Karl Milloecker was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 29, 1842. His father, a jeweler, wanted him to enter the family business, but from his childhood on, Karl was drawn to music. After studying music with private teachers, he attended the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Meanwhile, in his sixteenth year, he supported himself by playing the flute in a theater orchestra. When his music study ended, he became conductor of a theater in Graz in 1864; there his first operetta was produced one year later. In 1866 he was back in Vienna, and from 1869 to 1883 he was principal conductor at the Theater-an-der-Wien where most of his famous operettas were produced includingCountess Du Barry(Graefin DuBarry) in 1879,The Beggar Student(Der Bettelstudent) in 1882,Gasparonein 1884, andPoor Jonathan(Der arme Jonathan) in 1890. Milloecker died in Baden, near Vienna, on December 31, 1899.
Milloecker’s most famous operetta isThe Beggar Student(Der Bettelstudent), which was first produced at the Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna on December 6, 1882, and after that enjoyed highly successful performances at the Casino Theater in New York in 1883, and the Alhambra in London in 1884. The scene is Cracow, Poland; the time, 1704. General Ollendorf, spurned by Laura, evolves an elaborate plot to avenge himself. He finances the impoverished student, Symon, dresses him up as a lord, and sends him off to woo and win Laura. Only after the wedding does the General reveal the fact that Symon is a beggar. Just as disgrace faces the young man, he becomes involved in a successful maneuver to restore the rejected Polish king to his throne. Thus he acquires wealth and a title, and is welcomed with pride and love by Laura and her mother. Potpourris and selections from this tuneful operetta always include the principal waltz melody which comes as a first act finale, “Ach ich hab’ sie ja nur auf die Schulter gekuesst.” Other delightful excerpts include Symon’s mazurka, “Ich knuepfte manche zarte Bande,” his lament “Ich hab’ kein Geld,” and the second act duet of Symon and Laura, “Ich setz den Fall.”
Moritz Moszkowski was born in Breslau, Germany, on August 23, 1854. He received his musical training at three leading German Conservatories: the Dresden Conservatory, the Stern Conservatory and Kullak Academy in Berlin. He began a career as pianist in 1873, touring Europe with outstanding success. He also achieved recognition as a teacher of the piano at the Kullak Academy. In 1897, he went into retirement in Paris where he lived for the remainder of his life. In 1899 he was elected a member of the Berlin Academy. Towards the end of his life his financial resources were completely depleted, and his fame as composer, pianist, and teacher had long been eclipsed. He died in poverty and obscurity in Paris on March 4, 1925.
Though he wrote operas, ballets, suites, concertos and a symphony, Moszkowski was at his best—and is most famous today—for his lighter music in a Spanish idiom. Typical of his music in this style were the rhythmicBolero, op. 12, no. 5, for piano solo; the languorous and hauntingGuitarre, op. 45, no. 2, for piano solo (transcribed by Pablo de Sarasate for violin and piano); and the dashingMalagueña, from the operaBoabdil.
But his most celebrated compositions are the delightfulSpanish Dances, opp. 12, and 65, two books of pieces for piano solo or piano duo, which have been arranged for orchestra. The most popular are the first in C major, the second in G minor, and the fifth (a bolero) in D major. While none of these dances can be accepted as authentic Spanish music—actually they are only a German Romantic’s conception of what Spanish music is—they make most effective use of Spanish dance rhythms.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756. The son of Leopold, Kapellmeister at the court of the Salzburg Archbishop, Wolfgang Amadeus disclosed his remarkable musical powers at a tender age. He began composition at the age of five, completed a piano sonata at seven, and a symphony at eight. Taught the harpsichord, also very early in his childhood, he revealed such phenomenal abilities at improvisation and sight reading that he was the wonder and awe of all who came into contact with him. His ambitious father exhibited this formidable prodigy for several years before the crowned heads of Europe; and wherever he appeared the child was acclaimed. Goethe said: “A phenomenon like that of Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.” In Milan in 1770 he was commissioned to write an operaMitridate, rè di Ponto, successfully performed that year. In Bologna he became the only musician under the age of twenty to be elected a member of the renowned Accademia Filarmonica. And in Rome he provided dramatic evidence of his extraordinary natural gifts by putting down on paper the entire complex score of Allegri’sMiserereafter a single hearing.
As he outgrew childhood he ripened as a composer, gaining all the time in both technical and creative powers. But he was a prodigy no more, and though he was rapidly becoming one of the most profound and original musicians in Europe he was unable to attract the adulation and excitement that had once been his. Between 1772 and 1777, as an employee in the musical establishment of the Salzburg Archbishop, he was treated like a menial servant. The remarkable music he was writing all the time passed unnoticed. Finally, in 1782, he made a permanent break with the Archbishop and established his home in Vienna where he lived for the remainder of his life. Though he received some important commissions, and enjoyed several triumphs for his operas, he did not fare any too well in Vienna either. He had to wait several years for a court appointment, and when it finally came in 1787 he was deplorably underpaid. Thus he lived in poverty, often dependent for foodand other necessities of life on the generosity of his friends. And yet the masterworks kept coming in every conceivable medium—operas, symphonies, sonatas, quartets, concertos, choral music and so forth. A few people in Vienna were aware of his prodigious achievements, and one of these was Joseph Haydn who called him “the greatest composer I know either personally or by name.” During the last years of his life Mozart was harassed not only by poverty but also by severe illness. Yet his last year was one of his most productive, yielding his last three symphonies, theRequiem, the operaThe Magic Flute(Die Zauberfloete), theAve Verum, and a remarkable piano concerto and string quintet. He died in Vienna on December 5, 1791 and was buried in a pauper’s grave with no tombstone or cross for identification.
Through his genius every form of music was endowed with new grandeur, nobility of expression and richness of thought. He was a technician second to none; a bold innovator; a creator capable of plumbing the profoundest depths of emotion and the most exalted heights of spirituality. Yet he could also be simple and charming and graceful, in music remarkably overflowing with the most engaging melodies conceived by man, and characterized by the most exquisite taste and the most consummate craftsmanship. Thus Mozart’s lighter moods in music are often also endowed with extraordinary creative resources and original invention; yet they never lose their capacity to delight audiences at first contact.
The music Mozart wrote directly for popular consumption were the hundred or soDancesfor orchestra:Country Dances,German Dances,Minuets. The greatest number of these consist of theGerman Dances. These are lively melodies in eight-measure phrases and with forceful peasant rhythms. Some of the bestGerman Dancesare those in which Mozart utilized unusual orchestral resources or instruments to suggest extra-musical sounds.The Sleighride(Die Schlittenfahrt), K. 605, in C major, simulates the sound of sleigh bells in the middle trio section, sounded in the tones A-F-E-C.The Organgrinder(Der Leiermann), K. 602, imitates the sound of a hurdy-gurdy. InThe Canary(Der Kanarienvogel), K. 571, flutes reproduce the chirping of birds.
