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diff --git a/34381-8.txt b/34381-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da70541 --- /dev/null +++ b/34381-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13496 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Great Musical Composers, by George T. Ferris, +Edited by Elizabeth Amelia (Mrs. William) Sharp + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Great Musical Composers + German, French, and Italian + + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Editor: Elizabeth Amelia (Mrs. William) Sharp + +Release Date: November 20, 2010 [eBook #34381] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Colin Bell, Sam W., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +The Camelot Series. +Edited by Ernest Rhys. + +GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS + +German, French, and Italian + +by + +GEORGE T. FERRIS + +Edited, with an Introduction by Mrs. William Sharp + + + + + + + +London +Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane +Paternoster Row +1887 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION vii + + BACH 1 + + HANDEL 7 + + GLUCK 36 + + HAYDN 46 + + MOZART 59 + + BEETHOVEN 70 + + SCHUBERT AND SCHUMANN 87 + + CHOPIN 103 + + WEBER 115 + + MENDELSSOHN 124 + + WAGNER 131 + + PALESTRINA 147 + + PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA 154 + + ROSSINI 175 + + DONIZETTI AND BELLINI 200 + + VERDI 213 + + CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS 226 + + MÉHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALÉVY 260 + + BOÏELDIEU AND AUBER 273 + + MEYERBEER 281 + + GOUNOD 297 + + BERLIOZ 310 + + APPENDIX: CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 335 + + + + +[Decoration] + +_Introduction._ + + +The following biographical sketches were originally published in +America by Mr. George T. Ferris, in two volumes, separately entitled +_The Great German Composers_ and _The Great Italian and French +Composers_. They have achieved the success they deserved: for while we +have whole libraries of books upon the history and technicalities of +music in general, upon musical theories and schools, and upon the +exponents thereof in their artistic capacity, there has been a +distinct dearth of treatises dealing in a brief and popular fashion +with the lives of eminent composers themselves. Now, when music is +"mastered and murdered" in almost every house throughout the length +and breadth of the land, there can be no doubt that compilations of +this kind must be welcome to a very large number--we will not say of +musical students, but of lovers of music. There are, it would be +needless to attempt to prove, great numbers of the music-loving +public, who practically have no facilities towards making acquaintance +with the leading facts in the lives of those men whose compositions +they have such a genuine delight in rendering: to these mainly is such +a book as _Great Composers_ addressed. But, indeed, to every one +interested in music and musicians the volume can hardly fail to be of +interest. In his preface to _The Great Italian and French Composers_, +Mr. Ferris explained that--as was very manifest--"the task of +compressing into one small volume suitable sketches of the more famous +Italian and French composers was, in view of the extent of field and +the wealth of material, a somewhat embarrassing one, especially as the +purpose was to make the sketches of interest to the general +music-loving public, and not merely to the critic and scholar. The +plan pursued has been to devote the bulk of space to composers of the +higher rank, and to pass over those less known with such brief mention +as sufficed to outline their lives, and fix their place in the history +of music." + +To _The Great German Composers_ he prefaces a few words which may be +quoted--"The sketches of composers contained in this volume may seem +arbitrary in the space allotted to them. The special attention given +to certain names has been prompted as much by their association with +great art epochs, as by the consideration of their absolute rank as +composers. The introduction of Chopin, born a Pole, and for a large +part of his life a resident of France, among German composers, may +require an explanatory word. Chopin's whole early training was in the +German school, and he may be looked on as one of the founders of the +latest school of pianoforte composition, whose highest development is +in contemporary Germany. He represents German music by his affinities +and his influences in art, and bears too close a relation to important +changes in musical forms to be omitted from this series." + +Various important events have occurred since the publication of these +volumes in America: _inter alia_, the performance of Wagner's last +great work "Parsifal," and the death of the great German musician; +the production of new works by Gounod and Verdi; and so forth. The +editor has endeavoured, as briefly as practicable, to supplement Mr. +Ferris's _causeries_ with the addenda necessary to bring _Great +Composers_ down to date. Mr. Ferris further acknowledges his +obligation to the following authorities for the facts embodied in +these sketches:--Hullah's _History of Modern Music_; Fétis' +_Biographie Universelle des Musiciens_; Clementi's _Biographie des +Musiciens_; Hogarth's _History of the Opera_; Sutherland Edwards' +_History of the Opera_; Schlüter's _History of Music_; Chorley's +_Thirty Years' Musical Reminiscences_; Stendhall's _Vie de Rossini_; +Bellasy's _Memorials of Cherubini_; Grove's _Musical Dictionary_; +Crowestl's _Musical Anecdotes_; Schoelcher's _Life of Handel_; +Liszt's _Life of Chopin_; Elsie Polko's _Reminiscences_; Lampadius' +_Life of Mendelssohn_; Urbino's _Musical Composers_; Franz Hueffer's +_Wagner and the Music of the Future_; Haweis' _Music and Morals_; +and the various articles in the leading cyclopædias. + +To this volume the present editor has appended a chronological table +of the musicians referred to in the following sketches. + +In reading the lives of these great musical composers, we can trace +the gradual development of music from its earliest days as an art and +as a science. Unlike the other arts which have flourished, decayed, +and had rebirth, music, as we now understand it, sprang into being out +of the ferment of the Renaissance, and therefore is the youngest of +the arts--a modern growth belonging particularly to the later phases +of civilisation. Music in a rude, undeveloped condition has existed +doubtless "since the world began." In all nations, and in the records +of past civilisations, indications of music are to be found; martial +strains for the encouragement of warriors on the march; sacred hymns +and sacrificial chants in religious ceremonials; and song accompanied +by some rude instrument--we find to have been known and practised +among remote tribes as well as among potent races. The bards of divers +peoples and many countries in ancient days played upon the harp not +merely for delight, but for the exorcism of evil spirits, the +dispersion of melancholy, the soothing and cure of mental and physical +disorders. Here we find music as the direct expression of feeling, but +not as a science. The Greeks made further use of music by +incorporating it into their dramas, but it was chiefly declamatory, +and was used solely in the choruses. To modern ears such music would +sound very inefficient, more especially as the antique instruments +were of the crudest--and although musical sounds, to a limited extent, +could be produced from them, all attempts at _expression_ must have +been unsuccessful. + +In Europe in the early middle ages there existed two kinds of music: +that of the people, spontaneous, impulsive, the song of the +Troubadour, unwritten and orally transmitted from father to son; that +of the Church, which had been greatly encouraged since the days of +Constantine, and especially owed much to St. Ambrose and St. Gregory. +For a time music became the handmaid of the Church, but it thereby, to +a certain extent, also gave voice to the lyrical feelings of the +people; for the chorister and composer not only embodied popular songs +into the chants, but in many instances interpolated the words +themselves. This incongruity at length necessitated the reform, +brought about by Palestrina--the father of sacred music as we now know +it--whose _Missa Papae Marcelli_, performed in 1565, established a +type which has been more or less adhered to ever since. The services +of the Church gave rise to the oratorio, which, however, chiefly owes +its development to Protestant genius, more especially to Handel. In +1540 San Filippo Neri formed in Milan a Society called "Le +congregazione dei Padri dell' Oratorio" (from _orare_ to pray), and we +are told by Crescembini that "The oratorio, a poetical composition, +formerly a commixture of the dramatic and narrative styles, but now +entirely a musical drama, had its origin from San Filippo Neri, who in +his chapel, after sermons and other devotions, in order to allure +young people to pious offices, and to detain them from earthly +pleasures, had hymns, psalms, and such like prayers sung by one or +more voices." "Among these spiritual songs were dialogues; and these +entertainments, becoming more frequent and improving every year, were +the occasion that, in the seventeenth century, oratorios were +invented, so called from their origin."[A] + +Then came the fulness of the Renaissance, quickening dead forms into +new life, laying its vivifying touch on the new-born art, music, and +making it its nursling. At first the change was hardly perceptible. It +was church music out of church, fine, stately, what may with seeming +paradox be called statuesque, which came to bear the name of +_L'Opera_, signifying _The Work_:--but, though born to a heritage of +good aims, possessed of very inadequate means for their fulfilment. +Once liberated from its presumed function of expressing religious +feeling, and thus subjected to other impelling forces, music could not +long remain in the old forms. It began to feel its way into new +channels, and in the form of the opera became a national institution. +Its growth at first was weak and faulty; but finally it developed into +a perfect art. It was as the novice, who, freed from the sanctity of +the convent with its calm lights and shadows, enters at last the +portals of the life of the world--a varied world full of turmoil, +passion, and strife. A greater world, after all, than that quitted, +because composed of so many possibilities in so many directions, and +comprising the sufferings, the joys, the aspirations of such +innumerably differentiated beings; a world wherein the novice learns +to widen her sympathies, to feel with and for the people, and to +express for them the never-ceasing craving for something beyond the +fleeting moment. At first, therefore, the stately art and the musical +needs of the people were dissimilar and apart; but little by little +each gave to and took from the other, till at length, out of the +marriage of these elementaries, a third arose to become the expression +of the life of the people, partaking in likeness of both, having lost +certain qualities, having gained many more, becoming richer, broader, +more eclectic--in short, developing into the more fitting expression +of the manifold aspirations of modern days, when life is varied and +intense, and the mind gropes blindly in every direction. + +This development is traceable in all art, and in the sphere of music +it is most manifest in the opera. Like all great movements the opera +began humbly. Towards the end of the sixteenth century a number of +amateurs in Florence, dissatisfied with the polyphonic school of +music, combined "to revive the musical declamation of the Greeks," to +wed poetry and music--so long dissevered--to make the music follow the +inflexion of the voice and the sense of the words. The first opera was +"Il Conte Ugolino," composed by Vicenzio Galileo--father of the famous +astronomer--and it was followed by various others, the titles of which +need not here be recorded. At first, such performances took place in +the palaces of nobles on grand occasions, when frequently both +performers and musicians were of high rank. At length, however, in +1637 a famous theorbo player, Benedetto Farrari, and Francesco +Manetti, the composer, opened in Venice an opera-house at their own +risk, and a little later brought out with great success "Le nozzi di +Peleo e di Telide" by Cavalli, a disciple of Monteverde, and it was +henceforth that the opera became, as we have said, a national +institution. Schools for singing were opened in Rome, Naples, and +Venice--the science of music made rapid strides--instruments for +orchestral purposes naturally likewise improved in quality and in +variety; and the opera developed continuously in breadth of treatment +and form in the hands of Scarlatti, Leo, Jommelli, and Cimarosa. + +About the beginning of the eighteenth century a rival to the _serious_ +opera sprang up in Naples--the _comic_ opera, the direct offspring of +the people, and of lower artistic standing. But as the serious opera +became more stately, more scientific, more purely formal, less human, +less the expression of direct feeling, cultivated more for art's sake +solely, the comic opera throve on the very qualities that its elder +sister rejected, till at length the greatest musicians of the day, +Pergolesi, Cimarosa, Mozart, wrote their masterpieces for it. +Ultimately the two were fused into one, that is, into the modern +Italian opera. The comic opera, as we now understand it, is of French +origin. + +From Italy the opera found its way into other countries with varying +results. In England it took early root, and assimilated itself with +the earlier _masques_ which were played at Whitehall and at Inns of +Court. In the early productions in this country, however, the music +was merely incidental. During the Commonwealth, an opera entitled "The +Siege of Rhodes," composed by Dr. Charles Colman, Captain Henry Cook, +Henry Lawes, and George Hudson, was performed in 1655, under the +express license of Cromwell. Purcell seems, however, to have been the +first to see the possibility of a national English opera;--his music +to Dryden's "King Arthur," and to the "Indian Queen," is considered +very beautiful; "his recitative was as rhetorically perfect as +Lulli's, but infinitely more natural, and frequently impassioned to +the last degree; his airs are not in the Italian form, but breathe +rather the spirit of unfettered natural melody, and stand forth as +models of refinement and freedom." "The Beggar's Opera," set to music +by Dr. Pepusch, and Dr. Arne's "Artaxerxes," a translation from +Metastasia's libretto, adapted to melodious music, were deservedly +popular, and long retained a place on the stage. Nevertheless, when +the Italian opera became an institution in England, the national opera +made no further progress. During the last few years the former seems +to have practically died out in England, and it remains to be seen in +what form the English opera will revive and flourish once more as a +national product. We have good promise in the works of such musicians +as Balfe, Wallace, Sterndale Bennet, Sir G. A. Macfarren, Dr. A. C. +Mackenzie, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mr. C. V. Stanford, and others. + +The end of the sixteenth and end of the seventeenth centuries form +what has been called "the golden age of English music--aye for all +musical Europe--of the madrigal. Nowhere was the cultivation of that +noble form of pure vocal music, whether in composition or in +performance, followed with more zeal or success than in England." The +Hon. Roger North, Attorney-General to James II., in his _Memories of +Musick_, speaks thus of the state of music in the first half of the +seventeenth century--"Afterwards these (Italian _fantazias_) were +imitated by the English, who, working more elaborately, improved upon +their patterne, which gave occasion to an observation, that in vocall +the Italians, and in instrumental music the English excelled." Again +he alludes to "those authors whose performance gained the nation the +credit in excelling the Italians in all but vocall." In instrumental +music, then, in the madrigal, the cantata, and in ecclesiastical +music, England prospered. Among her most important composers were John +Dowland, Ford, Henry Lawes, John Jenkens, Pelham Humphreys, Wise, +Blow, Henry Purcell--great in secular and ecclesiastical works, in +instrumental and in vocal--Croft and Weldon; all were predecessors of +Handel, who, though one of the greatest of German composers, lived +nearly fifty years in England, composed several operas and all his +famous oratorios for England, and is therefore not unjustifiably added +to the list of English composers. + +The opera was first introduced into France by Cardinal Mazarin early +in the seventeenth century, but the lyrical drama owes its origin in +that country to Lulli, who also introduced into it the ballet, which +was a favourite pastime of the young king Louis XIV. The ballet has +since become an integral part of the French and also of the later +Italian operas. It was Lulli, again, who extended the "meagre prelude" +of the Italian opera into the overture as we now know it. But as the +rise and progress of the French opera is fully portrayed in the +following musical sketches, it is needless to trace it further here. + +Germany--equally with Italy the land of music, but of harmonious in +contra-distinction to melodic music, which belongs most properly to +Italy, well named the land of song--was much later in developing her +musical powers than Italy, but she cultivated them to grander and +nobler proportions; for to Germany we owe the magnificent development +of instrumental music, which culminates in the form of the sonata for +the piano, and in that of the symphony for the orchestra, in the hands +of such masters as Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. In Germany the +opera took root by means of a translation of Rinaccini's "Dafne," set +to music by Henry Schütz in 1627, with Italian airs and German +recitative. The first German opera or _singspiel_, "Adam und Eva," by +Johann Theil, was performed in 1678, but it became national through +the works of Reinhard Keiser, whose opera "Basilino" was performed in +1693. "His style was purely German, less remarkable for its rhetorical +perfection than that of Lulli, but exhibiting far greater variety of +expression, and more earnest endeavour to attain that spirit of +Dramatic Truth which alone can render such music worthy of its +intended purpose." He was worthily followed by Hasse, Grann, by +Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Die Zauberflöte," "Don Giovanni," and +by Beethoven's one opera "Fidelio." + +The growth of a national opera in Germany and France, competing with +that of Italy, induced also the rise of party quarrels between the +adherents of the several schools; and the history of music +demonstrates the fact, often seen in the history of politics, that in +such contentions the real point at issue--the _excellence_ of the +subject in question--is lost sight of in the fierce strife of +opponents; the broader issues are obscured in the narrowing +influences of mere partizanship, wherein each side on principle shuts +its eyes equally to the merits of its adversary and to its own faults. +Thus in the following sketches are recorded the quarrels between the +adherents of Lulli and Rameau, Handel and Bonacini, Piccini and Gluck, +Mozart and Salieri, Weber and Rossini, and in the present day between +the advocates of Wagner's "Music of the Future" and those of the +"Music of the Past." "The old order changes, giving place to new," but +only after a long protracted struggle, a struggle that will not be +productive of good as long as the bitterness of partizanship exists, +whose aim is wholly to annihilate its adversary, though thereby much +that is good and fine be lost. This is not, however, the place to +discuss the importance of such strife, nor the comparative advantages +and disadvantages of its existence or non-existence--but it is as well +to draw attention to it in order to point out that in the history of +music the belligerents are usually blind to the important fact that, +inasmuch as nations differ essentially in ways of thought and action, +in character, temperament, and fundamental nature, so also must the +various phases of art differ which are their mediums of expression. + +The history of the art of music is divisible into two great +epochs--the first dating from its birth about three centuries ago +under the impelling influences of the Renaissance, to the end of the +eighteenth century, when pseudo-classicism had given all it had to +give; the second dating from the rise of Romanticism in the beginning +of the nineteenth century to the present day. The revival of the +"forgotten world of old romance--that world of wonder and mystery and +spiritual beauty," no longer crippled by lack of science, and fettered +by asceticism, was to music, that youngest of the arts, a novel +influence, which pushed it vigorously in a new direction, towards the +more direct expression of the cravings of humanity--making it more +_human_, more the fitting medium expression of this democratic age. +The true romantic feeling has been described as "the ever present +apprehension of the spiritual world, and of that struggle of the soul +with earthly conditions." This later period gave "new seeing to our +eyes, which were once more opened to the mysteries and the wonder of +the universe, and the romance of man's destiny; it revived, in short, +the romantic spirit enriched by the clarity and sanity that the +renascence was able to lend." + +In the opera Gluck was one of the earliest masters who came under the +influence of the new movement, and he anticipated Wagner in many of +his reforms. He decreased the importance of the singer, and increased +that of the orchestra, elaborated the recitative, and made the music +to follow the rhythm of the words, and he also gave importance to the +dramatic expression of the human emotions. In Germany Weber is styled +the Father of the Romantic opera, as in France the most noteworthy +figure is Berlioz, and the new method was further developed in the +instrumental music by Schumann, and demonstrated by other musicians, +dead and living, who, from the limited space of this volume, have not +been specially noticed--Liszt, Franz, Thomas, Brahms, Rubenstein, +Dvorák, Massinet, Bizet, Jensen, Grieg, and others. Gounod, is, of +course, unmistakably under the same influence, and may be considered +as the direct descendant of Gluck, and there is every reason to +suppose that he is the last great composer of the grand opera of +France, as Verdi is undeniably that of the Italian opera. The most +remarkable figure of the movement, he who has carried it to its utmost +limits, is Richard Wagner. At first he refused for his compositions +the name of "Music of the Future," and desired for them the more +comprehensive term of "Work of Art of the Future." It is impossible to +predict to what extent his theories will be followed: it is not +desirable that they should be blindly worked out by musicians of power +inferior to his; but they are in the right direction, and may +ultimately bring about a new art mode in music. The resources of art +are endless, being, as the Abbé Lamennais tells us, to man what +creation is to God; and music may safely be trusted to develop in such +a way as to ever be the most fitting expression of the inarticulate +cravings and aspirations of the human soul. Wagner has attempted to +unite the three arts of Painting, Poetry, and Music: and of his work a +competent judge has written--"The musical drama is undoubtedly the +highest manifestation of which men are capable. All the most refined +arts are called in to contribute to the idea. The author of a musical +drama is no more a musician, or a poet, or a painter; he is the +supreme _artist_, not fettered by the limits of one art, but able to +step over the boundaries of all the different branches of æsthetic +composition, and find the proper means for rendering his thought +wherever he wants it. This was Wagner's aim. His latter works, +'Tristram and Isolde,' the 'Niebelungen Ring,' and 'Parsifal,' are the +actuation of the theory, or at least are works showing what is the way +towards the aim." Another eminent critic, Mr. Walter Pater, writing +upon the fine arts, tells us that "_All art constantly aspires towards +the condition of music_.... It is the art of music which most +completely realises this artistic ideal, this perfect identification +of form and matter. In its ideal consummate moments, the end is not +distinct from the means, the form from the matter, the subject from +the expression; they inhere in and completely saturate each other; and +to it, therefore, to the condition of its perfect moments, all the +arts may be supposed constantly to tend and aspire. Music, then, and +not poetry, as is so often supposed, is the true type or measure of +consummate art. Therefore, although each art has its incommunicable +element, its untranslatable order of impressions, its unique mode of +reaching the 'imaginative reason,' yet the arts may be represented as +continually struggling after the law or principle of music, to a +condition which music alone completely realises." + +We may rest assured--as assured as Emerson or Matthew Arnold +concerning the illimitable possibilities of poetry--that the future +has great riches in store for all lovers of music. Giants, indeed, are +they who are no longer among us, but it is not derogatory to these +great ones to believe and hope that--life being "moving music" +according to the definition of the Syrian Gnostics--the world will yet +be electrified by the genius of successors worthy of such royal +ancestry as Handel and Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner. + + ELIZABETH A. SHARP. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] Hawkin's _Musical History_, vol. iii., p. 441. + +[Decoration] + + + + +[Decoration] + +THE GREAT COMPOSERS. + +[GERMAN.] + + + + +_BACH._ + + +I. + +The growth and development of German music are eminently noteworthy +facts in the history of the fine arts. In little more than a century +and a-half it reached its present high and brilliant place, its +progress being so consecutive and regular that the composers who +illustrated its well-defined epochs might fairly have linked hands in +one connected series. + +To JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH must be accorded the title of "father of +modern music." All succeeding composers have bowed with reverence +before his name, and acknowledged in him the creative mind which not +only placed music on a deep scientific basis, but perfected the form +from which have been developed the wonderfully rich and varied phases +of orchestral composition. Handel, who was his contemporary, having +been born the same year, spoke of him with sincere admiration, and +called him the giant of music. Haydn wrote--"Whoever understands me +knows that I owe much to Sebastian Bach, that I have studied him +thoroughly and well, and that I acknowledge him only as my model." +Mozart's unceasing research brought to light many of his unpublished +manuscripts, and helped Germany to a full appreciation of this great +master. In like manner have the other luminaries of music placed on +record their sense of obligation to one whose name is obscure to the +general public in comparison with many of his brother composers. + +Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach on the 21st of March 1685, the son +of one of the court musicians. Left in the care of his elder brother, +who was an organist, his brilliant powers displayed themselves at an +early period. He was the descendant of a race of musicians, and even +at that date the wide-spread branches of the family held annual +gatherings of a musical character. Young Bach mastered for himself, +without much assistance, a thorough musical education at Lüneburg, +where he studied in the gymnasium and sang in the cathedral choir; and +at the age of eighteen we find him court musician at Weimar, where a +few years later he became organist and director of concerts. He had in +the meantime studied the organ at Lübeck under the celebrated +Buxtehude, and made himself thoroughly a master of the great Italian +composers of sacred music--Palestrina, Lotti, Vivaldi, and others. + +At this period Germany was beginning to experience its musical +_renaissance_. The various German courts felt that throb of life and +enthusiasm which had distinguished the Italian principalities in the +preceding century in the direction of painting and sculpture. Every +little capital was a focus of artistic rays, and there was a general +spirit of rivalry among the princes, who aspired to cultivate the arts +of peace as well as those of war. Bach had become known as a gifted +musician, not only by his wonderful powers as an organist, but by two +of his earlier masterpieces--"Gott ist mein König" and "Ich hatte viel +Bekümmerniss." Under the influence of an atmosphere so artistic, +Bach's ardour for study increased with his success, and his rapid +advancement in musical power met with warm appreciation. + +While Bach held the position of director of the chapel of Prince +Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, which he assumed about the year 1720, he +went to Hamburg on a pilgrimage to see old Reinke, then nearly a +centenarian, whose fame as an organist was national, and had long been +the object of Bach's enthusiasm. The aged man listened while his +youthful rival improvised on the old choral, "Upon the Rivers of +Babylon." He shed tears of joy while he tenderly embraced Bach, and +said--"I did think that this art would die with me; but I see that you +will keep it alive." + +Our musician rapidly became known far and wide throughout the musical +centres of Germany as a learned and recondite composer, as a brilliant +improviser, and as an organist beyond rivalry. Yet it was in these +last two capacities that his reputation among his contemporaries was +the most marked. It was left to a succeeding generation to fully +enlighten the world in regard to his creative powers as a musical +thinker. + + +II. + +Though Bach's life was mostly spent at Weimar and Leipsic, he was at +successive periods chapel-master and concert-director at several of +the German courts, which aspired to shape public taste in matters of +musical culture and enthusiasm. But he was by nature singularly +retiring and unobtrusive, and recoiled from several brilliant offers +which would have brought him too much in contact with the gay world of +fashion, apparently dreading any diversion from a severe and exclusive +art-life; for within these limits all his hopes, energies, and wishes +were focalised. Yet he was not without that keen spirit of rivalry, +that love of combat, which seems to be native to spirits of the more +robust and energetic type. + +In the days of the old Minnesingers, tournaments of music shared the +public taste with tournaments of arms. In Bach's time these public +competitions were still in vogue. One of these was held by Augustus +II., Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, one of the most munificent +art-patrons of Europe, but best known to fame from his intimate part +in the wars of Charles XII. of Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia. +Here Bach's principal rival was a French _virtuoso_, Marchand, who, an +exile from Paris, had delighted the king by the lightness and +brilliancy of his execution. They were both to improvise on the same +theme. Marchand heard Bach's performance and signalised his own +inferiority by declining to play, and secretly leaving the city of +Dresden. Augustus sent Bach a hundred louis d'or, but this splendid +_douceur_ never reached him, as it was appropriated by one of the +court officials. + +In Bach's half-century of a studious musical life there is but little +of stirring incident to record. The significance of his career was +interior, not exterior. Twice married, and the father of twenty +children, his income was always small even for that age. Yet, by +frugality, the simple wants of himself and his family never +overstepped the limit of supply; for he seems to have been happily +mated with wives who sympathised with his exclusive devotion to art, +and united with this the virtues of old-fashioned German thrift. + +Three years before his death, Bach, who had a son in the service of +the King of Prussia, yielded to the urgent invitation of that monarch +to go to Berlin. Frederick II., the conqueror of Rossbach, and one of +the greatest of modern soldiers, was a passionate lover of literature +and art, and it was his pride to collect at his court all the leading +lights of European culture. He was not only the patron of Voltaire, +whose connection with the Prussian monarch has furnished such rich +material to the anecdote-history of literature, but of all the +distinguished painters, poets, and musicians whom he could persuade by +his munificent offers (but rarely fulfilled) to suffer the burden of +his eccentricities. Frederick was not content with playing the part of +patron, but must himself also be poet, philosopher, painter, and +composer. + +On the night of Bach's arrival Frederick was taking part in a concert +at his palace, and, on hearing that the great musician whose name was +in the mouths of all Germany had come, immediately sent for him +without allowing him to don a court dress, interrupting his concert +with the enthusiastic announcement, "Gentlemen, Bach is here." The +cordial hospitality and admiration of Frederick was gratefully +acknowledged by Bach, who dedicated to him a three-part fugue on a +theme composed by the king, known under the name of "A Musical +Offering." But he could not be persuaded to remain long from his +Leipsic home. + +Shortly before Bach's death, he was seized with blindness, brought on +by incessant labour; and his end was supposed to have been hastened by +the severe inflammation consequent on two operations performed by an +English oculist. He departed this life July 30, 1750, and was buried +in St. John's churchyard, universally mourned by musical Germany, +though his real title to exceptional greatness was not to be read +until the next generation. + + +III. + +Sebastian Bach was not only the descendant of a widely-known musical +family, but was himself the direct ancestor of about sixty of the +best-known organists and church composers of Germany. As a master of +organ-playing, tradition tells us that no one has been his equal, with +the possible exception of Handel. He was also an able performer on +various stringed instruments, and his preference for the clavichord[B] +led him to write a method for that instrument, which has been the +basis of all succeeding methods for the piano. Bach's teachings and +influence may be said to have educated a large number of excellent +composers and organ and piano players, among whom were Emanuel Bach, +Cramer, Hummel, and Clementi; and on his school of theory and practice +the best results in music have been built. + +That Bach's glory as a composer should be largely posthumous is +probably the result of his exceeding simplicity and diffidence, for +he always shrank from popular applause; therefore we may believe his +compositions were not placed in the proper light during his life. It +was through Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, that the musical world +learned what a master-spirit had wrought in the person of John +Sebastian Bach. The first time Mozart heard one of Bach's hymns, he +said, "Thank God! I learn something absolutely new." + +Bach's great compositions include his "Preludes and Fugues" for the +organ, works so difficult and elaborate as perhaps to be above the +average comprehension, but sources of delight and instruction to all +musicians; the "Matthäus Passion," for two choruses and two +orchestras, one of the masterpieces in music, which was not produced +till a century after it was written; the "Oratorio of the Nativity of +Jesus Christ;" and a very large number of masses, anthems, cantatas, +chorals, hymns, etc. These works, from their largeness and dignity of +form, as also from their depth of musical science, have been to all +succeeding composers an art-armoury, whence they have derived and +furbished their brightest weapons. In the study of Bach's works the +student finds the deepest and highest reaches in the science of music; +for his mind seems to have grasped all its resources, and to have +embodied them with austere purity and precision of form. As Spenser is +called the poet for poets, and Laplace the mathematician for +mathematicians, so Bach is the musician for musicians. While Handel +may be considered a purely independent and parallel growth, it is not +too much to assert that without Sebastian Bach and his matchless +studies for the piano, organ, and orchestra, we could not have had the +varied musical development in sonata and symphony from such masters as +Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Three of Sebastian Bach's sons became +distinguished musicians, and to Emanuel we owe the artistic +development of the sonata, which in its turn became the foundation of +the symphony. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[B] An old instrument, which may be called the nearest prototype of +the modern square piano. + + + + +_HANDEL._ + + +I. + +To the modern Englishman Handel is almost a contemporary. Paintings +and busts of this great minstrel are scattered everywhere throughout +the land. He lies in Westminster Abbey among the great poets, +warriors, and statesmen, a giant memory in his noble art. A few hours +after death the sculptor Roubiliac took a cast of his face, which he +wrought into imperishable marble; "moulded in colossal calm," he +towers above his tomb, and accepts the homage of the world benignly +like a god. Exeter Hall and the Foundling Hospital in London are also +adorned with marble statues of him. + +There are more than fifty known pictures of Handel, some of them by +distinguished artists. In the best of these pictures Handel is seated +in the gay costume of the period, with sword, shot-silk breeches, and +coat embroidered with gold. The face is noble in its repose. +Benevolence is seated about the finely-shaped mouth, and the face +wears the mellow dignity of years, without weakness or austerity. +There are few collectors of prints in England and America who have not +a woodcut or a lithograph of him. His face and his music are alike +familiar to the English-speaking world. + +Handel came to England in the year 1710, at the age of twenty-five. +Four years before he had met, at Naples, Scarlatti, Porpora, and +Corelli. That year had been the turning-point in his life. With one +stride he reached the front rank, and felt that no musician alive +could teach him anything. + +GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL (or Händel, as the name is written in German) +was born at Halle, Lower Saxony, in the year 1685. Like German +literature, German music is a comparatively recent growth. What little +feeling existed for the musical art employed itself in cultivating the +alien flowers of Italian song. Even eighty years after this Mozart +and Haydn were treated like lackeys and vagabonds, just as great +actors were treated in England at the same period. Handel's father +looked on music as an occupation having very little dignity. + +Determined that his young son should become a doctor like himself, and +leave the divine art to Italian fiddlers and French buffoons, he did +not allow him to go to a public school even, for fear he should learn +the gamut. But the boy Handel, passionately fond of sweet sounds, had, +with the connivance of his nurse, hidden in the garret a poor spinet, +and in stolen hours taught himself how to play. At last the senior +Handel had a visit to make to another son in the service of the Duke +of Saxe-Weissenfels, and the young George was taken along to the ducal +palace. The boy strayed into the chapel, and was irresistibly drawn to +the organ. His stolen performance was made known to his father and the +duke, and the former was very much enraged at such a direct evidence +of disobedience. The duke, however, being astonished at the +performance of the youthful genius, interceded for him, and +recommended that his taste should be encouraged and cultivated instead +of repressed. + +From this time forward fortune showered upon him a combination of +conditions highly favourable to rapid development. Severe training, +ardent friendship, the society of the first composers, and incessant +practice were vouchsafed him. As the pupil of the great organist +Zachau, he studied the whole existing mass of German and Italian +music, and soon exacted from his master the admission that he had +nothing more to teach him. Thence he went to Berlin to study the +opera-school, where Ariosti and Bononcini were favourite composers. +The first was friendly, but the latter, who with a first-rate head had +a cankered heart, determined to take the conceit out of the Saxon boy. +He challenged him to play at sight an elaborate piece. Handel played +it with perfect precision, and thenceforward Bononcini, though he +hated the youth as a rival, treated him as an equal. + +On the death of his father Handel secured an engagement at the +Hamburg opera-house, where he soon made his mark by the ability with +which, on several occasions, he conducted rehearsals. + +At the age of nineteen Handel received the offer of the Lübeck organ, +on condition that he would marry the daughter of the retiring +organist. He went down with his friend Mattheson, who it seems had +been offered the same terms. They both returned, however, in single +blessedness to Hamburg. + +Though the Lübeck maiden had stirred no bad blood between them, +musical rivalry did. A dispute in the theatre resulted in a duel. The +only thing that saved Handel's life was a great brass button that +shivered his antagonist's point, when they were parted to become firm +friends again. + +While at Hamburg Handel's first two operas were composed, "Almira" and +"Nero." Both of these were founded on dark tales of crime and sorrow, +and, in spite of some beautiful airs and clever instrumentation, were +musical failures, as might be expected. + +Handel had had enough of manufacturing operas in Germany, and so in +July 1706 he went to Florence. Here he was cordially received; for +Florence was second to no city in Italy in its passion for encouraging +the arts. Its noble specimens of art creations in architecture, +painting, and sculpture produced a powerful impression upon the young +musician. In little more than a week's time he composed an opera, +"Rodrigo," for which he obtained one hundred sequins. His next visit +was to Venice, where he arrived at the height of the carnival. +Whatever effect Venice, with its weird and mysterious beauty, with its +marble palaces, façades, pillars, and domes, its magnificent shrines +and frescoes, produced on Handel, he took Venice by storm. Handel's +power as an organist and a harpsichord player was only second to his +strength as a composer, even when, in the full zenith of his maturity, +he composed the "Messiah" and "Judas Maccabæus." + +"Il caro Sassone," the dear Saxon, found a formidable opponent as +well as dear friend in the person of Scarlatti. One night at a masked +ball, given by a nobleman, Handel was present in disguise. He sat at +the harpsichord, and astonished the company with his playing; but no +one could tell who it was that ravished the ears of the assembly. +Presently another masquerader came into the room, walked up to the +instrument, and called out: "It is either the devil or the Saxon!" +This was Scarlatti, who afterwards had with Handel, in Florence and +Rome, friendly contests of skill, in which it seemed difficult to +decide which was victor. To satisfy the Venetian public, Handel +composed the opera "Agrippina," which made a _furore_ among all the +connoisseurs of the city. + +So, having seen the summer in Florence and the carnival in Venice, he +must hurry on to be in time for the great Easter celebrations in Rome. +Here he lived under the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni, one of the +wealthiest and most liberal of the Sacred College. The cardinal was a +modern representative of the ancient patrician. Living himself in +princely luxury, he endowed hospitals and surgeries for the public. He +distributed alms, patronised men of science and art, and entertained +the public with comedies, operas, oratorios, puppet-shows, and +academic disputes. Under the auspices of this patron, Handel composed +three operas and two oratorios. Even at this early period the young +composer was parting company with the strict old musical traditions, +and his works showed an extraordinary variety and strength of +treatment. + +From Rome he went to Naples, where he spent his second Italian summer, +and composed the original Italian "Aci e Galatea," which in its +English version, afterwards written for the Duke of Chandos, has +continued a marked favourite with the musical world. Thence, after a +lingering return through the sunny land where he had been so warmly +welcomed, and which had taught him most effectually, in convincing him +that his musical life had nothing in common with the traditions of +Italian musical art, he returned to Germany, settling at the court of +George of Brunswick, Elector of Hanover, and afterwards King of +England. He received commission in the course of a few months from the +elector to visit England, having been warmly invited thither by some +English noblemen. On his return to Hanover, at the end of six months, +he found the dull and pompous little court unspeakably tiresome after +the bustle of London. So it is not to be marvelled at that he took the +earliest opportunity of returning to the land which he afterwards +adopted. At this period he was not yet twenty-five years old, but +already famous as a performer on the organ and harpsichord, and as a +composer of Italian operas. + +When Queen Anne died and Handel's old patron became King of England, +Handel was forbidden to appear before him, as he had not forgotten the +musician's escapade; but his peace was at last made by a little ruse. +Handel had a friend at court, Baron Kilmansegge, from whom he learned +that the king was, on a certain day, going to take an excursion on the +Thames. So he set to work to compose music for the occasion, which he +arranged to have performed on a boat which followed the king's barge. +As the king floated down the river he heard the new and delightful +"Water-Music." He knew that only one man could have composed such +music; so he sent for Handel, and sealed his pardon with a pension of +two hundred pounds a-year. + + +II. + +Let us take a glance at the society in which the composer moved in the +heyday of his youth. His greatness was to be perfected in after-years +by bitter rivalries, persecution, alternate oscillations of poverty +and affluence, and a multitude of bitter experiences. But at this time +Handel's life was a serene and delightful one. Rival factions had not +been organised to crush him. Lord Burlington lived much at his +mansion, which was then out of town, although the house is now in the +heart of Piccadilly. The intimate friendship of this nobleman helped +to bring the young musician into contact with many distinguished +people. + +It is odd to think of the people Handel met daily without knowing that +their names and his would be in a century famous. The following +picture sketches Handel and his friends in a sprightly fashion:-- + +"Yonder heavy, ragged-looking youth standing at the corner of Regent +Street, with a slight and rather more refined-looking companion, is +the obscure Samuel Johnson, quite unknown to fame. He is walking with +Richard Savage. As Signor Handel, 'the composer of Italian music,' +passes by, Savage becomes excited, and nudges his friend, who takes +only a languid interest in the foreigner. Johnson did not care for +music; of many noises he considered it the least disagreeable. + +"Toward Charing Cross comes, in shovel-hat and cassock, the renowned +ecclesiastic, Dean Swift. He has just nodded patronisingly to +Bononcini in the Strand, and suddenly meets Handel, who cuts him dead. +Nothing disconcerted, the dean moves on, muttering his famous +epigram-- + + 'Some say that Signor Bononcini, + Compared to Handel, is a ninny; + While others vow that to him Handel + Is hardly fit to hold a candle. + Strange that such difference should be + 'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee.' + +"As Handel enters the 'Turk's Head' at the corner of Regent Street, a +noble coach and four drives up. It is the Duke of Chandos, who is +inquiring for Mr. Pope. Presently a deformed little man, in an +iron-grey suit, and with a face as keen as a razor, hobbles out, makes +a low bow to the burly Handel, who, helping him into the chariot, gets +in after him, and they drive off together to Cannons, the duke's +mansion at Edgeware. There they meet Mr. Addison, the poet Gay, and +the witty Arbuthnot, who have been asked to luncheon. The last number +of the _Spectator_ is on the table, and a brisk discussion soon arises +between Pope and Addison concerning the merits of the Italian opera, +in which Pope would have the better if he only knew a little more +about music, and could keep his temper. Arbuthnot sides with Pope in +favour of Mr. Handel's operas; the duke endeavours to keep the peace. +Handel probably uses his favourite exclamation, 'Vat te tevil I care!' +and consumes the _recherché_ wines and rare viands with undiminished +gusto. + +"The Magnificent, or the Grand Duke, as he was called, had built +himself a palace for £230,000. He had a private chapel, and appointed +Handel organist in the room of the celebrated Dr. Pepusch, who retired +with excellent grace before one manifestly his superior. On week-days +the duke and duchess entertained all the wits and grandees in town, +and on Sundays the Edgeware Road was thronged with the gay equipages +of those who went to worship at the ducal chapel and hear Mr. Handel +play on the organ. + +"The Edgeware Road was a pleasant country drive, but parts of it were +so solitary that highwaymen were much to be feared. The duke was +himself attacked on one occasion; and those who could afford it never +travelled so far out of town without armed retainers. Cannons was the +pride of the neighbourhood, and the duke--of whom Pope wrote, + + 'Thus gracious Chandos is beloved at sight'-- + +was as popular as he was wealthy. But his name is made still more +illustrious by the Chandos anthems. They were all written at Cannons +between 1718 and 1720, and number in all eleven overtures, thirty-two +solos, six duets, a trio, quartet, and forty-seven choruses. Some of +the above are real masterpieces; but, with the exception of 'The waves +of the sea rage horribly,' and 'Who is God but the Lord?' few of them +are ever heard now. And yet these anthems were most significant in the +variety of the choruses and in the range of the accompaniments; and it +was then, no doubt, that Handel was feeling his way toward the great +and immortal sphere of his oratorio music. Indeed, his first +oratorio, 'Esther,' was composed at Cannons, as also the English +version of 'Acis and Galatea.'" + +But Handel had other associates, and we must now visit Thomas Britton, +the musical coal-heaver. "There goes the famous small-coal man, a +lover of learning, a musician, and a companion of gentlemen." So the +folks used to say as Thomas Britton, the coal-heaver of Clerkenwell +Green, paced up and down the neighbouring streets with his sack of +small coal on his back, destined for one of his customers. Britton was +great among the great. He was courted by the most fashionable folk of +his day. He was a cultivated coal-heaver, who, besides his musical +taste and ability, possessed an extensive knowledge of chemistry and +the occult sciences. + +Britton did more than this. He gave concerts in Aylesbury Street, +Clerkenwell, where this singular man had formed a dwelling-house, with +a concert-room and a coal-store, out of what was originally a stable. +On the ground-floor was the small-coal repository, and over that the +concert-room--very long and narrow, badly lighted, and with a ceiling +so low that a tall man could scarcely stand upright in it. The stairs +to this room were far from pleasant to ascend, and the following +facetious lines by Ward, the author of the "London Spy," confirm +this:-- + + "Upon Thursdays repair + To my palace, and there + Hobble up stair by stair, + But I pray ye take care + That you break not your shins by a stumble; + + "And without e'er a souse + Paid to me or my spouse, + Sit as still as a mouse + At the top of the house, + And there you shall hear how we fumble." + +Nevertheless, beautiful duchesses and the best society in town flocked +to Britton's on Thursdays--not to order coals, but to sit out his +concerts. + +Let us follow the short, stout little man on a concert-day. The +customers are all served, or as many as can be. The coal-shed is made +tidy and swept up, and the coal-heaver awaits his company. There he +stands at the door of his stable, dressed in his blue blouse, +dustman's hat, and maroon kerchief tightly fastened round his neck. +The concert-room is almost full, and, pipe in hand, Britton awaits a +new visitor--the beautiful Duchess of B----. She is somewhat late (the +coachman, possibly, is not quite at home in the neighbourhood). + +Here comes a carriage, which stops at the coal-shop; and, laying down +his pipe, the coal-heaver assists her grace to alight, and in the +genteelest manner escorts her to the narrow staircase leading to the +music-room. Forgetting Ward's advice, she trips laughingly and +carelessly up the stairs to the room, from which proceed faint sounds +of music, increasing to quite an _olla podrida_ of sound as the +apartment is reached--for the musicians are tuning up. The beautiful +duchess is soon recognised, and as soon in deep gossip with her +friends. But who is that gentlemanly man leaning over the +chamber-organ? That is Sir Roger L'Estrange, an admirable performer on +the violoncello, and a great lover of music. He is watching the +subtile fingering of Mr. Handel, as his dimpled hands drift leisurely +and marvellously over the keys of the instrument. + +There, too, is Mr. Bannister with his fiddle--the first Englishman, +by-the-by, who distinguished himself upon the violin; there is Mr. +Woolaston, the painter, relating to Dr. Pepusch of how he had that +morning thrown up his window upon hearing Britton crying "Small coal!" +near his house in Warwick Lane, and, having beckoned him in, had made +a sketch for a painting of him; there, too, is Mr. John Hughes, author +of the "Siege of Damascus." In the background also are Mr. Philip +Hart, Mr. Henry Symonds, Mr. Obadiah Shuttleworth, Mr. Abiell +Whichello; while in the extreme corner of the room is Robe, a justice +of the peace, letting out to Henry Needler of the Excise Office the +last bit of scandal that has come into his court. And now, just as +the concert has commenced, in creeps "Soliman the Magnificent," also +known as Mr. Charles Jennens, of Great Ormond Street, who wrote many +of Handel's librettos, and arranged the words for the "Messiah." + +"Soliman the Magnificent" is evidently resolved to do justice to his +title on this occasion, with his carefully-powdered wig, frills, +maroon-coloured coat, and buckled shoes; and as he makes his progress +up the room, the company draw aside for him to reach his favourite +seat near Handel. A trio of Corelli's is gone through; then Madame +Cuzzoni sings Handel's last new air; Dr. Pepusch takes his turn at the +harpsichord; another trio of Hasse, or a solo on the violin by +Bannister; a selection on the organ from Mr. Handel's new oratorio; +and then the day's programme is over. Dukes, duchesses, wits and +philosophers, poets and musicians, make their way down the satirised +stairs to go, some in carriages, some in chairs, some on foot, to +their own palaces, houses, or lodgings. + + +III. + +We do not now think of Handel in connection with the opera. To the +modern mind he is so linked to the oratorio, of which he was the +father and the consummate master, that his operas are curiosities but +little known except to musical antiquaries. Yet some of the airs from +the Handel operas are still cherished by singers as among the most +beautiful songs known to the concert-stage. + +In 1720 Handel was engaged by a party of noblemen, headed by his Grace +of Chandos, to compose operas for the Royal Academy of Music at the +Haymarket. An attempt had been made to put this institution on a firm +foundation by a subscription of £50,000, and it was opened on May 2nd +with a full company of singers engaged by Handel. In the course of +eight years twelve operas were produced in rapid succession: +"Floridante," December 9, 1721; "Ottone," January 12, 1723; "Flavio" +and "Giulio Cesare," 1723; "Tamerlano," 1724; "Rodelinda," 1725; +"Scipione," 1726; "Alessandro," 1726; "Admeto," 1727; "Siroe," 1728; +and "Tolommeo," 1728. They made as great a _furore_ among the musical +public of that day as would an opera from Gounod or Verdi in the +present. The principal airs were sung throughout the land, and +published as harpsichord pieces; for in these halcyon days of our +composers the whole atmosphere of the land was full of the flavour and +colour of Handel. Many of the melodies in these now forgotten operas +have been worked up by modern composers, and so have passed into +modern music unrecognised. It is a notorious fact that the celebrated +song, "Where the Bee sucks," by Dr. Arne, is taken from a movement in +"Rinaldo." Thus the new life of music is ever growing rich with the +dead leaves of the past. The most celebrated of these operas was +entitled "Otto." It was a work composed of one long string of +exquisite gems, like Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Gounod's "Faust." Dr. +Pepusch, who had never quite forgiven Handel for superseding him as +the best organist in England, remarked of one of the airs, "That great +bear must have been inspired when he wrote that air." The celebrated +Madame Cuzzoni made her _début_ in it. On the second night the tickets +rose to four guineas each, and Cuzzoni received two thousand pounds +for the season. + +The composer had already begun to be known for his irascible temper. +It is refreshing to learn that operatic singers of the day, however +whimsical and self-willed, were obliged to bend to the imperious +genius of this man. In a spirit of ill-timed revolt Cuzzoni declined +to sing an air. She had already given him trouble by her insolence and +freaks, which at times were unbearable. Handel at last exploded. He +flew at the wretched woman and shook her like a rat. "Ah! I always +knew you were a fery tevil," he cried, "and I shall now let you know +that I am Beelzebub, the prince of de tevils!" and, dragging her to +the open window, was just on the point of pitching her into the +street, when, in every sense of the word, she recanted. So, when +Carestini, the celebrated tenor, sent back an air, Handel was furious. +Rushing into the trembling Italian's house, he said, in his four- or +five-language style--"You tog! don't I know better as yourself vaat it +pest for you to sing? If you vill not sing all de song vaat I give +you, I vill not pay you ein stiver." Among the anecdotes told of +Handel's passion is one growing out of the composer's peculiar +sensitiveness to discords. The dissonance of the tuning-up period of +an orchestra is disagreeable to the most patient. Handel, being +peculiarly sensitive to this unfortunate necessity, always arranged +that it should take place before the audience assembled, so as to +prevent any sound of scraping or blowing. Unfortunately, on one +occasion, some wag got access to the orchestra where the ready-tuned +instruments were lying, and with diabolical dexterity put every string +and crook out of tune. Handel enters. All the bows are raised +together, and at the given beat all start off _con spirito_. The +effect was startling in the extreme. The unhappy _maestro_ rushes +madly from his place, kicks to pieces the first double-bass he sees, +and, seizing a kettle-drum, throws it violently at the leader of the +band. The effort sends his wig flying, and, rushing bareheaded to the +footlights, he stands a few moments amid the roars of the house, +snorting with rage and choking with passion. Like Burleigh's nod, +Handel's wig seemed to have been a sure guide to his temper. When +things went well, it had a certain complacent vibration; but when he +was out of humour, the wig indicated the fact in a very positive way. +The Princess of Wales was wont to blame her ladies for talking instead +of listening. "Hush, hush!" she would say. "Don't you see Handel's +wig?" + +For several years after the subscription of the nobility had been +exhausted, our composer, having invested £10,000 of his own in the +Haymarket, produced operas with remarkable affluence, some of them +_pasticcio_ works, composed of all sorts of airs, in which the singers +could give their _bravura_ songs. These were "Lotario," 1729; +"Partenope," 1730; "Poro," 1731; "Ezio," 1732; "Sosarme," 1732; +"Orlando," 1733; "Ariadne," 1734; and also several minor works. +Handel's operatic career was not so much the outcome of his choice as +dictated to him by the necessity of time and circumstance. As time +went on, his operas lost public interest. The audiences dwindled, and +the overflowing houses of his earlier experience were replaced by +empty benches. This, however, made little difference with Handel's +royal patrons. The king and the Prince of Wales, with their respective +households, made it an express point to show their deep interest in +Handel's success. In illustration of this, an amusing anecdote is told +of the Earl of Chesterfield. During the performance of "Rinaldo" this +nobleman, then an equerry of the king, was met quietly retiring from +the theatre in the middle of the first act. Surprise being expressed +by a gentleman who met the earl, the latter said, "I don't wish to +disturb his Majesty's privacy." + +Handel paid his singers in those days what were regarded as enormous +prices. Senisino and Carestini had each twelve hundred pounds, and +Cuzzoni two thousand, for the season. Towards the end of what may be +called the Handel season nearly all the singers and nobles forsook +him, and supported Farinelli, the greatest singer living, at the rival +house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. + + +IV. + +From the year 1729 the career of Handel was to be a protracted battle, +in which he was sometimes victorious, sometimes defeated, but always +undaunted and animated with a lofty sense of his own superior power. +Let us take a view of some of the rival musicians with whom he came in +contact. Of all these Bononcini was the most formidable. He came to +England in 1720 with Ariosti, also a meritorious composer. Factions +soon began to form themselves around Handel and Bononcini, and a +bitter struggle ensued between these old foes. The same drama repeated +itself, with new actors, about thirty years afterwards, in Paris. +Gluck was then the German hero, supported by Marie Antoinette, and +Piccini fought for the Italian opera under the colours of the king's +mistress, Du Barry, while all the _littérateurs_ and nobles ranged +themselves on either side in bitter contest. The battle between Handel +and Bononcini, as the exponents of German and Italian music, was also +repeated in after-years between Mozart and Salieri, Weber and Rossini, +and to-day is seen in the acrimonious disputes going on between Wagner +and the Italian school. Bononcini's career in England came to an end +very suddenly. It was discovered that a madrigal brought out by him +was pirated from another Italian composer; whereupon Bononcini left +England, humiliated to the dust, and finally died obscure and alone, +the victim of a charlatan alchemist, who succeeded in obtaining all +his savings. + +Another powerful rival of Handel was Porpora, or, as Handel used to +call him, "Old Borbora." Without Bononcini's fire or Handel's daring +originality, he represented the dry contrapuntal school of Italian +music. He was also a great singing master, famous throughout Europe, +and upon this his reputation had hitherto principally rested. He came +to London in 1733, under the patronage of the Italian faction, +especially to serve as a thorn in the side of Handel. His first opera, +"Ariadne," was a great success; but when he had the audacity to +challenge the great German in the field of oratorio, his defeat was so +overwhelming that he candidly admitted his rival's superiority. But he +believed that no operas in the world were equal to his own, and he +composed fifty of them during his life, extending to the days of +Haydn, whom he had the honour of teaching, while the father of the +symphony, on the other hand, cleaned Porpora's boots and powdered his +wig for him. + +Another Italian opponent was Hasse, a man of true genius, who in his +old age instructed some of the most splendid singers in the history of +the lyric stage. He also married one of the most gifted and most +beautiful divas of Europe, Faustina Bordoni. The following anecdote +does equal credit to Hasse's heart and penetration: In after-years, +when he had left England, he was again sent for to take Handel's place +as conductor of opera and oratorio. Hasse inquired, "What! is Handel +dead?" On being told no, he indignantly refused, saying he was not +worthy to tie Handel's shoe-latchets. + +There are also Dr. Pepusch, the Anglicised Prussian, and Dr. Greene, +both names well known in English music. Pepusch had had the leading +place, before Handel's arrival, as organist and conductor, and made a +distinct place for himself even after the sun of Handel had obscured +all of his contemporaries. He wrote the music of the "Beggar's Opera," +which was the great sensation of the times, and which still keeps +possession of the stage. Pepusch was chiefly notable for his skill in +arranging the popular songs of the day, and probably did more than any +other composer to give the English ballad its artistic form. + +The name of Dr. Greene is best known in connection with choral +compositions. His relations with Handel and Bononcini are hardly +creditable to him. He seems to have flattered each in turn. He upheld +Bononcini in the great madrigal controversy, and appears to have +wearied Handel by his repeated visits. The great Saxon easily saw +through the flatteries of a man who was in reality an ambitious rival, +and joked about him, not always in the best taste. When he was told +that Greene was giving concerts at the "Devil Tavern," near Temple +Bar, "Ah!" he exclaimed, "mein poor friend, Toctor Greene--so he is +gone to de Tevil!" + +From 1732 to 1740 Handel's life presents the suggestive and +often-repeated experience in the lives of men of genius--a soul with a +great creative mission, of which it is half unconscious, partly +yielding to and partly struggling against the tendencies of the age, +yet gradually crystallising into its true form, and getting +consecrated to its true work. In these eight years Handel presented to +the public ten operas and five oratorios. It was in 1731 that the +great significant fact, though unrecognised by himself and others, +occurred, which stamped the true bent of his genius. This was the +production of his first oratorio in England. He was already playing +his operas to empty houses, the subject of incessant scandal and abuse +on the part of his enemies, but holding his way with steady +cheerfulness and courage. Twelve years before this he had composed the +oratorio of "Esther," but it was still in manuscript, uncared for and +neglected. It was finally produced by a society called Philharmonic, +under the direction of Bernard Gates, the royal-chapel master. Its +fame spread wide, and we read these significant words in one of the +old English newspapers--"'Esther,' an English oratorio, was performed +six times, and very full." + +Shortly after this Handel himself conducted "Esther" at the Haymarket +by royal command. His success encouraged him to write "Deborah," +another attempt in the same field, and it met a warm reception from +the public, March 17, 1733. + +For about fifteen years Handel had struggled heroically in the +composition of Italian operas. With these he had at first succeeded; +but his popularity waned more and more, and he became finally the +continued target for satire, scorn, and malevolence. In obedience to +the drift of opinion, all the great singers, who had supported him at +the outset, joined the rival ranks or left England. In fact, it may be +almost said that the English public were becoming dissatisfied with +the whole system and method of Italian music. Colley Cibber, the actor +and dramatist, explains why Italian opera could never satisfy the +requirement of Handel, or be anything more than an artificial luxury +in England: "The truth is, this kind of entertainment is entirely +sensational." Still both Handel and his friends and his foes, all the +exponents of musical opinion in England, persevered obstinately in +warming this foreign exotic into a new lease of life. + +The quarrel between the great Saxon composer and his opponents raged +incessantly both in public and private. The newspaper and the +drawing-room rang alike with venomous diatribes. Handel was called a +swindler, a drunkard, and a blasphemer, to whom Scripture even was not +sacred. The idea of setting Holy Writ to music scandalised the +Pharisees, who revelled in the licentious operas and love-songs of the +Italian school. All the small wits of the time showered on Handel +epigram and satire unceasingly. The greatest of all the wits, however, +Alexander Pope, was his firm friend and admirer; and in the "Dunciad," +wherein the wittiest of poets impaled so many of the small fry of the +age with his pungent and vindictive shaft, he also slew some of the +most malevolent of Handel's foes. + +Fielding, in _Tom Jones_, has an amusing hit at the taste of the +period--"It was Mr. Western's custom every afternoon, as soon as he +was drunk, to hear his daughter play on the harpsichord; for he was a +great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have +passed as a connoisseur, for he always excepted against the finest +compositions of Mr. Handel." + +So much had it become the fashion to criticise Handel's new effects in +vocal and instrumental composition, that some years later Mr. Sheridan +makes one of his characters fire a pistol simply to shock the +audience, and makes him say in a stage whisper to the gallery, "This +hint, gentlemen, I took from Handel." + +The composer's Oxford experience was rather amusing and suggestive. We +find it recorded that in July 1733, "one Handell, a foreigner, was +desired to come to Oxford to perform in music." Again the same writer +says--"Handell, with his lousy crew, a great number of foreign +fiddlers, had a performance for his own benefit at the theatre." One +of the dons writes of the performance as follows:--"This is an +innovation; but everyone paid his five shillings to try how a little +fiddling would sit upon him. And, notwithstanding the barbarous and +inhuman combination of such a parcel of unconscionable scamps, he +[Handel] disposed of the most of his tickets." + +"Handel and his lousy crew," however, left Oxford with the prestige +of a magnificent victory. His third oratorio, "Athaliah," was received +with vast applause by a great audience. Some of his university +admirers, who appreciated academic honours more than the musician did, +urged him to accept the degree of Doctor of Music, for which he would +have to pay a small fee. The characteristic reply was a Parthian +arrow: "Vat te tevil I trow my money away for dat vich the blockhead +vish? I no vant!" + + +V. + +In 1738 Handel was obliged to close the theatre and suspend payment. +He had made and spent during his operatic career the sum of £10,000 +sterling, besides dissipating the sum of £50,000 subscribed by his +noble patrons. The rival house lasted but a few months longer, and the +Duchess of Marlborough and her friends, who ruled the opposition +clique and imported Bononcini, paid £12,000 for the pleasure of +ruining Handel. His failure as an operatic composer is due in part to +the same causes which constituted his success in oratorio and cantata. +It is a little significant to notice that, alike by the progress of +his own genius and by the force of conditions, he was forced out of +the operatic field at the very time when he strove to tighten his grip +on it. + +His free introduction of choral and instrumental music, his creation +of new forms and remodelling of old ones, his entire subordination of +the words in the story to a pure musical purpose, offended the singers +and retarded the action of the drama in the eyes of the audience; yet +it was by virtue of these unpopular characteristics that the public +mind was being moulded to understand and love the form of the +oratorio. + +From 1734 to 1738 Handel composed and produced a number of operatic +works, the principal ones of which were "Alcina," 1735; "Arminio," +1737; and "Berenice," 1737. He also during these years wrote the +magnificent music to Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," and the great +funeral anthem on the occasion of Queen Caroline's death in the +latter part of the year 1737. + +We can hardly solve the tenacity of purpose with which Handel +persevered in the composition of operatic music after it had ruined +him; but it was still some time before he fully appreciated the true +turn of his genius, which could not be trifled with or ignored. In his +adversity he had some consolation. His creditors were patient, +believing in his integrity. The royal family were his firm friends. + +Southey tells us that Handel, having asked the youthful Prince of +Wales, then a child, and afterward George the Third, if he loved +music, answered, when the prince expressed his pleasure, "A good boy, +a good boy! You shall protect my fame when I am dead." Afterwards, +when the half-imbecile George was crazed with family and public +misfortunes, he found his chief solace in the Waverley novels and +Handel's music. + +It is also an interesting fact that the poets and thinkers of the age +were Handel's firm admirers. Such men as Gay, Arbuthnot, Hughes, +Colley Cibber, Pope, Fielding, Hogarth, and Smollett, who recognised +the deep, struggling tendencies of the times, measured Handel truly. +They defended him in print, and never failed to attend his +performances, and at his benefit concerts their enthusiastic support +always insured him an overflowing house. + +The popular instinct was also true to him. The aristocratic classes +sneered at his oratorios and complained at his innovations. His music +was found to be good bait for the popular gardens and the +holiday-makers of the period. Jonathan Tyers was one of the most +liberal managers of this class. He was proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, +and Handel (_incognito_) supplied him with nearly all his music. The +composer did much the same sort of thing for Marylebone Gardens, +furbishing up old and writing new strains with an ease that well +became the urgency of the circumstances. + +"My grandfather," says the Rev. J. Fountagne, "as I have been told, +was an enthusiast in music, and cultivated most of all the friendship +of musical men, especially of Handel, who visited him often, and had a +great predilection for his society. This leads me to relate an +anecdote which I have on the best authority. While Marylebone Gardens +were flourishing, the enchanting music of Handel, and probably of +Arne, was often heard from the orchestra there. One evening, as my +grandfather and Handel were walking together and alone, a new piece +was struck up by the band. 'Come, Mr. Fountagne,' said Handel, 'let us +sit down and listen to this piece; I want to know your opinion about +it.' Down they sat, and after some time the old parson, turning to his +companion, said, 'It is not worth listening to; it's very poor stuff.' +'You are right, Mr. Fountagne,' said Handel, 'it is very poor stuff; I +thought so myself when I had finished it.' The old gentleman, being +taken by surprise, was beginning to apologise; but Handel assured him +there was no necessity, that the music was really bad, having been +composed hastily, and his time for the production limited; and that +the opinion given was as correct as it was honest." + + +VI. + +The period of Handel's highest development had now arrived. For seven +years his genius had been slowly but surely maturing, in obedience to +the inner law of his being. He had struggled long in the bonds of +operatic composition, but even here his innovations showed +conclusively how he was reaching out toward the form with which his +name was to be associated through all time. The year 1739 was one of +prodigious activity. The oratorio of "Saul" was produced, of which the +"Dead March" is still recognised as one of the great musical +compositions of all time, being one of the few intensely solemn +symphonies written in a major key. Several works now forgotten were +composed, and the great "Israel in Egypt" was written in the +incredibly short space of twenty-seven days. Of this work a +distinguished writer on music says--"Handel was now fifty-five years +old, and had entered, after many a long and weary contest, upon his +last and greatest creative period. His genius culminates in the +'Israel.' Elsewhere he has produced longer recitatives and more +pathetic arias; nowhere has he written finer tenor songs than 'The +enemy said,' or finer duets than 'The Lord is a man of war;' and there +is not in the history of music an example of choruses piled up like so +many Ossas on Pelions in such majestic strength, and hurled in open +defiance at a public whose ears were itching for Italian love-lays and +English ballads. In these twenty-eight colossal choruses we perceive +at once a reaction against and a triumph over the tastes of the age. +The wonder is, not that the 'Israel' was unpopular, but that it should +have been tolerated; but Handel, while he appears to have been for +years driven by the public, had been, in reality, driving them. His +earliest oratorio, 'Il Trionfo del Tempo' (composed in Italy), had but +two choruses; into his operas more and more were introduced, with +disastrous consequences; but when, at the zenith of his strength, he +produced a work which consisted almost entirely of these unpopular +peculiarities, the public treated him with respect, and actually sat +out three performances in one season!" In addition to these two great +oratorios, our composer produced the beautiful music to Dryden's "St. +Cæcilia Ode," and Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." Henceforth +neither praise nor blame could turn Handel from his appointed course. +He was not yet popular with the musical _dilettanti_, but we find no +more catering to an absurd taste, no more writing of silly operatic +froth. + +Our composer had always been very fond of the Irish, and, at the +invitation of the lord-lieutenant and prominent Dublin amateurs, he +crossed the channel in 1741. He was received with the greatest +enthusiasm, and his house became the resort of all the musical people +in the city of Dublin. One after another his principal works were +produced before admiring audiences in the new Music Hall in Fishamble +Street. The crush to hear the "Allegro" and "Penseroso" at the +opening performances was so great that the doors had to be closed. The +papers declared there never had been seen such a scene before in +Dublin. + +Handel gave twelve performances at very short intervals, comprising +all of his finest works. In these concerts the "Acis and Galatea" and +"Alexander's Feast" were the most admired; but the enthusiasm +culminated in the rendition of the "Messiah," produced for the first +time on 13th April 1742. The performance was a beneficiary one in aid +of poor and distressed prisoners for debt in the Marshalsea in Dublin. +So, by a remarkable coincidence, the first performance of the +"Messiah" literally meant deliverance to the captives. The principal +singers were Mrs. Cibber (daughter-in-law of Colley Cibber, and +afterwards one of the greatest actresses of her time), Mrs. Avoglio, +and Mr. Dubourg. The town was wild with excitement. Critics, poets, +fine ladies, and men of fashion tore rhetoric to tatters in their +admiration. A clergyman so far forgot his Bible in his rapture as to +exclaim to Mrs. Cibber, at the close of one of her airs, "Woman, for +this be all thy sins forgiven thee." The penny-a-liners wrote that +"words were wanting to express the exquisite delight," etc. +And--supreme compliment of all, for Handel was a cynical bachelor--the +fine ladies consented to leave their hoops at home for the second +performance, that a couple of hundred or so extra listeners might be +accommodated. This event was the grand triumph of Handel's life. Years +of misconception, neglect, and rivalry were swept out of mind in the +intoxicating delight of that night's success. + + +VII. + +Handel returned to London, and composed a new oratorio, "Samson," for +the following Lenten season. This, together with the "Messiah," heard +for the first time in London, made the stock of twelve performances. +The fashionable world ignored him altogether; the newspapers kept a +contemptuous silence; comic singers were hired to parody his noblest +airs at the great houses; and impudent Horace Walpole had the audacity +to say that he "had hired all the goddesses from farces and singers of +roast-beef, from between the acts of both theatres, with a man with +one note in his voice, and a girl with never a one; and so they sang +and made brave hallelujahs." + +The new field into which Handel had entered inspired his genius to its +greatest energy. His new works for the season of 1744 were the +"Dettingen Te Deum," "Semele," and "Joseph and his Brethren;" for the +next year (he had again rented the Haymarket Theatre), "Hercules," +"Belshazzar," and a revival of "Deborah." All these works were +produced in a style of then uncommon completeness; and the great +expense he incurred, combined with the active hostility of the +fashionable world, forced him to close his doors and suspend payment. +From this time forward Handel gave concerts whenever he chose, and +depended on the people, who so supported him by their gradually +growing appreciation, that in two years he had paid off all his debts, +and in ten years had accumulated a fortune of £10,000. The works +produced during these latter years were "Judas Maccabæus," 1747; +"Alexander," 1748; "Joshua," 1748; "Susannah," 1749; "Solomon," 1749; +"Theodora," 1750; "Choice of Hercules," 1751; "Jephthah," 1752, +closing with this a stupendous series of dramatic oratorios. While at +work on the last, his eyes suffered an attack which finally resulted +in blindness. + +Like Milton in the case of "Paradise Lost," Handel preferred one of +his least popular oratorios, "Theodora." It was a great favourite with +him, and he used to say that the chorus, "He saw the lovely youth," +was finer than anything in the "Messiah." The public were not of this +opinion, and he was glad to give away tickets to any professors who +applied for them. When the "Messiah" was again produced, two of these +gentlemen who had neglected "Theodora" applied for admission. "Oh! +your sarvant, meine Herren!" exclaimed the indignant composer. "You +are tamnable dainty! You would not go to 'Theodora'--dere was room +enough to dance dere when dat was perform." When Handel heard that an +enthusiast had offered to make himself responsible for all the boxes +the next time the despised oratorio should be given--"He is a fool," +said he; "the Jews will not come to it as to 'Judas Maccabæus,' +because it is a Christian story; and the ladies will not come, because +it is a virtuous one." + +Handel's triumph was now about to culminate in a serene and +acknowledged pre-eminence. The people had recognised his greatness, +and the reaction at last conquered all classes. Publishers vied with +each other in producing his works, and their performance was greeted +with great audiences and enthusiastic applause. His last ten years +were a peaceful and beautiful ending of a stormy career. + + +VIII. + +Thought lingers pleasantly over this sunset period. Handel throughout +life was so wedded to his art, that he cared nothing for the delights +of woman's love. His recreations were simple--rowing, walking, +visiting his friends, and playing on the organ. He would sometimes try +to play the people out of St. Paul's Cathedral, and hold them +indefinitely. He would resort at night to his favourite tavern, the +Queen's Head, where he would smoke and drink beer with his chosen +friends. Here he would indulge in roaring conviviality and fun, and +delight his friends with sparkling satire and pungent humour, of which +he was a great master, helped by his amusing compound of English, +Italian, and German. Often he would visit the picture galleries, of +which he was passionately fond. His clumsy but noble figure could be +seen almost any morning rolling through Charing Cross; and everyone +who met old Father Handel treated him with the deepest reverence. + +The following graphic narrative, taken from the _Somerset House +Gazette_, offers a vivid portraiture. Schoelcher, in his _Life of +Handel_, says that "its author had a relative, Zachary Hardcastle, a +retired merchant, who was intimately acquainted with all the most +distinguished men of his time, artists, poets, musicians, and +physicians." This old gentleman, who lived at Paper Buildings, was +accustomed to take his morning walk in the garden of Somerset House, +where he happened to meet with another old man, Colley Cibber, and +proposed to him to go and hear a competition which was to take place +at midday for the post of organist to the Temple, and he invited him +to breakfast, telling him at the same time that Dr. Pepusch and Dr. +Arne were to be with him at nine o'clock. They go in; Pepusch arrives +punctually at the stroke of nine; presently there is a knock, the door +is opened, and Handel unexpectedly presents himself. Then follows the +scene:-- + +"Handel: 'Vat! mein dear friend Hardgasdle--vat! you are merry py +dimes! Vat! and Misder Golley Cibbers, too! aye, and Togder Peepbush +as vell! Vell, dat is gomigal. Vell, mein friendts, andt how vags the +vorldt wid you, mein tdears? Bray, bray, do let me sit town a momend.' + +"Pepusch took the great man's hat, Colley Cibber took his stick, and +my great-uncle wheeled round his reading-chair, which was somewhat +about the dimensions of that in which our kings and queens are +crowned; and then the great man sat him down. + +"'Vell, I thank you, gentlemen; now I am at mein ease vonce more. Upon +mein vord, dat is a picture of a ham. It is very pold of me to gome to +preak my fastd wid you uninvided; and I have brought along wid me a +nodable abbetite; for the wader of old Fader Dems is it not a fine +pracer of the stomach?' + +"'You do me great honour, Mr. Handel,' said my great-uncle. 'I take +this early visit as a great kindness.' + +"'A delightful morning for the water,' said Colley Cibber. + +"'Pray, did you come with oars or scullers, Mr. Handel?' said Pepusch. + +"'Now, how gan you demand of me dat zilly question, you who are a +musician and a man of science, Togder Peepbush? Vat gan it concern you +whether I have one votdermans or two votdermans--whether I bull out +mine burce for to pay von shilling or two? Diavolo! I gannot go here, +or I gannot go dere, but some one shall send it to some newsbaber, as +how Misder Chorge Vrederick Handel did go somedimes last week in a +votderman's wherry, to preak his fastd wid Misder Zac. Hardgasdle; but +it shall be all the fault wid himeself, if it shall be but in print, +whether I was rowed by one votdermans or by two votdermans. So, Togder +Peepbush, you will blease to excuse me from dat.' + +"Poor Dr. Pepusch was for a moment disconcerted, but it was soon +forgotten in the first dish of coffee. + +"'Well, gentlemen,' said my great-uncle Zachary, looking at his +tompion, 'it is ten minutes past nine. Shall we wait more for Dr. +Arne?' + +"'Let us give him another five minutes' chance, Master Hardcastle,' +said Colley Cibber; 'he is too great a genius to keep time.' + +"'Let us put it to the vote,' said Dr. Pepusch, smiling. 'Who holds up +hands?' + +"'I will segond your motion wid all mine heardt,' said Handel. 'I will +hold up mine feeble hands for mine oldt friendt Custos (Arne's name +was Augustine), for I know not who I wouldt waidt for, over andt above +mine oldt rival, Master Dom (meaning Pepusch). Only by your +bermission, I vill dake a snag of your ham, andt a slice of French +roll, or a modicum of chicken; for to dell you the honest fagd, I am +all pote famished, for I laid me down on mine billow in bed the lastd +nightd widout mine supper, at the instance of mine physician, for +which I am not altogeddere inglined to extend mine fastd no longer.' +Then, laughing: 'Berhaps, Mister Golley Cibbers, you may like to pote +this to the vote? But I shall not segond the motion, nor shall I holdt +up mine hand, as I will, by bermission, embloy it some dime in a +better office. So, if you please, do me the kindness for to gut me a +small slice of ham.' + +"At this instant a hasty footstep was heard on the stairs, accompanied +by the humming of an air, all as gay as the morning, which was +beautiful and bright. It was the month of May. + +"'Bresto! be quick,' said Handel; he knew it was Arne; 'fifteen +minutes of dime is butty well for an _ad libitum_.' + +"'Mr. Arne,' said my great-uncle's man. + +"A chair was placed, and the social party commenced their _déjeuner_. + +"'Well, and how do you find yourself, my dear sir?' inquired Arne, +with friendly warmth. + +"'Why, by the mercy of Heaven, andt the waders of Aix-la-Chapelle, +andt the addentions of mine togders andt physicians, and oggulists, of +lade years, under Providence, I am surbrizingly pedder--thank you +kindly, Misder Custos. Andt you have also been doing well of lade, as +I am bleased to hear. You see, sir,' pointing to his plate, 'you see, +sir, dat I am in the way for to regruit mine flesh wid the good viands +of Misder Zachary Hardgasdle.' + +"'So, sir, I presume you are come to witness the trial of skill at the +old round church? I understand the amateurs expect a pretty sharp +contest,' said Arne. + +"'Gondest,' echoed Handel, laying down his knife and fork. 'Yes, no +doubt; your amadeurs have a bassion for gondest. Not vot it vos in our +remembrance. Hey, mine friendt? Ha, ha, ha!' + +"'No, sir, I am happy to say those days of envy and bickering, and +party feeling, are gone and past. To be sure we had enough of such +disgraceful warfare: it lasted too long.' + +"'Why, yes; it tid last too long, it bereft me of mine poor limbs: it +tid bereave of that vot is the most blessed gift of Him vot made us, +andt not wee ourselves. And for vot? Vy, for noding in the vorldt pode +the bleasure and bastime of them who, having no widt, nor no want, set +at loggerheads such men as live by their widts, to worry and destroy +one andt anodere as wild beasts in the Golloseum in the dimes of the +Romans.' + +"Poor Dr. Pepusch during this conversation, as my great-uncle +observed, was sitting on thorns; he was in the confederacy +professionally only. + +"'I hope, sir,' observed the doctor, 'you do not include me among +those who did injustice to your talents?' + +"'Nod at all, nod at all; God forbid! I am a great admirer of the airs +of the "Peggar's Obera," andt every professional gendtleman must do +his best for to live.' + +"This mild return, couched under an apparent compliment, was well +received; but Handel, who had a talent for sarcastic drolling, added-- + +"'Pute why blay the Peggar yourself, Togder, andt adapt oldt pallad +humsdrum, ven, as a man of science, you could gombose original airs of +your own? Here is mine friendt, Custos Arne, who has made a road for +himself, for to drive along his own genius to the demple of fame.' +Then, turning to our illustrious Arne, he continued, 'Min friendt +Custos, you and I must meed togeder somedimes before it is long, and +hold a _têde-à-têde_ of old days vat is gone; ha, ha! Oh! it is +gomigal now dat id is all gone by. Custos, to nod you remember as it +was almost only of yesterday dat she-devil Guzzoni, andt dat other +brecious taughter of iniquity, Pelzebub's spoiled child, the +bretty-faced Faustina? Oh! the mad rage vot I have to answer for, vot +with one and the oder of these fine latdies' airs andt graces. Again, +to you nod remember dat ubstardt buppy Senesino, and the goxgomb +Farinelli? Next, again, mine somedimes nodtable rival Bononcini, and +old Borbora? Ha, ha, ha! all at war wid me, andt all at war wid +themselves. Such a gonfusion of rivalshibs, andt double-facedness, +andt hybocrisy, and malice, vot would make a gomigal subject for a +boem in rhymes, or a biece for the stage, as I hopes to be saved.'" + + +IX. + +We now turn from the man to his music. In his daily life with the +world we get a spectacle of a quick, passionate temper, incased in a +great burly frame, and raging into whirlwinds of excitement at small +provocation; a gourmand devoted to the pleasure of the table, +sometimes indeed gratifying his appetite in no seemly fashion, +resembling his friend Dr. Samuel Johnson in many notable ways. Handel +as a man was of the earth, earthly, in the extreme, and marked by many +whimsical and disagreeable faults. But in his art we recognise a +genius so colossal, massive, and self-poised as to raise admiration to +its superlative of awe. When Handel had disencumbered himself of +tradition, convention, the trappings of time and circumstances, he +attained a place in musical creation, solitary and unique. His genius +found expression in forms large and austere, disdaining the luxuriant +and trivial. He embodied the spirit of Protestantism in music; and a +recognition of this fact is probably the key of the admiration felt +for him by the Anglo-Saxon races. + +Handel possessed an inexhaustible fund of melody of the noblest order; +an almost unequalled command of musical expression; perfect power over +all the resources of his science; the faculty of wielding huge masses +of tone with perfect ease and felicity; and he was without rival in +the sublimity of ideas. The problem which he so successfully solved in +the oratorio was that of giving such dramatic force to the music, in +which he clothed the sacred texts, as to be able to dispense with all +scenic and stage effects. One of the finest operatic composers of the +time, the rival of Bach as an instrumental composer, and performer on +the harpsichord or organ, the unanimous verdict of the musical world +is that no one has ever equalled him in completeness, range of effect, +elevation and variety of conception, and sublimity in the treatment of +sacred music. We can readily appreciate Handel's own words when +describing his own sensations in writing the "Messiah"--"I did think I +did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself." + +The great man died on Good Friday night, 1759, aged seventy-five +years. He had often wished "he might breathe his last on Good Friday, +in hope," he said, "of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and +Saviour, on the day of his resurrection." The old blind musician had +his wish. + + + + +_GLUCK._ + + +I. + +Gluck is a noble and striking figure in musical history, alike in the +services he rendered to his art and the dignity and strength of his +personal character. As the predecessor of Wagner and Meyerbeer, who +among the composers of this century have given opera its largest and +noblest expression, he anticipated their important reforms, and in his +musical creations we see all that is best in what is called the new +school. + +The man, the Ritter CHRISTOPH WILIBALD VON GLUCK, is almost as +interesting to us as the musician. He moved in the society of princes +with a calm and haughty dignity, their conscious peer, and never +prostituted his art to gain personal advancement or to curry favour +with the great ones of the earth. He possessed a majesty of nature +which was the combined effect of personal pride, a certain lofty +self-reliance, and a deep conviction that he was the apostle of an +important musical mission. + +Gluck's whole life was illumined by an indomitable sense of his own +strength, and lifted by it into an atmosphere high above that of his +rivals, whom the world has now almost forgotten, except as they were +immortalised by being his enemies. Like Milton and Bacon, who put on +record their knowledge that they had written for all time, Gluck had a +magnificent consciousness of himself. "I have written," he says, "the +music of my 'Armida' in such a manner as to prevent its soon growing +old." This is a sublime vanity inseparable from the great aggressive +geniuses of the world, the wind of the speed which measures their +force of impact. + +Duplessis's portrait of Gluck almost takes the man out of paint to put +him in flesh and blood. He looks down with wide-open eyes, swelling +nostrils, firm mouth, and massive chin. The noble brow, dome-like and +expanded, relieves the massiveness of his face; and the whole +countenance and figure express the repose of a powerful and passionate +nature schooled into balance and symmetry: altogether the presentment +of a great man, who felt that he could move the world and had found +the _pou sto_. Of a large and robust type of physical beauty, Nature +seems to have endowed him on every hand with splendid gifts. Such a +man as this could say with calm simplicity to Marie Antoinette, who +inquired one night about his new opera of "Armida," then nearly +finished--"_Madame, il est bientôt fini, et vraiment ce sera +superbe._" + +One night Handel listened to a new opera from a young and unknown +composer, the "Caduta de' Giganti," one of Gluck's very earliest +works, written when he was yet corrupted with all the vices of the +Italian method. "Mein Gott! he is an idiot," said Handel; "he knows no +more of counterpoint then mein cook." Handel did not see with +prophetic eyes. He never met Gluck afterwards, and we do not know his +later opinion of the composer of "Orpheus and Eurydice" and "Iphigenia +in Tauris." But Gluck had ever the profoundest admiration for the +author of the "Messiah." There was something in these two strikingly +similar, as their music was alike characterised by massive simplicity +and strength, not rough-hewn, but shaped into austere beauty. + +Before we relate the great episode of our composer's life, let us take +a backward glance at his youth. He was the son of a forester in the +service of Prince Lobkowitz, born at Weidenwang in the Upper +Palatinate, 2nd July 1714. Gluck was devoted to music from early +childhood, but received, in connection with the musical art, an +excellent education at the Jesuit College of Kommotau. Here he learned +singing, the organ, the violin and harpsichord, and had a mind to get +his living by devoting his musical talents to the Church. The Prague +public recognised in him a musician of fair talent, but he found but +little encouragement to stay at the Bohemian capital. So he decided to +finish his musical education at Vienna, where more distinguished +masters could be had. Prince Lobkowitz, who remembered his +gamekeeper's son, introduced the young man to the Italian Prince +Melzi, who induced him to accompany him to Milan. As the pupil of the +Italian organist and composer, Sammartini, he made rapid progress in +operatic composition. He was successful in pleasing Italian audiences, +and in four years produced eight operas, for which the world has +forgiven him in forgetting them. Then Gluck must go to London to see +what impression he could make on English critics; for London then, as +now, was one of the great musical centres, where every successful +composer or singer must get his brevet. + +Gluck's failure to please in London was, perhaps, an important epoch +in his career. With a mind singularly sensitive to new impressions, +and already struggling with fresh ideas in the laws of operatic +composition, Handel's great music must have had a powerful effect in +stimulating his unconscious progress. His last production in England, +"Pyramus and Thisbe," was a _pasticcio_ opera, in which he embodied +the best bits out of his previous works. The experiment was a glaring +failure, as it ought to have been; for it illustrated the Italian +method, which was designed for mere vocal display, carried to its +logical absurdity. + + +II. + +In 1748 Gluck settled in Vienna, where almost immediately his opera of +"Semiramide" was produced. Here he conceived a passion for Marianne, +the daughter of Joseph Pergin, a rich banker; but on account of the +father's distaste for a musical son-in-law, the marriage did not occur +till 1750. "Telemacco" and "Clemenza di Tito" were composed about this +time, and performed in Vienna, Rome, and Naples. In 1755 our composer +received the order of the Golden Spur from the Roman pontiff in +recognition of the merits of two operas performed at Rome, called "Il +Trionfo di Camillo" and "Antigono." Seven years were now actively +employed in producing operas for Vienna and Italian cities, which, +without possessing great value, show the change which had begun to +take place in this composer's theories of dramatic music. In Paris he +had been struck with the operas of Rameau, in which the declamatory +form was strongly marked. His early Italian training had fixed in his +mind the importance of pure melody. From Germany he obtained his +appreciation of harmony, and had made a deep study of the uses of the +orchestra. So we see this great reformer struggling on with many +faltering steps towards that result which he afterwards summed up in +the following concise description--"My purpose was to restrict music +to its true office, that of ministering to the expression of poetry, +without interrupting the action." + +In Calzabigi Gluck had met an author who fully appreciated his ideas, +and had the talent of writing a libretto in accordance with them. This +coadjutor wrote all the librettos that belonged to Gluck's greatest +period. He had produced his "Orpheus and Eurydice" and "Alceste" in +Vienna with a fair amount of success; but his tastes drew him strongly +to the French stage, where the art of acting and declamation was +cultivated then, as it is now, to a height unknown in other parts of +Europe. So we find him gladly accepting an offer from the managers of +the French Opera to migrate to the great city, in which were +fermenting with much noisy fervour those new ideas in art, literature, +politics, and society, which were turning the eyes of all Europe to +the French capital. + +The world's history has hardly a more picturesque and striking +spectacle, a period more fraught with the working of powerful forces, +than that exhibited by French society in the latter part of Louis +XV.'s reign. We see a court rotten to the core with indulgence in +every form of sensuality and vice, yet glittering with the veneer of a +social polish which made it the admiration of the world. A dissolute +king was ruled by a succession of mistresses, and all the courtiers +vied in emulating the vice and extravagance of their master. Yet in +this foul compost-heap art and literature flourished with a tropical +luxuriance. Voltaire was at the height of his splendid career, the +most brilliant wit and philosopher of his age. The lightnings of his +mockery attacked with an incessant play the social, political, and +religious shams of the period. People of all classes, under the +influence of his unsparing satire, were learning to see with clear +eyes what an utterly artificial and polluted age they lived in, and +the cement which bound society in a compact whole was fast melting +under this powerful solvent. + +Rousseau, with his romantic philosophy and eloquence, had planted his +new ideas deep in the hearts of his contemporaries, weary with the +artifice and the corruption of a time which had exhausted itself and +had nothing to promise under the old social _régime_. The ideals +uplifted in the _Nouvelle Héloïse_ and the _Confessions_ awakened +men's minds with a great rebound to the charms of Nature, simplicity, +and a social order untrammelled by rules or conventions. The eloquence +with which these theories were propounded carried the French people by +storm, and Rousseau was a demigod at whose shrine worshipped alike +duchess and peasant. The Encyclopædists stimulated the ferment by +their literary enthusiasm, and the heartiness with which they +co-operated with the whole current of revolutionary thought. + +The very atmosphere was reeking with the prophecy of imminent change. +Versailles itself did not escape the contagion. Courtiers and +aristocrats, in worshipping the beautiful ideals set up by the new +school, which were as far removed as possible from their own effete +civilisation, did not realise that they were playing with the fire +which was to burn out the whole social edifice of France with such a +terrible conflagration; for, back and beneath all this, there was a +people groaning under long centuries of accumulated wrong, in whose +imbruted hearts the theories applauded by their oppressors with a sort +of _doctrinaire_ delight were working with a fatal fever. + + +III. + +In this strange condition of affairs Gluck found his new sphere of +labour--Gluck, himself overflowing with the revolutionary spirit, full +of the enthusiasm of reform. At first he carried everything before +him. Protected by royalty, he produced, on the basis of an admirable +libretto by Du Rollet, one of the great wits of the time, "Iphigenia +in Aulis." It was enthusiastically received. The critics, delighted to +establish the reputation of one especially favoured by the Dauphiness +Marie Antoinette, exhausted superlatives on the new opera. The Abbé +Arnaud, one of the leading _dilettanti_, exclaimed--"With such music +one might found a new religion!" To be sure, the connoisseurs could +not understand the complexities of the music; but, following the rule +of all connoisseurs before or since, they considered it all the more +learned and profound. So led, the general public clapped their hands, +and agreed to consider Gluck as a great composer. He was called the +Hercules of music; the opera-house was crammed night after night; his +footsteps were dogged in the streets by admiring enthusiasts; the wits +and poets occupied themselves with composing sonnets in his praise; +brilliant courtiers and fine ladies showered valuable gifts on the new +musical oracle; he was hailed as the exponent of Rousseauism in music. +We read that it was considered to be a priceless privilege to be +admitted to the rehearsal of a new opera, to see Gluck conduct in +nightcap and dressing-gown. + +Fresh adaptations of "Orpheus and Eurydice" and of "Alceste" were +produced. The first, brought out in 1784, was received with an +enthusiasm which could be contented only with forty-nine consecutive +performances. The second act of this work has been called one of the +most astonishing productions of the human mind. The public began to +show signs of fickleness, however, on the production of the "Alceste." +On the first night a murmur arose among the spectators--"The piece has +fallen." Abbé Arnaud, Gluck's devoted defender, arose in his box and +replied, "Yes! fallen from heaven." While Mademoiselle Levasseur was +singing one of the great airs, a voice was heard to say, "Ah! you tear +out my ears;" to which the caustic rejoinder was, "How fortunate, if +it is to give you others!" + +Gluck himself was badly bitten, in spite of his hatred of shams and +shallowness, with the pretences of the time, which professed to dote +on nature and simplicity. In a letter to his old pupil, Marie +Antoinette, wherein he disclaims any pretension of teaching the French +a new school of music, he says--"I see with satisfaction that the +language of Nature is the universal language." + +So, here on the crumbling crust of a volcano, where the volatile +French court danced and fiddled and sang, unreckoning of what was soon +to come, our composer and his admirers patted each other on the back +with infinite complacency. + +But after this high tide of prosperity there was to come a reverse. A +powerful faction, that for a time had been crushed by Gluck's triumph, +after a while raised their heads and organised an attack. There were +second-rate composers whose scores had been laid on the shelf in the +rage for the new favourite; musicians who were shocked and enraged at +the difficulties of his instrumentation; wits who, having praised +Gluck for a while, thought they could now find a readier field for +their quills in satire; and a large section of the public who changed +for no earthly reason but that they got tired of doing one thing. + +Therefore, the Italian Piccini was imported to be pitted against the +reigning deity. The French court was broken up into hostile ranks. +Marie Antoinette was Gluck's patron, but Madame Du Barry, the king's +mistress, declared for Piccini. Abbé Arnaud fought for Gluck; but the +witty Marmontel was the advocate of his rival. The keen-witted Du +Rollet was Gluckist; but La Harpe, the eloquent, was Piccinist. So +this battle-royal in art commenced and raged with virulence. The +green-room was made unmusical with contentions carried out in polite +Billingsgate. Gluck tore up his unfinished score in rage when he +learned that his rival was to compose an opera on the same libretto. +La Harpe said--"The famous Gluck may puff his own compositions, but he +can't prevent them from boring us to death." Thus the wags of Paris +laughed and wrangled over the musical rivals. Berton, the new +director, fancied he could soften the dispute and make the two +composers friends; so at a dinner-party, when they were all in their +cups, he proposed that they should compose an opera jointly. This was +demurred to; but it was finally arranged that they should compose an +opera on the same subject. + +"Iphigenia in Tauris," Gluck's second "Iphigenia," produced in 1779, +was such a masterpiece that his rival shut his own score in his +portfolio, and kept it two years. All Paris was enraptured with this +great work, and Gluck's detractors were silenced in the wave of +enthusiasm which swept the public. Abbé Arnaud's opinion was the echo +of the general mind--"There was but one beautiful part, and that was +the whole of it." This opera may be regarded as the most perfect +example of Gluck's school in making the music the full reflex of the +dramatic action. While Orestes sings in the opera, "My heart is calm," +the orchestra continues to paint the agitation of his thoughts. During +the rehearsal the musician failed to understand the exigency and +ceased playing. The composer cried out, in a rage, "Don't you see he +is lying? Go on, go on; he has just killed his mother." + +On one occasion, when he was praising Rameau's chorus of "Castor and +Pollux," an admirer of his flattered him with the remark, "But what a +difference between this chorus and that of your 'Iphigenia!'" "Yet it +is very well done," said Gluck; "one is only a religious ceremony, the +other is a real funeral." He was wont to say that in composing he +always tried to forget he was a musician. + +Gluck, however, a few months subsequent to this, was so much +humiliated at the non-success of "Echo and Narcissus," that he left +Paris in bitter irritation, in spite of Marie Antoinette's pleadings +that he should remain at the French capital. + +The composer was now advanced in years, and had become impatient and +fretful. He left Paris for Vienna in 1780, having amassed considerable +property. There, as an old, broken-down man, he listened to the young +Mozart's new symphonies and operas, and applauded them with great +zeal: for Gluck, though fiery and haughty in the extreme, was +singularly generous in recognising the merits of others. + +This was exhibited in Paris in his treatment of Méhul, the Belgian +composer, then a youth of sixteen, who had just arrived in the gay +city. It was on the eve of the first representation of "Iphigenia in +Tauris," when the operatic battle was agitating the public. With all +the ardour of a novice and a devotee, the young musical student +immediately threw himself into the affray, and by the aid of a friend +he succeeded in gaining admittance to the theatre for the final +rehearsal of Gluck's opera. This so enchanted him that he resolved to +be present at the public performance. But, unluckily for the resolve, +he had no money, and no prospect of obtaining any; so, with a +determination and a love for art which deserve to be remembered, he +decided to hide himself in one of the boxes and there to wait for the +time of representation. + +"At the end of the rehearsal," writes George Hogarth in his _Memoirs +of the Drama_, "he was discovered in his place of concealment by the +servants of the theatre, who proceeded to turn him out very roughly. +Gluck, who had not left the house, heard the noise, came to the spot, +and found the young man, whose spirit was roused, resisting the +indignity with which he was treated. Méhul, finding in whose presence +he was, was ready to sink with confusion; but, in answer to Gluck's +questions, he told him that he was a young musical student from the +country, whose anxiety to be present at the performance of the opera +had led him into the commission of an impropriety. Gluck, as may be +supposed, was delighted with a piece of enthusiasm so flattering to +himself, and not only gave his young admirer a ticket of admission, +but desired his acquaintance." From this artistic _contretemps_, then, +arose a friendship alike creditable to the goodness and generosity of +Gluck, as it was to the sincerity and high order of Méhul's musical +talent. + +Gluck's death, in 1787, was caused by over-indulgence in wine at a +dinner which he gave to some of his friends. The love of stimulants +had grown upon him in his old age, and had become almost a passion. An +enforced abstinence of some months was succeeded by a debauch, in +which he drank an immense quantity of brandy. The effects brought on a +fit of apoplexy, of which he died, aged seventy-three. + +Gluck's place in musical history is peculiar and well marked. He +entered the field of operatic composition when it was hampered with a +great variety of dry forms, and utterly without soul and poetic +spirit. The object of composers seemed to be to show mere contrapuntal +learning, or to furnish singers opportunity to display vocal agility. +The opera, as a large and symmetrical expression of human emotions, +suggested in the collisions of a dramatic story, was utterly an +unknown quantity in art. Gluck's attention was early called to this +radical inconsistency; and, though he did not learn for many years to +develop his musical ideas according to a theory, and never carried +that theory to the logical results insisted on by his great +after-type, Wagner, he accomplished much in the way of sweeping +reform. He elaborated the recitative or declamatory element in opera +with great care, and insisted that his singers should make this the +object of their most careful efforts. The arias, duos, quartets, etc., +as well as the choruses and orchestral parts, were made consistent +with the dramatic motive and situations. In a word, Gluck aimed with a +single-hearted purpose to make music the expression of poetry and +sentiment. + +The principles of Gluck's school of operatic writing may be briefly +summarised as follows:--That dramatic music can only reach its highest +power and beauty when joined to a simple and poetic text, expressing +passions true to Nature; that music can be made the language of all +the varied emotions of the heart; that the music of an opera must +exactly follow the rhythm and melody of the words; that the orchestra +must be only used to strengthen and intensify the feeling embodied in +the vocal parts, as demanded by the text or dramatic situation. We get +some further light on these principles from Gluck's letter of +dedication to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany on the publication of +"Alceste." He writes:--"I am of opinion that music must be to poetry +what liveliness of colour and a happy mixture of light and shade are +for a faultless and well-arranged drawing, which serve to add life to +the figures without injuring the outlines; ... that the overture +should prepare the auditors for the character of the action which is +to be presented, and hint at the progress of the same; that the +instruments must be employed according to the degree of interest and +passion; that the composer should avoid too marked a disparity in the +dialogue between the air and recitative, in order not to break the +sense of a period, or interrupt the energy of the action.... Finally, +I have even felt compelled to sacrifice rules to the improvement of +the effect." + +We find in this composer's music, therefore, a largeness and dignity +of treatment which have never been surpassed. His command of melody is +quite remarkable, but his use of it is under severe artistic +restraint; for it is always characterised by breadth, simplicity, and +directness. He aimed at and attained the symmetrical balance of an old +Greek play. + + + + +_HAYDN._ + + +I. + +"Papa Haydn!" Thus did Mozart ever speak of his foster-father in +music, and the title, transmitted to posterity, admirably expressed +the sweet, placid, gentle nature, whose possessor was personally +beloved no less than he was admired. His life flowed, broad and +unruffled, like some great river, unvexed for the most part by the +rivalries, jealousies, and sufferings, oftentimes self-inflicted, +which have harassed the careers of other great musicians. He remained +to the last the favourite of the imperial court of Vienna, and princes +followed his remains to their last resting-place. + +JOSEPH HAYDN was the eldest of the twenty children of Matthias Haydn, +a wheelwright at Rohrau, Lower Austria, where he was born in 1732. At +the age of twelve years he was engaged to sing in Vienna. He became a +chorister in St. Stephen's Church, but offended the choir-master by +the revolt on the part of himself and parents from submitting to the +usual means then taken to perpetuate a fine soprano in boys. So Haydn, +who had surreptitiously picked up a good deal of musical knowledge +apart from the art of singing, was at the age of sixteen turned out on +the world. A compassionate barber, however, took him in, and Haydn +dressed and powdered wigs downstairs, while he worked away at a little +worm-eaten harpsichord at night in his room. Unfortunate boy! he +managed to get himself engaged to the barber's daughter, Anne Keller, +who was for a good while the Xantippe of his gentle life, and he paid +dearly for his father-in-law's early hospitality. + +The young musician soon began to be known, as he played the violin in +one church, the organ in another, and got some pupils. His first rise +was his acquaintance with Metastasio, the poet-laureate of the court. +Through him Haydn got introduced to the mistress of the Venetian +ambassador, a great musical enthusiast, and in her circle he met +Porpora, the best music-master in the world, but a crusty, snarling old +man. Porpora held at Vienna the position of musical dictator and censor, +and he exercised the tyrannical privileges of his post mercilessly. +Haydn was a small, dark-complexioned, insignificant-looking youth, and +Porpora, of course, snubbed him most contemptuously. But Haydn wanted +instruction, and no one in the world could give it so well as the savage +old _maestro_. So he performed all sorts of menial services for him, +cleaned his shoes, powdered his wig, and ran all his errands. The +result was that Porpora softened and consented to give his young admirer +lessons--no great hardship, for young Haydn proved a most apt and gifted +pupil. And it was not long either before the young musician's +compositions attracted public attention and found a sale. The very +curious relations between Haydn and Porpora are brilliantly sketched in +George Sand's _Consuelo_. + +At night Haydn, accompanied by his friends, was wont to wander about +Vienna by moonlight, and serenade his patrons with trios and quartets +of his own composition. He happened one night to stop under the window +of Bernardone Kurz, a director of a theatre and the leading clown of +Vienna. Down rushed Kurz very excitedly. "Who are you?" he shrieked. +"Joseph Haydn." "Whose music is it?" "Mine." "The deuce it is! And at +your age, too!" "Why, I must begin with something." "Come along +upstairs." + +The enthusiastic director collared his prize, and was soon deep in +explaining a wonderful libretto, entitled "The Devil on Two Sticks." +To write music for this was no easy matter; for it was to represent +all sorts of absurd things, among others a tempest. The tempest made +Haydn despair, and he sat at the piano, banging away in a reckless +fashion, while the director stood behind him, raving in a disconnected +way as to his meaning. At last the distracted pianist brought his +fists simultaneously down upon the key-board, and made a rapid sweep +of all the notes. + +"Bravo! bravo! that is the tempest!" cried Kurz. + +The buffoon also laid himself on a chair, and had it carried about the +room, during which he threw out his limbs in imitation of the act of +swimming. Haydn supplied an accompaniment so suitable that Kurz soon +landed on _terra firma_, and congratulated the composer, assuring him +that he was the man to compose the opera. By this stroke of good luck +our young musician received one hundred and thirty florins. + + +II. + +At the age of twenty-eight Haydn composed his first symphony. Soon +after this he attracted the attention of the old Prince Esterhazy, all +the members of whose family have become known in the history of music +as generous Mæcenases of the art. + +"What! you don't mean to say that little blackamoor" (alluding to +Haydn's brown complexion and small stature) "composed that symphony?" + +"Surely, prince," replied the director Friedburg, beckoning to Joseph +Haydn, who advanced towards the orchestra. + +"Little Moor," says the old gentleman, "you shall enter my service. I +am Prince Esterhazy. What's your name?" + +"Haydn." + +"Ah! I've heard of you. Get along and dress yourself like a +_Kapellmeister_. Clap on a new coat, and mind your wig is curled. +You're too short. You shall have red heels; but they shall be high, +that your stature may correspond with your merit." + +So he went to live at Eisenstadt in the Esterhazy household, and +received a salary of four hundred florins, which was afterwards raised +to one thousand by Prince Nicholas Esterhazy. Haydn continued the +intimate friend and associate of Prince Nicholas for thirty years, and +death only dissolved the bond between them. In the Esterhazy household +the life of Haydn was a very quiet one, a life of incessant and happy +industry; for he poured out an incredible number of works, among them +not a few of his most famous ones. So he spent a happy life in hard +labour, alternated with delightful recreations at the Esterhazy +country-seat, mountain rambles, hunting and fishing, open-air +concerts, musical evenings, etc. + +A French traveller who visited Esterhazy about 1782 says--"The château +stands quite solitary, and the prince sees nobody but his officials +and servants, and strangers who come hither from curiosity. He has a +puppet-theatre, which is certainly unique in character. Here the +grandest operas are produced. One knows not whether to be amazed or +to laugh at seeing 'Alceste,' 'Alcides,' etc., put on the stage with +all due solemnity and played by puppets. His orchestra is one of the +best I ever heard, and the great Haydn is his court and theatre +composer. He employs a poet for his singular theatre, whose humour and +skill in suiting the grandest subjects for the stage, and in parodying +the gravest effects, are often exceedingly happy. He often engages a +troupe of wandering players for months at a time, and he himself and +his retinue form the entire audience. They are allowed to come on the +stage uncombed, drunk, their parts not half learned, and half dressed. +The prince is not for the serious and tragic, and he enjoys it when +the players, like Sancho Panza, give loose reins to their humour." + +Yet Haydn was not perfectly contented. He would have been had it not +been for his terrible wife, the hair-dresser's daughter, who had a +dismal, mischievous, sullen nature, a venomous tongue, and a savage +temper. She kept Haydn in hot water continually, till at last he broke +loose from this plague by separating from her. Scandal says that +Haydn, who had a very affectionate and sympathetic nature, found ample +consolation for marital infelicity in the charms and society of the +lovely Boselli, a great singer. He had her picture painted, and +humoured all her whims and caprices, to the sore depletion of his +pocket. + +In after-years again he was mixed up in a little affair with the great +Mrs. Billington, whose beautiful person was no less marked than her +fine voice. Sir Joshua Reynolds was painting her portrait for him, and +had represented her as St. Cecilia listening to celestial music. Haydn +paid her a charming compliment at one of the sittings. + +"What do you think of the charming Billington's picture?" said Sir +Joshua. + +"Yes," said Haydn, "it is indeed a beautiful picture. It is just like +her, but there's a strange mistake." + +"What is that?" + +"Why, you have painted her listening to the angels, when you ought to +have painted the angels listening to her." + +At one time, during Haydn's connection with Prince Esterhazy, the +latter, from motives of economy, determined to dismiss his celebrated +orchestra, which he supported at great expense. Haydn was the leader, +and his patron's purpose caused him sore pain, as indeed it did all +the players, among whom were many distinguished instrumentalists. +Still, there was nothing to be done but for all concerned to make +themselves as cheerful as possible under the circumstances; so, with +that fund of wit and humour which seems to have been concealed under +the immaculate coat and formal wig of the strait-laced Haydn, he set +about composing a work for the last performance of the royal band, a +work which has ever since borne the appropriate title of the "Farewell +Symphony." + +On the night appointed for the last performance a brilliant company, +including the prince, had assembled. The music of the new symphony +began gaily enough--it was even merry. As it went on, however, it +became soft and dreamy. The strains were sad and "long drawn out." At +length a sorrowful wailing began. One instrument after another left +off, and each musician, as his task ended, blew out his lamp and +departed with his music rolled up under his arm. + +Haydn was the last to finish, save one, and this was the prince's +favourite violinist, who said all that he had to say in a brilliant +violin cadenza, when, behold! he made off. + +The prince was astonished. "What is the meaning of all this?" cried +he. + +"It is our sorrowful farewell," answered Haydn. + +This was too much. The prince was overcome, and, with a good laugh, +said: "Well, I think I must reconsider my decision. At any rate we +will not say 'good-bye' now." + + +III. + +During the thirty years of Haydn's quiet life with the Esterhazys he +had been gradually acquiring an immense reputation in France, England +and Spain, of which he himself was unconscious. His great symphonies +had stamped him world-wide as a composer of remarkable creative +genius. Haydn's modesty prevented him from recognising his own +celebrity. Therefore, we can fancy his astonishment when, shortly +after the death of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, a stranger called on him +and said, "I am Salomon, from London, and must strike a bargain with +you for that city immediately." + +Haydn was dazed with the suddenness of the proposition, but the old +ties were broken up, and his grief needed recreation and change. +Still, he had many beloved friends, whose society it was hard to +leave. Chief among these was Mozart. "Oh, papa," said Mozart, "you +have had no training for the wide world, and you speak so few +languages." "Oh, my language is understood all over the world," said +Papa Haydn, with a smile. When he departed for England, December 15, +1790, Mozart could with difficulty tear himself away, and said, with +pathetic tears, "We shall doubtless now take our last farewell." + +Haydn and Mozart were perfectly in accord, and each thought and did +well towards the other. Mozart, we know, was born when Haydn had just +reached manhood, so that when Mozart became old enough to study +composition the earlier works of Haydn's chamber music had been +written; and these undoubtedly formed the studies of the boy Mozart, +and greatly influenced his style; so that Haydn was the model, and, in +a sense, the instructor of Mozart. Strange is it then to find, in +after-years, the master borrowing (perhaps with interest!) from the +pupil. Such, however, was the fact, as every amateur knows. At this we +can hardly wonder, for Haydn possessed unbounded admiration not only +for Mozart, but also for his music, which the following shows. Being +asked by a friend at Prague to send him an opera, he replied:-- + +"With all my heart, if you desire to have it for yourself alone, but +if you wish to perform it in public, I must be excused; for, being +written specially for my company at the Esterhazy Palace, it would not +produce the proper effect elsewhere. I would do a new score for your +theatre, but what a hazardous step it would be to stand in comparison +with Mozart! Oh, Mozart! If I could instil into the soul of every +lover of music the admiration I have for his matchless works, all +countries would seek to be possessed of so great a treasure. Let +Prague keep him, ah! and well reward him, for without that the history +of geniuses is bad; alas! we see so many noble minds crushed beneath +adversity. Mozart is incomparable, and I am annoyed that he is unable +to obtain any court appointment. Forgive me if I get excited when +speaking of him, I am so fond of him." + +Mozart's admiration for Haydn's music, too, was very marked. He and +Herr Kozeluch were one day listening to a composition of Haydn's which +contained some bold modulations. Kozeluch thought them strange, and +asked Mozart whether he would have written them. "I think not," +smartly replied Mozart, "and for this reason: because they would not +have occurred either to you or me!" + +On another occasion we find Mozart taking to task a Viennese professor +of some celebrity, who used to experience great delight in turning to +Haydn's compositions to find therein any evidence of the master's want +of sound theoretical training--a quest in which the pedant +occasionally succeeded. One day he came to Mozart with a great crime +to unfold. Mozart as usual endeavoured to turn the conversation, but +the learned professor still went chattering on, till at last Mozart +shut his mouth with the following pill--"Sir, if you and I were both +melted down together, we should not furnish materials for one Haydn." + +It was one of the most beautiful friendships in the history of art, +full of tender offices, and utterly free from the least taint of envy +or selfishness. + + +IV. + +Haydn landed in England after a voyage which delighted him in spite of +his terror of the sea--a feeling which seems to be usual among people +of very high musical sensibilities. In his diary we find +recorded--"By four o'clock we had come twenty miles. The large vessel +stood out to sea five hours longer, till the tide carried it into the +harbour. I remained on deck the whole passage, in order to gaze my +fill at that huge monster--the ocean." + +The novelty of Haydn's concerts--of which he was to give twenty at +fifty pounds apiece--consisted of their being his own symphonies, +conducted by himself in person. Haydn's name, during his serene, +uneventful years with the Esterhazys, had become world-famous. His +reception was most brilliant. Dinner parties, receptions, invitations +without end, attested the enthusiasm of the sober English; and his +appearance at concerts and public meetings was the signal for stormy +applause. How, in the press of all this pleasure in which he was +plunged, he continued to compose the great number of works produced at +this time, is a marvel. He must have been little less than a Briareus. +It was in England that he wrote the celebrated Salomon symphonies--the +"twelve grand," as they are called. They may well be regarded as the +crowning-point of Haydn's efforts in that form of writing. He took +infinite pains with them, as, indeed, is well proved by an examination +of the scores. More elaborate, more beautiful, and scored for a fuller +orchestra than any others of the one hundred and twenty or thereabouts +which he composed, the Salomon set also bears marks of the devout and +pious spirit in which Haydn ever laboured. + +It is interesting to see how, in many of the great works which have +won the world's admiration, the religion of the author has gone +hand-in-hand with his energy and his genius; and we find Haydn not +ashamed to indorse his score with his prayer and praise, or to offer +the fruits of his talents to the Giver of all. Thus, the symphony in D +(No. 6) bears on the first page of the score the inscription, "_In +nomine Domini: di me Giuseppe Haydn, maia 1791, in London_;" and on +the last page, "_Fine, Laus Deo, 238_." + +That genius may sometimes be trusted to judge of its own work may be +gathered from Haydn's own estimate of these great symphonies. + +"Sir," said the well-satisfied Salomon, after a successful performance +of one of them, "I am strongly of opinion that you will never surpass +these symphonies." + +"No!" replied Haydn; "I never mean to try." + +The public, as we have said, was enthusiastic; but such a full banquet +of severe orchestral music was a severe trial to many, and not a few +heads would keep time to the music by steady nods during the slow +movements. Haydn, therefore, composed what is known as the "Surprise" +symphony. The slow movement is of the most lulling and soothing +character, and about the time the audience should be falling into its +first snooze, the instruments having all died away into the softest +_pianissimo_, the full orchestra breaks out with a frightful BANG. It +is a question whether the most vigorous performance of this symphony +would startle an audience nowadays, accustomed to the strident effects +of Wagner and Liszt. A wag in a recent London journal tells us, +indeed, that at the most critical part in the work a gentleman opened +one eye sleepily and said, "Come in." + +Simple-hearted Haydn was delighted at the attention lavished on him in +London. He tells us how he enjoyed his various entertainments and +feastings by such dignitaries as William Pitt, the Lord Chancellor, +and the Duke of Lids (Leeds). The gentlemen drank freely the whole +night, and the songs, the crazy uproar, and smashing of glasses were +very great. He went down to stay with the Prince of Wales (George +IV.), who played on the violoncello, and charmed the composer by his +kindness. "He is the handsomest man on God's earth. He has an +extraordinary love of music, and a great deal of feeling, but very +little money." + +To stem the tide of Haydn's popularity, the Italian faction had +recourse to Giardini; and they even imported a pet pupil of Haydn, +Pleyel, to conduct the rival concerts. Our composer kept his temper, +and wrote, "He [Pleyel] behaves himself with great modesty." Later we +read, "Pleyel's presumption is a public laughing-stock;" but he adds, +"I go to all his concerts and applaud him." + +Far different were the amenities that passed between Haydn and +Giardini. "I won't know the German hound," says the latter. Haydn +wrote, "I attended his concert at Ranelagh, and he played the fiddle +like a hog." + +Among the pleasant surprises Haydn had in England was his visit to +Herschel, the great astronomer, in whom he recognised one of his old +oboe-players. The big telescope amazed him, and so did the patient +star-gazer, who often sat out-of-doors in the most intense cold for +five or six hours at a time. + +Our composer returned to Vienna in May 1795, with the little fortune +of 12,000 florins in his pocket. + + +V. + +In his charming little cottage near Vienna Haydn was the centre of a +brilliant society. Princes and nobles were proud to do honour to him; +and painters, poets, scholars, and musicians made a delightful +coterie, which was not even disturbed by the political convulsions of +the time. The baleful star of Napoleon shot its disturbing influences +throughout Europe, and the roar of his cannon shook the established +order of things with the echoes of what was to come. Haydn was +passionately attached to his country and his emperor, and regarded +anxiously the rumblings and quakings of the period; but he did not +intermit his labour, or allow his consecration to his divine art to be +in the least shaken. Like Archimedes of old, he toiled serenely at his +appointed work, while the political order of things was crumbling +before the genius and energy of the Corsican adventurer. + +In 1798 he completed his great oratorio of "The Creation," on which he +had spent three years of toil, and which embodied his brightest +genius. Haydn was usually a very rapid composer, but he seems to have +laboured at the "Creation" with a sort of reverential humility, which +never permitted him to think his work worthy or complete. It soon went +the round of Germany, and passed to England and France, everywhere +awakening enthusiasm by its great symmetry and beauty. Without the +sublimity of Handel's "Messiah," it is marked by a richness of melody, +a serene elevation, a matchless variety in treatment, which make it +the most characteristic of Haydn's works. Napoleon, the first consul, +was hastening to the opera-house to hear this, 24th January 1801, when +he was stopped by an attempt at assassination. + +Two years after "The Creation" appeared "The Seasons," founded on +Thomson's poem, also a great work, and one of his last; for the grand +old man was beginning to think of rest, and he only composed two or +three quartets after this. He was now seventy years old, and went but +little from his own home. His chief pleasure was to sit in his shady +garden, and see his friends, who loved to solace the musical patriarch +with cheerful talk and music. Haydn often fell into deep melancholy, +and he tells us that God revived him; for no more sweet, devout nature +ever lived. His art was ever a religion. A touching incident of his +old age occurred at a grand performance of "The Creation" in 1808. +Haydn was present, but he was so old and feeble that he had to be +wheeled in a chair into the theatre, where a princess of the house of +Esterhazy took her seat by his side. This was the last time that Haydn +appeared in public, and a very impressive sight it must have been to +see the aged father of music listening to "The Creation" of his +younger days, but too old to take any active share in the performance. +The presence of the old man roused intense enthusiasm among the +audience, which could no longer be suppressed as the chorus and +orchestra burst in full power upon the superb passage, "And there was +light." + +Amid the tumult of the enraptured audience the old composer was seen +striving to raise himself. Once on his feet, he mustered up all his +strength, and, in reply to the applause of the audience, he cried out +as loud as he was able--"No, no! not from me, but," pointing to +heaven, "from thence--from heaven above--comes all!" saying which, he +fell back in his chair, faint and exhausted, and had to be carried out +of the room. + +One year after this Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a shot +fell in Haydn's garden. He requested to be led to his piano, and +played the "Hymn to the Emperor" three times over with passionate +eloquence and pathos. This was his last performance. He died five days +afterwards, aged seventy-seven, and lies buried in the cemetery of +Gumpfenzdorf, in his own beloved Vienna. + + +VI. + +The serene, genial face of Haydn, as seen in his portraits, measures +accurately the character of his music. In both we see healthfulness, +good-humour, vivacity, devotional feeling, and warm affections; a mind +contented, but yet attaching high importance to only one thing in +life, the composing of music. Haydn pursued this with a calm, +insatiable industry, without haste, without rest. His works number +eight hundred, comprising cantatas, symphonies, oratorios, masses, +concertos, trios, sonatas, quartets, minuets, etc., and also +twenty-two operas, eight German and fourteen Italian. + +As a creative mind in music, Haydn was the father of the quartet and +symphony. Adopting the sonata form as scientifically illustrated by +Emanuel Bach, he introduced it into compositions for the orchestra and +the chamber. He developed these into a completeness and full-orbed +symmetry, which have never been improved. Mozart is richer, Beethoven +more sublime, Schubert more luxuriant, Mendelssohn more orchestral and +passionate; but Haydn has never been surpassed in his keen perception +of the capacities of instruments, his subtile distribution of parts, +his variety in treating his themes, and his charmingly legitimate +effects. He fills a large space in musical history, not merely from +the number, originality, and beauty of his compositions, but as one +who represents an era in art-development. + +In Haydn genius and industry were happily united. With a marvellously +rich flow of musical ideas, he clearly knew what he meant to do, and +never neglected the just elaboration of each one. He would labour on a +theme till it had shaped itself into perfect beauty. + +Haydn is illustrious in the history of art as a complete artistic +life, which worked out all of its contents as did the great Goethe. In +the words of a charming writer: "His life was a rounded whole. There +was no broken light about it; it orbed slowly, with a mild, unclouded +lustre, into a perfect star. Time was gentle with him, and Death was +kind, for both waited upon his genius until all was won. Mozart was +taken away at an age when new and dazzling effects had not ceased to +flash through his brain: at the very moment when his harmonies began +to have a prophetic ring of the nineteenth century, it was decreed +that he should not see its dawn. Beethoven himself had but just +entered upon an unknown 'sea whose margin seemed to fade forever and +forever as he moved;' but good old Haydn had come into port over a +calm sea and after a prosperous voyage. The laurel wreath was this +time woven about silver locks; the gathered-in harvest was ripe and +golden." + + + + +_MOZART._ + + +I. + +The life of WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, one of the immortal names in +music, contradicts the rule that extraordinary youthful talent is apt +to be followed by a sluggish and commonplace maturity. His father +entered the room one day with a friend, and found the child bending +over a music score. The little Mozart, not yet five years old, told +his father he was writing a concerto for the piano. The latter +examined it, and tears of joy and astonishment rolled down his face on +perceiving its accuracy. + +"It is good, but too difficult for general use," said the friend. + +"Oh," said Wolfgang, "it must be practised till it is learned. This is +the way it goes." So saying, he played it with perfect correctness. + +About the same time he offered to take the violin at a performance of +some chamber music. His father refused, saying, "How can you? You have +never learned the violin." + +"One needs not study for that," said this musical prodigy; and taking +the instrument, he played second violin with ease and accuracy. Such +precocity seems almost incredible, and only in the history of music +does it find any parallel. + +Born in Salzburg, 27th January 1756, he was carefully trained by his +father, who resigned his place as court musician to devote himself +more exclusively to his family. From the earliest age he showed an +extraordinary passion for music and mathematics, scrawling notes and +diagrams in every place accessible to his insatiate pencil. + +Taken to Vienna, the six-year-old virtuoso astonished the court by his +brilliant talents. The future Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, was +particularly delighted with him, and the little Mozart naïvely said he +would like to marry her, for she was so good to him. His father +devoted several years to an artistic tour, with him and his little +less talented sister, through the German cities, and it was also +extended to Paris and London. Everywhere the greatest enthusiasm was +evinced in this charming bud of promise. The father writes home--"We +have swords, laces, mantillas, snuff-boxes, gold cases, sufficient to +furnish a shop; but as for money, it is a scarce article, and I am +positively poor." + +At Paris they were warmly received at the court, and the boy is said +to have expressed his surprise when Mdme. Pompadour refused to kiss +him, saying, "Who is she, that she will not kiss me? Have I not been +kissed by the queen?" In London his improvisations and piano sonatas +excited the greatest admiration. Here he also published his third +work. These journeys were an uninterrupted chain of triumphs for the +child-virtuoso on the piano, organ, violin, and in singing. He was +made honorary member of the Academies of Bologna and Verona, decorated +with orders, and received at the age of thirteen an order to write the +opera of "Mithridates," which was successfully produced at Milan in +1770. Several other fine minor compositions were also written to order +at this time for his Italian admirers. At Rome Mozart attended the +Sistine Chapel and wrote the score of Allegri's great mass, forbidden +by the Pope to be copied, from the memory of a single performance. + +The record of Mozart's youthful triumphs might be extended at great +length; but aside from the proof they furnish of his extraordinary +precocity, they have lent little vital significance in the great +problem of his career, except so far as they stimulated the marvellous +boy to lay a deep foundation for his greater future, which, short as +it was, was fruitful in undying results. + + +II. + +Mozart's life in Paris, where he lived with his mother in 1778 and +1779, was a disappointment, for he despised the French nation. His +deep, simple, German nature revolted from Parisian frivolity, in which +he found only sensuality and coarseness, disguised under a thin +veneering of social grace. He abhorred French music in these bitter +terms--"The French are and always will be downright donkeys. They +cannot sing, they scream." It was just at this time that Gluck and +Piccini were having their great art-duel. We get a glimpse of the +pious tendency of the young composer in his characterisation of +Voltaire--"The ungodly arch-villain, Voltaire, has just died like a +dog." Again he writes--"Friends who have no religion cannot long be my +friends.... I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do +anything that I would not do before the whole world." + +With Mozart's return to Germany in 1779, being then twenty-three years +of age, comes the dawn of his classical period as a composer. The +greater number of his masses had already been written, and now he +settled himself in serious earnest to the cultivation of a true German +operatic school. This found its dawn in the production of "Idomeneo," +his first really great work for the lyric stage. + +The young composer had hard struggles with poverty in these days. His +letters to his father are full of revelations of his friction with the +little worries of life. Lack of money pinched him close, yet his +cheerful spirit was ever buoyant. "I have only one small room; it is +quite crammed with a piano, a table, a bed, and a chest of drawers," +he writes. + +Yet he would marry; for he was willing to face poverty in the +companionship of a loving woman who dared to face it with him. At +Mannheim he had met a beautiful young singer, Aloysia Weber, and he +went to Munich to offer her marriage. She, however, saw nothing +attractive in the thin, pale young man, with his long nose, great +eyes, and little head; for he was anything but prepossessing. A +younger sister, Constance, however, secretly loved Mozart, and he soon +transferred his repelled affections to this charming woman, whom he +married in 1782 at the house of Baroness Waldstetten. His _naïve_ +reasons for marrying show Mozart's ingenuous nature. He had no one to +take care of his linen, he would not live dissolutely like other young +men, and he loved Constance Weber. His answer to his father, who +objected on account of his poverty, is worth quoting:-- + +"Constance is a well-conducted, good girl, of respectable parentage, +and I am in a position to earn at least _daily bread_ for her. We love +each other, and are resolved to marry. All that you have written or +may possibly write on the subject can be nothing but well-meant +advice, which, however good and sensible, can no longer apply to a man +who has gone so far with a girl." + +Poor as Mozart was, he possessed such integrity and independence that +he refused a most liberal offer from the King of Prussia to become his +chapel-master, for some unexplained reason which involved his sense of +right and wrong. The first year of his marriage he wrote "Il +Seraglio," and made the acquaintance of the aged Gluck, who took a +deep interest in him and warmly praised his genius. Haydn, too, +recognised his brilliant powers. "I tell you, on the word of an honest +man," said the author of the "Creation" to Leopold Mozart, the father, +who asked his opinion, "that I consider your son the greatest composer +I have ever heard. He writes with taste, and possesses a thorough +knowledge of composition." + +Poverty and increasing expense pricked Mozart into intense, restless +energy. His life had no lull in its creative industry. His splendid +genius, insatiable and tireless, broke down his body, like a sword +wearing out its scabbard. He poured out symphonies, operas, and +sonatas with such prodigality as to astonish us, even when +recollecting how fecund the musical mind has often been. Alike as +artist and composer, he never ceased his labours. Day after day and +night after night he hardly snatched an hour's rest. We can almost +fancy he foreboded how short his brilliant life was to be, and was +impelled to crowd into its brief compass its largest measure of +results. + +Yet he was always pursued by the spectre of want. Oftentimes his sick +wife could not obtain needed medicines. He made more money than most +musicians, yet was always impoverished. But it was his glory that he +was never impoverished by sensual indulgence, extravagance, and +riotous living, but by his lavish generosity to those who in many +instances needed help less than himself. Like many other men of genius +and sensibility, he could not say "no" to even the pretence of +distress and suffering. + + +III. + +The culminating point of Mozart's artistic development was in 1786. +The "Marriage of Figaro" was the first of a series of masterpieces +which cannot be surpassed alike for musical greatness and their hold +on the lyric stage. The next year "Don Giovanni" saw the light, and +was produced at Prague. The overture of this opera was composed and +scored in less than six hours. The inhabitants of Prague greeted the +work with the wildest enthusiasm, for they seemed to understand Mozart +better than the Viennese. + +During this period he made frequent concert tours to recruit his +fortunes, but with little financial success. Presents of watches, +snuff-boxes, and rings were common, but the returns were so small that +Mozart was frequently obliged to pawn his gifts to purchase a dinner +and lodging. What a comment on the period which adored genius, but +allowed it to starve! His audiences could be enthusiastic enough to +carry him to his hotel on their shoulders, but probably never thought +that the wherewithal of a hearty supper was a more seasonable homage. +So our musician struggled on through the closing years of his life +with the wolf constantly at his door, and an invalid wife whom he +passionately loved, yet must needs see suffer from the want of common +necessaries. In these modern days, when distinguished artists make +princely fortunes by the exercise of their musical gifts, it is not +easy to believe that Mozart, recognised as the greatest pianoforte +player and composer of his time by all of musical Germany, could +suffer such dire extremes of want as to be obliged more than once to +beg for a dinner. + +In 1791 he composed the score of the "Magic Flute" at the request of +Schikaneder, a Viennese manager, who had written the text from a fairy +tale, the fantastic elements of which are peculiarly German in their +humour. Mozart put great earnestness into the work, and made it the +first German opera of commanding merit, which embodied the essential +intellectual sentiment and kindly warmth of popular German life. The +manager paid the composer but a trifle for a work whose transcendent +success enabled him to build a new opera-house, and laid the +foundation of a large fortune. We are told, too, that at the time of +Mozart's death in extreme want, when his sick wife, half-maddened with +grief, could not buy a coffin for the dead composer, this hard-hearted +wretch, who owed his all to the genius of the great departed, rushed +about through Vienna bewailing the loss to music with sentimental +tears, but did not give the heart-broken widow one kreutzer to pay the +expense of a decent burial. + +In 1791 Mozart's health was breaking down with great rapidity, though +he himself would never recognise his own swiftly advancing fate. He +experienced, however, a deep melancholy which nothing could remove. +For the first time his habitual cheerfulness deserted him. His wife +had been enabled through the kindness of her friends to visit the +healing waters of Baden, and was absent. + +An incident now occurred which impressed Mozart with an ominous chill. +One night there came a stranger, singularly dressed in grey, with an +order for a requiem to be composed without fail within a month. The +visitor, without revealing his name, departed in mysterious gloom, as +he came. Again the stranger called, and solemnly reminded Mozart of +his promise. The composer easily persuaded himself that this was a +visitor from the other world, and that the requiem would be his own; +for he was exhausted with labour and sickness, and easily became the +prey of superstitious fancies. When his wife returned, she found him +with a fatal pallor on his face, silent and melancholy, labouring with +intense absorption on the funereal mass. He would sit brooding over +the score till he swooned away in his chair, and only come to +consciousness to bend his waning energies again to their ghastly work. +The mysterious visitor, whom Mozart believed to be the precursor of +his death, we now know to have been Count Walseck, who had recently +lost his wife, and wished a musical memorial. + +His final sickness attacked the composer while labouring at the +requiem. The musical world was ringing with the fame of his last +opera. To the dying man was brought the offer of the rich appointment +of organist of St. Stephen's Cathedral. Most flattering propositions +were made him by eager managers, who had become thoroughly awake to +his genius when it was too late. The great Mozart was dying in the +very prime of his youth and his powers, when success was in his grasp +and the world opening wide its arms to welcome his glorious gifts with +substantial recognition; but all too late, for he was doomed to die in +his spring-tide, though "a spring mellow with all the fruits of +autumn." + +The unfinished requiem lay on the bed, and his last efforts were to +imitate some peculiar instrumental effects, as he breathed out his +life in the arms of his wife and his friend, Süssmaier. + +The epilogue to this life-drama is one of the saddest in the history +of art: a pauper funeral for one of the world's greatest geniuses. "It +was late one winter afternoon," says an old record, "before the coffin +was deposited on the side aisles on the south side of St. Stephen's. +Van Swieten, Salieri, Süssmaier, and two unknown musicians were the +only persons present besides the officiating priest and the +pall-bearers. It was a terribly inclement day; rain and sleet came +down fast; and an eye-witness describes how the little band of +mourners stood shivering in the blast, with their umbrellas up, round +the hearse, as it left the door of the church. It was then far on in +the dark, cold December afternoon, and the evening was fast closing in +before the solitary hearse had passed the Stubenthor, and reached the +distant graveyard of St. Marx, in which, among the 'third class,' the +great composer of the 'G minor Symphony' and the 'Requiem' found his +resting-place. By this time the weather had proved too much for all +the mourners; they had dropped off one by one, and Mozart's body was +accompanied only by the driver of the carriage. There had been already +two pauper funerals that day--one of them a midwife--and Mozart was +to be the third in the grave and the uppermost. + +"When the hearse drew up in the slush and sleet at the gate of the +graveyard, it was welcomed by a strange pair--Franz Harruschka, the +assistant grave-digger, and his mother, Katharina, known as 'Frau +Katha,' who filled the quaint office of official mendicant to the +place. + +"The old woman was the first to speak: 'Any coaches or mourners +coming?' + +"A shrug from the driver of the hearse was the only response. + +"'Whom have you got there, then?' continued she. + +"'A bandmaster,' replied the other. + +"'A musician? they're a poor lot; then I've no more money to look for +to-day. It is to be hoped we shall have better luck in the morning.' + +"To which the driver said, with a laugh, 'I'm devilish thirsty, +too--not a kreutzer of drink-money have I had.' + +"After this curious colloquy the coffin was dismounted and shoved into +the top of the grave already occupied by the two paupers of the +morning; and such was Mozart's last appearance on earth." + +To-day no stone marks the spot where were deposited the last remains +of one of the brightest of musical spirits; indeed, the very grave is +unknown, for it was the grave of a pauper. + + +IV. + +Mozart's charming letters reveal to us such a gentle, sparkling, +affectionate nature, as to inspire as much love for the man as +admiration for his genius. Sunny humour and tenderness bubble in +almost every sentence. A clever writer says that "opening these is +like opening a painted tomb.... The colours are all fresh, the figures +are all distinct." + +No better illustration of the man Mozart can be had than in a few +extracts from his correspondence. He writes to his sister from Rome +while yet a mere lad:-- + + "I am, thank God! except my miserable pen, well, and send + you and mamma a thousand kisses. I wish you were in Rome; I + am sure it would please you. Papa says I am a little fool, + but that is nothing new. Here we have but one bed; it is + easy to understand that I can't rest comfortably with papa. + I shall be glad when we get into new quarters. I have just + finished drawing the Holy Peter with his keys, the Holy Paul + with his sword, and the Holy Luke with my sister. I have had + the honour of kissing St. Peter's foot; and because I am so + small as to be unable to reach it, they had to lift me up. I + am the same old + + "Wolfgang." + +Mozart was very fond of this sister Nannerl, and he used to write to +her in a playful mosaic of French, German, and Italian. Just after his +wedding he writes:-- + + "My darling is now a hundred times more joyful at the idea + of going to Salzburg, and I am willing to stake--ay, my very + life, that you will rejoice still more in my happiness when + you know her; if, indeed, in your estimation, as in mine, a + high-principled, honest, virtuous, and pleasing wife ought + to make a man happy." + +Late in his short life he writes the following characteristic note to +a friend, whose life does not appear to have been one of the most +regular:-- + + "Now tell me, my dear friend, how you are. I hope you are + all as well as we are. You cannot fail to be happy, for you + possess everything that you can wish for at your age and in + your position, especially as you now seem to have entirely + given up your former mode of life. Do you not every day + become more convinced of the truth of the little lectures I + used to inflict on you? Are not the pleasures of a + transient, capricious passion widely different from the + happiness produced by rational and true love? I feel sure + that you often in your heart thank me for my admonitions. I + shall feel quite proud if you do. But, jesting apart, you + do really owe me some little gratitude if you are become + worthy of Fräulein N----, for I certainly played no + insignificant part in your improvement or reform. + + "My great-grandfather used to say to his wife, my + great-grandmother, who in turn told it to her daughter, my + grandmother, who again repeated it to her daughter, my + mother, who repeated it to her daughter, my own sister, that + it was a very great art to talk eloquently and well, but an + equally great one to know the right moment to stop. I + therefore shall follow the advice of my sister, thanks to + our mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and thus + end, not only my moral ebullition, but my letter." + +His playful tenderness lavished itself on his wife in a thousand +quaint ways. He would, for example, rise long before her to take his +horseback exercise, and always kiss her sleeping face and leave a +little note like the following resting on her forehead--"Good-morning, +dear little wife! I hope you have had a good sleep and pleasant +dreams. I shall be back in two hours. Behave yourself like a good +little girl, and don't run away from your husband." + +Speaking of an infant child, our composer would say merrily, "That boy +will be a true Mozart, for he always cries in the very key in which I +am playing." + +Mozart's musical greatness, shown in the symmetry of his art as well +as in the richness of his inspirations, has been unanimously +acknowledged by his brother composers. Meyerbeer could not restrain +his tears when speaking of him. Weber, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and +Wagner always praise him in terms of enthusiastic admiration. Haydn +called him the greatest of composers. In fertility of invention, +beauty of form, and exactness of method, he has never been surpassed, +and has but one or two rivals. The composer of three of the greatest +operas in musical history, besides many of much more than ordinary +excellence; of symphonies that rival Haydn's for symmetry and melodic +affluence; of a great number of quartets, quintets, etc.; and of +pianoforte sonatas which rank high among the best; of many masses that +are standard in the service of the Catholic Church; of a great variety +of beautiful songs--there is hardly any form of music which he did not +richly adorn with the treasures of his genius. We may well say, in the +words of one of the most competent critics:-- + +"Mozart was a king and a slave--king in his own beautiful realm of +music; slave of the circumstances and the conditions of this world. +Once over the boundaries of his own kingdom, and he was supreme; but +the powers of the earth acknowledged not his sovereignty." + + + + +_BEETHOVEN._ + + +I. + +The name and memory of this composer awaken, in the heart of the lover +of music, sentiments of the deepest reverence and admiration. His life +was so marked with affliction and so isolated as to make him, in his +environment of conditions as a composer, an unique figure. + +The principal fact which made the exterior life of Beethoven so bare +of the ordinary pleasures that brighten and sweeten existence, his +total deafness, greatly enriched his spiritual life. Music finally +became to him a purely intellectual conception, for he was without any +sensual enjoyment of its effects. To this Samson of music, for whom +the ear was like the eye to other men, Milton's lines may indeed well +apply:-- + + "Oh! dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon! + Irrecoverably dark--total eclipse, + Without all hope of day! + Oh first created Beam, and thou, great Word, + 'Let there be light,' and light was over all, + Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree? + The sun to me is dark." + +To his severe affliction we owe alike many of the defects of his +character and the splendours of his genius. All his powers, +concentrated into a spiritual focus, wrought such things as lift him +into a solitary greatness. The world has agreed to measure this man as +it measures Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. We do not compare him with +others. + +Beethoven had the reputation among his contemporaries of being harsh, +bitter, suspicious, and unamiable. There is much to justify this in +the circumstances of his life; yet our readers will discover much to +show, on the other hand, how deep, strong, and tender was the heart +which was so wrung and tortured, and wounded to the quick by-- + + "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." + +Weber gives a picture of Beethoven--"The square Cyclopean figure +attired in a shabby coat with torn sleeves." Everybody will remember +his noble, austere face, as seen in the numerous prints: the square, +massive head, with the forest of rough hair; the strong features, so +furrowed with the marks of passion and sadness; the eyes, with their +look of introspection and insight; the whole expression of the +countenance as of an ancient prophet. Such was the impression made by +Beethoven on all who saw him, except in his moods of fierce wrath, +which towards the last were not uncommon, though short-lived. A sorely +tried, sublimely gifted man, he met his fate stubbornly, and worked +out his great mission with all his might and main, through long years +of weariness and trouble. Posterity has rewarded him by enthroning him +on the highest peaks of musical fame. + + +II. + +LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN was born at Bonn in 1770. It is a singular fact +that at an early age he showed the deepest distaste for music, unlike +the other great composers, who evinced their bent from their earliest +years. His father was obliged to whip him severely before he would +consent to sit down at the harpsichord; and it was not till he was +past ten that his genuine interest in music showed itself. His first +compositions displayed his genius. Mozart heard him play them, and +said, "Mind, you will hear that boy talked of." Haydn, too, met +Beethoven for the first and only time when the former was on his way +to England, and recognised his remarkable powers. He gave him a few +lessons in composition, and was after that anxious to claim the young +Titan as a pupil. + +"Yes," growled Beethoven, who for some queer reason never liked Haydn, +"I had some lessons of him, indeed, but I was not his disciple. I +never learned anything from him." + +Beethoven made a profound impression even as a youth on all who knew +him. Aside from the palpable marks of his power, there was an +indomitable _hauteur_, a mysterious, self-wrapped air as of one +constantly communing with the invisible, an unconscious assertion of +mastery about him, which strongly impressed the imagination. + +At the very outset of his career, when life promised all fair and +bright things to him, two comrades linked themselves to him, and ever +after that refused to give him up--grim poverty and still grimmer +disease. About the same time that he lost a fixed salary through the +death of his friend, the Elector of Cologne, he began to grow deaf. +Early in 1800, walking one day in the woods with his devoted friend +and pupil, Ferdinand Ries, he disclosed the sad secret to him that the +whole joyous world of sound was being gradually closed up to him; the +charm of the human voice, the notes of the woodland birds, the sweet +babblings of Nature, jargon to others, but intelligible to genius, the +full-born splendours of _heard_ music--all, all were fast receding +from his grasp. + +Beethoven was extraordinarily sensitive to the influences of Nature. +Before his disease became serious he writes--"I wander about here with +music-paper among the hills, and dales, and valleys, and scribble a +good deal. No man on earth can love the country as I do." But one of +Nature's most delightful modes of speech to man was soon to be utterly +lost to him. At last he became so deaf that the most stunning crash of +thunder or the _fortissimo_ of the full orchestra were to him as if +they were not. His bitter, heart-rending cry of agony, when he became +convinced that the misfortune was irremediable, is full of eloquent +despair--"As autumn leaves wither and fall, so are my hopes blighted. +Almost as I came, I depart. Even the lofty courage, which so often +animated me in the lovely days of summer, is gone forever. O +Providence! vouchsafe me one day of pure felicity! How long have I +been estranged from the glad echo of true joy! When, O my God! when +shall I feel it again in the temple of Nature and man? Never!" + +And the small-souled, mole-eyed gossips and critics called him hard, +churlish, and cynical--him, for whom the richest thing in Nature's +splendid dower had been obliterated, except a soul, which never in its +deepest sufferings lost its noble faith in God and man, or allowed its +indomitable courage to be one whit weakened. That there were periods +of utterly rayless despair and gloom we may guess; but not for long +did Beethoven's great nature cower before its evil genius. + + +III. + +Within three years, from 1805 to 1808, Beethoven composed some of his +greatest works--the oratorio of "The Mount of Olives," the opera of +"Fidelio," and the two noble symphonies, "Pastorale" and "Eroica," +besides a large number of concertos, sonatas, songs, and other +occasional pieces. However gloomy the externals of his life, his +creative activities knew no cessation. + +The "Sinfonia Eroica," the "Choral" only excepted, is the longest of +the immortal nine, and is one of the greatest examples of musical +portraiture extant. All the great composers from Handel to Wagner have +attempted, what is called descriptive music with more or less success, +but never have musical genius and skill achieved a result so +admirable in its relation to its purpose and by such strictly +legitimate means as in this work. + +"The 'Eroica,'" says a great writer, "is an attempt to draw a musical +portrait of an historical character--a great statesman, a great +general, a noble individual; to represent in music--Beethoven's own +language--what M. Thiers has given in words, and Paul Delaroche in +painting." Of Beethoven's success another writer has said--"It wants +no title to tell its meaning, for throughout the symphony the hero is +visibly portrayed." + +It is anything but difficult to realise why Beethoven should have +admired the first Napoleon. Both the soldier and musician were made +of that sturdy stuff which would and did defy the world; and it is +not strange that Beethoven should have desired in some way--and he +knew of no better course than through his art--to honour one so +characteristically akin to himself, and who at that time was the most +prominent man in Europe. Beethoven began the work in 1802, and in 1804 +it was completed, and bore the following title:-- + + Sinfonia grand + "Napoleon Bonaparte" + 1804 in August + del Sigr + Louis van Beethoven + Sinfonia 3. + Op. 55. + +This was copied and the original score despatched to the ambassador for +presentation, while Beethoven retained the copy. Before the composition +was laid before Napoleon, however, the great general had accepted the +title of Emperor. No sooner did Beethoven hear of this from his pupil +Ries than he started up in a rage, and exclaimed--"After all, then, +he's nothing but an ordinary mortal! He will trample the rights of men +under his feet!" saying which, he rushed to his table, seized the copy +of the score, and tore the title-page completely off. From this time +Beethoven hated Napoleon, and never again spoke of him in connection +with the symphony until he heard of his death in St. Helena, when he +observed, "I have already composed music for this calamity," evidently +referring to the "Funeral March" in this symphony. + +The opera of "Fidelio," which he composed about the same time, may be +considered, in the severe sense of a great and symmetrical musical +work, the finest lyric drama ever written, with the possible exception +of Gluck's "Orpheus and Eurydice" and "Iphigenia in Tauris." It is +rarely performed, because its broad, massive, and noble effects are +beyond the capacity of most singers, and belong to the domain of pure +music, demanding but little alliance with the artistic clap-trap of +startling scenery and histrionic extravagance. Yet our composer's +conscience shows its completeness in his obedience to the law of +opera; for the music he has written to express the situations cannot +be surpassed for beauty, pathos, and passion. Beethoven, like +Mendelssohn, revolted from the idea of lyric drama as an +art-inconsistency, but he wrote "Fidelio" to show his possibilities in +a direction with which he had but little sympathy. He composed four +overtures for this opera at different periods, on account of the +critical caprices of the Viennese public--a concession to public taste +which his stern independence rarely made. + + +IV. + +Beethoven's relations with women were peculiar and characteristic, as +were all the phases of a nature singularly self-poised and robust. +Like all men of powerful imagination and keen (though perhaps not +delicate) sensibility, he was strongly attracted towards the softer +sex. But a certain austerity of morals, and that purity of feeling +which is the inseparable shadow of one's devotion to lofty aims, +always kept him within the bounds of Platonic affection. Yet there is +enough in Beethoven's letters, as scanty as their indications are in +this direction, to show what ardour and glow of feeling he possessed. + +About the time that he was suffering keenly with the knowledge of his +fast-growing infirmity, he was bound by a strong tie of affection to +Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, his "immortal beloved," "his angel," +"his all," "his life," as he called her in a variety of passionate +utterances. It was to her that he dedicated his song "Adelaida," +which, as an expression of lofty passion, is world-famous. Beethoven +was very much dissatisfied with the work even in the glow of +composition. Before the notes were dry on the music paper, the +composer's old friend Barth was announced. "Here," said Beethoven, +putting a roll of score paper in Barth's hands, "look at that. I have +just finished it, and don't like it. There is hardly fire enough in +the stove to burn it, but I will try." Barth glanced through the +composition, then sang it, and soon grew into such enthusiasm as to +draw from Beethoven the expression, "No? then we will not burn it, old +fellow." Whether it was the reaction of disgust, which so often comes +to genius after the tension of work, or whether his ideal of its +lovely theme was so high as to make all effort seem inadequate, the +world came very near losing what it could not afford to have missed. + +The charming countess, however, preferred rank, wealth, and unruffled +ease to being linked even with a great genius, if, indeed, the affair +ever looked in the direction of marriage. She married another, and +Beethoven does not seem to have been seriously disturbed. It may be +that, like Goethe, he valued the love of woman not for itself or its +direct results, but as an art-stimulus which should enrich and +fructify his own intellectual life. + +We get glimpses of successors to the fair countess. The beautiful +Marie Pachler was for some time the object of his adoration. The +affair is a somewhat mysterious one, and the lady seems to have +suffered from the fire through which her powerful companion passed +unscathed. Again, quaintest and oddest of all, is the fancy kindled by +that "mysterious sprite of genius," as one of her contemporaries calls +her, Bettina Brentano, the gifted child-woman, who fascinated all who +came within her reach, from Goethe and Beethoven down to princes and +nobles. Goethe's correspondence with this strange being has embalmed +her life in classic literature. + +Our composer's intercourse with women--for he was always alive to the +charms of female society--was for the most part homely and practical +in the extreme, after his deafness destroyed the zest of the more +romantic phases of the divine passion. He accepted adoration, as did +Dean Swift, as a right. He permitted his female admirers to knit him +stockings and comforters, and make him dainty puddings and other +delicacies, which he devoured with huge gusto. He condescended, in +return, to go to sleep on their sofas, after picking his teeth with +the candle-snuffers (so says scandal), while they thrummed away at his +sonatas, the artistic slaughter of which Beethoven was mercifully +unable to hear. + + +V. + +The friendship of the Archduke Rudolph relieved Beethoven of the +immediate pressure of poverty; for in 1809 he settled a small +life-pension upon him. The next ten years were passed by him in +comparative ease and comfort, and in this time he gave to the world +five of his immortal symphonies, and a large number of his finest +sonatas and masses. His general health improved very much; and in his +love for his nephew Karl, whom Beethoven had adopted, the lonely man +found an outlet for his strong affections, which was medicine for his +soul, though the object was worthless and ungrateful. + +We get curious and amusing insights into the daily tenor of +Beethoven's life during this period--things sometimes almost +grotesque, were they not so sad. The composer lived a solitary life, +and was very much at the mercy of his servants on account of his +self-absorption and deafness. He was much worried by these prosaic +cares. One story of a slatternly servant is as follows:--The master +was working at the mass in D, the great work which he commenced in +1819 for the celebration of the appointment of the Archduke Rudolph as +Archbishop of Olmütz, and which should have been completed by the +following year. Beethoven, however, became so engrossed with his work, +and increased its proportions so much, that it was not finished until +some two years after the event which it was intended to celebrate. +While Beethoven was engaged upon this score, he one day woke up to the +fact that some of his pages were missing. "Where on earth could they +be?" he asked himself, and the servant too; but the problem remained +unsolved. Beethoven, beside himself, spent hours and hours in +searching, and so did the servant, but it was all in vain. At last +they gave up the task as a useless one, and Beethoven, mad with +despair, and pouring the very opposite to blessings upon the head of +her who, he believed, was the author of the mischief, sat down with +the conclusion that he must rewrite the missing part. He had no sooner +commenced a new Kyrie--for this was the movement which was not to be +found--than some loose sheets of score paper were discovered in the +kitchen! Upon examination they proved to be the identical pages that +Beethoven so much desired, and which the woman, in her anxiety to be +"tidy" and to "keep things straight," had appropriated at some time or +other for wrapping up, not only old boots and clothes, but also some +superannuated pots and pans that were greasy and black! + +Thus he was continually fretted by the carelessness or the rascality +of the servants in whom he was obliged to trust. He writes in his +diary--"Nancy is too uneducated for a housekeeper--indeed, quite a +beast." "My precious servants were occupied from seven o'clock till +ten trying to kindle a fire." "The cook's off again." "I shied +half-a-dozen books at her head." They made his dinner so nasty he +couldn't eat it. "No soup to-day, no beef, no eggs. Got something