'i^'TW BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND f THE GIFT OF- '5 Henrg 19. Sage 1S91 /f, a./.^d.6ij?. ^-^/^p '/^/"/"^ J- 7673-2 Cornell University Library ML 3300.N66 Programme music In the last four centurl 3 1924 022 386 829 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022386829 PROGRAMME MUSIC IN THE LAST FOUR CENTURIES 4 CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF MUSICAL EXPRESSION FREDERICK NIECKS, Mus.D., Rtid Professor of Music in the University of Edinburgh. (Author of * Frederick Chopin %s a Man and Musician ' ; &c.) .f Pectus est quod facit disertos.' QuintiUan London: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited. N»w Yobk: the H. W, GRAY CO., Sole Aokkts »ok thh U.S.*. LONDON : NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMItSO, PRINTERS. PREFACE. As the subject of programme music is almost always treated controversially, or at least with a parti pris, it may not be an unnecessary precaution to state that the present book is neither a defence nor an attack, but simply an historical account. I entered on my task as an impartial inquirer. The proof of my having kept true to my purpose may be found in the fact that the results of the inquiry modified to some extent my previous notions and judgments. If there was one matter to which I gave my attention more than to any other, it was the views of the composers themselves. And it was a great satisfaction to me to find that materials of this kind were much more plentiful, interesting, and instructive than I had expected. I am sure that the harvest here garnered will cause not a little surprise, and give not a little pleasure. The primary difficulty in the discussion of programme music has always been the non-existence of a correct and adequate definition. As a rule the definitions are too narrow, often indeed dictated by prejudice and even hostility. They should embrace all possible kinds, degrees, and characters : the outward and the inward, the simple and the complex, the general and the particular, the lyrical, epic, dramatic, melodramatic, descriptive, symbolical, &c. They should embrace also music with the programme merely indicated by a title, and music the programme of which is unrevealed. The absence of programme and title does not prove the music to be absolute. This will explain my classing so iv Preface. much as programme music that is more generally classed as absolute music. Indeed, my opinion is that whenever the composer ceases to write purely formal music, he passes from the domain of absolute music into that of programme music. On the title-page this book is called ' a contribution /to the history of musical expression.' This is not saying too much, but perhaps too little. Programme music as I understand it is so comprehensive that a history of it goes far towards being a History of Musical Expression. Next I wish to refer briefly to certain principles that have guided me in the execution of my task — ^principles that experience teaches me do not enjoy excessive popularity either with authors or with readers. In the first place, it has been my endeavour to place the facts so before the reader that he can control my argumentation and form his own conclusions when mine do not please him. As man is constituted, individual judgments, even those of the wisest, are precarious. My second endeavour has been to be as objective as possible in the characterization of men and artists, and their actions and works, taking care not to draw conclusions from one-sided evidence. For fantastic idealizations evolved from inner consciousness, in which imagination takes the place of fact, and poetry of truth, I have a thorough contempt in history and biography. ' II ne faudrait pas prendre ce portrait tout a fait au pied de la lettre, car il est vu a travers la peinture et a travers la poesie, et embelli par une double idealisation; mais il n'en est pas moins sincere et fut exact a son moment.' Thus writes Theophile Gautier of an idealized portrait of Charles Baudelaire, painted by Emile Deroy, subsequently Preface. v further idealized in poetic prose by Theodore de Banville. What is the good of the sincerity if the outcome is a falsehood ? Of course there is the cant about the poet's insight, and our readiness to accept as true what is beautiful. My third endeavour has been to be in the translations loyal to the authors, even at the price of some loss in the idiomatic expression of the English. Tou cannot render Wagner's involved and figurative periods in Johnson's, De Quincey's, Macaulay's, Buskin's, or Froude's language. And if you tried to do so, you would denaturalize the author's prose, which both in form and content is out and out un-English. Again, if one were to translate Lesueur's lame French into elegant English, correcting the bad logic and grammar, would that not be tantamount to misleading the reader? A fourth point, perhaps not superfluous to mention, is something I have not endeavoured to do — namely, to write a catalogue raisonne of all the programme music written during the last four centuries. I have not emptied my note-books in these pages. The record of all the battle and hunting pieces alone would fill a goodly volume. But, although critics may often say ' Why did the author not mention this or that composition?' I am more likely to be blamed for having told too much than too little. In conclusion I must express my heartfelt thanks to all who have assisted me in my labours by giving me information and by reading the proofs. Special thanks are due to the composers who were so exceedingly kind as to enrich the value of the publication by statements of their views and practice. Edinbtjegh, October, 1906. CONTENTS. BOOK I. EABLY ATTEMPTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. INTRODUCTION : SURVEY AND DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT 1-6 CHAPTER II. ITRST PERIOD (16th OENTURy) : VOCAL PROGRAMME MUSIC JANNKQUIN, GOMBEBT, JOSQUIN DEPrSs, LASSO, PALESTRINA, MABENZIO, ETC. ... ... 7-13 CHAPTER III. SECOND PERIOD (fBOM THE LATTER PART OF THE 16tH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 18tH OENTUBY) : isolated and tentative oases of instrumental programme musio ^byed, mundy, monteverdi, froberger, kuhnau, purcell, etc 14-28 BOOK II. ACHIEVEMENTS IN SMALL FOBMS AND 8EBI0U8 STBIVINQS IN LABOEB FOBMS. CHAPTER I. IHIED PERIOD (from THE 17tH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE IStH century) : FRENCH LUTENISTS AND CLAVEOINISTS DENNIS GAULTIER, CHAMBONNISbES,- OOUPERIN lb GRAND, RAMEAU, ETC. ... ... 29-45 ■yiii Contents. CHAPTER II. PAGE. FOURTH PERIOD (18tH OBNTUBY) : MORE GENERAL STRIVINa AFTER EXPRESSIVENESS IN INSTRUMENTAL MDSIO, AND SPREADING OF THE CULTIVATION OP PROGRAMME MUSIC RAMEAU, HANDEL, J. S. EACH, DOMENIOO SCARLATTI, TELEMANN, VIVALDI, AND GEMINIANI, GREAT MASTERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18tH CENTURY ... ... •.• ■•• 46-64 CHAPTEE m. FOURTH PERIOD (18th oentury) (continued) : music TO PLAYS, PROGRAMMATIC MATTER IN ALL KINDS OF VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, AND MELODRAMA SCHEIBE, AGEICOLA, ETC., GLUCK, C, PH. E. BACH, HAYDN, AND MOZART, ROUSSEAU, BENDA, ETC. ... ... ... ■-. ... 65-85 CHAPTEE rV. FOURTH PERIOD (18th century) {contiwued) : early COMPOSERS OF PROGRAMME SYMPHONIES GOSSEC, M^HUL, EOESSLER, WRANITZKY, PICHL, HOLZBAUEB, DITTEKS VON DITTERSDORF, AND KNECHT... ... 86-91 CHAPTER V. FOURTH PERIOD (ISiH century) {continued) : curiosities, FATUITIES, AND NOTABILITIES LESUEUR, A THEORIZING COMPOSER ; LAC^PEDE, A COMPOSING THEORIST; CLEMENTI, DUSSEK, STEIBELT, WOLF, YOGLER, TARTINI, AND BOCCHERINI ... ... 99-1121 Contents. BOOK III. IX FULFILMENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. FIFTH PERIOD (fEOM THE CLOSE OP THE 18tH CENTTIRY) : PKOGBAMME MUSIC IN THE LARGER CLASSICAL FORMS AND VITALIZATION OF THE LESSER FORMS BEETHOVEN ... ... ... ... ... 113-137 ''^ CHAPTER II. FIFTH PERIOD {contmued) : the three early roman- ^ TICISTS — WEBER, SCHUBERT, AND SPOHR . . . ... 138-153 CH/^PTER III. FIFTH PERIOD (cOfltinUed) : a miscellany of COMPOSERS BORN BEFORE THE END OF THE 18tH CENTURY BOIELDIEU, AUBER, ROSSINI, KALKBRENNER, MOSCHELES, LOWE, AND MEYERBEER ... .. 154-163 CHAPTER IV. FIFTH PERIOD {continued) : mendelssohn ... ... 164-182 CHAPTER V. FIFTH PERIOD {continued) : Schumann... ... ... 183-210 "-^ CHAPTER VI. FIFTH PERIOD {continued) : three pianist composers — CHOPIN, HENSELT, AND HELLER ... ... ... 211-221 Contents. BOOK IV. OTEEB FULFILMENTS. CHAPTER I. PA^E. SIXTH PEKIOD (fBOM ABOUT THE POUBTH DECADE OF THE V 19th century) : departure from the classical forms and wider scope of subjects berlioz 222-264 CHAPTER II. SIXTH PEKIOD {continued) : liszt ... ... ... 265-316 CHAPTER III. sixth PERIOD (continued): wagner ... ... ... 317-3i9 BOOK V. CONTEMPOBABIES AND SUCCESSORS OF THE PBOGBAMMATIC PBOTAGONISTS OF THE LAST TWO PEBI0D8 (1830-1900). CHAPTER I. IN FRANCE : FfiLICIEN DAVID, SAINT-SAENS, OESAB FBANCK, ^'^ 350-368 Contents. XI CHAPTEK II. PAOE. IN BELGIUM, ITALY, GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA : BAZZINI, VEBDI, STERNDAIE BENNETT, MACFARREN, PARRY, STANFORD, MACKENZIE, COWEN, CORDER, W. WALLACE, BANTOCK, ELGAR, MAODOWELL, ETC. 369-394 CHAPTER III. IN DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN, BOHEMIA, AND RUSSIA : GADE, GRIEG, SMETANA, DVORAK, GLINKA, DARGO- MIJSKY, BALAKIREV, MOUSSORGSKY, BORODIN, RIMSKY- KORSAKOV, GLAZOUNOV, TCHAIKOVSKY, ETC. ... 395-445 CHAPTER IV. IN GERMANY : BRAHMS, BRUCKNER, RUBINSTEIN, HIRSCH- BACH, LITOLFF, RAFF, A. BITTER, RICHARD STRAUSS,'-^' '-'•iAHLEB, WEINGARTNER, HAUSEGGEB, ETC. ... 446-526 CHAPTER V. EPILOGUE ... ... ... ... •■■ ■ 527-537 BOOK I. E^UiLY ATTEMPTS. CHAPTER I. INTKODUCTION : SURVEY AND DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. The history of programme music may Lc said to he the history of the development of musical expression ; at any rate, it presents itself as such if i/jogramme music is not understood in too iinrrow a sense. But what is programme music? The curreni i^otions concerning it are so vague and varied ..l.j.t it will be advisable to consider, before commencing our siory, the term and the things signified by it. Some think that programme music is music which imitates souud,^ — the song of birds, the purling of the brook, the bustle and noises of war, &c. Others, allowing it soincwhat larger scope, think that it ia music which, besides the audible, imitates by analogy also the visible — effects of light, darkness, and colour, and all kinds and degrees of movement. Others again, with a more adequate conception, go much farther than this, and think that programme music is music which imitates not only the outward, but also the inward ; which not only describes, but also expresses; which has to do with emotions and thoughts as well as with sense-impressions, with soul-painting as well as with body-painting. To not a few the last view seems absurd. They hold that nothing of the kind is within the capacity of music. But the 2 Surccij (iitil TJlciHiiii qf the Siil/jrci. • .i.iiio- prctension is by no moans unrcabo/iaLie. Ja ll , contrary, it is obviously and ./rikingly roasoiiaolc. AVi y should not music bo able to express iuil oxc'to cmotio;;.s by imitating the sounds and movemrtir.o by wliicu tli.y dcmoustrate themselves ? A discussio': of the expressional power of music I rcbcrvo for rinoti.cr volume, hero it will suffice to cnumciato the raoan.-. of expression at the disposal of the co:r.pos(.;r : — (1) Imitation of the human cries ar..'l the ^^c'eij., . of speech as regards pitch, rhythm, lou'iacj-..-, ,tu.i quality of tone. (2) Imitation of the movements of the iiizi rr,..'. a:..; external bodilj'- organ.^ that :..^coi..;.r;r, • ; , emotions — action of tiio heart, L.vathi^ ?< ■ - ' &c. (3) Imitation of the sounds in r.r;,i.L.'e, .,, a.x expressive directly auu indirectly, i:. ;I .. • association. (4) Imitation of rest and motion, Bti-ai.i anJ /.-!:' pleasure and pain, by certain ^nusic ,. ,_.,„.. - namely, consonance and disoonance, ;";:id im tendencies of tonality. The prejudices ^s to programmes u:c m, \^ v..'. absolute music — by which we are to unde:st\.. 1 y. . e music, music with none but icstbcticai qua!.:.' .- ^j. ;,sic unconnected with anything definite in thought < , ^i^^-xisc, according to some a mere formal play with toii.js-- .a '.l^ only legitimate instrumental music, was Ion;' il.i orthodox and all but universal doctrine, and cvrui nou' has not become a wholly exuiict bohc.'. Thou, v,-c n.i'i people who approve of a tifcu, but olj; ..t to a T'^^cia o: a prose narrative prenxod lo a jiii ^-o of ...usi.. .'^'.'li JC'^. a title may imply a great d^.J mor^ :ian r, i ouu jr a Mro^e iiari-au\i:. AV..ai v;iso Kaiijcc , . .ii,.t....c'C, are i;iaIcatoil wy singld wo/.ls sucli a.^ 1. i, Uar;.':t, M:iufroJ, Il^lviucb, Eruiur, Hnn^^.T.Li, ^vc. I It ;.-. u ..iist;ike, although in ticcorJanco-with a ti;2G-^ono!irc^. ULiinition, to say that programme iv.uaic li rau.s.c wAh an explicit verbal programme prefix .^l to it. iiany oi the compositions of Berlioz, Liszt, arnl Eichard ,Striiu.-,.s, the most famous masters in this rjenre of nr.:-jic, liu'.e uothiug hut simple titles. In faci:, you may have prof^ramme music without even as rjuc. us. .\ title, it the composer had a programme in his n^ind v,lj;,o cciXiposing, the composition is program;a^ mu i^ whether he reveals his programme or noi. It uiclto bo very common with composers to conceal ii,.ii programmes. They were either afraid of the prejuuici.a critics, and kept their secret, like Weber in the Conccrtstiick; or were themselves affcctnl Ijy thv, prevailing prejudice, and tried, like Schumanr., ij excuse their practice by explanationi intended to ....^.j their own doubts as well as the wrath of other,-,. The prejudice, however, which has led to lj-xc If' :.„ amount of misconception and to an iuuiiixui c: preposterous criticism is the assumption that i..u composer gives in his music all that is set forth in tn^ programme, whereas in reality the music ib int. i. ^.i only as a commentary and illustration, not as a auphc...t.' or translation of it. Indeed, the programme woulu \k a superfluity if it did not contain something th^.t mr.cic i.-. unable to express at all or equally well. We c.mnot reason, give orders, and tell stories in mubic. It c.nnot name persons, times, and places connected \\'//ii what is communicates, although it may characterize iiiem and huit at them. On the other hand, we can cxjrcbs the '^ 'Surrcij and J>i '■..i,iii <,/ tJu; Huhjc^: \_' :i\ infmito sliadcH and degrees of moods and e'^noi.;-,.!:-. ..,!;, by tones than by any other mcllam. ;>. c.u-fc.-, composers have often, from ignorance or ;)rf :-u..i,ili...-, attempted the impossible. But raisusc Lo- j /.i/. jus*:i;- the condemnation of use. There are several other considerations \'--,rt.i y ..Ai..^, out. Usage reserves the term progvanuiic^ rau.-..".: f ,r instrumental music -with a prefixed vcrl,,.! pi'G-r:.i,i/i.c. But this should not prevent us from -rfiig fnc : :, they are. A programme may l/o reci:^^. .,.■ s' :.-' before or with the music as wt il as pv; ■. ';,,';, difference in the enunciation of the progr^.; j::i ilo^s wA make an essential difference in the clinractLr of the . .■;.;!,;. In fact, all good, that is, all expressive vocal ;j;,.:-,> i^ programme music. Further, the progrr'ian.e r,, A :;ot be verbal at all, it may also be pantomimic or pic-toivJ. Next, let us note the various characters of progiai..i:i.>.c. Three main divisions are easily .'.istingui&iuible — tlie predominatingly descriptive, the predominatiniiy emotional, and the predominaur^-ly sj^mbolical. The descriptive (ihe materially descriptive) is the Iov,-cst kind of programme music, and is best used in combination with and subordination to one of the others. To make up for the absence of the emotional element is a difnc.iit and i-arely successful task. It is the musical element j)ar excellence. Lastly, although a programme invites and admits deviation from the structural metnods of absolute music, it neither neces3ari^' demands abandonment of the classical forms, i.or in any conceivable case excuses formlessness. What shall be the starting point ■..' ,.i- "i..';tOiy"' We may pass over the beginnings of th a. , ^^Lil•.. av. matters of conjecture, the antique and early jneuicval i.T\ ..uN". Prcccntation nf I'rc'jruiiae—Stfu-Uivi I'oint. m;,.ic, of which our -.iraci. j.^i ,{.,r/.;lci.^;o iy cxtrcrifl 15 ch centui'Ics, in wuich cmotiou .i anil ..c.-jcripti' ei .ro:-sion does not oce/n to havo beo;i, i.iuLCfl, could havd jeen, a chief aira. Where expression was altogether excluded iroiu tlic old polyphonic compoaid^ iia ]»}• .iio love of ingenuity of combination, it did .lot ofucn go beyond the general, unbpecialized spates of fc- I'r.,-;, such as cairn, dignity, ;ivcaiio.-,.i, af/itation, Tic;our, Iponguor, &c. A different state of rnattc/s bega^ to develop in the 16th century. A ntrivii.g ai^.r groat, r freedom, eado, lucidity, and eupplcnci-, bccr.r.i. more ana more noticeable, and coneciously aiu-ca at greater expressiveness or unconsciously contribute 1 to the attainment of that aim. The cultivation ox the /nacrigal and the more popular villanella and villot;., :bc -.ndeavour so to Bet the words to music as to re/.iain intelligible, the experiments in chromaticism, tonality, solo song, instrumental music, and theatrical performances — all these had one origin, arose from one impulse, and tended one and all to the great revolution brought about towards the end of the century by the evolution of the instrumentally accompanied solo song (monody) and the musical drama. The 16th century, then, must be our starting point. To escape the danger of losing ourselves in a multitude of isolated facts, we will endeavour to group them in periods corresponding to stages of evolution. Do not look, however, for perfect continuity and progression in one straight line ; instead of it you will often see leaps, sporadic phenomena, zigzag movements, and retrogression as well as progression. Childish programme music, such as we find in the earliest stages. 6 Survey diid Dbinion of Ihc Sul'jc.ct. [I'ikst we still fmd in the last stagf; l;i side tlio liifjlu.ct developments. Observe that my i<-;tlj t:.e German Kuhnau: Isolated (mil lenlailve ru.nr., ai iu-.-;i without exception crude and ciiildish, .\,iid oven later on mostly so, at least partially if not M'holly. Third Period, from the 17th to the middle of ibe 18th century, that of the French masters (lutenists and clavecinists) of musical miniature [jcnre and portrait painting, which culminated in Francois Couperin : First artistically satisfactory achievements in programme music. Fourth Period, the 18th century : Spreading of the cultivation of programme music and more qencral striving after expressiveness in instrumental viusic, as seen (a) in Overtures, Entr'actes, and inciilcntal music to plays and operas, and the instrumental ritorndll anu accompaniments of vocal compositions; {h) in j.^oioaxama (instrumental accompaniment to the spoken word) ; ;..,d (c) in Symphony and Sonata. Fifth Period, from the close of the 18th cjntury : Programme music in the larger classical f.rms an I vitalization of the lesser forms. First appears Eeetliov.n, who, at least as regards the larger classical forms, is the principal inspirer of those who come after him. Sixth Period, from about the fourth decade of the 19th century: Departure from the classical furms aul wider scope of subjects. The inspiring geniuses of this period are Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner. Period.] CHAPTER II. FIRST PERIOD (16tH CENTURY) : VOCAL PROGRAMME MUBIC^ — JANNEQUIN, GOMBERT, JOSQTJIN DEPRES, LASSO, PALESTRINA, MARENZIO, ETC. In connection with the history of Programme Music allusions are generally made to descriptive vocal com- positions of the 16th century, but they are mostly inadequate and jiet infrequently incorrect. The number of works composed and the number of editions of many of them prove the great popularity enjoyed by this kind of music. CLEMENT JANNEQUIN, of whose life we know next to nothing, was, as far as our knowledge goes, not only the most prolific and successful composer in this genre, but also one of the earliest. His works appeared in the second and third quarter of the 16th century. As we cannot be sure that we have the first editions of these works, and some editions do not bear the year of issue, it is inadvisable to be more explicit. The descriptive vocal pieces of Jannequin's first published are La Guerre, or La Bataille, La Chasse d/w Lievre; Le Chant des Oiseaux, and L'Alouette. Here we have at once the favourite subjects of the programme music of that age, and of all ages for a certain class of the public — namely. War, the Chase, and the imitation of Animal Voices, especially Bird Voices. Battle pieces, however, are so decidedly in the majority that the first subject must be recognized as the prime favourite. 8 Vocal Programme Music. [Fiest In addition to the compositions already mentioned, Jannequin gave to the world : Le Rossignol, La Prise de Boulogne, La Reduction de Boulogne, Le Siege de Metz, La Chasse au Cerf, Le Caquet des Femmes, and Les Cris de Paris. A few words have to be said of at least two of the most famous of the descriptive pieces by Jannequin, who was undoubtedly the cleverest, liveliest, and most interesting and pleasing of all those who tried their strength in this genre. No one could question the appropriateness of the title given to the edition of some of them in 1544 — ' Inventions musicales.' In the Bataille, with the subtitle Defaite des Suisses a lajournee de Marignan (Marignano or Melegnano) — the battle of 1515, where Francis I. beat the Swiss — there are to be found imitations of fifes, drums, bugles, cannon and musket reports, and all the bustle and noises of war. Jannequin' s Cris de Paris begins with the words: ' Listen to the cries of Paris ' (' Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris '), after which a wonderful variety of these cries are introduced, and made to form a harmonious whole —red and white wine, hot pies, delicious tartlets, fresh herrings, fine mustard, old shoes, milk, vegetables, and every imaginable thing.* Among these Chansons of Jannequin's we found a ' Lark,' a ' Nightingale,' and a ' Chanson des Oiseaux.' The last named, a four-part composition, was famous, but the three-part composition with the same title by the contemporary NICOLAS GOMBEKT (1544) was not less, if not more, famous.! It is a complete bird concert, * Eeprints of La Bataille, Chasse du IMvre, and Cris de Paris are to be found in F. Commer's CoUectio operum musicorum batavorum, saculi XVI., vol. xii. ; and of La Bataille and Chant des Oiseaux in the Prince de la Moskowa's Recueil des Morceaux de Musique ancienne, vol. v. t In Commer's CoUectio, vol. xii. Period.] Jannequin — Gomhert — Le Maistre. 9 a revelling in bird music. Of all the birds the one enjoying the greatest favour was the harmonious cuckoo, and next to it came the tuneful nightingale. Lorenz Lemlin's Der GutzgoMch (1540) is full of cuckoo calls.* The later Leo Leone gives a good imitation of the nightingale in his madrigal 'Dimmi, Clori gentil' (1609). But even the sounds of the least musical animals have been utilized by composers. Antonio Scandelli, for instance, imitates in a part-song (1570) the cackling of hens. Adrian© Banchieri has in his carnival farce, in madrigal form (1608), a ' contrapunto bestiale alia mente ' (an improvised bestial counterpoint), where, above the fundamental bass melody, a dog, a cuckoo, a cat, and an owl, barks ('babbau'), calls ('cuccu'), mews ('gnao'), and cries ('chiu')- Apropos the cat, the much later Adam Krieger composed a four-part vocal fugue (1667), in which a characteristic chromatic subject is sung to ' miau, miau.' A few more specimens of vocal programme music may yet be mentioned : Tomaso Cimello's BattagUa, in his Canzone Villanesche (1545) ; Matthias Fiamengo's (le Maistre' s) La BattagUa Taliana (Italiana), a counterpart to Jannequin's Bataillefranqaise, published at Venice in 1551,t having for its subject the battle of Pavia in 1525, where Charles V.'s army vanquished Francis I. and took him prisoner ; Thomas Mancinus's The Battle ofSievershausen (1608), fought in 1553 by Moritz of Saxony and Albrecht of Brandenburg-Kulmbach ; and Massimo Trojano's BattagUa della Gatta e la Cornacchia (Battle of the cat and the crow) of 1567. Very different in subject is the first of the last compositions of this kind I shall • In 0. F. Becker's Hausmusik. t Eeprinted in L. 0. Kade's Mattheus le Maistre (1862). 10 Vocal Programme Music. [Fiest mention, Alessandro Striggio's II Cicalamento delle donne al bucato et la Caccia (the Chattering of the Women at the wash, and the Chase), published in 1567. As to Johannes Eccard's Zanni et Magnifieo (1589),* in which Winterfeld saw a scene of the life in St. Mark's Square, at Venice, a picture rising before the mind of the hearer even without his understanding the words, it is quite possible to see in it nothing but a Quodlibet in which five voices sing simultaneously four different sets of words and four contrasting melodies, the characters being two beggars, a grandee, a tippling foreign soldier, and a fifth personage more difficult to characterize. Many have repeated Winterfeld' s opinion, but without examining Eccard's composition. From what has been said the reader may already have gathered that in so far as the vocal compositions mentioned can be called programme music at all, they are programme music of the lowest type — body-painting, not soul-painting: imitation of tones and noises, not interpretation of moods and emotions, that is, not real programme music. Here and there, however, — ^for instance, where something of the spirit and excitement of war is represented — we get an approach towards a higher type. But, of course, these compositions ought not to be taken too seriously. They are things intended for pleasant pastime, for jovial social entertainment. They are not high art, although, as with Jannequin, they may be good and delightful art. In the more serious genres of the vocal music of that time we get not only approaches towards a higher type, * Eeprinted in vol. xxi. (No. 14) of the PuUikationenot the Gesellsehaft fur Musikforsohung (edited by B. Eitner). Pbeiod.] Lasso — Pcdestrina. 11 but actual attainments. Although on the whole music did not then greatly surpass architecture in expressiveness,— expressing, if anything at all, only generalities, and even most of these only in a rudimentary, merely indicative manner— full-blooded geniuses of the type of JOSQUIN DEPEES (d. 1521) and OELANDO LASSO (1532-1594) did not rest content with this, but specialized the expression, and sometimes even characterized down to the least detail, following not only the text as a whole, but its every phrase and word. Of the ' indescribable genius ' Josquin Depres, the contemporary theorist Glareanus said that no one had more expressed the moods of the soul in song than this master. And another contemporary, Luther, was wont to grow eloquent over the expressiveness of the works of this most admired among his favourite composers. No one has written with more insight and enthusiasm of Lasso than that excellent connoisseur of the old ecclesiastical art, Carl Proske, who saw in this most glorious of the Netherland masters a universal mind, and in his works a range from ecclesiastical contemplativeness to the gayest of worldly strains, and traits of epico-dramatic force and truth that breathe upon us like the spirit of Dante and Michelangelo. That the less impassioned and more restrained PALESTEINA (d. 1594) was not indifferent to expression may be proved, without going to his works, by a passage in a letter addressed to Duke Guglielmo of Mantua,* where he commends his noble patron, who had sent him for criticism a mass of his own composition, for the vivid expression he gives to the words according to their significance. Indeed, if it were not for their * A. Bertolotti's La Musica in Mantova, p. 49. 12 Vocal Programme Music. [Pikst unfamiliarity with the old musical idiom, and their taste blunted by too strong and too much seasoning, modern audiences would find a great deal more of expressiveness in the music of Palestrina and his contemporaries tha,n they now perceive. And they would find there not only generic, but now and then also specific expression of feeling. Even under the obtaining conditions, a little attention would lead to surprising revelations. Nothing need be said about the material illustrations of ' ascend ' and ' descend,' of ' high ' and ' low,' and other externalities; nor of the expression of contrition, jubilation, devotion, ecstasy, &c. But it is not superfluous to point out the distinctly programmatic touches, such as we meet with, for instance, in what we may call the dramatized portions of the Credo and the settings of the Psalms. Secular music afforded wider scope for expression than sacred music. Indeed, the words of madrigals were a continuous challenge to composers in this respect. That the challenge was courageously .and successfully taken up, no one illustrates more fully than the greatest of all the madrigal composers, LUCA MAEENZIO (d. 1599). G. B. Doni of the 17th century boldly declares that Marenzio was the first to endow the parts with beautiful melody and beautiful grace, and to make the words more expressive and intelligible ; and W. Ambros of the 19th century enthusiastically praises his music for its noble sentimentality, tones of most inward feeling, tender beauty of soul, local colouring, warm tinge of life, occasional delicate word-painting, in short, for the breath of modem expression that flows from it. And, although pre-eminent, Marenzio was not singular among the madrigalists. THOMAS MOELEY, himself a Pbbiod.] Marensio — Morley. 13 distinguished master cultivating the genre, tells the musicians of his time (in A Plaine and Easie Introduction to PracticaU Musicke, 1597) that if they wish to he successful in the composition of madrigals, they must possess themselves with an amorous humour, must be wavering like the wind, now wanton, now drooping, now grave and steady, now effeminate. [Second CHAPTEE III. SECOND PERIOD (FEOM THE LATTER PART OF THE 16tH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 18tH CENTURT) : ISOLATED AND TENTATIVE CASES OF INSTRUMENTAL PROGRAMME MUSIC — BTRD, MUNDY, MONTEVERDI, PEOBERGEE, KUHNAU, PURCELL, ETC. Let US now turn to Instrumental Music, our real subject. The first examples of instrumental programme music are two pieces for the virginal by the English musicians JOHN MUNDY (d. 1630) and his greater contemporary WILLIAM EYED (1543-1623). Of the first we have a Fantasia* in which he describes successively, ' Fair weather,' ' Lightning,' ' Thunder,' 'Calm weather,' 'Lightning,' 'Thunder,' 'Fair weather,' 'Lightning,' 'Thunder,' 'Fair, weather,' 'Lightning,' 'Thunder,' 'A clear day.' The tone- painting here is by no means striking, indeed is of a very primitive and childlike nature. Without the labels no on£ could possibly recognize the lightning and thunder, and hardly the fair weather and the clear day. There is, however, a contrast between the character of the figures — the rolling bass figure expressive of thunder, the brisk figures of disjunct notes expressive of lightning, and the quieter gait of the rest. Byrd's piece, contained in * No. 3 of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire. Period.] Byrd's Battle. 15 My Ladye Nevells Booke in the possession of the Marquess of Abergavenny and still unpublished, is a battle piece with the following contents : * The march before the battle ; the soldiers' summons ; the march of footmen; the march of horsemen; now followeth the trumpets ; the Irish march ; the bagpipe and the drone ; the flute and the drum ; the march to the fight ; here the battle be joined ; the retreat ; now followeth a gaUiard for the victory. ' Of this work I have seen only a later copy, of about 1666 (British Museum, Add. MS. 10,337), / which seems to differ in some respects from the older manuscript. Instead of the 'Irish march' it has a ' Quick march ' which may be only a difference of title ; instead of the * GaUiard for the victory ' it has ' The Burying of the dead,' which one cannot very well imagine to be merely a difference of title ; and between the ' March for the fight ' and ' Battle joined ' there occurs a ' Tarra- tantarra.' This composition is more valuable as music, and more interesting as progi-amme music, than Mundy's. The marches are no doubt characteristic specimens of the time, and probably contain tunes then popular. The imitation of the trumpets, fifes, and drums is striking, which cannot be said of the bagpipes, if the English and Irish bagpipe music was in any way like what we know of the Scottish. The tone-painting is chiefly to be found in ' The Battle joined ' and ' The Eetreat.' No one can fail to recognize in the former the bustle and tussle of the contest, and in the latter the giving way, first slowly, then quicker and quicker, until it ends in a wild flight. This venerable instrumental battle-piece, the oldest one known, proves that the type reached perfection almost at once. Then the strength lay in the marches and popular tunes and the weakness lay in the childish 16 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second tone-painting; now strength and weakness are still where and as they used to be. To these two compositions there ought perhaps to be added Lachrymae, or Seven Tea/rs figwred in seven passionate Pavam,s,for Lute, Viols, or Violins, in Jive parts (1605), by JOHN DOWLAND, the delightful composer of songs, of whom a poet has said that his ' heavenly touch on the lute doth ravish human sense . ' The virginal pieces of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age frequently have titles, but in most cases these are derived from the popular ballads or other vocal compositions on which they are founded — 'The hunt's up,' 'The Carman's Whistle,' ' Walsingham,' 'Daphne,' &c. Sometimes they contain a patron's name or the name of a person with whom the piece was an especial favourite. Nor need we look for profound significance in titles like ' His Humour,' ' Giles Famaby's Dream,' and ' Dr. Bull's Myself.' Dramatic music furnishes a wide field for programme music. How well it has been cultivated we learn from the works of Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Eossini, Meyerbeer, Gounod, and above all Wagner, whose dramas, especially his later ones, are colossal symphonic poems. The earliest occurrence of programme music in the musical drama is of the first decade of the 17th century ; and to CLAUDIO MONTEVEEDI (1567-1643), that daring genius and great innovator, belongs the honour of the origination. The characteristic, though short and -simple, orchestral pieces, and some of the instrumental accompaniments and interludes of the vocal pieces in his Orfeo (performed at Mantua in 1607 and published in 1609) have an indisputable claim to a place in the history of programme music. In the only Pbbiod.] Bowland — Monteverdi. 17 other opera of Monteverdi's that is known to have come down to us, L'Incoronazione da, Poppea (Venice, 1642), the instrumental portions are few and insignificant. On the other hand, his Combat of Tancred and Clorinda (H, Combattimento di Tancredi et Clorinda), a setting of some stanzas from the 12th book of Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, performed in 1624 and published in 1638 in the 8th book of his madrigals,* is again of the greatest interest and importance, more especially on account of its instrumental accompaniments written for four viols, with tremolo and pizzicato effects among others. This was his first composition in the stile concitato (agitated, passionate style), which he claims as his invention. He says that there are three principal grades in the expression of the emotions, to which correspond three styles, the agitated or passionate (concitato), the temperate (temperato), and the gentle (molle). 'In all the works of the preceding composers I found examples of the last two styles, but not of the agitated, although that manner of expression had already been described by Plato in the third book of the Ehetoric [he meant Eepublic] ; " Take that harmony which in tone and voice imitates that of a brave man going into battle." ' The importance of such views, and their realization in practice in general for the development of musical expression and programme music in particular needs no pointing out. Monteverdi's pupil and successor, the most famous opera composer and the most brilliant repre- sentative of the Venetian school in the 17th century, * Orfeo is to be found in the Publikationen of the Gesellsohaf t for Musik- forschung (edited by E. Eitner), li'Ineoronazione in H. Goldsohmidt's Studien zur Geschichte der Italienischen Oper, II. ; and II Combattimento in C. V. Winterfeld's Johannes Gabrieli, Part III. 18 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second FEANCESCO CAVALLI (c. 1600-1676), often in- troduces characteristic instrumental pieces in his works. I shall note here only the Sinfonia infernale and the Chiamata alia caccia in Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo, the Passata delV armata and the Sinfonia navale in Didone, and the music descriptive of the billowing and roaring of the sea in Nettuno e Flora festeggianti* Cavalli's great, though less prolific rival, MAEC ANTONIO CESTI (c. 1620-1669) ought likewise to be named in this connection, and also the distinguished woman composer FEANCESCA CAOCINI, whose La Liberazione di Buggieri dalV Isola d'^Zcma, performed in 1625, contains independent instrumental pieces. In Italian instrumental music apart from the opera we find hardly anjrthing in the nature of programme music. The Capriccio stravagante (1627) by the Italian CAELO FAEINA, Court violinist at Dresden,— with its inartistic imitations of the cackling of hens, mewing of cats, barking of dogs, the flautino, the fifferino deUa soldadesca, and the chitarra spagnola, &c. — does not deserve the name. Again, BIAGGIO MAEINI'S La Martinenga and II Priulino (dances of 1622), G. B. VITALI'S La Graziani and Capriccio detto il Molza (1669), and LEGEENZI'S La Gornara, La Fugazza (1663), and La Rosetta (1671) point to patrons and admirers, not to subjects. If there were an exception, it could only be the last piece, the first movement of which might perhaps, with an effort of the imagination, be regarded as the portrait of a sweet pretty maid worthy of the name Eosie. We have, however, an instance of un- mistakable programme music in MAECO UCCELLINI'S * See H. Kretzsolimar's essay on Die Venetiamsche Oper in Vierteljahrsschrift fiir Musikwissenschaft, vol. viii. (1892). Pebiod.J CavaUi — Frescobcddi — Froberger. 19 Wood Symphonies (Sinfonie Boscareccie, 1669), one of which is entitled La Suavissima and another La Gran Battaglia. Although called grand, this battle does not produce a very terrifying effect, indeed it amounts to no more than that two violins alternately throw a snappish figure at each other, and have some tussles, runs, and rushes together. All the compositions mentioned in this paragraph are written for violins and a figured bass.* Of Italian composers for keyboard instruments of this period only one calls for notice, ALESSANDEO POGLIETTI, who, however, on account of residence abroad and foreign influences, will find a more appropriate place further on. That FEESCOBALDI (d. 1644) utilizes the cuckoo notes as a motive in one of his capriccios, and imitates the pifferari in another — the Capriccio fatto sopra la Pastorale— doea not constitute him a composer of programme music. Some of the titles of his pieces might seem to point to programmes — for instance, La Battaglia, which, however, is merely a variated bugle call, and La Frescobalda, Fra Jacopino, &c., which are no more than names of tunes. More weighty arguments could be drawn from the master's recommendation of varied and elastic tempo, his allusion to difference of passages and expression, and the superscription ' Let him who can understand me follow me, I understand myself ' ; but generally speaking, Frescobaldi was too much preoccupied with technical problems and outward effects to think of anything else. Now we will transport ourselves from Italy to Germany, where our attention is first attracted by JACOB FEOBEEGEE (d. 1667), a pupil of Prescobaldi's, * J. W. von Wasielewski's Initrwmentalsdtze vom Ende des XVI. bis Ende des XVII. Jahrhvmderts (1874). 20 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second one of the most notable figures in the history of instrumental music, eccentric as a man, inimitable as a player of and composer for the harpsichord and organ. MatthesSn says of him : ' This composer knew well how to represent on the clavier alone whole stories with the portraiture of the persons that had been present and taken part in them, together with their characters.' The same writer relates in the Ehrenpforte (1740) that he had in his possession a manuscript composition of Proberger's entitled, 'Plainte, faite a Londres, pour passer la melancolie,' in which the composer describes 'what he experienced between Paris and Calais, and from Calais to England, from robbers on land and sea, and how the English organist had abused him, taken him by the arm to the door, and kicked him out.' Mattheson had also of Proberger an ' Allemande, faite en passant le Ehin dans une barque en grand peril, with a detailed description.' This Allemande, with what belongs to it, — as the same author relates in Der vollkommene Capellmeister — was a pretty clear description, in 26 Noten-FdUen, of Count Thurn's passage across the Ehine, and the danger experienced by the company, among whom was Proberger himself. But Proberger's compositions generally, although without titles and programmes, give one the unmistakable impression that he aimed at something more than a clever and pleasing putting together of notes. The vivid expression of moods, feelings, and fancies, both serious and humorous, is truly remarkable, especially if we consider the character of the instrumental music of his time. But although as a rule his aims were praiseworthy, they were occasionally mistaken ; as, for instance, in the beautiful Lament on the death of the Emperor Peeiod.J Froberger — Poglietti. 21 Ferdinand IV. (Lamento sopra la dolorosa perdita della R. M. di Ferdinando IV. Be de Romani. Per il Cembalo, 1649), where at the end occurs a glissando major scale which, according to Ambros's interpretation, represents the Jacob's ladder on which Ferdinand IV. ascends to heaven. The ItaHan ALBSSANDRO POGLIETTI, who in 1661 became chamber organist to the Emperor Leopold I., and perished in 1683 during the siege of Vienna by the Turks, gave to the world a Capriccio entitled II Rossignolo, a Petit Air gay pour imitation de Rossignole, and a Capriccio on cock-crowing and hen-cackling. The imitation of the animal voices is here excellent, probably better than anything of the kind that had been done before. But after all it is of the lowest kind of tone- painting, and can hardly be called programme music. Specimens of a somewhat higher order are to be found in some of Poglietti's variations in Aria Allemagna con alcwni variazioni sopra V eta della Maesta (the number of the variations being the same as that of the years of his Majesty the Emperor), one of the pieces 'pour le Clavecin ou rOrgue' (1663). Here we find among others the following really significant superscriptions : Bohemian Bagpipe, Dutch Flageolet, Hungarian Fiddles, Juggler's Eope-dance, and French Baiselemens (baisemains, compliments). The three last-named are the most interesting of the variations, the movements of the Juggler, French elegant, and Hungarian Fiddler being hit off most happily and musically. Not to fatigue the reader, I shall close my enumeration of instances of programme music belonging to the second period by proceeding at once to the latest and most important specimens — the Six Bible 22 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second Sonatas (1700) of JOHANN KUHNAU (1660-1722), J. S. Bach's predecessor as Thomas cantor at Leipzig. From the preface to these works we gather that programme music was then more common than is generally supposed, and also that much of what was then produced is unknown to us, either having perished or being hidden in dusty uncatalogued heaps in libraries, Kuhnau tells us that if he pretended to be the first to compose such an ' invention,' he would prove himself ignorant of the celebrated Froberger's and other excellent musicians' Battles, Waterfalls, and Tombeaux (i.e., elegies on the death of persons), and of whole sonatas (evidently meaning what we call suites) composed in this manner, with words added to discover the meaning. Of the sonata species he mentions one by a celebrated Prince-Electoral Chapelmaster, which the author calls La Medica, and in which, among other things, he sets forth the moaning of the patient and his relatives, how they run to the doctor and state their distress, &c., &c., and concludes with a Gigue bearing the superscription : ' The patient is doing well, but is not yet fully restored to health.' The composer alluded to is very probably JOHANN CASPAE KEEL, from 1656 to 1673 Chapelmaster at Munich. This composition, of which we have no further knowledge, reminds me of another lost work, DIETEICH BUXTEHUDE'S Seven Suites, in which, according to Mattheson, the nature and qualities of the planets were prettily pictured {artig abgebildet). This loss is to be regretted for more than one reason — for the eminence of the composer, the character of the subject, and the fact that it was unique among the master's works, his strength lying above all, to quote Spitta's words, in Period.] Kerl — Pachelbel — Kuhnau. 23 absolute instrumental music uninfluenced by any poetical idea. I must yet, parenthetically as it were, allude to one other composition, one by the famous organist JOHANN PACHELBEL (d. 1706), the younger contemporary of Buxtehude (d. 1707). It is entitled Musikalische Sterbensgedanken, aus vier variirten Chordlen hestehend (Musical Dying Thoughts, consisting of four variated Chorales — 1683), to the composition of which the impulse was given by the plague at the time raging in Erfurt, where Pachelbel resided from 1678 to 1690. No copy of the original edition is known to exist, but three of the four variated chorales have been republished, after manuscript material, in the Denkmdler der Tonkunst in Bayern (II. 1), edited by M. Seiffert. If these compositions can be called programme music at all, it can be only in the sense of an outpouring of sadness and piety by a man who had lost wife, child, and happiness at one fell swoop. To return to KUHNAU 'S preface to the Bible Sonatas. It shows that the composer was well aware of the difficulties and dangers of the genre, and had considered them carefully. If he did wrong, he did so with malice •prepense. He is of opinion that the imitation by instrumental music of the songs of birds, the ringing of bells, the report of cannon, and trumpets and kettle- drums, can be understood without the help of words ; and that this is also the case with the expression by instrumental music of the general feelings of joy and sadness, unless they are to be connected with particular individuals — that is where, for instance, the lament of Hezekiah is to be distinguished from that of the weeping Peter, or from that of the complaining Jeremiah. On the other hand, verbal indications of the intentions of 24 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second the compoBer become a necessity when the hearer himself is to be moved, now to joy now to sadness, now to love now to hate, now to cruelty now to mercy, the reason being that the dissimilarity of their temperaments causes the hearers to be differently affected, both in kind and degree, by one and the same thing. In fact, this preface is an apology for instrumental programme music, and being the first apology is of historical as well as of sesthetical interest. The general title of Johann Kuhnau's publication of 1700 with which we are concerned runs as follows: Musikalische VorsteUwngen einiger BibUscher Historien in 6 Sonaten auf dem Clavier zu spielen (Musical Eepresentations of some Biblical stories in six sonatas, to be played on the clavier). The titles of the six sonatas are respectively (1) The Combat between David and Goliath ; (2) David curing Saul by means of music ; (3) Jacob's marriage; (4) Hezekiah sick unto death and recovered of his sickness; (5) The Saviour of Israel, Gideon; and (6) Jacob's death and burial. These sonata titles, however, are not the only verbal indications of the subjects; each sonata is provided with a lengthy argument which at the end is tersely summarized ; and in addition to this superscriptions are placed above the different parts of the sonatas. The summary of the argument of the first sonata runs : (a) The boasting and defying of Goliath ; (&) The terror of the Israelites ; and their prayers to God at sight of the terrible enemy; (c) The courage of David, his desire to humble the pride of the giant, and his child-like trust in God; (d) The contest of words between David and Goliath, and the contest itself in which Goliath is wounded in the forehead by a stone, so that he falls to the ground and Pbriod.J Kuhnau's Bible Sonatas. 25 is slain ; (e) The flight of the Philistines, and how they are pnrsued by the Israelites, and slain by the sword; (/) The exultation of the Israelites over their victory; (g) The praise of David, swa.g by the -women in alternate choirs ; (h) and finally, the general joy, expressing itself in hearty dancing and leaping. The summary of the argument of the second sonata is not so many-membered : (a) Saul's sadness and madness ; (b) David's refreshing harp-playing; (c) Tranquillity restored to the King's mind. It would take up too much space to quote the contents of the four remaining sonatas. The curious will find them in Seiffert-Fleischer's new edition (the third) of Weitzmann's Geschichte der Klaviermusik {!., 247). The music of the first two sonatas has been recently put within the reach of everybody by J. S. Shedlock's edition of them (Novello).* Kuhnau's sonatas, the most ambitious attempts at programme music up to 1700, are not sonatas iu the modem sense of the word, nor are they suites, but a series of movements differing in length, tempo, measure, structure, and not infrequently also in key, which lead one into the other, each having at the beginning a superscription indicating what it is intended to express. "While the second sonata consists of a few sustained movements, the first contains short as well as long ones. A rapid scale and some twirls depict ' the pebble is sent by means of the sling into the forehead of the giant ' ; and five bars suffice for the depicting of ' Goliath falls." On the other hand, the terror and prayers of the Israelites, the courage of David, the joy of the Israelites * All the six sonatas have been reprinted, edited by K. Pasler, in the Denkmaler deutecher Tonkunit, vol. Jv., 1901. A careful biography of Kuhnau by Bichard Miinnich will be found in the Sammelbdnde of the Intemationalen Musikgetellschaft (year III.^ — April- June, 1902). 26 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Second over their victory, are expressed leisurely. That Euhnau's subjects are not always judiciously chosen may be judged from the following headings : 'Laban's deceit in taking Leah instead of Eachel to the honest cousin and bridegroom ' (third sonata) ; 'Gideon's doubts in God's promises of victory made to him ' ; and ' The blowing of trombones and trumpets, as well as the breaking of the pitchers, and the war-cry ' (fifth sonata) ; and ' The journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan' (sixth sonata). Kuhnau himself tells us that he has expressed the deceit of Laban by an interrupted cadence (called by the Italians inganno), and Gideon's doubts by repeating again and again the opening of subjects a degree higher and higher. Although we may here and there smile at the mistaken choice of subject, — or rather the mistaken selection of the points of a subject — and the naivete and the inadequacy of the means of expression, it would be downright foolishness to laugh at these sonatas contemptuously. They are remarkable achievements, daring, and often successfully daring, in their efforts at expressiveness, and full of musical beauties apart from expression. Novel in their ideas, means, and form, these sonatas enjoyed great popularity in their day. But they must have done more than please, entertain, and edify the general public ; they also must have exercised a great influence upon the composers of the master's own and succeeding generation. Who, knowing these sonatas and the music of Euhnau's time as well, could doubt their suggestiveness and stimulative qualities ? Their importance, I am convinced, has not so far been fully recognized. On account of the influence that Kuhnau' s Bible Sonatas Pbeiod,] Purcell. 27 must have exercised, they have a good claim to a place in our fourth period. But, all things considered, their proper place is here, for they are interesting and powerful attempts rather than altogether satisfactory achievements. Having reached what I intended to be the end of this period, it strikes me that many, at least in Great Britain, will ask: 'But what of Purcell?' One cannot help wondering that HENEY PUECELL (1658-1695), with his passionate, we may even say violent, striving after expressiveness, has not left us among his instrumental works — sonatas, suites, &c. — specimens of programme music. In his accompanied vocal music there is, however, plenty of tone-painting of all sorts, material and spiritual, good and bad, great and little. It is to be found oftener in the vocal than in the instrumental parts, and for that reason is not infrequently reprehensible, because of its giving undue prominence to the subordinate — to the material at the expense of the spiritual, to the word-expression at the expense of the thought-expression. It is not only psychologically wrong, but also comical rather than seriously impressive, to sing the word ' round ' to a smooth, twirling series of eighteen semiquavers, and the word ' spread ' to a long extent of coloratura. The tremulous execution of portions of the vocal parts asked for by the composer in the Frost-Scene of King Arthwr — to express the quivering and shivering and the chattering of teeth caused by cold — must have given rise to much misgiving. Sir Hubert Parry is not too severe in saying that, in spite of his powerful genius, Purcell carried to excess the tendency of the later Madrigal period towards realistic expression, that he fell not 28 Isolated and Tentative Cases. [Third infrequently into the depth of bathos and childishness, was impelled to make experiments quite astounding in crudeness, and that he adopted in secular solo music realistic devices of a quaintly innocent kind. In view of this, one cannot help speculating. What grand and perfect works might Purcell not have given to the world if, like Handel, he had been able to spend a year or two in Italy, and had afterwards, again like Handel, found ia England worthy opportunities for the exercise of his powerful genius ! Now our admiration cannot be unmixed with regrets. Pbkiod.] BOOK II. ACmEYEMENTS IN SMALL F0EM8 AND SBBIOUS STBIVINGS IN LARGEE FOEMS. CHAPTEE I. THIED PERIOD (FBOM THE 17tH TO THE MIDDLE OP THE 18th obntuey) : French lutenists and claveoinists — DENNIS GAULTIEE, OHAMBONNIERES, OOUPEEIN LE GRAND, EAMEAU, ETC. On entering the Third Period — that of French Musical Miniature Genre and Portrait Painting, as practised by ■the lutenists in the 17th century and by the claveeinists in the 17th and first half of the 18th century — we leave ■the time of isolated cases of programme music behind us. Another point about this period calls for notice. It was the French School of claveeinists, culminating in Fran9ois Couperin, that achieved the first artistically satisfactory results in programme music. The source of what we may call the programmatic movement may be traced back to the earlier flourishing School of French lutenists. In their music we find already pieces with titles, partly mythological and partly idyllic. Of the sixty-two pieces. La Ehetorique des Bieux, by the ' illustrious ' DENNIS GAULTIEE (d. about 1660-1670), contained in the splendid ' Hamilton Codex ' now in Berlin, about one half have titles. Here are a few : Phaeton foudvoye. 30 French Lutenists cmd Clavecmists. [Third Minerve, Mars sv/perhe, Jvmon ou la Jalouse, &c. ; and La Coquette virtmsa, La Caressante, L'Homicide, &c. Now the question arises : Are these titles vain ornaments, mere affectations, artful allm-ements, or are they truly- significant ? It is difSeult for us, strangers as we are to the effects of the lute well played, to measure the extent to which these compositions reach the height, depth, and breadth of their subjects. The limited means of the instrument as shown by the notes seem to promise little. But there can be no doubt that the French composers for the lute often, though not in the majority of cases, indicated by the titles of their pieces what they intended to illustrate. The writer of the preface to the ' Hamilton Codex' states that Gaultier represents the passions perfectly, and that he elevates the most abased spirits to the sublimest virtues. 'This manner of expressing himself may justly be called La Bhetorique des Dieux.' Of the first-mentioned piece (Phaeton foud/royS) it is said that it 'bears witness to Phaeton being, by his imprudence and ambition, the cause of the conflagration of the half of mankind, to the punishment meted out to the rash youth by Jupiter, and to the sorrows of his father Apollo on account of his loss.' And of La Coquette virtuosa we read that ' this fair one, who makes as many lovers as there are men that understand her, proves by her priceless discourse the sweetness she finds in the love of virtue, the great esteem she has for those who adore it, and that she will give herself to him who will have first attained the title of the magnanimous.' "Without further concerning ourselves with the lutenists, we will turn to the father of the School of French clavecinists, CHAMPION DE CHAMBONNIEEBS, who died about 1670. Of him we have two books of pieces (dances). Period.] GaulUer — Chambonnieres — Couperm. 31 He, too, makes use of titles, but more sparingly than Gaultier. Only ten of his sixty-one pieces are thus provided for. And the titles of these ten are very vague, and less likely to mean much than little or nothing. Judge for yourself: La Rare, Iris, La Dunkerque, La Loureuse, La toute belle, L'Entretien des Dieux, La ViUageoise, La Verdirtguette, and Les Jeunes Zephirs. The clavecinists that come immediately after Chambonnieres — Le B^gue, the elder Couperins (Louis and Frangois), D'Anglebert, and others — offer us in the present inquiry no matter of interest. And thus we may hasten onward to the FEANQOIS GOUPEEIN of a later generation, the most distinguished of a musically most richly gifted family, which in Prance formed a counterpart to the Bachs in Germany. The composers of the French harpsichord School of the 17th and 18th centuries are either entirely ignored or greatly underrated in the history of programme music. At any rate, I am not aware that they ever received their due in this respect. The prevalent opinion about them is that their compositions are pretty trifles, and that the titles are for the most part fancy titles and — even when they are not altogether that — need not be taken seriously. An unprejudiced study of the works of Frangois Couperin, called 'le grand ' (1668-1733), and acquaintance with his intentions, will show that this view is quite wrong, and that the master's miniatures, slight in form and light in texture, but perfect in execu- tion, are masterpieces not only of musical composition, but also of tone-painting. Of all the masters of the School, Couperin is the most important, both on account of the quantity and the quality of his programme music. The compositions that chiefly concern us here are four books 32 French Clavecmists. [Third of harpsichord pieces — Pieces de Clavecm (1713, 1716, 1722, 1730) — grouped not in Suites or Partitas, but in ' Ordres.' There are altogether twenty-seven orders. The number of pieces in the orders varies greatly. The second order, for instance, contains twenty-three, the fourth only four. All the pieces of an order have the same key-note ; the mode, however, is sometimes major and sometimes minor. But the orders are distinguished from suites and partitas not only by the number, but also by the nature of their constituents, for although they contain many dances, they contain more pieces that are not dances. The pieces not in dance form are in a primitive kind of Rondo form, in which a principal thought alternates with secondary thoughts (called Couplets); in short, the forms of these pieces are forms of cumulation, not of development. Of the dances some have names, others have not ; the other composi- tions are all named. In the preface to Coupenn's first book of Pieces de Clanjeein, published in 1713, there occurs the following passage : ' I have always had an object in composing all these pieces : different occasions have furnished me with it — thus the titles correspond to the ideas I have had. I may dispense with giving an account of them; nevertheless, as among these titles there are some which seem to flatter me, it is well to warn people that the pieces which bear them are a species of portraits that have been sometimes found like enough under my fingers, and that the greater part of these prepossessing titles are rather given to the amicable originals whom I wished to represent than to the copies I have drawn of them.' This cannot leave any doubt in our minds as to the composer's intentions. Couperin's pieces are now Period.] Couperin le Grand. 83 sentimental, now characteristic, now humorous, now descriptive. The tone-painting in them is now soul-painting and now body-painting — that is, now concerned with the inward, and now with the outward. A few of the pieces paint states of feeling, such as Les Regrets, Les Langueurs tendres, Les Sentiments, Les Idees heureuses, and Les Agrements. Very many pieces are portraits, the sitters of which are variously indicated — by proper names, by predominant quality, by a combination of the two, or by moral or national character : La Couperin, La Princesse Marie, and La Soewr Monique; La Superbe, La Tenebreuse, La Pateline, La Volwptueuse, La Terpsichore, La Badine, and L" Enchanter esse ; Uaimdble Therese, La douce Janneton, and La tend/re Fanchon; La Basque, L'Ausonienne, La Castelwne, La Boulonnaise, and Les Ghinois. Some of the pieces are impressions from nature : Les Lis naissans, Les Boseaux, Les Pavots, Le Verger fleuri, Les Gv/irlands, Le Reveille- matin, Le Point du Jour, Les Bergeries, Les Ondes, L'Anguille, Les Abeilles, Les Papillons, Le Moucheron, Le Gazouillement, Les Canaries, La Linotte effarouchee, Les Fauvettes plaintives, Le Rossignol en amour, and Le Rossignol vainqueu/r. Not a few of the pieces are genre pictures, in which there is even more than in the preceding classes a great deal of imitation of the outward (movements, tones, and noises) : Le Bavolet flottant, Les petits Moulins a vent, Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins, Le Gaillard-boiteux, Les Tours de passe- passe, Le Drole de corps, Les Timbres, Le Carillon de Cyihere, Les Ombres errantes, Le Turbulent, La Harpee (piece dans le gout de la Harpe), Les Tambourines, La Musette de Choisi, La Musette de Taverni, La Comrmre, La Fileuse, and Les Tricoteuses (with the * mailles lachees ' 34 French Clavecinists. [Third near the end). A considerable number of the pieces consist of two, three, four, and more parts ; they represent or depict groups of scenes : Les Pelerines (1. Caritade ,- 2. Le Bemerciment), the alms-asking and the thanksgiving of female pilgrims ; Les Calotins et les Calotines, ou La Piece a tretous (1. Les Calotins; 2. Les Calotines), the comic performance of bufifoons (male and female) on a trestle-stage, in short, of a company of strolling players ; Les Bacchanales (1. Enjouemens Bacchiques ; 2. Tendresses Bacchiques ; 3. Fureurs Bacchiques), different effects of wine; La Triomphante (1. Bruits de guerre et Combat ; 2. Allegresse des vainqueurs; Fanfare), three phases of war; Les petits Ages (1. La Muse naissante ; 2. L'Enfantine ; 3. L' Adolescence ; 4. Les Delices). A larger programme is set forth in Fastes de la gramde et ancienne menestrandise (Eecords of the grand and ancient minstrelsy). It comprises five pieces, called by the com- poser ' acts ' : — Act I. The minstrel notables and jurymen; Act II. The hurdy-gurdy players and the beggars; Act III. The jugglers, tumblers, and mountebanks with their bears and monkeys ; Act IV. The invalids, or those crippled in the service of the grand minstrelsy; Act V. Disorder, and defeat of the whole troop, caused by the drunkards, the bears, and the monkeys. Couperin in his titles often reminds one of Schumann, but in no case more than in the piece which he calls ' Les folies fran9aises ou les Dominos,' which brings at once to mind the more recent composer's Carnaval. This composition consists of twelve couplets, in which the harmony remains the same, on which, however, a new characteristic structure is again and again raised. The several couplets are entitled : (1.) Virginity under the domino of the colour Pebiod.] Cowperin le Grand. 85 of the invisible; (2.) Pudicity under the rose-colour domino ; (3.) Ardour under the carnation domino ; (4.) Hope under the green domino ; (5.) Fidelity under the blue domino ; (6.) Perseverance under the drab domino; (7.) Languor under the violet domino; (8.) Coquetry imder different dominos ; (9.) The old Galants and the superannuated female Treasurers under purple and withered-leaves dominos ; (100 The kind Cuckoos imder yellow dominos; (11.) Taciturn Jealousy under the mauve-grey domino ; and (12.) Frenzy or Despair under the black domino. Les Folies franqaises are followed by what may be described as an epilogue, L'dme en peine, Lent repentance after the Carnival indiscretions. Thus faj only Couperin's Pieces de Clavecin have been noticed ; but we have also works of the master for harpsichord combined with other instruments (stringed or wind), which, however, he allowed to be played on two harpsichords or spinets. I shall mention the Concerts Eoyaux written for Louis XIV. 's Sunday concerts and published with the third book of harpsichord pieces (1722) ; Les Gouts reunis ou nouveaux Concerts a I'usage de toutes sortes d'instruments de musique, augmente d'une Sonade en Trio intitulee : Le Parnasse ou L'ApotMose de Corelli (1724) ; and the Concert instrumental sous le titre d'Apotheose, composi a la memoire de V incomparable monsieur de Lidly (1725).* Only the two Apotheoses concern us here. Couperin says that with regard to the Italian and the French style he occupies a neutral position : ' I have always esteemed meritorious things irrespective of author or nation.' He says also that, • A transcription of these works for stringed instruments and pianoforte by Georges Marty has been published by A. Durand et Fils, Paris. 36 French Clavecinists. [Thied when thirty years earlier the first Italian sonatas made their appearance in Paris, he was encouraged to compose some himself. Le Pa/rnasse, ou L'ApothSose de CorelU, comprises seven movements, the first forming an intro- duction to the second; they bear the following super- scriptions : (1.) Corelli, at the foot of Parnassus, asks the Muses to receive him among them ; (2.) Corelli, charmed by the good reception given him on Parnassus, shows his joy thereat. He continues with those accompanying him ; (3.) Corelli drinks at the fountain of Hippocrene, his company continue ; (4.) Enthusiasm of Corelli caused by the waters of Hippocrene; (5.) Corelli, after his enthusiasm, falls asleep, and his companions play the following slumber music very softly; (6.) The Muses awake Corelli, and place him beside Apollo; and (7.) Thanks of Corelli. Couperin's object in writing the Apoth^ose de Lully was ' to do honour to the greatest man in music whom the preceding century had produced,' and, in doing so, to ' diminish the prejudice of those who know his works only by reputation.' Here is the programme : — (1.) Lully in the Elysian Fields concerting with the lyrical shades ; (2.) Air for the same (les mSmes) ; (3.) The flight of Mercury to the Elysian Fields to announce the descent of Apollo ; (4.) Descent of Apollo, who comes to offer to Lully his violin and his place on Parnassus ; (5.) Subterranean noise caused by the contemporaries of Lully ; (6.) Complaints of the same, for flutes and violins very subdued ; (7.) The carrying off of Lully to Parnassus ; (8.) Eeception entre-doux et hagard, given to Lully by Corelli and the Italian Muses ; (9.) Thanks of Lully to Apollo ; (10.) Apollo persuades Lully and Corelli that the union of the French and the Italian taste ought to make music perfect ; (11.) Lully playing Period.] Couperin le Grand. 37 the principal part and Corelli accompanying; (12.) Corelli playing in his turn the principal part, while LuUy accompanies ; (13.) The peace of Parnassus made on the remonstrance of the French Muses, subject to the condition that in future when their language was spoken there, sonade and cantade should be said, just as as one says ballade, serenade, &c. ; (14.) Sally {Saillie'] . That these programmes deal with matters craving for musical expression is not likely to be asserted. Indeed, subjects like Corelli asking to be received among the Muses and drinking at the fountain of Hippocrene, the flight of Mercury, Apollo's descent, his offer to Lully of a violin and a place on Parnassus, the subterranean noise, &c., if not anti-musical, are unmusical. Moreover, the treatment of some of them — for instance, of the flight of Mercury and the subterranean noise — is childish. But varied character cannot be denied to the pieces, most of them are even decidedly expressive. And, apart from their quality as programme music, we must allow them to be good and pleasing music. What makes them further interesting is their style, which is different from that of the Pieces de Clavecin — it is more contrapuntal and sometimes more imitative, and clearly shows the influence of Italy. Another difference is the much more sparing use of grace-notes. The parts of the Apotheoses are self-contained, except the first, which ends on the dominant, and thus leads up to the second part. All the pieces have not the same key-note. In the Corelli Apotheosis there is D major besides B minor, and in the Lully Apotheosis there are, besides G minor and major, E flat and B flat major. The length of the pieces varies greatly, especially in Lully. Most of them are 38 French Clavecmists. [Third short, and some very shOrt> In the latter work one has no more than ten, another no more than sixteen bars. Two pieces, however, are of considerable length. One of these two, No. 10, the composer describes as an essay in the form of an overture — in fact, it is a French, or Lully overture, consisting of a slow, a quick, and a slow movement ; the other. No. 14, although not so described, is an Italian, or Scarlatti overture, consisting of a c^uick, slow, and quick movement. Interesting and admirable as Couperin's concerted pieces are, we cannot but feel that Couperin le Grand and his chefs d'wuvres are not to be found there. His solo pieces for his own instrument have a raciness and a perfection not possessed by his other compositions. And it is also there that he proves himself a greater master of programme music. To the Pieces de Clavecin we must now once more turn. That Couperin really aimed at expression as well as at a pleasing combination of sounds may be gathered not only from the passage (in the preface to the first book) already quoted, and the titles of the pieces, but also from the indications frequently prefixed to the pieces, Buch as: Majestueusement; Oracieusement ; Tendrement; Gayement; Nonchalamment ; Affectueusement ; Dou- hureusement ; Voluptueusement.* It may be further gathered from his insistence on the necessity of correctly and expressively performing his compositions. In the preface to the third book of harpsichord pieces, he declares that his music will never fail to make an * Speaking of mesure and cadence, the spirit and the soul of music, Couperin says : ' The sonatas of the Italians are hardly susceptible of -this cadence. But all our violin airs, and clavecin, viol, and other pieces, jpoint to, and seem desirous to express, some sentiment. Hence -words aaoh as tendrement and vivement.' Period.] Cowperin le Grand. 39 impression on persons of taste, if it is played with an exact observation of the composer's markings. He does not leave us in doubt as to the importance he attaches to expression when he says : ' I greatly prefer what touches me to what surprises me.' But it may be asked : Is expression possible on the harpsichord ? Let us hear the master on this point. ' The harpsichord is perfect in compass and brilliant in itself;* but as one can neither swell nor diminish its tones, I should always be obliged to those who, by an infinite art supported by taste, are able to succeed in making this instrument susceptible of expression. It is to this that my ancestors applied themselves, independently of the beautiful composition of the pieces. I myself have endeavoured to perfect their discoveries.' (Preface to Book I.) Those acquainted with the mechanism of the instrument may suspect Couperin to have been umder a delusion. But to be convinced of the contrary, you have only to hear so expert a player and so loyal an interpreter as Madame Wanda Landowska. She seems to have rediscovered the discoveries of the Couperins. The rough-and-ready renderings of Couperin' s music on the harpsichord to which we are accustomed, and, what is still worse, those on the pianoforte, cannot do justice to the master, cannot make us realize the sentiment and wit of his charming poetic conceptions. It would be an exaggeration to say that Couperin' s compositions in all cases entirely fulfil what their titles seem to promise. But there is no exaggeration whatever in saying that unprejudiced hearers must be both struck and delighted * In the AvU to L'ApotMose de LulVy, the master claims for his instrument vn hrillant et nettete qu'on ne trouve guire dam les autres instrumentt. 40 French Clavecinists. [Third by the exquisite touches of truthful expressiveness and humorous descriptiveness with which the Pieces de Clavecin abound. Something, however, besides deficient interpretation, militates against the adequate recognition of Couperin. Like Chopin, he is a victim of a mighty- prejudice, of the almost universally adopted standard of judgment according to which greatness depends upon bigness of size and noise. It is a great and lamentable mistake to undervalue Couperin and his music because he confines himself to miniatures, because he never approaches the deeper and stronger emotions, because he is always sprightly, tender, and graceful — ^now sweetly melancholy, now playful. These dainty, exquisite qualities are no less valuable than the more vigorous and tumultuous ones. Moreover, we should not overlook that just in this lightness and slightness lies much of the merit of Couperin's music viewed from the standpoint of historical development . We may call him the first great modern of the composers for keyboard instruments. The creations of Couperin remind us of the naivete of his older contemporary, the poet La Fontaine ; they remind us also of the quaint grace and coquetry of his younger contemporaries, the painters Watteau, Lancret, and Pater, and of the humour and sentiment of the still later Greuze. Couperin, however, has a complexion of his own : his sentiment was more natural, and his humour more exuberant, than that of his contemporaries and successors, and, what is especially notable, his choice of subjects was more popular - ' fetes galantes ' a la Watteau, &e., were not much in his way. With so strong an individuality the nowadays obligatory reference to the character of his time and country is only to a very limited extent Period.] Covperin—Rameau. 41 illustrative, m fact, hardly illustrative at all. What has Couperin in common -with Corneille, Eacine, and Bossuet, who are nevertheless in the highest degree characteristic of their time ? No doubt, he has more in common with La Fontaine, and with Watteau, Lancret, and Pater, with considerable differences however. But Couperin's creations remind us not only of the above-mentioned poet and painters of long ago, they remind us also of composers much nearer our own time — of Schubert and his short pianoforte pieces, sometimes of Mendelssohn and his songs without words, and often of Schumann and his playfully fantastic miniatures. In short, Couperin is one of the moderns, notwithstanding his periwig, frills, trimmings, and other old-fashioned ornaments, which to some extent hide the natural grace and beauty of his melody and the purity of his harmony. There can be no doubt that we have in Fran5ois Couperin a tone-poet of a most abounding, varied, and delicate fancy, a composer of a perfect and exquisite craftsmanship, and, although working in a little genre, one of the greatest masters of the art. Of the other members of the French Clavecin School, by far the most important is the somewhat later JEAN PHILIPPE EAMEAU (1683-1764), the contemporary of J. S. Bach and Handel, whose fame rests chiefly on his great achievements as a theorist and composer for the stage. His compositions for harpsichord are, however, a very valuable contribution to the department to which they belong. The first book of harpsichord pieces, consisting of a prelude and nine untitled dances, was published by the as yet immature Eameau in 1706. His next publication of harpsichord pieces did not take place till 1724 (republished in 1731) : Pieces de clavecin 42 French Clamcinists. [Third avec ime methode pout la m&ca/niqm dea doigts. Among its twenty'-four pieces \fe meet with the following titled ones : Le Ra/ppel des Oiseaux, Le Tambov/rin, La Villageoise, Les tendrea Plavhtes, Les Niais de Sologne, Les Soupirs, La Joyeuse, La Folette, L'Entretiena dea Muses, Les Tourbillons (that is, as the composer explains in a letter, whirls of dust, raised by violent winds), Les Cychpea, Le Lardon, and La Boiteuse. Several years afterwards appeared the Nowvelle Suite de Pieces de Clavecin. Besides dances, these twenty-three pieces comprise Fanfarinette, La Triomphante, Lea Tricotets, L'lndiffirente, La Poule, Lea Triolets, Lea Sauvages, L'Enharmonique, L'Egyptienne, and La Davphine. To these solo pieces has to be added a collection of Pieces de Clavecin en Concert with violin, or flute, and viol, or a second violin (1741). Almost all of the sixteen pieces bear titles : most of these are family names, such as La Bameau, La Livri, La Popliniere, &c. ; some indicate characters, such as L'Agaqante, La Timide, L'Indiscrete, &c. ; and two are respectively called La Pantomime and Le Tambourin, the latter an altogether different composition from that of the same name in the earlier collection. Five of the sixteen pieces were arranged by Eameau for harpsichord alone. Although a later composer, Eameau does not, in his harpsichord pieces, go beyond Couperin either in form or programme. Indeed, as regards programme music for the harpsichord, Eameau is, both in quantity and quality, inferior to Couperin. The younger master has neither the wealth of subject nor the striking characterization of the older master. This, however, does not mean that Eameau has not among his musically excellent and delightful Pieces de Clavecin Period.] Eamecm-^DaquiR-'~Demd^eu, 43 some prograuuaatically flrst-rate specimeBS, both of the emotional and imitative kind. To this bear witness the universally popular Tamboturia and Z-a Pcmle, in which the PrQven9al fife (gaioubet) and drum and the cackling of the hen are treated in a most artistic manner. Eameau'a harpsichord style differs greatly firom Couperin's ; it is simpler, broader, and manlier. The comparative fewness of grace-notes is striking. In the Piece* de Clavecin en Concert the superior concerting quality of the harpsichord cannot escape notice.* Of Eameau's programme music in another department something will be said farther on. LOUIS CLAUDE DAQUIN (1694-1773) and JEAN FEANQOIS DANDEIEU (1684-1740), composers on a much lower level than Couperin and Eameau, deserve at least passing notice. Who does not know Daquin's pretty Le Coucou, from his Piecea de Clavecm (1735) ? Whose curiosity is not raised by the title of Dandrieu's first Livre de pieces de Clavecin contenant plusiewrs divertissements dont les principauss sont les caracieres de la Guerre, ceux de la Chasse et la Fete de ViUage (1724) ? The superficially pleasing Daquin treats us to trifles with old and seemingly ever fresh themes, such as Le Cowou, Le Tambourin, La Musette, La Joyeuse, and La tendre Silvie, but also to rarer subjects, such as L'Hirondelle, Les Vents en courroux, La Guita/rre, and even to a series of scenes, Les Plaisirs de la Chasse: L'appel des chasseurs, Marche, L'appel des chiens. La prise dm, cerf. La cwree, and Rejouissance des chasseurs, Dandrieu's Fete de Village consists of five rustic dances, the programme of which lies in the rusticity of their * The complete works of Bameau are in course of publication under the direction of Saint-Saens. (Paris ; A. Durand et File.) 44 French Clavecinists, [Thibd character. The Chasse consists of six pieces : — (1) without special title, (2) Premiere Fanfare, (3) Second Bruit de Chasse, (4) Fanfare Rondeau, (5) Troisieme Bruit de Chasse, and (6) Fanfare. The horns are to the fore, and there is no pause in the bustle and joyousness, throughout set forth in 6/8 time. Les Caracteres de la Guerre were originally published (in 1718) for trumpets, bassoons, kettle-drums, violins, oboes, and fifes, with the sub-title Suite de Symphonies ajoutSe a I'Opira. The eight characters of war are as follows : Le Bouteselle, La Marche, Premiere Fanfare, Seconde Fanfare, La Charge, La Melee (in the course of which occur : Les Cris and Les Plaintes), La Victoire (Rondeau), and Le Triomphe. This composition contains here and there some really interesting touches of tone-painting, and is much better music than battle symphonies and sonatas usually are. Nevertheless Les Caracteres de la Guerre and La Chasse are examples of the lower, material kind of programme music. This is especially the case in La Charge and La MeUe of the former work. The higher kind of programme music is to be found in the other pieces, some of which are truly charming. Among these pieces we find interesting tone-painting in Les Tourhillons, Les Cascades, and La Cavalcade. The pieces named after instruments imitate the characteristics of the tunes written for them. La Gemissante and others are of real emotional expressiveness. It is impossible to deny Dandrieu's music prettiness, but it is extremely slight as well as mignonne. I must not omit to quote an interesting passage from Dandrieu's preface to his Livre de Pieces. After telling the reader that the cannon reports occurring in La Charge are indicated by a four-part common chord, Period.] Daqvm — Dandneu. 45 but that the player, in order to express better the noise of the cannon, might put the palm of the whole left hand on the lowest keys, the author proceeds thus : ' As to the names chosen by me, I have drawn them from the character of the pieces which they denote, so that they may determine their style and movement, and awaken simple ideas acquired by ordinary experience or common and natural sentiments. Perhaps I have not always succeeded.' [Fourth CHAPTEE IL FOUBTH PBKIOD (18tH CENTUET) : MOBB GENERAL STRIVING AFTER EXPEESSIVENES8 IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, AND SPREADING OF THE CULTIVATION OF PROGRAMME MUSIC — RAMEAU, HANDEL, J. S. BACH, DOMENICO SCARLATTI, TELBMANN, VIVALDI, AND GEMINIANI, GREAT MASTERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18tH century. Unlike the third, which is simple, the fourth is a complex period. We meet in it not only with miniature genre and portrait-painting in the style of the French Clavecin School, and isolated attempts at programme music on a larger scale and of a more ambitious nature, but we notice also a more general and more earnest striving after expressiveness throughout the whole domain of instrumental music, and a spreading of what, for brevity's sake, we will call the programmatic tendency in the narrow sense of the word. To study this aspect in the history of music, we have to direct our attention especially to three branches of the art : (a.) Overtures, entr'actes, and incidental music to plays, operas, oratorios, &c. ; (6.) Melodrama (from 1770 onward) ; and (c.) Sonata and symphony, especially the latter, and more especially that with a programme, of the last quarter of the 18th century. We have already seen that the Italian opera composers of the 17th century used the overture and incidental instrumental music for illustrative (programmatic) purposes. Their successors, ALESSANDEO SCAELATTI and others, foUowed them Period.] Bameau. 47 in this as far as the decreasing dramatic character of their works called for such illustration. LULLY, the principal founder of the French opera, availed himself to some slight extent of this means in the operas brought out by him at Paris in the seventies and eighties of the 17th century; his successors MAEAIS and MONTI^CLAIE did so in a higher degree; and J. PH. EAMBAU did so in a very high degree and most striking manner. Not one of Eameau's predecessors or contemporaries did as much as he did in the way of characteristic, that is, picturesque and expressive, instrumental music in opera. This striving of the composer's gave rise to the description of him as a • distillateur d'accords baroques,' and the levelling at him of the following amusing epigram : — ' Si le difficile est le beau, G'est un grand homme que Eameau ; Mais si le beau, par aventure, N'etait que la simple nature. Quel petit homme que Eameau ! ' The accompaniments and ritornelU of the arias and choruses of Eameau's operas are full of happy orchestral illustrations, and the independent incidental instrumental pieces are genuine programme music. Of the overture to Ndis (1749), which paints the contest of the Titans against Jove, Lavoix fits says that it was probably the first overture worthy the name that had been written. Notable instances of picturesque music are the sunrise, the sleep of Endymion, and the storm in Zdis. Besides programmes of the highest order, we also find programmes of the lowest. For instance, that of the overture to Acamthe et Cephise, which reads : (1.) ' Vobu de la nation ; (2.) Canon et feu ; (8.) Fanfare et Vive le Eoi.' 48 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fotjeth Quite legitimate are the imitations of the croaking of frogs, the braying of the ass, and the screeching of birds in Platee, which is a comic ballet. Taking up Da/rdanus, one of the master's best operas, we find opening the first act, after the Prologue, a ' Eitournelle tendre' (for which the second edition substitutes a ' Prelude ' of the same character) ; opening the second act, a ' Eitournelle vive ' (the stage represents a solitude), followed in the course of the act by the sorcerer Ismenor s incantation and a chorus of his ministers ; in the fourth act, the lulling to sleep of Dardanus by a 'troupe de Songes,' and his dreams (the announcement of ' Le monstre sortant des flots ' ; the orchestral piece ' Le ravage du monstre ' ; the songs ' Ah ! que votre sort est charmant,' with independent flute melodies; the instrumental 'Calme des sens,' and 'Air tendre'; the chorus 'La Gloire vous appelle'; the orchestral ' Triomphe ' ; the trio and chorus ' II est temps de courir aux armes '), the awakening of Dardanus, more descriptive music relative to the dragon, the tempest, and the fight ; after the fourth act, the orchestral piece ' Bruit de Guerre ' ; and, to mention one more of the innumerable interesting points, the sweet voluptuous 'Ariette gracieuse,' with the triplet runs in the accompaniment, which occurs in the third scene of the fifth act, when Venus and a 'troupe d'Amours et de Plaisirs ' are on the stage. Enough, I think, has been said to justify Eameau's right to the place given him here. It is strange that so powerful a composer and so voluminous a writer on music as Eameau has said so little on the subject of musical expression. Among the few things to be found in his writings is the following Pekiod.] Eameau — Handel. 49 fundamental statement from the sixteenth chapter of the Code de Musique Pratique. ' One may say that music — considered merely with regard to the different inflexions of the voice, and leaving out of account gesture — must have been our first language imtil terms for expressing ourselves had been invented. This language is born with us ; the child furnishes us with the proof.' In the same chapter {De I'Expression) Eameau says also : ' C'est a I'ame que la musique doit parler.' Among the great composers who have written pure instrumental music, it would be difficult to discover one less open to the suspicion of being a writer of programme music than HANDEL (1685-1759). His concertos, suites, fugues, and overtures, for whatever instrument or instruments, belong to the most absolute of absolute music. These compositions have a beautiful sonority, a pleasing harmoniousness, and a refreshing healthfulness ; but a deeper meaning they lack. Their most definite expression, as a rule, is that of the generic feelings of cheerfulness or sweet melancholy; their prevailing expression that of the primary and most general feeling, the joy in existence, the pleasure of the healthy in action and in repose. That in these circumstances the music not infrequently degenerates into a mere play with sounds cannot surprise. Handel's overtures have no reference to the works to which they are prefixed : you may exchange them — at least you may exchange the opera overtures, and you may exchange the oratorio overtures — without doing any harm. Charles Jennens, the compiler of the libretto of the Messiah, writes to a friend : ' I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the gravest faults in the composition, but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are 50 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah' Tes, whatever its absolute musical value may be, the overture is unworthy (that is, not in keeping with, not up to the height of, the argument) of the Messiah, and consequently also unworthy of the composer. The overture to Belshazzar has been claimed as a programme overture, but the claim cannot be admitted. Even the utilization of a subject from the body of the work, as in Joseph, does not necessarily make an overture programmatic. Handel's incidental symphonies, though more closely connected with the works than the overtures, are nevertheless for the most part neutral, or nearly so, as far as expression goes, being mere harmonious combinations of sounds, spirited and stirriag, but not particularly significant. At any rate, the character is not always obvious : it has to be ascertained by a careful consideration of the incidents and circumstances of the plot. Working on a large scale and in a large manner, he was often content to treat things conventionally, indicating his meaning, as it were, by a few quick, broad strokes and splashes of his brush. As instances of such neutral incidental music may be cited the symphonies in the second and third part of Saml, which bridge over gaps in the action, but do not depict the events that fill the gaps. The brisk symphony at the beginning of the third act of Solomon is, no doubt, meant to picture the brilliant reception of the Queen of Sheba. Descriptive of the intervening event as well as filling a gap in the bustling orchestral movement in Belshazzar, is the quaintly named ' Siafonia Postillions ' (so in the score of the German Handel Society : perhaps the last ' s ' should be an ' e '), which follows the king's Pebiod.] Hamdel. 51 words: 'Call all my wise men, sorcerers, Chaldeans, astrologers,' &c. Evidently a whole host of servants at once go post-haste in search of the desired counsellors. In Smmon, preceding Manoah's recitative ' Heav'n ! "What noise ! horribly loud,' there is a short symphony slightly descriptive of the confusion in the Temple of the Philistines. Saul has a chime symphony, on the theme of which is based the chorus ' Welcome, mighty king,' that life-like realization of the joyous excitement of the Israelites hailing the return of the victorious David. An example of abstention from tone-painting is to be found in Joshua, The words ' Sound the shrill trumpets, shout, and blow the horns,' are followed by a march for an orchestra including two trumpets and two horns, but about which there is nothing terrible whatever. Of course the Bible tells us only of * seven priests bearing trumpets of rams' horns.' But what of ' the people shouted with a great shout ' ? Our present- day composers would have more convincingly shown why the walls of Jericho fell. They cannot but regard Handel as totally blind to one of the most pregnant opportunities of sensational tone-painting, and guilty of one of the most flagrant sins of omission of a tone- painter. Exceptions, incidental pieces of a higher order, are the D@ad March in SauJ, and the Pastoral Symphony in the Messiah. But to see Handel as a soul- and body-painter by instrumental mea^s, we must turn to the accompaniments of the vocal parts of his works. There the orchestra is often picturesquely and emotionally illustrative, adding to and reinforcing the expression of the voices. As a rule the picturesque body-painting is discreet as well as effective. Only the fascination of the feathered songsters 62 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth leads the composer sometimes to overstep the line of wise moderation. A famous imitation of the kind is in the siith scene of the first act of the opera Rinaldo (1711). The stage direction runs : ' A delightful place with fountains, avenues, and an aviary in which birds are flying and singing.' Before the singer begins ' Augeletti, che cantate, Zefiretti, che spirate,' we hear a symphony of twenty-five bars in which two flutes and a flauto piccolo play the most important parts ; and the piccolo, the representative of the nightingale, concludes the aria with a long warble. Eead about this scene Addison's amusing paper in the Spectator (No. 5). Of course the reader remembers ' Hush, ye pretty warbling choir,' from Ads and Galatea (piccolo and violins), and, what is less certain, may know ' Hark ! 'tis the linnet and the thrush,' from Joshua (solo violin and flute). Among other compositions of Handel's with ornithological music there is L' Allegro, II Pensieroso ed II Moderato, a work that is brimful of tone-painting of all sorts. The orchestra tells us of ' loathed melancholy,' of ' deluding joys,' of the spirit of Venus and Bacchus, of the sprightliness, quips, cranks, smiles, and laughter of the Nymphs, of the tripping on the fantastic toe, of the devout, pure, sober, steadfast nun, of Mirth and her crew, of the sweet, musical, melancholy nightingale (flute), of the curfew bell, of the cricket on the hearth, of the running, murmuring brooks and rivers, of the towers and battlements among high-tufted trees, of the merry chimes and the jocund rebecks, of the whispering winds, &c., &c., &c. Turning to Israel in Egypt we meet with illustrations of jumping frogs, buzzing midges and flies, the rushing and crashing of hail, darkness, the waters overwhelming the enemy, &c. Very striking tone-painting is to be found in Juno's Period.] Handel. 53 recitative in Semele, 'Awake, Saturnia,' in connection with the words : ' And down, down, to the flood of Acheron, let her fall, fall, fall ! rolling down the daptha of night,' where the composer revels in the falling and rolling,— but the cursing and trembling, too, get their share of his attention. The mention of the illustration of falling and rolling reminds one of many questionable illustrations to be met with in Handel's works. Like other composers of his time, and earlier times, he could not easily pass words such as * ascend ' and ' descend ' ' high ' and ' low,' ' round ' and ' rugged ' 'flow ' and ' roll,' ' bound ' and ' walk ' ' joy ' and ' glory,' &c. If the illustra- tion is in proportion to the importance of the word, there can be no objection to the proceeding, but sometimes Handel accentuates and dwells on the subordiaate and iuessential. In fact, we find in his works examples as bad or nearly as bad as those censured in connection with Purcell's works. In Joshua, in the chorus ' Glory to God,' the words ' The nations tremble ' are artistically illustrated in the instrumental accompaniment, and inartistically in the vocal parts, where repercussion is employed, the first syllable of 'tremble' getting five monotone quavers and the second syllable one. 'And lovely life with pleasure steals away,' in Judas Maccdbceus, ends with a long trailing coloratura on the last syllable of the last word. ' Compassed round,' in Samson, and the swift roll and flow of Jordan's stream in Saul and else- where receive iusistent and persistent picturing. In these and other similar illustrations coloratura plays a chief part. Now, there is legitimate and illegitimate eohratwra. It is legitimate if it is appropriately expressive, and illegitimate if it is inappropriately expressive or merely intended for the display of bravura. It is extremely 54 Spreadmg Cultivation of Programme Music. [Poueth instructive to examine the choral and solo coloratura in the Messiah. The italicized words are the bearers and inspirers of the coloratwra. ' And he shall pmify ' (expressive of continual labour) ; ' For unto us a Child is horn ' (implied jo^) ; ' His yoke is easy ' ; 'All we like sheep have gone astray ' ; we have tv/rned ev'ry one to his own way ' ; ' He trusted in God that He would deliver Him if He delight in Him ' ; ' He is the King of Glory ' ; ' Great was his company' ; 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us ' ; ' Every valley shall be exalted ' ; 'He shall shake them ' ; ' He is like a refiner's fire ' ; ' Rejoice greatly ' ; ' "Why do the nations rage ' ; and ' This mortal must put on immortal.' To return to Handel's illustrative accompaniments, the following examples are noteworthy : — ' Why does the God of Israel sleep ? ' in Samson, where the orchestra with its scales, trills, and rolling figures paints the excitement of the speaker and illustrates words and phrases such as these : ' Arise with dreadful sound, — thy thunder deep, — the trumpet of the wrath now raise, — in whirlwinds them pursue ' ; ' Let there be light,' in the same oratorio, where, after the unaccompanied voices, the orchestra strikes in forte with brilliant figures ; the Witch of Endor's conjuration and the appearance of Samuel, in Saul, where an eerie effect is produced both by the drawing and the colouring (the employment of the bassoons should be specially noticed) ; Joseph's interpre- tation of Pharaoh's dream, in Joseph, with dream-like interludes ; and the chorus ' Scenes of horror, scenes of woe,' in Jephthah. Not to be wearisome, I shall add only a few familiar, but beautiful and striking examples from the Messiah, a masterpiece, familiarity with which prevents us from appreciating its superlative qualities : Pebiod.J Hcmdel — J. S. Bach. 65 the accompaniments to ' Why do the nations so furiously rage together,' * AH they that see Him, laugh Him to scorn ' ; ' Thou shalt break them ' ; ' thou that tallest glad tidings to Zion ' ; ' Surely He hath borne our griefs ' (expressive of heavy weight) ; ' And lo ! the Angel of the Lord came upon them ' ; and ' And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host.' The last two are given to show how much can be done by a few slight touches — here to suggest the celestial brightness and serenity. It is to be hoped that the reader is as conscious as the writer of the fact that little has been said of the illustration of the emotional accents and rhythms by the orchestra, and of Handel's most potent means of tone-paiating, the voice, which after all is the first of musical instruments. Moreover, whatever critical thoughts may sometimes arise in our minds with regard to Handel's works — about the predominance in them of generic over specific feelings and the limited sympathies of sturdy strength, their conventionalism, and even mannerism, and the lack of inventiveness of instrumental figures — ^we have to confess that in the master's presence we are silenced by the authoritativeness of his imposing personality, whose every act, word, and tone seems to be exactly what it ought to be if seen from his point of view. Let us, then, turn our backs on criticism, and reverently pay due homage to the man of power, the great genius, and the consummate artist. J. S. BACH (1685-1760) was in his instrumental music, even in his most recondite fugues, more intent on specific expression, and less easily content with conventionalism, than Handel. A comparison of Bach's and Handel's instrumental compositions brings out a 56 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Poueth great contrast. You will look in the latter's works in vain for anything that could be placed by the side of the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor for the organ, the'^ Chromatic Fantasia for the clavier, the Chaconne for the violin, and the Air for stringed instruments in the D major orchestral suite. I mention only a few things that every one knows, but I might have continued the enumeration ad infinitum. For instance, to how many romantic slow movements in concertos, sonatas, &c., might I not have pointed? Bach's instrumental music displays, on the one hand, emotional intensity and finely differentiated characterization, and, on the other hand, a wealth of artistic inventiveness and ingenuity immeasurably superior to Handel's. What would not Bach have accomplished in the nature of expression if the fugal form and the close contrapuntal texture had not restrained him ! For although this form and this texture are favourable to the expression of some states and ideas, they are unfavourable to a much greater number of others. They hamper the freedom of movement even in one who, like Bach, plays with the greatest contrapuntal difficulties. Was not J. S. Bach a clandestine cultivator of programme music ? Such a suspicion might easily be justified by strikingly speaking instances from his purely instrumental works, but it could still more easily be justified by the instrumental portions of his vocal works — the overtures; incidental symphonies ; preludes, interludes, and postludes ; and the accompaniments. What more speaking than the wailing introductory symphony of the opening chorus, 'Come, ye daughters, weep with me,' of the Passion according to St. Matthew; than the clanging, warbling, and whirring of the trumpets, flutes, oboes, bassoon, Period.] J. S. Bach. 57 and stringed instruments in the symphonies and accompaniments of the first chorus in the Christmas Oratorio, ' Jauchzet, frohlocket ! auf, preiset die Tage ' ; than the independent orchestral piece, that exquisite and true pastoral symphony, preceding the words 'Und es waren Hirten ia derselben Gegend,' in the second part of the same work ; than the instrumental accompaniments to the chorus in the third part, ' Lasset uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem,' in which the impatience of the shepherds to see for themselves what has happened at Bethlehem is well described, especially by the semiquavers of the violins ; than the Sinfonia of two movements that opens the Easter Oratorio; than the Sinfonia {Adagio assai) prefixed to the Cantata ' Ich hatte viel Bekiimmerniss ' ; than the long introductory symphony to the first chorus of the Magnificat ! Eeturning to the Passion according to St. Matthew, let me remind the reader of three excellent examples of programme music : (1.) The rending of the veil of the Temple in the recitative, ' And behold the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top imto the bottom'; (2.) The symphonies and accompaniments to the chorus, ' man, thy many sins lament ' ; and (3.) The symphonies and accompaniments to the aria (with violin solo) ' Have mercy upon me, Lord.' But J. S. Bach has left us also an acknowledged example of programme music in the narrow sense of the word. It is the jeu d'esprit entitled Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo {Capriccio on the departure of his very dear brother), composed at the age of nineteen (1704), with the impression of the recently published Bible Sonatas of Kuhnau fresh in his mind. The superscriptions of the several parts are : (1.) Arioso, Adagio, ' Cajolery by his friends to dissuade him from 58 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth his journey ' ; (2.) ' Eepresentation of the different accidents which might befall him in foreign parts ' ; (3.) Adagiosissimo, ' General lament of his friends ' ; (4.) ' Here his friends, seeing that it cannot be otherwise, take leave of him'; (5.) Poco Allegro, ' Air of the Postillion ' ; and (6.) * Fugue in imitation of the Postillion's horn.' Delightful and amusing as this jeu d'esprit is, it will be readily admitted that an immense deal of the master's instru- mental music without published programmes has more significance, is, in short, of a higher order and of a more genuine kind of programme music, than this capriccio. The admirable spirited pieces of DOMENICO SCAELATTI (1685-1757), the contemporary of J. S. Bach and Handel, often conjure up human faces and figures, smiling, laughing, and grimacing, dancing, capering, and frolicking. Nevertheless, the master was no doubt to some extent right when, in the preface to the thirty Essercizi published by him, he says : ' Eeader, whether you be amateur or professional, do not expect in these compositions profound intention, but rather ingenious sport (scherzo) of the art, to perfect yourself in easy freedom (per addestrarti alia franchezza) on the harpsichord.' Only we must not accept his statement too literally. It is one of the greatest mistakes to think that the history of the development of an art can be fully read in the achievements of the few outstanding geniuses whose names are in everybody's mouth. Often — I am not sure whether I ought not to say oftenest— the seeds and germs of progress are to be found in the less perfect works of the minor masters. This truth will be illustrated by some of the composers to whom the reader's attention will now be called. Period.] J. S. Bach — D. Scarlatti — Telemann. 59 A slight allusion suffices in the case of GOTTLIEB MUFF AT (1690-1770), and the pieces La Harddease, La Coquette, and Menuet en Comes de Chasse in his Componimenti of 1739 ; a more^mphatic allusion is due to CHEISTOPH GEAUPNEE and his four clavier suites of 1733, entitled The Fov/r Seasons ; and to J. J, FUX— to us best known as the author of the contrapuntal treatise Grades ad Pamassvm — and his orchestral suite consisting of an overture celebrating Spring, and move- ments superscribed Pour Le Rosignol, Menuet, Passepied, Air, Gigue, Pour la CailU, and Pov/r le Coucou. I must dwell somewhat longer on GEOEG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681-1767), an extraordinarily prolific composer, and one of the most famous musicians of his time. Two orchestral suites of his, the acquaintance with which I owe to Dr. Hugo Eiemann, engage our attention, for they are programme music, and the programmes are interesting. One of them is called Wassermusik (water music). It begins with an overture in which we cannot fail to recognize a calm, smooth sea in the Grave (mark the sustained notes of the oboes, and afterwards of the violins and viola), and a breeze and rippling waves in the Allegro. The movements that follow are entitled : (2.) The sleeping Thetis ; (8.) The wakening Thetis ; (4.) The amorous Neptune ; (5.) The playful Naiads ; (6.) The sportive Tritons ; (7.) The stormy ^olus ; (8.) The pleasant Zephyr ; (9.) Ebb and Flood ; and (10.) The merry Mariners. Of still greater interest is the other suite, that which bears the title Don Quixote. As the overture has no special title, it may be supposed to have a general character, in other words, to be an introduction to the whole conception of Cervantes. The titles of the remaining members run as follows: 60 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Poueth (2.) La reveille de Quichotte ; (8.) Son attaque des moulins a vent; (4.) Les goupirs amoureux apres laprincesse d' Aline ; (5.) Sanche Panche herni (blanketed) ; (6.) Le galop de Rosinante; (7.) Celui de Vane de Sanche; and (8.) Le coucher de Quichotte. The fancifulness of the titles is here in most cases more striking than their significance. The latter, apart from the overtures, is most apparent in the frolicking No, 6, the boisterous No. 7, and the jolly No. 10 of the Water Music; and in the bustling, determined No. 3, the sighing No. 4, the tossing and tumbling No. 6, the galloping Nos. 6 and 7 of Don Quixote. Telemann shows himself rather a ready and spirited writer than an original and profound one. The amusing externalities are better hit off than the weightier intemalities. But one thing ought to be acknowledged, and that is the admirable craftsmanship of men like Telemann, Graupner, and other contempo- raries of Bach and Handel. The wider one's acquaintance with their work, the higher they rise in one's esteem. The spirited and inventive Venetian violinist and composer ANTONIO VIVALDI (c. 1680-1743) contributes some extremely interesting examples of programme music. The first three concertos of his Op. 10 have titles : (1.) La Tempesta di Mare (Storm on the Sea) ; (2.) La Notte (the Night) ; (3.) II Gardellino {i.e., Cardellino, the Goldfinch). In addition to these headings, there occur two further superscriptions in the course of the second concerto — Fantasmi (Fantasms) over the second movement (Presto), and II Sonno (Sleep) over the fifth (Largo) . As to the tone-painting indicated by these titles, we may say that the somewhat stormy character of the first movement of the first concerto is more likely to have suggested the title, than the idea of a tempest the music. Pbbiod.] Telemann — Vivaldi. 61 The second concerto is of a more decidedly programmatic character. The sombreness of the first movement (Night), the eccentric figures of the second (Fantasms), and the softness and vagueness of the fifth, with its winding melodic lines and muted instruments (Sleep), are truly illustrative. Op. 8 is even more interesting than Op. 10. Let us note first the general title : II Cimento dell' Armonia e deW Inventione (The Trial of Harmony and Invention) ; and next the passage of the dedication in which the author says that he publishes the four concertos entitled The Four Seasons (the first four of the Opus) not only with four sonnets but also with a most distinct declaration of all the things set forth in them. Accordingly there follow four sonnets : (1.) La Primavera (Spring) ; (2.) L'Estate (Summer) ; (3.) L'Autimno (Autumn) ; (4.) L'Inverno (Winter). These sonnets are divided into lettered parts, and the lettered parts, preceded by a short summary, are placed above those passages of the music to which they apply. Briefly stated the content is as follows : — Spring. — (a.) Spring is come; (&.) The festive birds salute it with their merry songs ; (c.) The fountains run with a soft murmur under the breath of the zephyrs ; (d.) The sky becomes overcast, and thunder and lightning ensue ; (e.) When calm is restored, the birds recommence their singing ; (/.) On the flowery meadow, amidst the rustling of leaves and plants, sleeps the goat-herd with his faithful dog by his side ; (g.) Pastoral Dance to the sound of the rustic bagpipe. Summer. — (a.) The heat of the sun makes man and flock languid ; (b.) The cuckoo sings ; (c.) The dove and the goldfinch ; {d.) First zephyrs, then suddenly Boreas ; (e.) Lament of the fearful villager ; (f.) Fear of lightning and 62 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth thunder and swarms of flies disturb his repose ; (g.) The heavens thunder and lighten, and the hail destroys the ears of com. Auivmn.^a.) The villagers celebrate the harvest festival with dance and song ; (b.) Bacchus seduces many ; (c.) Sleep concludes their enjoyment ; (d,) Dance and song cease and all are wrapped in sweet slumber ; (e.) The hunters set out at dawn with horns, guns, and dogs; (/.) The fleeing quarry is followed ; (g.) Stunned and tired by the noise of shots and barks, it is wounded ; (h.) It dies fleeing. Winter.— (a.) Shivering with cold ; (b.) A terrible wind; (c.) Eunning and stamping from cold; (d.) The teeth chatter ; (e.) Feeling quiet and contented by the fireside, while outside the rain pours down ; (/.) Walking on the ice; (g.) Walking cautiously and timidly; (h.) Walking boldly, slipping, and falling ; (i.) Eunning boldly on the ice ; (I.) The ice breaks up and melts ; (m.) The sirocco ; (w.) Boreas and all the winds at war. [And farther on in the same section :] This is Spring, bringing with it joy. In the external and internal tone-painting which Vivaldi seriously attempts in these compositions, he makes use of characteristic accents and figures, frequent forte, piano, and pianissimo indications, more than usual legato and staccato markings, and occasional muting of the strings. Compared with his contemporaries, Vivaldi shows himself in several respects in advance of his time. Of another great violinist and composer for his instrument, FEANCESCO GEMINIANI (1680-1762), mention has to be made both on account of a theory and of a work. I shall quote Sir John Hawkins's account. He writes in his History of Music thus : ' About the Period.] Vivaldi — Geminicmi. 63 same time [about the year 1755] he published what he called the Enchanted Forest, an instrumental composition, grounded on a very singular notion, which he had long entertained, namely, that between music and the discursive faculty there is a near and natural resemblance ; and this he was used to illustrate by a comparison between those musical compositions in which a certain point is assumed in one part and answered in the other with frequent iterations, and the form and manner of oral conversation. With a view to reduce this notion to practice, Geminiani has endeavoured to represent to the imagination of his hearers the succession of events in that beautiful episode contained in the thirteenth canto of Tasso's "'Jerusalem," where, by the arts of Ismeno, a pagan magician, a forest is enchanted, and each tree informed with a living spirit, to prevent its being cut down for the purpose of making battering-rams and other engines for carrying on the siege of Jerusalem.' Hawkins says that the publication of The Enchanted Forest preceded that of the two numbers of a work entitled The Harmonical Miscellany. Fetis wrongly states that the work is contained in the Miscelkmy ; but until recently the composition itself was lost sight of. Now, however, we know of an autograph copy at the Eoyal College of Music, and a printed one newly acquired by the British Museum. The autograph copy bears the words 'Gift of Francesco Geminiani, the author, to James Mathias,' and is dated Dec. 7, 1761. The Italian title runs thus : La Selva Incantata del Tasso, composizione istntmentale. The printed copy bears the title : The Inchanted Forrest. An Instrumental Composition Expressive of the same Ideas as the Poem of Tasso of that Title. The part for the 64 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth horns has, however, the superscription: La Foresta incantata. There are parts for first and second vioHn, first and second ripieno violin, first and second viola, violoncello (figured), basso ripieno (figmred), first and second flute, first and second horn, and trumpet (employed only in the second part). The work consists of two parts, each of which comprises a series of continuous movements — the first of twelve and the second of fourteen movements, varying in length from a few bars, or even one, to as many as over ninety. Apart from the title, there are no programmatic indications either in the way of preface or superscriptions. The music is fresh and pleasing as music ; and if the title were not there to suggest a programme, few would guess that the composer had one in his mind. Nevertheless it would be impossible not to be struck by the expressive qualities of the composition ; and here and there — by a more than usual amount of modulation, by dramatic touches, by passages where thought rather than sweetness seems to be aimed at — the attentive reader or hearer would be led to the conviction that the master is wrestling with expression. Some light may be thrown on Geminiani's views by a passage in his The Art of Playing on the Violin (1751). Treating of musical ornaments, he writes : ' This [the Beat] is proper to express several Passions ; as, for example, if it be performed with strength, and continued long, it expresses Fury, Anger, Eesolution, &c. If it be play'd less strong and shorter, it expresses Mirth, Satisfaction, &c. But if you play it quite soft, and swell the Note, it may then denote Horror, Fear, Grief, Lamentation, &c. By making it short and swelling the Note, it may express Affection and Pleasure.' Period.] CHAPTEE III. FOURTH PERIOD (18tH CENTURT) CONTINUED: MUSIC TO PLAYS, PROGRAMMATIC MATTER IN ALL KINDS OP VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND MELODRAMA SCHEIBE, AGRICOLA, ETC., GLUCK, C. PH. E. BACH, HATDN, AND MOZART, ROUSSEAU, BBNDA, ETC. Programme music of a more serious kind than that discussed at the end of the preceding chapter we have in the music to plays — overtures and entr'actes — that began to be written in the second quarter of the 18th century. J. A. SCHEIBE (1708-1776) is said to have been the first to cultivate this field, writing in 1738 music to Corneille's Polyeucte and Eacine's Mithridate. He tells us in the Kritischer Musikus (No. 67, p. 617) that the opening symphony must refer to the first act; the symphonies between the acts partly to the close of the preceding and partly to the beginning of the following act; and the concluding symphony to the last act. This double relation of the entr'actes has, however, not been generally adopted by composers. For instance, the later J. F. Agricola (1720-1774), in his music to Voltaire's Semiramis, connects the entr'actes with the preceding act. Lessing discusses Agricola's music and the whole subject of music to plays in his Hamburgische Dramatwrgie of July 28, 1767. He condemns entr'actes related to the following act because they anticipate and thereby weaken the effects of the play. Lessing's view was that in plays the orchestra takes the place of the antique chorus. This author also informs us that connoisseurs had long 66 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foueth wished that music to plays should be more in keeping with the contents. Of other composers who wrote music to plays may be mentioned : Job. Christ. Hertel (1726- 1789), with his music to Cronegk's Olint wnd Sophronia; Michael Haydn (1737-1806), with his music to Voltaire's Zaire; Abbe Vogler (1749-1814), with his music to Shakespeare's Hamlet; and Mozart, with his music to Von Gebler's drama Thames, Konig in Egypten. More important and voluminous than the instru- mental music to plays is that to operas. Here we meet now CHEISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK (1714-1787), the reformer, the hero among opera composers. The utterances of the master that more especially characterize his mature views on music are a passage in a letter addressed to J. B. Suard, printed in the Jowrnal de Paris of' October 21, 1777, and a passage in the preface to Alceste, published in 1769. From the former we learn that Gluck considered 'music not merely as the art of amusing the ear, but as one of the grandest means of moving the heart and of exciting the affections.' In the latter he says : ' I thought that the overture ought to prepare the spectators for the action about to be represented, and to form, so to speak, its argument ; that the instrumental accompaniments should be regulated according to the interest and passion of the drama.' Other utterances of his, however, throw additional light on his views. To Corancez, a Paris acquaintance, Gluck remarked in conversation : ' When composing, I strive above all things to forget that I am a musician.' This somewhat obscure saying may be elucidated by the following observations from the preface to Alceste- ' Again, I have thought that my main task should be to seek a noble simplicity, and I have avoided parading Period.] Oluck. 67 difficulties at the cost of clearness. The discovery of any novelty I have considered precious only in so far as it was naturally called forth by the situation, and was in harmony with the expression. Lastly, there is no rule I have not thought it my duty to sacrifice willingly ia order to secure an effect.' In another part of the same document Gluck seems to assign a rather low role to music: 'I endeavoured to reduce music to its true function, that of supporting the poetry by strengthening the expression of the sentiments and the interest of the situations without interrupting the action or weakening it by superfluous ornaments. It seemed to me that music should do for poetry what the vivacity of colours and the well-matched contrast of light and shade do for a correct and well-proportioned design, which serve to animate the figures without altering their contours.' Here the reformer escapes from the control of the philosopher. The comparison is bad, the balance not being fairly held between poetry and music. Gluck must have come to see this himself, for eight years later he wrote the first of the above quotations, the declaration which speaks of music as the grandest means of moving the heart, that is, speaks of music having immeasurably greater powers than he allowed it to have in the last quotation. Moreover, let us not overlook that the master himself says that he had not always this high idea of the powers of the art he cultivated. For a long time he was a traditionalist and time-server, and wrote conventional Italian operas and French operettas. It was not till the age of forty-eight that he brought out at Vienna his first reform opera, Orfeo ed Euridice. Strange to say, notwithstanding his description of what an opera overture ought to be, only one of the 68 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth overtures of his reform operas corresponds with his description. The overture to Orfeo (1762) is a mere lively curtain raiser, -with no particular appropriateness to the work to which it is prefixed ; indeed, it is more appropriate to many another opera than to this. The desirableness of overtures essentially connected with the contents of the operas, of significant premonitory forewords, does not seem to have presented itself to his mind until he undertook to write his second reform opera Alceste, in the preface to which he records his newly- obtained view of the matter. But of Alceste, Paride ed Elena, Armide, and Iphigenie en Tauride, it cannot be said that they altogether conform to his prescription. There is a connection between the overtures and the operas, but only to some extent and in some degree. The overture to Alceste (1767) may be said to picture the sadness of Alcestis ; and that to Paride ed Elena (1769) the pomp and passion of the Trojan lover, the doubts and regrets of Helena, and the festive rejoicings. Marx calls the latter overture the first of Gluck's that is closely related to the drama. The overture to Armide (1777) had already served twice — for Telemacco and for Le Feste d'Apollo. The connection therefore can be only of a very general nature. As to the overture to Iphiginie en Tauride (1779), a distinctly programmatic composition, it is an introduction to the first act, not the argument of the opera. The programme is indicated by the composer by means of superscriptions : a Calm, Storm at a distance, Storm approaches nearer, Eain and Hail, and the Storm ceases. Not one of these five overtures, although they are not without merit, is — what the often played and greatly admired overture to Iphigenie en Aulide is in so eminent Period.] Gluck. 69 a degree — a poetic conception of the first order, great in truth, power, and beauty of expression. All of them are absent from the concert repertoire, and nobody mentions them nowadays even when the operas are discussed. Altogether dififerent is the overture to Iphigenie en AvMde (1774). In it Gluck comes before us as the first composer of a meaningful opera overture. If you are in doubt as to the poetic basis of the master's overture to Iphigenie en Aulide, read Eichard Wagner's enthusiastic interpretation of it in his essay On the Overture. There the later composer says that the earlier master 'draws the principal thought of the drama in mighty lines and with an almost obvious distinctness.' In his Gluck's Overture to ' Iphigenia in Aulis ' Wagner describes the content as follows: — (1.) A motive of Invocation from painful, gnawing heart-sorrow; (2.) A motive of force, of an imperious, overwhelming demand ; (3.) A motive of grace and maidenly tenderness ; and (4.) A motive of painful, tormenting sympathy.' In short, the overture is the distillation of the emotional essence of the drama. ' Though Gluck studies simple nature in his cantilena, or voice part,' says Bumey, ' yet in his accompaniments he is not only often learned, but elaborate, and in this particular he is an excellent painter; his instruments frequently delineate the situation of the actor, and give a high colouring to passion.' In speaking of ' learned ' and 'elaborate,' the historian is not felicitous in the choice of his words ; for Gluck's accompaniments were as a rule extremely simple, sometimes even bald, never learned, and hardly ever elaborate. But Burney was right in the main: Gluck could on occasion be an excellent painter. A few examples of incidental 70 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Poueth instrumental music and accompaniments from two of his operas will prove it. In Orph^e may be pointed out the pantomime of the mourners at the tomb of Euridice; the ritornello expressive of Orpheus's grief after the words addressed to his friends, ' I would remain alone with my sorrow ' ; the powerfully characteristic dances of the Furies; the ballet music descriptive of the peacefulness and blissfulness of the Elysian Fields ; the exquisitely conceived and scored accompaniments to the quasi-recitative ' How pure the sky, how bright the sun, how sweet the fluttering sounds of the beautiful winged singers that are heard in the vale! — the whispering of the air, the murmuring of the brooklet, everything inviting here to eternal peace ' ; and, besides other matters worthy of attention, the accompaniments to the gruesome chorus of the Furies, in the second of which occurs the famous howling of Cerberus, so much admired by Berlioz. Again, in IphigSnie may be pointed out the mysteriousness of the priest Calchas's declaration of Diana's will; the plaintive cries of nature (oboe and bassoon) in Agamemnon's aria ' Peuvent-ils ordonner'; the quickly-changing thoughts in his recitative ' Tu decides son sort ' ; the anger and indignation in Clytemnestra's aria 'Armez-vous d'un noble courage ' ; and the high-strung emotionalism of her recitative and aria when Iphigenia is led to the sacrifice, especially the former, which is worthy to be placed beside Donna Anna's recitative in Don Giovcmni on discovering her dead father, and probably was the inspirer and model of it : ' You hear the cries of a furious people . . . Mighty gods, I invoke you. No ! no ! no ! I will not suffer it . . . plunge the knife into the mother's breast . . . Ah, I faint beneath the Period.] Gluck—C. Ph. E. Bach. 71 weight of sorrow . . . my daughter ..." I see her under the inhuman knife . . . her barbarous father sharpening the knife with his own hands! A priest surrounded by a cruel crowd dares touch her with his criminal hand. See, he mangles her breast, and with his prying eye looks into the palpitating heart, consulting the will of the gods. Hold your hand ! Bloody monsters, tremble ! It is the pure blood of the sovereign of the gods with which you dare to redden the earth' — ' Mighty Jove, cast forth thy lightning.' Gluck produces often grand, sublime, and picturesque effects. Nevertheless both his musical inventiveness and craftsmanship were very limited. He could write smoothly and pleasingly, could write naturally and with ease. Greatness he achieved only by intellectual efforts, by calculation. In this he differs toto ccelo from his immediate successor, Mozart, distinguished by unsurpassed spontaneous creativeness as well as by supreme craftsmanship. One might say paradoxically, if Gluck had been a greater composer of absolute music, he would have been a greater composer of programme music. J. S. Bach's great, but now too little known and appreciated son C. PH. E. BACH (1714-1788), one of the chief propagators of the ' gallant ' (elegant) style in instrumental music (so called in contradistinction to the grave, contrapuntal style), must, judging by the nature of his genius and the character of his instrumental music, have a considerable amount of programme music among his sonatas and symphonies. Of revealed programmes we find among his compositions comparatively few. Among the shorter pieces we meet with titles like those of the French school : musical portraits with Christian, 72 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foueth family, or characteristic names, such as La Louise, La Caroline, and La Philippine ; La Gleim, La Pot, and La Stahl; and La Jov/rnaliere, La Sybille, La Complaisante, La Capricieuse, and L'lrr^solue ; or picturings of moods such as Leg Languews tend/res, &c. But he also published a larger composition with a detailed programme, a trio for two Tiolins and bass, a Dialogue between a Sanguimcm and a Melancholicus. These two dispute with, and try to convert each other in the first and the second movement, and the Melancholicus gives in at the end of the latter. In the third movement, they remain at one, although the Mehmcholicus has lapses into sadness. The composer describes the course of the dialogue, and mentions no fewer than forty-two points. C. Ph. E . Bach does not give titles, still less programmes to his sonatas, symphonies, and fantasias, but their expressiveness is such as to make one suspect that there must often have been something of the sort in the composer's mind. Eeichardt said of a Sonata in F minor presented to him by the master that, ' thanks to his genius, it was more speaking, more singing, more ravishing than anything I can imagine.' The speaking nature of the music shows itself in the melody generally, but in a particular way in the recitative-like passages he sometimes introduces. C. H. Bitter, C. Ph. E. Bach's biographer, found on an old copy of the Sonata in F minor written in red pencil : ' The April day drawn from nature.' But the most curious fact bearing on the speaking expression of that master's music is that the poet H. W. von Gerstenberg wrote two sets of words to a Fantasia of C. Ph. E . Bach's — ' Socrates drinking the poison cup,' and ' Hamlet's monologue ' — and derived the two differing vocal melodies for the words from the florid right-hand clavier part. The original clavier Pebiod.J C. Ph. E. Bach—Joseph Haydn. 73 Fantasia appeared in 1753 in the volume of examples (pp. 19-20) accompanying Bach's Versueh Uber die wahre Ah das Clavier zu spielen, and Gerstenberg'S versions with words in 1787 in C. P. Cramer's Flora (Kiel). All this can be conveniently studied in the Vierteljahrsschriftfiir Mmikgeschiehte of 1891 (Part I., pp. 5-14). Along with this let us remember C. Ph. E. Bach's opinion that the clavier player can, especially by improvisations if they come from a good musical soul, produce a speaking expression and quick emotional transitions better than any other musical performer. The Fantasia in question he puts forward as a proof. But he says also that the musician to be able to move must himself be moved. It may not be superfluous to point out the similarity of the emotional substratum of the two texts, and the unlikelihood that any sensible person should pretend that the music expresses the entire contents of the words, intellectual and emotional. Gerstenberg's example, however, cannot be recommended for imitation. It would not often be possible to find such favourable'' conditions and obtain such happy results as he found and obtained. Every one, if he has not actually heard, has at least heard of the tone-painting in The Creation and The Seasons of JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809). In these works for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, we find grand pictures, slight sketches, and descriptive touches ; and these pictures, sketches, and touches are of all sorts. The Creation begins with an instrumental introduction representing Chaos ; and the four parts of The Seasons open with introductions representing respectively 'Transition from Winter to Spring,' 'Dawn,' 'The peasants' joyous feelings at the rich harvest,' and 74 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foubth ' The thick mist with which Winter begins.' Apart from the innumerable imitations of the expression of the emotions — the most valuable imitations — we have in The Creation the picturing of light ('Let there be light') ; of the throng of hell's black spirits sinking to the deep abyss ; of lightning, thunder, rain, and wind ; of the billowing sea, the flowing river, and the gliding purling brook; of the roaring lion, the flexible tiger, and the noble steed ; of the peaceful herds and flocks ; of the eagle soaring on mighty pens, the cooing dove, the merry lark, and the tuneful nightingale ; of the flashing shoal of fish and the immense leviathan; of the buzzing host of insects ; of the sinuous serpent, &c. In The Seasons we have the picturing of fleeing winter and his howling ruffian winds, the torrents of melting snow, the tepid air of spring and zephyr's breath ; of the morning light on the mountain tops, the rising sun, dusky night, and gloomy caves ; of the whispering foliage and murmuring streamlet ; of thrilling nerves ; of the ill-omened lich-owl, shrill-voiced cock, bounding lambkins, sporting fish, twittering birds, chirping cricket, croaking frogs, bright-coloured insects, and barking dogs ; of the whirring spinning-wheel ; of the shepherd's pipe, the merry fife and drum, the loud hunting horns, the spaniel roving in search of scent, the fleeing stag, and the pursuing men, horses, and dogs. Of the many scenes conjured up vividly before the reader, I will yet mention the thunderstorm in The Seasons and the moods of nature and man that precede and follow it. Haydn has been often blamed for his childlike delight and ready indulgence in the painting of material things ; but it should be acknowledged that his painting of material things is, far from being Period.] Haydm. 75 crude, almost always genuinely artistic as well as sufficiently suggestive, and — although often superfluous and sometimes unduly prominent — ^for the most part discreet, i.e., in subordination to the painting of the emotions. But among Haydn's compositions there is a purely instrumental work that is undoubted programme music — ^namely, The Seven last Words of our Saviour on the Cross, which he wrote in 1785 for use in the cathedral of Cadiz on Good Friday. Originally written for orchestra,* the master arranged it immediately afterwards for string quartet, and fifteen years later transformed it into a cantata. The work consists of seven Adagios illustrating the seven sentences spoken by Christ from the Cross : 'Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do.' ' Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' * Woman, behold thy son ; and thou, behold thy mother.' 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.' ' I thirst.' ' It is finished.' ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' The conclusion is formed by a Presto, entitled ' The earthquake ' ; for does not St. Matthew say : ' The earth did quake, and the rocks rent ' ? Haydn, in a letter to the publisher Forster, writes : ' The last words of the Saviour are expressed in such a manner by instrumental music that the deepest impression must be awakened in the most inexperienced.' After this the question will be asked : ' How about the sonatas, trios, quartets, and symphonies ? ' Well, none of them have explicit programmes, and only a few of the symphonies have titles. Some of these titles, however, do not indicate a programme ; nor are we able * The composer produced it in Iiondon under the title of PaBsione instrumentale. 76 Spreading Cidtivation of Programme Music. [Foukth to tell which were given by the composer and which by others. The Maria Theresa Symphony is so called because it was played before that Empress ; La Beine de France, no doubt, because it pleased Queen Marie Antoinette; and the Oxford because it was performed there on the occasion of the composer's receiving the honorary degree of doctor of music. The Surprise Symphony owes its title to the kettledrum effect in the Andante ; The Clock Symphony to the tic-tac in the Andante ; the Boxelane Symphony to the utilization of the French romance of the same name in the Andante; L'Owrs and La Chasse to the character of the last movement ; and the Military Symphony to the character of the second movement. Why another symphony bears the title La Poule is not known. The Farewell Symphony was a musical petition to Prince Esterhazy not to keep the band any longer at his palace in Hungary, and away from Vienna and their families. The programme music is in the last two movements, during the latter of which the members of the band one by one depart, till at last only two violinists are left. Noteworthy are the three early symphonies Le Midi, Le Matin, and Le Soir. As to the programmes of the symphonies with the following titles, they are unknown : Laudon, The Schoolmaster^ Lamentations, II Distratto,. The Philosopher, &c. It is of course impossible to gather from titles to what extent Haydn was a programme composer. His biographers, however, throw some light on this subject. Griesinger (see his Biographische Notizen iiber Haydn, 1810) was told by Haydn : ' I sit down to the pianoforte,, and begin to extemporize, sadly or joyously, gravely or playfully, as my mood happens to be. When I have Pbbiod.] Haydn. 77 laid hold of an idea my whole endeavour aims at elaborating and sustaining it in accordance with the rules of the art.' But the master also told his biographer that he had often depicted moral characters in his symphonies ; and that in one of the oldest of them the ruling idea was how God spoke with a hardened sinner, and begged him to mend his ways, but without making any impression. The poet Giuseppe Carpani, another biographer, relates (in Le Haydine ovvero Lettere suUa vita e le opere del celebre maestro Giuseppe Haydn, 1812 and 1823) that Haydn, after washing and dressing as if he were going out, began his work by ' weaving a kind of romance or programme on which to hang the musical ideas and colours.' In this way he both stimulated his imagination and directed it into a given channel. On one occasion the composer imagined a friend, rich in a large family and poor in worldly goods, setting out for America to improve his circumstances, succeeding in his project, and returning in safety. The principal vicissitudes of this enterprise formed the subject of the symphony: Embarcation of the adventurer ; departure of the vessel with a favourable wind, and the lamentation of the family and the good wishes of the friends on shore ; a prosperous voyage; arrival in strange lands ; barbarous sounds, dances, and voices are heard (about the middle of the symphony) ; after an advantageous exchange of merchandise the homeward voyage is entered upon ; propitious winds blow (return of the first motive of the symphony), then a terrible storm supervenes (a confusion of tones and chords) ; cries of the passengers, roaring of the sea, whistling of the wind (the melody passes from the chromatic to the pathetic) ; fear and anxiety of the wretched voyagers (augmented and 78 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foubth diminished chords, and semitone modulations) ; the elements become calm again ; the -wished-for country is reached ; joyful reception by family and friends ; general happiness. Although Haydn had pointed it out to him, and Pichl had cited it, Carpani did not remember what symphony this was. In another symphony, which the biographer likewise failed to identify, Haydn is said to have given a dialogue between God and an obstinate sinner, ' shadowing forth in it the parable of the prodigal son.' * And,' adds Carpani, ' in this way were produced other symphonies, to which, without saying why, Haydn assigned names that without the explanation now given would appear unintelligible and ridiculous.' Of the titles indicative of the little romances on which the composer worked, Carpani quotes the following : The beautiful Circassian Girl, Boxelane, Grecian Helena, The Solitary, The Schoolmaster, Persiana, The Poltroon, The Queen, and Laudon. The conclusion to be drawn from Haydn's works and the testimony of his biographers is that, apart from the obvious tone-painting, there must be a not inconsiderable portion of his compositions that cannot be called absolute music in the strict sense of the word, that is, in the sense of being unconnected with and uninfluenced by anything definite outside the tones themselves. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZAET (1756-1791), who came into the world twenty-four years after Haydn and left it eighteen years before him, has given to it no symphonies, sonatas, or other instrumental compositions with titles, and only one account has come down to us of his having at any time had a programme in his mind. Still, Mozart was a composer of programme music — in the overtures to his operas, in the entr'actes to Peeiod.J Haydn — Mozart. 79 T. Ph. von Gebler's drama Thamos, Konig in Egypten, and in the melodramatic pieces in his opera ZaMe. His overture to Don Giovanni has impelled many to attempt a programmatic exposition, among others E. T. A. Hoffmann in No. 4 of the Phcmtasiestiicke. The sub-title of Beaumarchais's comedy Le mariage de Figaro, which supplied the subject for Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, suggests the programme of the overture to that opera — LafoUe Joumee. In the overture to Die Zauberflote we cannot fail to recognize its connection with the opera at least in the solemn calls of the trombones, but the coimection by no means stops there. Eichard Wagner, in his essay On the Overture, makes the following striking remarks : * After Gluck it was Mozart that gave the Overture its true significance. Without toiling to express what music neither can nor should express, the details and entanglements of the plot itself — which the earlier Prologue had endeavoured to set forth — he grasped the leading thought of the drama with the eye of a veritable poet, stripped it of all the inessential and accidental of the factual occurrence, and reproduced it in the transfiguring light of music as a passion personified in tones, a counterpart both justifying that thought and intelligibly explaining the dramatic action to the hearer's feeling.' The superscriptions of the entr'actes to Thamos testify to the correctness of the above classification, as they point to the last scene of the preceding act and its content. Moreover, there are among Mozart's purely instrumental compositions others than those already mentioned whose spiritual consistency and speaking expressiveness make one suspect inspiration by something definite, at least by a definite and perhaps also conscious mood or series of moods, and not 80 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fotjeth improbably sometimes even by a conscious train of thoughts or impressions. I may mention as particularly striking instances of such compositions the G- minor Symphony, and the C minor Fantasia and A minor Eondo for pianoforte. But we have at least one instance of unquestionable programme music in Mozart's instrumental works — and an extremely interesting and significant one, a case of portraiture. In the latter part of 1777 he writes from Mannheim to his father that he had composed a sonata for Cannabich's daughter Eosa, a beautiful and amiable girl of fifteen;* and that on being asked by someone, after finishing the first movement, how he would write the Andxinte, he had replied : ' I shall compose it after the caractere of Mile. Eose.' He was himself thoroughly pleased with the result, for he said : ' She is exactly like the Andamte.' What she was like we may see still more clearly from the following words of the composer : * She has a staid manner and a great deal of sense for her age; she does not speak much, but what she says is said with grace and sweetness.' The sonata is supposed to be that in C major with a Eondo as its last movement (Kochel, 309).t But in spite of all it has to be admitted that, generally speaking, Mozart's instrumental music is more absolute than that of any of his peers since the middle of the 18th century. None of them gave freer play to tonal beauty for tonal beauty's * otto Jahn says ' thirteen.' t The sonata in question was composed in the first half of November, 1777, but we cannot be sure which one it is. For the C major Sonata speak excellent authorities ; J. S. Shedlock, on the other hand, mentions the A minor Sonata (Kochel, 310). The only and insufficient hints we get from Mozart are that the Andante is full of expression, and that the last movement is a Eondo. Period.] Mozart. 81 sake, and submitted more fully to the supremacy of form. NeverthelesB it is equally true that he was at no time a cold formalist, but always infused into his formally wonderfully varied compositions at the very least a gentle warmth of sentiment, of tenderness, melancholy, or gaiety. As a programme composer Mozart shines most brilliantly in opera. Note here how he takes up and improves upon every hint of the librettist; but note also how, unlike Haydn, he does not readily indulge in the imitation of external material things. Where, however, Mozart imitates, he only indicates slightly, as, for instance, in the greatest of his operas, in the fight of the Commandant and Don Giovanni (the flashing of the ' swords and the fall)» and in the second £nale the heavy step of the Guest and his knocking at the door. The imitation of the beating of the heart in Zerlina's aria ' Vedrai carino,' here playfully introduced, brings us to the imitation of the physical phenomena that accompany the emotions, which Mozart, the subtle psychologist, does not neglect. Le Nozze di Figaro is full of illustrative, suggestive, and expository tone-painting. I shall mention only a humorous example, Basilio's aria of the ass's skin. To show you the master as a composer of programme music in all his sublimity I point to Donna Anna's accompanied recitative in the first act of Don Giovanni, when she finds her dead father, 'Ma qual mai s'offre, oh Dei, spettacolo funesto agli occhi miei' (What is this I behold ?), and the following duet. This one composition is indeed a more eloquent and convincing proof of the expressive power of music than can be furnished by a hundred volumes of excellent reasoning. Who would not agree with the concluding words of the remarks 82 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth which Mozart made when on November 8, 1777, he was going to congratulate his father on his birthday! ' I cannot write poetry : I am not a poet. I cannot artfully group phrases so as to give light and shade: I am not a painter. I cannot even express my thoughts and sentiments by signs and pantomime : I am not a dancer. But I can do so by tones : I am a musician.' We have now to consider a species of music which has played a significant and stimulating part in the history of programme music and the development of musical expression — namely, Melodrama, in the sense of music accompanying the spoken word. JEAN JACQUES EOUSSEAU, the Geneva philosopher, prose poet, and musician, wrote in the sixties of the 18th century Pygmalion, a lyric scene in prose intended to be recited and acted on the stage, with instrumental music accompanying not the words, but the actor's pantomime during the pauses between the words. Here are a few indications of the music asked for by the poet. ' The first piece, like the overture with which it is connected, depicts the dejection, uneasiness,, vexation, and despondency of Pygmalion.' When he begins to speak, the orchestra remains silent until, after some sentences, he throws down his tools in disgust, walks up and down, with his arms crossed, dreaming. ' The music expresses with rapidity the first of these movements, slackens gradually, and ends with dull tones thrown out at intervals.' In other places the author asks for : ' Some bars which depict a tender melancholy ' ; 'Perplexity and incertitude are expressed by some measures interrupted by silences ' ; ' This pantomime (the unveiling of the statue of Galatea) commences in silence : a single stroke of the bow marks the moment Period.] Melodrama : Rousseau. 83 when the veil falls from the hands of Pygmalion ' ; and 'the music assumes [when, the statue having become animated, Galatea steps from the pedestal towards Pygmalion] a livelier character, is interrupted by some silences, expresses the timid desire, the emotion of Galatea, the ardour, the intoxication of Pygmalion, and does not cease until he presses the hand of Galatea to his heart.' The first performance of this work took place at Lyons in 1770. The music employed on that occasion was by the Lyons amateur Horace Coignet, if that gentleman's account may be trusted. His music certainly was used when Pygmalion was produced in Paris in 1775. Two pieces in it were, however, by Eousseau. The originator of this new species justifies his invention by saying that the French language, being entirely without accents, is unsuitable for music, and especially for recitative, and that consequently he contrived a kind of drama in which words and music, instead of going together, follow each other, and the spoken phrase is, in a way, indicated and prepared by the musical phrase. Eousseau was not blind to one great drawback of such a combination — namely, the disagreeable contrast between the speech of the actor and the music of the accompanying orchestra, a contrast which, however, should and could be mitigated by approximating the declamation to music, that is, by heightening its accents and varying its tones. A drawback not mentioned by Eousseau is that the music of a melodrama consists of a series of snatches, which cannot by any possibility be moulded into a continuous and harmonious whole. No doubt, as a rule the music in melodrama does not, as Eousseau demands, altogether cease during the speaking ; but what goes on during the 84 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth speaking is rarely more than a sustained chord or two, the really important and descriptive matter being reserved for the breaks in the recitation. However, the evils of fragmentariness and disconnectedness can be greatly mitigated by judicious and ingenious management. Coignet's music, though popular in Paris, was of no artistic value. In 1780 Antoine Laurence Baudron wrote new music to Eousseau's words, and Ch. H. Flantade did so again in 1822. German translations of Pygmalion came out as early as 1771, and German composers were not slow in writing new music — Aspelmeier in Vienna in 1772, and Anton Schweitzer and Georg Benda in Middle Germany respectively in 1777 and 1780. The above-mentioned Baudron wrote also music to Larive's melodrama Pyrame et ThisM (1781). But it was in Germany that the genre was most popular and most successfully cultivated. Facile princeps of the melodramatic composers was GEOEG BENDA (1722-1795), who in 1775 wrote music to Brandes's Ariadne anif Naxos (after a poem of Gerstenberg's), and subsequently to Getter's Medea, and to Ahnansor imd Nadine, a mixed composition including arias and choruses. His setting of Pygmalion has already been mentioned. J. F. Eeichardt treated melodramatically Eamler's Ino, and Cephalus wnd Procris; Neefe, MeisBner' a Sophonisbe; FvanzDajazi, a, Cleopatra,- Abb6 Vogler, Lichtenberg's Lampedo ; C. Eberwein, Goethe's Proserpina ; Pr. W. Eust, Schink's Ynkle vmd Yariko .- Zumsteeg, Klopstock's Friihlvngsfeier ,- and later on Eeissiger, Yelva,- and Lintpaintner, Hero and Leander. On hearing a melodrama for the first time, MOZAET tells his father in a letter of November 12, 1778: Period.] Melodrama: Rousseau — Benda — Mozart, dc. 85 ' Nothing ever surprised me so much ... it is music like recitativo obbligato . . . Sometimes the speaking goes on during the music, which produces a magnificent effect. I love the two works [Benda's Ariadne and Medea] so much that I always carry them about with me ... Do you know what my opinion is ? Most recitatives in opera should be treated thus.' Mozart occupied himself with the composition of a melodrama, Semiramis, and may have finished it ; but nothing further is now known of it. The only specimens of Mozart we have in this genre are to be found in the serious operetta Za:ide (1780-1781). As he did not again make use of this form, the composer must have changed his opinion. While the cultivation of the melodrama as an independent form was of short duration, its introduction into operas and plays by the great composers— Beethoven, Weber, Marschner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, &c. — saved it from oblivion. Later on in the 19th century it reappeared, however, as an independent form, more especially as a pianoforte accompaniment to poems — Schumann, Liszt, Mackenzie, Eichard Strauss, among others, cultivating the genre. [Fourth CHAPTEE IV. FOURTH PERIOD (IStH CENTURY) CONTINUED : EARLY COMPOSERS OF PROGRAMME SYMPHONIES — GOSSEC, MEHUL, ROBSSLER, WRANITZEY, PICHL, HOLZBAUBR, DITTERS VON DITTERSDORP, AND KNECHT. More important than the history of the melodrama, and at least equally interesting, is that of the programme symphony. There are still people who believe that Berlioz was the founder of serious programme music and the first writer of programme symphonies. What Beethoven and others after him did in this respect they look upon as merely tentative and half-hearted. In this they are wrong. But they are still further from the truth in imagining that nothing of the sort was thought of in the ante-Beethoven times. We have already examined Haydn's position. FEANgOIS JOSEPH GOSSEC (1734-1829), who published his first symphony in 1754 (five years before Haydn produced his first), wrote (about 1770) a symphony entitled La Chasse, which soon became and long remained popular. The first and the last movement are in Tempo di Caccia, and three of the four movements, the first, second, and fourth, are in 6/8 time. A quarter of a century later ETIENNE NICOLAS MEHUL (1763-1817) modelled his famous Hunting Overture to the opera Lejeune Henri (1797) to a certain extent on the last movement of Gossec's symphony. Whilst the good republicans hissed the opera off the stage, on account of the presence of a king Period.] Early Programme Symphonies. 87 among the dramatis persona, they encored the overture. Hunting symphonies were very numerous in the second half of the 18th century. Besides Gossec, Leopold Mozart, Stamitz, Eoessler, P. Maschek, Wranitzky, Hofmeister, Sterkel, and others, supplied this article for which there was so great a demand. Equally numerous or nearly so were the hattle symphonies. I shall mention only one — Franz Christian Neuhauer's Grand Symphony, Op. 11, LaBataille de Martinestie, a la Gloire de S. A. Msgr. le Prince de Saxe Cobov/rg (1794), generally called simply La Bataille, and sometimes referred to as Cohurg's victory over the Turks (i.e., in 1780). Battle symphonies naturally lead to peace symphonies. Paul Wranitzky (1756-1808), — whom I have already mentioned as the composer of a hunting symphony — produced, besides two Coronation Symphonies, a Characteristic Symphony for the Peace with the [French] Republic (1797), scored for twenty-one instruments, with an explicit printed programme. It cannot be difficult to find subjects of greater interest for us than hunts, battles, and peace celebrations. The titles of a series of nine and of a series of three symphonies by WENCESLAS PICHL (1741-1805), respectively called Les neuf Muses and Les trois Graces, seem to be fancy names rather than indications of programmes. It is otherwise with three of FEANZ ANTON HOFMEISTEE'S six symphonies published in 1791,— La Primavera (Spring), La Chasse, and La Festa delta Pace (the celebration of Peace) ; and especially with two works by FEANZ ANTON EOESSLEE, or EOSETTI (1750-1792), who, besides La Chasse already alluded to, wrote a grand Imitative Symphony, Calypso et Telemaque, performed at Paris 88 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foueth in 1791, and another, entitled La Chute de Phaeton. Further, mention may he made of a symphony in E flat major hy IGNAZ HOLZBAUEE (1711-1783), the last movement of which is entitled La Tempesta del Mare. A higher degree of the climax of my enumeration is formed by the symphonies of GAEL DITTEES VON DITTEESDOEF (1739-1799), the subjects of which he took from Ovid's Metamorphoses. They are, as far as our present knowledge goes, the best and most interesting programme music in the symphonic form that was written in the ante-Beethoven time. Their time of production is supposed to be 1783-1785. In his auto- biography (Carl von Dittersdorfs Lebensbeschreibimg) — dictated to his son, and edited by J. C. Gottlieb Spazier* — the composer says : ' Three years ago I hit upon the idea of writing some characteristic symphonies on subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and on my arrival at Vienna [1786] I had twelve of the kind ready.' He went to Vienna, as we learn from the same source, for the purpose of producing his new oratorio Job, but had also performed the first six of his Ovid symphonies at a concert in the Augarten, and the other six a week later at the theatre. The available information is rather confusing, and not always so easily cleared up as the following point : Did Dittersdorf compose twelve or fifteen Ovid symphonies ? In Gerber's Lexikon (1790) we read that Probst Hermes wrote in a press notice: 'His 15 symphonies, which contain what he felt in reading those poems.' No doubt ' fifteen ' is a misprint, and should have been * twelve ' ; for Hermes * There is an English translation of this work by A. D. Coleridge v The Autobiography of Karl von Dittersdorf. Pemod.] Dittersdorfa Ovid Symphonies. 89 •wrote an analysis of twelve Bymphonies. The same Lexikon informs us also that 'Dittersdorf not only brought his symphonies to a hearing at Vienna in 1785 [1786] mth extraordinary applause from connoisseurs and non-connoisseurs, from high and low, but that he himself saw to their publication, which was generally desired.' As to the publication of these works, we know this : Hermes's Analysis, dated 1786, is said to have been issued with the first-published part of the symphonies. The author states ini it that the composer bad sold them to a publisher, and that their publication was secured by subscribers. The Vienna publisher Artaria engraved three, and three more were for sale in manuscript. The Berlin publisher Torcelli printed the first three about the end of the 18th century; the second three were discovered in manuscript at the Dresden Boyal Library in 1898 ; the Gebriider Eeinecke of Leipzig published the first six, edited by Josef Liebeskind, in 1899 ; and the other six (VII.-XII.) are lost. The subjects of the lost ones we learn ftom Hermes's AncUysie.* They are : VII. Jason carries off the Golden Fleece. VIII. The Siege of Megara. IX. Hercules is translated to Olympiis among the gods. X. Orpheus and Euridice. XI. Midas as judge between Pan and Apollo. XII. Ajax and Ulysses contend for the armour of Achilles. ■ * Johann Timotheus Hermes, a clergyman at Breslau, author of the novel Sophiens Eeise von Memel nach Saehsen (1769-1773), and a friend of Dittersdorf 's, wrote the Analyse de XII. Metamorphoses Tirees d'Ovide, et mise en musique par Mr. Charles-Ditters de Dittersdorf in French. In 1899 Georg Thouret published a German translation of it, preceded by a sketch of the composer's life and works. 90 Spreading Cvitivation of Programme Music. [Poueth The subjects of the six republished symphonies are : I. The four Ages of the World. II. The Fall of Phaeton. III. The Transformation of Actmon into a Stag. IV. The Rescue of Andromeda. V. The Lycian Peasants transformed into frogs. VI. The turning into stone of Phineus and his friends. The structure and texture of these symphonies of Dittersdorf's are those of the classical form of the Haydn-Mozart period. By this is meant that with regard to periodicity, distribution of keys, disposition of subjects, grouping of parts, and thematic development, he worked on the same principles, not that he always adhered to the Qrthodox cut of the sonata, rondo, and lesser forms, and the orthodox sequence of the movements. All the symphonies consist of four movements, or rather divisions ; and each has one movement in regular first-movement sonata form. But the movement in sonata form is not always the first division ; in the first and the fourth Symphony the opening division is an independent slow movement not in first-movement sonata form. The forms of the" slow movements and the minuets are the usual ones. Excepting that of the third Symphony, all the finales consist of two or more movements loosely joined together. They differ from each other, and do not belong to any of the named types of form. They may be said to be in free form, or, better, in forms dictated more or less by the poetic contents. In some cases, however, the concluding movement of the finale seems to be outside the programme, put there for the purpose of providing a cheerful ending. Period.] Dittersdorfs Ovid Symphonies. 91 In nearly all cases the several divisions have prefixed to them a few words from Ovid's Metamorphoses, with the number of book and line. These superscriptions are not so much mottoes as indications of the places where the programmes may be found. There is a great deal of tone-painting, and really excellent tone-painting, in these symphonies, but extremely little of what is popularly so-called, namely, imitation of sounds in nature. The objects of the composer's painting are moods and feelings, and scenes and actions in their brightness or darkness, their rest or movement, their swiftness or slowness, their precipitance or reluctance, their vigour or languor, their roughness or smoothness, &c., &c. In the first Symphony, Dittersdorf characterizes The fomr Ages of the World — ^the golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron — and succeeds especially in depicting the innocence and eternal spring of the first and the hardness of the last. A more ambitious theme is that of the second Symphony, The Fall of Phaeton. Whilst in the first we have solely painting of character, we have here a great deal of description and action, more especially in the first and the last division. In the former he brings out in a masterly manner the brilliancy and grandem: of ' the Palace of the Sun raised on stately columns,' and in the latter the rush, tumult, and confusion of ' Jupiter, thundering aloud, and darting the poised lightning from the right ear against the charioteer, at the same time depriving him of his life and his seat, and by his ruthless fire restraining the flames.' The Transformation of Actmon into a Stag presents us with four exquisitely painted pictures: First, Actseon and his companions wandering along the lonely haunts; then, Diana bathing; next, Actaeon 92 Spreading Cultivation of 'Programme Music. [Foukth entering the grove where Diana is bathing ; and, lastly, Actseon hunted and torn by his own dogs. Everything. is as vivid as it is cha'rming. The imitation of the barking and tearing of the dogs will be noticed, but not disapproved. It is one of the few imitations of the material kind. In the two slow movements of The Rescue of Andromeda, the composer pictures, no doubt, first 'her grace and sweetness, and afterwards her anguish ; in the other two he certainly pictures Perseus ' cleaving the liquid air with his winged ankles ' and his fight with the sea-monster (first half of the finale), and reception by the parents of Andromeda. The contents of The Transformation of the Lycian Peasants into frogs may be indicated thus : (1.) The gathering of bulrushes by the peasants ; (2.) A dialogue between Latona asking for water to slake her thirst and the rude peasants refusing it ; (3.) Probably the beseeching of Latona and the jeers and laughter of the peasants ; and (4.) The transformation of the peasants, preceded by Latoha's prayer to Jove, and ending with a coda in which the croaking of the frogs is heard. The four divisions of The Turning into stone of Phineus and his friends are concerned with the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda ; the dying Lycabas looking around for Athin ; lapetides singing to the lyre ; and the fight, finished by Perseus holding up the Gorgon's head. The movement that concludes the finale is one of the cheerful endings outside the programme. Besides the six Ovid symphonies the Gebriider Eeinecke have published another example of Dittersdorf 's programme music, namely, a Divertimento, a suite of pieces, entitled II Comhattimento delV umane Passione, the eight numbers of which bear the superscriptions Peetod.] Dittersdoffs Ovid Symphonies. 