TheCountry Dance, orContretanze, is sometimes regarded as the first modern dance, forerunner of the quadrille. Structurally and stylistically these are very much likeGerman Danceswith a peasant-like vitality and earthiness. Here, too, Mozart sometimes realistically imitates non-musical sounds as inThe Thunder Storm(Das Donnerwetter), K. 534, in which the role of the timpani suggests peals of thunder.
Mozart’s most popular Minuet—indeed, it is probably one of the most popular minuets ever written—comes from his operaDon Giovanni, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and first performed in Prague in 1787. The hero of this opera is, to be sure, the Spanish nobleman of the 17th century whose escapades and licentious life finally bring him to doom at the hands of the statue of the Commandant come to life to consign him to the fires of hell. The Minuet appears in the fifth scene of the first act. Don Giovanni is the gracious host of a party held in his palace, and there the guests dance a courtly minuet while Don himself is making amatory overtures to Zerlina.
In a lighter mood, also, is theEine kleine Nachtmusik(A Little Night Music), K. 525, a serenade for string orchestra (1787). This work is consistently tuneful, gracious, charming. The first movement has two lilting little melodies, which are presented and recapitulated with no formal development to speak of. The second movement is a Romance, or Romanza, a poetic song contrasted by two vigorous sections; the main thought of this movement is then repeated between each of these two vigorous parts. After that comes a formal minuet, and the work ends with a brisk and sprightly rondo.
Mozart’s popularTurkish March—in the pseudo Turkish style so popular in Vienna in his day—comes out of his piano Sonata in A major, K. 331 (1778), where it appears as the last movement. This march is extremely popular in orchestral transcription.
Modest Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Russia, on March 21, 1839. When he was thirteen he entered the cadet school of the Imperial Guard in St. Petersburg, from which he was graduated to join the Guard regiment. In 1857 he met and befriended several important Russian musicians (including Balakirev and Stassov) underwhose stimulus he decided to leave the army and become a composer. Until now his musical education had been sporadic, having consisted of little more than some piano lessons with his mother and a private teacher. He now began an intensive period of study with Balakirev, under whose guidance he completed aScherzofor orchestra which was performed in St. Petersburg in 1860, as well as some piano music and the fragments of a symphony. Associating himself with Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Cui he now became a passionate advocate of musical nationalism, becoming the fifth member of a new school of Russian music henceforth identified as “The Mighty Five” or “The Russian Five.” In 1863, with serfdom abolished in Russia, he lost the outside financial resources he had thus far enjoyed as the son of a landowner. To support himself he worked for four years as a clerk in the Ministry of Communications; in 1869 he found employment in the forestry department. During this period music had to be relegated to the position of an avocation, but composition was not abandoned. He completed the first of his masterworks, the orchestral tone poem,A Night on the Bald Mountain, in 1866. A lifelong victim of nervous disorders, melancholia and subsequently of alcoholism, his health soon began to deteriorate alarmingly; but despite this fact he was able to complete several works of crowning significance in 1874 including his folk opera,Boris Godunov, and hisPictures at an Exhibition, for piano. After 1874 his moral and physical disintegration became complete; towards the last months of his life he gave indications of losing his mind. He died in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1881.
As one of the most forceful and original members of the “Russian Five” Mussorgsky’s greatest works certainly do not lend themselves to popular distribution. His writing is too individual in its melodic and harmonic construction; and his works show too great a tendency towards musical realism to make for palatable digest. However, several of the folk dances in his operas are strikingly effective for their rhythmic pulse and national colors and are by no means as elusive in their appeal as the rest of his production.
Mussorgsky’s masterwork is his mighty folk opera,Boris Godunov, where we encounter one such delightful dance episode, the Polonaise.Boris Godunov, libretto by the composer based on a Pushkin drama, traces the career of the Czar from the years 1598 to 1605, from his coronation to his insanity and death. The Polonaise occurs in the first scene of the third act. At the palace of a Polish landowner, handsomely costumed guests perform this festive courtly dance in the adjoininggarden. The première ofBoris Godunovtook place in St. Petersburg on February 8, 1874.
Two orchestral dances can also be found in another of Mussorgky’s folk operas,The Fair at Sorochinsk, which was not introduced until October 26, 1917, in St. Petersburg. The libretto was by the composer based on Gogol’s story,Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. Tcherevik, a peasant, wants his daughter to marry Pritzko, whereas the peasant’s wife is partial to the pastor’s son. However, when the pastor’s son compromises the peasant’s wife she realizes that Pritzko is, after all, the right man for her daughter. In the third act of this opera comes the livelyHopak, orGopak, a folk dance with two beats to a measure.
Folk dances of a completely different nature—more oriental and exotic than the previously discussed Russian variety—will be found inKhovanschina, a musical drama with libretto by the composer and Stassov; this opera was first given, in an amateur performance, in St. Petersburg on February 21, 1886. Here the setting is Moscow during the reign of Peter the Great, and the plot revolves around the efforts of a band of radicals known as the Streltsy who try to overthrow the Czar. Prince Ivan Khovantsky, who is in league with the Streltsy, is murdered by assassins, and the insurrection is suppressed. But before the leaders of the Streltsy can destroy themselves they are given an official pardon by the Czar. A high moment in this opera comes with theDances of the Persian Slaves, which takes place in the first scene of the fourth act. At the country house of Khovantsky, the Prince is being entertained by an elaborate spectacle, the main attraction of which is the sinuous, Corybantic dancing of the Persian slaves.
Almost as popular as these Persian dances are the Prelude to the first act and an entr’acte between the first and second scenes from this opera; these two episodes for orchestra are highly atmospheric, graphic in the pictures of Russian landscapes. The first act Prelude has been named by the composer,Dawn on the Moskava River. This is a subtle tone picture made up of a folk melody and five variations. The entr’acte offers another kind of landscape, this time a bleak one describing the vast, lonely plains of Siberia.
Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin was born in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1862. A precocious child in music, he wrote his first piano piece when he was eleven. A year later he wrote and had published a song that became exceedingly popular, “Good Night, Good Night Beloved.” After studying music with private teachers, he went to Berlin in 1884, studying for two years with Hans von Buelow and Karl Klindworth. He returned to the United States in 1886. Soon after that he made his formal American concert debut as pianist with a program on which he included some of his own compositions. By 1890 he decided to give up his career as a virtuoso and to concentrate on being a composer. In 1891 he completedWater Scenes, a suite for the piano in which will be found one of the most popular piano pieces by an American, “Narcissus.” In 1892 and again 1895 Nevin traveled extensively through Europe and Morocco. In 1897 he settled in New York City where he wrote one of the best-selling art songs by an American, “The Rosary.” In 1900 Nevin went to live in New Haven. During the last year of his life he was a victim of depressions which he tried to alleviate through excessive drinking. He died of an apoplectic stroke in New Haven, Connecticut, on February 17, 1901.
