Joseph Joachim Raff was born in Lachen, on the Lake of Zurich, Switzerland, on May 27, 1822. He was mostly self-taught in music, while pursuing the career of schoolmaster. Some of his early compositions were published through Mendelssohn’s influence, a development that finally encouraged Raff to give up schoolteaching and devote himself completely to music. An intimate association with Liszt led to the première of an opera,King Alfred, in Weimar in 1851. In 1863, his symphony,An das Vaterland, received first prize from the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. From 1877 until his death he was director of Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfort, Germany. He died in that city on June 25, 1882.
A prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, overtures, quartets, sonatas and sundry other works, Raff was a major figure in the German Romantic movement, highly regarded by his contemporaries, but forgotten since his death. Only some of his minor pieces are remembered. The most popular is theCavatinain A-flat major, op. 85, no. 3, for violin and piano, a perennial favorite with violin students and young violinists, and no less familiar in various orchestral adaptations. A “cavatina” is a composition for an instrument with the lyric character of a song. Raff’s broad and expressive melody has an almost religious stateliness.
Another popular Raff composition in a smaller dimension is the picturesque piano piece,La Fileuse(The Spinner), op. 157, no. 2, in which the movement of the spinning wheel is graphically reproduced.
Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, France, on March 7, 1875. After studying music with private teachers in Paris he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889, remaining there fifteen years, and proving himself a brilliant (if at times an iconoclastic) student. While still at the Conservatory hisMenuet antiquefor piano was published, andLes Sites auriculairesfor two pianos was performed. By the time he left the Conservatory he was already a composer of considerable stature, having completed two remarkable compositions for the piano—Pavane pour une Infante défunteandJeux d’eau, both introduced in 1902—and an unqualified masterwork, the String Quartet, first performed in 1904. The fact that a composer of such attainments had four times failed to win the Prix de Rome created such a scandal in Paris that the director of the Paris Conservatory, Théodore Dubois, was compelled to resign. But Ravel’s frustrations from failing to win the Prix de Rome did not affect the quality of his music. In the succeeding years he produced a succession of masterworks: the balletDaphnis and Chloe, its première by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Paris on June 8, 1912; theSpanish Rhapsody(Rapsodie espagnole) for orchestra; the suiteMiroirs, for piano. During World War I, Ravel served at the front in an ambulance corps. After the war, he withdrew to his villa in Montfort l’Amaury where he lived in comparative seclusion, devoted mainly to creative work. Nevertheless, in 1928, he toured the United States, making his American debut in Boston with the Boston Symphony on January 12, 1929; Ravel died in Paris on December 28, 1937, following an unsuccessful operation on the brain.
One of the most significant of Impressionists after Debussy, Ravel was the creator of music that is highly sensitive in its moods, elegant in style, exquisite in detail, and usually endowed with the most stunning effects of instrumentation, rhythm, and harmony. Some of his best-known works derive their inspiration and material from Spanish sources. It is one of these that is probably his most popular orchestral composition, and one of the most popular of the 20th century, theBolero. A “bolero” is a Spanish dance in ¾ time accompanied by clicking castanets. Ravel wrote hisBoleroin 1928 as ballet music for Ida Rubinstein who introduced it in Paris on November 22, 1928. ButBolerohas since then separated itself from the dance to become a concert hall favorite. When Toscanini directed the American première in 1929 it created a sensation, and set into motion a wave of popularity for this exciting music achieved by few contemporary works. It was performed by every major American orchestra, was heard in theaters and over radio, was reproduced simultaneously on six different recordings. It was transcribed for every possible combination of instruments (including a jazz band); the word “Bolero” was used as the title of a motion picture. Such immense appeal is not difficult to explain. The rhythmic and instrumental virtuosity of this music has an immediate kinaesthetic effect. The composition derives its immense impact from sonority and changing orchestral colors. The bolero melody has two sections, the first heard initially is the flute, then clarinet; the second is given by the bassoon, and then the clarinet. This two-part melody is repeated throughout the composition against a compelling rhythm of a side drum, all the while gradually growing in dynamics and continually changing its colors chameleon-like through varied instrumentation. A monumental climax is finally realized, as the bolero melody is proclaimed by the full orchestra.
Another highly popular Ravel composition has a far different personality—thePavane pour une Infante défunte(Pavane for a Dead Infante). Where the appeal of theBolerois strong, direct, immediate and on the surface, that of the Pavane is subtle, elusive, sensitive. A Pavane is a stately court dance (usually in three sections and in ⁴/₄ time) popular in France. Ravel’sPavaneis an elegy for the death of a Spanish princess. Ravel wrote this composition for piano (1899) but he later transcribed it for orchestra. An American popular song was adapted from this haunting melody in 1939, entitled “The Lamp Is Low.”
Emil Von Rezniček was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 4, 1860, the son of a princess and an Austrian field marshal. For a time he studied law, but then devoted himself completely to music study, mainly at the Leipzig Conservatory. From 1896 to 1899 he was the conductor of several theater orchestras in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In 1902 he settled in Berlin where he founded and for several years conducted an annual series of orchestral concerts. Subsequently he was the conductor of the Warsaw Opera and from 1909 to 1911 of the Komische Oper in Berlin. He also pursued a highly successful career as teacher, principally at the Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin and from 1920 to 1926 at the Berlin High School of Music. He went into retirement in 1929, and died in Berlin on August 2, 1945.
Rezniček was the composer of several operas, five symphonies, three tone poems and various other compositions. His greatest success came with the comic opera,Donna Diana, introduced in Prague on December 16, 1894, and soon thereafter heard in forty-three European opera houses. The opera—libretto by the composer based on a Spanish comedy by Moreto y Cabana—is consistently light and frothy. Carlos is in pursuit of Princess Diana, and to effect her surrender he feigns he is madly in love with her. Princess Diana plays a game of her own. Coyly she eludes him after seeming to fall victim to his wiles. In the end they both discover they are very much in love with each other.
The opera is almost never heard any longer, but the witty overture is a favorite throughout the world; it is the only piece of music by the composer that is still often performed today. A sustained introduction leads into the jolly first theme—a fast, light little melody that sets the prevailing mood of frivolity. The heart of the overture is an expressive melody shared by basses and oboe. It grows in passion and intensity as other sections of the orchestra develop it. When this melody comes to a climax, the passionate mood is suddenly dissipated, and the frivolous first theme of the overture returns to restore a mood of reckless gaiety.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, Russia, on March 18, 1844. Trained for a naval career, he was graduated from the Naval School in St. Petersburg in 1862, after which he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year cruise as naval officer. From earliest boyhood he had been passionately interested in music, especially the folk operas of Glinka and Russian ecclesiastical music. When he was seventeen, he was encouraged by Balakirev to essay composition. After returning to Russia in 1864, Rimsky-Korsakov associated himself with the national Russian school then being realized by Balakirev and Mussorgsky among others, and completed his first symphony, introduced in St. Petersburg in 1865. He plunged more deeply into musical activity after that by completing several ambitious works of national character, including theAntar Symphonyand an opera,The Maid of Pskov. In 1873 he was relieved by the government of all his naval duties and allowed to devote himself completely to music. At that time the special post of Inspector of Military Orchestras was created for him. He soon distinguished himself as a conductor of the Free Music Society in St. Petersburg and as professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He did not neglect composition, producing many significant operas and orchestral works. In his music he remained faithful to national ideals by filling his music with melodies patterned after Russian folk songs, harmonies derived from the modes of Russian church music, and rhythms simulating those of Russian folk dances. To all his writing he brought an extraordinary technical skill in structure, orchestration and harmony. He died of a heart attack in Liubensk, Russia, on June 21, 1908.
The exotic personality and harmonic and instrumental brilliance of Eastern music are often encountered in Rimsky-Korsakov. They are found in two extremely popular excerpts from his operaLe Coq d’or(The Golden Cockerel): “Bridal Procession” and “Hymn to the Sun.”
Le Coq d’oris a fantasy-opera, introduced in Moscow on October 7, 1909; the libretto, by Vladimir Bielsky, is based on a tale by Pushkin.A golden cockerel with the talent of prophecy is presented to King Dodon by his astrologer. In time the cockerel accurately prophesies the doom of both the astrologer and the King.
The oriental, languorous “Hymn to the Sun” (“Salut à toi soleil”) appears in the second act, a salute by the beautiful Queen of Shemaka. After the Queen has captured the love of King Dodon with this song, they marry. There are many transcriptions of this beautiful melody, including one for violin and piano by Kreisler and for cello and piano by Julius Klengel.
The third act of this opera opens with the brilliant music of the “Bridal Procession.” The royal entourage passes with pomp and ceremony through the city accompanied by the cheers of the surrounding crowds.
In the vital “Dance of the Tumblers” or “Dance of the Buffoons” for orchestra, Rimsky-Korsakov skilfully employs folk rhythms. This dance comes from the composer’s folk opera,The Snow Maiden(Snegourochka). The third act opens with a gay Arcadian festival celebrated by the Berendey peasants during which this gay and exciting folk dance is performed.
The pictorial, realistic “Flight of the Bumble Bee” is an excerpt from still another of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas,The Legend of Tsar Saltan. This is an orchestral interlude in the third act describing tonally, and with remarkable realism, the buzzing course of a bee. This piece retains its vivid pictorialism even in transcriptions, notably that for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, and for violin and piano by Arthur Hartmann.
The “Hindu Chant” or “The Song of India” is also an operatic excerpt, this time fromSadko. It appears at the close of the second tableau of the second act. Sadko is the host to three merchants from foreign lands. He invites each to tell him about his homeland, one of whom is a Hindu who proceeds in an Oriental melody to speak of the magic and mystery of India.
TheRussian Easter Overture(La Grand pâque russe), for orchestra, op. 36 (1888) was one of the fruits of the composer’s lifelong fascination for Russian church music. The principal thematic material of the overture comes from a collection of canticles known as theObikhodfrom the Russian Orthodox Church. Two of these canticles are heard in the solemn introduction, a section which the composer said represented the “Holy Sepulcher that had shone with ineffable light at the moment of the Resurrection.” The first is given loudly by strings and clarinets, thesecond quietly by violins and violas accompanied by woodwind, harps, and pizzicato basses. A brief cadenza for solo violin is the transition to the main body of the overture where the two canticles from the introduction are amplified and developed. A brilliant coda leads to the conclusion of the work where the second of the two melodies is given for the last time by trombones and strings.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s most famous work for orchestra is the symphonic suite,Scheherazade, op. 35 (1888). Nowhere is his remarkable gift at pictorial writing, at translating a literary program into tones, more in evidence than here. This music describes episodes from theArabian Nightsin four movements which are unified by the recurrence of two musical motives. The first is that of the Sultan, a forceful, majestic statement for unison brass, woodwinds and strings; the second is a tender melody in triplets for strings depicting the lovely Scheherazade. The Sultan theme opens the first movement, entitled “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship.” After quiet chords for the brass, the Scheherazade melody is heard in solo violin accompanied by harp arpeggios. The music later becomes highly dramatic as Sinbad’s ship, represented by a flute solo, is buffeted about by an angry sea, the latter portrayed by rapid arpeggio figures. The poignant Scheherazade motive in solo violin introduces the second movement, “The Tale of the Kalendar.” The tale is spun in a haunting song for bassoon, dramatically contrasted by a dynamic rhythmic section for full orchestra. The third movement, “The Young Prince and the Princess” is a tender love dialogue between violins and clarinets. After a recall of the Scheherazade melody there appears the finale: “The Festival at Bagdad; The Sea, The Ship Founders on the Rock.” A brief recall of the Sinbad theme brings on an electrifying picture of a festival in Bagdad. The gay proceedings, however, are interrupted by a grim shipwreck scene, vividly depicted by the exciting music. This dramatic episode passes, and the suite ends with a final statement of the Scheherazade theme.
TheSpanish Caprice(Capriccio espagnol), for orchestra, op. 34 (1887) is one of the composer’s rare attempts at exploiting the folk music of a country other than his own. There are five parts. The first is a morning song, or “Alborada,” in which two main subjects of Spanish identity are given by the full orchestra. This is followed by “Variations.” A Spanish melody is here subjected to five brief variations. In the third part, the Alborada music returns in a changed tonality and orchestration. The fourth movement is entitled “Scene and Gypsy Dance” andconsists of five cadenzas. The Capriccio ends with “Fandango asturiano,” in which a dance melody for trombones is succeeded by a contrasting subject in the woodwinds. A last recall of the main Alborada theme of the first movement brings the work to its conclusion.
Richard Rodgers was born in Hammels Station, near Arverne, Long Island, on June 28, 1902. As a child he began studying the piano and attending the popular musical theater. He wrote his first songs in 1916, a score for an amateur musical in 1917, and in 1919 created the music for the Columbia Varsity Show, the first freshman ever to do so. Meanwhile he had initiated a collaborative arrangement with the lyricist, Lorenz Hart, that lasted almost a quarter of a century. Their first song to reach the Broadway theater was “Any Old Place With You” inA Lonely Romeoin 1919. Their first Broadway musical wasThe Poor Little Ritz Girlin 1920, and their first success came withThe Garrick Gaietiesin 1925 where the song, “Manhattan,” was introduced. For the next twenty years, Rodgers and Hart—frequently with Herbert Fields as librettist—dominated the musical stage with some of the most original and freshly conceived musical productions of that period:Dearest Enemy(1925),The Girl Friend(1926),Peggy-Ann(1926),A Connecticut Yankee(1927),On Your Toes(1936),Babes in Arms(1937),I’d Rather Be Right(1937),I Married an Angel(1938),The Boys from Syracuse(1938), andPal Joey(1940). From these and other productions came hundreds of songs some of which have since become classics in American popular music. The best of these were “Here In My Arms,” “Blue Room,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “My Romance,” “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” “There’s a Small Hotel,” “Where or When,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Spring Is Here,” “Falling in Love With Love,” “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.”
By Jupiter, in 1942, was the last of the Rodgers and Hart musicals.Hart’s physical and moral disintegration made it necessary for Rodgers to seek out a new collaborator. He found him in Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom Rodgers embarked on a new and even greater career as composer for the theater. Their first collaboration wasOklahoma!in 1943, an unprecedented box-office triumph, and a production that revolutionized the musical stage by crystallizing the concept and procedures of the musical play as opposed to the musical comedy. After that Rodgers and Hammerstein brought to the stage such classics asCarousel,South Pacific, andThe King and I. Other Rodgers and Hammerstein productions wereAllegro(1947),Me and Juliet(1953),Pipe Dream(1955),The Flower Drum Song(1958) andThe Sound of Music(1959). Among the most famous songs by Rodgers from these productions—besides those from musical plays discussed below—were “A Fellow Needs a Girl,” “No Other Love,” “Everybody’s Got a Home But Me,” “All at Once You Love Her,” “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” “Do, Re, Mi,” “The Sound of Music” and “Climb Every Mountain.” The collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein ended in 1960 with the death of the lyricist.
Oklahoma!,Carousel,South Pacific, andThe King and Ihave become enduring monuments in the American theater. They are continually revived, have been adapted for motion pictures, and are perpetually represented at semi-classical concerts and on records. In whatever form they appear they never fail to excite and inspire audiences. It is in these productions that Rodgers has reached the highest creative altitudes of his career, with music of such expressive lyricism, dramatic impact, consummate technical skill, and pervading charm and grace that its survival in American music seems assured. Robert Russell Bennett has made skilful orchestral adaptations of the basic melodic material from each of these musical plays, and it is most usually these adaptations that are most frequently performed by pop and semi-classical orchestras.
Carouselis the second of the Rodgers and Hammerstein masterworks, succeedingOklahoma!by about two years. It is one of the most radiant ornaments of our musical stage. Oscar Hammerstein II here adapted Ferenc Molnar’s play,Liliom, with changes in setting, time, and some basic alterations of plot. In the musical version the action takes place in New England in 1873. Billy Bigelow, a barker in an amusement park, falls in love and marries Julie Jordan. A charming but irresponsible young man, Billy decides to get some money in a holdup, when he learns his wife is pregnant. Caught, Billy eludesarrest by committing suicide. After a brief stay in Purgatory, Billy is permitted to return to earth for a single day to achieve redemption, the price for his admission to Heaven. On earth, he meets his daughter. Through her love, understanding and forgiveness he achieves his redemption. Thus the musical ends in a happy glow of love and compassion whereas Molnar’s original play ended on the tragic note of frustration.
Carouselopened in New York on April 19, 1945. John Chapman described it as “one of the finest musical plays I have ever seen, and I shall remember it always.” It received the Drama Critics Award and eight Donaldson Awards. Since then it has often been revived besides being adapted for the screen; in 1958 it was presented at the World’s Fair in Brussels.
The heartwarming glow that pervades the play in Hammerstein’s moving dialogue and lyrics was magically caught in the score, which begins with an extended waltz sequence for orchestra. In the play this music is heard under the opening scene which represents an amusement park dominated by a gay carousel. This waltz music is a self-sufficient composition that can be, and often is, played independently of the other excerpts. The other main musical episodes include the love duet of Billy and Julie, “If I Loved You”; Billy’s eloquent and extended narrative, “Soliloquy,” when he learns he is about to become a father; the spiritual “You’ll Never Walk Alone”; the ebullient “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over”; two vigorous choral episodes, “Blow High, Blow Low” and “This Was a Real Nice Clambake.”
The King and I, presented on March 29, 1951, was adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II from Margaret Landon’s novelAnna and the King of Siam(which had already been made into a successful non-musical motion picture starring Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne). Anna, played in the musical by Gertrude Lawrence, is an English schoolmistress come to Siam to teach Western culture to the royal princes and princesses. Her own strong will and Western independence comes into sharp conflict with the king, an Eastern despot enacted by Yul Brynner. But they are nonetheless drawn to each other, partly through curiosity, partly through admiration. Naturally, since they are of different social stations and cultures, a love interest is out of the question, but they are ineluctably drawn to each other, particularly after Anna has managed to save a critical political situation in Siam through her ingenuity. The king dies just before the final curtain; Anna remains on as a teacher of the children she has come to love.
Part of the attraction of Rodgers’ music is its subtle Oriental flavoring. In the music—as in text, settings and costuming—The King and Iis a picture of an “East of frank and unashamed romance,” as Richard Watts, Jr., said, “seen through the eyes of ... theatrical artists of rare taste and creative power.” The Oriental element is particularly pronounced in the orchestral excerpt, “The March of the Royal Siamese Children,” with its exotic syncopated structure and orchestration. Other popular excerpts from this score include Anna’s lilting “I Whistle a Happy Tune”; her poignant ballad “Hello, Young Lovers”; Anna’s duet with the king, “Shall We Dance?”; her amiable conversation with the children, “Getting to Know You”; the King’s narrative, “A Puzzlement”; also two sensitive and atmospheric duets by the two Siamese lovers, Tuptim and Lun Tha, “We Kiss in the Shadow” and “I Have Dreamed.”
Oklahoma!, the first of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical plays—which opened on March 31, 1943—made stage history. Its run of 2,248 performances was the longest run of any Broadway musical up to then; a national company toured for ten years. It was successfully produced in Europe, Africa, and Australia. But beyond being a box-office triumph of incomparable magnitude, it was also an artistic event of the first importance. This was musical comedy no more, but a vital folk play rich in dramatic content, and authentic in characterization and background. The play upon which it was based was Lynn Riggs’ folk play,Green Grow the Lilacs, adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II. In making his adaptation, Hammerstein had to sidestep long accepted formulas and clichés of the American musical stage to meet the demands of Riggs’ play. Chorus-girl routines made way for American ballet conceived by Agnes De Mille. Set comedy routines were replaced by a humor which rose naturally from text and characters. Each musical incident was basic to the movement of the dramatic action. Even the plot was unorthodox for our musical theater. At the turn of the present century in West-Indian country, Laurey and Curly are in love, but are kept apart by their respective diffidence and a false sense of hostility. An ugly, lecherous character, Jud Fry, pursues Laurey. Laurey and Curly finally declare their love for each other. At their wedding Jud arrives inebriated, attacks Curly with a knife, and becomes its fatal victim when he accidentally falls upon the blade during a brawl. A hastily improvised trial exonerates Curly of murder and permits him and his bride to set off on their honeymoon for a land that some day will get the name of Oklahoma.