93 It Superbo (the proud on&)r L'Umile (the humble one), II Matto (the mad one), II Dolce (the gentle one), II Contento (the contented one), II Costante (the constant one), and II Vivace (the lively one)^-all very characteristic and pleasing, but, of course, less interesting than the symphonies. To analyse, describe, and appraise Ditteirsdorf s six programme symphonies would be a pleasing task and one worth doing, but space cannot be found for it here. A few general remarks on the music and the composer must suffice. The ' Actseon ' Symphony seems to me the most perfect. Next to it I place the ' Lycian ' and the * Phaeton ' Symphonies. But all are full of beauties and points of interest. They well deserved to be reprinted, and well deserve to be read and played. I am sure that if presented in a proper manner and in suitable surroundings, they will- not fail to be heard with pleasure. In fact, I had proof of this at the Edinburgh University Historical Concerts, where two of them were performed uiider my direction by a small orchestra in a moderately- sized hall, and were not preceded and followed by compositions of the modern sensational type. The style of the symphonies is that of a facile, but not of a careless or insipid writer. Dittersdorf had not the powerful genias and the pronounced originality of a Haydn, a Mozart, or a Beethoven, but the freshness and abundance of his ideas and his dexterous handling^ of the' form, prove that he was more than a mere man of talent ; that, in fafit, he too was a genius, only much less exalted than the three sublimities. What is especially noteworthy about his programme music is the entire absence of straining after effects, although piquant, touching, and powerful effects are not wanting ; and, further, that however descriptive 94 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fodkth the music is, it never ceases to be good music from the absolute point of view. Dittersdorf is one of those composers who are over-estimated in their lifetime, and imder-estimated, if remembered at all, afterwards. To be looked upon as a rival of Mozart, and to have his music more highly valued than Mozart's by many, the Emperor Joseph included, and then to fall well-nigh into complete oblivion, is a sad fate. Who knows nowadays anything of Dittersdorf s oratorios and operas ? Only in Germany they still remember one of the latter, the humorous Doctor und Apotheker. Of late, however, we hear occasionally one of his numerous string quartets. But that was all that seemed to remain of him, until, in the last year of the 19th century, a hundred years after his death, the compositions above discussed and a few more were published. Some of Dittersdorf's works, as indeed also those of many forgotten composers, are worthy of a revival. We really stand sorely in need of simple, joyous, and wholesome music. But even if we have no inclination to revive much of his work, we ought to revive the memory of the jovial master who gave to many so much pleasure. The highest degree of the climax is reached on coming to a work the programme of which is almost identical with that of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony — I mean the grand symphony of JUSTIN HEINEICH KNECHT (1752-1817), entitled Portrait musical de la Nature, and published in 1784.* One can hardly believe one's eyes in reading the following words, in which the composer sets forth his intentions : — ' (1.) A beautiful country, where the sun shines, gentle zephyrs frolic, brooks cross the valley, birds twitter, a * A copy of the work is in the Library of the Boyal College of Music. Pbbiod.J Knechfs Pastoral Symphony. 95 torrent falls from the mountain, the shepherd pipes, the lambs gambol, and the sweet-voiced shepherdess sings. ' (2.) Suddenly the skydarkens, an oppressive closeness pervades the air, black clouds gather, the wind rises, distant thunder is heard, and the storm slowly approaches. ' (3.) The tempest bursts in all its fury, the wind howls and the rain beats, the trees groan, and the streams rush furiously. ' (4.) The storm gradually passes, the clouds disperse, and the sky clears. ' (5.) Nature raises her joyful voice to heaven in songs of gratitude to the Creator.' Knecht published (in 1794) also The shepherds' merry-making interrupted by a thunder storm, a musical picture for the organ ; and from Gerber's Lexikon we learn that he composed two symphonies the subjects of which were Don Quixote and the Death of Prince Leopold of Brunswick, and one of several pianoforte pieces on stanzas from Wieland's Oberon. Knecht — who published theoretical books as well as vocal and instrumental works, and had the reputation of being an excellent organist, pianist, violinist, and a second Kirnberger in learning, and more than that in practical composition — lived as organist and musical conductor in the free-town of Biberach, now a part of Wiirtemberg. It is a notable fact with regard to him that he foxmded an orchestral society whose concerts, which were still going on in 1790, differed in three particulars from the customs of the day : firstly, the programmes consisted only of three compositions — a symphony, an intermezzo, and another symphony ; secondly, the compositions played at the concerts were carefully rehearsed on the preceding day ; 96 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [ Fourth and, thirdly, printed information was given about these compositions. This last point will be noted by those who take an interest in the history of the annotated programme. I spoke of Knecht'S Le Portrait de la Nature as the highest degree of the climax of my enumeration of programme symphonies, but I did so simply becamise of the nature of the programme and the stimulating effect it may have had, and I think it really had, on Beethoven. As to the composition, it is poor as music and poor as description. We need not hesitate in declaring Knecht's originality to be wii, his inventiveness extremely limited, his melody and harmony jejune, his developing obvious, and his form monotonous and pithless. He was a well-trained, intelligent, industrious, and worthy craftsman, but decidedly not a composer by the grace of God. The work comprises, in accordance with the programme, five divisions of unequal' length. Not one of its movements is in first-movement sonata form, although the first and the third of the first division could, by a stretch of the imagination, be regarded as respectively the exposition and the abbreviated recapitulation of the exposition of that form. The first and most satisfactory division consists of five continuous movements, which we will distinguish by the first five letters of the alphabet. Here is a short summary of the composition : — I. — (a) Allegretto, 4/4, beginning in G and ending in D major. We cannot fail to recognize the serenity of nature, the calls of the cuckoo and quail, the twittering of other birds, and the murmuring of brooks. (6) Avdante pastoraley 3/8, in D majors Gambols of the lambs, and piping of the shepherd. Period.] Knecht's Pastoral Symphony. 97 (e) Allegretto, 4/4, G major, with modulation to C. The same subject-matter as in (a). (d) Villanella graziosa, un poco Adagio, 2/2, major. The song of the shepherdess. (e) Allegretto, 4/4, G major. The same subject- matter as in (a). From this analysis the reader will understand that the musical as well as the poetical subject-matter are the same in (a), (c), {£), although there are, of course, modifications and variations. II. — A single movement : Tempo medesimo, 4/4, G major, modulating finally to the dominant of D major. The music hardly illustrates what the programme promises. III. — Allegro molto, 4/4, D major. This contains a most unconvincing thunderstorm. IV. — Tempo medesimo, 4/4:, D major. Even duller than any of the preceding parts, and not more expressive. V. — L'Inno con variazioni : Andantino, 4/4, G major. Coro : Allegro con brio, 3/4, D major ; and Andantino, 4/4, G major. The only thing interesting about this is the title ' Hymn.' There can be no comparison between Knecht's and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, because the former is nothing and the latter everything. But apart from the resemblance of the programmes one cannot but be struck by the similarity of the moods and even by other similarities ; for instance, the relationship of the opening ram des vaches motive of Knecht's first and Beethoven's last movement; the introduction of the cuckoo and quail ; and the title of the last movement and the use of variation made in it. Enough of Knecht and his Portrait de la Natwre for the present ! We may recur 98 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foueth to them in connection with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. We have seen symphony composers inspired by hunting, by war, by public ceremonials, and by the ancient classics. To these sources we have to add Shakespeare, for among the subjects treated by them we find King Lear. It would be a mistake to omit the mention of a work of a sacred character, one that reminds us of Haydn's The seven last Words of our Saviour on the Cross, and probably was suggested by it — namely, the compositions on the Lord's Prayer, consisting of seven characteristic sonatas with an introduction for nine-part orchestra, published in 1794 by the amateur musician Baron von Kospoth. Period.] CHAPTER V. FOURTH PERIOD (18tH CBNTURY) CONTINUED : CURIOSITIES, FATUITIES, AND NOTABILITIES — LESUEUR, A THEORIZING composer; LAC^PIIDB, A COMPOSING THEORIST; CLBMENTI, DUSSBK, STEIBBLT, WOLF, TOGLER, TARTINI, AND BOCCHERINI. Striking testimony to the programmatic tendency of the age is borne by two Frenchmen. The first of these witnesses is J. F. LESUEUR (1760-1837), the master- note this — of Berlioz. He published in 1787 a book with this title : Expose d'une musique une, imitative, et particuliere a chaque solennite. The object of music, he says, must always be imitation. If poetry and painting are in many cases more expressive than music, music is in other circumstances more expressive than poetry and painting. If music cannot invest poetry with a meaning which it has not, it can at least reinforce it, and in a thousand ways modify, nay, even divert and change it. ' Music can imitate all the inflections of nature. All the sentiments are also within its domain.' What the principle adopted by the master mainly aimed at was vm ensemble d/ramatique. I need not repeat here what I have quoted already. But I must exemplify Lesueur's notions of what music should do by some extracts from his plans for a kind of oratorio music suitable to the Mass on the several high festivals, such as Christmafe, Easter, &c. In doing so, I shall preserve to some extent his strange and awkward phraseology. Speaking of the overture of the music suitable to the Christmas Day Mass, he writes : ' At the beginning of the overture 100 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth the intention of the composer will be to recall several prophecies regarding the birth of the Messiah. For this purpose an imposing passage will be executed by all the stringed and wind instruments, with which mingle the sombre inflections of the trombones, the sounds of which, if various writers may be believed, resemble the religious trumpets of the ancient high-priests. Soon after, the trombones detach themselves from the rest of the orchestra in order to make an imposing announcement, to which succeed strains of grave, sombre harmony which cannot but inspire a certain sacred horror.' After a noble and imposing short march there will be expressed ' the ardent desires of the Prophets for the coming of the Messiah.' In the prelude to the Gloria in excelsis the composer ' will endeavour to induce the idea of the calm of the night during which the shepherds were watching their flocks near Bethlehem. To accomplish this, the orchestra must endeavour to diffuse a calm, a freshness, resembling that of night, by peaceful music, in which movement makes itself only faintly felt Afterwards has to be attempted the painting of the vivid light that shines about the throne of the Eternal, and which, suddenly piercing the darkness of the night, casts terror among the shepherds.' In the music for Whitsunday ' the musician's task in the overture will be to awaken the idea of thunder, of lightning, and of the imposing display which accompanies the descent of the Eternal.' Examining Lesueur's Super jkimina, psalm for grand chorus and orchestra, we meet with characteristic music and remarks. Accompanying the opening instrumental bars we read : ' The chorus of the Hebrews recalling their captivity at Babylon, when they mir\gled their Period.] Lesueur. 101 tears with the murmuring of Euphrates.' A little farther on appears above the music the following note : 'The particular character and colour of the musical execution of this historical psalm should furnish not only the imitation of Euphrates, but also the imitative image of the dull noise of the contrary winds and the distant roaring of the cataracts of the river, which seemed coming to join the lamentations of the Hebrews, their dolorous chants, and the plaintive accents of the musical instruments with which they accompanied their chorus.' The murmuring is expressed by various forms of a repeated turning figure and the device of repercussion combined with vibrato. These means are employed by the strings. The wind, on the other hand, is full of sighs, expressed by a two-note figure consisting (in 4/4 time) of a syncopated crotchet followed by a falling quaver. In another movement of the psalm we find the composer's intentions indicated by words and phrases lake fieramente et avec elan, con sentimento, and misterioso. And in still another part of the psalm we come on this remark : ' Ensemble piece. Chorus that sings the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel hearing, in spirit, the chariot of the Ancient of days, or Grod, the joyous accents of the cherubim, seraphim, archangels, and seeing prophetically the Son of man, or the Saviour.' Here surely was a tone-poet with high aspirations and a belief in the expressive power of music. Lesueur, however, has left us only stage and church music, no independent orchestral compositions.* * For further information about the interesting, though eccentric and nebulous, Lesueur see Octave Fouque's Les Eivolutionnaires de la Musique (Paris, 1882), and Adolphe Boschot's La Jeunesse d'un Eomantique, Hector Berlioz (Paris, 1906). The author of the latter book has made use of Lesueur's voluminous unpublished literary manuscripts. H 102 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth The other witness I wish to call is COMTE DE LACISPEDE (1756-1825), a scientist and amateur musician, who composed operas, a requiem, and instrumental compositions, and wrote a book entitled Poetique de la Musique (1785) . His views of instrumental music, which he endeavoured to realize in a suite of movements descriptive of scenes from P^nelon's TeUmaque, Lac6pede sets forth in the chapter Dea Symphonies, des Concerto, &c., vol. ii., pp. 329-341. After pointing out, on the one hand, the great resources of instrumental music, and, on the other hand, the vagueness of its images, owing to its inability to communicate the circumstances of the passions it interprets, he continues (I shall quote only the main statements of our loquacious and somewhat obscure author) as follows : ' A symphony consists usually of three pieces of music . , . The composer ought to consider them as three grand acts of a theatrical piece, and imagine himself to be working at a tragedy, a comedy, or a pastoral . ■ . These three acts, as we call them, have to be distributed into several scenes ... In order to distinguish the different interlocutors, one chooses in the orchestra the more prominent instruments the nature of which is most in keeping with the characters represented. Thus by the use of single instruments and combinations of instruments, monologueB, dialogues, scenes with several persons and choruses may be introduced . . . The musician must skilfully observe the succession and the natural increase and decrease of the human passions ; and, in designing such a drama, and forming it of a sequence of sentiments that develop, interpenetrate, and grow from each other, he must take €are not to assign to the passions another order than Pebiod.J Lacepede. 103 that of nature . . . But in producing pieces of this kind, whether the subject be drawn from some known event or be entirely imagined, the composer should never introduce into the scenes anything that cannot be represented by music ; he should offer nothing but emotions or pictures. It is like designing a pantomimic ballet and afterwards setting it to music. The work is divided into three grand portions formed by the three pieces of a symphony. To these may be left almost their ordinary characters ; with one difference, however — namely, that there will be lacking the resources of the spectacle, the scenery, and the action of the dancers.' The author, later on, asks : ' Even if the composer were not to succeed in making his intentions known, would he not always say enough to secure being listened to with more interest, to captivate the attention more fully, to engage uninter- ruptedly both mind and heart, to cause the hearer to seek what is not pointed out, to induce him to exert himself to divine the word of the enigma, to know the exact place of the scene, the causes of the events, the names and the characters of the personages represented, in short, all the objects which it was the aim to show, and of which at every moment a part was unveiled? Moreover, is this not the only way in which the musician can give to the passions which he represents, and to their picturing, their true order? And could we have indicated to him a more powerful means of producing more animated, varied, and contrasting images, of being more penetrated by the subject in composing, and more influenced by the passions whose fire he wishes to spread ? ' The truth of the last idea expressed by Lacepede — whatever we may think of the rest — seems to me indisputable. Even though 104 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fourth the hearer does not understand it in its entirety, he is the hetter off for the programme in the mind of the composer, who thereby is enabled to be more impressive and logical, more of a tone-poet than a mere tone-artificer. From the domain of the pianoforte sonata there is not so much to report in the way of programmatic music as fi-om that of the symphony. And, as we shall see, this holds good also during the following two periods. Of pianoforte pieces of the inferior orders there is even less to report. The battle programme is the only kind largely represented. The warlike time from 1789 to 1815 naturally inspired warlike music, or at least created a taste and demand for it.' One of the most famous compositions of this kind was the Battle of Prague for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, by the Bohemian composer FEANZ KOTZWAEA (who died by his own hand in London in 1791). Notwithstanding its fame, the composition has not any music in it worth speaking of. Indeed, the battle programme is the lowest of all programmes. And why ? Because it is the most unmusical, the most grossly materialistic. It appeals by noise and rhythmically strongly marked popular tunes rather to the nerves and muscles than to the mind. Not a single work of the kind ever created has high artistic value, not even Beethoven's battle, and extremely few have as much as a modicum of value. Battle-pieces afford to the musician hardly anything but matter for disgust and amusement — disgust at their inartistic aims and means, and amusement at their naive intentions and execution. On the whole, the naiveness is rather on the side of the purchasers than of the manufacturers. Period.] dementi. 105 MUZIO CLEMENTI (1752-1832), who composed so many sonatas, has given titles to two only — Op. 17, in D major. La Chasse, published in 1787, and Op. 50, in O minor, Didone dbbandonata, published in 1820-1821. The former, however, is not very characteristic ; and the latter, a fine example of a sonata and of programme music, belongs to the next, the Beethoven period. The suave and nobly sentimental JOH. LUDWIG DUSSEK (1760-1812) provides more material for our study, but the titles of his sonatas and shorter pieces indicate for the most part rather moods than stories — for instance, these sonatas : Op. 44, Lea Adieux de dementi; Op 61, Elegie harmxmique swr la mort dju Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse, en forme de Sonate ; Op. 70, Le Retour a Paris ; Op. 77, L' Invocation. To these sonatas may be added his Military Concerto, Op. 40, and the piece in rondo form. La Consolation, dedicated to the memory of Prince Louis Ferdinand, his patron, a good pianist and composer as well as a brave soldier, who fell at Salfeld in 1806. Dussek worked also after programmes of a very different nature, and in doing so produced music quite unworthy of himseK. One would like to suggest as an excuse that he wrote the stuff to help his father-in-law, the well-known musician and Edinburgh music publisher, Domenico Corri. Unfortunately, this suggestion does not bear examination. Corri did not publish all these pieces ; and, moreover, Dussek himself was interested in the publishing concern. Of this unholy class of programme music are the following : Combat naval, sonata for pianoforte, violin, violoncello, and grand tamhowr, ad lib. The naval Battle and total Defeat of the Butch Fleet by Admiral Duncan, October 11, 1797 ; 106 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Poueth A complete and exact Delineation of the Ceremony from St. James's to St. Pa/ul's, on Tuesday, the 19th December 1797, on which day their Majesties, together with both Houses of Parliament, went in solemn Procession to return thanks for the several Naval Victories obtained by the British Fleet over those of France, Spain, and Holland; and The Sufferings of the Queen of France : A musical composition, expressing the feelings of the unfoi'twnate Marie Antoinette during her Imprisonment, Trial, dc, Op. 23. A very few words regarding the last two pieces will be more than sufficient. The only detailed indications of the programme of A complete and exact Delineation of the Ceremony are : ' Cannons ; Trumpets ; Horses prancing; The Procession began ; The acclamations of the people ; The Procession arrives at St. Paul's.' None but expressions permissible neither in parliament nor in polite society would be applicable to this, if one did not prefer silence. The Sufferings of the Queen of France must likewise be denounced, and can only be described as scrappy, uninspired, and not in the least convincing as regards painting and expression. Here is the detailed programme : '1. The Queen's Imprisonment ; 2. She reflects on her former greatness ; 3. They separate her from her children— the farewell of her children ; 4. They pronounce the sentence ; 5. Her Eesignation to her fate ; 6. The situation and reflections on the night before her execution — The Guards come to conduct her to the place of Execution ; 7. March ; 8. The savage tumult of the rabble ; 9. The Queen's invocation to the Almighty just before her death— The Guillotine drops [crashing chord with quickly descending diatonic scale] ; 10. Apotheosis.' What a waste of subject ! And what a desecration of the sacredness of misery for filthy lucre's sake ! Period.] Steibelt. 107 More numerous are the contributions to programme music of the talented, but vain and unprincipled DANIEL STEIBELT (1765-1823), one of the most popular composers of his day. In his overweening conceit Steibelt once had the foolhardiness to challenge Beethoven as an improviser, but only once. The last movement of his famous third pianoforte Concerto, in E major, is entitled L'Orage precede d'un Bondeav, pastorale, and was one of the greatest popular successes of the time. Other concertos of his with titles are : the fifth, A la Chasse; the sixth. Voyage au Mont Saint Bernard ; and the seventh, Grand Concert militaire. Among his sonatas we find L'Amante disperata, a military sonata, a Difaite des Espagnols par I'arnde francaise, and a martial sonata. Then there are fantasias and pieces of various sorts : La Fete de Napoleon, La Bataille de Gemappe et Neerwinden, The Threatening and Deliverance of Vienna, The Destruction of Moscow, La Joumee d'Ulm, Britannia, or Admiral Duncan's . Victory (1797), Le Rappel de VArmee, Le Combat naval, St. Paul's Procession, The Christening of the Neva, and the rondos Les PapiUons and Le Berger et son troupeau. The warlike exceeds unmistakably and largely the idyllic, and the material the spiritual. Even without looking at the music we must come to the conclusion that composition was with Steibelt for the most part a catchpenny affair ; that he was oftener bent on catching money and applause, than on catching souls. However we will look at a few of them. The Battle of Neerwinden consists of military signals and tunes, ringing of alarm bells, rifie and cannon shots (the latter interpreted by bringing the palms of the hands down on the key-board), groans of the wounded. 108 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fotjeth and rejoicings over the victory. It is the same with La Journee d'Ulm and Britannia, denominated ' an Allegorical Overture in Commemoration of the signal Naval Victory obtained by Admiral Duncan over the Dutch Fleet, the 11th of October, 1797.' More interesting, because less common, is the programme of the Public Christening on the Neva at St. Petersburg, 'a Characteristic Fantasia,' a concoction somewhat of the nature of Dussek's A complete and exact Delineation of the Ceremony from St. James's to St. Paul's, but longer and more elaborate and pretentious. The music and the painting are less than worthless — in fact, they are non- existent. The foolishness of the programme is such that I cannot resist quoting it. ' The Bells announce the ceremony. Firing the Guns. The joy of the People. The Emperor sets out from the Palace. The throng of the People. Chorus in Iphigenia by Gluck. March of the troops. Acclamation of the People. His Majesty's arrival at the place where the Ceremony is performed. The Divine Service. TeDeum. Chorus. "Let us pray," sung by the Patriarch. Departure of his Majesty. The joy of the People. Firing of the Guns. The People thronging from the place. Air in Alceste with three variations.' And such stuff was bought, played, and, alas ! enjoyed. Let us look at two more musical works of Steibelt's. Whilst the famous Pastoral Rondo of the 3rd Concerto is undeniably pretty, the Storm, happily of short duration, has neither musical nor descriptive qualities to recommend it. A note to the 6th Concerto informs us that the composer's intention was to depict in the first movement the terrors of the St. Bernard — the dismal, wild, imposing aspect, the glaciers, hurricanes, roaring of the torrents, thunder of the Period.] Steibelt—Rust. 109 avalanches, crash of the cracking ice, &c., with the contrasting bell of the hospice and the chants of the monks heard from time to time by the traveller ; and in the second movement, a Eondo, the descent from the summit to the Piedmontese valley. The realization, however, falls very far short of the intentions — neither the grandeurs nor the terrors find adequate expression. "What merits the composition has, it derives from the pleasing qualities of absolute music. Steibelt has been called a man of genius. Unless we are very lavish in the use of the word, the right attribution in this case must be denied. But he was a composer of a luxuriant imagination, who wrote melodiously, brilliantly, and with great facility. Among the compositions of the less famous composers we may note A Sonatina and fon/r emotional [affeetvoUe] Sonatas with an explanatory introduction (1785) by E. W. WOLF. And that remarkable composer FEIEDE. WILH. EUST (1739-1796), who points so emphatically to , Beethoven, produced in 1775 a Sonata Eroica, and in 1794 a Sonata in D major, the second movement of which is superscribed Wehklage (Lamentation) and the last movement Schwermuth und Frohmuth (Melancholy and Mirth). With regard to the Wehklage, J. S. Shedlock, in his book The Pianoforte Sonata, writes: 'Bust's eldest son, a talented youth, who was studying at Halle University, was drowned in the river Saale, 23rd March, 1794. Matthisson, the "Adelaide" poet, sent to the disconsolate father a poem entitled Todtenkranz fiir evn Kind, to which Bust sketched music, and on that sketch is based this pathetic movement, which sounds like some tone-poem of the 19th century.' 110 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Foubth It would be unpardonable to pass over ABBE G. J. VOGLEE (1749-1814), the teacher of Weber and Meyerbeer, a remarkable composer, theorist, and virtuoso on the organ, the same after whom Eobert Browning named one of his poems.* Well, Abb6 Vogler, the restless contriver and schemer, composed a characteristic sonata for pianoforte and string quartet, entitled The Matrimonial Quarrel (in German, Der eheUche Zwist; in French, Brouillerie entre mari et femme), and startled the world with his improvisations on the organ, depicting storms and other sensational displays, including the Fall of the walls of Jericho. Here are a few specimens of the programmes that have come down to us : — Naval Battle.— 1. Beating of the drums. 2. Martial music and marches. 3. Movement of the ships. 4, Crossing of the waves. 5. Cannon shots. 6. Cries of the wounded. 7. Shouts of victory of the triumphant fleet. Musical imitation of Rubens's Last Judgment. — 1. Magnificent introduction. 2. The trumpet resounds through the graves ; they open. 3. The wrathful Judge pronounces the terrible judgment on the reprobates; their fall into the abyss ; wailing and gnashing of teeth. 4. The Just are received by God into eternal blessedness ; their bliss. 6. The voices of the blessed unite with the choirs of angels. Death of Prince Leopold of Brunswick. — 1. The quiet course of the river ; the winds that chase it into greater rapidity; the gradual rise of the water; the complete inundation. 2. The general terror and lamentation of the unfortunate who foresee their misery; their * Not that the poet's presentment has anything to do with the real man. The same remark applies to Browning's other musical poems. Peeiod.] Vogler — TarHni. Ill shuddering, complaints, tears, and sobs- 3. The arrival of the Prince, who resolves to help them; the representations and prayers of his officers, who wish to keep him hack ; his voice in opposition to them, which at last stifles all lamentation. 4. The boat sets out; its reeling through the waves; the howling of the wind; the boat capsizes ; the Prince sinks. 5. A touching piece with the feeling that suits the occasion. The joyous life of the shepherds, interrupted by a thunderstorm, which, however, passes by, and then the naive and loud rejoicing on that account. Ooncerning Italian composers little has as yet been said in connection with the fourth period, and little need be said. Many readers on turning their attention to Italy will think of 11 triUo del diavolo. In this excellent violin sonata of the illustrious GIUSEPPE TAETINI (1692-1770), however, the title points to the genesis, not to the programme of the composition, the master having endeavoured to write down on awakening what, in a dream, he had heard the devil play. On the other hand, several pieces of information that have come down to us lay Tartini under the gravest suspicion of being a composer of programme music, a composer who sought inspiration in poetry and illustrated his effects by poetry. Algarotti relates that before beginning to compose, Tartini read one of Petrarch's sonnets in order that, starting from a definite subject, he might not lose himself in empty phantasies. To explain how Tartini performed his music, one of his pupils gave Lipinski a poem, and told him to read it and then play a Tartini Adagio. We know also that the master wrote in cipher over the movements mottoes such as, * Ombra cara ' (Dear shade), ' Volgete U riso in pianto ' (Turn your laughter 112 Spreading Cultivation of Programme Music. [Fifth into tears), &c.,— and lines of the poets under portions of them. One of his best sonatas, Op. 1, No. 10, in G minor, used to be called Didone abbandonata. If we remember his beautiful expressive adagios, and the words often addressed by him to violinists who played to him — ' That is beautiful ! That is dif&cult ! But here (pointing to his heart) it has told me nothing ' — we cannot but feel inclined to number him with the band of composers of programme music. LUIGI BOCCHEEINI (1743-1805), the charming composer of string quintets and quartets, symphonies, and much else, who, on account of his greater sweetness than energy, has been called the wife of Haydn, wrote a quintet for two violins, viola, and two violoncelli, entitled L'Uccelliera (the Aviary), in which, as his biographer, L. Picquot, says, he 'intended to depict a rural scene, where the song of birds unites with the sound of the hunting horn, the shepherd's bagpipe {musette), and the dance of the villagers.' A few words in addition to those of Picquot, who regards the work as a picture of the most exquisite originality, are desirable. The quintet in question is the last of the six quintets Op. 13. The first movement {Allegro giusto, preceded by an Adagio assai), superscribed L' Uccelliera, is full of birds' voices ; the second movement {Allegro), superscribed I Pastori e li Cacciatori, alternates between the pastoral and the venatorial; the third movement {Tempo di menuetto) bears no superscription; and the fourth movement contains, after twenty-nine introductory bars, a repetition of the third division, the recapitulation of the exposition, of the first Allegro, and thus the birds end as well as begin the delightful composition. Period.] BOOK III. FULFILMENTS. CHAPTEE I. FIFTH PERIOD (fROM THE CLOSE OF THE 18tH CENTURT) : PROGRAMME MUSIO IN THE LARGER CLASSICAL FORMS AND VITALIZATION OF THE LESSER FORMS. — BEETHOVEN. After the prophecies and preparations of the preceding ^riod, we come now to the fulfilment and consummation. The masters that dominate this period are Beethoven, the first in time and quality, Weber, Schubert, Spohr, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. Although I pointed out programme music in the larger classical forms as the iaost distinguishing feature, this period is also remarkable for the substantialization, revivification, poetization, and spiritualization {venia sit verbis) of the smaller forms, a fact sufficiently proved by the mention of the names of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and Henselt. ■~~^-. It required a master mind, a tone-poet of the highest potency, to accredit programme music at once and legitimize and justify it for all time to come. That mind and that poet was LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827). If the declarations accompanying his / compositions marked the limits of Beethoven's activity as a composer of programme music, we should be obliged to say that his contributions to this class of 114 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth music -were not numerous, but some of them of the greatest importance. Let us see which works of Beethoven have declared programmes. Among his thirty-two sonatas there are two with titles — Op. 13, the Sonate PatUtique, and Op. 81, the Sonata in E flat major, the three divisions of which ar^^ respectively superscribed, Farewell, Absence, and Eeturn (Wiedersehen). There are also two titled works among the nine symphonies— Op. 55, the Heroic Symphony, and Op. 68, the Pastoral Symphony. Further, we have a Battle Symphony, Wellingtons Sieg oder die i Schlacht bei Vittoria, Op. 91, four overtures to his opera Fidelia (Leonore), an overture to Coriolanus, overtures and incidental music to Egmont, King Stephen, and The Ruins of Athens, the ballet Prometheus, and the independent overtures Zur Namensfeier, Op. 124, and Die Weihe des Hauses, Op. 138. To these may yet be added the movement in the string quartet, Op. 132, superscribed * Thanksgiving song in the Lydian mode, offered to the Divinity by a convalescent,' the concluding division of the string quartet. Op. 135, superscribed Der schwergefasste Entschluss, and the posthumously published Rondo a capriccio, Op. 129, which in the original manuscript bore the title Fury over the lost penny, vented in a capriccio. Of the sum total of the master's works the compositions here enumerated form but a small portion. Moreover, this small portion has to be sifted before we get the really noble and notable examples.* * The epithets ' Pastorale ' and ' Appassionata,' contained in the titles respectively of the Sonata Op. 28, in D major, and the Sonata Op. 57, in P minor, do not derive from the composer, nor did they appear on the title-page of the first edition : they are, in fact, inventions of later publishers. Equally unauthorized is the name Moonlight Sonata Period.] Beethoven. 115 We have first of all to set aside the Battle Symphony, wich is indeed important among battle pieces, but not amQng Beethoven's works. When Tomaschek, a great admirer of the master, heard it, he was greatly pained to find 'Beethoven, -whom Providence had probably appointed to the highest throne in the realm of tones, among the grossest materialists.' According to the same authority Beethoven himself declared the symphony, to be ' eine Dummheit ' (a tomfoolery). Nevertheless there are some interesting programmatic points in it, and even some beauties. The composition consists of two parts: (1) The Battle; and (2) The Triumphal Symphony {Sieges- Symphonie). The advance of the English is announced first by their drums and trumpets and then by ' Eule, Britarmia ' as a march ; immediately afterwards appear on the field the French, whose advance is announced first by their drums and trumpets, and then by ' Malbrough s'en va-t-en Guerre ' as a march. Next are heard the challenge and counter-challenge, which lead to the battle proper— first a tremendous tussle, then a storming march, and at last the defeat of the French, indicated by a few bars of ' Malbrough ' in minor, with a popularly given to the Sonata Op. 27, No. 2, in C sharp minor, dedicated to the master's beloved and loving pupil the Countess Giulietta Guicoiardi. The Viennese called this sonata also the Laubensonate, imagining that the Adagio was composed in an arboured walk of the beautiful countess's garden. Another fancy title is that of Geistertrio for the Trio Op. 70, No. 1, in D major. The name was given to it on account of the character of the La/rgo assai ed espressivo. Lenz, however, saw in it not 'ghosts, but shadows cast by a darkened soul-mood.' Sir George Grove connected with the Adagio of the fourth Symphony, in B flat major, and the first movement of the fifth, in minor, Beethoven's 'immortal love' (unsterbliche Geliebte), now by many supposed to have been the Countess Theresa von Brunswick; but this love affair is stiU involved in obscurity, and the correctness of the assumption cannot be proved by anything more substantial than contemporaneity. 116 Programme Music m the Classical Forms. [Fifth tremtilouB ending. Of the second part I need not say more than that it consists of several continuous movements from which ' God save the King ' is not absent. The other works that may he excluded from our consideration are the music to King Stephen and to The Ruins of Athens, plays which Kotzebue wrote for the opening of the new German Theatre at Pesth in 1812. Kotzebne's poetry was not of the sort that could inspire Beethoven, who, moreover, was not a master of occasional compositions. He needed a grand theme, and time to think it out. As he had neither, these works are among his least valuable ones. Best known of all the music to these plays is the characteristic Turkish March from The Ruins of Athens. The Rondo a capriecio is, of course, not seriously- meant programme music. On the other hand all the remaining works of those I have enumerated must interest us from our present point of view. The title of Op. 13, the Sonate Pathetique, points out only the general character of the work, not a particular programme. But there is a speaking expressiveness and an unmistakable depicting of moods in every one of the three movements — ^in the first, of storm and stress ; in the second, of devout contemplation and a trustful upward looking ; and in the third, of agitation and sweet melancholy. Beethoven's oracular utterance about two principles in the middle movement is not intelligible. In Op. 81, on the other hand, we are not troubled by any mystery. The superscriptions clearly indicate the intention of the composer and the music bears out fully what the superscriptions indicate. In the first division. Farewell, is expressed the tender regret and emotional perturbation Phbiod.] Beethoven. 117 of parting; in the second, Absence, the affectionate remembrance of and longing for the absent one ; and in the third, Return, the elation, joy, and contentment on meeting again. I said there is no mystery about Op. 81. This, however, is not the case in every respect. At least one puzzling question confronts us. Who is the parting, absent, and returning one ? After the sketches for the first movement of the work, one of the composer's note- books contains the following entry : ' The Farewell — on the 4th May — dedicated to, and written from the heart for, His Imperial Highness.' But was the master's pupil, the Archdujie Eudolph, really so dear to him that his going, staying away, and coming back, could move Beethoven to the extent we find him moved in this sonata ? The feelings expressed seem to suggest rather a lady-love than a male scholar. No doubt the Archduke had a great affection for his master, and was his benefactor. It may also be noted that he left Vienna on account of the approach of the French, and did not return till nine months afterwards. Still, the amount and quality of feeling seems excessive. If the Archduke was really and solely the subject, idealization must have played a great part in the composition. This, indeed, was necessarily the case, as the sketches for the second and third movements were written before the Archduke's return. Another solution of the riddle is conceivable — namely, that the honoured patron received a compliment that was called forth by another person or by an imaginary occurrence. About the origin of the superscription of the last division of the string quartet. Op. 135 — 'A resolution form.ed with difficulty,' followed by two musical motives with the question and answer : ' Must it be ? ' ' Yes, it 118 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth must be ! '—there are two stories told respectively by Schindler and Lenz (informed by Holz). In the one the master's cook asks for housekeeping money, and in the other an outwitted wealthy Viennese amateur plays a part. Now, I cannot believe that Beethoven, to whom his art was sacred, would in a serious work introduce a motto originating in a comical incident. It is more easily conceivable that he would evade a tiresome question by a jocular reply. As to the Canzona di ringraziamento offerta alia divinita da un guarito, in mode lidico, in the string quartet, Op. 132, it was written by Beethoven on his recovery from a severe illness. The music to the ballet Prometheus does not belong to the master's great and strong works, but it contains besides much charming music some notable music illustrative of the pantomimic scenes. Lenz goes so far as to describe it as a mine of dramatic instrumental music. At any rate, on hearing and reading it, one is here and there reminded of a Frenchman's saying of the ballets of a later time — 'they are veritable symphonies dansees.' Some may think that the independent overtures Zur Namensfeier (for the name-day of Emperor Francis II.), Op. 115, and Die Weihe des Hauses (for the opening of the Vienna Josephstadt theatre). Op. 124, cannot be included in programme music. Well, though they are not in the midst of it, they are at least on the border- land. For they are not merely finely constructed tone- edifices, but also highly characteristic and expressive tone-poems. They have both a festive ring, and surround us with stirring life and brilliant light; both are joyous, but the one sparklingly and the other majestically. Pkriod.J Beethoven. 119 Beethoven wrote altogether four overtures to his opera Fidelio; three of them are called Leonore, but that is only another name for Fidelio. To prevent confusion I shall place the three Leonore overtures in the order in which they were for a time thought to have been written, and add in parentheses the years in which they were really written : Op. 138 (1807-1808) ; Op. 72a (1805) ; and Op. 72a (1806). We need not dwell on the first of these overtures, which is quite overshadowed by its two sisters ; nor on the finer Fidelio overture, Op^ 726, composed in 1814, which differs from the three Leonore overtures in not being connected with the opera by musical motives. As to the two remaining overtures, it will suffice to consider only the later, the familiar Leonore overture, as it is not a new work, but merely a more perfect and more grandly developed version of the earlier. But what shall I say of this composition ? It is a resume, it is the essence, of the music-drama for which it is written. It focuses the devotion, sufferings, struggles, and victory of Eleonore and Florestan. It is the most powerful and colossal work of its kind — as grand in thought as in form, as pure and noble as it is passionate and stirring. It is, as Wagner has said, not an overture to a drama, but itself a drama, and presents the contents more completely and strikingly than the following action. Two other powerful and poetical conceptions are the overtures to Coriolanus and to Egmont. The former, Op. 62, Beethoven wrote to von Collin's tragedy Coriolan, but his recollection of Plutarch and Shakespeare may have helped to inspire him. Who can fail to recognize Coriolanus's haughty, contemptuous defiance, Volumnia's and Virgilia'B deprecation, and the hero's struggle with 120 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth himself and the world, and final ruin ? Or, as Wagner puts it : ' The tragic-idea of the powerful work lies entirely in the personal fate of the hero. An irreconcilable pride, an all-overtopping ultra- vigorouSiand ultra-overweening nature can engage our sympathy only by its downfall : to let us feel the coming of it, and, at last, see the consummation, that was the master's intention. . . . Beethoven seized upon a single scene, but that the most decisive, in order to focus in it the true, the purely human emotional content of the whole extensive subject-matter, and transmit it again to the purely human feeling.' We now come to the third of Beethoven's three pre-eminent tone-poems in the overture form — namely, the overture to Egmont, Op. 84. In Goethe's play, the love of Egmont and Clara is but an episode. In Beethoven's overture, the composer ignores altogether the intimate drama enacted in the burgher house, and concentrates his thoughts on the grand historical drama. It would be a great mistake to regard the overture as a conventional introduction to a play, for in reality it is itself a drama — a symphonic poem, if ever there was one. The three movements of which it consists tell us of oppression, conflict, and victory. We have in it — firstly, the stern command of iron-willed tyranny, and the ■ wails and plaints of the downtrodden; secondly, the timid murmurs rising to bold discontent, the angry agitation growing into open revolt, and a persistent struggle that becomes fiercer and fiercer as it goes on ; and, lastly, the high-spirited, loud-voiced triumph of liberty. Beethoven's music to Egmont is one of the finest examples of such music. I would use the superlative Pekiod.] Beethoven. 121 absolute, were I not convinced of the ■wrongness of using it in art. The first entr'acte looks backward and forward ; it tells us of Brackenburg's broken-heartedness (Andcmte), and the disturbed state of the citizens {Allegro con brio). It continues for twelve bars after the rising of the curtain, and closes on the dominant. The second entr'acte (La/rghetto), which begins immediately after the falling of the curtain, refers to the preceding interview between Egmont and Orange. No sooner are the last words of Clara spoken than the orchestra strikes in with the third entr'acte, before the curtain has fallen, and it continues for more than twenty bars after the curtain has again been raised. The first half (Allegro and Allegretto) is a .love transport (the meeting of Clara and Egmont), the second half {Marcia vivace) brings on the scene the stern Spanish soldiery, and dies away into a passage that depicts the fear of the citizens. The fourth entr'acte, too, begins before the fall and continues after the rise of the curtain, and points backwards and forwards. The first half (three bars Poco Sostenuto e resoluto, and Larghetto) refers to the arrest of Egmont; and the second half (Andante agitato) to the anxiety of Clara. Very beautiful and significant is a piece of music in the fifth act, superscribed ' Indicating Clara's death.' The stage remains empty ; the lamp on the table flickers yet a few times, and then dies out. In the same act is a short melodrama, followed by music descriptive of Egmont's dream, in which he has a vision of Clara, who bids him be of good cheer, tells him that his death will procure victory for his country, and presents a laurel wreath to him. At the end of the play the orchestra strikes up a Siegessymphonie (triumphal symphony). 122 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth In the opera Fidelia the orchestra is symphonic and the music throughout programme music, often indeed of the most striking, intense, and penetrating kind. Take, for instance, the introduction to the second act, Florestan's recitative and aria, and the melodrama, one of the most impressive that have been writtpn. [ Next we have to examine the symphonies with \declared programmes. To speak of a declared programme in connection with the third symphony, the Sinfonia eroica, Op. 55 (1804), is saying rather too much. But we know that Beethoven in writing this work had in his mind Napoleon Bonaparte, the young general and consul, for whom and for republicanism he had a great admiration. In fact, the original title ran ' Sinfonia grande, written on Bonaparte.' It was Beethoven's anger at Napoleon's betrayal of republicanism by his acceptance of the Imperial crown that made him adopt the present title : ' Heroic Symphony [I translate from the Itaiian], composed for the celebration of a Great man.' JAlthough this is the only information the coTi^eser ever vouchsafed — if we except one remark, which I shall presently quote — it is neither impertinent nor too daring to say that the contents of the several movements may be indicated thus : (1) Character and life of the hero; (2) Funeral ceremony; (3) Scene in the camp; (4) Apotheosis, or celebration of the memory of the hero. Beethoven's remark above alluded to is that made by him on hearing of Napoleon's death : ' I have already composed the proper music for that catastrophe,' that is, the second movement, the Marciafunebre. ^' Cnlike his proceeding in the Heroic Symphony and in every other case, Beethoven supplies a pretty full Period.] Beethwen. 123 and detailed programme in the sixth, the Pastoral Symphony, Op. 68, first performed on December 22, 1808. We have here frankly acknowledged programme music in the fullest sense of the word. The super- scriptions of the five movements, the last three of which are continuous, are in their final form as follows : '(1) The cheerful impressions excited on arriving in the country ; (2) By the brook ; (3) Peasants' merrymaking (more literally : merry meeting of country folk) ; (4) Thunderstorm ; and (5) Shepherds' hymn ; gratitude and thanksgiving after the storm.' Of what kind Beethoven's programme is may be gathered from the subtitle on the back of the title-page of the first violin part (whilst the parts were published as early as 1809, the score was not published till 1826) : ' Pastoral Symphony or Eecollection of country-life (expressive of feeling rather than painting).' / Certain remarks in the master's sketch-books make~nis position clearer still. There he wrote : ' All painting in instrumental music, if pushed too far, is a failure.' But he was sure he had not gone too far, for he wrote also : ' Anyone who has an idea of country-life can make out for himself the intentions of the author without many titles.' These intentions, however, he struggled hard to reveal. One of his attempts resulted in the following explanation : ' Pastoral Symphony : not a picture, but something in which are expressed the emotions aroused in men by the pleasure of the country (or), in which some feelings of country-life are set forth.' But although Beethoven was mainly concerned with the inner impressions that outward things had made upon him, he by no means altogether abstained from painting those outward things. Only, this painting was 124 Programme Music m the Classical Forms. [Fifth kept subordinate to the expression of the inner man. Hencfe the master's explanation is quite correct: ' expression of feeling rather than painting.' This symphony makes us realize Beethoven's love of nature- He said of himself, — 'no man on earth loves the country more. Woods, trees, and rocks give the response which man requires. . . . Every tree seems to say: " Holy, holy." ' Beethoven was right in saying that ' anyone who has an idea of country-life can make out for himself the intentions of the author without many titles.' I should say, even without any titles at all. Who could be in doubt about the meaning of the first movement ? The superscription, ' The cheerful impressions excited on arriving in the country,' seems to be superfluous. The open-air feeling of freshness and brightness is unmistak- able. So are the serenity and joyousness inspired by the rural sights, odours, and sounds. What light- heartedness, what high spirits ! What smiles, laughter, and singing ! What tripping, skipping, and running ! In short, what innocent joy, what perfect happiness! Of whatever age, we feel ourselves young again, — feel spring in our veins and hearts. The slow movement of the Pastoral Symphony, ' By the Brook,' is full of the sounds of nature — of the murmuring of the brook, and the twittering of the birds. But whilst this is to be found in the accompaniment, the melody furnishes the human element — the leisureliness, the dolce far niente, the dreaminess, the comfort, the contented self-abandonment to the moment that come over us on a sunny summer day in such surroundings. The form, like the mood, is vague, is, as it were, an aimless wandering, a lingering and lounging. Period.] Beethaoen. 125 The third movement, ' The merry gathering of country-people,' is a delightful specimen of Beethoven's humour. You see the peasants capering and wheeling about ; you hear the village orchestra -with its peculiarities and deficiencies ; and at one time you get the hobnailed rustics at their roughest and noisiest. There is nothing vague about the form this time. The rustic strains and rhythms are as plain as possible. Suddenly a thunderstorm breaks out, and puts an end to the merrymaking. Instead of a loud tonic chord of F major, we hear a pianissimo roll on a kettle-drum tuned in d flat. Here, in this fourth movement, Beethoven is a painter of outward things more than in any other movement — ^thunder, lightning, gusts of wind, and showers of rain are depicted — but the human element is not absent. The staccato quaver figure, first heard in the third and following bars, tells us of the timid flight of the peasants,; the wailing crotchets of bars 5 and 6 are unmistakable. And besides this the composer depicts not only the noises of the storm, but also the awe with which the sublime spectacle, grand as well as terrible, inspires the spectator. Everything is expressive and descriptive, both the matter and the form. A thunderstorm in rondo or sonata form could not but have a tame and artificial effect. The wild anarchy of keys and motives is more appropriate. The anarchy, however, is apparent rather than real — it is an ordered disorder. At any rate, Beethoven has succeeded in producing in this moveinent the most magnificent picture of a storm, whether colour- or tone-picture, that so far has been given to the world. Whilst in the fourth movement all is uproar and strife among the elements, and fear and awe among 126 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth men, in the fifth all is serenity and peace, all joy and gratitude. Some critics have found the last movement too long, considering its contents, and some have even hinted that the whole symphony and especially the last movement was on a lower level than that on which Beethoven usually moves in his symphonies. These people forget that the master's intention was to write a pastoral symphony and to depict certain things which he clearly indicated by words. Now, as this was his intention, he had necessarily to write something that was totally different from the Heroic and other symphonies. Was the subject chosen unworthy of the artist? Surely, it was not. Was the treatment of the subject unworthy of him ? Again, surely, it was not. Indeed, in the Pastoral Symphony the composer was as great as in the grandest of his other symphonies, and nothing could be more beautiful. That Beethoven knew how to be idyllic as well as heroic proves him so much the greater an artist. Why not be for once content with perfect serenity and pure beauty, without stress and strain ? A question of greater pertinence and importance in connection with the Pastoral Symphony is the legitimacy of the material tone-painting to be found there. The master has been greatly blamed for writing programme music, and still more for certain features of it, and most of all for the introduction of the nightingale, quail, and cuckoo, towards the end of the slow movement. This was not to be wondered at ninety years ago. But it is strange that even at the present day there are people who think it necessary to make excuses for Beethoven, or are so kind as to make allowances for his eccentricities. Two tests decide the legitimacy of material tone-painting. Is it Period.] Beethoven. 127 subordinate to the spiritual? Is it of an artistic nature? The unprejudiced cannot but admit that the passage in question stands the application of these tests. The imitation of the bird voices occupies only a few bars of the long movement; and both the imitation and the manner of introduction are in the highest degree artistic. I have not the least hesitation in asserting that the effect of the last eleven bars of the scene ' By the Brook ' is truly poetical. Some instruction on this point may be got from the master's sketch books. Among his notes for the Pastoral Symphony there is one superscribed, ' Thunder,' which, however, was not in any way utilized. Then in an earlier note-book, years before he began to write the symphony, he had twice jotted down the tones and rhythms he had heard in the murmuring of brooks; the second version being a fifth lower and accompanied by the remark, 'the larger the brook, the deeper the tone.' These notes, or the experiences that suggested them, were not forgotten when he wrote the scene ' By the Brook ' ; but he remem- bered them as an artist who allows nature to suggest, not to dictate. Beethoven's attitude towards materialistic tone-painting is, as my interpretation has shown, well illustrated by the scene ' By the Brook ' andpby the thunderstorm, where he combines with an idealistic imitation of the sounds of nature, the expression of human emotions. Did the composer of the Sinfonie Pastorale owe anything to the composer of the Portrait musical de la Nature ? The opinion has been hazarded that Beethoven was unlikely to have been acquainted with Knecht's work. But if certain circumstances are taken into account, the likelihood of his having known it is much greater than the 128 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth unlikelihood. The striking similarity of the programmes speaks of course strongly in favour of the assumption that Beethoven knew the earlier composition. The circum- stances alluded to are, however, these. Bossier, of Spire, who in 1784 published Knecht's symphony, also published in 1783 and 1784 the boy Beethoven's first compositions, three sonatas and two songs. Knecht was a widely known musical respectability, both as a writer of and on music. His portrait appeared in 1791 in the musical periodical Musikalische Korrespondenz der deutschen FHarmonischen Gesellschaft (Bossier, Spire), and may have been seen by Beethoven ; his works were reviewed in, and he wrote articles for, the Allgemeiri,e musikalische Zeitung (Breitkopf & Hartel, Leipzig; 1798, &c.), an influential periodical which Beethoven no doubt read; and his life and works were described in Gerber's Lexicon, which Beethoven possessed. From these data it is not rash to conclude that Beethoven did know Knecht's symphony, and that he was inspired by it ; but only by the programme, not by the music, or at least not otherwise by the music than with the desire of doing well what had been done badly. There is one work of Beethoven's which, though it has not an explicit programme, may be said to have an implicit one, — I mean the Choral Symphony. The programme is hinted at by the stanzas from Schiller's Ode to Joy, on which the last division of the work is founded, and by Beethoven's own words which connect this division with what precedes. The contents of the symphony, as I understand it, are briefly this ; The first movement spreads out before us a world dark, void, and without form. The solitary individual, confronted by stern unbending necessity, looking into a joyless, Period.] Beethoven. 129 hopeless, merciless mysterious infinitude, is filled with indescribable despair. No grander, gloomier, and more awe-inspiring picture has ever been painted by brush or pen. It is a dread revelation of infinite Nature to finite Man. In the second movement, the Scherzo, with its wild capricious sportiveness, there is a desperate gaiety, with mad pranks and boisterous outbreaks. It represents diversion, not happiness. The third movement, an Adagio, is a vision of all that is sweet and beautiful. Nothing could be more enrapturing. But it is only a vision, only a dream — as the dire dissonances with which the next division opens prove only too conclusively. After fierce cries and volleys of wild ejaculations, as of one seized by sudden pain, after sullen recitatives by the double-basses, after reminiscences of the Scherzo and the Adagio, after the presentment of a new and comforting thought and another fierce cry and volley of wild ejaculations, a human voice strikes in with the words: '0 Friends, not these tones, let us sing more pleasing ones.' And now begins Schiller's Hymn to Joy. How the composer revels in the expression of the poet's themes all know who have heard the work. What indeed could be more congenial to the master than sentiments such as these : — ' Embrace, ye millions — let this kiss, Brothers, embrace the earth below ! Ton starry worlds that shine on this, One common father know.' In short, the Choral Symphony is a musical exposition of Beethoven's philosophy.* * Compare with the above Wagner's different but not incongruous exposition in his Report on the Perforinance of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. 130 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth We have now exhausted Beethoven's works and parts of works with superscriptions. These, however, are not the master's only programmatic compositions. He had for years, from 1816 onwards, the intention of bringing out a new complete edition of his sonatas, one of the moving reasons being his desire to indicate the poetic ideas on which many of these works were based, and thus to facilitate the comprehension and determine the reading of them. We owe this information to Schindler, Beethoven's friend and biographer, who tells us also that in later years the master spoke of the Largo of the Sonata Op. 10, in D major, as depicting the mood of a melancholy person with all the varied nuances of light and shade in the picture of melancholy and its phases ; of the two Sonatas Op. 14, as the contention of twO' principles (the entreating and the resisting), or a dialogue between two persons, a husband and wife, or a lover and sweetheart, the dialogue and its meaning being more pregnantly expressed and the opposition of the two persons more palpable in the second sonata ; and (in a conversation of 1823) of the Sonate PatMtique, Op. 13, as also containing in the middle movement two principles. When Schindler asked Beethoven what was the poetic idea of the Sonata Op. 31, No. 2, in D minor, and the Sonata Op. 57, in F minor, the master replied : ' Bead Shakespeare's Tempest.' A very interesting story is told by Schindler of the Sonata Op. 90, in E minor, dedicated to Count Moritz Lichnowsky. ' When Count Lichnowsky received this sonata,' he writes, ' it seemed to him that his friend Beethoven had wished to express a definite idea in the two movements of which it consists. He did not fail to ask the master. As the latter never kept back what was Period. Beethoven. 131 in his mind, he had no hesitation in replying now. Laughing loudly, he at once remarked that he had intended to picture in his music the love-story of the Count and his wife ; adding that if a superscription was required, that of the first movement might be " Struggle between head and heart," and that of the second, " Conversation with the beloved one." ' These superscriptions fit the music very well. As to the Count's love-story, it is briefly told as follows. He fell in love with an opera singer of talent and exemplary character. His relations opposed a mesalliance. But after . the death of his elder brother. Prince Carl, Count Moritz followed the dictates of his heart, and married the amiable lady. One more of Beethoven's indications has to be mentioned. Eegarding the first five bars of the C minor Symphony, he remarked to Schindler, with impetuous enthusiasm : ' Thus does Fate knock at the door.' But can we trust Schindler ? I believe we can. Moreover, his communications are corroborated by other witnesses. Ferdinand Eies says of his master : 'Beethoven often thought of a definite subject in his compositions.' And Carl Czemy, who saw much of Beethoven, and had his help in studying his works, writes : ' It is certain that many of Beethoven's finest works were inspired by similar visions and pictures drawn from reading and his own imagination ; and that if it were possible to obtain a sure knowledge of these circum- stances, we should have the key to his compositions and their rendering.' To these general statements may be added a particular one. Beethoven told his friend Amenda — who informed Lenz — that when composing the Adagio of the String Quartet in F major. Op. 18, No. 1, he thought of Eomeo and Juliet in the tomb scene. 132 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth But even if Schindler's, Eies's, and Czerny's reports were unknown to us, our knowledge of Beethoven's character would make us guess as much. One with so intensive a soul-life could not but infuse it into his art-work. And one with so sublime a conception of art could not wish the two, the soul-life and the art-work, apart. In fact, his lofty mind cotld not but despise mere ingeniously contrived structures of meaningless tone combinations, however sensuously beautiful. We must be careful not to measure Beethoven by the common standard. To tmderstand him, read his will, the letters to his ' immortal love,' his apostrophes to Fate, and his exaltation of music. ' Music is the mediation between the spiritual and the sensuous life.' ' Art and science alone point out to us and let us hope a higher life.' ' Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.' ' All that is called life shall be sacrificed to the sublime one (music), and be a sanctuary of art.' These are a few of the many striking sayings to be found in the master's letters and note-books. They distinctly point to the fact that Beethoven was a moral as well as an sesthetical force, ^nd this brings me to the last and most powerful proof, the impressions produced by Beethoven's music on the hearer. Does he not feel that there is in it more than a clever display of beautiful and piquant tone combinations, that there is in it meaning, and meaning of profound and noble import, and not merely something vague but something definite, although perhaps the definite be not easily translatable into words? When Mendelssohn played (on the pianoforte) the first movement of Beethoven's C minor Symphony to Goethe, the latter was strangely affected by the music. At first he said : • That does not move one at all ; it only Pkbiod.] Beethoven. 183 astonishes ; it is grandiose.' After a long time, he resumed : ' That is very grand, quite mad, it makes one almost afraid the house will come down ; and when it is played by all the people [the full orchestra] ! ' And so much was the musically untrained and really unmusical Goethe stirred by what he had heard that later in the day he once more returned to the subject. It is interesting to compare the experience of the poet Goethe with a reflection of Julian Schmidt, the literary historian. ' In coimection with Beethoven's symphonies we have the feeling that they are concerned with something very different from the usual alternation of joy and sorrow, in which music mthout words is wont to move and have its being. We divine the mysterious abyss of a spiritual world, and torment ourselves to fathom it. We wish to know what has driven the tone-poet to this boundless despair and to this extravagant jubilation. The need makes itself the more felt, the deeper music penetrates into the inner world, as in Beethoven's last period.' To the testimony of untrained music lovers let us add that of some professional musicians. Wagner's Programmatic Explamations of the Sinfonia Eroica and the Coriolanus overture, his Report and Programme of the ninth Symphony, and his remarks on the great Leonore overture in the essay On the Overtwe, are unsurpassable masterpieces. His writings, moreover, are full of light-giving ohiter dicta concerning the great master's works. In fact, Wagner's dicta on this subject are always excellent except where theorizings inspired by his own practice lead him to misinterpret his predecessor, as, for instance, in the characterization of the seventh, the A major Symphony (see Art-work of the Fidure). Marx, who in his Life and Works of Beethoven 134 Programme Music in the Classical Forms. [Fifth analyzes many of the master's compositions, suggests here and there programmes, and always accentuates the fact of an ideal content. Parenthetically I will mention the amateur Lenz's Critical Catalogue of Beethoven's Works, in which are to be met with, besides numberless idle conceits, not a few happy hints. Tchaikovsky, who is one of the many musicians who have expressed regret that Beethoven has not himself provided programmes, asks in one of his letters the question : ' Has Beethoven's fifth Symphony a programme ? ' And he answers it thus : ' It not only has a programme, but there cannot be the slightest difference of opinion as to what the symphony purports to express.' He further confesses that his own fourth Symphony has the same programme.* Eubinstein saw even in the early works besides the aesthetical, the ethical element ; saw that Beethoven's instrumental music could express the dramatic and even the tragic ; saw that his humour rises to irony. ' He is incredibly great in his adagios — his utterances reach from the most beautiful lyrical to the metaphysical and mystical. But quite incom- prehensibly great he is in his scherzos. Some of them I feel inclined to compare with the Fool in King Lear. One hears in them smiling, laughing, bantering, not unfrequently bitterness, irony, anger — in short, a world of psychological expression. It seems to come not from a man, but, as it were, from an invisible Titan, who now rejoices over humanity, now is vexed at it, now makes fun of it, now weeps over it. In one word, Beethoven is wholly incommensurable.' Among the best and truest words that have been said on the same subject are the following ones of Edward Dannreuther : * See this in the account of Tclaaikovsky, Book V., Chapter III. Period.] Beethoven. 135 ' "While listening to such -works as the overturfe to Leonora, the Sinfonia Eroica, or the ninth Symphony, we feel that we arft in the presence of something far wider and higher than the mere development of musical themes. The execution in detail of each movement and each succeeding work is modified more and more by the prevailing poetic sentiment. A religious passion and elevation are present in the utterances. The mental and moral horizon of the music grows upon us with each renewed hearing. The different movements — like the different particles of each movement — have as close a connection with one another as the acts of a tragedy, and a characteristic significance to be understood only in relation to the whole ; each work is in the full sense of the word a revelation. Beethoven speaks a language no one has spoken before, and treats of things no one has dreamt of before. . . . The warmth and depth of his ethical sentiment is now felt all the world over, and it will ere long be universally recognized that he has leavened and widened the sphere of men's emotions in a manner akin to that in which the conceptions of great philosophers and poets have widened the sphere of men's intellectual activity.' After reading the foregoing pages many will no doubt admit that Beethoven was a composer of programme music to a much larger extent than they had thought. Some of them, however, will add that he differs from composers of the Berlioz and Liszt types in that he subordinated the programme to the form. Is that true ? No ! So far is this from being true that one is perfectly justified in saying that the widening and strengthening of the instrumental forms which we owe to Beethoven is the offspring of his poetic ideas, of his programmes. To 136 Programme Music in the Classical Forma. [Fifth be sure, his form is always classical, that is, lucid and beautiful, and satisfactory considered by itself ; but it is not invariably traditional, conventional, both the structure and number of the movements being dictated by the underlying poetic ideas, by the programme in his mind. Of course, among Beethoven's compositions there are many which deviate not at all or only very little from the traditional Haydn-Mozart form, and many are not based on programmes or are based on programmes of a more or less shadowy kind. Nevertheless my proposition remains unaffected. Schindler says : ' It is well known that Beethoven did not confine himself to writing in the traditional forms, but often avoided them because the idea by which he allowed himself to be prompted demanded another treatment, or, more correctly, a new vesture. Hence the sometimes heard remark: "Beethoven's sonatas are operas in disguise.'" Let me give a few familiar examples. The episodes of the first movement of the Heroic Symphony have their justification in the programme. The third movement of the overture to Egmont is not merely a brilliant coda to the preceding movemeni, but the expression of a new idea. Again, it was the programme that in the Pastoral Symphony called for five instead of four movements, and caused the form of the slow movement to be vague, that of the Storm to be non-architectural, and that of the others to be more or less deviating from the traditional. Whoever has studied the great Leonore overture knows that the form of this work is largely influenced by the poetic contents.* The same holds good with regard to the Choral Symphony. It is difficult to be so blind as * We must concede this even if we agree with Wagner in thinking that the recapitulation of the first after the middle diyision is a weakness. Peeiod.J Beethoven. 137 not to see this in the first movement of this work ; it is impossible not to see it in what immediately precedes the vocal portion. We need not go for confirmation of my proposition to the master's last string quartets, in which he so widely departs from the sonata form; we find it in many and many of his works in which the traditional form is to a more or less extent adhered to. In short, the traditional forms did not mould Beethoven's ideas, but the ideas moulded the forms and sometimes even broke them. This, at any rate, was the state of matters with Beethoven at his best. It is important that we should form a clear and correct notion of Beethoven's position with regard to programme music, and this could only be arrived at by a sober statement of the facts of the case. Having such a statement before him, the reader, I think, will be as firmly convinced as I am myself that not only were the master's tendency and practice in this respect less limited in extent than is mostly supposed, but also that the time cannot be far off when he will be regarded as the chief founder and the greatest cultivator of programme music. [Fifth CHAPTEE II. FIFTH PBKIOD CONTINUED : THE THEBE EAKLY KOMANTICISTS WBBEE, SCHUBEBT, AND SPOHE. Beethoven's younger contemporary, GAEL MAEIA VON WEBEE (1786-1826), plays a much more important part in the development of programme music than he is credited with. Indeed, those who have no eyes but for the obvious do not so much as dream of him as a composer of programme music. Leaving for the present the overtures out of account, only one of Weber's purely instrumental compositions — the Momento capriccioso need not be considered — bears a title hinting at a programme, namely Op. 65, Aufforderwng zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) ; and not a few musicians look upon this title as a mere fancy title, attractive but meaningless. An indisputable authority, however, the composer's wife, has corrected this view. When Weber had finished the piece in 1819 (it was not published till 1821), he played it to her, and accompanied the performance with the following commentary : ' First approach of the dancer (bars 1-5) ; the lady's evasive reply (5-9) ; his pressing invitation (9-13 — the short appoggiatura c and the appoggiatura a)? are very significant) ; her consent (13-16) ; they enter into conversation — he begins (17-19), she replies (19-21), he speaks with greater warmth (21-23), she sympathetically agrees (23-25). Now for the dance ! He addresses her with regard to it (25-27), her answer (27-29), they draw together (29-31), take their places, are waiting for the Period.] Weber. 189 commencement of the dance (31-35). — The dance. — Conclusion : his thanks, her reply, their retirement. Silence.' The commentary leaves us in the lurch as to the main part of the composition, the dance. Nevertheless it would he a mistake to conclude from this gap in the story that Weber's waltz is no more than a rhythmic and melodic accompaniment of the motions of the dancers. So far is this from being the case that it has been described by someone as the poetic idea of the dance, and by someone else as the expression of all that the German dance contains of poetry, chivalry, tenderness, and grace. In fact, we may read in it a whole story of youthful joyousness, coquetry, courtship, and love. The piece made quite a sensation among musicians as well as among the general public. Men like Liszt and Berlioz, on making its acquaintance, were enthusiastic about it ; the latter, in after years, scoring it for the orchestra. Recently Felix Weingartner, too, scored it, with additions of his own. It has also been arranged for two pianofortes, and for all sorts of instruments ; Tausig transmogrified it even into a hravv/ra concert piece. Fresh, spirited, and delightful as the Aufforderung zum Tcmz is. Op. 79, the Concertstikk (Concert Piece) for pianoforte and orchestra must be admitted to be a more serious and weighty contribution to programme music. This is the Concerto in F minor mentioned in a letter addressed to Eochlitz, where Weber speaks about his conceiving a story extending over the whole of the work, and his fear of being numbered with the charlatans. His fear getting the better of him, he concealed the programme from the public. Fortunately, it was fully revealed to his 140 The Three Early Romanticists. [Fifth wife and Julius Benedict, his pupil, to whom the happy composer played the Concertstiick immediately after finishing it, at Berlin, on the 18th of June, 1821, the day of the first performance of Der Freischiitn. Weber's commentary ran thus : ' The lady sits in her tower : she gazes sadly into the distance. Her knight has been for years in the Holy Land : shall she never see him again ? Battles have been fought ; but there is no news of him who is so dear to her. In vain have been her prayers and her longing. A dreadful vision rises in her mind : — her knight is lying on the battle- field, deserted by his companions ; his heart's blood is ebbing fast away. Could she but be by his side ! — could she but die with him ! She falls down exhausted and senseless. But hark ! What is that distant sound ? What glimmers in the sunlight from the wood ? What are those forms approaching ? Knights and squires with the cross of the Crusaders, banners waving, acclamations of the people ; and there ! — it is he ! She sinks into his arms. What a commotion of love ! What an infinite, indescribable happiness ! The very woods and waves sing the song of true love; a thousand voices proclaim its victory.' * The programme is undoubtedly poetical and romantic. But does the music realize it ? Yes, certainly ! It realizes vividly its spirit, sentiments, and colour. Weber asserted no more than the truth when he wrote to Eochlitz that the parts of the composition follow each * The above-mentioned letter to Eochlitz is of March 14, 1816. The composer indicates the programme of his projected F minor Concerto briefly thus : ' Allegro, Separation ; 4(Jajio, Lament ; Finale, Profoundest sorrow, consolation, meeting again, and jubilation.' He adds that he hates titled tone-pictures, but that the idea irresistibly obtrudes itself upon him, and endeavours to convince him of its effectiveness. Pbeiod.] Weber. 141 other in accordance with the story, and receive their character from it in a detailed and dramatic manner. Especially noteworthy is that the story determined the form of the work. Hence Weber's denomination of the composition — not concerto, but Concertstuck. Although we do not hear of any other programmes in connection with the master's pianoforte compositions, one cannot listen to works like the A flat major Sonata, and the E flat and the E major Polonaise — to mention only the most striking examples — without suspecting that there is something more in them than the general characteristics of Weber's romanticism — namely, the chivalrous, the supernatural, and the naively sentimental. Weber's bibliographer, F. W. Jahns, looked upon each of the sonatas, * those four extraordinary works,' as mirroring a particular character-picture with the rarest distinctness; and the composer's son and biographer remarks significantly of his father's chamber works and songs that they are ' so many reflexes of the dramatic tendency of his genius, preparatory studies for his dramatic works.' Whatever may be the extent and quality of the programmatic in Weber's purely instrumental composi- tions, the master is more eminent as a composer of programme music in his stage than in his concert and chamber works. On having his attention di-awn in this direction, the reader's first thought will be of the Wolf's Glen scene in Der Freischutz. The gruesome horrors of this scene are indeed musically drawn with wonderful originality and immense force. But whilst fully admitting the originality and powerfulness of the tone-painting in this casp, one may yet hold that the depicting of the Satanic influence in the first act of the same opera, of the 142 The Three Early Romanticists. [Fifth fairy world in Oheron, and of the ghostly vision of Emma and the pomp and circumstance of chivalry in Euryanthe, is no less original and powerful, although less violently striking. These are only a few remarkable examples of that admirable tone-painting, of things internal and external, in which Weber's operas abound. At least two or three more may yet be specified for reference — ^Max's aria in the first act of Der Freischiltz, to which I have already alluded, Agathe's aria in the second act of the same opera, and Kezia's aria in Oheron, ' Ocean ! thou mighty monster.' Of programme music apart from words and action, Weber's operas furnish us with brilliant examples in the overtures, especially Der Freischiltz, Euryanthe, and Oheron. They summarize the contents of the operas, not, however, the incidents of the plot, but the emotional substrata and the atmosphere and the colouring. It would be an egregious mistake to look upon these overtures as a kind of potpourri because they contain motives from the operas. These musical motives are at the same time fundamental emotional or otherwise characteristic motives. Let me indicate in a few words the programmes of the compositions in question. The essence of the Freischiltz overture is this : The peace and innocence of forest life, broken in upon by the powers of darkness; struggle between good and evil; victory of the former. The main part of the introductory- movement {Adagio) depicts the sweet peacefulness ; later on, the inimical intrusion makes itself felt by the fear- inspiring motive characteristic of Samiel, the evil spirit. The further course may be traced by means of the following analysis of the A llegro. In the first subject are incorporated a motive from Max's aria (' What evil pow'r Period.] Weher. 143 is closing xound me'), and another from the Wolf's Glen scene, when a thunder-storm accompanied hy hail breaks out, and flames start from the earth ; in the second subject, another motive from Max's aria (* No ray will shine upon my darkness'), and the jubilant one from Agathe's aria (' How every pulse is flying, and my heart beats loud and fast, we shall meet in joy at last'). This last is the redeeming motive, which, after the struggle between the good and evil influence that goes on through the rest of the .tone-poem, finally triumphs. Chivalry is the predominant note of the Euryamthe overture. After a brilliant, dashing period follows the knightly motive from Adolar's aria (* I trust in God and my Euryanth '). In the second subject we notice a love- laden motive from another aria of Adolar (' 0, bliss ! I do not fathom thee '). Between the exposition and the development occurs an episode {La/rgo), the ghostly apparition of Emma, with which is connected the cause of the troubles depicted in the middle division. Chivalry and love, however, gain the day at last, as the ending of the third division, the modified recapitulation with coda, shows. In the Oheron overture the temptation to suspect a potpourri or mosaic of motives is greater than in the other two. For here we meet in the introduction with a naagic horn motive, a^fairy motive, and a Charlemagne motive (from the march at the end of the opera) ; and in the Allegro con fuoco, a travel, or adventure motive (from the quartet ' On board then '), and the motives of devotion and jubilation (Huon's thoughts of love and the beloved, in the aria ' Prom boyhood trained in battlefield,' and Eezia's rejoicing at the supposed approach of deliverance, in the Ocean aria). Nevertheless the 144 The Three Early Romanticists. [Fifth overture is a whole, and, moreover, enables one to realize something of the spirit and colour of the opera ■without knowing it. The tones of the magic horn at the beginning transport us at once into a strange and beautiful world on which we gaze spell-bound. Ambros sees in the opening Adagio a moon-lit magic night full of floating rose perfumes from the wondrous gardens of the East, and thinks that he who has Heine's sound-picturing talent must feel in this overture as if he saw passing before him shining cupolas, fantastic minarets, palm woods, lovely women, Saracen and occidental knights in combat and sport, and all the strange wonders of the Orient in a dazzling Fata morgana. This is an enthusiastic and poetic, but hardly a legitimate interpretation. The excellent Ambros — who, by-the-way, was not a favourer of programme music — proves, however, by his eloquent words his conviction that Weber really painted a tone-picture. My account of Weber as a composer of programme music would be incomplete without some reference to his incidental use of melodrama. In Der Freischiitz it is notable for its characteristically effective alternation with song, in Preciosa for the rhythmical notation of the recitation. Whoever knows the songs of FEANZ SCHUBEET (1797-1828) knows too that in them the greatest song composer is also a great composer of programme music. The adding of a fitting musical accompaniment to verses did not seem to him a task worthy of a tone-poet. He felt impelled to re-create the word-poet's creations. In fact, the poems he set to music were to him but programmes for the realization of which he had to have recourse to the pianoforte as well as to the voice. It would be impertinent on my part to offer examples Period.] Schubert. 145 proving my assertion. Nobody's memory ■will fail to supply some, and any volume of the master's songs will furnish a multitude more. But was Schubert in purely instrumental works a composer of programme music? Not a confessed one. Was he, then, an unconfessed one ? The question is difficult to answer ; at least cannot be answered with a bold unqualified ' yes ' or ' no. ' Not one of his independent purely instrumental compositions has an explicit programme, and only two hint at a programme — namely, the fourth Symphony, entitled ' Tragic Symphony,' and one of the pianoforte duets, entitled Lebensstiirme (Storms of life). No accounts or rumours of concealed programmes have been transmitted to us by the composer's friends and biographers. All this, however, does not dispose of the possibility, or even of the probability, that Schubert may after all have been a composer of purely instrumental programme music. I have no doubt that some will advance as an objection that Schubert was a dreamer, not a thinker, and that his music is a spinning-out of notes 'with many a winding bout of linked sweetness long drawn out.' There is some truth in this. He was a dreamer of dreams : but for the most part he was a wide-awake dreamer of most vivid dreams. His songs are unimpeachable witnesses to his clear-eyed penetrating vision as well as to the luminousness of his imagination. His smaller pianoforte pieces — the Impromptus, Moments musicals, &c. — testify to the same qualities, if only we listen to them attentively. Some of them are song-like, and all have speaking expressiveness and pronounced character. Without forgetting Beethoven's Bagatelles, we may say that Schubert was the originator of the vitaUzed 146 The Three Early Eomanticists. [Fifth pianoforte literature in the lesser forms of the 19th century. Who would confidently assert that these strikingly expressive and characteristic little tone-poems were all the offspring of vague moods and a fertile formative musical genius ; that none were engendered by anything more definite than vague moods — none by conscious emotions, sentimental complications, interesting occurrences, literary productions, and landscapes ? And again, if you listen, listen attentively, to works like the D minor and the A minor Quartet, the two Trios, the C major Symphony, and the unfinished B minor Symphony — to mention only a few of many : are you not here, too, struck, and even more forcibly, by the fact that inasmuch as there is dreaming in them, it is dreaming of the most vivid kind, and that not a little of what is offered us seems to be real life in its intensest forms ? Let us see what Schumann says of Schubert, whom he partly discovered, and whose genius he first fully recognized. He calls him on one occasion a ' romantic painter.' On another occasion he speaks of ' the bright, blooming romantic life' in the master's C major Symphony. Again, he says : ' Schubert has tones for the finest feelings, thoughts, and even events and circumstances.' Note the concluding words of this sentence ; and note also the following remarks : ' Schubert will always remain the favourite of the young ; he shows them what they want — an overflowing heart, daring thoughts, and quick deeds ; relates to them what they like best— romantic stories of knights, maids, and adventures, with which he mingles also wit and humour, but not so much that the gentle fundamental mood is thereby dimmed.' Period.] Schubert. 147 Schumann omits to mention Schubert's love of Nature — of fields and woods, of flowers and trees, of lakes and rivers, of clouds, of sun, moon, and stars. There is little of it in his letters, but his music is full of it. Ambros points out a very true and interesting distinction between Beethoven and Schubert. The meaning of his words is as follows : ' Beethoven in his flight keeps his eyes turned upward to the eternal stars, the infinite depths of the heavens ; Schubert in his flight never loses sight of the beautiful earth, looking smilingly down on it and its flower gardens, cornfields, and vineyards.' It will be for the reader to decide to what extent Schubert, when composing, had distinct extra-musical subjects in his mind, was possessed by definite ideas, impressions, and feelings. I will give an impulse to the inquiry by asking a few questions. Do you not hear in the introductory Andante of the C major Symphony a serene hymn of praise to God, who is all love and goodness? Do not the rapids of imagination in the following Allegro shoot you along with giddy swiftness through a sunny, laughing world, in which sorrowing and praying are heard only like far-off sounds from another sphere ? Do you not perceive the stream of fluctuating moods in the Andante con moto — the melodic complaint, the rapt contemplation that loses itself in the twilight of a beautiful dreaming vision, &c. ? Do you not wish to join in the boisterous sport and graceful dance of the Scherzo, and the hearty chorus of the Trio ? Do you not feel yourself carried away in the Finale by the high- spirited joyousness and the irresistible onward movement, which suggested to one commentator 'Magyar heroes riding past brandishing their sabres ' ? And, lastly, do you not share Schumann's opinion that in this work there is 148 The Three Early Romanticists. [Fifth significance everywhere, and that it leads you into regions where you cannot remember to have been before ? Or, turning to the unfinished B minor Symphony, does not the second movement, the Andante con moto, conjure up in your mind a picture of peace, contentment, and happiness somewhat like this ? — Smooth pasturage, with sleek cattle quietly grazing ; well-cultivated fields bordered along the country lanes by green hedges ; not far off a limpid brook gliding, now silently, now gently whispering, over its shallow bed; the whole scene illuminated by the subdued light of the setting sun, for it is late in the afternoon, and in an hour or two the sun will disappear behind those mountains which form the dark background to this pleasing picture. The mild loveliness and suavity of the scene soothe and lull the beholder into a dreamy state of semi-wakefulness. Momentarily he is startled by forebodings, dark and indefinite as that gloomy mountain side. But the future is soon dispelled by the present, the distant by the near, and once more he is bewitched by the play of colours, by the songs of the birds, and by the numerous other elements of which such a scene is composed. The discussion of Schubert as a composer of programme music may be fitly concluded with a remark made by Schumann in his Heidelberg student days (1829) : ' What a diary in which they enter their momentary feelings is to others, the music paper to which he confided all his humours was to Schubert. His out-and-out musical soul wrote notes where others employ words.' LOUIS SPOHE (1784-1859) cannot be omitted from the history of programme music, although he is of much less importance than Weber and Schubert. An Period.] Spohr. 149 initial difficulty presents itself as to where to place him ; for he outlived not only these two composers and Beethoven, but also Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Chopin. The three works that concern us especially are Die Weihe der Tone (The Consecration of Sound), Irdisches wnd Gottliches im Menschenleben (The Earthly and the Divine in human life), and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), composed respectively in 1832, 1841, and 1850. After a first reading of the poem which furnished the subject, or rather subjects, of the earliest of these three works, Spohr thought of treating it as a cantata, but afterwards came to the conclusion that it did not lend itself to such treatment. The composer himself wrote on October 9, 1832 : ' Eecently I finished another great instrumental composition — a fourth symphony, which in form deviates greatly from the preceding ones. It is a tone-picture after a poem by Karl Pfeiffer, Die Weihe der Tone, which must be printed and distributed or recited aloud before the performance. In the first division it was my task to form out of the sounds of Nature a harmonious whole. This and the entire work was a difficult, but highly attractive task.' The opening of the poem runs, in bald English prose, and without improvement of the sense, as follows : * The earth was lying solitary in the flowery splendour of spring. Amidst the silent forms man walked in darkness, following only wild instinct, not the gentle promptings of the heart. Love had no tones. Nature no speech. Eternal Goodness determined to manifest itself, and breathed into the human breast sound, and caused love to find a language that penetrated blissfully to the heart.' After alluding to various sounds in Nature, the poet dwells 150 The Three Early Bomemticists. [Fifth feelingly on the employment of music on different occasions. Spohr sets forth the contents of his Symphony thus: FiEST Division. Largo : The unbroken silence of Nature before the generation of sound. Allegro : Subsequent active life. Sounds of Nature. Uproar of the Elements. Second Division. Cradle Song. Dance. Serenade. Thied Division. Martial Music. Departure for the battle. The feelings of those remaining behind. Return of the victors. Thanksgiving. Fourth Division. Funeral music. Comfort in tears. It may not be superfluous to point out that although previous to 1832 Berlioz had composed and brought to a hearing in Paris his overtures Waverley and Frcmcs- Juges, the Huit Scenes de Faust, and the first version of the Symphonie fantastique, there is not the slightest likelihood that Spohr knew at that time any of the young Frenchman's compositions, and very little likelihood that his attention had been attracted to. their tendencies. Fetis's concert accounts in the Revue musicale might have done so ; but everybody knows how languid people's interest is in the doings of nameless debutants. Moreover, the internal evidence alone justifies us in saying that Spohr as a composer of programme music was neither then nor subsequently influenced by Berlioz. Both the programmes and the form Pbeiod.] Spahr. 151 show this. Spohr, in the passage from a letter quoted" by me, states that the form of his fourth Symphony deviates from that of the preceding ones. That is true. But, in spite of deviations from the usual structure of symphony movements, the form is classical. The work has not one but a series of programmes, between which there is no connection. Objections to it on account of its being programme music ought, however, to be confined to the first division ; for, after all, the other divisions are simply characteristic pieces. As to the first division, the objection made to the Largo is that the composer depicts silence by sound. A poor objection. What he depicts is numbness and desolateness. Moreover, Felieien David has depicted silence very effectively by sound. And has not Haydn depicted chaos by harmony ? The objection made to the Allegro is, that the composer indulges in material tone-painting — in the warbling and twittering of birds, the murmuring of brooks, and the rustling of trees (second subject), and in the uproar of the elements (the middle section that occupies the place of the development). This may be met by the statement that the imitation is idealized, and the whole treatment artistic. If Spohr fails to fully satisfy us as a composer of programme music in this his best work of the kind, and fails still more in the others, it is not because of the defects of the genre, but because of the character and narrowness of his individuality. His was an out-and-out elegiac nature, whose element was a transcendental sentimentality of feminine tenderness and aristocratic exquisiteness. His musical style matched his nature, being smooth and harmonious, and hence also excessively chromatic. The successful composer of 162 The Three Early Romanticists. [Fifth programme music requires a wider emotional range, and a more virile and less monotonous style. In short, he requires a greater adaptability than Spohr could boast of. The desire to get out of his natural and habitual sphere of feeling may be at least one of the causes of his having recourse to programmes and opera libretti. My remarks on the other -works need not be long. Spohr's The Ea/rthly amd the Divine in Human Life is a symphony for two orchestras : a small orchestra of eleven solo string instruments represents the divine, and a full orchestra Represents the earthly. There are three divisions : the first depicts childhood ; the second, the time of the passions ; and the third the final victory of the divine. A beautiful and novel idea ! Moritz Hauptmann— -who never could resist the temptation of uttering a malice at his dear master's cost — said of this composition that its contents were interesting harmonic progressions. Of course, the remark was more pungent than just. The symphony which Spohr entitled The Seasons falls into two divisions : the first depicts Winter, transition to Spring, and Spring ; and the second. Summer, transition to Autumn, and Autumn. To these works may yet be added his overtures, notably that to the opera Faust, to which are prefixed the following lines of Goethe : — " The God that in my breast is owned Can deeply stir the inner sources ; The God, above my powers enthroned, He cannot change eternal forces. So, by the burden of my days oppressed. Death is desired, and Life a thing unblest ! " Period.] Spohr. 153 Nor should the eighth Concerto, in the form of a vocal scena, be passed over in silence. On the other hand, the Historical Symphony, No. 6, Op. 116, which consists of imitations of different styles, and the Concertino Sonst und Jetzt (Past and Present), Op. 110, do not come ■within the scope of the present inquiry. But I must still mention the Fantasia on Eaupach's Die Tochter der Luft, in the form of a concert overture. Op. 99 (used as the first movement in his fifth Symphony, in minor. Op. 102) ; the Duo concertcmte for pianoforte and violin. Op. 96, entitled ' Echoes of a Journey to Dresden and Saxon Switzerland ' (also called ' Travel Sonata ') ; and the Duettinos for pianoforte and violin, Op. 127, ' Elegiac and Humorous ' (Songs without Words). [Pir*H CHAPTER III. FIFTH PERIOD CONTINUED : A MISCELLANY OP COMPOSBES BORN BEFORE THE END OF THE 18tH CENTURY BOIELDIEU, AUBER, ROSSINI, KALKBEENNER, MOSOHELES, LOWE, AND MEYERBEER. Before proceeding to the generation of composers that arose about the year 1810, I must set down a few notes regarding some more of the earlier masters. BOIELDIEU (1775-1834), in the overture to Le petit Chaperon rouge (1818), endeavours to tell part of the story of that opera, and places the programme under the music phrase by phrase. A more honourable mention is due to AUBEE (1782-1871) for the clever orchestral interpretation of the dumb Fenella's thoughts and gestures in La Muette de Portici, in England called Masaniello (1828). In mentioning this detail I am reminded of a remark by Wagner, who was an enthusiastic admirer of the opera — namely, that the music seemed to him to be real music-pictures. EOSSINI (1792-1868) had a liking for all sorts of tone-painting, but especially for storms. Everybody must remember that in the third act of II Ba/rUere di Siviglia. In Guillaume Tell there are two, one in the fourth act (Tempesta), and a finer one in the overture. OEOEGE ONSLOW (1784-1852), a Frenchman of British descent on his father's side, famous as a composer of chamber music, depicts in his fifteenth Quintet the pain, the irregular beating of the pulse. Pebiod,] Kalkbrenner — Herz. 165 and the gratitude on recovery, felt by him after an accident at a wolf hunt, when a spent ball hit him in the face. Among the compositions of the illustrious pianist FEEDEEIC W. M. KALKBEENNEE (1788-1849) we meet with the following promising titles : — La ferrnne du Marin, Pengee fugitive; Le Beve, Grande Fantaisie, Op. 113; Le Fou, Scene dramatique, Op. 136; L'Ange dechu, Grande Fantaisie, Op. 144; and La Brigamtine ou Le Voyage sur Mer, Op. 103.* The programme of Le Foil resembles somewhat that of Berlioz's Symphonie famtastique. It runs thus : ' A young pianist deceived in his first affections becomes mad. He expresses on his pianoforte the various sensations he experiences.' Mendelssohn, who heard the second of the above works at a concert of the Paris Conservatoire in 1832, writes : ' Kalkbrenner played at the end of the first part his Beve : that is, a new pianoforte concerto, in which he has gone over to romanticism. He previously explains that he begins with vague dreams, that after that comes despair, then a declaration of love, and in conclusion a military march.'t Mendelssohn adds : ' Scarcely had HENEI HEEZ heard this when he likewise quickly composed a romantic pianoforte piece, and likewise prefixed an explanation to it ; there is first a dialogue between a shepherd and a shepherdess, then a thunderstorm ; next a prayer with evening bells, and, lastly, a military march. You will not believe it, but it is really so.' The piece alluded to is no doubt * Did Lamartine's poem La Chute d'un ange inspire or suggest Kalkbrenner's L'Ange dechu ? t The curious who wish to study the first four of the above-mentioned productions can easily procure them at a small outlay. (Ealkbrenner- Albom : LitolfE Edition.) 156 A Miscellany of Composen. [Fifth La Fete pastorale, Grande Fantaisie, Op. 65. CZEENT (1791-1857), the most prolific and least inspired of composers, •wrote not only a piece illustrative of a conflagration, and a contemplation of the ruins of a conflagration, but also four Famtaisies a quatre mains, inspires des romans de Walter Scott. Enough of this pseudo-romanticism and pseudo-pro- gramme music. The more musical ION AZ M0SCHELE8 (1794-1870) — at least more musical after the vanities and temptations of his early virtuoso period — produced, besides a Sonate caracteristique, a Sonate melancholique, a Concert fantastique, a Concert patMtique, and a Concert pastorale, and three Allegri di bravura {La Forza, La Leggerezza, and II Capriccio), the following more distinctly programmatic compositions : an overture for orchestra to Schiller's Maid of Orleans, a characteristic piece after the same poet's Der Tanz, two fantasias after Die Envdrtung and Sehnsucht, likewise by Schiller, and the twelve' Characteristic Studies, Op. 95 (composed about 1836-1837), truly characteristic compositions respectively called Anger, Eeconciliation, Contradiction, Juno, Fairy Tale for Children, Bacchanal, Tenderness, Popular Festival Scenes, Moonlight on the Seashore, Terpsichore, Dream, and Fear ; also, the two studies, Op. 98 (L'Ambition and L'Enjouement), and the four studies. Op. Ill (Reverie et Allegresse, Le Ca/rUlon, Tendresse et Exaltation, and La Fougue).* In this connection should be read a passage from a letter * The Studies Op. 70 ought to be mentioned, although they are to a larger extent more teehnical than those enumerated above ; for not only does the composer call them ' twenty-four characteristic compositions,' and say that it was not so much his intention ' to cultivate mechanical perfection as to address himself to the imagination of the performer,' but he also proposes to himself in the last study a ' Conflict of Daemons.' Period.] Moscheles — Lowe. 157 written by Moscheles in 1859 to his daughter, then studying in Paris : ' In your attempts at composition I advise you to express always a definite feeling, grave or gay, contented or anxious, &c. If you then succeed in little pieces, you may venture on larger ones, in which the feelings as it were dramatically change. Always think of a scene from actual life, and disdain mechanical means for the mere purpose of producing effect.' Here we have, no doubt, a revelation of the master's own practice. A more interesting phenomenon in the history of programme music than any of those mentioned after Spohr is J. K. G. LOWE (1796-1869) — interesting, though little regarded in this respect. As Schubert, the greatest song composer, proves himself in his songs a great composer of programme music, so does Lowe, the greatest ballad composer, in his ballads. Without pointing out examples in this branch of composition, I shall proceed to his purely instrumental works, only remarking by the way that even in his oratorios Lowe shows a predilection for the picturesque. His instrumental compositions consist of works with and without programmes, but the former are the more successful. Schumann asserted that in Lowe's com- positions without programmes one suspects something behind the music, and wishes to discover it. In fact, it is clear that Lowe was one of those composers who require an impulse from without if they are to do their best, or indeed anything at all. The tasks Lowe set himself are so interesting that I am sure the reader will not complain of my quoting some of the titles, and adding here and there a few words of further elucidation. 158 A MisceUcmy of Compogers. [Fifth Abendfantasie (Evening Fantasia), Op. 11. Mazeppa, a tone-poem after Byron, ' Op. 27. One movement, Allegro feroce, 6-8 time. A' postscript gives the detailed programme: The Eide of Mazeppa hound hy an outraged husband to a wild horse — their aimless course, under a burning sun, over fields and heaths and through woods, then across a broad river, and, thus refreshed, again through woods, now followed by packs of hungry wolves, and meeting other wild horses, which the strange sight puts to flight — the breakdown of the horse, vultures circling in the air ready to swoop on their prey, Mazeppa trying to scare them by moving his fingers — at last, deliverance by men who untie his fetters. Der Ba/rmherzige Brvder (The Brother of Charity), a tone-poem, Op. 28. Der Fruhling (Spring), a tone-poem in sonata form, Op. 47, called Pastoral Sonata. In addition to the main title, there are superscriptions of the several movements and other indications. (1) Der erwachende Morgen (Dawning Day). Under the first bars of the slow Introduction are printed the first two stanzas of Uhland's Morning Song (frbm the WanderUeder) : ' As yet the sun's light is hardly perceptible, the morning beUs in the dark valley have not yet sounded. How quiet the wide expanse of the wood ! The birds are only twittering in their dreams, not yet singing.' At the beginning of the Allegro we read Morgenfeier (Morning Celebration), and in the course of it occur the words con espressione religioso^ (2) Allegretto con commodesza. Naturleben (Life in Nature). Grand Jow (Broad Daylight). (3) Scherzo. Gang zu Lamdlichen Grvppen (Walk to Eustic Groups). Vie Champetre. Peeiod.] Lowe. 159 One part of the movement is superscribed 'Prom the Village,' another ' Prom the Town.' (4) Allegro assai. Tagesneigen (Waning Day). Alpefifantasie (Alpine Fantasia), Op. 53. B&)lis€he Bilder (Biblical Pictures), Op. 96. They are : Bethesda, The Walk to Emmaus, and Martha and Mary. Zigewner Senate (Gipsy Sonata), Op. 107. The five movements of this work bear the following super- scriptions : (1) Waldscene (Scene in the Wood); (2) Indisches Ma/rchen (Indian Tale) ; (3) Tanz (Dance), comprising ' Corps de Ballet,' ' Torch Dance of the Men,' ' Women dancing round the Wood Wreath,' and * Egg Dance of the Children ' ; (4) Abend-Cultus (Evening Worship), with the additional information, ' They await the rising of the moon, which they adore as the reflection of the Indian Temple of the Sun.' (5) AujhruchamMorgen (Departure in the Morning). Vier Fantmien (Pour Pantasias), Op. 137, respectively entitled: The Emigrant's Parewell to the Fatherland, The Emigrant's Sea Voyage, The Prairie, and The Emigrant's new Home. To the above compositions for pianoforte alone has to be added the Schottische Bilder (Scottish Pictures), Op. 112, for pianoforte and clarinet. It is almost incomprehensible how a composer who distinguished himself so greatly in one branch of the art, could fall so far below that level as Lowe did in his instrumental music ; and it is quite incomprehensible how a trained and poetically gifted musician could publish compositions so iusipid and even childish, so lacking in imaginative power, and even in mere inventiveness as most of those I have enumerated. In 160 A Miscellany of Composers. [Fifth the Evening and the Alpine Fantasia Lowe is at his worst ; they are without the slightest musical and programmatic interest. In the Four Fantasias the master is not much better, although more ambitious. The Brother of Charity has at least a modest, mildly pleasing air about it. In the Spring Sonata the pro- gramme interests, but the execution disappoints. What a distance from this Pastoral Sonata to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony ! Mazeppa shows the composer in closer grip with the programme than in any other of his compositions ; and on that account it deserves attention, notwithstanding the slightness of the musical outcome. A comparison with Liszt's Study (No. 4 of the Etudes d'ex&cution transcendante) and Symphonic Poem of the same name would not turn out to the advantage of the older composer. Lowe is at his best, musically and programmatically, in the Gipsy Sonata. However, in saying that he is musically at his best, I do not mean that he is as good as in his ballads, or that, by this sonata, he has added a masterpiece to the treasury of the art, but only that he is at his best in the matter of instrumental music. To resuscitate unjustly forgotten works is almost as meritorious as to produce new ones. It is impossible to perform that pleasing task in the case of Lowe's instrumental compositions. If, however, one of them deserves resuscitation it is the Gipsy Sonata. If the reader considers not only the year of birth, but also the year of death of the composers mentioned in this chapter, and, further, the nature of the music they produced, he may wonder whether some might not have been more appropriately placed in a later chapter. Ealkbrenner would not have written his Le Fou without Pbeiod.J Meyerbeer. 161 Berlioz's previously written Episode de la vie d'un artiste (Symphonie fantastique). But his modernity was merely an assumed dress, the man himself really belonged to an earlier generation. In the long-lived mouldable Moscheles we have a different case. He, too, is rooted in an earlier generation, but able actually to assimilate much of the spirit of the new age, the spirit of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and in part that of other contemporary masters. Yet another case is presented by the composer I shall now introduce, one whose place here is solely determined by his nativity. GIACOMO MEYEEBEEE (1791-1864) began his career as a German composer with scanty success, continued it as an Italian composer with considerable success, and completed it as a cosmopolitan composer with a phenomenally brilliant success. The light of this new sun burst upon the world in 1831, when at Paris his Robert le Diable was produced. Les Huguenots followed in 1836, Le Prqphete in 1849, L'Etoile du Nord in 1854 (a new version of Des Feldlager in Schlesien, produced at Berlin in 1844), Le Pardon de Ploermel (Dinorah) in 1859, and L'Africaine in 1865, Schumann and Wagner lavished upon him abuse and contempt, and the later generations of musicians subserviently and unthinkingly echoed these. But the judgment, which the opinion of the public has ignored or annulled, needs revision. It is of course undeniable that Meyerbeer was an eclectic, and that his was an unblended, a kaleidoscopic eclecticism. But this drawback, and also that other drawback, his eagerness for effect at any price, while destructive of the highest artistic quality, unity and chasteness of style, did not nullify his many and great virtues, nor justify his 162 A Miscellany of Composers. [Fifth excommunication from the realm of art. Meyerbeer, though not an exclusive individual personality and an artist of immaculately. pure ideals, was a musician of genius, possessed of a complete mastery of all the resources of the art^ of . a wonderful inventiveness; and of a power of expression extending from the^ lightest gaiety to the most sublime and powerful pathos, and ranging through the whole scale of the characteristic and the picturesque. In short, he has to be numbered with Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, that is, as one of the masters who were the chief shapers of music from the fourth decade of the 18th century onward. His contributions to the development of the. art have not : yet been sufficiently acknowledged. They are certainly not confined to the department of instrumentation, where, of course, there are innumerable records of the miracles performed by him. The programme music of Meyerbeer's operas is too voluminous to admit of enumeration and too obvious to require it. The inquirer has only to dive into the master's scores, and wherever he looks he will discover examples of all sorts and conditions of expressing and picturing the inward and outward. To indicate a few places : in Robert le Diable, the sweetness of peaceful nature contrasted with the terrors of the din of hell, the resurrection of nuns in the midnight cloisters ; in Les Huguenots, the severity and rudeness of the martial Calvinist Marcel, popular life in amity and strife, the plotting and fanaticism of the conspirators, the passionate dialogue of the lovers whilst the tocsin is booming, the sombre solitary marriage service amidst the horrors of St. Bartholomew's night, the bloodthirsty cruelty of the inhuman murderers, &c. Period.] Meyerbeer. 163 It is worth, noting that Meyerbeer's early Italian opera II Crociato in Egitto (The Crusader in Egypt) opens with what the composer calls a pantomima, that is, with dumb- show on the stage accompanied by descriptive music in the orchestra. A jailor unlocks the doors of a prison, the prisoners come out, embrace each other sadly, and begin their labours, dragging heavy weights from the harbour and raising stones for building; the blows of the masons' hammers and chisels are heard ; some sentimental incidents enacted. But Meyerbeer has given us also an example of programmatic orchestral music apart from his operas — namely, his music to his brother Michael Beer's ti&gedy Struensee (1844), which, though it is the least known of his works, excellent judges agree iu) pronouncing the finest. [Fifth CHAPTEE IV. FIFTH PERIOD CONTINUED : MENDELSSOHN. Like BeethoTen, MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) cannot but be regarded by the opponents of programme music as an extremely inconvenient fact. Both are classicists and producers of unexceptionable absolute music (or what is supposed to be such), and yet have not recoiled from touching the unclean thing. Indeed, by what they have done these great masters have conclusively testified to the legitimacy of programme music. Mendelssohn is even a more inconvenient fact than Beethoven. For we have of him not only many pieces of acknowledged programme music, but we have also authoritative information about unacknowledged programmes, and various utterances by himself defining clearly his attitude towards the question. With regard to the last point, it should be noted that, although he disliked and shunned sesthetical discussions, he had considered the problems of his art, and knew how to express on occasion the conclusions he had come to. But what were these utterances ? First of all we have his remark that since Beethoven had taken the step he took in the Pastoral Symphony, it was impossible for composers to keep clear of programme music. Then we have his reply to the question of a correspondent who wanted to know what some of the Songs without Words meant. The composer declined to give the desired information; and he did so, not because of the indefiniteness of music, but because of the indefiniteness Pebiod. j On the Expressiveness of Music. 166 of words. 'A piece of music that I love expresses to me,' he writes on October 15, 1842, to Marc Andr6 Souchay, 'thoughts not too indefinite to be put into words, but too definite. Hence I find in all attempts to express these thoughts something true, but at the same time something insufBcient ; and this is my feeling with regard to yours also. This, however, is not your fault, but the fault of the words, which cannot do better. If you ask me what were my thoughts when composing the Songs without Words, I say, " Just the songs as they stand." And though in one or the other I had in my mind a definite word or definite words, yet I do not liie to communicate them to anyone, because words have not the same meaning for one as they have for another, since only the song can say the same thing to one that it says to another, and awaken the same feeling in one as in another, — a feeling, however, which cannot be expressed by the same words. Eesignation, melancholy, praise of God, the hunt, — these words do not call up the same thoughts in everybody; to one resignation is what melancholy is to another; and a third is unable to form a vivid idea of either. Nay, to him who is by nature a keen hunter, the hunt and the praise of God might come pretty much to the same thing, and for him the sound of horns would really and truly be also the right praise of God. We should hear in it nothing but the hunt, and however much we disputed the matter with him, we should never get further. The word remains ambiguous, and yet we should both of us understand the music aright.' That Mendelssohn expresses here a settled belief, not a passing conceit, may be gathered from a passage in a letter addressed to Madame von Pereira (July, 1831). 166 Mendelssohn. [Fifth She had asked him to set to music Zedlitz's ballad Die ndehtliche Heerschau, and he excuses himself for failing to do so. ' I am inclined to take music very seriously, and do not consider it permissible to compose anything I do not thoroughly feel. It would be like telling a lie. For have not notes as distinct a meaning as words — -perhaps even a still more distinct meaning ? Well, it seems to me impossible to compose a descriptive poem.' The discussion of the position of music with regard to narrative poetry generally and to the poem in question particularly is extremely interesting for the musician, but it must not detain us now. The quotation was made on account of the italicized words. Further light is thrown on Mendelssohn as a composer of programme music, and on his Songs without Words as programme music, by another letter of his, one of June 14, 1830, addressed to his sister Fanny. (In passing I may mention that the first of his Songs without Words was composed in 1828.) ' To-day I received your letter of the 5th, and from it I see that you are still unwell. I should like to be with you, and see you, and talk to you. As this is impossible, I have written you a song to let you know what I wish and mean. In doing so I thought of you, and this moved me very much. There is, I suppose, almost nothing new in it. But you know me, and know what I am. I am still the same, and so you may laugh and be glad at it. I could tell and wish you something different, but nothing better. Nothing else shall be in the letter. That I am yours you know — and so may God give what I hope and pray for.' And then follows the Song without Words that was to express what he felt,, — not one of those published. Mendelssohn sent home Songs Period.] On Programme Mush. 167 without Words on other Bimilar occasions, for instance, one to Fanny on June 26, 1880, the first version of the eighth published one, in B flat minor, Op. 90, No. 2 ; saying : ' I felt thus when I received yoiar [his people's] half anxious and half cheerful letter.' In our present inquiry the following extracts from Lobe's Conversations with Felix Mendelssohn (in Consonanzen und Dissonamzen p. 360) are of the greatest interest : — Mendelssohn : ' What has Beethoven done in his overtures ? He has painted the content of his pieces in tone-pictures. I have done the same.' Lobe : ' Tou ascribe, then, the originality of the invention to the definite subject you had in your mind. ? ' Mendelssohn : ' Certainly.' Lobe : ' According to yonr theory, Mr. A., Mr. B., Mr. C, &c., would have written your Midsummer Night's Dream overture if they had undertakea to paint in tones the content of the piece.' Mendelssohn : ' If they had undertaken it with the same seriousness, if they had transported themselves with the same zeal into the piece, they would all have produced nobler and more important works than are achievable without this procedure.' Lobe : ' I remember very well what an excitement your Midswnvmer Night's Dream overture produced by its originality and truth of expression, and that from that moment you rose high in the estimation of musicians and music lovers.' Mendelssohn : ' I, too, believe that, and this shows that one should trust a little to luck.' Lobe : ' Luck ? I should think such an overture is created not by luck, but by the genius of the artist.' 168 Mendelssohn. [Fifth Mendelssohn : ' Of course, it requires talent. But I call it luck to have been inspired with such a subject, a subject that was capable of furnishing me with such musical ideas and forms as generally appealed to the larger public. What I could do as a composer, I could do before writing the overture. But I had not yet had before my imagination such a subject. That was an inspiration, and the inspiration was a lucky one.' Lobe does not profess to report the ipsissima verba. On the contrary, he states that he gives merely the gist of what was said, and briefly noted down by him immediately after the conversations. In our inquiry we have to take into account Mendelssohn's keen, open-eyed perceptivity and sympathetic, enthusiastic receptivity. Beauty appealed to him in all its forms of manifestation, and fertilized his creative power. He found music in scenes of nature (the Campagna he heard singing and ringing on all sides), in immortal works of art (which seized him with a joyful thrill), even in the capital of a column ; and he confesses that he owes most of his music not to musical works, but to ruins, pictures, and the serenity of nature (November 20, 1830). The above are not the only utterances of Mendelssohn that bear on programme music. Various obiter dicta of his shall be noticed in the course of our review of some of his works. From what has already been laid before the reader, he may gather that Mendelssohn thought music expressive and capable of expressing some things better and more definitely than other media can ; that he had sometimes programmes in his mind ; that this seemed to him advantageous to the composer if the programmes were of the right sort, and that he regarded Period.] As a Composer of Programme Music. 169 programme music as a legitimate kind of music. It is noteworthy about Mendelssohn that his most poetic and original works are programme music, and were either wholly composed or at least planned and partly written from 1826 to 1833. I am speaking of the four concert overtures, the First Walpurgis Night, and the Scotch and the Italian Symphonies. The two oratorios, the psalms, and most of the other works composed from 1834 onward, however noble, however estimable, and however admirable in many ways, have much more of homeliness and less of imaginative iridescence about them than the earlier works already indicated. Even Wagner, to whom Mendelssohn was so antipathetic, could not resist the charm of some of those earlier works. In a conversation with Dannreuther he remarked, ' Mendelssohn was a landscape painter of the first order, and The Hebrides overture is his masterpiece. Wonderful imagination and delicate feeling are here presented with consummate art. Note the extraordinary beauty of the passage where the oboes rise above the other instruments with a plaintive wail like sea winds over the sea. Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage also is beautiful ; but I am fond of the first movement of the Scotch Symphony As regards the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, it must be taken into account that he wrote it at seventeen. And yet how finished the form ! ' Mendelssohn's most original instrumental composition is undoubtedly the Midsummer Night's Dream overture — it was his most beautiful dream, his first and highest flight as Schumann calls it — and his most original vocal-instrumental composition is the First Walpwrgis Night. The Hebrides overture, on the other hand, must be declared the most perfect of 170 Mendelssohn. [Fifth his compositions, if we take into account all the qualities; and the degrees of all the qualities that go to the making of a great work— th« poetic, formal, and technical. And now let us examine the compositions already mentioned, and one or two more. The first piece of programme music of which information has come down to us is the Scherzo of the string octet, Op. 20, of 1825. To his sister Fanny alone, Mendelssohn confided that in composing it he had in his mind the last four lines of the Walpmrgis Night Dream, or Oberon and Titania's Golden Weddmgr, in the first part of Goethe's jFawst; — ' Cloud and trailing mist o'erhead Are now illuminated : Air in leaves, and wind in reed, And all is dissipated.' Fanny writes : ' Everything is new, strange, and yet so pleasing, so friendly. One feels oneself so near the spirit world, so lightly lifted into the air. One would like even to take a broom-stick oneself, to follow the airy company. At the end, the first violin flutters upward as lightly as a feather — and all has vanished into thin air.' The next piece of programme music is A Midsummer Night's Dream overture of 1826. But not to interrupt my account of the most important compositions, I shall first take up the string Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, and the Trois Caprices for pianoforte. Op. 16. The former work I shall mention in passing, merely pointing out that the composer prefixes to it his song, ' 1st es wahr ? ' which forms the emotional as well as the musical motive of the composition : ' What I feel she alone comprehends who feels it with me, and who remains true to me for ever Period.] As a Composer of Programme Music. 171 and for ever.' The Trois Caprices, dedicated severally to the three Misses Taylor, were composed in 1829, when he was staying at their father's house at Coed-du, near Holywell, North Wales. The eldest sister (Miss Anne Taylor), to whom No.fl is dedicated, relates {vide Grove's Dietionam^) that Mendelssohn entered deeply into the beauty of the hills and the woods. 'His way of representing them was not with the pencil ; but in the evenings his improvised music would show what he had observed or felt in the past day. The piece called 2'he Rivvlet [No. 3 of Op. 16] , which he wrote at that time for my sister Susan, will show what I mean ; it was a recollection of a real actual rivulet. We observed how natural objects seemed to suggest music to him. There was in my sister Honora's garden a pretty creeping plant [Eccremocarpusl , new at that time, covered with little trumpet-like flowers. He was struck with it, and played for her the music which (he said) the fairies might play on these trumpets. When he wrote out the piece (called a Capriccio in E minor [Scherzo No. 2 of Op. 16] ) he drew a branch of that flower all up the margin of the paper. The piece (an Andante and Allegro [No. 1 of Op. 16]) which Mr. Mendelssohn wrote for me, was suggested by the sight of a bunch of carnations and roses. The carnations that year were very fine with us. He liked them best of all the flowers, would have one often in his button-hole. We found he intended the arpeggio passages in that composition as a reminder of the sweet scent of the flower rising up.' It is fortunate for the writer of these lines that Mendelssohn wrote a letter which confirms her statements, otherwise they would have met with much scepticism. The letter in question — of September 10, 172 Mendelssohn. [Fifth 1829 — contains the following passage : ' I have to thank them [the three Misses Taylor] for three of my best pianoforte pieces. When the two younger sisters saw that I was in earnest about the carnations and the rose [given him by the eldest] and began to compose (of course in Susan's summer house), the youngest came up with yellow, open little bells in her hair, assuring me they were trumpets, and asking me whether I would introduce them into the orchestra, as I had mentioned I required new instruments ; and when in the evening we danced to the miners' music and the trumpets were rather shrill, she gave it as her opinion that her trumpets would do better to dance to ; so I wrote a dance for her in which the yellow trumpet-bells supplied the music. And to the other sister I gave The Rivulet, which had pleased us so much during our ride that we dismounted and sat down by it (I think I wrote to you about it). This last piece, I believe, is the best of the kind I have as yet done : it is so slowly flowing and quiet, while a little tediously simple, that I have played it to myself every day, and have got quite sentimental over it.' And now to the great masterpieces. ' To-day or to-morrow,' wrote Mendelssohn on July 7, 1826, 'I shall begin to dream the Midsummer Night's Dream ' ; and by August 6 of the same year the young man of seventeen had dreamt the dream, and in dreaming it had performed a miracle. What constitutes the chief originality of the overture is the musical creation of the moonlit fairy world with its nimble, delicate, and beautiful population. Before our mind's eye are called up Oberon and Titania as they meet in ' grove or green by fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen ' ; the elves, who, when their king and queen quarrel, creep Period.] A Midsummer Night's Dream. 173 into acorn cups; their coats, made of the leathern wings of rere-mice; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed; the knavish sprite Puck, alias Eobin Goodfellow, who delights in playing merry pranks ; and the scene following Oberon and Titania's command to their subjects : Obbeon. — ' Through the house give glimmering light, By the dead and drowsy fire : Every elf and fairy sprite Hop as light as bird from brier ; And this ditty, after me, Sing, and dance it trippingly.' TiTANiA. — ' First, rehearse your song by rote, To each word a warbling note : Hand in hand, with fairy grace, Will we sing, and bless this place.' But there are other things in the overture than fairies. There are Duke Theseus and his betrothed, Queen Hippolyta, and their train ; the two pairs of lovers — Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena ; and those hempen homespuns, the Athenian tradesmen — Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. In short, Mendelssohn comprehended Shakespeare's fancy, romance, and humour so well, and made them so thoroughly his own, that he could give a faithful musical reflection of them. But let us see where the different dramatis personce are to be found in the overture. The sustained chords of the wind instruments are the magic formula that opens to us the realm of fairyland. The busy tripping part of the first subject tells us of the fairies ; the broader and dignified part of Duke Theseus and his following ; the passionate first part of the second 174 Mendelssohn. [Fifth subject, of the romantic lovers; and the clownish second part, of the tradesmen, the bra3dng reminding us of Bottom's transformation into an ass. The develop- ment is full of the vivacious bustle and play and fun of the elves. The beginning of the recapitulation too is full of fun ; and the pianissimo passage towards the end, with the opening motive of the Theseus music, signifies the elves' blessing on the house of the Duke. In conclusion we have once more the magic formula, which now dissolves the dream it had before conjured up. And how do we know that these were really Mendels- sohn's ideas ? First, because he expressed them so clearly and unmistakably; and secondly, because he wrote in 1843 a commentary on the overture — ^namely, in his other music to the play. There we find all the motives of the overture connected with Shakespeare's words, characters, and scenes, with one exception, the lovers' theme, which appears only in the overture. But the entr'actes and incidental music contain also pro^am- matic matter not in the composer's original dream. Not to speak of the uniquely festive Wedding March and the mock-pathetic Fimeral March, there are pieces and snatches of airy fairy music ; a charming Intermezzo, ' Hermia seeks Lysandfer, and loses herself in the wood,' with its mockimg echoes and impression of breathless anxiety ; and the lovely Nottumo — the lovers, to whose cross purposes fatigue has put an end, lie asleep, the wood is wrapt in silence, through the foliage and down on the clearings the moon and stars of a cloudless midsummer night's sky send their pale, peaceful rays. It would be delightful to dwell longer on these lovely conceptions, but we must tear ourselves away and turn to others. Period.] The Hebrides. VI & Mendelssohn eonceived the overture entitled The Hebrides, or Fimgal'a Cave* when he visited Scotland in 1829. His friend Klingemann, who accompanied him, writes in a letter dated Glasgow, August 10 : ' Staffa, with its strange basalt pillars and caverns, is in all picture-books. We were put out in boats, and climbed, the hissing sea close beside us, over the pillar stumps to the celebrated Fingal's Cave. A greener roar of waves surely never rushed into a stranger cavern — comparable, on account of the many pillars, to the inside of an immense organ, black and resounding, lying there absolutely purposeless in its utter lonelinesB, the wide grey sea within and without. . . . We returned in the Mttle boat to our- steamer, to that unpleasant steam- smell. When the second boat arrived I could see with what truth they represent at the theatre the rising and falling of a boat, when the hero rescues the heroine from some trouble.' Mendelssohn himself writes from one of the Hebrides on August 7, 1829, as follows : ' In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, the following came into my mind there.' Then follow ten bars and a-half of The Hebrides overture, here written as twenty-one bars, the notes being of double the present length. Continuing the above letter, he writes from Glasgow on August 11, 1829 : ' How much lies betwixt then and now ! The most fearful sickness, Staffa, scenery, travels, people— Klingemann has described it aU, and you will excuse a short note, the more as what I can best tell you is contained in the above music' From London on September 10, 1829, Mendelssohn makes the announcement : ' The Hebrides story builds * In his letters the composer calls it also The Solitary Island. 176 Mendelssohn. [Fifth itself up gradually.' And from Paris he writes on January 21, 1832 : ' I cannot bring The Hebrides to a hearing here because I do not consider it finished as I originally wrote it. The middle section in D major is very stupid, and the whole so-called development smells more of counterpoint than of blubber, gulls, and salted cod.' The first performance of the work took place at a concert of the London Philharmonic Society on May 14, 1832. As to the music of The Hebrides, you have only to abandon yourself to its influences, and the sensations, thoughts, and feelings that engendered it will rise up in your imagination — you will think of yourself in a ship, gliding along over rocking waves, about you a vast expanse of sea and sky, light breezes blowing, the romantic stories of the past colouring the sights seen. The first we hear of Mendelssohn's third concert overture is contained in a letter of the composer's sister Fanny, of June 18, 1828. 'Felix,' we read there, 'is writing a great instrumental piece after Goethe's Meeresstille vmd gliickliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage). It will be thoroughly worthy of him. He wished to avoid an overture and introduction, and has formed the whole into two pictures standing side by side.' From this we gather that the original conception differed from the final version. In fact, in a letter of August 6, 1834, he tells a friend that he has completely re-written the overture and thinks it thirty times better. Mendelssohn, whom a stay on the shores of the Baltic in 1824 had made acquainted with the varied phases of the sea, translates into the musical idiom the contents of Goethe's poem. He illustrates Period.] Calm Sea dc.—Melusina. 177 first a fear-inspiring, deathlike stillness and the motionlessness of the sea and air, of an immense expanse of smooth surface; and then (in the Molto Allegro e vivace) the parting of the mist, the clearing of the sky, the ship dividing the waves, the approaching distance, and the appearance of land. We now come to the fourth of Mendelssohn's concert overtures, that To the Legend of the lovely Melusina. The reader may be credited with some knowledge of the legend of the fair being fated to be on certain days half fish and half woman, and to forsake human society if seen in that state ; and of her husband's broken promise to leave her alone on those days, and the consequent catastrophe. Writing from Diisseldorf on October 26, 1833, Mendelssohn says : ' I think the overture to Melusine will be the best which I have made.' He remained in this mind, for the work pleased him when he heard it at a private rehearsal got up by himself at Diisseldorf on August 4, 1834; and in a letter of January 80, 1836, he remarks : ' Many people believe that Melusine is the best of my overtures ; it is certainly the most inward [innerlichste] . But what the Musika- lische Zeitung [he meant, no doubt, Schumann's article in the Netie Zeitschrift fur Musikl says about red corals, green marine animals, magic castles, and deep seas, is astounding.' About the origin of this overture and the composer's intention we find extremely interesting information in a letter addressed by the master to his sister Fanny on April 7, 1834. 'You ask me which legend you are to read. How many, then, are there ? And how many, then, do I know? And do you not know the story of the beautiful Melusine ? And ought one not to wrap oneself up and hide oneself in all 178 Mendelssohn. [Fifth possible instrumenital music withomt titles, if even one's sister (you unnatural sister !) does not like the title ? Or have you really never heard of the beautiful fish ? . . . I have written this overture to an opera by Conradin Kreutzer [Melusine], which I heard last year about this time at the Konigstadter Theatre [Berlin]. The overture (that of Kreutzer) was encored, and displeased me quite particularly ; afterwards also the whole opera ; but not Hahnel [the prima donna] , on the contrary, she was very charming, especially in one scene where she presents herself as a pike and dresses her hair ; it was then that the desire was excited in me also to compose an overture, one which people would not encore, but which should have more inwardness ; and I took what pleased me of the subject (and that is exactly what coincides with the legend). In short, the overture came into the world, and that is its family history.' The overture does not tell a story. It illustrates certain features of it : the loveliness and the loving nature of Meiusina ; the hardness of her fate and the anxiety caused by it. The waving motion is indicative of her grace, and at the same time reminds us of the element with which she was connected. In the twice- repeated A flat — F (accompanied by the chord of the diminished seventh), before the return of F major, near ■the end, we may recognise her cries on being discovered by her husband. The rest is like the vanishing of a beautiful reality into a beautiful memory. We must not leave these poetic musical master-pieces without taking note of a remark made by Hans von Billow, who, in his earlier years one of the chief propagandists of Berlioz and Liszt, wrote in 1884 : ' I now revere in Mendelssohn's Overtures to The Hebrides, Period.] The Scotch and the Italian Symphony. 179 Meliisine, and Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, the more perfect ideal of the " symphonic poem." ' The two best symphonies of Mendelssohn, the 3rd, in A minor, Op. 56, and the 4th, in A major. Op. 90, do not bear titles ; but the composer always referred in his letters to the former as the Scotch Symphony, and to the latter as the Italian Symphony. That these epithets do not indicate merely the comitry in which they were written or begun may be proved, at least as regards the A minor Symphony, by remarks in the master's letters. After describing a visit in profound twilight to Holyrood Palace, where Queen Mary lived and loved, and Eizzio was murdered, and to the adjoining chapel, roofless, grown over with grass and ivy, at the broken altar of which Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland,* he writes in a letter, dated Edinburgh, July 30, 1829 : ' All is dilapidated and decayed there, and the serene heavens shine into it. I believe I have found there to-day the beginning of my Scotch Symphony.' Note also two more remarks. The first of them occurs in a letter dated London, September 10, 1829 : ' The Scotch Symphony, as well as the Hebrides story, is gradually being built up ' : and the second, in a letter dated Eome, March 29, 1831: 'From April 15 to May 15 is the finest season in Italy. Who can blame me for not being able to transport myself into the Scotch mist mood,' i.e., that he cannot work at his Scotch Symphony. Although far advanced before he left Italy in the summer of 1831, the work was not finished till January 20, 1842. Of the other symphony Mendelssohn writes from Naples" on April 27, 1831 : ' If I go on as I * Of course, Mendelssohn was mistaken. Queen Mary was not crowned there. 180 Mendelssohn. [Fifth have done, I shall finish the "Italian Symphony" in Italy.' That expectation was not realized, but the work was finished on March 13, 1833, although not published till after the composer's death. Briefly, then, Mendelssohn's remarks and especially his music must convince us that the contents of the symphonies were intended to be respectively Scotch and Italian, and to communicate to the hearers some of the impressions received by the composer from the atmospheres of the countries, the characters of their landscapes and peoples, and the scenes really or imaginatively seen. The difference of atmosphere and character of the two works is most striking. The sunlight mood of the Italian Symphony is as unmistakable as the mist mood of the romantic Scotch Symphony. The first movement of the former calls up Mendelssohn's enthusiastic delight on entering the southern country. 'This is Italy ! and what I have thought of as the greatest joy of my life since I began to think, has now commenced, and I do enjoy it.' On January 22, 1831, he writes from Eome to his sister Fanny : ' It [the Italian Symphony] will be the gayest thing I have yet done, especially the last movement.' He will not finish the work before he has seen Naples, and puts off the composition of the slow movement until then. This movement is generally known as the Pilgrims' March, a name justified by the nature of the piece, but not by anything the composer has said. The last movement, the Saltarello, may have been inspired by the Eoman carnival, which the composer looked forward to eagerly, and enjoyed immensely. In Mendelssohn's setting of Goethe's First Walpurgis Night there is a great deal of tone-painting, and of the Pbeiod.] First Walpurgis Night. 181 most picturesque kind. When the master was occupied with the composition, he wrote with the greatest glee and delight of the effect which especially certain portions of it would produce. ' At the beginning there are Spring songs and the like in plenty ; then, when the watchmen make a noise with pitch-forks, spears, and owls, there comes the witches' spook {Hexenspuk), for which, as you know, I have an especial faihle; then the sacrificing Druids in C major with trombones; then again the watchmen, who are afraid, on which occasion I shall introduce a tripping eerie chorus ; and finally the full sacrificial song ' (Kome, February 22, 1831). In the next year the composer finished the overture, which, he says, represents ' bad weather,' and the introduction, ' in which it thaws and becomes Spring.' And accordingly we find in the score the first part of the overture {Allegro con fuoco) superscribed Das schlechte Wetter (Bad Weather), and the second part {Allegro vivace nan troppo) Der Uehergang zum Friihling (Transition to Spring). Berlioz, not a warm admirer of Mendelssohn, was filled with the greatest enthusiasm when he heard the First Walpurgis Night. ' The vocal instrumental effects cross each other in all senses, oppose each other, clash with each other, with an apparent disorder that is the height of art. I shall mention especially as magnificent things in two genres, the mysterious placing of the watchmen, and the final chorus, where the voice of the priest rises now and then calmly above the infernal din of the troop of counterfeit demons and sorcerers.' Unquestionably the First Walpurgis Night is a most brilliant, original, and powerful example of tone-painting. Many other works of Mendelssohn's would furnish matter for comment j for instance, the overtures to his 182 Mendelssohn. [Fifth vocal works ; but the discussion of his most important instrumental works and the First Walpwrgis Night suf&ces. A few words about the Buy Bias overture may, however, be added. It is worth noting why, although full of verve, it is so much less poetical than the four concert overtures. This work was written to a German translation of Victor Hugo's play, which Mendelssohn thought execrable; and was written in haste, in a few days, to please the Leipzig musicians who wished it for a performance in aid of the orchestral pension fund. After the foregoing presentation of the facts of the case, the question : Whether Mendelssohn was really a composer of programme music ? cannot be regarded as an open question; nor can we be in doubt as to his reticence in revealing his programmes. Period.] CHAPTEE V. FIFTH PEEIOD CONTINUED : SCHUMANN. EOBEKT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) proves himself in his musical works, and confesses himself in his critical writings and letters, a composer of programme musicr" The proposition may be startling to many ; for expres- sions of his are sometimes quoted to show that he disapproved of programmes, and described his titles as afterthoughts. Nevertheless the proposition is quite true. No doubt, Schumann is on some occasions vague and self-contradictory on the subject, but the aggregate of his statements confirms the above proposition. The cause of the occasional vagueness and self-contradictori- ness is his anxiety to protest against a too materialistic view and use of programmes. As Schumann's sayings throw much light on the question, and not only do that, but also give us a deep insight into his own creative processes, I shall not apologize to the reader for drawing largely from the master's criticisms and correspondence. Indeed I have not the least fear of complaints on that account, as Schumann is too delightful a writer, and his artistic self-revelation positively unique. My method will be to quote chronologically his principal declarations on programmes and titles from his Collected Writings on Music and Musicians, interjecting a note of my own here and there, and adding a particularly interesting passage from one of his letters ; and then to illustrate the nature of his works for the most part by remarks derived from his correspondence. 184 Schumann. [Fifth The first excerpts are of the year 1835. In reviewing a sonata of Lowe's, Schumann writes : ' Yet another thing I scent in Lowe's compositions, namely, that when he has finished, one still wishes to know something more. Unfortunately it has often seemed to myself silly when somebody asked me what I was thinking of in writing my own extravagant out- pourings. Therefore I do not want an answer. Still, I maintain that in Lowe's case there is something behind it.' Spohr's Consecration of Sovmd gives rise to the following reflection: 'Beethoven very well understood the risk he ran in writing the Pastoral Symphony. In the few words, " expression of the emotions rather than painting," which he prefixes, there lies a whole system of aesthetics for composers.' The longest discussion of the subject is called forth by Berlioz's Symphonic fantastique. After giving the French master's programme of that work, Schumann writes: ' So much for the programme. Germany makes him a present of it : such sign-posts have always something unworthy and charlatan-like about them. At any rate, the five superscriptions would have been sufficient ; the particular circumstances — which, on account of the personality of the composer, who has himself lived the symphony, must of course interest us — would have been transmitted by oral tradition from generation to generation. In one word, the sensitive German, more averse to the personal, objects to having his thoughts so obviously directed. Even in the Pastoral Symphony he felt offended that Beethoven did not trust him to divine the character without his help. Man stands in awe of the workshop of genius; he does not wish to Peeiod.] On Programme Music. 185 "know anything of the causes, tools, and secrets of creation. Nature, too, manifests a certain delicacy in covering its roots "with earth. Let the artist therefore Bhut himself up with his throes of travail ; we should learn terrible things if we could see down to the bottom of the origin of every work.' Schumann overlooks that it is a question as to the intention of the composer, not as to the throes of labour. The delicacy of the German nature, its disinclination to be grossly led, the advantage of oral tradition over black and white, and the shyness of humanity with regard to the working of genius, are arguments fanciful rather ihan convincing. Further on, he says : ' If the eye is once directed to a certain point, the ear no longer judges independently.' But if the eye is rightly directed, there can be no illegitimate interference with the ear's independence, only interference with the ear's going wrong. After this Schumann continues : ' If you ask whether music can really do what Berlioz demands in his symphony, you should try to substitute other pictures, pictures of a contrary character. At first the programme spoiled also my enjoyment, all free outlook. But when it retired more and more into the background, and my own imagination began to create, I found not only everything, but much more, and almost everywhere a living, warm tone.' The critic is evidently struggling with a prejudice. We find him more enlightened and enlightening in the following remarks : ' As regards the difficult question, how far instrumental music may go in the representation of thoughts and occur- rences, many are far too timid. People are certainly mistaken if they beheve that composers prepare pen 186 Schumann. [Fifth and paper with the miserable intention of expressing, describing, and painting this and that. But chance influences and impressions from without should not be under-estimated. Along with the musical imagination an idea is unconsciously operative ; along with the ear, the eye; and this, the ever active organ, in the midst of the sounds and tones, then holds fast certain outlines, which, with the advancing music, may condense and develop into distinct figures [Gestalten]. The more elements akin to music the thoughts and forms [Gebilde] engendered by the tones bear in them, the more poetic and plastic the expression of the composition will be; and the more fantastically and acutely the musician conceives, the more the work will elevate and move. Why should not Beethoven in the midst of his fantasies be seized by the thought of immortality? Why should not the memory of a great fallen hero inspire him with a work ? Why should another not be inspired by the remembrance of a happy time ? Or do we intend to be ungrateful to Shakespeare for having evoked from the breast of a young tone-poet a work worthy of him — ungrateful to Nature, and deny that we borrowed of her beauty and sublimity for our works ? Italy, the Alps, the picture of the sea, a spring twilight — has music told us nothing of all this ? Nay, even to smaller, more special pictures tnusic can give such a charming, definite character, that one is surprised at her being able to express such traits. Thus a composer told me that, while composing, the picture of a butterfly, drifting on a leaf down a brook, incessantly obtruded itself. This had given the little piece all the delicacy and naiveness which the picture possesses in reality. In this fine genre painting Schubert especially was a master, Period.] On Programme Music. 187 and I cannot omit to mention out of my own experience how, during one of Schubert's marches, the friend with whom I was playing, replied to my question whether he did not see quite peculiar figures : " Truly, I found myself in Seville, but more than a hundred years ago, in the midst of dons and donas, with long-trained dresses, pointed shoes, and rapiers, &c." Strange to say we were at one in our visions, except as to the town. Let no reader strike out this trifling example.' On another occasion Schumann writes : ' The less cultured people are inclined to hear in music without words only sadness or only joy, or (what lies midway between the two) melancholy, but are not able to distinguish the finer shadiags of passion, as for instance, in the former, anger, repentance, &c., and in the latter, ease, comfortableness, &c. Consequently they find it so difficult to understand masters like Beethoven and Franz Schubert, who could translate into tone-speech every state of life.' We shall now proceed to the year 1838, when the Studies, Op. 95, of Moscheles suggest the following reflections : — ' The superscriptions on pieces of music, which in recent times have again become frequent, have here and there been censured, on the ground that " good music does not stand in need of such directions." But it as certainly loses nothing thereby, and by this means the composer most surely obviates misunderstanding. If poets do it, if they endeavour to wrap up the meaning of a whole poem in a superscription, why should not musicians ? Such a hint should, however, be given with judgment and taste ; and just in this the culture of a musician will be recognizable. Thus we have in the 188 Schumann. [Fifth Studies before us twelve characteristic pictures, whose significance rather gains by the superscriptions.' It will be convenient to insert here two more utterances on titles respectively of the years 1841 and 1839, the former in connection with Songs without Words by Julius Schaefifer, and the latter in connection with the Etudes de Salon, Op. 6, by Henselt. ' These Songs without Words, too, have superscriptions. We think it would have been better to omit them. There are hidden states of the soul where a verbal hint by the composer can lead to a quicker comprehension, and must be thankfully received. Our composer, however, gives known ones for which indications such as "Calm Sea," "Do I dream? No, I am awake," and "Melancholy" seem too affected; the second we regard even as insipid.' ' One cannot but conceive an affection for the Ave Maria. Here we have an example of how a well-chosen superscription may enhance the effect of the music. Without that superscription, the piece would have been played by most pianists like a study of Cramer's, to one of which it has much resemblance. In an Ave Maria even the most prosaic person thinks something, and makes an effort.' Keturning once more to 1838, we find charming remarks on Sterndale Bennett's Three Sketches: The Lake, The Mill-stream, and The Fountain. ' They seem to me to surpass in delicacy and naiveness of presentation all I know of musical genre painting; the composer, as a true tone-poet, having indeed observed Nature in some of her most musical scenes. Or can it be that you have never heard music that would call you across the lake at evening ? Never the Period.] On Programme Music, 189 angry, tumultuous music that drives the wheels so that the sparks fly? In what way the Sketches have come into existence, whether from within outward, or the reverse, is of no consequence and difficult to decide. For the most part, composers do not know that themselves : one piece is made in one way, another in another. Often an outside picture leads further ; again, often a tone-series calls forth a picture. If only there remain music and independent melody, do not rack your brains, hut enjoy.' In 1839, Schumann again dealt with the subject of programmes a propos Berlioz's Waverley overture. Note the last two sentences contradicting the preceding ones : — 'People will ask, to which chapter, to which scene [of Scott's novel] , why, and to what purpose did Berlioz write his music ? For critics always wish to know what the composers themselves cannot tell them ; and often critics understand hardly the tenth part of what they discuss. Heavens, will the time ever come when we are no longer asked what we intended by our divine compositions ? Hunt for consecutive fifths, and let us alone. Some explanation, however, is on this occasion given by the motto on the title-page of the overture : — Dreams of love and lady's charms Give place to honour and to arms. This brings us somewhat nearer the track.' Schubert's C major Symphony inspired Schumann in 1840 with the following enthusiastic words : — 'That the outside world, as it shines to-day and darkens to-morrow, often influences the inner world of the poet and musician, you may confidently believe ; and that in this symphony there lies hidden more -than mere 190 Schumann. [Fifth beautiful melody, more than mere sorrow and joy such as music has uttered already in a hundred ways, yea, that it leads us into regions where we cannot remember to have ever been. To grant this you have only to hear such a symphony. Here is, besides masterly musical technique of composition, life in every fibre, colouring down to the finest shading. Significance everywhere, the clearest expression in the details ; and, lastly, diffused throughout, a romanticism such as we have become acquainted with in other compositions of Schubert.' Spohr's Irdisches wnd Gottliches prompts in 1843 the following characteristic utterances : — ' We confess we have a prejudice against this kind of creation [namely, with a programme] , and share this perhaps with a hundred learned heads, who, it is true, have often strange notions of composing, and refer always to Mozart, who is supposed never to have thought of anything in composing. As I said, not a few may have that prejudice ; and if a composer holds up a programme to us, before the music, I say : " First of all let us hear that you make beautiful music, afterwards we shall be glad of your programme." . . . Indeed, the philosophers may think the matter worse than it is; certainly they are mistaken if they believe that a composer who works after an idea, sits down like a preacher on Saturday afternoon and arranges his text in accordance with the usual three heads, and develops it thoroughly; certainly they are mistaken. The creation of the musician is quite another thing ; and if a picture, an idea, hovers before him, he will feel happy only if it comes towards him in beautiful melodies, borne by the same invisible hands as the " golden buckets" of which Goethe speaks somewhere. Therefore Period.] Extra-musical Influences. 