PART III. REUNITING IN DEATH

_Allegro_

This, as has been said, is the only portion of the symphony which is

explicitly derived from Bürger's poem. I quote Mr. George P. Upton's

spirited commentary: "It opens with a plaintive theme ... suggestive of

Lenore mourning for her lover as she wakes from troubled dreams. Then

follows an intimation of her fate in a brief phrase for the trombones.

The Trio[120] of the march tells the story of her despair, for the army

has returned without her lover. Her blasphemy and the remonstrances of

her mother are clearly indicated. The recurrence of the first theme

lands up to a rhythmical figure for the viola, representing the tramp

of the steed bearing the spectre bridegroom. The bell tinkles softly,

and Lenore descends to meet her lover. Then the 'cellos take up the

figure, retaining it to the close. The terrible ride begins. The

bassoons and oboes carry on the dialogue between the spectre and his

bride. One after another the constantly intensified and impetuous music

pictures the scenes of the ride, the 'cellos and other strings keeping

up their figure. A gloomy dirge tells us of the funeral train, and a

weird theme in triple time of the spectres' dance about the gibbet,

accompanied by wild cries of the night birds. More and more furious

grows the ride until the graveyard is reached, when, after a moment of

silence following the transformation, a chorale strain is heard, with

a sad and tender accompaniment. The wretched maiden has at last found

rest."

FOOTNOTES:

[115] Only eleven of the twelve are known to-day. A five-movement

symphony in E minor, composed at Weimar in 1854, performed at a concert

there on April 20, 1855, is not listed among Raff's works; the work

remained unpublished, and the manuscript score is not extant.

[116] There is no end to the variety in which the legend of the Wild

Hunt is preserved. Its best-known incarnation is to be found in the

ballad of Gottfried August Bürger, _Der Wilde Jäger_, paraphrased by

Scott in his "Wild Huntsman." See pages 106-7 for a description of

César Franck's tone-poem, _Le Chasseur Maudit_ ("The Wild Huntsman"),

based on this legend.

[117] "Dame Hulda," or "Holda," or _Frau Holle_: a goddess who was

at first benign, then a seductress of men, later the sovereign

temptress of the "Venusberg" (the _Venus_ of Wagner's "Tannhäuser").

"She became," says the inimitable Mr. Hale, "a wanton in league with

Satan. She was still beautiful in front, but had a tail behind, as the

master whom she served; 'to go with Holle' was to join a witch party;

and at last she was an ugly old woman, long-nosed, snag-toothed, with

bristling, thickly matted hair. All children that die unbaptized go

to Holda, and they shriek behind her when she rides, clothed and in a

coach, in company with the Wild Huntsman and Wotan."

[118] Gottfried August Bürger, born at Wolmerswende, near Halberstadt,

January 1, 1748; died at Göttingen, in poverty, June 8, 1794. "Lenore"

was published in 1773.

[119] This and the following translations are from the English version

of Alfred Baskerville (New York, 1854).

[120] "Trio": see page 210 (foot-note).

RIMSKY-KORSAKOFF

(_Nicolas Andrejevitch Rimsky-Korsakoff: born in Tikhvin, in the

government of Novgorod, Russia, March 18,[121] 1844; now living in

St. Petersburg_)

"SADKO," A MUSICAL PICTURE: Op. 5

Rimsky-Korsakoff, who as a young man served as an officer in the

Russian navy, has in his music shown a peculiar aptitude for

delineating the moods and aspects of the sea. "Sadko," composed in

1867, and sometimes spoken of as "the first Russian symphonic poem," is

music of the sea. It has this programme, which is prefaced to the score:

"The ship bearing Sadko [a hero of Russian legend, or, according

to some, a historical character], a famous gusli[122] player,

is becalmed on the high sea. He is thrown overboard by his

fellow-travellers as a propitiatory offering to the Sea King, who

receives him in his domain, while the ship sails on. There is a

great company beneath the waves, for the Sea King is celebrating the

wedding of his daughter to the Ocean. He compels Sadko to play on his

_gusli_, and they all dance to the music. Spectres appear; the dance

grows wilder and wilder; stormier and stormier are the billows. Sadko

breaks the strings of his instrument; an end is put to the dancing,

the sea grows calmer, and it is soon dark and still in the ocean

depths."[123]

In the music there is first (_Moderato assai_) a suggestion of the

quiet sea, the becalmed ship. Following that, the picturesque intent of

the music, heard in the light of the programme, is easily followed.

"ANTAR," SYMPHONY No. 2: Op. 15

1. _Largo_

_Allegro vivace_

2. _Allegro_

3. _Allegro risoluto alla Marcia_

4. _Allegretto vivace_

_Andante amoroso_

Antar was a famous Arabian warrior-poet of pre-Mohammedan times. He

lived in the sixth century, and his eloquence and inspiration as a poet

were so revered that one of his poems, inscribed upon deerskin, was

hung up among the idols in the Kaaba[124] at Mecca for the adoration of

worshippers. Rimsky-Korsakoff's symphony (first performed at Magdeburg

in 1881) is based on a tale by Sennkowsky of which Antar is the hero.

Its substance is condensed in the following note, in French and German,

prefaced to the score:

I

[_Largo; allegro vivace_]

"Awful is the view of the desert of Sham;[125] mighty in their

desolation are the ruins of Palmyra, the city raised by the spirits

of darkness. But Antar, the man of the desert, braves them, and

dwells serenely in the midst of the scenes of destruction. Antar

has forever forsaken the company of mankind. He has sworn eternal

hatred on account of the evil they returned him for the good which he

intended.

"Suddenly a charming, graceful gazelle[126] appears. Antar starts to

pursue it. But a great noise seems pulsing through the heavens, and

the light of day is veiled by a dense shadow. It is a giant bird that

is giving chase to the gazelle.

"Antar straightway changes his intent, and attacks the monster, which

gives a piercing cry and flies away. The gazelle disappears at the

same time, and Antar, left alone in the midst of the ruins, soon goes

to sleep while meditating on the event that has happened.

"He sees himself transported to a splendid palace, where a multitude

of slaves hasten to serve him and to charm his ear with their song. It

is the abode of the Queen of Palmyra--the fairy Gul-nazar. The gazelle

that he has saved from the talons of the spirit of darkness is none

other than the fairy herself. In gratitude Gul-nazar promises Antar

the three great joys of life, and, when he assents to the proffered

gift, the vision vanishes, and he awakes amid the surrounding ruins."

II

[_Allegro_]

"The first joy granted by the Queen of Palmyra to Antar is the

delight of vengeance."

III

[_Allegro risoluto alla Marcia_]

"The second joy--the delight of power."

IV

[_Allegretto vivace; andante amoroso_]

"Antar has returned to the fallen remains of Palmyra. The third and

last gift granted by the fairy to Antar is the joy of true love.

Antar begs the fairy to take away his life as soon as she perceives

the least estrangement on his side, and she promises to do his desire.

"After a long time of mutual bliss, the fairy perceives one day

that Antar is absent in spirit, and is gazing into the distance.

Straightway divining the reason, she passionately embraces him. The

fire of her love inflames Antar, and his heart is consumed away.

"Their lips meet in a last kiss, and Antar dies in the arms of the

fairy."[127]

The grave theme for violas and wood-wind which is heard in the opening

_Largo_, and which recurs throughout the symphony, has been called the

"Antar" motive; while the graceful motive for flute and accompanying

horns in the succeeding _Allegro_ section has been said to characterize

the transformed gazelle--the miraculously potent fairy queen through

whose love Antar finally meets his end.

César Cui, to whom the score is dedicated, has thus commented on the

music:

"First Part: Antar is in the desert--he saves a gazelle from a beast

of prey. The gazelle is a fay, who rewards her deliverer by granting

him three pleasures. The whole of this part, which begins and ends

with a picture of the desolate and boundless desert, is worthy of the

composer's magic brush.

"Second Part: The pleasure of Vengeance--a rugged, savage, unbridled

_Allegro_, with crescendos like the letting loose of furious winds.

"Third Part: The Pleasure of Power--an Oriental march. A masterpiece

of the finest and most brilliant interpretation.

"Last Part: The Pleasure of Love, amid which Antar expires--a

delicate, poetic, delicious _Andante_...."

And Alfred Bruneau speaks of the music's striking depiction of the

three primal human passions: "These sentiments, passing severally

through diverse measures, tonalities, and rhythms, over which hovers

insistently the parent-phrase of Antar, are the faithful reflections

of our tormented, vague, and mysterious souls."

"SCHEHERAZADE," SYMPHONIC SUITE AFTER

"A THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT": Op. 35

Prefixed to the score of this suite (published in 1889) is the

following programme, printed in French and Russian:

"The Sultan Schahriar, convinced of the faithlessness of women, had

sworn to put to death each of his wives after the first night. But

the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by diverting him with stories

which she told him during a thousand and one nights. The Sultan,

conquered by his curiosity, put off from day to day the execution of

his wife, and at last renounced entirely his bloody vow.

"Many wonders were narrated to Schahriar by the Sultana Scheherazade.

For her stories the Sultana borrowed the verses of poets and the

words of folk-songs, and she fitted together tales and adventures.

"1. The Sea and Sindbad's Ship. 2. The Tale of the Kalendar-Prince.

3. The Young Prince and the Young Princess. 4. Festival at Bagdad.

The Sea. The Ship is Wrecked on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze

Warrior. Conclusion."

There is doubt as to Rimsky-Korsakoff's precise intention in the

programme of this suite. Which one of Sindbad's voyages is described,

which of the three Kalendars is referred to, and what adventure of

what young prince and princess, the composer leaves to his hearers

to decide. Moreover, the event mentioned in the last number of the

suite--the wrecking of the ship upon a rock surmounted by a warrior of

brass (not "bronze")--occurs in the story of the third Kalendar, while

the wreck of Sindbad's ship occurred under different circumstances. The

truth seems to be that Rimsky-Korsakoff has aimed at translating into

music the spirit and atmosphere which unifies the various stories, and

has not troubled himself about the accuracy or the consistency of his

paraphrase. Like Scheherazade herself, he has strung together, without

regard for continuity or coherence, whatever incidents and fragments

suited his purpose. Thus his music is to be taken as a gloss on the

tales as a whole--on their general and underlying mood, their color,

their imaginative essence.

I. THE SEA AND SINDBAD'S SHIP

The first theme of this movement, heard at the opening, has been

identified both as the motive of the Sea and of Sindbad. Later we

hear (solo violin, with harp chords) the motive of Scheherazade. An

undulating _arpeggio_ figure has been called the Wave motive, and a

theme first sung by the solo flute that of the Ship. The Sea motive

forms a climax of the full orchestra. There is a tranquil close.

II. THE TALE OF THE KALENDAR-PRINCE

After an introductory passage, we hear the Scheherazade theme on a

solo violin with harp accompaniment, followed by a theme, _quasi

recitando_, for solo bassoon, which seems here to have the rôle of

narrator. There is an intermezzo of Oriental character. The end is

spirited.

III. THE YOUNG PRINCE AND THE YOUNG PRINCESS

"Some think from the similarity of the two themes typical of prince and

princess that the composer had in mind the adventures of Kamar al-Zaman

(Moon of the age) and the Princess Budur (Full moon)." This movement is

idyllic, a romanza evolved out of two themes of folk-song character.

IV. FESTIVAL AT BAGDAD. THE SEA. THE SHIP IS WRECKED ON A ROCK

SURMOUNTED BY A BRONZE WARRIOR

The motive of the Sea begins the movement; the Scheherazade theme

follows; then (_Allegro molto e frenetico_) begins a brilliant

depiction of the revels at Bagdad. Then, abruptly, we are transferred

to a scene on shipboard. "We seem to plunge into the broad movement

of the surging sea, straight on to the fateful event." While the

jollification is at its height the ship strikes the dreadful rock.

