Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, Hungary, on October 22, 1811. A prodigy pianist who made an impressive debut in Hungary when he was nine, Liszt was financed by several Hungarian noblemen to study the piano with Czerny in Vienna. In 1822, Liszt made a sensational debut in that city, and in 1824, after a period of additional study in Paris, an equally momentous appearance in the French capital. For the next three years Liszt concertized throughout Europe, becoming an idol of music audiences everywhere. Then, in 1827, he decided to abandon music for what he regarded as nobler pursuits. He devoted himself in turn to religion, politics, literature, and philosophy without finding the satisfaction he sought. Then, in 1830, he went back to music. For about two years he worked industriously on his piano technique, reassuming an imperial position among the virtuosos of his generation beginning with 1833. He combined profound musicianship and a phenomenal technique with such a flair for showmanship and self-aggrandizement, that it can be said that the modern piano virtuoso (both in the best and worst sense of that term) was born with him.
In 1848, Liszt came to Weimar to fulfill duties as Kapellmeister to the Grand Duke. The eleven-year period of this office represented music-making of the highest order, as Liszt devoted himself to presenting the foremost operatic and symphonic music in the best possible performances. He was indefatigable in propagandizing the music of the avant-garde composers of his day, reviving Wagner’sTannhaeuserand presenting the world première of that master’sLohengrinat a time when Wagner was in disrepute in Germany because of his revolutionary activities.
Finding himself incapable of maintaining the high standards he had set, and disturbed by the prevailing antagonism to his espousal of new music, Liszt left Weimar in 1859. Once again he sought refuge in a career outside music. In 1865 he submitted to the tonsure and entered the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi as abbé. But music was not abandoned. He taught the piano to gifted pupils who came to him fromall parts of the world; and he wrote an abundant amount of music, mainly for the piano. He died in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on July 31, 1886, still at the height of his powers and fame as composer, pianist and teacher.
Liszt left a vast repertory of music, including tone poems, symphonies, piano concertos, songs, and a library of works for the piano. At his best he was a great innovator, and a creator of vast dramatic and poetic concepts. At worst, he was a showman shamelessly wooing his public with superficial effects and trivial material. Most of his works belong to the concert hall, but some of it has enormous popular appeal as salon music.
The most famous of the latter is theHungarian Rhapsody No. 2in C-sharp minor (1847), originally for piano solo but subsequently orchestrated by the composer himself. This was one of nineteen compositions in which Liszt developed the form of the rhapsody and helped to make it popular; which he filled with strong national feelings and the individual traits of Hungarian folk music. One of the features of all these rhapsodies is their dynamic alternation of slow and sensual music (calledlassan) with fast, dramatic, exciting passages (calledfriskan). The secondHungarian Rhapsodyopens with alassan, a slow, stately declamation. Then, after a clarinet cadenza, thefriskanappears, a spirited melody for violins and woodwind. After that fast and slow passages, soft and loud dynamics, and rapidly changing meters and rhythm help to generate excitement and create drama. The drama and the excitement of this music never seem to lose their impact however many times this rhapsody is listened to.
Of Liszt’s twelve tone poems for orchestra the most famous isLes Préludes(1850). The tone poem, or symphonic poem, is Liszt’s creation in an attempt to bring to orchestral music the pictorial, dramatic and programmatic qualities of Wagner’s music dramas. Thus Liszt conceived a one-movement composition, flexible in form, in which a story is told, picture described, or poem interpreted. The inspiration forLes Préludesis theMéditations poétiquesof Lamartine, from which several lines are quoted in the published score to provide the music with its program:
“What is life but a series of Preludes to that unknown song of which death strikes the first solemn note? Love is the magic dawn of every existence; but where is the life in which the first enjoyment of bliss is not dispelled by some tempest; its illusions scattered by some fatal breath; its altar consumed as by a thunderbolt? What soul, this cruellyhurt, but seeks to repose with its memories in the sweet calm of pastoral life? Yet no man is content to resign himself for long to the mild, beneficent charms of Nature, and when the trumpet gives the alarm he hastens to the post of danger, on whatever field he may be called to fight, so that once more he may find in action full consciousness of himself and the possession of all his powers.”
Les Préludesopens with a dignified subject in the basses which is subjected to considerable change and amplification before the main melody is introduced. This melody is an elegiac song expressing the happiness of love; its first entrance comes in four horns, strings, and harp. The music is carried to a climactic point, after which a frenetic mood is projected. Plaintively the oboe recalls the main melody; a country dance tune is offered by the horn; and the main melody reappears with opulent treatment. Another section of storm and stress follows before the final majestic statement of the main melody.
Of Liszt’s voluminous writings for the piano, one composition above all others has won favor throughout the music world as a tender, and sentimental expression of love. It is theLiebestraum, “Love’s Dream.” Liszt actually wrote threeLiebesträume, but it is the third of this set—in A-flat major (1850)—which is considered when we speak or hear of theLiebestraum. All of these three piano compositions are adaptations of songs by the same composer; the thirdLiebestraumoriginated as “O Lieb’, so lang du lieben kannst,” words by Freiligrath.
Frederick Loewe was born in Vienna, Austria, on June 10, 1904. A musical prodigy, he began to study the piano when he was five; started composition at seven; at thirteen made a successful appearance as pianist with the Berlin Symphony; and at fifteen was the composer of a hit song, “Katrina,” that sold over a million copies of sheetmusic in Europe. He received a thorough musical training from Busoni, Eugène d’Albert, and Emil Nikolaus Rezniček, winning the Hollander Medal for piano playing in 1923. One year after that he came to the United States. Unable to make any progress in his musical career, he spent the next decade traveling around the country and filling all sorts of odd jobs. He punched cattle, mined gold, served as a riding instructor, and even boxed professionally. Eventually he came back to New York where he found a job in a Greenwich Village café playing the piano. In 1938 four of his songs were heard in a Broadway musical,Great Lady, a failure. A meeting with Alan Jay Lerner, a young lyricist and librettist, brought him a gifted collaborator. They wrote a musical comedy that was produced by a stock company in Detroit, and another calledWhat’s Upthat was seen on Broadway. Their first major success came with the Broadway musical,Brigadoon, in 1947.My Fair Lady, in 1956, was one of the greatest successes of the Broadway theater. They also helped make entertainment history further by writing songs for the motion picture musical,Gigi, the first to win nine Academy Awards, including one for Lerner and Loewe for the title song. In 1960, Lerner and Loewe wrote the Broadway musicalCamelotbased on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Brigadoonwas a whimsical Scottish fantasy which came to Broadway on March 13, 1947, book and lyrics by Lerner. Brigadoon is a mythical town in Scotland which comes to life for a single day once every hundred years. Two American tourists happen to come to Brigadoon during its one day of existence. They become a part of its quaint life, and one of them falls in love with a Scottish lass. The musical highlights include a song that became a hit in 1947, “Almost Like Being In Love,” and several that have a charming Scottish flavor, including “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” “The Heather on the Hill,” and “I’ll Come Home With Bonnie Jean.”
My Fair Lady, produced on March 15, 1956, was Lerner’s adaptation for the popular musical theater of Bernard Shaw’sPygmalion. Eliza Doolittle, an ignorant flower girl and daughter of a cockney, is transformed by the phonetician, Professor Henry Higgins, into a cultivated lady who is successfully palmed off upon high English society as a duchess. Higgins falls in love with her and, though a long confirmed bachelor, finds he can no longer live without her.My Fair Ladybecame one of the most highly acclaimed musical productions of recent memory; Brooks Atkinson called it “one of the best musicals of the century.” It achieved a fabulous Broadway run and was brought bymany touring countries to all parts of the civilized world, including the Soviet Union. It captured one third of the honors annually conferred on the theater by the Antoinette Perry Awards. The original-cast recording sold over three million discs. The principal numbers from Loewe’s captivating score include three romantic songs, two of the Hit Parade variety (“I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live”) and the third, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”; two atmospheric numbers that evoke musically the place and setting of the play, “The Ascot Gavotte” and “The Embassy Waltz”; and the two cockney ditties of Eliza’s father, “Get Me to the Church On Time” and “With a Little Bit of Luck.”
Gustav Albert Lortzing was born in Berlin on October 23, 1801. His parents were actors compelled to lead an itinerant life which made it impossible for Albert to obtain any systematic education. His mother taught him music, the study of which he later continued briefly in Berlin with Rungenhagen. His first effort at composition consisted of some songs, but in 1824 he completed his first opera,Ali Pascha von Janina. From 1833 to 1844 he was employed as a tenor at the Municipal Theater in Leipzig, for which he wrote the comic operaDie beiden Schuetzen, successfully produced in 1837. He achieved his greatest success the same year with the comic opera,Zar und Zimmermann, which within a few years’ time became a favorite among theater audiences throughout Europe. His later operettas includedDer Wildschuetz(The Poacher) in 1842 andDer Waffenschmied(The Armourer) in 1846, while one of his finest romantic operas wasUndinein 1845. Lortzing also filled several engagements as conductor of operas and operettas in Leipzig, Vienna and Berlin, and as an opera impresario. He died in Berlin on January 21, 1851, one day after hislast opera,Die Opernprobe(The Opera Rehearsal) was introduced in Frankfort.
Lortzing was one of the earliest and most successful exponents of German national comic opera; andCzar and the Carpenter(Zar und Zimmermann) was his masterwork. It was first produced in Leipzig on December 22, 1837. The music is consistently light and tuneful, frequently in the style of German folk songs. The libretto, by the composer, is a delightful comedy based on an actual historic episode: the escapade of Peter the Great of Russia in Holland where he worked as a carpenter. In the Lortzing comic opera, Peter the Great is a carpenter on a ship at Saardam where he meets a compatriot, also named Peter, who is a deserter. Temporarily they become rivals for the affection of Mary. After the arrival of the Ambassadors from France and England to seek out the Emperor, the latter quietly departs for his homeland, leaving behind him both money and an official pardon for the other Peter. The gay spirit of the comic opera as a whole is magically caught not only in its vivacious overture, but in several familiar excerpts. The most notable are: the Burgomaster’s comic entrance song, “O sancta justa”; in the second act, the Wedding Chorus, and the French Ambassador’s beautiful air, “Lebe wohl, mein flandrisch’ Maedchen”; in the third act the vigorousClog Dance(Holzschutanz), and the very famous air of Czar Peter, “Sonst spielt’ ich mit Zepter.”
Alexandre Luigini was born in Lyons, France, on March 9, 1850. He was the son of the distinguished conductor of the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. After attending the Paris Conservatory—where he was a pupil of Massenet and Massart among others—the younger Luigini played the violin in his father’s orchestra. In 1870 he began a successful career as ballet composer withLe Rêve de Nicette, given inLyons. His greatest success came with theBallet Égyptien, first seen in Lyons in 1875. For twenty years Luigini was the conductor of the Grand Theater in Lyons and professor of harmony at the Lyons Conservatory. Until the end of his life he was the conductor of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. He died in Paris on July 29, 1906.
An orchestral suite derived from some of the most attractive pages of theBallet Égyptienscore is a favorite of bands and salon orchestras everywhere. This is music striking for its Oriental-type melodies and harmonies, and for its colorful orchestral hues. The first two movements are particularly popular. The first begins with a strong and stately theme, but midway comes a gayer section in an exotic Oriental style. The second movement highlights a capricious subject for the woodwind, once again in a recognizable Oriental style.
Hans Christian Lumbye was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 2, 1810. As a young man he played in military bands. He then formed an orchestra of his own which achieved extraordinary fame throughout Copenhagen (specifically at the Tivoli) with light musical programs. For these concerts Lumbye produced a library of light music: waltzes, galops, polkas, marches, and so forth. This music is so filled with infectious tunes and pulsating rhythms—and they are so light in heart and spirit—that they have won for their composer the sobriquet of “The Johann Strauss of the North” and the status of Denmark’s foremost creator of semi-classical music. He died in Copenhagen on March 20, 1874.
Lumbye’s dance pieces are played wherever there is a salon, pop or café-house orchestra. Among his best waltzes areAmelie,Hesperus, andSophie. Other successful Lumbye compositions are theColumbine Mazurka, theChampagne Galop,Concert Polka,Dream Pictures,AnEvening at the Tivoli,King Frederick VII Homage March, and theRailway Galop.
Edward Alexander Macdowell, one of America’s most significant 19th-century composers, was born in New York City on December 18, 1861. After preliminary music study with private teachers, he attended the Paris Conservatory from 1876 to 1878, and the Frankfort Conservatory in Germany from 1879 to 1881. Maintaining his home in Germany, MacDowell joined the faculty of the Darmstadt Conservatory in 1881, and in 1882 he made an official bow as a composer by introducing his first piano concerto in Zurich, and hisModern Suitefor piano in Germany. He returned to the United States in 1888, settling in Boston where a year later the Boston Symphony under Gericke introduced his now-famous Second Piano Concerto, the composer appearing as soloist. From then on, most of his important symphonic works were introduced by the Boston Symphony, placing him in the vanguard of American composers of that period. In 1896 he filled the first chair of music created at Columbia University in New York; at that time he was described as “the greatest musical genius America has produced.” MacDowell resigned in 1904 after sharp differences with the trustees of the University over the way a music department should be run. The bitterness and frustrations suffered by MacDowell during this altercation with the University undermined and finally broke his always delicate health. His brain tissues became affected. From 1905 on he was a victim of insanity, spending his time in an innocent, childlike state, until his death in New York City on January 23, 1908. Shortly after his death the MacDowell Memorial Association was founded to establish a retreat for American creative artists on MacDowell’s summer residence in Peterborough, New Hampshire, which MacDowell’s widow had deeded to the Association.
A composer whose artistic roots lay deep in the soil of German Romanticism, MacDowell was a composer who filled his writing with noble poetic sentiments and the most sensitive emotions. His sense of style and his feeling for structure were the last words in elegance, and his lyricism and harmonic language were ever ingratiatingly inviting to the ear.
TheIndian Suite, op. 48 (1892) is the second of MacDowell’s suites for orchestra. It is one of several works in which MacDowell uses melodic and rhythmic material of the American Indian, blending this idiom with his usual sensitive and poetic style. This is one of MacDowell’s most popular works for orchestra. The first movement, “Legend,” has a slow introduction in which the main melody is given by three unaccompanied horns in unison. The melody is taken over by other instruments and developed. Here the material comes from a sacred ceremony of Iroquois Indians. The second movement is “Love Song,” whose principal subject is immediately given by the woodwind; this melody is derived from the music of Iowa Indians. “War Time” follows, a movement dominated by a melody to which Indians of the Atlantic Coast ascribed supernatural origin. This melody is heard in the first sixteen measures in two unison unaccompanied flutes. A subsidiary section follows. “Dirge,” the fourth movement, is a woman’s song of mourning for an absent son, come from the Kiowa Indians. The mournful melody is heard in muted violins. The suite ends with “Village Festival,” in which two light and vivacious melodies from the Iroquois Indians are presented; the first is a woman’s dance, and the second a war song.
The most familiar pieces of music written by MacDowell—To a Water LilyandTo a Wild Rose—come from theWoodland Sketches, op. 51 (1896), a suite for solo piano made up of ten sections, each a descriptive poem in tones. In this suite MacDowell became one of the first American composers to interpret the beauty of American scenes and countrysides in delicate melodies. BothTo a Water LilyandTo a Wild Roseare exquisite tone pictures of Nature, and both have enjoyed numerous transcriptions. The other eight movements of theWoodland Sketchesare:Will o’ the Wisp,At an Old Trysting Place,In Autumn,From an Old Indian Lodge,From Uncle Remus,A Deserted Farm,By a Meadow Brook, andTold at Sunset.
Albert Hay Malotte was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 19, 1895. The son of a choirmaster, he himself was a boy chorister, at the St. James Episcopal Church in his native city. After his music studies were completed in Paris and London, he served as organist in Chicago and London. In 1927 he opened a school for organists in Los Angeles, but when sound came to the screen he gave up the school to write music for the films. He subsequently joined the music staff at the Walt Disney studio, creating music for several of Disney’s animated cartoons, includingFerdinand the Bull. He has written ballets, choral music, and songs, besides scores for motion pictures, having received early in his career as composer important advice, guidance and encouragement from Victor Herbert.
Malotte is most famous for his song, “The Lord’s Prayer,” published in 1935, and since become a favorite of concert singers everywhere. Its deep religious sentiment, and the exciting dramatic thrust of its concluding measures, have an inescapable impact on audiences.
Gabriel Marie was born in Paris, France, on January 8, 1852. After completing his music study at the Paris Conservatory he served for six years as chorusmaster of the Lamoureux Orchestra. Between 1887 and 1894 he conducted the concerts of the Société nationalede musique. He later led the orchestral performances in Bordeaux and Marseilles, and during the summers at the Vichy Casino. He was traveling in Spain when he died there suddenly on August 29, 1928.
Marie was a successful composer of light music for orchestra. The one composition which has survived isLa Cinquantaine, a sentimental piece for orchestra which is also famous in adaptations for violin and piano, or cello and piano. Marie described this work as an “air in the old style.” It is in three-part song form. The first and third parts consist of a light, delicate little air; the middle section is in a slower and statelier style.
Jean Paul Égide Martini—sometimes called “Il Tedesco” or “The German” to distinguish him from Padre Martini the famous 18th century Italian composer and theorist—was born in Freistadt, in the Palatinate, on September 1, 1741. His real name is Schwarzendorf. After completing the study of the organ and serving for a while as church organist, he won a prize for a military march for the Swiss Guard. For many years he was an officer of a Hussar regiment. During this military service he completed an opera,L’Amoureux de quinze ans(successfully introduced in Paris in 1771) and a considerable amount of band music. After leaving the army, he served as music director for the Prince of Condé and the Comte d’Artois; as conductor at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris; and as Inspector and teacher of composition at the Paris Conservatory. He died in Paris on February 10, 1816.
The composer of twelve operas, some church music and many songs, Martini is today remembered for a single song—the eloquent and tender love melody, “Plaisir d’amour,” written originally for voice and harp, and arranged by Berlioz for voice and orchestra. Since Berlioz’ time ithas enjoyed numerous instrumental adaptations. Effective use of the song, as recurring theme music, was made in the American motion picture starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer,Love Affair(1939).
Pietro Mascagni was born in Leghorn, Italy, on December 7, 1863. He studied music with private teachers in Leghorn, then for several years attended the Milan Conservatory. In 1884 he was appointed conductor of the municipal band in Cerignola. Meanwhile in 1880 he had completed his first opera,Pinotta. Success as composer came later in 1890 with the world première of the opera,Cavalleria Rusticanain Rome. A sensation when first introduced,Cavalleria Rusticanamade the rounds of the world capitals to enjoy a triumph experienced by few operas before or since. Mascagni wrote many operas after that. Though he enjoyed varying degrees of success withL’Amico Fritzin 1891 andIrisin 1898, he never again duplicated the acclaim givenCavalleria Rusticana; and it is still the only one of his operas performed in the world’s foremost opera houses. As he himself once said sadly: “It is a pity I wroteCavalleriafirst. I was crowned before I became king.” Mascagni made many tours as a conductor. He visited the United States in 1902 in performances of several of his operas, and South America in 1911. In 1929 he succeeded Toscanini as musical director of La Scala in Milan. Identifying himself closely with the Fascist regime—even to the point of writing an opera,Nerone, glorifying Mussolini—Mascagni was subjected to considerable abuse and attack after World War II. He was deprived of his property and other assets. The last year of his life was lived in poverty and disrepute in a small hotel room in Rome, where he died on August 2, 1945.
Cavalleria Rusticanais a one-act opera, libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci based on a short story by GiovanniVerga. The setting is Sicily in the latter part of the 19th century. Turiddu, a soldier, is in love with Lola, wife of Alfio, a teamster. But he has also conducted an illicit affair with Santuzza. When Turiddu rudely rejects Santuzza, she finds revenge by revealing to Alfio the love intrigue existing between Lola and Turiddu. In the duel that follows Alfio kills Turiddu.
The most celebrated single excerpt from the opera is the melodious Intermezzo for orchestra which accompanies the departing townspeople as they leave church after the Easter services. This music is radiant with the holiness and serenity of the Easter holiday.
Other popular excerpts include the lovely Siciliana, “O Lola bianca,” a tenor aria which is sung offstage and breaks into the middle of the opening orchestral prelude; this is a serenade by Turiddu to Lola, sung to harp accompaniment. Santuzza’s passionate aria, “Voi lo sapete” is the one in which she first discloses to Alfio that his wife and Turiddu are lovers. Turiddu’s deeply emotional aria, “Addio alla madre” is his poignant farewell to his mother just before he engages in the duel in which he meets his doom.
