From a photograph from life by Luckhardt, of Vienna.
(See page 595.)
]
Otto Nicolai (1810–49), director of the Domchor and Royal Opera of
Berlin, composed a number of conventional Italian operas and other
works. His “Merry Wives of Windsor” is one of the most popular comic
operas of the present time. The overture is especially charming, and a
great favorite in the concert-room.
Franz von Suppe (1820–92), “the German Offenbach,” composed an immense
number of pleasing operettas and vaudevilles, of which his “Fatinitza”
is celebrated. His overture to the “Poet and Peasant” is one of the most
popular light overtures ever written.
Ignaz Brüll in his opera “Golden Cross,” and Victor Nessler in his
“Piper of Hamelin” and “Trumpeter of Säkkingen,” have achieved success.
Their great popularity in Germany is an illustration of the fact that
the opera public in general have a different standard of taste than
cultivated musicians.
Johann Strauss (born 1825), the younger, has won great success with his
operettas. His “Fledermaus” and “Der Lustige Krieg” are known all over
the world.
In the field of dance music Germany leads the world. The strains of
Lanner, Gungl, Waldteufel and Strauss are heard in every land. For
piquancy, sensuous charm of melody, rhythmical swing, thematic contrast
and effective orchestration, the waltzes of Lanner and Strauss are to be
classed with the most artistic productions of modern Germany.
Since Schubert’s day, the German Lied-form has been cultivated by many
composers, the noblest of whom are Loewe, Schumann, Franz, Rubinstein
and Brahms. Loewe and Franz were specialists, but their songs are very
unlike. In Germany, Loewe has been especially popular with the masses,
while Franz, by his exquisite taste and feeling, appeals more strongly
to cultivated musicians. In certain respects Franz and Schumann share
with Schubert in the fulfilment of the highest ideal of the German Lied.
Carl Loewe (1796–1869) was a productive composer in various fields of
music, but his reputation rests on his merits as a ballad composer.
The number of his ballads which have gained universal popularity is very
great. Among them may be mentioned “Edward,” “Herr Oluf,” “Abschied,”
“Goldschmieds Töchterlein,” “Der Wirthin Töchterlein,” “Die Braut von
Corinth,” “Heinrich der Vogler,” “Erlkönig,” and “Die Gruft der
Liebenden.” His musical style is remarkable for its dramatic
picturesqueness and justness of declamation. With him everything is made
to contribute to a full rendering of the meaning of the text. His works
have become very popular, and their popularity is by no means on the
wane. It is remarkable, however, that beyond the boundaries of Germany
his ballads are but little known.
The musical productiveness of modern Germany has been displayed in no
single branch so overwhelmingly as in songs. It may truly be said that
every composer, great and small, has produced his sets of Lieder, though
it has been vouchsafed to only a chosen few to merit distinction in this
over-crowded field. Among the multitude who have composed songs in a
light style are several whose services to popular music ought not to be
underestimated. The most prominent of this class are Heinrich Proch
(1809–78), Friedrich Kücken (1810–82), and Franz Abt (1819–85). Of
these, Abt is the ablest and the most widely known. Most of his songs
are trivial in character, but a few, like “When the Swallows Homeward
Fly,” have touched the popular heart and deserve their widespread fame.
The preceding brief account of the minor composers of Germany, belonging
to the “classical” and “romantic” periods, may serve to show that in art
as well as nature the “survival of the fittest” seems to be the
governing principle of evolution. Comparatively few works of musical art
are monumental, and survive the changes of fashion, the inconstancy of
the public, and the ravages of time. Among the crowd of masters who are
grouped around the central figures are some who merit a better fate than
has befallen them. Some day, no doubt, their now forgotten works will be
revived, just as those of neglected poets and painters have been. Surely
fame is to some extent the accident of fortune. The case of Sebastian
Bach is the most striking illustration. Of the majority of imitators or
epigones, however, it may briefly be written, as the abstract of the
historian’s page,—they lived—and died.
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