ORGAN MUSIC AFTER BACH AND HANDEL
The eclipse of organ music after Bach; Bach’s pupils and
other organ masters of the classic period--Organ composers
of the romantic period: Mendelssohn, Liszt, Rheinberger
and others--Great French organists of the nineteenth
century--English organists since Handel.
I
The hopelessness of maintaining organ-music on the height to which
Bach had raised it was obvious enough as soon as he had passed from
the stage of which he had been the most brilliant adornment. Johann
Joachim Quantz, in his book, _Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte zu
spielen_ (1752), expresses the fear that after his (Bach’s) death the
art of organ-playing, which he had brought to the highest perfection,
might deteriorate or possibly disappear, ‘as there are only a few
that cultivate it.’ He complains that ‘good organists are very rare,’
but intimates that one reason is that they receive very little
encouragement, since the majority of them are paid ‘such miserably
small salaries.’ But while Bach’s creative genius had said the last
word in organ music in the particular forms which he employed, he
handed down his wonderful art of playing to a galaxy of brilliant
pupils and especially to his oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.
For a century after Bach’s death, however, the attention of musical
Europe was absorbed in following other lines of development and his
influence was not immediately apparent. He was so far in advance of
his age that the essence of his art had to wait several generations
till the world had progressed enough to perceive it and in a few years
after he had passed he became only a tradition. The organ was soon
overshadowed in importance by new media of musical expression; the
orchestra and the rapidly developing pianoforte, the opera and the
oratorio, the symphony and the sonata, offered novel and more alluring
opportunities for the imagination and creative fancy of composers
than did the sombre, polyphonic forms that seemed best suited both to
the church services themselves and to the organ of the period as an
interpreting instrument. And neither the organ nor organ-music was
rescued from the secondary and unimportant position into which both
fell after Bach’s time, until organ-builders in the last half of the
nineteenth century began to introduce mechanical improvements which
made the instrument capable of meeting the modern requirements in
expressional power.
Though the instrument itself lagged pitiably behind other instruments
in development, Germany, France, and England continued to bring forth
great organists. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), the special
favorite of his father, was exceedingly talented as a performer and was
considered the finest organist in Germany after his father’s death.
He was organist of the _Sophienkirche_ in Dresden (1733-1747) and of
the _Marienkirche_ in Halle (1747-1764). He had a great reputation
for improvisation, of which he was especially fond, and he wrote very
little for the organ--chorale-preludes, trios, canons, and some fugues,
of which the one in F major is especially notable.
Several of Sebastian Bach’s pupils were famous organists in their
time and good composers. Johann Philip Kirnberger (1721-1783) wrote
chorale-preludes and fugues, but is best known to the musical world by
his theoretical work, _Die Kunst des reinen Satzes_. Johann Frederick
Doles (1715-1797) was cantor of the Thomas school in Leipzig from
1756 to 1789. He wrote in rather popular vein and, strange indeed
for a pupil and successor of the great Cantor, actually demanded the
banishment of the fugal form from the church service. Johann Ludwig
Krebs (1713-1780), whom Bach playfully called ‘_der einzige Krebs in
meinem Bache_’ (‘the only crab in my brook’), was considered by Bach to
be his best pupil. He wrote chorale-fugues, preludes, and fugues. His
fugue in G major is still an attractive concert piece. Johann Schneider
(1702-1787), organist at St. Nicholas’, Leipzig, gained great fame as
an improvisator on the organ. Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809),
the last pupil of Sebastian Bach, who brought his master’s traditions
into the nineteenth century, was organist at Erfurt from 1756 till his
death. He was a famous player and teacher and an excellent composer.
Among his celebrated pupils were M. G. Fischer and J. C. H. Rinck.
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809), famous as a theoretical
writer, composer, and teacher, was court-organist in Vienna (1772) and
kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s (1792). For the organ he wrote eleven
sets of fugues and three of preludes, but the vast majority of his 261
compositions are unpublished. His fame lingered longest as a theorist
and among his pupils were names that later became celebrated--Seyfried,
Hummel, and Beethoven. Beethoven studied counterpoint with him, but he
expressed only a poor opinion of his pupil’s talent.
Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814), best known as Abbé Vogler and
immortalized in Robert Browning’s well-known poem of that name, was a
pupil of Padre Martini in Bologna and of Vilotti in Padua. After going
to Rome he entered the priesthood, later returning to Germany and
sojourning a few years in each of various places. He invented a system
of simplification for the organ and applied it to a portable instrument
which he called ‘orchestrion,’ with which he travelled over Europe as
concert-organist. One of his inventions was the so-called ‘resultant’
16-foot tone, produced by uniting an 8-foot pipe with a 5-1/3-foot
(‘quint’) pipe. This device gave rise to the ‘resultant’ 32-foot tone
still employed by some organ-builders. He also advocated discarding
mixtures altogether. His compositions no longer possess interest. His
presumption and self-confidence are well illustrated by the fact that
he published (Peters’, Leipzig, 1810) twelve chorales by Sebastian
Bach ‘corrected’ (_umgearbeitet_) by himself and analyzed by C. M. von
Weber, who at that time was his pupil at Darmstadt.
Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846) was a voluminous writer
for the organ. His compositions show fluent melody and clear form, and
his style is dignified and simple, but his ideas lack musical depth.
He was wise enough not to attempt to follow Bach in fugue writing,
recognizing, as he said to Fétis, that if he were ‘to succeed in
composing anything worthy of approval, it must be on different lines
from his (Bach’s).’ Rinck’s ‘Organ School’ is still well-known in
England and America.
Michael Gotthard Fischer (1773-1829), organist at Erfurt, was a
most excellent player and a composer of many organ-works--preludes,
fantasias, chorale-preludes--that even to-day have not lost their
attractiveness.
II
Johann Gottlob Schneider (1789-1864) was one of the greatest German
organ virtuosi of the nineteenth century and did a great deal to
popularize organ-music by his many concert tours. His few published
works--fugues, fantasias, preludes--occupy an honorable place. Like so
many of the great organists of the earlier periods, he was famous for
his improvisation.
Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809-1863), organist of St. Bernard’s, Breslau,
was another celebrated and much admired organ virtuoso. He created a
sensation by his performances, especially his pedal-playing, at the
inauguration of the new organ at St. Eustache, Paris, in 1844. When
later he concertized in England (1852) he protested vigorously against
the unequal temperament of the English organs. He wrote preludes,
fugues, fantasias, études--mostly practical works in clear form, with
smooth-flowing melody and simple, popular content.
August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885), organist of the cathedral in
Magdeburg, was one of the greatest German organ masters of the last
century, famous alike for his wonderful improvisation and as a
virtuoso. He wrote four fine sonatas for the organ, of which opus 19 in
E minor and especially opus 23 in A minor (dedicated to Liszt) are of
great value. Other works are chorale-preludes, fugues, and variations.
Of greatest value are his _Kunst des Orgelspiels_, an instruction book
in two volumes, and _Geschichte des Orgelspiels im 14-18 Jahrhunderts_,
an admirable and scholarly scientific treatise, which has been freely
drawn upon, since its publication in 1884, by most writers on organ
history.
Karl August Haupt (1810-1891), organist of the Parochialkirche, Berlin
(1849), and director of the Royal Academy of Church Music (1869),
was an organ master of the first rank, equally great as virtuoso and
extempore player in the style of Bach, for whose works he was ever an
enthusiastic propagandist. He published the organ works of Thiele,
his friend and predecessor at the Parochialkirche. He drew a host
of American students to him. One of these, Mr. E. E. Truette in the
_Étude_, is authority for the statement that they numbered over 150 and
he mentions the names of Eugene Thayer, Clarence Eddy, J. K. Paine,
George W. Morgan, Arthur Bird, and Philip Hale.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was an organist of fine
attainments and wrote most gratefully for the instrument. Himself a
Bach enthusiast and gifted with extraordinary contrapuntal facility,
Mendelssohn was the first composer for the organ after Bach to approach
him in the happy combination of nobility of musical ideas and technical
finish of workmanship. He has earned the gratitude of organists by his
three preludes and fugues (of which the ones in G major and C minor
are possibly the best) and six sonatas, all free from pedantry and
full of refreshing melodic invention, romantic warmth of harmony, and
in attractive technical garb. The preludes are less valuable than the
sonatas. Four of the six sonatas have chorales for their principal
thematic material and these are the most valuable of the six. In the
use of the chorale in his organ sonatas and his oratorios, Mendelssohn
shows his close artistic kinship with the great Cantor; the chorale
made a deep appeal to him and stirred the flight of his imagination to
finest effort. These are sonatas only in name, the strict sonata-form
not being observed. In the powerful first movement of No. 1 (F minor),
the chorale _Was mein Gott will, gscheh allzeit_ (‘What my God wills,
be always done!’) is beautifully interwoven. The simple, expressive
Adagio is followed by a very attractive Recitativo which leads into
the brilliant and dashing Finale. The Adagio of No. 2 (C minor) is of
finest beauty and the best movement of this sonata, which is clear
in form and melodious, as Mendelssohn always is. No. 3 (A minor) has
only two movements, the first of grand effect, presenting an excellent
double fugue on the chorale _Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir_ (‘In
deep distress I cry to Thee’). No. 4 (B-flat major) is constructed
with four movements and is a brilliant, effective concert sonata,
the Allegretto (F major) being especially attractive and written in
Mendelssohn’s typical fluent manner. No. 5 (D major) is a beautiful
work throughout. In No. 6 (D minor) Mendelssohn uses the chorale _Vater
unser im Himmelreich_ as the basis of four variations built up to a
great climax and a fugue constructed on the first line of the chorale.