Jules Massenet was born in Montaud in the Loire region of France on May 12, 1842. He entered the Paris Conservatory when he was nine, subsequently winning prizes in fugue and piano playing and, in 1863, the Prix de Rome. Four years later his first opera,La Grand’ Tante, was produced in Paris. During the Franco-Prussian War he was a member of the National Guard. After the war, he achieved recognition as a composer with his incidental music toLes Érynnies, an oratorioMarie Magdaleine, and an operaLe Roi de Lahore. In 1878 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the youngest man ever to receive this honor, and was appointed professor of composition atthe Paris Conservatory. He held the latter post until his death with outstanding distinction. His most significant operas appeared between 1880 and 1900, and includedHérodiade(1881),Manon(1884),Le Cid(1885),Werther(1892),Thaïs(1894) andSapho(1897). He died in Paris on August 13, 1912.
A style that had lyrical charm, tender feelings, and poetic content placed Massenet with the foremost French composers for the lyric theater. The same qualities are found to a large degree in his instrumental compositions, and endow them with their immense audience appeal. He had a vein of tenderness that was his uniquely, often contrasting this with striking passion and intensity. A master of many different moods and emotions, he was able to convey them in music that is suave and polished in the best French tradition.
Alsatian Scenes(Scènes alsaciennes) is one of Massenet’s most popular orchestral compositions. It is the seventh of his suites for orchestra and was written in 1881. For each of its four movements the composer provided an explicit program. About the first movement, “Sunday Morning” (“Dimanche matin”) the composer writes: “I recall with particular delight the Alsatian village Sunday morning at the hour of divine service; the streets deserted, the houses empty except for the elderly ones who sun themselves before their doors. The church is full, and the sacred hymns are heard at intervals in passing.” “The Tavern” (“Au cabaret”) is described as the happy meeting place of his friends “with its little windows framed with lead, garlanded with hops and roses.... ‘Ho, Schmidt, some wine!’ And the songs of the forest rangers going to shooting matches. Oh, the joyous life and the gay companions!” “Under the Linden Trees” (“Sous les tilleuls”) depicts pictorially “the edge of the fields on a Sunday afternoon, the long avenue of linden trees, in the shadow of which, hand in hand, quietly talks a pair of lovers.” The suite ends with “Sunday Evening” (“Dimanche soir: Air alsacien, Retraite française”). “In the market place, what noise, what movement! Everyone at the doorsteps, groups of young gallants in the streets, and dances which embody in rhythm the songs of the country. Eight o’clock! The noise of the drums, the blare of the trumpets—’tis the retreat! The French retreat! And when in the distance the sound of the drum died down, the women called their children in the street, the old men relighted their big old pipes, and to the sounds of violins the dance is joyously recommenced in smaller circles, with couples closer.”
The ballet music forLe Cidis strikingly appealing for its exotic melodies and lambent orchestral colors. This opera, text by Louis Galletand Edouard Blau, is based on Corneille’s tragedy; its première performance took place in Paris on November 30, 1885. The setting is 12th century Burgos, in Spain, where Rodrigo called Le Cid, or The Conqueror, kills Chimène’s father in a duel. She seeks vengeance but is unable to carry it out because she has fallen in love with him. The ballet music appears in the second scene of the second act. A public square is alive and colorful with dancing crowds, and six dances are performed in rapid succession, some with melodic and rhythmic material derived by Massenet from Spanish folk sources. These are the dances: “Castillane,” a highly rhythmic dance found in the Castille region of Spain; “Andalouse,” a sinuous, gypsy-like dance from Andalusia; “Aragonaise,” a dance popular in the Aragon district; “Aubade,” a gentle lyrical section; “Catalane,” a dance popular in Catalonia; “Madrilène,” a two-part dance from Madrid, the first quiet and introspective, the second dynamic; and “Navarraise,” a dance from Navarre.
The popular “Élégie,” a plangent melody muted in its grief, comes from the incidental music toLes Érynnieswith which Massenet first won acclaim in 1873. The play, by Charles Marie Leconte based on Aeschylus, was produced with Massenet’s music at the Odéon in Paris. Here the “Élégie” appeared as “Invocation,” scored for string orchestra. Later on Massenet arranged this section for cello and piano, and it was upon this occasion that he renamed the pieceÉlégie. It was later on also transcribed for violin and piano, and adapted into a song with lyrics by E. Gallet.
Three other sections fromLes Érynnieshave almost as much emotional appeal as theÉlégie, but in varied moods. The “Entr’acte” is a passionate song for unison violins over a disturbed accompaniment. “Grecian Dance” begins with a vivacious dance tune for two flutes in thirds. A slow dialogue ensues between oboes and clarinets, in which the main subject has an Oriental identity. A fast section brings this movement to a close. “Scène religieuse” is a graceful, at times solemn, minuet in which a solo cello provides the main melody.
The famous operaManon(1884) has two delightful dance episodes that are particularly well known, a gavotte and a minuet.Manonwas based on the famous tale of Abbé Prévost,L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, adapted by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. Its setting is France in the 18th century, and in the spirit of that place and time Massenet recreated two old-world dances, both of them appearing in the first scene of the third act, during a festival-day celebration in Paris. Before the curtain goes up, the graceful music of theminuet is heard in the orchestra as an entr’acte. After the rise of the curtain, and the appearance of Manon, she expresses her hedonistic philosophy of life in a gavotte (“Obéissons quand leur voix appelle”). This gavotte is often heard in an exclusively instrumental arrangement.
ThePhèdre Overture(1876) is another of Massenet’s frequently performed orchestral compositions. The music closely follows the action of the Racine tragedy, in which Phedre—daughter of King Minos and wife of Theseus—falls in love with Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, who fails to respond to her passion. The overture begins in a gloomy mood, forecasting ominously the imminent tragedy awaiting Phedre and Hippolytus. Phedre’s grief over her unreciprocated love is suggested by a passionate subject for clarinet; a second equally passionate melody brings us the picture of Hippolytus sent to his doom by an irate father. Violins in unison now bring us a rapturous melody speaking of Phedre’s love, while a fiery dramatic section that follows tells of the doom awaiting Hippolytus at the hands of Neptune.
Picturesque Scenes(Scènes pittoresques) is the fourth of Massenet’s suites for orchestra, completed in 1873. There are four short, tuneful sections: “March” (“Marche”), “Air de Ballet,” “Angelus” and “Bohemian Festival” (“Fête bohème”). The religious music of the third movement, “Angelus,” with its solemn tolling of bells, is the most popular section of this suite, frequently performed separately from the other movements.
Second only to the “Élégie” in popularity among Massenet’s best-loved melodies is the “Meditation” which comes from the operaThaïs. This excerpt is an orchestral entr’acte with violin obbligato heard just before the first scene of the second act. The opera, libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel of Anatole France, describes the degradation of Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, because of his unholy passion for Thaïs, a courtesan. The radiant music of the “Meditation” describes Thaïs’ renunciation of a life of pleasure for one of the spirit.
Robert Guyn McBride was born in Tucson, Arizona, on February 20, 1911. As a boy he learned to play the clarinet and saxophone. He later played both instruments in various dance orchestras. In 1933 he was graduated from the University of Arizona, and a year after that received there his Master’s degree. Having studied the oboe in college, he played that instrument with the Tucson Symphony for several years. Then, after additional study of the piano, composition and voice, he joined the music faculty of Bennington College in Vermont in 1935, holding this post eleven years. During this period he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1942, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him a prize for creating a “new idiom in American music.” McBride has made successful use of jazz, popular and folk elements in serious chamber-music and orchestral compositions.
TheMexican Rhapsody(1936) is one of McBride’s best known works for orchestra. He wrote it in Arizona while studying at the University. It was first presented in Tucson in a two-piano arrangement, then in its definitive orchestral version, and finally as a choreographic presentation. McBride here makes a colorful and freshly conceived presentation of four Mexican folk songs familiar to many: “El Rancho Grande,” “Jarabe” (or “Hat Dance”), “Cuatro Milpas,” and “La Cucaracha.”
McBride has written several interesting compositions in a jazz style. One of the best is theStrawberry Jam(1942). This is a caricature of a jazzband jam session, but with the utilization of modern harmonies and symphonic orchestration.Stuff in G, for orchestra (1942), is in the racy, tuneful style of Tin Pan Alley, whileSwing Stuff(1941) brings to the symphonic orchestra the improvisational devices and techniques and the beat of Swing music.
Harl Mcdonald was born in Boulder, Colorado, on July 27, 1899. His music study took place in Redlands, California and at the University of Southern California. The winning of prizes from the American Federation of Music Clubs for two orchestral works enabled him to go to Europe and attend the Leipzig Conservatory. In Germany, his symphonic fantasy,Mojave, was successfully introduced by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra. After returning to the United States he was appointed in 1926 to the music faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he later became professor of music, and finally head of the music department. At the University he conducted various choral groups which appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 1939 until his death he was manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which introduced many of his orchestral compositions. McDonald wrote four symphonies, a two-piano concerto, a violin concerto, and various suites and tone poems for orchestra. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, on March 30, 1955.
TheChildren’s Symphonywas a work intended to teach children something about symphonic form through melodies they knew and loved. The form of the symphony is adhered to—in the presentation of two themes, their development, and recapitulation. Simple and unsophisticated, this symphony makes ideal listening for children, but there is enough charm here to provide considerable enjoyment to older people as well. In the first movement, McDonald uses for his two main themes, “London Bridge” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” In the second movement we hear “Little Bo Peep” and “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?”; in the third, “Farmer in the Dell” and “Jingle Bells”; and in the finale, “Honey Bee” and “Snow Is Falling On My Garden.”
Rhumba, for symphony orchestra, is the third movement of McDonald’s Symphony No. 2 (1935). But this movement (which in the symphony displaces the conventional scherzo) is so popular that it is often played apart from the rest of the work. The symphony itself was inspired by the turbulent 1930’s, with its labor conflicts, breadlines, unemployment, and depression.Rhumbainjected a gay note into thesesomber proceedings, attempting to interpret “the passionate search after good times and diversions, and the restless pursuit of intoxicated pleasures,” as the composer explained. McDonald goes on to say that he here used the rumba rhythm because he liked it and because it seemed to him to be the pulse of those times.
Felix Mendelssohn-bartholdy was born in Hamburg, Germany, on February 3, 1809. His grandfather was the famous philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn; his father, a successful banker. Both were of Jewish origin. When Felix was still a boy, however, his immediate family was converted to Protestantism, the occasion upon which they added the name of “Bartholdy” to their own to distinguish them from the other members of their family. A pupil of Ludwig Berger and Karl Friedrich Zelter, Felix was extraordinarily precocious in music. When he was seven and a half he made a successful appearance as pianist in Berlin; by the time he was twelve he had already written operas and symphonies; and in his seventeenth year he produced an unqualified masterwork in theOverture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 1827, one of his operas was produced in Berlin, but by that time he had already completed thirteen symphonies and a library of chamber music as well.
In 1829, Mendelssohn conducted in Berlin the first performance of Bach’sPassion According to St. Matthewto be given since Bach’s own day. This concert became a powerful influence in reviving interest in Bach’s music, which at that time had been languishing in both neglect and obscurity. A few weeks after Mendelssohn had directed a repeat performance, he made his first trip to England where he led the première of a new symphony and was made honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic. A tour of Scotland that followed immediately was the inspiration for his overture,Fingal’s Cave.
In 1833, Mendelssohn served as musical director of the city of Duesseldorf. He held this post only six months. Much more significant was his engagement as the principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig in 1835 which, during the five years of his leadership, was elevated to a position of first importance among the world’s symphony orchestras.
In 1841, Mendelssohn became head of the music department of a projected Academy of Arts in Berlin. This appointment did not prevent him from visiting England where he was received with an adulation accorded to no foreign musician since Handel. Returning to Berlin he found that the Academy of Arts project had been abandoned. He was now made Kapellmeister to the King, an honorary post allowing him complete freedom of activity and movement. During the next few years he conducted concerts of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and paid two more highly successful visits to England. He was also instrumental in helping to found the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843. Always of delicate health and sensibilities, Mendelssohn collapsed at the news that his beloved sister, Fanny, died in 1847. He died in Leipzig soon after that, on November 4, 1847.
The finest qualities of German Romantic music can be found in Mendelssohn. He had the Romantic’s partiality for fantasy and the supernatural, together with the lightness of touch with which to create such worlds through music. He had the Romantic’s gift for translating natural scenes, landscapes and lyric poetry into sensitive tone pictures. He had a most winning lyricism and graceful harmonic and orchestral gift, and he never lacked the ability to charm and enchant his listeners with the most tender and lovable musical expression. Other composers may have written profounder or more emotionally stirring music than Mendelssohn; but no one could be more ingratiating, sensitive, or refined. Some of Mendelssohn’s serious symphonic works are so full of the most wonderful melodies and beguiling moods that they have the universal appeal of semi-classics.
The concert overture,Fingal’s Cave, or as it is also sometimes known,Hebrides Overture, op. 26 (1832) was inspired by the composer’s visit to the Scottish Highlands in 1830. The opening theme in lower strings and bassoons suggests the roll of the waves at the mouth of a cave, a melody that came to the composer while visiting the caves of Staffa. This idea is developed, then a second beautiful melody unfolds in cellos and bassoons.
The orchestral suite,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 61 is derivedfrom the incidental music comprising thirteen numbers which Mendelssohn wrote for a Potsdam production of the Shakespeare comedy in 1843; the Overture, however, was a fruit of the composer’s youth, having been written in 1826. The magic world of fairies and elves which Mendelssohn projected so delicately in his youthful overture is preserved in many of the numbers he wrote seventeen years later. The Overture, op. 21, is initiated with four sensitive chords, and proceeds with fleeting, diaphanous music for strings with which we are suddenly plunged in fairyland. The main thematic material to follow comprises a haunting song for horn, a romantic episode for woodwind and strings, and a sprightly fairy dance for strings.
Three other musical sections from this incidental music, and basic to the orchestral suite, are famous. The “Nocturne” is a broad, moody song for horns. The “Scherzo”—like the Overture—is a picture of the world of fairies, gnomes and elves, though in a more energetic and spirited vein. The “Wedding March” is now one of the most frequently played pieces of wedding music, second in popularity only to Wagner’s wedding music fromLohengrin; it first became popular as wedding music at the nuptials of the English Princess in London in 1858. A trumpet fanfare leads to the dignified march melody which is twice alternated with melodious trio sections.
“On Wings of Song” (“Auf Fluegeln des Gesanges”), op. 34, no. 2 (1834) is Mendelssohn’s best-known song, a melody of incomparable loveliness and serenity. The poem is by Heine. Franz Liszt transcribed it for piano; Joseph Achron for violin and piano; Lionel Tertis for viola and piano. It has also enjoyed various orchestral transcriptions.
Ruy Blas, op. 95 (1839)—likeFingal’s Cave—is a concert overture for orchestra; here the inspiration is the drama of Victor Hugo. Four solemn bars for wind instruments lead to the principal subject, first violins and flutes; clarinets, bassoons, and cellos later offer the second contrasting staccato theme.
TheSpinning Songand theSpring Songare both instrumental favorites, and both come from theSongs Without Words(Lieder ohne Worte), for solo piano. The form of “song without words” is a creation of Mendelssohn: a brief composition of such essentially lyric character that it is virtually a “song” for the piano. Mendelssohn wrote forty-eight such pieces gathered in eight books. TheSpinning Songin C major appears in op. 67 as the fourth number (1844). This is a tender melody placed against a rhythmic background suggesting the whirring of a spinning wheel. TheSpring Songin A major is surely one of themost familiar tonal pictures of the vernal season to be found in the semi-classical literature; it appears in op. 62 (1842) as the concluding number. Both theSpinning SongandSpring Songappear in all kinds and varieties of transcriptions.
The stirringWar March of the Priestsis a number from the incidental music for Racine’s drama,Athalie, op. 74 (1843); this incidental music was first performed with the Racine play in Berlin in 1845.
Giacomo Meyerbeer was born in Berlin, Germany, on September 5, 1791. His name, at birth, was Jakob Liebmann Beer. When Meyer, a rich relative, left him a legacy, he decided to change his name to Meyerbeer; some years later upon initiating a career as composer of Italian operas he Italianized his name. His music study took place with Clementi, Zelter, Anselm Weber and Vogler, the last of whom encouraged him to write his first opera,Jephtha’s Vow(Jephtha’s Geluebde), a failure when first performed in Munich in 1812. A second opera, performed in Stuttgart, was also a failure; Meyerbeer now seriously entertained the thought of abandoning composition altogether. The noted Viennese composer and teacher, Antonio Salieri, however, convinced him what he needed was more study. This took place in Italy where for several years Meyerbeer assimilated Italian traditions of opera. His first endeavor in this style wasRomilda e Costanza, a success when introduced in Padua in 1817. During the next few years Meyerbeer wrote several more operas, some of them on commission, and became one of Italy’s most highly regarded composers for the stage. In 1826, Meyerbeer settled in Paris where association with composers like Cherubini and Halévy, made him impatient with the kind of operas he had thus far created. In 1831, withRobert le Diable, he entered upon a new artistic phase in which Italian methods, procedures and traditionswere discarded in favor of the French.Robert le Diable, produced at the Opera on November 21, 1831 was a sensation. Meyerbeer continued writing operas in the French style for the remainder of his life. These are the operas by which he is most often represented in the world’s opera theaters:Les Huguenots(1836),Le Prophète(1849), andL’Africaine(1865). Meyerbeer died in Paris on May 2, 1864.
Meyerbeer was an exponent of drama in the grand style, his finest operas being filled with big climactic scenes, elaborate stage effects, and eye-filling visual displays. But he also had a pronounced dramatic gift, one which evoked from Wagner the highest admiration; and a pronounced expressiveness of lyricism.
L’Africaine(The African) is Meyerbeer’s last opera, and many regarded it as his best. He completed it in 1864 just before his death, and its world première at the Paris Opera took place posthumously on April 28, 1865. The text, by Eugène Scribe, is set in Lisbon and Madagascar in the 15th century. The main action concerns the love of Selika, an African queen, for the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama; Da Gama in turn is loved by Inez, daughter of Don Diego. Selika offers the explorer a secret route to the land of which she is queen, Madagascar, and with which Da Gama becomes enraptured. But when Inez appears, he abandons Selika for her, and leaves the magic island. Heartbroken, Selika kills herself by breathing the deadly fragrance of a manchineel tree.
The opera’s most popular excerpt is Vasco da Gama’s rapturous tenor aria from the fourth act in which he describes the beauty of Madagascar, “O Paradis.” Another vocal favorite is the baritone ballad of Nelusko, slave of Selika, “Adamastor, roi des vagues profondes”; as he steers the ship bearing Selika and Vasco da Gama to Madagascar he sings of Adamastor, monarch of the sea, who sends ships to their doom on treacherous reefs.
TheCoronation March(Marche du couronnement)—music of pomp and circumstance—comes from the operaLe Prophète, first performed at the Paris Opéra on April 16, 1849. Eugène Scribe’s libretto is based on an actual historical episode in 16th century Holland centered around the Anabaptist uprising, with John of Leyden, leader of the Anabaptists, as the principal character. In Act four, scene two, John is being crowned king outside the Muenster Cathedral. As a magnificent royal procession enters the Cathedral, the music of theCoronation Marchmatches in splendor and grandeur the visual majesty of this scene. Another popular musical excerpt for orchestra from this opera is Preludeto Act 3, a colorful and rhythmic Quadrille that leads into the opening scene of that act, providing the lively musical background for a ballet and ice-carnival skating scene. Liszt made a technically brilliant transcription for the piano of this Quadrille music.
Les Huguenots(The Huguenots) was first performed at the Paris Opéra on February 29, 1836, the year it was completed; the libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps. In 16th century Touraine and Paris, Raoul, a Huguenot nobleman, has saved the life of Valentine, daughter of the Catholic leader, St. Bris. She falls in love with Raoul, but the latter repudiates her, believing her to be the mistress of Count de Nevers. When he discovers he has been mistaken, Raoul risks his life to see her. During this visit he overhears a Catholic plot to massacre the Huguenots. After Raoul and Valentine get married, they are both murdered in the massacre—Valentine by her own father.
The Overture toLes Huguenotsis built almost entirely from the melody of the famous Lutheran chorale,Ein’ feste Burg, which in the opera itself served as the musical symbol for militant Protestantism. The outstanding individual excerpts from the opera include Raoul’s beautiful romance from Act 1 describing the woman he has saved, “Plus blanche que la blanche hermine”; the rhapsodic description in the second act of the Touraine countryside by Marguerite de Valois, betrothed to Henry IV of Navarre, “O beau pays de la Touraine”; and in the fourth act the stirring “Benediction of the Swords,” (“Gloire au grand Dieu vengeur”) with which the Catholics are blessed by three monks on the eve of their holy war against the Huguenots.
The excitingTorch Dance, No. 1, in B-flat is not from one of Meyerbeer’s operas. It was written in 1846 for the wedding of the King of Bavaria, and originally was scored for brass band. It is now most frequently heard in orchestral adaptations. Meyerbeer subsequently wrote two otherTorch Dances: the second in 1850 for the wedding of Princess Charlotte of Prussia, and the third in 1853 for the wedding of Princess Anne of Prussia.