from +the inn at last." + +His temper and peculiarities, too, made it difficult for him to live +in peace with landlords and fellow-lodgers. As his deafness increased, +he struck and thumped harder at the keys of his piano, the sound of +which he could scarcely hear. Nor was this all. The music that filled +his brain gave him no rest. He became an inspired madman. For hours he +would pace the room "howling and roaring" (as his pupil Ries puts it); +or he would stand beating time with hand and foot to the music which +was so vividly present to his mind. This soon put him into a feverish +excitement, when, to cool himself, he would take his water-jug, and, +thoughtless of everything, pour its contents over his hands, after +which he could sit down to his piano. With all this it can easily be +imagined that Beethoven was frequently remonstrated with. The landlord +complained of a damaged ceiling, and the fellow-lodgers declared that +either they or the madman must leave the house, for they could get no +rest where he was. So Beethoven never for long had a resting-place. +Impatient at being interfered with, he immediately packed up and went +off to some other vacant lodging. From this cause he was at one time +paying the rent of four lodgings at once. At times he would get tired +of this changing from one place to another--from the suburbs to the +town--and then he would fall back upon the hospitable home of a +patron, once again taking possession of an apartment which he had +vacated, probably without the least explanation or cause. One admirer +of his genius, who always reserved him a chamber in his establishment, +used to say to his servants--"Leave it empty; Beethoven is sure to +come back again." + +The instant that Beethoven entered the house he began to write and +cipher on the walls, the blinds, the table, everything, in the most +abstracted manner. He frequently composed on slips of paper, which he +afterwards misplaced, so that he had great difficulty in finding them. +At one time, indeed, he forgot his own name and the date of his birth. + +It is said that he once went into a Viennese restaurant, and, instead +of giving an order, began to write a score on the back of the +bill-of-fare, absorbed and unconscious of time and place. At last he +asked how much he owed. "You owe nothing, sir," said the waiter. +"What! do you think I have not dined?" "Most assuredly." "Very well, +then, give me something." "What do you wish?" "Anything." + +These infirmities do not belittle the man of genius, but set off his +greatness as with a foil. They illustrate the thought of Goethe: "It +is all the same whether one is great or small, he has to pay the +reckoning of humanity." + + +VI. + +Yet beneath these eccentricities what wealth of tenderness, sympathy, +and kindliness existed! His affection for his graceless nephew Karl is +a touching picture. With the rest of his family he had never been on +very cordial terms. His feeling of contempt for snobbery and pretence +is very happily illustrated in his relations with his brother Johann. +The latter had acquired property, and he sent Ludwig his card, +inscribed "Johann von Beethoven, land-owner." The caustic reply was a +card, on which was written, "Ludwig von Beethoven, brain-owner." But +on Karl all the warmest feelings of a nature which had been starving +to love and be loved poured themselves out. He gave the scapegrace +every luxury and indulgence, and, self-absorbed as he was in an ideal +sphere, felt the deepest interest in all the most trivial things that +concerned him. Much to the uncle's sorrow, Karl cared nothing for +music; but, worst of all, he was an idle, selfish, heartless fellow, +who sneered at his benefactor, and valued him only for what he could +get from him. At last Beethoven became fully aware of the lying +ingratitude of his nephew, and he exclaims--"I know now you have no +pleasure in coming to see me, which is only natural, for my atmosphere +is too pure for you. God has never yet forsaken me, and no doubt some +one will be found to close my eyes." Yet the generous old man forgave +him, for he says in the codicil of his will, "I appoint my nephew Karl +my sole heir." + +Frequently, glimpses of the true vein showed themselves in such little +episodes as that which occurred when Moscheles, accompanied by his +brother, visited the great musician for the first time. + +"Arrived at the door of the house," writes Moscheles, "I had some +misgivings, knowing Beethoven's strong aversion to strangers. I +therefore told my brother to wait below. After greeting Beethoven, I +said, 'Will you permit me to introduce my brother to you?' + +"'Where is he?' he suddenly replied. + +"'Below.' + +"'What, downstairs?' and Beethoven immediately rushed off, seized hold +of my brother, saying, 'Am I such a savage that you are afraid to come +near me?' + +"After this he showed great kindness to us." + +While referring to the relations of Moscheles and Beethoven, the +following anecdote related by Mdme. Moscheles will be found +suggestive. The pianist had been arranging some numbers of "Fidelio," +which he took to the composer. He, _à la_ Haydn, had inscribed the +score with the words, "By God's help." Beethoven did not fail to +perceive this, and he wrote underneath this phylactory the +characteristic advice--"O man, help thyself." + +The genial and sympathetic nature of Beethoven is illustrated in this +quaint incident:-- + +It was in the summer of 1811 that Ludwig Löwe, the actor, first met +Beethoven in the dining-room of the Blue Star at Töplitz. Löwe was +paying his addresses to the landlord's daughter; and conversation +being impossible at the hour he dined there, the charming creature one +day whispered to him, "Come at a later hour, when the customers are +gone and only Beethoven is here. He cannot hear, and will therefore +not be in the way." This answered for a time; but the stern parents, +observing the acquaintanceship, ordered the actor to leave the house +and not to return. "How great was our despair!" relates Löwe. "We both +desired to correspond, but through whom? Would the solitary man at the +opposite table assist us? Despite his serious reserve and seeming +churlishness, I believe he is not unfriendly. I have often caught a +kind smile across his bold, defiant face." Löwe determined to try. +Knowing Beethoven's custom, he contrived to meet the master when he +was walking in the gardens. Beethoven instantly recognised him, and +asked the reason why he no longer dined at the Blue Star. A full +confession was made, and then Löwe timidly asked if he would take +charge of a letter to give to the girl. + +"Why not?" pleasantly observed the rough-looking musician. "You mean +what is right." So pocketing the note, he was making his way onward +when Löwe again interfered. + +"I beg your pardon, Herr von Beethoven, that is not all." + +"So, so," said the master. + +"You must also bring back the answer," Löwe went on to say. + +"Meet me here at this time to-morrow," said Beethoven. + +Löwe did so, and there found Beethoven awaiting him, with the coveted +reply from his lady-love. In this manner Beethoven carried the letters +backward and forward for some five or six weeks--in short, as long as +he remained in the town. + +His friendship with Ferdinand Ries commenced in a way which testified +how grateful he was for kindness. When his mother lay ill at Bonn, he +hurried home from Vienna just in time to witness her death. After the +funeral he suffered greatly from poverty, and was relieved by Ries, +the violinist. Years afterwards young Ries waited on Beethoven with a +letter of introduction from his father. The composer received him with +cordial warmth, and said, "Tell your father I have not forgotten the +death of my mother." Ever afterwards he was a helpful and devoted +friend to young Ries, and was of inestimable value in forwarding his +musical career. + +Beethoven in his poverty never forgot to be generous. At a concert +given in aid of wounded soldiers, where he conducted, he indignantly +refused payment with the words, "Say Beethoven never accepts anything +where humanity is concerned." To an Ursuline convent he gave an +entirely new symphony to be performed at their benefit concert. +Friend or enemy never applied to him for help that he did not freely +give, even to the pinching of his own comfort. + + +VII. + +Rossini could write best when he was under the influence of Italian +wine and sparkling champagne. Paisiello liked the warm bed in which to +jot down his musical notions, and we are told that "it was between the +sheets that he planned the 'Barber of Seville,' the 'Molinara,' and so +many other _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of ease and gracefulness." Mozart could +chat and play at billiards or bowls at the same time that he composed +the most beautiful music. Sacchini found it impossible to write +anything of any beauty unless a pretty woman was by his side, and he +was surrounded by his cats, whose graceful antics stimulated and +affected him in a marked fashion. "Gluck," Bombet says, "in order to +warm his imagination and to transport himself to Aulis or Sparta, was +accustomed to place himself in the middle of a beautiful meadow. In +this situation, with his piano before him, and a bottle of champagne +on each side, he wrote in the open air his two 'Iphigenias,' his +'Orpheus,' and some other works." The agencies which stimulated +Beethoven's grandest thoughts are eminently characteristic of the man. +He loved to let the winds and storms beat on his bare head, and see +the dazzling play of the lightning. Or, failing the sublimer moods of +Nature, it was his delight to walk in the woods and fields, and take +in at every pore the influences which she so lavishly bestows on her +favourites. His true life was his ideal life in art. To him it was a +mission and an inspiration, the end and object of all things; for +these had value only as they fed the divine craving within. + +"Nothing can be more sublime," he writes, "than to draw nearer to the +Godhead than other men, and to diffuse here on earth these Godlike +rays among mortals." Again: "What is all this compared to the grandest +of all Masters of Harmony--above, above?" + + "All experience seemed an arch, wherethrough + Gleamed that untravelled world, whose margin fades + Forever and forever as we move." + +The last four years of our composer's life were passed amid great +distress from poverty and feebleness. He could compose but little; +and, though his friends solaced his latter days with attention and +kindness, his sturdy independence would not accept more. It is a +touching fact that Beethoven voluntarily suffered want and privation +in his last years, that he might leave the more to his selfish and +ungrateful nephew. He died in 1827, in his fifty-seventh year, and is +buried in the Wahring Cemetery near Vienna. Let these extracts from a +testamentary paper addressed to his brothers in 1802, in expectation +of death, speak more eloquently of the hidden life of a heroic soul +than any other words could:-- + + "O ye, who consider or declare me to be hostile, obstinate, + or misanthropic, what injustice ye do me! Ye know not the + secret causes of that which to you wears such an appearance. + My heart and my mind were from childhood prone to the tender + feelings of affection. Nay, I was always disposed even to + perform great actions. But, only consider that, for the last + six years, I have been attacked by an incurable complaint, + aggravated by the unskilful treatment of medical men, + disappointed from year to year in the hope of relief, and at + last obliged to submit to the endurance of an evil the cure + of which may last perhaps for years, if it is practicable at + all. Born with a lively, ardent disposition, susceptible to + the diversions of society, I was forced at an early age to + renounce them, and to pass my life in seclusion. If I strove + at any time to set myself above all this, oh how cruelly was + I driven back by the doubly painful experience of my + defective hearing! and yet it was not possible for me to say + to people, 'Speak louder--bawl--for I am deaf!' Ah! how + could I proclaim the defect of a sense that I once possessed + in the highest perfection--in a perfection in which few of + my colleagues possess or ever did possess it? Indeed, I + cannot! Forgive me, then, if ye see me draw back when I + would gladly mingle among you. Doubly mortifying is my + misfortune to me, as it must tend to cause me to be + misconceived. From recreation in the society of my + fellow-creatures, from the pleasures of conversation, from + the effusions of friendship, I am cut off. Almost alone in + the world, I dare not venture into society more than + absolute necessity requires. I am obliged to live as an + exile. If I go into company, a painful anxiety comes over + me, since I am apprehensive of being exposed to the danger + of betraying my situation. Such has been my state, too, + during this half year that I have spent in the country. + Enjoined by my intelligent physician to spare my hearing as + much as possible, I have been almost encouraged by him in my + present natural disposition, though, hurried away by my + fondness for society, I sometimes suffered myself to be + enticed into it. But what a humiliation when any one + standing beside me could hear at a distance a flute that I + could not hear, or any one heard the shepherd singing, and I + could not distinguish a sound! Such circumstances brought me + to the brink of despair, and had well-nigh made me put an + end to my life--nothing but my art held my hand. Ah! it + seemed to me impossible to quit the world before I had + produced all that I felt myself called to accomplish. And so + I endured this wretched life--so truly wretched, that a + somewhat speedy change is capable of transporting me from + the best into the worst condition. Patience--so I am told--I + must choose for my guide. Steadfast, I hope, will be my + resolution to persevere, till it shall please the inexorable + Fates to cut the thread. + + "Perhaps there may be an amendment--perhaps not; I am + prepared for the worst--I, who so early as my twenty-eighth + year was forced to become a philosopher--it is not easy--for + the artist more difficult than for any other. O God! thou + lookest down upon my misery; thou knowest that it is + accompanied with love of my fellow-creatures, and a + disposition to do good! O men! when ye shall read this, + think that ye have wronged me; and let the child of + affliction take comfort on finding one like himself, who, in + spite of all the impediments of Nature, yet did all that lay + in his power to obtain admittance into the rank of worthy + artists and men.... I go to meet Death with joy. If he comes + before I have had occasion to develop all my professional + abilities, he will come too soon for me, in spite of my hard + fate, and I should wish that he had delayed his arrival. But + even then I am content, for he will release me from a state + of endless suffering. Come when thou wilt, I shall meet thee + with firmness. Farewell, and do not quite forget me after I + am dead; I have deserved that you should think of me, for in + my lifetime I have often thought of you to make you happy. + May you ever be so!" + + +VIII. + +The music of Beethoven has left a profound impress on art. In speaking +of his genius it is difficult to keep expression within the limits of +good taste. For who has so passed into the very inner _penetralia_ of +his great art, and revealed to the world such heights and depths of +beauty and power in sound? + +Beethoven composed nine symphonies, which, by one voice, are ranked as +the greatest ever written, reaching in the last, known as the +"Choral," the full perfection of his power and experience. Other +musicians have composed symphonic works remarkable for varied +excellences, but in Beethoven this form of writing seems to have +attained its highest possibilities, and to have been illustrated by +the greatest variety of effects, from the sublime to such as are +simply beautiful and melodious. His hand swept the whole range of +expression with unfaltering mastery. Some passages may seem obscure, +some too elaborately wrought, some startling and abrupt, but on all is +stamped the die of his great genius. + +Beethoven's compositions for the piano, the sonatas, are no less +notable for range and power of expression, their adaptation to meet +all the varied moods of passion and sentiment. Other pianoforte +composers have given us more warm and vivid colour, richer sensual +effects of tone, more wild and bizarre combination, perhaps even +greater sweetness in melody; but we look in vain elsewhere for the +spiritual passion and poetry, the aspiration and longing, the lofty +humanity, which make the Beethoven sonatas the _suspiria de profundis_ +of the composer's inner life. In addition to his symphonies and +sonatas, he wrote the great opera of "Fidelio," and in the field of +oratorio asserted his equality with Handel and Haydn by composing "The +Mount of Olives." A great variety of chamber music, masses, and songs +bear the same imprint of power. He may be called the most original and +conscientious of all the composers. Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, +and Mendelssohn were inveterate thieves, and pilfered the choicest +gems from old and forgotten writers without scruple. Beethoven seems +to have been so fecund in great conceptions, so lifted on the wings of +his tireless genius, so austere in artistic morality, that he stands +for the most part above the reproach deservedly borne by his brother +composers. + +Beethoven's principal title to fame is in his superlative place as a +symphonic composer. In the symphony music finds its highest +intellectual dignity; in Beethoven the symphony has found its loftiest +master. + + + + +_SCHUBERT AND SCHUMANN._ + + +I. + +Heinrich Heine, in his preface to a translation of _Don Quixote_, +discusses the creative powers of different peoples. To the Spaniard +Cervantes is awarded the first place in novel-writing, and to our own +Shakespeare, of course, the transcendent rank in drama. + +"And the Germans," he goes on to say, "what palm is due to them? Well, +we are the best writers of songs in the world. No people possesses +such beautiful _Lieder_ as the Germans. Just at present the nations +have too much political business on hand; but, after that has once +been settled, we Germans, English, Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Italians +will all go to the green forest and sing, and the nightingale shall be +umpire. I feel sure that in this contest the song of Wolfgang Goethe +will gain the prize." + +There are few, if any, who will be disposed to dispute the verdict of +the German poet, himself no mean rival, in depth and variety of lyric +inspiration, even of the great Goethe. But a greater poet than either +one of this great pair bears the suggestive and impersonal name of +"The People." It is to the countless wealth of the German race in +folk-songs, an affluence which can be traced back to the very dawn of +civilisation among them, that the possibility of such lyric poets as +Goethe, Heine, Rückert, and Uhland is due. From the days of the +"Nibelungenlied," that great epic which, like the Homeric poems, can +hardly be credited to any one author, every hamlet has rung with +beautiful national songs, which sprung straight from the fervid heart +of the people. These songs are balmy with the breath of the forest, +the meadow, and river, and have that simple and bewitching freshness +of motive and rhythm which unconsciously sets itself to music. + +The German _Volkslied_, as the exponent of the popular heart, has a +wide range, from mere comment on historical events, and quaint, droll +satire, such as may be found in Hans Sachs, to the grand protest +against spiritual bondage which makes the burden of Luther's hymn, +"Ein' feste Burg." But nowhere is the beauty of the German song so +marked as in those _Lieder_ treating of love, deeds of arms, and the +old mystic legends so dear to the German heart. Tieck writes of the +"Minnesinger period"--"Believers sang of faith, lovers of love; +knights described knightly actions and battles, and loving, believing +knights were their chief audiences. The spring, beauty, gaiety, were +objects that could never tire; great duels and deeds of arms carried +away every hearer, the more surely the stronger they were painted; and +as the pillars and dome of the church encircled the flock, so did +Religion, as the highest, encircle poetry and reality, and every heart +in equal love humbled itself before her." + +A similar spirit has always inspired the popular German song, a simple +and beautiful reverence for the unknown, the worship of heroism, a +vital sympathy with the various manifestations of Nature. Without the +fire of the French _chansons_, the sonorous grace of the Tuscan +_stornelli_, these artless ditties, with their exclusive reliance on +true feeling, possess an indescribable charm. + +The German _Lied_ always preserved its characteristic beauty. Goethe, +and the great school of lyric poets clustered around him, simply +perfected the artistic form, without departing from the simplicity and +soulfulness of the stock from which it came. Had it not been for the +rich soil of popular song, we should not have had the peerless lyrics +of modern Germany. Had it not been for the poetic inspiration of such +word-makers as Goethe and Heine, we should not have had such +music-makers in the sphere of song as Schubert and Franz. + +The songs of these masters appeal to the interest and admiration of +the world, then, not merely in virtue of musical beauty, but in that +they are the most vital outgrowths of Teutonic nationality and +feeling. + +The immemorial melodies to which the popular songs of Germany were set +display great simplicity of rhythm, even monotony, with frequent +recurrence of the minor keys, so well adapted to express the +melancholy tone of many of the poems. The strictly strophic treatment +is used, or, in other words, the repetition of the melody of the first +stanza in all the succeeding ones. The chasm between this and the +varied form of the artistic modern song is deep and wide, yet it was +overleaped in a single swift bound by the remarkable genius of Franz +Schubert, who, though his compositions were many and matchless of +their kind, died all too young; for, as the inscription on his +tombstone pathetically has it, he was "rich in what he gave, richer in +what he promised." + + +II. + +The great masters of the last century tried their hands in the domain +of song with only comparative success, partly because they did not +fully realise the nature of this form of art, partly because they +could not limit the sweep of the creative power within such narrow +limits. Schubert was a revelation to his countrymen in his musical +treatment of subjective passion, in his instinctive command over +condensed, epigrammatic expression. This rich and gifted life, however +quiet in its exterior facts, was great in its creative and spiritual +manifestation. Born at Vienna of humble parents, January 31, 1797, the +early life of Franz Schubert was commonplace in the extreme, the most +interesting feature being the extraordinary development of his genius. +At the age of fourteen he had made himself a master of counterpoint +and harmony, and composed a large mass of chamber-music and works for +the piano. His poverty was such that he was oftentimes unable to +obtain the music-paper with which to fasten the immortal thoughts that +thronged through his brain. It was two years later that his special +creative function found exercise in the production of the two great +songs, the "Erl-King" and the "Serenade," the former of which proved +the source of most of the fame and money emolument he enjoyed during +life. It is hardly needful to speak of the power and beauty of this +composition, the weird sweetness of its melodies, the dramatic +contrasts, the wealth of colour and shading in its varying phrases, +the subtilty of the accompaniment, which elaborates the spirit of the +song itself. The piece was composed in less than an hour. One of +Schubert's intimates tells us that he left him reading Goethe's great +poem for the first time. He instantly conceived and arranged the +melody, and when the friend returned after a short absence Schubert +was rapidly noting the music from his head on paper. When the song was +finished he rushed to the Stadtconvict school, his only _alma mater_, +and sang it to the scholars. The music-master, Rucziszka, was +overwhelmed with rapture and astonishment, and embraced the young +composer in a transport of joy. When this immortal music was first +sung to Goethe, the great poet said, "Had music, instead of words, +been my instrument of thought, it is so I would have framed the +legend." + +The "Serenade" is another example of the swiftness of Schubert's +artistic imagination. He and a lot of jolly boon-companions sat one +Sunday afternoon in an obscure Viennese tavern, known as the Biersack. +The surroundings were anything but conducive to poetic fancies--dirty +tables, floor, and ceiling, the clatter of mugs and dishes, the loud +dissonance of the beery German roisterers, the squalling of children, +and all the sights and noises characteristic of the beer-cellar. One +of our composer's companions had a volume of poems, which Schubert +looked at in a lazy way, laughing and drinking the while. Singling out +some verses, he said, "I have a pretty melody in my head for these +lines, if I could only get a piece of ruled paper." Some staves were +drawn on the back of a bill-of-fare, and here, amid all the confusion +and riot, the divine melody of the "Serenade" was born, a tone-poem +which embodies the most delicate dream of passion and tenderness that +the heart of man ever conceived. + +Both these compositions were eccentric and at odds with the old canons +of song, fancied with a grace, warmth, and variety of colour hitherto +characteristic only of the more pretentious forms of music, which had +already been brought to a great degree of perfection. They inaugurate +the genesis of the new school of musical lyrics, the golden wedding of +the union of poetry with music. + +For a long time the young composer was unsuccessful in his attempts to +break through the barren and irritating drudgery of a schoolmaster's +life. At last a wealthy young dilettante, Franz von Schober, who had +become an admirer of Schubert's songs, persuaded his mother to offer +him a fixed home in her house. The latter gratefully accepted the +overture of friendship, and thence became a daily guest at Schober's +house. He made at this time a number of strong friendships with +obscure poets, whose names only live through the music of the composer +set to verses furnished by them; for Schubert, in his affluence of +creative power, merely needed the slightest excuse for his genius to +flow forth. But, while he wrote nothing that was not beautiful, his +masterpieces are based only on themes furnished by the lyrics of such +poets as Goethe, Heine, and Rückert. It is related, in connection with +his friendship with Mayrhofer, one of his rhyming associates of these +days, that he would set the verses to music much faster than the other +could compose them. + +The songs of the obscure Schubert were gradually finding their way to +favour among the exclusive circles of Viennese aristocracy. A +celebrated singer of the opera, Vogl, though then far advanced in +years, was much sought after for the drawing-room concerts so popular +in Vienna, on account of the beauty of his art. Vogl was a warm +admirer of Schubert's genius, and devoted himself assiduously to the +task of interpreting it--a friendly office of no little value. Had it +not been for this, our composer would have sunk to his early grave +probably without even the small share of reputation and monetary +return actually vouchsafed to him. The strange, dreamy unconsciousness +of Schubert is very well illustrated in a story told by Vogl after his +friend's death. One day Schubert left a new song at the singer's +apartments, which, being too high, was transposed. Vogl, a fortnight +afterwards, sang it in the lower key to his friend, who remarked: +"Really, that _Lied_ is not bad; who composed it?" + + +III. + +Our great composer, from the peculiar constitution of his gifts, the +passionate subjectiveness of his nature, might be supposed to have +been peculiarly sensitive to the fascinations of love, for it is in +this feeling that lyric inspiration has found its most fruitful root. +But not so. Warmly susceptible to the charms of friendship, Schubert +for the most part enacted the _rôle_ of the woman-hater, which was not +all affected; for the Hamlet-like mood is only in part a simulated +madness with souls of this type. In early youth he would sneer at the +amours of his comrades. It is true he fell a victim to the charms of +Theresa Gröbe, a beautiful soprano, who afterwards became the spouse +of a master-baker. But the only genuine love-sickness of Schubert was +of a far different type, and left indelible traces on his nature, as +its very direction made it of necessity unfortunate. This was his +attachment to Countess Caroline Esterhazy. + +The Count Esterhazy, one of those great feudal princes still extant +among the Austrian nobility, took a traditional pride in encouraging +genius, and found in Franz Schubert a noble object for his generous +patronage. He was almost a boy (only nineteen), except in the +prodigious development of his genius, when he entered the Esterhazy +family as teacher of music, though always treated as a dear and +familiar friend. During the summer months, Schubert went with the +Esterhazys to their country seat at Zelész, in Hungary. Here, amid +beautiful scenery, and the sweetness of a social life perfect of its +kind, our poet's life flew on rapid wings, the one bright, green spot +of unalloyed happiness, for the dream was delicious while it lasted. +Here, too, his musical life gathered a fresh inspiration, since he +became acquainted with the treasures of the national Hungarian music, +with its weird, wild rhythms and striking melodies. He borrowed the +motives of many of his most characteristic songs from these +reminiscences of hut and hall, for the Esterhazys were royal in their +hospitality, and exercised a wide patriarchal sway. + +The beautiful Countess Caroline, an enthusiastic girl of great beauty, +became the object of a romantic passion. A young, inexperienced +maiden, full of _naïve_ sweetness, the finest flower of the haughty +Austrian caste, she stood at an infinite distance from Schubert, +while she treated him with childlike confidence and fondness, laughing +at his eccentricities, and worshipping his genius. He bowed before +this idol, and poured out all the incense of his heart. Schubert's +exterior was anything but that of the ideal lover. Rude, unshapely +features, thick nose, coarse, protruding mouth, and a shambling, +awkward figure, were redeemed only by eyes of uncommon splendour and +depth, aflame with the unmistakable light of the soul. + +The inexperienced maiden hardly understood the devotion of the artist, +which found expression in a thousand ways peculiar to himself. Only +once he was on the verge of a full revelation. She asked him why he +had dedicated nothing to her. With abrupt, passionate intensity of +tone Schubert answered, "What's the use of that? Everything belongs to +you!" This brink of confession seems to have frightened him, for it is +said that after this he threw much more reserve about his intercourse +with the family, till it was broken off. Hints in his letters, and the +deep despondency which increased after this, indicate, however, that +the humbly-born genius never forgot his beautiful dream. + +He continued to pour out in careless profusion songs, symphonies, +quartets, and operas, many of which knew no existence but in the score +till after his death, hardly knowing of himself whether the +productions had value or not. He created because it was the essential +law of his being, and never paused to contemplate or admire the +beauties of his own work. Schubert's body had been mouldering for +several years, when his wonderful symphony in C major, one of the +_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of orchestral composition, was brought to the +attention of the world by the critical admiration of Robert Schumann, +who won the admiration of lovers of music, not less by his prompt +vindication of neglected genius than by his own creative powers. + +In the contest between Weber and Rossini which agitated Vienna, +Schubert, though deeply imbued with the seriousness of art, and by +nature closely allied in sympathies with the composer of "Der +Freischütz," took no part. He was too easy-going to become a volunteer +partisan, too shy and obscure to make his alliance a thing to be +sought after. Besides, Weber had treated him with great brusqueness, +and damned an opera for him, a slight which even good-natured Franz +Schubert could not easily forgive. + +The fifteen operas of Schubert, unknown now except to musicians, +contain a wealth of beautiful melody which could easily be spread over +a score of ordinary works. The purely lyric impulse so dominated him +that dramatic arrangement was lost sight of, and the noblest melodies +were likely to be lavished on the most unworthy situations. Even under +the operatic form he remained essentially the song-writer. So in the +symphony his affluence of melodic inspiration seems actually to +embarrass him, to the detriment of that breadth and symmetry of +treatment so vital to this form of art. It is in the musical lyric +that our composer stands matchless. + +During his life as an independent musician at Vienna, Schubert lived +fighting a stern battle with want and despondency, while the +publishers were commencing to make fortunes by the sale of his +exquisite _Lieder_. At that time a large source of income for the +Viennese composers was the public performance of their works in +concerts under their own direction. From recourse to this, Schubert's +bashfulness and lack of skill as a _virtuoso_ on any instrument helped +to bar him, though he accompanied his own songs with exquisite effect. +Once only his friends organised a concert for him, and the success was +very brilliant. But he was prevented from repeating the good fortune +by that fatal illness which soon set in. So he lived out the last +glimmers of his life, poverty-stricken, despondent, with few even of +the amenities of friendship to soothe his declining days. Yet those +who know the beautiful results of that life, and have even a faint +glow of sympathy with the life of a man of genius, will exclaim with +one of the most eloquent critics of Schubert-- + + "But shall we, therefore, pity a man who all the while + revelled in the treasures of his creative ore, and from the + very depths of whose despair sprang the sweetest flowers of + song? Who would not battle with the iciest blast of the + north if out of storm and snow he could bring back to his + chamber the germs of the 'Winterreise?' Who would grudge the + moisture of his eyes if he could render it immortal in the + strains of Schubert's 'Lob der Thräne?'" + +Schubert died in the flower of his youth, November 19, 1828; but he +left behind him nearly a thousand compositions, six hundred of which +were songs. Of his operas only the "Enchanted Harp" and "Rosamond" +were put on the stage during his lifetime. "Fierabras," considered to +be his finest dramatic work, has never been produced. His church +music, consisting of six masses, many offertories, and the great +"Hallelujah" of Klopstock, is still performed in Germany. Several of +his symphonies are ranked among the greatest works of this nature. His +pianoforte compositions are brilliant, and strongly in the style of +Beethoven, who was always the great object of Schubert's devoted +admiration, his artistic idol and model. It was his dying request that +he should be buried by the side of Beethoven, of whom the art-world +had been deprived the year before. + +Compared with Schubert, other composers seem to have written in prose. +His imagination burned with a passionate love of Nature. The lakes, +the woods, the mountain heights, inspired him with eloquent reveries +that burst into song; but he always saw Nature through the medium of +human passion and sympathy, which transfigured it. He was the faithful +interpreter of spiritual suffering, and the joy which is born thereof. + +The genius of Schubert seems to have been directly formed for the +expression of subjective emotion in music. That his life should have +been simultaneous with the perfect literary unfolding of the old +_Volkslied_ in the superb lyrics of Goethe, Heine, and their school, +is quite remarkable. Poetry and song clasped hands on the same lofty +summits of genius. Liszt has given to our composer the title of _le +musicien le plus poétique_, which very well expresses his place in +art. + +In the song as created by Schubert and transmitted to his successors, +there are three forms, the first of which is that of the simple +_Lied_, with one unchanged melody. A good example of this is the +setting of Goethe's "Haideröslein," which is full of quaint grace and +simplicity. A second and more elaborate method is what the Germans +call "through-composed," in which all the different feelings are +successively embodied in the changes of the melody, the sense of unity +being preserved by the treatment of the accompaniment, or the +recurrence of the principal motive at the close of the song. Two +admirable models of this are found in the "Lindenbaum" and "Serenade." + +The third and finest art-method, as applied by Schubert to lyric +music, is the "declamatory." In this form we detect the consummate +flower of the musical lyric. The vocal part is lifted into a species +of passionate chant, full of dramatic fire and colour, while the +accompaniment, which is extremely elaborate, furnishes a most +picturesque setting. The genius of the composer displays itself here +fully as much as in the vocal treatment. When the lyric feeling rises +to its climax it expresses itself in the crowning melody, this high +tide of the music and poetry being always in unison. As masterpieces +of this form may be cited "Die Stadt" and "Der Erlkönig," which stand +far beyond any other works of the same nature in the literature of +music. + + +IV. + +ROBERT SCHUMANN, the loving critic, admirer, and disciple of Schubert +in the province of song, was in most respects a man of far different +type. The son of a man of wealth and position, his mind and tastes +were cultivated from early youth with the utmost care. Schumann is +known in Germany no less as a philosophical thinker and critic than as +a composer. As the editor of the _Neue Zeitschrift für Musik_, he +exercised a powerful influence over contemporary thought in +art-matters, and established himself both as a keen and incisive +thinker and as a master of literary style. Schumann was at first +intended for the law, but his unconquerable taste for music asserted +itself in spite of family opposition. His acquaintance with the +celebrated teacher, Wieck, whose gifted daughter, Clara, afterwards +became his wife, finally established his career; for it was through +Wieck's advice that the Schumann family yielded their opposition to +the young man's bent. + +Once settled in his new career, Schumann gave himself up to work with +the most indefatigable ardour. The early part of the present century +was a halcyon time for the _virtuosi_, and the fame and wealth that +poured themselves on such players as Paganini and Liszt made such a +pursuit tempting in the extreme. Fortunately, the young musician was +saved from such a career. In his zeal of practice and desire to attain +a perfectly independent action for each finger on the piano, Schumann +devised some machinery, the result of which was to weaken the sinews +of his third finger by undue distension. By this he lost the effective +use of the whole right hand, and of course his career as a _virtuoso_ +practically closed. + +Music gained in its higher walks what it lost in a lower. Schumann +devoted himself to composition and æsthetic criticism, after he had +passed through a thorough course of preparatory studies. Both as a +writer and a composer Schumann fought against Philistinism in music. +Ardent, progressive, and imaginative, he soon became the leader of the +romantic school, and inaugurated the crusade which had its parallel in +France in that carried on by Victor Hugo in the domain of poetry. His +early pianoforte compositions bear the strong impress of this fiery, +revolutionary spirit. His great symphonic works belong to a later +period, when his whole nature had mellowed and ripened without losing +its imaginative sweep and brilliancy. Schumann's compositions for the +piano and orchestra are those by which his name is most widely +honoured, but nowhere do we find a more characteristic exercise of his +genius than in his songs, to which this article will call more special +attention. + +Such works as the "Études Symphoniques" and the "Kreisleriana" +express much of the spirit of unrest and longing aspiration, the +struggle to get away from prison-bars and limits, which seem to have +sounded the key-note of Schumann's deepest nature. But these feelings +could only find their fullest outlet in the musical form expressly +suited to subjective emotion. Accordingly, the "Sturm and Drang" epoch +of his life, when all his thoughts and conceptions were most unsettled +and visionary, was most fruitful in lyric song. In Heinrich Heine he +found a fitting poetical co-worker, in whose moods he seemed to see a +perfect reflection of his own--Heine, in whom the bitterest irony was +wedded to the deepest pathos, "the spoiled favourite of the Graces," +"the knight with the laughing tear in his scutcheon"--Heine, whose +songs are charged with the brightest light and deepest gloom of the +human heart. + +Schumann's songs never impress us as being deliberate attempts at +creative effort, consciously selected forms through which to express +thoughts struggling for speech. They are rather involuntary +experiments to relieve oneself of some woeful burden, medicine for the +soul. Schumann is never distinctively the lyric composer; his +imagination had too broad and majestic a wing. But in those moods, +peculiar to genius, where the soul is flung back on itself with a +sense of impotence, our composer instinctively burst into song. He did +not in the least advance or change its artistic form, as fixed by +Schubert. This, indeed, would have been irreconcilable with his use of +the song as a simple medium of personal feeling, an outlet and +safeguard. + +The peculiar place of Schumann as a song-writer is indicated by his +being called the musical exponent of Heine, who seems to be the other +half of his soul. The composer enters into each shade and detail of +the poet's meaning with an intensity and fidelity which one can never +cease admiring. It is this phase which gives the Schumann songs their +great artistic value. In their clean-cut, abrupt, epigrammatic force +there is something different from the work of any other musical +lyrist. So much has this impressed the students of the composer that +more than one able critic has ventured to prophesy that Schumann's +greatest claim to immortality would yet be found in such works as the +settings of "Ich grolle nicht" and the "Dichterliebe" series--a +perverted estimate, perhaps, but with a large substratum of truth. The +duration of Schumann's song-time was short, the greater part of his +_Lieder_ having been written in 1840. After this he gave himself up to +oratorio, symphony, and chamber-music. + + * * * * * + +Note by the Editor.--The above account of Robert Schumann does not +give an adequate impression of the composer; the following remarks are +therefore appended, based in most part upon J. A. Fuller Maitland's +"Schumann" in _The Great Musicians_ Series. In 1832 the poet +Grillparzer, in a critical article published in the _Wiener +Musikalische Zeitung_, recognises that Schumann "belongs to no school, +but creates of himself without making parade of outlandish ideas, ... +he has made himself a new ideal world in which he moves about as he +wills, with a certain original _bizarrerie_." Moscheles, a friend of +Schumann, wrote in his diary--"For mind (Geist) give me Schumann. The +Romanticism in his works is a thing so completely new, his genius so +great, that to weigh correctly the peculiar qualities and weakness of +this new school I must go deeper and deeper into the study of his +works." In the _Gazette Musicale_ for November 12, 1837, Franz Liszt +wrote a thoroughly sympathetic criticism of the composer's works, as a +whole, and says--"The more closely we examine Schumann's ideas, the +more power and life do we discover in them; and the more we study +them, the more we are amazed at the wealth and fertility which had +before escaped us." And Hector Berlioz, the great French Romanticist, +looked upon him "as one of the most remarkable composers and critics +in Germany." As a musical critic Schumann ranks very high. In 1834 he, +with several friends, started a critical paper, _Neue Zeitschrift für +Music_, in order "no longer to look on idly, but to try and make +things better, so that the poetry of art may once more be duly +honoured." The paper was very successful, and had a considerable +influence in the musical world--more especially as it supplied a +distinct want, for at the time of its appearance "musical criticism in +Germany was of the most futile kind, silly, superficial admiration of +mediocrity--Schumann used to call it 'Honey-daubing'--or the +contemptuous depreciation of what was new or unknown; these were the +order of the day in such of the journals as deigned to notice music at +all." Schumann possessed all the qualities which are required in a +musical critic, and it is said of him that in that capacity he has +never been excelled. His aims were high and pure--to quote his own +words, "to send light into the depth of the human heart--that is the +artist's calling,"--and the chief object of his critical labour was +"the elevation of German taste and intellect by German art, whether by +pointing to the great models of old time, or by encouraging younger +talents." His connection with the paper lasted ten years as a constant +contributor, though he continued to write for it from time to time. +The last article published by him in it was one written in favour of +Johannes Brahms, who had been sent to him with a letter of +introduction by Joseph Joachim, the violinist, "recommending to his +notice a young composer of whose powers the writer had formed the +highest opinion." "At once Schumann recognised the surpassing +capabilities of the young man, and wrote to Joachim these words, and +nothing more--'Das ist der, der kommen musste' ('This is he was wanted +to come')." The article was entitled "New Paths," and is one of his +most remarkable writings. "In it Schumann seems to sing his 'Nunc +Dimittis,' hailing the advent of this young and ardent spirit, who was +to carry on the great line of composers, and to prove himself no +unworthy member of their glorious company." The concluding sentence of +the article, which contained the composer's last printed words, is not +a little remarkable, for it gives fullest expression to that principle +which had always governed his own criticism. "In every age there is a +secret band of kindred spirits. Ye who are of this fellowship, see +that ye weld the circle firmly, so that the truth of art may shine +ever more and more clearly, shedding joy and blessing far and near." + +As a man Schumann was kind-hearted, generous, devoid of jealousy, and +always ready and willing to recognise merit, great or small, in those +with whom he came in contact. It was always easier for him to praise +than to blame; so much so that in conducting an orchestra in +rehearsal, it became impossible for him to find fault with the +performers when necessity arose, and, if they did not find out their +mistakes themselves, he allowed them to remain uncorrected! Although a +faithful friend, he was eminently unsociable; he was very reserved and +silent, and this peculiarity became more marked towards the latter +part of his life, when his terrible malady was spreading its shadow +over him. An amusing account of his silence is given in E. Hanslick's +_Musikalischen Stationen_--"Wagner expressed himself thus to the +author in 1846--'Schumann is a highly gifted musician, but an +_impossible_ man. When I came from Paris I went to see Schumann; I +related to him my Parisian experiences, spoke of the state of music in +France, then of that in Germany, spoke of literature and politics; but +he remained as good as dumb for nearly an hour. One cannot go on +talking quite alone. An impossible man!'" Schumann's account, +apparently of the same interview, is as follows:--"I have seldom met +him; but he is a man of education and spirit; he talks, however, +unceasingly, and that one cannot endure for very long together." + +Schumann has been described "as a man of moderately tall stature, +well-built, and of a dignified and pleasant aspect. The outlines of +his face, with its intellectual brow, and with its lower part +inclining slightly to heaviness, are sufficiently familiar to us all; +but we cannot see the dreamy, half-shut eyes kindle into animation at +a word from some friend with whom he felt himself in sympathy." A +description of him by his friend, Sterndale Bennett, is amusing, on +the words of which S. Bennett wrote a little canon-- + + "Herr Schumann ist ein guter Mann, + Er raucht Tabak als Niemand kann; + Ein Mann vielleicht von dreissig Jahr, + Mit kurze Nas' und kurze Haar." + + ("Herr Schumann is a first-rate man, + He smokes as ne'er another can; + A man of thirty, I suppose, + Short is his hair, and short his nose.") + +Schumann's latter days were very sorrowful, for he was afflicted with +a great mental distress, caused, we are told by one of his +biographers, by ossification of the brain. He was haunted by +delusions--amongst others, by the constant hearing of a single musical +note. "On one occasion he was under the impression that Schubert and +Mendelssohn had visited him, and had given him a musical theme, which +he wrote down, and upon which he set himself to write variations." He +suffered from attacks of acute melancholy, and at length, during one +of them, threw himself into the Rhine, but was, fortunately, rescued. +At length it became necessary to confine him in a private asylum, +where he was visited by his friends when his condition permitted it. +He died on July 29, 1856, in presence of his wife, through whose +exertions, in great part, we, in England, have become acquainted with +his pianoforte works. + +[Decoration] + + + + +_CHOPIN._ + + +I. + +Never has Paris, the Mecca of European art, genius, and culture, +presented a more brilliant social spectacle than it did in 1832. +Hitherward came pilgrims from all countries, poets, painters, and +musicians, anxious to breathe the inspiring air of the French capital, +where society laid its warmest homage at the feet of the artist. Here +came, too, in dazzling crowds, the rich nobles and the beautiful women +of Europe to find the pleasure, the freedom, the joyous unrestraint, +with which Paris offers its banquet of sensuous and intellectual +delights to the hungry epicure. Then as now the queen of the +art-world, Paris absorbed and assimilated to herself the most +brilliant influences in civilisation. + +In all of brilliant Paris there was no more charming and gifted circle +than that which gathered around the young Polish pianist and composer, +Chopin, then a recent arrival in the gay city. His peculiarly original +genius, his weird and poetic style of playing, which transported his +hearers into a mystic fairy-land of sunlight and shadow, his strangely +delicate beauty, the alternating reticence and enthusiasm of his +manners, made him the idol of the clever men and women, who courted +the society of the shy and sensitive musician; for to them he was a +fresh revelation. Dr. Franz Liszt gives the world some charming +pictures of this art-coterie, which was wont often to assemble at +Chopin's rooms in the Chaussée d'Antin. + +His room, taken by surprise, is all in darkness except the luminous +ring thrown off by the candles on the piano, and the flashes +flickering from the fire-place. The guests gather around informally as +the piano sighs, moans, murmurs, or dreams under the fingers of the +player. Heinrich Heine, the most poetic of humorists, leans on the +instrument, and asks, as he listens to the music and watches the +firelight, "if the roses always glowed with a flame so triumphant? if +the trees at moonlight sang always so harmoniously?" Meyerbeer, one of +the musical giants, sits near at hand lost in reverie; for he forgets +his own great harmonies, forged with hammer of Cyclops, listening to +the dreamy passion and poetry woven into such quaint fabrics of sound. +Adolphe Nourrit, passionate and ascetic, with the spirit of some +mediæval monastic painter, an enthusiastic servant of art in its +purest, severest form, a combination of poet and anchorite, is also +there; for he loves the gentle musician, who seems to be a visitor +from the world of spirits. Eugène Delacroix, one of the greatest of +modern painters, his keen eyes half closed in meditation, absorbs the +vague mystery of colour which imagination translates from the harmony, +and attains new insight and inspiration through the bright links of +suggestion by which one art lends itself to another. The two great +Polish poets, Niemcewicz and Mickiewicz (the latter the Dante of the +Slavic race), exiles from their unhappy land, feed their sombre +sorrow, and find in the wild, Oriental rhythms of the player only +melancholy memories of the past. Perhaps Victor Hugo, Balzac, +Lamartine, or the aged Chateaubriand, also drop in by-and-by, to +recognise, in the music, echoes of the daring romanticism which they +opposed to the classic and formal pedantry of the time. + +Buried in a fauteuil, with her arms resting upon a table, sits Mdme. +George Sand (that name so tragically mixed with Chopin's life), +"curiously attentive, gracefully subdued." With the second sight of +genius, which pierces through the mask, she saw the sweetness, the +passion, the delicate emotional sensibility of Chopin; and her +insatiate nature must unravel and assimilate this new study in human +enjoyment and suffering. She had then just finished "Lelia," that +strange and powerful creation, in which she embodied all her hatred of +the forms and tyrannies of society, her craving for an impossible +social ideal, her tempestuous hopes and desires, in such startling +types. Exhausted by the struggle, she panted for the rest and luxury +of a companionship in which both brain and heart could find sympathy. +She met Chopin, and she recognised in the poetry of his temperament +and the fire of his genius what she desired. Her personality, +electric, energetic, and imperious, exercised the power of a magnet on +the frail organisation of Chopin, and he loved once and forever, with +a passion that consumed him; for in Mdme. Sand he found the blessing +and curse of his life. This many-sided woman, at this point of her +development, found in the fragile Chopin one phase of her nature which +had never been expressed, and he was sacrificed to the demands of an +insatiable originality, which tried all things in turn, to be +contented with nothing but an ideal which could never be attained. + +About the time of Chopin's arrival in Paris the political +effervescence of the recent revolution had passed into art and +letters. It was the oft-repeated battle of Romanticism against +Classicism. There could be no truce between those who believed that +everything must be fashioned after old models, that Procrustes must +settle the height and depth, the length and breadth of art-forms, and +those who, inspired with the new wine of liberty and free creative +thought, held that the rule of form should always be the mere +expression of the vital, flexible thought. The one side argued that +supreme perfection already reached left the artist hope only in +imitation; the other, that the immaterial beautiful could have no +fixed absolute form. Victor Hugo among the poets, Delacroix among the +painters, and Berlioz among the musicians, led the ranks of the +romantic school. + +Chopin found himself strongly enlisted in this contest on the side of +the new school. His free, unconventional nature found in its teachings +a musical atmosphere true to the artistic and political proclivities +of his native Poland; for Chopin breathed the spirit and tendencies of +his people in every fibre of his soul, both as man and artist. Our +musician, however, in freeing himself from all servile formulas, +sternly repudiated the charlatanism which would replace old abuses +with new ones. + +Chopin, in his views of his art, did not admit the least compromise +with those who failed earnestly to represent progress, nor, on the +other hand, with those who sought to make their art a mere profitable +trade. With him, as with all the great musicians, his art was a +religion--something so sacred that it must be approached with +unsullied heart and hand. This reverential feeling was shown in the +following touching fact:--It was a Polish custom to choose the +garments in which one would be buried. Chopin, though among the first +of contemporary artists, gave fewer concerts than any other; but, +notwithstanding this, he left directions to be borne to the grave in +the clothes he had worn on such occasions. + + +II. + +FREDERICK FRANCIS CHOPIN was born near Warsaw, in 1810, of French +extraction. He learned music at the age of nine from Ziwny, a pupil of +Sebastian Bach, but does not seem to have impressed anyone with his +remarkable talent except Madame Catalani, the great singer, who gave +him a watch. Through the kindness of Prince Radziwill, an enthusiastic +patron of art, he was sent to Warsaw College, where his genius began +to unfold itself. He afterwards became a pupil of the Warsaw +Conservatory, and acquired there a splendid mastery over the science +of music. His labour was prodigious in spite of his frail health; and +his knowledge of contrapuntal forms was such as to exact the highest +encomiums from his instructors. + +Through his brother pupils he was introduced to the highest Polish +society, for his fellows bore some of the proudest names in Poland. +Chopin seems to have absorbed the peculiarly romantic spirit of his +race, the wild, imaginative melancholy, which, almost gloomy in the +Polish peasant, when united to grace and culture in the Polish noble, +offered an indescribable social charm. Balzac sketches the Polish +woman in these picturesque antitheses:--"Angel through love, demon +through fantasy; child through faith, sage through experience; man +through the brain, woman through the heart; giant through hope, +mother through sorrow; and poet through dreams." The Polish gentleman +was chivalrous, daring, and passionate; the heir of the most gifted +and brilliant of the Slavic races, with a proud heritage of memory +which gave his bearing an indescribable dignity, though the son of a +fallen nation. Ardently devoted to pleasure, the Poles embodied in +their national dances wild and inspiring rhythms, a glowing poetry of +sentiment as well as motion, which mingled with their Bacchanal fire a +chaste and lofty meaning that became at times funereal. Polish society +at this epoch pulsated with an originality, an imagination, and a +romance, which transfigured even the common things of life. + +It was amid such an atmosphere that Chopin's early musical career was +spent, and his genius received its lasting impress. One afternoon in +after years he was playing to one of the most distinguished women in +Paris, and she said that his music suggested to her those gardens in +Turkey where bright parterres of flowers and shady bowers were strewed +with gravestones and burial mounds. This underlying depth of +melancholy Chopin's music expresses most eloquently, and it may be +called the perfect artistic outcome of his people; for in his sweetest +tissues of sound the imagination can detect agitation, rancour, +revolt, and menace, sometimes despair. Chateaubriand dreamed of an Eve +innocent, yet fallen; ignorant of all, yet knowing all; mistress, yet +virgin. He found this in a Polish girl of seventeen, whom he paints as +a "mixture of Odalisque and Valkyr." The romantic and fanciful passion +of the Poles, bold, yet unworldly, is shown in the habit of drinking +the health of a sweetheart from her own shoe. + +Chopin, intensely spiritual by temperament and fragile in health, born +an enthusiast, was coloured through and through with the rich dyes of +Oriental passion; but with these were mingled the fantastic and ideal +elements which, + + "Wrapped in sense, yet dreamed of heavenlier joys." + +And so he went to Paris, the city of his fate, ripe for the tragedy +of his life. After the revolution of 1830, he started to go to London, +and, as he said, "passed through Paris." Yet Paris he did not leave +till he left it with Mdme. Sand to live a brief dream of joy in the +beautiful Isle of Majorca. + + +III. + +Liszt describes Chopin in these words--"His blue eyes were more +spiritual than dreamy; his bland smile never writhed into bitterness. +The transparent delicacy of his complexion pleased the eye; his fair +hair was soft and silky; his nose slightly aquiline; his bearing so +distinguished, and his manners stamped with such high breeding, that +involuntarily he was always treated _en prince_. His gestures were many +and graceful; the tones of his voiced veiled, often stifled. His stature +was low, his limbs were slight." Again, Mdme. Sand paints him even more +characteristically in her novel, _Lucrezia Floriani_--"Gentle, +sensitive, and very lovely, he united the charm of adolescence with the +suavity of a more mature age; through the want of muscular development +he retained a peculiar beauty, an exceptional physiognomy, which, if we +may venture so to speak, belonged to neither age nor sex.... It was more +like the ideal creations with which the poetry of the Middle Ages +adorned the Christian temples. The delicacy of his constitution rendered +him interesting in the eyes of women. The full yet graceful cultivation +of his mind, the sweet and captivating originality of his conversation, +gained for him the attention of the most enlightened men; while those +less highly cultivated liked him for the exquisite courtesy of his +manners." + +All this reminds us of Shelley's dream of Hermaphroditus, or perhaps +of Shelley himself, for Chopin was the Shelley of music. + +His life in Paris was quiet and retired. The most brilliant and +beautiful women desired to be his pupils, but Chopin refused except +where he recognised in the petitioners exceptional earnestness and +musical talent. He gave but few concerts, for his genius could not +cope with great masses of people. He said to Liszt, "I am not suited +for concert-giving. The public intimidate me, their breath stifles me. +You are destined for it; for when you do not gain your public, you +have the force to assault, to overwhelm, to compel them." It was his +delight to play to a few chosen friends, and to evoke for them such +dreams from the ivory gate, which Virgil fabled to be the portal of +Elysium, as to make his music + + "The silver key of the fountain of tears, + Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild; + Softest grave of a thousand fears, + Where their mother, Care, like a weary child, + Is laid asleep in a bed of flowers." + +He avoided general society, finding in the great artists and those +sympathetic with art his congenial companions. His life was given up +to producing those unique compositions which make him, _par +excellence_, the king of the pianoforte. He was recognised by Liszt, +Kalkbrenner, Pleyel, Field, and Meyerbeer, as being the most wonderful +of players; yet he seemed to disdain such a reputation as a cheap +notoriety, ceasing to appear in public after the first few concerts, +which produced much excitement and would have intoxicated most +performers. He sought largely the society of the Polish exiles, men +and women of the highest rank who had thronged to Paris. + +His sister Louise, whom he dearly loved, frequently came to Paris from +Warsaw to see him; and he kept up a regular correspondence with his +own family. Yet he abhorred writing so much that he would go to any +shifts to avoid answering a note. Some of his beautiful countrywomen, +however, possess precious memorials in the shape of letters written in +Polish, which he loved much more than French. His thoughtfulness was +continually sending pleasant little gifts and souvenirs to his Warsaw +friends. This tenderness and consideration displayed itself too in his +love of children. He would spend whole evenings in playing +blind-man's-buff or telling them charming fairy stories from the +folk-lore in which Poland is singularly rich. + +Always gentle, he yet knew how to rebuke arrogance, and had sharp +repartees for those who tried to force him into musical display. On +one occasion, when he had just left the dining-room, an indiscreet +host, who had had the simplicity to promise his guests some piece +executed by him as a rare dessert, pointed him to an open piano. +Chopin quietly refused, but on being pressed said, with a languid and +sneering drawl:--"Ah, sir, I have just dined; your hospitality, I see, +demands payment." + + +IV. + +Mdme. Sand, in her _Lettres d'un Voyageur_, depicts the painful +lethargy which seizes the artist when, having incorporated the emotion +which inspired him in his work, his imagination still remains under +the dominance of the insatiate idea, without being able to find a new +incarnation. She was suffering in this way when the character of +Chopin excited her curiosity and suggested a healthful and happy +relief. Chopin dreaded to meet this modern Sibyl. The superstitious +awe he felt was a premonition whose meaning was hidden from him. They +met, and Chopin lost his fear in one of those passions which feed on +the whole being with a ceaseless hunger. + +In the fall of 1837 Chopin yielded to a severe attack of the disease +which was hereditary in his frame. In company with Mdme. Sand, who had +become his constant companion, he went to the isle of Majorca, to find +rest and medicine in the balmy breezes of the Mediterranean. All the +happiness of Chopin's life was gathered in the focus of this +experience. He had a most loving and devoted nurse, who yielded to all +his whims, soothed his fretfulness, and watched over him as a mother +does over a child. The grounds of the villa where they lived were as +perfect as Nature and art could make them, and exquisite scenes +greeted the eye at every turn. Here they spent long golden days. + +The feelings of Chopin for his gifted companion are best painted by +herself in the pages of _Lucrezia Floriani_, where she is the +"Floriani," Liszt "Count Salvator Albani," and Chopin "Prince +Karol"--"It seemed as if this fragile being was absorbed and consumed +by the strength of his affection.... But he loved for the sake of +loving.... His love was his life, and, delicious or bitter, he had not +the power of withdrawing himself a single moment from its domination." +Slowly she nursed him back into temporary health, and in the sunlight +of her love his mind assumed a gaiety and cheerfulness it had never +known before. + +It had been the passionate hope of Chopin to marry Mdme. Sand, but +wedlock was alien alike to her philosophy and preference. After a +protracted intimacy, she wearied of his persistent entreaties, or +perhaps her self-development had exhausted what it sought in the +poet-musician. An absolute separation came, and his mistress buried +the episode in her life with the epitaph--"Two natures, one rich in +its exuberance, the other in its exclusiveness, could never really +mingle, and a whole world separated them." Chopin said--"All the cords +that bind me to life are broken." His sad summary of all was that his +life had been an episode which began and ended in Paris. What a +contrast to the being of a few years before, of whom it is +written--"He was no longer on the earth; he was in an empyrean of +golden clouds and perfumes; his imagination, so full of exquisite +beauty, seemed engaged in a monologue with God himself!"[C] + +Both Liszt and Mdme. Dudevant have painted Chopin somewhat as a sickly +sentimentalist, living in an atmosphere of moonshine and unreality. +Yet this was not precisely true. In spite of his delicacy of frame and +romantic imagination, Chopin was never ill till within the last ten +years of his life, when the seeds of hereditary consumption developed +themselves. As a young man he was lively and joyous, always ready for +frolic, and with a great fund of humour, especially in caricature. +Students of human character know how consistent these traits are with +a deep undercurrent of melancholy, which colours the whole life when +the immediate impulse of joy subsides. + +From the date of 1840 Chopin's health declined; but through the seven +years during which his connection with Mdme. Sand continued, he +persevered actively in his work of composition. The final rupture with +the woman he so madly loved seems to have been his death-blow. He +spoke of Mdme. Sand without bitterness, but his soul pined in the +bitter-sweet of memory. He recovered partially, and spent a short +season of concert-giving in London, where he was fêted and caressed by +the best society as he had been in Paris. Again he was sharply +assailed by his fatal malady, and he returned to Paris to die. Let us +describe one of his last earthly experiences, on Sunday, the 15th of +October 1849. + +Chopin had lain insensible from one of his swooning attacks for some +time. His sister Louise was by his side, and the Countess Delphine +Potocka, his beautiful countrywoman and a most devoted friend, watched +him with streaming eyes. The dying musician became conscious, and +faintly ordered a piano to be rolled in from the adjoining room. He +turned to the countess, and whispered, feebly, "Sing." She had a +lovely voice, and, gathering herself for the effort, she sang that +famous canticle to the Virgin which, tradition says, saved Stradella's +life from assassins. "How beautiful it is!" he exclaimed. "My God! how +very beautiful!" Again she sang to him, and the dying musician passed +into a trance, from which he never fully aroused till he expired, two +days afterwards, in the arms of his pupil, M. Gutman. + +Chopin's obsequies took place at the Madeleine Church, and Lablache +sang on this occasion the same passage, the "Tuba Mirum" of Mozart's +Requiem Mass, which he had sung at the funeral of Beethoven in 1827; +while the other solos were given by Mdme. Viardot Garcia and Mdme. +Castellan. He lies in Père Lachaise, beside Cherubini and Bellini. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[C] _Lucrezia Floriani._ + + +V. + +The compositions of Chopin were exclusively for the piano; and alike +as composer and virtuoso he is the founder of a new school, or +perhaps may be said to share that honour with Robert Schumann--the +school which to-day is represented in its advanced form by Liszt and +Von Bülow. Schumann called him "the boldest and proudest poetic spirit +of the times." In addition to this remarkable poetic power, he was a +splendidly-trained musician, a great adept in style, and one of the +most original masters of rhythm and harmony that the records of music +show. All his works, though wanting in breadth and robustness of tone, +are characterised by the utmost finish and refinement. Full of +delicate and unexpected beauties, elaborated with the finest touch, +his effects are so quaint and fresh as to fill the mind of the +listener with pleasurable sensations, perhaps not to be derived from +grander works. + +Chopin was essentially the musical exponent of his nation; for he +breathed in all the forms of his art the sensibilities, the fires, the +aspirations, and the melancholy of the Polish race. This is not only +evident in his polonaises, his waltzes and mazurkas, in which the wild +Oriental rhythms of the original dances are treated with the creative +skill of genius; but also in the _études_, the preludes, nocturnes, +scherzos, ballads, etc., with which he so enriched musical literature. +His genius could never confine itself within classic bonds, but, +fantastic and impulsive, swayed and bent itself with easy grace to +inspirations that were always novel and startling, though his boldness +was chastened by deep study and fine art-sense. + +All of the suggestions of the quaint and beautiful Polish dance-music +were worked by Chopin into a variety of forms, and were greatly +enriched by his skill in handling. He dreamed out his early +reminiscences in music, and these national memories became embalmed in +the history of art. The polonaises are marked by the fire and ardour +of his soldier race, and the mazurkas are full of the coquetry and +tenderness of his countrywomen; while the ballads are a free and +powerful rendering of Polish folk-music, beloved alike in the +herdsman's hut and the palace of the noble. In deriving his +inspiration direct from the national heart, Chopin did what Schumann, +Schubert, and Weber did in Germany, what Rossini did in Italy, and +shares with them a freshness of melodic power to be derived from no +other source. Rather tender and elegiac than vigorous, the deep +sadness underlying the most sparkling forms of his work is most +notable. One can at times almost recognise the requiem of a nation in +the passionate melancholy on whose dark background his fancy weaves +such beautiful figures and colours. + +Franz Liszt, in characterising Chopin as a composer, furnishes an +admirable study--"We meet with beauties of a high order, expressions +entirely new, and a harmonic tissue as original as erudite. In his +compositions boldness is always justified; richness, often exuberance, +never interferes with clearness; singularity never degenerates into +the uncouth and fantastic; the sculpturing is never disordered; the +luxury of ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence of the +principal lines. His best works abound in combinations which may be +said to be an epoch in the handling of musical style. Daring, +brilliant, and attractive, they disguise their profundity under so +much grace, their science under so many charms, that it is with +difficulty we free ourselves sufficiently from their magical +enthralment, to judge coldly of their theoretical value." + +As a romance composer Chopin struck out his own path, and has no +rival. Full of originality, his works display the utmost dignity and +refinement. He revolted from the bizarre and eccentric, though the +peculiar influences which governed his development might well have +betrayed one less finely organised. + +As a musical poet, embodying the feelings and tendencies of a people, +Chopin advances his chief claim to his place in art. He did not task +himself to be a national musician; for he is utterly without pretence +and affectation, and sings spontaneously, without design or choice, +from the fullness of a rich nature. He collected "in luminous sheaves +the impressions felt everywhere through his country--vaguely felt, it +is true, yet in fragments pervading all hearts." + +Chopin was repelled by the lusty and almost coarse humour sometimes +displayed by Schubert, for he was painfully fastidious. He could not +fully understand nor appreciate Beethoven, whose works are full of +lion-marrow, robust and masculine alike in conception and treatment. +He did not admire Shakespeare, because his great delineations are too +vivid and realistic. Our musician was essentially a dreamer and +idealist. His range was limited, but within it he reached perfection +of finish and originality never surpassed. But, with all his +limitations, the art-judgment of the world places him high among those + + "... whom Art's service pure + Hallows and claims, whose hearts are made her throne, + Whose lips her oracle, ordained secure + To lead a priestly life and feed the ray + Of her eternal shrine; to them alone + Her glorious countenance unveiled is shown." + + + + +_WEBER._ + + +I. + +The genius which inspired the three great works, "Der Freischütz," +"Euryanthe," and "Oberon," has stamped itself as one of the most +original and characteristic in German music. Full of bold and +surprising strokes of imagination, these operas are marked by the true +atmosphere of national life and feeling, and we feel in them the +fresh, rich colour of the popular traditions and song-music which make +the German _Lieder_ such an inexhaustible treasure-trove. As Weber was +maturing into that fullness of power which gave to the world his +greater works, Germany had been wrought into a passionate patriotism +by the Napoleonic wars. The call to arms resounded from one end of +the Fatherland to the other. Every hamlet thrilled with fervour, and +all the resources of national tradition were evoked to heighten the +love of country into a puissance which should save the land. Germany +had been humiliated by a series of crushing defeats, and national +pride was stung to vindicate the grand old memories. France, in answer +to a similar demand for some art-expression of its patriotism, had +produced its Rouget de Lisle; Germany produced the poet Körner and the +musician Weber. + +It is not easy to appreciate the true quality and significance of +Weber's art-life without considering the peculiar state of Germany at +the time; for if ever creative imagination was forged and fashioned by +its environments into a logical expression of public needs and +impulses, it was in the case of the father of German romantic opera. +This inspiration permeated the whole soil of national thought, and its +embodiment in art and letters has hardly any parallel except in that +brilliant morning of English thought which we know as the Elizabethan +era. To understand Weber the composer, then, we must think of him not +only as the musician, but as the patriot and revivalist of ancient +tendencies in art, drawn directly from the warm heart of the people. + +KARL MARIA VON WEBER was born at Eutin, in Holstein, December 18, +1786. His father had been a soldier, but, owing to extravagance and +folly, had left the career of arms, and, being an educated musician, +had become by turns attached to an orchestra, director of a theatre, +Kapellmeister, and wandering player--never remaining long in one +position, for he was essentially vagrant and desultory in character. +Whatever Karl Maria had to suffer from his father's folly and +eccentricity, he was indebted to him for an excellent training in the +art of which he was to become so brilliant an ornament. He had +excellent masters in singing and the piano, as also in drawing and +engraving. So he grew up a melancholy, imaginative recluse, absorbed +in his studies, and living in a dream-land of his own, which he +peopled with ideal creations. His passionate love of Nature, tinged +with old German superstition, planted in his imagination those +fruitful germs which bore such rich results in after years. + +In 1797 Weber studied the piano and composition under Hanschkel, a +thoroughly scientific musician, and found in his severe drill a happy +counter-balancing influence to the more desultory studies which had +preceded. Major Weber's restless tendencies did not permit his family +to remain long in one place. In 1798 they moved to Salzburg, where +young Weber was placed at the musical institute of which Michael +Haydn, brother of the great Joseph, was director. Here a variety of +misfortunes assailed the Weber family. Major Franz Anton was +unsuccessful in all his theatrical undertakings, and extreme poverty +stared them all in the face. The gentle mother, too, whom Karl so +dearly loved, sickened and died. This was a terrible blow to the +affectionate boy, from which he did not soon recover. + +The next resting-place in the pilgrimage of the Weber family was +Munich, where Major Weber, who, however flagrant his shortcomings in +other ways, was resolved that the musical powers of his son should be +thoroughly trained, placed him under the care of the organist Kalcher +for studies in composition. + +For several years, Karl was obliged to lead the same shifting, nomadic +sort of life, never stopping long, but dragged hither and thither in +obedience to his father's vagaries and necessities, but always +studying under the best masters who could be obtained. While under +Kalcher, several masses, sonatas, trios, and an opera, "Die Macht der +Liebe und des Weins" ("The Might of Love and Wine"), were written. +Another opera, "Das Waldmädchen" ("The Forest Maiden"), was composed +and produced when he was fourteen; and two years later in Salzburg he +composed "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn," an operetta, which +exacted warm praise from Michael Haydn. + +At the age of seventeen he became the pupil of the great teacher, Abbé +Vogler, under whose charge also Meyerbeer was then studying. Our +young composer worked with great assiduity under the able instruction +of Vogler, who was of vast service in bringing the chaos of his +previous contradictory teachings into order and light. All these +musical _Wanderjahre_, however trying, had steeled Karl Maria into a +stern self-reliance, and he found in his skill as an engraver the +means to remedy his father's wastefulness and folly. + + +II. + +A curious episode in Weber's life was his connection with the royal +family of Würtemberg, where he found a dissolute, poverty-stricken +court, and a whimsical, arrogant, half-crazy king. Here he remained +four years in a half-official musical position, his nominal duty being +that of secretary to the king's brother, Prince Ludwig. This part of +his career was almost a sheer waste, full of dreary and irritating +experiences, which Weber afterwards spoke of with disgust and regret. +His spirit revolted from the capricious tyranny which he was obliged +to undergo, but circumstances seem to have coerced him into a +protracted endurance of the place. His letters tell us how bitterly he +detested the king and his dull, pompous court, though Prince Ludwig in +a way seemed to have been attached to his secretary. One of his +biographers says:-- + + "Weber hated the king, of whose wild caprice and vices he + witnessed daily scenes, before whose palace-gates he was + obliged to slink bareheaded, and who treated him with + unmerited ignominy. Sceptre and crown had never been + imposing objects in his eyes, unless worn by a worthy man; + and consequently he was wont, in the thoughtless levity of + youth, to forget the dangers he ran, and to answer the king + with a freedom of tone which the autocrat was all unused to + hear. In turn he was detested by the monarch. As negotiator + for the spendthrift Prince Ludwig, he was already obnoxious + enough; and it sometimes happened that, by way of variety to + the customary torrent of invective, the king, after keeping + the secretary for hours in his antechamber, would receive + him only to turn him rudely out of the room, without hearing + a word he had to say." + +At last Karl Maria's indignation burst over bounds at some unusual +indignity; and he played a practical joke on the king. Meeting an old +woman in the palace one day near the door of the royal sanctum, she +asked him where she could find the court-washerwoman. "There," said +the reckless Weber, pointing to the door of the king's cabinet. The +king, who hated old women, was in a transport of rage, and, on her +terror-stricken explanation of the intrusion, had no difficulty in +fixing the mischief in the right quarter. Weber was thrown into +prison, and had it not been for Prince Ludwig's intercession he would +have remained there for several years. While confined he managed to +compose one of his most beautiful songs, "Ein steter Kampf ist unser +Leben." He had not long been released when he was again imprisoned on +account of some of his father's wretched follies, that arrogant old +gentleman being utterly reckless how he involved others, so long as he +carried out his own selfish purposes and indulgence. His friend Danzi, +director of the royal opera at Stuttgart, proved his good genius in +this instance; for he wrangled with the king till his young friend was +released. + +Weber's only consolations during this dismal life in Stuttgart were +the friendship of Danzi, and his love for a beautiful singer named +Gretchen. Danzi was a true mentor and a devoted friend. He was wont to +say to Karl--"To be a true artist, you must be a true man." But the +lovely Gretchen, however she may have consoled his somewhat arid life, +was not a beneficial influence, for she led him into many sad +extravagances and an unwholesome taste for playing the cavalier. + +In spite of his discouraging surroundings, Weber's creative power was +active during this period, and showed how, perhaps unconsciously to +himself, he was growing in power and depth of experience. He wrote the +cantata, "Der erste Ton," a large number of songs, the first of his +great piano sonatas, several overtures and symphonies, and the opera +"Sylvana" ("Das Waldmädchen" rewritten and enlarged), which, both in +its music and libretto, seems to have been the precursor of his great +works, "Der Freischütz" and "Euryanthe." At the first performance of +"Sylvana" in Frankfort, September 16, 1810, he met Miss Caroline +Brandt, who sang the principal character. She afterwards became his +wife, and her love and devotion were the solace of his life. + +Weber spent most of the year 1810 in Darmstadt, where he again met +Vogler and Meyerbeer. Vogler's severe artistic instructions were of +great value to Weber in curbing his extravagance, and impressing on +him that restraint was one of the most valuable factors in art. What +Vogler thought of Weber we learn from a letter in which he +writes--"Had I been forced to leave the world before I found these +two, Weber and Meyerbeer, I should have died a miserable man." + + +III. + +It was about this time, while visiting Mannheim, that the idea of "Der +Freischütz" first entered his mind. His friend the poet Kind was with +him, and they were ransacking an old book, Apel's _Ghost Stories_. One +of these dealt with the ancient legend of the hunter Bartusch, a +woodland myth ranking high in German folk-lore. They were both +delighted with the fantastic and striking story, full of the warm +colouring of Nature, and the balmy atmosphere of the forest and +mountain. They immediately arranged the framework of the libretto, +afterwards written by Kind, and set to such weird and enchanting music +by Weber. + +In 1811 Weber began to give concerts, for his reputation was becoming +known far and wide as a brilliant composer and virtuoso. For two years +he played a round of concerts in Munich, Leipsic, Gotha, Weimar, +Berlin, and other places. He was everywhere warmly welcomed. +Lichtenstein, in his _Memoir of Weber_, writes of his Berlin +reception--"Young artists fell on their knees before him; others +embraced him wherever they could get at him. All crowded around him, +till his head was crowned, not with a chaplet of flowers, but a +circlet of happy faces." The devotion of his friends, his happy family +relations, the success of his published works, conspired to make Weber +cheerful and joyous beyond his wont, for he was naturally of a +melancholy and serious turn, disposed to look at life from its tragic +side. + +In 1813 he was called to Prague to direct the music of the German +opera in that Bohemian capital. The Bohemians had always been a highly +musical race, and their chief city is associated in the minds of the +students of music as the place where many of the great operas were +first presented to the public. Mozart loved Prague, for he found in +its people the audiences who appreciated and honoured him the most. +Its traditions were honoured in their treatment of Weber, for his +three years there were among the happiest of his life. + +Our composer wrote his opera of "Der Freischütz" in Dresden. It was +first produced in the opera-house of that classic city, but it was not +till 1821, when it was performed in Berlin, that its greatness was +recognised. Weber can best tell the story of its reception himself. In +his letter to his co-author, Kind, he writes:-- + + "The free-shooter has hit the mark. The second + representation has succeeded as well as the first; there was + the same enthusiasm. All the places in the house are taken + for the third, which comes off to-morrow. It is the greatest + triumph one can have. You cannot imagine what a lively + interest your text inspires from beginning to end. How happy + I should have been if you had only been present to hear it + for yourself! Some of the scenes produced an effect which I + was far from anticipating; for example, that of the young + girls. If I see you again at Dresden, I will tell you all + about it; for I cannot do it justice in writing. How much I + am indebted to you for your magnificent poem! I embrace you + with the sincerest emotion, returning to your muse the + laurels I owe her. God grant that you may be happy. Love him + who loves you with infinite respect. + + "Your Weber." + +"Der Freischütz" was such a success as to place the composer in the +front ranks of the lyric stage. The striking originality, the fire, +the passion of his music, the ardent national feeling, and the +freshness of treatment, gave a genuine shock of delight and surprise +to the German world. + + +IV. + +The opera of "Preciosa," also a masterpiece, was given shortly after +with great _éclat_, though it failed to inspire the deep enthusiasm +which greeted "Der Freischütz." In 1823, "Euryanthe" was produced in +Berlin--a work on which Weber exhausted all the treasures of his +musical genius. Without the elements of popular success which made his +first great opera such an immediate favourite, it shows the most +finished and scholarly work which Weber ever attained. Its symmetry +and completeness, the elaboration of all the forms, the richness and +variety of the orchestration, bear witness to the long and thoughtful +labour expended on it. It gradually won its way to popular +recognition, and has always remained one of the favourite works of the +German stage. + +The opera of "Oberon" was Weber's last great production. The +celebrated poet Wieland composed the poem underlying the libretto, +from the mediæval romance of Huon of Bordeaux. The scenes are laid in +fairy-land, and it may be almost called a German "Midsummer-Night's +Dream," though the story differs widely from the charming phantasy of +our own Shakespeare. The opera of "Oberon" was written for Kemble, of +the Covent Garden theatre, in London, and was produced by Weber under +circumstances of failing health and great mental depression. The +composer pressed every energy to the utmost to meet his engagement, +and it was feared by his friends that he would not live to see it put +on the stage. It did, indeed, prove the song of the dying swan, for he +only lived four months after reaching London. "Oberon" was performed +with immense success under the direction of Sir George Smart, and the +fading days of the author were cheered by the acclamations of the +English public; but the work cost him his life. He died in London, +June 5, 1826. His last words were--"God reward you for all your +kindness to me.