“Mighty Lak a Rose” and “The Rosary” are Nevin’s two most famous art songs; they are also among the most popular art songs written in America. “Mighty Lak a Rose” was one of Nevin’s last compositions, written during the closing months of his life. He never lived to see the song published and become popular. The song is a setting of a poem by Frank L. Stanton, and is described by John Trasker Howard (Nevin’s biographer) as “probably the simplest of all his songs ... [with] a freshness and whimsical tenderness that make its appeal direct and forceful.”
“The Rosary,” words by R. C. Rogers, was an even greater success. From 1898 to 1928 it sold over two and a half million copies of sheet music. When Nevin had finished writing this song in 1898, he invited the singer Francis Rogers to dinner, after which he handed him ascribbled piece of music paper. “Here is a song I just composed,” he told Rogers. “I want you to sing it at your concert next week.” Rogers deciphered the notes as best he could while Nevin played the accompaniment from memory. The little audience listening to this first informal presentation of “The Rosary” was enthusiastic, but one of its members insisted it would be impossible for Rogers to memorize the song in time for the concert the following week. The guest bet Nevin a champagne supper for all present that the song would not be on Rogers’ program. He lost the bet. The following week, on February 15, 1898, Rogers introduced the song at the Madison Square Concert Hall.
TheWater Scenes, suite for piano, op. 13 is remembered principally because one of its movements is “Narcissus,” often considered one of the most popular compositions ever written in this country. Nevin himself provided information about the origin of “Narcissus.” “I remembered vaguely that there was once a Grecian lad who had something to do with the water and who was called Narcissus. I rummaged about my old mythology and read the story over again. The theme, or rather both themes, came as I read. I went directly to my desk and wrote out the whole composition. Afterwards, I rewrote it and revised it a little. The next morning I sent it to my publishers. Until the proofs came back to me I never tried it on the piano. I left almost immediately for Europe and was surprised when a publisher wrote to me of the astonishing sale of the piece.” During Nevin’s lifetime, the piece sold over 125,000 copies of sheet music, and was heard throughout America both in its original piano version (a favorite repertory number of piano students and budding piano virtuosos) and in transcriptions. It went on to circle the globe. As Vance Thompson wrote: “It was thrummed and whistled half around the world. It was played in Cairo as in New York and Paris; it was played by orchestras, on church organs, and on the mouth harps of Klondike miners; it became a mode, almost a mania.”
The other movements ofWater Scenesare: “Barcarolle,” “Dragon Fly,” “Water Nymph,” “At Twilight,” and “Ophelia.” Each is a sensitive piece of tone painting, as lyrical and as unashamedly sentimental as the beloved “Narcissus.”
Otto Nicolai was born in Koenigsberg, Germany, on June 9, 1810. After completing his music study with Zelter and Bernhard Klein, he came to Paris in 1830 where he remained three years. In Berlin he completed several works for orchestra, and some for chorus. In 1834 he went to Italy where he was organist in the Prussian Embassy at Rome and became interested in opera. From 1837 to 1838 he was principal conductor at the Kaerthnerthor Theater in Vienna. Then he returned to Italy to devote himself to the writing of operas, the first of which,Rosmonda d’Inghilterrawas a failure when produced in Turin in 1838. His second opera, however, was a major success when first given in Turin in 1840:Il Templariobased on Sir Walter Scott’sIvanhoe; it was produced in Naples and Vienna. In 1841 Nicolai came to Vienna to serve for six years as Kapellmeister to the court. During this period, in 1842, he helped to found the renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1847 he came to Berlin to become conductor of the Domchor. It was here that he completed the work upon which his reputation rests, the comic opera,The Merry Wives of Windsor(Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor). He died in Berlin of an apoplectic stroke on May 11, 1849, only two months after the première performance of his famous comic opera.
The Merry Wives of Windsor(Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is Nicolai’s only opera to survive; and its overture is his only work for orchestra which retains its popularity. The opera received a highly successful première in Berlin on March 8, 1849. Its libretto, by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, is based on Shakespeare’s comedy and follows that play with only minor modifications. Falstaff’s cronies (Bardolph, Pistol and Nym) are omitted; only slight reference is made to the love of Anne and Fenton; and considerable attention is paid to Falstaff’s comical amatory overtures to Mistresses Ford and Page.
The overture opens with a slow introduction in which a flowing melody is given against a high G in the violins. This melody is repeated by several different sections of the orchestra, then treated in imitation.The main part of the overture is made up of two vivacious melodies, the second of which, in the violins, is intended to depict Mistress Page. The development of both themes is in a gay mood, with a robust passage in F minor representing Falstaff. The overture concludes with an animated coda.
From the opera itself come three melodious vocal selections, prominent in all orchestral potpourris: Falstaff’s drinking song, a long time favorite of German bassos, “Als Bueblein klein”; Fenton’s serenade to Anne Page, “Horch, die Lerche singt in Haim”; and Mistress Page’s third-act ballad of Herne the Hunter.
Siegfried Ochs was born in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, on April 19, 1858. While studying medicine, he attended the Berlin High School for Music. Then deciding upon music as a life’s career, he continued his music study with private teachers and became a protégé of Hans von Buelow. In 1882 he founded the Philharmonic Choir of Berlin, one of Germany’s most celebrated choral groups. He remained its conductor even after it merged with the chorus of the Berlin High School for Music in 1920. Ochs died in Berlin on February 6, 1929.
Ochs wrote several comic operas, song cycles, and some choral music. A semi-classical favorite is the set of orchestral variations on the well-known German folk song, “Kommt ein Vogel.” These variations are each in the style of a famous composer—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Johann Strauss II, and so on; and each variation shows a remarkable skill, and a winning wit, in mimicking the individual creative mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of each composer.