"The trombones roar out the Sea motive against the billowy Wave

motive in the strings.... The storm dies.... There is a quiet

ending with development on the Sea and Wave motives. The tales are

told. Scheherazade, the narrator, who lived with Shahriar 'in all

pleasance and solace of life and its delights till there took them

the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies, the Desolater

of dwelling-places and the Garnerer of graveyards, and they were

translated to the ruth of Almighty Allah,' fades away with the vision

and the final note of her violin."

"A NIGHT ON MOUNT TRIGLAV": THIRD ACT OF THE OPERA-BALLET "MLADA"

(CONCERT ARRANGEMENT FOR ORCHESTRA)[128]

In 1872 Rimsky-Korsakoff, César Cui, Modest Moussorgsky, and Alexander

Borodine (who, with Mily Balakireff, were the famous coterie who

founded the "neo-Russian" school forty years ago)[129] wrote each the

music of an act to an opera libretto by Gedeonoff, their chief of the

Imperial Theatres, who had ordered the work. This composite opera was

never produced, but Rimsky-Korsakoff made use of his share of the music

for the third act of his opera-ballet "Mlada" (produced in 1893). The

composer afterwards made a concert arrangement of the music of this

act, and it was performed at Moscow in 1903, under the direction of

Wassily Safonoff.

The score of the work in its purely orchestral form is prefaced by a

descriptive programme, of which the following is a translation:

"The stage is covered with thick clouds. Darkness. The clouds

disperse little by little, and finally disappear completely. Falling

stars. A clear, moonless night. A gorge on Mount Triglav. Souls of

the dead approach floating, and begin a fantastic round (_Kolo_).

The full moon, which rises, lights up the gorge; in its rays appears

the wraith of the princess Mlada, making signs to Jaromir to follow

her. Lightly she glides above the rocks and precipices. Jaromir

follows her. The shades interrupt the _Kolo_. Jaromir, in a wild

burst of passion, seeks to approach Mlada, who disappears. Jaromir

pursues her. The moon grows red. Subterranean thunder. Seized with

terror, the shades of the dead disappear. Night birds wing their

way across the stage. Evil spirits issue from all the caverns and

crevasses--demons, spectres, and sorcerers come forth, and serpents

and toads crawl out. Revels and dances of the spirits of darkness.

From the midst of the infernal round, Chernobog arises, in the

form of a black stag, with his followers. He evokes the souls of

Jaromir and of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Impenetrable darkness.

The stage is transformed into a splendid Egyptian hall. Queen

Cleopatra is reclining upon a sumptuous couch of purple, surrounded

by dancing-girls and slaves. Dances of the slaves, the dancing-girls,

and Cleopatra. She seeks passionately to draw Jaromir towards her;

the soul of the latter grows animated; the wraith of Mlada hides

its face in its hands and weeps. A cock crows. Suddenly everything

vanishes. Deep night; a peal of underground thunder. Quiet. The

clouds successively disperse. First gleam of dawn. The wooded slope

of Mount Triglav. Jaromir is sleeping. Nature awakes; the leaves

rustle and the birds twitter. A ray of the rising sun falls on

Jaromir. Full daylight."

SUITE, "CHRISTMAS EVE"

TABLEAU 1. INTRODUCTION: CHRISTMAS EVE

TABLEAU 2. IN SPACE

TABLEAU 3. BRILLIANT BALL IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE

TABLEAU 4. NIGHT, IN SPACE

Rimsky-Korsakoff composed, in 1895, an opera, "Christmas Eve," based

on a story by Gogol.[130] It was produced at St. Petersburg December

10, 1895. Excerpts from it were afterwards made into a suite by the

composer. Mr. H. E. Krehbiel has paraphrased Gogol's tale, as it has

been utilized by Rimsky-Korsakoff, with a clearness and concision which

could not well be bettered:

"[The story] is concerned with one of the adventures of the hero,

a young, handsome, herculean, and stout-hearted blacksmith named

Wakula, in an effort to win the hand of a wilful and capricious damsel

named Oxana. She commands him to bring her the _tscherewitschki_

(embroidered slippers, or little shoes) of the Empress Catherine the

Great. To understand how he achieved this feat it is necessary to

relate that his mother, Ssoloka, is a mistress of the magic arts,

and also a buxom dame, who counts among her four lovers not only the

father of the whimsical Oxana, but the devil himself. One day, the

day before Christmas, her four lovers appear at her house in such

rapid succession that she is obliged to hide them in sacks, one after

another, to prevent discovery of the numerous rivalry. In her haste

two are put into one sack. She has just disposed of the last when

Wakula comes home, and to him she gives the sacks (as containing so

much coal) to carry away to various destinations. Wakula shoulders the

three sacks at once and is off. After depositing two of them in the

street, he discovers that he has trapped the devil in the third, and

under threat of baptizement unless he consents, compels his satanic

majesty to transport him instanter to St. Petersburg, and help him

get the empress's slippers. Here the suite begins, and, since most of

it is of the descriptive order, the rest of the tale may best be told

with hints intended to identify the scenes with the music.

"TABLEAU I. INTRODUCTION: CHRISTMAS EVE

"The scene pictures Dikanka, a village in Little Russia, on a clear,

cold night (_Adagio_).

"TABLEAU II. IN SPACE

"The stars group themselves upon the clouds (_Andante_). The stars

engage in games and dances (Ballet). Mazurka, _Allegro assai_....

A procession of comets (_Adagio_). A round dance, revolution of

the constellations about the pole (_Andante non troppo_). A shower

of meteors ( ... _Allegro_). Clouds descend and hide the stars. A

wizard rides into view, seated in a kettle, which he drives with an

oven-fork; after him, a rout of wizards, in pots, kettles and bowls,

carrying forks, frying-pans, tongs, and pokers; witches astride of

brooms. Dance of the witches. Wakula rushes by upon the devil, in

the shape of a winged horse; wizards and witches skurry after him

(_Allegro assai_, with a dactyllic figure to suggest the infernal

ride). The lights of St. Petersburg are seen (_Moderato_).

"TABLEAU III. BRILLIANT BALL IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE

"(Polonaise, _Allegro non troppo, alla Polacca_.) The devil enters

with Wakula (the dactyllic figure is resumed). Darkness comes over

the scene.

"TABLEAU IV. NIGHT, IN SPACE

"Glimpses of the setting moon are had through rifts in the clouds

(_Andante_). Flying through the clouds, a multitude of empty pots

and kettles, brooms, forks, and other kitchen utensils (_Allegro_).

Wakula dashes past, in the opposite direction, upon his devil-horse

(_Allegro assai_). The clouds disperse and vanish. The moon sets,

and the morning star (Venus) appears (_Moderato_). Dawn. Kolyada, in

a golden sledge, and Ovsen, on a boar with golden bristles, appear

with a train of light elves who hymn them (_Andante_). Kolyada is

an ancient Slavic sun goddess. In an old ceremony she used to be

represented by a maiden, clad in white robes, who was driven from

house to house in the yuletide, while _kolyadki_ (_i.e._, Kolyada

songs) were sung by the youths and maidens who attended her, and

received gifts from the people in return for their songs. The sun

rises through the frosty mists, and Dikanka becomes visible. Wakula

is returned with the shoes in time for early mass. The bells of the

village church are heard, and the people singing the pious Christmas

canticle."

FOOTNOTES:

[121] Some authorities give May 22d.

[122] "Gusli": an instrument peculiar to the Russian people.

"Originally it had a small, flat sounding-box, with a maple-wood cover,

and strung with seven strings."

[123] The translation is by Mr. Philip Hale.

[124] El Kaaba (or, more properly, Al, or Ul Kaaba), the sacred shrine

of the Islamites at Mecca, is said by tradition to have been created by

God out of cloud and mist at the beginning of the world. Adam gave it a

more substantial form, building it of stones and rock. It was rebuilt

by Noah after the flood; destroyed in war, and erected again by Ishmael

and Abraham. It was built in its present form by Moslem caliphs in the

eighth century. Before the days of Mohammed it was the shrine of some

six hundred idols, among which were six examples of supreme poetic

eloquence. It was to these that Antar's poem was added.

[125] The desert that lies to the east of Damascus.

[126] The gazelle figures with curious persistence in Arabic poetry,

especially as a symbol, even as a standard, of feminine grace and

beauty.

[127] Translated by Mr. P. H. Goepp.

[128] Without opus number.

[129] This was the group of iconoclastic and restless young composers

who, at St. Petersburg, set forth, under the banner of "nationalism,"

to open new paths for Russian music, and by whom Tschaikowsky was cast

into outer darkness as being too "eclectic," too little "national," in

his art.

[130] Nicolas Gogol (1809-1852), a prolific and popular Russian

novelist. Tschaikowsky compared him with Dickens: "He [Dickens] has

the same inimitable and innate humor, and the same masterly power of

depicting an entire character in a few strokes. But he has not Gogol's

depth."

SAINT-SAËNS

(_Camille Saint-Saëns: born in Paris, October 9, 1835; still living

there_)

"OMPHALE'S SPINNING-WHEEL," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 1: Op. 31

_Le Rouet d'Omphale_, composed in 1871, was first a piano piece; it was

afterwards made over for orchestra and performed in Paris at a _Concert

Populaire_ on April 14, 1872.

The following note, in French, prefaces the score:

"The subject of this symphonic poem is feminine seductiveness, the

triumphant contest of weakness against strength. The spinning-wheel

is merely a pretext; it is chosen simply for the sake of its

rhythmical suggestion and from the viewpoint of the general form of

the piece."

The note conveys the further slightly ironical information that "those

who are interested in the study of details will see on page 19 (letter

J) [of the score] Hercules groaning in the bonds which he cannot break

[a laboring phrase in the 'cellos and double-basses, repeated with

cumulative expression], and on page 32 (letter L) Omphale mocking the

hero's futile efforts [a theme sung by the oboe]."

The music has been interpreted as falling naturally into the three

following sections: "(1) The power of feminine allurement. Triumphant

struggle of weakness against strength; in fact, Omphale's fascination

of Hercules. (2) Hercules in bondage; or, as the author has it,

'Hercules groaning under the bonds which he cannot break.' (3) Omphale

deriding the vain efforts of the hero."

"PHAËTON," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 2: Op. 39

_Phaëton_ was produced in Paris, under Eduard Colonne, at a concert at

the _Théâtre du Châtelet_, December 7, 1873. The score has this preface:

"Phaëton has obtained leave to drive his father's, the Sun's, chariot

through the heavens. But his unskilful hands lead the steeds astray.

The flaming chariot, thrown out of its course, approaches the

terrestrial regions. The whole universe is about to perish in flames,

when Jupiter strikes the rash Phaëton with his thunderbolt."[131]

The portentous drive is first pictured, the gallop of the horses

being indicated by an imitative figure in the strings, wood-wind, and

horns. A suave and noble theme for the horns has been said to suggest

celestial visions glimpsed by the charioteer in the course of his

daring flight.[132] The furious rhythm of the drive is heard again,

increasing to a precipitate pace. It is cut short by the Jovian

thunderbolt (kettle-drums, bass-drum, cymbals, tam-tam). Then, as its

reverberations die away, we hear again the august harmonies of the

second theme; there is a reminiscence of the opening motive (of the

ride), and the music ends _ppp_.