--Now let me sleep." + +Apart from his dramatic compositions, Weber is known for his many +beautiful overtures and symphonies for the orchestra, and his various +works for the piano, from sonatas to waltzes and minuets. Among his +most pleasing piano-works are the "Invitation to the Waltz," the +"Perpetual Rondo," and the "Polonaise in E major." Many of his songs +rank among the finest German lyrics. He would have been recognised as +an able composer had he not produced great operas; but the superior +excellence of these cast all his other compositions in the shade. + +Weber was fortunate in having gifted poets to write his dramas. As +rich as he was in melodic affluence, his creative faculty seems to +have had its tap-root in deep personal feelings and enthusiasms. One +of the most poetic and picturesque of composers, he needed a powerful +exterior suggestion to give his genius wings and fire. The Germany of +his time was alive with patriotic ardour, and the existence of the +nation gathered from its emergencies new strength and force. The heart +of Weber beat strong with the popular life. Romantic and serious in +his taste, his imagination fed on old German tradition and song, and +drew from them its richest food. The whole life of the Fatherland, +with its glow of love for home, its keen sympathies with the +influences of Nature, its fantastic play of thought, its tendency to +embody the primitive forces in weird myths, found in Weber an eloquent +exponent; and we perceive in his music all the colour and vividness of +these influences. + +Weber's love of Nature was singularly keen. The woods, the mountains, +the lakes, and the streams, spoke to his soul with voices full of +meaning. He excelled in making these voices speak and sing; and he +may, therefore, be entitled the father of the romantic and descriptive +school in German operatic music. With more breadth and robustness, he +expressed the national feelings of his people, even as Chopin did +those of dying Poland. Weber's motives are generally caught from the +immemorial airs which resound in every village and hamlet, and the +fresh beat of the German heart sends its thrill through almost every +bar of his music. Here is found the ultimate significance of his +art-work, apart from the mere musical beauty of his compositions. + + + + +_MENDELSSOHN._ + + +I. + +Few careers could present more startling contrasts than those of +Mozart and Mendelssohn, in many respects of similar genius, but +utterly opposed in the whole surroundings of their lives. FELIX +MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY was the grandson of the celebrated philosopher, +Moses Mendelssohn, and the son of a rich Hamburg banker. His uncles +were distinguished in literary and social life. His friends from early +childhood were eminent scholars, poets, painters, and musicians, and +his family moved in the most refined and wealthy circles. He was +nursed in the lap of luxury, and never knew the cold and hunger of +life. All the good fairies and graces seemed to have smiled benignly +on his birth, and to have showered on him their richest gifts. Many +successful wooers of the muse have been, fortunately for themselves, +the heirs of poverty, and became successful only to yield themselves +to fat and slothful ease. But, with every incitement to an idle and +contented life, Mendelssohn toiled like a galley-slave, and saw in his +wealth only the means of a more exclusive consecration to his art. A +passionate impulse to labour was the law of his life. + +Many will recollect the brilliant novel, _Charles Auchester_, in +which, under the names of Seraphael, Aronach, Charles Auchester, Julia +Bennett, and Starwood Burney, are painted the characters of +Mendelssohn, Zelter his teacher, Joachim the violinist, Jenny Lind, +and Sterndale Bennett, the English composer. The brilliant colouring +does not disguise nor flatter the lofty Christian purity, the splendid +genius, and the great personal charm of the composer, who shares in +largest measure the homage which the English public lays at the feet +of Handel. + +As child and youth Mendelssohn, born at Hamburg, February 3, 1809, +displayed the same precocity of talent as was shown by Mozart. Sir +Julius Benedict relates his first meeting with him. He was walking in +Berlin with Von Weber, and the latter called his attention to a boy +about eleven years old, who, perceiving the author of "Der +Freischütz," gave him a hearty greeting. "'Tis Felix Mendelssohn," +said Weber, introducing the marvellous boy. Benedict narrates his +amazement to find the extraordinary attainments of this beautiful +youth, with curling auburn hair, brilliant clear eyes, and lips +smiling with innocence and candour. Five minutes after young +Mendelssohn had astonished his English friend by his admirable +performance of several of his own compositions, he forgot Weber, +quartets, and counterpoint, to leap over the garden hedges and climb +the trees like a squirrel. When scarcely twenty years old he had +composed his octet, three quartets for the piano and strings, two +sonatas, two symphonies, his first violin quartet, various operas, +many songs, and the immortal overture of "A Midsummer-Night's Dream." + +Mendelssohn received an admirable education, was an excellent +classicist and linguist, and during a short residence at Düsseldorf +showed such talent for painting as to excite much wonder. Before he +was twenty he was the friend of Goethe and Herder, who delighted in a +genius so rich and symmetrical. Some of Goethe's letters are full of +charming expressions of praise and affection, for the aged Jupiter of +German literature found in the promise of this young Apollo something +of the many-sided power which made himself so remarkable. + + +II. + +The Mendelssohn family had moved to Berlin when Felix was only three +years old, and the Berliners always claimed him as their own. Strange +to say, the city of his birth did not recognise his talent for many +years. At the age of twenty he went to England, and the high breeding, +personal beauty, and charming manner of the young musician gave him +the _entrée_ into the most fastidious and exclusive circles. His first +symphony and the "Midsummer-Night's Dream" overture stamped his power +with the verdict of a warm enthusiasm; for London, though cold and +conservative, is prompt to recognise a superior order of merit. + +His travels through Scotland inspired Mendelssohn with sentiments of +great admiration. The scenery filled his mind with the highest +suggestions of beauty and grandeur. He afterwards tells us that "he +preferred the cold sky and the pines of the north to charming scenes +in the midst of landscapes bathed in the glowing rays of the sun and +azure light." The vague Ossianic figures that raised their gigantic +heads in the fog-wreaths of clouded mountain-tops and lonely lochs had +a peculiar fascination for him, and acted like wine on his +imagination. The "Hebrides" overture was the fruit of this tour, one +of the most powerful and characteristic of his minor compositions. His +sister Fanny (Mrs. Hensel) asked him to describe the grey scenery of +the north, and he replied in music by improvising his impressions. +This theme was afterwards worked out in the elaborate overture. + +We will not follow him in his various travels through France and +Italy. Suffice it to say, that his keen and passionate mind absorbed +everything in art which could feed the divine hunger, for he was ever +discontented, and had his mind fixed on an absolute and determined +ideal. During this time of travel he became intimate with the sculptor +Thorwaldsen, and the painters Leopold Robert and Horace Vernet. This +period produced "Walpurgis Night," the first of the "Songs without +Words," the great symphony in A major, and the "Melusine" overture. He +is now about to enter on the epoch which puts to the fullest test the +varied resources of his genius. To Moscheles he writes, in answer to +his old teacher's warm praise--"Your praise is better than three +orders of nobility." For several years we see him busy in multifarious +ways, composing, leading musical festivals, concert-giving, directing +opera-houses, and yet finding time to keep up a busy correspondence +with the most distinguished men in Europe; for Mendelssohn seemed to +find in letter-writing a rest for his over-taxed brain. + +In 1835 he completed his great oratorio of "St. Paul," for Leipsic. +The next year he received the title of Doctor of Philosophy and the +Fine Arts; and in 1837 he married the charming Cécile Jeanrenaud, who +made his domestic life so gentle and harmonious. It has been thought +strange that Mendelssohn should have made so little mention of his +lovely wife in his letters, so prone as he was to speak of affairs of +his daily life. Be this as it may, his correspondence with Moscheles, +Devrient, and others, as well as the general testimony of his friends, +shows us unmistakably that his home-life was blessed in an exceptional +degree with intellectual sympathy, and the tenderest and most +thoughtful love. + +In 1841 Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Prussian court. He now +wrote the "Athalie" music, the "Midsummer-Night's Dream," and a large +number of lesser pieces, including the "Songs without Words," and +piano sonatas, as well as much church music. The greatest work of +this period was the "Hymn of Praise," a symphonic cantata for the +Leipsic anniversary of the invention of printing, regarded by many as +his finest composition. + +Mendelssohn always loved England, and made frequent visits across the +Channel; for he felt that among the English he was fully appreciated, +both as man and composer. + +His oratorio of "Elijah" was composed for the English public, and +produced at the great Birmingham festival in 1846, under his own +direction, with magnificent success. It was given a second time in +April 1847, with his final refinements and revisions; and the event +was regarded in England as one of the greatest since the days of +Handel, to whom, as well as to Haydn and Beethoven, Mendelssohn showed +himself a worthy rival in the field of oratorio composition. Of this +visit to England Lampadius, his friend and biographer, writes--"Her +Majesty, who as well as her husband was a great friend of art, and +herself a distinguished musician, received the distinguished German in +her own sitting-room, Prince Albert being the only one present besides +herself. As he entered she asked his pardon for the somewhat +disorderly state of the room, and began to rearrange the articles with +her own hands, Mendelssohn himself gallantly offering his assistance. +Some parrots whose cages hung in the room she herself carried into the +next room, in which Mendelssohn helped her also. She then requested +her guest to play something, and afterwards sang some songs of his +which she had sung at a court concert soon after the attack on her +person. She was not wholly pleased, however, with her own performance, +and said pleasantly to Mendelssohn, 'I can do better--ask Lablache if +I cannot; but I am afraid of you!'" + +This anecdote was related by Mendelssohn himself to show the +graciousness of the English queen. It was at this time that Prince +Albert sent to Mendelssohn the book of the oratorio "Elijah" with +which he used to follow the performance, with the following +autographic inscription:-- + + "To the noble artist, who, surrounded by the Baal worship + of corrupted art, has been able by his genius and science to + preserve faithfully like another Elijah the worship of true + art, and once more to accustom our ear, lost in the whirl of + an empty play of sounds, to the pure notes of expressive + composition and legitimate harmony--to the great master, who + makes us conscious of the unity of his conception through + the whole maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to + the mighty raging of the elements: Written in token of + grateful remembrance by + + "Albert. + + "Buckingham Palace, _April 24, 1847_." + +An occurrence at the Birmingham festival throws a clear light on +Mendelssohn's presence of mind, and on his faculty of instant +concentration. On the last day, among other things, one of Handel's +anthems was given. The concert was already going on, when it was +discovered that the short recitative which precedes the "Coronation +Hymn," and which the public had in the printed text, was lacking in +the voice parts. The directors were perplexed. Mendelssohn, who was +sitting in an ante-room of the hall, heard of it, and said, "Wait, I +will help you." He sat down directly at a table, and composed the +music for the recitative and the orchestral accompaniment in about +half an hour. It was at once transcribed, and given without any +rehearsal, and went very finely. + +On returning to Leipsic he determined to pass the summer in Vevay, +Switzerland, on account of his failing health, which had begun to +alarm himself and his friends. His letters from Switzerland at this +period show how the shadow of rapidly approaching death already threw +a deep gloom over his habitually cheerful nature. He returned to +Leipsic, and resumed hard work. His operetta entitled "Return from +among Strangers" was his last production, with the exception of some +lively songs and a few piano pieces of the "Lieder ohne Worte," or +"Songs without Words," series. Mendelssohn was seized with an +apoplectic attack on October 9, 1847. Second and third seizures +quickly followed, and he died November 4th, aged thirty-eight years. + +All Germany and Europe sorrowed over the loss of this great musician, +and his funeral was attended by many of the most distinguished persons +from all parts of the land, for the loss was felt to be something like +a national calamity. + + +III. + +Mendelssohn was one of the most intelligent and scholarly composers of +the century. Learned in various branches of knowledge, and personally +a man of unusual accomplishments, his career was full of manly energy, +enlightened enthusiasm, and severe devotion to the highest forms of +the art of music. Not only his great oratorios, "St. Paul" and +"Elijah," but his music for the piano, including the "Songs without +Words," sonatas, and many occasional pieces, have won him a high place +among his musical brethren. As an orchestral composer, his overtures +are filled with strikingly original thoughts and elevated conceptions, +expressed with much delicacy of instrumental colouring. He was brought +but little in contact with the French and Italian schools, and there +is found in his works a severity of art-form which shows how closely +he sympathised with Bach and Handel in his musical tendencies. He died +while at the very zenith of his powers, and we may well believe that a +longer life would have developed much richer beauty in his +compositions. Short as his career was, however, he left a great number +of magnificent works, which entitle him to a place among the Titans of +music. + + + + +_RICHARD WAGNER._ + + +I. + +It is curious to note how often art-controversy has become edged with +a bitterness rivalling even the gall and venom of religious dispute. +Scholars have not yet forgotten the fiery war of words which raged +between Richard Bentley and his opponents concerning the authenticity +of the _Epistles of Phalaris_, nor how literary Germany was divided +into two hostile camps by Wolf's attack on the personality of Homer. +It is no less fresh in the minds of critics how that modern Jupiter, +Lessing, waged a long and bitter battle with the Titans of the French +classical drama, and finally crushed them with the thunderbolt of the +_Dramaturgie_; nor what acrimony sharpened the discussion between the +rival theorists in music, Gluck and Piccini, at Paris. All of the +intensity of these art-campaigns, and many of the conditions of the +last, enter into the contest between Richard Wagner and the +_Italianissimi_ of the present day. + +The exact points at issue were for a long time so befogged by the +smoke of the battle that many of the large class who are musically +interested, but never had an opportunity to study the question, will +find an advantage in a clear and comprehensive sketch of the facts and +principles involved. Until recently there were still many people who +thought of Wagner as a youthful and eccentric enthusiast, all afire +with misdirected genius, a mere carpet-knight on the sublime +battle-field of art, a beginner just sowing his wild-oats in works +like "Lohengrin," "Tristan and Iseult," or the "Rheingold." It is a +revelation full of suggestive value for these to realise that he is a +musical thinker, ripe with sixty years of labour and experience; that +he represents the rarest and choicest fruits of modern culture, not +only as musician, but as poet and philosopher; that he is one of the +few examples in the history of the art where massive scholarship and +the power of subtile analysis have been united, in a pre-eminent +degree, with great creative genius. Preliminary to a study of what +Wagner and his disciples entitled the "Art-work of the Future," let us +take a swift survey of music as a medium of expression for the +beautiful, and some of the forms which it has assumed. + +This Ariel of the fine arts sends its messages to the human soul by +virtue of a fourfold capacity--Firstly, the imitation of the voices of +Nature, such as the winds, the waves, and the cries of animals; +secondly, its potential delight as melody, modulation, rhythm, +harmony--in other words, its simple worth as a "thing of beauty," +without regard to cause or consequence; thirdly, its force of +boundless suggestion; fourthly, that affinity for union with the more +definite and exact forms of the imagination (poetry), by which the +intellectual context of the latter is raised to a far higher power of +grace, beauty, passion, sweetness, without losing individuality of +outline--like, indeed, the hazy aureole which painters set on the brow +of the man Jesus, to fix the seal of the ultimate Divinity. Though +several or all of these may be united in the same composition, each +musical work may be characterised in the main as descriptive, +sensuous, suggestive, or dramatic, according as either element +contributes most largely to its purpose. Simple melody or harmony +appeals mostly to the sensuous love of sweet sounds. The symphony does +this in an enlarged and complicated sense, but is still more marked by +the marvellous suggestive energy with which it unlocks all the secret +raptures of fancy, floods the border-lands of thought with a glory not +to be found on sea or land, and paints ravishing pictures, that come +and go like dreams, with colours drawn from the "twelve-tinted +tone-spectrum." Shelley describes this peculiar influence of music in +his "Prometheus Unbound," with exquisite beauty and truth-- + + "My soul is an enchanted boat, + Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float + Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing; + And thine doth like an angel sit + Beside the helm conducting it, + While all the waves with melody are ringing. + It seems to float ever, for ever, + Upon that many-winding river, + Between mountains, woods, abysses, + A paradise of wildernesses." + +As the symphony best expresses the suggestive potency in music, the +operatic form incarnates its capacity of definite thought, and the +expression of that thought. The term "lyric," as applied to the +genuine operatic conception, is a misnomer. Under the accepted +operatic form, however, it has relative truth, as the main musical +purpose of opera seems, hitherto, to have been less to furnish +expression for exalted emotions and thoughts, or exquisite sentiments, +than to grant the vocal _virtuoso_ opportunity to display phenomenal +qualities of voice and execution. But all opera, however it may stray +from the fundamental idea, suggests this dramatic element in music, +just as mere lyricism in the poetic art is the blossom from which is +unfolded the full-blown perfection of the word-drama, the highest form +of all poetry. + + +II. + +That music, by and of itself, cannot express the intellectual element +in the beautiful dream-images of art with precision, is a palpable +truth. Yet, by its imperial dominion over the sphere of emotion and +sentiment, the connection of the latter with complicated mental +phenomena is made to bring into the domain of tone vague and shifting +fancies and pictures. How much further music can be made to assimilate +to the other arts in directness of mental suggestion, by wedding to it +the noblest forms of poetry, and making each the complement of the +other, is the knotty problem which underlies the great art-controversy +about which this article concerns itself. On the one side we have the +claim that music is the all-sufficient law unto itself; that its +appeal to sympathy is through the intrinsic sweetness of harmony and +tune, and the intellect must be satisfied with what it may +accidentally glean in this harvest-field; that, in the rapture +experienced in the sensuous apperception of its beauty, lies the +highest phase of art-sensibility. Therefore, concludes the syllogism, +it matters nothing as to the character of the libretto or poem to +whose words the music is arranged, so long as the dramatic framework +suffices as a support for the flowery festoons of song, which drape +its ugliness and beguile attention by the fascinations of bloom and +grace. On the other hand, the apostles of the new musical philosophy +insist that art is something more than a vehicle for the mere sense of +the beautiful, an exquisite provocation wherewith to startle the sense +of a selfish, epicurean pleasure; that its highest function--to follow +the idea of the Greek Plato, and the greatest of his modern disciples, +Schopenhauer--is to serve as the incarnation of the true and the good; +and, even as Goethe makes the Earth-Spirit sing in "Faust"-- + + "'Tis thus ever at the loom of Time I ply, + And weave for God the garment thou seest him by"-- + +so the highest art is that which best embodies the immortal thought of +the universe as reflected in the mirror of man's consciousness; that +music, as speaking the most spiritual language of any of the +art-family, is burdened with the most pressing responsibility as the +interpreter between the finite and the infinite; that all its forms +must be measured by the earnestness and success with which they teach +and suggest what is best in aspiration and truest in thought; that +music, when wedded to the highest form of poetry (the drama), produces +the consummate art-result, and sacrifices to some extent its power of +suggestion, only to acquire a greater glory and influence, that of +investing definite intellectual images with spiritual raiment, through +which they shine on the supreme altitudes of ideal thought; that to +make this marriage perfect as an art-form and fruitful in result, the +two partners must come as equals, neither one the drudge of the +other; that in this organic fusion music and poetry contribute, each +its best, to emancipate art from its thraldom to that which is merely +trivial, commonplace, and accidental, and make it a revelation of all +that is most exalted in thought, sentiment, and purpose. Such is the +æsthetic theory of Richard Wagner's art-work. + + +III. + +It is suggestive to note that the earliest recognised function of +music, before it had learned to enslave itself to mere sensuous +enjoyment, was similar in spirit to that which its latest reformer +demands for it in the art of the future. The glory of its birth then +shone on its brow. It was the handmaid and minister of the religious +instinct. The imagination became afire with the mystery of life and +Nature, and burst into the flames and frenzies of rhythm. Poetry was +born, but instantly sought the wings of music for a higher flight than +the mere word would permit. Even the great epics of the "Iliad" and +"Odyssey" were originally sung or chanted by the Homeridæ, and the +same essential union seems to have been in some measure demanded +afterwards in the Greek drama, which, at its best, was always inspired +with the religious sentiment. There is every reason to believe that +the chorus of the drama of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides uttered +their comments on the action of the play with such a prolongation and +variety of pitch in the rhythmic intervals as to constitute a +sustained and melodic recitative. Music at this time was an essential +part of the drama. When the creative genius of Greece had set towards +its ebb, they were divorced, and music was only set to lyric forms. +Such remained the status of the art till, in the Italian Renaissance, +modern opera was born in the reunion of music and the drama. Like the +other arts, it assumed at the outset to be a mere revival of antique +traditions. The great poets of Italy had then passed away, and it was +left for music to fill the void. + +The muse, Polyhymnia, soon emerged from the stage of childish +stammering. Guittone di Arezzo taught her to fix her thoughts in +indelible signs, and two centuries of training culminated in the +inspired composers, Orlando di Lasso and Palestrina. Of the gradual +degradation of the operatic art as its forms became more elaborate and +fixed; of the arbitrary transfer of absolute musical forms like the +aria, duet, finale, etc., into the action of the opera without regard +to poetic propriety; of the growing tendency to treat the human voice +like any other instrument, merely to show its resources as an organ; +of the final utter bondage of the poet to the musician, till opera +became little more than a congeries of musico-gymnastic forms, wherein +the vocal soloists could display their art, it needs not to speak at +length, for some of these vices have not yet disappeared. In the +language of Dante's guide through the Inferno, at one stage of their +wanderings, when the sights were peculiarly mournful and desolate-- + + "Non raggioniam da lor, ma guarda e passa." + +The loss of all poetic verity and earnestness in opera furnished the +great composer Gluck with the motive of the bitter and protracted +contest which he waged with varying success throughout Europe, though +principally in Paris. Gluck boldly affirmed, and carried out the +principle in his compositions, that the task of dramatic music was to +accompany the different phases of emotion in the text, and give them +their highest effect of spiritual intensity. The singer must be the +mouthpiece of the poet, and must take extreme care in giving the full +poetical burden of the song. Thus, the declamatory music became of +great importance, and Gluck's recitative reached an unequalled degree +of perfection. + +The critics of Gluck's time hurled at him the same charges which are +familiar to us now as coming from the mouths and pens of the enemies +of Wagner's music. Yet Gluck, however conscious of the ideal unity +between music and poetry, never thought of bringing this about by a +sacrifice of any of the forms of his own peculiar art. His influence, +however, was very great, and the traditions of the great _maestro's_ +art have been kept alive in the works of his no less great disciples, +Méhul, Cherubini, Spontini, and Meyerbeer. + +Two other attempts to ingraft new and vital power on the rigid and +trivial sentimentality of the Italian forms of opera were those of +Rossini and Weber. The former was gifted with the greatest affluence +of pure melodiousness ever given to a composer. But even his sparkling +originality and freshness did little more than reproduce the old forms +under a more attractive guise. Weber, on the other hand, stood in the +van of a movement which had its fountain-head in the strong romantic +and national feeling, pervading the whole of society and literature. +There was a general revival of mediæval and popular poetry, with its +balmy odour of the woods, and fields, and streams. Weber's melody was +the direct offspring of the tunefulness of the German _Volkslied_, and +so it expressed, with wonderful freshness and beauty, all the range of +passion and sentiment within the limits of this pure and simple +language. But the boundaries were far too narrow to build upon them +the ultimate union of music and poetry, which should express the +perfect harmony of the two arts. While it is true that all of the +great German composers protested, by their works, against the spirit +and character of the Italian school of music, Wagner claims that the +first abrupt and strongly-defined departure towards a radical reform +in art is found in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with chorus. Speaking of +this remarkable leap from instrumental to vocal music in a professedly +symphonic composition, Wagner, in his _Essay on Beethoven_, says--"We +declare that the work of art, which was formed and quickened entirely +by that deed, must present the most perfect artistic form, _i.e._, +that form in which, as for the drama, so also and especially for +music, every conventionality would be abolished." Beethoven is +asserted to have founded the new musical school, when he admitted, by +his recourse to the vocal cantata in the greatest of his symphonic +works, that he no longer recognised absolute music as sufficient unto +itself. + +In Bach and Handel, the great masters of fugue and counterpoint; in +Rossini, Mozart, and Weber, the consummate creators of melody--then, +according to this view, we only recognise thinkers in the realm of +pure music. In Beethoven, the greatest of them all, was laid the basis +of the new epoch of tone-poetry. In the immortal songs of Schubert, +Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Franz, and the symphonies of the +first four, the vitality of the reformatory idea is richly +illustrated. In the music-drama of Wagner, it is claimed by his +disciples, is found the full flower and development of the art-work. + +WILLIAM RICHARD WAGNER, the formal projector of the great changes +whose details are yet to be sketched, was born at Leipsic in 1813. As +a child he displayed no very marked artistic tastes, though his ear +and memory for music were quite remarkable. When admitted to the +Kreuzschule of Dresden, the young student, however, distinguished +himself by his very great talent for literary composition and the +classical languages. To this early culture, perhaps, we are indebted +for the great poetic power which has enabled him to compose the +remarkable libretti which have furnished the basis of his music. His +first creative attempt was a blood-thirsty drama, where forty-two +characters are killed, and the few survivors are haunted by the +ghosts. Young Wagner soon devoted himself to the study of music, and, +in 1833, became a pupil of Theodor Weinlig, a distinguished teacher of +harmony and counterpoint. His four years of study at this time were +also years of activity in creative experiment, as he composed four +operas. + +His first opera of note was "Rienzi," with which he went to Paris in +1837. In spite of Meyerbeer's efforts in its favour, this work was +rejected, and laid aside for some years. Wagner supported himself by +musical criticism and other literary work, and soon was in a position +to offer another opera, "Der fliegende Holländer," to the authorities +of the Grand Opera-House. Again the directors refused the work, but +were so charmed with the beauty of the libretto that they bought it to +be reset to music. Until the year 1842, life was a trying struggle for +the indomitable young musician. "Rienzi" was then produced at Dresden, +so much to the delight of the King of Saxony that the composer was +made royal Kapellmeister and leader of the orchestra. The production +of "Der fliegende Holländer" quickly followed; next came "Tannhäuser" +and "Lohengrin," to be swiftly succeeded by the "Meistersinger von +Nürnberg." This period of our _maestro's_ musical activity also +commenced to witness the development of his theories on the philosophy +of his art, and some of his most remarkable critical writings were +then given to the world. + +Political troubles obliged Wagner to spend seven years of exile in +Zurich; thence he went to London, where he remained till 1861 as +conductor of the London Philharmonic Society. In 1861 the exile +returned to his native country, and spent several years in Germany and +Russia--there having arisen quite a _furore_ for his music in the +latter country. The enthusiasm awakened in the breast of King Louis of +Bavaria by "Der fliegende Holländer" resulted in a summons to Wagner +to settle at Munich, and with the glories of the Royal Opera-House in +that city his name has been principally connected. The culminating +art-splendour of his life, however, was the production of his +stupendous tetralogy, the "Ring der Niebelungen," at the great +opera-house at Bayreuth, in the summer of the year 1876. + + +IV. + +The first element to be noted in Wagner's operatic forms is the +energetic protest against the artificial and conventional in music. +The utter want of dramatic symmetry and fitness in the operas we have +been accustomed to hear could only be overlooked by the force of +habit, and the tendency to submerge all else in the mere enjoyment of +the music. The utter variance of music and poetry was to Wagner the +stumbling-block which, first of all, must be removed. So he crushed at +one stroke all the hard, arid forms which existed in the lyrical drama +as it had been known. His opera, then, is no longer a congeries of +separate musical numbers, like duets, arias, chorals, and finales, set +in a flimsy web of formless recitative, without reference to dramatic +economy. His great purpose is lofty dramatic truth, and to this end he +sacrifices the whole framework of accepted musical forms, with the +exception of the chorus, and this he remodels. The musical energy is +concentrated in the dialogue as the main factor of the dramatic +problem, and fashioned entirely according to the requirements of the +action. The continuous flow of beautiful melody takes the place alike +of the dry recitative and the set musical forms which characterise the +accepted school of opera. As the dramatic _motif_ demands, this +"continuous melody" rises into the highest ecstasies of the lyrical +fervour, or ebbs into a chant-like swell of subdued feeling, like the +ocean after the rush of the storm. If Wagner has destroyed musical +forms, he has also added a positive element. In place of the aria we +have the _logos_. This is the musical expression of the principal +passion underlying the action of the drama. Whenever, in the course of +the development of the story, this passion comes into ascendency, the +rich strains of the _logos_ are heard anew, stilling all other sounds. +Gounod has, in part, applied this principle in "Faust." All +opera-goers will remember the intense dramatic effect arising from the +recurrence of the same exquisite lyric outburst from the lips of +Marguerite. + +The peculiar character of Wagner's word-drama next arouses critical +interest and attention. The composer is his own poet, and his creative +genius shines no less here than in the world of tone. The musical +energy flows entirely from the dramatic conditions, like the +electrical current from the cups of the battery; and the rhythmical +structure of the _melos_ (tune) is simply the transfiguration of the +poetical basis. The poetry, then, is all-important in the music-drama. +Wagner has rejected the forms of blank verse and rhyme as utterly +unsuited to the lofty purposes of music, and has gone to the metrical +principle of all the Teutonic and Slavonic poetry. This rhythmic +element of alliteration, or _staffrhyme_, we find magnificently +illustrated in the Scandinavian Eddas, and even in our own Anglo-Saxon +fragments of the days of Cædmon and Alcuin. By the use of this new +form, verse and melody glide together in one exquisite rhythm, in +which it seems impossible to separate the one from the other. The +strong accent of the alliterating syllables supply the music with +firmness, while the low-toned syllables give opportunity for the most +varied _nuances_ of declamation. + +The first radical development of Wagner's theories we see in "The +Flying Dutchman." In "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" they find full sway. +The utter revolt of his mind from the trivial and commonplace +sentimentalities of Italian opera led him to believe that the most +heroic and lofty motives alone should furnish the dramatic foundation +of opera. For a while he oscillated between history and legend, as +best adapted to furnish his material. In his selection of the +dream-land of myth and legend, we may detect another example of the +profound and _exigeant_ art-instincts which have ruled the whole of +Wagner's life. There could be no question as to the utter incongruity +of any dramatic picture of ordinary events, or ordinary personages, +finding expression in musical utterance. Genuine and profound art must +always be consistent with itself, and what we recognise as general +truth. Even characters set in the comparatively near background of +history are too closely related to our own familiar surroundings of +thought and mood to be regarded as artistically natural in the use of +music as the organ of the every-day life of emotion and sentiment. But +with the dim and heroic shapes that haunt the border-land of the +supernatural, which we call legend, the case is far different. This +is the drama of the demigods, living in a different atmosphere from +our own, however akin to ours may be their passions and purposes. For +these we are no longer compelled to regard the medium of music as a +forced and untruthful expression, for do they not dwell in the magic +lands of the imagination? All sense of dramatic inconsistency +instantly vanishes, and the conditions of artistic illusion are +perfect. + + "'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, + And clothes the mountains with their azure hue." + +Thus all of Wagner's works, from "Der fliegende Holländer" to the +"Ring der Niebelungen," have been located in the world of myth, in +obedience to a profound art-principle. The opera of "Tristan and +Iseult," first performed in 1865, announced Wagner's absolute +emancipation, both in the construction of music and poetry, from the +time-honoured and time-corrupted canons, and, aside from the last +great work, it may be received as the most perfect representation of +his school. + +The third main feature in the Wagner music is the wonderful use of the +orchestra as a factor in the solution of the art-problem. This is no +longer a mere accompaniment to the singer, but translates the passion +of the play into a grand symphony, running parallel and commingling +with the vocal music. Wagner, as a great master of orchestration, has +had few equals since Beethoven; and he uses his power with marked +effect to heighten the dramatic intensity of the action, and at the +same time to convey certain meanings which can only find vent in the +vague and indistinct forms of pure music. The romantic conception of +the mediæval love, the shudderings and raptures of Christian +revelation, have certain phases that absolute music alone can express. +The orchestra, then, becomes as much an integral part of the +music-drama, in its actual current movement, as the chorus or the +leading performers. Placed on the stage, yet out of sight, its strains +might almost be fancied the sound of the sympathetic communion of +good and evil spirits, with whose presence mystics formerly claimed +man was constantly surrounded. Wagner's use of the orchestra may be +illustrated from the opera of "Lohengrin." + +The ideal background, from which the emotions of the human actors in +the drama are reflected with supernatural light, is the conception of +the "Holy Graal," the mystic symbol of the Christian faith, and its +descent from the skies, guarded by hosts of seraphim. This is the +subject of the orchestral prelude, and never have the sweetnesses and +terrors of the Christian ecstasy been more potently expressed. The +prelude opens with long-drawn chords of the violins, in the highest +octaves, in the most exquisite _pianissimo_. The inner eye of the +spirit discerns in this the suggestion of shapeless white clouds, +hardly discernible from the aërial blue of the sky. Suddenly the +strings seem to sound from the farthest distance, in continued +_pianissimo_, and the melody, the Graal-motive, takes shape. +Gradually, to the fancy, a group of angels seem to reveal themselves, +slowly descending from the heavenly heights, and bearing in their +midst the _Sangréal_. The modulations throb through the air, +augmenting in richness and sweetness, till the _fortissimo_ of the +full orchestra reveals the sacred mystery. With this climax of +spiritual ecstasy the harmonious waves gradually recede and ebb away +in dying sweetness, as the angels return to their heavenly abode. This +orchestral movement recurs in the opera, according to the laws of +dramatic fitness, and its melody is heard also in the _logos_ of +Lohengrin, the knight of the Graal, to express certain phases of his +action. The immense power which music is thus made to have in dramatic +effect can easily be fancied. + +A fourth prominent characteristic of the Wagner music-drama is that, +to develop its full splendour, there must be a co-operation of all the +arts, painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as poetry and +music. Therefore, in realising its effects, much importance rests in +the visible beauties of action, as they may be expressed by the +painting of scenery and the grouping of human figures. Well may such +a grand conception be called the "Art-work of the Future." + +Wagner for a long time despaired of the visible execution of his +ideas. At last the celebrated pianist, Tausig, suggested an appeal to +the admirers of the new music throughout the world for means to carry +out the composer's great ideas--viz., to perform the "Niebelungen" at +a theatre to be erected for the purpose, and by a select company, in +the manner of a national festival, and before an audience entirely +removed from the atmosphere of vulgar theatrical shows. After many +delays Wagner's hopes were attained, and in the summer of 1876 a +gathering of the principal celebrities of Europe was present to +criticise the fully perfected fruit of the composer's theories and +genius. This festival was so recent, and its events have been the +subject of such elaborate comment, that further description will be +out of place here. + +As a great musical poet, rather epic than dramatic in his powers, +there can be no question as to Wagner's rank. The performance of the +"Niebelungenring," covering "Rheingold," "Die Walküren," "Siegfried," +and "Götterdämmerung," was one of the epochs of musical Germany. +However deficient Wagner's skill in writing for the human voice, the +power and symmetry of his conceptions, and his genius in embodying +them in massive operatic forms, are such as to storm even the +prejudices of his opponents. The poet-musician rightfully claims that +in his music-drama is found that wedding of two of the noblest of the +arts, pregnantly suggested by Shakespeare:-- + + "If Music and sweet Poetry both agree, + As they must needs, the sister and the brother; + . . . . . . + One God is God of both, as poets feign." + + * * * * * + +Note by the Editor.--The knowledge of Wagner's music in England +originated chiefly with the masterly playing of Herr Von Bülow, with +the concerts given by Messrs. Dannreuther and Bache, and later on by +the Wagner festival held at the Albert Hall in 1877, where Wagner +himself presided at the performance of the music of his _Ring des +Niebelungen_. He was not quite satisfied with its reception; but this +is not altogether to be wondered at when we consider that the work was +divorced from its scenic adjuncts, and that in his operas--in +accordance with his own theory--the plastic arts as well as poetry and +music are equally required to produce a well-balanced result. None the +less, this festival greatly increased the interest in "the Music of +the Future;" and in 1880 _The Ring des Niebelungen_ was performed at +Covent Garden, while his other operas were given in their proper +sequence at Drury Lane. In 1882 his last great work, _Parsifal_, was +performed with striking éclat at Bayreuth. On the 18th of February +1883 he died of heart disease at Venice, whither he had gone to +recruit his health. A personal friend has recorded that Wagner's body +was laid in the coffin by the widow herself, who--as a last token of +her love and admiration--cut off the beautiful hair her husband had so +admired, and placed it on a red cushion under the head of the +departed. The body of the great musician was taken to Bayreuth and +buried, in accordance with the wishes he had himself expressed, in the +garden of his own house, "Vahnfried." A large wreath from the King of +Bavaria lay on the coffin, bearing the appropriate inscription--"To +the Deathless One." On the 24th of July in the same year, _Parsifal_ +was again performed at Bayreuth--a fitting requiem service over the +great master. _Parsifal_ is the culmination of Wagner's epic work. In +it he completes the cycle of myths by which he strove to express the +varied and fervent aspirations of humanity; and in particular "the two +burning questions of the day--1. The Tremendous Empire of the Senses. +2. The Immense Supremacy of Soul; and how to reconcile them." + +The Legend of the Sangrail, the _motif_ of his last work, is "the most +poetic and pathetic form of transubstantiation; ... it possesses the +true legendary power of attraction and assimilation." In Mr. Haweis' +words, "The _Tannhäuser_ and the _Lohengrin_ are the two first of the +legendary dramas which serve to illustrate the Christian Chivalry and +religious aspirations of the middle ages, in conflict on the one side +with the narrow ideals of Catholicism, and on the other with the free +instincts of human nature. _Parsifal_ forms with them a great Trilogy +of Christian legends, as the _Ring of the Niebelungen_ forms a +Tetralogy of Pagan, Rhine, and Norse legends. Both series of sacred +and profane myths in the hands of Wagner, whilst striking the great +key-notes, Paganism and Catholicism, become the fitting and +appropriate vehicles for the display of the ever-recurrent struggles +of the human heart--now in the grip of inexorable fate, now +passion-tossed, at war with itself and with time--soothed with spaces +of calm--flattered with the dream of ineffable joys--filled with +sublime hopes; and content at last with far-off glimpses of God." + +[Decoration] + + + + +[Decoration] + +ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. + + + + +_PALESTRINA._ + + +I. + +The Netherlands share other glories than that of having nursed the +most indomitable spirit of liberty known to mediæval Europe. The fine +as well as the industrial arts found among this remarkable people, +distinguished by Erasmus as possessed of the _patientia laboris_, an +eager and passionate culture. The early contributions of the Low +Countries to the growth of the pictorial art are well known to all. +But to most it will be a revelation that the Belgian school of music +was the great fructifying influence of the fifteenth century, to which +Italy and Germany owe a debt not easily measured. The art of +interweaving parts and that science of sound known as counterpoint +were placed by this school of musical scholars and workers on a solid +basis, which enabled the great composers who came after them to build +their beautiful tone fabrics in forms of imperishable beauty and +symmetry. For a long time most of the great Italian churches had +Belgian chapel-masters, and the value of their example and teachings +was vital in its relation to Italian music. + +The last great master among the Belgians, and, after Palestrina, the +greatest of the sixteenth century, was Orlando di Lasso, born in +Hainault, in the year 1520. His life of a little more than three score +years and ten was divided between Italy and Germany. He left the deep +imprint of his severe style, though but a young man, on his Italian +_confrères_, and the young Palestrina owed to him much of the +largeness and beauty of form through which he poured his genius in the +creation of such works as have given him so distinct a place in +musical history. The pope created Orlando di Lasso Knight of the +Golden Spur, and sought to keep him in Italy. Unconcerned as to fame, +the gentle, peaceful musician lived for his art alone, and the +flattering expressions of the great were not so much enjoyed as +endured by him. A musical historian, Heimsoeth, says of him--"He is +the brilliant master of the North, great and sublime in sacred +composition, of inexhaustible invention, displaying much breadth, +variety, and depth in his treatment; he delights in full and powerful +harmonies, yet, after all--owing to an existence passed in journeys, +as well as service at court, and occupied at the same time with both +sacred and secular music--he came short of that lofty, solemn tone +which pervades the works of the great master of the South, Palestrina, +who, with advancing years, restricted himself more and more to church +music." Of the celebrated penitential psalms of Di Lasso, it is said +that Charles IX. of France ordered them to be written "in order to +obtain rest for his soul after the terrible massacre of St. +Bartholomew." Aside from his works, this musician has a claim on fame +through his lasting improvements in musical form and method. He +illuminated, and at the same time closed, the great epoch of Belgian +ascendancy, which had given three hundred musicians of great science +to the times in which they lived. So much has been said of Orlando di +Lasso, for he was the model and Mentor of the greatest of early church +composers, Palestrina. + + +II. + +The melodious and fascinating style, soon to give birth to the +characteristic genius of the opera, was as yet unborn, though dormant. +In Rome, the chief seat of the Belgian art, the exclusive study of +technical skill had frozen music to a mere formula. The Gregorian +chant had become so overladen with mere embellishments as to make the +prescribed church-form difficult of recognition in its borrowed garb, +for it had become a mere jumble of sound. Musicians, indeed, carried +their profanation so far as to take secular melodies as the themes for +masses and motetts. These were often called by their profane titles. +So the name of a love-sonnet or a drinking-song would sometimes be +attached to a _miserere_. The Council of Trent, in 1562, cut at these +evils with sweeping axe, and the solemn anathemas of the church +fathers roused the creative powers of the subject of this sketch, who +raised his art to an independent national existence, and made it rank +with sculpture and painting, which had already reached their zenith in +Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Correggio, Titian, and Michael Angelo. +Henceforth Italian music was to be a vigorous, fruitful stock. + +GIOVANNI PERLUIGI ALOISIO DA PALESTRINA was born at Palestrina, the +ancient Præneste, in 1524.[D] The memorials of his childhood are +scanty. We know but little except that his parents were poor peasants, +and that he learned the rudiments of literature and music as a +choir-singer, a starting-point so common in the lives of great +composers. In 1540 he went to Rome and studied in the school of +Goudimel, a stern Huguenot Fleming, tolerated in the papal capital on +account of his superior science and method of teaching, and afterwards +murdered at Lyons on the day of the Paris massacre. Palestrina grasped +the essential doctrines of the school without adopting its +mannerisms. At the age of thirty he published his first compositions, +and dedicated them to the reigning pontiff, Julius III. In the +formation of his style, which moved with such easy, original grace +within the old prescribed rules, he learned much from the personal +influence and advice of Orlando di Lasso, his warm friend and constant +companion during these earlier days. + +Several of his compositions, written at this time, are still performed +in Rome on Good Friday, and Goethe and Mendelssohn have left their +eloquent tributes to the impression made on them by music alike simple +and sublime. The pope was highly pleased with Palestrina's noble +music, and appointed him one of the papal choristers, then regarded as +a great honour. But beyond Rome the new light of music was but little +known. The Council of Trent, in their first indignation at the abuse +of church music, had resolved to abolish everything but the simple +Gregorian chants, but the remonstrances of the Emperor Ferdinand and +the Roman cardinals stayed the austere fiat. The final decision was +made to rest on a new composition of Palestrina, who was permitted to +demonstrate that the higher forms of musical art were consistent with +the solemnities of church worship. + +All eyes were directed to the young musician, for the very existence +of his art was at stake. The motto of his first mass, "Illumina oculos +meos," shows the pious enthusiasm with which he undertook his labours. +Instead of one, he composed three six-part masses. The third of these +excited such admiration that the pope exclaimed in raptures, "It is +John who gives us here in this earthly Jerusalem a foretaste of that +new song which the holy Apostle John realised in the heavenly +Jerusalem in his prophetic trance." This is now known as the "mass of +Pope Marcel," in honour of a former patron of Palestrina. + +A new pope, Paul IV., on ascending the pontifical throne, carried his +desire of reforming abuses to fanaticism. He insisted on all the papal +choristers being clerical. Palestrina had married early in life a +Roman lady, of whom all we know is that her name was Lucretia. Four +children had blessed the union, and the composer's domestic happiness +became a bar to his temporal preferment. With two others he was +dismissed from the chapel because he was a layman, and a trifling +pension allowed him. Two months afterwards, though, he was appointed +chapel-master of St. John Lateran. His works now succeeded each other +rapidly, and different collections of his masses were dedicated to the +crowned heads of Europe. In 1571 he was appointed chapel-master of the +Vatican, and Pope Gregory XIII. gave special charge of the reform of +sacred music to Palestrina. + +The death of the composer's wife, whom he idolised, in 1580, was a +blow from which he never recovered. In his latter days he was +afflicted with great poverty, for the positions he held were always +more honourable than lucrative. Mental depression and physical +weakness burdened the last few years of his pious and gentle life, and +he died after a lingering and severe illness. The register of the +pontifical chapel contains this entry--"February 2, 1594. This morning +died the most excellent musician, Signor Giovanni Palestrina, our dear +companion and _maestro di capella_ of St. Peter's church, whither his +funeral was attended not only by all the musicians of Rome, but by an +infinite concourse of people, when his own 'Libera me, Domine' was +sung by the whole college." + +Such are the simple and meagre records of the life of the composer who +carved and laid the foundation of the superstructure of Italian music; +who, viewed in connection with his times and their limitations, must +be regarded as one of the great creative minds in his art; who shares +with Sebastian Bach the glory of having built an imperishable base for +the labours of his successors. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[D] Our composer, as was common with artists and scholars in those +days, took the name of his natal town, and by this he is known to +fame. Old documents also give him the old Latin name of the town with +the personal ending. + + +III. + +Palestrina left a great mass of compositions, all glowing with the +fire of genius, only part of which have been published. His simple +life was devoted to musical labour, and passed without romance, +diversion, or excitement. His works are marked by utter absence of +contrast and colour. Without dramatic movement, they are full of +melody and majesty--a majesty serene, unruffled by the slightest +suggestion of human passion. Voices are now and then used for +individual expression, but either in unison or harmony. As in all +great church music, the chorus is the key of the work. The general +judgment of musicians agrees that repose and enjoyment are more +characteristic of this music than that of any other master. The choir +of the Sistine chapel, by the inheritance of long-cherished tradition, +is the most perfect exponent of the Palestrina music. During the +annual performance of the "Improperie" and "Lamentations," the altar +and walls are despoiled of their pictures and ornaments, and +everything is draped in black. The cardinals dressed in serge, no +incense, no candles: the whole scene is a striking picture of trouble +and desolation. The faithful come in two by two and bow before the +cross, while the sad music reverberates through the chapel arches. +This powerful appeal to the imagination, of course, lends greater +power to the musical effect. But all minds who have felt the lift and +beauty of these compositions have acknowledged how far they soar above +words and creeds, and the picturesque framework of a liturgy. + +Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter on the Palestrina music as heard in +the Sistine chapel, says that nothing could exceed the effect of the +blending of the voices, the prolonged tones gradually merging from one +note and chord to another, softly swelling, decreasing, at last dying +out. "They understand," he writes, "how to bring out and place each +trait in the most delicate light, without giving it undue prominence; +one chord gently melts into another. The ceremony at the same time is +solemn and imposing; deep silence prevails in the chapel, only broken +by the re-echoing Greek 'holy,' sung with unvarying sweetness and +expression." The composer Paer was so impressed with the wonderful +beauty of the music and the performance, that he exclaimed, "This is +indeed divine music, such as I have long sought for, and my +imagination was never able to realise, but which, I knew, must exist." + +Palestrina's versatility and genius enabled him to lift ecclesiastical +music out of the rigidity and frivolity characterising on either hand +the opposing ranks of those that preceded him, and to embody the +religious spirit in works of the highest art. He transposed the +ecclesiastical melody (_canto fermo_) from the tenor to the soprano +(thus rendering it more intelligible to the ear), and created that +glorious thing choir song, with its refined harmony, that noble music +of which his works are the models, and the papal chair the oracle. No +individual pre-eminence is ever allowed to disturb and weaken the +ideal atmosphere of the whole work. However Palestrina's successors +have aimed to imitate his effects, they have, with the exception of +Cherubini, failed for the most part; for every peculiar genus of art +is the result of innate genuine inspiration, and the spontaneous +growth of the age which produces it. As a parent of musical form he +was the protagonist of Italian music, both sacred and secular, and +left an admirable model, which even the new school of opera so soon to +rise found it necessary to follow in the construction of harmony. The +splendid and often licentious music of the theatre built its most +worthy effects on the work of the pious composer, who lived, laboured, +and died in an atmosphere of almost anchorite sanctity. + +The great disciples of his school, Nannini and Allegri, continued his +work, and the splendid "Miserere" of the latter was regarded as such +an inestimable treasure that no copy of it was allowed to go out of +the Sistine chapel, till the infant prodigy, Wolfgang Mozart, wrote it +out from the memory of a single hearing. + + + + +_PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA._ + + +I. + +Music, as speaking the language of feeling, emotion, and passion, +found its first full expansion in the operatic form. There had been +attempts to represent drama with chorus, founded on the ancient Greek +drama, but it was soon discovered that dialogue and monologue could +not be embodied in choral forms without involving an utter absurdity. +The spirit of the renaissance had freed poetry, statuary, and painting +from the monopolising claims of the church. Music, which had become a +well-equipped and developed science, could not long rest in a similar +servitude. Though it is not the aim of the author to discuss operatic +history, a brief survey of the progress of opera from its birth cannot +be omitted. + +The oldest of the entertainments which ripened into Italian opera +belongs to the last years of the fifteenth century, and was the work +of the brilliant Politian, known as one of the revivalists of Greek +learning attached to the court of Cosmo de' Medici and his son +Lorenzo. This was the musical drama of "Orfeo." The story was written +in Latin, and sung in music principally choral, though a few solo +phrases were given to the principal characters. It was performed at +Rome with great magnificence, and Vasari tells us that Peruzzi, the +decorator of the papal theatre, painted such scenery for it that even +the great Titian was so struck with the _vraisemblance_ of the work +that he was not satisfied until he had touched the canvas to be sure +of its not being in relief. We may fancy indeed that the scenery was +one great attraction of the representation. In spite of spasmodic +encouragement by the more liberally-minded pontiffs, the general +weight of church influence was against the new musical tendency, and +the most skilled composers were at first afraid to devote their +talents to further its growth. + +What musicians did not dare undertake out of dread of the +thunderbolts of the church, a company of _literati_ at Florence +commenced in 1580. The primary purpose was the revival of Greek art, +including music. This association, in conjunction with the Medicean +Academy, laid down the rule that distinct individuality of expression +in music was to be sought for. As results, quickly came musical drama +with recitative (modern form of the Greek chorus) and solo melody for +characteristic parts of the legend or story. Out of this beginning +swiftly grew the opera. Composers in the new form sprung up in various +parts of Italy, though Naples, Venice, and Florence continued to be +its centres. + +Between 1637 and 1700 there were performed three hundred operas at +Venice alone. An account of the performance of "Berenice," composed by +Domenico Freschi, at Padua, in 1680, dwarfs all our present ideas of +spectacular splendour. In this opera there were choruses of a hundred +virgins and a hundred soldiers; a hundred horsemen in steel armour; a +hundred performers on trumpets, cornets, sackbuts, drums, flutes, and +other instruments, on horseback and on foot; two lions led by two +Turks, and two elephants led by two Indians; Berenice's triumphal car +drawn by four horses, and six other cars with spoils and prisoners, +drawn by twelve horses. Among the scenes in the first act was a vast +plain with two triumphal arches; another with pavilions and tents; a +square prepared for the entrance of the triumphal procession, and a +forest for the chase. In the second act there were the royal +apartments of Berenice's temple of vengeance, a spacious court with +view of the prison and a covered way with long lines of chariots. In +the third act there were the royal dressing-room, the stables with a +hundred live horses, porticoes adorned with tapestry, and a great +palace in the perspective. In the course of the piece there were +representations of the hunting of the boar, the stag, and the lions. +The whole concluded with a huge globe descending from the skies, and +dividing itself in lesser globes of fire, on which stood allegorical +figures of fame, honour, nobility, virtue, and glory. The theatrical +manager had princes and nobles for bankers and assistants, and they +lavished their treasures of art and money to make such spectacles as +the modern stagemen of London and Paris cannot approach. + +In Evelyn's diary there is an entry describing opera at Venice in +1645:--"This night, having with my lord Bruce taken our places before, +we went to the opera, where comedies and other plays are represented +in recitative music by the most excellent musicians, vocal and +instrumental, with variety of scenes painted and contrived with no +lesse art of perspective, and machines for flying in the aire, and +other wonderful motions; taken together it is one of the most +magnificent and expensive diversions the wit of man can invent. The +history was Hercules in Lydia. The sceanes changed thirteen times. The +famous voices, Anna Rencia, a Roman, and reputed the best treble of +women; but there was a Eunuch who in my opinion surpassed her; also a +Genoise that in my judgment sung an incomparable base. They held us by +the eyes and ears till two o'clock i' the morning." Again he writes of +the carnival of 1646:--"The comedians have liberty and the operas are +open; witty pasquils are thrown about, and the mountebanks have their +stages at every corner. The diversion which chiefly took me up was +three noble operas, where were most excellent voices and music, the +most celebrated of which was the famous and beautiful Anna Rencia, +whom we invited to a fish dinner after four daies in Lent, when they +had given over at the theatre." Old Evelyn then narrates how he and +his noble friend took the lovely diner out on a junketing, and got +shot at with blunderbusses from the gondola of an infuriated rival. + +Opera progressed towards a fixed status with a swiftness hardly +paralleled in the history of any art. The soil was rich and fully +prepared for the growth, and the fecund root, once planted, shot into +a luxuriant beauty and symmetry, which nothing could check. The Church +wisely gave up its opposition, and henceforth there was nothing to +impede the progress of a product which spread and naturalised itself +in England, France, and Germany. The inventive genius of Monteverde, +Carissimi, Scarlatti (the friend and rival of Handel), Durante, and +Leonardo Leo, perfected the forms of the opera nearly as we have them +to-day. A line of brilliant composers in the school of Durante and Leo +brings us down through Pergolesi, Derni, Terradiglias, Jomelli, +Traetta, Ciccio di Majo, Galluppi, and Giuglielmi, to the most +distinguished of the early Italian composers, Niccolo Piccini, who, +mostly forgotten in his works, is principally known to modern fame as +the rival of the mighty Gluck in that art controversy which shook +Paris into such bitter factions. Yet, overshadowed as Piccini was in +the greatness of his rival, there can be no question of his desert as +the most brilliant ornament and exponent of the early operatic school. +No greater honour could have been paid to him than that he should have +been chosen as their champion by the _Italianissimi_ of his day in the +battle royal with such a giant as Gluck, an honour richly deserved by +a composer distinguished by multiplicity and beauty of ideas, dramatic +insight, and ardent conviction. + + +II. + +NICCOLO PICCINI, who was not less than fifty years of age when he left +Naples for the purpose of outrivalling Gluck, was born at Bari, in the +kingdom of Naples, in 1728. His father, also a musician, had destined +him for holy orders, but Nature made him an artist. His great delight +even as a little child was playing on the harpsichord, which he +quickly learned. One day the bishop of Bari heard him playing, and was +amazed at the power of the little _virtuoso_. "By all means send him +to a conservatory of music," he said to the elder Piccini. "If the +vocation of the priesthood brings trials and sacrifices, a musical +career is not less beset with obstacles. Music demands great +perseverance and incessant labour. It exposes one to many chagrins and +toils." + +By the advice of the shrewd prelate, the precocious boy was placed at +the school of St. Onofrio at the age of fourteen. At first confided to +the care of an inferior professor, he revolted from the arid teachings +of a mere human machine. Obeying the dictates of his daring fancy, +though hardly acquainted with the rudiments of composition, he +determined to compose a mass. The news got abroad that the little +Niccolo was working on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief of +the conservatory, sent for the trembling culprit. + +"You have written a mass?" he commenced. + +"Excuse me, sir, I could not help it," said the timid boy. + +"Let me see it." + +Niccolo brought him the score and all the orchestral parts, and Leo +immediately went to the concert-room, assembled the orchestra, and +gave them the parts. The boy was ordered to take his place in front +and conduct the performance, which he went through with great +agitation. + +"I pardon you this time," said the grave _maestro_, at the end; "but, +if you do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that +you will remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the +principles of your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of +your imagination; and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas +into something like shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no +doubt think you have produced a masterpiece." + +When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his +arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under his +special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved +Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont +to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After +twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. +The director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince +Vintimille, who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure +to be a failure. + +"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing +it to be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum. + +"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing +him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose'" (the name of the opera) +"should fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me." + +The friends of Lagroscino, the favourite composer of the day, were +enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an +obscure youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great, +however, was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty +of Piccini's music, that even those who came to condemn remained to +applaud. The reputation of the composer went on increasing until he +became the foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of +production was remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant +succession of comic and serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome his +"Alessandro nell' Indie," whose success surpassed all that had +preceded it, and two years later a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona +Figluola," written to a text furnished by the poet Goldoni, and +founded on the story of Richardson's "Pamela." This opera was produced +at every playhouse on the Italian peninsula in the course of a few +years. + +A pleasant _mot_ by the Duke of Brunswick is worth preserving in this +connection. Piccini had married a beautiful singer named Vicenza +Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One day the German prince +visited Piccini, and found him rocking the cradle of his youngest +child, while the eldest was tugging at the paternal coat-tails. The +mother, being _en déshabille_, ran away at the sight of a stranger. +The duke excused himself for his want of ceremony, and added, "I am +delighted to see so great a man living in such simplicity, and that +the author of 'La Bonne Fille' is such a good father." Piccini's +placid and pleasant life was destined, however, to pass into stormy +waters. + +His sway over the stage and the popular preference continued until +1773, when a clique of envious rivals at Rome brought about his first +disaster. The composer was greatly disheartened, and took to his bed, +for he was ill alike in mind and body. The turning-point in his career +had come, and he was to enter into an arena which taxed his powers in +a contest such as he had not yet dreamed of. His operas having been +heard and admired in France, their great reputation inspired the royal +favourite, Mdme. du Barry, with the hope of finding a successful +competitor to the great German composer, patronised by Marie +Antoinette. Accordingly, Piccini was offered an indemnity of six +thousand francs, and a residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan +ambassador. When the Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck was in full sway, +the idol of the court and public, and about to produce his "Armide." + +Piccini was immediately commissioned to write a new opera, and he +applied to the brilliant Marmontel for a libretto. The poet rearranged +one of Quinault's tragedies, "Roland," and Piccini undertook the +difficult task of composing music to words in a language as yet +unknown to him. Marmontel was his unwearied tutor, and he writes in +his "Memoirs" of his pleasant yet arduous task--"Line by line, word by +word, I had everything to explain; and, when he had laid hold of the +meaning of a passage, I recited it to him, marking the accent, the +prosody, and the cadence of the verses. He listened eagerly, and I had +the satisfaction to know that what he heard was carefully noted. His +delicate ear seized so readily the accent of the language and the +measure of the poetry, that in his music he never mistook them. It was +an inexpressible pleasure to me to see him practice before my eyes an +art of which before I had no idea. His harmony was in his mind. He +wrote his airs with the utmost rapidity, and when he had traced its +designs, he filled up all the parts of the score, distributing the +traits of harmony and melody, just as a skilful painter would +distribute on his canvas the colours, lights, and shadows of his +picture. When all this was done, he opened his harpsichord, which he +had been using as his writing-table; and then I heard an air, a duet, +a chorus, complete in all its parts, with a truth of expression, an +intelligence, a unity of design, a magic in the harmony, which +delighted both my ear and my feelings." + +Piccini's arrival in Paris had been kept a close secret while he was +working on the new opera, but Abbé du Rollet ferreted it out, and +acquainted Gluck, which piece of news the great German took with +philosophical disdain. Indeed, he attended the rehearsal of "Roland;" +and when his rival, in despair over his ignorance of French and the +stupidity of the orchestra, threw down the baton in despair, Gluck +took it up, and by his magnetic authority brought order out of chaos +and restored tranquillity, a help as much, probably, the fruit of +condescension and contempt as of generosity. + +Still Gluck was not easy in mind over this intrigue of his enemies, +and wrote a bitter letter, which was made public, and aggravated the +war of public feeling. Epigrams and accusations flew back and forth +like hailstones.[E] + +"Do you know that the Chevalier (Gluck's title) has an Armida and +Orlando in his portfolio?" said Abbé Arnaud to a Piccinist. + +"But Piccini is also at work on an Orlando," was the retort. + +"So much the better," returned the abbé, "for then we shall have an +Orlando and also an Orlandino," was the keen answer. + +The public attention was stimulated by the war of pamphlets, lampoons, +and newspaper articles. Many of the great _literati_ were Piccinists, +among them Marmontel, La Harpe, D'Alembert, etc. Suard du Rollet and +Jean Jacques Rousseau fought in the opposite ranks. Although the +nation was trembling on the verge of revolution, and the French had +just lost their hold on the East Indies; though Mirabeau was +thundering in the tribune, and Jacobin clubs were commencing their +baleful work, soon to drench Paris in blood, all factions and discords +were forgotten. The question was no longer, "Is he a Jansenist, a +Molinist, an Encyclopædist, a philosopher, a free-thinker?" One +question only was thought of, "Is he a Gluckist or Piccinist?" and on +the answer often depended the peace of families and the cement of +long-established friendships. + +Piccini's opera was a brilliant success with the fickle Parisians, +though the Gluckists sneered at it as pretty concert music. The retort +was that Gluck had no gift of melody, though they admitted he had the +advantage over his rival of making more noise. The poor Italian was so +much distressed by the fierce contest that he and his family were in +despair on the night of the first representation. He could only say to +his weeping wife and son, "Come, my children, this is unreasonable. +Remember that we are not among savages; we are living with the +politest and kindest nation in Europe. If they do not like me as a +musician, they will at all events respect me as a man and a stranger." +To do justice to Piccini, a mild and timid man, he never took part in +the controversy, and always spoke of his opponent with profound +respect and admiration. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[E] _See_ article on Gluck in "Great German Composers." + + +III. + +Marie Antoinette, whom Mdme. du Barry and her clique looked on as +Piccini's enemy, astonished both cabals by appointing Piccini her +singing-master--an unprofitable honour, for he received no pay, and +was obliged to give costly copies of his compositions to the royal +family. He might have quoted from the Latin poet in regard to this +favour from Marie Antoinette, whose faction in music, among other +names, was known as the Greek party, "_Timeo Danaos et dona +ferentes_."