a super-symphonic poem with voices added.
Richard Strauss is the last of the great German classic and romantic
composers who have ruled the musical world for the past two centuries.
Still living in Germany he has opened the way to many of the younger
composers, who have learned much from his methods of orchestration and
handling music in the large forms. While he out-Wagnered Wagner in
strange and new harmony, he now seems old fashioned in comparison to
Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Honegger. Although Strauss seemed to us very
complex and exaggerated a few years ago, it was very interesting to
notice that when his works were revived in America after the War, the
audiences had grown up musically to the point where they seemed no
longer unintelligible or ultra-modern.
We remember when we were leaving the opera house after the first
performance of _Salome_ in this country, hearing one ill bred, untutored
woman say, “Gee! Goit, but that was one big noise!” By this time she has
probably reached the point where she is jazzing the Salome dance with
real pleasure and understanding!
He did many unusual things with instruments, added many new ones, and as
someone said, he loves to have the “trombone play like a piccolo!”
No one can say where Strauss will stand as a composer, for time alone
can place him. However, we make bold to state that he will stand high in
the company of the world’s composers.
CHABRIER (1841–1894)
As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there is no proof of the
success of the tone poem more telling than the fact that practically
every composer in the musical world has written symphonic tone poems. In
fact today, one hundred tone poems are written to one symphony! Berlioz
had his followers in France, and in the group around César Franck were
several who wrote tone poems. One of the most charming of these poets
was Alexis Emanuel Chabrier (1841–1894) who took up music first as an
amateur while studying law in Paris, and while he was Minister of the
Interior. Later he became so devoted to music that he gave all his time
to it.
Among his works are operas and many other forms of music, the loveliest
of which is the Rhapsody on Spanish tunes called _España_. It is a model
of its kind and in it he uses the collected material with rare skill. It
shows him very clever in reproducing foreign atmosphere and feeling. He
was born in Ambert, France, and died in Paris.
DEBUSSY
Claude Achille Debussy (1862–1918) although talked of in another
chapter, must be mentioned as a composer of tone poems in this. Among
his most famous works are _Après-midi d’Un Faune_, _La Mer_, _Les
Nuages_, _Fêtes_, and _Sirènes_ which are all surpassingly lovely,
written in Debussy’s special harmonies with which he wove a mystical,
far away atmosphere, so compelling and yet so magical that you think you
are in a mysterious cloudland. He usually uses a scale of whole tones.
In _Pelleas and Melisande_, his greatest work (opera) you seem to look
into a distant land which never did and never will exist, except in the
glorious reaches of his or our imaginations. So to those of us who love
fairy realms, cloudland and beauty of idea and serene expression,
Debussy will be a rare treat and never vanish from our mind’s ear.
RAVEL
Maurice Ravel (1875) still living in Paris, seems to love Spanish themes
as did Chabrier and Bizet. One of the loveliest tone poems is his
_Rhapsodie Espagnole_ in four movements. His _Mother Goose_ suite and
_La Valse_ are also lovely, modern, short orchestral works.
He writes with rare distinction and beauty. In the chapter on 20th
century music, Ravel will make another appearance.
PAUL DUKAS (1865)
Among the most humorous and delightful tone poems is
_L’Apprenti-Sorcier_ (_The Sorcerer’s Apprentice_) by Paul Dukas (1865).
Dukas too, will appear in another chapter.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Late 19th Century Composers Write New Music on Old Models
BRAHMS IN GERMANY—FRANCK IN FRANCE
After calling Beethoven a Colossus, there does not seem to be room for
any one else, and yet Brahms (1833–1897) is no less of a genius. You
will often hear people speak of “the three Bs,”—Bach, Beethoven and
Brahms; and of these, Brahms being closer to our own day has had the
advantage and influence of the past. But perhaps he also had the
disadvantage of having had some one else say what he would like to have
been the first to say! That Brahms continued the things that Beethoven
began, may be understood from the fact that many call Brahms’ first
symphony _The Tenth_, meaning that Brahms had begun his symphonies where
Beethoven left off.
[Illustration:
_Johannes Brahms at Home._
]
[Illustration:
_After the painting by Rongier._
_César Franck._
]
It is not easy to write of Brahms without seeming to exaggerate, because
if we speak of his songs we must say that no one ever created more
beautiful song form; if we speak of his chamber music we must
acknowledge that he understood writing for instruments as no one before
or since has surpassed. His piano pieces, too, are pure delight! Where
will one find finer work than his one concerto for violin and those for
piano? His four symphonies have so far been unsurpassable and his choral
works, too. If he had never written anything but the _German Requiem_
this would have marked him as one of the world’s masters. Has he not
justified Schumann’s exclamation upon meeting him in 1853, when Brahms
was twenty years old? “Graces and Heroes have watched the cradle of this
young genius who sprang ‘like Minerva, fully armed from the head of
Jove.’” But Brahms was very modest and was always embarrassed in the
presence of praise. While he was compared to Beethoven he waited until
very late in life to write symphonies. “How can I write a symphony,” he
is reported to have said, “when I feel the shadow of the great Beethoven
treading constantly behind me?”
He was born in Hamburg. His father, who was a musician, rejoiced greatly
when little Johannes at an early age gave proof that he was gifted. The
Brahms family was very poor, and instead of becoming a great artist
according to his desire, Johannes’ father from the time he was old
enough to earn his living, was a double-bass player. Even though he was
the best in Hamburg, he and his wife, who was also musical, had to
struggle and save to give their little son the best teachers in piano
and composition.
In order to make more than the small amount gained by playing in the
orchestras the father organized what we call “the little German band”
which played in the open air. Father Brahms and five other musicians
attracted the people wherever they went. The boy who had begun to earn a
few pennies by arranging dances and marches for the little bands of the
cafés, wrote music for his father’s band, and early in the morning even
while he brushed shoes before others were awake, the thoughts which
became his loveliest songs came to his mind.
BRAHMS MEETS REMENYI
When Johannes was fifteen he gave his first public piano recital and
made a deep impression. It started him on the road to fame, for he
played so well that he was engaged to accompany the Gypsy violinist,
Remenyi, who played all over the world and became very famous. Brahms
went into many countries with him but never came to America, where
Remenyi was a great idol. Gypsy-like, he was happy in his wanderings and
when he was old went into vaudeville, drawing thousands wherever he
played. He was about to face one of these immense audiences in San
Francisco but drew only a few tones from his beloved violin when his
magic fingers were stilled in death!
Remenyi was a great influence in Brahms’ life, for it was through him
that Brahms became fascinated with the Gypsy Dances which the composer
gave the world as _Hungarian Dances_. He wrote them for piano solos,
duets and bits of them may be found all through Brahms’ orchestral
writings. This is folk music, even though it was not the folk music of
the country in which Brahms was born.
