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+Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
+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: Chopin and Other Musical Essays
+
+Author: Henry T. Finck
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18560]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS ***
+
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+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
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+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                          |
+    |                                                              |
+    | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected |
+    | in this text, while archaic spelling has been maintained.    |
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+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHOPIN
+
+AND
+
+OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS
+
+
+
+
+  BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+  SPAIN AND MOROCCO. 12mo, $1.25.
+
+  THE PACIFIC COAST SCENIC TOUR.
+    Illustrated. 8vo, $2.50.
+
+  CHOPIN, AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS.
+    12mo, $1.50.
+
+  WAGNER AND HIS WORKS. With Portraits.
+    Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, $4.00.
+
+
+
+
+CHOPIN
+AND
+OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS
+
+
+
+
+BY
+HENRY T. FINCK
+AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY"
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+1894
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+
+TROW'S
+PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
+NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO
+
+MRS. JEANNETTE M. THURBER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+I. CHOPIN, THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE,               1
+
+II. HOW COMPOSERS WORK,                                        59
+
+III. SCHUMANN, AS MIRRORED IN HIS LETTERS,                    111
+
+IV. MUSIC AND MORALS,                                         141
+
+V. ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES,                           183
+
+VI. GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK,                                 233
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+CHOPIN
+
+THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE
+
+
+Leipsic, the centre of the world's music trade, exports about one
+hundred thousand dollars' worth of music to America every year. I do
+not know how much of this sum is to be placed to the account of
+Chopin, but a leading music dealer in New York told me that he sold
+three times as many of Chopin's compositions as of any other romantic
+or classical composer. This seems to indicate that Chopin is popular.
+Nevertheless, I believe that what Liszt wrote in 1850, a year after
+the death of Chopin--that his fame was not yet as great as it would be
+in the future--is as true to-day as it was forty years ago. Chopin's
+reputation has been constantly growing, and yet many of his deepest
+and most poetic compositions are almost unknown to amateurs, not to
+speak of the public at large. A few of his least characteristic pieces
+are heard in every parlor, generally in a wofully mutilated condition,
+but some of his most inspired later works I have never heard played
+either in private or in the concert hall, although I am sure that if
+heard there they would be warmly applauded.
+
+There is hardly a composer concerning whom so many erroneous notions
+are current as concerning Chopin, and of all the histories of music I
+have seen that of Langhans is the only one which devotes to Chopin an
+amount of space approximately proportionate to his importance. One of
+the most absurd of the misconceptions is that Chopin's genius was born
+in full armor, and that it did not pass through several stages of
+development, like that of other composers. Chopin did display
+remarkable originality at the very beginning, but the apparent
+maturity of his first published works is due to the fact that he
+destroyed his earliest efforts and disowned those works which are
+known as posthumous, and which may have created confusion in some
+minds by having received a higher "opus" number than his last works.
+
+Another misconception regarding Chopin is that his latest works are
+morbid and unintelligible. The same charge was brought by philistines
+against the best works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner. The fact is
+that these last works are of an almost matchless harmonic depth and
+originality, as superior to his earlier works as Wagner's last music
+dramas are to his first operas. I make this comparison with Wagner
+advisedly because, although I have the most exalted notions of
+Wagner's grandeur and importance, I do not for a moment hesitate to
+say that in his own sphere Chopin is quite as original and has been
+almost as revolutionary and epoch-making as Wagner. Schumann was the
+first to recognize the revolutionary significance of Chopin's style.
+"Chopin's works," he says, "are cannons buried in flowers;" and in
+another place he declares that he can see in "Chopin's G minor
+Nocturne a terrible declaration of war against a whole musical past."
+Chopin, himself, modest as he was in his manners, wrote to his teacher
+Elsner, in 1831, when he was twenty-two years of age: "Kalkbrenner
+will not be able to break my perhaps bold but noble determination to
+create a new epoch in art."
+
+Now, why has the world been so slow in recognizing that Chopin stands
+in the very front rank of creative musicians? One reason doubtless is
+that he was so quiet and retiring in his personal disposition. His
+still, small voice was lost in the din of musical warfare. He warmly
+defended the principles of the romantic school, if necessary, and had
+decided opinions of other musicians, especially of the popular
+pianists of his day who vitiated the public taste with their show
+pieces; but he generally kept them to himself or confided them only to
+his friends, whom he even occasionally implored to keep them secret.
+Had he, like Richard Wagner, attacked everybody, right and left, who
+stood in the way of the general recognition of his genius, his cause
+would have doubtless assumed greater prominence in the eyes of the
+public, even though the parlor piano does not afford so much
+play-ground for warfare as the operatic stage.
+
+The chief reason, however, why musical authorities have so long
+hesitated to acknowledge that Chopin is one of the very greatest
+explorers and pioneers in the domain of their art, is to be found in
+what, for want of a better term, may be called �sthetic Jumboism. When
+the late lamented Jumbo was in New York he attracted so much attention
+that his colleagues, although but little inferior in size, had "no
+show" whatever. Everybody crowded around Jumbo, stuffing him with
+bushels of oranges and apples, while the other elephants were entirely
+ignored. As elephants are intelligent animals, is it not probable that
+Pilot, the next in size to Jumbo, went mad and had to be shot because
+he was jealous of the exclusive attentions bestowed on his rival? In
+�sthetics, this Jumboism, this exaggerated desire for mammoth
+dimensions, seems to be a trait of the human mind which it is
+difficult to eradicate. It is a suggestive fact that the morbid, sham
+�stheticism which prevailed in England a few years ago, chose for its
+symbol the uncouth sunflower. And many who know that a sunflower is
+less beautiful and fragrant than a violet, will nevertheless, on
+visiting a picture gallery, give most of their attention to the large
+canvases, though the smaller ones may be infinitely more beautiful. It
+cannot be said that the critics of art or literature follow the
+popular disposition to measure genius with a yard-stick; but in music
+there seems to be a general tendency to do this. Liszt remarks,
+apropos, in his work on Chopin: "The value of the sketches made by
+Chopin's extremely delicate pencil has not yet been acknowledged and
+emphasized sufficiently. It has become customary in our days to regard
+as great composers only those who have written at least half a dozen
+operas, as many oratorios, and several symphonies."
+
+Even Schumann, and Elsner, Chopin's teacher, seem to have been
+affected a little by this irrational way of looking at music.
+Schumann, in a complimentary notice of Chopin's nocturnes, expresses
+his regrets that the composer should confine himself so strictly to
+the pianoforte, whereas he might have influenced the development of
+music in all its branches. He adds, however, on second thought, that
+"to be a poet one need not have written ponderous volumes; one or two
+poems suffice to make a reputation, and Chopin has written such."
+Elsner who was unusually liberal in his views of art, and who
+discovered and valued his pupil's originality long before Schumann
+did, nevertheless bowed before the fetish of Jumboism in so far as to
+write to Chopin in Paris that he was anxious, before he departed this
+Vale of Tears, to hear an opera from his pen, both for his benefit,
+and for the glory of his country. Chopin took this admonition to heart
+sufficiently to ask a friend to prepare for him a libretto; but that
+is as far as the project ever went. Chopin must have felt
+instinctively that his individual style of miniature painting would be
+as ineffective on the operatic stage, where bold, _al fresco_ painting
+is required, as his soft and dreamy playing would have been had he
+taken his piano from the parlor and placed it in a meadow.
+
+Besides Chopin's abhorrence of musical warfare and his avoidance of
+the larger and more imposing forms of the opera, symphony, and
+oratorio, there were other causes which retarded the recognition of
+his transcendent genius. The unprecedented originality of his style,
+and the distinct national coloring of his compositions, did not meet
+with a sympathetic appreciation in Germany and Vienna, when he first
+went there to test his musical powers. Some of the papers indeed had a
+good word for him, but, as in the case of Liszt and later of
+Rubinstein, it was rather for the pianist than for the composer. On
+his first visit to Vienna he was greatly petted, and he found it easy
+to get influential friends who took care that his concerts should be
+a success, because he played for their benefit, asking no pecuniary
+recompense. But when, some years later, he repeated his visit, and
+tried to play for his own pecuniary benefit, the influential friends
+were invisible, and the concert actually resulted in a deficit.
+
+Chopin's letters contain unmistakable evidence of the fact that, with
+some exceptions, the Germans did not understand his compositions. At
+his first concert in Vienna, he writes, "The first allegro in the F
+minor concerto (not intelligible to all) was indeed rewarded with
+'Bravo!' but I believe this was rather because the audience wished to
+show that they appreciated serious music than because they were able
+to follow and appreciate such music." And regarding the fantasia on
+Polish airs he says that it completely missed its mark: "There was
+indeed some applause by the audience, but obviously only to show the
+pianist that they were not bored." The ultra-Germans, he writes in
+another letter, did not appear to be quite satisfied; and he relates
+that one of these, on being asked, in his presence, how he liked the
+concert, at once changed the subject of conversation, obviously in
+order not to hurt his feelings. In a third letter, in which he gives
+his parents an account of his concert in Breslau, in 1830, he says
+that, "With the exception of Schnabel, whose face was beaming with
+pleasure, and who patted me on the shoulder every other moment, none
+of the other Germans knew exactly what to make of me;" and he adds,
+with his delicious irony, that "the connoisseurs could not exactly
+make out whether my compositions really were good or only seemed so."
+
+Criticisms culled from contemporary newspaper notices and other
+sources emphasize the fact that the Germans were at that time blind to
+the transcendent merits of Chopin's genius. The professional critics,
+after their usual manner, found fault with the very things which we
+to-day admire most in him--the exotic originality of the style, and
+the delightful Polish local color in which all his fabrics are "dyed
+in the wool," as it were. How numerous these adverse criticisms were,
+may best be inferred from the frequency with which Schumann defended
+Chopin in his musical paper and sneered at his detractors. "It is
+remarkable," he writes, "that in the very droughty years preceding
+1830, in which one should have thanked Heaven for every straw of
+superior quality, criticism, which it is true, _always lags behind
+unless it emanates from creative minds_, persisted in shrugging its
+shoulders at Chopin's compositions--nay, that one of them had the
+impudence to say that all they were good for was to be torn to
+pieces." In another article, after speaking in the most enthusiastic
+terms of Chopin's trio, in which "every note is music and life," he
+exclaims, "Wretched Berlin critic, who has no understanding for these
+things, and never will have--poor fellow!" And seven years later, in
+1843, he writes, with fine contempt for his critical colleagues, that
+"for the typical reviewers Chopin never did write, anyway." And this,
+be it remembered, was only six years before Chopin's death.
+
+Not a few of the composers and composerlings of the period joined the
+professional critics in their depreciation of Chopin's works. Field
+called his "a talent of the sick chamber." Moscheles, while admitting
+Chopin's originality, and the value of his pianistic achievements,
+confessed that he disliked his "harsh, inartistic, incomprehensible
+modulations," which often appeared "artificial and forced" to
+him--these same modulations which to-day transport us into the seventh
+heaven of delight! Mendelssohn's attitude toward Chopin was somewhat
+vacillating. He defended him in a letter against his sister's
+criticisms, and assured her that if she had heard some of Chopin's
+compositions "as he himself played them" for him, she too would have
+been delighted. He adds that Chopin had just completed "a most
+graceful little nocturne," of which he remembered much, and was going
+to play it for his brother Paul. Nevertheless, he did not recommend
+the pupils at the Leipsic Conservatory to study Chopin's works, and
+various utterances of his are on record showing that he had a decided
+artistic antipathy for the exotic products of Chopin's pen. To give
+only one instance. In one of the letters to Moscheles, first printed
+in _Scribner's Magazine_ for February, 1888, he complains that "a book
+of mazurkas by Chopin, and a few new pieces of his are so mannered
+that they are hard to stand."
+
+I have dwelt so much on the attitude of the Germans toward Chopin,
+because I am convinced that in this attitude lies one of the main
+reasons why no one has hitherto dared to place him in the front rank
+of composers, side by side with Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner. For the
+Germans are the _tonangebende_ (the standard-setting) nation in music
+to-day, and, as there seems to be a natural antipathy between the
+Slavic and the Teutonic mind, the Germans are apt, like Mendelssohn,
+to regard as mannerism what is simply the exotic fragrance which
+betrays a foreign nationality. The ultro-Teutons still persist in
+their depreciation of Chopin. In the latest edition of Brockhaus's
+"Conservations-Lexicon" we read, apropos to Chopin's larger works,
+that "he was deficient in the profounder musical attainments"(!) Dr.
+Hanslick, generally considered the leading German critic of the
+period, in a 534-page collection of criticisms, discussing twenty
+concert seasons in Vienna, has only about half a dozen and by no
+means complimentary references to Chopin. And even the late Louis
+Ehlert, in his appreciative essay on Chopin, comes to the conclusion
+that Chopin is certainly not to be ranked with such giants as Bach and
+Beethoven. This is Teutonism, pure and simple. No doubt Chopin is, in
+some respects, inferior to Bach and Beethoven, but in other respects
+he is quite as unquestionably superior to them. He wrote no mammoth
+symphonies, but there is a marvellous wealth and depth of ideas in his
+smaller works--enough to supply half a dozen ordinary symphony and
+opera writers with ideas for a lifetime. His works may be compared to
+those men of genius in whose under-sized bodies dwelt a gigantic mind.
+
+Schumann appears to have been the only contemporary composer who did
+not underrate Chopin. Whether he would have gone so far as to rank him
+with the greatest of the German composers, I cannot say, for he avoids
+direct comparisons. But if imitation is the sincerest form of
+flattery, then Schumann flattered Chopin more than any other master,
+for his pianoforte works are much more in the manner of Chopin than of
+Bach or Beethoven. I do not mean direct imitation, but that
+unconscious adoption of Chopin's numerous innovations in the treatment
+of the piano and of musical style, which are better evidence of
+influence than the borrowing of an idea or two. He himself testified
+to the "intimate artistic relations" between him and Chopin.
+Moreover, his praise of Chopin is always pitched in such a high key
+that it would seem as if praise could no higher go. It was he who
+first proclaimed Chopin's genius authoritatively, and to this fact he
+often referred subsequently, with special pride. The very first
+article in his volumes of criticisms is devoted to Chopin's variations
+on "La Ci Darem'," published as "opus 2." In those days, Schumann used
+to give his criticisms a semi-dramatic form. On this occasion he
+represents his _alter ego_, Eusebius, as rushing into the room with a
+new composition, and the exclamation "Hats off, gentlemen! a genius!"
+He then analyzes the variations in glowing poetic language and
+rapturously exclaims at the end that "there is genius in every bar."
+And this was only one of the _early_ works of Chopin, in which he has
+by no means attained his full powers. Of another quite early work, the
+second concerto, he writes that it is a composition "which none of us
+can approach except it be with the lips to kiss the hem;" and later
+on, the Preludes, the most inspired of his works, led Schumann to
+exclaim that Chopin "is and remains the boldest and noblest artistic
+spirit of the time."
+
+Schumann would have found it difficult to induce any of his countrymen
+to endorse his exalted opinion of Chopin, but the Hungarian Liszt
+joined hands with him heartily, and pronounced Chopin "an artist of
+the first rank." "His best works," he says, "contain numerous
+combinations of which it must be said that they did nothing less than
+create an epoch in the treatment of musical style. Bold, brilliant,
+enchanting, his pieces _conceal their depth behind so much grace,
+their erudition behind so much charm_, that it is difficult to
+emancipate one's self from their overpowering magic and estimate them
+according to their theoretic value. This fact is already recognized by
+some competent judges, and it will be more and more generally realized
+when the progress made in art during the Chopin epoch is carefully
+studied."
+
+That Elsner, Chopin's teacher, detected his pupil's originality, has
+already been stated. Fortunately he allowed it a free rein instead of
+trying to check and crush it, as teachers are in the habit of doing.
+But there are some passages in Chopin's early letters which seem to
+indicate that the general public and the professional musicians in his
+native Poland were not so very much in advance of the Germans in
+recognizing his musical genius. Liszt doubts whether Chopin's national
+compositions were as fully appreciated by his countrymen as the work
+of native poets; and Chopin writes to a friend, apropos of his second
+concert at Warsaw: "The _�lite_ of the musical world will be there;
+but I have little confidence in their musical judgment--Elsner of
+course excepted." Elsewhere he complains of a patriotic admirer who
+had written that the Poles would some day be as proud of Chopin as the
+Germans were of Mozart. And when in addition to this the editor of a
+local paper told him he had in type a sonnet on him, Chopin was
+greatly alarmed, and begged him not to print it; for he knew that such
+homage would create envy and enemies, and he declared that after that
+sonnet was published he would not dare to read any longer what the
+papers said about him.
+
+Chopin's want of confidence in the judgment of his countrymen showed
+that, after all, the national Polish element in his compositions was
+not the main cause why they were not rated at once at their true
+value. It was their novelty of form, harmonic depth and freedom of
+modulation, that made them for a long time cav�are to the general.
+This was again proved when he went to Paris. Chopin was a Pole only on
+his mother's side, his father having been a Frenchman, who had
+emigrated to Poland. It might have been supposed, therefore, that
+there would be a French element in Chopin's genius which would make it
+palatable to the Parisians. But this did not prove to be the case. In
+the remarkable group of musicians, poets, and artists who were
+assembled at that time in Paris, and who mutually inspired one
+another--a group which included Liszt, Meyerbeer, Hiller,
+Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Heine, George Sand, the Countess D'Agoult,
+Delacroix, etc.--there were no doubt not a few who knew what a rare
+genius their friend Chopin was. George Sand wrote in her
+autobiography: "He has not been understood hitherto, and to the
+present day he is underestimated. Great progress will have to be made
+in taste and in the appreciation of music before it will be possible
+for Chopin's work to become popular." Heine also wrote that his
+favorite pianist was Chopin, "who, however," he adds, "is more of a
+composer than a virtuoso. When Chopin is at the piano I forget all
+about the technical side of playing and become absorbed in the sweet
+profundity, the sad loveliness of his creations, which are as deep as
+they are elegant. Chopin is the great inspired tone-poet who properly
+should be named only in company with Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini."
+
+But aside from these select spirits and a small circle of aristocratic
+admirers, mostly Poles, Chopin was not understood by the Paris public.
+At first he could not even make his living there, and was in
+consequence on the point of emigrating to America when a friend
+dragged him to a _soir�e_ at Rothschild's, where his playing was so
+much admired that he was at once engaged as a teacher by several
+ladies present. In a very short time he became the fashionable teacher
+in aristocratic circles, where his refined manners made him
+personally liked. As he refused to take any but talented pupils,
+teaching was not so irksome to him as it might have been. Nevertheless
+one cannot but marvel at the obtuseness of the Parisians who put into
+the utilitarian harness an artist who might have enchanted them every
+evening with a concert, had their taste been more cultivated. He _did_
+play once, when he first arrived, but the receipts did not even meet
+the expenses, and the audience received his work so coldly that his
+artistic sensibilities were wounded, and he did not again appear in
+public for fourteen years. Occasionally he played for the select
+aristocratic circles into which he had been introduced; but even here
+he did not often meet with the genuine appreciation and sympathy which
+the artist craves. "Whoever could read in his face," says Liszt,
+"could see how often he felt convinced that among all these handsome,
+well-dressed gentlemen, among all the perfumed, elegant ladies, not
+one understood him."
+
+As for the French critics they seem to have been as obtuse as their
+German colleagues. To give only one instance: M. F�tis, author of the
+well-known musical dictionary, states in his article on Chopin, that
+this composer is overrated to-day, and his popularity largely due to
+the fact that he is fashionable. And in his article on Heller, he
+asserts, more pointedly still, that "the time will undoubtedly come
+when the world will recognize that Heller, much more than Chopin, is
+the modern poet of the pianoforte." In this opinion F�tis probably
+stands alone; but many who have not studied Chopin's deepest works
+carefully, are still convinced that the pianoforte compositions of
+Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, are of greater importance than
+Chopin's. So far am I from sharing this opinion that if I had to
+choose between never again hearing a pianoforte piece by any or all of
+those composers, or never again hearing a Chopin composition, I should
+decide in favor of Chopin. Some years ago I expressed my conviction,
+in _The Nation_, that Chopin is as distinctly superior to all other
+piano composers as Wagner is to all other opera composers. A
+distinguished Cincinnati musician, Mr. Otto Singer, was horrified at
+this statement, and wrote in _The Courier_, of that city, that it
+could only have been made by "a patriotically inclined Frenchman or a
+consumptive inhabitant of Poland;" adding that "he would readily yield
+up possession of quite a number of Chopin's bric-�-brac for Schumann's
+single 'Warum.'" I am neither a patriotic Frenchman nor a consumptive
+Pole, and I am a most ardent admirer of Schumann; nevertheless I
+uphold my former opinion, and my chief object in this essay is to
+endeavor to justify it.
+
+All authorities, in the first place, admit that Chopin created an
+entirely new style of playing the pianoforte. Many have pointed out
+the peculiarities of this style--the use of extended and scattered
+chords, the innovations in fingering which facilitate _legato_
+playing, the spray of dainty little ornamental notes, the use of the
+capricious _tempo rubato_, and so on. But it has not been made
+sufficiently clear by any writer how it was that Chopin became the
+Wagner of the pianoforte, so to speak, by revealing for the first time
+the infinite possibilities of varied and beautiful tone-colors
+inherent in that instrument. To understand this point fully, it is
+necessary to bear in mind a few facts regarding the history of the
+pianoforte.
+
+The name of pianoforte was given about a century and a half ago to an
+instrument constructed by the Italian Cristofori, who devised a
+mechanism for striking the strings with hammers. In the older
+instruments--the clarichords and harpsichords--the strings were either
+snapped by means of crow's quills, or pushed with a tangent. The new
+hammer action not only brought a better tone out of the string, but
+enabled the pianist to play any note loud or soft at pleasure; hence
+the name _piano-forte_. But the pianoforte itself required many years
+before all its possibilities of tone-production were discovered. The
+instruments used by Mozart still had a thin short tone, and there was
+no pedal for prolonging it, except a clumsy one worked with the
+knee--a circumstance which greatly influenced Mozart's style, and is
+largely responsible for the fact that his pianoforte works are hardly
+ever played to-day in the concert hall. For, as the tone could not be
+sustained, it was customary in Mozart's time to hide its meagre frame
+by means of a great profusion of runs and trills, and other ornaments,
+with which even the slow movements were disfigured. Under the
+circumstances, these ornaments were justifiable to some extent, but
+to-day they seem not only in bad taste, but entirely superfluous,
+because our improved instruments have a much greater power of
+sustaining tones.
+
+Czerny, the famous piano teacher, touched in his autobiography on the
+peculiarities of Mozart's style. Beethoven, who gave Czerny some
+lessons on the piano, made him pay particular attention to the
+_legato_, "of which," says Czerny, "he was so unrivalled a master, but
+which at that time--the Mozart period, when the short staccato touch
+was in fashion--_all other pianists thought impossible_. Beethoven
+told me afterwards," he continues, "that he had often heard Mozart,
+whose style from his use of the clavecin, the pianoforte being in his
+time in its infancy, was not at all adapted to the newer instrument. I
+have known several persons who had received instruction from Mozart,
+and their playing corroborated this statement."
+
+In view of these facts, we can understand why Beethoven did not like
+Mozart's pianoforte works as well as those of Clementi, in which there
+was more _cantabile_, and which required more fulness of tone in the
+execution; and we can understand why even so conservative a critic as
+Louis Ehlert should exclaim, apropos of Chopin's "entirely new
+pianoforte life," "How uninteresting is the style of any previous
+master (excepting Beethoven) compared with his! What a litany of
+gone-by, dead-alive forms! What a feelingless, prosaic jingle! If
+anyone should, without a grimace, assure me sincerely that he can play
+pianoforte pieces by Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, and Ries, with real
+enjoyment even now, I will esteem him as an excellent man--yes, a very
+honest one; but I will not drink wine with him."
+
+Were it not for what I have ventured to call the fetish of Jumboism, I
+am convinced that Professor Ehlert would have written Mozart's name in
+this last sentence in place of Clementi's. By excepting Beethoven
+alone from the list of "uninteresting" composers preceding Chopin, he
+_implicitly_ condemns Mozart; but he does not dare to do so
+_explicitly_, although such a confession would not have affected
+Mozart's greatness in other departments of music, which is undeniable.
+Indeed, if Professor Ehlert had been perfectly sincere I am not quite
+sure that he would have excepted Beethoven's sonatas. Although they
+teem with great and beautiful ideas, these sonatas are not really
+adapted to the intrinsic nature of the pianoforte, and hence fail to
+arouse the enthusiasm of those whose taste has been formed by the
+works of Chopin and Schumann. It was no doubt an instinctive antipathy
+to Beethoven's unpianistic style (if the adjective be permissible),
+which prevented Chopin from admiring Beethoven as deeply as he did
+some other composers, whom he would have admitted to be his inferiors.
+And Beethoven himself does not seem to have regarded his pianoforte
+works with the same satisfaction as his other compositions. At least,
+he wrote the following curious sentence in a corner of one of his
+sketch books in 1805; "Heaven knows why my pianoforte music always
+makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."
+He must have felt that his ideas found a much more appropriate and
+adequate expression in the orchestra than on the piano. Not being a
+radical innovator he did not, in his treatment of the pianoforte, go
+beyond Clementi; and so it remained for Chopin to show the world that
+the pianoforte, if properly treated, will yield tones whose exquisite
+sensuous beauty can hardly be surpassed by any combination of
+orchestral instruments.
+
+The two principal means by which he accomplished these reforms were
+the constant employment of the pedal, and the use of extended and
+scattered chords, in place of the crowded harmonies and the massive
+movements of the older accompaniments.
+
+Very few pianists seem to comprehend the exact function and importance
+of the pedal. Many will be surprised to hear that the word "touch,"
+which they suppose refers to the way the keys are struck by the
+fingers, has quite as much to do with the feet--that is, the use of
+the pedal--as with the fingers. No matter how thoroughly a pianist may
+have trained his fingers, if he does not use the pedal as it was used
+by Chopin and Schumann, he cannot reveal the poetry of their
+compositions. In one of his letters Chopin notes that Thalberg played
+_forte_ and _piano_ with the pedals, not with his hands, and some
+piano bangers do so still; but every pianist who deserves the name
+knows that loudness and softness must be regulated by the hands (and
+very rarely the left-side pedal). Yet even among this better class of
+pianists the notion seems to prevail that the main object of the
+right-side pedal is to enable them to prolong a chord or to prevent a
+confusion of consecutive harmonies. This is one of the functions of
+the pedal, no doubt, but not the most important one. The chief service
+of the pedal is _in the interest of tone-color_. Let me explain.
+
+Every student of music knows that if you sing a certain tone into a
+piano (after pressing the pedal), or before a guitar, the strings in
+these instruments which correspond to the tone you sing will vibrate
+responsively and emit a tone. He also knows that when you sound a
+single note, say G, on the violin or piano, you seem to hear only a
+simple tone, but on listening more closely you will find that it is
+really a compound tone or a complete chord, the fundamental tone being
+accompanied by faint overtones, which differ in number and relative
+loudness in different instruments, and to which these instruments owe
+their peculiar tone-color.
+
+Now when you press the pedal of a pianoforte on striking a note you do
+not only prolong this note, but its vibrations arouse all the notes
+which correspond to its overtones, and the result is a rich deep
+tone-color of exquisite sensuous beauty and enchanting variableness.
+Hence, whenever the melodic movement and harmonic changes are not too
+rapid, a pianist should press the pedal _constantly_, whether he plays
+loudly or softly; because it is only when the damper is raised from
+the strings that the overtones can enrich and beautify the sound by
+causing their corresponding strings to vibrate in sympathy with them.
+Those who heard Schumann play say that he used the pedal persistently,
+sometimes twice in the same bar to avoid harmonic confusion; and the
+same is true of Chopin, concerning whose playing an English amateur
+says, after referring to his _legatissimo_ touch: "The wide arpeggios
+in the left hand, _maintained in a continuous stream of tone_ by the
+strict legato and fine and constant use of the damper pedal, formed an
+harmonious substructure for a wonderfully poetic _cantabile_."
+
+I have italicised and emphasized the words _maintained in a continuous
+stream of tone_, because it calls attention to one of the numerous
+resemblances between the style of Chopin and that of Wagner, who in
+his music dramas similarly keeps up an uninterrupted flow of richly
+colored harmonies to sustain the vocal part. Schumann relates that he
+had the good fortune to hear Chopin play some of his �tudes. "And he
+played them very much _� la Chopin_," he says: "Imagine an �olian harp
+provided with all the scales, commingled by an artist's hand into all
+manner of fantastic, ornamental combinations, yet in such a way that
+you can always distinguish a deeper ground tone and a sweet continuous
+melody above--and you have an approximate idea of his playing. No
+wonder that I liked best those of the �tudes which he played for me,
+and I wish to mention specially the first one, in A flat major, a poem
+rather than an �tude. It would be a mistake to imagine that he allowed
+each of the small notes to be distinctly audible; it was rather a
+surging of the A flat major chord, occasionally raised to a new billow
+by the pedal; but amid these harmonies a wondrous melody asserted
+itself in large tones, and only once, toward the middle of the piece,
+a tenor part came out prominently beside the principal melody. After
+hearing this �tude you feel as you do when you have seen a ravishing
+picture in your dreams and, half awake, would fain recall it."
+
+Now it is obvious that such dreamy �olian-harp-like harmonies could
+not have been produced without Chopin's novel and constant use of the
+pedal. And this brings out the greatest difference between the new and
+the old style of playing. In the pianoforte works of Mozart and
+Beethoven, and even in those of Weber, which mark the transition from
+the classical to the romantic school, there are few passages that
+absolutely require a pedal, and in most cases the pieces sound almost
+as well without as with pedal; so that, from his point of view, and in
+his days of staccato playing, Hummel was quite right in insisting that
+a pianist could not be properly judged until he played without the
+pedal. But as regards the romantic school of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt
+and their followers, it may be said with equal truth that a pianist's
+use of the pedal furnishes the supreme test of his talent. If he has
+not the delicacy of ear which is requisite to produce the "continuous
+stream of tone" in Chopin's compositions, without the slightest
+harmonic confusion, he should leave them alone and devote himself to
+less poetic composers.
+
+An amusing anecdote illustrates visibly how helpless Chopin would have
+been without his pedal. He was asked one evening at a party in Paris
+to play. He was quite willing to do so but discovered to his surprise
+that the piano had no pedals. They had been sent away for repairs. In
+this dilemma a happy thought occurred to Liszt, who happened to be
+present. He crawled under the piano, and, while Chopin was playing,
+worked the mechanism to which the pedals ought to have been attached
+so cleverly that they were not missed at all! He stooped that his
+friend might conquer.
+
+The fact that Chopin in his later works, often omitted the sign for
+the pedal on his MSS. must not be held to indicate that he did not
+wish it to be constantly used. In his earlier works he carefully
+indicated where it should be employed, but subsequently he appears to
+have reasoned rightly that a pianist who needs to be told where the
+pedal ought, and where it ought not, to be employed, is not
+sufficiently advanced in culture to play his works at all, and had
+therefore best leave them alone.
+
+Chopin's remarkable genius for divining the mysteries of the
+pianoforte enabled him, as it were, to anticipate what is a
+comparatively recent invention--the middle pedal which is chiefly used
+to sustain single tones in the bass without affecting the rest of the
+instrument. The melancholy "F sharp minor Prelude," for example,
+cannot be played properly without the use of this middle pedal. In
+another prelude, we have an illustration of how the pedal must often
+be used in order to help in forming a chord which cannot be stretched.
+And this brings us to the second important innovation in the treatment
+of Chopin's pianoforte--the constant use of scattered and extended
+chords.
+
+Karasovski relates that Chopin, a mere boy, used to amuse himself by
+searching on the piano for harmonies of which the constituent notes
+were widely scattered on the keyboard, and, as his hands were too
+small to grasp them, he devised a mechanism for stretching his hands,
+which he wore at night. Fortunately, he did not go so far as Schumann,
+who made similar experiments with his hands and thereby disabled one
+of them for life. What prompted Chopin to search for these widely
+extended chords was his intense appreciation of tonal beauty. To-day
+everybody knows how much more beautiful scattered, and widely extended
+harmonies are than crowded harmonies; but it was Chopin's genius that
+discovered this fact and applied it on a large scale. Indeed, so novel
+were his chords, that at first, many of them were deemed unplayable;
+but he showed that if his own system of fingering was adopted, they
+were not only playable, but eminently suited to the character of the
+instrument. The superior beauty of scattered intervals can be
+strikingly demonstrated in this way. If you strike four or five
+adjacent notes on the piano at once, you produce an intolerable
+cacophony. But these same notes can be so arranged by scattering them
+that they make an exquisite chord in suspension. Everything depends on
+the arrangement and the wideness of the intervals. Chopin's fancy was
+inexhaustible in the discovery of new kinds of scattered chords,
+combined into harmony by his novel use of the pedal; and in this way
+he enriched music with so many new harmonies and modulations that he
+must be placed, as a harmonic innovator, on a level with Bach and
+Wagner.
+
+These remarks apply especially to Chopin's later compositions; but his
+peculiarities are already distinctly traceable in many of his earlier
+works; and Elsner, his teacher, was sufficiently clear-sighted and
+frank to write the following words: "The achievements of Mozart and
+Beethoven as pianists have long been forgotten; and their pianoforte
+compositions, although undoubtedly classical works, must give way to
+the diversified artistic treatment of that instrument by the modern
+school." Mr. Joseph Bennett quotes this sentence in his Biography of
+Chopin, and adds an exclamation point in brackets after it, to
+express his surprise. Mr. Bennett is considered one of the leading
+London critics; yet I must say that I have never seen so much
+ignorance in a single exclamation point in brackets. Note the
+difference between Elsner and Bennett. Elsner adds to the sentence
+just quoted, that the _other_ works of Mozart and Beethoven--their
+symphonies, operas, quartets, etc., "will not only continue to live,
+but will, perhaps, remain unequalled by anything of the present day."
+This is genuine discriminative criticism, which renders unto C�sar
+what is C�sar's due: whereas, Mr. Bennett is guided by the vicious old
+habit of fancying that because Mozart and Beethoven are great masters,
+therefore they must be superior to everybody in everything. Is it not
+about time to put an end to this absurd Jumboism in music?
+
+The fact is, we are living in an age of division of labor and
+specialism; and those who, like Robert Franz and Richard Wagner,
+devote themselves to a single branch of music have a better chance of
+reaching the summit of Parnassus than those who dissipate their
+energies in too many directions. Chopin was the pianoforte genius _par
+excellence_, and in his field he stands above the greatest of the
+German composers, whatever their names. Mendelssohn once wrote to his
+mother that Chopin "produces effects on the piano as novel as those of
+Paganini on the violin, and he performs marvels which no one would
+have believed to be possible." Mendelssohn benefited to a slight
+extent by Chopin's example, but he did not add anything new to the
+treatment of the pianoforte. Nor does even Liszt mark an advance on
+Chopin from a purely pianistic point of view. Paradoxical as it may
+seem, Liszt, the greatest pianist the world has known, was really a
+born _orchestral_ composer. He was never satisfied with the piano, but
+constantly wanted to convert it into an orchestra. His innovations
+were all in the service of these orchestral aspirations, and hence it
+is that his rhapsodies, for example, are much more effective in their
+orchestral garb than in their original pianoforte version. The same is
+true of many of Rubinstein's pianoforte works--the Bal Masqu�, for
+instance, which always has such an electric effect on Mr. Theodore
+Thomas's audiences. Not so with Chopin. Liszt remarks, somewhere, that
+Chopin might have easily written for orchestra, because his
+compositions can be so readily arranged for it. I venture to differ
+from this opinion. Chopin's Funeral March has been repeatedly arranged
+for orchestra--first by Reber at Chopin's funeral (when Meyerbeer
+regretted that he had not been asked to do this labor of love); and
+more recently by Mr. Theodore Thomas. Mr. Thomas's version is very
+clever and effective, yet I very _much_ prefer this sublime dirge on
+the piano. In a small room the piano has almost as great a capacity
+for dynamic shading as the orchestra has in a large hall; and, as I
+have just pointed out, one who knows how to use the pedal can secure
+an endless (almost orchestral) variety of tone-colors on the piano,
+thanks to the hundreds of overtones which can be made to accompany the
+tones played. Chopin spoke the language of the piano. His pieces are
+so idiomatic that they cannot be translated into orchestral language
+any more than Heine's lyrics can be translated into English. Chopin
+exhausted the possibilities of the pianoforte, and the piano exhausts
+the possibilities of Chopin's compositions.
+
+The innovations of Chopin which I have so far alluded to, have been to
+some extent adopted by all modern composers, and the more they have
+adopted them the more their works ingratiate themselves in the favor
+of amateurs. But there is another epoch-making feature of Chopin's
+style, which is less easy, especially to Germans, because it is a
+Slavic characteristic; I mean the _tempo rubato_. This is a phrase
+much used among musicians, but if pressed for an exact definition, few
+would be able to give one. Let us see first what Chopin's
+contemporaries have to say of the way in which he himself treats it.
+Chopin visited England in 1848, and on June 21 gave a concert in
+London. Mr. Chorley, the well-known critic, wrote a criticism on this
+occasion for "The Athen�um," in which he says: "The delicacy of M.
+Chopin's tone and the elasticity of his passages are delicious to the
+ear. He makes a free use of _tempo rubato_, leaning about within his
+bars more than any player we recollect, but still subject to a
+presiding sentiment of measure, such as presently habituates the ear
+to the liberties taken. In music not his own, we happen to know he can
+be as staid as a metronome; while his Mazurkas, etc., lose half that
+wildness if played without a certain freedom and license--impossible
+to imitate, but irresistible if the player at all feels the music.
+This we have always fancied while reading Chopin's works:--we are now
+sure of it after hearing him perform them."
+
+Moscheles wrote to his wife that Chopin's "_ad libitum_ playing,
+which, with the interpreters of his music degenerates into offences
+against correct time, is, in his own case, merely a pleasing
+originality of style." He compares him to "a singer who, little
+concerned with the accompaniment, follows entirely his feelings."
+Karasovski says that Chopin "played the bass in quiet, regular time,
+while the right hand moved about with perfect freedom, now following
+the left hand, now ... going its own independent way. 'The left hand,'
+said Chopin, 'must be like an orchestral conductor; not for a moment
+must it be uncertain and vacillating.'" Thus his playing, free from
+the fetters of _tempo_, acquired a unique charm; thanks to this
+_rubato_, his melody was "like a vessel rocked upon the waves of the
+sea."
+
+The world suffered a great loss when a band of ignorant soldiers found
+the bundles of letters which Chopin had written from Paris to his
+parents, and used them to feed the fire which cooked their supper. But
+it lost a still greater treasure when Chopin tore up the manuscript of
+his pianoforte method, which he began to write in the last years of
+his life, but never finished. In it he would no doubt have given many
+valuable hints regarding the correct use of the _rubato_. In the
+absence of other authentic hints beyond the one just quoted, Liszt
+must be depended upon as the best authority on the subject; for it is
+well known that Liszt could imitate Chopin so nicely that his most
+intimate friends were once deceived in a dark room, imagining that
+Chopin was playing when Liszt was at the piano. "Chopin," Liszt
+writes, "was the first who introduced into his compositions that
+peculiarity which gave such a unique color to his impetuosity, and
+which he called _tempo rubato_:--an irregularly interrupted movement,
+subtile, broken, and languishing, at the same time flickering like a
+flame in the wind, undulating, like the surface of a wheat-field, like
+the tree-tops moved by a breeze." All his compositions must be played
+in this peculiarly accented, spasmodic, insinuating style, a style
+which he succeeded in imparting to his pupils, but which can hardly be
+taught without example. As with the pedal, so with the _rubato_,
+Chopin often neglected to mark its use in later years, taking it for
+granted that those who understood his works would know where to apply
+it.
+
+Perhaps the importance of the _rubato_ in Chopin cannot be more
+readily realized than by his concession that he could never play a
+Viennese waltz properly, and by the fact that sometimes, when he was
+in a jocular mood, he would play one of his mazurkas in strict,
+metronomic time, to the great amusement of those who had heard him
+play them properly.
+
+When Liszt speaks of the _tempo rubato_ as a unique characteristic of
+Chopin's style, he must not be understood too literally. As a matter
+of fact, the _rubato_ is too important an element of expression not to
+have been partially anticipated in the works of some of Chopin's
+predecessors, just as Wagner's leading motives had imperfect
+prototypes in the works of some preceding composers. As early as 1602,
+the Italian, Caccini, describes what he calls the "Stile Nobile, in
+which the singer," he says, "emancipates himself from the fetters of
+the measure, by prolonging or diminishing the duration of a note by
+one-half, according as the sense of the word requires it." But it is
+probable that the Italian singers of that period, as to-day, used
+this kind of _rubato_ merely to display the beauty of their voice on a
+loud high note, and not, like Chopin, for the sake of emphasizing a
+pathetic or otherwise expressive note or chord.
+
+Of the Germans it may be said that, as a rule, they had, until
+recently, no special liking for the _tempo rubato_. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent Viennese critic, referred to it thirty years ago, as "a morbid
+unsteadiness of _tempo_." Mendelssohn, who always liked a "nice, swift
+_tempo_," repeatedly expressed his aversion to Chopin's _rubato_.
+Nevertheless, traces of it may be found in the rhythms of the
+classical school. Although Mozart's _tempo_ in general was as strict
+and uniform as that of a waltz in the ball-room, in playing an adagio
+he appears to have allowed his left hand some freedom of movement for
+the sake of expression (see Jahn I., 134). Beethoven, according to
+Seyfried, "was very particular at rehearsals about the frequent
+passages in _tempo rubato_;" and there are other remarks by
+contemporaries of Beethoven which indicate that although he wrote in
+the classical style, in his playing and conducting he often introduced
+a romantic _rubato_. Still, in the majority of his compositions, there
+is no room for the _rubato_, which cannot be said to have found a home
+in German music till it was assimilated by the Schumann school, under
+the influence of Chopin. Since then, it has leavened the spirit of
+modern music in a manner which has never been sufficiently emphasized.
+I am convinced that even Richard Wagner was, unconsciously, influenced
+by it through Liszt; for one of the chief peculiarities of his style
+is a sort of dramatic _rubato_ which emancipates his music from the
+tyranny of the strict dance measure. In his essay on the proper
+interpretation of Tannh�user, Wagner declares that the division of
+music into regular measures, or bars, is merely a mechanical means for
+enabling the composer to convey his ideas to the singer. As soon as
+the singer has grasped the idea, he says, the bar should be thrown
+aside as a useless incumbrance, and the singer, ignoring strict time,
+should be guided by his feelings alone, while the conductor should
+follow and preserve harmony between him and the orchestra.
+
+It might be said that this dramatic _rubato_ is something different
+from Chopin's _rubato_. _Rubato_ literally means "robbed," and it is
+generally supposed that the peculiarity of Chopin's style consisted
+simply in this, that he prolonged certain notes in a bar at the
+expense of the others--robbing from one what he gave to his neighbor.
+But this is a very inadequate conception of the term. Chopin's
+_rubato_ means much more than this. It includes, to a large extent,
+the frequent unexpected changes of time and rhythm, together with the
+_ritardandos_ and _accelerandos_. It includes, secondly, those unique
+passages, first conceived by Chopin, where the right hand has to play
+irregular groups of small notes--say twenty-two, while the left hand
+plays only twelve; or nineteen, while the left plays four--passages in
+which Chopin indicated as clearly as Wagner did in the words just
+quoted that the musical bar is a mere mechanical measure which does
+not sufficiently indicate the phrasing of the romantic or dramatic
+ideas that lie beyond the walls of a dance-hall.
+
+There is a third peculiarity of Chopin's style which may be included
+under the name of _rubato_, namely, his habit of "robbing" the note,
+not of its duration, but its _accent_. Every student of music knows
+that the symphony and sonata are called "idealized dance forms,"
+because they are direct outgrowths of the dances that were cultivated
+originally in Italy, France, and Germany. Now, one peculiarity of
+these dances is the fact that the accent always falls on the first
+beat of each bar. This is very appropriate and convenient for dancing,
+but from an artistic point of view, it is decidedly monotonous. Hence,
+Chopin conferred a vast benefit on modern art by introducing the
+spirit of Slavic music, in which the accent often falls on other beats
+beside the first. These regular accents produce the effect of the
+variable _tempo rubato_, and it is to them that Chopin's works largely
+owe their exotic, poetic color. As they open up new possibilities of
+emotional expression, they have been eagerly appropriated by other
+composers and have leavened all modern music. To Chopin, therefore,
+chiefly belongs the honor of having emancipated music from the
+monotony of the Western European dance-beat by means of the _tempo
+rubato_ in its varied aspects.
+
+But, it was not merely in the accent of the dance forms, that he
+introduced an agreeable innovation; he was one of the giants who helped
+to create a new epoch in art, by breaking these old forms altogether,
+and substituting new ones better suited to modern tastes. And here we
+come across one of the most ludicrous misconceptions which have been
+fostered concerning Chopin by shallow critics, and which brings us back
+again for a moment to the question of Jumboism. I do not know whether
+he was a German or a French critic who first wrote that Chopin,
+although great in short pieces, was not great enough to master the
+sonata form. Once in print, this silly opinion was repeated parrot-like
+by scores of other critics. _How_ silly it is may be inferred from the
+fact that such third-rate composerlings as Herz and Hummel were able to
+write sonatas of the most approved pattern--and that, in fact, _any_
+person with the least musical talent can learn in a few years to write
+sonatas that are absolutely correct as regards form. And yet we are
+asked to believe that Chopin, one of the most profound and original
+musical thinkers the world has ever seen, could not write a correct
+sonata! _Risum teneatis amici_! Chopin not able to master the sonata
+form? The fact is, _the sonata form could not master him_. He felt
+instinctively that it was too artificial to serve as a vehicle for the
+expression of poetic thought; and his thoroughly original genius
+therefore created the more plastic and malleable shorter forms which
+have since been adopted by composers the world over. The few sonatas
+which Chopin wrote do not deviate essentially from the orthodox
+structure, but one feels constantly that he was hampered in his
+movements by the artificial structure. Though they are full of genius,
+like everything he composed, he did not write them _con amore_.
+Concentration is one of Chopin's principal characteristics, and the
+sonata favors diffuseness. Too much thematic beating out is the bane of
+the sonata. A few bars of gold are worth more than many square yards of
+gold leaf; and Chopin's bars are solid gold. Moreover, there is no
+organic unity between the different parts of the sonata, whatever may
+have been said to the contrary. The essentially artificial character of
+the sonata is neatly illustrated by a simile used by Dr. Hanslick in
+speaking of Chopin. "This composer," he said, "although highly and
+peculiarly gifted, was never able to unite the fragrant flowers which
+he scattered by handfuls, into beautiful wreaths." Dr. Hanslick intends
+this as censure. I regard it as the greatest compliment he could have
+paid him. A wreath may be very pretty in its way, but it is artificial.
+The flowers are crushed and their fragrance does not blend. How much
+lovelier is a single violet or orchid in the fields, unhampered by
+strings and wires, and connected solely with its stalk and the
+surrounding green leaves. Many of Chopin's compositions are so short
+that they can hardly be likened unto flowers, but only to buds. Yet is
+not a rosebud a thousand times more beautiful than a full-blown rose?
+
+One more consideration. The psychology of the sonata form is false.
+Men and women do not feel happy for ten minutes as in the opening
+allegro of a sonata, then melancholy for another ten minutes, as in
+the following adagio, then frisky, as in the scherzo, and finally,
+fiery and impetuous for ten minutes as in the finale. The movements of
+our minds are seldom so systematic as this. Sad and happy thoughts and
+moods chase one another incessantly and irregularly, as they do in the
+compositions of Chopin, which, therefore, are much truer echoes of our
+modern romantic feelings than the stiff and formal classical sonatas.
+And thus it is, that Chopin's habitual neglect of the sonata form,
+instead of being a defect, reveals his rare artistic subtlety and
+grandeur. It was natural that a Pole should vindicate for music this
+emotional freedom of movement, for the Slavic mind is especially prone
+to constant changes of mood. Nevertheless, as soon as Chopin had shown
+the way, other composers followed eagerly in the new path, and in the
+present day the sonata may be regarded as obsolete. Few contemporary
+composers have written more than one or two--merely in order to show
+that they can do so if they want to; and even Brahms, the high priest
+of the conservatives, has, in his later period, devoted himself more
+and more exclusively to shorter modern forms in his pianoforte music.
+
+Strictly speaking, Chopin was not the first who tried to get away from
+the sonata. Beethoven, though he remained faithful to it, felt its
+fetters, as is shown by his numerous poetic licenses. Schubert wrote
+"Moments Musicals," Mendelssohn, "Songs without Words," Weber,
+Polonaises, and Field, Nocturnes. But these were merely straws which
+indicated in which direction Chopin's genius would sweep the field and
+clear the musical atmosphere. His polonaises and nocturnes are vastly
+superior to those of Weber and Field; and his poetic preludes, his
+romantic ballads, his lovely ber�euse, his amorous mazurkas, are new
+types in art which have often been imitated but never equalled. Only
+in one field did Chopin have a dangerous rival among his predecessors,
+namely, in the Waltz. Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" is the source
+of the modern idealized waltz, because it was not written for the feet
+alone, but also for the heart and the imagination. Like Chopin's
+waltzes, it contains chivalrous passages, amorous episodes, and subtle
+changes of movement. And it seems as if the fact that there was less
+room for formal and emotional innovations in the waltz than in the
+other forms, had somewhat affected Chopin's imagination. For, although
+the most popular of his works, his waltzes are, with a few exceptions
+in which the _rubato_ prevails, less characteristic than his other
+pieces. Nevertheless, they are charming, every one of them. But they
+are fairy dances--mortals are too clumsy to keep time to them.
+
+Next to the waltzes in popularity come the polonaises; and they fully
+deserve their popularity. Liszt has given us a charming description of
+the polonaise as it was formerly danced in Chopin's native country. It
+was less a dance than a promenade in which courtly pomps and
+aristocratic splendor were on exhibition. It was a chivalrous but not
+an amorous dance, precedence being given to age and rank, before youth
+and beauty. And whereas, in other dances, the place of honor is
+always given to the fair sex, in the polonaise the men are in the
+foreground. In a word, the polonaise represents, both in its subject
+and the style of music, the masculine side of Chopin's genius.
+
+The feminine side is chiefly embodied in the mazurkas and the
+nocturnes. It has been said that the highest genius must combine
+masculine with feminine traits, and it is a remarkable fact that the
+works of two of the most spontaneous composers--Chopin and
+Schubert--are often characterized by an exquisite feminine tenderness
+and grace; as if, seeing that women have not done their duty as
+composers, they had tried to introduce the feminine spirit in music.
+Yet it is unfair to place too much emphasis on this side of their
+genius. In their bolder moments, Chopin and Schubert are thoroughly
+masculine.
+
+It seems strange at first sight that the mazurkas, these exquisite
+love poems, should be so much less popular than the waltzes, for they
+are quite as melodious and much easier--although here, as elsewhere,
+Chopin often introduces a few very difficult bars in an otherwise easy
+composition, as if to keep away bunglers. Perhaps the cause of their
+comparative neglect is, that they are so thoroughly Polish in spirit;
+unless they are played with an exotic _rubato_, their fragrance
+vanishes. There is more local color in the mazurkas than in any of
+his other works. The Mazurs are musically a highly gifted nation, and
+Chopin was impressed early in life with the quaint originality of
+their melodies. No doubt some of his mazurkas are merely artistic
+settings of these old love songs, but they are the settings of an
+inspired jeweller. If we can judge by the number of pieces of each
+class that he wrote, the mazurka was Chopin's favorite form. Even on
+his death-bed he wrote one. It was his last effort, and he was too
+weak to try it over on the piano. It is of heart-rending sadness, and
+exquisite pathos. Perhaps it was a patriotic rather than an �sthetic
+feeling which led him thus to favor the mazurka. His love for his
+country was exceeded only by his devotion to his art. "Oh, how sad it
+must be to die in a foreign country," he wrote to a friend in 1830;
+and when, soon afterward, he left home he took along a handful of
+Polish soil which he kept for nineteen years. Shortly before his death
+he expressed a wish that it should be strewn in his coffin--a wish
+which was fulfilled; so that his body rested on Polish soil even in
+Paris.
+
+A countless number of exquisite melodic rhythmic and harmonic details
+in the mazurkas might be dwelt upon in this place, but I will only
+call attention to the inexhaustible variety of ideas which makes each
+of them so unique, notwithstanding their strong family likeness. They
+are like fantastic orchids, or like the countless varieties of humming
+birds, those "winged poems of the air," of which no two are alike
+while all resemble each other.
+
+The nocturnes represent the dreamy side of Chopin's genius. They are
+sufficiently popular, yet few amateurs have any idea of their
+unfathomable depth, and few know how to use the pedal in such a way as
+to produce the rich uninterrupted flow of tone on which the melody
+should float. Most pianists play them too fast. Mozart and Schumann
+protested against the tendency to take their slow pieces too fast, and
+Chopin suffers still more from this pernicious habit. Mendelssohn in
+"A Midsummer Night's Dream," and Weber in "Oberon," have given us
+glimpses of dreamland, but Chopin's nocturnes take us there bodily,
+and plunge us into reveries more delicious than the visions of an
+opium eater. They should be played in the twilight and in solitude,
+for the slightest foreign sound breaks the spell. But just as dreams
+are sometimes agitated and dramatic, so some of these nocturnes are
+complete little dramas with stormy, tragic episodes, and the one in C
+sharp minor, _e.g._, embodies a greater variety of emotion and more
+genuine dramatic spirit on four pages than many popular operas on four
+hundred.
+
+One of Chopin's enchanting innovations, which he introduced
+frequently in the nocturnes, consists in those unique and exquisite
+_fioriture_, or dainty little notes which suddenly descend on the
+melody like a spray of dew drops glistening in all the colors of the
+rainbow. No less unique and original are the exquisite modulations
+into foreign keys which abound in the nocturnes, as, indeed, in all
+his works. Schucht calls attention to the fact that in his very opus 1
+Chopin permits himself a freedom of modulation which Beethoven rarely
+indulged in. But this is a mere trifle compared with the works of his
+last period. Here we find a striking originality and boldness of
+modulation that has no parallel in music, except in Wagner's last
+music-dramas. Now we have seen that Moscheles, and other
+contemporaries of Chopin, found his modulations harsh and
+disagreeable; and doubtless there are amateurs to-day who regard them
+in the same way. It seems, indeed, as if musical people must be
+divided into two classes--those who find their chief delight in melody
+pure and simple, and those who think that rich and varied harmony is
+the soul of music. Chopin fortunately wrote for both classes. Italy
+has produced no melodist equal to him, and Germany only one--Franz
+Schubert. No one has written melodies more soulful than those of the
+nocturne, opus 37, No. 2, the second ballad, the �tudes, opus 10, No.
+3; opus 25, No. 7, etc. I distinctly remember the thrill with which I
+heard each of these melodies for the first time; but it was a deeper
+emotion still which I felt when I played for the first time the
+sublimest of his nocturnes--the last but one he wrote--and came across
+that wonderful modulation from five sharps to four flats, and, later
+on, the delicious series of modulations in the fourth and fifth bars
+after the Tempo Primo. I realized then that modulation is a deeper
+source of emotional expression than melody.
+
+In speaking of Chopin's melancholy character, the nocturnes are often
+referred to as illustrations of it. They do, indeed, breathe a spirit
+of sadness, but the majority represent, as I have said, the dreamy
+side of his genius. The real anguish of his heart is not expressed in
+the nocturnes but in the preludes and �tudes, strange as these names
+may seem for such pathetic effusions of his heart. The �tude, opus 10,
+No. 6, seems as if it were in a sort of double minor; as much sadder
+than ordinary minor, as ordinary minor is sadder than major. Chopin
+had abundant cause to be melancholy. He inherited that national
+melancholy of the Poles which causes them even to dance to tunes in
+minor keys, and which is commonly attributed to the long-continued
+political oppression under which they have suffered. But, apart from
+this national trait, Chopin had sufficient personal reasons for
+writing the greater part of his mazurkas and his other pieces in
+minor keys. Like other men of genius, he keenly felt the anguish of
+not being fully appreciated by his contemporaries. Moreover, although
+he was greatly admired by the French and Polish women in Paris, and
+was even conceded a lady-killer, he was, in his genuine affairs of the
+heart, thrice disappointed. His first love, who wore his engagement
+ring when he left Warsaw, proved faithless to the absent lover, and
+married another man. The second love deceived him in the same way,
+preferring a Count to a genius. And his third love, George Sand, after
+apparently reciprocating his attachment, for a few years, not only
+discarded him, but tried to justify her conduct to the world, by
+giving an exaggerated portraiture of his weaknesses, in her novel
+"Lucrezia Floriani."
+
+Nevertheless, it was in one respect fortunate for the world that
+George Sand was Chopin's friend so long, for we owe to her facile pen
+many interesting accounts of Chopin's habits and the origin of some of
+his compositions. The winter which he spent with her on the Island of
+Majorca was one of the most important in his life, for it was here
+that he composed some of those masterpieces, his preludes--a word
+which might be paraphrased as Introductions to a new world of musical
+emotion. There is a strange discrepancy in the accounts which Liszt
+and George Sand give of the Majorca episode in Chopin's life. Liszt
+describes it as a period of calm enjoyment, George Sand as one of
+discomfort and distress. As she was an eye-witness, her testimony
+appears the more trustworthy, especially as it is borne out by the
+character of the preludes which he composed there. There are among
+Chopin's preludes a few which breathe the spirit of contentment and
+grace, or of religious grandeur, but most of them are outbreaks of the
+wildest anguish and heart-rending pathos. If tears could be heard,
+they would sound like these preludes. Two of the saddest--those in B
+minor and E minor--were played by the famous organist Lefebure Wely,
+at Chopin's funeral services. But it is useless to specify. They are
+all jewels of the first water.
+
+Some years ago I wrote in "The Nation" that if all pianoforte music in
+the world were to be destroyed, excepting one collection, my vote
+should be cast for Chopin's preludes. If anything could induce me to
+modify that opinion to-day, it would be the thought of Chopin's
+�tudes. I would never consent to their loss. Louis Ehlert, speaking of
+Chopin's F Major ballad, says he has seen even children stop in their
+play and listen to it enraptured. But, in the �tudes I mentioned a
+moment ago, there are melodies which, I should think, would tempt even
+angels to leave their happy home and indulge, for a moment, in the
+luxury of idealized human sorrow. There is in these twenty-seven
+�tudes, as in the twenty-five preludes, an inexhaustible wealth of
+melody, modulation, poetry and passion. One can play them every day
+and never tire of them. Of most of them one might say what Schumann
+said of one--that they are "poems rather than studies;" and much
+surprise has been expressed that Chopin should have chosen such a
+modest and apparently inappropriate name for them as "studies." Now, I
+have a theory on this subject: I believe it was partly an ironic
+intention which induced Chopin to call some of his most inspired
+pieces "studies." Pianists have always been too much in the habit of
+looking at their art from purely technical or mechanical points of
+view. They looked for mere five-finger exercises in Chopin's �tudes,
+and finding at the same time an abundance of musical ideas, they were
+surprised. It did not occur to them that Chopin might have intended
+them also as studies in musical composition--studies in melody,
+harmony, rhythm and emotional expression. I believe he did so intend
+them; and finding that his contemporaries did not take his idea, he
+probably laughed in his sleeve, and exclaimed, "_O tempora!_"
+
+This conjecture seems the more plausible, from the fact that there was
+a pronounced ironic and comic vein in Chopin's character. The accounts
+of his melancholy, in fact, like those of his ill-health, have been
+too much exaggerated. He was often in a cheerful mood. Sometimes he
+would amuse himself for a whole evening playing blind-man's buff with
+the children. As a mere child he had formed the habit of mimicking and
+caricaturing pianists and other distinguished men. Liszt often
+suffered from this mischievous habit, but he did not complain, and
+even seemed to enjoy it. Of Chopin's wit, two specimens may be cited.
+A rich Parisian one day invited him to dinner, with the intention of
+getting him to entertain the guests afterward. In this case, however,
+the host had reckoned without the guest, for, when asked to play,
+Chopin exclaimed, "But, my dear sir, I have eaten so little." The
+other instance occurs in one of his letters, where he says of the
+pianist Aloys Schmitt, that he was forty years old, and his
+compositions eighty--a _bon mot_ worthy of Heine.
+
+There was much, indeed, in common between Chopin and Heine. Nothing is
+more characteristic of Heine than the way in which he works up our
+sentimental feelings only to knock us on the head with a comic or
+grotesque line at the end. Similarly, Chopin, after improvising for
+his friends for an hour or two, would suddenly rouse them from their
+reveries by a _glissando_--sliding his fingers from one end of the
+key-board to the other. In almost all of Chopin's or Heine's poems
+there is this peculiar mixture of the sad and the comic veins--even
+in the scherzos, which represent the gay and cheerful moods of
+Chopin's muse.
+
+Another point between these two poets is their elegance of style, and
+their ironic abhorrence of tawdry sentimentality and commonplace.
+Heine is the most elegant and graceful writer of his country, and
+Chopin the most elegant and graceful of all composers. Not a redundant
+note or a meaningless bar in all his compositions. Heine owed his
+formal finish to French influences, but Chopin did not need them, for
+the Poles are as noted as the French for elegance and grace. He
+avoided not only the modulatory monotony of the classical school, but,
+especially, the commonplace endings which marred so many classical
+compositions. "All's well that ends well," is a rule that was
+generally ignored by composers till Chopin taught them its value and
+effect. Chopin's pen always stopped when his thoughts stopped, and he
+never appends a meaningless end formula as if to warn the audience
+that they may now put on their hats. On the contrary, some of his
+later compositions, especially of the last period, end with exquisite
+miniature poems, connected in spirit with the preceding music and yet
+distinct--separate inspirations. I refer, especially, to the endings
+of his last two nocturnes and to the final bars of the mazurka, opus
+59, No. 3.
+
+George Sand has given us a vivid sketch of Chopin's conscientiousness
+as a composer. "He shut himself up in his room for entire days," she
+says, "weeping, walking about, breaking his pen, repeating and
+changing a bar a hundred times, and beginning again next day with
+minute and desperate perseverance. He spent six weeks over a single
+page, only to go back and write that which he had traced at the first
+essay." As regards his creativeness, George Sand says that "it
+descended upon his piano suddenly, completely, sublimely, or it sang
+itself in his head during his walks, and he made haste to hear it by
+rushing to the instrument." I have already mentioned the fact that
+when he wrote his last mazurka he was too weak to try it on the piano.
+In one of his letters he speaks of a polonaise being ready in his
+head. These facts indicate that he composed mentally, although, no
+doubt, during the improvisations, many themes occurred to him which he
+remembered and utilized. When he improvised he did not watch the
+key-board, but generally looked at the ceiling. Already as a youth he
+used to be so absorbed that he forgot his meals; and, in the street,
+he was often so absent-minded that he very narrowly escaped being run
+over by a wagon. Visions of female loveliness and patriotic
+reminiscences inspired many of his best works. Sometimes the pictures
+in his mind became so vivid as to form real hallucinations. Thus it
+is related that one evening when he was alone in the dark, trying over
+the A major polonaise which he had just completed, he saw the door
+open and in marched a procession of Polish knights and ladies in
+medi�val costumes--the same, no doubt, that his imagination had
+pictured while he was composing. He was so alarmed at this vision that
+he fled through the opposite door and did not venture to return.
+Another illustration of the relations between genius and insanity.
+
+The foregoing remarks on Chopin's compositions suffice, I think, to
+show how absurd is the prevalent notion that he is the composer for
+the drawing-room, and that his pieces reflect the spirit of
+fashionable Parisian society. They do, perhaps, in their elegant form,
+but certainly not in their spirit. The frivolous aristocratic circles
+that heard Chopin could never have comprehended the depth of his
+emotional life. The pianists for them, the real drawing-room composers
+were Kalkbrenner, and Field, and Thalberg, with their operatic
+fantasias. Chopin is the composer for the few, and he is the composer
+_par excellence_ for musicians. From him they can get more ideas, and
+learn more as regards form, than from anyone else, except Bach and
+Wagner. In comparing his last works with his first, and noting their
+progress, the mind tries in vain to conceive where he would have led
+the world had he lived eighty instead of forty years. One thing is
+certain: he would have probably written more for other instruments.
+His pianoforte concertos belong to his early period, and betray a lack
+of experience in the treatment of the orchestra. But he wrote two
+pieces of chamber music which have never been excelled--a 'cello
+sonata and a trio. The 'cello sonata was the last of his larger works,
+and in my opinion it is superior to any of the 'cello sonatas of
+Mendelssohn, Brahms, and even Beethoven and Rubinstein. The trio,
+though an earlier work, is, like the 'cello sonata, admirably adapted
+to the instruments for which it is written. I once belonged to an
+amateur trio club. Our tastes naturally differed on many points, but
+in one thing we all agreed: we always closed our entertainment with
+this Chopin trio. It was the climax of the evening's enjoyment. Yet,
+only a few years ago, the leader of one of the principal chamber music
+organizations in New York admitted to me that he had never heard of
+this trio!--an incident which vividly illustrates the truth of my
+assertion that Chopin's genius is still far from being esteemed at its
+full value.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HOW COMPOSERS WORK
+
+
+Forty years ago Robert Schumann complained that the musical critics
+had so much to say about singers and players, while the composer was
+almost entirely ignored. To-day this reproach could hardly be made,
+for although vocalists still receive perhaps a disproportionate share
+of attention, compositions, new and old, are also discussed at great
+length in the press. Nevertheless, I believe that the vast majority of
+those who attend an operatic performance in New York, and are
+delighted with "Siegfried" or "Faust," have but vague and shadowy
+notions as to the way in which such an opera is composed. My object
+here is to illustrate the way composers work, and to prove that the
+creating of an opera is perhaps the most difficult and marvellous
+achievement of the human intellect.
+
+Professor Langhans notes, in his history of music, that in the Middle
+Ages, as late as Luther's time, it took two men to compose the
+simplest piece of music: one who conceived the melody, and the other
+who added the harmonic accompaniment. The theoretical writer,
+Glareanus, deliberately expressed his opinion, in 1547, that it might
+be _possible_ to unite these two functions in one person, but that one
+would rarely find the inventor of a melody able to work it out
+artistically. We have made much progress in music within these three
+hundred years, and to-day every composer is not only expected to
+invent his own harmonies and accompaniments to his melodies, but,
+since Wagner set the example, composers are beginning to consider it
+incumbent on them to write their own librettos; and, what is more
+remarkable, if we examine biographies of musicians carefully we find
+that, even _before_ Wagner, not a few composers assisted in the
+preparation of their operatic texts; and this remark applies even to
+some of the Italian composers, who were proverbially careless
+regarding their librettos. Rossini was, perhaps, too indolent to
+devote much attention to his texts, and he was apt to postpone even
+the _musical_ work to the last moment, so that he sometimes had to be
+locked up in his room by his friends, to enable him to finish his
+score by the date named in his contract. Yet it is worthy of note that
+during the composition of what Rossini's admirers commonly regard as
+his best and most characteristic work--the "Barber of Seville"--he
+lived in the same house with his librettist. "The admirable unity of
+the 'Barber,' in which a person without previous information on the
+subject could scarcely say whether the words were written for the
+music or the music for the words, may doubtless," as Mr. Sutherland
+Edwards suggests, "in a great measure be accounted for by the fact
+that poet and musician were always together during the composition of
+the opera; ready mutually to suggest and to profit by suggestions."
+
+"Donizetti," the same writer informs us, while at the Bologna Lyceum,
+"occupied himself not only with music, but also with drawing,
+architecture, and even poetry; and that he could turn out fair enough
+verses for musical purposes was shown when, many years afterward, he
+wrote--so rapidly that the word 'improvise' might here be used--for
+the benefit of a manager in distress, both words and music of a little
+one-act opera, called 'Il Campanello' founded on the 'Sonnette de
+Nuit' of Scribe. Donizetti also arranged the librettos of 'Betty' and
+'The Daughter of the Regiment,' and of the last act of 'Lucia' he not
+only wrote the words but designed the scenes."
+
+Concerning Verdi, Arthur Pougin says: "It is not generally known that,
+virtually, Verdi is himself the author of all his poems. That is to
+say, not only does he always choose the subject of his operas, but, in
+addition to that, he draws out the sketch of the libretti, indicates
+all the situations, constructs them almost entirely as far as regards
+the general plan, brings his personages and his characters on the
+stage in such a way that his _collaborateur_ has simply to follow his
+indications to bring the whole together, and to write the verses."
+
+One of Verdi's poetic assistants was Francesco Piave, who supplied the
+verses for "La Traviata," "Ernani" and several other of his operas. He
+was, Pougin informs us, "a tolerably bad poet, quite wanting in
+invention," but he had the most important quality (from Verdi's point
+of view) "of effacing himself completely, of putting aside every kind
+of personal vanity and of following entirely the indications and the
+desires of the composer, cutting out this, paring down that,
+shortening or expanding at the will of the latter--giving himself up,
+in short, to all his exigencies, whatever they might be."
+
+A question having arisen some years ago, as to the origin of the
+libretto of "Aida," the author of it, M. du Locle, wrote to a Roman
+paper that the first idea of the poem belongs to the celebrated
+Egyptologist, Mariette Bey. He adds: "I wrote the libretto, scene by
+scene, phrase by phrase, in French prose, at Busseto, under the eye of
+the maestro, who took a large share in the work. The idea of the
+finale of the last act, with its two stages, one above the other,
+belongs especially to him."
+
+The libretto for Verdi's last work, "Otello," was prepared by Bo�to,
+who had previously assisted him in rearranging his "Simon Boccanegra,"
+and who also wrote the poem of "La Gioconda" for Ponchielli. Bo�to is
+a thorough believer in Wagner's doctrine that every composer should
+write his own opera books, and he followed this rule in his
+interesting opera "Mefistofele."
+
+Mozart was altogether too careless in accepting librettos unworthy of
+his genius. Yet occasionally he took the liberty to improve the stuff
+that was submitted to him. As the learned librarian, Herr Pohl,
+remarks, "In the 'Entf�hrung' it is interesting to observe the
+alterations in Bretzner's libretto which Mozart's practical
+acquaintance with the stage has dictated, to the author's great
+disgust. Indeed, _Osmin_, one of the most original characters, is
+entirely his own creation, at Fischer's suggestion."
+
+Weber resembled Wagner, among other things, in the habit of carrying
+plans for operas in his head for many years. Thus we read that while
+on the look out for a subject for an opera he and Dusch hit upon "Der
+Freisch�tz," a story by Apel, then just published. At the time,
+however, it did not get beyond the beginning; and not till seven years
+later did Weber begin the work which made his reputation, a work which
+in Dresden, where it was first produced, has had already more than a
+thousand performances, and which even in London was at one time
+played simultaneously at three theatres. When he finally did begin his
+work on the "Freisch�tz" the libretto he used was by another author,
+Herr Kind, a man of considerable dramatic ability, but who--perhaps
+for that very reason--was subsequently so mortified by the fact that
+Weber's superior genius caused his music to receive the lion's share
+of the public's attention, that he refused to write another libretto
+for him. This was unfortunate, for, as ill luck would have it, Weber
+fell into the hands of a Leipsic blue stocking, Wilhelmine von Chezy,
+whose literary gifts were not of the most brilliant order. She
+submitted several subjects to him, from which he selected "Euryanthe;"
+but her sketch proved so unsatisfactory that he altered it entirely
+and compelled her to work it over nine times before he was
+sufficiently satisfied with it to set it to music. The libretto for
+his last opera, "Oberon," was prepared for him in London, but the
+subject, as usual, was his own choice and was based on Wieland's
+famous poem of that name. Weber's rare artistic conscientiousness is
+indicated by the fact that at this time, although he felt that his end
+was approaching, he set to work to learn the English language in order
+to avoid mistakes in adapting his melodies to the accent of the words
+and the spirit of the text.
+
+Having now caught a glimpse of the manner in which the great
+composers find subjects for their operas, and elaborate them, with or
+without the assistance of poets, we may go on to consider the sources
+of the musical inspiration which provides appropriate melodies and
+harmonies for these texts. Experience shows conclusively that the most
+powerful stimulant of the composer's brain is _the possession of a
+really poetic and dramatic text_. To take only one instance--it surely
+cannot be a mere coincidence that the best works of four great
+composers--Spohr, Berlioz, Gounod, and Schumann, are based on the
+story of "Faust." And Schumann, in one of his private letters,
+indicates very clearly why his "Faust" is such an inspired
+composition. Speaking of a performance of this work he says: "It
+appeared to make a good impression--better than my 'Paradise and
+Peri'--no doubt in consequence of the superior grandeur of the poem
+which aroused _my_ powers also to a greater effort."
+
+More significant still are the words which Weber wrote to Fran von
+Chezy when she was writing the libretto for "Euryanthe;" which he
+intended to make better than all his previous works. "When you begin
+to elaborate the text," he wrote; "I entreat you by all that is sacred
+to task me with the most difficult kinds of metre, unexpected rhythms,
+etc., which will force my thoughts into new paths and draw them out of
+their hiding-places."
+
+In one of his theoretical essays, Wagner emphasizes the value of a
+good poem in kindling the spark of inspiration in a composer's mind by
+exclaiming: "Oh, how I adore and honor Mozart because he found it
+impossible to compose for his 'Titus' as good music as for his 'Don
+Juan,' or for his 'Cos� fan Tutte' as good music as for 'Figaro.'"
+Mozart, he adds, always wrote music, but _good_ music he could only
+write when he was inspired, and when this inspiration was supplied by
+a subject worthy of being wedded to his muse.
+
+No doubt Wagner was right in maintaining that Mozart's operas contain
+his best music. Where among all his purely instrumental works is
+anything to be found as inspired as the music in the scenes where the
+ghostly statue nods at _Don Juan_, and subsequently where it enters
+his room and clutches his hand in its marble grasp? I venture to add
+that even Beethoven, although he is not generally regarded as an
+operatic composer _par excellence_, and although his fame chiefly
+rests on his symphonies and other instrumental works, nevertheless
+composed his most inspired music in connection with his one opera
+"Fidelio." I refer to the third "Leonora" overture, and to the music
+in the prison scene, where the digging of the grave is depicted in the
+orchestra with a realism worthy of Wagner, and where the music when
+_Leonora_ levels her pistol at the villain reaches a climax as
+thrilling as is to be found in any dramatic work, musical or literary.
+Obviously, it was the intensely dramatic situation which here inspired
+Beethoven to the grandest effort of his genius.
+
+It has often been asserted that the best numbers in "Fidelio" were
+directly inspired in Beethoven by the emotional exaltation resulting
+from one of his unhappy love affairs. Mr. Thayer doubts this story,
+because he could not find anything in Beethoven's sketch-books
+corroborating it; but even if it should be a myth, there are many well
+authenticated facts which show that Beethoven, like other composers,
+owed many of his best ideas to the magic influence of love in
+stimulating his mental powers. He dedicated thirty-nine compositions
+to thirty-six different women, and it is well known that he was
+constantly falling in love, had made up his mind several times to
+marry, and was twice refused. Female beauty always made a deep
+impression on him, and Marx relates that "even in his later years he
+was fond of looking at pretty faces, and used to stand still in the
+street and gaze after them with his eyeglasses till they were out of
+sight; if anyone noticed this he smiled and looked confused, but not
+annoyed. His little Werther romance he had lived at an early age in
+Bonn. In Vienna, he is said to have had more than one love affair and
+to have made an occasional conquest which would have been difficult
+if not impossible to many an Adonis."
+
+Weber's "Freisch�tz" doubtless owes much of its beauty to the fact
+that it was written but a few months before the composer's marriage.
+In one of his letters to his betrothed he writes, "Yesterday I
+composed all the forenoon and thought of you _very often_, for I was
+at work on a scene of _Agatha_, in which I still cannot attain all the
+fire, longing, and passion that vaguely float before me." And his son
+testifies that Weber's love influenced all his work at the time. "It
+was the reason," he says, "that Weber took to heart, above everything
+else, the part of _Aennchen_, in which he saw an embodiment of his
+bride's special talent and characteristics, and it was under the
+fostering stimulus of this warm feeling that he allowed those parts of
+the opera in which _Aennchen_ appears to ripen first. The first note
+which he wrote down for the 'Freisch�tz' belongs in the duo between
+_Aennchen_ and _Agatha_." He adds that his father, while composing,
+actually saw his bride in his mind's eye, and heard her sing his
+melodies, and accordingly as this imaginary vocalist nodded approval
+or shook her head, he was led to retain or reject certain musical
+ideas.
+
+Schumann's letters contain a superabundance of evidence showing how
+love suggested to him immortal musical thoughts. "I have discovered,"
+he writes to his bride, "that nothing transports the imagination so
+readily as expectation and longing for something, as was again the
+case during the last few days, when I was awaiting a letter from you,
+and meanwhile composed whole volumes--strange, curious, solemn
+things--how you will open your eyes when you play them. Indeed, I am
+at present so full of musical ideas that I often feel as if I should
+explode." This was in 1838, two years before his marriage. "Schumann
+himself admits," as Professor Spitta remarks, "that his compositions
+for the piano written during the period of his courtship reveal much
+of his personal experiences and feelings, and his creative work of
+1840 is of a very striking character. In this single year he wrote
+over a hundred songs, the best he ever gave to the world, and," as
+Professor Spitta continues, "when we look through the words of his
+songs, it is clear that here, more than anywhere, love was the
+prompter--love that had endured so long a struggle, and at last
+attained the goal of its desires. This is confirmed by the 'Myrthen,'
+which he dedicated to the lady of his choice, and the twelve songs
+from R�ckert's 'Springtime of Love'--which were written conjointly by
+the two lovers."
+
+The gay and genial Haydn appears to have been as great a favorite of
+women as Beethoven, and he doubtless owed some of his inspirations to
+their influence upon his susceptible heart. "He always considered
+himself an ugly man," Herr Pohl writes, "and could not understand how
+so many handsome women fell in love with him; 'at any rate,' he used
+to say, 'they were not tempted by my beauty,' though he admitted that
+he liked looking at a pretty woman, and was never at a loss for a
+compliment."
+
+Everybody has heard of the marvellous effect produced on Berlioz's
+ardent imagination by the _Juliet_ of Miss Smithson. He relates in his
+memoirs that an English critic said that after seeing Miss Smithson in
+_Juliet_ he had cried out, "I will marry that woman, and write my
+grandest symphony on this play." "I did both things," he adds, "but I
+never said anything of the sort." It is in "Lelio" that the story of
+his love is embodied; and other compositions of his might be mentioned
+which were simply the overflow of his passions.
+
+Poor Schubert, who enjoyed little of the fame and less of the fortune
+that were due him during his brief life, and who was as unattractive
+in personal appearance as Haydn and Beethoven, does not seem to have
+cared as much for women as most other composers. Nevertheless he fell
+deeply in love with a countess, who, however, was too young to
+reciprocate his feelings. But one day she asked him why he never
+dedicated any of his compositions to her, whereupon he replied, "Why
+should I? Are not all my compositions dedicated to you?" This was as
+neat a compliment as Beethoven once made Frau von Arnim--an incident
+which also gives us a glimpse of his manner of composing. One evening
+at a party Beethoven repeatedly took his note-book from his pocket and
+wrote a few lines in it. Subsequently, when he was alone with Frau von
+Arnim, he looked over what he had written and sang it; whereupon he
+exclaimed: "There, how does that sound? It is yours if you like it; I
+made it for you, you inspired me with it; _I saw it written in your
+eyes_."
+
+Many similar cases might be cited, showing that although women may
+have done little for music from a creative point of view, they are
+indirectly responsible for many of the most inspired products of the
+great composers. And the moral of the story is that a young musician,
+as soon as he has secured a good poetic subject for a song or an
+opera, should hasten to fall in love, in order to tune his
+heart-strings and devotions to concert pitch. And a patriotic wag
+might, perhaps, be allowed to maintain that, as America has more
+pretty girls than any other country in the world, it is easier to fall
+in love here than elsewhere, and that there is, therefore, no excuse
+whatever for American composers if they do not soon lead the world in
+musical inspiration.
+
+Feminine beauty, however, is not the only kind of beauty that arouses
+dormant musical ideas and brings them to light. The beauty of nature
+appeals as strongly to musicians as to poets, and is responsible for
+many of their inspirations. When Mendelssohn visited Fingal's Cave, he
+wrote a letter on one of the Hebrides, inclosing twenty bars of music
+"to show how extraordinarily the place affected me," to use his own
+words. "These twenty bars," says Sir George Grove, "an actual
+inspiration, are virtually identical with the opening of the wonderful
+overture which bears the name of 'Hebrides' or 'Fingal's Cave.'" And
+an English admirer of Mendelssohn, who had the honor of entertaining
+him in the country, notes how deeply he entered into the beauty of the
+hills and the woods. "His way of representing them," he says, "was not
+with the pencil; but in the evenings his improvised music would show
+what he had observed or felt in the past day. The piece which he
+called 'The Rivulet,' which he wrote at that time, for my sister
+Susan, will show what I mean; it was a recollection of a real, actual
+rivulet.
+
+"We observed" he continues, "how natural objects seemed to suggest
+music to him. There was in my sister Honora's garden a pretty creeping
+plant, new at that time, covered with little trumpet-like flowers. He
+was struck with it, and played for her the music which (he said) the
+fairies might play on those trumpets. When he wrote out the piece he
+drew a little branch of that flower all up the margin of the paper."
+In another piece, inspired by the sight of carnations, they found that
+Mendelssohn intended certain arpeggio passages "as a reminder of the
+sweet scent of the flower rising up."
+
+Mozart, as many witnesses have testified, was especially attuned to
+composition by the sight of beautiful scenery. Rochlitz relates that
+when he travelled with his wife through picturesque regions he gazed
+attentively and in silence at the surrounding sights; his features,
+which usually had a reserved and gloomy, rather than a cheerful
+expression, gradually brightened, and then he began to sing, or rather
+to hum, till suddenly he exclaimed: "If I only had that theme on
+paper." He always preferred to live in the country, and wrote the
+greater part of his two best operas, "Don Juan," and "The Magic
+Flute," in one of those picturesque little garden houses which are so
+often seen in Austria and Germany. In one of these airy structures, he
+confessed, he could write more in ten days than he could in his
+apartments in two months.
+
+Berlioz relates somewhere that the musical ideas for his "Faust" came
+to him unbidden during his rambles among Italian hills. Weber's
+melodies are so much like fragrant forest flowers that one feels sure
+before being told that he came across them in the woods and fields.
+His famous pupil, Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber took as
+great delight in taking his friends to see his favorite bits of
+landscape, as he did in composing a fine piece of music; and he adds
+that "this love of nature, and principally of forest life, may explain
+his predilection, in the majority of his operas, for hunting choruses
+and romantic scenery."
+
+Richard Wagner conceived most of his vigorous and eloquent leading
+melodies during his rambles among the picturesque environs of
+Bayreuth, or the sublime snowpeaks of Switzerland. How he elaborated
+them we shall see later on. Of Beethoven's devotion to nature many
+curious anecdotes are told by his contemporaries. A harp manufacturer
+named Stumpff met him in 1823 and wrote an account of his visit in
+"The Harmonicon," a London journal, in which occurs this passage:
+"Beethoven is a capital walker and delights in rambling for hours
+through wild, romantic scenery. I am told, indeed, that he has
+sometimes been out whole nights on such excursions, and is often
+absent from home for several days. On the way to the valley [the
+Hellenenthal, near the Austrian Baden] he often stopped to point out
+the prettiest views, or to remark on the defects of the new buildings.
+Then he would go back again to his own thoughts and hum to himself in
+an incomprehensible fashion; which, I heard, was his fashion of
+composing."
+
+Professor Kl�ber, a well-known artist of that period, who painted
+Beethoven's portrait, relates that he often met Beethoven during his
+walks near Vienna. "It was most interesting to watch him," he writes;
+"how he would stand still as if listening, with a piece of music paper
+in his hands, look up and down and then write something. Dont had told
+me when I met him thus not to speak or take any notice, as he would be
+very much embarrassed or very disagreeable. I saw him once, when I was
+taking a party to the woods, clambering up to an opposite height from
+the ravine which separated us, with his broad-brimmed felt hat tucked
+under his arm; arrived at the top, he threw himself down full length
+and gazed long into the sky."
+
+Another contemporary of Beethoven, G.F. Treitschke, gives us an
+interesting glimpse of Beethoven's manner of creating and improvising.
+Treitschke had been asked to write the text for a new aria that was to
+be introduced in "Fidelio" when that opera was revived at Vienna in
+1814. Beethoven called at seven o'clock in the evening and asked how
+the text of the aria was getting on. Treitschke had just finished it,
+and handed it to him. Beethoven read it over, he continues, "walked up
+and down the room, humming as usual, instead of singing--and opened
+the piano. My wife had often asked him in vain to play; but now,
+putting the text before him, he began a wonderful improvisation,
+which, unfortunately, there were no magic means of recording. From
+this fantasy he seemed to conjure the theme of the aria. Hours passed
+but Beethoven continued to improvise. Supper, which he intended to
+share with us, was served, but he would not be disturbed. Late in the
+evening he embraced me and, without having eaten anything, hurried
+home. The following day the piece was ready in all its beauty."
+
+This anecdote appears to indicate that Beethoven sometimes composed at
+the piano. Meyerbeer, it is said, always composed at his instrument,
+and there is a story that he used to jot down the ideas of other
+composers at the opera and concerts, and, by thinking and playing
+these over, gradually evolve his own themes. It is rather more
+surprising to hear, from Herr Pohl, that Haydn sketched all his
+compositions at the piano. The condition of the instrument, he adds,
+had its effect upon him, beauty of tone being favorable to
+inspiration. Thus he wrote to Artaria in 1788: "I was obliged to buy a
+new forte-piano, that I might compose your clavier sonatas
+particularly well." "When an idea struck him he sketched it out in a
+few notes and figures; this would be his morning's work; in the
+afternoon he would enlarge this sketch, elaborating it according to
+rule, but taking pains to preserve the unity of the idea."
+
+Weber's son relates that it was his father's habit to sit at the
+window on summer evenings and jot down the ideas that had come to him,
+during his solitary walks, on small pieces of music paper, of which a
+large number were usually lying on his table. "No piano," he adds,
+"was touched on these occasions, for his ears spontaneously heard a
+full orchestra, played by good spirits, while he wrote down his neat
+little notes." And Weber himself remarks in one of his essays that,
+"the tone poet who gets his ideas at the piano is almost always born
+poor, or in a fair way of delivering his faculties into the hands of
+the common and commonplace. For these very hands, which, thanks to
+constant practice and training, finally acquire a sort of independence
+and will of their own, are unconscious tyrants and masters over the
+creative power. How very differently does _he_ create whose _inner_
+ear is judge of the ideas which he simultaneously conceives and
+criticises. This mental ear grasps and holds fast the musical visions,
+and is a divine secret belonging to music alone, incomprehensible to
+the layman."
+
+Mozart had already learned to compose without a piano when he was only
+six years old; and, as Mr. E. Holmes remarks, "having commenced
+composition without recourse to the clavier, his powers in mental
+music constantly increased, and he soon imagined effects of which the
+original types existed only in his brain."
+
+Schumann wrote to a young musician in 1848: "Above all things, persist
+in composing mentally, without the aid of the instrument. Turn over
+your melodic idea in your head until you can say to yourself: 'It is
+well done.'" Elsewhere he says: "If you can pick out little melodies
+at the piano, you will be pleased; but if they come to you
+spontaneously, away from the piano, you will have more reason to be
+delighted, for then the inner tone-sense is aroused to activity. The
+fingers must do what the head wishes, and not _vice versa_." And again
+he says: "If you set out to compose, invent everything in your head.
+If the music has emanated from your soul, if you have felt it, others
+will feel it too."
+
+Schumann had discovered the superiority of the mental method of
+composing from experience. In a letter dated 1838 he writes concerning
+his "Davidst�nze:" "If I ever was happy at the piano it was when I
+composed these pieces;" and it was well known that up to 1839 "he used
+to compose sitting at the instrument." We have also just seen how
+Beethoven practically composed one of his "Fidelio" arias at the
+piano. Nor was this by any means an isolated instance. To cite only
+one more case: Ries relates that one afternoon he took a walk with
+Beethoven, returning at eight o'clock. "While we were walking," he
+continues, "Beethoven had constantly hummed, or almost howled, up and
+down the scale, without singing definite notes. When I asked him what
+it was, he replied that a theme for the last allegro of the sonata had
+come into his head. As soon as we entered the room, he ran to the
+piano, without taking off his hat. I sat down in a corner, and he had
+soon forgotten me. For at least an hour he now improvised impetuously
+on the new and beautiful finale of the sonata [opus 57]." Another of
+Beethoven's contemporaries, J. Russell, has left us a vivid
+description of Beethoven when thus composing at the piano, or
+improvising: "At first he only struck a few short detached chords, as
+if he were afraid of being caught doing something foolish; but he soon
+forgot his surroundings, and for about half an hour lost himself in an
+improvisation, the style of which was exceedingly varied, and
+especially distinguished by sudden transitions. The amateurs were
+transported, and to the uninitiated it was interesting to observe how
+his inspirations were reflected in his countenance. He revelled rather
+in bold, stormy moods than in soft and gentle ones. The muscles of his
+face swelled, his veins were distended, his eyes rolled wildly, his
+mouth trembled convulsively, and he had the appearance of an enchanter
+mastered by the spirit he had himself conjured."
+
+Russell was probably one of the witnesses of whom Richard Wagner
+remarked, in his essay on Beethoven, that they have testified to the
+incomparable impression which Beethoven made by his improvisations at
+the piano. And Wagner adds the following suggestive words: "The
+regrets that there was no way of writing down and preserving these
+instantaneous creations cannot be regarded as unreasonable, even in
+comparing these improvisations with the master's greatest works, if we
+bear in mind the fact, taught by experience, that even _less_ gifted
+musicians, whose written compositions are not free from stiffness and
+inelegance, sometimes positively amaze us by the quite unexpected and
+fertile inventiveness which they display while improvising."
+
+A similar remark was made by De Quincey, in pointing out the
+spontaneous origin of some of his essays: "Performers on the organ,"
+he says, "so far from finding their own _impromptu_ displays to fall
+below the more careful and premeditated efforts, on the contrary have
+oftentimes deep reason to mourn over the escape of inspirations and
+ideas born from the momentary fervors of inspiration, but fugitive and
+irrevocable as the pulses in their own flying fingers."
+
+By way of illustrating this thesis a few more cases may be cited.
+Mozart used to sit up late at night, improvising for hours at the
+piano, and, according to one witness, "these were the true hours of
+creation of his divine melodies," a statement which, however, we shall
+presently see reason to modify somewhat. Schubert never improvised in
+public like Mozart, but only "in the intervals of throwing on his
+clothes, or at other times when the music within was too strong to be
+resisted," as Mr. Grove remarks. What an inestimable privilege it must
+have been to witness the spontaneous overflow of so rich a genius as
+Schubert! And once more, Max Maria von Weber writes that his father's
+improvisations on the piano were like delightful dreams. "All who had
+the good fortune to hear him," he says, "testify that the impression
+of his playing was like an Elysian frenzy, which elevates a man above
+his sphere and makes him marvel at the glories of his own soul."
+
+In reading such enthusiastic descriptions--and musical biographies are
+full of them--we cannot but echo De Quincey and Wagner in regretting
+that there has been no shorthand method of taking down and preserving
+these wonderful improvisations of the great masters. Future
+generations will be more favored, if Mr. Edison's improved phonograph
+fulfils the promises made of it. For by simply placing one of these
+instruments near the piano it will be possible hereafter to preserve
+every note and every accent and shade of expression, and reproduce it
+subsequently at will. And not only will momentary inspirations be thus
+preserved, but musicians will no longer be compelled to do all the
+manual labor of writing down their compositions, but will be able to
+follow the example of those German professors, who when they wish to
+write a book, simply engage a stenographer to take down their
+lectures, which they then revise and forward to the publisher. True,
+the orchestration will always have to be done by the master's own
+hands, but in other respects musicians of the future will be as
+greatly benefited as men of letters by the new phonograph which, it is
+predicted, will create as great a revolution in social affairs as the
+telegraph and railroad did when first introduced.
+
+The charm of improvisation lies, of course, in this, that we hear a
+composer creating and playing at the same time. This very fact,
+however, ought to make us cautious not to overestimate the value of
+such improvisations. For we all know how a great genius can invest
+even a commonplace idea with charm by his manner of expressing or
+rendering it. It is probable, therefore, that in most cases these
+improvisations, if noted down and played by _others_, would not make
+as deep an impression as the regularly written compositions of the
+great masters. It is with music as with literature. Schopenhauer says
+that there are three classes of writers: The first class, which is
+very numerous, never think at all, but simply reproduce echoes of what
+they have read in books. The second class, somewhat less numerous,
+think only while they are writing. But the third class, which is very
+small, only write _after_ thinking and because their thoughts clamor
+for utterance.
+
+If we apply this classification to music we see at once that
+improvising comes under the second head: improvising is thinking or
+composing while playing. But the greatest musical ideas are those
+which are conceived entirely in the mind, which needs no pen or piano
+mechanically to stimulate its creative power. Of this there can be no
+question, whatever. With an almost absolute unanimity we find that the
+greatest composers conceived their immortal ideas in the open air,
+where there was no possibility of coaxing them out of an instrument.
+And not only is the bare outline thus composed mentally, but the whole
+composition with all its involved harmonies and varied orchestral
+colors is present in the composer's mind before he puts it down on
+paper. The composition of "Der Freisch�tz" affords a remarkable
+confirmation of this statement. Weber began to compose this opera
+mentally on February 23, but did not write down a single note before
+the second of July. That is, he kept the full score of this wonderful
+work in his brain for more than four months, and, as his son remarks,
+"there is not a number in it which he did not work over ten times in
+his mind, until it sounded satisfactory and he could say to himself
+'That's it,' and then he wrote it down rapidly without hesitation and
+almost without altering a note."
+
+This power of elaborating a musical score in the mind, and hearing it
+inwardly, is a gift which unmusical people find it difficult to
+comprehend, and which even puzzles many musical people. Yet it is a
+power which all students of music ought to possess; and, like other
+capacities, it can be easily cultivated and strengthened.
+
+A comparison with two other senses will throw some light on the
+matter. Most of us can, by thinking fixedly of some appetizing dish,
+recall its flavor sufficiently to start a nerve current and stimulate
+the salivary glands. The image of the flavor, so to speak, makes the
+mouth water. What do we do when we go to a restaurant and look over
+the bill of fare? We simply, on reading the list, recall a faint
+gastronomic image, as it were, of each dish, and the one which is most
+vivid, owing to the peculiar direction of the appetite, decides our
+choice.
+
+The sense of sight presents many curious analogies. Mr. Galton, in his
+"Inquiries into Human Faculty," gives the results of a series of
+investigations which show that there are great differences among
+persons of distinction in various kinds of intellectual work in the
+power of recalling to the mind's eye clear and distinct images of what
+they have seen. Some, for instance, in thinking of the breakfast
+table, could see all the objects--knives, plates, dishes, etc., in the
+mental picture as bright as in the actual scene, and in the
+appropriate colors; others could recall only very dim or blurred
+images of the scene, or none at all; and all stages, from the highest
+to the lowest visualizing power, were represented in the letters he
+received on the subject.
+
+Sometimes these mental images are as vivid as the actual images, or
+even more vivid. Everybody has heard the story of Blake, who, when he
+was painting a portrait, only required one sitting, because
+subsequently he could see the model as distinctly as if he were
+actually sitting in the chair. Mrs. Haweis wrote to Mr. Galton that
+all her life she has had at times a waking vision of "a flight of pink
+roses floating in a mass from right to left," and that before her
+ninth year they were so large and brilliant that she often tried to
+touch them; and their scent, she adds, was overpowering.
+
+Much has been written regarding the remarkable feats of Zuckertort and
+Blackburn who can play as many as sixteen to twenty games of chess at
+once, and blindfolded. Of course the only way they can do this is by
+having in the mind a clear picture of each chess-board, with all the
+figures arranged in proper order.
+
+Mr. Galton says he has among his notes "many cases of persons mentally
+reading off scores when playing the pianoforte, or manuscripts when
+they are making speeches;" and he knows a lady, the daughter of an
+eminent musician, who often imagines she hears her father's playing.
+"The day she told me of it," he says, "the incident had again
+occurred. She was sitting in her room with her maid, and she asked the
+maid to open the door that she might hear the music better. The moment
+the maid got up the music disappeared."
+
+It is obvious that this case, like that of the eminent painter just
+referred to, borders closely on the hallucinations of the insane, and
+Blake _did_ become insane subsequently. But usually there is nothing
+abnormal or pathologic in the power of mentally recalling sights or
+sounds, and it would be well if everybody cultivated this power. Mr.
+Galton mentions an electrical engineer who was able to recall forms
+with great precision, but not color. But after some exercise of his
+color memory he became quite an adept in that, too, and declared that
+the newly-acquired power was a source of much pleasure to him.
+
+In music most of us have the power of recalling a simple melody; and
+who has not been tormented at times by an unbidden melody persistently
+haunting his ears until he was almost ready to commit suicide? But to
+recall a melody at will _with any particular tone-color_, _i.e._, to
+imagine it as being played by a flute, or a violin, or a horn, is much
+less easy; and still more difficult is it to hear two or more notes
+_at once_ in the mind, that is to recall harmonies. It is for this
+reason that people of primitive musical taste care only for operas
+which are full of "tunes." These they can whistle in the street and be
+happy, while the harmonies and orchestral colors elude their
+comprehension and memory. Consequently they call these works "heavy,"
+"scientific," or "intellectual;" whereas if they took pains to educate
+their musical imaginations, they would soon revel in the magic
+harmonies of modern operas, with their infinite variety of gorgeous
+orchestral colors.
+
+Every student of music should carefully heed Schumann's advice.
+"Exercise your imagination," he says, "so that you may acquire the
+power of remembering not only the melody of a composition, but also
+the harmonies which accompany it." And again he says, "You must not
+rest until you are able to understand music on paper." I remember
+that, as a small boy, I used to wonder at my father, who often sat in
+a corner all the evening looking over the score of an opera or
+symphony. And I was very much surprised at the time when he informed
+me that this simple reading of the score gave him almost as vivid a
+pleasure as if he heard it with full orchestra. This power of hearing
+music with the eyes, as it were, is common to all thorough musicians,
+and is, of course, most highly developed in the great composers.
+Schumann even alludes to the opinion, which some one had expressed,
+that a thorough musician ought to be able, on listening for the first
+time to a complicated orchestral piece, to _see_ it bodily as a score
+before his eyes. He adds, however, that this is the greatest feat that
+could be imagined; and I, for my part, doubt whether even the
+marvellously comprehensive mind of a musical genius would be able to
+accomplish it.
+
+These facts illustrate the manner in which composers, being virtuosi
+of the musical imagination, are able to elaborate mentally, and keep
+in the memory, a complete operatic or symphonic score, just as, for
+example, Alexander Dumas, when he wished to write a new novel, used to
+hire a yacht and sail on Southern waters for several days, lying on
+his back--which, by the way, is an excellent method of starting a
+train of thought--and thus arranging all the details of the plot in
+his mind.
+
+The exact way in which _original_ ideas come into the mind is, of
+course, a mystery in music as in literature. Every genius passes
+through a period of apprenticeship, in which he _assimilates_ the
+discoveries of his predecessors, reminiscences of which make up the
+bulk of his early works. Everybody knows how Mozartish, _e.g._,
+Beethoven's first symphony is, and how much in turn Mozart's early
+works smack of Haydn. Gradually, as courage comes with years, the
+gifted composer sets out for unexplored forests and mountain ranges,
+attempting to scale summits which none of his predecessors had trod. I
+say, as courage comes, for in music, strange to say, it requires much
+courage to give the world an entirely new thought. An original
+composer needs not only the courage that is common to all explorers,
+but he must invariably come back prepared to face the accusation that
+his new territory is nothing but a howling wilderness of discords.
+This has been the case quite recently with Wagner, as it was formerly
+with Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, the early Italian composers, and
+many others, including even Rossini, who certainly did not deviate
+very far from the beaten paths. Seyfried relates that when Beethoven
+came across articles in which he was criticised for violating
+established rules of composition, he used to rub his hands gleefully
+and burst out laughing. "Yes, yes!" he exclaimed, "that amazes them,
+and makes them put their heads together, because they have not seen it
+in any of their text-books."
+
+Fortunately for their own peace of mind, the majority of the minor
+composers never get beyond a mere rearrangement of remembered melodies
+and modulations. Their minds are mere galleries of echoes. They write
+for money or temporary notoriety, and not because their brains teem
+with ideas that clamor for utterance. The pianist Hummel was one of
+this class of composers. But whatever his short-comings, he had at
+least, as Wagner admits, the virtue of frankness. For when he was
+asked one day what thoughts or images he had in his mind when he
+composed a certain concerto, he replied that he had been thinking of
+the eighty ducats which his publisher had promised him!
+
+Yet even the greatest composers cannot always command new thoughts at
+will, and it is therefore of interest to note what devices some of
+them resorted to rouse their dormant faculties. Weber's only pupil,
+Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber spent many mornings in
+"learning by heart the words of 'Euryanthe,' which he studied until he
+made them a portion of himself, his own creation, as it were. His
+genius would sometimes lie dormant during his frequent repetitions of
+the words, and then the idea of a whole musical piece would flash
+upon his mind, like the bursting of light into darkness."
+
+I have already referred to the manner in which Weber, while composing
+certain parts of the "Freisch�tz," got his imagination into the proper
+state of creative frenzy by picturing to himself his bride as if she
+were singing new arias for him. Now, in one of Wagner's essays there
+is a curious passage which seems to indicate that Wagner habitually
+conjured his characters before his mental vision and made them sing to
+him, as it were, his original melodies. He advises a young composer
+who wishes to follow his example never to select a dramatic character
+for whom he does not entertain a warm interest. "He should divest him
+of all theatrical apparel," he continues, "and then imagine him in a
+dim light, where he can only see the expression of his eyes. If these
+speak to him, the figure itself is liable presently to make a
+movement, which will perhaps alarm him--but to which he must submit;
+at last the phantom's lips tremble, it opens its mouth, and a
+supernatural voice tells him something that is entirely real, entirely
+tangible, but at the same time so extraordinary (similar, for
+instance, to what the ghostly statue, or the page _Cherubin_ told
+Mozart) that it arouses him from his dream. The vision has
+disappeared; but his inner ear continues to hear; an idea has
+occurred to him, and this idea is a so-called musical _motive_."
+
+As this passage implies, and as he has elsewhere explained at length,
+Wagner looked on the mental process of composing as something
+analogous to dreaming--as a sort of clairvoyance, which enables a
+musician to dive down into the bottomless mysteries of the universe,
+as it were, thence to bring up his priceless pearls of harmony.
+According to the Kant-Schopenhauer philosophy, of which Wagner was a
+disciple, objects or things in themselves do not exist in space and
+time, which are mere forms under which the human mind beholds them. We
+cannot conceive anything except as existing either in space or in
+time. But there is one exception, according to Wagner, and that is
+harmony. Harmony exists not in time, for the time-element in music is
+melody; nor does it exist in space, for the simultaneousness of tones
+is not one of extension or space. Hence our harmonic sense is not
+hampered by the forms of the mind, but gives us a glimpse of things as
+they are in themselves--a glimpse of the world as a superior spirit
+would behold it. And hence the mysterious superterrestrial character
+of such new harmonies as we find in the works of Wagner and
+Chopin--which are unintelligible to ordinary mortals, while to the
+initiated they come as revelations of a new world.
+
+Without feeling the necessity of accepting all the consequences of
+Wagner's mystical doctrine, which I have thus freely paraphrased, no
+one can deny that the attitude of a composer in the moment of
+inspiration is closely analogous to that known as clairvoyance. The
+celebrated vocalist, Vogel, tells an anecdote of Schubert which shows
+strikingly how completely this composer used to be transported to
+another world, and become oblivious of self, when creating. On one
+occasion Vogel received from Schubert some new songs, but being
+otherwise occupied could not try them over at the moment. When he was
+able to do so, he was particularly pleased with one of them, but as it
+was too high for his voice, he had it copied in a lower key. About a
+fortnight afterwards they were again making music together, and Vogel
+placed the transposed song before Schubert on the desk of the piano.
+Schubert tried it through, liked it, and said, in his Vienna dialect,
+"I say, the song's not so bad; _whose is it?_" so completely, in a
+fortnight, had it vanished from his mind. Grove recalls the fact that
+Sir Walter Scott once similarly attributed a song of his own to Byron;
+"but this was in 1828, after his mind had begun to fail."
+
+There is no reason for doubting Vogel's story when we bear in mind the
+enormous fertility of Schubert. He was unquestionably the most
+spontaneous musical genius that ever lived. Vogel, who knew him
+intimately, used the very word _clairvoyance_ in referring to his
+divine inspirations, and Sir George Grove justly remarks that, "In
+hearing Schubert's compositions, it is often as if one were brought
+more immediately and closely into contact with music itself, than is
+the case in the works of others; as if in his pieces the stream from
+the great heavenly reservoir were dashing over us, or flowing through
+us, more directly, with less admixture of any medium or channel, than
+it does in those of any other writer--even of Beethoven himself. And
+this immediate communication with the origin of music really seems to
+have happened to him. No sketches, no delay, no anxious period of
+preparation, no revision appear to have been necessary. He had but to
+read the poem, to surrender himself to the torrent, and to put down
+what was given him to say, as it rushed through his mind."
+
+Schubert was the most omnivorous song composer that ever lived. He
+could hardly see a poem--good, bad, or indifferent, without being at
+once seized by a passionate desire to set it to music. He sometimes
+wrote half a dozen or more songs in one day, and some of them
+originated under the most peculiar circumstances. The serenade, "Hark,
+hark, the lark," for instance, was written in a beer garden. Schubert
+had picked up a volume of Shakespeare accidentally lying on the
+table. Presently he exclaimed, "Such a lovely melody has come into my
+head, if I only had some paper." One of his friends drew a few staves
+on the back of a bill of fare, and on this Schubert wrote his
+entrancing song. "The Wanderer," so full of original details, was
+written in one evening, and when he composed his "Rastlose Liebe,"
+"the paroxysm of inspiration," as Grove remarks, "was so fierce that
+Schubert never forgot it, but, reticent as he often was, talked of it
+years afterward."
+
+These stories remind one of an incident related by Goethe, who one day
+suddenly found a poem spontaneously evolved in his mind, and so
+complete that he ran to the desk and wrote it diagonally on a piece of
+paper, fearing it might escape him if he took time to arrange the
+paper.
+
+In a word, Schubert _improvised with the pen_, and he seems to have
+been an exception to Schopenhauer's rule, that the greatest writers
+are those whose thoughts come to them before writing, and not while
+writing. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that much of the music
+which Schubert composed in this rapid manner is poor stuff; and
+although his short songs are generally perfect in their way, his
+longer compositions would have gained very much had he taken the
+trouble to think them out beforehand, or to revise and condense them
+afterward, which he very rarely did.
+
+With a strange perversity and persistency, musical students and the
+public have been led to believe that the surest sign of supreme
+musical inspiration is the power to dash off melodies as fast as the
+pen can travel. Weber relates in his autobiographic sketch that he
+wrote the second act of one of his early operas in ten days, and adds,
+significantly, that this was "one of the many unfortunate results of
+the wonderful anecdotes about great masters, which make a deep
+impression on youthful minds, and incite them to imitation."
+
+Mozart has always been pointed to by preference to show how a really
+great master shakes his melodies from his sleeves, as it were. Yet, on
+reading Jahn's elaborate account of Mozart's life and works, nothing
+strikes one more than the emphasis he places on the amount of
+preliminary labor which Mozart expended on his compositions, before he
+wrote them down. It appears to be a well-authenticated fact that
+Mozart postponed writing the overture to "Don Giovanni," until the
+midnight preceding the evening when the opera was to be performed in
+public; and that at seven o'clock in the morning, the score was ready
+for the copyist, although he had been drinking punch and was so sleepy
+that his wife had to allow him to doze for two hours, and kept him
+awake the rest of the time by telling him funny stories. But this
+incident loses much of its marvellous character, when we bear in mind
+that Mozart, according to his usual custom, must have had every bar of
+the overture worked out in his head, before he sat down to commit it
+to paper. This last labor was almost purely mechanical, and for this
+reason, whenever he was engaged in writing down his scores, he not
+only worked with amazing rapidity, but did not object to conversation,
+and even seemed to like it; and on one occasion when at work on an
+opera, he wrote as fast as his hands could travel, although in one
+adjoining room there was a singing teacher, in another a violinist,
+and opposite an oboeist, all in full blast!
+
+Mozart himself tried to correct the notion, prevalent even in his day,
+that he composed without effort--that melodies flowed from his mind as
+water from a fountain. During one of the rehearsals of "Don Giovanni,"
+at Prague, he remarked to the leader of the orchestra: "I have spared
+neither pains nor labor in order to produce something excellent for
+Prague. People are indeed mistaken in imagining that art has been an
+easy matter to me. I assure you, my dear friend, no one has expended
+so much labor on the study of composition as I have. There is hardly a
+famous master whose works I have not studied thoroughly and
+repeatedly."
+
+Jahn surmises, doubtless correctly, that the reason why Mozart
+habitually delayed putting down his pieces on paper, was because this
+process, being a mere matter of copying, did not interest him so much
+as the composing and creating, which were all done before he took up
+the pen. "You know," he writes to his father, "that I am immersed in
+music, as it were, that I am occupied with it all day long, that I
+like to study, speculate, reflect." He was often absent-minded and
+even followed his thoughts while playing billiards or nine pins, or
+riding. Like Beethoven, he walked up and down the room, absorbed in
+thought, even while washing his hands; and his hair-dresser used to
+complain that Mozart would never sit still, but would jump up every
+now and then and walk across the room to jot down something, or touch
+the piano, while _he_ had to run after him holding on to his pigtail.
+
+Allusion has been made to the fact that it was almost always in the
+open air that new ideas sprouted in Mozart's mind, especially when he
+was travelling. Whenever a new theme occurred to him he would jot it
+down on a slip of paper, and he always had a special leather bag for
+preserving these sketches, which he carefully guarded. These sketches
+differ somewhat in appearance, but generally they contained the melody
+or vocal part, together with the bass, and brief indications of the
+middle parts, and here and there mention of a special instrument.
+This was sufficient subsequently to recall the whole composition to
+his memory. In elaborating his scores he hardly ever made any
+deviations from the original conception, not even in the
+instrumentation; which seems the more remarkable when we reflect that
+he was the originator of many new orchestral combinations, the beauty
+of which presented itself to his imagination before his ears had ever
+heard them in actuality. These new tone-colors, as Jahn remarks,
+existed intrinsically in the orchestra as a statue does in the marble;
+but it remained for the artist to bring them out; and that Mozart was
+bound to have them is shown by the anecdote of a musician who
+complained to him of the difficulty of a certain passage, and begged
+him to alter it. "Is it possible to play those tones on your
+instrument?" Mozart asked; and when he was told it was, he replied,
+"Then it is your affair to bring them out."
+
+Beethoven's way of mental composing appears at first sight to differ
+widely from Mozart's. But if we had as many specimens of Mozart's
+preliminary sketches as we have of Beethoven's, the difference would
+perhaps appear less pronounced, and would to a large extent resolve
+itself into the fact that Beethoven did not trust his memory so much
+as Mozart did, and therefore put more of his _tentative_, or rough
+sketches, on paper. He always carried in his pockets a few loose
+sheets of music paper, or a number of sheets bound together in a
+note-book. If his supply gave out accidentally, he would seize upon
+any loose sheet of paper, or even a bill of fare, to note down his
+thoughts. In a corner of his room lay a large pile of note-books, into
+which he had copied in ink his first rough pencil-sketches. Many of
+these sketch-books have been fortunately preserved, and they are among
+the most remarkable relics we have of any man of genius. They prove
+above all things that rapidity of work is not a test of musical
+inspiration, and that Carlyle was not entirely wrong when he defined
+genius as "an immense capacity for taking trouble." In the "Fidelio"
+sketch-book, for example, sixteen pages are almost entirely filled
+with sketches for a scene which takes up less than three pages of the
+vocal score. Of the aria, "O Hoffnung," there are as many as eighteen
+different versions, and of the final chorus, ten; and these are not
+exceptional cases by any means. As Thayer remarks: "To follow a
+recitative or aria through all its guises is an extremely fatiguing
+task, and the almost countless studies for a duet or terzet are enough
+to make one frantic." Thayer quotes Jahn's testimony that these
+afterthoughts are invariably superior to the first conception, and
+adds that "some of his first ideas for pieces which are now among the
+jewels of the opera are so extremely trivial and commonplace, that one
+would hardly dare to attribute them to Beethoven, were they not in
+his own handwriting."
+
+On the other hand these sketch-books bear witness to the extreme
+fertility of Beethoven's genius. Thayer estimates that the number of
+distinct ideas noted in them, which remained unused, is as large as
+the number which he used; and he refers to this as a commentary on the
+remark which Beethoven made toward the close of his life: "It seems to
+me as if I were only just beginning to compose." And Nottebohm, who
+has studied these sketch-books more thoroughly than any one else,
+thinks that if Beethoven had elaborated all the symphonies which he
+began in these books we should have at least fifty instead of nine.
+
+The sketch-books show that Beethoven was in the habit of working at
+several compositions at the same time; and the ideas for these are so
+jumbled up in his books that he himself apparently needed a guide to
+find them. At least, when ideas belonging together are widely
+separated he used to connect them by writing the letters VI over the
+first passage and DE over the second. He also used to write the word
+"better" in French on some pages, or else the figures 100, 500, 1,000,
+etc., probably, as Schindler thinks, to indicate the relative value of
+certain ideas.
+
+When his mind was in a creative mood, Beethoven was as completely
+absorbed (or "absent-minded," as we generally say) as Mozart. This is
+illustrated by an amusing trait described by his biographers.
+"Beethoven was extremely fond of washing. He would pour water
+backwards and forwards over his hands for a long time together, and if
+at such times a musical thought struck him and he became absorbed, he
+would go on until the whole floor was swimming, and the water had
+found its way through the ceiling into the room beneath" (Grove).
+Consequently, as may be imagined, he not infrequently had trouble with
+his landlord. He was constantly changing his lodgings, and always
+spent the summer in the country, where he did his best work. "In the
+winter," he once remarked to Rellstab, "I do but little; I only write
+out and score what I have composed in the summer. But that takes a
+long time. When I get into the country I am fit for anything."
+
+On account of his deafness, Beethoven affords a striking instance of
+the power musicians have of imagining novel sound effects which they
+never could have heard with their ears. In literature we blame a
+writer who, as the expression goes, "evolves his facts from his inner
+consciousness;" but in music this proceeding is evidence of the
+highest genius, because music has only a few elementary "facts" or
+prototypes, in nature. Beethoven was deaf at thirty-two. He never
+heard his "Fidelio," and for twenty-five years he could hear music
+only with the inner ear. But musicians are in one respect more
+fortunate than painters. If Titian had lost his eyesight, he could
+never have painted another picture; whereas Beethoven after losing his
+principal sense still continued to compose, better than ever. Mr.
+Thayer even thinks that from a purely artistic point of view
+Beethoven's deafness may have been an advantage to him; for it
+compelled him to concentrate all his thoughts on the symphonies in his
+head, undisturbed by the harsh noises of the external world. And that
+he did not forego the _delights_ of music is obvious from the fact
+that the pleasure of creating is more intense than the pleasure of
+hearing; and is, moreover illustrated by the great delight he felt in
+his later years when he read the compositions of Schubert (for he
+could not hear them) and found in them the evidence of genius, which
+he did not hesitate to proclaim.
+
+In considering Beethoven's deafness, it is well to bear in mind the
+words of Schopenhauer: "Genius is its own reward," he says. "If we
+look up to a great man of the past we do not think, How fortunate he
+is to be still admired by all of us; but, How happy he must have been
+in the immediate enjoyment of a mind the traces of which refresh
+generations of men." Schumann, Weber, and others, repeatedly testify
+in their letters to the great delight they felt in creating; and at
+the time when he was arranging his "Freisch�tz" for the piano, Weber
+wrote, more forcibly than elegantly, that he was enjoying himself like
+the devil.
+
+I have already stated that Weber, like Beethoven, generally got his
+new ideas during his walks in the country; and riding in an open
+carriage seems to have especially stimulated his brain, as it did
+Mozart's. The weird and original music to the dismal Wolf's-Glen scene
+in the "Freisch�tz" was conceived one morning when he was on his way
+to Pillnitz, and the wagon was occasionally shrouded in dense clouds.
+
+A curious story is told by a member of Weber's orchestra, showing how
+a musical theme may be sometimes suggested by incongruous and
+grotesque objects. He was one day taking a walk with Weber in the
+suburbs of Dresden. It began to rain and they entered a beer garden
+which had just been deserted by the guests in consequence of the rain.
+The waiters had piled the chairs on the tables, pell mell. At sight of
+these confused groups of chairs and tables Weber suddenly exclaimed,
+"Look here, Roth, doesn't that look like a great triumphal march?
+Thunder! hear those trumpet blasts! I can use that--I can use that!"
+In the evening he wrote down what his imagination had heard, and it
+subsequently became the great march in "Oberon."
+
+Some psychological interest also attaches to the remark with which
+Weber's son prefaces this story--namely that Weber was constantly
+transmuting forms and colors into sounds; and that lines and forms
+seemed to stimulate his melodic inventiveness pre-eminently, whereas
+sounds affected his harmonic sense.
+
+My subject is by no means exhausted, but for fear of fatiguing the
+reader with an excess of details I will close with a few facts
+regarding Richard Wagner's method of composing. I am indebted for
+these facts to the kindness of Herr Seidl, of the Metropolitan Opera
+House in New York, who was Wagner's secretary for several years, and
+helped him prepare "G�tterd�mmerung" and "Parsifal" for the press.
+
+Like his famous predecessors, Wagner always carried some sheets of
+music paper in his pocket, on which he jotted down with a pencil such
+ideas as came to him on solitary walks, or at other times. These he
+gave to his wife, who inked them over and arranged them in piles. In
+these sketches the vocal part was always written out in full, while
+the orchestral part was roughly indicated in two or more additional
+staves. Frau Cosima has preserved most of these sketches, and they
+will doubtless some day be reproduced in fac-simile, like some of
+Beethoven's.
+
+Whenever Wagner was in the mood for composing he would say to Herr
+Seidl, "Bring me my sketches." Then he would retire to his composing
+room, to which no one was ever admitted, not even his wife and
+children. At lunch-time, the servant would bring something to the
+ante-room, without being allowed to see the master in his sanctum. How
+Wagner conducted himself there is not known, except that strange vocal
+sounds, and a few passionate chords on the piano would occasionally
+reach the ears of neighbors. Wagner appears to have used his piano
+just as Beethoven did his, even after he had become deaf:--as a sort
+of lightning-rod for his fervent emotions.
+
+Much nonsense has been written concerning the fact that Wagner used to
+wear gaudy costumes of silk and satin while he was composing, and that
+he had colored glass in his windows, which gave every object a
+mysterious aspect. He was called an imitator of the eccentric King of
+Bavaria, and some went so far as to declare him insane. But in truth,
+Wagner was simply endeavoring to put himself into an atmosphere most
+favorable for dramatic creation. We all know how much clothes help to
+make a man, in more than one sense; and any one who has ever taken
+part in private theatricals will remember how much the costume helped
+him to get into the proper frame of mind for interpreting his r�le.
+This was all that Wagner aimed at in wearing his medi�val costumes;
+and the wonderful realism and vividness of his dramatic conceptions
+certainly more than justify the unusual methods he pursued to attain
+them.
+
+After elaborating the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic details of his
+scores, Wagner considered his main task done, and the orchestration
+was completed down-stairs in his music room. In his earliest operas
+Wagner did not write his scenes in their regular order, but took those
+first which specially proffered themselves. Of the "Flying Dutchman,"
+for instance, he wrote the spinning chorus first, and he was delighted
+to find on this occasion, as he himself says, that he could still
+compose after a long interruption. He used a piano but rather to
+stimulate and correct than to invent. In his later works the piano is
+absolutely out of the question. He wrote the music, scene after scene,
+following the text; and the conception of the whole score is so
+absolutely orchestral that the piano cannot even give as faint a
+notion of it as a photograph can give of the splendors of a Titian.
+Wagner, as he himself tells us, was unable to play his scores on the
+piano, but always tried to get Liszt to do that for him.
+
+It is possible that some of my readers have never seen a full
+orchestral score of "Siegfried" or "Tristan." If so, I advise them to
+go to a music store and look at one as a matter of curiosity. They
+will find a large quarto volume, every page of which represents only
+one line of music. There are separate staves for the violins, violas,
+cellos, double basses, flutes, bassoons, clarinets, horns, tubas,
+trombones, kettle-drums, etc., each family forming a quartette in
+itself, and each having its own peculiar emotional quality. In
+conducting an opera the Kapellmeister has to keep his eye and ear at
+the same time on each of these groups, as well as on the vocal parts
+and scenic effects. If this requires a talent rarely found among
+musicians, how very much greater must be the mind which created this
+complicated operatic score! No one who tries to realize what this
+implies, and remembers that Wagner wrote several of his best music
+dramas among the mountains of Switzerland, years before he could dream
+of ever hearing the countless new harmonies and orchestral tone-colors
+which he had discovered, can deny, I think, that I was right in
+maintaining that the composing of an opera is the most wonderful
+achievement of human genius.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+SCHUMANN
+
+AS MIRRORED IN HIS LETTERS
+
+
+Clara Schumann, the most gifted woman that has ever chosen music as a
+profession, and who, at the age of sixty-nine, still continues to be
+among the most fascinating of pianists, placed the musical world under
+additional obligations when she issued three years ago the collection
+of private letters, written by Schumann between the ages of eighteen
+and thirty (1827-40), partly to her, partly to his mother, and other
+relatives, friends, and business associates. She was prompted to this
+act not only by the consciousness that there are many literary gems in
+the correspondence which should not be lost to the world, but by the
+thought that more is generally known of Schumann's eccentricities than
+of his real traits of character. Inasmuch as a wretched script was one
+of the most conspicuous of these eccentricities, it is fortunate that
+his wife lived to edit his letters; but even she, though familiar with
+his handwriting during many years of courtship and marriage, was not
+infrequently obliged to interpolate a conjectural word. Schumann had
+a genuine vein of humor, which he reveals in his correspondence as in
+his compositions and criticisms. He was aware that his manuscript was
+not a model of caligraphy, but, on being remonstrated with, he
+passionately declared he could not do any better, promising, however,
+sarcastically that, as a predestined diplomat, he would keep an
+amanuensis in future. And on page 245 begins a long letter to Clara
+which presents a curious appearance. Every twentieth word or so is
+placed between two vertical lines, regarding which the reader is kept
+in the dark until he comes to this postscript: "In great haste, owing
+to business affairs, I add a sort of lexicon of indistinctly written
+words, which I have placed within brackets. This will probably make
+the letter appear very picturesque and piquant. The idea is not so
+bad. Adio, clarissima Cara, cara Clarissima." Then follows the
+"lexicon" of twenty words, including his own signature.
+
+Although, in a semi-humorous vein, Schumann repeatedly alludes in
+these letters to the "foregone conclusion" that they will some day be
+printed, there is hardly any indication that such a thought was ever
+in his mind while writing them. They are, in fact, full of confidences
+and confessions, some of which he could not have been very ambitious
+to see in print; such as his frequent appeals for "more ducats,"
+during his student days, and his sophistically ingenious excuses for
+needing so much money, placed side by side with his frank admission
+that he had no talent for economy, and was very fond of cigars, wine,
+and especially travelling. In one of the most amusing of the letters,
+he advances twelve reasons why his mother should send him about $200
+to enable him to see Switzerland and Italy. As a last, convincing
+argument, he gently hints that it is very easy for a student in
+Heidelberg to borrow money at 10 per cent. interest. He got the money
+and enjoyed his Swiss tour, mostly on foot and alone; but in Italy
+various misfortunes overtook him--he fell ill, his money ran out, and
+he was only too glad to return to Heidelberg in the same condition as
+when he had first arrived there, on which occasion the state of his
+purse compelled him to make the last part of the journey from Leipsic
+on foot.
+
+On this trip he enjoyed that unique emotional thrill of the German,
+the first sight of the Rhine, with which he was so enchanted that he
+went to the extreme forward end of the deck, smoking a good cigar
+given him by an Englishman: "Thus I sat alone all the afternoon,
+revelling in the wild storm which ploughed through my hair, and
+composing a poem of praise to the Northeast wind"--for Schumann often
+indulged in poetic efforts, especially when inspired to flights of
+fancy by his favorite author, Jean Paul.
+
+At Heidelberg, which he called "ein ganzes Paradies von Natur," he
+spent one of the happiest years of his life. Student life at this town
+he thus compares with Leipsic:
+
+"In and near Heidelberg the student is the most prominent and
+respected individual, since it is he who supports the town, so that
+the citizens and Philistines are naturally excessively courteous. I
+consider it a disadvantage for a young man, especially for a student,
+to live in a town where the student only and solely rules and
+flourishes. Repression alone favors the free development of a youth,
+and the everlasting loafing with students greatly limits
+many-sidedness of thought, and consequently exerts a bad influence on
+practical life. This is one great advantage Leipsic has over
+Heidelberg--which, in fact, a large city always has over a small
+one.... On the other hand, Heidelberg has this advantage, that the
+grandeur and beauty of the natural scenery prevent the students from
+spending so much of their time in drinking; for which reason the
+students here are ten times more sober than in Leipsic."
+
+Schumann himself, as we have said, was fond of a glass of good wine.
+On his first journey, at Prague, he tells us, the Tokay made him
+happy. And in another place he exclaims, "Every day I should like to
+drink champagne to excite myself." But, though of a solitary
+disposition, he did not care to drink alone, for "only in the intimate
+circle of sympathetic hearts does the vine's blood become transfused
+into our own and warm it to enthusiasm." Schumann's special vice was
+the constant smoking of very strong cigars; nor does he appear to have
+devoted to gastronomic matters the attention necessary to nourish such
+an abnormally active brain as his. At one time he lived on potatoes
+alone for several weeks; at another he saved on his meals to get money
+for French lessons; and although he took enough interest in a good
+_menu_ to copy it in a letter, he repeatedly laments the time which is
+uselessly wasted in eating. Such tenets, combined with his smoking
+habit, doubtless helped to shatter his powers, leading finally to the
+lunatic asylum and a comparatively early death.
+
+His frequent fits of melancholy may also perhaps be traced in part to
+these early habits. Though probably unacquainted with Burton, he held
+that "there is in melancholy sentiments something extremely attractive
+and even invigorating to the imagination." Attempts were frequently
+made by his friends to teach him more sociable habits. Thus, at
+Leipsic, "Dr. Carus's family are anxious to introduce me to
+innumerable families--'it would be good for my prospects,' they
+think, and so do I, and yet I don't get there, and in fact seldom go
+out at all. Indeed, I am often very leathery, dry, disagreeable, and
+laugh much inwardly." That his apparent coldness and indifference to
+his neighbors and friends were due chiefly to his absorption in his
+world of ideas, and his consequent want of sympathy with the
+artificial usages of society, becomes apparent from this confession,
+written to Clara in 1838:
+
+"I should like to confide to you many other things regarding my
+character--how people often wonder that I meet the warmest expressions
+of love with coldness and reserve, and often offend and humiliate
+precisely those who are most sincerely devoted to me. Often have I
+queried and reproached myself for this, for inwardly I acknowledge
+even the most trifling favor, understand every wink, every subtle
+trait in the heart of another, and yet I so often blunder in what I
+say and do."
+
+In these melancholy moods nature was his refuge and consolation.
+He objected to Leipsic because there were no delights of
+nature--"everything artificially transformed; no valley, no mountain,
+where I might revel in my thoughts; no place where I can be alone,
+except in the bolted room, with the eternal noise and turmoil below."
+Although he had but a few intimate friends, he was liked by all the
+students, and even enjoyed the name of "a favorite of the Heidelberg
+public." One of his intimate friends was Flechsig, but even of him he
+paradoxically complains that he is too sympathetic: "He never cheers
+me up; if I am occasionally in a melancholy mood, he ought not to be
+the same, and he ought to have sufficient humanity to stir me up.
+That I often need cheering up, I know very well." Yet he was as often
+in a state of extreme happiness and enjoyment of life and his
+talents. He even, on occasion, indulged in students' pranks. On his
+journey to Heidelberg he induced the postilion to let him take the
+reins: "Thunder! how the horses ran, and how extravagantly happy I
+was, and how we stopped at every tavern to get fodder, and how I
+entertained the whole company, and how sorry they all were when I
+parted from them at Wiesbaden!!" At Frankfort, one morning, he
+writes: "I felt an extraordinary longing to play on a piano. So I
+calmly went to the nearest dealer, told him I was the tutor of a
+young English lord who wished to buy a grand piano, and then I
+played, to the wonder and delight of the bystanders, for three hours.
+I promised to return in two days and inform them if the lord wanted
+the instrument; but on that date I was at R�desheim, drinking
+R�desheimer." In another place he gives an account of "a scene
+worthy of Van Dyck, and a most genial evening" he spent with some
+students at a tavern filled with peasants. They had some grog, and at
+the request of the peasants one of the students declaimed, and
+Schumann played. Then a dance was arranged. "The peasants beat time
+with their feet. We were in high spirits, and danced dizzily among
+the peasant feet, and finally took a touching farewell of the company
+by giving all the peasant girls, Minchen, etc., smacking kisses on
+the lips."
+
+Were women, like men, afflicted with retrospective jealousy,
+Schumann's widow, in editing these letters, would have received a pang
+from many other passages revealing Schumann's fondness for the fair
+sex. He allowed no good-looking woman to pass him on the street
+without taking the opportunity to cultivate his sense of beauty. After
+his engagement to Clara he gives her fair warning that he has the
+"very mischievous habit" of being a great admirer of beautiful women
+and girls. "They make me positively smirk, and I swim in panegyrics on
+your sex. Consequently, if at some future time we walk along the
+streets of Vienna and meet a beauty, and I exclaim, 'Oh, Clara! see
+this heavenly vision,' or something of the sort, you must not be
+alarmed nor scold me." He had a number of transient passions before he
+discovered that Clara was his only true love. There was Nanni, his
+"guardian angel," who saved him from the perils of the world and
+hovered before his vision like a saint. "I feel like kneeling before
+her and adoring her like a Madonna." But Nanni had a dangerous rival
+in Liddy. Not long, however, for he found Liddy silly, cold as marble,
+and--fatal defect--she could not sympathize with him regarding Jean
+Paul. "The exalted image of my ideal disappears when I think of the
+remarks she made about Jean Paul. Let the dead rest in peace."
+
+Several of his flames are not alluded to in this correspondence. On
+his travels he appears to have had the habit of noting down in his
+diary the prevalence and peculiarities of feminine beauty. He
+complains that from Mainz to Heidelberg he "did not see a single
+pretty face." Yet, as a whole, the Rhine maidens seem to have won his
+admiration:
+
+"What characteristic faces among the lowest classes! On the west shore
+of the Rhine the girls have very delicate features, indicating
+amiability rather than intelligence; the noses are mostly Greek, the
+face very oval and artistically symmetrical, the hair brown; I did not
+see a single blonde. The complexion is soft, delicate, with more white
+than red; melancholy rather than sanguine. The Frankfort girls, on the
+other hand, have in common a sisterly trait--the character of German,
+manly, sad earnestness which we often find in our quondam free
+cities, and which toward the east gradually merges into a gentle
+softness. Characteristic are the faces of all the Frankfort girls:
+intellectual or beautiful few of them; the noses mostly Greek, often
+snub-noses; the dialect I did not like."
+
+The English type of beauty appears to have especially won his
+approval. "When she spoke it sounded like the whispering of angels,"
+he says of an Englishwoman, "as pretty as a picture," whom he met.
+Elsewhere he says, laconically: "On the 24th I arrived at Mainz with
+the steamer, in company with twenty to thirty English men and women.
+Next day the number of English increased to fifty. If I ever marry, it
+must be an English woman." Some years later, however, with the
+fickleness of genius, he writes about Ernestine, the daughter of a
+rich Bohemian Baron, "a delightfully innocent, childish soul, tender
+and pensive, attached to me and to everything artistic by the most
+sincere love, extremely musical--in short, just the kind of a girl I
+could wish to marry." He did become engaged to her, but the following
+year the engagement was dissolved; and soon after this he discovered
+that his artistic admiration for Clara Wieck had assumed the form of
+love. Although her father opposed their union several years, on
+account of Schumann's poverty, the young couple often met, and not
+only in the music-room. In 1833 he writes to his mother regarding
+Clara: "The other day, when we went to Connewitz (we take a two or
+three hours' walk almost daily), I heard her say to herself, 'How
+happy I am! how happy!' Who would not like to hear that! On this road
+there are a number of very useless stones in the midst of the
+footpath. Now, as it happens in conversation that I more frequently
+look up than down, she always walks behind me and gently pulls my coat
+at every stone, lest I may fall."
+
+It was most fortunate for Schumann that his bride and wife was one of
+the greatest living pianists. For, owing to the accident to his hand,
+though he could still improvise, he could not appear in public to
+interpret his own compositions, which depended so much for their
+success on a sympathetic performance, since they differed so greatly
+from the prevalent style of Hummel and the classical masters, that
+even so gifted a musician as Mendelssohn failed to understand them.
+But Clara made it the task of her life to secure him recognition, and
+this was an additional bond that united their souls. "When you are
+mine," he writes, "you will occasionally hear something new from me; I
+believe you will often inspire me, and the mere fact that I shall then
+frequently hear my own compositions will cheer me up;" and: "Your
+Romance showed me once more that we must become man and wife. Every
+one of your thoughts comes from my soul, even as I owe all my music
+to you." To Dorn he writes that many of his compositions, including
+the Noveletten, the Kreisleriana, and the Kinderscenen, were inspired
+by Clara; and it is well known that his love became the incentive to
+the composition, in one year, of over a hundred wonderful songs--his
+previous compositions, up to 1840, having all been for the piano
+alone. In the last letter of this collection he says: "Sometimes it
+appears to me as if I were treading entirely new paths in music;" and
+there are many other passages showing that he realized well that the
+very things which his contemporaries criticised and decried as
+eccentric and obscure (Hummel, _e.g._, objects to his frequent changes
+of harmony and his originality!), were really his most inspired
+efforts. Though he never allowed the desire for popularity to
+influence his work, yet he occasionally craves appreciation. "I am
+willing to confess that I should be greatly pleased if I could succeed
+in composing something which would impel the public, after hearing you
+play it, to run against the walls in their delight; for vain we
+composers are, even though we have no reason to be so." It must have
+given him a strange shock when an amateur asked him, at one of his
+wife's concerts in Vienna, if he also was musical!
+
+In her efforts to win appreciation for her husband, Clara was nobly
+assisted by Liszt. Just like Wagner, Schumann was not at first very
+favorably impressed with Liszt, owing to the sensational flavor of his
+early performances. But he soon changed his mind, especially when
+Liszt played some of his (Schumann's) compositions. "Many things were
+different from my conception of them, but always '_genial_,' and
+marked by a tenderness and boldness of expression which even he
+presumably has not at his command every day. Becker was the only other
+person present, and he had tears in his eyes." And two days later:
+"But I must tell you that Liszt appears to me grander every day. This
+morning he again played at Raimund H�rtel's, in a way to make us all
+tremble and rejoice, some �tudes of Chopin, a number of the Rossini
+soir�es, and other things." Of other contemporary pianists Hummel,
+"ten years behind the time," and Thalberg, whom he liked better as
+pianist than as composer, are alluded to. Yet he writes in 1830 that
+he intends going to Weimar, "for the sly reason of being able to _call
+myself_ a pupil of Hummel." Wieck, his father-in-law, he esteemed
+greatly as teacher and adviser, but it offended him deeply that Wieck
+should have followed the common error of estimating genius with a
+yard-stick, and asked where were his "Don Juan" and his "Freisch�tz?"
+His enthusiasm for Schubert, Chopin, and especially for Bach, finds
+frequent expression. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavichord" he declares is
+his "grammar, and the best of all grammars. The fugues I have
+analyzed successively to the minutest details; the advantage resulting
+from this is great, and has a morally bracing effect on the whole
+system, for Bach was a man through and through; in him there is
+nothing done by halves, nothing morbid, but all is written for time
+eternal." Six years later: "Bach is my daily bread; from him I derive
+gratification and get new ideas--'compared with him we are all
+children,' Beethoven has said, I believe." One day a caller remarked
+that Bach was old and wrote in old-fashioned manner: "But I told him
+he was neither old nor new, but much more than that, namely, eternal.
+I came near losing my temper." Concerning the unappreciative
+Mendelssohn, he writes to Clara:
+
+"I am told that he is not well disposed toward me. I should feel sorry
+if that were true, since I am conscious of having preserved noble
+sentiments toward him. If you know anything let me hear it on
+occasion; that will at least make me cautious, and I do not wish to
+squander anything where I am ill-spoken of. Concerning my relations
+toward him as a musician [1838], I am quite aware that I could learn
+of him for years; but he, too, some things of me. Brought up under
+similar circumstances, destined for music from childhood, I would
+surpass you all--that I feel from the energy of my inventive powers."
+
+Concerning this energy he says, some time after this, when he had
+just finished a dozen songs: "Again I have composed so much that I am
+sometimes visited by a mysterious feeling. Alas! I cannot help it. I
+could wish to sing myself to death, like a nightingale."
+
+One of the most interesting bits of information contained in this
+correspondence is that, when quite a young man, Schumann commenced a
+treatise on musical �sthetics. In view of the many epoch-making
+thoughts contained in his two volumes of collected criticisms, it is
+very much to be regretted that this plan was not carried out. On one
+question of musical psychology light is thrown by several of these
+letters. Like many other composers, it seems that Schumann often, if
+not generally, had some pictorial image or event in his mind in
+composing. "When I composed my first songs," he writes to Clara, "I
+was entirely within you. Without such a bride one cannot write such
+music." "I am affected by everything that goes on in the
+world--politics, literature, mankind. In my own manner I meditate on
+everything, which then seeks utterance in music. That is why many of
+my compositions are so difficult to understand, because they relate to
+remote affairs; and often significant, because all that's remarkable
+in our time affects me, and I have to give it expression in musical
+language." One of the letters to Clara begins: "Tell me what the first
+part of the Fantasia suggests to you. Does it not bring many pictures
+before your mind?" Concerning the "Phantasiest�cke" he writes: "When
+they were finished I was delighted to find the story of Hero and
+Leander in them.... Tell me if you, too, find this picture fitting the
+music." "The Papillons," he says once more, are intended to be a
+musical translation of the final scene in Jean Paul's "Flegeljahre."
+
+Believers in telepathy will be interested in the following additional
+instance of composing with a visual object in mind: "I wrote to you
+concerning a presentiment; it occurred to me on the days from March
+24th to 27th, when I was at work on my new composition. There is a
+place in it to which I constantly recurred; it is as if some one
+sighed, 'Ach, Gott!' from the bottom of his heart. While composing, I
+constantly saw funeral processions, coffins, unhappy people in
+despair; and when I had finished, and long searched for a title, the
+word 'corpse-fantasia' continually obtruded itself. Is not that
+remarkable? During the composition, moreover, I was often so deeply
+affected that tears came to my eyes, and yet I knew not why and had no
+reason--till Theresa's letter arrived, which made everything clear."
+His brother was on his death-bed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The collection of Schumann's letters so far under consideration met
+with such a favorable reception that a second edition was soon called
+for, and this circumstance no doubt promoted the publication of a
+second series, extending to 1854, two years before Schumann's sad
+death in the lunatic asylum near Bonn. This second volume includes a
+considerable number of business letters to his several publishers. In
+one of these he confides to Dr. H�rtel his plan of collecting and
+revising his musical criticisms, and publishing them in two volumes.
+But as this letter was, a few months later, followed by a similar one
+addressed to the publisher Wigand, who subsequently printed the
+essays, it is to be inferred that Breitkopf & H�rtel, though assured
+of the future of Schumann's compositions, doubted the financial value
+of his musical essays--an attitude pardonable at a time when there was
+still a ludicrous popular prejudice against literary utterances by a
+musician. In 1883, however, after Wigand had issued a third edition of
+the "Collected Writings on Music and Musicians" (which have also been
+translated into English by Mrs. Ritter), Breitkopf & H�rtel atoned for
+their error by purchasing the copyright.
+
+Schumann's letters to his publishers show that he used to suggest his
+own terms, which were commonly acceded to without protest. For his
+famous quintet he asked twenty louis d'or, or about $100; for
+"Paradise and the Peri," $500; the piano concerto, $125; Liederalbum,
+op. 79, $200; "Manfred," $250. He frequently emphasizes his desire to
+have his compositions printed in an attractive style, and in 1839
+writes to H�rtel that he cannot describe his pleasure on receiving the
+"Scenes of Childhood." "It is the most charming specimen of musical
+typography I have ever seen." The few misprints he discovers in it he
+frankly attributes to his MS. In a letter to his friend Rosen he
+writes that "it must be a deucedly comic pleasure to read my
+Sanskrit." But his musical handwriting appears to have been nearer to
+Sanskrit than his epistolary, if we may judge by the specimen
+fac-similes printed in Naumann's "History of Music."
+
+The promptness with which all the leading music publishers of Germany
+issued complete editions of Schumann's vocal and pianoforte
+compositions, as soon as the copyright had expired, shows how
+profitable they must be. But during his lifetime it was quite
+otherwise, and in a letter to Kossmaly he adduces the following four
+reasons for this state of affairs: "(1) inherent difficulties of form
+and contents; (2) because, not being a virtuoso, I cannot perform them
+in public; (3) because I am the editor of my musical paper, in which I
+could not allude to them; (4) because Fink is editor of the other
+paper, and would not allude to them." Elsewhere he remarks, concerning
+this rival editor: "It is really most contemptible on Fink's part not
+to have mentioned a single one of my pianoforte compositions in nine
+[seven] years, although they are always of such a character that it is
+impossible to overlook them. It is not for my name's sake that I am
+annoyed, but because I know what the future course of music is to be."
+It was in behalf of this tendency that he toiled on his paper, which
+at first barely paid its expenses, having only 500 subscribers several
+years after its foundation. And he not only avoided puffing his own
+compositions, but even inserted a contribution by his friend Kossmaly
+in which he was placed in the second rank of vocal composers! Yet,
+though he printed the article, he complains about it in a private
+letter: "In your article on the Lied, I was a little grieved that you
+placed me in the _second_ class. I do not lay claim to the first, but
+I think I have a claim to a place of _my own_, and least of all do I
+wish to see myself associated with Reissiger, Curschmann, etc. I know
+that my aims, my resources, are far beyond theirs, and I hope you will
+concede this and not accuse me of vanity, which is far from me."
+
+Many of the letters in the present collection are concerned with the
+affairs of Schumann's paper, the _Neue Zeitschrift f�r Musik_,
+detailing his plans for removing it to a larger city than Leipsic, and
+the atrocious red-tape difficulties and delays he was subjected to
+when he finally did transfer it to Vienna. Although the paper was
+exclusively devoted to music, the _Censur_ apparently took three or
+four months to make up its mind whether the state was in danger or not
+from the immigration of a new musical periodical. The editor confesses
+that he did not find as much sympathy as he had expected in Vienna;
+yet the city--as he writes some years later at D�sseldorf--"continues
+to attract one, as if the spirits of the departed great masters were
+still visible, and as if it were the real musical home of Germany."
+"Eating and drinking here are incomparable. You would be delighted
+with the Opera. Such singers and such an _ensemble_ we do not have."
+"The admirable Opera is a great treat for me, especially the chorus
+and orchestra. Of such things we have _no conception_ in Leipsic. The
+ballet would also amuse you." "A more encouraging public it would be
+difficult to find anywhere; it is really too encouraging--in the
+theatre one hears more applause than music. It is very merry, but it
+annoys me occasionally." "But I assure you confidentially that long
+and alone I should not care to live here; serious men and affairs are
+here in little demand and little appreciated. A compensation for this
+is found in the beautiful surroundings. Yesterday I was in the
+cemetery where Beethoven and Schubert are buried. Just think what I
+found on Beethoven's grave: _a pen_, and, what is more, a steel pen.
+It was a happy omen for me and I shall preserve it religiously." On
+Schubert's grave he found nothing, but in the city he found Schubert's
+brother, a poor man with eight children and no possessions but a
+number of his brother's manuscripts, including "a few operas, four
+great masses, four or five symphonies, and many other things." He
+immediately wrote to Breitkopf & H�rtel to make arrangements for their
+publication.
+
+It is anything but complimentary to the discernment of Viennese
+publishers and musicians of that period that, eleven years after
+Schubert's death, another composer had to come from Leipsic and give
+to the world the works of a colleague who not only had genius of the
+purest water, but the gift of giving utterance to his musical ideas in
+a clear style, intelligible to the public. Schubert died in 1828, and
+in 1842 Schumann could still write to one of his contributors: "It is
+time, it seems to me, that some one should write something weighty in
+behalf of Schubert; doesn't this tempt you? True, his larger works are
+not yet in print. But his vocal and pianoforte compositions suffice
+for an approximate portrait. Consider the matter. Do you know his
+symphony in C? A delightful composition, somewhat long, but
+extraordinarily animated, in character entirely new." To a Belgian
+friend who intended to write an article on the new tendencies in
+pianoforte music, he wrote: "Of older composers who have influenced
+modern music I must name above all Franz Schubert.... Schubert's songs
+are well known, but his pianoforte compositions (especially those for
+four hands) I rate at least equally high."
+
+Of the numerous criticisms of well-known composers contained in this
+correspondence, a few more may be cited. They are mostly favorable in
+tone, but concerning the "Proph�te" he writes: "The music appears to me
+very poor; I cannot find words to express my aversion to it."
+"Lortzing's operas meet with success--to me almost incomprehensible."
+To Carl Reinecke he writes that he is "no friend of song-transcriptions
+(for piano), and of Liszt's some are a real abomination to me." He
+commends Reinecke's efforts in this direction because they are free
+from pepper and sauce _� la_ Liszt. Nevertheless, those of Liszt's
+song-transcriptions in which he did not indulge in too much bravura
+ornamentation are models of musical translation, and the collection of
+forty-two songs published by Breitkopf & H�rtel should be in every
+pianist's library. "Of Chopin," he writes in 1836, "I have a new ballad
+[G minor]. It seems to me to be his most enchanting (though not most
+_genial_) work; I told him, too, that I liked it best of all his
+compositions. After a long pause and reflection he said: 'I am glad you
+think so, it is also my favorite.' He also played for me a number of
+new �tudes, nocturnes, mazurkas--everything in an incomparable style.
+It is touching to see him at the piano. You would be very fond of him.
+Yet Clara is more of a _virtuoso_, and gives almost more significance
+to his compositions than he does himself."
+
+Brendel having sent him some of Palestrina's music, he writes that "it
+really sounds sometimes like music of the spheres--and what art at the
+same time! I am convinced he is the greatest musical genius Italy has
+produced." Nineteen years previous to this he had written from
+Brescia: "Were not the Italian language itself a kind of eternal music
+(the Count aptly called it a long-drawn-out A-minor chord), I should
+not hear anything rational. Of the ardor with which they play, you can
+form no more conception than of their slovenliness and lack of
+elegance and precision." Handel appears to be mentioned only once in
+all of Schumann's correspondence ("I consider 'Israel in Egypt' the
+ideal of a choral work"), but Bach is always on his tongue. The
+following is one of the profoundest criticisms ever written: "Mozart
+and Haydn knew of Bach only a few pages and passages, and the effect
+which Bach, if they had known him in all his greatness, would have had
+on them, is incalculable. The harmonic depth, the poetic and humorous
+qualities of modern music have their source chiefly in Bach:
+Mendelssohn, Bennett, Chopin, Hiller, all the so-called Romanticists
+(I mean those of the German school) _approximate in their music much
+closer to Bach than to Mozart_."
+
+To Wagner there are several references, betraying a most remarkable
+struggle between critical honesty and professional jealousy. Thus, in
+1845, Schumann writes to Mendelssohn of "Tannh�user:"
+
+"Wagner has just finished a new opera--no doubt a clever fellow, full
+of eccentric notions, and bold beyond measure. The aristocracy is
+still in raptures over him on account of his 'Rienzi,' but in reality
+he cannot conceive or write four consecutive bars of good or even
+correct music. What all these composers lack is the art of writing
+pure harmonies and four-part choruses. The music is not a straw better
+than that of 'Rienzi,' rather weaker, more artificial! But if I should
+write this I should be accused of envy, hence I say it only to you, as
+I am aware that you have known all this a long time."
+
+But in another letter to Mendelssohn, written three weeks later, he
+recants: "I must take back much of what I wrote regarding
+'Tannh�user,' after reading the score; on the stage the effect is
+quite different. I was deeply moved by many parts." And to Heinrich
+Dorn he writes, a few weeks after this: "I wish you could see Wagner's
+'Tannh�user.' It contains profound and original ideas, and is a
+hundred times better than his previous operas, though some of the
+music is trivial. In a word, he may become of great importance to the
+stage, and, so far as I know him, he has the requisite courage. The
+technical part, the instrumentation, I find excellent, incomparably
+more masterly than formerly."
+
+Nevertheless, seven years later still, he once more returns to the
+attack, and declares that Wagner's music, "apart from the performance,
+is simply amateurish, void of contents, and disagreeable; and it is a
+sad proof of corrupt taste that, in the face of the many dramatic
+master-works which Germany has produced, some persons have the
+presumption to belittle these in favor of Wagner's. Yet enough of
+this. The future will pronounce judgment in this matter, too." Poor
+Schumann! His own opera, "Genoveva," was a failure, while "Tannh�user"
+and "Lohengrin" were everywhere received with enthusiasm. This was a
+quarter of a century ago; and the future _has_ judged, "Tannh�user"
+and "Lohengrin" being now the most popular of all works in the
+operatic repertory.
+
+What caused the failure of Schumann's only opera was not a lack of
+dramatic genius, but of theatrical instinct. He believed that in
+"Genoveva" "every bar is thoroughly dramatic;" and so it is, as might
+have been expected of the composer of such an intensely emotional and
+passionate song as "Ich grolle nicht" and many others. But Schubert,
+too, could write such thrilling five-minute dramas as the "Erlking"
+and the "Doppelg�nger," without being able to compose a successful
+opera. Like Schumann, he could not paint _al fresco_, could not
+command that bolder and broader sweep which is required of an operatic
+composer. It is characteristic of Schumann that he did not write an
+opera till late in life, whereas born operatic composers have commonly
+begun their career with their specialty. Indeed, it was only ten years
+before he composed his opera that Schumann wrote to a friend: "You
+ought to write more for the voice. Or are you, perhaps, like myself,
+who have all my life placed vocal music below instrumental, and never
+considered it a great art? But don't speak to anyone about this."
+Oddly enough, less than a year after this he writes to another friend:
+"At present I write only vocal pieces.... I can hardly tell you what a
+delight it is to write for the voice as compared with instruments, and
+how it throbs and rages within me when I am at work. Entirely new
+things have been revealed to me, and I am thinking of writing an
+opera, which, however, will not be possible until I have entirely
+freed myself from editorial work."
+
+Like other vocal composers, Schumann suffered much from the lack of
+suitable texts. In one letter he suggests that Lenau might perhaps be
+induced to write a few poems for composers, to be printed in "The
+Zeitschrift:" "the composers are thirsting for texts." In several
+other letters we become familiar with some of his plans which were
+never executed, owing, apparently, to the shortcomings of the
+librettists. One of these was R. Pohl, who in all earnestness sent
+Schumann a serious text in which the moon was introduced as one of the
+vocalists! Schumann mildly remonstrated that "to conceive of the moon
+as a person, especially as singing, would be too risky." So the
+project of "Ritter Mond" was abandoned, and it is to be regretted that
+Schumann did not reject his "Genoveva" libretto, which was largely
+responsible for the failure of the opera.
+
+One project of Schumann's is mentioned which it is to be very much
+regretted he never carried out. "I am at present [1840] preparing an
+essay on Shakspere's relations to music, his utterances and views, the
+manner in which he introduces music in his dramas, etc., etc.--an
+exceedingly fertile and attractive theme, the execution of which
+would, it is true, require some time, as I should have to read the
+whole of Shakspere's works for this purpose." His object was to send
+this to Jena as a dissertation for a Doctor's degree, with which he
+hoped to soften the heart of the obdurate Wieck, who opposed his
+marriage with Clara, and at the same time to make an impression on the
+public. Schumann had had painful experience of the fact that for
+genius itself there is little recognition in Germany unless it has a
+handle to its name--a "von" or a "Herr Doctor." Clara, however, loved
+him for his genius, and for the impassioned pieces and songs he wrote
+to express his admiration of her and of woman in general; and, like
+other German men of genius, he had his reward--after death. "No tone
+poet," says Naumann, "has been more enthusiastic in the praise of
+woman than Robert Schumann; he was a second Frauenlob. This was
+acknowledged by the maidens of Bonn, who, at his interment, filled the
+cemetery, and crowned his tomb with innumerable garlands."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MUSIC AND MORALS
+
+
+Although music in the complex harmonic form known to us is only a few
+centuries old, simple rhythmic melodies were sung, or played on
+various instruments, by all the ancient civilized nations, and are
+sung or played to-day by African and Australian savages who have never
+come into contact with civilization. And what is more, the remarkable
+influence which music has in arousing human emotions has been
+appreciated at all times.
+
+Tourists relate that in some of the inland countries of Africa,
+scarcely any work is done by the natives except to the sound of music;
+and Cruikshank, speaking of the coast negroes, says it is laughable to
+observe the effect of their rude music on all classes, old and young,
+men, women, and children. "However employed, whether passing quietly
+through the street, carrying water from the pond, or assisting in some
+grave procession, no sooner do they hear the rapid beats of a distant
+drum, than they begin to caper and dance spontaneously. The bricklayer
+will throw down his trowel for a minute, the carpenter leave his
+bench, the corn grinder her milling stone, and the porter his load, to
+keep time to the inspiriting sound."
+
+Dr. Tschudi, in his fascinating work on Peru, describes two of the
+musical instruments used by the Indians, and their emotional function.
+One is the Pututo, "a large conch on which they perform mournful
+music, as the accompaniment of their funeral dances." The other is
+called Jaina, and is a rude kind of clarionet made from a reed. "Its
+tone," says Tschudi, "is indescribable in its melancholy, and it
+produces an extraordinary impression on the natives. If a group of
+Indians are rioting and drinking, or engaged in furious conflicts with
+each other, and the sound of the Jaina is suddenly heard, the tumult
+ceases, as if by a stroke of magic. A dead stillness prevails, and all
+listen devoutly to the magic tones of the simple reed; tones which
+frequently draw tears from the eyes of the apathetic Indians."
+
+If the untutored primitive man can be thus overpowered by the charm of
+such simple music, we can hardly wonder at the extravagant power
+ascribed to this art by the ancient civilized nations. The fairy tale
+of Orpheus, who tamed wild animals and moved rocks and trees with his
+singing and playing, and the story of the dolphin that was attracted
+by Arion's song and carried him safely across the sea, are quite as
+significant as if they were true stories, for they show that the
+Greeks were so deeply moved by music that they could readily imagine
+it to have a similar effect on animals, and even on inanimate objects.
+Almost three thousand years ago, Homer represented Achilles as
+"comforting his heart with the sound of the lyre," after losing his
+sweet Briseis; "stimulating his courage and singing the deeds of the
+heroes." And, as Emil Naumann fancies, there is a moral underlying the
+myth of the siren; "for, as Homer elsewhere suggests, noble and manly
+music invigorates the spirit, strengthens wavering man, and incites
+him to great and worthy deeds, whereas false and sensuous music
+excites and confuses, robs man of his self-control, till his passions
+overcome him as the waves overwhelmed the bewitched sailor who
+listened to the voice of the charmer."
+
+At a later period in Greek history, the philosophers, including Plato
+and Aristotle, continued to attribute to music power so great, that we
+can only understand them if we bear in mind that with the Greeks the
+word music was a comprehensive term for all the arts presided over by
+the Muses, and that, even when music in our sense is alluded to by
+them, the reference is at the same time to the poetry which was almost
+always associated with music, and made its meaning and expression more
+definite. Thus, we can realize how Terpander could, by the power of
+his song, reconcile the political factions in Sparta, and how Plato
+could write, in the "Republic," that "any musical innovation is full
+of danger to the state and ought to be prevented." He looked upon
+music as a tonic which does for the mind what gymnastics do for the
+body; and taught that only such music ought to be tolerated by the
+state as had a moral purpose, while enervating forms should be
+suppressed by the law makers.
+
+Yet, after making due allowance for the fact that the word music was
+used in this comprehensive sense, enough remains to show that the
+power of music proper, the power of rhythmic melody, was profoundly
+appreciated by the Greeks. If they had not felt how greatly music
+intensifies and quickens the emotions, they would not have wedded all
+their poetry to it, nor have resorted to it on all solemn and festive
+occasions; nor would the Pythagoreans have found anyone willing to
+believe in their doctrine that music has power to control the
+passions. "They firmly believed," says Naumann, "that sweet harmony
+and flowing melody alone were capable of restoring the even balance of
+the disturbed mind, and of renewing its harmonious relations with the
+world. Playing on the lyre, therefore, formed part of the daily
+exercises of the disciples of the renowned philosopher, and none dared
+seek his nightly couch without having first refreshed his soul at the
+fount of music, nor return to the duties of the day without having
+braced his energies with jubilant strains. Pythagoras is said to have
+recommended the use of special melodies as antidotal to special
+passions, and indeed, it is related of him that on a certain occasion
+he, by a solemn air, brought back to reason a youth who, maddened by
+love and jealousy, was about setting fire to the house of his
+mistress."
+
+Similar marvellous powers were ascribed to music by the other nations.
+The Chinese have an old saying that "Music has the power to make
+Heaven descend upon earth." This art was constantly kept under rigid
+supervision by the government, and 354 years before Christ, one of the
+Emperors issued a special edict against weak, effeminate music; to
+which, therefore, a demoralizing influence was obviously attributed.
+The Japanese, we read, likewise "revere music and connect it with
+their idol worship," and in olden times it seems to have had even a
+political function, for it is said that "formerly an ambassador, in
+addressing a foreign court to which he was accredited, did not speak,
+but sang his mission." The Hindoos, again, attributed supernatural
+power to music. Some melodies had the power, as they believed, to
+bring down rain, others to move men and animals, as well as lifeless
+objects. The fact that they traced the origin of music to the gods
+shows in what esteem they held it; and their quaint story of the
+16,000 nymphs and shepherdesses, each of whom invented a new key and
+melody in her emulous eagerness to move the heart and win the love of
+the handsome young god Krishna, shows that the amorous power of music
+was already understood in those days.
+
+Once more, the exalted notions which the ancient Hebrews had of the
+dignity and importance of music, is indicated by the fact that,
+according to Josephus, the treasures of Solomon's Temple (which was
+also a great school of music) included 40,000 harps and psalteries of
+pure copper, and 200,000 silver trumpets. In the schools of the
+prophets, musical practice was an essential item. During the period of
+captivity the Israelites at first gave way to despondency, exclaiming,
+"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" "But by and by
+they would take down their harps again from the willow bows and seek
+solace for the sorrows of the long exile in recalling the loved melody
+of their native land, and the sacred psalmody of their desolated
+temple" (McClintock and Strong). There was hardly an occasion arising
+above the commonplace events of everyday life, when the ancient
+Hebrews did not resort to music. Trumpets were used at the royal
+proclamations and at the dedication of the Temple. There were doleful
+chants for funeral processions; joyous melodies for bridal
+processions and banquets; stirring martial strains to incite courage
+in battle and to celebrate victories, religious songs, and domestic
+music for private recreation and pleasure; and even "the grape
+gatherers sang as they gathered in the vintage, and the wine-presses
+were trodden with the shout of a song; the women sang as they toiled
+at the mill, and on every occasion the land of the Hebrews, during
+their national prosperity, was a land of music and melody." And
+finally, the therapeutic value of music and its power to stimulate the
+creative faculties were recognized. The prophets composed their songs
+and uttered their prophecies to the sound of musical instruments, and
+David drove out the evil spirit from Saul, as we read in the Bible:
+"And it came to pass when the spirit from God was upon Saul, that
+David took a harp and played with his hands. So Saul was refreshed,
+and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him."
+
+The preceding facts sufficiently illustrate the effects of music on
+the emotions and morals of ancient and primitive nations. Now, within
+the Christian era music has made enormous strides in its evolution as
+an art, and it seems therefore reasonable to infer that its emotional
+and moral power has also increased. Yet, strange to say, a tendency
+has manifested itself of late, in many quarters, to flatly deny the
+emotional and moral potency of music. The late Richard Grant White,
+for instance, in a series of articles on the Influence of Music, in
+"The Atlantic Monthly," comes to the conclusion that "a fine
+appreciation of even the noblest music is not an indication of mental
+elevation, or of moral purity, or of delicacy of feeling, or even
+(except in music) of refinement of taste." "The greatest, keenest
+pleasure of my life," he adds, "is one that may be shared equally with
+me by a dunce, a vulgarian, or a villain;" and he ends by asserting,
+dogmatically, that a taste for music has no more to do with our minds
+or morals than with our complexions or stature. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent critic and professor of musical history in the University of
+Vienna, goes even farther. "There can be no doubt," he says, "that
+music had a much more direct effect on the ancient nations than it has
+on us." To-day, "the feelings of the layman are affected most, those
+of an educated artist least, by music." "The moral influence of tones
+increases in proportion as the culture of mind and character
+decreases. The smaller the resistance offered by culture, the more
+does this power strike home. It is well known that _it is on savages
+that music exerts its greatest influence_."
+
+Let us briefly test these sceptical paradoxes in the light of medi�val
+history and modern biography. Is it only among the ancient and
+primitive people, and among the musically uneducated, that the divine
+art exerts an emotional influence? St. Jerome evidently did not think
+so. He believed, at any rate, that music can exert a _demoralizing_
+influence, and he taught that Christian maidens should know nothing of
+the lyre and the flute. The eminent divine was guided in this matter
+by the same process of illogical reasoning of which, later, the
+Puritans were guilty when they banished music from the churches. In
+view of the fact that music was used to heighten the charms of wanton
+Roman festivities or Pagan rites, St. Jerome condemned the art itself,
+ignorant of the fact that music can never be immoral in itself, but
+only through evil associations. St. Augustine took a different view of
+music from St. Jerome. When he first heard the Christian chant at
+Milan he exclaimed: "Oh, my God! When the sweet voice of the
+congregation broke upon mine ear, how I wept over Thy hymns of praise.
+The sound poured into mine ears and Thy truth entered my heart. Then
+glowed within me the spirit of devotion; tears poured forth, and I
+rejoiced." Here we have an illustration of how music intensifies and
+exalts the emotions of educated men. St. Augustine's devotion "glowed
+within him" when he heard the music. It is for this power that the
+church has always employed music as a hand-maid; and those
+ecclesiastics who would to-day banish it arbitrarily from the church,
+know not what a valuable ally they are blindly repulsing in these
+days of religious scepticism. As Mr. Gladstone very recently remarked:
+"Ever since the time of St. Augustine, I might perhaps say of St.
+Paul, the power of music in assisting Christian devotion has been upon
+record, and great schools of Christian musicians have attested and
+confirmed the union of the art with worship."
+
+But the greatest musical enthusiast in the ranks of medi�val churchmen
+was Martin Luther. To judge by the extraordinary influence which music
+had on him, Luther must doubtless be classed among the lowest of
+savages, if Dr. Hanslick is right in saying that it is on savages that
+music exerts its greatest influence. He wrote a special treatise on
+music, in which he placed it next to theology. "Besides theology," he
+wrote in a letter to the musician Senfel, "music is the only art
+capable of affording peace and joy of the heart like that induced by
+the study of the science of divinity. The proof of this is that the
+devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles,
+flees before the sound of music almost as much as he does before the
+Word of God. This is why the prophets preferred music before all the
+other arts ... proclaiming the Word in psalms and hymns.... My heart,
+which is full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by
+music when sick and weary."
+
+Luther had a good voice and a knowledge of musical composition. He
+played the flute and the lute, and in church he introduced
+congregational singing, in which the people took an active part in
+worship by means of the chorales. It is related that, as a child, he
+used to sing with other boys in the street in winter, for his daily
+bread, and that on one occasion, Frau Cotta frantically rushed from
+her house on hearing his pleading tones, took him in, and gave him a
+warm meal. Later in life, when he was an Augustine monk, he often
+chased away his melancholy and temptations by playing on his lute, and
+the story goes that "one day, after a self-inflicted chastisement, he
+was found in a fainting condition in his cell, and that his cloistered
+brethren recalled him to consciousness by soft music, well knowing
+that music was the balsam for all wounds of the troubled mind of their
+'dear Martinus.'"
+
+Coming to more recent times, we find that some of the greatest
+composers and other men of genius were "savages," judged by Dr.
+Hanslick's standard.
+
+When Congreve wrote that "music hath charms to soothe the savage
+breast," did he not mean to imply that educated people are not
+affected by it? Take the case, for instance, of that old barbarian,
+Joseph Haydn, and note how he was affected by the "Creation" when he
+heard it sung. "One moment," he said to Griesinger, "I was as cold as
+ice, and the next I seemed on fire, and more than once I feared I
+should have a stroke." Another "savage," Cherubini, when he heard a
+Haydn symphony for the first time, was so greatly excited by it that
+it forcibly moved him from his seat. "He trembled all over, his eyes
+grew dim, and this condition continued long after the symphony was
+ended. Then came the reaction. His eyes filled with tears, and from
+that instant the direction of his work was decided." (Nohl.)
+
+Similar incidents might be quoted from the biographies of almost all
+the great composers. Berlioz, in his essay on Music, after referring
+to the story of Alexander the Great, who fell into a delirium at the
+accents of Timotheus, and the story of the Danish King Eric, "whom
+certain songs made so furious that he killed some of his best
+servants," dwells on the inconsistency of Rousseau, who, while
+ridiculing the accounts of the wonders worked by ancient music,
+nevertheless, "seems in other places to give them enough credence to
+place that ancient art, which we hardly know at all, and which he
+himself knew no better than the rest of us, far above the art of our
+own day." For himself, Berlioz believed that the power of modern music
+is of at least equal value with the doubtful anecdotes of ancient
+historians. "How often," he says, "have we not seen hearers agitated
+by terrible spasms, weep and laugh at once, and manifest all the
+symptoms of delirium and fever, while listening to the masterpieces of
+our great masters." He relates the case of a young Proven�al musician,
+who blew out his brains at the door of the Op�ra after a second
+hearing of Spontini's "Vestale," having previously explained in a
+letter, that after this ecstatic enjoyment, he did not care to remain
+in this prosaic world; and the case of the famous singer Malibran,
+who, on hearing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for the first time, at the
+Conservatoire, "was seized with such convulsions that she had to be
+carried out of the hall." "We have in such cases," Berlioz continues,
+"seen time and again, serious men obliged to leave the room to hide
+the violence of their emotions from the public gaze." As for those
+feelings which Berlioz owed personally to music, he affirms that
+nothing in the world can give an exact idea of them to those who have
+not experienced them. Not to mention the moral affections that the art
+developed in him, and only to cite the impressions received at the
+moment of the performance of works he admired, this is what he says he
+can affirm in all truthfulness: "While hearing certain pieces of
+music, my vital forces seem at first to be doubled; I feel a delicious
+pleasure, in which reason has no part; the habit of analysis itself
+then gives rise to admiration; the emotion, growing in the direct
+ratio of the energy and grandeur of the composer's ideas, soon
+produces a strange agitation in the circulation of the blood; my
+arteries pulsate violently; tears, which usually announce the end of
+the paroxysm, often indicate only a progressive stage which is to
+become much more intense. In this case there follow spasmodic
+contractions of the muscles, trembling in all the limbs, a total
+numbness in the feet and hands, partial paralysis of the optic and
+auditory nerves. I can no longer see, I can hardly hear: vertigo ...
+almost swooning...." Such was the effect of music on Berlioz.
+
+As in a matter of this sort personal testimony is of more value than
+anything else, I may perhaps be permitted to refer to some of my own
+experiences. I have often been in the state of mind and body so
+vividly described by Berlioz, except as regards the numbness of the
+extremities and the partial paralysis of the sensory nerves. Hundreds
+of times I have enjoyed that harmless �sthetic intoxication which I
+believe to be more delicious to the initiated than the sweet delights
+of an opium eater--a musical intoxication which does not only fill the
+brain with floods of voluptuous delight, but sends thrills down the
+spinal column and to the very finger-tips, like so many electric
+shocks. As a boy, every experience of this sort fired my imagination
+with ambition, and led to all sorts of noble resolutions, some of
+which, at any rate, were carried into execution. The deepest
+impression ever made on me by any work of art was at Munich, ten years
+ago, when I heard for the first time Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde,"
+which I was already familiar with through the pianoforte score. The
+performance began at six o'clock, and I had had nothing to eat since
+noon. It lasted till eleven o'clock, and one might imagine that, after
+all this emotional excitement, I must have been ravenously hungry. So
+I was; but without the slightest affectation, I was horrified at the
+mere thought of indulging in such a coarse act as eating after
+enjoying such ravishing music. So I hurried back to the hotel, eager
+to get into my room and indulge in a long fit of weeping; and not a
+wink did I sleep that night, the most passionate scenes from the opera
+haunting me persistently, and almost as vividly as if I had been back
+in the theatre.
+
+Indeed, it was the irresistible power of Wagner's music that first
+made me go to Europe, and that changed the whole current of my life.
+After graduating from Harvard I had only a few dollars in my pocket;
+but instead of trying to find employment and earn my daily bread, I
+recklessly borrowed $500 of a good-natured uncle and went to Europe,
+for the sole purpose of attending the first Bayreuth Festival. I had
+about four hundred dollars when I arrived in Bayreuth, and of these I
+spent two hundred and twenty-five dollars for tickets for the three
+series of Nibelung performances, not knowing what would become of me
+after the remaining one hundred and seventy-five dollars was spent. It
+was several weeks before the performances, and Wagner had given strict
+orders that no one, without exception, should be admitted to the
+rehearsals. But I was not to be so easily baffled, and one afternoon I
+sneaked into the lobby and succeeded in catching some wonderful
+orchestral strains by applying my ear to a keyhole. But my pleasure
+was short-lived. An attendant espied me and summarily ordered me off
+the premises, despite my humble entreaties and attempts at bribery. I
+now resolved to make a personal appeal to Wagner; so, a few days
+later, as he was entering the theatre, arm in arm with Wilhelm, I
+boldly walked up to him and told him I had bought tickets to all the
+performances, but was very anxious to attend the rehearsals, adding
+that I represented a New York and a Boston journal. At the mention of
+the word newspaper, a frown passed over his face, and he said, rather
+abruptly, "I don't care much about newspapers. I can get along without
+them." But, in a second, a smile drove away the frown and he added: "I
+have given orders that no one shall be admitted. However, you have
+come a long way--and as I have found it necessary to make some
+exceptions, I will admit you too." He then asked for my card and told
+me I would be admitted by mentioning my name to the doorkeeper. That
+he did not bear any deep resentment against me for unfortunately being
+a newspaper man, he showed the next day, by walking up to me and
+asking me if I had succeeded in getting in.
+
+I mention these incidents because I think they help to disprove the
+notion that modern music has less power over the actions and feelings
+of men than primitive and ancient music. It was the wild enthusiasm
+inspired in me by Wagner's earlier operas that led me irresistibly to
+Bayreuth, and I really would have been willing to toil as a slave for
+years rather than miss this festival. And my experience was that of
+hundreds who had saved up their pennies for this occasion, or had
+formed pools and drawn lots if the sum was too small. I met three men
+in Bayreuth who had scraped together enough money for a third-class
+trip from Berlin, but not enough to pay for a complete Nibelung ticket
+for each. So they took turns and each heard his share of the Trilogy.
+The artists, moreover, the greatest in Germany, were prompted by their
+enthusiasm to give their services at this festival without any
+pecuniary compensation. Such actions are more eloquent of deep feeling
+than any words could be. How trivial are those ancient _myths_ about
+Arion and Orpheus compared with this modern _fact_--the building of
+the Bayreuth Theatre with the million marks contributed by Wagner's
+admirers in all parts of the world!
+
+It is easy to see how Prof. Hanslick fell into the error of imagining
+that music exerts its greatest influence on savages. He probably
+inferred this from the fact that savages are more obviously excited by
+it, and gesticulate more wildly, than we do. But this does not prove
+his point. Savages are more _demonstrative_ in their expression of
+_all_ their emotions than we are; but this does not indicate that
+their emotions are _deeper_. On the contrary, as the poet has told us,
+it is the shallow brooks and the shallow passions that murmur; "the
+deep are dumb." It is a rule of etiquette in civilized society to
+repress any extravagant demonstration of feeling by gestures; and this
+is the reason why we are apparently less affected by music than
+savages. Yet, how difficult it is even to-day to repress the muscular
+impulses imparted by gay music, is seen in the irresistible desire to
+dance which seizes us when we hear a Strauss waltz played with the
+true Viennese swing; and in the provoking habit which some people have
+of beating time with their feet. Would anyone assert that a man who
+thus loudly beats time with his boots is more deeply affected by the
+music than you or I who keep quiet? Fiddlesticks! He shows just the
+contrary. If he had as delicate and intense an appreciation of the
+music as you have, he would know that the noise made by his boots
+utterly mars the purity of the musical sound, and jars on refined ears
+like the filing of a saw. If demonstrativeness is to be taken as a
+test of feeling, then the ignorant audiences who stamp and roar over
+the vulgar horse-play in a variety show have deeper feelings than the
+educated reader who, in his room, enjoys the exquisite works of humor
+of the great writers without any other expression than a smile.
+
+Granted, then, that music has as much power to move our feelings as
+ever, if not more, and bearing in mind that feeling is the chief
+spring of action, does it not follow that music affects our _moral_
+conduct, making us more refined and considerate in our dealings with
+other people? Not necessarily and obviously, it seems, for there are
+authorities who, while conceding the emotional sway of music, deny
+that it has any positive moral value. The eminent critic, Prof.
+Ehrlich, takes this sceptical attitude, in his "History of Musical
+�sthetics." If music, and art in general, has power to soften the
+hearts of men, how is it, he asks, that the citizens of Leipsic did
+not come to the rescue of the last daughter of the great Bach, but
+allowed her to live in abject poverty? And how is that, in Florence
+and Rome, some of the greatest patrons of art were princes who were
+extremely unscrupulous in their manner of getting rid of their
+enemies? Other instances might be added to those given by Prof.
+Ehrlich. African tourists say that the Dahomans, although passionately
+fond of singing and of instrumental music, are probably the most cruel
+of all negroes. Nero, the cruelest of emperors, is said to have
+regaled his ears with music after setting fire to Rome; and you have
+all heard the story of the two famous prima donnas whose vicious
+temper and jealousy drove them to a tooth and nail contest on the
+stage, right before the public. Everybody knows, furthermore, what a
+lot of scamps and vagabonds are included in the number of so-called
+music teachers, and what irregular lives some composers have led.
+
+At first sight, these facts look formidable and discouraging; but they
+are nothing of the sort. If anyone asserted that music is _a moral
+panacea_, an infallible cure for all vices, these facts would, of
+course, be fatal to his argument; but no one would be so foolish as to
+make such an extravagant claim in behalf of music. Music may be, and
+doubtless is, a moral force, but it is not strong enough to overcome
+all the various demoralizing forces that counteract it; hence, it must
+often fail to show triumphant results. If we take the cases just
+cited, and examine them separately, we see that they are delusive. Is
+it not asking a good deal of the Leipsic citizens to support the poor
+relatives and descendants of all the great men that city has produced?
+If Bach himself had lived to claim their charity, I am convinced he
+would have been cared for, notwithstanding the fact that probably most
+of those who love his music are poor themselves, while the public at
+large does not even understand it, and cannot, therefore, be morally
+affected by it. Similarly, the reason why the Viennese allowed
+Schubert to starve was not because his music failed to make them
+generous, but because he died before they had learned even to
+understand it. To-day they worship his very bones, and build Schubert
+museums and monuments.
+
+Again, if savages and emperors can be musical and cruel at the same
+time, this only proves, as I have just said, that music is not strong
+enough to overcome _all_ the vicious inherited and cultivated habits
+of civilized and uncivilized barbarians. As for the fighting prima
+donnas, it is obvious that a singer whose success is constantly
+dependent upon the whims of a fickle public, is more subject than
+almost any other mortal to constant attacks of envy and jealousy, so
+that it is unfair not to make some allowance for temper in her case.
+Allowances must also be made for music teachers, who, from the very
+nature of their profession, rarely hear music as it ought to be, and
+therefore naturally become impatient and irritable. They illustrate,
+not the normal, but the abnormal effects of music. Moreover, owing to
+the lamentable ignorance of so many parents and pupils, the
+profession of music teachers is invaded with impunity by hundreds of
+tramps who know so little of music that, if they tried to become
+cobblers or tailors with a corresponding amount of knowledge, they
+would be ignominiously kicked out of doors. Surely it is unfair to lay
+the sins of these vagabonds on the shoulders of music.
+
+Finally, as regards the moral character and temper of composers, it
+should be remembered that, if some of them occasionally gave way to
+their angry passion, they were generally provoked to it by the
+obtuseness and insulting arrogance of their contemporaries. Had these
+contemporaries honored and commended them for enlarging the boundaries
+of art and the sphere of human pleasures, instead of tormenting them
+with cruel and ignorant criticisms, the great composers would, no
+doubt, have been amiable in their public relations, as they appear to
+have been almost invariably toward their friends. Wagner's pugnacity
+and frequent ill-temper, for instance, arose simply from the fact
+that, while he was toiling night and day to compose immortal
+master-works, his contemporaries not only refused to contribute enough
+for his daily bread, but assailed him on all sides with malicious
+lying, stupid criticisms, with as much obvious enjoyment of this
+flaying alive of a genius as if they were a band of Indians torturing
+a prisoner of war. Among his friends, Wagner was one of the most
+gentle, tender, and kind-hearted of men, and it made him frantic to
+see even a dumb animal suffer. He wrote a violent pamphlet against
+vivisection, and one day missed an important train because he stopped
+to scold a peasant woman who was taking to the market a basket of live
+fish in the agony of suffocation. I hardly know of a great composer
+who, in his heart of hearts, was not gentle and generous. Bach,
+Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Gluck, Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann,
+Mendelssohn, Weber, Liszt, and a dozen others who might be named,
+though not without their faults, were kind and honest men, living
+arguments for the ennobling effects of music.
+
+In no other profession can men and women be found so ready to aid a
+colleague in distress. Take the case of poor Robert Franz, for
+instance, who lost his hearing through the whistle of a locomotive,
+and thereby lost his professional income, and was brought to the verge
+of starvation because his stupid contemporaries (I mean ourselves)
+refused to buy his divine songs. Hardly had his misfortune become
+known when Liszt, Joachim, and Frau Magnus arranged a concert tour for
+his benefit which netted $23,000, and insured him comfort for the rest
+of his life.
+
+And in general, let me ask, why is it that, whenever a charitable
+project is organized, musicians are invariably called upon first to
+give their services? Does not this amount to an eloquent and universal
+presumption that musical people are generous and kind-hearted?
+
+Nor is this the only kind of presumption indicating that music
+commonly goes hand in hand with kindness. The English in the days of
+Elizabeth, as Chappell tells us, "had music at dinner, music at
+supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at
+dawn, music at work, music at play. He who felt not, in some degree,
+its soothing influence, was viewed as a morose unmusical being, whose
+converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and
+distrust." That this was the general sentiment in England is also
+proved by the oft-quoted passage in "The Merchant of Venice," where
+Shakspere notes the magic effect of music on men and animals, and
+concludes with the verses--
+
+    "The man that hath no music in himself
+    Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
+    Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
+    The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
+    And his affections dark as Erebus;
+    Let no such man be trusted."
+
+This, of course, is a poetic exaggeration, for we know that there are
+other sources of refinement besides music, and that some of the
+noblest men and women can hardly tell two tunes from one another.
+Nevertheless, the general presumption remains that music and jolly
+good-nature go together, and that music is incompatible with crime. An
+experience I once had in Switzerland brought home this fact to my mind
+in a forcible manner. I was taking a fortnight's tramp, all alone, and
+one day I came near the summit of a mountain pass where, some time
+previously, a solitary tourist had been robbed and murdered. There was
+no house within five miles, and I had not met a soul that morning
+until I approached this place, when I suddenly saw a shabbily dressed
+man coming down the road. Not having any weapon, I could not but feel
+nervous, and my heart began to beat almost audibly. Presently the man,
+who had apparently not yet noticed me, began to sing a Tyrolese
+melody. With the first notes all my fear instantly vanished, and I
+breathed freely again; for an instinctive feeling had told me that a
+man intent on murder and robbery would not sing.
+
+Such presumptions, however, although they have some weight as
+arguments, do not amount to full proof. Our feelings may mislead us,
+and cannot be accepted in lieu of facts. We must therefore confront
+our problem more directly. In what manner does music affect our moral
+character? Does it make us less inclined to murder, stealing, lying,
+lust, avarice, anger, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty, cruelty, and other
+vices? And if so, by what means?
+
+I find among writers on Music and Morals, a curious tendency to dodge
+the direct question, and indulge in side issues and digressions. Mr.
+Haweis, in his book on the subject, talks glibly about the training of
+the emotions, and has much to tell about the lives of the composers,
+but very little bearing directly on his subject. Wagner, in one of his
+essays, asserts that music has as much influence on tastes and morals
+as the drama itself. A frivolous and effeminate taste, he says, cannot
+but affect our moral conduct. The Spartans understood this when they
+forbade certain kinds of music as demoralizing. He believes that men
+who are inspired by Beethoven's music make more active and energetic
+citizens than those who are charmed by Rossini, Bellini, and
+Donizetti; and he refers to the fact that in Paris, at a certain
+period, music became more and more frivolous as the people degenerated
+morally. At the same time he is obliged to admit that this, perhaps,
+proves rather the effect of morals on music than of music on morals;
+and so our problem remains in a vague twilight.
+
+To gain more light on the subject, let us take a few specific cases.
+Does the influence of music make us less inclined to perpetrate
+murder, suicide, or cruel practices? Everybody has heard the story of
+the famous Italian composer and vocalist, Stradella, whose wonderful
+singing in an oratorio made such a profound impression on two men who
+had been hired to murder him, that they not only spared him, but gave
+him warning that his life was in danger. This story is now regarded as
+a myth by some of the best authorities; but the fact that it was so
+long believed universally is not without significance. Take another
+case, which, though occurring in a ficticious drama, might easily be
+true. Faust, in Goethe's drama, when on the point of committing
+suicide, is brought back to his senses on suddenly hearing the Easter
+hymn. But in this case it might be said it was not the music itself,
+but the religious and other associations and memories awakened by it,
+that prevented Faust from carrying out his criminal intention. Such
+associations must always be taken into account when estimating the
+moral value of music; and yet they do not explain everything. A
+residue is left which must be placed to the credit of music.
+
+Perhaps the vice best adapted to illustrate the direct influence of
+musical culture is cruelty. If you find a boy in the back yard
+torturing a cat or a dog, or bullying and maltreating his playmates,
+it will probably do no good to sing or play to him by way of softening
+his heart. On the contrary, he will probably not appreciate or
+understand the music at all, and the interruption will only annoy and
+anger him. But if you take that same boy and put him in a house where
+there is an _infectious musical atmosphere_, the chances are that
+before long his feelings will undergo a change, and he will no longer
+derive any pleasure from cruelty. This pleasure is one which boys
+share with savages, and the best way to eradicate it is by cultivating
+the �sthetic sensibilities. "It cannot be doubted," says Eduard von
+Hartmann, in his "Philosophie des Sch�nen," "that �sthetic culture is
+one of the most important means of softening the moral sentiments and
+polishing coarse habits;" and Shelley, in his "Defence of Poetry,"
+says, "It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious
+citizens of Syracuse and Alexandria who were delighted with the poems
+of Theocritus were less cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of
+their tribe."
+
+Now, music seems to be better adapted to bring about a regeneration of
+the heart than even poetry, and for two reasons: In the first place,
+poetry can, and often does, inculcate immoral sentiments, whereas
+music, pure and simple, can never be immoral. As Dr. Johnson remarks,
+"Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice." Secondly, it is in
+childhood that our moral habits are formed, and it is well known that
+children are susceptible to the influence of music at least five or
+ten years before they can really understand poetry. The infant in arms
+has its impatience and anger subdued countless times by the charms of
+a cradle song; and in this way music sweetens its temper, turns its
+frowns into smiles, and prevents it from becoming habitually cross and
+vicious. True, some young children also like to read and recite
+poetry, but what delights them in this case is the _musical_ jingle of
+rhyme and rhythm, rather than the specific qualities of the verse.
+
+Later in life, when the children go to school, they are, as expert
+testimony proves, beneficially affected by singing together, which
+rests and refreshes the brain, and teaches them the value and beauty
+of co-operation. While thus singing, each child experiences the same
+joyous or sad feelings as its classmates, and learns in this way the
+great moral lesson of _sympathy_. And this brings us back to what was
+said a moment ago regarding the vice of cruelty. Sympathy is the
+correlative and antidote of cruelty. If savages were not utterly
+devoid of sympathy, they would not take such strange delight in
+witnessing the cruel tortures they inflict upon their prisoners.
+Indeed, it may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack
+of sympathy, and modified forms of cruelty. If you reflect a moment,
+you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic--that is, who
+rejoices in his neighbor's happiness and grieves over his
+misfortunes--can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous,
+nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious, etc.; and one need not
+therefore be a pantheist to agree with Schopenhauer, that Mitleid, or
+sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown
+that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy,
+its far-reaching moral value will become apparent. And this can be
+done easily.
+
+Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
+Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
+Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
+first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
+should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
+the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
+music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
+always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
+music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over
+with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them share
+the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby! I know of no other art
+that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for
+sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the
+arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be seen
+by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by
+5,000 or more at a time--the more the merrier. I have already stated
+that in public schools music helps to develop a sympathetic feeling of
+mutual enjoyment. And why is it that music, ever since the days of the
+ancient Hebrews and Greeks, has been always provided at political
+meetings and processions, at picnics, dances, funerals, weddings--in
+short, at all social and public gatherings? Obviously, because it has
+the power of uniting the feelings of many into one homogeneous and
+sympathetic wave of emotion. It has a sort of _compulsive_ force which
+hurries along even those who are sluggish or unwilling. Plato, in his
+Republic, gives the curious advice that, at meetings of older people
+wine should be distributed, in order to make them more pliable and
+receptive to the counsel of sages. Many would object to such a risky
+policy, which, moreover, can well be dispensed with, since music has
+quite as much power as wine to arouse a sympathetic and enthusiastic
+state of mind at a public assembly, and without any danger of
+disastrous consequences. It is the special function of music to
+intensify all the emotions with which it is associated. It inflames
+the courage of an army of soldiers marching on to defend their
+country, their homes and families. It exalts the religious feelings of
+church-goers, and makes them more susceptible to the minister's moral
+counsels. Is it not absurd to say that such an art has no moral value?
+One of the most eloquent of modern preachers, the late Henry Ward
+Beecher, went so far as to admit that "In singing, you come into
+sympathy with the Truth as you perhaps never do under the preaching of
+a discourse."
+
+The Rev. Dr. Haweis also bears testimony to the moral value of music,
+in the following words: "I have known the Oratorio of the Messiah draw
+the lowest dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during
+the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and attentive
+throng. Will anyone say that for these people to have their feelings
+for once put through such a noble and long-sustained exercise as that,
+could be otherwise than beneficial? If such performances of both
+sacred and secular music were more frequent, we should have less
+drunkenness, less wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, less
+winter pauperism. People get drunk because they have nothing else to
+do; they beat their wives because their minds are narrow, their tastes
+brutal, their emotions, in a word, ill-regulated."
+
+These remarks suggest one of the most important moral functions of
+music--that of _weaning the people from low and demoralizing
+pleasures_. In proportion as the masses are educated to an
+appreciation of the subtle and exquisite pleasures afforded by the
+fine arts, and especially by music, will they become indifferent to,
+and abhor, exhibitions which involve cruelty to man and animals, such
+as dog-fights, boxing-matches, dangerous and cruel circus tricks,
+executions of criminals, etc. The pleasure derived from such brutal
+exhibitions is the same in kind as that which prompts savages to flay
+alive their prisoners of war. And the morbid pleasure which so many
+apparently civilized people take in reading in the newspapers, column
+after column, about such brutal sports, is the survival of the same
+unsympathetic feeling. I am convinced that no one who really
+appreciates the poetic beauty of a Schubert song or a Chopin nocturne
+can read these columns of our newspapers without feelings of utter
+disgust. And I am as much convinced as I am of my own existence, that
+a man who derives more pleasure from good music than from these vulgar
+columns in the newspapers, is morally more trustworthy than those who
+gloat over them. Music can impart only good impulses; whereas, we hear
+every day of boys and men who, after reading a dime novel or the
+police column in a newspaper, were prompted to commit the crimes and
+indulge in the vices they had read about. Hence, if people could be
+weaned from the vulgar pleasure of reading about crimes and scandals,
+and taught instead to love innocent music, can any one doubt that they
+would be morally the better for it? Just as a tendency to drunkenness
+can best be combated by creating a taste for harmless light wines and
+beer in place of coarse whiskey and gin, so a love of demoralizing
+and degrading amusements can best be eradicated by educating the
+poetic and musical sensibilities of the masses. Why are the lower
+classes in Germany so much less brutal, degraded, and dangerous than
+the same classes in England? Obviously, because, after their day's
+labor, they do not drink poisonous liquor in a dirty den of crime, but
+go to sip a few glasses of harmless beer in a garden while listening
+to the merry sounds of music.
+
+Men _will_ have, and _must_ have, their pleasures. Social reformers
+and temperance agitators could not make a greater mistake than by
+following the example of the Puritans and tabooing _all_ pleasures.
+They ought to distinguish between those that have a tendency to excess
+and vice, and those that are harmless and ennobling, encouraging the
+latter in every possible way. And first among those that should be
+encouraged is music, because it is always ennobling, and can be
+enjoyed simultaneously by the greatest number. Its effect is well
+described in Margaret Fuller's private journal: "I felt raised above
+all care, all pain, all fear, and every taint of vulgarity was washed
+out of the world." I think this is an extremely happy expression.
+Female writers sometimes have a knack of getting at the heart of a
+problem by instinct, more easily than men with their superior
+reasoning powers. "Every taint of vulgarity washed out of the world by
+music." That is precisely wherein the moral power of music lies; for
+vulgarity is the twin sister of vice. It is criminal to commit a
+murder; it is vulgar to gloat over the contagious details of it in
+books and newspapers. But how rampant vulgarity still is, and how rare
+�sthetic culture, is shown by the fact that two-thirds of the
+so-called news in many of our daily papers consist of detailed reports
+of crimes in all parts of the world, which are eagerly read by
+hundreds of thousands, while our concert halls have to be filled with
+dead-heads.
+
+There is one more way in which music affects our moral life, to which
+I wish to call attention, namely, through its value as a tonic. No
+operatic manager has ever thought of advertising his performances as a
+tonic, yet he might do so with more propriety than the patent medicine
+venders whose grandiloquent advertisements take up so much space in
+our newspapers. Plato, in the "Laws," says that "The Gods, pitying the
+toils which our race is born to undergo, have appointed holy festivals
+in which men rest from their labors." Lucentio, in "The Taming of the
+Shrew," advances the same opinion in more definite and pungent terms:
+
+    "Preposterous ass! that never read so far
+    To know the cause why music was ordain'd!
+    Was it not to refresh the mind of man
+    After his studies, or his usual pain?"
+
+There can be no doubt whatever that music has the most remarkable
+effect, not only on our minds, but on our bodies. Physiologists tell
+us that different kinds of mental activity are carried on in different
+parts of the brain, and that, in order to recover from fatigue, we
+need not rest altogether, but merely take up some other kind of work.
+Hundreds of times I have found that, however much I may be fatigued by
+a day's brain work, I can play all the evening, or attend a concert or
+opera, without in the least adding to my fatigue. On the contrary, in
+most cases it disappears altogether, the music acting on the mind as a
+surf bath does on the body. Like many others, I have found that the
+best way to cure a headache is to attend an orchestral concert. It
+works like a charm. It stirs up the circulation in the brain as a
+brisk walk does in the body. Even brain disease is eased in this way.
+The power of music even to cure insanity altogether, was frequently
+maintained in ancient and medi�val times. This claim is doubtless
+exaggerated, yet there is more than a grain of truth in it. There can
+be no doubt that violent maniacs can be calmed, and melancholy ones
+cheered and soothed, by music. To get an authoritative opinion on this
+subject, I wrote to Dr. Hammond. He answered: "I know of no cases of
+insanity that have been cured by music, but I have seen many cases in
+which music has quieted insane persons, exerting the same calming
+influence that it does on most of us when we are irritated by petty
+annoyances."
+
+"When we are irritated by petty annoyances." It is then that music
+becomes a medicine and a moral tonic. Writers on ethics have,
+hitherto, too much overlooked the moral importance of health. Where
+there is a lack of health, we rarely find any moral sweetness of
+temper. The vices may be small and peevish, but in their aggregate
+they are enough to poison the happiness of the household. If a man
+comes to ruin from drink and the crimes it leads him to commit, we
+call him immoral. But is he not also immoral if, from excess of work
+and worry, and wilful neglect of exercise, rest, and recreation, he
+breaks down and beggars his family, becoming a burden to them instead
+of a help? I think he is, and that, instead of pitying such a man, we
+should censure him. Ignorance of the laws of hygiene, physical and
+mental, is no valid excuse. He can buy a book on the subject for one
+dollar. But he does not even need to do that. Music, we read in
+Shakespere, has the power of "killing care and grief of heart," and
+what he needs, therefore, is to hear some good music every evening, at
+home or at the opera. This will draw the blood from the over-worked
+part of his brain to another part, and by thus relieving it of the
+tormenting persistency of worrying thoughts and business cares,
+enable him to enjoy refreshing, dreamless sleep afterward. In this way
+music may help to restore his health, cure his dyspepsia, and sweeten
+his moral temper.
+
+In America, more than anywhere else, is music needed as a tonic, to
+cure the infectious and ridiculous business fever which is responsible
+for so many cases of premature collapse. Nowhere else is so much time
+wasted in making money, which is then spent in a way that contributes
+to no one's happiness--least of all the owner's. We Americans are in
+the habit of calling ourselves the most practical nation in the world,
+but the fact is it would be difficult to find a nation less practical.
+For, what is the object of life? Is it to toil like a galley slave and
+never have any amusements? Every nation in Europe, except the English,
+knows better how to enjoy the pleasures of life than we do. Our
+so-called "practical" men look upon recreation as something useless,
+whereas in reality it is the most useful thing in the world.
+Recreation is re-creation--regaining the energies lost by hard work.
+Those who properly alternate recreation with work, economize their
+brain power, and are therefore infinitely more practical than those
+who scorn or neglect recreation.
+
+The utility and the moral value of refined pleasures is not
+sufficiently understood. It should be proclaimed from the housetops
+every day. Bread and butter to eat, and a bed to sleep in, are not the
+only useful things in the world, but, in the words of Shelley,
+"Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the
+imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful." Music is useful
+because it does this, and it is useful in many other ways. Singing
+strengthens the lungs, playing the muscles, and both stimulate the
+mind. Milton, Schiller, George Sand, Alfieri, and other geniuses have
+testified that music aroused their creative faculties; and in
+Beaconsfield's "Contarini" occurs this passage: "I have a passion for
+instrumental music. A grand orchestra fills my mind with ideas. I
+forget everything in the stream of invention." Furthermore, music is a
+stepping-stone to social success. A gifted amateur is welcomed at once
+into circles to which others may vainly seek admission for years; and
+a young lady with a musical voice has a great advantage in the period
+of courtship. But most important of all is the moral value of music as
+an _ennui_ killer. _Ennui_ leads to more petty crimes than anything
+else; and a devotee of music need never suffer a moment's _ennui_.
+There are enough charming songs and pieces to fill up every spare
+moment in our lives with ecstatic bliss, and to banish all temptation
+to vice. It is in reference to similar pleasures that Sir John
+Lubbock, in his essay on the "Duty of Happiness," exclaims: "It is
+wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw
+away." The art of enjoying life is an accomplishment which few have
+thoroughly mastered.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES
+
+
+Why is it that most persons are more interested in vocal than in
+instrumental music? Obviously because, as Richard Wagner remarks, "the
+human voice is the oldest, the most genuine, and the most beautiful
+organ of music--the organ to which alone our music owes its
+existence." And not only is the sound or quality of the human voice
+more beautiful than that of any artificial instrument, but it is
+capable of greater variation. Although a good artist can produce
+various shades of tone on his instrument, yet every instrument has a
+well-defined characteristic _timbre_, which justifies us in speaking,
+for instance, of the majestic, solemn trombone, the serene flute, the
+amorous violoncello, the lugubrious bassoon, and so on. The human
+voice, on the other hand, is much less limited in its powers of tonal
+and emotional coloring. It is not dependent for its resonance on a
+rigid tube, like the flute, or an unchangeable sounding-board, like
+the violin or the piano, but on the cavity of the mouth, which can be
+enlarged and altered at will by the movements of the lower jaw, and
+the soft parts--the tongue and the glottis. These movements change the
+overtones, of which the vowels are made up, and hence it is that the
+human voice is capable of an infinite variety of tone-color, compared
+with which Wagner admits that even "the most manifold imaginable
+mixture of orchestral colors must appear insignificant."
+
+Notwithstanding that the superiority of the voice is thus conceded,
+even by the greatest magician of the orchestra, we daily hear the
+complaint that the good old times of artistic singing are gone by, and
+have been superseded by an instrumental era, in which the voice merely
+plays the part of the second fiddle and is maltreated by composers,
+who do not understand its real nature. So far is this opinion from the
+truth that it must be said, contrariwise, that it is only within the
+last century--I might almost say the last half century--that composers
+have begun fully to recognize the true function of the human voice and
+its principal advantage over instruments.
+
+What is this advantage? It is the power of articulating, of uniting
+poetry with music, _definite words with indefinite tones_. Every
+instrument, as I have just said, has a characteristic emotional
+tone-color. But the emotions expressed by them are vague and
+indefinite. A piece of instrumental music can express an eager,
+passionate yearning for something, but it cannot tell what that
+something is--whether it is the ardent longing of an absent lover, or
+the heavenward aspiration of a religious enthusiast. The vocalist, on
+the other hand, can clearly tell us the object of that longing by
+using definite words. And by thus arousing reminiscences in the
+hearer's mind, and adding the charm of poetry to that of music, he
+doubles the power and impressiveness of his art.
+
+Now, a very brief sketch of the history of solo singing will show that
+this special advantage of the human voice over instruments was, if not
+entirely overlooked, at least considered of secondary importance in
+practice, until Gluck and Schubert laid the foundations for a new
+style, in which the distinctively _vocal_ side of singing has
+gradually become of greater importance than the instrumental side; as
+we see in the music-dramas of Wagner, and the Lieder, or parlor-songs,
+of Schumann, Franz, Liszt, and others.
+
+Although _folk-song_ appears to be as old as the human race, the
+history of _artistic_ song, or song written by professional composers
+for the concert hall, can be traced back only about three centuries.
+Before that time vocal music was generally polyphonic, that is, for
+several voices; and a contrapuntal style of music had been introduced
+into Italy from the Netherlands, which was so complicated and
+artificial that the poetic text had no chance whatever of asserting
+its rights and being understood. Now, the modern opera, which was
+originated about three hundred years ago by a number of Florentine
+amateurs, although it sprang from a desire to revive the ancient Greek
+drama, in which music was united with poetry, represents at the same
+time a reaction against this unintelligible Netherland style. The new
+opera at first went to the opposite extreme, making the distinct
+declamation of the text its principal object and neglecting vocal
+ornamentation, and even melody, on purpose. The famous vocalist and
+teacher, Caccini, although he taught his pupils how to sing trills and
+roulades, declared that they were not essential to good singing, but
+merely a means of tickling the ear, and, therefore, generally to be
+avoided. He taught the Italian singers how to express the passions,
+and reproduce the meaning of the words they sang--an art which,
+according to the Roman, Pietro della Valle, was not previously known
+to them.
+
+The dry declamation of the first Italian operas, however, was not
+supported by a sufficiently rich accompaniment to be enjoyable after
+the first sense of novelty had passed away; and even the gifted
+Monteverde's ingenious innovations in instrumental coloring and in
+the free use of expressive discords, could not ward off a second
+reaction, in favor of song pure and simple, which set in with
+Scarlatti, the founder of the Neapolitan school, whose first opera was
+produced a little over two centuries ago. From this time dates the
+supremacy, in Italy, of the _bel canto_, or beautiful song, which,
+however, gradually degenerated into mere circus music in which every
+artistic aim was deliberately sacrificed to sensuous tone-revelry and
+agility of execution, the voice being treated as a mere instrument,
+without any regard for its higher prerogative of interpreting poetry
+and heightening its effects.
+
+This period of Italian song prevailed throughout Europe until the time
+of Rossini. And in all the annals of music there is nothing quite so
+strange as the extraordinary craze which existed during this time for
+_the instrumental style of vocalism_. A special class of singers--the
+male sopranists--was artificially created, in order to secure the most
+dazzling results in brilliant, ornamental vocalization. Various kinds
+of trills, grace notes, runs, and other species of _fioriture_, or
+vocal somersaults, were introduced in every song, in such profusion
+that the song itself was at last barely recognizable; and this kind of
+stuff the audiences of that time applauded frantically. Everybody has
+heard of the vulgar circus tricks performed by the most famous of the
+sopranists, Farinelli--how at one time he beat a famous German
+trumpeter in prolonging and swelling his notes, and how, at another
+time, he began an aria softly, swelled it by imperceptible degrees to
+such an astounding volume, and then decreased it again in the same way
+to pianissimo, that the public wildly applauded him for five minutes.
+Thereupon, Dr. Burney relates, he began to sing with such amazing
+rapidity that the orchestra found it difficult to keep up with him.
+Dr. Dommer justly comments on this story that, for such racing with an
+orchestra, a singer would be hissed to-day by musical people.
+
+It was not only quick and animated songs that were thus overloaded
+with meaningless embroideries by the sopranists and the prima donnas
+that followed them. Slow movements, which ought to breathe a spirit of
+melancholy, appear to have been especially selected as background for
+these vocal fireworks. I need not dwell on the unnaturalness of this
+style. To run up and down the scale wildly and persistently in singing
+a slow and sad song, is as consistent as it would be for an orator to
+grin and yodle while delivering a funeral oration.
+
+A question might be raised as to how far the great Italian composers
+are responsible for this degradation of the vocal art to the level of
+the circus. The public, it might be argued, wanted the florid style
+of song; and if Rossini and Donizetti had refused to write in the
+style admired by them, they would have been neglected in favor of
+other and less gifted composers. I do not agree with this reasoning.
+Rossini and Donizetti have revealed enough genius in some of their
+sparkling melodies to make it probable that, if they had not so often
+stooped to the level of a taste corrupted by the sopranists, they
+might have raised the public to a higher standard of musical taste.
+Rossini, in fact, _did_ introduce many reforms in Italian opera. He
+enriched the orchestral accompaniments, removed some of the
+superfluous arias, and for the first time wrote leading solo parts for
+the bass--an innovation for which he was violently attacked, on the
+ludicrous conservative ground that the bass could only be properly
+used as a basis of harmonies. But Rossini's greatest merit lies in
+this, that he refused to write for the sopranists, and would not even
+let them sing in those of his operas which were brought out under his
+own supervision. Furthermore, to prevent the singers from spoiling his
+melodies with their florid additions, "he supplied his own
+decorations, and made them so elaborate that the most skilled adorner
+would have found it difficult to add to them" (Edwards). For thus
+emancipating the composers from the tyranny of the singers Rossini
+deserves great credit, and still greater honor is due him for having
+shown, in his "William Tell," which he wrote for Paris, and in which
+he discarded the florid style, that when he _did_ have a public which
+appreciated simplicity of style and dramatic propriety in music, his
+genius was equal to the occasion. It is a great pity that he did not
+write several more operas in the style of "William Tell," for it is
+the only one of his works which has preserved a portion of its former
+popularity in Paris and elsewhere, thanks to its regard for dramatic
+propriety.
+
+Like the composers, the singing teachers in Italy consented to adapt
+their method to the universal clamor for decorative, florid singing.
+The audiences did not seem to care at all _what_ was sung to them, as
+long as it was sung with sensuous beauty of tone, and facility of
+execution; consequently sensuous beauty of tone and facility of
+execution were almost the only things that the teachers aimed at. This
+is illustrated by an anecdote concerning the famous teacher Porpora
+and his pupil Caffarelli, which, although doubtless exaggerated,
+nevertheless describes the situation graphically. Porpora, it is
+related, gave Caffarelli a page of exercises to which he confined him
+for five years. And at the end of that time he exclaimed: "You have
+nothing more to learn! Caffarelli is the first singer in the world!"
+
+As if facility of execution or technical skill were not the mere
+beginning of vocal culture--the fashioning of the instrument, as it
+were, with which the singer must subsequently learn the higher arts of
+expressing human emotions in tones, of phrasing intelligently, and of
+pronouncing distinctly, so that the poetic qualities of the text may
+be appreciated.
+
+In looking over specimens of the vocal music written by Porpora and
+his contemporaries, we find passages in which a single syllable is
+extended over one hundred and fifty-eight, and even a hundred and
+seventy-five, notes. A more atrocious maltreatment of the text, and
+misconception of the true function of the human voice, could not be
+imagined. As Mr. H.C. Deacon remarks, "The passages in much of the
+music of that date, especially that of Porpora, are really
+instrumental passages ... and possessing but little interest beyond
+the surprise that their exact performance would create." People did
+not ask themselves whether it was worth while for singers to go
+through the most arduous training for five years, for the sake of
+learning to execute runs which any fiddler or flute-player could learn
+to play in a few weeks. Look at the fioriture which, to this day, Mme.
+Patti sings in "Lucia," "Semiramide," etc. She is the only living
+being who can sing them with absolute correctness and smoothness. Not
+another singer can do it--whereas _every member of her orchestra can
+play them at sight_. Does not this show, once and for all, that this
+style of singing (which still has numerous admirers) is instrumental,
+is unvocal, unsuited to the human voice, and should be abandoned
+forever? Rossini showed his real opinion of it by writing his best and
+most mature work in a different style; and Verdi has done the same in
+"Aida" and "Otello," in which there is hardly a trace of colorature,
+while the style often approaches to that of genuine dramatic song.
+
+The colorature or florid style, however, is only one of the varieties
+of Italian song. Side by side with it there has always been a
+charming, melodious _cantabile_, which in the later period of Italian
+opera gradually got the ascendancy. This _cantabile_ is often of
+exquisite beauty, and gives Italian and Italianized singers a chance
+to show off the mellow qualities of their voices to the best
+advantage. The very word _cantabile_ emphasizes, by antithesis, the
+unvocal character of the old florid style. _Fioritura_ means
+embroidery, while _cantabile_ means "song-like." But now, note how the
+sins of one period are visited on the next. The evils of the florid
+style did not terminate with its supremacy. They cast a shadow before,
+which prevented the real nature of human song from being discovered
+even after the vocal style had become more simple and rational. During
+the period in which the vocalists were in the habit of singing from a
+dozen to a hundred or more notes to a single syllable of the text,
+they, as well as the public, had become so indifferent to the words
+and their poetic meaning, that this habit could not at once be altered
+when the _cantabile_ style came more into vogue. The singers continued
+to be careless in regard to pronunciation of the words, and the opera
+libretti were so very silly that the public really did not care
+whether the singers spoke their words correctly and distinctly or not.
+Hence even the _cantabile_ style of Italian song continued to be more
+or less instrumental in character--telling the audience little more
+about the text than the flute or the violins told them about it.
+
+Mrs. Wodehouse, in her article on song in Grove's "Dictionary of Music
+and Musicians," calls attention to the injurious action of Italian
+opera on the English School by breeding indifference to the text.
+"From Handel's time until a very recent date," she says, "Italian
+operas and Italian songs reigned supreme in England; Italian singers
+and Italian teachers were masters of the situation to the exclusion of
+all others. And the habit thus contracted of hearing and admiring
+compositions in a foreign and unknown tongue, engendered in the
+English public a lamentable indifference to the words of songs, which
+reacted with evil effect both on the composer and the singer.
+Concerned only to please the ears of his audience, the composer
+neglected to wed his music to words of true poetic merit; and the
+singer quickly grew to be careless in his enunciation. Of how many
+singers, and even of good ones, may it not fairly be affirmed that at
+the end of the song the audience has failed to recognize its
+language?"
+
+These remarks are quite as applicable to America as to England. We
+hear singers every week to whom we can listen attentively for five
+minutes without being able to tell what language they are singing in.
+Most of these singers were trained by the Italian method: And yet we
+are told every day that this Italian method, which has so little
+regard for the distinctively vocal side of singing, is the only true
+method for the voice. It is time to call a halt in this matter, time
+to ask if the Italian method is really the one best adapted for
+teaching pupils to sing in English. That it is the best and only
+method for singing in Italian, and for interpreting the style hitherto
+cultivated by the Italians, no one will deny. But whether it is the
+proper method for those who wish to sing in English, French, or
+German, and to devote themselves to the modern dramatic style, is
+quite another question, which must be, partly at least, answered in
+the negative.
+
+A careful examination of the situation, leaving aside all national
+prejudice, will show us that each of the two principal methods, as
+exemplified by Italian and German singers, has its dark and its
+bright side, and that the cosmopolitan American style of the future
+ought to try to combine the advantages of both, while avoiding their
+shortcomings. The dark side of Italian singing has been sufficiently
+dwelt upon; let us now consider the bright side.
+
+Italy owes much of her fame as the cradle of artistic song and "The
+Lord's own Conservatory," to climatic and linguistic advantages.
+Thanks to the mild climate, men and women can spend most of their time
+in the open air, and their voices are not liable to be ruined by
+constantly passing from a dry, overheated room into the raw and chilly
+air of the streets. The Italians are a plump race, with well-developed
+muscles, and their vocal chords share in the general muscular health
+and development; so that the average voice in Italy has a much wider
+compass than in most other countries; and an unctuous ease of
+execution is readily acquired. Their language, again, favors Italian
+singers quite as much as their climate. It abounds in the most
+sonorous of the vowels, while generally avoiding the difficult U, and
+the mixed vowels � and �, as well as the harsh consonants, which are
+almost always sacrificed to euphony. And where the language hesitates
+to make this sacrifice, the vocalists come to the rescue and
+facilitate matters by arbitrarily changing the difficult vowel or
+consonant into an easy one. In this they are encouraged by the
+teachers, who habitually neglect the less sonorous vowels and make
+their pupils sing all their exercises on the easy vowel A. No wonder,
+then, that the tones of an Italian singer commonly sound sweet: he
+makes them up of nothing but pure sugar. Characterization, dramatic
+effect, variety of emotional coloring, are all bartered away for
+sensuous beauty of tone; and hence the distinctive name for Italian
+singing--_bel canto_, or beautiful song--is very aptly chosen.
+
+Now, sensuous beauty of tone is a most desirable thing in music.
+Wagner's music, _e.g._, owes much of its tonic charm to his fine
+instinct for sensuous orchestral coloring, and Chopin's works lose
+half their characteristic beauty if played on a poor piano, or by one
+who does not know how to use the pedal in such a way as to produce a
+continuous stream of rich saturated sound. Hence the Italians deserve
+full credit for the attention they bestow on sensuous beauty of tone,
+even if their means of securing it may not always be approved. Nor
+does this by any means exhaust the catalogue of Italian virtues. As a
+rule, Italian singers have a better ear for pitch, breathe more
+naturally, and execute more easily than German and French singers,
+whose guttural and nasal sounds they also avoid. The difference
+between the average Italian and German singers is well brought out by
+Dr. Hanslick, in speaking of the Italian performances which formerly
+used to alternate with the German operas in Vienna: "Most of our
+Italian guests," he says, "distinguish themselves by means of the
+thorough command they have over their voices, which in themselves are
+by no means imposing; our German members by powerful voices, which,
+however, owing to their insufficient training, do not produce half the
+effect they would if they had been subjected to the same amount of
+training. With the Italians great certainty and evenness throughout
+the r�le; with the Germans an unequal alternation of brilliant and
+mediocre moments, which seems partly accidental."
+
+It is this element of accident and uncertainty that lowers the value
+of many German singers. Herr Niemann, for instance, has moments--and,
+indeed, whole evenings--when his voice, seemingly rejuvenated, not
+only rises to sublime heights of dramatic passion, but possesses rare
+sensuous beauty; while on other occasions the sound of his voice is
+almost unbearable. Niemann, of course, is fifty-eight years old, but
+many of the younger German singers too often have their bad
+quarter-hours; and even Lilli Lehmann--whom I would rather hear for my
+own pleasure than any other singer now on the stage--emits
+occasionally a disagreeable guttural sound. Nothing of the sort in
+Mme. Patti, whom Niemann no doubt is right in pronouncing the most
+perfect vocalist, not only of this period, but of all times. I, for my
+part, have never cared much for the _bel canto_ as such, because it is
+so often wasted on trashy compositions. Yet, when I heard Mme. Patti
+for the first time in New York, I could not help indulging in the
+following rhapsody: "The ordinary epithets applicable to a voice, such
+as sweet, sympathetic, flexible, expressive, sound almost too
+commonplace to be applied to Patti's voice at its best, as it was when
+she sang the _valse_ Ombra Leggiera from 'Dinora,' and 'Home, Sweet
+Home.' Her voice has a natural sensuous charm like a Cremona violin,
+which it is a pleasure to listen to, irrespective of what she happens
+to be singing. It is a pleasure, too, to hear under what perfect
+control she has it; how, without changing the quality of the sound,
+she passes from a high to a low note, from piano to forte, gradually
+or suddenly, and all without the least sense of effort. Indeed her
+notes are as spontaneous and natural as those of a nightingale; and
+this, combined with their natural sweetness and purity, constitutes
+their great charm." A few months later, when Patti gave one of her
+innumerable farewell performances, I was again forced to admit that
+she is the greatest of living lyric sopranos, but took the liberty to
+express my conviction that "the charm of her voice is almost as purely
+sensuous as the beauty of a dewdrop or a diamond reflecting the
+prismatic colors of sunlight."
+
+Patti, in a word, is the incarnation of the Italian style. Her voice
+is flawless as regards beauty of tone, and spontaneity and agility of
+execution. Moreover, she avoids the small vices common to most Italian
+singers, such as taking liberties with the time and the sentiment of
+the piece for the sake of prolonging a trill or a loud final high
+note, and so on. At an early stage in her career she followed the
+custom of the time, and lavished such an abundance of uncalled-for
+scales and trills and arpeggios and staccatos on her melody, that even
+Rossini entered a sarcastic protest; but in her later years she has
+conscientiously followed the indications of the composers. At the same
+time, she has shown more and more anxiety to win laurels as a dramatic
+singer. But here the vocal style which she has exclusively cultivated
+has proved an insuperable obstacle. Although free from the smaller
+vices of the Italian school, she could not overcome the great and
+fatal shortcoming of that school--the maltreatment of the poetic text.
+She could not find the proper accents required in operas where the
+words of the text are as important as the melody itself; and she has
+failed therefore to give satisfaction even in such works as "Faust"
+and "A�da," which are intermediate between the old-fashioned opera and
+the music-drama proper. I have been often surprised to hear how
+Patti, so conscientious in other respects, slights her texts,
+obliterating consonants and altering vowels after the fashion of the
+Italian school. Having neglected to master the more vigorous vowels
+and expressive consonants, she cannot assert her art in dramatic
+works. Her voice, in short, is _merely an instrument_. "Bird-like" is
+an epithet commonly applied to it by admirers. Is this a compliment? A
+dubious one, in my opinion. The nightingale's voice is very sweet, no
+doubt, but it is no better than a flute. A bird cannot pronounce words
+and sing at the same time. The human voice alone can do that--can
+alone combine poetry and music, uniting the advantage of both in one
+effect.
+
+On the other hand, have you ever heard anyone compare the voices of
+Lehmann, Materna, Sucher, or Malten to a bird's voice? Of course not;
+and the reason is obvious. The point of view is different. Although
+Lilli Lehmann's voice is almost as mellow in timbre as Patti's, and
+much richer and warmer, we never think of it as a bird-like or vague
+instrumental tone, but as a medium for the expression of definite
+dramatic emotion. And herein lies the chief difference between the
+Italian and the German schools. _An Italian adores singing for its own
+sake, a German as a means of definite emotional expression._
+
+Now, whether we look at nations or at individuals, we always find
+that simple beauty of tone and agility of execution in artistic
+singing are appreciated sooner than emotional expression and dramatic
+characterization. Hence it is that the Italian school came before the
+German school. Even in Germany, a few generations ago, the Italian
+school was so predominant that German composers of the first
+rank--Gluck, Weber, and Beethoven--found it difficult to assert their
+influence against it. In Vienna, during the season of 1823, the
+Rossini furore was so great that none but Rossini's operas were sung;
+and in Germany almost everyone of the three dozen big and little
+potentates supported his own Italian operatic company. To-day you look
+in vain through Germany or Austria for a single Italian company. The
+few Italian operas that have remained on the repertory are sung in
+German translations by German singers, and all of these operas
+together hardly have as many performances in a year as a single one of
+Wagner's.
+
+Here is a revolution in taste which may well excite our astonishment,
+and arouse our curiosity as to how it was brought about. It was
+brought about by the courage and perseverance of a few composers who,
+instead of stooping down to the crude taste of the _fioriture_-loving
+public, elevated that taste until it was able to appreciate the poetic
+and dramatic side of music; and it was brought about with the
+assistance of German singers, notwithstanding the great disadvantages,
+climatic and linguistic, under which these labor in comparison with
+Italian singers.
+
+Although the Germans are a more robust nation than the Italians, with
+more powerful muscles and voices, their climate is against them,
+leading to frequent throat troubles which endanger the beauty of the
+voice. Hence, the gift of mellow, supple song does not come to them so
+spontaneously as to the Italians. About a thousand years ago, an
+Italian compared the singing of some German monks to the noise made by
+a cart rattling down a frozen street; and even Luther compared the
+singing in cathedrals and monasteries at his time to the "braying of
+asses." At a more recent period, Frederick the Great, on hearing of
+the proposed engagement of a German singer, exclaimed: "What! hear a
+German singer! I should as soon expect to derive pleasure from the
+neighing of my horse!" Beethoven knew that the chief reason why he
+could not compete with Rossini on the stage was the lack of good
+German singers. He often lamented the inferiority of the German to the
+Italian singers, and one day exclaimed to the organist Freudenberg:
+"We Germans have no sufficiently cultivated singers for the part of
+_Leonora_; they are too cold and feelingless. The Italians sing and
+act with their whole souls." Nevertheless, Beethoven refused to adapt
+his music to the style of the Italian singers--fortunately; for, if
+he had, it would now be as obsolete as most of Rossini's and
+Donizetti's.
+
+When Berlioz made his famous tour in Germany, matters had somewhat
+improved, to judge from the following remarks in his "� Travers
+Chants:" "They say that the Germans sing badly; that may seem true in
+general. I will not broach the question here, whether or not their
+language is the reason of it, and whether Mme. Sontag, Pischek,
+Tichatschek, Mlle. Lind, who is almost a German, and many others, do
+not form magnificent exceptions; but, upon the whole, German vocalists
+sing, and do not howl; the screaming school is not theirs; they make
+music." Nevertheless, about the same time, Liszt complained that a
+perfect training of the voice such as he admired in Viardot Garcia,
+had almost become a legend of the past; and only eight years ago, an
+excellent German critic, Martin Pl�ddemann, wrote that "Germany has
+many good orchestras and not a few excellent pianists, even among
+amateurs; but a city of 100,000 inhabitants seldom has ten vocalists
+whose voices are tolerable, and of these two or three at most deserve
+the name of artists."
+
+When Richard Wagner made his preparation for the great Nibelung
+festival in 1876, he had the greatest difficulty in securing a
+sufficient number of competent interpreters for the different r�les
+of the trilogy, though he had all the German opera companies to choose
+from. His private letters and essays are full of lamentations
+regarding the rarity of singers able to interpret, not only his works,
+but those of Weber, Gluck, or Mozart. Good singers, he says in one
+place, are so rare that the managers have to pay their weight in gold
+and jewelry. But the cause of this, he continues, is not the lack of
+good voices, but their improper training in the wrong direction.
+German teachers have tried to adapt the voices of their pupils to the
+Italian _canto_, which is incompatible with the German language.
+"Hitherto," he says in another place, "the voice has been trained
+exclusively after the model of Italian songs; there was no other. But
+the character of Italian songs was determined by the general spirit of
+Italian music, which, in the time of its full bloom, was best
+exemplified by the sopranists, because the aim of this music was mere
+enjoyment of the senses, without any regard for genuine depth of
+feeling--as is also shown by the fact that the voice of young manhood,
+the tenor voice, was hardly used at all at this period, and later only
+in a sopranistic way, as falsetto. Now, the spirit of modern music,
+under the undisputed leadership of German genius, especially
+Beethoven, has succeeded in first rising to the true dignity of art,
+by bringing within the sphere of its incomparable expressiveness, not
+only what is agreeable to the senses, but also an energetic
+spirituality and emotional depth." Evidently, he concludes, a singer
+trained in the spirit of the old-fashioned, merely sensuous music, is
+unable to cope with modern dramatic music, and the result is the
+failure and premature collapse of so many promising singers, who might
+have become great artists had they been rationally instructed.
+
+Misinformed or prejudiced critics have told us countless times that
+Wagner assigned the voice a secondary place in his works because he
+cared less for it than for the orchestra, and did not understand its
+nature and uses. The fact is that no one can read his essays,
+especially those on Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and on Actors and
+Vocalists, without being impressed with his unbounded admiration for
+the voice, and his practical knowledge of its highest functions and
+correct use. As a vocal teacher, Wagner has perhaps never had an
+equal. A few words from him regarding tone emission, breathing, or
+phrasing, have often sufficed to show to a singer that a passage which
+he had considered unsingable, was really the easiest thing in the
+world, if only the poetic sense were properly grasped and the breath
+economized. It is difficult to realize how much of their art and
+popularity the greatest dramatic singers of the period owe to Wagner's
+personal instruction. Materna, Malten, Brandt, Tichatschek, Schnorr
+von Carolsfeld, Niemann, Vogl, Winkelmann, Betz, Scaria, Reichmann,
+and many others have had the benefit of his advice; and if Wagner
+could have carried out his plans of establishing a college of dramatic
+singing at Bayreuth--a plan which was frustrated by the lack of
+funds--the cause of dramatic art would have gained immeasurably. We
+speak with scornful contempt of the Viennese of a former generation,
+who allowed a rare genius like Schubert to starve; but posterity will
+look back with quite as great astonishment on the sluggishness of a
+generation which did not eagerly accept the offer of the greatest
+dramatic composer of all times, to instruct gratuitously a number of
+pupils in his own style and those of Gluck, Mozart, and Weber.
+
+Leaving out of consideration the instructions which they personally
+received from Wagner, the greatest dramatic singers of the time may be
+regarded as self-made men and women. Experience taught them their art,
+other teacher they had none; for it is only within a few years that a
+few teachers have begun to realize that the old methods of instruction
+are partly incorrect, and partly insufficient for the demands of
+contemporary art. Such teachers as Mme. Viardot-Garcia and Mme.
+Marchesi have done much good, and trained many excellent lyric
+vocalists; but Mme. Marchesi herself admits that the great demand
+to-day is for dramatic, and not for lyric, singers. Formerly, it was
+the _bravura_ singer who bought dukedoms with his shekels; to-day,
+with the solitary exception of Patti, it is the _dramatic_ soprano or
+tenor that gets from $500 to $1,000 a night. When will teachers and
+pupils wake up and recognize the new situation? When will American
+girls cease flocking by the hundreds to Milan to learn such r�les as
+_Lucia_ or _Amina_, for which there is now no demand, either in Europe
+or America, if we except the wild Western audiences to which Emma
+Abbott caters. A good _Elsa_ or _Br�nnhilde_ will get an engagement
+ten times sooner than a good _Lucia_; and young vocalists whose voices
+have not sufficient volume and power to cope with German dramatic
+music, will do well to devote their attention to the better class of
+French operas, for which there is a growing demand, as the French
+style has always been much more like the German than like the Italian,
+owing to the great attention paid by French composers, especially
+since the days of Gluck, to vigorous declamation and distinct
+enunciation. Wagner especially recommends the works of the older
+French schools as a preparation for his own more difficult operas.
+
+Director Stanton, of the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York, is
+obliged every summer to make a trip to Germany and look about for
+dramatic singers wherewith to replenish his casts. As a number of
+American singers have already won fame here and abroad, the time no
+doubt will come when he will be able to find the dramatic singers he
+needs at home, and when opera in English will have supplanted foreign
+opera, so far as the language is concerned. But until that happy epoch
+arrives every aspirant to operatic honors cannot be too strongly urged
+to begin his or her studies by learning the French and German
+languages. Almost all the greatest singers of the century have been
+able not only to sing but to speak in several languages. Above all
+things, students of song should learn to speak their own language. Mr.
+H.C. Deacon remarks that "no nation in the civilized world speaks its
+language so abominably as the English.... Familiar conversation is
+carried on in inarticulate smudges of sound which are allowed to pass
+current for something, as worn-out shillings are accepted as
+representatives of twelvepence.... When English people begin to study
+singing, they are astonished to find that they have never learned to
+speak."
+
+Mr. Deacon's strictures do not apply in all their force to Americans,
+for the average American speaks English more distinctly than the
+average Englishman; yet there is room for vast improvement in the
+enunciation of our singers. Now, the great value of the German style
+to English students lies in this, that it emphasizes above all things
+the importance of correct and distinct speech in song. Julius Hey, of
+Munich, who has just published a vocal method which will mark an epoch
+in the teaching of singing, devotes the whole of his first volume to
+an analysis of the elements of speech, and to exercises in speaking.
+The second and third volumes contain vocal exercises for male and
+female voices, while the fourth volume, which has just appeared,
+discusses the special characteristics of the German dramatic method,
+and gives detailed instructions for the development and training of
+each variety of voice, together with an appendix in which some of the
+most popular operatic r�les are analyzed and described. It is a book
+which no teacher or student who wishes to keep abreast of the times
+can afford to be without.
+
+Although Herr Hey is a disciple of Wagner, he is a cosmopolitan
+admirer of all that is good in every style of the past and present. In
+the elaborate scheme for the establishment of a conservatory in Munich
+which Wagner submitted to King Ludwig, he dwells on the fact that
+every student of song, whatever his ultimate aims, should be
+instructed in Italian singing, in conjunction with the Italian
+language. Herr Hey, too, admits that there is no branch of the Italian
+method which the German teachers can afford to ignore. In the emission
+of a mellow tone, the use of the portamento, in the treatment of
+scales, of trills, and of other ornaments, and in facile vocalization
+in general, all nations can learn from the Italians. But the Italian
+method does not go far enough. It does not meet the demands of the
+modern opera and the modern music-drama. It delights too much in
+comfortable solfeggios, in linked sweetness long drawn out, which soon
+palls on the senses. The modern romantic and dramatic spirit demands
+more characteristic, more vigorous, more varied accents than Italian
+song supplies. These dramatic accents are supplied by the German
+method, and in this chiefly lies its superiority over the Italian
+method.
+
+Herr Hey uses a very happy comparison in trying to show the bad
+consequences of relying too much on the Italian principles of vocal
+instruction which have been current until lately in Germany as in all
+other countries. Students, he says, are taught to fence with a little
+walking-cane, and when it comes to the decisive battle they are
+expected to wield a heavy sword. A most happy illustration this, I
+repeat, for it indicates exactly what vocal teachers of the old school
+are doing. They choose the easiest of the vowels and the easiest
+melodic intervals, and make the pupils exercise on those constantly,
+ignoring the more difficult ones; and the consequence is, that when,
+subsequently, the pupils are confronted with difficult intervals in a
+dramatic r�le, they sing them badly and make the ludicrous protest
+that the composer "doesn't know how to write for the voice;" and when
+they come across difficult vowels they either change them into easier
+ones, and thus make the text unintelligible, or else they emit a crude
+tone because they have never learned to sing a sonorous U, I, or E
+(Latin).
+
+The German principle, on the other hand, is that all vowels (and the
+German language has a greater number of them than the Italian) must be
+cultivated equally, the difficult ones all the more because they are
+difficult. Herr Hey has found in practice that not only can the vowels
+which at first sound dull and hollow, like U, be made as sonorous as A
+(Ah), but that, by practising on U, the A itself is rendered more
+sonorous than it can ever become by exclusive practice on it alone.
+Not only does the German method in this way secure a greater variety
+of sonorous vowel sounds, useful for the expression of different
+dramatic moods, but the registers are equalized, and there is a great
+gain in the power and endurance of the voice, which is of immense
+importance to-day in grand opera.
+
+Prof. Stockhausen, the distinguished vocal teacher, recently remarked
+in the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ that "the _mezza voce_ is the natural
+song, the constant loud singing being only a struggle with unequal
+weapons against our modern orchestra." No doubt he is right. But the
+orchestra has become such an important factor in modern opera that
+musicians would be unwilling to have it reduced in size--the tendency
+being, in fact, the other way; and at the same time opera is such an
+expensive luxury that it can only be made to pay in a very large
+theatre, which obliges the singers to have stentorian voices.
+Consequently, the German method, which develops the power and the
+sonority of the voice on _every_ vowel, is the method of the future,
+all the more because the English language, which is the world language
+of the future, is even more difficult for vocal purposes than the
+German, and calls for similar treatment.
+
+In the treatment of consonants, the German method marks a still
+greater advance on the Italian method. Professor Ehrlich thinks that
+the reason why Italians care so much for melody and so little for
+harmony is because they are too indolent to make the mental effort
+which is required to follow a complicated harmonic score. They are,
+certainly, too lazy to pronounce any harsh or difficult consonants,
+and the Italian language therefore presents a picture of sad
+effeminate degeneracy compared with the more vigorous Latin and even
+Spanish. Now the English language and the English character have much
+more of German vigor and masculine strength than of the Italian
+_dolce far niente_: hence, the English vocal style of the future will
+have to be modelled after the German style, which, instead of shirking
+difficult consonants boldly tackles and utilizes them. It will never
+be possible to sing so sweetly in the English and German languages as
+in Italian; but it is possible to sing with much more vigor, dramatic
+definiteness, and variety of emotional expression.
+
+At the same time, the harshness of the consonants in German and
+English song must not be too much emphasized. Wagner has shown in his
+music-dramas, and Hey in his vocal method, that by means of a proper
+division of syllables and correct articulation, the harshness of
+consonants can be toned down as much as is desirable. On the
+desirability and effectiveness of strong consonants Liszt has some
+admirable remarks in speaking of the Polish language, which is noted
+for its melodious beauty, although it bristles with consonants: "The
+harshness of a language," he says, "is by no means always conditioned
+by the excessive number of consonants, but rather by the way in which
+they are united; one might almost say that the weak, cold color of
+some languages is due to the lack of characteristic and strongly
+accented sounds. It is only an unharmonious combination of dissimilar
+consonants that offends a refined ear. The frequent return of certain
+well-united consonants gives shading, rhythm, and vigor to language;
+whereas the predominance of vowels produces a certain pallor in the
+coloration, which needs the contrast of darker tints."
+
+Those who are always ready to insist on the superiority of the Italian
+language for song, would do well to ponder these remarks of Liszt, who
+knew what he was talking about, as he spoke a number of modern
+languages fluently. And when they have done that, they should procure
+a few of Wagner's later vocal scores and note the extremely ingenious
+manner in which he has made the peculiarities of German consonants
+subservient to his dramatic purposes. I refer especially to his use of
+alliteration--the repetition of a consonant in the same or in
+consecutive lines. This not only insures a smooth, melodious flow, but
+enables the composer to heighten the effect of any situation by
+choosing consonants that harmonize with it. What, for instance, could
+be more delightfully descriptive than the words sung by the three
+Rhine daughters as they merrily swim and gambol under the water in
+"Rheingold:"
+
+    "Weia! Waga!
+    Woge, du Welle,
+    Walle zur Wiege!
+    Wagalaweia!
+    Wallala, weiala, weia!"
+
+One need only look at this, without understanding the language, to
+feel the rhythmic motion of the water, and imagine the song of the
+merry maidens. Again, in the famous love duo in the "Walk�re," note
+the repetition of the liquid consonants, the l's and m's, which give
+the sound such a soft and sentimental background. Does it not seem
+incredible that the Italian operatic composers should have ignored
+such poetic means of deepening the emotional color of their songs?
+
+But this is by no means all. In the same scene in "Rheingold" to which
+reference has just been made, the ugly Nibelung _Alberich_ appears
+presently and tries to catch one of the lovely maidens. But they elude
+his grasp and he angrily complains that he slips and slides on the
+slimy soil. Note the slippery character of these sounds:
+
+    "Garstig glatter
+    Glitschriger Glimmer!
+    Wie Gleit ich aus!
+    Mit H�nden und F�ssen
+    Nicht fasse noch halt'ich
+    Das schlecke Geschl�pfer."
+
+_There_ is a real Volap�k for you--a world language which all can
+understand, for it is onomatopoetic realism.
+
+Of course it is not "beautiful;" but is that a reasonable objection?
+What would you say to an artist who painted dramatic battle-scenes,
+but made all the soldiers' faces as pretty as he could and adorned
+with sweet smiles? _That_ is precisely what the Italian opera
+composers have done in stage music; and it is because Wagner taught
+the singer to express not only _sweet_ sentiments but _all_ dramatic
+emotions, whether harsh or agreeable, that his new style marks an
+epoch in the evolution of the art of singing. At the same time, even
+these harsher passages in Wagner's vocal music are not really ugly,
+that is, disagreeable to the ear, _when properly sung_. Just as a
+homely face becomes attractive when it expresses a vivid emotion, so
+the harshest vocal measures in the realistic music-drama become a
+source of enjoyment if they are sung _with expression_.
+
+Unfortunately, there are only a few artists as yet who have
+sufficiently caught Wagner's intentions to be able to sing in this
+manner. Carl Hill, who created the part of the magician _Klingsor_ at
+the Parsifal Festival, in 1882, was one of these exceptions. He
+reflected the spirit of the gruesome text assigned to him so admirably
+that Wagner was delighted; but afterward he complained that Hill's
+fine impersonation was not so widely appreciated as it deserved to be;
+and why? Apparently, because _Klingsor's_ melodic intervals were not
+pleasing, nor his sentiments sympathetic.
+
+We must conclude from this that, in regard to dramatic singing, many
+opera-goers are still a good deal like the honest Scotchman who, on
+his first visit to a theatre, climbed on the stage and administered
+the villain of the play a sound thrashing; or, like the Bowery
+audiences, which applaud the good man in the play, no matter how badly
+he acts, and hiss the villain, though he be a second Salvini.
+
+Until operatic audiences begin to understand that singing is
+commendable in proportion as it gives realistic expression, not only
+to sweet and pleasing moods, but to various kinds of dramatic emotion,
+the full grandeur and value of Wagner's vocal style cannot be
+appreciated. A real epicure does not care to eat cakes and candy all
+the time; he loves olives and caviare too. These may be acquired
+tastes, but all taste for high art is acquired. And the time is,
+apparently, not very distant when Wagner's realistic vocal style will
+no longer be caviare even to the public at large, but will be more
+enjoyed--even when it gives expression to emotions of anger, jealousy,
+and revenge--than the cloying, sugar-coated melodies of Bellini and
+Rossini, or those meaningless embroideries which even some of the best
+of the older Italians (Tosi, for example) regarded as the most
+beautiful part of song.
+
+The great enthusiasm frequently shown at performances of Wagner's
+operas in other countries as well as in Germany, seems to argue that
+the public at large _has_ already entered into the real spirit and
+meaning of the Wagnerian style of singing. But numerous experiences
+lead me to believe the contrary. Allow me to quote, for example, an
+extract from one of those letters, abusive or censorious, which
+musical editors receive almost daily. "Is it not undeniable," writes a
+correspondent, "that as long as the world lasts, one of its greatest
+delights will consist in listening to the music furnished by the human
+voice? The more highly cultivated, pure, sweet, and flexible the
+voice, the more the enjoyment derived. And is it not equally true that
+Wagner's style of music discourages singing of this sort, or, in fact,
+singing of any sort? Are not the principal features of Wagner's operas
+the orchestra, acting, and general _mise-en-sc�ne_, and does not
+singing, pure and simple, have but little part in it?"
+
+If the writer of these questions had asked them in Wagner's presence I
+believe that Wagner would have jumped up and boxed his ears. Nothing
+so irritated him as this notion that the singing in his operas is
+subordinate to the orchestra, or, in other words, that he puts the
+statue in the orchestra and the pedestal on the stage. As early as
+1850, he complained to Liszt about his friend Dingelstedt, who, in his
+article on the first performance of "Lohengrin," had expressed a
+similar opinion. And many years later, in writing of Schnorr von
+Carolsfeld's wonderful impersonation of _Tristan_, he begs the reader
+to note that the last act of this work contains "an exuberance of
+orchestral devices, such as no simple instrumental composer has ever
+had occasion to call into use. Then assure yourself," he continues,
+"that this complete gigantic orchestra, considered from an operatic
+point of view, is, after all, only related as _accompaniment_ to the
+'solo' part represented by the monologue of the vocalist, who lies on
+his couch; and infer from this the significance of Schnorr's
+impersonation, if I call to witness every conscientious spectator at
+those Munich performances, that, from the first bar to the last, the
+attention and interest of all was centred on the vocalist actor, was
+chained to him, and never allowed a single word of the text to escape
+through a momentary absence of mind; and that the orchestra, as
+compared with the singer, completely disappeared, or, more correctly
+speaking, seemed to be a constituent part of his song."
+
+I have never had the privilege of hearing Schnorr, but I heard Scaria
+repeatedly at Bayreuth and Vienna, and he always impressed on me, in
+the manner here described by Wagner, the supreme importance of the
+vocal part in his scores. Not a word of the text was lost, and in the
+most difficult intervals his voice was always beautifully and
+smoothly modulated. He enabled me to realize for the first time, the
+truth of what Wagner said regarding his vocal style, in the following
+words: "In my operas there is no difference between phrases that are
+'declaimed' and 'sung,' but my declamation is at the same time song,
+and my song declamation." Scaria's method also afforded an eloquent
+illustration of the wonderful manner in which, in Wagner's vocal
+style, the melodic accent always falls on the proper rhetorical accent
+of each word of the text, which is one of the secrets of clear
+enunciation. He emphasized important syllables by dwelling on them,
+thus producing that dramatic _rubato_ which Wagner considered of such
+great importance in his operas that, when he brought out "Tannh�user"
+in Dresden, he actually had the words of the text copied into the
+parts of all the orchestral players, in order that they might be able
+to follow these poetic licenses in the dramatic phrasing of the
+singer. This dramatic _rubato_ is, of course, a very different thing
+from the freedom which Italian singers often allow themselves on
+favorable high notes, which they prolong, not in order to emphasize an
+emotion but to show off the beauty and sustaining power of their
+voices.
+
+Scaria, unfortunately, was never heard in opera in this country. But
+we have had Materna and Niemann and Brandt and Fischer, and Alvary
+and Lehmann, who have given us correct ideas of the German vocal
+style. Surely no one can say, on listening to Lehmann's _Br�nnhilde_,
+or Fischer's _Hans Sachs,_ or Alvary's _Siegfried_, that the vocal
+part is inferior in beauty or importance to the orchestral. When
+Alvary sang _Siegfried_ for the first time in New York, he presented a
+creditable but uneven impersonation, not having sufficiently mastered
+the details of the acting to feel quite at ease, and not being able to
+husband his vocal resources for the grand duo at the close. But at the
+end of the season, at the eleventh performance, he had become a
+full-fledged _Siegfried_, acting the part as by instinct, while his
+voice was as fresh at the close of the opera as at the beginning: thus
+affording a striking proof of Wagner's assertion, that the greatest
+vocal difficulties of his r�les can be readily mastered if the singer
+will only take the pains to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the
+text and the dramatic situations. Alvary spent a whole year in
+learning this r�le, availing himself of the hints given him by Herr
+Seidl, who has the Wagnerian traditions by heart; and to-day he might,
+if he felt so inclined, amass wealth and win honor by travelling about
+Europe and singing nothing but this one r�le. Vienna and Brussels made
+strenuous efforts to entice him away from New York after his great
+success as _Siegfried_.
+
+This success is the more gratifying and encouraging because,
+previously, he had been only a second-rate singer. It was his
+conscientious and prolonged study of the German vocal style that
+enabled him to win his present lucrative and honorable position. If
+there were a few more young singers like him the operatic problem might
+be considered solved, for it is the rarity of well-trained singers that
+causes all the financial embarrassment in our opera-houses. They are so
+scarce, that as soon as one is discovered he is hurried on the stage,
+after a year's hasty preparation, and if his untrained voice soon gives
+out--as it must under the circumstances--the blame is laid on Wagner's
+shoulders. But, as Mme. Lucca remarks, "neither Wagner nor any other
+composer spoils the voice of any one who knows how to sing." She thinks
+that at least six years of faithful study are necessary to develop the
+voice in accordance with artistic principles. Herr Hey is somewhat more
+lenient, three years of thorough training sufficing, in his opinion, as
+a preparation for the stage. Much, of course, depends on individuals,
+and the number of hours given to study every day. In the old Italian
+vocal schools, two centuries ago, the pupils were kept busy six or
+eight hours a day, devoting one hour to difficult passages, another to
+trills and to accuracy of intonation, others to expression, to
+counterpoint, composition and accompaniment, etc. They often practised
+before a mirror in order to study the position of the soft parts in the
+mouth, and to avoid grimaces; and sometimes they sang at places where
+there was a good echo, so as to hear their own faults, as if some one
+else were singing. Yet, as we have seen, the main stress was laid on
+agility of technical execution, whereas the modern German method,
+without in the least neglecting technique, calls upon pupils to devote
+more attention to the principles of soulful expression and dramatic
+accentuation. A singer who wishes to appear to advantage as _Euryanthe_
+or _Lohengrin_ or _Tristan_ must not only be entirely familiar with his
+own vocal parts but he ought to be as familiar with the orchestral
+score as the conductor himself: for, only then, can he acquire that
+ease which is necessary for producing a deep impression. As he has not
+the conductor's advantage of looking on the printed score while
+singing, he must therefore have an excellent memory. As Dr. Hanslick
+remarks, "the artists who sing 'Tristan and Isolde' by heart, if they
+do nothing more than sing the notes correctly, deserve our most sincere
+admiration. That they can do to-day what seemed almost impossible
+twenty years ago is indeed Wagner's achievement, an achievement which
+has hardly been noted hitherto." Let me add that in modern German
+music, _everything_ is difficult to the singer--the consonants of the
+language, the unusual intervals and accents, the necessity of being
+actor and singer at the same time, etc. Hence we ought to be charitable
+and condone an occasional slip. But the average opera-goer in this
+country is anything but charitable. If one of these dramatic singers,
+thus hampered by difficulties, makes the slightest lapse from tonal
+beauty (which may be even called for) he is judged as unmercifully as
+if he were a representative of the _bel canto_, whose art consists in a
+mere voice without emotion--_vox et pr�terea nihil_. This is as unfair
+as it is to judge Wagner's dramas by the music alone, and is, indeed a
+consequence of this attitude.
+
+It has been too much the habit in America and in England to sneer at
+German singers; and it is customary if a German singer has a good
+mellow voice to attribute that to his Italian method, while his
+shortcomings are ascribed to the German method. This, again, is as
+absurd as it is unjust; for, as I have endeavored to show, the real
+German method, by insisting on an equal treatment of all the vowels,
+develops a richer and more sonorous voice than the Italian method;
+and, indeed, the reason why powerful dramatic voices are so rare among
+Italians, is because of their one-sided preference, in their
+exercises, for the easiest vowels.
+
+When Mendelssohn travelled in Italy he noted that there were very few
+good singers at the opera-houses, and that one had to go to London
+and Paris to find them. To-day few of them can be found even in London
+and Paris; and, indeed, I could easily show, by giving lists of the
+famous singers of the past and present, that the Italians constitute a
+small minority as compared with the German, French, and Scandinavian
+singers of the first rank. The custom so long followed by singers of
+all nationalities of adopting Italian stage names has confused the
+public on the subject. And, finally, I could name a dozen German
+singers who have won first-class honors in Italian opera; but where is
+there an Italian _Tannh�user_ or _Br�nnhilde_ or _Wotan_? All honor,
+therefore, to the versatility of German singers, who, like Lilli
+Lehmann, for instance, can sing _Norma_ and _Isolde_ equally well.
+
+And still more honor to the German composers who have restored the
+true function of song. Everybody knows that in the popular songs, or
+folk songs, of _all_ nations, including the Italian, the words are
+quite as important as the melody. It was only in the artificial songs
+of the Netherland school and the Italian opera composers that the
+voice was degraded to the function of a mere inarticulate instrument;
+and it remained for Wagner, following the precedence of Gluck, to
+restore it to its rank as the inseparable companion of poetry. And
+what led him to do this was not abstract reflection but artistic
+instinct and experience. He does not even claim the honor of having
+originated the true vocal style, but confesses with pride that it was
+a _woman_, Frau Schroeder-Devrient, who first revealed to him the
+highest possibilities of dramatic singing, and he boasts that he was
+the only one that learned this lesson of the great German singer, and
+developed the hints regarding the correct vocal style unconsciously
+given by her.
+
+It must not be forgotten, however, that side by side with the
+music-drama and partly preceding it, another form of vocal music grew
+up in Germany, which in a very similar manner restored the voice to
+its true sphere as the wedded wife of poetry. I refer, of course, to
+the _Lied_, or parlor song, to which, indeed, I might have devoted
+this whole essay, quite as well as to the music-drama, if there were
+anything in Italian music that might have been compared to the songs
+of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Brahms, Liszt, Rubinstein, etc.
+
+As Sir George Grove poetically puts it, in Schubert's songs "the music
+changes with the words as a landscape does when the sun and clouds
+pass over it. And in this Schubert has anticipated Wagner, since the
+words in which he writes are as much the absolute basis of his songs
+as Wagner's librettos are of his operas." Liszt, too, notes somewhere
+that Schubert doubtless exerted an indirect influence on the
+development of the opera by means of the dramatic realism which
+characterizes the melody and accompaniment of his parlor songs (such
+as the "Erl King," the "Doppelg�nger," etc.)--a realism which becomes
+still more pronounced in Schumann, Franz, and Liszt, in whose songs
+every word of the poem colors its bar of music with its special
+emotional tint, instead of merely serving, as in the old _bel canto_,
+as an artificial and meaningless scaffolding for the construction and
+execution of a melody.
+
+This parallel evolution of the parlor song and the music-drama cannot
+be too strongly emphasized: for the same tendency being followed by so
+many of the greatest geniuses (some of whom are not Germans) affords
+cumulative evidence of the fact that the German style (which, as I
+have explained, includes all that is valuable in the Italian method)
+is the true vocal style, the style of the future, the style which
+cosmopolitan American art will have to adopt. I have been told that
+since the revival of German opera in New York, the Italian teachers in
+the city have lost many of their pupils. Obviously, if they wish to
+regain them they will have to adopt the best features of the German
+method, just as the Germans have adopted all that is good in the
+Italian method. It cannot be denied that the pupils turned out by the
+average vocal teachers are quite unable to sing a Franz or even a
+Schubert song correctly and with proper emotional expression. Now, it
+is evident, as Ehlert says, that "that art of singing which abides
+with the _bel canto_ and is unable to sing Bach, Beethoven, and
+Schumann, has not attained to the height of their period. It becomes
+its task to adapt itself to these new circumstances, to renounce the
+comfortable solfeggios and acquire the poetic expression that they
+accept."
+
+The famous tenor Vogl, a contemporary of Schubert, wrote in his diary
+the following significant words: "Nothing shows so plainly the want of
+a good school of singing as Schubert's songs. Otherwise, what an
+enormous and universal effect must have been produced throughout the
+world, wherever the German language is understood, by these truly
+divine inspirations, these utterances of a musical clairvoyance! How
+many would have comprehended, probably for the first time, the meaning
+of such expressions as 'Speech and Poetry in Music,' 'Words in
+Harmony,' 'ideas clothed in music,' etc., and would have learned that
+the finest poems of our greatest poets may be enhanced and even
+transcended when translated into musical language." It is humiliating
+to be obliged to confess that good schools of singing, the absence of
+which Vogl deplored, are still lamentably rare, although he himself,
+by his example, did much to develop the correct method. We have just
+seen how Wagner obtained valuable hints from Schroeder-Devrient.
+Similarly, we find that Schubert learned from his friend Vogl, who
+alone at first could sing his songs properly, and by showing that they
+_could_ be sung encouraged Schubert in developing his original style.
+
+It seems to me that these facts ought to be extremely gratifying and
+encouraging to students of vocal music, because they refute the notion
+that vocalists can only be interpretative and not creative, and their
+fame and influence, therefore, merely ephemeral. On the contrary, they
+can, like Vogl and Schroeder-Devrient, even aspire to guide composers
+and help to mark out new paths in art: which surely, ought to be more
+gratifying to their pride than the cheap applause which the sopranists
+and prima donnas of the _bel canto_ period used to receive for the
+meaningless colorature arias which they compelled the enslaved
+composers to write, or manufactured for themselves. And there is
+another way in which singers of the new style can become creative.
+Chopin speaks in one of his letters of a violoncellist who played a
+certain poor piece so remarkably well that it actually appeared to be
+good music. Similarly, a good vocalist (like Fr�ulein Brandt, for
+instance, who is very clever in this respect) can put so much art and
+feeling into the weaker parts and episodes of songs and operas as to
+make them entertaining where they are naturally tiresome. When we
+bear in mind these high possibilities of singing, we must admit that
+there is no nobler profession than that of a conscientious vocalist--a
+profession without which some of the deepest feelings that stir the
+human soul would remain unknown to the world.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK
+
+
+Perhaps it is not generally known that Mr. Theodore Thomas some years
+ago entertained the project of reviving German opera in New York, in a
+manner that should eclipse all previous operatic enterprises in this
+country. It was his intention to give in the leading American cities a
+series of performances of Wagner's Nibelung Tetralogy, and he looked
+forward to this as the crowning achievement of his busy life. For
+years he never gave a concert without having at least one Wagner
+selection on the programme, no matter how much some of the critics and
+patrons protested. In 1884 he considered the public sufficiently
+weaned of Italian sweets to stand a strong dose of Wagner; so he
+imported the three leading singers of the Bayreuth festivals--Materna,
+Winkelmann, and Scaria--for a number of festival concerts. The
+extraordinary success of these concerts seemed to indicate that the
+time was ripe for a complete theatrical production of Wagner's later
+music-dramas, and Mr. Thomas was already elaborating his plans when an
+accident frustrated them and took the whole matter out of his hands.
+
+This accident was the signal failure of Italian opera at the
+Metropolitan Opera House during the first season of its existence. As
+Mr. Abbey lost over a quarter of a million dollars by this disaster,
+no other manager could be found willing to take his place and risk
+another fortune. Since Mr. Abbey's company included several of the
+most popular artists--Nilsson, Sembrich, Scalchi, Campanini, Del
+Puente, etc., and his repertory embraced the usual popular operas, the
+conclusion seemed inevitable that the public wanted a complete change.
+Dr. Damrosch was accordingly appealed to at the eleventh hour, and he
+hastened to Germany and brought over a company that scored an
+immediate success, surprising even to those who had long advocated the
+establishment of a German opera in New York. And this success became
+still more pronounced in the following seasons, when a better company
+was secured, with Herr Seidl as conductor.
+
+Perhaps it is fortunate that Mr. Thomas's project was never realized.
+Had he succeeded, New York and several other cities would no doubt
+have enjoyed a series of interesting Wagner performances for one or
+two seasons; but after the first curiosity had been satisfied, it is
+very likely that the enterprise would have come to an end for lack of
+funds. For it is a well-established fact that grand opera, if given
+with the best singers, artistic scenery, and an orchestra of sixty to
+one hundred men, cannot be made self-supporting, however generously
+the public may contribute to it. The Paris opera is kept afloat by
+means of an annual subsidy of eight hundred thousand francs, and the
+imperial opera-houses of Berlin and Vienna, although similarly
+endowed, are burdened with large annual deficits which have to be
+covered by additional contributions from the imperial exchequers. New
+York can hardly claim so large a public interested in high-class opera
+as Vienna and Berlin; hence it would be unreasonable to expect that
+grand opera should fare better here. It was, therefore, one of the
+most lucky accidents in the history of American music that the
+Metropolitan Opera House was built, in opposition to the Academy of
+Music, by a number of the richest people in New York, who had made up
+their minds to spare no cost to make it successful and to annihilate
+the rival house. Having once built the new opera-house, it became
+necessary to continue giving in it the only kind of opera adapted to
+the vast dimensions of its auditorium, unless the stockholders should
+become willing to pay the high annual rent without any return at all.
+And thus German opera has been established in New York, if not for all
+time, at least for years to come.
+
+The fact cannot be too much emphasized that, properly speaking, there
+is _no deficit_ at the Metropolitan Opera House. True, the total
+expenses of the operatic season of 1886-1887 were about four hundred
+and forty-two thousand dollars, and the receipts only two hundred and
+thirty-five thousand dollars, thus necessitating an assessment of two
+thousand five hundred dollars on each stockholder. But it must be
+borne in mind that this assessment simply represents the sum that the
+stockholders paid for their boxes. As there were forty-five
+subscription nights, and as each box holds six seats, the price of
+each was nine dollars, which can hardly be deemed too much for the
+best seats in the house, considering that outsiders have to pay ten
+dollars for these same seats, or sixty dollars for a box. A large part
+of the assessment (about one thousand dollars for each stockholder)
+would remain for covering the general expenses of the building
+(including the mortgage bonds), even if no opera were given at all;
+and surely the box-holders would be foolish if they refused to pay the
+extra sum (four dollars and eighty-eight cents for each seat), which
+insures them forty-five evenings of social and musical entertainment.
+To persons of their wealth this extra sum is, after all, a mere
+trifle; and it enables them to bask in the proud consciousness of
+taking the place, in this country, of royalty abroad in supporting a
+form of art that has always been considered pre-eminently
+aristocratic.
+
+Some of the stockholders make no secret of the fact that they would
+very much prefer Italian to German opera, which is Sanskrit to them;
+and every year, at the directors' meetings, the question of reviving
+Italian opera is warmly debated. There is also a considerable number
+of amateurs, editors, and correspondents who are eagerly waiting for
+some signs showing that German opera is losing ground, so that they
+may raise a war-whoop in behalf of Italian opera. But the powers that
+rule the destinies of the Metropolitan Opera House are too wise to
+heed the arguments of these prophets. They know that Italian opera can
+never again be successfully revived in New York, and that the only
+alternative for the present lies between German opera and no opera at
+all. Signor Angelo and Mr. Mapleson were as unsuccessful in their last
+efforts in behalf of Italian opera as Mr. Abbey. And although Mme.
+Patti fared better at her last appearance, it was only because a large
+number of people believed that she _really_ was singing in New York
+for the last time; for when she returned a fortnight later for
+_another_ "farewell," the sale of seats was so small that the spoiled
+prima donna refused to sing, and only one performance was given
+instead of two.
+
+The lovers of vocal tight-rope dancing and threadbare orchestral
+accompaniments who insist that Wagner is merely a fashion, and that
+ere long there will be a return to the saccharine melodies of Rossini
+and Bellini, show thereby that they have never studied the history of
+the opera. This history teaches a curious lesson, viz., that operas
+which had a great vogue at one time and subsequently lost their
+popularity can _never_ be galvanized into real life again. What has
+become of the threescore and more operas of Donizetti, and the forty
+of Rossini--some of which for years monopolized the stage so
+completely the world over that Weber and Beethoven were ignored even
+in Vienna and the German capitals? They are dead, and all efforts to
+revive them have been futile. These operas had sprung into _sudden_
+popularity, whereas "Fidelio," "Euryanthe," "Lohengrin," and
+"Tannh�user," which for years had to fight for every inch of ground,
+are now masters of the situation, and gaining in popularity every
+year. And this brings us to the second lesson taught by the history of
+the opera--that the works that thus had to _fight_ their way into the
+hearts of the public are the immortal operas that are sure to gain
+more and more favor as years go by. Moreover, the statistics of German
+opera-houses show that Wagner's operas, from the "Flying Dutchman" to
+the "Nibelung's Ring," have been gaining in popularity and frequency
+of repetition, year by year, with a constancy that might almost be
+expressed with mathematical exactness by means of a _crescendo_: <.
+And we are by no means at the biggest end of the _crescendo_ yet. For
+there are scores of cities where Wagner would be even more popular
+than he is, were it not for the woful rarity of competent dramatic
+singers and conductors.
+
+There is, therefore, no hope for the _Italianissimi_, who sigh for
+their maccaroni arias and their "Ernani" and "Gazza Ladra" soup.
+Italian opera has ceased to exist in New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna,
+and St. Petersburg, and even in Italy dramatic music of the modern
+school is gradually driving out the old-fashioned lyric and florid
+opera.
+
+In New York, moreover, the press is almost unanimous in favor of
+German opera, and the press, as a rule, is omnipotent in theatrical
+matters. I am convinced, for instance, that one of the principal
+reasons why Wagner was more rapidly acclimated in New York than in the
+German capitals is that most of the leading German critics are old
+men--too old to submit readily to Wagner's revolutionary tendencies;
+whereas in New York all the critics are young men, who only needed to
+hear a few good performances of Wagner's operas to be filled with an
+enthusiasm for them, with which many of their readers could not help
+being infected.
+
+Still another important point must be borne in mind: the fact that
+the vastness of the Metropolitan auditorium makes it impossible to
+hear the weak voices and the thin scores of Italians to advantage.
+_Ergo_, if this house remains the centre of music in New York, there
+can be no question that, as I have just stated, the prospect for the
+next decade or two is, either German Opera or No Opera.
+
+A series of interviews published in the newspapers indicate that the
+indifference of the stockholders to German music has been greatly
+exaggerated; and the vote that was taken on January 27, 1888, stood
+forty to nine in favor of continuing German opera, with an assessment
+of three thousand two hundred dollars on each box. Not a few of the
+stockholders would, indeed, prefer "Siegfried" to "Ernani," even if
+"Ernani" could be depended on for as large audiences as Wagner's
+opera, which is far from being the case; and I have myself heard some
+of them confess that after repeatedly hearing Wagner's later operas,
+they discovered in them a constant stream of melody where all had
+seemed to them at first a mere chaos of sound. Some of the
+stockholders, on the other hand, are so absolutely unmusical that they
+do not know the meaning of the words "tenor" and "soprano," and if
+blindfolded could not tell if "Faust" or "A�da" was being sung. (This
+is a real fact that I might prove by an amusing anecdote, were it not
+too personal.) To this class of stockholders what difference can it
+make whether they have German or Italian opera? They merely go to the
+opera because it is a very fashionable thing to do so, and because the
+ownership of an opera-box confers on them a social distinction almost
+equal to an order, or a title of nobility, in foreign countries.
+
+Many of the stockholders have converted the ante-rooms to their boxes
+into luxurious parlors, into which they can retire and talk if the
+music bores them. But, unfortunately, there are some black sheep among
+them and their invited guests who do not make use of this privilege,
+but give the rest of the audience the benefit of their conversational
+accomplishments. The parquet often resents these interruptions, and
+hisses lustily until quiet is restored. There are not a few lovers of
+music who, although able to pay for parquet seats, frequent the upper
+galleries for fear of being annoyed by the conversation in the boxes.
+In the highest gallery the quiet of a tomb reigns supreme, and woe to
+any one who comes late, or whispers, or turns the leaves of his score
+too noisily: he is immediately pierced with a volley of indignant
+hisses.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that there is much less talking in the
+opera-house at present than there was a few years ago. This difference
+is especially noticeable on Wagner nights, and the change is simply
+one of the numerous operatic reforms introduced by Wagner and his
+followers. It must be borne in mind that in Italian opera conversation
+frequently is not at all out of place, but is a factor of the
+entertainment _recognized even by the composer_! Wagner brings out
+this point clearly in the following remarks: "In Italian opera," he
+says, "the public gives its attention only to the most brilliant
+numbers sung by the popular prima donna or her vocal rival; the rest
+of the opera it ignores almost entirely, and devotes the evening to
+mutual visits in the boxes and loud conversation. This attitude of the
+public led the composers of yore to confine their efforts at artistic
+creation to the solo numbers referred to, and to fill up deliberately
+all intermediate portions, the choruses and minor parts, with
+commonplace and empty phrases that had no other purpose than that of
+serving as noise to sustain the conversation of the audience."
+
+That this is not an exaggerated statement is shown by an extract from
+a private letter written by Liszt at Milan. Speaking of the famous
+Scala Opera House, he says: "In this blessed land putting a serious
+opera on the stage is not at all a serious thing. A fortnight is
+generally time enough. The musicians of the orchestra, and the
+singers, who are generally strangers to each other and get no
+encouragement from the audience (the latter are generally either
+chatting or sleeping--in the fifth box they either sup or play cards),
+assemble inattentive, insensible, and troubled with catarrh, not as
+artists, but as people who are paid for the music they make. There is
+nothing more icy than these Italian representations. No trace of
+_nuances_, in spite of the exaggeration of accent and gesture dictated
+by Italian taste, much less any effect _d'ensemble_. Each artist
+thinks only of himself, without troubling his thoughts about his
+neighbor. Why worry one's self for a public that does not even
+listen?"
+
+In German opera, on the other hand, the orchestral part and the
+choruses and declamatory sections are just as important as the lyric
+numbers, and many of the most exquisite passages in the operas of
+Weber and Wagner are a kind of superior pantomime music during which
+no voice at all is heard on the stage. Now I am convinced that much of
+the talking in opera-boxes is simply due to ignorance of this fact.
+Vocal music is much more readily appreciated than instrumental music,
+and those who have no ear for orchestral measures do not realize that
+others are enraptured by them. Hence they talk as soon as the singing
+ceases, unconscious of the fact that they are greatly annoying those
+who wish to listen to the orchestra.
+
+To a large extent the stupid custom of having music between the acts
+at theatres is responsible for the talking at the opera. For between
+the acts everybody, of course, wants to talk; and since at the theatre
+the orchestra merely furnishes a sort of background or support for the
+conversation, people naturally come to look upon the overtures and
+interludes and introductions to the second and third acts of an opera
+in similar light. Even if _entr'acte_ music in theatres were much
+better than it is commonly, this consideration alone ought to suffice
+to banish it from the theatres. It degrades the art and spoils the
+public.
+
+Those of the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House who indulge
+in loud conversation while the music goes on, or who rent their boxes
+to irresponsible parties, should remember that it is their _pecuniary_
+interest to preserve quiet. For not a few amateurs, as already stated,
+are driven to the cheaper parts of the house, or discouraged from
+going at all, by the annoying conversation; and the losses thus
+resulting are of course added to their annual assessments.
+
+Again, it ought to be clear to any one who has the most elementary
+knowledge of the laws of etiquette that to disturb others needlessly
+in the enjoyment of a dearly purchased pleasure is evidence of very
+bad manners. Musical people suffer more from such interruptions than
+persons whose ears are not similarly refined can imagine; for the
+tone colors of a Wagnerian score are as exquisitely delicate and
+refined as the evanescent films and colors of a soap-bubble, so that
+the mere rustling of a fan or a programme mars them.
+
+Everybody has heard the story of Handel, who used to get very angry if
+any one talked in the room, even when he was only giving lessons to
+the Prince and Princess of Wales. At such times, as Barney relates,
+the Princess of Wales, with her accustomed mildness and benignity,
+used to say: "Hush! hush! Handel is in a passion." And Liszt never
+gave a finer exhibition of his wit and artistic courage than when, at
+an imperial soir�e in the Russian capital, he suddenly ceased playing
+in the midst of a piece, because the Czar was talking loudly with an
+officer. The Czar sent an attendant to inquire of Liszt why he
+stopped; whereupon Liszt retorted that it was the first rule of court
+etiquette that when the Czar was speaking others must be silent. The
+Czar never forgave him this well-merited rebuke.
+
+This anecdote has a moral for those who talk loudly at the opera; for
+it calls attention to the fact that they not only annoy those of the
+audience who wish to hear the music, but also insult the artists on
+the stage.
+
+The establishment of habitual silence during operatic performances is
+only one of the beneficial changes introduced into operatic etiquette
+through German opera. The method of applauding has been revolutionized
+too. It is no longer customary to interrupt the flow of the orchestral
+music by applauding a singer. All the applause is now reserved for the
+end of the acts. I remember a performance of "Lohengrin," at the
+Academy of Music, at which the music was thrice interrupted by some
+ill-bred admirers of Campanini, who applauded him when he first
+appeared in sight on the swan-boat; again, when he stepped on shore,
+and a third time when he came to the front of the stage. Now here was
+one of the most poetic scenes on the whole operatic stage utterly
+marred for all refined listeners, merely for the sake of showing
+admiration for a singer which might as well have been expressed later
+on when the curtain was down. Campanini recognized all these
+interruptions, and bowed his thanks to the audience.
+
+Quite different was Herr Niemann's behavior when he made his _d�but_
+at the Metropolitan Opera House. Here was the greatest living dramatic
+tenor, an artist identified with the cause and the triumphs of Wagner,
+appearing on a new continent, in the same r�le that he had created at
+the historic Bayreuth festival of 1876. The house, of course, was
+packed, and included many old admirers who had heard him abroad, and
+who, of course, received him with a volley of applause when he
+staggered into _Hunding's_ hut. But Niemann did not acknowledge this
+applause with a bow or even a smile. He appeared before the public as
+_Siegmund_, and not as Herr Niemann. But when the curtain was down he
+promptly responded to the enthusiastic recalls, and was quite willing,
+and more than willing, to come forward as often as the audience
+desired and acknowledge their kindness with bowed thanks.
+
+Now, it is to be noted in this case that Herr Niemann did not lose
+anything by refusing to recognize the applause that greeted him when
+he first appeared on the stage; on the contrary, it raised him in the
+estimation of all whose esteem was worth having; and these applauded
+him all the more vigorously for his self-denial when the curtain was
+down. Singers of the old school should take this lesson to heart and
+ponder it. They imagine success is measured by the number of times
+they are applauded, and consequently introduce loud, high notes and
+other clap-trap at the end of every solo, if possible. They forget
+that while they thus secure the applause of the uncultured, real
+connoisseurs are disgusted, and put them down in their mental
+note-books as second-rate artists or charlatans.
+
+Those artists who have followed Wagner's precepts, and merged their
+individuality and personal vanity in their r�les, have never had
+occasion to regret their apparent self-sacrifice. They are the only
+kind of singers now eagerly sought for by managers; and an educated
+public that does not tolerate applause while the orchestra plays,
+never fails to vent its pent-up enthusiasm at the end of the act, as
+has been abundantly proved at the Metropolitan Opera House. A curious
+episode may be noted sometimes. As soon as the singing has ceased and
+the curtain begins to descend, a number of people begin to applaud.
+But the full-blooded Wagnerites wait until the last chord of the
+orchestra has died away before they join in. The volume of applause is
+then suddenly multiplied three or four times, to the bewilderment of
+novices, who do not understand what it all means. It simply means that
+the concluding strains of Wagner's acts, are usually among the most
+beautiful measures in the whole opera, which it is a pity and a shame
+to mar by premature applause.
+
+I have often wondered why people, who put on their overcoats during
+the final measures, are not ashamed thus to advertise their utter lack
+of artistic sensibility and indifference to other people's feelings.
+Nor can one wonder, in view of such facts, that the late King of
+Bavaria preferred to have opera given when no other spectator was in
+the house, or that the present Emperor of Germany is beginning to
+follow his example.
+
+Wagner does not merely ask his interpreters to scorn the usual methods
+of securing cheap applause, but he himself avoids them in his
+compositions with a heroic conscientiousness. There is a story of a
+well-known English conductor who objected to produce a piece by a
+noted German composer because it ended _pianissimo_. He was afraid
+that it would not be applauded if it did not end loudly. Now the
+finales of Italian operas are habitually constructed on this method.
+The chorus is brought in at the end, whether the situation calls for
+it or not, and made to sing as loudly as possible. This stirs up the
+audience to equally loud applause, and all ends well.
+
+How differently Wagner goes to work! In "Siegfried," for instance,
+there is no chorus at all. The first act ends with _Siegfried's_
+cleaving of the anvil with the sword which he has just forged before
+the eyes of the audience; and the third ends with the love duo. In
+these cases there are only two persons on the stage; and at the end of
+the second act _Siegfried_ is _entirely alone_, and the curtain falls
+as he mutely follows the bird to the fire-girdled rock on which
+_Br�nnhilde_ lies asleep, amid the intoxicating and promising strains
+of the orchestra. The ending of "Die Walk�re" is equally quiet and
+poetic. _Wotan_ has placed poor _Br�nnhilde_ on a mound of moss, for
+disobeying his orders, and covered her with her helmet, after plunging
+her into a magnetic sleep which is to last until a hero shall come to
+wake her. He strikes the rock with his spear, whereupon a flame breaks
+out that quickly becomes a sea of fire encircling the rock. Then he
+disappears in the fire toward the background, and for several minutes
+there is no one on the stage but the sleeping Valkyrie, and nothing to
+be heard but the crackling and roaring of the flames, re-echoed in the
+orchestra; and this is the end of the opera.
+
+One more illustration: The greater part of the second act of "Die
+Meistersinger" is taken up with _Beckmesser's_ serenade, comically
+interrupted by the songs and the hammering of _Hans Sachs_ the
+cobbler. Toward the end the apprentice _David_ sees _Beckmesser_, and
+imagining he is serenading _his_ sweetheart, assaults and beats him
+most unmercifully. The noise attracts the neighbors, who all take part
+in the affray, and the scene culminates in a perfect pandemonium of
+noise. Now there is hardly an operatic composer who would not have
+closed the act with this exciting and tumultuous chorus. Not so
+Wagner. The sound of the watchman's horn suddenly clears the street,
+and no one is left but the watchman himself, who timorously toddles up
+the street with his lantern, while the moon rises above the roofs of
+the houses, and the muted strings of the orchestra softly and dreamily
+recall a few of the motives of the preceding scenes. I was sitting
+next to Professor Paine, of Harvard, at a performance of this opera at
+the Metropolitan, one evening. He had not seen it before, and I shall
+never forget the expression of surprise on his face when he saw the
+curtain descending on this dreamy moonlight scene, with _a deserted
+stage_. He considered it a bold deviation from established operatic
+customs, and yet he could not for a moment deny that it was infinitely
+more poetic than the traditional final chorus, with its meaningless
+noise and pomp.
+
+Not that Wagner despised the chorus, as is sometimes said. He showed
+in the third act of this same opera, in the scene of the
+folk-festival, that when a chorus is called for by the situation no
+one can supply a more inspired and inspiring volume of concerted sound
+than he. With the possible exception of the last number in Bach's
+Passion music, I regard the choral music of this act as the most
+sublime ever written. Here, at any rate, the _vox populi_ is divine.
+
+The magnificent quintet in this act of "Die Meistersinger" also
+affords proof that if Wagner banished concerted music from his later
+works, it was not because he lacked inspiration for that kind of work.
+Although extremely Wagnerian in its harmonies, it is one of those
+numbers which even Wagner's enemies admire. Some years ago I witnessed
+a curious scene in the Berlin Opera House. According to Wagner's
+directions, the curtain goes down after this quintet, but the music
+continues until the scene is changed. Now, on the occasion in
+question, the quintet evoked so much enthusiasm that a storm of
+applause arose. The extreme Wagnerites resented this interruption of
+the music, and began to hiss; whereupon the others redoubled their
+applause and their calls for an "encore," which finally had to be
+granted, as the only way of appeasing this paradoxical disturbance in
+which Wagnerites hissed while the others applauded!
+
+At the Metropolitan Opera House the stage arrangements are so clumsy
+that it is necessary to have an intermission of over a quarter of an
+hour, in order to change this scene. Consequently the last and most
+popular part of this master-work is never seen till after midnight;
+and many leave the house annoyed by the long intermission.
+
+And this brings us to the weakest part of modern opera. It lasts too
+long. Wagner is not the only guilty composer. Gounod's "Faust,"
+Weber's "Euryanthe," and most of Meyerbeer's operas, if given without
+cuts, would last over four hours. But in these cases no irreparable
+harm is done by a few cuts, whereas in Wagner's operas there are very
+few bars that can be spared, both on account of their intrinsic beauty
+and because they are required to keep up the dramatic continuity of
+the story. Nevertheless, Wagner's operas must be cut, in some cases
+most unmercifully, as in "Die G�tterd�mmerung," in which Herr Seidl
+was obliged to omit the whole of the first prelude--the weirdly grand
+scene of the three Fates, and the scene between the two
+Valkyries--merely to prevent the opera from lasting till one o'clock.
+
+Herr Seidl is perhaps the greatest living interpreter of Wagner. He
+brings to his works the enthusiasm without which they can neither be
+interpreted nor fully understood; and his enthusiasm proves contagious
+to the orchestra and the singers. He not only rehearses every bar of
+the orchestral score with minute care, but each of the vocalists has
+to come to his room and go through his or her part until he is
+satisfied. Although he is invariably civil, his men obey him as they
+would the sternest general, and admiration of his superior knowledge
+makes them more attentive to their duty than fear ever would. I do not
+believe German opera would have won its present popularity under any
+other conductor excepting Hans Richter. One of the traits to which he
+owes his great success as a Wagner conductor is his instinctive
+perception of what parts can be omitted with the minimum of injury to
+the work he is interpreting. Except at Bayreuth, Wagner's later works
+did not especially prosper at first, because they were either too long
+or injudiciously cut. Herr Seidl, however, succeeded with them
+everywhere. One time Wagner wrote to him complaining that he made so
+many cuts in his operas. But Herr Seidl wrote back, giving his
+reasons, and explaining the situation; whereupon he received the
+laconic telegram from Wagner, "_Schiessen Sie los!_" (Fire away!).
+
+Eduard von Hartmann, in his recent work, "Die Philosophie des
+Sch�nen," has some just remarks on Wagner's mistake in making his
+operas so long that conductors are _obliged_ to use the red pencil,
+which is not always done intelligently; whereas if he himself had
+undertaken the task of condensing his works their organic unity might
+have been preserved. True, Wagner did not intend his later works to be
+incorporated in the regular operatic repertory, but desired them to be
+sung only on certain festal occasions, as at Bayreuth, where people
+went with the sole object of hearing music, and with no other business
+oppressing them for the moment. But at a time when the struggle for
+existence is so severe as now it was chimerical on Wagner's part to
+hope that such a plan could be permanently realized. Few musical
+people can afford to journey to Bayreuth merely to gratify their taste
+for opera. Hence the Bayreuth festivals, although most delightful from
+an artistic point of view, would have never been financially
+successful, had not the vocalists given their services _gratis_; and
+it is doubtful if they will be continued after the death of Wagner's
+widow. Moreover, it would have been a musical calamity to have the
+treasures of melody and harmony that are stored away in the Nibelung
+scores reserved for the lucky few who are able to go to Bayreuth.
+Wagner himself must have felt this when, contrary to his original
+intention, he gave Neumann permission to perform the Tetralogy (under
+Seidl's direction) in Germany, Italy, and Belgium; and since that time
+it has been successfully incorporated into the repertory of all the
+leading German cities, and many smaller ones, such as Weimar,
+Mannheim, and Carlsruhe.
+
+In Germany the length of Wagner's and Meyerbeer's operas is not so
+objectionable as here, because there the opera commences at seven, or
+even at six thirty, and six, if it is a very long one; hence it is all
+over shortly after ten, and everybody has time to take supper before
+going to bed. But in New York, where it is not customary to sup, and
+where the dinner hour is between six and seven, it would hardly be
+advisable to commence the opera before eight. Nor is the interest in
+the opera sufficiently general to inspire the hope that for its sake
+any change will be made in the hour of dining. The danger rather lies
+the other way: that the custom of delaying dinner till eight, which is
+coming into vogue among the English (who care neither for music nor
+the theatre), will be followed in this city.
+
+Now consider the inevitable consequences of having excessively long
+operas. America has plenty of poor loafers, but few wealthy _rentiers_
+who spend their days in bed or in idleness, and are therefore
+insatiable in their appetite for entertainment in the evening. The
+typical American works hard all day long, whether he is rich or poor,
+and in the evening his brain is too tired to follow for four hours the
+complicated orchestral score of a music-drama. If he listens
+attentively, he will be exhausted by eleven o'clock, and the last act,
+which he might have enjoyed hugely if not so "played out," will weary
+him so much that he will probably resolve to avoid the opera in the
+future. Thus opera suffers in the same way that society suffers: the
+late hour at which all entertainments begin prevents the "desirable"
+men who have worked all day, and must be at their work bright and
+early the next day, from attending parties, balls, and operas.
+
+It must be said, on the other hand, in defence of long German operas,
+that it is only while they are novelties to the hearer that they
+fatigue his brain beyond endurance. After they have been heard a few
+times they cease to be a study that calls for a laborious
+concentration of the attention, and become a source of pure delight
+and recreation. The difficulty lies in convincing people of this
+fact. There are in New York hundreds of persons, who, having read of
+the rare beauties of "Tristan" or "Siegfried," went to the opera to
+hear and judge for themselves. Of course, as everything was new to
+them, they found it hard work to follow all the intricacies of the
+plot and the music at the same time; hence, their verdict next day was
+that German opera was "too heavy" for them. These persons cannot be
+made to believe that if they would only repeat their visits, the labor
+of listening would be reduced to a minimum and the pleasure increased
+to enthusiasm. I know a man, one of the cleverest writers for the New
+York press, a man who can afford to go to the opera every evening, and
+who _does_ go when Meyerbeer's operas are given, but who absolutely
+and stubbornly refuses to attend a Wagner performance at the
+Metropolitan. Why? Because a number of years ago he attended a
+wretched performance in Italian of "Lohengrin" which bored him! I
+believe there are many like him in New York.
+
+Mr. Carl Rosa, in an article which appeared in _Murray's Magazine_ a
+year ago, remarks on this topic: "An Englishman, once bored [at the
+opera] will with difficulty be made to return; and this is the reason
+why light opera, opera bouffe, and burlesque have their advantage in
+this country. They are so easy to digest after dinner." And again:
+"There is no doubt that opera is, to some extent, an acquired taste;
+but the taste, once imparted, grows rapidly. From personal experience
+I know that _some of my best supporters had to be dragged to the opera
+at first_, and induced to sit it through."
+
+In these remarks lies a valuable hint to the lovers of German opera.
+The most important thing to do, if opera is to be permanently
+retained, is to _enlarge the operatic public_. This can only be done
+by means of a concerted action of all admirers of the opera. Let them
+keep on, with "damnable iteration," to drum into their friends' heads
+the fact that if they will only make up their minds to attend one good
+opera _three or four times in succession_ they will become devoted
+admirers of it the rest of their lives. The friends will finally
+consent, in pure self-defence, to try the experiment; and in three
+cases out of four they will become converted and admit that German
+operatic music is indeed a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
+
+There is at present in New York a considerable number of musical
+Mugwumps, persons who formerly doted on Italian opera, but who now
+find it tiresome after hearing German opera. The distinguished English
+psychologist, Mr. James Sully, incidentally speaks of his experiences
+in regard to Wagner's operas, in his work on "Sensation and
+Intuition." "Although," he says, "I went to the first performance
+decidedly prejudiced against the noisy _Zukunftsmusik_, I found that
+after patient study of these operas I became so susceptible of their
+high dramatic beauties that I lost much of my relish for the older
+Italian opera, which began to appear highly unnatural. I heard from
+other cultivated Germans--among others from Professor Helmholtz--that
+they had undergone quite a similar change of opinion with respect to
+these operas."
+
+Who, on the other hand, has ever heard of a renegade Wagnerite? Such
+an animal does not exist, and if a specimen could be found, it would
+pay to exhibit him in a dime museum. The very expression seems a
+contradiction in terms. Wagner frequently asserted that no one could
+_understand_ his music unless he admired it; and there is truth in
+this, for only enthusiasm can sharpen the mental faculties
+sufficiently to enable us to perceive the countless subtle beauties in
+Wagner's and Weber's scores. M. Saint-Sa�ns, who is considered the
+best living score-reader, compares Wagner's scores to those
+master-works of medi�val architecture which are adorned with
+sculptured reliefs that must have required infinite care and labor in
+the chiselling. Now, just as a careless observer of such architectural
+works hardly notices the lovely figures sculptured on them, so the
+average opera-goer does not hear the exquisite harmonic and melodic
+miniature-work in Wagner's music-dramas. But if he has once taken the
+trouble to study them, he becomes an enthusiast for life; for he
+constantly discovers new and beautiful details which had previously
+escaped his notice.
+
+The eighth performance of "Siegfried" in New York was one of those
+events that will always live in the memory of those who were so
+fortunate as to be present. Everyone on the stage and in the orchestra
+seemed to be inspired, and the audience in consequence was
+electrified. For my part, although I had heard this music-drama at
+least a dozen times previously, and knew every bar by heart, it seemed
+as if I had never heard it before, so vividly were all its beauties
+revealed in the white heat of Conductor Seidl's enthusiasm. All the
+evening I sat trembling with excitement, and could not sleep for hours
+afterward. I have for twelve years made a special study of the
+emotions, but I could not conceive any pleasure more intense and more
+prolonged than that of listening to such a music-drama. Is not such a
+pleasure worth cultivating, even if it involves some toil at first?
+And have not musical people reason to regard with profound pity those
+poor mortals who can enjoy beauty only through the medium of their
+eyes, their ears being deaf to the charms of artistically combined
+sounds?
+
+At the "Siegfried" performance just referred to the audience
+fortunately was large; but there have been other performances, equally
+good, when the audience was meagre. On such occasions much of my
+enjoyment was marred by the melancholy thought that such glorious
+music should be wasted on empty stalls, when there were thousands of
+persons in the city who, if they only could have been induced to
+overcome their prejudices and devote a few hours of previous study to
+the libretto and the pianoforte-score of these operas, would not only
+have found them entertaining, but would have enjoyed them rapturously.
+
+The essence and perennial charm of German music lies in its _melodious
+harmony_. Nothing is more absurd than the notion that there is more
+melody in Italian than in German music. The only difference is that in
+Italian music the melody is more prominent, being unencumbered by
+complicated harmonies and accompaniments, while in German music the
+melody is interwoven with the various harmonic parts, which makes it
+difficult to follow at first. But when once this gift has been
+acquired, it is a source of eternal pleasure. Nor is it so difficult
+to cultivate the harmonic sense, if one takes pains to hear good music
+often and _attentively_. I once met a young lady on a transatlantic
+steamer, who frankly confessed she could not see any beauty in certain
+exquisite Wagnerian and Chopinesque modulations and harmonies which I
+played for her on the piano. When asked if she did not care for
+harmony at all, she replied: "Oh, yes! I know a chord which is _simply
+divine_!" Then she played--what do you fancy?--the _simple major
+triad_--A flat in the bass, and A flat, C, E flat an octave
+higher--which is the most elementary of all chords, the very alphabet
+of music. If she found this commonplace chord "simply divine," what
+would she have said could she have been made to realize that the
+modulations I had played were as superior to her chord in poetic charm
+as a line of Shakspere is to the letters A B C? And she _could_ have
+been made to realize this truth in a few months, under proper
+instruction.
+
+I have dwelt so long on this matter because I have come to the
+conclusion, as already stated, that the greatest problem in connection
+with German opera is to enlarge the patronage, and induce persons to
+reserve their judgment of a "heavy" opera until they have heard it two
+or three times. They will soon find that the word "heavy" is a very
+relative and changeable term in music. To one who really admires
+Shakspere and Homer, a fashionable novel is tedious beyond endurance;
+just so, to one who can appreciate "Tristan" or "Euryanthe," Verdi's
+"Ernani" and Bellini's "Norma" are heavy as lead, soporific as opium.
+
+The difficulty of understanding subtle harmonies is perhaps the main
+reason why English-speaking people are so slow in appreciating and
+encouraging the opera. But there are two other important reasons which
+may be briefly referred to--religious rigorousness, and a certain
+predilection for the ornamental style of singing.
+
+No doubt there was a time when the stage was so profligate that the
+Puritans were justified in tabooing it altogether. But that is not now
+the case. There are many theatres where plays are given that are not
+only pure in tone, but exert a refining and educating influence on all
+who hear them. And as for operas, there is hardly one in the modern
+repertory that is open to censure on moral grounds. Mr. Carl Rosa
+refers to the curious fact that, when circumstances compel him to give
+an operatic performance in a hall instead of a theatre, the audiences
+are of quite a distinct character, including many who like opera, but
+do not wish to go to a theatre. Now, this general condemnation of the
+theatre because it is often used for frivolous purposes is just as
+unreasonable as it would be to condemn and avoid all novels because
+Zola writes novels.
+
+There is, indeed, a positive harm that results from the tabooing of
+the theatre by religious people. Why is so large a proportion of our
+plays frivolous and vulgar? Because the frivolous and vulgar
+predominate among theatre-goers. If the large number of refined
+people who avoid the theatre were to attend, this proportion might be
+reversed, and more of the managers would find it profitable to bring
+out clean and wholesome dramas. Some prominent clergymen have lately
+expressed themselves in this sense, and it is probable that a reaction
+is at hand that will benefit the cause of serious opera. There is
+absolutely nothing in any of the operas given at the Metropolitan that
+could not be fitly sung before a Sunday-school audience. Why, then,
+taboo the opera and jeopardize its existence, leaving the field to the
+frivolous operettas and farces?
+
+The other obstacle alluded to--the love of colorature song--is a thing
+that will cure itself with the advance of musical culture. The Germans
+and the French have long since turned their backs on the florid
+variety of vocalists, and the Italians are now following suit. An
+eminent Italian teacher in New York, who has made a specialty of
+teaching trills and runs and roulades and other vocal circus tricks,
+lately declared that he was tired of this style of singing, and began
+to prefer a more simple and dramatic style. The same is true of the
+modern Italian composers. It is well known that Bo�to, Ponchielli, and
+Verdi in his latest operas, approximate the German style; and their
+admirers will doubtless ere long adapt their taste to this change.
+Nevertheless, there are not a few remaining who look upon opera as a
+sort of vocal acrobatics. They go once or twice to the Metropolitan,
+and feel defrauded of their money if the prima donna fails to come
+forward to the prompter's box to run up some breakneck scales, and,
+having arrived at the top, descend by means of a chain of trills or
+series of somersaults. Their interest in music is _athletic_ (feats of
+skill), not _�sthetic_ (artistic expression of emotions). Yet these
+people have the impudence to say that German opera is "stupid,"
+forgetting that their case might be analogous to that of the drunkard
+who thinks the earth is reeling when he is.
+
+This class of opera-goers never tire of abusing such singers as
+Fr�ulein Brandt and Herr Niemann because their voices are no longer as
+mellow as in their youth, and sometimes weaken in a sustained note or
+swerve for a second from the pitch. Such blemishes are no doubt to be
+regretted, but they are a hundred times atoned for by the passion and
+the variety of emotional expression that animate their voices, and by
+their superb acting. Fr�ulein Brandt's _Ortrud_, _Eglantine_, and
+_Fides_ will be referred to generations hence as models, as will Herr
+Niemann's _Tannh�user_, _Siegmund_, _Cortez_, _Lohengrin_, _Tristan_,
+etc. New Yorkers must consider themselves fortunate in having heard
+for two seasons the greatest of Wagnerian tenors--even though he is no
+longer in his prime--the man who sang the title _r�le_ of
+"Tannh�user" when that opera was produced in Paris in 1861; who
+created the part of _Siegmund_ in 1876 at Bayreuth; and who, in his
+way, has done as much to popularize Wagner's operas as Liszt did
+during the Weimar period, when people had to go to that city to hear
+"Lohengrin" and "Tannh�user," as they now go to Bayreuth to hear
+"Parsifal." He is not only valuable for the sake of his artistic
+qualities, but because of his enthusiasm for the cause of the best
+music. Wagner held him in the highest esteem; and he wrote in his
+review of the Bayreuth festival of 1876, that without Niemann's
+devotion and ardor its success would not have been assured. He
+regretted subsequently that he did not ask Niemann to create the
+_r�le_ of _Siegfried_ in the last drama of the Tetralogy, as well as
+that of _Siegmund_ in the second. Thanks to this mistake, New Yorkers
+had the privilege of hearing Niemann's _d�but_ in this _r�le_--at the
+age of fifty-seven, an age when most tenors have retired on their
+pensions.
+
+Three artists are included in the present company at the Metropolitan
+whom Mr. Stanton could not dispense with under any circumstances. One
+of these is Herr Fischer, who, now that Scaria is no more, is beyond
+comparison the finest dramatic bass on the stage. No Italian could have
+a more mellow and sonorous voice, and his method has all the
+conscientiousness, passion, and distinctness of enunciation that
+characterize the German style. His _Wotan_ and his _Hans Sachs_,
+especially, are marvels of operatic impersonation. Herr Alvary, the
+second of the vocalists who unite Italian with German merits, is a
+young singer who has a great future before him, if his _Siegfried_, a
+most realistic and powerful impersonation, may be argued from. And as
+for the third of these artists--Lilli Lehmann--her equal can hardly
+to-day be found on the operatic stage. It is very characteristic of the
+late Intendant of the Berlin theatres--Herr von H�lsen (who waited nine
+years before he accepted "Lohengrin" for performance, and afterward
+repeated the same _faux pas_ with the Nibelung Trilogy)--that he
+confined Fr�ulein Lehmann for years to subordinate _r�les_. Indeed,
+although she had acquired considerable fame abroad, it may be said that
+her real career did not begin till she came to New York. Here her rare
+merits were at once recognized, and instead of resting on her laurels,
+she has grown more admirable as an actress and singer every year. Her
+voice has a sensuous beauty that is matchless, and no other prima
+donna, except Materna, has emotion in her voice so deep and genuine as
+that which moves us in Lehmann's _Isolde_ and _Br�nnhilde_.
+
+She made her _d�but_ in 1866, at Prague, and ten years later sang the
+small _r�les_ of the first Rhine maiden and the forest bird in
+"Rheingold" and "Siegfried," at the Bayreuth festival--little
+fancying, perhaps, that she would twelve years later be the queen of
+German opera in America. She takes excellent care of her voice, and
+never allows the weather to interfere with her daily walk of several
+miles. Her versatility is extraordinary, for she sings _Norma_ and
+_Valentine_ as well as she does _Isolde_. She scouts the idea that
+Wagner's music ruins the voice, agreeing on this point with the most
+famous vocal teacher of the day, Madame Marchesi. It is only when
+Wagner's music is sung to excess that it injures the voice, according
+to Fr�ulein Lehmann, because it requires such extraordinary power to
+cope with the orchestra. Heretofore she has not always succeeded in
+holding her own against the full orchestra, but in her latest and
+greatest impersonation--_Br�nnhilde_, in "Die G�tterd�mmerung"--her
+voice rivalled Materna's in power without losing a shade of its
+sensuous beauty, which is always enchanting.
+
+If it were possible to secure half a dozen more singers like Lehmann,
+Alvary, and Fischer, the operatic problem might be regarded as solved.
+It is the scarcity of first-class acting vocalists that makes opera so
+expensive, and prevents it from being self-supporting. The number of
+first-class singers is so small that every manager competes for them,
+and enables them to charge fancy prices, which are ruinous to any
+manager who has no government or other support to fall back on.
+
+It is a curious thing, this scarcity of good singers. We read so much
+about all professions being over-crowded; and yet here is a profession
+in which success literally means millions, and yet so few come forward
+in it that managers are at their wits' ends what to do, especially in
+the case of tenors. Herr Niemann obtains seven hundred and fifty
+dollars for every appearance; Fr�ulein Lehmann gets six hundred
+dollars, and there are singers who are much better paid still because
+they appear under the star system. Surely this ought to be a
+sufficient bait to catch talented pupils. How many professions are
+there in which one can make between five hundred and two thousand
+dollars in three or four hours?--not to speak of the possibility of
+winning the great prize--Madame Patti's four or five thousand?
+
+It is sometimes said that the repertory is at fault; but I am
+convinced that if there were plenty of good singers in the field, many
+of the operas that were formerly in vogue might be revived
+successfully--always excepting the flimsy productions of Bellini and
+Donizetti. It was formerly believed for years that "Lohengrin" was the
+only one of Wagner's early operas that American audiences cared for.
+But "Tannh�user" has, in a few years, become more popular than
+"Lohengrin," thanks largely to its better staging and interpretation.
+Owing in a large measure to Fr�ulein Brandt's _Fides_ and Fr�ulein
+Lehmann's _Bertha_, Meyerbeer's "Proph�te" has been a success for
+several years. Spontini's "Cortez," Weber's "Euryanthe," Wagner's
+"Rienzi," and Beethoven's "Fidelio," are among the most interesting
+revivals during Mr. Stanton's enterprising _r�gime_.
+
+No composer, and few poets, have ever inspired so many artists to
+visualize their conceptions on canvas as the poetic scenes suggested
+in Wagner's dramas. A special exhibition of such pictures was held in
+Vienna some years ago. It is not too much to say that Wagner's scenic
+backgrounds are as much more artistic than those of other opera
+composers as his texts are more poetic than theirs. He avoids frequent
+changes, and generally has only three scenes for an opera. But each of
+these, if executed according to his directions, is a masterpiece, and
+impresses itself on the memory like the canvas of a master.
+
+The performance of the Trilogy in New York has naturally revived among
+the Wagnerites the question as to which of the master's works is the
+greatest. Leaving aside "Tristan" and "Die Meistersinger," which he
+never surpassed, many regard the first act of "Die Walk�re" the most
+finished of Wagner's creations; and certainly it has a marvellously
+impressive climax--_Siegmund's_ drawing of the sword from the
+ash-tree, and the love duo which follows; and another in _Wotan's_
+farewell in Act III. But grand as these are, many consider the last
+act of "Die G�tterd�mmerung" the supreme achievement of Wagner. The
+exquisite trio of the Rhine maidens swimming and singing in a
+picturesque forest scene; the death of _Siegfried_, and the procession
+that slowly carries his body by the light of the moon up the hill; and
+the burning of the funeral pyre at the end, until it is put out by the
+rising waters of the Rhine bearing the maidens on the surface; these
+scenes, with the glorious music accompanying, cannot be matched by any
+act of any other opera. Nevertheless, as a whole, "Siegfried" is, in
+my opinion, the grandest part of the Trilogy. In no other work of
+Wagner is there such a minute correspondence, every second, between
+the poetry, music, and scenery. Every action and gesture on the stage
+is mirrored in the orchestra; and I shall never forget the remark made
+to me in 1876, at Bayreuth, by a musician, that in "Siegfried" we hear
+for the first time music such as Nature herself would make if she had
+an orchestra.
+
+
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+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                      |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Page  92: removed extra 'to' in 'resorted to to rouse'       |
+    | Page 158: Wilhelmj replaced with Wilhelm                     |
+    | Page 162: Erlich replaced with Ehrlich                       |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Since 'Erlking' (page 138) and 'Erl King' (page 237) are     |
+    | from two articles, and both are legitimate spellings of      |
+    | Schubert's music, these are left as is.                      |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS ***
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
+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: Chopin and Other Musical Essays
+
+Author: Henry T. Finck
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18560]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<br />
+<p class="noin">A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected
+in this text, while archaic spelling has been maintained.
+For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">bottom of this document</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h1>CHOPIN</h1>
+<h3>AND</h3>
+<h2>OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS</h2>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="35%" summary="">
+  <tr>
+  <td>
+   <h4>BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h4>
+   <br />
+   <p class="noin">SPAIN AND MOROCCO. 12mo, $1.25.<br />
+   <br />
+   THE PACIFIC COAST SCENIC TOUR.<br />
+   Illustrated. 8vo, $2.50.<br />
+   <br />
+   CHOPIN, AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS.<br />
+   12mo, $1.50.<br />
+   <br />
+   WAGNER AND HIS WORKS. With Portraits.<br />
+   Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, $4.00.</p></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h1>CHOPIN</h1>
+<h3>AND</h3>
+<h2>OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>HENRY T. FINCK</h2>
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY"</h4>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h5>NEW YORK<br />
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br />
+1894</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5 class="sc">Copyright, 1889, by<br />
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>TROW'S<br />
+PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,<br />
+NEW YORK.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h4>RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO<br />
+MRS. JEANNETTE M. THURBER</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td width="70%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="20%"><span style="font-size: 90%;">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Chopin, the Greatest Genius of the Pianoforte,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">How Composers Work,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">59</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Schumann, as Mirrored in His Letters,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">111</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Music and Morals,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">141</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Italian and German Vocal Styles,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">183</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrp">VI.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">German Opera in New York,</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">233</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHOPIN<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Leipsic, the centre of the world's music trade, exports about one
+hundred thousand dollars' worth of music to America every year. I do
+not know how much of this sum is to be placed to the account of
+Chopin, but a leading music dealer in New York told me that he sold
+three times as many of Chopin's compositions as of any other romantic
+or classical composer. This seems to indicate that Chopin is popular.
+Nevertheless, I believe that what Liszt wrote in 1850, a year after
+the death of Chopin&mdash;that his fame was not yet as great as it would be
+in the future&mdash;is as true to-day as it was forty years ago. Chopin's
+reputation has been constantly growing, and yet many of his deepest
+and most poetic compositions are almost unknown to amateurs, not to
+speak of the public at large. A few of his least characteristic pieces
+are heard in every parlor, generally in a wofully mutilated condition,
+but some of his most inspired later works I have never heard played
+either in private or in the concert hall, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>although I am sure that if
+heard there they would be warmly applauded.</p>
+
+<p>There is hardly a composer concerning whom so many erroneous notions
+are current as concerning Chopin, and of all the histories of music I
+have seen that of Langhans is the only one which devotes to Chopin an
+amount of space approximately proportionate to his importance. One of
+the most absurd of the misconceptions is that Chopin's genius was born
+in full armor, and that it did not pass through several stages of
+development, like that of other composers. Chopin did display
+remarkable originality at the very beginning, but the apparent
+maturity of his first published works is due to the fact that he
+destroyed his earliest efforts and disowned those works which are
+known as posthumous, and which may have created confusion in some
+minds by having received a higher "opus" number than his last works.</p>
+
+<p>Another misconception regarding Chopin is that his latest works are
+morbid and unintelligible. The same charge was brought by philistines
+against the best works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner. The fact is
+that these last works are of an almost matchless harmonic depth and
+originality, as superior to his earlier works as Wagner's last music
+dramas are to his first operas. I make this comparison with Wagner
+advisedly because, although I have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>the most exalted notions of
+Wagner's grandeur and importance, I do not for a moment hesitate to
+say that in his own sphere Chopin is quite as original and has been
+almost as revolutionary and epoch-making as Wagner. Schumann was the
+first to recognize the revolutionary significance of Chopin's style.
+"Chopin's works," he says, "are cannons buried in flowers;" and in
+another place he declares that he can see in "Chopin's G minor
+Nocturne a terrible declaration of war against a whole musical past."
+Chopin, himself, modest as he was in his manners, wrote to his teacher
+Elsner, in 1831, when he was twenty-two years of age: "Kalkbrenner
+will not be able to break my perhaps bold but noble determination to
+create a new epoch in art."</p>
+
+<p>Now, why has the world been so slow in recognizing that Chopin stands
+in the very front rank of creative musicians? One reason doubtless is
+that he was so quiet and retiring in his personal disposition. His
+still, small voice was lost in the din of musical warfare. He warmly
+defended the principles of the romantic school, if necessary, and had
+decided opinions of other musicians, especially of the popular
+pianists of his day who vitiated the public taste with their show
+pieces; but he generally kept them to himself or confided them only to
+his friends, whom he even occasionally implored to keep them secret.
+Had he, like Richard Wagner, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>attacked everybody, right and left, who
+stood in the way of the general recognition of his genius, his cause
+would have doubtless assumed greater prominence in the eyes of the
+public, even though the parlor piano does not afford so much
+play-ground for warfare as the operatic stage.</p>
+
+<p>The chief reason, however, why musical authorities have so long
+hesitated to acknowledge that Chopin is one of the very greatest
+explorers and pioneers in the domain of their art, is to be found in
+what, for want of a better term, may be called &aelig;sthetic Jumboism. When
+the late lamented Jumbo was in New York he attracted so much attention
+that his colleagues, although but little inferior in size, had "no
+show" whatever. Everybody crowded around Jumbo, stuffing him with
+bushels of oranges and apples, while the other elephants were entirely
+ignored. As elephants are intelligent animals, is it not probable that
+Pilot, the next in size to Jumbo, went mad and had to be shot because
+he was jealous of the exclusive attentions bestowed on his rival? In
+&aelig;sthetics, this Jumboism, this exaggerated desire for mammoth
+dimensions, seems to be a trait of the human mind which it is
+difficult to eradicate. It is a suggestive fact that the morbid, sham
+&aelig;stheticism which prevailed in England a few years ago, chose for its
+symbol the uncouth sunflower. And many who know that a sunflower is
+less beautiful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>and fragrant than a violet, will nevertheless, on
+visiting a picture gallery, give most of their attention to the large
+canvases, though the smaller ones may be infinitely more beautiful. It
+cannot be said that the critics of art or literature follow the
+popular disposition to measure genius with a yard-stick; but in music
+there seems to be a general tendency to do this. Liszt remarks,
+apropos, in his work on Chopin: "The value of the sketches made by
+Chopin's extremely delicate pencil has not yet been acknowledged and
+emphasized sufficiently. It has become customary in our days to regard
+as great composers only those who have written at least half a dozen
+operas, as many oratorios, and several symphonies."</p>
+
+<p>Even Schumann, and Elsner, Chopin's teacher, seem to have been
+affected a little by this irrational way of looking at music.
+Schumann, in a complimentary notice of Chopin's nocturnes, expresses
+his regrets that the composer should confine himself so strictly to
+the pianoforte, whereas he might have influenced the development of
+music in all its branches. He adds, however, on second thought, that
+"to be a poet one need not have written ponderous volumes; one or two
+poems suffice to make a reputation, and Chopin has written such."
+Elsner who was unusually liberal in his views of art, and who
+discovered and valued his pupil's originality long before Schumann
+did, nevertheless bowed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>before the fetish of Jumboism in so far as to
+write to Chopin in Paris that he was anxious, before he departed this
+Vale of Tears, to hear an opera from his pen, both for his benefit,
+and for the glory of his country. Chopin took this admonition to heart
+sufficiently to ask a friend to prepare for him a libretto; but that
+is as far as the project ever went. Chopin must have felt
+instinctively that his individual style of miniature painting would be
+as ineffective on the operatic stage, where bold, <i>al fresco</i> painting
+is required, as his soft and dreamy playing would have been had he
+taken his piano from the parlor and placed it in a meadow.</p>
+
+<p>Besides Chopin's abhorrence of musical warfare and his avoidance of
+the larger and more imposing forms of the opera, symphony, and
+oratorio, there were other causes which retarded the recognition of
+his transcendent genius. The unprecedented originality of his style,
+and the distinct national coloring of his compositions, did not meet
+with a sympathetic appreciation in Germany and Vienna, when he first
+went there to test his musical powers. Some of the papers indeed had a
+good word for him, but, as in the case of Liszt and later of
+Rubinstein, it was rather for the pianist than for the composer. On
+his first visit to Vienna he was greatly petted, and he found it easy
+to get influential friends who took care that his concerts should be
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>a success, because he played for their benefit, asking no pecuniary
+recompense. But when, some years later, he repeated his visit, and
+tried to play for his own pecuniary benefit, the influential friends
+were invisible, and the concert actually resulted in a deficit.</p>
+
+<p>Chopin's letters contain unmistakable evidence of the fact that, with
+some exceptions, the Germans did not understand his compositions. At
+his first concert in Vienna, he writes, "The first allegro in the F
+minor concerto (not intelligible to all) was indeed rewarded with
+'Bravo!' but I believe this was rather because the audience wished to
+show that they appreciated serious music than because they were able
+to follow and appreciate such music." And regarding the fantasia on
+Polish airs he says that it completely missed its mark: "There was
+indeed some applause by the audience, but obviously only to show the
+pianist that they were not bored." The ultra-Germans, he writes in
+another letter, did not appear to be quite satisfied; and he relates
+that one of these, on being asked, in his presence, how he liked the
+concert, at once changed the subject of conversation, obviously in
+order not to hurt his feelings. In a third letter, in which he gives
+his parents an account of his concert in Breslau, in 1830, he says
+that, "With the exception of Schnabel, whose face was beaming with
+pleasure, and who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>patted me on the shoulder every other moment, none
+of the other Germans knew exactly what to make of me;" and he adds,
+with his delicious irony, that "the connoisseurs could not exactly
+make out whether my compositions really were good or only seemed so."</p>
+
+<p>Criticisms culled from contemporary newspaper notices and other
+sources emphasize the fact that the Germans were at that time blind to
+the transcendent merits of Chopin's genius. The professional critics,
+after their usual manner, found fault with the very things which we
+to-day admire most in him&mdash;the exotic originality of the style, and
+the delightful Polish local color in which all his fabrics are "dyed
+in the wool," as it were. How numerous these adverse criticisms were,
+may best be inferred from the frequency with which Schumann defended
+Chopin in his musical paper and sneered at his detractors. "It is
+remarkable," he writes, "that in the very droughty years preceding
+1830, in which one should have thanked Heaven for every straw of
+superior quality, criticism, which it is true, <i>always lags behind
+unless it emanates from creative minds</i>, persisted in shrugging its
+shoulders at Chopin's compositions&mdash;nay, that one of them had the
+impudence to say that all they were good for was to be torn to
+pieces." In another article, after speaking in the most enthusiastic
+terms of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>Chopin's trio, in which "every note is music and life," he
+exclaims, "Wretched Berlin critic, who has no understanding for these
+things, and never will have&mdash;poor fellow!" And seven years later, in
+1843, he writes, with fine contempt for his critical colleagues, that
+"for the typical reviewers Chopin never did write, anyway." And this,
+be it remembered, was only six years before Chopin's death.</p>
+
+<p>Not a few of the composers and composerlings of the period joined the
+professional critics in their depreciation of Chopin's works. Field
+called his "a talent of the sick chamber." Moscheles, while admitting
+Chopin's originality, and the value of his pianistic achievements,
+confessed that he disliked his "harsh, inartistic, incomprehensible
+modulations," which often appeared "artificial and forced" to
+him&mdash;these same modulations which to-day transport us into the seventh
+heaven of delight! Mendelssohn's attitude toward Chopin was somewhat
+vacillating. He defended him in a letter against his sister's
+criticisms, and assured her that if she had heard some of Chopin's
+compositions "as he himself played them" for him, she too would have
+been delighted. He adds that Chopin had just completed "a most
+graceful little nocturne," of which he remembered much, and was going
+to play it for his brother Paul. Nevertheless, he did not recommend
+the pupils at the Leipsic Conservatory to study <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>Chopin's works, and
+various utterances of his are on record showing that he had a decided
+artistic antipathy for the exotic products of Chopin's pen. To give
+only one instance. In one of the letters to Moscheles, first printed
+in <i>Scribner's Magazine</i> for February, 1888, he complains that "a book
+of mazurkas by Chopin, and a few new pieces of his are so mannered
+that they are hard to stand."</p>
+
+<p>I have dwelt so much on the attitude of the Germans toward Chopin,
+because I am convinced that in this attitude lies one of the main
+reasons why no one has hitherto dared to place him in the front rank
+of composers, side by side with Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner. For the
+Germans are the <i>tonangebende</i> (the standard-setting) nation in music
+to-day, and, as there seems to be a natural antipathy between the
+Slavic and the Teutonic mind, the Germans are apt, like Mendelssohn,
+to regard as mannerism what is simply the exotic fragrance which
+betrays a foreign nationality. The ultro-Teutons still persist in
+their depreciation of Chopin. In the latest edition of Brockhaus's
+"Conservations-Lexicon" we read, apropos to Chopin's larger works,
+that "he was deficient in the profounder musical attainments"(!) Dr.