Jacques Offenbach was born Jacques Oberst in Cologne, Germany, on June 20, 1819; his father was a cantor in one of the city synagogues. After attending the Paris Conservatory, Offenbach played the cello in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique. Then, in 1849 he became conductor at the Théâtre Français. In 1850 he achieved his initial success as a composer with the song, “Chanson de Fortunio” interpolated into a production of the Alfred de Musset drama,Chandelier. Three years later his first operetta,Pepito, was produced at the Théâtre des Variétés. Between 1855 and 1866 he directed his own theater where operettas were given, Les Bouffes Parisiens, which opened on July 5, 1855 with a performance of one of his own works,Les Deux aveugles. For his theater Offenbach wrote many operettas including his masterwork in that genre,Orpheus in the Underworld, in 1858. After closing down the Bouffes Parisiens, Offenbach went to Germany and Austria where he had produced several more of his operettas. But in 1864 he was back in Paris. The première ofLa Belle Hélèneat the Variétés that year enjoyed a spectacular success. Among his later operettas wereLa Vie parisienne(1866),La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein(1867), andLa Périchole(1868). In 1877 he toured the United States, an account of which was issued in America in 1957 under the title ofOrpheus in America. Towards the end of his life Offenbach devoted himself to the writing of his one and only grand opera,The Tales of Hoffmann(Les Contes d’Hoffmann). He did not live to see it performed. He died in Paris on October 5, 1880, about half a year before the première of his opera at the Opéra-Comique on February 10, 1881.
Offenbach was the genius of the opéra-bouffe, or French operetta. His music never lacked spontaneity or gaiety, sparkle or engaging lyricism. His writing had the warmth of laughter, the sting of satire, and the caress of sincere and heartfelt emotion. His lovable melodies woo and win the listener. The lightness of his touch and the freshness of his humor give voice to the joy of good living. Like his celebrated Viennese contemporary, Johann Strauss II, Offenbach is a giant figurein semi-classical music. To the lighter musical repertory he brings the invention and imagination of a master.
TheApache Danceis the dashing music that invariably accompanies a performance of French Apache dances, though there are few that know Offenbach wrote it. Actually, theApache Danceis an adaptation of the main melody of a waltz (“Valse des Papillons”) from Offenbach’s comic opera,Le Roi Carotte(1872).
La Belle Hélène(Fair Helen), first performed in Paris on December 17, 1864, draws material for laughter and satire from mythology. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy prepared the text which is based on the love of Paris and Helen that led to the Trojan war. But this story is told with tongue-in-cheek frivolity, and the life of the Greeks is gaily parodied. One of the most familiar musical excerpts fromLa Belle Hélèneis whirling Can-Can music—the Can-Can being the voluptuous French dance which first became popular in Paris in 1830 and which contributed to the quadrille high kicks, skirt-lifting and other suggestive and at times vulgar movements. (Offenbach also wrote brilliant Can-Can music forOrpheus in the Underworld,Barbe-Bleue, andLa Vie parisienne.) Other delightful episodes from this operetta are Helen’s invocation with chorus, “Amours divins,” and her highly lyrical airs, “On me nomme Hélène,” “Un mari Sage,” and “La vrai! je ne suis pas coupable.”
The Galop is almost as much a specialty with Offenbach as the Can-Can. This is a spirited, highly rhythmic dance of German origin introduced in Paris in 1829. Two of Offenbach’s best known Galops appear respectively inLa Grande Duchess de Gérolstein(1867) andGeneviève de Brabant(1859).
It is perhaps not generally known that the famous “Marine’s Hymn” familiar to all Americans as “From the Halls of Montezuma” also comes out ofGeneviève de Brabant. The Hymn was copyrighted by the Marine Corps in 1919. It is known that the lyric was written in 1847 by an unidentified Marine. The melody was taken from one of the airs in Offenbach’s operetta,Geneviève de Brabant.
Orpheus in the Underworld(Orphée aux enfers) is Offenbach’s masterwork, first produced in Paris on October 21, 1858. This delightful comic opera, with book by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, is a satire on the Olympian gods in general, and specifically on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.Orpheus in the Underworldwas not at first successful since audiences did not seem to find much mirth in a satire on Olympian gods. But when a powerful French critic, Jules Janin,violently attacked it as a “profanation of holy and glorious antiquity,” the curiosity of Parisians was aroused, and the crowds began swarming into the theater. SuddenlyOrpheus in the Underworldbecame a vogue; it was the thing to see and discuss; its music (particularly the waltzes, galops, and quadrilles) were everywhere played. The operetta had a run of 227 performances.
The Overture is a perennial favorite of salon and pop orchestras throughout the world. It opens briskly, then progresses to the first subject, a light and gay tune for strings. The heart of the overture is the second main melody, a sentimental song first heard in solo violin, and later repeated by full orchestra.
The Can-Can music inOrpheus in the Underworldis also famous. Much of its effect is due to the fact that Offenbach presented the can-can immediately after a stately minuet in order to emphasize the contrast between two periods in French history. A contemporary described this Can-Can music as follows: “This famous dance ... has carried away our entire generation as would a tempestuous whirlwind. Already the first sounds of the furiously playing instruments seem to indicate the call to a whole world to awake and plunge into the wild dance. These rhythms appear to have the intention of shocking all the resigned, all the defeated, out of their lethargy and, by the physical and moral upheaval which they arouse, to throw the whole fabric of society into confusion.”
The Tales of Hoffmann(Les Contes d’Hoffmann) is Offenbach’s only serious opera; but even here we encounter some semi-classical favorites. This opera, one of the glories of the French lyric theater, was based on stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, adapted into a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. It concerns the three tragic loves of the poet Hoffmann: Olympia, a mechanical doll; Giulietta, who is captive to a magician; and Antonia, a victim of consumption.
The “Barcarolle” from this opera is surely one of the most popular selections from the world of opera. It opens the second act. Outside Giulietta’s palace in Venice, Hoffmann hears the strains of this music sung by his friend Nicklausse and Giulietta as they praise the beauty of the Venetian night. Harp arpeggios suggest the lapping of the Venetian waters in the canal, providing a soothing background to one of the most radiant melodies in French music. It is interesting to remark that Offenbach did not write this melody directly for this opera. He had previously used it in 1864 as a ghost song for an opera-ballet,Die Rheinnixen.
Two dance episodes fromThe Tales of Hoffmannare also frequently performed outside the opera house. One is the infectious waltz which rises to a dramatic climax in the first act. To this music Hoffmann dances with the mechanical doll, Olympia, with whom he is in love. The second is an enchanting little Minuet, used as entr’acte music between the first and second acts.
A collation of some of Offenbach’s most famous melodies from various operettas can be found inLa Gaieté parisienne, an orchestral suite adapted from a score by Manuel Rosenthal to a famous contemporary ballet. This one-act ballet, with choreography by Leonide Massine and scenario by Comte Étienne de Beaumont, was introduced in Monte Carlo by the Ballet Russe in 1938. The setting is a fashionable Parisian restaurant of the 19th century; and the dance offers a colorful picture of Parisian life and mores of that period, climaxed by a stunning Can-Can. Musical episodes are used fromOrpheus in the Underworld,La Périchole,La Vie parisienne, and several other Offenbach opéra-bouffes. Beloved Offenbach melodies from various opéra-bouffes were adapted for the score of a Broadway musical produced in 1961,The Happiest Girl in the World.