"DANCE OF DEATH" ["DANSE MACABRE"], SYMPHONIC POEM No. 3: Op. 40

This symphonic poem illustrates a fantastic poem by Henri Cazalis,

lines from which are prefixed to the score. They are as follows (in a

prose translation made by Mr. W. F. Apthorp):

"Zig and Zig and Zig, Death plays in cadence,

Beating time with his heel upon a tombstone;

Death plays a dance-tune, Zig and Zig and Zig, on his fiddle.

The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;

Groans come from under the lindens;

White skeletons flit across the gloom,

Running and skipping in their capacious shrouds.

Zig and Zig and Zig, capers every one;

You hear the dancers' bones rattle.

* * * * *

"But whist! Of a sudden they quit their dance;

They rush off helter-skelter, the cock has crowed."

* * * * *

A violin solo impersonates Death the fiddler, while the rattling of

the bones of the grewsome dancers is delineated by the xylophone

(wood-harmonica). The uncanny dance increases in wildness and abandon

until it is cut short by the cock-crow (oboe).

"THE YOUTH OF HERCULES," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 4: Op. 50

_La Jeunesse d'Hercule_, first performed in Paris, at a concert in the

_Théâtre du Châtelet_, January 28, 1877, bears as a preface to the

score the following note (in French):

"LEGEND

"Mythology relates that Hercules, upon entering life, saw two paths

opening before him, the path of pleasure and the path of virtue.

"Indifferent to the seductions of Nymphs and Bacchantes, the hero

chooses the path of struggles and combats, at the end of which he

perceives, through the flames of the funeral pyre, the reward of

immortality."

The music has been interpreted as a succession of characterizations

in this order: "(1) Irresolution [_Andante sostenuto_: muted[133]

violins; wood-wind, strings, and wood]; (2) character of the path of

virtue [_Allegro moderato_: strings, without mutes, in full harmony];

(3) seductiveness of the nymphs [_Andantino_]; (4) allurements of the

Bacchantes [_Allegro_: flutes at first, later other wood-wind, strings

and wood, full orchestra]; (5) renewed questionings [_Adagio_: strings,

horns, wood-wind]; (6) choice of the path of virtue and consequent

struggles [_Andante sostenuto_ and _Allegro animato_: the theme of

Virtue played by clarinet, afterwards by oboe; later, the theme of

pleasure heard in the wood-wind against harp arpeggios]; (7) the

funeral pyre and immortality beyond [_Maestoso_: triumphant supremacy

of the theme of Virtue, in an orchestral apotheosis]."

FOOTNOTES:

[131] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

[132] This theme has also been said to represent "nymphs bemoaning

Phaëton's danger, and, at last, his death."

[133] See page 12 (foot-note).

SCHUMANN

(_Robert Schumann: born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810; died in

Endenich, near Bonn, July 29, 1856_)

SYMPHONY No. 1, IN B-FLAT MAJOR ["SPRING"]: Op. 38

1. _Andante un poco maestoso; Allegro molto vivace_

2. _Larghetto_

3. _Scherzo: Molto vivace_

4. _Finale: Allegro animato e grazioso_

Although Schumann never publicly avowed it, the inspiration for this

symphony sprang from a poem by Adolph Böttger (1815-1870), _O Geist

der Wolke_. The music was composed early in 1841. In October of the

following year Schumann sent a portrait of himself to his friend

Böttger, accompanied by an inscription consisting of the opening phrase

of the symphony in notation, and the words: "Beginning of a symphony

inspired by a poem of Adolph Böttger. To the poet, in remembrance of

Robert Schumann."

The verses of Böttger have been translated (in prose) as follows:

"Thou Spirit of the Cloud, murky and heavy, fliest with menace over

land and sea; thy gray veil covers in a moment the clear eye of

heaven; thy mist seethes up from afar, and Night hides the Star of

Love. Thou Spirit of the Cloud, murky and damp, how thou hast

frightened away all my happiness, how thou dost call tears to my face

and shadows into the light of my soul! O turn, O turn thy course--In

the valley blooms the spring!"

The crux of this poem, and the key to an understanding of the mood of

Schumann's music, lies in the concluding line:

"In the valley blooms the spring!"

("_Im Thale blüht der Frühling auf!_")

Schumann himself spoke of this work as "a Spring symphony," though it

is not so titled on the score. In a letter to Spohr he wrote (November

23, 1842): "I composed the symphony ..., if I may say so, under the

impulse of that vernal ardor which sways men even at the most advanced

age, and seizes them anew each year. I did not aim to portray or to

describe; but I do believe that the season in which the symphony was

conceived influenced its character and its form and made it what it

is." He wrote also, on January 10, 1843, to Wilhelm Taubert (who was

to produce the symphony in Berlin): "Could you imbue your orchestra

with something of the springtime mood, which I had particularly in mind

when I wrote the symphony in February, 1841? The trumpet-call at the

entrance I should like to have sound as if it came from on high like

an awakening summons. By what follows I might then suggest how on every

side it begins to grow green; how, perhaps, a butterfly appears; and,

by the Allegro, how gradually all springtime things burst forth. These,

it is true, are fancies which occurred to me after I had finished the

work. I should like to say, however, concerning the last movement, that

I imagined it to suggest the departure of spring, and I would have

it played in a manner not too frivolous." It will be observed that

Schumann makes no reference whatever in these elucidations to what he

has elsewhere alleged as the particular source of his inspiration.

That the composer originally intended to give descriptive titles to the

different movements has been declared with particularity, and these are

said to have been the superscriptions he planned to use: (1) "Spring's

Beginning" (_Frühlingsbeginn_); (2) "Evening" (_Abend_); (3) "Merry

Companions" (_Frohe Gespielen_); (4) "Spring at the Full" (_Voller

Frühling_). The last of these would seem to conflict with what Schumann

himself wrote to Taubert concerning the Finale.

OVERTURE TO BYRON'S "MANFRED": Op. 115

For Byron's dramatic poem, "Manfred," Schumann, in 1848, wrote

incidental music, which was first performed at Weimar under the

direction of Liszt on June 13, 1852, in connection with a version of

Byron's work prepared by Schumann for the stage. The overture has, not

unnaturally, survived the rest of the music to the poem, and has long

been a familiar number in the concert-room. It is, of all Schumann's

works, says Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, "the most profoundly introspective. It

is, as consistently as the prelude to Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde,'

an effort to delineate soul states and struggles without the help of

external things. To understand it one must recall the figure in Byron's

poem--the strong man torn by remorse, struggling with himself, bending

supernatural powers to his will, yearning for forgiveness and death,

tortured by a pitiless conscience, living in a solitude which was

solitude no more, 'but peopled with the furies,' condemned by his own

sin to number

'Ages--ages--

Space and eternity--and consciousness,

With the fierce thirst of death--and still unslaked!'

"The mood of the slow introduction, into which the listener is plunged

at once by the three syncopated chords at the opening, is the mood of

Manfred weighed down by the reflection:

"'Old man! there is no power in holy men,

Nor charm in prayer--nor purifying form

Of penitence--nor outward look--nor fast--

Nor agony--nor, greater than all these,

"The innate tortures of that deep despair,

Which is remorse without the fear of hell,

But all in all sufficient to itself

Would make a hell of heaven--can exorcise

From out the unbounded spirit, the quick sense

Of its own sins, wrongs, sufferance, and revenge

Upon itself; there is no future pang

Can deal that justice on the self-condemn'd

He deals on his own soul.'"

"The sombreness," says Mr. Frederick Niecks, "is nowhere relieved,

although contrast to the dark brooding and the surging agitation of

despair is obtained by the tender, longing, regretful recollection of

Astarte, the destroyed beloved one. And when at last life ebbs away, we

are reminded of Manfred's dying words to the Abbot:

"'Tis over--my dull eyes can fix thee not;

But all things swim around me, and the earth

Heaves, as it were, beneath me....

Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.'

"From the first note to the last," says Mr. W. H. Hadow, "it is as

magnificent as an Alpine storm--sombre, wild, impetuous, echoing from

peak to peak with the shock of thunderbolts and the clamor of the

driving wind."

SIBELIUS

(_Jan Sibelius: born in Tavastehus, Finland, December 8, 1865; now

living in Helsingfors_)

"LEMMINKAINEN," SYMPHONIC POEM IN FOUR PARTS: Op. 22

"THE SWAN OF TUONELA"

"LEMMINKAINEN'S HOME-FARING"

Sibelius, sometime prior to February, 1906, informed Mrs. Rosa

Newmarch, the author of the first authoritative study in English of

the Finnish composer, that he was writing a symphonic poem in four

parts under the general title "Lemminkainen," based on episodes in "The

Kalevala."[134]

Two of these parts have been produced--"The Swan of Tuonela" and

"Lemminkainen's Home-Faring"; the others are said to be still (1907)

incomplete. Of the two completed portions Mrs. Newmarch writes as

follows:

"THE SWAN OF TUONELA

"Tuonela was the name of the Finnish Hades. Those wending their way

to the final abode had to traverse nine seas and one river--the

equivalent of the Styx--whereon sang and floated the sacred swan--

"'... the long-necked, graceful swimmer,

Swimming in the black death-river,

In the sacred stream and whirlpool.'

"The majestic, but intensely sad, swan melody is heard as a solo for

_cor anglais_ [English horn], accompanied at first by muted[135]

strings and the soft roll of drums. Now and then this melody is

answered by a phrase given to 'cello or viola, which might be

interpreted as the farewell sigh of some soul passing to Tuonela.

For many bars the brass is silent, until suddenly the first horn

(muted[136]) echoes a few notes of the swan-melody with the most

poignant effect. Gradually the music works up to a great climax, ...

followed by a treble _pianissimo_, the strings playing with the back

of the bow. To this accompaniment, which suggests the faint-flapping

pinions, the swan's final phrases are sung. The strings return to

the natural bowing, and the work ends in one of the characteristic,

sighing phrases for 'cello.

"LEMMINKAINEN'S HOME-FARING

"It was in pursuit of the Swan of Tuonela that Lemminkainen, the

reckless magician-hero of 'The Kalevala,' lost his life. The capture

of the sacred bird was the last test of his courage and devotion

before he could win the bride of his heart. But Nasshut, the crippled

shepherd, who bore a grudge against Lemminkainen, watched for his

approach, hurled at him a serpent snatched from the death-stream, and

flung him, mortally wounded, into the 'coal-black waters':

"'There the blood-stained son of death-land

There Tuoni's son and hero

Cuts in pieces Lemminkainen.'

"The Finnish hero shares the fate of Osiris. But the fifteenth rune

relates how his aged and faithful mother implores 'the immortal

blacksmith' Ilmarinen to forge her a huge rake:

"'Lemminkainen's faithful mother

Rakes the river of Tuoni,

* * * * *

"To her belt in mud and water

Deeper, deeper rakes the death-stream,

Rakes the river's deepest caverns.'

"By untiring perseverance she recovers all the missing members, knits

them together by her incantations, and finally restores her son to

life. When his thoughts revert to the woman he loves, for whose sake

he has accomplished a series of heroic exploits, his mother persuades

him in these words:

"'Let the swan swim on in safety

In the whirlpool of Tuoni.

Leave the maiden in the Northland

With her charms and fading beauty

With thy fond and faithful mother

Go at once to Kalevala

To thy native fields and fallows.'[137]

"Then the hero, consoled by the maternal love, which inflicts no sting

and exacts no useless sacrifices, starts on his homeward way."

FOOTNOTES:

[134] Elias Lönnrot, the Finnish scholar, issued the "Kalevala" ("a

word which signifies the dwelling of the heroes, 'sons of Kaleva'--the

Walhalla of Scandinavian mythology"), the result of his researches

and labors among the national folklore of the Finns, in 1835. "The

'Kalevala' depicts the ancient Finnish people as a race of free

barbarians endowed with many noble qualities, whose religion was a

mild nature-worship, demanding no blood sacrifices. The primitive

inhabitants of Finland--or Suomi, as it is still called in the

vernacular--believed that all objects in nature were inhabited and

ruled by invisible deities. They had more faith in the _word_ than in

the _sword_; therefore the bard and the rune-singer--he who possessed

_the word of origin_--was more honored by them than the warrior, the

shedder of blood. For them the word of origin lay concealed in the

heart of nature. This tendency to seek mind in the visible world is

also characteristic of all the literature and art of modern Finland.

It has been transmitted to a whole series of poets, whether, like

Runeberg, Franzen, and the elder Topelius, they sang in Swedish, or

adopted the Finnish idiom with Lönnrot and his successors. To this

imaginative people the making of songs was a part of existence--almost

a primal instinct. Of the three principal personages of 'The Kalevala,'

Vainamoinen, the Finnish Orpheus, stands out as the ideal hero of the

race. Profound wisdom and the power of magic song are his special

attributes."--ROSA NEWMARCH.

[135] See page 12 (foot-note).

[136] See page 75 (foot-note).

[137] This and the preceding verse translations are from the English

version of "The Kalevala" by John Martin Crawford.

SMETANA

(_Friedrich Smetana: born in Leitomischl, Bohemia, March 2, 1824;

died in Prague, May 12, 1884_)

"MY FATHERLAND," A CYCLE OF SIX SYMPHONIC POEMS[138]

Smetana, an ardent nationalist and incorrigible patriot, composed for

the glorification of his country a cycle of six symphonic poems under

the general title, "My Fatherland" (_Má Vlast_), dedicated to the city

of Prague. The titles and the programmes (in outline) of the six parts

of the cycle are as follows:

I. "VYSEHRAD"

[1874]

A famous and historic Bohemian citadel at Prague. The splendid life

there in its past day of glory and renown. The poet, at the sight of

the fortress, beholds visions of the past. "Vysehrad rises up before

his eyes in its former glory, crowned with gold-decked shrines and the

edifices of the Premslide princes and kings, rich in warlike renown.

The brave knights assemble in the castle courts, to the sound of

cymbals and trumpets, for the festal tourney; here are drawn up beneath

the reflected rays of the sun rows of warriors in rich, glittering

armor, ready for victorious contests.... Whilst contemplating the

past glory of the sublime dwelling of princes, the poet sees also its

downfall. Unchained passion overthrows the mighty towers in bitter

strife, lays waste the glorious sanctuaries and proud, princely halls.

Instead of inspiring songs and jubilant hymns, Vysehrad is become dumb,

a deserted monument of past glory; from its ruins resounds the echo of

the long-silent song of the singer-prince Lumir through the mournful

stillness!"[139]

II. "VLTAVA"

[1874]

The river Moldau--the scenes through which the course of the beloved

river leads--beauties of nature, historic edifices, deeds and

achievements of men, apparitions of nymphs and naiads.

III. "SÁRKA"

[1875]

Sárka, the "noblest of the Bohemian Amazons," was betrayed in love by

one of the hated race of men against whom the Amazons wage ceaseless

war. Craving vengeance, she has herself bound to a tree, and, in

simulation of distress, impels the knight Ctirad, who is swayed by her

beauty, to release her. Ctirad and his warrior band, striking camp for

the night, fall asleep after long-continued revels. Sárka then summons

her companions by a blast of her horn; they fall furiously upon the

sleeping warriors and put them to the sword.

IV. "FROM BOHEMIA'S FIELDS AND GROVES"

[1875]

A tonal celebration of natural beauties; music of pastoral character.

V. "TABOR"

[1878]

The fortress of the Hussites.--A sonorous tribute to the Taborites,

their valor, and their heroic devotion to their cause.

VI. "BLANIK"

[1879]

The name of the mountain on which are sleeping in glorious death the

Hussite warriors, awaiting the resurrection which will restore them to

renewed service for the faith.

FOOTNOTES:

[138] Without opus number.

[139] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

SPOHR

(_Louis Spohr: born in Braunschweig, Germany, April 5, 1784; died in

Cassel, November 22, 1859_)

SYMPHONY No. 4, "THE CONSECRATION OF SOUND":[140] Op. 86

1. RIGID SILENCE OF NATURE BEFORE THE CREATION OF TONE

(_Largo_)

ACTIVE LIFE AFTER THE SAME. SOUNDS OF NATURE.

TURMOIL OF THE ELEMENTS

(_Allegro_)

2. CRADLE SONG. DANCE. SERENADE

(_Andantino_)

3. WAR MUSIC. GOING OFF TO BATTLE. FEELINGS OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND.

RETURN OF THE VICTORS. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

(_Tempo di marcia_)

4. FUNERAL MUSIC

(_Larghetto_)

CONSOLATION IN TEARS

(_Allegretto_)

_Die Weihe der Töne_, composed in 1832, is founded on a poem of the

same title by Karl Pfeiffer. In a letter dated October 9, 1832, Spohr

wrote: "I have ... lately completed a grand instrumental composition, a

fourth symphony, which differs greatly in form from the preceding ones.

It is a musical composition inspired by a poem of Karl Pfeiffer's--_Die

Weihe der Töne_--which must be printed or recited aloud before it [the

symphony] is performed. In the very first part my task was to construct

a harmonious whole out of the sounds of nature. This, as indeed the

whole work, was a highly attractive programme [Schumann afterwards

described it as 'eulogizing music with music']."

Pfeiffer's poem is as follows, divided in accordance with its relation

to the four movements of the symphony:

[I. RIGID SILENCE OF NATURE BEFORE THE CREATION OF TONE: _Largo_.

ACTIVE LIFE AFTER THE SAME. SOUNDS OF NATURE. TURMOIL OF THE ELEMENTS:

_Allegro_]

"Solitary lay the fields in the flower-splendor of spring; amid the

silent forms wandered Man through the night, following only his wild

impulse, not the mild footprints of the heart; Love found no tones,

Nature no language.

"Then eternal Kindness wished to announce itself, and breathed

Sound into the breast of Man! And it let Love find a language that

penetrated to its heart and made it happy. The nightingale greets

him with tones of love, the forest rustles forth harmonies to him,

the Zephyr's murmur fills his breast with longing, the brook's waves

whisper him to rest. Then, at the tones' sacred wafting, the spirit,

freed from every earthly bond, soars triumphant to the heights of

Heaven, and greets the fair fatherland of dreams."

[II. CRADLE SONG. DANCE. SERENADE: _Andantino_]

"Holy tones, sounds of peace from the unknown world! Ye are given

to us as faithful companions 'mid life's joy and sternness! At the

child's first griefs on its faithful mother's breast, ye already

penetrate the little heart, and turn the grief to gladness. Ye also

invite all-puissantly to the merry dance of Youth, and the dark cares

are hushed when the jubilant dance rings out. The clouds have flown

swiftly from the brow, the befogged spirit grows serene, and, borne

lightly on sounding billows, the winged foot hovers on its way.

"In the secret husk of night ye sound from the youth's mouth; ye bear

tidings of the plenitude of his love to the beloved one. Holy tones!

Sounds of love! Your magic power softens the loved heart's sternness,

and the youth's complaint is still."

[III. WAR MUSIC. GOING OFF TO BATTLE. FEELINGS OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND.

RETURN OF THE VICTORS. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING: _Tempo di marcia_]

"But ye call also with the power of inspiration to the mêlée of

battles, teaching the youth to despise life when the trumpet calls to

the fight. Cares and fear and dangers vanish behind the triumphant

tones, and the fiery glance darts forward, to bind the brow with

bloody laurels.

"But, when ye have begun boldly and wildly with the call to fight

and the battle-song, then, when the victory is won, ye beckon

backward with gentle sounds of peace. Then ye bear, on the pinions of

devotion, the heart aloft to the eternal God, and the victors' joyous

chorus teaches us to give thanks to the God of Battles."

[IV. FUNERAL MUSIC: _Larghetto_. CONSOLATION IN TEARS: _Allegretto_]

"Holy tones, your peace still follows the tired one down, when he,

parted from the world, has sunk silently into his grave. Ye whisper

granting of prayers to the dumb yearning of his loves, and to the

tearless ye give tears, to the departed everlasting rest.

"Holy tones, are ye fair dreams from the unknown fatherland? Are ye

children of those blessed spaces, sent to us as messengers of peace?

O never leave me, sweet tones! May I fancy myself in your home, and

not think of the fetters that hold me fast!"[141]

FOOTNOTES:

[140] This is the version of _Die Weihe der Töne_ by which the symphony

is generally known in America and England. It has also been called

"The Power of Sound." A more precise translation is "The Consecration

of Tones." The symphony has this sub-title: "A Characteristic

Tone-Painting in the Form of a Symphony, after a Poem by Karl Pfeiffer."

[141] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

STRAUSS

(_Richard Strauss: born in Munich, June 11, 1864; now living in

Berlin_)

"FROM ITALY," SYMPHONIC FANTASIA: Op. 16

1. ON THE CAMPAGNA

(_Andante_)

2. AMID ROME'S RUINS

(_Allegro molto con brio_)

3. ON THE SHORE OF SORRENTO

(_Andantino_)

4. NEAPOLITAN FOLK-LIFE

(_Allegro molto_)

"_Aus Italia_," the first of Strauss's descriptive works for orchestra,

was composed in 1886, a year in which the composer visited Rome and

Naples. The score is avowedly programmatic, however, only to the extent

of the titling of the different movements, except that the second,

"Amid Rome's Ruins," bears this additional superscription: "Fantastic

Pictures of Vanished Splendor; Feelings of Sadness and Grief in the

Midst of the Sunniest Present."

Of the first movement Mr. Vernon Blackburn has remarked: "... the

Campagna is absolutely destitute of scenery, its tragic secret lying,

for the most part, too deep even for the modern explorer; its 'dim

warm weather' is an attribute which exactly describes its general

aspect of loneliness and locked quietude. These are the points which

Strauss makes apparent in his music, and proves the constancy of that

mood in the second portion of his Fantasia, in which he only completes

the hidden tragedy of the Campagna--in the section which he has

entitled ['Amid Rome's Ruins']."

In the third movement, "On the Shore of Sorrento," Mr. Hermann

Kretzschmar finds (in the middle portion) a picture of the sea ruffled

by the wind. "A boat appears, and in it a singer sings a genuine native

melody, sprung from the noble sicilianos, which since the end of the

seventeenth century have passed over Europe, journeying from the region

near Sorrento." "The strings," says another commentator, furnish "a

rich background for the sparkling flashes of melody which emanate from

the other instruments, the whole being suggestive of a water-picture.

The almost constant shimmer in the strings might easily be construed as

a description of the restlessness of the ocean, over which the melodies

of the wood-wind play like the glintings of sunlight."

In the last movement, "Neapolitan Folk-life," the famous song

"Funiculi, Funicula," serves as the principal theme, announced by

violas and 'cellos. "The finale is brilliant, tumultuous, audacious."

"'My desolation doth begin to make a better life.' Such," remarks Mr.

Blackburn, "might have been the motto upon which Strauss has built the

labor of this extraordinary work. He makes you feel through every bar

how completely his musical spirit is oppressed by a sense of tragic

thought which, if anywhere, is surely appropriate in the presence of

the wreckage of that huge civilization which reached the zenith of its

glory in the genius of Julius Cæsar."

"DON JUAN," TONE-POEM: Op. 20

This work is usually placed first on the list of Strauss's remarkable

series of tone-poems; yet, though it bears an earlier opus number, it

was actually preceded, in point of composition, by "Macbeth," op. 23,

which was written in 1887, a year earlier than "Don Juan."

