From a photograph from life by Hanfstaengl, of Munich.
(See page 601.)
]
One of the results of Germany’s high development in music, and
consequent “division of labor” in the executive part of the art, has
been to give great importance to the conductors of orchestras and of
large musical societies. Until recently there have been but few cases of
really great conductors who were not at the same time prominent
composers. Weber, Wagner, Spohr, Mendelssohn, Marschner, Lindpaintner,
Rietz and Hiller were all Kapellmeister-composers. The remarkable
advance in orchestral technique and the increased work demanded of
conductors have given rise to the necessity of training men exclusively
for this exacting profession. There are at present in Germany a
half-dozen specialists in this branch who are particularly
distinguished. Foremost among them is the gifted Hans von Bülow (born
1830). Great as are this master’s merits as a piano virtuoso, it is
chiefly as a conductor that he has had important influence upon the
musical activity of his time. His long connection with the Meiningen
orchestra, at a period when it made frequent concert tours through
Germany, was of great service in raising the standard of orchestral
interpretation throughout the country.
Hans Richter (born 1843) also enjoys an international reputation as a
conductor. He is chief conductor of the Imperial opera and Philharmonic
concerts of Vienna. He has also frequently conducted the concerts of the
London Philharmonic Society. Richter was intimately associated with
Wagner, and directed the first Bayreuth performance in 1876.
A conductor of perhaps even greater ability, but of less extended
reputation, is Hermann Levi (born 1839), the chief conductor of the
Munich theatre. He also was intimately associated with Wagner, and
conducted the first performance of “Parsifal” at Bayreuth in 1882. He is
at present the conductor-in-chief at Bayreuth. His principal claim to
superiority lies in the fact that he conducts equally well the daintiest
Haydn symphony and the most complex Wagner music-drama. He is as a
conductor what Liszt was as a pianist, universally sympathetic in his
interpretations.
Felix Mottl (born 1856) of Carlsruhe, and Ernst Schuch (born 1848) of
Dresden, are worthy to be grouped with Germany’s great conductors. The
former is one of the Bayreuth conductors. The young composers, Strauss
and Weingartner, are also able Kapellmeister.
Any consideration of the history of music in Germany would be incomplete
without some mention of her great achievements in musical criticism,
history, theory, philosophy and æsthetics. In these departments of
literary and scientific work, Germany has accomplished infinitely more
than any other nation. We have already had occasion, in speaking of
certain composers, to mention their literary works. But the majority of
writers on music have left no record as artists.
During the eighteenth century the most noted German writers on musical
history and criticism were Forkel, Gerbert, Mattheson, Scheibe,
Reichardt and J. A. Hiller; on musical theory and instruction, Fux,
Albrechtsberger, Marpurg, Kirnberger, Sorge, Knecht, Quantz, Em. Bach
and Leopold Mozart. During the present century the principal writers on
the general subject of musical history have been Brendel, von Dommer,
Reissmann, Naumann, Langhans and August Wilhelm Ambros (1816–76). For
original research, profound learning, and remarkable critical insight
the “Geschichte der Musik” by Ambros ranks first among all works on the
subject.
R. G. Kiesewetter (1773–1850), the uncle of Ambros, shows equal
thoroughness in treating the special subjects of musical history. His
monographs on the Netherland masters, on secular song, on Arabian music,
etc., are sources of important information. Carl von Winterfeld is the
great authority on German church music. His “Der Evangelische
Kirchengesang” is a work of great learning.
In the field of musical biography the list is a long one, and includes
Marx, Schindler, Nohl, Nottebohm, Lenz, Bitter, Chrysander, Jahn and
Spitta.
[Illustration:
HANS von BÜLOW.
From a photograph from life by Bieber, of Hamburg.
]
Otto Jahn’s “Life of Mozart,” and Philipp Spitta’s “Life of Bach,” are
masterly biographies, which are an honor to the authors and the nation
that produced them. They are monuments of exhaustive research and
profound critical analysis. Mention should be made of the biography of
Beethoven by Alexander W. Thayer, which was published in Germany as the
fruits of many years of patient and thorough investigation. The author
is an American by birth and education, but has long been identified with
German musical literature, and is considered as the authority in all
that pertains to the life of the great composer.
Musical criticism has been well represented by Friedrich Rochlitz
(1770–1808), the founder of the “Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung” of
Leipsic; Adolf Bernhard Marx (1799–1866), one of the most broadly
educated musical writers of his time; Gottfried Weber (1779–1839),
editor of the musical periodical, “Cæcilia”; Thibaut, whose “Purity in
Musical Art” is a highly esteemed essay; Schumann, the composer, who
gave a new and higher direction to musical criticism in his “Neue
Zeitschrift für Musik.” Schumann’s gifted poetical nature is revealed in
his critical reviews as well as in his music, and he set an example
followed by others, though at a distance, among whom Eduard Hanslick, of
Vienna, is perhaps the most worthy of mention; Wilhelm Tappert, the
editor of the “Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung,” is a zealous partisan of
Wagner. His “Wagner Lexicon” is a curious compilation of all the slang
and abuse that have been hurled at the composer and his friends.
Among the imaginative writers on musical subjects, the most remarkable
was Ernst T. R. Hoffmann, whose romantic tales have given him a
prominent place in German literature. He was composer, poet, singer,
teacher, conductor and theatrical manager; he was especially gifted as
an improvisator. Everything this eccentric genius did, he did well.
Among his works are eleven operas and two symphonies. Schumann was much
influenced by the fantastic tales of Hoffmann. His “Kreisleriana” was
suggested by Hoffmann’s fragments of the imaginary “Kreisler the
Kapellmeister.” Beethoven wrote a humorous canon addressed to Hoffmann,
and Weber loved him.
[Illustration: