ITALIAN MUSIC IN THE POEMS OF BROWNING.
I. GENERAL STATEMENT.--Only ten poems refer to Italian music or
musicians--seemingly a small number for a writer who is known as
the musician’s poet. Thirteen Italian musicians--Bellini, Galuppi,
Palestrina, Verdi, Rossini, Abt Vogler, Grisi, Corelli, Guarnerius,
Stradivarius, Paganini, Buononcini, and Geminiani--constitute the group
of performers whom he mentions. Four of these were famous violinists;
one was a vocalist. Only two, Galuppi and Abt Vogler, received any
extended treatment, though an entire poem is also devoted to Master
Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, an imaginary composer. There are many references
to musicians of other nationalities in Browning; but every poem having
this art as its main theme, unless it be _Saul_, in which the influence
of music is prominent, is included among the ten referring to Italy.
Thus while Browning is known, even to the general mind, as a poet who
writes about musicians, his fame in this particular field is founded on
a very few well-known poems. Suppose it were possible to eliminate _Abt
Vogler_ from the text of Browning’s poetry and from the consciousness
of the world. Would the cursory student then know him as the celebrator
of music? Or at least, if one could filch from the human race both _Abt
Vogler_ and _A Toccata of Galuppi’s_, their author might still be known
in the popular mind as an admirer of the arts, but hardly as a devotee
of music. Quality rather than quantity, then, is the measure of the
element of music in the poems of Robert Browning.
II. CATHOLIC HYMNS.--A by no means unusual introduction of music, nor
one peculiar to Browning (see Byron and others) is found in the mention
of Catholic hymns. However, they are not employed in any of the poems
whose principal theme is music, nor are they introduced because he
deliberately wished to write about that art. They form a part of the
Italian consciousness; they are stages in daily life; and they mark the
passing of time in a highly poetic way, and in a method characteristic
of the Italian nation.
_The Ring and the Book_, in five of the twelve sections, includes
the names of Catholic hymns. In Part IV the _Magnificat_ signifies
the triumphant spirit of Violante Comparini, the old woman who has
completed the bargain by means of which she is to trick her husband
into the belief that he is to have an heir. The same section gives
an account of the plan of Pietro and Violante Comparini to find a
titled husband for their so-called daughter, and illustrates the
situation in these words--“And when such paragon was found and fixed,
Why, they might chant their ‘_Nunc dimittis_’ straight.” Both of
these passages, then, mark psychological states, in one or both of
the parents of Pompilia. Section VI, the defense of Caponsacchi,
contains two references which mark the time of day. The first, in a
quotation from one of the forged letters purporting to be from Pompilia
to Caponsacchi, suggests that he come to her window at the time of
the _Ave_. The second, in the account of the flight of Pompilia and
Caponsacchi to Rome, is phrased “At eve we heard the _angelus_,”
indicating time and suggesting, also, a certain regret for the past on
the part of Pompilia. In Section VII, Pompilia, yielding at last to
her own desires for rescue and to the importunities of her treacherous
maid, names the _Ave Maria_ to indicate the time when she will be
standing on the terrace to talk with Caponsacchi. The Pope, in Section
X, gives his opinion of what will be said of his leniency to the
church, should he free Caponsacchi, and sarcastically observes “in the
choir _Sanctus et Benedictus_, with a brush Of soft guitar strings
that obey the thumb.” Section XII, in describing the death of Guido,
the wife-murderer, gives his last words as a request for a _Pater_, an
_Ave_, with the hymn _Salve Regina Cœli_. This completes the list of
Catholic hymns mentioned by Browning--six in all.
III. POETIC FUNCTIONS OF THE REFERENCES TO MUSIC.--Six different poems
contain the names of Italian musicians for purposes of comparison. _The
Englishman in Italy_, in an implied comparison, contrasts the fiddlers,
fifers, and drummers, at the Feast of the Rosary’s Virgin, to Bellini.
So courageous and confident do they become on this day that (implying
their inferiority) they play boldly on, says the poem, not caring even
for the great Bellini.
_Bishop Blougram’s Apology_ presents that politic churchman’s
defense of his fidelity to established doctrines on the ground of
expediency--ease in this life and a possible reward in the next. He
admits that wise men look beneath his pretense of a belief in the
winking Virgin and class him as either knave or fool. In this respect
the Bishop likens himself to Verdi at the close of his worst opera.
Though the populace applauded, the composer looked beyond them for the
judgment of Rossini, the master.
In _Youth and Art_, the struggling girl with aspirations for operatic
honors, who misses a possibility for happiness in her futile quest for
fame, compares herself with Grisi in her hopes of success. To surpass
that prima donna, which, by the way, she never succeeds in doing,
constitutes the height of her dream of happiness. _Red Cotton Night-Cap
Country_, with its fantastic symbolism of night-caps, mentions the many
varieties of that article and compares them to the various kinds of
violins on exhibition at Kensington when the poem was composed, with
special reference to those of Italy:
“I doubt not there be duly catalogued
Achievements all, and some of Italy,
Guarnerius, Straduarius,--old and new.”
* * * * *
“Over this sample would Corelli croon,
Grieving by minors, like the cushat-dove,
Most dulcet Giga, dreamiest Saraband.
From this did Paganini comb the fierce
Electric sparks....”