The subject of this tone-poem is the "Don Juan" of Nicolaus Lenau

(1802-1850), and quotations from Lenau's poem are prefixed to the

score. They are as follows:

DON JUAN [_to Diego, his brother_]

"O magic realm, illimited, eternal,

Of gloried woman--loveliness supernal!

Fain would I, in the storm of stressful bliss,

Expire upon the last one's lingering kiss!

Through every realm, O friend, would wing my flight,

Wherever Beauty blooms, kneel down to each,

And if for one brief moment, win delight!"

* * * * *

DON JUAN [_to Diego_]

"I flee from surfeit and from rapture's cloy,

Keep fresh for Beauty service and employ,

Grieving the One, that All I may enjoy.

The fragrance from one lip to-day is breath of spring:

The dungeon's gloom perchance to-morrow's luck may bring.

When with the new love won I sweetly wander,

No bliss is ours upfurbish'd and regilded;

A different love has This to That one yonder--

Not up from ruins be my temples builded.

Yea, Love life is, and ever must be new,

Cannot be changed or turned in new direction;

It cannot but there expire--here resurrection;

And, if 'tis real, it nothing knows of rue!

Each Beauty in the world is sole, unique:

So must the Love be that would Beauty seek!

So long as Youth lives on with pulse afire,

Out to the chase! To victories new aspire!"

DON JUAN [_to Marcello, his friend_]

"It was a wond'rous lovely storm that drove me:

Now it is o'er; and calm all round, above me;

Sheer dead is every wish; all hopes o'ershrouded--

'Twas p'r'aps a flash from heaven that so descended,

Whose deadly stroke left me with powers ended,

And all the world, so bright before, o'erclouded;

And yet p'r'aps not! Exhausted is the fuel;

And on the hearth the cold is fiercely cruel."[142]

Lenau is said to have observed of his creation: "My 'Don Juan' is no

hot-blooded man eternally pursuing women. It is the longing in him to

find a woman who is to him incarnate womanhood, and to enjoy, in the

one, all the women on earth, whom he cannot as individuals possess.

Because he does not find her, although he reels from one to another,

at last Disgust seizes hold of him, and this Disgust is the Devil that

fetches him." Elaborate and inexorably detailed commentaries have been

written on Strauss's tone-poem; yet this brief exposition by Mr. Philip

Hale is more truly illuminating than are the exhaustive excursions of

the German analysts:

"Lenau's hero is a man who seeks the sensual ideal. He is constantly

disappointed. He is repeatedly disgusted with himself, men and women,

and the world; and when at last he fights a duel with Don Pedro, the

avenging son of the Grand Commander, he throws away his sword and lets

his adversary kill him.

"'_Mein Todfeind ist in meine Faust gegeben;

Doch dies auch langweilt, wie das ganze Leben._'

"('My deadly foe is in my power; but this, too, bores me, as does

life itself.')"

Of the tragic end of the Don's insatiable experimenting--as Strauss has

turned it into music--he says:

"Till the end the mood grows wilder and wilder. There is no longer

time for regret, and soon there will be no time for longing. It is the

Carnival, and Don Juan drinks deep of wine and love.... Surrounded

by women, overcome by wine, he rages in passion, and at last falls

unconscious.... Gradually he comes to his senses, the themes of the

apparitions, rhythmically disguised as in fantastic dress, pass like

sleep-chasings through his brain, and then there is the motive of

'Disgust.' Some find in the next episode the thought of the cemetery,

with Don Juan's reflections and his invitation to the Statue. Here

the jaded man finds solace in bitter reflection. At the feast,

surrounded by gay company, there is a faint awakening of longing, but

he exclaims:

"'The fire of my blood has now burned out.'

"Then comes the duel, with the death scene. The theme of 'Disgust'

now dominates. There is a tremendous orchestral crash; there is long

and eloquent silence. A _pianissimo_ chord in A minor is cut into by

a piercingly dissonant trumpet F, and then there is a last sigh, a

mourning dissonance and resolution (trombones) to E minor.

"'Exhausted is the fuel,

And on the hearth the cold is fiercely cruel.'"

"MACBETH," TONE-POEM: Op. 23

_Macbeth, Tondichtung für grosses Orchestrer (nach Shakespeare's

drama)_, was composed in 1887. It is actually, in date of composition,

the first of Strauss's orchestral tone-poems, though "Don Juan"

(see the preceding pages), composed in 1888, bears an earlier opus

number--20.

Beyond the title and the acknowledgment--"after Shakespeare's

drama"--the score bears no programme or explanation save the word

"Macbeth" printed over an imperious phrase for violins, horn, and

wood-wind near the beginning, and a quotation from the play, in German,

placed above a passage on page 11 of the orchestral score, where flutes

and clarinets, _pianissimo_, give out, over muted[143] horns and

strings tremolo, a phrase whose expression is marked _appassionata,

molto rubato_.[144] The quotation is from Lady Macbeth's speech in Act

I., Scene V.:

"Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,

And chastise with the valor of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal."

German analysts have been, as in the case of all of Strauss's

needlessly and perversely recondite programme-music, at pains to

explore the music of "Macbeth," and have written with lavish detail in

exposition of its significance. The end of it all appears to be that

in this tone-poem Strauss has not attempted to illustrate the external

events of Shakespeare's tragedy, but has endeavored to portray the

character of its protagonist, Macbeth himself, and the struggle which

goes on within his soul.

"DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION," TONE-POEM: Op. 24

Prefaced to the published score of _Tod und Verklärung_ (composed in

1889) is a poem by the German musician Alexander Ritter,[145] which was

written after the author had become acquainted with Strauss's music,

and under its inspiration. That the verses were included by Strauss in

the printed score is sufficient evidence that he regards them as an

adequate interpretation of the emotional plan underlying his music.

The subject of this tone-poem is the human soul at grip with

death, fronting imminent dissolution, and reviewing feverishly the

memorable phases of its past--childhood, youth, love, conflict,

strife, aspiration, despair--interrupted by desperate struggles with

the Destroyer. At the moment of death there is the beginning of

triumph--"deliverance from the world, transfiguration...."

Ritter's poem, translated into English prose by Mr. W. F. Apthorp, is

as follows:

"In the necessitous little room, dimly lighted by only a candle-end,

lies the sick man on his bed. But just now he has wrestled

despairingly with Death. Now he has sunk exhausted into sleep, and

thou hearest only the soft ticking of the clock on the wall in the

room, whose awful silence gives a foreboding of the nearness of

death. Over the sick man's pale features plays a sad smile. Dreams

he, on the boundary of life, of the golden time of childhood?

"But Death does not long grant sleep and dreams to his victim.

Cruelly he shakes him awake, and the fight begins afresh. Will to

live and power of Death! What frightful wrestling! Neither bears off

the victory, and all is silent once more!

"Sunk back tired of battle, sleepless, as in fever-frenzy the sick

man now sees his life pass before his inner eye, trait by trait and

scene by scene. First the morning red of childhood, shining bright

in pure innocence! Then the youth's saucier play-exerting and trying

his strength--till he ripens to the man's fight, and now burns with

hot lust after the higher prizes of life. The one high purpose that

has led him through life was to shape all he saw transfigured into

a still more transfigured form. Cold and sneering, the world sets

barrier upon barrier in the way of his achievement. If he thinks

himself near his goal, a 'Halt!' thunders in his ear. 'Make the

barrier thy stirrup! Ever higher and onward go!' And so he pushes

forward, so he climbs, desists not from his sacred purpose. What he

has ever sought with his heart's deepest yearning, he still seeks

in his death-sweat. Seeks--alas! and finds it never. Whether he

comprehends it more clearly or that it grows upon him gradually, he

can yet never exhaust it, cannot complete it in his spirit. Then

clangs the last stroke of Death's iron hammer, breaks the earthly

body in twain, covers the eye with the night of death.

"But from the heavenly spaces sounds mightily to greet him what

he yearningly sought for here: deliverance from the world,

transfiguration of the world."

The music, for purposes of elucidation, may be divided into five

(connected) sections:

We see the sick man lying exhausted upon his bed in the little

candle-lit room; he has just wrestled wildly with Death. He smiles

faintly, dreaming of his youth.

Abruptly, Death renews the attack, and the dreadful struggle is

resumed. There is gradual exhaustion, and once more a respite comes

to the sufferer.

Now he is visited by dreams and hallucinations--memories of youth, of

young manhood and its vicissitudes, of lusty conflict and passionate

endeavor, with illusory glimpses of future triumph.

But again Death attacks his victim. There is a short and furious

struggle, a sudden subsidence, a mysterious and sinister gong-stroke;

a portentous silence signifies the final stilling of the heart.

Then begins, gradually and gravely, the Transfiguration; and through

shimmering harps and sonorous chantings of the brass is suggested

the final triumphant attainment of the soul released.

"TILL EULENSPIEGEL'S MERRY PRANKS": Op. 28

The full title of this work is: _Till Eulenspiegel's lustige Streiche,

nach alter Schelmenweise--in Rondoform--für grosses Orchester gesetzt

von Richard Strauss_. Translated according to the most reasonable

authority, this means: "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Set in the

Old-Fashioned, Roughish Manner--in the Form of a Rondo[146]--for

Grand Orchestra, by Richard Strauss." This sufficiently formidable

announcement introduced to the world in 1895 (the year of its

completion and publication) a work which its author sought, after his

usual habit, to imbue with a kind of mystification the point and savor

of which it is a little difficult to appreciate. When the "rondo"

was produced at Cologne, November 15, 1895, Dr. Franz Wüllner, who

conducted the performance, requested Strauss to furnish an explanatory

programme of the piece. The composer declined. "It is impossible," he

said, "for me to furnish a programme to _Eulenspiegel_; were I to put

into words the thoughts which its several incidents suggested to me,

they would seldom suffice, and might even give rise to offence.

Let me leave it, therefore, to my hearers to crack the hard nut which

the Rogue has prepared for them. By way of helping them to a better

understanding, it seems sufficient to point out the two 'Eulenspiegel'

motives, which, in the most manifold disguises, moods, and situations,

pervade the whole up to the catastrophe, when, after he has been

condemned to death, Till is strung up to the gibbet. For the rest,

let them guess at the musical joke which a Rogue has offered them."

The three motives indicated by Strauss were the opening theme of the

introduction, the horn theme that follows almost immediately, and the

descending interval that is said to be expressive of condemnation and

the scaffold.

Till Eulenspiegel, better known to English readers as Tyll Owlglass,

is the prank-playing vagabond hero of a fifteenth-century German

_Volksbuch_ whose authorship is attributed to Dr. Thomas Murner

(1475-1530). Till, according to Dr. Murner, was born at Kneithlinger,

Brunswick, in 1283, and died of the plague at Mölln, near Lubeck, in

1350 or 1353, after wanderings through Germany, Italy, and Poland.

Till's exploits, the stories of which are household words in Germany,

consisted of mischievous pranks and jests that he practised without

discrimination and, in some instances, with a frank and joyous absence

of delicate sentiment which can best be described as Rabelaisean. In

Murner's tale, Till is sentenced to the gallows, but escapes death at

the last moment. Strauss, however, does not let his hero off, and

permits him to die on the scaffold.

Despite his disinclination to furnish an elucidation of his music,

Strauss has apparently given his sanction to an analysis of the

score prepared by Mr. Wilhelm Klatte. As this is full, explicit, and

seemingly authoritative, it is quoted here, in part, as follows, in an

English translation attributed to Mr. C. A. Barry:

"A strong sense of German folk-feeling pervades the whole work. The

source from which the tone-poet drew his inspiration is clearly

indicated in the introductory bars: _Gemächlich_ [_Andante commodo_].