Another important thing that came into his life through Remenyi was his
meeting with Joachim, one of the greatest violinists and teachers of the
world. At a concert given by Remenyi when playing the _Kreutzer_ sonata
of Beethoven the piano was tuned so low that Brahms was compelled to
transpose the entire piano part a semitone (half-step) higher while
playing it. Joachim who was in the audience came behind the stage to
congratulate the players, and gave Brahms letters of introduction to
Liszt, then at Weimar, and Schumann at Düsseldorf. This visit led to
Schumann’s article about him, mentioned at the opening of this chapter.
BRAHMS AND THE SCHUMANN’S
Brahms became a favorite visitor at the home of Schumann and his
brilliant wife Clara Schumann. He was hailed by all the celebrities who
assembled at the frequent soirées and musicales, as a musician of great
promise. His compositions show a strong influence of this early
friendship. But Brahms repaid this kindness, for when the ill-fated
Schumann died, he became like a son to the bereaved Clara Schumann, who
loved him as one.
As this splendid pianist had played her husband’s piano works all over
Europe, so she made known the first piano concerto of her young friend.
She made a success in spite of the fact that it was not particularly
well received at its first performance at the Leipsic Gewandhaus,
probably because Brahms was not as great a pianist as he was a composer.
His feeling seems to have made him want to turn the piano into an
orchestra. He felt everything in a massive way and was very exact.
At the age of twenty-one Brahms became Director of the Court Concerts
and of the Choral Society of the Prince of Lippe-Detmold. Being very
conscientious he learned much from this experience, which helped him
toward becoming one of the greatest writers of choral works as his
_German Requiem_ and _The Song of Fate_ prove.
Outside of his music Brahms led an uneventful life. He never married,
and devoted such affection as he might have given to a family to music.
It is told that someone who knocked at his door, receiving no answer,
entered to find him sobbing violently under the emotion caused by some
music that he was composing.
When Brahms was about forty he visited Vienna and was so delighted with
the musical life he found there that he remained for the rest of his
days. As we note the delightful swing of his _Waltzes_, it is easy to
believe that he felt the Viennese moods, which found their way into his
compositions.
There is little to say of his general habits except that he was
devotedly fond of out-door life and he interrupted his work only to take
long jaunts in the open, usually in company with sympathetic friends,
for he was friendly, and needed companionship. He did not give up all
his time to composing, for he was director of the great _Singverein_
(Choral Society) and he gave some marvelous performances of the choral
works of Bach, Beethoven, and of other oratorios and masses.
Brahms died (1897) at sixty-four from a cold he caught while attending
the funeral of his friend Clara Schumann. He now lies in the same
cemetery as Beethoven and Schubert.
HIS CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC
Although Brahms did not create any new forms, there are so many
different sides in his compositions, that it is hard to describe any one
in particular. He came into the world at the time when music was turning
toward the dramatic, because of Wagner’s influence. It seemed that
Brahms, himself, was afraid to hear Wagner, whose work he admired.
Brahms never wrote an opera and he never wrote pictorial works such as
tone poems. His writings were “absolute music” that is, music in its
purest form, neither imitating nor representing anything but music. Here
was Brahms between the tone poems of Liszt, and the operas of Wagner,
and he remained true to pure music! It is said that Hans von Bülow
invited him to attend the first performance of _Parsifal_ but he refused
saying that he had a dread of Wagnerians, (but not of Wagner)! Although
Brahms wrote when the romantic school was at its height, he brought back
classicism with a force that influenced the entire musical world. In
addition to the classic and romantic forms, many works are called
_classic_ to distinguish them from _popular_ music.
Brahms was of the peasant type, and honesty was one of his strongest
qualities. This honesty, sincerity and simplicity may be found in every
line of his music, which never has light or frothy moments, and which
shows everywhere that he loved Bach. He left a large number of very
great works. Indeed, one might study Brahms for years and even then
never know all he wrote.
He was the center of a group of song writers to whom he must have been
an inspiration and an example. His lyrical gift and form, which mean
that his songs almost sing themselves, was so great that it is hard to
understand how he could have written symphonies and sonatas which, to
many people, sound complex, thick and confused. But many people, even
good musicians feel this way about Brahms. May we not believe that some
day their ears will be opened to its beauties and joys?
The song writers of this period were many as they are in all periods in
every country. Many write one or two songs that are lucky enough to
become popular, but this does not make a great composer, for the great
either bring something new into the world, or create music which by its
quality moves other people to write good and beautiful music.
SONG WRITERS
Brahms towered among song writers after the time of Schubert and
Schumann. He carried forward the form which has given Germany fame for
her exquisite _lieder_ (songs). Great beauty with simplicity of vocal
melody against an accompaniment that had the character of a full-fledged
piano piece distinguished these songs from those of an earlier period in
which the accompaniment gave just a little support to the singer. The
old songs however, were often heart appealing by their very simplicity
for they had almost a folk-song manner.
Franz Abt (1819–1885) was one of these writers. He must have made a
fortune out of _When the Swallows Homeward Fly_—only, as the composer
can not control these things, he probably never knew that this song was
to be found on nearly every piano in America for almost fifty years!
Robert Franz (1815–1892) made the world want to singer German _lieder_
for the haunting beauty of his songs. _The Rose Complained_ and _In
Autumn_ are fair examples of a collection said to include 350 published
songs.
In Chapter XXIV you have seen the place in song occupied by Schubert and
Schumann. From them to Brahms does not seem such a great stretch, but
only the musician knows how wide it is. The form in which Brahms wrote
_lieder_ brought a new feeling to the composers, not by way of
imitation, but because vocal music developed naturally into the paths
along which he led the way.
Richard Strauss, known for his great tone poems, also for his operas
_Salome_, _Elektra_ and _The Rose Cavalier_, shortly after Brahms wrote
some of the most beautiful songs in the world.
We also find many by his colleagues, Felix Weingartner (1863), Hans
Pfitzner (1869), Mahler and others, whose songs, though beautiful,
showed their skill less than their operas, symphonies, and choral works.
HUGO WOLF—SONG GENIUS
Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) will be regarded, as time goes on, as one of the
greatest composers of the 19th century. This, notwithstanding the fact
that he published 260 songs and nothing at all for orchestra, and in
chamber music, he wrote only one very interesting quartet introduced in
this country nearly twenty years ago by the Flonzaley Quartet. Such a
master would no doubt have left more than songs, would have been one of
the musical beacon-lights of the world, had his life not been one of
tragedy.