Ignace Jan Paderewski, one of the world’s foremost piano virtuosos and one of Poland’s most renowned statesmen, was born in Kurylówka, Podolia, on November 18, 1860. A child prodigy, he was given piano lessons from his third year on. Several patrons arranged to send him to the Warsaw Conservatory, from which he was graduated in 1878. Between 1881 and 1883 he studied composition and orchestration in Berlin, and from 1884 to 1887 piano with Leschetizky in Vienna. Paderewski’s first major success as a pianist came in Vienna in 1889, a concert that was the beginning of a virtuoso career extending for abouthalf a century and carrying him triumphantly to all parts of the world. In 1919 he temporarily withdrew from music to become the first Premier of the Polish Republic, but about a year later he resumed concert work. He made his American debut in New York in 1891, and his last American tour took place in 1939. During the early part of World War II he returned to political activity as President of the Parliament of the Polish Government in Exile. He died in New York on June 29, 1941. By order of President Roosevelt he was given a state burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
Paderewski produced many ambitious compositions, some in the style of Polish folk music; these included the operaManru, a symphony, piano concerto, thePolish Fantasyfor piano and orchestra and numerous shorter compositions for the piano. Ironically it is not for one of his ambitious works that he is most often recalled as a composer, but through a slight piece: theMinuetin G, orMenuet à l’antique, a graceful, well-mannered composition in an 18th-century style. This is one of the three most popular minuets ever written, the other two being by Mozart and Beethoven. Paderewski originally wrote it for the piano; it is the first of six pieces collectively entitledHumoresques de concert, op. 14. Fritz Kreisler transcribed it for violin and piano; Gaspar Cassadó for cello and piano. It has, of course, been frequently adapted for orchestra.
Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz, France, on August 16, 1863. He attended the Paris Conservatory for eleven years, a pupil of Massenet and César Franck. He won numerous awards there including the Prix de Rome in 1882. After returning from Rome, he succeeded Franck as organist of the Ste. Clothilde Church in Paris, retaining this post until 1898. From 1903 until 1932 he was, first the assistant, and from 1910 on the principal, conductor of the Colonne Orchestra. He combined his long and fruitful career as conductor with that of composer,producing a vast library of music in virtually every form, including operas, oratorios, ballets, symphonic and chamber music. He achieved renown with the oratorioThe Children’s Crusade(La Croisade des enfants), introduced in 1905 and soon after that winner of the City of Paris Award. Another major success came with the ballet,Cydalise and the Satyrin 1923. A conservative composer, Pierné utilized traditional forms with distinction, and filled them with beautiful lyricism, well-sounding harmonies, and a poetic speech. In 1925 Pierné was elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He died in Ploujean, France, on July 17, 1937.
TheEntrance of the Little Fauns(Marche des petites faunes) is a whimsical little march for orchestra from the ballet,Cydalise and the Satyr(Cydalise et le chèvre-pied), introduced at the Paris Opéra on January 15, 1923. A saucy tune for muted trumpet is juxtaposed against the wail of piccolos; all the while an incisive rhythm is projected not only by the snare drum and tambourine but also by the violinists tapping the wood of their bows on the strings. Within the ballet this march accompanies the appearance of a group of small fauns, led by their teacher, an old satyr, as they enter school to learn pan pipes.
TheMarch of the Little Lead Soldiers(Marche des petits soldats de plomb) originated as a piano piece in theAlbum pour mes petits amis, op. 14 (1887), but was subsequently orchestrated by the composer. It opens with a muted trumpet call. A snare drum then establishes the rhythm and sets the stage for the appearance of the main march melody in solo flute.
Jean-Robert Planquette was born in Paris on July 31, 1848. He attended the Paris Conservatory after which he supported himself by writing popular songs and chansonettes for Parisiancafé-concerts. He started writing operettas in 1874, and achieved world fame withThe Chimes of Normandyin 1877. He wrote many moreoperettas after that, the most successful beingRip Van Winkle(1882),Nell Gwynne(1884) andMam’zelle Quat’Sous(1897). He died in Paris on January 28, 1903.
The Chimes of Normandy(Les Cloches de Corneville) is one of the most famous French operettas of all time, and it is still occasionally revived. Introduced in Paris at the Folies Dramatiques on April 19, 1877, its success was so immediate and permanent that within a decade it had been given over a thousand times in Paris alone. It was first seen in New York in 1877, and in London in 1888, major successes in both places. The book by Clairville and Gabet presents the life of fishing and peasant folk in Normandy during the regime of Louis XV. Germaine is in love with the fisherman, Jean, but finds opposition in her miserly old uncle, Gaspard, who has other plans for her. To escape her uncle, Germaine finds employment with Henri, a Marquis, who has suddenly returned to his native village to take up residence in the family castle rumored to be haunted. The mystery of the haunted castle is cleared up when the discovery is made that Gaspard has used it to hide his gold; and the bells of the castle begin to ring out loud and clear again. Gaspard, after a brief siege with insanity, is made to sanction the marriage of Germaine and Jean at a magnificent festival honoring the Marquis; at the same time it is suddenly uncovered that Germaine is in reality a Marchioness.
This is an operetta overflowing with ear-caressing melodies. The most famous are Germaine’s bell song, “Nous avons, hélas, perdu d’excellence maîtres”; the Marquis’ lilting waltz-rondo, “Même sans consulter mon coeur”; and Serpolette’s cider song, “La Pomme est un fruit plein de sève.”
Eduard Poldini was born in Budapest, Hungary, on June 13, 1869. His music study took place at the Vienna Conservatory. Poldini subsequently established his home in Vevey, Switzerland, wherehe devoted himself to composition. His most significant works are for the stage—both comic and serious operas that includeThe Vagabond and the Princess(1903) andThe Carnival Marriage(1924). He was also a prolific composer of salon pieces for the piano, familiar to piano studies throughout the world. In 1935 Poldini received the Order of the Hungarian Cross and in 1948 the Hungarian Pro Arte Prize. He died in Vevey, Switzerland on June 29, 1957.
Poupée valsante(Dancing Doll) is Poldini’s best known composition, a fleet, graceful melody contrasted by a sentimental counter-subject. The composer wrote it for solo piano. Fritz Kreisler adapted it for violin and piano, and Frank La Forge for voice and orchestra. It has also often been transcribed for orchestra.