To some extent this stands for the 'once upon a time' of the

story-books. That what follows is not to be treated in the pleasant

and agreeable manner of narrative poetry, but in a more sturdy

fashion, is at once made apparent by a characteristic bassoon figure

which breaks in upon the _piano_ of the strings. Of equal importance

for the development of the piece is the immediately following

humorous horn theme. Beginning quietly and gradually becoming more

lively, it is at first heard against a tremolo of the divided violins

and then again in the first tempo, _Sehr lebhaft_ [_Vivace_]. This

theme, or at least the kernel of it, is taken up in turn by oboes,

clarinets, violas, 'cellos, and bassoons, and is finally brought by

the full orchestra, except trumpets and trombones, after a few bars

_crescendo_, to a ... _fortissimo_. The thematic material, according

to the main point, has now been fixed upon; the _milieu_ is given by

which we are enabled to recognize the pranks and droll tricks which

the crafty schemer is about to bring before our eyes, or, far rather,

before our ears.

"Here he is (clarinet phrase followed by chord for wind instruments).

He wanders through the land as a thorough-going adventurer. His

clothes are tattered and torn: a queer, fragmentary version of the

'Eulenspiegel' motive resounds from the horns.... The rogue, putting

on his best manners, slyly passes through the gate, and enters a

certain city. It is market-day; the women sit at their stalls and

prattle (flutes, oboes, and clarinets). Hop! Eulenspiegel springs

on his horse (indicated by rapid triplets extending through three

measures), gives a smack of his whip, and rides into the midst of the

crowd. Clink, clash, clatter! A confused sound of broken pots and

pans, and the market-women are put to flight. In haste the rascal

rides away (as is admirably illustrated by a _fortissimo_ passage for

the trombones) and secures a safe retreat.

"This was his first merry prank; a second follows immediately;

_Gemächlich_ [_Andante commodo_]. Eulenspiegel has put on the

vestments of a priest, and assumes a very unctuous mien. Though

posing as a preacher of morals, the rogue peeps out from the folds of

his mantle (the 'Eulenspiegel' motive on the clarinet points to the

imposture). He fears for the success of his scheme. A figure played by

muted[147] violins, horns, and trumpets makes it plain that he does

not feel comfortable in his borrowed plumes. But soon he makes up his

mind. Away with all scruples! He tears them off.

"Again the 'Eulenspiegel' theme is brought forward in the previous

lively tempo, but is now subtly metamorphosed and chivalrously

colored. Eulenspiegel has become a Don Juan, and he waylays pretty

women. And one has bewitched him: Eulenspiegel is in love! Hear how

now, glowing with love, the violins, clarinets, and flutes sing! But

in vain. His advances are received with derision, and he goes away in

a rage. How can one treat him so slightingly? Is he not a splendid

fellow? Vengeance on the whole human race! He gives vent to his rage

(in a _fortissimo_ of horns in unison followed by a pause), and

strange personages suddenly draw near ('cellos). A troop of honest,

worthy Philistines! In an instant all his anger is forgotten. But it

is still his chief joy to make fun of these lords and protectors of

blameless decorum, to mock them, as is apparent from the lively and

accentuated fragments of the theme, sounded at the beginning by the

horn, which are now heard first from horns, violins, 'cellos, and

then from trumpets, oboes, and flutes. Now that Eulenspiegel has had

his joke, he goes away and leaves the professors and doctors behind

in thoughtful meditation. Fragments of the typical theme of the

Philistines are here treated canonically.[148] The wood-wind,

violins, and trumpets suddenly project the 'Eulenspiegel' theme

into their profound philosophy. It is as though the transcendent

rogue were making faces at the bigwigs from a distance--again and

again--and then waggishly running away. This is aptly characterized

by a short episode in a hopping 2-4 rhythm, which, similarly with the

first entrance of the Hypocrisy theme previously used, is followed

by phantom-like tones from the wood-wind and strings and then from

trombones and horns. Has our rogue still no foreboding?

"Interwoven with the very first theme, indicated lightly by trumpets

and English horn, a figure is developed from the second introductory

and fundamental theme. It is first taken up by the clarinets; it

seems to express the fact that the arch-villain has again got the

upper-hand of Eulenspiegel, who has fallen into his old manner of

life.... A merry jester, a born liar, Eulenspiegel goes wherever he

can succeed with a hoax. His insolence knows no bounds. Alas! there

is a sudden jolt to his wanton humor. The drum rolls a hollow roll;

the jailer drags the rascally prisoner into the criminal court. The

verdict 'guilty' is thundered against the brazen-faced knave. The

'Eulenspiegel' theme replies calmly to the threatening chords of

wind and lower strings. Eulenspiegel lies. Again the threatening

tones resound; but Eulenspiegel does not confess his guilt. On the

contrary, he lies for the third time. His jig is up. Fear seizes him.

The Hypocrisy motive is sounded piteously; the fatal moment draws

near; his hour has struck!... He has danced in air. A last struggle

(flutes), and his soul takes flight.

"After sad, tremulous _pizzicati_ of the strings, the epilogue

begins. At first it is almost identical with the introductory

measures, which are repeated in full; then the most essential parts

of the second and third chief-theme passages appear, and finally

merge into [a] soft chord.... Eulenspiegel has become a legendary

character. The people tell their tales about him: 'Once upon a

time....' But that he was a merry rogue and a real devil of a fellow

seems to be expressed by the final eight measures, full orchestra,

_fortissimo_."

"THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA," TONE-POEM: Op. 30

_Also sprach Zarathustra, Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)

für grosses Orchester_, was begun in February, finished in August,

1896. It is, as the title implies, a tonal rendering of impressions

derived from _Also sprach Zarathustra_ ("Thus Spake Zarathustra"), the

remarkable philosophico-romantic fantasy of Friedrich Nietzsche.[149]

Strauss's music is, he says, _frei nach Nietzsche_; that is to say,

treated "freely" after Nietzsche. "I did not," he has declared,

"intend to write philosophical music or portray Nietzsche's great work

musically. I meant to convey musically an idea of the development

of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of

development, religious as well as scientific, up to Nietzsche's idea of

the Over-man (_Übermensch_)." A large order, one would say. Whatever

Strauss may have meant by "philosophical music," he has certainly,

whether he intended to or not, composed a score which is utterly and

hopelessly incomprehensible unless one knows what its relationship

is, at every point, with Nietzsche's book--a knowledge which Strauss

has considerately assisted by prefixing to each section of the score

an indication of the particular part of the book to which the music

refers. If this is not translating philosophy into tones (or seeking

to do so), if it is not an endeavor to find musical equivalents for

various phases of a particular philosophy, a particular chain of ideas,

then we shall have, as it seems, to discover a new significance in very

ordinary words. This is not the place to discuss the _pros_ and _cons_

of the matter, or its aspect from the stand-point of musical æsthetics;

the foregoing observations have been offered only for the purpose of

clearing the ground, and to prepare the way for the statement which

has now to be made: that a comprehension of this particular tone-poem,

even with a knowledge of the score and its annotations, is impossible

without a pretty complete understanding of Nietzsche's book and of

his outlook upon life and ideas--an understanding which it is hardly

feasible to attempt to communicate here. It is at least possible,

though, to set forth certain of the essentials of his philosophical

stand-point and of the characteristics of his _Zarathustra_, as a

preparation for an acquaintance with the tone-poem of Strauss; and this

cannot be better accomplished than by quoting from Mr. James Huneker's

vivid and sympathetic study of the man and his views:

"What does Nietzsche teach? What is his central doctrine, divested of

its increments of anti-Semitism, anti-Wagnerism, anti-Christianity,

and anti-everything-else? Simply a doctrine as old as the first

invertebrate organism which floated in torrid seas beneath a blazing

moon: Egoism, individualism, personal freedom, self-hood. He is the

apostle of the _ego_.... He is a proclaimer of the rank animalism of

man. He believes in the body and not in the soul of theology....

"It is in _Also sprach Zarathustra_ that the genius of Nietzsche

is best studied. Like the Buddhistic _Tripitaka_, it is a book

of highly colored Oriental aphorisms, interrupted by lofty lyric

outbursts. It is an ironic, enigmatic, rhetorical rhapsody, the

Third Part of a half-mad 'Faust.' In it may be seen flowing all the

currents of modern cultures and philosophies, and, if it teaches

anything at all, it teaches the wisdom and beauty of air, sky,

waters, and earth, and of laughter, not Pantagruelian, but 'holy

laughter.' The love of earth is preached in rapturous accents. A

Dionysian ecstasy anoints the lips of this latter-day Sibyl on his

tripod when he speaks of earth. He is intoxicated with the fulness of

its joys. No gloomy monasticism, no denial of the will to live, no

futile thinking about thinking--so despised by Goethe--no denial of

grand realities, may be found in the curriculum of this Bacchantic

philosopher. A pantheist, he is also a poet and seer like William

Blake, and marvels at the symbol of nature, 'the living garment of

the Deity'--Nietzsche's deity, of course.... It is the history of

his soul, as 'Leaves of Grass' is Whitman's--there are some curious

parallelisms between these two subjective epics. It is intimate, yet

hints at universality; it contains some of Amiel's introspection and

some of Baudelaire's morbidity--half-mad, yet exhorting, comforting;

Hamlet and John Bunyan."

When Strauss's _Also sprach Zarathustra_ was performed in Boston

in the year following its completion (October 30, 1897), Mr. W. F.

Apthorp wrote for the programme notes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

an analysis and exposition of the work which for completeness and

precision could not well be surpassed. I reproduce it, in part,

herewith:

"On a fly-leaf of the score is printed the following excerpt from

Nietzsche's book:

"'ZARATHUSTRA'S PREFACE' (Friedrich Nietzsche).

"When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the sea

of his home and went to the mountains. Here he enjoyed his mind and

his solitude, and did not tire thereof for ten years. But at last

his heart was changed, and one morning he rose with the dawn, stood

before the sun, and spake thus to him:

"'Thou great star! What were thy happiness, if thou hadst not him

whom thou dost illumine! For ten years hast thou come here up to my

cave: thou wouldst have had enough of thy light and of this road,

without me, my eagle, and my serpent.

"'But we awaited thee every morning, relieved thee of thy superfluity,

and blessed thee therefor.

"'See! I am tired of my wisdom, like the bee which has gathered too

much honey; I need hands that stretch out.

"'I would make gifts and divide, till the wise among men have once

more grown glad of their folly, and the poor, once more, of their

riches. For this I must go down to the depths: as thou dost of

evenings, when thou goest behind the sea and bringest light even to

the lower world, thou over-rich star!

"'Like thee, I must _go down_,[150] as men call it, to them to whom I

would descend. So bless me, then, thou placid eye, that canst see an

over-great happiness without envy.

"'Bless thy beaker, which would fain overflow, that the water may

flow out golden therefrom and carry the reflection of thy ecstasy

everywhere!

"'See! This beaker would fain become empty again, and Zarathustra

would fain become a man again.

"'--Thus began Zarathustra's downfall.'

"In Nietzsche's book, Zarathustra goes from the mountains down to men

and preaches: 'I teach you the Over-man. Man is something that must be

overcome. What have ye done to overcome him?... The Over-man is the

meaning of the Earth.... Man is a rope, made fast between the Beast

and the Over-man--a rope over an abyss. A dangerous passing-over,

a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous staying-behind, a dangerous

shuddering and standing-still. What is great in Man is that he is a

bridge and not a purpose: what can be loved in Man is that he is a

transition and a downfall.[151]... What good and evil is, that no one

yet knows: unless it be he who creates! But this one is he who creates

Man's goal, and gives the Earth its meaning: he alone creates it that

something shall be good and evil.'