+Hanslick, generally considered the leading German critic of the
+period, in a 534-page collection of criticisms, discussing twenty
+concert seasons in Vienna, has only about half a dozen and by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>no
+means complimentary references to Chopin. And even the late Louis
+Ehlert, in his appreciative essay on Chopin, comes to the conclusion
+that Chopin is certainly not to be ranked with such giants as Bach and
+Beethoven. This is Teutonism, pure and simple. No doubt Chopin is, in
+some respects, inferior to Bach and Beethoven, but in other respects
+he is quite as unquestionably superior to them. He wrote no mammoth
+symphonies, but there is a marvellous wealth and depth of ideas in his
+smaller works&mdash;enough to supply half a dozen ordinary symphony and
+opera writers with ideas for a lifetime. His works may be compared to
+those men of genius in whose under-sized bodies dwelt a gigantic mind.</p>
+
+<p>Schumann appears to have been the only contemporary composer who did
+not underrate Chopin. Whether he would have gone so far as to rank him
+with the greatest of the German composers, I cannot say, for he avoids
+direct comparisons. But if imitation is the sincerest form of
+flattery, then Schumann flattered Chopin more than any other master,
+for his pianoforte works are much more in the manner of Chopin than of
+Bach or Beethoven. I do not mean direct imitation, but that
+unconscious adoption of Chopin's numerous innovations in the treatment
+of the piano and of musical style, which are better evidence of
+influence than the borrowing of an idea or two. He himself testified
+to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>"intimate artistic relations" between him and Chopin.
+Moreover, his praise of Chopin is always pitched in such a high key
+that it would seem as if praise could no higher go. It was he who
+first proclaimed Chopin's genius authoritatively, and to this fact he
+often referred subsequently, with special pride. The very first
+article in his volumes of criticisms is devoted to Chopin's variations
+on "La Ci Darem'," published as "opus 2." In those days, Schumann used
+to give his criticisms a semi-dramatic form. On this occasion he
+represents his <i>alter ego</i>, Eusebius, as rushing into the room with a
+new composition, and the exclamation "Hats off, gentlemen! a genius!"
+He then analyzes the variations in glowing poetic language and
+rapturously exclaims at the end that "there is genius in every bar."
+And this was only one of the <i>early</i> works of Chopin, in which he has
+by no means attained his full powers. Of another quite early work, the
+second concerto, he writes that it is a composition "which none of us
+can approach except it be with the lips to kiss the hem;" and later
+on, the Preludes, the most inspired of his works, led Schumann to
+exclaim that Chopin "is and remains the boldest and noblest artistic
+spirit of the time."</p>
+
+<p>Schumann would have found it difficult to induce any of his countrymen
+to endorse his exalted opinion of Chopin, but the Hungarian Liszt
+joined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>hands with him heartily, and pronounced Chopin "an artist of
+the first rank." "His best works," he says, "contain numerous
+combinations of which it must be said that they did nothing less than
+create an epoch in the treatment of musical style. Bold, brilliant,
+enchanting, his pieces <i>conceal their depth behind so much grace,
+their erudition behind so much charm</i>, that it is difficult to
+emancipate one's self from their overpowering magic and estimate them
+according to their theoretic value. This fact is already recognized by
+some competent judges, and it will be more and more generally realized
+when the progress made in art during the Chopin epoch is carefully
+studied."</p>
+
+<p>That Elsner, Chopin's teacher, detected his pupil's originality, has
+already been stated. Fortunately he allowed it a free rein instead of
+trying to check and crush it, as teachers are in the habit of doing.
+But there are some passages in Chopin's early letters which seem to
+indicate that the general public and the professional musicians in his
+native Poland were not so very much in advance of the Germans in
+recognizing his musical genius. Liszt doubts whether Chopin's national
+compositions were as fully appreciated by his countrymen as the work
+of native poets; and Chopin writes to a friend, apropos of his second
+concert at Warsaw: "The <i>&eacute;lite</i> of the musical world will be there;
+but I have little confidence in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>their musical judgment&mdash;Elsner of
+course excepted." Elsewhere he complains of a patriotic admirer who
+had written that the Poles would some day be as proud of Chopin as the
+Germans were of Mozart. And when in addition to this the editor of a
+local paper told him he had in type a sonnet on him, Chopin was
+greatly alarmed, and begged him not to print it; for he knew that such
+homage would create envy and enemies, and he declared that after that
+sonnet was published he would not dare to read any longer what the
+papers said about him.</p>
+
+<p>Chopin's want of confidence in the judgment of his countrymen showed
+that, after all, the national Polish element in his compositions was
+not the main cause why they were not rated at once at their true
+value. It was their novelty of form, harmonic depth and freedom of
+modulation, that made them for a long time cav&iuml;are to the general.
+This was again proved when he went to Paris. Chopin was a Pole only on
+his mother's side, his father having been a Frenchman, who had
+emigrated to Poland. It might have been supposed, therefore, that
+there would be a French element in Chopin's genius which would make it
+palatable to the Parisians. But this did not prove to be the case. In
+the remarkable group of musicians, poets, and artists who were
+assembled at that time in Paris, and who mutually inspired one
+another&mdash;a group which included <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>Liszt, Meyerbeer, Hiller,
+Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Heine, George Sand, the Countess D'Agoult,
+Delacroix, etc.&mdash;there were no doubt not a few who knew what a rare
+genius their friend Chopin was. George Sand wrote in her
+autobiography: "He has not been understood hitherto, and to the
+present day he is underestimated. Great progress will have to be made
+in taste and in the appreciation of music before it will be possible
+for Chopin's work to become popular." Heine also wrote that his
+favorite pianist was Chopin, "who, however," he adds, "is more of a
+composer than a virtuoso. When Chopin is at the piano I forget all
+about the technical side of playing and become absorbed in the sweet
+profundity, the sad loveliness of his creations, which are as deep as
+they are elegant. Chopin is the great inspired tone-poet who properly
+should be named only in company with Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini."</p>
+
+<p>But aside from these select spirits and a small circle of aristocratic
+admirers, mostly Poles, Chopin was not understood by the Paris public.
+At first he could not even make his living there, and was in
+consequence on the point of emigrating to America when a friend
+dragged him to a <i>soir&eacute;e</i> at Rothschild's, where his playing was so
+much admired that he was at once engaged as a teacher by several
+ladies present. In a very short time he became the fashionable teacher
+in aristocratic circles, where his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>refined manners made him
+personally liked. As he refused to take any but talented pupils,
+teaching was not so irksome to him as it might have been. Nevertheless
+one cannot but marvel at the obtuseness of the Parisians who put into
+the utilitarian harness an artist who might have enchanted them every
+evening with a concert, had their taste been more cultivated. He <i>did</i>
+play once, when he first arrived, but the receipts did not even meet
+the expenses, and the audience received his work so coldly that his
+artistic sensibilities were wounded, and he did not again appear in
+public for fourteen years. Occasionally he played for the select
+aristocratic circles into which he had been introduced; but even here
+he did not often meet with the genuine appreciation and sympathy which
+the artist craves. "Whoever could read in his face," says Liszt,
+"could see how often he felt convinced that among all these handsome,
+well-dressed gentlemen, among all the perfumed, elegant ladies, not
+one understood him."</p>
+
+<p>As for the French critics they seem to have been as obtuse as their
+German colleagues. To give only one instance: M. F&eacute;tis, author of the
+well-known musical dictionary, states in his article on Chopin, that
+this composer is overrated to-day, and his popularity largely due to
+the fact that he is fashionable. And in his article on Heller, he
+asserts, more pointedly still, that "the time will undoubtedly come
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>when the world will recognize that Heller, much more than Chopin, is
+the modern poet of the pianoforte." In this opinion F&eacute;tis probably
+stands alone; but many who have not studied Chopin's deepest works
+carefully, are still convinced that the pianoforte compositions of
+Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, are of greater importance than
+Chopin's. So far am I from sharing this opinion that if I had to
+choose between never again hearing a pianoforte piece by any or all of
+those composers, or never again hearing a Chopin composition, I should
+decide in favor of Chopin. Some years ago I expressed my conviction,
+in <i>The Nation</i>, that Chopin is as distinctly superior to all other
+piano composers as Wagner is to all other opera composers. A
+distinguished Cincinnati musician, Mr. Otto Singer, was horrified at
+this statement, and wrote in <i>The Courier</i>, of that city, that it
+could only have been made by "a patriotically inclined Frenchman or a
+consumptive inhabitant of Poland;" adding that "he would readily yield
+up possession of quite a number of Chopin's bric-&agrave;-brac for Schumann's
+single 'Warum.'" I am neither a patriotic Frenchman nor a consumptive
+Pole, and I am a most ardent admirer of Schumann; nevertheless I
+uphold my former opinion, and my chief object in this essay is to
+endeavor to justify it.</p>
+
+<p>All authorities, in the first place, admit that Chopin created an
+entirely new style of playing the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>pianoforte. Many have pointed out
+the peculiarities of this style&mdash;the use of extended and scattered
+chords, the innovations in fingering which facilitate <i>legato</i>
+playing, the spray of dainty little ornamental notes, the use of the
+capricious <i>tempo rubato</i>, and so on. But it has not been made
+sufficiently clear by any writer how it was that Chopin became the
+Wagner of the pianoforte, so to speak, by revealing for the first time
+the infinite possibilities of varied and beautiful tone-colors
+inherent in that instrument. To understand this point fully, it is
+necessary to bear in mind a few facts regarding the history of the
+pianoforte.</p>
+
+<p>The name of pianoforte was given about a century and a half ago to an
+instrument constructed by the Italian Cristofori, who devised a
+mechanism for striking the strings with hammers. In the older
+instruments&mdash;the clarichords and harpsichords&mdash;the strings were either
+snapped by means of crow's quills, or pushed with a tangent. The new
+hammer action not only brought a better tone out of the string, but
+enabled the pianist to play any note loud or soft at pleasure; hence
+the name <i>piano-forte</i>. But the pianoforte itself required many years
+before all its possibilities of tone-production were discovered. The
+instruments used by Mozart still had a thin short tone, and there was
+no pedal for prolonging it, except a clumsy one worked with the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>knee&mdash;a circumstance which greatly influenced Mozart's style, and is
+largely responsible for the fact that his pianoforte works are hardly
+ever played to-day in the concert hall. For, as the tone could not be
+sustained, it was customary in Mozart's time to hide its meagre frame
+by means of a great profusion of runs and trills, and other ornaments,
+with which even the slow movements were disfigured. Under the
+circumstances, these ornaments were justifiable to some extent, but
+to-day they seem not only in bad taste, but entirely superfluous,
+because our improved instruments have a much greater power of
+sustaining tones.</p>
+
+<p>Czerny, the famous piano teacher, touched in his autobiography on the
+peculiarities of Mozart's style. Beethoven, who gave Czerny some
+lessons on the piano, made him pay particular attention to the
+<i>legato</i>, "of which," says Czerny, "he was so unrivalled a master, but
+which at that time&mdash;the Mozart period, when the short staccato touch
+was in fashion&mdash;<i>all other pianists thought impossible</i>. Beethoven
+told me afterwards," he continues, "that he had often heard Mozart,
+whose style from his use of the clavecin, the pianoforte being in his
+time in its infancy, was not at all adapted to the newer instrument. I
+have known several persons who had received instruction from Mozart,
+and their playing corroborated this statement."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>In view of these facts, we can understand why Beethoven did not like
+Mozart's pianoforte works as well as those of Clementi, in which there
+was more <i>cantabile</i>, and which required more fulness of tone in the
+execution; and we can understand why even so conservative a critic as
+Louis Ehlert should exclaim, apropos of Chopin's "entirely new
+pianoforte life," "How uninteresting is the style of any previous
+master (excepting Beethoven) compared with his! What a litany of
+gone-by, dead-alive forms! What a feelingless, prosaic jingle! If
+anyone should, without a grimace, assure me sincerely that he can play
+pianoforte pieces by Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, and Ries, with real
+enjoyment even now, I will esteem him as an excellent man&mdash;yes, a very
+honest one; but I will not drink wine with him."</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for what I have ventured to call the fetish of Jumboism, I
+am convinced that Professor Ehlert would have written Mozart's name in
+this last sentence in place of Clementi's. By excepting Beethoven
+alone from the list of "uninteresting" composers preceding Chopin, he
+<i>implicitly</i> condemns Mozart; but he does not dare to do so
+<i>explicitly</i>, although such a confession would not have affected
+Mozart's greatness in other departments of music, which is undeniable.
+Indeed, if Professor Ehlert had been perfectly sincere I am not quite
+sure that he would have excepted Beethoven's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>sonatas. Although they
+teem with great and beautiful ideas, these sonatas are not really
+adapted to the intrinsic nature of the pianoforte, and hence fail to
+arouse the enthusiasm of those whose taste has been formed by the
+works of Chopin and Schumann. It was no doubt an instinctive antipathy
+to Beethoven's unpianistic style (if the adjective be permissible),
+which prevented Chopin from admiring Beethoven as deeply as he did
+some other composers, whom he would have admitted to be his inferiors.
+And Beethoven himself does not seem to have regarded his pianoforte
+works with the same satisfaction as his other compositions. At least,
+he wrote the following curious sentence in a corner of one of his
+sketch books in 1805; "Heaven knows why my pianoforte music always
+makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."
+He must have felt that his ideas found a much more appropriate and
+adequate expression in the orchestra than on the piano. Not being a
+radical innovator he did not, in his treatment of the pianoforte, go
+beyond Clementi; and so it remained for Chopin to show the world that
+the pianoforte, if properly treated, will yield tones whose exquisite
+sensuous beauty can hardly be surpassed by any combination of
+orchestral instruments.</p>
+
+<p>The two principal means by which he accomplished these reforms were
+the constant employment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>of the pedal, and the use of extended and
+scattered chords, in place of the crowded harmonies and the massive
+movements of the older accompaniments.</p>
+
+<p>Very few pianists seem to comprehend the exact function and importance
+of the pedal. Many will be surprised to hear that the word "touch,"
+which they suppose refers to the way the keys are struck by the
+fingers, has quite as much to do with the feet&mdash;that is, the use of
+the pedal&mdash;as with the fingers. No matter how thoroughly a pianist may
+have trained his fingers, if he does not use the pedal as it was used
+by Chopin and Schumann, he cannot reveal the poetry of their
+compositions. In one of his letters Chopin notes that Thalberg played
+<i>forte</i> and <i>piano</i> with the pedals, not with his hands, and some
+piano bangers do so still; but every pianist who deserves the name
+knows that loudness and softness must be regulated by the hands (and
+very rarely the left-side pedal). Yet even among this better class of
+pianists the notion seems to prevail that the main object of the
+right-side pedal is to enable them to prolong a chord or to prevent a
+confusion of consecutive harmonies. This is one of the functions of
+the pedal, no doubt, but not the most important one. The chief service
+of the pedal is <i>in the interest of tone-color</i>. Let me explain.</p>
+
+<p>Every student of music knows that if you sing a certain tone into a
+piano (after pressing the pedal), <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>or before a guitar, the strings in
+these instruments which correspond to the tone you sing will vibrate
+responsively and emit a tone. He also knows that when you sound a
+single note, say G, on the violin or piano, you seem to hear only a
+simple tone, but on listening more closely you will find that it is
+really a compound tone or a complete chord, the fundamental tone being
+accompanied by faint overtones, which differ in number and relative
+loudness in different instruments, and to which these instruments owe
+their peculiar tone-color.</p>
+
+<p>Now when you press the pedal of a pianoforte on striking a note you do
+not only prolong this note, but its vibrations arouse all the notes
+which correspond to its overtones, and the result is a rich deep
+tone-color of exquisite sensuous beauty and enchanting variableness.
+Hence, whenever the melodic movement and harmonic changes are not too
+rapid, a pianist should press the pedal <i>constantly</i>, whether he plays
+loudly or softly; because it is only when the damper is raised from
+the strings that the overtones can enrich and beautify the sound by
+causing their corresponding strings to vibrate in sympathy with them.
+Those who heard Schumann play say that he used the pedal persistently,
+sometimes twice in the same bar to avoid harmonic confusion; and the
+same is true of Chopin, concerning whose playing an English amateur
+says, after referring to his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span><i>legatissimo</i> touch: "The wide arpeggios
+in the left hand, <i>maintained in a continuous stream of tone</i> by the
+strict legato and fine and constant use of the damper pedal, formed an
+harmonious substructure for a wonderfully poetic <i>cantabile</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I have italicised and emphasized the words <i>maintained in a continuous
+stream of tone</i>, because it calls attention to one of the numerous
+resemblances between the style of Chopin and that of Wagner, who in
+his music dramas similarly keeps up an uninterrupted flow of richly
+colored harmonies to sustain the vocal part. Schumann relates that he
+had the good fortune to hear Chopin play some of his &eacute;tudes. "And he
+played them very much <i>&agrave; la Chopin</i>," he says: "Imagine an &AElig;olian harp
+provided with all the scales, commingled by an artist's hand into all
+manner of fantastic, ornamental combinations, yet in such a way that
+you can always distinguish a deeper ground tone and a sweet continuous
+melody above&mdash;and you have an approximate idea of his playing. No
+wonder that I liked best those of the &eacute;tudes which he played for me,
+and I wish to mention specially the first one, in A flat major, a poem
+rather than an &eacute;tude. It would be a mistake to imagine that he allowed
+each of the small notes to be distinctly audible; it was rather a
+surging of the A flat major chord, occasionally raised to a new billow
+by the pedal; but amid these <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>harmonies a wondrous melody asserted
+itself in large tones, and only once, toward the middle of the piece,
+a tenor part came out prominently beside the principal melody. After
+hearing this &eacute;tude you feel as you do when you have seen a ravishing
+picture in your dreams and, half awake, would fain recall it."</p>
+
+<p>Now it is obvious that such dreamy &AElig;olian-harp-like harmonies could
+not have been produced without Chopin's novel and constant use of the
+pedal. And this brings out the greatest difference between the new and
+the old style of playing. In the pianoforte works of Mozart and
+Beethoven, and even in those of Weber, which mark the transition from
+the classical to the romantic school, there are few passages that
+absolutely require a pedal, and in most cases the pieces sound almost
+as well without as with pedal; so that, from his point of view, and in
+his days of staccato playing, Hummel was quite right in insisting that
+a pianist could not be properly judged until he played without the
+pedal. But as regards the romantic school of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt
+and their followers, it may be said with equal truth that a pianist's
+use of the pedal furnishes the supreme test of his talent. If he has
+not the delicacy of ear which is requisite to produce the "continuous
+stream of tone" in Chopin's compositions, without the slightest
+harmonic confusion, he should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>leave them alone and devote himself to
+less poetic composers.</p>
+
+<p>An amusing anecdote illustrates visibly how helpless Chopin would have
+been without his pedal. He was asked one evening at a party in Paris
+to play. He was quite willing to do so but discovered to his surprise
+that the piano had no pedals. They had been sent away for repairs. In
+this dilemma a happy thought occurred to Liszt, who happened to be
+present. He crawled under the piano, and, while Chopin was playing,
+worked the mechanism to which the pedals ought to have been attached
+so cleverly that they were not missed at all! He stooped that his
+friend might conquer.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that Chopin in his later works, often omitted the sign for
+the pedal on his MSS. must not be held to indicate that he did not
+wish it to be constantly used. In his earlier works he carefully
+indicated where it should be employed, but subsequently he appears to
+have reasoned rightly that a pianist who needs to be told where the
+pedal ought, and where it ought not, to be employed, is not
+sufficiently advanced in culture to play his works at all, and had
+therefore best leave them alone.</p>
+
+<p>Chopin's remarkable genius for divining the mysteries of the
+pianoforte enabled him, as it were, to anticipate what is a
+comparatively recent invention&mdash;the middle pedal which is chiefly used
+to sustain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>single tones in the bass without affecting the rest of the
+instrument. The melancholy "F sharp minor Prelude," for example,
+cannot be played properly without the use of this middle pedal. In
+another prelude, we have an illustration of how the pedal must often
+be used in order to help in forming a chord which cannot be stretched.
+And this brings us to the second important innovation in the treatment
+of Chopin's pianoforte&mdash;the constant use of scattered and extended
+chords.</p>
+
+<p>Karasovski relates that Chopin, a mere boy, used to amuse himself by
+searching on the piano for harmonies of which the constituent notes
+were widely scattered on the keyboard, and, as his hands were too
+small to grasp them, he devised a mechanism for stretching his hands,
+which he wore at night. Fortunately, he did not go so far as Schumann,
+who made similar experiments with his hands and thereby disabled one
+of them for life. What prompted Chopin to search for these widely
+extended chords was his intense appreciation of tonal beauty. To-day
+everybody knows how much more beautiful scattered, and widely extended
+harmonies are than crowded harmonies; but it was Chopin's genius that
+discovered this fact and applied it on a large scale. Indeed, so novel
+were his chords, that at first, many of them were deemed unplayable;
+but he showed that if his own system of fingering was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>adopted, they
+were not only playable, but eminently suited to the character of the
+instrument. The superior beauty of scattered intervals can be
+strikingly demonstrated in this way. If you strike four or five
+adjacent notes on the piano at once, you produce an intolerable
+cacophony. But these same notes can be so arranged by scattering them
+that they make an exquisite chord in suspension. Everything depends on
+the arrangement and the wideness of the intervals. Chopin's fancy was
+inexhaustible in the discovery of new kinds of scattered chords,
+combined into harmony by his novel use of the pedal; and in this way
+he enriched music with so many new harmonies and modulations that he
+must be placed, as a harmonic innovator, on a level with Bach and
+Wagner.</p>
+
+<p>These remarks apply especially to Chopin's later compositions; but his
+peculiarities are already distinctly traceable in many of his earlier
+works; and Elsner, his teacher, was sufficiently clear-sighted and
+frank to write the following words: "The achievements of Mozart and
+Beethoven as pianists have long been forgotten; and their pianoforte
+compositions, although undoubtedly classical works, must give way to
+the diversified artistic treatment of that instrument by the modern
+school." Mr. Joseph Bennett quotes this sentence in his Biography of
+Chopin, and adds an exclamation point in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>brackets after it, to
+express his surprise. Mr. Bennett is considered one of the leading
+London critics; yet I must say that I have never seen so much
+ignorance in a single exclamation point in brackets. Note the
+difference between Elsner and Bennett. Elsner adds to the sentence
+just quoted, that the <i>other</i> works of Mozart and Beethoven&mdash;their
+symphonies, operas, quartets, etc., "will not only continue to live,
+but will, perhaps, remain unequalled by anything of the present day."
+This is genuine discriminative criticism, which renders unto C&aelig;sar
+what is C&aelig;sar's due: whereas, Mr. Bennett is guided by the vicious old
+habit of fancying that because Mozart and Beethoven are great masters,
+therefore they must be superior to everybody in everything. Is it not
+about time to put an end to this absurd Jumboism in music?</p>
+
+<p>The fact is, we are living in an age of division of labor and
+specialism; and those who, like Robert Franz and Richard Wagner,
+devote themselves to a single branch of music have a better chance of
+reaching the summit of Parnassus than those who dissipate their
+energies in too many directions. Chopin was the pianoforte genius <i>par
+excellence</i>, and in his field he stands above the greatest of the
+German composers, whatever their names. Mendelssohn once wrote to his
+mother that Chopin "produces effects on the piano as novel as those of
+Paganini on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>violin, and he performs marvels which no one would
+have believed to be possible." Mendelssohn benefited to a slight
+extent by Chopin's example, but he did not add anything new to the
+treatment of the pianoforte. Nor does even Liszt mark an advance on
+Chopin from a purely pianistic point of view. Paradoxical as it may
+seem, Liszt, the greatest pianist the world has known, was really a
+born <i>orchestral</i> composer. He was never satisfied with the piano, but
+constantly wanted to convert it into an orchestra. His innovations
+were all in the service of these orchestral aspirations, and hence it
+is that his rhapsodies, for example, are much more effective in their
+orchestral garb than in their original pianoforte version. The same is
+true of many of Rubinstein's pianoforte works&mdash;the Bal Masqu&eacute;, for
+instance, which always has such an electric effect on Mr. Theodore
+Thomas's audiences. Not so with Chopin. Liszt remarks, somewhere, that
+Chopin might have easily written for orchestra, because his
+compositions can be so readily arranged for it. I venture to differ
+from this opinion. Chopin's Funeral March has been repeatedly arranged
+for orchestra&mdash;first by Reber at Chopin's funeral (when Meyerbeer
+regretted that he had not been asked to do this labor of love); and
+more recently by Mr. Theodore Thomas. Mr. Thomas's version is very
+clever and effective, yet I very <i>much</i> prefer this sublime <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>dirge on
+the piano. In a small room the piano has almost as great a capacity
+for dynamic shading as the orchestra has in a large hall; and, as I
+have just pointed out, one who knows how to use the pedal can secure
+an endless (almost orchestral) variety of tone-colors on the piano,
+thanks to the hundreds of overtones which can be made to accompany the
+tones played. Chopin spoke the language of the piano. His pieces are
+so idiomatic that they cannot be translated into orchestral language
+any more than Heine's lyrics can be translated into English. Chopin
+exhausted the possibilities of the pianoforte, and the piano exhausts
+the possibilities of Chopin's compositions.</p>
+
+<p>The innovations of Chopin which I have so far alluded to, have been to
+some extent adopted by all modern composers, and the more they have
+adopted them the more their works ingratiate themselves in the favor
+of amateurs. But there is another epoch-making feature of Chopin's
+style, which is less easy, especially to Germans, because it is a
+Slavic characteristic; I mean the <i>tempo rubato</i>. This is a phrase
+much used among musicians, but if pressed for an exact definition, few
+would be able to give one. Let us see first what Chopin's
+contemporaries have to say of the way in which he himself treats it.
+Chopin visited England in 1848, and on June 21 gave a concert in
+London. Mr. Chorley, the well-known critic, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>wrote a criticism on this
+occasion for "The Athen&aelig;um," in which he says: "The delicacy of M.
+Chopin's tone and the elasticity of his passages are delicious to the
+ear. He makes a free use of <i>tempo rubato</i>, leaning about within his
+bars more than any player we recollect, but still subject to a
+presiding sentiment of measure, such as presently habituates the ear
+to the liberties taken. In music not his own, we happen to know he can
+be as staid as a metronome; while his Mazurkas, etc., lose half that
+wildness if played without a certain freedom and license&mdash;impossible
+to imitate, but irresistible if the player at all feels the music.
+This we have always fancied while reading Chopin's works:&mdash;we are now
+sure of it after hearing him perform them."</p>
+
+<p>Moscheles wrote to his wife that Chopin's "<i>ad libitum</i> playing,
+which, with the interpreters of his music degenerates into offences
+against correct time, is, in his own case, merely a pleasing
+originality of style." He compares him to "a singer who, little
+concerned with the accompaniment, follows entirely his feelings."
+Karasovski says that Chopin "played the bass in quiet, regular time,
+while the right hand moved about with perfect freedom, now following
+the left hand, now ... going its own independent way. 'The left hand,'
+said Chopin, 'must be like an orchestral conductor; not for a moment
+must it be uncertain and vacillating.'" Thus his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>playing, free from
+the fetters of <i>tempo</i>, acquired a unique charm; thanks to this
+<i>rubato</i>, his melody was "like a vessel rocked upon the waves of the
+sea."</p>
+
+<p>The world suffered a great loss when a band of ignorant soldiers found
+the bundles of letters which Chopin had written from Paris to his
+parents, and used them to feed the fire which cooked their supper. But
+it lost a still greater treasure when Chopin tore up the manuscript of
+his pianoforte method, which he began to write in the last years of
+his life, but never finished. In it he would no doubt have given many
+valuable hints regarding the correct use of the <i>rubato</i>. In the
+absence of other authentic hints beyond the one just quoted, Liszt
+must be depended upon as the best authority on the subject; for it is
+well known that Liszt could imitate Chopin so nicely that his most
+intimate friends were once deceived in a dark room, imagining that
+Chopin was playing when Liszt was at the piano. "Chopin," Liszt
+writes, "was the first who introduced into his compositions that
+peculiarity which gave such a unique color to his impetuosity, and
+which he called <i>tempo rubato</i>:&mdash;an irregularly interrupted movement,
+subtile, broken, and languishing, at the same time flickering like a
+flame in the wind, undulating, like the surface of a wheat-field, like
+the tree-tops moved by a breeze." All his compositions must be played
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>in this peculiarly accented, spasmodic, insinuating style, a style
+which he succeeded in imparting to his pupils, but which can hardly be
+taught without example. As with the pedal, so with the <i>rubato</i>,
+Chopin often neglected to mark its use in later years, taking it for
+granted that those who understood his works would know where to apply
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the importance of the <i>rubato</i> in Chopin cannot be more
+readily realized than by his concession that he could never play a
+Viennese waltz properly, and by the fact that sometimes, when he was
+in a jocular mood, he would play one of his mazurkas in strict,
+metronomic time, to the great amusement of those who had heard him
+play them properly.</p>
+
+<p>When Liszt speaks of the <i>tempo rubato</i> as a unique characteristic of
+Chopin's style, he must not be understood too literally. As a matter
+of fact, the <i>rubato</i> is too important an element of expression not to
+have been partially anticipated in the works of some of Chopin's
+predecessors, just as Wagner's leading motives had imperfect
+prototypes in the works of some preceding composers. As early as 1602,
+the Italian, Caccini, describes what he calls the "Stile Nobile, in
+which the singer," he says, "emancipates himself from the fetters of
+the measure, by prolonging or diminishing the duration of a note by
+one-half, according as the sense of the word requires it." But it is
+probable that the Italian singers of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>that period, as to-day, used
+this kind of <i>rubato</i> merely to display the beauty of their voice on a
+loud high note, and not, like Chopin, for the sake of emphasizing a
+pathetic or otherwise expressive note or chord.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Germans it may be said that, as a rule, they had, until
+recently, no special liking for the <i>tempo rubato</i>. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent Viennese critic, referred to it thirty years ago, as "a morbid
+unsteadiness of <i>tempo</i>." Mendelssohn, who always liked a "nice, swift
+<i>tempo</i>," repeatedly expressed his aversion to Chopin's <i>rubato</i>.
+Nevertheless, traces of it may be found in the rhythms of the
+classical school. Although Mozart's <i>tempo</i> in general was as strict
+and uniform as that of a waltz in the ball-room, in playing an adagio
+he appears to have allowed his left hand some freedom of movement for
+the sake of expression (see Jahn I., 134). Beethoven, according to
+Seyfried, "was very particular at rehearsals about the frequent
+passages in <i>tempo rubato</i>;" and there are other remarks by
+contemporaries of Beethoven which indicate that although he wrote in
+the classical style, in his playing and conducting he often introduced
+a romantic <i>rubato</i>. Still, in the majority of his compositions, there
+is no room for the <i>rubato</i>, which cannot be said to have found a home
+in German music till it was assimilated by the Schumann school, under
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>influence of Chopin. Since then, it has leavened the spirit of
+modern music in a manner which has never been sufficiently emphasized.
+I am convinced that even Richard Wagner was, unconsciously, influenced
+by it through Liszt; for one of the chief peculiarities of his style
+is a sort of dramatic <i>rubato</i> which emancipates his music from the
+tyranny of the strict dance measure. In his essay on the proper
+interpretation of Tannh&auml;user, Wagner declares that the division of
+music into regular measures, or bars, is merely a mechanical means for
+enabling the composer to convey his ideas to the singer. As soon as
+the singer has grasped the idea, he says, the bar should be thrown
+aside as a useless incumbrance, and the singer, ignoring strict time,
+should be guided by his feelings alone, while the conductor should
+follow and preserve harmony between him and the orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>It might be said that this dramatic <i>rubato</i> is something different
+from Chopin's <i>rubato</i>. <i>Rubato</i> literally means "robbed," and it is
+generally supposed that the peculiarity of Chopin's style consisted
+simply in this, that he prolonged certain notes in a bar at the
+expense of the others&mdash;robbing from one what he gave to his neighbor.
+But this is a very inadequate conception of the term. Chopin's
+<i>rubato</i> means much more than this. It includes, to a large extent,
+the frequent unexpected changes of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>time and rhythm, together with the
+<i>ritardandos</i> and <i>accelerandos</i>. It includes, secondly, those unique
+passages, first conceived by Chopin, where the right hand has to play
+irregular groups of small notes&mdash;say twenty-two, while the left hand
+plays only twelve; or nineteen, while the left plays four&mdash;passages in
+which Chopin indicated as clearly as Wagner did in the words just
+quoted that the musical bar is a mere mechanical measure which does
+not sufficiently indicate the phrasing of the romantic or dramatic
+ideas that lie beyond the walls of a dance-hall.</p>
+
+<p>There is a third peculiarity of Chopin's style which may be included
+under the name of <i>rubato</i>, namely, his habit of "robbing" the note,
+not of its duration, but its <i>accent</i>. Every student of music knows
+that the symphony and sonata are called "idealized dance forms,"
+because they are direct outgrowths of the dances that were cultivated
+originally in Italy, France, and Germany. Now, one peculiarity of
+these dances is the fact that the accent always falls on the first
+beat of each bar. This is very appropriate and convenient for dancing,
+but from an artistic point of view, it is decidedly monotonous. Hence,
+Chopin conferred a vast benefit on modern art by introducing the
+spirit of Slavic music, in which the accent often falls on other beats
+beside the first. These regular accents produce the effect of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>variable <i>tempo rubato</i>, and it is to them that Chopin's works largely
+owe their exotic, poetic color. As they open up new possibilities of
+emotional expression, they have been eagerly appropriated by other
+composers and have leavened all modern music. To Chopin, therefore,
+chiefly belongs the honor of having emancipated music from the
+monotony of the Western European dance-beat by means of the <i>tempo
+rubato</i> in its varied aspects.</p>
+
+<p>But, it was not merely in the accent of the dance forms, that he
+introduced an agreeable innovation; he was one of the giants who helped
+to create a new epoch in art, by breaking these old forms altogether,
+and substituting new ones better suited to modern tastes. And here we
+come across one of the most ludicrous misconceptions which have been
+fostered concerning Chopin by shallow critics, and which brings us back
+again for a moment to the question of Jumboism. I do not know whether
+he was a German or a French critic who first wrote that Chopin,
+although great in short pieces, was not great enough to master the
+sonata form. Once in print, this silly opinion was repeated parrot-like
+by scores of other critics. <i>How</i> silly it is may be inferred from the
+fact that such third-rate composerlings as Herz and Hummel were able to
+write sonatas of the most approved pattern&mdash;and that, in fact, <i>any</i>
+person with the least musical talent can <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>learn in a few years to write
+sonatas that are absolutely correct as regards form. And yet we are
+asked to believe that Chopin, one of the most profound and original
+musical thinkers the world has ever seen, could not write a correct
+sonata! <i>Risum teneatis amici</i>! Chopin not able to master the sonata
+form? The fact is, <i>the sonata form could not master him</i>. He felt
+instinctively that it was too artificial to serve as a vehicle for the
+expression of poetic thought; and his thoroughly original genius
+therefore created the more plastic and malleable shorter forms which
+have since been adopted by composers the world over. The few sonatas
+which Chopin wrote do not deviate essentially from the orthodox
+structure, but one feels constantly that he was hampered in his
+movements by the artificial structure. Though they are full of genius,
+like everything he composed, he did not write them <i>con amore</i>.
+Concentration is one of Chopin's principal characteristics, and the
+sonata favors diffuseness. Too much thematic beating out is the bane of
+the sonata. A few bars of gold are worth more than many square yards of
+gold leaf; and Chopin's bars are solid gold. Moreover, there is no
+organic unity between the different parts of the sonata, whatever may
+have been said to the contrary. The essentially artificial character of
+the sonata is neatly illustrated by a simile used by Dr. Hanslick in
+speaking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>of Chopin. "This composer," he said, "although highly and
+peculiarly gifted, was never able to unite the fragrant flowers which
+he scattered by handfuls, into beautiful wreaths." Dr. Hanslick intends
+this as censure. I regard it as the greatest compliment he could have
+paid him. A wreath may be very pretty in its way, but it is artificial.
+The flowers are crushed and their fragrance does not blend. How much
+lovelier is a single violet or orchid in the fields, unhampered by
+strings and wires, and connected solely with its stalk and the
+surrounding green leaves. Many of Chopin's compositions are so short
+that they can hardly be likened unto flowers, but only to buds. Yet is
+not a rosebud a thousand times more beautiful than a full-blown rose?</p>
+
+<p>One more consideration. The psychology of the sonata form is false.
+Men and women do not feel happy for ten minutes as in the opening
+allegro of a sonata, then melancholy for another ten minutes, as in
+the following adagio, then frisky, as in the scherzo, and finally,
+fiery and impetuous for ten minutes as in the finale. The movements of
+our minds are seldom so systematic as this. Sad and happy thoughts and
+moods chase one another incessantly and irregularly, as they do in the
+compositions of Chopin, which, therefore, are much truer echoes of our
+modern romantic feelings than the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>stiff and formal classical sonatas.
+And thus it is, that Chopin's habitual neglect of the sonata form,
+instead of being a defect, reveals his rare artistic subtlety and
+grandeur. It was natural that a Pole should vindicate for music this
+emotional freedom of movement, for the Slavic mind is especially prone
+to constant changes of mood. Nevertheless, as soon as Chopin had shown
+the way, other composers followed eagerly in the new path, and in the
+present day the sonata may be regarded as obsolete. Few contemporary
+composers have written more than one or two&mdash;merely in order to show
+that they can do so if they want to; and even Brahms, the high priest
+of the conservatives, has, in his later period, devoted himself more
+and more exclusively to shorter modern forms in his pianoforte music.</p>
+
+<p>Strictly speaking, Chopin was not the first who tried to get away from
+the sonata. Beethoven, though he remained faithful to it, felt its
+fetters, as is shown by his numerous poetic licenses. Schubert wrote
+"Moments Musicals," Mendelssohn, "Songs without Words," Weber,
+Polonaises, and Field, Nocturnes. But these were merely straws which
+indicated in which direction Chopin's genius would sweep the field and
+clear the musical atmosphere. His polonaises and nocturnes are vastly
+superior to those of Weber and Field; and his poetic preludes, his
+romantic ballads, his lovely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>ber&ccedil;euse, his amorous mazurkas, are new
+types in art which have often been imitated but never equalled. Only
+in one field did Chopin have a dangerous rival among his predecessors,
+namely, in the Waltz. Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" is the source
+of the modern idealized waltz, because it was not written for the feet
+alone, but also for the heart and the imagination. Like Chopin's
+waltzes, it contains chivalrous passages, amorous episodes, and subtle
+changes of movement. And it seems as if the fact that there was less
+room for formal and emotional innovations in the waltz than in the
+other forms, had somewhat affected Chopin's imagination. For, although
+the most popular of his works, his waltzes are, with a few exceptions
+in which the <i>rubato</i> prevails, less characteristic than his other
+pieces. Nevertheless, they are charming, every one of them. But they
+are fairy dances&mdash;mortals are too clumsy to keep time to them.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the waltzes in popularity come the polonaises; and they fully
+deserve their popularity. Liszt has given us a charming description of
+the polonaise as it was formerly danced in Chopin's native country. It
+was less a dance than a promenade in which courtly pomps and
+aristocratic splendor were on exhibition. It was a chivalrous but not
+an amorous dance, precedence being given to age and rank, before youth
+and beauty. And whereas, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>other dances, the place of honor is
+always given to the fair sex, in the polonaise the men are in the
+foreground. In a word, the polonaise represents, both in its subject
+and the style of music, the masculine side of Chopin's genius.</p>
+
+<p>The feminine side is chiefly embodied in the mazurkas and the
+nocturnes. It has been said that the highest genius must combine
+masculine with feminine traits, and it is a remarkable fact that the
+works of two of the most spontaneous composers&mdash;Chopin and
+Schubert&mdash;are often characterized by an exquisite feminine tenderness
+and grace; as if, seeing that women have not done their duty as
+composers, they had tried to introduce the feminine spirit in music.
+Yet it is unfair to place too much emphasis on this side of their
+genius. In their bolder moments, Chopin and Schubert are thoroughly
+masculine.</p>
+
+<p>It seems strange at first sight that the mazurkas, these exquisite
+love poems, should be so much less popular than the waltzes, for they
+are quite as melodious and much easier&mdash;although here, as elsewhere,
+Chopin often introduces a few very difficult bars in an otherwise easy
+composition, as if to keep away bunglers. Perhaps the cause of their
+comparative neglect is, that they are so thoroughly Polish in spirit;
+unless they are played with an exotic <i>rubato</i>, their fragrance
+vanishes. There is more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>local color in the mazurkas than in any of
+his other works. The Mazurs are musically a highly gifted nation, and
+Chopin was impressed early in life with the quaint originality of
+their melodies. No doubt some of his mazurkas are merely artistic
+settings of these old love songs, but they are the settings of an
+inspired jeweller. If we can judge by the number of pieces of each
+class that he wrote, the mazurka was Chopin's favorite form. Even on
+his death-bed he wrote one. It was his last effort, and he was too
+weak to try it over on the piano. It is of heart-rending sadness, and
+exquisite pathos. Perhaps it was a patriotic rather than an &aelig;sthetic
+feeling which led him thus to favor the mazurka. His love for his
+country was exceeded only by his devotion to his art. "Oh, how sad it
+must be to die in a foreign country," he wrote to a friend in 1830;
+and when, soon afterward, he left home he took along a handful of
+Polish soil which he kept for nineteen years. Shortly before his death
+he expressed a wish that it should be strewn in his coffin&mdash;a wish
+which was fulfilled; so that his body rested on Polish soil even in
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>A countless number of exquisite melodic rhythmic and harmonic details
+in the mazurkas might be dwelt upon in this place, but I will only
+call attention to the inexhaustible variety of ideas which makes each
+of them so unique, notwithstanding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>their strong family likeness. They
+are like fantastic orchids, or like the countless varieties of humming
+birds, those "winged poems of the air," of which no two are alike
+while all resemble each other.</p>
+
+<p>The nocturnes represent the dreamy side of Chopin's genius. They are
+sufficiently popular, yet few amateurs have any idea of their
+unfathomable depth, and few know how to use the pedal in such a way as
+to produce the rich uninterrupted flow of tone on which the melody
+should float. Most pianists play them too fast. Mozart and Schumann
+protested against the tendency to take their slow pieces too fast, and
+Chopin suffers still more from this pernicious habit. Mendelssohn in
+"A Midsummer Night's Dream," and Weber in "Oberon," have given us
+glimpses of dreamland, but Chopin's nocturnes take us there bodily,
+and plunge us into reveries more delicious than the visions of an
+opium eater. They should be played in the twilight and in solitude,
+for the slightest foreign sound breaks the spell. But just as dreams
+are sometimes agitated and dramatic, so some of these nocturnes are
+complete little dramas with stormy, tragic episodes, and the one in C
+sharp minor, <i>e.g.</i>, embodies a greater variety of emotion and more
+genuine dramatic spirit on four pages than many popular operas on four
+hundred.</p>
+
+<p>One of Chopin's enchanting innovations, which he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>introduced
+frequently in the nocturnes, consists in those unique and exquisite
+<i>fioriture</i>, or dainty little notes which suddenly descend on the
+melody like a spray of dew drops glistening in all the colors of the
+rainbow. No less unique and original are the exquisite modulations
+into foreign keys which abound in the nocturnes, as, indeed, in all
+his works. Schucht calls attention to the fact that in his very opus 1
+Chopin permits himself a freedom of modulation which Beethoven rarely
+indulged in. But this is a mere trifle compared with the works of his
+last period. Here we find a striking originality and boldness of
+modulation that has no parallel in music, except in Wagner's last
+music-dramas. Now we have seen that Moscheles, and other
+contemporaries of Chopin, found his modulations harsh and
+disagreeable; and doubtless there are amateurs to-day who regard them
+in the same way. It seems, indeed, as if musical people must be
+divided into two classes&mdash;those who find their chief delight in melody
+pure and simple, and those who think that rich and varied harmony is
+the soul of music. Chopin fortunately wrote for both classes. Italy
+has produced no melodist equal to him, and Germany only one&mdash;Franz
+Schubert. No one has written melodies more soulful than those of the
+nocturne, opus 37, No. 2, the second ballad, the &eacute;tudes, opus 10, No.
+3; opus 25, No. 7, etc. I distinctly remember the thrill <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>with which I
+heard each of these melodies for the first time; but it was a deeper
+emotion still which I felt when I played for the first time the
+sublimest of his nocturnes&mdash;the last but one he wrote&mdash;and came across
+that wonderful modulation from five sharps to four flats, and, later
+on, the delicious series of modulations in the fourth and fifth bars
+after the Tempo Primo. I realized then that modulation is a deeper
+source of emotional expression than melody.</p>
+
+<p>In speaking of Chopin's melancholy character, the nocturnes are often
+referred to as illustrations of it. They do, indeed, breathe a spirit
+of sadness, but the majority represent, as I have said, the dreamy
+side of his genius. The real anguish of his heart is not expressed in
+the nocturnes but in the preludes and &eacute;tudes, strange as these names
+may seem for such pathetic effusions of his heart. The &eacute;tude, opus 10,
+No. 6, seems as if it were in a sort of double minor; as much sadder
+than ordinary minor, as ordinary minor is sadder than major. Chopin
+had abundant cause to be melancholy. He inherited that national
+melancholy of the Poles which causes them even to dance to tunes in
+minor keys, and which is commonly attributed to the long-continued
+political oppression under which they have suffered. But, apart from
+this national trait, Chopin had sufficient personal reasons for
+writing the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>greater part of his mazurkas and his other pieces in
+minor keys. Like other men of genius, he keenly felt the anguish of
+not being fully appreciated by his contemporaries. Moreover, although
+he was greatly admired by the French and Polish women in Paris, and
+was even conceded a lady-killer, he was, in his genuine affairs of the
+heart, thrice disappointed. His first love, who wore his engagement
+ring when he left Warsaw, proved faithless to the absent lover, and
+married another man. The second love deceived him in the same way,
+preferring a Count to a genius. And his third love, George Sand, after
+apparently reciprocating his attachment, for a few years, not only
+discarded him, but tried to justify her conduct to the world, by
+giving an exaggerated portraiture of his weaknesses, in her novel
+"Lucrezia Floriani."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, it was in one respect fortunate for the world that
+George Sand was Chopin's friend so long, for we owe to her facile pen
+many interesting accounts of Chopin's habits and the origin of some of
+his compositions. The winter which he spent with her on the Island of
+Majorca was one of the most important in his life, for it was here
+that he composed some of those masterpieces, his preludes&mdash;a word
+which might be paraphrased as Introductions to a new world of musical
+emotion. There is a strange discrepancy in the accounts which Liszt
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>and George Sand give of the Majorca episode in Chopin's life. Liszt
+describes it as a period of calm enjoyment, George Sand as one of
+discomfort and distress. As she was an eye-witness, her testimony
+appears the more trustworthy, especially as it is borne out by the
+character of the preludes which he composed there. There are among
+Chopin's preludes a few which breathe the spirit of contentment and
+grace, or of religious grandeur, but most of them are outbreaks of the
+wildest anguish and heart-rending pathos. If tears could be heard,
+they would sound like these preludes. Two of the saddest&mdash;those in B
+minor and E minor&mdash;were played by the famous organist Lefebure Wely,
+at Chopin's funeral services. But it is useless to specify. They are
+all jewels of the first water.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago I wrote in "The Nation" that if all pianoforte music in
+the world were to be destroyed, excepting one collection, my vote
+should be cast for Chopin's preludes. If anything could induce me to
+modify that opinion to-day, it would be the thought of Chopin's
+&eacute;tudes. I would never consent to their loss. Louis Ehlert, speaking of
+Chopin's F Major ballad, says he has seen even children stop in their
+play and listen to it enraptured. But, in the &eacute;tudes I mentioned a
+moment ago, there are melodies which, I should think, would tempt even
+angels to leave their happy home and indulge, for a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>moment, in the
+luxury of idealized human sorrow. There is in these twenty-seven
+&eacute;tudes, as in the twenty-five preludes, an inexhaustible wealth of
+melody, modulation, poetry and passion. One can play them every day
+and never tire of them. Of most of them one might say what Schumann
+said of one&mdash;that they are "poems rather than studies;" and much
+surprise has been expressed that Chopin should have chosen such a
+modest and apparently inappropriate name for them as "studies." Now, I
+have a theory on this subject: I believe it was partly an ironic
+intention which induced Chopin to call some of his most inspired
+pieces "studies." Pianists have always been too much in the habit of
+looking at their art from purely technical or mechanical points of
+view. They looked for mere five-finger exercises in Chopin's &eacute;tudes,
+and finding at the same time an abundance of musical ideas, they were
+surprised. It did not occur to them that Chopin might have intended
+them also as studies in musical composition&mdash;studies in melody,
+harmony, rhythm and emotional expression. I believe he did so intend
+them; and finding that his contemporaries did not take his idea, he
+probably laughed in his sleeve, and exclaimed, "<i>O tempora!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>This conjecture seems the more plausible, from the fact that there was
+a pronounced ironic and comic vein in Chopin's character. The accounts
+of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>his melancholy, in fact, like those of his ill-health, have been
+too much exaggerated. He was often in a cheerful mood. Sometimes he
+would amuse himself for a whole evening playing blind-man's buff with
+the children. As a mere child he had formed the habit of mimicking and
+caricaturing pianists and other distinguished men. Liszt often
+suffered from this mischievous habit, but he did not complain, and
+even seemed to enjoy it. Of Chopin's wit, two specimens may be cited.
+A rich Parisian one day invited him to dinner, with the intention of
+getting him to entertain the guests afterward. In this case, however,
+the host had reckoned without the guest, for, when asked to play,
+Chopin exclaimed, "But, my dear sir, I have eaten so little." The
+other instance occurs in one of his letters, where he says of the
+pianist Aloys Schmitt, that he was forty years old, and his
+compositions eighty&mdash;a <i>bon mot</i> worthy of Heine.</p>
+
+<p>There was much, indeed, in common between Chopin and Heine. Nothing is
+more characteristic of Heine than the way in which he works up our
+sentimental feelings only to knock us on the head with a comic or
+grotesque line at the end. Similarly, Chopin, after improvising for
+his friends for an hour or two, would suddenly rouse them from their
+reveries by a <i>glissando</i>&mdash;sliding his fingers from one end of the
+key-board to the other. In almost all of Chopin's or Heine's poems
+there is this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>peculiar mixture of the sad and the comic veins&mdash;even
+in the scherzos, which represent the gay and cheerful moods of
+Chopin's muse.</p>
+
+<p>Another point between these two poets is their elegance of style, and
+their ironic abhorrence of tawdry sentimentality and commonplace.
+Heine is the most elegant and graceful writer of his country, and
+Chopin the most elegant and graceful of all composers. Not a redundant
+note or a meaningless bar in all his compositions. Heine owed his
+formal finish to French influences, but Chopin did not need them, for
+the Poles are as noted as the French for elegance and grace. He
+avoided not only the modulatory monotony of the classical school, but,
+especially, the commonplace endings which marred so many classical
+compositions. "All's well that ends well," is a rule that was
+generally ignored by composers till Chopin taught them its value and
+effect. Chopin's pen always stopped when his thoughts stopped, and he
+never appends a meaningless end formula as if to warn the audience
+that they may now put on their hats. On the contrary, some of his
+later compositions, especially of the last period, end with exquisite
+miniature poems, connected in spirit with the preceding music and yet
+distinct&mdash;separate inspirations. I refer, especially, to the endings
+of his last two nocturnes and to the final bars of the mazurka, opus
+59, No. 3.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>George Sand has given us a vivid sketch of Chopin's conscientiousness
+as a composer. "He shut himself up in his room for entire days," she
+says, "weeping, walking about, breaking his pen, repeating and
+changing a bar a hundred times, and beginning again next day with
+minute and desperate perseverance. He spent six weeks over a single
+page, only to go back and write that which he had traced at the first
+essay." As regards his creativeness, George Sand says that "it
+descended upon his piano suddenly, completely, sublimely, or it sang
+itself in his head during his walks, and he made haste to hear it by
+rushing to the instrument." I have already mentioned the fact that
+when he wrote his last mazurka he was too weak to try it on the piano.
+In one of his letters he speaks of a polonaise being ready in his
+head. These facts indicate that he composed mentally, although, no
+doubt, during the improvisations, many themes occurred to him which he
+remembered and utilized. When he improvised he did not watch the
+key-board, but generally looked at the ceiling. Already as a youth he
+used to be so absorbed that he forgot his meals; and, in the street,
+he was often so absent-minded that he very narrowly escaped being run
+over by a wagon. Visions of female loveliness and patriotic
+reminiscences inspired many of his best works. Sometimes the pictures
+in his mind became so vivid as to form real <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>hallucinations. Thus it
+is related that one evening when he was alone in the dark, trying over
+the A major polonaise which he had just completed, he saw the door
+open and in marched a procession of Polish knights and ladies in
+medi&aelig;val costumes&mdash;the same, no doubt, that his imagination had
+pictured while he was composing. He was so alarmed at this vision that
+he fled through the opposite door and did not venture to return.
+Another illustration of the relations between genius and insanity.</p>
+
+<p>The foregoing remarks on Chopin's compositions suffice, I think, to
+show how absurd is the prevalent notion that he is the composer for
+the drawing-room, and that his pieces reflect the spirit of
+fashionable Parisian society. They do, perhaps, in their elegant form,
+but certainly not in their spirit. The frivolous aristocratic circles
+that heard Chopin could never have comprehended the depth of his
+emotional life. The pianists for them, the real drawing-room composers
+were Kalkbrenner, and Field, and Thalberg, with their operatic
+fantasias. Chopin is the composer for the few, and he is the composer
+<i>par excellence</i> for musicians. From him they can get more ideas, and
+learn more as regards form, than from anyone else, except Bach and
+Wagner. In comparing his last works with his first, and noting their
+progress, the mind tries in vain to conceive where he would have led
+the world had he lived <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>eighty instead of forty years. One thing is
+certain: he would have probably written more for other instruments.
+His pianoforte concertos belong to his early period, and betray a lack
+of experience in the treatment of the orchestra. But he wrote two
+pieces of chamber music which have never been excelled&mdash;a 'cello
+sonata and a trio. The 'cello sonata was the last of his larger works,
+and in my opinion it is superior to any of the 'cello sonatas of
+Mendelssohn, Brahms, and even Beethoven and Rubinstein. The trio,
+though an earlier work, is, like the 'cello sonata, admirably adapted
+to the instruments for which it is written. I once belonged to an
+amateur trio club. Our tastes naturally differed on many points, but
+in one thing we all agreed: we always closed our entertainment with
+this Chopin trio. It was the climax of the evening's enjoyment. Yet,
+only a few years ago, the leader of one of the principal chamber music
+organizations in New York admitted to me that he had never heard of
+this trio!&mdash;an incident which vividly illustrates the truth of my
+assertion that Chopin's genius is still far from being esteemed at its
+full value.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a></span><br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a></span><br />
+
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a></span>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>HOW COMPOSERS WORK<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Forty years ago Robert Schumann complained that the musical critics
+had so much to say about singers and players, while the composer was
+almost entirely ignored. To-day this reproach could hardly be made,
+for although vocalists still receive perhaps a disproportionate share
+of attention, compositions, new and old, are also discussed at great
+length in the press. Nevertheless, I believe that the vast majority of
+those who attend an operatic performance in New York, and are
+delighted with "Siegfried" or "Faust," have but vague and shadowy
+notions as to the way in which such an opera is composed. My object
+here is to illustrate the way composers work, and to prove that the
+creating of an opera is perhaps the most difficult and marvellous
+achievement of the human intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Langhans notes, in his history of music, that in the Middle
+Ages, as late as Luther's time, it took two men to compose the
+simplest piece of music: one who conceived the melody, and the other
+who added the harmonic accompaniment. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>The theoretical writer,
+Glareanus, deliberately expressed his opinion, in 1547, that it might
+be <i>possible</i> to unite these two functions in one person, but that one
+would rarely find the inventor of a melody able to work it out
+artistically. We have made much progress in music within these three
+hundred years, and to-day every composer is not only expected to
+invent his own harmonies and accompaniments to his melodies, but,
+since Wagner set the example, composers are beginning to consider it
+incumbent on them to write their own librettos; and, what is more
+remarkable, if we examine biographies of musicians carefully we find
+that, even <i>before</i> Wagner, not a few composers assisted in the
+preparation of their operatic texts; and this remark applies even to
+some of the Italian composers, who were proverbially careless
+regarding their librettos. Rossini was, perhaps, too indolent to
+devote much attention to his texts, and he was apt to postpone even
+the <i>musical</i> work to the last moment, so that he sometimes had to be
+locked up in his room by his friends, to enable him to finish his
+score by the date named in his contract. Yet it is worthy of note that
+during the composition of what Rossini's admirers commonly regard as
+his best and most characteristic work&mdash;the "Barber of Seville"&mdash;he
+lived in the same house with his librettist. "The admirable unity of
+the 'Barber,' in which a person <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>without previous information on the
+subject could scarcely say whether the words were written for the
+music or the music for the words, may doubtless," as Mr. Sutherland
+Edwards suggests, "in a great measure be accounted for by the fact
+that poet and musician were always together during the composition of
+the opera; ready mutually to suggest and to profit by suggestions."</p>
+
+<p>"Donizetti," the same writer informs us, while at the Bologna Lyceum,
+"occupied himself not only with music, but also with drawing,
+architecture, and even poetry; and that he could turn out fair enough
+verses for musical purposes was shown when, many years afterward, he
+wrote&mdash;so rapidly that the word 'improvise' might here be used&mdash;for
+the benefit of a manager in distress, both words and music of a little
+one-act opera, called 'Il Campanello' founded on the 'Sonnette de
+Nuit' of Scribe. Donizetti also arranged the librettos of 'Betty' and
+'The Daughter of the Regiment,' and of the last act of 'Lucia' he not
+only wrote the words but designed the scenes."</p>
+
+<p>Concerning Verdi, Arthur Pougin says: "It is not generally known that,
+virtually, Verdi is himself the author of all his poems. That is to
+say, not only does he always choose the subject of his operas, but, in
+addition to that, he draws out the sketch of the libretti, indicates
+all the situations, constructs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>them almost entirely as far as regards
+the general plan, brings his personages and his characters on the
+stage in such a way that his <i>collaborateur</i> has simply to follow his
+indications to bring the whole together, and to write the verses."</p>
+
+<p>One of Verdi's poetic assistants was Francesco Piave, who supplied the
+verses for "La Traviata," "Ernani" and several other of his operas. He
+was, Pougin informs us, "a tolerably bad poet, quite wanting in
+invention," but he had the most important quality (from Verdi's point
+of view) "of effacing himself completely, of putting aside every kind
+of personal vanity and of following entirely the indications and the
+desires of the composer, cutting out this, paring down that,
+shortening or expanding at the will of the latter&mdash;giving himself up,
+in short, to all his exigencies, whatever they might be."</p>
+
+<p>A question having arisen some years ago, as to the origin of the
+libretto of "Aida," the author of it, M. du Locle, wrote to a Roman
+paper that the first idea of the poem belongs to the celebrated
+Egyptologist, Mariette Bey. He adds: "I wrote the libretto, scene by
+scene, phrase by phrase, in French prose, at Busseto, under the eye of
+the maestro, who took a large share in the work. The idea of the
+finale of the last act, with its two stages, one above the other,
+belongs especially to him."</p>
+
+<p>The libretto for Verdi's last work, "Otello," was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>prepared by Bo&iuml;to,
+who had previously assisted him in rearranging his "Simon Boccanegra,"
+and who also wrote the poem of "La Gioconda" for Ponchielli. Bo&iuml;to is
+a thorough believer in Wagner's doctrine that every composer should
+write his own opera books, and he followed this rule in his
+interesting opera "Mefistofele."</p>
+
+<p>Mozart was altogether too careless in accepting librettos unworthy of
+his genius. Yet occasionally he took the liberty to improve the stuff
+that was submitted to him. As the learned librarian, Herr Pohl,
+remarks, "In the 'Entf&uuml;hrung' it is interesting to observe the
+alterations in Bretzner's libretto which Mozart's practical
+acquaintance with the stage has dictated, to the author's great
+disgust. Indeed, <i>Osmin</i>, one of the most original characters, is
+entirely his own creation, at Fischer's suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>Weber resembled Wagner, among other things, in the habit of carrying
+plans for operas in his head for many years. Thus we read that while
+on the look out for a subject for an opera he and Dusch hit upon "Der
+Freisch&uuml;tz," a story by Apel, then just published. At the time,
+however, it did not get beyond the beginning; and not till seven years
+later did Weber begin the work which made his reputation, a work which
+in Dresden, where it was first produced, has had already more than a
+thousand performances, and which even in London was at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>one time
+played simultaneously at three theatres. When he finally did begin his
+work on the "Freisch&uuml;tz" the libretto he used was by another author,
+Herr Kind, a man of considerable dramatic ability, but who&mdash;perhaps
+for that very reason&mdash;was subsequently so mortified by the fact that
+Weber's superior genius caused his music to receive the lion's share
+of the public's attention, that he refused to write another libretto
+for him. This was unfortunate, for, as ill luck would have it, Weber
+fell into the hands of a Leipsic blue stocking, Wilhelmine von Chezy,
+whose literary gifts were not of the most brilliant order. She
+submitted several subjects to him, from which he selected "Euryanthe;"
+but her sketch proved so unsatisfactory that he altered it entirely
+and compelled her to work it over nine times before he was
+sufficiently satisfied with it to set it to music. The libretto for
+his last opera, "Oberon," was prepared for him in London, but the
+subject, as usual, was his own choice and was based on Wieland's
+famous poem of that name. Weber's rare artistic conscientiousness is
+indicated by the fact that at this time, although he felt that his end
+was approaching, he set to work to learn the English language in order
+to avoid mistakes in adapting his melodies to the accent of the words
+and the spirit of the text.</p>
+
+<p>Having now caught a glimpse of the manner in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>which the great
+composers find subjects for their operas, and elaborate them, with or
+without the assistance of poets, we may go on to consider the sources
+of the musical inspiration which provides appropriate melodies and
+harmonies for these texts. Experience shows conclusively that the most
+powerful stimulant of the composer's brain is <i>the possession of a
+really poetic and dramatic text</i>. To take only one instance&mdash;it surely
+cannot be a mere coincidence that the best works of four great
+composers&mdash;Spohr, Berlioz, Gounod, and Schumann, are based on the
+story of "Faust." And Schumann, in one of his private letters,
+indicates very clearly why his "Faust" is such an inspired
+composition. Speaking of a performance of this work he says: "It
+appeared to make a good impression&mdash;better than my 'Paradise and
+Peri'&mdash;no doubt in consequence of the superior grandeur of the poem
+which aroused <i>my</i> powers also to a greater effort."</p>
+
+<p>More significant still are the words which Weber wrote to Fran von
+Chezy when she was writing the libretto for "Euryanthe;" which he
+intended to make better than all his previous works. "When you begin
+to elaborate the text," he wrote; "I entreat you by all that is sacred
+to task me with the most difficult kinds of metre, unexpected rhythms,
+etc., which will force my thoughts into new paths and draw them out of
+their hiding-places."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>In one of his theoretical essays, Wagner emphasizes the value of a
+good poem in kindling the spark of inspiration in a composer's mind by
+exclaiming: "Oh, how I adore and honor Mozart because he found it
+impossible to compose for his 'Titus' as good music as for his 'Don
+Juan,' or for his 'Cos&igrave; fan Tutte' as good music as for 'Figaro.'"