The Finale (D major) almost breathes vocal expression.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was never an organist, but his interest in
contrapuntal study led him to write six fugues on the name B-A-C-H,
of which No. 5, the little staccato fugue, is the most original. The
canons which he wrote as studies for pedal-piano are also suitable and
effective for organ. Of these the B minor Canon is best known as an
effective concert-piece.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) contributed very original and effective music
for the organ, most of which inclines towards orchestral effects
and some of which opened up new possibilities for the organ, as his
compositions for piano did for that instrument. In addition he wrote
many smaller pieces (including transcriptions) for organ or harmonium,
that are harmonically most piquant. His best works for organ are:
Variations on a Basso Ostinato (_Crucifixus_ of the B minor Mass
by Bach), Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, _Evocation à la Chapelle
Sixtine_, Litany: _Ora pro nobis_, and Fantasia and Fugue on _Ad nos,
ad salutarem undam_ (theme by Meyerbeer), this last being his greatest
work for organ.
Johann Friedrich Ludwig Thiele (1816-1848) was organist of the
Parochialkirche, Berlin, from 1839 to 1848. Although his early
death at the age of thirty-two prevented the full development of
his extraordinary genius, Thiele has left several very important
organ-works--‘Chromatic Fantasy,’ written at the age of seventeen;
three concert-pieces, all majestic compositions; Theme and Variations
in A-flat major and in C major, both brilliant and effective
concert-pieces.
Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst (1823-1894), organist in Stuttgart
and director of the Stuttgart Conservatory, published several organ
pieces; his Sonata in E major is a masterly work.
The career of Julius Reubke (1834-1858), the son of an organ-builder
and a fine pianist and organist, was cut short by death when he was
only twenty-four years old. His only organ-work, a sonata entitled
‘The 94th Psalm,’ is one of the grandest and most powerful works that
have ever been written for the instrument; its position in literature
is really unique. It reveals the inexhaustible fantasy, the profound
depth, and the impetuous temperament of the young composer, who with
sure hand molded his own form by breaking the old sonata-form. This
magnificent sonata introduced a new epoch, the orchestral treatment of
the organ. The early death of Reubke and Thiele was the most serious
blow to modern progressive organ-music in Germany.
Gustav Adolf Merkel (1827-1885), a pupil of Johann Schneider and
organist of the Kreuzkirche and Hofkirche in Dresden, was one of the
greatest organists and organ-composers of his period and he has left
works of great beauty and value, though much of his writing sounds dry
and pedantic now. He wrote nine sonatas, one of them for two performers
and double pedal. Of these sonatas the best are opus 42 in G minor and
opus 118 in D minor. Other works are fantasias, preludes, and études.
Merkel was a masterly contrapuntist and falls in the direct line of
succession to Bach and Mendelssohn. His sonatas are on the whole the
best works of this class between Mendelssohn and Rheinberger.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), the great master of German song and
symphony, gave a few valuable works to the organ: the very scholarly
Fugue in A-flat minor, Chorale-Prelude and Fugue on _O Traurigkeit, O
Herzeleid_, and eleven chorale-preludes (his last work), of which two
deserve especial mention--_Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen_ and _O Welt,
ich muss dich lassen_.
[Illustration: Modern Organ Composers:]
Top: Alexandre Guilmant and Charles Marie Widor
Bottom: Joseph Rheinberger and Max Reger
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) easily takes rank as one
of the best German organists and teachers of the latter part of the
nineteenth century and at the same time one of the greatest organ
composers of the century. From 1867 he was professor of composition
and organ-playing in the Munich Conservatory and in 1877 was appointed
director of the Court Church music in Munich. He has exerted a marked
influence on music in America through his numerous pupils, among
whom may be mentioned Horatio W. Parker and George W. Chadwick. His
many-sided genius expressed itself in various fields--orchestral,
choral, church, chamber, pianoforte, and organ. In all of these
fields he showed himself in close sympathy with modern harmonic
development and tendencies, but, strange to say, not with Wagner’s
methods and theories; yet he combined with a progressive modern spirit
a mastery of fugal and contrapuntal forms equalled by none of his
contemporaries. While he avoided treating the organ orchestrally,
he was among the first to employ in organ-forms the rich harmonic
vocabulary of the romantic composers who had already given to the
literature of the pianoforte and the orchestra so many masterpieces
of warm and glowing tone-color. His organ compositions are pure music
of an elevated type, equal in their own individual way with the best
orchestral art of his period. In most of Rheinberger’s music, however,
there is present a certain quality of reserve that never permits the
expression of exuberance of feeling or exalted enthusiasm. They reveal
an astonishing variety, a fertile imagination, deep earnestness, and
complete mastery of form and style. The most important of these works
are two concertos for organ with orchestra in F major (opus 137) and
G minor (opus 177), and twenty sonatas, which alone constitute a
monumental contribution to organ literature. Rheinberger seems to have
attempted for the organ-sonata something of the same task of setting
free from the trammels of tradition and of developing along the line
of its own inherent needs that Beethoven solved so successfully for
the pianoforte-sonata. These two forms of the sonata, however, have
very little in common and Rheinberger, in his remarkable series, gave
the strongest impetus to the development of the organ-sonata as a
distinct music-form since Mendelssohn’s noble works. The particular
form which he seemed to adopt for it as a kind of type was in three
movements, the first being in the nature of a prelude, the last a fugue
or some distinctly contrapuntal form, and the intervening movement an
intermezzo in slow tempo. Most of his sonatas are constructed in this
form, though occasionally he employs four movements, as in the Sonata
in E minor, No. 8, where a Scherzoso appears between the Intermezzo
and the final movement. He frequently uses with telling effect the
modern device of unifying the movements through the employment in the
last movement of themes heard in the first. In the Pastoral Sonata,
No. 3, the Eighth Gregorian Psalm Tone, upon which the opening
movement (Pastorale) is constructed, appears again with fine effect
as a contrasting subject to the fugal theme in the last movement.
Plain-song melodies frequently appear in his earlier sonatas. Many of
the sonatas--especially No. 8 (opus 132) in E minor, No. 9 (opus 142)
in B-flat minor (dedicated to Guilmant), No. 12 (opus 154) in B-flat
major, No. 14 (opus 165) in C major, and No. 20 (opus 196) in F--are
among the noblest examples of organ-music. Among his shorter organ
compositions of large value are Twelve Characteristic Pieces, many
trios for two manuals and a pedal, besides several pieces for organ and
violin.
III
French organ-music presents very little interesting material for the
historian to dwell upon until after the middle of the nineteenth
century, when a new stimulus broke in upon the dreary triviality which
had been so long its chief characteristic. The most important French
organist of the last half of the eighteenth century was Nicolas Séjan
(1745-1819), who was appointed organist of Nôtre Dame in 1772, of St.
Sulpice in 1783, of the Invalides in 1789, and of the Chapel Royal in
1814. Carlyle in his ‘French Revolution’ relates a thrilling experience
through which this organist passed at the hands of the revolutionists
in 1793, when they seized the church of Nôtre Dame and made it the
scene of a sacrilegious orgy of unusually revolting character.
Demoiselle Candeille, a dancer from the Opéra, was established at
the altar as the Goddess of Reason and La Harpe harangued the crowd,
declaring all religion abolished. As a crowning defiance to traditional
religion this was followed by a ball, at which Séjan was forced to play
dance-music on the great cathedral organ as the howling rabble danced
and shouted street songs.
Alexandre Pierre François Boëly (1785-1858) was a musician of most
serious aims and made persistent efforts to acquaint Frenchmen with
the works of Bach and other great composers for the organ, but with no
success. For several years he was organist at St. Germain l’Auxerrois,
Paris, but his zeal in serving his own high artistic ideals cost him
his position. He wrote four offertories and many other pieces for organ.
François Benoist (1794-1878), organist of the Royal Chapel and
professor of organ-playing at the Conservatoire from 1819, left twelve
books of organ works entitled _Bibliothèque de l’Organiste_. Pieces
from this collection that have been reprinted, presumably the best, are
in the prevailing sentimental and trivial style of this period. He was
the organ-teacher of Saint-Saëns.
Just before the middle of the nineteenth century a movement for the
restoration of Catholic church-music was inaugurated in Bavaria
by Dr. Karl Proske (1794-1861), and Ratisbon became the centre of
this movement. A collateral movement for the reform of plain-song
was started by the ‘Benedictines of Solesmes,’ an order of the
‘Congregation of France’ founded at this monastery in 1833 by Dom
Prosper Guéranger. Two French organists who had taken holy orders
allied themselves to this latter movement and aided greatly in the
reformation of church-music, especially by their writings on the
relation of the organ to plain-song and on other aspects of Gregorian
music. These were Louis Lambillotte (1797-1857) and Théodore Nisard,
the pen name of Abbé Xavier Normand (born in 1812).
The first of the modern French organists to have any perceptible
influence on present-day organists was Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély
(1817-1869), who was organist at the Madeleine, Paris, from 1847 to
1858 and of St. Sulpice from 1863 till his death. He was a thorough
musician, a skillful performer on the organ and piano, and a composer
in many fields. He was regarded as possessing marvellous powers of
improvisation and his compositions for a time enjoyed great popularity
(‘The Monastery Bells’ was the best known of his salon-music for
pianoforte). Much of his organ-music partakes of the nature of his
‘fashionable’ pianoforte-music; it is light, if not trivial, and is
very melodious, but, despite its former great popularity, devoid of
artistic value. However, his name frequently appears on present-day
organ recital programs.
Antoine Édouard Batiste (1820-1876), organist of St. Nicolas des Champs
(1842-1854) and of St. Eustache (1854-1876), was a fine teacher,
one of the best performers of his time, and a prolific composer of
organ music, much of which, however, is of the popular, tuneful,
ear-tickling, and easy-to-play variety. Several of his nearly 300
compositions rise above this level and, though showy and somewhat
sentimental, are excellent for their type. Few organ compositions have
had such widespread popularity as some of Batiste’s, as, for example,
the Communion in G, the Offertory in E, and several of the ‘Grand
Offertories,’ including the St. Cecilia Offertories, among the best
known of which are the ones in D minor, C minor, and F. The vogue of
Batiste is by no means full-spent, but the gradually widening demand
for organ-music of a more serious nature and a finer workmanship is
automatically lessening the appeal of such music, which is merely
sensuously pleasing.
Much more serious in artistic purpose and effective in healthy
influence was Nicolas Jacques Lemmens (1823-1881), an eminent Belgian
organist and composer who early came under the influence of German
organ-music while a student of Adolph Hesse at Breslau, whither he
was sent at government expense. Here he spent a year in study (1846),
cultivating a deep love for Sebastian Bach and acquiring the traditions
of his great organ-works. When he returned to Belgium, he carried
with him a testimonial from his teacher, stating that he could play
Bach as well as he himself did. As professor of organ-playing at the
Brussels Conservatory (1849-1858) he exerted a wide influence and in
1879 founded a school at Malines, Belgium, under the auspices of the
Belgian clergy for the training of Catholic organists and choirmasters.
Among his famous pupils were Guilmant and Widor. He wrote many
excellent organ compositions, about sixty in all, including sonatas
(especially the Sonata Pontificale), offertories, fantasias, etc.,
and his instruction book _École d’Orgue_ was adopted in the Paris and
Brussels Conservatoires and in other schools; but his chief influence
was in laying the foundations of a more serious style of organ-music in
Flanders and France. He was far more successful than Boëly in arousing
interest in Bach and he astonished the French by his fine playing of
the great German master’s organ works. His example in this direction
was followed by many of the most distinguished French organists,
as Franck, Saint-Saëns, Widor, Guilmant, Salomé--all of whom were
enthusiastic worshippers of the genius of the Leipzig cantor. The most
widely known of Lemmens’ organ pieces, though by no means the best, is
probably the Fantasia in D minor, popularly called ‘The Storm.’
Jan Albert van Eijken or Eyken (1823-1868), a distinguished Dutch
organist in Amsterdam and later in Elberfeld, received his musical
education at the Leipzig Conservatory and later, at Mendelssohn’s
suggestion, under Johann Schneider at Dresden. He wrote important
works of great merit for the organ, including three sonatas, of which
the third in A minor deserves special mention, twenty-five preludes,
a large number of chorale-preludes, a toccata and fugue on B-A-C-H,
and other pieces, all in the elevated style of German Protestant
organ-music.
Samuel de Lange (born 1840) is another Dutch organist and composer who
was celebrated in Germany, Austria, France, and England as a concert
performer. He taught successively in the Music Schools of Rotterdam
and Basel, and in the Conservatories of Cologne (1876) and Stuttgart
(1893). He wrote seven organ-sonatas and many smaller pieces--all
containing valuable music.
