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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16459-8.txt b/16459-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25afa25 --- /dev/null +++ b/16459-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5661 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Memories, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Musical Memories + +Author: Camille Saint-Saëns + +Translator: Edwin Gile Rich + +Release Date: August 7, 2005 [EBook #16459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: The Master, Camille Saint-Saëns] + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + +BY +CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS + +TRANSLATED BY +EDWIN GILE RICH +Translator of Lafond's "_Ma Mitrailleuse_," etc. + +[Illustration: (A publisher's seal, inscribed "SCIRE QVOD SCIENDVM".)] + +BOSTON +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +1919, +BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +(INCORPORATED) + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + I MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD + + II THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE + + III VICTOR HUGO + + IV THE HISTORY OF AN OPÉRA-COMIQUE + + V LOUIS GALLET + + VI HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY IN OPERA + + VII ART FOR ART'S SAKE + + VIII POPULAR SCIENCE AND ART + + IX ANARCHY IN MUSIC + + X THE ORGAN + + XI JOSEPH HAYDN AND THE "SEVEN WORDS" + + XII THE LISZT CENTENARY AT HEIDELBERG (1912) + + XIII BERLIOZ'S REQUIEM + + XIV PAULINE VIARDOT + + XV ORPHEE + + XVI DELSARTE + + XVII SEGHERS + +XVIII ROSSINI + + XIX JULES MASSENET + + XX MEYERBEER + + XXI JACQUES OFFENBACH + + XXII THEIR MAJESTIES + +XXIII MUSICAL PAINTERS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Master, Camille Saint-Saëns + +The Paris Opéra + +The First Performance of _Déjanire_ + +M. Saint-Saëns in his Later Years + +The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saëns played the organ for twenty years + +Hector Berlioz + +Mme. Pauline Viardot + +Mme. Patti + +M. Jules Massenet + +Meyerbeer, Composer of _Les Huguenots_ + +Jacques Offenbach + +Ingres, the painter famous for his violin + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + + +CHAPTER I + +MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD + + +In bygone days I was often told that I had two mothers, and, as a matter +of fact, I did have two--the mother who gave me life and my maternal +great-aunt, Charlotte Masson. The latter came from an old family of +lawyers named Gayard and this relationship makes me a descendant of +General Delcambre, one of the heroes of the retreat from Russia. His +granddaughter married Count Durrieu of the _Académie des Inscriptions et +Belles-Lettres_. My great-aunt was born in the provinces in 1781, but +she was adopted by a childless aunt and uncle who made their home in +Paris. He was a wealthy lawyer and they lived magnificently. + +My great-aunt was a precocious child--she walked at nine months--and +she became a woman of keen intellect and brilliant attainments. She +remembered perfectly the customs of the _Ancien Régime_, and she enjoyed +telling about them, as well as about the Revolution, the Reign of +Terror, and the times that followed. Her family was ruined by the +Revolution and the slight, frail, young girl undertook to earn her +living by giving lessons in French, on the pianoforte--the instrument +was a novelty then--in singing, painting, embroidery, in fact in +everything she knew and in much that she did not. If she did not know, +she learned then and there so that she could teach. Afterwards, she +married one of her cousins. As she had no children of her own, she +brought one of her nieces from Champagne and adopted her. This niece was +my mother, Clemence Collin. The Massons were about to retire from +business with a comfortable fortune, when they lost practically +everything within two weeks, in a panic, saving just enough to live +decently. Shortly after this my mother married my father, a minor +official in the Department of the Interior. My great-uncle died of a +broken heart some months before my birth on October 9, 1835. My father +died of consumption on the thirty-first of the following December, just +a year to a day after his marriage. + +Thus the two women were both left widows, poorly provided for, weighed +down by sad memories, and with the care of a delicate child. In fact I +was so delicate that the doctors held out little hope of my living, and +on their advice I was left in the country with my nurse until I was two +years old. + +While my aunt had had a remarkable education, my mother had not been so +widely taught. But she made up for any lack by the display of an +imagination and an eager power of assimilation which bordered on the +miraculous. She often told me about an uncle who was very fond of +her--he had been ruined in the cause of Philippe Egalité. This uncle was +an artist, but he was, nevertheless, passionately fond of music. He had +even built with his own hands a concert organ on which he used to play. +My mother used to sit between his knees and, while he amused himself by +running his fingers through her splendid black hair, he would talk to +her about art, music, painting--beauty in every form. So she got it into +her head that if she ever had sons of her own, the first should be a +musician, the second a painter, and the third a sculptor. As a result, +when I came home from the nurse, she was not greatly surprised that I +began to listen to every noise and to every sound; that I made the doors +creak, and would plant myself in front of the clocks to hear them +strike. My special delight was the music of the tea-kettle--a large one +which was hung before the fire in the drawing-room every morning. Seated +nearby on a small stool, I used to wait with a lively curiosity for the +first murmurs of its gentle and variegated _crescendo_, and the +appearance of a microscopic oboe which gradually increased its song +until it was silenced by the kettle boiling. Berlioz must have heard +that oboe as well as I, for I rediscovered it in the "Ride to Hell" in +his _La Damnation de Faust_. + +At the same time I was learning to read. When I was two-years-and-a-half +old, they placed me in front of a small piano which had not been opened +for several years. Instead of drumming at random as most children of +that age would have done, I struck the notes one after another, going on +only when the sound of the previous note had died away. My great-aunt +taught me the names of the notes and got a tuner to put the piano in +order. While the tuning was going on, I was playing in the next room, +and they were utterly astonished when I named the notes as they were +sounded. I was not told all these details--I remember them perfectly. + +I was taught by Le Carpentier's method and I finished it in a month. +They couldn't let a little monkey like that work away at the piano, and +I cried like a lost soul when they closed the instrument. Then they left +it open and put a small stool in front of it. From time to time I would +leave my playthings and climb up to drum out whatever came into my head. +Gradually, my great-aunt, who fortunately had an excellent foundation in +music, taught me how to hold my hands properly so that I did not acquire +the gross faults which are so difficult to correct later on. But they +did not know what sort of music to give me. That written especially for +children is, as a rule, entirely melody and the part for the left hand +is uninteresting. I refused to learn it. "The bass doesn't sing," I +said, in disgust. + +Then they searched the old masters, in Haydn and Mozart, for things +sufficiently easy for me to handle. At five I was playing small sonatas +correctly, with good interpretation and excellent precision. But I +consented to play them only before listeners capable of appreciating +them. I have read in a biographical sketch that I was threatened with +whippings to make me play. That is absolutely false; but it was +necessary to tell me that there was a lady in the audience who was an +excellent musician and had fastidious tastes. I would not play for those +who did not know. + +As for the threat of whippings, that must be relegated to the realm of +legends with the one that Garcia punished his daughters to make them +learn to sing. Madame Viardot expressly told me that neither she nor her +sister was abused by their father and that they learned music without +realizing it, just as they learned to talk. + +But in spite of my surprising progress my teacher did not foresee what +my future was to be. "When he is fifteen," she said, "if he can write a +dance, I shall be satisfied." It was just at this time, however, that I +began to write music. I wrote waltzes and galops--the galop was +fashionable at that period; it ran to rather ordinary musical motives +and mine were no exception to the rule. Liszt had to show by his _Galop +Chromatique_ the distinction that genius can give to the most +commonplace themes. My waltzes were better. As has always been the case +with me, I was already composing the music directly on paper without +working it out on the piano. The waltzes were too difficult for my +hands, so a friend of the family, a sister of the singer Geraldy, was +kind enough to play them for me. + +I have looked over these little compositions lately. They are +insignificant, but it is impossible to find a technical error in them. +Such precision was remarkable for a child who had no idea of the science +of harmony. About that time some one had the notion that I should hear +an orchestra. So they took me to a symphony concert and my mother held +me in her arms near the door. Until then I had only heard single violins +and their tone had not pleased me. But the impression of the orchestra +was entirely different and I listened with delight to a passage played +by a quartet, when, suddenly, came a blast from the brass +instruments--the trumpets, trombones and cymbals. I broke into loud +cries, "Make them stop. They prevent my hearing the music." They had to +take me out. + +When I was seven, I passed out of my great-aunt's hands into Stamaty's. +He was surprised at the way my education in music had been directed and +he expressed this in a small work in which he discussed the necessity of +making a correct start. In my case, he said, there was nothing to do but +to perfect. + +Stamaty was Kalkbrenner's best pupil and the propagator of the method he +had invented. This method was based on the _guide main_, so I was put to +work on it. The preface to Kalkbrenner's method, in which he relates the +beginnings of his invention, is exceedingly interesting. This invention +consisted of a rod placed in front of the keyboard. The forearm rested +on this rod in such a way that all muscular action save that of the hand +was suppressed. This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist +how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes +where the keys responded to slight pressure; but it is inadequate for +modern works and instruments. It is the way one ought to begin, for it +develops firmness of the fingers and suppleness of the wrist, and, by +easy stages, adds the weight of the forearm and of the whole arm. But in +our day it has become the practice to begin at the end. We learn the +elements of the fugue from Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_, +the piano from the works of Schumann and Liszt, and harmony and +instrumentation from Richard Wagner. All too often we waste our efforts, +just as singers who learn rôles and rush on the stage before they know +how to sing ruin their voices in a short time. + +Firmness of the fingers is not the only thing that one learns from +Kalkbrenner's method, for there is also a refinement of the quality of +the sound made by the fingers alone, a valuable resource which is +unusual in our day. + +Unfortunately, this school invented as well continuous _legato_, which +is both false and monotonous; the abuse of nuances, and a mania for +continual _expressio_ used with no discrimination. All this was opposed +to my natural feelings, and I was unable to conform to it. They +reproached me by saying that I would never get a really fine effect--to +which I was entirely indifferent. + +When I was ten, my teacher decided that I was sufficiently prepared to +give a concert in the Salle Pleyel, so I played there, accompanied by an +Italian orchestra, with Tilmant as the conductor. I gave Beethoven's +_Concerto in C minor_ and one of Mozart's concertos in B flat. There was +some question of my playing at the Société des Concerts du +Conservatoire, and there was even a rehearsal. But Seghers, who +afterwards founded the Société St. Cécile, was a power in the affairs of +the orchestra. He detested Stamaty and told him that the Société was not +organized to play children's accompaniments. My mother felt hurt and +wanted to hear nothing more of it. + +After my first concert, which was a brilliant success, my teacher +wanted me to give others, but my mother did not wish me to have a career +as an infant prodigy. She had higher ambitions and was unwilling for me +to continue in concert work for fear of injuring my health. The result +was that a coolness sprang up between my teacher and me which ended our +relations. + +At that time my mother made a remark which was worthy of Cornelia. One +day some one remonstrated with her for letting me play Beethoven's +sonatas. "What music will he play when he is twenty?" she was asked. "He +will play his own," was her reply. + + * * * * * + +The greatest benefit I got from my experience with Stamaty was my +acquaintance with Maleden, whom he gave me as my teacher in composition. +Maleden was born in Limoges, as his accent always showed. He was thin +and long-haired, a kind and timid soul, but an incomparable teacher. He +had gone to Germany in his youth to study with a certain Gottfried +Weber, the inventor of a system which Maleden brought back with him and +perfected. He made it a wonderful tool with which to get to the depths +of music--a light for the darkest corners. In this system the chords are +not considered in and for themselves--as fifths, sixths, sevenths--but +in relation to the pitch of the scale on which they appear. The chords +acquire different characteristics according to the place they occupy, +and, as a result, certain things are explained which are, otherwise, +inexplicable. This method is taught in the Ecole Niedermeuer, but I +don't know that it is taught elsewhere. + +Maleden was extremely anxious to become a professor at the +Conservatoire. As the result of powerful influence, Auber was about to +sign Maleden's appointment, when, in his scrupulous honesty, he thought +he ought to write and warn him that his method differed entirely from +that taught in the institution. Auber was frightened and Maleden was not +admitted. + +Our lessons were often very stormy. From time to time certain questions +came up on which I could not agree with him. He would then take me +quietly by the ear, bend my head and hold my ear to the table for a +minute or two. Then, he would ask whether I had changed my mind. As I +had not, he would think it over and very often he would confess that I +was right. + +"Your childhood," Gounod once told me, "wasn't musical." He was wrong, +for he did not know the many tokens of my childhood. Many of my attempts +are unfinished--to say nothing of those I destroyed--but among them are +songs, choruses, cantatas, and overtures, none of which will ever see +the light. Oblivion will enshroud these gropings after effect, for they +are of no interest to the public. Among these scribblings I have found +some notes written in pencil when I was four. The date on them leaves no +doubt about the time of their production. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE + + +I cannot let the old Conservatoire in the Rue Bergère go without paying +it a last farewell, for I loved it deeply as we all love the things of +our youth. I loved its antiquity, the utter absence of any modern note, +and its atmosphere of other days. I loved that absurd court with the +wailing notes of sopranos and tenors, the rattling of pianos, the blasts +of trumpets and trombones, the arpeggios of clarinets, all uniting to +form that ultra-polyphone which some of our composers have tried to +attain--but without success. Above all I loved the memories of my +education in music which I obtained in that ridiculous and venerable +palace, long since too small for the pupils who thronged there from all +parts of the world. + +I was fourteen when Stamaty, my piano teacher, introduced me to +Benoist, the teacher of the organ, an excellent and charming man, +familiarly known as "Father Benoist." They put me in front of the +keyboard, but I was badly frightened, and the sounds I made were so +extraordinary that all the pupils shouted with laughter. I was received +at the Conservatoire as an "auditor." + +So there I was only admitted to the honor of listening to others. I was +extremely painstaking, however, and I never lost a note or one of the +teacher's words. I worked and thought at home, studying hard on +Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_. All of the pupils, however, +were not so industrious. One day, when they had all failed and Benoist, +as a result, had nothing to do, he put me at the organ. This time no one +laughed and I at once became a regular pupil. At the end of the year I +won the second prize. I would have had the first except for my youth and +the inconvenience of having me leave a class where I needed to stay +longer. + +That same year Madeleine Brohan won the first prize in comedy. She +competed with a selection from _Misanthrope_, and Mlle. Jouassin gave +the other part of the dialogue. Mlle. Jouassin's technique was the +better, but Madeleine Brohan was so wonderful in beauty and voice that +she carried off the prize. The award made a great uproar. To-day, in +such a case, the prize would be divided. Mlle. Jouassin won her prize +the following year. After leaving school, she accepted and held for a +long time an important place at the Comédie-Française. + +Benoist was a very ordinary organist, but an admirable teacher. A +veritable galaxy of talent came from his class. He had little to say, +but as his taste was refined and his judgment sure, nothing he said +lacked weight or authority. He collaborated in several ballets for the +Opéra and that gave him a good deal of work to do. It sounds incredible, +but he used to bring his "work" to class and scribble away on his +orchestration while his pupils played the organ. This did not prevent +his listening and looking after them. He would leave his work and make +appropriate comments as though he had no other thought. + +In addition to his ballets, Benoist did other little odd jobs for the +Opéra. As a result one day, without thinking, he gave me the key to a +deep secret. In his famous _Traité d'Instrumentation_ Berlioz spoke of +his admiration for a passage in Sacchini's _Oedipus à Colone_. Two +clarinets are heard in descending thirds of real charm just before the +words, "_Je connus la charmante Eriphyle._" Berlioz was enthusiastic and +wrote: + +"We might believe that we really see Eriphyle chastely kiss his eyes. It +is admirable. And yet," he adds, "there is no trace of this effect in +Sacchini's score." + +Now Sacchini, for some reason or other which I do not know, did not use +clarinets once in the whole score. Benoist was commissioned to add them +when the work was revived, as he told me as we were chatting one day. +Berlioz did not know this, and Benoist, who had not read Berlioz's +_Traité_, knew nothing of the romantic musician's enthusiastic +admiration of his work. These happily turned thirds, although they +weren't Sacchini's, were, none the less, an excellent innovation. + +Benoist was less happy when he was asked to put some life into +Bellini's _Romeo_ by using earsplitting outbursts of drums, cymbals, and +brass. During the same noise-loving period Costa, in London, gave +Mozart's _Don Juan_ the same treatment. He let loose throughout the +opera the trombones which the author intentionally reserved for the end. +Benoist ought to have refused to do such a barbarous piece of work. +However, it had no effect in preventing the failure of a worthless +piece, staged at great expense by the management which had rejected Les +Troyens. + +I was fifteen when I entered Halévy's class. I had already completed the +study of harmony, counterpoint and fugue under Maleden's direction. As I +have said, his method was that taught at the Ecole Niedermeuer. Faure, +Messager, Perilhou, and Gigot were trained there and they taught this +method in turn. My class-work consisted in making attempts at vocal and +instrumental music and orchestration. My _Rêverie_, _La Feuille de +Peuplier_ and many other things first appeared there. They have been +entirely forgotten, and rightly, for my work was very uneven. + +At the end of his career Halévy was constantly writing opera and +opéra-comique which added nothing to his fame and which disappeared +never to be revived after a respectable number of performances. He was +entirely absorbed in his work and, as a result, he neglected his classes +a good deal. He came only when he had time. The pupils, however, came +just the same and gave each other instruction which was far less +indulgent than the master's, for his greatest fault was an overweening +good nature. Even when he was at class he couldn't protect himself from +self-seekers. Singers of all sorts, male and female, came for a hearing. +One day it was Marie Cabel, still youthful and dazzling both in voice +and beauty. Other days impossible tenors wasted his time. When the +master sent word that he wasn't coming--this happened often--I used to +go to the library, and there, as a matter of fact, I completed my +education. The amount of music, ancient and modern, I devoured is beyond +belief. + +But it wasn't enough just to read music--I needed to hear it. Of course +there was the Société des Concerts, but it was a Paradise, guarded by an +angel with a flaming sword, in the form of a porter named Lescot. It was +his duty to prevent the profane defiling the sanctuary. Lescot was fond +of me and appreciated my keen desire to hear the orchestra. As a result +he made his rounds as slowly as possible in order to put me out only as +a last resort. Fortunately for me, Marcelin de Fresne gave me a place in +his box, which I was permitted to occupy for several years. + +I used to read and study the symphonies before I heard them and I saw +grave defects in the Société's vaunted execution. No one would stand +them now, but then they passed unnoticed. I was naïve and lacked +discretion, and so I often pointed out these defects. It can be easily +imagined what vials of wrath were poured on me. + +As far as the public was concerned, the great success of these concerts +was due to the incomparable charm of the depth of tone, which was +attributed to the hall. The members of the Société believed this, too, +and they would let no other orchestra be heard there. This state of +affairs lasted until Anton Rubinstein got permission from the Minister +of Fine Arts to give a concert there, accompanied by the Colonne +orchestra. The Société fretted and fumed at this and threatened to give +up its series of concerts. But the Société was overruled and the concert +was given. To the general surprise it was seen that another orchestra in +the same hall produced an entirely different effect. The depth of tone +which had been appreciated so highly, it was found, was due to the +famous Société itself, to the character of the instruments and the +execution. + +Nevertheless, the hall is excellent, although it is no longer adequate +for the presentation of modern compositions. But it is a marvellous +place for the numerous concerts given by virtuosi, both singers and +instrumentalists, accompanied by an orchestra, and for chamber music. +Finally, the hall where France was introduced to the masterpieces of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose influence has been so profound, is a +historic place. + +Numerous improvements in the administration of the Conservatoire have +been introduced during the last few years. On the other hand, old and +honored customs have disappeared and we can but regret their loss. From +Auber's time on there was a _pension_ connected with the Conservatoire. +Here the young singers who came from the provinces at eighteen found +board and lodging, a regular life, and a protection from the temptations +of a large city, so dangerous to fresh young voices. Bouhy, Lassalle, +Capoul, Gailhard and many others who have made the French stage famous +came from this _pension_. + +We also used to have dramatic recitals which were excellent both for the +performers and the audiences as they gave works which were not in the +usual repertoire. In these recitals they gave Méhul's _Joseph_, which +had disappeared from the stage for a long time. The beautiful choruses +sung by the fresh voices of the pupils made such a success and the whole +work was so enthusiastically applauded that it was revived at the +Opéra-Comique and won back a success which it has never lost. We also +heard there Gluck's _Orphée_ long before that masterpiece was revived at +the Théâtre-Lyrique. Then there was Méhul's _Irato_, a curious and +charming work which the Opéra took up afterwards. And there, too, they +gave the last act of Rossini's _Otello_. The tempest in that act gave me +the idea of the one which rumbles through the second act of _Samson_. + +When the hall was reconstructed, the stage was destroyed so that such +performances are impossible. But to make up for this, they installed a +concert organ, a necessary adjunct for musical performances. + +Finally, in Auber's day and even in that of Ambroise Thomas, the +director was master. No one had dreamed of creating a committee, which, +under cover of the director's responsibility, would strangely diminish +his authority. The only benefit from the new system has been the end of +the incessant war which the musical critics waged on the director. But +that did no harm, either to the director or to the school, for the +latter kept on growing to such an extent that it ought to have been +enlarged long ago. The committee plan has won and the incident is +closed. One may only hope that steps will be taken to make possible an +increase in the number of pupils since so many candidates apply each +year and so few are chosen. + +As everyone knows, we have been struck by a perfect mania for reforms, +so there is no harm in proposing one for the Conservatoire. Foreign +conservatoires have been studied and they want to introduce some of +their features here. As a matter of fact, some of the foreign +conservatoires are housed in magnificent palaces and their curricula are +elaborated with a care worthy of admiration. Whether they turn out +better pupils than we do is an open question. It is beyond dispute, +however, that many young foreigners come to us for their education. + +Some of the reformers are scandalized at the sight of a musician in +charge of a school where elocution is taught. They forget that a +musician may also be a man of letters--the present director combines +these qualifications--and that it is improbable that it will be +different in the future. The teachers of elocution have always been the +best that could be found. Although M. Faure is a musician, he has known +how to bring back the classes in tragedy to their original purpose. For +a time they tended towards an objectionable modernism, for they +substituted in their competitions modern prose for the classic verse. +And the study of the latter is very profitable. + +Not only is there no harm in this union of elocution and music, but it +would be useful if singers and composers would take advantage of it to +familiarize themselves with the principles of diction, which, in my +opinion, are indispensable to both. Instead, they distrust melody. +Declamation is no longer wanted in operas, and the singers make the +works incomprehensible by not articulating the words. The composers tend +along the same lines, for they give no indication or direction of how +they want the words spoken. All this is regrettable and should be +reformed. + +As you see, I object to the mania for reform and end by suggesting +reforms myself. Well, one must be of one's own time, and there is no +escaping the contagion. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +VICTOR HUGO + + +Everything in my youth seemed calculated to keep me far removed from +romanticism. Those about me talked only of the great classics and I saw +them welcome Ponsard's _Lucrece_ as a sort of Minerva whose lance was to +route Victor Hugo and his foul crew, of whom they never spoke save with +detestation. + +Who was it, I wonder, who had the happy idea of giving me, elegantly +bound, the first volumes of Victor Hugo's poems? I have forgotten who it +was, but I remember what joy the vibrations of his lyre gave me. Until +that time poetry had seemed to me something cold, respectable and +far-away, and it was much later that the living beauty of our classics +was revealed to me. I found myself at once stirred to the depths, and, +as my temperament is essentially musical in everything, I began to sing +them. + +People have told me _ad nauseam_ (and they still tell me so) that +beautiful verse is inimical to music, or rather that music is inimical +to good verse; that music demands ordinary verse, rhymed prose, rather +than verse, which is malleable and reducible as the composer wishes. +This generalization is assuredly true, if the music is written first and +then adapted to the words, but that is not the ideal harmony between two +arts which are made to supplement each other. Do not the rhythmic and +sonorous passages of verse naturally call for song to set them off, +since singing is but a better method of declaiming them? I made some +attempts at this and some of those which have been preserved are: +_Puisque ici bas toute âme_, _Le Pas d'armes du roi Jean_, and _La +Cloche_. They were ridiculed at the time, but destined to some success +later. Afterwards I continued with _Si tu veux faisons un réve_, which +Madame Carvalho sang a good deal, _Soirée en mer_, and many others. + +The older I grew the greater became my devotion to Hugo. I waited +impatiently for each new work of the poet and I devoured it as soon as +it appeared. If I heard about me the spiteful criticisms of irritating +critics, I was consoled by talking to Berlioz who honored me with his +friendship and whose admiration for Hugo equalled mine. In the meantime +my literary education was improving, and I made the acquaintance of the +classics and found immortal beauties in them. My admiration for the +classics, however, did not diminish my regard for Hugo, for I never +could see why it was unfaithfulness to him not to despise Racine. It was +fortunate for me that this was my view, for I have seen the most fiery +romanticists, like Meurice and Vacquerie, revert to Racine in their +later years, and repair the links in a golden chain which should never +have been broken. + +The Empire fell and Victor Hugo came back to Paris. So I was going to +have a chance of realizing my dream of seeing him and hearing his voice! +But I dreaded meeting him almost as much as I wished to do so. Like +Rossini Victor Hugo received his friends every evening. He came forward +with both hands outstretched and told me what pleasure it was for him to +see me at his house. Everything whirled around me! + +"I cannot say the same to you," I answered. "I wish I were somewhere +else." He laughed heartily and showed that he knew how to overcome my +bashfulness. I waited to hear some of the conversation which, according +to my preconceived ideas, would be in the style of his latest romance. +However, it was entirely different; simple polished phrases, entirely +logical, came from that "mouth of mystery." + +I went to Hugo's evenings as often as possible, for I never could drink +my fill of the presence of the hero of my youthful dreams. I had +occasion to note to what an extent a fiery republican, a modern Juvenal, +whose verses branded "kings" as if with a red hot iron, in his private +life was susceptible to their flattery. The Emperor of Brazil had called +on him, and the next day he could not stop talking about it constantly. +Rather ostentatiously he called him "Don Pedro d'Alcantara." In French +this would be "M. Pierre du Pont." Spanish inherently gives such florid +sounds to ordinary names. This florid style is not frequent in French, +and that is precisely what Corneille and Victor Hugo succeeded in +giving it. + +A slight incident unfortunately changed my relations with the great +poet. + +"As long as Mlle. Bertin was alive," he told me, "I would never permit +_La Esmeralda_ to be set to music; but if some musician should now ask +for this poem, I would be glad to let him have it." + +The invitation was obvious. Yet, as is generally known, this dramatic +and lyric adaptation of the famous romance is not particularly happy. I +was much embarrassed and I pretended not to understand, but I never +dared to go to Hugo's house again. + +Years passed. In 1881 a subscription was taken up to erect a statue to +the author of _La Légende des Siècles_, and they began to plan +celebrations for its dedication, particularly a big affair at the +Trocadéro. My imagination took fire at the idea, and I wrote my _Hymne à +Victor Hugo_. + +As is well known, the master knew nothing at all about music, and the +same was true of those around him. It is a matter of conjecture how the +master and his followers happened to mistake some absurd and formless +motif for one of Beethoven's sublime inspirations. Victor Hugo adapted +the beautiful verses of _Stella_ to this halting motif. It was published +as an appendix in the _Châtiments_, with a remark about the union of two +geniuses, the fusion of the verse of a great poet with the _admirable_ +verse of a great musician. And the poet would have Mme. Drouet play this +marvellous music on the piano from time to time! _Tristia Herculis!_ + +As I wanted to put in my hymn something peculiar to Victor Hugo, which +could not possibly be attributed to anyone else, I tried to introduce +this motif of which he was so fond. And, by means of numerous tricks +which every musician has up his sleeve, I managed to give it the form +and character which it had lacked. + +The subscription did not go fast enough to suit the master, and he had +it stopped. So I put my hymn in a drawer and waited for a better +opportunity. + +About this time M. Bruneau, the father of the well-known composer, +conceived the idea of giving spring concerts at the Trocadéro. Bruneau +came to see me and asked me if I had some unpublished work which I would +let him have. This was an excellent occasion for the presentation of my +_Hymne_, as it had been written with the Trocadéro in mind. The +performance was decided on and Victor Hugo was invited to come and hear +it. + +The performance was splendid--a large orchestra, the magnificent organ, +eight harps, and eight trumpets sounding their flourishes in the organ +loft, and a large chorus for the peroration of such splendor that it was +compared to the set pieces at the close of a display of fireworks. The +reception and ovation which the crowd gave the great poet, who rarely +appeared in public, was beyond description. The honeyed incense of the +organ, harps and trumpets was new to him and pleased his Olympian +nostrils. + +"Dine with me to-night," he said to me. And from that day on, I often +dined with him informally with M. and Mme. Lockrou, Meurice, Vacquerie +and other close friends. The fare was delightful and unpretentious, and +the conversation was the same. The master sat at the head of the table, +with his grandson and granddaughter on either side, saying little but +always something apropos. Thanks to his vigor, his strong sonorous +voice, and his quiet good humor, he did not seem like an old man, but +rather like an ageless and immortal being, whom Time would never touch. +His presence was just Jove-like enough to inspire respect without +chilling his followers. These small gatherings, which I fully +appreciated, are among the most precious recollections of my life. + +Time, alas, goes on, and that fine intellect, which had ever been +unclouded, began to give signs of aberration. One day he said to an +Italian delegation, "The French are Italians; the Italians are French. +French and Italians ought to go to Africa together and found the United +States of Europe." + +The red rays of twilight announced the oncoming night. + +Those who saw them will never forget his grandiose funeral ceremonies, +that casket under the Arc de Triomphe, covered with a veil of crape, +and that immense crowd which paid homage to the greatest lyric poet of +the century. + +There was a committee to make musical preparations and I was a member. +The most extraordinary ideas were proposed. One man wanted to have the +_Marseillaise_ in a minor key. Another wanted violins, for "violins +produce an excellent effect in the open air." Naturally we got nowhere. + +The great procession started in perfect order, but, as in all long +processions, gaps occurred. I was astonished to find myself in the +middle of the Champs Elysées, in a wide open space, with no one near me +but Ferdinand de Lesseps, Paul Bert, and a member of the Académie, whose +name I shall not mention as he is worthy of all possible respect. + +De Lesseps was then at the height of his glory, and from time to time +applause greeted him as he passed. + +Suddenly the Academician leaned over and whispered in my ear, + +"Evidently they are applauding us." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE HISTORY OF AN OPÉRA-COMIQUE + + +Young musicians often complain, and not without reason, of the +difficulties of their careers. It may, perhaps, be useful to remind them +that their elders have not always had beds of roses, and that too often +they have had to breast both wind and sea after spending their best +years in port, unable to make a start. These obstacles frequently are +the result of the worst sort of malignity, when it is for the best +interest of everyone--both of the theatres which rebuff them, and the +public which ignores them--that they be permitted to set out under full +sail. + +In 1864 one of the most brilliant of the reviews had the following +comments to make on this subject: + + Our real duty--and it is a true kindness--is not to encourage them + (beginners) but to discourage them. In art a vocation is + everything, and a vocation needs no one, for God aids. What use is + it to encourage them and their efforts when the public obstinately + refuses to pay any attention to them? If an act is ordered from one + of them, it fails to go. Two or three years later the same thing is + tried again with the same result. No theatre, even if it were four + times as heavily subsidized as the Théâtre-Lyrique, could continue + to exist on such resources. So the result is that they turn to + accredited talent and call on such men from outside as Gounod, + Felicien David and Victor Massé. The younger composers at once + shout treason and scandal. Then, they select masterpieces by Mozart + and Weber and there are the same outcries and recriminations. In + the final analysis where are these young composers of genius? Who + are they and what are their names? Let them go to the orchestra and + hear _Le Nozze di Figaro_, _Obéron_, _Freischutz_ and _Orphée_ ... + we are doing something for them by placing such models before them. + +The young composers who were thus politely invited to be seated +included, among others, Bizet, Delibes, Massenet, and the writer of +these lines. Massenet and I would have been satisfied with writing a +ballet for the Opéra. He proposed the _Rat Catcher_ from an old German +tale, while I proposed _Une nuit de Cléopâtra_ on the text of Théophile +Gautier. They refused us the honor, and, when they consented to order a +ballet from Delibes, they did not dare to trust him with the whole work. +They let him do only one act and the other was given to a Hungarian +composer. As the experiment succeeded, they allowed Delibes to write, +without assistance, his marvellous _Coppélia_. But Delibes had the +legitimate ambition of writing a grand opera. He never reached so far. + +[Illustration: The Paris Opéra] + +Bizet and I were great friends and we told each other all our troubles. +"You're less unfortunate than I am," he used to tell me. "You can do +something besides things for the stage. I can't. That's my only +resource." + +When Bizet put on the delightful _Pêcheurs de Perles_--he was helped by +powerful influences--there was a general outcry and an outbreak of +abuse. The Devil himself straight from Hell would not have received a +worse reception. Later on, as we know, _Carmen_ was received in the +same way. + +I was, indeed, able to do something beside work for the stage, and it +was just that which closed the stage to me. I was a writer of +symphonies, an organist and a pianist, so how could I be capable of +writing an opera! The qualities which go to make a pianist were in a +particularly bad light in the greenroom. Bizet played the piano +admirably, but he never dared to play in public for fear of making his +position worse. + +I suggested to Carvalho that I write a _Macbeth_ for Madame Viardot. +Naturally enough he preferred to put on Verdi's _Macbeth_. It was an +utter failure and cost him thirty thousand francs. + +They tried to interest a certain princess, a patron of the arts, in my +behalf. "What," she replied, "isn't he satisfied with his position? He +plays the organ at the Madeleine and the piano at my house. Isn't that +enough for him?" + +But that wasn't enough for me, and to overcome the obstacles, I caused a +scandal. At the age of twenty-eight I competed for the _Prix de Rome_! +They did not give it to me on the ground that I didn't need it, but the +day after the award, Auber, who was very fond of me, asked Carvalho for +a libretto for me. Carvalho gave me _Le Timbre d'Argent_, which he +didn't know what to do with as several musicians had refused to touch +it. There were good reasons for this, for, despite an excellent +foundation for the music, the libretto had serious faults. I demanded +that Barbier and Carré, the authors, should make important changes, +which they did at once. Then, I retired to the heights of Louveciennes +and in two months wrote the score of the five acts which the work had at +first. + +I had to wait two years before Carvalho would consent to hear the music. +Finally, worn out by my importunities, they decided to get rid of me, so +Carvalho invited me to dine with him and to bring my score. After dinner +I went to the piano. Carvalho was on one side and Madame Carvalho on the +other. Both were very pleasant and charming, but the real meaning of +this friendliness did not escape me. + +They had no doubts about what awaited them. Both really loved music and +little by little they fell under the spell. Serious attention succeeded +the false friendliness. At the end they were enthusiastic. Carvalho +declared that he would have the study of the work begun as soon as +possible; it was a masterpiece; it would have a great success, but to +assure this success, Madame Carvalho must sing the principal part. + +Now the principal part in _Le Timbre d'Argent_ is that of a dancer and +the singer's part is greatly subordinate. To remedy this they decided to +develop the part. Barbier invented a pretty situation to bring in the +passage _Bonheur est chose legère_, but that wasn't enough. Barbier and +Carré racked their brains without finding any solution of the +difficulty, for on the stage as elsewhere there are problems that can't +be solved. + +Between times they tried to find a dancer of the first rank. Finally, +they found one who had recently left the Opéra, although still at the +height of her beauty and talent. And they continued to seek a way to +make the part of Hélène worthy of Madame Carvalho. + +The famous director had one mania. He wanted to collaborate in every +work he staged. Even a work hallowed by time and success had to bear +his mark; much greater were his reasons for interpolating in a new work. +He would announce brusquely that the period or the country in which the +action of the work took place must be changed. He tormented us for a +long time to make the dancer into a singer on his wife's account. Later, +he wanted to introduce a second dancer. With the exception of the +prologue and epilogue the action of the piece takes place in a dream, +and he took upon himself the invention of the most bizarre combinations. +He even proposed to me one day to introduce wild animals. Another time +he wanted to cut out all the music with the exception of the choruses +and the dancer's part, and have the rest played by a dramatic company. +Later, as they were rehearsing Hamlet at the Opéra and it was rumored +that Mlle. Nilsson was going to play a water scene, he wanted Madame +Carvalho to go to the bottom of a pool to find the fatal bell. + +Foolishness of this kind took up two years. + +Finally, we gave up the idea of Mme. Carvalho's coöperation. The part of +Hélène was given to beautiful Mlle. Schroeder and the rehearsals began. +They were interrupted by the failure of the Théâtre-Lyrique. + +Shortly afterwards Perrin asked for _Le Timbre d'Argent_ for the Opéra. +The adaptation of the work for the large stage at the Opéra necessitated +important modifications. The whole of the dialogue had to be set to +music and the authors went to work on it. Perrin gave us Madame Carvalho +for Hélène and Faure for Spiridion, but he wanted to burlesque the part +for the tenor and give it to Mlle. Wertheimber. He wanted to engage her +and had no other part for her. This was impossible. After several +discussions Perrin yielded to the obstinate refusals of the authors, but +I saw clearly from his attitude that he would never play our work. + +About that time du Locle took over the management of the Opéra-Comique. +He saw that Perrin, who was his uncle, had decided not to stage _Le +Timbre d'Argent_ and asked me for it. + +This meant another metamorphosis for the work and new and considerable +work for the musician. And this work was by no means easy. Until this +time Barbier and Carré had been as close friends as Orestes and Pylades, +but now they had a falling out. What one proposed, the other +systematically refused. One lived in Paris; the other in the country. I +went from Paris to the country and from the country to Paris trying to +get these warring brothers to agree. This going to and fro lasted all +summer, and then the temporary enemies came to an understanding and +became as friendly as ever. + +We seemed to be nearly at the end of our troubles. Du Locle had found a +wonderful dancer in Italy on whom we depended, but the dancer turned out +not to be one at all. She was a _mime_, and did not dance. + +As there was no time to look for another dancer that season du Locle, to +keep me patient, had me write with Louis Gallet _La Princesse Jaune_, +with which I made my debut on the stage. I was thirty-five! This +harmless little work was received with the fiercest hostility. "It is +impossible to tell," wrote Jouvin, a much feared critic of the time, "in +what key or in what time the overture is written." And to show me how +utterly wrong I was, he told me that the public was "a compound of +angles and shadows." His prose was certainly more obscure than my music. + +Finally, a real dancer was engaged in Italy. It seemed as though nothing +more could prevent the appearance of the unfortunate _Timbre_. "I can't +believe it," I said. "Some catastrophe will put us off again." + +War came! + +When that frightful crisis was at an end, the dancer was re-engaged. The +parts were read to the artists, and the next day Amédé Achard threw up +his rôle, declaring that it belonged to grand opera and was beyond the +powers of an opéra-comique tenor. It is well known that he ended his +career at the Opéra. + +Another tenor had to be found, but tenors are rare birds and we were +unable to get one. To use the dancer he had engaged du Locle had Gallet +and Guiraud improvise a short act, _Le Kobold_, which met with great +success. The dancer was exquisite. Then du Locle lost interest in _Le +Timbre d'Argent_ and then came the failure of the Opéra-Comique. + +During all these tribulations I was preparing _Samson_, although I +could find no one who even wanted to hear me speak of it. They all +thought that I must be mad to attempt a Biblical subject. I gave a +hearing of the second act at my house, but no one understood it at all. +Without the aid of Liszt, who did not know a note of it, but who engaged +me to finish it and put it on at Weimar, _Samson_. would never have seen +the light. Afterwards it was refused in succession by Halanzier, +Vaucorbeil, and Ritt and Gailhard, who decided to take it only after +they had heard it sung by that admirable singer Rosine Bloch. + +But to return to _Le Timbre d'Argent_. I was again on the street with my +score under my arm. About that time Vizentini revived the +Théâtre-Lyrique. His first play was _Paul et Virginie_, a wonderful +success, and he was preparing for the close of the season another work +which he liked. They were kindly disposed to me at the Ministry of Fine +Arts and they interested themselves in my misfortunes. So they gave the +Théâtre-Lyrique a small subsidy on condition that they play my work. I +came to the theatre as one who has meddled and I quickly recognized the +discomforts of my position. First, there was a search for a singer; +then, for a tenor, and they tried several without success. I found a +tenor who, according to all reports, was of the first rank, but, after +several days of negotiation, the matter was dropped. I learned later +from the artist that the manager intended to engage him for only four +performances, evidently planning that the work should be played only +four times. + +The choice finally fell on Blum. He had a fine voice, and was a perfect +singer but no actor. Indeed he said he didn't want to be an actor; his +ideal was to appear in white gloves. Each day brought new bickerings. +They made cuts despite my wishes; they left me at the mercy of the +insubordination and rudeness of the stage manager and the ballet master, +who would not listen to my most modest suggestions. I had to pay the +cost of extra musicians in the wings myself. Some stage settings which I +wanted for the prologue were declared impossible--I have seen them since +in the _Tales of Hoffman_. + +Furthermore, the orchestra was very ordinary. There had to be numerous +rehearsals which they did not refuse me, but they took advantage of them +to spread the report that my music was unplayable. A young journalist +who is still alive (I will not name him) wrote two advance notices which +were intended to pave the way for the failure of my work. + +At the last moment the director saw that he had been on the wrong tack +and that he might have a success. As they had played fairyland in the +theatre in the Square des-Arts-et-Métiers, he had at hand all the needed +material to give me a luxurious stage-setting without great expense. +Mlle. Caroline Salla was given the part of Hélène. With her beauty and +magnificent voice she was certainly remarkable. But the passages which +had been written for the light high soprano of Madame Carvalho were +poorly adapted for a dramatic soprano. They concluded, therefore, that I +didn't know how to write vocal music. + +In spite of everything the work was markedly successful, the natural +result of a splendid performance in which two stars--Melchissedech and +Mlle. Adeline Théodore, at present teacher of dancing at the +Opéra--shone. + +Poor Vizentini! His opinion of me has changed greatly since that time. +We were made to understand and love each other, so he has become, with +years, one of my best and most devoted friends. He first produced my +ballet _Javotte_ at the Grand-Théâtre in Lyons, which the Monnaie in +Brussels had ordered and then refused. He had dreams of directing the +Opéra-Comique and installing _Le Timbre d'Argent_ there. Fate willed +otherwise. + +We have seen how the young French school was encouraged under the +Empire. The situation has improved and the old state of affairs has +never returned. But we find more than the analogy between the old point +of view and the one that was revealed not long ago when the French +musicians complained that they were more or less sacrificed in favor of +their foreign contemporaries. At bottom it is the same spirit in a +modified form. + +To resume. As everyone knows, the way to become a blacksmith is by +working at a forge. Sitting in the shade does not give the experience +which develops talent. We should never have known the great days of the +Italian theatre, if Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi had had to +undergo our régime. If Mozart had had to wait until he was forty to +produce his first opera, we should never have had _Don Giovanni_ or _Le +Nozze di Figaro_, for Mozart died at thirty-five. + +The policy imposed on Bizet and Delibes certainly deprived us of several +works which would now be among the glories of the repertoire at the +Opéra and the Opéra-Comique. That is an irreparable misfortune; one +which we cannot sufficiently deplore. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOUIS GALLET + + +As _Déjanire_, cast in a new form, has again appeared in the vast frame +of the Opéra stage, I may be allowed to recall my recollections of my +friend and collaborator, Louis Gallet, the diligent and chosen companion +of my best years, whose support was so dear and precious to me. +Collaboration for some reason unknown to me is deprecated. Opera, it is +said, should spring from the brain like Minerva, fully armed. So much +the better if such divine intellects can be found, but they are rare and +always will be. For dramatic and literary art on the one hand and +musical art on the other require different powers, which are not +ordinarily found in the same person. + +I first met Louis Gallet in 1871. Camille du Locle, who was the manager +of the Opéra-Comique at the time, could not put on _Le Timbre d'Argent_, +and while he waited for better days, which never came, to do that, he +offered me a one-act work. He proposed Louis Gallet as my collaborator, +although I had not known him until then. "You were made to understand +each other," he told me. Gallet was then employed in some capacity at +the Beaujon hospital and lived near me in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. We +soon formed the habit of seeing each other every day. Du Locle had +judged aright. We had the same tastes in art and literature. We were +equally averse to whatever is too theatrical and also to whatever is not +sufficiently so, to the commonplace and the too extravagant. We both +despised easy success and we understood each other wonderfully. Gallet +was not a musician, but he enjoyed and understood music, and he +criticised with rare good taste. + +Japan had recently been opened to Europeans. Japan was fashionable; all +they talked about was Japan, it was a real craze. So the idea of writing +a Japanese piece occurred to us. We submitted the idea to du Locle, but +he was afraid of an entirely Japanese stage setting. He wanted us to +soften the Japanese part, and it was he, I think, who had the idea of +making it half Japanese and half Dutch, the way the slight work _La +Princesse Jaune_ was cast. + +That was only a beginning and in our daily talks we sketched the most +audacious projects. The leading concerts of the time did not balk at +performing large vocal works, as they too often do to-day to the great +detriment of the variety of their programmes. We then thought that we +were at the beginning of the prosperity of French oratorio which only +needed encouragement to flourish. I read by chance in an old Bible this +wonderful phrase, + +"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth," and so I +proposed to Gallet that we do a Deluge. At first he wanted to introduce +characters. "No," I said, "put the Bible narrative into simple verse, +and I will do the rest." We know with what care and success he +accomplished his delicate task. Meanwhile he gave Massenet the texts for +_Marie-Madeleine_ and _Le Roi de Lahore_, and these two works created a +great stir in the operatic world. + +We had dreams of historical opera, for we were quite without the +prejudice against this form of drama which afflicts the present school. +But I was not _persona grata_ to the managers and I did not know at what +door to knock, when one of my friends, Aimé Gros, took the management of +the Grand-Théâtre at Lyons and asked me for a work. This was a fine +opportunity and we grasped it. We put together, with difficulty but with +infinite zest, our historical opera, _Etienne Marcel_, in which Louis +Gallet endeavored to respect as far as is possible in a theatrical work +the facts of history. Despite illustrious examples to the contrary he +did not believe that it was legitimate to attribute to a character who +has actually lived acts and opinions that are entirely fanciful. I was +in full agreement with him in that as in so many other things. I go even +farther and cannot accustom myself to the queer sauces in which +legendary characters are often served. It seems to me that the legend is +the interesting thing, and not the character, and that the latter loses +all its value when the legend which surrounds it is destroyed. But +everyone knows that I am a crank. + +Some time after my _Henri VIII_, in which Vaucorbeil had imposed +another collaborator on me, Ritt asked me for a new work. We were +looking about for a subject, when Gallet came to my house and timidly, +as if fearing a rebuff, proposed _Benvenuto Cellini_. I had thought of +that for a long time, and the idea had come to me of putting into +musical form that fine drama, which had had its hours of glory, where +Mélingue modeled the statue of Hebe before the populace. I, therefore, +accepted the suggestion with pleasure. This enterprise brought me in +touch with Paul Meurice, whom I had known in my childhood, when he was +wooing Mlle. Granger, his first wife and an intimate friend of my +mother's. Paul Meurice revealed a secret to me: that the romance +_Ascanio_, attributed to Alexander Dumas, had been entirely written by +Meurice. The work met with a great success, and out of gratitude, Dumas +offered to help Meurice in constructing a drama from the romance, which +was to be signed by Meurice alone. So it is easy for one who knows +Dumas's dramas to find traces of his handiwork in _Benvenuto Cellini_. + +It was not particularly easy to make an opera out of the play, and +Gallet and I worked together at it with considerable difficulty. We soon +saw that we should have to eliminate the famous scene of the casting of +the statue. When we reached this point in the play, Benvenuto had +already done a good deal of singing, and this scene with its violence +seemed certain to exceed the strength of the most valiant artist. In +connection with our _Proserpine_, I have been accused of supposing that +Vacquerie had genius. It would be too much to say that he had genius, +but he certainly had great talent. His prose showed a classical +refinement, and his poetry, in spite of fantastic passages which no one +could admire, was sonorous in tone, contained precious material, and was +both interesting and highly individual. What allured me in _Proserpine_ +was the amount of inner emotion there was in the drama, which is very +advantageous to the music. Music gives expression to feelings which the +characters cannot express, and accentuates and develops the +picturesqueness of the piece; it makes acceptable what would not even +exist without it. + +Vacquerie approved highly the convent scene which Gallet invented. This +introduced a quiet and peaceful note amidst the violence of the original +work. Gallet wrote a sonnet in Alexandrine verse for Sabatino's +declaration of his love. I was unable to set this to music, for the +twelve feet embarrassed me and prevented my getting into my stride. As I +did not know what else to do, I took the sonnet and by main force +reduced the verse to ten feet with a cæsura at the fifth foot. I took +this to my dear collaborator in fear and trembling, and, as I had +feared, he at once fell into the depths of despair. + +"That was the best thing in my work," he said. "I nursed and caressed +that sonnet, and now you have ruined it." + +In the face of this despair, I screwed up my courage. As I had +previously cut down the verse, I now tried lengthening out the music. +Then, I sang both versions to the disconsolate poet. + +And what a miracle! He was altogether reconciled, approved both +versions, and did not know which one to choose. We ended with a +patchwork. The two quatrains are in verses of ten feet, and the two +tiercets in Alexandrine metre. + +Outside of our work, too, our relations were delightful. We wrote to +each other constantly in both prose and verse; we bombarded each other +with sonnets; his letters were sometimes ornamented with water colors, +for he drew very well and one of his joys was to cover white paper with +color. Gallet drew the sketches for the desert in _Le Roi de Lahore_ and +the cloister in _Proserpine_. + +When Madame Adam founded the _Nouvelle Revue_ she offered me the +position of musical critic, which I did not think I ought to accept. She +did not know where to turn. "Take Gallet," I advised her. "He is an +accomplished man of letters. He is not a musician in the sense that he +has studied music, but he has the soul of a musician, which is worth +much more." Madame Adam followed my advice and found it good. + +At this period, under the guise of Wagnerism, the wildest theories and +the most extravagant assertions were current in musical criticism. +Gallet was naturally well poised and independent and he did not do as +the rest did. Instead he opposed them, but from unwillingness to give +needless offense he displayed marked tact and discretion in his +criticisms. This did him no good, however, for it aroused no sentiment +of gratitude, and without giving him credit for a literary style that +was rare among librettists, his contemporaries received each of his +works with a hostility entirely devoid of either justice or mercy. +Gallet felt this hostility keenly. He felt that he did not deserve it, +since he took so much care in his work and put so much courtesy into his +criticism. The blank verse he used in _Thaïs_ with admirable regard for +color and harmony, counting on the music to take the place of the rhyme, +was not appreciated. This verse was free from assonance and the +banalities which it draws into operatic works, but it kept the rhythm +and sonorous sound which is far removed from prose. That was the period +when there was nothing but praise for Alfred Ernst's gibberish, though +that was an insult alike to the French language and the masterpieces he +had the temerity to translate. Gallet used the same blank verse in +_Déjanire_, although its use here was more debatable, but he handled it +with surprising skill. Now that this text has been set to music, it +shows its full beauty. + +Louis Gallet devoted a large part of his time to administrative duties, +for he was successively treasurer and manager of hospitals. Nevertheless +he produced works in abundance. He left a record of no less than forty +operatic librettos, plays, romances, memoirs, pamphlets, and innumerable +articles. I wish I knew what to say about the man himself, his +unwearying goodness, his loyalty, his scrupulousness, his good humor, +his originality, his continual common sense, and his intellect, alert to +everything unusual and interesting. + +What good talks we used to have as we dined under an arbor in the large +garden which was his delight at Lariboisière! I used to take him seeds, +and he made amusing botanical experiments with them. + +He was seriously ill at one period of his life. He was wonderfully +nursed by his wife--who was a saint--and he endured prolonged and +atrocious sufferings with the patience of a saint. He watched the growth +of his fatal disease with a stoicism worthy of the sages of antiquity +and he had no illusion about the implacable illness which slowly but +surely would result in his premature death. A constantly increasing +deafness was his greatest trouble. This cruel infirmity had made +frightful progress when, in 1899, the Arènes de Béziers opened its doors +for the second time to _Déjanire_. In spite of everything, including his +ill health which made the trip very painful, he wanted to see his work +once more. He heard nothing, however--neither the artists, the choruses, +nor even the applause of the several thousand spectators who encored it +enthusiastically. A little later he passed on, leaving in his friends' +hearts and at the work-tables of his collaborators a void which it is +impossible to fill. + +[Illustration: The First Performance of _Déjanire_ at Les Arènes de +Béziers] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY IN OPERA + + +Oceans of ink have been spilled in discussing the question of whether +the subjects of operas should be taken from history or mythology, and +the question is still a mooted one. To my mind it would have been better +if the question had never been raised, for it is of little consequence +what the answer is. The only things worth while are whether the music is +good and the work interesting. But _Tannhauser_, _Lohengrin_, _Tristan_ +and _Siegfried_ appeared and the question sprang up. The heroes of +mythology, we are told, are invested with a prestige which historical +characters can never have. Their deeds lose significance and in their +place we have their feelings, their emotions, to the great benefit of +the operas. After these works, however, _Hans Sachs_ (Die Meistersinger) +appeared, and although he is not mythical at all he is a fine figure +nevertheless. But in this case the plot is of little account, for the +interest lies mainly in the emotions--the only thing, it appears, which +music with its divine language ought to express. + +It is true that music makes it possible to simplify dramatic action and +it gives a chance, as well, for the free expression and play of +sentiments, emotions and passions. In addition, music makes possible +pantomimic scenes which could not be done otherwise, and the music +itself flows more easily under such conditions. But that does not mean +that such conditions are indispensable for music. Music in its +flexibility and adaptability offers inexhaustible resources. Give Mozart +a fairy tale like the _Magic Flute_ or a lively comedy such as _Le Nozze +di Figaro_ and he creates without effort an immortal masterpiece. + +It is a question whether there is any essential difference between +history and mythology. History is made up of what probably happened; +mythology of what probably did not happen. There are myths in history +and history in myths. Mythology is merely the old form of history. +Every myth is rooted in truth. And we have to seek for this truth in +the fable, just as we try to reconstruct extinct animals from the +remains Time has preserved to us. Behind the story of Prometheus we see +the invention of fire; behind the loves of Ceres and Triptolemus the +invention of the plow and the beginnings of agriculture. The adventures +of the Argonauts show us the first attempts at voyages of exploration +and the discovery of gold mines. Volumes have been written about the +truths behind the fables, and explanations have been found for the +strangest facts of mythology, even for the metamorphoses which Ovid +described so poetically. + +Halfway between history and mythology come the sacred writings. Each +race has its own. Ours are the Old and New Testament. Many believe that +these books are myths; a larger number--the Believers--that they are +history, Sacred History, the only true history--the only one about which +it is not permitted to express a doubt. If you want a proof of this, +recall that not so many years ago a clergyman in the Church of England +was censured by his ecclesiastical superiors for daring to say in a +sermon that the Serpent in the Garden of Eden was symbolical and not a +real creature. + +And the ecclesiastical authorities were right. The basis of Christianity +is the Redemption--the incarnation and sacrifice of God himself to blot +out the stain of the first great sin and also to open the Kingdom of +Heaven to men. That original sin was Adam's fall, when he followed the +example of Eve, a victim of the Serpent's treacherous counsels, and +disobeyed the command not to taste the Forbidden Fruit. Eliminate the +Garden of Eden, the Serpent, the Forbidden Fruit, and the entire fabric +of Christianity crumbles. + +If we turn to profane history and take any historical work, we find that +the facts are told in such a way that they seem to us beyond dispute. +But if we see the same facts from the pen of another historian, we no +longer recognize them. The reason is that a writer almost never +undertakes the task of wrestling with the giant, History, unless he is +impelled to do so by a preconceived idea, by a general conception, or a +system he wants to establish. And whether he wants to or not, he sees +the facts in a light favorable to his preconceived idea, and observes +them through prisms which increase or diminish their importance at his +will. Then, however great his discernment and however strong his desire +to reach the truth, it is doubtful if he ever will. In history, as +elsewhere, absolute truth escapes mankind. Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame +de Maintenon, Madame de Pompadour, Louis XVI, even Napoleon and +Josephine, so near our own times, are already quasi-mythical characters. +The Louis XIII of _Marion de Lorme_ seemed until very lately to be +accurate, but recent discoveries show us that he was quite different. + +Napoleon III reigned only yesterday, but his picture is already painted +in different tints. My entire youth was passed in his reign and my +recollections represent him neither as the monster depicted by Victor +Hugo nor the kind sympathetic sovereign of present-day stories. + +There has been a great deal of discussion of the causes which brought on +the War of 1870. We know all that was said and done during the last days +of that crisis, but will anyone ever know what was hidden in the minds +of the sovereigns, the ministers, and the ambassadors? Will it ever be +known whether the Emperor provoked Gramont or Gramont the Emperor? Did +they even know themselves? There is one thing the most discerning +historian can never reach--the depths of the human soul. + +We may, however, learn the secrets of the tomb. It was asserted for a +long time that the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau had been exhumed, +desecrated, and thrown into the sewers. Victor Hugo wrote a wonderful +account of this--an account such as only he could write. One fine day +doubt about this occurrence popped up unexpectedly. After waiting a long +time it was decided to get to the heart of the matter, and they finally +opened the coffins of the two great men. They were peacefully sleeping +their last sleep. The deed never took place; its history was a myth. + +In this connection Victor Hugo's credulity may be mentioned, for it was +astonishing in a man of such colossal genius. He believed in the most +incredible things, as the "Man in the Iron Mask," the twin brother of +Louis XIV; in the octopus that has no mouth and feeds itself through its +arms; and in the reality of the Japanese sirens which the Japanese were +said to make out of an ape and a fish. He had some excuse for the sirens +as the Académie des Sciences believed in them for a short time. + +If what is called history is so near mythology as, many times, to be +confounded with it, what about romance and the historical drama in which +events, entirely imaginative, must of necessity find a place? What about +the long-drawn-out conversations in books and on the stage that are +attributed to historical persons? What about the actions attributed to +them, which need not be true but only seem to be so? The supernatural +element is the only thing lacking to make such works mythological in +every way. + +Now the supernatural lends itself admirably to expression in music and +music finds in the supernatural a wealth of resources. But these +resources are by no means indispensable. What music must have above all +are emotions and passions laid bare and set in action by what we term +the situation. And where can one find more or better situations than in +history? + + * * * * * + +From the time of Lulli until the end of the Eighteenth Century French +opera was legendary, that is to say, it was mythological in character +and was not, as has been pretended, limited to the depiction of emotion +and the inner feelings in order to avoid contingencies. The real motive +was to find in fables material for a spectacle. Tragedy, as we know, +does not do this, for it can be developed only with considerable +difficulty when the stage is crowded with actors. On the contrary, +opera, which is free in its movements and can fill a vast stage, seeks +for pomp, display and haloes in which gods and goddesses appear, in fact +all that can be put into a stage-setting. If they did not use local +color, it was because local color had not been invented. Finally, as we +all get tired of everything, so they tired of mythology. Then the +historical work was adopted and appeared on the stage with success, as +is well known. The historical method had no rival until _Robert le +Diable_ rather timidly brought back the legendary element which +triumphed later in the work of Richard Wagner. + +In the meantime _Les Huguenots_ succeeded _Robert le Diable_ and for +half a century this was the bright particular star of historical opera. +Even now, although its traditions have largely been forgotten and +although its workmanship is rather inferior to that of a later time, +this memorable work nevertheless shines, like the setting sun, +surprisingly brilliantly. The several generations who admired this work +were not altogether wrong. There is no necessity to class this brilliant +success as a failure, because Robert Schumann, who knew nothing about +the stage, denied its worth. It is surprising that Berlioz's judgment +has not been set against Schumann's. Berlioz showed his enthusiasm for +_Les Huguenots_ in his famous treatise on instrumentation. + +The great public is little interested in technical polemics and is +faithful to the old successes. Although little by little success has +come to operas based on legends, there still remains a taste for operas +with a historical background. This is not without a reason for as an +authoritative critic has said: "A historical drama may contain lyric +possibilities far greater than most of the poor, weak mythological +librettos on which composers waste their strength, fully persuaded that +by doing so they cause 'the holy spirit of Bayreuth to descend upon +them.'" + +And they never would have dreamed of being mythological, if their god, +instead of turning to Scandinavian mythology, had followed his original +intention of dramatizing the exploits of Frederick Barbarossa. In his +youth he was not opposed to historical opera, for he eulogized _La +Musette de Portici_, _La Juive_, and _La Reine de Chypre_. He made some +justifiable criticisms of the libretto of the last work, although he +admitted that the composer had contrived to write beautiful passages. + +"We cannot praise Halévy too highly," he wrote, "for the firmness with +which he resists every temptation, to which many of his contemporaries +succumb, to steal easy applause by relying blindly on the talent of the +singers. On the contrary, he demands that his _virtuosi_, even the most +famous of them, shall subordinate themselves to the lofty inspiration +of his Muse. He attains this result by the simplicity and truth he knows +how to stamp on dramatic melodies." + +This is what Richard Wagner said about _La Juive_ in 1842. + +Fortunately we no longer demand that operas be mythological, for if we +did we should have to condemn the famous Russian operas and that is out +of the question. However, the method of treatment is still in dispute +and this question is involved. One method of treatment is admitted and +another is not and it is extremely difficult to tell what is what. + +I am now going to do a little special pleading for my _Henri VIII_, +which, it would seem, is not in the proper manner. Not that I want to +defend the music or to protest against the criticisms it has inspired, +for that is not done. But I may, perhaps, be permitted to speak of the +piece itself and to tell how the music was adapted to it. + +According to the critics it would seem that the whole of _Henri VIII_ is +superficial and without depth, _en façade_; that the souls of the +characters are not revealed, and that the King, at first all sugary +sweetness, suddenly becomes a monster without any preparation for, or +explanation of, the change. + +In this connection let us consider _Boris Godounof_, for there is a +historical drama suited to its music. I saw _Boris Godounof_ with +considerable interest. I heard pleasant and impressive passages, and +others less so. In one scene I saw an insignificant friar who suddenly +becomes the Emperor in the next scene. One entire act is made up of +processions, the ringing of bells, popular songs, and dazzling costumes. +In another scene a nurse tells pretty stories to the children in her +charge. Then there is a love duet, which is neither introduced nor has +any relationship to the development of the work; an incomprehensible +evening entertainment, and, finally, funeral scenes in which Chaliapine +was admirable. It was not my fault if I did not discover in all that the +inner life, the psychology, the introductions, and the explanations +which they complain they do not find in _Henri VIII_. + +"To Henry VIII," it is stated at the beginning of the work, "nothing is +sacred, neither friendship, love nor his word--ill are playthings of +his mad whims. He knows neither law nor justice." And when, a little +later, smiling, the King hands the holy water to the ambassador he is +receiving, the orchestra reveals the working of his mind by repeating +the music of the preceding scene. From beginning to end the work is +written in this way. But dissertations on such details have not been +given the public; the themes of felony, cruelty, and duplicity, and of +this and that, have not, as is the fashion of the day, been underlined, +so that the critics are excusable for not seeing them. + +Not a scene, not a word, they say, shows the soul of Henry VIII. I would +like to ask if it is not revealed in the great scene between Henry and +Catharine, where he plays with her as a cat with a mouse, where he veils +his desire to be rid of her under his religious scruples, and where he +heaps on her constantly vile and cruel insinuations, or even in the last +scene with its cruel hypocrisies. It is difficult to see why all his +passions and all his feelings are not brought into play here. The +Russian librettos do no more, nor the operas based on mythology. + +But to continue. From the point of view of opera mythology offers one +advantage in the use of the miraculous. But the rest of the mythical +element offers, rather, difficulties. Characters who never existed and +in whom no one believes cannot be made interesting in themselves. They +do not sustain, as is sometimes supposed, the music and poetry. On the +contrary, the music and poetry give them such reality as they possess. +We could not endure the interminable utterances of the mournful Wotan, +if it were not for the wonderful music that accompanies them. Orpheus +weeping over Eurydice would not move us greatly, if Gluck had not known +how to captivate us by his first notes. If it were not for Mozart's +music, the puppets of the _Magic Flute_ would amount to nothing. + +Musicians should, as a matter of fact, be allowed to choose both the +subject and motives for their operas according to their temperaments and +their feelings. Much youthful talent is lost to-day because the young +composers believe that they must obey set rules instead of obeying their +own inspiration. All great artists, the illustrious Richard more than +any other, mocked the critics. + +As I have spoken of Richard Wagner's youth, I will take advantage of the +opportunity to reveal a secret of one of his own works which is known to +me alone. When Wagner was young, I was a child and I attended constantly +the sessions of the Société des Concerts. The kettledrummer of that day +had a peculiar habit of breaking in before the rest of the orchestra. +When the others began, it produced an effect which the authors had +hardly foreseen and which was certain to be condemned. But the effect +had a rather distinctive character and I thought it might be possible to +use it. Richard Wagner lived in Paris at the time and frequented the +famous concerts. There is no doubt that he noted this effect and used it +in his overture to _Faust_. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ART FOR ART'S SAKE + + +What is Art? + +Art is a mystery--something which responds to a special sense, peculiar +to the human race. This is ordinarily called the esthetic sense, but +that is an inexact term, for esthetic sense signifies a sense of the +beautiful and what is esthetic is not necessarily beautiful. Sense of +style would be better. + +Some of the savage races have this sense of style, for their arms and +utensils show a remarkable feeling for style, which they lose by contact +with civilization. + +By art let us understand, if you please, the Fine Arts alone, but +including decorative art. Music ought to be included. + +I shall astonish most of my readers, when I say that very few people +understand music. For most people it is, as Victor Hugo said, an +exhalation of art--something for the ear as perfume is for the olfactory +sense, a source of vague sensations, necessarily unformed as all +sensations are. But musical art is something entirely different. It has +line, modeling, color through instrumentation, all making up an ideal +sphere where some, like the writer of these lines, live from childhood +on, which others attain through education, while many others never know +it at all. Furthermore, musical art has more movement than the other +fine arts. It is the most mysterious of them all, although the others +are mysterious as it is easy to see. + +The first manifestation of art occurs through attempts to reproduce +objects. Such attempts have been found which date back to prehistoric +times. But what is primitive man's idea in such attempts? He wants to +record by a line the contour of the object, the likeness of which he +wishes to preserve. This contour and this line do not exist in nature. +The whole philosophy of art is in that crude drawing. It bases itself on +nature even while making something quite different in response to a +special, inexplicable need of the human spirit. Accordingly nothing can +be more chimerical or vain than the advice so often given to the artist +to be truthful. Art can never be true, even though it should not be +false. It should be true artistically, by giving an artistic translation +which will satisfy the sense of style of which we have spoken. When Art +has satisfied this sense of style, the object of artistic expression has +been attained; nothing more can be asked. But it is not the "vain effort +of an unproductive cleverness," as our M. de Mun has said; it is an +effort to satisfy a legitimate need, one of the loftiest and most +honorable in human nature--the need of art. + +If this is so, why should we demand that Art be useful or moral? It is +both in its own way, for it awakens noble and honest sentiments in the +soul. That was the opinion of Théophile Gautier, but Victor Hugo +disagreed. The sun is beautiful, he used to say, and it is useful. That +is true, but the sun is not an object of art. Besides, how many times +Victor Hugo denied his own doctrine by writing verses which were merely +brilliant descriptions or admirable bits of imagination? + +We are, however, talking of art and not of literature. Literature +becomes art in poetry but forsakes it in prose. Even if some of the +great prose writers rendered their prose artistic through the beauty and +harmony of their periods and the picturesqueness of their expressions, +still prose is not art in its real nature. So, crude indecency aside, +what would be immoral in prose ceases to be immoral in verse, for in +poetry Art follows its own code and form transcends the subject matter. +That is why a great poet, Sully-Prudhomme, preferred prose to verse when +he wanted to write philosophically, for he feared, on account of the +superiority of form to substance in poetry, that his ideas would not be +taken seriously. That explains as well why parents take young girls to +hear an opera, when if the same piece was played without music they +would be appalled at the idea. What Christian is ever shocked by _La +Juive_ or Catholic frightened away from _Les Huguenots_? + +Because prose is far removed from art, it is unsuited to music, despite +the fact that this ill-assorted union is fashionable to-day? In poetry +there has been an effort to make it so artistic that form alone is +considered and verse is written which is entirely without sense. But +that is a fad which can't last long. + +Sometime ago M. de Mun said: + +"Not to take sides is what the author is inhibited from doing. Art, to +my way of thinking, is a setting forth of ideas. If it is not that--if +it limits itself solely to considerations of form, to a worship of +beauty for its own sake, without regard to the deeds and thoughts it +brings to light, then it seems to me no better than the vain effort of +an unproductive cleverness." + +The eminent speaker is absolutely right as far as prose is concerned, +but we cannot agree with him if poetry is considered. + +Victor Hugo, in his marvellous ode, _La Lyre et La Harpe_ brings +Paganism and Christianity face to face. Each speaks in turn, and the +poet in his last stanza seems to acknowledge that both are right, but +that does not prevent the ode from being a masterpiece. That would +not be possible in prose, but in the poem the poetry carries all before +it. + +[Illustration: M. Saint-Saëns in his Later Years] + +Why is it that geniuses like Victor Hugo, distinguished minds, thinkers, +and profound critics, refuse to see that Art is a special entity which +responds to a certain sense? If Art accommodates itself marvellously, if +it accords itself with the precepts of morality and passion, it is +nevertheless sufficient unto itself--and in its self-sufficiency lies +its heights of greatness. + +The first prelude of Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_ expresses +nothing, and yet that is one of the marvels of music. The Venus de Milo +expresses nothing, and it is one of the marvels of sculpture. + +To tell the truth, it is proper to add that in order not to be immoral +Art must appeal to those who have a feeling for it. Where the artist +sees only beautiful forms, the gross see only nudity. I have seen a good +man scandalized at the sight of Ingres's _La Source_. + +Just as morality has no function to be artistic, so Art has nothing to +do with morality. Both have their own functions, and each is useful in +its own way. The final aim of morality is morality; of art, art, and +nothing else. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +POPULAR SCIENCE AND ART + + +René Bazin has sketched cleverly Pasteur's brilliant career. France has +no clearer claim to glory than in Pasteur, for he is one of the men, +who, in spite of everything, keeps her in the first rank of nations. + +A rare good fortune attended him. While many scholars who seek the truth +without concerning themselves with the practical results have to wait +many long years before their discoveries can be used, Pasteur's +discoveries were useful at once. So the mob, which cannot understand +science studied for its own sake, appreciated Pasteur's works. He saved +millions to the public treasury, and tens of thousands of human lives. + +He had already secured a notable place in science when the public +learned his name through the memorable contest between him and Pouchet +over "spontaneous generation." The probabilities of the case were on +Pouchet's side. People refused to believe that these organisms which +developed in great numbers in an enclosed jar or that the molds which +developed under certain conditions were not produced spontaneously. The +youth of the time went wild over the question. + +I was constantly being asked, "Are you for Pouchet or Pasteur?" and my +invariable response was, "I shall be for the one who proves he is +right." I was unwilling to admit that any such question could be solved +_a priori_ in accordance with preconceived ideas, although I must +confess that among my friends I found no one of the same opinion. + +We know how Pasteur won a striking victory through his patience and his +genius. He demonstrated that millions and millions of germs are present +in the air about us and that when one of them finds favorable +conditions, a living being appears which engenders others. "Many are +called, but few are chosen." This law may seem unjust, but it is one of +the great laws of Nature. + +Pasteur, the great benefactor, whose discoveries did so much for all +classes of society, should have been popular, but he was, on the +contrary, extremely unpopular. The leading publicists of the day were +influenced by some inexplicable sentiment and they made constant war on +him. When, after several years of prodigious labor, Pasteur ventured to +assert himself, they took advantage of his following the dictates of +humanity in accepting all sorts of cases, curable or not, to spread a +report that his treatment did not cure, but instead gave the disease +which it was supposed to cure. Popular fury was aroused to such a +height, that a monster mass meeting was held _against_ Pasteur. Louise +Michel addressed this meeting with her customary vigor of speech and +amidst frantic applause shouted this unqualified remark, "_Scientific +questions should be settled by the people._" + +By this time everybody was talking about microbes, and a shop on the +boulevards announced an exhibition of them. They used what is known as a +solar microscope and threw on a screen, suitably enlarged, the +animalculae which grow in impure water, the larvae of mosquitoes, and +other insects, which bear about the same relation to microbes that an +elephant does to a flea. I went into this establishment, and saw the +plain people with their wives looking at the exhibition very seriously +and really believing that they saw the famous microbes. One of them near +me said, with a knowing air, "What won't science do next?" + +I was indignant, and I had all I could do to keep from saying: "They are +fooling you. What they are showing you is not Science, at the most only +its antechamber. As for you who are deceiving these naïve good people, +you are only impostors." + +But I kept still; I would only have succeeded in getting thrown out. But +I said to myself--and I still say--"Why not enlighten these people, who +obviously want light?" It is impossible to _teach_ them science, but it +should be possible to make them at least comprehend what science _is_, +for they have no idea of it now. They do not know--in this era when they +are constantly talking about their rights and urged to demand more wages +and less work--that there are young people who are spending their best +years and leading a precarious existence, working day and night, without +hope of personal profit, with no other end in view besides the hope of +discovering new facts from which humanity may benefit at some time in +the future. They do not know that all the benefits of civilization which +they carelessly enjoy are the result of the long, painful and enormous +work of the thinkers whom they regard as idlers and visionaries who grow +rich from the sweat of the toilers. In a word, they should be taught to +give respect to what is worthy of it. + +It is true that there are scientific congresses, but these are serious +gatherings which attract only the select few. It should be possible to +interest everybody, and in order to make scientific meetings interesting +we should use motion pictures and concerts. + +But here we trench on art. We ought to teach the people not only science +but art as well, but the latter is the more difficult. + + * * * * * + +Modern peoples are not artistic. The Greeks were, and the Japanese were, +before the European invasion. An artistic people is recognized by their +ignorance of "objects of art," for in such an environment art is +everywhere. An artistic people no more dreams of creating art than a +great nobleman of consciously exhibiting a distinguished manner. +Distinction lies in his slightest mannerism without his being conscious +of the fact. So, among artistic peoples, the most ordinary and humble +objects have style. And this style, furthermore, is in perfect harmony +with the purpose of the object. It is absolutely appropriate for that +purpose in its proportions, in the purity of its lines, the elegance of +its form, its perfection of execution, and, above all, in its meaning. +When an outcry is raised against the ugliness and tawdriness of certain +objects in this country, the answer is, "But see how cheap they are!" +But style and conscience in work cost nothing. Feeling for art is, +however, inherent in human nature. The weapons of primitive peoples are +beautiful. The prehistoric hatchets of the Stone Age are perfect in +their contours. There is, therefore, no question of creating a feeling +for art in the people, but of awakening it. + +Music holds so important a place in the modern world, that we ought to +begin with that. There is plenty of gay music, easy to understand, which +is in harmony with the laws of art, and the people ought to hear it +instead of the horrors which they cram into our ears under the pretence +of satisfying our tastes. What pleases people most is sentimental music, +but it need not be a silly sentimentality. Instead, they ought to give +the people the charming airs which grow, as naturally as daisies on a +lawn, in the vast field of opéra-comique. That is not high art, it is +true, but it is pretty music and it is high art compared with what is +heard too often in the cafés. I am not ignorant of the fact that such +establishments employ talented people. But along with the good, what +frightful things one hears! And no one would listen to their +instrumental repertoire anywhere else! + +Every time anyone has tried to raise the standards and employ real +singers and real _virtuosi_, the attendance has increased. But, very +often, even at the theatres, the managers satisfy their own tastes under +the pretence of satisfying that of the public. That is, of course, +intensely human. We judge others by ourselves. + +A famous manager once said to me, as he pointed to an empty house, "The +public is amazing. Give them what they like, and they don't come!" + +One day I was walking in a garden. There was a bandstand and musicians +were playing some sort of music. The crowd was indifferent and passed by +talking without paying the slightest attention. Suddenly there sounded +the first notes of the delightful _andante_ of Beethoven's _Symphony in +D_--a flower of spring with a delicate perfume. At the first notes all +walking and talking stopped. And the crowd stood motionless and in an +almost religious silence as it listened to the marvel. When the piece +was over, I went out of the garden, and near the entrance I heard one of +the managers say, + +"There, you see they don't like that kind of music. + +And that kind of music was never played there again. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANARCHY IN MUSIC + + +Music is as old as human nature. We can get some idea of what it was at +first from the music of savage tribes. There were a few notes and +rudimentary melodies with blows struck in cadence as an accompaniment; +or, sometimes, the same primitive rhythms without any accompaniment--and +nothing else! Then melody was perfected and the rhythms became more +complicated. Later came Greek music, of which we know little, and the +music of the East and Far East. + +Music, as we now understand the term, began with the attempts at harmony +in the Middle Ages. These attempts were labored and difficult, and the +uncertainty of their gropings, combined with the slowness of their +development, excites our wonder. Centuries were necessary before the +writing of music became exact, but, slowly, laws were elaborated. +Thanks to them the works of the Sixteenth Century came into being, in +all their admirable purity and learned polyphony. Hard and inflexible +laws engendered an art analogous to primitive painting. Melody was +almost entirely absent and was relegated to dance tunes and popular +songs. But the dance tunes of the time, on which, perhaps, erudition was +not used sufficiently, were written in the same polyphonic style and +with the same rigid correctness as the madrigals and the church music. + +We know that the popular songs found their way into the church music and +that Palestrina's great reform consisted in banishing them. However, we +should get but a feeble idea of the part they played, if we imagined +that they naturally belonged there. Take a well known air, _Au Claire de +la Lune_, for example, and make each note a whole note sung by the +tenor, while the other voices dialogue back and forth in counterpoint, +and see what is left of the song for the listener. The scandal of _La +Messe de l'Homme armé_ was entirely theoretical. + +We simply do not know how they played these anthems, masses, and +madrigals, in the absence of any indication of either the time or the +emphasis. We find a few directions for expression, as in the first +measures of Palestrina's _Stabat Mater_ but such directions are +extremely rare. They are simply the first signs of the dawn of the +far-off day of music with expression. Certain learned and +well-intentioned persons endeavor to compare this music with ours, and +we surprise in some of the modern editions instances of _molto +expressivo_ which seem to be good guesses. This exclusively consonant +music, in which the intervals of fourths were considered dissonant, +while the diminishing fifth was the _diabolus in musica_, ought from its +very nature to be antithetical to expression. Nothing in the _Kyrie, in +La Messe du Pape Marcel_, gives the impression of a prayer, unless +expressive accents, without any real justification, are introduced by +main strength. + +Expression came into existence with the chord of the dominant seventh +from which all modern harmony developed. This invention is attributed to +Monteverde. No matter what has been said, however, it occurs in +Palestrina's _Adoremus_. Floods of ink have been poured out in +discussing this question, some affirming, while others--and not the +least, by any manner of means--denying the existence of the famous +chord. No equivocation is possible. It is a simultaneously played chord +held by four voices for a whole measure. What is certain is that +Palestrina, by putting aside the rules, made a discovery, the +significance of which he did not realize. + +With the introduction of the seventh interval a new era began. It would +be a grave error to believe that the rules were overturned, for, +instead, new principles were added to old ones as new conditions +demanded. They learned how to modulate, how to transpose from one key to +the next key and finally to the keys farthest away. In his treatise on +harmony Fétis studied this evolution in a masterly manner. Unfortunately +his scholarship was not combined with deep musical feeling. For example, +he saw faults in Mozart and Beethoven where there are only beauties, and +beauties which even an ignorant listener--if he is naturally +musical--will see without trouble. He did not understand the vast +difference between the unlettered person who commits a solecism and +Pascal, the inventor of a new syntax. + +However that may be, Fétis gave us a comprehensive review in broad +outlines of musical evolution down to what he justly called the +"omnitonic system," which Richard Wagner has achieved since. "Beyond +that," he said, "I can see nothing more." + +He did not foresee the a-tonic system, but that is what we have come to. +There is no longer any question of adding to the old rules new +principles which are the natural expression of time and experience, but +simply of casting aside all rules and every restraint. + +"Everyone ought to make his own rules. Music is free and unlimited in +its liberty of expression. There are no perfect chords, dissonant chords +or false chords. All aggregations of notes are legitimate." + +That is called, and they believe it, the _development of taste_. + +He whose taste is developed by this system is not like the man who by +tasting a wine can tell you its age and its vineyard, but he is rather +like the fellow who with perfect indifference gulps down good or bad +wine, brandy or whiskey, and prefers that which burns his gullet the +most. The man who gets his work hung in the Sâlon is not the one who +puts on his canvas delicate touches in harmonious tones, but he who +juxtaposes vermillion and Veronese green. The man with a "developed +taste" is not the one who knows how to get new and unexpected results by +passing from one key to another, as the great Richard did in _Die +Meistersinger_, but rather the man who abandons all keys and piles up +dissonances which he neither introduces nor concludes and who, as a +result, grunts his way through music as a pig through a flower garden. + +Possibly they may go farther still. There seems to be no reason why they +should linger on the way to untrammeled freedom or restrict themselves +within a scale. The boundless empire of sound is at their disposal and +let them profit by it. That is what dogs do when they bay at the moon, +cats when they meow, and the birds when they sing. A German has written +a book to prove that the birds sing false. Of course he is wrong for +they do not sing false. If they did, their song would not sound +agreeable to us. They sing outside of scales and it is delightful, but +that is not man-made art. + +Some Spanish singers give a similar impression, through singing +interminable grace notes beyond notation. Their art is intermediate +between the singing of the birds and of man. It is not a higher art. + +In certain quarters they marvel at the progress made in the last thirty +years. The architects of the Fifteenth Century must have reasoned in the +same way. They did not appreciate that they were assassinating Gothic +art, and that after some centuries we would have to revert to the art of +the Greeks and Romans. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ORGAN + + +When hairy Pan joined reeds of different lengths and so invented the +flute which bears his name, he was, in reality, creating the organ. It +needed only to add to this flute a keyboard and bellows to make one of +those pretty instruments the first painters used to put in the hands of +angels. As it developed and gradually became the most grandiose of the +instruments, the organ, with its depth of tone modified and increased +tenfold by the resonance of the great cathedrals, took on its religious +character. + +The organ is more than a single instrument. It is an orchestra, a +collection of the pipes of Pan of every size, from those as small as a +child's playthings to those as gigantic as the columns of a temple. Each +one corresponds to what is termed an organ-stop. The number is +unlimited. + +The Romans made organs which must have been simple from the musical +standpoint, though they were complicated in their mechanical +construction. They were called hydraulic organs. The employment of water +in a wind instrument has greatly perplexed the commentators. +Cavaillé-Coll studied the question and solved the problem by +demonstrating that the water compressed the air. This system was +ingenious but imperfect, since it was applicable only to the most +primitive instruments. The keys, it seems, were very large, and were +struck by blows of the fist. + +Let us leave erudition for art and primitive for perfected instruments. +By the time of Sebastian Bach and Rameau the organ had taken on its +grandiose character. The stops had multiplied and the organist _called_ +them by means of registers which he drew out or pushed back at will. In +order to give greater resources, the builder multiplied the keyboards. +Pedals were introduced to help out the keyboards. At that time Germany +alone had pedals worthy of the name and worth while in playing an +interesting bass part. In France and elsewhere the rudimentary pedals +were only used for certain fundamental notes or in prolonged _tenutos_. +No one outside of Germany could play Sebastian Bach's compositions. + +Playing on the old instruments was fatiguing and uncomfortable. The +touch was heavy and, when one used both the pedals and the keyboards, a +real display of strength was necessary. A similar display was necessary +to draw out or push back the registers, some of which were beyond the +player's reach. In short, an assistant was necessary, in fact several +assistants in playing large organs like those at Harlem or Arnheim in +Holland. It was almost impossible to modify the combinations of stops. +All nuances, save the abrupt change from strong to soft and vice versa, +were impossible. + +It remained for Cavaillé-Coll to change all this and open up new fields +of usefulness for the organ. He introduced in France keyboards worthy of +the name, and he gave to the higher notes, through his invention of +harmonic stops, a brilliancy they had lacked. He invented wonderful +combinations which allow the organist to change his combinations and to +vary the tone, without the aid of an assistant and without leaving the +keyboard. Even before his day a scheme had been devised of enclosing +certain stops in a box protected by shutters which a pedal opened and +closed at will; this permitted the finest shadings. By different +processes the touch of the organ was made as delicate as that of the +piano. + +For some years the Swiss organ-makers have been inventing new facilities +which make the organist a sort of magician. The manifold resources of +the marvellous instrument are at his command, obedient to his slightest +wish. + +These resources are prodigious. The compass of the organ far surpasses +that of all the instruments of the orchestra. The violin notes alone +reach the same height, but with little carrying power. As for the lower +tones, there is no competitor of the thirty-two-foot pipes, which go two +octaves below the violoncello's low C. Between the _pianissimo_ which +almost reaches the limit where sound ceases and silence begins, down to +a range of formidable and terrifying power, every degree of intensity +can be obtained from this magical instrument. The variety of its timbre +is broad. There are flute stops of various kinds; tonal stops that +approximate the timbre of stringed instruments; stops for effecting +changes in which each note, formed from several pipes, bring out +simultaneously its fundamental and harmonic sounds; stops which serve to +imitate the instruments of the orchestra, such as the trumpet, the +clarinet, and the cremona (an obsolete instrument with a timbre peculiar +to itself) and the bassoon. There are celestial voices of several kinds, +produced by combinations of two simultaneous stops which are not tuned +in perfect unison. Then we have the famous _Vox Humana_, a favorite with +the public, which is alluring even though it is tremulous and nasal, and +we have the innumerable combinations of all these different stops, with +the gradations that may be obtained through indefinite commingling of +the tones of this marvellous palette. + +Add to all this the continual breathing of the monster's lungs which +gives the sounds an incomparable and inimitable steadiness. Human +beings were used for a long time to fill these lungs--blowers working +away with hands and feet. We do much better now. The great organ in +Albert Hall, London, is supplied with air by steam which assures the +organist an inexhaustible supply. Other instruments use gas engines +which are more manageable. Then, there is the hydraulic system, which is +very powerful and easily used, for one has only to pull out a plug to +set the bellows in motion. + +These mechanical systems, however, are not entirely free from accidents. +I discovered that fact when I was concluding the first part of the +_Adagio_ in Liszt's great _Fantaisie_ in the beautiful Victoria Hall in +Geneva. The pipe which brought in the water burst and the organ was +mute. I have always thought, perhaps wrongly, that malice had something +to do with the accident. + +This Liszt _Fantaisie_ is the most extraordinary piece for the organ +there is. It lasts forty minutes and the interest is sustained +throughout. Just as Mozart in his _Fantaisie et Sonate in C minor_ +foresaw the modern piano, so Liszt, writing this _Fantaisie_ more than +half a century ago, appears to have foreseen the instrument of a +thousand resources which we have to-day. + +Let us have the courage to admit, however, that these resources are only +partly utilized as they can or should be. To draw from a great +instrument all its possibilities, to begin with, one must understand it +thoroughly, and that understanding cannot be gained over night. The +organ, as we have seen, is a collection of an indefinite number of +instruments. It places before the organist extraordinary means of +expressing himself. No two of these instruments are precisely alike. The +organ is only a theme with innumerable variations, determined by the +place in which it is to be installed, by the amount of money at the +builder's disposal, by his inventiveness, and, often, by his personal +whims. As a result time is required for the organist to learn his +instrument thoroughly. After this he is as free as the fish in the sea, +and his only preoccupation is the music. Then, to play freely with the +colors on his vast palette, there is but one way--he must plunge boldly +into improvisation. + +Now improvisation is the particular glory of the French school, but it +has been injured seriously of late by the influence of the German +school. Under the pretext that an improvisation is not so good as one of +Sebastian Bach's or Mendelssohn's masterpieces, young organists have +stopped improvising. + +That point of view is harmful because it is absolutely false; it is +simply the negation of eloquence. Consider what the legislative hall, +the lecture room and the court would be like if nothing but set pieces +were delivered. We are familiar with the fact that many an orator and +lawyer, who is brilliant when he talks, becomes dry as dust when he +tries to write. The same thing happens in music. Lefébure-Wély was a +wonderful improviser (I can say this emphatically, for I heard him) but +he left only a few unimportant compositions for the organ. I might also +name some of my contemporaries who express themselves completely only +through their improvisations. The organ is thought-provoking. As one +touches the organ, the imagination is awakened, and the unforeseen rises +from the depths of the unconscious. It is a world of its own, ever new, +which will never be seen again, and which comes out of the darkness, as +an enchanted island comes from the sea. + +Instead of this fairyland, we too often see only some of Sebastian +Bach's or Mendelssohn's pieces repeated continuously. The pieces +themselves are very fine, but they belong to concerts and are entirely +out of place in church services. Furthermore, they were written for old +instruments and they apply either not at all, or badly, to the modern +organ. Yet there are those who think this belief spells progress. + +I am fully aware of what may be said against improvisation. There are +players who improvise badly and their playing is uninteresting. But many +preachers speak badly. That, however, has nothing to do with the real +issue. A mediocre improvisation is always endurable, if the organist has +grasped the idea that church music should harmonize with the service and +aid meditation and prayer. If the organ music is played in this spirit +and results in harmonious sounds rather than in precise music which is +not worth writing out, it still is comparable with the old glass +windows in which the individual figures can hardly be distinguished but +which are, nevertheless, more charming than the finest modern windows. +Such an improvisation may be better than a fugue by a great master, on +the principle that nothing in art is good unless it is in its proper +place. + +[Illustration: The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saëns played the organ for +twenty years] + +During the twenty years I played the organ at the Madeleine, I +improvised constantly, giving my fancy the widest range. That was one of +the joys of life. + +But there was a tradition that I was a severe, austere musician. The +public was led to believe that I played nothing but fugues. So current +was this belief that a young woman about to be married begged me to play +no fugues at her wedding! + +Another young woman asked me to play funeral marches. She wanted to cry +at her wedding, and as she had no natural inclination to do so, she +counted on the organ to bring tears to her eyes. + +But this case was unique. Ordinarily, they were afraid of my +severity--although this severity was tempered. + +One day one of the parish vicars undertook to instruct me on this point. +He told me that the Madeleine audiences were composed in the main of +wealthy people who attended the Opéra-Comique frequently, and formed +musical tastes which ought to be respected. + +"Monsieur l'abbé," I replied, "when I hear from the pulpit the language +of opéra-comique, I will play music appropriate to it, and not before!