The play opens at once with its best musical foot forward, a simple song, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” which has the personality of American folk music. It is sung offstage by Curly. After that the principal musical episodes include the love song of Curly and Laurey, “People Will Say We’re in Love”; several songs with a strong American national identity, including “Kansas City,” “The Farmer and the Cowman,” “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” and the title number; and two highly expressive numbers, “Out of My Dreams” and “Many a New Day.”
Slaughter on Tenth Avenueis one of Rodgers’ most famous orchestral compositions, and one of the finest achievements of the school of symphonic-jazz writing. This music was used for a ballet sequence in the Rodgers and Hart musical,On Your Toes, first produced in 1936. SinceOn Your Toesdwelled in the world of ballet, with dancers as principal characters, ballet episodes played an important part in the unfolding of the story; these episodes were conceived by George Balanchine. The play reaches a dramatic climax with a jazz ballet, a satire on gangsters, entitledSlaughter on Tenth Avenue. This is a description of the pursuit by gangsters of a hoofer and his girl. Caught up in a Tenth Avenue café, the gangsters murder the girl and are about to kill the hoofer when the police come to his rescue. Rodgers’ music for the ballet is an extended and integrated symphonic-jazz composition which has won its way into the permanent repertory of semi-classical music. It is constructed from two main melodic ideas. The first is an impudent little jazz tune, and the second is a rich and luscious jazz melody for strings.
South Pacific, produced on April 7, 1949, was both commercially and artistically of the magnitude ofOklahoma!Its Broadway run of 1,925 performances was only 325 less than that of its epoch-making predecessor. In many other respectsSouth PacificoutdidOklahoma!: In the overall box-office grossage; in sale of sheet music and records; in the capture of prizes (including the Pulitzer Prize for drama, seven Antoinette Perry and nine Donaldson awards). The book was adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan fromTales of the South Pacific, a series of short stories about American troops in the Pacific during World War II. In the adaptation two love plots are emphasized. The first involves the French planter, Emile de Becque, and the American ensign, Nellie Forbush; the other engages Liat, a Tonkinese girl, and Lieutenant Cable. The first ends happily, but only after complications brought on by the discovery on Nellie’s part that Emile was oncemarried to a Polynesian and is the father of two Eurasian children. The other love affair has a tragic ending, since Lieutenant Cable dies on a mission. With Ezio Pinza as De Becque and Mary Martin as Nellie,South Pacificwas “a show of rare enchantment,” as Howard Barnes reported, “novel in texture and treatment, rich in dramatic substance, and eloquent in song.” Among its prominent musical numbers are De Becque and Nellie’s love song, “Some Enchanted Evening”; De Becque’s lament “This Nearly Was Mine”; Cable’s love song “Younger Than Springtime”; three songs by Nellie, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “A Cockeyed Optimist,” and “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy”; two exotic numbers by the Tonkinese Bloody Mary, “Happy Talk” and “Bali Ha’i”; and a spirited and humorous choral number by the Marines, “There Is Nothing Like a Dame.”
Victory at Seais a nine-movement suite for symphony orchestra adapted by Robert Russell Bennett from the extended musical score for a series of documentary films on naval operations during World War II. These films were presented over NBC television in 1952 and received both the Sylvania and the George Foster Peabody Awards. Much of the acclaim accorded to these remarkable films belonged to Rodgers’ background music which, as Otis L. Guernsey said, “suggested courage, self-sacrifice and the indomitable spirit of the free man.” ANew Yorkercritic described Rodgers’ music as a “seemingly endless creation, now martial, now tender, now tuneful, now dissonant ... memorable and tremendously moving.”
The first movement, “The Song of the High Seas,” is a picture of ships menaced by Nazi U-boats on the seas during the early part of World War II. They finally get involved in battle. “The Pacific Boils Over” describes the beauty of Hawaii at peace in a melody suggesting Hawaiian song and dance. War comes, and this idyllic mood is shattered. A broad melody for strings ending in forceful chords tells about the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and the grim business of repairing the damage inflicted upon it by the Japanese. The third movement is one of the most famous in the suite, often performed independently of the other sections. It is stirring and dramatic march music of symphonic dimensions entitled “Guadalcanal March.” This is followed by “D Day,” its principal melody a broad, strong subject for brass telling of the gradual build-up of men and materials for the invasion of Fortress Europe. The fifth movement, “Hard Work and Horseplay” provides the lighter side of war. American soldiers find relief from grim realities in mischievous escapades and playtime. “Theme of the Fast Carrier”brings up the picture of a battle scene and ends with moving funeral music. In “Beneath the Southern Cross” we get an infectious tango melody which Rodgers later borrowed for his hit song, “No Other Love,” for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play,Me and Juliet. “Mare Nostrum” recalls the harsh realities of war, first by presenting a serene Mediterranean scene, and then showing how it is torn and violated by the fierce naval attack on North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. The suite ends on a note of triumph with “Victory at Sea.” A hymn of thanksgiving is sounded. Then we hear reminders of the “Guadalcanal March” and the seductive tango melody from “Beneath the Southern Cross.” This tango is soon transformed into a rousing song of joy and triumph with which the suite comes to a magnificent culmination.
