ROSSINI AND THE COMIC IN MUSIC.
No composer has written more lively, more graceful comedy music than
Rossini. But, except _Il Figlio per Azzardo_, with its high notes for
low voices, its low voices for high notes, its ludicrous accompaniments,
and its grotesque instruments of percussion in the shape of metal
lamp-shades tapped with violin bows, Rossini never wrote music which,
comic or serious, was not charming; and _Il Figlio per Azzardo_ was
nothing but a practical joke played for the benefit of an unreasonable
and impolite manager. It may be interesting to consider in what the
musical comic really consists.
The aesthetics of music have been much neglected; and no one, so far as I
know, has yet attempted to explain or even to define the comic in music.
Everything, it may be roughly said, is comic that makes one laugh; and
if this be the case, then, between comic music and music so utterly bad
as to be ludicrous and absurd, there should be no great difference. The
intention, however, of the composer must count for something, and one
cannot accept as comic music which is simply played or sung very much
out of tune. Many persons disbelieve altogether in comic music. Lively,
brilliant music is admirable, and commends itself to every taste. But
comic music is for the most part as objectionable as comic women, than
which nothing much more objectionable can well be imagined. It is the
province of music to charm, to fascinate, to call up visions of delight,
but not to cause fits of laughter. It may be questioned, moreover,
whether laughter, or even the least tendency to laugh, can be provoked
by music, so long as it is composed and executed according to the rules
of art. A comic poem, a comic picture, may be a masterpiece of artistic
expression, but it is difficult to imagine a perfect musical composition
which would afford matter for merriment. Gounod's _Funeral March for a
Marionette_ is a graceful, melodious piece of music, in which there is
nothing comic but the title. No one would find it in the slightest
degree amusing but for the description of the incidents it is supposed
to illustrate, which is usually printed in the programmes of concerts
where the said funeral march is to be performed. In the old-fashioned
Italian operas of the buffo type there are plenty of chattering songs in
which the humour, such as it is, consists in the words being uttered so
rapidly that any greater rapidity of utterance would seem to be
impossible. Here some little amusement may be caused by witnessing the
efforts of the buffo singer or singers--for there are often two or three
of them chattering at once--to overcome such difficulties as have been
deliberately put forward for that purpose by the composer. If this,
however, be humour, it is humour of a very mean order, on a par with
that of "Peter Piper pecked a peck of pepper," and other verbal devices
for testing the power of a speaker to speak rapidly and at the same
time distinctly. In Paisiello's _Barber of Seville_ there was a comic
piece for two fantastic and quite episodical characters, borrowed from
Beaumarchais' comedy (where, as already mentioned, Rossini took good
care to leave them), of whom one, La Jeunesse, sneezed, while the other,
L'Eveille, yawned, in the presence of old Bartolo. It may be very funny
to sneeze and to yawn, but such fun as therein lies can scarcely be said
to be of a musical character.
Much, indeed, that is considered comic in music possesses the same sort
of drollery that belongs in comic writing to grammatical errors, or to
mistakes in spelling. Romberg's _Toy Symphony_, in which, with the usual
orchestral basis, solo instruments of a burlesque character, such as the
rattle, the penny trumpet, the child's drum, and so on, are from time to
time introduced, is surprisingly funny. But with the first feeling of
surprise the fun also vanishes; for the humour in this, as in all other
toy symphonies, consists only in giving good music to bad instruments.
If Romberg's symphony were played throughout with instruments of the
best make in the parts written for the "toys," no one not previously
acquainted with the work would imagine for a moment that it was intended
to be amusing. In Mozart's _Musical Joke_, again, the joke consists in
the instruments coming in at wrong places, executing inappropriate
phrases, and playing out of tune. There are elements of beauty in the
work, as in everything that Mozart composed; but the humour of the piece
is akin to that of those American humourists of whom one of the most
remarkable was not ashamed to complain of "Mr. Chaucer" that he could
not spell. A composer may easily produce a laugh if he will only
condescend to an absurdity so easy to realise, by causing a pretentious
introduction to be followed by a trivial tune; or he may produce a
genuine burlesque effect by imitating with characteristic exaggeration
the style of some other composer; or he may show a certain wit by means
of musical allusions, as Mozart has done in the supper scene of _Don
Giovanni_, where Don Juan's private band is made to play "Non piu
andrai," in order that Leporello may refer to the fact of its not having
been quite appreciated when it was first heard. But without Leporello's
spoken (or declaimed) words it would occur to no one that there was
anything amusing in introducing into one opera an air from another.
Of the music suitable to comedy Rossini was undoubtedly a master; and in
such music the _Barber of Seville_ abounds. But though the most
characteristic air in the whole opera, Figaro's "Largo al fattotum," is
bright, gay, joyful, impulsive, one cannot say that it is comic. Heard
for the first time apart from the words, it would cause no one to laugh,
nor even, except as the expression of musical satisfaction, to smile.
Rossini could write very comic music indeed when he pleased. He knew
well enough, however, that he was writing bad music at the time. He
launched into all sorts of extravagances, and introduced some effects in
which, as we have already seen, musical instruments, properly so called,
had no part.
Meyerbeer, in his highly but sometimes almost grotesque orchestral
effects, has approached the very verge of burlesque music such as
Rossini, in the little opera referred to, deliberately wrote. The simple
motive, for instance, of the march in _Robert le Diable_ is given, when
introduced for the first time, to four kettledrums. A four-note melody
executed on four kettledrums would in a burlesque have excited roars of
laughter. Jessica was "never merry when she heard sweet music." But
sweet music is one thing, and grotesque music another. It is easier,
indeed, to speak of comic music than to define it accurately, or to cite
specimens that will bear analysis.