His story, indeed, exceeds in unhappiness that of Schumann or even of
Beethoven. Early in the best days of his life, his mind began to give
way, and during periods of sanity he wrote with unbelievable fluency
only to be suddenly cut off from the power. He was fully aware of his
condition and his fate, and his letters expressing his emotions and
describing his agony are too sad to write about.
Hugo Wolf, born at Windischgratz in Styria (1860) was the fourth son of
a leather-currier who was also a musician. The home was the scene of
much chamber music in which Hugo played the second violin. The people of
Styria loved the old Italian operas, and Wolf frequently expressed the
belief that he had some Latin blood in his veins. This seemed to show in
his music for he wrote songs in Italian and Spanish style and he was
particularly attracted to French music and musicians. One wonders could
greater songs have been written than his (_Spanisches Liederbuch_)
_Spanish Song Book_ which includes not only thirty-four brilliant
folk-melodies, but also ten noble religious songs.
Romain Rolland, the great French writer on musical subjects wrote: “It
has been said that the _Spanisches Liederbuch_ is to Wolf’s work what
_Tristan_ is to Wagner’s.”
Indeed many who write of Wolf have said that his vivid power of
expression, and inspiration could only be compared to Wagner’s. The
poems he selected proved what a high literary taste he had. For a time
he was a musical critic and made the bitterest enemies because of the
abuse he hurled at Brahms.
His story may be quickly told for he got most of his education from the
libraries and from reading the scores of the great masters. Having no
piano he could be found daily sitting on a bench in the park studying
the Beethoven sonatas. But he loved Wagner best of all, and held his
meeting with that master his life’s greatest joy. Wolf had composed
little until after he was twenty-eight, then his writing was feverish,
interrupted only by his lapses of mind. He died in one of these spells,
of pneumonia, at 37. All his work was done in four or five years, for of
the last nine years during five of them (1890–95) he was prostrated and
often unable to speak.
BRUCKNER
Among the composers around this time and later, there are but few who
have left more than a ripple on the musical ocean. Some created a stir
in their own day and even now there is hot discussion about them among
the critics, while some people are pleased and others are not.
In those days, as now, every composer had his friends and people who
felt it to be their duty not only to stand up for their friend, but to
ridicule “the other fellow.” So it was with Brahms, for in the same way
that he was abused by those who measured him against Wagner, his friends
refused to recognize in Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) a rival of their idol
(Brahms).
Brahms was living in Vienna but he was not born there, so the feeling
was strong against him when he began to threaten the position of the
Viennese, Anton Bruckner, who though nine years older than Brahms, was
not recognized so early. There was much in favor of Bruckner. He was a
very fine musician. Themes, melodies bubbled forth constantly like an
oil-gusher, but he did not know how or when to stop them. If he had only
known how to control this continuous flow, he might have been as great a
figure as Brahms and the story of his life been different.
It is wonderful, however, what he made of himself, for he was a poor
schoolmaster and organist who had only his natural gifts to start with,
and had little education. But he wrote symphonies by the wholesale and
they were so long that they fairly terrified conductors to whom he
brought them in the hope of having them performed. He won his point,
however, and lived to gain no small amount of recognition. We heard
several of his symphonies in America in 1924, the hundredth anniversary
of his birth in Ausfelden, Upper Austria. He died in Vienna in 1896.
Anton Bruckner wrote during the time of the height of Richard Wagner’s
glory and the dawn of Richard Strauss’s fame, and was eleven years
younger than Wagner, whom he idolized.
MAHLER IN AMERICA
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) enters at this point. It would be difficult to
make a definite statement about him, for whatever be said for or against
him, is sure to draw argument. He had been a storm-center for many years
before his death, and even afterward those who were against him waged
war quite as bitterly, while those for him fought more valiantly than
ever.
America was in the thick of this fight and many friendships of long
standing were broken on account of it. Mahler living in New York as
recently as 1908–1911 makes us realize the more fully what men of genius
have had to suffer.
Mahler was a powerful musical genius, with astounding ability to work
and amazing skill in handling his massive scores. He died at the age of
fifty-one leaving so many symphonies, choral and festival works that it
was a wonder how one man could have accomplished that much even had he
lived to be a hundred.
We marvel at his genius, but do we want to hear often works that last
for hours and hours? Some do, who can follow his themes, his amazing
treatment of them and his ingenious writing for instruments. Others are
fatigued by the length of time he dwells upon one subject and by the
length of the work itself, and they sometimes object to his strong
contrasts in light and shade. But all this must be left to the future,
the scales in which all art is weighed. We should be thankful that
America enjoyed the benefits Mahler brought.
He made his American début as conductor at the Metropolitan Opera House,
January 1, 1908, and in 1909 he became conductor of the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. The labor was so hard, more in trying to adjust
himself to the ideas of his Board of Directors than in the work itself,
that it broke his health and he returned to his home to die that same
year.
He came here with a tremendous career behind him. It was strange, having
all his life led operas and produced them in lavish fashion, he did not
write one! But he did write many beautiful and very difficult songs.
When his works are given, it is usually made a gala occasion, as they
can only be done by the largest organizations and with the greatest
artists. The Society of the Friends of Music give some work by Mahler
each season in New York.
Gustav Mahler was born in Kalischt, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. He
studied philosophy at the Vienna University and among his teachers of
music were Julius Epstein and Anton Bruckner.
When Anton Seidl left the opera house of Prague, 1885–86, Gustav Mahler
jointly with Angelo Neumann succeeded him. He made a great success of
the Court Opera of Vienna where he was director of the house and
conductor for ten years, but he demanded nothing short of perfection.
His insistent ardor for the best in music and in its performance caused
him the greatest unhappiness and really cost him his life.
MAX REGER
Max Reger (1873–1916) caused a stir during the latter part of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th. His father, a schoolmaster and
good organist, wanted Max to be a schoolteacher, but at an early age
young Max began to write for piano and organ. After hearing _Die
Meistersinger_ and _Parsifal_ in Bayreuth (1888) he was so stirred that
he began to write big works. Reger was perhaps most influenced by Bach,
and notwithstanding his very modern ideas he never lost sight of the old
classic form which may have made his work seem stiff and formal at
times. Some of his songs are very fine and his orchestral numbers are
frequently played in America.
Max Bruch (1838–1920) was born in Berlin and besides being a composer of
chamber music, three symphonies and familiar violin concertos, he wrote
many choral works.
FATHER FRANCK
From this period, but not from this same country, arose one of the most
important and most beautiful influences of the 19th century. We have
learned enough about the world’s great men to know that we can never
judge by appearances, unless we are keen enough to recognize a beautiful
soul when it looks through kindly eyes.