Manuel Maria Ponce was born in Fresnillo, Mexico, on December 8, 1882. His main music study took place in Europe where he arrived in 1905: composition with Enrico Bossi in Bologna; piano with Martin Krause in Berlin. After returning to Mexico he gave a concert of his own compositions in 1912. For several years he taught the piano at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, and from 1917 to 1919 he was the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra there. During World War I he lived in Havana and New York. After the war he went to Paris for an additional period of study with Paul Dukas. From 1933 to 1938 he was professor of folklore at the University of Mexico. In 1941 he toured South America, and in 1947 he was the recipient of the first annual Mexican Arts and Sciences Award established by the President of Mexico. He died in Mexico City on April 24, 1948.
Ponce was a modernist who filled his orchestral compositions with the most advanced resources of modern harmony, counterpoint andrhythm. But in his songs he possessed a spontaneous and ingratiating lyricism, often of a national Mexican identity. It is one of these that has made him famous in semi-classical literature: “Estrellita” (“Little Star”), a song with such a strong Spanish personality of melody and rhythm that it was long believed to be a folk song. Ponce first published it in 1914 but it did not become universally popular until 1923 when it was issued in a new arrangement (by Frank La Forge) and translated into English.
Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Paderno Fasolaro, Italy, on August 31, 1834. For nine years he attended the Milan Conservatory where he wrote an operetta in collaboration with three other students. Following the termination of his studies, he became organist in Cremona, and after that a bandmaster in Piacenza. His first opera,I Promessi sposi, was introduced in Cremona in 1856, but it did not become successful until sixteen years later when a revised version helped to open the Teatro dal Verme in Milan. World renown came to Ponchielli withLa Gioconda, first given at La Scala in Milan in 1876. Though Ponchielli wrote many other operas after that he never again managed to reach the high artistic level of this masterwork, nor to repeat its world success. From 1883 until his death he was professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory. He died in Milan, Italy, on January 16, 1886.
What is undoubtedly Ponchielli’s most famous orchestral composition, “The Dance of the Hours” (“Danza della ore”) comes from his masterwork, the operaLa Gioconda. This opera—first performed in Milan on April 8, 1876—was based on Victor Hugo’s drama,Angelo, tyran de Padoue, adapted by Arrigo Boïto. The setting is 17th century Venice, and the principal action involves the tragic love triangle of Alvise, his wife Laura, and her beloved, Enzo.
“The Dance of the Hours” comes in the second scene of the third act. Alvise is entertaining his guests at a sumptuous ball in his palace, the highlight of which is a magnificent ballet, intended to symbolize the victory of right over wrong. The dancers in groups of six come out impersonating the hours of dawn, day, evening, and night. The music begins with a slight murmur, shimmering sounds passing through the violins and woodwind. Dawn appears. The music is carried to a dramatic climax with a strong rhythmic pulse as the day unfolds. When the music achieves mellowness and tenderness, the softness of evening touches the stage; and with the coming of night the music acquires a somber character. At midnight, the music is reduced to a sigh. The harp presents some arpeggios, and a broad melody unfolds. The mood then becomes excitable as all the twenty-four hours plunge into a spirited dance, as light conquers darkness.
The most familiar vocal excerpts from this opera are La Cieca’s romanza from the first act, “A te questo rosario”; Barnaba’s fisherman’s barcarolle (“Pescator, affonda l’esca”) and Enzo’s idyll to the beauty of the night (“Cielo e mar”) from the second act; and La Gioconda’s dramatic narrative in which she plans to destroy herself (“Suicidio”).
Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9, 1893 to an immensely wealthy family. Precocious in music, he began studying the violin when he was six, and at eleven had one of his compositions published. He pursued his academic studies at the Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and at Yale; music study took place at the School of Music at Harvard and subsequently in Paris with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum. At Yale he participated in all its musical activities and wrote two football songs still favorites there, “Yale Bull Dog” and “Bingo Eli Yale.” In 1916 he wrote the music for his first Broadwaymusical comedy,See America First, a failure. During the next few years he was a member of the French desert troops in North Africa, while during World War I he taught French gunnery to American troops at Fontainebleau. Just after the close of the war he contributed some songs toHitchy Kooof 1918, and in 1924 five more songs to theGreenwich Village Follies, both of them Broadway productions. Success first came in 1928 with his music forPariswhich included “Let’s Do It” and “Let’s Misbehave.” For the next quarter of a century and more he was one of Broadway’s most successful composers. His greatest stage hits came withFifty Million Frenchmen(1929),The Gay Divorce(1932),Anything Goes(1934),Leave It to Me(1938),Panama Hattie(1940),Let’s Face It(1941),Kiss Me Kate(1948),Can-Can(1953) andSilk Stockings(1955). From these and other stage productions came some of America’s best loved popular songs, for which Porter wrote not merely the music but also the brilliant lyrics: “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Love for Sale,” “You Do Something to Me,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and so forth. He was also a significant composer for motion pictures, his most successful songs for the screen including “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “In the Still of the Night,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” and “True Love.”
The most successful of all the Cole Porter musical comedies wasKiss Me Katewhich began a Broadway run of over one thousand performances on December 30, 1948, then went on to be a triumph in Vienna, Austria, where it became the greatest box-office success in the history of the Volksoper where it was given. In Poland it was the first American music performed in that country. The text by Bella and Sam Spewack was based partly on Shakespeare’sTaming of the Shrew, but it was really a play within a play. A touring company is performing the Shakespeare comedy in Baltimore, Maryland. The musical comedy moves freely from scenes of that production to the backstage complications in the private lives of its principal performers. In the end, the amatory problems of the two stars are resolved within a performance of the Shakespeare comedy. This was not only Cole Porter’s most successful musical comedy but also the finest of his scores. Never before (or since) was he so prolix with song hits in a single production; never before was his style so varied. The repertory of semi-classical music has been enriched by a symphonic treatment given the best of these melodies by Robert Russell Bennett. Bennett’s symphonic presentation ofKiss Me Kateopens with “Wunderbar,” a tongue-in-cheek parody of a sentimental Viennese waltz. It continues with thesprightly measures of “Another Openin’, Another Show,” and after that come the plangent, purple moods of “Were Thine That Special Face,” “I Sing of Love,” and the show’s principal love song, “So In Love.”