_Parleyings with Charles Avison_, the only poem which has comparative
estimates of different musicians, names the Italians Buononcini and
Geminiani as having been appreciated along with Wagner, Dvorak, Liszt
and Handel. It is worthy of note that Rossini, Bellini, and Verdi, of
the modern Italian school, are not mentioned in any such connection.
_Abt Vogler_, _A Toccata of Galuppi’s_, _Master Hughes of Saxe-Gotha_,
and _Charles Avison_, are all concerned with music as the principal
subject. Each has minor references to Italy, and in the first two,
the musician is an Italian one. _Abt Vogler_ is probably the finest
poem on music in the English language. It contains a perfect idealized
expression of the aims of the musician and a thorough knowledge
of his technique. Like _A Toccata of Galuppi’s_ it is based on
extemporization and the transitory quality of music; but it is unlike
that poem in emphasizing the permanence of good. _Abt Vogler_ voices
the musician’s own musings on the stately but vanishing castle he
has built. _A Toccata_ probably refers to an improvization on the
harpsichord, a frequent occurrence at the time concerned, and presents
the poet as speaker, questioning the musician concerning the effect
of his performance on the audience. Very different psychological
states produced these two poems. _Abt Vogler_ was written in a mood
of reverent optimism; _A Toccata_, in a mood of half careless, half
earnest pessimism. Where _A Toccata_ closes with “dust and ashes”
the other poem passes on to the “ineffable name,” and a belief in
the future existence of “All we have willed, or hoped, or dreamed,
of good.” The one closes hope in the grave; the other poem opens
heaven. The transitory quality of human life in _A Toccata of
Galuppi’s_ accords with the music being played, and many terms, such
as “lesser thirds,” “sixths diminished,” “suspensions,” “solutions,”
“commiserating sevenths,” express the different phases of the
listener’s mood.
No attempt will be made in this paper to consider Browning’s musical
terms; for with the exception of “toccata”, meaning a light touch
piece, an overture, they seem mostly non-Italianate. _Abt Vogler_, _A
Toccata of Galuppi’s_, _Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_, and _Parleyings
with Charles Avison_, all contain a considerable number of musical
terms; but beside the fact that they are non-Italianate, those in
at least part of the poems have already been discussed somewhat
extensively in various articles among the Browning Society papers.
IV. LACK OF MODERN ITALIAN REFERENCES.--The number of references to
Italian musicians is comparatively small, even though the treatment
of music in a few poems is unexcelled. Especially when one considers
that the great modern group of Italian opera composers was so near
Browning in both time and place, his mention of them seems curiously
insignificant. Verdi, the greatest of them, appears in the poems only
once, and then in connection with his worst opera. That the Brownings
heard at least one of Verdi’s operas produced, is established by a
letter by Mrs. Browning dated in 1853. She speaks of their having heard
_Il Trovatore_ a few nights previous, at the Pergola in Florence, and
concludes with the peculiarly suggestive remark, “Very passionate and
dramatic, surely.”
Probably there are several reasons for this neglect of Italian opera
composers. Few poets, least of all Browning, are prone to bestow
unmitigated praise on contemporaries. In the poems of Browning there
are few extended references to any artists who were living at the
time. He particularly loved to choose an obscure Galuppi, or an Andrea
del Sarto, instead of a Michael Angelo or a Raphael, as a personality
about whom to weave a poem. A more potent reason for the indifference
to modern Italian music, however, lies in the diverging values of the
Italian school and that of northern Europe. A musician who had been
trained in the German music of London concerts could hardly be expected
to welcome the operas of Verdi and Rossini with anything approaching
ecstatic admiration. At the most he might venture a half-conciliatory
remark, such as Mrs. Browning’s concerning _Il Trovatore_.
V. CONFORMITY TO FACTS.--Browning seldom took occasion to depart
from the facts of history in his presentation of Italian music.
One exception is found, going beyond all allowances for poetic
idealization. It is the Verdi reference in _Bishop Blougram’s
Apology_.[174] The statement concerns a Verdi composition, and mentions
it as having been given in Florence with Rossini present. As a matter
of fact _Un Giorno di Regno_, conceded to be Verdi’s worst opera, and
the only one which was a complete failure, was not given in Florence
on its first production and was probably never repeated. _Macbeth_
alone was given at Florence first, and it met with a moderate degree of
success.
VI. SOURCE OF BROWNING’S KNOWLEDGE.--Browning’s life in Italy probably
had less influence on his poetic use of music than on his use of any
other art, as the data he gives might easily have become known to
him without any such experience. Six of the thirteen musicians whom
he named performed in London, and three of them, Grisi, Bellini, and
Paganini, in Browning’s youth. It is even possible that he attended
some or all of their concerts. Rossini was living in Florence from
1847 to 1855, while the Brownings were also making that city their
home. But while letter after letter written to friends at home refers
to such painters or sculptors as Story, Powers, and Leighton, there
is absolute silence concerning Rossini. As compared with remarks on
sculpture, architecture, or painting, the letters from Italy, as a
whole, show an almost absolute indifference to Italian music as a
historical development, or as a national achievement. With his fondness
for out-of-the-way investigations and obscure characters from any
nation, however, Browning has taken some characters from Italian music
and has woven their personalities into a few of the best poems on music
ever written.