Such was the countenance of César Franck (born in Liège, Belgium,
1820—died in Paris, 1890), often called the “French Brahms”—but he was
neither French, nor was he enough like Brahms to have been so called.
While César Franck was not French, we may say that the entire French
school of the second half of the 19th century was of his making. This,
because instead of devoting himself to playing in public and making long
concert tours, he preferred to have a quiet home life so that he could
compose. This seriously disappointed his father who had sent him from
Liège to the Paris Conservatory.
He was but five years of age when Beethoven died, but his work
throughout his entire life strongly showed the influence of the Master
of Bonn, perhaps because his first teacher in Paris was Anton Reicha, a
friend and admirer of Beethoven.
While all of Beethoven’s nine symphonies are known and played all over
the world, César Franck is known by one which is played very often and
by all orchestras. Where Beethoven wrote many sonatas both for piano
alone and for piano and violin, when we hear the name of César Franck,
we immediately think of the one famous sonata for violin and piano which
was so popular that it was also arranged for violoncello. This was
written in very free and practically new form.
César Franck has written a number of fine works for piano and for
orchestra, and for stringed instruments, but when it comes to organ
works, it would take a large volume to tell of them. Most pianists play
the _Prelude_, _Aria_ and _Finale_, also the _Prelude_, _Chorale_ and
_Fugue_, just as nearly all the violinists play the sonata, which are
masterpieces. Being deep in church music, and also a very religious man
it was perhaps natural that among his best known works should be _Les
Béatitudes_ for orchestra, chorus and soloists, and _Redemption_, a work
sung frequently by the Oratorio Societies of America and Europe. It was
d’Indy who said: “In France, symphonic music originated with the school
of César Franck.” There were not, however, many symphonies, but he was a
master in the symphonic poem. The best known among these are _Les
Éolides_ (_The Æolides_), _Les Djinns_ on Victor Hugo’s splendid poem of
that name and _Le Chasseur Maudit_ (_The Accursed Hunter_). Also very
well known is the piano quintet, and we hear sometimes the Symphonic
Variations for piano and orchestra.
FRANCK AT THE PARIS CONSERVATORY
César Franck was different from most composers, for _his_ father, like
Father Mozart, was very determined that he should be a pianist and took
the boy on a concert tour when he was only ten years of age! He gave
concerts throughout Belgium, and at fourteen his father took him with
his brother Joseph to the Paris Conservatory, where later he became a
distinguished professor.
There are many examples in life where a talent runs away with its
possessor. So it was with young César, who, after only a year’s
schooling, entered the _concours_ or competition. He covered himself
with glory in the piano piece he had to play, but when he was tested for
reading at sight, it flashed through his head how funny it would be to
transpose the piece three notes lower! And so he did, without a mistake!
But the judges were so horrified that he should dare do anything
different from what was expected that they decided not to give him the
prize because he had broken the rules! But, Cherubini, our old
acquaintance there was great enough to know what the boy had done, and
through his influence a special prize was created for César Franck
called the Grand Prix d’Honneur which has never, since then, been
conferred upon anyone!
César Franck was very mild and sweet in nature but when it came to his
music he was almost rebellious in his independence. To understand the
degree of his daring you must know what a _concours_ means.
The graduating classes of the Paris Conservatory are drawn up to play
their pieces and to receive the criticism of the judges, and the prizes.
They all play the same thing so the judges can tell exactly how each
compares with the other. Five of the most famous musicians of the world
are selected and they sit in judgment. Imagine this terrifying ordeal! A
couple of years after the first occurrence, César Franck had to enter an
organ competition, and again his genius got away from his judgment. He
was expected to improvise a sonata on one subject given him by the
judges and a fugue on another subject. Franck passed in very orderly
fashion through the first part, but when it came to the fugue he thought
how amusing it would be to work the sonata subject into the fugue
subject, a feat which startled these wise judges by its colossal daring
and the stupendous manner in which he accomplished it. But did they give
him the first prize? Not they! Talk about “Red Tape”—he had not followed
the rules and all he received out of the brilliant feat was a second
prize! But the world got César Franck.
COMPOSER, TEACHER, ORGANIST
We little realize how a tiny deed may influence the world! We may almost
reckon that a kind-hearted priest was responsible for what César Franck
became as a composer! After he had had the wonderful musical training at
the Conservatory he refused to travel as a concert artist, but wanted to
remain at home and marry. This separated him completely from his father.
Besides wanting his son to play, he objected to his marrying an actress
when he was twenty-six. Here is where the priest first befriended him,
for he performed the ceremony that made them man and wife.
But the days of revolution in Paris (1848) were upon them and pupils did
not come in great numbers. Poverty such as Franck had never known faced
him and his bride. But his good friend the priest was called to a church
and he immediately appointed César Franck as organist. The instrument
was very fine and his happiness was complete for he loved church
services above everything. This brought him directly under the musical
influence of Bach, which after all, was the greatest in his life. Later
he became organist of Saint Clothilde where the organ was even finer and
his composing hours were fairly absorbed by writing for the organ.
The programs given by concert-organists are usually divided between Bach
and César Franck, with a few numbers by Alexandre Guilmant, the great
French organist, Charles Marie Widor, Theodore Dubois and a few other
Frenchmen.
With all the composition that this grand old man of musical France left
behind him, he left a still greater thing in the young men who were his
pupils, some of whom were among the most important figures in the late
19th century.
It is a singular fact that César Franck died almost exactly as did two
of his most famous pupils, Ernest Chausson and Emmanuel Chabrier. The
former was killed in the Bois de Boulogne while riding a bicycle and
Chabrier was killed by a fall from a horse. Their beloved professor was
knocked down by an omnibus, and although he seemed to recover and
continue with his lessons and composing, he became ill from the effects
and died a few months later, in his 68th year.
During this last illness he wanted to get out of bed to try three new
_chorales_ for organ, which he read through day after day as the end
approached. This was the last music from his pen for the manuscripts
were lying beside him when the priest gave him the last rites of the
Catholic Church.
If one could sum up the outstanding features of César Franck’s music,
they would be nobility and lofty spirit, true reflections of his
unfaltering religious faith.
FRANCK’S PUPILS
César Franck did more than just devote teaching hours to his pupils. He
had them come to his home, and surrounded by youth and enthusiasm, his
own power grew greater. They played their new works for each other and
for the Master, and out of this was born the _Société Nationale_
(National Society). It swung both the public taste and the composers out
of the light, frivolous opera of the day into a love for, and a support
of French symphonic and chamber music. The Society was founded in 1871,
just following the Franco-Prussian war and was a protest against the
German musical domination in France, in fact it was a direct aim against
Wagner. In spite of the fact that Franck was influenced by Bach,
Beethoven and Wagner, he worked sincerely to develop the classic French
school outside of opera form.