191 keep your prejudice ; but at the same time examine, and do not make the masters suffer for the bungling of the pupils.' Schumann's most important utterance on programme music and most complete self-revelation as a creative artist is to be found in a letter of April 13, 1888, addressed to his beloved Clara ; and with it I shall close this series of somewhat bewildering extracts. After sajdng in an early part of this long epistle that he would give to his fantasias which were about to be published the name of ' poems ' IDichtvngen'] , a word for which he had long sought, and which seemed to him noble, and significant for musical compositions, he writes further on as follows : — ' Behold your old Eobert — is he not still the silly, the teller of spook-stories, the terrifier ? Now, however, I can also be very serious, sometimes for days — and that need not alarm you — these are for the most part the incidents of my soul-life, thoughts on music and compositions. Everything that goes on in the world affects me — politics, literature, men ; in my own way I meditate on every- thing, and afterwards it vents itself in music. Thus many of my compositions are difficult to understand because they are connected with distant interests ; often, too, they are significant because every remarkable passing event affects me, and I must then express it musically. Hence few recent compositions give me satisfaction because, apart from the defects of crafts- manship, they deal in musical sentiments of the lowest kind, in commonplace lyrical exclamations. The highest that is there achieved does not reach up to the beginning of the art of my music. The former may be a flower, the latter the so much more spiritual poem. 192 Sclmmann. [Fifth The former an impulse of crude nature, the latter a work of poetic consciousness. I, too, do not know all this at the time of composing, it comes afterwards.' What is said in the last paragraph will be further explained and illustrated by Schumann's remarks about his own compositions, which reveals his practice much better than his theorizings and criticisms of other masters' compositions. Schumann's musical productions comprise programme music of all kinds, qualities, and degrees. Beginning his career in a spirit of sportive fancifulness (as exemplified in the Papillons and Carnaval), the composer, on becoming an ardent lover, developed an earnest imaginativeness (as exemplified in the Davidsbilndler, Sonatas, Fcmtasiestiicke, Fantasie, Kreisleriana, Novel- letten, and other pianoforte pieces), and this earnest imaginativeness broadened, deepened, and solidified on his reaching mature manhood and the goal of marriage (as exemplified in the larger compositions of 1841 and later years). Schumann was as verbally reticent in the orchestral and concerted chamber works as he was communicative in the short pianoforte pieces. In fact, if we except the overtures, none of the orchestral and none of the chamber works has as much as a title, and of few of them has any programmatic information come down to us. Now it will be said that this shows that as he grew older the composer abandoned the giddy romantic ways of his youth and turned to a romanticism sobered by classicism. There is some truth in this ; but it does not settle the matter, for Schumann up to the last years of his life continued to compose acknowledged programme music — overtures and short pianoforte pieces. If he had written in later years letters as intimate as he Period.] Papillons. 193 ■wrote to Clara before his marriage, we should know more about the conception and meaning of the works of those years. The Papillons, Op. 2, composed partly in 1829 and partly in 1831, is a young Carnaval. ' When you have a minute to spare,' he writes to his friend Henriette Voigt, ' I beg of you to read the last chapter of the Flegeljahre, where all is to be found in black and white. . . . I may also mention that I set the words to the music and not the music to the words — the opposite seems to me a foolish proceeding.' He also advises his relatives to read as soon as j)ossible the closing scene of Jean Paul Eichter's Flegeljahre, informing them that the Papillons are intended to translate this masked ball into tones, and asking them if something in the Papillons does not reflect Wina's angelic love, Walt's poetic soul, and Yult's sharp-flashing mind. To the famous Berlin critic Eellstab, the composer writes : ' You remember the last scene in the Flegeljahre, — the masked ball, Walt, Vult, masks, confessions, anger, revelations, hasty departure, concluding scene, and then the departing brother. Often I turned over the last page : for the end seemed to me a new beginning — almost unconsciously I was at the pianoforte, and thus came into existence one papillon after another.' The Papillons are strikingly characteristic and even dramatic. Yoii cannot hear them without feeling that ' there is something behind ' these charming tone-combinations. They suggest characters, scenes, and situations — the stir and brilliance of the ballroom, particular masks and their manners, the spirit of the dances and the feelings of the dancers, the tete-a-tite of the favoured and the unfavoured lover, Walt and Vult, and the beloved one, the incomparable 194 Schumann. [Fifth Wina. Schumann may not have thought of the last scene but one of J. P. Eichter's Flegeljahre when he wrote in 1829 Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, and 8, but I have not the slightest doubt that those of 1831 were inspired by the masked ball there depicted. As we have seen, Schumann writes that he set the words to the music, not the music to the words ; but he writes also that in the Flegeljahre everything is to be found in black and white, that the Papillons translate the masked ball into tones. The Finale is a curious conception. It pictures the last scene of the ball and the dying away of the noise of the carnival. Towards the end of the movement we read, printed above the music : ' The noise of the carnival dies away. The church clock strikes six.' The conclusion of the ball is indicated by the old and old- fashioned Grandfather's Dance, danced at the end of balls and especially at the end of weddings. This is followed by the reappearance of the first slow waltz. Then the two are contrapuntaily combined, and gradually die away. Of the Carnaval, Scenes mignonnes, Op. 9, composed in 1834 and 1835, Schumann writes to Moscheles : ' The Carnaval came into existence incidentally, and is built for the most part on the notes A S C H [A is the German name for 6], the name of a little Bohemian town, where I have a musical lady-friend, but which, strange to say, are also the only musical letters in my name. The superscriptions I placed over them afterwards. Is not music itself always enough and sufficiently expressive ? Estrella is a name such as is placed under portraits to fix the picture better in one's memory ; Reconnaissance, a scene of recognition : Aveu, an avowal of love; Promenade, a walk, such as one Pebiod.] Cmnaval. 195 takes at a German ball arm-in-arm with one's partner. The whole has no artistic value whatever ; the manifold states of the soul alone seem to me to be interesting.' It is impossible to agree with the depreciatory remark contained in the first half of the last sentence. The Carnaval is a higher kind of PapiUons. Somebody called it 'a glorification of the ballroom, of its noisy rejoicings, its motley masquerade, and its secret whisperings of love.' Schumann himself refers to it as a Maskentanz, a masked ball, and before adopting the present title thought of Burlesques and of Frolics on Four Notes. The Carnaval is not one comprehensive view, but rather a series of glimpses. In comparing it with the Papillons we find that the young master's drawing shows greater firmness of line and more forcibleness of characterization. In short, both as a man and as an artist Schumann proves himself maturer. The Carnaval comprises twenty-one pieces, each having a superscription. Some of these have already been explained in Schumann's letter. Of the others, the greater number do not stand in need of explanation — such as Preambule, Valse allemande, and Valse noble ,- Pierrot, Arlequin, and Pantalon et Colombine ; Coquette ; and Chopin and Paganini. Florestan and Eusebius are the representatives of Schumann's dual nature — Eusebius is tender and mild, an enthusiastic dreamer ; Florestan is wild, impetuous, and fantastic. The Eeplique is no doubt a mocking reply to the Coquette. The Papillon on this occasion means a real butterfiy. Chiarina is Clara Wieck, and Estrella Ernestine von Fricken, a rival attraction. As to the town Asch, there lived the same Ernestine, to whom the composer at that time was engaged. The last piece but one is entitled Pause. During the Pause 196 Schummm. [Fifth a great bustle is going on ; there is a hurrying to and fro, everyone hastens to join his standard and prepare for the fight. And then begins the 'Marche des Davidsbiindler contre les PhiUstins,' the march of the champions of progress and idealism against the upholders of tradition and commonplace. It is the climax of the piece. Exuberance of youth, and faith in their good cause animate the valiant band of the Damdsbiindler, The Philistines, represented by the old-fashioned Grandfather's Dance, show pluck, but in the end are completely routed. There are hardly any particulars to record of the Sonata in P sharp minor, Op. 11 (1833 and 1835). But it is so full of storm and stress, of fire and intensity of passion, of tenderness and fantastic imagery, that we may well believe that there is of the composer's heart's blood in it, that it tells us of the actualities of his soul- life — of strong emotions, brave endeavours, and high aspirations. We obtain the certainty of this from two allusions in Schumann's letters. In one of them he states that the sonata is one of the works almost entirely occasioned by Clara Wieck; and in the other he indignantly exclaims : ' Your father calls me phlegmatic ? — the Carnaval phlegmatic ! — the F sharp minor Sonata phlegmatic ! ' The eighteen Characteristic Pieces for Pianoforte, Op. 6, composed in 1837, entitled Die Davidsbiindler (The David Leaguers), originally Davidsbiindler Tdnze (Dances of the David Leaguers) are, Schumann infoims Clara, quite different from the Carnaval, the former, compared with the latter, being like faces compared with masks. In a letter of his to Henselt we read: 'Just now I have finished eighteen Davidsbiindler Tdnze — iu Pebiod.] Davidsbundler. 197 the midst of a sadly stirring life.' This is an allusion to his struggles for Clara. Passages in two letters to his beloved one reveal much of what he put into this composition. ' In the dances are many wedding thoughts — ^they arose in the most beautiful excitement that I can remember to have experienced. Some day I shall explain them to you.' 'What I have put into these dances will be discovered by my Clara, to whom they are dedicated, more than anything else of mine. The story is a whole wedding eve [Polterdbend] . You can picture to yourself beginning and end. If I was ever happy at the pianoforte it was when I composed them.' Of the Davidsbund (David League) Schumann says : ' The society was more than a secret one, since it existed only in the head of the founder.' And again : ' The Davidsbund is a spiritual, romantic one, as you have long perceived. Mozart was as great a Bilndler as Berlioz is now, as you are [Dorn] , without nomination by diploma.' The composition is headed by an old rhyme, which says that at all times joy and sorrow are connected, and gives the advice to remain godly in joy and have courage ready in sorrow. The musical motto by Clara Wieck (two bars) with which the composition opens is like the sign of the prompter, after which the curtain rises and lays open to us the scene of action — the poet's soul. The eighteen scenes of which the performance consists are full of interest and surprising variety. The dramatis personee, Eusebius and Florestan, in their monologues and dialogues unfold themselves more and more. Of these eighteen numbers some are signed by Eusebius, some by Florestan, others by both. Schumann's Op. 12, the Famtasiestucke of 1837, consists of eight titled pieces, — Des Abends (in the Evening), full 198 Schumann. [Fifth of quiet twilight dreaminess; the impassioned and impatient Aufschwung" (Soaring) ; the questioning and longing Warum (Why) ; the delightfully humorous Grillen (Whims) ; the grandly and stirringly emotional In der Nacht (In the Night) ; the chatty Fabel (Fable) ; the dizzy Traumeswirren (Dream Visions — literally Wirren — confusion, entanglements) ; and lastly, the joyous Ende vom lAede (End of the Song). Schumann writes : ' When I had finished the work I found in Die Nacht the story of Hero and Leander. I suppose you know it. Every night Leander swims across the sea to his beloved, who is waiting for him on the tower with flaming torch to show him the way. It is an old, beautiful, romantic legend. When I play the Night I cannot forget the picture — how he plunges into the sea, she calls, he answers, struggling through the waves i-eaches the shore safely, then the cantilena when they are in each other's arms, then he must leave and cannot separate from her, and at last the night envelopes every- thing in darkness. With regard to the concluding number the composer wrote to Clara : ' I must praise jou for having thought of Zumsteeg [the famous com- poser of ballads] in connection with the End of the Song. Yes, it is true, my thought was, a merry wedding is ^oing to be the end of it after all ; but at the last the sorrow about you returned, and so it sounds like the intermingling of marriage and funeral bells.' The naming of the Fantasie, Op. 17, composed in 1836-1838 went through various transformations. Before the last was reached there were discarded the titles Grande Sonate and Fantasien, the sub-title Dichtungen (Poems), and superscriptions of the three movements — Euins, Trophies, Palms ; or Euins, Triumphal Arch, Period.] Fantasiestiicke — Fantasie. 199 Crown of Stars ; or Euin, Triumphal Areh, Constellation. Also the motto, four lines by Friedrich von Schlegel, was &Q. afterthought. It may be literally rendered thus : 'Through all the tones that sound in Earth's mueh- mingled dream, a gentle tone is heard by him who harks with quiet heed.' The inwardness of the history of Op. 17 is, however, to be found in Schumann's letters to his Clara. ' I have finished a Fantasie in three move- ments, which I sketched down to the details in June, 1836, I do not think I ever wrote anything more impassioned than the first movement ; it is a profound lament about you. The others are weaker, but need not be ashamed of themselves' (March 17, 1838). 'The Fantasie you can understand only if you transport yourself back to the unhappy Summer of 1836, when I resigned you. Now I have no reason to compose in so miserable and melancholy a way ' (May 19, 1839). ' Tell me what you think in hearing the first piece of the Fantasie ? Does it not call up pictures in you ? . . . Don't you think the " tone " in the motto is yoa ? I almost believe it' (June 9, 1839). Clara replies to this on June 16 : ' Many pictures rise before me, too, when I play your Fantasia — they are sure to be very much in agreement with yours. The March makes upon me the impression of a triumphal march of warriors returning from battle ; and a;t the A flat major I always think of young village girls, all clad in white, each with a wreath in her hand, crowning the kneeling warriors, and a great deal more that you know already.' Of his pianoforte compositions, Schumann liked best the Fantasiestiicke, the Kreisleriana, the Novelletten, and the three Romanzen, of which again he liked best the Kreisleriana, Op. 16, composed in 1838. The title is 200 Schumann. [Fifth derived from E. T. A. Hoffmann, the author of fantastic tales, -who also was a lawyer, musician, painter, &c. Schumann describes Johannes Kreisler, Hoffmann's creation, as ' an eccentric, wild, and geistreicher [clever, intellectual, &c., &c.] Capellmeister. ' No one acquainted with Schumann's work can for a moment doubt that he describes here his own and not Kreisler's joys and sorrows. In fact, Schumanniana would be a more correct title than Kreisleriana. However, we are not left to guessing. To Dorn, the composer writes : ' Of the Concerto, the Sonata, the Davidsbundler, the Kreisleriana and the Novelletten, she [that is, Clara] is almost the sole cause ' (September 5, 1839). He is more outspoken to Clara herself : ' Oh, this music in me ! And always such beautiful melodies ! Imagine, since my last letter I have finished again a whole book of new things. " Kreisleriana " I will call them, in which you and a thought of you play the principal role, and I will dedicate it to you, — yes, to you and to no one else. How sweetly you will smile when you recognize yourself. My music seems to me now so wonderfully involved \yerschhmgen'] notwithstanding all its simplicity, so eloquent from the heart ; . . . When shall you be standing beside me, while I sit at the pianoforte — ah ! then we two shall weep like children — that I know, it will overwhelm me' (April 13, 1838). 'Do play some- times my Kreisleriana ! In some parts of it there lies a veritable wild love, and your life and mine, and many a look of yours (August 8, 1888). Of the Novelletten, Op. 21, likewise composed in 1838, Schumann speaks as ' larger connected romantic stories ' [abenteuerliche Geschichten — Stories of Adventure). On February 6, 1838, he writes to his Clara: 'I do not Period.] Krmleriana — Novelletten. 201 know who could prevent me from writing as much again to you as you have written to me. I should like best to do it in music — for that is the friend who best brings out everything that is within. So I have composed an appal- ling amount for you during the last few weeks — drolleries, Egmont stories, family scenes with fathers, a wedding, in short, charming things. The whole I call Novelletten, because your name is Clara, and Wiecketten would not sound well.' This last sentence contains a playful allusion to Clara Novello. A little more than a year later, in a letter of June 30, 1839, he says : ' Four books oiNovellettes by me have just been published. They are intimately connected, and were written with great gusto. They are for the most part cheerful and superficial, except for something here and there where I touch the bottom.' Perhaps we may say — the Kreisleriana are intimate revelations, outpourings from the depth of the soul; the eight Novelletten, on the other hand, deal, for the most part, with feelings that lie on or near the surface, or at least may be openly shown to all the world. The above extracts are from letters to mere male acquaint- ances. A more intimate peep into the true nature of the work is afforded by the following words addressed by the composer to his beloved one, ' Bride, in the Novelletten you appear in all possible situations and positions and other irresistible things about you. Yes, do look at me ! I assert that Novelletten could only be written by one who knows such eyes as yours and has touched such lips as yours. In short, one may make better things, but not similar ones ' (June 30, 1839). About the Nachtstiicke (Night Pieces) — ^Ihe title is again derived from E. T. A. Hoffmann — Op. 23, composed in 1839, we get from Schumann some exceedingly interesting 202 Schumann. [Fifth information. ' I wrote to you [Clara] of a presentiment. I had it during the days from the 24th to the 27th of March while occupied with my new composition. There is a passage in it to which I continually returned ; it is as if some one sighed with a very heavy heart: "Oh, God!" While occupied with the composition I always saw funeral processions, coffins, unhappy, despairing people; and when I had finished, and for a long time was seeking for a title, I always fell upon Leichenphantasie (Funeral Fantasia). Is that not remarkable? While composing I was often moved to tears and did not know why, and had no cause for it. Then came Theresa's letter and everything was clear to me.' The letter announced that his brother Eduard was dying. In another letter to Clara the composer says : ' I have put the Night Pieces in order. What would you think of my naming them : (1) Trauerzug (Funeral Procession) ; (2) Kuriose Gesellschaft (Strange Company) ; (3) Ndchtliches Gelage (Nocturnal Orgies) ; (4) Rundgesang mit Solostimmen (Roundelay with solo voices) ? ' These titles for the individual pieces were, however, omitted. The Scenes of Childhood, Op. 15, of 1839, consist of thirteen pieces with superscriptions : Of Foreign Lands and People, Curious Story, Catch me if you can, Entreating Child, Happiness enough, Important Event, Dreaming, At the Fireside, The Knight of the Hobby Horse, Almost too Serious, Frightening, Child falling asleep, and The Poet Speaks. When the work came before the Berlin critic Eellstab, he asked whether the composer was in earnest or joking, and remarked: ' When we see a piece of music superscribed " Of foreign lands and people," we feel our pulse to find out if we are Period.] Nachtstucke— Scenes of Childhood. 203 not in fever dreams. To where has Art strayed through some false fundamental principles ? To what irrational solutions do these irrational roots and equations lead ? ' This annoyed Schumann not a little. ' Anything more inept and narrow-minded than what Eellstab has written about my Scenes of Childhood I have never met with. He seems to think that I place a crying child before me, and then seek for tones to imitate it. The reverse is the case. However, I do not deny that while composing some children's heads were hovering before me ; but of course the superscriptions came into existence afterwards, and are indeed nothing else but more delicate directions for the rendering and comprehension of the music' What Schumann says here about the superscriptions of the Scenes of Childhood, and in another place (letter of March 3, 1839) about the superscriptions of all his compositions having come into existence subsequently^ may be true, but it is nevertheless misleading. His remark about some children's heads hovering before him shows this. It is shown more strikingly by many other remarks about the contents of his compositions, among others by the comparison of the Scenes of Childhood with the Album for the Young, Op. 68, of 1848, forty-three pieces with superscriptions. ' These Scenes of Childhood,' Schumann writes, ' are reminiscences of an older person for older ones, whilst the Christmas Album [the Album fiir die Jugend'] contains rather foreshadowings, presentiments, futm-e states, for younger ones.' With regard to the Album, he writes in the same letter : ' The first piece I wrote for my eldest child on her birthday, and thus one after the other was added. It seemed to me as if I once more began composing anew. You will trace some of the old humour here and there.' Very 204 Schumann. [Fifth interesting are Clara's remarks on the Scenes of Childhood. ' Just now occurs to me Fiirchtenmachen [Frightening]. You understand that so well . . . Your whole inwardness reveals itself in these scenes : for instance, the touching simplicity of the Bittendes Kind [Entreating child] — one sees it with folded hands; and the Kind im Einschlafen [Child falling asleep] — it is impossible to close the eyes more beautifully. . . . The Curiose Geschichte [Strange story] I like much. And the Haschemann [Catch me if you can] — that is funny, quite wonderfully depicted . . . Trmtmerei [Dreaming] is a beautiful dream ; the Kamin a German, not a French fireside . . . When you have time write to me something about these scenes — tell me how you wish them to be played, and what were your thoughts in composing them, whether they were my thoughts.' Speaking of pieces for children reminds me of the Twelve Pianoforte Pieces for four hands. Op. 85, of 1849, the superscriptions of which are similar to those of the Album for the Young. One day, when Schumann and his wife were playing No. 2, the Bear Dance, he imitated the heavy, awkward movements of the bear. He composed No. 9, the Fountain (Am Springbrunnen) while staying in the country, where, in the garden in front of the house, a fountain was playing. This piece may be called a soundpicture — the gushing and dripping of the fountain, with the crescendas and decrescendos produced by the play of the breeze with the water, no one can fail to recognize. But, of course, there is more in the music than the imitation of the sounds of the fountain. Clara writes : ' At the Fountain is extremely original in its loveliness and dreaminess. One is transported to the fountain, and sees in it all sorts of Period.] Twelve Pieces — Ball Scenes — From the East. 205 wonderful things — the ball which twists about most curiously, and yet finally returns to its first position. In short, unconsciously one joins in the dream, until the end of the piece, when each smiles contentedly at the other. So it is with us when we play it together.' In the Ball Scenes, Op. 109, and the Children's Ball, Op. 130, both for four hands, the composer returns to scenes which in earlier years had a great charm for him. To the former work he refers as * a masked ball.' The Preambule opens a view of a scene full of joyous excitement — brilliantly lighted rooms, a throng of finely- dressed people, a general appearance of festivity, beaming faces, &c. It is not difficult to recognize the passages to which Schumann alluded when, playing these pieces with his wife, he playfully interpreted, saying, ' Here the waiters are still rushing about with the dishes among the company ' ; and, further on, ' Now the grown-up people begin to mingle with the little ones, and things are becoming more serious.' To find nobler themes we have only to turn to the Bilder aus dem Osten (Pictures from the East), Op. 66, of 1848. In a prefatory note, Schmaann says : ' The composer of the following pieces thinks that with a view to a better understanding of them he ought, not to leave unmentioned that they owe their existence to a special suggestion. The pieces were written while the composer was reading Eiickert's Makamen (Tales after the Arabic of Hariri) ; and while composing he could not forget the strange hero of the book, Abu Seid — who could be compared to the German Eulenspiegel, except that the former has more poetry and nobility about him — and also the figure of his honest friend Hareth. This 206 Sehvmann. [Fifth explains the foreign character of some of the pieces. The first five are not based on definite situations ; only the last might perhaps be regarded as an echo of the last Makame, in which we see the hero concluding his merry life in repentance and penance. May this attempt to give some expression in our art to the Oriental manner of poetry and thought, as has already often been done in German poetry, find a favourable reception among sympathizers.' Before leaving the pianoforte compositions and taking up the orchestral ones, I must quote at least the superscriptions of the Forest Scenes, Op. 82, of 1848 and 1849 : Entry, Hunter in Ambush, Solitary Flowers, The ill-reputed Spot (followed by eight lines by F. Hebbel), Pleasing Landscape, Wayside Inn, The Bird as Prophet, Hunting Song, and Farewell. Further information about these pieces, and information — at least of any importance — about the contents of the compositions not mentioned, is looked for in vain in the correspondence. -s None of Schumann's symphonies has a title, still less an explicit programme ; but that two of them had a / programmatic basis we learn from the master's lettery and from other sources. ' It is quite impossible for me to give my thoughts to the journal,' he writes in February, 1841. ' During the last few days* I finished a work (at least in outline) over which I have been quite blissful, but which has also thoroughly exhausted me. Imagine a whole symphony — and, moreover, a Spring Symphony — I can hardly believe myself that it is finished. But the scoring has still * He actually sketched the work in four days. — January 23-26, 1841. Period.] Forest Scenes — Symphonies. 207 to be done.' Truly, the B flat major Symphony, Op. 38, ' was jb^rn in a fiery hour,' as the composer remarked^;*! wrote the symphony,' he says in a letter to Spohr dn. November 23, 1842, 'at the end of the winter of 1841, if I may say so, in that flush of spring (Friihlingsdrang) which carries man away even in his old age, and comes over him anew every year. Description and painting were not part of my intention ; but I believe that the time at which it came into existence may have influenced its shape and made it what it is^ Schumann gives a more explicit commentary in a letter to the conductor and composer Taubert, of January 10, 1843 : • Try to inspire the orchestra with some of the spring longing which chiefly possessed me when I wrote the symphony in February, 1841. At the very beginning I should like the trumpet entry to sound like a call to waken. In what follows of the Introduction there might be a suggestion of the growing green of everything, even of a butterfly flying up ; and, in the Allegro, of the gradual assembling of all the constituents offspring. But these are fancies which presented themselves to me after the completion of the work. Only of the last movement I will tell you that I like to think of it as Spring's Farewell, and that therefore I should not like it to be rendered frivolously.' The first impulse to the work was given by a poem of Adolf Bottger. This poem, which is of a melancholy cast, concludes as follows : ' Thou Spirit of the cloud, dim and dank, why hast thou scared away all my happiness ? Turn, turn thy course ! In the valley rises spring.' To the truth of my statement we have the best testimony — Schumann's own. In October, 1842, he presented Bottger with his portrait, and on it he wrote the opening 208 Schumann. [Fifth notes of Op. 38, and below them : ' Beginning of a symphony prompted by a poem of Adolf Bottger; to the poet as a souvenir from E. Schumann.' The composer begins where the poet ends. The last line of the latter might have been taken by the former as the motto of the first movement : ' In the valley rises spring.' From the authentic information given in Litzmann's Clara Schumann we learn that the four movements were originally entitled : Fruhlingsbeginn (Commencement of Spring), Abend, (Evening), Frohe Gespielen (Merry companions), and Voller Friihling (Full /Spring)- The programmatic nature of the last of Schumann's symphonies (the third in the order of publication), the one in E flat major. Op. 97, of 1850, is likewise „5;S5ertainable. The composer himself says of this work in one of his letters that there was probably ' here and there a piece of life in it.' Wasielewski tells us that Schumann remarked in conversation that the sight of Cologne Cathedral gave the first impulse to the work ; and the original superscription of the fourth of the five movements — ' in the character of the accompaniment to j a solemn ceremony ' — points, no doubt, to the influence | exercised on the composer by the ceremony of the/ installation of a new archbishop of Cologne, which took place while he was at work on the symphony. Thus we/ see that the epithet ' Ehenish ' given to Op. 97 is justified by facts, if nof~auniorized by the master. The rescinding of the above-mentioned superscrip- tion and his remarks on it are very characteristic of Schumann's position with regard to programme music. ' One should not,' he said, ' show people one's heart — a general impression of an art-work does them more Pebiod.] Symphonies — Overtures. 209 good ; at least, they make then no perverse com- parisons.' Schumann's overtures, with one exception, have all titles and a poetic basis. His best is that to Byron's Manfred, to which dramatic poem the composer wrote also other programme music (melodramatic matter, an entr'acte, &c.) ; his second best, the overture to his opera Genoveva ; the third best, that to Schiller's Bride of Messina ,- and after them follow the less valuable ones to Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar, to Goethe's Faust, and Goethe's poem Hermann and Dorothea. The ' Festival overture ' with the ' Ehine Wine Song, ' Op. 123, stands by itself. Of the close connection between poem and music even in the case of the less valuable overtures we cannot have the slightest doubt. To Eichard Pohl, who had proposed Schiller's play as the subject of an opera libretto, Schumann writes : ' After reading The Bride of Messina several times, to realize the tragedy quite clearly, there came thoughts of an overture, which I then finished.' In the same way, Moritz Horn's proposal of Hermann and Dorothea as the subject of a concert oratorio seems to have suggested the overture to that poem, which the composer wrote in five hours, and for which he had a great affection. The greatest achievement of Schumann as a composer of programme music, and indeed as a composer generally, is the overture to Manfred. It is one of the most original and grandest orchestral compositions ever conceived, one of the most powerful, but at the same time one of the most sombre soul-portraits ever painted. The sombreness 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 210 Schumann. [Fifih 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.' We need not trace Schumann's tone-painting in his accompanied vocal music; the words indicate it suiSciently. Moreover, the greater importance of Schumann's pianoforte accompaniments to his songs, as compared with those of his predecessors, is one of the commonplaces of musical history. Indeed, the pianoforte is sometimes even more important than the voice in the interpretation of the words. Before my task is done, I have to refer to three compositions which not only are patent programme music, but initiated the recultivation of an interesting subordinate department of that kind of instrumental music. Melodrama, although employed in operas and plays, had for some time been neglected as an independent form. Schumann's example soon found imitators, one of the first being Liszt, and now the writing of pianoforte accompaniments to recitations, especially of ballads, has become a pretty common practice. The contributions of Schumann to this genre are Op. 106, Schon Hedwig, ballad by F. Hebbel (composed 1849, published 1853) ; Op. 122, No 1, Ballade vom Haideknaben, by F. Hebbel; and Op. 122, No. 2, Die FlucUlinge (The Fugitives) , ballad by Shelley (composed 1852, published 1853). With this not unimportant piece of evidence of Schumann as a composer of programme music, I take leave of ' the most romantic of the romanticists.' Period.] CHAPTEE VI. riFTH PERIOD CONTINUED : THREE PIANIST COMPOSERS — CHOPIN, HENSELT, AND HELLER. What is the position of the superlatively poetical and emotional CHOPIN (1809-1849), with regard to the subject under discussion? Not a single one of his compositions has a programme prefixed to it, or bears a title indicative of one; and a search, with a view to unrevealed programmes, among his letters and his friends' accounts of him yields but an extremely poor outcome. ' Whilst my thoughts were with her ' [his love, Constantia Gladkowska], Chopin writes on October 3, 1829, ' I composed the Adagio ofmj Concerto ' [in F minor. Op. 21]. On August 21, 1830, he writes : ' The Adagio [of the E minor Concerto, Op. 11] is in E major, and of a romantic, calm, and partly melancholy character. It is intended to convey the impression which one receives when the eye rests on a beloved landscape that calls up in one's soul beautiful memories — for instance, on a fine moonlight night.' There is only one other epistolary remark of Chopin's of this kind, and that is jocular rather than serious. Writing in 1839 to Fontana about the B flat minor Sonata, that with the Funeral March, he says of the short Finale : ' The left and the right hand unisono are gossiping after the march.' The information to be gathered elsewhere is not much more abundant. First we learn that the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Eussians on September 8, 1831, inspired Chopin, then at Munich, with the Etude, Op. 10, No. 12, full of 212 Three Pianist Composers. [Fifth fuming rage and passionate ejaculations. Next, George Sand writes with her magic pen in her Histoii-e de ma Vie about the Preludes. Describing her and Chopin's stay in Majorca (1838-1839), at the deserted monastery of Valdemosa, she relates that to him the monastery was full of terrors and phantoms ; that on returning with her children from her nocturnal explorations among the ruins, she found him at the pianoforte, pale, with haggard eyes and hair standing on end, unable to recognize them at once ; and that after an effort to smile, he played to them sublime things he had composed, or rather terrible and heart-rending ideas that had taken possession of him, as it were unconsciously, in this hour of solitude, sadness, and terror. ' Several present to the mind visions of deceased monks and the sounds of funeral chants which beset his imagination ; others are melancholy and sweet — they occurred to him in the hours of sunshine and of health, with the noise of the children's laughter under the window, the distant sounds of guitars, the warbling of the birds among the humid foliage, and the sight of the pale, little, full-blown roses on the snow. Others, again, are of a mournful sadness, and, while charming the ear, rend the heart.' About one of the latter, one which occurred to him on a dismal rainy evening, and which produces a terrible mental depression, George Sand has a long story. She and her son Maurice had gone to Palma and were overtaken by tempestuous weather. Chopin's anxiety for them Decame a kind of calm despair, in which, bathed in tears, he played the prelude in question. On their return, he exclaimed with a wild look and in a strange tone : ' Ah ! I knew well that you were dead.' Afterwards he confessed to her that he had seen in a dream all she Pesiod.] Chopm. 213 experienced, and that no longer distinguishing this dream from reality, he had grown calm and been lulled to sleep while playing the pianoforte, believing that he was dead himself. 'He saw himself drowned in a lake, heavy, ice-cold drops of water fell at regular intervals upon his breast, and when I drew his attention to those drops of water which were actually falling at regular intervals upon the roof, he denied having heard them. He was even vexed at what I translated by the term Imitative Harmony. He protested with all his might, and he was right, against the puerility of these imitations for the ear. His genius was full of mysterious harmonies of nature, translated by sublime equivalents into his musical thought, and not by a servile repetition of external sounds. His composition of this evening was indeed full of the drops of rain which resounded on the sonorous tiles of the monastery, but they were transformed in his imagination and his music into tears falling from heaven on his heart.' This account is very interesting ; but it would be more valuable than it is if George Sand were not known to have loved poetry more than truth. Then there is a story told by Louis Enault. One evening, when George Sand had been speaking of the peacefulness of country life and unfolding a picture of rural harmonies, Chopin remarked: 'How admirably you have spoken ! ' To which the reply was : ' Well, then, set me to music ! ' Whereupon, we are told, the master improvised a veritable pastoral symphony. Another anecdote tells us that George Sand had a little dog which was in the habit of turning round and round in the endeavour to catch its tail. One evening when it was thus engaged she said to Chopin : ' If I had your 214 Three Pianist Composers. [Fifth talent, I would compose a pianoforte piece for this dog.' And Chopin at once sat down at the pianoforte, and improvised the charming waltz in D flat (Op. 64), which has obtained the name of Valse du petit chien. I do not bring forward these pieces of information as weighty evidence, but rather to show how little can be gathered bearing on the sabject. Somewhat more important than the two preceding stories is the following. One night, when Chopin was playing a polonaise immediately after having finished composing it, he saw the door open, and a long train of Polish knights and ladies dressed in antique costumes, enter through it and file past him. The vision filled the composer with such terror that he fled through the opposite door, and dared not return to the room the whole night. The Polish artist Kwiatkowski, a friend of the composer's, who painted a water-colour and two sketches in oils of this scene ' according to Chopin's indication,' entitling it Le Reve de Chopin, told me that the polonaise was the one in A major. Op. 40, No. 1. Now, have we to conclude from the absence of titles and programmes, and the dearth of other information, that Chopin was a composer of the most absolute of absolute music, that he never thought of anything but the beauty and piquancy of the tonal combinations, and that there is nothing whatever behind these combinations ? If we remember Balzac's saying that Chopin was less a musician than a soul qui se rend sensible ,- if we remember Liszt's remark that Chopin summed up in his imagination a poetic sentiment inherent in his nation ; if, more especially, we remember the impressions received from Chopin's works, it is impossible to come to such a conclusion. As Chopin was a pre-eminently subjective, Peeiod.] Chopin. 215 a pre-eminently lyrical composer, it may well be that in many, perhaps even in the majority of cases his compositions were exhalations of his moods, and in not a few cases unconscious exhalations. The character of some of his compositions, more especially his Nocturnes, favours this view ; but the character of others leads us to suspect something very different. It often seems to us that we follow trains of thought, hear passionate monologues, and witness sympathetically realized scenes. The strongest impressions of passionate monologues we receive from the Scherzi. And in them as well as in the Ballades, although not in those alone, we cannot fail to perceive the trains of thought. The Ballades are also notable for a certain narrative tone. Then'think of the ideas, moods, pictures, and apparitions called up by the inimitably exquisite Preludes. In the Polonaises Chopin becomes epic and dramatic : they are historical and political — grand in their threnodies and in their paeans ; in their memories of misfortunes and their visions of triumphs. In them the composer transcends the limits of his subjectivity — his individual egoism expands into national egoism. It is not without reason that Eubinstein called Chopin the pianoforte bard, rhapsodist, mind, and soul; found in his compositions the tragic, the romantic, the lyric, the dramatic, the fantastic, the psychic, the hearty, the dreamy, the brilliant, the grand, the simple, and every kind of expression; saw in the A major Polonaise a picture of Poland's greatness, and in the C minor Polonaise a picture of her fall ; described the B flat minor Sonata as a complete drama, and heard in the last movement 'the nocturnal whizzing of the wind over the graves in the churchyard ' ; and says of the Etudes that they were without titles and 216 Three Pianist Composers. [Fifth programmes, but bore in themselves a world of psychic content. Subjectivity is the beginning and end of Chopin. Happily he not only subjectivates the objective, but also objectivates the subjective. With Chopin music was a passioscope. To fit the art for this function, its materials had to be subtilized and sensitized. He who( has studied the texture of the music of the great masters knows what that means, and knows also how much Chopin did for the development of music as an emotional language. We may say of the Polish master that by the extension of its vocabulary and phraseology he enabled the language of music to express an infinitude of things that before had been inexpressible. Chopin was a soul-painter, chiefly and almost solely. The strictest investigation yields little of body-painting, and that little is for the most part not direct imitation (sound by sound), but imitation by analogy, and, moreover, idealized. The only traces discoverable are the rocking in the Berceuse and Barcarolle, the dance rhythms in the Mazurkas, Polonaises, Valses, &c., and if our imagina- tion is sujB&ciently alert, the clinking of spurs, the rattling of sabres, and the tramping of horses in the Mazurkas and Polonaises. The imitation of the graceful motions of the dancers is not only an idealization of the material actual, but also a symbolization of spiritual qualities. As a soul-painter Chopin is in several respects unique. What subtle shades in the incalculable variety of states of the mind, whether serene or moody, calm or agitated, depressed or elated, languid or ebullient! If we fully realize the distinctness of the impressions we receive from Chopin's compositions and at the same time realize the difficulty of describing what Period.] Chopin— Henselt. 217 we feel, Mendelssohn's remark as to the definiteness of music and the indefiniteness of words may occur to us. No one denies that Chopin was a tone-poet. But how «ould he bo that unless he had something to com- municate, unless he had the power of moving souls as well as of tickling ears ? What inevitably follows is this. Being a tone-poet, and as such having something to communicate, Chopin must be in one way or another a composer of programme music. Not, however, in the way of Berlioz and Liszt, which he abhorred, nor in the way of Schumann, whose warm sympathy he by no means reciprocated. Chopin's way was his own supremely individual and original way — the way of the delicate, passionate dme qui se rend sensible.* Before proceeding to the sixth period of the history of programme music, I must say a few words about two other composers, one of whom is ADOLPH HENSELT (1814-1889), the great pianist. Although not of the xank of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Chopin, and, moreover, the very reverse of voluminous in his productivity, he may claim a place here as a prominent and refined writer of small titled and truly characteristic tone-poems. Hence I point out, not his Concerto and Trio, but his Frilhlingslied (Spring Song), Wiegenlied (Cradle Song), Poeme d' amour, La Gondola, among other pieces, and especially his Studies, Op. 2 and 5, each book containing twelve. The Studies of Op. 2 bear French superscriptions : ' Orage tu ne sauras m'abattre,' 'Pensez un pen a moi,' 'Exauce mes voeux,' 'Eepos d'amour,' 'Vie orageuse,' 'Si oiseau j'etais a toi je * The curious will find in my Life of Chopin numerous attempts at interpretations. Here we have to deal with patent facts, not with eonjectui'es. 218 Three Pianist Composers. [Fifth volerais,' 'C'est la jeunesse qui a des ailes dorees,' ' Tu m'attires, m'entraines,' ' Jeunesse d'amour, plaisir celeste,' ' Comme le ruisseau dans la mer se repand,' 'Dors-tu ma vie ?' and ' Plein de soupirs, de souvenirs.' Of the Studies, Op. 5, ten have titles : Eroica, Hexentanz (Witches' Dance), Ave Maria, Lost Home, Thanksgiving Song after Storm, Elfenreigen (Dance of the Fairies), Romance with Choral Refrain, Vanished Happiness, Love Song, and Nocturnal Procession of Ghosts. We have unfortunately no means of learning what were Henselt's processes of composition; but we may confidently affirm that his titles and compositions cover each other. The former may, however, have been excogitated subsequently. The superscriptions of Op. 2 certainly make one suspect that there may be fancy as well as fact in the titles. STEPHEN HELLEE (c. 18.13-1888), said Schumann, lacks the delightful euphony of Henselt, but he has more Geist (genius, esprit), and, he might have added, a more distinct and original individuality. It is impossible not to mention Schumann when speaking of Heller. They were congenial spirits. Both were under the spell of Jean Paul Eichter, living in his world of sentiment, poetry, and humour. Schumann recognized this congeniality at once after reading one or two of Heller's letters and compositions. Indeed, so impressed was he by them, that he forthwith enrolled him, under the name of Jeanquirit, as a Davidsbiindler, a slayer of the Philistines. The dedication of Heller's Op. 7 to Liane von Froulay, a female character in the German prose-poet's novel Der Titan, pleased Schumann greatly, and reminded him of the intention of dedicating one of his own compositions to Wina, another fascinating young Period.] Henselt— Heller. 219 lady, in Die Flegeljdhre. It is truly wonderful how correctly Schumann gauged the capacities of Heller at the very beginning of his career. He found him a genuine artist-nature, full of invention, imagination, wit, and humour, and a romanticist, but not of the nihilistic and materialistic sort ; on the contrary, natural in feeling and clear in expression. Looking at him from our (the programmatic) point of view, Schumann notices that there is something behind the notes, something in the backgroimd — namely, * a peculiar attractive twilight, rather dawnlike, which makes the really firm figures appear in a strange light.' And he notices too that while Heller's execution is fine and careful, his forms are new, fantastic, and free. Yes, there is something behind the tones. But what is it? Without further information than is supplied in the foregoing chapter on Schumann, we must be aware that the variety of programmes is very great, that there are programmes of all degrees of consciousness, and of all degrees of spirituality and materiality, programmes adopted before and after the act of composition. Of material tone- painting there is hardly anything in Heller's mtisic, but its speaking nature must convince us that there is meaning in it. Moreover, I had from the composer's o^ra mouth the information that in his compositions he was incited and influenced by his reading and experiences. In this connection it is worth repeating another remark he made to me. He said : I have spent more time in reading than in playing and composing. Heller has been called the La Fontaine of music. It is an excellent parallel as far as it goes, but it is decidedly partial. We may compare Heller with La Fontaine the author of the Fables, but not with La Fontaine the author of the 220 Three Pianist Composers. [Fifth Contes. We may compare Heller with the easy-going, careless La Fontaine, who was content to doucement laisser couler sa vie, but not with La Fontaine the sybarite and parasite. Heller was a dreamer, not a man of action ; a recluse, not a man of society. Lidependence was his magnum honvm, and literature, art, and nature the darling resources of his life. None of Heller's compositions have what can rightly be called a programme expressed in words. The large majority of them have not even titles, and the titles we meet with are at best of a general nature, some of them indeed being merely non-connotative names. Several of his titles show his affinity to Schumann: Arabesques, Novellette, Scenes d'enfant, Album, a la jeunesse, &c., &c. His love of "nature reveals itself in titles like these : Scenes Pastorales, Eclogves, Bergeries, Dans les Bois. The most famous titles are Promenades d'un Solitaire of the three series of pieces Op. 78, 80, and 89 ; Reveries du Promeneur, Op. 101 ; Nuits blanches, of eighteen pieces, Op. 82 ; and lastly, Dans les Bois, of the three series Op. 86, 128, and 136. The first two are derived from Les Reveries dm Promeneur solitaire of J. J. Eousseau, who calls the several chapters of this supplement of his Confessions first, second, &e., Promenade. Of these several series of pictures only the second and third of the Dans le Bois have individual titles — those of the second book hint at Schumann's Forest Scenes {Entrance, Forest-whispers, Hunter's Delight, Solitary Flower, Forest-Legend, Chased Squirrel, and Wandering homeward), and those of the third point to Weber's Freischiitz (Max, Agathe, Caspar's Strophe, Aennchen and Agathe, and Wild Flowers). Of peculiar interest is Op. 126, three overtures for pianoforte, Period.] Heller. 221 respectively to a drama, a pastoral, and a comic opera. The most detailed programme occurs in connection with the Etude, Op. 29, originally written for the MHhode des Methodes* It runs thus : ' La meute est dichairde — les fanfares eclatent — Messire le roi Philippe sur son ardent coursier s'efforce a dissiperle chagrin que lui cause le tripos de sa mie, Agnes de Meranie . . .' Quite the reverse as to definiteness and explicitness is th'e title of Op. 140, Voyage autour de ma chambre, conveyed by the composer from Xavier de Maistre's -well-known charming book. Heller is especially famous for his Etudes and Preludes, which could with equal propriety be called Po&sies. In conclusion : Is Heller a composer of Programme Music ? Gentle reader, the reply depends entirely on your definition of the term. The account of the fifth period of the history of Programme Music has now to be interrupted ; but it is not yet concluded. As has already been explained, the fifth period continues its course side by side with the sixth, to which for a while we have to give our attention. * By MoBcheles and F6tis, published in 1840. [Sixth BOOK IV. OTHEE FULFILMENTS. CHAPTEE I. SIXTH PERIOD (from ABOUT THE FOUKTH DECADE OF THE 19th obntuet) : depaetuke feom the classical foems and wideb scope of subjects. BEELIOZ. The inspiring geniuses of the last period, which opens ahout the fourth decade of the 19th century, were BEELIOZ (1803-1869), LISZT (1811-1886), and EICHAED WAGNEE (1813-1883). Eadieally unlike each other in their natures, diverse in their aims and in their action on the development of the art, they were nevertheless at one in their influence on programme music, which through them became the predominant genre of instrumental composition, indeed so predominant that even most of what was subsequently presented as absolute music was in reality but concealed programme music. This they accomplished by the! extension of the expressive power of the art — by the increase of the harmonic, rhythmical, and colouristic means, by the freer treatment of form, and by the widening of the scope of subjects. Nothing discloses so strikingly the dissimilarity of nature and diversity of aim of these musical protagonists of the 19th century as their opinions of each other. Wagner thought meanly of Berlioz, Berlioz of Wagner, and both of Liszt, who alone Period.] On Progravime Music. 223 could go his own way and yet appreciate the ways of his compeers.* As the personalities of these three men are so important, influential, and extremely interesting, a fall and careful consideration is called for. Let us begin with BEELIOZ, who is not only the first horn of them, but also the one who first made himself known as a composer, and as a revolutionary composer too. The preceding chapters must have convinced the reader that programme music does not begin with Berlioz, that composers before him cultivated it, and not only occasionally and lightly, but even extensively and seriously. This simplifies our inquiry, but does not solve the problem with which we have to deal. The question of the position of the French master with regard to programme music is surrounded by prejudices of all sorts; and I am quite sure that the remark which I made as to the reader's conviction will be met by the interjection: 'But was not Berlioz the first who used explicit programmes?' The reply to this is, that he was neither the inventor, nor, with one exception, a user of explicit programmes. Nay, ,even in the excep- tional case, the Symphonie fantastique, he attaches no importance to the programme, and has no objection to its being disregarded. Other prejudices afloat about Berlioz are that his music is formless, or at least has a form wholly different in kind from the classical ; and that he was the originator and proclaimer of a new system of com- position opposed to the classical. A careful examination of these points leads to an extremely curious result. Let us first inquire into Berlioz's opinions as to tone- painting and the expressive powers of music. They are likely to prove positively startling to those imbued with * A^at is here said applies to them only as composers. 224 Berlioz. [Sixth the popular notions about the master. In his essay De I'imitation musicale, which appeared in the Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris of January 1 and 8, 1837, he handles the subject with a severity that could not be surpassed by an opponent of programme music. The articles in question are not remarkable for literary or philosophical excellence, but Cannot fail to interest us as a confession of the master's faith. His main authority is Giuseppe Carpani, the biographer of Haydn, who, however, is no authority at all on aesthetics. Lacepede also is alluded to. With Carpani, Berlioz distinguishes physical (material) and sentimental (emotional) imitation. The latter he regards as by far the more important imitation, in fact as the only really important imitation ; and in it music is superior to painting and poetry. As to material imitation, Berlioz held that in its employment there were four conditions to be observed. (1) It may be a means, but hardly ever an end — in other words, it may be a complement, but not the musical idea itself ; (2) it should not be employed except on subjects worthy of the hearer's attention, at least in serious compositions ; (3) it is admissible as a suggestion sufficiently faithful to be understood, but not as a literal transcript, not as substitution of nature for art; and (4) it must not arrogate to itself the place of emotional imitation, nor display its descriptive futilities when passion alone ought to speak. Berlioz is troubled by the question of how the soundless is to be expressed by tones. The proposed solution that soundless things — for instance, the dense- ness of a wood, the freshness of a prairie, &c. — may be expressed by expressing the emotional impressions they make, does not quite satisfy him. The freshness and obscurity of a wood makes, he remarks, different Pekiod.J On the Expressional Powers of Music. 226 impressions on the lover remembering happy or bitter hours spent in it, on the hunter intent on the pleasures of the chase, on the timid young girl approaching it, on the brigand lying in ambush or dragging himself away wounded. Berlioz is getting mixed in his reasoning. But we must not tarry to discuss the problem. What concerns us now is Berlioz's opinions. In the very much more valuable essay in which Berlioz treats of the Alcestis of several poets and com- posers (see his A travers Chant), he controverts several of Gluck's positions. Berlioz maintains that expression is not the sole object of dramatic music, that it would be. both maladroit and pedantic to disdain the purely sensuous pleasure which we find in certain effects of melody, harmony, rhythm, or instrumentation, independently of their connection with the painting of the sentiments and passions of the drama. The claims here made for the purely sensuous hold good of course with programme music as well as with the drama. No doubt, the reader remembers Gluck's remark about opera overtures — that they ought to prepare the spectator for the action about to be represented, and to form, so to speak, its argument. In representing Gluck to have said ' I'ouverture doit indiquer le sujet,' Berlioz hardly states the case quite fairly. However, be this as it may, Berlioz argues thus : ' Musical expression cannot go so far as that. It certainly can express (reproduire) joy, sorrow, gravity, playfulness; it can mark a striking difference between a queen's grief and a village girl's vexation, between calm, serious meditation and the ardent reveries that precede an outburst of passion. Again, borrowing from different nations the musical style that is proper to them, it can make a distinction 226 Berlioz. [Sixth between the serenade of a brigand of the Abruzzi and that' of a Tyrolese or Scotch hunter, between the evening march of pilgrims impregnated with mysticism and that of a troop of cattle dealers returning from the fair ; it can contrast extreme brutality, triviality, and the grotesque, with angelic purity, nobility and candour. But if it tries to overstep the bounds of this immense circle, music must necessarily have recourse to words — sung, recited, or read — to fill up the gaps left by its expressional means in a work that addresses itself at the same time to the intellect and to the imagination. Thus the overture to Alceste will announce scenes of desolation and of tender- ness, but it cannot inform us either of the object of the tenderness or of the cause of the desolation, it will never tell the spectator that the husband of Alcestis is a King of Thessaly condemned by the gods to die unless some one gives his life to him ; yet this is the subject of the piece. Berlioz anticipated that many readers would be astonished at finding the author of the article imbued with such principles, and explains that he had to thank for this astonishijient certain people who believed or pretended to believe that in his opinions on the expressive powers of music he exceeded the truth as much as they came short of it, and consequently had generously bestowed on him their own full share of ridicule. No one who has studied Berlioz's instrumental com- positions can have the least doubt that as regards form the master followed in the main the lines of the classics, that where he deviated from these lines he still adhered to the principles that guided those who laid them down, and that, far from ever being formless, he never failed in securing clear structure, logical development, and internal Period.] Form of his Music. 227 connection, -which is sure to be present where external connection is absent. Some of Berlioz's Overtures are closely modelled on the classical form, and only in one of them are we unable to distinguish the orthodox constituents — the first and second subject in the usual key-relation, the working-out section, the recapitulation, and the coda. Strange to say, the one exception, Le Camaval Remain, is the most popular and most highly and universally appreciated of the overtures. If the deviations — such as a short working-out section, a greatly extended coda, the introductien of episodes, and the placing of the second subject before the first in the recapitulation (Benvenuto Cellini) — stood in need of justification, it would be easy to justify them by the quotation of classical examples. As authority for the precedence of the second subject even the pre-eminent classic Mozart may be cited. The first division of the Symphonie fantastique and in a less degree that of Harold en Italic have more or less pronouncedly some of the principal structural features of the traditional form. When a contributor to the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik accused Berlioz of formlessness, Schumann, the editor, added to the article a footnote to this effect : ' I have not been able to discover so much formlessness in Berlioz's music; on the contrary, too often form without content.' And this was the opinion of the Schumann of 1844, that is, the mature Schumann, who had already composed the B flat major symphony, the string quartets, the pianoforte quintet and quartet, and Paradise and the Peri. Views similar to Schumann's have been expressed by other notable musicians— J. C. Lobe, W. Ambros, F. Weingartner, and F. Draseke. It is also noteworthy 228 Berlioz. [Sixth that the conservative critic Hanslick, famous as one of the most uncompromising opponents of Liszt and Wagner, was an admirer of Berlioz. Lobe, who, although a perfervid supporter of the progressists of his time, was a follower of the classics as a (composer and teacher of composition, went so far as to describe Berlioz's form as grand, bold, swinging, varied, spiritually always appropriate, and technically as regular and harmonious (einheitlich) as Beethoven's, and to say that he is clearer in the structure of periods than many a modern composer. But what made people think and speak of formlessness if there was none? Berlioz's compositions had much about their structure and texture that was novel, and not a little that was uncouth : it was these things that misled the cursory hearers, including nearly all his critics. Perhaps the chief stumbling block in the way of just appreciation was the greater rhythmical freedom in the construction of phrases and periods, in which symmetricalness was no longer supreme, and after-phrase and after-period did not invariably correspond in rhythm and number of bars to the fore-phrase and fore-period. Be it noted that in the foregoing defence of Berlioz nothing has been said of beauty of form. Indeed, in this respect the French romanticist may have often fallen short of his classical predecessors. Schumann, who, in his criticism of the Symphonie fantastique {Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, 1835),* — the only thorough technical and aesthetical examination of any of the master's works ever attempted — defends Berlioz against so many accusations hurled against him, pointing out the good qualities of his form, the pithiness of his harmony, and his sobriety * I say this with a full knowledge and appreciation of Liszt's in many respects excellent essay on the Harold Symphony. Pbbiod.] Was he the Originator of a New System ? 229 in the employment of modulation, is not blind to the frequent sharp projecting corners in the form, and the awkwardness, crabbedness, vulgarity, distortedness, ugliness, and painfulness in his harmonies. We now come to the third prejudice, that of regarding Berlioz as the originator and proclaimer of a new system. The master himself, however, nowhere pretends to have discovered new forms ; and brilliant and voluminous writer though he was, he never published a manifesto. If you scan his writings in search of his system, theory, method, or doctrine, you will be disappointed. Berlioz claims for himself nothing, prides himself on nothing, but the grandeur, intensity, picturesqueness, and novelty of his ideas, and the forcible way in which he expresses them. This aspect of the case deserves to be looked at a little more closely. In studying it we find that the master had an absolute aversion to entering into a discussion of his views on and position in the art. In 1884, the Paris Menestrel published a letter of Berlioz's, dated Leipzig, November, 1853,* which had then changed hands at a public sale of autographs. As the content showed, it was a reply to one from the editor of the Feuilles volantes, who wished Berlioz to contribute to this journal a summary of his opinions on the musical art, on its present state, and on its future. A little reflection and research evinced that the editor in question was J. C. Lobe, and the journal, Fliegende Blatter f Or Musik (1856-1857). In the Flying Leaves, vol. i., p. 296 (1855), we find the letter in the original French and in a German translation, superscribed Mein Glaubensbekenntniss (My Confession of Faith). It is amusing to see the efforts which Berlioz makes to write * That was the date given in the paper. Q 230 Berlioz. [Sixth something -without saying anything. A few extracts giving the gist of the letter will suffice for our purpose. ' . . . . What you call upon me to publish is simply an authentic profession of faith Is not my profession of faith in all I have had the misfor- tune to write, in what I have done and in what I have not done Music is the most poetic, the most powerful, the most living of all the arts. It ought to be also the most free ; still, it is not so as yet. Hence our griefs as artists, our obscure devotions, our lassitudes, our despairs, our aspirations unto death. . . . . Modern music, music (I do not speak of the courtesan of this name that one meets with everywhere), in some respects, is the antique Andromeda, divinely beautiful and nude, whose glances of flame are decom- posed in multi-coloured rays in passing through the prism of her tears. Enchained on a rock on the shore of the vast sea, whose waves come beating and covering her beautiful feet with slime, she awaits the victorious Perseus, who is to break her chain and dash to pieces the Chimera called Eoutine, whose jaws menace her while shooting forth clouds of poisonous vapour.' More informing are certain passages of a letter printed in the Postscriptum of the Memoires de Hector Berlioz, and originally addressed to a gentleman who intended to write the composer's biography. ' I notice I have not yet said anything technical about my manner of writing, and perhaps you wish some details on that subject. Generally my style is bold, but it has not the least tendency to destroy anything whatever of the constitutive elements of the art. On the contrary, I endeavour to increase the number of these elements. I never dreamt, as people in France foolishly pretended, of composing Period.] The Dominant Qualities ofhis Music. 231 music ■without melody. This school exists now in Germany, and I abhor it The dominant qualities of my music are passionate expression, inward ardour, rhythmical animation, unexpectedness (I'imprevu). When I say passionate expression, I mean expression intent on reproducing the intimate sense of the subject, even where the subject is the contrary of passion, and where soft, tender sentiments and the utmost calm have to be expressed It may be well to point out to you an order of ideas into which no modern composer except myself has penetrated, and of which the ancients did not foresee the extent. I mean those enormous compositions which certain critics designated by the name of architectural or monumental music. These are : my Symphonie funebre et triomphdle, for two orchestras and chorus ; the Te Devm, of which the finale (" Judex crederis ") is without doubt my greatest production ; the cantata for two choruses, L'Imperiale, executed at the concerts of the Palais de rindustrie in 1855 ; and especially the Requiem.' Berlioz remarks that those works in which he has made use of extraordinary means are exceptional ; but the exceptions are many and of vast extent if we take into consideration the number and length of his compositions. However, let us allow Berlioz to state his case without interruption. ' In my Requiem, for example, there are four orchestras of brass instruments^ separated one from the other, and dialoguing at a distance, placed around the grand orchestra and the mass of the voices. In the Te Deum it is the organ which from one end of the church converses with the orchestra of two choirs placed at the other end, and with a third very numerous choir in unison, representing in the ensemble the congregation 232 Berlioz. [Sixth that takes part from time to time in the vast sacred concert. But it is especially the form of these pieces, the largeness of the style, and the formidable slowness of certain progressions, whose final aim is not divined, that give to these works their strangely gigantic physiognomy, their colossal aspect. The enormous size of this form is another reason why people either under- stand nothing at all, or are overwhelmed by a terrible emotion.' ' As to my compositions conceived in the ordinary proportions, and for which I had recourse to no excep- tional means, it is precisely their internal ardour, their expression, and their rhythmical originality which have done them the most harm, because of the execution which they demand. In order to render them well, the executants, and especially the conductor, must feel like me. An extreme precision, united with an irresistible verve, a regulated fire, a dreamy sensibility, a distempered melancholy, so to speak, are required, without which traits de mes figures are altered or completely effaced.' An earlier passage in the same letter, too, is note- worthy. 'I have against me the professors of the Conservatoire, instigated by Cherubini and Fetis, whose self-love has been violently hurt and whose faith has been shocked by my heterodoxy in the matter of har- monic and rhythmic theories. I am an infidel in music, or, rather, I am of the religion of Beethoven, Weber, Gluck, and Spontini, who believe, profess, and prove by their works, that everything is good or everything is bad ; the effect produced by certain combinations deciding alone whether they are to be condemned or absolved.' On one occasion, however, Berlioz comes very near revealing what he regarded as being his position in Pebiod.] His Conservatism. 233 music, indeed very near what might be called a manifesto ; and this occasion was his criticism of the concerts given by Wagner in Paris in 1860 (see his article on ' Concerts de Eichard Wagner : La musique de I'avenir,' in his book A travers Chants). Here the profound conservatism of the reputed revolutionist Berlioz manifests itself unmistakably. Whilst proclaiming Beethoven the greatest composer of. modern times, he deplores the unfortunate tendencies of Wagner's system. He allows Wagner the possession of the rare intensity of feeling, the inward ardour, the will power, and the faith that move and carry away; but holds that these qualities would have greater eclat if they were joined to more invention, less far-fetchedness, and a juster appreciation of certain constitutive elements of the art. He reproaches Wagner and his School with not taking account of sensation, with seeing only the poetic or dramatic idea to be expressed, without troubling themselves as to whether the expression of this idea obliges the composer to overstep the musical conditions. But Berlioz had a personal complaint to make. Opinions had been attributed to him in Germany which were not his, and he had been the object of praises which he thought he could not but regard as insults. He protests against his inclusion in the School of the Music of the Future. He declares that he agrees with that School if its code says that the music of to-day is emancipated, free ; that many old rules, formulated by careless observers and followers of routine, are no longer binding ; that various forms are too hackneyed to be still admissible ; that everything is good or bad according to the use that is made of it, and the reason that leads to its use ; that in the union of tones and words the music should be in keeping with the 234 Berlioz. [Sixth feeling expressed and the personage expressing it ; that the idea is higher than the sound, and the sentiment and passion higher than the idea. On the other hand, he does not agree with the School if its code says that you must do the contrary of what the rules teach ; that people are tired of melody, of melodic design, of arias, duets, kios, and pieces with a regularly developed theme, of consonant harmonies, simple dissonances, prepared and resolved, of natural modulation artistically managed; that one has only to take into account the idea and not to pay the slightest attention to the sensation ; that the ear should be despised and brutalized in order to subdue it, the object of music being by.no means to be agreeable ; that no respect should be paid to the art of singing, nor thought given to its nature and exigencies ,- that in opera the composer must confine himself to noting the declamation, even should he have to employ the most unsingable, absurd, and ugly intervals ; that, in fact, the witches in Macbeth are right : ' Fair is foul, and foul is fair.' The declaration of which I have given an abbreviated and condensed report cannot but be startling to those under the sway of the traditional popular opinion, which sees in Berlioz the subverter of all he found established and respected in his art. Who, indeed, could help being in the highest degree astonished at his denunciation of the very things of which he had himself been accused ? After reading 13ie excerpts just quoted we see Berlioz standing before us a thorough conservative, — a follower of Beethoven, Weber, Gluck, and Spontini ; an opponent of the progressive party, of Wagner and Liszt and their following; the advocate of euphony and simplicity of melody, of self-contained, regularly developed forms. Peeiod.J His Musical Training. 235 the enemy of all that is awkward, unnatural, and ugly, the respecter of rules, except those that are the outcome of shortsightedness. But do Berlioz's declarations make his position clear ? Not at all. They rather make confusion worse confounded. For his dicta contradict his acta ; and his acta contradict each other. In short, Berlioz was not only paradoxical, but, as Saint-Saens says, un paradox fait homme. Whatever were his beliefs and principles, his works certainly differed greatly from those of the classics, as indeed from those of any other composer. Undoubtedly a man of genius, he certainly was not a classic. The causes of his defects were four in number, — his character as a man, the nature of his musical disposition, his training and opportunities, and the tendencies of the French romanticism of his time. To take up first the third of the causes. Berlioz had no musical opportunities until at the age of eighteen, towards the end of 1821, he left his small native town of La Cote-Saint-Andre and went to Paris for the study of medicine. His musical training as a composer, or indeed as a musician, began later still; and when it began, it was, on the one hand, unmethodical, as he disliked the school-work of harmony, and especially that of counterpoint and fugue ; and, on the other hand, was influenced by his favourite master, Lesueur, a disparager of fugues, whose bent and predilection, as we have already seen, was for the expressive, imitative, and picturesque in music. By the way. Octave Fouque, in his Les Revolutionnaires de la Musique, amusingly characterizes the relationship between master and disciple by two epigrams : ' Berlioz is nothing else but a successful Lesueur, and Lesueur an ineffectual Berlioz 236 Berlioz. [Sixth (Berlioz manque).' . . 'If Berlioz is God, Lesueur was assuredly his prophet.' Berlioz's models among the great composers were Beethoven, Weber, Gluck, and Spontini. They were, however, models which he but very partially imitated. He made the acquaintance of some of their works soon after he came to Paris, was profoundly impressed by them, and conceived for their authors a passionate admiration that passed into worship. These masters were his gods. For Palestrina, Bach, and Handel he had no understanding ; of Haydn and Mozart he speaks rarely ; and none of his contemporaries gained his sympathies, although he regarded the craftsmanship of Mendelssohn with respect. The consequence of his not going through a regular course of studies and of not mastering the traditional style before gradually evolving a style of his own, was that his music had almost always something angular in its structure and texture. One day Gounod exclaimed : ' Quel homme elegant que Berlioz ! ' And Saint-Saens, to whom the remark was made, calls it profound. It certainly is not obvious. Saint-Saens explains it by saying : ' The elegance of Berlioz does not appear at first sight in his clumsy and awkward style of writing ; it is hidden in the woof, one might say in the flesh itself, of his work ; it exists, in a latent state, in his prodigious nature, which could not injure any other by comparison, as no other could be compared to it.' If this explanation does not justify Gounod's remark, it at least supports mine. As to the second cause, Berlioz's musical disposition was reflective rather than spontaneous, declamatory (even in its melodiousness) and descriptive rather than lyrical, and rhythmical and especially colouristic rather than harmonic. Genius though he was^ the talent given Period.] Musical Disposition — Character as a Man. 237 him differs from that given to Mendelssohn and in a still higher degree to Mozart. These two composers were specifically musical, — ^musio flowed from them as a brook from its source ; it was their mother tongue, which they spoke without the least effort. With Berlioz the case was different. It needed a strong, external stimulus to make him conceive and bring forth, to make him evolve musical thoughts and tones for their expression. Certain words spoken by Wagner would seem to me even more appropriate in the mouth of the French than in the mouth of the German composer : * Unless the subject absorbs me, I cannot produce twenty bars worth listening to.' The principal cause, however, was the character of the man, which not only was the prompter and moulder of his artistic productions, but also influenced his training and the nature of his musical disposition. ' What an unhappy organization I have ! ' Berlioz exclaims, ' I am a real barometer, now high, now low, subject to the variations of the brilliant or sombre atmosphere of my devouring thoughts.' And again: ' One day well, calm, poetizing, and dreaming ; another day suffering from my nerves, bored, feeling like a mangy dog, peevish, as mischievous as a thousand devils, vomiting life, and ready to put an end to it for nothing, if I had not always a delirious happiness in the nearest prospect — a bizarre destiny to accomplish, true friends, music, and lastly curiosity. My life is a romance that interests me much ' (June 12, 1833). Indeed, his was not a normal healthy nature, but an eccentric morbid one. He had fierce and uncontrollable passions, and an unbalanced, unbridled mind, was mad rather than sane. No epithet characterizes him better 238 Berlios. „ [Sixth than the word ' volcanic' His words and acts as a man were volcanic, and so were also his achievements as an artist ; in fact, the history of his life consists of a series of eruptions. Innumerable passages of his letters prove this strikingly and conclusively, but even a few extracts enable us to form an idea of the character of the man. ' Shakespeare falling upon me unexpectedly struck me like a thunderbolt ; his lightning, in opening the heaven of art with a sublime crash, illuminated to me the most distant profundities. I recognized true grandeur, true beauty, true dramatic truth. I saw, comprehended, felt, that I was alive, and must rise and march.' ' My heart is the centre of a horrible conflagration ; it is a virgin forest which lightning has set on fire ; from time to time the fire seems lulled, then a gust of wind, . . . another outburst, . . . the cry of the trees breaking down in the flame reveal the terrible power of the devastating scourge.' He writes of the ' infinitude ' of his love, of his ' infernal passion ' for Miss Henrietta Smithson, of whom more will be said presently (February 6, 1830). ' She reproached me with not loving her. Thereupon, tired of all this, I answered her by poisoning myself before her eyes. Terrible cries of Henrietta. Sublime despair ! Atrocious laughter on my part. Desire to revive on seeing her terrible protestations of love. Emetic ! . . . ' (August 80, 1833). Quite in accordance with the man, we find the artist Berlioz frantically intense, bent on the picturesque, grandiose, colossal, terrible, in short sensational. ' Terrible ' and ' frightful ' are favourite words of his in describing the effect of his works. Of a descriptive symphony of Faust fermenting in his head he says: Period.] The Man — French Romanticism. 