"The great problem Zarathustra tries to solve in his speech is:

to teach men the deification of Life; all human values must be

'transvalued,' and therewith a new order of the universe created,

'beyond good and evil.' Zarathustra himself is this 'world beyond,'

he is the freest of the free, who descries in all Becoming only

a yearning after his own self and teaching, which yearning alone

can overcome the 'simian' world and 'simian' Mankind, slaves of

traditional convention, and offer to Man--not the Joy of Life, for

there is no such thing, but--the 'Fulness of Life,' in the joy of the

senses, in the triumphant exuberance of vitality, in the pure, lofty

naturalness of the Antique--in short, in the fusion of God, World, and

Ego. This art of life of Zarathustra's shall be shared by Mankind;

herein shall Zarathustra be dissolved in Mankind and 'go down!' Thus

are also to be explained the significant closing words of the fourth

chapter of 'Twilight of the Idols'[152]: 'Mid-day: the moment of the

shortest shadow; the end of the longest error. The culminating-point

of Humanity: _Incipit Zarathustra_.'

"Taking the excerpt from 'Zarathustra's Preface,' reprinted on the

fly-leaf of his score, as his poetic text, Strauss has illustrated

it in his own way.... Perhaps it were best ... not to attempt a

metaphysico-romantic analysis of the work, but to leave this to the

listener's imagination, after putting before him the composer's

preface. It will be well, however, to give some sub-captions which

Strauss has put at various points of the score.

"Just after the first great _fortissimo_ outburst of the full

orchestra and organ on the chord of C major,[153] stands, 'OF THE

DWELLERS IN THE REAR-WORLD.' These were fools and pietarians, who

sought the solution in _Religion_. Once Zarathustra, too, cast his

delusion beyond Humankind, like all dwellers in the Rear-World. 'The

World then seemed to be the work of a suffering and tormented God. The

World then seemed to me a dream, a God's poem.... I, too, once cast

my delusion beyond Humankind.... Ah, ye brothers, this God, whom I

created, was the work of a man, and--an insanity, like all Gods.'

"Further on we find the sub-caption, 'OF THE GREAT YEARNING,' over

a strenuous ascending passage in the 'cellos and bassoons, answered

by the wood-wind. This refers to the following passage in Nietzsche's

book: 'Wouldst thou not weep, not weep out thy purple despondency,

then must thou _sing_, O my soul!... _Sing with boisterous song_, till

all seas grow still, that they may listen to thy yearning.... Already

glowest thou and dreamest, already drinkest thou thirstily at all

deep-sounding _Springs of Comfort_, already does thy despondency find

its rest in the beatitude of songs to come!'

"Over the expressive, pathetic _cantilena_ in C minor of the second

violins, oboes, and horn, stands, 'OF JOYS AND PASSIONS'.

"Further on we come to the 'GRAVE-SONG,' a tenderly expressive

_cantilena_ in the oboe, over the 'Yearning-motive' in the 'cellos and

bassoons: 'Yonder is the island of graves, the silent one; yonder,

too, are the graves of my youth. Thither will I carry an evergreen

wreath of Life. Resolving this in my heart, I journeyed across the

sea. O ye sights and apparitions of my youth! O all ye love-glances,

ye divine moments! How soon are ye dead to me! I think of you to-day

as of my dead ones.... To kill me did they wring your necks, ye

song-birds of my hopes! Yea, at you, ye dearest ones, did malice ever

aim its shafts--to hit my heart....'

"Over the fugued passage, beginning in the 'cellos and double-basses,

stands, 'OF SCIENCE.' It is to be noted, as a musical curiosity, that

the subject of this fugue contains all the diatonic and chromatic

degrees of the scale....

"Considerably further on, where a violent passage in the strings

(beginning in the 'cellos and violas) soars up, ... stands, 'THE

CONVALESCENT.'... 'Let us kill the Spirit of Weight!...'

"So learn to laugh your way out of yourselves! Uplift your hearts, ye

good dancers, high! higher! And forget not the good laughter! This

crown to the laughers, this rose-wreath crown: to you, my brothers, do

I dedicate this crown! _I have pronounced_ _Laughter holy_; ye Higher

Men, learn--to laugh!... One must have Chaos in himself, to give birth

to a dancing star....' Then the 'DANCE-SONG' begins, ushered in by

trills in the flutes and clarinets.

"Much further on, after a _fortissimo_ stroke of the bell, comes

'THE SONG OF THE NIGHT-WANDERER.' In the later editions of his book

Nietzsche gave the corresponding chapter the title, 'Drunken Song.' On

the twelve strokes of the 'heavy, heavy humming-bell (_Brummglocke_),'

he wrote the following lines:

"'ONE!

"'O Man, take heed!'

"'TWO!

"'What speaks the deep midnight?'

"'THREE!

"'I have slept, I have slept--'

"'FOUR!

"'I have awaked out of a deep dream:--'

"'FIVE!

"'The world is deep,'

"'SIX!

"'And deeper than the day thought for.'

"'SEVEN!

"'Deep is its woe,--'

"'EIGHT!

"'Joy, deeper still than heart-sorrow.'

"'NINE!

"'Woe speaks: Vanish!'

"'TEN!

"'Yet all joy wants eternity, ...'

"'ELEVEN!

"'Wants deep, deep eternity!'

"'TWELVE!'

"The composition ends mystically in two keys--in B major in the

high wood-wind and violins, in C major in the basses _pizzicati_.

Zarathustra's downfall!"

"DON QUIXOTE," FANTASTIC VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF KNIGHTLY CHARACTER:

Op. 35

The full title of this work (composed in 1897) is: _Don Quixote

(Introduzione, Tema con Variazioni, e Finale): Fantastische Variationen

über ein Thema ritterlichen Characters_. That is to say, it is in the

form of a theme with variations, the theme is of "knightly character,"

and the variations are "fantastic." From the programmatic point of

view, it is a series of tone-pictures in which are set forth, upon a

musical canvas of singular vividness, the figures of Cervantes' Knight

of the Rueful Countenance and his squire Sancho Panza, and their

memorable adventures in quest of knightly glory. The orchestral score

contains no programme or explanatory notes, save two superscriptions

printed above the dual portions of the theme, identifying the first

part with Don Quixote, the second part with Sancho Panza; yet Strauss,

with his inveterate lack of consistency in such matters, has annotated

the pianoforte arrangement of his music with a completeness which he

has capriciously denied to the orchestral score, placing at the head

of each variation a verbal clew to the particular adventure which

the music aims to describe. From these it is possible to follow its

meaning in fairly ample detail.

The music consists of an Introduction, a Theme, ten variations, and a

Finale, continuous throughout. Each variation is concerned with some

incident in Cervantes' novel. A solo 'cello represents, or "enacts,"

Don Quixote; a solo viola, Sancho Panza.

INTRODUCTION

Don Quixote is deep in the perusal of old romances of errant chivalry.

Grandiose and splendid pictures pass through his mind and inflame his

imagination. He beholds Dulcinea--Dulcinea, the ideal woman (oboe

melody); he sees her beset by giants and rescued by a knight. "His

fantasy was filled with those things that he read, of enchantments,

quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, tempests, and

other impossible follies," and in the end, "through his little sleep

and much reading, he dried up his brains in such sort as he lost wholly

his judgment." The strain becomes unbearable; the orchestra utters

confused and insane and wildly chaotic thoughts; until finally, "in

some terrible chords that give one the sensation of an overstretched

spring snapping violently," we realize that the Knight is at last quite

mad. He has determined on a life of chivalry.

THEME

The two-part theme is announced: Don Quixote being limned by a phrase,

pathetically grandiose, for solo 'cello (_moderato_); Sancho Panza by

a burly and grotesquely comic theme first heard on the tenor tuba and

bass clarinet, but afterwards confined to a solo viola.

VARIATION I

DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO PANZA SET FORTH

The knight and his squire set forth on their quest of chivalric

adventure, the Don inspired by the thought of the lovely Dulcinea del

Toboso (the theme of the Ideal Woman). The sight of windmills revolving

in the breeze inspires his valor; he charges them, and is overthrown by

the sails.

VARIATION II

THE VICTORIOUS BATTLE WITH THE HOST OF THE GREAT EMPEROR ALIFONFARON

Out of a cloud of dust (strings) Don Quixote perceives the approach of

an army. Sancho sees that it is a flock of sheep (the muted[154] brass

instruments in the orchestra imitate their bleating), and seeks to

restrain the enthusiasm of his master. Don Quixote charges valiantly

and puts the enemy to rout.

VARIATION III

COLLOQUIES OF KNIGHT AND SQUIRE

Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo argue concerning the reasonableness of a

life of chivalry. The Don waxes eloquent over the glory of a knightly

career, in an orchestral passage (developed out of his own theme and

that of Dulcinea) of striking fervor and nobility. Sancho advocates

the homely and attainable things of reality; we hear a fragment of his

motive; but the Don silences him angrily.

VARIATION IV

THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE PILGRIMS

The knight and his squire fall in with a band of pilgrims (a theme

of ecclesiastical character for the wind instruments). Don Quixote

imagines them to be villains and malefactors. He attacks them and is

worsted, falling senseless. He revives slowly, and Sancho, relieved,

lies down beside him and sleeps.

VARIATION V

THE KNIGHT'S VIGIL BESIDE HIS ARMS

Don Quixote, following the knightly custom, refrains from sleep and

watches beside his arms through the night. Ecstatically he perceives

Dulcinea, as in a vision (the theme of the Ideal Woman is heard).

VARIATION VI

THE MEETING WITH DULCINEA

Sancho Panza assures the Don that a certain vulgar peasant girl whom

they meet is his adored Dulcinea (we hear the Ideal Woman theme,

transformed into a common and trivial tune--wood-wind and tambourine).

Don Quixote is incredulous. He angrily ascribes the effect to some

magical agency.

VARIATION VII

THE RIDE THROUGH THE AIR

Sitting stationary with bandaged eyes on a wooden horse, the knight

and his squire believe that they are being borne through the air. We

hear in the orchestra the whistling of the wind (here enters the famous

"wind-machine"); the themes of the Don and of Sancho are giddily borne

aloft on the instrumental breeze. A long-held note on the bassoon

indicates their sudden stop, their realization, as they look about

them, that they have not left the earth.

VARIATION VIII

THE JOURNEY IN THE ENCHANTED BOAT

The knight, perceiving an empty boat, and being convinced that it is

miraculously intended for his use, embarks in it with his squire for

the accomplishment of some predestined deed of chivalry. The orchestra

plays a graceful barcarolle. The boat upsets, but the two reach shore

in safety. They offer up thanks for their escape (a religious passage

for the wind instruments).

VARIATION IX

THE CONFLICT WITH THE TWO SORCERERS

Don Quixote meets two wayfarers whom he takes to be the magicians whose

sorcery has worked him ill. They are merely a pair of inoffensive

monks, but the knight attacks them, with victorious results.