Sigmund Romberg was born in Szeged, Hungary, on July 29, 1887. His boyhood and early manhood were spent in Vienna where he studied engineering and fulfilled his military service with the 19th Hungarian Infantry stationed in that city. In Vienna, Romberg’s lifelong interest in and talent for music found a favorable climate. He heard concerts, haunted the city’s leading music salons, was a devotee of Viennese operettas at the Theater-an-der-Wien. Vienna’s influence led him to abandon all thoughts of becoming an engineer. In 1909 he came to the United States where he led salon orchestras in various restaurants and published his first popular songs. In 1912 he was engaged as staff composer for the Shuberts, for whose many and varied Broadway productions Romberg supplied all the music. Within a three-year period he wrote the scores for eighteen musicals, one of which was his first operetta in a European style,The Blue Paradise(1915) for which he created his first outstanding song hit, “Auf Wiedersehen.” Though he continued writing music for many musical comedies, revuesand extravaganzas—including some starring Al Jolson at the Winter Garden—it was in the field of the operetta that Romberg achieved significance in American popular music. His musical roots were so deeply embedded in the soil of Vienna that only in writing music for operettas in the manner and procedures of Vienna did he succeed in producing a lyricism that ran the gamut from sweetness and sentimentality to gaiety, masculine vigor and charm. His most successful operettas, which are discussed below, have never lost their capacity to enchant audiences however many times they are revived.
Romberg began writing music for motion pictures in 1930 withViennese Nights. Out of one of his many scores for the screen came the poignant ballad, “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.” His last huge success on Broadway was achieved not with an operetta but with an American musical comedy with American backgrounds, settings and characters—and songs in a pronounced American idiom. It wasUp in Central Parkin 1945. His last musical comedy wasThe Girl in Pink Tightsproduced on Broadway posthumously in 1954. Romberg died in New York City on November 9, 1951. Three years after his death his screen biography,Deep in My Heart, was released, with José Ferrer playing the part of the composer.
Blossom Timewas first produced on Broadway on September 29, 1921 and proved so successful that to meet the demand for tickets a second company was formed to perform it at a nearby theater. There were also four national companies running simultaneously. This musical was derived from the successful German operetta,Das drei Maederlhaus, adapted by Dorothy Donnelly. The central character is the beloved Viennese composer of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert, and the plot is built around the composer’s supposed frustrated love for Mitzi, who, in turn, falls in love with Schubert’s best friend. The composer’s anguish in losing her makes it impossible for him to finish the symphony he was writing for her—and it remains forever unfinished. This tragic episode, however, has no basis in biographical fact and is entirely the figment of a fertile operetta librettist’s imagination.
Romberg’s most famous songs were all based on Schubert’s own melodies, and one became a hit of major proportions: “Song of Love” based on the beautiful main theme from the first movement of theUnfinished Symphony. Other popular selections include “Tell Me Daisy,” “Lonely Hearts,” “Serenade” and “Three Little Maids”—all possessed of that charm, grace andGemuetlichkeitwhich we always associate with the city of Vienna and its popular music.
The Desert Song, produced on November 30, 1926, had for its background the colorful setting of French Morocco. There Margot Bonvalet is in love with the Governor’s son but is being pursued by the bandit chief, The Red Shadow. In the end it turns out that the Governor’s son and The Red Shadow are one and the same person. The principal musical excerpts include the romantic duet of Margot and The Red Shadow, “Blue Heaven”; the rapturous love song of The Red Shadow, “One Alone”; and two virile episodes, “Sabre Song” and “French Marching Song.”
Unlike most Romberg operettas,Maytime, presented on August 16, 1917, did not have a foreign or exotic setting. The action takes place in Gramercy Park, New York, between 1840 and 1900. However, the tragic frustrations of the love affair of Ottilie and Richard belong inevitably in the make-believe world of the operetta. Ottilie is forced to marry a distant relative. Many years later, Ottilie’s granddaughter and Richard’s grandson find each other, fall in love, and fulfil the happiness denied their grandparents. The most important musical number in this play is the sweet and sentimental waltz, “Will You Remember?”, which is repeated several times during the course of the action. Other numbers include “Jump Jim Crow,” “It’s a Windy Day” and “Dancing Will Keep You Young.”
The New Moon—which came to Broadway on September 19, 1928—was described by its authors (Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab) as a “romantic musical comedy.” Its hero is a historical character, Robert Mission, an 18th-century French aristocrat who has come to New Orleans as a political fugitive. In the operetta he is a bondservant to Monsieur Beaunoir, with whose daughter, Marianne, he is in love. When the French police arrive to take him back to Paris for trial, Marianne boards his ship upon which a mutiny erupts on the high seas. The victorious bondservants now take possession of a small island off the coast of Florida where they set up their own government with Robert as leader, who then takes Marianne as his wife. This opulent score yields one of Romberg’s most beautiful love songs, “Lover Come Back to Me,” but it is significant to point out that its main melody was expropriated by Romberg from a piano piece by Tchaikovsky. Other delightful musical excerpts from this tuneful operetta include the tender ballads “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” “One Kiss” and “Wanting You,” and the stirring male chorus, “Stout-Hearted Men.”