+Mozart, he adds, always wrote music, but <i>good</i> music he could only
+write when he was inspired, and when this inspiration was supplied by
+a subject worthy of being wedded to his muse.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt Wagner was right in maintaining that Mozart's operas contain
+his best music. Where among all his purely instrumental works is
+anything to be found as inspired as the music in the scenes where the
+ghostly statue nods at <i>Don Juan</i>, and subsequently where it enters
+his room and clutches his hand in its marble grasp? I venture to add
+that even Beethoven, although he is not generally regarded as an
+operatic composer <i>par excellence</i>, and although his fame chiefly
+rests on his symphonies and other instrumental works, nevertheless
+composed his most inspired music in connection with his one opera
+"Fidelio." I refer to the third "Leonora" overture, and to the music
+in the prison scene, where the digging of the grave is depicted in the
+orchestra with a realism worthy of Wagner, and where the music when
+<i>Leonora</i> levels <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>her pistol at the villain reaches a climax as
+thrilling as is to be found in any dramatic work, musical or literary.
+Obviously, it was the intensely dramatic situation which here inspired
+Beethoven to the grandest effort of his genius.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been asserted that the best numbers in "Fidelio" were
+directly inspired in Beethoven by the emotional exaltation resulting
+from one of his unhappy love affairs. Mr. Thayer doubts this story,
+because he could not find anything in Beethoven's sketch-books
+corroborating it; but even if it should be a myth, there are many well
+authenticated facts which show that Beethoven, like other composers,
+owed many of his best ideas to the magic influence of love in
+stimulating his mental powers. He dedicated thirty-nine compositions
+to thirty-six different women, and it is well known that he was
+constantly falling in love, had made up his mind several times to
+marry, and was twice refused. Female beauty always made a deep
+impression on him, and Marx relates that "even in his later years he
+was fond of looking at pretty faces, and used to stand still in the
+street and gaze after them with his eyeglasses till they were out of
+sight; if anyone noticed this he smiled and looked confused, but not
+annoyed. His little Werther romance he had lived at an early age in
+Bonn. In Vienna, he is said to have had more than one love affair and
+to have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>made an occasional conquest which would have been difficult
+if not impossible to many an Adonis."</p>
+
+<p>Weber's "Freisch&uuml;tz" doubtless owes much of its beauty to the fact
+that it was written but a few months before the composer's marriage.
+In one of his letters to his betrothed he writes, "Yesterday I
+composed all the forenoon and thought of you <i>very often</i>, for I was
+at work on a scene of <i>Agatha</i>, in which I still cannot attain all the
+fire, longing, and passion that vaguely float before me." And his son
+testifies that Weber's love influenced all his work at the time. "It
+was the reason," he says, "that Weber took to heart, above everything
+else, the part of <i>Aennchen</i>, in which he saw an embodiment of his
+bride's special talent and characteristics, and it was under the
+fostering stimulus of this warm feeling that he allowed those parts of
+the opera in which <i>Aennchen</i> appears to ripen first. The first note
+which he wrote down for the 'Freisch&uuml;tz' belongs in the duo between
+<i>Aennchen</i> and <i>Agatha</i>." He adds that his father, while composing,
+actually saw his bride in his mind's eye, and heard her sing his
+melodies, and accordingly as this imaginary vocalist nodded approval
+or shook her head, he was led to retain or reject certain musical
+ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Schumann's letters contain a superabundance of evidence showing how
+love suggested to him immortal musical thoughts. "I have discovered,"
+he writes to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>his bride, "that nothing transports the imagination so
+readily as expectation and longing for something, as was again the
+case during the last few days, when I was awaiting a letter from you,
+and meanwhile composed whole volumes&mdash;strange, curious, solemn
+things&mdash;how you will open your eyes when you play them. Indeed, I am
+at present so full of musical ideas that I often feel as if I should
+explode." This was in 1838, two years before his marriage. "Schumann
+himself admits," as Professor Spitta remarks, "that his compositions
+for the piano written during the period of his courtship reveal much
+of his personal experiences and feelings, and his creative work of
+1840 is of a very striking character. In this single year he wrote
+over a hundred songs, the best he ever gave to the world, and," as
+Professor Spitta continues, "when we look through the words of his
+songs, it is clear that here, more than anywhere, love was the
+prompter&mdash;love that had endured so long a struggle, and at last
+attained the goal of its desires. This is confirmed by the 'Myrthen,'
+which he dedicated to the lady of his choice, and the twelve songs
+from R&uuml;ckert's 'Springtime of Love'&mdash;which were written conjointly by
+the two lovers."</p>
+
+<p>The gay and genial Haydn appears to have been as great a favorite of
+women as Beethoven, and he doubtless owed some of his inspirations to
+their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>influence upon his susceptible heart. "He always considered
+himself an ugly man," Herr Pohl writes, "and could not understand how
+so many handsome women fell in love with him; 'at any rate,' he used
+to say, 'they were not tempted by my beauty,' though he admitted that
+he liked looking at a pretty woman, and was never at a loss for a
+compliment."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody has heard of the marvellous effect produced on Berlioz's
+ardent imagination by the <i>Juliet</i> of Miss Smithson. He relates in his
+memoirs that an English critic said that after seeing Miss Smithson in
+<i>Juliet</i> he had cried out, "I will marry that woman, and write my
+grandest symphony on this play." "I did both things," he adds, "but I
+never said anything of the sort." It is in "Lelio" that the story of
+his love is embodied; and other compositions of his might be mentioned
+which were simply the overflow of his passions.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Schubert, who enjoyed little of the fame and less of the fortune
+that were due him during his brief life, and who was as unattractive
+in personal appearance as Haydn and Beethoven, does not seem to have
+cared as much for women as most other composers. Nevertheless he fell
+deeply in love with a countess, who, however, was too young to
+reciprocate his feelings. But one day she asked him why he never
+dedicated any of his compositions to her, whereupon he replied, "Why
+should I? Are not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>all my compositions dedicated to you?" This was as
+neat a compliment as Beethoven once made Frau von Arnim&mdash;an incident
+which also gives us a glimpse of his manner of composing. One evening
+at a party Beethoven repeatedly took his note-book from his pocket and
+wrote a few lines in it. Subsequently, when he was alone with Frau von
+Arnim, he looked over what he had written and sang it; whereupon he
+exclaimed: "There, how does that sound? It is yours if you like it; I
+made it for you, you inspired me with it; <i>I saw it written in your
+eyes</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Many similar cases might be cited, showing that although women may
+have done little for music from a creative point of view, they are
+indirectly responsible for many of the most inspired products of the
+great composers. And the moral of the story is that a young musician,
+as soon as he has secured a good poetic subject for a song or an
+opera, should hasten to fall in love, in order to tune his
+heart-strings and devotions to concert pitch. And a patriotic wag
+might, perhaps, be allowed to maintain that, as America has more
+pretty girls than any other country in the world, it is easier to fall
+in love here than elsewhere, and that there is, therefore, no excuse
+whatever for American composers if they do not soon lead the world in
+musical inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Feminine beauty, however, is not the only kind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>of beauty that arouses
+dormant musical ideas and brings them to light. The beauty of nature
+appeals as strongly to musicians as to poets, and is responsible for
+many of their inspirations. When Mendelssohn visited Fingal's Cave, he
+wrote a letter on one of the Hebrides, inclosing twenty bars of music
+"to show how extraordinarily the place affected me," to use his own
+words. "These twenty bars," says Sir George Grove, "an actual
+inspiration, are virtually identical with the opening of the wonderful
+overture which bears the name of 'Hebrides' or 'Fingal's Cave.'" And
+an English admirer of Mendelssohn, who had the honor of entertaining
+him in the country, notes how deeply he entered into the beauty of the
+hills and the woods. "His way of representing them," he says, "was not
+with the pencil; but in the evenings his improvised music would show
+what he had observed or felt in the past day. The piece which he
+called 'The Rivulet,' which he wrote at that time, for my sister
+Susan, will show what I mean; it was a recollection of a real, actual
+rivulet.</p>
+
+<p>"We observed" he continues, "how natural objects seemed to suggest
+music to him. There was in my sister Honora's garden a pretty creeping
+plant, new at that time, covered with little trumpet-like flowers. He
+was struck with it, and played for her the music which (he said) the
+fairies might play <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>on those trumpets. When he wrote out the piece he
+drew a little branch of that flower all up the margin of the paper."
+In another piece, inspired by the sight of carnations, they found that
+Mendelssohn intended certain arpeggio passages "as a reminder of the
+sweet scent of the flower rising up."</p>
+
+<p>Mozart, as many witnesses have testified, was especially attuned to
+composition by the sight of beautiful scenery. Rochlitz relates that
+when he travelled with his wife through picturesque regions he gazed
+attentively and in silence at the surrounding sights; his features,
+which usually had a reserved and gloomy, rather than a cheerful
+expression, gradually brightened, and then he began to sing, or rather
+to hum, till suddenly he exclaimed: "If I only had that theme on
+paper." He always preferred to live in the country, and wrote the
+greater part of his two best operas, "Don Juan," and "The Magic
+Flute," in one of those picturesque little garden houses which are so
+often seen in Austria and Germany. In one of these airy structures, he
+confessed, he could write more in ten days than he could in his
+apartments in two months.</p>
+
+<p>Berlioz relates somewhere that the musical ideas for his "Faust" came
+to him unbidden during his rambles among Italian hills. Weber's
+melodies are so much like fragrant forest flowers that one feels <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>sure
+before being told that he came across them in the woods and fields.
+His famous pupil, Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber took as
+great delight in taking his friends to see his favorite bits of
+landscape, as he did in composing a fine piece of music; and he adds
+that "this love of nature, and principally of forest life, may explain
+his predilection, in the majority of his operas, for hunting choruses
+and romantic scenery."</p>
+
+<p>Richard Wagner conceived most of his vigorous and eloquent leading
+melodies during his rambles among the picturesque environs of
+Bayreuth, or the sublime snowpeaks of Switzerland. How he elaborated
+them we shall see later on. Of Beethoven's devotion to nature many
+curious anecdotes are told by his contemporaries. A harp manufacturer
+named Stumpff met him in 1823 and wrote an account of his visit in
+"The Harmonicon," a London journal, in which occurs this passage:
+"Beethoven is a capital walker and delights in rambling for hours
+through wild, romantic scenery. I am told, indeed, that he has
+sometimes been out whole nights on such excursions, and is often
+absent from home for several days. On the way to the valley [the
+Hellenenthal, near the Austrian Baden] he often stopped to point out
+the prettiest views, or to remark on the defects of the new buildings.
+Then he would go back again to his own thoughts and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>hum to himself in
+an incomprehensible fashion; which, I heard, was his fashion of
+composing."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Kl&ouml;ber, a well-known artist of that period, who painted
+Beethoven's portrait, relates that he often met Beethoven during his
+walks near Vienna. "It was most interesting to watch him," he writes;
+"how he would stand still as if listening, with a piece of music paper
+in his hands, look up and down and then write something. Dont had told
+me when I met him thus not to speak or take any notice, as he would be
+very much embarrassed or very disagreeable. I saw him once, when I was
+taking a party to the woods, clambering up to an opposite height from
+the ravine which separated us, with his broad-brimmed felt hat tucked
+under his arm; arrived at the top, he threw himself down full length
+and gazed long into the sky."</p>
+
+<p>Another contemporary of Beethoven, G.F. Treitschke, gives us an
+interesting glimpse of Beethoven's manner of creating and improvising.
+Treitschke had been asked to write the text for a new aria that was to
+be introduced in "Fidelio" when that opera was revived at Vienna in
+1814. Beethoven called at seven o'clock in the evening and asked how
+the text of the aria was getting on. Treitschke had just finished it,
+and handed it to him. Beethoven read it over, he continues, "walked up
+and down the room, humming as usual, instead of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>singing&mdash;and opened
+the piano. My wife had often asked him in vain to play; but now,
+putting the text before him, he began a wonderful improvisation,
+which, unfortunately, there were no magic means of recording. From
+this fantasy he seemed to conjure the theme of the aria. Hours passed
+but Beethoven continued to improvise. Supper, which he intended to
+share with us, was served, but he would not be disturbed. Late in the
+evening he embraced me and, without having eaten anything, hurried
+home. The following day the piece was ready in all its beauty."</p>
+
+<p>This anecdote appears to indicate that Beethoven sometimes composed at
+the piano. Meyerbeer, it is said, always composed at his instrument,
+and there is a story that he used to jot down the ideas of other
+composers at the opera and concerts, and, by thinking and playing
+these over, gradually evolve his own themes. It is rather more
+surprising to hear, from Herr Pohl, that Haydn sketched all his
+compositions at the piano. The condition of the instrument, he adds,
+had its effect upon him, beauty of tone being favorable to
+inspiration. Thus he wrote to Artaria in 1788: "I was obliged to buy a
+new forte-piano, that I might compose your clavier sonatas
+particularly well." "When an idea struck him he sketched it out in a
+few notes and figures; this would be his morning's work; in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>afternoon he would enlarge this sketch, elaborating it according to
+rule, but taking pains to preserve the unity of the idea."</p>
+
+<p>Weber's son relates that it was his father's habit to sit at the
+window on summer evenings and jot down the ideas that had come to him,
+during his solitary walks, on small pieces of music paper, of which a
+large number were usually lying on his table. "No piano," he adds,
+"was touched on these occasions, for his ears spontaneously heard a
+full orchestra, played by good spirits, while he wrote down his neat
+little notes." And Weber himself remarks in one of his essays that,
+"the tone poet who gets his ideas at the piano is almost always born
+poor, or in a fair way of delivering his faculties into the hands of
+the common and commonplace. For these very hands, which, thanks to
+constant practice and training, finally acquire a sort of independence
+and will of their own, are unconscious tyrants and masters over the
+creative power. How very differently does <i>he</i> create whose <i>inner</i>
+ear is judge of the ideas which he simultaneously conceives and
+criticises. This mental ear grasps and holds fast the musical visions,
+and is a divine secret belonging to music alone, incomprehensible to
+the layman."</p>
+
+<p>Mozart had already learned to compose without a piano when he was only
+six years old; and, as Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>E. Holmes remarks, "having commenced
+composition without recourse to the clavier, his powers in mental
+music constantly increased, and he soon imagined effects of which the
+original types existed only in his brain."</p>
+
+<p>Schumann wrote to a young musician in 1848: "Above all things, persist
+in composing mentally, without the aid of the instrument. Turn over
+your melodic idea in your head until you can say to yourself: 'It is
+well done.'" Elsewhere he says: "If you can pick out little melodies
+at the piano, you will be pleased; but if they come to you
+spontaneously, away from the piano, you will have more reason to be
+delighted, for then the inner tone-sense is aroused to activity. The
+fingers must do what the head wishes, and not <i>vice versa</i>." And again
+he says: "If you set out to compose, invent everything in your head.
+If the music has emanated from your soul, if you have felt it, others
+will feel it too."</p>
+
+<p>Schumann had discovered the superiority of the mental method of
+composing from experience. In a letter dated 1838 he writes concerning
+his "Davidst&auml;nze:" "If I ever was happy at the piano it was when I
+composed these pieces;" and it was well known that up to 1839 "he used
+to compose sitting at the instrument." We have also just seen how
+Beethoven practically composed one of his "Fidelio" arias at the
+piano. Nor was this by any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>means an isolated instance. To cite only
+one more case: Ries relates that one afternoon he took a walk with
+Beethoven, returning at eight o'clock. "While we were walking," he
+continues, "Beethoven had constantly hummed, or almost howled, up and
+down the scale, without singing definite notes. When I asked him what
+it was, he replied that a theme for the last allegro of the sonata had
+come into his head. As soon as we entered the room, he ran to the
+piano, without taking off his hat. I sat down in a corner, and he had
+soon forgotten me. For at least an hour he now improvised impetuously
+on the new and beautiful finale of the sonata [opus 57]." Another of
+Beethoven's contemporaries, J. Russell, has left us a vivid
+description of Beethoven when thus composing at the piano, or
+improvising: "At first he only struck a few short detached chords, as
+if he were afraid of being caught doing something foolish; but he soon
+forgot his surroundings, and for about half an hour lost himself in an
+improvisation, the style of which was exceedingly varied, and
+especially distinguished by sudden transitions. The amateurs were
+transported, and to the uninitiated it was interesting to observe how
+his inspirations were reflected in his countenance. He revelled rather
+in bold, stormy moods than in soft and gentle ones. The muscles of his
+face swelled, his veins were distended, his eyes rolled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>wildly, his
+mouth trembled convulsively, and he had the appearance of an enchanter
+mastered by the spirit he had himself conjured."</p>
+
+<p>Russell was probably one of the witnesses of whom Richard Wagner
+remarked, in his essay on Beethoven, that they have testified to the
+incomparable impression which Beethoven made by his improvisations at
+the piano. And Wagner adds the following suggestive words: "The
+regrets that there was no way of writing down and preserving these
+instantaneous creations cannot be regarded as unreasonable, even in
+comparing these improvisations with the master's greatest works, if we
+bear in mind the fact, taught by experience, that even <i>less</i> gifted
+musicians, whose written compositions are not free from stiffness and
+inelegance, sometimes positively amaze us by the quite unexpected and
+fertile inventiveness which they display while improvising."</p>
+
+<p>A similar remark was made by De Quincey, in pointing out the
+spontaneous origin of some of his essays: "Performers on the organ,"
+he says, "so far from finding their own <i>impromptu</i> displays to fall
+below the more careful and premeditated efforts, on the contrary have
+oftentimes deep reason to mourn over the escape of inspirations and
+ideas born from the momentary fervors of inspiration, but fugitive and
+irrevocable as the pulses in their own flying fingers."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>By way of illustrating this thesis a few more cases may be cited.
+Mozart used to sit up late at night, improvising for hours at the
+piano, and, according to one witness, "these were the true hours of
+creation of his divine melodies," a statement which, however, we shall
+presently see reason to modify somewhat. Schubert never improvised in
+public like Mozart, but only "in the intervals of throwing on his
+clothes, or at other times when the music within was too strong to be
+resisted," as Mr. Grove remarks. What an inestimable privilege it must
+have been to witness the spontaneous overflow of so rich a genius as
+Schubert! And once more, Max Maria von Weber writes that his father's
+improvisations on the piano were like delightful dreams. "All who had
+the good fortune to hear him," he says, "testify that the impression
+of his playing was like an Elysian frenzy, which elevates a man above
+his sphere and makes him marvel at the glories of his own soul."</p>
+
+<p>In reading such enthusiastic descriptions&mdash;and musical biographies are
+full of them&mdash;we cannot but echo De Quincey and Wagner in regretting
+that there has been no shorthand method of taking down and preserving
+these wonderful improvisations of the great masters. Future
+generations will be more favored, if Mr. Edison's improved phonograph
+fulfils the promises made of it. For by simply <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>placing one of these
+instruments near the piano it will be possible hereafter to preserve
+every note and every accent and shade of expression, and reproduce it
+subsequently at will. And not only will momentary inspirations be thus
+preserved, but musicians will no longer be compelled to do all the
+manual labor of writing down their compositions, but will be able to
+follow the example of those German professors, who when they wish to
+write a book, simply engage a stenographer to take down their
+lectures, which they then revise and forward to the publisher. True,
+the orchestration will always have to be done by the master's own
+hands, but in other respects musicians of the future will be as
+greatly benefited as men of letters by the new phonograph which, it is
+predicted, will create as great a revolution in social affairs as the
+telegraph and railroad did when first introduced.</p>
+
+<p>The charm of improvisation lies, of course, in this, that we hear a
+composer creating and playing at the same time. This very fact,
+however, ought to make us cautious not to overestimate the value of
+such improvisations. For we all know how a great genius can invest
+even a commonplace idea with charm by his manner of expressing or
+rendering it. It is probable, therefore, that in most cases these
+improvisations, if noted down and played by <i>others</i>, would not make
+as deep an impression as the regularly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>written compositions of the
+great masters. It is with music as with literature. Schopenhauer says
+that there are three classes of writers: The first class, which is
+very numerous, never think at all, but simply reproduce echoes of what
+they have read in books. The second class, somewhat less numerous,
+think only while they are writing. But the third class, which is very
+small, only write <i>after</i> thinking and because their thoughts clamor
+for utterance.</p>
+
+<p>If we apply this classification to music we see at once that
+improvising comes under the second head: improvising is thinking or
+composing while playing. But the greatest musical ideas are those
+which are conceived entirely in the mind, which needs no pen or piano
+mechanically to stimulate its creative power. Of this there can be no
+question, whatever. With an almost absolute unanimity we find that the
+greatest composers conceived their immortal ideas in the open air,
+where there was no possibility of coaxing them out of an instrument.
+And not only is the bare outline thus composed mentally, but the whole
+composition with all its involved harmonies and varied orchestral
+colors is present in the composer's mind before he puts it down on
+paper. The composition of "Der Freisch&uuml;tz" affords a remarkable
+confirmation of this statement. Weber began to compose this opera
+mentally on February 23, but did not write down a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>single note before
+the second of July. That is, he kept the full score of this wonderful
+work in his brain for more than four months, and, as his son remarks,
+"there is not a number in it which he did not work over ten times in
+his mind, until it sounded satisfactory and he could say to himself
+'That's it,' and then he wrote it down rapidly without hesitation and
+almost without altering a note."</p>
+
+<p>This power of elaborating a musical score in the mind, and hearing it
+inwardly, is a gift which unmusical people find it difficult to
+comprehend, and which even puzzles many musical people. Yet it is a
+power which all students of music ought to possess; and, like other
+capacities, it can be easily cultivated and strengthened.</p>
+
+<p>A comparison with two other senses will throw some light on the
+matter. Most of us can, by thinking fixedly of some appetizing dish,
+recall its flavor sufficiently to start a nerve current and stimulate
+the salivary glands. The image of the flavor, so to speak, makes the
+mouth water. What do we do when we go to a restaurant and look over
+the bill of fare? We simply, on reading the list, recall a faint
+gastronomic image, as it were, of each dish, and the one which is most
+vivid, owing to the peculiar direction of the appetite, decides our
+choice.</p>
+
+<p>The sense of sight presents many curious analogies. Mr. Galton, in his
+"Inquiries into Human <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>Faculty," gives the results of a series of
+investigations which show that there are great differences among
+persons of distinction in various kinds of intellectual work in the
+power of recalling to the mind's eye clear and distinct images of what
+they have seen. Some, for instance, in thinking of the breakfast
+table, could see all the objects&mdash;knives, plates, dishes, etc., in the
+mental picture as bright as in the actual scene, and in the
+appropriate colors; others could recall only very dim or blurred
+images of the scene, or none at all; and all stages, from the highest
+to the lowest visualizing power, were represented in the letters he
+received on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes these mental images are as vivid as the actual images, or
+even more vivid. Everybody has heard the story of Blake, who, when he
+was painting a portrait, only required one sitting, because
+subsequently he could see the model as distinctly as if he were
+actually sitting in the chair. Mrs. Haweis wrote to Mr. Galton that
+all her life she has had at times a waking vision of "a flight of pink
+roses floating in a mass from right to left," and that before her
+ninth year they were so large and brilliant that she often tried to
+touch them; and their scent, she adds, was overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been written regarding the remarkable feats of Zuckertort and
+Blackburn who can play as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>many as sixteen to twenty games of chess at
+once, and blindfolded. Of course the only way they can do this is by
+having in the mind a clear picture of each chess-board, with all the
+figures arranged in proper order.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Galton says he has among his notes "many cases of persons mentally
+reading off scores when playing the pianoforte, or manuscripts when
+they are making speeches;" and he knows a lady, the daughter of an
+eminent musician, who often imagines she hears her father's playing.
+"The day she told me of it," he says, "the incident had again
+occurred. She was sitting in her room with her maid, and she asked the
+maid to open the door that she might hear the music better. The moment
+the maid got up the music disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that this case, like that of the eminent painter just
+referred to, borders closely on the hallucinations of the insane, and
+Blake <i>did</i> become insane subsequently. But usually there is nothing
+abnormal or pathologic in the power of mentally recalling sights or
+sounds, and it would be well if everybody cultivated this power. Mr.
+Galton mentions an electrical engineer who was able to recall forms
+with great precision, but not color. But after some exercise of his
+color memory he became quite an adept in that, too, and declared that
+the newly-acquired power was a source of much pleasure to him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>In music most of us have the power of recalling a simple melody; and
+who has not been tormented at times by an unbidden melody persistently
+haunting his ears until he was almost ready to commit suicide? But to
+recall a melody at will <i>with any particular tone-color</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to
+imagine it as being played by a flute, or a violin, or a horn, is much
+less easy; and still more difficult is it to hear two or more notes
+<i>at once</i> in the mind, that is to recall harmonies. It is for this
+reason that people of primitive musical taste care only for operas
+which are full of "tunes." These they can whistle in the street and be
+happy, while the harmonies and orchestral colors elude their
+comprehension and memory. Consequently they call these works "heavy,"
+"scientific," or "intellectual;" whereas if they took pains to educate
+their musical imaginations, they would soon revel in the magic
+harmonies of modern operas, with their infinite variety of gorgeous
+orchestral colors.</p>
+
+<p>Every student of music should carefully heed Schumann's advice.
+"Exercise your imagination," he says, "so that you may acquire the
+power of remembering not only the melody of a composition, but also
+the harmonies which accompany it." And again he says, "You must not
+rest until you are able to understand music on paper." I remember
+that, as a small boy, I used to wonder at my father, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>who often sat in
+a corner all the evening looking over the score of an opera or
+symphony. And I was very much surprised at the time when he informed
+me that this simple reading of the score gave him almost as vivid a
+pleasure as if he heard it with full orchestra. This power of hearing
+music with the eyes, as it were, is common to all thorough musicians,
+and is, of course, most highly developed in the great composers.
+Schumann even alludes to the opinion, which some one had expressed,
+that a thorough musician ought to be able, on listening for the first
+time to a complicated orchestral piece, to <i>see</i> it bodily as a score
+before his eyes. He adds, however, that this is the greatest feat that
+could be imagined; and I, for my part, doubt whether even the
+marvellously comprehensive mind of a musical genius would be able to
+accomplish it.</p>
+
+<p>These facts illustrate the manner in which composers, being virtuosi
+of the musical imagination, are able to elaborate mentally, and keep
+in the memory, a complete operatic or symphonic score, just as, for
+example, Alexander Dumas, when he wished to write a new novel, used to
+hire a yacht and sail on Southern waters for several days, lying on
+his back&mdash;which, by the way, is an excellent method of starting a
+train of thought&mdash;and thus arranging all the details of the plot in
+his mind.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>The exact way in which <i>original</i> ideas come into the mind is, of
+course, a mystery in music as in literature. Every genius passes
+through a period of apprenticeship, in which he <i>assimilates</i> the
+discoveries of his predecessors, reminiscences of which make up the
+bulk of his early works. Everybody knows how Mozartish, <i>e.g.</i>,
+Beethoven's first symphony is, and how much in turn Mozart's early
+works smack of Haydn. Gradually, as courage comes with years, the
+gifted composer sets out for unexplored forests and mountain ranges,
+attempting to scale summits which none of his predecessors had trod. I
+say, as courage comes, for in music, strange to say, it requires much
+courage to give the world an entirely new thought. An original
+composer needs not only the courage that is common to all explorers,
+but he must invariably come back prepared to face the accusation that
+his new territory is nothing but a howling wilderness of discords.
+This has been the case quite recently with Wagner, as it was formerly
+with Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, the early Italian composers, and
+many others, including even Rossini, who certainly did not deviate
+very far from the beaten paths. Seyfried relates that when Beethoven
+came across articles in which he was criticised for violating
+established rules of composition, he used to rub his hands gleefully
+and burst out laughing. "Yes, yes!" he exclaimed, "that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>amazes them,
+and makes them put their heads together, because they have not seen it
+in any of their text-books."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for their own peace of mind, the majority of the minor
+composers never get beyond a mere rearrangement of remembered melodies
+and modulations. Their minds are mere galleries of echoes. They write
+for money or temporary notoriety, and not because their brains teem
+with ideas that clamor for utterance. The pianist Hummel was one of
+this class of composers. But whatever his short-comings, he had at
+least, as Wagner admits, the virtue of frankness. For when he was
+asked one day what thoughts or images he had in his mind when he
+composed a certain concerto, he replied that he had been thinking of
+the eighty ducats which his publisher had promised him!</p>
+
+<p>Yet even the greatest composers cannot always command new thoughts at
+will, and it is therefore of interest to note what devices some of
+them resorted to rouse their dormant faculties. Weber's only pupil,
+Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber spent many mornings in
+"learning by heart the words of 'Euryanthe,' which he studied until he
+made them a portion of himself, his own creation, as it were. His
+genius would sometimes lie dormant during his frequent repetitions of
+the words, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>and then the idea of a whole musical piece would flash
+upon his mind, like the bursting of light into darkness."</p>
+
+<p>I have already referred to the manner in which Weber, while composing
+certain parts of the "Freisch&uuml;tz," got his imagination into the proper
+state of creative frenzy by picturing to himself his bride as if she
+were singing new arias for him. Now, in one of Wagner's essays there
+is a curious passage which seems to indicate that Wagner habitually
+conjured his characters before his mental vision and made them sing to
+him, as it were, his original melodies. He advises a young composer
+who wishes to follow his example never to select a dramatic character
+for whom he does not entertain a warm interest. "He should divest him
+of all theatrical apparel," he continues, "and then imagine him in a
+dim light, where he can only see the expression of his eyes. If these
+speak to him, the figure itself is liable presently to make a
+movement, which will perhaps alarm him&mdash;but to which he must submit;
+at last the phantom's lips tremble, it opens its mouth, and a
+supernatural voice tells him something that is entirely real, entirely
+tangible, but at the same time so extraordinary (similar, for
+instance, to what the ghostly statue, or the page <i>Cherubin</i> told
+Mozart) that it arouses him from his dream. The vision has
+disappeared; but his inner ear continues <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>to hear; an idea has
+occurred to him, and this idea is a so-called musical <i>motive</i>."</p>
+
+<p>As this passage implies, and as he has elsewhere explained at length,
+Wagner looked on the mental process of composing as something
+analogous to dreaming&mdash;as a sort of clairvoyance, which enables a
+musician to dive down into the bottomless mysteries of the universe,
+as it were, thence to bring up his priceless pearls of harmony.
+According to the Kant-Schopenhauer philosophy, of which Wagner was a
+disciple, objects or things in themselves do not exist in space and
+time, which are mere forms under which the human mind beholds them. We
+cannot conceive anything except as existing either in space or in
+time. But there is one exception, according to Wagner, and that is
+harmony. Harmony exists not in time, for the time-element in music is
+melody; nor does it exist in space, for the simultaneousness of tones
+is not one of extension or space. Hence our harmonic sense is not
+hampered by the forms of the mind, but gives us a glimpse of things as
+they are in themselves&mdash;a glimpse of the world as a superior spirit
+would behold it. And hence the mysterious superterrestrial character
+of such new harmonies as we find in the works of Wagner and
+Chopin&mdash;which are unintelligible to ordinary mortals, while to the
+initiated they come as revelations of a new world.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>Without feeling the necessity of accepting all the consequences of
+Wagner's mystical doctrine, which I have thus freely paraphrased, no
+one can deny that the attitude of a composer in the moment of
+inspiration is closely analogous to that known as clairvoyance. The
+celebrated vocalist, Vogel, tells an anecdote of Schubert which shows
+strikingly how completely this composer used to be transported to
+another world, and become oblivious of self, when creating. On one
+occasion Vogel received from Schubert some new songs, but being
+otherwise occupied could not try them over at the moment. When he was
+able to do so, he was particularly pleased with one of them, but as it
+was too high for his voice, he had it copied in a lower key. About a
+fortnight afterwards they were again making music together, and Vogel
+placed the transposed song before Schubert on the desk of the piano.
+Schubert tried it through, liked it, and said, in his Vienna dialect,
+"I say, the song's not so bad; <i>whose is it?</i>" so completely, in a
+fortnight, had it vanished from his mind. Grove recalls the fact that
+Sir Walter Scott once similarly attributed a song of his own to Byron;
+"but this was in 1828, after his mind had begun to fail."</p>
+
+<p>There is no reason for doubting Vogel's story when we bear in mind the
+enormous fertility of Schubert. He was unquestionably the most
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>spontaneous musical genius that ever lived. Vogel, who knew him
+intimately, used the very word <i>clairvoyance</i> in referring to his
+divine inspirations, and Sir George Grove justly remarks that, "In
+hearing Schubert's compositions, it is often as if one were brought
+more immediately and closely into contact with music itself, than is
+the case in the works of others; as if in his pieces the stream from
+the great heavenly reservoir were dashing over us, or flowing through
+us, more directly, with less admixture of any medium or channel, than
+it does in those of any other writer&mdash;even of Beethoven himself. And
+this immediate communication with the origin of music really seems to
+have happened to him. No sketches, no delay, no anxious period of
+preparation, no revision appear to have been necessary. He had but to
+read the poem, to surrender himself to the torrent, and to put down
+what was given him to say, as it rushed through his mind."</p>
+
+<p>Schubert was the most omnivorous song composer that ever lived. He
+could hardly see a poem&mdash;good, bad, or indifferent, without being at
+once seized by a passionate desire to set it to music. He sometimes
+wrote half a dozen or more songs in one day, and some of them
+originated under the most peculiar circumstances. The serenade, "Hark,
+hark, the lark," for instance, was written in a beer garden. Schubert
+had picked up a volume of Shakespeare <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>accidentally lying on the
+table. Presently he exclaimed, "Such a lovely melody has come into my
+head, if I only had some paper." One of his friends drew a few staves
+on the back of a bill of fare, and on this Schubert wrote his
+entrancing song. "The Wanderer," so full of original details, was
+written in one evening, and when he composed his "Rastlose Liebe,"
+"the paroxysm of inspiration," as Grove remarks, "was so fierce that
+Schubert never forgot it, but, reticent as he often was, talked of it
+years afterward."</p>
+
+<p>These stories remind one of an incident related by Goethe, who one day
+suddenly found a poem spontaneously evolved in his mind, and so
+complete that he ran to the desk and wrote it diagonally on a piece of
+paper, fearing it might escape him if he took time to arrange the
+paper.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, Schubert <i>improvised with the pen</i>, and he seems to have
+been an exception to Schopenhauer's rule, that the greatest writers
+are those whose thoughts come to them before writing, and not while
+writing. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that much of the music
+which Schubert composed in this rapid manner is poor stuff; and
+although his short songs are generally perfect in their way, his
+longer compositions would have gained very much had he taken the
+trouble to think them out beforehand, or to revise and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>condense them
+afterward, which he very rarely did.</p>
+
+<p>With a strange perversity and persistency, musical students and the
+public have been led to believe that the surest sign of supreme
+musical inspiration is the power to dash off melodies as fast as the
+pen can travel. Weber relates in his autobiographic sketch that he
+wrote the second act of one of his early operas in ten days, and adds,
+significantly, that this was "one of the many unfortunate results of
+the wonderful anecdotes about great masters, which make a deep
+impression on youthful minds, and incite them to imitation."</p>
+
+<p>Mozart has always been pointed to by preference to show how a really
+great master shakes his melodies from his sleeves, as it were. Yet, on
+reading Jahn's elaborate account of Mozart's life and works, nothing
+strikes one more than the emphasis he places on the amount of
+preliminary labor which Mozart expended on his compositions, before he
+wrote them down. It appears to be a well-authenticated fact that
+Mozart postponed writing the overture to "Don Giovanni," until the
+midnight preceding the evening when the opera was to be performed in
+public; and that at seven o'clock in the morning, the score was ready
+for the copyist, although he had been drinking punch and was so sleepy
+that his wife had to allow him to doze for two hours, and kept him
+awake the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>rest of the time by telling him funny stories. But this
+incident loses much of its marvellous character, when we bear in mind
+that Mozart, according to his usual custom, must have had every bar of
+the overture worked out in his head, before he sat down to commit it
+to paper. This last labor was almost purely mechanical, and for this
+reason, whenever he was engaged in writing down his scores, he not
+only worked with amazing rapidity, but did not object to conversation,
+and even seemed to like it; and on one occasion when at work on an
+opera, he wrote as fast as his hands could travel, although in one
+adjoining room there was a singing teacher, in another a violinist,
+and opposite an oboeist, all in full blast!</p>
+
+<p>Mozart himself tried to correct the notion, prevalent even in his day,
+that he composed without effort&mdash;that melodies flowed from his mind as
+water from a fountain. During one of the rehearsals of "Don Giovanni,"
+at Prague, he remarked to the leader of the orchestra: "I have spared
+neither pains nor labor in order to produce something excellent for
+Prague. People are indeed mistaken in imagining that art has been an
+easy matter to me. I assure you, my dear friend, no one has expended
+so much labor on the study of composition as I have. There is hardly a
+famous master whose works I have not studied thoroughly and
+repeatedly."</p>
+
+<p>Jahn surmises, doubtless correctly, that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>reason why Mozart
+habitually delayed putting down his pieces on paper, was because this
+process, being a mere matter of copying, did not interest him so much
+as the composing and creating, which were all done before he took up
+the pen. "You know," he writes to his father, "that I am immersed in
+music, as it were, that I am occupied with it all day long, that I
+like to study, speculate, reflect." He was often absent-minded and
+even followed his thoughts while playing billiards or nine pins, or
+riding. Like Beethoven, he walked up and down the room, absorbed in
+thought, even while washing his hands; and his hair-dresser used to
+complain that Mozart would never sit still, but would jump up every
+now and then and walk across the room to jot down something, or touch
+the piano, while <i>he</i> had to run after him holding on to his pigtail.</p>
+
+<p>Allusion has been made to the fact that it was almost always in the
+open air that new ideas sprouted in Mozart's mind, especially when he
+was travelling. Whenever a new theme occurred to him he would jot it
+down on a slip of paper, and he always had a special leather bag for
+preserving these sketches, which he carefully guarded. These sketches
+differ somewhat in appearance, but generally they contained the melody
+or vocal part, together with the bass, and brief indications of the
+middle parts, and here and there mention of a special instrument.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>This was sufficient subsequently to recall the whole composition to
+his memory. In elaborating his scores he hardly ever made any
+deviations from the original conception, not even in the
+instrumentation; which seems the more remarkable when we reflect that
+he was the originator of many new orchestral combinations, the beauty
+of which presented itself to his imagination before his ears had ever
+heard them in actuality. These new tone-colors, as Jahn remarks,
+existed intrinsically in the orchestra as a statue does in the marble;
+but it remained for the artist to bring them out; and that Mozart was
+bound to have them is shown by the anecdote of a musician who
+complained to him of the difficulty of a certain passage, and begged
+him to alter it. "Is it possible to play those tones on your
+instrument?" Mozart asked; and when he was told it was, he replied,
+"Then it is your affair to bring them out."</p>
+
+<p>Beethoven's way of mental composing appears at first sight to differ
+widely from Mozart's. But if we had as many specimens of Mozart's
+preliminary sketches as we have of Beethoven's, the difference would
+perhaps appear less pronounced, and would to a large extent resolve
+itself into the fact that Beethoven did not trust his memory so much
+as Mozart did, and therefore put more of his <i>tentative</i>, or rough
+sketches, on paper. He always carried in his pockets a few loose
+sheets of music paper, or a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>number of sheets bound together in a
+note-book. If his supply gave out accidentally, he would seize upon
+any loose sheet of paper, or even a bill of fare, to note down his
+thoughts. In a corner of his room lay a large pile of note-books, into
+which he had copied in ink his first rough pencil-sketches. Many of
+these sketch-books have been fortunately preserved, and they are among
+the most remarkable relics we have of any man of genius. They prove
+above all things that rapidity of work is not a test of musical
+inspiration, and that Carlyle was not entirely wrong when he defined
+genius as "an immense capacity for taking trouble." In the "Fidelio"
+sketch-book, for example, sixteen pages are almost entirely filled
+with sketches for a scene which takes up less than three pages of the
+vocal score. Of the aria, "O Hoffnung," there are as many as eighteen
+different versions, and of the final chorus, ten; and these are not
+exceptional cases by any means. As Thayer remarks: "To follow a
+recitative or aria through all its guises is an extremely fatiguing
+task, and the almost countless studies for a duet or terzet are enough
+to make one frantic." Thayer quotes Jahn's testimony that these
+afterthoughts are invariably superior to the first conception, and
+adds that "some of his first ideas for pieces which are now among the
+jewels of the opera are so extremely trivial and commonplace, that one
+would hardly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>dare to attribute them to Beethoven, were they not in
+his own handwriting."</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand these sketch-books bear witness to the extreme
+fertility of Beethoven's genius. Thayer estimates that the number of
+distinct ideas noted in them, which remained unused, is as large as
+the number which he used; and he refers to this as a commentary on the
+remark which Beethoven made toward the close of his life: "It seems to
+me as if I were only just beginning to compose." And Nottebohm, who
+has studied these sketch-books more thoroughly than any one else,
+thinks that if Beethoven had elaborated all the symphonies which he
+began in these books we should have at least fifty instead of nine.</p>
+
+<p>The sketch-books show that Beethoven was in the habit of working at
+several compositions at the same time; and the ideas for these are so
+jumbled up in his books that he himself apparently needed a guide to
+find them. At least, when ideas belonging together are widely
+separated he used to connect them by writing the letters VI over the
+first passage and DE over the second. He also used to write the word
+"better" in French on some pages, or else the figures 100, 500, 1,000,
+etc., probably, as Schindler thinks, to indicate the relative value of
+certain ideas.</p>
+
+<p>When his mind was in a creative mood, Beethoven was as completely
+absorbed (or "absent-minded," as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>we generally say) as Mozart. This is
+illustrated by an amusing trait described by his biographers.
+"Beethoven was extremely fond of washing. He would pour water
+backwards and forwards over his hands for a long time together, and if
+at such times a musical thought struck him and he became absorbed, he
+would go on until the whole floor was swimming, and the water had
+found its way through the ceiling into the room beneath" (Grove).
+Consequently, as may be imagined, he not infrequently had trouble with
+his landlord. He was constantly changing his lodgings, and always
+spent the summer in the country, where he did his best work. "In the
+winter," he once remarked to Rellstab, "I do but little; I only write
+out and score what I have composed in the summer. But that takes a
+long time. When I get into the country I am fit for anything."</p>
+
+<p>On account of his deafness, Beethoven affords a striking instance of
+the power musicians have of imagining novel sound effects which they
+never could have heard with their ears. In literature we blame a
+writer who, as the expression goes, "evolves his facts from his inner
+consciousness;" but in music this proceeding is evidence of the
+highest genius, because music has only a few elementary "facts" or
+prototypes, in nature. Beethoven was deaf at thirty-two. He never
+heard his "Fidelio," and for twenty-five years he could hear music
+only with the inner ear. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>But musicians are in one respect more
+fortunate than painters. If Titian had lost his eyesight, he could
+never have painted another picture; whereas Beethoven after losing his
+principal sense still continued to compose, better than ever. Mr.
+Thayer even thinks that from a purely artistic point of view
+Beethoven's deafness may have been an advantage to him; for it
+compelled him to concentrate all his thoughts on the symphonies in his
+head, undisturbed by the harsh noises of the external world. And that
+he did not forego the <i>delights</i> of music is obvious from the fact
+that the pleasure of creating is more intense than the pleasure of
+hearing; and is, moreover illustrated by the great delight he felt in
+his later years when he read the compositions of Schubert (for he
+could not hear them) and found in them the evidence of genius, which
+he did not hesitate to proclaim.</p>
+
+<p>In considering Beethoven's deafness, it is well to bear in mind the
+words of Schopenhauer: "Genius is its own reward," he says. "If we
+look up to a great man of the past we do not think, How fortunate he
+is to be still admired by all of us; but, How happy he must have been
+in the immediate enjoyment of a mind the traces of which refresh
+generations of men." Schumann, Weber, and others, repeatedly testify
+in their letters to the great delight they felt in creating; and at
+the time when he was arranging his "Freisch&uuml;tz" for the piano, Weber
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>wrote, more forcibly than elegantly, that he was enjoying himself like
+the devil.</p>
+
+<p>I have already stated that Weber, like Beethoven, generally got his
+new ideas during his walks in the country; and riding in an open
+carriage seems to have especially stimulated his brain, as it did
+Mozart's. The weird and original music to the dismal Wolf's-Glen scene
+in the "Freisch&uuml;tz" was conceived one morning when he was on his way
+to Pillnitz, and the wagon was occasionally shrouded in dense clouds.</p>
+
+<p>A curious story is told by a member of Weber's orchestra, showing how
+a musical theme may be sometimes suggested by incongruous and
+grotesque objects. He was one day taking a walk with Weber in the
+suburbs of Dresden. It began to rain and they entered a beer garden
+which had just been deserted by the guests in consequence of the rain.
+The waiters had piled the chairs on the tables, pell mell. At sight of
+these confused groups of chairs and tables Weber suddenly exclaimed,
+"Look here, Roth, doesn't that look like a great triumphal march?
+Thunder! hear those trumpet blasts! I can use that&mdash;I can use that!"
+In the evening he wrote down what his imagination had heard, and it
+subsequently became the great march in "Oberon."</p>
+
+<p>Some psychological interest also attaches to the remark with which
+Weber's son prefaces this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>story&mdash;namely that Weber was constantly
+transmuting forms and colors into sounds; and that lines and forms
+seemed to stimulate his melodic inventiveness pre-eminently, whereas
+sounds affected his harmonic sense.</p>
+
+<p>My subject is by no means exhausted, but for fear of fatiguing the
+reader with an excess of details I will close with a few facts
+regarding Richard Wagner's method of composing. I am indebted for
+these facts to the kindness of Herr Seidl, of the Metropolitan Opera
+House in New York, who was Wagner's secretary for several years, and
+helped him prepare "G&ouml;tterd&auml;mmerung" and "Parsifal" for the press.</p>
+
+<p>Like his famous predecessors, Wagner always carried some sheets of
+music paper in his pocket, on which he jotted down with a pencil such
+ideas as came to him on solitary walks, or at other times. These he
+gave to his wife, who inked them over and arranged them in piles. In
+these sketches the vocal part was always written out in full, while
+the orchestral part was roughly indicated in two or more additional
+staves. Frau Cosima has preserved most of these sketches, and they
+will doubtless some day be reproduced in fac-simile, like some of
+Beethoven's.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever Wagner was in the mood for composing he would say to Herr
+Seidl, "Bring me my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>sketches." Then he would retire to his composing
+room, to which no one was ever admitted, not even his wife and
+children. At lunch-time, the servant would bring something to the
+ante-room, without being allowed to see the master in his sanctum. How
+Wagner conducted himself there is not known, except that strange vocal
+sounds, and a few passionate chords on the piano would occasionally
+reach the ears of neighbors. Wagner appears to have used his piano
+just as Beethoven did his, even after he had become deaf:&mdash;as a sort
+of lightning-rod for his fervent emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Much nonsense has been written concerning the fact that Wagner used to
+wear gaudy costumes of silk and satin while he was composing, and that
+he had colored glass in his windows, which gave every object a
+mysterious aspect. He was called an imitator of the eccentric King of
+Bavaria, and some went so far as to declare him insane. But in truth,
+Wagner was simply endeavoring to put himself into an atmosphere most
+favorable for dramatic creation. We all know how much clothes help to
+make a man, in more than one sense; and any one who has ever taken
+part in private theatricals will remember how much the costume helped
+him to get into the proper frame of mind for interpreting his r&ocirc;le.
+This was all that Wagner aimed at in wearing his medi&aelig;val costumes;
+and the wonderful realism and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>vividness of his dramatic conceptions
+certainly more than justify the unusual methods he pursued to attain
+them.</p>
+
+<p>After elaborating the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic details of his
+scores, Wagner considered his main task done, and the orchestration
+was completed down-stairs in his music room. In his earliest operas
+Wagner did not write his scenes in their regular order, but took those
+first which specially proffered themselves. Of the "Flying Dutchman,"
+for instance, he wrote the spinning chorus first, and he was delighted
+to find on this occasion, as he himself says, that he could still
+compose after a long interruption. He used a piano but rather to
+stimulate and correct than to invent. In his later works the piano is
+absolutely out of the question. He wrote the music, scene after scene,
+following the text; and the conception of the whole score is so
+absolutely orchestral that the piano cannot even give as faint a
+notion of it as a photograph can give of the splendors of a Titian.
+Wagner, as he himself tells us, was unable to play his scores on the
+piano, but always tried to get Liszt to do that for him.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that some of my readers have never seen a full
+orchestral score of "Siegfried" or "Tristan." If so, I advise them to
+go to a music store and look at one as a matter of curiosity. They
+will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>find a large quarto volume, every page of which represents only
+one line of music. There are separate staves for the violins, violas,
+cellos, double basses, flutes, bassoons, clarinets, horns, tubas,
+trombones, kettle-drums, etc., each family forming a quartette in
+itself, and each having its own peculiar emotional quality. In
+conducting an opera the Kapellmeister has to keep his eye and ear at
+the same time on each of these groups, as well as on the vocal parts
+and scenic effects. If this requires a talent rarely found among
+musicians, how very much greater must be the mind which created this
+complicated operatic score! No one who tries to realize what this
+implies, and remembers that Wagner wrote several of his best music
+dramas among the mountains of Switzerland, years before he could dream
+of ever hearing the countless new harmonies and orchestral tone-colors
+which he had discovered, can deny, I think, that I was right in
+maintaining that the composing of an opera is the most wonderful
+achievement of human genius.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a></span><br />
+
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a></span>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>SCHUMANN<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>AS MIRRORED IN HIS LETTERS</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Clara Schumann, the most gifted woman that has ever chosen music as a
+profession, and who, at the age of sixty-nine, still continues to be
+among the most fascinating of pianists, placed the musical world under
+additional obligations when she issued three years ago the collection
+of private letters, written by Schumann between the ages of eighteen
+and thirty (1827-40), partly to her, partly to his mother, and other
+relatives, friends, and business associates. She was prompted to this
+act not only by the consciousness that there are many literary gems in
+the correspondence which should not be lost to the world, but by the
+thought that more is generally known of Schumann's eccentricities than
+of his real traits of character. Inasmuch as a wretched script was one
+of the most conspicuous of these eccentricities, it is fortunate that
+his wife lived to edit his letters; but even she, though familiar with
+his handwriting during many years of courtship and marriage, was not
+infrequently obliged to interpolate a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>conjectural word. Schumann had
+a genuine vein of humor, which he reveals in his correspondence as in
+his compositions and criticisms. He was aware that his manuscript was
+not a model of caligraphy, but, on being remonstrated with, he
+passionately declared he could not do any better, promising, however,
+sarcastically that, as a predestined diplomat, he would keep an
+amanuensis in future. And on page 245 begins a long letter to Clara
+which presents a curious appearance. Every twentieth word or so is
+placed between two vertical lines, regarding which the reader is kept
+in the dark until he comes to this postscript: "In great haste, owing
+to business affairs, I add a sort of lexicon of indistinctly written
+words, which I have placed within brackets. This will probably make
+the letter appear very picturesque and piquant. The idea is not so
+bad. Adio, clarissima Cara, cara Clarissima." Then follows the
+"lexicon" of twenty words, including his own signature.</p>
+
+<p>Although, in a semi-humorous vein, Schumann repeatedly alludes in
+these letters to the "foregone conclusion" that they will some day be
+printed, there is hardly any indication that such a thought was ever
+in his mind while writing them. They are, in fact, full of confidences
+and confessions, some of which he could not have been very ambitious
+to see in print; such as his frequent appeals for "more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>ducats,"
+during his student days, and his sophistically ingenious excuses for
+needing so much money, placed side by side with his frank admission
+that he had no talent for economy, and was very fond of cigars, wine,
+and especially travelling. In one of the most amusing of the letters,
+he advances twelve reasons why his mother should send him about $200
+to enable him to see Switzerland and Italy. As a last, convincing
+argument, he gently hints that it is very easy for a student in
+Heidelberg to borrow money at 10 per cent. interest. He got the money
+and enjoyed his Swiss tour, mostly on foot and alone; but in Italy
+various misfortunes overtook him&mdash;he fell ill, his money ran out, and
+he was only too glad to return to Heidelberg in the same condition as
+when he had first arrived there, on which occasion the state of his
+purse compelled him to make the last part of the journey from Leipsic
+on foot.</p>
+
+<p>On this trip he enjoyed that unique emotional thrill of the German,
+the first sight of the Rhine, with which he was so enchanted that he
+went to the extreme forward end of the deck, smoking a good cigar
+given him by an Englishman: "Thus I sat alone all the afternoon,
+revelling in the wild storm which ploughed through my hair, and
+composing a poem of praise to the Northeast wind"&mdash;for Schumann often
+indulged in poetic efforts, especially when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>inspired to flights of
+fancy by his favorite author, Jean Paul.</p>
+
+<p>At Heidelberg, which he called "ein ganzes Paradies von Natur," he
+spent one of the happiest years of his life. Student life at this town
+he thus compares with Leipsic:</p>
+
+<p>"In and near Heidelberg the student is the most prominent and
+respected individual, since it is he who supports the town, so that
+the citizens and Philistines are naturally excessively courteous. I
+consider it a disadvantage for a young man, especially for a student,
+to live in a town where the student only and solely rules and
+flourishes. Repression alone favors the free development of a youth,
+and the everlasting loafing with students greatly limits
+many-sidedness of thought, and consequently exerts a bad influence on
+practical life. This is one great advantage Leipsic has over
+Heidelberg&mdash;which, in fact, a large city always has over a small
+one.... On the other hand, Heidelberg has this advantage, that the
+grandeur and beauty of the natural scenery prevent the students from
+spending so much of their time in drinking; for which reason the
+students here are ten times more sober than in Leipsic."</p>
+
+<p>Schumann himself, as we have said, was fond of a glass of good wine.
+On his first journey, at Prague, he tells us, the Tokay made him
+happy. And in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>another place he exclaims, "Every day I should like to
+drink champagne to excite myself." But, though of a solitary
+disposition, he did not care to drink alone, for "only in the intimate
+circle of sympathetic hearts does the vine's blood become transfused
+into our own and warm it to enthusiasm." Schumann's special vice was
+the constant smoking of very strong cigars; nor does he appear to have
+devoted to gastronomic matters the attention necessary to nourish such
+an abnormally active brain as his. At one time he lived on potatoes
+alone for several weeks; at another he saved on his meals to get money
+for French lessons; and although he took enough interest in a good
+<i>menu</i> to copy it in a letter, he repeatedly laments the time which is
+uselessly wasted in eating. Such tenets, combined with his smoking
+habit, doubtless helped to shatter his powers, leading finally to the
+lunatic asylum and a comparatively early death.</p>
+
+<p>His frequent fits of melancholy may also perhaps be traced in part to
+these early habits. Though probably unacquainted with Burton, he held
+that "there is in melancholy sentiments something extremely attractive
+and even invigorating to the imagination." Attempts were frequently
+made by his friends to teach him more sociable habits. Thus, at
+Leipsic, "Dr. Carus's family are anxious to introduce me to
+innumerable families&mdash;'it would be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>good for my prospects,' they
+think, and so do I, and yet I don't get there, and in fact seldom go
+out at all. Indeed, I am often very leathery, dry, disagreeable, and
+laugh much inwardly." That his apparent coldness and indifference to
+his neighbors and friends were due chiefly to his absorption in his
+world of ideas, and his consequent want of sympathy with the
+artificial usages of society, becomes apparent from this confession,
+written to Clara in 1838:</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to confide to you many other things regarding my
+character&mdash;how people often wonder that I meet the warmest expressions
+of love with coldness and reserve, and often offend and humiliate
+precisely those who are most sincerely devoted to me. Often have I
+queried and reproached myself for this, for inwardly I acknowledge
+even the most trifling favor, understand every wink, every subtle
+trait in the heart of another, and yet I so often blunder in what I
+say and do."</p>
+
+<p>In these melancholy moods nature was his refuge and consolation.
+He objected to Leipsic because there were no delights of
+nature&mdash;"everything artificially transformed; no valley, no mountain,
+where I might revel in my thoughts; no place where I can be alone,
+except in the bolted room, with the eternal noise and turmoil below."
+Although he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>had but a few intimate friends, he was liked by all the
+students, and even enjoyed the name of "a favorite of the Heidelberg
+public." One of his intimate friends was Flechsig, but even of him he
+paradoxically complains that he is too sympathetic: "He never cheers
+me up; if I am occasionally in a melancholy mood, he ought not to be
+the same, and he ought to have sufficient humanity to stir me up.
+That I often need cheering up, I know very well." Yet he was as often
+in a state of extreme happiness and enjoyment of life and his
+talents. He even, on occasion, indulged in students' pranks. On his
+journey to Heidelberg he induced the postilion to let him take the
+reins: "Thunder! how the horses ran, and how extravagantly happy I
+was, and how we stopped at every tavern to get fodder, and how I
+entertained the whole company, and how sorry they all were when I
+parted from them at Wiesbaden!!" At Frankfort, one morning, he
+writes: "I felt an extraordinary longing to play on a piano. So I
+calmly went to the nearest dealer, told him I was the tutor of a
+young English lord who wished to buy a grand piano, and then I
+played, to the wonder and delight of the bystanders, for three hours.