Three modern Belgian organists have achieved substantial reputations.
Alphonse Jean Ernest Mailly (born 1833), ‘first organist to the King,’
became known as a brilliant virtuoso and teacher (in the Brussels
Conservatory from 1868), and the composer of many compositions for the
organ, among them fantasias, characteristic pieces, and a much-played
sonata. His pupil, Edgar Tinel (1854-1912), wrote one valuable work
for the organ, Sonata in G minor, of which the Finale is especially
vigorous in content and treatment. In 1881 he succeeded Lemmens as
director of the Institute for Sacred Music at Malines and in 1896
accepted an appointment as teacher of counterpoint and fugue in the
Brussels Conservatory. His fame as composer rests more largely on
his choral and church music. Joseph Callaerts (1838-1901), a native
of Antwerp and a pupil of Lemmens at the Brussels Conservatory, was
organist of the Cathedral of Antwerp and teacher of organ in the Music
School from 1867. Some of his organ-music borders on the popular, yet
much of it possesses dignity, if not great depth of thought.
The greatest figure in French organ-music is César Auguste Franck
(1822-1890). What Sebastian Bach is to German musical art, Franck is to
French--the great Gothic cathedral architect in tones. By virtue of his
works, which in many respects overshadow everything before or after him
in French organ literature, and the beneficent effect of his personal
influence, which included within its radius many of the greatest of
present-day French composers, Franck was an epoch-making personality
and the spiritual head of a new French school which has powerfully
effected French music since his time. A deep sincerity, religious in
its intensity, coupled with a certain indefinable mysticism, pervades
all of his compositions. Never writing for effect or applause and
possessing a Bach-like fondness and capacity for intricate polyphonic
structure joined with an extremely modern freedom in his use of
harmonies, Franck created works of sublime beauty that will live long
after the works of many of his now famous contemporaries are forgotten.
His abilities as an organist (he had the reputation of being a fine
one) were overshadowed by his compositions, but he was professor of
organ-playing at the Paris Conservatoire and organist at St. Clotilde
from 1872 till his death.
His organ works are not numerous, but they are exceedingly important,
consisting of three sets of pieces.[111] In the first set of six
pieces, No. 2, _Grande Pièce Symphonique_ in F-sharp minor, is
appropriately called symphonic. Its themes are noble and full of
deepest expression, and are developed with consummate mastery, while
the harmonic scheme is always novel and fascinating. No. 3--Prelude,
Fugue, and Variations in B minor--is a work of the first rank and
displays to fine advantage his mastery of the resources of the organ
and the technical means of expression. The Pastorale in E major, No. 4,
is an especially interesting and grateful concert-piece and the Finale,
No. 6, is brilliantly built up to a powerful climax. In a second set,
consisting of three chorales, though all are valuable, the best are the
first one in E major with its beautiful melodic lines and its ingenious
harmonic effects, and the third one in A minor, which is Bach-like in
its imposing dignity. The third set comprises three effective concert
numbers--Fantasia in C major, which again reveals his indebtedness
to Bach in the skill with which he superimposes a most expressive
theme upon a delicately constructed canon, Cantabile in B major, and
_Pièce Héroique_. Of these the best is the Cantabile with its rich and
interesting harmonies and expressive melodies. Despite the marvellous
beauty and noble power of Franck’s musical thoughts, one cannot refrain
from the occasional wish that he had exercised more conciseness in
their development. At the organ he was a dreamer of seraphic visions
and he sometimes forgot that his listeners were apt to be uninspired
mortals.
IV
The reluctance of English organ-builders, referred to in a previous
chapter, to adopt the mechanical improvements introduced into
Continental organs, naturally retarded the progress of English
organ-music. After Handel, although England had good organists, little
of value was produced in organ composition until almost the present
generation. Excellent compositions were written in the style of Handel
and, later, of Mendelssohn, but originality in musical material or
treatment was almost wholly absent.