Serge Prokofiev was born in Sontzovka, Russia, on April 23, 1891. He was extraordinarily precocious in music. After receiving some training at the piano from his mother, he completed the writing of an opera by the time he was ten. Preliminary music study took place with Glière. In his thirteenth year he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov among others and from which he was graduated with the Rubinstein Prize for his first piano concerto. His advanced musical thinking was already evident in his first major work for orchestra,The Scythian Suite, introduced in St. Petersburg in 1916. He continued to develop his own personality, formulating his highly individual style and creative idiosyncrasies in works like the balletChout, the first violin concerto, and theClassical Symphony, all written during the era of World War I. In 1918 he toured the United States, making his American debut with a New York piano recital on November 20. While in the United States he was commissioned to write the operaThe Love for Three Orangesfor the Chicago Opera. From 1919 to 1933 Prokofiev made his home in Paris, but in 1933 he returned to his native land to stay there for the rest of his life. Though he was honored in the Soviet Union as one of its great creative figures—and was the recipient of the Stalin Prize for his monumental Seventh Piano Sonata inspired by World War II—he did not escape censure in 1948 when the Central Committee of the Communist Party denounced Soviet composers for their partiality towards experimentation, modernism and cerebralism, in their musical works. Nevertheless, Prokofiev soon recovered his high estate in Sovietmusic; in 1951 he received the Stalin Prize again, this time for his oratorioOn Guard for Peaceand the symphonic suite,Winter Bonfire. His sixtieth birthday, that year, was celebrated throughout the country with concerts and broadcasts. Prokofiev died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow on March 5, 1953.
Prokofiev was one of the giants of 20th-century music. His seven symphonies, five piano concertos, nine piano sonatas, the operaWar and Peace, ballets, chamber music, piano compositions and various shorter orchestral works are among the most significant contributions made in our time to music. The highly personal way of writing melodies, his unusual progressions, his harmonic vocabulary are all present in the few lighter and simpler works with which he made a significant contribution to the contemporary repertory of semi-classics.
TheMarchso familiar to radio listeners throughout the United States as the theme music for the program “The F.B.I. in Peace and War” comes from the operaThe Love for Three Oranges(1921). The libretto by the composer based on a tale of Carlo Gozzi is a charming fantasy in which a prince saves himself from death through gloom by means of laughter, and who then goes at once to rescue a princess from her prison in an orange. The march occurs in the second act where an effort is being made to get the Prince to laugh, for which purpose a festival is being arranged. The march music is played as the court jester drags the reluctant Prince to these festivities. The quixotic skips in the melody, the grotesquerie of the musical style, and the pert discords are all typical of Prokofiev’s creative manner.
Peter and the Wolf, a “symphonic fairy tale” for narrator and orchestra op. 67 (1936) was intended by the composer to teach children the instruments of the orchestra. But the music is so consistently delightful for its sprightly lyricism and wit that it has proved a favorite at symphony and semi-classical concerts. The story here being told is about a lad named Peter who turns a deaf ear to his grandfather’s warning and goes out into the meadow. There a wolf has frightened, in turn, a cat, bird, and duck. But Peter is not afraid of him. He captures the wolf, ties him up with a rope and takes him to the zoo.
The composition opens with the following explanation by the narrator: “Each character in the tale is represented by a different instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute; the duck by an oboe; the cat by a clarinet in the low register; grandpapa by the bassoon; the wolf by three French horns; Peter by the string quartet; and the hunter’s rifle shots by the kettledrums and bass drums.” Then, as the story ofPeter and the wolf unfolds, little melodies appear and reappear, each identifying some character in the story. Peter’s theme is a lyrical folk song with a puckish personality for strings. Vivid and realistic little tunes represent the cat, bird, and duck, each tune providing an amusing insight into the personality of each of these animals.
Summer Day, opp. 65a and 65b (1935) is another of the composer’s compositions for children which makes for delightful listening. It started out as a suite of twelve easy piano pieces for children calledMusic for Children. Later on the composer orchestrated seven of these sections and called the new workSummer Day. In the first movement, “Morning,” a whimsical little tune is heard in first flute against a contrapuntal background by other woodwinds, strings, and bass drum. Midway a secondary melody is given by bassoons, horns and cellos. “Tag,” the familiar child’s game, is represented in a tripping melody for violins and flutes; the music grows increasingly rhythmic in the intermediary section. In the “Waltz,” a saucy waltz tune with an unusual syncopated construction is presented by the violins, interrupted by exclamations from the woodwind with typical Prokofiev octave leaps. “Regrets” opens with a tender melody for cellos, but is soon taken over by oboes, and then the violins. This melody is then varied by violins and clarinets. “March” offers the main march melody in clarinets and oboes. “Evening” highlights a gentle song by solo flute, soon joined by the clarinet. As the violins take over the melody the pensive mood is maintained. The concluding movement, “Moonlit Meadows” is dominated by a melody for solo flute.
Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, to a family which for several generations had produced professional musicians. As a boy, Giacomo attended the Istituto Musicalein his native city, played the organ in the local church, and wrote two choral compositions. A subsidy from Queen Margherita enabled him to continue his music study at the Milan Conservatory with Bazzini and Ponchielli. The latter encouraged Puccini to write for the stage. Puccini’s first dramatic work was a one-act opera,Le Villi, given successfully in Milan in 1884, and soon thereafter performed at La Scala. On a commission from the publisher, Ricordi, Puccini wrote a second opera that was a failure. But the third,Manon Lescaut—introduced in Turin in 1893—was a triumph and permanently established Puccini’s fame. He now moved rapidly to a position of first importance in Italian opera with three successive master-works:La Bohème(1896),Tosca(1900) andMadama Butterfly(1904). Puccini paid his first visit to the United States in 1907 to supervise the American première of the last-named opera; he returned in 1910 to attend the world première ofThe Girl from the Golden Westwhich had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Puccini’s subsequent operas were:La Rondine(1917),Il Trittico, a trilogy of three one-act operas (1918), andTurandot(1924), the last of which was left unfinished but was completed by Franco Alfano. Operated on for cancer of the throat, in Brussels, Puccini died of a heart attack in that city on November 29, 1924.
Though Puccini was an exponent of “Verismo,” a movement in Italian opera which emphasized everyday subjects treated realistically, he poured into his operas such a wealth of sentiment, tenderness, sweetness of lyricism, and elegance of style that their emotional appeal is universal, and he has become the best loved opera composer of the 20th century. Selections from his three most popular operas are basic to the repertory of any semi-classical or “pop” orchestra.