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +JOSEPH HAYDN AND THE "SEVEN WORDS" + + +Joseph Haydn, that great musician, the father of the symphony and of all +modern music, has been neglected. We are too prone to forget that +concerts are, in a sense, museums in which the older schools of music +should be represented. Music is something besides a source of sensuous +pleasure and keen emotion, and this resource, precious as it is, is only +a chance corner in the wide realm of musical art. He who does not get +absolute pleasure from a simple series of well-constructed chords, +beautiful only in their arrangement, is not really fond of music. The +same is true of the one who does not prefer the first prelude of the +_Wohltemperirte Klavier_, played without gradations, just as the author +wrote it for the harpsichord, to the same prelude embellished with an +impassioned melody; or who does not prefer a popular melody of character +or a Gregorian chant without any accompaniment to a series of dissonant +and pretentious chords. + +The directors of great concerts should love music themselves and should +lead the public to appreciate it. They should not allow the masters to +be forgotten, for their only fault was that they were not born in our +times and they never dreamed of attempting to satisfy the tastes of an +unborn generation. Above all, the directors should grant recognition to +masters like Joseph Haydn who were in advance of their own times and who +seem now and then to belong to our own. + +The only examples of Joseph Haydn's immense work that the present +generation knows are two or three symphonies, rarely and perfunctorily +performed. This is the same as saying that we do not know him at all. No +musician was ever more prolific or showed a greater wealth of +imagination. When we examine this mine of jewels, we are astonished to +find at every step a gem which we would have attributed to the invention +of some modern or other. We are dazzled by their rays, and where we +expect black-and-whites we find pastels grown dim with time. + +Of Haydn's one hundred and eighteen symphonies, many are simple trifles +written from day to day for Prince Esterhazy's little chapel, when the +master was musical director there. But after Haydn was called to London +by Salomon, a director of concerts, where he had a large orchestra at +his disposal, his genius took magnificent flights. Then he wrote great +symphonies and in them the clarinets for the first time unfolded the +resources from which the modern orchestra has profited so abundantly. +Originally the clarinet played a humble rôle, as the name indicates. +_Clarinetto_ is the diminutive of _clarino_, and the instrument was +invented to replace the shrill tones that the trumpet lost as it gained +in depth of tone. + +Old editions of Haydn's symphonies show a picturesque arrangement, in +that the disposition of the orchestra is shown on the printed page. +Above, is a group made up of drums and the brass. In the center is a +second group--the flutes, oboes and bassoons, while the stringed +instruments are at the bottom of the page. When clarinets are used, they +are a part of the first group. This pretty arrangement has, +unfortunately, not been followed in the modern editions of these +symphonies. In the works written in London the clarinet has utterly +forgotten its origins. It has left the somewhat plebeian world of the +brasses and has gained admittance to the more refined society of the +woods. Haydn, in his first attempts, took advantage of the beautiful +heavy tones, "_chalumeau_," and the flexibility and marvellous range of +a beautiful instrument. + +During his stay in London Haydn sketched an _Orfeo_ which he never +completed, as the theatre which ordered it failed before it was +finished. Only fragments of the work remain, and, fortunately enough, +these have been engraved in an orchestra score. These fragments are +uneven in value. The dialogue, or recitative, which should bind them +together was lost and so we are unable to judge them fairly. Among the +fragments is a brilliant aria on Eurydice which is rather ridiculous, +while another on Eurydice dying is charming. We also find music for +mysterious _English horns_; it is written as for clarinets in B flat and +reaches heights which are impossible for the instrument we now know as +the English horn. There is also a beautiful bass part. This has been +provided with Latin words and is sung in churches. This aria was +assigned to a Creon who does not appear in the other fragments. One +scene shows Eurydice running up and down the banks pursued by demons. +Another depicts the death of Orpheus, killed by the Bacchantes. This +score is a curiosity and nothing more, and a reading causes no regret +that the work was not completed. + +Like Gluck, Joseph Haydn had the rare advantage of developing +constantly. He did not reach the height of his genius until an age when +the finest faculties are, ordinarily, in a decline. He astounded the +musical world with his _Creation_, in which he displayed a fertility of +imagination and a magnificence of orchestral richness that the oratorio +had never known before. Emboldened by his success he wrote the +_Seasons_, a colossal work, the most varied and the most picturesque in +the history of ancient or modern music. In this instance the oratorio is +no longer entirely religious. It gives an audacious picture of nature +with realistic touches which are astonishing even now. There is an +artistic imitation of the different sounds in nature, as the rustling of +the leaves, the songs of the birds in the woods and on the farm, and the +shrill notes of the insects. Above all that is the translation into +music of the profound emotions to which the different aspects of nature +give birth, as the freshness of the forests, the stifling heat before a +storm, the storm itself, and the wonderful sunset that follows. Then +there is a huntsman's chorus which strikes an entirely different note. +There are grape harvests, with the mad dances that follow them. There is +the winter, with a poignant introduction which reminds us of pages in +Schumann. But be reassured, the author does not leave us to the rigors +of the cold. He takes us into a farmhouse where the women are spinning +and where the peasants are drawn about the fire, listening to a funny +tale and laughing immoderately with a gaiety which has never been +surpassed. + +But this gigantic work does not end without giving us a glimpse of +Heaven, for with one grand upward burst of flight, Haydn reaches the +realms where Handel and Beethoven preceded him. He equals them and ends +his picture in a dazzling blaze of light. + +This is the sort of work of which the public remains in ignorance and +which it ought to know. + +But all this is not what I started out to say. I wanted to write about a +delicate, touching, reserved and precious work by the same author--_The +Seven Words of Christ on the Cross_. This work has appeared in three +forms--for an orchestra and chorus, for an orchestra alone, and for a +quartet. When I was a young man, they used to say in Paris that this +work was originally written for a quartet, then developed for an +orchestra, and, finally, the voices were added. + +Chance took me to Cadiz, once upon a time, and there I was given the +true story of this beautiful piece of work. To my astonishment I learned +that it had been first performed in the city of Cadiz. They even spoke +of a competition in which Haydn won the prize, but there was never any +such contest. The work was ordered from the author, but the question is +who ordered it. Two religious circles, the Cathedral and the Cueva del +Rosario, both lay claim to the initiative. I have gone over all the +evidence in this dispute which is of little interest to us, for the only +interest is the origin of the composition. There is not the slightest +doubt that the _Seven Words_ was written in the first place for an +orchestra in 1785, and its destination, as we shall see, was settled by +the author himself. + +In his _Memoires pour la Biographie et la Bibliographie de l'ile de +Cadix_, Don Francisco de Miton, Marquis de Meritos, relates that he +corresponded with Haydn and ordered this composition which was to be +performed at the Cathedral in Cadiz. According to his account Haydn said +that "the composition was due more to what Señor Milton wrote than to +his own invention, for it showed every motif so marvellously that on +reading the instructions he seemed to read the music itself." + +If the Marquis was not boasting, we must confess that the ingenuous +Haydn was not so ingenuous as has been thought, and that he knew how to +flatter his patrons. + +In 1801 Breitkopf and Haertel published the work with the addition of +the vocal parts at Leipzig. This edition had a preface by the author in +which he said: + + About fifteen years ago, a curé at Cadiz engaged me to write some + passages of instrumental music on the Seven Words of Christ on the + Cross. It was the custom at that time to play an oratorio at the + Cathedral during Holy Week, and they took great pains to give as + much solemnity as possible. The walls, the windows and the pillars + of the church were hung in black, and only a single light in the + centre shone in the sanctuary. The doors were closed at mid-day and + the orchestra began to play. After the opening ceremonies the + bishop entered the pulpit, pronounced one of the "Seven Words" and + delivered a few words inspired by it. Then he descended, knelt + before the altar, and remained there for some time. This pause was + relieved by the music. The bishop ascended and descended six times + more and each time, after his homily, music was played. My music + was to be adapted to these ceremonies. + + The problem of writing seven _adagios_ to be performed + consecutively, each one to last ten minutes, without wearying the + audience, was not an easy one to solve, and I soon recognized the + impossibility of making my music conform to the prescribed limits. + + The work was written and printed without words. Later the + opportunity of adding them was offered, so the oratorio which + Breitkopf and Haertel publish to-day is a complete work and, so far + as the vocal part is concerned, entirely new. + + The kind reception which it has received among amateurs makes me + hope that the entire public will welcome it with the same kindness. + +Haydn feared to weary his hearers. Our modern bards have no such vain +scruple. + +Michel Haydn, Joseph's brother and the author of some highly esteemed +religious compositions, has been generally credited with the addition of +the vocal parts to the _Seven Words_. Joseph Haydn did not say that this +was the case, but it would seem that if he did the work himself he would +have said so in his preface. + +This vocal part, however, adds nothing to the value of the work. And it +is of no great consequence who the author of the arrangement for the +quartet was. At the time there were many amateurs who played on +stringed instruments. They used to meet frequently and everything in +music was arranged for quartets just as now everything is arranged for +piano duets. Some of Beethoven's sonatas were arranged in this form. The +piano killed the quartet, and it is a great pity, for the quartet is the +purest form of instrumental music. It is the first form--the fountain of +Hippocrene. Now instrumental music drinks from every cup and the result +is that many times it seems drunk. + +To return to the _Seven Words_. Their symphonic form is the only one +worth considering. They are eloquent enough without the aid of voices, +for their charm penetrates. Unlike the _Creation_ and the _Seasons_ they +do not demand extraordinary means of execution, and nothing is easier +than to give them. + +The opera houses are closed on Good Friday, and it used to be the custom +to give evening concerts, vaguely termed "Sacred Concerts," because +their programmes were made up wholly or in part of religious music. This +good custom has disappeared and with it the opportunity to give the +public such delightful works as the _Seven Words_, and so many other +things which harmonize with the character of the day. + +At one of these Sacred Concerts, Pasdeloup presented on the same evening +the _Credo_ from Liszt's _Missa Solemnis_ and the one from Cherubini's +_Messe du Sacre_. Liszt's _Credo_ was received with a storm of hisses, +while Cherubini's was praised to the skies. I could not help thinking--I +was somewhat unjust, for Cherubini's work has merit--of the people of +Jerusalem who acclaimed Barrabas and demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. + +To-day Liszt's _Credo_ is received with wild applause--Victor Hugo did +his part-while Cherubini's is never revived. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE LISZT CENTENARY AT HEIDELBERG (1912) + + +The Liszt centenary was celebrated everywhere with elaborate +festivities, perhaps most notably at Budapest where the _Missa Solemnis_ +was sung in the great cathedral--that alone would have been sufficient +glory for the composer. At Weimar, which, during his lifetime, Liszt +made a sort of musical Mecca, they gave a performance of his deeply +charming oratorio _Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth_. The festival +at Heidelberg was of special interest as it was organized by the General +Association of German Musicians which Liszt had founded fifty years +before. Each year this society gives in a different city a festival +which lasts several days. It admits foreign members and I was once a +member as Berlioz's successor on Liszt's own invitation. Disagreements +separated us, and I had had no relation with the society for a number +of years when they asked me to take part in this festival. A refusal +would have been misunderstood and I had to accept, although the idea of +performing at my age alongside such _virtuosi_ as Risler, Busoni, and +Friedheim, in the height of their talent, was not encouraging. + +The festival lasted four days and there were six concerts--four with the +orchestra and a chorus. They gave the oratorio _Christus_, an enormous +work which takes up all the time allowed for one concert; the Dante and +Faust symphonies, and the symphonic poems _Ce qu'on entend sur la +montagne_ and _Tasso_, to mention only the most important works. + +The oratorio _Christus_ lacks the fine unity of the _Saint Elisabeth_. +But the two works are alike in being divided into a series of separate +episodes. While the different episodes in _Saint Elisabeth_ solve the +difficult problem of creating variety and retaining unity, the parts of +_Christus_ are somewhat unrelated. There is something for every taste. +Certain parts are unqualifiedly admirable; others border on the +theatrical; still others are nearly or entirely liturgical, while, +finally, some are picturesque, although there are some almost confusing. +Like Gounod, Liszt was sometimes deceived and attributed to ordinary and +simple sequences of chords a profound significance which escaped the +great majority of his hearers. There are some pages of this sort in +_Christus_. + +But there are beautiful and wonderful things in this vast work. If we +regret that the author lingered too long in his imitation of the +_Pifferari_ of the Roman campagna, on the other hand, we are delighted +by the symphonic interlude _Les Bergers à la Crèche_. It is very simple, +but in an inimitable simplicity of taste which is the secret of great +artists alone. It is surprising that this interlude does not appear in +the repertoire of all concerts. + +The Dante symphony has not established itself in the repertoires as has +the Faust symphony. It was performed for the first time in Paris at a +concert I organized and managed at a time when Liszt's works were +distrusted. Along with the Dante symphony we had the Andante (Gretchen) +from the Faust symphony, the symphonic poem _Fest Kloenge_, a charming +work which is never played now, and still other works. It would be hard +to imagine all the opposition I had to overcome in giving that concert. +There was the hostility of the public, the ill-will of the +Théâtre-Italien which rented me its famous hall but which sullenly +opposed a proper announcement of the concert, the insubordination of the +orchestra, the demands of the singers for more pay--they imagined that +Liszt would pay the expenses--and, finally, complete--and expected +failure. My only object was to lay a foundation for the future, nothing +more. In spite of everything I managed to get a creditable performance +of the Dante symphony and I had the pleasure of hearing it for the first +time. + +The first part (the Inferno) is wonderfully impressive with its +_Francesca da Rimini_ interlude, in which burn all the fires of Italian +passion. The second part (Purgatory and Paradise) combines the most +intense and poignant charm. It contains a fugue episode of unsurpassed +beauty. + +_Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne_ is, perhaps, the best of the famous +symphonic poems. The author was inspired by Victor Hugo's poetry and +reproduced its spirit admirably. When will this typical work appear in +the concert repertoires? When will orchestra conductors get tired of +presenting the three or four Wagnerian works they repeat _ad nauseum_, +when they can be heard at the Opéra under better conditions, and +Schubert's insignificant _Unfinished Symphony_. + + * * * * * + +The _Christus_ oratorio was given at the first concert of the festival +at Heidelberg. It lasted three hours and a half and is so long that I +would not dare to advise concert managers to try such an adventure. The +performance was sublime. It was given in a newly constructed square +hall. Cavaillé-Coll, who knew acoustics, used to advise the square hall +for concerts but nobody would listen to him. Three hundred chorus +singers, many from a distance, were supported by an orchestra that was +large, but, in my opinion, insufficient to stand up against this mass of +voices. Furthermore, the orchestra was placed below the level of the +stage, as in a theatre, while the voices sounded freely above. Two +harps, one on the east side of the stage and one on the west, saw each +other from afar,--a pleasingly decorative device, but as annoying to the +ear as pleasing to the eye. The chorus and the four soloists--their task +was exceedingly arduous--triumphed completely over the difficulties of +this immense work and all the varied and delicate nuances were rendered +to perfection. + +Liszt was far from professing the disdain for the limitations of the +human voice that Wagner and Berlioz did. On the contrary he treated it +as if it were a queen or a goddess, and it is to be regretted that his +tastes did not lead him to work for the stage. Parts of _Saint +Elisabeth_ show that he would have succeeded and the fashion of having +operas for the orchestra, accompanied by voices, which we enjoy to-day, +might have been avoided. He discovered a method, peculiarly his own, of +writing choruses. His manner has never been imitated, but it is +ingenious and has many advantages. The only trouble about it is that the +singers have to take care of details and shadings which is too often +the least of their worries. The German societies, where the members sing +for pleasure, and not for a salary, are careful to excess, if there can +be excess in such matters, and it is their great good fortune to be the +interpreters of choruses written in this manner. + +It is impossible to give an analysis of this vast work here. We have +already spoken of the charming interlude, _Les Bergers à la Crèche_. +This pastoral is followed by _Marche des Rois Mages_, a pretty piece, +but a little overdeveloped for its intrinsic worth. The vocal parts, +_Béatitudes_ and _Le Pater Noster_, would be more suitable in a church +than in a concert hall. Then come some most brilliant pages, _La Tempête +sur le lac de Thibériade_, and _Le Mont des Oliviers_, with its baritone +solo, and finally, the _Stabat Mater_, where great beauties are combined +with terrible length. But nothing in the whole work impressed me more +than Christ's entrance to Jerusalem (orchestra, chorus, and soloist) for +the reading alone gives no idea of it. Here the author reached the +heights. That also describes the delightful effect of the children's +chorus singing in the distance _O Filii et Filiae_, harmonised with +perfect taste. + +While I listened to this beautiful work, I could not help thinking of +the great oratorios which crowned Gounod's musical career so gloriously. +Liszt and Gounod differed entirely in their musical temperaments, yet in +their oratorios they met on common ground. In both there was the same +drawing away from the old forms of oratorio, the same search for realism +in the expression of the text in music, the same respect for Latin +prosody, and the same belief in simplicity of style. But while there is +renunciation in the simplicity of Liszt, who threw aside worldly finery +to wear the frock of a penitent, on the contrary Gounod appears to +return to his original bent with an almost holy joy. This is easily +explained. Liszt finished his life in a cassock, while Gounod began his +in one. So, despite Liszt's superior refinement, and putting aside +exceptional achievements, in this branch of art Gounod was the victor. +As there is an _odor di femina_ there is a _parfum d'église_, well known +to Catholics. Gounod's oratorios are impregnated with this, while it is +found in _Christus_ very, very feebly, if at all. The _Missa Solemnis_ +must be examined to find it to any extent in Liszt's work. + +All the necessary elements were combined at Heidelberg to produce a +magnificent production of Faust and Dante. The orchestra of more than +one hundred musicians was perfect. The period when the wind instruments +in Germany were wanting both in correctness and quality of sound has +passed. But the orchestra conductors have to be taken into account. In +our day these gentlemen are _virtuosi_. Their personalities are not +subservient to the music, but the music to them. It is the springboard +on which they perform and parade their all embracing personalities. They +add their own inventions to the author's meaning. Sometimes they draw +out the wind instruments so that the musicians have to cut a phrase at +the end to catch their breath; again they affect a mad and unrestrained +rapidity which allows time neither to play nor to hear the sounds. They +hurry or retard the movement for no reason besides their individual +caprice or because the author did not indicate them. They perpetrate +music of such a disorganized character that the musicians are utterly +bewildered, and hesitate in their entrances on account of their +inability to distinguish one measure from another. + +The delightful _Purgatoire_ has become a deadly bore, and the enchanting +_Mephistopheles_ has been riddled as by a hailstorm. Familiarity with +such excesses made me particularly appreciative of the excellent +performance that Wolfrum, the musical director, obtained in the vast +_Christus_ concert. + +Among the conductors was Richard Strauss who cannot be passed over +without a word. Certainly no one will hope to find moderation and +serenity in this artist or be surprised if he gives his temperament free +rein, and rides on to victory undisturbed by the ruins he leaves behind. +But he lacks neither intelligence nor elegance, and if he sometimes goes +too fast he never overemphasizes slowness. When he is conducting, we +need not fear the desert of Sahara where others sometimes lead us. Under +his direction _Tasso_ displayed all its wealth of resources and the +jewel-like _Mephisto-Walzer_ shone more brightly than ever before. + +I can speak but briefly of the numerous soloists. We neither judge nor +compare such talents as those of Busoni, Friedheim, and Risler. We are +satisfied with admiring them. However, if a prize must be awarded, I +should give it to Risler for his masterly interpretation of the great +_Sonata in B minor_. He made the most of it in every way, in all its +power and in all its delicacy. When it is given in this way, it is one +of the finest sonatas imaginable. But such a performance is rare, for it +is beyond the average artist. The strength of an athlete, the lightness +of a bird, capriciousness, charm, and a perfect understanding of style +in general and of the style of this composer in particular are the +qualifications needed to perform this work. It is far too difficult for +most _virtuosi_, however talented they may be. + +Among the women singers I shall only mention Madame Cahier from the +Viennese Opera. She is a great artist with a wonderful voice and her +interpretation of several _lieder_ made them wonderfully worth while. +Madame Cahier interpreted the part of Dalila at Vienna with Dalmores, +so it can easily be appreciated how much pleasure I took in hearing her. + +A final word about the Dante Symphony. I have read somewhere that Liszt +used pages to produce an effect which Berlioz accomplished in the +apparition of Mephistopheles in _Faust_ with three notes. This +comparison is unjust. Berlioz's happy discovery is a work of genius and +he alone could have invented it. But the sudden appearance of the Devil +is one thing and the depiction of Hell quite another. Berlioz tried such +a depiction at the end of the Damnation, and in spite of the strange +vocabulary of the chorus, "Irimiru Karabrao, Sat raik Irkimour," and +other pretty tricks, he succeeded no better than Liszt. As a matter of +fact the opposite was the case. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BERLIOZ'S REQUIEM + + +The reading of the score of Berlioz's _Requiem_ makes it appear +singularly old-fashioned, but this is true of most of the romantic +dramas, which, like the _Requiem_, show up better in actual performance. +It is easy to rail at the vehemence of the Romanticists, but it is not +so easy to equal the effect of _Hernani_, _Lucrèce Borgia_ and the +_Symphonie fantastique_ on the public. For with all their faults these +works had a marvellous success. The truth is that their vehemence was +sincere and not artificial. The Romanticists had faith in their works +and there is nothing like faith to produce lasting results. + +Reicha and Leuseur were, as we know, Berlioz's instructors. Leuseur was +the author of numerous works and wrote a good deal of church music. Some +of his religious works were really beautiful, but he had strange +obsessions. Berlioz greatly admired his master and could not help +showing, especially in his earlier works, traces of this admiration. +That is the reason for the syncopated and jerky passages without rhyme +or reason and which can only be explained by his unconscious imitation +of Leuseur's faults. In imitating a model the resemblances occur in the +faults and not in the excellences, for the latter are inimitable. So the +excellences of the _Requiem_ are not due to Leuseur but to Berlioz. He +had already thrown off the trammels of school and shown all the richness +of his vigorous originality to which the value of his scores is due. + +In his _Memoirs_ Berlioz related the tribulations of his _Requiem_. It +was ordered by the government, laid aside for a time, and, finally, +performed at the Invalides on the occasion of the capture of Constantine +(in Algeria) and the funeral services of General Damrémont. He was +astonished at the lack of sympathy and even actual hostility that he +encountered. It would have been more astonishing if he had experienced +anything else. + +[Illustration: Hector Berlioz] + +We must remember that at this time Berton, who sang _Quand on est +toujours vertuex, on aime à voir lever l'aurore_, passed for a great +man. Beethoven's symphonies were a novelty, in Paris at least, and a +scandal. Haydn's symphonies inspired a critic to write, "What a noise, +what a noise!" Orchestras were merely collections of thirty or forty +musicians. + +We can imagine, therefore, the stupefaction and horror when a young man, +just out of school, demanded fifty violins, twenty violas, twenty +violoncellos, eighteen contrabasses, four flutes, four oboes, four +clarinets, eight bassoons, twelve horns, and a chorus of two hundred +voices as a minimum. And that is not all. The _Tuba Mirum_ necessitates +an addition of thirty-eight trumpets and trombones, divided into four +orchestras and placed at the four cardinal points of the compass. +Besides, there have to be eight pairs of drums, played by ten drummers, +four tam-tams, and ten cymbals. + +The story of this array of drums is rather interesting. Reicha, +Berlioz's first teacher, had the original idea of playing drum taps in +chords of three or four beats. In order to try out this effect, he +composed a choral piece, _L'Harmonie des Sphères_, which was published +in connection with his _Traité d'Harmonie_. But Reicha's genius did not +suffice for this task. He was a good musician, but no more than that. +His choral piece was insignificant and remained a dead letter. Berlioz +took this lost effect and used it in his _Tuba Mirum_. + +However, it must be confessed that this effect does not come up to +expectations. In a church or a concert hall we hear a confused and +terrifying mingling of sounds, and from time to time we note a change in +the depth of tone but we are unable to distinguish the pitch of the +chords. + +I shall never forget the impression this _Tuba Mirum_ made on me when I +first heard it at St. Eustache under Berlioz's own direction. It +amounted to an absolute neglect of the author's directions. The +beginning of the work is marked _moderato_, later, as the brass comes +in, the movement is quickened and becomes _andante maestro_. Most of the +time the _moderato_ was interpreted as an _allegro_, and the _andante +maestro_ as a simple _moderato_. If the terrific fanfare did not +become, as some one ventured to call it, a "Setting Out for the Hunt," +it might well have been the accompaniment for a sovereign's entrance to +his capital. In order to give this fanfare its grandiose character, the +author did not take easy refuge in the wailings of a minor key, but he +burst into the splendors of a major key. A certain grandeur of movement +alone can preserve its gigantesque quality and impression of power. + +Granting all his good intentions, in trying to give us a suggestion of +the last judgment by his accumulation of brass, drums, cymbals, and +tam-tams, Berlioz makes us think of Thor among the giants trying to +empty the drinking-horn which was filled from the sea, and only +succeeding in lowering it a little. Yet even that was an accomplishment. + +Berlioz spoke scornfully of Mozart's _Tuba Mirum_ with its single +trombone. "One trombone," he exclaimed, "when a hundred would be none +too many!" Berlioz wanted to make us really hear the trumpets of the +archangels. Mozart with the seven notes of his one trombone suggested +the same idea and the suggestion is sufficient. + +We must not forget, however, that here we are in the midst of a world of +romanticism, in a world of color and picturesqueness, which could not +content itself with so little. And we must remember this fact, if we +would not be irritated by the oddities of _L'Hostias_, with its deep +trombone notes which seem to come from the very depths of Hell. There is +no use in trying to find out what these notes mean. Berlioz told us +himself that he discovered these notes at a time when they were almost +unknown and he wanted to use them. The contrast between these terrifying +notes and the wailing of the flutes is especially curious. We find +nothing analogous to this anywhere else. + +The delightful _Purgatoire_, where the author sees a chorus of souls in +Purgatory, is much better. His Purgatory has no punishments nor any +griefs save the awaiting, the long and painful awaiting, of eternal +happiness. There is a processional in which the fugue and melody +alternate in the most felicitous manner. There are sighs and plaints, +all haunting in their extreme expressiveness, a great variety beneath an +appearance of monotony, and from time to time two wailing notes. These +notes are always the same, as the chorus gives them as a plaint, and +they are both affecting and artistic. At the end comes a dim ray of +light and hope. This is the only one in the work save the Amen at the +end, for Faith and Hope should not be looked for here. The supplications +sound like prayers which do not expect to be answered. No one would dare +to describe this work as profane, but whether it is religious or not is +a question. As Boschot has said, what it expresses above all is terror +in the presence of annihilation. + +When the _Requiem_ was played at the Trocadéro, the audience was greatly +impressed and filed out slowly. They did not say, "What a masterpiece!" +but "What an orchestra leader!" Nowadays people go to see a conductor +direct the orchestra just as they go to hear a tenor, and they arrogate +to themselves the right to judge the conductors as they do the tenors. +But what a fine sport it is! The qualities of an orchestra conductor +which the public appreciates are his elegance, his gestures, his +precision, and the expressiveness of his mimicry, all of which are more +often directed at the audience than at the orchestra. But all these +things are of secondary consideration. What makes up an orchestra +conductor's worth are the excellence of execution he obtains from the +musicians and the perfect interpretation of the author's meaning--which +the audience does not understand. If such an important detail as the +author's meaning is obscured and slighted, if a work is disfigured by +absurd movements and by an expression which is entirely different from +what the author wanted, the public may be dazzled and an execrable +conductor, provided his poses are good, may fascinate his audience and +be praised to the skies. + +Formerly the conductor never saluted his audience. The understanding was +that the work and not the conductor was applauded. The Italians and +Germans changed all that. Lamoureux was the first to introduce this +exotic custom in France. The public was a little surprised at first, but +they soon got used to it. In Italy the conductor comes on the stage +with the artists to salute the audience. There is nothing more laughable +than to see him, as the last note of an opera dies away, jump down from +his stand and run like mad to reach the stage in time. + +The excellence of the work of English choristers has been highly and +justly praised. Perhaps it would be fairer not to praise them so +unreservedly when we are so severe on our own. Justice often leaves +something to be desired. At all events it must be admitted that Berlioz +treated the voices in an unfortunate way. Like Beethoven, he made no +distinction between a part for a voice and an instrument. While except +for a few rare passages it does not fall as low as the atrocities which +disfigure the grandiose _Mass in D_, the vocal part of the _Requiem_ is +awkwardly written. Singers are ill at ease in it, for the timbre and +regularity of the voice resent such treatment. The tenor's part is so +written that he is to be congratulated on getting through it without any +accident, and nothing more can be expected of him. + +What a pity it was that Berlioz did not fall in love with an Italian +singer instead of an English tragedienne! Cupid might have wrought a +miracle. The author of the _Requiem_ would have lost none of his good +qualities, but he might have gained, what, for the lack of a better +phrase, is called the fingering of the voice, the art of handling it +intelligently and making it give without an effort the best effect of +which it is capable. But Berlioz had a horror even of the Italian +language, musical as that is. As he said in his _Memoirs_, this aversion +hid from him the true worth of _Don Juan_ and _Le Nozze di Figaro_. One +wonders whether he knew that his idol, Gluck, wrote music for Italian +texts not only in the case of his first works but also in _Orphée_ and +_Alceste_. And whether he knew that the aria _"O malheureuse Iphigenie"_ +was an Italian song badly translated into French. Perhaps he was +ignorant of all this in his youth for Berlioz was a genius, not a +scholar. + +The word genius tells the whole story. Berlioz wrote badly. He +maltreated voices and sometimes permitted himself the strangest freaks. +Nevertheless he is one of the commanding figures of musical art. His +great works remind us of the Alps with their forests, glaciers, +sunlight, waterfalls and chasms. There are people who do not like the +Alps. So much the worse for them. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PAULINE VIARDOT + + +Alfred de Musset covered Maria Malibran's tomb with immortal flowers and +he also told us the story of Pauline Garcia's debut. There is also +something about it in Théophile Gautier's writings. It is clear from +both accounts that her first appearance was an extraordinary occasion. +Natures such as hers reveal themselves at once to those who know and do +not have to wait to arrive until they are in full bloom. Pauline was +very young at the time, and soon afterwards she married M. Viardot, +manager of the Théâtre-Italien and one of the finest men of his day. She +went abroad to develop her talent, but she returned in 1849 when +Meyerbeer named her to create the rôle of Fides in _Le Prophète_. + +Her voice was tremendously powerful, prodigious in its range, and it +overcame all the difficulties in the art of singing. But this +marvellous voice did not please everyone, for it was by no means smooth +and velvety. Indeed, it was a little harsh and was likened to the taste +of a bitter orange. But it was just the voice for a tragedy or an epic, +for it was superhuman rather than human. Light things like Spanish songs +and Chopin mazurkas, which she used to transpose so that she could sing +them, were completely transformed by that voice and became the +playthings of an Amazon or of a giantess. She lent an incomparable +grandeur to tragic parts and to the severe dignity of the oratorio. + +I never had the pleasure of hearing Madame Malibran, but Rossini told me +about her. He preferred her sister. Madame Malibran, he said, had the +advantage of beauty. In addition, she died young and left a memory of an +artist in full possession of all her powers. She was not the equal of +her sister as a musician and could not have survived the decline of her +voice as the latter did. + +Madame Viardot was not beautiful, indeed, she was far from it. The +portrait by Ary Scheffer is the only one which shows this unequalled +woman truthfully and gives some idea of her strange and powerful +fascination. What made her even more captivating than her talent as a +singer was her personality--one of the most amazing I have ever known. +She spoke and wrote fluently Spanish, French, Italian, English and +German. She was in touch with all the current literature of these +countries and in correspondence with people all over Europe. + +She did not remember when she learned music. In the Garcia family music +was in the air they breathed. So she protested against the tradition +which represented her father as a tyrant who whipped his daughters to +make them sing. I have no idea how she learned the secrets of +composition, but save for the management of the orchestra she knew them +well. She wrote numerous _lieder_ on Spanish and German texts and all of +these show a faultless diction. But contrary to the custom of most +composers who like nothing better than to show their compositions, she +concealed hers as though they were indiscretions. It was exceedingly +difficult to persuade her to let one hear them, although the least +were highly creditable. Once she sang a Spanish popular song, a wild +haunting thing, with which Rubinstein fell madly in love. It was several +years before she would admit that she wrote it herself. + +[Illustration: Mme. Pauline Viardot] + +She wrote brilliant operettas in collaboration with Tourguenief, but +they were never published and were performed only in private. One +anecdote will show her versatility as a composer. She was a friend of +Chopin and Liszt and her tastes were strongly futuristic. M. Viardot, on +the contrary, was a reactionary in music. He even found Beethoven too +advanced. One day they had a guest who was also a reactionary. Madame +Viardot sang to them a wonderful work with recitative, aria and final +allegro, which they praised to the skies. She had written it expressly +for the occasion. I have read this work and even the cleverest would +have been deceived. + +But it must not be thought from this that her compositions were mere +imitations. On the contrary they were extremely original. The only +explanation why those that were published have remained unknown and why +so many were unpublished is that this admirable artist had a horror of +publicity. She spent half her life in teaching pupils and the world knew +nothing about it. + +During the Empire the Viardots used to give in their apartment on +Thursday evenings really fine musical festivals which my surviving +contemporaries still remember. From the salon in which the famous +portrait by Ary Scheffer was hung and which was devoted to ordinary +instrumental and vocal music, we went down a short staircase to a +gallery filled with valuable paintings, and finally to an exquisite +organ, one of Cavaillé-Coll's masterpieces. In this temple dedicated to +music we listened to arias from the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn. +She had sung them in London, but could not get a hearing for them in the +concerts in Paris as they were averse to such vast compositions. I had +the honor to be her regular accompanist both at the organ and the piano. + +But this passionate lover of song was an all-round musician. She played +the piano admirably, and when she was among friends she overcame the +greatest difficulties. Before her Thursday audiences, however, she +limited herself to chamber music, with a special preference for Henri +Reber's duets for the piano and the violin. These delicate, artistic +works are unknown to the amateurs of to-day. They seem to prefer to the +pure juice of the grape in crystal glasses poisonous potions in cups of +gold. They must have orgies, sumptuous ceilings, a deadly luxury. They +do not understand the poet who sings, _"O rus, quando te aspiciam!"_ +They do not appreciate the great distinction of simplicity. Reber's muse +is not for them. + +Madame Viardot was as learned a musician as any one could be and she was +among the first subscribers to the complete edition of Sebastian Bach's +works. We know what an astounding revelation that work was. Each year +brought ten religious cantatas, and each year brought us new surprises +in the unexpected variety and impressiveness of the work. We thought we +had known Sebastian Bach, but now we learned how really to know him. We +found him a writer of unusual versatility and a great poet. His +_Wohltemperirte Klavier_ had given us only a hint of all this. The +beauties of this famous work needed exposition for, in the absence of +definite instructions, opinions differed. In the cantatas the meaning of +the words serves as an indication and through the analogy between the +forms of expression, it is easy to see pretty clearly what the author +intended in his _Klavier_ pieces. + +One fine day the annual volume was found to contain a cantata in several +parts written for a contralto solo accompanied by stringed instruments, +oboes and an organ obligato. The organ was there and the organist as +well. So we assembled the instruments, Stockhausen, the baritone, was +made the leader of the little orchestra, and Madame Viardot sang the +cantata. I suspect that the author had never heard his work sung in any +such manner. I cherish the memory of that day as one of the most +precious in my musical career. My mother and M. Viardot were the only +listeners to this exceptional exhibition. We did not dare to repeat it +before hearers who were not ready for it. What would now be a great +success would have fallen flat at that time. And nothing is more +irritating than to see an audience cold before a beautiful work. It is +far better to keep to one's self treasures which will be unappreciated. + +One thing will always stand in the way of the vogue of Sebastian Bach's +vocal works--the difficulty of translation. When they are rendered into +French, they lose all their charm and oftentimes become ridiculous. + + * * * * * + +One of the most amazing characteristics of Madame Viardot's talent was +her astonishing facility in assimilating all styles of music. She was +trained in the old Italian music and she revealed its beauties as no one +else has ever done. As for myself, I saw only its faults. Then she sang +Schumann and Gluck and even Glinka whom she sang in Russian. Nothing was +foreign to her; she was at home everywhere. + +She was a great friend of Chopin and she remembered his playing almost +exactly and could give the most valuable directions about the way he +interpreted his works. I learned from her that the great pianist's +(great musician's, rather) execution was much simpler than has been +generally supposed. It was as far removed from any manifestation of bad +taste as it was from cold correctness. She told me the secret of the +true _tempo rubato_ without which Chopin's music is disfigured. It in no +way resembles the dislocations by which it is so often caricatured. + +I have spoken of her great talent as a pianist. We saw this one evening +at a concert given by Madame Schumann. After Madame Viardot had sung +some of Schumann's _lieder_ with the great pianist playing the +accompaniments, the two great artists played the illustrious author's +duet for two pianos, which fairly bristles with difficulties, _with +equal virtuosity_. + +When Madame Viardot's voice began to break, she was advised to devote +herself to the piano. If she had, she would have found a new career and +a second reputation. But she did not want to make the change, and for +several years she presented the sorry spectacle of genius contending +with adversity. Her voice was broken, stubborn, uneven, and +intermittent. An entire generation knew her only in a guise unworthy of +her. + +Her immoderate love of music was the cause of the early modification of +her voice. She wanted to sing everything she liked and she sang +Valentine in _Les Huguenots_, Donna Anna in _Don Juan_, besides other +rôles she should never have undertaken if she wanted to preserve her +voice. She came to realize this at the end of her life. "Don't do as I +did," she once told a pupil. "I wanted to sing everything, and I ruined +my voice." + +Happy are the fiery natures which burn themselves out and glory in the +sword that wears away the scabbard. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ORPHÉE + + +We know, or, rather we used to know--for we are beginning to forget that +there is an admirable edition of Gluck's principal works. This edition +was due to the interest of an unusual woman, Mlle. Fanny Pelletan, who +devoted a part of her fortune to this real monument and to fulfill a +wish Berlioz expressed in one of his works. Mlle. Pelletan was an +unusually intelligent woman and an accomplished musician, but she needed +some one to help her in this large and formidable task. She was +unassuming and distrusted her own powers, so that she secured as a +collaborator a German musician, named Damcke, who had lived in Paris a +long time and who was highly esteemed. He gave her the moral support she +needed and some bad advice as well, which she felt obliged to follow. +This collaboration accounts for the change of the contralto parts to +counter-tenors. It also accounts for the fact that in every instance the +parts for the clarinets are indicated in C, in this way attributing to +the author a formal intention he never had. Gluck wrote the parts for +the clarinets without bothering whether the player--to whom he left a +freedom of choice and the work of transposition--would use his +instrument in C, B, or A. This method was not peculiar to Gluck. Other +composers used it as well, and traces of it are found even in Auber's +works. + +After Damcke's death Mlle. Pelletan got me to help her in this work. I +wanted to change the method, but the edition would have lost its unity +and she would not consent. It was time that Damcke's collaboration +ended. He belonged to the tribe of German professors who have since +become legion. Due to their baneful influence, in a short time, when the +old editions have disappeared, the works of Haydn, Mozart, and +Beethoven, even of Chopin, will be all but unrecognizable. The works of +Sebastian Bach and Handel will be the only ones in existence in their +pristine purity of form, thanks to the admirable editions of the _Bach +und Händel Gesselschaft_. When Mlle. Pelletan brought me into the work, +the two _Iphigenie_ had been published; _Alceste_ was about to be, and +_Armide_ was ready. In _Armide_ Damcke had been entirely carried away by +his zeal for "improvements"--a zeal that can do so much harm. It was +time this was stopped. Not only had he corrected imaginary faults here +and there, but he had also inserted things of his own invention. He had +even gone so far as to re-orchestrate the ballet music, in the naïve +belief that he was bringing out the author's real meaning better than he +had done himself. It took an enormous amount of time to undo this +mischief, for I distrusted somewhat my own lights and Mlle. Pelletan had +too high an opinion of Damcke's work and did not dare to override his +judgment. + +That excellent woman did not live to see the end of her work. She began +the preparation of Orphée, but she died almost at once. So I was left to +finish the score alone without that valuable experience and masterly +insight by which she solved the most difficult problems. And there were +real enigmas to be solved at every step. The old engraved scores of +Gluck's works reproduced his manuscripts faithfully enough, but they +bore evidence of carelessness and amazing inaccuracy. They are mere +sketches instead of complete scores. Many details are vague and +vagueness is not permissible in a serious edition. It follows that the +different editions of Gluck's works published in the Nineteenth Century, +however sumptuous or careful they may be, are worthless. The Pelletan +edition alone can be consulted with confidence, because we were the only +ones to have all extant and authentic documents in the library at the +Opéra to set us right. We had scores copied for actual performances on +the stage and portions of orchestral parts of incalculable value. In +addition, we had no aim or preoccupation in elaborating this material +other than to reconstitute as closely as possible the thought of the +author. + + * * * * * + +Switzerland is a country where artistic productions are not unusual. +Every year we have reports of some grandiose performance in which the +people take part themselves. They come from every direction to help, +even from a considerable distance, thanks to the many means of +communication in that delightful land. It is not surprising, therefore, +to learn that a theatre has been built in the pretty town of Mézières, +near Lusanne, for the performance of the works of a young poet, named +Morax. These works are dramas with choruses, and the surrounding country +furnishes the singers. The work given in 1911 was Allenor--the music by +Gustave Doret--and it was a great success. + +Gustave Doret is a real artist and he never for a moment thought of +keeping the Théâtre du Jorat for his own exclusive use. He dreamt of +giving Gluck's works in their original form, for they are always altered +and changed according to the fancies or incompetency of the performers +or directors. They formed a large and influential committee and a +substantial guarantee fund was subscribed. Then they gave a brilliant +banquet at which the Princess of Brancovan was present. And Paderewski, +one of the most enthusiastic promotors of the enterprise, delivered an +eloquent address. No one should be surprised at either his zeal or his +eloquence. Paderewski is not only a pianist; he is a man of great +intellect as well,--a great artist who permits himself the luxury of +playing the piano marvellously. + +As he knew that I had spent several years in studying Gluck's works +under the microscope, so to speak, Gustave Doret did me the honor to ask +my advice. His choice for the opening work was _Orphée_, which requires +only three principals, Orpheus, Eurydice, and Love. It has become the +custom to add a fourth, a Happy Spirit, but this spirit is one of +Carvalho's inventions and has no reason for existence. + +There are, however, two _Orphée_. The first is _Orfeo_ which was written +in Italian, on Calzabigi's text, and was first presented at Venice in +1761. The rôle of Orpheus in this score was written for a contralto and +was designed for the eunuch Quadagni. The Venetian engravers of that day +were either incompetent or, perhaps, there were none, for the scores of +Gluck's _Alceste_ in Italian and Haydn's _Seasons_ were printed from +type. However that may be the score of _Orfeo_ was engraved in Paris. +The composer Philidor corrected the proofs. He little thought that +_Orfeo_ would ever get so far as Paris, so he appropriated the romanza +in the first act and introduced it with but slight modifications into +his opéra-comique _Le Sorcier_. Later on Marie Antoinette called Gluck +to Paris and thus afforded him the opportunity for the complete +development of his genius. After he had written _Iphigenie en Aulide_, +performed in 1774, especially for the Opéra, he had the idea of adapting +_Orfeo_ for the French stage. To tell the truth he must have thought of +it before, for _Orphée_ appeared at the Opéra only three months after +_Iphigenie_ and it had been entirely rewritten in collaboration with +Moline. The contralto part had been changed to tenor and so the +principal rôle was given to Legros. + +While it may be true that the author improved this work in the French +version, it is not true in every case. There is some question whether +the overture existed in the Italian score. It is generally believed that +it did, but there are old copies of this version in existence and they +begin the opera with the funeral chorus and show no overture at all. +This overture, although the _Mercure de France_ treats it as a +"beautiful symphonic piece which serves as a good introduction to the +work," in reality does not resemble the style of the rest at all. It in +no way prepares for that admirable chorus at the beginning--unequaled of +its kind--which Orpheus's broken hearted cry of "Eurydice! Eurydice!" +makes so pathetic. + +The first act of _Orfeo_ ends in a tumultuous effect of the stringed +instruments which was evidently intended to indicate a change of scene +and the appearance of the stage settings of the infernal regions. This +passage does not appear in the French _Orphée_ and it is lacking in the +engraved score, where it is replaced by a bravura aria of doubtful +taste, accompanied by a single quartet. Whether the stage managers +wanted an entr'acte or the tenor, Legros, demanded an effective aria, or +for both these reasons, a reading of the manuscript indicates how +absolutely the author's meaning was changed. There is no doubt that +except for some such reason he would have changed this aria and put it +in harmony with the rest of the work. + +For a long time this aria was attributed to Bertoni, the composer, and +Gluck was accused of plagiarizing it. As a matter of fact, and to the +contrary, this aria came from an older Italian opera of Gluck's. Bertoni +not only imitated it in one of his scores, but he had the hardihood to +write an _Orfeo_ on the text already followed by Gluck in which he +plagiarized the work of his illustrious predecessor in a scandalous +fashion. + +This same aria, changed with real genius and performed with prodigious +eclat by Madame Viardot, and re-orchestrated by myself, was one of the +strongest reasons for the success of the famous performances at the +Théâtre-Lyrique. But it is well understood that it could not properly +find a place in an edition where the sole end was artistic sincerity and +purity of the text. + +From this point of view it would seem that the best manner of giving +_Orphée_ would be to conform to the author's definitive version. A tenor +would have to take the part of Orpheus, since we no longer have male +contraltos, and to keep to this kind of a voice in _Orphée_ we would +have to have recourse to what is called, in theatrical terms, a +_travesti_. There are obstacles to this, however. The pitch has changed +since the Eighteenth Century; it has gone up and it is now impossible, +or nearly so, to sing the rôle written for Legros. The contraltos of the +Italian chorus have become the counter-tenors, who, for the same reason, +find themselves struggling with too sharp notes. + +In the Seventeenth Century the French pitch was even more flat, and it +is a great pity, for it is almost impossible to perform our old music, +on account of the insuperable obstacles. This is not the case in +Germany, however, or in Italy, and that is the reason why the works of +Sebastian Bach and Mozart can be sung. The same is true of Gluck's +Italian works. + +This was the reason that Doret gave the part of Orpheus to a contralto, +just as is done at the Opéra-Comique. The poetic character of the part +of Orpheus lends itself excellently to such a feminine interpretation. +But in resuming the key of the Italian score, it is necessary to go +back, at least to a considerable degree, to the instrumentation. By a +curious anomaly the beautiful recitative, accompanied by the murmur of +brooks and the songs of the birds, is in C major in both scores. The +author could not have changed them. On the contrary he modified his +instrumentation greatly, simplified and perfected it. + +We know that the authors, in utter defiance of mythology, wanted a happy +ending and so brought Eurydice back to life a second time. Love +accomplished this miracle and the work ended with the song "Love +Triumphs," which is exceedingly joyful and in harmony with the +situation. They did not want this ending, which was in _Orfeo_ and which +Gluck retained in _Orphée_, at the old Théâtre-Lyrique and the +Opéra-Comique, and they replaced it with a chorus by Echo and Narcissus. +This chorus is charming, but that does not excuse it. Joy was what the +author wanted and this does not give joy at all. Gluck's finale is +regarded as not sufficiently distinguished, but this is wrong. The real +finale was sung at Mézières and it was found that it was not at all +common, but that its frank gaiety was in the best of taste. + +Gluck had no scruples about grinding several grists from the same sack +and drawing from his old works to help out his new ones. So the +parasitical aria attributed to Bertoni was written by Gluck in the first +place in 1764 for a soprano. He wove this into his opera _Aristo_ in +1769. This is also true of the trio, _Tendre Amour_, which precedes the +finale in the last act. A serious-minded analyst might be tempted to +admire the profound psychology of the author in mingling doleful accents +with expressions of joy, but he would have his labor for his pains. The +trio was taken from the opera _Elena e Paride_, where Gluck expressed +strongly wrought up emotions. Doret did not keep these two passages and +one can't blame him. On the other hand, he retained, by making it an +entr'acte, the _Ballet des Furies_. This was taken from a ballet, _Don +Giovanni o il convitato de pietra_, which was performed at Vienna in +1761. This passage was used as the accompaniment to Don Juan's descent +into Hell, surrounded by his band of demons. + +Many of Gluck's compatriots came to Mézières to see _Orphée_ and they +were loyal enough to recognize the superiority of the performance. Some +even had the courage to say, "We murder Gluck in Germany." + +I discovered that fact a long time ago. In my youth I was indignant when +I saw Paris, where Gluck wrote his finest works, quite neglecting them, +whereas Germany continued to promote them. In those days I was +frequently called to the other side of the Rhine to play in concerts, +and I watched for a chance to see one of these masterpieces which had +been forgotten in France. So it was with the liveliest joy that one day +I entered one of the leading German theaters where they were giving +_Armide_. What a hollow mockery it was! + +Madame Malten was Armide, and she was everything that could be wished in +voice, talent, style, beauty and charm. She spoke French without an +accent and was as remarkable as an actress as a singer, so she would +without doubt have had great success at the Opéra in Paris. She was +Armide herself, an irresistible enchantress. + +But the rest! Renaud was a raw boy, and his shaven chin brought out in +sharp relief enormous black moustaches with long waxed ends. He had a +voice, to be sure, but no style, and no understanding of the work he was +trying to interpret. + +Hidradot is an old sorcerer tempered in the fires of Hell. He enters, +saying: + + "I see hard by Death that threatens me, + And already old age, that has chilled my blood, + Is on me, bowing me beneath a crushing burden." + +Imagine my surprise at seeing come on the stage a magnificent specimen +of manhood, with a curled black beard, in all the glory of his youth and +vigor superbly arrayed in a red cloak trimmed with gold! + +The stage setting was also extraordinary. In the second act Renaud went +to sleep at the back of the stage, forcing Armide to speak the whole of +the beautiful scene which follows, one of the most important in the +part, at a distance from the footlights and with her back to the +audience. + +As for the orchestra, sometimes it followed Gluck's text and sometimes +it borrowed bits of orchestration which Meyerbeer had written for the +Opéra at Berlin. This orchestration is interesting, and I know it well +for I have had it in hand. It is only fair to say that Gluck, from some +inexplicable caprice, did not give the same care to the instrumentation +of _Armide_ that he did to _Orphée_, _Alcesti_, and the _Iphigenies_. +The trombones do not appear at all and the drums and flutes only at rare +intervals. Re-orchestration is not absolutely necessary and Meyerbeer's +is no more reprehensible than those with which Mozart enriched Handel's +_Messe_ and _La Fête d'Alexandre_. What was inadmissible was not +deciding frankly for one version or the other. It was like a badly +patched coat which shows the old cloth in one place and the new in +another. + +Afterwards I saw _Armide_ treated in another way. + +Did you ever happen to cherish the memory of a delightful and +picturesque city, where everything made a harmonious whole, where the +beautiful walks were arched over by old trees--and later come back to it +to find it embellished, the trees cut down, the walks replaced by +enormous buildings which dwarfed into insignificance the ancient marvels +which gave the city its charm? + +This was the case with me when I saw _Armide_ again in a city which I +shall not name. The opera had been judged superannuated and had been +"improved." A young composer had written a new score in which he +inserted here and there such bits of Gluck as he thought worthy of being +preserved. A costly and magnificently imbecile luxuriousness set off the +whole piece. I may be pardoned the cruel adjective when I say that in +the scene of Hate, so deeply inspired, and which takes place in a sort +of cave, they relegated the chorus to the wings to make a place for +dragons, fantastic birds beating their wings, and other deviltries. +This, of course, deprived the chorus of all its power and distinction. + +But the best was at the end of the second act. The forest with its +trees, grass and rocks entirely disappeared in the flies taking Renaud +and Armide with it and the spectator was left, for some unknown reason, +looking at a background surrounded by mountains. Then, by a marvel of +mechanism, there appeared to the sound of ultramodern music, Renaud +sleeping on a bed of state, with Armide standing at the foot and +stretching forth her hand with a gesture of authority, declaiming in a +solemn tone, + + "Rinaldo, I love you!" + +and the curtain fell to the applause of the audience. + + * * * * * + +We owe much to Germany in music, for it has produced many great +musicians. It can set off against our trinity of Corneille, Racine, and +Molière, the no less glorious Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But Germany +seems to have lost all respect for the meaning of its own music and for +its own glories. Instead of watching over the purity of the text of its +masterpieces, it alters them at its pleasure and makes them all but +unrecognizable. We abuse nuances but they were rare in earlier days. An +orchestra conductor who performs symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, even by +Beethoven, has the right to make additions. But it is intolerable that +the scores should be printed with these nuances and bowings which are in +no way due to the author and which are imposed by the editor. +Nevertheless, that is what happens, and it is impossible to tell where +the authentic text ends and the interpolation begins. In addition, the +interpolation may be the exact contrary of what the author intended. + +This evil is at its worst in piano music. Our famous teachers, like +Marmontel and Le Couppey, have published editions of the classics which +are full of their own directions. But the player is forewarned; it is +the Marmontel or Le Couppey edition and makes no pretence of +authenticity. In Germany, however, there are supposedly authentic +editions, based on the originals, but which superimpose their own +pernicious inventions on the author's text. + +The touch of the piano used to be different from what it is to-day. The +directions in Mozart's and Beethoven's works show that they used the +execution of stringed instruments as their model. The touch was lighter +and the fingers were raised so that the notes were separated slightly, +and not run together except when indicated. The supposition is that this +must have led to a dryness of tone. I remember to have heard in my +childhood some old people whose playing was singularly hopping. Then, +there came a reaction, and with it a passion for slurring the notes. +When I was Stamaty's pupil, it was considered most difficult to "tie" +the notes; that required, however, only dexterity and suppleness. "When +she learns to 'tie,' she will know how to play," said the mother of a +young pianist. Nevertheless, the trick of perpetual _legato_ becomes +exceedingly monotonous and takes away all character from the pianoforte +classics. But it is insisted on everywhere in the modern German +editions. Throughout there are connections seemingly interminable in +length, and indications of _legato_, _sempre legato_, which the author +not only did not indicate, but in places where it is easy to see that he +intended the exact opposite. + +If this is the case, what shall be said of marking the fingering on all +the notes--which often makes good playing impossible. Liszt taught +hundreds of pupils according to the best principles, yet such erroneous +principles have prevailed! + +Disciples of the ivory keys are numerous in our day. Everybody wants to +have a piano, and everybody plays it or thinks he does, which is not +always the same thing, and few really understand what the term "to play +the piano," so currently used, means. + +The harpsichord reigned supreme before the appearance of the piano--an +instrument which is beloved by some and execrated by others. To his +utter amazement Reyer was considered an enemy of the pianoforte. The +harpsichord has been revived of late so that it is needless to describe +it. It lacks strength, and that was the reason it was dethroned in a +period when strength was everything. On the other hand, it has +distinction and elegance. As the player can not modify the intensity of +the sound by a single pressure of the finger--in which it resembles the +organ--like the organ, with its multiple keyboards and registers, the +harpsichord has a wide variety of effects and affords the opportunity +for several octaves to sound simultaneously. As a result, while music +written for the harpsichord gains in strength and expression on the +modern instrument, it often assumes a deceptive monotony for which the +author is not responsible. + +The players of the harpsichord were ignorant of muscular effects; there +was nothing of the unchained lion about them. The delicate hands of a +marquise lost none of their gracefulness as they skimmed over the +keyboards, and the red or black keys emphasized their whiteness. + +The introduction of the hammer in the place of the tiny nib permitted +the modification of the quality of sound by differences in the pressure +of the fingers, and also the production at will of such nuances as +_forte_ and _piano_ without recourse to the different registers. This is +the reason why the new instrument was first called the pianoforte. The +word was long and cumbersome and was cut in half. When it became +necessary to _assault_ the note, they used the phrase "to hit the +forte." The papers which gave accounts of young Mozart's concerts +praised him for his ability to "hit." + +Nevertheless one did not hit hard. These keyboards with their limited +keys responded so easily that a child's fingers were sufficient. I first +played on one of these instruments at the age of three. It was made by +Zimmerman, whose son was Gounod's father-in-law. + +Later, the weight of the keys was increased to get a greater volume of +sound. Then, when long-haired _virtuosi_, playing by main strength, +produced peals of thunder, they really "_toucha du piano_." + + * * * * * + +To return to _Orphée_ and end as we began, I have to make a painful +confession. If the works of Gluck in general and _Orphée_ in particular +have had a happy influence on our musical taste, a passage from this +last work has been a noxious influence,--the famous chorus of the demons +"_Quel est l'audacieux--qui dans ces sombres lieux--ose porter ses +pas?_" + +In the old days French opera was based on declamation and it was +scrupulously respected even in the arias. There is a fine example of +this excellent system in Lully's famous aria from _Medusa_ to prove what +strength results from a close relation between the accent of the verse +and the music. Gluck was one of the most fervent disciples of this +system, but _Orphée_, as we know, was derived from _Orfeo_. The question +was whether he could even think of suppressing this spectacular chorus +with its amazing strength which was one of the principal reasons for the +work's success. Unfortunately the music of the chorus was moulded on the +Italian text, and each verse ended with the accent on the antepenult, +which occurs frequently in German and Italian, but never in French. And +they sing: + + Quel est l'auDAcieux + Qui dans ces SOMbres lieux + Ose porTER ses pas + Et devant LE trepas + Ne frémit pas? + +As French is not strongly accented such faults are tolerated. Gluck's +theme impressed itself on the memory, so that he dealt a terrific blow +to the purity of prosody. We gradually became so disinterested in this +that by Auber's time scarcely any attention was paid to it. Finally, +Offenbach appeared. He was a German by birth and his musical ideas +naturally rhymed with German in direct contradiction to the French words +to which they applied. This constant bungling passed for originality. +Sometimes it would have been necessary to change the division of a +measure to get a correct melody, as in the song: + + Un p'tit bonhomme + Pas plus haut qu'ça. + +In such a case we might say that he did wrong for the mere pleasure of +going astray. But popular taste was so corrupted that no one noticed it +and everybody who wrote in the lighter vein fell into the same habits. + +We owe a debt of gratitude to André Messager for breaking away from this +manner and setting musical phraseology aright. His return to the old +traditions was not the least of the attractions of his delightful +_Véronique_. + +But we are wandering far from Gluck and _Orphée_, although not so far +as we might think. In art, as in everything, extremes meet, and there +are all kinds of tastes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DELSARTE + + +Felix Duquesnal in one of his brilliant articles has written something +about Delsarte, the singer, in connection with his controversy with +Madame Carvalho. The cause of this controversy was the lessons she took +from him. The name of Delsarte should never be forgotten, as I shall try +to explain. Madame Carvalho did not refuse to pay Delsarte for her +lessons, but she did not want to be called his pupil. Although she had +attended the Conservatoire, she wanted to be known solely as a pupil of +Duprez. As a matter of fact it was Duprez who knew how to make the +"Little Miolan," the delightful warbler, into the great singer with her +important place on the French stage. + +But this was accomplished at a price. Madame Carvalho told me about it +herself. Her medium register was weak and Duprez undertook to +substitute chest tones and develop clearness as much as possible. "When +I began to work," she said, "my mother was frightened. One would have +thought that a calf was being killed in the house." + +Ordinarily such a method would produce a harsh, shaky voice and all +freshness would be lost. But in Madame Carvalho's case the opposite was +true. The freshness and purity of her voice were beyond compare, while +its smoothness and the harmony of the registers were perfect. It was a +miracle the like of which we shall probably never see again. + +But if Duprez made a wonderful voice at the risk of breaking it, I have +always thought that Madame Carvalho owed her admirable diction, so +distinguishing a mark of her talent, to Delsarte. Delsarte was a +disastrous and deadly teacher of singing. No voice could stand up under +his methods, not even his own, although he attributed its loss to +teaching at the Conservatoire. But he studied deeply the arts of +speaking and gesture, and he was a past master in them. + +I once attended a course he gave in these subjects. He stated highly +illuminating truths and gave the psychological reasons for accents and +the physiological reasons for the gestures. He determined the use of +gestures in some sort of scientific way. Mystic fancies were mixed up in +these questions. + +It was extremely interesting to see him dissect one of Fontaine's fables +or a passage from Racine, and to hear him explain why the accent should +be on such a word or on such a syllable and not on another, to bring out +the sense. Although this course was so instructive, few took it, for +Delsarte was almost unknown to people. His influence scarcely extended +outside a narrow circle of admirers, but the quality made up for the +quantity. This was the circle of the old _Debats_, which was formerly +devoted exclusively to Romanticism, but at this time to the +classics--the set headed by Ingres in painting and Reber in music. +Theirs was a secluded and ascetic world in silent revolt against the +abominations of the century. One had to hear the tone of devotion in +which the members of this circle spoke of the ancients to appreciate +their attitude. Nothing in our day can give any idea of them. "They +say," one of the devotees once told me, "that the ancients learned +Beauty through a sort of revelation, and Beauty has steadily degenerated +ever since." + +Such false notions were, however, professed by the most sincere people +who were deeply devoted to art. So this group, which had no influence on +their own contemporaries, nevertheless, without knowing it or wishing to +do so, played a useful rôle. + +As we know, the public was divided into two camps. On one side were the +partisans of Melody, opéra-comique, the Italians, and, with some effort, +of grand opera. Opposed to them were the partisans of music in the grand +style--Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Sebastian Bach, although he was +little known and is less well known now. + +No one gave a thought to our old French school, to the composers from +Lulli to Gluck, who produced so many excellent works. Reber showed +Delsarte the way and the latter, naturally an antiquarian, threw +himself into this unexplored field with surprising vigor. Only Lulli's +name was known, while Campra, Mondonville and the others were entirely +forgotten. Even Gluck himself had been forgotten. First editions of his +orchestral scores, which it is impossible to find to-day, sold for a few +francs at the second-hand book shops. Rameau was never mentioned. + +Delsarte, handsome, eloquent, and fascinating, wielded an almost +imperial sway over his little coterie of artists. Thanks to him the lamp +of our old French school was kept dimly burning until the day when +inherent justice permitted it to be revived. In this restricted world no +evening was complete without Delsarte. He would come in with some story +of frightful throat trouble to justify his chronic lack of voice, and, +then, without any voice at all but by a kind of magic, would put +shudders into the tones of Orpheus or Eurydice. I often played his +accompaniments and he always demanded _pianissimo_. + +"But," I would say, "the author has indicated _forte_." + +"That is true," he would answer, "but in those days the harpsichord had +little depth of tone." + +It would have been easy to answer that the accompaniment was written for +the orchestra and not for the harpsichord. + +Delsarte's execution, on account of the insufficiency of his vocal +powers, was often entirely different from what the author intended. +Furthermore, he was absolutely ignorant of the correct way to interpret +the appogiatures and other marks which are not used to-day. As a result +his interpretation of the older works was inexact. But that did not +matter, for even if masterpieces are presented badly, there is always +something left. Besides, both the singer and his hearers had Faith. He +had a way of pronouncing "Gluck" which aroused expectation even before +one heard a note. + +From time to time Delsarte gave a concert. He would come on the stage +and say that he had a bad throat, but that he would try to give +_Iphigenia's Dream_ or something of that sort. His courage would prove +to be greater than his strength and he would have to stop. He would +then fall back on old-time songs or La Fontaine's fables in which he +excelled. A skilfully studied mimicry, which seemed entirely natural, +underlay his reading. A red handkerchief, which he knew how to draw from +his pocket at just the proper moment, always excited applause. + +One day he conceived the idea of giving one of Bossuet's sermons at his +concert. Religious authority was very powerful at the time and forbade +it. Yet there would have been no sacrilege, and I regretted keenly that +I could not hear this magnificent prose delivered so wonderfully. Now +that religious authority has lost its secular support, we see things in +an entirely different way. Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints walk the +stage, speak in prose or verse, and sing. It would seem that no one is +shocked for there is no protest. For my own part I must frankly confess +that such pseudo-religious exhibitions are disagreeable. They disturb me +greatly and I can see no use in them. + + * * * * * + +In order to foster admiration for the old masters, Delsarte conceived +the idea of publishing a collection of pieces taken from their works +right and left, and, as a result, he created his _Archives du Chant_. He +had special type made and the publication was a marvel of beautiful +typography, correctness and good taste. At the beginning of each part +was a cleverly harmonised passage of church music. The support of a +publisher was necessary for the success of such a work, but Delsarte was +his own publisher and he met with no success at all. Similar but +inferior publications have been markedly successful. + +Delsarte aimed at purity of text, but his successors have been forced to +modernize the works to make them accessible for the public. This fact is +painful. In literature the texts are studied and the endeavor is to +reproduce the writer's thought as closely as possible. In music it is +entirely different. With each new edition a professor is commissioned to +supervise the work and he adds something of his own invention. + +Delsarte, a singer without a voice, an imperfect musician, a doubtful +scholar, guided by an intuition which approached genius, in spite of his +numerous faults played an important rôle in the evolution of French +music in the Nineteenth Century. He was no ordinary man. The impression +he gave to all who knew him was of a visionary, an apostle. When one +heard him speak with his fiery enthusiasm about these works of the past +which the world had forgotten, one could but believe that such oblivion +was unjust and desire to know these relics of another age. + +Without the shadow of a doubt I owed to his leadership the necessary +courage to make a profound study of the works of the old school, for +they are unattractive at first. Berlioz berated all this music. He had +seen Gluck's works on the stage in his youth, but he could see nothing +in them that was not "superannuated and childish." With all respect to +Berlioz's memory, it deserved a kinder judgment than that. When one +reaches the depths of this music, although it may be at the price of +some effort, he is well repaid for his pains. There is real feeling, +grandeur and even something of the picturesque in these works--as much +as could be with the means at their disposal. + +It is only right that we should pay tribute to Delsarte's memory. He +was a pioneer who, during his whole life, proclaimed the value of +immortal works, which the world despised. That is no slight merit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SEGHERS + + +While Delsarte was preparing the way for the old French opera and above +all for Gluck's works, another pioneer of musical evolution was working +to form the taste of the Parisian public, but with an entirely different +power and another effect. Seghers was the man. He played a great rôle +and his memory should be honored. + +As his name indicates, Seghers was a Belgian. He started life as a +violinist and was one of Baillot's pupils. His execution was masterly, +his tone admirable, and he had a musical intelligence of the first +order. He had every right to a first rank among _virtuosi_, but this +man, herculean in appearance and tenacious in his purposes, lost all his +power before an audience. + +He had a dream of giving to lovers of music the last of Beethoven's +quartets, which were considered at the time both unplayable and +incomprehensible. In the end he planned a series of concerts at which, +despite my age--I was only fifteen--I was to be the regular pianist. He +planned to give in addition to these quartets, some of Bach's sonatas +and Reber's and Schumann's trios. I spoke of this plan to his +mother-in-law one day as she was peacefully embroidering at the window, +and told her how pleased I was at the thought of the concerts. + +"Don't count on it too much," she told me. "He'll never give them." + +When everything was ready, he invited some thirty people to listen to a +trial performance. It was wretched. All the depth of tone had gone from +his violin as well as the skill from his fingers.... The project was +abandoned. + +It was left for Maurin to make something out of these terrible quartets. +Maurin had peculiar gifts. He had a lightness of bow which I have never +seen equalled by anyone and a lightness and charm which enchanted the +public. But I can say in all sincerity that Seghers's execution was even +better. Unfortunately for him I was his only listener. + +Madame Seghers was a woman of great beauty, unusually intelligent and +distinguished. She had been one of Liszt's pupils and was a pianist of +first rank. But she was even more timid than her husband--a single +listener was sufficient to paralyze her. When Liszt was teaching Madame +Seghers, he came to appreciate her husband's real worth and entrusted +his daughter's musical education to him. This is sufficient indication +of the esteem in which Liszt held Seghers. So it was not surprising that +he gave me valuable and greatly needed suggestions in regard to style +and the piano itself, for his friendship with Liszt had given him a +thorough understanding of the instrument. + +I first saw and heard Liszt at Seghers's house. He had reappeared in +Paris after long years of absence, and by that time he had begun to seem +almost legendary. The story went that since he had become chapel-master +at Weimar he was devoting himself to grand compositions, and, what +appeared unbelievable, "piano music." People who ought to have known +that Mozart was the greatest pianist of his time shrugged their +shoulders at this. As a climax it was insinuated that Liszt was setting +systems of philosophy to music. + +I studied Liszt's works with all the enthusiasm of my eighteen years for +I already regarded him as a genius and attributed to him even before I +saw him almost superhuman powers as a pianist. Remarkable to relate he +surpassed the conception I had formed. The dreams of my youthful +imagination were but prose in comparison with the Bacchic hymn evoked by +his supernatural fingers. No one who did not hear him at the height of +his powers can have any idea of his performance. + + * * * * * + +Seghers was a member of the Société des Concerts at the Conservatoire. +This reached only a restricted public and there was no other symphony +concert worthy of the name in Paris at the time. And if the public was +limited, the repertoire was even more so. Haydn's, Mozart's and +Beethoven's symphonies were played almost exclusively, and Mendelssohn's +were introduced with the greatest difficulty. Only fragments of vast +compositions like the oratorios were given. An author who was still +alive was looked upon as an intruder. However, the conductor was +permitted to introduce a solo of his own selection. Thus my friend +Auguste Tolbecque, who was over eighty, was permitted to give--he still +played beautifully--my first _concerto_ for the violoncello which I had +written for him. Deldevez, the conductor of the famous orchestra at the +time, did not overlook the chance to tell me that he had put my +_concerto_ on the programme only through consideration for Tolbecque. +Otherwise, he added, he would have preferred Messieurs So-and-so's. + +Not only did the Conservatoire audiences know little music, but the +larger public knew none at all. The symphonies of the three great +classic masters were known to amateurs for the most part only through +Czerny's arrangement for two pianos. + +This was the situation when Seghers left the Société des Concerts and +founded the Société St. Cécile. He led the orchestra himself. The new +society took its name from the St. Cécile hall which was then in the Rue +de la Chaussée d'Antin. It was a large square hall and was excellent in +spite of the prejudice in favor of halls with curved lines for music. +Curved surfaces, as Cavaillé-Coll, who was an expert in this matter, +once told me, distort sound as curved mirrors distort images. Halls used +for music should, therefore, have only straight lines. The St. Cécile +hall was sufficiently large to allow a complete orchestra and chorus to +be placed properly and heard as well. + +Seghers managed to assemble an excellent and sizable orchestra and he +also secured soloists who were young then but who have since become +celebrities. The orchestra was poorly paid and also very unruly. I have +seen them rebel at the difficulties in Beethoven, and it was even worse +when Seghers undertook to give Schumann who was considered the _ne plus +ultra_ of modernism. Oftentimes there were real riots. But we heard +there for the first time the overture of _Manfred_, Mendelssohn's +_Symphony in A minor_, and the overture to _Tannhauser_. + +The modern French school found the doors in the Rue Bergère closed to +them, but they were welcomed with open arms at the Chaussée d'Antin. +Among them were Reber, Gounod, and Gouvy, and even beginners like +Georges Bizet and myself. I made my first venture there with my +_Symphony in E flat_ which I wrote when I was seventeen. In order to get +the committee to adopt it, Seghers offered it as a symphony by an +unknown author, which had been sent to him from Germany. The committees +swallowed the bait, and the symphony, which would probably not had a +hearing if my name had been signed, was praised to the skies. + +I can still see myself at a rehearsal listening to a conversation +between Berlioz and Gounod. Both of them were greatly interested in me, +so that they spoke freely and discussed the excellences and faults of +this anonymous symphony. They took the work seriously and it can be +imagined how I drank in their words. When the veil of mystery was +lifted, the interest of the two great musicians changed to friendship. I +received a letter from Gounod, which I have kept carefully, and as it +does credit to the author, I take the liberty of reproducing it here: + + My dear Camille: + + I was officially informed yesterday that you are the author of the + symphony which they played on Sunday. I suspected it; but now that + I am sure, I want to tell you at once how pleased I was with it. + You are beyond your years; always keep on--and remember that on + Sunday, December 11, 1853, you obligated yourself to become a great + master. + + Your pleased and devoted friend, + + CH. GOUNOD. + +Many works which had been unknown to Parisian audiences were given at +these concerts and nowhere else. Among them were Schubert's _Symphony in +C,_ fragments of Weber's opera _Préciosa,_ his _Jubel overture_, and +symphonies by Gade, Gouvy, Gounod, and Reber. These symphonies are not +dazzling but they are charming. They form an interesting link in the +golden chain, and the public has a right and even some sort of duty to +hear them. They would enjoy hearing them too, just as at the Louvre they +like to see certain pictures which are not extraordinary but which are, +nevertheless, worthy of the place they occupy. That is to say, if the +public is really guided by a love of art and seeks only intellectual +pleasure instead of sensations and shocks. Some one has said lately that +where there is no feeling there is no music. We could, however, cite +many passages of music which are absolutely lacking in emotion and which +are beautiful nevertheless from the standpoint of pure esthetic beauty. +But what am I saying? Painting goes its own way and emotion, feeling, +and passion are evoked by the least landscape. Maurice Barres brought in +this fashion and he could even see passion in rocks. Happy is he who can +follow him there. + +Among the things we heard at that time and which we never hear now I +must note especially Berlioz's _Corsaire_ and _King Lear_. His name is +so much beloved by the present day public that this neglect is both +unjust and unjustifiable. The great man himself came to the Société St. +Cécile one day to conduct his _L'Enfance du Christ_ which he had just +written--or rather _La Fuite en Egypt_ which was the only part of the +work that was in existence then. He composed the rest of it afterwards. +I remember perfectly the performances which the great man directed. They +were lively and spirited rather than careful, but somewhat slower than +what Edouard Colonne has accustomed us to. The time was faster and the +nuances sharper. + +In spite of the enthusiasm of the conductor and the skill and talent of +the orchestra, the society led a hand-to-mouth existence. The sinews of +war were lacking. Weckerlin directed the choruses and I acted as the +accompanist at the rehearsals. Love of art sufficed us, but the singers +and instrumentalists were not satisfied with that in the absence of all +emoluments. If Seghers had been adaptable, he might have secured +resources, but that was not his forte. Meyerbeer wanted him to give his +_Struensée_ and Halévy wanted a performance of his _Prométhée_. But this +was contrary to Seghers's convictions, and when he had once made up his +mind nothing could change him. Nevertheless he did give the overture to +_Struensée_ and it would have been no great effort to give the rest. As +to _Prométhée_, even if the last part is not in harmony with the rest +of it, the work was well worthy the honor of a performance, which the +proud society in the Rue Bergère had accorded it. By these refusals +Seghers was deprived of the support of two powerful protectors. + +Pasdeloup craftily took advantage of the situation. He had plenty of +money and, as he knew what the financial situation was, he went to the +rehearsals and corrupted the artists. For the most part they were young +people in needy circumstances and could not refuse his attractive +propositions. He killed Seghers's society and built on its ruins the +Société des Jeunes Artistes, which later became the Concerts Populaires. + +Pasdeloup was sincerely fond of music but he was a very ordinary +musician. He had little of Seghers's feeling and profound comprehension +of the art. In Seghers's hands the popular concerts would have become an +admirable undertaking, but Pasdeloup, in spite of his zeal and skill, +was able to give them only a superficial and deceptive brilliancy. +Besides, Seghers would have worked for the development of the French +school whom Pasdeloup, with but few exceptions, kept under a bushel +until 1870. Among these exceptions were a symphony by Gounod, one by +Gouvy and the overture to Berlioz's _Frances-Juges._ Until the +misfortunes and calamities of that terrible year the French symphonic +school had been repressed and stifled between the Société des Concerts +and the Concerts Populaires. Perhaps they were necessary so that this +school might be freed and give flight to its fancies. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ROSSINI + + +Nowadays it is difficult to form any idea of Rossini's position in our +beautiful city of Paris half a century ago. He had retired from active +life a long time before, but he had a greater reputation in his idleness +than many others in their activity. All Paris sought the honor of being +admitted to his magnificent, high-windowed apartment. As the demigod +never went out in the evening, his friends were always sure of finding +him at home. At one time or another all sorts of social sets rubbed +elbows at his great soirees. The most brilliant singers and the most +famous virtuosi appeared at these "evenings." The master was surrounded +by sycophants, but they did not influence him, for he knew their true +worth. He ruled his regular following with the hauteur of a superior +being who does not deign to reveal himself to the first comer. It is a +question how he came to be held in such honor. + +His works, outside of the _Barbier_ and _Guillaume Tell_, and some +performances of _Moïse_, belonged to the past. They still went to see +_Otello_ at the Théâtre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C +diesis. Rossini was under so little illusion that he tried to oppose the +effort to have _Semiramide_ put into the repertoire at the Opéra. And, +nevertheless, the Parisian public actually worshipped him. + +This public--I am speaking now of the musical public or what is called +that--was divided into two hostile camps. There were the lovers of +melody who were in the large majority and included the musical critics; +and, on the other side, the subscribers to the Conservatoire and the +Maurin, Alard and Amingaud quartets. They were devotees of learned +music; "poseurs," others said, who pretended to admire works they did +not understand at all. + +There was no melody in Beethoven; some even denied that there was any in +Mozart. Melody was found, we were told, only in the works of the +Italian school, of which Rossini was the leader, and in the school of +Herold and Auber, which was descended from the Italian. + +The Melodists considered Rossini their standard bearer, a symbol to +rally around, even though they had just obtained good prices for his +works at the second-hand shops and now permitted them to fall into +oblivion. + +From some words he let fall during our intimacy I can state that this +neglect was painful to him. But it was a just--perhaps too +just--retribution for the fatality with which Rossini, doubtless in +spite of himself, served as a weapon against Beethoven. The first +encounter was at Vienna where the success of _Tancred_ crushed forever +the dramatic ambitions of the author of _Fidelio_; later, at Paris, they +used _Guillaume Tell_ in combating the increasing invasion of the +symphony and chamber music. + +I was twenty when M. and Mme. Viardot introduced me to Rossini. He +invited me to his small evening receptions and received me with his +usual rather meaningless cordiality. At the end of a month, when he +found that I asked to be heard neither as a pianist nor as a composer, +he changed his attitude. "Come and see me tomorrow morning," he said. +"We can talk then." + +I was quick to respond to this flattering invitation and I found a very +different Rossini from the one of the evening. He was intensely +interested in and open-minded to ideas, which, if they were not +advanced, were at least broad and noble. He gave proof of this when +Liszt's famous _Messe_ was performed for the first time at St. Eustache. +He went to its defense in the face of an almost unanimous opposition. + +He said to me one day, + +"You have written a duet for a flute and clarinet for Dorus and Leroy. +Won't you ask them to play it at one of my evenings?" + +The two great artists did not have to be urged. Then an unheard of thing +happened. As he never had a written programme on such occasions, Rossini +managed so that they believed that the duet was his own. It is easy to +imagine the success of the piece under these conditions. When the encore +was over, Rossini took me to the dining-room and made me sit near him, +holding me by the hand so that I could not get away. A procession of +fawning admirers passed in front of him. Ah! Master! What a masterpiece! +Marvellous! + +And when the victim had exhausted the resources of the language in +praise, Rossini replied, quietly: + +"I agree with you. But the duet wasn't mine; it was written by this +gentleman." + +Such kindness combined with such ingenuity tells more about the great +man than many volumes of commentaries. For Rossini was a great man. The +young people of to-day are in no position to judge his works, which were +written, as he said himself, for singers and a public who no longer +exist. + +"I am criticised," he said one day, "for the great _crescendo_ in my +works. But if I hadn't put the _crescendo_ into my works, they would +never have been played at the Opéra." + +In our day the public are slaves. I have read in the programme of one +house, "All marks of approbation will be severely repressed." Formerly, +especially in Italy, the public was master and its taste law. As it came +before the lights were up, a great overture with a _crescendo_ was as +necessary as cavatinas, duets and ensembles: they came to hear the +singers and not to be present at an opera. In many of his works, +especially in _Otello_, Rossini made a great step forward towards +realism in opera. In _Moïse_ and _Le Siège de Corinthe_ (not to mention +_Guillaume Tell_) he rose to heights which have not been surpassed in +spite of the poverty of the means at his disposal. As Victor Hugo has +victoriously demonstrated, such poverty is no obstacle to genius and +wealth in them is only an advantage to mediocrity. + +I was one of the regular pianists at Rossini's. The others were +Stanzieri, a charming young man of whom Rossini was very fond and who +lived but a short time, and Diemer, who was also young but already a +great artist. One or the other of us would often play at the evening +entertainments the slight pieces for the piano which the Master used to +write to take up his time. I was only too willing to accompany the +singers, when Rossini did not do so himself. He accompanied them +admirably for he played the piano to perfection. + +[Illustration: Mme. Patti] + +Unfortunately I was not there the evening that Patti sang for Rossini +the first time. We know that after she had sung the aria from _Le +Barbier_, he said to her, after the usual compliments, + +"Who wrote that aria you just sang?" + +I saw him three days afterwards and he hadn't cooled off even then. + +"I am fully aware," he said, "that arias should be embellished. That's +what they are for. But not to leave a note of them even in the +recitatives! That is too much!" + +In his irritation he complained that the sopranos persisted in singing +this aria which was written for a contralto and did not sing what had +been written for the sopranos at all. + +On the other hand the diva was irritated as well. She thought the matter +over and realized that it would be serious to have Rossini for an enemy. +So some days later she went to ask his advice. It was well for her that +she took it, for her talent, though brilliant and fascinating, was not +as yet fully formed. Two months after this incident, Patti sang the +arias from _La Gaza Ladra_ and _Semiramide_, with the master as her +accompanist. And she combined with her brilliancy the absolute +correctness which she always showed afterwards. + +Much has been written about the premature interruption of Rossini's +career after the appearance of _Guillaume Tell_. It has been compared +with Racine's life after _Phèdre_. The failure of _Phèdre_ was brutal +and cruel, which was added to by the scandalous success of the _Phèdre_ +of an unworthy rival. Racine's friends, the Port Royalists, did not +hesitate to make the most of the opportunity. "You've lost your soul," +they told him. "And now you haven't even success." But later, when he +took up his pen again, he gave us two masterpieces in _Esther_ and +_Athalie_. + +Rossini was accustomed to success and it was hard for him to run into a +half-hearted success when he knew he had surpassed himself. This was +doubtless due to the extravagant phraseology of Hippolyte Bis, one of +the librettists. But _Guillaume Tell_ had its admirers from the start. +I heard it spoken of constantly in my childhood. If the work did not +appear on the bills of the Opéra, it furnished the amateurs with choice +bits. + +In my opinion, if Rossini committed suicide as far as his art was +concerned, he did so because he had nothing more to say. Rossini was a +spoiled child of success and he could not live without it. Such +unexpected hostility put an end to a stream which had flowed so +abundantly for so long. + +The success of his _Soirées Musicales_ and his _Stabat_ encouraged him. +But he wrote nothing more except those slight compositions for the piano +and for singing which may be compared to the last vibrations of a sound, +as it dies away. + +Later--much later--came _La Messe_ to which undue importance has been +attributed. "_Le Passus_," one critic wrote, "is the cry of a stricken +spirit." La Messe is written with elegance by an assured and expert +hand, but that is all. There are no traces of the pen which wrote the +second act of _Guillaume Tell_. + +Apropos of this second act, it is not, perhaps, generally known that the +author had no idea of ending it with a prayer. Insurrections are not +usually begun with so serious a song. But at the rehearsals the effect +of the unison, _Si parmi nous il est des Traîtres_, was so great that +they did not dare to go on beyond it. So they suppressed the real +ending, which is now the brilliant entrancing end of the overture. This +finale is extant in the library at the Opéra. It would be an interesting +experiment to restore it and give this beautiful act its natural +conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JULES MASSENET + + +Massenet has been praised indiscriminately--sometimes for his numerous +and brilliant powers and sometimes for merits he did not have at all. + +I have waited to speak of him until the time when the Académie was ready +to replace him,--that is to say, put some one in his place, for great +artists are never replaced. Others succeed them with their own +individual and different powers, but they do not take their places +nevertheless. Malibran has never been replaced, nor Madame Viardot, +Madame Carvalho, Talma and Rachel. No one can ever replace Patti, Bartet +or Sarah Bernhardt. They could not replace Ingres, Delacroix, Berlioz, +or Gounod, and they can never replace Massenet. + +It is a question whether he has been accorded his real place. Perhaps +his pupils have estimated him at his true worth, but they were grateful +for his excellent teaching, and may be rightly suspected of partiality. +Others have spoken slightingly of his works and they have applied to him +by transposing the words of the celebrated dictum: _Saltavit et +placuit_. He sang and wept, so they sought to deprecate him as if there +were something reprehensible in an artist's pleasing the public. This +notion might seem to have some basis in view of the taste that is +affected to-day--a predilection for all that is shocking and displeasing +in all the arts, including poetry. Sorcières's epigram--the ugly is +beautiful and the beautiful ugly--has become a programme. People are no +longer content with merely admiring atrocities, they even speak with +contempt of beauties hallowed by time and the admiration of centuries. + +The fact remains that Massenet is one of the most brilliant diamonds in +our musical crown. No musician has enjoyed so much favor with the public +save Auber, whom Massenet did not care for any more than he did for his +school, but whom he resembled closely. They were alike in their +facility, their amazing fertility, genius, gracefulness, and success. +Both composed music which was agreeable to their contemporaries. Both +were accused of pandering to their audiences. The answer to this is that +both their audiences and the artists had the same tastes and so were in +perfect accord. + +To-day the revolutionists are the only ones held in esteem by the +critics. Well, it may be a fine thing to despise the mob, to struggle +against the current, and to compel the mob by force of genius and energy +to follow one despite their resistance. Yet one may be a great artist +without doing that. + +There was nothing revolutionary about Sebastian Bach with his two +hundred and fifty cantatas, which were performed as fast as they were +written and which were constantly in demand for important occasions. +Handel managed the theater where his operas were produced and his +oratorios were sung, and they would have indubitably failed, if he had +gone against the accustomed taste of his audiences. Haydn wrote to +supply the music for Prince Esterhazy's chapel; Mozart was forced to +write constantly, and Rossini worked for an intolerant public which +would not have allowed one of his operas to be played, if the overture +did not contain the great _crescendo_ for which he has been so +reproached. These were none of them revolutionists, yet they were great +musicians. + +Another criticism is made against Massenet. He was superficial, they +say, and lacked depth. Depth, as we know, is very much the fashion. + +It is true that Massenet was not profound, but that is of little +consequence. Just as there are many mansions in our Father's house, so +there are many in Apollo's. Art is vast. The artist has a perfect right +to descend to the nethermost depths and to enter into the inner secrets +of the soul, but this right is not a duty. + +The artists of Ancient Greece, with all their marvellous works, were not +profound. Their marble goddesses were beautiful, and beauty was +sufficient. + +Our old-time sculptors--Clodion and Coysevox--were not profound; nor +were Fragonard, La Tour, nor Marivaux, yet they brought honor to the +French school. + +All have their value and all are necessary. The rose with its fresh +color and its perfume, is, in its way, as precious as the sturdy oak. +Art has a place for artists of all kinds, and no one should flatter +himself that he is the only one who is capable of covering the entire +field of art. + +Some, even in treating a familiar subject, have as much dignity as a +Roman emperor on his golden throne, but Massenet did not belong to this +type. He had charm, attraction and a passionateness that was feverish +rather than deep. His melody was wavering and uncertain, oftentimes more +a recitative than melody properly so called, and it was entirely his +own. It lacks structure and style. Yet how can one resist when he hears +Manon at the feet of Des Grieux in the sacristy of Saint-Sulpice, or +help being stirred to the depths by such outpourings of love? One cannot +reflect or analyze when moved in this way. + +After emotional art comes decadent art. But that is of little +consequence. Decadence in art is often far from being artistic +deterioration. + +Massenet's music has one great attraction for me and one that is rare +in these days--it is gay. And gaiety is frowned upon in modern music. +They criticise Haydn and Mozart for their gaiety, and turn away their +faces in shame before the exuberant joyousness with which the _Ninth +Symphony_ comes to its triumphal close. Long live gloom. Hurrah for +boredom! So say our young people. They may live to regret, too late, the +lost hours which they might have spent in gaiety. + +Massenet's facility was something prodigious. I have seen him sick in +bed, in a most uncomfortable position, and still turning off pages of +orchestration, which followed one another with disconcerting speed. Too +often such facility engenders laziness, but in his case we know what an +enormous amount of work he accomplished. He has been criticised as being +too prolific. However, that is a quality which belongs only to a master. +The artist who produces little may, if he has ability, be an interesting +artist, but he will never be a great one. + +[Illustration: M. Jules Massenet] + +In this time of anarchy in art, when all he had to do to conciliate +the hostile critics was to array himself with the _fauves_, Massenet set +an example of impeccable writing. He knew how to combine modernism with +respect for tradition, and he did this at a time when all he had to do +was to trample tradition under foot and be proclaimed a genius. Master +of his trade as few have ever been, alive to all its difficulties, +possessing the most subtle secrets of its technique, he despised the +contortions and exaggerations which simple minds confound with the +science of music. He followed out the course he had set for himself +without any concern for what they might say about him. He was able to +adopt within reason the novelties from abroad and he was clever in +assimilating them perfectly, yet he presented the spectacle of a +thoroughly French artist whom neither the Lorelei of the Rhine nor the +sirens of the Mediterranean could lead astray. He was a _virtuoso_ of +the orchestra, yet he never sacrificed the voices for the instruments, +nor did he sacrifice orchestral color for the voices. Finally, he had +the greatest gift of all, that of life, a gift which cannot be defined, +but which the public always recognizes and which assures the success of +works far inferior to his. + +Much has been said about the friendship between us--a notion based +solely on the demonstrations he showered on me in public--and in public +alone. He might have had my friendship, if he had wanted it, and it +would have been a devoted friendship, but he did not want it. He +told--what I never told--how I got one of his works presented at Weimar, +where _Samson_ had just been given. What he did not tell was the icy +reception he gave me when I brought the news and when I expected an +entirely different sort of a reception. From that day on I never +intervened again, and I was content to rejoice in his success without +expecting any reciprocity on his part, which I knew to be impossible +after a confession he made to me one day. My friends and companions in +arms were Bizet, Guiraud and Delibes; Massenet was a rival. His high +opinion of me, therefore, was the more valuable when he did me the honor +of recommending his pupils to study my works. I have brought up this +question only to make clear that when I proclaim his great musical +importance, I am guided solely by my artistic conscience and that my +sincerity cannot be suspected. One word more. Massenet had many +imitators; he never imitated anyone. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MEYERBEER + + +I + +Who would have predicted that the day would come when it would be +necessary to come to the defense of the author of _Les Huguenots_ and +_Le Prophète,_ of the man who at one time dominated every stage in +Europe by a leadership which was so extraordinary that it looked as +though it would never end? I could cite many works in which all the +composers of the past are praised without qualification, and Meyerbeer, +alone, is accused of numerous faults. However, others have faults, too, +and, as I have said elsewhere, but it will stand repeating, it is not +the absence of defects but the presence of merits which makes works and +men great. It is not always well to be without blemish. A too regular +face or too pure a voice lacks expression. If there is no such thing as +perfection in this world, it is doubtless because it is not needed. + +As I do not belong to that biased school which pretends to see Peter +entirely white and Paul utterly black, I do not try to make myself think +that the author of _Les Huguenots_ had no faults. + +The most serious, but the most excusable, is his contempt for prosody +and his indifference to the verse entrusted to him. This fault is +excusable for the French school of the time, heedless of tradition, set +him a bad example. Rossini was, like Meyerbeer, a foreigner, but he was +not affected in the same way. He even got fine effects through the +combination of musical and textual rhythm. An instance of this is seen +in the famous phrase in _Guillaume Tell_: + + Ces jours qu'ils ont osé proscrire, + Je ne les ai pas défendus. + Mon père, tu m'as dû maudire! + +If Rossini had not retired at an age when others are just beginning +their careers and had given us two or three more works, his illustrious +example would have restored the old principles on which French opera +had been constructed from the time of Lulli. On the contrary, Auber +carried with him an entire generation captivated by Italian music. He +even went so far as to put French words into Italian rhythm. The famous +duet _Amour sacré de la Patrie_ is versified as if the text were _Amore +sacro della patria._ This is seen only in reading it, for it is never +sung as it is written. + +Meyerbeer was, then, excusable to a certain extent, but he abused all +indulgence in such matters. In order to preserve intact his musical +forms--even in recitatives, which are, as a matter of fact, only +declamation set to music--he accented the weak syllables and vice versa; +he added words and made unnecessarily false verse, and transformed bad +verse into worse prose. He might have avoided all these literary +abominations without any harm to the effect by a slight modification of +the music. The verses given to musicians were often very bad, for that +was the fashion. The versifier thought he had done his duty by his +collaborator by giving him verses like this: + + Triomphe que j'aime! + Ta frayeur extrême + Va malgré toi-même + Te livrer à moi! + +But when Scribe abandoned his reed-pipes and essayed the lyre, he gave +Meyerbeer this, + + J'ai voulu les punir ...Tu les as surpassés! + +And Meyerbeer made it, + + J'ai voulu les punir ... Et tu les as surpassés! + +which was hardly encouraging. + +Meyerbeer had other manias as well. Perhaps the most notable was to give +to the voice musical schemes which belong by rights to the instruments. +So in the first act of _Le Prophète,_ after the chorus sings, _Veille +sur nous,_ instead of stopping to breathe and prepare for the following +phrase, he makes it repeat abruptly, _Sur nous! Sur nous!_ in unison +with the orchestral notes which are, to say the least, _a ritornello._ + +Again, in the great cathedral scene, instead of letting the orchestra +bring out through the voices the musical expression of Fidès sobs: _Et +toi, tu ne me connais pas,_ he puts both the instruments and the voices +in the same time and on words which do not harmonize with the music at +all. + +I need not speak of his immoderate love for the bassoon, an admirable +instrument, but one which it is hardly prudent to abuse. + +But so far we have spoken only of trifles. Meyerbeer's music, as a witty +woman once remarked to me, is like stage scenery--it should not be +scrutinized too closely. It would be hard to find a better +characterization. Meyerbeer belonged to the theater and sought above +everything else theatrical effects. But that does not mean that he was +indifferent to details. He was a wealthy man and he used to indemnify +the theaters for the extra expense he occasioned them. He multiplied +rehearsals by trying different versions with the orchestra so as to +choose between them. He did not cast his work in bronze, as so many do, +and present it to the public _ne varietur._ He was continually feeling +his way, recasting, and seeking the better which very often was the +enemy of good. As the result of his continual researches he too +frequently turned good ideas into inferior ones. Note for example, in +_L'Etoile du Nord_, the passage, _Enfants de l'Ukraine fils du désert_. +The opening passage is lofty, determined and picturesque, but it ends +most disagreeably. + +He always lived alone with no fixed place of abode. He was at Spa in the +summer and on the Mediterranean in the winter; in large cities only as +business drew him. He had no financial worries and he lived only to +continue his Penelope-like work, which showed a great love of +perfection, although he did not find the best way of attaining it. They +have tried to place this conscientious artist in the list of seekers of +success, but such men are not ordinarily accustomed to work like this. + +Since I have used the word artist, it is proper to stop for a moment. +Unlike Gluck and Berlioz, who were greater artists than musicians, +Meyerbeer was more a musician than an artist. As a result, he often used +the most refined and learned means to achieve a very ordinary artistic +result. But there is no reason why he should be brought to task for +results which they do not even remark in the works of so many others. + +Meyerbeer was the undisputed leader in the operatic world when Robert +Schumann struck the first blow at his supremacy. Schumann was ignorant +of the stage, although he had made one unfortunate venture there. He did +not appreciate that there is more than one way to practise the art of +music. But he attacked Meyerbeer, violently, for his bad taste and +Italian tendencies, entirely forgetting that when Mozart, Beethoven, and +Weber did work for the stage they were strongly drawn towards Italian +art. Later, the Wagnerians wanted to oust Meyerbeer from the stage and +make a place for themselves, and they got credit for some of Schumann's +harsh criticisms,--this, too, despite the fact that at the beginning of +the skirmish Schumann and the Wagnerians got along about as well as +Ingres and Delacroix and their schools. But they united against the +common enemy and the French critics followed. The critics entirely +neglected Berlioz's opinion, for, after opposing Meyerbeer for a long +time, he admitted him among the gods and in his _Traité +d'Instrumentation_ awarded him the crown of immortality. + +Parenthetically, if there is a surprising page in the history of music +it is the persistent affectation of classing Berlioz and Wagner +together. They had nothing in common save their great love of art and +their distrust of established forms. Berlioz abhorred enharmonic +modulations, dissonances resolved indefinitely one after another, +continuous melody and all current practices of futuristic music. He +carried this so far that he claimed that he understood nothing in the +prelude to _Tristan_, which was certainly a sincere claim since, almost +simultaneously, he hailed the overture of _Lohengrin_, which is +conceived in an entirely different manner, as a masterpiece. He did not +admit that the voice should be sacrificed and relegated to the rank of a +simple unit of the orchestra. Wagner, for his part, showed at his best +an elegance and artistry of pen which may be searched for in vain in +Berlioz's work. Berlioz opened to the orchestra the doors of a new +world. Wagner hurled himself into this unknown country and found +numerous lands to till there. But what dissimilarities there are in the +styles of the two men! In their methods of treating the orchestra and +the voices, in their musical architectonics, and in their conception of +opera! + +In spite of the great worth of _Les Troyens_ and _Benvenuto Cellini_, +Berlioz shone brightest in the concert hall; Wagner is primarily a man +of the theater. Berlioz showed clearly in _Les Troyens_ his intention of +approaching Gluck, while Wagner freely avowed his indebtedness to Weber, +and particularly to the score of _Euryanthe_. He might have added that +he owed something to Marschner, but he never spoke of that. + +The more we study the works of these two men of genius, the more we are +impressed by the tremendous difference between them. Their resemblance +is simply one of those imaginary things which the critics too often +mistake for a reality. The critics once found local color in Rossini's +_Semiramide_! + +Hans de Bülow once said to me in the course of a conversation, + +"After all Meyerbeer was a man of genius." + +If we fail to recognize Meyerbeer's genius, we are not only unjust but +also ungrateful. In every sense, in his conception of opera, in his +treatment of orchestration, in his handling of choruses, even in stage +setting, he gave us new principles by which our modern works have +profited to a large extent. + +Théophile Gautier was no musician, but he had a fine taste in music and +he judged Meyerbeer as follows: + +"In addition to eminent musical talents, Meyerbeer had a highly +developed instinct for the stage. He goes to the heart of a situation, +follows closely the meanings of the words, and observes both the +historical and local color of his subject.... Few composers have +understood opera so well." + + * * * * * + +The success of the Italian school appeared to have utterly ruined this +understanding and care for local and historical color. Rossini in the +last act of _Otello_ and in _Guillaume Tell_ began its renaissance with +a boldness for which he deserves credit, but it was left to Meyerbeer +to restore it to its former glory. + +It is impossible to deny his individuality. The amalgamation of his +Germanic tendencies with his Italian education and his French +preferences formed an ore of new brilliancy and new depth of tone. His +style resembled none other. Fétis, his great admirer and friend and the +famous director of the Conservatoire at Brussels, insisted, and with +reason, on this distinction. His style was characterized by the +importance of the rhythmic element. His ballet music owes much of its +excellence to the picturesque variety of the rhythms. + +Instead of the long involved overture he gave us the short distinctive +prelude which has been so successful. The preludes of _Robert_ and _Les +Huguenots_ were followed by the preludes of _Lohengrin_, _Faust_, +_Tristan_, _Romeo_, _La Traviata_, _Aïda_, and many others which are +less famous. Verdi in his last two works and Richard Strauss in _Salome_ +went even farther and suppressed the prelude--a none too agreeable +surprise. It is like a dinner without soup. + +Meyerbeer gave us a foretaste of the famous _leit-motif_. We find it in +_Robert_ in the theme of the ballad, which the orchestra plays again +while Bertram goes towards the back of the stage. This should indicate +to the listener his satanic character. We find it in the Luther chant in +_Les Huguenots_ and also in the dream of _Le Prophète_ during Jean's +recitative. Here the orchestra with its modulated tone predicts the +future splendor of the cathedral scene, while a lute plays low notes, +embellished by a delicate weaving in of the violins, and produces a +remarkable and unprecedented effect. He introduced on the stage the +ensembles of wind instruments (I do not mean the brass) which are so +frequent in Mozart's great concertos. An illustration of this is the +entrance of Alice in the second act of _Robert_. An echo of this is +found in Elsa's entrance in the second act of _Lohengrin_. Another +illustration is the entrance of Berthe and Fidès in the beginning of the +_Le Prophète_. In this case the author indicated a pantomime. This is +never played and so this pretty bit loses all its significance. + +Meyerbeer ventured to use combinations in harmony which were considered +rash at that time. They pretend that the sensitiveness of the ear has +been developed since then, but in reality it has been dulled by having +to undergo the most violent discords. + +The beautiful "progression" of the exorcism in the fourth act of _Le +Prophète_ was not accepted without some difficulty. I can still see +Gounod seated at a piano singing the debated passage and trying to +convince a group of recalcitrant listeners of its beauty. + +Meyerbeer developed the rôle of the English horn, which up to that time +had been used only rarely and timidly, and he also introduced the bass +clarinet into the orchestra. But the two instruments, as he used them, +still appeared somewhat unusual. They were objects of luxury, strangers +of distinction which one saluted respectfully and which played no great +part. Under Wagner's management they became a definite part of the +household and, as we know, brought in a wealth of coloring. + +It is an open question whether it was Meyerbeer or Scribe who planned +the amazing stage setting in the cathedral scene in _Le Prophète_. It +must have been Meyerbeer, for Scribe was not temperamentally a +revolutionist, and this scene was really revolutionary. The brilliant +procession with its crowd of performers which goes across the stage +through the nave into the choir, constantly keeping its distance from +the audience, is an impressive, realistic and beautiful scene. But +directors who go to great expense for the costumes cannot understand why +the procession should file anywhere except before the footlights as near +the audience as possible, and it is extremely difficult to get any other +method of procedure. + +Furthermore, the amusing idea of the skating ballet was due to +Meyerbeer. At the time there was an amusing fellow in Paris who had +invented roller skates and who used to practise his favorite sport on +fine evenings on the large concrete surfaces of the Place de la +Concorde. Meyerbeer saw him and got the idea of the famous ballet. In +the early days of the opera it certainly was charming to see the skaters +come on accompanied by a pretty chorus and a rhythm from the violins +regulated by that of the dancers. But the performance began at seven and +ended at midnight. Now they begin at eight and to gain the hour they had +to accelerate the pace. So the chorus in question was sacrificed. That +was bad for _Les Huguenots_. The author tried to make a good deal out of +the last act with its beautiful choruses in the church--a development of +the Luther chant--and the terror of the approaching massacre. But this +act has been cut, mutilated and made generally unrecognizable. They even +go so far in some of the foreign houses as to suppress it entirely. + +I once saw the last act in all its integrity and with six harps +accompanying the famous trio. We shall never see the six harps again, +for Garnier, instead of reproducing exactly the placing of the orchestra +in the old Opéra, managed so well in the new one that they are unable to +put in the six harps of old or the four drums with which Meyerbeer got +such surprising effects in _Robert_ and _Le Prophète_. I believe, +however, that recent improvements have averted this disaster in a +certain measure, and that there is now a place for the drums. But we +shall never hear the six harps again. + +We must say something of the genesis of Meyerbeer's works, for in many +instances this was curious and few people know about it. + + +II + +We might like to see works spring from the author's brain as complete as +Minerva was when she sprang from Jove's, but that is infrequently the +case. When we study the long series of operas which Gluck wrote, we are +surprised to meet some things which we recognize as having seen before +in the masterpieces which immortalize his name. And often the music is +adapted to entirely different situations in the changed form. The words +of a follower become the awesome prophecy of a high priest. The trio in +_Orphée_ with its tender love and expressions of perfect happiness +fairly trembles with accents of sorrow. The music had been written for +an entirely different situation which justified them. Massenet has told +us that he borrowed right and left from his unpublished score, _La Coupe +du Roi de Thulé_. That is what Gluck did with his _Elena e Paride_ which +had little success. I may as well confess that one of the ballets in +_Henry VIII_ came from the finale of an opéra-comique in one act. This +work was finished and ready to go to rehearsal when the whole thing was +stopped because I had the audacity to assert to Nestor Roqueplan, the +director of Favart Hall, that Mozart's _Le Nozze di Figaro_ was a +masterpiece. + +Meyerbeer, even more than anyone, tried not to lose his ideas and the +study of their transformation is extremely interesting. One day Nuitter, +the archivist at the Opéra, learned of an important sale of manuscripts +in Berlin. He attended the sale and brought back a lot of Meyerbeer's +rough drafts which included studies for a _Faust_ that the author never +finished. These fragments give no idea what the piece would have been. +We see Faust and Mephistopheles walking in Hell. They come to the Tree +of Human Knowledge on the banks of the Styx and Faust picks the fruit. +From this detail it is easy to imagine that the libretto is bizarre. +The authorship of this amazing libretto is unknown, but it is not +strange that Meyerbeer soon abandoned it. From this still-born _Faust_, +Scribe, at the request of the author, constructed _Robert le Diable_. An +aria sung by Faust on the banks of the Styx becomes the _Valse +Infernale_. + +The necessity of utilizing pre-existing fragments explains some of the +incoherence of this incomprehensible piece. It also explains the +creation of Bertram, half man, half devil, who was invented as a +substitute for Mephistopheles. The fruit of the Tree of Human Knowledge +became the _Rameau Vénérée_ in the third act, and the beautiful +religious scene in the fifth act, which has no relation to the action, +is a transposition of the Easter scene. + +So Scribe should not be blamed for making a poor piece when he had so +many difficulties to contend with. He must have lost his head a little +for Robert's mother was called Berthe in the first act and Rosalie in +the third. However, the answer might be that she changed her name when +she became religious. + +Later, Scribe was put to another no less difficult test with _L'Etoile +du Nord_. When Meyerbeer was the conductor at the Berlin Opéra, he wrote +on command _Le Camp de Silésie_ with Frederick the Great as the hero and +Jenny Lind as the musical star. As we know, Frederick was a musician, +for he both composed music and played the flute, while Jenny Lind, the +Swedish nightingale, was a great singer. A contest between the +nightingale and the flute was sure to follow or theatrical instinct is a +vain phrase. But in the piece Scribe created, Peter the Great took +Frederick the Great's place and to give a motive for the grace notes in +the last act it was necessary for the terrible Tsar, a half savage +barbarian, to learn to play the flute. + +It is not worth while telling how the Tsar took lessons on the flute +from a young pastry cook who came on the stage with a basket of cakes on +his head; how the cook later became a lord, and many other details of +this absurd play. It is permitted to be absurd on the stage, if it is +done so that the absurdity is forgotten. But in this instance it was +impossible to forget the absurdities. The extravagance of the libretto +led the musician into many unfortunate things. This extremely +interesting score is very uneven, but there are a thousand details worth +the attention of the professional musician. Beauty even appears in the +score at moments, and there are charming and picturesque bits, as well +as puerilities and shocking vulgarities. + +Public curiosity was aroused for a long time by clever advance notices +and had reached a high pitch when _L'Etoile du Nord_ appeared. The work +was carried by the exceptional talents of Bataille and Caroline Duprez +and was enormously successful at the start, but this success has grown +steadily less. Faure and Madame Patti gave some fine performances in +London. We shall probably never see their equal again, and it is not +desirable that we should either from the standpoint of art or of the +author. + +_Les Huguenots_ was not an opera pieced together out of others, but it +did not reach the public as the author wrote it. At the beginning of the +first act there was a game of cup and ball on which the author had set +his heart. But the balls had to strike at the exact moment indicated in +the score and the players never succeeded in accomplishing that. The +passage had to be suppressed but it is preserved in the library at the +Opéra. They also had to suppress the part of Catherine de Medici who +should preside at the conference where the massacre of St. Bartholomew +was planned. Her part was merged with that of St. Pris. They also +suppressed the first scene in the last act, where Raoul, disheveled and +covered with blood, interrupted the ball and upset the merriment by +announcing the massacre to the astonished dancers. + +But it is a question whether we should believe the legend that the great +duet, the climax of the whole work, was improvised during the rehearsals +at the request of Norritt and Madame Falcon. It is hard to believe that. +The work, as is well known, was taken from Merimee's _Chronique du règne +de Charles IX_. This scene is in the romance and it is almost impossible +that Meyerbeer had no idea of putting it into his opera. More probably +the people at the theatre wanted the act to end with the blessing of the +daggers, and the author with his duet in his portfolio only had to take +it out to satisfy his interpreters. A beautiful scene like this with its +sweep and pleasing innovation is not written hastily. This duet should +be heard when the author's intentions and the nuances which make a part +of the idea are respected and not replaced by inventions in bad taste +which they dare to call traditions. The real traditions have been lost +and this admirable scene has lost its beauty. + +The manner in which the duet ends has not been noted sufficiently. +Raoul's phrase, _God guard our days. God of our refuge!_ remains in +suspense and the orchestra brings it to an end, the first example of a +practice used frequently in modern works. + +We do not know how Meyerbeer got his idea of putting the schismatic John +Huss on the stage under the name of John of Leyden. Whether this idea +was original with him or was suggested by Scribe, who made a fantastic +person out of John, we do not know. We only know that the rôle of the +prophet's mother was originally intended for Madame Stoltz, but she had +left the Opéra. Meyerbeer heard Madame Pauline Viardot at Vienna and +found in her his ideal, so he created the redoubtable rôle of Fidès for +her. The part of Jean was given to the tenor Roger, the star of the +Opéra-Comique, and he played and sang it well. Levasseur, the Marcel of +_Les Huguenots_ and the Bertram of _Robert_, played the part of +Zacharie. + +_Le Prophète_ was enormously successful in spite of the then powerful +censer-bearers of the Italian school. We now see its defects rather than +its merits. Meyerbeer is criticised for not putting into practice +theories he did not know and no account is taken of his fearlessness, +which was great for that period. No one else could have drawn the +cathedral scene with such breadth of stroke and extraordinary +brilliancy. The paraphrase of _Domine salvum fac regem_ reveals great +ingenuity. His method of treating the organ is wonderful, and his idea +of the ritournello _Sur le Jeu de hautbois_ is charming. This precedes +and introduces the children's chorus, and is constructed on a novel +theme which is developed brilliantly by the choruses, the orchestra and +the organ combined. The repetition of the _Domine Salvum_ at the end +of the scene, which bursts forth abruptly in a different key, is full of +color and character. + +[Illustration: Meyerbeer, Composer of _Les Huguenots_] + + +III + +The story of _Le Pardon de Ploërmel_ is interesting. It was first called +_Dinorah_, a name which Meyerbeer picked up abroad. But Meyerbeer liked +to change the titles of his operas several times in the course of the +rehearsals in order to keep public curiosity at fever heat. He had the +notion of writing an opéra-comique in one act, and he asked his favorite +collaborators, Jules Barbier and Michael Carré, for a libretto. They +produced _Dinorah_ in three scenes and with but three characters. The +music was written promptly and was given to Perrin, the famous director, +whose unfortunate influence soon made itself felt. A director's first +idea at that time was to demand changes in the piece given him. "A +single act by you, Master? Is that permissible? What can we put on after +that? A new work by Meyerbeer should take up the entire evening." That +was the way the insidious director talked, and there was all the more +chance of his being listened to as the author was possessed by a mania +for retouching and making changes. So Meyerbeer took the score to the +Mediterranean where he spent the winter. The next spring he brought back +the work developed into three acts with choruses and minor characters. +Besides these additions he had written the words which Barbier and Carré +should have done. + +The rehearsals were tedious. Meyerbeer wanted Faure and Madame Carvalho +in the leading rôles but one was at the Opéra-Comique and the other at +her own house, the Théâtre-Lyrique. The work went back and forth from +the Place Favart to the Place du Châtelet. But the author's hesitancy +was at bottom only a pretext. What he wanted was to secure a +postponement of Limnander's opera _Les Blancs et les Bleus_. The action +of this work and of _Dinorah_, as well, took place in Brittany. In the +hope of being Meyerbeer's choice, both theatres turned poor Limnander +away. Finally, _Dinorah_ fell to the Opéra-Comique. After long hard +work, which the author demanded, Madame Cabel and MM. Faure and +Sainte-Foix gave a perfect performance. + +There was a good deal of criticism of having the hunter, the reaper, and +the shepherd sing a prayer together at the beginning of the third act. +This was not considered theatrical; to-day that is a virtue. + +There was a good deal of talk about _L'Africanne_, which had been looked +for for a long time and which seemed to be almost legendary and +mysterious; it still is for that matter. The subject of the opera was +unknown. All that was known was that the author was trying to find an +interpreter and could get none to his liking. + +Then Marie Cruvelli, a German singer with an Italian training, appeared. +With her beauty and prodigious voice she shone like a meteor in the +theatrical firmament. Meyerbeer found his Africanne realized in her and +at his request she was engaged at the Opéra. Her engagement was made the +occasion for a brilliant revival of _Les Huguenots_ and Meyerbeer wrote +new ballet music for it. To-day we have no idea of what _Les Huguenots_ +was then. Then the author went back to his Africanne and went to work +again. He used to go to see the brilliant singer about it nearly every +day, when she suddenly announced that she was going to leave the stage +to become the Comtesse Vigier! Meyerbeer was discouraged and he threw +his unfinished manuscript into a drawer where it stayed until Marie Sass +had so developed her voice and talent that he made up his mind to +entrust the rôle of Sélika to her. He wanted Faure for the rôle of +Nelusko and he was already at the Opéra, so he had the management engage +Naudin, the Italian tenor, as well. + +But Scribe had died during the long period which had elapsed since the +marriage of the Comtesse Vigier. Meyerbeer was now left to himself, and +too much inclined to revisions of every kind as he was, re-made the +piece to his fancy. When it was completed--it didn't resemble anything +and the author planned to finish it at the rehearsals. + +As we know, Meyerbeer died suddenly. He realized that he was dying and +as he knew how necessary his presence was for a performance of +_L'Africanne_ he forbade its appearance. But his prohibition was only +verbal as he could no longer write. The public was impatiently awaiting +_L'Africanne_, so they went ahead with it. + +When Perrin and his nephew du Locle opened the package of manuscripts +Meyerbeer had left, they were stupefied at finding no _L'Africanne_. + +"Never mind," said Perrin, "the public wants an _Africanne_ and it shall +have one." + +He summoned Fétis, Meyerbeer's enthusiastic admirer, and the three, +Fétis, Perrin and du Locle, managed to evolve the opera we know from the +scraps the author had left in disorder. They did not accomplish this, +however, without considerable difficulty, without some incoherences, +numerous suppressions and even additions. Perrin was the inventor of the +wonderful map on which Sélika recognized Madagascar. They took the +characters there in order to justify the term Africanne applied to the +heroine. They also introduced the Brahmin religion to Madagascar in +order to avoid moving the characters to India where the fourth act +should take place. The first performance was imminent when they found +that the work was too long. So they cut out an original ballet where a +savage beat a tom-tom, and they cut and fitted together mercilessly. In +the last act Sélika, alone and dying, should see the paradise of the +Brahmins appear as in a vision. But Faure wanted to appear again at the +finale, so they had to adapt a bit taken from the third act and suppress +the vision. This is the reason why Nelusko succumbs so quickly to the +deadly perfume of the poisonous flowers, while Sélika resists so long. +The riturnello of Sélika's aria, which should be performed with lowered +curtain as the queen gazes over the sea and at the departing vessel far +away on the horizon, became a vehicle for encores--the last thing that +was ever in Meyerbeer's mind. But the worst was the liberty Fétis took +in retouching the orchestration. As a compliment to Adolph Sax he +substituted a saxaphone for the bass clarinet which the author +indicated. This resulted in the suppression of that part of the aria +beginning _O Paradis sorti de l'onde_ as the saxophone did not produce a +good effect. Fétis also allowed Perrin to make over a bass solo into a +chorus, the Bishop's Chorus. The great vocal range in this is poorly +adapted for a chorus. Some barbarous modulations are certainly +apocryphal.... + +We are unable to imagine what _L'Africanne_ would have been if Scribe +had lived and the authors had put it into shape. The work we have is +illogical and incomplete. The words are simply monstrous and Scribe +certainly would not have kept them. This is the case in the passage in +the great duet: + + O ma Sélika, vous régnez sur mon âme! + --Ah! ne dis pas ces mots brûlante! + Ils m'égarent moi-même.... + +The music stitched to this impossible piece, however, had its +admirers--even fanatical admirers--so great was the prestige of the +author's name at the time of its appearance. We must not forget that +there are, indeed, some beautiful pages in this chaos. The religious +ceremony in the fourth act and the Brahmin recitative accompanied by the +_pizzicati_ of the bass may be mentioned as an indication of this. The +latter passage is not in favor, however; they play it down without +conviction and so deprive it of all its strength and majesty. + + * * * * * + +I said, at the beginning of this study, that we were ungrateful to +Meyerbeer, and this ingratitude is double on the part of France, for he +loved her. He only had to say the word to have any theatre in Europe +opened to him, yet he preferred to them all the Opéra at Paris and even +the Opéra-Comique where the choruses and orchestra left much to be +desired. When he did work for Paris after he had given _Margherita +d'Anjou_ and _Le Crociato_ in Italy, he was forced to accommodate +himself to French taste just as Rossini and Donizetti were. The latter +wrote for the Opéra-Comique _La Fille du Régiment_, a military and +patriotic work, and its dashing and glorious _Salut à la France_ has +resounded through the whole world. Foreigners do not take so much pains +in our day, and France applauds _Die Meistersinger_ which ends with a +hymn to German art. Such is progress! + +Something must be said of a little known score, _Struensée_, which was +written for a drama which was so weak that it prevented the music +gaining the success it deserved. The composer showed himself in this +more artistic than in anything else he did. It should have been heard at +the Odéon with another piece written by Jules Barbier on the same +subject. The overture used to appear in the concerts as did the +polonnaise, but like the overture to _Guillaume Tell_, they have +disappeared. These overtures are not negligible. The overture to +_Guillaume Tell_ is notable for the unusual invention of the five +violoncellos and its storm with its original beginning, to say nothing +of its pretty pastoral. The fine depth of tone in the exordium of +_Struensée_ and the fugue development in the main theme are also not to +be despised. But all that, we are told, is lacking in elevation and +depth. Possibly; but it is not always necessary to descend to Hell and +go up to Heaven. There is certainly more music in these overtures than +in Grieg's _Peer Gynt_ which has been dinned into our ears so much. + +But enough of this. I must stop with the operas, for to consider the +rest of his music would necessitate a study of its own and that would +take us too far afield. My hope is that these lines may repair an +unnecessary injustice and redirect the fastidious who may read them to a +great musician whom the general public has never ceased to listen to and +applaud. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JACQUES OFFENBACH + + +It is dangerous to prophesy. Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach, +trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his +squandering them. And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would +never know him. Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach +is coming back into fashion. Our contemporaneous composers forget that +Mozart, Beethoven and Sebastian Bach knew how to laugh at times. They +distrust all gaiety and declare it unesthetic. As the good public cannot +resign itself to getting along without gaiety, it goes to operetta and +turns naturally to Offenbach who created it and furnished an +inexhaustible supply. My phrase is not exaggerated, for Offenbach hardly +dreamed of creating an art. He was endowed with a genius for the comic +and an abundance of melody, but he had no thought of doing anything +beyond providing material for the theatre he managed at the time. As a +matter of fact he was almost its only author. + +He was unable to rid himself of his Germanic influences and so corrupted +the taste of an entire generation by his false prosody, which has been +incorrectly considered originality. In addition he was lacking in taste. +At the time they affected a dreadful mannerism of always stopping on the +next to the last note of a passage, whether or not it was associated +with a mute syllable. This mannerism had no purpose beyond indicating to +the audience the end of a passage and giving the claque the signal to +applaud. Offenbach did not belong to that heroic strain to which success +is the least of its cares. So he adopted this mannerism, and often his +ingeniously turned and charming couplets are ruined by this silly +absurdity now gone out of fashion. + +Furthermore, he wrote badly, for his early education was neglected. If +the _Tales of Hoffman_ shows traces of a practised pen, it is because +Guiraud finished the score and went out of his way to remedy some of +the author's mistakes. Leaving aside the bad prosody and the minor +defects in taste, we have left a work which shows a wealth of invention, +melody, and sparkling fancy comparable to Grétry's. + +Grétry was no more a great musician than Offenbach, for he also wrote +badly. The essential difference between the two was the care, not only +in his prosody but also in his declamation, which Grétry tried to +reproduce musically with all possible exactness. He overshot the mark in +this for he did not see that in singing the expression of a note is +modified by the harmonic scheme which accompanies it. It must be +recognized, in addition, that many times Grétry was carried away by his +melodic inventiveness and forgot his own principles so that he relegated +his care for declamation to second place. + +What hurt Grétry was his unbounded conceit, with which Offenbach, to his +credit, was never afflicted. As an indication of this, he dared to write +in his advice to young musicians: + +"Those who have genius will make opéra-comique like mine; those who have +talent will write opera like Gluck's; while those who have neither +genius nor talent, will write symphonies like Haydn's." + +However, he tried to make an opera like Gluck's and in spite of his +great efforts and his interesting inventions, he could not equal the +work of his formidable rival. + + * * * * * + +Although he was not a great musician, Offenbach had a surprising natural +instinct and made here and there curious discoveries in harmony. In +speaking of these discoveries I must go slightly into the theory of +harmony and resign myself to being understood only by those of my +readers who are more or less musicians. In a slight work, _Daphnis et +Chloé_, Offenbach risked a dominant eleventh without either introduction +or conclusion--an extraordinary audacity at the time. A short course in +harmony is necessary for the understanding of this. We must start with +the fact that, theoretically, all dissonances must be introduced and +concluded, which we cannot explain here, but this leading up to and away +from have for their purpose softening the harshness of the dissonance +which was greatly feared in bygone times. Take if you please, the simple +key of C natural. _Do_ is the keynote, _sol_ is the dominant. Place on +this dominant two-thirds--_si-re_--and you have the perfect dominant +chord. Add a third _fa_ and you have the famous dominant seventh, a +dissonance which to-day seems actually agreeable. Not so long ago they +thought that they ought to prepare for the dissonance. In the Sixteenth +Century it was not regarded as admissible at all, for one hears the two +notes _si_ and _fa_ simultaneously and this seems intolerable to the +ear. They used to call it the _Diabolus in musica_. + +Palestrina was the first to employ it in an anthem. Opinions differ on +this, and certain students of harmony pretend that the chord which +Palestrina used only has the appearance of the dominant seventh. I do +not concur in this view. But however the case may be, the glory of +unchaining the devil in music belongs to Montreverde. That was the +beginning of modern music. + +Later, a new third was superimposed and they dared the chord +_sol-si-re-fa-la_. The inventor is unknown, but Beethoven seems to have +been the first to make any considerable use of it. He used the chord in +such a way that, in spite of its current use to-day, in his works it +appears like something new and strange. This chord imposes its +characteristics on the second _motif_ of the first part of the _Symphony +in C minor_. This is what gives such amazing charm to the long colloquy +between the flute, the oboe and the clarinets, which always surprises +and arouses the listener, in the _andante_ of the same symphony. Fétis +in his _Traité d'Harmonie_ inveighed against this delightful passage. He +admits that people like it, but, according to him, the author had no +right to write it and the listener has no right to admire it. Scholars +often have strange ideas. + +Then Richard Wagner came along and the reign of the ninth dominant took +the place of the seventh. That is what gives _Tannhauser_, and +_Lohengrin_ their exciting character, which is dear to those who demand +in music above everything else the pleasure due to shocks to the nervous +system. Imitators have fallen foul of this easy procedure, and with a +laughable naïveté imagine that in this way they can easily equal Wagner. +And they have succeeded in making this valuable chord absolutely banal. + +[Illustration: Jacques Offenbach] + +By adding still another third we have the dominant eleventh. Offenbach +used this, but it has played but a small part since then. Beyond that we +cannot go, for a third more and we are back to the basic note, two +octaves away. + +But innovations in harmony are rare in Offenbach's work. What makes him +interesting is his fertility in invention of melodies and few have +equaled him in this. He improvised constantly and with incredible +rapidity. His manuscripts give the impression of having been done with +the point of a needle. There is nothing useless anywhere in them. He +used abbreviations as much as he could and the simplicity of his harmony +helped him here. As a result he was able to produce his light works in +an exceedingly short time. + +He had the luck to attach Madame Ugalde to his company. Her powers had +already begun to decline but she was still brilliant. While she was +giving a spectacular revival of _Orphée aux Enfers_, he wrote _Les +Bavards_ for her. He was inspired by the hope of an unusual +interpretation and he so surpassed himself that he produced a small +masterpiece. A revival of this work would certainly be successful if +that were possible, but the peculiar merits of the creatrix of the rôle +would be necessary and I do not see her like anywhere. + +It is strange but true that Offenbach lost all his good qualities as +soon as he took himself seriously. But he was not the only case of this +in the history of music. Cramer and Clementi wrote studies and exercises +which are marvels of style, but their sonatas and concertos are tiresome +in their mediocrity. Offenbach's works which were given at the +Opéra-Comique--_Robinson Crusoé_, _Vert-Vert_, and _Fantasio_ are much +inferior to _La Chanson de Fortunio_, _La Belle Hélène_ and many other +justly famous operettas. There have been several unprofitable revivals +of _La Belle Hélène_. This is due to the fact that the rôle of Hélène +was designed for Mlle. Schneider. She was beautiful and talented and had +an admirable mezzo-soprano voice. The slight voice of the ordinary +singer of operetta is insufficient for the part. Furthermore, traditions +have sprung up. The comic element has been suppressed and the piece has +been denatured by this change. In Germany they conceived the idea of +playing this farce seriously with an archaic stage setting! + +Jacques Offenbach will become a classic. While this may be unexpected, +what doesn't happen? Everything is possible--even the impossible. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THEIR MAJESTIES + + +Queen Victoria did me the honor to receive me twice at Windsor Castle, +and Queen Alexandra paid me the same honor at Buckingham Palace in +London. The first time I saw Queen Victoria I was presented to her by +the Baroness de Caters. She was the daughter of Lablache and had one of +the most beautiful voices and the greatest talent that I have ever +known. This charming woman had been left a widow and so she became an +artist, appearing in concerts and giving singing lessons. At the time of +which I speak she was teaching Princess Beatrice, now the mother-in-law +of the King of Spain. In all the glory of the freshness of youth, the +Princess was endowed with a charming voice which the Baroness guided +perfectly. The Princess received Madame de Caters and myself with a +gracefulness which was increased by her unusual bashfulness. Her +Majesty, in the meantime, was finishing her luncheon. I was somewhat +apprehensive through having heard of the coldness which the Queen +affected at this sort of audience, so I was more than surprised when she +came in with both hands extended to take mine and when she addressed me +with real cordiality. She was very fond of Baroness de Caters and that +was the secret of the reception which put me at my ease at once. + +Her Majesty wanted to hear me play the organ (there is an excellent one +in the chapel at Windsor), and then the piano. Finally, I had the honor +of accompanying the Princess as she sang the aria from _Etienne Marcel_. +Her Royal Highness sang with great clearness and distinctness, but it +was the first time she had sung before her august mother and she was +frightened almost to death. The Queen was so delighted that some days +later, without my being told of it, she summoned to Windsor, Madame Gye, +wife of the manager of Covent Garden,--the famous singer Albani--to ask +to have _Etienne Marcel_ staged at her own theatre. The Queen's wish was +not granted. + +I returned to Windsor seventeen years later, in company with Johann +Wolf, who was for many years Queen Victoria's chosen violinist. We dined +at the palace, and, if we did not enjoy the distinction of sitting at +the royal table, we were nevertheless in good company with the young +princesses, daughters of the Duke of Connaught. We were lodged at a +hotel for the honor of sleeping at the Castle was reserved for very +important personages--an honor which need not be envied, for the +sleeping apartments are really servants' rooms. But etiquette decrees +it. + +Dinner was over, and princes in full uniform and princesses in elaborate +evening dress stood about, waiting for her Majesty's appearance. I was +heartbroken when I saw her enter, for she was almost carried by her +Indian servant and obviously could not walk alone. But once seated at a +small table, she was just as she had been before, with her wonderful +charm, her simple manner and her musical voice. Only her white hair bore +witness to the years that had passed. She asked me about _Henri VIII_, +which was being given for the second time at Covent Garden, and I +explained to her that in my desire to give the piece the local color of +its times I had been ferreting about in the royal library at Buckingham +Palace, to which my friend, the librarian, had given me access. And I +also told how I had found in a great collection of manuscripts of the +Sixteenth Century an exquisitely fine theme arranged for the +harpsichord, which served as the framework for the opera--I used it +later for the march I wrote for the coronation of King Edward. The Queen +was much interested in music in general and she appeared to be +especially pleased in this discussion. His Highness the Duke of +Connaught wrote me that she had spoken of it several times. + +The musical library at Buckingham Palace is most remarkable and it is a +pity that access to it is not easier. Among other things, there are the +manuscripts of Handel's oratorios, written for the most part with +disconcerting rapidity. His _Messiah_ was composed in fifteen days! The +rudimentary instrumentation of the time made such speed possible, yet +who is there to-day who could write all those fugue choruses with such +speed? The fugue manner, which seems laborious to us, was current at +the time and they were practised in it. The library also contains works +of Handel's contemporaries, which are executed with the same mastery. We +cannot say whether they were written with the same rapidity as Handel's, +but it is easy to see that there was a general ability to do so, just as +now it is a matter of common attainment to produce complicated +orchestral effects, the possibility of which the old masters had no +conception. What made Handel superior to his rivals was the romantic and +picturesque side of his works; probably also, his prodigious and +unvarying fertility. + +The last word has been said about Queen Victoria, yet the peculiar charm +which radiated from her personality cannot be too highly praised. She +seemed the personification of England. When she passed on, it seemed as +though a great void were left. All King Edward's splendid qualities were +necessary to take her place, combined with the effect of the world's +surprise at discovering a great king where they had expected to see +only a brilliant prince who had been a constant lover of pomp and +pleasure. + +I was later admitted to Buckingham Palace to play with Josef Hollman, +the violinist, before Queen Alexandra. We both were eager for this +opportunity which we were told was impossible. The Queen was very busy, +and, in addition, she was in mourning for the successive deaths of her +father and mother, the King and Queen of Denmark. Suddenly, however, we +learned that she would receive us. She was pale and appeared to be +feeble, but she received us with the utmost cordiality. She spoke to me +about her mother, whom I had seen at Copenhagen with her sisters the +Empress Dowager of Russia, and the Princess of Hanover whom politics +deprived of a crown which was hers by right. I have a very pleasant +recollection of this visit. I do not know how it happened but I remained +speechless at this lead from the Queen. She brought the subject up a +second time and my timidity still prevented my responding. I ought to +have had many things to say to one so obviously eager to listen. This +Queen of Denmark, with her eighty years, was the most delightful old +lady imaginable. Erect, slight, alert of mind and unfaltering of speech, +she reminded me vividly of my maternal great-aunt, that extraordinary +woman, who gave me my first notions of things and directed my hand on +the keys so well. + +A singer whom I had never seen or heard of, but of whom I had heard poor +reports, had written Queen Louise that I wanted to accompany her to +court. The Queen asked me if I knew her and if what she had written was +true. My surprise was so great that I could not repress a start, which I +followed by an exclamation of denial, which appeared to amuse her +greatly. "I did not doubt it," she said, "but I'm not sorry to be sure." + +Queen Alexandra was accompanied by Lady Gray, her great friend, and the +hereditary princess of Greece. After M. Hollman and I had played a duet, +she expressed a desire to hear me play alone. As I attempted to lift the +lid of the piano, she stepped forward to help me raise it before the +maids of honor could intervene. After this slight concert she delivered +to each of us, in her own name and in that of the absent king, a gold +medal commemorative of artistic merit, and she offered us a cup of tea +which she poured with her royal and imperial hands. + +Other queens have also received me--Queen Christine of Spain and Queen +Amelie of Portugal. After Queen Christine had heard me play on the +piano, she expressed a desire to hear me play the organ, and they chose +for this an excellent instrument made by Cavaillé-Coll in a church whose +name I have forgotten. The day was fixed for this ceremony, which would +naturally have been of a private character, when some great ladies +lectured the indiscreet queen for daring to resort to a sacred place for +any purpose besides taking part in divine services. The queen was +displeased by this remonstrance and she responded by coming to the +church not only not incognito, but in great state, with the king (he was +very young), the ministers and the court, while horsemen stationed at +intervals blew their trumpets. I had written a religious march +especially for this event, and the Queen kindly accepted its dedication +to her. I was a little flustered when she asked me to play the too +familiar melody from _Samson et Dalila_ which begins _Mon coeur s'ouvre +à ta voix_. I had to improvise a transposition suited for the organ, +something I had never dreamt of doing. During the performance the Queen +leaned her elbow on the keyboard of the organ, her chin resting on one +hand and her eyes upturned. She seemed rapt in exstasy which, as may be +imagined, was not precisely displeasing to the author. + +The press of the day printed delightful articles about the scene, but +with no pretense to accuracy. I had nothing to do with that in any way. + +Her Majesty Queen Amelie of Portugal once honored me in a distinctive +manner. She received me alone without any of her ladies of honor, which +allowed her to dispense with all etiquette and to have me sit in a chair +near her. In this intimate way she entertained me for three-quarters of +an hour asking questions on all sorts of subjects. I had the chance to +tell her how the oriental theme of the ballet in _Samson_ had been given +to me years before by General Yusuf, and to give her many details of +that interesting personage of whom she had heard her uncles speak. + +"I am going to leave you," she said at last, "but not because I want to. +If one conscientiously practices the _metier_ of being a queen, one +doesn't always find it amusing." + +What would that unhappy woman have said, could she have foreseen the +calamities that were to befall her! + +In Rome I had the honor to be invited to a musicale at Queen +Margharita's. The great drawing-rooms were filled with great ladies +laden down with family jewels of fabulous value. All the music was +terribly serious. Now this kind of music does not make for personal +acquaintance, especially as all these great people were victims of a +boredom they did their best to conceal. Afterwards the two queens wanted +to talk to me. Queen Hélène, who is a violinist, told me that her +children were learning the violin and the cello, an arrangement I +praised highly, for the exclusive devotion to the piano in these later +days has been the death of chamber music and almost of music itself. + +In my gallery of sovereigns I cannot forget the gracious Queen of +Belgium. I have always seen her, however, in company with her august +husband, and this story would become interminable if I were to include +"Their Majesties" of the sterner sex--the Emperor of Germany, the Kings +of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal.... + +As I have had more to do with princes than with sovereigns, my tongue +sometimes slips in talking to the latter. As I excused myself one day +for addressing the Queen of Belgium as "Highness," she replied, with a +smile, "Don't apologize; that recalls good times." + +She told me of the time when she and the king, then only heirs apparent, +used to go up and down the Mediterranean coast in a little two-seated +car. It was during this period that I had the honor of meeting them at +the palace of his Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco, and of having +charming and interesting personal conversation with them, for the king +is a savant and the queen an artist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +MUSICAL PAINTERS + + +Ingres was famous for his violin. A single wall separated the apartment +where I lived during my childhood and youth from the one where the +painter Granger, one of Ingres's pupils, with his wife and daughter, +lived. Granger painted the _Adoration of the Wise Men_ in the church of +Notre Dame de Lorette. I have played with the gilt paper crown which his +model wore when posing as one of the three kings. My mother and Mlle. +Granger (who later became Madame Paul Meurice) both loved painting and +became great friends. They copied together Paul Delaroche's _Enfants +d'Edouard_ at the Louvre, a picture which was the rage at that time. My +mother's paintings, in an admirable state of preservation, may be seen +at the museum at Dieppe. + +I was introduced to Ingres when I was five years old through the +Granger family. The distance from the Rue du Jardinet, where we lived, +to the Quai Voltaire was not far, and we often went like a +procession--the Grangers, my great-aunt Masson, my mother and I--to call +upon Ingres and his wife, a delightfully simple woman whom everyone +loved. + +Ingres often talked to me about Mozart, Gluck, and all the other great +masters of music. When I was six years old, I composed an Adagio which I +dedicated to him in all seriousness. Fortunately this masterpiece has +been lost. As I already played, and rather nicely for my years, some of +Mozart's sonatas, Ingres, in return for my dedication, presented me with +a small medallion with the portrait of the author of Don Juan on one +side, and this inscription on the other: "To M. Saint-Saëns, the +charming interpreter of the divine artist." + +He carelessly omitted to add the date of this dedication, which would +have increased its interest, for the idea of calling a knee-high +youngster of six "M. Saint-Saëns" was certainly unusual. + +[Illustration: Ingres, the painter famous for his violin] + +In addition to the calls I paid him, when I was older I often met the +great painter at the house of Frederic Reiset, one of his most ardent +admirers. They made much of music in that household and we often heard +there Delsarte, the singer without a voice, whom Ingres admired very +much. Delsarte and Henri Reber were, in fact, his musical mentors, and, +in spite of his pretence of being a great connoisseur, he was in reality +their echo. He affected, for example, the most profound contempt for all +modern music, and would not even listen to it. In this respect he +reflected Reber. Reber used to say quietly in his far-away nasal voice, +"You've got to imitate somebody, so the best thing to do is to imitate +the ancients, for they are the best." However, he undertook to prove the +contrary by writing some particularly individual music, when he thought +he was imitating Haydn and Mozart. Some of his works, in their +perfection of line, their regard for details, their purity and their +moderation remind one of Ingres's drawings which express so much in such +a simple way. And Ingres, as well, although he tried to imitate Raphael, +could only be himself. Reber would have been worthy of comparison with +the painter, if he had had the power and productiveness which +distinguish genius. + +What about Ingres's violin? Well, I saw this famous violin for the first +time in the Montaubon Museum. Ingres never even spoke to me about it. He +is said to have played it in his youth, but I could never persuade him +to play even the slightest sonata with me. "I used to play," he replied +to my entreaties, "the second violin in a quartet, but that is all." + +So I think I must be dreaming when I read, from time to time, that +Ingres was more appreciative of compliments about his violin-playing +than those about his painting. That is merely a legend, but it is +impossible to destroy a legend. As the good La Fontaine said: + + "Man is like ice toward truth; + He is like fire to untruth." + +I do not know whether Ingres showed talent for the violin in his youth +or not. But I can state positively that in his maturity he showed none. + +Gustave Doré was also said to be famous on the violin, and his claims to +consideration were far from inconsiderable. He had acquired a valuable +instrument, on which he used to play Berlioz's _Concertos_ with a really +extraordinary facility and spirit. These superficial works were enough +for his musical powers. The surprising things about his execution was +that he never worked at it. If he could not get a thing at once, he gave +it up for good and all. + +He was a frequent attendant at Rossini's salon, and he belonged to the +faction which supported melody and opposed "learned scientific music." +His temperament and mine hardly seem compatible, but friendship, like +love, has its inexplicable mysteries, and gradually we became the best +of friends. We lived in the same quarter and we visited each other +frequently. As we almost never were of the same opinion about anything, +we had interminable arguments, entirely free from rancor, which we +thoroughly enjoyed. + +I finally became the confidant of his secret sorrows, and his innermost +griefs. He was endowed with a wonderful visual memory, but he made the +mistake of never using models, for in his opinion they were useless for +an artist who knew his _metier_. So he condemned himself to a perpetual +approximation, which was enough for illustrations demanding only life +and character, but fatal for large canvasses, with half or full sized +figures. This was the cause of his disappointments and failures which he +attributed to malevolence and a hostility, which really did exist, but +which took advantage of this opportunity to make the painter pay for the +exaggerated success of the designer that had been extravagantly praised +by the press from the beginning. He laid himself open to criticism +through his abuse of his own facility. I have seen him painting away on +thirty canvasses at the same time in his immense studio. Three seriously +studied pictures would have been worth more. + +At heart this great overgrown jovial boy was melancholy and sensitive. +He died young from heart disease, which was aggravated by grief over the +death of his mother from whom he had never been separated. + +I dedicated a slight piece written for the violin to Doré. This was not +lost as the one to Ingres was, but it would be entirely unknown had not +Johannes Wolf, the violinist of queens and empresses, done me the favor +of placing it in his repertoire and bringing his fine talent to its aid. + +Hébert was the most serious of the painter-violinists. Down to the end +of his life he delighted in playing the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven, +and, from all accounts, he played them remarkably. I can say this only +from hearsay, for I never heard him. The few times that I ever saw him +at home in my youth, I found him with his brush in hand. I saw him after +that only at the Académie, where we sat near each other, and he always +greeted me cordially. We talked music from time to time, and he +conversed like a connoisseur. + +Henri Regnault was the most musical of all the painters whom I have +known. He did not need a violin--he was his own. Nature had endowed him +with an exquisite tenor voice. It was alluring in its timbre and +irresistible in its attractiveness, just as he was himself. He was no +"near musician." He loved music passionately, and he was unwilling to +sing as an amateur. He took lessons from Romain Bussine at the +Conservatoire. He sang to perfection the difficult arias of Mozart's +_Don Juan_. He also liked to declaim the magnificent recitative of +Pilgrimage in the third act of _Tannhauser_. + +As we were friendly and liked the same things, the sympathy which +brought us together was quite natural. At the beginning of the war in +1870 I wrote _Les Melodies Persanes_ and Regnault was their first +interpreter. _Sabre en main_ is dedicated to him. But his great success +was _Le Cimitière_. Who would have thought as he sang: + + "To-day the roses, + To-morrow the cypress!" + +that the prophecy would be realized so soon? + +Some imbeciles have written that the loss of Regnault was not to be +regretted; that he had said all he had to say. In reality he had given +only the prologue of the great poem which he was working out in his +brain. He had already ordered canvasses for great compositions which, +without a doubt, would have been among the glories of French art. + +I saw him for the last time during the siege. He was just starting for +drill with his rifle in his hand. One of the four watercolors which were +his last work, stood uncompleted on his easel. There was a shapeless +spot at the bottom. He held a handkerchief in his free hand. He +moistened this from time to time with saliva and kept tapping away on +the spot on the picture. To my great astonishment, almost to my fright, +I saw roughed out and finished the head of a lion. + +A few days afterwards came Buzenval! + +When the question of publishing Henri Regnault's letters came up, some +phrases referring to me and ranking me above my rivals were found in +them. The editor of the letter got into communication with me, read me +the phrases, and announced that they were to be suppressed, because they +might displease the other musicians. + +I knew who the other musicians were, and whose puppet the editor was. It +would have been possible, it seems to me, without hurting anyone, to +include the exaggerated praise, which, coming from a painter, had no +weight, and which would have proved nothing except the great friendship +which inspired it. I have always regretted that the public did not learn +of the sentiments with which the great artist, whom I loved so much, +honored me. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Memories, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 16459-8.txt or 16459-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/5/16459/ + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Musical Memories + +Author: Camille Saint-Saëns + +Translator: Edwin Gile Rich + +Release Date: August 7, 2005 [EBook #16459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="illustration" id="ill00-box"><a id="ill00" name="ill00"></a> +<a href="images/ill00.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="386" height="578" id="ill00-img" src="images/ill00s.jpg" title="The Master, Camille Saint-Saëns" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">The Master, Camille Saint-Saëns</div> +</div> + + + + +<div id="titlep"> +<div id="title">Musical Memories</div> + +<div class="by">By</div> +<div id="author">Camille Saint-Saëns</div> + +<div class="by">Translated by</div> +<div id="translator">Edwin Gile Rich</div> +<div id="translator-info">Translator of Lafond’s “<i>Ma Mitrailleuse</i>,” etc.</div> + +<div class="illustration" id="seal-box"><a id="seal" name="seal"></a> +<a href="images/seal.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="104" height="142" id="seal-img" src="images/seal-s.jpg" alt="[Illustration: (A publisher’s seal, inscribed “SCIRE QVOD SCIENDVM”.)]" /> +</a> +</div> + +<div id="publication"> +Boston +<div class="publisher">Small, Maynard & Company</div> + +Publishers +</div> +</div> + + + + +<div id="date"> +<div id="year">1919,</div> +<div class="publisher"><span style="text-transform: none">By</span> Small, Maynard & Company</div> +<div id="incorporated">(Incorporated)</div> +</div> + + + + +<h1 style="margin-bottom: 1.5em">Contents</h1> + +<div id="chapter">Chapter</div> +<ol id="contents" style="margin-top: 0em"> +<li style="margin-top: 0em"><a href="#i">Memories of My Childhood</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ii">The Old Conservatoire</a></li> + +<li><a href="#iii">Victor Hugo</a></li> + +<li><a href="#iv">The History of an Opéra-Comique</a></li> + +<li><a href="#v">Louis Gallet</a></li> + +<li><a href="#vi">History and Mythology in Opera</a></li> + +<li><a href="#vii">Art for Art’s Sake</a></li> + +<li><a href="#viii">Popular Science and Art</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ix">Anarchy in Music</a></li> + +<li><a href="#x">The Organ</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xi">Joseph Haydn and the “Seven Words”</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xii">The Liszt Centenary at Heidelberg (1912)</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xiii">Berlioz’s Requiem</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xiv">Pauline Viardot</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xv">Orphee</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xvi">Delsarte</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xvii">Seghers</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xviii">Rossini</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xix">Jules Massenet</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xx">Meyerbeer</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xxi">Jacques Offenbach</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xxii">Their Majesties</a></li> + +<li><a href="#xxiii">Musical Painters</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<h1 style="margin-bottom: 1.5em">Illustrations</h1> + +<ol id="illustrations"> +<li><a href="#ill00">The Master, Camille Saint-Saëns</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill01">The Paris Opéra</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill02">The First Performance of <i>Déjanire</i></a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill03">M. Saint-Saëns in his Later Years</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill04">The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saëns played the organ for twenty years</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill05">Hector Berlioz</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill06">Mme. Pauline Viardot</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill07">Mme. Patti</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill08">M. Jules Massenet</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill09">Meyerbeer, Composer of <i>Les Huguenots</i></a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill10">Jacques Offenbach</a></li> + +<li><a href="#ill11">Ingres, the painter famous for his violin</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<div id="retitle">Musical Memories</div> + + + + +<div id="reretitle">Musical Memories</div> + + +<h1 style="margin-top: 1.5em"><a name="i" id="i"></a>Chapter I</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Memories of My Childhood</div> + + +<p> +In bygone days I was often told that I had two mothers, and, as a matter +of fact, I did have two—the mother who gave me life and my maternal +great-aunt, Charlotte Masson. The latter came from an old family of +lawyers named Gayard and this relationship makes me a descendant of +General Delcambre, one of the heroes of the retreat from Russia. His +granddaughter married Count Durrieu of the <i>Académie des Inscriptions et +Belles-Lettres</i>. My great-aunt was born in the provinces in 1781, but +she was adopted by a childless aunt and uncle who made their home in +Paris. He was a wealthy lawyer and they lived magnificently. +</p> + +<p> +My great-aunt was a precocious child—she walked at nine months—and +she became a woman of keen intellect and brilliant attainments. She +remembered perfectly the customs of the <i>Ancien Régime</i>, and she enjoyed +telling about them, as well as about the Revolution, the Reign of +Terror, and the times that followed. Her family was ruined by the +Revolution and the slight, frail, young girl undertook to earn her +living by giving lessons in French, on the pianoforte—the instrument +was a novelty then—in singing, painting, embroidery, in fact in +everything she knew and in much that she did not. If she did not know, +she learned then and there so that she could teach. Afterwards, she +married one of her cousins. As she had no children of her own, she +brought one of her nieces from Champagne and adopted her. This niece was +my mother, Clemence Collin. The Massons were about to retire from +business with a comfortable fortune, when they lost practically +everything within two weeks, in a panic, saving just enough to live +decently. Shortly after this my mother married my father, a minor +official in the Department of the Interior. My great-uncle died of a +broken heart some months before my birth on October 9, 1835. My father +died of consumption on the thirty-first of the following December, just +a year to a day after his marriage. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the two women were both left widows, poorly provided for, weighed +down by sad memories, and with the care of a delicate child. In fact I +was so delicate that the doctors held out little hope of my living, and +on their advice I was left in the country with my nurse until I was two +years old. +</p> + +<p> +While my aunt had had a remarkable education, my mother had not been so +widely taught. But she made up for any lack by the display of an +imagination and an eager power of assimilation which bordered on the +miraculous. She often told me about an uncle who was very fond of +her—he had been ruined in the cause of Philippe Egalité. This uncle was +an artist, but he was, nevertheless, passionately fond of music. He had +even built with his own hands a concert organ on which he used to play. +My mother used to sit between his knees and, while he amused himself by +running his fingers through her splendid black hair, he would talk to +her about art, music, painting—beauty in every form. So she got it into +her head that if she ever had sons of her own, the first should be a +musician, the second a painter, and the third a sculptor. As a result, +when I came home from the nurse, she was not greatly surprised that I +began to listen to every noise and to every sound; that I made the doors +creak, and would plant myself in front of the clocks to hear them +strike. My special delight was the music of the tea-kettle—a large one +which was hung before the fire in the drawing-room every morning. Seated +nearby on a small stool, I used to wait with a lively curiosity for the +first murmurs of its gentle and variegated <i>crescendo</i>, and the +appearance of a microscopic oboe which gradually increased its song +until it was silenced by the kettle boiling. Berlioz must have heard +that oboe as well as I, for I rediscovered it in the “Ride to Hell” in +his <i>La Damnation de Faust</i>. +</p> + +<p> +At the same time I was learning to read. When I was two-years-and-a-half +old, they placed me in front of a small piano which had not been opened +for several years. Instead of drumming at random as most children of +that age would have done, I struck the notes one after another, going on +only when the sound of the previous note had died away. My great-aunt +taught me the names of the notes and got a tuner to put the piano in +order. While the tuning was going on, I was playing in the next room, +and they were utterly astonished when I named the notes as they were +sounded. I was not told all these details—I remember them perfectly. +</p> + +<p> +I was taught by Le Carpentier’s method and I finished it in a month. +They couldn’t let a little monkey like that work away at the piano, and +I cried like a lost soul when they closed the instrument. Then they left +it open and put a small stool in front of it. From time to time I would +leave my playthings and climb up to drum out whatever came into my head. +Gradually, my great-aunt, who fortunately had an excellent foundation in +music, taught me how to hold my hands properly so that I did not acquire +the gross faults which are so difficult to correct later on. But they +did not know what sort of music to give me. That written especially for +children is, as a rule, entirely melody and the part for the left hand +is uninteresting. I refused to learn it. “The bass doesn’t sing,” I +said, in disgust. +</p> + +<p> +Then they searched the old masters, in Haydn and Mozart, for things +sufficiently easy for me to handle. At five I was playing small sonatas +correctly, with good interpretation and excellent precision. But I +consented to play them only before listeners capable of appreciating +them. I have read in a biographical sketch that I was threatened with +whippings to make me play. That is absolutely false; but it was +necessary to tell me that there was a lady in the audience who was an +excellent musician and had fastidious tastes. I would not play for those +who did not know. +</p> + +<p> +As for the threat of whippings, that must be relegated to the realm of +legends with the one that Garcia punished his daughters to make them +learn to sing. Madame Viardot expressly told me that neither she nor her +sister was abused by their father and that they learned music without +realizing it, just as they learned to talk. +</p> + +<p> +But in spite of my surprising progress my teacher did not foresee what +my future was to be. “When he is fifteen,” she said, “if he can write a +dance, I shall be satisfied.” It was just at this time, however, that I +began to write music. I wrote waltzes and galops—the galop was +fashionable at that period; it ran to rather ordinary musical motives +and mine were no exception to the rule. Liszt had to show by his <i>Galop +Chromatique</i> the distinction that genius can give to the most +commonplace themes. My waltzes were better. As has always been the case +with me, I was already composing the music directly on paper without +working it out on the piano. The waltzes were too difficult for my +hands, so a friend of the family, a sister of the singer Geraldy, was +kind enough to play them for me. +</p> + +<p> +I have looked over these little compositions lately. They are +insignificant, but it is impossible to find a technical error in them. +Such precision was remarkable for a child who had no idea of the science +of harmony. About that time some one had the notion that I should hear +an orchestra. So they took me to a symphony concert and my mother held +me in her arms near the door. Until then I had only heard single violins +and their tone had not pleased me. But the impression of the orchestra +was entirely different and I listened with delight to a passage played +by a quartet, when, suddenly, came a blast from the brass +instruments—the trumpets, trombones and cymbals. I broke into loud +cries, “Make them stop. They prevent my hearing the music.” They had to +take me out. +</p> + +<p> +When I was seven, I passed out of my great-aunt’s hands into Stamaty’s. +He was surprised at the way my education in music had been directed and +he expressed this in a small work in which he discussed the necessity of +making a correct start. In my case, he said, there was nothing to do but +to perfect. +</p> + +<p> +Stamaty was Kalkbrenner’s best pupil and the propagator of the method he +had invented. This method was based on the <i>guide main</i>, so I was put to +work on it. The preface to Kalkbrenner’s method, in which he relates the +beginnings of his invention, is exceedingly interesting. This invention +consisted of a rod placed in front of the keyboard. The forearm rested +on this rod in such a way that all muscular action save that of the hand +was suppressed. This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist +how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes +where the keys responded to slight pressure; but it is inadequate for +modern works and instruments. It is the way one ought to begin, for it +develops firmness of the fingers and suppleness of the wrist, and, by +easy stages, adds the weight of the forearm and of the whole arm. But in +our day it has become the practice to begin at the end. We learn the +elements of the fugue from Sebastian Bach’s <i>Wohltemperirte Klavier</i>, +the piano from the works of Schumann and Liszt, and harmony and +instrumentation from Richard Wagner. All too often we waste our efforts, +just as singers who learn rôles and rush on the stage before they know +how to sing ruin their voices in a short time. +</p> + +<p> +Firmness of the fingers is not the only thing that one learns from +Kalkbrenner’s method, for there is also a refinement of the quality of +the sound made by the fingers alone, a valuable resource which is +unusual in our day. +</p> + +<p> +Unfortunately, this school invented as well continuous <i>legato</i>, which +is both false and monotonous; the abuse of nuances, and a mania for +continual <i>expressio</i> used with no discrimination. All this was opposed +to my natural feelings, and I was unable to conform to it. They +reproached me by saying that I would never get a really fine effect—to +which I was entirely indifferent. +</p> + +<p> +When I was ten, my teacher decided that I was sufficiently prepared to +give a concert in the Salle Pleyel, so I played there, accompanied by an +Italian orchestra, with Tilmant as the conductor. I gave Beethoven’s +<i>Concerto in C minor</i> and one of Mozart’s concertos in B flat. There was +some question of my playing at the Société des Concerts du +Conservatoire, and there was even a rehearsal. But Seghers, who +afterwards founded the Société St. Cécile, was a power in the affairs of +the orchestra. He detested Stamaty and told him that the Société was not +organized to play children’s accompaniments. My mother felt hurt and +wanted to hear nothing more of it. +</p> + +<p> +After my first concert, which was a brilliant success, my teacher +wanted me to give others, but my mother did not wish me to have a career +as an infant prodigy. She had higher ambitions and was unwilling for me +to continue in concert work for fear of injuring my health. The result +was that a coolness sprang up between my teacher and me which ended our +relations. +</p> + +<p> +At that time my mother made a remark which was worthy of Cornelia. One +day some one remonstrated with her for letting me play Beethoven’s +sonatas. “What music will he play when he is twenty?” she was asked. “He +will play his own,” was her reply. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +The greatest benefit I got from my experience with Stamaty was my +acquaintance with Maleden, whom he gave me as my teacher in composition. +Maleden was born in Limoges, as his accent always showed. He was thin +and long-haired, a kind and timid soul, but an incomparable teacher. He +had gone to Germany in his youth to study with a certain Gottfried +Weber, the inventor of a system which Maleden brought back with him and +perfected. He made it a wonderful tool with which to get to the depths +of music—a light for the darkest corners. In this system the chords are +not considered in and for themselves—as fifths, sixths, sevenths—but +in relation to the pitch of the scale on which they appear. The chords +acquire different characteristics according to the place they occupy, +and, as a result, certain things are explained which are, otherwise, +inexplicable. This method is taught in the Ecole Niedermeuer, but I +don’t know that it is taught elsewhere. +</p> + +<p> +Maleden was extremely anxious to become a professor at the +Conservatoire. As the result of powerful influence, Auber was about to +sign Maleden’s appointment, when, in his scrupulous honesty, he thought +he ought to write and warn him that his method differed entirely from +that taught in the institution. Auber was frightened and Maleden was not +admitted. +</p> + +<p> +Our lessons were often very stormy. From time to time certain questions +came up on which I could not agree with him. He would then take me +quietly by the ear, bend my head and hold my ear to the table for a +minute or two. Then, he would ask whether I had changed my mind. As I +had not, he would think it over and very often he would confess that I +was right. +</p> + +<p> +“Your childhood,” Gounod once told me, “wasn’t musical.” He was wrong, +for he did not know the many tokens of my childhood. Many of my attempts +are unfinished—to say nothing of those I destroyed—but among them are +songs, choruses, cantatas, and overtures, none of which will ever see +the light. Oblivion will enshroud these gropings after effect, for they +are of no interest to the public. Among these scribblings I have found +some notes written in pencil when I was four. The date on them leaves no +doubt about the time of their production. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ii" id="ii"></a>Chapter II</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">The Old Conservatoire</div> + + +<p> +I cannot let the old Conservatoire in the Rue Bergère go without paying +it a last farewell, for I loved it deeply as we all love the things of +our youth. I loved its antiquity, the utter absence of any modern note, +and its atmosphere of other days. I loved that absurd court with the +wailing notes of sopranos and tenors, the rattling of pianos, the blasts +of trumpets and trombones, the arpeggios of clarinets, all uniting to +form that ultra-polyphone which some of our composers have tried to +attain—but without success. Above all I loved the memories of my +education in music which I obtained in that ridiculous and venerable +palace, long since too small for the pupils who thronged there from all +parts of the world. +</p> + +<p> +I was fourteen when Stamaty, my piano teacher, introduced me to +Benoist, the teacher of the organ, an excellent and charming man, +familiarly known as “Father Benoist.” They put me in front of the +keyboard, but I was badly frightened, and the sounds I made were so +extraordinary that all the pupils shouted with laughter. I was received +at the Conservatoire as an “auditor.” +</p> + +<p> +So there I was only admitted to the honor of listening to others. I was +extremely painstaking, however, and I never lost a note or one of the +teacher’s words. I worked and thought at home, studying hard on +Sebastian Bach’s <i>Wohltemperirte Klavier</i>. All of the pupils, however, +were not so industrious. One day, when they had all failed and Benoist, +as a result, had nothing to do, he put me at the organ. This time no one +laughed and I at once became a regular pupil. At the end of the year I +won the second prize. I would have had the first except for my youth and +the inconvenience of having me leave a class where I needed to stay +longer. +</p> + +<p> +That same year Madeleine Brohan won the first prize in comedy. She +competed with a selection from <i>Misanthrope</i>, and Mlle. Jouassin gave +the other part of the dialogue. Mlle. Jouassin’s technique was the +better, but Madeleine Brohan was so wonderful in beauty and voice that +she carried off the prize. The award made a great uproar. To-day, in +such a case, the prize would be divided. Mlle. Jouassin won her prize +the following year. After leaving school, she accepted and held for a +long time an important place at the Comédie-Française. +</p> + +<p> +Benoist was a very ordinary organist, but an admirable teacher. A +veritable galaxy of talent came from his class. He had little to say, +but as his taste was refined and his judgment sure, nothing he said +lacked weight or authority. He collaborated in several ballets for the +Opéra and that gave him a good deal of work to do. It sounds incredible, +but he used to bring his “work” to class and scribble away on his +orchestration while his pupils played the organ. This did not prevent +his listening and looking after them. He would leave his work and make +appropriate comments as though he had no other thought. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to his ballets, Benoist did other little odd jobs for the +Opéra. As a result one day, without thinking, he gave me the key to a +deep secret. In his famous <i>Traité d’Instrumentation</i> Berlioz spoke of +his admiration for a passage in Sacchini’s <i>Œdipus à Colone</i>. Two +clarinets are heard in descending thirds of real charm just before the +words, “<em lang="fr">Je connus la charmante Eriphyle.</em>” Berlioz was enthusiastic and +wrote: +</p> + +<p> +“We might believe that we really see Eriphyle chastely kiss his eyes. It +is admirable. And yet,” he adds, “there is no trace of this effect in +Sacchini’s score.” +</p> + +<p> +Now Sacchini, for some reason or other which I do not know, did not use +clarinets once in the whole score. Benoist was commissioned to add them +when the work was revived, as he told me as we were chatting one day. +Berlioz did not know this, and Benoist, who had not read Berlioz’s +<i>Traité</i>, knew nothing of the romantic musician’s enthusiastic +admiration of his work. These happily turned thirds, although they +weren’t Sacchini’s, were, none the less, an excellent innovation. +</p> + +<p> +Benoist was less happy when he was asked to put some life into +Bellini’s <i>Romeo</i> by using earsplitting outbursts of drums, cymbals, and +brass. During the same noise-loving period Costa, in London, gave +Mozart’s <i>Don Juan</i> the same treatment. He let loose throughout the +opera the trombones which the author intentionally reserved for the end. +Benoist ought to have refused to do such a barbarous piece of work. +However, it had no effect in preventing the failure of a worthless +piece, staged at great expense by the management which had rejected Les +Troyens. +</p> + +<p> +I was fifteen when I entered Halévy’s class. I had already completed the +study of harmony, counterpoint and fugue under Maleden’s direction. As I +have said, his method was that taught at the Ecole Niedermeuer. Faure, +Messager, Perilhou, and Gigot were trained there and they taught this +method in turn. My class-work consisted in making attempts at vocal and +instrumental music and orchestration. My <i>Rêverie</i>, <i>La Feuille de +Peuplier</i> and many other things first appeared there. They have been +entirely forgotten, and rightly, for my work was very uneven. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of his career Halévy was constantly writing opera and +opéra-comique which added nothing to his fame and which disappeared +never to be revived after a respectable number of performances. He was +entirely absorbed in his work and, as a result, he neglected his classes +a good deal. He came only when he had time. The pupils, however, came +just the same and gave each other instruction which was far less +indulgent than the master’s, for his greatest fault was an overweening +good nature. Even when he was at class he couldn’t protect himself from +self-seekers. Singers of all sorts, male and female, came for a hearing. +One day it was Marie Cabel, still youthful and dazzling both in voice +and beauty. Other days impossible tenors wasted his time. When the +master sent word that he wasn’t coming—this happened often—I used to +go to the library, and there, as a matter of fact, I completed my +education. The amount of music, ancient and modern, I devoured is beyond +belief. +</p> + +<p> +But it wasn’t enough just to read music—I needed to hear it. Of course +there was the Société des Concerts, but it was a Paradise, guarded by an +angel with a flaming sword, in the form of a porter named Lescot. It was +his duty to prevent the profane defiling the sanctuary. Lescot was fond +of me and appreciated my keen desire to hear the orchestra. As a result +he made his rounds as slowly as possible in order to put me out only as +a last resort. Fortunately for me, Marcelin de Fresne gave me a place in +his box, which I was permitted to occupy for several years. +</p> + +<p> +I used to read and study the symphonies before I heard them and I saw +grave defects in the Société’s vaunted execution. No one would stand +them now, but then they passed unnoticed. I was naïve and lacked +discretion, and so I often pointed out these defects. It can be easily +imagined what vials of wrath were poured on me. +</p> + +<p> +As far as the public was concerned, the great success of these concerts +was due to the incomparable charm of the depth of tone, which was +attributed to the hall. The members of the Société believed this, too, +and they would let no other orchestra be heard there. This state of +affairs lasted until Anton Rubinstein got permission from the Minister +of Fine Arts to give a concert there, accompanied by the Colonne +orchestra. The Société fretted and fumed at this and threatened to give +up its series of concerts. But the Société was overruled and the concert +was given. To the general surprise it was seen that another orchestra in +the same hall produced an entirely different effect. The depth of tone +which had been appreciated so highly, it was found, was due to the +famous Société itself, to the character of the instruments and the +execution. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, the hall is excellent, although it is no longer adequate +for the presentation of modern compositions. But it is a marvellous +place for the numerous concerts given by virtuosi, both singers and +instrumentalists, accompanied by an orchestra, and for chamber music. +Finally, the hall where France was introduced to the masterpieces of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose influence has been so profound, is a +historic place. +</p> + +<p> +Numerous improvements in the administration of the Conservatoire have +been introduced during the last few years. On the other hand, old and +honored customs have disappeared and we can but regret their loss. From +Auber’s time on there was a <i>pension</i> connected with the Conservatoire. +Here the young singers who came from the provinces at eighteen found +board and lodging, a regular life, and a protection from the temptations +of a large city, so dangerous to fresh young voices. Bouhy, Lassalle, +Capoul, Gailhard and many others who have made the French stage famous +came from this <i>pension</i>. +</p> + +<p> +We also used to have dramatic recitals which were excellent both for the +performers and the audiences as they gave works which were not in the +usual repertoire. In these recitals they gave Méhul’s <i>Joseph</i>, which +had disappeared from the stage for a long time. The beautiful choruses +sung by the fresh voices of the pupils made such a success and the whole +work was so enthusiastically applauded that it was revived at the +Opéra-Comique and won back a success which it has never lost. We also +heard there Gluck’s <i>Orphée</i> long before that masterpiece was revived at +the Théâtre-Lyrique. Then there was Méhul’s <i>Irato</i>, a curious and +charming work which the Opéra took up afterwards. And there, too, they +gave the last act of Rossini’s <i>Otello</i>. The tempest in that act gave me +the idea of the one which rumbles through the second act of <i>Samson</i>. +</p> + +<p> +When the hall was reconstructed, the stage was destroyed so that such +performances are impossible. But to make up for this, they installed a +concert organ, a necessary adjunct for musical performances. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, in Auber’s day and even in that of Ambroise Thomas, the +director was master. No one had dreamed of creating a committee, which, +under cover of the director’s responsibility, would strangely diminish +his authority. The only benefit from the new system has been the end of +the incessant war which the musical critics waged on the director. But +that did no harm, either to the director or to the school, for the +latter kept on growing to such an extent that it ought to have been +enlarged long ago. The committee plan has won and the incident is +closed. One may only hope that steps will be taken to make possible an +increase in the number of pupils since so many candidates apply each +year and so few are chosen. +</p> + +<p> +As everyone knows, we have been struck by a perfect mania for reforms, +so there is no harm in proposing one for the Conservatoire. Foreign +conservatoires have been studied and they want to introduce some of +their features here. As a matter of fact, some of the foreign +conservatoires are housed in magnificent palaces and their curricula are +elaborated with a care worthy of admiration. Whether they turn out +better pupils than we do is an open question. It is beyond dispute, +however, that many young foreigners come to us for their education. +</p> + +<p> +Some of the reformers are scandalized at the sight of a musician in +charge of a school where elocution is taught. They forget that a +musician may also be a man of letters—the present director combines +these qualifications—and that it is improbable that it will be +different in the future. The teachers of elocution have always been the +best that could be found. Although M. Faure is a musician, he has known +how to bring back the classes in tragedy to their original purpose. For +a time they tended towards an objectionable modernism, for they +substituted in their competitions modern prose for the classic verse. +And the study of the latter is very profitable. +</p> + +<p> +Not only is there no harm in this union of elocution and music, but it +would be useful if singers and composers would take advantage of it to +familiarize themselves with the principles of diction, which, in my +opinion, are indispensable to both. Instead, they distrust melody. +Declamation is no longer wanted in operas, and the singers make the +works incomprehensible by not articulating the words. The composers tend +along the same lines, for they give no indication or direction of how +they want the words spoken. All this is regrettable and should be +reformed. +</p> + +<p> +As you see, I object to the mania for reform and end by suggesting +reforms myself. Well, one must be of one’s own time, and there is no +escaping the contagion. +</p> + + + +<h1><a name="iii" id="iii"></a>Chapter III</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Victor Hugo</div> + +<p> +Everything in my youth seemed calculated to keep me far removed from +romanticism. Those about me talked only of the great classics and I saw +them welcome Ponsard’s <i>Lucrece</i> as a sort of Minerva whose lance was to +route Victor Hugo and his foul crew, of whom they never spoke save with +detestation. +</p> + +<p> +Who was it, I wonder, who had the happy idea of giving me, elegantly +bound, the first volumes of Victor Hugo’s poems? I have forgotten who it +was, but I remember what joy the vibrations of his lyre gave me. Until +that time poetry had seemed to me something cold, respectable and +far-away, and it was much later that the living beauty of our classics +was revealed to me. I found myself at once stirred to the depths, and, +as my temperament is essentially musical in everything, I began to sing +them. +</p> + +<p> +People have told me <i>ad nauseam</i> (and they still tell me so) that +beautiful verse is inimical to music, or rather that music is inimical +to good verse; that music demands ordinary verse, rhymed prose, rather +than verse, which is malleable and reducible as the composer wishes. +This generalization is assuredly true, if the music is written first and +then adapted to the words, but that is not the ideal harmony between two +arts which are made to supplement each other. Do not the rhythmic and +sonorous passages of verse naturally call for song to set them off, +since singing is but a better method of declaiming them? I made some +attempts at this and some of those which have been preserved are: +<i>Puisque ici bas toute âme</i>, <i>Le Pas d’armes du roi Jean</i>, and <i>La +Cloche</i>. They were ridiculed at the time, but destined to some success +later. Afterwards I continued with <i>Si tu veux faisons un réve</i>, which +Madame Carvalho sang a good deal, <i>Soirée en mer</i>, and many others. +</p> + +<p> +The older I grew the greater became my devotion to Hugo. I waited +impatiently for each new work of the poet and I devoured it as soon as +it appeared. If I heard about me the spiteful criticisms of irritating +critics, I was consoled by talking to Berlioz who honored me with his +friendship and whose admiration for Hugo equalled mine. In the meantime +my literary education was improving, and I made the acquaintance of the +classics and found immortal beauties in them. My admiration for the +classics, however, did not diminish my regard for Hugo, for I never +could see why it was unfaithfulness to him not to despise Racine. It was +fortunate for me that this was my view, for I have seen the most fiery +romanticists, like Meurice and Vacquerie, revert to Racine in their +later years, and repair the links in a golden chain which should never +have been broken. +</p> + +<p> +The Empire fell and Victor Hugo came back to Paris. So I was going to +have a chance of realizing my dream of seeing him and hearing his voice! +But I dreaded meeting him almost as much as I wished to do so. Like +Rossini Victor Hugo received his friends every evening. He came forward +with both hands outstretched and told me what pleasure it was for him to +see me at his house. Everything whirled around me! +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot say the same to you,” I answered. “I wish I were somewhere +else.” He laughed heartily and showed that he knew how to overcome my +bashfulness. I waited to hear some of the conversation which, according +to my preconceived ideas, would be in the style of his latest romance. +However, it was entirely different; simple polished phrases, entirely +logical, came from that “mouth of mystery.” +</p> + +<p> +I went to Hugo’s evenings as often as possible, for I never could drink +my fill of the presence of the hero of my youthful dreams. I had +occasion to note to what an extent a fiery republican, a modern Juvenal, +whose verses branded “kings” as if with a red hot iron, in his private +life was susceptible to their flattery. The Emperor of Brazil had called +on him, and the next day he could not stop talking about it constantly. +Rather ostentatiously he called him “Don Pedro d’Alcantara.” In French +this would be “M. Pierre du Pont.” Spanish inherently gives such florid +sounds to ordinary names. This florid style is not frequent in French, +and that is precisely what Corneille and Victor Hugo succeeded in +giving it. +</p> + +<p> +A slight incident unfortunately changed my relations with the great +poet. +</p> + +<p> +“As long as Mlle. Bertin was alive,” he told me, “I would never permit +<i>La Esmeralda</i> to be set to music; but if some musician should now ask +for this poem, I would be glad to let him have it.” +</p> + +<p> +The invitation was obvious. Yet, as is generally known, this dramatic +and lyric adaptation of the famous romance is not particularly happy. I +was much embarrassed and I pretended not to understand, but I never +dared to go to Hugo’s house again. +</p> + +<p> +Years passed. In 1881 a subscription was taken up to erect a statue to +the author of <i>La Légende des Siècles</i>, and they began to plan +celebrations for its dedication, particularly a big affair at the +Trocadéro. My imagination took fire at the idea, and I wrote my <i>Hymne à +Victor Hugo</i>. +</p> + +<p> +As is well known, the master knew nothing at all about music, and the +same was true of those around him. It is a matter of conjecture how the +master and his followers happened to mistake some absurd and formless +motif for one of Beethoven’s sublime inspirations. Victor Hugo adapted +the beautiful verses of <i>Stella</i> to this halting motif. It was published +as an appendix in the <i>Châtiments</i>, with a remark about the union of two +geniuses, the fusion of the verse of a great poet with the <i>admirable</i> +verse of a great musician. And the poet would have Mme. Drouet play this +marvellous music on the piano from time to time! <i>Tristia Herculis!</i> +</p> + +<p> +As I wanted to put in my hymn something peculiar to Victor Hugo, which +could not possibly be attributed to anyone else, I tried to introduce +this motif of which he was so fond. And, by means of numerous tricks +which every musician has up his sleeve, I managed to give it the form +and character which it had lacked. +</p> + +<p> +The subscription did not go fast enough to suit the master, and he had +it stopped. So I put my hymn in a drawer and waited for a better +opportunity. +</p> + +<p> +About this time M. Bruneau, the father of the well-known composer, +conceived the idea of giving spring concerts at the Trocadéro. Bruneau +came to see me and asked me if I had some unpublished work which I would +let him have. This was an excellent occasion for the presentation of my +<i>Hymne</i>, as it had been written with the Trocadéro in mind. The +performance was decided on and Victor Hugo was invited to come and hear +it. +</p> + +<p> +The performance was splendid—a large orchestra, the magnificent organ, +eight harps, and eight trumpets sounding their flourishes in the organ +loft, and a large chorus for the peroration of such splendor that it was +compared to the set pieces at the close of a display of fireworks. The +reception and ovation which the crowd gave the great poet, who rarely +appeared in public, was beyond description. The honeyed incense of the +organ, harps and trumpets was new to him and pleased his Olympian +nostrils. +</p> + +<p> +“Dine with me to-night,” he said to me. And from that day on, I often +dined with him informally with M. and Mme. Lockrou, Meurice, Vacquerie +and other close friends. The fare was delightful and unpretentious, and +the conversation was the same. The master sat at the head of the table, +with his grandson and granddaughter on either side, saying little but +always something apropos. Thanks to his vigor, his strong sonorous +voice, and his quiet good humor, he did not seem like an old man, but +rather like an ageless and immortal being, whom Time would never touch. +His presence was just Jove-like enough to inspire respect without +chilling his followers. These small gatherings, which I fully +appreciated, are among the most precious recollections of my life. +</p> + +<p> +Time, alas, goes on, and that fine intellect, which had ever been +unclouded, began to give signs of aberration. One day he said to an +Italian delegation, “The French are Italians; the Italians are French. +French and Italians ought to go to Africa together and found the United +States of Europe.” +</p> + +<p> +The red rays of twilight announced the oncoming night. +</p> + +<p> +Those who saw them will never forget his grandiose funeral ceremonies, +that casket under the Arc de Triomphe, covered with a veil of crape, +and that immense crowd which paid homage to the greatest lyric poet of +the century. +</p> + +<p> +There was a committee to make musical preparations and I was a member. +The most extraordinary ideas were proposed. One man wanted to have the +<i>Marseillaise</i> in a minor key. Another wanted violins, for “violins +produce an excellent effect in the open air.” Naturally we got nowhere. +</p> + +<p> +The great procession started in perfect order, but, as in all long +processions, gaps occurred. I was astonished to find myself in the +middle of the Champs Elysées, in a wide open space, with no one near me +but Ferdinand de Lesseps, Paul Bert, and a member of the Académie, whose +name I shall not mention as he is worthy of all possible respect. +</p> + +<p> +De Lesseps was then at the height of his glory, and from time to time +applause greeted him as he passed. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the Academician leaned over and whispered in my ear, +</p> + +<p> +“Evidently they are applauding us.” +</p> + + + +<h1><a name="iv" id="iv"></a>Chapter IV</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">The History of an Opéra-Comique</div> + +<p> +Young musicians often complain, and not without reason, of the +difficulties of their careers. It may, perhaps, be useful to remind them +that their elders have not always had beds of roses, and that too often +they have had to breast both wind and sea after spending their best +years in port, unable to make a start. These obstacles frequently are +the result of the worst sort of malignity, when it is for the best +interest of everyone—both of the theatres which rebuff them, and the +public which ignores them—that they be permitted to set out under full +sail. +</p> + +<p> +In 1864 one of the most brilliant of the reviews had the following +comments to make on this subject: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + Our real duty—and it is a true kindness—is not to encourage them + (beginners) but to discourage them. In art a vocation is + everything, and a vocation needs no one, for God aids. What use is + it to encourage them and their efforts when the public obstinately + refuses to pay any attention to them? If an act is ordered from one + of them, it fails to go. Two or three years later the same thing is + tried again with the same result. No theatre, even if it were four + times as heavily subsidized as the Théâtre-Lyrique, could continue + to exist on such resources. So the result is that they turn to + accredited talent and call on such men from outside as Gounod, + Felicien David and Victor Massé. The younger composers at once + shout treason and scandal. Then, they select masterpieces by Mozart + and Weber and there are the same outcries and recriminations. In + the final analysis where are these young composers of genius? Who + are they and what are their names? Let them go to the orchestra and + hear <i>Le Nozze di Figaro</i>, <i>Obéron</i>, <i>Freischutz</i> and <i>Orphée</i> ... + we are doing something for them by placing such models before them. +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The young composers who were thus politely invited to be seated +included, among others, Bizet, Delibes, Massenet, and the writer of +these lines. Massenet and I would have been satisfied with writing a +ballet for the Opéra. He proposed the <i>Rat Catcher</i> from an old German +tale, while I proposed <i>Une nuit de Cléopâtra</i> on the text of Théophile +Gautier. They refused us the honor, and, when they consented to order a +ballet from Delibes, they did not dare to trust him with the whole work. +They let him do only one act and the other was given to a Hungarian +composer. As the experiment succeeded, they allowed Delibes to write, +without assistance, his marvellous <i>Coppélia</i>. But Delibes had the +legitimate ambition of writing a grand opera. He never reached so far. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill01-box"><a id="ill01" name="ill01"></a> +<a href="images/ill01.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="583" height="388" id="ill01-img" src="images/ill01s.jpg" title="The Paris Opéra" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">The Paris Opéra</div> +</div> + +<p> +Bizet and I were great friends and we told each other all our troubles. +“You’re less unfortunate than I am,” he used to tell me. “You can do +something besides things for the stage. I can’t. That’s my only +resource.” +</p> + +<p> +When Bizet put on the delightful <i>Pêcheurs de Perles</i>—he was helped by +powerful influences—there was a general outcry and an outbreak of +abuse. The Devil himself straight from Hell would not have received a +worse reception. Later on, as we know, <i>Carmen</i> was received in the +same way. +</p> + +<p> +I was, indeed, able to do something beside work for the stage, and it +was just that which closed the stage to me. I was a writer of +symphonies, an organist and a pianist, so how could I be capable of +writing an opera! The qualities which go to make a pianist were in a +particularly bad light in the greenroom. Bizet played the piano +admirably, but he never dared to play in public for fear of making his +position worse. +</p> + +<p> +I suggested to Carvalho that I write a <i>Macbeth</i> for Madame Viardot. +Naturally enough he preferred to put on Verdi’s <i>Macbeth</i>. It was an +utter failure and cost him thirty thousand francs. +</p> + +<p> +They tried to interest a certain princess, a patron of the arts, in my +behalf. “What,” she replied, “isn’t he satisfied with his position? He +plays the organ at the Madeleine and the piano at my house. Isn’t that +enough for him?” +</p> + +<p> +But that wasn’t enough for me, and to overcome the obstacles, I caused a +scandal. At the age of twenty-eight I competed for the <i>Prix de Rome</i>! +They did not give it to me on the ground that I didn’t need it, but the +day after the award, Auber, who was very fond of me, asked Carvalho for +a libretto for me. Carvalho gave me <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i>, which he +didn’t know what to do with as several musicians had refused to touch +it. There were good reasons for this, for, despite an excellent +foundation for the music, the libretto had serious faults. I demanded +that Barbier and Carré, the authors, should make important changes, +which they did at once. Then, I retired to the heights of Louveciennes +and in two months wrote the score of the five acts which the work had at +first. +</p> + +<p> +I had to wait two years before Carvalho would consent to hear the music. +Finally, worn out by my importunities, they decided to get rid of me, so +Carvalho invited me to dine with him and to bring my score. After dinner +I went to the piano. Carvalho was on one side and Madame Carvalho on the +other. Both were very pleasant and charming, but the real meaning of +this friendliness did not escape me. +</p> + +<p> +They had no doubts about what awaited them. Both really loved music and +little by little they fell under the spell. Serious attention succeeded +the false friendliness. At the end they were enthusiastic. Carvalho +declared that he would have the study of the work begun as soon as +possible; it was a masterpiece; it would have a great success, but to +assure this success, Madame Carvalho must sing the principal part. +</p> + +<p> +Now the principal part in <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i> is that of a dancer and +the singer’s part is greatly subordinate. To remedy this they decided to +develop the part. Barbier invented a pretty situation to bring in the +passage <i>Bonheur est chose legère</i>, but that wasn’t enough. Barbier and +Carré racked their brains without finding any solution of the +difficulty, for on the stage as elsewhere there are problems that can’t +be solved. +</p> + +<p> +Between times they tried to find a dancer of the first rank. Finally, +they found one who had recently left the Opéra, although still at the +height of her beauty and talent. And they continued to seek a way to +make the part of Hélène worthy of Madame Carvalho. +</p> + +<p> +The famous director had one mania. He wanted to collaborate in every +work he staged. Even a work hallowed by time and success had to bear +his mark; much greater were his reasons for interpolating in a new work. +He would announce brusquely that the period or the country in which the +action of the work took place must be changed. He tormented us for a +long time to make the dancer into a singer on his wife’s account. Later, +he wanted to introduce a second dancer. With the exception of the +prologue and epilogue the action of the piece takes place in a dream, +and he took upon himself the invention of the most bizarre combinations. +He even proposed to me one day to introduce wild animals. Another time +he wanted to cut out all the music with the exception of the choruses +and the dancer’s part, and have the rest played by a dramatic company. +Later, as they were rehearsing Hamlet at the Opéra and it was rumored +that Mlle. Nilsson was going to play a water scene, he wanted Madame +Carvalho to go to the bottom of a pool to find the fatal bell. +</p> + +<p> +Foolishness of this kind took up two years. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, we gave up the idea of Mme. Carvalho’s coöperation. The part of +Hélène was given to beautiful Mlle. Schroeder and the rehearsals began. +They were interrupted by the failure of the Théâtre-Lyrique. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly afterwards Perrin asked for <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i> for the Opéra. +The adaptation of the work for the large stage at the Opéra necessitated +important modifications. The whole of the dialogue had to be set to +music and the authors went to work on it. Perrin gave us Madame Carvalho +for Hélène and Faure for Spiridion, but he wanted to burlesque the part +for the tenor and give it to Mlle. Wertheimber. He wanted to engage her +and had no other part for her. This was impossible. After several +discussions Perrin yielded to the obstinate refusals of the authors, but +I saw clearly from his attitude that he would never play our work. +</p> + +<p> +About that time du Locle took over the management of the Opéra-Comique. +He saw that Perrin, who was his uncle, had decided not to stage <i>Le +Timbre d’Argent</i> and asked me for it. +</p> + +<p> +This meant another metamorphosis for the work and new and considerable +work for the musician. And this work was by no means easy. Until this +time Barbier and Carré had been as close friends as Orestes and Pylades, +but now they had a falling out. What one proposed, the other +systematically refused. One lived in Paris; the other in the country. I +went from Paris to the country and from the country to Paris trying to +get these warring brothers to agree. This going to and fro lasted all +summer, and then the temporary enemies came to an understanding and +became as friendly as ever. +</p> + +<p> +We seemed to be nearly at the end of our troubles. Du Locle had found a +wonderful dancer in Italy on whom we depended, but the dancer turned out +not to be one at all. She was a <i>mime</i>, and did not dance. +</p> + +<p> +As there was no time to look for another dancer that season du Locle, to +keep me patient, had me write with Louis Gallet <i>La Princesse Jaune</i>, +with which I made my debut on the stage. I was thirty-five! This +harmless little work was received with the fiercest hostility. “It is +impossible to tell,” wrote Jouvin, a much feared critic of the time, “in +what key or in what time the overture is written.” And to show me how +utterly wrong I was, he told me that the public was “a compound of +angles and shadows.” His prose was certainly more obscure than my music. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, a real dancer was engaged in Italy. It seemed as though nothing +more could prevent the appearance of the unfortunate <i>Timbre</i>. “I can’t +believe it,” I said. “Some catastrophe will put us off again.” +</p> + +<p> +War came! +</p> + +<p> +When that frightful crisis was at an end, the dancer was re-engaged. The +parts were read to the artists, and the next day Amédé Achard threw up +his rôle, declaring that it belonged to grand opera and was beyond the +powers of an opéra-comique tenor. It is well known that he ended his +career at the Opéra. +</p> + +<p> +Another tenor had to be found, but tenors are rare birds and we were +unable to get one. To use the dancer he had engaged du Locle had Gallet +and Guiraud improvise a short act, <i>Le Kobold</i>, which met with great +success. The dancer was exquisite. Then du Locle lost interest in <i>Le +Timbre d’Argent</i> and then came the failure of the Opéra-Comique. +</p> + +<p> +During all these tribulations I was preparing <i>Samson</i>, although I +could find no one who even wanted to hear me speak of it. They all +thought that I must be mad to attempt a Biblical subject. I gave a +hearing of the second act at my house, but no one understood it at all. +Without the aid of Liszt, who did not know a note of it, but who engaged +me to finish it and put it on at Weimar, <i>Samson</i> would never have seen +the light. Afterwards it was refused in succession by Halanzier, +Vaucorbeil, and Ritt and Gailhard, who decided to take it only after +they had heard it sung by that admirable singer Rosine Bloch. +</p> + +<p> +But to return to <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i>. I was again on the street with my +score under my arm. About that time Vizentini revived the +Théâtre-Lyrique. His first play was <i>Paul et Virginie</i>, a wonderful +success, and he was preparing for the close of the season another work +which he liked. They were kindly disposed to me at the Ministry of Fine +Arts and they interested themselves in my misfortunes. So they gave the +Théâtre-Lyrique a small subsidy on condition that they play my work. I +came to the theatre as one who has meddled and I quickly recognized the +discomforts of my position. First, there was a search for a singer; +then, for a tenor, and they tried several without success. I found a +tenor who, according to all reports, was of the first rank, but, after +several days of negotiation, the matter was dropped. I learned later +from the artist that the manager intended to engage him for only four +performances, evidently planning that the work should be played only +four times. +</p> + +<p> +The choice finally fell on Blum. He had a fine voice, and was a perfect +singer but no actor. Indeed he said he didn’t want to be an actor; his +ideal was to appear in white gloves. Each day brought new bickerings. +They made cuts despite my wishes; they left me at the mercy of the +insubordination and rudeness of the stage manager and the ballet master, +who would not listen to my most modest suggestions. I had to pay the +cost of extra musicians in the wings myself. Some stage settings which I +wanted for the prologue were declared impossible—I have seen them since +in the <i>Tales of Hoffman</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, the orchestra was very ordinary. There had to be numerous +rehearsals which they did not refuse me, but they took advantage of them +to spread the report that my music was unplayable. A young journalist +who is still alive (I will not name him) wrote two advance notices which +were intended to pave the way for the failure of my work. +</p> + +<p> +At the last moment the director saw that he had been on the wrong tack +and that he might have a success. As they had played fairyland in the +theatre in the Square des-Arts-et-Métiers, he had at hand all the needed +material to give me a luxurious stage-setting without great expense. +Mlle. Caroline Salla was given the part of Hélène. With her beauty and +magnificent voice she was certainly remarkable. But the passages which +had been written for the light high soprano of Madame Carvalho were +poorly adapted for a dramatic soprano. They concluded, therefore, that I +didn’t know how to write vocal music. +</p> + +<p> +In spite of everything the work was markedly successful, the natural +result of a splendid performance in which two stars—Melchissedech and +Mlle. Adeline Théodore, at present teacher of dancing at the +Opéra—shone. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Vizentini! His opinion of me has changed greatly since that time. +We were made to understand and love each other, so he has become, with +years, one of my best and most devoted friends. He first produced my +ballet <i>Javotte</i> at the Grand-Théâtre in Lyons, which the Monnaie in +Brussels had ordered and then refused. He had dreams of directing the +Opéra-Comique and installing <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i> there. Fate willed +otherwise. +</p> + +<p> +We have seen how the young French school was encouraged under the +Empire. The situation has improved and the old state of affairs has +never returned. But we find more than the analogy between the old point +of view and the one that was revealed not long ago when the French +musicians complained that they were more or less sacrificed in favor of +their foreign contemporaries. At bottom it is the same spirit in a +modified form. +</p> + +<p> +To resume. As everyone knows, the way to become a blacksmith is by +working at a forge. Sitting in the shade does not give the experience +which develops talent. We should never have known the great days of the +Italian theatre, if Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi had had to +undergo our régime. If Mozart had had to wait until he was forty to +produce his first opera, we should never have had <i>Don Giovanni</i> or <i>Le +Nozze di Figaro</i>, for Mozart died at thirty-five. +</p> + +<p> +The policy imposed on Bizet and Delibes certainly deprived us of several +works which would now be among the glories of the repertoire at the +Opéra and the Opéra-Comique. That is an irreparable misfortune; one +which we cannot sufficiently deplore. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="v" id="v"></a>Chapter V</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Louis Gallet</div> + +<p> +As <i>Déjanire</i>, cast in a new form, has again appeared in the vast frame +of the Opéra stage, I may be allowed to recall my recollections of my +friend and collaborator, Louis Gallet, the diligent and chosen companion +of my best years, whose support was so dear and precious to me. +Collaboration for some reason unknown to me is deprecated. Opera, it is +said, should spring from the brain like Minerva, fully armed. So much +the better if such divine intellects can be found, but they are rare and +always will be. For dramatic and literary art on the one hand and +musical art on the other require different powers, which are not +ordinarily found in the same person. +</p> + +<p> +I first met Louis Gallet in 1871. Camille du Locle, who was the manager +of the Opéra-Comique at the time, could not put on <i>Le Timbre d’Argent</i>, +and while he waited for better days, which never came, to do that, he +offered me a one-act work. He proposed Louis Gallet as my collaborator, +although I had not known him until then. “You were made to understand +each other,” he told me. Gallet was then employed in some capacity at +the Beaujon hospital and lived near me in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. We +soon formed the habit of seeing each other every day. Du Locle had +judged aright. We had the same tastes in art and literature. We were +equally averse to whatever is too theatrical and also to whatever is not +sufficiently so, to the commonplace and the too extravagant. We both +despised easy success and we understood each other wonderfully. Gallet +was not a musician, but he enjoyed and understood music, and he +criticised with rare good taste. +</p> + +<p> +Japan had recently been opened to Europeans. Japan was fashionable; all +they talked about was Japan, it was a real craze. So the idea of writing +a Japanese piece occurred to us. We submitted the idea to du Locle, but +he was afraid of an entirely Japanese stage setting. He wanted us to +soften the Japanese part, and it was he, I think, who had the idea of +making it half Japanese and half Dutch, the way the slight work <i>La +Princesse Jaune</i> was cast. +</p> + +<p> +That was only a beginning and in our daily talks we sketched the most +audacious projects. The leading concerts of the time did not balk at +performing large vocal works, as they too often do to-day to the great +detriment of the variety of their programmes. We then thought that we +were at the beginning of the prosperity of French oratorio which only +needed encouragement to flourish. I read by chance in an old Bible this +wonderful phrase, +</p> + +<p> +“And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,” and so I +proposed to Gallet that we do a Deluge. At first he wanted to introduce +characters. “No,” I said, “put the Bible narrative into simple verse, +and I will do the rest.” We know with what care and success he +accomplished his delicate task. Meanwhile he gave Massenet the texts for +<i>Marie-Madeleine</i> and <i>Le Roi de Lahore</i>, and these two works created a +great stir in the operatic world. +</p> + +<p> +We had dreams of historical opera, for we were quite without the +prejudice against this form of drama which afflicts the present school. +But I was not <i>persona grata</i> to the managers and I did not know at what +door to knock, when one of my friends, Aimé Gros, took the management of +the Grand-Théâtre at Lyons and asked me for a work. This was a fine +opportunity and we grasped it. We put together, with difficulty but with +infinite zest, our historical opera, <i>Etienne Marcel</i>, in which Louis +Gallet endeavored to respect as far as is possible in a theatrical work +the facts of history. Despite illustrious examples to the contrary he +did not believe that it was legitimate to attribute to a character who +has actually lived acts and opinions that are entirely fanciful. I was +in full agreement with him in that as in so many other things. I go even +farther and cannot accustom myself to the queer sauces in which +legendary characters are often served. It seems to me that the legend is +the interesting thing, and not the character, and that the latter loses +all its value when the legend which surrounds it is destroyed. But +everyone knows that I am a crank. +</p> + +<p> +Some time after my <i>Henri VIII</i>, in which Vaucorbeil had imposed +another collaborator on me, Ritt asked me for a new work. We were +looking about for a subject, when Gallet came to my house and timidly, +as if fearing a rebuff, proposed <i>Benvenuto Cellini</i>. I had thought of +that for a long time, and the idea had come to me of putting into +musical form that fine drama, which had had its hours of glory, where +Mélingue modeled the statue of Hebe before the populace. I, therefore, +accepted the suggestion with pleasure. This enterprise brought me in +touch with Paul Meurice, whom I had known in my childhood, when he was +wooing Mlle. Granger, his first wife and an intimate friend of my +mother’s. Paul Meurice revealed a secret to me: that the romance +<i>Ascanio</i>, attributed to Alexander Dumas, had been entirely written by +Meurice. The work met with a great success, and out of gratitude, Dumas +offered to help Meurice in constructing a drama from the romance, which +was to be signed by Meurice alone. So it is easy for one who knows +Dumas’s dramas to find traces of his handiwork in <i>Benvenuto Cellini</i>. +</p> + +<p> +It was not particularly easy to make an opera out of the play, and +Gallet and I worked together at it with considerable difficulty. We soon +saw that we should have to eliminate the famous scene of the casting of +the statue. When we reached this point in the play, Benvenuto had +already done a good deal of singing, and this scene with its violence +seemed certain to exceed the strength of the most valiant artist. In +connection with our <i>Proserpine</i>, I have been accused of supposing that +Vacquerie had genius. It would be too much to say that he had genius, +but he certainly had great talent. His prose showed a classical +refinement, and his poetry, in spite of fantastic passages which no one +could admire, was sonorous in tone, contained precious material, and was +both interesting and highly individual. What allured me in <i>Proserpine</i> +was the amount of inner emotion there was in the drama, which is very +advantageous to the music. Music gives expression to feelings which the +characters cannot express, and accentuates and develops the +picturesqueness of the piece; it makes acceptable what would not even +exist without it. +</p> + +<p> +Vacquerie approved highly the convent scene which Gallet invented. This +introduced a quiet and peaceful note amidst the violence of the original +work. Gallet wrote a sonnet in Alexandrine verse for Sabatino’s +declaration of his love. I was unable to set this to music, for the +twelve feet embarrassed me and prevented my getting into my stride. As I +did not know what else to do, I took the sonnet and by main force +reduced the verse to ten feet with a cæsura at the fifth foot. I took +this to my dear collaborator in fear and trembling, and, as I had +feared, he at once fell into the depths of despair. +</p> + +<p> +“That was the best thing in my work,” he said. “I nursed and caressed +that sonnet, and now you have ruined it.” +</p> + +<p> +In the face of this despair, I screwed up my courage. As I had +previously cut down the verse, I now tried lengthening out the music. +Then, I sang both versions to the disconsolate poet. +</p> + +<p> +And what a miracle! He was altogether reconciled, approved both +versions, and did not know which one to choose. We ended with a +patchwork. The two quatrains are in verses of ten feet, and the two +tiercets in Alexandrine metre. +</p> + +<p> +Outside of our work, too, our relations were delightful. We wrote to +each other constantly in both prose and verse; we bombarded each other +with sonnets; his letters were sometimes ornamented with water colors, +for he drew very well and one of his joys was to cover white paper with +color. Gallet drew the sketches for the desert in <i>Le Roi de Lahore</i> and +the cloister in <i>Proserpine</i>. +</p> + +<p> +When Madame Adam founded the <i>Nouvelle Revue</i> she offered me the +position of musical critic, which I did not think I ought to accept. She +did not know where to turn. “Take Gallet,” I advised her. “He is an +accomplished man of letters. He is not a musician in the sense that he +has studied music, but he has the soul of a musician, which is worth +much more.” Madame Adam followed my advice and found it good. +</p> + +<p> +At this period, under the guise of Wagnerism, the wildest theories and +the most extravagant assertions were current in musical criticism. +Gallet was naturally well poised and independent and he did not do as +the rest did. Instead he opposed them, but from unwillingness to give +needless offense he displayed marked tact and discretion in his +criticisms. This did him no good, however, for it aroused no sentiment +of gratitude, and without giving him credit for a literary style that +was rare among librettists, his contemporaries received each of his +works with a hostility entirely devoid of either justice or mercy. +Gallet felt this hostility keenly. He felt that he did not deserve it, +since he took so much care in his work and put so much courtesy into his +criticism. The blank verse he used in <i>Thaïs</i> with admirable regard for +color and harmony, counting on the music to take the place of the rhyme, +was not appreciated. This verse was free from assonance and the +banalities which it draws into operatic works, but it kept the rhythm +and sonorous sound which is far removed from prose. That was the period +when there was nothing but praise for Alfred Ernst’s gibberish, though +that was an insult alike to the French language and the masterpieces he +had the temerity to translate. Gallet used the same blank verse in +<i>Déjanire</i>, although its use here was more debatable, but he handled it +with surprising skill. Now that this text has been set to music, it +shows its full beauty. +</p> + +<p> +Louis Gallet devoted a large part of his time to administrative duties, +for he was successively treasurer and manager of hospitals. Nevertheless +he produced works in abundance. He left a record of no less than forty +operatic librettos, plays, romances, memoirs, pamphlets, and innumerable +articles. I wish I knew what to say about the man himself, his +unwearying goodness, his loyalty, his scrupulousness, his good humor, +his originality, his continual common sense, and his intellect, alert to +everything unusual and interesting. +</p> + +<p> +What good talks we used to have as we dined under an arbor in the large +garden which was his delight at Lariboisière! I used to take him seeds, +and he made amusing botanical experiments with them. +</p> + +<p> +He was seriously ill at one period of his life. He was wonderfully +nursed by his wife—who was a saint—and he endured prolonged and +atrocious sufferings with the patience of a saint. He watched the growth +of his fatal disease with a stoicism worthy of the sages of antiquity +and he had no illusion about the implacable illness which slowly but +surely would result in his premature death. A constantly increasing +deafness was his greatest trouble. This cruel infirmity had made +frightful progress when, in 1899, the Arènes de Béziers opened its doors +for the second time to <i>Déjanire</i>. In spite of everything, including his +ill health which made the trip very painful, he wanted to see his work +once more. He heard nothing, however—neither the artists, the choruses, +nor even the applause of the several thousand spectators who encored it +enthusiastically. A little later he passed on, leaving in his friends’ +hearts and at the work-tables of his collaborators a void which it is +impossible to fill. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill02-box"><a id="ill02" name="ill02"></a> +<a href="images/ill02.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="582" height="310" id="ill02-img" src="images/ill02s.jpg" title="The First Performance of _Déjanire_ at Les Arènes de Béziers" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">The First Performance of <i>Déjanire</i> at Les Arènes de Béziers</div> +</div> + + + + +<h1><a name="vi" id="vi"></a>Chapter VI</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">History and Mythology in Opera</div> + +<p> +Oceans of ink have been spilled in discussing the question of whether +the subjects of operas should be taken from history or mythology, and +the question is still a mooted one. To my mind it would have been better +if the question had never been raised, for it is of little consequence +what the answer is. The only things worth while are whether the music is +good and the work interesting. But <i>Tannhauser</i>, <i>Lohengrin</i>, <i>Tristan</i> +and <i>Siegfried</i> appeared and the question sprang up. The heroes of +mythology, we are told, are invested with a prestige which historical +characters can never have. Their deeds lose significance and in their +place we have their feelings, their emotions, to the great benefit of +the operas. After these works, however, <i>Hans Sachs</i> (Die Meistersinger) +appeared, and although he is not mythical at all he is a fine figure +nevertheless. But in this case the plot is of little account, for the +interest lies mainly in the emotions—the only thing, it appears, which +music with its divine language ought to express. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that music makes it possible to simplify dramatic action and +it gives a chance, as well, for the free expression and play of +sentiments, emotions and passions. In addition, music makes possible +pantomimic scenes which could not be done otherwise, and the music +itself flows more easily under such conditions. But that does not mean +that such conditions are indispensable for music. Music in its +flexibility and adaptability offers inexhaustible resources. Give Mozart +a fairy tale like the <i>Magic Flute</i> or a lively comedy such as <i>Le Nozze +di Figaro</i> and he creates without effort an immortal masterpiece. +</p> + +<p> +It is a question whether there is any essential difference between +history and mythology. History is made up of what probably happened; +mythology of what probably did not happen. There are myths in history +and history in myths. Mythology is merely the old form of history. +Every myth is rooted in truth. And we have to seek for this truth in +the fable, just as we try to reconstruct extinct animals from the +remains Time has preserved to us. Behind the story of Prometheus we see +the invention of fire; behind the loves of Ceres and Triptolemus the +invention of the plow and the beginnings of agriculture. The adventures +of the Argonauts show us the first attempts at voyages of exploration +and the discovery of gold mines. Volumes have been written about the +truths behind the fables, and explanations have been found for the +strangest facts of mythology, even for the metamorphoses which Ovid +described so poetically. +</p> + +<p> +Halfway between history and mythology come the sacred writings. Each +race has its own. Ours are the Old and New Testament. Many believe that +these books are myths; a larger number—the Believers—that they are +history, Sacred History, the only true history—the only one about which +it is not permitted to express a doubt. If you want a proof of this, +recall that not so many years ago a clergyman in the Church of England +was censured by his ecclesiastical superiors for daring to say in a +sermon that the Serpent in the Garden of Eden was symbolical and not a +real creature. +</p> + +<p> +And the ecclesiastical authorities were right. The basis of Christianity +is the Redemption—the incarnation and sacrifice of God himself to blot +out the stain of the first great sin and also to open the Kingdom of +Heaven to men. That original sin was Adam’s fall, when he followed the +example of Eve, a victim of the Serpent’s treacherous counsels, and +disobeyed the command not to taste the Forbidden Fruit. Eliminate the +Garden of Eden, the Serpent, the Forbidden Fruit, and the entire fabric +of Christianity crumbles. +</p> + +<p> +If we turn to profane history and take any historical work, we find that +the facts are told in such a way that they seem to us beyond dispute. +But if we see the same facts from the pen of another historian, we no +longer recognize them. The reason is that a writer almost never +undertakes the task of wrestling with the giant, History, unless he is +impelled to do so by a preconceived idea, by a general conception, or a +system he wants to establish. And whether he wants to or not, he sees +the facts in a light favorable to his preconceived idea, and observes +them through prisms which increase or diminish their importance at his +will. Then, however great his discernment and however strong his desire +to reach the truth, it is doubtful if he ever will. In history, as +elsewhere, absolute truth escapes mankind. Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame +de Maintenon, Madame de Pompadour, Louis XVI, even Napoleon and +Josephine, so near our own times, are already quasi-mythical characters. +The Louis XIII of <i>Marion de Lorme</i> seemed until very lately to be +accurate, but recent discoveries show us that he was quite different. +</p> + +<p> +Napoleon III reigned only yesterday, but his picture is already painted +in different tints. My entire youth was passed in his reign and my +recollections represent him neither as the monster depicted by Victor +Hugo nor the kind sympathetic sovereign of present-day stories. +</p> + +<p> +There has been a great deal of discussion of the causes which brought on +the War of 1870. We know all that was said and done during the last days +of that crisis, but will anyone ever know what was hidden in the minds +of the sovereigns, the ministers, and the ambassadors? Will it ever be +known whether the Emperor provoked Gramont or Gramont the Emperor? Did +they even know themselves? There is one thing the most discerning +historian can never reach—the depths of the human soul. +</p> + +<p> +We may, however, learn the secrets of the tomb. It was asserted for a +long time that the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau had been exhumed, +desecrated, and thrown into the sewers. Victor Hugo wrote a wonderful +account of this—an account such as only he could write. One fine day +doubt about this occurrence popped up unexpectedly. After waiting a long +time it was decided to get to the heart of the matter, and they finally +opened the coffins of the two great men. They were peacefully sleeping +their last sleep. The deed never took place; its history was a myth. +</p> + +<p> +In this connection Victor Hugo’s credulity may be mentioned, for it was +astonishing in a man of such colossal genius. He believed in the most +incredible things, as the “Man in the Iron Mask,” the twin brother of +Louis XIV; in the octopus that has no mouth and feeds itself through its +arms; and in the reality of the Japanese sirens which the Japanese were +said to make out of an ape and a fish. He had some excuse for the sirens +as the Académie des Sciences believed in them for a short time. +</p> + +<p> +If what is called history is so near mythology as, many times, to be +confounded with it, what about romance and the historical drama in which +events, entirely imaginative, must of necessity find a place? What about +the long-drawn-out conversations in books and on the stage that are +attributed to historical persons? What about the actions attributed to +them, which need not be true but only seem to be so? The supernatural +element is the only thing lacking to make such works mythological in +every way. +</p> + +<p> +Now the supernatural lends itself admirably to expression in music and +music finds in the supernatural a wealth of resources. But these +resources are by no means indispensable. What music must have above all +are emotions and passions laid bare and set in action by what we term +the situation. And where can one find more or better situations than in +history? +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +From the time of Lulli until the end of the Eighteenth Century French +opera was legendary, that is to say, it was mythological in character +and was not, as has been pretended, limited to the depiction of emotion +and the inner feelings in order to avoid contingencies. The real motive +was to find in fables material for a spectacle. Tragedy, as we know, +does not do this, for it can be developed only with considerable +difficulty when the stage is crowded with actors. On the contrary, +opera, which is free in its movements and can fill a vast stage, seeks +for pomp, display and haloes in which gods and goddesses appear, in fact +all that can be put into a stage-setting. If they did not use local +color, it was because local color had not been invented. Finally, as we +all get tired of everything, so they tired of mythology. Then the +historical work was adopted and appeared on the stage with success, as +is well known. The historical method had no rival until <i>Robert le +Diable</i> rather timidly brought back the legendary element which +triumphed later in the work of Richard Wagner. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime <i>Les Huguenots</i> succeeded <i>Robert le Diable</i> and for +half a century this was the bright particular star of historical opera. +Even now, although its traditions have largely been forgotten and +although its workmanship is rather inferior to that of a later time, +this memorable work nevertheless shines, like the setting sun, +surprisingly brilliantly. The several generations who admired this work +were not altogether wrong. There is no necessity to class this brilliant +success as a failure, because Robert Schumann, who knew nothing about +the stage, denied its worth. It is surprising that Berlioz’s judgment +has not been set against Schumann’s. Berlioz showed his enthusiasm for +<i>Les Huguenots</i> in his famous treatise on instrumentation. +</p> + +<p> +The great public is little interested in technical polemics and is +faithful to the old successes. Although little by little success has +come to operas based on legends, there still remains a taste for operas +with a historical background. This is not without a reason for as an +authoritative critic has said: “A historical drama may contain lyric +possibilities far greater than most of the poor, weak mythological +librettos on which composers waste their strength, fully persuaded that +by doing so they cause ‘the holy spirit of Bayreuth to descend upon +them.’” +</p> + +<p> +And they never would have dreamed of being mythological, if their god, +instead of turning to Scandinavian mythology, had followed his original +intention of dramatizing the exploits of Frederick Barbarossa. In his +youth he was not opposed to historical opera, for he eulogized <i>La +Musette de Portici</i>, <i>La Juive</i>, and <i>La Reine de Chypre</i>. He made some +justifiable criticisms of the libretto of the last work, although he +admitted that the composer had contrived to write beautiful passages. +</p> + +<p> +“We cannot praise Halévy too highly,” he wrote, “for the firmness with +which he resists every temptation, to which many of his contemporaries +succumb, to steal easy applause by relying blindly on the talent of the +singers. On the contrary, he demands that his <i>virtuosi</i>, even the most +famous of them, shall subordinate themselves to the lofty inspiration +of his Muse. He attains this result by the simplicity and truth he knows +how to stamp on dramatic melodies.” +</p> + +<p> +This is what Richard Wagner said about <i>La Juive</i> in 1842. +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately we no longer demand that operas be mythological, for if we +did we should have to condemn the famous Russian operas and that is out +of the question. However, the method of treatment is still in dispute +and this question is involved. One method of treatment is admitted and +another is not and it is extremely difficult to tell what is what. +</p> + +<p> +I am now going to do a little special pleading for my <i>Henri VIII</i>, +which, it would seem, is not in the proper manner. Not that I want to +defend the music or to protest against the criticisms it has inspired, +for that is not done. But I may, perhaps, be permitted to speak of the +piece itself and to tell how the music was adapted to it. +</p> + +<p> +According to the critics it would seem that the whole of <i>Henri VIII</i> is +superficial and without depth, <i>en façade</i>; that the souls of the +characters are not revealed, and that the King, at first all sugary +sweetness, suddenly becomes a monster without any preparation for, or +explanation of, the change. +</p> + +<p> +In this connection let us consider <i>Boris Godounof</i>, for there is a +historical drama suited to its music. I saw <i>Boris Godounof</i> with +considerable interest. I heard pleasant and impressive passages, and +others less so. In one scene I saw an insignificant friar who suddenly +becomes the Emperor in the next scene. One entire act is made up of +processions, the ringing of bells, popular songs, and dazzling costumes. +In another scene a nurse tells pretty stories to the children in her +charge. Then there is a love duet, which is neither introduced nor has +any relationship to the development of the work; an incomprehensible +evening entertainment, and, finally, funeral scenes in which Chaliapine +was admirable. It was not my fault if I did not discover in all that the +inner life, the psychology, the introductions, and the explanations +which they complain they do not find in <i>Henri VIII</i>. +</p> + +<p> +“To Henry VIII,” it is stated at the beginning of the work, “nothing is +sacred, neither friendship, love nor his word—ill are playthings of +his mad whims. He knows neither law nor justice.” And when, a little +later, smiling, the King hands the holy water to the ambassador he is +receiving, the orchestra reveals the working of his mind by repeating +the music of the preceding scene. From beginning to end the work is +written in this way. But dissertations on such details have not been +given the public; the themes of felony, cruelty, and duplicity, and of +this and that, have not, as is the fashion of the day, been underlined, +so that the critics are excusable for not seeing them. +</p> + +<p> +Not a scene, not a word, they say, shows the soul of Henry VIII. I would +like to ask if it is not revealed in the great scene between Henry and +Catharine, where he plays with her as a cat with a mouse, where he veils +his desire to be rid of her under his religious scruples, and where he +heaps on her constantly vile and cruel insinuations, or even in the last +scene with its cruel hypocrisies. It is difficult to see why all his +passions and all his feelings are not brought into play here. The +Russian librettos do no more, nor the operas based on mythology. +</p> + +<p> +But to continue. From the point of view of opera mythology offers one +advantage in the use of the miraculous. But the rest of the mythical +element offers, rather, difficulties. Characters who never existed and +in whom no one believes cannot be made interesting in themselves. They +do not sustain, as is sometimes supposed, the music and poetry. On the +contrary, the music and poetry give them such reality as they possess. +We could not endure the interminable utterances of the mournful Wotan, +if it were not for the wonderful music that accompanies them. Orpheus +weeping over Eurydice would not move us greatly, if Gluck had not known +how to captivate us by his first notes. If it were not for Mozart’s +music, the puppets of the <i>Magic Flute</i> would amount to nothing. +</p> + +<p> +Musicians should, as a matter of fact, be allowed to choose both the +subject and motives for their operas according to their temperaments and +their feelings. Much youthful talent is lost to-day because the young +composers believe that they must obey set rules instead of obeying their +own inspiration. All great artists, the illustrious Richard more than +any other, mocked the critics. +</p> + +<p> +As I have spoken of Richard Wagner’s youth, I will take advantage of the +opportunity to reveal a secret of one of his own works which is known to +me alone. When Wagner was young, I was a child and I attended constantly +the sessions of the Société des Concerts. The kettledrummer of that day +had a peculiar habit of breaking in before the rest of the orchestra. +When the others began, it produced an effect which the authors had +hardly foreseen and which was certain to be condemned. But the effect +had a rather distinctive character and I thought it might be possible to +use it. Richard Wagner lived in Paris at the time and frequented the +famous concerts. There is no doubt that he noted this effect and used it +in his overture to <i>Faust</i>. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="vii" id="vii"></a>Chapter VII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Art for Art’s Sake</div> + +<p> +What is Art? +</p> + +<p> +Art is a mystery—something which responds to a special sense, peculiar +to the human race. This is ordinarily called the esthetic sense, but +that is an inexact term, for esthetic sense signifies a sense of the +beautiful and what is esthetic is not necessarily beautiful. Sense of +style would be better. +</p> + +<p> +Some of the savage races have this sense of style, for their arms and +utensils show a remarkable feeling for style, which they lose by contact +with civilization. +</p> + +<p> +By art let us understand, if you please, the Fine Arts alone, but +including decorative art. Music ought to be included. +</p> + +<p> +I shall astonish most of my readers, when I say that very few people +understand music. For most people it is, as Victor Hugo said, an +exhalation of art—something for the ear as perfume is for the olfactory +sense, a source of vague sensations, necessarily unformed as all +sensations are. But musical art is something entirely different. It has +line, modeling, color through instrumentation, all making up an ideal +sphere where some, like the writer of these lines, live from childhood +on, which others attain through education, while many others never know +it at all. Furthermore, musical art has more movement than the other +fine arts. It is the most mysterious of them all, although the others +are mysterious as it is easy to see. +</p> + +<p> +The first manifestation of art occurs through attempts to reproduce +objects. Such attempts have been found which date back to prehistoric +times. But what is primitive man’s idea in such attempts? He wants to +record by a line the contour of the object, the likeness of which he +wishes to preserve. This contour and this line do not exist in nature. +The whole philosophy of art is in that crude drawing. It bases itself on +nature even while making something quite different in response to a +special, inexplicable need of the human spirit. Accordingly nothing can +be more chimerical or vain than the advice so often given to the artist +to be truthful. Art can never be true, even though it should not be +false. It should be true artistically, by giving an artistic translation +which will satisfy the sense of style of which we have spoken. When Art +has satisfied this sense of style, the object of artistic expression has +been attained; nothing more can be asked. But it is not the “vain effort +of an unproductive cleverness,” as our M. de Mun has said; it is an +effort to satisfy a legitimate need, one of the loftiest and most +honorable in human nature—the need of art. +</p> + +<p> +If this is so, why should we demand that Art be useful or moral? It is +both in its own way, for it awakens noble and honest sentiments in the +soul. That was the opinion of Théophile Gautier, but Victor Hugo +disagreed. The sun is beautiful, he used to say, and it is useful. That +is true, but the sun is not an object of art. Besides, how many times +Victor Hugo denied his own doctrine by writing verses which were merely +brilliant descriptions or admirable bits of imagination? +</p> + +<p> +We are, however, talking of art and not of literature. Literature +becomes art in poetry but forsakes it in prose. Even if some of the +great prose writers rendered their prose artistic through the beauty and +harmony of their periods and the picturesqueness of their expressions, +still prose is not art in its real nature. So, crude indecency aside, +what would be immoral in prose ceases to be immoral in verse, for in +poetry Art follows its own code and form transcends the subject matter. +That is why a great poet, Sully-Prudhomme, preferred prose to verse when +he wanted to write philosophically, for he feared, on account of the +superiority of form to substance in poetry, that his ideas would not be +taken seriously. That explains as well why parents take young girls to +hear an opera, when if the same piece was played without music they +would be appalled at the idea. What Christian is ever shocked by <i>La +Juive</i> or Catholic frightened away from <i>Les Huguenots</i>? +</p> + +<p> +Because prose is far removed from art, it is unsuited to music, despite +the fact that this ill-assorted union is fashionable to-day? In poetry +there has been an effort to make it so artistic that form alone is +considered and verse is written which is entirely without sense. But +that is a fad which can’t last long. +</p> + +<p> +Sometime ago M. de Mun said: +</p> + +<p> +“Not to take sides is what the author is inhibited from doing. Art, to +my way of thinking, is a setting forth of ideas. If it is not that—if +it limits itself solely to considerations of form, to a worship of +beauty for its own sake, without regard to the deeds and thoughts it +brings to light, then it seems to me no better than the vain effort of +an unproductive cleverness.” +</p> + +<p> +The eminent speaker is absolutely right as far as prose is concerned, +but we cannot agree with him if poetry is considered. +</p> + +<p> +Victor Hugo, in his marvellous ode, <i>La Lyre et La Harpe</i> brings +Paganism and Christianity face to face. Each speaks in turn, and the +poet in his last stanza seems to acknowledge that both are right, but +that does not prevent the ode from being a masterpiece. That would +not be possible in prose, but in the poem the poetry carries all before +it. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill03-box"><a id="ill03" name="ill03"></a> +<a href="images/ill03.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="385" height="582" id="ill03-img" src="images/ill03s.jpg" title="M. Saint-Saëns in his Later Years" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">M. Saint-Saëns in his Later Years</div> +</div> + +<p> +Why is it that geniuses like Victor Hugo, distinguished minds, thinkers, +and profound critics, refuse to see that Art is a special entity which +responds to a certain sense? If Art accommodates itself marvellously, if +it accords itself with the precepts of morality and passion, it is +nevertheless sufficient unto itself—and in its self-sufficiency lies +its heights of greatness. +</p> + +<p> +The first prelude of Sebastian Bach’s <i>Wohltemperirte Klavier</i> expresses +nothing, and yet that is one of the marvels of music. The Venus de Milo +expresses nothing, and it is one of the marvels of sculpture. +</p> + +<p> +To tell the truth, it is proper to add that in order not to be immoral +Art must appeal to those who have a feeling for it. Where the artist +sees only beautiful forms, the gross see only nudity. I have seen a good +man scandalized at the sight of Ingres’s <i>La Source</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Just as morality has no function to be artistic, so Art has nothing to +do with morality. Both have their own functions, and each is useful in +its own way. The final aim of morality is morality; of art, art, and +nothing else. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="viii" id="viii"></a>Chapter VIII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Popular Science and Art</div> + +<p> +René Bazin has sketched cleverly Pasteur’s brilliant career. France has +no clearer claim to glory than in Pasteur, for he is one of the men, +who, in spite of everything, keeps her in the first rank of nations. +</p> + +<p> +A rare good fortune attended him. While many scholars who seek the truth +without concerning themselves with the practical results have to wait +many long years before their discoveries can be used, Pasteur’s +discoveries were useful at once. So the mob, which cannot understand +science studied for its own sake, appreciated Pasteur’s works. He saved +millions to the public treasury, and tens of thousands of human lives. +</p> + +<p> +He had already secured a notable place in science when the public +learned his name through the memorable contest between him and Pouchet +over “spontaneous generation.” The probabilities of the case were on +Pouchet’s side. People refused to believe that these organisms which +developed in great numbers in an enclosed jar or that the molds which +developed under certain conditions were not produced spontaneously. The +youth of the time went wild over the question. +</p> + +<p> +I was constantly being asked, “Are you for Pouchet or Pasteur?” and my +invariable response was, “I shall be for the one who proves he is +right.” I was unwilling to admit that any such question could be solved +<i>a priori</i> in accordance with preconceived ideas, although I must +confess that among my friends I found no one of the same opinion. +</p> + +<p> +We know how Pasteur won a striking victory through his patience and his +genius. He demonstrated that millions and millions of germs are present +in the air about us and that when one of them finds favorable +conditions, a living being appears which engenders others. “Many are +called, but few are chosen.” This law may seem unjust, but it is one of +the great laws of Nature. +</p> + +<p> +Pasteur, the great benefactor, whose discoveries did so much for all +classes of society, should have been popular, but he was, on the +contrary, extremely unpopular. The leading publicists of the day were +influenced by some inexplicable sentiment and they made constant war on +him. When, after several years of prodigious labor, Pasteur ventured to +assert himself, they took advantage of his following the dictates of +humanity in accepting all sorts of cases, curable or not, to spread a +report that his treatment did not cure, but instead gave the disease +which it was supposed to cure. Popular fury was aroused to such a +height, that a monster mass meeting was held <i>against</i> Pasteur. Louise +Michel addressed this meeting with her customary vigor of speech and +amidst frantic applause shouted this unqualified remark, “<i>Scientific +questions should be settled by the people.</i>” +</p> + +<p> +By this time everybody was talking about microbes, and a shop on the +boulevards announced an exhibition of them. They used what is known as a +solar microscope and threw on a screen, suitably enlarged, the +animalculae which grow in impure water, the larvae of mosquitoes, and +other insects, which bear about the same relation to microbes that an +elephant does to a flea. I went into this establishment, and saw the +plain people with their wives looking at the exhibition very seriously +and really believing that they saw the famous microbes. One of them near +me said, with a knowing air, “What won’t science do next?” +</p> + +<p> +I was indignant, and I had all I could do to keep from saying: “They are +fooling you. What they are showing you is not Science, at the most only +its antechamber. As for you who are deceiving these naïve good people, +you are only impostors.” +</p> + +<p> +But I kept still; I would only have succeeded in getting thrown out. But +I said to myself—and I still say—“Why not enlighten these people, who +obviously want light?” It is impossible to <i>teach</i> them science, but it +should be possible to make them at least comprehend what science <i>is</i>, +for they have no idea of it now. They do not know—in this era when they +are constantly talking about their rights and urged to demand more wages +and less work—that there are young people who are spending their best +years and leading a precarious existence, working day and night, without +hope of personal profit, with no other end in view besides the hope of +discovering new facts from which humanity may benefit at some time in +the future. They do not know that all the benefits of civilization which +they carelessly enjoy are the result of the long, painful and enormous +work of the thinkers whom they regard as idlers and visionaries who grow +rich from the sweat of the toilers. In a word, they should be taught to +give respect to what is worthy of it. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that there are scientific congresses, but these are serious +gatherings which attract only the select few. It should be possible to +interest everybody, and in order to make scientific meetings interesting +we should use motion pictures and concerts. +</p> + +<p> +But here we trench on art. We ought to teach the people not only science +but art as well, but the latter is the more difficult. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Modern peoples are not artistic. The Greeks were, and the Japanese were, +before the European invasion. An artistic people is recognized by their +ignorance of “objects of art,” for in such an environment art is +everywhere. An artistic people no more dreams of creating art than a +great nobleman of consciously exhibiting a distinguished manner. +Distinction lies in his slightest mannerism without his being conscious +of the fact. So, among artistic peoples, the most ordinary and humble +objects have style. And this style, furthermore, is in perfect harmony +with the purpose of the object. It is absolutely appropriate for that +purpose in its proportions, in the purity of its lines, the elegance of +its form, its perfection of execution, and, above all, in its meaning. +When an outcry is raised against the ugliness and tawdriness of certain +objects in this country, the answer is, “But see how cheap they are!” +But style and conscience in work cost nothing. Feeling for art is, +however, inherent in human nature. The weapons of primitive peoples are +beautiful. The prehistoric hatchets of the Stone Age are perfect in +their contours. There is, therefore, no question of creating a feeling +for art in the people, but of awakening it. +</p> + +<p> +Music holds so important a place in the modern world, that we ought to +begin with that. There is plenty of gay music, easy to understand, which +is in harmony with the laws of art, and the people ought to hear it +instead of the horrors which they cram into our ears under the pretence +of satisfying our tastes. What pleases people most is sentimental music, +but it need not be a silly sentimentality. Instead, they ought to give +the people the charming airs which grow, as naturally as daisies on a +lawn, in the vast field of opéra-comique. That is not high art, it is +true, but it is pretty music and it is high art compared with what is +heard too often in the cafés. I am not ignorant of the fact that such +establishments employ talented people. But along with the good, what +frightful things one hears! And no one would listen to their +instrumental repertoire anywhere else! +</p> + +<p> +Every time anyone has tried to raise the standards and employ real +singers and real <i>virtuosi</i>, the attendance has increased. But, very +often, even at the theatres, the managers satisfy their own tastes under +the pretence of satisfying that of the public. That is, of course, +intensely human. We judge others by ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +A famous manager once said to me, as he pointed to an empty house, “The +public is amazing. Give them what they like, and they don’t come!” +</p> + +<p> +One day I was walking in a garden. There was a bandstand and musicians +were playing some sort of music. The crowd was indifferent and passed by +talking without paying the slightest attention. Suddenly there sounded +the first notes of the delightful <i>andante</i> of Beethoven’s <i>Symphony in +D</i>—a flower of spring with a delicate perfume. At the first notes all +walking and talking stopped. And the crowd stood motionless and in an +almost religious silence as it listened to the marvel. When the piece +was over, I went out of the garden, and near the entrance I heard one of +the managers say, +</p> + +<p> +“There, you see they don’t like that kind of music.” +</p> + +<p> +And that kind of music was never played there again. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ix" id="ix"></a>Chapter IX</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Anarchy in Music</div> + +<p> +Music is as old as human nature. We can get some idea of what it was at +first from the music of savage tribes. There were a few notes and +rudimentary melodies with blows struck in cadence as an accompaniment; +or, sometimes, the same primitive rhythms without any accompaniment—and +nothing else! Then melody was perfected and the rhythms became more +complicated. Later came Greek music, of which we know little, and the +music of the East and Far East. +</p> + +<p> +Music, as we now understand the term, began with the attempts at harmony +in the Middle Ages. These attempts were labored and difficult, and the +uncertainty of their gropings, combined with the slowness of their +development, excites our wonder. Centuries were necessary before the +writing of music became exact, but, slowly, laws were elaborated. +Thanks to them the works of the Sixteenth Century came into being, in +all their admirable purity and learned polyphony. Hard and inflexible +laws engendered an art analogous to primitive painting. Melody was +almost entirely absent and was relegated to dance tunes and popular +songs. But the dance tunes of the time, on which, perhaps, erudition was +not used sufficiently, were written in the same polyphonic style and +with the same rigid correctness as the madrigals and the church music. +</p> + +<p> +We know that the popular songs found their way into the church music and +that Palestrina’s great reform consisted in banishing them. However, we +should get but a feeble idea of the part they played, if we imagined +that they naturally belonged there. Take a well known air, <i>Au Claire de +la Lune</i>, for example, and make each note a whole note sung by the +tenor, while the other voices dialogue back and forth in counterpoint, +and see what is left of the song for the listener. The scandal of <i>La +Messe de l’Homme armé</i> was entirely theoretical. +</p> + +<p> +We simply do not know how they played these anthems, masses, and +madrigals, in the absence of any indication of either the time or the +emphasis. We find a few directions for expression, as in the first +measures of Palestrina’s <i>Stabat Mater</i> but such directions are +extremely rare. They are simply the first signs of the dawn of the +far-off day of music with expression. Certain learned and +well-intentioned persons endeavor to compare this music with ours, and +we surprise in some of the modern editions instances of <i>molto +expressivo</i> which seem to be good guesses. This exclusively consonant +music, in which the intervals of fourths were considered dissonant, +while the diminishing fifth was the <i>diabolus in musica</i>, ought from its +very nature to be antithetical to expression. Nothing in the <i>Kyrie</i>, in +<i>La Messe du Pape Marcel</i>, gives the impression of a prayer, unless +expressive accents, without any real justification, are introduced by +main strength. +</p> + +<p> +Expression came into existence with the chord of the dominant seventh +from which all modern harmony developed. This invention is attributed to +Monteverde. No matter what has been said, however, it occurs in +Palestrina’s <i>Adoremus</i>. Floods of ink have been poured out in +discussing this question, some affirming, while others—and not the +least, by any manner of means—denying the existence of the famous +chord. No equivocation is possible. It is a simultaneously played chord +held by four voices for a whole measure. What is certain is that +Palestrina, by putting aside the rules, made a discovery, the +significance of which he did not realize. +</p> + +<p> +With the introduction of the seventh interval a new era began. It would +be a grave error to believe that the rules were overturned, for, +instead, new principles were added to old ones as new conditions +demanded. They learned how to modulate, how to transpose from one key to +the next key and finally to the keys farthest away. In his treatise on +harmony Fétis studied this evolution in a masterly manner. Unfortunately +his scholarship was not combined with deep musical feeling. For example, +he saw faults in Mozart and Beethoven where there are only beauties, and +beauties which even an ignorant listener—if he is naturally +musical—will see without trouble. He did not understand the vast +difference between the unlettered person who commits a solecism and +Pascal, the inventor of a new syntax. +</p> + +<p> +However that may be, Fétis gave us a comprehensive review in broad +outlines of musical evolution down to what he justly called the +“omnitonic system,” which Richard Wagner has achieved since. “Beyond +that,” he said, “I can see nothing more.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not foresee the a-tonic system, but that is what we have come to. +There is no longer any question of adding to the old rules new +principles which are the natural expression of time and experience, but +simply of casting aside all rules and every restraint. +</p> + +<p> +“Everyone ought to make his own rules. Music is free and unlimited in +its liberty of expression. There are no perfect chords, dissonant chords +or false chords. All aggregations of notes are legitimate.” +</p> + +<p> +That is called, and they believe it, the <i>development of taste</i>. +</p> + +<p> +He whose taste is developed by this system is not like the man who by +tasting a wine can tell you its age and its vineyard, but he is rather +like the fellow who with perfect indifference gulps down good or bad +wine, brandy or whiskey, and prefers that which burns his gullet the +most. The man who gets his work hung in the Sâlon is not the one who +puts on his canvas delicate touches in harmonious tones, but he who +juxtaposes vermillion and Veronese green. The man with a “developed +taste” is not the one who knows how to get new and unexpected results by +passing from one key to another, as the great Richard did in <i>Die +Meistersinger</i>, but rather the man who abandons all keys and piles up +dissonances which he neither introduces nor concludes and who, as a +result, grunts his way through music as a pig through a flower garden. +</p> + +<p> +Possibly they may go farther still. There seems to be no reason why they +should linger on the way to untrammeled freedom or restrict themselves +within a scale. The boundless empire of sound is at their disposal and +let them profit by it. That is what dogs do when they bay at the moon, +cats when they meow, and the birds when they sing. A German has written +a book to prove that the birds sing false. Of course he is wrong for +they do not sing false. If they did, their song would not sound +agreeable to us. They sing outside of scales and it is delightful, but +that is not man-made art. +</p> + +<p> +Some Spanish singers give a similar impression, through singing +interminable grace notes beyond notation. Their art is intermediate +between the singing of the birds and of man. It is not a higher art. +</p> + +<p> +In certain quarters they marvel at the progress made in the last thirty +years. The architects of the Fifteenth Century must have reasoned in the +same way. They did not appreciate that they were assassinating Gothic +art, and that after some centuries we would have to revert to the art of +the Greeks and Romans. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="x" id="x"></a>Chapter X</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">The Organ</div> + +<p> +When hairy Pan joined reeds of different lengths and so invented the +flute which bears his name, he was, in reality, creating the organ. It +needed only to add to this flute a keyboard and bellows to make one of +those pretty instruments the first painters used to put in the hands of +angels. As it developed and gradually became the most grandiose of the +instruments, the organ, with its depth of tone modified and increased +tenfold by the resonance of the great cathedrals, took on its religious +character. +</p> + +<p> +The organ is more than a single instrument. It is an orchestra, a +collection of the pipes of Pan of every size, from those as small as a +child’s playthings to those as gigantic as the columns of a temple. Each +one corresponds to what is termed an organ-stop. The number is +unlimited. +</p> + +<p> +The Romans made organs which must have been simple from the musical +standpoint, though they were complicated in their mechanical +construction. They were called hydraulic organs. The employment of water +in a wind instrument has greatly perplexed the commentators. +Cavaillé-Coll studied the question and solved the problem by +demonstrating that the water compressed the air. This system was +ingenious but imperfect, since it was applicable only to the most +primitive instruments. The keys, it seems, were very large, and were +struck by blows of the fist. +</p> + +<p> +Let us leave erudition for art and primitive for perfected instruments. +By the time of Sebastian Bach and Rameau the organ had taken on its +grandiose character. The stops had multiplied and the organist <i>called</i> +them by means of registers which he drew out or pushed back at will. In +order to give greater resources, the builder multiplied the keyboards. +Pedals were introduced to help out the keyboards. At that time Germany +alone had pedals worthy of the name and worth while in playing an +interesting bass part. In France and elsewhere the rudimentary pedals +were only used for certain fundamental notes or in prolonged <i>tenutos</i>. +No one outside of Germany could play Sebastian Bach’s compositions. +</p> + +<p> +Playing on the old instruments was fatiguing and uncomfortable. The +touch was heavy and, when one used both the pedals and the keyboards, a +real display of strength was necessary. A similar display was necessary +to draw out or push back the registers, some of which were beyond the +player’s reach. In short, an assistant was necessary, in fact several +assistants in playing large organs like those at Harlem or Arnheim in +Holland. It was almost impossible to modify the combinations of stops. +All nuances, save the abrupt change from strong to soft and vice versa, +were impossible. +</p> + +<p> +It remained for Cavaillé-Coll to change all this and open up new fields +of usefulness for the organ. He introduced in France keyboards worthy of +the name, and he gave to the higher notes, through his invention of +harmonic stops, a brilliancy they had lacked. He invented wonderful +combinations which allow the organist to change his combinations and to +vary the tone, without the aid of an assistant and without leaving the +keyboard. Even before his day a scheme had been devised of enclosing +certain stops in a box protected by shutters which a pedal opened and +closed at will; this permitted the finest shadings. By different +processes the touch of the organ was made as delicate as that of the +piano. +</p> + +<p> +For some years the Swiss organ-makers have been inventing new facilities +which make the organist a sort of magician. The manifold resources of +the marvellous instrument are at his command, obedient to his slightest +wish. +</p> + +<p> +These resources are prodigious. The compass of the organ far surpasses +that of all the instruments of the orchestra. The violin notes alone +reach the same height, but with little carrying power. As for the lower +tones, there is no competitor of the thirty-two-foot pipes, which go two +octaves below the violoncello’s low C. Between the <i>pianissimo</i> which +almost reaches the limit where sound ceases and silence begins, down to +a range of formidable and terrifying power, every degree of intensity +can be obtained from this magical instrument. The variety of its timbre +is broad. There are flute stops of various kinds; tonal stops that +approximate the timbre of stringed instruments; stops for effecting +changes in which each note, formed from several pipes, bring out +simultaneously its fundamental and harmonic sounds; stops which serve to +imitate the instruments of the orchestra, such as the trumpet, the +clarinet, and the cremona (an obsolete instrument with a timbre peculiar +to itself) and the bassoon. There are celestial voices of several kinds, +produced by combinations of two simultaneous stops which are not tuned +in perfect unison. Then we have the famous <i>Vox Humana</i>, a favorite with +the public, which is alluring even though it is tremulous and nasal, and +we have the innumerable combinations of all these different stops, with +the gradations that may be obtained through indefinite commingling of +the tones of this marvellous palette. +</p> + +<p> +Add to all this the continual breathing of the monster’s lungs which +gives the sounds an incomparable and inimitable steadiness. Human +beings were used for a long time to fill these lungs—blowers working +away with hands and feet. We do much better now. The great organ in +Albert Hall, London, is supplied with air by steam which assures the +organist an inexhaustible supply. Other instruments use gas engines +which are more manageable. Then, there is the hydraulic system, which is +very powerful and easily used, for one has only to pull out a plug to +set the bellows in motion. +</p> + +<p> +These mechanical systems, however, are not entirely free from accidents. +I discovered that fact when I was concluding the first part of the +<i>Adagio</i> in Liszt’s great <i>Fantaisie</i> in the beautiful Victoria Hall in +Geneva. The pipe which brought in the water burst and the organ was +mute. I have always thought, perhaps wrongly, that malice had something +to do with the accident. +</p> + +<p> +This Liszt <i>Fantaisie</i> is the most extraordinary piece for the organ +there is. It lasts forty minutes and the interest is sustained +throughout. Just as Mozart in his <i>Fantaisie et Sonate in C minor</i> +foresaw the modern piano, so Liszt, writing this <i>Fantaisie</i> more than +half a century ago, appears to have foreseen the instrument of a +thousand resources which we have to-day. +</p> + +<p> +Let us have the courage to admit, however, that these resources are only +partly utilized as they can or should be. To draw from a great +instrument all its possibilities, to begin with, one must understand it +thoroughly, and that understanding cannot be gained over night. The +organ, as we have seen, is a collection of an indefinite number of +instruments. It places before the organist extraordinary means of +expressing himself. No two of these instruments are precisely alike. The +organ is only a theme with innumerable variations, determined by the +place in which it is to be installed, by the amount of money at the +builder’s disposal, by his inventiveness, and, often, by his personal +whims. As a result time is required for the organist to learn his +instrument thoroughly. After this he is as free as the fish in the sea, +and his only preoccupation is the music. Then, to play freely with the +colors on his vast palette, there is but one way—he must plunge boldly +into improvisation. +</p> + +<p> +Now improvisation is the particular glory of the French school, but it +has been injured seriously of late by the influence of the German +school. Under the pretext that an improvisation is not so good as one of +Sebastian Bach’s or Mendelssohn’s masterpieces, young organists have +stopped improvising. +</p> + +<p> +That point of view is harmful because it is absolutely false; it is +simply the negation of eloquence. Consider what the legislative hall, +the lecture room and the court would be like if nothing but set pieces +were delivered. We are familiar with the fact that many an orator and +lawyer, who is brilliant when he talks, becomes dry as dust when he +tries to write. The same thing happens in music. Lefébure-Wély was a +wonderful improviser (I can say this emphatically, for I heard him) but +he left only a few unimportant compositions for the organ. I might also +name some of my contemporaries who express themselves completely only +through their improvisations. The organ is thought-provoking. As one +touches the organ, the imagination is awakened, and the unforeseen rises +from the depths of the unconscious. It is a world of its own, ever new, +which will never be seen again, and which comes out of the darkness, as +an enchanted island comes from the sea. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of this fairyland, we too often see only some of Sebastian +Bach’s or Mendelssohn’s pieces repeated continuously. The pieces +themselves are very fine, but they belong to concerts and are entirely +out of place in church services. Furthermore, they were written for old +instruments and they apply either not at all, or badly, to the modern +organ. Yet there are those who think this belief spells progress. +</p> + +<p> +I am fully aware of what may be said against improvisation. There are +players who improvise badly and their playing is uninteresting. But many +preachers speak badly. That, however, has nothing to do with the real +issue. A mediocre improvisation is always endurable, if the organist has +grasped the idea that church music should harmonize with the service and +aid meditation and prayer. If the organ music is played in this spirit +and results in harmonious sounds rather than in precise music which is +not worth writing out, it still is comparable with the old glass +windows in which the individual figures can hardly be distinguished but +which are, nevertheless, more charming than the finest modern windows. +Such an improvisation may be better than a fugue by a great master, on +the principle that nothing in art is good unless it is in its proper +place. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill04-box"><a id="ill04" name="ill04"></a> +<a href="images/ill04.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="545" height="386" id="ill04-img" src="images/ill04s.jpg" title="The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saëns played the organ for twenty years" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saëns played the organ for twenty years</div> +</div> + +<p> +During the twenty years I played the organ at the Madeleine, I +improvised constantly, giving my fancy the widest range. That was one of +the joys of life. +</p> + +<p> +But there was a tradition that I was a severe, austere musician. The +public was led to believe that I played nothing but fugues. So current +was this belief that a young woman about to be married begged me to play +no fugues at her wedding! +</p> + +<p> +Another young woman asked me to play funeral marches. She wanted to cry +at her wedding, and as she had no natural inclination to do so, she +counted on the organ to bring tears to her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +But this case was unique. Ordinarily, they were afraid of my +severity—although this severity was tempered. +</p> + +<p> +One day one of the parish vicars undertook to instruct me on this point. +He told me that the Madeleine audiences were composed in the main of +wealthy people who attended the Opéra-Comique frequently, and formed +musical tastes which ought to be respected. +</p> + +<p> +“Monsieur l’abbé,” I replied, “when I hear from the pulpit the language +of opéra-comique, I will play music appropriate to it, and not before!” +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xi" id="xi"></a>Chapter XI</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Joseph Haydn and the “Seven Words”</div> + +<p> +Joseph Haydn, that great musician, the father of the symphony and of all +modern music, has been neglected. We are too prone to forget that +concerts are, in a sense, museums in which the older schools of music +should be represented. Music is something besides a source of sensuous +pleasure and keen emotion, and this resource, precious as it is, is only +a chance corner in the wide realm of musical art. He who does not get +absolute pleasure from a simple series of well-constructed chords, +beautiful only in their arrangement, is not really fond of music. The +same is true of the one who does not prefer the first prelude of the +<i>Wohltemperirte Klavier</i>, played without gradations, just as the author +wrote it for the harpsichord, to the same prelude embellished with an +impassioned melody; or who does not prefer a popular melody of character +or a Gregorian chant without any accompaniment to a series of dissonant +and pretentious chords. +</p> + +<p> +The directors of great concerts should love music themselves and should +lead the public to appreciate it. They should not allow the masters to +be forgotten, for their only fault was that they were not born in our +times and they never dreamed of attempting to satisfy the tastes of an +unborn generation. Above all, the directors should grant recognition to +masters like Joseph Haydn who were in advance of their own times and who +seem now and then to belong to our own. +</p> + +<p> +The only examples of Joseph Haydn’s immense work that the present +generation knows are two or three symphonies, rarely and perfunctorily +performed. This is the same as saying that we do not know him at all. No +musician was ever more prolific or showed a greater wealth of +imagination. When we examine this mine of jewels, we are astonished to +find at every step a gem which we would have attributed to the invention +of some modern or other. We are dazzled by their rays, and where we +expect black-and-whites we find pastels grown dim with time. +</p> + +<p> +Of Haydn’s one hundred and eighteen symphonies, many are simple trifles +written from day to day for Prince Esterhazy’s little chapel, when the +master was musical director there. But after Haydn was called to London +by Salomon, a director of concerts, where he had a large orchestra at +his disposal, his genius took magnificent flights. Then he wrote great +symphonies and in them the clarinets for the first time unfolded the +resources from which the modern orchestra has profited so abundantly. +Originally the clarinet played a humble rôle, as the name indicates. +<i>Clarinetto</i> is the diminutive of <i>clarino</i>, and the instrument was +invented to replace the shrill tones that the trumpet lost as it gained +in depth of tone. +</p> + +<p> +Old editions of Haydn’s symphonies show a picturesque arrangement, in +that the disposition of the orchestra is shown on the printed page. +Above, is a group made up of drums and the brass. In the center is a +second group—the flutes, oboes and bassoons, while the stringed +instruments are at the bottom of the page. When clarinets are used, they +are a part of the first group. This pretty arrangement has, +unfortunately, not been followed in the modern editions of these +symphonies. In the works written in London the clarinet has utterly +forgotten its origins. It has left the somewhat plebeian world of the +brasses and has gained admittance to the more refined society of the +woods. Haydn, in his first attempts, took advantage of the beautiful +heavy tones, “<i>chalumeau</i>,” and the flexibility and marvellous range of +a beautiful instrument. +</p> + +<p> +During his stay in London Haydn sketched an <i>Orfeo</i> which he never +completed, as the theatre which ordered it failed before it was +finished. Only fragments of the work remain, and, fortunately enough, +these have been engraved in an orchestra score. These fragments are +uneven in value. The dialogue, or recitative, which should bind them +together was lost and so we are unable to judge them fairly. Among the +fragments is a brilliant aria on Eurydice which is rather ridiculous, +while another on Eurydice dying is charming. We also find music for +mysterious <i>English horns</i>; it is written as for clarinets in B flat and +reaches heights which are impossible for the instrument we now know as +the English horn. There is also a beautiful bass part. This has been +provided with Latin words and is sung in churches. This aria was +assigned to a Creon who does not appear in the other fragments. One +scene shows Eurydice running up and down the banks pursued by demons. +Another depicts the death of Orpheus, killed by the Bacchantes. This +score is a curiosity and nothing more, and a reading causes no regret +that the work was not completed. +</p> + +<p> +Like Gluck, Joseph Haydn had the rare advantage of developing +constantly. He did not reach the height of his genius until an age when +the finest faculties are, ordinarily, in a decline. He astounded the +musical world with his <i>Creation</i>, in which he displayed a fertility of +imagination and a magnificence of orchestral richness that the oratorio +had never known before. Emboldened by his success he wrote the +<i>Seasons</i>, a colossal work, the most varied and the most picturesque in +the history of ancient or modern music. In this instance the oratorio is +no longer entirely religious. It gives an audacious picture of nature +with realistic touches which are astonishing even now. There is an +artistic imitation of the different sounds in nature, as the rustling of +the leaves, the songs of the birds in the woods and on the farm, and the +shrill notes of the insects. Above all that is the translation into +music of the profound emotions to which the different aspects of nature +give birth, as the freshness of the forests, the stifling heat before a +storm, the storm itself, and the wonderful sunset that follows. Then +there is a huntsman’s chorus which strikes an entirely different note. +There are grape harvests, with the mad dances that follow them. There is +the winter, with a poignant introduction which reminds us of pages in +Schumann. But be reassured, the author does not leave us to the rigors +of the cold. He takes us into a farmhouse where the women are spinning +and where the peasants are drawn about the fire, listening to a funny +tale and laughing immoderately with a gaiety which has never been +surpassed. +</p> + +<p> +But this gigantic work does not end without giving us a glimpse of +Heaven, for with one grand upward burst of flight, Haydn reaches the +realms where Handel and Beethoven preceded him. He equals them and ends +his picture in a dazzling blaze of light. +</p> + +<p> +This is the sort of work of which the public remains in ignorance and +which it ought to know. +</p> + +<p> +But all this is not what I started out to say. I wanted to write about a +delicate, touching, reserved and precious work by the same author—<i>The +Seven Words of Christ on the Cross</i>. This work has appeared in three +forms—for an orchestra and chorus, for an orchestra alone, and for a +quartet. When I was a young man, they used to say in Paris that this +work was originally written for a quartet, then developed for an +orchestra, and, finally, the voices were added. +</p> + +<p> +Chance took me to Cadiz, once upon a time, and there I was given the +true story of this beautiful piece of work. To my astonishment I learned +that it had been first performed in the city of Cadiz. They even spoke +of a competition in which Haydn won the prize, but there was never any +such contest. The work was ordered from the author, but the question is +who ordered it. Two religious circles, the Cathedral and the Cueva del +Rosario, both lay claim to the initiative. I have gone over all the +evidence in this dispute which is of little interest to us, for the only +interest is the origin of the composition. There is not the slightest +doubt that the <i>Seven Words</i> was written in the first place for an +orchestra in 1785, and its destination, as we shall see, was settled by +the author himself. +</p> + +<p> +In his <i>Memoires pour la Biographie et la Bibliographie de l’ile de +Cadix</i>, Don Francisco de Miton, Marquis de Meritos, relates that he +corresponded with Haydn and ordered this composition which was to be +performed at the Cathedral in Cadiz. According to his account Haydn said +that “the composition was due more to what Señor Milton wrote than to +his own invention, for it showed every motif so marvellously that on +reading the instructions he seemed to read the music itself.” +</p> + +<p> +If the Marquis was not boasting, we must confess that the ingenuous +Haydn was not so ingenuous as has been thought, and that he knew how to +flatter his patrons. +</p> + +<p> +In 1801 Breitkopf and Haertel published the work with the addition of +the vocal parts at Leipzig. This edition had a preface by the author in +which he said: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + About fifteen years ago, a curé at Cadiz engaged me to write some + passages of instrumental music on the Seven Words of Christ on the + Cross. It was the custom at that time to play an oratorio at the + Cathedral during Holy Week, and they took great pains to give as + much solemnity as possible. The walls, the windows and the pillars + of the church were hung in black, and only a single light in the + centre shone in the sanctuary. The doors were closed at mid-day and + the orchestra began to play. After the opening ceremonies the + bishop entered the pulpit, pronounced one of the “Seven Words” and + delivered a few words inspired by it. Then he descended, knelt + before the altar, and remained there for some time. This pause was + relieved by the music. The bishop ascended and descended six times + more and each time, after his homily, music was played. My music + was to be adapted to these ceremonies. +</p> + +<p> + The problem of writing seven <i>adagios</i> to be performed + consecutively, each one to last ten minutes, without wearying the + audience, was not an easy one to solve, and I soon recognized the + impossibility of making my music conform to the prescribed limits. +</p> + +<p> + The work was written and printed without words. Later the + opportunity of adding them was offered, so the oratorio which + Breitkopf and Haertel publish to-day is a complete work and, so far + as the vocal part is concerned, entirely new. +</p> + +<p> + The kind reception which it has received among amateurs makes me + hope that the entire public will welcome it with the same kindness. +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Haydn feared to weary his hearers. Our modern bards have no such vain +scruple. +</p> + +<p> +Michel Haydn, Joseph’s brother and the author of some highly esteemed +religious compositions, has been generally credited with the addition of +the vocal parts to the <i>Seven Words</i>. Joseph Haydn did not say that this +was the case, but it would seem that if he did the work himself he would +have said so in his preface. +</p> + +<p> +This vocal part, however, adds nothing to the value of the work. And it +is of no great consequence who the author of the arrangement for the +quartet was. At the time there were many amateurs who played on +stringed instruments. They used to meet frequently and everything in +music was arranged for quartets just as now everything is arranged for +piano duets. Some of Beethoven’s sonatas were arranged in this form. The +piano killed the quartet, and it is a great pity, for the quartet is the +purest form of instrumental music. It is the first form—the fountain of +Hippocrene. Now instrumental music drinks from every cup and the result +is that many times it seems drunk. +</p> + +<p> +To return to the <i>Seven Words</i>. Their symphonic form is the only one +worth considering. They are eloquent enough without the aid of voices, +for their charm penetrates. Unlike the <i>Creation</i> and the <i>Seasons</i> they +do not demand extraordinary means of execution, and nothing is easier +than to give them. +</p> + +<p> +The opera houses are closed on Good Friday, and it used to be the custom +to give evening concerts, vaguely termed “Sacred Concerts,” because +their programmes were made up wholly or in part of religious music. This +good custom has disappeared and with it the opportunity to give the +public such delightful works as the <i>Seven Words</i>, and so many other +things which harmonize with the character of the day. +</p> + +<p> +At one of these Sacred Concerts, Pasdeloup presented on the same evening +the <i>Credo</i> from Liszt’s <i>Missa Solemnis</i> and the one from Cherubini’s +<i>Messe du Sacre</i>. Liszt’s <i>Credo</i> was received with a storm of hisses, +while Cherubini’s was praised to the skies. I could not help thinking—I +was somewhat unjust, for Cherubini’s work has merit—of the people of +Jerusalem who acclaimed Barrabas and demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +To-day Liszt’s <i>Credo</i> is received with wild applause—Victor Hugo did +his part-while Cherubini’s is never revived. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xii" id="xii"></a>Chapter XII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">The Liszt Centenary at Heidelberg (1912)</div> + +<p> +The Liszt centenary was celebrated everywhere with elaborate +festivities, perhaps most notably at Budapest where the <i>Missa Solemnis</i> +was sung in the great cathedral—that alone would have been sufficient +glory for the composer. At Weimar, which, during his lifetime, Liszt +made a sort of musical Mecca, they gave a performance of his deeply +charming oratorio <i>Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth</i>. The festival +at Heidelberg was of special interest as it was organized by the General +Association of German Musicians which Liszt had founded fifty years +before. Each year this society gives in a different city a festival +which lasts several days. It admits foreign members and I was once a +member as Berlioz’s successor on Liszt’s own invitation. Disagreements +separated us, and I had had no relation with the society for a number +of years when they asked me to take part in this festival. A refusal +would have been misunderstood and I had to accept, although the idea of +performing at my age alongside such <i>virtuosi</i> as Risler, Busoni, and +Friedheim, in the height of their talent, was not encouraging. +</p> + +<p> +The festival lasted four days and there were six concerts—four with the +orchestra and a chorus. They gave the oratorio <i>Christus</i>, an enormous +work which takes up all the time allowed for one concert; the Dante and +Faust symphonies, and the symphonic poems <i>Ce qu’on entend sur la +montagne</i> and <i>Tasso</i>, to mention only the most important works. +</p> + +<p> +The oratorio <i>Christus</i> lacks the fine unity of the <i>Saint Elisabeth</i>. +But the two works are alike in being divided into a series of separate +episodes. While the different episodes in <i>Saint Elisabeth</i> solve the +difficult problem of creating variety and retaining unity, the parts of +<i>Christus</i> are somewhat unrelated. There is something for every taste. +Certain parts are unqualifiedly admirable; others border on the +theatrical; still others are nearly or entirely liturgical, while, +finally, some are picturesque, although there are some almost confusing. +Like Gounod, Liszt was sometimes deceived and attributed to ordinary and +simple sequences of chords a profound significance which escaped the +great majority of his hearers. There are some pages of this sort in +<i>Christus</i>. +</p> + +<p> +But there are beautiful and wonderful things in this vast work. If we +regret that the author lingered too long in his imitation of the +<i>Pifferari</i> of the Roman campagna, on the other hand, we are delighted +by the symphonic interlude <i>Les Bergers à la Crèche</i>. It is very simple, +but in an inimitable simplicity of taste which is the secret of great +artists alone. It is surprising that this interlude does not appear in +the repertoire of all concerts. +</p> + +<p> +The Dante symphony has not established itself in the repertoires as has +the Faust symphony. It was performed for the first time in Paris at a +concert I organized and managed at a time when Liszt’s works were +distrusted. Along with the Dante symphony we had the Andante (Gretchen) +from the Faust symphony, the symphonic poem <i>Fest Kloenge</i>, a charming +work which is never played now, and still other works. It would be hard +to imagine all the opposition I had to overcome in giving that concert. +There was the hostility of the public, the ill-will of the +Théâtre-Italien which rented me its famous hall but which sullenly +opposed a proper announcement of the concert, the insubordination of the +orchestra, the demands of the singers for more pay—they imagined that +Liszt would pay the expenses—and, finally, complete—and expected +failure. My only object was to lay a foundation for the future, nothing +more. In spite of everything I managed to get a creditable performance +of the Dante symphony and I had the pleasure of hearing it for the first +time. +</p> + +<p> +The first part (the Inferno) is wonderfully impressive with its +<i>Francesca da Rimini</i> interlude, in which burn all the fires of Italian +passion. The second part (Purgatory and Paradise) combines the most +intense and poignant charm. It contains a fugue episode of unsurpassed +beauty. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne</i> is, perhaps, the best of the famous +symphonic poems. The author was inspired by Victor Hugo’s poetry and +reproduced its spirit admirably. When will this typical work appear in +the concert repertoires? When will orchestra conductors get tired of +presenting the three or four Wagnerian works they repeat <i>ad nauseum</i>, +when they can be heard at the Opéra under better conditions, and +Schubert’s insignificant <i>Unfinished Symphony</i>. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +The <i>Christus</i> oratorio was given at the first concert of the festival +at Heidelberg. It lasted three hours and a half and is so long that I +would not dare to advise concert managers to try such an adventure. The +performance was sublime. It was given in a newly constructed square +hall. Cavaillé-Coll, who knew acoustics, used to advise the square hall +for concerts but nobody would listen to him. Three hundred chorus +singers, many from a distance, were supported by an orchestra that was +large, but, in my opinion, insufficient to stand up against this mass of +voices. Furthermore, the orchestra was placed below the level of the +stage, as in a theatre, while the voices sounded freely above. Two +harps, one on the east side of the stage and one on the west, saw each +other from afar,—a pleasingly decorative device, but as annoying to the +ear as pleasing to the eye. The chorus and the four soloists—their task +was exceedingly arduous—triumphed completely over the difficulties of +this immense work and all the varied and delicate nuances were rendered +to perfection. +</p> + +<p> +Liszt was far from professing the disdain for the limitations of the +human voice that Wagner and Berlioz did. On the contrary he treated it +as if it were a queen or a goddess, and it is to be regretted that his +tastes did not lead him to work for the stage. Parts of <i>Saint +Elisabeth</i> show that he would have succeeded and the fashion of having +operas for the orchestra, accompanied by voices, which we enjoy to-day, +might have been avoided. He discovered a method, peculiarly his own, of +writing choruses. His manner has never been imitated, but it is +ingenious and has many advantages. The only trouble about it is that the +singers have to take care of details and shadings which is too often +the least of their worries. The German societies, where the members sing +for pleasure, and not for a salary, are careful to excess, if there can +be excess in such matters, and it is their great good fortune to be the +interpreters of choruses written in this manner. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible to give an analysis of this vast work here. We have +already spoken of the charming interlude, <i>Les Bergers à la Crèche</i>. +This pastoral is followed by <i>Marche des Rois Mages</i>, a pretty piece, +but a little overdeveloped for its intrinsic worth. The vocal parts, +<i>Béatitudes</i> and <i>Le Pater Noster</i>, would be more suitable in a church +than in a concert hall. Then come some most brilliant pages, <i>La Tempête +sur le lac de Thibériade</i>, and <i>Le Mont des Oliviers</i>, with its baritone +solo, and finally, the <i>Stabat Mater</i>, where great beauties are combined +with terrible length. But nothing in the whole work impressed me more +than Christ’s entrance to Jerusalem (orchestra, chorus, and soloist) for +the reading alone gives no idea of it. Here the author reached the +heights. That also describes the delightful effect of the children’s +chorus singing in the distance <i>O Filii et Filiae</i>, harmonised with +perfect taste. +</p> + +<p> +While I listened to this beautiful work, I could not help thinking of +the great oratorios which crowned Gounod’s musical career so gloriously. +Liszt and Gounod differed entirely in their musical temperaments, yet in +their oratorios they met on common ground. In both there was the same +drawing away from the old forms of oratorio, the same search for realism +in the expression of the text in music, the same respect for Latin +prosody, and the same belief in simplicity of style. But while there is +renunciation in the simplicity of Liszt, who threw aside worldly finery +to wear the frock of a penitent, on the contrary Gounod appears to +return to his original bent with an almost holy joy. This is easily +explained. Liszt finished his life in a cassock, while Gounod began his +in one. So, despite Liszt’s superior refinement, and putting aside +exceptional achievements, in this branch of art Gounod was the victor. +As there is an <i>odor di femina</i> there is a <i>parfum d’église</i>, well known +to Catholics. Gounod’s oratorios are impregnated with this, while it is +found in <i>Christus</i> very, very feebly, if at all. The <i>Missa Solemnis</i> +must be examined to find it to any extent in Liszt’s work. +</p> + +<p> +All the necessary elements were combined at Heidelberg to produce a +magnificent production of Faust and Dante. The orchestra of more than +one hundred musicians was perfect. The period when the wind instruments +in Germany were wanting both in correctness and quality of sound has +passed. But the orchestra conductors have to be taken into account. In +our day these gentlemen are <i>virtuosi</i>. Their personalities are not +subservient to the music, but the music to them. It is the springboard +on which they perform and parade their all embracing personalities. They +add their own inventions to the author’s meaning. Sometimes they draw +out the wind instruments so that the musicians have to cut a phrase at +the end to catch their breath; again they affect a mad and unrestrained +rapidity which allows time neither to play nor to hear the sounds. They +hurry or retard the movement for no reason besides their individual +caprice or because the author did not indicate them. They perpetrate +music of such a disorganized character that the musicians are utterly +bewildered, and hesitate in their entrances on account of their +inability to distinguish one measure from another. +</p> + +<p> +The delightful <i>Purgatoire</i> has become a deadly bore, and the enchanting +<i>Mephistopheles</i> has been riddled as by a hailstorm. Familiarity with +such excesses made me particularly appreciative of the excellent +performance that Wolfrum, the musical director, obtained in the vast +<i>Christus</i> concert. +</p> + +<p> +Among the conductors was Richard Strauss who cannot be passed over +without a word. Certainly no one will hope to find moderation and +serenity in this artist or be surprised if he gives his temperament free +rein, and rides on to victory undisturbed by the ruins he leaves behind. +But he lacks neither intelligence nor elegance, and if he sometimes goes +too fast he never overemphasizes slowness. When he is conducting, we +need not fear the desert of Sahara where others sometimes lead us. Under +his direction <i>Tasso</i> displayed all its wealth of resources and the +jewel-like <i>Mephisto-Walzer</i> shone more brightly than ever before. +</p> + +<p> +I can speak but briefly of the numerous soloists. We neither judge nor +compare such talents as those of Busoni, Friedheim, and Risler. We are +satisfied with admiring them. However, if a prize must be awarded, I +should give it to Risler for his masterly interpretation of the great +<i>Sonata in B minor</i>. He made the most of it in every way, in all its +power and in all its delicacy. When it is given in this way, it is one +of the finest sonatas imaginable. But such a performance is rare, for it +is beyond the average artist. The strength of an athlete, the lightness +of a bird, capriciousness, charm, and a perfect understanding of style +in general and of the style of this composer in particular are the +qualifications needed to perform this work. It is far too difficult for +most <i>virtuosi</i>, however talented they may be. +</p> + +<p> +Among the women singers I shall only mention Madame Cahier from the +Viennese Opera. She is a great artist with a wonderful voice and her +interpretation of several <i>lieder</i> made them wonderfully worth while. +Madame Cahier interpreted the part of Dalila at Vienna with Dalmores, +so it can easily be appreciated how much pleasure I took in hearing her. +</p> + +<p> +A final word about the Dante Symphony. I have read somewhere that Liszt +used pages to produce an effect which Berlioz accomplished in the +apparition of Mephistopheles in <i>Faust</i> with three notes. This +comparison is unjust. Berlioz’s happy discovery is a work of genius and +he alone could have invented it. But the sudden appearance of the Devil +is one thing and the depiction of Hell quite another. Berlioz tried such +a depiction at the end of the Damnation, and in spite of the strange +vocabulary of the chorus, “Irimiru Karabrao, Sat raik Irkimour,” and +other pretty tricks, he succeeded no better than Liszt. As a matter of +fact the opposite was the case. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>Chapter XIII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Berlioz’s Requiem</div> + +<p> +The reading of the score of Berlioz’s <i>Requiem</i> makes it appear +singularly old-fashioned, but this is true of most of the romantic +dramas, which, like the <i>Requiem</i>, show up better in actual performance. +It is easy to rail at the vehemence of the Romanticists, but it is not +so easy to equal the effect of <i>Hernani</i>, <i>Lucrèce Borgia</i> and the +<i>Symphonie fantastique</i> on the public. For with all their faults these +works had a marvellous success. The truth is that their vehemence was +sincere and not artificial. The Romanticists had faith in their works +and there is nothing like faith to produce lasting results. +</p> + +<p> +Reicha and Leuseur were, as we know, Berlioz’s instructors. Leuseur was +the author of numerous works and wrote a good deal of church music. Some +of his religious works were really beautiful, but he had strange +obsessions. Berlioz greatly admired his master and could not help +showing, especially in his earlier works, traces of this admiration. +That is the reason for the syncopated and jerky passages without rhyme +or reason and which can only be explained by his unconscious imitation +of Leuseur’s faults. In imitating a model the resemblances occur in the +faults and not in the excellences, for the latter are inimitable. So the +excellences of the <i>Requiem</i> are not due to Leuseur but to Berlioz. He +had already thrown off the trammels of school and shown all the richness +of his vigorous originality to which the value of his scores is due. +</p> + +<p> +In his <i>Memoirs</i> Berlioz related the tribulations of his <i>Requiem</i>. It +was ordered by the government, laid aside for a time, and, finally, +performed at the Invalides on the occasion of the capture of Constantine +(in Algeria) and the funeral services of General Damrémont. He was +astonished at the lack of sympathy and even actual hostility that he +encountered. It would have been more astonishing if he had experienced +anything else. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill05-box"><a id="ill05" name="ill05"></a> +<a href="images/ill05.