VARIATION X

THE COMBAT WITH THE KNIGHT OF THE SILVER MOON,

AND THE OVERTHROW OF DON QUIXOTE

The bachelor Samson Carrasco, the "Knight of the Silver Moon," one

of Don Quixote's townsmen, does battle with him for the sake of his

own good and to cure him of his delusions: "so to have him in his own

house, I thought upon this device." The music portrays the contest

between them, which is thus described by Cervantes: "They both of them

set spurs to their horses, and the Knight of the White Moon's being

the swifter, met Don Quixote ere he had run a quarter of his career so

forcibly (without touching him with his lance, for it seemed he carried

it aloft on purpose) that he tumbled horse and man both to the ground,

and Don Quixote had a terrible fall; so he got straight on the top of

him; and, clapping his lance's point upon his visor, said, 'You are

vanquished, Knight, and a dead man, if you confess not, according to

the conditions of our combat.' Don Quixote, all bruised and amazed,

without heaving up his visor, as if he had spoken out of a tomb, with

a faint and weak voice said, 'Dulcinea del Toboso is the fairest woman

in the world, and I the unfortunatest knight on earth; and it is not

fit that my weakness defraud this truth; thrust your lance into me,

Knight, and kill me, since you have bereaved me of my honor.' 'Not so,

truly,' quoth he of the White Moon; 'let the fame of my Lady Dulcinea's

beauty live in her entireness; I am only contented that the grand Don

Quixote retire home for a year, or till such time as I please, as we

agreed before we began the battle.' And Don Quixote answered that, so

nothing were required of him in prejudice of his Lady Dulcinea, he

would accomplish all the rest, like a true and punctual knight."

Don Quixote, defeated, broken-hearted, his illusions vanishing one by

one, rides homeward with his squire in profound dejection; and here the

orchestra evolves out of a pathetic variant of his theme an eloquent

and vivid commentary.

FINALE

THE DEATH OF DON QUIXOTE

The knight, once more a sane and wise man, his brain cleared of its

mists, his reason restored, lies dying peacefully in his bed. "They

stood all gazing one upon another, wondering at Don Quixote's sound

reasons, although they made some doubt to believe them. One of the

signs which induced them to conjecture that he was near unto death's

door was that with such facility he was from a stark fool become a

wise man. For, to the words already alleged, he added many more so

significant, so Christian-like, and so well couched, that without

doubt they confidently believed that Don Quixote was become a right

wise man.... Amidst the wailful plaints and blubbering tears of the

bystanders he yielded up the ghost--that is to say, he died."[155] The

music which portrays his end is simple and very peaceful. The chords

which, at the beginning, indicated his aberration, are now orderly,

tranquil, and composed.

"A HERO'S LIFE" ["EIN HELDENLEBEN"], TONE-POEM: Op. 40

_Ein Heldenleben_ was completed in December, 1898. The score bears

absolutely no indication of its purport or significance save the title:

we are left to guess whether the "hero" whose life is celebrated

therein is an ideal hero or a figure of history, of myth, of romance,

or of private life. Strauss is said to have observed, in response to

a question: "There is no need of a programme. It is enough to know

there is a hero fighting his enemies." Yet the analysts have been busy

with this score, as with others by Strauss; and he has, at least by

implication, sanctioned their interpretations.

"A Hero's Life" is in six connected sections, arranged and identified

as follows:

1. THE HERO

2. THE HERO'S ADVERSARIES

3. THE HERO'S CONSORT

4. THE HERO'S BATTLE-FIELD

5. THE HERO'S WORKS OF PEACE

6. THE HERO'S RETIREMENT FROM THE WORLD, AND THE END OF

HIS STRIVING

I. THE HERO

We hear first the theme of the Hero, a chivalric and wide-arched

phrase, of extraordinary breadth and energy, announced _forte_ by

horns, viola, and 'cellos. Subsidiary themes follow, picturing various

aspects of his nature--his "pride, emotional nature, iron will,

richness of imagination," and so forth. The main theme, weightily

proclaimed by tenor and bass tubas, four horns, double-basses, 'cellos,

and wood-wind, brings the first section to a thunderous close.

II. THE HERO'S ADVERSARIES

Herein are pictured the Hero's opponents and detractors--an envious

and malicious crew, rich in all uncharitableness.[156] The wood-wind

instruments--flutes, oboes, English horn, clarinets--utter shrill and

snarling phrases: beside them, the spiteful cackling of the wood-wind

in the "_Meistersinger_" overture is as the amorous murmuring of doves.

There is also an uncouth and sluggish phrase for tenor and bass tubas,

intended to picture the malevolence of the dull-witted among the

foe. The theme of the Hero, in a sad and meditative guise, pictures

his dignified amazement, his pained and sorrowful surprise that his

adversaries should so reveal the smallness and meanness and acrimony of

their natures. A poignant phrase, of "Parsifal"-like color and profile

(muted[157] strings) speaks of his temporary disquietment--perhaps his

doubt of his own sublimity; but this is barely hinted at. His dauntless

courage reasserts itself, and the mocking and contemptible horde are

put, at least for the time, to rout.

III. THE HERO'S CONSORT

A solo violin, in a long and elaborate passage, introduces the Hero's

beloved. She is pictured at first as capricious--a coquette; but the

music grows more tender, more gentle; the full orchestra enters; the

oboe sings an expressive melody; there are rapturous and passionate

phrases for the strings amid sweeping arpeggios in the harps, and the

love scene reaches its climax. The mocking voices of the foe are heard

remotely, like the distant croaking of night birds through an ecstatic

dream: they are powerless to disturb the peace and felicity of the

lovers.

IV. THE HERO'S BATTLE-FIELD

But now the call to battle sounds, and it may not be ignored. Distant

fanfares of trumpets summon the Hero to the conflict. The orchestra

becomes a battle-field; the music is chaos--tumultuous, cataclysmic:

"it evokes the picture of countless and waging hosts, of forests of

waving spears and clashing blades. The din, heat, and turmoil of

conflict are spread over all, and the ground piled high with the

slain." Through the dust and din we are reminded of the inspiration of

the beloved, which urges on and enheartens the champion, whose motive

contests for supremacy with that of his adversaries. A triumphant

orchestral outburst on the Hero's theme proclaims at last his victory.

Yet he rejoices alone--the world regards his conquest with cold and

cynical indifference.

V. THE HERO'S WORKS OF PEACE

Now begins a celebration of the hero's victories of peace, his

spiritual evolution and achievements. This section is introduced by a

reminder of the uncouth phrase for tenor and bass tuba heard in the

second division. The heroic and tender themes of the preceding pages

are recalled, and with them are woven (a significant indication of the

true subject of the tone-poem) quotations of themes from Strauss's

earlier works. We hear, in surprising and subtle combinations,

reminiscences of "Don Juan," "Thus Spake Zarathustra," "Death and

Transfiguration," "Don Quixote," "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks,"

the music-drama "Guntram," "Macbeth," and the famous and lovely song,

_Traum durch die Dämmerung_. Industrious commentators have discovered

twenty-three of these quotations.

VI. THE HERO'S RETIREMENT FROM THE WORLD,

AND THE END OF HIS STRIVING

Again we hear, in the tubas, the uncouth and cacophonous phrase which

voices the dull contempt of the benighted adversaries. Even the

glorious achievements of the Hero's brain, his spiritual conquests,

have won only envy and derision. The protagonist rebels mightily;

there are passionate and tempestuous phrases, reminiscences of his

theme, in the strings, horns, and wood-wind. But his mood quiets. Over

a persistent tapping of the kettle-drum, the English horn intones a

gentler version of his theme. An agitating memory of the striving and

conflict of the past disturbs, but only for a moment, the serenity of

his mood. We are reminded of the consoling presence of the beloved

one. Peace descends upon the spirit of the Hero. The close is majestic

and benign.

"DOMESTIC SYMPHONY": Op. 53

In the course of an interview published in London in 1902, Strauss

made this announcement: "My next tone-poem will illustrate 'a day in

my family life.' It will be partly lyrical, partly humorous--a triple

fugue, the three subjects representing papa, mamma, and the baby." The

_Symphonia Domestica_, composed in 1903, was published in 1904. The

first performance anywhere was at Carnegie Hall, New York, March 21,

1904.

The symphony, which bears this dedication: _Meiner lieben Frau und

unserm Jungen gewidmet_ ("Dedicated to my dear Wife and our Boy"), is

in one movement and three subdivisions: (1) Introduction and Scherzo;

(2) Adagio; (3) Double Fugue and Finale. The composer declined, at the

time of the first performance of the symphony, to furnish any programme

for the music.[158] When the work was produced in Berlin (December

12, 1904), under the direction of the composer, the programme books

contained this (presumably authorized) annotation of the music:

"I. INTRODUCTION and development of the three chief groups of themes:

The husband's themes:

(_a_) Easy-going,

(_b_) Dreamy,

(_c_) Fiery.

The wife's themes:

(_a_) Lively and gay,

(_b_) Grazioso.

The child's theme:

Tranquil.

"II. SCHERZO:

Parents' happiness. Childish play.

Cradle-song (the clock strikes seven in the evening).

"III. ADAGIO:

Doing and thinking. Love scene. Dreams and cares (the

clock strikes seven in the morning).

"IV. FINALE:

Awakening and merry dispute (double fugue). Joyous

conclusion."

A year later, in connection with the first performance in England, an

"official" description was published, and it was intimated that this

description was "allowed" by the composer "to be made public." It is

therefore reproduced here, since there is every reason to believe that

it constitutes an authentic interpretation of the music.

"[INTRODUCTION]

"The symphony is concerned with three main themes, that of the

husband, that of the wife, and that of the child. The husband theme is

divided into three sections, the first of which is marked _gemächlich_

('easy-going,' or 'deliberate,' given out by 'cellos), the second

_sinnend_ ('meditative,'[159] oboe,) and the third _feurig_ ('fiery,'

violins). The first section of the symphony, the Introduction, is

devoted to an exposition and treatment of the chief themes, or groups

of themes, its most striking feature being the introduction of the

child theme on the _oboe d'amore_, an instrument which has practically

fallen out of use.[160] The composer himself has spoken of this theme

as being of 'almost Haydnesque simplicity.' On this follows a very

characteristic passage, which has been interpreted as representing the

child in its bath.[161]

"[SCHERZO]

"The Scherzo bears the headings _Elternglück--Kindliche Spiele_

('Parents' Happiness'--'The Child at Play'). Its chief theme is the

child theme in a new rhythm. At its end the music suggestive of the

bath recurs, and the clock strikes seven. We then come to the lullaby,

where we have another version of the child theme.

"[ADAGIO]

"The sub-headings of the Adagio are _Schaffen und

Schauen--Liebes-scene--Träume und Sorgen_ ('Doing and Thinking'--'Love

Scene'--'Dreams and Cares'). This elaborate section introduces no new

themes of any importance, and is really a symphonic slow movement of

great polyphonic elaboration and superlatively rich orchestral color.

The gradual awakening of the family is next depicted by a change in

the character of the music, which becomes more and more restless, the

use of rhythmical variants of previous themes being very ingenious;

and then there is another reference to the bath music, and the

glockenspiel[162] indicates that it is 7 A.M.

"[FINALE]

"In this way we reach the final Fugue. The principal subject of this

is also a new version of the child theme. Its sub-title is _Lustiger

Streit--Fröhlicher Beschluss_ ('Merry Argument'--'Happy Conclusion'),

the subject of the dispute between father and mother being the future

of the son. The Fugue (the chief subject of which is another variant

of the child theme) is carried on with unflagging spirit and humor and

great variety of orchestration.... As the Fugue proceeds, the child

theme gradually grows more and more prominent, and finally seems to

dominate the whole score." ["The child seems to have hurt himself in

boisterous play," says another commentator. "The mother cares for

him, and the father also has a soothing word."] "Some new themes,

all more or less akin to it, and all in the nature of folk-tunes, are

introduced. The father and mother, however, soon assume their former

importance, and the whole ends with great spirit and in the highest

good-humor, with an emphatic reassertion of the husband theme with

which it began, suggesting that the father had the last word in the

argument."

FOOTNOTES:

[142] From the English version of John P. Jackson.

[143] See page 75 (foot-note).

[144] "Rubato": literally, "robbed"; in the phrase, "tempo rubato,"

a direction that the strict rhythm of the movement be relaxed by

prolonging certain notes at the expense of others, which are thus

"robbed" of their precise time-value.