Another great national institution which grew out of the influence of
César Franck was the famous Schola Cantorum founded by Vincent d’Indy
and Charles Bordes, his pupils, and Alexandre Guilmant.
Among the Franck pupils in addition to d’Indy and Bordes may be
mentioned, as a few of the foremost, Alexis de Castillon (1838–1873),
Emmanuel Chabrier (1842–1894), Henri Duparc (1848) famous for some of
the most beautiful songs in all French music, Ernest Chausson
(1855–1899), Guillaume Lekeu (1870–1894), of the Netherlands, and
composer of _Hamlet_, a tone poem and other pieces, Pierre de Bréville
(1861), Guy Ropartz (1864), Gabriel Pierné, Paul Vidal, and Georges
Marty.
But his influence did not stop here, for it touched many, including such
close friends as Alexandre Guilmant and Eugene Ysaye, the renowned
violinist, as well known in America as in Europe. He was a countryman of
César Franck and played for its first performance anywhere, Franck’s
violin sonata dedicated to him.
Alberic Magnard (1865–1914), was related musically to Franck through
d’Indy his chief teacher. Magnard met death by the enemy in his own home
during the war.
We could fill a volume concerning these interesting men, but we must
continue our musical journey. From among them, however, we must learn a
little more about Vincent d’Indy, not only because he is a great
composer and teacher, but he has taught many Americans.
VINCENT D’INDY
Vincent d’Indy (1851) a musician of finest qualities and almost
countless achievements, is a cultured and educated gentleman. He was
brought up by his grandmother, a woman of education and refinement, for
his mother died when he was very young. He therefore learned to love
culture and elegance early in his life, but this did not prevent him
from doing the sort of work which make men a benefit to art and to
mankind. In addition to being a musician, he is a skilled critic and
writer, also a great teacher and organizer, proof of which may be found
in what he has done for France, indeed, for the world, in the Schola
Cantorum. He has written many books as well as magazine and newspaper
articles and an immense number of musical compositions. He was born in
Paris and was a member of the Garde-Mobile during the Franco-Prussian
war.
Until the time that he left home for military service he studied the
piano with Louis Dièmer, a noted pianist and teacher of Paris, and
harmony with Marmontel and Lavignac, both equally famous. Upon his
return from war service, his days with César Franck began, and these
were precious hours for both the pupil and the teacher who recognized
the young man’s power.
He made several trips to Germany, the first in 1873 when he carried to
Brahms the César Franck score of _Redemption_ sent with the composer’s
compliments. At this time he also met Liszt and Wagner, and later he
attended the Bayreuth performances including the world première (first
performance) of _Parsifal_. His musical activities led him from the
organ loft to becoming tympani (kettle-drums) player in the Colonne
Orchestra, where he went, no doubt, to learn the instruments of the
orchestra and how to handle them. He found out, because he is most
skilled in writing for orchestra.
He has had many prominent pupils, and it is his pride and his ambition
to continue along the lines laid down by César Franck. He has had more
than ordinary success as a conductor going to many countries to conduct
his own compositions. He came twice to America as guest conductor of the
Boston Symphony appearing with that organization in its home and also in
New York.
Vincent d’Indy, following the ideal of Franck is largely responsible for
the return of music in his country to symphony, from which it had
strayed far. In this period there was a general feeling to bring music
back to classical form. This young school was doing it in France as
Brahms had done it in Germany and the result was that many composers
wrote symphonies. If we look through musical history since then, we will
find that the revival of a feeling for the classics has helped to make
the latter part of the 19th century very rich.
Although d’Indy has written several operas, there has been no attempt to
give them in this country, which is strange because it is very difficult
to get operas that are worth producing at the Metropolitan Opera House
or in Chicago, the only other city in America that supports its own
opera on a large scale.
D’Indy is living in Paris (1925), where the life around him bristles
with study, achievement and ambition. He is as much of an inspiration to
his pupils as was his own teacher, but this is the 20th century, in
which conditions, and men, are different from those of the past! He has
not stood still but has gone steadily ahead, although his influence upon
the very modern writers must have been healthy and restraining,
notwithstanding the fact that only a few years ago _he_ was regarded as
a modern.
GABRIEL FAURÉ
In the musical history of France, the name of Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
looms high. He was born in Pamiers, and was taught by the Dean of French
musical folk, Camille Saint-Saëns. Like all the musicians of France, no
matter whether or not they planned to use it as a profession, they
devoted as much time to the organ as to the piano, and most of them
became famous organists even though they had not planned to be
organists. For this reason France has more great organists and organ
compositions to offer than any other country of the world.
Gabriel Fauré became the organist of Rennes and later went to Saint
Sulpice and Saint Honoré, and finally he became organist of the
Madeleine in 1896. These churches are among the greatest in France, and
to be organist in any one of them means that he is a great musician.
Fauré had honors showered upon him for he gave his country some of the
most brilliant works contributed by any of her sons. In France the
compositions of Gabriel Fauré are highly valued, but with the exception
of a few songs, are not known in America, the more the pity. Fauré is
better known here as the head of the Conservatory in which his life was
spent until his very recent death. He went there to share the classes in
composition, counterpoint and fugue with André Gédalge, succeeding Jules
Massenet, and in 1905 Fauré succeeded Theodore Dubois as Director of the
Conservatory. Still more honors heaped upon him made him a member of the
_Académie_, for which no one can be named until there is a vacancy. He
was therefore the successor to Ernest Reyer.
In 1910 the world was much stirred when Gabriel Fauré was made Commander
of the Legion of Honor, a distinction given only when a man has done
something very great.
In addition to these tributes to his standing in the community and his
achievements as an artist, he took numerous prizes for his compositions
of which there were three operas, much incidental music, symphonies, a
well known violin and piano sonata, some fine chamber music and much
music for the organ and for choruses. But beyond the appreciation always
shown Fauré for his larger works, he will always be loved in France
because he was regarded as the French Schubert, so lovely were his
melodies and so lavishly did he write.
He kept pure and true the ideals and characteristics of French music,
more so, indeed, than did many who may be better known to the
concert-goers of this country.
ENGLISH COMPOSERS IN CLASSICAL FORMS
While the Germans, French and Austrians were writing, England had
composers, who although not so famous, nevertheless kept music alive in
England.
Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816–1875) with his many orchestral and
choral works of which his cantata, _The Woman of Samaria_, is best
known; Sir George A. Macfarren (1813–1887) with operas and oratorios,
especially his cantata, _Rebekah_; his brother, Walter Cecil Macfarren
(1826–1905), conductor, and composer of orchestral music; Sir John
Stainer (1840–1901), organist, composer of very lovely anthems, and much
church music, and Professor of Music at Oxford; Sir Frederick Bridge
(1844–1924), organist of Westminster Abbey, writer of text-books on
music, and of anthems, part songs and oratorios; Sir Arthur C. Mackenzie
(1847), composer of many works including two Scotch symphonies and a
cantata, _The Cottar’s Saturday Night_; Sir Charles Hubert Hastings
Parry (1848–1918), Professor of Music at Oxford after Stainer, and
writer of many important books on music and of compositions in many
forms; Arthur Goring Thomas (1851–1892), who wrote operas, cantatas, and
many songs; Sir Frederick Hymen Cowen (1852), with operas, cantatas,
symphonies and chamber music; Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1853–1924),
born in Dublin, Ireland, Professor of Music at Cambridge since 1887,
student of Irish folk music, and writer of chamber music and short
pieces, also of valuable books on musical history and other musical
subjects; Edward German (1862), famous for his _Henry VIII_ Dances, much
incidental theatre music, and an operetta, _The Moon Fairies_, in which
he used the last libretto written by Sullivan’s inimitable partner, Sir
W. S. Gilbert; and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912), an Englishman of
African descent, whose music for chorus and for orchestra is based on
American Indian legend, and on Negro folk songs.
And living today is Edward William Elgar (1857), the dean of English
composers. While not adding to the new music, he is famous for many
pieces, among which are _The Dream of Gerontius_, _The Apostles_, other
oratorios, symphonies, and his march, _Pomp and Circumstance_.
WOMEN WRITERS IN ENGLAND
Among the women in England, Dame Ethel Smyth (_Dame_ is an honorary
title in England) (1858) is known for her opera _The Wreckers_, and her
comic opera _The Boatswain’s Mate_. Some of her operas have been
performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and at Covent
Garden, London. Besides she has written songs for the Suffrage Movement,
incidental music, and music in large forms.
Liza Lehman (1862–1918), wrote _In a Persian Garden_, _Nonsense Songs_,
and _The Daisy Chain_, which made her famous.
“Poldowski,” Lady Dean Paul, daughter of Wieniawski, the Polish composer
and violinist, has written piano pieces and lovely songs in Debussy
style. She has had considerable influence in getting the work of the
younger British composers and her countryman, Szymanowski, heard in
London.
Rebecca Clarke, a young Englishwoman, has written several chamber music
works which place her in the foremost rank of women composers. On two
occasions she received “honorable mention” in the Berkshire chamber
music prize competition offered by Mrs. F. S. Coolidge, at Pittsfield,
Massachusetts.
CHAPTER XXIX
Music Appears in National Costumes
We cannot tell you very much about the history of music in Russia
because until the 19th century, the Russians had little but their folk
songs and church music. For many centuries the Christian priests
disliked to have them sing their legends and folk songs because they
were not of Christian origin and so music had a very difficult road to
go.
Another thing which kept music as an art from growing, was the edict in
the Church against the use of instruments. But as there is always a
silver lining to every cloud the unaccompanied singing became very
lovely.
For ages, then, there was the most strikingly beautiful natural music in
the folk tunes of this gigantic country, three times as large as the
United States. Its cold bleak steppes or plains and its nearness to the
East gave them fascinating and fantastic legends, and a music sad, wild
and colorful with strange harmonies—their inheritance from the Slavs and
Tartars. All these date back to days before the Christian era, so you
can understand even though they are of surpassing beauty, the Church was
afraid of the wild, tragic, pagan melodies and rhythms.
In the early 18th century, at the time of and after Peter the Great,
there were many Europeans who came to Russia and brought along their
music or their own national ideas of music, so that Russia had foreign
opera and foreign teachers. When Catharine the Great was Queen she
appreciated the wonderful store of folk legends and was very good to
composers both Italian and Russian, of whom there were very few.
Very soon, a man from Venice, Catterino Cavos, went over and was clever
enough to write Italian opera using the Russian folk songs and legends.
This was a fine idea, because it gave suggestions to Russians as to what
could be done with their folk songs. The next thing that happened was
the terrible defeat of Napoleon, in 1812, by the Russians and the
burning of Moscow. When important political things happen and when a
favorite city is nearly destroyed, people’s imaginations are stirred and
it makes them think about the things of their own land. The Russians
were no different from other folks. After the way was prepared by
Vertowsky, Dargomyzhsky, and Seroff, Michael Glinka (1804–1857) wrote
his opera, _A Life For the Tsar_, for the time was ripe for serious
Russian national music. He was tired of the music of the Italians,
introduced into Russia in 1737, and the French music introduced by
Boieldieu and others a little after 1800. He made a close study of
Russian folk song and of composition, and became the father of the new
Russian music. He studied in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with Charles
Mayer and John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes who found his way
into Russia with Clementi. Glinka became an invalid and his travels for
his health brought him to Paris where he was very much interested in the
works of Berlioz. When he wrote his first opera, he said he wanted the
Russians “to feel at home,” and so we see in it the magic background of
Russia with the flavor and interest of the Orient. Another opera of his
was _Ruslan and Ludmilla_ which also pictures their national life.
Besides this, Glinka, in some Spanish caprices, brought Spanish folk
songs before the eyes of the musical art world.
RUBINSTEIN AND TCHAIKOVSKY
An important group followed in the footsteps of Glinka, called “The
Five.” The members wanted national music and sincere opera in any form
they desired. The Russian Ballet, which tells a story and is not a mere
exhibition of fancy steps, was an outcome of this freedom.
There were two schools about this time in Russia, constantly at odds
with each other. The “Russian Five” was one school and the leaders of
the other were Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein and Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky
(1840–1893) whose fame is probably greater than any other Russian.
Tchaikovsky became very interested in the European composers, and
studied composition with the founder of the Petrograd Conservatory,
Anton Rubinstein. He was made professor of harmony at the Moscow
Conservatory in 1866. While there he wrote many operas and articles for
Moscow papers. He married unhappily and had a nervous breakdown in 1877
and lived very quietly, a sensitive nervous man all his life. He visited
the United States in 1891, and conducted his Sixth Symphony, _The
Pathetique_, at the opening of Carnegie Hall in New York City. Visiting
England and then returning to Russia, he died in 1893 of cholera.
Besides the symphonic poems about which we told you, he wrote several
overtures, six symphonies, four suites, three ballets, eleven operas,
two of which, _La Pique Dame_ and _Eugen Onegin_ have been given outside
of Russia.
His work is very emotional and often tragic with captivating melodies
often based on folk songs with rich orchestral color. But withal, his
work was based more on the German tendencies and forms of music than the
works of the younger Russians, therefore, Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein
were pitched in musical battle for some years against this other school.