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="389" height="557" id="ill05-img" src="images/ill05s.jpg" title="Hector Berlioz" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Hector Berlioz</div> +</div> + +<p> +We must remember that at this time Berton, who sang <i>Quand on est +toujours vertuex, on aime à voir lever l’aurore</i>, passed for a great +man. Beethoven’s symphonies were a novelty, in Paris at least, and a +scandal. Haydn’s symphonies inspired a critic to write, “What a noise, +what a noise!” Orchestras were merely collections of thirty or forty +musicians. +</p> + +<p> +We can imagine, therefore, the stupefaction and horror when a young man, +just out of school, demanded fifty violins, twenty violas, twenty +violoncellos, eighteen contrabasses, four flutes, four oboes, four +clarinets, eight bassoons, twelve horns, and a chorus of two hundred +voices as a minimum. And that is not all. The <i>Tuba Mirum</i> necessitates +an addition of thirty-eight trumpets and trombones, divided into four +orchestras and placed at the four cardinal points of the compass. +Besides, there have to be eight pairs of drums, played by ten drummers, +four tam-tams, and ten cymbals. +</p> + +<p> +The story of this array of drums is rather interesting. Reicha, +Berlioz’s first teacher, had the original idea of playing drum taps in +chords of three or four beats. In order to try out this effect, he +composed a choral piece, <i>L’Harmonie des Sphères</i>, which was published +in connection with his <i>Traité d’Harmonie</i>. But Reicha’s genius did not +suffice for this task. He was a good musician, but no more than that. +His choral piece was insignificant and remained a dead letter. Berlioz +took this lost effect and used it in his <i>Tuba Mirum</i>. +</p> + +<p> +However, it must be confessed that this effect does not come up to +expectations. In a church or a concert hall we hear a confused and +terrifying mingling of sounds, and from time to time we note a change in +the depth of tone but we are unable to distinguish the pitch of the +chords. +</p> + +<p> +I shall never forget the impression this <i>Tuba Mirum</i> made on me when I +first heard it at St. Eustache under Berlioz’s own direction. It +amounted to an absolute neglect of the author’s directions. The +beginning of the work is marked <i>moderato</i>, later, as the brass comes +in, the movement is quickened and becomes <i>andante maestro</i>. Most of the +time the <i>moderato</i> was interpreted as an <i>allegro</i>, and the <i>andante +maestro</i> as a simple <i>moderato</i>. If the terrific fanfare did not +become, as some one ventured to call it, a “Setting Out for the Hunt,” +it might well have been the accompaniment for a sovereign’s entrance to +his capital. In order to give this fanfare its grandiose character, the +author did not take easy refuge in the wailings of a minor key, but he +burst into the splendors of a major key. A certain grandeur of movement +alone can preserve its gigantesque quality and impression of power. +</p> + +<p> +Granting all his good intentions, in trying to give us a suggestion of +the last judgment by his accumulation of brass, drums, cymbals, and +tam-tams, Berlioz makes us think of Thor among the giants trying to +empty the drinking-horn which was filled from the sea, and only +succeeding in lowering it a little. Yet even that was an accomplishment. +</p> + +<p> +Berlioz spoke scornfully of Mozart’s <i>Tuba Mirum</i> with its single +trombone. “One trombone,” he exclaimed, “when a hundred would be none +too many!” Berlioz wanted to make us really hear the trumpets of the +archangels. Mozart with the seven notes of his one trombone suggested +the same idea and the suggestion is sufficient. +</p> + +<p> +We must not forget, however, that here we are in the midst of a world of +romanticism, in a world of color and picturesqueness, which could not +content itself with so little. And we must remember this fact, if we +would not be irritated by the oddities of <i>L’Hostias</i>, with its deep +trombone notes which seem to come from the very depths of Hell. There is +no use in trying to find out what these notes mean. Berlioz told us +himself that he discovered these notes at a time when they were almost +unknown and he wanted to use them. The contrast between these terrifying +notes and the wailing of the flutes is especially curious. We find +nothing analogous to this anywhere else. +</p> + +<p> +The delightful <i>Purgatoire</i>, where the author sees a chorus of souls in +Purgatory, is much better. His Purgatory has no punishments nor any +griefs save the awaiting, the long and painful awaiting, of eternal +happiness. There is a processional in which the fugue and melody +alternate in the most felicitous manner. There are sighs and plaints, +all haunting in their extreme expressiveness, a great variety beneath an +appearance of monotony, and from time to time two wailing notes. These +notes are always the same, as the chorus gives them as a plaint, and +they are both affecting and artistic. At the end comes a dim ray of +light and hope. This is the only one in the work save the Amen at the +end, for Faith and Hope should not be looked for here. The supplications +sound like prayers which do not expect to be answered. No one would dare +to describe this work as profane, but whether it is religious or not is +a question. As Boschot has said, what it expresses above all is terror +in the presence of annihilation. +</p> + +<p> +When the <i>Requiem</i> was played at the Trocadéro, the audience was greatly +impressed and filed out slowly. They did not say, “What a masterpiece!” +but “What an orchestra leader!” Nowadays people go to see a conductor +direct the orchestra just as they go to hear a tenor, and they arrogate +to themselves the right to judge the conductors as they do the tenors. +But what a fine sport it is! The qualities of an orchestra conductor +which the public appreciates are his elegance, his gestures, his +precision, and the expressiveness of his mimicry, all of which are more +often directed at the audience than at the orchestra. But all these +things are of secondary consideration. What makes up an orchestra +conductor’s worth are the excellence of execution he obtains from the +musicians and the perfect interpretation of the author’s meaning—which +the audience does not understand. If such an important detail as the +author’s meaning is obscured and slighted, if a work is disfigured by +absurd movements and by an expression which is entirely different from +what the author wanted, the public may be dazzled and an execrable +conductor, provided his poses are good, may fascinate his audience and +be praised to the skies. +</p> + +<p> +Formerly the conductor never saluted his audience. The understanding was +that the work and not the conductor was applauded. The Italians and +Germans changed all that. Lamoureux was the first to introduce this +exotic custom in France. The public was a little surprised at first, but +they soon got used to it. In Italy the conductor comes on the stage +with the artists to salute the audience. There is nothing more laughable +than to see him, as the last note of an opera dies away, jump down from +his stand and run like mad to reach the stage in time. +</p> + +<p> +The excellence of the work of English choristers has been highly and +justly praised. Perhaps it would be fairer not to praise them so +unreservedly when we are so severe on our own. Justice often leaves +something to be desired. At all events it must be admitted that Berlioz +treated the voices in an unfortunate way. Like Beethoven, he made no +distinction between a part for a voice and an instrument. While except +for a few rare passages it does not fall as low as the atrocities which +disfigure the grandiose <i>Mass in D</i>, the vocal part of the <i>Requiem</i> is +awkwardly written. Singers are ill at ease in it, for the timbre and +regularity of the voice resent such treatment. The tenor’s part is so +written that he is to be congratulated on getting through it without any +accident, and nothing more can be expected of him. +</p> + +<p> +What a pity it was that Berlioz did not fall in love with an Italian +singer instead of an English tragedienne! Cupid might have wrought a +miracle. The author of the <i>Requiem</i> would have lost none of his good +qualities, but he might have gained, what, for the lack of a better +phrase, is called the fingering of the voice, the art of handling it +intelligently and making it give without an effort the best effect of +which it is capable. But Berlioz had a horror even of the Italian +language, musical as that is. As he said in his <i>Memoirs</i>, this aversion +hid from him the true worth of <i>Don Juan</i> and <i>Le Nozze di Figaro</i>. One +wonders whether he knew that his idol, Gluck, wrote music for Italian +texts not only in the case of his first works but also in <i>Orphée</i> and +<i>Alceste</i>. And whether he knew that the aria “<i>O malheureuse Iphigenie</i>” +was an Italian song badly translated into French. Perhaps he was +ignorant of all this in his youth for Berlioz was a genius, not a +scholar. +</p> + +<p> +The word genius tells the whole story. Berlioz wrote badly. He +maltreated voices and sometimes permitted himself the strangest freaks. +Nevertheless he is one of the commanding figures of musical art. His +great works remind us of the Alps with their forests, glaciers, +sunlight, waterfalls and chasms. There are people who do not like the +Alps. So much the worse for them. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>Chapter XIV</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Pauline Viardot</div> + +<p> +Alfred de Musset covered Maria Malibran’s tomb with immortal flowers and +he also told us the story of Pauline Garcia’s debut. There is also +something about it in Théophile Gautier’s writings. It is clear from +both accounts that her first appearance was an extraordinary occasion. +Natures such as hers reveal themselves at once to those who know and do +not have to wait to arrive until they are in full bloom. Pauline was +very young at the time, and soon afterwards she married M. Viardot, +manager of the Théâtre-Italien and one of the finest men of his day. She +went abroad to develop her talent, but she returned in 1849 when +Meyerbeer named her to create the rôle of Fides in <i>Le Prophète</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Her voice was tremendously powerful, prodigious in its range, and it +overcame all the difficulties in the art of singing. But this +marvellous voice did not please everyone, for it was by no means smooth +and velvety. Indeed, it was a little harsh and was likened to the taste +of a bitter orange. But it was just the voice for a tragedy or an epic, +for it was superhuman rather than human. Light things like Spanish songs +and Chopin mazurkas, which she used to transpose so that she could sing +them, were completely transformed by that voice and became the +playthings of an Amazon or of a giantess. She lent an incomparable +grandeur to tragic parts and to the severe dignity of the oratorio. +</p> + +<p> +I never had the pleasure of hearing Madame Malibran, but Rossini told me +about her. He preferred her sister. Madame Malibran, he said, had the +advantage of beauty. In addition, she died young and left a memory of an +artist in full possession of all her powers. She was not the equal of +her sister as a musician and could not have survived the decline of her +voice as the latter did. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Viardot was not beautiful, indeed, she was far from it. The +portrait by Ary Scheffer is the only one which shows this unequalled +woman truthfully and gives some idea of her strange and powerful +fascination. What made her even more captivating than her talent as a +singer was her personality—one of the most amazing I have ever known. +She spoke and wrote fluently Spanish, French, Italian, English and +German. She was in touch with all the current literature of these +countries and in correspondence with people all over Europe. +</p> + +<p> +She did not remember when she learned music. In the Garcia family music +was in the air they breathed. So she protested against the tradition +which represented her father as a tyrant who whipped his daughters to +make them sing. I have no idea how she learned the secrets of +composition, but save for the management of the orchestra she knew them +well. She wrote numerous <i>lieder</i> on Spanish and German texts and all of +these show a faultless diction. But contrary to the custom of most +composers who like nothing better than to show their compositions, she +concealed hers as though they were indiscretions. It was exceedingly +difficult to persuade her to let one hear them, although the least +were highly creditable. Once she sang a Spanish popular song, a wild +haunting thing, with which Rubinstein fell madly in love. It was several +years before she would admit that she wrote it herself. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill06-box"><a id="ill06" name="ill06"></a> +<a href="images/ill06.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="387" height="583" id="ill06-img" src="images/ill06s.jpg" title="Mme. Pauline Viardot" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Mme. Pauline Viardot</div> +</div> + +<p> +She wrote brilliant operettas in collaboration with Tourguenief, but +they were never published and were performed only in private. One +anecdote will show her versatility as a composer. She was a friend of +Chopin and Liszt and her tastes were strongly futuristic. M. Viardot, on +the contrary, was a reactionary in music. He even found Beethoven too +advanced. One day they had a guest who was also a reactionary. Madame +Viardot sang to them a wonderful work with recitative, aria and final +allegro, which they praised to the skies. She had written it expressly +for the occasion. I have read this work and even the cleverest would +have been deceived. +</p> + +<p> +But it must not be thought from this that her compositions were mere +imitations. On the contrary they were extremely original. The only +explanation why those that were published have remained unknown and why +so many were unpublished is that this admirable artist had a horror of +publicity. She spent half her life in teaching pupils and the world knew +nothing about it. +</p> + +<p> +During the Empire the Viardots used to give in their apartment on +Thursday evenings really fine musical festivals which my surviving +contemporaries still remember. From the salon in which the famous +portrait by Ary Scheffer was hung and which was devoted to ordinary +instrumental and vocal music, we went down a short staircase to a +gallery filled with valuable paintings, and finally to an exquisite +organ, one of Cavaillé-Coll’s masterpieces. In this temple dedicated to +music we listened to arias from the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn. +She had sung them in London, but could not get a hearing for them in the +concerts in Paris as they were averse to such vast compositions. I had +the honor to be her regular accompanist both at the organ and the piano. +</p> + +<p> +But this passionate lover of song was an all-round musician. She played +the piano admirably, and when she was among friends she overcame the +greatest difficulties. Before her Thursday audiences, however, she +limited herself to chamber music, with a special preference for Henri +Reber’s duets for the piano and the violin. These delicate, artistic +works are unknown to the amateurs of to-day. They seem to prefer to the +pure juice of the grape in crystal glasses poisonous potions in cups of +gold. They must have orgies, sumptuous ceilings, a deadly luxury. They +do not understand the poet who sings, “<i>O rus, quando te aspiciam!</i>” +They do not appreciate the great distinction of simplicity. Reber’s muse +is not for them. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Viardot was as learned a musician as any one could be and she was +among the first subscribers to the complete edition of Sebastian Bach’s +works. We know what an astounding revelation that work was. Each year +brought ten religious cantatas, and each year brought us new surprises +in the unexpected variety and impressiveness of the work. We thought we +had known Sebastian Bach, but now we learned how really to know him. We +found him a writer of unusual versatility and a great poet. His +<i>Wohltemperirte Klavier</i> had given us only a hint of all this. The +beauties of this famous work needed exposition for, in the absence of +definite instructions, opinions differed. In the cantatas the meaning of +the words serves as an indication and through the analogy between the +forms of expression, it is easy to see pretty clearly what the author +intended in his <i>Klavier</i> pieces. +</p> + +<p> +One fine day the annual volume was found to contain a cantata in several +parts written for a contralto solo accompanied by stringed instruments, +oboes and an organ obligato. The organ was there and the organist as +well. So we assembled the instruments, Stockhausen, the baritone, was +made the leader of the little orchestra, and Madame Viardot sang the +cantata. I suspect that the author had never heard his work sung in any +such manner. I cherish the memory of that day as one of the most +precious in my musical career. My mother and M. Viardot were the only +listeners to this exceptional exhibition. We did not dare to repeat it +before hearers who were not ready for it. What would now be a great +success would have fallen flat at that time. And nothing is more +irritating than to see an audience cold before a beautiful work. It is +far better to keep to one’s self treasures which will be unappreciated. +</p> + +<p> +One thing will always stand in the way of the vogue of Sebastian Bach’s +vocal works—the difficulty of translation. When they are rendered into +French, they lose all their charm and oftentimes become ridiculous. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +One of the most amazing characteristics of Madame Viardot’s talent was +her astonishing facility in assimilating all styles of music. She was +trained in the old Italian music and she revealed its beauties as no one +else has ever done. As for myself, I saw only its faults. Then she sang +Schumann and Gluck and even Glinka whom she sang in Russian. Nothing was +foreign to her; she was at home everywhere. +</p> + +<p> +She was a great friend of Chopin and she remembered his playing almost +exactly and could give the most valuable directions about the way he +interpreted his works. I learned from her that the great pianist’s +(great musician’s, rather) execution was much simpler than has been +generally supposed. It was as far removed from any manifestation of bad +taste as it was from cold correctness. She told me the secret of the +true <i>tempo rubato</i> without which Chopin’s music is disfigured. It in no +way resembles the dislocations by which it is so often caricatured. +</p> + +<p> +I have spoken of her great talent as a pianist. We saw this one evening +at a concert given by Madame Schumann. After Madame Viardot had sung +some of Schumann’s <i>lieder</i> with the great pianist playing the +accompaniments, the two great artists played the illustrious author’s +duet for two pianos, which fairly bristles with difficulties, <i>with +equal virtuosity</i>. +</p> + +<p> +When Madame Viardot’s voice began to break, she was advised to devote +herself to the piano. If she had, she would have found a new career and +a second reputation. But she did not want to make the change, and for +several years she presented the sorry spectacle of genius contending +with adversity. Her voice was broken, stubborn, uneven, and +intermittent. An entire generation knew her only in a guise unworthy of +her. +</p> + +<p> +Her immoderate love of music was the cause of the early modification of +her voice. She wanted to sing everything she liked and she sang +Valentine in <i>Les Huguenots</i>, Donna Anna in <i>Don Juan</i>, besides other +rôles she should never have undertaken if she wanted to preserve her +voice. She came to realize this at the end of her life. “Don’t do as I +did,” she once told a pupil. “I wanted to sing everything, and I ruined +my voice.” +</p> + +<p> +Happy are the fiery natures which burn themselves out and glory in the +sword that wears away the scabbard. +</p> + + + +<h1><a name="xv" id="xv"></a>Chapter XV</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Orphée</div> + +<p> +We know, or, rather we used to know—for we are beginning to forget that +there is an admirable edition of Gluck’s principal works. This edition +was due to the interest of an unusual woman, Mlle. Fanny Pelletan, who +devoted a part of her fortune to this real monument and to fulfill a +wish Berlioz expressed in one of his works. Mlle. Pelletan was an +unusually intelligent woman and an accomplished musician, but she needed +some one to help her in this large and formidable task. She was +unassuming and distrusted her own powers, so that she secured as a +collaborator a German musician, named Damcke, who had lived in Paris a +long time and who was highly esteemed. He gave her the moral support she +needed and some bad advice as well, which she felt obliged to follow. +This collaboration accounts for the change of the contralto parts to +counter-tenors. It also accounts for the fact that in every instance the +parts for the clarinets are indicated in C, in this way attributing to +the author a formal intention he never had. Gluck wrote the parts for +the clarinets without bothering whether the player—to whom he left a +freedom of choice and the work of transposition—would use his +instrument in C, B, or A. This method was not peculiar to Gluck. Other +composers used it as well, and traces of it are found even in Auber’s +works. +</p> + +<p> +After Damcke’s death Mlle. Pelletan got me to help her in this +work. I wanted to change the method, but the edition would have lost its +unity and she would not consent. It was time that Damcke’s collaboration +ended. He belonged to the tribe of German professors who have since +become legion. Due to their baneful influence, in a short time, when the +old editions have disappeared, the works of Haydn, Mozart, and +Beethoven, even of Chopin, will be all but unrecognizable. The works of +Sebastian Bach and Handel will be the only ones in existence in their +pristine purity of form, thanks to the admirable editions of the <i>Bach +und Händel Gesselschaft</i>. When Mlle. Pelletan brought me into the work, +the two <i>Iphigenie</i> had been published; <i>Alceste</i> was about to be, and +<i>Armide</i> was ready. In <i>Armide</i> Damcke had been entirely carried away by +his zeal for “improvements”—a zeal that can do so much harm. It was +time this was stopped. Not only had he corrected imaginary faults here +and there, but he had also inserted things of his own invention. He had +even gone so far as to re-orchestrate the ballet music, in the naïve +belief that he was bringing out the author’s real meaning better than he +had done himself. It took an enormous amount of time to undo this +mischief, for I distrusted somewhat my own lights and Mlle. Pelletan had +too high an opinion of Damcke’s work and did not dare to override his +judgment. +</p> + +<p> +That excellent woman did not live to see the end of her work. She began +the preparation of Orphée, but she died almost at once. So I was left to +finish the score alone without that valuable experience and masterly +insight by which she solved the most difficult problems. And there were +real enigmas to be solved at every step. The old engraved scores of +Gluck’s works reproduced his manuscripts faithfully enough, but they +bore evidence of carelessness and amazing inaccuracy. They are mere +sketches instead of complete scores. Many details are vague and +vagueness is not permissible in a serious edition. It follows that the +different editions of Gluck’s works published in the Nineteenth Century, +however sumptuous or careful they may be, are worthless. The Pelletan +edition alone can be consulted with confidence, because we were the only +ones to have all extant and authentic documents in the library at the +Opéra to set us right. We had scores copied for actual performances on +the stage and portions of orchestral parts of incalculable value. In +addition, we had no aim or preoccupation in elaborating this material +other than to reconstitute as closely as possible the thought of the +author. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Switzerland is a country where artistic productions are not unusual. +Every year we have reports of some grandiose performance in which the +people take part themselves. They come from every direction to help, +even from a considerable distance, thanks to the many means of +communication in that delightful land. It is not surprising, therefore, +to learn that a theatre has been built in the pretty town of Mézières, +near Lusanne, for the performance of the works of a young poet, named +Morax. These works are dramas with choruses, and the surrounding country +furnishes the singers. The work given in 1911 was Allenor—the music by +Gustave Doret—and it was a great success. +</p> + +<p> +Gustave Doret is a real artist and he never for a moment thought of +keeping the Théâtre du Jorat for his own exclusive use. He dreamt of +giving Gluck’s works in their original form, for they are always altered +and changed according to the fancies or incompetency of the performers +or directors. They formed a large and influential committee and a +substantial guarantee fund was subscribed. Then they gave a brilliant +banquet at which the Princess of Brancovan was present. And Paderewski, +one of the most enthusiastic promotors of the enterprise, delivered an +eloquent address. No one should be surprised at either his zeal or his +eloquence. Paderewski is not only a pianist; he is a man of great +intellect as well,—a great artist who permits himself the luxury of +playing the piano marvellously. +</p> + +<p> +As he knew that I had spent several years in studying Gluck’s works +under the microscope, so to speak, Gustave Doret did me the honor to ask +my advice. His choice for the opening work was <i>Orphée</i>, which requires +only three principals, Orpheus, Eurydice, and Love. It has become the +custom to add a fourth, a Happy Spirit, but this spirit is one of +Carvalho’s inventions and has no reason for existence. +</p> + +<p> +There are, however, two <i>Orphée</i>. The first is <i>Orfeo</i> which was written +in Italian, on Calzabigi’s text, and was first presented at Venice in +1761. The rôle of Orpheus in this score was written for a contralto and +was designed for the eunuch Quadagni. The Venetian engravers of that day +were either incompetent or, perhaps, there were none, for the scores of +Gluck’s <i>Alceste</i> in Italian and Haydn’s <i>Seasons</i> were printed from +type. However that may be the score of <i>Orfeo</i> was engraved in Paris. +The composer Philidor corrected the proofs. He little thought that +<i>Orfeo</i> would ever get so far as Paris, so he appropriated the romanza +in the first act and introduced it with but slight modifications into +his opéra-comique <i>Le Sorcier</i>. Later on Marie Antoinette called Gluck +to Paris and thus afforded him the opportunity for the complete +development of his genius. After he had written <i>Iphigenie en Aulide</i>, +performed in 1774, especially for the Opéra, he had the idea of adapting +<i>Orfeo</i> for the French stage. To tell the truth he must have thought of +it before, for <i>Orphée</i> appeared at the Opéra only three months after +<i>Iphigenie</i> and it had been entirely rewritten in collaboration with +Moline. The contralto part had been changed to tenor and so the +principal rôle was given to Legros. +</p> + +<p> +While it may be true that the author improved this work in the French +version, it is not true in every case. There is some question whether +the overture existed in the Italian score. It is generally believed that +it did, but there are old copies of this version in existence and they +begin the opera with the funeral chorus and show no overture at all. +This overture, although the <i>Mercure de France</i> treats it as a +“beautiful symphonic piece which serves as a good introduction to the +work,” in reality does not resemble the style of the rest at all. It in +no way prepares for that admirable chorus at the beginning—unequaled of +its kind—which Orpheus’s broken hearted cry of “Eurydice! Eurydice!” +makes so pathetic. +</p> + +<p> +The first act of <i>Orfeo</i> ends in a tumultuous effect of the stringed +instruments which was evidently intended to indicate a change of scene +and the appearance of the stage settings of the infernal regions. This +passage does not appear in the French <i>Orphée</i> and it is lacking in the +engraved score, where it is replaced by a bravura aria of doubtful +taste, accompanied by a single quartet. Whether the stage managers +wanted an entr’acte or the tenor, Legros, demanded an effective aria, or +for both these reasons, a reading of the manuscript indicates how +absolutely the author’s meaning was changed. There is no doubt that +except for some such reason he would have changed this aria and put it +in harmony with the rest of the work. +</p> + +<p> +For a long time this aria was attributed to Bertoni, the composer, and +Gluck was accused of plagiarizing it. As a matter of fact, and to the +contrary, this aria came from an older Italian opera of Gluck’s. Bertoni +not only imitated it in one of his scores, but he had the hardihood to +write an <i>Orfeo</i> on the text already followed by Gluck in which he +plagiarized the work of his illustrious predecessor in a scandalous +fashion. +</p> + +<p> +This same aria, changed with real genius and performed with prodigious +eclat by Madame Viardot, and re-orchestrated by myself, was one of the +strongest reasons for the success of the famous performances at the +Théâtre-Lyrique. But it is well understood that it could not properly +find a place in an edition where the sole end was artistic sincerity and +purity of the text. +</p> + +<p> +From this point of view it would seem that the best manner of giving +<i>Orphée</i> would be to conform to the author’s definitive version. A tenor +would have to take the part of Orpheus, since we no longer have male +contraltos, and to keep to this kind of a voice in <i>Orphée</i> we would +have to have recourse to what is called, in theatrical terms, a +<i>travesti</i>. There are obstacles to this, however. The pitch has changed +since the Eighteenth Century; it has gone up and it is now impossible, +or nearly so, to sing the rôle written for Legros. The contraltos of the +Italian chorus have become the counter-tenors, who, for the same reason, +find themselves struggling with too sharp notes. +</p> + +<p> +In the Seventeenth Century the French pitch was even more flat, and it +is a great pity, for it is almost impossible to perform our old music, +on account of the insuperable obstacles. This is not the case in +Germany, however, or in Italy, and that is the reason why the works of +Sebastian Bach and Mozart can be sung. The same is true of Gluck’s +Italian works. +</p> + +<p> +This was the reason that Doret gave the part of Orpheus to a contralto, +just as is done at the Opéra-Comique. The poetic character of the part +of Orpheus lends itself excellently to such a feminine interpretation. +But in resuming the key of the Italian score, it is necessary to go +back, at least to a considerable degree, to the instrumentation. By a +curious anomaly the beautiful recitative, accompanied by the murmur of +brooks and the songs of the birds, is in C major in both scores. The +author could not have changed them. On the contrary he modified his +instrumentation greatly, simplified and perfected it. +</p> + +<p> +We know that the authors, in utter defiance of mythology, wanted a happy +ending and so brought Eurydice back to life a second time. Love +accomplished this miracle and the work ended with the song “Love +Triumphs,” which is exceedingly joyful and in harmony with the +situation. They did not want this ending, which was in <i>Orfeo</i> and which +Gluck retained in <i>Orphée</i>, at the old Théâtre-Lyrique and the +Opéra-Comique, and they replaced it with a chorus by Echo and Narcissus. +This chorus is charming, but that does not excuse it. Joy was what the +author wanted and this does not give joy at all. Gluck’s finale is +regarded as not sufficiently distinguished, but this is wrong. The real +finale was sung at Mézières and it was found that it was not at all +common, but that its frank gaiety was in the best of taste. +</p> + +<p> +Gluck had no scruples about grinding several grists from the same sack +and drawing from his old works to help out his new ones. So the +parasitical aria attributed to Bertoni was written by Gluck in the first +place in 1764 for a soprano. He wove this into his opera <i>Aristo</i> in +1769. This is also true of the trio, <i>Tendre Amour</i>, which precedes the +finale in the last act. A serious-minded analyst might be tempted to +admire the profound psychology of the author in mingling doleful accents +with expressions of joy, but he would have his labor for his pains. The +trio was taken from the opera <i>Elena e Paride</i>, where Gluck expressed +strongly wrought up emotions. Doret did not keep these two passages and +one can’t blame him. On the other hand, he retained, by making it an +entr’acte, the <i>Ballet des Furies</i>. This was taken from a ballet, <i>Don +Giovanni o il convitato de pietra</i>, which was performed at Vienna in +1761. This passage was used as the accompaniment to Don Juan’s descent +into Hell, surrounded by his band of demons. +</p> + +<p> +Many of Gluck’s compatriots came to Mézières to see <i>Orphée</i> and they +were loyal enough to recognize the superiority of the performance. Some +even had the courage to say, “We murder Gluck in Germany.” +</p> + +<p> +I discovered that fact a long time ago. In my youth I was indignant when +I saw Paris, where Gluck wrote his finest works, quite neglecting them, +whereas Germany continued to promote them. In those days I was +frequently called to the other side of the Rhine to play in concerts, +and I watched for a chance to see one of these masterpieces which had +been forgotten in France. So it was with the liveliest joy that one day +I entered one of the leading German theaters where they were giving +<i>Armide</i>. What a hollow mockery it was! +</p> + +<p> +Madame Malten was Armide, and she was everything that could be wished in +voice, talent, style, beauty and charm. She spoke French without an +accent and was as remarkable as an actress as a singer, so she would +without doubt have had great success at the Opéra in Paris. She was +Armide herself, an irresistible enchantress. +</p> + +<p> +But the rest! Renaud was a raw boy, and his shaven chin brought out in +sharp relief enormous black moustaches with long waxed ends. He had a +voice, to be sure, but no style, and no understanding of the work he was +trying to interpret. +</p> + +<p> +Hidradot is an old sorcerer tempered in the fires of Hell. He enters, +saying: +</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"> +<div class="line">“I see hard by Death that threatens me,</div> +<div class="line">And already old age, that has chilled my blood,</div> +<div class="line">Is on me, bowing me beneath a crushing burden.”</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Imagine my surprise at seeing come on the stage a magnificent specimen +of manhood, with a curled black beard, in all the glory of his youth and +vigor superbly arrayed in a red cloak trimmed with gold! +</p> + +<p> +The stage setting was also extraordinary. In the second act Renaud went +to sleep at the back of the stage, forcing Armide to speak the whole of +the beautiful scene which follows, one of the most important in the +part, at a distance from the footlights and with her back to the +audience. +</p> + +<p> +As for the orchestra, sometimes it followed Gluck’s text and sometimes +it borrowed bits of orchestration which Meyerbeer had written for the +Opéra at Berlin. This orchestration is interesting, and I know it well +for I have had it in hand. It is only fair to say that Gluck, from some +inexplicable caprice, did not give the same care to the instrumentation +of <i>Armide</i> that he did to <i>Orphée</i>, <i>Alcesti</i>, and the <i>Iphigenies</i>. +The trombones do not appear at all and the drums and flutes only at rare +intervals. Re-orchestration is not absolutely necessary and Meyerbeer’s +is no more reprehensible than those with which Mozart enriched Handel’s +<i>Messe</i> and <i>La Fête d’Alexandre</i>. What was inadmissible was not +deciding frankly for one version or the other. It was like a badly +patched coat which shows the old cloth in one place and the new in +another. +</p> + +<p> +Afterwards I saw <i>Armide</i> treated in another way. +</p> + +<p> +Did you ever happen to cherish the memory of a delightful and +picturesque city, where everything made a harmonious whole, where the +beautiful walks were arched over by old trees—and later come back to it +to find it embellished, the trees cut down, the walks replaced by +enormous buildings which dwarfed into insignificance the ancient marvels +which gave the city its charm? +</p> + +<p> +This was the case with me when I saw <i>Armide</i> again in a city which I +shall not name. The opera had been judged superannuated and had been +“improved.” A young composer had written a new score in which he +inserted here and there such bits of Gluck as he thought worthy of being +preserved. A costly and magnificently imbecile luxuriousness set off the +whole piece. I may be pardoned the cruel adjective when I say that in +the scene of Hate, so deeply inspired, and which takes place in a sort +of cave, they relegated the chorus to the wings to make a place for +dragons, fantastic birds beating their wings, and other deviltries. +This, of course, deprived the chorus of all its power and distinction. +</p> + +<p> +But the best was at the end of the second act. The forest with its +trees, grass and rocks entirely disappeared in the flies taking Renaud +and Armide with it and the spectator was left, for some unknown reason, +looking at a background surrounded by mountains. Then, by a marvel of +mechanism, there appeared to the sound of ultramodern music, Renaud +sleeping on a bed of state, with Armide standing at the foot and +stretching forth her hand with a gesture of authority, declaiming in a +solemn tone, +</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"> +<div class="line">“Rinaldo, I love you!”</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +and the curtain fell to the applause of the audience. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +We owe much to Germany in music, for it has produced many great +musicians. It can set off against our trinity of Corneille, Racine, and +Molière, the no less glorious Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But Germany +seems to have lost all respect for the meaning of its own music and for +its own glories. Instead of watching over the purity of the text of its +masterpieces, it alters them at its pleasure and makes them all but +unrecognizable. We abuse nuances but they were rare in earlier days. An +orchestra conductor who performs symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, even by +Beethoven, has the right to make additions. But it is intolerable that +the scores should be printed with these nuances and bowings which are in +no way due to the author and which are imposed by the editor. +Nevertheless, that is what happens, and it is impossible to tell where +the authentic text ends and the interpolation begins. In addition, the +interpolation may be the exact contrary of what the author intended. +</p> + +<p> +This evil is at its worst in piano music. Our famous teachers, like +Marmontel and Le Couppey, have published editions of the classics which +are full of their own directions. But the player is forewarned; it is +the Marmontel or Le Couppey edition and makes no pretence of +authenticity. In Germany, however, there are supposedly authentic +editions, based on the originals, but which superimpose their own +pernicious inventions on the author’s text. +</p> + +<p> +The touch of the piano used to be different from what it is to-day. The +directions in Mozart’s and Beethoven’s works show that they used the +execution of stringed instruments as their model. The touch was lighter +and the fingers were raised so that the notes were separated slightly, +and not run together except when indicated. The supposition is that this +must have led to a dryness of tone. I remember to have heard in my +childhood some old people whose playing was singularly hopping. Then, +there came a reaction, and with it a passion for slurring the notes. +When I was Stamaty’s pupil, it was considered most difficult to “tie” +the notes; that required, however, only dexterity and suppleness. “When +she learns to ‘tie,’ she will know how to play,” said the mother of a +young pianist. Nevertheless, the trick of perpetual <i>legato</i> becomes +exceedingly monotonous and takes away all character from the pianoforte +classics. But it is insisted on everywhere in the modern German +editions. Throughout there are connections seemingly interminable in +length, and indications of <i>legato</i>, <i>sempre legato</i>, which the author +not only did not indicate, but in places where it is easy to see that he +intended the exact opposite. +</p> + +<p> +If this is the case, what shall be said of marking the fingering on all +the notes—which often makes good playing impossible. Liszt taught +hundreds of pupils according to the best principles, yet such erroneous +principles have prevailed! +</p> + +<p> +Disciples of the ivory keys are numerous in our day. Everybody wants to +have a piano, and everybody plays it or thinks he does, which is not +always the same thing, and few really understand what the term “to play +the piano,” so currently used, means. +</p> + +<p> +The harpsichord reigned supreme before the appearance of the piano—an +instrument which is beloved by some and execrated by others. To his +utter amazement Reyer was considered an enemy of the pianoforte. The +harpsichord has been revived of late so that it is needless to describe +it. It lacks strength, and that was the reason it was dethroned in a +period when strength was everything. On the other hand, it has +distinction and elegance. As the player can not modify the intensity of +the sound by a single pressure of the finger—in which it resembles the +organ—like the organ, with its multiple keyboards and registers, the +harpsichord has a wide variety of effects and affords the opportunity +for several octaves to sound simultaneously. As a result, while music +written for the harpsichord gains in strength and expression on the +modern instrument, it often assumes a deceptive monotony for which the +author is not responsible. +</p> + +<p> +The players of the harpsichord were ignorant of muscular effects; there +was nothing of the unchained lion about them. The delicate hands of a +marquise lost none of their gracefulness as they skimmed over the +keyboards, and the red or black keys emphasized their whiteness. +</p> + +<p> +The introduction of the hammer in the place of the tiny nib permitted +the modification of the quality of sound by differences in the pressure +of the fingers, and also the production at will of such nuances as +<i>forte</i> and <i>piano</i> without recourse to the different registers. This is +the reason why the new instrument was first called the pianoforte. The +word was long and cumbersome and was cut in half. When it became +necessary to <i>assault</i> the note, they used the phrase “to hit the +forte.” The papers which gave accounts of young Mozart’s concerts +praised him for his ability to “hit.” +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless one did not hit hard. These keyboards with their limited +keys responded so easily that a child’s fingers were sufficient. I first +played on one of these instruments at the age of three. It was made by +Zimmerman, whose son was Gounod’s father-in-law. +</p> + +<p> +Later, the weight of the keys was increased to get a greater volume of +sound. Then, when long-haired <i>virtuosi</i>, playing by main strength, +produced peals of thunder, they really “<i>toucha du piano</i>.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +To return to <i>Orphée</i> and end as we began, I have to make a painful +confession. If the works of Gluck in general and <i>Orphée</i> in particular +have had a happy influence on our musical taste, a passage from this +last work has been a noxious influence,—the famous chorus of the demons +“<i>Quel est l’audacieux—qui dans ces sombres lieux—ose porter ses +pas?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +In the old days French opera was based on declamation and it was +scrupulously respected even in the arias. There is a fine example of +this excellent system in Lully’s famous aria from <i>Medusa</i> to prove what +strength results from a close relation between the accent of the verse +and the music. Gluck was one of the most fervent disciples of this +system, but <i>Orphée</i>, as we know, was derived from <i>Orfeo</i>. The question +was whether he could even think of suppressing this spectacular chorus +with its amazing strength which was one of the principal reasons for the +work’s success. Unfortunately the music of the chorus was moulded on the +Italian text, and each verse ended with the accent on the antepenult, +which occurs frequently in German and Italian, but never in French. And +they sing: +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">Quel est l’au<em>da</em>cieux</div> +<div class="line">Qui dans ces <em>som</em>bres lieux</div> +<div class="line">Ose por<em>ter</em> ses pas</div> +<div class="line">Et devant <em>le</em> trepas</div> +<div class="line-ii">Ne frémit pas?</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +As French is not strongly accented such faults are tolerated. Gluck’s +theme impressed itself on the memory, so that he dealt a terrific blow +to the purity of prosody. We gradually became so disinterested in this +that by Auber’s time scarcely any attention was paid to it. Finally, +Offenbach appeared. He was a German by birth and his musical ideas +naturally rhymed with German in direct contradiction to the French words +to which they applied. This constant bungling passed for originality. +Sometimes it would have been necessary to change the division of a +measure to get a correct melody, as in the song: +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">Un p’tit bonhomme</div> +<div class="line">Pas plus haut qu’ça.</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +In such a case we might say that he did wrong for the mere pleasure of +going astray. But popular taste was so corrupted that no one noticed it +and everybody who wrote in the lighter vein fell into the same habits. +</p> + +<p> +We owe a debt of gratitude to André Messager for breaking away from this +manner and setting musical phraseology aright. His return to the old +traditions was not the least of the attractions of his delightful +<i>Véronique</i>. +</p> + +<p> +But we are wandering far from Gluck and <i>Orphée</i>, although not so far +as we might think. In art, as in everything, extremes meet, and there +are all kinds of tastes. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>Chapter XVI</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Delsarte</div> + +<p> +Felix Duquesnal in one of his brilliant articles has written something +about Delsarte, the singer, in connection with his controversy with +Madame Carvalho. The cause of this controversy was the lessons she took +from him. The name of Delsarte should never be forgotten, as I shall try +to explain. Madame Carvalho did not refuse to pay Delsarte for her +lessons, but she did not want to be called his pupil. Although she had +attended the Conservatoire, she wanted to be known solely as a pupil of +Duprez. As a matter of fact it was Duprez who knew how to make the +“Little Miolan,” the delightful warbler, into the great singer with her +important place on the French stage. +</p> + +<p> +But this was accomplished at a price. Madame Carvalho told me about it +herself. Her medium register was weak and Duprez undertook to +substitute chest tones and develop clearness as much as possible. “When +I began to work,” she said, “my mother was frightened. One would have +thought that a calf was being killed in the house.” +</p> + +<p> +Ordinarily such a method would produce a harsh, shaky voice and all +freshness would be lost. But in Madame Carvalho’s case the opposite was +true. The freshness and purity of her voice were beyond compare, while +its smoothness and the harmony of the registers were perfect. It was a +miracle the like of which we shall probably never see again. +</p> + +<p> +But if Duprez made a wonderful voice at the risk of breaking it, I have +always thought that Madame Carvalho owed her admirable diction, so +distinguishing a mark of her talent, to Delsarte. Delsarte was a +disastrous and deadly teacher of singing. No voice could stand up under +his methods, not even his own, although he attributed its loss to +teaching at the Conservatoire. But he studied deeply the arts of +speaking and gesture, and he was a past master in them. +</p> + +<p> +I once attended a course he gave in these subjects. He stated highly +illuminating truths and gave the psychological reasons for accents and +the physiological reasons for the gestures. He determined the use of +gestures in some sort of scientific way. Mystic fancies were mixed up in +these questions. +</p> + +<p> +It was extremely interesting to see him dissect one of Fontaine’s fables +or a passage from Racine, and to hear him explain why the accent should +be on such a word or on such a syllable and not on another, to bring out +the sense. Although this course was so instructive, few took it, for +Delsarte was almost unknown to people. His influence scarcely extended +outside a narrow circle of admirers, but the quality made up for the +quantity. This was the circle of the old <i>Debats</i>, which was formerly +devoted exclusively to Romanticism, but at this time to the +classics—the set headed by Ingres in painting and Reber in music. +Theirs was a secluded and ascetic world in silent revolt against the +abominations of the century. One had to hear the tone of devotion in +which the members of this circle spoke of the ancients to appreciate +their attitude. Nothing in our day can give any idea of them. “They +say,” one of the devotees once told me, “that the ancients learned +Beauty through a sort of revelation, and Beauty has steadily degenerated +ever since.” +</p> + +<p> +Such false notions were, however, professed by the most sincere people +who were deeply devoted to art. So this group, which had no influence on +their own contemporaries, nevertheless, without knowing it or wishing to +do so, played a useful rôle. +</p> + +<p> +As we know, the public was divided into two camps. On one side were the +partisans of Melody, opéra-comique, the Italians, and, with some effort, +of grand opera. Opposed to them were the partisans of music in the grand +style—Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Sebastian Bach, although he was +little known and is less well known now. +</p> + +<p> +No one gave a thought to our old French school, to the composers from +Lulli to Gluck, who produced so many excellent works. Reber showed +Delsarte the way and the latter, naturally an antiquarian, threw +himself into this unexplored field with surprising vigor. Only Lulli’s +name was known, while Campra, Mondonville and the others were entirely +forgotten. Even Gluck himself had been forgotten. First editions of his +orchestral scores, which it is impossible to find to-day, sold for a few +francs at the second-hand book shops. Rameau was never mentioned. +</p> + +<p> +Delsarte, handsome, eloquent, and fascinating, wielded an almost +imperial sway over his little coterie of artists. Thanks to him the lamp +of our old French school was kept dimly burning until the day when +inherent justice permitted it to be revived. In this restricted world no +evening was complete without Delsarte. He would come in with some story +of frightful throat trouble to justify his chronic lack of voice, and, +then, without any voice at all but by a kind of magic, would put +shudders into the tones of Orpheus or Eurydice. I often played his +accompaniments and he always demanded <i>pianissimo</i>. +</p> + +<p> +“But,” I would say, “the author has indicated <i>forte</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is true,” he would answer, “but in those days the harpsichord had +little depth of tone.” +</p> + +<p> +It would have been easy to answer that the accompaniment was written for +the orchestra and not for the harpsichord. +</p> + +<p> +Delsarte’s execution, on account of the insufficiency of his vocal +powers, was often entirely different from what the author intended. +Furthermore, he was absolutely ignorant of the correct way to interpret +the appogiatures and other marks which are not used to-day. As a result +his interpretation of the older works was inexact. But that did not +matter, for even if masterpieces are presented badly, there is always +something left. Besides, both the singer and his hearers had Faith. He +had a way of pronouncing “Gluck” which aroused expectation even before +one heard a note. +</p> + +<p> +From time to time Delsarte gave a concert. He would come on the stage +and say that he had a bad throat, but that he would try to give +<i>Iphigenia’s Dream</i> or something of that sort. His courage would prove +to be greater than his strength and he would have to stop. He would +then fall back on old-time songs or La Fontaine’s fables in which he +excelled. A skilfully studied mimicry, which seemed entirely natural, +underlay his reading. A red handkerchief, which he knew how to draw from +his pocket at just the proper moment, always excited applause. +</p> + +<p> +One day he conceived the idea of giving one of Bossuet’s sermons at his +concert. Religious authority was very powerful at the time and forbade +it. Yet there would have been no sacrilege, and I regretted keenly that +I could not hear this magnificent prose delivered so wonderfully. Now +that religious authority has lost its secular support, we see things in +an entirely different way. Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints walk the +stage, speak in prose or verse, and sing. It would seem that no one is +shocked for there is no protest. For my own part I must frankly confess +that such pseudo-religious exhibitions are disagreeable. They disturb me +greatly and I can see no use in them. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +In order to foster admiration for the old masters, Delsarte conceived +the idea of publishing a collection of pieces taken from their works +right and left, and, as a result, he created his <i>Archives du Chant</i>. He +had special type made and the publication was a marvel of beautiful +typography, correctness and good taste. At the beginning of each part +was a cleverly harmonised passage of church music. The support of a +publisher was necessary for the success of such a work, but Delsarte was +his own publisher and he met with no success at all. Similar but +inferior publications have been markedly successful. +</p> + +<p> +Delsarte aimed at purity of text, but his successors have been forced to +modernize the works to make them accessible for the public. This fact is +painful. In literature the texts are studied and the endeavor is to +reproduce the writer’s thought as closely as possible. In music it is +entirely different. With each new edition a professor is commissioned to +supervise the work and he adds something of his own invention. +</p> + +<p> +Delsarte, a singer without a voice, an imperfect musician, a doubtful +scholar, guided by an intuition which approached genius, in spite of his +numerous faults played an important rôle in the evolution of French +music in the Nineteenth Century. He was no ordinary man. The impression +he gave to all who knew him was of a visionary, an apostle. When one +heard him speak with his fiery enthusiasm about these works of the past +which the world had forgotten, one could but believe that such oblivion +was unjust and desire to know these relics of another age. +</p> + +<p> +Without the shadow of a doubt I owed to his leadership the necessary +courage to make a profound study of the works of the old school, for +they are unattractive at first. Berlioz berated all this music. He had +seen Gluck’s works on the stage in his youth, but he could see nothing +in them that was not “superannuated and childish.” With all respect to +Berlioz’s memory, it deserved a kinder judgment than that. When one +reaches the depths of this music, although it may be at the price of +some effort, he is well repaid for his pains. There is real feeling, +grandeur and even something of the picturesque in these works—as much +as could be with the means at their disposal. +</p> + +<p> +It is only right that we should pay tribute to Delsarte’s memory. He +was a pioneer who, during his whole life, proclaimed the value of +immortal works, which the world despised. That is no slight merit. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>Chapter XVII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Seghers</div> + +<p> +While Delsarte was preparing the way for the old French opera and above +all for Gluck’s works, another pioneer of musical evolution was working +to form the taste of the Parisian public, but with an entirely different +power and another effect. Seghers was the man. He played a great rôle +and his memory should be honored. +</p> + +<p> +As his name indicates, Seghers was a Belgian. He started life as a +violinist and was one of Baillot’s pupils. His execution was masterly, +his tone admirable, and he had a musical intelligence of the first +order. He had every right to a first rank among <i>virtuosi</i>, but this +man, herculean in appearance and tenacious in his purposes, lost all his +power before an audience. +</p> + +<p> +He had a dream of giving to lovers of music the last of Beethoven’s +quartets, which were considered at the time both unplayable and +incomprehensible. In the end he planned a series of concerts at which, +despite my age—I was only fifteen—I was to be the regular pianist. He +planned to give in addition to these quartets, some of Bach’s sonatas +and Reber’s and Schumann’s trios. I spoke of this plan to his +mother-in-law one day as she was peacefully embroidering at the window, +and told her how pleased I was at the thought of the concerts. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t count on it too much,” she told me. “He’ll never give them.” +</p> + +<p> +When everything was ready, he invited some thirty people to listen to a +trial performance. It was wretched. All the depth of tone had gone from +his violin as well as the skill from his fingers.... The project was +abandoned. +</p> + +<p> +It was left for Maurin to make something out of these terrible quartets. +Maurin had peculiar gifts. He had a lightness of bow which I have never +seen equalled by anyone and a lightness and charm which enchanted the +public. But I can say in all sincerity that Seghers’s execution was even +better. Unfortunately for him I was his only listener. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Seghers was a woman of great beauty, unusually intelligent and +distinguished. She had been one of Liszt’s pupils and was a pianist of +first rank. But she was even more timid than her husband—a single +listener was sufficient to paralyze her. When Liszt was teaching Madame +Seghers, he came to appreciate her husband’s real worth and entrusted +his daughter’s musical education to him. This is sufficient indication +of the esteem in which Liszt held Seghers. So it was not surprising that +he gave me valuable and greatly needed suggestions in regard to style +and the piano itself, for his friendship with Liszt had given him a +thorough understanding of the instrument. +</p> + +<p> +I first saw and heard Liszt at Seghers’s house. He had reappeared in +Paris after long years of absence, and by that time he had begun to seem +almost legendary. The story went that since he had become chapel-master +at Weimar he was devoting himself to grand compositions, and, what +appeared unbelievable, “piano music.” People who ought to have known +that Mozart was the greatest pianist of his time shrugged their +shoulders at this. As a climax it was insinuated that Liszt was setting +systems of philosophy to music. +</p> + +<p> +I studied Liszt’s works with all the enthusiasm of my eighteen years for +I already regarded him as a genius and attributed to him even before I +saw him almost superhuman powers as a pianist. Remarkable to relate he +surpassed the conception I had formed. The dreams of my youthful +imagination were but prose in comparison with the Bacchic hymn evoked by +his supernatural fingers. No one who did not hear him at the height of +his powers can have any idea of his performance. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Seghers was a member of the Société des Concerts at the Conservatoire. +This reached only a restricted public and there was no other symphony +concert worthy of the name in Paris at the time. And if the public was +limited, the repertoire was even more so. Haydn’s, Mozart’s and +Beethoven’s symphonies were played almost exclusively, and Mendelssohn’s +were introduced with the greatest difficulty. Only fragments of vast +compositions like the oratorios were given. An author who was still +alive was looked upon as an intruder. However, the conductor was +permitted to introduce a solo of his own selection. Thus my friend +Auguste Tolbecque, who was over eighty, was permitted to give—he still +played beautifully—my first <i>concerto</i> for the violoncello which I had +written for him. Deldevez, the conductor of the famous orchestra at the +time, did not overlook the chance to tell me that he had put my +<i>concerto</i> on the programme only through consideration for Tolbecque. +Otherwise, he added, he would have preferred Messieurs So-and-so’s. +</p> + +<p> +Not only did the Conservatoire audiences know little music, but the +larger public knew none at all. The symphonies of the three great +classic masters were known to amateurs for the most part only through +Czerny’s arrangement for two pianos. +</p> + +<p> +This was the situation when Seghers left the Société des Concerts and +founded the Société St. Cécile. He led the orchestra himself. The new +society took its name from the St. Cécile hall which was then in the Rue +de la Chaussée d’Antin. It was a large square hall and was excellent in +spite of the prejudice in favor of halls with curved lines for music. +Curved surfaces, as Cavaillé-Coll, who was an expert in this matter, +once told me, distort sound as curved mirrors distort images. Halls used +for music should, therefore, have only straight lines. The St. Cécile +hall was sufficiently large to allow a complete orchestra and chorus to +be placed properly and heard as well. +</p> + +<p> +Seghers managed to assemble an excellent and sizable orchestra and he +also secured soloists who were young then but who have since become +celebrities. The orchestra was poorly paid and also very unruly. I have +seen them rebel at the difficulties in Beethoven, and it was even worse +when Seghers undertook to give Schumann who was considered the <i>ne plus +ultra</i> of modernism. Oftentimes there were real riots. But we heard +there for the first time the overture of <i>Manfred</i>, Mendelssohn’s +<i>Symphony in A minor</i>, and the overture to <i>Tannhauser</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The modern French school found the doors in the Rue Bergère closed to +them, but they were welcomed with open arms at the Chaussée d’Antin. +Among them were Reber, Gounod, and Gouvy, and even beginners like +Georges Bizet and myself. I made my first venture there with my +<i>Symphony in E flat</i> which I wrote when I was seventeen. In order to get +the committee to adopt it, Seghers offered it as a symphony by an +unknown author, which had been sent to him from Germany. The committees +swallowed the bait, and the symphony, which would probably not had a +hearing if my name had been signed, was praised to the skies. +</p> + +<p> +I can still see myself at a rehearsal listening to a conversation +between Berlioz and Gounod. Both of them were greatly interested in me, +so that they spoke freely and discussed the excellences and faults of +this anonymous symphony. They took the work seriously and it can be +imagined how I drank in their words. When the veil of mystery was +lifted, the interest of the two great musicians changed to friendship. I +received a letter from Gounod, which I have kept carefully, and as it +does credit to the author, I take the liberty of reproducing it here: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<div>My dear Camille:</div> + +<p style="text-indent: 1em"> +I was officially informed yesterday that you are the author of the +symphony which they played on Sunday. I suspected it; but now that +I am sure, I want to tell you at once how pleased I was with it. +You are beyond your years; always keep on—and remember that on +Sunday, December 11, 1853, you obligated yourself to become a great +master. +</p> + +<div class="line-iii">Your pleased and devoted friend,</div> + +<div style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 12em">Ch. Gounod.</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Many works which had been unknown to Parisian audiences were given at +these concerts and nowhere else. Among them were Schubert’s <i>Symphony in +C,</i> fragments of Weber’s opera <i>Préciosa</i>, his <i>Jubel overture</i>, and +symphonies by Gade, Gouvy, Gounod, and Reber. These symphonies are not +dazzling but they are charming. They form an interesting link in the +golden chain, and the public has a right and even some sort of duty to +hear them. They would enjoy hearing them too, just as at the Louvre they +like to see certain pictures which are not extraordinary but which are, +nevertheless, worthy of the place they occupy. That is to say, if the +public is really guided by a love of art and seeks only intellectual +pleasure instead of sensations and shocks. Some one has said lately that +where there is no feeling there is no music. We could, however, cite +many passages of music which are absolutely lacking in emotion and which +are beautiful nevertheless from the standpoint of pure esthetic beauty. +But what am I saying? Painting goes its own way and emotion, feeling, +and passion are evoked by the least landscape. Maurice Barres brought in +this fashion and he could even see passion in rocks. Happy is he who can +follow him there. +</p> + +<p> +Among the things we heard at that time and which we never hear now I +must note especially Berlioz’s <i>Corsaire</i> and <i>King Lear</i>. His name is +so much beloved by the present day public that this neglect is both +unjust and unjustifiable. The great man himself came to the Société St. +Cécile one day to conduct his <i>L’Enfance du Christ</i> which he had just +written—or rather <i>La Fuite en Egypt</i> which was the only part of the +work that was in existence then. He composed the rest of it afterwards. +I remember perfectly the performances which the great man directed. They +were lively and spirited rather than careful, but somewhat slower than +what Edouard Colonne has accustomed us to. The time was faster and the +nuances sharper. +</p> + +<p> +In spite of the enthusiasm of the conductor and the skill and talent of +the orchestra, the society led a hand-to-mouth existence. The sinews of +war were lacking. Weckerlin directed the choruses and I acted as the +accompanist at the rehearsals. Love of art sufficed us, but the singers +and instrumentalists were not satisfied with that in the absence of all +emoluments. If Seghers had been adaptable, he might have secured +resources, but that was not his forte. Meyerbeer wanted him to give his +<i>Struensée</i> and Halévy wanted a performance of his <i>Prométhée</i>. But this +was contrary to Seghers’s convictions, and when he had once made up his +mind nothing could change him. Nevertheless he did give the overture to +<i>Struensée</i> and it would have been no great effort to give the rest. As +to <i>Prométhée</i>, even if the last part is not in harmony with the rest +of it, the work was well worthy the honor of a performance, which the +proud society in the Rue Bergère had accorded it. By these refusals +Seghers was deprived of the support of two powerful protectors. +</p> + +<p> +Pasdeloup craftily took advantage of the situation. He had plenty of +money and, as he knew what the financial situation was, he went to the +rehearsals and corrupted the artists. For the most part they were young +people in needy circumstances and could not refuse his attractive +propositions. He killed Seghers’s society and built on its ruins the +Société des Jeunes Artistes, which later became the Concerts Populaires. +</p> + +<p> +Pasdeloup was sincerely fond of music but he was a very ordinary +musician. He had little of Seghers’s feeling and profound comprehension +of the art. In Seghers’s hands the popular concerts would have become an +admirable undertaking, but Pasdeloup, in spite of his zeal and skill, +was able to give them only a superficial and deceptive brilliancy. +Besides, Seghers would have worked for the development of the French +school whom Pasdeloup, with but few exceptions, kept under a bushel +until 1870. Among these exceptions were a symphony by Gounod, one by +Gouvy and the overture to Berlioz’s <i>Frances-Juges</i>. Until the +misfortunes and calamities of that terrible year the French symphonic +school had been repressed and stifled between the Société des Concerts +and the Concerts Populaires. Perhaps they were necessary so that this +school might be freed and give flight to its fancies. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>Chapter XVIII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Rossini</div> + +<p> +Nowadays it is difficult to form any idea of Rossini’s position in our +beautiful city of Paris half a century ago. He had retired from active +life a long time before, but he had a greater reputation in his idleness +than many others in their activity. All Paris sought the honor of being +admitted to his magnificent, high-windowed apartment. As the demigod +never went out in the evening, his friends were always sure of finding +him at home. At one time or another all sorts of social sets rubbed +elbows at his great soirees. The most brilliant singers and the most +famous virtuosi appeared at these “evenings.” The master was surrounded +by sycophants, but they did not influence him, for he knew their true +worth. He ruled his regular following with the hauteur of a superior +being who does not deign to reveal himself to the first comer. It is a +question how he came to be held in such honor. +</p> + +<p> +His works, outside of the <i>Barbier</i> and <i>Guillaume Tell</i>, and some +performances of <i>Moïse</i>, belonged to the past. They still went to see +<i>Otello</i> at the Théâtre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick’s C +diesis. Rossini was under so little illusion that he tried to oppose the +effort to have <i>Semiramide</i> put into the repertoire at the Opéra. And, +nevertheless, the Parisian public actually worshipped him. +</p> + +<p> +This public—I am speaking now of the musical public or what is called +that—was divided into two hostile camps. There were the lovers of +melody who were in the large majority and included the musical critics; +and, on the other side, the subscribers to the Conservatoire and the +Maurin, Alard and Amingaud quartets. They were devotees of learned +music; “poseurs,” others said, who pretended to admire works they did +not understand at all. +</p> + +<p> +There was no melody in Beethoven; some even denied that there was any in +Mozart. Melody was found, we were told, only in the works of the +Italian school, of which Rossini was the leader, and in the school of +Herold and Auber, which was descended from the Italian. +</p> + +<p> +The Melodists considered Rossini their standard bearer, a symbol to +rally around, even though they had just obtained good prices for his +works at the second-hand shops and now permitted them to fall into +oblivion. +</p> + +<p> +From some words he let fall during our intimacy I can state that this +neglect was painful to him. But it was a just—perhaps too +just—retribution for the fatality with which Rossini, doubtless in +spite of himself, served as a weapon against Beethoven. The first +encounter was at Vienna where the success of <i>Tancred</i> crushed forever +the dramatic ambitions of the author of <i>Fidelio</i>; later, at Paris, they +used <i>Guillaume Tell</i> in combating the increasing invasion of the +symphony and chamber music. +</p> + +<p> +I was twenty when M. and Mme. Viardot introduced me to Rossini. He +invited me to his small evening receptions and received me with his +usual rather meaningless cordiality. At the end of a month, when he +found that I asked to be heard neither as a pianist nor as a composer, +he changed his attitude. “Come and see me tomorrow morning,” he said. +“We can talk then.” +</p> + +<p> +I was quick to respond to this flattering invitation and I found a very +different Rossini from the one of the evening. He was intensely +interested in and open-minded to ideas, which, if they were not +advanced, were at least broad and noble. He gave proof of this when +Liszt’s famous <i>Messe</i> was performed for the first time at St. Eustache. +He went to its defense in the face of an almost unanimous opposition. +</p> + +<p> +He said to me one day, +</p> + +<p> +“You have written a duet for a flute and clarinet for Dorus and Leroy. +Won’t you ask them to play it at one of my evenings?” +</p> + +<p> +The two great artists did not have to be urged. Then an unheard of thing +happened. As he never had a written programme on such occasions, Rossini +managed so that they believed that the duet was his own. It is easy to +imagine the success of the piece under these conditions. When the encore +was over, Rossini took me to the dining-room and made me sit near him, +holding me by the hand so that I could not get away. A procession of +fawning admirers passed in front of him. Ah! Master! What a masterpiece! +Marvellous! +</p> + +<p> +And when the victim had exhausted the resources of the language in +praise, Rossini replied, quietly: +</p> + +<p> +“I agree with you. But the duet wasn’t mine; it was written by this +gentleman.” +</p> + +<p> +Such kindness combined with such ingenuity tells more about the great +man than many volumes of commentaries. For Rossini was a great man. The +young people of to-day are in no position to judge his works, which were +written, as he said himself, for singers and a public who no longer +exist. +</p> + +<p> +“I am criticised,” he said one day, “for the great <i>crescendo</i> in my +works. But if I hadn’t put the <i>crescendo</i> into my works, they would +never have been played at the Opéra.” +</p> + +<p> +In our day the public are slaves. I have read in the programme of one +house, “All marks of approbation will be severely repressed.” Formerly, +especially in Italy, the public was master and its taste law. As it came +before the lights were up, a great overture with a <i>crescendo</i> was as +necessary as cavatinas, duets and ensembles: they came to hear the +singers and not to be present at an opera. In many of his works, +especially in <i>Otello</i>, Rossini made a great step forward towards +realism in opera. In <i>Moïse</i> and <i>Le Siège de Corinthe</i> (not to mention +<i>Guillaume Tell</i>) he rose to heights which have not been surpassed in +spite of the poverty of the means at his disposal. As Victor Hugo has +victoriously demonstrated, such poverty is no obstacle to genius and +wealth in them is only an advantage to mediocrity. +</p> + +<p> +I was one of the regular pianists at Rossini’s. The others were +Stanzieri, a charming young man of whom Rossini was very fond and who +lived but a short time, and Diemer, who was also young but already a +great artist. One or the other of us would often play at the evening +entertainments the slight pieces for the piano which the Master used to +write to take up his time. I was only too willing to accompany the +singers, when Rossini did not do so himself. He accompanied them +admirably for he played the piano to perfection. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill07-box"><a id="ill07" name="ill07"></a> +<a href="images/ill07.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="389" height="587" id="ill07-img" src="images/ill07s.jpg" title="Mme. Patti" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Mme. Patti</div> +</div> + +<p> +Unfortunately I was not there the evening that Patti sang for Rossini +the first time. We know that after she had sung the aria from <i>Le +Barbier</i>, he said to her, after the usual compliments, +</p> + +<p> +“Who wrote that aria you just sang?” +</p> + +<p> +I saw him three days afterwards and he hadn’t cooled off even then. +</p> + +<p> +“I am fully aware,” he said, “that arias should be embellished. That’s +what they are for. But not to leave a note of them even in the +recitatives! That is too much!” +</p> + +<p> +In his irritation he complained that the sopranos persisted in singing +this aria which was written for a contralto and did not sing what had +been written for the sopranos at all. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand the diva was irritated as well. She thought the matter +over and realized that it would be serious to have Rossini for an enemy. +So some days later she went to ask his advice. It was well for her that +she took it, for her talent, though brilliant and fascinating, was not +as yet fully formed. Two months after this incident, Patti sang the +arias from <i>La Gaza Ladra</i> and <i>Semiramide</i>, with the master as her +accompanist. And she combined with her brilliancy the absolute +correctness which she always showed afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +Much has been written about the premature interruption of Rossini’s +career after the appearance of <i>Guillaume Tell</i>. It has been compared +with Racine’s life after <i>Phèdre</i>. The failure of <i>Phèdre</i> was brutal +and cruel, which was added to by the scandalous success of the <i>Phèdre</i> +of an unworthy rival. Racine’s friends, the Port Royalists, did not +hesitate to make the most of the opportunity. “You’ve lost your soul,” +they told him. “And now you haven’t even success.” But later, when he +took up his pen again, he gave us two masterpieces in <i>Esther</i> and +<i>Athalie</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Rossini was accustomed to success and it was hard for him to run into a +half-hearted success when he knew he had surpassed himself. This was +doubtless due to the extravagant phraseology of Hippolyte Bis, one of +the librettists. But <i>Guillaume Tell</i> had its admirers from the start. +I heard it spoken of constantly in my childhood. If the work did not +appear on the bills of the Opéra, it furnished the amateurs with choice +bits. +</p> + +<p> +In my opinion, if Rossini committed suicide as far as his art was +concerned, he did so because he had nothing more to say. Rossini was a +spoiled child of success and he could not live without it. Such +unexpected hostility put an end to a stream which had flowed so +abundantly for so long. +</p> + +<p> +The success of his <i>Soirées Musicales</i> and his <i>Stabat</i> encouraged him. +But he wrote nothing more except those slight compositions for the piano +and for singing which may be compared to the last vibrations of a sound, +as it dies away. +</p> + +<p> +Later—much later—came <i>La Messe</i> to which undue importance has been +attributed. “<i>Le Passus</i>,” one critic wrote, “is the cry of a stricken +spirit.” La Messe is written with elegance by an assured and expert +hand, but that is all. There are no traces of the pen which wrote the +second act of <i>Guillaume Tell</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Apropos of this second act, it is not, perhaps, generally known that the +author had no idea of ending it with a prayer. Insurrections are not +usually begun with so serious a song. But at the rehearsals the effect +of the unison, <i>Si parmi nous il est des Traîtres</i>, was so great that +they did not dare to go on beyond it. So they suppressed the real +ending, which is now the brilliant entrancing end of the overture. This +finale is extant in the library at the Opéra. It would be an interesting +experiment to restore it and give this beautiful act its natural +conclusion. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xix" id="xix"></a>Chapter XIX</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Jules Massenet</div> + +<p> +Massenet has been praised indiscriminately—sometimes for his numerous +and brilliant powers and sometimes for merits he did not have at all. +</p> + +<p> +I have waited to speak of him until the time when the Académie was ready +to replace him,—that is to say, put some one in his place, for great +artists are never replaced. Others succeed them with their own +individual and different powers, but they do not take their places +nevertheless. Malibran has never been replaced, nor Madame Viardot, +Madame Carvalho, Talma and Rachel. No one can ever replace Patti, Bartet +or Sarah Bernhardt. They could not replace Ingres, Delacroix, Berlioz, +or Gounod, and they can never replace Massenet. +</p> + +<p> +It is a question whether he has been accorded his real place. Perhaps +his pupils have estimated him at his true worth, but they were grateful +for his excellent teaching, and may be rightly suspected of partiality. +Others have spoken slightingly of his works and they have applied to him +by transposing the words of the celebrated dictum: <i>Saltavit et +placuit</i>. He sang and wept, so they sought to deprecate him as if there +were something reprehensible in an artist’s pleasing the public. This +notion might seem to have some basis in view of the taste that is +affected to-day—a predilection for all that is shocking and displeasing +in all the arts, including poetry. Sorcières’s epigram—the ugly is +beautiful and the beautiful ugly—has become a programme. People are no +longer content with merely admiring atrocities, they even speak with +contempt of beauties hallowed by time and the admiration of centuries. +</p> + +<p> +The fact remains that Massenet is one of the most brilliant diamonds in +our musical crown. No musician has enjoyed so much favor with the public +save Auber, whom Massenet did not care for any more than he did for his +school, but whom he resembled closely. They were alike in their +facility, their amazing fertility, genius, gracefulness, and success. +Both composed music which was agreeable to their contemporaries. Both +were accused of pandering to their audiences. The answer to this is that +both their audiences and the artists had the same tastes and so were in +perfect accord. +</p> + +<p> +To-day the revolutionists are the only ones held in esteem by the +critics. Well, it may be a fine thing to despise the mob, to struggle +against the current, and to compel the mob by force of genius and energy +to follow one despite their resistance. Yet one may be a great artist +without doing that. +</p> + +<p> +There was nothing revolutionary about Sebastian Bach with his two +hundred and fifty cantatas, which were performed as fast as they were +written and which were constantly in demand for important occasions. +Handel managed the theater where his operas were produced and his +oratorios were sung, and they would have indubitably failed, if he had +gone against the accustomed taste of his audiences. Haydn wrote to +supply the music for Prince Esterhazy’s chapel; Mozart was forced to +write constantly, and Rossini worked for an intolerant public which +would not have allowed one of his operas to be played, if the overture +did not contain the great <i>crescendo</i> for which he has been so +reproached. These were none of them revolutionists, yet they were great +musicians. +</p> + +<p> +Another criticism is made against Massenet. He was superficial, they +say, and lacked depth. Depth, as we know, is very much the fashion. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that Massenet was not profound, but that is of little +consequence. Just as there are many mansions in our Father’s house, so +there are many in Apollo’s. Art is vast. The artist has a perfect right +to descend to the nethermost depths and to enter into the inner secrets +of the soul, but this right is not a duty. +</p> + +<p> +The artists of Ancient Greece, with all their marvellous works, were not +profound. Their marble goddesses were beautiful, and beauty was +sufficient. +</p> + +<p> +Our old-time sculptors—Clodion and Coysevox—were not profound; nor +were Fragonard, La Tour, nor Marivaux, yet they brought honor to the +French school. +</p> + +<p> +All have their value and all are necessary. The rose with its fresh +color and its perfume, is, in its way, as precious as the sturdy oak. +Art has a place for artists of all kinds, and no one should flatter +himself that he is the only one who is capable of covering the entire +field of art. +</p> + +<p> +Some, even in treating a familiar subject, have as much dignity as a +Roman emperor on his golden throne, but Massenet did not belong to this +type. He had charm, attraction and a passionateness that was feverish +rather than deep. His melody was wavering and uncertain, oftentimes more +a recitative than melody properly so called, and it was entirely his +own. It lacks structure and style. Yet how can one resist when he hears +Manon at the feet of Des Grieux in the sacristy of Saint-Sulpice, or +help being stirred to the depths by such outpourings of love? One cannot +reflect or analyze when moved in this way. +</p> + +<p> +After emotional art comes decadent art. But that is of little +consequence. Decadence in art is often far from being artistic +deterioration. +</p> + +<p> +Massenet’s music has one great attraction for me and one that is rare +in these days—it is gay. And gaiety is frowned upon in modern music. +They criticise Haydn and Mozart for their gaiety, and turn away their +faces in shame before the exuberant joyousness with which the <i>Ninth +Symphony</i> comes to its triumphal close. Long live gloom. Hurrah for +boredom! So say our young people. They may live to regret, too late, the +lost hours which they might have spent in gaiety. +</p> + +<p> +Massenet’s facility was something prodigious. I have seen him sick in +bed, in a most uncomfortable position, and still turning off pages of +orchestration, which followed one another with disconcerting speed. Too +often such facility engenders laziness, but in his case we know what an +enormous amount of work he accomplished. He has been criticised as being +too prolific. However, that is a quality which belongs only to a master. +The artist who produces little may, if he has ability, be an interesting +artist, but he will never be a great one. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill08-box"><a id="ill08" name="ill08"></a> +<a href="images/ill08.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="389" height="584" id="ill08-img" src="images/ill08s.jpg" title="M. Jules Massenet" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">M. Jules Massenet</div> +</div> + +<p> +In this time of anarchy in art, when all he had to do to conciliate +the hostile critics was to array himself with the <i>fauves</i>, Massenet set +an example of impeccable writing. He knew how to combine modernism with +respect for tradition, and he did this at a time when all he had to do +was to trample tradition under foot and be proclaimed a genius. Master +of his trade as few have ever been, alive to all its difficulties, +possessing the most subtle secrets of its technique, he despised the +contortions and exaggerations which simple minds confound with the +science of music. He followed out the course he had set for himself +without any concern for what they might say about him. He was able to +adopt within reason the novelties from abroad and he was clever in +assimilating them perfectly, yet he presented the spectacle of a +thoroughly French artist whom neither the Lorelei of the Rhine nor the +sirens of the Mediterranean could lead astray. He was a <i>virtuoso</i> of +the orchestra, yet he never sacrificed the voices for the instruments, +nor did he sacrifice orchestral color for the voices. Finally, he had +the greatest gift of all, that of life, a gift which cannot be defined, +but which the public always recognizes and which assures the success of +works far inferior to his. +</p> + +<p> +Much has been said about the friendship between us—a notion based +solely on the demonstrations he showered on me in public—and in public +alone. He might have had my friendship, if he had wanted it, and it +would have been a devoted friendship, but he did not want it. He +told—what I never told—how I got one of his works presented at Weimar, +where <i>Samson</i> had just been given. What he did not tell was the icy +reception he gave me when I brought the news and when I expected an +entirely different sort of a reception. From that day on I never +intervened again, and I was content to rejoice in his success without +expecting any reciprocity on his part, which I knew to be impossible +after a confession he made to me one day. My friends and companions in +arms were Bizet, Guiraud and Delibes; Massenet was a rival. His high +opinion of me, therefore, was the more valuable when he did me the honor +of recommending his pupils to study my works. I have brought up this +question only to make clear that when I proclaim his great musical +importance, I am guided solely by my artistic conscience and that my +sincerity cannot be suspected. One word more. Massenet had many +imitators; he never imitated anyone. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xx" id="xx"></a>Chapter XX</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Meyerbeer</div> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<p> +Who would have predicted that the day would come when it would be +necessary to come to the defense of the author of <i>Les Huguenots</i> and +<i>Le Prophète</i>, of the man who at one time dominated every stage in +Europe by a leadership which was so extraordinary that it looked as +though it would never end? I could cite many works in which all the +composers of the past are praised without qualification, and Meyerbeer, +alone, is accused of numerous faults. However, others have faults, too, +and, as I have said elsewhere, but it will stand repeating, it is not +the absence of defects but the presence of merits which makes works and +men great. It is not always well to be without blemish. A too regular +face or too pure a voice lacks expression. If there is no such thing as +perfection in this world, it is doubtless because it is not needed. +</p> + +<p> +As I do not belong to that biased school which pretends to see Peter +entirely white and Paul utterly black, I do not try to make myself think +that the author of <i>Les Huguenots</i> had no faults. +</p> + +<p> +The most serious, but the most excusable, is his contempt for prosody +and his indifference to the verse entrusted to him. This fault is +excusable for the French school of the time, heedless of tradition, set +him a bad example. Rossini was, like Meyerbeer, a foreigner, but he was +not affected in the same way. He even got fine effects through the +combination of musical and textual rhythm. An instance of this is seen +in the famous phrase in <i>Guillaume Tell</i>: +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">Ces jours qu’ils ont osé proscrire,</div> +<div class="line">Je ne les ai pas défendus.</div> +<div class="line">Mon père, tu m’as dû maudire!</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +If Rossini had not retired at an age when others are just beginning +their careers and had given us two or three more works, his illustrious +example would have restored the old principles on which French opera +had been constructed from the time of Lulli. On the contrary, Auber +carried with him an entire generation captivated by Italian music. He +even went so far as to put French words into Italian rhythm. The famous +duet <i>Amour sacré de la Patrie</i> is versified as if the text were <i>Amore +sacro della patria</i>. This is seen only in reading it, for it is never +sung as it is written. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer was, then, excusable to a certain extent, but he abused all +indulgence in such matters. In order to preserve intact his musical +forms—even in recitatives, which are, as a matter of fact, only +declamation set to music—he accented the weak syllables and vice versa; +he added words and made unnecessarily false verse, and transformed bad +verse into worse prose. He might have avoided all these literary +abominations without any harm to the effect by a slight modification of +the music. The verses given to musicians were often very bad, for that +was the fashion. The versifier thought he had done his duty by his +collaborator by giving him verses like this: +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">Triomphe que j’aime!</div> +<div class="line">Ta frayeur extrême</div> +<div class="line">Va malgré toi-même</div> +<div class="line">Te livrer à moi!</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +But when Scribe abandoned his reed-pipes and essayed the lyre, he gave +Meyerbeer this, +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">J’ai voulu les punir ...Tu les as surpassés!</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +And Meyerbeer made it, +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">J’ai voulu les punir ... Et tu les as surpassés!</div> +</blockquote> + +<p style="text-indent: 0em"> +which was hardly encouraging. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer had other manias as well. Perhaps the most notable was to give +to the voice musical schemes which belong by rights to the instruments. +So in the first act of <i>Le Prophète</i>, after the chorus sings, <i>Veille +sur nous</i>, instead of stopping to breathe and prepare for the following +phrase, he makes it repeat abruptly, <i>Sur nous! Sur nous!</i> in unison +with the orchestral notes which are, to say the least, <i>a ritornello</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Again, in the great cathedral scene, instead of letting the orchestra +bring out through the voices the musical expression of Fidès sobs: <i>Et +toi, tu ne me connais pas</i>, he puts both the instruments and the voices +in the same time and on words which do not harmonize with the music at +all. +</p> + +<p> +I need not speak of his immoderate love for the bassoon, an admirable +instrument, but one which it is hardly prudent to abuse. +</p> + +<p> +But so far we have spoken only of trifles. Meyerbeer’s music, as a witty +woman once remarked to me, is like stage scenery—it should not be +scrutinized too closely. It would be hard to find a better +characterization. Meyerbeer belonged to the theater and sought above +everything else theatrical effects. But that does not mean that he was +indifferent to details. He was a wealthy man and he used to indemnify +the theaters for the extra expense he occasioned them. He multiplied +rehearsals by trying different versions with the orchestra so as to +choose between them. He did not cast his work in bronze, as so many do, +and present it to the public <i>ne varietur</i>. He was continually feeling +his way, recasting, and seeking the better which very often was the +enemy of good. As the result of his continual researches he too +frequently turned good ideas into inferior ones. Note for example, in +<i>L’Etoile du Nord</i>, the passage, <i>Enfants de l’Ukraine fils du désert</i>. +The opening passage is lofty, determined and picturesque, but it ends +most disagreeably. +</p> + +<p> +He always lived alone with no fixed place of abode. He was at Spa in the +summer and on the Mediterranean in the winter; in large cities only as +business drew him. He had no financial worries and he lived only to +continue his Penelope-like work, which showed a great love of +perfection, although he did not find the best way of attaining it. They +have tried to place this conscientious artist in the list of seekers of +success, but such men are not ordinarily accustomed to work like this. +</p> + +<p> +Since I have used the word artist, it is proper to stop for a moment. +Unlike Gluck and Berlioz, who were greater artists than musicians, +Meyerbeer was more a musician than an artist. As a result, he often used +the most refined and learned means to achieve a very ordinary artistic +result. But there is no reason why he should be brought to task for +results which they do not even remark in the works of so many others. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer was the undisputed leader in the operatic world when Robert +Schumann struck the first blow at his supremacy. Schumann was ignorant +of the stage, although he had made one unfortunate venture there. He did +not appreciate that there is more than one way to practise the art of +music. But he attacked Meyerbeer, violently, for his bad taste and +Italian tendencies, entirely forgetting that when Mozart, Beethoven, and +Weber did work for the stage they were strongly drawn towards Italian +art. Later, the Wagnerians wanted to oust Meyerbeer from the stage and +make a place for themselves, and they got credit for some of Schumann’s +harsh criticisms,—this, too, despite the fact that at the beginning of +the skirmish Schumann and the Wagnerians got along about as well as +Ingres and Delacroix and their schools. But they united against the +common enemy and the French critics followed. The critics entirely +neglected Berlioz’s opinion, for, after opposing Meyerbeer for a long +time, he admitted him among the gods and in his <i>Traité +d’Instrumentation</i> awarded him the crown of immortality. +</p> + +<p> +Parenthetically, if there is a surprising page in the history of music +it is the persistent affectation of classing Berlioz and Wagner +together. They had nothing in common save their great love of art and +their distrust of established forms. Berlioz abhorred enharmonic +modulations, dissonances resolved indefinitely one after another, +continuous melody and all current practices of futuristic music. He +carried this so far that he claimed that he understood nothing in the +prelude to <i>Tristan</i>, which was certainly a sincere claim since, almost +simultaneously, he hailed the overture of <i>Lohengrin</i>, which is +conceived in an entirely different manner, as a masterpiece. He did not +admit that the voice should be sacrificed and relegated to the rank of a +simple unit of the orchestra. Wagner, for his part, showed at his best +an elegance and artistry of pen which may be searched for in vain in +Berlioz’s work. Berlioz opened to the orchestra the doors of a new +world. Wagner hurled himself into this unknown country and found +numerous lands to till there. But what dissimilarities there are in the +styles of the two men! In their methods of treating the orchestra and +the voices, in their musical architectonics, and in their conception of +opera! +</p> + +<p> +In spite of the great worth of <i>Les Troyens</i> and <i>Benvenuto Cellini</i>, +Berlioz shone brightest in the concert hall; Wagner is primarily a man +of the theater. Berlioz showed clearly in <i>Les Troyens</i> his intention of +approaching Gluck, while Wagner freely avowed his indebtedness to Weber, +and particularly to the score of <i>Euryanthe</i>. He might have added that +he owed something to Marschner, but he never spoke of that. +</p> + +<p> +The more we study the works of these two men of genius, the more we are +impressed by the tremendous difference between them. Their resemblance +is simply one of those imaginary things which the critics too often +mistake for a reality. The critics once found local color in Rossini’s +<i>Semiramide</i>! +</p> + +<p> +Hans de Bülow once said to me in the course of a conversation, +</p> + +<p> +“After all Meyerbeer was a man of genius.” +</p> + +<p> +If we fail to recognize Meyerbeer’s genius, we are not only unjust but +also ungrateful. In every sense, in his conception of opera, in his +treatment of orchestration, in his handling of choruses, even in stage +setting, he gave us new principles by which our modern works have +profited to a large extent. +</p> + +<p> +Théophile Gautier was no musician, but he had a fine taste in music and +he judged Meyerbeer as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“In addition to eminent musical talents, Meyerbeer had a highly +developed instinct for the stage. He goes to the heart of a situation, +follows closely the meanings of the words, and observes both the +historical and local color of his subject.... Few composers have +understood opera so well.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +The success of the Italian school appeared to have utterly ruined this +understanding and care for local and historical color. Rossini in the +last act of <i>Otello</i> and in <i>Guillaume Tell</i> began its renaissance with +a boldness for which he deserves credit, but it was left to Meyerbeer +to restore it to its former glory. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible to deny his individuality. The amalgamation of his +Germanic tendencies with his Italian education and his French +preferences formed an ore of new brilliancy and new depth of tone. His +style resembled none other. Fétis, his great admirer and friend and the +famous director of the Conservatoire at Brussels, insisted, and with +reason, on this distinction. His style was characterized by the +importance of the rhythmic element. His ballet music owes much of its +excellence to the picturesque variety of the rhythms. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of the long involved overture he gave us the short distinctive +prelude which has been so successful. The preludes of <i>Robert</i> and <i>Les +Huguenots</i> were followed by the preludes of <i>Lohengrin</i>, <i>Faust</i>, +<i>Tristan</i>, <i>Romeo</i>, <i>La Traviata</i>, <i>Aïda</i>, and many others which are +less famous. Verdi in his last two works and Richard Strauss in <i>Salome</i> +went even farther and suppressed the prelude—a none too agreeable +surprise. It is like a dinner without soup. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer gave us a foretaste of the famous <i>leit-motif</i>. We find it in +<i>Robert</i> in the theme of the ballad, which the orchestra plays again +while Bertram goes towards the back of the stage. This should indicate +to the listener his satanic character. We find it in the Luther chant in +<i>Les Huguenots</i> and also in the dream of <i>Le Prophète</i> during Jean’s +recitative. Here the orchestra with its modulated tone predicts the +future splendor of the cathedral scene, while a lute plays low notes, +embellished by a delicate weaving in of the violins, and produces a +remarkable and unprecedented effect. He introduced on the stage the +ensembles of wind instruments (I do not mean the brass) which are so +frequent in Mozart’s great concertos. An illustration of this is the +entrance of Alice in the second act of <i>Robert</i>. An echo of this is +found in Elsa’s entrance in the second act of <i>Lohengrin</i>. Another +illustration is the entrance of Berthe and Fidès in the beginning of the +<i>Le Prophète</i>. In this case the author indicated a pantomime. This is +never played and so this pretty bit loses all its significance. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer ventured to use combinations in harmony which were considered +rash at that time. They pretend that the sensitiveness of the ear has +been developed since then, but in reality it has been dulled by having +to undergo the most violent discords. +</p> + +<p> +The beautiful “progression” of the exorcism in the fourth act of <i>Le +Prophète</i> was not accepted without some difficulty. I can still see +Gounod seated at a piano singing the debated passage and trying to +convince a group of recalcitrant listeners of its beauty. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer developed the rôle of the English horn, which up to that time +had been used only rarely and timidly, and he also introduced the bass +clarinet into the orchestra. But the two instruments, as he used them, +still appeared somewhat unusual. They were objects of luxury, strangers +of distinction which one saluted respectfully and which played no great +part. Under Wagner’s management they became a definite part of the +household and, as we know, brought in a wealth of coloring. +</p> + +<p> +It is an open question whether it was Meyerbeer or Scribe who planned +the amazing stage setting in the cathedral scene in <i>Le Prophète</i>. It +must have been Meyerbeer, for Scribe was not temperamentally a +revolutionist, and this scene was really revolutionary. The brilliant +procession with its crowd of performers which goes across the stage +through the nave into the choir, constantly keeping its distance from +the audience, is an impressive, realistic and beautiful scene. But +directors who go to great expense for the costumes cannot understand why +the procession should file anywhere except before the footlights as near +the audience as possible, and it is extremely difficult to get any other +method of procedure. +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, the amusing idea of the skating ballet was due to +Meyerbeer. At the time there was an amusing fellow in Paris who had +invented roller skates and who used to practise his favorite sport on +fine evenings on the large concrete surfaces of the Place de la +Concorde. Meyerbeer saw him and got the idea of the famous ballet. In +the early days of the opera it certainly was charming to see the skaters +come on accompanied by a pretty chorus and a rhythm from the violins +regulated by that of the dancers. But the performance began at seven and +ended at midnight. Now they begin at eight and to gain the hour they had +to accelerate the pace. So the chorus in question was sacrificed. That +was bad for <i>Les Huguenots</i>. The author tried to make a good deal out of +the last act with its beautiful choruses in the church—a development of +the Luther chant—and the terror of the approaching massacre. But this +act has been cut, mutilated and made generally unrecognizable. They even +go so far in some of the foreign houses as to suppress it entirely. +</p> + +<p> +I once saw the last act in all its integrity and with six harps +accompanying the famous trio. We shall never see the six harps again, +for Garnier, instead of reproducing exactly the placing of the orchestra +in the old Opéra, managed so well in the new one that they are unable to +put in the six harps of old or the four drums with which Meyerbeer got +such surprising effects in <i>Robert</i> and <i>Le Prophète</i>. I believe, +however, that recent improvements have averted this disaster in a +certain measure, and that there is now a place for the drums. But we +shall never hear the six harps again. +</p> + +<p> +We must say something of the genesis of Meyerbeer’s works, for in many +instances this was curious and few people know about it. +</p> + + +<h2>II</h2> + +<p> +We might like to see works spring from the author’s brain as complete as +Minerva was when she sprang from Jove’s, but that is infrequently the +case. When we study the long series of operas which Gluck wrote, we are +surprised to meet some things which we recognize as having seen before +in the masterpieces which immortalize his name. And often the music is +adapted to entirely different situations in the changed form. The words +of a follower become the awesome prophecy of a high priest. The trio in +<i>Orphée</i> with its tender love and expressions of perfect happiness +fairly trembles with accents of sorrow. The music had been written for +an entirely different situation which justified them. Massenet has told +us that he borrowed right and left from his unpublished score, <i>La Coupe +du Roi de Thulé</i>. That is what Gluck did with his <i>Elena e Paride</i> which +had little success. I may as well confess that one of the ballets in +<i>Henry VIII</i> came from the finale of an opéra-comique in one act. This +work was finished and ready to go to rehearsal when the whole thing was +stopped because I had the audacity to assert to Nestor Roqueplan, the +director of Favart Hall, that Mozart’s <i>Le Nozze di Figaro</i> was a +masterpiece. +</p> + +<p> +Meyerbeer, even more than anyone, tried not to lose his ideas and the +study of their transformation is extremely interesting. One day Nuitter, +the archivist at the Opéra, learned of an important sale of manuscripts +in Berlin. He attended the sale and brought back a lot of Meyerbeer’s +rough drafts which included studies for a <i>Faust</i> that the author never +finished. These fragments give no idea what the piece would have been. +We see Faust and Mephistopheles walking in Hell. They come to the Tree +of Human Knowledge on the banks of the Styx and Faust picks the fruit. +From this detail it is easy to imagine that the libretto is bizarre. +The authorship of this amazing libretto is unknown, but it is not +strange that Meyerbeer soon abandoned it. From this still-born <i>Faust</i>, +Scribe, at the request of the author, constructed <i>Robert le Diable</i>. An +aria sung by Faust on the banks of the Styx becomes the <i>Valse +Infernale</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The necessity of utilizing pre-existing fragments explains some of the +incoherence of this incomprehensible piece. It also explains the +creation of Bertram, half man, half devil, who was invented as a +substitute for Mephistopheles. The fruit of the Tree of Human Knowledge +became the <i>Rameau Vénérée</i> in the third act, and the beautiful +religious scene in the fifth act, which has no relation to the action, +is a transposition of the Easter scene. +</p> + +<p> +So Scribe should not be blamed for making a poor piece when he had so +many difficulties to contend with. He must have lost his head a little +for Robert’s mother was called Berthe in the first act and Rosalie in +the third. However, the answer might be that she changed her name when +she became religious. +</p> + +<p> +Later, Scribe was put to another no less difficult test with <i>L’Etoile +du Nord</i>. When Meyerbeer was the conductor at the Berlin Opéra, he wrote +on command <i>Le Camp de Silésie</i> with Frederick the Great as the hero and +Jenny Lind as the musical star. As we know, Frederick was a musician, +for he both composed music and played the flute, while Jenny Lind, the +Swedish nightingale, was a great singer. A contest between the +nightingale and the flute was sure to follow or theatrical instinct is a +vain phrase. But in the piece Scribe created, Peter the Great took +Frederick the Great’s place and to give a motive for the grace notes in +the last act it was necessary for the terrible Tsar, a half savage +barbarian, to learn to play the flute. +</p> + +<p> +It is not worth while telling how the Tsar took lessons on the flute +from a young pastry cook who came on the stage with a basket of cakes on +his head; how the cook later became a lord, and many other details of +this absurd play. It is permitted to be absurd on the stage, if it is +done so that the absurdity is forgotten. But in this instance it was +impossible to forget the absurdities. The extravagance of the libretto +led the musician into many unfortunate things. This extremely +interesting score is very uneven, but there are a thousand details worth +the attention of the professional musician. Beauty even appears in the +score at moments, and there are charming and picturesque bits, as well +as puerilities and shocking vulgarities. +</p> + +<p> +Public curiosity was aroused for a long time by clever advance notices +and had reached a high pitch when <i>L’Etoile du Nord</i> appeared. The work +was carried by the exceptional talents of Bataille and Caroline Duprez +and was enormously successful at the start, but this success has grown +steadily less. Faure and Madame Patti gave some fine performances in +London. We shall probably never see their equal again, and it is not +desirable that we should either from the standpoint of art or of the +author. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Les Huguenots</i> was not an opera pieced together out of others, but it +did not reach the public as the author wrote it. At the beginning of the +first act there was a game of cup and ball on which the author had set +his heart. But the balls had to strike at the exact moment indicated in +the score and the players never succeeded in accomplishing that. The +passage had to be suppressed but it is preserved in the library at the +Opéra. They also had to suppress the part of Catherine de Medici who +should preside at the conference where the massacre of St. Bartholomew +was planned. Her part was merged with that of St. Pris. They also +suppressed the first scene in the last act, where Raoul, disheveled and +covered with blood, interrupted the ball and upset the merriment by +announcing the massacre to the astonished dancers. +</p> + +<p> +But it is a question whether we should believe the legend that the great +duet, the climax of the whole work, was improvised during the rehearsals +at the request of Norritt and Madame Falcon. It is hard to believe that. +The work, as is well known, was taken from Merimee’s <i>Chronique du règne +de Charles IX</i>. This scene is in the romance and it is almost impossible +that Meyerbeer had no idea of putting it into his opera. More probably +the people at the theatre wanted the act to end with the blessing of the +daggers, and the author with his duet in his portfolio only had to take +it out to satisfy his interpreters. A beautiful scene like this with its +sweep and pleasing innovation is not written hastily. This duet should +be heard when the author’s intentions and the nuances which make a part +of the idea are respected and not replaced by inventions in bad taste +which they dare to call traditions. The real traditions have been lost +and this admirable scene has lost its beauty. +</p> + +<p> +The manner in which the duet ends has not been noted sufficiently. +Raoul’s phrase, <i>God guard our days. God of our refuge!</i> remains in +suspense and the orchestra brings it to an end, the first example of a +practice used frequently in modern works. +</p> + +<p> +We do not know how Meyerbeer got his idea of putting the schismatic John +Huss on the stage under the name of John of Leyden. Whether this idea +was original with him or was suggested by Scribe, who made a fantastic +person out of John, we do not know. We only know that the rôle of the +prophet’s mother was originally intended for Madame Stoltz, but she had +left the Opéra. Meyerbeer heard Madame Pauline Viardot at Vienna and +found in her his ideal, so he created the redoubtable rôle of Fidès for +her. The part of Jean was given to the tenor Roger, the star of the +Opéra-Comique, and he played and sang it well. Levasseur, the Marcel of +<i>Les Huguenots</i> and the Bertram of <i>Robert</i>, played the part of +Zacharie. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Le Prophète</i> was enormously successful in spite of the then powerful +censer-bearers of the Italian school. We now see its defects rather than +its merits. Meyerbeer is criticised for not putting into practice +theories he did not know and no account is taken of his fearlessness, +which was great for that period. No one else could have drawn the +cathedral scene with such breadth of stroke and extraordinary +brilliancy. The paraphrase of <i>Domine salvum fac regem</i> reveals great +ingenuity. His method of treating the organ is wonderful, and his idea +of the ritournello <i>Sur le Jeu de hautbois</i> is charming. This precedes +and introduces the children’s chorus, and is constructed on a novel +theme which is developed brilliantly by the choruses, the orchestra and +the organ combined. The repetition of the <i>Domine Salvum</i> at the end +of the scene, which bursts forth abruptly in a different key, is full of +color and character. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill09-box"><a id="ill09" name="ill09"></a> +<a href="images/ill09.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="389" height="550" id="ill09-img" src="images/ill09s.jpg" title="Meyerbeer, Composer of _Les Huguenots_" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Meyerbeer, Composer of <i>Les Huguenots</i></div> +</div> + + +<h2>III</h2> + +<p> +The story of <i>Le Pardon de Ploërmel</i> is interesting. It was first called +<i>Dinorah</i>, a name which Meyerbeer picked up abroad. But Meyerbeer liked +to change the titles of his operas several times in the course of the +rehearsals in order to keep public curiosity at fever heat. He had the +notion of writing an opéra-comique in one act, and he asked his favorite +collaborators, Jules Barbier and Michael Carré, for a libretto. They +produced <i>Dinorah</i> in three scenes and with but three characters. The +music was written promptly and was given to Perrin, the famous director, +whose unfortunate influence soon made itself felt. A director’s first +idea at that time was to demand changes in the piece given him. “A +single act by you, Master? Is that permissible? What can we put on after +that? A new work by Meyerbeer should take up the entire evening.” That +was the way the insidious director talked, and there was all the more +chance of his being listened to as the author was possessed by a mania +for retouching and making changes. So Meyerbeer took the score to the +Mediterranean where he spent the winter. The next spring he brought back +the work developed into three acts with choruses and minor characters. +Besides these additions he had written the words which Barbier and Carré +should have done. +</p> + +<p> +The rehearsals were tedious. Meyerbeer wanted Faure and Madame Carvalho +in the leading rôles but one was at the Opéra-Comique and the other at +her own house, the Théâtre-Lyrique. The work went back and forth from +the Place Favart to the Place du Châtelet. But the author’s hesitancy +was at bottom only a pretext. What he wanted was to secure a +postponement of Limnander’s opera <i>Les Blancs et les Bleus</i>. The action +of this work and of <i>Dinorah</i>, as well, took place in Brittany. In the +hope of being Meyerbeer’s choice, both theatres turned poor Limnander +away. Finally, <i>Dinorah</i> fell to the Opéra-Comique. After long hard +work, which the author demanded, Madame Cabel and MM. Faure and +Sainte-Foix gave a perfect performance. +</p> + +<p> +There was a good deal of criticism of having the hunter, the reaper, and +the shepherd sing a prayer together at the beginning of the third act. +This was not considered theatrical; to-day that is a virtue. +</p> + +<p> +There was a good deal of talk about <i>L’Africanne</i>, which had been looked +for for a long time and which seemed to be almost legendary and +mysterious; it still is for that matter. The subject of the opera was +unknown. All that was known was that the author was trying to find an +interpreter and could get none to his liking. +</p> + +<p> +Then Marie Cruvelli, a German singer with an Italian training, appeared. +With her beauty and prodigious voice she shone like a meteor in the +theatrical firmament. Meyerbeer found his Africanne realized in her and +at his request she was engaged at the Opéra. Her engagement was made the +occasion for a brilliant revival of <i>Les Huguenots</i> and Meyerbeer wrote +new ballet music for it. To-day we have no idea of what <i>Les Huguenots</i> +was then. Then the author went back to his Africanne and went to work +again. He used to go to see the brilliant singer about it nearly every +day, when she suddenly announced that she was going to leave the stage +to become the Comtesse Vigier! Meyerbeer was discouraged and he threw +his unfinished manuscript into a drawer where it stayed until Marie Sass +had so developed her voice and talent that he made up his mind to +entrust the rôle of Sélika to her. He wanted Faure for the rôle of +Nelusko and he was already at the Opéra, so he had the management engage +Naudin, the Italian tenor, as well. +</p> + +<p> +But Scribe had died during the long period which had elapsed since the +marriage of the Comtesse Vigier. Meyerbeer was now left to himself, and +too much inclined to revisions of every kind as he was, re-made the +piece to his fancy. When it was completed—it didn’t resemble anything +and the author planned to finish it at the rehearsals. +</p> + +<p> +As we know, Meyerbeer died suddenly. He realized that he was dying and +as he knew how necessary his presence was for a performance of +<i>L’Africanne</i> he forbade its appearance. But his prohibition was only +verbal as he could no longer write. The public was impatiently awaiting +<i>L’Africanne</i>, so they went ahead with it. +</p> + +<p> +When Perrin and his nephew du Locle opened the package of manuscripts +Meyerbeer had left, they were stupefied at finding no <i>L’Africanne</i>. +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind,” said Perrin, “the public wants an <i>Africanne</i> and it shall +have one.” +</p> + +<p> +He summoned Fétis, Meyerbeer’s enthusiastic admirer, and the three, +Fétis, Perrin and du Locle, managed to evolve the opera we know from the +scraps the author had left in disorder. They did not accomplish this, +however, without considerable difficulty, without some incoherences, +numerous suppressions and even additions. Perrin was the inventor of the +wonderful map on which Sélika recognized Madagascar. They took the +characters there in order to justify the term Africanne applied to the +heroine. They also introduced the Brahmin religion to Madagascar in +order to avoid moving the characters to India where the fourth act +should take place. The first performance was imminent when they found +that the work was too long. So they cut out an original ballet where a +savage beat a tom-tom, and they cut and fitted together mercilessly. In +the last act Sélika, alone and dying, should see the paradise of the +Brahmins appear as in a vision. But Faure wanted to appear again at the +finale, so they had to adapt a bit taken from the third act and suppress +the vision. This is the reason why Nelusko succumbs so quickly to the +deadly perfume of the poisonous flowers, while Sélika resists so long. +The riturnello of Sélika’s aria, which should be performed with lowered +curtain as the queen gazes over the sea and at the departing vessel far +away on the horizon, became a vehicle for encores—the last thing that +was ever in Meyerbeer’s mind. But the worst was the liberty Fétis took +in retouching the orchestration. As a compliment to Adolph Sax he +substituted a saxaphone for the bass clarinet which the author +indicated. This resulted in the suppression of that part of the aria +beginning <i>O Paradis sorti de l’onde</i> as the saxophone did not produce a +good effect. Fétis also allowed Perrin to make over a bass solo into a +chorus, the Bishop’s Chorus. The great vocal range in this is poorly +adapted for a chorus. Some barbarous modulations are certainly +apocryphal.... +</p> + +<p> +We are unable to imagine what <i>L’Africanne</i> would have been if Scribe +had lived and the authors had put it into shape. The work we have is +illogical and incomplete. The words are simply monstrous and Scribe +certainly would not have kept them. This is the case in the passage in +the great duet: +</p> + +<blockquote lang="fr" class="poetry"> +<div class="line">O ma Sélika, vous régnez sur mon âme!</div> +<div class="line">—Ah! ne dis pas ces mots brûlante!</div> +<div class="line">Ils m’égarent moi-même....</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The music stitched to this impossible piece, however, had its +admirers—even fanatical admirers—so great was the prestige of the +author’s name at the time of its appearance. We must not forget that +there are, indeed, some beautiful pages in this chaos. The religious +ceremony in the fourth act and the Brahmin recitative accompanied by the +<i>pizzicati</i> of the bass may be mentioned as an indication of this. The +latter passage is not in favor, however; they play it down without +conviction and so deprive it of all its strength and majesty. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +I said, at the beginning of this study, that we were ungrateful to +Meyerbeer, and this ingratitude is double on the part of France, for he +loved her. He only had to say the word to have any theatre in Europe +opened to him, yet he preferred to them all the Opéra at Paris and even +the Opéra-Comique where the choruses and orchestra left much to be +desired. When he did work for Paris after he had given <i>Margherita +d’Anjou</i> and <i>Le Crociato</i> in Italy, he was forced to accommodate +himself to French taste just as Rossini and Donizetti were. The latter +wrote for the Opéra-Comique <i>La Fille du Régiment</i>, a military and +patriotic work, and its dashing and glorious <i>Salut à la France</i> has +resounded through the whole world. Foreigners do not take so much pains +in our day, and France applauds <i>Die Meistersinger</i> which ends with a +hymn to German art. Such is progress! +</p> + +<p> +Something must be said of a little known score, <i>Struensée</i>, which was +written for a drama which was so weak that it prevented the music +gaining the success it deserved. The composer showed himself in this +more artistic than in anything else he did. It should have been heard at +the Odéon with another piece written by Jules Barbier on the same +subject. The overture used to appear in the concerts as did the +polonnaise, but like the overture to <i>Guillaume Tell</i>, they have +disappeared. These overtures are not negligible. The overture to +<i>Guillaume Tell</i> is notable for the unusual invention of the five +violoncellos and its storm with its original beginning, to say nothing +of its pretty pastoral. The fine depth of tone in the exordium of +<i>Struensée</i> and the fugue development in the main theme are also not to +be despised. But all that, we are told, is lacking in elevation and +depth. Possibly; but it is not always necessary to descend to Hell and +go up to Heaven. There is certainly more music in these overtures than +in Grieg’s <i>Peer Gynt</i> which has been dinned into our ears so much. +</p> + +<p> +But enough of this. I must stop with the operas, for to consider the +rest of his music would necessitate a study of its own and that would +take us too far afield. My hope is that these lines may repair an +unnecessary injustice and redirect the fastidious who may read them to a +great musician whom the general public has never ceased to listen to and +applaud. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a>Chapter XXI</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Jacques Offenbach</div> + +<p> +It is dangerous to prophesy. Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach, +trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his +squandering them. And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would +never know him. Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach +is coming back into fashion. Our contemporaneous composers forget that +Mozart, Beethoven and Sebastian Bach knew how to laugh at times. They +distrust all gaiety and declare it unesthetic. As the good public cannot +resign itself to getting along without gaiety, it goes to operetta and +turns naturally to Offenbach who created it and furnished an +inexhaustible supply. My phrase is not exaggerated, for Offenbach hardly +dreamed of creating an art. He was endowed with a genius for the comic +and an abundance of melody, but he had no thought of doing anything +beyond providing material for the theatre he managed at the time. As a +matter of fact he was almost its only author. +</p> + +<p> +He was unable to rid himself of his Germanic influences and so corrupted +the taste of an entire generation by his false prosody, which has been +incorrectly considered originality. In addition he was lacking in taste. +At the time they affected a dreadful mannerism of always stopping on the +next to the last note of a passage, whether or not it was associated +with a mute syllable. This mannerism had no purpose beyond indicating to +the audience the end of a passage and giving the claque the signal to +applaud. Offenbach did not belong to that heroic strain to which success +is the least of its cares. So he adopted this mannerism, and often his +ingeniously turned and charming couplets are ruined by this silly +absurdity now gone out of fashion. +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, he wrote badly, for his early education was neglected. If +the <i>Tales of Hoffman</i> shows traces of a practised pen, it is because +Guiraud finished the score and went out of his way to remedy some of +the author’s mistakes. Leaving aside the bad prosody and the minor +defects in taste, we have left a work which shows a wealth of invention, +melody, and sparkling fancy comparable to Grétry’s. +</p> + +<p> +Grétry was no more a great musician than Offenbach, for he also wrote +badly. The essential difference between the two was the care, not only +in his prosody but also in his declamation, which Grétry tried to +reproduce musically with all possible exactness. He overshot the mark in +this for he did not see that in singing the expression of a note is +modified by the harmonic scheme which accompanies it. It must be +recognized, in addition, that many times Grétry was carried away by his +melodic inventiveness and forgot his own principles so that he relegated +his care for declamation to second place. +</p> + +<p> +What hurt Grétry was his unbounded conceit, with which Offenbach, to his +credit, was never afflicted. As an indication of this, he dared to write +in his advice to young musicians: +</p> + +<p> +“Those who have genius will make opéra-comique like mine; those who have +talent will write opera like Gluck’s; while those who have neither +genius nor talent, will write symphonies like Haydn’s.” +</p> + +<p> +However, he tried to make an opera like Gluck’s and in spite of his +great efforts and his interesting inventions, he could not equal the +work of his formidable rival. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Although he was not a great musician, Offenbach had a surprising natural +instinct and made here and there curious discoveries in harmony. In +speaking of these discoveries I must go slightly into the theory of +harmony and resign myself to being understood only by those of my +readers who are more or less musicians. In a slight work, <i>Daphnis et +Chloé</i>, Offenbach risked a dominant eleventh without either introduction +or conclusion—an extraordinary audacity at the time. A short course in +harmony is necessary for the understanding of this. We must start with +the fact that, theoretically, all dissonances must be introduced and +concluded, which we cannot explain here, but this leading up to and away +from have for their purpose softening the harshness of the dissonance +which was greatly feared in bygone times. Take if you please, the simple +key of C natural. <i>Do</i> is the keynote, <i>sol</i> is the dominant. Place on +this dominant two-thirds—<i>si-re</i>—and you have the perfect dominant +chord. Add a third <i>fa</i> and you have the famous dominant seventh, a +dissonance which to-day seems actually agreeable. Not so long ago they +thought that they ought to prepare for the dissonance. In the Sixteenth +Century it was not regarded as admissible at all, for one hears the two +notes <i>si</i> and <i>fa</i> simultaneously and this seems intolerable to the +ear. They used to call it the <i>Diabolus in musica</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Palestrina was the first to employ it in an anthem. Opinions differ on +this, and certain students of harmony pretend that the chord which +Palestrina used only has the appearance of the dominant seventh. I do +not concur in this view. But however the case may be, the glory of +unchaining the devil in music belongs to Montreverde. That was the +beginning of modern music. +</p> + +<p> +Later, a new third was superimposed and they dared the chord +<i>sol-si-re-fa-la</i>. The inventor is unknown, but Beethoven seems to have +been the first to make any considerable use of it. He used the chord in +such a way that, in spite of its current use to-day, in his works it +appears like something new and strange. This chord imposes its +characteristics on the second <i>motif</i> of the first part of the <i>Symphony +in C minor</i>. This is what gives such amazing charm to the long colloquy +between the flute, the oboe and the clarinets, which always surprises +and arouses the listener, in the <i>andante</i> of the same symphony. Fétis +in his <i>Traité d’Harmonie</i> inveighed against this delightful passage. He +admits that people like it, but, according to him, the author had no +right to write it and the listener has no right to admire it. Scholars +often have strange ideas. +</p> + +<p> +Then Richard Wagner came along and the reign of the ninth dominant took +the place of the seventh. That is what gives <i>Tannhauser</i>, and +<i>Lohengrin</i> their exciting character, which is dear to those who demand +in music above everything else the pleasure due to shocks to the nervous +system. Imitators have fallen foul of this easy procedure, and with a +laughable naïveté imagine that in this way they can easily equal Wagner. +And they have succeeded in making this valuable chord absolutely banal. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill10-box"><a id="ill10" name="ill10"></a> +<a href="images/ill10.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="388" height="549" id="ill10-img" src="images/ill10s.jpg" title="Jacques Offenbach" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Jacques Offenbach</div> +</div> + +<p> +By adding still another third we have the dominant eleventh. Offenbach +used this, but it has played but a small part since then. Beyond that we +cannot go, for a third more and we are back to the basic note, two +octaves away. +</p> + +<p> +But innovations in harmony are rare in Offenbach’s work. What makes him +interesting is his fertility in invention of melodies and few have +equaled him in this. He improvised constantly and with incredible +rapidity. His manuscripts give the impression of having been done with +the point of a needle. There is nothing useless anywhere in them. He +used abbreviations as much as he could and the simplicity of his harmony +helped him here. As a result he was able to produce his light works in +an exceedingly short time. +</p> + +<p> +He had the luck to attach Madame Ugalde to his company. Her powers had +already begun to decline but she was still brilliant. While she was +giving a spectacular revival of <i>Orphée aux Enfers</i>, he wrote <i>Les +Bavards</i> for her. He was inspired by the hope of an unusual +interpretation and he so surpassed himself that he produced a small +masterpiece. A revival of this work would certainly be successful if +that were possible, but the peculiar merits of the creatrix of the rôle +would be necessary and I do not see her like anywhere. +</p> + +<p> +It is strange but true that Offenbach lost all his good qualities as +soon as he took himself seriously. But he was not the only case of this +in the history of music. Cramer and Clementi wrote studies and exercises +which are marvels of style, but their sonatas and concertos are tiresome +in their mediocrity. Offenbach’s works which were given at the +Opéra-Comique—<i>Robinson Crusoé</i>, <i>Vert-Vert</i>, and <i>Fantasio</i> are much +inferior to <i>La Chanson de Fortunio</i>, <i>La Belle Hélène</i> and many other +justly famous operettas. There have been several unprofitable revivals +of <i>La Belle Hélène</i>. This is due to the fact that the rôle of Hélène +was designed for Mlle. Schneider. She was beautiful and talented and had +an admirable mezzo-soprano voice. The slight voice of the ordinary +singer of operetta is insufficient for the part. Furthermore, traditions +have sprung up. The comic element has been suppressed and the piece has +been denatured by this change. In Germany they conceived the idea of +playing this farce seriously with an archaic stage setting! +</p> + +<p> +Jacques Offenbach will become a classic. While this may be unexpected, +what doesn’t happen? Everything is possible—even the impossible. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xxii" id="xxii"></a>Chapter XXII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Their Majesties</div> + +<p> +Queen Victoria did me the honor to receive me twice at Windsor Castle, +and Queen Alexandra paid me the same honor at Buckingham Palace in +London. The first time I saw Queen Victoria I was presented to her by +the Baroness de Caters. She was the daughter of Lablache and had one of +the most beautiful voices and the greatest talent that I have ever +known. This charming woman had been left a widow and so she became an +artist, appearing in concerts and giving singing lessons. At the time of +which I speak she was teaching Princess Beatrice, now the mother-in-law +of the King of Spain. In all the glory of the freshness of youth, the +Princess was endowed with a charming voice which the Baroness guided +perfectly. The Princess received Madame de Caters and myself with a +gracefulness which was increased by her unusual bashfulness. Her +Majesty, in the meantime, was finishing her luncheon. I was somewhat +apprehensive through having heard of the coldness which the Queen +affected at this sort of audience, so I was more than surprised when she +came in with both hands extended to take mine and when she addressed me +with real cordiality. She was very fond of Baroness de Caters and that +was the secret of the reception which put me at my ease at once. +</p> + +<p> +Her Majesty wanted to hear me play the organ (there is an excellent one +in the chapel at Windsor), and then the piano. Finally, I had the honor +of accompanying the Princess as she sang the aria from <i>Etienne Marcel</i>. +Her Royal Highness sang with great clearness and distinctness, but it +was the first time she had sung before her august mother and she was +frightened almost to death. The Queen was so delighted that some days +later, without my being told of it, she summoned to Windsor, Madame Gye, +wife of the manager of Covent Garden,—the famous singer Albani—to ask +to have <i>Etienne Marcel</i> staged at her own theatre. The Queen’s wish was +not granted. +</p> + +<p> +I returned to Windsor seventeen years later, in company with Johann +Wolf, who was for many years Queen Victoria’s chosen violinist. We dined +at the palace, and, if we did not enjoy the distinction of sitting at +the royal table, we were nevertheless in good company with the young +princesses, daughters of the Duke of Connaught. We were lodged at a +hotel for the honor of sleeping at the Castle was reserved for very +important personages—an honor which need not be envied, for the +sleeping apartments are really servants’ rooms. But etiquette decrees +it. +</p> + +<p> +Dinner was over, and princes in full uniform and princesses in elaborate +evening dress stood about, waiting for her Majesty’s appearance. I was +heartbroken when I saw her enter, for she was almost carried by her +Indian servant and obviously could not walk alone. But once seated at a +small table, she was just as she had been before, with her wonderful +charm, her simple manner and her musical voice. Only her white hair bore +witness to the years that had passed. She asked me about <i>Henri VIII</i>, +which was being given for the second time at Covent Garden, and I +explained to her that in my desire to give the piece the local color of +its times I had been ferreting about in the royal library at Buckingham +Palace, to which my friend, the librarian, had given me access. And I +also told how I had found in a great collection of manuscripts of the +Sixteenth Century an exquisitely fine theme arranged for the +harpsichord, which served as the framework for the opera—I used it +later for the march I wrote for the coronation of King Edward. The Queen +was much interested in music in general and she appeared to be +especially pleased in this discussion. His Highness the Duke of +Connaught wrote me that she had spoken of it several times. +</p> + +<p> +The musical library at Buckingham Palace is most remarkable and it is a +pity that access to it is not easier. Among other things, there are the +manuscripts of Handel’s oratorios, written for the most part with +disconcerting rapidity. His <i>Messiah</i> was composed in fifteen days! The +rudimentary instrumentation of the time made such speed possible, yet +who is there to-day who could write all those fugue choruses with such +speed? The fugue manner, which seems laborious to us, was current at +the time and they were practised in it. The library also contains works +of Handel’s contemporaries, which are executed with the same mastery. We +cannot say whether they were written with the same rapidity as Handel’s, +but it is easy to see that there was a general ability to do so, just as +now it is a matter of common attainment to produce complicated +orchestral effects, the possibility of which the old masters had no +conception. What made Handel superior to his rivals was the romantic and +picturesque side of his works; probably also, his prodigious and +unvarying fertility. +</p> + +<p> +The last word has been said about Queen Victoria, yet the peculiar charm +which radiated from her personality cannot be too highly praised. She +seemed the personification of England. When she passed on, it seemed as +though a great void were left. All King Edward’s splendid qualities were +necessary to take her place, combined with the effect of the world’s +surprise at discovering a great king where they had expected to see +only a brilliant prince who had been a constant lover of pomp and +pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +I was later admitted to Buckingham Palace to play with Josef Hollman, +the violinist, before Queen Alexandra. We both were eager for this +opportunity which we were told was impossible. The Queen was very busy, +and, in addition, she was in mourning for the successive deaths of her +father and mother, the King and Queen of Denmark. Suddenly, however, we +learned that she would receive us. She was pale and appeared to be +feeble, but she received us with the utmost cordiality. She spoke to me +about her mother, whom I had seen at Copenhagen with her sisters the +Empress Dowager of Russia, and the Princess of Hanover whom politics +deprived of a crown which was hers by right. I have a very pleasant +recollection of this visit. I do not know how it happened but I remained +speechless at this lead from the Queen. She brought the subject up a +second time and my timidity still prevented my responding. I ought to +have had many things to say to one so obviously eager to listen. This +Queen of Denmark, with her eighty years, was the most delightful old +lady imaginable. Erect, slight, alert of mind and unfaltering of speech, +she reminded me vividly of my maternal great-aunt, that extraordinary +woman, who gave me my first notions of things and directed my hand on +the keys so well. +</p> + +<p> +A singer whom I had never seen or heard of, but of whom I had heard poor +reports, had written Queen Louise that I wanted to accompany her to +court. The Queen asked me if I knew her and if what she had written was +true. My surprise was so great that I could not repress a start, which I +followed by an exclamation of denial, which appeared to amuse her +greatly. “I did not doubt it,” she said, “but I’m not sorry to be sure.” +</p> + +<p> +Queen Alexandra was accompanied by Lady Gray, her great friend, and the +hereditary princess of Greece. After M. Hollman and I had played a duet, +she expressed a desire to hear me play alone. As I attempted to lift the +lid of the piano, she stepped forward to help me raise it before the +maids of honor could intervene. After this slight concert she delivered +to each of us, in her own name and in that of the absent king, a gold +medal commemorative of artistic merit, and she offered us a cup of tea +which she poured with her royal and imperial hands. +</p> + +<p> +Other queens have also received me—Queen Christine of Spain and Queen +Amelie of Portugal. After Queen Christine had heard me play on the +piano, she expressed a desire to hear me play the organ, and they chose +for this an excellent instrument made by Cavaillé-Coll in a church whose +name I have forgotten. The day was fixed for this ceremony, which would +naturally have been of a private character, when some great ladies +lectured the indiscreet queen for daring to resort to a sacred place for +any purpose besides taking part in divine services. The queen was +displeased by this remonstrance and she responded by coming to the +church not only not incognito, but in great state, with the king (he was +very young), the ministers and the court, while horsemen stationed at +intervals blew their trumpets. I had written a religious march +especially for this event, and the Queen kindly accepted its dedication +to her. I was a little flustered when she asked me to play the too +familiar melody from <i>Samson et Dalila</i> which begins <i>Mon coeur s’ouvre +à ta voix</i>. I had to improvise a transposition suited for the organ, +something I had never dreamt of doing. During the performance the Queen +leaned her elbow on the keyboard of the organ, her chin resting on one +hand and her eyes upturned. She seemed rapt in exstasy which, as may be +imagined, was not precisely displeasing to the author. +</p> + +<p> +The press of the day printed delightful articles about the scene, but +with no pretense to accuracy. I had nothing to do with that in any way. +</p> + +<p> +Her Majesty Queen Amelie of Portugal once honored me in a distinctive +manner. She received me alone without any of her ladies of honor, which +allowed her to dispense with all etiquette and to have me sit in a chair +near her. In this intimate way she entertained me for three-quarters of +an hour asking questions on all sorts of subjects. I had the chance to +tell her how the oriental theme of the ballet in <i>Samson</i> had been given +to me years before by General Yusuf, and to give her many details of +that interesting personage of whom she had heard her uncles speak. +</p> + +<p> +“I am going to leave you,” she said at last, “but not because I want to. +If one conscientiously practices the <i>metier</i> of being a queen, one +doesn’t always find it amusing.” +</p> + +<p> +What would that unhappy woman have said, could she have foreseen the +calamities that were to befall her! +</p> + +<p> +In Rome I had the honor to be invited to a musicale at Queen +Margharita’s. The great drawing-rooms were filled with great ladies +laden down with family jewels of fabulous value. All the music was +terribly serious. Now this kind of music does not make for personal +acquaintance, especially as all these great people were victims of a +boredom they did their best to conceal. Afterwards the two queens wanted +to talk to me. Queen Hélène, who is a violinist, told me that her +children were learning the violin and the cello, an arrangement I +praised highly, for the exclusive devotion to the piano in these later +days has been the death of chamber music and almost of music itself. +</p> + +<p> +In my gallery of sovereigns I cannot forget the gracious Queen of +Belgium. I have always seen her, however, in company with her august +husband, and this story would become interminable if I were to include +“Their Majesties” of the sterner sex—the Emperor of Germany, the Kings +of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal.... +</p> + +<p> +As I have had more to do with princes than with sovereigns, my tongue +sometimes slips in talking to the latter. As I excused myself one day +for addressing the Queen of Belgium as “Highness,” she replied, with a +smile, “Don’t apologize; that recalls good times.” +</p> + +<p> +She told me of the time when she and the king, then only heirs apparent, +used to go up and down the Mediterranean coast in a little two-seated +car. It was during this period that I had the honor of meeting them at +the palace of his Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco, and of having +charming and interesting personal conversation with them, for the king +is a savant and the queen an artist. +</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="xxiii" id="xxiii"></a>Chapter XXIII</h1> + +<div class="chapter-title">Musical Painters</div> + +<p> +Ingres was famous for his violin. A single wall separated the apartment +where I lived during my childhood and youth from the one where the +painter Granger, one of Ingres’s pupils, with his wife and daughter, +lived. Granger painted the <i>Adoration of the Wise Men</i> in the church of +Notre Dame de Lorette. I have played with the gilt paper crown which his +model wore when posing as one of the three kings. My mother and Mlle. +Granger (who later became Madame Paul Meurice) both loved painting and +became great friends. They copied together Paul Delaroche’s <i>Enfants +d’Edouard</i> at the Louvre, a picture which was the rage at that time. My +mother’s paintings, in an admirable state of preservation, may be seen +at the museum at Dieppe. +</p> + +<p> +I was introduced to Ingres when I was five years old through the +Granger family. The distance from the Rue du Jardinet, where we lived, +to the Quai Voltaire was not far, and we often went like a +procession—the Grangers, my great-aunt Masson, my mother and I—to call +upon Ingres and his wife, a delightfully simple woman whom everyone +loved. +</p> + +<p> +Ingres often talked to me about Mozart, Gluck, and all the other great +masters of music. When I was six years old, I composed an Adagio which I +dedicated to him in all seriousness. Fortunately this masterpiece has +been lost. As I already played, and rather nicely for my years, some of +Mozart’s sonatas, Ingres, in return for my dedication, presented me with +a small medallion with the portrait of the author of Don Juan on one +side, and this inscription on the other: “To M. Saint-Saëns, the +charming interpreter of the divine artist.” +</p> + +<p> +He carelessly omitted to add the date of this dedication, which would +have increased its interest, for the idea of calling a knee-high +youngster of six “M. Saint-Saëns” was certainly unusual. +</p> + +<div class="illustration" id="ill11-box"><a id="ill11" name="ill11"></a> +<a href="images/ill11.jpg"> +<img class="illustration" width="388" height="584" id="ill11-img" src="images/ill11s.jpg" title="Ingres, the painter famous for his violin" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</a> +<div class="caption">Ingres, the painter famous for his violin</div> +</div> + +<p> +In addition to the calls I paid him, when I was older I often met the +great painter at the house of Frederic Reiset, one of his most ardent +admirers. They made much of music in that household and we often heard +there Delsarte, the singer without a voice, whom Ingres admired very +much. Delsarte and Henri Reber were, in fact, his musical mentors, and, +in spite of his pretence of being a great connoisseur, he was in reality +their echo. He affected, for example, the most profound contempt for all +modern music, and would not even listen to it. In this respect he +reflected Reber. Reber used to say quietly in his far-away nasal voice, +“You’ve got to imitate somebody, so the best thing to do is to imitate +the ancients, for they are the best.” However, he undertook to prove the +contrary by writing some particularly individual music, when he thought +he was imitating Haydn and Mozart. Some of his works, in their +perfection of line, their regard for details, their purity and their +moderation remind one of Ingres’s drawings which express so much in such +a simple way. And Ingres, as well, although he tried to imitate Raphael, +could only be himself. Reber would have been worthy of comparison with +the painter, if he had had the power and productiveness which +distinguish genius. +</p> + +<p> +What about Ingres’s violin? Well, I saw this famous violin for the first +time in the Montaubon Museum. Ingres never even spoke to me about it. He +is said to have played it in his youth, but I could never persuade him +to play even the slightest sonata with me. “I used to play,” he replied +to my entreaties, “the second violin in a quartet, but that is all.” +</p> + +<p> +So I think I must be dreaming when I read, from time to time, that +Ingres was more appreciative of compliments about his violin-playing +than those about his painting. That is merely a legend, but it is +impossible to destroy a legend. As the good La Fontaine said: +</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"> +<div class="line">“Man is like ice toward truth;</div> +<div class="line">He is like fire to untruth.”</div> +</blockquote> + +<p> +I do not know whether Ingres showed talent for the violin in his youth +or not. But I can state positively that in his maturity he showed none. +</p> + +<p> +Gustave Doré was also said to be famous on the violin, and his claims to +consideration were far from inconsiderable. He had acquired a valuable +instrument, on which he used to play Berlioz’s <i>Concertos</i> with a really +extraordinary facility and spirit. These superficial works were enough +for his musical powers. The surprising things about his execution was +that he never worked at it. If he could not get a thing at once, he gave +it up for good and all. +</p> + +<p> +He was a frequent attendant at Rossini’s salon, and he belonged to the +faction which supported melody and opposed “learned scientific music.” +His temperament and mine hardly seem compatible, but friendship, like +love, has its inexplicable mysteries, and gradually we became the best +of friends. We lived in the same quarter and we visited each other +frequently. As we almost never were of the same opinion about anything, +we had interminable arguments, entirely free from rancor, which we +thoroughly enjoyed. +</p> + +<p> +I finally became the confidant of his secret sorrows, and his innermost +griefs. He was endowed with a wonderful visual memory, but he made the +mistake of never using models, for in his opinion they were useless for +an artist who knew his <i>metier</i>. So he condemned himself to a perpetual +approximation, which was enough for illustrations demanding only life +and character, but fatal for large canvasses, with half or full sized +figures. This was the cause of his disappointments and failures which he +attributed to malevolence and a hostility, which really did exist, but +which took advantage of this opportunity to make the painter pay for the +exaggerated success of the designer that had been extravagantly praised +by the press from the beginning. He laid himself open to criticism +through his abuse of his own facility. I have seen him painting away on +thirty canvasses at the same time in his immense studio. Three seriously +studied pictures would have been worth more. +</p> + +<p> +At heart this great overgrown jovial boy was melancholy and sensitive. +He died young from heart disease, which was aggravated by grief over the +death of his mother from whom he had never been separated. +</p> + +<p> +I dedicated a slight piece written for the violin to Doré. This was not +lost as the one to Ingres was, but it would be entirely unknown had not +Johannes Wolf, the violinist of queens and empresses, done me the favor +of placing it in his repertoire and bringing his fine talent to its aid. +</p> + +<p> +Hébert was the most serious of the painter-violinists. Down to the end +of his life he delighted in playing the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven, +and, from all accounts, he played them remarkably. I can say this only +from hearsay, for I never heard him. The few times that I ever saw him +at home in my youth, I found him with his brush in hand. I saw him after +that only at the Académie, where we sat near each other, and he always +greeted me cordially. We talked music from time to time, and he +conversed like a connoisseur. +</p> + +<p> +Henri Regnault was the most musical of all the painters whom I have +known. He did not need a violin—he was his own. Nature had endowed him +with an exquisite tenor voice. It was alluring in its timbre and +irresistible in its attractiveness, just as he was himself. He was no +“near musician.” He loved music passionately, and he was unwilling to +sing as an amateur. He took lessons from Romain Bussine at the +Conservatoire. He sang to perfection the difficult arias of Mozart’s +<i>Don Juan</i>. He also liked to declaim the magnificent recitative of +Pilgrimage in the third act of <i>Tannhauser</i>. +</p> + +<p> +As we were friendly and liked the same things, the sympathy which +brought us together was quite natural. At the beginning of the war in +1870 I wrote <i>Les Melodies Persanes</i> and Regnault was their first +interpreter. <i>Sabre en main</i> is dedicated to him. But his great success +was <i>Le Cimitière</i>. Who would have thought as he sang: +</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"> +<div class="line">“To-day the roses,</div> +<div class="line">To-morrow the cypress!”</div> +</blockquote> + +<p style="text-indent: 0em"> +that the prophecy would be realized so soon? +</p> + +<p> +Some imbeciles have written that the loss of Regnault was not to be +regretted; that he had said all he had to say. In reality he had given +only the prologue of the great poem which he was working out in his +brain. He had already ordered canvasses for great compositions which, +without a doubt, would have been among the glories of French art. +</p> + +<p> +I saw him for the last time during the siege. He was just starting for +drill with his rifle in his hand. One of the four watercolors which were +his last work, stood uncompleted on his easel. There was a shapeless +spot at the bottom. He held a handkerchief in his free hand. He +moistened this from time to time with saliva and kept tapping away on +the spot on the picture. To my great astonishment, almost to my fright, +I saw roughed out and finished the head of a lion. +</p> + +<p> +A few days afterwards came Buzenval! +</p> + +<p> +When the question of publishing Henri Regnault’s letters came up, some +phrases referring to me and ranking me above my rivals were found in +them. The editor of the letter got into communication with me, read me +the phrases, and announced that they were to be suppressed, because they +might displease the other musicians. +</p> + +<p> +I knew who the other musicians were, and whose puppet the editor was. It +would have been possible, it seems to me, without hurting anyone, to +include the exaggerated praise, which, coming from a painter, had no +weight, and which would have proved nothing except the great friendship +which inspired it. I have always regretted that the public did not learn +of the sentiments with which the great artist, whom I loved so much, +honored me. +</p> + +<div id="the-end">The End</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Memories, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 16459-h.htm or 16459-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/5/16459/ + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdffe32 --- /dev/null +++ b/16459-h/images/seal.jpg diff --git a/16459.txt b/16459.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0543ef5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16459.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5661 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Memories, by Camille Saint-Saens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Musical Memories + +Author: Camille Saint-Saens + +Translator: Edwin Gile Rich + +Release Date: August 7, 2005 [EBook #16459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: The Master, Camille Saint-Saens] + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + +BY +CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS + +TRANSLATED BY +EDWIN GILE RICH +Translator of Lafond's "_Ma Mitrailleuse_," etc. + +[Illustration: (A publisher's seal, inscribed "SCIRE QVOD SCIENDVM".)] + +BOSTON +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +1919, +BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +(INCORPORATED) + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + I MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD + + II THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE + + III VICTOR HUGO + + IV THE HISTORY OF AN OPERA-COMIQUE + + V LOUIS GALLET + + VI HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY IN OPERA + + VII ART FOR ART'S SAKE + + VIII POPULAR SCIENCE AND ART + + IX ANARCHY IN MUSIC + + X THE ORGAN + + XI JOSEPH HAYDN AND THE "SEVEN WORDS" + + XII THE LISZT CENTENARY AT HEIDELBERG (1912) + + XIII BERLIOZ'S REQUIEM + + XIV PAULINE VIARDOT + + XV ORPHEE + + XVI DELSARTE + + XVII SEGHERS + +XVIII ROSSINI + + XIX JULES MASSENET + + XX MEYERBEER + + XXI JACQUES OFFENBACH + + XXII THEIR MAJESTIES + +XXIII MUSICAL PAINTERS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Master, Camille Saint-Saens + +The Paris Opera + +The First Performance of _Dejanire_ + +M. Saint-Saens in his Later Years + +The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saens played the organ for twenty years + +Hector Berlioz + +Mme. Pauline Viardot + +Mme. Patti + +M. Jules Massenet + +Meyerbeer, Composer of _Les Huguenots_ + +Jacques Offenbach + +Ingres, the painter famous for his violin + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + + + + +MUSICAL MEMORIES + + +CHAPTER I + +MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD + + +In bygone days I was often told that I had two mothers, and, as a matter +of fact, I did have two--the mother who gave me life and my maternal +great-aunt, Charlotte Masson. The latter came from an old family of +lawyers named Gayard and this relationship makes me a descendant of +General Delcambre, one of the heroes of the retreat from Russia. His +granddaughter married Count Durrieu of the _Academie des Inscriptions et +Belles-Lettres_. My great-aunt was born in the provinces in 1781, but +she was adopted by a childless aunt and uncle who made their home in +Paris. He was a wealthy lawyer and they lived magnificently. + +My great-aunt was a precocious child--she walked at nine months--and +she became a woman of keen intellect and brilliant attainments. She +remembered perfectly the customs of the _Ancien Regime_, and she enjoyed +telling about them, as well as about the Revolution, the Reign of +Terror, and the times that followed. Her family was ruined by the +Revolution and the slight, frail, young girl undertook to earn her +living by giving lessons in French, on the pianoforte--the instrument +was a novelty then--in singing, painting, embroidery, in fact in +everything she knew and in much that she did not. If she did not know, +she learned then and there so that she could teach. Afterwards, she +married one of her cousins. As she had no children of her own, she +brought one of her nieces from Champagne and adopted her. This niece was +my mother, Clemence Collin. The Massons were about to retire from +business with a comfortable fortune, when they lost practically +everything within two weeks, in a panic, saving just enough to live +decently. Shortly after this my mother married my father, a minor +official in the Department of the Interior. My great-uncle died of a +broken heart some months before my birth on October 9, 1835. My father +died of consumption on the thirty-first of the following December, just +a year to a day after his marriage. + +Thus the two women were both left widows, poorly provided for, weighed +down by sad memories, and with the care of a delicate child. In fact I +was so delicate that the doctors held out little hope of my living, and +on their advice I was left in the country with my nurse until I was two +years old. + +While my aunt had had a remarkable education, my mother had not been so +widely taught. But she made up for any lack by the display of an +imagination and an eager power of assimilation which bordered on the +miraculous. She often told me about an uncle who was very fond of +her--he had been ruined in the cause of Philippe Egalite. This uncle was +an artist, but he was, nevertheless, passionately fond of music. He had +even built with his own hands a concert organ on which he used to play. +My mother used to sit between his knees and, while he amused himself by +running his fingers through her splendid black hair, he would talk to +her about art, music, painting--beauty in every form. So she got it into +her head that if she ever had sons of her own, the first should be a +musician, the second a painter, and the third a sculptor. As a result, +when I came home from the nurse, she was not greatly surprised that I +began to listen to every noise and to every sound; that I made the doors +creak, and would plant myself in front of the clocks to hear them +strike. My special delight was the music of the tea-kettle--a large one +which was hung before the fire in the drawing-room every morning. Seated +nearby on a small stool, I used to wait with a lively curiosity for the +first murmurs of its gentle and variegated _crescendo_, and the +appearance of a microscopic oboe which gradually increased its song +until it was silenced by the kettle boiling. Berlioz must have heard +that oboe as well as I, for I rediscovered it in the "Ride to Hell" in +his _La Damnation de Faust_. + +At the same time I was learning to read. When I was two-years-and-a-half +old, they placed me in front of a small piano which had not been opened +for several years. Instead of drumming at random as most children of +that age would have done, I struck the notes one after another, going on +only when the sound of the previous note had died away. My great-aunt +taught me the names of the notes and got a tuner to put the piano in +order. While the tuning was going on, I was playing in the next room, +and they were utterly astonished when I named the notes as they were +sounded. I was not told all these details--I remember them perfectly. + +I was taught by Le Carpentier's method and I finished it in a month. +They couldn't let a little monkey like that work away at the piano, and +I cried like a lost soul when they closed the instrument. Then they left +it open and put a small stool in front of it. From time to time I would +leave my playthings and climb up to drum out whatever came into my head. +Gradually, my great-aunt, who fortunately had an excellent foundation in +music, taught me how to hold my hands properly so that I did not acquire +the gross faults which are so difficult to correct later on. But they +did not know what sort of music to give me. That written especially for +children is, as a rule, entirely melody and the part for the left hand +is uninteresting. I refused to learn it. "The bass doesn't sing," I +said, in disgust. + +Then they searched the old masters, in Haydn and Mozart, for things +sufficiently easy for me to handle. At five I was playing small sonatas +correctly, with good interpretation and excellent precision. But I +consented to play them only before listeners capable of appreciating +them. I have read in a biographical sketch that I was threatened with +whippings to make me play. That is absolutely false; but it was +necessary to tell me that there was a lady in the audience who was an +excellent musician and had fastidious tastes. I would not play for those +who did not know. + +As for the threat of whippings, that must be relegated to the realm of +legends with the one that Garcia punished his daughters to make them +learn to sing. Madame Viardot expressly told me that neither she nor her +sister was abused by their father and that they learned music without +realizing it, just as they learned to talk. + +But in spite of my surprising progress my teacher did not foresee what +my future was to be. "When he is fifteen," she said, "if he can write a +dance, I shall be satisfied." It was just at this time, however, that I +began to write music. I wrote waltzes and galops--the galop was +fashionable at that period; it ran to rather ordinary musical motives +and mine were no exception to the rule. Liszt had to show by his _Galop +Chromatique_ the distinction that genius can give to the most +commonplace themes. My waltzes were better. As has always been the case +with me, I was already composing the music directly on paper without +working it out on the piano. The waltzes were too difficult for my +hands, so a friend of the family, a sister of the singer Geraldy, was +kind enough to play them for me. + +I have looked over these little compositions lately. They are +insignificant, but it is impossible to find a technical error in them. +Such precision was remarkable for a child who had no idea of the science +of harmony. About that time some one had the notion that I should hear +an orchestra. So they took me to a symphony concert and my mother held +me in her arms near the door. Until then I had only heard single violins +and their tone had not pleased me. But the impression of the orchestra +was entirely different and I listened with delight to a passage played +by a quartet, when, suddenly, came a blast from the brass +instruments--the trumpets, trombones and cymbals. I broke into loud +cries, "Make them stop. They prevent my hearing the music." They had to +take me out. + +When I was seven, I passed out of my great-aunt's hands into Stamaty's. +He was surprised at the way my education in music had been directed and +he expressed this in a small work in which he discussed the necessity of +making a correct start. In my case, he said, there was nothing to do but +to perfect. + +Stamaty was Kalkbrenner's best pupil and the propagator of the method he +had invented. This method was based on the _guide main_, so I was put to +work on it. The preface to Kalkbrenner's method, in which he relates the +beginnings of his invention, is exceedingly interesting. This invention +consisted of a rod placed in front of the keyboard. The forearm rested +on this rod in such a way that all muscular action save that of the hand +was suppressed. This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist +how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes +where the keys responded to slight pressure; but it is inadequate for +modern works and instruments. It is the way one ought to begin, for it +develops firmness of the fingers and suppleness of the wrist, and, by +easy stages, adds the weight of the forearm and of the whole arm. But in +our day it has become the practice to begin at the end. We learn the +elements of the fugue from Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_, +the piano from the works of Schumann and Liszt, and harmony and +instrumentation from Richard Wagner. All too often we waste our efforts, +just as singers who learn roles and rush on the stage before they know +how to sing ruin their voices in a short time. + +Firmness of the fingers is not the only thing that one learns from +Kalkbrenner's method, for there is also a refinement of the quality of +the sound made by the fingers alone, a valuable resource which is +unusual in our day. + +Unfortunately, this school invented as well continuous _legato_, which +is both false and monotonous; the abuse of nuances, and a mania for +continual _expressio_ used with no discrimination. All this was opposed +to my natural feelings, and I was unable to conform to it. They +reproached me by saying that I would never get a really fine effect--to +which I was entirely indifferent. + +When I was ten, my teacher decided that I was sufficiently prepared to +give a concert in the Salle Pleyel, so I played there, accompanied by an +Italian orchestra, with Tilmant as the conductor. I gave Beethoven's +_Concerto in C minor_ and one of Mozart's concertos in B flat. There was +some question of my playing at the Societe des Concerts du +Conservatoire, and there was even a rehearsal. But Seghers, who +afterwards founded the Societe St. Cecile, was a power in the affairs of +the orchestra. He detested Stamaty and told him that the Societe was not +organized to play children's accompaniments. My mother felt hurt and +wanted to hear nothing more of it. + +After my first concert, which was a brilliant success, my teacher +wanted me to give others, but my mother did not wish me to have a career +as an infant prodigy. She had higher ambitions and was unwilling for me +to continue in concert work for fear of injuring my health. The result +was that a coolness sprang up between my teacher and me which ended our +relations. + +At that time my mother made a remark which was worthy of Cornelia. One +day some one remonstrated with her for letting me play Beethoven's +sonatas. "What music will he play when he is twenty?" she was asked. "He +will play his own," was her reply. + + * * * * * + +The greatest benefit I got from my experience with Stamaty was my +acquaintance with Maleden, whom he gave me as my teacher in composition. +Maleden was born in Limoges, as his accent always showed. He was thin +and long-haired, a kind and timid soul, but an incomparable teacher. He +had gone to Germany in his youth to study with a certain Gottfried +Weber, the inventor of a system which Maleden brought back with him and +perfected. He made it a wonderful tool with which to get to the depths +of music--a light for the darkest corners. In this system the chords are +not considered in and for themselves--as fifths, sixths, sevenths--but +in relation to the pitch of the scale on which they appear. The chords +acquire different characteristics according to the place they occupy, +and, as a result, certain things are explained which are, otherwise, +inexplicable. This method is taught in the Ecole Niedermeuer, but I +don't know that it is taught elsewhere. + +Maleden was extremely anxious to become a professor at the +Conservatoire. As the result of powerful influence, Auber was about to +sign Maleden's appointment, when, in his scrupulous honesty, he thought +he ought to write and warn him that his method differed entirely from +that taught in the institution. Auber was frightened and Maleden was not +admitted. + +Our lessons were often very stormy. From time to time certain questions +came up on which I could not agree with him. He would then take me +quietly by the ear, bend my head and hold my ear to the table for a +minute or two. Then, he would ask whether I had changed my mind. As I +had not, he would think it over and very often he would confess that I +was right. + +"Your childhood," Gounod once told me, "wasn't musical." He was wrong, +for he did not know the many tokens of my childhood. Many of my attempts +are unfinished--to say nothing of those I destroyed--but among them are +songs, choruses, cantatas, and overtures, none of which will ever see +the light. Oblivion will enshroud these gropings after effect, for they +are of no interest to the public. Among these scribblings I have found +some notes written in pencil when I was four. The date on them leaves no +doubt about the time of their production. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE + + +I cannot let the old Conservatoire in the Rue Bergere go without paying +it a last farewell, for I loved it deeply as we all love the things of +our youth. I loved its antiquity, the utter absence of any modern note, +and its atmosphere of other days. I loved that absurd court with the +wailing notes of sopranos and tenors, the rattling of pianos, the blasts +of trumpets and trombones, the arpeggios of clarinets, all uniting to +form that ultra-polyphone which some of our composers have tried to +attain--but without success. Above all I loved the memories of my +education in music which I obtained in that ridiculous and venerable +palace, long since too small for the pupils who thronged there from all +parts of the world. + +I was fourteen when Stamaty, my piano teacher, introduced me to +Benoist, the teacher of the organ, an excellent and charming man, +familiarly known as "Father Benoist." They put me in front of the +keyboard, but I was badly frightened, and the sounds I made were so +extraordinary that all the pupils shouted with laughter. I was received +at the Conservatoire as an "auditor." + +So there I was only admitted to the honor of listening to others. I was +extremely painstaking, however, and I never lost a note or one of the +teacher's words. I worked and thought at home, studying hard on +Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_. All of the pupils, however, +were not so industrious. One day, when they had all failed and Benoist, +as a result, had nothing to do, he put me at the organ. This time no one +laughed and I at once became a regular pupil. At the end of the year I +won the second prize. I would have had the first except for my youth and +the inconvenience of having me leave a class where I needed to stay +longer. + +That same year Madeleine Brohan won the first prize in comedy. She +competed with a selection from _Misanthrope_, and Mlle. Jouassin gave +the other part of the dialogue. Mlle. Jouassin's technique was the +better, but Madeleine Brohan was so wonderful in beauty and voice that +she carried off the prize. The award made a great uproar. To-day, in +such a case, the prize would be divided. Mlle. Jouassin won her prize +the following year. After leaving school, she accepted and held for a +long time an important place at the Comedie-Francaise. + +Benoist was a very ordinary organist, but an admirable teacher. A +veritable galaxy of talent came from his class. He had little to say, +but as his taste was refined and his judgment sure, nothing he said +lacked weight or authority. He collaborated in several ballets for the +Opera and that gave him a good deal of work to do. It sounds incredible, +but he used to bring his "work" to class and scribble away on his +orchestration while his pupils played the organ. This did not prevent +his listening and looking after them. He would leave his work and make +appropriate comments as though he had no other thought. + +In addition to his ballets, Benoist did other little odd jobs for the +Opera. As a result one day, without thinking, he gave me the key to a +deep secret. In his famous _Traite d'Instrumentation_ Berlioz spoke of +his admiration for a passage in Sacchini's _Oedipus a Colone_. Two +clarinets are heard in descending thirds of real charm just before the +words, "_Je connus la charmante Eriphyle._" Berlioz was enthusiastic and +wrote: + +"We might believe that we really see Eriphyle chastely kiss his eyes. It +is admirable. And yet," he adds, "there is no trace of this effect in +Sacchini's score." + +Now Sacchini, for some reason or other which I do not know, did not use +clarinets once in the whole score. Benoist was commissioned to add them +when the work was revived, as he told me as we were chatting one day. +Berlioz did not know this, and Benoist, who had not read Berlioz's +_Traite_, knew nothing of the romantic musician's enthusiastic +admiration of his work. These happily turned thirds, although they +weren't Sacchini's, were, none the less, an excellent innovation. + +Benoist was less happy when he was asked to put some life into +Bellini's _Romeo_ by using earsplitting outbursts of drums, cymbals, and +brass. During the same noise-loving period Costa, in London, gave +Mozart's _Don Juan_ the same treatment. He let loose throughout the +opera the trombones which the author intentionally reserved for the end. +Benoist ought to have refused to do such a barbarous piece of work. +However, it had no effect in preventing the failure of a worthless +piece, staged at great expense by the management which had rejected Les +Troyens. + +I was fifteen when I entered Halevy's class. I had already completed the +study of harmony, counterpoint and fugue under Maleden's direction. As I +have said, his method was that taught at the Ecole Niedermeuer. Faure, +Messager, Perilhou, and Gigot were trained there and they taught this +method in turn. My class-work consisted in making attempts at vocal and +instrumental music and orchestration. My _Reverie_, _La Feuille de +Peuplier_ and many other things first appeared there. They have been +entirely forgotten, and rightly, for my work was very uneven. + +At the end of his career Halevy was constantly writing opera and +opera-comique which added nothing to his fame and which disappeared +never to be revived after a respectable number of performances. He was +entirely absorbed in his work and, as a result, he neglected his classes +a good deal. He came only when he had time. The pupils, however, came +just the same and gave each other instruction which was far less +indulgent than the master's, for his greatest fault was an overweening +good nature. Even when he was at class he couldn't protect himself from +self-seekers. Singers of all sorts, male and female, came for a hearing. +One day it was Marie Cabel, still youthful and dazzling both in voice +and beauty. Other days impossible tenors wasted his time. When the +master sent word that he wasn't coming--this happened often--I used to +go to the library, and there, as a matter of fact, I completed my +education. The amount of music, ancient and modern, I devoured is beyond +belief. + +But it wasn't enough just to read music--I needed to hear it. Of course +there was the Societe des Concerts, but it was a Paradise, guarded by an +angel with a flaming sword, in the form of a porter named Lescot. It was +his duty to prevent the profane defiling the sanctuary. Lescot was fond +of me and appreciated my keen desire to hear the orchestra. As a result +he made his rounds as slowly as possible in order to put me out only as +a last resort. Fortunately for me, Marcelin de Fresne gave me a place in +his box, which I was permitted to occupy for several years. + +I used to read and study the symphonies before I heard them and I saw +grave defects in the Societe's vaunted execution. No one would stand +them now, but then they passed unnoticed. I was naive and lacked +discretion, and so I often pointed out these defects. It can be easily +imagined what vials of wrath were poured on me. + +As far as the public was concerned, the great success of these concerts +was due to the incomparable charm of the depth of tone, which was +attributed to the hall. The members of the Societe believed this, too, +and they would let no other orchestra be heard there. This state of +affairs lasted until Anton Rubinstein got permission from the Minister +of Fine Arts to give a concert there, accompanied by the Colonne +orchestra. The Societe fretted and fumed at this and threatened to give +up its series of concerts. But the Societe was overruled and the concert +was given. To the general surprise it was seen that another orchestra in +the same hall produced an entirely different effect. The depth of tone +which had been appreciated so highly, it was found, was due to the +famous Societe itself, to the character of the instruments and the +execution. + +Nevertheless, the hall is excellent, although it is no longer adequate +for the presentation of modern compositions. But it is a marvellous +place for the numerous concerts given by virtuosi, both singers and +instrumentalists, accompanied by an orchestra, and for chamber music. +Finally, the hall where France was introduced to the masterpieces of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose influence has been so profound, is a +historic place. + +Numerous improvements in the administration of the Conservatoire have +been introduced during the last few years. On the other hand, old and +honored customs have disappeared and we can but regret their loss. From +Auber's time on there was a _pension_ connected with the Conservatoire. +Here the young singers who came from the provinces at eighteen found +board and lodging, a regular life, and a protection from the temptations +of a large city, so dangerous to fresh young voices. Bouhy, Lassalle, +Capoul, Gailhard and many others who have made the French stage famous +came from this _pension_. + +We also used to have dramatic recitals which were excellent both for the +performers and the audiences as they gave works which were not in the +usual repertoire. In these recitals they gave Mehul's _Joseph_, which +had disappeared from the stage for a long time. The beautiful choruses +sung by the fresh voices of the pupils made such a success and the whole +work was so enthusiastically applauded that it was revived at the +Opera-Comique and won back a success which it has never lost. We also +heard there Gluck's _Orphee_ long before that masterpiece was revived at +the Theatre-Lyrique. Then there was Mehul's _Irato_, a curious and +charming work which the Opera took up afterwards. And there, too, they +gave the last act of Rossini's _Otello_. The tempest in that act gave me +the idea of the one which rumbles through the second act of _Samson_. + +When the hall was reconstructed, the stage was destroyed so that such +performances are impossible. But to make up for this, they installed a +concert organ, a necessary adjunct for musical performances. + +Finally, in Auber's day and even in that of Ambroise Thomas, the +director was master. No one had dreamed of creating a committee, which, +under cover of the director's responsibility, would strangely diminish +his authority. The only benefit from the new system has been the end of +the incessant war which the musical critics waged on the director. But +that did no harm, either to the director or to the school, for the +latter kept on growing to such an extent that it ought to have been +enlarged long ago. The committee plan has won and the incident is +closed. One may only hope that steps will be taken to make possible an +increase in the number of pupils since so many candidates apply each +year and so few are chosen. + +As everyone knows, we have been struck by a perfect mania for reforms, +so there is no harm in proposing one for the Conservatoire. Foreign +conservatoires have been studied and they want to introduce some of +their features here. As a matter of fact, some of the foreign +conservatoires are housed in magnificent palaces and their curricula are +elaborated with a care worthy of admiration. Whether they turn out +better pupils than we do is an open question. It is beyond dispute, +however, that many young foreigners come to us for their education. + +Some of the reformers are scandalized at the sight of a musician in +charge of a school where elocution is taught. They forget that a +musician may also be a man of letters--the present director combines +these qualifications--and that it is improbable that it will be +different in the future. The teachers of elocution have always been the +best that could be found. Although M. Faure is a musician, he has known +how to bring back the classes in tragedy to their original purpose. For +a time they tended towards an objectionable modernism, for they +substituted in their competitions modern prose for the classic verse. +And the study of the latter is very profitable. + +Not only is there no harm in this union of elocution and music, but it +would be useful if singers and composers would take advantage of it to +familiarize themselves with the principles of diction, which, in my +opinion, are indispensable to both. Instead, they distrust melody. +Declamation is no longer wanted in operas, and the singers make the +works incomprehensible by not articulating the words. The composers tend +along the same lines, for they give no indication or direction of how +they want the words spoken. All this is regrettable and should be +reformed. + +As you see, I object to the mania for reform and end by suggesting +reforms myself. Well, one must be of one's own time, and there is no +escaping the contagion. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +VICTOR HUGO + + +Everything in my youth seemed calculated to keep me far removed from +romanticism. Those about me talked only of the great classics and I saw +them welcome Ponsard's _Lucrece_ as a sort of Minerva whose lance was to +route Victor Hugo and his foul crew, of whom they never spoke save with +detestation. + +Who was it, I wonder, who had the happy idea of giving me, elegantly +bound, the first volumes of Victor Hugo's poems? I have forgotten who it +was, but I remember what joy the vibrations of his lyre gave me. Until +that time poetry had seemed to me something cold, respectable and +far-away, and it was much later that the living beauty of our classics +was revealed to me. I found myself at once stirred to the depths, and, +as my temperament is essentially musical in everything, I began to sing +them. + +People have told me _ad nauseam_ (and they still tell me so) that +beautiful verse is inimical to music, or rather that music is inimical +to good verse; that music demands ordinary verse, rhymed prose, rather +than verse, which is malleable and reducible as the composer wishes. +This generalization is assuredly true, if the music is written first and +then adapted to the words, but that is not the ideal harmony between two +arts which are made to supplement each other. Do not the rhythmic and +sonorous passages of verse naturally call for song to set them off, +since singing is but a better method of declaiming them? I made some +attempts at this and some of those which have been preserved are: +_Puisque ici bas toute ame_, _Le Pas d'armes du roi Jean_, and _La +Cloche_. They were ridiculed at the time, but destined to some success +later. Afterwards I continued with _Si tu veux faisons un reve_, which +Madame Carvalho sang a good deal, _Soiree en mer_, and many others. + +The older I grew the greater became my devotion to Hugo. I waited +impatiently for each new work of the poet and I devoured it as soon as +it appeared. If I heard about me the spiteful criticisms of irritating +critics, I was consoled by talking to Berlioz who honored me with his +friendship and whose admiration for Hugo equalled mine. In the meantime +my literary education was improving, and I made the acquaintance of the +classics and found immortal beauties in them. My admiration for the +classics, however, did not diminish my regard for Hugo, for I never +could see why it was unfaithfulness to him not to despise Racine. It was +fortunate for me that this was my view, for I have seen the most fiery +romanticists, like Meurice and Vacquerie, revert to Racine in their +later years, and repair the links in a golden chain which should never +have been broken. + +The Empire fell and Victor Hugo came back to Paris. So I was going to +have a chance of realizing my dream of seeing him and hearing his voice! +But I dreaded meeting him almost as much as I wished to do so. Like +Rossini Victor Hugo received his friends every evening. He came forward +with both hands outstretched and told me what pleasure it was for him to +see me at his house. Everything whirled around me! + +"I cannot say the same to you," I answered. "I wish I were somewhere +else." He laughed heartily and showed that he knew how to overcome my +bashfulness. I waited to hear some of the conversation which, according +to my preconceived ideas, would be in the style of his latest romance. +However, it was entirely different; simple polished phrases, entirely +logical, came from that "mouth of mystery." + +I went to Hugo's evenings as often as possible, for I never could drink +my fill of the presence of the hero of my youthful dreams. I had +occasion to note to what an extent a fiery republican, a modern Juvenal, +whose verses branded "kings" as if with a red hot iron, in his private +life was susceptible to their flattery. The Emperor of Brazil had called +on him, and the next day he could not stop talking about it constantly. +Rather ostentatiously he called him "Don Pedro d'Alcantara." In French +this would be "M. Pierre du Pont." Spanish inherently gives such florid +sounds to ordinary names. This florid style is not frequent in French, +and that is precisely what Corneille and Victor Hugo succeeded in +giving it. + +A slight incident unfortunately changed my relations with the great +poet. + +"As long as Mlle. Bertin was alive," he told me, "I would never permit +_La Esmeralda_ to be set to music; but if some musician should now ask +for this poem, I would be glad to let him have it." + +The invitation was obvious. Yet, as is generally known, this dramatic +and lyric adaptation of the famous romance is not particularly happy. I +was much embarrassed and I pretended not to understand, but I never +dared to go to Hugo's house again. + +Years passed. In 1881 a subscription was taken up to erect a statue to +the author of _La Legende des Siecles_, and they began to plan +celebrations for its dedication, particularly a big affair at the +Trocadero. My imagination took fire at the idea, and I wrote my _Hymne a +Victor Hugo_. + +As is well known, the master knew nothing at all about music, and the +same was true of those around him. It is a matter of conjecture how the +master and his followers happened to mistake some absurd and formless +motif for one of Beethoven's sublime inspirations. Victor Hugo adapted +the beautiful verses of _Stella_ to this halting motif. It was published +as an appendix in the _Chatiments_, with a remark about the union of two +geniuses, the fusion of the verse of a great poet with the _admirable_ +verse of a great musician. And the poet would have Mme. Drouet play this +marvellous music on the piano from time to time! _Tristia Herculis!_ + +As I wanted to put in my hymn something peculiar to Victor Hugo, which +could not possibly be attributed to anyone else, I tried to introduce +this motif of which he was so fond. And, by means of numerous tricks +which every musician has up his sleeve, I managed to give it the form +and character which it had lacked. + +The subscription did not go fast enough to suit the master, and he had +it stopped. So I put my hymn in a drawer and waited for a better +opportunity. + +About this time M. Bruneau, the father of the well-known composer, +conceived the idea of giving spring concerts at the Trocadero. Bruneau +came to see me and asked me if I had some unpublished work which I would +let him have. This was an excellent occasion for the presentation of my +_Hymne_, as it had been written with the Trocadero in mind. The +performance was decided on and Victor Hugo was invited to come and hear +it. + +The performance was splendid--a large orchestra, the magnificent organ, +eight harps, and eight trumpets sounding their flourishes in the organ +loft, and a large chorus for the peroration of such splendor that it was +compared to the set pieces at the close of a display of fireworks. The +reception and ovation which the crowd gave the great poet, who rarely +appeared in public, was beyond description. The honeyed incense of the +organ, harps and trumpets was new to him and pleased his Olympian +nostrils. + +"Dine with me to-night," he said to me. And from that day on, I often +dined with him informally with M. and Mme. Lockrou, Meurice, Vacquerie +and other close friends. The fare was delightful and unpretentious, and +the conversation was the same. The master sat at the head of the table, +with his grandson and granddaughter on either side, saying little but +always something apropos. Thanks to his vigor, his strong sonorous +voice, and his quiet good humor, he did not seem like an old man, but +rather like an ageless and immortal being, whom Time would never touch. +His presence was just Jove-like enough to inspire respect without +chilling his followers. These small gatherings, which I fully +appreciated, are among the most precious recollections of my life. + +Time, alas, goes on, and that fine intellect, which had ever been +unclouded, began to give signs of aberration. One day he said to an +Italian delegation, "The French are Italians; the Italians are French. +French and Italians ought to go to Africa together and found the United +States of Europe." + +The red rays of twilight announced the oncoming night. + +Those who saw them will never forget his grandiose funeral ceremonies, +that casket under the Arc de Triomphe, covered with a veil of crape, +and that immense crowd which paid homage to the greatest lyric poet of +the century. + +There was a committee to make musical preparations and I was a member. +The most extraordinary ideas were proposed. One man wanted to have the +_Marseillaise_ in a minor key. Another wanted violins, for "violins +produce an excellent effect in the open air." Naturally we got nowhere. + +The great procession started in perfect order, but, as in all long +processions, gaps occurred. I was astonished to find myself in the +middle of the Champs Elysees, in a wide open space, with no one near me +but Ferdinand de Lesseps, Paul Bert, and a member of the Academie, whose +name I shall not mention as he is worthy of all possible respect. + +De Lesseps was then at the height of his glory, and from time to time +applause greeted him as he passed. + +Suddenly the Academician leaned over and whispered in my ear, + +"Evidently they are applauding us." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE HISTORY OF AN OPERA-COMIQUE + + +Young musicians often complain, and not without reason, of the +difficulties of their careers. It may, perhaps, be useful to remind them +that their elders have not always had beds of roses, and that too often +they have had to breast both wind and sea after spending their best +years in port, unable to make a start. These obstacles frequently are +the result of the worst sort of malignity, when it is for the best +interest of everyone--both of the theatres which rebuff them, and the +public which ignores them--that they be permitted to set out under full +sail. + +In 1864 one of the most brilliant of the reviews had the following +comments to make on this subject: + + Our real duty--and it is a true kindness--is not to encourage them + (beginners) but to discourage them. In art a vocation is + everything, and a vocation needs no one, for God aids. What use is + it to encourage them and their efforts when the public obstinately + refuses to pay any attention to them? If an act is ordered from one + of them, it fails to go. Two or three years later the same thing is + tried again with the same result. No theatre, even if it were four + times as heavily subsidized as the Theatre-Lyrique, could continue + to exist on such resources. So the result is that they turn to + accredited talent and call on such men from outside as Gounod, + Felicien David and Victor Masse. The younger composers at once + shout treason and scandal. Then, they select masterpieces by Mozart + and Weber and there are the same outcries and recriminations. In + the final analysis where are these young composers of genius? Who + are they and what are their names? Let them go to the orchestra and + hear _Le Nozze di Figaro_, _Oberon_, _Freischutz_ and _Orphee_ ... + we are doing something for them by placing such models before them. + +The young composers who were thus politely invited to be seated +included, among others, Bizet, Delibes, Massenet, and the writer of +these lines. Massenet and I would have been satisfied with writing a +ballet for the Opera. He proposed the _Rat Catcher_ from an old German +tale, while I proposed _Une nuit de Cleopatra_ on the text of Theophile +Gautier. They refused us the honor, and, when they consented to order a +ballet from Delibes, they did not dare to trust him with the whole work. +They let him do only one act and the other was given to a Hungarian +composer. As the experiment succeeded, they allowed Delibes to write, +without assistance, his marvellous _Coppelia_. But Delibes had the +legitimate ambition of writing a grand opera. He never reached so far. + +[Illustration: The Paris Opera] + +Bizet and I were great friends and we told each other all our troubles. +"You're less unfortunate than I am," he used to tell me. "You can do +something besides things for the stage. I can't. That's my only +resource." + +When Bizet put on the delightful _Pecheurs de Perles_--he was helped by +powerful influences--there was a general outcry and an outbreak of +abuse. The Devil himself straight from Hell would not have received a +worse reception. Later on, as we know, _Carmen_ was received in the +same way. + +I was, indeed, able to do something beside work for the stage, and it +was just that which closed the stage to me. I was a writer of +symphonies, an organist and a pianist, so how could I be capable of +writing an opera! The qualities which go to make a pianist were in a +particularly bad light in the greenroom. Bizet played the piano +admirably, but he never dared to play in public for fear of making his +position worse. + +I suggested to Carvalho that I write a _Macbeth_ for Madame Viardot. +Naturally enough he preferred to put on Verdi's _Macbeth_. It was an +utter failure and cost him thirty thousand francs. + +They tried to interest a certain princess, a patron of the arts, in my +behalf. "What," she replied, "isn't he satisfied with his position? He +plays the organ at the Madeleine and the piano at my house. Isn't that +enough for him?" + +But that wasn't enough for me, and to overcome the obstacles, I caused a +scandal. At the age of twenty-eight I competed for the _Prix de Rome_! +They did not give it to me on the ground that I didn't need it, but the +day after the award, Auber, who was very fond of me, asked Carvalho for +a libretto for me. Carvalho gave me _Le Timbre d'Argent_, which he +didn't know what to do with as several musicians had refused to touch +it. There were good reasons for this, for, despite an excellent +foundation for the music, the libretto had serious faults. I demanded +that Barbier and Carre, the authors, should make important changes, +which they did at once. Then, I retired to the heights of Louveciennes +and in two months wrote the score of the five acts which the work had at +first. + +I had to wait two years before Carvalho would consent to hear the music. +Finally, worn out by my importunities, they decided to get rid of me, so +Carvalho invited me to dine with him and to bring my score. After dinner +I went to the piano. Carvalho was on one side and Madame Carvalho on the +other. Both were very pleasant and charming, but the real meaning of +this friendliness did not escape me. + +They had no doubts about what awaited them. Both really loved music and +little by little they fell under the spell. Serious attention succeeded +the false friendliness. At the end they were enthusiastic. Carvalho +declared that he would have the study of the work begun as soon as +possible; it was a masterpiece; it would have a great success, but to +assure this success, Madame Carvalho must sing the principal part. + +Now the principal part in _Le Timbre d'Argent_ is that of a dancer and +the singer's part is greatly subordinate. To remedy this they decided to +develop the part. Barbier invented a pretty situation to bring in the +passage _Bonheur est chose legere_, but that wasn't enough. Barbier and +Carre racked their brains without finding any solution of the +difficulty, for on the stage as elsewhere there are problems that can't +be solved. + +Between times they tried to find a dancer of the first rank. Finally, +they found one who had recently left the Opera, although still at the +height of her beauty and talent. And they continued to seek a way to +make the part of Helene worthy of Madame Carvalho. + +The famous director had one mania. He wanted to collaborate in every +work he staged. Even a work hallowed by time and success had to bear +his mark; much greater were his reasons for interpolating in a new work. +He would announce brusquely that the period or the country in which the +action of the work took place must be changed. He tormented us for a +long time to make the dancer into a singer on his wife's account. Later, +he wanted to introduce a second dancer. With the exception of the +prologue and epilogue the action of the piece takes place in a dream, +and he took upon himself the invention of the most bizarre combinations. +He even proposed to me one day to introduce wild animals. Another time +he wanted to cut out all the music with the exception of the choruses +and the dancer's part, and have the rest played by a dramatic company. +Later, as they were rehearsing Hamlet at the Opera and it was rumored +that Mlle. Nilsson was going to play a water scene, he wanted Madame +Carvalho to go to the bottom of a pool to find the fatal bell. + +Foolishness of this kind took up two years. + +Finally, we gave up the idea of Mme. Carvalho's cooeperation. The part of +Helene was given to beautiful Mlle. Schroeder and the rehearsals began. +They were interrupted by the failure of the Theatre-Lyrique. + +Shortly afterwards Perrin asked for _Le Timbre d'Argent_ for the Opera. +The adaptation of the work for the large stage at the Opera necessitated +important modifications. The whole of the dialogue had to be set to +music and the authors went to work on it. Perrin gave us Madame Carvalho +for Helene and Faure for Spiridion, but he wanted to burlesque the part +for the tenor and give it to Mlle. Wertheimber. He wanted to engage her +and had no other part for her. This was impossible. After several +discussions Perrin yielded to the obstinate refusals of the authors, but +I saw clearly from his attitude that he would never play our work. + +About that time du Locle took over the management of the Opera-Comique. +He saw that Perrin, who was his uncle, had decided not to stage _Le +Timbre d'Argent_ and asked me for it. + +This meant another metamorphosis for the work and new and considerable +work for the musician. And this work was by no means easy. Until this +time Barbier and Carre had been as close friends as Orestes and Pylades, +but now they had a falling out. What one proposed, the other +systematically refused. One lived in Paris; the other in the country. I +went from Paris to the country and from the country to Paris trying to +get these warring brothers to agree. This going to and fro lasted all +summer, and then the temporary enemies came to an understanding and +became as friendly as ever. + +We seemed to be nearly at the end of our troubles. Du Locle had found a +wonderful dancer in Italy on whom we depended, but the dancer turned out +not to be one at all. She was a _mime_, and did not dance. + +As there was no time to look for another dancer that season du Locle, to +keep me patient, had me write with Louis Gallet _La Princesse Jaune_, +with which I made my debut on the stage. I was thirty-five! This +harmless little work was received with the fiercest hostility. "It is +impossible to tell," wrote Jouvin, a much feared critic of the time, "in +what key or in what time the overture is written." And to show me how +utterly wrong I was, he told me that the public was "a compound of +angles and shadows." His prose was certainly more obscure than my music. + +Finally, a real dancer was engaged in Italy. It seemed as though nothing +more could prevent the appearance of the unfortunate _Timbre_. "I can't +believe it," I said. "Some catastrophe will put us off again." + +War came! + +When that frightful crisis was at an end, the dancer was re-engaged. The +parts were read to the artists, and the next day Amede Achard threw up +his role, declaring that it belonged to grand opera and was beyond the +powers of an opera-comique tenor. It is well known that he ended his +career at the Opera. + +Another tenor had to be found, but tenors are rare birds and we were +unable to get one. To use the dancer he had engaged du Locle had Gallet +and Guiraud improvise a short act, _Le Kobold_, which met with great +success. The dancer was exquisite. Then du Locle lost interest in _Le +Timbre d'Argent_ and then came the failure of the Opera-Comique. + +During all these tribulations I was preparing _Samson_, although I +could find no one who even wanted to hear me speak of it. They all +thought that I must be mad to attempt a Biblical subject. I gave a +hearing of the second act at my house, but no one understood it at all. +Without the aid of Liszt, who did not know a note of it, but who engaged +me to finish it and put it on at Weimar, _Samson_. would never have seen +the light. Afterwards it was refused in succession by Halanzier, +Vaucorbeil, and Ritt and Gailhard, who decided to take it only after +they had heard it sung by that admirable singer Rosine Bloch. + +But to return to _Le Timbre d'Argent_. I was again on the street with my +score under my arm. About that time Vizentini revived the +Theatre-Lyrique. His first play was _Paul et Virginie_, a wonderful +success, and he was preparing for the close of the season another work +which he liked. They were kindly disposed to me at the Ministry of Fine +Arts and they interested themselves in my misfortunes. So they gave the +Theatre-Lyrique a small subsidy on condition that they play my work. I +came to the theatre as one who has meddled and I quickly recognized the +discomforts of my position. First, there was a search for a singer; +then, for a tenor, and they tried several without success. I found a +tenor who, according to all reports, was of the first rank, but, after +several days of negotiation, the matter was dropped. I learned later +from the artist that the manager intended to engage him for only four +performances, evidently planning that the work should be played only +four times. + +The choice finally fell on Blum. He had a fine voice, and was a perfect +singer but no actor. Indeed he said he didn't want to be an actor; his +ideal was to appear in white gloves. Each day brought new bickerings. +They made cuts despite my wishes; they left me at the mercy of the +insubordination and rudeness of the stage manager and the ballet master, +who would not listen to my most modest suggestions. I had to pay the +cost of extra musicians in the wings myself. Some stage settings which I +wanted for the prologue were declared impossible--I have seen them since +in the _Tales of Hoffman_. + +Furthermore, the orchestra was very ordinary. There had to be numerous +rehearsals which they did not refuse me, but they took advantage of them +to spread the report that my music was unplayable. A young journalist +who is still alive (I will not name him) wrote two advance notices which +were intended to pave the way for the failure of my work. + +At the last moment the director saw that he had been on the wrong tack +and that he might have a success. As they had played fairyland in the +theatre in the Square des-Arts-et-Metiers, he had at hand all the needed +material to give me a luxurious stage-setting without great expense. +Mlle. Caroline Salla was given the part of Helene. With her beauty and +magnificent voice she was certainly remarkable. But the passages which +had been written for the light high soprano of Madame Carvalho were +poorly adapted for a dramatic soprano. They concluded, therefore, that I +didn't know how to write vocal music. + +In spite of everything the work was markedly successful, the natural +result of a splendid performance in which two stars--Melchissedech and +Mlle. Adeline Theodore, at present teacher of dancing at the +Opera--shone. + +Poor Vizentini! His opinion of me has changed greatly since that time. +We were made to understand and love each other, so he has become, with +years, one of my best and most devoted friends. He first produced my +ballet _Javotte_ at the Grand-Theatre in Lyons, which the Monnaie in +Brussels had ordered and then refused. He had dreams of directing the +Opera-Comique and installing _Le Timbre d'Argent_ there. Fate willed +otherwise. + +We have seen how the young French school was encouraged under the +Empire. The situation has improved and the old state of affairs has +never returned. But we find more than the analogy between the old point +of view and the one that was revealed not long ago when the French +musicians complained that they were more or less sacrificed in favor of +their foreign contemporaries. At bottom it is the same spirit in a +modified form. + +To resume. As everyone knows, the way to become a blacksmith is by +working at a forge. Sitting in the shade does not give the experience +which develops talent. We should never have known the great days of the +Italian theatre, if Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi had had to +undergo our regime. If Mozart had had to wait until he was forty to +produce his first opera, we should never have had _Don Giovanni_ or _Le +Nozze di Figaro_, for Mozart died at thirty-five. + +The policy imposed on Bizet and Delibes certainly deprived us of several +works which would now be among the glories of the repertoire at the +Opera and the Opera-Comique. That is an irreparable misfortune; one +which we cannot sufficiently deplore. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOUIS GALLET + + +As _Dejanire_, cast in a new form, has again appeared in the vast frame +of the Opera stage, I may be allowed to recall my recollections of my +friend and collaborator, Louis Gallet, the diligent and chosen companion +of my best years, whose support was so dear and precious to me. +Collaboration for some reason unknown to me is deprecated. Opera, it is +said, should spring from the brain like Minerva, fully armed. So much +the better if such divine intellects can be found, but they are rare and +always will be. For dramatic and literary art on the one hand and +musical art on the other require different powers, which are not +ordinarily found in the same person. + +I first met Louis Gallet in 1871. Camille du Locle, who was the manager +of the Opera-Comique at the time, could not put on _Le Timbre d'Argent_, +and while he waited for better days, which never came, to do that, he +offered me a one-act work. He proposed Louis Gallet as my collaborator, +although I had not known him until then. "You were made to understand +each other," he told me. Gallet was then employed in some capacity at +the Beaujon hospital and lived near me in the Faubourg Saint-Honore. We +soon formed the habit of seeing each other every day. Du Locle had +judged aright. We had the same tastes in art and literature. We were +equally averse to whatever is too theatrical and also to whatever is not +sufficiently so, to the commonplace and the too extravagant. We both +despised easy success and we understood each other wonderfully. Gallet +was not a musician, but he enjoyed and understood music, and he +criticised with rare good taste. + +Japan had recently been opened to Europeans. Japan was fashionable; all +they talked about was Japan, it was a real craze. So the idea of writing +a Japanese piece occurred to us. We submitted the idea to du Locle, but +he was afraid of an entirely Japanese stage setting. He wanted us to +soften the Japanese part, and it was he, I think, who had the idea of +making it half Japanese and half Dutch, the way the slight work _La +Princesse Jaune_ was cast. + +That was only a beginning and in our daily talks we sketched the most +audacious projects. The leading concerts of the time did not balk at +performing large vocal works, as they too often do to-day to the great +detriment of the variety of their programmes. We then thought that we +were at the beginning of the prosperity of French oratorio which only +needed encouragement to flourish. I read by chance in an old Bible this +wonderful phrase, + +"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth," and so I +proposed to Gallet that we do a Deluge. At first he wanted to introduce +characters. "No," I said, "put the Bible narrative into simple verse, +and I will do the rest." We know with what care and success he +accomplished his delicate task. Meanwhile he gave Massenet the texts for +_Marie-Madeleine_ and _Le Roi de Lahore_, and these two works created a +great stir in the operatic world. + +We had dreams of historical opera, for we were quite without the +prejudice against this form of drama which afflicts the present school. +But I was not _persona grata_ to the managers and I did not know at what +door to knock, when one of my friends, Aime Gros, took the management of +the Grand-Theatre at Lyons and asked me for a work. This was a fine +opportunity and we grasped it. We put together, with difficulty but with +infinite zest, our historical opera, _Etienne Marcel_, in which Louis +Gallet endeavored to respect as far as is possible in a theatrical work +the facts of history. Despite illustrious examples to the contrary he +did not believe that it was legitimate to attribute to a character who +has actually lived acts and opinions that are entirely fanciful. I was +in full agreement with him in that as in so many other things. I go even +farther and cannot accustom myself to the queer sauces in which +legendary characters are often served. It seems to me that the legend is +the interesting thing, and not the character, and that the latter loses +all its value when the legend which surrounds it is destroyed. But +everyone knows that I am a crank. + +Some time after my _Henri VIII_, in which Vaucorbeil had imposed +another collaborator on me, Ritt asked me for a new work. We were +looking about for a subject, when Gallet came to my house and timidly, +as if fearing a rebuff, proposed _Benvenuto Cellini_. I had thought of +that for a long time, and the idea had come to me of putting into +musical form that fine drama, which had had its hours of glory, where +Melingue modeled the statue of Hebe before the populace. I, therefore, +accepted the suggestion with pleasure. This enterprise brought me in +touch with Paul Meurice, whom I had known in my childhood, when he was +wooing Mlle. Granger, his first wife and an intimate friend of my +mother's. Paul Meurice revealed a secret to me: that the romance +_Ascanio_, attributed to Alexander Dumas, had been entirely written by +Meurice. The work met with a great success, and out of gratitude, Dumas +offered to help Meurice in constructing a drama from the romance, which +was to be signed by Meurice alone. So it is easy for one who knows +Dumas's dramas to find traces of his handiwork in _Benvenuto Cellini_. + +It was not particularly easy to make an opera out of the play, and +Gallet and I worked together at it with considerable difficulty. We soon +saw that we should have to eliminate the famous scene of the casting of +the statue. When we reached this point in the play, Benvenuto had +already done a good deal of singing, and this scene with its violence +seemed certain to exceed the strength of the most valiant artist. In +connection with our _Proserpine_, I have been accused of supposing that +Vacquerie had genius. It would be too much to say that he had genius, +but he certainly had great talent. His prose showed a classical +refinement, and his poetry, in spite of fantastic passages which no one +could admire, was sonorous in tone, contained precious material, and was +both interesting and highly individual. What allured me in _Proserpine_ +was the amount of inner emotion there was in the drama, which is very +advantageous to the music. Music gives expression to feelings which the +characters cannot express, and accentuates and develops the +picturesqueness of the piece; it makes acceptable what would not even +exist without it. + +Vacquerie approved highly the convent scene which Gallet invented. This +introduced a quiet and peaceful note amidst the violence of the original +work. Gallet wrote a sonnet in Alexandrine verse for Sabatino's +declaration of his love. I was unable to set this to music, for the +twelve feet embarrassed me and prevented my getting into my stride. As I +did not know what else to do, I took the sonnet and by main force +reduced the verse to ten feet with a caesura at the fifth foot. I took +this to my dear collaborator in fear and trembling, and, as I had +feared, he at once fell into the depths of despair. + +"That was the best thing in my work," he said. "I nursed and caressed +that sonnet, and now you have ruined it." + +In the face of this despair, I screwed up my courage. As I had +previously cut down the verse, I now tried lengthening out the music. +Then, I sang both versions to the disconsolate poet. + +And what a miracle! He was altogether reconciled, approved both +versions, and did not know which one to choose. We ended with a +patchwork. The two quatrains are in verses of ten feet, and the two +tiercets in Alexandrine metre. + +Outside of our work, too, our relations were delightful. We wrote to +each other constantly in both prose and verse; we bombarded each other +with sonnets; his letters were sometimes ornamented with water colors, +for he drew very well and one of his joys was to cover white paper with +color. Gallet drew the sketches for the desert in _Le Roi de Lahore_ and +the cloister in _Proserpine_. + +When Madame Adam founded the _Nouvelle Revue_ she offered me the +position of musical critic, which I did not think I ought to accept. She +did not know where to turn. "Take Gallet," I advised her. "He is an +accomplished man of letters. He is not a musician in the sense that he +has studied music, but he has the soul of a musician, which is worth +much more." Madame Adam followed my advice and found it good. + +At this period, under the guise of Wagnerism, the wildest theories and +the most extravagant assertions were current in musical criticism. +Gallet was naturally well poised and independent and he did not do as +the rest did. Instead he opposed them, but from unwillingness to give +needless offense he displayed marked tact and discretion in his +criticisms. This did him no good, however, for it aroused no sentiment +of gratitude, and without giving him credit for a literary style that +was rare among librettists, his contemporaries received each of his +works with a hostility entirely devoid of either justice or mercy. +Gallet felt this hostility keenly. He felt that he did not deserve it, +since he took so much care in his work and put so much courtesy into his +criticism. The blank verse he used in _Thais_ with admirable regard for +color and harmony, counting on the music to take the place of the rhyme, +was not appreciated. This verse was free from assonance and the +banalities which it draws into operatic works, but it kept the rhythm +and sonorous sound which is far removed from prose. That was the period +when there was nothing but praise for Alfred Ernst's gibberish, though +that was an insult alike to the French language and the masterpieces he +had the temerity to translate. Gallet used the same blank verse in +_Dejanire_, although its use here was more debatable, but he handled it +with surprising skill. Now that this text has been set to music, it +shows its full beauty. + +Louis Gallet devoted a large part of his time to administrative duties, +for he was successively treasurer and manager of hospitals. Nevertheless +he produced works in abundance. He left a record of no less than forty +operatic librettos, plays, romances, memoirs, pamphlets, and innumerable +articles. I wish I knew what to say about the man himself, his +unwearying goodness, his loyalty, his scrupulousness, his good humor, +his originality, his continual common sense, and his intellect, alert to +everything unusual and interesting. + +What good talks we used to have as we dined under an arbor in the large +garden which was his delight at Lariboisiere! I used to take him seeds, +and he made amusing botanical experiments with them. + +He was seriously ill at one period of his life. He was wonderfully +nursed by his wife--who was a saint--and he endured prolonged and +atrocious sufferings with the patience of a saint. He watched the growth +of his fatal disease with a stoicism worthy of the sages of antiquity +and he had no illusion about the implacable illness which slowly but +surely would result in his premature death. A constantly increasing +deafness was his greatest trouble. This cruel infirmity had made +frightful progress when, in 1899, the Arenes de Beziers opened its doors +for the second time to _Dejanire_. In spite of everything, including his +ill health which made the trip very painful, he wanted to see his work +once more. He heard nothing, however--neither the artists, the choruses, +nor even the applause of the several thousand spectators who encored it +enthusiastically. A little later he passed on, leaving in his friends' +hearts and at the work-tables of his collaborators a void which it is +impossible to fill. + +[Illustration: The First Performance of _Dejanire_ at Les Arenes de +Beziers] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY IN OPERA + + +Oceans of ink have been spilled in discussing the question of whether +the subjects of operas should be taken from history or mythology, and +the question is still a mooted one. To my mind it would have been better +if the question had never been raised, for it is of little consequence +what the answer is. The only things worth while are whether the music is +good and the work interesting. But _Tannhauser_, _Lohengrin_, _Tristan_ +and _Siegfried_ appeared and the question sprang up. The heroes of +mythology, we are told, are invested with a prestige which historical +characters can never have. Their deeds lose significance and in their +place we have their feelings, their emotions, to the great benefit of +the operas. After these works, however, _Hans Sachs_ (Die Meistersinger) +appeared, and although he is not mythical at all he is a fine figure +nevertheless. But in this case the plot is of little account, for the +interest lies mainly in the emotions--the only thing, it appears, which +music with its divine language ought to express. + +It is true that music makes it possible to simplify dramatic action and +it gives a chance, as well, for the free expression and play of +sentiments, emotions and passions. In addition, music makes possible +pantomimic scenes which could not be done otherwise, and the music +itself flows more easily under such conditions. But that does not mean +that such conditions are indispensable for music. Music in its +flexibility and adaptability offers inexhaustible resources. Give Mozart +a fairy tale like the _Magic Flute_ or a lively comedy such as _Le Nozze +di Figaro_ and he creates without effort an immortal masterpiece. + +It is a question whether there is any essential difference between +history and mythology. History is made up of what probably happened; +mythology of what probably did not happen. There are myths in history +and history in myths. Mythology is merely the old form of history. +Every myth is rooted in truth. And we have to seek for this truth in +the fable, just as we try to reconstruct extinct animals from the +remains Time has preserved to us. Behind the story of Prometheus we see +the invention of fire; behind the loves of Ceres and Triptolemus the +invention of the plow and the beginnings of agriculture. The adventures +of the Argonauts show us the first attempts at voyages of exploration +and the discovery of gold mines. Volumes have been written about the +truths behind the fables, and explanations have been found for the +strangest facts of mythology, even for the metamorphoses which Ovid +described so poetically. + +Halfway between history and mythology come the sacred writings. Each +race has its own. Ours are the Old and New Testament. Many believe that +these books are myths; a larger number--the Believers--that they are +history, Sacred History, the only true history--the only one about which +it is not permitted to express a doubt. If you want a proof of this, +recall that not so many years ago a clergyman in the Church of England +was censured by his ecclesiastical superiors for daring to say in a +sermon that the Serpent in the Garden of Eden was symbolical and not a +real creature. + +And the ecclesiastical authorities were right. The basis of Christianity +is the Redemption--the incarnation and sacrifice of God himself to blot +out the stain of the first great sin and also to open the Kingdom of +Heaven to men. That original sin was Adam's fall, when he followed the +example of Eve, a victim of the Serpent's treacherous counsels, and +disobeyed the command not to taste the Forbidden Fruit. Eliminate the +Garden of Eden, the Serpent, the Forbidden Fruit, and the entire fabric +of Christianity crumbles. + +If we turn to profane history and take any historical work, we find that +the facts are told in such a way that they seem to us beyond dispute. +But if we see the same facts from the pen of another historian, we no +longer recognize them. The reason is that a writer almost never +undertakes the task of wrestling with the giant, History, unless he is +impelled to do so by a preconceived idea, by a general conception, or a +system he wants to establish. And whether he wants to or not, he sees +the facts in a light favorable to his preconceived idea, and observes +them through prisms which increase or diminish their importance at his +will. Then, however great his discernment and however strong his desire +to reach the truth, it is doubtful if he ever will. In history, as +elsewhere, absolute truth escapes mankind. Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame +de Maintenon, Madame de Pompadour, Louis XVI, even Napoleon and +Josephine, so near our own times, are already quasi-mythical characters. +The Louis XIII of _Marion de Lorme_ seemed until very lately to be +accurate, but recent discoveries show us that he was quite different. + +Napoleon III reigned only yesterday, but his picture is already painted +in different tints. My entire youth was passed in his reign and my +recollections represent him neither as the monster depicted by Victor +Hugo nor the kind sympathetic sovereign of present-day stories. + +There has been a great deal of discussion of the causes which brought on +the War of 1870. We know all that was said and done during the last days +of that crisis, but will anyone ever know what was hidden in the minds +of the sovereigns, the ministers, and the ambassadors? Will it ever be +known whether the Emperor provoked Gramont or Gramont the Emperor? Did +they even know themselves? There is one thing the most discerning +historian can never reach--the depths of the human soul. + +We may, however, learn the secrets of the tomb. It was asserted for a +long time that the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau had been exhumed, +desecrated, and thrown into the sewers. Victor Hugo wrote a wonderful +account of this--an account such as only he could write. One fine day +doubt about this occurrence popped up unexpectedly. After waiting a long +time it was decided to get to the heart of the matter, and they finally +opened the coffins of the two great men. They were peacefully sleeping +their last sleep. The deed never took place; its history was a myth. + +In this connection Victor Hugo's credulity may be mentioned, for it was +astonishing in a man of such colossal genius. He believed in the most +incredible things, as the "Man in the Iron Mask," the twin brother of +Louis XIV; in the octopus that has no mouth and feeds itself through its +arms; and in the reality of the Japanese sirens which the Japanese were +said to make out of an ape and a fish. He had some excuse for the sirens +as the Academie des Sciences believed in them for a short time. + +If what is called history is so near mythology as, many times, to be +confounded with it, what about romance and the historical drama in which +events, entirely imaginative, must of necessity find a place? What about +the long-drawn-out conversations in books and on the stage that are +attributed to historical persons? What about the actions attributed to +them, which need not be true but only seem to be so? The supernatural +element is the only thing lacking to make such works mythological in +every way. + +Now the supernatural lends itself admirably to expression in music and +music finds in the supernatural a wealth of resources. But these +resources are by no means indispensable. What music must have above all +are emotions and passions laid bare and set in action by what we term +the situation. And where can one find more or better situations than in +history? + + * * * * * + +From the time of Lulli until the end of the Eighteenth Century French +opera was legendary, that is to say, it was mythological in character +and was not, as has been pretended, limited to the depiction of emotion +and the inner feelings in order to avoid contingencies. The real motive +was to find in fables material for a spectacle. Tragedy, as we know, +does not do this, for it can be developed only with considerable +difficulty when the stage is crowded with actors. On the contrary, +opera, which is free in its movements and can fill a vast stage, seeks +for pomp, display and haloes in which gods and goddesses appear, in fact +all that can be put into a stage-setting. If they did not use local +color, it was because local color had not been invented. Finally, as we +all get tired of everything, so they tired of mythology. Then the +historical work was adopted and appeared on the stage with success, as +is well known. The historical method had no rival until _Robert le +Diable_ rather timidly brought back the legendary element which +triumphed later in the work of Richard Wagner. + +In the meantime _Les Huguenots_ succeeded _Robert le Diable_ and for +half a century this was the bright particular star of historical opera. +Even now, although its traditions have largely been forgotten and +although its workmanship is rather inferior to that of a later time, +this memorable work nevertheless shines, like the setting sun, +surprisingly brilliantly. The several generations who admired this work +were not altogether wrong. There is no necessity to class this brilliant +success as a failure, because Robert Schumann, who knew nothing about +the stage, denied its worth. It is surprising that Berlioz's judgment +has not been set against Schumann's. Berlioz showed his enthusiasm for +_Les Huguenots_ in his famous treatise on instrumentation. + +The great public is little interested in technical polemics and is +faithful to the old successes. Although little by little success has +come to operas based on legends, there still remains a taste for operas +with a historical background. This is not without a reason for as an +authoritative critic has said: "A historical drama may contain lyric +possibilities far greater than most of the poor, weak mythological +librettos on which composers waste their strength, fully persuaded that +by doing so they cause 'the holy spirit of Bayreuth to descend upon +them.'" + +And they never would have dreamed of being mythological, if their god, +instead of turning to Scandinavian mythology, had followed his original +intention of dramatizing the exploits of Frederick Barbarossa. In his +youth he was not opposed to historical opera, for he eulogized _La +Musette de Portici_, _La Juive_, and _La Reine de Chypre_. He made some +justifiable criticisms of the libretto of the last work, although he +admitted that the composer had contrived to write beautiful passages. + +"We cannot praise Halevy too highly," he wrote, "for the firmness with +which he resists every temptation, to which many of his contemporaries +succumb, to steal easy applause by relying blindly on the talent of the +singers. On the contrary, he demands that his _virtuosi_, even the most +famous of them, shall subordinate themselves to the lofty inspiration +of his Muse. He attains this result by the simplicity and truth he knows +how to stamp on dramatic melodies." + +This is what Richard Wagner said about _La Juive_ in 1842. + +Fortunately we no longer demand that operas be mythological, for if we +did we should have to condemn the famous Russian operas and that is out +of the question. However, the method of treatment is still in dispute +and this question is involved. One method of treatment is admitted and +another is not and it is extremely difficult to tell what is what. + +I am now going to do a little special pleading for my _Henri VIII_, +which, it would seem, is not in the proper manner. Not that I want to +defend the music or to protest against the criticisms it has inspired, +for that is not done. But I may, perhaps, be permitted to speak of the +piece itself and to tell how the music was adapted to it. + +According to the critics it would seem that the whole of _Henri VIII_ is +superficial and without depth, _en facade_; that the souls of the +characters are not revealed, and that the King, at first all sugary +sweetness, suddenly becomes a monster without any preparation for, or +explanation of, the change. + +In this connection let us consider _Boris Godounof_, for there is a +historical drama suited to its music. I saw _Boris Godounof_ with +considerable interest. I heard pleasant and impressive passages, and +others less so. In one scene I saw an insignificant friar who suddenly +becomes the Emperor in the next scene. One entire act is made up of +processions, the ringing of bells, popular songs, and dazzling costumes. +In another scene a nurse tells pretty stories to the children in her +charge. Then there is a love duet, which is neither introduced nor has +any relationship to the development of the work; an incomprehensible +evening entertainment, and, finally, funeral scenes in which Chaliapine +was admirable. It was not my fault if I did not discover in all that the +inner life, the psychology, the introductions, and the explanations +which they complain they do not find in _Henri VIII_. + +"To Henry VIII," it is stated at the beginning of the work, "nothing is +sacred, neither friendship, love nor his word--ill are playthings of +his mad whims. He knows neither law nor justice." And when, a little +later, smiling, the King hands the holy water to the ambassador he is +receiving, the orchestra reveals the working of his mind by repeating +the music of the preceding scene. From beginning to end the work is +written in this way. But dissertations on such details have not been +given the public; the themes of felony, cruelty, and duplicity, and of +this and that, have not, as is the fashion of the day, been underlined, +so that the critics are excusable for not seeing them. + +Not a scene, not a word, they say, shows the soul of Henry VIII. I would +like to ask if it is not revealed in the great scene between Henry and +Catharine, where he plays with her as a cat with a mouse, where he veils +his desire to be rid of her under his religious scruples, and where he +heaps on her constantly vile and cruel insinuations, or even in the last +scene with its cruel hypocrisies. It is difficult to see why all his +passions and all his feelings are not brought into play here. The +Russian librettos do no more, nor the operas based on mythology. + +But to continue. From the point of view of opera mythology offers one +advantage in the use of the miraculous. But the rest of the mythical +element offers, rather, difficulties. Characters who never existed and +in whom no one believes cannot be made interesting in themselves. They +do not sustain, as is sometimes supposed, the music and poetry. On the +contrary, the music and poetry give them such reality as they possess. +We could not endure the interminable utterances of the mournful Wotan, +if it were not for the wonderful music that accompanies them. Orpheus +weeping over Eurydice would not move us greatly, if Gluck had not known +how to captivate us by his first notes. If it were not for Mozart's +music, the puppets of the _Magic Flute_ would amount to nothing. + +Musicians should, as a matter of fact, be allowed to choose both the +subject and motives for their operas according to their temperaments and +their feelings. Much youthful talent is lost to-day because the young +composers believe that they must obey set rules instead of obeying their +own inspiration. All great artists, the illustrious Richard more than +any other, mocked the critics. + +As I have spoken of Richard Wagner's youth, I will take advantage of the +opportunity to reveal a secret of one of his own works which is known to +me alone. When Wagner was young, I was a child and I attended constantly +the sessions of the Societe des Concerts. The kettledrummer of that day +had a peculiar habit of breaking in before the rest of the orchestra. +When the others began, it produced an effect which the authors had +hardly foreseen and which was certain to be condemned. But the effect +had a rather distinctive character and I thought it might be possible to +use it. Richard Wagner lived in Paris at the time and frequented the +famous concerts. There is no doubt that he noted this effect and used it +in his overture to _Faust_. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ART FOR ART'S SAKE + + +What is Art? + +Art is a mystery--something which responds to a special sense, peculiar +to the human race. This is ordinarily called the esthetic sense, but +that is an inexact term, for esthetic sense signifies a sense of the +beautiful and what is esthetic is not necessarily beautiful. Sense of +style would be better. + +Some of the savage races have this sense of style, for their arms and +utensils show a remarkable feeling for style, which they lose by contact +with civilization. + +By art let us understand, if you please, the Fine Arts alone, but +including decorative art. Music ought to be included. + +I shall astonish most of my readers, when I say that very few people +understand music. For most people it is, as Victor Hugo said, an +exhalation of art--something for the ear as perfume is for the olfactory +sense, a source of vague sensations, necessarily unformed as all +sensations are. But musical art is something entirely different. It has +line, modeling, color through instrumentation, all making up an ideal +sphere where some, like the writer of these lines, live from childhood +on, which others attain through education, while many others never know +it at all. Furthermore, musical art has more movement than the other +fine arts. It is the most mysterious of them all, although the others +are mysterious as it is easy to see. + +The first manifestation of art occurs through attempts to reproduce +objects. Such attempts have been found which date back to prehistoric +times. But what is primitive man's idea in such attempts? He wants to +record by a line the contour of the object, the likeness of which he +wishes to preserve. This contour and this line do not exist in nature. +The whole philosophy of art is in that crude drawing. It bases itself on +nature even while making something quite different in response to a +special, inexplicable need of the human spirit. Accordingly nothing can +be more chimerical or vain than the advice so often given to the artist +to be truthful. Art can never be true, even though it should not be +false. It should be true artistically, by giving an artistic translation +which will satisfy the sense of style of which we have spoken. When Art +has satisfied this sense of style, the object of artistic expression has +been attained; nothing more can be asked. But it is not the "vain effort +of an unproductive cleverness," as our M. de Mun has said; it is an +effort to satisfy a legitimate need, one of the loftiest and most +honorable in human nature--the need of art. + +If this is so, why should we demand that Art be useful or moral? It is +both in its own way, for it awakens noble and honest sentiments in the +soul. That was the opinion of Theophile Gautier, but Victor Hugo +disagreed. The sun is beautiful, he used to say, and it is useful. That +is true, but the sun is not an object of art. Besides, how many times +Victor Hugo denied his own doctrine by writing verses which were merely +brilliant descriptions or admirable bits of imagination? + +We are, however, talking of art and not of literature. Literature +becomes art in poetry but forsakes it in prose. Even if some of the +great prose writers rendered their prose artistic through the beauty and +harmony of their periods and the picturesqueness of their expressions, +still prose is not art in its real nature. So, crude indecency aside, +what would be immoral in prose ceases to be immoral in verse, for in +poetry Art follows its own code and form transcends the subject matter. +That is why a great poet, Sully-Prudhomme, preferred prose to verse when +he wanted to write philosophically, for he feared, on account of the +superiority of form to substance in poetry, that his ideas would not be +taken seriously. That explains as well why parents take young girls to +hear an opera, when if the same piece was played without music they +would be appalled at the idea. What Christian is ever shocked by _La +Juive_ or Catholic frightened away from _Les Huguenots_? + +Because prose is far removed from art, it is unsuited to music, despite +the fact that this ill-assorted union is fashionable to-day? In poetry +there has been an effort to make it so artistic that form alone is +considered and verse is written which is entirely without sense. But +that is a fad which can't last long. + +Sometime ago M. de Mun said: + +"Not to take sides is what the author is inhibited from doing. Art, to +my way of thinking, is a setting forth of ideas. If it is not that--if +it limits itself solely to considerations of form, to a worship of +beauty for its own sake, without regard to the deeds and thoughts it +brings to light, then it seems to me no better than the vain effort of +an unproductive cleverness." + +The eminent speaker is absolutely right as far as prose is concerned, +but we cannot agree with him if poetry is considered. + +Victor Hugo, in his marvellous ode, _La Lyre et La Harpe_ brings +Paganism and Christianity face to face. Each speaks in turn, and the +poet in his last stanza seems to acknowledge that both are right, but +that does not prevent the ode from being a masterpiece. That would +not be possible in prose, but in the poem the poetry carries all before +it. + +[Illustration: M. Saint-Saens in his Later Years] + +Why is it that geniuses like Victor Hugo, distinguished minds, thinkers, +and profound critics, refuse to see that Art is a special entity which +responds to a certain sense? If Art accommodates itself marvellously, if +it accords itself with the precepts of morality and passion, it is +nevertheless sufficient unto itself--and in its self-sufficiency lies +its heights of greatness. + +The first prelude of Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_ expresses +nothing, and yet that is one of the marvels of music. The Venus de Milo +expresses nothing, and it is one of the marvels of sculpture. + +To tell the truth, it is proper to add that in order not to be immoral +Art must appeal to those who have a feeling for it. Where the artist +sees only beautiful forms, the gross see only nudity. I have seen a good +man scandalized at the sight of Ingres's _La Source_. + +Just as morality has no function to be artistic, so Art has nothing to +do with morality. Both have their own functions, and each is useful in +its own way. The final aim of morality is morality; of art, art, and +nothing else. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +POPULAR SCIENCE AND ART + + +Rene Bazin has sketched cleverly Pasteur's brilliant career. France has +no clearer claim to glory than in Pasteur, for he is one of the men, +who, in spite of everything, keeps her in the first rank of nations. + +A rare good fortune attended him. While many scholars who seek the truth +without concerning themselves with the practical results have to wait +many long years before their discoveries can be used, Pasteur's +discoveries were useful at once. So the mob, which cannot understand +science studied for its own sake, appreciated Pasteur's works. He saved +millions to the public treasury, and tens of thousands of human lives. + +He had already secured a notable place in science when the public +learned his name through the memorable contest between him and Pouchet +over "spontaneous generation." The probabilities of the case were on +Pouchet's side. People refused to believe that these organisms which +developed in great numbers in an enclosed jar or that the molds which +developed under certain conditions were not produced spontaneously. The +youth of the time went wild over the question. + +I was constantly being asked, "Are you for Pouchet or Pasteur?" and my +invariable response was, "I shall be for the one who proves he is +right." I was unwilling to admit that any such question could be solved +_a priori_ in accordance with preconceived ideas, although I must +confess that among my friends I found no one of the same opinion. + +We know how Pasteur won a striking victory through his patience and his +genius. He demonstrated that millions and millions of germs are present +in the air about us and that when one of them finds favorable +conditions, a living being appears which engenders others. "Many are +called, but few are chosen." This law may seem unjust, but it is one of +the great laws of Nature. + +Pasteur, the great benefactor, whose discoveries did so much for all +classes of society, should have been popular, but he was, on the +contrary, extremely unpopular. The leading publicists of the day were +influenced by some inexplicable sentiment and they made constant war on +him. When, after several years of prodigious labor, Pasteur ventured to +assert himself, they took advantage of his following the dictates of +humanity in accepting all sorts of cases, curable or not, to spread a +report that his treatment did not cure, but instead gave the disease +which it was supposed to cure. Popular fury was aroused to such a +height, that a monster mass meeting was held _against_ Pasteur. Louise +Michel addressed this meeting with her customary vigor of speech and +amidst frantic applause shouted this unqualified remark, "_Scientific +questions should be settled by the people._" + +By this time everybody was talking about microbes, and a shop on the +boulevards announced an exhibition of them. They used what is known as a +solar microscope and threw on a screen, suitably enlarged, the +animalculae which grow in impure water, the larvae of mosquitoes, and +other insects, which bear about the same relation to microbes that an +elephant does to a flea. I went into this establishment, and saw the +plain people with their wives looking at the exhibition very seriously +and really believing that they saw the famous microbes. One of them near +me said, with a knowing air, "What won't science do next?" + +I was indignant, and I had all I could do to keep from saying: "They are +fooling you. What they are showing you is not Science, at the most only +its antechamber. As for you who are deceiving these naive good people, +you are only impostors." + +But I kept still; I would only have succeeded in getting thrown out. But +I said to myself--and I still say--"Why not enlighten these people, who +obviously want light?" It is impossible to _teach_ them science, but it +should be possible to make them at least comprehend what science _is_, +for they have no idea of it now. They do not know--in this era when they +are constantly talking about their rights and urged to demand more wages +and less work--that there are young people who are spending their best +years and leading a precarious existence, working day and night, without +hope of personal profit, with no other end in view besides the hope of +discovering new facts from which humanity may benefit at some time in +the future. They do not know that all the benefits of civilization which +they carelessly enjoy are the result of the long, painful and enormous +work of the thinkers whom they regard as idlers and visionaries who grow +rich from the sweat of the toilers. In a word, they should be taught to +give respect to what is worthy of it. + +It is true that there are scientific congresses, but these are serious +gatherings which attract only the select few. It should be possible to +interest everybody, and in order to make scientific meetings interesting +we should use motion pictures and concerts. + +But here we trench on art. We ought to teach the people not only science +but art as well, but the latter is the more difficult. + + * * * * * + +Modern peoples are not artistic. The Greeks were, and the Japanese were, +before the European invasion. An artistic people is recognized by their +ignorance of "objects of art," for in such an environment art is +everywhere. An artistic people no more dreams of creating art than a +great nobleman of consciously exhibiting a distinguished manner. +Distinction lies in his slightest mannerism without his being conscious +of the fact. So, among artistic peoples, the most ordinary and humble +objects have style. And this style, furthermore, is in perfect harmony +with the purpose of the object. It is absolutely appropriate for that +purpose in its proportions, in the purity of its lines, the elegance of +its form, its perfection of execution, and, above all, in its meaning. +When an outcry is raised against the ugliness and tawdriness of certain +objects in this country, the answer is, "But see how cheap they are!" +But style and conscience in work cost nothing. Feeling for art is, +however, inherent in human nature. The weapons of primitive peoples are +beautiful. The prehistoric hatchets of the Stone Age are perfect in +their contours. There is, therefore, no question of creating a feeling +for art in the people, but of awakening it. + +Music holds so important a place in the modern world, that we ought to +begin with that. There is plenty of gay music, easy to understand, which +is in harmony with the laws of art, and the people ought to hear it +instead of the horrors which they cram into our ears under the pretence +of satisfying our tastes. What pleases people most is sentimental music, +but it need not be a silly sentimentality. Instead, they ought to give +the people the charming airs which grow, as naturally as daisies on a +lawn, in the vast field of opera-comique. That is not high art, it is +true, but it is pretty music and it is high art compared with what is +heard too often in the cafes. I am not ignorant of the fact that such +establishments employ talented people. But along with the good, what +frightful things one hears! And no one would listen to their +instrumental repertoire anywhere else! + +Every time anyone has tried to raise the standards and employ real +singers and real _virtuosi_, the attendance has increased. But, very +often, even at the theatres, the managers satisfy their own tastes under +the pretence of satisfying that of the public. That is, of course, +intensely human. We judge others by ourselves. + +A famous manager once said to me, as he pointed to an empty house, "The +public is amazing. Give them what they like, and they don't come!" + +One day I was walking in a garden. There was a bandstand and musicians +were playing some sort of music. The crowd was indifferent and passed by +talking without paying the slightest attention. Suddenly there sounded +the first notes of the delightful _andante_ of Beethoven's _Symphony in +D_--a flower of spring with a delicate perfume. At the first notes all +walking and talking stopped. And the crowd stood motionless and in an +almost religious silence as it listened to the marvel. When the piece +was over, I went out of the garden, and near the entrance I heard one of +the managers say, + +"There, you see they don't like that kind of music. + +And that kind of music was never played there again. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANARCHY IN MUSIC + + +Music is as old as human nature. We can get some idea of what it was at +first from the music of savage tribes. There were a few notes and +rudimentary melodies with blows struck in cadence as an accompaniment; +or, sometimes, the same primitive rhythms without any accompaniment--and +nothing else! Then melody was perfected and the rhythms became more +complicated. Later came Greek music, of which we know little, and the +music of the East and Far East. + +Music, as we now understand the term, began with the attempts at harmony +in the Middle Ages. These attempts were labored and difficult, and the +uncertainty of their gropings, combined with the slowness of their +development, excites our wonder. Centuries were necessary before the +writing of music became exact, but, slowly, laws were elaborated. +Thanks to them the works of the Sixteenth Century came into being, in +all their admirable purity and learned polyphony. Hard and inflexible +laws engendered an art analogous to primitive painting. Melody was +almost entirely absent and was relegated to dance tunes and popular +songs. But the dance tunes of the time, on which, perhaps, erudition was +not used sufficiently, were written in the same polyphonic style and +with the same rigid correctness as the madrigals and the church music. + +We know that the popular songs found their way into the church music and +that Palestrina's great reform consisted in banishing them. However, we +should get but a feeble idea of the part they played, if we imagined +that they naturally belonged there. Take a well known air, _Au Claire de +la Lune_, for example, and make each note a whole note sung by the +tenor, while the other voices dialogue back and forth in counterpoint, +and see what is left of the song for the listener. The scandal of _La +Messe de l'Homme arme_ was entirely theoretical. + +We simply do not know how they played these anthems, masses, and +madrigals, in the absence of any indication of either the time or the +emphasis. We find a few directions for expression, as in the first +measures of Palestrina's _Stabat Mater_ but such directions are +extremely rare. They are simply the first signs of the dawn of the +far-off day of music with expression. Certain learned and +well-intentioned persons endeavor to compare this music with ours, and +we surprise in some of the modern editions instances of _molto +expressivo_ which seem to be good guesses. This exclusively consonant +music, in which the intervals of fourths were considered dissonant, +while the diminishing fifth was the _diabolus in musica_, ought from its +very nature to be antithetical to expression. Nothing in the _Kyrie, in +La Messe du Pape Marcel_, gives the impression of a prayer, unless +expressive accents, without any real justification, are introduced by +main strength. + +Expression came into existence with the chord of the dominant seventh +from which all modern harmony developed. This invention is attributed to +Monteverde. No matter what has been said, however, it occurs in +Palestrina's _Adoremus_. Floods of ink have been poured out in +discussing this question, some affirming, while others--and not the +least, by any manner of means--denying the existence of the famous +chord. No equivocation is possible. It is a simultaneously played chord +held by four voices for a whole measure. What is certain is that +Palestrina, by putting aside the rules, made a discovery, the +significance of which he did not realize. + +With the introduction of the seventh interval a new era began. It would +be a grave error to believe that the rules were overturned, for, +instead, new principles were added to old ones as new conditions +demanded. They learned how to modulate, how to transpose from one key to +the next key and finally to the keys farthest away. In his treatise on +harmony Fetis studied this evolution in a masterly manner. Unfortunately +his scholarship was not combined with deep musical feeling. For example, +he saw faults in Mozart and Beethoven where there are only beauties, and +beauties which even an ignorant listener--if he is naturally +musical--will see without trouble. He did not understand the vast +difference between the unlettered person who commits a solecism and +Pascal, the inventor of a new syntax. + +However that may be, Fetis gave us a comprehensive review in broad +outlines of musical evolution down to what he justly called the +"omnitonic system," which Richard Wagner has achieved since. "Beyond +that," he said, "I can see nothing more." + +He did not foresee the a-tonic system, but that is what we have come to. +There is no longer any question of adding to the old rules new +principles which are the natural expression of time and experience, but +simply of casting aside all rules and every restraint. + +"Everyone ought to make his own rules. Music is free and unlimited in +its liberty of expression. There are no perfect chords, dissonant chords +or false chords. All aggregations of notes are legitimate." + +That is called, and they believe it, the _development of taste_. + +He whose taste is developed by this system is not like the man who by +tasting a wine can tell you its age and its vineyard, but he is rather +like the fellow who with perfect indifference gulps down good or bad +wine, brandy or whiskey, and prefers that which burns his gullet the +most. The man who gets his work hung in the Salon is not the one who +puts on his canvas delicate touches in harmonious tones, but he who +juxtaposes vermillion and Veronese green. The man with a "developed +taste" is not the one who knows how to get new and unexpected results by +passing from one key to another, as the great Richard did in _Die +Meistersinger_, but rather the man who abandons all keys and piles up +dissonances which he neither introduces nor concludes and who, as a +result, grunts his way through music as a pig through a flower garden. + +Possibly they may go farther still. There seems to be no reason why they +should linger on the way to untrammeled freedom or restrict themselves +within a scale. The boundless empire of sound is at their disposal and +let them profit by it. That is what dogs do when they bay at the moon, +cats when they meow, and the birds when they sing. A German has written +a book to prove that the birds sing false. Of course he is wrong for +they do not sing false. If they did, their song would not sound +agreeable to us. They sing outside of scales and it is delightful, but +that is not man-made art. + +Some Spanish singers give a similar impression, through singing +interminable grace notes beyond notation. Their art is intermediate +between the singing of the birds and of man. It is not a higher art. + +In certain quarters they marvel at the progress made in the last thirty +years. The architects of the Fifteenth Century must have reasoned in the +same way. They did not appreciate that they were assassinating Gothic +art, and that after some centuries we would have to revert to the art of +the Greeks and Romans. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ORGAN + + +When hairy Pan joined reeds of different lengths and so invented the +flute which bears his name, he was, in reality, creating the organ. It +needed only to add to this flute a keyboard and bellows to make one of +those pretty instruments the first painters used to put in the hands of +angels. As it developed and gradually became the most grandiose of the +instruments, the organ, with its depth of tone modified and increased +tenfold by the resonance of the great cathedrals, took on its religious +character. + +The organ is more than a single instrument. It is an orchestra, a +collection of the pipes of Pan of every size, from those as small as a +child's playthings to those as gigantic as the columns of a temple. Each +one corresponds to what is termed an organ-stop. The number is +unlimited. + +The Romans made organs which must have been simple from the musical +standpoint, though they were complicated in their mechanical +construction. They were called hydraulic organs. The employment of water +in a wind instrument has greatly perplexed the commentators. +Cavaille-Coll studied the question and solved the problem by +demonstrating that the water compressed the air. This system was +ingenious but imperfect, since it was applicable only to the most +primitive instruments. The keys, it seems, were very large, and were +struck by blows of the fist. + +Let us leave erudition for art and primitive for perfected instruments. +By the time of Sebastian Bach and Rameau the organ had taken on its +grandiose character. The stops had multiplied and the organist _called_ +them by means of registers which he drew out or pushed back at will. In +order to give greater resources, the builder multiplied the keyboards. +Pedals were introduced to help out the keyboards. At that time Germany +alone had pedals worthy of the name and worth while in playing an +interesting bass part. In France and elsewhere the rudimentary pedals +were only used for certain fundamental notes or in prolonged _tenutos_. +No one outside of Germany could play Sebastian Bach's compositions. + +Playing on the old instruments was fatiguing and uncomfortable. The +touch was heavy and, when one used both the pedals and the keyboards, a +real display of strength was necessary. A similar display was necessary +to draw out or push back the registers, some of which were beyond the +player's reach. In short, an assistant was necessary, in fact several +assistants in playing large organs like those at Harlem or Arnheim in +Holland. It was almost impossible to modify the combinations of stops. +All nuances, save the abrupt change from strong to soft and vice versa, +were impossible. + +It remained for Cavaille-Coll to change all this and open up new fields +of usefulness for the organ. He introduced in France keyboards worthy of +the name, and he gave to the higher notes, through his invention of +harmonic stops, a brilliancy they had lacked. He invented wonderful +combinations which allow the organist to change his combinations and to +vary the tone, without the aid of an assistant and without leaving the +keyboard. Even before his day a scheme had been devised of enclosing +certain stops in a box protected by shutters which a pedal opened and +closed at will; this permitted the finest shadings. By different +processes the touch of the organ was made as delicate as that of the +piano. + +For some years the Swiss organ-makers have been inventing new facilities +which make the organist a sort of magician. The manifold resources of +the marvellous instrument are at his command, obedient to his slightest +wish. + +These resources are prodigious. The compass of the organ far surpasses +that of all the instruments of the orchestra. The violin notes alone +reach the same height, but with little carrying power. As for the lower +tones, there is no competitor of the thirty-two-foot pipes, which go two +octaves below the violoncello's low C. Between the _pianissimo_ which +almost reaches the limit where sound ceases and silence begins, down to +a range of formidable and terrifying power, every degree of intensity +can be obtained from this magical instrument. The variety of its timbre +is broad. There are flute stops of various kinds; tonal stops that +approximate the timbre of stringed instruments; stops for effecting +changes in which each note, formed from several pipes, bring out +simultaneously its fundamental and harmonic sounds; stops which serve to +imitate the instruments of the orchestra, such as the trumpet, the +clarinet, and the cremona (an obsolete instrument with a timbre peculiar +to itself) and the bassoon. There are celestial voices of several kinds, +produced by combinations of two simultaneous stops which are not tuned +in perfect unison. Then we have the famous _Vox Humana_, a favorite with +the public, which is alluring even though it is tremulous and nasal, and +we have the innumerable combinations of all these different stops, with +the gradations that may be obtained through indefinite commingling of +the tones of this marvellous palette. + +Add to all this the continual breathing of the monster's lungs which +gives the sounds an incomparable and inimitable steadiness. Human +beings were used for a long time to fill these lungs--blowers working +away with hands and feet. We do much better now. The great organ in +Albert Hall, London, is supplied with air by steam which assures the +organist an inexhaustible supply. Other instruments use gas engines +which are more manageable. Then, there is the hydraulic system, which is +very powerful and easily used, for one has only to pull out a plug to +set the bellows in motion. + +These mechanical systems, however, are not entirely free from accidents. +I discovered that fact when I was concluding the first part of the +_Adagio_ in Liszt's great _Fantaisie_ in the beautiful Victoria Hall in +Geneva. The pipe which brought in the water burst and the organ was +mute. I have always thought, perhaps wrongly, that malice had something +to do with the accident. + +This Liszt _Fantaisie_ is the most extraordinary piece for the organ +there is. It lasts forty minutes and the interest is sustained +throughout. Just as Mozart in his _Fantaisie et Sonate in C minor_ +foresaw the modern piano, so Liszt, writing this _Fantaisie_ more than +half a century ago, appears to have foreseen the instrument of a +thousand resources which we have to-day. + +Let us have the courage to admit, however, that these resources are only +partly utilized as they can or should be. To draw from a great +instrument all its possibilities, to begin with, one must understand it +thoroughly, and that understanding cannot be gained over night. The +organ, as we have seen, is a collection of an indefinite number of +instruments. It places before the organist extraordinary means of +expressing himself. No two of these instruments are precisely alike. The +organ is only a theme with innumerable variations, determined by the +place in which it is to be installed, by the amount of money at the +builder's disposal, by his inventiveness, and, often, by his personal +whims. As a result time is required for the organist to learn his +instrument thoroughly. After this he is as free as the fish in the sea, +and his only preoccupation is the music. Then, to play freely with the +colors on his vast palette, there is but one way--he must plunge boldly +into improvisation. + +Now improvisation is the particular glory of the French school, but it +has been injured seriously of late by the influence of the German +school. Under the pretext that an improvisation is not so good as one of +Sebastian Bach's or Mendelssohn's masterpieces, young organists have +stopped improvising. + +That point of view is harmful because it is absolutely false; it is +simply the negation of eloquence. Consider what the legislative hall, +the lecture room and the court would be like if nothing but set pieces +were delivered. We are familiar with the fact that many an orator and +lawyer, who is brilliant when he talks, becomes dry as dust when he +tries to write. The same thing happens in music. Lefebure-Wely was a +wonderful improviser (I can say this emphatically, for I heard him) but +he left only a few unimportant compositions for the organ. I might also +name some of my contemporaries who express themselves completely only +through their improvisations. The organ is thought-provoking. As one +touches the organ, the imagination is awakened, and the unforeseen rises +from the depths of the unconscious. It is a world of its own, ever new, +which will never be seen again, and which comes out of the darkness, as +an enchanted island comes from the sea. + +Instead of this fairyland, we too often see only some of Sebastian +Bach's or Mendelssohn's pieces repeated continuously. The pieces +themselves are very fine, but they belong to concerts and are entirely +out of place in church services. Furthermore, they were written for old +instruments and they apply either not at all, or badly, to the modern +organ. Yet there are those who think this belief spells progress. + +I am fully aware of what may be said against improvisation. There are +players who improvise badly and their playing is uninteresting. But many +preachers speak badly. That, however, has nothing to do with the real +issue. A mediocre improvisation is always endurable, if the organist has +grasped the idea that church music should harmonize with the service and +aid meditation and prayer. If the organ music is played in this spirit +and results in harmonious sounds rather than in precise music which is +not worth writing out, it still is comparable with the old glass +windows in which the individual figures can hardly be distinguished but +which are, nevertheless, more charming than the finest modern windows. +Such an improvisation may be better than a fugue by a great master, on +the principle that nothing in art is good unless it is in its proper +place. + +[Illustration: The Madeleine where M. Saint-Saens played the organ for +twenty years] + +During the twenty years I played the organ at the Madeleine, I +improvised constantly, giving my fancy the widest range. That was one of +the joys of life. + +But there was a tradition that I was a severe, austere musician. The +public was led to believe that I played nothing but fugues. So current +was this belief that a young woman about to be married begged me to play +no fugues at her wedding! + +Another young woman asked me to play funeral marches. She wanted to cry +at her wedding, and as she had no natural inclination to do so, she +counted on the organ to bring tears to her eyes. + +But this case was unique. Ordinarily, they were afraid of my +severity--although this severity was tempered. + +One day one of the parish vicars undertook to instruct me on this point. +He told me that the Madeleine audiences were composed in the main of +wealthy people who attended the Opera-Comique frequently, and formed +musical tastes which ought to be respected. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," I replied, "when I hear from the pulpit the language +of opera-comique, I will play music appropriate to it, and not before!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +JOSEPH HAYDN AND THE "SEVEN WORDS" + + +Joseph Haydn, that great musician, the father of the symphony and of all +modern music, has been neglected. We are too prone to forget that +concerts are, in a sense, museums in which the older schools of music +should be represented. Music is something besides a source of sensuous +pleasure and keen emotion, and this resource, precious as it is, is only +a chance corner in the wide realm of musical art. He who does not get +absolute pleasure from a simple series of well-constructed chords, +beautiful only in their arrangement, is not really fond of music. The +same is true of the one who does not prefer the first prelude of the +_Wohltemperirte Klavier_, played without gradations, just as the author +wrote it for the harpsichord, to the same prelude embellished with an +impassioned melody; or who does not prefer a popular melody of character +or a Gregorian chant without any accompaniment to a series of dissonant +and pretentious chords. + +The directors of great concerts should love music themselves and should +lead the public to appreciate it. They should not allow the masters to +be forgotten, for their only fault was that they were not born in our +times and they never dreamed of attempting to satisfy the tastes of an +unborn generation. Above all, the directors should grant recognition to +masters like Joseph Haydn who were in advance of their own times and who +seem now and then to belong to our own. + +The only examples of Joseph Haydn's immense work that the present +generation knows are two or three symphonies, rarely and perfunctorily +performed. This is the same as saying that we do not know him at all. No +musician was ever more prolific or showed a greater wealth of +imagination. When we examine this mine of jewels, we are astonished to +find at every step a gem which we would have attributed to the invention +of some modern or other. We are dazzled by their rays, and where we +expect black-and-whites we find pastels grown dim with time. + +Of Haydn's one hundred and eighteen symphonies, many are simple trifles +written from day to day for Prince Esterhazy's little chapel, when the +master was musical director there. But after Haydn was called to London +by Salomon, a director of concerts, where he had a large orchestra at +his disposal, his genius took magnificent flights. Then he wrote great +symphonies and in them the clarinets for the first time unfolded the +resources from which the modern orchestra has profited so abundantly. +Originally the clarinet played a humble role, as the name indicates. +_Clarinetto_ is the diminutive of _clarino_, and the instrument was +invented to replace the shrill tones that the trumpet lost as it gained +in depth of tone. + +Old editions of Haydn's symphonies show a picturesque arrangement, in +that the disposition of the orchestra is shown on the printed page. +Above, is a group made up of drums and the brass. In the center is a +second group--the flutes, oboes and bassoons, while the stringed +instruments are at the bottom of the page. When clarinets are used, they +are a part of the first group. This pretty arrangement has, +unfortunately, not been followed in the modern editions of these +symphonies. In the works written in London the clarinet has utterly +forgotten its origins. It has left the somewhat plebeian world of the +brasses and has gained admittance to the more refined society of the +woods. Haydn, in his first attempts, took advantage of the beautiful +heavy tones, "_chalumeau_," and the flexibility and marvellous range of +a beautiful instrument. + +During his stay in London Haydn sketched an _Orfeo_ which he never +completed, as the theatre which ordered it failed before it was +finished. Only fragments of the work remain, and, fortunately enough, +these have been engraved in an orchestra score. These fragments are +uneven in value. The dialogue, or recitative, which should bind them +together was lost and so we are unable to judge them fairly. Among the +fragments is a brilliant aria on Eurydice which is rather ridiculous, +while another on Eurydice dying is charming. We also find music for +mysterious _English horns_; it is written as for clarinets in B flat and +reaches heights which are impossible for the instrument we now know as +the English horn. There is also a beautiful bass part. This has been +provided with Latin words and is sung in churches. This aria was +assigned to a Creon who does not appear in the other fragments. One +scene shows Eurydice running up and down the banks pursued by demons. +Another depicts the death of Orpheus, killed by the Bacchantes. This +score is a curiosity and nothing more, and a reading causes no regret +that the work was not completed. + +Like Gluck, Joseph Haydn had the rare advantage of developing +constantly. He did not reach the height of his genius until an age when +the finest faculties are, ordinarily, in a decline. He astounded the +musical world with his _Creation_, in which he displayed a fertility of +imagination and a magnificence of orchestral richness that the oratorio +had never known before. Emboldened by his success he wrote the +_Seasons_, a colossal work, the most varied and the most picturesque in +the history of ancient or modern music. In this instance the oratorio is +no longer entirely religious. It gives an audacious picture of nature +with realistic touches which are astonishing even now. There is an +artistic imitation of the different sounds in nature, as the rustling of +the leaves, the songs of the birds in the woods and on the farm, and the +shrill notes of the insects. Above all that is the translation into +music of the profound emotions to which the different aspects of nature +give birth, as the freshness of the forests, the stifling heat before a +storm, the storm itself, and the wonderful sunset that follows. Then +there is a huntsman's chorus which strikes an entirely different note. +There are grape harvests, with the mad dances that follow them. There is +the winter, with a poignant introduction which reminds us of pages in +Schumann. But be reassured, the author does not leave us to the rigors +of the cold. He takes us into a farmhouse where the women are spinning +and where the peasants are drawn about the fire, listening to a funny +tale and laughing immoderately with a gaiety which has never been +surpassed. + +But this gigantic work does not end without giving us a glimpse of +Heaven, for with one grand upward burst of flight, Haydn reaches the +realms where Handel and Beethoven preceded him. He equals them and ends +his picture in a dazzling blaze of light. + +This is the sort of work of which the public remains in ignorance and +which it ought to know. + +But all this is not what I started out to say. I wanted to write about a +delicate, touching, reserved and precious work by the same author--_The +Seven Words of Christ on the Cross_. This work has appeared in three +forms--for an orchestra and chorus, for an orchestra alone, and for a +quartet. When I was a young man, they used to say in Paris that this +work was originally written for a quartet, then developed for an +orchestra, and, finally, the voices were added. + +Chance took me to Cadiz, once upon a time, and there I was given the +true story of this beautiful piece of work. To my astonishment I learned +that it had been first performed in the city of Cadiz. They even spoke +of a competition in which Haydn won the prize, but there was never any +such contest. The work was ordered from the author, but the question is +who ordered it. Two religious circles, the Cathedral and the Cueva del +Rosario, both lay claim to the initiative. I have gone over all the +evidence in this dispute which is of little interest to us, for the only +interest is the origin of the composition. There is not the slightest +doubt that the _Seven Words_ was written in the first place for an +orchestra in 1785, and its destination, as we shall see, was settled by +the author himself. + +In his _Memoires pour la Biographie et la Bibliographie de l'ile de +Cadix_, Don Francisco de Miton, Marquis de Meritos, relates that he +corresponded with Haydn and ordered this composition which was to be +performed at the Cathedral in Cadiz. According to his account Haydn said +that "the composition was due more to what Senor Milton wrote than to +his own invention, for it showed every motif so marvellously that on +reading the instructions he seemed to read the music itself." + +If the Marquis was not boasting, we must confess that the ingenuous +Haydn was not so ingenuous as has been thought, and that he knew how to +flatter his patrons. + +In 1801 Breitkopf and Haertel published the work with the addition of +the vocal parts at Leipzig. This edition had a preface by the author in +which he said: + + About fifteen years ago, a cure at Cadiz engaged me to write some + passages of instrumental music on the Seven Words of Christ on the + Cross. It was the custom at that time to play an oratorio at the + Cathedral during Holy Week, and they took great pains to give as + much solemnity as possible. The walls, the windows and the pillars + of the church were hung in black, and only a single light in the + centre shone in the sanctuary. The doors were closed at mid-day and + the orchestra began to play. After the opening ceremonies the + bishop entered the pulpit, pronounced one of the "Seven Words" and + delivered a few words inspired by it. Then he descended, knelt + before the altar, and remained there for some time. This pause was + relieved by the music. The bishop ascended and descended six times + more and each time, after his homily, music was played. My music + was to be adapted to these ceremonies. + + The problem of writing seven _adagios_ to be performed + consecutively, each one to last ten minutes, without wearying the + audience, was not an easy one to solve, and I soon recognized the + impossibility of making my music conform to the prescribed limits. + + The work was written and printed without words. Later the + opportunity of adding them was offered, so the oratorio which + Breitkopf and Haertel publish to-day is a complete work and, so far + as the vocal part is concerned, entirely new. + + The kind reception which it has received among amateurs makes me + hope that the entire public will welcome it with the same kindness. + +Haydn feared to weary his hearers. Our modern bards have no such vain +scruple. + +Michel Haydn, Joseph's brother and the author of some highly esteemed +religious compositions, has been generally credited with the addition of +the vocal parts to the _Seven Words_. Joseph Haydn did not say that this +was the case, but it would seem that if he did the work himself he would +have said so in his preface. + +This vocal part, however, adds nothing to the value of the work. And it +is of no great consequence who the author of the arrangement for the +quartet was. At the time there were many amateurs who played on +stringed instruments. They used to meet frequently and everything in +music was arranged for quartets just as now everything is arranged for +piano duets. Some of Beethoven's sonatas were arranged in this form. The +piano killed the quartet, and it is a great pity, for the quartet is the +purest form of instrumental music. It is the first form--the fountain of +Hippocrene. Now instrumental music drinks from every cup and the result +is that many times it seems drunk. + +To return to the _Seven Words_. Their symphonic form is the only one +worth considering. They are eloquent enough without the aid of voices, +for their charm penetrates. Unlike the _Creation_ and the _Seasons_ they +do not demand extraordinary means of execution, and nothing is easier +than to give them. + +The opera houses are closed on Good Friday, and it used to be the custom +to give evening concerts, vaguely termed "Sacred Concerts," because +their programmes were made up wholly or in part of religious music. This +good custom has disappeared and with it the opportunity to give the +public such delightful works as the _Seven Words_, and so many other +things which harmonize with the character of the day. + +At one of these Sacred Concerts, Pasdeloup presented on the same evening +the _Credo_ from Liszt's _Missa Solemnis_ and the one from Cherubini's +_Messe du Sacre_. Liszt's _Credo_ was received with a storm of hisses, +while Cherubini's was praised to the skies. I could not help thinking--I +was somewhat unjust, for Cherubini's work has merit--of the people of +Jerusalem who acclaimed Barrabas and demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. + +To-day Liszt's _Credo_ is received with wild applause--Victor Hugo did +his part-while Cherubini's is never revived. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE LISZT CENTENARY AT HEIDELBERG (1912) + + +The Liszt centenary was celebrated everywhere with elaborate +festivities, perhaps most notably at Budapest where the _Missa Solemnis_ +was sung in the great cathedral--that alone would have been sufficient +glory for the composer. At Weimar, which, during his lifetime, Liszt +made a sort of musical Mecca, they gave a performance of his deeply +charming oratorio _Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth_. The festival +at Heidelberg was of special interest as it was organized by the General +Association of German Musicians which Liszt had founded fifty years +before. Each year this society gives in a different city a festival +which lasts several days. It admits foreign members and I was once a +member as Berlioz's successor on Liszt's own invitation. Disagreements +separated us, and I had had no relation with the society for a number +of years when they asked me to take part in this festival. A refusal +would have been misunderstood and I had to accept, although the idea of +performing at my age alongside such _virtuosi_ as Risler, Busoni, and +Friedheim, in the height of their talent, was not encouraging. + +The festival lasted four days and there were six concerts--four with the +orchestra and a chorus. They gave the oratorio _Christus_, an enormous +work which takes up all the time allowed for one concert; the Dante and +Faust symphonies, and the symphonic poems _Ce qu'on entend sur la +montagne_ and _Tasso_, to mention only the most important works. + +The oratorio _Christus_ lacks the fine unity of the _Saint Elisabeth_. +But the two works are alike in being divided into a series of separate +episodes. While the different episodes in _Saint Elisabeth_ solve the +difficult problem of creating variety and retaining unity, the parts of +_Christus_ are somewhat unrelated. There is something for every taste. +Certain parts are unqualifiedly admirable; others border on the +theatrical; still others are nearly or entirely liturgical, while, +finally, some are picturesque, although there are some almost confusing. +Like Gounod, Liszt was sometimes deceived and attributed to ordinary and +simple sequences of chords a profound significance which escaped the +great majority of his hearers. There are some pages of this sort in +_Christus_. + +But there are beautiful and wonderful things in this vast work. If we +regret that the author lingered too long in his imitation of the +_Pifferari_ of the Roman campagna, on the other hand, we are delighted +by the symphonic interlude _Les Bergers a la Creche_. It is very simple, +but in an inimitable simplicity of taste which is the secret of great +artists alone. It is surprising that this interlude does not appear in +the repertoire of all concerts. + +The Dante symphony has not established itself in the repertoires as has +the Faust symphony. It was performed for the first time in Paris at a +concert I organized and managed at a time when Liszt's works were +distrusted. Along with the Dante symphony we had the Andante (Gretchen) +from the Faust symphony, the symphonic poem _Fest Kloenge_, a charming +work which is never played now, and still other works. It would be hard +to imagine all the opposition I had to overcome in giving that concert. +There was the hostility of the public, the ill-will of the +Theatre-Italien which rented me its famous hall but which sullenly +opposed a proper announcement of the concert, the insubordination of the +orchestra, the demands of the singers for more pay--they imagined that +Liszt would pay the expenses--and, finally, complete--and expected +failure. My only object was to lay a foundation for the future, nothing +more. In spite of everything I managed to get a creditable performance +of the Dante symphony and I had the pleasure of hearing it for the first +time. + +The first part (the Inferno) is wonderfully impressive with its +_Francesca da Rimini_ interlude, in which burn all the fires of Italian +passion. The second part (Purgatory and Paradise) combines the most +intense and poignant charm. It contains a fugue episode of unsurpassed +beauty. + +_Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne_ is, perhaps, the best of the famous +symphonic poems. The author was inspired by Victor Hugo's poetry and +reproduced its spirit admirably. When will this typical work appear in +the concert repertoires? When will orchestra conductors get tired of +presenting the three or four Wagnerian works they repeat _ad nauseum_, +when they can be heard at the Opera under better conditions, and +Schubert's insignificant _Unfinished Symphony_. + + * * * * * + +The _Christus_ oratorio was given at the first concert of the festival +at Heidelberg. It lasted three hours and a half and is so long that I +would not dare to advise concert managers to try such an adventure. The +performance was sublime. It was given in a newly constructed square +hall. Cavaille-Coll, who knew acoustics, used to advise the square hall +for concerts but nobody would listen to him. Three hundred chorus +singers, many from a distance, were supported by an orchestra that was +large, but, in my opinion, insufficient to stand up against this mass of +voices. Furthermore, the orchestra was placed below the level of the +stage, as in a theatre, while the voices sounded freely above. Two +harps, one on the east side of the stage and one on the west, saw each +other from afar,--a pleasingly decorative device, but as annoying to the +ear as pleasing to the eye. The chorus and the four soloists--their task +was exceedingly arduous--triumphed completely over the difficulties of +this immense work and all the varied and delicate nuances were rendered +to perfection. + +Liszt was far from professing the disdain for the limitations of the +human voice that Wagner and Berlioz did. On the contrary he treated it +as if it were a queen or a goddess, and it is to be regretted that his +tastes did not lead him to work for the stage. Parts of _Saint +Elisabeth_ show that he would have succeeded and the fashion of having +operas for the orchestra, accompanied by voices, which we enjoy to-day, +might have been avoided. He discovered a method, peculiarly his own, of +writing choruses. His manner has never been imitated, but it is +ingenious and has many advantages. The only trouble about it is that the +singers have to take care of details and shadings which is too often +the least of their worries. The German societies, where the members sing +for pleasure, and not for a salary, are careful to excess, if there can +be excess in such matters, and it is their great good fortune to be the +interpreters of choruses written in this manner. + +It is impossible to give an analysis of this vast work here. We have +already spoken of the charming interlude, _Les Bergers a la Creche_. +This pastoral is followed by _Marche des Rois Mages_, a pretty piece, +but a little overdeveloped for its intrinsic worth. The vocal parts, +_Beatitudes_ and _Le Pater Noster_, would be more suitable in a church +than in a concert hall. Then come some most brilliant pages, _La Tempete +sur le lac de Thiberiade_, and _Le Mont des Oliviers_, with its baritone +solo, and finally, the _Stabat Mater_, where great beauties are combined +with terrible length. But nothing in the whole work impressed me more +than Christ's entrance to Jerusalem (orchestra, chorus, and soloist) for +the reading alone gives no idea of it. Here the author reached the +heights. That also describes the delightful effect of the children's +chorus singing in the distance _O Filii et Filiae_, harmonised with +perfect taste. + +While I listened to this beautiful work, I could not help thinking of +the great oratorios which crowned Gounod's musical career so gloriously. +Liszt and Gounod differed entirely in their musical temperaments, yet in +their oratorios they met on common ground. In both there was the same +drawing away from the old forms of oratorio, the same search for realism +in the expression of the text in music, the same respect for Latin +prosody, and the same belief in simplicity of style. But while there is +renunciation in the simplicity of Liszt, who threw aside worldly finery +to wear the frock of a penitent, on the contrary Gounod appears to +return to his original bent with an almost holy joy. This is easily +explained. Liszt finished his life in a cassock, while Gounod began his +in one. So, despite Liszt's superior refinement, and putting aside +exceptional achievements, in this branch of art Gounod was the victor. +As there is an _odor di femina_ there is a _parfum d'eglise_, well known +to Catholics. Gounod's oratorios are impregnated with this, while it is +found in _Christus_ very, very feebly, if at all. The _Missa Solemnis_ +must be examined to find it to any extent in Liszt's work. + +All the necessary elements were combined at Heidelberg to produce a +magnificent production of Faust and Dante. The orchestra of more than +one hundred musicians was perfect. The period when the wind instruments +in Germany were wanting both in correctness and quality of sound has +passed. But the orchestra conductors have to be taken into account. In +our day these gentlemen are _virtuosi_. Their personalities are not +subservient to the music, but the music to them. It is the springboard +on which they perform and parade their all embracing personalities. They +add their own inventions to the author's meaning. Sometimes they draw +out the wind instruments so that the musicians have to cut a phrase at +the end to catch their breath; again they affect a mad and unrestrained +rapidity which allows time neither to play nor to hear the sounds. They +hurry or retard the movement for no reason besides their individual +caprice or because the author did not indicate them. They perpetrate +music of such a disorganized character that the musicians are utterly +bewildered, and hesitate in their entrances on account of their +inability to distinguish one measure from another. + +The delightful _Purgatoire_ has become a deadly bore, and the enchanting +_Mephistopheles_ has been riddled as by a hailstorm. Familiarity with +such excesses made me particularly appreciative of the excellent +performance that Wolfrum, the musical director, obtained in the vast +_Christus_ concert. + +Among the conductors was Richard Strauss who cannot be passed over +without a word. Certainly no one will hope to find moderation and +serenity in this artist or be surprised if he gives his temperament free +rein, and rides on to victory undisturbed by the ruins he leaves behind. +But he lacks neither intelligence nor elegance, and if he sometimes goes +too fast he never overemphasizes slowness. When he is conducting, we +need not fear the desert of Sahara where others sometimes lead us. Under +his direction _Tasso_ displayed all its wealth of resources and the +jewel-like _Mephisto-Walzer_ shone more brightly than ever before. + +I can speak but briefly of the numerous soloists. We neither judge nor +compare such talents as those of Busoni, Friedheim, and Risler. We are +satisfied with admiring them. However, if a prize must be awarded, I +should give it to Risler for his masterly interpretation of the great +_Sonata in B minor_. He made the most of it in every way, in all its +power and in all its delicacy. When it is given in this way, it is one +of the finest sonatas imaginable. But such a performance is rare, for it +is beyond the average artist. The strength of an athlete, the lightness +of a bird, capriciousness, charm, and a perfect understanding of style +in general and of the style of this composer in particular are the +qualifications needed to perform this work. It is far too difficult for +most _virtuosi_, however talented they may be. + +Among the women singers I shall only mention Madame Cahier from the +Viennese Opera. She is a great artist with a wonderful voice and her +interpretation of several _lieder_ made them wonderfully worth while. +Madame Cahier interpreted the part of Dalila at Vienna with Dalmores, +so it can easily be appreciated how much pleasure I took in hearing her. + +A final word about the Dante Symphony. I have read somewhere that Liszt +used pages to produce an effect which Berlioz accomplished in the +apparition of Mephistopheles in _Faust_ with three notes. This +comparison is unjust. Berlioz's happy discovery is a work of genius and +he alone could have invented it. But the sudden appearance of the Devil +is one thing and the depiction of Hell quite another. Berlioz tried such +a depiction at the end of the Damnation, and in spite of the strange +vocabulary of the chorus, "Irimiru Karabrao, Sat raik Irkimour," and +other pretty tricks, he succeeded no better than Liszt. As a matter of +fact the opposite was the case. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BERLIOZ'S REQUIEM + + +The reading of the score of Berlioz's _Requiem_ makes it appear +singularly old-fashioned, but this is true of most of the romantic +dramas, which, like the _Requiem_, show up better in actual performance. +It is easy to rail at the vehemence of the Romanticists, but it is not +so easy to equal the effect of _Hernani_, _Lucrece Borgia_ and the +_Symphonie fantastique_ on the public. For with all their faults these +works had a marvellous success. The truth is that their vehemence was +sincere and not artificial. The Romanticists had faith in their works +and there is nothing like faith to produce lasting results. + +Reicha and Leuseur were, as we know, Berlioz's instructors. Leuseur was +the author of numerous works and wrote a good deal of church music. Some +of his religious works were really beautiful, but he had strange +obsessions. Berlioz greatly admired his master and could not help +showing, especially in his earlier works, traces of this admiration. +That is the reason for the syncopated and jerky passages without rhyme +or reason and which can only be explained by his unconscious imitation +of Leuseur's faults. In imitating a model the resemblances occur in the +faults and not in the excellences, for the latter are inimitable. So the +excellences of the _Requiem_ are not due to Leuseur but to Berlioz. He +had already thrown off the trammels of school and shown all the richness +of his vigorous originality to which the value of his scores is due. + +In his _Memoirs_ Berlioz related the tribulations of his _Requiem_. It +was ordered by the government, laid aside for a time, and, finally, +performed at the Invalides on the occasion of the capture of Constantine +(in Algeria) and the funeral services of General Damremont. He was +astonished at the lack of sympathy and even actual hostility that he +encountered. It would have been more astonishing if he had experienced +anything else. + +[Illustration: Hector Berlioz] + +We must remember that at this time Berton, who sang _Quand on est +toujours vertuex, on aime a voir lever l'aurore_, passed for a great +man. Beethoven's symphonies were a novelty, in Paris at least, and a +scandal. Haydn's symphonies inspired a critic to write, "What a noise, +what a noise!" Orchestras were merely collections of thirty or forty +musicians. + +We can imagine, therefore, the stupefaction and horror when a young man, +just out of school, demanded fifty violins, twenty violas, twenty +violoncellos, eighteen contrabasses, four flutes, four oboes, four +clarinets, eight bassoons, twelve horns, and a chorus of two hundred +voices as a minimum. And that is not all. The _Tuba Mirum_ necessitates +an addition of thirty-eight trumpets and trombones, divided into four +orchestras and placed at the four cardinal points of the compass. +Besides, there have to be eight pairs of drums, played by ten drummers, +four tam-tams, and ten cymbals. + +The story of this array of drums is rather interesting. Reicha, +Berlioz's first teacher, had the original idea of playing drum taps in +chords of three or four beats. In order to try out this effect, he +composed a choral piece, _L'Harmonie des Spheres_, which was published +in connection with his _Traite d'Harmonie_. But Reicha's genius did not +suffice for this task. He was a good musician, but no more than that. +His choral piece was insignificant and remained a dead letter. Berlioz +took this lost effect and used it in his _Tuba Mirum_. + +However, it must be confessed that this effect does not come up to +expectations. In a church or a concert hall we hear a confused and +terrifying mingling of sounds, and from time to time we note a change in +the depth of tone but we are unable to distinguish the pitch of the +chords. + +I shall never forget the impression this _Tuba Mirum_ made on me when I +first heard it at St. Eustache under Berlioz's own direction. It +amounted to an absolute neglect of the author's directions. The +beginning of the work is marked _moderato_, later, as the brass comes +in, the movement is quickened and becomes _andante maestro_. Most of the +time the _moderato_ was interpreted as an _allegro_, and the _andante +maestro_ as a simple _moderato_. If the terrific fanfare did not +become, as some one ventured to call it, a "Setting Out for the Hunt," +it might well have been the accompaniment for a sovereign's entrance to +his capital. In order to give this fanfare its grandiose character, the +author did not take easy refuge in the wailings of a minor key, but he +burst into the splendors of a major key. A certain grandeur of movement +alone can preserve its gigantesque quality and impression of power. + +Granting all his good intentions, in trying to give us a suggestion of +the last judgment by his accumulation of brass, drums, cymbals, and +tam-tams, Berlioz makes us think of Thor among the giants trying to +empty the drinking-horn which was filled from the sea, and only +succeeding in lowering it a little. Yet even that was an accomplishment. + +Berlioz spoke scornfully of Mozart's _Tuba Mirum_ with its single +trombone. "One trombone," he exclaimed, "when a hundred would be none +too many!" Berlioz wanted to make us really hear the trumpets of the +archangels. Mozart with the seven notes of his one trombone suggested +the same idea and the suggestion is sufficient. + +We must not forget, however, that here we are in the midst of a world of +romanticism, in a world of color and picturesqueness, which could not +content itself with so little. And we must remember this fact, if we +would not be irritated by the oddities of _L'Hostias_, with its deep +trombone notes which seem to come from the very depths of Hell. There is +no use in trying to find out what these notes mean. Berlioz told us +himself that he discovered these notes at a time when they were almost +unknown and he wanted to use them. The contrast between these terrifying +notes and the wailing of the flutes is especially curious. We find +nothing analogous to this anywhere else. + +The delightful _Purgatoire_, where the author sees a chorus of souls in +Purgatory, is much better. His Purgatory has no punishments nor any +griefs save the awaiting, the long and painful awaiting, of eternal +happiness. There is a processional in which the fugue and melody +alternate in the most felicitous manner. There are sighs and plaints, +all haunting in their extreme expressiveness, a great variety beneath an +appearance of monotony, and from time to time two wailing notes. These +notes are always the same, as the chorus gives them as a plaint, and +they are both affecting and artistic. At the end comes a dim ray of +light and hope. This is the only one in the work save the Amen at the +end, for Faith and Hope should not be looked for here. The supplications +sound like prayers which do not expect to be answered. No one would dare +to describe this work as profane, but whether it is religious or not is +a question. As Boschot has said, what it expresses above all is terror +in the presence of annihilation. + +When the _Requiem_ was played at the Trocadero, the audience was greatly +impressed and filed out slowly. They did not say, "What a masterpiece!" +but "What an orchestra leader!" Nowadays people go to see a conductor +direct the orchestra just as they go to hear a tenor, and they arrogate +to themselves the right to judge the conductors as they do the tenors. +But what a fine sport it is! The qualities of an orchestra conductor +which the public appreciates are his elegance, his gestures, his +precision, and the expressiveness of his mimicry, all of which are more +often directed at the audience than at the orchestra. But all these +things are of secondary consideration. What makes up an orchestra +conductor's worth are the excellence of execution he obtains from the +musicians and the perfect interpretation of the author's meaning--which +the audience does not understand. If such an important detail as the +author's meaning is obscured and slighted, if a work is disfigured by +absurd movements and by an expression which is entirely different from +what the author wanted, the public may be dazzled and an execrable +conductor, provided his poses are good, may fascinate his audience and +be praised to the skies. + +Formerly the conductor never saluted his audience. The understanding was +that the work and not the conductor was applauded. The Italians and +Germans changed all that. Lamoureux was the first to introduce this +exotic custom in France. The public was a little surprised at first, but +they soon got used to it. In Italy the conductor comes on the stage +with the artists to salute the audience. There is nothing more laughable +than to see him, as the last note of an opera dies away, jump down from +his stand and run like mad to reach the stage in time. + +The excellence of the work of English choristers has been highly and +justly praised. Perhaps it would be fairer not to praise them so +unreservedly when we are so severe on our own. Justice often leaves +something to be desired. At all events it must be admitted that Berlioz +treated the voices in an unfortunate way. Like Beethoven, he made no +distinction between a part for a voice and an instrument. While except +for a few rare passages it does not fall as low as the atrocities which +disfigure the grandiose _Mass in D_, the vocal part of the _Requiem_ is +awkwardly written. Singers are ill at ease in it, for the timbre and +regularity of the voice resent such treatment. The tenor's part is so +written that he is to be congratulated on getting through it without any +accident, and nothing more can be expected of him. + +What a pity it was that Berlioz did not fall in love with an Italian +singer instead of an English tragedienne! Cupid might have wrought a +miracle. The author of the _Requiem_ would have lost none of his good +qualities, but he might have gained, what, for the lack of a better +phrase, is called the fingering of the voice, the art of handling it +intelligently and making it give without an effort the best effect of +which it is capable. But Berlioz had a horror even of the Italian +language, musical as that is. As he said in his _Memoirs_, this aversion +hid from him the true worth of _Don Juan_ and _Le Nozze di Figaro_. One +wonders whether he knew that his idol, Gluck, wrote music for Italian +texts not only in the case of his first works but also in _Orphee_ and +_Alceste_. And whether he knew that the aria _"O malheureuse Iphigenie"_ +was an Italian song badly translated into French. Perhaps he was +ignorant of all this in his youth for Berlioz was a genius, not a +scholar. + +The word genius tells the whole story. Berlioz wrote badly. He +maltreated voices and sometimes permitted himself the strangest freaks. +Nevertheless he is one of the commanding figures of musical art. His +great works remind us of the Alps with their forests, glaciers, +sunlight, waterfalls and chasms. There are people who do not like the +Alps. So much the worse for them. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PAULINE VIARDOT + + +Alfred de Musset covered Maria Malibran's tomb with immortal flowers and +he also told us the story of Pauline Garcia's debut. There is also +something about it in Theophile Gautier's writings. It is clear from +both accounts that her first appearance was an extraordinary occasion. +Natures such as hers reveal themselves at once to those who know and do +not have to wait to arrive until they are in full bloom. Pauline was +very young at the time, and soon afterwards she married M. Viardot, +manager of the Theatre-Italien and one of the finest men of his day. She +went abroad to develop her talent, but she returned in 1849 when +Meyerbeer named her to create the role of Fides in _Le Prophete_. + +Her voice was tremendously powerful, prodigious in its range, and it +overcame all the difficulties in the art of singing. But this +marvellous voice did not please everyone, for it was by no means smooth +and velvety. Indeed, it was a little harsh and was likened to the taste +of a bitter orange. But it was just the voice for a tragedy or an epic, +for it was superhuman rather than human. Light things like Spanish songs +and Chopin mazurkas, which she used to transpose so that she could sing +them, were completely transformed by that voice and became the +playthings of an Amazon or of a giantess. She lent an incomparable +grandeur to tragic parts and to the severe dignity of the oratorio. + +I never had the pleasure of hearing Madame Malibran, but Rossini told me +about her. He preferred her sister. Madame Malibran, he said, had the +advantage of beauty. In addition, she died young and left a memory of an +artist in full possession of all her powers. She was not the equal of +her sister as a musician and could not have survived the decline of her +voice as the latter did. + +Madame Viardot was not beautiful, indeed, she was far from it. The +portrait by Ary Scheffer is the only one which shows this unequalled +woman truthfully and gives some idea of her strange and powerful +fascination. What made her even more captivating than her talent as a +singer was her personality--one of the most amazing I have ever known. +She spoke and wrote fluently Spanish, French, Italian, English and +German. She was in touch with all the current literature of these +countries and in correspondence with people all over Europe. + +She did not remember when she learned music. In the Garcia family music +was in the air they breathed. So she protested against the tradition +which represented her father as a tyrant who whipped his daughters to +make them sing. I have no idea how she learned the secrets of +composition, but save for the management of the orchestra she knew them +well. She wrote numerous _lieder_ on Spanish and German texts and all of +these show a faultless diction. But contrary to the custom of most +composers who like nothing better than to show their compositions, she +concealed hers as though they were indiscretions. It was exceedingly +difficult to persuade her to let one hear them, although the least +were highly creditable. Once she sang a Spanish popular song, a wild +haunting thing, with which Rubinstein fell madly in love. It was several +years before she would admit that she wrote it herself. + +[Illustration: Mme. Pauline Viardot] + +She wrote brilliant operettas in collaboration with Tourguenief, but +they were never published and were performed only in private. One +anecdote will show her versatility as a composer. She was a friend of +Chopin and Liszt and her tastes were strongly futuristic. M. Viardot, on +the contrary, was a reactionary in music. He even found Beethoven too +advanced. One day they had a guest who was also a reactionary. Madame +Viardot sang to them a wonderful work with recitative, aria and final +allegro, which they praised to the skies. She had written it expressly +for the occasion. I have read this work and even the cleverest would +have been deceived. + +But it must not be thought from this that her compositions were mere +imitations. On the contrary they were extremely original. The only +explanation why those that were published have remained unknown and why +so many were unpublished is that this admirable artist had a horror of +publicity. She spent half her life in teaching pupils and the world knew +nothing about it. + +During the Empire the Viardots used to give in their apartment on +Thursday evenings really fine musical festivals which my surviving +contemporaries still remember. From the salon in which the famous +portrait by Ary Scheffer was hung and which was devoted to ordinary +instrumental and vocal music, we went down a short staircase to a +gallery filled with valuable paintings, and finally to an exquisite +organ, one of Cavaille-Coll's masterpieces. In this temple dedicated to +music we listened to arias from the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn. +She had sung them in London, but could not get a hearing for them in the +concerts in Paris as they were averse to such vast compositions. I had +the honor to be her regular accompanist both at the organ and the piano. + +But this passionate lover of song was an all-round musician. She played +the piano admirably, and when she was among friends she overcame the +greatest difficulties. Before her Thursday audiences, however, she +limited herself to chamber music, with a special preference for Henri +Reber's duets for the piano and the violin. These delicate, artistic +works are unknown to the amateurs of to-day. They seem to prefer to the +pure juice of the grape in crystal glasses poisonous potions in cups of +gold. They must have orgies, sumptuous ceilings, a deadly luxury. They +do not understand the poet who sings, _"O rus, quando te aspiciam!"_ +They do not appreciate the great distinction of simplicity. Reber's muse +is not for them. + +Madame Viardot was as learned a musician as any one could be and she was +among the first subscribers to the complete edition of Sebastian Bach's +works. We know what an astounding revelation that work was. Each year +brought ten religious cantatas, and each year brought us new surprises +in the unexpected variety and impressiveness of the work. We thought we +had known Sebastian Bach, but now we learned how really to know him. We +found him a writer of unusual versatility and a great poet. His +_Wohltemperirte Klavier_ had given us only a hint of all this. The +beauties of this famous work needed exposition for, in the absence of +definite instructions, opinions differed. In the cantatas the meaning of +the words serves as an indication and through the analogy between the +forms of expression, it is easy to see pretty clearly what the author +intended in his _Klavier_ pieces. + +One fine day the annual volume was found to contain a cantata in several +parts written for a contralto solo accompanied by stringed instruments, +oboes and an organ obligato. The organ was there and the organist as +well. So we assembled the instruments, Stockhausen, the baritone, was +made the leader of the little orchestra, and Madame Viardot sang the +cantata. I suspect that the author had never heard his work sung in any +such manner. I cherish the memory of that day as one of the most +precious in my musical career. My mother and M. Viardot were the only +listeners to this exceptional exhibition. We did not dare to repeat it +before hearers who were not ready for it. What would now be a great +success would have fallen flat at that time. And nothing is more +irritating than to see an audience cold before a beautiful work. It is +far better to keep to one's self treasures which will be unappreciated. + +One thing will always stand in the way of the vogue of Sebastian Bach's +vocal works--the difficulty of translation. When they are rendered into +French, they lose all their charm and oftentimes become ridiculous. + + * * * * * + +One of the most amazing characteristics of Madame Viardot's talent was +her astonishing facility in assimilating all styles of music. She was +trained in the old Italian music and she revealed its beauties as no one +else has ever done. As for myself, I saw only its faults. Then she sang +Schumann and Gluck and even Glinka whom she sang in Russian. Nothing was +foreign to her; she was at home everywhere. + +She was a great friend of Chopin and she remembered his playing almost +exactly and could give the most valuable directions about the way he +interpreted his works. I learned from her that the great pianist's +(great musician's, rather) execution was much simpler than has been +generally supposed. It was as far removed from any manifestation of bad +taste as it was from cold correctness. She told me the secret of the +true _tempo rubato_ without which Chopin's music is disfigured. It in no +way resembles the dislocations by which it is so often caricatured. + +I have spoken of her great talent as a pianist. We saw this one evening +at a concert given by Madame Schumann. After Madame Viardot had sung +some of Schumann's _lieder_ with the great pianist playing the +accompaniments, the two great artists played the illustrious author's +duet for two pianos, which fairly bristles with difficulties, _with +equal virtuosity_. + +When Madame Viardot's voice began to break, she was advised to devote +herself to the piano. If she had, she would have found a new career and +a second reputation. But she did not want to make the change, and for +several years she presented the sorry spectacle of genius contending +with adversity. Her voice was broken, stubborn, uneven, and +intermittent. An entire generation knew her only in a guise unworthy of +her. + +Her immoderate love of music was the cause of the early modification of +her voice. She wanted to sing everything she liked and she sang +Valentine in _Les Huguenots_, Donna Anna in _Don Juan_, besides other +roles she should never have undertaken if she wanted to preserve her +voice. She came to realize this at the end of her life. "Don't do as I +did," she once told a pupil. "I wanted to sing everything, and I ruined +my voice." + +Happy are the fiery natures which burn themselves out and glory in the +sword that wears away the scabbard. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ORPHEE + + +We know, or, rather we used to know--for we are beginning to forget that +there is an admirable edition of Gluck's principal works. This edition +was due to the interest of an unusual woman, Mlle. Fanny Pelletan, who +devoted a part of her fortune to this real monument and to fulfill a +wish Berlioz expressed in one of his works. Mlle. Pelletan was an +unusually intelligent woman and an accomplished musician, but she needed +some one to help her in this large and formidable task. She was +unassuming and distrusted her own powers, so that she secured as a +collaborator a German musician, named Damcke, who had lived in Paris a +long time and who was highly esteemed. He gave her the moral support she +needed and some bad advice as well, which she felt obliged to follow. +This collaboration accounts for the change of the contralto parts to +counter-tenors. It also accounts for the fact that in every instance the +parts for the clarinets are indicated in C, in this way attributing to +the author a formal intention he never had. Gluck wrote the parts for +the clarinets without bothering whether the player--to whom he left a +freedom of choice and the work of transposition--would use his +instrument in C, B, or A. This method was not peculiar to Gluck. Other +composers used it as well, and traces of it are found even in Auber's +works. + +After Damcke's death Mlle. Pelletan got me to help her in this work. I +wanted to change the method, but the edition would have lost its unity +and she would not consent. It was time that Damcke's collaboration +ended. He belonged to the tribe of German professors who have since +become legion. Due to their baneful influence, in a short time, when the +old editions have disappeared, the works of Haydn, Mozart, and +Beethoven, even of Chopin, will be all but unrecognizable. The works of +Sebastian Bach and Handel will be the only ones in existence in their +pristine purity of form, thanks to the admirable editions of the _Bach +und Haendel Gesselschaft_. When Mlle. Pelletan brought me into the work, +the two _Iphigenie_ had been published; _Alceste_ was about to be, and +_Armide_ was ready. In _Armide_ Damcke had been entirely carried away by +his zeal for "improvements"--a zeal that can do so much harm. It was +time this was stopped. Not only had he corrected imaginary faults here +and there, but he had also inserted things of his own invention. He had +even gone so far as to re-orchestrate the ballet music, in the naive +belief that he was bringing out the author's real meaning better than he +had done himself. It took an enormous amount of time to undo this +mischief, for I distrusted somewhat my own lights and Mlle. Pelletan had +too high an opinion of Damcke's work and did not dare to override his +judgment. + +That excellent woman did not live to see the end of her work. She began +the preparation of Orphee, but she died almost at once. So I was left to +finish the score alone without that valuable experience and masterly +insight by which she solved the most difficult problems. And there were +real enigmas to be solved at every step. The old engraved scores of +Gluck's works reproduced his manuscripts faithfully enough, but they +bore evidence of carelessness and amazing inaccuracy. They are mere +sketches instead of complete scores. Many details are vague and +vagueness is not permissible in a serious edition. It follows that the +different editions of Gluck's works published in the Nineteenth Century, +however sumptuous or careful they may be, are worthless. The Pelletan +edition alone can be consulted with confidence, because we were the only +ones to have all extant and authentic documents in the library at the +Opera to set us right. We had scores copied for actual performances on +the stage and portions of orchestral parts of incalculable value. In +addition, we had no aim or preoccupation in elaborating this material +other than to reconstitute as closely as possible the thought of the +author. + + * * * * * + +Switzerland is a country where artistic productions are not unusual. +Every year we have reports of some grandiose performance in which the +people take part themselves. They come from every direction to help, +even from a considerable distance, thanks to the many means of +communication in that delightful land. It is not surprising, therefore, +to learn that a theatre has been built in the pretty town of Mezieres, +near Lusanne, for the performance of the works of a young poet, named +Morax. These works are dramas with choruses, and the surrounding country +furnishes the singers. The work given in 1911 was Allenor--the music by +Gustave Doret--and it was a great success. + +Gustave Doret is a real artist and he never for a moment thought of +keeping the Theatre du Jorat for his own exclusive use. He dreamt of +giving Gluck's works in their original form, for they are always altered +and changed according to the fancies or incompetency of the performers +or directors. They formed a large and influential committee and a +substantial guarantee fund was subscribed. Then they gave a brilliant +banquet at which the Princess of Brancovan was present. And Paderewski, +one of the most enthusiastic promotors of the enterprise, delivered an +eloquent address. No one should be surprised at either his zeal or his +eloquence. Paderewski is not only a pianist; he is a man of great +intellect as well,--a great artist who permits himself the luxury of +playing the piano marvellously. + +As he knew that I had spent several years in studying Gluck's works +under the microscope, so to speak, Gustave Doret did me the honor to ask +my advice. His choice for the opening work was _Orphee_, which requires +only three principals, Orpheus, Eurydice, and Love. It has become the +custom to add a fourth, a Happy Spirit, but this spirit is one of +Carvalho's inventions and has no reason for existence. + +There are, however, two _Orphee_. The first is _Orfeo_ which was written +in Italian, on Calzabigi's text, and was first presented at Venice in +1761. The role of Orpheus in this score was written for a contralto and +was designed for the eunuch Quadagni. The Venetian engravers of that day +were either incompetent or, perhaps, there were none, for the scores of +Gluck's _Alceste_ in Italian and Haydn's _Seasons_ were printed from +type. However that may be the score of _Orfeo_ was engraved in Paris. +The composer Philidor corrected the proofs. He little thought that +_Orfeo_ would ever get so far as Paris, so he appropriated the romanza +in the first act and introduced it with but slight modifications into +his opera-comique _Le Sorcier_. Later on Marie Antoinette called Gluck +to Paris and thus afforded him the opportunity for the complete +development of his genius. After he had written _Iphigenie en Aulide_, +performed in 1774, especially for the Opera, he had the idea of adapting +_Orfeo_ for the French stage. To tell the truth he must have thought of +it before, for _Orphee_ appeared at the Opera only three months after +_Iphigenie_ and it had been entirely rewritten in collaboration with +Moline. The contralto part had been changed to tenor and so the +principal role was given to Legros. + +While it may be true that the author improved this work in the French +version, it is not true in every case. There is some question whether +the overture existed in the Italian score. It is generally believed that +it did, but there are old copies of this version in existence and they +begin the opera with the funeral chorus and show no overture at all. +This overture, although the _Mercure de France_ treats it as a +"beautiful symphonic piece which serves as a good introduction to the +work," in reality does not resemble the style of the rest at all. It in +no way prepares for that admirable chorus at the beginning--unequaled of +its kind--which Orpheus's broken hearted cry of "Eurydice! Eurydice!" +makes so pathetic. + +The first act of _Orfeo_ ends in a tumultuous effect of the stringed +instruments which was evidently intended to indicate a change of scene +and the appearance of the stage settings of the infernal regions. This +passage does not appear in the French _Orphee_ and it is lacking in the +engraved score, where it is replaced by a bravura aria of doubtful +taste, accompanied by a single quartet. Whether the stage managers +wanted an entr'acte or the tenor, Legros, demanded an effective aria, or +for both these reasons, a reading of the manuscript indicates how +absolutely the author's meaning was changed. There is no doubt that +except for some such reason he would have changed this aria and put it +in harmony with the rest of the work. + +For a long time this aria was attributed to Bertoni, the composer, and +Gluck was accused of plagiarizing it. As a matter of fact, and to the +contrary, this aria came from an older Italian opera of Gluck's. Bertoni +not only imitated it in one of his scores, but he had the hardihood to +write an _Orfeo_ on the text already followed by Gluck in which he +plagiarized the work of his illustrious predecessor in a scandalous +fashion. + +This same aria, changed with real genius and performed with prodigious +eclat by Madame Viardot, and re-orchestrated by myself, was one of the +strongest reasons for the success of the famous performances at the +Theatre-Lyrique. But it is well understood that it could not properly +find a place in an edition where the sole end was artistic sincerity and +purity of the text. + +From this point of view it would seem that the best manner of giving +_Orphee_ would be to conform to the author's definitive version. A tenor +would have to take the part of Orpheus, since we no longer have male +contraltos, and to keep to this kind of a voice in _Orphee_ we would +have to have recourse to what is called, in theatrical terms, a +_travesti_. There are obstacles to this, however. The pitch has changed +since the Eighteenth Century; it has gone up and it is now impossible, +or nearly so, to sing the role written for Legros. The contraltos of the +Italian chorus have become the counter-tenors, who, for the same reason, +find themselves struggling with too sharp notes. + +In the Seventeenth Century the French pitch was even more flat, and it +is a great pity, for it is almost impossible to perform our old music, +on account of the insuperable obstacles. This is not the case in +Germany, however, or in Italy, and that is the reason why the works of +Sebastian Bach and Mozart can be sung. The same is true of Gluck's +Italian works. + +This was the reason that Doret gave the part of Orpheus to a contralto, +just as is done at the Opera-Comique. The poetic character of the part +of Orpheus lends itself excellently to such a feminine interpretation. +But in resuming the key of the Italian score, it is necessary to go +back, at least to a considerable degree, to the instrumentation. By a +curious anomaly the beautiful recitative, accompanied by the murmur of +brooks and the songs of the birds, is in C major in both scores. The +author could not have changed them. On the contrary he modified his +instrumentation greatly, simplified and perfected it. + +We know that the authors, in utter defiance of mythology, wanted a happy +ending and so brought Eurydice back to life a second time. Love +accomplished this miracle and the work ended with the song "Love +Triumphs," which is exceedingly joyful and in harmony with the +situation. They did not want this ending, which was in _Orfeo_ and which +Gluck retained in _Orphee_, at the old Theatre-Lyrique and the +Opera-Comique, and they replaced it with a chorus by Echo and Narcissus. +This chorus is charming, but that does not excuse it. Joy was what the +author wanted and this does not give joy at all. Gluck's finale is +regarded as not sufficiently distinguished, but this is wrong. The real +finale was sung at Mezieres and it was found that it was not at all +common, but that its frank gaiety was in the best of taste. + +Gluck had no scruples about grinding several grists from the same sack +and drawing from his old works to help out his new ones. So the +parasitical aria attributed to Bertoni was written by Gluck in the first +place in 1764 for a soprano. He wove this into his opera _Aristo_ in +1769. This is also true of the trio, _Tendre Amour_, which precedes the +finale in the last act. A serious-minded analyst might be tempted to +admire the profound psychology of the author in mingling doleful accents +with expressions of joy, but he would have his labor for his pains. The +trio was taken from the opera _Elena e Paride_, where Gluck expressed +strongly wrought up emotions. Doret did not keep these two passages and +one can't blame him. On the other hand, he retained, by making it an +entr'acte, the _Ballet des Furies_. This was taken from a ballet, _Don +Giovanni o il convitato de pietra_, which was performed at Vienna in +1761. This passage was used as the accompaniment to Don Juan's descent +into Hell, surrounded by his band of demons. + +Many of Gluck's compatriots came to Mezieres to see _Orphee_ and they +were loyal enough to recognize the superiority of the performance. Some +even had the courage to say, "We murder Gluck in Germany." + +I discovered that fact a long time ago. In my youth I was indignant when +I saw Paris, where Gluck wrote his finest works, quite neglecting them, +whereas Germany continued to promote them. In those days I was +frequently called to the other side of the Rhine to play in concerts, +and I watched for a chance to see one of these masterpieces which had +been forgotten in France. So it was with the liveliest joy that one day +I entered one of the leading German theaters where they were giving +_Armide_. What a hollow mockery it was! + +Madame Malten was Armide, and she was everything that could be wished in +voice, talent, style, beauty and charm. She spoke French without an +accent and was as remarkable as an actress as a singer, so she would +without doubt have had great success at the Opera in Paris. She was +Armide herself, an irresistible enchantress. + +But the rest! Renaud was a raw boy, and his shaven chin brought out in +sharp relief enormous black moustaches with long waxed ends. He had a +voice, to be sure, but no style, and no understanding of the work he was +trying to interpret. + +Hidradot is an old sorcerer tempered in the fires of Hell. He enters, +saying: + + "I see hard by Death that threatens me, + And already old age, that has chilled my blood, + Is on me, bowing me beneath a crushing burden." + +Imagine my surprise at seeing come on the stage a magnificent specimen +of manhood, with a curled black beard, in all the glory of his youth and +vigor superbly arrayed in a red cloak trimmed with gold! + +The stage setting was also extraordinary. In the second act Renaud went +to sleep at the back of the stage, forcing Armide to speak the whole of +the beautiful scene which follows, one of the most important in the +part, at a distance from the footlights and with her back to the +audience. + +As for the orchestra, sometimes it followed Gluck's text and sometimes +it borrowed bits of orchestration which Meyerbeer had written for the +Opera at Berlin. This orchestration is interesting, and I know it well +for I have had it in hand. It is only fair to say that Gluck, from some +inexplicable caprice, did not give the same care to the instrumentation +of _Armide_ that he did to _Orphee_, _Alcesti_, and the _Iphigenies_. +The trombones do not appear at all and the drums and flutes only at rare +intervals. Re-orchestration is not absolutely necessary and Meyerbeer's +is no more reprehensible than those with which Mozart enriched Handel's +_Messe_ and _La Fete d'Alexandre_. What was inadmissible was not +deciding frankly for one version or the other. It was like a badly +patched coat which shows the old cloth in one place and the new in +another. + +Afterwards I saw _Armide_ treated in another way. + +Did you ever happen to cherish the memory of a delightful and +picturesque city, where everything made a harmonious whole, where the +beautiful walks were arched over by old trees--and later come back to it +to find it embellished, the trees cut down, the walks replaced by +enormous buildings which dwarfed into insignificance the ancient marvels +which gave the city its charm? + +This was the case with me when I saw _Armide_ again in a city which I +shall not name. The opera had been judged superannuated and had been +"improved." A young composer had written a new score in which he +inserted here and there such bits of Gluck as he thought worthy of being +preserved. A costly and magnificently imbecile luxuriousness set off the +whole piece. I may be pardoned the cruel adjective when I say that in +the scene of Hate, so deeply inspired, and which takes place in a sort +of cave, they relegated the chorus to the wings to make a place for +dragons, fantastic birds beating their wings, and other deviltries. +This, of course, deprived the chorus of all its power and distinction. + +But the best was at the end of the second act. The forest with its +trees, grass and rocks entirely disappeared in the flies taking Renaud +and Armide with it and the spectator was left, for some unknown reason, +looking at a background surrounded by mountains. Then, by a marvel of +mechanism, there appeared to the sound of ultramodern music, Renaud +sleeping on a bed of state, with Armide standing at the foot and +stretching forth her hand with a gesture of authority, declaiming in a +solemn tone, + + "Rinaldo, I love you!" + +and the curtain fell to the applause of the audience. + + * * * * * + +We owe much to Germany in music, for it has produced many great +musicians. It can set off against our trinity of Corneille, Racine, and +Moliere, the no less glorious Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But Germany +seems to have lost all respect for the meaning of its own music and for +its own glories. Instead of watching over the purity of the text of its +masterpieces, it alters them at its pleasure and makes them all but +unrecognizable. We abuse nuances but they were rare in earlier days. An +orchestra conductor who performs symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, even by +Beethoven, has the right to make additions. But it is intolerable that +the scores should be printed with these nuances and bowings which are in +no way due to the author and which are imposed by the editor. +Nevertheless, that is what happens, and it is impossible to tell where +the authentic text ends and the interpolation begins. In addition, the +interpolation may be the exact contrary of what the author intended. + +This evil is at its worst in piano music. Our famous teachers, like +Marmontel and Le Couppey, have published editions of the classics which +are full of their own directions. But the player is forewarned; it is +the Marmontel or Le Couppey edition and makes no pretence of +authenticity. In Germany, however, there are supposedly authentic +editions, based on the originals, but which superimpose their own +pernicious inventions on the author's text. + +The touch of the piano used to be different from what it is to-day. The +directions in Mozart's and Beethoven's works show that they used the +execution of stringed instruments as their model. The touch was lighter +and the fingers were raised so that the notes were separated slightly, +and not run together except when indicated. The supposition is that this +must have led to a dryness of tone. I remember to have heard in my +childhood some old people whose playing was singularly hopping. Then, +there came a reaction, and with it a passion for slurring the notes. +When I was Stamaty's pupil, it was considered most difficult to "tie" +the notes; that required, however, only dexterity and suppleness. "When +she learns to 'tie,' she will know how to play," said the mother of a +young pianist. Nevertheless, the trick of perpetual _legato_ becomes +exceedingly monotonous and takes away all character from the pianoforte +classics. But it is insisted on everywhere in the modern German +editions. Throughout there are connections seemingly interminable in +length, and indications of _legato_, _sempre legato_, which the author +not only did not indicate, but in places where it is easy to see that he +intended the exact opposite. + +If this is the case, what shall be said of marking the fingering on all +the notes--which often makes good playing impossible. Liszt taught +hundreds of pupils according to the best principles, yet such erroneous +principles have prevailed! + +Disciples of the ivory keys are numerous in our day. Everybody wants to +have a piano, and everybody plays it or thinks he does, which is not +always the same thing, and few really understand what the term "to play +the piano," so currently used, means. + +The harpsichord reigned supreme before the appearance of the piano--an +instrument which is beloved by some and execrated by others. To his +utter amazement Reyer was considered an enemy of the pianoforte. The +harpsichord has been revived of late so that it is needless to describe +it. It lacks strength, and that was the reason it was dethroned in a +period when strength was everything. On the other hand, it has +distinction and elegance. As the player can not modify the intensity of +the sound by a single pressure of the finger--in which it resembles the +organ--like the organ, with its multiple keyboards and registers, the +harpsichord has a wide variety of effects and affords the opportunity +for several octaves to sound simultaneously. As a result, while music +written for the harpsichord gains in strength and expression on the +modern instrument, it often assumes a deceptive monotony for which the +author is not responsible. + +The players of the harpsichord were ignorant of muscular effects; there +was nothing of the unchained lion about them. The delicate hands of a +marquise lost none of their gracefulness as they skimmed over the +keyboards, and the red or black keys emphasized their whiteness. + +The introduction of the hammer in the place of the tiny nib permitted +the modification of the quality of sound by differences in the pressure +of the fingers, and also the production at will of such nuances as +_forte_ and _piano_ without recourse to the different registers. This is +the reason why the new instrument was first called the pianoforte. The +word was long and cumbersome and was cut in half. When it became +necessary to _assault_ the note, they used the phrase "to hit the +forte." The papers which gave accounts of young Mozart's concerts +praised him for his ability to "hit." + +Nevertheless one did not hit hard. These keyboards with their limited +keys responded so easily that a child's fingers were sufficient. I first +played on one of these instruments at the age of three. It was made by +Zimmerman, whose son was Gounod's father-in-law. + +Later, the weight of the keys was increased to get a greater volume of +sound. Then, when long-haired _virtuosi_, playing by main strength, +produced peals of thunder, they really "_toucha du piano_." + + * * * * * + +To return to _Orphee_ and end as we began, I have to make a painful +confession. If the works of Gluck in general and _Orphee_ in particular +have had a happy influence on our musical taste, a passage from this +last work has been a noxious influence,--the famous chorus of the demons +"_Quel est l'audacieux--qui dans ces sombres lieux--ose porter ses +pas?