[F] Beaumarchais, the brilliant author of "Figaro," had +found the same inconvenience when acting as court teacher to the +daughters of Louis XV. The French kings were parsimonious except when +lavishing money on their vices. + +The action of the dauphiness, however, paved the way for a +reconciliation between Piccini and Gluck. Berton, the manager of the +opera, gave a luxurious banquet, and the musicians, side by side, +pledged each other in libations of champagne. Gluck got confidential +in his cups. "These French," he said, "are good enough people, but +they make me laugh. They want us to write songs for them, and they +can't sing." In fact, the quarrel was not between the musicians but +their adherents. In his own heart Piccini knew his inferiority to +Gluck. + +De Vismes, Berton's successor, proposed that both should write operas +on the same subject, "Iphigenia in Tauris," and gave him a libretto. +"The French public will have for the first time," he said, "the +pleasure of hearing two operas on the same theme, with the same +incidents, the same characters, but composed by two great masters of +totally different schools." + +"But," objected the alarmed Italian, "if Gluck's opera is played +first, the public will be so delighted that they will not listen to +mine." + +"To avoid that catastrophe," said the director, "we will play yours +first." + +"But Gluck will not permit it." + +"I give you my word of honour," said De Vismes, "that your opera shall +be put in rehearsal and brought out as soon as it is finished." + +Before Piccini had finished his opera, he heard that his rival was +back from Germany with his "Iphigenia" completed, and that it was in +rehearsal. The director excused himself on the plea of its being a +royal command. Gluck's work was his masterpiece, and produced an +unparalleled sensation among the Parisians. Even his enemies were +silenced, and La Harpe said it was the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the world. +Piccini's work, when produced, was admired, but it stood no chance +with the profound, serious, and wonderfully dramatic composition of +his rival. + +On the night of the first performance Mdlle. Laguerre, to whom Piccini +had trusted the rôle of Iphigenia, could not stand straight from +intoxication. "This is not 'Iphigenia in Tauris,'" said the witty +Sophie Arnould, "but 'Iphigenia in champagne.'" She compensated +afterwards, though, by singing the part with exquisite effect. + +While the Gluck-Piccini battle was at its height, an amateur who was +disgusted with the contest returned to the country and sang the +praises of the birds and their gratuitous performances in the +following epigram:-- + + "La n'est point d'art, d'ennui scientifique; + Piccini, Gluck, n'ont point noté les airs. + Nature seule en dicta la musique, + Et Marmontel n'en a pas fait les vers." + +The sentiment of this was probably applauded by the many who were +wearied of the bitter recriminations, which degraded the art which +they professed to serve. + +During the period when Gluck and Piccini were composing for the French +opera, its affairs nourished liberally under the sway of De Vismes. +Gluck, Piccini, and Rameau wrote serious operas, while Piccini, +Sacchini, Anfossi, and Paisiello composed comic operas. The ballet +flourished with unsurpassed splendour, and on the whole it may be said +that never has the opera presented more magnificence at Paris than +during the time France was on the eve of the Reign of Terror. The gay +capital was thronged with great singers, the traditions of whose +artistic ability compare favourably with those of a more recent +period. + +The witty and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at +her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mdlle. +Laguerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made +the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not +less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before +these idols of the stage. Gaetan Vestris, the first of the family, +known as the "_Dieu de la Danse_" and who held that there were only +three great men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, +and himself, dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a +chaconne, Monsieur Gluck," said the god of dancing. + +"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, +whose manners we are endeavouring to depict, knew what a chaconne +was?" + +"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a +tone of compassion continued, "then they are much to be pitied." + +Vestris did not obtain his ballet music from the obdurate German; but, +when Piccini's rival "_Iphigénie en Tauride_" was produced, such +beautiful dance measures were furnished by the Italian composer as +gave Vestris the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[F] I fear the Greeks, though offering gifts. + + +IV. + +The contest between Gluck and Piccini, or rather the cabals who +adopted the two musicians as their figure-heads, was brought to an end +by the death of the former. An attempt was made to set up Sacchini in +his place, but it proved unavailing, as the new composer proved to be +quite as much a follower of the prevailing Italian method as of the +new school of Gluck. The French revolution swept away Piccini's +property, and he retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, however. +Queen Caroline of Naples conceived a dislike to him, and used her +influence to injure his career, out of a fit of wounded vanity. + +"Do you not think I resemble my sister, Marie Antoinette?" queried the +somewhat ill-favoured queen. Piccini, embarrassed but truthful, +replied, "Your majesty, there may be a family likeness, but no +resemblance." A fatality attended him even to Venice. In 1792 he was +mobbed and his house burned, because the populace regarded him as a +republican, for he had a French son-in-law. Some partial musical +successes, however, consoled him, though they flattered his _amour +propre_ more than they benefited his purse. On his return to Naples he +was subjected to a species of imprisonment during four years, for +royal displeasure in those days did not confine itself merely to lack +of court favour. Reduced to great poverty, the composer who had been +the favourite of the rich and great for so many years knew often the +actual pangs of hunger, and eked out his subsistence by writing +conventual psalms, as payment for the broken food doled out by the +monks. + +At last he was released, and the tenor, David, sent him funds to pay +his journey to Paris. Napoleon, the first consul, received him +cordially in the Luxembourg palace. + +"Sit down," said he to Piccini, who remained standing, "a man of your +greatness stands in no one's presence." His reception in Paris was, in +fact, an ovation. The manager of the opera gave him a pension of +twenty-four hundred francs, a government pension was also accorded, +and he was appointed sixth inspector at the Conservatory. But the +benefits of this pale gleam of wintry sunshine did not long remain. He +died at Passy in the year 1800, and was followed to the grave by a +great throng of those who loved his beautiful music and admired his +gentle life. + +In the present day Gluck appears to have vanquished Piccini, because +occasionally an opera of the former is performed, while Piccini's +works are only known to the musical antiquarian. But even the marble +temples of Gluck are moss-grown and neglected, and that great man is +known to the present day rather as one whose influence profoundly +coloured and changed the philosophy of opera, than through any +immediate acquaintance with his productions. The connoisseurs of the +eighteenth century found Piccini's melodies charming, but the works +that endure as masterpieces are not those which contain the greatest +number of beauties, but those of which the form is the most perfect. +Gluck had larger conceptions and more powerful genius than his Italian +rival, but the latter's sweet spring of melody gave him the highest +place which had so far been attained in the Italian operatic school. + +"Piccini," says M. Genguèné, his biographer, "was under the middle +size, but well made, with considerable dignity of carriage. His +countenance was very agreeable. His mind was acute, enlarged, and +cultivated. Latin and Italian literature was familiar to him when he +went to France, and afterwards he became almost as well acquainted +with French literature. He spoke and wrote Italian with great purity, +but among his countrymen he preferred the Neapolitan dialect, which he +considered the most expressive, the most difficult, and the most +figurative of all languages. He used it principally in narration, with +a gaiety, a truth, and a pantomimic expression after the manner of his +country, which delighted all his friends, and made his stories +intelligible even to those who knew Italian but slightly." + +As a musician Piccini was noticeable, according to the judgment of his +best critics, for the purity and simplicity of his style. He always +wished to preserve the supremacy of the voice, and, though he well +knew how to make his instrumentation rich and effective, he was a +resolute opponent to the florid and complex accompaniments which were +coming into vogue in his day. His recorded opinion on this subject may +have some interest for the musicians of the present day:-- + +"Were the employment which Nature herself assigns to the instruments +of an orchestra preserved to them, a variety of effects and a series +of infinitely diversified pictures would be produced. But they are all +thrown in at once and used incessantly, and they thus overpower and +indurate the ear, without presenting any picture to the mind, to which +the ear is the passage. I should be glad to know how they will arouse +it when it is accustomed to this uproar, which will soon happen, and +of what new witchcraft they will avail themselves.... It is well known +what occurs to palates blunted by the use of spirituous liquors. In a +few months everything may be learned which is necessary to produce +these exaggerated effects, but it requires much time and study to be +able to excite genuine emotion." Piccini followed strictly the canons +of the Italian school; and, though far inferior in really great +qualities to his rival Gluck, his compositions had in them so much of +fluent grace and beauty as to place him at the head of his +predecessors. Some curious critics have indeed gone so far as to +charge that many of the finest arias of Rossini, Donizetti, and +Bellini owe their paternity to this composer, an indictment not +uncommon in music, for most of the great composers have rifled the +sweets of their predecessors without scruple. + + +V. + +Paisiello and Cimarosa, in their style and processes of work, seem to +have more nearly caught the mantle of Piccini than any others, though +they were contemporaries as well as successors. GIOVANNI PAISIELLO, +born in 1741, was educated, like many other great musicians, at the +Conservatory of San Onofrio. During his early life he produced a great +number of pieces for the Italian theatres, and in 1776 accepted the +invitation of Catherine to become the court composer at St. +Petersburg, where he remained nine years, and produced several of his +best operas, chief among them, "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" (a different +version of Beaumarchais's celebrated comedy from that afterwards used +by Rossini). + +The empress was devotedly attached to him, and showed her esteem in +many signal ways. On one occasion, while Paisiello was accompanying +her in a song, she observed that he shuddered with the bitter cold. On +this Catherine took off her splendid ermine cloak, decorated with +clasps of brilliants, and threw it over her tutor's shoulders. In a +quarrel which Paisiello had with Marshal Beloseloky, the temporary +favourite of the Russian Messalina, her favour was shown in a still +more striking way. The marshal had given the musician a blow, on which +Paisiello, a very large, athletic man, drubbed the Russian general +most unmercifully. The latter demanded the immediate dismissal of the +composer for having insulted a dignitary of the empire. Catherine's +reply was similar to the one made by Francis the First of France in a +parallel case about Leonardo da Vinci-- + +"I neither can nor will attend to your request; you forgot your +dignity when you gave an unoffending man and a great artist a blow. +Are you surprised that he should have forgotten it too? As for rank, +it is in my power to make fifty marshals, but not one Paisiello." + +Some years after his return to Italy, he was engaged by Napoleon as +chapel-master; for that despot ruled the art and literature of his +times as autocratically as their politics. Though Paisiello did not +wish to obey the mandate, to refuse was ruin. The French ruler had +already shown his favour by giving him the preference over Cherubini +in several important musical contests, for the latter had always +displayed stern independence of courtly favour. On Paisiello's arrival +in Paris, several lucrative appointments indicated the sincerity of +Napoleon's intentions. The composer did not hesitate to stand on his +rights as a musician on all occasions. When Napoleon complained of the +inefficiency of the chapel service, he said, courageously, "I can't +blame people for doing their duty carelessly, when they are not justly +paid." The cunning Italian knew how to flatter, though, when occasion +served. He once addressed his master as "Sire." + +"'Sire,' what do you mean?" answered the first consul. "I am a general +and nothing more." + +"Well, General," continued the composer, "I have come to place myself +at your majesty's orders." + +"I must really beg you," rejoined Napoleon, "not to address me in this +manner." + +"Forgive me, General," said Paisiello. "But I cannot give up the habit +I have contracted in addressing sovereigns, who, compared with you, +are but pigmies. However, I will not forget your commands, and, if I +have been unfortunate enough to offend, I must throw myself on your +majesty's indulgence." + +Paisiello received ten thousand francs for the mass written for +Napoleon's coronation, and one thousand for all others. As he produced +masses with great rapidity, he could very well afford to neglect +operatic writing during this period. His masses were pasticcio work +made up of pieces selected from his operas and other compositions. +This could be easily done, for music is arbitrary in its associations. +Love songs of a passionate and sentimental cast were quickly made +religious by suitable words. Thus the same melody will depict equally +well the rage of a baffled conspirator, the jealousy of an injured +husband, the grief of lovers about to part, the despondency of a man +bent on suicide, the devotion of the nun, or the rapt adoration of +worship. A different text and a slight change in time effect the +marvel, and hardly a composer has disdained to borrow from one work to +enrich another. His only opera composed in Paris, "Proserpine," was +not successful. + +Failure of health obliged Paisiello to return to Naples, when he again +entered the service of the king. Attached to the fortunes of the +Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned +with honours by all the musical societies of the world, but his +pensions and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the +Neapolitan throne. He died June 5, 1816, and the court, which +neglected him living, gave him a magnificent funeral. + +"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great +musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was +well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of +literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished +persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he +neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says +the same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were +serious, and fifty-one comic, eight _intermezzi_, and an immense +number of cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King +Joseph of Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of +Russia." + +Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterised by great +simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of +grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity +was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have +recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of +invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and +picturesque, without pretence of elaboration. The latter not only +relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects, +novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements +in instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarionet, and +bassoon into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though voluminous +both in serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his +chief laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's +favourites, and Catalani added largely to her reputation in the part +of _La Frascatana_. Several of Paisiello's comic operas still keep a +dramatic place on the German stage, where excellence is not sacrificed +to novelty. + + +VI. + +A still higher place must be assigned to another disciple and follower +of the school perfected by Piccini, DOMINIC CIMAROSA, born in Naples +in 1749. His life down to his latter years was an uninterrupted flow +of prosperity. His mother, a humble washerwoman, could do little for +her fatherless child, but an observant priest saw the promise of the +lad, and taught him till he was old enough to enter the Conservatory +of St. Maria di Loretto. His early works showed brilliant invention +and imagination, and the young Cimarosa, before he left the +Conservatory, had made himself a good violinist and singer. He worked +hard, during a musical apprenticeship of many years, to lay a solid +foundation for the fame which his teachers prophesied for him from the +onset. Like Paisiello, he was for several years attached to the court +of Catherine II. of Russia. He had already produced a number of +pleasing works, both serious and comic, for the Italian theatres, and +his faculty of production was equalled by the richness and variety of +his scores. During a period of four years spent at the imperial court +of the North, Cimarosa produced nearly five hundred works, great and +small, and only left the service of his magnificent patroness, who was +no less passionately fond of art than she was great as a ruler and +dissolute as a woman, because the severe climate affected his health, +for he was a typical Italian in his temperament. + +He was arrested in his southward journey by the urgent persuasions of +the Emperor Leopold, who made him chapel-master, with a salary of +twelve thousand florins. The taste for the Italian school was still +paramount at the musical capital of Austria. Though such composers as +Haydn, Salieri, and young Mozart, who had commenced to be welcomed as +an unexampled prodigy, were in Vienna, the court preferred the suave +and shallow beauties of Italian music to their own serious German +school, which was commencing to send down such deep roots into the +popular heart. + +Cimarosa produced "Il Matrimonio Segreto" (The Secret Marriage), his +finest opera, for his new patron. The libretto was founded on a +forgotten French operetta, which again was adapted from Garrick and +Colman's "Clandestine Marriage." The emperor could not attend the +first representation, but a brilliant audience hailed it with delight. +Leopold made amends, though, on the second night, for he stood in his +box, and said, aloud-- + +"Bravo, Cimarosa, bravissimo! The whole opera is admirable, +delightful, enchanting! I did not applaud, that I might not lose a +single note of this masterpiece. You have heard it twice, and I must +have the same pleasure before I go to bed. Singers and musicians, pass +into the next room. Cimarosa will come, too, and preside at the +banquet prepared for you. When you have had sufficient rest, we will +begin again. I encore the whole opera, and in the meanwhile let us +applaud it as it deserves." + +The emperor gave the signal, and, midst a thunderstorm of plaudits, +the musicians passed into their midnight feast. There is no record of +any other such compliment, except that to the Latin dramatist, +Plautus, whose "Eunuchus" was performed twice on the same day. + +Yet the same Viennese public, six years before, had actually hissed +Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," which shares with Rossini's "Il Barbiere" +the greatest rank in comic opera, and has retained, to this day, its +perennial freshness and interest. Cimarosa himself did not share the +opinion of his admirers in respect to Mozart. A certain Viennese +painter attempted to flatter him, by decrying Mozart's music in +comparison with his own. The following retort shows the nobility of +genius--"I, sir? What would you call the man who would seek to assure +you that you were superior to Raphael?" Another acute rejoinder, on +the respective merits of Mozart and Cimarosa, was made by the French +composer, Grétry, in answer to a criticism by Napoleon, when first +consul, that great man affecting to be a _dilettante_ in music-- + +"Sire, Cimarosa puts the statue on the theatre and the pedestal in the +orchestra, instead of which Mozart puts the statue in the orchestra +and the pedestal on the theatre." + +The composer's hitherto brilliant career was doomed to a gloomy close. +On returning to Naples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa +produced several of his finest works; among which musical students +place first--"Il Matrimonio per Susurro," "La Penelope," +"L'Olimpiade," "Il Sacrificio d'Abrama," "Gli Amanti Comici," and "Gli +Orazi." These were performed almost simultaneously in the theatres of +Paris, Naples, and Vienna. Cimarosa attached himself warmly to the +French cause in Italy, and when the Bourbons finally triumphed the +musician suffered their bitterest resentment. He narrowly escaped with +his life, and languished for a long time in a dungeon, so closely +immured that it was for a long time believed by his friends that his +head had fallen on the block. + +At length released, he quitted the Neapolitan territory, only to die +at Venice in a few months, "in consequence," Stendhall says, in his +_Life of Rossini_, "of the barbarous treatment he had met with in the +prison into which he had been thrown by Queen Caroline." He died +January 11, 1801. + +Cimarosa's genius embraced both the tragic and comic schools of +composition. He may be specially called a genuine master of musical +comedy. He was the finest example of the school perfected by Piccini, +and was indeed the link between the old Italian opera and the new +development of which Rossini is such a brilliant exponent. Schlüter, +in his _History of Music_, says of him--"Like Mozart, he excels in +those parts of an opera which decide its merits as a work of art, the +_ensembles_ and _finale_. His admirable and by no means antiquated +opera, 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' (the charming offspring of his 'secret +marriage' with the Mozart opera) is a model of exquisite and graceful +comedy. The overture bears a striking resemblance to that of 'Figaro,' +and the instrumentation of the whole opera is highly characteristic, +though not so prominent as in Mozart. Especially delightful are the +secret love-scenes, written evidently _con amore_, the composer having +practised them many a time in his youth." + +This opera is still performed in many parts of Europe to delighted +audiences, and is ranked by competent critics as the third finest +comic opera extant, Mozart and Rossini only surpassing him in their +masterpieces. It was a great favourite with Lablache, and its +magnificent performance by Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the king of +bassos, is a gala reminiscence of English and French opera-goers. + +We quote an opinion also from another able authority--"The drama of +'Gli Orazi' is taken from Corneille's tragedy, 'Les Horaces.' The +music is full of noble simplicity, beautiful melody, and strong +expression. In the airs dramatic truth is never sacrificed to vocal +display, and the concerted pieces are grand, broad, and effective. +Taken as a whole, the piece is free from antiquated and obsolete +forms; and it wants nothing but an orchestral score of greater +fullness and variety to satisfy the modern ear. It is still frequently +performed in Germany, though in France and England, and even in its +native country, it seems to be forgotten." + +Cardinal Consalvi, Cimarosa's friend, caused splendid funeral honours +to be paid to him at Rome. Canova executed a marble bust of him, which +was placed in the gallery of the Capitol. + + + + +_ROSSINI._ + + +I. + +The "Swan of Pesaro" is a name linked with some of the most charming +musical associations of this age. Though forty years silence made +fruitless what should have been the richest creative period of +Rossini's life, his great works, poured forth with such facility, and +still retaining their grasp in spite of all changes in public opinion, +stamp him as being the most gifted composer ever produced by a country +so fecund in musical geniuses. The old set forms of Italian opera had +already yielded in large degree to the energy and pomp of French +declamation, when Rossini poured into them afresh such exhilaration +and sparkle as again placed his country in the van of musical Europe. +With no pretension to the grand, majestic, and severe, his fresh and +delightful melodies, flowing without stint, excited alike the critical +and the unlearned into a species of artistic craze, a mania which has +not yet subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff confesses, with +many compunctions of conscience, that, when listening for the first +time to one of Rossini's operas, he forgot for the time being all that +he had ever known, admired, played, or sung, for he was musically +drunk, as if with champagne. Learned Germans might shake their heads +and talk about shallowness and contrapuntal rubbish, his _crescendo_ +and _stretto_ passages, his tameness and uniformity even in melody, +his want of artistic finish; but, as Richard Wagner, his direct +antipodes, frankly confesses in his "Oper und Drama," such objections +were dispelled by Rossini's opera-airs as if they were mere delusions +of the fancy. Essentially different from Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, +Haydn, or even Weber, with whom he has some affinities, he stands a +unique figure in the history of art, an original both as man and +musician. + +GIOACCHINO ROSSINI was the son of a town-trumpeter and an operatic +singer of inferior rank, born in Pesaro, Romagna, February 29, 1792. +The child attended the itinerant couple in their visits to fairs and +musical gatherings, and was in danger, at the age of seven, of +becoming a thorough-paced little vagabond, when maternal alarm trusted +his education to the friendly hands of the music-master, Prinetti. At +this tender age even he had been introduced to the world of art, for +he sang the part of a child at the Bologna opera. "Nothing," said +Mdme. Georgi-Righetti, "could be imagined more tender, more touching, +than the voice and action of this remarkable child." + +The young Rossini, after a year or two, came under the notice of the +celebrated teacher Tesei, of Bologna, who gave him lessons in +pianoforte playing and the voice, and obtained him a good place as +boy-soprano at one of the churches. He now attracted the attention of +the Countess Perticari, who admired his voice, and she sent him to the +Lyceum to learn fugue and counterpoint at the feet of a very strict +Gamaliel, Padre Mattei. The youth was no dull student, and, in spite +of his capricious indolence, which vexed the soul of his tutor, he +made such rapid progress that at the age of sixteen he was chosen to +write the cantata, annually awarded to the most promising student. +Success greeted the juvenile effort, and thus we see Rossini fairly +launched as a composer. Of the early operas which he poured out for +five years it is not needful to speak, except that one of them so +pleased the austere Marshal Massena that he exempted the composer from +conscription. The first opera which made Rossini's name famous through +Europe was "Tancredi," written for the Venetian public. To this opera +belongs the charming "Di tanti palpiti," written under the following +circumstances:--Mdme. Melanotte, the _prima donna_, took the whim +during the final rehearsal that she would not sing the opening air, +but must have another. Rossini went home in sore disgust, for the +whole opera was likely to be put off by this caprice. There were but +two hours before the performance. He sat waiting for his macaroni, +when an exquisite air came into his head, and it was written in five +minutes. + +After his great success he received offers from almost every town in +Italy, each clamouring to be served first. Every manager was required +to furnish his theatre with an opera from the pen of the new idol. For +these earlier essays he received a thousand francs each, and he wrote +five or six a year. Stendhall, Rossini's spirited biographer, gives a +picturesque account of life in the Italian theatres at this time, a +status which remains in some of its features to-day-- + +"The mechanism is as follows:--The manager is frequently one of the +most wealthy and considerable persons of the little town he inhabits. +He forms a company, consisting of _prima donna_, _tenoro_, _basso +cantante_, _basso buffo_, a second female singer, and a third _basso_. +The _libretto_, or poem, is purchased for sixty or eighty francs from +some unlucky son of the muses, who is generally a half-starved abbé, +the hanger-on of some rich family in the neighbourhood. The character +of the parasite, so admirably painted by Terence, is still to be found +in all its glory in Lombardy, where the smallest town can boast of +some five or six families of some wealth. A _maestro_, or composer, is +then engaged to write a new opera, and he is obliged to adapt his own +airs to the voices and capacity of the company. The manager intrusts +the care of the financial department to a _registrario_, who is +generally some pettifogging attorney, who holds the position of his +steward. The next thing that generally happens is that the manager +falls in love with the _prima donna_; and the progress of this +important amour gives ample employment to the curiosity of the +gossips. + +"The company thus organised at length gives its first representation, +after a month of cabals and intrigues, which furnish conversation for +the town. This is an event in the simple annals of the town, of the +importance of which the residents of large places can form no idea. +During months together a population of eight or ten thousand people do +nothing but discuss the merit of the forthcoming music and singers +with the eager impetuosity which belongs to the Italian character and +climate. The first representation, if successful, is generally +followed by twenty or thirty more of the same piece, after which the +company breaks up.... From this little sketch of theatrical +arrangements in Italy some idea may be formed of the life which +Rossini led from 1810 to 1816." Between these years he visited all the +principal towns, remaining three or four months at each, the idolised +guest of the _dilettanti_ of the place. Rossini's idleness and love of +good cheer always made him procrastinate his labours till the last +moment, and placed him in dilemmas from which only his fluency of +composition extricated him. His biographer says:-- + +"The day of performance is fast approaching, and yet he cannot resist +the pressing invitations of these friends to dine with them at the +tavern. This, of course, leads to a supper, the champagne circulates +freely, and the hour of morning steals on apace. At length a +compunctious vision shoots across the mind of the truant composer. He +rises abruptly; his friends insist on seeing him home; and they parade +the silent streets bareheaded, shouting in chorus whatever comes +uppermost, perhaps a portion of a _miserere_, to the great scandal of +pious Catholics tucked snugly in their beds. At length he reaches his +lodging, and shutting himself up in his chamber is, at this, to +every-day mortals, most ungenial hour, visited by some of his most +brilliant inspirations. These he hastily scratches down on scraps of +paper, and next morning arranges them, or, in his own phrase, +instruments them, amid the renewed interruptions of his visitors. At +length the important night arrives. The _maestro_ takes his place at +the pianoforte. The theatre is overflowing, people having flocked to +the town from ten leagues distance. Every inn is crowded, and those +unable to get other accommodations encamp around the theatre in their +various vehicles. All business is suspended, and, during the +performances, the town has the appearance of a desert. The passions, +the anxieties, the very life of a whole population are centered in the +theatre." + +Rossini would preside at the first three representations, and, after +receiving a grand civic banquet, set out for the next place, his +portmanteau fuller of music-paper than of other effects, and perhaps a +dozen sequins in his pocket. His love of jesting during these gay +Bohemian wanderings made him perpetrate innumerable practical jokes, +not sparing himself when he had no more available food for mirth. On +one occasion, in travelling from Ancona to Reggio, he passed himself +off for a musical professor, a mortal enemy of Rossini, and sang the +words of his own operas to the most execrable music, in a cracked +voice, to show his superiority to that donkey, Rossini. An unknown +admirer of his was in such a rage that he was on the point of +chastising him for slandering the great musician, about whom Italy +raved. + +Our composer's earlier style was quite simple and unadorned, a fact +difficult for the present generation, only acquainted with the florid +beauties of his later works, to appreciate. Rossini only followed the +traditions of Italian music in giving singers full opportunity to +embroider the naked score at their own pleasure. He was led to change +this practice by the following incident. The tenor-singer Velluti was +then the favourite of the Italian theatres, and indulged in the most +unwarrantable tricks with his composers. During the first performance +of "L'Aureliano," at Naples, the singer loaded the music with such +ornaments that Rossini could not recognise the offspring of his own +brains. A fierce quarrel ensued between the two, and the composer +determined thereafter to write music of such a character that the most +stupid singer could not suppose any adornment needed. From that time +the Rossini music was marked by its florid and brilliant embroidery. +Of the same Velluti, spoken of above, an incident is told, +illustrating the musical craze of the country and the period. A +Milanese gentleman, whose father was very ill, met his friend in the +street--"Where are you going?" "To the Scala, to be sure." "How! your +father lies at the point of death." "Yes! yes! I know, but Velluti +sings to-night." + + +II. + +An important step in Rossini's early career was his connection with +the widely known impresario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He was +under contract to produce two new operas annually, to rearrange all +old scores, and to conduct at all of the theatres ruled by this +manager. He was to receive two hundred ducats a month, and a share in +the profits of the bank of the San Carlo gambling-saloon. His first +opera composed here was "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra," which was +received with a genuine Neapolitan _furore_. Rossini was fêted and +caressed by the ardent _dilettanti_ of this city to his heart's +content, and was such an idol of the "fickle fair" that his career on +more than one occasion narrowly escaped an untimely close, from the +prejudices of jealous spouses. The composer was very vain of his +handsome person, and boasted of his _escapades d'amour_. Many, too, +will recall his _mot_, spoken to a beauty standing between himself and +the Duke of Wellington--"Madame, how happy should you be to find +yourself placed between the two greatest men in Europe!" + +One of Rossini's adventures at Naples has in it something of romance. +He was sitting in his chamber, humming one of his own operatic airs, +when the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen entered and gave him a note, +then instantly withdrew. This, of course, was a tender invitation, and +an assignation at a romantic spot in the suburb. On arriving Rossini +sang his _aria_ for a signal, and from the gate of a charming park +surrounding a small villa appeared his beautiful and unknown +inamorata. On parting it was agreed that the same messenger should +bring notice of the second appointment. Rossini suspected that the +lady, in disguise, was her own envoy, and verified the guess by +following the light-footed page. He then discovered that she was the +wife of a wealthy Sicilian, widely noted for her beauty, and one of +the reigning toasts. On renewing his visit, he barely arrived at the +gate of the park, when a carbine-bullet grazed his head, and two +masked assailants sprang toward him with drawn rapiers, a proceeding +which left Rossini no option but to take to his heels, as he was +unarmed. + +During the composer's residence at Naples he was made acquainted with +many of the most powerful princes and nobles of Europe, and his name +became a recognised factor in European music, though his works were +not widely known outside of his native land. His reputation for genius +spread by report, for all who came in contact with the brilliant, +handsome Rossini were charmed. That which placed his European fame on +a solid basis was the production of "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" at Rome +during the carnival season of 1816. + +Years before Rossini had thought of setting the sparkling comedy of +Beaumarchais to music, and Sterbini, the author of the _libretto_ used +by Paisiello, had proposed to rearrange the story. Rossini, indeed, +had been so complaisant as to write to the older composer for +permission to set fresh music to the comedy; a concession not needed, +for the plays of Metastasio had been used by different musicians +without scruple. Paisiello intrigued against the new opera, and +organised a conspiracy to kill it on the first night. Sterbini made +the libretto totally different from the other, and Rossini finished +the music in thirteen days, during which he never left the house. "Not +even did I get shaved," he said to a friend. "It seems strange that +through the 'Barber' you should have gone without shaving." "If I had +shaved," Rossini exclaimed, "I should have gone out; and, if I had +gone out, I should not have come back in time." + +The first performance was a curious scene. The Argentina Theatre was +packed with friends and foes. One of the greatest of tenors, Garcia, +the father of Malibran and Pauline Viardot, sang Almaviva. Rossini had +been weak enough to allow Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a +serenade, for the latter urged the necessity of vivid national and +local colour. The tenor had forgotten to tune his guitar, and in the +operation on the stage a string broke. This gave the signal for a +tumult of ironical laughter and hisses. The same hostile atmosphere +continued during the evening. Even Madame Georgi-Righetti, a great +favourite of the Romans, was coldly received by the audience. In +short, the opera seemed likely to be damned. + +When the singers went to condole with Rossini, they found him enjoying +a luxurious supper with the gusto of the _gourmet_ that he was. +Settled in his knowledge that he had written a masterpiece, he could +not be disturbed by unjust clamour. The next night the fickle Romans +made ample amends, for the opera was concluded amid the warmest +applause, even from the friends of Paisiello. + +Rossini's "Il Barbiere," within six months, was performed on nearly +every stage in Europe, and received universally with great admiration. +It was only in Paris, two years afterwards, that there was some +coldness in its reception. Every one said that after Paisiello's music +on the same subject it was nothing, when it was suggested that +Paisiello's should be revived. So the St. Petersburg "Barbiere" of +1788 was produced, and beside Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and +antiquated that the public instantly recognised the beauties of the +work which they had persuaded themselves to ignore. Yet for this work, +which placed the reputation of the young composer on a lofty pedestal, +he received only two thousand francs. + +Our composer took his failures with great phlegm and good-nature, +based, perhaps, on an invincible self-confidence. When his +"Sigismonde" had been hissed at Venice, he sent his mother a _fiasco_ +(bottle). In the last instance he sent her, on the morning succeeding +the first performance, a letter with a picture of a _fiaschetto_ +(little bottle). + + +III. + +The same year (1816) was produced at Naples the opera of "Otello," +which was an important point of departure in the reforms introduced by +Rossini on the Italian stage. Before speaking further of this +composer's career, it is necessary to admit that every valuable change +furthered by him had already been inaugurated by Mozart, a musical +genius so great that he seems to have included all that went before, +all that succeeded him. It was not merely that Rossini enriched the +orchestration to such a degree, but, revolting from the delay of the +dramatic movement, caused by the great number of arias written for +each character, he gave large prominence to the concerted pieces, and +used them where monologue had formerly been the rule. He developed the +basso and baritone parts, giving them marked importance in serious +opera, and worked out the choruses and finales with the most elaborate +finish. + +Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, a celebrated connoisseur and admirer of the old +school, wrote of these innovations, ignoring the fact that Mozart had +given the weight of his great authority to them before the daring +young Italian composer:-- + +"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially +different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in +recitative, and which, in Metastasio's operas, is often so beautiful +and interesting, is now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it were +worth listening to) into _pezzi concertati_, or long singing +conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected, +ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a +satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like +to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is +broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an +entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that +no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single +songs are almost exploded.... Even the _prima donna_, who formerly +would have complained at having less than three or four airs allotted +to her, is now satisfied with having one single _cavatina_ given to +her during the whole opera." + +In "Otello," Rossini introduced his operatic changes to the Italian +public, and they were well received; yet great opposition was +manifested by those who clung to the time-honoured canons. Sigismondi, +of the Naples Conservatory, was horror-stricken on first seeing the +score of this opera. The clarionets were too much for him, but on +seeing third and fourth horn-parts, he exclaimed, "What does the man +want? The greatest of our composers have always been contented with +two. Shades of Pergolesi, of Leo, of Jomelli! How they must shudder at +the bare thought! Four horns! Are we at a hunting-party? Four horns! +Enough to blow us to perdition!" Donizetti, who was Sigismondi's pupil, +also tells an amusing incident of his preceptor's disgust. He was +turning over a score of "Semiramide" in the library, when the _maestro_ +came in and asked him what music it was. "Rossini's," was the answer. +Sigismondi glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. trumpets, being the +first, second, and third trumpet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing +his fingers in his ears, "One hundred and twenty-three trumpets! _Corpo +di Cristo!_ the world's gone mad, and I shall go mad too!" And so he +rushed from the room, muttering to himself about the hundred and +twenty-three trumpets. + +The Italian public, in spite of such criticism, very soon accepted the +opera of "Otello" as the greatest serious opera ever written for their +stage. It owed much, however, to the singers who illustrated its +rôles. Mdme. Colbran, afterwards Rossini's wife, sang Desdemona, and +David, Otello. The latter was the predecessor of Rubini as the finest +singer of the Rossinian music. He had the prodigious compass of three +octaves; and M. Bertin, a French critic, says of this singer, so +honourably linked with the career of our composer, "He is full of +warmth, _verve_, energy, expression, and musical sentiment; alone he +can fill up and give life to a scene; it is impossible for another +singer to carry away an audience as he does, and, when he will only be +simple, he is admirable. He is the Rossini of song; he is the greatest +singer I ever heard." Lord Byron, in one of his letters to Moore, +speaks of the first production at Milan, and praises the music +enthusiastically, while condemning the libretto as a degradation of +Shakespeare. + +"La Cenerentola" and "La Gazza Ladra" were written in quick +succession for Naples and Milan. The former of these works, based on +the old Cinderella myth, was the last opera written by Rossini to +illustrate the beauties of the contralto voice, and Madame +Georgi-Righetti, the early friend and steadfast patroness of the +musician during his early days of struggle, made her last great +appearance in it before retiring from the stage. In this composition, +Rossini, though one of the most affluent and rapid of composers, +displays that economy in art which sometimes characterised him. He +introduced in it many of the more beautiful airs from his earlier and +less successful works. He believed on principle that it was folly to +let a good piece of music be lost through being married to a weak and +faulty libretto. The brilliant opera of "La Gazza Ladra," set to the +story of a French melodrama, "La Pie Voleuse," aggravated the quarrel +between Paer, the director of the French opera, and the gifted +Italian. Paer had designed to have written the music himself, but his +librettist slyly turned over the poem to Rossini, who produced one of +his masterpieces in setting it. The audience at La Scala received the +work with the noisiest demonstrations, interrupting the progress of +the drama with constant cries of "_Bravo! Maestro!_" "_Viva Rossini!_" +The composer afterwards said that acknowledging the calls of the +audience fatigued him much more than the direction of the opera. When +the same work was produced four years after in London, under Mr. +Ebers's management, an incident related by that _impresario_ in his +_Seven Years of the King's Theatre_, shows how eagerly it was received +by an English audience:-- + +"When I entered the stage door, I met an intimate friend, with a long +face and uplifted eyes. 'Good God! Ebers, I pity you from my soul. +This ungrateful public,' he continued. 'The wretches! Why! my dear +sir, they have not left you a seat in your own house.' Relieved from +the fears he had created, I joined him in his laughter, and proceeded, +assuring him that I felt no ill towards the public for their conduct +towards me." + +Passing over "Armida," written for the opening of the new San Carlo +at Naples, "Adelaida di Borgogna," for the Roman Carnival of 1817, and +"Adina," for a Lisbon theatre, we come to a work which is one of +Rossini's most solid claims on musical immortality, "Mosé in Egitto," +first produced at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1818. In "Mosé," Rossini +carried out still further than ever his innovations, the two principal +rôles--_Mosé_ and _Faraoni_--being assigned to basses. On the first +representation, the crossing of the Red Sea moved the audience to +satirical laughter, which disconcerted the otherwise favourable +reception of the piece, and entirely spoiled the final effects. The +manager was at his wit's end, till Tottola, the librettist, suggested +a prayer for the Israelites before and after the passage of the host +through the cleft waters. Rossini instantly seized the idea, and, +springing from bed in his night-shirt, wrote the music with almost +inconceivable rapidity, before his embarrassed visitors recovered from +their surprise. The same evening the magnificent _Dal tuo stellato +soglio_ ("To thee, Great Lord") was performed with the opera. + +Let Stendhall, Rossini's biographer, tell the rest of the story--"The +audience was delighted as usual with the first act, and all went well +till the third, when, the passage of the Red Sea being at hand, the +audience as usual prepared to be amused. The laughter was just +beginning in the pit, when it was observed that Moses was about to +sing. He began his solo, the first verse of a prayer, which all the +people repeat in chorus after Moses. Surprised at this novelty, the +pit listened and the laughter entirely ceased. The chorus, exceedingly +fine, was in the minor. Aaron continues, followed by the people. +Finally, Eleia addresses to Heaven the same supplication, and the +people respond. Then all fall on their knees and repeat the prayer +with enthusiasm; the miracle is performed, the sea is opened to leave +a path for the people protected by the Lord. This last part is in the +major. It is impossible to imagine the thunders of applause that +resounded through the house; one would have thought it was coming +down. The spectators in the boxes, standing up and leaning over, +called out at the top of their voices, '_Bello, bello! O che bello!_' +I never saw so much enthusiasm nor such a complete success, which was +so much the greater, inasmuch as the people were quite prepared to +laugh.... I am almost in tears when I think of this prayer. This state +of things lasted a long time, and one of its effects was to make for +its composer the reputation of an assassin, for Dr. Cottogna is said +to have remarked--'I can cite to you more than forty attacks of +nervous fever or violent convulsions on the part of young women, fond +to excess of music, which have no other origin than the prayer of the +Hebrews in the third act, with its superb change of key.'" Thus, by a +stroke of genius, a scene which first impressed the audience as a +piece of theatrical burlesque, was raised to sublimity by the solemn +music written for it. + +M. Bochsa some years afterwards produced "Mosé" as an oratorio in +London, and it failed. A new libretto, however, "Pietro L'Eremito,"[G] +again transformed the music into an opera. Ebers tells us that Lord +Sefton, a distinguished connoisseur, only pronounced the general +verdict in calling it the greatest of serious operas, for it was +received with the greatest favour. A gentleman of high rank was not +satisfied with assuring the manager that he had deserved well of his +country, but avowed his determination to propose him for membership at +the most exclusive of aristocratic clubs--White's. + +"La Donna del Lago," Rossini's next great work, also first produced at +the San Carlo during the Carnival of 1820, though splendidly +performed, did not succeed well the first night. The composer left +Naples the same night for Milan, and coolly informed every one _en +route_ that the opera was very successful, which proved to be true +when he reached his journey's end, for the Neapolitans on the second +night reversed their decision into an enthusiasm as marked as their +coldness had been. + +Shortly after this Rossini married his favourite _prima donna_, Madame +Colbran. He had just completed two of his now forgotten operas, +"Bianca e Faliero" and "Matilda di Shabran," but did not stay to watch +their public reception. He quietly took away the beautiful Colbran, +and at Bologna was married by the archbishop. Thence the +freshly-wedded couple visited Vienna, and Rossini there produced his +"Zelmira," his wife singing the principal part. One of the most +striking of this composer's works in invention and ingenious +development of ideas, Carpani says of it--"It contains enough to +furnish not one but four operas. In this work, Rossini, by the new +riches which he draws from his prodigious imagination, is no longer +the author of 'Otello,' 'Tancredi,' 'Zoraide,' and all his preceding +works; he is another composer, new, agreeable, and fertile, as much as +at first, but with more command of himself, more pure, more masterly, +and, above all, more faithful to the interpretation of the words. The +forms of style employed in this opera, according to circumstances, are +so varied, that now we seem to hear Gluck, now Traetta, now Sacchini, +now Mozart, now Handel; for the gravity, the learning, the +naturalness, the suavity of their conceptions, live and blossom again +in 'Zelmira.' The transitions are learned, and inspired more by +considerations of poetry and sense than by caprice and a mania for +innovation. The vocal parts, always natural, never trivial, give +expression to the words without ceasing to be melodious. The great +point is to preserve both. The instrumentation of Rossini is really +incomparable by the vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the variety +and justness of the colouring." Yet it must be conceded that, while +this opera made a deep impression on musicians and critics, it did not +please the general public. It proved languid and heavy with those who +could not relish the science of the music and the skill of the +combinations. Such instances as this are the best answer to that +school of critics, who have never ceased clamouring that Rossini +could write nothing but beautiful tunes to tickle the vulgar and +uneducated mind. + +"Semiramide," first performed at the Fenice theatre in Venice on +February 3, 1823, was the last of Rossini's Italian operas, though it +had the advantage of careful rehearsals and a noble caste. It was not +well received at first, though the verdict of time places it high +among the musical masterpieces of the century. In it were combined all +of Rossini's ideas of operatic reform, and the novelty of some of the +innovations probably accounts for the inability of his earlier public +to appreciate its merits. Mdme. Rossini made her last public +appearance in this great work. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[G] The same music was set to a poem founded on the first crusade, all +the most effective situations being dramatically utilised for the +Christian legend. + + +IV. + +Henceforward the career of the greatest of the Italian composers, the +genius who shares with Mozart the honour of having impressed himself +more than any other on the style and methods of his successors, was to +be associated with French music, though never departing from his +characteristic quality as an original and creative mind. He modified +French music, and left great disciples on whom his influence was +radical, though perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences in his +last and greatest opera, "William Tell." But of this more hereafter. + +Before finally settling in the French capital, Rossini visited London, +where he was received with great honours. "When Rossini entered,"[H] +says a writer in a London paper of that date, "he was received with +loud plaudits, all the persons in the pit standing on the seats to get +a better view of him. He continued for a minute or two to bow +respectfully to the audience, and then gave the signal for the +overture to begin. He appeared stout and somewhat below the middle +height, with rather a heavy air, and a countenance which, though +intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity which distinguishes his +music; and it was remarked that he had more of the appearance of a +sturdy beef-eating Englishman than a fiery and sensitive native of the +south." + +The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On +more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded +concert-hall to the conductor's stand. Yet the composer, who seems not +to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much +independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to +signify his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St. +James's Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, +Rossini, we will have one piece more, and that shall be the _finale_." +The other replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one +night," and made his bow. + +He was an honoured guest at the most fashionable houses, where his +talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an +unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on +one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have +been in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere. +"I shall never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his +lightning-like execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically +at the ivory keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was +richer by seven thousand pounds by this visit to the English +metropolis. Though he had been under engagement to produce a new opera +as well as to conduct those which had already made him famous, he +failed to keep this part of his contract. Passages in his letters at +this time would seem to indicate that Rossini was much piqued because +the London public received his wife, to whom he was devotedly +attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding the beauty of her face and +figure, and the greatness of her style both as actress and singer, she +was pronounced _passée_ alike in person and voice, with a species of +brutal frankness not uncommon in English criticism. + +When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost immediately appointed +director of the Italian Opera by the Duc de Lauriston. With this and +the Académie he remained connected till the revolution of 1830. "Le +Siége de Corinthe," adapted from his old work, "Maometto II.," was the +first opera presented to the Parisian public, and, though admired, did +not become a favourite. The French _amour propre_ was a little stung +when it was made known that Rossini had simply modified and reshaped +one of his early and immature productions as his first attempt at +composition in French opera. His other works for the French stage were +"Il Viaggio a Rheims," "Le Comte Ory," and "Guillaume Tell." + +The last-named opera, which will ever be Rossini's crown of glory as a +composer, was written with his usual rapidity while visiting the +château of M. Aguado, a country-seat some distance from Paris. This +work, one of the half-dozen greatest ever written, was first produced +at the Académie Royale on August 3, 1829. In its early form of +libretto it had a run of fifty-six representations, and was then +withdrawn from the stage; and the work of remodelling from five to +three acts, and other improvements in the dramatic framework, was +thoroughly carried out. In its new form the opera blazed into an +unprecedented popularity, for of the greatness of the music there had +never been but one judgment. Fétis, the eminent critic, writing of it +immediately on its production, said--"The work displays a new man in +an old one, and proves that it is in vain to measure the action of +genius," and follows with--"This production opens a new career to +Rossini," a prophecy unfortunately not to be realised, for Rossini was +soon to retire from the field in which he had made such a remarkable +career, while yet in the very prime of his powers. + +"Guillaume Tell" is full of melody, alike in the solos and the massive +choral and ballet music. It runs in rich streams through every part of +the composition. The overture is better known to the general public +than the opera itself, and is one of the great works of musical art. +The opening andante in triple time for the five violoncelli and +double basses at once carries the hearer to the regions of the upper +Alps, where, amid the eternal snows, Nature sleeps in a peaceful +dream. We perceive the coming of the sunlight, and the hazy atmosphere +clearing away before the new-born day. In the next movement the +solitude is all dispelled. The raindrops fall thick and heavy, and a +thunderstorm bursts. But the fury is soon spent, and the clouds clear +away. The shepherds are astir, and from the mountain-sides come the +peculiar notes of the "Ranz des Vaches" from their pipes. Suddenly all +is changed again. Trumpets call to arms, and with the mustering +battalions the music marks the quickstep, as the shepherd patriots +march to meet the Austrian chivalry. A brilliant use of the violins +and reeds depicts the exultation of the victors on their return, and +closes one of the grandest sound-paintings in music. + +The original cast of "Guillaume Tell" included the great singers then +in Paris, and these were so delighted with the music, that the morning +after the first production they assembled on the terrace before his +house and performed selections from it in his honour. + +With this last great effort Rossini, at the age of thirty-seven, may +be said to have retired from the field of music, though his life was +prolonged for forty years. True, he composed the "Stabat Mater" and +the "Messe Solennelle," but neither of these added to the reputation +won in his previous career. The "Stabat Mater," publicly performed for +the first time in 1842, has been recognised, it is true, as a +masterpiece; but its entire lack of devotional solemnity, its +brilliant and showy texture, preclude its giving Rossini any rank as a +religious composer. + +He spent the forty years of his retirement partly at Bologna, partly +at Passy, near Paris, the city of his adoption. His hospitality +welcomed the brilliant men from all parts of Europe who loved to visit +him, and his relations with other great musicians were of the most +kindly and cordial character. His sunny and genial nature never knew +envy, and he was quick to recognise the merits of schools opposed to +his own. He died, after intense suffering, on November 13, 1868. He +had been some time ill, and four of the greatest physicians in Europe +were his almost constant attendants. The funeral of "The Swan of +Pesaro," as he was called by his compatriots, was attended by an +immense concourse, and his remains rest in Père-Lachaise. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[H] His first English appearance in public was at the King's Theatre, +on the 24th of January 1824, when he conducted his own opera, +"Zelmira." + + +V. + +Moscheles, the celebrated pianist, gives us some charming pictures of +Rossini in his home at Passy, in his diary of 1860. He writes--"Felix +[his son] had been made quite at home in the villa on former +occasions. To me the _parterre salon_, with its rich furniture, was +quite new, and before the _maestro_ himself appeared we looked at his +photograph in a circular porcelain frame, on the sides of which were +inscribed the names of his works. The ceiling is covered with pictures +illustrating scenes out of Palestrina's and Mozart's lives; in the +middle of the room stands a Pleyel piano. When Rossini came in he gave +me the orthodox Italian kiss, and was effusive of expressions of +delight at my reappearance, and very complimentary on the subject of +Felix. In the course of our conversation he was full of hard-hitting +truths on the present study and method of vocalisation. 'I don't want +to hear anything more of it,' he said; 'they scream. All I want is a +resonant, full-toned voice, not a screeching voice. I care not whether +it be for speaking or singing, everything ought to sound melodious.'" +So, too, Rossini assured Moscheles that he hated the new school of +piano-players, saying the piano was horribly maltreated, for the +performers thumped the keys as if they had some vengeance to wreak on +them. When the great player improvised for Rossini, the latter says, +"It is music that flows from the fountain-head. There is reservoir +water and spring water. The former only runs when you turn the cock, +and is always redolent of the vase; the latter always gushes forth +fresh and limpid. Nowadays people confound the simple and the +trivial; a _motif_ of Mozart they would call trivial, if they dared." + +On other occasions Moscheles plays to the _maestro_, who insists on +having discovered barriers in the "humoristic variations," so boldly +do they seem to raise the standard of musical revolution; his title of +the "Grand Valse" he finds too unassuming. "Surely a waltz with some +angelic creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with this +composition, and _that_ the title ought to express. Titles, in fact, +should pique the curiosity of the public." "A view uncongenial to me," +adds Moscheles; "however, I did not discuss it.... A dinner at +Rossini's is calculated for the enjoyment of a 'gourmet,' and he +himself proved to be the one, for he went through the very select +_menu_ as only a connoisseur would. After dinner he looked through my +album of musical autographs with the greatest interest, and finally we +became very merry, I producing my musical jokes on the piano, and +Felix and Clara figuring in the duet which I had written for her voice +and his imitation of the French horn. Rossini cheered lustily, and so +one joke followed another till we received the parting kiss and 'good +night.' ... At my next visit, Rossini showed me a charming 'Lied ohne +Worte,' which he composed only yesterday; a graceful melody is +embodied in the well-known technical form. Alluding to a performance +of 'Semiramide,' he said, with a malicious smile, 'I suppose you saw +the beautiful decorations in it?' He has not received the Sisters +Marchisio for fear they should sing to him, nor has he heard them in +the theatre; he spoke warmly of Pasta, Lablache, Rubini, and others, +then he added that I ought not to look with jealousy upon his budding +talent as a pianoforte-player, but that, on the contrary, I should +help to establish his reputation as such in Leipsic. He again +questioned me with much interest about my intimacy with Clementi, and, +calling me that master's worthy successor, he said he should like to +visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those dreadful railways, which +he would never travel by. All this in his bright and lively way; but +when we came to discuss Chevet, who wishes to supplant musical notes +by ciphers, he maintained, in an earnest and dogmatic tone, that the +system of notation, as it had developed itself since Pope Gregory's +time, was sufficient for all musical requirements. He certainly could +not withhold some appreciation for Chevet, but refused to indorse the +certificate granted by the Institute in his favour; the system he +thought impracticable. + +"The never-failing stream of conversation flowed on until eleven +o'clock, when I was favoured with the inevitable kiss, which on this +occasion was accompanied by special farewell blessings." + +Shortly after Moscheles had left Paris, his son forwarded to him most +friendly messages from Rossini, and continues thus--"Rossini sends you +word that he is working hard at the piano, and, when you next come to +Paris, you shall find him in better practice.... The conversation +turning upon German music, I asked him 'which was his favourite among +the great masters?' Of Beethoven he said, 'I take him twice a-week, +Haydn four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that +Beethoven is a Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, while +Mozart is always adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of +going very young to Italy, at a time when they still sang well.' Of +Weber he says, 'He has talent enough, and to spare' (_Il a du talent à +revendre, celui-là_). He told me in reference to him, that, when the +part of 'Tancred' was sung at Berlin by a bass voice, Weber had +written violent articles not only against the management, but against +the composer, so that, when Weber came to Paris, he did not venture to +call on Rossini, who, however, let him know that he bore him no grudge +for having made these attacks; on receipt of that message Weber called +and they became acquainted. + +"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? 'Only in a restaurant,' +was the answer, 'where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, +therefore, was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don't +know what he says.' I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, +Byron's words, which happened to be fresh in my memory--'They have +been crucifying Othello into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, +but, as for the words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the +greatest nonsense instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, +and the first singer would not black his face--singing, dresses, and +music very good.' The _maestro_ regretted his ignorance of the English +language, and said, 'In my day I gave much time to the study of our +Italian literature. Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more +music than all my music-masters put together, and when I wrote my +"Otello," I would introduce those lines of Dante--you know the song of +the gondolier. My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang +Dante, and but rarely Tasso, but I answered him, "I know all about +that better than you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven't. +Dante I must and will have."'" + + +VI. + +An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for the +Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the +following--"Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking +of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic +melodies to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of +thought and sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp +of French declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new +gospel, and eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini +poured out in inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the +delight of all the countries of Europe in music which for a long time +almost monopolised the stage. + +The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, +depth, and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of +critics wedded to other schools. But Rossini's place in music stands +unshaken by all assaults. The vivacity of his style, the freshness of +his melodies, the richness of his combinations, made all the Italian +music that preceded him pale and colourless. No other writer revels +in such luxury of beauty, and delights the ear with such a succession +of delicious surprises in melody. + +Henry Chorley, in his _Thirty Years' Musical Recollections_, rebukes +the bigotry which sees nothing good but in its own kind--"I have never +been able to understand why this [referring to the Rossinian richness +of melody] should be contemned as necessarily false and +meretricious--why the poet may not be allowed the benefit of his own +period and time--why a lover of architecture is to be compelled to +swear by the _Dom_ at Bamberg, or by the Cathedral at Monreale--that +he must abhor and denounce Michael Angelo's church or the Baths of +Diocletian at Rome--why the person who enjoys 'Il Barbiere' is to be +denounced as frivolously faithless to Mozart's 'Figaro'--and as +incapable of comprehending 'Fidelio,' because the last act of 'Otello' +and the second of 'Guillaume Tell' transport him into as great an +enjoyment of its kind as do the duet in the cemetery between Don Juan +and Leporello and the 'Prisoners' Chorus.' How much good, genial +pleasure has not the world lost in music, owing to the pitting of +styles one against the other! Your true traveller will be all the more +alive to the beauty of Nuremberg because he has looked out over the +'Golden Shell' at Palermo; nor delight in Rhine and Danube the less +because he has seen the glow of a southern sunset over the broken +bridge at Avignon." + +As grand and true as are many of the essential elements in the Wagner +school of musical composition, the bitterness and narrowness of spite +with which its upholders have pursued the memory of Rossini is equally +offensive and unwarrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolutionise +the forms of opera as transmitted to him by his predecessors, but he +reformed and perfected them in various notable ways. Both in comic and +serious opera, music owes much to Rossini. He substituted genuine +singing for the endless recitative of which the Italian opera before +him largely consisted; he brought the bass and baritone voices to the +front, banished the pianoforte from the orchestra, and laid down the +principle that the singer should deliver the notes written for him +without additions of his own. He gave the chorus a much more important +part than before, and elaborated the concerted music, especially in +the _finales_, to a degree of artistic beauty before unknown in the +Italian opera. Above all, he made the operatic orchestra what it is +to-day. Every new instrument that was invented Rossini found a place +for in his brilliant scores, and thereby incurred the warmest +indignation of all writers of the old school. Before him the +orchestras had consisted largely of strings, but Rossini added an +equally imposing element of the brasses and reeds. True, Mozart had +forestalled Rossini in many if not all these innovations, a fact which +the Italian cheerfully admitted; for, with the simple frankness +characteristic of the man, he always spoke of his obligations to and +his admiration of the great German. To an admirer who was one day +burning incense before him, Rossini said, in the spirit of Cimarosa +quoted elsewhere, "My 'Barber' is only a bright farce, but in Mozart's +'Marriage of Figaro' you have the finest possible masterpiece of +musical comedy." + +With all concessions made to Mozart as the founder of the forms of +modern opera, an equally high place must be given to Rossini for the +vigour and audacity with which he made these available, and impressed +them on all his contemporaries and successors. Though Rossini's +self-love was flattered by constant adulation, his expressions of +respect and admiration for such composers as Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, +and Cherubini, display what a catholic and generous nature he +possessed. The judgment of Ambros, a severe critic, whose bias was +against Rossini, shows what admiration was wrung from him by the last +opera of the composer--"Of all that particularly characterises +Rossini's early operas nothing is discoverable in 'Tell;' there is +none of his usual mannerism; but, on the contrary, unusual richness of +form and careful finish of detail, combined with grandeur of outline. +Meretricious embellishment, shakes, runs, and cadences are carefully +avoided in this work, which is natural and characteristic throughout; +even the melodies have not the stamp and style of Rossini's earlier +times, but only their graceful charm and lively colouring." + +Rossini must be allowed to be unequalled in genuine comic opera, and +to have attained a distinct greatness in serious opera, to be the most +comprehensive, and, at the same time, the most national composer of +Italy--to be, in short, the Mozart of his country. After all has been +admitted and regretted--that he gave too little attention to musical +science; that he often neglected to infuse into his work the depth and +passion of which it was easily capable; that he placed too high a +value on merely brilliant effects _ad captandum vulgus_--there remains +the fact that his operas embody a mass of imperishable music, which +will live with the art itself. Musicians of every country now admit +his wondrous grace, his fertility and freshness of invention, his +matchless treatment of the voice, his effectiveness in arrangement of +the orchestra. He can never be made a model, for his genius had too +much spontaneity and individuality of colour. But he impressed and +modified music hardly less than Gluck, whose tastes and methods were +entirely antagonistic to his own. That he should have retired from the +exercise of his art while in the full flower of his genius is a +perplexing fact. No stranger story is recorded in the annals of art +with respect to a genius who filled the world with his glory, and then +chose to vanish, "not unseen." On finishing his crowning stroke of +genius and skill in "William Tell," he might have said with +Shakespeare's enchanter, Prospero-- + + "... But this magic + I here abjure; and when I have required + Some heavenly music (which even now I do) + To work mine end upon their senses that + This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff-- + Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, + And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, + I'll drown my book." + + + + +_DONIZETTI AND BELLINI._ + + +I. + +A bright English critic, whose style is as charming as his judgments +are good, says, in his study of the Donizetti music, "I find myself +thinking of his music as I do of Domenichino's pictures of 'St. Agnes' +and the 'Rosario' in the Bologna gallery, of the 'Diana' in the +Borghese Palace at Rome, as pictures equable and skilful in the +treatment of their subjects, neither devoid of beauty of form nor of +colour, but which make neither the pulse quiver nor the eye wet; and +then such a sweeping judgment is arrested by a work like the 'St. +Jerome' in the Vatican, from which a spirit comes forth so strong and +so exalted, that the beholder, however trained to examine and compare +and collect, finds himself raised above all recollections of manner by +the sudden ascent of talent into the higher world of genius. +Essentially a second-rate composer,[I] Donizetti struck out some +first-rate things in a happy hour, such as the last act of 'La +Favorita.'" + +Both Donizetti and Bellini, though far inferior to their master in +richness of resources, in creative faculty and instinct for what may +be called dramatic expression in pure musical form, were disciples of +Rossini in their ideas and methods of work. Milton sang of +Shakespeare-- + + "Sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + Warbles his native wood-notes wild!" + +In a similar spirit, many learned critics have written of Rossini, and +if it can be said of him in a musical sense that he had "little Latin +and less Greek," still more true is it of the two popular composers +whose works have filled so large a space in the opera-house of the +last thirty years, for their scores are singularly thin, measured by +the standard of advanced musical science. Specially may this be said +of Bellini, in many respects the greater of the two. There is scarcely +to be found in music a more signal example to show that a marked +individuality may rest on a narrow base. In justice to him, however, +it may be said that his early death prevented him from doing full +justice to his powers, for he had in him the material out of which the +great artist is made. Let us first sketch the career of Donizetti, the +author of sixty-four operas, besides a mass of other music, such as +cantatas, ariettas, duets, church music, etc., in the short space of +twenty-six years. + +GÄETANO DONIZETTI was born at Bergamo, 25th September 1798, his father +being a man of moderate fortune.[J] Receiving a good classical +education, the young Gäetano had three careers open before him: the +bar, to which the will of his father inclined; architecture, indicated +by his talent for drawing; and music, to which he was powerfully +impelled by his own inclinations. His father sent him, at the age of +seventeen, to Bologna to benefit by the instruction of Padre Mattei, +who had also been Rossini's master. The young man showed no +disposition for the heights of musical science as demanded by +religious composition, and, much to his father's disgust, avowed his +determination to write dramatic music. Paternal anger, for the elder +Donizetti seems to have had a strain of Scotch obstinacy and +austerity, made the youth enlist as a soldier, thinking to find time +for musical work in the leisure of barrack-life. His first opera, +"Enrico di Borgogna," was so highly admired by the Venetian manager, +to whom it was offered, that he induced friends of his to release +young Donizetti from his military servitude. He now pursued musical +composition with a facility and industry which astonished even the +Italians, familiar with feats of improvisation. In ten years +twenty-eight operas were produced. Such names as "Olivo e Pasquale," +"La Convenienze Teatrali," "Il Borgomaestro di Saardam," "Gianni di +Calais," "L'Esule di Roma," "Il Castello di Kenilworth," "Imelda di +Lambertazzi," have no musical significance, except as belonging to a +catalogue of forgotten titles. Donizetti was so poorly paid that need +drove him to rapid composition, which could not wait for the true +afflatus. + +It was not till 1831 that the evidence of a strong individuality was +given, for hitherto he had shown little more than a slavish imitation +of Rossini. "Anna Bolena" was produced at Milan and gained him great +credit, and even now, though it is rarely sung even in Italy, it is +much respected as a work of art as well as of promise. It was first +interpreted by Pasta and Rubini, and Lablache won his earliest London +triumph in it. "Marino Faliero" was composed for Paris in 1835, and +"L'Elisir d'Amore," one of the most graceful and pleasing of +Donizetti's works, for Milan in 1832. "Lucia di Lammermoor," based on +Sir Walter Scott's novel, was given to the public in 1835, and has +remained the most popular of the composer's operas. Edgardo was +written for the great French tenor, Duprez, Lucia for Persiani. + +Donizetti's kindness of heart was illustrated by the interesting +circumstances of his saving an obscure Neapolitan theatre from ruin. +Hearing that it was on the verge of suspension and the performers in +great distress, the composer sought them out and supplied their +immediate wants. The manager said a new work from the pen of +Donizetti would be his salvation. "You shall have one within a week," +was the answer. + +Lacking a subject, he himself rearranged an old French vaudeville, and +within the week the libretto was written, the music composed, the +parts learned, the opera performed, and the theatre saved. There could +be no greater proof of his generosity of heart and his versatility of +talent. In these days of bitter quarrelling over the rights of authors +in their works, it may be amusing to know that Victor Hugo contested +the rights of Italian librettists to borrow their plots from French +plays. When "Lucrezia Borgia," composed for Milan in 1834, was +produced at Paris in 1840, the French poet instituted a suit for an +infringement of copyright. He gained his action, and "Lucrezia Borgia" +became "La Rinegata," Pope Alexander the Sixth's Italians being +metamorphosed into Turks.[K] + +"Lucrezia Borgia," which, though based on one of the most dramatic of +stories and full of beautiful music, is not dramatically treated by +the composer, seems to mark the distance about half-way between the +styles of Rossini and Verdi. In it there is but little recitative, and +in the treatment of the chorus we find the method which Verdi +afterwards came to use exclusively. When Donizetti revisited Paris in +1840, he produced in rapid succession "I Martiri," "La Fille du +Regiment," and "La Favorita." In the second of these works Jenny Lind, +Sontag, and Alboni won bright triumphs at a subsequent period. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[I] Mr. Chorley probably means "second-rate" as compared with the few +very great names, which can be easily counted on the fingers. + +[J] Admirers of the author of "Don Pasquale" and "Lucia" may be +interested in knowing that Donizetti was of Scotch descent. His +grandfather was a native of Perthshire, named Izett. The young Scot +was beguiled by the fascinating tongue of a recruiting-sergeant into +his Britannic majesty's service, and was taken prisoner by General La +Hoche during the latter's invasion of Ireland. Already tired of a +private's life, he accepted the situation, and was induced to become +the French general's private secretary. Subsequently he drifted to +Italy, and married an Italian lady of some rank, denationalising his +own name into Donizetti. The Scottish predilections of our composer +show themselves in the music of "Don Pasquale," noticeably in "Com' e +gentil;" and the score of "Lucia" is strongly flavoured by Scottish +sympathy and minstrelsy. + +[K] Victor Hugo did the same thing with Verdi's "Ernani," and other +French authors followed with legal actions. The matter was finally +arranged on condition of an indemnity being paid to the original +French dramatists. The principle involved had been established nearly +two centuries before. In a privilege granted to St. Amant in 1653 for +the publication of his "Moïse Sauvé," it was forbidden to extract from +that epic materials for a play or poem. The descendants of +Beaumarchais fought for the same concession, and not very long ago it +was decided that the translators and arrangers of "Le Nozze di Figaro" +for the Théâtre Lyrique must share their receipts with the living +representatives of the author of "Le Mariage de Figaro." + + +II. + +"La Favorita," the story of which was drawn from "L'Ange de Nisida," +and founded in the first instance on a French play, "Le Comte de +Commingues," was put on the stage at the Académie with a magnificent +cast and scenery, and achieved a success immediately great, for as a +dramatic opera it stands far in the van of all the composer's +productions. The whole of the grand fourth act, with the exception of +one cavatina, was composed in three hours. Donizetti had been dining +at the house of a friend, who was engaged in the evening to go to a +ball. On leaving the house his host, with profuse apologies, begged +the composer to stay and finish his coffee, of which Donizetti was +inordinately fond. The latter sent out for music paper, and, finding +himself in the vein for composition, went on writing till the +completion of the work. He had just put the final stroke to the +celebrated "Viens dans un autre patrie" when his friend returned at +one in the morning to congratulate him on his excellent method of +passing the time, and to hear the music sung for the first time from +Donizetti's own lips. + +After visiting Rome, Milan, and Vienna, for which last city he wrote +"Linda di Chamouni," our composer returned to Paris, and in 1843 wrote +"Don Pasquale" for the Théâtre Italien, and "Don Sebastian" for the +Académie. Its lugubrious drama was fatal to the latter, but the +brilliant gaiety of "Don Pasquale," rendered specially delightful by +such a cast as Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache, made it one of +the great art attractions of Paris, and a Fortunatus purse for the +manager. The music of this work, perhaps, is the best ever written by +Donizetti, though it lacks the freshness and sentiment of his "Elisir +d'Amore," which is steeped in rustic poetry and tenderness like a rose +wet with dew. The production of "Maria di Rohan" in Vienna the same +year, an opera with some powerful dramatic effects and bold music, +gave Ronconi the opportunity to prove himself not merely a fine buffo +singer, but a noble tragic actor. In this work Donizetti displays +that rugged earnestness and vigour so characteristic of Verdi; and, +had his life been greatly prolonged, we might have seen him ripen into +a passion and power at odds with the elegant frivolity which for the +most part tainted his musical quality. Donizetti's last opera, +"Catarina Comaro," the sixty-third one represented, was brought out at +Naples in the year 1844, without adding aught to his reputation. Of +this composer's long list of works only ten or eleven retain any hold +on the stage, his best serious operas being "La Favorita," "Linda," +"Anna Bolena," "Lucrezia Borgia," and "Lucia;" the finest comic works, +"L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du Regiment," and "Don Pasquale." + +In composing Donizetti never used the pianoforte, writing with great +rapidity and never making corrections. Yet curious to say, he could +not do anything without a small ivory scraper by his side, though +never using it. It was given him by his father when commencing his +career, with the injunction that, as he was determined to become a +musician, he should make up his mind to write as little rubbish as +possible, advice which Donizetti sometimes forgot. + +The first signs of the malady, which was the cause of the composer's +death, had already shown themselves in 1845. Fits of hallucination and +all the symptoms of approaching derangement displayed themselves with +increasing intensity. An incessant worker, overseer of his operas on +twenty stages, he had to pay the tax by which his fame became his +ruin. It is reported that he anticipated the coming scourge, for +during the rehearsals of "Don Sebastian" he said, "I think I shall go +mad yet." Still he would not put the bridle on his restless activity. +At last paralysis seized him, and in January 1846 he was placed under +the care of the celebrated Dr. Blanche at Ivry. In the hope that the +mild influence of his native air might heal his distempered brain, he +was sent to Bergamo, in 1848, but died in his brother's arms April +8th. The inhabitants of the Peninsula were then at war with Austria, +and the bells that sounded the knell of Donizetti's departure mingled +their solemn peals with the roar of the cannon fired to celebrate the +victory of Goïto. + +His faithful valet, Antoine, wrote to Adolphe Adam, describing his +obsequies:--"More than four thousand persons," he relates, "were +present at the ceremony. The procession was composed of the numerous +clergy of Bergamo, the most illustrious members of the community and +its environs, and of the civic guard of the town and the suburbs. The +discharge of musketry, mingled with the light of three or four +thousand torches, presented a fine effect; the whole was enhanced by +the presence of three military bands and the most propitious weather +it was possible to behold. The young gentlemen of Bergamo insisted on +bearing the remains of their illustrious fellow-townsman, although the +cemetery was a league and a-half from the town. The road was crowded +its whole length by people who came from the surrounding country to +witness the procession; and to give due praise to the inhabitants of +Bergamo, never, hitherto, had such great honours been bestowed upon +any member of that city." + + +III. + +The future author of "Norma" and "La Sonnambula," Bellini, took his +first lessons in music from his father, an organist at Catania.[L] He +was sent to the Naples Conservatory by the generosity of a noble +patron, and there was the fellow-pupil of Mercadante, a composer who +blazed into a temporary lustre which threatened to outshine his +fellows, but is now forgotten except by the antiquarian and the lover +of church music. Bellini's early works, for he composed three before +he was twenty, so pleased Barbaja, the manager of the San Carlo and La +Scala, that he intrusted the youth with the libretto "Il Pirata," to +be composed for representation at Florence. The tenor part was written +for the great singer, Rubini, whose name has no peer among artists +since male sopranos were abolished by the outraged moral sense of +society. Rubini retired to the country with Bellini, and studied, as +they were produced, the simple touching airs with which he so +delighted the public on the stage. + +La Scala rang with plaudits when the opera was produced, and Bellini's +career was assured. "I Capuletti" was his next successful opera, +performed at Venice in 1829, but it never became popular out of Italy. + +The significant period of Bellini's life was in the year 1831, which +produced "La Sonnambula," to be followed by "Norma" the next season. +Both these were written for and introduced before the Neapolitan +public. In these works he reached his highest development, and by them +he is best known to fame. The opera-story of "La Sonnambula," by +Romani, an accomplished writer and scholar, is one of the most +artistic and effective ever put into the hands of a composer. M. +Scribe had already used the plot, both as the subject of a vaudeville +and a choregraphic drama; but in Romani's hands it became a +symmetrical story full of poetry and beauty. The music of this opera, +throbbing with pure melody and simple emotion, as natural and fresh as +a bed of wild flowers, went to the heart of the universal public, +learned and unlearned; and, in spite of its scientific faults, it will +never cease to delight future generations, as long as hearts beat and +eyes are moistened with human tenderness and sympathy. And yet, of +this work an English critic wrote, on its first London presentation:-- + +"Bellini has soared too high; there is nothing of grandeur, no touch +of true pathos in the commonplace workings of his mind. He cannot +reach the _opera semiseria_; he should confine his powers to the +musical drama, the one-act _opera buffa_." But the history of +art-criticism is replete with such instances. + +"Norma" was also a grand triumph for the young composer from the +outset, especially as the lofty character of the Druid priestess was +sung by that unapproachable lyric tragedienne, the Siddons of the +opera, Madame Pasta. Bellini is said to have had this queen of +dramatic song in his mind in writing the opera, and right nobly did +she vindicate his judgment, for no European audience afterwards but +was thrilled and carried away by her masterpiece of acting and singing +in this part. + +Bellini himself considered "Norma" his _chef-d'oeuvre_. A beautiful +Parisienne attempted to extract from his reluctant lips his preference +of his own works. The lady finally overcame his evasions by the query, +"But if you were out at sea, and should be shipwrecked----" "Ah!" he +cried, without allowing her to finish. "I would leave all the rest and +try to save 'Norma.'" + +"I Puritani" was composed for and performed at Paris in 1834, by that +splendid quartette of artists, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache. +Bellini compelled the singers to execute after _his_ style. While +Rubini was rehearsing the tenor part, the composer cried out in rage, +"You put no life into your music. Show some feeling. Don't you know +what love is?" Then changing his tone, "Don't you know your voice is a +gold-mine that has not been fully explored? You are an excellent +artist, but that is not sufficient. You must forget yourself and +represent Gualtiero. Let's try again." The tenor, stung by the +admonition, then gave the part magnificently. After the success of "I +Puritani," the composer received the Cross of the Legion of Honour, an +honour then not often bestowed. The "Puritani" season is still +remembered, it is said, with peculiar pleasure by the older +connoisseurs of Paris and London, as the enthusiasm awakened in +musical circles has rarely been equalled. + +Bellini had placed himself under contract to write two new works +immediately, one for Paris, the other for Naples, and retired to the +villa of a friend at Puteaux to insure the more complete seclusion. +Here, while pursuing his art with almost sleepless ardour, he was +attacked by his fatal malady, intestinal fever. + +"From his youth up," says his biographer Mould, "Vincenzo's eagerness +in his art was such as to keep him at the piano night and day, till he +was obliged forcibly to leave it. The ruling passion accompanied him +through his short life, and by the assiduity with which he pursued it +brought on the dysentery which closed his brilliant career, peopling +his last hours with the figures of those to whom his works owed so +much of their success. During the moments of delirium which preceded +his death, he was constantly speaking of Lablache, Tamburini, and +Grisi; and one of his last recognisable impressions was that he was +present at a brilliant representation of his last opera at the Salle +Favart." His earthly career closed September 23, 1835, at the age of +thirty-three. + +On the eve of his interment, the Théâtre Italien reopened with the +"Puritani." It was an occasion full of solemn gloom. Both the +musicians and audience broke from time to time into sobs. Tamburini, +in particular, was so oppressed by the death of his young friend that +his vocalisation, generally so perfect, was often at fault, while the +faces of Grisi, Rubini, and Lablache too plainly showed their aching +hearts. + +Rossini, Cherubini, Paer, and Carafa had charge of the funeral, and M. +Habeneck, _chef d'orchestre_ of the Académie Royale, of the music. The +next remarkable piece on the funeral programme was a _Lacrymosa_ for +four voices without accompaniment, in which the text of the Latin hymn +was united to the beautiful tenor melody in the third act of the +"Puritani." This was executed by Rubini, Ivanoff, Tamburini, and +Lablache. The services were performed at the Church of the Invalides, +and the remains were interred in Père Lachaise. + +Rossini had ever shown great love for Bellini, and Rosario Bellini, +the stricken father, wrote to him a touching letter, in which, after +speaking of his grief and despair, the old man said-- + +"You always encouraged the object of my eternal regret in his labours; +you took him under your protection, you neglected nothing that could +increase his glory and his welfare. After my son's death, what have +you not done to honour my son's name and render it dear to posterity? +I learned this from the newspapers; and I am penetrated with gratitude +for your excessive kindness as well as for that of a number of +distinguished artists, which also I shall never forget. Pray, sir, be +my interpreter, and tell these artists that the father and family of +Bellini, as well as of our compatriots of Catania, will cherish an +imperishable recollection of this generous conduct. I shall never +cease to remember how much you did for my son. I shall make known +everywhere, in the midst of my tears, what an affectionate heart +belongs to the great Rossini, and how kind, hospitable, and full of +feeling are the artists of France." + +Bellini was affable, sincere, honest, and affectionate. Nature gave +him a beautiful and ingenuous face, noble features, large, clear blue +eyes, and abundant light hair. His countenance instantly won on the +regards of all that met him. His disposition was melancholy; a secret +depression often crept over his most cheerful hours. We are told there +was a tender romance in his earlier life. The father of the lady he +loved, a Neapolitan judge, refused his suit on account of his inferior +social position. When Bellini became famous the judge wished to make +amends, but Bellini's pride interfered. Soon after the young lady, who +loved him unalterably, died, and it is said the composer never +recovered from the shock. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[L] Bellini was born in 1802, nine years after his contemporary and +rival, Donizetti, and died in 1835, thirteen years before. + + +IV. + +Donizetti and Bellini were peculiarly moulded by the great genius of +Rossini, but in their best works they show individuality, colour, and +special creative activity. The former composer, one of the most +affluent in the annals of music, seemed to become more fresh in his +fancies with increased production. He is an example of how little the +skill and touch, belonging to unceasing work, should be despised in +comparison with what is called inspiration. Donizetti arrived at his +freshest creations at a time when there seemed but little left for him +except the trite and threadbare. There are no melodies so rich and +well fancied as those to be found in his later works; and in sense of +dramatic form and effective instrumentation (always a faulty point +with Donizetti) he displayed great progress at the last. It is, +however, a noteworthy fact, that the latest Italian composers have +shown themselves quite weak in composing expressly for the orchestra. +No operatic overture since "William Tell" has been produced by this +school of music, worthy to be rendered in a concert-room. + +Donizetti lacked the dramatic instinct in conceiving his music. In +attempting it he became hollow and theatric; and beautiful as are the +melodies and concerted pieces in "Lucia," where the subject ought to +inspire a vivid dramatic nature with such telling effects, it is in +the latter sense one of the most disappointing of operas. + +He redeemed himself for the nonce, however, in the fourth act of "La +Favorita," where there is enough musical and dramatic beauty to +condone the sins of the other three acts. The solemn and affecting +church chant, the passionate romance for the tenor, the great closing +duet in which the ecstasy of despair rises to that of exaltation, the +resistless sweep of the rhythm--all mark one of the most effective +single acts ever written. He showed himself here worthy of +companionship with Rossini and Meyerbeer. + +In his comic operas, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du Regiment," and +"Don Pasquale," there is a continual well-spring of sunny, bubbling +humour. They are slight, brilliant, and catching, everything that +pedantry condemns, and the popular taste delights in. Mendelssohn, the +last of the German classical composers, admired "L'Elisir," so much +that he said he would have liked to have written it himself. It may be +said that while Donizetti lacks grand conceptions, or even great +beauties for the most part, his operas contain so much that is +agreeable, so many excellent opportunities for vocal display, such +harmony between sound and situation, that he will probably retain a +hold on the stage when much greater composers are only known to the +general public by name. + +Bellini, with less fertility and grace, possessed far more +picturesqueness and intensity. His powers of imagination transcended +his command over the working tools of his art. Even more lacking in +exact and extended musical science than Donizetti, he could express +what came within his range with a simple vigour, grasp, and beauty, +which make him a truly dramatic composer. In addition to this, a +matter which many great composers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary +skill in writing music for the voice, not that which merely gave +opportunity for executive trickery and embellishment, but the genuine +accents of passion, pathos, and tenderness, in forms best adapted to +be easily and effectively delivered. + +He had no flexibility, no command over mirthful inspiration, such as +we hear in Mozart, Rossini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in +subtile _rapport_ with the graver aspects of nature and life. Chorley +sums up this characteristic of Bellini in the following words:-- + +"In spite of the inexperience with which the instrumental score is +filled up, the opening scene of 'Norma' in the dim druidical wood +bears the true character of ancient sylvan antiquity. There is +daybreak again--a fresh tone of reveille--in the prelude to 'I +Puritani.' If Bellini's genius was not versatile in its means of +expression, if it had not gathered all the appliances by which science +fertilises Nature, it beyond all doubt included appreciation of truth, +no less than instinct for beauty." + + + + +_VERDI._ + + +I. + +In 1872 the Khédive of Egypt, an oriental ruler, whose love of western +art and civilisation has since tangled him in economic meshes to +escape from which has cost him his independence, produced a new opera +with barbaric splendour of appointments, at Grand Cairo. The spacious +theatre blazed with fantastic dresses and showy uniforms, and the +curtain rose on a drama which gave a glimpse to the Arabs, Copts, and +Franks present of the life and religion, the loves and hates of +ancient Pharaonic times, set to music by the most celebrated of living +Italian composers. + +That an eastern prince should have commissioned Giuseppe Verdi to +write "Aida" for him, in his desire to emulate western sovereigns as a +patron of art, is an interesting fact, but not wonderful or +significant. + +The opera itself was freighted, however, with peculiar significance as +an artistic work, far surpassing that of the circumstances which gave +it origin, or which saw its first production in the mysterious land of +the Nile and Sphinx. + +Originally a pupil, thoroughly imbued with the method and spirit of +Rossini, though never lacking in original quality, Verdi as a young +man shared the suffrages of admiring audiences with Donizetti and +Bellini. Even when he diverged widely from his parent stem and took +rank as the representative of the melodramatic school of music, he +remained true to the instincts of his Italian training. + +The remarkable fact is that Verdi, at the age of fifty-eight, when it +might have been safely assumed that his theories and preferences were +finally crystallised, produced an opera in which he clasped hands with +the German enthusiast, who preached an art system radically opposed to +his own, and lashed with scathing satire the whole musical cult of the +Italian race. + +In "Aida" and the "Manzoni Mass," written in 1873, Verdi, the leader +among living Italian composers, practically conceded that, in the +long, bitterly fought battle between Teuton and Italian in music, the +former was the victor. In the opera we find a new departure, which, if +not embodying all the philosophy of the "new school," is stamped with +its salient traits--viz., the subordination of all the individual +effects to the perfection and symmetry of the whole; a lavish demand +on all the sister arts to contribute their rich gifts to the +heightening of the illusion; a tendency to enrich the harmonic value +in the choruses, the concerted pieces, and the instrumentation, to the +great sacrifice of the solo pieces; the use of the heroic and mythical +element as a theme. + +Verdi, the subject of this interesting revolution, has filled a very +brilliant place in modern musical art, and his career has been in some +ways as picturesque as his music. + +Verdi's parents were literally hewers of wood and drawers of water, +earning their bread, after the manner of Italian peasants, at a small +settlement called La Roncali, near Busseto, where the future composer +was born on October 9, 1813. + +His earliest recollections were with the little village church, where +the little Giuseppe listened with delight to the church organ, for, as +with all great musicians, his fondness for music showed itself at a +very early age. The elder Verdi, though very poor, gratified the +child's love of music when he was about eight by buying a small +spinet, and placing him under the instruction of Provesi, a teacher in +Busseto. The boy entered on his studies with ardour, and made more +rapid progress than the slender facilities which were allowed him +would ordinarily justify. + +An event soon occurred which was destined to wield a lasting influence +on his destiny. He one day heard a skilful performance on a fine +piano, while passing by one of the better houses of Busseto. From that +time a constant fascination drew him to the house; for day after day +he lingered and seemed unwilling to go away lest he should perchance +lose some of the enchanting sounds which so enraptured him. The owner +of the premises was a rich merchant, one Antonio Barezzi, a cultivated +and high-minded man, and a passionate lover of music withal. 'Twas his +daughter whose playing gave the young Verdi such pleasure. + +Signor Barezzi had often seen the lingering and absorbed lad, who +stood as if in a dream, oblivious to all that passed around him in the +practical work-a-day world. So one day he accosted him pleasantly and +inquired why he came so constantly and stayed so long doing nothing. + +"I play the piano a little," said the boy, "and I like to come here +and listen to the fine playing in your house." + +"Oh! if that is the case, come in with me that you may enjoy it more +at your ease, and hereafter you are welcome to do so whenever you feel +inclined." + +It may be imagined the delighted boy did not refuse the kind +invitation, and the acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy, for the +rich merchant learned to regard the bright young musician with much +affection, which it is needless to say was warmly returned. Verdi was +untiring in study and spent the early years of his youth in humble +quiet, in the midst of those beauties of nature which have so powerful +an influence in moulding great susceptibilities. At his seventeenth +year he had acquired as much musical knowledge as could be acquired at +a place like Busseto, and he became anxious to go to Milan to continue +his studies. The poverty of his family precluding any assistance from +this quarter, he was obliged to find help from an eleemosynary fund +then existing in his native town. This was an institution called the +Monte di Pietà, which offered yearly to four young men the sum of +twenty-five _lire_ a-month each, in order to help them to an +education; and Verdi, making an application and sustained by the +influence of his friend the rich merchant, was one of the four whose +good fortune it was to be selected. + +The allowance thus obtained, with some assistance from Barezzi, +enabled the ambitious young musician to go to Milan, carrying with him +some of his compositions. When he presented himself for examination +at the Conservatory, he was made to play on the piano, and his +compositions examined. The result fell on his hopes like a +thunderbolt. The pedantic and narrow-minded examiners not only scoffed +at the state of his musical knowledge, but told him he was incapable +of becoming a musician. To weaker souls this would have been a +terrible discouragement, but to his ardour and self-confidence it was +only a challenge. Barezzi had equal confidence in the abilities of his +_protégé_, and warmly encouraged him to work and hope. Verdi engaged +an excellent private teacher and pursued his studies with unflagging +energy, denying himself all but the barest necessities, and going +sometimes without sufficient food. + +A stroke of fortune now fell in his way; the place of organist fell +vacant at the Busseto church, and Verdi was appointed to fill it. He +returned home, and was soon afterwards married to the daughter of the +benefactor to whom he owed so much. He continued to apply himself with +great diligence to the study of his art, and completed an opera early +in 1839. He succeeded in arranging for the production of this work, +"L'Oberto, Conte de San Bonifacio," at La Scala, Milan; but it excited +little comment and was soon forgotten, like the scores of other +shallow or immature compositions so prolifically produced in Italy. + +The impresario, Merelli, believed in the young composer though, for he +thought he discovered signs of genius. So he gave him a contract to +write three operas, one of which was to be an _opera buffa_, and to be +ready in the following autumn. With hopeful spirits Verdi set to work +on the opera, but that year of 1840 was to be one of great trouble and +trial. Hardly had he set to work all afire with eagerness and hope, +when he was seized with severe illness. His recovery was followed by +the successive sickening of his two children, who died, a terrible +blow to the father's fond heart. Fate had the crowning stroke though +still to give, for the young mother, agonised by this loss, was seized +with a fatal inflammation of the brain. Thus within a brief period +Verdi was bereft of all the sweet consolations of home, and his life +became a burden to him. Under these conditions he was to write a comic +opera, full of sparkle, gaiety, and humour. Can we wonder that his +work was a failure? The public came to be amused by bright, joyous +music, for it was nothing to them that the composer's heart was dead +with grief at his afflictions. The audience hissed "Un Giorno di +Regno," for it proved a funereal attempt at mirth. So Verdi sought to +annul the contract. + +To this the impresario replied-- + +"So be it, if you wish; but, whenever you want to write again on the +same terms, you will find me ready." + +To tell the truth, the composer was discouraged by his want of +success, and wholly broken down by his numerous trials. He now +withdrew from all society, and, having hired a small room in an +out-of-the-way part of Milan, passed most of his time in reading the +worst books that could be found, rarely going out, unless occasionally +in the evening, never giving his attention to study of any kind, and +never touching the piano. Such was his life from October 1840 to +January 1841. One evening, early in the new year, while out walking, +he chanced to meet Merelli, who took him by the arm; and, as they +sauntered towards the theatre, the impresario told him that he was in +great trouble, Nicolai, who was to write an opera for him, having +refused to accept a _libretto_ entitled "Nabucco." + +To this Verdi replied-- + +"I am glad to be able to relieve you of your difficulty. Don't you +remember the libretto of 'Il Proscritto,' which you procured for me, +and for which I have never composed the music? Give that to Nicolai in +place of 'Nabucco.'" + +Merelli thanked him for his kind offer, and, as they reached the +theatre, asked him to go in, that they might ascertain whether the +manuscript of "Il Proscritto" was really there. It was at length +found, and Verdi was on the point of leaving, when Merelli slipped +into his pocket the book of "Nabucco," asking him to look it over. For +want of something to do, he took up the drama the next morning and +read it through, realising how truly grand it was in conception. But, +as a lover forces himself to feign indifference to his coquettish +_innamorata_, so he, disregarding his inclinations, returned the +manuscript to Merelli that same day. + +"Well?" said Merelli, inquiringly. + +"_Musicabilissimo!_" he replied; "full of dramatic power and telling +situations!" + +"Take it home with you, then, and write the music for it." + +Verdi declared that he did not wish to compose, but the worthy +impresario forced the manuscript on him, and persisted that he should +undertake the work. The composer returned home with the libretto, but +threw it on one side without looking at it, and for the next five +months continued his reading of bad romances and yellow-covered +novels. + +The impulse of work soon came again, however. One beautiful June day +the manuscript met his eye, while looking listlessly over some old +papers. He read one scene and was struck by its beauty. The instinct +of musical creation rushed over him with irresistible force; he seated +himself at the piano, so long silent, and began composing the music. +The ice was broken. Verdi soon entered into the spirit of the work, +and in three months "Nabucco" was entirely completed. Merelli gladly +accepted it, and it was performed at La Scala in the spring of 1842. +As a result Verdi was besieged with petitions for new works from every +impresario in Italy. + + +II. + +From 1842 to 1851 Verdi's busy imagination produced a series of +operas, which disputed the palm of popularity with the foremost +composers of his time. "I Lombardi," brought out at La Scala in 1843; +"Ernani," at Venice in 1844; "I Due Foscari," at Rome in 1844; +"Giovanna D'Arco," at Milan, and "Alzira," at Naples in 1845; +"Attila," at Venice in 1846; and "Macbetto," at Florence in 1847, +were--all of them--successful works. The last created such a genuine +enthusiasm that he was crowned with a golden laurel-wreath and +escorted home from the theatre by an enormous crowd. "I Masnadieri" +was written for Jenny Lind, and performed first in London in 1847 with +that great singer, Gardoni, and Lablache, in the cast. His next +productions were "Il Corsaro," brought out at Trieste in 1848; "La +Battaglia di Legnano" at Rome in 1849; "Luisa Miller" at Naples in the +same year; and "Stiffelio" at Trieste in 1850. By this series of works +Verdi impressed himself powerfully on his age, but in them he +preserved faithfully the colour and style of the school in which he +had been trained. But he had now arrived at the commencement of his +transition period. A distinguished French critic marks this change in +the following summary:--"When Verdi began to write, the influences of +foreign literature and new theories on art had excited Italian +composers to seek a violent expression of the passions, and to leave +the interpretation of amiable and delicate sentiments for that of +sombre flights of the soul. A serious mind gifted with a rich +imagination, Verdi became chief of the new school. His music became +more intense and dramatic; by vigour, energy, _verve_, a certain +ruggedness and sharpness, by powerful effects of sound, he conquered +an immense popularity in Italy, where success had hitherto been +attained only by the charm, suavity, and abundance of the melodies +produced." + +In "Rigoletto," produced in Venice in 1851, the full flowering of his +genius into the melodramatic style was signally shown. The opera story +adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" is itself one of the most +dramatic of plots, and it seemed to have fired the composer into music +singularly vigorous, full of startling effects and novel treatment. +Two years afterwards were brought out at Rome and Venice respectively +two operas, stamped with the same salient qualities, "Il Trovatore" +and "La Traviata," the last a lyric adaptation of Dumas _fils's_ "Dame +aux Camélias." These three operas have generally been considered his +masterpieces, though it is more than possible that the riper judgment +of the future will not sustain this claim. Their popularity was such +that Verdi's time was absorbed for several years in their production +at various opera-houses, utterly precluding new compositions. Of his +later operas may be mentioned "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," produced in +Paris in 1855; "Un Ballo in Maschera," performed at Rome in 1859; "La +Forza del Destino," written for St. Petersburg, where it was sung in +1863; "Don Carlos," produced in London in 1867; and "Aida" in Grand +Cairo in 1872. When the latter work was finished, Verdi had composed +twenty-nine operas, besides lesser works, and attained the aged of +fifty-seven. + +Verdi's energies have not been confined to music. An ardent patriot, +he has displayed the deepest interest in the affairs of his country, +and taken an active part in its tangled politics. After the war of +1859 he was chosen a member of the Assembly of Parma, and was one of +the most influential advocates for the annexation to Sardinia. Italian +unity found in him a passionate advocate, and, when the occasion came, +his artistic talent and earnestness proved that they might have made a +vigorous mark in political oratory as well as in music. + +The cry of "Viva Verdi" often resounded through Sardinia and Italy, +and it was one of the war-slogans of the Italian war of liberation. +This enigma is explained in the fact that the five letters of his name +are the initials of those of Vittorio Emanuele Rè D'Italia. His +private resources were liberally poured forth to help the national +cause, and in 1861 he was chosen a deputy in Parliament from Parma. +Ten years later he was appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction +to superintend the reorganisation of the National Musical Institute. + +The many decorations and titular distinctions lavished on him show the +high esteem in which he is held. He is a member of the Legion of +Honour, corresponding member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, grand +cross of the Prussian order of St. Stanislaus, of the order of the +Crown of Italy, and of the Egyptian order of Osmanli. He divides his +life between a beautiful residence at Genoa, where he overlooks the +waters of the sparkling Mediterranean, and a country villa near his +native Busseto, a house of quaint artistic architecture, approached by +a venerable, moss-grown stone bridge, at the foot of which are a large +park and artificial lake. When he takes his evening walks, the +peasantry, who are devotedly attached to him, unite in singing +choruses from his operas. + +In Verdi's bedroom, where alone he composes, is a fine piano--of which +instrument, as well as of the violin, he is a master--a modest +library, and an oddly-shaped writing-desk. Pictures and statuettes, of +which he is very fond, are thickly strewn about the whole house. Verdi +is a man of vigorous and active habits, taking an ardent interest in +agriculture. But the larger part of his time is taken up in composing, +writing letters, and reading works on philosophy, politics, and +history. His personal appearance is very distinguished. A tall figure +with sturdy limbs and square shoulders, surmounted by a finely-shaped +head; abundant hair, beard, and moustache, whose black is sprinkled +with grey; dark-grey eyes, regular features, and an earnest, sometimes +intense, expression make him a noticeable-looking man. Much sought +after in the brilliant society of Florence, Rome, and Paris, our +composer spends most of his time in the elegant seclusion of home. + + +III. + +Verdi is the most nervous, theatric, sensuous composer of the present +century. Measured by the highest standard, his style must be +criticised as often spasmodic, tawdry, and meretricious. He +instinctively adopts a bold and eccentric treatment of musical themes; +and, though there are always to be found stirring movements in his +scores as well as in his opera stories, he constantly offends refined +taste by sensation and violence. + +With a redundancy of melody, too often of the cheap and shallow kind, +he rarely fails to please the masses of opera-goers, for his works +enjoy a popularity not shared at present by any other composer. In +Verdi a sudden blaze of song, brief spirited airs, duets, trios, etc., +take the place of the elaborate and beautiful music, chiselled into +order and symmetry, which characterises most of the great composers of +the past. Energy of immediate impression is thus gained at the expense +of that deep, lingering power, full of the subtile side-lights and +shadows of suggestion, which is the crowning benison of great music. +He stuns the ear and captivates the senses, but does not subdue the +soul. + +Yet, despite the grievous faults of these operas, they blaze with +gems, and we catch here and there true swallow-flights of genius, that +the noblest would not disown. With all his puerilities there is a +mixture of grandeur. There are passages in "Ernani," "Rigoletto," +"Traviata," "Trovatore," and "Aida," so strong and dignified, that it +provokes a wonder that one with such capacity for greatness should +often descend into such bathos. + +To better illustrate the false art which mars so much of Verdi's +dramatic method, a comparison between his "Rigoletto," so often +claimed as his best work, and Rossini's "Otello" will be opportune. +The air sung by Gilda in the "Rigoletto," when she retires to sleep on +the eve of the outrage, is an empty, sentimental yawn; and in the +quartet of the last act, a noble dramatic opportunity, she ejects a +chain of disconnected, unmusical sobs, as offensive as Violetta's +consumptive cough. Desdemona's agitated air, on the other hand, under +Rossini's treatment, though broken short in the vocal phrase, is +magnificently sustained by the orchestra, and a genuine passion is +made consistently musical; and then the wonderful burst of bravura, +where despair and resolution run riot without violating the bounds of +strict beauty in music--these are master-strokes of genius restrained +by art. + +In Verdi, passion too often misses intensity and becomes hysterical. +He lacks the elements of tenderness and humour, but is frequently +picturesque and charming by his warmth and boldness of colour. His +attempts to express the gay and mirthful, as for instance in the +masquerade music of "Traviata" and the dance music of "Rigoletto," are +dreary, ghastly, and saddening; while his ideas of tenderness are apt +to take the form of mere sentimentality. Yet generalities fail in +describing him, for occasionally he attains effects strong in their +pathos, and artistically admirable; as, for example, the slow air for +the heroine, and the dreamy song for the gipsy mother in the last act +of "Trovatore." An artist who thus contradicts himself is a perplexing +problem, but we must judge him by the habitual, not the occasional. + +Verdi is always thoroughly in earnest, never frivolous. He walks on +stilts indeed, instead of treading the ground or cleaving the air, but +is never timid or tame in aim or execution. If he cannot stir the +emotions of the soul he subdues and absorbs the attention against even +the dictates of the better taste; while genuine beauties gleaming +through picturesque rubbish often repay the true musician for what he +has undergone. + +So far this composer has been essentially representative of +melodramatic music, with all the faults and virtues of such a style. +In "Aida," his last work, the world remarked a striking change. The +noble orchestration, the power and beauty of the choruses, the +sustained dignity of treatment, the seriousness and pathos of the +whole work, reveal how deeply new purposes and methods have been +fermenting in the composer's development. Yet in the very prime of his +powers, though no longer young, his next work ought to settle the +value of the hopes raised by the last. + + * * * * * + +Note by the Editor.--In 1874 Verdi composed his "Requiem Mass." It is +written in a popular style, and received unanimous praise from the +Italian critics, and as thorough condemnation from those of Germany, +in particular from Herr Hans von Bülow, the celebrated pianist. It was +chance which induced the composer to attempt sacred music. On the +death of Rossini, Verdi suggested that a "Requiem" should be written +in memory of the dead master, by thirteen Italian composers in +combination, and that the mass should be performed on every hundredth +anniversary of the death in the cathedral of Bologna. The attempt +naturally proved a complete failure, owing to the impossibility of +unity in the method of such a composition. On the death, however, of +Alessandro Manzoni at Milan, Verdi wrote for the anniversary of the +great man's death a Requiem, into which he incorporated the movement +_Libera me_ which he had previously written for the Rossini Requiem. + +In 1881 "Simon Boccanegra" was performed at Milan, with very partial +success. It was a revival of an opera Verdi had written ten years +previously, but which had failed owing to a confused libretto and a +bad interpretation. It, however, in its present form, falls short in +merit when compared with the composer's finest operas--"Rigoletto," +"Il Trovatore," and "Aida." + +Verdi's last work, "Otello," has been brought out since this volume +went to press; its brilliant success at the theatre of La Scala, +Milan, on the 5th of February, is a matter of such recent date that it +is unnecessary to enlarge upon it at present. Verdi has accepted an +invitation from the managers of the Grand Opera at Paris to produce +"Otello" at their theatre in the course of the year; the libretto will +be translated by M. du Loche, and a ballet will be introduced in the +second act, according to the traditions of the French opera. In all +probability it will also be performed in London, but as yet no public +intimation on the subject has been made. + +It is of course impossible at present for any definite decision to be +pronounced on the merits of this latest work compared with the +composer's other operas; the few following facts, however, concerning +"Otello," excerpted from the reports of the musical critics of our +leading journals, may prove of interest. + +Verdi was first induced to undertake the composition of "Otello" on +the occasion of the performance of his "Messa da Requiem," at the +Scala, for the benefit of the sufferers by the inundations at Ferrara. +The next day he gave a dinner to the four principal solo singers, at +which were present several friends, among them Signor Faccio and +Signor Ricordi. The latter laid siege to the _maestro_, trying to +persuade him to undertake a new work. For a long time Verdi resisted, +and his wife declared that probably only a Shakespearian subject could +induce him to take up his pen again. A few hours later Faccio and +Ricordi went to Boïto, who at once agreed to make the third in the +generous conspiracy, and two days after sent to Verdi a complete +sketch of the plan for the opera, following strictly the Shakespearian +tragedy. Verdi approved of the sketch, and from that moment it fell to +the part of Giulia Ricordi to urge on the composer and the poet by +constant reminders. Every Christmas he sent to Verdi's house an +"Othello" formed of chocolate, which, at first very small, grew larger +as the opera progressed. + +Rossini's famous opera on the same subject, in which Pasta and +Malibran won renown in their day, was produced in Naples in the autumn +of 1816. How it impressed Lord Byron, who saw it in Venice soon +afterwards, we learn from an amusing postscript to his letter to +Samuel Rogers, wherein he says:--"They have been crucifying 'Othello' +into an opera; the music good but lugubrious; but as for the +words--all the real scenes with Iago cut out and the greatest nonsense +instead. The handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first +singer would not black his face, for some exquisite reason assigned in +the preface." In this curiously maimed and mangled version, Roderigo +became of far more importance than the Moor's crafty lieutenant. Odder +still was the modified French version played in 1823, when the leading +tenor, David, thinking the final duet with Desdemona unsuited to his +voice, substituted the soft and pretty duet, "Amor, possente nume," +from Rossini's later opera "Armida." A contemporary French critic, who +witnessed this curious performance, observes--"As it was impossible to +kill Desdemona to such a tune, the Moor, after giving way to the most +violent jealousy, sheathed his dagger, and began the duet in the most +tender and graceful manner; after which he took Desdemona politely by +the hand and retired, amidst the applause and bravos of the public, +who seemed to think it quite natural that the piece should finish in +this fashion." + +Verdi, with that healthy horror of tiring the public which has always +distinguished him, declined Signor Boïto's proposal to treat the +subject in five acts; and, Shakespeare's introductory act being +discarded, the first act of the opera corresponds with the second act +of the tragedy. After that the musical drama marches scene by scene, +and situation by situation, on parallel lines with the play, with this +important exception only--namely, that the "Willow Song," as in +Rossini's opera, is transferred from the last act but one to the last +act. There are no symphonic pieces in "Otello," unless the brief +orchestral presentation of the "Willow Song" before the fourth act can +be so considered. The work is a drama set to music, in which there are +no repetitions, no detached or detachable airs written specially for +the singers, no passages of display, nothing whatever in the way of +music but what is absolutely necessary for the elucidation of the +piece. The influence of Wagner is perceptible here and there, but +there are no leading motives, and the general style is that of Verdi +at his best, as in "Aida." + + "It is well for the Italians that, in hailing Verdi as a + great man of genius, they are not honouring one who moves + the profane world to compassion, scarcely distinguished from + contempt, by weakness of character. His work is so good + throughout, so full of method, so complete, because his + nature is complete and his life methodical; for the same + reason, no doubt, he has preserved to a ripe old age all the + essential qualities of the genius of his manhood. The leaves + that remain on the Autumnal trees are yet green, and the + birds still sing among them. 'Otello' itself will, in some + form or other, soon be heard in London; and it is pleasant + to think that the subject is taken from one of the greatest + works of the greatest of all literary Englishmen. The theme + is noble, and so, apparently, is the treatment. Nor should + we forget that so distinguished a composer as Signor Boïto + has not disdained, nay, has elected, to compose the libretto + for the old _maestro_. That is a form and sample of + co-operation we can all admire. Will Italy One and Free + continue to produce great and original musicians? Verdi is + the product of other and more melancholy times. Be that as + it may, better national freedom, civil activity, and + personal dignity, than all the operas that were ever + written." + + + + +_CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS._ + + +I. + +In France, as in Italy, the regular musical drama was preceded by +mysteries, masks, and religious plays, which introduced short musical +parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dancing. The ballet, +however, where dancing was the prominent feature, remained for a long +time the favourite amusement of the French court until the advent of +Jean Baptiste Lulli. The young Florentine, after having served in the +king's band, was promoted to be its chief, and the composer of the +music of the court ballets. Lulli, born in 1633, was bought of his +parents by Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present to +Mdlle. de Montpensier, the king's niece. His capricious mistress, +after a year or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of +page to that of scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him +sing and struck by his musical talent, influenced the princess to +place him under the care of good masters. Lulli made such rapid +progress that he soon commenced to compose music of a style superior +to that before current in divertisements of the French court. + +The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical +career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his +best librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry +displayed itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written +several successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both +tragedies and comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his +operatic poems are those which have rendered his memory illustrious. +He died on November 29, 1688. It is said that during his last illness +he was extremely penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his +works. All his lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," +"Phaëton," "Isis," and "Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" +was the last of the poet's efforts, and Lulli was so much in love with +the opera, when completed, that he had it performed over and over +again for his own pleasure without any other auditor. When "Atys" was +performed first in 1676, the eager throng began to pour in the theatre +at ten o'clock in the morning, and by noon the building was filled. +The King and the Count were charmed with the work in spite of the +bitter dislike of Boileau, the Aristarchus of his age. "Put me in a +place where I shall not be able to hear the words," said the latter to +the box-keeper; "I like Lulli's music very much, but have a sovereign +contempt for Quinault's words." Lulli obliged the poet to write +"Armide" five times over, and the felicity of his treatment is proved +by the fact that Gluck afterwards set the same poem to the music which +is still occasionally sung in Germany. + +Lulli in the course of his musical career became so great a favourite +with the King that the originally obscure kitchen-boy was ennobled. He +was made one of the King's secretaries in spite of the loud murmurs of +this pampered fraternity against receiving into their body a player +and a buffoon. The musician's wit and affability, however, finally +dissipated these prejudices, especially as he was wealthy and of +irreproachable character. + +The King having had a severe illness in 1686, Lulli composed a "Te +Deum" in honour of his recovery. When this was given, the musician, in +beating time with great ardour, struck his toe with his baton. This +brought on a mortification, and there was great grief when it was +announced that he could not recover. The Princes de Vendôme lodged +four thousand pistoles in the hands of a banker, to be paid to any +physician who would cure him. Shortly before his death his confessor +severely reproached him for the licentiousness of his operas, and +refused to give him absolution unless he consented to burn the score +of "Achille et Polyxène," which was ready for the stage. The +manuscript was put into the flames, and the priest made the musician's +peace with God. One of the young princes visited him a few days after, +when he seemed a little better. + +"What, Baptiste," the former said, "have you burned your opera? You +were a fool for giving such credit to a gloomy confessor and burning +good music." + +"Hush, hush!" whispered Lulli, with a satirical smile on his lip. "I +cheated the good father. I only burned a copy." + +He died singing the words, "_Il faut mourir, pécheur, il faut +mourir_," to one of his own opera airs. + +Lulli was not only a composer, but created his own orchestra, trained +his artists in acting and singing, and was machinist as well as +ballet-master and music-director. He was intimate with Corneille, +Molière, La Fontaine, and Boileau; and these great men were proud to +contribute the texts to which he set his music. He introduced female +dancers into the ballet, disguised men having hitherto served in this +capacity, and in many essential ways was the father of early French +opera, though its foundation had been laid by Cardinal Mazarin. He had +to fight against opposition and cabals, but his energy, tact, and +persistence made him the victor, and won the friendship of the leading +men of his time. Such of his music as still exists is of a pleasing +and melodious character, full of vivacity and fire, and at times +indicates a more deep and serious power than that of merely creating +catching and tuneful airs. He was the inventor of the operatic +overture, and introduced several new instruments into the orchestra. +Apart from his splendid administrative faculty, he is entitled to rank +as an original and gifted, if not a great composer. + +A lively sketch of the French opera of this period is given by Addison +in No. 29 of the _Spectator_. "The music of the French," he says, "is +indeed very properly adapted to their pronunciation and accent, as +their whole opera wonderfully favours the genius of such a gay, airy +people. The chorus in which that opera abounds gives the parterre +frequent opportunities of joining in concert with the stage. This +inclination of the audience to sing along with the actors so prevails +with them that I have sometimes known the performer on the stage to do +no more in a celebrated song than the clerk of a parish church, who +serves only to raise the psalm, and is afterwards drowned in the music +of the congregation. Every actor that comes on the stage is a beau. +The queens and heroines are so painted that they appear as ruddy and +cherry-cheeked as milkmaids. The shepherds are all embroidered, and +acquit themselves in a ball better than our English dancing-masters. I +have seen a couple of rivers appear in red stockings; and Alpheus, +instead of having his head covered with sedge and bulrushes, making +love in a fair, full-bottomed periwig, and a plume of feathers; but +with a voice so full of shakes and quavers, that I should have thought +the murmur of a country brook the much more agreeable music. I +remember the last opera I saw in that merry nation was the 'Rape of +Proserpine,' where Pluto, to make the more tempting figure, puts +himself in a French equipage, and brings Ascalaphus along with him as +his _valet de chambre_. This is what we call folly and impertinence, +but what the French look upon as gay and polite." + + +II. + +The French musical drama continued without much change in the hands of +the Lulli school (for the musician had several skilful imitators and +successors) till the appearance of Jean Philippe Rameau, who +inaugurated a new era. This celebrated man was born in Auvergne in +1683, and was during his earlier life the organist of the Clermont +cathedral church. Here he pursued the scientific researches in music +which entitled him in the eyes of his admirers to be called the Newton +of his art. He had reached the age of fifty without recognition as a +dramatic composer, when the production of "Hippolyte et Aricie" +excited a violent feud by creating a strong current of opposition to +the music of Lulli. He produced works in rapid succession, and finally +overcame all obstacles, and won for himself the name of being the +greatest lyric composer which France up to that time had produced. His +last opera, "Les Paladins," was given in 1760, the composer being then +seventy-seven. + +The bitterness of the art-feuds of that day, afterwards shown in the +Gluck-Piccini contest, was foreshadowed in that waged by Rameau +against Lulli, and finally against the Italian new-comers, who sought +to take possession of the French stage. The matter became a national +quarrel, and it was considered an insult to France to prefer the music +of an Italian to that of a Frenchman--an insult which was often +settled by the rapier point, when tongue and pen had failed as +arbitrators. The subject was keenly debated by journalists and +pamphleteers, and the press groaned with essays to prove that Rameau +was the first musician in Europe, though his works were utterly +unknown outside of France. Perhaps no more valuable testimony to the +character of these operas can be adduced than that of Baron Grimm:-- + +"In his operas Rameau has overpowered all his predecessors by dint of +harmony and quantity of notes. Some of his choruses are very fine. +Lulli could only sustain his vocal psalmody by a simple bass; Rameau +accompanied almost all his recitatives with the orchestra. These +accompaniments are generally in bad taste; they drown the voice rather +than support it, and force the singers to scream and howl in a manner +which no ear of any delicacy can tolerate. We come away from an opera +of Rameau's intoxicated with harmony and stupified with the noise of +voice and instruments. His taste is always Gothic, and, whether his +subject is light or forcible, his style is equally heavy. He was not +destitute of ideas, but did not know what use to make of them. In his +recitatives the sound is continually in opposition to the sense, +though they occasionally contain happy declamatory passages.... If he +had formed himself in some of the schools of Italy, and thus acquired +a notion of musical style and habits of musical thought, he never +would have said (as he did) that all poems were alike to him, and that +he could set the _Gazette de France_ to music." + +From this it may be gathered that Rameau, though a scientific and +learned musician, lacked imagination, good taste, and dramatic +insight--qualities which in the modern lyric school of France have +been so pre-eminent. It may be admitted, however, that he inspired a +taste for sound musical science, and thus prepared the way for the +great Gluck, who to all and more of Rameau's musical knowledge united +the grand genius which makes him one of the giants of his art. + +Though Rameau enjoyed supremacy over the serious opera, a great +excitement was created in Paris by the arrival of an Italian company, +who in 1752 obtained permission to perform Italian burlettas and +intermezzi at the opera-house. The partisans of the French school took +alarm, and the admirers of Lulli and Rameau forgot their bickerings to +join forces against the foreign intruders. The battle-field was +strewed with floods of ink, and the literati pelted each other with +ferocious lampoons. + +Among the literature of this controversy, one pamphlet has an +imperishable place, Rousseau's famous "Lettre sur la Musique +Française," in which the great sentimentalist espoused the cause of +Italian music with an eloquence and acrimony rarely surpassed. The +inconsistency of the author was as marked in this as in his private +life. Not only did he at a later period become a great advocate of +Gluck against Piccini, but, in spite of his argument that it was +impossible to compose music to French words, that the language was +quite unfit for it, that the French never had music and never would, +he himself had composed a good deal of music to French words and +produced a French opera, "Le Devin du Village." Diderot was also a +warm partisan of the Italians. Pergolesi's beautiful music having been +murdered by the French orchestra-players at the Grand Opera-House, +Diderot proposed for it the following witty and laconic +inscription:--"Hic Marsyas Apollinem."[M] + +Rousseau's opera, "Le Devin du Village," was performed with +considerable success, in spite of the repugnance of the orchestral +performers, of whom Rousseau always spoke in terms of unmeasured +contempt, to do justice to the music. They burned Rousseau in effigy +for his scoffs. "Well," said the author of the _Confessions_, "I don't +wonder that they should hang me now, after having so long put me to +the torture." + +The eloquence and abuse of the wits, however, did not long impair the +supremacy of Rameau; for the Italian company returned to their own +land, disheartened by their reception in the French capital. Though +this composer commenced so late in life, he left thirty-six dramatic +works. His greatest work was "Castor et Pollux." Thirty years later +Grimm recognised its merits by admitting, in spite of the great faults +of the composer, "It is the pivot on which the glory of French music +turns." When Louis XIV. offered Rameau a title, he answered, touching +his breast and forehead, "My nobility is here and here." This composer +marked a step forward in French music, for he gave it more boldness +and freedom, and was the first really scientific and well-equipped +exponent of a national school. His choruses were full of energy and +fire, his orchestral effects rich and massive. He died in 1764, and +the mortuary music, composed by himself, was performed by a double +orchestra and chorus from the Grand Opera. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[M] Here Marsyas flayed Apollo. + + +III. + +A distinguished place in the records of French music must be assigned +to ANDRÉ ERNEST GRÉTRY, born at Liége in 1741. His career covered the +most important changes in the art as coloured and influenced by +national tastes, and he is justly regarded as the father of comic +opera in his adopted country. His childish life is one of much severe +discipline and tribulation, for he was dedicated to music by his +father, who was first violinist in the college of St. Denis, when he +was only six years old. He afterwards wrote of this time in his +_Essais sur la Musique_--"The hour for the lesson afforded the teacher +an opportunity to exercise his cruelty. He made us sing each in turn, +and woe to him who made the least mistake; he was beaten unmercifully, +the youngest as well as the oldest. He seemed to take pleasure in +inventing torture. At times he would place us on a short round stick, +from which we fell head over heels if we made the least movement. But +that which made us tremble with fear was to see him knock down a pupil +and beat him; for then we were sure he would treat some others in the +same manner, one victim being insufficient to gratify his ferocity. To +maltreat his pupils was a sort of mania with him; and he seemed to +feel that his duty was performed in proportion to the cries and sobs +which he drew forth." + +In 1759 Grétry went to Rome, where he studied counterpoint for five +years. Some of his works were received favourably by the Roman public, +and he was made a member of the Philharmonic Society of Bologna. +Pressed by pecuniary necessity, Grétry determined to go to Paris; but +he stopped at Geneva on the route to earn money by singing-lessons. +Here he met Voltaire at Ferney. "You are a musician and have genius," +said the great man; "it is a very rare thing, and I take much interest +in you." In spite of this, however, Voltaire would not write him the +text for an opera. The philosopher of Ferney feared to trust his +reputation with an unknown musician. When Grétry arrived in Paris he +still found the same difficulty, as no distinguished poet was disposed +to give him a libretto till he had made his powers recognised. After +two years of starving and waiting, Marmontel gave him the text of "The +Huron," which was brought out in 1769 and well received. Other +successful works followed in rapid succession. + +At this time Parisian frivolity thought it good taste to admire the +rustic and naïve. The idyls of Gessner and the pastorals of Florian +were the favourite reading, and Watteau the popular painter. +Gentlefolks, steeped in artifice, vice, and intrigue, masked their +empty lives under the assumption of Arcadian simplicity, and minced +and ambled in the costumes of shepherds and shepherdesses. Marie +Antoinette transformed her chalet of Petit Trianon into a farm, where +she and her courtiers played at pastoral life--the farce preceding the +tragedy of the Revolution. It was the effort of dazed society seeking +change. Grétry followed the fashionable bent by composing pastoral +comedies, and mounted on the wave of success. + +In 1774 "Fausse Magie" was produced with the greatest applause. +Rousseau was present, and the composer waited on him in his box, +meeting a most cordial reception. On their way home after the opera, +Grétry offered his new friend his arm to help him over an obstruction. +Rousseau with a burst of rage said, "Let me make use of my own +powers," and henceforward the sentimental misanthrope refused to +recognise the composer. About this time Grétry met the English +humorist Hales, who afterwards furnished him with many of his comic +texts. The two combined to produce the "Jugement de Midas," a satire +on the old style of music, which met with remarkable popular favour, +though it was not so well received by the court. + +The crowning work of this composer's life was given to the world in +1785. This was "Richard Coeur de Lion," and it proved one of the great +musical events of the period. Paris was in ecstasies, and the judgment +of succeeding generations has confirmed the contemporary verdict, as +it is still a favourite opera in France and Germany. The works +afterwards composed by Grétry showed decadence in power. Singularly +rich in fresh and sprightly ideas, he lacked depth and grandeur, and +failed to suit the deeper and sounder taste which Cherubini and Méhul, +great followers in the footsteps of Gluck, gratified by a series of +noble masterpieces. Grétry's services to his art, however, by his +production of comic operas full of lyric vivacity and sparkle, have +never been forgotten nor underrated. His bust was placed in the +opera-house during his lifetime, and he was made a member of the +French Academy of Fine Arts and Inspector of the Conservatory. Grétry +possessed qualities of heart which endeared him to all, and his death +in 1813 was the occasion of a general outburst of lamentation. +Deputations from the theatres and the Conservatory accompanied his +remains to the cemetery, where Méhul pronounced an eloquent eulogium. +In 1828 a nephew of Grétry caused the heart of him who was one of the +glorious sons of Liége to be returned to his native city. + +Grétry founded a school of musical composition in France which has +since been cultivated with signal success--that of lyric comedy. The +efforts of Lulli and Rameau had been turned in another direction. The +former had done little more than set courtly pageants to music, though +he had done this with great skill and tact, enriching them with a +variety of concerted and orchestral pieces, and showing much fertility +in the invention alike of pathetic and lively melodies. Rameau +followed in the footsteps of Lulli, but expanded and crystallised his +ideas into a more scientific form. He had indeed carried his love of +form to a radical extreme. Jean Jacques Rousseau, who extended his +taste for nature and simplicity to music, blamed him severely as one +who neglected genuine natural tune for far-fetched harmonies, on the +ground that "music is a child of nature, and has a language of its own +for expressing emotional transports, which cannot be learned from +thorough-bass rules." Again, Rousseau, in his forcible tract on +French music, says of Rameau, from whose school Grétry's music was +such a significant departure-- + +"One must confess that M. Rameau possesses very great talent, much +fire and euphony, and a considerable knowledge of harmonious +combinations and effects; one must also grant him the art of +appropriating the ideas of others by changing their character, +adorning and developing them, and turning them around in all manner of +ways. On the other hand, he shows less facility in inventing new ones. +Altogether he has more skill than fertility, more knowledge than +genius, or rather genius smothered by knowledge, but always force, +grace, and very often a beautiful _cantilena_. His recitative is not +as natural but much more varied than that of Lulli; admirable in a few +scenes, but bad as a rule." Rousseau continues to reproach Rameau with +a too powerful instrumentation, compared with Italian simplicity, and +sums up that nobody knew better than Rameau how to conceive the spirit +of single passages and to produce artistic contrasts, but that he +entirely failed to give his operas "a happy and much-to-be-desired +unity." In another part of the quoted passage Rousseau says that +Rameau stands far beneath Lulli in _esprit_ and artistic tact, but +that he is often superior to him in dramatic expression. + +A clear understanding of the musical position of Rameau is necessary +to fully appreciate the place of Grétry, his antithesis as a composer. +For a short time the popularity of Rameau had been shaken by an +Italian opera company, called by the French _Les Bouffons_, who had +created a genuine sensation by their performance of airy and sparkling +operettas, entirely removed in spirit from the ponderous productions +of the prevailing school. Though the Italian comedians did not meet +with permanent success, the suave charm of their music left behind it +memories which became fruitful.[N] It furnished the point of departure +for the lively and facile genius of Grétry, who laid the foundation +stones for that lyric comedy which has flourished in France with so +much luxuriance. From the outset merriment and humour were by no means +the sole object of the French comic opera, as in the case of its +Italian sister. Grétry did not neglect to turn the nobler emotions to +account, and by a judicious admixture of sentiment he gave an ideal +colouring to his works, which made them singularly fascinating and +original. Around Grétry flourished several disciples and imitators, +and for twenty years this charming hybrid between opera and vaudeville +engrossed French musical talent, to the exclusion of other forms of +composition. It was only when Gluck[O] appeared on the scene, and by +his commanding genius restored serious opera to its supremacy, that +Grétry's repute was overshadowed. From this decline in public favour +he never fully recovered, for the master left behind him gifted +disciples, who embodied his traditions, and were inspired by his lofty +aims--pre-eminently so in the case of Cherubini, perhaps the greatest +name in French music. While French comic opera, since the days of +Grétry, has become modified in some of its forms, it preserves the +spirit and colouring which he so happily imparted to it, and looks +back to him as its founder and lawgiver. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[N] In its infancy Italian comic opera formed the _intermezzo_ between +the acts of a serious opera, and--similar to the Greek sylvan drama +which followed the tragic trilogy--was frequently a parody on the +piece which preceded it; though more frequently still (as in +Pergolesi's "Serva Padrona") it was not a satire on any particular +subject, but designed to heighten the ideal artistic effect of the +serious opera by broad comedy. Having acquired a complete form on the +boards of the small theatres, it was transferred to the larger stage. +Though it lacked the external splendour and consummate vocalisation of +the elder sister, its simpler forms endowed it with a more +characteristic rendering of actual life. + +[O] See article on "Gluck," in _The Great German Composers_ (the first +part of this work), in which his connection with French music is +discussed. + + +IV. + +One of the most accomplished of historians and critics, Oulibischeff, +sums up the place of Cherubini in musical art in these words--"If on +the one hand Gluck's calm and plastic grandeur, and on the other the +tender and voluptuous charm of the melodies of Piccini and Zacchini, +had suited the circumstances of a state of society sunk in luxury and +nourished with classical exhibitions, this could not satisfy a society +shaken to the very foundations of its faith and organisation. The +whole of the dramatic music of the eighteenth century must naturally +have appeared cold and languid to men whose minds were profoundly +moved with troubles and wars; and even at the present day the word +languor best expresses that which no longer touches us in the operas +of the last century, without even excepting those of Mozart himself. +What we require for the pictures of dramatic music is larger frames, +including more figures, more passionate and moving song, more sharply +marked rhythms, greater fulness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous +brilliancy in the instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found +in 'Lodoïska' and 'Les Deux Journées;' and Cherubini may not only be +regarded as the founder of the modern French opera, but also as that +musician who, after Mozart, has exerted the greatest general influence +on the tendency of the art. An Italian by birth and the excellence of +his education, which was conducted by Sarti, the great teacher of +composition; a German by his musical sympathies as well as by the +variety and profundity of his knowledge; and a Frenchman by the school +and principles to which we owe his finest dramatic works, Cherubini +strikes me as being the most accomplished musician, if not the +greatest genius, of the nineteenth century." + +Again, the English composer, Macfarren, observes--"Cherubini's +position is unique in the history of his art; actively before the +world as a composer for threescore years and ten, his career spans +over more vicissitudes in the progress of music than that of any other +man. Beginning to write in the same year with Cimarosa, and even +earlier than Mozart, and being the contemporary of Verdi and Wagner, +he witnessed almost the origin of the two modern classical schools of +France and Germany, their rise to perfection, and, if not their +decline, the arrival of a time when criticism would usurp the place of +creation, and when to propound new rules for art claims higher +consideration than to act according to its ever unalterable +principles. His artistic life indeed was a rainbow based on the two +extremes of modern music which shed light and glory on the great +art-cycle over which it arched.... His excellence consists in his +unswerving earnestness of purpose, in the individuality of his manner, +in the vigour of his ideas, and in the purity of his harmony." + +"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubini; a colossal and incommensurable +genius, an existence full of days, of masterpieces, and of glory. +Among his rivals he found his most sincere appreciators. The Chevalier +Seyfried has recorded, in a notice on Beethoven, that that grand +musician regarded Cherubini as the first of his contemporary +composers. We will add nothing to this praise: the judgment of such a +rival is, for Cherubini, the voice itself of posterity." + +LUIGI CARLO ZANOBE SALVADORE MARIA CHERUBINI was born at Florence on +September 14, 1760, the son of a harpsichord accompanist at the +Pergola Theatre. Like so many other great composers, young Cherubini +displayed signs of a fertile and powerful genius at an early age, +mastering the difficulties of music as if by instinct. At the age of +nine he was placed under the charge of Felici, one of the best Tuscan +professors of the day; and four years afterwards he composed his first +work, a mass. His creative instinct, thus awakened, remained active, +and he produced a series of compositions which awakened no little +admiration, so that he was pointed at in the streets of Florence as +the young prodigy. When he was about sixteen the attention of the +Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany was directed to him, and through that +prince's liberality he was enabled to become a pupil of the most +celebrated Italian master of the age, Giuseppe Sarti, of whom he soon +became the favourite pupil. Under the direction of Sarti, the young +composer produced a series of operas, sonatas, and masses, and wrote +much of the music which appeared under the _maestro's_ own name--a +practice then common in the music and painting schools of Italy. At +the age of nineteen Cherubini was recognised as one of the most +learned and accomplished musicians of the age, and his services were +in active demand at the Italian theatres. In four years he produced +thirteen operas, the names and character of which it is not necessary +now to mention, as they are unknown except to the antiquary whose zeal +prompts him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical libraries. +Halévy, whose admiration of his master led him to study these early +compositions, speaks of them as full of striking beauties, and, though +crude in many particulars, distinguished by those virile and daring +conceptions which from the outset stamped the originality of the man. + +Cherubini passed through Paris in 1784, while the Gluck-Piccini +excitement was yet warm, and visited London as composer for the Royal +Italian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in courtly circles, +and the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Queensbury, and other noble +amateurs, conceived the warmest admiration for his character and +abilities. For some reason, however, his operas written for England +failed, and he quitted England in 1786, intending to return to Italy. +But the fascinations of Paris held him, as they have done so many +others, noticeably so among the great musicians; and what was designed +as a flying visit became a life-long residence, with the exception of +brief interruptions in Germany and Italy, whither he went to fill +professional engagements. + +Cherubini took up his residence with his friend Viotti, who introduced +him to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the highest society of the +capital, then as now the art-centre of the world. He became an +intimate of the brilliant salons of Mdme. de Polignac, Mdme. +d'Etioles, Mdme. de Richelieu, and of the various bright assemblies +where the wit, rank, and beauty of Paris gathered in the days just +prior to the Revolution. The poet Marmontel became his intimate +friend, and gave him the opera story of "Demophon" to set to music. +It was at this period that Cherubini became acquainted with the works +of Haydn, and learned from him how to unite depth with lightness, +grace with power, jest with earnestness, and toying with dignity. + +A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the +production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan. +The success was great, and this work, the last written for his native +country, was given also at Florence and Parma with no less delight and +approbation on the part of the public. Had Cherubini died at this +time, he would have left nothing but an obscure name for Fétis's +immense dictionary. Unlike Mozart and Schubert, who at the same age +had reached their highest development, this robust and massive genius +ripened slowly. With him as with Gluck, with whom he had so many +affinities, a short life would have been fatal to renown. His last +opera showed a turning point in his development. Halévy, his great +disciple, speaks of this period as follows:--"He is already more +nervous; there peeps out I know not exactly how much of force and +virility of which the Italian musicians of his day did not know or did +not seek the secret. It is the dawn of a new day. Cherubini was +preparing himself for the combat. Gluck had accustomed France to the +sublime energy of his masterpieces. Mozart had just written 'Le Nozze +di Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni.' He must not lag behind. He must not be +conquered. In that career which he was about to dare to enter, he met +two giants. Like the athlete who descends into the arena, he anointed +his limbs and girded his loins for the fight." + + +V. + +Marmontel had furnished the libretto of an opera to Cherubini, and the +composer shortly after his return from Turin to Paris had it produced +at the Royal Academy of Music. Vogel's opera on the same text, +"Demophon," was also brought out, but neither one met with great +success. Cherubini's work, though full of vigour and force, wanted +colour and dramatic point. He was disgusted with his failure, and +resolved to eschew dramatic music; so for the nonce he devoted himself +to instrumental music and cantata. Two works of the latter class, +"Amphion" and "Circe," composed at this time, were of such excellence +as to retain a permanent hold on the French stage. Cherubini, too, +became director of the Italian opera troupe, "Les Bouffons," organised +under the patronage of Léonard, the Queen's performer, and exercised +his taste for composition by interpolating airs of his own into the +works of the Italian composers, which were then interesting the French +public as against the operas of Rameau. + +"At this time," we are told by Lafage, "Cherubini had two distinct +styles, one of which was allied to Paisiello and Cimarosa by the +grace, elegance, and purity of the melodic forms; the other, which +attached itself to the school of Gluck and Mozart, more harmonic than +melodious, rich in instrumental details." This manner was the then +unappreciated type of a new school destined to change the forms of +musical art. + +In 1790 the Revolution broke out and rent the established order of +things into fragments. For a time all the interests of art were +swallowed up in the frightful turmoil which made Paris the centre of +attention for astonished and alarmed Europe. Cherubini's connection +had been with the aristocracy, and now they were fleeing in a mad +panic or mounting the scaffold. His livelihood became precarious, and +he suffered severely during the first five years of anarchy. His +seclusion was passed in studying music, the physical sciences, +drawing, and botany; and his acquaintance was wisely confined to a few +musicians like himself. Once, indeed, his having learned the violin as +a child was the means of saving his life. Independently venturing out +at night, he was arrested by a roving band of drunken _Sansculottes_, +who were seeking musicians to conduct their street chants. Somebody +recognised Cherubini as a favourite of court circles, and, when he +refused to lead their obscene music, the fatal cry, "The Royalist, +the Royalist!" buzzed through the crowd. At this critical moment +another kidnapped player thrust a violin in Cherubini's hands and +persuaded him to yield. So the two musicians marched all day amid the +hoarse yells of the drunken revolutionists. He was also enrolled in +the National Guard, and obliged to accompany daily the march of the +unfortunate throngs who shed their blood under the axe of the +guillotine. Cherubini would have fled from these horrible +surroundings, but it was difficult to evade the vigilance of the +French officials; he had no money; and he would not leave the +beautiful Cécile Tourette, to whom he was affianced. + +One of the theatres opened during the revolutionary epoch was the +Théâtre Feydeau. The second opera performed was Cherubini's "Lodoïska" +(1791), at which he had been labouring for a long time, and which was +received throughout Europe with the greatest enthusiasm and delight, +not less in Germany than in France and Italy. The stirring times +aroused a new taste in music, as well as in politics and literature. +The dramas of Racine and the operas of Lulli were akin. No less did +the stormy genius of Schiller find its counterpart in Beethoven and +Cherubini. The production of "Lodoïska" was the point of departure +from which the great French school of serious opera, which has given +us "Robert le Diable," "Les Huguenots," and "Faust," got its primal +value and significance. Two men of genius, Gluck and Grétry, had +formed the tastes of the public in being faithful to the accents of +nature. The idea of reconciling this taste, founded on strict truth, +with the seductive charm of the Italian forms, to which the French +were beginning to be sensible, suggested to Cherubini a system of +lyric drama capable of satisfying both. Wagner himself even says, in +his _Tendencies and Theories_, speaking of Cherubini and his great +co-labourers, Méhul and Spontini--"It would be difficult to answer +them, if they now perchance came among us and asked in what respect we +had improved on their mode of musical procedure." + +"Lodoïska," which cast the old Italian operas into permanent +oblivion, and laid the foundation of the modern French dramatic school +in music, has a libretto similar to that of "Fidelio" and Grétry's +"Coeur de Lion" combined, and was taken from a romance of Faiblas by +Fillette Loraux. The critics found only one objection: the music was +all so beautiful that no breathing time was granted the listener. In +one year the opera was performed two hundred times, and at short +intervals two hundred more representations took place. + +The Revolution culminated in the crisis of 1793, which sent the King +to the scaffold. Cherubini found a retreat at La Chartreuse, near +Rouen, the country-seat of his friend, the architect Louis. Here he +lived in tranquillity, and composed several minor pieces and a +three-act opera, never produced, but afterwards worked over into "Ali +Baba" and "Faniska." In his Norman retreat Cherubini heard of the +death of his father, and while suffering under this infliction, just +before his return to Paris in 1794, he composed the opera of "Elisa." +This work was received with much favour at the Feydeau theatre, though +it did not arouse the admiration called out by "Lodoïska." + +In 1795 the Paris Conservatory was founded, and Cherubini appointed +one of the five inspectors, as well as professor of counterpoint, his +associates being Lesueur, Grétry, Gossec, and Méhul. The same year +also saw him united to Cécile Tourette, to whom he had been so long +and devotedly attached. Absorbed in his duties at the Conservatory, he +did not come before the public again till 1797, when the great tragic +masterpiece of "Médée" was produced at the Feydeau theatre. "Lodoïska" +had been somewhat gay; "Elisa," a work of graver import, followed; but +in "Médée" was sustained the profound tragic power of Gluck and +Beethoven. Hoffman's libretto was indeed unworthy of the great music, +but this has not prevented its recognition by musicians as one of the +noblest operas ever written. It has probably been one of the causes, +however, why it is so rarely represented at the present time, its +overture alone being well known to modern musical audiences. This +opera has been compared by critics to Shakespeare's "King Lear," as +being a great expression of anguish and despair in their more stormy +phases. Chorley tells us that, when he first saw it, he was +irresistibly reminded of the lines in Barry Cornwall's poem to Pasta-- + + "Now thou art like some wingèd thing that cries + Above some city, flaming fast to death." + +The poem which Chorley quotes from was inspired by the performance of +the great Pasta in Simone Mayer's weak musical setting of the fable of +the Colchian sorceress, which crowded the opera-houses of Europe. The +life of the French classical tragedy, too, was powerfully assisted by +Rachel. Though the poem on which Cherubini worked was unworthy of his +genius, it could not be from this or from lack of interest in the +theme alone that this great work is so rarely performed; it is because +there have been not more than three or four actresses in the last +hundred years combining the great tragic and vocal requirements +exacted by the part. If the tragic genius of Pasta could have been +united with the voice of a Catalania, made as it were of adamant and +gold, Cherubini's sublime musical creation would have found an +adequate interpreter. Mdlle. Tietjens, indeed, has been the only late +dramatic singer who dared essay so difficult a task. Musical students +rank the instrumental parts of this opera with the organ music of +Bach, the choral fugues of Handel, and the symphonies of Beethoven, +for beauty of form and originality of ideas. + +On its first representation, on the 13th of March 1797, one of the +journals, after praising its beauty, professed to discover imitations +of Méhul's manner in it. The latter composer, in an indignant +rejoinder, proclaimed himself and all others as overshadowed by +Cherubini's genius: a singular example of artistic humility and +justice. Three years after its performance in Paris, it was given at +Berlin and Vienna, and stamped by the Germans as one of the world's +great musical masterpieces. This work was a favourite one with +Schubert, Beethoven, and Weber, and there have been few great +composers who have not put on record their admiration of it. + +As great, however, as "Médée" is ranked, "Les Deux Journées,"[P] +produced in 1800, is the opera on which Cherubini's fame as a dramatic +composer chiefly rests. Three hundred consecutive performances did not +satisfy Paris; and at Berlin and Frankfort, as well as in Italy, it +was hailed with acclamation. Bouilly was the author of the +opera-story, suggested by the generous action of a water-carrier +towards a magistrate who was related to the author. The story is so +interesting, so admirably written, that Goethe and Mendelssohn +considered it the true model for a comic opera. The musical +composition, too, is nearly faultless in form and replete with +beauties. In this opera Cherubini anticipated the reforms of Wagner, +for he dispensed with the old system which made the drama a web of +beautiful melodies, and established his musical effects for the most +part by the vigour and charm of the choruses and concerted pieces. It +has been accepted as a model work by composers, and Beethoven was in +the habit of keeping it by him on his writing-table for constant study +and reference. + +Spohr, in his autobiography, says, "I recollect, when the 'Deux +Journées' was performed for the first time, how, intoxicated with +delight and the powerful impression the work had made on me, I asked +on that very evening to have the score given me, and sat over it the +whole night; and that it was that opera chiefly that gave me my first +impulse to composition." Weber, in a letter from Munich written in +1813, says, "Fancy my delight when I beheld lying upon the table of +the hotel the play-bill with the magic name _Armand_. I was the first +person in the theatre, and planted myself in the middle of the pit, +where I waited most anxiously for the tones which I knew beforehand +would elevate and inspire me. I think I may assert boldly that 'Les +Deux Journées' is a really great dramatic and classical work. +Everything is calculated so as to produce the greatest effect; all the +various pieces are so much in their proper place that you can neither +omit one nor make any addition to them. The opera displays a pleasing +richness of melody, vigorous declamation, and all-striking truth in +the treatment of situations, ever new, ever heard and retained with +pleasure." Mendelssohn, too, writing to his father of a performance of +this opera, speaks of the enthusiasm of the audience as extreme, as +well as of his own pleasure as surpassing anything he had ever +experienced in a theatre. Mendelssohn, who never completed an opera, +because he did not find until shortly before his death a theme which +properly inspired him to dramatic creation, corresponded with Planché, +with the hope of getting from the latter a libretto which should unite +the excellences of "Fidelio" with those of "Les Deux Journées." He +found, at last, a libretto, which, if it did not wholly satisfy him, +at least overcame some of his prejudices, in a story based on the +Rhine myth of Lorelei. A fragment of it only was finished, and the +finale of the first act is occasionally performed in England. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[P] In German known as "Die Wasserträger," in English, "The +Water-Carriers." + + +VI. + +Before Napoleon became First Consul, he had been on familiar terms +with Cherubini. The soldier and the composer were seated in the same +box listening to an opera by the latter. Napoleon, whose tastes for +music were for the suave and sensuous Italian style, turned to him and +said, "My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician; but +really your music is so noisy and complicated that I can make nothing +of it;" to which Cherubini replied, "My dear general, you are +certainly an excellent soldier; but in regard to music you must excuse +me if I don't think it necessary to adapt my music to your +comprehension." This haughty reply was the beginning of an +estrangement. Another illustration of Cherubini's sturdy pride and +dignity was his rejoinder to Napoleon, when the latter was praising +the works of the Italian composers, and covertly sneering at his own. +"Citizen General," he replied, "occupy yourself with battles and +victories, and allow me to treat according to my talent an art of +which you are grossly ignorant." Even when Napoleon became Emperor, +the proud composer never learned "to crook the pregnant hinges of his +knee" to the man before whom Europe trembled. + +On the 12th of December 1800, a grand performance of "The Creation" +took place at Paris. Napoleon on his way to it narrowly escaped being +killed by an infernal machine. Cherubini was one of the deputation, +representing the various corporations and societies of Paris, who +waited on the First Consul to congratulate him upon his escape. +Cherubini kept in the background, when the sarcasm, "I do not see +Monsieur Cherubini," pronounced in the French way, as if to indicate +that Cherubini was not worthy of being ranked with the Italian +composers, brought him promptly forward. "Well," said Napoleon, "the +French are in Italy." "Where would they not go," answered Cherubini, +"led by such a hero as you?" This pleased the First Consul, who, +however, soon got to the old musical quarrel. "I tell you I like +Paisiello's music immensely; it is soft and tranquil. You have much +talent, but there is too much accompaniment." Said Cherubini, "Citizen +Consul, I conform myself to French taste." "Your music," continued the +other, "makes too much noise. Speak to me in that of Paisiello; that +is what lulls me gently." "I understand," replied the composer; "you +like music which doesn't stop you from thinking of state affairs." +This witty rejoinder made the arrogant soldier frown, and the talk +suddenly ceased. + +As a result of this alienation Cherubini found himself persistently +ignored and ill-treated by the First Consul. In spite of his having +produced such great masterpieces, his income was very small, apart +from his pay as Inspector of the Conservatory. The ill-will of the +ruler of France was a steady check to his preferment. When Napoleon +established his consular chapel in 1802, he invited Paisiello from +Naples to become director at a salary of 12,000 francs a year. It +gave great umbrage to the Conservatory that its famous teachers should +have been slighted for an Italian foreigner, and musical circles in +Paris were shaken by petty contentions. Paisiello, however, found the +public indifferent to his works, and soon wearied of a place where the +admiration to which he had been accustomed no longer flattered his +complacency. He resigned, and his position was offered to Méhul, who +is said to have declined it because he regarded Cherubini as far more +worthy of it, and to have accepted it only on condition that his +friend could share the duties and emoluments with him. Cherubini, +fretted and irritated by his condition, retired for a time from the +pursuit of his art, and devoted himself to flowers. The opera of +"Anacreon," a powerful but unequal work, which reflected the +disturbance and agitation of his mind, was the sole fruit of his +musical efforts for about four years. + +While Cherubini was in the deepest depression--for he had a large +family depending on him and small means with which to support them--a +ray of sunshine came in 1805 in the shape of an invitation to compose +for the managers of the opera at Vienna. His advent at the Austrian +capital produced a profound sensation, and he received a right royal +welcome from the great musicians of Germany. The aged Haydn, Hummel, +and Beethoven became his warm friends with the generous freemasonry of +genius, for his rank as a musician was recognised throughout Europe. + +The war which broke out after our musician's departure from Paris +between France and Austria ended shortly in the capitulation of Ulm, +and the French Emperor took up his residence at Schönbrunn. Napoleon +received Cherubini kindly when he came in answer to his summons, and +it was arranged that a series of twelve concerts should be given +alternately at Schönbrunn and Vienna. The pettiness which entered into +the French Emperor's nature in spite of his greatness continued to be +shown in his ebullitions of wrath because Cherubini persisted in +holding his own musical views against the imperial opinion. Napoleon, +however, on the eve of his return to France, urged him to accompany +him, offering the long-coveted position of musical director; but +Cherubini was under contract to remain a certain length of time at +Vienna, and he would not break his pledge. + +The winter of 1805 witnessed two remarkable musical events at the +Austrian capital, the production of Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the last +great opera written by Cherubini, "Faniska." Haydn and Beethoven were +both present at the latter performance. The former embraced Cherubini +and said to him "You are my son, worthy of my love." Beethoven +cordially hailed him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." It +is an interesting fact that two such important dramatic compositions +should have been written at the same time, independently of each +other; that both works should have been in advance of their age; that +they should have displayed a striking similarity of style; and that +both should have suffered from the reproach of the music being too +learned for the public. The opera of "Faniska" is based on a Polish +legend of great dramatic beauty, which, however, was not very +artistically treated by the librettist. Mendelssohn in after years +noted the striking resemblance between Beethoven and our composer in +the conception and method of dramatic composition. In one of his +letters to Edouard Devrient he says, speaking of "Fidelio," "On +looking into the score, as well as on listening to the performance, I +everywhere perceive Cherubini's dramatic style of composition. It is +true that Beethoven did not ape that style, but it was before his mind +as his most cherished pattern." The unity of idea and musical colour +between "Faniska" and "Fidelio" seems to have been noted by many +critics both of contemporary and succeeding times. + +Cherubini would gladly have written more for the Viennese, by whom he +had been so cordially treated; but the unsettled times and his +home-sickness for Paris conspired to take him back to the city of his +adoption. He exhausted many efforts to find Mozart's tomb in Vienna, +and desired to place a monument over his neglected remains, but failed +to locate the resting-place of one he loved so much. Haydn, Beethoven, +Hummel, Salieri, and the other leading composers reluctantly parted +with him, and on April 1, 1806, his return to Paris was celebrated by +a brilliant fête improvised for him at the Conservatory. Fate, +however, had not done with her persecutions, for fate in France took +the shape of Napoleon, whose hostility, easily aroused, was +implacable; who aspired to rule the arts and letters as he did armies +and state policy; who spared neither Cherubini nor Madame de Staël. +Cherubini was neglected and insulted by authority, while honours were +showered on Méhul, Grétry, Spontini, and Lesueur. He sank into a state +of profound depression, and it was even reported in Vienna that he was +dead. He forsook music and devoted himself to drawing and botany. Had +he not been a great musician, it is probable he would have excelled in +pictorial art. One day the great painter David entered the room where +he was working in crayon on a landscape of the Salvator Rosa style. So +pleased was the painter that he cried, "Truly admirable! Courage!" In +1808 Cherubini found complete rest in a visit to the country-seat of +the Prince de Chimay in Belgium, whither he was accompanied by his +friend and pupil, Auber. + + +VII. + +With this period Cherubini closed his career practically as an +operatic composer, though several dramatic works were produced +subsequently, and entered on his no less great sphere of +ecclesiastical composition. At Chimay for a while no one dared to +mention music in his presence. Drawing and painting flowers seemed to +be his sole pleasure. At last the president of the little music +society at Chimay ventured to ask him to write a mass for St. +Cecilia's feast-day. He curtly refused, but his hostess noticed that +he was agitated by the incident, as if his slumbering instincts had +started again into life. One day the Princess placed music paper on +his table, and Cherubini on returning from his walk instantly began to +compose, as if he had never ceased it. It is recorded that he traced +out in full score the "Kyrie" of his great mass in F during the +intermission of a single game of billiards. Only a portion of the mass +was completed in time for the festival, but, on Cherubini's return to +Paris in 1809, it was publicly given by an admirable orchestra, and +hailed with a great enthusiasm, that soon swept through Europe. It was +perceived that Cherubini had struck out for himself a new path in +church music. Fétis, the musical historian, records its reception as +follows:--"All expressed an unreserved admiration for this composition +of a new order, whereby Cherubini has placed himself above all +musicians who have as yet written in the concerted style of church +music. Superior to the masses of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and the +masters of the Neapolitan school, that of Cherubini is as remarkable +for originality of idea as for perfection in art." Picchiante, a +distinguished critic, sums up the impressions made by this great work +in the following eloquent and vigorous passage:--"All the musical +science of the good age of religious music, the sixteenth century of +the Christian era, was summed up in Palestrina, who flourished at that +time, and by its aid he put into form noble and sublime conceptions. +With the grave Gregorian melody, learnedly elaborated in vigorous +counterpoint and reduced to greater clearness and elegance without +instrumental aid, Palestrina knew how to awaken among his hearers +mysterious, grand, deep, vague sensations, that seemed caused by the +objects of an unknown world, or by superior powers in the human +imagination. With the same profound thoughtfulness of the old Catholic +music, enriched by the perfection which art has attained in two +centuries, and with all the means which a composer nowadays can make +use of, Cherubini perfected another conception, and this consisted in +utilising the style adapted to dramatic composition when narrating the +church text, by which means he was able to succeed in depicting man in +his various vicissitudes, now rising to the praises of Divinity, now +gazing on the Supreme Power, now suppliant and prostrate. So that, +while Palestrina's music places God before man, that of Cherubini +places man before God." Adolphe Adam puts the comparison more +epigrammatically in saying "If Palestrina had lived in our own times, +he would have been Cherubini." The masters of the old Roman school of +church music had received it as an emanation of pure sentiment, with +no tinge of human warmth and colour. Cherubini, on the contrary, aimed +to make his music express the dramatic passion of the words, and in +the realisation of this he brought to bear all the resources of a +musical science unequalled except perhaps by Beethoven. The noble +masses in F and D were also written in 1809, and stamped themselves on +public judgment as no less powerful works of genius and knowledge. + +Some of Cherubini's friends in 1809 tried to reconcile the composer +with the Emperor, and in furtherance of this an opera was written +anonymously, "Pimmalione." Napoleon was delighted, and even affected +to tears. Instantly, however, that Cherubini's name was uttered, he +became dumb and cold. Nevertheless, as if ashamed of his injustice, he +sent Cherubini a large sum of money, and a commission to write the +music for his marriage ode. Several fine works followed in the next +two years, among them the Mass in D, regarded by some of his admirers +as his ecclesiastical masterpiece. Miel claims that in largeness of +design and complication of detail, sublimity of conception and +dramatic intensity, two works only of its class approach it, +Beethoven's Mass in D and Niedermeyer's Mass in D minor. + +In 1811 Halévy, the future author of "La Juive," became Cherubini's +pupil, and a devoted friendship ever continued between the two. The +opera of "La Abencérages" was also produced, and it was pronounced +nowise inferior to "Médée" and "Les Deux Journées." Mendelssohn, many +years afterwards, writing to Moscheles in Paris, asked, "Has Onslow +written anything new? And old Cherubini? There's a matchless fellow! I +have got his 'Abencérages,' and can not sufficiently admire the +sparkling fire, the clear original phrasing, the extraordinary +delicacy and refinement with which it is written, or feel grateful +enough to the grand old man for it. Besides, it is all so free and +bold and spirited." The work would have had a greater immediate +success, had not Paris been in profound gloom from the disastrous +results of the Moscow campaign and the horrors of the French retreat, +where famine and disease finished the work of bayonet and cannon-ball. + +The unsettled and disheartening times disturbed all the relations of +artists. There is but little record of Cherubini for several years. A +significant passage in a letter written in 1814, speaking of several +military marches written for a Prussian band, indicates the occupation +of Paris by the allies and Napoleon's banishment in Elba. The period +of "The Hundred Days" was spent by Cherubini in England; and the +world's wonder, the battle of Waterloo, was fought, and the Bourbons +were permanently restored, before he again set foot in Paris. The +restored dynasty delighted to honour the man whom Napoleon had +slighted, and gifts were showered on him alike by the Court and by the +leading academies of Europe. The walls of his studio were covered with +medals and diplomas; and his appointment as director of the King's +chapel (which, however, he refused unless shared with Lesueur, the old +incumbent) placed him above the daily demands of want. So, at the age +of fifty-five, this great composer for the first time ceased to be +anxious on the score of his livelihood. Thenceforward the life of +Cherubini was destined to flow with a placid current, its chief +incidents being the great works in church music, which he poured forth +year after year, to the admiration and delight of the artistic world. +These remarkable masses, by their dramatic power, greatness of design, +and wealth of instrumentation, excited as much discussion and interest +throughout Europe as the operas of other composers. That written in +1816, the C minor requiem mass, is pronounced by Berlioz to be the +greatest work of this description ever composed. + + +VIII. + +As a man Cherubini presented himself in many different aspects. +Extremely nervous, _brusque_, irritable, and absolutely independent, +he was apt to offend and repel. But under his stern reserve of +character there beat a warm heart and generous sympathies. This is +shown by the fact that, in spite of the unevenness of his temper, he +was almost worshipped by those around him. Auber, Halévy, Berton, +Boïeldieu, Méhul, Spontini, and Adam, who were so intimately +associated with him, speak of him with words of the warmest affection. +Halévy, indeed, rarely alluded to him without tears rushing to his +eyes; and the slightest term of disrespect excited his warmest +indignation. It is recorded that, after rebuking a pupil with +sarcastic severity, his fine face would relax with a smile so +affectionate and genial that his whilom victim could feel nothing but +enthusiastic respect. Without one taint of envy in his nature, +conscious of his own extraordinary powers, he was quick to recognise +genius in others; and his hearty praise of the powers of his rivals +shows how sound and generous the heart was under his irritability. His +proneness to satire and power of epigram made him enemies, but even +these yielded to the suavity and fascination which alternated with his +bitter moods. His sympathies were peculiarly open for young musicians. +Mendelssohn and Liszt were stimulated by his warm and encouraging +praise when they first visited Paris; and even Berlioz, whose +turbulent conduct in the Conservatory had so embittered him at various +times, was heartily applauded when his first great mass was produced. +Arnold gives us the following pleasant picture of Cherubini:-- + +"Cherubini in society was outwardly silent, modest, unassuming, +pleasing, obliging, and possessed of the finest manners. At the same +time, he who did not know that he was with Cherubini would think him +stern and reserved, so well did the composer know how to conceal +everything, if only to avoid ostentation. He truly shunned brag or +speaking of himself. Cherubini's voice was feeble, probably from +narrow-chestedness, and somewhat hoarse, but was otherwise soft and +agreeable. His French was Italianised.... His head was bent forward, +his nose was large and aquiline; his eyebrows were thick, black, and +somewhat bushy, overshadowing his eyes. His eyes were dark, and +glittered with an extraordinary brilliancy that animated in a +wonderful way the whole face. A thin lock of hair came over the centre +of his forehead, and somehow gave to his countenance a peculiar +softness." + +The picture painted by Ingres, the great artist, now in the Luxembourg +gallery, represents the composer with Polyhymnia in the background +stretching out her hand over him. His face, framed in waving silvery +hair, is full of majesty and brightness, and the eye of piercing +lustre. Cherubini was so gratified by this effort of the painter that +he sent him a beautiful canon set to words of his own. Thus his latter +years were spent in the society of the great artists and wits of +Paris, revered by all, and recognised, after Beethoven's death, as the +musical giant of Europe. Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schumann--in a +word, the representatives of the most diverse schools of +composition--bowed equally before this great name. Rossini, who was +his antipodes in genius and method, felt his loss bitterly, and after +his death sent Cherubini's portrait to his widow with these touching +words--"Here, my dear madam, is the portrait of a great man, who is as +young in your heart as he is in my mind." + +A mutual affection between Cherubini and Beethoven existed through +life, as is shown by the touching letter written by the latter just +before his death, but which Cherubini did not receive till after that +event. The letter was as follows:-- + + Vienna, _March 15, 1823_. + + Highly esteemed Sir--I joyfully take advantage of the + opportunity to address you. + + I have done so often in spirit, as I prize your theatrical + works beyond others. The artistic world has only to lament + that in Germany, at least, no new dramatic work of yours + has appeared. Highly as all your works are valued by true + connoisseurs, still it is a great loss to art not to possess + any fresh production of your great genius for the theatre. + + True art is imperishable, and the true artist feels + heartfelt pleasure in grand works of genius, and that is + what enchants me when I hear a new composition of yours; in + fact, I take greater interest in it than in my own; in + short, I love and honour you. Were it not that my continued + bad health stops my coming to see you in Paris, with what + exceeding delight would I discuss questions of art with you! + Do not think that this is meant merely to serve as an + introduction to the favour I am about to ask of you. I hope + and feel sure that you do not for a moment suspect me of + such base sentiments. I recently completed a grand solemn + Mass, and have resolved to offer it to the various European + courts, as it is not my intention to publish it at present. + I have therefore asked the King of France, through the + French embassy here, to subscribe to this work, and I feel + certain that his Majesty would at your recommendation agree + to do so. + + My critical situation demands that I should not solely fix + my eyes upon heaven, as is my wont; on the contrary, it + would have me fix them also upon earth, here below, for the + necessities of life. + + Whatever may be the fate of my request to you, I shall for + ever continue to love and esteem you; and you for ever + remain of all my contemporaries that one whom I esteem the + most. + + If you should wish to do me a very great favour, you would + effect this by writing to me a few lines, which would solace + me much. Art unites all; how much more, then, true artists! + and perhaps you may deem me worthy of being included in that + number. + + With the highest esteem, your friend and servant, + + Ludwig van Beethoven. + + Ludwig Cherubini. + +Cherubini's admiration of the great German is indicated in an anecdote +told by Professor Ella. The master rebuked a pupil who, in referring +to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, dwelt mostly on the +executive excellence--"Young man, let your sympathies be first wedded +to the creation, and be you less fastidious of the execution; accept +the interpretation, and think more of the creation of these musical +works which are written for all time and all nations, models for +imitation, and above all criticism." + +Actively engaged as Director of the Conservatory, which he governed +with consummate ability, his old age was further employed in producing +that series of great masses which rank with the symphonies of +Beethoven. His creative instinct and the fire of his imagination +remained unimpaired to the time of his death. Mendelssohn, in a letter +to Moscheles, speaks of him as "that truly wonderful old man, whose +genius seems bathed in immortal youth." His opera of "Ali Baba," +composed at seventy-six, though inferior to his other dramatic works, +is full of beautiful and original music, and was immediately produced +in several of the principal capitals of Europe; and the second Requiem +mass, written in his eightieth year, is one of his masterpieces. + +On the 12th of March 1842 the old composer died, surrounded by his +affectionate family and friends. His fatal illness had been brought on +in part by grief for the death of his son-in-law, M. Turcas, to whom +he was most tenderly attached. His funeral was one of great military +and civic magnificence, and royalty itself could not have been +honoured with more splendid obsequies. The congregation of men great +in arms and state, in music, painting, and literature, who did honour +to the occasion, has rarely been equalled. His own noble Requiem mass, +composed the year before his death, was given at the funeral services +in the church of St. Roch by the finest orchestra and voices in +Europe. Similar services were held throughout Europe, and everywhere +the opera-houses were draped in black. Perhaps the death of no +musician ever called forth such universal exhibitions of sorrow and +reverence. + +Cherubini's life extended from the early part of the reign of Louis +XVI. to that of Louis Philippe, and was contemporaneous with many of +the most remarkable events in modern history. The energy and passion +which convulsed society during his youth and early manhood undoubtedly +had much to do in stimulating that robust and virile quality in his +mind which gave such character to his compositions. The fecundity of +his intellect is shown in the fact that he produced four hundred and +thirty works, out of which only eighty have been published. In this +catalogue there are twenty-five operas and eleven masses. + +As an operatic composer he laid the foundation of the modern French +school. Uniting the melody of the Italian with the science of the +German, his conceptions had a dramatic fire and passion which were, +however, free from anything appertaining to the sensational and +meretricious. His forms were indeed classically severe, and his style +is defined by Adolphe Adam as the resurrection of the old Italian +school, enriched by the discoveries of modern harmony. Though he was +the creator of French opera as we know it now, he was free from its +vagaries and extravagances. He set its model in the dramatic vigour +and picturesqueness, the clean-cut forms, and the noble +instrumentation which mark such masterpieces as "Faniska," "Médée," +"Les Deux Journées," and "Lodoïska." The purity, classicism, and +wealth of ideas in these works have always caused them to be cited as +standards of ideal excellence. The reforms in opera of which Gluck was +the protagonist, and Wagner the extreme modern exponent, characterise +the dramatic works of Cherubini, though he keeps them within that +artistic limit which a proper regard for melodic beauty prescribes. In +the power and propriety of musical declamation his operas are conceded +to be without a superior. His overtures hold their place in classical +music as ranking with the best ever written, and show a richness of +resource and knowledge of form in treating the orchestra which his +contemporaries admitted were only equalled by Beethoven. + +Cherubini's place in ecclesiastical music is that by which he is best +known to the musical public of to-day; for his operas, owing to the +immense demands they make on the dramatic and vocal resources of the +artist, are but rarely presented in France, Germany, and England, and +never in America. They are only given where music is loved on account +of its noble traditions, and not for the mere sake of idle and +luxurious amusement. As a composer of masses, however, Cherubini's +genius is familiar to all who frequent the services of the Roman +Church. His relation to the music of Catholicism accords with that of +Sebastian Bach to the music of Protestantism. Haydn, Mozart, and even +Beethoven, are held by the best critics to be his inferiors in this +form of composition. His richness of melody, sense of dramatic colour, +and great command of orchestral effects, gave him commanding power in +the interpretation of religious sentiments; while an ardent faith +inspired with passion, sweetness, and devotion what Place styles his +"sublime visions." Miel, one of his most competent critics, writes of +him in this eloquent strain--"If he represents the passion and death +of Christ, the heart feels itself wounded with the most sublime +emotion; and when he recounts the 'Last Judgment' the blood freezes +with dread at the redoubled and menacing calls of the exterminating +angel. All those admirable pictures that the Raphaels and Michael +Angelos have painted with colours and the brush, Cherubini brings +forth with the voice and orchestra." + +In brief, if Cherubini is the founder of a later school of opera, and +the model which his successors have always honoured and studied if +they have not always followed, no less is he the chief of a later, and +by common consent the greatest, school of modern church music. + + + + +_MÉHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALÉVY._ + + +I. + +The influence of Gluck was not confined to Cherubini, but was hardly +less manifest in moulding the style and conceptions of Méhul and +Spontini,[Q] who held prominent places in the history of the French +opera. HENRI ÉTIENNE MÉHUL was the son of a French soldier stationed +at the Givet barracks, where he was born June 24, 1763. His early +love of music secured for him instructions from the blind organist of +the Franciscan church at that garrison town, under whom he made +astonishing progress. He soon found he had outstripped the attainments +of his teacher, and contrived to place himself under the tuition of +the celebrated Wilhelm Hemser, who was organist at a neighbouring +monastery. Here Méhul spent a number of happy and useful years, +studying composition with Hemser and literature with the kind monks, +who hoped to persuade their young charge to devote himself to +ecclesiastical life. + +Méhul's advent in Paris, whither he went at the age of sixteen, soon +opened his eyes to his true vocation, that of a dramatic composer. The +excitement over the contest between Gluck and Piccini was then at its +height, and the youthful musician was not long in espousing the side +of Gluck with enthusiasm. He made the acquaintance of Gluck +accidentally, the great chevalier interposing one night to prevent his +being ejected from the theatre, into one of whose boxes Méhul had +slipped without buying a ticket. Thenceforward the youth had free +access to the opera, and the friendship and tuition of one of the +master minds of the age. + +An opera, "Cora et Alonzo," had been composed at the age of twenty and +accepted at the opera; but it was not till 1790 that he got a hearing +in the comic opera of "Euphrasque et Coradin," composed under the +direction of Gluck. This work was brilliantly successful, and +"Stratonice," which appeared two years afterwards, established his +reputation. The French critics describe both these early works as +being equally admirable in melody, orchestral accompaniment, and +dramatic effect. The stormiest year of the revolution was not +favourable to operatic composition, and Méhul wrote but little music +except pieces for republican festivities, much to his own disgust, for +he was by no means a warm friend of the republic. + +In 1797 he produced his "Le Jeune Henri," which nearly caused a riot +in the theatre. The story displeased the republican audience, who +hissed and hooted till the turmoil compelled the fall of the curtain. +They insisted, however, on the overture, which is one of great beauty, +being performed over and over again, a compliment which has rarely +been accorded to any composer. Méhul's appointment as inspector and +professor in the newly organised Conservatory, at the same time with +Cherubini, left him but little leisure for musical composition; but he +found time to write the spectacular opera "Adrian," which was fiercely +condemned by a republican audience, not as a musical failure, but +because their alert and suspicious tempers suspected in it covert +allusions to the dead monarchy. Even David, the painter, said he would +set the torch to the opera-house rather than witness the triumph of a +king. In 1806 Méhul produced the opera "Uthal," a work of striking +vigour founded on an Ossianic theme, in which he made the innovation +of banishing the violins from the orchestra, substituting therefor the +violas. + +It was in "Joseph," however, composed in 1807, that this composer +vindicated his right to be called a musician of great genius, and +entered fully into a species of composition befitting his grand style. +Most of his contemporaries were incapable of appreciating the +greatness of the work, though his gifted rival Cherubini gave it the +warmest praise. In Germany it met with instant and extended success, +and it is one of the few French operas of the old school which still +continue to be given on the German stage. In England it is now +frequently sung as an oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that +Méhul's lasting reputation as a composer rests outside of his own +nation. The construction of the opera of "Joseph" is characterised by +admirable symmetry of form, dramatic power, and majesty of the choral +and concerted passages, while the sustained beauty of the +orchestration is such as to challenge comparison with the greatest +works of his contemporaries. Such at least is the verdict of Fétis, +who was by no means inclined to be over-indulgent in criticising +Méhul. The fault in this opera, as in all of Méhul's works, appears to +have been a lack of bright and graceful melody, though in the modern +tendencies of music this defect is rapidly being elevated into a +virtue. + +The last eight years of Méhul's life were depressed by melancholy and +suffering, proceeding from pulmonary disease. He resigned his place in +the Conservatory, and retired to a pleasant little estate near Paris, +where he devoted himself to raising flowers, and found some solace in +the society of his musical friends and former pupils, who were +assiduous in their attentions. Finally becoming dangerously ill, he +went to the island of Hyères to find a more genial climate. But here +he pined for Paris and the old companionships, and suffered more +perhaps by fretting for the intellectual cheer of his old life than he +gained by balmy air and sunshine. He writes to one of his friends +after a short stay at Hyères--"I have broken up all my habits; I am +deprived of all my old friends; I am alone at the end of the world, +surrounded by people whose language I scarcely understand; and all +this sacrifice to obtain a little more sun. The air which best agrees +with me is that which I breathe among you." He returned to Paris for a +few weeks only, to breathe his last on October 18, 1817, aged +fifty-four. + +Méhul was a high-minded and benevolent man, wrapped up in his art, and +singularly childlike in the practical affairs of life. Abhorring +intrigue, he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacrificed the +situation of chapel-master under Napoleon, because he believed it +should have been given to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When +he died Paris recognised his goodness as a man as well as greatness as +a musician by a touching and spontaneous expression of grief, and +funeral honours were given him throughout Europe. In 1822 his statue +was crowned on the stage of the Grand Opera, at a performance of his +"Valentine de Rohan." Notwithstanding his early death, he composed +forty-two operas, and modern musicians and critics give him a notable +place among those who were prominent in building up a national stage. +A pupil and disciple of Gluck, a cordial co-worker with Cherubini, he +contributed largely to the glory of French music, not only by his +genius as a composer, but by his important labours in the +reorganisation of the Conservatory, that nursery which has fed so much +of the highest musical talent of the world. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Q] It is a little singular that some of the most distinguished names +in the annals of French music were foreigners. Thus Gluck was a +German, as also was Meyerbeer, while Cherubini and Spontini were +Italians. + + +II. + +LUIGI GASPARO PACIFICO SPONTINI, born of peasant parents at Majolati, +Italy, November 14, 1774, displayed his musical passion at an early +age. Designed for holy orders from childhood, his priestly tutors +could not make him study; but he delighted in the service of the +church, with its organ and choir effects, for here his true vocation +asserted itself. He was wont, too, to hide in the belfry, and revel in +the roaring orchestra of metal, when the chimes were rung. On one +occasion a stroke of lightning precipitated him from his dangerous +perch to the floor below, and the history of music nearly lost one of +its great lights. The bias of his nature was intractable, and he was +at last permitted to study music, at first under the charge of his +uncle Joseph, the curé of Jesi, and finally at the Naples +Conservatory, where he was entered at the age of sixteen. + +His first opera, "I Puntigli delle Donne," was composed at the age of +twenty-one, and performed at Rome, where it was kindly received. The +French invasion unsettled the affairs of Italy, and Spontini wandered +somewhat aimlessly, unable to exercise his talents to advantage till +he went to Paris in 1803, where he found a large number of brother +Italian musicians, and a cordial reception, though himself an obscure +and untried youth. He produced several minor works on the French +stage, noticeably among them the one-act opera of "Milton," in which +he stepped boldly out of his Italian mannerism, and entered on that +path afterwards pursued with such brilliancy and boldness. Yet, though +his talents began to be recognised, life was a trying struggle, and it +is doubtful if he could have overcome the difficulties in his way +when he was ready to produce "La Vestale," had he not enlisted the +sympathies of the Empress Josephine, who loved music, and played the +part of patroness as gracefully as she did all others. + +By Napoleon's order "La Vestale" was rehearsed against the wish of the +manager and critics of the Academy of Music, and produced December 15, +1807. Previous to this some parts of it had been performed privately +at the Tuileries, and the Emperor had said, "M. Spontini, your opera +abounds in fine airs and effective duets. The march to the place of +execution is admirable. You will certainly have the great success you +so well deserve." The imperial prediction was justified by consecutive +performances of one hundred nights. His next work, "Fernand Cortez," +sustained the impression of genius earned for him by its predecessor. +The scene of the revolt is pronounced by competent critics to be one +of the finest dramatic conceptions in operatic music. + +In 1809 Spontini married the niece of Erard, the great +pianoforte-maker, and was called to the direction of the Italian +opera; but he retained this position only two years, from the +disagreeable conditions he had to contend with, and the cabals that +were formed against him. The year 1814 witnessed the production of +"Pélage," and two years later "Les Dieux Rivaux" was composed, in +conjunction with Persuis, Berton, and Kreutzer; but neither work +attracted much attention. The opera of "Olympie," worked out on the +plan of "La Vestale" and "Cortez," was produced in 1819. Spontini was +embittered by its poor success, for he had built many hopes on it, and +wrought long and patiently. That he was not in his best vein, and like +many other men of genius was not always able to estimate justly his +own work, is undeniable; for Spontini, contrary to the opinion of his +contemporaries and of posterity, regarded this as his best opera. His +acceptance of the Prussian King's offer to become musical director at +Berlin was the result of his chagrin. Here he remained for twenty +years. "Olympie" succeeded better at Berlin, though the +boisterousness of the music seems to have called out some sharp +strictures even among the Berlinese, whose penchant for noisy operatic +effects was then as now a butt for the satire of the musical wits. +Apropos of the long run of "Olympie" at Berlin, an amusing anecdote is +told on the authority of Castel-Blaze. A wealthy amateur had become +deaf, and suffered much from his deprivation of the enjoyment of his +favourite art. After trying many physicians, he was treated in a novel +fashion by his latest doctor. "Come with me to the opera this +evening," wrote down the doctor. "What's the use? I can't hear a +note," was the impatient rejoinder. "Never mind," said the other; +"come, and you will see something at all events." So the twain +repaired to the theatre to hear Spontini's "Olympie." All went well +till one of the overwhelming finales, which happened to be played that +evening more _fortissimo_ than usual. The patient turned around +beaming with delight, exclaiming, "Doctor, I can hear." As there was +no reply, the happy patient again said, "Doctor, I tell you, you have +cured me." A blank stare alone met him, and he found that the doctor +was as deaf as a post, having fallen a victim to his own prescription. +The German wits had a similar joke afterwards at Halévy's expense. The +_Punch_ of Vienna said that Halévy made the brass play so loudly that +the French horn was actually blown quite straight. + +Among the works produced at Berlin were "Nurmahal," in 1825; +"Alcidor," the same year; and 1829, "Agnes von Hohenstaufen." Various +other new works were given from time to time, but none achieved more +than a brief hearing. Spontini's stiff-necked and arrogant will kept +him in continual trouble, and the Berlin press aimed its arrows at him +with incessant virulence: a war which the composer fed by his bitter +and witty rejoinders, for he was an adept in the art of invective. Had +he not been singularly adroit, he would have been obliged to leave his +post. But he gloried in the disturbance he created, and was proof +against the assaults of his numerous enemies, made so largely by his +having come of the French school, then as now an all-sufficient cause +of Teutonic dislike. Spontini's unbending intolerance, however, at +last undermined his musical supremacy, so long held good with an iron +hand; and an intrigue headed by Count Brühl, intendant of the Royal +Theatre, at last obliged him to resign after a rule of a score of +years. His influence on the lyric theatre of Berlin, however, had been +valuable, and he had the glory of forming singers among the Prussians, +who until his time had thought more of cornet-playing than of +beautiful and true vocalisation. The Prussian King allowed him on his +departure a pension of 16,000 francs. + +When Spontini returned to Paris, though he was appointed member of the +Academy of Fine Arts, he was received with some coldness by the +musical world. He had no little difficulty in getting a production of +his operas; only the Conservatory remained faithful to him, and in +their hall large audiences gathered to hear compositions to which the +opera-house denied its stage. New idols attracted the public, and +Spontini, though burdened with all the orders of Europe, was obliged +to rest in the traditions of his earlier career. A passionate desire +to see his native land before death made him leave Paris in 1850, and +he went to Majolati, the town of his birth, where he died after a +residence of a few months in 1851. His cradle was his tomb. + + +III. + +A well-known musical critic sums up his judgment of Halévy in these +words--"If in France a contemporary of Louis XIV., an admirer of +Racine, could return to us, and, full of the remembrance of his +earthly career under that renowned monarch, he should wish to find the +nobly pathetic, the elevated inspiration, the majestic arrangements of +the olden times upon a modern stage, we would not take him to the +Théâtre Français, but to the Opera on the day in which one of Halévy's +works was given." + +Unlike Méhul and Spontini, with whom in point of style and method +Halévy must be associated, he was not in any direct sense a disciple +of Gluck, but inherited the influence of the latter through his great +successor Cherubini, of whom Halévy was the favourite pupil and the +intimate friend. FROMENTAL HALÉVY, a scion of the Hebrew race, which +has furnished so many geniuses to the art world, left a deep impress +on his times, not simply by his genius and musical knowledge, which +was profound, varied, and accurate, but by the elevation and nobility +which lifted his mark up to a higher level than that which we accord +to mere musical gifts, be they ever so rich and fertile. The motive +that inspired his life is suggested in his devout saying that music is +an art that God has given us, in which the voices of all nations may +unite their prayers in one harmonious rhythm. + +Halévy was a native of Paris, born May 27, 1799. He entered the +Conservatory at the age of eleven years, where he soon attracted the +particular attention of Cherubini. When he was twenty the Institute +awarded him the grand prize for the composition of a cantata; and he +also received a government pension which enabled him to dwell at Rome +for two years, assiduously cultivating his talents in composition. +Halévy returned to Paris, but it was not till 1827 that he succeeded +in having an opera produced. This portion of his life was full of +disappointment and chilled ambitions; for, in spite of the warm +friendship of Cherubini, who did everything to advance his interests, +he seemed to make but slow progress in popular estimation, though a +number of operas were produced. + +Halévy's full recognition, however, was found in the great work of "La +Juive," produced February 23, 1835, with lavish magnificence. It is +said that the managers of the Opera expended 150,000 francs in putting +it on the stage. This opera, which surpasses all his others in +passion, strength, and dignity of treatment, was interpreted by the +greatest singers in Europe, and the public reception at once assured +the composer that his place in music was fixed. Many envious critics, +however, declaimed against him, asserting that success was not the +legitimate desert of the opera, but of its magnificent presentation. +Halévy answered his detractors by giving the world a delightful comic +opera, "L'Éclair," which at once testified to the genuineness of his +musical inspiration and the versatility of his powers, and was +received by the public with even more pleasure than "La Juive." + +Halévy's next brilliant stroke (three unsuccessful works in the +meanwhile having been written) was "La Reine de Chypre," produced in +1841. A somewhat singular fact occurred during the performance of this +opera. One of the singers, every time he came to the passage, + + "Ce mortel qu'on remarque + Tient-il + Plus que nous de la Parque + Le fil?" + +was in the habit of fixing his eyes on a certain proscenium box +wherein were wont to sit certain notabilities in politics and finance. +As several of these died during the first run of the work, +superstitious people thought the box was bewitched, and no one cared +to occupy it. Two fine works, "Charles VI." and "Le Val d'Andorre," +succeeded at intervals of a few years; and in 1849 the noble music to +Æschylus's "Prometheus Bound" was written with an idea of reproducing +the supposed effects of the enharmonic style of the Greeks. + +Halévy's opera of "The Tempest," written for London, and produced in +1850, rivalled the success of "La Juive." Balfe led the orchestra, and +its popularity caused the basso Lablache to write the following +epigram:-- + + "The 'Tempest' of Halévy + Differs from other tempests. + These rain hail, + That rains gold." + +The Academy of Fine Arts elected the composer secretary in 1854, and +in the exercise of his duties, which involved considerable literary +composition, Halévy showed the same elegance of style and good taste +which marked his musical writings. He did not, however, neglect his +own proper work, and a succession of operas, which were cordially +received, proved how unimpaired and vigorous his intellectual +faculties remained. + +The composer's death occurred at Nice, whither he had gone on account +of failing strength, March 17, 1862. His last moments were cheered by +the attentions of his family and the consolations of philosophy and +literature, which he dearly loved to discuss with his friends. His +ruling passion displayed itself shortly before his end in +characteristic fashion. Trying in vain to reach a book on the table, +he said, "Can I do nothing now in time?" On the morning of his death, +wishing to be turned on his bed, he said to his daughter, "Lay me down +like a gamut," at each movement repeating, with a soft smile, "_Do_, +_re_, _mi_," etc., until the change was made. These were his last +words. + +The celebrated French critic Sainte-Beuve pays a charming tribute to +Halévy, whom he knew and loved well:-- + +"Halévy had a natural talent for writing, which he cultivated and +perfected by study, by a taste for reading which he always +gratified in the intervals of labour, in his study, in public +conveyances--everywhere, in fine, when he had a minute to spare. He +could isolate himself completely in the midst of the various noises +of his family, or the conversation of the drawing-room if he had no +part in it. He wrote music, poetry, and prose, and he read with +imperturbable attention while people around him talked. + +"He possessed the instinct of languages, was familiar with German, +Italian, English, and Latin, knew something of Hebrew and Greek. He +was conversant with etymology, and had a perfect passion for +dictionaries. It was often difficult for him to find a word; for on +opening the dictionary somewhere near the word for which he was +looking, if his eye chanced to fall on some other, no matter what, he +stopped to read that, then another and another, until he sometimes +forgot the word he sought. It is singular that this estimable man, so +fully occupied, should at times have nourished some secret sadness. +Whatever the hidden wound might be, none, not even his most intimate +friends, knew what it was. He never made any complaint. Halévy's +nature was rich, open, and communicative. He was well organised, +accessible to the sweets of sociability and family joys. In fine, he +had, as one may say, too many strings to his bow to be very unhappy +for any length of time. To define him practically, I would say he was +a bee that had not lodged himself completely in his hive, but was +seeking to make honey elsewhere too." + + +IV. + +Méhul laboured successfully in adapting the noble and severe style of +Gluck to the changing requirements of the French stage. The turmoil +and passions of the revolution had stirred men's souls to the very +roots, and this influence was perpetuated and crystallised in the new +forms given to French thought by Napoleon's wonderful career. Méhul's +musical conceptions, which culminated in the opera of "Joseph," were +characterised by a stir, a vigour, and largeness of dramatic movement, +which came close to the familiar life of that remarkable period. His +great rival, Cherubini, on the other hand, though no less truly +dramatic in fitting musical expression to thought and passion, was so +austere and rigid in his ideals, so dominated by musical form and an +accurate science which would concede nothing to popular prejudice and +ignorance, that he won his laurels, not by force of the natural flow +of popular sympathy, but by the sheer might of his genius. Cherubini's +severe works made them models and foundation-stones for his successors +in French music; but Méhul familiarised his audiences with strains +dignified yet popular, full of massive effects and brilliant +combinations. The people felt the tramp of the Napoleonic armies in +the vigour and movement of his measures. + +Spontini embodied the same influences and characteristics in still +larger degree, for his musical genius was organised on a more massive +plan. Deficient in pure, graceful melody alike with Méhul, he +delighted in great masses of tone and vivid orchestral colouring. His +music was full of the military fire of his age, and dealt for the most +part with the peculiar tastes and passions engendered by a condition +of chronic warfare. Therefore dramatic movement in his operas was +always of the heroic order, and never touched the more subtile and +complex elements of life. Spontini added to the majestic repose and +ideality of the Gluck music-drama (to use a name now naturalised in +art by Wagner) the keenest dramatic vigour. Though he had a strong +command of effects by his power of delineation and delicacy of detail, +his prevalent tastes led him to encumber his music too often with +overpowering military effects, alike tonal and scenic. Riehl, a great +German critic, says--"He is more successful in the delineation of +masses and groups than in the pourtrayal of emotional scenes; his +rendering of the national struggle between the Spaniards and Mexicans +in 'Cortez' is, for example, admirable. He is likewise most successful +in the management of large masses in the instrumentation. In this +respect he was, like Napoleon, a great tactician." In "La Vestale" +Spontini attained his _chef-d'oeuvre_. Schlüter, in his _History of +Music_, gives it the following encomium--"His pourtrayal of character +and truthful delineation of passionate emotion in this opera are +masterly indeed. The subject of 'La Vestale' (which resembles that of +'Norma,' but how differently treated!) is tragic and sublime as well +as intensely emotional. Julia, the heroine, a prey to guilty passion; +the severe but kindly high priestess; Licinius, the adventurous lover, +and his faithful friend Cinna; pious vestals, cruel priests, bold +warriors, and haughty Romans, are represented with statuesque relief +and finish. Both these works, 'La Vestale' (1807) and 'Cortez' (1809), +are among the finest that have been written for the stage; they are +remarkable for naturalness and sublimeness, qualities lost sight of in +the noisy instrumentation of his later works." + +Halévy, trained under the influences of Cherubini, was largely +inspired by that great master's musical purism and reverence for the +higher laws of his art. Halévy's powerful sense of the dramatic always +influenced his methods and sympathies. Not being a composer of +creative imagination, however, the melodramatic element is more +prominent than the purely tragic or comic. His music shows remarkable +resources in the production of brilliant and captivating, though +always tasteful, effects, which rather please the senses and the fancy +than stir the heart and imagination. Here and there scattered through +his works, notably so in "La Juive," are touches of emotion and +grandeur; but Halévy must be characterised as a composer who is rather +distinguished for the brilliancy, vigour, and completeness of his art +than for the higher creative power, which belongs in such pre-eminent +degree to men like Rossini and Weber, or even to Auber, Meyerbeer, and +Gounod. It is nevertheless true that Halévy composed works which will +retain a high rank in French art "La Juive," "Guido," "La Reine de +Chypre," and "Charles VI." are noble lyric dramas, full of beauties, +though it is said they can never be seen to the best advantage off the +French stage. Halévy's genius and taste in music bear much the same +relation to the French stage as do those of Verdi to the Italian +stage; though the former composer is conceded by critics to be a +greater purist in musical form, if he rarely equals the Italian +composer in the splendid bursts of musical passion with which the +latter redeems so much that is meretricious and false, and the +charming melody which Verdi shares with his countrymen. + + + + +_BOÏELDIEU AND AUBER._ + + +I. + +The French school of light opera, founded by Grétry, reached its +greatest perfection in the authors of "La Dame Blanche" and "Fra +Diavolo," though to the former of these composers must be accorded the +peculiar distinction of having given the most perfect example of this +style of composition. FRANÇOIS ADRIEN BOÏELDIEU, the scion of a Norman +family, was born at Rouen, December 16, 1775. He received his early +musical training at the hands of Broche, a great musician and the +cathedral organist, but a drunkard and brutal taskmaster. At the age +of sixteen he had become a good pianist and knew something of +composition. At all events, his passionate love of the theatre +prompted him to try his hand at an opera, which was actually performed +at Rouen. The revolution which made such havoc with the clergy and +their dependants ruined the Boïeldieu family (the elder Boïeldieu had +been secretary of the archiepiscopal diocese), and young François, at +the age of nineteen, was set adrift on the world, his heart full of +hope and his ambition bent on Paris, whither he set his feet. Paris, +however, proved a stern stepmother at the outset, as she always has +been to the struggling and unsuccessful. He was obliged to tune pianos +for his living, and was glad to sell his brilliant _chansons_, which +afterwards made a fortune for his publisher, for a few francs apiece. + +Several years of hard work and bitter privation finally culminated in +the acceptance of an opera, "La Famille Suisse," at the Théâtre +Faydeau in 1796, where it was given on alternate nights with +Cherubini's "Médée." Other operas followed in rapid succession, among +which may be mentioned "La Dot de Suzette" (1798) and "Le Calife de +Bagdad" (1800). The latter of these was remarkably popular, and drew +from the severe Cherubini the following rebuke--"Malheureux! Are you +not ashamed of such undeserved triumph?" Boïeldieu took the brusque +criticism meekly and preferred a request for further instruction from +Cherubini--a proof of modesty and good sense quite remarkable in one +who had attained recognition as a favourite with the musical public. +Boïeldieu's three years' studies under the great Italian master were +of much service, for his next work, "Ma Tante Aurore," produced in +1803, showed noticeable artistic progress. + +It was during this year that Boïeldieu, goaded by domestic misery +(for he had married the danseuse Clotilde Mafleuray, whose notorious +infidelity made his name a bye-word), exiled himself to Russia, even +then looked on as an El Dorado for the musician, where he spent eight +years as conductor and composer of the Imperial Opera. This was all +but a total eclipse in his art-life, for he did little of note during +the period of his St. Petersburg career. + +He returned to Paris in 1811, where he found great changes. Méhul and +Cherubini, disgusted with the public, kept an obstinate silence; and +Nicolo was not a dangerous rival. He set to work with fresh zeal, and +one of his most charming works, "Jean de Paris," produced in 1812, was +received with a storm of delight. This and "La Dame Blanche" are the +two masterpieces of the composer in refined humour, masterly +delineation, and sustained power both of melody and construction. The +fourteen years which elapsed before Boïeldieu's genius took a still +higher flight were occupied in writing works of little value except as +names in a catalogue. The long-expected opera "La Dame Blanche" saw +the light in 1825, and it is to-day a stock opera in Europe, one +Parisian theatre alone having given it nearly two thousand times. +Boïeldieu's latter years were uneventful and unfruitful. He died in +1834 of pulmonary disease, the germs of which were planted by St. +Petersburg winters. "Jean de Paris" and "La Dame Blanche" are the two +works, out of nearly thirty operas, which the world cherishes as +masterpieces. + + +II. + +DANIEL FRANÇOIS ESPRIT AUBER was born at Caen, Normandy, January 29, +1784. He was destined by his parents for a mercantile career, and was +articled to a French firm in London to perfect himself in commercial +training. As a child he showed his passion and genius for music, a +fact so noticeable in the lives of most of the great musicians. He +composed ballads and romances at the age of eleven, and during his +London life was much sought after as a musical prodigy alike in +composition and execution. In consequence of the breach of the treaty +of Amiens in 1804, he was obliged to return to Paris, and we hear no +more of the counting-room as a part of his life. His resetting of an +old libretto in 1811 attracted the attention of Cherubini, who +impressed himself so powerfully on French music and musicians, and the +master offered to superintend his further studies, a chance eagerly +seized by Auber. To the instruction of Cherubini Auber owed his +mastery over the technical difficulties of his art. Among the pieces +written at this time was a mass for the Prince of Chimay, of which the +prayer was afterwards transferred to "Masaniello." The comic opera "Le +Séjour Militaire," produced in 1813, when Auber was thirty, was really +his début as a composer. It was coldly received, and it was not till +the loss of private fortune set a sharp spur to his creative activity +that he set himself to serious work. "La Bergère Châtelaine," produced +in 1820, was his first genuine success, and equal fortune attended +"Emma" in the following season. + +The duration and climax of Auber's musical career were founded on his +friendship and artistic alliance with Scribe, one of the most fertile +librettists and playwrights of modern times. To this union, which +lasted till Scribe's death, a great number of operas, comic and +serious, owe their existence: not all of equal value, but all evincing +the apparently inexhaustible productive genius of the joint authors. +The works on which Auber's claims to musical greatness rest are as +follows:--"Leicester," 1822; "Le Maçon," 1825, the composer's +_chef-d'oeuvre_ in comic opera; "La Muette de Portici," otherwise +"Masaniello," 1828; "Fra Diavolo," 1830; "Lestocq," 1835; "Le Cheval +de Bronze," 1835; "L'Ambassadrice," 1836; "Le Domino Noir," 1837; "Les +Diamants de la Couronne," 1841; "Carlo Braschi," 1842; "Haydée," 1847; +"L'Enfant Prodigue," 1850; "Zerline," 1851, written for Madame Alboni; +"Manon Lescaut," 1856; "La Fiancée du Roi de Garbe," 1867; "Le +Premier Jour de Bonheur," 1868; and "Le Rêve d'Amour," 1869. The last +two works were composed after Auber had passed his eightieth year. + +The indifference of this Anacreon of music to renown is worthy of +remark. He never attended the performance of his own pieces, and +disdained applause. The highest and most valued distinctions were +showered on him; orders, jewelled swords, diamond snuff-boxes, were +poured in from all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invitations urged +him to visit other capitals, and receive honour from imperial hands. +But Auber was a true Parisian, and could not be induced to leave his +beloved city. He was a Member of the Institute, Commander of the +Legion of Honour, and Cherubini's successor as Director of the +Conservatory. He enjoyed perfect health up to the day of his death in +1871. Assiduous in his duties at the Conservatory, and active in his +social relations, which took him into the most brilliant circles of an +extended period, covering the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis +Philippe, and Napoleon III., he yet always found time to devote +several hours a day to composition. Auber was a small, delicate man, +yet distinguished in appearance, and noted for wit. His _bons mots_ +were celebrated. While directing a musical _soirée_ when over eighty, +a gentleman having taken a white hair from his shoulder, he said, +laughingly, "This hair must belong to some old fellow who passed near +me." + +A good anecdote is told _à propos_ of an interview of Auber with +Charles X. in 1830. "Masaniello," a bold and revolutionary work, had +just been produced, and stirred up a powerful popular ferment. "Ah, M. +Auber," said the King, "you have no idea of the good your work has +done me." "How, sire?" "All revolutions resemble each other. To sing +one is to provoke one. What can I do to please you?" "Ah, sire! I am +not ambitious." "I am disposed to name you director of the court +concerts. Be sure that I shall remember you. But," added he, taking +the artist's arm with a cordial and confidential air, "from this day +forth you understand me well, M. Auber, I expect you to bring out the +'Muette' but _very seldom_." It is well known that the Brussels riots +of 1830, which resulted in driving the Dutch out of the country, +occurred immediately after a performance of this opera, which thus +acted the part of "Lillibulero" in English political annals. It is a +striking coincidence that the death of the author of this +revolutionary inspiration, May 13, 1871, was partly caused by the +terrors of the Paris Commune. + + +III. + +Boïeldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant representatives of +the French school of Opéra Comique. The work of the former which shows +his genius at its best is "La Dame Blanche." It possesses in a +remarkable degree dramatic _verve_, piquancy of rhythm, and beauty of +structure. Mr. Franz Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows:-- + +"Peculiar to Boïeldieu is a certain homely sweetness of melody which +proves its kinship to that source of all truly national music, the +popular song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be considered as the artistic +continuation of the _chanson_, in the same sense as Weber's 'Der +Freischütz' has been called a dramatised _Volkslied_. With regard to +Boïeldieu's work, this remark indicates at the same time a strong +development of what has been described as the 'amalgamating force of +French art and culture;' for it must be borne in mind that the subject +treated is Scotch. The plot is a compound of two of Scott's +novels--the 'Monastery' and 'Guy Mannering.' Julian, _alias_ George +Brown, comes to his paternal castle unknown to himself. He hears the +songs of his childhood, which awaken old memories in him; but he seems +doomed to misery and disappointment, for on the day of his return his +hall and his broad acres are to become the property of a villain, the +unfaithful steward of his own family. Here is a situation full of +gloom and sad foreboding. But Scribe and Boïeldieu knew better. Their +hero is a dashing cavalry officer, who makes love to every pretty +woman he comes across, the 'White Lady of Avenel' among the number. +Yet no one who has witnessed the impersonation of George Brown by the +great Roger can have failed to be impressed with the grace and noble +gallantry of the character." + +The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boïeldieu and described as +"le chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognised +by a genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigour it has +gained in sweetness. The musician's taste is always gratified in +Boïeldieu's two great comic operas by the grace and finish of the +instrumentation, and the carefully composed _ensembles_, while the +public is delighted with the charming ballads and songs. The airs of +"La Dame Blanche" are more popular in classic Germany than those of +any other opera. Boïeldieu may then be characterised as the composer +who carried the French operetta to its highest development, and +endowed it in the fullest sense with all the grace, sparkle, dramatic +symmetry, and gamesome touch so essentially the heritage of the +nation. + +Auber's position in art may be defined as that of the last great +representative of French comic opera, the legitimate successor of +Boïeldieu, whom he surpasses in refinement and brilliancy of +individual effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, breadth, and +that firm grasp of details which enables the composer to blend all the +parts into a perfect whole. In spite of the fact that "La Muette," +Auber's greatest opera, is a romantic and serious work, full of bold +strokes of genius that astonish no less than they please, he must be +held to be essentially a master in the field of operatic comedy. In +the great opera to which allusion has been made, the passions of +excited public feeling have their fullest sway, and heroic sentiments +of love and devotion are expressed in a manner alike grand and +original. The traditional forms of the opera are made to expand with +the force of the feeling bursting through them. But this was the sole +flight of Auber into the higher regions of his art, the offspring of +the thoroughly revolutionised feeling of the time (1828), which +within two years shook Europe with such force. Aside from this outcome +of his Berserker mood, Auber is a charming exponent of the grace, +brightness, and piquancy of French society and civilisation. If rarely +deep, he is never dull, and no composer has given the world more +elegant and graceful melodies of the kind which charm the drawing-room +and furnish a good excuse for young-lady pianism. + +The following sprightly and judicious estimate of Auber by one of the +ablest of modern critics, Henry Chorley, in the main fixes him in his +right place:-- + +"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save +perhaps in his sleep-song of 'Masaniello'). He is greatly behind his +Italian brethren in those mad scenes which they so largely affect. He +is always light and piquant for voices, delicious in his treatment of +the orchestra, and at this moment of writing--though I believe the +patriarch of opera-writers (born, it is said, in 1784), having begun +to compose at an age when other men have died exhausted by precocious +labour--is perhaps the lightest-hearted, lightest-handed man still +pouring out fragments of pearl and spangles of pure gold on the +stage.... With all this it is remarkable as it is unfair, that among +musicians--when talk is going around, and this person praises that +portentous piece of counterpoint, and the other analyses some new +chord the ugliness of which has led to its being neglected by former +composers--the name of this brilliant man is hardly if ever heard at +all. His is the next name among the composers belonging to the last +thirty years which should be heard after that of Rossini, the number +and extent of the works produced by him taken into account, and with +these the beauties which they contain." + + + + +_MEYERBEER._ + + +I. + +Few great names in art have been the occasion of such diversity of +judgment as Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose works fill so large a place in +French music. By one school of critics he is lauded beyond all measure +as one "whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only +equalled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic +effects; by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another +class we hear him stigmatised as "the very caricature of the universal +Mozart ... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations +indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind." +The truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such +extremes of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly +approaches genius as to make the distinction a difficult one. He +cannot be numbered among those great creative artists who by force of +individuality have moulded musical epochs and left an undying imprint +on their own and succeeding ages. On the other hand, his remarkable +power of combining the resources of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic +of all that can charm the eye and ear, of wedding rich and gorgeous +music with splendid spectacle, gives him an unique place in music; +for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage necessities are no less +exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric music, but only to +develop the old forms to their highest degree of effect, under +conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense. To +accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though +a German, there is but little of the Teutonic _genre_ in the music of +Weber's fellow-pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed +but little of that easy assumption of the genius of Italian art which +many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed +his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of +librettists, and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of +Paris with all its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that +Meyerbeer found his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas +in music of the eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined +tendencies in his art; he distinctively belongs to no national school +of music; but his long and important connection with the French lyric +stage classifies him unmistakably with the composers of this nation. + +The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability. +Jacob Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honoured for his +robust intellect and scholarly culture, as well as his wealth. +William, one of the sons, became a distinguished astronomer; another, +Michael, achieved distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest, +Jacob, was the composer, who gained his renown under the Italianised +name of Giacomo Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted +from that of the rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great +fortune. + +MEYERBEER was born at Berlin, September 5, 1791, and was a musical +prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would +repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing +his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of +Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years +afterwards the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in +Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the +time, Clementi, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. While in the +latter's school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow-pupils Carl von Weber, +Winter, and Gansbacher. Every morning the abbé called together his +pupils after mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then +assigned each one a theme for composition. There was great emulation +and friendship between Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterwards cooled, +however, owing to Weber's disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to +an extravagant taste. Weber's severe and bitter criticisms were not +forgiven by the Franco-German composer. + +Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which +was performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for +him the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at +Darmstadt and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no +mean judge, has told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the +piano, no performer in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of +Salieri, whom Meyerbeer met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study +the cultivation of the voice; for he seems in early life to have +clearly recognised how necessary it is for the operatic composer to +understand this, though, in after-years, he treated the voice as +ruthlessly in many of his most important arias and scenas as he would +a brass instrument. He arrived in Vienna just as the Rossini madness +was at its height, and his own blood was fired to compose operas _à la +Rossini_ for the Italian theatres. So he proceeded with prodigious +industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for +Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin; in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo" +for Venice; in 1822, "Margherita d'Anjou" for Milan; and in 1823, +"L'Esule di Granata," also for Milan. These works of the composer's +'prentice hand met with the usual fate of the production of the +thousand and one musicians who pour forth operas in unremitting flow +for the Italian theatres; but they were excellent drill for the future +author of "Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." On returning to +Germany Meyerbeer was very sarcastically criticised on the one side as +a fugitive from the ranks of German music, on the other as an imitator +of Rossini. + +Meyerbeer returned to Venice, and in 1824 brought out "Il Crociato in +Egitto" in that city, an opera which made the tour of Europe, and +established a reputation for the author as the coming rival of +Rossini, no one suspecting from what Meyerbeer had then accomplished +that he was about to strike boldly out in a new direction. "Il +Crociato" was produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London. +In the latter city, Velluti, the last of the male sopranists, was one +of the principal singers in the opera; and it was said by some of the +ill-natured critics that curiosity to see and hear this singer of a +peculiar kind, of whom it was said, "Non vir sed Veluti," had as much +to do with the success of the opera as its merits. Lord +Mount-Edgcumbe, however, an excellent critic, wrote of it "as quite of +the new school, but not copied from its founder, Rossini; original, +odd, flighty, and it might be termed fantastic, but at times +beautiful. Here and there most delightful melodies and harmonies +occurred, but it was unequal, solos being as rare as in all the modern +operas." This was the last of Meyerbeer's operas written in the +Italian style. + +In 1827 the composer married, and for several years lived a quiet, +secluded life. The loss of his first two children so saddened him as +to concentrate his attention for a while on church music. During this +period he composed only a "Stabat," a "Miserere," a "Te Deum," and +eight of Klopstock's songs. But he was preparing for that new +departure on which his reputation as a great composer now rests, and +which called forth such bitter condemnation on the one hand, such +thunders of eulogy on the other. His old fellow-pupil, Weber, wrote of +him in after-years--"He prostituted his profound, admirable, and +serious German talent for the applause of the crowd which he ought to +have despised." And Mendelssohn wrote to his father in words of still +more angry disgust--"When in 'Robert le Diable' nuns appear one after +the other and endeavour to seduce the hero, till at length the lady +abbess succeeds; when the hero, aided by a magic branch, gains access +to the sleeping apartment of his lady, and throws her down, forming a +tableau which is applauded here, and will perhaps be applauded in +Germany; and when, after that, she implores for mercy in an aria; +when, in another opera, a girl undresses herself, singing all the +while that she will be married to-morrow, it may be effective, but I +find no music in it. For it is vulgar, and if such is the taste of +the day, and therefore necessary, I prefer writing sacred music." + + +II. + +"Robert le Diable" was produced at the Académie Royale in 1831, and +inaugurated the brilliant reign of Dr. Véron as manager. The bold +innovations, the powerful situations, the daring methods of the +composer, astonished and delighted Paris, and the work was performed +more than a hundred consecutive times. The history of "Robert le +Diable" is in some respects curious. It was originally written for the +Ventadour Theatre, devoted to comic opera; but the company were found +unable to sing the difficult music. Meyerbeer was inspired by Weber's +"Der Freischütz" to attempt a romantic, semi-fantastic legendary +opera, and trod very closely in the footsteps of his model. It was +determined to so alter the libretto and extend and elaborate the music +as to fit it for the stage of the Grand Opera. MM. Scribe and +Delavigne, the librettists, and Meyerbeer, devoted busy days and +nights to hurrying on the work. The whole opera was remodelled, +recitative substituted for dialogue, and one of the most important +characters, Raimbaud, cut out in the fourth and fifth acts--a +suppression which is claimed to have befogged a very clear and +intelligible plot. Highly suggestive in its present state of Weber's +opera, the opera of "Robert le Diable" is said to have been +marvellously similar to "Der Freischütz" in the original form, though +inferior in dignity of motive. + +Paris was all agog with interest at the first production. The critics +had attended the rehearsals, and it was understood that the libretto, +the music, and the ballet were full of striking interest. Nourrit +played the part of Robert; Levasseur, Bertram; Mdme. Cinti Damoreau, +Isabelle; and Mdlle. Dorus, Alice. The greatest dancers of the age +were in the ballet, and the brilliant Taglioni led the band of +resuscitated nuns. Habeneck was conductor, and everything had been +done in the way of scenery and costumes. The success was a remarkable +one, and Meyerbeer's name became famous throughout Europe. + +Dr. Véron, in his _Mémoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris_, describes a +thrilling yet ludicrous accident that occurred on the first night's +performance. After the admirable trio, which is the _dénoûment_ of the +work, Levasseur, who personated Bertram, sprang through the trap to +rejoin the kingdom of the dead, whence he came so mysteriously. +Robert, on the other hand, had to remain on the earth, a converted +man, and destined to happiness in marriage with his princess, +Isabelle. Nourrit, the Robert of the performance, misled by the +situation and the fervour of his own feelings, threw himself into the +trap, which was not properly set. Fortunately the mattresses beneath +had not all been removed, or the tenor would have been killed, a doom +which those on the stage who saw the accident expected. The audience +supposed it was part of the opera, and the people on the stage were +full of terror and lamentation, when Nourrit appeared to calm their +fears. Mdlle. Dorus burst into tears of joy, and the audience, +recognising the situation, broke into shouts of applause. + +The opera was brought out in London the same year, with nearly the +same cast, but did not excite so much enthusiasm as in Paris. Lord +Mount-Edgcumbe, who represented the connoisseurs of the old school, +expressed the then current opinion of London audiences--"Never did I +see a more disagreeable or disgusting performance. The sight of the +resurrection of a whole convent of nuns, who rise from their graves +and begin dancing like so many bacchantes, is revolting; and a sacred +service in a church, accompanied by an organ on the stage, not very +decorous. Neither does the music of Meyerbeer compensate for a fable +which is a tissue of nonsense and improbability."[R] + +M. Véron was so delighted with the great success of "Robert" that he +made a contract with Meyerbeer for another grand opera, "Les +Huguenots," to be completed by a certain date. Meanwhile, the failing +health of Mdme. Meyerbeer obliged the composer to go to Italy, and +work on the opera was deferred, thus causing him to lose thirty +thousand francs as the penalty of his broken contract. At length, +after twenty-eight rehearsals, and an expense of more than one hundred +and sixty thousand francs in preparation, "Les Huguenots" was given to +the public, February 26, 1836. Though this great work excited +transports of enthusiasm in Paris, it was interdicted in many of the +cities of Southern Europe on account of the subject being a +disagreeable one to ardent and bigoted Catholics. In London it has +always been the most popular of Meyerbeer's three great operas, owing +perhaps partly to the singing of Mario and Grisi, and more lately of +Titiens and Giuglini. + +When Spontini resigned his place as chapel-master at the Court of +Berlin, in 1832, Meyerbeer succeeded him. He wrote much music of an +accidental character in his new position, but a slumber seems to have +fallen on his greater creative faculties. The German atmosphere was +not favourable to the fruitfulness of Meyerbeer's genius. He seems to +have needed the volatile and sparkling life of Paris to excite him +into full activity. Or perhaps he was not willing to produce one of +his operas, with their large dependence on elaborate splendour of +production, away from the Paris Grand Opera. During Meyerbeer's stay +in Berlin he introduced Jenny Lind to the Berlin public, as he +afterwards did indeed to Paris, her _début_ there being made in the +opening performance of "Das Feldlager in Schlesien," afterwards +remodelled into "L'Étoile du Nord." + +Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to present the third of his great +operas, "La Prophète." It was given with Roger, Viardot-Garcia, and +Castellan in the principal characters. Mdme. Viardot-Garcia achieved +one of her greatest dramatic triumphs in the difficult part of Fides. +In London the opera also met with splendid success, having, as Chorley +tells us, a great advantage over the Paris presentation in "the +remarkable personal beauty of Signor Mario, whose appearance in his +coronation robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture by Van +Eyck or Dürer, and who could bring to bear a play of feature without +grimace into the scene of false fascination, entirely beyond the reach +of the clever French artist Roger, who originated the character." + +"L'Étoile du Nord" was given to the public February 16, 1854. Up to +this time the opera of "Robert" had been sung three hundred and +thirty-three times, "Les Huguenots" two hundred and twenty-two, and +"Le Prophète" a hundred and twelve. The "Pardon de Ploërmel," also +known as "Dinorah," was offered to the world of Paris April 4, 1859. +Both these operas, though beautiful, are inferior to his other works. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[R] Yet Lord Mount-Edgcumbe is inconsistent enough to be an ardent +admirer of Mozart's "Zauberflöte." + + +III. + +Meyerbeer, a man of handsome private fortune, like Mendelssohn, made +large sums by his operas, and was probably the wealthiest of the great +composers. He lived a life of luxurious ease, and yet laboured with +intense zeal a certain number of hours each day. A friend one day +begged him to take more rest, and he answered smilingly, "If I should +leave work, I should rob myself of my greatest pleasure; for I am so +accustomed to work that it has become a necessity." Probably few +composers have been more splendidly rewarded by contemporary fame and +wealth, or been more idolised by their admirers. No less may it be +said that few have been the object of more severe criticism. His youth +was spent amid the severest classic influences of German music, and +the spirit of romanticism and nationality, which blossomed into such +beautiful and characteristic works as those composed by his friend and +fellow-pupil Weber, also found in his heart an eloquent echo. But +Meyerbeer resolutely disenthralled himself from what he appeared to +have regarded as trammels, and followed out an ambition to be a +cosmopolitan composer. In pursuit of this purpose he divested himself +of that fine flavour of individuality and devotion to art for its own +sake which marks the highest labours of genius. He can not be exempted +from the criticism that he regarded success and the immediate plaudits +of the public as the only satisfactory rewards of his art. He had but +little of the lofty content which shines out through the vexed and +clouded lives of such souls as Beethoven and Gluck in music, of Bacon +and Milton in literature, who looked forward to immortality of fame as +the best vindication of their work. A marked characteristic of the man +was a secret dissatisfaction with all that he accomplished, making him +restless and unhappy, and extremely sensitive to criticism. With this +was united a tendency at times to oscillate to the other extreme of +vain-gloriousness. An example of this was a reply to Rossini one night +at the opera when they were listening to "Robert le Diable." The "Swan +of Pesaro" was a warm admirer of Meyerbeer, though the latter was a +formidable rival, and his works had largely replaced those of the +other in popular repute. Sitting together in the same box, Rossini, in +his delight at one portion of the opera, cried out in his impulsive +Italian way, "If you can write anything to surpass this, I will +undertake to dance upon my head." "Well, then," said Meyerbeer, "you +had better soon commence practising, for I have just commenced the +fourth act of 'Les Huguenots.'" Well might he make this boast, for +into the fourth act of his musical setting of the terrible St. +Bartholomew tragedy he put the finest inspirations of his life. + +Singular to say, though he himself represented the very opposite pole +of art spirit and method, Mozart was to him the greatest of his +predecessors. Perhaps it was this very fact, however, which was at the +root of his sentiment of admiration for the composer of "Don Giovanni" +and "Le Nozze di Figaro." A story is told to the effect that Meyerbeer +was once dining with some friends, when a discussion arose respecting +Mozart's position in the musical hierarchy. Suddenly one of the guests +suggested that "certain beauties of Mozart's music had become stale +with age. I defy you," he continued, "to listen to 'Don Giovanni' +after the fourth act of the 'Huguenots.'" "So much the worse, then, +for the fourth act of the 'Huguenots,'" said Meyerbeer, furious at the +clumsy compliment paid to his own work at the expense of his idol. + +Critics wedded to the strict German school of music never forgave +Meyerbeer for his dereliction from the spirit and influences of his +nation, and the prominence which he gave to melodramatic effects and +spectacular show in his operas. Not without some show of reason, they +cite this fact as proof of poverty of musical invention. Mendelssohn, +who was habitually generous in his judgment, wrote to the poet +Immermann from Paris of "Robert le Diable"--"The subject is of the +romantic order; _i.e._, the devil appears in it (which suffices the +Parisians for romance and imagination). Nevertheless, it is very bad, +and, were it not for two brilliant seduction scenes, there would not +even be effect.... The opera does not please me; it is devoid of +sentiment and feeling.... People admire the music, but where there is +no warmth and truth, I cannot even form a standard of criticism." + +Schlüter, the historian of music, speaks even more bitterly of +Meyerbeer's irreverence and theatric sensationalism--"'Les Huguenots' +and the far weaker production 'Le Prophète' are, we think, all the +more reprehensible (nowadays especially, when too much stress is laid +on the subject of a work, and consequently on the libretto of an +opera), because the Jew has in these pieces ruthlessly dragged before +the footlights two of the darkest pictures in the annals of +Catholicism, nor has he scrupled to bring high mass and chorale on the +boards." + +Wagner, the last of the great German composers, cannot find words too +scathing and bitter to mark his condemnation of Meyerbeer. Perhaps +his extreme aversion finds its psychological reason in the +circumstance that his own early efforts were in the sphere of +Meyerbeer and Halévy, and from his present point of view he looks +back with disgust on what he regards as the sins of his youth. The +fairest of the German estimates of the composer, who not only cast +aside the national spirit and methods, but offended his countrymen by +devoting himself to the French stage, is that of Vischer, an eminent +writer on æsthetics--"Notwithstanding the composer's remarkable +talent for musical drama, his operas contain sometimes too much, +sometimes too little--too much in the subject-matter, external +adornment, and effective 'situations'--too little in the absence of +poetry, ideality, and sentiment (which are essential to a work of +art), as well as in the unnatural and constrained combinations of the +plot." + +But despite the fact that Meyerbeer's operas contain such strange +scenes as phantom nuns dancing, girls bathing, sunrise, skating, +gunpowder explosions, a king playing the flute, and the prima donna +leading a goat, dramatic music owes to him new accents of genuine +pathos and an addition to its resources of rendering passionate +emotions. Though much that is merely showy and meretricious there come +frequent bursts of genuine musical power and energy, which give him a +high and unmistakable rank, though he has had less permanent influence +in moulding and directing the development of musical art than any +other composer who has had so large a place in the annals of his time. + +The last twelve years of Meyerbeer's life were spent, with the +exception of brief residences in Germany and Italy, in Paris, the city +of his adoption, where all who were distinguished in art and letters +paid their court to him. When he was seized with his fatal illness he +was hard at work on "L'Africaine," for which Scribe had also furnished +the libretto. His heart was set on its completion, and his daily +prayer was that his life might be spared to finish it. But it was not +to be. He died May 2, 1864. The same morning Rossini called to inquire +after the health of the sick man, equally his friend and rival. When +he heard the sad news he sank into a fit of profound despondency and +grief, from which he did not soon recover. All Paris mourned with him, +and even Germany forgot its critical dislike to join in regret at the +loss of one who, with all his defects, was so great an artist and so +good a man. + +Meyerbeer seems to have been greatly afraid of being buried alive. In +his pocket-book after his death was found a paper giving directions +that small bells should be attached to his hands and feet, and that +his body should be carefully watched for four days, after which it +should be sent to Berlin to be interred by the side of his mother, to +whom he had been most tenderly attached. + +The composer was the intimate friend of most of the celebrities of his +time in art and literature. Victor Hugo, Lamartine, George Sand, +Balzac, Alfred de Musset, Delacroix, Jules Janin, and Théophile +Gautier were his familiar intimates; and the reunions between these +and other gifted men, who then made Paris so intellectually brilliant, +are charmingly described by Liszt and Moscheles. Meyerbeer's +correspondence, which was extensive, deserves publication, as it +displays marked literary faculty, and is full of bright sympathetic +thought, vigorous criticism, and playful fancy. The following letter +to Jules Janin, written from Berlin a few years before his death, +gives some pleasant insight into his character:-- + + "Your last letter was addressed to me at Königsberg; but I + was in Berlin working--working away like a young man, + despite my seventy years, which somehow certain people, with + a peculiar generosity, try to put upon me. As I am not at + Königsberg, where I am to arrange for the Court concert for + the eighteenth of this month, I have now leisure to answer + your letter, and will immediately confess to you how greatly + I was disappointed that you were so little interested in + Rameau; and yet Rameau was always the bright star of your + French opera, as well as your master in the music. He + remained to you after Lulli, and it was he who prepared the + way for the Chevalier Gluck: therefore his family have a + right to expect assistance from the Parisians, who on + several occasions have cared for the descendants of Racine + and the grandchildren of the great Corneille. If I had been + in Paris, I certainly would have given two hundred francs + for a seat; and I take this opportunity to beg you to hand + that sum to the poor family, who cannot fail to be unhappy + in their disappointment. At the same time I send you a power + of attorney for M. Guyot, by which I renounce all claims to + the parts of my operas which may be represented at the + benefit for the celebrated and unfortunate Rameau family. + Why will you not come to Königsberg at the festival? Why, in + other words, are you not in Berlin? What splendid music we + have in preparation! As to myself, it is not only a source + of pleasure to me, but I feel it a duty, in the position I + hold, to compose a grand march, to be performed at + Königsberg while the royal procession passes from the castle + into the church, where the ceremony of crowning is to take + place. I will even compose a hymn, to be executed on the day + that our king and master returns to his good Berlin. + Besides, I have promised to write an overture for the great + concert of the four nations, which the directors of the + London exhibition intend to give at the opening of the same, + next spring, in the Crystal Palace. All this keeps me back: + it has robbed me of my autumn, and will also take a good + part of next spring; but with the help of God, dear friend, + I hope we shall see each other again next year, free from + all cares, in the charming little town of Spa, listening to + the babbling of its waters and the rustling of its old grey + oaks. + + "Truly your friend, + + "Meyerbeer." + + +IV. + +Meyerbeer's operas are so intricate in their elements, and travel so +far out of the beaten track of precedent and rule, that it is +difficult to clearly describe their characteristics in a few words. +His original flow of melody could not have been very rich, for none of +his tunes have become household words, and his excessive use of that +element of opera which has nothing to do with music, as in the case of +Wagner, can have but one explanation. It is in the treatment of the +orchestra that he has added most largely to the genuine treasures of +music. His command of colour in tone-painting and power of dramatic +suggestion have rarely been equalled, and never surpassed. His genius +for musical rhythm is the most marked element in his power. This is +specially noticeable in his dance music, which is very bold, +brilliant, and voluptuous. The vivacity and grace of the ballets in +his operas save more than one act which otherwise would be +insufferably heavy and tedious. It is not too much to say that the +most spontaneous side of his creative fancy is found in these +affluent, vigorous, and stirring measures. + +Meyerbeer appears always to have been uncertain of himself and his +work. There was little of that masterly prevision of effect in his +mind which is one of the attributes of the higher imagination. His +operas, though most elaborately constructed, were often entirely +modified and changed in rehearsal, and some of the finest scenes, both +in the dramatic and musical sense, were the outcome of some happy +accidental suggestion at the very last moment. "Robert," "Les +Huguenots," "Le Prophète," in the forms we have them, are quite +different from those in which they were first cast. These operas have +therefore been called "the most magnificent patchwork in the history +of art," though this is a harsh phrasing of the fact, which somewhat +outrides justice. Certain it is, however, that Meyerbeer was largely +indebted to the chapter of accidents. + +The testimony of Dr. Véron, who was manager of the Grand Opera during +the most of the composer's brilliant career, is of great interest, as +illustrating this trait of Meyerbeer's composition. He tells us in his +_Mémoires_, before alluded to, that "Robert" was made and remade +before its final production. The ghastly but effective colour of the +resuscitation scene in the graveyard of the ruined convent was a +change wrought by a stage manager, who was disgusted with the chorus +of simpering women in the original. This led Meyerbeer to compose the +weird ballet music which is such a characteristic feature of "Robert +le Diable." So, too, we are told on the same authority, the fourth act +of "Les Huguenots," which is the most powerful single act in +Meyerbeer's operas, owes its present shape to Nourrit, the most +intellectual and creative tenor singer of whom we have record. It was +originally designed that the St. Bartholomew massacre should be +organised by Queen Marguerite, but Nourrit pointed out that the +interest centering in the heroine, Valentine, as an involuntary and +horrified witness, would be impaired by the predominance of another +female character. So the plot was largely reconstructed, and fresh +music written. Another still more striking attraction was the addition +of the great duet with which the act now closes--a duet which critics +have cited as an evidence of unequalled power, coming as it does at +the very heels of such an astounding chorus as "The Blessing of the +Swords." Nourrit felt that the parting of the two lovers at such a +time and place demanded such an outburst and confession as would be +wrung from them by the agony of the situation. Meyerbeer acted on the +suggestion with such felicity and force as to make it the crowning +beauty of the work. Similar changes are understood to have been made +in "Le Prophète" by advice of Nourrit, whose poetical insight seems to +have been unerring. It was left to Duprez, Nourrit's successor, +however, to be the first exponent of John of Leyden. + +These instances suffice to show how uncertain and how unequal was the +grasp of Meyerbeer's genius, and to explain in part why he was so +prone to gorgeous effects, aside from that tendency of the Israelitish +nature which delights in show and glitter. We see something in it akin +to the trick of the rhetorician, who seeks to hide poverty of thought +under glittering phrases. Yet Meyerbeer rose to occasions with a force +that was something gigantic. Once his work was clearly defined in a +mind not powerfully creative, he expressed it in music with such +vigour, energy, and warmth of colour as cannot be easily surpassed. +With this composer there was but little spontaneous flow of musical +thought, clothing itself in forms of unconscious and perfect beauty, +as in the case of Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Rossini, and others +who could be cited. The constitution of his mind demanded some +external power to bring forth the gush of musical energy. + +The operas of Meyerbeer may be best described as highly artistic and +finished mosaic work, containing much that is precious with much that +is false. There are parts of all his operas which cannot be surpassed +for beauty of music, dramatic energy, and fascination of effect. In +addition, the strength and richness of his orchestration, which +contains original strokes not found in other composers, give him a +lasting claim on the admiration of the lovers of music. No other +composer has united so many glaring defects with such splendid power; +and were it not that Meyerbeer strained his ingenuity to tax the +resources of the singer in every possible way, not even the mechanical +difficulty of producing these operas in a fashion commensurate with +their plan would prevent their taking a high place among popular +operas. + + + + +_GOUNOD._ + + +I. + +Moscheles, one of the severe classical pianists of the German school, +writes as follows, in 1861, in a letter to a friend--"In Gounod I hail +a real composer. I have heard his 'Faust' both at Leipsic and Dresden, +and am charmed with that refined, piquant music. Critics may rave if +they like against the mutilation of Goethe's masterpiece; the opera is +sure to attract, for it is a fresh, interesting work, with a copious +flow of melody and lovely instrumentation." + +Henry Chorley in his _Thirty Years' Musical Recollections_, writing of +the year 1851, says--"To a few hearers, since then grown into a +European public, neither the warmest welcome nor the most bleak +indifference could alter the conviction that among the composers who +have appeared during the last twenty-five years, M. Gounod was the +most promising one, as showing the greatest combination of sterling +science, beauty of idea, freshness of fancy, and individuality. Before +a note of 'Sappho' was written, certain sacred Roman Catholic +compositions and some exquisite settings of French verse had made it +clear to some of the acutest judges and profoundest musicians living, +that in him at last something true and new had come--may I not say, +the most poetical of French musicians that has till now written?" The +same genial and acute critic, in further discussing the envy, +jealousy, and prejudice that Gounod awakened in certain musical +quarters, writes in still more decided strains--"The fact has to be +swallowed and digested that already the composer of 'Sappho,' the +choruses to 'Ulysse,' 'Le Médecin malgré lui,' 'Faust,' 'Philemon et +Baucis,' a superb Cecilian mass, two excellent symphonies, and half a +hundred songs and romances, which may be ranged not far from +Schubert's and above any others existing in France, is one of the very +few individuals left to whom musical Europe is now looking for its +pleasure." Surely it is enough praise for a great musician that, in +the domain of opera, church music, symphony, and song, he has risen +above all others of his time in one direction, and in all been +surpassed by none. + +It was not till "Faust" was produced that Gounod's genius evinced its +highest capacity. For nineteen years the exquisite melodies of this +great work have rung in the ears of civilisation without losing one +whit of the power with which they first fascinated the lovers of +music. The verdict which the aged Moscheles passed in his Leipsic +home--Moscheles, the friend of Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, and +Mendelssohn; which was re-echoed by the patriarchal Rossini, who came +from his Passy retirement to offer his congratulations; which Auber +took up again, as with tears of joy in his eyes he led Gounod, the +ex-pupil of the Conservatory, through the halls wherein had been laid +the foundation of his musical skill--that verdict has been affirmed +over and over again by the world. For in "Faust" we recognise not only +some of the most noble music ever written, but a highly dramatic +expression of spiritual truth. It is hardly a question that Gounod has +succeeded in an unrivalled degree in expressing the characters and +symbolisms of "Mephistopheles," "Faust," and "Gretchen" in music not +merely beautiful, but spiritual, humorous, subtile, and voluptuous, +accordingly as the varied meanings of Goethe's masterpiece demand. + +Visitors at Paris, while the American civil war was at its height, +might frequently have observed at the beautiful Théâtre Lyrique, +afterwards burned by the Vandals of the Commune, a noticeable-looking +man, of blonde complexion and tawny beard, clear-cut features, and +large, bright, almost sombre-looking eyes. As the opera of "Faust" +progresses, his features eloquently express his varying emotions, now +of approval, now of annoyance at different parts of the performance. +M. Gounod is criticising the interpretation of the great opera, which +suddenly lifted him into fame as perhaps the most imaginative and +creative of late composers. + +An aggressive disposition, an energy and faith that accepted no +rebuffs, and the power of "toiling terribly," had enabled Gounod to +battle his way into the front rank. Unlike Rossini and Auber, he +disdained social recreation, and was so rarely seen in the fashionable +quarters of Paris and London that only an occasional musical +announcement kept him before the eyes of the public. Gounod seems to +have devoted himself to the strict sphere of his art-life with an +exclusive devotion quite foreign to the general temperament of the +musician, into which something luxurious and pleasure-loving is so apt +to enter. This composer, standing in the very front rank of his +fellows, has injected into the veins of the French school to which he +belongs a seriousness, depth, and imaginative vigour, which prove to +us how much he is indebted to German inspiration and German models. + +CHARLES GOUNOD, born in Paris, June 17, 1818, betrayed so much passion +for music during tender years, that his father gave him every +opportunity to gratify and improve this marked bias. He studied under +Reicha and Le Sueur, and finally under Halévy, completing under the +latter the preparation which fitted him for entrance into the +Conservatory. The talents he displayed there were such as to fix on +him the attention of his most distinguished masters. He carried off +the second prize at nineteen, and at twenty-one received the grand +prize for musical composition awarded by the French Institute. His +first published work was a mass performed at the Church of St. +Eustache, which, while not specially successful, was sufficiently +encouraging to both the young composer and his friends. + +Gounod now proceeded to Rome, where there seems to have been some +inclination on his part to study for holy orders. But music was not +destined to be cheated of so gifted a votary. In 1841 he wrote a +second mass, which was so well thought of in the papal capital as to +gain for the young composer the appointment of an honorary +chapel-master for life. This recognition of his genius settled his +final conviction that music was his true life-work, though the +religious sentiment, or rather a sympathy with mysticism, is +strikingly apparent in all of his compositions. The next goal in the +composer's art pilgrimage was the music-loving city of Vienna, the +home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, though its people +waited till the last three great geniuses were dead before it accorded +them the loving homage which they have since so freely rendered. The +reception given by the capricious Viennese to a requiem and a Lenten +mass (for as yet Gounod only thought of sacred music as his vocation) +was not such as to encourage a residence. Paris, the queen of the +world, towards which every French exile ever looks with longing eyes, +seemed to beckon him back; so at the age of twenty-five he turned his +steps again to his beloved Lutetia. His education was finished; he had +completed his "Wanderjahre;" and he was eager to enter on the serious +work of life. + +He was appointed chapel-master at the Church of Foreign Missions, in +which office he remained for six years, in the meanwhile marrying a +charming woman, the daughter of Herr Zimmermann, the celebrated +theologian and orator. In 1849 he composed his third mass, which made +a powerful impression on musicians and critics, though Gounod's +ambition, which seems to have been powerfully stimulated by his +marriage, began to realise that it was in the field of lyric drama +only that his powers would find their full development. He had been an +ardent student in literature and art as well as in music; his style +had been formed on the most noble and serious German models, and his +tastes, awakened into full activity, carried him with great zeal into +the loftier field of operatic composition. + +The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and +methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the +beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so +brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of +that great master. More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini +and Halévy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and +ideal than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by +far their superior, Gounod's genius, as shown in the one opera of +"Faust," suffices to stamp his great mastership. + +But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be +achieved. His early lyric compositions fell dead. Score after score +was rejected by the managers. No one cared to hazard the risk of +producing an opera by this unknown composer. His first essay was a +pastoral opera, "Philemon and Baucis," and it did not escape from the +manuscript for many a long year, though it has in more recent times +been received by critical German audiences with great applause. A +catalogue of Gounod's failures would have no significance except as +showing that his industry and energy were not relaxed by public +neglect. His first decided encouragement came in 1851, when "Sappho" +was produced at the French Opera through the influence of Madame +Pauline Viardot, the sister of Malibran, who had a generous belief in +the composer's future, and such a position in the musical world of +Paris as to make her requests almost mandatory. This opera, based on +the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well received, and cheered Gounod's +heart to make fresh efforts. In 1852 he composed the choruses for +Poussard's classical tragedy of "Ulysse," performed at the Théâtre +Français. The growing recognition of the world was evidenced in his +appointment as director of the Normal Singing School of Paris, the +primary school of the Conservatory. In 1854 a five-act opera, with a +libretto from the legend of the "Bleeding Nun," was completed and +produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that musical +authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the ranks of +art, though as yet not a very high one. + +For years Gounod's serious and elevated mind had been pondering on +Goethe's great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to +conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not fully +elaborated, long prior to its final crystallisation. But he was not +yet quite ready to enter seriously on the composition of the +masterpiece. He must still try his hand on lesser themes. Occasional +pieces for the orchestra or choruses strengthened his hold on these +important elements of lyric composition, and in 1858 he produced "Le +Médecin malgré lui," based on Molière's comedy, afterwards performed +as an English opera under the title of "The Mock Doctor." Gounod's +genius seems to have had no affinity for the graceful and sparkling +measures of comic music, and his attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in +the field where they were pre-eminent was decidedly unsuccessful, +though the opera contained much fine music. + + +II. + +The year of his triumph had at last arrived. He had waited and toiled +for years over "Faust," and it was now ready to flash on the world +with an electric brightness that was to make his name instantly +famous. One day saw him an obscure, third-rate composer, the next one +of the brilliant names in art. "Faust," first performed 19th March +1859, fairly took the world by storm. Gounod's warmest friends were +amazed by the beauty of the masterpiece, in which exquisite melody, +great orchestration, and a dramatic passion never surpassed in +operatic art, were combined with a scientific skill and precision +which would vie with that of the great masters of harmony. Carvalho, +the manager of the Théâtre Lyrique, had predicted that the work would +have a magnificent reception by the art world, and lavished on it +every stage resource. Madame Miolan-Carvalho, his brilliant wife, one +of the leading sopranos of the day, sang the rôle of the heroine, +though five years afterwards she was succeeded by Nilsson, who +invested the part with a poetry and tenderness which have never been +quite equalled. + +"Faust" was received at Berlin, Vienna, Milan, St. Petersburg, and +London, with an enthusiasm not less than that which greeted its +Parisian début. The clamour of dispute between the different schools +was for the moment hushed in the delight with which the musical +critics and public of universal Europe listened to the magical +measures of an opera which to classical chasteness and severity of +form and elevation of motive united such dramatic passion, richness of +melody, and warmth of orchestral colour. From that day to the present +"Faust" has retained its place as not only the greatest but the most +popular of modern operas. The proof of the composer's skill and sense +of symmetry in the composition of "Faust" is shown in the fact that +each part is so nearly necessary to the work, that but few "cuts" can +be made in presentation without essentially marring the beauty of the +work; and it is therefore given with close faithfulness to the +author's score. + +After the immense success of "Faust," the doors of the Academy were +opened wide to Gounod. On February 28, 1862, the "Reine de Saba" was +produced, but was only a _succès d'estime_, the libretto by Gérard de +Nerval not being fitted for a lyric tragedy.