239 ' I want it to terrify the musical world ' ; of the overture to Les Francs-Juges he asserts : ' Nothing is so terribly frightful. ... the fire of hell dictated it ' ; of the ' Tuba mirum ' and other parts of the Requiem he mentions the ' terrible cataclysms,' the foudroyant effect, and the ' horrible grandeur.' One characteristic of Berlioz has yet to be pointed out, for it plays as notable a part in his art as in his life, — namely, his love of attitudinizing and striving after effect. I still think that what I once wrote in regard to this matter is not in any way exaggerated. Berlioz does not for a moment forget that he is in the presence of an audience, though the audience may be his most intimate friend. His supreme endeavour is always to make himself interesting, and to set the world agape. To effect this he unhesitatingly sacrifices truth, friend- ship, the sanctities of love, and all that is noble and beautiful. There remains still the fourth cause, the tendencies of the French romanticism of his time. This was not one of the most powerful factors in the moulding of Berlioz the artist, but it was a notable one. It certainly reinforced certain natural tendencies of the man. He belongs, however, not to the early generation of French romanticism, that of Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael, but to the later generation, that which arose in the third decade of the 18th century and of which Victor Hugo was the most characteristic, powerful, and glorious representative. Indeed, Berlioz used to be called, at least in his younger days, the Victor Hugo of music, and to become the Victor Hugo of music was certainly one of the ambitions of his youth. In the prefaces to some of the poet's dramas he must have found much that was entirely 240 Berlioz. [Sixth to his mind. For instance, the passage in that to Cromwell (1827), where Victor Hugo asks for liberty in matters of thought as in other matters. ' Let us bring down the hammer,' he writes, ' on theories, poetics, and systems. Let us tear down the old lath and plaster that masks the faQade of art.' And how the author of the last division of the Symphonie fantastique (the Dream of a Witches' Sabbath) and the author to be of the last division of Harold en Italie (the Orgy of the Brigands), and certain portions of the Damnation de Faust, must have rejoiced over Victor Hugo's rehabilitation of the ugly — of physical deformity in Le Boi s' amuse (1832), and of moral deformity in Lucrezia Borgia (1833). A love of the picturesque, the fantastic, and the intense, in the most exaggerated degrees and forms, Berlioz had in common with the contemporary French literary and artistic romanticists. And it was these qualities alone that attracted him and them to the plays of Shakespeare, to the Faust of Goethe, and to the works of some minor deities of his.* * The most important documents for the study of Berlioz's character are his WIemoires and his letters, especially the Lettres intimes, the Correspondance mgdite, and Lettres d la Frincesse Carolyne Sayn- Wittgenstein. Edmond Hippeau's Berlioz intime (new edition, 1889) tries to sift Berlioz's contradictory data. Adolphe JuUien has furnished a fair minded biography. The latest writers are hero-worshippers: Julien Tiersot in his Hector Berlioz et la Sociite de son Temps (1904) and Adolphe Boschot in his La Jeunnesse d'un Bomantique (1906). Tiersot looks upon the Memoires as perfectly faithful documents, holds that the predominant quality of Berlioz as a man and as an artist was sincerity, and sees in the many glaring contradictions of the Memoires and letters only apparent contradictions. It may be true that Berlioz never made an intentional misrepresentation ; but, as Tiersot states himself, Berlioz was often the victim of his imagination, which was the mistress of his acts and got the better of his reason — ^his passionate, fiery temperament exaggerates everything— his enthusiasms, ironies, loves, and hatreds vibrate in his writings. Period.] His Instrumental Works. 241 Having made ourselves acquainted with the character of the man and artist, we are at last in a position to examine his works profitably. The Requiem, L'Enfance du Christ, Le Cinq Mai, the operas, and other vocal compositions do not concern us here, with two exceptions, however — Romeo et Juliette, in which the symphonic element predominates, and La Damnation de Faust, in which it is of considerable importance. Although dis- regarding so much, I do not undervalue the powerfully expressive and descriptive character of the instrumental accompaniments of the vocal works. There remain then for consideration only eight overtures, the Symphonic fantastique, with its sequel the monodrama Lelio, the symphony Harold en Italie, the dramatic symphony Romeo et Juliette, and the dramatic legend La Damnation de Faust. Another work that may perhaps be added is the Symphonie funebre et triomphale, a ceremonial rather than a programmatic composition. And we must at least mention No. 3 of Les Tristes (Tristia), La Marche funebre pour la derniere scene d' Hamlet (Paris, September 22, 1848), a little known composition, which Tiersot describes as full of sobs, panting, and heart-rending. Of the eight overtures, four are written to operas, and the others derive their titles respectively from two novels by Scott, a verse-romance by Byron, and a tragedy by Shakespeare. These compositions have no other pro- gramme than that indicated by their titles ; consequently the programme, if we may speak of one, can neither be called explicit nor definite. On turning from the titles to the contents, we discover that Berlioz nowhere attempts to tell the story, nor, as a rule, lays himself out to depict scenes and to enter into particulars, but usually confines himself to the rendering of general 242 Berlioz. [Sixth impressions and to the painting of characters. In fact, the overtures of Beethoven and Mendelssohn are just as much programme music as those of Berlioz ; nay, we may even say that the former composers (for instance, in Egmont and the great Leonore, in the Midsvmmer Night's Dream, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and Hebrides) went considerably farther than the French master. I said that the overtures had no other programmes than those indicated by the titles. In one case, however, this is not quite correct, for the Ouverture de Waverley, Op. 2, composed in 1827-1828 and first performed in 1828, has a motto as well as a title ; but, as you will see, it is of a very general nature : — ' [While] dreams of love and lady's charms Give place to honour and to arms.' These are the concluding lines of the hero's poem ' Mirkwood Mere,' in the fifth chapter of Walter Scott's Waverley. The first line indicates the contents of the slow introduction, the second that of the Allegro. The overture reflects the chivalry of Weber. Form, rhythm, and harmony are simple ; the musical ideas for the most part without distinction and even downright commonplace. In the Owcertwre des Francs-Juges, Op. 3, composed in 1827-1828, performed in 1828, we have a more important and characteristic work. It is unquestionably powerful, but also youthful and crude. Schumann appropriately described it as ' uncouthly Polyphemish.* Although this overture has much more of Berlioz about it than Waverley, the composer still keeps in touch with his predecessors, no less in melody and rhythm than in form. So much so indeed that it is difficult to Peeiod.] Waverley — Francs-Jiiges. 243 understand now why the contemporaries objected to it so strongly and were so shocked by it. Eemarks in Berlioz's letters throw some light on the intentions he had in writing this overture, which was to open an opera (never finished) for which his bosom friend Humbert Ferrand had furnished the libretto. ' Nothing is so terribly frightful as my overture Les Francs-Juges . . . It is a hymn to despair, but the most desperate despair, the most desperate despair imaginable, horrible and tender ... In short, it is frightful ! All that the human heart can contain of rage and tenderness is in the overture.' The composer gives an amusing account of the convulsive impression produced on him and others by a performance. Forgetting that it was his own work, he exclaimed : ' How monstrous, colossal, and horrible it is ! ' Be it understood, these were words of admiration. Lobe interprets the introductory slow movement as follows. (I condense his remarks.) An accused, with his eyes bound, is led before the Francs- Juges (judges of the Vehmic Tribunal, Vehmrichter). He stands there in anguish, hardly daring to breathe (bars 1-6). On the removal of the bandage from his eyes, dismay seizes him at the horrible sight (7-12). He trembles (violins 8-12), considers himself lost (13-19). His self-commiseration in his unmerited position. The terrible accusations of the judges in a mighty chorus. Between them the appeals for mercy by the prisoner, always interrupted by the thundering ' no ' of the chorus, until finally he breaks down, timidly resigned, exhausted, and terrified by his fruitless attempts. We need not dwell at great length on the Ouverture du Corsaire, inspired by Byron's verse-romance The Corsair. It is one of Berlioz's less successful works, and hardly 244 Berlioz. [Sixth ever played. The master must have felt this himself; for although the work was written in 1831, it was not heard until, after being retouched, it was performed in April, 1855. In connection with this overture we must remember what Berlioz relates of how during the hot weather at Eome he enjoyed ensconcing himself in one of the confessionals of St. Peter's with a volume of Byron in his pocket. ' I devoured at leisure this ardent poetry ; I followed through the waves the daring course of the Corsair; I profoundly admired this character, at the same time inexorable and tender, pitiless and generous, a strange compound of two opposed sentiments, hatred of the species and love of a woman.' The next overture, the Ouverture du Roi Lear (composed in 1831, performed and published in 1840), Op. 4, is again a work that arrests our attention, a poetic conception that cannot fail to stir the imagination of the hearer mightily. Hanslick remarks that it ' captivates by a trait of grandeur and pathos which now and then reminds one of Beethoven. Low, touching complaints and shrill cries of despair speak here to the hearer with striking truth.' But he adds also: 'Nevertheless the whole has rather a strange and disturbing effect than an SBsthetically gratifying and edifying one. As in most of his works, especially the earlier ones, there lies in Lear the forced, the hollow, and even the trivial close beside the most powerful impulses. A passionately stirred inner life leads here to violently moving exclamations, but to no connected speech.' Interpretations by intelligent, sober- minded, and competent men, although we may not look upon them as authoritative, are always interesting. The excellent composer Felix Draseke sees in the intro- ductory slow movement, which he regards as the best Pebiod.J Corsair — King Lear — Rob-Boy 245 part, the opening scene between Lear and his daughters, and sees it represented with such distinctness that it would be difficult to give to the music any other inter- pretation. He hears in the double-bass motive the voice of the king, in the higher repetitions of the motive the flattering hypocritical voices of Goneril and Began, in the later peculiar melody of a tender maidenly character, the voice of Cordelia ; and in the following outbreak of the orchestra the anger of Lear. In Berlioz's writings no hint is to be found as to the meaning of the overture, but in one of his letters (Nice, May 6, 1831) there is a passage which tells us of its origin. On his way from Eome, shortly before, he had been detained by a sore throat at Florence : ' On the banks of the Arno, in a delightful wood a mile from the town, I passed whole days in reading Shakespeare. It was there I read for the first time King Lear, and this work of genius made me utter exclamations of admira- tion ; I thought I should burst with enthusiasm, I rolled about in the grass, rolled about convulsively to satisfy my transports ... I have almost finished the overture of King Lear,- only the instrumentation remains to be completed.' The Ouverture de Rob-Roy, composed in 1831, described by Berlioz as long and diffuse, once performed, badly received by the audience, and burnt by him on the same day, need not detain us ;* and the same may be said of the last of the master's overtures, that to his comic opera Beatrice et Benedict (the libretto after Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing), which is one of the less important. But we must tarry for a while over the * The composer's burning of the overture was not a thorough per- formance, for the work has in recent years been both published and played. Elsewhere he calls the music of Rob-Roy bad. B 246 Berlioz. [Sixth two overtures to the semi-serious opera Benvenuto Cellini, the second of which, entitled Le Carnaval Bomain, was first performed in 1844, six years after the first performance of the opera. When the latter was brought to a hearing in London, the Ca/rnaval was played before the second act. Both overtures rank with the best of the master's works. There are excellent judges who value more highly the original Cellini overture than the later, but for all that it is rarely performed, whereas the Carnaval enjoys universal favour. As comparisons of dissimilar things are idle and even mischievous, I shall not imitate those who indulge in them. Speaking, however, absolutely, all will agree that Le Carnaval Eomain is a wonderful composition, full of the most brilliant light and colours, full of the maddest gaiety and bustle. The principal movement, Allegro vivace, is based on the lively Saltarello danced in the Piazza Colonna in the second act of Benvenuto Cellini. A formal feature of these two and of two of the preceding overtures may deserve mention, — namely, two introductory movements, one quick and one slow. The former, which anticipates the first subject of the principal Allegro, is soon interrupted by the latter, a motive of which may reappear in the course of the main movement {Corsaire, and Benvenuto Cellini). Let us not overlook the finer workmanship, the more masterly form, the choicer content, and the unsurpassable instrumentation of the Benvenuto Cellini overture and the Carnaval Bomain. Thus far we have not discovered anything epoch- making in Berlioz as a composer of programme music. The state of matters is different in the works to which we have now to give our attention. Of these, the Pbeiod.] Carnavcd — CeUini — Symphonie fantastique. 247 earliest no doubt produced the greatest sensation, and to it, rightly or wrongly, the composer is indebted for the popular beliefs about him. The work alluded to is the Episode de la Vie d'lm artiste, Symphonie fantastique in five parts. The first conception, composition, and final revision covered a period of more than two years. It was conceived in June, 1829, composed in March-May, 1830, performed on December 5, 1830, retouched and partly re-written, especially the Scene aux Champs, during the next two years, performed again on December 9, 1832, published in a pianoforte arrangement by Liszt in 1834, and in score in 1846, and played under the composer's conductorship at Brussels and several German towns in 1842-1843. The reader will appreciate the importance of these dates : they are of real historical, not merely of biographical interest. To understand the nature and history of the work two love affairs have to be at least briefly alluded to. In September, 1827, a London company opened in Paris a season of English drama, with such success as to enable them to prolong it till the end of July, 1828. Among the members was the Irish actress Miss Harriet Smithson, who in the following years repeatedly returned to the French capital. The impression she made on the public by her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet, Cordelia, &c., may without exaggeration be described as phenomenal. Her impression upon the poets, novelists, painters, and sculptors, more especially those of the romantic school; was even stronger and deeper than upon the general public. Berlioz, too, soon felt the power of her fascination — in short, he came, saw, and was conquered. No man was ever more in love with a woman than was Berlioz with Miss Smithson. He wrote letters to her 248 Berlioz. [Sixth and called at her house, but in vain. Not the least encouragement would she vouchsafe him. And yet he was fluctuating between hope and despair. Then, before leaving in spring, 1829, she left him this crushing message : ' There is nothing more impossible.' In a letter of August 21, 1829, he speaks of ' the new pangs of my despised love ' (English), and of his heart being the focus of a horrible conflagration. And on February 6, 1830, he writes : ' Oh, malheureuse ! if she could but for a few moments conceive all the poetry, all the infinitude, of such a love, she would fly into my arms, even were she to die in my embrace. I was on the point of com- mencing my great symphony (Episode de la Vie d'un artiste), where the development of my infernal passion is to be depicted ; I have it completely in my head, but I cannot write anything . . . attendons.' A con- solation, however, was at hand, for now intervened what he calls 'a violent distraction,' his love — this time a requited love — for Mile. Camille Moke, whom the world learned to know as a pianist virtuosa under her marriage name. This Sylph, this Ariel, now became Berlioz's muse and the goddess of his boundless adoration. Towards the end of 1830, on his gaining the prix de Rome, the two lovers became engaged. But soon after his arrival in Eome Mme. Moke informed him of her daughter's marriage with Camille Pleyel, the musician and pianoforte maker. The rage and madness that followed may be easily imagined. The stirred-up volcano threatened murder and suicide. Time, however, brought balm with it also on this occasion. When on his return to Paris, in the latter part of 1832, Berlioz again saw Miss Smithson, the old passion got hold of him once more ; and after many struggles, caused Period.] Programme of Symphoniefantastique. 249 by the opposition of the parents on both sides, and the vacillation of Harriet, they were married on October 3, 1833. The programme of the Symphonie fantastique, an explicit one, and the only explicit one, underwent several changes, none of them, however, vital. There were at least three different versions. From the first of these versions we see that what is now the second was originally the third division, that is, the Scene aux Champs preceded the Bal. We find the first version in a letter of April 16, 1830, addressed to Humbert Ferrand : ' Here is how I have woven my romance, or rather my history, in which it will not be difficult for you to recognize the hero. 'An artist gifted with a lively imagination, finding himself in that psychical state which Chateaubriand has so admirably described in Rene, sees for the first time a woman who realizes the ideal beauty and loveliness his heart had long desired, and falls desperately in love with her. Strangely enough the image of her he loves never presents itself without the accompaniment of a musical thought in which he finds a character of grace and nobleness similar to that which he attributes to the loved object. This double idee fixe pursues him incessantly : this is the reason of the constant appearance, in all the divisions of the symphony, of the principal melody of the first Allegro. ' After a thousand agitations, he conceives some hope ; he believes himself loved. Being one day alone in the country, he hears from afar two shepherds dialoguing a ranz de vaches : this pastoral plunges him into a delicious reverie. The melody reappears for a moment across the motives of the Adagio. 250 Berlioz. [Sixth ' He is present at a ball, the tumult of the fete cannot divert him ; his idee fixe finds him out, and the cherished melody makes his heart beat during a brilliant waltz. ' In a fit of despair, he poisons himself with opium ; but instead of killing him, the narcotic produces in him a horrible vision. Whilst it lasts he believes himself to have killed her whom he loves, to be condemned to death, and to be present at his own execution. March to the Execution; an immense procession of executioners, soldiers, and people. At the end the melody reappears again, like a last thought of love, interrupted by the fatal stroke. ' Next he sees himself surrounded by a hateful crowd of sorcerers and devils, gathered to celebrate the Witches' Sabbath. They call to each other in the distance. At last arrives the melody, which hitherto had appeared only in its graceful form, but which now has become a vulgar, ignoble tavern air; it is the beloved object who comes to the Witches' Sabbath to be present at the funeral of her victim. She is no better than a courtesan worthy to figure in such orgies. Then commences the ceremony. The bells ring, the infernal crew prostrate themselves, a choir sings the prose of the dead, the plain-chant Dies irae ; two other choirs repeat it, parodying it in a burlesque manner. After that the round of the Witches' Sabbath whirls and whirls, and when it has reached the extreme degree of violence, combines with the Dies irae, and the vision ends.' The two most noteworthy subsequent changes were made at the second performance (after the rekindling of his love for Miss Smithson), when the words ' she is no better than a courtesan worthy to figure in such orgies ' disappeared, and in the programme prefixed to the Pebiod.] Programme of Symphonie fantastiqiie. 251 printed score, where the lover is under the influence of the narcotic from the beginning. I had better give the opening paragraph of the last version in full. * A young musician of a morbid sensibility and an ardent imagination poisons himself with opium. The dose of the narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by strange visions, during which his sensations, sentiments, and recollec- tions are translated in his sick mind into musical thoughts and pictures. The beloved woman, she herself, has become for him a melody, and, as it were, an idee fixe, which he finds and hears everywhere.' With regard to the explicit programme, Berlioz says in the preface that if the Symphonie fantastique is performed by itself, without its sequel Lelio, it may, should it be thought desirable, be omitted, and only the titles of the five pieces indicated. Here are these titles, and after them, in square brackets, the short indications of character given in his letter to Ferrand : — (1.) Reveries, Passions [the wave of the passions {le vague des passions, a phrase borrowed from Chateaubriand) ; reveries without an object, delirious passion with fits of tenderness, jealousy, fury, fear, &c.]. (2.) Un bal [brilliant and animated (entratnante) music] . (3.) Scene aux Champs [thoughts of love and hope disturbed by dark presentiments] . (4.) Marche au Swpplice [savage, pompous music] . (5.) Songe d^wie Nuit du Sabbat (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath). It must be obvious to every attentive reader of this programme that Berlioz did not in the first four divisions 252 Berlioz. [Sixth attempt to express anything that is beyond the capacity of music, or had been considered beyond the capacity of the art by his predecessors. And even the almost universal condemnation of the last division concerns much less the question as to the limits of musical expres- siveness than the question as to the limits of admissible matter and treatment. I think the actual question might, not unfairly, be formulated thus : Is the ugly presented in an ugly form a suitable subject for milsie ? The answer to this is generally in the negative, and ingenuity and grotesque picturesqueness are not con- sidered sufficiently, mitigating circumstances. Whilst the last division is consequently the least satisfactory, the third, the Scene aux Champs, is the most satisfactory of them all, being indeed in every respect so beautiful that it found favour in the eyes of Berlioz's severest and most perverse critic, Wagner, who declared it to be a perfect thing. The Ball, xtoo, is full of grace and charm, although not quite so perfect. In the March the auditor cannot fail to be impressed by the powerful characterization of the scene, attained chiefly by rhythmic and colouristic means. The Allegro of the first division is as notable for its great beauties as for its crudities and awkwardnesses in texture and structure. But judge the Synvphonie famtastique ever so severely, and say the very worst of it, you cannot evade the admission that it is a work of great power and skill. As an example of the worst that can be said, take Wagner's adverse criticism. 'An immense inner wealth, a heroically-vigorous imagination, forces out, as from a crater, a pool of passions ; what we see are colossally- formed smoke clouds, parted only by lightning and streaks of fire, and modelled into fugitive shapes. Pebiod.J Nature of the Music. 253 Everything is prodigious, daring, but infinitely painful.' This and all Wagner's criticisms of Berlioz — which no doubt contain grains of truth — are for the most part enormous exaggerations, nay, more than that, they are fantastic ravings which leave the actual thousands of miles behind. The Symphonie fantastique is not Berlioz's best work, but it is one of the most representative, exhibiting in the highest degree both his good and bad qualities. Gounod comes near the truth in saying that this work was a real event in the musical world, the importance of which might be gauged by the fanatical admiration and the violent opposition it aroused. Before leaving the subject I must refer once more to, and point out the importance of the idee fixe, the melody representative of a person, which appears in all the divisions, but in each in a different rhythmical form. A llegro agitato. $ jy-^-Yf'-j s: E =JCI5 =pz: X2: ^^ Berlioz was not the inventor of the Leitmotiv (leading, guiding motive), but was the first who made use of it in 80 prominent a manner and so developed a form. Prom Weber, for instance, we can gather earlier examples. The full developer of the device, however, was Wagner. For the transformation of such motives the happy designation of dramatico-psychological variation has been found. In conclusion I must point out Schumann's technical and ffisthetical analysis of the Symphonie fantastique {Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, 1835), in which he turns away with disgust from the last division, but acknow- ledges the many beauties of the others, especially of the third, the proper proportions of the forms if measured 254 Berlioz. [Sixth on a large scale, and the spiritual connection of the contents. Lelio, ou le Retov/r a la Vie, lyrical melodrama for orchestra (including piano a quatre mains), and invisible chorus and solo voices, words and music by Berlioz, here calls for a few remarks only because the author describes it as the ' end and completion ' (' superfluous addition ' would have been a more correct description) of the Symphoniefantastique, which should precede Lelio when it is performed. Lelio, the hero of that symphony, who tried to poison himself, begins the miscellaneous proceedings by exclaiming : ' God ! am I still alive . . ! ' This being unfortunately the case, there follows the rest of the spoken monologue which serves to string together six pieces of music composed at various times and not with a view to forming a whole, and does so in the most irresponsible, artificial, and inartistic manner imaginable. How a man of Berlioz's intellectual calibre and high artistic aims could concoct such an olla pod/rida, and write and, many years after, print such rigmarole made up of theatrical sentimental posturiugs and declamations, intermixed with diatribes against critics, editors, and the public (the enemies of genius), will always remain an unsolved problem. No wonder that the work has very rarely been performed, and that when it was revived in Paris in 1881, the monologue was not reproduced in its original form. Here are the six musical pieces : (1.) Le Pecheur (the Fisher), ballade by Goethe; (2.) Choeur des Ombres; (3.) Chanson de Brigands; (4.) Chant de Bonheur ; (5.) La Ha/rpe Eolienne — Souvenirs; and (6.) Fantaisie sur la Tempete de Shakespeare. <^ We now come to the most perfect of Berlioz's larger instrumental works, — Harold en Italie, symphony in Period.] Lelio — Harold en Italie. 255 four parts, for orchestra and viola solo, composed in 1834, and performed on November 23 of the same year. There is no other programme than that suggested by the general title and the four sub-titles prefixed to the four divisions: (1.) Harold in the mountains — Scenes of melancholy, ha/ppmess, and joy ; (2.) March of Pilgrims singing the evening prayer ; (3.) Serenade of a mowntaineer of the Abbruzzi to his mistress ; and (4.) Orgy of Brigands. It was Faganini who gave the impulse to the composition of this work. Having an excellent violaii he wished to display its qualities in public, and therefore asked Berlioz to compose a piece in which that could be effectively done. The composer thought first of a piece . descriptive of the last moments of Queen Mary Stuart, but afterwards decided in favour of Harold. 'My symphony with viola solo, entitled Harold,' he wrote on March 31, 1834, ' was finished two weeks ago. Paganini, I believe, will find that the viola has not been treated sufficienta. 286 4. Liszt. kh iH lEEESa ^s^ P^*T75-» JtM^ff [SlXTS ^ f^B ^M A# 4~~r l "i"i I I" ! ! I I I I'll I j-^ B i ^ :fc^S 3^ pp 3 ^I----?" Z£:ii I THIRD DIVISION. Allegro vivaee. 1— r-r^ ^^# ^^^^^^3^^=^^ ^^P^^^^^ ^r^fe ^^^^^^^^pa fi^ Pekiod.] Metamorphosis of Themes 287 In the Faust Symphony, then, the themes are repre- sentative of persons ; more generally, however, the themes of Liszt's Bymphonic works are expressive of moods and feelings unconnected with any particular person. This is the case, for instance, with the two works to the formal aspect of which we will now direct our attention. The short and simple Orpheus is an improvi- sation evolved from a single theme, the different phrases of which are variously moulded and illuminated. One may therefore say that formally the composition had more of the old than of the new modMs operandi. Quite different is the state of matters, quite modern and Lisztian, in Die Ideale. To illustrate this way I shall quote snatches of two of several themes on which the composition is based, and follow up each of them by a number of metamorphoses. Mark that the composer produces by metamorphosis not only music expressive of shades of the same feeling, phases of the same mood, but also music expressive of feelings of an altogether different nature. From the youthful aspiring exuberance of la, Liszt evolves the disillusionment of 1&, the sad questioning of Ic, the activity of Id, the stir of le, and the triumphant pomp of 1/. la. i ^-M-^ Andante mesto. 16. 288 Liszt. [Sixth Ic. M P ^ -i: ■Jin J: dtf » IcZ. ^Mfjro mosso.. EES^^a f* l^l?"i'i I" 1 "^' *i r- -1 P 1 *i jo / 33^fl^: le. i r *i l/ii Stretto. ^4 -•— *- =^= =^iP 1/. ■p^=^- ^-^^^-m-- -^ £3EE =p=^s -g-- :j2z 22- =f /// From the joy in germinating, growing Nature of 2a, Liszt evolves the disillusionment of 26, friendship's sweet comfort of 2c, the joyous animation of 2d, and the victory proclaiming 2«i 2a. ^ % -J U 26. 3-* -^" Andante meeto. ^^^m ^^i^i^i^ Period.] Metamorphosis — Pianoforte Pieces. 289 _= -^ | j: -g- 1: :g: 1, Allegro vivace !m ^^jtiit^ ^ 2e. ^ -P yj- H^eI^ Now'let us leave these general discussions, and turn our attention to the individual works. The numerous programmatic pianoforte pieces are not important enough to be examined in detail and at length. Only a few of them possess that combination of charm of content and perfection of form which constitutes a successful art-work and gains the lasting affection of the hearer. Most of them can only be regarded as experiments and attempts — experiments in devising new effects, attempts at expressing noble sentiments, moods, and conceptions. Not unfrequently we are constrained to admire the earnest endeavour, where the result is unsatisfactory; but hardly less frequently our artistic sense is outraged by extravagant futility or appalling ugliness. Considering the greatness and capabilities of the artist, these lapses into, these indulgences in, and these coquettings with the unbeautiful must always remain a diflScult problem for the critic of the master's 290 Liszt. [Sixth ■works. The ugly, I think, has a greater space given to it in Liszt's than in any other composer's creations. This is not a prejudiced expression of opinion, but one slowly evoked and reluctantly adopted in the course of time. Moreover, there can be no doubt that Liszt and his disciples took delight in deviating from the customary, and in horrifying tjiose vrhom they looked upon as Philistines by \sfhat Hans von Biilow calls Ohrfeigen fur feige Ohren (' cuffs for cowardly ears ' — an untranslatable play on the wor^lis feige, the noun differing in meaning from the adjective). The main object of the following review, however, will not be to gauge the excellence of the compositions, but to inquire into the nature of the programmes. As Liszt was in the habit of again and again rewriting his compositions, so that many of his early works were printed comparatively late in his life, and a considerable number were published in diverse versions, I shall, to save time and space, mention them regardless of chronology. Liszt's Harmonies poetiques et religieuses* derive their title from Lamartine's collection of poems thus named, and have also prefixed to them two paragraphs from the poet's avertissement. Two sentences of this avertissement suffice to characterize no less the musician's pieces than those of his admired poet's. ' There are meditative souls whom solitude and contemplation raises invincibly towards infinite ideas, that is towards religion ; all their thoughts are converted into enthusiasm and prayer, their whole existence is a mute hymn to the Divinity and to hope There are hearts broken by sorrow, trodden down by the world, who take refuge • Published in 1853. Period.] Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, 291 in the world of their thoughts, in the solitude of their soul, in order to weep, to await, or to adore.' The ten numbers of the musical collection are called: (1) Invocation; (2) Ave Maria; (3) Benediction de Dieu dam la Solitude; (4) Pensee des Morts ; (5) Pater noster ; (6) Hymne de V Enfant a son r&veil ; (7) FwneraiUes ; (8) Miserere ; (9) Andante lagrimoso ; and (10) Cantique d'amour. Most of these pieces were directly inspired by Lamartine. The titles of Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 6 come from the Harmonies, and that of No. 10 comes from the poet's Meditations poetiques (Book II., No. 24). No. 9 is based on one of the Harmonies, entitled TJne Larme ou Consolation. Nos. 1, 3, and 9 have some lines of the poet prefixed, and No 6. has the superscription ' composed on the text of Lamartine's Harmonies.' Of the others the Miserere ' after Palestrina, ' and the Pater noster, with the words subscribed, a transcription of a foul'-part vocal composition of his own, hardly concern us here. The Ave Maria explains itself. Two of the remaining pieces, without more extended programmes than their titles, call for a few words of comment. The first edition of the Pensie des Morts was without this title, but had the indication * avec un profond sentiment d'ennui.' By ennui is to be understood what Liszt described as die Trubsal der armen Menschenkinder (the sorrows of the poor children of men), and Bossuet as ' le fond de la vie humaine.' Liszt composed it when he was staying at La Chenaie with the famous cleric Lamennais. The Ftmerailles have reference to the political troubles of 1848-1850, in which perished his friends Felix Lichnowsky, Ludwig Batthyanyi, and Ladislas Teleki. To what has already been said about the Cantique d'amowr may be added that 292 Liszt. [Sixth it is connected with the Princess Wittgenstein, on whose estate it and the Invocation and Benediction were com- posed in 1847-1848. To her Liszt dedicated the whole collection — ' a Jeanne Elisabeth Carolyne.' A larger, more varied, and upon the whole more interesting and valuable collection is that bearing the title Annies de Pelerinage. The three books of this collection were published respectively in 1855, 1868, and 1883 ; but the compositions of the first book, which is devoted to Switzerland, are of 1835-1836, those of the second, which is devoted to Italy, of 1838-1839, and those of the third, which is for the greater part devoted to Italy, of much later times. The nature of these compositions is well characterized by the sub-title of the first book of the earlier published Album d'un Voyageur, which contained five of the Swiss pieces — namely, Impressions et Poesies. The subjects dealt with are 'Chapelle de Guillaume Tell,' ' Au Lac de Wallenstadt,' ' Pastorale,' ' Au bord d'une Source,' ' Orage,' ' Vallee d'Obermann,' ' Eclogue,' ' Le Mai du Pays,' ' Lea Cloches de Geneve.' Of these nine pieces only two are accom- panied by remarks in addition to the titles : the ' Vallee d'Obermann ' is preceded by two short passages from Senancour's Obermann and nine lines from Byron's Childe Harold ; and the ' Eclogue ' is followed by a long passage and a note entitled ' De I'expression romantique et du ranz-des-vaches.' One may confidently point to the serene Lac de Wallenstadt and the sparkling Au bord d'une Sowrce as the most happily inspired and finished compositions. While this first book contains nature impressions, the second book contains art and literature impressions : in (1) II Sposalizio, Liszt expresses the impression received from Eaphael's work in the Milan Period.J Annees de P^lerinage. 29$ Brera ; in (2) II Penseroso, the impression received from Michael Angelo's statue of Lorenzo de' Medici in the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo at Florence ; (3) Canzonetta del Salvatoi' Rosa, is a setting of one of the Italian painter's poems, with the words under the music Then follow the 47th, 104th, and 123rd Sonnets of Petrarch, the words being prefixed to the music : these pieces are transcriptions of vocal settings ; (7) the last number of the book is entitled ' After a reading of Dante, Fantasia quasi Sonata.' Let us not overlook that in the Sposalizio and Penseroso Liszt has no intention whatever to vie with the painter and sculptor ; he wishes to do no more than express in music the impression their works have produced on him, or, to be more exact, the moods engendered by them. These impressions are probably different from yours, I know they are different from mine, but that does not affect the legitimacy of the procedure. The third book, in which the composer's creative power shows less freshness and vigour,* contains, besides a transcription, ' Angelus ! Priere aux anges gardiens,' six original pianoforte pieces ; (2) and (8) both threnodies and bearing the same title Aux Cypres de la Villa d'Este (at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, the property of Cardinal Hohenlohe, Liszt often resided) ; (4) Lesr jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este ; (5) Sunt lacrymce rerum, en mode hongrois ; (6) Marche funebre (in memory of Maximilian I., Emperor of Mexico, who died June 19. 1867) ; and (7) Sursum Corda. Before leaving the Annees de PHerinage, I must yet mention the piece Lyon, which opened the Impressions et Poesies. It bore the motto ' Vivre en travaillant ou mourir en combattant,' * There is in it perhaps more agliness, hollowness, and uzimasicahiess- than in any other of the master's publications. 294 Liszt [Sixth and referred to the insurrection of the workmen of Lyons in 1834, with its five-days' fighting in the streets. Of the twelve Grandes Etudes (Etudes d'exeeution transcendante) nine have significant titles : (3) Paysage ; (4) Mazeppa; (5) Feux follets ; (6) Vision; (7) Eroica; (8) Wilde Jagd; (9) Ricordama ; (11) Harmonies du Soir; (12) Chasse-neige. Without going beyond the titles, we can see that most of these have not the same importance as those of the pieces of the previously considered collections, that, in fact, they were fanciful after-thoughts. Along with the above studies ought to be enumerated the three Etudes de Concert — Waidesrauschen, Gnomenreigen, and Ave Maria. Very notable among Liszt's pianoforte pieces are the two Legendes — ' St. Fran9ois d' Assise, La Prediction aux Oiseaux,' and ' St. Fran9ois de Paule marchant sur les flots.' The former may have been suggested by the six- teenth chapter of the famous I Fioretti di San Francesco, and the latter was no doubt suggested by Steinle's drawing which used to stand on Liszt's writing-table, ' St. Francis of Paula walks on the waves, his mantle spread out under his feet, holding a glowing coal in one of his hands, raising the other, either to conjure the storm or to bless the threatened sailors, looking heaven- ward, where in a glory appears the redeeming word "Charitas"' (from Liszt's testament). I cannot help seeing excellent programme music without revealed programmes in the Consolations, the master's least pretentious and sweetest tone-poems. Was it Sainte- Beuve's volume of poems that suggested the title? Other compositions of interest in our inquiry are the unpublished six Hungarian portraits — Szechenyi, Teleky, Eotvos, Deak, Vorosmarty, and Mosonyi; the several Period.] Etttdes-Legendes-Mehclramas-Syniphonies. 295 Mephiito Waltzes and the Mephisto Polka; Mosenyi's Grabgeleite ; and some of the twelve pieces Der Weihnachtsbavm (the Christmas Tree) ; &c. Between us and the discussion of the orchestral works ihere stand now only Liszt's melodramatic compositions —namely, the pianoforte accompaniments to Burger's Lenore (1857 ?), Lenau's Der traurige Mimch (1860), Jokai's Der todte Dichter (1873), and Tolstoi's Der blinde Sanger (1860). Let us note the dates of at least the first of these compositions (written about 1857, and published in 1860) ; for Liszt was one of the first that followed the lead of Schumann, who had preceded him a few years (he wrote in 1849 and 1852, and published in 1853) in rehabilitating and bringing into vogue again the genre of musically accompanied declamation. And now at last we come to Liszt's orchestral pro- gramme music, the twelve Symphonic Poems, the two Symphonies (Goethe's Famt and Dante's Divina Commedia), two Episodes from Lenau's Faust, and some compositions of less importance comprising a thirteenth Symphonic Poem, in short, the works by which the composer has challenged the world, and about which there has been so much controversy. I have already related that Liszt did not begin to compose these ambitious works till about the end of 1847, or rather did not begin to contemplate composing them till then, and did not actually begin their composition till two years later, at the age of thirty-eight. And I have also already related that it was the Princess Wittgenstein who induced him to abandon the career of a virtuoso and to grapple with the most difficult tasks a creative musician can set himself. Once on the path, he followed it with feverish eagerness. In April or May, 1854, he writes that seven of the twelve 296 Liszt. [Sixth symphonic poems are entirely finished, and mentions the titles of two more. In 1854 follow the Faust Symphony, in 1855 the Dante Symphony ; and in 1859 all the above-enumerated orchestral works, with the exception of the unimportant ones, were black on white. Sixteen symphonic works within ten years ! And these were by no means the only compositions he wi'ote, nor was composition the only work he did. The publication of the works in question took place from 1856 to 1862. I shall begin my review with the symphonic poems in the printed order, although that is not the chronological order, then proceed to the symphonies, and conclude with some of the other works. The figures in parentheses after the titles are the years of composition and publication. Dante's Divina Commedia was the first subject that occupied Liszt, and the treatment originally contemplated by the composer and his inspiring muse was very different from the one ultimately chosen. Bonaventura Genelli's illustrations to Dante's great poem, and the success of Gropius's diorama shown at Berlin, suggested to them a combination of diorama and music. The Princess offered to provide the considerable capital for the outlay required for the realization of the idea. Lina Eamann says that the idea was given up because of the Princess's loss of fortune. May not the good sense of the projectors have had something to do with the abandonment of the scheme ? The first in the printed order of Liszt's twelve Symphonic Poems, Ce qu'on entend sur la Montagne (1849 ; 1857), is based on and named after No. 5 of Victor Hugo's Les Feuilles d'automne. The composer prefixes the whole poem to his score, and does not give any further information as to his intention. On a mountain Period.] Ce qu'on entend sur la Montague. 297 by the sea, the poet hears a vast, immense, confused sound, vaguer than the -wind in the thickly foliaged trees, full of clanging chords, suave murmurs, soft as an evening song, strong as the clash of arms, ineffable, profound music. And in this world-enveloping symphony he soon distinguishes two voices — the voice of Nature and the voice of Humanity : the former, coming from the sea, the voice of the waves, a song of glory, a hymn of happiness ; the latter, coming from the land, full of sadness, the murmur of man — the one magnificent, joyous, peaceful, and triumphant ; the other shrill, grating, maledictory, and complaining. After listening and meditating, the poet asks : Why arc we here, what can be the object of all this, what of the soul, is it better to be or to live ? And why does God, who alone reads in his book, mingle eternally in one fatal hymn the song of nature with the cry of humanity? This is a brief indication of Victor Hugo's vision (if this word is permissible in speaking of things audible) and the questionings arising therefrom. It is obvious that music cannot render the poet's meaning. It can only actualize his imagery. In fact, Liszt's composition is pure symbolism. We may even describe it as a gigantic metaphor. This observation should be read as a qualification of the work, not as a condemnation. Symbolism is a legitimate form of art. What has to be farther noted in connection with this symphonic poem is that Liszt does not follow Victor Hugo to the bitter end. For the poet's pessimistic conclusion the composer substitutes an optimistic one. After the confused sound and the opposition and contention of the two voices, a blissful reconciliation based on religious faith is proposed, but not yet acquiesced in; the contention is 298 Liszt. [Sixth then renewed with even greater stress, and finally faith' is the conqueror. Although the centenary of Goethe's birthday and a performance of his Tasso gave the impulse to the composition of Tasso: Lamento e trionfo (1849; 1866), its chief inspirer was Byron's poem The Lament of Tasso rather than the German poet's drama for which Liszt was asked to write an overture. The title shows that the composer did not stop where the poet stopped. He contrasted with the miseries of the man's life the posthumous glory of the author of the Gerusalemme liberata. ' Tasso loved and suffered in Ferrara, he was revenged in Eome, and he lives still to-day in the folk- songs of Venice. These three moments are inseparable from his imperishable fame. To render them musically, wo called up first his great shade as it still haunts the Venetian lagunes ; we then saw his proud, sad face pass through the festivities of Ferrara, where he gave birth to his masterpieces ; finally we followed him to Bome, the eternal city which in bestowing on him her crown, glorified in him the martyr and poet.' This quotation and the other information are from Liszt's preface, from which we learn also that the principal theme on which ho based his composition is the melody to which he heard the Venetian gondoliers sing the opening stanzas of Tasso's epic. Many years after the composition of the above work, Liszt added to it an epilogue, Le Triomphe fwriebre du, Tasse (1868 ; 1878). The preface consists of an extract from Serassi's biography of Tasso, in which the author relates how, after the poet's death at the monastery of S. Onofrio, on the Janiculum, his patron, Cardinal Cintio (Aldobrandino), prepared a magnificent funeral, and how Period. ] Tasao — Les Prelvdea. 299 the corpse, clad in a rich toga and crowned with laurel, was carried in great pomp, accompanied by the mighty and the learned to St. Peter's Place. But a much more interesting piece of information is furnished by the biographer of Liszt. One day the composer and a friend walked to S. Onofrio to view the sunset, following the route by which the corpse of Tasso returned from St. Peter's to the monastery; and so powerful was the impression Liszt received that on the same evening he had himself driven in a closed carriage over the same way. ' I imagined myself,' he remarked the next day, ' Tasso lying in his coffin, and I noted the feeling he was likely to have had, had he been conscious of the occurrence.' Les Prelvdes (1854 ; 1856) were inspired by one of Lamartine's Meditations poHiques. The composer, who describes his work as d'apres Lamartine, gives the following exposition of the content or rather of the underlying thought. ' What is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song of which Death intones the first solemn note? — Love forms the enchanted aurora of every existence. But where is the destiny in which the first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm whose mortal breath dissipates its beautiful illusions, whose fatal lightning consumes its altar? And where is the cruelly wounded soul that after one of those tempests does not seek to soothe its memories in the sweet calm of country life ? But man does not easily resign himself long to the enjoyment of the beneficent serenity in the bosom of nature which at first charmed him ; and when the trumpet sounds the alarm, he hastens to the post of danger, whatever the war that calls him to the ranks, that he may 300 Liszt. [Sixth find again in the fight full consciousness of himself and entire possession of his powers.' Here the composer once more makes the inessential of the poem, the similes, the essential of the music — the philosophic idea ■was of course beyond the reach of the art. This, however, does not prevent this symphonic poem from being one of the most pleasing, popular, and effective of the master's compositions. In the preface to the fourth symphonic poem, Orpheus (1854; 1856), Liszt tells us that once, while conducting a rehearsal of Gluck's Orpheus, he could not help his imagiaation straying from this touchingly and sublimely simple point of view to that Orpheus who soars so majestically and harmoniously above the most poetic myths of Greece ; and could not help having recalled to his mind an Etruscan vase seen by him in the Louvre, on which the ancient poet-musician is represented draped in a starred robe, his forehead encircled with the mystically royal band, his lips, from which flow divine words and melodies, open, and his beautiful tapering fingers energetically sounding the strings of his lyre. Around this figure the composer imagined he perceived the wild beasts of the forest enraptured, the brutal instinct of man silenced, the rocks softened. ' To-day, as of old and always,' remarks Liszt, ' Orpheus, that is Art, should pour forth his melodious waves and vibrating chords like a soft and irresistible light over the contrary elements that tear each other and bleed in the soul of every individual, as in the bowels of society. Orpheus bewails Eurydice, that emblem of the ideal engulfed by evil and pain, whom he is permitted to snatch from the monsters of Erebus, to lead forth from the Cimmerian darkness, but whom, alas ! he cannot keep on this earth.' Period.] Orpheus — Prometheus. 301 Finally the composer formulates the thought in his 33aind thus : ' To render the serenely civilizing character of the melodies that radiate from every work of art ; their suave energy, their august sway, their noble soul- encompassing sonorousness, . . . their diaphanous and azured ether enveloping the work and the whole imiverse as in an atmosphere, as in a transparent garment of ineffable and mysterious harmony.' Liszt composed the fifth of his Symphonic Poems, Prometheus (1850; 1856), as an overture to Herder's dramatic scenes entitled Der entfesselte Prometheus (Prometheus unbound), which were performed at Weimar iQ 1850 on the occasion of the inauguration of a statue of that literary luminary. The composer remarks in the preface that the musician is concerned only with the sentiments that constitute the foundation of all the forms successively assumed by the myth. 'Audacity, suffering, endurance, and salvation: daring aspiration towards the highest destinies which the human mind can reach ; creative activity, need for expansion . . . expiatory pains giving up our vital organs to an incessant gnawing, without annihilating ourselves ; condemnation to a hard enchainment on the most arid shores of our nature ; cries of anguish and tears of blood but an inextinguishable consciousness of a native grandeur, of a future deliverance ; a tacit faith in a deliverer who will raise the long-tortured captive to the transmundane regions from which he stole the luminous spark . . . and, lastly, the accomplishment of the work of mercy when the great day has come. Unhappi- ness and glory ! Thus narrowed, the fundamental thought of this but tpo true^ fable lent itself only to a stormy, one may even say, fulgurant expression. A 802 Liszt. [Sixth desolation triumphant by the perseverance of a haughty- energy forms the musical character of these data.' The subject of Mazeppa (1850 ; 1856) is the Mazeppa of Victor Hugo's poem from Les Orientales. Liszt prefixes the whole of that poem to the sixth of his Symphonische Dichttmgen, and does so without comment, leaving it to the hearer to find out what the composer chooses from it for interpretation, and what he is content to ignore. The composition begins with a shrill cry (Un cri part), and then the wild horse with Mazeppa bound to it rushes away through valleys, rivers, steppes, forests, and deserts, followed first by other wild horses, then by birds of prey, till after a three-days' mad career it falls dead. With it, still bound to it, lies the groaning Mazeppa, naked, coveted with blood, a living corpse; but the time will come when this poor wretch shall rise to be the ruler of the tribes of the Ukraine. Liszt's Mazeppa is perhaps the most daring piece of tone- painting in existence. It consists almost entirely of the picturing of the outward. Nevertheless, the power and genius displayed in it is such that the hearer cannot but let himself be carried away by this restless, breathless flight. In the case of the seventh symphonic poem (1851 ; 1856) the whole programme vouchsafed by Liszt consists in the title, Festkldnge (Festal sounds). The composer's biographer, however, makes a most interesting and light-giving revelation concerning this work. The Festklange were to be his wedding music. In the summer of 1851 it seemed as if the obstacles in the way of his marriage with the Princess Wittgenstein would be soon overcome. 'At this time arose the Festklange — a song of triumph over hostile machinations. In them Period.] Mazeppa-Featkldnge-Heroide-Hungaria. 303 bitterness and pain were resolved into proud rejoicing, and the polonaise woven into them pictures the spiritual traits of the princely Polish lady who had made him her " soul-serf." Along with this there are woven into the work tender little episodes — festal sounds of the soul — pervaded by the poetic enchantment of personal experiences.' Liszt has written a long, vague, and wordy preface to the Heroide fimebre, the eighth symphonic poem (1849- 1850; 1856). Happily two or three of his sentences sum up his meaning. 'Everything can change in human societies — manners and cult, laws and ideas ; sorrow remains always one and the same, it remains what it has been from the beginning of time. It is for art to throw its transfiguring veil over the tomb of the brave, to encircle with its golden halo the dead and the dying, in order that they may be envied by the living.' To enter still more fully into the intention of the composer, we have only to remember the nearness of the revolutionary movements of 1848, and to note that Liszt incorporated with this work a fragment from the Symphonie revolutionnaire sketched in 1830. Of the Hungaria, the ninth symphonic poem (1854 ; 1857), I shall only say that it has no revealed programme, but indubitably is a historical and national picture of war, death, and triumph. Hamlet, the tenth symphonic poem (1858; 1861), which, too, has neither programme nor any kind of preface, is described on the original manuscript as a Prelude to Shakespeare's drama. It brings before the hearer the brooding prince — ^not the story of his life, not even his whole character, only a dominating feature. The indications 'very slow and sombre,' 'appassionato ed agitato assai,' 'this episode 304 Liszt. [Sixth in 3/2 time should be played extremely quietly, and should sound like a shadow picture, pointing to Ophelia,' 'ironico, 'Moderato — lugubre,' show that allusions to persons and circumstances affecting his mood are not wanting. Also the Hunnenschlacht (Battle of the Huns), the eleventh symphonic poem (1856-1857 ; 1861) has no programme prefixed to it. We know, however, that Wilhelm von Kaulbach's fresco in the Berlin museum inspired the composer. The subject of Kaulbach's picture is the legend that after the bloody struggle on the Catalaunian Plain, in 451, — between Attila and his forces on the one side and the Eoman Aetius and the Visigoth Theodoric and theirs on the other side, — the fallen warriors continued the battle in the air. Like the painter, the musician wished to represent the event as a strife between Heathendom and Christianity resulting in the victory of the Cross. Two melodies are, as it were, the standards of the contending forces, Cruxfdelis gaining the day. In the twelfth symphonic poem. Die Ideate (The Ideals, 1857; 1859), which is based on Schiller's poem of that name, Liszt proceeds in a way quite different from those he follows in his other works. Instead of a general programme or a single title, he takes nine groups of verses and prefixes them to as many continuous sections of the composition. The pith and drift of Schiller's poem may be stated thus : The sweet belief in the dream creations of youth passes away ; that for which we once ardently strove, and which we lovingly embraced with heart and mind, becomes the prey of pitiless reality; already midway the boon companions — love, fortune, fame, and truth — leave us one after another, and only friendship and activity remain with us as comforters. Period.] Hunnenschlacht—Ideale. 305 But the composer departs in several points from the poet's data. In a note to the tenth and concluding division of the work, the Apotheosis, he says: 'The holding fast and at the same time the continual realizing of the ideal is the highest aim of our life. In this sense I ventured to supplement Schiller's poem by a resumption, in the closing Apotheosis, of the motives of the first division in a jubilantly emphasized form.' In justification of an alteration Liszt could have cited Jean Paul Eichter, and even Schiller himself, who called the conclusion tame, although a faithful picture of human life. We have to note further that the musician does not give the verses in the poet's sequence, that he makes use of eight lines omitted by Schiller in the ultimate amended form of the poem, and that, lastly, the composer marks the four main divisions of the work by the superscriptions Aspiration, Disillusion, Activity, and Apotheosis. Or, as Liszt puts it in a letter to Hans von Billow: 'Following closely Schiller's poem, the musical com- position divides itself, after the introduction, into three main strophes : (1) Aspiration, (2) Disillusion, and (3) Activity, the motives of which, reappearing in an emphasized form, furnish the content of the poet's Apotheosis.' In addition to the twelve symphonic poems discussed, there has to be mentioned a thirteenth, a short work of the composer's old age (1881 ; 1883), which has not obtained much attention from the public, and was but lightly regarded by Liszt himself. Writing to Gevaert he describes the score as ' assez courte, et sans chevilles.' A pen-and-ink drawing by Count Michael von Zichy inspired From the Cradle to the Grave (The Cradle, Struggle for Existence, To the Grave). In a letter to 306 Liszt. [Sixth the Count, Liszt says : ' You make me a grand present. Your drawing is a wonderful symphony. I will try to put it into notes, and then dedicate the work to you.' Liszt's symphonies differ from his symphonic poems in that they consist of separate divisions instead of a continuity of closely connected movements ; and they differ from the old symphonies in the numher and internal economy of the divisions. The first of Liszt's two symphonies is the Faust Symphony, the full title of" which runs A Faust Symphony (after Goethe) in three Character Pictures — (1) Faust; (2) Margaret; (3) Mephis- topheles, and a concluding chorus, ' All that is transient J is but a semblance,' for grand orchestra and men si voices. The three character pictures were composed jfl 1853-1854, the chorus in 1857 ; and the score of the whole was published in 1861. As the title indicates, the composer does not roam with the poet through heaven, earth, and hell, and represent in speech and action a crowd of creatures of all kinds and degrees, but confines himself to the three principal personages and the portrayal of their inward being. But the title does not indicate that the second and third divisions not merely portray Margaret and Mephistopheles, but also complete the portrait of Faust ; and that incidents of the action are not wholly excluded, as, for instance, the consultation of the flower oracle in the second division shows. The first character picture brings before us in speaking motives and themes the brooding and inquiring, the restlessly chafing, the love-longing, and the triumphantly enthusiastic Faust. The second character picture presents to us the sweet, simple Margaret at first alone, and then in conjunction with Faust, whose entrance is marked by his love-longing theme ; Margaret's Period ] Faust— Dante. 307 'He loves me, he loves me not, &c.,' with the final exultant ' He loves me ' forming a very brief episode. The third character picture is that of the spirit who ever denies. It opens with jeers and diabolical laughter (Allegro vivace ironico). No entirely new themes are produced, but Faust motives and themes are introduced in grotesquely metamorphosed forms. Also the Margaret theme appears again. The choral Coda is not con- sistent with the scheme of character pictures. But no doubt the composer disliked the idea of concluding with the strident dissonance of the heartless mocking Mephistopheles. Hence the harmonious resolution by the mystic chorus from the second part of Famt : ' All that is transient is but a symbol, the insufGicient becomes an event, the indescribable here is done, the eternal womanly draws us upward.' ^ The second of Liszt's symphonies, usually called Danle Symphony, but the full and correct title of which is A Symphony to Dante's Divina Commedia for grand orchestra and soprano and alto chorus (1855 ; 1858), consists of only two divisions respectively entitled L' Inferno and II Purgatorio. The composer originally intended to have, like the poet, a third division. ' You^ are reading Dante,' Liszt writes to Wagner on June 2, ld65. * That is good company for you. For my part, I shall furnish you with a commentary to this reading. For a long time I have been carrying a Dante Symphony about with me in my head [see p. 296 ] ; in the course of the year it is to be fiiiished- — three divisions : Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise ; the first two purely instrumental, the last with chorus.' The objections to a Paradise strongly urged by Wagner in all probability induced Liszt to alter his plan. As the work stands. 308 Liszt. [Sixth the second division concludes with a Coda, that may be described as an outlook towards Paradise, or as a presentiment of it. The score has prefixed to it a long interpretative Introduction, which, although not written, was authorized, prompted, and approved by the composer. The writer of it, Eichard Pohl, points out that a composer worthy of a theme like Faust must be some- thing more than a tone-painter (in the material, bad sense of the word) ; his concern ought to be with some- thing that neither the word with its concrete definiteness can express, nor form and colour can actually realize, and this something is the world of the profoundest and most intimate feelings that unveil themselves to man's mind only in tones. None but the tone-poet can render the fundamental moods. But in order to seize them in their totality, he must abstract from the material moments of Dante's epic, and can at most only allude to a few of them. On the other hand, he must also abstract from the dramatic and philosophical elements. These were Pohl's, and, we may presume, Liszt's views on the treatment of the subject. At the beginning two motives are heard which play important parts in the first division. The trombones and tuba open the Inferno with the • Through me you pass into the city of woe. Through me you pass into eternal pain. Through me among the people lost for aye.' And the trumpets and horns follow with the direful ' All hope abandon, ye who enter here.' The dread gate passed, we find ourselves in a demoniac turmoil {accelerando), in which become distinguishable the madness, hopelessness, fury, and curses of the damned (Allegro frenetico). The only relief in these protracted horrors is afforded by the beautiful episode of Paolo and Francesca da Bimini. Pebiod.J Dante — Lenau's Faust Episodes. 80& ' No greater grief than to remember days of joy when misery is at hand.' In the introductory Andante of the second division, the Purgatory, the composer had in his mind Dante's experiences after issuing from HelL: the sweet hue of eastern sapphire, the serene aspect of the pure air, the beautiful planet that made all the orient laugh, and the trembling of the ocean {il tremolar della marina). What follows speaks of infinite longing for godliness, of a growing feeling of unworthiness and weakness, of humility, contrition, and repentance, of redemption by prayer. With regard to the Coda, the writer of the preface justly remarks that the art cannot sing heaven itself, only the earthly reflection of it in the heart of those whose souls are turned heavenward. ' When the holy glow of divine Love has kindled the heart, every pang is extinguished ; the heart is lost in the heavenly bliss of resignation in God's mercy ; from the individual Magnificat it proceeds, joining itself to the whole universe, to the general Halleluja and Hosanna.' With the grand chant and the shouts of rejoicing, sung by the women's or boys' chorus, accompanied by the orchestra, the work ends ecstatically. The Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust for grand orchestra — (1) Der ndchtliche Zug (The nocturnal procession), and (2) Der Tanz irn der Dorfschenke (The dance in the village inn), also called Mephisto Walts, — were composed in 1858-1859, and published in 1862, The following ingredients, extracted from the poem, will give an idea of Liszt's soul- and body-painting, his picturing of the inward and outward, in the first romantic composition. Heavy dark clouds, profound night, sweet spring feeling in the wood, a warm soulful rustling in the foliage, fragrant air, carolling 310 Liszt. [Sixth of the nightingale. Faust rides alone in sombre mood, the farther he advances the greater the silence; he dismounts. What can be the approaching light illuminating bush and sky, what the sweet solemn singing? A procession with torches, of white-dressed children carrying wreaths of flowers in celebration of St. John's Eve, followed by virgins in demure nuns' veils, and old priests in dark habits and with crosses. When they have passed by and the last glimpses of the lights have disappeared, Faust buries his face in his horse's mane and sheds tears more bitter than ever he shed before. An episode of a very different nature is the Dance in the Village Inn, the ne plus ultra of weirdness and unbridled sensuality in the whole domain of music, and one of the most remarkable tours de force of imagination, com- bination, and instrumentation. Mephistopheles takes the instrument from the hands of the tame fiddler, and draws •from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating tones. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance : they dance, and dance, and dance, in the room, out of the room, in the open, to the wood — the sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song. Only one word of one more work, the Todtentanz (Danse macabre), Paraphrase on the Dies Irce for Piano- forte and Orchestra. It was composed in 1849-1850, revised in 1859, and published in 1865 ; but the seed was sown in 1838 at Pisa. Liszt told his biographer that when he saw Andrea Orcagna's fresco, ' The Triumph of Death,' in the Campo Santo, he was so greatly moved by the naivete and profoundness of this creation that Dies irce sounded within him with over- whelming power and blended with all the modulations Peiuod.] Todtentam— Choice of Subjectg. 811 of the thought which the Italian master put into line and colour. Liszt hesitated to puhlish ' such a mons- trosity ' as his ' Dance of Death,' but Hans von Biilow allayed his doubts. The work is certainly a gruesome treatment of a gruesome subject. In the foregoing pages I have shown what Liszt has done in the way of symphonic programme music. The reader who has attentively followed me must have seen that as regards quantity the master's output is very considerable, and that as regards choice of programme it is as a rule unexceptionable. Only ignorance of the composer's intentions and false attributions can find in these works anything that is absurd or illegitimate, anything that lowers or denaturalizes the art. The subjects are always noble and poetical, and the parts of them chosen for interpretation or illustration are musical, or at least within the reach of music. Saint- Saens rightly denies and ridicules the accusation that Liszt sought to set philosophical systems to music ; and stoutly maintains that he translated into music none but poetical ideas. However ready Liszt was to make use of the picturing of the outward as an auxiliary, the picturing of emotional impressions, states, and evolutions was his main object. Let us not overlook that if the painting of the outward is of the right things and of the right sort, it can stir the inward, can produce a powerful effect on the imagination and the emotions by associa- tion, analogy, and symbolism. The impression we receive from Mazeppa consists of something more than the perception of swift motion. But in making these remarks I do not mean to assert that Liszt's choice of subjects might not sometimes have been more wise, or, let us say, less risky. In programme music, subject and 312 Lisst. [Sixth music can never be quite coincident, quite concurrent — if they could be, the programme would be superfluous— but the difference in the extent, in the coincidence, of the two had better not be too great. Again, certain subjects — for instance such as the Inferno and Prometheus — may demand an excessive sacrifice of the beautiful to the characteristic. Unquestionably and immeasurably more important, however, than the question of choice of subject is the question of the composer's creative endowment. No wonder that opinions as to Liszt's vary infinitely, and sometimes are as far apart as the south and north poles. Lina Eamann sees in the master's works nothing but what is sublime, perfect, and incomparable ; to Hanslick, on the other hand, Liszt was one of those natures, endowed with genius, but sterile, who are impelled by artistic ambition to mistake inclination for vocation. Few are likely to agree with the uncritical raptures of the biographer or the equally uncritical antipathies of the Vienna critic. Eeal acquaintance and unbiassed examination will 'assuredly lead to an intermediate position. Owing to the neglect of the symphonist Liszt in the concert room, and the prevailing prejudice against him, this position cannot, however, be reached without taking the trouble to go in search of him, and sympathetically, or at least with an open mind, cultivating his acquaintance. Those who have done so agree to a surprising degree in their judgment of him — not in their estimate of the individual works, but in their estimate of the total character and value of his productions. Even the admiring and thoroughly sympathetic friend and disciple Saint- Saens, who holds that the symphonist Liszt is the great and I'eriod.] His Creative Endowment. 313 real Liszt, admits that although the master's works are immense, they are unequal, and that a selection has to he made. On the other hand, connoisseurs uninfluenced by personal bonds and artistic leanings, such as Eiemann, Kretzschmar, Weingartner, Ambros, Lobe, and others, acknowledge Liszt's creative power while pointing out its limitations. Of a scornful rejection of his works, of a sneering at impotence, formlessness, &c., there is no trace in their utterances. Kretzschmar sees in the master's works freedom, daring, and sureness in the fundamental lines of the formal structure, and regards them as original achievements which represent an intellectual and a^rtistic formative power of extraordinary force. But the same writer notes also that most of the symphonic poems approach in form the free fantasia so frequently employed by Liszt in his transcriptions and rhapsodies. Weingartner remarks that, as in Brahms a brooding reflective element, so in Liszt a rhapsodic one takes the upper hand; an improvising manner often bordering on incoherence {Zerrissenheit) being a characteristic of most of Liszt's works. In con- nection with these remarks on the rhapsodic nature of the master's compositions, we ought to note Eiemann's just observation, that Liszt has an intensive feeling for logic. On turning from the form to the matter, we meet with much more that is liable to objection. It Is impossible not to perceive that his compositions are to a larger extent the result of excogitation than of spontaneity, and unduly influenced by his sesthetical views ; nor can we fail to be struck by the exuberance of his style, which loves to display itself in a too flowery, over- emphatic, exclamatory, and not unfrequently bombastic, and even hollow rhetoric. Except that it is more 314 Liszt. [Sixth logical, his musical style is a pretty exact likeness of his literary style. Indeed, we have here another exemplification of the saying le style c'est I'homme. ' Liszt ' writes Saint-Saens, ' est Vdme magyare, faite d'un savoureux melange de fierte, d'elegance native et d'^nergie sauvage.' Yes, Magyar pride, native elegance, and wild energy count for much in the character of Liszt and his music. But although it counts for much, it does not by any means count for all. Liszt was an extraordinarily complex being, and full of irreconcilable contrasts. The son of a Hungarian father was also the son of a German mother ; the man who at the most impressionable period of his life came chiefly under the influence of French culture, opened his mind and heart also to the culture of Germany, of Italy, and ;to some extent of England ; the artist who believed in Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, and Wagner, appreciated also Berlioz, Chopin, and the Italian melodists. No wonder that Liszt was an eclectic. Indeed, his style, although swarming with individual mannerisms, is less homo- geneous than the styles of most of the great composers. The eclecticism of his melody has repeatedly been pointed out, but not only there is it clearly perceptible. Liszt, in writing to Brendel on September 7, 1863, remarks, after referring to an axiom of the latter'a ('the artistic nature, if it is genuine, corrects itself as a consequence of contrasts ') : — ' May it come true with me ! So much is certain, few have laboured so much at the long-lasting business of self-correction as I have, the process of intellectual development having in my case been, if not impeded, made specially difficult by so many various accidents and incidents. Twenty years ago, a clever man said not inaptly to me: Peeiod.J His Significance. 315 "You really have to deal with three men in you who run counter to each other — the sociable salon man, the virtuoso, and the thinking and creating composer. If you manage properly one of the three, you may call yourself a lucky fellow." ' But Liszt was not so simple a being as the clever individual made him out to be. Instead of three, he had at least half-a-dozen men contending within him. Besides those mentioned above, there were among others — ^the man of religion, the scheming diplomatist, the self-sacrificing friend, &c. The many volumes of his letters that have been published (letters addressed to Wagner, to H. von Biilow, to the Princess Wittgenstein, to an anonjrmous lady friend, to contemporaries of all sorts and conditions, &c., &c.) make that evident. Much may also be learned from his literary works ; but in that connection it has to be remembered that others had often a hand in them — for instance, the Princess Wittgenstein was actually his collaborator.* Liszt's greatest achievements are certainly the two symphonies. To me the Faust Symphony seems to be his most successful work, both for the freshness of the ideas and the clearness of the development. Others, however, prefer the Dante Symphony. Weingartner regards the latter as the acme of Liszt's productivity, as perhaps more harmonious (einheitlich) and powerful than * On at least one occasion she was more than a collaborator. As Liszt told me himself, the much enlarged new edition of his Chopin was her work. He made some attempts at a revision ; but they failed to please her. He then said to her: 'Do it yourself, and do whatever you like.' She was of course his partner in the writing of the first edition as she was in the writing of all his literary work done during their connection. All the fine writing about Poland is by her, who was a, Pole. In view of these facts it is rather amusing to sec the Princess's poetic outpourings quoted as the oracles of the genius Liszt. 