_" + +In the old days French opera was based on declamation and it was +scrupulously respected even in the arias. There is a fine example of +this excellent system in Lully's famous aria from _Medusa_ to prove what +strength results from a close relation between the accent of the verse +and the music. Gluck was one of the most fervent disciples of this +system, but _Orphee_, as we know, was derived from _Orfeo_. The question +was whether he could even think of suppressing this spectacular chorus +with its amazing strength which was one of the principal reasons for the +work's success. Unfortunately the music of the chorus was moulded on the +Italian text, and each verse ended with the accent on the antepenult, +which occurs frequently in German and Italian, but never in French. And +they sing: + + Quel est l'auDAcieux + Qui dans ces SOMbres lieux + Ose porTER ses pas + Et devant LE trepas + Ne fremit pas? + +As French is not strongly accented such faults are tolerated. Gluck's +theme impressed itself on the memory, so that he dealt a terrific blow +to the purity of prosody. We gradually became so disinterested in this +that by Auber's time scarcely any attention was paid to it. Finally, +Offenbach appeared. He was a German by birth and his musical ideas +naturally rhymed with German in direct contradiction to the French words +to which they applied. This constant bungling passed for originality. +Sometimes it would have been necessary to change the division of a +measure to get a correct melody, as in the song: + + Un p'tit bonhomme + Pas plus haut qu'ca. + +In such a case we might say that he did wrong for the mere pleasure of +going astray. But popular taste was so corrupted that no one noticed it +and everybody who wrote in the lighter vein fell into the same habits. + +We owe a debt of gratitude to Andre Messager for breaking away from this +manner and setting musical phraseology aright. His return to the old +traditions was not the least of the attractions of his delightful +_Veronique_. + +But we are wandering far from Gluck and _Orphee_, although not so far +as we might think. In art, as in everything, extremes meet, and there +are all kinds of tastes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DELSARTE + + +Felix Duquesnal in one of his brilliant articles has written something +about Delsarte, the singer, in connection with his controversy with +Madame Carvalho. The cause of this controversy was the lessons she took +from him. The name of Delsarte should never be forgotten, as I shall try +to explain. Madame Carvalho did not refuse to pay Delsarte for her +lessons, but she did not want to be called his pupil. Although she had +attended the Conservatoire, she wanted to be known solely as a pupil of +Duprez. As a matter of fact it was Duprez who knew how to make the +"Little Miolan," the delightful warbler, into the great singer with her +important place on the French stage. + +But this was accomplished at a price. Madame Carvalho told me about it +herself. Her medium register was weak and Duprez undertook to +substitute chest tones and develop clearness as much as possible. "When +I began to work," she said, "my mother was frightened. One would have +thought that a calf was being killed in the house." + +Ordinarily such a method would produce a harsh, shaky voice and all +freshness would be lost. But in Madame Carvalho's case the opposite was +true. The freshness and purity of her voice were beyond compare, while +its smoothness and the harmony of the registers were perfect. It was a +miracle the like of which we shall probably never see again. + +But if Duprez made a wonderful voice at the risk of breaking it, I have +always thought that Madame Carvalho owed her admirable diction, so +distinguishing a mark of her talent, to Delsarte. Delsarte was a +disastrous and deadly teacher of singing. No voice could stand up under +his methods, not even his own, although he attributed its loss to +teaching at the Conservatoire. But he studied deeply the arts of +speaking and gesture, and he was a past master in them. + +I once attended a course he gave in these subjects. He stated highly +illuminating truths and gave the psychological reasons for accents and +the physiological reasons for the gestures. He determined the use of +gestures in some sort of scientific way. Mystic fancies were mixed up in +these questions. + +It was extremely interesting to see him dissect one of Fontaine's fables +or a passage from Racine, and to hear him explain why the accent should +be on such a word or on such a syllable and not on another, to bring out +the sense. Although this course was so instructive, few took it, for +Delsarte was almost unknown to people. His influence scarcely extended +outside a narrow circle of admirers, but the quality made up for the +quantity. This was the circle of the old _Debats_, which was formerly +devoted exclusively to Romanticism, but at this time to the +classics--the set headed by Ingres in painting and Reber in music. +Theirs was a secluded and ascetic world in silent revolt against the +abominations of the century. One had to hear the tone of devotion in +which the members of this circle spoke of the ancients to appreciate +their attitude. Nothing in our day can give any idea of them. "They +say," one of the devotees once told me, "that the ancients learned +Beauty through a sort of revelation, and Beauty has steadily degenerated +ever since." + +Such false notions were, however, professed by the most sincere people +who were deeply devoted to art. So this group, which had no influence on +their own contemporaries, nevertheless, without knowing it or wishing to +do so, played a useful role. + +As we know, the public was divided into two camps. On one side were the +partisans of Melody, opera-comique, the Italians, and, with some effort, +of grand opera. Opposed to them were the partisans of music in the grand +style--Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Sebastian Bach, although he was +little known and is less well known now. + +No one gave a thought to our old French school, to the composers from +Lulli to Gluck, who produced so many excellent works. Reber showed +Delsarte the way and the latter, naturally an antiquarian, threw +himself into this unexplored field with surprising vigor. Only Lulli's +name was known, while Campra, Mondonville and the others were entirely +forgotten. Even Gluck himself had been forgotten. First editions of his +orchestral scores, which it is impossible to find to-day, sold for a few +francs at the second-hand book shops. Rameau was never mentioned. + +Delsarte, handsome, eloquent, and fascinating, wielded an almost +imperial sway over his little coterie of artists. Thanks to him the lamp +of our old French school was kept dimly burning until the day when +inherent justice permitted it to be revived. In this restricted world no +evening was complete without Delsarte. He would come in with some story +of frightful throat trouble to justify his chronic lack of voice, and, +then, without any voice at all but by a kind of magic, would put +shudders into the tones of Orpheus or Eurydice. I often played his +accompaniments and he always demanded _pianissimo_. + +"But," I would say, "the author has indicated _forte_." + +"That is true," he would answer, "but in those days the harpsichord had +little depth of tone." + +It would have been easy to answer that the accompaniment was written for +the orchestra and not for the harpsichord. + +Delsarte's execution, on account of the insufficiency of his vocal +powers, was often entirely different from what the author intended. +Furthermore, he was absolutely ignorant of the correct way to interpret +the appogiatures and other marks which are not used to-day. As a result +his interpretation of the older works was inexact. But that did not +matter, for even if masterpieces are presented badly, there is always +something left. Besides, both the singer and his hearers had Faith. He +had a way of pronouncing "Gluck" which aroused expectation even before +one heard a note. + +From time to time Delsarte gave a concert. He would come on the stage +and say that he had a bad throat, but that he would try to give +_Iphigenia's Dream_ or something of that sort. His courage would prove +to be greater than his strength and he would have to stop. He would +then fall back on old-time songs or La Fontaine's fables in which he +excelled. A skilfully studied mimicry, which seemed entirely natural, +underlay his reading. A red handkerchief, which he knew how to draw from +his pocket at just the proper moment, always excited applause. + +One day he conceived the idea of giving one of Bossuet's sermons at his +concert. Religious authority was very powerful at the time and forbade +it. Yet there would have been no sacrilege, and I regretted keenly that +I could not hear this magnificent prose delivered so wonderfully. Now +that religious authority has lost its secular support, we see things in +an entirely different way. Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints walk the +stage, speak in prose or verse, and sing. It would seem that no one is +shocked for there is no protest. For my own part I must frankly confess +that such pseudo-religious exhibitions are disagreeable. They disturb me +greatly and I can see no use in them. + + * * * * * + +In order to foster admiration for the old masters, Delsarte conceived +the idea of publishing a collection of pieces taken from their works +right and left, and, as a result, he created his _Archives du Chant_. He +had special type made and the publication was a marvel of beautiful +typography, correctness and good taste. At the beginning of each part +was a cleverly harmonised passage of church music. The support of a +publisher was necessary for the success of such a work, but Delsarte was +his own publisher and he met with no success at all. Similar but +inferior publications have been markedly successful. + +Delsarte aimed at purity of text, but his successors have been forced to +modernize the works to make them accessible for the public. This fact is +painful. In literature the texts are studied and the endeavor is to +reproduce the writer's thought as closely as possible. In music it is +entirely different. With each new edition a professor is commissioned to +supervise the work and he adds something of his own invention. + +Delsarte, a singer without a voice, an imperfect musician, a doubtful +scholar, guided by an intuition which approached genius, in spite of his +numerous faults played an important role in the evolution of French +music in the Nineteenth Century. He was no ordinary man. The impression +he gave to all who knew him was of a visionary, an apostle. When one +heard him speak with his fiery enthusiasm about these works of the past +which the world had forgotten, one could but believe that such oblivion +was unjust and desire to know these relics of another age. + +Without the shadow of a doubt I owed to his leadership the necessary +courage to make a profound study of the works of the old school, for +they are unattractive at first. Berlioz berated all this music. He had +seen Gluck's works on the stage in his youth, but he could see nothing +in them that was not "superannuated and childish." With all respect to +Berlioz's memory, it deserved a kinder judgment than that. When one +reaches the depths of this music, although it may be at the price of +some effort, he is well repaid for his pains. There is real feeling, +grandeur and even something of the picturesque in these works--as much +as could be with the means at their disposal. + +It is only right that we should pay tribute to Delsarte's memory. He +was a pioneer who, during his whole life, proclaimed the value of +immortal works, which the world despised. That is no slight merit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SEGHERS + + +While Delsarte was preparing the way for the old French opera and above +all for Gluck's works, another pioneer of musical evolution was working +to form the taste of the Parisian public, but with an entirely different +power and another effect. Seghers was the man. He played a great role +and his memory should be honored. + +As his name indicates, Seghers was a Belgian. He started life as a +violinist and was one of Baillot's pupils. His execution was masterly, +his tone admirable, and he had a musical intelligence of the first +order. He had every right to a first rank among _virtuosi_, but this +man, herculean in appearance and tenacious in his purposes, lost all his +power before an audience. + +He had a dream of giving to lovers of music the last of Beethoven's +quartets, which were considered at the time both unplayable and +incomprehensible. In the end he planned a series of concerts at which, +despite my age--I was only fifteen--I was to be the regular pianist. He +planned to give in addition to these quartets, some of Bach's sonatas +and Reber's and Schumann's trios. I spoke of this plan to his +mother-in-law one day as she was peacefully embroidering at the window, +and told her how pleased I was at the thought of the concerts. + +"Don't count on it too much," she told me. "He'll never give them." + +When everything was ready, he invited some thirty people to listen to a +trial performance. It was wretched. All the depth of tone had gone from +his violin as well as the skill from his fingers.... The project was +abandoned. + +It was left for Maurin to make something out of these terrible quartets. +Maurin had peculiar gifts. He had a lightness of bow which I have never +seen equalled by anyone and a lightness and charm which enchanted the +public. But I can say in all sincerity that Seghers's execution was even +better. Unfortunately for him I was his only listener. + +Madame Seghers was a woman of great beauty, unusually intelligent and +distinguished. She had been one of Liszt's pupils and was a pianist of +first rank. But she was even more timid than her husband--a single +listener was sufficient to paralyze her. When Liszt was teaching Madame +Seghers, he came to appreciate her husband's real worth and entrusted +his daughter's musical education to him. This is sufficient indication +of the esteem in which Liszt held Seghers. So it was not surprising that +he gave me valuable and greatly needed suggestions in regard to style +and the piano itself, for his friendship with Liszt had given him a +thorough understanding of the instrument. + +I first saw and heard Liszt at Seghers's house. He had reappeared in +Paris after long years of absence, and by that time he had begun to seem +almost legendary. The story went that since he had become chapel-master +at Weimar he was devoting himself to grand compositions, and, what +appeared unbelievable, "piano music." People who ought to have known +that Mozart was the greatest pianist of his time shrugged their +shoulders at this. As a climax it was insinuated that Liszt was setting +systems of philosophy to music. + +I studied Liszt's works with all the enthusiasm of my eighteen years for +I already regarded him as a genius and attributed to him even before I +saw him almost superhuman powers as a pianist. Remarkable to relate he +surpassed the conception I had formed. The dreams of my youthful +imagination were but prose in comparison with the Bacchic hymn evoked by +his supernatural fingers. No one who did not hear him at the height of +his powers can have any idea of his performance. + + * * * * * + +Seghers was a member of the Societe des Concerts at the Conservatoire. +This reached only a restricted public and there was no other symphony +concert worthy of the name in Paris at the time. And if the public was +limited, the repertoire was even more so. Haydn's, Mozart's and +Beethoven's symphonies were played almost exclusively, and Mendelssohn's +were introduced with the greatest difficulty. Only fragments of vast +compositions like the oratorios were given. An author who was still +alive was looked upon as an intruder. However, the conductor was +permitted to introduce a solo of his own selection. Thus my friend +Auguste Tolbecque, who was over eighty, was permitted to give--he still +played beautifully--my first _concerto_ for the violoncello which I had +written for him. Deldevez, the conductor of the famous orchestra at the +time, did not overlook the chance to tell me that he had put my +_concerto_ on the programme only through consideration for Tolbecque. +Otherwise, he added, he would have preferred Messieurs So-and-so's. + +Not only did the Conservatoire audiences know little music, but the +larger public knew none at all. The symphonies of the three great +classic masters were known to amateurs for the most part only through +Czerny's arrangement for two pianos. + +This was the situation when Seghers left the Societe des Concerts and +founded the Societe St. Cecile. He led the orchestra himself. The new +society took its name from the St. Cecile hall which was then in the Rue +de la Chaussee d'Antin. It was a large square hall and was excellent in +spite of the prejudice in favor of halls with curved lines for music. +Curved surfaces, as Cavaille-Coll, who was an expert in this matter, +once told me, distort sound as curved mirrors distort images. Halls used +for music should, therefore, have only straight lines. The St. Cecile +hall was sufficiently large to allow a complete orchestra and chorus to +be placed properly and heard as well. + +Seghers managed to assemble an excellent and sizable orchestra and he +also secured soloists who were young then but who have since become +celebrities. The orchestra was poorly paid and also very unruly. I have +seen them rebel at the difficulties in Beethoven, and it was even worse +when Seghers undertook to give Schumann who was considered the _ne plus +ultra_ of modernism. Oftentimes there were real riots. But we heard +there for the first time the overture of _Manfred_, Mendelssohn's +_Symphony in A minor_, and the overture to _Tannhauser_. + +The modern French school found the doors in the Rue Bergere closed to +them, but they were welcomed with open arms at the Chaussee d'Antin. +Among them were Reber, Gounod, and Gouvy, and even beginners like +Georges Bizet and myself. I made my first venture there with my +_Symphony in E flat_ which I wrote when I was seventeen. In order to get +the committee to adopt it, Seghers offered it as a symphony by an +unknown author, which had been sent to him from Germany. The committees +swallowed the bait, and the symphony, which would probably not had a +hearing if my name had been signed, was praised to the skies. + +I can still see myself at a rehearsal listening to a conversation +between Berlioz and Gounod. Both of them were greatly interested in me, +so that they spoke freely and discussed the excellences and faults of +this anonymous symphony. They took the work seriously and it can be +imagined how I drank in their words. When the veil of mystery was +lifted, the interest of the two great musicians changed to friendship. I +received a letter from Gounod, which I have kept carefully, and as it +does credit to the author, I take the liberty of reproducing it here: + + My dear Camille: + + I was officially informed yesterday that you are the author of the + symphony which they played on Sunday. I suspected it; but now that + I am sure, I want to tell you at once how pleased I was with it. + You are beyond your years; always keep on--and remember that on + Sunday, December 11, 1853, you obligated yourself to become a great + master. + + Your pleased and devoted friend, + + CH. GOUNOD. + +Many works which had been unknown to Parisian audiences were given at +these concerts and nowhere else. Among them were Schubert's _Symphony in +C,_ fragments of Weber's opera _Preciosa,_ his _Jubel overture_, and +symphonies by Gade, Gouvy, Gounod, and Reber. These symphonies are not +dazzling but they are charming. They form an interesting link in the +golden chain, and the public has a right and even some sort of duty to +hear them. They would enjoy hearing them too, just as at the Louvre they +like to see certain pictures which are not extraordinary but which are, +nevertheless, worthy of the place they occupy. That is to say, if the +public is really guided by a love of art and seeks only intellectual +pleasure instead of sensations and shocks. Some one has said lately that +where there is no feeling there is no music. We could, however, cite +many passages of music which are absolutely lacking in emotion and which +are beautiful nevertheless from the standpoint of pure esthetic beauty. +But what am I saying? Painting goes its own way and emotion, feeling, +and passion are evoked by the least landscape. Maurice Barres brought in +this fashion and he could even see passion in rocks. Happy is he who can +follow him there. + +Among the things we heard at that time and which we never hear now I +must note especially Berlioz's _Corsaire_ and _King Lear_. His name is +so much beloved by the present day public that this neglect is both +unjust and unjustifiable. The great man himself came to the Societe St. +Cecile one day to conduct his _L'Enfance du Christ_ which he had just +written--or rather _La Fuite en Egypt_ which was the only part of the +work that was in existence then. He composed the rest of it afterwards. +I remember perfectly the performances which the great man directed. They +were lively and spirited rather than careful, but somewhat slower than +what Edouard Colonne has accustomed us to. The time was faster and the +nuances sharper. + +In spite of the enthusiasm of the conductor and the skill and talent of +the orchestra, the society led a hand-to-mouth existence. The sinews of +war were lacking. Weckerlin directed the choruses and I acted as the +accompanist at the rehearsals. Love of art sufficed us, but the singers +and instrumentalists were not satisfied with that in the absence of all +emoluments. If Seghers had been adaptable, he might have secured +resources, but that was not his forte. Meyerbeer wanted him to give his +_Struensee_ and Halevy wanted a performance of his _Promethee_. But this +was contrary to Seghers's convictions, and when he had once made up his +mind nothing could change him. Nevertheless he did give the overture to +_Struensee_ and it would have been no great effort to give the rest. As +to _Promethee_, even if the last part is not in harmony with the rest +of it, the work was well worthy the honor of a performance, which the +proud society in the Rue Bergere had accorded it. By these refusals +Seghers was deprived of the support of two powerful protectors. + +Pasdeloup craftily took advantage of the situation. He had plenty of +money and, as he knew what the financial situation was, he went to the +rehearsals and corrupted the artists. For the most part they were young +people in needy circumstances and could not refuse his attractive +propositions. He killed Seghers's society and built on its ruins the +Societe des Jeunes Artistes, which later became the Concerts Populaires. + +Pasdeloup was sincerely fond of music but he was a very ordinary +musician. He had little of Seghers's feeling and profound comprehension +of the art. In Seghers's hands the popular concerts would have become an +admirable undertaking, but Pasdeloup, in spite of his zeal and skill, +was able to give them only a superficial and deceptive brilliancy. +Besides, Seghers would have worked for the development of the French +school whom Pasdeloup, with but few exceptions, kept under a bushel +until 1870. Among these exceptions were a symphony by Gounod, one by +Gouvy and the overture to Berlioz's _Frances-Juges._ Until the +misfortunes and calamities of that terrible year the French symphonic +school had been repressed and stifled between the Societe des Concerts +and the Concerts Populaires. Perhaps they were necessary so that this +school might be freed and give flight to its fancies. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ROSSINI + + +Nowadays it is difficult to form any idea of Rossini's position in our +beautiful city of Paris half a century ago. He had retired from active +life a long time before, but he had a greater reputation in his idleness +than many others in their activity. All Paris sought the honor of being +admitted to his magnificent, high-windowed apartment. As the demigod +never went out in the evening, his friends were always sure of finding +him at home. At one time or another all sorts of social sets rubbed +elbows at his great soirees. The most brilliant singers and the most +famous virtuosi appeared at these "evenings." The master was surrounded +by sycophants, but they did not influence him, for he knew their true +worth. He ruled his regular following with the hauteur of a superior +being who does not deign to reveal himself to the first comer. It is a +question how he came to be held in such honor. + +His works, outside of the _Barbier_ and _Guillaume Tell_, and some +performances of _Moise_, belonged to the past. They still went to see +_Otello_ at the Theatre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C +diesis. Rossini was under so little illusion that he tried to oppose the +effort to have _Semiramide_ put into the repertoire at the Opera. And, +nevertheless, the Parisian public actually worshipped him. + +This public--I am speaking now of the musical public or what is called +that--was divided into two hostile camps. There were the lovers of +melody who were in the large majority and included the musical critics; +and, on the other side, the subscribers to the Conservatoire and the +Maurin, Alard and Amingaud quartets. They were devotees of learned +music; "poseurs," others said, who pretended to admire works they did +not understand at all. + +There was no melody in Beethoven; some even denied that there was any in +Mozart. Melody was found, we were told, only in the works of the +Italian school, of which Rossini was the leader, and in the school of +Herold and Auber, which was descended from the Italian. + +The Melodists considered Rossini their standard bearer, a symbol to +rally around, even though they had just obtained good prices for his +works at the second-hand shops and now permitted them to fall into +oblivion. + +From some words he let fall during our intimacy I can state that this +neglect was painful to him. But it was a just--perhaps too +just--retribution for the fatality with which Rossini, doubtless in +spite of himself, served as a weapon against Beethoven. The first +encounter was at Vienna where the success of _Tancred_ crushed forever +the dramatic ambitions of the author of _Fidelio_; later, at Paris, they +used _Guillaume Tell_ in combating the increasing invasion of the +symphony and chamber music. + +I was twenty when M. and Mme. Viardot introduced me to Rossini. He +invited me to his small evening receptions and received me with his +usual rather meaningless cordiality. At the end of a month, when he +found that I asked to be heard neither as a pianist nor as a composer, +he changed his attitude. "Come and see me tomorrow morning," he said. +"We can talk then." + +I was quick to respond to this flattering invitation and I found a very +different Rossini from the one of the evening. He was intensely +interested in and open-minded to ideas, which, if they were not +advanced, were at least broad and noble. He gave proof of this when +Liszt's famous _Messe_ was performed for the first time at St. Eustache. +He went to its defense in the face of an almost unanimous opposition. + +He said to me one day, + +"You have written a duet for a flute and clarinet for Dorus and Leroy. +Won't you ask them to play it at one of my evenings?" + +The two great artists did not have to be urged. Then an unheard of thing +happened. As he never had a written programme on such occasions, Rossini +managed so that they believed that the duet was his own. It is easy to +imagine the success of the piece under these conditions. When the encore +was over, Rossini took me to the dining-room and made me sit near him, +holding me by the hand so that I could not get away. A procession of +fawning admirers passed in front of him. Ah! Master! What a masterpiece! +Marvellous! + +And when the victim had exhausted the resources of the language in +praise, Rossini replied, quietly: + +"I agree with you. But the duet wasn't mine; it was written by this +gentleman." + +Such kindness combined with such ingenuity tells more about the great +man than many volumes of commentaries. For Rossini was a great man. The +young people of to-day are in no position to judge his works, which were +written, as he said himself, for singers and a public who no longer +exist. + +"I am criticised," he said one day, "for the great _crescendo_ in my +works. But if I hadn't put the _crescendo_ into my works, they would +never have been played at the Opera." + +In our day the public are slaves. I have read in the programme of one +house, "All marks of approbation will be severely repressed." Formerly, +especially in Italy, the public was master and its taste law. As it came +before the lights were up, a great overture with a _crescendo_ was as +necessary as cavatinas, duets and ensembles: they came to hear the +singers and not to be present at an opera. In many of his works, +especially in _Otello_, Rossini made a great step forward towards +realism in opera. In _Moise_ and _Le Siege de Corinthe_ (not to mention +_Guillaume Tell_) he rose to heights which have not been surpassed in +spite of the poverty of the means at his disposal. As Victor Hugo has +victoriously demonstrated, such poverty is no obstacle to genius and +wealth in them is only an advantage to mediocrity. + +I was one of the regular pianists at Rossini's. The others were +Stanzieri, a charming young man of whom Rossini was very fond and who +lived but a short time, and Diemer, who was also young but already a +great artist. One or the other of us would often play at the evening +entertainments the slight pieces for the piano which the Master used to +write to take up his time. I was only too willing to accompany the +singers, when Rossini did not do so himself. He accompanied them +admirably for he played the piano to perfection. + +[Illustration: Mme. Patti] + +Unfortunately I was not there the evening that Patti sang for Rossini +the first time. We know that after she had sung the aria from _Le +Barbier_, he said to her, after the usual compliments, + +"Who wrote that aria you just sang?" + +I saw him three days afterwards and he hadn't cooled off even then. + +"I am fully aware," he said, "that arias should be embellished. That's +what they are for. But not to leave a note of them even in the +recitatives! That is too much!" + +In his irritation he complained that the sopranos persisted in singing +this aria which was written for a contralto and did not sing what had +been written for the sopranos at all. + +On the other hand the diva was irritated as well. She thought the matter +over and realized that it would be serious to have Rossini for an enemy. +So some days later she went to ask his advice. It was well for her that +she took it, for her talent, though brilliant and fascinating, was not +as yet fully formed. Two months after this incident, Patti sang the +arias from _La Gaza Ladra_ and _Semiramide_, with the master as her +accompanist. And she combined with her brilliancy the absolute +correctness which she always showed afterwards. + +Much has been written about the premature interruption of Rossini's +career after the appearance of _Guillaume Tell_. It has been compared +with Racine's life after _Phedre_. The failure of _Phedre_ was brutal +and cruel, which was added to by the scandalous success of the _Phedre_ +of an unworthy rival. Racine's friends, the Port Royalists, did not +hesitate to make the most of the opportunity. "You've lost your soul," +they told him. "And now you haven't even success." But later, when he +took up his pen again, he gave us two masterpieces in _Esther_ and +_Athalie_. + +Rossini was accustomed to success and it was hard for him to run into a +half-hearted success when he knew he had surpassed himself. This was +doubtless due to the extravagant phraseology of Hippolyte Bis, one of +the librettists. But _Guillaume Tell_ had its admirers from the start. +I heard it spoken of constantly in my childhood. If the work did not +appear on the bills of the Opera, it furnished the amateurs with choice +bits. + +In my opinion, if Rossini committed suicide as far as his art was +concerned, he did so because he had nothing more to say. Rossini was a +spoiled child of success and he could not live without it. Such +unexpected hostility put an end to a stream which had flowed so +abundantly for so long. + +The success of his _Soirees Musicales_ and his _Stabat_ encouraged him. +But he wrote nothing more except those slight compositions for the piano +and for singing which may be compared to the last vibrations of a sound, +as it dies away. + +Later--much later--came _La Messe_ to which undue importance has been +attributed. "_Le Passus_," one critic wrote, "is the cry of a stricken +spirit." La Messe is written with elegance by an assured and expert +hand, but that is all. There are no traces of the pen which wrote the +second act of _Guillaume Tell_. + +Apropos of this second act, it is not, perhaps, generally known that the +author had no idea of ending it with a prayer. Insurrections are not +usually begun with so serious a song. But at the rehearsals the effect +of the unison, _Si parmi nous il est des Traitres_, was so great that +they did not dare to go on beyond it. So they suppressed the real +ending, which is now the brilliant entrancing end of the overture. This +finale is extant in the library at the Opera. It would be an interesting +experiment to restore it and give this beautiful act its natural +conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JULES MASSENET + + +Massenet has been praised indiscriminately--sometimes for his numerous +and brilliant powers and sometimes for merits he did not have at all. + +I have waited to speak of him until the time when the Academie was ready +to replace him,--that is to say, put some one in his place, for great +artists are never replaced. Others succeed them with their own +individual and different powers, but they do not take their places +nevertheless. Malibran has never been replaced, nor Madame Viardot, +Madame Carvalho, Talma and Rachel. No one can ever replace Patti, Bartet +or Sarah Bernhardt. They could not replace Ingres, Delacroix, Berlioz, +or Gounod, and they can never replace Massenet. + +It is a question whether he has been accorded his real place. Perhaps +his pupils have estimated him at his true worth, but they were grateful +for his excellent teaching, and may be rightly suspected of partiality. +Others have spoken slightingly of his works and they have applied to him +by transposing the words of the celebrated dictum: _Saltavit et +placuit_. He sang and wept, so they sought to deprecate him as if there +were something reprehensible in an artist's pleasing the public. This +notion might seem to have some basis in view of the taste that is +affected to-day--a predilection for all that is shocking and displeasing +in all the arts, including poetry. Sorcieres's epigram--the ugly is +beautiful and the beautiful ugly--has become a programme. People are no +longer content with merely admiring atrocities, they even speak with +contempt of beauties hallowed by time and the admiration of centuries. + +The fact remains that Massenet is one of the most brilliant diamonds in +our musical crown. No musician has enjoyed so much favor with the public +save Auber, whom Massenet did not care for any more than he did for his +school, but whom he resembled closely. They were alike in their +facility, their amazing fertility, genius, gracefulness, and success. +Both composed music which was agreeable to their contemporaries. Both +were accused of pandering to their audiences. The answer to this is that +both their audiences and the artists had the same tastes and so were in +perfect accord. + +To-day the revolutionists are the only ones held in esteem by the +critics. Well, it may be a fine thing to despise the mob, to struggle +against the current, and to compel the mob by force of genius and energy +to follow one despite their resistance. Yet one may be a great artist +without doing that. + +There was nothing revolutionary about Sebastian Bach with his two +hundred and fifty cantatas, which were performed as fast as they were +written and which were constantly in demand for important occasions. +Handel managed the theater where his operas were produced and his +oratorios were sung, and they would have indubitably failed, if he had +gone against the accustomed taste of his audiences. Haydn wrote to +supply the music for Prince Esterhazy's chapel; Mozart was forced to +write constantly, and Rossini worked for an intolerant public which +would not have allowed one of his operas to be played, if the overture +did not contain the great _crescendo_ for which he has been so +reproached. These were none of them revolutionists, yet they were great +musicians. + +Another criticism is made against Massenet. He was superficial, they +say, and lacked depth. Depth, as we know, is very much the fashion. + +It is true that Massenet was not profound, but that is of little +consequence. Just as there are many mansions in our Father's house, so +there are many in Apollo's. Art is vast. The artist has a perfect right +to descend to the nethermost depths and to enter into the inner secrets +of the soul, but this right is not a duty. + +The artists of Ancient Greece, with all their marvellous works, were not +profound. Their marble goddesses were beautiful, and beauty was +sufficient. + +Our old-time sculptors--Clodion and Coysevox--were not profound; nor +were Fragonard, La Tour, nor Marivaux, yet they brought honor to the +French school. + +All have their value and all are necessary. The rose with its fresh +color and its perfume, is, in its way, as precious as the sturdy oak. +Art has a place for artists of all kinds, and no one should flatter +himself that he is the only one who is capable of covering the entire +field of art. + +Some, even in treating a familiar subject, have as much dignity as a +Roman emperor on his golden throne, but Massenet did not belong to this +type. He had charm, attraction and a passionateness that was feverish +rather than deep. His melody was wavering and uncertain, oftentimes more +a recitative than melody properly so called, and it was entirely his +own. It lacks structure and style. Yet how can one resist when he hears +Manon at the feet of Des Grieux in the sacristy of Saint-Sulpice, or +help being stirred to the depths by such outpourings of love? One cannot +reflect or analyze when moved in this way. + +After emotional art comes decadent art. But that is of little +consequence. Decadence in art is often far from being artistic +deterioration. + +Massenet's music has one great attraction for me and one that is rare +in these days--it is gay. And gaiety is frowned upon in modern music. +They criticise Haydn and Mozart for their gaiety, and turn away their +faces in shame before the exuberant joyousness with which the _Ninth +Symphony_ comes to its triumphal close. Long live gloom. Hurrah for +boredom! So say our young people. They may live to regret, too late, the +lost hours which they might have spent in gaiety. + +Massenet's facility was something prodigious. I have seen him sick in +bed, in a most uncomfortable position, and still turning off pages of +orchestration, which followed one another with disconcerting speed. Too +often such facility engenders laziness, but in his case we know what an +enormous amount of work he accomplished. He has been criticised as being +too prolific. However, that is a quality which belongs only to a master. +The artist who produces little may, if he has ability, be an interesting +artist, but he will never be a great one. + +[Illustration: M. Jules Massenet] + +In this time of anarchy in art, when all he had to do to conciliate +the hostile critics was to array himself with the _fauves_, Massenet set +an example of impeccable writing. He knew how to combine modernism with +respect for tradition, and he did this at a time when all he had to do +was to trample tradition under foot and be proclaimed a genius. Master +of his trade as few have ever been, alive to all its difficulties, +possessing the most subtle secrets of its technique, he despised the +contortions and exaggerations which simple minds confound with the +science of music. He followed out the course he had set for himself +without any concern for what they might say about him. He was able to +adopt within reason the novelties from abroad and he was clever in +assimilating them perfectly, yet he presented the spectacle of a +thoroughly French artist whom neither the Lorelei of the Rhine nor the +sirens of the Mediterranean could lead astray. He was a _virtuoso_ of +the orchestra, yet he never sacrificed the voices for the instruments, +nor did he sacrifice orchestral color for the voices. Finally, he had +the greatest gift of all, that of life, a gift which cannot be defined, +but which the public always recognizes and which assures the success of +works far inferior to his. + +Much has been said about the friendship between us--a notion based +solely on the demonstrations he showered on me in public--and in public +alone. He might have had my friendship, if he had wanted it, and it +would have been a devoted friendship, but he did not want it. He +told--what I never told--how I got one of his works presented at Weimar, +where _Samson_ had just been given. What he did not tell was the icy +reception he gave me when I brought the news and when I expected an +entirely different sort of a reception. From that day on I never +intervened again, and I was content to rejoice in his success without +expecting any reciprocity on his part, which I knew to be impossible +after a confession he made to me one day. My friends and companions in +arms were Bizet, Guiraud and Delibes; Massenet was a rival. His high +opinion of me, therefore, was the more valuable when he did me the honor +of recommending his pupils to study my works. I have brought up this +question only to make clear that when I proclaim his great musical +importance, I am guided solely by my artistic conscience and that my +sincerity cannot be suspected. One word more. Massenet had many +imitators; he never imitated anyone. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MEYERBEER + + +I + +Who would have predicted that the day would come when it would be +necessary to come to the defense of the author of _Les Huguenots_ and +_Le Prophete,_ of the man who at one time dominated every stage in +Europe by a leadership which was so extraordinary that it looked as +though it would never end? I could cite many works in which all the +composers of the past are praised without qualification, and Meyerbeer, +alone, is accused of numerous faults. However, others have faults, too, +and, as I have said elsewhere, but it will stand repeating, it is not +the absence of defects but the presence of merits which makes works and +men great. It is not always well to be without blemish. A too regular +face or too pure a voice lacks expression. If there is no such thing as +perfection in this world, it is doubtless because it is not needed. + +As I do not belong to that biased school which pretends to see Peter +entirely white and Paul utterly black, I do not try to make myself think +that the author of _Les Huguenots_ had no faults. + +The most serious, but the most excusable, is his contempt for prosody +and his indifference to the verse entrusted to him. This fault is +excusable for the French school of the time, heedless of tradition, set +him a bad example. Rossini was, like Meyerbeer, a foreigner, but he was +not affected in the same way. He even got fine effects through the +combination of musical and textual rhythm. An instance of this is seen +in the famous phrase in _Guillaume Tell_: + + Ces jours qu'ils ont ose proscrire, + Je ne les ai pas defendus. + Mon pere, tu m'as du maudire! + +If Rossini had not retired at an age when others are just beginning +their careers and had given us two or three more works, his illustrious +example would have restored the old principles on which French opera +had been constructed from the time of Lulli. On the contrary, Auber +carried with him an entire generation captivated by Italian music. He +even went so far as to put French words into Italian rhythm. The famous +duet _Amour sacre de la Patrie_ is versified as if the text were _Amore +sacro della patria._ This is seen only in reading it, for it is never +sung as it is written. + +Meyerbeer was, then, excusable to a certain extent, but he abused all +indulgence in such matters. In order to preserve intact his musical +forms--even in recitatives, which are, as a matter of fact, only +declamation set to music--he accented the weak syllables and vice versa; +he added words and made unnecessarily false verse, and transformed bad +verse into worse prose. He might have avoided all these literary +abominations without any harm to the effect by a slight modification of +the music. The verses given to musicians were often very bad, for that +was the fashion. The versifier thought he had done his duty by his +collaborator by giving him verses like this: + + Triomphe que j'aime! + Ta frayeur extreme + Va malgre toi-meme + Te livrer a moi! + +But when Scribe abandoned his reed-pipes and essayed the lyre, he gave +Meyerbeer this, + + J'ai voulu les punir ...Tu les as surpasses! + +And Meyerbeer made it, + + J'ai voulu les punir ... Et tu les as surpasses! + +which was hardly encouraging. + +Meyerbeer had other manias as well. Perhaps the most notable was to give +to the voice musical schemes which belong by rights to the instruments. +So in the first act of _Le Prophete,_ after the chorus sings, _Veille +sur nous,_ instead of stopping to breathe and prepare for the following +phrase, he makes it repeat abruptly, _Sur nous! Sur nous!_ in unison +with the orchestral notes which are, to say the least, _a ritornello._ + +Again, in the great cathedral scene, instead of letting the orchestra +bring out through the voices the musical expression of Fides sobs: _Et +toi, tu ne me connais pas,_ he puts both the instruments and the voices +in the same time and on words which do not harmonize with the music at +all. + +I need not speak of his immoderate love for the bassoon, an admirable +instrument, but one which it is hardly prudent to abuse. + +But so far we have spoken only of trifles. Meyerbeer's music, as a witty +woman once remarked to me, is like stage scenery--it should not be +scrutinized too closely. It would be hard to find a better +characterization. Meyerbeer belonged to the theater and sought above +everything else theatrical effects. But that does not mean that he was +indifferent to details. He was a wealthy man and he used to indemnify +the theaters for the extra expense he occasioned them. He multiplied +rehearsals by trying different versions with the orchestra so as to +choose between them. He did not cast his work in bronze, as so many do, +and present it to the public _ne varietur._ He was continually feeling +his way, recasting, and seeking the better which very often was the +enemy of good. As the result of his continual researches he too +frequently turned good ideas into inferior ones. Note for example, in +_L'Etoile du Nord_, the passage, _Enfants de l'Ukraine fils du desert_. +The opening passage is lofty, determined and picturesque, but it ends +most disagreeably. + +He always lived alone with no fixed place of abode. He was at Spa in the +summer and on the Mediterranean in the winter; in large cities only as +business drew him. He had no financial worries and he lived only to +continue his Penelope-like work, which showed a great love of +perfection, although he did not find the best way of attaining it. They +have tried to place this conscientious artist in the list of seekers of +success, but such men are not ordinarily accustomed to work like this. + +Since I have used the word artist, it is proper to stop for a moment. +Unlike Gluck and Berlioz, who were greater artists than musicians, +Meyerbeer was more a musician than an artist. As a result, he often used +the most refined and learned means to achieve a very ordinary artistic +result. But there is no reason why he should be brought to task for +results which they do not even remark in the works of so many others. + +Meyerbeer was the undisputed leader in the operatic world when Robert +Schumann struck the first blow at his supremacy. Schumann was ignorant +of the stage, although he had made one unfortunate venture there. He did +not appreciate that there is more than one way to practise the art of +music. But he attacked Meyerbeer, violently, for his bad taste and +Italian tendencies, entirely forgetting that when Mozart, Beethoven, and +Weber did work for the stage they were strongly drawn towards Italian +art. Later, the Wagnerians wanted to oust Meyerbeer from the stage and +make a place for themselves, and they got credit for some of Schumann's +harsh criticisms,--this, too, despite the fact that at the beginning of +the skirmish Schumann and the Wagnerians got along about as well as +Ingres and Delacroix and their schools. But they united against the +common enemy and the French critics followed. The critics entirely +neglected Berlioz's opinion, for, after opposing Meyerbeer for a long +time, he admitted him among the gods and in his _Traite +d'Instrumentation_ awarded him the crown of immortality. + +Parenthetically, if there is a surprising page in the history of music +it is the persistent affectation of classing Berlioz and Wagner +together. They had nothing in common save their great love of art and +their distrust of established forms. Berlioz abhorred enharmonic +modulations, dissonances resolved indefinitely one after another, +continuous melody and all current practices of futuristic music. He +carried this so far that he claimed that he understood nothing in the +prelude to _Tristan_, which was certainly a sincere claim since, almost +simultaneously, he hailed the overture of _Lohengrin_, which is +conceived in an entirely different manner, as a masterpiece. He did not +admit that the voice should be sacrificed and relegated to the rank of a +simple unit of the orchestra. Wagner, for his part, showed at his best +an elegance and artistry of pen which may be searched for in vain in +Berlioz's work. Berlioz opened to the orchestra the doors of a new +world. Wagner hurled himself into this unknown country and found +numerous lands to till there. But what dissimilarities there are in the +styles of the two men! In their methods of treating the orchestra and +the voices, in their musical architectonics, and in their conception of +opera! + +In spite of the great worth of _Les Troyens_ and _Benvenuto Cellini_, +Berlioz shone brightest in the concert hall; Wagner is primarily a man +of the theater. Berlioz showed clearly in _Les Troyens_ his intention of +approaching Gluck, while Wagner freely avowed his indebtedness to Weber, +and particularly to the score of _Euryanthe_. He might have added that +he owed something to Marschner, but he never spoke of that. + +The more we study the works of these two men of genius, the more we are +impressed by the tremendous difference between them. Their resemblance +is simply one of those imaginary things which the critics too often +mistake for a reality. The critics once found local color in Rossini's +_Semiramide_! + +Hans de Buelow once said to me in the course of a conversation, + +"After all Meyerbeer was a man of genius." + +If we fail to recognize Meyerbeer's genius, we are not only unjust but +also ungrateful. In every sense, in his conception of opera, in his +treatment of orchestration, in his handling of choruses, even in stage +setting, he gave us new principles by which our modern works have +profited to a large extent. + +Theophile Gautier was no musician, but he had a fine taste in music and +he judged Meyerbeer as follows: + +"In addition to eminent musical talents, Meyerbeer had a highly +developed instinct for the stage. He goes to the heart of a situation, +follows closely the meanings of the words, and observes both the +historical and local color of his subject.... Few composers have +understood opera so well." + + * * * * * + +The success of the Italian school appeared to have utterly ruined this +understanding and care for local and historical color. Rossini in the +last act of _Otello_ and in _Guillaume Tell_ began its renaissance with +a boldness for which he deserves credit, but it was left to Meyerbeer +to restore it to its former glory. + +It is impossible to deny his individuality. The amalgamation of his +Germanic tendencies with his Italian education and his French +preferences formed an ore of new brilliancy and new depth of tone. His +style resembled none other. Fetis, his great admirer and friend and the +famous director of the Conservatoire at Brussels, insisted, and with +reason, on this distinction. His style was characterized by the +importance of the rhythmic element. His ballet music owes much of its +excellence to the picturesque variety of the rhythms. + +Instead of the long involved overture he gave us the short distinctive +prelude which has been so successful. The preludes of _Robert_ and _Les +Huguenots_ were followed by the preludes of _Lohengrin_, _Faust_, +_Tristan_, _Romeo_, _La Traviata_, _Aida_, and many others which are +less famous. Verdi in his last two works and Richard Strauss in _Salome_ +went even farther and suppressed the prelude--a none too agreeable +surprise. It is like a dinner without soup. + +Meyerbeer gave us a foretaste of the famous _leit-motif_. We find it in +_Robert_ in the theme of the ballad, which the orchestra plays again +while Bertram goes towards the back of the stage. This should indicate +to the listener his satanic character. We find it in the Luther chant in +_Les Huguenots_ and also in the dream of _Le Prophete_ during Jean's +recitative. Here the orchestra with its modulated tone predicts the +future splendor of the cathedral scene, while a lute plays low notes, +embellished by a delicate weaving in of the violins, and produces a +remarkable and unprecedented effect. He introduced on the stage the +ensembles of wind instruments (I do not mean the brass) which are so +frequent in Mozart's great concertos. An illustration of this is the +entrance of Alice in the second act of _Robert_. An echo of this is +found in Elsa's entrance in the second act of _Lohengrin_. Another +illustration is the entrance of Berthe and Fides in the beginning of the +_Le Prophete_. In this case the author indicated a pantomime. This is +never played and so this pretty bit loses all its significance. + +Meyerbeer ventured to use combinations in harmony which were considered +rash at that time. They pretend that the sensitiveness of the ear has +been developed since then, but in reality it has been dulled by having +to undergo the most violent discords. + +The beautiful "progression" of the exorcism in the fourth act of _Le +Prophete_ was not accepted without some difficulty. I can still see +Gounod seated at a piano singing the debated passage and trying to +convince a group of recalcitrant listeners of its beauty. + +Meyerbeer developed the role of the English horn, which up to that time +had been used only rarely and timidly, and he also introduced the bass +clarinet into the orchestra. But the two instruments, as he used them, +still appeared somewhat unusual. They were objects of luxury, strangers +of distinction which one saluted respectfully and which played no great +part. Under Wagner's management they became a definite part of the +household and, as we know, brought in a wealth of coloring. + +It is an open question whether it was Meyerbeer or Scribe who planned +the amazing stage setting in the cathedral scene in _Le Prophete_. It +must have been Meyerbeer, for Scribe was not temperamentally a +revolutionist, and this scene was really revolutionary. The brilliant +procession with its crowd of performers which goes across the stage +through the nave into the choir, constantly keeping its distance from +the audience, is an impressive, realistic and beautiful scene. But +directors who go to great expense for the costumes cannot understand why +the procession should file anywhere except before the footlights as near +the audience as possible, and it is extremely difficult to get any other +method of procedure. + +Furthermore, the amusing idea of the skating ballet was due to +Meyerbeer. At the time there was an amusing fellow in Paris who had +invented roller skates and who used to practise his favorite sport on +fine evenings on the large concrete surfaces of the Place de la +Concorde. Meyerbeer saw him and got the idea of the famous ballet. In +the early days of the opera it certainly was charming to see the skaters +come on accompanied by a pretty chorus and a rhythm from the violins +regulated by that of the dancers. But the performance began at seven and +ended at midnight. Now they begin at eight and to gain the hour they had +to accelerate the pace. So the chorus in question was sacrificed. That +was bad for _Les Huguenots_. The author tried to make a good deal out of +the last act with its beautiful choruses in the church--a development of +the Luther chant--and the terror of the approaching massacre. But this +act has been cut, mutilated and made generally unrecognizable. They even +go so far in some of the foreign houses as to suppress it entirely. + +I once saw the last act in all its integrity and with six harps +accompanying the famous trio. We shall never see the six harps again, +for Garnier, instead of reproducing exactly the placing of the orchestra +in the old Opera, managed so well in the new one that they are unable to +put in the six harps of old or the four drums with which Meyerbeer got +such surprising effects in _Robert_ and _Le Prophete_. I believe, +however, that recent improvements have averted this disaster in a +certain measure, and that there is now a place for the drums. But we +shall never hear the six harps again. + +We must say something of the genesis of Meyerbeer's works, for in many +instances this was curious and few people know about it. + + +II + +We might like to see works spring from the author's brain as complete as +Minerva was when she sprang from Jove's, but that is infrequently the +case. When we study the long series of operas which Gluck wrote, we are +surprised to meet some things which we recognize as having seen before +in the masterpieces which immortalize his name. And often the music is +adapted to entirely different situations in the changed form. The words +of a follower become the awesome prophecy of a high priest. The trio in +_Orphee_ with its tender love and expressions of perfect happiness +fairly trembles with accents of sorrow. The music had been written for +an entirely different situation which justified them. Massenet has told +us that he borrowed right and left from his unpublished score, _La Coupe +du Roi de Thule_. That is what Gluck did with his _Elena e Paride_ which +had little success. I may as well confess that one of the ballets in +_Henry VIII_ came from the finale of an opera-comique in one act. This +work was finished and ready to go to rehearsal when the whole thing was +stopped because I had the audacity to assert to Nestor Roqueplan, the +director of Favart Hall, that Mozart's _Le Nozze di Figaro_ was a +masterpiece. + +Meyerbeer, even more than anyone, tried not to lose his ideas and the +study of their transformation is extremely interesting. One day Nuitter, +the archivist at the Opera, learned of an important sale of manuscripts +in Berlin. He attended the sale and brought back a lot of Meyerbeer's +rough drafts which included studies for a _Faust_ that the author never +finished. These fragments give no idea what the piece would have been. +We see Faust and Mephistopheles walking in Hell. They come to the Tree +of Human Knowledge on the banks of the Styx and Faust picks the fruit. +From this detail it is easy to imagine that the libretto is bizarre. +The authorship of this amazing libretto is unknown, but it is not +strange that Meyerbeer soon abandoned it. From this still-born _Faust_, +Scribe, at the request of the author, constructed _Robert le Diable_. An +aria sung by Faust on the banks of the Styx becomes the _Valse +Infernale_. + +The necessity of utilizing pre-existing fragments explains some of the +incoherence of this incomprehensible piece. It also explains the +creation of Bertram, half man, half devil, who was invented as a +substitute for Mephistopheles. The fruit of the Tree of Human Knowledge +became the _Rameau Veneree_ in the third act, and the beautiful +religious scene in the fifth act, which has no relation to the action, +is a transposition of the Easter scene. + +So Scribe should not be blamed for making a poor piece when he had so +many difficulties to contend with. He must have lost his head a little +for Robert's mother was called Berthe in the first act and Rosalie in +the third. However, the answer might be that she changed her name when +she became religious. + +Later, Scribe was put to another no less difficult test with _L'Etoile +du Nord_. When Meyerbeer was the conductor at the Berlin Opera, he wrote +on command _Le Camp de Silesie_ with Frederick the Great as the hero and +Jenny Lind as the musical star. As we know, Frederick was a musician, +for he both composed music and played the flute, while Jenny Lind, the +Swedish nightingale, was a great singer. A contest between the +nightingale and the flute was sure to follow or theatrical instinct is a +vain phrase. But in the piece Scribe created, Peter the Great took +Frederick the Great's place and to give a motive for the grace notes in +the last act it was necessary for the terrible Tsar, a half savage +barbarian, to learn to play the flute. + +It is not worth while telling how the Tsar took lessons on the flute +from a young pastry cook who came on the stage with a basket of cakes on +his head; how the cook later became a lord, and many other details of +this absurd play. It is permitted to be absurd on the stage, if it is +done so that the absurdity is forgotten. But in this instance it was +impossible to forget the absurdities. The extravagance of the libretto +led the musician into many unfortunate things. This extremely +interesting score is very uneven, but there are a thousand details worth +the attention of the professional musician. Beauty even appears in the +score at moments, and there are charming and picturesque bits, as well +as puerilities and shocking vulgarities. + +Public curiosity was aroused for a long time by clever advance notices +and had reached a high pitch when _L'Etoile du Nord_ appeared. The work +was carried by the exceptional talents of Bataille and Caroline Duprez +and was enormously successful at the start, but this success has grown +steadily less. Faure and Madame Patti gave some fine performances in +London. We shall probably never see their equal again, and it is not +desirable that we should either from the standpoint of art or of the +author. + +_Les Huguenots_ was not an opera pieced together out of others, but it +did not reach the public as the author wrote it. At the beginning of the +first act there was a game of cup and ball on which the author had set +his heart. But the balls had to strike at the exact moment indicated in +the score and the players never succeeded in accomplishing that. The +passage had to be suppressed but it is preserved in the library at the +Opera. They also had to suppress the part of Catherine de Medici who +should preside at the conference where the massacre of St. Bartholomew +was planned. Her part was merged with that of St. Pris. They also +suppressed the first scene in the last act, where Raoul, disheveled and +covered with blood, interrupted the ball and upset the merriment by +announcing the massacre to the astonished dancers. + +But it is a question whether we should believe the legend that the great +duet, the climax of the whole work, was improvised during the rehearsals +at the request of Norritt and Madame Falcon. It is hard to believe that. +The work, as is well known, was taken from Merimee's _Chronique du regne +de Charles IX_. This scene is in the romance and it is almost impossible +that Meyerbeer had no idea of putting it into his opera. More probably +the people at the theatre wanted the act to end with the blessing of the +daggers, and the author with his duet in his portfolio only had to take +it out to satisfy his interpreters. A beautiful scene like this with its +sweep and pleasing innovation is not written hastily. This duet should +be heard when the author's intentions and the nuances which make a part +of the idea are respected and not replaced by inventions in bad taste +which they dare to call traditions. The real traditions have been lost +and this admirable scene has lost its beauty. + +The manner in which the duet ends has not been noted sufficiently. +Raoul's phrase, _God guard our days. God of our refuge!_ remains in +suspense and the orchestra brings it to an end, the first example of a +practice used frequently in modern works. + +We do not know how Meyerbeer got his idea of putting the schismatic John +Huss on the stage under the name of John of Leyden. Whether this idea +was original with him or was suggested by Scribe, who made a fantastic +person out of John, we do not know. We only know that the role of the +prophet's mother was originally intended for Madame Stoltz, but she had +left the Opera. Meyerbeer heard Madame Pauline Viardot at Vienna and +found in her his ideal, so he created the redoubtable role of Fides for +her. The part of Jean was given to the tenor Roger, the star of the +Opera-Comique, and he played and sang it well. Levasseur, the Marcel of +_Les Huguenots_ and the Bertram of _Robert_, played the part of +Zacharie. + +_Le Prophete_ was enormously successful in spite of the then powerful +censer-bearers of the Italian school. We now see its defects rather than +its merits. Meyerbeer is criticised for not putting into practice +theories he did not know and no account is taken of his fearlessness, +which was great for that period. No one else could have drawn the +cathedral scene with such breadth of stroke and extraordinary +brilliancy. The paraphrase of _Domine salvum fac regem_ reveals great +ingenuity. His method of treating the organ is wonderful, and his idea +of the ritournello _Sur le Jeu de hautbois_ is charming. This precedes +and introduces the children's chorus, and is constructed on a novel +theme which is developed brilliantly by the choruses, the orchestra and +the organ combined. The repetition of the _Domine Salvum_ at the end +of the scene, which bursts forth abruptly in a different key, is full of +color and character. + +[Illustration: Meyerbeer, Composer of _Les Huguenots_] + + +III + +The story of _Le Pardon de Ploermel_ is interesting. It was first called +_Dinorah_, a name which Meyerbeer picked up abroad. But Meyerbeer liked +to change the titles of his operas several times in the course of the +rehearsals in order to keep public curiosity at fever heat. He had the +notion of writing an opera-comique in one act, and he asked his favorite +collaborators, Jules Barbier and Michael Carre, for a libretto. They +produced _Dinorah_ in three scenes and with but three characters. The +music was written promptly and was given to Perrin, the famous director, +whose unfortunate influence soon made itself felt. A director's first +idea at that time was to demand changes in the piece given him. "A +single act by you, Master? Is that permissible? What can we put on after +that? A new work by Meyerbeer should take up the entire evening." That +was the way the insidious director talked, and there was all the more +chance of his being listened to as the author was possessed by a mania +for retouching and making changes. So Meyerbeer took the score to the +Mediterranean where he spent the winter. The next spring he brought back +the work developed into three acts with choruses and minor characters. +Besides these additions he had written the words which Barbier and Carre +should have done. + +The rehearsals were tedious. Meyerbeer wanted Faure and Madame Carvalho +in the leading roles but one was at the Opera-Comique and the other at +her own house, the Theatre-Lyrique. The work went back and forth from +the Place Favart to the Place du Chatelet. But the author's hesitancy +was at bottom only a pretext. What he wanted was to secure a +postponement of Limnander's opera _Les Blancs et les Bleus_. The action +of this work and of _Dinorah_, as well, took place in Brittany. In the +hope of being Meyerbeer's choice, both theatres turned poor Limnander +away. Finally, _Dinorah_ fell to the Opera-Comique. After long hard +work, which the author demanded, Madame Cabel and MM. Faure and +Sainte-Foix gave a perfect performance. + +There was a good deal of criticism of having the hunter, the reaper, and +the shepherd sing a prayer together at the beginning of the third act. +This was not considered theatrical; to-day that is a virtue. + +There was a good deal of talk about _L'Africanne_, which had been looked +for for a long time and which seemed to be almost legendary and +mysterious; it still is for that matter. The subject of the opera was +unknown. All that was known was that the author was trying to find an +interpreter and could get none to his liking. + +Then Marie Cruvelli, a German singer with an Italian training, appeared. +With her beauty and prodigious voice she shone like a meteor in the +theatrical firmament. Meyerbeer found his Africanne realized in her and +at his request she was engaged at the Opera. Her engagement was made the +occasion for a brilliant revival of _Les Huguenots_ and Meyerbeer wrote +new ballet music for it. To-day we have no idea of what _Les Huguenots_ +was then. Then the author went back to his Africanne and went to work +again. He used to go to see the brilliant singer about it nearly every +day, when she suddenly announced that she was going to leave the stage +to become the Comtesse Vigier! Meyerbeer was discouraged and he threw +his unfinished manuscript into a drawer where it stayed until Marie Sass +had so developed her voice and talent that he made up his mind to +entrust the role of Selika to her. He wanted Faure for the role of +Nelusko and he was already at the Opera, so he had the management engage +Naudin, the Italian tenor, as well. + +But Scribe had died during the long period which had elapsed since the +marriage of the Comtesse Vigier. Meyerbeer was now left to himself, and +too much inclined to revisions of every kind as he was, re-made the +piece to his fancy. When it was completed--it didn't resemble anything +and the author planned to finish it at the rehearsals. + +As we know, Meyerbeer died suddenly. He realized that he was dying and +as he knew how necessary his presence was for a performance of +_L'Africanne_ he forbade its appearance. But his prohibition was only +verbal as he could no longer write. The public was impatiently awaiting +_L'Africanne_, so they went ahead with it. + +When Perrin and his nephew du Locle opened the package of manuscripts +Meyerbeer had left, they were stupefied at finding no _L'Africanne_. + +"Never mind," said Perrin, "the public wants an _Africanne_ and it shall +have one." + +He summoned Fetis, Meyerbeer's enthusiastic admirer, and the three, +Fetis, Perrin and du Locle, managed to evolve the opera we know from the +scraps the author had left in disorder. They did not accomplish this, +however, without considerable difficulty, without some incoherences, +numerous suppressions and even additions. Perrin was the inventor of the +wonderful map on which Selika recognized Madagascar. They took the +characters there in order to justify the term Africanne applied to the +heroine. They also introduced the Brahmin religion to Madagascar in +order to avoid moving the characters to India where the fourth act +should take place. The first performance was imminent when they found +that the work was too long. So they cut out an original ballet where a +savage beat a tom-tom, and they cut and fitted together mercilessly. In +the last act Selika, alone and dying, should see the paradise of the +Brahmins appear as in a vision. But Faure wanted to appear again at the +finale, so they had to adapt a bit taken from the third act and suppress +the vision. This is the reason why Nelusko succumbs so quickly to the +deadly perfume of the poisonous flowers, while Selika resists so long. +The riturnello of Selika's aria, which should be performed with lowered +curtain as the queen gazes over the sea and at the departing vessel far +away on the horizon, became a vehicle for encores--the last thing that +was ever in Meyerbeer's mind. But the worst was the liberty Fetis took +in retouching the orchestration. As a compliment to Adolph Sax he +substituted a saxaphone for the bass clarinet which the author +indicated. This resulted in the suppression of that part of the aria +beginning _O Paradis sorti de l'onde_ as the saxophone did not produce a +good effect. Fetis also allowed Perrin to make over a bass solo into a +chorus, the Bishop's Chorus. The great vocal range in this is poorly +adapted for a chorus. Some barbarous modulations are certainly +apocryphal.... + +We are unable to imagine what _L'Africanne_ would have been if Scribe +had lived and the authors had put it into shape. The work we have is +illogical and incomplete. The words are simply monstrous and Scribe +certainly would not have kept them. This is the case in the passage in +the great duet: + + O ma Selika, vous regnez sur mon ame! + --Ah! ne dis pas ces mots brulante! + Ils m'egarent moi-meme.... + +The music stitched to this impossible piece, however, had its +admirers--even fanatical admirers--so great was the prestige of the +author's name at the time of its appearance. We must not forget that +there are, indeed, some beautiful pages in this chaos. The religious +ceremony in the fourth act and the Brahmin recitative accompanied by the +_pizzicati_ of the bass may be mentioned as an indication of this. The +latter passage is not in favor, however; they play it down without +conviction and so deprive it of all its strength and majesty. + + * * * * * + +I said, at the beginning of this study, that we were ungrateful to +Meyerbeer, and this ingratitude is double on the part of France, for he +loved her. He only had to say the word to have any theatre in Europe +opened to him, yet he preferred to them all the Opera at Paris and even +the Opera-Comique where the choruses and orchestra left much to be +desired. When he did work for Paris after he had given _Margherita +d'Anjou_ and _Le Crociato_ in Italy, he was forced to accommodate +himself to French taste just as Rossini and Donizetti were. The latter +wrote for the Opera-Comique _La Fille du Regiment_, a military and +patriotic work, and its dashing and glorious _Salut a la France_ has +resounded through the whole world. Foreigners do not take so much pains +in our day, and France applauds _Die Meistersinger_ which ends with a +hymn to German art. Such is progress! + +Something must be said of a little known score, _Struensee_, which was +written for a drama which was so weak that it prevented the music +gaining the success it deserved. The composer showed himself in this +more artistic than in anything else he did. It should have been heard at +the Odeon with another piece written by Jules Barbier on the same +subject. The overture used to appear in the concerts as did the +polonnaise, but like the overture to _Guillaume Tell_, they have +disappeared. These overtures are not negligible. The overture to +_Guillaume Tell_ is notable for the unusual invention of the five +violoncellos and its storm with its original beginning, to say nothing +of its pretty pastoral. The fine depth of tone in the exordium of +_Struensee_ and the fugue development in the main theme are also not to +be despised. But all that, we are told, is lacking in elevation and +depth. Possibly; but it is not always necessary to descend to Hell and +go up to Heaven. There is certainly more music in these overtures than +in Grieg's _Peer Gynt_ which has been dinned into our ears so much. + +But enough of this. I must stop with the operas, for to consider the +rest of his music would necessitate a study of its own and that would +take us too far afield. My hope is that these lines may repair an +unnecessary injustice and redirect the fastidious who may read them to a +great musician whom the general public has never ceased to listen to and +applaud. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JACQUES OFFENBACH + + +It is dangerous to prophesy. Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach, +trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his +squandering them. And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would +never know him. Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach +is coming back into fashion. Our contemporaneous composers forget that +Mozart, Beethoven and Sebastian Bach knew how to laugh at times. They +distrust all gaiety and declare it unesthetic. As the good public cannot +resign itself to getting along without gaiety, it goes to operetta and +turns naturally to Offenbach who created it and furnished an +inexhaustible supply. My phrase is not exaggerated, for Offenbach hardly +dreamed of creating an art. He was endowed with a genius for the comic +and an abundance of melody, but he had no thought of doing anything +beyond providing material for the theatre he managed at the time. As a +matter of fact he was almost its only author. + +He was unable to rid himself of his Germanic influences and so corrupted +the taste of an entire generation by his false prosody, which has been +incorrectly considered originality. In addition he was lacking in taste. +At the time they affected a dreadful mannerism of always stopping on the +next to the last note of a passage, whether or not it was associated +with a mute syllable. This mannerism had no purpose beyond indicating to +the audience the end of a passage and giving the claque the signal to +applaud. Offenbach did not belong to that heroic strain to which success +is the least of its cares. So he adopted this mannerism, and often his +ingeniously turned and charming couplets are ruined by this silly +absurdity now gone out of fashion. + +Furthermore, he wrote badly, for his early education was neglected. If +the _Tales of Hoffman_ shows traces of a practised pen, it is because +Guiraud finished the score and went out of his way to remedy some of +the author's mistakes. Leaving aside the bad prosody and the minor +defects in taste, we have left a work which shows a wealth of invention, +melody, and sparkling fancy comparable to Gretry's. + +Gretry was no more a great musician than Offenbach, for he also wrote +badly. The essential difference between the two was the care, not only +in his prosody but also in his declamation, which Gretry tried to +reproduce musically with all possible exactness. He overshot the mark in +this for he did not see that in singing the expression of a note is +modified by the harmonic scheme which accompanies it. It must be +recognized, in addition, that many times Gretry was carried away by his +melodic inventiveness and forgot his own principles so that he relegated +his care for declamation to second place. + +What hurt Gretry was his unbounded conceit, with which Offenbach, to his +credit, was never afflicted. As an indication of this, he dared to write +in his advice to young musicians: + +"Those who have genius will make opera-comique like mine; those who have +talent will write opera like Gluck's; while those who have neither +genius nor talent, will write symphonies like Haydn's." + +However, he tried to make an opera like Gluck's and in spite of his +great efforts and his interesting inventions, he could not equal the +work of his formidable rival. + + * * * * * + +Although he was not a great musician, Offenbach had a surprising natural +instinct and made here and there curious discoveries in harmony. In +speaking of these discoveries I must go slightly into the theory of +harmony and resign myself to being understood only by those of my +readers who are more or less musicians. In a slight work, _Daphnis et +Chloe_, Offenbach risked a dominant eleventh without either introduction +or conclusion--an extraordinary audacity at the time. A short course in +harmony is necessary for the understanding of this. We must start with +the fact that, theoretically, all dissonances must be introduced and +concluded, which we cannot explain here, but this leading up to and away +from have for their purpose softening the harshness of the dissonance +which was greatly feared in bygone times. Take if you please, the simple +key of C natural. _Do_ is the keynote, _sol_ is the dominant. Place on +this dominant two-thirds--_si-re_--and you have the perfect dominant +chord. Add a third _fa_ and you have the famous dominant seventh, a +dissonance which to-day seems actually agreeable. Not so long ago they +thought that they ought to prepare for the dissonance. In the Sixteenth +Century it was not regarded as admissible at all, for one hears the two +notes _si_ and _fa_ simultaneously and this seems intolerable to the +ear. They used to call it the _Diabolus in musica_. + +Palestrina was the first to employ it in an anthem. Opinions differ on +this, and certain students of harmony pretend that the chord which +Palestrina used only has the appearance of the dominant seventh. I do +not concur in this view. But however the case may be, the glory of +unchaining the devil in music belongs to Montreverde. That was the +beginning of modern music. + +Later, a new third was superimposed and they dared the chord +_sol-si-re-fa-la_. The inventor is unknown, but Beethoven seems to have +been the first to make any considerable use of it. He used the chord in +such a way that, in spite of its current use to-day, in his works it +appears like something new and strange. This chord imposes its +characteristics on the second _motif_ of the first part of the _Symphony +in C minor_. This is what gives such amazing charm to the long colloquy +between the flute, the oboe and the clarinets, which always surprises +and arouses the listener, in the _andante_ of the same symphony. Fetis +in his _Traite d'Harmonie_ inveighed against this delightful passage. He +admits that people like it, but, according to him, the author had no +right to write it and the listener has no right to admire it. Scholars +often have strange ideas. + +Then Richard Wagner came along and the reign of the ninth dominant took +the place of the seventh. That is what gives _Tannhauser_, and +_Lohengrin_ their exciting character, which is dear to those who demand +in music above everything else the pleasure due to shocks to the nervous +system. Imitators have fallen foul of this easy procedure, and with a +laughable naivete imagine that in this way they can easily equal Wagner. +And they have succeeded in making this valuable chord absolutely banal. + +[Illustration: Jacques Offenbach] + +By adding still another third we have the dominant eleventh. Offenbach +used this, but it has played but a small part since then. Beyond that we +cannot go, for a third more and we are back to the basic note, two +octaves away. + +But innovations in harmony are rare in Offenbach's work. What makes him +interesting is his fertility in invention of melodies and few have +equaled him in this. He improvised constantly and with incredible +rapidity. His manuscripts give the impression of having been done with +the point of a needle. There is nothing useless anywhere in them. He +used abbreviations as much as he could and the simplicity of his harmony +helped him here. As a result he was able to produce his light works in +an exceedingly short time. + +He had the luck to attach Madame Ugalde to his company. Her powers had +already begun to decline but she was still brilliant. While she was +giving a spectacular revival of _Orphee aux Enfers_, he wrote _Les +Bavards_ for her. He was inspired by the hope of an unusual +interpretation and he so surpassed himself that he produced a small +masterpiece. A revival of this work would certainly be successful if +that were possible, but the peculiar merits of the creatrix of the role +would be necessary and I do not see her like anywhere. + +It is strange but true that Offenbach lost all his good qualities as +soon as he took himself seriously. But he was not the only case of this +in the history of music. Cramer and Clementi wrote studies and exercises +which are marvels of style, but their sonatas and concertos are tiresome +in their mediocrity. Offenbach's works which were given at the +Opera-Comique--_Robinson Crusoe_, _Vert-Vert_, and _Fantasio_ are much +inferior to _La Chanson de Fortunio_, _La Belle Helene_ and many other +justly famous operettas. There have been several unprofitable revivals +of _La Belle Helene_. This is due to the fact that the role of Helene +was designed for Mlle. Schneider. She was beautiful and talented and had +an admirable mezzo-soprano voice. The slight voice of the ordinary +singer of operetta is insufficient for the part. Furthermore, traditions +have sprung up. The comic element has been suppressed and the piece has +been denatured by this change. In Germany they conceived the idea of +playing this farce seriously with an archaic stage setting! + +Jacques Offenbach will become a classic. While this may be unexpected, +what doesn't happen? Everything is possible--even the impossible. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THEIR MAJESTIES + + +Queen Victoria did me the honor to receive me twice at Windsor Castle, +and Queen Alexandra paid me the same honor at Buckingham Palace in +London. The first time I saw Queen Victoria I was presented to her by +the Baroness de Caters. She was the daughter of Lablache and had one of +the most beautiful voices and the greatest talent that I have ever +known. This charming woman had been left a widow and so she became an +artist, appearing in concerts and giving singing lessons. At the time of +which I speak she was teaching Princess Beatrice, now the mother-in-law +of the King of Spain. In all the glory of the freshness of youth, the +Princess was endowed with a charming voice which the Baroness guided +perfectly. The Princess received Madame de Caters and myself with a +gracefulness which was increased by her unusual bashfulness. Her +Majesty, in the meantime, was finishing her luncheon. I was somewhat +apprehensive through having heard of the coldness which the Queen +affected at this sort of audience, so I was more than surprised when she +came in with both hands extended to take mine and when she addressed me +with real cordiality. She was very fond of Baroness de Caters and that +was the secret of the reception which put me at my ease at once. + +Her Majesty wanted to hear me play the organ (there is an excellent one +in the chapel at Windsor), and then the piano. Finally, I had the honor +of accompanying the Princess as she sang the aria from _Etienne Marcel_. +Her Royal Highness sang with great clearness and distinctness, but it +was the first time she had sung before her august mother and she was +frightened almost to death. The Queen was so delighted that some days +later, without my being told of it, she summoned to Windsor, Madame Gye, +wife of the manager of Covent Garden,--the famous singer Albani--to ask +to have _Etienne Marcel_ staged at her own theatre. The Queen's wish was +not granted. + +I returned to Windsor seventeen years later, in company with Johann +Wolf, who was for many years Queen Victoria's chosen violinist. We dined +at the palace, and, if we did not enjoy the distinction of sitting at +the royal table, we were nevertheless in good company with the young +princesses, daughters of the Duke of Connaught. We were lodged at a +hotel for the honor of sleeping at the Castle was reserved for very +important personages--an honor which need not be envied, for the +sleeping apartments are really servants' rooms. But etiquette decrees +it. + +Dinner was over, and princes in full uniform and princesses in elaborate +evening dress stood about, waiting for her Majesty's appearance. I was +heartbroken when I saw her enter, for she was almost carried by her +Indian servant and obviously could not walk alone. But once seated at a +small table, she was just as she had been before, with her wonderful +charm, her simple manner and her musical voice. Only her white hair bore +witness to the years that had passed. She asked me about _Henri VIII_, +which was being given for the second time at Covent Garden, and I +explained to her that in my desire to give the piece the local color of +its times I had been ferreting about in the royal library at Buckingham +Palace, to which my friend, the librarian, had given me access. And I +also told how I had found in a great collection of manuscripts of the +Sixteenth Century an exquisitely fine theme arranged for the +harpsichord, which served as the framework for the opera--I used it +later for the march I wrote for the coronation of King Edward. The Queen +was much interested in music in general and she appeared to be +especially pleased in this discussion. His Highness the Duke of +Connaught wrote me that she had spoken of it several times. + +The musical library at Buckingham Palace is most remarkable and it is a +pity that access to it is not easier. Among other things, there are the +manuscripts of Handel's oratorios, written for the most part with +disconcerting rapidity. His _Messiah_ was composed in fifteen days! The +rudimentary instrumentation of the time made such speed possible, yet +who is there to-day who could write all those fugue choruses with such +speed? The fugue manner, which seems laborious to us, was current at +the time and they were practised in it. The library also contains works +of Handel's contemporaries, which are executed with the same mastery. We +cannot say whether they were written with the same rapidity as Handel's, +but it is easy to see that there was a general ability to do so, just as +now it is a matter of common attainment to produce complicated +orchestral effects, the possibility of which the old masters had no +conception. What made Handel superior to his rivals was the romantic and +picturesque side of his works; probably also, his prodigious and +unvarying fertility. + +The last word has been said about Queen Victoria, yet the peculiar charm +which radiated from her personality cannot be too highly praised. She +seemed the personification of England. When she passed on, it seemed as +though a great void were left. All King Edward's splendid qualities were +necessary to take her place, combined with the effect of the world's +surprise at discovering a great king where they had expected to see +only a brilliant prince who had been a constant lover of pomp and +pleasure. + +I was later admitted to Buckingham Palace to play with Josef Hollman, +the violinist, before Queen Alexandra. We both were eager for this +opportunity which we were told was impossible. The Queen was very busy, +and, in addition, she was in mourning for the successive deaths of her +father and mother, the King and Queen of Denmark. Suddenly, however, we +learned that she would receive us. She was pale and appeared to be +feeble, but she received us with the utmost cordiality. She spoke to me +about her mother, whom I had seen at Copenhagen with her sisters the +Empress Dowager of Russia, and the Princess of Hanover whom politics +deprived of a crown which was hers by right. I have a very pleasant +recollection of this visit. I do not know how it happened but I remained +speechless at this lead from the Queen. She brought the subject up a +second time and my timidity still prevented my responding. I ought to +have had many things to say to one so obviously eager to listen. This +Queen of Denmark, with her eighty years, was the most delightful old +lady imaginable. Erect, slight, alert of mind and unfaltering of speech, +she reminded me vividly of my maternal great-aunt, that extraordinary +woman, who gave me my first notions of things and directed my hand on +the keys so well. + +A singer whom I had never seen or heard of, but of whom I had heard poor +reports, had written Queen Louise that I wanted to accompany her to +court. The Queen asked me if I knew her and if what she had written was +true. My surprise was so great that I could not repress a start, which I +followed by an exclamation of denial, which appeared to amuse her +greatly. "I did not doubt it," she said, "but I'm not sorry to be sure." + +Queen Alexandra was accompanied by Lady Gray, her great friend, and the +hereditary princess of Greece. After M. Hollman and I had played a duet, +she expressed a desire to hear me play alone. As I attempted to lift the +lid of the piano, she stepped forward to help me raise it before the +maids of honor could intervene. After this slight concert she delivered +to each of us, in her own name and in that of the absent king, a gold +medal commemorative of artistic merit, and she offered us a cup of tea +which she poured with her royal and imperial hands. + +Other queens have also received me--Queen Christine of Spain and Queen +Amelie of Portugal. After Queen Christine had heard me play on the +piano, she expressed a desire to hear me play the organ, and they chose +for this an excellent instrument made by Cavaille-Coll in a church whose +name I have forgotten. The day was fixed for this ceremony, which would +naturally have been of a private character, when some great ladies +lectured the indiscreet queen for daring to resort to a sacred place for +any purpose besides taking part in divine services. The queen was +displeased by this remonstrance and she responded by coming to the +church not only not incognito, but in great state, with the king (he was +very young), the ministers and the court, while horsemen stationed at +intervals blew their trumpets. I had written a religious march +especially for this event, and the Queen kindly accepted its dedication +to her. I was a little flustered when she asked me to play the too +familiar melody from _Samson et Dalila_ which begins _Mon coeur s'ouvre +a ta voix_. I had to improvise a transposition suited for the organ, +something I had never dreamt of doing. During the performance the Queen +leaned her elbow on the keyboard of the organ, her chin resting on one +hand and her eyes upturned. She seemed rapt in exstasy which, as may be +imagined, was not precisely displeasing to the author. + +The press of the day printed delightful articles about the scene, but +with no pretense to accuracy. I had nothing to do with that in any way. + +Her Majesty Queen Amelie of Portugal once honored me in a distinctive +manner. She received me alone without any of her ladies of honor, which +allowed her to dispense with all etiquette and to have me sit in a chair +near her. In this intimate way she entertained me for three-quarters of +an hour asking questions on all sorts of subjects. I had the chance to +tell her how the oriental theme of the ballet in _Samson_ had been given +to me years before by General Yusuf, and to give her many details of +that interesting personage of whom she had heard her uncles speak. + +"I am going to leave you," she said at last, "but not because I want to. +If one conscientiously practices the _metier_ of being a queen, one +doesn't always find it amusing." + +What would that unhappy woman have said, could she have foreseen the +calamities that were to befall her! + +In Rome I had the honor to be invited to a musicale at Queen +Margharita's. The great drawing-rooms were filled with great ladies +laden down with family jewels of fabulous value. All the music was +terribly serious. Now this kind of music does not make for personal +acquaintance, especially as all these great people were victims of a +boredom they did their best to conceal. Afterwards the two queens wanted +to talk to me. Queen Helene, who is a violinist, told me that her +children were learning the violin and the cello, an arrangement I +praised highly, for the exclusive devotion to the piano in these later +days has been the death of chamber music and almost of music itself. + +In my gallery of sovereigns I cannot forget the gracious Queen of +Belgium. I have always seen her, however, in company with her august +husband, and this story would become interminable if I were to include +"Their Majesties" of the sterner sex--the Emperor of Germany, the Kings +of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal.... + +As I have had more to do with princes than with sovereigns, my tongue +sometimes slips in talking to the latter. As I excused myself one day +for addressing the Queen of Belgium as "Highness," she replied, with a +smile, "Don't apologize; that recalls good times." + +She told me of the time when she and the king, then only heirs apparent, +used to go up and down the Mediterranean coast in a little two-seated +car. It was during this period that I had the honor of meeting them at +the palace of his Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco, and of having +charming and interesting personal conversation with them, for the king +is a savant and the queen an artist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +MUSICAL PAINTERS + + +Ingres was famous for his violin. A single wall separated the apartment +where I lived during my childhood and youth from the one where the +painter Granger, one of Ingres's pupils, with his wife and daughter, +lived. Granger painted the _Adoration of the Wise Men_ in the church of +Notre Dame de Lorette. I have played with the gilt paper crown which his +model wore when posing as one of the three kings. My mother and Mlle. +Granger (who later became Madame Paul Meurice) both loved painting and +became great friends. They copied together Paul Delaroche's _Enfants +d'Edouard_ at the Louvre, a picture which was the rage at that time. My +mother's paintings, in an admirable state of preservation, may be seen +at the museum at Dieppe. + +I was introduced to Ingres when I was five years old through the +Granger family. The distance from the Rue du Jardinet, where we lived, +to the Quai Voltaire was not far, and we often went like a +procession--the Grangers, my great-aunt Masson, my mother and I--to call +upon Ingres and his wife, a delightfully simple woman whom everyone +loved. + +Ingres often talked to me about Mozart, Gluck, and all the other great +masters of music. When I was six years old, I composed an Adagio which I +dedicated to him in all seriousness. Fortunately this masterpiece has +been lost. As I already played, and rather nicely for my years, some of +Mozart's sonatas, Ingres, in return for my dedication, presented me with +a small medallion with the portrait of the author of Don Juan on one +side, and this inscription on the other: "To M. Saint-Saens, the +charming interpreter of the divine artist." + +He carelessly omitted to add the date of this dedication, which would +have increased its interest, for the idea of calling a knee-high +youngster of six "M. Saint-Saens" was certainly unusual. + +[Illustration: Ingres, the painter famous for his violin] + +In addition to the calls I paid him, when I was older I often met the +great painter at the house of Frederic Reiset, one of his most ardent +admirers. They made much of music in that household and we often heard +there Delsarte, the singer without a voice, whom Ingres admired very +much. Delsarte and Henri Reber were, in fact, his musical mentors, and, +in spite of his pretence of being a great connoisseur, he was in reality +their echo. He affected, for example, the most profound contempt for all +modern music, and would not even listen to it. In this respect he +reflected Reber. Reber used to say quietly in his far-away nasal voice, +"You've got to imitate somebody, so the best thing to do is to imitate +the ancients, for they are the best." However, he undertook to prove the +contrary by writing some particularly individual music, when he thought +he was imitating Haydn and Mozart. Some of his works, in their +perfection of line, their regard for details, their purity and their +moderation remind one of Ingres's drawings which express so much in such +a simple way. And Ingres, as well, although he tried to imitate Raphael, +could only be himself. Reber would have been worthy of comparison with +the painter, if he had had the power and productiveness which +distinguish genius. + +What about Ingres's violin? Well, I saw this famous violin for the first +time in the Montaubon Museum. Ingres never even spoke to me about it. He +is said to have played it in his youth, but I could never persuade him +to play even the slightest sonata with me. "I used to play," he replied +to my entreaties, "the second violin in a quartet, but that is all." + +So I think I must be dreaming when I read, from time to time, that +Ingres was more appreciative of compliments about his violin-playing +than those about his painting. That is merely a legend, but it is +impossible to destroy a legend. As the good La Fontaine said: + + "Man is like ice toward truth; + He is like fire to untruth." + +I do not know whether Ingres showed talent for the violin in his youth +or not. But I can state positively that in his maturity he showed none. + +Gustave Dore was also said to be famous on the violin, and his claims to +consideration were far from inconsiderable. He had acquired a valuable +instrument, on which he used to play Berlioz's _Concertos_ with a really +extraordinary facility and spirit. These superficial works were enough +for his musical powers. The surprising things about his execution was +that he never worked at it. If he could not get a thing at once, he gave +it up for good and all. + +He was a frequent attendant at Rossini's salon, and he belonged to the +faction which supported melody and opposed "learned scientific music." +His temperament and mine hardly seem compatible, but friendship, like +love, has its inexplicable mysteries, and gradually we became the best +of friends. We lived in the same quarter and we visited each other +frequently. As we almost never were of the same opinion about anything, +we had interminable arguments, entirely free from rancor, which we +thoroughly enjoyed. + +I finally became the confidant of his secret sorrows, and his innermost +griefs. He was endowed with a wonderful visual memory, but he made the +mistake of never using models, for in his opinion they were useless for +an artist who knew his _metier_. So he condemned himself to a perpetual +approximation, which was enough for illustrations demanding only life +and character, but fatal for large canvasses, with half or full sized +figures. This was the cause of his disappointments and failures which he +attributed to malevolence and a hostility, which really did exist, but +which took advantage of this opportunity to make the painter pay for the +exaggerated success of the designer that had been extravagantly praised +by the press from the beginning. He laid himself open to criticism +through his abuse of his own facility. I have seen him painting away on +thirty canvasses at the same time in his immense studio. Three seriously +studied pictures would have been worth more. + +At heart this great overgrown jovial boy was melancholy and sensitive. +He died young from heart disease, which was aggravated by grief over the +death of his mother from whom he had never been separated. + +I dedicated a slight piece written for the violin to Dore. This was not +lost as the one to Ingres was, but it would be entirely unknown had not +Johannes Wolf, the violinist of queens and empresses, done me the favor +of placing it in his repertoire and bringing his fine talent to its aid. + +Hebert was the most serious of the painter-violinists. Down to the end +of his life he delighted in playing the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven, +and, from all accounts, he played them remarkably. I can say this only +from hearsay, for I never heard him. The few times that I ever saw him +at home in my youth, I found him with his brush in hand. I saw him after +that only at the Academie, where we sat near each other, and he always +greeted me cordially. We talked music from time to time, and he +conversed like a connoisseur. + +Henri Regnault was the most musical of all the painters whom I have +known. He did not need a violin--he was his own. Nature had endowed him +with an exquisite tenor voice. It was alluring in its timbre and +irresistible in its attractiveness, just as he was himself. He was no +"near musician." He loved music passionately, and he was unwilling to +sing as an amateur. He took lessons from Romain Bussine at the +Conservatoire. He sang to perfection the difficult arias of Mozart's +_Don Juan_. He also liked to declaim the magnificent recitative of +Pilgrimage in the third act of _Tannhauser_. + +As we were friendly and liked the same things, the sympathy which +brought us together was quite natural. At the beginning of the war in +1870 I wrote _Les Melodies Persanes_ and Regnault was their first +interpreter. _Sabre en main_ is dedicated to him. But his great success +was _Le Cimitiere_. Who would have thought as he sang: + + "To-day the roses, + To-morrow the cypress!" + +that the prophecy would be realized so soon? + +Some imbeciles have written that the loss of Regnault was not to be +regretted; that he had said all he had to say. In reality he had given +only the prologue of the great poem which he was working out in his +brain. He had already ordered canvasses for great compositions which, +without a doubt, would have been among the glories of French art. + +I saw him for the last time during the siege. He was just starting for +drill with his rifle in his hand. One of the four watercolors which were +his last work, stood uncompleted on his easel. There was a shapeless +spot at the bottom. He held a handkerchief in his free hand. He +moistened this from time to time with saliva and kept tapping away on +the spot on the picture. To my great astonishment, almost to my fright, +I saw roughed out and finished the head of a lion. + +A few days afterwards came Buzenval! + +When the question of publishing Henri Regnault's letters came up, some +phrases referring to me and ranking me above my rivals were found in +them. The editor of the letter got into communication with me, read me +the phrases, and announced that they were to be suppressed, because they +might displease the other musicians. + +I knew who the other musicians were, and whose puppet the editor was. It +would have been possible, it seems to me, without hurting anyone, to +include the exaggerated praise, which, coming from a painter, had no +weight, and which would have proved nothing except the great friendship +which inspired it. I have always regretted that the public did not learn +of the sentiments with which the great artist, whom I loved so much, +honored me. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Memories, by Camille Saint-Saens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSICAL MEMORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 16459.txt or 16459.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/5/16459/ + +Produced by Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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