The best English organists and organ-composers of the eighteenth
century were the following: Dr. Thomas Arne (1710-1778), William Boyce
(1710-1779), John Stanley (1713-1786), a remarkable organist who
was blind from the age of two and yet who distinguished himself as
composer, performer, and teacher; James Nares (1715-1783), Benjamin
Cooke (1734-1793), in one of whose fugues the pedal takes the subject,
an unusual procedure in English organ-music of this century; Thomas
Sanders Dupuis (1733-1796), one of the best organists of his time;
Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801), a remarkable extempore performer; John
Christmas Beckwith (1751-1809), also famous for his improvisations; and
Charles Wesley (1756-1834), a nephew of the great Methodist leader. The
musical forms employed by these organist-composers (all of the above
wrote more or less for the organ except Boyce, Arnold, and Battishill)
were chiefly concertos and fugues in the style of Handel, and
voluntaries. In the time of Dupuis a form of voluntary came into vogue
that soon became stereotyped, conventional, and banal. It consisted
of three or four movements usually in this order--a slow movement in
three-pulse rhythm for the diapasons, a solo for cornet or trumpet with
accompaniment of bass only, and closing with a fugue. The first two
movements were almost invariably uninteresting and dull, but the fugues
showed that English composers of the period could acquit themselves
creditably in forms that demanded learning rather than originality and
musical feeling.
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), brother of the Charles Wesley mentioned
above, was the foremost English organist of his time and the first
really great figure in English organ-music. He was a fine extempore
player, the composer of much excellent organ-music (11 concertos and
a large number of voluntaries, interludes, preludes, and fugues),
and a close student and ardent admirer of Bach. From 1800 he was a
most zealous and persistent propagandist for the German master’s
works and especially excelled as a performer of his fugues. As he was
an excellent violinist, Bach’s violin works also received frequent
performances in public concerts at his hands. The first English edition
of the ‘Well-tempered Clavichord’ was published by him in 1810 in
collaboration with C. F. Horn and he was instrumental in procuring the
publication of an English translation of Forkel’s life of Bach. His
music is more serious than the prevalent style and while he is not a
great composer, judged by Continental standards, his influence was
far-reaching and of utmost importance to English musical life, in that
he gave substantial dignity to the organ as an interpreting instrument
and induced a widespread interest in more solid organ-music, especially
in Bach.
Early in the nineteenth century ‘arrangements’ began to be made for
organ from other works, vocal and instrumental, chiefly of German and
Italian classical composers. One of the earliest to start this custom
was John Clarke-Whitfeld (1770-1836), organist of Hereford Cathedral
and professor of music at Cambridge University. His arrangements were
from the vocal works of Handel (1809), and as a substitute for the
ability to create original music, they presented worthy compositions
of a contrapuntal character suitable for organists to perform. But the
arranging of pieces for the organ soon extended to other kinds of vocal
music, to symphonies and forms of instrumental music quite foreign to
the nature and idiom of the instrument, and this practice developed
into a craze for arrangements and adaptations which lasted throughout
the nineteenth century and which still persists, especially in England
and America.
William Crotch (1775-1847) was a prominent organist and composer whose
appointments were mostly at Oxford. He wrote concertos for organ with
orchestral accompaniment and fugues for the organ alone, and made many
adaptations of Handel’s oratorios for the organ. He was evidently a
scholarly composer, for some of his themes were carefully phrased,
an unusual procedure for his time. Crotch was one of the earliest to
indicate the exact tempo he desired for his music by such mechanical
means as a swinging pendulum. In a footnote to an Introduction and
Fugue on a subject by Muffat, written in 1806, he says: ‘A pendulum of
two feet length will give the time of a crotchet (quarter-note).’ About
twenty-five years later Maelzel’s metronome was beginning to be known
in England, and, when he published some fugues and canons in 1835, he
indicated the tempo by such comments as ‘Crotchet equals a pendulum of
sixteen inches; Maelzel’s metronome, 92.’
It will be of interest in this connection to note an earlier method of
determining the tempo of a piece by the ingenious device of comparison
with the duration of the pulse-beat. Johann Joachim Quantz (the music
teacher of Frederick the Great), in his _Anweisung die Floete zu
spielen_ (1752), gives the following interesting table for determining
the rate of speed:
‘In ordinary time (measure),
_Allegro assai_, for every half-measure, the time of one beat of the
pulse,
_Allegretto_, for every quarter-note, the time of one beat of the pulse,
_Adagio cantabile_, for every eighth-note, the time of one beat of the
pulse,
_Adagio assai_, for every eighth-note, the time of two beats of the
pulse.’
Vincent Novello (1781-1861), the founder of the well-known publishing
house of Novello and a celebrated organist and composer, wrote no
organ-music, but his name became familiar to every English organist
through his ‘Cathedral Voluntaries,’ These were motets and anthems
by the old English church writers, such as Gibbons, Blow, and Tye,
arranged for organ use, much as the early Venetian organists arranged
the motets and sacred madrigals of their time for keyboard instruments.