316 Liszt. [Sixth Favst. Equally appreciative words come from Ambros, who calls it ' this grand, serious, and genuinely ethical work.' The majority of votes, however, are cast for Faust. Indeed, Dante is hardly ever performed; for which, no doubt, the nature of the first division is accountable. The purest forms in Liszt's symphonic compositions, according to Saint-Saens, are Gretchen (Margaret, the second division of Famt), II Purgatorio (the second division of Dante), and Orpheus, the fourth symphonic poem. General acceptance of this proposition may be expected. Most will also agree with the statement that Hamlet, Prometheus, and H^roide fwnebre are the weakest of the twelve symphonic poems. As to the relative value of the others, I feel disinclined to express an opinion. It would be only adding another dissentient voice to the many that have already made themselves heard. Les Preludes, Orpheus, Tasso, Mazeppa, Festklwnge, Ideale, Ce qu'on entend sw la Montagne, and Hungaria, are performed oftenest. Although Liszt's symphonic compositions have been before the public for about half-a-century, they have not become popular. I do not think that the verdict thus given will ever be reversed. Their shortcomings are too many and too serious ; they contain far too much crudity, hoUowness, and ugliness. But notwithstanding their inferiority in spontaneity, sobriety, and formal beauty, to the symphonies of the great classics, Liszt's works are too full of originality, Geist, enrapturing beauties, and striking expressiveness, to entirely deserve the neglect that has been their lot. Be, however, the ultimate fate of his works what it may, there will always remain to Liszt the fame of a daring striver, a fruitful originator, and a wide-ranging quickener. Pbeiod.] CHAPTEE III. SIXTH PERIOD CONTINUED. WAGNER. Many a reader will be surprised to find Wagner in this company. Did he not condemn programme music, and denounce the insufficiency of instrumental music of the absolute kind ? No doubt he did. But what decides a man's position ? Is it what he says, or what he does ? However, even apart from this question, and confining ourselves to what Wagner said, the case is by no means so simple as most people think. If it is difficult to present Berlioz's views on programme music in his own words, it is still more difficult to present Wagner's. But for a different reason. Berlioz wrote too little on the subject, Wagner too much. It is, however, the quality rather than the quantity that gives trouble. The various circumstances in which he expressed his opinion affected his voice, which at one time was trenchant, at another equivocal, and at a third somewhat 9^ciliatory. EICHAED WAGNEE, born in 1813, received a good >gejuwr^ education at the Dresden Kreuzschule, Leipzig Nicolaischule (both secondary schools), and Leipzig University. Although he was early attracted by and occupied himself with music, he had no training in the art until 1830, when he went through a half-year's course of harmony and counterpoint under Weinlig. The lessons he got in 1827 from Gottlieb Miiller hardly count : they gave satisfaction neither to master nor pupil. Among the compositions written before his 318 Wagner. [Sixth studies with Weinlig there is an overture in B flat, performed at the Leipzig Theatre in 1830, of which Heinrich Dorn, the conductor, said, not without much exaggeration, that ' it bore in it the germs of all those grand effects which at a later date were to set the whole musical world by the ears.' The compositions written by Wagner under Weinlig' s direction and for some time after his tuition were of a more sober cast and had none of the individual peculiarities described by Dorn. These works comprised a sonata for pianoforte (1831), which was printed ; several overtures, one to Eaupach's tragedy King Enzio, and one entitled Polonia (1831 and 1832), and a Symphony in C major, which was performed at Prague and at the Leipzig Euterpe and Gewandhaus concerts. At that time Wagner was under the spell of Beethoven, but he had also a love for Mozart's instrumental music, instilled into him by Weinlig. His professional career began as chorus-master at Wiirzburg (1833), and conductor at Magdeburg (1834), Konigsberg (1836), and Eiga (1837). During this period began also his career as a composer for the stage. In 1834 he composed, under the influence of Beethoven, Weber, and Marschner, Die Feen, an opera that remained unperformed until 1888; and in 1835-1836, under the influence of the modern French and Italians, Das Ldebesverbot, once performed in the latter year at Magdeburg. Then followed the Paris episode (1839- 1842), with the disappointment of high hopes and the suffering of great hardships. The performance of Riensi, an opera in the main fashioned after the Spontini and Meyerbeer patterns, at the Dresden Court Theatre in 1842, his appointment there as conductor, the production of his more and more original operas The Flying Dutchman Period:] His Training and Career. 319 in 1843, and Tannhduser in 1845, and the composition of the still further advanced Lohengrin, seemed to open a prospect of a most happy future. But the political insurrection of 1849, in which Wagnter was involved, brought about a revolution in his career, leading in the first place to his flight and banishment from Germany. The next years of his life, spent, like many more, in Switzerland, are chiefly notable for the publication of SBsthetical writings, in which he contends for a new art and for new art-conditions. In the years 1849-1851 appeared Art and Bevolution, The Art-wm-k of the Futwre, Art and Climate, Opera and Drama, and^ Communication to my Friends. After these theoretical discussions of his ideas, he returns with renewed vigour to composition — to the four parts of the Eing des Nihelvmgen, and between them to Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger in which he realized his mature ideal, and to which he added later on Parsifal. "When Wagner had resolutely set out on his career as a dramatic composer, he entirely ceased to write independent instrumental music. In the years 1885- 1886 he wrote two more overtures, entitled Colvmhus and Rule, Britannia, and, lastly, in 1840-1841, the first movement of a Faust Symphony, which after a revision was subsequently published as A Faust Overture. I said * lastly,' although there is yet to be mentioned another orchestral composition not connected with any of his music-dramas, the Siegfried Idyll of 1870 ; but this is an occasional composition and was originally intended only for domestic use. Before justifying my claim for Wagner as a composer of programme music, in spite of the fewness of his independent orchestral works, most of which, moreover. 320 Wagner. [Sixth are to all appearance of the absolute kind, we must make ourselves acquainted with his views on the matters hearing on this point. All, however, that can be done is to indicate the main features of these views, and to cull a striking remark here and there. To reproduce every- thing that bears directly and indirectly on the subject, and to sift the truths from the luxuriating sophisms, would require a book, not a few pages of a chapter. To the reader who is swayed rather by his logical than by his poetical faculty, Wagner's views of art, society, history, and biography, must seem a wonderful phantas- magoria in which reality appears strangely illuminated and irrecognizably distorted. The great poet-musician deludes himself and others the more easily by his sophisms as they are hidden under language abounding in allegories, personifications, similes, and metaphors. Almost all his statements are figurative, and for him figures carry with them conviction. To convince himself and others that the Gesammthunst (the universal art, the union of all the arts) is the true and complete art, the art which ought to supersede the single arts, he argues that singly the human capacities are limited, but that united they are self-sufficient and unlimited. From this very questionable statement he jumps to the extra- ordinary conclusion that the lifeless, motionless single arts live only an artificial, borrowed life, and that, instead of giving, as in the triple union (dancing, music, and poetry), blessed laws, they receive coercive rules for mechanical movement. But whose logic is proof against the persuasiveness of the following poetical picture? ' As we gaze on this entrancing measure of the truest and noblest Muses of artistic man, at one time we see the three lovingly entwined; at another, this or that Period.] His Theories. 321 one disengaging herself, as it were to show the others her beautiful form in complete independence, merely touching with her finger-tips the hands of the others ; again, the one, charmed by the sight of the double-form of the closely entwined sisters, bowing before them ; next, the two, carried away by the charm of the one, greeting her admiringly ; until, at last, all three, firmly entwined, breast to breast, limb to limb, grow in an ardent kiss into one blissful living form. Such is the loving and living, and the wooing and winning of art, of the one, ever the same and ever different, separating in super- abundant wealth, uniting in ineffable happiness. This is the free art. The sweetly and strongly urging impulse in this measure of the sisters is the impulse to freedom ; the love-kiss of the entwined, the bliss of the freedom won. The solitary individual is unfree, because limited and dependent in unlove ; the associated individual is free, because unlimited and independent through love.' Love plays a busy part in Wagner's aesthetics, more especially sexual love. Its principal appearance is in the general definition of the characters of poetry and music, which are respectively described as male and female, as generative and conceptive. The dangers of this enthusiastic fantastical rather than calm philosophical (we could also say, this interested rather than disinterested) treatment of SBsthetics, must be obvious. Unless the disciple searches for the logical thread under every rose-bush and flowering shrub, he cannot tell where he may be led to by his floriculturist guide. A figure is never a proof, often a misrepresenta- tion, and always a begging of the question. After telling us that in the ancient Greek lyric and dramatic art, poetry, music, and dancing were united, 322 Wagner. [Sixth Wagner proceeds thus : ' Just as in the building of the Tower of Babel, when their speech became confounded and mutual understanding impossible, the nations separated in order to go severally their own way; so, when the national solidarity broke up into a thousand egoistic peculiarities, the art species separated from the proud heaven-scaling edifice of the drama, in which they had sunk their common quickening understanding.' Passing over the poet-musician's myths of the rise and meaning of harmony and counterpoint, for an account of which time and space are lacking, we proceed to a more important matter. According to Wagner the march and dance form is the immovable foundation of all pure instrumental music ; or, in other words of his, the basis of the symphonic art-work is identical with the dance-tune. ' The overture and every other independent piece of instrumental music owes its form to the dance or march ; and a series of such pieces, as also a piece in which several dance forms are combined, has been called a symphony. The formal kernel of the symphony is still in our day to be found in the third movement, the minuet or scherzo, where it suddenly appears in the greatest naivete; to tell, as it were, the secret of all the movements of the form.' Wagner protests that he does not wish to depreciate the form, but it is nevertheless with the intention of depreciation that he attaches the stigma of dance and march music to everything that is not Wagnerian dramatic music. He seems to say : ' Let the instrumental composer do what he likes he can produce nothing but the dance-like and march-like.' Nay, even in the last years of his life he says quite plainly that this basis of the symphony stamps the Pbeiod.J His Theories. 323 character of Haydn's and Beethoven's works, which consist only of interlacements of ideal dance-figures, and bear throughout the character of a sublime serenity. We have here a strange contusion ©f -ideas- -and- misrepresentation of facts. No wonder that they lead Wagner into many contradictions. As there is a relationship between molluscs and vertebrates, so there is a relationship between dances and symphonies. Still the difference between them both in matter and form is very great. To give the true explanation of the resemblances between the little and the highly developed, we must say that they are different exemplifications of the same formal principles, principles derived from psychical laws that govern all independent music, i.e., all music that is not a mere accompaniment of another art ; principles which leave scope for infinite variety and do not interfere with the expression of any kind of content whatever. Moreover, is not Song as well as Dance one of the foundations of developed instrumental music ? A few additional quotations mil show still more distinctly that I am not wilfully misunderstanding Wagner. ' In Haydn's symphony the rhythmic dance melody moves with all the cheerful freshness of youth : its interlacements, dissolutions, and reunion, although executed with the greatest contrapuntal skill, neverthe- less present themselves hardly as anything more than the result of such a skilful procedure, nay, rather as something in character like a dance regulated by imaginative [phcmtasiereichen] laws : so warmly are they suffused with the breath of joyous human life.' ' It was Beethoven who opened up the boundless capacity of music for the expression of the all-powerful 324 Wagner. [Sixth impelling and longing .... But if his faculty of speech was boundless, so also was the longing which by its eternal breath animated this speech. How, then, proclaim the end, the satisfaction of this longing, in the same language which was nothing but the expression of this longing ? . . . The transition from a mood of infinite excitement and longing to one of joyous satisfaction can necessarily not take place otherwise than by the absorption of the longing in an object. In accordance with the character of infinite longing, this object can only be a finite one that presents itself distinctly, both sensuously and ethically. . . . What inimitable art did not Beethoven employ in his C minor Symphony to steer his ship out of the sea of infinite longing into the haven of fulfilment ! He was able to raise the capacity of music almost up to the expression of moral resolve, but was not able actually to give utterance to it . . . with reverent awe he avoided throwing himself again into the sea of that unallayable longing. He turned his steps towards the cheerful happy people he saw encamped on the green meadow by the fragrant wood under the sunny sky, frolicking, kissing, and dancing [the sixth, the Pastoral Symphony] . . . But these were mere " recollections " [one of Beethoven's finally rejected titles ran : Pastoral Symphony, or EecoUections of Country Life], not the immediate sensuous reality. Towards this reaUty he was impelled with all the yearning natural to the artist. ... In the A major Symphony all the storm and stress, all the longing and raging is turned into a blissful exuberance of joy, which with bacchanalian omnipotence carries us through all spaces of Nature, through all rivers and seas of life, jubilantly self-conscious wherever Period.] His Theories. 325 we tread the bold measure of this human sphere- dance. This symphony is the apotheosis of the dance itself: it is the dance in its noblest aspect, the most blissful act of bodily motion as it were ideally incorporated in tones. . . . From the shore of the dance Beethoven threw himself again into that infinite sea — from which once he had taken refuge on this shore — into the sea of unallayable heart-longing [the ninth, the Choral Symphony] . . . The last symphony is the redemption of music from her own peculiar element and her incorporation in the universal art. It is the human gospel of the art of the future. Beyond it no progress is possible ; for upon it there can follow only the perfect art-work of the future, the universal drama [das allgemeinsame Drama], to which Beethoven has forged for us the key.' Wagner's theory that Beethoven's ninth symphony was and must be the last symphony, that the master had recourse to the word because of the bankruptcy of absolute music, may easily be shown to be wrong in every sense and respect. Beethoven's own notes and opinions, and the subsequent history of the art, disprove its correctness. In writing to a publisher Beethoven refers to the work in question simply as ' a new grand symphony which has a finale with vocal solos and choruses on Schiller's immortal song to Joy, in the manner of the pianoforte Fantasia with Chorus (Op. 80), but much grander.' The master, then, did not look upon it as anything new or extraordinary, not as any- thing revolutionary and epoch-making. Czerny informs us even that Beethoven regarded the introduction of the choral element into the symphony as a mistake. Further, Beethoven, after the ninth symphony, began to 326 Wagner. [Sixth sketch a tenth, and wrote several string quartets. So much for Beethoven. And what has happened since ? The symphonies of Mendelssohn and Schumann, composed more than haH a century ago, are still highly appreciated and greatly enjoyed ; the symphonies of Brahms, although opinions differ in regard to their exact rank among the masterpieces of the kind, are looked upon by all but a minority of extreme partisans as noble works of art; the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, especially the Pathetic, have in recent years made a profound impression; Gade, Eaff, Volkmann, Saint- Saens, and many other great if not supreme artists have not lived or are not living in vain ; more or less departing from the classical form, Berlioz and Liszt produced in former days, and Eichard Strauss produces in our day symphonies and symphonic poems that cannot be set aside by the ipse dictum of a self- suificient art-reformer and art-producer. Sganarelle's reply to his goldsmith friend rises to one's lips : ' Votis etes orfevre, monsieur Josse.' It is an everyday experience to hear artists depreciate their fellow-artists' works and ways. We must not allow ourselves to be befooled by their blind and narrow egoism. We must tell them that we are grateful for all the beautiful things they give us, but that we cannot forego the pleasures we receive from the beautiful things of others. But let us look a little more closely into Wagner's ideas regarding instrumental music. ' That the expression of a quite definite, clearly intelligible individual content was in truth impossible in this language, which is capable only of expressing feelings in their generality, could not be detected until that instrumental composer appeared in whom the desire to express such a content became the Period.] His Theories. 327 consuming, ardent life-impulse of all his artistic creation. The history of instrumental music froia the time this desire manifests itself is the history of an artistic error, which, however, did not end, like that of the operatic genre, with the demonstration of the incapacity of music, but with the manifestation of a boundless power. The error of Beethoven was that of Columbus, who merely meant to seek a new way to the old, already- jknown land of India, and discovered a new world instead.' After stating that the contemporaries and successors of Beethoven could not show the least inventiveness, Wagner remarks : ' Beethoven makes upon me the impression of a man who has something to say which he cannot clearly communicate ; his modern successors, on the other hand, appear as men who communicate to us, often in the most charming manner, that they have nothing to tell us. ' Wagner treats at length and on various occasions of Berlioz, but with such an extravagant fantasticalness, such a wild, irresponsible deliriousness, that it would serve no useful purpose to do more than just indicate the main points of his views. ' Berlioz is the immediate and most energetic offshoot of Beethoven on that side from which the latter turned away as soon as he proceeded from the sketch to the picture. Berlioz inherited from Beethoven almost nothing but the often hastily dashed-off daring and glaring strokes of the pen [later on described as ' strangely crabbed '] in which the latter noted down quickly and without critical selection [poor Beethoven !] his attempts at discovering new means of expression.' Although endowed with unusufl,l musical intelligence, and always consumed by a truly artistic longing, Berlioz was soon lying * hopelessly 328 Wagner. [Sixth buried beneath the confused mass of his machines/ In short, Beethoven's symphonic successors are of no account -whatever, and Wagner begins where Beethoven leaves off. The shortcomings of Beethoven as seen by Wagner are most clearly revealed in the following passage. ' In the works of the second half of his artist- life, Beethoven is for the most part unintelligible — or rather liable to be misunderstood — just where he wishes to express most intelligibly a particular content. ( He passes beyond the absolutely musical which by an instinctive convention is acknowledged as comprehensible (that is, beyond what has, in expression and form, some recognizable similarity to dance and song), in order that he may speak in a language which often appears to be an arbitrary manifestation of a whim, and, lacking a purely musical connection, is only bound by the bond of a poetic intention, which could not, hajjever, be expressed in music with poetic distinctness.! Most of Beethoven's works of that period must be'looKed upon as instinctive attempts to form a language for his longing, so that they often seem to be like sketches for a picture, as to the subject, but not as to the intelligible arrangement of which the master had made up his mind.' So far the reader has had presented to him Wagner's opinions before Liszt produced his symphonies and symphonic poems. Did he change them afterwards? The answer to this is not easy. In his letters to Liszt, Wagner is too busy with his own works and troubles to occupy himself with those of his friend ; but on several occasions he speaks of Liszt's symphonic compositions, and does so with a heartiness that leaves no doubt as to his sincere admiration of them, and their stimulating effect on him. On making the acquaintance of six of Period.] On Programme Music. 829 Liszt's scores, he writes on July 12, 1856, that he received from them the electrical shock which the grand produces on us, and calls Liszt a wonderful man and a unique phenomenon in the domain of art. Urged by the Princess Wittgenstein to make his opinion of Liszt's symphonic works more fully and widely known, Wagner, with great reluctance, wrote a letter to her intended for publication, a letter which appeared as an article and as a pamphlet in 1858. Now this letter must give to the unbiassed reader the impression of a politic equivocation. The writer seems to have undertaken the task against his inclination, for he says as little as possible about the subject, and in this little studies, above all, ambiguity. Of the sixteen pages not two are really concerned with the works to which they are supposed to be devoted. But here we are confronted by a curious complication. When it comes to the ears of Wagner that people regard the letter as 'evasive,' he is greatly surprised, and inveighs against their incredible denseness, superficiality, and triviality. Nevertheless, if he did not wish to be evasive, he ought to have blamed rather his own want of explicitnesB and lucidity, and if he really wished to approve of Liszt's symphonic poems, he ought not to have forgotten them and their composer in his eagerness to set forth his ideas about Liszt as an interpretative artist, and about music and instrumental music in general. Here are the most important passages given verbally or substantially : ' He who with irresistible rapidity has made up his mind as to the worth of this phenomenon, and the uncommon wealth of musical power which confronts us in these compositions — presented as it were by the wave of a magician's wand — may again be bewildered by the form, and, his first 330 WagMr. [Sixth doubt having been about the possibility of out friend's vocation as a composer, be brought to a second doubt because of the unfamiliar.' — ' I forgive everybody who has hitherto doubted the thriving of a new art-form of instrumental music, for I must own to having so fully shared that doubt as to join with those who saw in our programme music a most unsatisfactory phenomenon. In this connection I found myself in the droll position of being numbered with the programme musicians and of being thrown into the same pot with them.' From some of his curiously turned remarks we may extract the opinion that programme music is a legitimate genre, and Liszt's symphonic poems excellent works of art, good in form and admirable in content. But in no place does Wagner say so in plain words. With the exception of a reference to the genius shown by Liszt in the speaking distinctness of his musical conceptions, which manifests itself strikingly even in a few opening bars, all the straightforward praise is given to the virtuoso and musician generally. ' Do you know a musician who is more musical than Liszt ? Who possesses the powers of music more abundantly and profoundly than he ? Who feels more subtly and delicately ? ' &c. The only other unambiguous point in Wagner's letter is 'joyful admiration' of the invention of the happy designation ' symphonic poems, ' which necessarily implies the invention of a new art-form. If what has so far been noticed were the only utterances of Wagner on the subject, we might, notwithstanding their equivocalness, incline to the beliefthat the master's first opinion of instrumental music, and of programme music in particular, was altered by the achievements of Liszt. But there are later utterances, utterances of the Period.] On Programme Music. 831 last years of his life, which make it clear that there really was either no such change, or after such a change a reversion to his early position, or to somewhere very near it. A sentence like this : ' The extravagances to which Berlioz's demoniac genius led, were nobly subdued by Liszt's incomparably more artistic genius to the expression of unspeakable soul and world events ' — may leave us in doubt. It is otherwise with the following sentences gathered from different parts of the same essay, that on the Application of Music to the Drama. These will elucidate his final ideas. ' The programmatic instrumental music, on which " we " used to look shyly and askance, brought much that was new in harmonization and in theatrical and pictorial (landscape and even historical) effects, and by means of an extraordinary virtuosic art of instrumentation accomplished all this with a striking pregnancy , • . . This tendency led to the gain of new capacities ; but it was seen that unspeakable aberrations, which threatened seriously to injure the genius of music, could be prevented from affecting the further course of the exploitation of these capacities only by the frank and resolute turning of this tendency to the drama.' The importance of these remarks lies in the acknow- ledgment of the services of programme music in the development of the art, and the recognition of its serviceableness in the music-drama, where indeed Wagner has proved himself one of the most powerful, perhaps the most powerful composer of programme music. However much he repudiated his inclusion in the ranks of composers of programme music, he must nevertheless have a place assigned to him there. For his deeds rise against his words and convict him. 382 Wagner. [Sixth In reviewing these deeds we need not dwell on his early instrumental works; and not only because they have merely a biographical interest, but also because they keep within the traditional grooves of absolute music untinged or only slightly tinged by poetic programmes. Thus his symphony of 1832, the untitled overtures of 1830 and 1831, and the Rule, Britannia Overture of 1836, may be classed as strictly absolute music : whereas the overture to the play King Enzio of 1832 and Columbus of 1835 had no doubt the kind of programmatic character to be found in Beethoven's overtures to plays. Of the overture Polonia of 1832, we know only that it was inspired by the heroism and failure of the Polish insurrection that then engaged the sympathy of Europe, and was brought near to the composer and his fellow-citizens by the many distressed fugitives that passed through Leipzig. We cannot consult the music of these overtures, and the available information about them is scanty, vague, and even contradictory. Most of what we learn refers to Columbus. This work has been described in contemporary criticism as heterogeneous in its parts, Beethovenian in conception, and modern, almost Belliniish in its externals, the composer having made use of all possible sensational and stimulating means {Spectakel und Reizmittel). If these remarks are by no means luminous as to the general nature of the composition, they leave us in almost complete darkness as to its programmatic nature. The only glimmer of light is in the expression ' Beethovenian conception.' Apart from these early works of merely biographical notability, there are among Wagner's works only two orchestral compositions unconnected with his dramas — Peeiod.J a Faust Overtv/re. 333 A Faust Overtwre (written in 1840, and re-written in 1855) and the Siegfried Idyll (1871). Of the former and more important of these, which came into existence in Paris in January, 1840, Wagner relates : ' From my profoundly dissatisfied inner self I bore up against the repugnant reaction of the external artistic activity [attempts at French lyrics] by the rapid sketch of an orchestral piece which I called an overture to Goethe's Faust, but which was to be really only the first movement of a great Faust symphony.' The rest of the history of the overture can be traced in the Wagner-Liszt correspondence, where also a clear and satisfactory account of the composer's intention is to be found. In 1848 Wagner sends the overture to Liszt at the latter' s desire, but says that he no longer likes it. From a letter of Liszt's, dated October 7, 1852, we learn that he had performed the overture and intended to do so again, that he thinks it worthy of Wagner, but that he could welcome either a second middle section or a quieter, more sweetly-coloured treatment of the middle section — a contrast, something tender, something Margaret-like being desirable. In replying to these remarks on November 9, 1852, Wagner furnishes a complete programme of the work : ' You have found me out in telling a lie when I tried to make you believe that I had written an overture to Fanist. Very rightly you have felt what is wanting — the woman. No doubt you would at once understand my tone-poem if I called it Faust in Solitude.' He then relates that his original intention was to write a whole Faust symphony, and that the first movement was the ' solitary ' Faust, in his longing, despairing, and blaspheming, the womanly hovering before him only as an image of his longing, not in its 334 Wagner. [Sixth divine reality, and it is this insufficient picture of his longing which he despairingly dashes to pieces.' The second movement, he goes on to say, was to introduce Gretchen, the woman. ' I had already the theme — hut it was only a theme. The whole was abandoned — I wrote my Flying Dutchman.' Although Wagner did not see his way to accepting Liszt's advice and introducing the woman, he was alive to the necessity of a revision. Instigated by the completion of Liszt's Faust Symphony, he set about this work in 1865. He wrote a wholly new score, with new instrumentation and an expansion and weighting of the middle part (second motive), by which the mood is more fully developed. The composer called the work now A Faust Overture, and adopted as a motto the following lines from Goethe's poem: ' The God that in my breast is owned Can deeply stir the inner sources ; The God, above my powers enthroned, He cannot change external forces. So, by the burden of my days oppressed. Death is desired, and Life a thing unblest ! ' The above is from a letter dated Zurich, January 19, 1855. In a letter written a few days later, he says 'there cannot be any question of Gretchen, but always only of Faust himself : " A sweet uncomprehended yearning Drove forth my feet through woods and meadows free." ' The overture was published with the title and motto given in the above cited letter of January 19, 1855. Pekiod.J a Faust Overtm-e — Siegfried Idyll. 835 In Wagner's Faust Overture we have then an objective character picture.* In the Siegfried Idyll, we have a subjective mood picture. The latter composition, written soon after the completion of the music-drama Siegfried and a year or two after the* birth of his son Siegfried, was intended as an aubade for his wife's birthday in 1871. The prefixed dedicatory verses to her may be said to be the programme. At any rate some of its lines indicate the spirit and meaning of the work clearly enough. They tell us that by this music the composer gives thanks for wife and son, and that in it the serenity of the existence he then enjoyed becomes tone. They tell us also of the intermingling of life and art, of love and labour, a reflection of which is seen in the material out of which the composition is evolved — on the one hand, a popular South German cradle song {Schlaf, Kindchen, balde, Voglein JUeg'n im Walde), and, on the other hand, peace and love motives from Siegfried. ' My son and my work,' says Wagner in a letter of his, ' are thriving together.' In short, the Siegfried Idyll is a waking dream woven of past joys, present happiness, and future hopes. We next have to consider the introductory pieces — overtures and preludes — prefixed to Wagner's dramatic works. Leaving out of account the two early attempts, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, and also passing by Bienzi (the overture to which is effective enough, but not sufficiently poetic), we come to three compositions of which the composer himself wrote exhaustive interpreta- tions (he calls them Programmatic Elucidations) intended for concert purposes — namely, the overture to the * As the composer, no doubt, identifies himself with Faust, the objectivity may be said to be a subjectivized one. 836 Wagner. [Sixth Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser and the prelude to Lohengrin. The object of the master's remarks on the first of these pieces is, however, not so much to give an exposition of the overture and tell the hearer exactly what he will find there, as to set forth the subject of the opera and thus put the hearer in a position to under- stand and appreciate the orchestral introduction. A somewhat abridged translation will suffice. ' The Flying Dutchman's dreadful ship scours along storm-driven ; it makes for the land and lays-to where its master has been promised to find salvation and redemption. We hear the pitying strains of this annun- ciation of salvation, which sounds to us like prayer and lament. Sombre and without hope the doomed man listens to them ; weary and longing for death he steps ashore, whUst the crew, faint and tired of life, bring the ship to rest. How often has the unhappy man gone through the same experience ! How often has he steered his ship through the ocean billows to the inhabited shore, where once every seven years it is permitted him to land ! How often did he imagine that he had reached the end of his torments ! And ah, how often, woefully disappointed, had he to set out again and recommence his frantic ranging of the ocean .... The terrors of the sea, at which, in his thirst for wild adventures he used to laugh, now laugh at him. They cannot harm him. He has a charmed life and is doomed to rove the ocean desert for treasures that afford him no satisfaction, and never to find what alone could redeem him. . . . From the depth of his misery he calls for redemption. In the horrible solitude of his existence only a woman can bring him salvation. Where, in what land, does the deliverer dwell? Where is the feeling Period.] Overtures: Flying Dutchman-Tannhduser. 337 heart that beats for sufferings such as his ? Where is she who does not flee from him with fear and trembling, like those cowardly men who terrified cross themselves at his approach? A ray of light breaks through the night. It pierces his tormented soul like lightning. It is extinguished. It flashes again. The seaman keeps his eye fixed on the loadstar, and stoutly steers towards it through flood and wave. What so powerfully draws him is a woman's look, full of sublime pity and divine sympathy. A heart has unlocked its unfathomable depth to the immense sufferings of the cursed man. It must sacrifice itself for him, break out of compassion, in order to annihilate at the same time itself and his sufferings. At the sight of this divine apparition the unhappy man breaks down, dashed in pieces like his ship. But while the latter is engulfed by the sea, he rises from the waves healed and holy, led by her who victoriously saved him to the dawn of sublimest love.' In the Programmatic Elucidation of the Tannhduser Overture we have a real setting forth of the contents of the piece. Everything in the programme appears clearly, fully, and in the same order in the music. The programme is so excellent in every respect that long as it is, it must be given in its entirety. * At the beginning the orchestra lets us hear the song of the pilgrims : it approaches, swells into a mighty outburst, and at last passes away. — Evening twilight : dying sounds of the song. It is nightfall, and magic lights and sounds steal on our senses: a rosy mist rises, voluptuous sounds of jubilation reach our ears; confused movements of a weirdly lustful dance become visible. These are the seductive spells of the Venusberg 338 Wagner. [Sixth which at dead of night manifest themselves to those in whose breast burns the fire of sensual desire. — Attracted by the alluring vision, a tall, manly form approaches : it is Tannhauser, the minstrel. He intones his proud, jubilant love-song, joyous and challeniging, as if to draw to himself the voluptuous enchantment by compulsion. Wild shouts of joy answer him : the rosy cloud grows more dense around him, entrancing perfumes envelop him and intoxicate his senses. Now he perceives before him, reclining in seductive twilight, an unspeakably lovely female form. He hears the voice which, sweetly thrilling, hails him with the siren call that promises the darer the satisfaction of his wildest wishes. It is Venus herself who has appeared to him. Then heart and senses burn, a glowing, consuming longing inflames the blood in his veins : he is impelled with irresistible force to approach, and before the goddess herself he now, in the utmost ecstasy, intones his jubilant love song in her praise. As it were by this magic call, the wonders of the Venusberg open before him in all their brilliance : tumultuous jubilation and wild, voluptuous cries arise on all sides : in drunken exultation the Bacchantes come noisily rushing up, and, tearing Tannhauser along with them in their furious dance, lead him into the arms of Venus, who embraces him, and carries him along with her into unapproachable distances, into the realm of non-existence [des Nichtmehrseins] . A hubbub passes like the Wild Hunt, and soon after the storm subsides. Only a voluptuous wailing is still whirring in the air, and a weird whispering, like the breath of unblessed sensual love, hovers over the place where the entrancing, unholy enchantment manifested itself, and over which night Period.] Tannhamer Overture — Lohengrin Prelude. 339 now again spreads her wings. But morning already begins to da,wn: from afar is beard once more the approaching pilgrims' song. As this song comes nearer and nearer, as advancing day dispels night, the whirring and whispering in the air, which before sounded like the woeful lamentation of the damned, rises to a more and more joyful billowing, until at last, when the sun appears in his splendour, and the pilgrims' song with mighty enthusiasm proclaims salvation to all the world, and all that is and lives, the billowing swells into a blissful outburst {Rau8chen'\ of sublime ecstasy. It is the jubilation of the Venusberg itself, redeemed from the curse of unholiness, which we hear in the song. Thus move and leap all the pulses of life to the song of redemption; and the two divided elements, spirit and sense, God and Nature, embrace each other for the holy uniting kiss of love.' Leaving out all the rest of the Elucidation of the Lohengrin prelude, the strictly expository part of the contents of the piece, the subject of which is the Descent of the Holy Grail (the precious vessel used at the Last Supper, and in which the crucified Saviour's blood was preserved), runs thus : ' To the entranced gaze of highest supermundane love-longing, the serenest blue celestial ether seems at first to condense itself into a wonderful vision, hardly visible and yet magically captivating the eye : in infinitely tender lines, gradually growing in distinct- ness, the miracle-ministering host of angels appears, descending imperceptibly from on high with the holy vessel in their midst. As the vision becomes more and more distinct and moves more and more visibly towards the earth, intoxicatingly sweet perfumes are exhaled 340 Wagner. [Sixth from it : entrancing vapours flow down in golden clouds, captivate the beholder's senses, and fill his thrilling heart to its inmost depth with a wondrous devotional emotion. Now blissful pain, now fearful happy joy darts through his breast; all its suppressed germs of love, awakened to a wonderful growth by the vivifying spell, swell out with irresistible might— but, expand though it may, it is near to bursting with mighty longing, with the impulse to self-sacrifice and dissolution, such as human hearts had never felt before. And yet this feeling revels again in the highest and happiest joy, when, approaching closer and closer, the divine apparition displays itself before the glorified senses. And when at last the holy vessel itself in its miraculous reality, nakedly and plainly, is presented to the sight of those deemed worthy; when the GraU sends forth far and wide the sun-rays of sublime love, like the effulgence of a heavenly fire, so that all hearts within the radiance of the eternal glow tremble : then the gazer's senses fail him, he sinks down in adoring annihilation. But upon him, lost in the blissfulness of love, the Grail now pours its blessing, with which it consecrates him as its knight : the shining flames become subdued to a milder glory, which now spreads over the earthly valley like a breath of unspeakable delight and tender emotion, and fills the adorer's breast with never-divined blissfulness. In chaste joy the host of angels, looking down smilingly, soar upward again : the fountain of love, dried up on earth, they have brought anew to the world ; the Grail they have left behind in the keeping of pure men, into whose hearts its contents had poured themselves as a blessing : and the noble host disappear in the brightest light of the celestial ether, whence they had descended.' Period.] Programme Miisic in his Dramas. 841 Who, after reading these Programmatic Elucidations, can help smiling at Wagner's disclaimer of being a composer of programme music? But even if he had not written them, and had not left programmatic sketches of three other compositions, his authorship of the Programmatic Elucidations of Gluck's Overture to Iphigenia in AuLis, and Beethoven's Heroic and Choral Symphonies and Coriolanus Overture would rule him out of court as a witness against programme music. More- over the Faust Overture and what he says about it in his letters are alone sufficient to preclude the admissi- bility of a plea of 'not guilty.' All this, however, is nothing compared with what an examination of his music dramas discloses, especially of those in which he has most fully realized his ideals, namely, the post-Lohengrin ones. As the form of the programme — whether it is printed, spoken, sung, pantomimed, painted, &c. — does not matter, seeing that it cannot affect the nature of the music, one is driven to ask : ' What is the music of these dramas but programme music?' For the programme music is not only in the overtures, preludes, and purely orchestral interludes, but throughout the whole extent of the dramas, which indeed may be described as orchestral symphonies with accompanying vocal, pantomimic, and scenic programmes, only here and there interspersed with orchestrally accompanied recitatives. To declare that these symphonies are merely cunning but un- meaning combinations of tones, that they have only sesthetical, not emotional and intellectual significance, would be doing the composer a great injustice, an injustice which he himself would have repelled with greater vigour than anyone else could do. We noticed that Wagner acknowledged the indebtedness of the 342 Wagner. [Sixth composers of music-dramas to the composers of orchestral music with verbal programmes. In fact, his position seems to have been that the objectionableness of music with a programme disappears when the programme is the action of a drama, when it consists of the words and gestures of the dramatis persona, the stage scenery, and the representation of elemental and other conditions and occurrences. Without sharing Wagner's prejudice against other kinds, one may readily admit that his programme music, in which what is heard and seen on the stage supplements the expression of the inward and the description of the outward in the orchestra, is not only a legitimate but also a very beautiful kind. Or, to look at it from the usual and more correct point of-- view, we might say that the programme music in which the transactions in the orchestra supplement those on the stage is also a beautiful kind. The argument in favour of this kind is of course that the constant companionship of the several arts makes the mutual perfecting of their several imper- fections at any moment possible. Against it may be adduced that combination necessarily entails limitation of individual freedom. In Wagner's music-dramas we find all kinds of tone- painting. To select a few from thousands of examples of external tone-painting, both direct (i.e., of things audible) and indirect (i.e., of other things — ^visible, &c. — by analogy), I may mention : the uncouthness of the giants ; the winding insidiousness of Loge, whose element is the flames ; the hammering of the dwellers in Nibelheim ; mist, thunder, and rainbow (Rheingold) ; — the storm ; the ride of the Walkyries ; the crackling, sparkling, and flickering of the fire-spell (Walkiire) 5 — Period.] Programme Music in his Dramas. 343 Siegfried's forging of the sword, with its puffing of the hellows, hammering, hissing of the hot iron in water, &c. ; the forest sounds of the Waldweben; and the crawling and hallowing of the dragon (Siegfried). Then we have the depicting of the supernatural by strangeness of tonal combinations, be it by extraordinary highness, lowness, softness, or loudness, or by extraordinary harmonies, melody, or tone colour. Striking and familiar examples are the Venusberg witchery in Tannhduser, the Grail vision in Lohengrin, and the Tarnhelm spell in the Eing of the Nibehmg. But of far greater importance than the external tone-painting is the internal tone-painting, the picturing of the moods, emotions, and thoughts of the dramatis persona, which indeed forms the bulk of the whole music. As of this kind almost every page is full, it would serve no useful purpose to give examples. To convince himself that there is painting not only of stationary moods and general, clearly-defined emotions, but also of the subtlest psychological processes, the reader may be referred to two among innumerable instances — the opening scene of the first act of Die Walkure, and the opening of the third scene of the last act of Die Gotterddmmerung. In the latter the dreams and forebodings of Gutrune afford an excellent opportunity for a most effective and poetical utilization of Leitmotive (guiding, i.e. characteristic, motives). Of these Leitmotive it may be said that, if aptly and sparingly used, they are a valuable enrichment of the resources of the art, but that, if too lavishly used, they fetter the spontaneity of the composer, and overtask the receptivity of the hearer. Although not the inventor of the contrivance, Wagner was the originator of its systematization as we find it in his later music-dramas, 344 Wagner. [Sixth: where these recurring characteristic motives play an important part both as means of expression and in the texture of the style, where indeed musical composition assumes more and more the form of a network of Leitmotive. When words and actions accompany the music, they form of course the programme, that is, explain what the music leaves unexplained. In the case of interludes, such as the Dead March in Die Gdtterdammenmg, Waldiceben in Siegfried, and the Good Friday Spell in Parsifal, the key is fmrnished by what was said or done before, or is going on during the performance of the interludial music. But how about the music before the raising of the curtain ? If the overtures and preludes have a meaning, as Wagner's certainly have, we must look for the programme in what follows. Accordingly we find that the preludial matter does one of two things : (1) it gives a- summary of the main features or the gist of the whole drama, or (2) forms only an introduction to the first scene of the following act. Now, is it not inconsistent to say that absolute music is helpless, and then use it as if it were helpful ? We may indeed assume that Wagner in writing programmes to the overtures to The Flying Dutchman and Tannhduser, and to the prelude to Lohengrin, confessed his inconsistence. I note this inconsistence for the purpose not of blaming the composer, but of regretting that he did not do as much for every one of his preludial compositions. Fortunately programmatic sketches have been found among the master's papers (published in the posthumous volume of his writings — Entwiirfe, Oedanken, Fragmente) of the preludes to Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and the third act of Die Meister singer. The last of these, perhaps Pebiod.] Programme Music in his Dramas. 845 more than anything else, throws much light on his methods and his position as a composer of programme music. Of the four parts of the Ring of the Nibelwig, the fourth, Die Gotterdmnmerung, is preceded by only a few bars forming an integral portion of the scene of the Korns, which itself is a prelude to the drama proper. The longer instrumental prelude to Siegfried depicts the musing of Mime, who is first on the scene. This piece is extremely interesting, but requires either a pro- gramme or a careful study of the whole tetralogy. The prelude to Die Wcdkiire is a grand and fear-inspiring fitorm, which really belongs to the action of the first scene. Have we to regard the prelude to Das Rheingold as an introduction to the following sub-fiuvial scenes, or as a basis of the tragic action of the whole tetralogy and presentation of a profound philosophical idea? Hans von Wolzogen writes : ' The introduction consists of a colossal pedal point on E fiat, the long-sustained solitary fundamental tone of which at the beginning symbolizes that primeval state of perfect rest and undisturbed unity. The joining of the equally-sustained fifth to the fundamental tone forms the transition from this purely musical symbolism to the musical repre- sentation of the mythical symbolism, that is, the representation of the primeval state as the primeval water element.' And so on in a way that may not be so clear as one could wish. But whatever view be preferred, the prelude, which from beginning to end has only one harmony, the tonic-triad of E flat major, is both as an appropriate introduction and as a com- position a wonderful feat. It grows from the undeveloped to the more and more developed, from darkness to light. 346 Wagner. [Sixth from uniform dulness to varicoloured splendour, and fills the hearer with a feeling of inexplicable mystery, with a divination of awakening life in the watery element. Leaving undiscussed the preludes to other acts than the first, though some offer great temptation, I proceed to the three pieces we hear so frequently at concerts. They are examples of the kind that give a summary of the main features, or the gist of the whole drama to which they are prefixed. Thus the Meistersinger overture brings before us the Mastersingers' Guild, their proud banner, the bustle of festive Niirnberg, and amidst all this the love-making of Walther and Eva. Wagner's remarks on this composition in his pamphlet On Conducting^ although they are not programmatic, will be read with advantage. Among the significant hints is that of the passionate, clandestinely- whispered declaration of love (melody in E major). In the prelude to Tristan und Isolde there is unfolded a picture of the principal phases of the hero and heroine's romantic love — its ardent longing, death-defiance, and ecstasy. Here are the main portions of Wagner's sketch. ' . . , world, power, fame, splendour, chivalry, fidelity, friendship, all are gone, only one thing still remains: Longing, longing unquenchable, ever anew self -begetting desire — languishing and thirsting; the sole redemption — death, extinction, never-awakening. ... As the theme could not possibly be exhausted, the musician lets the insatiable desire swell out only once, but in a long articulated train, from the bashful confession, the most tender devotion, through timid sighing, hoping, and fearing, lamenting and wishing, rapture and torments, to the most violent efforts, in Period.] Meistersinger — Tristan — Parsifal. 347 order to find the breach which would open for the heart the way into the ocean of infinite love bliss. In vain ! Fainting the heart droops, to languish in longing, in longing without attaining, as every attaining produces only new longing, until in the last prostration the presentiment of the highest bliss of attainment dawns upon the dying eye : it is the bliss of dying, of being no more, of the last redemption, the passing into that wonderful realm from which we swerve farthest when most violently striving to enter it. Shall we call it death ? Or is it the nocturnal wonder-world, out of which, as the legend has it, the ivy and the vine grow up in close embrace on the grave of Tristan und Isolde ? ' Divine love forms the subject of the prelude to Parsifal. The motives on which the composition is based are taken from the scene of the Love Feast of the Knights of the Grail. The words connected with the three motives, the second of which is only briefly referred to, explain the character of the contents. Here they are in the order in which they occur in the prelude. ' Take my body and eat ; take and drink my blood. Thus be our love remembered.' ' Uncover the Grail.' ' His love endures, the dove up-soars, the Saviour's sacred token. Take the wine red, for you 'twas shed ; let Bread of Life be broken.' In the poet-musician's sketch, from which I shall now quote, only the first and the last of these motives are noticed. The two themes are respectively entitled 'Love' and 'Faith.' The strains of music connected with the words ' Take my blood, take my blood, for our love's sake ! ' and ' Take my blood, take my body that you may remember me,' are each separately repeated by angels' voices floating away. The second theme sets forth promise of redemption through faith. 348 Wagner. [Sixth 'Faith declares itself firmly and pithily, increased, ■willing even in suffering. To the renewed promise responds faith, soaring down from the most ethereal heights— as if on the wings of the white dove— occupying the human heart more and more largely and fully, fiUiog the world, the whole of nature, with mightiest strength, then again gently calmed, glancing upward towards the celestial ether. And now once more the plaint of loving compassion rises from out the awe of solitude. The fear, the holy agony of the Mount of Olives, the divine sorrow of Golgotha — the body grows pale, the blood flows forth, and now begins to shine the heavenly blissful glow in the cup, pouring out over all that lives and suffers the joy of the divine grace of the redemption by love. . . . Once more we hear the promise, and — hope.' After examining his case as we have done, it is impossible to evade the conclusion that if Wagner is not one of the band of composers of programme music, he bears an extraordinary resemblance to them. Another conclusion from which we cannot escape is that he learned something from the earlier composers of programme music, and that the later ones learned and may still learn a great deal from him. About whatever else we choose to dispute, we must be at one about this : that Wagner immensely increased the expressional resources of music, indeed increased them more than any musician before him. Though his powerful and wonderful attempt at a solution of the insolvable operatic problem may pass like a fashion, slowly adopted and for a time passionately followed, the instrumental portions of his dramatic works, whether descriptive of the outward or expressive of the inward, will live, and long outlive the vocal portions. Even when all Wagner's compositions Period.] As a Composer of Programme Music. 349 shall have ceased to be performed, he will still continue to live in the art; for the discoverer of so many new tonal expressions for the intensities and subtleties of emotion, for the sweetness, brilliancy, and awfulness of natural phenomena, and for the magnificent display of the pride and pomp of gods and men, cannot die with his works. K you like a paradox, consider this : Would not the dramatist Wagner have been a composer of pure instrumental music, if he had not confessedly been in need of a strong external impulse whenever he wished to do his best ? [Fifth & Sixth BOOK V. CONTEMPOEAEIES AND SUCCESSORS OF THE PKOGEAMMATIC PROTAGONISTS OF THE LAST TWO PERIODS (1830-1900). CHAPTEE I. IN FBANCB. The new ideas, forms, and methods of Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner did not put an end to the old ideas, forms, and methods. But although programme music in the classical forms continued to be cultivated side by side with programme music in freer forms, it could not but become in the course of time more and more influenced by the new views and processes. And as the later style of programme music influenced the earlier, so both these kinds of instrumental music influenced absolute instru- mental music, bringing about either an actual diminution of absoluteness, or the semblance of such, that is, the composer either having an unrevealed programme in his mind or deporting himself as if he had. In the latter case, where there is mere aimless parroting of language regardless of meaning, the outcome is of course lamentable. To such composers rightly applies Wagner's taunt that they adorn themselves with the feathers fallen from the programmatic storm-birds. Perhaps the best way of making the vast survey indicated in the title is to have recourse to a grouping by nationalities. An exhaustive enumeration of all that has been written, which would be equally useless and Periods.] Orchestral Music in Paris. 851 impossible, is of course not intended. Indeed, nothing more is aimed at than a general view of the state of matters obtaining during the period in question. I shall confine myself to pure instrumental music, and as a rule not further refer to operas, oratorios, &c. Choral sym- phonies and symphonic odes cannot however be excluded. Let us begin with France. Cultivation of dramatic music still largely preponderates there over that of every other kind. But during the last three or four decades of the 19th century the French, both the composers and the public, have shown an increasing interest in pure instrumental, especially orchestral music. As late as 1868 Berlioz wrote that there were then only two societies in Paris that concerned themselves with high- class concert music — the one was the old Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, and the other the very young Societe des Jeunes Artistes, the latter conducted by Pasdeloup. These two societies gave fortnightly concerts for only three or three and a-half months of the year. In addition to them, Berlioz thought, might be mentioned Arban's Promenade Concerts with mixed programmes. All of these, however, cultivated the old recognized classics. Pasdeloup used to say to the complaining young French composers : ' Write symphonies as good as those of Beethoven, and we will perform them.' Two earlier promoters of orchestral music ought not to be forgotten — Valentino, the founder and conductor of Popular Classical Concerts (from 1837 to about 1840), and Seghers, the founder and conductor of the Societe Sainte Cecile (1849-1854), who introduced Schubert and Schumann to the Parisians. In 1861 Pasdeloup founded the Concerts Populaires de Musique classique, and in 1871 Colonne the Concert National, which afterwards 352 France. [Fifth & Sixth became the Association Artistique. The large towns of the provinces followed the example of the metropolis, and the opportunities thus afforded to composers of hearing instrumental music and getting works of their own performed stimulated them to greater activity. In accordance with the national bent the French show a decided predilection for the dramatic and the picturesque in pure instrumental as in other music. Untitled over- tures and symphonies, especially symphonies, are of extreme rareness. Very rare also are sonatas, trios, quartets and other chamber music. Picturesque suites, impressions, scenes, and rhapsodies, interspersed with a picturesque symphony here and there — these are the kind of things that abound among the instrumental productions. yThe most notable French masters of orchestral music next to Berlioz are Felicien David, Cesar Franck, amd ^aint-Saens. That a composer of so little pith as FilLICIEN DAVID (1810-1876), a producer of so few ^pcidedly successful works, should have made the impression and exercised the influence he did is strange, although not inexplicable. He brought to market certain talents and experienges just at the right psychological moment. After being a choir-boy, pupil of a Jesuit College, apprentice in a lawyer's office, and student at the Paris Conservatoire, he joined the Saint- Simonians, and in 1833, when the sect was judicially broken up, went with some other members as an apostle of Saint- Simonianism to the East. From Turkey, the first stage of his Eastern travels, he was expelled and deported to Smyrna, next he proceeded to Egypt, travelling as far as the Ked Sea, thence traversed the desert to Beirout, took ship there, and returned to France in 1835. He now Periods.] Felicien David. 358 published M^hdies Orientales, collected by him on his travels, and several Romances, some of which pleased, and composed a symphony and string quintets. But it was not till 1844 that he emerged from obscurity. On December 8 of that year he gave in the Salle du Conservatoire a concert of his compositions, concluding with Le Desert, a composition denominated symphonic ode (ode-symphonique). It was this work that made him famous. There have been few successes like it. Schumann began his often-quoted first criticism of Chopin with : ' Hats off, gentlemen, a genius.' Maurice Bourges opened his report of David's concert in the Revue et Gazette Mvsicak in similar terms : ' Koom, gentlemen, room ! Open your ranks ! Give way ! Once more, room, large and comfortable ! For see here : a great composer is born to us, a man of singular power, of an extraordinary stamp, one of those rare talents that fascinate at one stroke a whole audience, that rouse them imperiously, master them, force from them cries of enthusiasm, and achieve in less than two hours an astounding popularity.' The writer assures the reader tnat there is no exaggeration in his statements, and confidently predicts that the composer of this original score will thenceforth sparkle in the musical pleiads of the century, and perhaps be the dominating star in it. Distinguished critic as Bourges was, and estimable composer as he proved himself, we may hesitate to accept this as the general judgment. The opinion of one man, be he ever so competent and sincere, proves nothing. But this was not a one man opinion, but the practically unanimous Opinion of Paris. In the present case no musician's opinion can be more interesting than that of Berlioz, which was as enthusiastic as Bourges's. ' If there were 354 France. [Fifth & Sixth in Paris a lyrical Pantheon exclusively consecrated to the representation of monumental masterpieces,' he wrote in Les Debats of December 15, 1844, ' this Pantheon would have been illuminated last Sunday up to the top, for a great composer had just appeared, and a masterpiece had just been unveiled.' He addressed ' the new poet ' thus : 'Yes, David, what you have done is very grand, very new, very noble, and very beautiful. We came to hear you with absolute impartiality, without prejudice, with coolness, without any idea of what was before us; and we were struck with admiration, touched, carried away, overwhelmed. You called forth acclamations, tears, and that commotion of the soul, whose surface talent can ru£3e, but which genius alone can shake down to the bottom.' When ia the following year Pelicien David gave concerts in Germany and Austria, he met with great success, at least as far as the public was concerned. The composer himself says in a letter addressed to a Leipzig friend that the success of his six concerts at Vienna fulfilled all his wishes ; and that if the critics differed from the public, it was no doubt because he did not bribe them. An examination of some of these adverse criticisms shows, however, that the composer was mistaken. For although they may have accentuated rather the weak than the strong points of David's work, they certainly indicated weaknesses that really existed. Also on leading musicians the French master made a good impression. Mendelssohn is said to have been pleased with David's second Symphony, in E flat major, which was performed at his concerts along with Le Desert; and Schumann is said to have spoken of the latter work with • surprising commendation.' Periods.] Felicien David. 365 Hauptmann voices very well the opinion of the majority of the more thoughtful musicians of the time, and also that of the critics, when he writes: 'P6licien David's Le Desert is rather pretty, and I like to defend it against those who try to make out that it is naught. It lacks elaboration. To make such a thing depends not so much on merit as on natural disposition. On the one hand, it is much more agreeable to be moved lightly than to be tormented by an inflated style ; but, on the other hand, one does not care to hear anything of this sort again and again, like a quartet of Haydn or a sonata or fugue of Bach. It is a pretty mood out of which nothing further can come than what one gets the first time.' The simultaneous presence of Berlioz and David at Vienna gave rise to a good epigram : Berlioz is a genius without talent, David a talent without genius. To turn from opinions about the thing to the thing itself. The symphonic ode Le Desert consists of a series of musical scenes introduced and connected by spoken words; the interpretative media being a reciter, an orchestra, a chorus, and solo voices. The work is divided into three parts : the first presents the desert in its silent infinitude, the approach of the caravan, a storm, restored calm and resumption of the march; the second part, the desert at night, recreations, and meditation; the third part, the desert at sunrise and departure of the caravan. It is the orchestral pieces and accompaniments, not the hymns and songs, that interest us in our present inquiry, and of them less the orientally coloured march, dances, and Arab fantasia, than the picturing of the desert silence, the storm, and the sunrise, although the influence exercised by the former was not less than that exercised by the latter. Let us hear what Berlioz 356 France. [Fifth & Sixth haa to say about the last three points. ' The stringed instruments sound softly a sustained tone, which by being prolonged without end, without movement, without harmony, without nuances, produces immediately in the mind of the hearer the image of the desert. Here [after some words of the reciter] the orchestra exhales some vague snatches of melody, then falls back into its vague immobility.' As to the storm, in which orchestra and chorus co-operate, 'it is as beautiful as the storm in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. The author has shown there that he knew the orchestra as well as anyone in the world, and that he was its master. It is impossible better to direct, increase, and let loose the instrumental tempest. This ensemble is overwhelming without ceasing to be harmonious.' One cannot but be imwilling to disagree with such an expert in these things as Berlioz, but the comparison with Beethoven is inadmissible — ^the storm in the Pastoral Symphony is a more developed and more interesting composition, and above all is much more musical. And now we come to the most remarkable and successful piece of tone-painting, the sunrise, where very rightly, and yet for the first time, the increase and the spreading of light is rendered by the increase and the spreading of sound. Here is Berlioz's description : ' An imperceptible extremely high tremolo of one violin part; a crescendo; entrance of a second violin part trembling like the first ; entrance of a third, of wind- instruments, of the whole orchestra; torrents of harmony ; voila le jour ! ' And the critic adds : * Ah, oui ! voila le jour ! and the whole audience rose to greet it, without thinking of the systematic anathemas of the adversaries of imitative harmony.' It has to be added that David makes use in Le Desert of many Oriental Ebbiods.J Felicien David. 857 melodies. Indeed, there were not a few who said that these borrowed strains were the only good things in the work. Chopin was one of them, and certainly cannot be counted with the believers in the new prophet. In 1847, FeKcien David produced a second symphonic ode, entitled Christophe Colomb, but not with the same success. In France it was received without enthusiasm, in other countries it was ignored, and everywhere it was soon forgotten. The parts that pleased most were those in which he more or less repeated the effects of Le Desert. The economy of this second symphonic ode is exactly like that of the first. There are four parts : Departure, Night in the Tropics (including a storm), Eevolt, and Arrival, or the New World. The resemblance with the earlier work made itself chiefly felt in the second" part. In short, David was a poet, but his powers were very limited. Within the range of them were, on the one hand, tender sentiment and vague sweet dreaming, and, on the other hand, picturesqueness. But with regard to the latter, it cannot be overlooked that it was restricted to certain kinds. The two great successes of his career were the symphonic ode Le Desert and the opera Lalla Rookh (1862), both of which are Oriental. He lacked the dramatic vein and vigour generally. Hence the failure of his oratorios and the moderate success of his other operas. The length of my account may seem out of proportion with the importance of the master's achieve- ments. This is so no ddubt if we look only to the present, but perhaps not if we look also to the past. In the history of the picturesque, especially of national colouring, Felicien David plays an important part, most notably of course in France. 2a 358 France. [Fifth & Sixth Of the two other principal French masters of instru- mental music, CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (6. 1835) is not the first bom, but the one who first succeeded in winning the ear of the public. In him we have a more many- sided personality than in Felicien David, a man of greater intellectual vigour, and a musician of a more solid and extensive professional training. But along with these excellencies there goes a defect, a want on the emotional side. One is tempted to say that his music has not only the glitter, but also the hardness of steel. At any rate, it is the dazzling qualities of mind rather than the touching qualities of heart that make his music what it is. Saint- Saens has a great admiration and affection for Berlioz, and a still greater admiration and affection for Liszt. But this has not prevented him from perceiving Berlioz's shortcomings, and from saying of Liszt that, seen in its totality, his output as a composer seems immense but unequal, that a selection has to be made among his works. But his admiration for this master is very great indeed. What he admires especially is the striking expressiveness, the marvellously rich orchestration, and the abounding melodiousness of his music. He looks upon the Liszt of the post-virtuoso career as the grand and true Liszt. And let us note this. Liszt's symphonic poems showed Saint- Saens the way, as he himself tells us, to where later on he met with his own Danse Macabre and Rouet d'Omphale. The younger composer was not content with admiring, but made in France propaganda for the older unpopular master's music, indeed, so strenuously that Liszt feared it had retarded his champion's nomination for the Institut. We should however be led astray if we were to Periods.] Saint-Saens. 859 conclude from these facts as to the nature of the French master's music. For his four symphonic poems as well as his other compositions are in form and character different from Liszt's. And this difference arises not merely from his different individuality, but also and chiefly from his thorough study of the classics, Bach included. Before writing symphonic poems, Saint-Saens wrote chamber music and four symphonies, only two of which have been printed ; and after the four symphonic poems, he wrote more chamber music and symphonies. In his early symphonies he is mainly inader the influence of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. To their influence that of Schumann is soon added. The habits and taste in form and development thus induced were never funda- mentally affected by the later influence of Berlioz and Liszt. And this holds good of the two later symphonies, which in some respects differ from the traditional form. Now let us examine Saint-Saens's programmes. They are so short that they may be given in full. The first of the four symphonic poems is the Rouet d'Omphcde, Op. 31 (1872), which originally was a Eondo for pianoforte. 'The subject of his symphonic poem is feminine seductiveness, the triumphant contest of feebleness against strength. The spinning wheel is merely a pretext, chosen only for the sake of the rhythm and the general turn of the piece. ' Those interested in the examination of details will see on p. 19 (letter J) of the score, Hercules groaning in the bonds which he cannot break, and on p. 32 (letter L) Omphale mocking at the vain efforts of the hero.' The second symphonic poem is Phaeton, Op. 39 (1873). 360 France. [Fifth & Sixth ' Phaeton got permission to drive in heaven the chariot of the Sun, his father. Eut his unskilled hands made the horses go astray. The flamboyant chariot, thrown out of its course, approached the terrestrial regions. The whole universe is about to be set on fire when Jupiter strikes the imprudent Phaeton with his thunderbolt.' The third symphonic poem is the Dcmse Macabre (Dance of Death), Op. 40 (1875), after a poem by Henri Cazalis. The following twelve lines of the poem are prefixed to the composition : Zig et Zig et Zig, la Mort en cadence Frappant une tombe avec son talon. La Mort a minuit joue un air de danse, Zig et Zig et Zag, sur son violon. Le vent d'hiver souffle, et la nuit est sombre ; Des gemissements sortent des tilleuls ; Les squelettes blancs vont a travers I'ombre, Courant et sautant sous leurs grands linceuls. Zig et Zig et Zig, chacun se tremousse, On entend claquer les os des danseurs. Mais psit ! tout a coup on quitte la ronde, On se pousse, on fuit, le coq a chante ! The fourth symphonic poem is La Jeimesse d'Hercule, Op. 50 (1877). 'Legend. — Mythology relates that on entering life Hercules saw opening before him two paths — the path of pleasure, and the path of virtue. Periods.] Saint-Saens. 361 ' Unmoved by the seductions of the Nymphs and Bacchantes, the hero enters the road of struggles and combats, at the end of which he sees through the flames of the pyre immortality as a reward.' Three of the four symphonic poems consist either, like the Danse Macabre, of a single logically developed movement, or, like the Eouet and Phaeton, of such a single movement preceded by a short introduction. What the composer intended to express is in these cases clearly stated in the programmes. La Jeunesse d'Hercule, on the other hand, consists of an uninterrupted series of movements, and has a more complex and ambitious programme. Not to be imjust to the composer and court disappointment for ourselves, we must look upon Saint-Saens's symphonic poems as illustrations, not as translations of the programmes. The Bouet d'Omphale is an illustration of feminine grace, charm, and mockery ; the Dance of Death, far from being a terrifying sermon such as the artists of mediaeval and later times delighted in painting, is a jeu d'esprit, in spite of the rattling bones strangely piquant, not repellently gruesome; Phaeton is a magnificent spectacle of light, motion, and final crash, ruin, and extinction ; and the Youth of Hercides is a succession of mood pictures that may be indicated thus : irresolution (short Andante sostenuto, C), character of the path of virtue (a longer Allegro moderato, C), seductiveness of the Nymphs (Andantino, 9/8), allurements of the Bacchantes (a long Allegro, <^), questionings (short Adagio, C), choice of the path of virtue and consequent struggles {Andante sostenuto and Allegro animato, resuming and developing at length the subject-matter of the second movement), and the funeral pyre and immortality beyond {Maestoso, C). 362 Framce. [Fifth & Sixth If we read Saint-Saens's programmes carefully we see that they do not deal with subjects that necessarily call for a profoundly emotional treatment. And if we listen carefully to his music, we find that the composer remains on or near the surface. In short, Saint-Saens is intellectual rather than emotional, brilliant rather than profound, astonishes rather than thrills, handles with virtuosity his materials rather than the hearts of his auditors. To complete this account there have still to be mentioned certain works for the most part of the national-picturesque kind — Suite Algerienne, Op. 60, and RhapsoMe d'Auvergne, Op. 73, for orchestra, Africa, fantasia for pianoforte and orchestra ; and the following publications for pianoforte alone : Koenig Hwrald Ha/rfagar, ballad after Heine (a quatre mains), Romances sans paroles, Sowvenir d' Italic, Les cloches du Sdr, Caprice Arabe, and Souvenir d'lsmailia. Although France was behind other coimtries in fully recognizing Saint-Saens's powers, she did so at last. The composer to whom we shall now turn our attention had not- even this belated comfort. CE SAE FEANCK (1822-1890), a Belgian by birth and a Frenchman by professional training and long residence, remained in obscurity well- nigh all his life, and both abroad and at home. Tli^ patriotic nationalism roused by the Franco-German War, which did so much for the reputation of some of the French musicians, did but little for Franck. Since his death, however, his reputation has been spreading, and may to-day be considered as established. The world is now beginning to know him as a master distinguished by solidity, seriousness, and originality, and to look upon him as one of the great composers of choral-orchestral and chamber music. His Beatitudes and sonata for violin Pbbiods.] C^sar Franck. 863 and pianoforte may be regarded as added to the current concert repertoire. Whether the purely orchestral works ■will likewise come to the front remains yet to be seen. We have here to record the existence of three symphonic poems for orchestra, a titled symphony for orchestra and choruses, and a poeme-symphonie for solo, chorus, and orchestra. In addition to, and after these works, Cesar Franck composed also an untitled symphony. Here are short accounts of the first five compositions. Les Bolides (The daughters of ^olus — composed 1876, performed 1877), a symphonic poem, is a delicate airy movement consistently worked out, which has as a programme the following lines of Leoonte de Lisle : — brises flottantes des cieux, Du beau printemps douces haleines, Qui, de baisers capricieux, Garessez les monts et les plaines, Vierges, fiUes d'Eole, amantes de la paix. La nature eternelle a vos chansons s'§veille. Le Chasseur maudit (The wild Huntsman — Composed 1883, performed 1884) is a symphonic poem founded on Burger's ballad Der Wilde Jdger (see Walter Scott's imitation, The Wild Hvmtsman). The illustration of this subject demanded, of course, colours very different from those employed in Les bolides ,- and Cesar Franck had them on his palette. The contents of the four divisions of the work are indicated by the four paragraphs of the programme. ' It was Sunday morning ; from afar sounded the joyous sound of the beUs and the joyous songs of the people . . . Sacrilege ! The wild Count of the Ehine has wound his horn. 364 France. [Fifth & Sixth ' The chase dashes through cornfields, brakes, and meadows. — Stop, Count, I pray, hear the pious songs. — No ! And the horsemen rush onward like the whirlwind. ' Suddenly the Count is alone ; his horse will go no farther ; he blows his horn, and the horn sounds no longer ... A lugubrious implacable voice curses him : — " Sacrilege ! " it says, " thou shalt be for ever hunted through hell." ' Then flames dart from everywhere . . . The Count, maddened by terror, flees, quicker and quicker, pursued by a pack of devils.' In Les Djinns (Evil spirits of Arab Mythology — composed 1884 ; performed 1885) the composer employs a pianoforte as well as the usual orchestral instruments —a by no means happy combination, as the hammer instrument does not blend with the bow and wind instruments. Notwithstanding the changes from 2-4 to 3-4 time, this symphonic poem, like Les Bolides, is a one-movement composition consistently developed. The programme is not prefixed, it has to be looked for in Victor Hugo's poem (one of Les Orientales) to which the title refers. Cesar Franck depicts here the approach, presence, and disappearance of the horrible swarm of Djinns, the hideous army of vampires and dragons, driven by the north wind, that fill the air with infernal cries, howls, and groans, and pass whirling, and whistling, shivering the yew-trees, and all but overthrowing the strongegt dwellings. Psyche (composed 1884 ; performed 1890), a symphony for orchestra and choruses, contains besides a Prelude, entitled Sleep of Psyche, the following orchestral parts : the Abduction of Psyche by the Zephyrs, Joy of Nature Periods.] Cesar Franck. 