“THE FIVE”
Alexander Borodin (1834–1887), a scientist and physician and a friend of
Liszt, wrote crashing and flashy music with what they called “Modern
harmonies.” It seemed full of discords for the people of his time but to
us is fascinating and piquant! His _Prince Igor_, a story of adventure
and war not unlike _Le Chanson de Roland_, is a beautiful opera with
striking melody and dances.
Modeste Moussorgsky (1839–1881) probably had more natural genius than
any of the rest of “The Five,” even though his work had to be edited by
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908). Moussorgsky’s music had the real
spirit of Russia, sad, colorful, full of wild dances based as is most of
this Russian music, on the folk songs of his native land. Besides this,
it is very human and touches the soul of people as they listen. His
songs are real treasures. His music is truly a portrait of the Russian
people.
He wrote a very beautiful opera called _Boris Godounov_ richly laden
with the Oriental color, and pathos and tragedy of Russia’s past. A very
interesting thing to know is that Rimsky, because of his wider knowledge
of harmony and orchestration, corrected Moussorgsky’s works and very
often changed things that seemed to him quite wrong. Recently we have
examined a score of Moussorgsky and compared it to the corrected version
of Rimsky and we now find that Moussorgsky’s score was even more vivid
and modern to our ears than Rimsky’s. Several composers have arranged
for orchestra Moussorgsky’s piano pieces, _Pictures from an Exposition_,
and have brought out beauties in color, humor and scenic painting in the
music.
The next man, Mily Balakirev (1837–1910), a country boy steeped in folk
songs, became the founder and leader of this Group of Five. He founded a
free music school in Petrograd and later became the conductor of the
Royal Musical Society, of the Imperial Musical Society, and Imperial
Chapel. His works are chiefly in symphony form, brilliantly and
effectively orchestrated. Some of his piano pieces and songs are very
beautiful, but his greatest gift to music was his careful study of
Russian national story and song, and he furthered the revival of the
Oriental in Russian musical art.
César Cui (1835–1918), born at Vilna, Poland, was the son of a French
officer, and became a great authority on military science. He wrote
eight operas which were more lyric than dramatic and, as Balakirev’s
friend and first disciple among “The Five,” he helped this younger
Russian School with his musical compositions and writings for the press.
Last but not the least of this “Five” is Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov
(1844–1908), who was born in Novgorod, and while a student at the
Petrograd Naval College, became an advocate of the theories of Balakirev
to keep Russian music, Russian. While on a three-year cruise, he wrote
his first symphony, and on another, as a young naval officer, he came to
America.
Very soon he left the navy and became a teacher and conductor in
Petrograd. He is best known in this country for his orchestral suite,
_Shéhérazade_, which gives a glamorous picture of some of the stories
from “The Arabian Nights” as told by the Persian Queen, Shéhérazade.
Another famous thing of his, is his second symphony _Antar_. Probably no
other person among the Russians could give you the effect and
colorfulness of the Orient as Rimsky. He takes most of his stories from
Russian legends and his operas are entrancing. The best of these are
_The Snow Maiden_, _Sadko_, and the humorous, fantastic and tuneful _Coq
d’Or_ (“The Golden Cockerel”). He has written works for the piano, and
some of the songs out of his operas, such as _The Song of India_ and
_Shepherd Lehl_ are probably familiar to you.
These five men and the group including Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein,
Sergei Tanieiev (1856–1915) and Tchaikovsky, were very antagonistic, as
we said before, until finally some of the Five went on the staff of the
various conservatories in Russia and the breach seemed to be healed; and
now new men have appeared, out-distancing even the Five in modern
harmony, Alexander Scriabin (1872–1919) and Igor Stravinsky (1882).
Coming after these celebrated Russians were Anton Arensky (1861–1906),
Alexander Glazounov (1865), both writers of symphonies, piano pieces and
chamber music, Anatole Liadov (1855–1914), Serge Liapounov (1859),
Nikolai Medtner (1879), Catoire, Reinhold Glière (1875), Ippolitov
Ivanov (1859), Alexander Gretchaninov (1864), Serge Vassilenko (1872),
Theodor Akimenko and Sergei Rachmaninov (1873), who has spent many years
in America where he is known as a brilliant composer and gifted pianist.
(Page 409.)
BOHEMIA—CZECHO-SLOVAKIA
Another country rich in national characteristics, donning national
costume in art music as well as in folk music, is Bohemia—or
Czecho-Slovakia. It is the land of harp players, street musicians and
the gypsy, where nearly everybody seems to be musical. The Esterhazy
family, nobles who were patrons of Haydn and other composers, were
Bohemians.
In Prague, their principal city, Gluck, Mozart, Weber and many other
foreigners were appreciated when their own countries turned deaf ears to
them, but it is not until the middle of the 19th century, that Bohemia
gave the world its own composers. Among these were Frederick Smetana
(1824–1884), a pupil of Liszt and a fine pianist. He became the opera
conductor at Prague and like Beethoven, became afflicted with deafness,
but it unbalanced his mind and he died in an insane asylum at sixty. He
wrote a number of pieces for chamber combinations, symphonic poems,
symphonies and operas of which the best known is the _Bartered Bride_, a
picture of Bohemian life.
The greatest Bohemian and one of the ablest musicians of the 19th
century, is Antonin Dvorak (pronounced Dvorjak) (1843–1904), a peasant
and son of an innkeeper and butcher at Mühlhausen. Coming from the
people, he was familiar with the folk songs, and although his father
wanted him to be an innkeeper and butcher, Antonin used to follow the
strolling players and showed a decided talent for music. He learned to
sing, to play the violin and the organ, and studied harmony. Later he
went to Prague to continue his work. He was very poor but Smetana
befriended him, and five years after he entered school, he wrote his
first string quartet. Thirteen years afterwards, he became organist at
$60.00 a year at St. Adalbert’s Church. He is another man whom Liszt
helped by performing his works and finding publishers for them. He
became famous through his fascinating _Slavonic Dances_ and was soon
invited to London after his _Stabat Mater_ had been performed there. He
wrote _The Spectre’s Bride_ for the Birmingham Festival of 1885, and his
oratorio for the Leeds Festival, _St. Ludmilla_, in the following year.
The University of Cambridge made him Doctor of Music and before that, he
had been Professor of Music at the Prague Conservatory. Soon he came to
New York and received a salary of $15,000 a year as director of the New
York Conservatory of Music. Homesickness overcame him and he went back
to Bohemia where his opera, _Armide_, was given before he died.