La Bohèmewas based on Murger’s famous novel,Scènes de la vie de Bohèmeadapted into an opera libretto by Giacosa and Illica. When first introduced (Turin, February 1, 1896) the opera encountered an apathetic audience and hostile critics. It had no big scenes, no telling climaxes, and most of its effects were too subtle emotionally to have an instantaneous appeal. But the third performance—in Palermo in 1896—received an ovation. From that time on it never failed to move opera audiences with its deeply moving pathos and its vivid depiction of the daily problems and conflicts of a group of Bohemians in mid 19th-century Paris. The central theme is the love affair of the poet, Rodolfo, and a seamstress, Mimi. This love was filled with storm and stress, and ended tragically with Mimi’s death of consumption in Rodolfo’s attic. The following are some of the episodes heard most often in potpourrisor fantasies of this opera: Rodolfo’s celebrated narrative in the first act, “Che gelida manina,” in which he tells Mimi about his life as a poet; Mimi’s aria that follows this narrative immediately, “Mi chiamano Mimi,” where she tells Rodolfo of her poignant need for flowers and the warmth of springtime; the first act love duet of Mimi and Rodolfo, “O soave fanciulla”; Musetta’s coquettish second-act waltz, “Quando m’en vo’ soletta,” sung outside Café Momus in the Latin Quarter on Christmas Eve, informing her admirers (specifically Marcello the painter), how men are always attracted to her; Rodolfo’s poignant recollection of his one time happiness with Mimi, “O, Mimi, tu più” in the fourth act; and Mimi’s death music that ends the opera.
Madama Butterfly—libretto by Illica and Giacosa based on David Belasco’s play of the same name, which in turn came from John Luther’s short story—was first performed in Milan on February 17, 1904 when it was a fiasco. There was such pandemonium during that performance that Puccini had to rush on the stage and entreat the audience to be quiet so that the opera might continue. Undoubtedly, some of Puccini’s enemies had a hand in instigating this scandal, but the opera itself was not one able to win immediate favor. The exotic setting of Japan, the unorthodox love affair involving an American sailor and a geisha girl ending in tragedy for the girl, and the provocatively different kind of music (sometimes Oriental, sometimes modern) written to conform to the setting and the characters—all this was not calculated to appeal to Italian opera lovers. But three months after the première the opera was repeated (with some vital revisions by the composer). This time neither the play nor the music proved shocking, and the audience fell under the spell of enchantment which that sensitive opera cast all about it. From then on, the opera has been a favorite around the world.
The most celebrated single excerpt from the opera is unquestionably Madame Butterfly’s poignant aria, her expression of belief that her American lover, so long absent from Japan with his fleet, would some day return to her: “Un bel di.” Other popular episodes include the passionate love music of Madame Butterfly and the American lieutenant with which the first act ends, “Viene la sera”; the flower duet of the second act between Madame Butterfly and her servant in which the heroine excitedly decorates her home with cherry blossoms upon learning that her lover is back with his fleet (“Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio”); the American lieutenant’s tender farewell to Madame Butterfly and the scene of their love idyl from the third act (“Addio fioritoasil”); and Madame Butterfly’s tender farewell to her daughter before committing suicide (“Tu, tu piccolo iddio”).
Tosca—based on the famous French drama of the same name by Sardou, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica—was introduced in Rome on January 14, 1900. It was a blood and thunder drama set in Rome at the turn of the 19th century; the dramatic episodes involved murder, horror, suicide, sadism. The heroine, Floria Tosca, is an opera singer in love with a painter, Mario Cavaradossi; she, in turn, is being pursued by Scarpia, the chief of police. To save her lover’s life, she stands ready to give herself to Scarpia. The latter, nonetheless, is responsible for Cavaradossi’s execution. Scarpia is murdered by Tosca, who then commits suicide.
Two tenor arias by Cavaradossi are lyrical highlights of this opera. The first is “Recondita armonia,” in the first act, in which the painter rhapsodizes over the beauty of his beloved Tosca; the second, “E lucevan le stelle,” comes in the last act as Cavaradossi prepares himself for his death by bidding farewell to his memory of Tosca. The third important aria from this opera is that of Tosca, “Vissi d’arte,” a monologue in which she reflects on how cruel life had been to one who has devoted herself always to art, prayer, and love. In addition to these three arias, the opera score also boasts some wonderful love music, that of Cavaradossi and Tosca (“Non la sospiri la nostra casetta”) and the first act stately church music (“Te Deum”).
Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Oneg, Novgorod, Russia, on April 1, 1873. He attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory for three years, and his musical training ended at the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 when he received a gold medal for a one-act opera,Aleko. In that same year he also wrote the Prelude in C-sharp minor withwhich he became world famous. His first piano concerto and his first symphony, however, were dismal failures. In 1901 he scored a triumph with his Second Piano Concerto which, since then, has been not only the composer’s most celebrated composition in a large form but also one of the best loved and most frequently performed piano concertos of the 20th century. Rachmaninoff combined his success as composer with that as piano virtuoso. Beginning with 1900 he toured the world of music achieving recognition everywhere as one of the most renowned concert artists of his generation. The first of his many tours of America took place in 1909. He also distinguished himself as a conductor, first at the Bolshoi Theater between 1904 and 1906, and later with the Moscow Philharmonic. As a composer he enhanced his reputation with a remarkable second symphony, two more piano concertos, and sundry works for orchestra. He was a traditionalist who preferred working within the structures and with the techniques handed down to him by Tchaikovsky. Like Tchaikovsky whom he admired and emulated, he wore his heart on his sleeve, ever preferring to make his music the vehicle for profoundly felt emotions. His broad rhapsodic style makes his greatest music an ever stirring emotional experience. In 1917 Rachmaninoff left Russia for good, establishing his permanent home first in Lucerne, Switzerland, and in 1935 in the United States. All the while he continued to tour the world as concert pianist. His last years were spent in Beverly Hills, California, where he died on March 28, 1943.
The Prelude in C-sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2 (1892) is Rachmaninoff’s most popular composition; the transcriptions and adaptations it has received are of infinite variety. He wrote it when he was nineteen and instantaneously the piece traveled around the globe. Unfortunately, the composer never profited commercially from this formidable success, having sold the composition outright for a pittance. The Prelude opens in a solemn mood with a theme sounding like the tolling of bells, or the grim pronouncement by some implacable fate. The second theme is agitated and restless, but before the composition ends the solemn first theme recurs. Numerous efforts have been made to provide this dramatic music with a program, including one which interpreted it in terms of the burning of Moscow in 1812.
The Prelude in G minor, op. 23, no. 5, for piano (1904), is almost as famous. The opening subject has the character of a brisk military march, while the contrasting second theme is nostalgic and reflective.
TheVocalise, op. 34, no. 14 (1912) is one of the composer’s best known vocal compositions. This is a wordless song—a melody sung onlyon vowels, a “vocalise” being actually a vocal exercise. Rachmaninoff himself transcribed this work for orchestra, a version perhaps better known than the original vocal one. Many other musicians have made sundry other transcriptions, including one for piano, and others for solo instruments and piano.