The Student Prince, likeBlossom Time, was based on a successfulGerman operetta,Old Heidelberg, once again adapted for the American stage by Dorothy Donnelly. Its first performance took place on December 2, 1924. It has become one of the best loved operettas of the American theater; there is hardly a time when it is not revived somewhere in the United States. The setting is the romantic German University town of Heidelberg in 1860. Prince Karl Franz falls in love with Kathie, a waitress at the local inn. Their romance, however, is doomed to frustration, since the Prince must renounce her to marry a Princess. Romberg’s music is a veritable cornucopia of melodic riches, including as it does the love duet of Kathie and the Prince, “Deep in My Heart,” the Prince’s love song “Serenade,” and with them, “Golden Days” and a vibrant male chorus, “Drinking Song.”
David Rose was born in London, England, on June 15, 1910. His family came to the United States in 1914, settling in Chicago where Rose received his musical training at the Chicago Musical College. After working for radio and as pianist of the Ted Fiorito Orchestra, Rose came to Hollywood in 1938 where he became music director of the Mutual Broadcasting network. During World War II he served as musical director of, and composer for,Winged Victory, the Air Corps production by Moss Hart. After the war, Rose became outstandingly successful as musical director for leading radio and television programs (including the first Fred Astaire television show for which he received an “Emmy” Award), and as a composer of background music for many motion pictures. He has also appeared extensively in America and Europe as guest conductor of symphony orchestras.
Rose is the composer of several instrumental compositions in a popular style that have achieved considerable popularity. Indeed, it was with one of these that he first became famous as a composer. This wastheHoliday for Strings, written and published in 1943, a three-part composition in which the flanking sections make effective use of plucked strings while the middle part is of lyrical character.Holiday for Stringsreceived over a dozen different recordings and sold several million records. Fifteen years later, Rose wrote another charming composition in a similar vein,Holiday for Trombonesin which virtuosity is contrasted with lyricism. Other instrumental works by Rose outstanding for either melodic or rhythmic interest areBig Ben,Dance of the Spanish Onion,Escapade, andOur Waltz.
Gioacchino Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy, on February 29, 1792. He received his musical training at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. In 1810 he wrote his first opera,La Cambiale di matrimonio, produced in Venice. Success came in 1812 with his third opera,La Pietra del paragone, given at La Scala in Milan.TancrediandL’Italiana in Algeri, performed in Venice in 1813, further added to his fame and helped make him an adulated opera composer at the age of twenty-one. In 1815 Rossini was appointed director of two opera companies in Naples for which he wrote several successful operas. But his masterwork, which came during this period, was not written for Naples but for Rome:The Barber of Sevilleintroduced in the Italian capital in 1816. In 1822 Rossini visited Vienna where he became the man of the hour. In 1824 he came to Paris to assume the post of director of the Théâtre des Italiens. Among the operas written for Paris wasWilliam Tell, introduced at the Paris Opéra in 1829. Though Rossini was now at the height of his fame and creative power—and though he lived another thirty-nine years—he never wrote another work for the stage. He continued living in Paris, a dominant figure in its social and cultural life. His home was the gathering place for the intellectual élite ofthe city, the scene of festive entertainments. He died of a heart attack in Paris on November 13, 1868.
Rossini was the genius of Italian comic opera (opera buffa). His melodies are filled with laughter and gaiety; his harmonies and rhythms sparkle with wit and the joy of life. He was at his best when he brought to his writing an infallible instinct for comedy, burlesque, and mockery. But he was also capable of a lyricism filled with poetry and infused with heartfelt sentiments. He was, moreover, a master of orchestral effect—especially in his dramatic use of the extendedcrescendo—and highly skilled in contrasting his moods through rapid alternation of fast and slow passages. He was also a daring innovator in his instrumentation.
He is a giant in opera, but with his infectious moods and endless fund of melodies he is also a crowning master in semi-classical music. His masterwork,The Barber of Seville(Il Barbiere di Siviglia) is as popular with salon orchestras through its merry overture and main selections as it is in the opera house.The Barber of Sevilleis based on two plays by Beaumarchais,Le Barbier de SévilleandLe Mariage de Figaro, adapted by Cesare Sterbini. It is a vivacious comedy in which Count Almaviva, in love with Rosina (ward of Doctor Bartolo who is in love with her himself) tries to penetrate Bartolo’s household by assuming various disguises. The Count and Rosina plan to elope, but Rosina reneges when Bartolo convinces her that the Count is unfaithful to her. Eventually, Rosina discovers that Bartolo has deceived her. She marries the Count, and Bartolo finds consolation in the fact that the Count is willing to renounce Rosina’s dowry in his favor.