Dvorak was a sound musician. He had studied Mozart, Beethoven and
Schubert but was devoted to his own folk-lore and the harmonies which
appealed to his nation. He was particularly interested in national types
of music and when in America the negro music appealed to him
tremendously. While here, he taught H. C. Burleigh, the negro composer
and singer, with whom he had an interesting and fruitful friendship.
When he went back to Bohemia, he wrote the _New World Symphony_, built
on negro folk ideas, and a string quartet in which he has used negro
themes. Isn’t it curious that it often takes an outsider to show us the
beauties at our own door step?
He wrote many songs, symphonic poems and five symphonies and many other
forms of music. Although he was very strict in the use of form, his work
was free, full of melody and imagination. It is distinguished by warm
color, beautiful rhythms and flowing melody, daring modulations and
withal a sense of naturalness. Some people consider him one of the
greatest masters of orchestration of the 19th century. Probably you have
heard Fritz Kreisler and many others play the famous _Humoresque_, and
you may also know his incomparable _Songs My Mother Taught Me_.
ROUMANIA
Georges Enesco (1881) a most gifted violinist, conductor and composer,
born in Cordaremi, is the principal representative of Roumania. His
first work is _Poème Roumain_, in which, as well as in many others, he
shows his Roumanian birth. He wrote symphonies and other orchestral
works, chamber music and songs.
THE LAND OF THE POLONAISE
Poland first springs into prominence as an art center in music with
Frédéric Chopin, but it has produced many other pianists and
pianist-composers,—among them, Carl Tausig.
If you like brilliant salon and over-decorated pieces, you will enjoy
the works of Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1924), who was born of Polish
descent in Breslau. He was a fine pianist and had a long list of pupils
including the brilliant American, Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler.
Poland has given us Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), whose _Minuet_ you
probably know, and whose amazing piano skill is familiar to you. While
he has written many piano pieces, a fairly successful gypsy opera,
_Manru_, an interesting piano concerto and a symphony, it is as pianist
that he will be remembered. He has been the idol of every nation in
which he has played.
His pupil, Sigismund Stojowski (1870), has lived in America since 1906
and has written orchestral works, a piano concerto and many piano
pieces.
THE LAND OF THE FIORDS AND SKALDS—NORWAY AND SWEDEN
Here is another country with a rich folk-lore, half pagan and half
Christian.
Ole Bull, the violinist, also did much for Norwegian music in the 19th
century. One of the first composers was Halfdan Kjerulf (1815–1868) who
was born in Christiania (Oslo) and studied in Leipsic. He gave up his
life to composition. Henrietta Sontag as well as Jenny Lind introduced
his songs to the public; like his delightful piano pieces they are
national in flavor. If you have the chance, hear his _Lullaby_ and _Last
Night_.
Norway! The land of the Vikings, of Odin and Thor, of the eddas and
sagas, of skalds and harpists, of sprites and trolls, fiords, mountain
kings and the mischievous Peer Gynt—all brought to life by the magic
wand of Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843–1907).
Surely one of the greatest poet-composers of recent times, he brought
out the beauties of the Norwegian folk song and dance, and dressed up
serious music in national costume. Ole Bull assisted Grieg by
recognizing his ability when he was a very young man. Grieg was sent to
the Leipsic Conservatory but he overworked and became ill, and went to
Copenhagen, where he met Niels Gade, under whose guidance some of his
earlier works were written. He returned to Norway and was again
stimulated by Ole Bull; he met a young composer, Rikard Nordraak, and
together they did a good deal of work toward establishing a national
school. Again Liszt acts as an international aid society to young
musicians, for he now befriends Grieg in Rome. The government of Norway
granted a life pension to Grieg so that he might give all his time to
composition, after which he wrote incidental music to the celebrated
_Peer Gynt_ of Ibsen. He lived in the country and in 1885 built his
villa “Troldhaugen” near Bergen. His wife, who is still living in
“Troldhaugen,” sang many of his songs.
His short pieces are like portraits of Norway and he is able to catch
with marvelous ease and simplicity, the peculiar harmonies, mingling
minor and major keys together in a most charming way. Although a lyric
writer, he has written a piano sonata, three sonatas for violin and
piano, and a most effective piano concerto, all of which show brilliancy
and keen dramatic sense. His _Holberg Suite_ for piano and the _Elegiac_
melodies and the Norwegian theme for strings are full of rich, romantic
feeling. As a song writer, too, Grieg ranks very high.
Some of the other Norwegians are: Johan Severan Svendsen (1840–1911),
Wagnerian in feeling yet writing his compositions with strong Norwegian
color. Christian Sinding (1856), whose _Rustling of Spring_ you will
remember, puts on the national costume of his native Norway in his
writings, although educated in Germany. Among others are Johan Selmer,
Gerhard Schjelderup and Madam Agathe Backer-Gröndahl, pianist-composer
of decided charm.
Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale” (1820–1887) and Christine Nilsson
(1843–1921), did much to bring Norse folk songs to the attention of the
world. These melodies were very much admired because they reflected the
coolness and the sadness of the land of the fiords.
DENMARK
We now go to the land of Buxtehude, the celebrated organist of Lübeck.
Although J. Hartmann, director of the Conservatory of Copenhagen, has
been called “The Father of Danish Music,” the first great composer was
Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890). He started as a maker of instruments,
became a member of the Royal Orchestra at Copenhagen and won a prize
with his first work, an orchestral overture, _Echoes from Ossian_.
Mendelssohn played this in Leipsic and from this time on they were great
friends. Gade succeeded him as conductor of the Gewandhaus Concerts in
Leipsic; in 1848, he returned to Copenhagen and held many positions,
among which was court chapel master. Gade’s works were a mixture of the
Romantic and the Classic Schools to which he added Danish qualities. He
wrote well in symphonic style and in choruses, songs and piano pieces.
Among others were Asger Hamerik (1843), a pupil of Von Bülow and
Berlioz, Otto Malling (1848–1915); Ludwig Theodor Schytte (1850–1909), a
student of Gade and Liszt, who lived for a long time in Germany, where
he died. His short piano pieces are classics for all young piano
students. Edward Lassen, Victor Emanuel Bendix and August Enna are other
well known Danes.
SWEDEN
The first of the romantic writers in Sweden is Anders Hallen (1846). His
music was massive and Wagnerian in effect, showing the somberness of the
influence of his native province Bohuslän. He had a great sense of
melody and his marches and dances in his native style are happy and
delightful. Emil Sjögren (1853–1918) was called “The Schumann of the
North,” for he wrote mostly piano pieces, a beautiful violin sonata and
vocal solos and showed a great deal of charm and warmth of feeling. We
might add to this list Wilhelm Stenhammar, who wrote operas and choral
works, and Hugo Alfven.