English organ-music continued to be either obvious imitation of
Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and, after 1845, Mendelssohn, or arrangements
and adaptations of German classical music. Thomas Adams (1785-1858),
noted for his improvisations; Sir John Goss (1800-1880), the greatest
church musician of his time and organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral for
thirty-four years; Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876), son of Samuel
Wesley mentioned above, who, like his father, was an enthusiastic
admirer of Bach’s works and an exceptionally fine extempore player,
and who for a time was considered the finest organist in England--all
wrote voluntaries, interludes, fugues, and andantes for organ in this
style, though some of their anthems and ‘services,’ particularly those
of Wesley, belong to the finest examples of English church-music of any
period.
Henry Smart (1813-1879), who became blind about 1864 and henceforth
was compelled to dictate his compositions to an assistant, was
an exceptional organist and a composer who displayed many modern
qualities of interesting harmony in advance of most of his English
contemporaries. He wrote voluminously for the organ--fifty preludes
and interludes, andantes (especially the one in A major), marches,
variations, and postludes.
Edward John Hopkins (1818-1901), for nearly sixty years organist of
Temple Church, London, possessed the sterling qualities of the best
English organists and exerted a wide influence through his church-music
and particularly his book, ‘The Organ: Its History and Construction,’
written in conjunction with Dr. E. F. Rimbault (1816-1876), which has
long enjoyed the distinction of being a standard work on this subject.
William Spark (1823-1897), a pupil of S. S. Wesley, was a celebrated
recitalist and from 1860 organist of Leeds Town Hall. While holding
an appointment at St. George’s, Leeds, he had organized the People’s
Concerts, the popularity of which had led to the erection of the Town
Hall. A magnificent instrument of four manuals and 110 stops was
installed in it and dedicated in 1859, and soon thereafter Dr. Spark
received the appointment of borough organist and for years he gave two
public recitals on it each week. He was a noted lecturer and writer
on musical subjects and from 1869 till his death was editor of ‘The
Organists’ Quarterly Journal,’ devoted to original compositions. His
compositions (a Fantasia, a Sonata in D minor, and other pieces) were
strongly influenced by Mendelssohn, whose music was now the model for
all English musicians as Handel’s had been in the years preceding
Mendelssohn’s advent.
Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley (1825-1889) presents the unusual
spectacle of an amateur musician rising to the important position
of professor of music at Oxford University and becoming one of the
most influential musicians in the United Kingdom. Though an excellent
organist and composer for organ, he never held a position as organist.
He devoted a considerable fortune to the founding and maintenance of a
church[112] in which the musical service was of the highest order and a
college for the special training of choristers. Through these channels
and his Oxford professorship he wielded a large influence on the young
church musicians of his time. His organ compositions--eighteen preludes
and fugues, a sonata, three andantes, etc.--were for the most part in
the style of Mendelssohn.
The first place among English concert-organists was long held by
William Thomas Best (1826-1897), who was one of the greatest virtuosos
of the nineteenth century. For nearly forty years (from 1855 to
1894) he was organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, where his
recitals became a feature of the city’s musical life and gained for
him an international reputation. An event in his life that attracted
world-wide notice was his journey in 1890 to Sydney, Australia, where
he inaugurated the mammoth organ in the new Town Hall with a series of
twelve recitals. This organ, the largest in the world, has five manuals
and 126 speaking stops. He published several valuable contributions
to organ-literature--six concert-pieces, a Sonata in D, a Toccata
in A, several fantasias and fugues on English Psalm-tunes, and many
preludes on Psalm-tunes in the style of Bach’s chorale-preludes, etc.
He was best known, however, through his admirable ‘Organ Arrangements
from the Great Masters,’ his editions of Handel’s organ-concertos and
Mendelssohn’s and Bach’s organ-works, and his two text-books, ‘The Art
of Organ-Playing’ and ‘Modern School for the Organ.’
Of recent years composers in England have been less exclusively
occupied with choral and church music, for the so-called musical
renaissance, which is now bringing England once more to the forefront
of musical nations, is due largely to the deeper interest composers
have been taking in the modern orchestral idiom, the impressionistic
tendencies of contemporary instrumental music and the nationalistic
expression which owes its impulse to the recent folk-song revival
movement. Nevertheless meritorious works for the organ continue to
be produced by most of the present-day English composers, and more
especially by men like Alan Gray, A. M. Goodhart, Ernest Halsey, James
Lyon, T. Tertius Noble, C. B. Rootham and W. Wolstenholme.
FOOTNOTES:
[111] Edition Durand, Paris.
[112] The college and church of St. Michael and All Angels, Tenbury,
Worcestershire, of which he was rector in addition to his Oxford
professorship, were dedicated in 1856.