When this work was first performed in Rome on February 20, 1816 it was a dismal failure. This was largely due to a carefully organized uproar in the theater by admirers of another famous Italian composer, Paisiello, who had previously written an opera on the same subject. A sloppy performance did not help matters either. The furor in the auditorium was so great that it was impossible at times to hear the singers; and Rossini was in the end greeted with hisses and catcalls. But the second performance told a far different story. The singing and staging now went off much more smoothly, and Rossini’s enemies were no longer present to do their damage. Consequently the opera was acclaimed. Five years later, a tour of the opera throughout Italy established its fame and popularity on a solid and permanent basis.
The deservedly famous overture is so much in the carefree and ebullient spirit of the opera as a whole—and so felicitously sets the tone forwhat is soon to follow on the stage—that it comes as a shock to discover that it was not written for this work. Rossini had actually created it for an earlier opera, and then used it several times more for various other stage works, tragedies as well as comedies. The overture opens with a slow introduction in which the violins offer a graceful tune. A transition of four chords leads to the main body in which strings doubled by the piccolo offer a spicy little melody. The same infectious gaiety is to be found in the second theme which is first given by oboe and clarinet. A dramatic crescendo now leads into the development of both themes, and the overture ends with a vivacious coda.
Besides the overture, some of the principal melodies from this opera are frequently given in various orchestral potpourris and fantasias: Count Almaviva’s beautiful serenade, “Ecco ridente in cielo” and Figaro’s patter song, “Largo al factotum” from the first act; in the second act, Rosina’s coloratura aria, “Una voce poco fa” and Basilio’s denunciation of slander in “La Calunnia”; and in the third act, Basilio’s unctuous greeting “Pace e gioia sia con voi” and Figaro’s advice to the lovers to get married in haste and silence, “Zitti, zitti, piano, piano.”
La Gazza ladra(The Thieving Magpie), first produced at La Scala on May 31, 1817, is also a light comedy; libretto by Giovanni Gherardini, based on a French play. The central character is a servant girl falsely accused of having stolen a silver spoon; she is exonerated when the spoon is found in a magpie’s nest just as the girl is about to be punished at the scaffold. The overture begins with an attention-arresting roll on the snare drum. This is followed by a brisk, march-like melody for full orchestra. In the main section, the principal themes consist of a sensitive little tune for strings and a pert melody for strings and woodwind.
L’Italiana in Algeri(The Italian Lady in Algiers) is, on the other hand, a serious opera. It was first produced in Venice on May 22, 1813, libretto by Angelo Anelli. In Algiers, Lindoro and Isabella are in love, but their romance is complicated by the fact that Isabella is sought after by the Mustafa. The lovers manage to effect their escape while the Mustafa is involved in complicated rites serving as his initiation into a secret society. The solemn opening of the overture has for its main thought a beautiful song for oboe. A crescendo then carries the overture to its principal section in which two lively melodies are heard, the first for woodwind, and the second for oboe.
La Scala di seta(The Silken Ladder) is an opera buffa which had its first performance in Venice on May 9, 1812. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi was based on a French farce involving a young girl who triesdesperately to keep secret from her jealous guardian her marriage to the man she loves. A brief and electrifying opening for strings in the overture brings on a sentimental duet for flute and oboe. Two principal subjects in the main body of the overture include a gay and sprightly melody for strings, echoed by oboe, and a tender theme for flute and clarinet accompanied by strings.
Semiramide—introduced in Venice on February 3, 1823—is a serious opera based on Voltaire with libretto by Gaetano Rossi. Semiramis is the Queen of Babylon who is driven by her love for Asur to murder her husband. Her later love life is complicated when she discovers that the object of her passion, a Scythian, is actually her son. Semiramis is killed by a dagger which Asur directs at her Scythian son; Semiramis’ son then murders Asur and assumes the throne. The overture opens dramatically with a gradual crescendo at the end of which comes a slow and solemn melody for four horns, soon taken over by woodwind against plucked strings. A short transition in the woodwind brings on a return of the opening crescendo measures. We now come to the main part of the overture in which the first theme is for strings, and the second for the woodwind.
The most famous of all Rossini’s overtures, more celebrated even than that forThe Barber of Seville, is the one for the tragic operaWilliam Tell(Guillaume Tell). This is perhaps the most popular opera overture ever written. It is much more than merely the preface to a stage work but is in itself an elaborate, eloquent tone poem, rich in dramatic as well as musical interest, and vivid in its pictorial and programmatic writing.
William Tell, which had its première in Paris on August 3, 1829, is based on the drama of Friedrich Schiller, the libretto adaptation being made by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. The hero is, of course, the Swiss patriot who triumphs over the tyrant Gessler and helps bring about the liberation of his country.
In the early measures of the overture we get a picture of sunrise over the Swiss mountains, its beautiful melody presented by cellos and basses. A dramatic episode for full orchestra then depicts an Alpine storm. When it subsides we get a pastoral scene of rare loveliness evoked by a poignant Swiss melody on the English horn. Trumpet fanfares then bring on the stirring march music which, in our time and country, has been borrowed by radio for the theme melody of “The Lone Ranger.” The overture ends triumphantly in telling of William Tell’s victory over tyranny and oppression.