[S] Many numbers of this +fine work, however, are still favourites on concert programmes, and it +has been given in English under the name of "Irene." Gounod's love of +romantic themes, and the interest in France which Lamartine's glowing +eulogies had excited about "Mireio," the beautiful national poem of +the Provençal, M. Frédéric Mistral, led the former to compose an opera +on a libretto from this work, which was given at the Théâtre Lyrique, +March 19, 1864, under the name of "Mireille." The music, however, was +rather descriptive and lyric than dramatic, as befitted this lovely +ideal of early French provincial life; and in spite of its containing +some of the most captivating airs ever written, and the fine +interpretation of the heroine by Miolan-Carvalho, it was accepted with +reservations. It has since become more popular in its three-act form +to which it was abridged. It is a tribute to the essential beauty of +Gounod's music that, however unsuccessful as operas certain of his +works have been, they have all contributed charming _morceaux_ for the +enjoyment of concert audiences. Not only did the airs of "Mireille" +become public favourites, but its overture is frequently given as a +distinct orchestral work. + +The opera of "La Colombe," known in English as "The Pet Dove," +followed in 1866; and the next year was produced the five-act opera of +"Roméo et Juliette," of which the principal part was again taken by +Madame Miolan-Carvalho. The favourite pieces in this work, which is a +highly poetic rendering of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, are the +song of _Queen Mab_, the garden duet, a short chorus in the second +act, and the duel scene in the third act. For some occult reason, +"Roméo et Juliette," though recognised as a work of exceptional beauty +and merit, and still occasionally performed, has no permanent hold on +the operatic public of to-day. + +The evils that fell on France from the German war and the horrors of +the Commune drove Gounod to reside in London, unlike Auber, who +resolutely refused to forsake the city of his love, in spite of the +suffering and privation which he foresaw, and which were the indirect +cause of the veteran composer's death. Gounod remained several years +in England, and lived a retired life, seemingly as if he shrank from +public notice and disdained public applause. His principal appearances +were at the Philharmonic, the Crystal Palace, and at Mrs. Weldon's +concerts, where he directed the performances of his own compositions. +The circumstances of his London residence seem to have cast a cloud +over Gounod's life and to have strangely unsettled his mind. Patriotic +grief probably had something to do with this at the outset. But even +more than this as a source of permanent irritation may be reckoned the +spell cast over Gounod's mind by a beautiful adventuress, who was +ambitious to attain social and musical recognition through the _éclat_ +of the great composer's friendship. Though newspaper report may be +credited with swelling and distorting the naked facts, enough appears +to be known to make it sure that the evil genius of Gounod's London +life was a woman, who traded recklessly with her own reputation and +the French composer's fame. + +However untoward the surroundings of Gounod, his genius did not lie +altogether dormant during this period of friction and fretfulness, +conditions so repressive to the best imaginative work. He composed +several masses and other church music; a "Stabat Mater" with +orchestra; the oratorio of "Tobie"; "Gallia," a lamentation for +France; incidental music for Legouvé's tragedy of "Les Deux Reines," +and for Jules Barbier's "Jeanne d'Arc;" a large number of songs and +romances, both sacred and secular, such as "Nazareth," and "There is a +Green Hill;" and orchestral works, "Salterello in A," and the "Funeral +March of a Marionette." + +At last he broke loose from the bonds of Delilah, and, remembering +that he had been elected to fill the place of Clapisson in the +Institute, he returned to Paris in 1876 to resume the position which +his genius so richly deserved. On the 5th of March of the following +year his "Cinq-Mars" was brought out at the Théâtre de l'Opéra +Comique; but it showed the traces of the haste and carelessness with +which it was written, and therefore commanded little more than a +respectful hearing. His last opera, "Polyeucte," produced at the Grand +Opera, October 7, 1878, though credited with much beautiful music, and +nobly orchestrated, is not regarded by the French critics as likely to +add anything to the reputation of the composer of "Faust." Gounod, +now at the age of sixty, if we judge him by the prolonged fertility of +so many of the great composers, may be regarded as not having largely +passed the prime of his powers. The world still has a right to expect +much from his genius. Conceded even by his opponents to be a great +musician and a thorough master of the orchestra, more generous critics +in the main agree to rank Gounod as the most remarkable contemporary +composer, with the possible exception of Richard Wagner. The +distinctive trait of his dramatic conceptions seems to be an +imagination hovering between sensuous images and mystic dreams. +Originally inspired by the severe Greek sculpture of Gluck's music, he +has applied that master's laws in the creation of tone-pictures full +of voluptuous colour, but yet solemnised at times by an exaltation +which recalls the time when as a youth he thought of the spiritual +dignity of priesthood. The use he makes of his religious reminiscences +is familiarly illustrated in "Faust." The contrast between two +opposing principles is marked in all of Gounod's dramatic works, and +in "Faust" this struggle of "a soul which invades mysticism and which +still seeks to express voluptuousness" not only colours the music with +a novel fascination, but amounts to an interesting psychological +problem. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[S] It has been a matter of frequent comment by the ablest musical +critics that many noble operas, now never heard, would have retained +their place in the repertoires of modern dramatic music, had it not +been for the utter rubbish to which the music has been set. + + +III. + +Gounod's genius fills too large a space in contemporary music to be +passed over without a brief special study. In pursuit of this no +better method suggests itself than an examination of the opera of +"Faust," into which the composer poured the finest inspirations of his +life, even as Goethe embodied the sum and flower of his long career, +which had garnered so many experiences, in his poetic masterpiece. + +The story of "Faust" has tempted many composers. Prince Radziwill +tried it, and then Spohr set a version of the theme at once coarse and +cruel, full of vulgar witchwork and love-making only fit for a +chambermaid. Since then Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz have +treated the story orchestrally with more or less success. Gounod's +treatment of the poem is by far the most intelligible, poetic, and +dramatic ever attempted, and there is no opera since the days of Gluck +with so little weak music, except Beethoven's "Fidelio." + +In the introduction the restless gloom of the old philosopher and the +contrasted joys of youth engaged in rustic revelry outside are +expressed with graphic force; and the Kirmes music in the next act is +so quaint and original, as well as melodious, as to give the sense of +delightful comedy. When Marguerite enters on the scene, we have a +waltz and chorus of such beauty and piquancy as would have done honour +to Mozart. Indeed, in the dramatic use of dance music Gounod hardly +yields in skill and originality to Meyerbeer himself, though the +latter composer specially distinguished himself in this direction. The +third and fourth acts develop all the tenderness and passion of +Marguerite's character, all the tragedy of her doom. + +After Faust's beautiful monologue in the garden come the song of the +"King of Thule" and Marguerite's delight at finding the jewels, which +conjoined express the artless vanity of the child in a manner alike +full of grace and pathos. The quartet that follows is one of great +beauty, the music of each character being thoroughly in keeping, while +the admirable science of the composer blends all into thorough +artistic unity. It is hardly too much to assert that the love scene +which closes this act has nothing to surpass it for fire, passion, and +tenderness, seizing the mind of the hearer with absorbing force by its +suggestion and imagery, while the almost cloying sweetness of the +melody is such as Rossini and Schubert only could equal. The full +confession of the enamoured pair contained in the brief _adagio_ +throbs with such rapture as to find its most suggestive parallel in +the ardent words commencing + + "Gallop apace, ye fiery-footed steeds," + +placed by Shakespeare in the mouth of the expectant Juliet. + +Beauties succeed each other in swift and picturesque succession, +fitting the dramatic order with a nicety which forces the highest +praise of the critic. The march and the chorus marking the return of +Valentine's regiment beat with a fire and enthusiasm to which the +tramp of victorious squadrons might well keep step. The wicked music +of Mephistopheles in the sarcastic serenade, the powerful duel trio, +and Valentine's curse are of the highest order of expression; while +the church scene, where the fiend whispers his taunts in the ear of +the disgraced Marguerite, as the gloomy musical hymn and peals of the +organ menace her with an irreversible doom, is a weird and thrilling +picture of despair, agony, and devilish exultation. + +Gounod has been blamed for violating the reverence due to sacred +things, employing portions of the church service in this scene, +instead of writing music for it. But this is the last resort of +critical hostility, seeking a peg on which to hang objection. +Meyerbeer's splendid introduction of Luther's great hymn, "Ein' feste +Burg," in "Les Huguenots," called forth a similar criticism from his +German assailants. Some of the most dramatic effects in music have +been created by this species of musical quotation, so rich in its +appeal to memory and association. Who that has once heard can forget +the thrilling power of "La Marseillaise" in Schumann's setting of +Heinrich Heine's poem of "The Two Grenadiers?" The two French +soldiers, weary and broken-hearted after the Russian campaign, +approach the German frontier. The veterans are moved to tears as they +think of their humiliated Emperor. Up speaks one suffering with a +deadly hurt to the other, "Friend, when I am dead, bury me in my +native France, with my cross of honour on my breast, and my musket in +my hand, and lay my good sword by my side." Until this time the melody +has been a slow and dirge-like stave in the minor key. The old soldier +declares his belief that he will rise again from the clods when he +hears the victorious tramp of his Emperor's squadrons passing over his +grave, and the minor breaks into a weird setting of the +"Marseillaise" in the major key. Suddenly it closes with a few solemn +chords, and, instead of the smoke of battle and the march of the +phantom host, the imagination sees the lonely plain with its green +mounds and mouldering crosses. + +Readers will pardon this digression illustrating an artistic law, of +which Gounod has made such effective use in the church scene of his +"Faust" in heightening its tragic solemnity. The wild goblin symphony +in the fifth act has added some new effects to the gamut of deviltry +in music, and shows that Weber in the "Wolf's Glen" and Meyerbeer in +the "Cloisters of St. Rosalie" did not exhaust the somewhat limited +field. The whole of this part of the act, sadly mutilated and abridged +often in representation, is singularly picturesque and striking as a +musical conception, and is a fitting companion to the tragic prison +scene. The despair of the poor crazed Marguerite; her delirious joy in +recognising Faust; the temptation to fly; the final outburst of faith +and hope, as the sense of Divine pardon sinks into her soul--all these +are touched with the fire of genius, and the passion sweeps with an +unfaltering force to its climax. These references to the details of a +work so familiar as "Faust," conveying of course no fresh information +to the reader, have been made to illustrate the peculiarities of +Gounod's musical temperament, which sways in such fascinating contrast +between the voluptuous and the spiritual. But whether his accents +belong to the one or the other, they bespeak a mood flushed with +earnestness and fervour, and a mind which recoils from the frivolous, +however graceful it may be. + +In the Franco-German school, of which Gounod is so high an exponent, +the orchestra is busy throughout developing the history of the +emotions, and in "Faust" especially it is as busy a factor in +expressing the passions of the characters as the vocal parts. Not even +in the "garden scene" does the singing reduce the instruments to a +secondary importance. The difference between Gounod and Wagner, who +professes to elaborate the importance of the orchestra in dramatic +music, is that the former has a skill in writing for the voice which +the other lacks. The one lifts the voice by the orchestration, the +other submerges it. Gounod's affluence of lovely melody can only be +compared with that of Mozart and Rossini, and his skill and ingenuity +in treating the orchestra have wrung reluctant praise from his +bitterest opponents. + +The special power which makes Gounod unique in his art, aside from +those elements before alluded to as derived from temperament, is his +unerring sense of dramatic fitness, which weds such highly suggestive +music to each varying phase of character and action. To this perhaps +one exception may be made. While he possesses a certain airy +playfulness, he fails in rich broad humour utterly, and situations of +comedy are by no means so well handled as the more serious scenes. A +good illustration of this may be found in the "Le Médecin malgré lui," +in the couplets given to the drunken "Sganarelle." They are beautiful +music, but utterly unflavoured with the _vis comica_. + +Had Gounod written only "Faust," it should stamp him as one of the +most highly-gifted composers of his age. Noticeably in his other +works, pre-eminently in this, he has shown a melodic freshness and +fertility, a mastery of musical form, a power of orchestration, and a +dramatic energy, which are combined to the same degree in no one of +his rivals. Therefore it is just to place him in the first rank of +contemporary composers. + + * * * * * + +Note by the Editor.--Gounod is a strongly religious man, and more than +once has been on the point of entering the Church. It is, therefore, +not surprising that he should have in his later life turned his +attention to the finest form of sacred music, the oratorio. His first +and greatest work of this class is his "Redemption," produced at the +Birmingham Festival of 1882, and conducted by himself. It was well +received, and has met with success at all subsequent performances. It +is intended to illustrate "three great facts (to quote the composer's +words in his prefatory commentary) on which the existence of the +Christian Church depends.... The Passion and death of the Saviour, +His glorious life on earth from His resurrection to His Ascension, and +finally the spread of Christianity in the world through the mission of +the apostles. These three parts of the present trilogy are preceded by +a Prologue on the Creation and Fall of our first parents, and the +promise of the Redeemer." In this work Gounod has discarded the +polyphonic method of the previous school of Italian and German sacred +music, and adopted the dramatic treatment. A competent critic has +written of this work in the following words:--"The 'Redemption' may be +classed among its author's noblest productions. It is a work of high +aim, written regardless of immediate popularity, and therefore all the +more likely to take rank among the permanent additions which sacred +music owes to modern music." In 1885 the oratorio of "Mors et Vita" +was produced at the Birmingham Festival, conducted by Herr Richter. +Though well received, it did not make as great an impression as its +predecessor, to which it stands in the light of a sequel. It consists +of four parts--a short Prologue, a Requiem Mass, the Last Judgment, +and Judex (or the Celestial City). In the Prologue a special +_leitmotive_ accompanying the words "Horrendum est in incidere in +Manus Dei" signifies the Death, not only of the body, but of the +unredeemed soul. A gleam of hope, however, pierces the darkness, and a +beautiful theme is heard frequently throughout the work expressive of +"the idea of justice tempered with mercy, and finally the happiness of +the blessed. The two opposing forces of the design, _Mors_ and _Vita_, +are thus well defined." The work, however, is unequal; the Requiem +Mass, in particular, does not rise in importance when compared with +the many fine examples of the Italian and German sacred music which +preceded it. "Compared with that truly inspired work, 'Redemption,' +partly written, it should be remembered, more than ten years +previously, Gounod's new effort shows a distinct decline, especially +as regards unity of style and genuine inspiration." + + + + +_BERLIOZ._ + + +I. + +In the long list of brilliant names which have illustrated the fine +arts, there is none attached to a personality more interesting and +impressive than that of Hector Berlioz. He stands solitary, a colossus +in music, with but few admirers and fewer followers. Original, +puissant in faculties, fiercely dogmatic and intolerant, bizarre, his +influence has impressed itself profoundly on the musical world both +for good and evil, but has failed to make disciples or to rear a +school. Notwithstanding the defects and extravagances of Berlioz, it +is safe to assert that no art or philosophy can boast of an example of +more perfect devotion to an ideal. The startling originality of +Berlioz as a musician rests on a mental and emotional organisation +different from and in some respects superior to that of any other +eminent master. He possessed an ardent temperament; a gorgeous +imagination, that knew no rest in its working, and at times became +heated to the verge of madness; a most subtile sense of hearing; an +intellect of the keenest analytic turn; a most arrogant will, full of +enterprise and daring, which clung to its purpose with unrelenting +tenacity; and passions of such heat and fervour that they rarely +failed when aroused to carry him beyond all bounds of reason. His +genius was unique, his character cast in the mould of a Titan, his +life a tragedy. Says Blaze de Bussy--"Art has its martyrs, its +forerunners crying in the wilderness, and feeding on roots. It has +also its spoiled children sated with bonbons and dainties." Berlioz +belongs to the former of these classes, and, if ever a prophet lifted +up his voice with a vehement and incessant outcry, it was he. + +HECTOR BERLIOZ was born on December 11, 1803, at Côte Saint André, a +small town between Grenoble and Lyons. His father was an excellent +physician of more than ordinary attainments, and he superintended his +son's studies with great zeal, in the hope that the lad would also +become an ornament of the healing profession. But young Hector, though +an excellent scholar in other branches, developed a special aptitude +for music, and at twelve he could sing at sight, and play difficult +concertos on the flute. The elder regarded music only as a graceful +ornament to life, and in nowise encouraged his son in thinking of +music as a profession. So it was not long before Hector found his +attention directed to anatomy, physiology, osteology, etc. In his +father's library he had already read of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, etc., +and had found a manuscript score of an opera which he had committed to +memory. His soul revolted more and more from the path cut out for +him. "Become a physician!" he cried, "study anatomy; dissect; take +part in horrible operations? No! no! That would be a total subversion +of the natural course of my life." + +But parental resolution carried the day, and, after he had finished +the preliminary course of study, he was ordered up to Paris to join +the army of medical students. So at the age of nineteen we find him +lodged in the Quartier Latin. His first introduction to medical +studies had been unfortunate. On entering a dissecting-room he had +been so convulsed with horror as to leap from the window, and rush to +his lodgings in an agony of dread and disgust, whence he did not +emerge for twenty-four hours. At last, however, by dint of habit he +became somewhat used to the disagreeable facts of his new life, and, +to use his own words, "bade fair to add one more to the army of bad +physicians," when he went to the opera one night and heard "Les +Danaïdes," Salieri's opera, performed with all the splendid +completeness of the Académie Royale. This awakened into fresh life an +unquenchable thirst for music, and he neglected his medical studies +for the library of the Conservatoire, where he learned by heart the +scores of Gluck and Rameau. At last, on coming out one night from a +performance of "Iphigénie," he swore that henceforth music should have +her divine rights of him, in spite of all and everything. Henceforth +hospital, dissecting-room, and professor's lectures knew him no more. + +But to get admission to the Conservatoire was now the problem; Berlioz +set to work on a cantata with orchestral accompaniments, and in the +meantime sent the most imploring letters home asking his father's +sanction for this change of life. The inexorable parent replied by +cutting off his son's allowance, saying that he would not help him to +become one of the miserable herd of unsuccessful musicians. The young +enthusiast's cantata gained him admission to the classes of Le Sueur +and Reicha at the Conservatoire, but alas! dire poverty stared him in +the face. The history of his shifts and privations for some months is +a sad one. He slept in an old, unfurnished garret, and shivered under +insufficient bed-clothing, ate his bread and grapes on the Pont Neuf, +and sometimes debated whether a plunge into the Seine would not be the +easiest way out of it all. No mongrel cur in the capital but had a +sweeter bone to crunch than he. But the young fellow for all this +stuck to his work with dogged tenacity, managed to get a mass +performed at St. Roch church, and soon finished the score of an opera, +"Les Francs Juges." Flesh and blood would have given way at last under +this hard diet, if he had not obtained a position in the chorus of the +Théâtre des Noveauteaus. Berlioz gives an amusing account of his going +to compete with the horde of applicants--butchers, bakers, +shop-apprentices, etc.--each one with his roll of music under his arm. + +The manager scanned the raw-boned starveling with a look of wonder. +"Where's your music?" quoth the tyrant of a third-class theatre. "I +don't want any, I can sing anything you can give me at sight," was the +answer. "The devil!" rejoined the manager; "but we haven't any music +here." "Well, what do you want?" said Berlioz. "I sing every note of +all the operas of Gluck, Piccini, Salieri, Rameau, Spontini, Grétry, +Mozart, and Cimarosa, from memory." At hearing this amazing +declaration, the rest of the competitors slunk away abashed, and +Berlioz, after singing an aria from Spontini, was accorded the place, +which guaranteed him fifty francs per month--a pittance, indeed, and +yet a substantial addition to his resources. This pot-boiling +connection of Berlioz was never known to the public till after he +became a distinguished man, though he was accustomed to speak in vague +terms of his early dramatic career as if it were a matter of romantic +importance. + +At last, however, he was relieved of the necessity of singing on the +stage to amuse the Paris _bourgeoisie_, and in a singular fashion. He +had been put to great straits to get his first work, which had won him +his way into the Conservatoire, performed. An application to the great +Chateaubriand, who was noted for benevolence, had failed, for the +author of _La Génie de Christianisme_ was then almost as poor as +Berlioz. At last a young friend, De Pons, advanced him twelve hundred +francs. Part of this Berlioz had repaid, but the creditor, put to it +for money, wrote to Berlioz _père_, demanding a full settlement of the +debt. The father was thus brought again into communication with his +son, whom he found nearly sick unto death with a fever. His heart +relented, and the old allowance was resumed again, enabling the young +musician to give his whole time to his beloved art, instantly he +convalesced from his illness. + +The eccentric ways and heretical notions of Berlioz made him no +favourite with the dons of the Conservatoire, and by the irritable and +autocratic Cherubini he was positively hated. The young man took no +pains to placate this resentment, but on the other hand elaborated +methods of making himself doubly offensive. His power of stinging +repartee stood him in good stead, and he never put a button on his +foil. Had it been in old Cherubini's power to expel this bold pupil +from the Conservatoire, no scruple would have held him back. But the +genius and industry of Berlioz were undeniable, and there was no +excuse for such extreme measures. Prejudiced as were his judges, he +successively took several important prizes. + + +II. + +Berlioz's happiest evenings were at the Grand Opera, for which he +prepared himself by solemn meditation. At the head of a band of +students and amateurs, he took on himself the right of the most +outspoken criticism, and led the enthusiasm or the condemnation of the +audience. At this time Beethoven was barely tolerated in Paris, and +the great symphonist was ruthlessly clipped and shorn to suit the +French taste, which pronounced him "bizarre, incoherent, diffuse, +bustling with rough modulations and wild harmonies, destitute of +melody, forced in expression, noisy, and fearfully difficult," even as +England at the same time frowned down his immortal works as +"obstreperous roarings of modern frenzy." Berlioz's clear, stern +voice would often be heard, when liberties were taken with the score, +loud above the din of the instruments. "What wretch has dared to +tamper with the great Beethoven?" "Who has taken upon him to revise +Gluck?" This self-appointed arbiter became the dread of the operatic +management, for, as a pupil of the Conservatoire, he had some rights +which could not be infringed. + +Berlioz composed some remarkable works while at the Conservatoire, +amongst which were the "Ouverture des Francs Juges," and the +"Symphonie Fantastique," and in many ways indicated that the bent of +his genius had fully declared itself. His decided and indomitable +nature disdained to wear a mask, and he never sugar-coated his +opinion, however unpalatable to others. He was already in a state of +fierce revolt against the conventional forms of the music of his day, +and no trumpet-tones of protest were too loud for him. He had now +begun to write for the journals, though oftentimes his articles were +refused on account of their fierce assaults. "Your hands are too full +of stones, and there are too many glass windows about," was the excuse +of one editor, softening the return of a manuscript. But Berlioz did +not fully know himself or appreciate the tendencies fermenting within +him until in 1830 he became the victim of a grand Shakespearean +passion. The great English dramatist wrought most powerfully on Victor +Hugo and Hector Berlioz, and had much to do with their artistic +development. Berlioz gives a very interesting account of his +Shakespearean enthusiasm, which also involved one of the catastrophes +of his own personal life. "An English company gave some plays of +Shakespeare, at that time wholly unknown to the French public. I went +to the first performance of 'Hamlet' at the Odéon. I saw, in the part +of Ophelia, Harriet Smithson, who became my wife five years +afterwards. The effect of her prodigious talent, or rather of her +dramatic genius, upon my heart and imagination, is only comparable to +the complete overturning which the poet, whose worthy interpreter she +was, caused in me. Shakespeare, thus coming on me suddenly, struck me +as with a thunderbolt. His lightning opened the heaven of art to me +with a sublime crash, and lighted up its farthest depths. I recognised +true dramatic grandeur, beauty, and truth. I measured at the same time +the boundless inanity of the notions of Shakespeare in France, spread +abroad by Voltaire. + + '... ce singe de génie, + Chez l'homme en mission par le diable envoyé--' + +('that ape of genius, an emissary from the devil to man'), and the +pitiful poverty of our old poetry of pedagogues and ragged-school +teachers. I saw, I understood, I felt that I was alive and must arise +and walk." Of the influence of "Romeo and Juliet" on him, he says, +"Exposing myself to the burning sun and balmy nights of Italy, seeing +this love as quick and sudden as thought, burning like lava, +imperious, irresistible, boundless, and pure and beautiful as the +smile of angels, those furious scenes of vengeance, those distracted +embraces, those struggles between love and death, was too much. After +the melancholy, the gnawing anguish, the tearful love, the cruel +irony, the sombre meditations, the heart-rackings, the madness, tears, +mourning, the calamities and sharp cleverness of Hamlet; after the +grey clouds and icy winds of Denmark; after the third act, hardly +breathing, in pain as if a hand of iron were squeezing at my heart, I +said to myself with the fullest conviction, 'Ah! I am lost.' I must +add that I did not at that time know a word of English, that I only +caught glimpses of Shakespeare through the fog of Letourneur's +translation, and that I consequently could not perceive the poetic web +that surrounds his marvellous creations like a net of gold. I have the +misfortune to be very nearly in the same sad case to-day. It is much +harder for a Frenchman to sound the depths of Shakespeare than for an +Englishman to feel the delicacy and originality of La Fontaine or +Molière. Our two poets are rich continents; Shakespeare is a world. +But the play of the actors, above all of the actress, the succession +of the scenes, the pantomime and the accent of the voices, meant more +to me, and filled me a thousand times more with Shakespearean ideas +and passion than the text of my colourless and unfaithful translation. +An English critic said last winter in the _Illustrated London News_, +that, after seeing Miss Smithson in Juliet, I had cried out, 'I will +marry that woman and write my grandest symphony on this play.' I did +both, but never said anything of the sort." + +The beautiful Miss Smithson became the rage, the inspiration of poets +and painters, the idol of the hour, at whose feet knelt all the +_roués_ and rich idlers of the town. Delacroix painted her as the +Ophelia of his celebrated picture, and the English company made nearly +as much sensation in Paris as the Comédie Française recently aroused +in London. Berlioz's mind, perturbed and inflamed with the mighty +images of the Shakespearean world, swept with wide, powerful passion +towards Shakespeare's interpreter. He raged and stormed with his +accustomed vehemence, made no secret of his infatuation, and walked +the streets at night, calling aloud the name of the enchantress, and +cooling his heated brows with many a sigh. He, too, would prove that +he was a great artist, and his idol should know that she had no +unworthy lover. He would give a concert, and Miss Smithson should be +present by hook or by crook. He went to Cherubini and asked permission +to use the great hall of the Conservatoire, but was churlishly +refused. Berlioz, however, managed to secure the concession over the +head of Cherubini, and advertised his concert. He went to large +expense in copyists, orchestra, solo-singers, and chorus, and, when +the night came, was almost fevered with expectation. But the concert +was a failure, and the adored one was not there; she had not even +heard of it! The disappointment nearly laid the young composer on a +bed of sickness; but, if he oscillated between deliriums of hope and +despair, his powerful will was also full of elasticity, and not for +long did he even rave in the utter ebb of disappointment. Throughout +the whole of his life, Berlioz displayed this swiftness of recoil; +one moment crazed with grief and depression, the next he would bend to +his labour with a cool, steady fixedness of purpose, which would sweep +all interferences aside like cobwebs. But still, night after night, he +would haunt the Odéon, and drink in the sights and sounds of the magic +world of Shakespeare, getting fresh inspiration nightly for his genius +and love. If he paid dearly for this rich intellectual acquaintance by +his passion for La Belle Smithson, he yet gained impulses and +suggestions for his imagination, ravenous of new impressions, which +wrought deeply and permanently. Had Berlioz known the outcome, he +would not have bartered for immunity by losing the jewels and ingots +of the Shakespeare treasure-house. + +The year 1830 was for Berlioz one of alternate exaltation and misery; +of struggle, privation, disappointment; of all manner of torments +inseparable from such a volcanic temperament and restless brain. But +he had one consolation which gratified his vanity. He gained the Prix +de Rome by his cantata of "Sardanapalus." This honour had a practical +value also. It secured him an annuity of three thousand francs for a +period of five years, and two years' residence in Italy. Berlioz would +never let "well enough" alone, however. He insisted on adding an +orchestral part to the completed score, describing the grand +conflagration of the palace of Sardanapalus. When the work was +produced, it was received with a howl of sarcastic derision, owing to +the latest whim of the composer. So Berlioz started for Italy, +smarting with rage and pain, as if the Furies were lashing him with +their scorpion whips. + + +III. + +The pensioners of the Conservatoire lived at Rome in the Villa Medici, +and the illustrious painter, Horace Vernet, was the director, though +he exercised but little supervision over the studies of the young men +under his nominal charge. Berlioz did very much as he pleased--studied +little or much as the whim seized him, visited the churches, studios, +and picture-galleries, and spent no little of his time by starlight +and sunlight roaming about the country adjacent to the Holy City in +search of adventures. He had soon come to the conclusion that he had +not much to learn of Italian music; that he could teach rather than be +taught. He speaks of Roman art with the bitterest scorn, and Wagner +himself never made a more savage indictment of Italian music than does +Berlioz in his _Mémoires_. At the theatres he found the orchestra, +dramatic unity, and common sense all sacrificed to mere vocal display. +At St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel religious earnestness and +dignity were frittered away in pretty part-singing, in mere frivolity +and meretricious show. The word "symphony" was not known except to +indicate an indescribable noise before the rising of the curtain. +Nobody had heard of Weber and Beethoven, and Mozart, dead more than a +score of years, was mentioned by a well-known musical connoisseur as a +young man of great promise! Such surroundings as these were a species +of purgatory to Berlioz, against whose bounds he fretted and raged +without intermission. The director's receptions were signalised by the +performance of insipid cavatinas, and from these, as from his +companions' revels, in which he would sometimes indulge with the +maddest debauchery as if to kill his own thoughts, he would escape to +wander in the majestic ruins of the Coliseum and see the magic Italian +moonlight shimmer through its broken arches, or stroll on the lonely +Campagna till his clothes were drenched with dew. No fear of the +deadly Roman malaria could check his restless excursions, for, like a +fiery horse, he was irritated to madness by the inaction of his life. +To him the _dolce far niente_ was a meaningless phrase. His comrades +scoffed at him and called him "_Père la Joie_," in derision of the +fierce melancholy which despised them, their pursuits and pleasures. + +At the end of the year he was obliged to present something before the +Institute as a mark of his musical advancement, and he sent on a +fragment of his "Mass" heard years before at St. Roch, in which the +wise judges professed to find the "evidences of material advancement, +and the total abandonment of his former reprehensible tendencies." +One can fancy the scornful laughter of Berlioz at hearing this +verdict. But his Italian life was not altogether purposeless. He +revised his "Symphonie Fantastique," and wrote its sequel, "Lelio," a +lyrical monologue, in which he aimed to express the memories of his +passion for the beautiful Miss Smithson. These two parts comprised +what Berlioz named "An Episode in the Life of an Artist." Our composer +managed to get the last six months of his Italian exile remitted, and +his return to Paris was hastened by one of those furious paroxysms of +rage to which such ill-regulated minds are subject. He had adored Miss +Smithson as a celestial divinity, a lovely ideal of art and beauty, +but this had not prevented him from basking in the rays of the earthly +Venus. Before leaving Paris he had had an intrigue with a certain +Mdlle. M----, a somewhat frivolous and unscrupulous beauty, who had +bled his not overfilled purse with the avidity of a leech. Berlioz +heard just before returning to Paris that the coquette was about to +marry, a conclusion one would fancy which would have rejoiced his +mind. But, no! he was worked to a dreadful rage by what he considered +such perfidy! His one thought was to avenge himself. He provided +himself with three loaded pistols--one for the faithless one, one for +his rival, and one for himself--and was so impatient to start that he +could not wait for passports. He attempted to cross the frontier in +women's clothes, and was arrested. A variety of _contretemps_ occurred +before he got to Paris, and by that time his rage had so cooled, his +sense of the absurdity of the whole thing grown so keen, that he was +rather willing to send Mdlle. M---- his blessing than his curse. + +About the time of Berlioz's arrival, Miss Smithson also returned to +Paris after a long absence, with the intent of undertaking the +management of an English theatre. It was a necessity of our composer's +nature to be in love, and the flames of his ardour, fed with fresh +fuel, blazed up again from their old ashes. Berlioz gave a concert, in +which his "Episode in the Life of an Artist" was interpreted in +connection with the recitations of the text. The explanations of +"Lelio" so unmistakably pointed to the feeling of the composer for +herself, that Miss Smithson, who by chance was present, could not be +deceived, though she never yet had seen Berlioz. A few days afterwards +a benefit concert was arranged, in which Miss Smithson's troupe was to +take part, as well as Berlioz, who was to direct a symphony of his own +composition. At the rehearsal the looks of Berlioz followed Miss +Smithson with such an intent stare, that she said to some one, "Who is +that man whose eyes bode me no good?" This was the first occasion of +their personal meeting, and it may be fancied that Berlioz followed up +the introduction with his accustomed vehemence and pertinacity, though +without immediate effect, for Miss Smithson was more inclined to fear +than to love him. + +The young directress soon found out that the rage for Shakespeare, +which had swept the public mind under the influence of the romanticism +led by Victor Hugo, Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Balzac, and others, was +spurious. The wave had been frothing but shallow, and it ebbed away, +leaving the English actress and her enterprise gasping for life. With +no deeper tap-root than the Gallic love of novelty and the infectious +enthusiasm of a few men of great genius, the Shakespearean mania had a +short life, and Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders over their own +folly, in temporarily preferring the English barbarian to Racine, +Corneille, and Molière. The letters of Berlioz, in which he scourges +the fickleness of his countrymen in returning again to their "false +gods," are masterpieces of pointed invective. + +Miss Smithson was speedily involved in great pecuniary difficulty, +and, to add to her misfortunes, she fell down stairs and broke her +leg, thus precluding her own appearance on the stage. Affairs were in +this desperate condition, when Berlioz came to the fore with a +delicate and manly chivalry worthy of the highest praise. He offered +to pay Miss Smithson's debts, though a poor man himself, and to marry +her without delay. The ceremony took place immediately, and thus +commenced a connection which hampered and retarded Berlioz's career, +as well as caused him no little personal unhappiness. He speedily +discovered that his wife was a woman of fretful, imperious temper, +jealous of mere shadows (though Berlioz was a man to give her +substantial cause), and totally lacking in sympathy with his high-art +ideals. When Mdme. Berlioz recovered, it was to find herself unable +longer to act, as her leg was stiff and her movements unsuited to the +exigencies of the stage. Poor Berlioz was crushed by the weight of the +obligations he had assumed, and, as the years went on, the peevish +plaints of an invalid wife, who had lost her beauty and power of +charming, withered the affection which had once been so fervid and +passionate. Berlioz finally separated from his once beautiful and +worshipped Harriet Smithson, but to the very last supplied her wants +as fully as he could out of the meagre earnings of his literary work +and of musical compositions, which the Paris public, for the most +part, did not care to listen to. For his son, Louis, the only +offspring of this union, Berlioz felt a devoted affection, and his +loss at sea in after-years was a blow that nearly broke his heart. + + +IV. + +Owing to the unrelenting hostility of Cherubini, Berlioz failed to +secure a professorship at the Conservatoire, a place to which he was +nobly entitled, and was fain to take up with the position of librarian +instead. The paltry wage he eked out by journalistic writing, for the +most part as musical critic of the _Journal des Débats_, by occasional +concerts, revising proofs, in a word anything which a versatile and +desperate Bohemian could turn his hand to. In fact, for many years the +main subsistence of Berlioz was derived from feuilleton-writing and +the labours of a critic. His prose is so witty, brilliant, fresh, and +epigrammatic, that he would have been known to posterity as a clever +_littérateur_, had he not preferred to remain merely a great +musician. Dramatic, picturesque, and subtile, with an admirable sense +of art-form, he could have become a powerful dramatist, perhaps a +great novelist. But his soul, all whose aspirations set towards one +goal, revolted from the labours of literature, still more from the +daily grind of journalistic drudgery. In that remarkable book, +_Mémoires de Hector Berlioz_, he has made known his misery, and thus +recounts one of his experiences:--"I stood at the window gazing into +the gardens, at the heights of Montmartre, at the setting sun; reverie +bore me a thousand leagues from my accursed comic opera. And when, on +turning, my eyes fell upon the accursed title at the head of the +accursed sheet, blank still, and obstinately awaiting my word, despair +seized upon me. My guitar rested against the table; with a kick I +crushed its side. Two pistols on the mantel stared at me with great +round eyes. I regarded them for some time, then beat my forehead with +clinched hand. At last I wept furiously, like a school-boy unable to +do his theme. The bitter tears were a relief. I turned the pistols +towards the wall; I pitied my innocent guitar, and sought a few +chords, which were given without resentment. Just then my son of six +years knocked at the door [the little Louis whose death, years after, +was the last bitter drop in the composer's cup of life]; owing to my +ill-humour, I had unjustly scolded him that morning. 'Papa,' he cried, +'wilt thou be friends?' 'I _will_ be friends; come on, my boy;' and I +ran to open the door. I took him on my knee, and, with his blonde head +on my breast, we slept together.... Fifteen years since then, and my +torment still endures. Oh, to be always there!--scores to write, +orchestras to lead, rehearsals to direct. Let me stand all day with +_bâton_ in hand, training a chorus, singing their parts myself, and +beating the measure until I spit blood, and cramp seizes my arm; let +me carry desks, double basses, harps, remove platforms, nail planks +like a porter or a carpenter, and then spend the night in rectifying +the errors of engravers or copyists. I have done, do, and will do it. +That belongs to my musical life, and I bear it without thinking of +it, as the hunter bears the thousand fatigues of the chase. But to +scribble eternally for a livelihood----!" + +It may be fancied that such a man as Berlioz did not spare the lash, +once he gripped the whip-handle, and, though no man was more generous +than he in recognising and encouraging genuine merit, there was none +more relentless in scourging incompetency, pretentious commonplace, +and the blind conservatism which rests all its faith in what has been. +Our composer made more than one powerful enemy by this recklessness in +telling the truth, where a more politic man would have gained friends +strong to help in time of need. But Berlioz was too bitter and +reckless, as well as too proud, to debate consequences. + +In 1838 Berlioz completed his "Benvenuto Cellini," his only attempt at +opera since "Les Francs Juges," and, wonderful to say, managed to get +it done at the opera, though the director, Duponchel, laughed at him +as a lunatic, and the whole company already regarded the work as +damned in advance. The result was a most disastrous and _éclatant_ +failure, and it would have crushed any man whose moral backbone was +not forged of thrice-tempered steel. With all these back-sets Hector +Berlioz was not without encouragement. The brilliant Franz Liszt, one +of the musical idols of the age, had bowed before him and called him +master, the great musical protagonist. Spontini, one of the most +successful composers of the time, held him in affectionate admiration, +and always bade him be of good cheer. Paganini, the greatest of +violinists, had hailed him as equal to Beethoven. + +On the night of the failure of "Benvenuto Cellini," a strange-looking +man with dishevelled black hair and eyes of piercing brilliancy had +forced his way around into the green-room, and, seeking out Berlioz, +had fallen on his knees before him and kissed his hand passionately. +Then he threw his arms around him and hailed the astonished composer +as the master-spirit of the age in terms of glowing eulogium. The next +morning, while Berlioz was in bed, there was a tap at the door, and +Paganini's son, Achille, entered with a note, saying his father was +sick, or he would have come to pay his respects in person. On opening +the note Berlioz found a most complimentary letter, and a more +substantial evidence of admiration, a check on Baron Rothschild for +twenty thousand francs! Paganini also gave Berlioz a commission to +write a concerto for his Stradivarius viola, which resulted in a grand +symphony, "Harold en Italie," founded on Byron's "Childe Harold," but +still more an inspiration of his own Italian adventures, which had had +a strong flavour of personal if they lacked artistic interest. + +The generous gift of Paganini raised Berlioz from the slough of +necessity so far that he could give his whole time to music. Instantly +he set about his "Romeo and Juliet" symphony, which will always remain +one of his masterpieces--a beautifully chiselled work, from the hands +of one inspired by gratitude, unfettered imagination, and the sense of +blessed repose. Our composer's first musical journey was an extensive +tour in Germany in 1841, of which he gives charming memorials in his +letters to Liszt, Heine, Ernst, and others. His reception was as +generous and sympathetic as it had been cold and scornful in France. +Everywhere he was honoured and praised as one of the great men of the +age. Mendelssohn exchanged _bâtons_ with him at Leipsic, +notwithstanding the former only half understood this stalwart +Berserker of music. Spohr called him one of the greatest artists +living, though his own direct antithesis, and Schumann wrote glowingly +in the _Neue Zeitschrift_--"For myself, Berlioz is as clear as the +blue sky above. I really think there is a new time in music coming." +Berlioz wrote joyfully to Heine--"I came to Germany as the men of +ancient Greece went to the oracle at Delphi, and the response has been +in the highest degree encouraging." But his Germanic laurels did him +no good in France. The Parisians would have none of him except as a +writer of _feuilletons_, who pleased them by the vigour with which he +handled the knout, and tickled the levity of the million, who laughed +while they saw the half-dozen or more victims flayed by merciless +satire. Berlioz wept tears of blood because he had to do such +executioner's work, but did it none the less vigorously for all that. + +The composer made another musical journey in Austria and Hungary in +1844-45, where he was again received with the most enthusiastic praise +and pleasure. It was in Hungary, especially, that the warmth of his +audiences overran all bounds. One night, at Pesth, where he played the +"Rackoczy Indulé," an orchestral setting of the martial hymn of the +Magyar race, the people were worked into a positive frenzy, and they +would have flung themselves before him that he might walk over their +prostrate bodies. Vienna, Pesth, and Prague led the way, and the other +cities followed in the wake of an enthusiasm which has been accorded +to not many artists. The French heard these stories with amazement, +for they could not understand how this musical demigod could be the +same as he who was little better than a witty buffoon. During this +absence Berlioz wrote the greater portion of his "Damnation de Faust," +and, as he had made some money, he obeyed the strong instinct which +always ruled him, the hope of winning the suffrages of his own +countrymen. + +An eminent French critic claims that this great work, of which we +shall speak further on, contains that which Gounod's "Faust" +lacks--insight into the spiritual significance of Goethe's drama. +Berlioz exhausted all his resources in producing it at the Opéra +Comique in 1846, but again he was disappointed by its falling +still-born on the public interest. Berlioz was utterly ruined, and he +fled from France in the dead of winter as from a pestilence. + +The genius of this great man was recognised in Holland, Russia, +Austria, and Germany, but among his own countrymen, for the most part, +his name was a laughing-stock and a bye-word. He offended the pedants +and the formalists by his daring originality, he had secured the hate +of rival musicians by the vigour and keenness of his criticisms. +Berlioz was in the very heat of the artistic controversy between the +classicists and romanticists, and was associated with Victor Hugo, +Alexandre Dumas, Delacroix, Liszt, Chopin, and others, in fighting +that acrimonious art-battle. While he did not stand formally with the +ranks, he yet secured a still more bitter portion of hostility from +their powerful opponents, for, to opposition in principle, Berlioz +united a caustic and vigorous mode of expression. His name was a +target for the wits. "A physician who plays on the guitar and fancies +himself a composer," was the scoff of malignant gossips. The journals +poured on him a flood of abuse without stint. French malignity is the +most venomous and unscrupulous in the world, and Berlioz was selected +as a choice victim for its most vigorous exercise, none the less +willingly that he had shown so much skill and zest in impaling the +victims of his own artistic and personal dislike. + + +V. + +To continue the record of Berlioz's life in consecutive narrative +would be without significance, for it contains but little for many +years except the same indomitable battle against circumstance and +enmity, never yielding an inch, and always keeping his eyes bent on +his own lofty ideal. In all of art history is there no more masterful +heroic struggle than Berlioz waged for thirty-five years, firm in his +belief that some time, if not during his own life, his principles +would be triumphant, and his name ranked among the immortals. But what +of the meanwhile? This problem Berlioz solved, in his later as in +earlier years, by doing the distasteful work of the literary scrub. +But never did he cease composing; though no one would then have his +works, his clear eye perceived the coming time when his genius would +not be denied, when an apotheosis should comfort his spirit wandering +in Hades. + +Among Berlioz's later works was an opera of which he had composed both +words and music, consisting of two parts, "The Taking of Troy," and +"The Trojans at Carthage," the latter of which at last secured a few +representations at a minor theatre in 1863. The plan of this work +required that it should be carried out under the most perfect +conditions. "In order," says Berlioz, "to properly produce such a work +as 'Les Trojans,' I must be absolute master of the theatre, as of the +orchestra in directing a symphony. I must have the good-will of all, +be obeyed by all, from prima-donna to scene-shifter. A lyrical +theatre, as I conceive it, is a great instrument of music, which, if I +am to play, must be placed unreservedly in my hands." Wagner found a +King of Bavaria to help him carry out a similar colossal scheme at +Bayreuth, but ill luck followed a man no less great through life. His +grand "Trojans" was mutilated, tinkered, patched, and belittled, to +suit the Théâtre Lyrique. It was a butchery of the work, but still it +yielded the composer enough to justify his retirement from the +_Journal des Débats_, after thirty years of slavery. + +Berlioz was now sixty years old, a lonely man, frail in body, +embittered in soul by the terrible sense of failure. His wife, with +whom he had lived on terms of alienation, was dead; his only son far +away, cruising on a man-of-war. His courage and ambition were gone. To +one who remarked that his music belonged to the future, he replied +that he doubted if it ever belonged to the past. His life seemed to +have been a mistake, so utterly had he failed to impress himself on +the public. Yet there were times when audiences felt themselves moved +by the power of his music out of the ruts of preconceived opinion into +a prophecy of his coming greatness. There is an interesting anecdote +told by a French writer:-- + +"Some years ago M. Pasdeloup gave the _septuor_ from the 'Trojans' at +a benefit concert. The best places were occupied by the people of the +world, but the _élite intelligente_ were ranged upon the highest seats +of the Cirque. The programme was superb, and those who were there +neither for Fashion's nor Charity's sake, but for love of what was +best in art, were enthusiastic in view of all those masterpieces. The +worthless overture of the 'Prophète,' disfiguring this fine +_ensemble_, had been hissed by some students of the Conservatoire, +and, accustomed as I was to the blindness of the general public, +knowing its implacable prejudices, I trembled for the fate of the +magnificent _septuor_ about to follow. My fears were strangely +ill-founded; no sooner had ceased this hymn of infinite love and +peace, than these same students, and the whole assemblage with them, +burst into such a tempest of applause as I never heard before. Berlioz +was hidden in the further ranks, and, the instant he was discovered, +the work was forgotten for the man; his name flew from mouth to mouth, +and four thousand people were standing upright, with their arms +stretched towards him. Chance had placed me near him, and never shall +I forget the scene. That name, apparently ignored by the crowd, it had +learned all at once, and was repeating as that of one of its heroes. +Overcome as by the strongest emotion of his life, his head upon his +breast, he listened to this tumultuous cry of 'Vive Berlioz!' and +when, on looking up, he saw all eyes upon him and all arms extended +towards him, he could not withstand the sight; he trembled, tried to +smile, and broke into sobbing." + +Berlioz's supremacy in the field of orchestral composition, his +knowledge of technique, his novel combination, his insight into the +resources of instruments, his skill in grouping, his rich sense of +colour, are incontestably without a parallel, except by Beethoven and +Wagner. He describes his own method of study as follows:-- + +"I carried with me to the opera the score of whatever work was on the +bill, and read during the performance. In this way I began to +familiarise myself with orchestral methods, and to learn the voice and +quality of the various instruments, if not their range and mechanism. +By this attentive comparison of the effect with the means employed to +produce it, I found the hidden link uniting musical expression to the +special art of instrumentation. The study of Beethoven, Weber, and +Spontini, the impartial examination both of the _customs_ of +orchestration and of _unusual_ forms and combinations, the visits I +made to _virtuosi_, the trials I led them to make upon their +respective instruments, and a little instinct, did for me the rest." + +The principal symphonies of Berlioz are works of colossal character +and richness of treatment, some of them requiring several orchestras. +Contrasting with these are such marvels of delicacy as "Queen Mab," of +which it has been said that the "confessions of roses and the +complaints of violets were noisy in comparison." A man of magnificent +genius and knowledge, he was but little understood during his life, +and it was only when his uneasy spirit was at rest that the world +recognised his greatness. Paris, that stoned him when he was living, +now listens to his grand music with enthusiasm. Hector Berlioz to the +last never lost faith in himself, though this man of genius, in his +much suffering from depression and melancholy, gave good witness to +the truth of Goethe's lines:-- + + "Who never ate with tears his bread, + Nor, weeping through the night's long hours, + Lay restlessly tossing on his bed-- + He knows ye not, ye heavenly Powers." + +A man utterly without reticence, who, Gallic fashion, would shout his +wrongs and sufferings to the uttermost ends of the earth, yet without +a smack of Gallic posing and affectation, Berlioz talks much about +himself, and dares to estimate himself boldly. There was no small +vanity about this colossal spirit. He speaks of himself with outspoken +frankness, as he would discuss another. We cannot do better than to +quote one of these self-measurements:--"My style is in general very +daring, but it has not the slightest tendency to destroy any of the +constructive elements of art. On the contrary, I seek to increase the +number of these elements. I have never dreamed, as has foolishly been +supposed in France, of writing music without melody. That school +exists to-day in Germany, and I have a horror of it. It is easy for +any one to convince himself that, without confining myself to taking a +very short melody for a theme, as the very greatest masters have, I +have always taken care to invest my compositions with a real wealth of +melody. The value of these melodies, their distinction, their novelty, +and charm, can be very well contested; it is not for me to appraise +them. But to deny their existence is either bad faith or stupidity; +only as these melodies are often of very large dimensions, infantile +and short-sighted minds do not clearly distinguish their form; or else +they are wedded to other secondary melodies which veil their outlines +from those same infantile minds; or, upon the whole, these melodies +are so dissimilar to the little waggeries that the musical _plebs_ +call melodies that they cannot make up their minds to give the same +name to both. The dominant qualities of my music are passionate +expression, internal fire, rhythmic animation, and unexpected +changes." + +Heinrich Heine, the German poet, who was Berlioz's friend, called him +a "colossal nightingale, a lark of eagle-size, such as they tell us +existed in the primeval world." The poet goes on to say--"Berlioz's +music, in general, has in it something primeval if not antediluvian to +my mind; it makes me think of gigantic species of extinct animals, of +fabulous empires full of fabulous sins, of heaped-up impossibilities; +his magical accents call to our minds Babylon, the hanging gardens, +the wonders of Nineveh, the daring edifices of Mizraim, as we see them +in the pictures of the Englishman Martin." Shortly after the +publication of "Lutetia," in which this bold characterisation was +expressed, the first performance of Berlioz's "Enfance du Christ" was +given, and the poet, who was on his sick-bed, wrote a penitential +letter to his friend for not having given him justice. "I hear on all +sides," he says, "that you have just plucked a nosegay of the sweetest +melodious flowers, and that your oratorio is throughout a masterpiece +of _naïvetè_. I shall never forgive myself for having been so unjust +to a friend." + +Berlioz died at the age of sixty-five. His funeral services were held +at the Church of the Trinity, a few days after those of Rossini. The +discourse at the grave was pronounced by Gounod, and many eloquent +things were said of him, among them a quotation of the epitaph of +Marshal Trivulce, "_Hic tandem quiescit qui nunquam quievit_" (Here he +is quiet, at last, who never was quiet before). Soon after his death +appeared his _Mémoires_, and his bones had hardly got cold when the +performance of his music at the Conservatoire, the Cirque, and the +Chatelet began to be heard with the most hearty enthusiasm. + + +VI. + +Théophile Gautier says that no one will deny to Berlioz a great +character, though, the world being given to controversies, it may be +argued whether or not he was a great genius. The world of to-day has +but one opinion on both these questions. The force of Berlioz's +character was phenomenal. His vitality was so passionate and active +that brain and nerve quivered with it, and made him reach out towards +experience at every facet of his nature. Quietude was torture, rest a +sin, for this daring temperament. His eager and subtile intelligence +pierced every sham, and his imagination knew no bounds to its sweep, +oftentimes even disdaining the bounds of art in its audacity and +impatience. This big, virile nature, thwarted and embittered by +opposition, became hardened into violent self-assertion; this +naturally resolute will settled back into fierce obstinacy; this fine +nature, sensitive and sincere, got torn and ragged with passion under +the stress of his unfortunate life. But, at one breath of true +sympathy how quickly the nobility of the man asserted itself! All his +cynicism and hatred melted away, and left only sweetness, truth, and +genial kindness. + +When Berlioz entered on his studies, he had reached an age at which +Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and others, had already done +some of the best work of their lives. Yet it took only a few years to +achieve a development that produced such a great work as the +"Symphonie Fantastique," the prototype of modern programme music. + +From first to last it was the ambition of Berlioz to widen the domain +of his art. He strove to attain a more intimate connection between +instrumental music and poetry in the portrayal of intense passions, +and the suggestion of well-defined dramatic situations. In spite of +the fact that he frequently overshot his mark, it does not make his +works one whit less astonishing. An uncompromising champion of what +has been dubbed "programme" music, he thought it legitimate to force +the imagination of the hearer to dwell on exterior scenes during the +progress of the music, and to distress the mind in its attempt to find +an exact relation between the text and the music. The most perfect +specimens of the works of Berlioz, however, are those in which the +music speaks for itself, such as the "Scène aux Champs," and the +"Marche au Supplice," in the "Symphonie Fantastique," the "Marche des +Pèlerins," in "Harold;" the overtures to "King Lear," "Benvenuto +Cellini," "Carnaval Romain," "Le Corsaire," "Les Francs Juges," etc. + +As a master of the orchestra, no one has been the equal of Berlioz in +the whole history of music, not even Beethoven or Wagner. He treats +the orchestra with the absolute daring and mastery exercised by +Paganini over the violin, and by Liszt over the piano. No one has +showed so deep an insight into the individuality of each instrument, +its resources, the extent to which its capabilities could be carried. +Between the phrase and the instrument, or group of instruments, the +equality is perfect; and independent of this power, made up equally of +instinct and knowledge, this composer shows a sense of orchestral +colour in combining single instruments so as to form groups, or in the +combination of several separate groups of instruments by which he has +produced the most novel and beautiful effects--effects not found in +other composers. The originality and variety of his rhythms, the +perfection of his instrumentation, have never been disputed even by +his opponents. In many of his works, especially those of a religious +character, there is a Cyclopean bigness of instrumental means used, +entirely beyond parallel in art. Like the Titans of old, he would +scale the very heavens in his daring. In one of his works he does not +hesitate to use three orchestras, three choruses (all of full +dimensions), four organs, and a triple quartet. The conceptions of +Berlioz were so grandiose that he sometimes disdained detail, and the +result was that more than one of his compositions have rugged grandeur +at the expense of symmetry and balance of form. + +Yet, when he chose, Berlioz could write the most exquisite and dainty +lyrics possible. What could be more exquisitely tender than many of +his songs and romances, and various of the airs and choral pieces from +"Beatrice et Benedict," from "Nuits d'Été," "Irlande," and from +"L'Enfance du Christ?" + +Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, was a most extraordinary +being, to whom the ordinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. +Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a fuller development the +possibilities to which Beethoven reached out in the Ninth Symphony. He +was the great _virtuoso_ on the orchestra, and on this Briarean +instrument he played with the most amazing skill. Others have +surpassed him in the richness of the musical substance out of which +their tone-pictures are woven, in symmetry of form, in finish of +detail; but no one has ever equalled him in that absolute mastery over +instruments, by which a hundred become as plastic and flexible as one, +and are made to embody every phase of the composer's thought with that +warmth of colour and precision of form long believed to be necessarily +confined to the sister arts. + +[Decoration] + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. + + 1520-1594 _Palestrina._ + 1633-1687 _Lulli._ + 1658-1695 _Purcell._ + 1659-1725 _A. Scarlatti._ + 1685-1750 _J. S. Bach._ + 1685-1759 _Handel._ + 1710-1736 _Pergolesi._ + 1714-1787 _Gluck._ + 1728-1800 _Piccini._ + 1732-1809 _Haydn._ + 1741-1816 _Paisiello._ + 1741-1813 _Grétry._ + 1749-1801 _Cimarosa._ + 1756-1791 _Mozart._ + 1760-1842 _Cherubini._ + 1763-1817 _Méhul._ + 1770-1827 _Beethoven._ + 1774-1851 _Spontini._ + 1775-1834 _Boïeldieu._ + 1782-1871 _Auber._ + 1786-1826 _Weber._ + 1791-1864 _Meyerbeer._ + 1792-1868 _Rossini._ + 1797-1828 _Schubert._ + 1798-1848 _Donizetti._ + 1799-1862 _Halévy._ + 1802-1835 _Bellini._ + 1803-1869 _Berlioz._ + 1809-1847 _Mendelssohn._ + 1809-1849 _Chopin._ + 1810-1856 _Schumann._ + 1813-1883 _Wagner._ + 1813 _Verdi._ + 1818 _Gounod._ + + + PRINTED BY WALTER SCOTT, FELLING, + NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. + + + + +_MONTHLY SHILLING VOLUMES._ + +GREAT WRITERS. + +A New Series of Critical Biographies. + +Edited by Professor ERIC S. ROBERTSON. + + +_ALREADY ISSUED_-- + +LIFE OF LONGFELLOW. By Professor ERIC S. ROBERTSON. + + "The story of the poet's life is well told.... 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By ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. Edited, with + Introduction, by William Sharp. + + LORD BYRON'S LETTERS. Edited by M. Blind. + + ESSAYS BY LEIGH HUNT. Edited by A. Symons. + + LONGFELLOW'S PROSE WORKS. Edited, with Introduction, by + William Tirebuck. + + THE GREAT COMPOSERS. Edited, with Introduction, by Mrs. + William Sharp. + + +The Series is issued in two styles of Binding--Red Cloth, Cut Edges; +and Dark Blue Cloth, Uncut Edges. Either Style, Price One Shilling. + + + + +A Poem on the Crofter Evictions. + +THE HEATHER ON FIRE. + +By MATHILDE BLIND. Price 1s. + + +"A subject of our own time fertile in what is pathetic and +awe-inspiring, and free from any taint of the vulgar and +conventional.... Positive subject-matter, the emotion which inheres in +actual life, the very smile and the very tear and heart-pang, are, +after all, precious to poetry, and we have them here. 'The Heather on +Fire' may possibly prove something of a new departure, and one that +was certainly not superfluous.... Even apart from the fascination of +its subject-matter, the poem is developed with spirit and energy, with +a feeling for homely truth of character and treatment, and with a +generally pervasive sense of beauty."--_Athenæum._ + +"Miss Blind has chosen for her new poem one of those terrible Highland +clearances which stain the history of Scotch landlordism. Though her +tale is a fiction, it is too well founded on fact.... It may be said +generally of the poem that the most difficult scenes are those in +which Miss Blind succeeds best; and on the whole we are inclined to +think that its greatest and most surprising success is the picture of +the poor old soldier, Rory, driven mad by the burning of his +wife."--_Academy._ + +"A subject which has painfully pre-occupied public opinion is, in the +poem entitled 'The Heather on Fire,' treated with characteristic power +by Miss Blind.... Both as a narrative and descriptive poem, 'The +Heather on Fire' is equally remarkable."--_Morning Post._ + +"A poem remarkable for beauty of expression and pathos of incidents +will be found in 'The Heather on Fire.' Exquisitely delicate are the +touches with which the progress of this tale of true love is +delineated up to its consummation amid the simple rejoicings of the +neighbourhood; and the flight of years of married life and daily toil, +as numerous as those of their courtship, is told in stanzas full of +music and soul.... This tale is one which, unless we are mistaken, may +so affect public feeling as to be an effectual bar to similar human +clearings in future."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"Literature and poetry are never seen at their best save in contact with +actual life. This little book abounds in vivid delineation of character, +and is redolent with the noblest human sympathy."--_Newcastle Daily +Chronicle._ + +"'The Heather on Fire' is a poem that is rich not only in power and +beauty but in that 'enthusiasm of humanity' which stirs and moves us, +and of which so much contemporary verse is almost painfully +deficient.... Miss Blind is not a mere poetic trifler who considers +that the best poetry is that written by the man who has nothing to say +but can say that nothing gracefully.... We can best describe the kind +of her success by noting the fact that while engaged in the perusal of +her book we do not say, 'What a fine poem!' but 'What a terrible +story!' or more probably still say nothing at all but read on and on +under the spell of a great horror and an overpowering pity. Poetry of +which this can be said needs no other recommendation."--_The +Manchester Examiner and Times._ + +"A poem recently published in London ('The Heather on Fire; a Tale of +the Highland Clearances') is declared, in one of the articles which +have appeared in the German press on the Scottish Land Question, 'to +be based on terrible truth and undoubted real horrors; giving, in +noblest poetical language and thrilling words, a description which +ought to be a spur of action to thinking statesmen.'"--_North British +Daily Mail._ + + +London: WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. + + + + +_PRICE SIXPENCE._ + + THE + MONTHLY + CHRONICLE + OF + NORTH-COUNTRY + LORE AND LEGEND. + + +CONTENTS. + +Address to the Reader, by the Editor; Men of Mark 'Twixt Tyne and +Tweed, by Richard Welford--Mark Akenside, Rev. 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Tennyson-Turner, etc.; and all the +Best Writers of the Century. + + + Crown 8vo, Cloth Gilt, Price 2s. 6d. + + Life of General Gordon. + + With Photographic Portrait taken + at Khartoum. + + _By the Authors of "Our Queen," + "Grace Darling," etc._ + + + By the same Authors, Crown 8vo, Cloth + Gilt, Illustrated, Price 2s. 6d. + + NEW WORLD HEROES: + _Lincoln and Garfield_. + + _The Life Story of two self-made Men + whom the People made Presidents._ + + + NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. + + Foolscap 8vo, Cloth Boards, price + One Shilling each. + + VERY SHORT STORIES + AND + VERSES FOR CHILDREN. + + By MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD. + + + _A NEW NATURAL HISTORY_ + OF BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES. + + By JOHN K. LEYS, M.A. + + + Life Stories of Famous Children. + ADAPTED FROM THE FRENCH. + + _By the Author of "Spenser for Children."_ + + +LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. + + + + + * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor punctuation errors have been corrected. + +Hyphenation and accent usage have been made consistent. + +Spelling inconsistencies between the introduction and main text have +been preserved as printed, e.g. Jommelli, Jomelli; Metastasia, +Metastasio; Bonacini, Bononcini; etc. + +Typographic errors, including errors in consistency, have been +corrected as follows: + + Page x--parodox amended to paradox--"... what may with + seeming paradox be called statuesque, ..." + + Page xiv--psuedo amended to pseudo--"... when + pseudo-classicism had given all it had to give; ..." + + Page xv--Brahm amended to Brahms--"... Liszt, Franz, Thomas, + Brahms, Rubenstein, ..." + + Page xv--writen amended to written--"... and of his work a + competent judge has written ..." + + Page 30--Scheolcher amended to Schoelcher--"Schoelcher, in + his _Life of Handel_, says ..." + + Page 33--and amended to andt--"Why, by the mercy of Heaven, + andt the waders of Aix-la-Chapelle, ..." + + Page 40--Encyclopedists amended to Encyclopædists--"The + Encyclopædists stimulated the ferment ..." + + Page 49--spmphony amended to symphony--"... (alluding to + Haydn's brown complexion and small stature) "composed that + symphony?"" + + Page 49--Hadyn amended to Haydn--"Haydn continued the + intimate friend and associate of Prince Nicholas ..." + + Page 57--Hadyn amended to Haydn--"Haydn was present, but he + was so old and feeble ..." + + Page 61--Mme. amended to Mdme.--"... when Mdme. Pompadour + refused to kiss him, ..." + + Page 73--expected amended to excepted--"The "Sinfonia + Eroica," the "Choral" only excepted, is the longest ..." + + Page 81--Mme. amended to Mdme.--"... the following anecdote + related by Mdme. Moscheles ..." + + Page 83--Paesiello amended to Paisiello--"Paisiello liked + the warm bed in which to jot down his musical notions, ..." + + Page 89--medodies amended to melodies--"The immemorial + melodies to which the popular songs of Germany were set ..." + + Page 96--effertories amended to offertories--"His church + music, consisting of six masses, many offertories, ..." + + Page 100--Musikallische amended to Musikalische--"... in a + critical article published in the _Wiener Musikalische + Zeitung_, ..." + + Page 102--veilleicht amended to vielleicht--"Ein Mann + vielleicht von dreissig Jahr, ..." + + Page 113--noctures amended to nocturnes--"... the preludes, + nocturnes, scherzos, ballads, etc., ..." + + Page 134--harmouy amended to harmony--"... sweetness of + harmony and tune, ..." + + Page 139--Tanhäuser amended to Tannhäuser--"... next came + "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin," ..." + + Page 141--Tanhäuser amended to Tannhäuser--"In "Tannhäuser" + and "Lohengrin" they find full sway." + + Page 145--Büloz amended to Bülow--"... originated chiefly + with the masterly playing of Herr Von Bülow, ..." + + Page 149--Da amended to da, and Michel amended to + Michael--"... Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Correggio, Titian, + and Michael Angelo." + + Page 149--Perluigui amended to Perluigi--"GIOVANNI PERLUIGI + ALOISIO DA PALESTRINA was born at Palestrina, ..." + + Page 156--musiq amended to music--"... where comedies and + other plays are represented in recitative music ..." + + Page 165--opportuity amended to opportunity--"... as gave + Vestris the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs." + + Page 168--Petersburgh amended to Petersburg--"... the + invitation of Catherine to become the court composer at St. + Petersburg, ..." + + Page 173--Stendhal amended to Stendhall--"... Stendhall + says, in his _Life of Rossini_, ..." + + Page 178--accomodations amended to accommodations--"... and + those unable to get other accommodations encamp ..." + + Page 181--totaly amended to totally--"Sterbini made the + libretto totally different ..." + + Page 184--Davide amended to David--"Mdme. Colbran, + afterwards Rossini's wife, sang Desdemona, and David, + Otello." + + Page 185--you amended to your--"... they have not left you + a seat in your own house." + + Page 202--Faleiro amended to Faliero--""Marino Faliero" was + composed for Paris in 1835, ..." + + Page 204--Nigida amended to Nisida--"... the story of which + was drawn from "L'Ange de Nisida," ..." + + Page 209--chief amended to chef--"... and M. Habeneck, _chef + d'orchestre_ of the Académie Royale, ..." + + Page 224--Skakespearian amended to Shakespearian--"... that + probably only a Shakespearian subject could induce him ..." + + Page 225--Othello amended to Otello--"There are no symphonic + pieces in "Otello," ..." + + Page 228--maurir amended to mourir--"_... pécheur, il faut + mourir_, ..." + + Page 229--fall amended to full--"... but with a voice so + full of shakes and quavers, ..." + + Page 261--La amended to Le--"In 1797 he produced his "Le + Jeune Henri," ..." + + Page 264--Gaspardo amended to Gasparo--"LUIGI GASPARO + PACIFICO SPONTINI, born of peasant parents ..." + + Page 266--rejoiner amended to rejoinder--""What's the use? I + can't hear a note," was the impatient rejoinder." + + Page 268--Formental amended to Fromental--"FROMENTAL HALÉVY, + a scion of the Hebrew race, ..." + + Page 282--Anslem amended to Anselm--"... Clementi, Bernhard + Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler." + + Page 284--Veluti amended to Velluti--"In the latter city, + Velluti, the last of the male sopranists, ..." + + Page 292--faancs amended to francs--"... I certainly would + have given two hundred francs for a seat; ..." + + Page 297--avried amended to varied--"... accordingly as the + varied meanings of Goethe's masterpiece demand." + + Page 326--by-word amended to bye-word--"... his name was a + laughing-stock and a bye-word." + + Page 335--S. Bach amended to J. S. Bach--"1685-1750 _J. S. + Bach._" + + Page 335--Cerubini amended to Cherubini--"1760-1842 + _Cherubini._" + + Page 335--1802 amended to 1827--"1770-1827 _Beethoven._" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 34381-8.txt or 34381-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/3/8/34381 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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