365 in the Gardens of Eros, Love Scene, Sufferings of Psyche after her disobedience, and Psyche after iber^pardon; - One other composition of C^sar Franck's remains yet to be commented upon, the Prelude to the second part of Redemption, a ■work written for solo, chorus, and orchestra, and called Sipoeme-symphonie. The Prelude of 1872 was re- written in 1885. The programme runs as follows : ' The centuries pass. Joy of the world, which transforms itself and expands under the word of Christ. In vain the era of persecutions opens, Faith triumphs over all obstacles. But the modern hour has struck. Belief is lost ; man, once more a prey to the fierce desire for pleasure, for sterile agitations, has found the passions of another age.' However noble a piece of music Cesar Franck has produced in this prelude, his programme here exceeds the bounds of musical expressidii. But be this as it may, I am convinced that the reputation of this composer has not yet reached the highest point which it is destined to reach. Still, too much must not be expected in the case of a composer of his highly reflective, profoundly thoughtful, and reconditely artistic nature. Besides Berlioz, F^licien David, Saint-Saens, and Cesar Pranck/there lived in France during the last sixty years of the iTSth century a considerable number of composers that have made notable contributions to the department of orchestral musi/; but with them I must deal summarily, although "the quantity and quality of their productions might well justify a more detailed and reasoned treatment. If what I give is a catalogue, it is not a dull one ; for nothing could be more varied and suggggtiye. My first task will be to enumerate some of le mo'st important titled symphonies, .overtures, and 366 France. [Fifth & Sixth suites, music to plays, symphonic poems, dramatic symphonies, and symphonic odes. And in conclusion a few notes ought to be added on ballets and mimodramas, two forms of musical composition in which the French have not only been supreme, but also originators and leaders. .LOUIS LACOMBE (1818-1884) composed besides Sappho, a melodrama~vn{E~choruses, twojehoral symphonies, Ma nfred Si.nd_Ava; ERNST EEYEE (6. "^23yr"I/e ~ S^Zam, a symphonic ode (1850) in the style of David's Le Disert ; EDWARD LALO (1823 - 1892), a Symphonie espagnole, Fantaisie norv&gienne, and Concerto russe for violin and orchestra, a Rhapsodie norvegienne for orchestra, and characteristic pianoforte pieces ; PAUL LACOMBE (&. 1837), a symphonic legend and a pastoral suite; THEODORE DUBOIS (1887-1871), a symphonic poem Notre Dame de laMer and overture jPn%o/; GEORGES BIZET (1888-1875), an overture Patrie, music to Daudet's play L'Arlesienne, made into two suites, and the suites Boma and Jeux d'Enfance; RENE DE BOISDEFFRE (b. 1838), Scenes champetres ; VICTORIN. DIi__JONCIERE (&.^839), a Symphonie romantique, chOTal symphony La Mer, Htmgarian Serenade, suite Les Nubiennes, music to Hamlet, and Li Tsin {chinoiserie) ; EMANUEL CHABRIER (1841-1894), a Spanish Ehapsody; JULES MASSENET {b. 1842), a symphonic poem Visions, symphonic fantasia Pompeia, overture Phedre, music to Leconte de Lisle's Les Erynnies, Scenes pittoresques. Scenes dramatiques, and other suites {Hungarian, &c.) ; AUGUSTA MARY ANN HOLMES, (1847-1894 — of L-ish extraction), symphonies Orlando furioso, Lidece, and Les Argonauts, and symphonic poems IrlandeaaKTologne^'BEialm^GOJyAlBJ) (1849-1895), Periods.] D'Indy — Debutgy — Charpentier. 367 a Legendar y, a Gothic , and an Oriental symphony, a dramatic eymphony, Tasso, for soli, chorus, and orchestra^ and" Sceiiefpokiques;' Yl^C^T^^mmZ^'^Sl), Wallenstein, a symphonic poem (called a Trilogy, consisting of three separate parts entitled Wallenstein' s Camp [Allegro gittsto^ Max and Thekla [Andante, Allegro^, and Wallenstein' s Death [Tree large, Allegro, Maestoso]), Jean H unyade, a symphony , Saii^eflewri, an orchestral legend, La ForH enchantee, a symphonic ballad, Istar, symphonic variations (illustrative of a story from the Babylonian epic Izdabar), the overture to Antony and Cleopatra, and the suite Tableaux de Voyage ; PAUL and LUCIEN HILLEMACHEE (resp. h. 1852 and 1860), a symphonic poem Les Solitudes, and a suite The Golden Wedding: FEENAND DE LA TOMBELLE (6. 1854), Impressions nationales, Livre d'images, Siute feodale; ALFEED BEUNEAU (6. 1857), a symphonic poem for voices and orchestra, Penthesilee; PIEEEE DE BEEVILLE (1861), a symphonic poem, December Night, and overture to Maeterlinck's Princesse Maleine ; CHAELES DEBUSSY (1862), Prelude de Vapres-midi d'un Favme (to Mallarm6's poem), and the orchestral pieces Nua^es and Fetes; and GUSTAVE CHAE- PENTIEE {b. 1868), Impression d'ltalie, Les Fleurs du Mai (after Baudelaire), and the symphonic drama La Vie du Poete. From the above enumeration the reader cannot but have seen that by far the larger part of these compositions are rather on than -within the borders of programme music. Among the composers of programme music in the ftdl sense of the term,YINCENT D'INDY, DEBUSSY, and CHAEPENTIEE engage more especially our atten- tion. All three are moderns of the moderns, and all 368 France. [Fifth & Sixth three divide critical opinion. Vincent d'Indy, the most solid, is also the one most in touch with the old. Debussy, on the other hand, aims at making music as -different as possible from anything it has ever been — he -aims not at gradual development, but at a cataclysmic -—revolution. Melody, harmony, rhythm, form, everything has to go into the melting-pot. Debussy's position is -that of an ultra-impressionist. He rejects all the old forms, Wagner's included, and is the most radical of the youngest French school, who say : ' We want free speech in free music, infinite melody, infinite variation, and freedom of musical phrase. We want the triumph of natural, free, plastic, and rhythmical music' As this is not a book of present-day criticism, but of history, it shall be left to the future to pronounce judgment. Qui vivra verra. The programmatic nature of the music to pantomimic ballets is often overlooked and yet is obvious. The libretti of such ballets call for expressive music even more clamorously than opera libretti. Musically well provided ballets have therefore appropriately been dubbed symphonies demsees. If we survey the ballet literature of the time we are concerned with, we shall find admirable specimens in AMBEOISE THOMAS'S Betty (1846) and La Tempite (1889), Beyer's Sakountala (1858), LEO DELIBES's CopUia (1870) and Sylvia (1876), WmOE's Korrigane (1880), LALO's Namowna (1882), and DUBOIS'S La Farandole (1883). Closely" connected with the pantomimic ballet is the mimodrama, the play without words, where the actors have to make themselves under- stood by gestures and facial expression. Here have to be named with distinction ANDEIE WOEMSEE's L'Enfant Prodigube, and EAOUL PUGNO's Pcmr le Drapeau. Periods.] CHAPTER II. IN BELGIUM, ITALY, GREAT BRITAIN, AND AMERICA. Between the music of Belgium and that of France there is similarity and dissimilarity. The mixture of races and languages in the former country accounts for both. It accounts also for the preponderance of absolute over programmatic and picturesque instrumental music. In recent times Belgium has not in a marked degree drawn on herself the attention of the world by musical works, at least not by larger instrumental compositions. This statement, however, does not imply a denial of the production of much that is estimable and even note- worthy. JOSEPH JANSSEN^ja801-1835), a pupil of Lesueur, interests us as an early cultivator of programme music in Belgium. He composed a symphony Le Lever du Soleil. Of those that come after him may be noted'^ AD OLPHE SAMUEL (1824-1898) ...and., .his choral symphony C'femjM8„and orchestral suite Roland a Boncevaux ; PETEE-BENOIT (fc. 1834) and his choral symphonies the Reapers and H ucbald , and his music to the plays Charlotte Corday and William of Orange ; THEODOEE EADOUX (b. 1836) and his symphonic tone-pictures Ahasuerus and Le Festin de Balthazar; J. B. VAN EEDEN {b. 1842) and his symphonic poem LaLutte au XVI' Steele; JAN BLOCKX (6. 1851) and his overture Rubens; SILVAIN DUPUIS (6. 1856) and his symphonic poem Macbeth; and j'AU L jGrlLSON (b. 1865) and his symphony La M^r- 870 Italy— Great Britam. [Fifth & Sixth There is much difference as to the proportionate amount of programme music produced by the different countries. To consider only the three that for a long time have been looked upon as the chief music producers. yTOe sensuous Italians keep aloof from programme music ; the intellectual French cultivate it with predilection ; and the sentimental Germans occupy an intermediate portion. Eace plays an important part in this matter. "m course in Italy we find a dearth of all kinds of instrumental music since the days of the great violin schools. The most notable master in the 19th century known also outside Italy was ANTONIO BAZZINI (1818-1897), a violin virtuoso as well as a composer of a great variety of music, and for many years the head of the Milan conservatorio. Among his works are a symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini, a choral symghOTiy Senqcheri^ia^ and overtures to Shakespeare's King Lear and Alfieri's Said. Strange to say, GIOVANNI SGAMBATI (&. 1843), a pupil of Liszt, has given to the world not symphonic poems, but absolute music in the form of chamber music and untitled symphonies. Of programmatic and picturesque contributions of latter-day composers it will suffice to mention an Italian Ehapsody by ETTOEE PINELLI (6. 1843) ; In the Heidelberg Castle, a suite by EUGENIO PIEANI (&. 1852) ; and Leonore, a symphonic poem by ANTONIO SMAEEGLIA (b. 1854). In GIUSEPPE MAETUCGI (6. 1856), one of the most important of Italian instrumental composers, we have again a composer of absolute music. A composer who hardly wrote any pure instrumental music at all ought nevertheless to find a place here on account of much of the orchestral matter in his later operas. I mean of course GIUSEPPE VEEDI Periods.] Verdi — Bennett. 371 (1818-1901), the greatest Italian composer of the second half of the 19th century, and one of the foremost European masters. His career is remarkable for the unique range of continuous development. What a distance from Nabucco, I Lombardi, and Ernami, to Aida, Othello, and Falataff! Verdi, who did not lag behind Time, assimilated much; but it was real assimilation, not mere adoption, and moreover assimilation by a powerful, masterful organization. You can never say Yerdi imitated this, that, or the other composer. But, no doubt, he learned &om many. From Italy to Great Britain is a tremendous leap. Here we are in an altogether different atmosphere, among a people that with regard to music has had a history, and tastes, views, and ways totally unlike those of tjifr-- southern people. This, however, is by no means tantamount to saying that England is unmusical, as foreigners used to be inclined to think. But it must be admitted that these foreigners had some excuse, for, like bonus Homerus, good old England has at times been found nodding. The last English musician mentioned in this book was Henry PurceU, who died towards the end of the 17th century. The 18th century, which produced good anthems, glees, and ballads, was barren or nearly so in other respects. Of orchestral music it gave us nothing notable, of clavier music little. Without fear of losing anything we, who are in quest of programme music, may pass straight on to the 19th century. The first interesting composer we meet is WILLIAM STEENDALE BENNETT (1816-1875). Has it ever been observed that his music has none of the qualities that are generally regarded as peculiarly English, for instance, a certain sturdiness ? The fact 372 Great Britain, [Fifth & Sixth is, the qualities of his music are the outcome of his iadividuality, and not of a nationality, be it his own or any other. No one has spoken with more affection, enthusiasm, and insight of Bennett than Schumann, who calls him an out-and-out Englishman, a poetic, beautiful soul, an angel of a musician, a superb artist, and finds in his music beauty of form, depth, and clearness, and ideal purity.* Bennett's titled productions comprise four overtures — Parisina, Op. 3, The Naiads, Op. 15, The Wood Nymph, Op. 20, and the fantasy- overture Paradise and the Peri, Op. 42, music to Sophocles's Ajax, Op. 45, and two works for pianoforte. Of the four overtures the second and third are the most famous. They are known all the world over, and are standing items of the classical concert repertoire. As they are the ne plus ultra of grace, delicacy, and sweetness, this is not surprising. Schumann says of Op. 15 that it needs not much imagination to think, while hearing it, of playful bathing naiads. As to Op. 20 he would have preferred the title Pastoral Overture to that of Wood Nymph, but he had no doubt that the composition breathed the purest and brightest poetic life. The fantasy-overture Paradise and the Peri engages our special interest by its having not only a title but also a somewhat more explicit programme in the form of short quotations from Thomas Moore's poem. These quotations are prefixed to the several continuous parts of the * Schumann's boundless enthusiasm, however, was never universally shared. Even his devoted Clara positively declined to agree with her beloved on this point. Indeed there were many, especially among the disciples of the new German school, notably Haas von Biilow, who thought Schumaim's estimate greatly, nay, ridiculously exaggerated. The lack of robustness and passionate emotionalism in Bennett's music no doubt account for the difference of opinion. Periods.] Bennett. 373 composition, which has not the orthodox overtm-e form, bat is divided into an Introduction and three Scenes. The poetic mottoes are as follows : — Introduction. ' One mom a Peri at the gate Of Eden stood, disconsolate.' First Scene. ' While thus she mus'd, her pinions fann'd The air of that sweet Indian land, Whose air is balm ; whose ocean spreads O'er coral banks and amber beds.' Second Scene. ' Her first fond hope of Eden blighted. Now among Afric's Lunar Mountains, Far to the South, the Peri lighted.' Third Scene. ' But nought can charm the luckless Peri ; Her soul is sad — her wings are weary. Yet haply there may lie conceal'd Beneath those chambers of the Sun The charm, that can restore so soon. An erring spirit to the skies.' One of the two or three works for pianoforte to be considered here is Op. 10, lliree Musical Sketches, respectively entitled Lake, Mill-stream, and Fountain, which, says Schumann, are, as regards colouring, truth to nature, and poetic conception, genuine ClaudC' Lorraines in music — ^living, sounding landscapes. In fact, the great critic and composer held that as to 2b 374 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth tendernesB and nalveti of presentation they surpassed everything he knew of genre painting, and that, like a genuine poet, Bennett had caught nature in some of her most musical scenes. Only in one of his pianoforte compositions, as also only in one of his orchestral compositions, does the English master add more than a title. The exception is the pianoforte sonate Op. 46, •which bears the title The Maid of Orleans, and the four movements of which have both special titles and one or two or three lines from Schiller's play prefixed to them~one movement, the third, having also a special motto for its second subject. (1.) In the Fields. ' In innocence I led my sheep Adown the mountain's silent steep.' .(2.) In the Field. ' The clanging trumpets sound, the chargers rear, And the loud war-cry thunders in my ear.' (3.) In Prison. (a) ' Hear me, God, in mine extremity. In fervent supplication up to thee ; Up to Thy heaven above I send my soul.' (b) ' When on my native hills I drove my herd, Then was I happy as in Paradise.' (4.) The End. ' Brief is the sorrow, endless is the joy.' The hater of programme music need neither stand off, nor approach Bennett's works with suspicion ; for even in the sonata the composer does not allow the programme to interfere with the classical qualities of the form. Periods.] G. A. Macfarreu. 375 Moreover, those four sonata movements are neither more nor less than four character- and mood-pictures. Unfortunately it has to be added that The Maid of Orleans is not a happy example of Bennett's art. From Schumann's •writings may be gathered an additional piece of information regarding Bennett as a composer of programme music. The critic says of the Bomance in Gr minor of the third Concerto, Op. 9, in C minor : ' Even without knowing, as I did know from the poet himself, that, while composing, he had in his mind the idea of a female sleep-walker, every feeling heart must at the performance have experienced all that is touching in such a scene. As if afraid to awake the dreamer on the high roof, no one dared to breathe ; and if sympathy in some passages was, so to speak, anxious, it was softened by the beauty of the vision into artistic enjoyment. And here occurred that wonderful chord, where the sleep-walker, out of all danger, seems as it were reposing on a couch illumined by the rays of the moon. This happy trait determined one's opinion of the artist, and in the last movement one abandoned oneself undisturbed to the pleasure to which the master has accustomed us, whether he leads us to war or peace.' In conclusion it may yet be mentioned that among Bennett's unpublished compositions are two overtures entitled The Merry Wives of Windsor and Marie du Bois. GEOEGE ALEXANDEE MACFAEEEN (1813-1887), who, although born three years before Bennett, gained his reputation later, had more of the typical Englishman in his character and music. In the matter of programme music Beethoven's was also Macfarren's standpoint. He himself writes : ' Beethoven's purpose . . . was 376 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth to give utterance to impressions rather than to present pictures, and such is the legitimate scope of music, which is not an imitative but an expressive art.' We have to take account here only of Macfarren's concert overtures The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Chevy Chase, Don Carlos, and Hamlet. These are noble themes. But how is it that these works are so entirely neglected and forgotten? Do they really deserve this fate ? Or does the neglect arise from a caprice of taste, from a change of fashion ? It is a pleasure to remember that Hans von Biilow, the progressive and slashing, and at the same time impulsive and capricious critic, said in 1877 of the conservative Macfarren: 'The present Nestor-representative of English music is in Germany undeservedly far less known than his predecessor [as Principal of the Eoyal Academy of Music] , the friend and pupil [not pupil] of Mendelssohn, Sir William Sterndale Bennett .... He is a composer that should not be ignored on the Continent .... His is perhaps a less finely polished musical nature than Bennett's, but one more sympathetic to me personally, because healthier, more muscular, more rich in colour, more sanguine. There is nothing hysterical, molluscous, and nebulous in his music ; on the other hand there is in it pregnant expression, concise form, and pronounced individuality, not without originality. Although he is an Englishman, I should like to describe him in contra- distinction to Bennett as a Scotchman.' This account of Macfarren as a composer of programme music would not be complete without a specimen or two of his programmes. The master's synopsis of the intent and purpose of his overture to Romeo and Juliet runs as follows : Pbbiods.] G. a. Maefarren. 377 'The following points of the play suggested this Overture : The Montagues and Capulets — the Nurse — the Lovers and their passion — Mercutio — ^the Feud — the Interdiction — Mercutio wounded — the entombment of Juliet — Borneo at the Grave — ^the catastrophe.' A longer analysis of his overture to Hamlet, Macfarren ■wrote for the programme of a concert of the New Philharmonic Society (1856) : ' This Overture was suggested by the following points in the tragedy : Hamlet's melancholy — aggravated by the frivolities of the court — yielding to his love of Ophelia — his foreboding of the purpose of the ghost's visitation — the ghost's appearance to him — he addresses it — the spirit of the murdered king reveals the secret of his death, and exhorts his son to avenge him — he adjures his companions not to relate what they haye seen, and the ghost invisible calls upon them to swear — this awful scene is opposed by the revelry of the court — in the midst of this, the ghost's revelation is ever present to Hamlet — it distracts him from his love of Ophelia — the scene with her in the gallery — the play- scene, where his melancholy is disguised under the pretence of riotous gaiety — the scene with the queen in the closet, where, urged by the same intention that prepared him for the ghost's disclosure, he presses upon her the subject of his melancholy — the frivolity of the court again obtrudes itself upon him — he leaves for England, thinking of Ophelia and of the ghost— he returns, remembering her love, to learn of her madness and her death — this excites him for the present time to action — in the midst of his phrensy he remembers the ghost's exhortation — the cause of his melancholy, which has always made him a passive reflector, is now his 378 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth motive for desperate action — the last scene, where he dies, knowing the ghost's admonition to be fulfilled.' In HENEY HUGO PIEESON (1815-1873), an Englishman who settled in Germany, we meet a more decided programmatist. Besides oratorios, operas, and other works, he wrote overtures entitled As you like it, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Romantic, a symphonic poem Macbeth, and music to the second part of Goethe's Faust. With the last-mentioned work he obtained his greatest success ; in Macbeth he proved himself an ultra-programmatist. The translation of the German title runs as follows : — ' Symphonic poem to the tragedy " Macbeth " by Shakespeare, Op. 54.' However, there is not only a title but about twenty quotations from the play, which in some places give the score the appearance of a melodrama. Whatever be the excellence of details, the matter and form of the whole preclude the likelihood of a change in the indifference with which this composition has hitherto been treated. Let us note in passing a Forest ^jmphgaj^^ths third of five symphonies, composed about the middle of the 19th century by the prolific amateur composer JOHN L ODGE ELLEBTON (1801-1873), and six symphonies" and two overtures by the much-travelled violinist, ALFEED HOLMES (1837-1876), who in 1864 took up his abode in Paris — Jeanne d' Arc (with vocal solos, 1867), The Youth qf Shakespeare, The Siege of Paris, Charles KlI., Romeo and Juliet, Robin Hood, The Cid, and The Muses. — .-.^.-- And then we come to what has been called the Eenaissance of English music, to the time of a more general musical activity, of more liberal views, of wider and more varied sympathies, and of greater independence, Periods.] Pierson — Holmes — Benaissance — Parry. 379 a change brought about by a group of composers born in the forties and early fifties, among whom the chief were Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), A. C. Mackenzie (&. 1847), C. H. H. Parry (ft. 1848), Arthur Goring Thomas (1851- 1892), Frederic H. Cowen (6. 1852), and Charles Villiers Stanford {h. 1852). Not all of these come within the scope of ouFmquffy. G0EIN(3^ THOMAS distinguished himself in opera and other vocal works, and his few instrumental compositions were outwardly at least absolute music. Among SIR C. HUBEET H. PAERY'S instrumental works there is an early overture entitled Guillem de Cdbeatamk, and a later symphonic overture with the even more daring title On am, vmwritten Tragedy ; but his four symphonies are without any Indication of a poetic subject. The composer's sympathies are easily discoverable from his writings on music, especially from The Art of Music, the Summary of Musical History, and the articles in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, in all of which the greatest stress is laid on design. Sir Hubert sees in the development of music three stages respectively distinguished by supremacy ol design and" abstract beauty, by balance of abstract beauty and expression, and by the pursuit of the characteristic to the neglect of the purely artistic. Beethoven is the chief representative of the second stage, but at the same time points and leads to the following one. In the third stage, where Berlioz and Liszt were leaders, the preponderant tendency in the musical as in all art is towards ' variety and close- ness of characterization . . . Art comes down from its lofty region and becomes the handmaid of everyday life . . . Though realism is admissible as a source of suggestion, the object of the expressive power of music 380 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth is not to represent the outward semblance of anything, but to express the moods which it produpes and the workings of the mind that are associated with them. . . . Of a conspicuously different type were the wild theories of a certain group of enthusiasts, whose eager- ness to solve artistic problems was in excess of their hold upon the possibilities and resources of the art. They emphasized unduly the expressive aims of Beethoven and thought it possible to follow him in that respect without regard to his principles of design.' The main ground of Sir Hubert's accusation and condemnation is that ' they rejected the deeper principles along with some of the superficial conventionalities ' of the sonata form. The titled instrumental compositions of SIE CHAKLES VILLiEJib BTSJJFOED are more numerous than those of'bir (J. Ji. K. PafryT "Ofhis five symphomes the aecond, third, fourth, and fifth are respectively entitled : Elegiac ; Irish; Thro' youth to, strife, tltro' . death to life; and U Allegro ed il Pensieroso ; — and one of his overtures, composed for the Armada Tercentenary, bears the title Queen of 'the Seas. To conclude, however, from this that Sir Charles has a pronounced leaning towards programme music would be a mistake. He admits that musical creation can be inspired by a poem or a picture or some abstract poetical view of a concrete idea, and that the above-mentioned works had some such source of inspiration. But while he believes in Beethoven's view of ' working after a picture,' he also believes in his practice of not defining what the picture is, at any rate in detail. Accordingly he holds that absolute music (as distinguished from lyrical and dramatic music) should be able to tell its tale without a title, able to stand as Periods.] Stanford — SvMvan — Mackenzie. 381 music pure and simple if its title were destroyed ; and that no rigid or detailed explanations can be given without narrowing the effect of the compositions, and limiting their expression. Sir Charles says that he never sets himself to analyze the causes of the music that comes into his head. ABTHUB SULLiyM J1848-1800) writes in a letter dated Belfast, 1863 : ' The whole of the first movement of a symphony, with a real Irish flavour, came into my head.' Sir A. C. Mackenzie, after pointing out the absence of vividly and strongly coloured national and racial characteristics, remarks : ' As in the case of Mendelssohn's famous Scotch, Sullivan's Jrisfe Symp hony is rather the result of imj)ression3 produced by the B"cene^7^Tie temperament, and the literature of the peopIeTtEie 'general atmosphere in fact, than an artistic reproduction of the country.' However, it was not the composer who gave to the symphony the epithet Irish. Sullivan's In Memoriam overture was called forth by his father's death, and written within a week of it. Other notable overtures are Marmion, Macbeth, Di Ballo, and that to the second part of The Light of the World. And then the reader has still to be reminded of the music to several plays — to The Tempest, a remarkable Op. 1, to The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry VIII., Macbeth, and King Arthur. The programmatic movement is more heartily joined in by the other composers named by me. Most prominent among SIE ALEXANDEK C. MACKENZIE'S con- tributions to this kind of music are the highly poetic Op. 29, La Belle Dame sans Merci, ballad for orchestra, to which the whole of Keats's poem is prefixed ; and the sprightly, humorous overture to Shakespeare's 382 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth comedy Twelfth Night, in the course of which six quotations from the play appear as superscriptions. Mackenzie's Op. 41, The Dream of Jubal, a poem with music for soli, chorus, orchestra, and accompanied recitation, deserves special notice because of the latter element. The composer takes pleasure and is felicitous in the melodramatic treatment, as is further proved by many excellent pianoforte accompaniments to poems, especially of a humorous cast. In addition to the above works have to be mentioned the overtures Cervantes and To a Comedy, the music to the plays Ravenswood, Marmion, The Little Minister, Manfred, and Coriolanus, and the national tone-pictures the Britannia Overture, the orchestral suite London Day by Day, Scenes in the Scottish Highlands for pianoforte (On the Hill-side ; On the Loch ; and On the Heather), From the North for violin and pianoforte, also for orchestra, and two Scottish Rhapsodies and one Canadian Rhapsody. Although Sir A. C. Mackenzie often writes absolute music, and never attempts to follow strictly a poem or drama in its actual sequence of events, yet he has an inclination to programme music. He finds that writing with some definite subject in his mind is more fascinating and easy to him — a picturesque or dramatic figure, the general outline of a poem or play, any given local colour or atmosphere, invariably cause him to work with greater rapidity than he would do without such a mental impression. With some such picture or character before him, the corresponding musical ideas present themselves quickly, without strain and effort, and the contour of the whole piece easily shapes itself after a comparatively short study of the subject chosen for illustration. In the first movement of his suite Periods.] Mackenzie. 883 London Day by Day, there is to be found quite a series of impressions, each of the eighteen variations being intended to represent in miniature some phase of street life (military band, hawkers' cries, &e.) within hearing of the Westminster chimes, which form a basso ostinato upon which the whole piece is built. The Finale tells of Hampstead Heath and Bank Holiday. His Belle Dame sans merci aims at giving a general impression of Keats's ballad rather than a musical replica of it. The overture to Twelfth Night, the composer thinks, might perhaps more fitly have been called Malvolio, since its programme is limited to the illustration of a single incident in the play — namely, the successful trap laid for him by the mischievous crew. The finding of the letter begins the piece, and a parallel passage expressing Malvolio's threat, to be ' revenged on the whole pack,' logically ends it. The body of the work (AUegro con brio) is an attempt to describe the characteristics of the principal performers in the trick ; and its second subject (the fair Olivia), of which a modified version has already appeared during the reading of the letter in the introduction, provides an easy contrast to the vivacity of the chuckling schemers. The composer points out that in this piece he kept closely to the accepted form of an overture, although each section became considerably lengthened out, by reason of the programme, which seemed to him to demand ' expansion,' particularly in the development section. Generally speaking, Sir A. C. Mackenzie acknowledges the legitimacy of, and is thankful for, both absolute and programme music, but deprecates programmes that travel beyond the province and possibilities of musical expression, and further deprecates formlessness, although he believes that Liszt's method 384 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth of metamorphosis of themes may be to some extent a substitute and help to satisfy the sense of form. The composer explains his liking for programme music by his liking for every kind of stage music, which after all, as he rightly remarks, is nothing else but programme music. FEEDEEIC H. COWEN'S programme music takes us to different regions. The third of his six symphonies is denominated The Scandinavian, and its second movement {Andante) bears the superscription ' Summer night on the Fjord.' But although the other movements have no superscriptions, they do not fail to raise thoughts in the mind of the hearers; for all are poetic and romantic. His fourth and sixth symphonies are entitled Welsh and Idyllic. Another work (unpublished and, as the composer says, practically defunct) is denominated Niagara, a Characteristic Overture. Cowen shows a predilection for, and at the same time a wonderful aptitude and virtuosity in, the depicting of the delicate and graceful, as is demonstrated by his suites The Language of Flowers and In Fairyland, and by The Butterfly's Ball. But he treats also emotional themes, as in A Phantasy of Life and Love. Alter writing the foregoing, I apphed to Dr. Cowen for his views and intentions, and he was so kind as to make the following interesting confessions. ' Generally speaking the Scandinavian Symphony was influenced more by general impressions of the country — its rugged- nesB, its historical associations, and its folk melodies, by which I endeavoured to impart local colour. The Adagio, however, is meant to convey a definite idea of a moon- light night on a Fjord. The Scherzo has a vague suggestion of a sleigh ride. The Finale is an impression Periods.] Cowen—Corder. 385 of the sturdiness of the ancient Scandinavian gods. In the Welsh Symphony I aimed at nothing more than local colour, and the Idyllic Symphony gives merely a vague picture of rustic simplicity. The Adagio of the latter work, however, might suggest a quiet, peaceful afternoon, undisturbed by mundane thoughts ; and the Finale has something of the character of a vUlage festivity. The Phantasy of Life and Love is a mood, or a variety of moods — the strenuousness of life, the desire for love, and the weirdness and humorousness of things in general. In all the above I have never intended labelling any particular phrase or passage, the whole being more the result of some Stimmung [mood of the soul]. With regard to the following, however, matters are somewhat different, as they are meant to convey, and I hope do convey, more or less definite ideas to the hearer. For instance, in The Language of Flowers and In Fairyland, all the movements are intended to suggest the ideas indicated by their titles and sub-titles — such as Daisy (Innocence), Dance of the Witches, &c. The Butterfly's Ball is an ethereal dance suggested by an old nursery rhyme of " The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast." ' Of FEEDEBICK COEDEE (6. 1852), a less persistent pursuer of the Muse than the British composers already mentioned, we will note the overtures Ossian and Prospero (with the motto, ' What harmony is this ? My good friends, hark ! ' — Act III., Scene II., of The Tempest), the idyll Evening on the Seashore, and the suites In the Black Forest, Scenes from The Tempest, and Boumanian, and instrumental accompaniments to recitations {The Witch's Song, &c.). Mr. Corder says he believes in brains and handicraft, and does not believe in much else ; that although on one or two occasions 386 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixth favourably influenced under stress of emotion, he cannot but own that his best efforts — such as the Witch's Song — have been the outcome of mere merciless brain- cudgelling. In fact, he mistrusts the assertions of composers who gush about inspiration. He goes so far as to say that when he writes he tries to avoid all conscious connection with outside thoughts and influences, however emotional the composition may be. To express emotion he makes use of the technique of emotion, of conventional modes of utterance, as it were of universal idioms. ' When one tries to paint the feeling of a poem in music, one must employ the mechanical means which knowledge and experience have taught us will produce on the minds of others the desired effect. The subtle and just use of these mechanical means we call artistry, and the coarse and vulgar use of them, claptrap.' Mr. Corder is fond of paradox and persiflage. I see traces of this in the exposition of his theory of composition. Disgust with childish amateurish idealism, with impotent ambitious botching, need not make us fall back on rank materialism, on le compositewr machine (to parody Lamettrie's L'homme machine) and la musique mecaniqtte (however ingenious) as a summum bonum. After all, there is such a thing as enlightened magisterial idealism. Before parting from the generation with which for a while we have been occupied, I shall yet mention a concert overture, Morte d' Arthur, by SIR FEEDEEICK BEIDGE (b. 1844), and an orchestra picture. Clouds and Sunshine, and a symphony, A Summer Night, by FEEDEEICK CLIFFE (5. 1857). With the later born composers the programmatic tendency becomes more and more intense and absorbing, Pebiods.] Cliffe—MacCunn— Wallace. 387 and not only does it become more intense and absorbing, it also reveals itself in new, extraordinary, and even eccentric ways, both in subject and in form. Of course, there are exceptions, among whom DONALD TOVEY is a notable one.; but they do not invalidate what I asserted as to the general tendency. The composer who comes next on the scene is HAMISH MacCUNN (fe. 1868), who made an impression with the concert overture Land oj the Mountain and the Flood, the orchestral ballad The Ship o' the Fiend, and the ballad overture The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow. WILLIAM WALLACE (6. 1860) has given us both a good philosophical definition of programme music (in a paper on The Scope of Programme Miisic, read before the Musical Association), and some highly interesting specimens of it. The definition is : 'Music whijsh attempts to excite a mental image by means of an auditory impression.' The specimens are : the symphonic poems The Passing of Beatrice and Sir William Wallace, the symphonic preludes Amboss oder Hammer (on Goethe's Kophtisches Lied), The Eumenides, the Rhapsody of Mary Magdalene, &c. Mr. Wallace is not in sympathy with the composers destitute of constructive power who resort to the symphonic poem as a refuge. He declares that a musical work, however poetic the subject, has always to be judged primarily from the point of composition ; and claims for his own works the possession of construction and a certain form, consistent working out and avoidance of irrelevancies. His position can be made clear by the following two quotations. ' When a composer deals with an objective idea, he is limited in his expression, and too close an adherence to a literary text will preclude any strict musical structure, unless it so happens that the poetic 388 Great Britain. [Fifth & Sixih idea is laid out on lines corresponding to musical form. When the idea is subjective, the music can conform to technical requirements, and can be worked out on lines exactly similar to those in the treatment of absolute music. For the elaboration of definitely , named emotional ideas can be just as consistent, just as academic, just as absolute, if you will, as the elaboration of indefinitely named and abstract emotional ideas.' — 'Besting secure in his conviction that the various musical forms have reached their highest technical development, he [the composer of to-day] strives to impart to his work some new, some modern quality, and this he discovers by giving to his composition a definite poetic significance.' GEANVILLE BANTOCK (6. 1868) is looked upon in England as an extremist among composers of programme music, and critics have often maltreated him because of his supposed utter materialism. In this as in so many eases popular beliefs turn out to be popular prejudices. The composer himself states that much, in fact nearly all,j)f his later work may be said to have a literary origin ; but that he feels himself much more concerned with the human and emotional element than with any attempt to portray or reproduce in music the effects of Nature or descriptive events — that, in fact, he is not conscious of much external influence, of being affected by the material aspect of things. In The Witch of Atlas, however, and to some extent in The Great God Pan, his thoughts have certainly been directed to Nature, though, in the first instance, inspired by the poems respectively of Shelley, Browning, and other poets. In short, Mr. Granville Bantock conceives that the right kind of programme music is inspired by broad, human Periods.] Wallace — Bantock—Elgar. 389 emotions and the great thoughts of literature. It seems to him that whereas absolute music is merely a decorative or architectural design of tone upon tone, or the development of purely musical thematic material, the object of a programme composer is to convert the literary idea into musical expression. As to form, Mr. Granville Bantock holds that it must vary according to the subject, and that in programme music the composer may break away from the orthodox and conventional forms of absolute music and create new forms in keeping with his ideas. Other compositions of this most daring and prolific of the younger generation of composers of programme music are the overture Eugene Aram, the symphonic overtures Cain and Behhazzar, and the tone-poems Thalaba the Destroyer, Dante (visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, his Exile and his Death), Fifine at the Fair (after Browning), Hudibras (after Butler), and LaUa Bookh (after Moore). Granville Bantock had the intention of writing two- dozen symphonic poems illustrative of Southey's Curse of Kehama, but afterwards gave up the idea. Of this vast theme, there remain only two Oriental Scenes — No. 1, Processional, and No. 2, Jaga-Naut. It would take too long to mention all the programme music produced in recent times ; but I must name a few of the producers — Arthur Hervey, Walter Handel Thorley, Herbert Bunning, Learmont Drysdale, William H. Bell, Percy Eideout, J. Holbrooke, and Frederick Delius. We cannot be eqiiaUy brief with SIE EDWAED W. ELGAE (6. 1867), the composer who since the beginning of the new century has in so high a degree drawn upon himself the attention of England and the Continent. Earnest and intense, and ultra-modern as he is, he could not 2 c 390 Great Britain— America. [Fifth & Sixth but be a composer of programme music, and as such he has proved himself in his overtures Froissart, Cockaigne, and In the South, in the orchestral Variations and other pieces, and still more strikingly in the instrumental constituents of his vocal - instrumental compositions, especially in those of The Dream of Oerontius and The Apostles. ' Instrumental accompaniments,' being a misnomer, ought to be regarded as an obsolete term in speaking of modern works, where the voice or voices are oftener the accompanying parts than the instruments. Sir Edward's instrumental compositions, although programme music, have, however, no other programmes than their titles. Cockaigne (In London Town) and In the South explain themselves. Froissa/rt was suggested by Claverhouse's remarks about Jehan Froissart's Chronique in the 33rd chapter of Walter Scott's Old Mortality : ' His chapters inspire me with more enthusiasm than even poetry itself. And the noble canon, with what true chivalrous feeling he confines his beautiful expressions of sorrow to the death of the gallant and high-bred knight, of whom it was a pity to see the fall, such was his loyalty to his king, pure faith to his religion, hardihood towards his enemy, and fidelity to his lady-love ! ' . . . Peculiarly interesting from the programmatic point of view are the orchestral variations on the ' Enigma ' theme. E. J. Buckley writes in his Sir Edward Elgar : ' The theme is a counterpoint on some well-known melody which is never heard [and remains unrevealed by the composer], the Variations are the theme. seen through the personalities of friends, with an intermezzo and a coda {_f,nale] .' The friends are indicated by the names Ysobel, Troyte, Dorabella, Nimrod, in one case by three asterisks, and in most Periods.] Elgar—MacDowell. 391 «ases by initials. Sir Edward is a lover of nature and of books. He holds that a musician needs education and outdoor life. And one of his ideas is that there is music in the air, music all round us, that the world is full of it. Of the Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47, for strings, the composer relates that he thought out the theme of this composition in Cardiganshire, ' on the cliff, between the sea and the blue sky,' while there came to him indistinctly the distant sound of singing. The overture In the South contains impressions received in Italy, more especially ' on a glorious afternoon in the Vale of Andora, with streams, flowers, and hills ; the distant snow moimtains in one direction, and the blue Mediterranean in the other.' America, as far as music is concerned, may be described by a European as a terra incognita. Whether this ignorance is blameless or not, is a question too delicate to be taken up rashly. In any case, however, we can plead in excuse lack of opportunity to hear and see American compositions, especially orchestral and choral-orchestral ones. As I like neither to simulate a knowledge I have not, nor to depend entirely on second-hand knowledge, I shall pass over JOHN KNOWLES PAINE {b. 1839), AETHUE FOOTE (b. 1853), GEOEGE WHITFIELD CHADWICK (&. 1854), FEANCK VAN DEE STUCKEN (6. 1858), and others, and confine myself to the consideration of a single composer, one who both by the quantity and quality of his instrumental music must raise the curiosity and interest of the student of programme music. EDWAED MacDOWELL (&. 1861) is incontest- ably and pronouncedly a poet, and a certain dreaminess is a predominating feature of his poetry. His music 392 America. [Fifth & Sixth reminds one of the expression that is so striking in his portraits — the quiescent, abstracted, inward look. It suggests also improvisations of a poetic soul in the twilight — exhalation rather than composition. While everything in it is exquisite in feeling and expression, one may miss in MacDowell's music a vigorous abundance, variety, and organization of thought. The dreamer in him tends to neutralize the actor. The composer's more impassioned, more tumultous moments prove rather than disprove what I say. The most successful of MacDowell's achievements are probably his songs. Next to them come certainly his pianoforte works. But he also composed works for the orchestra. MacDowell confessedly wanted to write * suggestive music,' and his music cannot leave us in doubt as to whether his programmes were suggestive to himself. But the suggestiveness was general rather than particular, idealistic rather than reahstic, and above all dreamily, visionarily poetic. Among the pianoforte pieces we find Forest Idyls, Six Idyls (after Goethe), Little Poems, Les Orientales, Marionettes, Moon Pictures (after Hans Christian Andersen), Fireside Tales, and the three most important series. Op. 51, 55, and 62, the Woodland Sketches, Sea Pieces, and New Englamd Idyls. In addition to the general titles the composer gives his pieces special titles, and mostly prefixes to them some verses. The special titles enable us to see further into the poet's laboratory. They are in the case of the Woodland Sketches .- ' To a Wild Eose,' ' Will-o'- the-Wisp,' 'At an old Trysting Place,' 'In Autumn,' ' From an Indian Lodge,' ' To a Waterlily,' ' From Uncle Eemus,' ' A deserted Farm,' ' By a Meadow Brook,' and 'Told at Sunset.' Among the special titles of the Periods.] MacDoweU. 393 Sea Pieces are : ' To the Sea ' (' Ocean, thou mighty monster'), 'From a Wandering Iceherg' ('An errant princess of the north,' &c.), ' a.d. 1620,' ' In mid- ocean,' &c. In the New England Idyls occur among others the following special titles : ' An old Garden,' ' In deep woods,' ' To an old White Pine,' and 'From Puritan Days.' Subjects of a different nature are dealt with in the Marionettes — they are : 'Soubrette,' 'Lover,' 'Witch,' 'Clown,' 'Villain,' and ■' Sweetheart.' MacDowell has written a Tragic, a Heroic, a Norse, and a Keltic Sonata. Of the meaning of the first sonata "the composer gives no further hints. To the second he prefixes the motto "Flos regum Arthuris,' and writes: 'While not exactly programme music, I had in mind -the Arthurian legend when writing this work. The first movement typifies the coming of Arthur. The Scherzo vras suggested by a picture of Dor6's showing a knight in the woods surrounded by elves. The third movement was suggested by my idea of Guinevere. That following represents the passing of Arthur.' To the Norse Sonata MacDowell has prefixed a number of verses of which I shall quote four : — ' Bang out a Skald's strong voice, With tales of battles won ; Of Gudrun's love And Sigurd, Siegmund's son.' To the Keltic Sonata are prefixed these verses : ' Who minds now Keltic tales of yore. Dark Druid rhymes that thrall, Deidre's song and wizard lore Of great CuchuUin's fall.' 394 America. [Fifth & Sixth And the composer characterizes his music as ' more a commentary on the subject than an actual depiction of it.' Besides writing a pianoforte concerto, MacDowell wrote for orchestra two suites and some symphonic poems. The first Suite, Op. 42, consists of the pieces 'In a haimted Forest,' ' Summer Idyl,' ' The Shepherdess' Song,' and ' Forest Spirits ' ; and the second, the Indian Suite, of ' Legend,' ' Love Song,' ' In War-time,' ' Dirge,' and ' Village Festival.' More interesting for the student of programme music are the other orchestral composi- tions — the two pieces Hamlet and Ophelia, Op. 22, the second symphonic poem, Lancelot and Elaine (after Tennyson), Op. 25, and the two pieces The Saracens and The Lovely Aldd (after the Song of Roland). As to Op. 25, MacDowell remarks : ' I would never have insisted that this symphonic poem need mean " Lancelot and Elaine " to everyone. It did to me, however, and in the hope that my artistic enjoyment might be shared by others, I added the title to my music' This and other remarks of the coinposei;'s have a curious, somewhat apologetic ring about them. With regard to one quoted above, the reader may feel inclined to ask: 'What then is exactly programme music ? ' Pbeiods.J CHAPTEE III. IN DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN, BOHEMIA, AND RUSSIA. The Dane NIELS W. GADE (1817-1890) was the first voice from the North European nations that made itself heard in the republic of music. His Op. 1, the overture Echoes from Ossian (1841), gave a first taste of northern colour and atmosphere. But nationalism merely tinges Gade's compositions, and only some of them, the early ones. In fact, his countrymen blamed him for going over to Germany, for denationalizing himself. The accusation was imjust. One may be true to one's country without speaking its brogue or obtruding its peculiarities. Gade never adopted its brogue, and soon fulfilled Schumann's hope that he would not allow the artist in him to be submerged in his nationality, but would display his aurera borealis imagination in its richness and variety, and cast his eyes as well on other spheres of nature and life. Besides Op. 1, three more of Gade's overtures have titles — Op. 7, Im Hochlcmd (' In the Highlands '), Op. 37, Hamlet, and Op. 39, Michael Angela There are, further, five pieces for orchestra, entitled A Summer-day in the Country, (' Early,' ' Stormy,' 'Forest Solitude,' 'Humoreske,' and 'Evening, merry life of the people '), Op. 56, and pieces for the pianoforte — AquareUen, Op. 19, Northern Tone-Pictures, Op. 4, &c. ; among his less known works there is an overture entitled' A Mowntain Excwrsion in the North. On the other hand, there are eight symphonies, an overture, and other works without titles. Indeed, Gade's programmatic 396 Denmark. [Fifth & Sixth tendency is not very pronounced. It falls greatly short of Beethoven's and Mendelssohn's. Liberally gifted with the sense of the pleasingly beautiful in line, colour, form, and sentiment, he lacked Beethoven's imposing intellectual depth and emotional force as well as Mendelssohn's fascinating life-like picturesqueness. In some respects, however, there was a close spiritual relationship between Gade and Mendelssohn. To form a true idea of the man, it will be well to remember his love of the two sister arts of music, painting and sculpture, and especially his early and life-long admiration for the Danish poet Oehlenschlager (1779-1850), the reviver of the old Northern myths and legends and sympathizer with much in the contemporary German romanticists. The motto of his Op. 1 shows in what spirit Gade entered upon his career : ' Formulas hold us not bound, our art's name is poesy.' Some of the jonngex^^n^iomofBamBD^ have gone further in this direction. EMILHAETMANN_ (1836-1898) wrote a ' Tragedy Overture ' and entitled it Eine nordische Heerfahrt ('A northern War Expedition'; also called ' The Vikings '), and gave to t he second of his three symphonies the title of Aus der Ritterzeit. ASGEFHA^ElErTF:'lM3X""-whFs^^^^^ time in America, pioHlcernffronly five Northern Suites, a Poetic, a Tragic, a Lyric, a Majestic, and a Seriovs Symphony, but also an Opera witliout Words for piano- forten^ mention one more Danish composer. Among the works of VICTOE BENDIX (b. 1851) there are two symphonic poems — Fjeldstignimg and Svmmer Sownds from Russia. The obtrusive northern nationalism has come from Scandinavia, and especially from Norway. It seems to Periods.] Gade — Hartmann — Hamerik — Bendix. 397 have been EICHAED NOEDEAAK (1842-1866) who introduced into the art-music of his country the. peculiarities of Norwegian folk-music. He died young, and although he wrote, besides other things, music to two of Bjomson's plays, he would probably not have been heard of outside Scandinavia had he not inspired or infected with his idea a young contemporary composer of nearly his own age who was destined to live and effectively apply his principle. This composer was EDWAED H. GEIEG {b. 1848). Unlike Gade, Grieg revels in his country's brogue, is obtrusively national, and remains true to his nationalism. We have of him no symphonies and no untitled, overtures. But we have an untitled concerto and several sonatas full of national idiotisms, colour, scenery, life, and sentiment. We have of him further an overture In Autvmn, music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Op. 46 (formed into two Suites), Three Pieces {IntrodMction ; Intermezzo, Borghild's Dream; and Triumphal March) to Bjornson's drama Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56, a Suite Of Holberg's Tims, Elegiac Melodies for string orchestra (Heart-wownds and Spring), the melodrama Bergliot (the poem by Bjornson), Op. 42, and several interesting series of pianoforte pieces — Poetic Tone-Pictwres, Humoresken, From the Life of the People (Sketches of Norwegian life), Norwegian Peasant Dances, and ten books of Lyric Pieces, and among the titles of the pieces contained in these series we find such as Watchman^s Song from Macbeth, Dance of the Elves, On the Hills, Bridal Procession passing by. Butterfly, Erotikon, Prayer and Temple Dance, To Spring, and March of the Dwarfs. The speaking nature of Grieg's music precludes the assumption that his compositions are mere formalistic tone-combinations and 398 Norway. [Fifth & Sixth the titles fanciful additions without serious significance. To be convinced of the truth of this, we have only to listen with open ears and mind to miniatures like the Watchman's Song from Macbeth and the Dance of the Elves. And who could fail to perceive the programmatic character of the Peer Gynt music ? In the melodramatic Bergliot the music is of course patently and necessarily programme music. But the untitled compositions too have tales to tell. He must be a dullard indeed who is not impressed, for instance, by the sea life depicted in the first movement of Op. 8, the Sonata in F major for pianoforte and violin. In short, Grieg's concerto, sonatas, and pieces make us hear, see, and feel land and sea, woods and heaths, fiats and moimtain-tops, fresh breezes, thick fogs, rocking waves, rushing water, fiapping sails, merry dances, melancholy musings, wild rollicking, stories of heroes and goblins, and much more. Let it not be thought that the secret of Grieg's more than transient success lies in his adoption of the idiotisms of Norwegian folk-music. No doubt they give piquancy and colouring, have a pictorial and ethnographical value ^ but so extensively and obtrusively used are a source of weakness rather than of strength, result in mannerism rather than in style. You cannot with impunity make the inessential the essential, and the rudimentary the norm of the developed. There are people who imagine that thus a national art-music may be produced ; but that is a fatal mistake. If folk-music has virtues, it has also limitations — limitations in the range of thought and feeling and in the means of expression. There is nothing more futile than the endeavour to produce a national art-music by imitation of folk-music and its peculiarities : a national art must be based on the broader and deeper Periods.] Grieg. 899 foundation of humanity, on ' the essential passions,' to use an expression of Wordsworth's; it must grow out of the hearts and souls of the individuals that constitute the nation ; it must be spontaneous, natural, and sincere. Look at the great masters of the art ! Although full of national character, they have none of the tricks of folk phrase and gesture,* and consequently are universal as well as national in the higher sense of the word, have a medium of expression suitable to the whole range of human thought and feeling. Gade, who approved warmly of Grieg's first sonata for violin and pianoforte (Op. 8, in F major), was quite right when, after hearing the second (Op. 13, in G major), he said to the composer : ' The next sonata you must really make less Norwegian.' It was a pity that Grieg, instead of perceiving the excellence of the advice, defiantly replied : ' On the contrary, the next will be more so.' Both sonatas are thoroughly Norwegian. But there is a difference between their nationalism : whereas in the earlier work the spirit impresses us, in the later the letter oppresses us. National tricks of phrase and vocabulary, which arrest the attention and delight the ear, soon weary and pall. With less obtrusive nationalism the spirited, piquant pianoforte concerto (Op. 16) would have maintained its vogue longer than it has done. And thus it has been or will be with some of Grieg's enthusiastically received pianoforte pieces. Happily for him and us, the master does not often mainly depend on these externalities. Wherein, then, * Their occasional use of such does not npset the argument. To take an exceptionally strong case. Those who dub Haydn a Croatian ■ composer overlook the German and the broadly human elements that form the great bulk of his music. 400 Norway-Sweden-Finland-Bohemia. [Fifth & Sixth lies the secret of Grieg's more than transient success to which I alluded ? It lies in the poetic nature of the man — a nature that derives its character from his individual constitution in the first place, and only in the second place from the inspiration yielded by his country and people. In short, what of his music will live, will live thanks to Grieg the poet, not to Grieg the Norwegian. The more classically inclined and less strikingly individual and less obtrusively national JOHANN SEVEEIN SVENDSEN (fe. 1840) has produced, besides two untitled symphonies and other things, an Introduc- tion to Bjornson's Sigurd Slumbe, Op. 8, Carnival in Paris, Op. 9, Zorhayde, a legend, Op. 11, Wedding-feast (' Northern Carnival '), Op. 14, an Overture to Borneo and Juliet, Op. 18, and also four Norwegian Ehapsodies, Op. 17, 19, 21, and 22. Programme music more of the Berlioz type has come from the pen of JOHANN SELMEE (6. 1844)— fi^cme funebre, Northern Festival Procession, Finnish Festival Sounds, Among the Hills, Carnival in Flanders, and Prometheus. Of the younger Norwegian composers, OLE OLSEN {b. 1'850), who follows ultra-modem tendencies, wrote two symphonic poems — Asgardreigen and Elfentanz — and music to Erik XIV., but also an untitled symphony; whereas CHEISTIAN BINDING (&. 1856), who eschews both obtrusive national idiotisms and titles (except occasionally, indeed extremely rarely, in his pianoforte pieces), distinguishes himself honourably by concerted chamber music and other compositions in the large forms. Sweden has not drawn the attention of the world on her music in the same measure as Norway, and, at least in the department of orchestral music, has been less Periods.] Svendsen — Sehner — Hallen — Sibelius. 401 fruitful. It may suffice to name here ANDEEAS HALLEN (b. 1846), the author of two symphonic poems Sten Sture and From the Waldemar Legend. In the neighbouring Finland, we will also note only one master, JEAN SIBELIUS (b. 1865), whose growing fame has for some time been spreading far beyond the borders of his own country. Although the list of his compositions contains two untitled symphonies, it evidences unmis- takably the master's leaning towards programme music. For we find there the legends The Swam of Tuonela (from the folk-epos Kalevah) and Lemminkdinen travels homeward, the tone-poems A Saga, FimUmdia, and SpiiTig Song, the overture and suite Carelia, the suite PeUeas and Melisande, and music to Ad. Paul's drama King Christian II. Although the extraordinary talent and love for music of the people of Bohemia has always excited much wonder, it is only in recent times that the musical world has become cognizant of a Czech school with distinct features and imposing powers. The many earlier Czech composers that made reputations outside their own countries— such, for instance, as the 18th and 19th century musicians J. W. A. Stamitz, the three brothers Benda, Myslive6ek, Wanhal, Pichl, Kozeluh, Gyrowetz, J. L. Dussek, Dyonis Weber, Anton Eeicha,TomaBchek,and J. W. Kalliwoda — were most of them so closely bound up with the musical life and productivity of other nations, more especially of Germany and Austria, that they are included in the history of these countries, the music of which some of them (notably Stamitz, the Bendas, and Dussek) not only enriched, but also leavened and developed. This state of matters has been changed by two composers, now of world-wide fame, Smetana and Dvorak, who may be 402 Bohemia. [Fifth & Sixth regarded as the outcome of a renaissance of Czech nationalism, a combative reassertion in opposition to Grerman ascendancy and domination. FEEDEEIC SMETANA (1824-1884), a genuine Czech, but not an obtruder in and out of season of folk idiotisms, was active both in dramatic and instrumental music. Hardly anything of the former, with the rare exception of The bartered Bride, has found its way beyond the frontiers of Bohemia ; the latter, on the other hand, has spread abroad, slowly but continuously, and is likely to do so at a faster rate in future. For, as Liszt, deeply moved by Smetana's death, said : ' He was a genius.' As to his artistic faith, we happily have a sufficiently complete confession from his own pen. We can extract it from his letters to Liszt. Although he cannot call himself one of Liszt's direct pupils, he acknowledges him as his master, to whom he owes everything; and declares himself an uncompromising champion of the great masters of the present time (April 10, 1857). Subsequent to a visit to Weimar, he writes in a letter of October 24, 1858, of the powerful impression made on him by Liszt's music, of the necessity of progress in the very way so grandly and truly taught by the Weimar master, of his most zealous discipleship of that master's artistic tendency (Kunstrichtimg), and of his desire to work for the deliverance of the art from its confining fetters. But let no one conclude that Smetana was a despiser of the older masters, and deaf and blind to the lessons they taught, because he was not content to follow their lines. As a disciple of Liszt he was of course a believer in programme music. He is one of the very few who have written concerted chamber music with a programme, one of his compositions of this Periods.] Smetana. 403 kind, a string quartet in E minor being autobiographical and bearing the title of Aus meinem Leben. The four movements of which the quartet consists have, however, no further programmatic indications.* Of greater interest to us are Smetana' s symphonic poems for orchestra, Hakon Jarl, Richard III., Wallenstein's Camp, and the series of six symphonic poems entitled Ma Vlasl ('My Fatherland'). They are compositions consisting of a continuity of movements ; but whereas the first three have only titles, the other six have also a programme prefixed to them. Of Richard III. we find a concise programme in one of Smetana' s letters to Liszt. The composer says there : ' It consists of one piece [Satz], and the tonal vesture \_Betonung'\ clings pretty closely to the action of the tragedy ' — ' The attainment of the proposed aim after the overcoming of all obstacles, triumph, and fall of the hero.' Two short motives are quoted as representative of the hero (who acts throughout the whole), and of the opposing party. Of the first of the three early tone-poems, composed at Gothenburg, where Smetana resided from 1856 to 1861, Sir A. C. Mackenzie says that the Scandinavian Hakon Jarl is ' more northern, more briny and breezy, than any of the many similar pictures which have (until very recently indeed) been painted by Scandinavian composers themselves,' that this piece ' positively rattles with the north wind ' ; and of the third tone-poem, Wallenstein's Camp, the same racy commentator remarks that it is decidedly the best of the three and a masterpiece ; that it brings us face to face with the turbulence of camp life in those tumultuous times ; that through the shrieks of laughter, the uncouth * The sustained e"" of the first violin towards the end of the last movement is believed to be the tone that haunted him in his deafness. 404 Bohemia. [Fifth & Sixth capering and the carousing of the soldiery, we hear the exhortation of the Capucin, thundering his unheeded denunciations ; that, in fact, ' all seems to be taken straight from Schiller — and from life.' The titles and programmes of the six parts oiMa Vlasl (' My Fatherland ') are as follows : (1.) Vysehrad. — Thoughts engendered in the poet on beholding the famous fortress. The glorious life there in its palmy days ; subsequent unfortunate struggles, and final ruin. (2.) Ultava. The river Moldau. — The scenes through which the course of the noble river leads — natural beauties, historical buildings, and doings of men, wood and water nymphs, &c. (3.) Sdrka. The noble Bohemian Amazon. — The Amazons at war with the race of men. Sarka having had herself bound to a tree, cries ; Ctirad hears her and frees her. When she finds the men are tired and asleep after the day's rejoicings, she winds her horn ; her comrades come ; and all the men are slain. (4.) Ziesk'^ch luhuv a hdjuv. — From Bohemia's Grove and Field. A Pastoral Symphony. (5.) Tabor. The castle founded by the Hussites. — The Taborites and their enthusiasm. (6.) Blomik. — The hill in which are sleeping the glorious Hussite champions who will rise again and battle for their country when the time comes. Smetana stands forth in his My Fatherland as a musician of extraordinary imaginative and constructive power, and as a patriot of the genuinely noble ideal, not of the pseudo, blatant, chauvinistic type. If the writers of music may be divided into composers and creators, he ought to be numbered with the latter. The six parts of Periods.] Smetana — Dvorak. 405 his greatest symphonic achievement are poems in the fullest significance of the word. Like so many geniuses Smetana starved in early life and never greatly prospered. Like Beethoven he became deaf, and like Schumann he died in a lunatic asylum. Struggle, death, and transfiguration — martyrdom and canonization : this is a typical fate of the true artist. Much readier, wider, and fuller than the recognition of Smetana has been that of ANTONIN DVOEAK (1841- 1904), whose great popularity for the first time made the world aware of Bohemia's national individuality in matters musical. An out-and-out Czech like Smetana, Dvorak was fonder of folk idiotisms. Like Smetana he suffered much hardship in his early career, unlike him he prospered later on. It was not till the age of thirty- two (1873) that he came prominently before the public. After drawing his own country's attention upon himself by a cantata and an opera, he obtained a stipend from the government. Next (1877) he gained by a happy chance the patronage of Brahms, who procured him a publisher. The publication of the vocal duets Moravian Strains {' Elange aus Mahren ') and the pianoforte duets Slavonic Dances, afterwards arranged for orchestra, won for him an almost instantaneous and world-wide reputation, which was heightened especially by his Stdbat Mater and The Spectre's Bride. If we look for the secret of Dvorak's success we are sure to find it in the vigour, daring, exuberance, and uncouventionality of his personality, in the bloom, freshness, and wealth of an imagination strongly tinged with Czech characteristics. It was only in the last ^ears jofjtiis life that^vofak became a composer of programme music in the fullest sense of the word. I pass over without comment 2d 406 Bohemia. [Fifth & Sixth the pianoforte pieces, Silhouettes, Op. 8; From the Bohemian Forest, Op. 68 ; Poetic Mood Pictures, Op. 85, &c. Of his five titled overtures— Mi/ Home, Op. 62; Husitzka, Op. 67 ; In Nature, Op. 91 ; Carnival, Op. 92 J and OtheUo, Op. 93— it may be BaidJthaLjn most cases, at least in the first three, if the title indicates a programme at all, it is a vague one, and that in all cases opinions will differ as to the extent to which the programme inspired and guided the composer. The same holds good of the fifth symphony. Op. 95, called by the composer From the New World, a title which nj^ doubt alludes to something more thanjuj-tfee-fiegro melodies contained in the work. It is different when we come to the five Symphonic Poems, Op. 107-111. All these compositions consist of a continuity of movements, and all but one have detailed programmes based on popular Czech legends by K. Jaromir Erben. The exception is the fifth, Op. Ill, the most satisfactory, which has only a title. Heroic Song (' Heldenlied '). The programme prefixed to the fourth Symphonic Poem, Op. 110, The Wild Dove (' Die Waldtaube ') runs thus : (1.) Andante, Marcia funebre : The young widow, weeping, and lamenting, follows the body of her husband to the grave. (2.) Allegro, afterwards Andante : A jovial, well-to-do peasant meets the beautiful widow, consoles her, and persuades her to forget her grief and take him for her husband. (3.) Molto vivace, afterwards Allegretto Grazioso : She fulfils her lover's wish. A merry wedding. (4.) Andante : From the branches of a freshly budding oak, overshadowing the grave of her first husband — who had been poisoned by her — the mournful cooing of the Periods.] Dvorak. 407 ■wild dove is heard. The melancholy sounds pierce to the heart of the sinful woman who, overcome by the terrors of an evil conscience, goes mad, and seeks death in the waters hard by. (5.) Andante Tempo I., afterviSLTcAaPm lento : Epilogue. Although there are no references to movements ia the programmes prefixed to the three other Symphonic Poems, the composer's procedure is the same — that is to say, he follows the course of the stories. Let us see what is the nature of them. The student of our subject cannot fail to find them interesting. A little abbreviation here and there may be both permissible and advisable. The Water-Fay ('Der Wassermann'), Op. 107.— In the pale moonshine, on a poplar branch by the edge of the lake, sits the Water-Fay, making himself a coat of green and shoes of red, singing at his work, for to-morrow is his wedding-day. Early in the morning, the village maid, his chosen victim, obeying an irresistible impulse, comes to the lakeside to wash clothes, in spite of her mother's evil forebodings. She falls into the lake, is drowned, and wedded to the Water-Fay, who holds prisoner the souls of drowned men and women. Bewailing her miserable fate, she pours out her passionate desire for home in lullabies to her baby. At last the Fay grants her one day to re-visit the world above, keeping the baby as a pledge of her return. When the time comes to end the sorrowful reunion of mother and daughter, the mother scornfully refuses to let her go. A violent storm arises, something is dashed against the door of the cottage — the headless body of the baby.' The Midday Witch ('Die Mittagshexe'), Op. 108, has the following programme. A mother threatens her 408 Bohemia. [Fifth & Sixth crying child with the Midday Witch, and at last exclaims : ' Here, Nanny, come and fetch the cry-baby.' The door opens, and in comes a shrivelled ghostly woman leaning on a crook-stick. ' Give me the child,' she cries. The terror-stricken mother clasps the child in her arms. But, like a shadow, the Midday Witch draws nearer; she stretches out her arms towards the child; the mother falls senseless to the ground. It is midday. When the father comes in from the fields, he finds his wife in a swoon on the floor, and the child on her bosom suffocated. The Golden Spinning Wheel, Op. 109, has an even more gruesome programme. The king enters a cottage by the wood, sees there a lovely maid, asks her to be his wife, and is told by her to ask her stepmother, who will return from town on the morrow. When the king comes again the ugly old woman tries to persuade him to marry her own daughter, who is the image of the stepdaughter. But the king commands her to bring her step-daughter to the palace next day. The old woman, however, determines to take her own daughter to the king, and together they murder the stepdaughter, leaving the body in the wood, but carrying with them the eyes, hands, and feet. The unsuspecting king marries the daughter. After seven days' feasting he goes to war, enjoining his wife to spin diligently. Meanwhile a wise old man, a mighty magician, finds the mutilated corpse in the wood, and sends a boy with a golden spinning-wheel to the castle, with the commission to sell it for two feet. The young queen is so anxious to possess this wonderful piece of work that she makes her mother ask and pay the price. In the same way the girl's hands and eyes are obtained in exchange for a golden spindle and a Periods.] DvofdJc. 409 golden distaff. With the help of the water of life the magician joins the several parts of the body, and disappears after the maid has come to life. At the end ■of three weeks the king returns victorious, and the queen shows him the spinning-wheel she has got. But no sooner does she begin to spin than the magic wheel reveals the gruesome deed. Pale with fear she tries to silence the treacherous spindle, but the king insists on iearing all. Then he quickly rides into the wood, and after long seeking finds the maid, marries her, and lives iappy ever after. We may assume that in writing these orchestral compositions DvoMk was not under the delusion that his music could, without words, make intelligible all that is in the stories, and knew perfectly well that all he could do was to illustrate legends already known to the hearer. There is, however, a great difference between an illustra- tion that runs parallel with the text (as pictures in a book, or instrumental accompaniments of a vocal composition) and an illustration that comes after the text (as in programme music). In the former case, force and beauty may be added by details of illustration that in the latter case are only sources of obscurity and disorganiza- tion. The fundamental questions, then, we have to ask ourselves are these : Do the texts chosen by Dvofak readily lend themselves to purely instrumental treatment ? Are they essentially and broadly musical? Are they profoimdly and largely emotional ? I am afraid the answers must be in the negative. And why ? Because the non-musical predominates in them. In the cantata, The Spectre's Bride, on the one hand, and the four symphonic poems, Op. 107-110, on the other hand, Dvorak has proved that subjects of the same character 410 Bohemia — Russia. [Fifth & Sixth may be strikingly effective in vocal-instrumental composition, and leave much to be desired, or be wholly unsuitable for a purely instrumental one. At any rate, the musical world has given its decision by cherishing the cantata and ignoring the symphonic poems. It will sufiSce for our purpose if I name only two more Czech composers — the Eussianized EDWAED F. NAPEAVNIK (6. 1839Vwith his symphOTy Tfe^ JDmow^ (after TiSmonFov)"an3^the symphonic poem The Orient ; and the much more important true nationalist ZDENKO FIBICH (1850-1900), who, besides three symphonies and some chamber music without programmes, has written the symphonic poems Othello, Toman and the Nymph, Spring, Zerbqj und Slavoj, Vigilice, and In the Evening, the suite In the Open Air, the overtures The Jew of Prague, The Tempest, and A Night on Karlstevn, 352 short and fragmentary pianoforte pieces entitled Moods, Impressions, and Eecollections, and lastly and most notably a. melodrama, Hippodamia (a trilogy: Pel&ps's Wooing; Tantalus' Expiation; and Hippodamia' s Death), after Jaroslav Yrchlicky's poem. We have here substitution of the speaking voice for Wagner's speech-melody, a natural step to take. But Fibich returned to opera. In the last decades of the 19th century it seemed as if Eussia were becoming the leading and predominating musical nation of Europe, as if the music of the vigorous youthful East were to supersede that of the effete, senile West. Now that the glamour of novelty has passed away, this view can no longer be maintained : we see the weakness as well as the strength of the East, and see also signs of still subsisting vitality in the West. But, although Eussia has not produced composers and a musical literature equalling in excellence those of the Periods.] Napravnik — Fihich — Glinka. 411 great epochs, or even, all things considered, surpassing those of her contemporary rivals of other countries, it is undeniable that her composers and musical literature compel our attention, engage our interest, widen our ideas, and influence our art-practice. Henceforth Eussia has to be reckoned with in music as well as in politics. She has become one of the great musical powers. Without forgetting Bortniansky (1751-1825) and other early composers we may say that Eussia became an art- producing nation of more than merely national importance with MICHAEL GLINKA (1804-1857). Nothing gauges his significance better than the respect and admiration of his successors. He was one of the five composers whom Anton Eubinstein revered most and whose busts adorned his study, the other four being Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin. To Tchaikovsky, Glinka was an extra- ordinary phenomenon, a colossal artistic force. These references to Eubinstein and Tchaikovsky are convenient, as Glinka's operas, which make up the great bulk of his works, are unknown outside Eussia, if we except The Life for the Czar, which has been a few times performed in other countries. Glinka aimed at writing operas entirely national in music as well as in subject, and wanted his countrymen to feel quite at home in them. In this as well as in the means employed, he was epoch-making in Eussia. Like him most of his successors delight in the utiKzation of Eussian folk-melodies and peculiarities of Eussian folk-music generally. For ethnographical purposes, for the sake of local colouring and the love of colour per se, they also delight, again like him, in the utilization of the folk-music of other nations— Polish, Italian, Spanish, and especially Oriental. That in this way 412 Russia. [Fifth & Sixth the composer may fail to reach the heart and soul of the matter, to compass the heights, depths, and breadths of humanity, and may even become crude and puerile, is too obvious to require pointing out. Glinka's purely orchestral writings are the beautiful expressive music to Koukolnik's drama Prince Kholmsky (overture, four entr'actes, &c.), and the three well-known delightful fantasias or capricci/ on popular airs — the Eussian Kamarinskaja (1848) and/ the Spanish Jota Aragonesa and Une Nuit a Madricf (1851). Tchaikovsky says that many touches in the music to Prince Kholmsky recall the brush of Beethoven, and describes the entr'actes as little pictures painted by a master-hand, as symphonic marvels. 'A symphonic picture full of poetry ' is Cui's comment on Une Nuit a Madrid. Bubinstein asserts that the Kamannskaja has become the type of Eussian instrumental music, an opinion shared by Tchaikovsky, who remarks that the whole Eussian symphonic school lies in the Kamarinskaja. Both agree also in thinking that this playful bagatelle is of astounding originality, in fact, a work of genius. The relation of these fantasias to programme music would be an excellent subject for discussion. But so much may be confidently claimed for them without discussion : if they are not programme music, they are at least full of life, humour, character, and colour. In the latter part of his life Glinka seems to have gone further in the direction of programme music, for he was occupied with the idea of a symphonic work (begun in 1852) on Malo-Eussian airs on the subject of Gogol's novel Tar ass Boidba. The master's remark, that his unfettered imagination needed a text as a positive idea, goes far towards ascertaining his position with regard to programme music. Peeiods.] Glinka — Dargomijaky. 413 The master that comes next in point of time is ALEXANDEE SEEGEIVICH DAEGOMIJSKY (1813- 1869), a composer chiefly of operas and songs. Indeed, of instrumental compositions we have to mention only three symphonic pieces in the comic genre — Kazachok