+I promised to return in two days and inform them if the lord wanted
+the instrument; but on that date I was at R&uuml;desheim, drinking
+R&uuml;desheimer." In another place he gives an account of "a scene
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>worthy of Van Dyck, and a most genial evening" he spent with some
+students at a tavern filled with peasants. They had some grog, and at
+the request of the peasants one of the students declaimed, and
+Schumann played. Then a dance was arranged. "The peasants beat time
+with their feet. We were in high spirits, and danced dizzily among
+the peasant feet, and finally took a touching farewell of the company
+by giving all the peasant girls, Minchen, etc., smacking kisses on
+the lips."</p>
+
+<p>Were women, like men, afflicted with retrospective jealousy,
+Schumann's widow, in editing these letters, would have received a pang
+from many other passages revealing Schumann's fondness for the fair
+sex. He allowed no good-looking woman to pass him on the street
+without taking the opportunity to cultivate his sense of beauty. After
+his engagement to Clara he gives her fair warning that he has the
+"very mischievous habit" of being a great admirer of beautiful women
+and girls. "They make me positively smirk, and I swim in panegyrics on
+your sex. Consequently, if at some future time we walk along the
+streets of Vienna and meet a beauty, and I exclaim, 'Oh, Clara! see
+this heavenly vision,' or something of the sort, you must not be
+alarmed nor scold me." He had a number of transient passions before he
+discovered that Clara was his only true love. There was Nanni, his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>"guardian angel," who saved him from the perils of the world and
+hovered before his vision like a saint. "I feel like kneeling before
+her and adoring her like a Madonna." But Nanni had a dangerous rival
+in Liddy. Not long, however, for he found Liddy silly, cold as marble,
+and&mdash;fatal defect&mdash;she could not sympathize with him regarding Jean
+Paul. "The exalted image of my ideal disappears when I think of the
+remarks she made about Jean Paul. Let the dead rest in peace."</p>
+
+<p>Several of his flames are not alluded to in this correspondence. On
+his travels he appears to have had the habit of noting down in his
+diary the prevalence and peculiarities of feminine beauty. He
+complains that from Mainz to Heidelberg he "did not see a single
+pretty face." Yet, as a whole, the Rhine maidens seem to have won his
+admiration:</p>
+
+<p>"What characteristic faces among the lowest classes! On the west shore
+of the Rhine the girls have very delicate features, indicating
+amiability rather than intelligence; the noses are mostly Greek, the
+face very oval and artistically symmetrical, the hair brown; I did not
+see a single blonde. The complexion is soft, delicate, with more white
+than red; melancholy rather than sanguine. The Frankfort girls, on the
+other hand, have in common a sisterly trait&mdash;the character of German,
+manly, sad earnestness which we often find in our quondam <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>free
+cities, and which toward the east gradually merges into a gentle
+softness. Characteristic are the faces of all the Frankfort girls:
+intellectual or beautiful few of them; the noses mostly Greek, often
+snub-noses; the dialect I did not like."</p>
+
+<p>The English type of beauty appears to have especially won his
+approval. "When she spoke it sounded like the whispering of angels,"
+he says of an Englishwoman, "as pretty as a picture," whom he met.
+Elsewhere he says, laconically: "On the 24th I arrived at Mainz with
+the steamer, in company with twenty to thirty English men and women.
+Next day the number of English increased to fifty. If I ever marry, it
+must be an English woman." Some years later, however, with the
+fickleness of genius, he writes about Ernestine, the daughter of a
+rich Bohemian Baron, "a delightfully innocent, childish soul, tender
+and pensive, attached to me and to everything artistic by the most
+sincere love, extremely musical&mdash;in short, just the kind of a girl I
+could wish to marry." He did become engaged to her, but the following
+year the engagement was dissolved; and soon after this he discovered
+that his artistic admiration for Clara Wieck had assumed the form of
+love. Although her father opposed their union several years, on
+account of Schumann's poverty, the young couple often met, and not
+only in the music-room. In 1833 he writes to his mother <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>regarding
+Clara: "The other day, when we went to Connewitz (we take a two or
+three hours' walk almost daily), I heard her say to herself, 'How
+happy I am! how happy!' Who would not like to hear that! On this road
+there are a number of very useless stones in the midst of the
+footpath. Now, as it happens in conversation that I more frequently
+look up than down, she always walks behind me and gently pulls my coat
+at every stone, lest I may fall."</p>
+
+<p>It was most fortunate for Schumann that his bride and wife was one of
+the greatest living pianists. For, owing to the accident to his hand,
+though he could still improvise, he could not appear in public to
+interpret his own compositions, which depended so much for their
+success on a sympathetic performance, since they differed so greatly
+from the prevalent style of Hummel and the classical masters, that
+even so gifted a musician as Mendelssohn failed to understand them.
+But Clara made it the task of her life to secure him recognition, and
+this was an additional bond that united their souls. "When you are
+mine," he writes, "you will occasionally hear something new from me; I
+believe you will often inspire me, and the mere fact that I shall then
+frequently hear my own compositions will cheer me up;" and: "Your
+Romance showed me once more that we must become man and wife. Every
+one of your thoughts comes from my soul, even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>as I owe all my music
+to you." To Dorn he writes that many of his compositions, including
+the Noveletten, the Kreisleriana, and the Kinderscenen, were inspired
+by Clara; and it is well known that his love became the incentive to
+the composition, in one year, of over a hundred wonderful songs&mdash;his
+previous compositions, up to 1840, having all been for the piano
+alone. In the last letter of this collection he says: "Sometimes it
+appears to me as if I were treading entirely new paths in music;" and
+there are many other passages showing that he realized well that the
+very things which his contemporaries criticised and decried as
+eccentric and obscure (Hummel, <i>e.g.</i>, objects to his frequent changes
+of harmony and his originality!), were really his most inspired
+efforts. Though he never allowed the desire for popularity to
+influence his work, yet he occasionally craves appreciation. "I am
+willing to confess that I should be greatly pleased if I could succeed
+in composing something which would impel the public, after hearing you
+play it, to run against the walls in their delight; for vain we
+composers are, even though we have no reason to be so." It must have
+given him a strange shock when an amateur asked him, at one of his
+wife's concerts in Vienna, if he also was musical!</p>
+
+<p>In her efforts to win appreciation for her husband, Clara was nobly
+assisted by Liszt. Just like <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>Wagner, Schumann was not at first very
+favorably impressed with Liszt, owing to the sensational flavor of his
+early performances. But he soon changed his mind, especially when
+Liszt played some of his (Schumann's) compositions. "Many things were
+different from my conception of them, but always '<i>genial</i>,' and
+marked by a tenderness and boldness of expression which even he
+presumably has not at his command every day. Becker was the only other
+person present, and he had tears in his eyes." And two days later:
+"But I must tell you that Liszt appears to me grander every day. This
+morning he again played at Raimund H&auml;rtel's, in a way to make us all
+tremble and rejoice, some &eacute;tudes of Chopin, a number of the Rossini
+soir&eacute;es, and other things." Of other contemporary pianists Hummel,
+"ten years behind the time," and Thalberg, whom he liked better as
+pianist than as composer, are alluded to. Yet he writes in 1830 that
+he intends going to Weimar, "for the sly reason of being able to <i>call
+myself</i> a pupil of Hummel." Wieck, his father-in-law, he esteemed
+greatly as teacher and adviser, but it offended him deeply that Wieck
+should have followed the common error of estimating genius with a
+yard-stick, and asked where were his "Don Juan" and his "Freisch&uuml;tz?"
+His enthusiasm for Schubert, Chopin, and especially for Bach, finds
+frequent expression. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavichord" he declares is
+his "grammar, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>the best of all grammars. The fugues I have
+analyzed successively to the minutest details; the advantage resulting
+from this is great, and has a morally bracing effect on the whole
+system, for Bach was a man through and through; in him there is
+nothing done by halves, nothing morbid, but all is written for time
+eternal." Six years later: "Bach is my daily bread; from him I derive
+gratification and get new ideas&mdash;'compared with him we are all
+children,' Beethoven has said, I believe." One day a caller remarked
+that Bach was old and wrote in old-fashioned manner: "But I told him
+he was neither old nor new, but much more than that, namely, eternal.
+I came near losing my temper." Concerning the unappreciative
+Mendelssohn, he writes to Clara:</p>
+
+<p>"I am told that he is not well disposed toward me. I should feel sorry
+if that were true, since I am conscious of having preserved noble
+sentiments toward him. If you know anything let me hear it on
+occasion; that will at least make me cautious, and I do not wish to
+squander anything where I am ill-spoken of. Concerning my relations
+toward him as a musician [1838], I am quite aware that I could learn
+of him for years; but he, too, some things of me. Brought up under
+similar circumstances, destined for music from childhood, I would
+surpass you all&mdash;that I feel from the energy of my inventive powers."</p>
+
+<p>Concerning this energy he says, some time after <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>this, when he had
+just finished a dozen songs: "Again I have composed so much that I am
+sometimes visited by a mysterious feeling. Alas! I cannot help it. I
+could wish to sing myself to death, like a nightingale."</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting bits of information contained in this
+correspondence is that, when quite a young man, Schumann commenced a
+treatise on musical &aelig;sthetics. In view of the many epoch-making
+thoughts contained in his two volumes of collected criticisms, it is
+very much to be regretted that this plan was not carried out. On one
+question of musical psychology light is thrown by several of these
+letters. Like many other composers, it seems that Schumann often, if
+not generally, had some pictorial image or event in his mind in
+composing. "When I composed my first songs," he writes to Clara, "I
+was entirely within you. Without such a bride one cannot write such
+music." "I am affected by everything that goes on in the
+world&mdash;politics, literature, mankind. In my own manner I meditate on
+everything, which then seeks utterance in music. That is why many of
+my compositions are so difficult to understand, because they relate to
+remote affairs; and often significant, because all that's remarkable
+in our time affects me, and I have to give it expression in musical
+language." One of the letters to Clara begins: "Tell me what the first
+part of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>the Fantasia suggests to you. Does it not bring many pictures
+before your mind?" Concerning the "Phantasiest&uuml;cke" he writes: "When
+they were finished I was delighted to find the story of Hero and
+Leander in them.... Tell me if you, too, find this picture fitting the
+music." "The Papillons," he says once more, are intended to be a
+musical translation of the final scene in Jean Paul's "Flegeljahre."</p>
+
+<p>Believers in telepathy will be interested in the following additional
+instance of composing with a visual object in mind: "I wrote to you
+concerning a presentiment; it occurred to me on the days from March
+24th to 27th, when I was at work on my new composition. There is a
+place in it to which I constantly recurred; it is as if some one
+sighed, 'Ach, Gott!' from the bottom of his heart. While composing, I
+constantly saw funeral processions, coffins, unhappy people in
+despair; and when I had finished, and long searched for a title, the
+word 'corpse-fantasia' continually obtruded itself. Is not that
+remarkable? During the composition, moreover, I was often so deeply
+affected that tears came to my eyes, and yet I knew not why and had no
+reason&mdash;till Theresa's letter arrived, which made everything clear."
+His brother was on his death-bed.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The collection of Schumann's letters so far under consideration met
+with such a favorable reception <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>that a second edition was soon called
+for, and this circumstance no doubt promoted the publication of a
+second series, extending to 1854, two years before Schumann's sad
+death in the lunatic asylum near Bonn. This second volume includes a
+considerable number of business letters to his several publishers. In
+one of these he confides to Dr. H&auml;rtel his plan of collecting and
+revising his musical criticisms, and publishing them in two volumes.
+But as this letter was, a few months later, followed by a similar one
+addressed to the publisher Wigand, who subsequently printed the
+essays, it is to be inferred that Breitkopf &amp; H&auml;rtel, though assured
+of the future of Schumann's compositions, doubted the financial value
+of his musical essays&mdash;an attitude pardonable at a time when there was
+still a ludicrous popular prejudice against literary utterances by a
+musician. In 1883, however, after Wigand had issued a third edition of
+the "Collected Writings on Music and Musicians" (which have also been
+translated into English by Mrs. Ritter), Breitkopf &amp; H&auml;rtel atoned for
+their error by purchasing the copyright.</p>
+
+<p>Schumann's letters to his publishers show that he used to suggest his
+own terms, which were commonly acceded to without protest. For his
+famous quintet he asked twenty louis d'or, or about $100; for
+"Paradise and the Peri," $500; the piano concerto, $125; Liederalbum,
+op. 79, $200; "Manfred," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>$250. He frequently emphasizes his desire to
+have his compositions printed in an attractive style, and in 1839
+writes to H&auml;rtel that he cannot describe his pleasure on receiving the
+"Scenes of Childhood." "It is the most charming specimen of musical
+typography I have ever seen." The few misprints he discovers in it he
+frankly attributes to his MS. In a letter to his friend Rosen he
+writes that "it must be a deucedly comic pleasure to read my
+Sanskrit." But his musical handwriting appears to have been nearer to
+Sanskrit than his epistolary, if we may judge by the specimen
+fac-similes printed in Naumann's "History of Music."</p>
+
+<p>The promptness with which all the leading music publishers of Germany
+issued complete editions of Schumann's vocal and pianoforte
+compositions, as soon as the copyright had expired, shows how
+profitable they must be. But during his lifetime it was quite
+otherwise, and in a letter to Kossmaly he adduces the following four
+reasons for this state of affairs: "(1) inherent difficulties of form
+and contents; (2) because, not being a virtuoso, I cannot perform them
+in public; (3) because I am the editor of my musical paper, in which I
+could not allude to them; (4) because Fink is editor of the other
+paper, and would not allude to them." Elsewhere he remarks, concerning
+this rival editor: "It is really most contemptible on Fink's part not
+to have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>mentioned a single one of my pianoforte compositions in nine
+[seven] years, although they are always of such a character that it is
+impossible to overlook them. It is not for my name's sake that I am
+annoyed, but because I know what the future course of music is to be."
+It was in behalf of this tendency that he toiled on his paper, which
+at first barely paid its expenses, having only 500 subscribers several
+years after its foundation. And he not only avoided puffing his own
+compositions, but even inserted a contribution by his friend Kossmaly
+in which he was placed in the second rank of vocal composers! Yet,
+though he printed the article, he complains about it in a private
+letter: "In your article on the Lied, I was a little grieved that you
+placed me in the <i>second</i> class. I do not lay claim to the first, but
+I think I have a claim to a place of <i>my own</i>, and least of all do I
+wish to see myself associated with Reissiger, Curschmann, etc. I know
+that my aims, my resources, are far beyond theirs, and I hope you will
+concede this and not accuse me of vanity, which is far from me."</p>
+
+<p>Many of the letters in the present collection are concerned with the
+affairs of Schumann's paper, the <i>Neue Zeitschrift f&uuml;r Musik</i>,
+detailing his plans for removing it to a larger city than Leipsic, and
+the atrocious red-tape difficulties and delays he was subjected to
+when he finally did transfer it to Vienna. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>Although the paper was
+exclusively devoted to music, the <i>Censur</i> apparently took three or
+four months to make up its mind whether the state was in danger or not
+from the immigration of a new musical periodical. The editor confesses
+that he did not find as much sympathy as he had expected in Vienna;
+yet the city&mdash;as he writes some years later at D&uuml;sseldorf&mdash;"continues
+to attract one, as if the spirits of the departed great masters were
+still visible, and as if it were the real musical home of Germany."
+"Eating and drinking here are incomparable. You would be delighted
+with the Opera. Such singers and such an <i>ensemble</i> we do not have."
+"The admirable Opera is a great treat for me, especially the chorus
+and orchestra. Of such things we have <i>no conception</i> in Leipsic. The
+ballet would also amuse you." "A more encouraging public it would be
+difficult to find anywhere; it is really too encouraging&mdash;in the
+theatre one hears more applause than music. It is very merry, but it
+annoys me occasionally." "But I assure you confidentially that long
+and alone I should not care to live here; serious men and affairs are
+here in little demand and little appreciated. A compensation for this
+is found in the beautiful surroundings. Yesterday I was in the
+cemetery where Beethoven and Schubert are buried. Just think what I
+found on Beethoven's grave: <i>a pen</i>, and, what is more, a steel pen.
+It was a happy omen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>for me and I shall preserve it religiously." On
+Schubert's grave he found nothing, but in the city he found Schubert's
+brother, a poor man with eight children and no possessions but a
+number of his brother's manuscripts, including "a few operas, four
+great masses, four or five symphonies, and many other things." He
+immediately wrote to Breitkopf &amp; H&auml;rtel to make arrangements for their
+publication.</p>
+
+<p>It is anything but complimentary to the discernment of Viennese
+publishers and musicians of that period that, eleven years after
+Schubert's death, another composer had to come from Leipsic and give
+to the world the works of a colleague who not only had genius of the
+purest water, but the gift of giving utterance to his musical ideas in
+a clear style, intelligible to the public. Schubert died in 1828, and
+in 1842 Schumann could still write to one of his contributors: "It is
+time, it seems to me, that some one should write something weighty in
+behalf of Schubert; doesn't this tempt you? True, his larger works are
+not yet in print. But his vocal and pianoforte compositions suffice
+for an approximate portrait. Consider the matter. Do you know his
+symphony in C? A delightful composition, somewhat long, but
+extraordinarily animated, in character entirely new." To a Belgian
+friend who intended to write an article on the new tendencies in
+pianoforte <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>music, he wrote: "Of older composers who have influenced
+modern music I must name above all Franz Schubert.... Schubert's songs
+are well known, but his pianoforte compositions (especially those for
+four hands) I rate at least equally high."</p>
+
+<p>Of the numerous criticisms of well-known composers contained in this
+correspondence, a few more may be cited. They are mostly favorable in
+tone, but concerning the "Proph&egrave;te" he writes: "The music appears to me
+very poor; I cannot find words to express my aversion to it."
+"Lortzing's operas meet with success&mdash;to me almost incomprehensible."
+To Carl Reinecke he writes that he is "no friend of song-transcriptions
+(for piano), and of Liszt's some are a real abomination to me." He
+commends Reinecke's efforts in this direction because they are free
+from pepper and sauce <i>&agrave; la</i> Liszt. Nevertheless, those of Liszt's
+song-transcriptions in which he did not indulge in too much bravura
+ornamentation are models of musical translation, and the collection of
+forty-two songs published by Breitkopf &amp; H&auml;rtel should be in every
+pianist's library. "Of Chopin," he writes in 1836, "I have a new ballad
+[G minor]. It seems to me to be his most enchanting (though not most
+<i>genial</i>) work; I told him, too, that I liked it best of all his
+compositions. After a long pause and reflection he said: 'I am glad you
+think so, it is also my favorite.' He also played for me a number of
+new <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>&eacute;tudes, nocturnes, mazurkas&mdash;everything in an incomparable style.
+It is touching to see him at the piano. You would be very fond of him.
+Yet Clara is more of a <i>virtuoso</i>, and gives almost more significance
+to his compositions than he does himself."</p>
+
+<p>Brendel having sent him some of Palestrina's music, he writes that "it
+really sounds sometimes like music of the spheres&mdash;and what art at the
+same time! I am convinced he is the greatest musical genius Italy has
+produced." Nineteen years previous to this he had written from
+Brescia: "Were not the Italian language itself a kind of eternal music
+(the Count aptly called it a long-drawn-out A-minor chord), I should
+not hear anything rational. Of the ardor with which they play, you can
+form no more conception than of their slovenliness and lack of
+elegance and precision." Handel appears to be mentioned only once in
+all of Schumann's correspondence ("I consider 'Israel in Egypt' the
+ideal of a choral work"), but Bach is always on his tongue. The
+following is one of the profoundest criticisms ever written: "Mozart
+and Haydn knew of Bach only a few pages and passages, and the effect
+which Bach, if they had known him in all his greatness, would have had
+on them, is incalculable. The harmonic depth, the poetic and humorous
+qualities of modern music have their source chiefly in Bach:
+Mendelssohn, Bennett, Chopin, Hiller, all the so-called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>Romanticists
+(I mean those of the German school) <i>approximate in their music much
+closer to Bach than to Mozart</i>."</p>
+
+<p>To Wagner there are several references, betraying a most remarkable
+struggle between critical honesty and professional jealousy. Thus, in
+1845, Schumann writes to Mendelssohn of "Tannh&auml;user:"</p>
+
+<p>"Wagner has just finished a new opera&mdash;no doubt a clever fellow, full
+of eccentric notions, and bold beyond measure. The aristocracy is
+still in raptures over him on account of his 'Rienzi,' but in reality
+he cannot conceive or write four consecutive bars of good or even
+correct music. What all these composers lack is the art of writing
+pure harmonies and four-part choruses. The music is not a straw better
+than that of 'Rienzi,' rather weaker, more artificial! But if I should
+write this I should be accused of envy, hence I say it only to you, as
+I am aware that you have known all this a long time."</p>
+
+<p>But in another letter to Mendelssohn, written three weeks later, he
+recants: "I must take back much of what I wrote regarding
+'Tannh&auml;user,' after reading the score; on the stage the effect is
+quite different. I was deeply moved by many parts." And to Heinrich
+Dorn he writes, a few weeks after this: "I wish you could see Wagner's
+'Tannh&auml;user.' It contains profound and original ideas, and is a
+hundred times better than his previous operas, though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>some of the
+music is trivial. In a word, he may become of great importance to the
+stage, and, so far as I know him, he has the requisite courage. The
+technical part, the instrumentation, I find excellent, incomparably
+more masterly than formerly."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, seven years later still, he once more returns to the
+attack, and declares that Wagner's music, "apart from the performance,
+is simply amateurish, void of contents, and disagreeable; and it is a
+sad proof of corrupt taste that, in the face of the many dramatic
+master-works which Germany has produced, some persons have the
+presumption to belittle these in favor of Wagner's. Yet enough of
+this. The future will pronounce judgment in this matter, too." Poor
+Schumann! His own opera, "Genoveva," was a failure, while "Tannh&auml;user"
+and "Lohengrin" were everywhere received with enthusiasm. This was a
+quarter of a century ago; and the future <i>has</i> judged, "Tannh&auml;user"
+and "Lohengrin" being now the most popular of all works in the
+operatic repertory.</p>
+
+<p>What caused the failure of Schumann's only opera was not a lack of
+dramatic genius, but of theatrical instinct. He believed that in
+"Genoveva" "every bar is thoroughly dramatic;" and so it is, as might
+have been expected of the composer of such an intensely emotional and
+passionate song as "Ich grolle nicht" and many others. But Schubert,
+too, could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>write such thrilling five-minute dramas as the "Erlking"
+and the "Doppelg&auml;nger," without being able to compose a successful
+opera. Like Schumann, he could not paint <i>al fresco</i>, could not
+command that bolder and broader sweep which is required of an operatic
+composer. It is characteristic of Schumann that he did not write an
+opera till late in life, whereas born operatic composers have commonly
+begun their career with their specialty. Indeed, it was only ten years
+before he composed his opera that Schumann wrote to a friend: "You
+ought to write more for the voice. Or are you, perhaps, like myself,
+who have all my life placed vocal music below instrumental, and never
+considered it a great art? But don't speak to anyone about this."
+Oddly enough, less than a year after this he writes to another friend:
+"At present I write only vocal pieces.... I can hardly tell you what a
+delight it is to write for the voice as compared with instruments, and
+how it throbs and rages within me when I am at work. Entirely new
+things have been revealed to me, and I am thinking of writing an
+opera, which, however, will not be possible until I have entirely
+freed myself from editorial work."</p>
+
+<p>Like other vocal composers, Schumann suffered much from the lack of
+suitable texts. In one letter he suggests that Lenau might perhaps be
+induced to write a few poems for composers, to be printed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>in "The
+Zeitschrift:" "the composers are thirsting for texts." In several
+other letters we become familiar with some of his plans which were
+never executed, owing, apparently, to the shortcomings of the
+librettists. One of these was R. Pohl, who in all earnestness sent
+Schumann a serious text in which the moon was introduced as one of the
+vocalists! Schumann mildly remonstrated that "to conceive of the moon
+as a person, especially as singing, would be too risky." So the
+project of "Ritter Mond" was abandoned, and it is to be regretted that
+Schumann did not reject his "Genoveva" libretto, which was largely
+responsible for the failure of the opera.</p>
+
+<p>One project of Schumann's is mentioned which it is to be very much
+regretted he never carried out. "I am at present [1840] preparing an
+essay on Shakspere's relations to music, his utterances and views, the
+manner in which he introduces music in his dramas, etc., etc.&mdash;an
+exceedingly fertile and attractive theme, the execution of which
+would, it is true, require some time, as I should have to read the
+whole of Shakspere's works for this purpose." His object was to send
+this to Jena as a dissertation for a Doctor's degree, with which he
+hoped to soften the heart of the obdurate Wieck, who opposed his
+marriage with Clara, and at the same time to make an impression on the
+public. Schumann had had painful experience of the fact that for
+genius itself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>there is little recognition in Germany unless it has a
+handle to its name&mdash;a "von" or a "Herr Doctor." Clara, however, loved
+him for his genius, and for the impassioned pieces and songs he wrote
+to express his admiration of her and of woman in general; and, like
+other German men of genius, he had his reward&mdash;after death. "No tone
+poet," says Naumann, "has been more enthusiastic in the praise of
+woman than Robert Schumann; he was a second Frauenlob. This was
+acknowledged by the maidens of Bonn, who, at his interment, filled the
+cemetery, and crowned his tomb with innumerable garlands."</p>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a></span>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>MUSIC AND MORALS<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Although music in the complex harmonic form known to us is only a few
+centuries old, simple rhythmic melodies were sung, or played on
+various instruments, by all the ancient civilized nations, and are
+sung or played to-day by African and Australian savages who have never
+come into contact with civilization. And what is more, the remarkable
+influence which music has in arousing human emotions has been
+appreciated at all times.</p>
+
+<p>Tourists relate that in some of the inland countries of Africa,
+scarcely any work is done by the natives except to the sound of music;
+and Cruikshank, speaking of the coast negroes, says it is laughable to
+observe the effect of their rude music on all classes, old and young,
+men, women, and children. "However employed, whether passing quietly
+through the street, carrying water from the pond, or assisting in some
+grave procession, no sooner do they hear the rapid beats of a distant
+drum, than they begin to caper and dance spontaneously. The bricklayer
+will throw down his trowel for a minute, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>carpenter leave his
+bench, the corn grinder her milling stone, and the porter his load, to
+keep time to the inspiriting sound."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tschudi, in his fascinating work on Peru, describes two of the
+musical instruments used by the Indians, and their emotional function.
+One is the Pututo, "a large conch on which they perform mournful
+music, as the accompaniment of their funeral dances." The other is
+called Jaina, and is a rude kind of clarionet made from a reed. "Its
+tone," says Tschudi, "is indescribable in its melancholy, and it
+produces an extraordinary impression on the natives. If a group of
+Indians are rioting and drinking, or engaged in furious conflicts with
+each other, and the sound of the Jaina is suddenly heard, the tumult
+ceases, as if by a stroke of magic. A dead stillness prevails, and all
+listen devoutly to the magic tones of the simple reed; tones which
+frequently draw tears from the eyes of the apathetic Indians."</p>
+
+<p>If the untutored primitive man can be thus overpowered by the charm of
+such simple music, we can hardly wonder at the extravagant power
+ascribed to this art by the ancient civilized nations. The fairy tale
+of Orpheus, who tamed wild animals and moved rocks and trees with his
+singing and playing, and the story of the dolphin that was attracted
+by Arion's song and carried him safely across <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>the sea, are quite as
+significant as if they were true stories, for they show that the
+Greeks were so deeply moved by music that they could readily imagine
+it to have a similar effect on animals, and even on inanimate objects.
+Almost three thousand years ago, Homer represented Achilles as
+"comforting his heart with the sound of the lyre," after losing his
+sweet Briseis; "stimulating his courage and singing the deeds of the
+heroes." And, as Emil Naumann fancies, there is a moral underlying the
+myth of the siren; "for, as Homer elsewhere suggests, noble and manly
+music invigorates the spirit, strengthens wavering man, and incites
+him to great and worthy deeds, whereas false and sensuous music
+excites and confuses, robs man of his self-control, till his passions
+overcome him as the waves overwhelmed the bewitched sailor who
+listened to the voice of the charmer."</p>
+
+<p>At a later period in Greek history, the philosophers, including Plato
+and Aristotle, continued to attribute to music power so great, that we
+can only understand them if we bear in mind that with the Greeks the
+word music was a comprehensive term for all the arts presided over by
+the Muses, and that, even when music in our sense is alluded to by
+them, the reference is at the same time to the poetry which was almost
+always associated with music, and made its meaning and expression more
+definite. Thus, we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>can realize how Terpander could, by the power of
+his song, reconcile the political factions in Sparta, and how Plato
+could write, in the "Republic," that "any musical innovation is full
+of danger to the state and ought to be prevented." He looked upon
+music as a tonic which does for the mind what gymnastics do for the
+body; and taught that only such music ought to be tolerated by the
+state as had a moral purpose, while enervating forms should be
+suppressed by the law makers.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after making due allowance for the fact that the word music was
+used in this comprehensive sense, enough remains to show that the
+power of music proper, the power of rhythmic melody, was profoundly
+appreciated by the Greeks. If they had not felt how greatly music
+intensifies and quickens the emotions, they would not have wedded all
+their poetry to it, nor have resorted to it on all solemn and festive
+occasions; nor would the Pythagoreans have found anyone willing to
+believe in their doctrine that music has power to control the
+passions. "They firmly believed," says Naumann, "that sweet harmony
+and flowing melody alone were capable of restoring the even balance of
+the disturbed mind, and of renewing its harmonious relations with the
+world. Playing on the lyre, therefore, formed part of the daily
+exercises of the disciples of the renowned philosopher, and none dared
+seek his nightly couch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>without having first refreshed his soul at the
+fount of music, nor return to the duties of the day without having
+braced his energies with jubilant strains. Pythagoras is said to have
+recommended the use of special melodies as antidotal to special
+passions, and indeed, it is related of him that on a certain occasion
+he, by a solemn air, brought back to reason a youth who, maddened by
+love and jealousy, was about setting fire to the house of his
+mistress."</p>
+
+<p>Similar marvellous powers were ascribed to music by the other nations.
+The Chinese have an old saying that "Music has the power to make
+Heaven descend upon earth." This art was constantly kept under rigid
+supervision by the government, and 354 years before Christ, one of the
+Emperors issued a special edict against weak, effeminate music; to
+which, therefore, a demoralizing influence was obviously attributed.
+The Japanese, we read, likewise "revere music and connect it with
+their idol worship," and in olden times it seems to have had even a
+political function, for it is said that "formerly an ambassador, in
+addressing a foreign court to which he was accredited, did not speak,
+but sang his mission." The Hindoos, again, attributed supernatural
+power to music. Some melodies had the power, as they believed, to
+bring down rain, others to move men and animals, as well as lifeless
+objects. The fact that they traced the origin of music to the gods
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>shows in what esteem they held it; and their quaint story of the
+16,000 nymphs and shepherdesses, each of whom invented a new key and
+melody in her emulous eagerness to move the heart and win the love of
+the handsome young god Krishna, shows that the amorous power of music
+was already understood in those days.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, the exalted notions which the ancient Hebrews had of the
+dignity and importance of music, is indicated by the fact that,
+according to Josephus, the treasures of Solomon's Temple (which was
+also a great school of music) included 40,000 harps and psalteries of
+pure copper, and 200,000 silver trumpets. In the schools of the
+prophets, musical practice was an essential item. During the period of
+captivity the Israelites at first gave way to despondency, exclaiming,
+"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" "But by and by
+they would take down their harps again from the willow bows and seek
+solace for the sorrows of the long exile in recalling the loved melody
+of their native land, and the sacred psalmody of their desolated
+temple" (McClintock and Strong). There was hardly an occasion arising
+above the commonplace events of everyday life, when the ancient
+Hebrews did not resort to music. Trumpets were used at the royal
+proclamations and at the dedication of the Temple. There were doleful
+chants for funeral processions; joyous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>melodies for bridal
+processions and banquets; stirring martial strains to incite courage
+in battle and to celebrate victories, religious songs, and domestic
+music for private recreation and pleasure; and even "the grape
+gatherers sang as they gathered in the vintage, and the wine-presses
+were trodden with the shout of a song; the women sang as they toiled
+at the mill, and on every occasion the land of the Hebrews, during
+their national prosperity, was a land of music and melody." And
+finally, the therapeutic value of music and its power to stimulate the
+creative faculties were recognized. The prophets composed their songs
+and uttered their prophecies to the sound of musical instruments, and
+David drove out the evil spirit from Saul, as we read in the Bible:
+"And it came to pass when the spirit from God was upon Saul, that
+David took a harp and played with his hands. So Saul was refreshed,
+and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him."</p>
+
+<p>The preceding facts sufficiently illustrate the effects of music on
+the emotions and morals of ancient and primitive nations. Now, within
+the Christian era music has made enormous strides in its evolution as
+an art, and it seems therefore reasonable to infer that its emotional
+and moral power has also increased. Yet, strange to say, a tendency
+has manifested itself of late, in many quarters, to flatly deny the
+emotional and moral potency of music. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>The late Richard Grant White,
+for instance, in a series of articles on the Influence of Music, in
+"The Atlantic Monthly," comes to the conclusion that "a fine
+appreciation of even the noblest music is not an indication of mental
+elevation, or of moral purity, or of delicacy of feeling, or even
+(except in music) of refinement of taste." "The greatest, keenest
+pleasure of my life," he adds, "is one that may be shared equally with
+me by a dunce, a vulgarian, or a villain;" and he ends by asserting,
+dogmatically, that a taste for music has no more to do with our minds
+or morals than with our complexions or stature. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent critic and professor of musical history in the University of
+Vienna, goes even farther. "There can be no doubt," he says, "that
+music had a much more direct effect on the ancient nations than it has
+on us." To-day, "the feelings of the layman are affected most, those
+of an educated artist least, by music." "The moral influence of tones
+increases in proportion as the culture of mind and character
+decreases. The smaller the resistance offered by culture, the more
+does this power strike home. It is well known that <i>it is on savages
+that music exerts its greatest influence</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Let us briefly test these sceptical paradoxes in the light of medi&aelig;val
+history and modern biography. Is it only among the ancient and
+primitive people, and among the musically uneducated, that the divine
+art <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>exerts an emotional influence? St. Jerome evidently did not think
+so. He believed, at any rate, that music can exert a <i>demoralizing</i>
+influence, and he taught that Christian maidens should know nothing of
+the lyre and the flute. The eminent divine was guided in this matter
+by the same process of illogical reasoning of which, later, the
+Puritans were guilty when they banished music from the churches. In
+view of the fact that music was used to heighten the charms of wanton
+Roman festivities or Pagan rites, St. Jerome condemned the art itself,
+ignorant of the fact that music can never be immoral in itself, but
+only through evil associations. St. Augustine took a different view of
+music from St. Jerome. When he first heard the Christian chant at
+Milan he exclaimed: "Oh, my God! When the sweet voice of the
+congregation broke upon mine ear, how I wept over Thy hymns of praise.
+The sound poured into mine ears and Thy truth entered my heart. Then
+glowed within me the spirit of devotion; tears poured forth, and I
+rejoiced." Here we have an illustration of how music intensifies and
+exalts the emotions of educated men. St. Augustine's devotion "glowed
+within him" when he heard the music. It is for this power that the
+church has always employed music as a hand-maid; and those
+ecclesiastics who would to-day banish it arbitrarily from the church,
+know not what a valuable ally they are blindly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>repulsing in these
+days of religious scepticism. As Mr. Gladstone very recently remarked:
+"Ever since the time of St. Augustine, I might perhaps say of St.
+Paul, the power of music in assisting Christian devotion has been upon
+record, and great schools of Christian musicians have attested and
+confirmed the union of the art with worship."</p>
+
+<p>But the greatest musical enthusiast in the ranks of medi&aelig;val churchmen
+was Martin Luther. To judge by the extraordinary influence which music
+had on him, Luther must doubtless be classed among the lowest of
+savages, if Dr. Hanslick is right in saying that it is on savages that
+music exerts its greatest influence. He wrote a special treatise on
+music, in which he placed it next to theology. "Besides theology," he
+wrote in a letter to the musician Senfel, "music is the only art
+capable of affording peace and joy of the heart like that induced by
+the study of the science of divinity. The proof of this is that the
+devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles,
+flees before the sound of music almost as much as he does before the
+Word of God. This is why the prophets preferred music before all the
+other arts ... proclaiming the Word in psalms and hymns.... My heart,
+which is full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by
+music when sick and weary."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>Luther had a good voice and a knowledge of musical composition. He
+played the flute and the lute, and in church he introduced
+congregational singing, in which the people took an active part in
+worship by means of the chorales. It is related that, as a child, he
+used to sing with other boys in the street in winter, for his daily
+bread, and that on one occasion, Frau Cotta frantically rushed from
+her house on hearing his pleading tones, took him in, and gave him a
+warm meal. Later in life, when he was an Augustine monk, he often
+chased away his melancholy and temptations by playing on his lute, and
+the story goes that "one day, after a self-inflicted chastisement, he
+was found in a fainting condition in his cell, and that his cloistered
+brethren recalled him to consciousness by soft music, well knowing
+that music was the balsam for all wounds of the troubled mind of their
+'dear Martinus.'"</p>
+
+<p>Coming to more recent times, we find that some of the greatest
+composers and other men of genius were "savages," judged by Dr.
+Hanslick's standard.</p>
+
+<p>When Congreve wrote that "music hath charms to soothe the savage
+breast," did he not mean to imply that educated people are not
+affected by it? Take the case, for instance, of that old barbarian,
+Joseph Haydn, and note how he was affected by the "Creation" when he
+heard it sung. "One moment," he said to Griesinger, "I was as cold as
+ice, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>next I seemed on fire, and more than once I feared I
+should have a stroke." Another "savage," Cherubini, when he heard a
+Haydn symphony for the first time, was so greatly excited by it that
+it forcibly moved him from his seat. "He trembled all over, his eyes
+grew dim, and this condition continued long after the symphony was
+ended. Then came the reaction. His eyes filled with tears, and from
+that instant the direction of his work was decided." (Nohl.)</p>
+
+<p>Similar incidents might be quoted from the biographies of almost all
+the great composers. Berlioz, in his essay on Music, after referring
+to the story of Alexander the Great, who fell into a delirium at the
+accents of Timotheus, and the story of the Danish King Eric, "whom
+certain songs made so furious that he killed some of his best
+servants," dwells on the inconsistency of Rousseau, who, while
+ridiculing the accounts of the wonders worked by ancient music,
+nevertheless, "seems in other places to give them enough credence to
+place that ancient art, which we hardly know at all, and which he
+himself knew no better than the rest of us, far above the art of our
+own day." For himself, Berlioz believed that the power of modern music
+is of at least equal value with the doubtful anecdotes of ancient
+historians. "How often," he says, "have we not seen hearers agitated
+by terrible spasms, weep and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>laugh at once, and manifest all the
+symptoms of delirium and fever, while listening to the masterpieces of
+our great masters." He relates the case of a young Proven&ccedil;al musician,
+who blew out his brains at the door of the Op&eacute;ra after a second
+hearing of Spontini's "Vestale," having previously explained in a
+letter, that after this ecstatic enjoyment, he did not care to remain
+in this prosaic world; and the case of the famous singer Malibran,
+who, on hearing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for the first time, at the
+Conservatoire, "was seized with such convulsions that she had to be
+carried out of the hall." "We have in such cases," Berlioz continues,
+"seen time and again, serious men obliged to leave the room to hide
+the violence of their emotions from the public gaze." As for those
+feelings which Berlioz owed personally to music, he affirms that
+nothing in the world can give an exact idea of them to those who have
+not experienced them. Not to mention the moral affections that the art
+developed in him, and only to cite the impressions received at the
+moment of the performance of works he admired, this is what he says he
+can affirm in all truthfulness: "While hearing certain pieces of
+music, my vital forces seem at first to be doubled; I feel a delicious
+pleasure, in which reason has no part; the habit of analysis itself
+then gives rise to admiration; the emotion, growing in the direct
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>ratio of the energy and grandeur of the composer's ideas, soon
+produces a strange agitation in the circulation of the blood; my
+arteries pulsate violently; tears, which usually announce the end of
+the paroxysm, often indicate only a progressive stage which is to
+become much more intense. In this case there follow spasmodic
+contractions of the muscles, trembling in all the limbs, a total
+numbness in the feet and hands, partial paralysis of the optic and
+auditory nerves. I can no longer see, I can hardly hear: vertigo ...
+almost swooning...." Such was the effect of music on Berlioz.</p>
+
+<p>As in a matter of this sort personal testimony is of more value than
+anything else, I may perhaps be permitted to refer to some of my own
+experiences. I have often been in the state of mind and body so
+vividly described by Berlioz, except as regards the numbness of the
+extremities and the partial paralysis of the sensory nerves. Hundreds
+of times I have enjoyed that harmless &aelig;sthetic intoxication which I
+believe to be more delicious to the initiated than the sweet delights
+of an opium eater&mdash;a musical intoxication which does not only fill the
+brain with floods of voluptuous delight, but sends thrills down the
+spinal column and to the very finger-tips, like so many electric
+shocks. As a boy, every experience of this sort fired my imagination
+with ambition, and led to all sorts of noble resolutions, some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>of
+which, at any rate, were carried into execution. The deepest
+impression ever made on me by any work of art was at Munich, ten years
+ago, when I heard for the first time Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde,"
+which I was already familiar with through the pianoforte score. The
+performance began at six o'clock, and I had had nothing to eat since
+noon. It lasted till eleven o'clock, and one might imagine that, after
+all this emotional excitement, I must have been ravenously hungry. So
+I was; but without the slightest affectation, I was horrified at the
+mere thought of indulging in such a coarse act as eating after
+enjoying such ravishing music. So I hurried back to the hotel, eager
+to get into my room and indulge in a long fit of weeping; and not a
+wink did I sleep that night, the most passionate scenes from the opera
+haunting me persistently, and almost as vividly as if I had been back
+in the theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it was the irresistible power of Wagner's music that first
+made me go to Europe, and that changed the whole current of my life.
+After graduating from Harvard I had only a few dollars in my pocket;
+but instead of trying to find employment and earn my daily bread, I
+recklessly borrowed $500 of a good-natured uncle and went to Europe,
+for the sole purpose of attending the first Bayreuth Festival. I had
+about four hundred dollars when I arrived in Bayreuth, and of these I
+spent two hundred and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>twenty-five dollars for tickets for the three
+series of Nibelung performances, not knowing what would become of me
+after the remaining one hundred and seventy-five dollars was spent. It
+was several weeks before the performances, and Wagner had given strict
+orders that no one, without exception, should be admitted to the
+rehearsals. But I was not to be so easily baffled, and one afternoon I
+sneaked into the lobby and succeeded in catching some wonderful
+orchestral strains by applying my ear to a keyhole. But my pleasure
+was short-lived. An attendant espied me and summarily ordered me off
+the premises, despite my humble entreaties and attempts at bribery. I
+now resolved to make a personal appeal to Wagner; so, a few days
+later, as he was entering the theatre, arm in arm with Wilhelm, I
+boldly walked up to him and told him I had bought tickets to all the
+performances, but was very anxious to attend the rehearsals, adding
+that I represented a New York and a Boston journal. At the mention of
+the word newspaper, a frown passed over his face, and he said, rather
+abruptly, "I don't care much about newspapers. I can get along without
+them." But, in a second, a smile drove away the frown and he added: "I
+have given orders that no one shall be admitted. However, you have
+come a long way&mdash;and as I have found it necessary to make some
+exceptions, I will admit you too." He then asked for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>my card and told
+me I would be admitted by mentioning my name to the doorkeeper. That
+he did not bear any deep resentment against me for unfortunately being
+a newspaper man, he showed the next day, by walking up to me and
+asking me if I had succeeded in getting in.</p>
+
+<p>I mention these incidents because I think they help to disprove the
+notion that modern music has less power over the actions and feelings
+of men than primitive and ancient music. It was the wild enthusiasm
+inspired in me by Wagner's earlier operas that led me irresistibly to
+Bayreuth, and I really would have been willing to toil as a slave for
+years rather than miss this festival. And my experience was that of
+hundreds who had saved up their pennies for this occasion, or had
+formed pools and drawn lots if the sum was too small. I met three men
+in Bayreuth who had scraped together enough money for a third-class
+trip from Berlin, but not enough to pay for a complete Nibelung ticket
+for each. So they took turns and each heard his share of the Trilogy.
+The artists, moreover, the greatest in Germany, were prompted by their
+enthusiasm to give their services at this festival without any
+pecuniary compensation. Such actions are more eloquent of deep feeling
+than any words could be. How trivial are those ancient <i>myths</i> about
+Arion and Orpheus compared with this modern <i>fact</i>&mdash;the building of
+the Bayreuth Theatre <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>with the million marks contributed by Wagner's
+admirers in all parts of the world!</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to see how Prof. Hanslick fell into the error of imagining
+that music exerts its greatest influence on savages. He probably
+inferred this from the fact that savages are more obviously excited by
+it, and gesticulate more wildly, than we do. But this does not prove
+his point. Savages are more <i>demonstrative</i> in their expression of
+<i>all</i> their emotions than we are; but this does not indicate that
+their emotions are <i>deeper</i>. On the contrary, as the poet has told us,
+it is the shallow brooks and the shallow passions that murmur; "the
+deep are dumb." It is a rule of etiquette in civilized society to
+repress any extravagant demonstration of feeling by gestures; and this
+is the reason why we are apparently less affected by music than
+savages. Yet, how difficult it is even to-day to repress the muscular
+impulses imparted by gay music, is seen in the irresistible desire to
+dance which seizes us when we hear a Strauss waltz played with the
+true Viennese swing; and in the provoking habit which some people have
+of beating time with their feet. Would anyone assert that a man who
+thus loudly beats time with his boots is more deeply affected by the
+music than you or I who keep quiet? Fiddlesticks! He shows just the
+contrary. If he had as delicate and intense an appreciation of the
+music as you have, he would know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>that the noise made by his boots
+utterly mars the purity of the musical sound, and jars on refined ears
+like the filing of a saw. If demonstrativeness is to be taken as a
+test of feeling, then the ignorant audiences who stamp and roar over
+the vulgar horse-play in a variety show have deeper feelings than the
+educated reader who, in his room, enjoys the exquisite works of humor
+of the great writers without any other expression than a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Granted, then, that music has as much power to move our feelings as
+ever, if not more, and bearing in mind that feeling is the chief
+spring of action, does it not follow that music affects our <i>moral</i>
+conduct, making us more refined and considerate in our dealings with
+other people? Not necessarily and obviously, it seems, for there are
+authorities who, while conceding the emotional sway of music, deny
+that it has any positive moral value. The eminent critic, Prof.
+Ehrlich, takes this sceptical attitude, in his "History of Musical
+&AElig;sthetics." If music, and art in general, has power to soften the
+hearts of men, how is it, he asks, that the citizens of Leipsic did
+not come to the rescue of the last daughter of the great Bach, but
+allowed her to live in abject poverty? And how is that, in Florence
+and Rome, some of the greatest patrons of art were princes who were
+extremely unscrupulous in their manner of getting rid of their
+enemies? Other instances might be added to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>those given by Prof.
+Ehrlich. African tourists say that the Dahomans, although passionately
+fond of singing and of instrumental music, are probably the most cruel
+of all negroes. Nero, the cruelest of emperors, is said to have
+regaled his ears with music after setting fire to Rome; and you have
+all heard the story of the two famous prima donnas whose vicious
+temper and jealousy drove them to a tooth and nail contest on the
+stage, right before the public. Everybody knows, furthermore, what a
+lot of scamps and vagabonds are included in the number of so-called
+music teachers, and what irregular lives some composers have led.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight, these facts look formidable and discouraging; but they
+are nothing of the sort. If anyone asserted that music is <i>a moral
+panacea</i>, an infallible cure for all vices, these facts would, of
+course, be fatal to his argument; but no one would be so foolish as to
+make such an extravagant claim in behalf of music. Music may be, and
+doubtless is, a moral force, but it is not strong enough to overcome
+all the various demoralizing forces that counteract it; hence, it must
+often fail to show triumphant results. If we take the cases just
+cited, and examine them separately, we see that they are delusive. Is
+it not asking a good deal of the Leipsic citizens to support the poor
+relatives and descendants of all the great men that city has produced?
+If Bach himself had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>lived to claim their charity, I am convinced he
+would have been cared for, notwithstanding the fact that probably most
+of those who love his music are poor themselves, while the public at
+large does not even understand it, and cannot, therefore, be morally
+affected by it. Similarly, the reason why the Viennese allowed
+Schubert to starve was not because his music failed to make them
+generous, but because he died before they had learned even to
+understand it. To-day they worship his very bones, and build Schubert
+museums and monuments.</p>
+
+<p>Again, if savages and emperors can be musical and cruel at the same
+time, this only proves, as I have just said, that music is not strong
+enough to overcome <i>all</i> the vicious inherited and cultivated habits
+of civilized and uncivilized barbarians. As for the fighting prima
+donnas, it is obvious that a singer whose success is constantly
+dependent upon the whims of a fickle public, is more subject than
+almost any other mortal to constant attacks of envy and jealousy, so
+that it is unfair not to make some allowance for temper in her case.
+Allowances must also be made for music teachers, who, from the very
+nature of their profession, rarely hear music as it ought to be, and
+therefore naturally become impatient and irritable. They illustrate,
+not the normal, but the abnormal effects of music. Moreover, owing to
+the lamentable ignorance of so many parents and pupils, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>the
+profession of music teachers is invaded with impunity by hundreds of
+tramps who know so little of music that, if they tried to become
+cobblers or tailors with a corresponding amount of knowledge, they
+would be ignominiously kicked out of doors. Surely it is unfair to lay
+the sins of these vagabonds on the shoulders of music.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, as regards the moral character and temper of composers, it
+should be remembered that, if some of them occasionally gave way to
+their angry passion, they were generally provoked to it by the
+obtuseness and insulting arrogance of their contemporaries. Had these
+contemporaries honored and commended them for enlarging the boundaries
+of art and the sphere of human pleasures, instead of tormenting them
+with cruel and ignorant criticisms, the great composers would, no
+doubt, have been amiable in their public relations, as they appear to
+have been almost invariably toward their friends. Wagner's pugnacity
+and frequent ill-temper, for instance, arose simply from the fact
+that, while he was toiling night and day to compose immortal
+master-works, his contemporaries not only refused to contribute enough
+for his daily bread, but assailed him on all sides with malicious
+lying, stupid criticisms, with as much obvious enjoyment of this
+flaying alive of a genius as if they were a band of Indians torturing
+a prisoner of war. Among his friends, Wagner was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>one of the most
+gentle, tender, and kind-hearted of men, and it made him frantic to
+see even a dumb animal suffer. He wrote a violent pamphlet against
+vivisection, and one day missed an important train because he stopped
+to scold a peasant woman who was taking to the market a basket of live
+fish in the agony of suffocation. I hardly know of a great composer
+who, in his heart of hearts, was not gentle and generous. Bach,
+Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Gluck, Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann,
+Mendelssohn, Weber, Liszt, and a dozen others who might be named,
+though not without their faults, were kind and honest men, living
+arguments for the ennobling effects of music.</p>
+
+<p>In no other profession can men and women be found so ready to aid a
+colleague in distress. Take the case of poor Robert Franz, for
+instance, who lost his hearing through the whistle of a locomotive,
+and thereby lost his professional income, and was brought to the verge
+of starvation because his stupid contemporaries (I mean ourselves)
+refused to buy his divine songs. Hardly had his misfortune become
+known when Liszt, Joachim, and Frau Magnus arranged a concert tour for
+his benefit which netted $23,000, and insured him comfort for the rest
+of his life.</p>
+
+<p>And in general, let me ask, why is it that, whenever a charitable
+project is organized, musicians are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>invariably called upon first to
+give their services? Does not this amount to an eloquent and universal
+presumption that musical people are generous and kind-hearted?</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this the only kind of presumption indicating that music
+commonly goes hand in hand with kindness. The English in the days of
+Elizabeth, as Chappell tells us, "had music at dinner, music at
+supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at
+dawn, music at work, music at play. He who felt not, in some degree,
+its soothing influence, was viewed as a morose unmusical being, whose
+converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and
+distrust." That this was the general sentiment in England is also
+proved by the oft-quoted passage in "The Merchant of Venice," where
+Shakspere notes the magic effect of music on men and animals, and
+concludes with the verses&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The man that hath no music in himself<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The motions of his spirit are dull as night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his affections dark as Erebus;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let no such man be trusted."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">This, of course, is a poetic exaggeration, for we know that there are
+other sources of refinement besides music, and that some of the
+noblest men and women can hardly tell two tunes from one another.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>Nevertheless, the general presumption remains that music and jolly
+good-nature go together, and that music is incompatible with crime. An
+experience I once had in Switzerland brought home this fact to my mind
+in a forcible manner. I was taking a fortnight's tramp, all alone, and
+one day I came near the summit of a mountain pass where, some time
+previously, a solitary tourist had been robbed and murdered. There was
+no house within five miles, and I had not met a soul that morning
+until I approached this place, when I suddenly saw a shabbily dressed
+man coming down the road. Not having any weapon, I could not but feel
+nervous, and my heart began to beat almost audibly. Presently the man,
+who had apparently not yet noticed me, began to sing a Tyrolese
+melody. With the first notes all my fear instantly vanished, and I
+breathed freely again; for an instinctive feeling had told me that a
+man intent on murder and robbery would not sing.</p>
+
+<p>Such presumptions, however, although they have some weight as
+arguments, do not amount to full proof. Our feelings may mislead us,
+and cannot be accepted in lieu of facts. We must therefore confront
+our problem more directly. In what manner does music affect our moral
+character? Does it make us less inclined to murder, stealing, lying,
+lust, avarice, anger, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty, cruelty, and other
+vices? And if so, by what means?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>I find among writers on Music and Morals, a curious tendency to dodge
+the direct question, and indulge in side issues and digressions. Mr.
+Haweis, in his book on the subject, talks glibly about the training of
+the emotions, and has much to tell about the lives of the composers,
+but very little bearing directly on his subject. Wagner, in one of his
+essays, asserts that music has as much influence on tastes and morals
+as the drama itself. A frivolous and effeminate taste, he says, cannot
+but affect our moral conduct. The Spartans understood this when they
+forbade certain kinds of music as demoralizing. He believes that men
+who are inspired by Beethoven's music make more active and energetic
+citizens than those who are charmed by Rossini, Bellini, and
+Donizetti; and he refers to the fact that in Paris, at a certain
+period, music became more and more frivolous as the people degenerated
+morally. At the same time he is obliged to admit that this, perhaps,
+proves rather the effect of morals on music than of music on morals;
+and so our problem remains in a vague twilight.</p>
+
+<p>To gain more light on the subject, let us take a few specific cases.
+Does the influence of music make us less inclined to perpetrate
+murder, suicide, or cruel practices? Everybody has heard the story of
+the famous Italian composer and vocalist, Stradella, whose wonderful
+singing in an oratorio made such a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>profound impression on two men who
+had been hired to murder him, that they not only spared him, but gave
+him warning that his life was in danger. This story is now regarded as
+a myth by some of the best authorities; but the fact that it was so
+long believed universally is not without significance. Take another
+case, which, though occurring in a ficticious drama, might easily be
+true. Faust, in Goethe's drama, when on the point of committing
+suicide, is brought back to his senses on suddenly hearing the Easter
+hymn. But in this case it might be said it was not the music itself,
+but the religious and other associations and memories awakened by it,
+that prevented Faust from carrying out his criminal intention. Such
+associations must always be taken into account when estimating the
+moral value of music; and yet they do not explain everything. A
+residue is left which must be placed to the credit of music.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the vice best adapted to illustrate the direct influence of
+musical culture is cruelty. If you find a boy in the back yard
+torturing a cat or a dog, or bullying and maltreating his playmates,
+it will probably do no good to sing or play to him by way of softening
+his heart. On the contrary, he will probably not appreciate or
+understand the music at all, and the interruption will only annoy and
+anger him. But if you take that same boy and put <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>him in a house where
+there is an <i>infectious musical atmosphere</i>, the chances are that
+before long his feelings will undergo a change, and he will no longer
+derive any pleasure from cruelty. This pleasure is one which boys
+share with savages, and the best way to eradicate it is by cultivating
+the &aelig;sthetic sensibilities. "It cannot be doubted," says Eduard von
+Hartmann, in his "Philosophie des Sch&ouml;nen," "that &aelig;sthetic culture is
+one of the most important means of softening the moral sentiments and
+polishing coarse habits;" and Shelley, in his "Defence of Poetry,"
+says, "It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious
+citizens of Syracuse and Alexandria who were delighted with the poems
+of Theocritus were less cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of
+their tribe."</p>
+
+<p>Now, music seems to be better adapted to bring about a regeneration of
+the heart than even poetry, and for two reasons: In the first place,
+poetry can, and often does, inculcate immoral sentiments, whereas
+music, pure and simple, can never be immoral. As Dr. Johnson remarks,
+"Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice." Secondly, it is in
+childhood that our moral habits are formed, and it is well known that
+children are susceptible to the influence of music at least five or
+ten years before they can really understand poetry. The infant in arms
+has its impatience and anger subdued <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>countless times by the charms of
+a cradle song; and in this way music sweetens its temper, turns its
+frowns into smiles, and prevents it from becoming habitually cross and
+vicious. True, some young children also like to read and recite
+poetry, but what delights them in this case is the <i>musical</i> jingle of
+rhyme and rhythm, rather than the specific qualities of the verse.</p>
+
+<p>Later in life, when the children go to school, they are, as expert
+testimony proves, beneficially affected by singing together, which
+rests and refreshes the brain, and teaches them the value and beauty
+of co-operation. While thus singing, each child experiences the same
+joyous or sad feelings as its classmates, and learns in this way the
+great moral lesson of <i>sympathy</i>. And this brings us back to what was
+said a moment ago regarding the vice of cruelty. Sympathy is the
+correlative and antidote of cruelty. If savages were not utterly
+devoid of sympathy, they would not take such strange delight in
+witnessing the cruel tortures they inflict upon their prisoners.
+Indeed, it may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack
+of sympathy, and modified forms of cruelty. If you reflect a moment,
+you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic&mdash;that is, who
+rejoices in his neighbor's happiness and grieves over his
+misfortunes&mdash;can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous,
+nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious, etc.; and one need not
+therefore be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>a pantheist to agree with Schopenhauer, that Mitleid, or
+sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown
+that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy,
+its far-reaching moral value will become apparent. And this can be
+done easily.</p>
+
+<p>Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
+Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
+Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
+first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
+should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
+the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
+music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
+always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
+music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over
+with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them share
+the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby! I know of no other art
+that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for
+sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the
+arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be seen
+by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by
+5,000 or more at a time&mdash;the more the merrier. I have already stated
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>that in public schools music helps to develop a sympathetic feeling of
+mutual enjoyment. And why is it that music, ever since the days of the
+ancient Hebrews and Greeks, has been always provided at political
+meetings and processions, at picnics, dances, funerals, weddings&mdash;in
+short, at all social and public gatherings? Obviously, because it has
+the power of uniting the feelings of many into one homogeneous and
+sympathetic wave of emotion. It has a sort of <i>compulsive</i> force which
+hurries along even those who are sluggish or unwilling. Plato, in his
+Republic, gives the curious advice that, at meetings of older people
+wine should be distributed, in order to make them more pliable and
+receptive to the counsel of sages. Many would object to such a risky
+policy, which, moreover, can well be dispensed with, since music has
+quite as much power as wine to arouse a sympathetic and enthusiastic
+state of mind at a public assembly, and without any danger of
+disastrous consequences. It is the special function of music to
+intensify all the emotions with which it is associated. It inflames
+the courage of an army of soldiers marching on to defend their
+country, their homes and families. It exalts the religious feelings of
+church-goers, and makes them more susceptible to the minister's moral
+counsels. Is it not absurd to say that such an art has no moral value?
+One of the most eloquent of modern preachers, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>late Henry Ward
+Beecher, went so far as to admit that "In singing, you come into
+sympathy with the Truth as you perhaps never do under the preaching of
+a discourse."</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Dr. Haweis also bears testimony to the moral value of music,
+in the following words: "I have known the Oratorio of the Messiah draw
+the lowest dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during
+the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and attentive
+throng. Will anyone say that for these people to have their feelings
+for once put through such a noble and long-sustained exercise as that,
+could be otherwise than beneficial? If such performances of both
+sacred and secular music were more frequent, we should have less
+drunkenness, less wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, less
+winter pauperism. People get drunk because they have nothing else to
+do; they beat their wives because their minds are narrow, their tastes
+brutal, their emotions, in a word, ill-regulated."</p>
+
+<p>These remarks suggest one of the most important moral functions of
+music&mdash;that of <i>weaning the people from low and demoralizing
+pleasures</i>. In proportion as the masses are educated to an
+appreciation of the subtle and exquisite pleasures afforded by the
+fine arts, and especially by music, will they become indifferent to,
+and abhor, exhibitions which involve cruelty to man and animals, such
+as dog-fights, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>boxing-matches, dangerous and cruel circus tricks,
+executions of criminals, etc. The pleasure derived from such brutal
+exhibitions is the same in kind as that which prompts savages to flay
+alive their prisoners of war. And the morbid pleasure which so many
+apparently civilized people take in reading in the newspapers, column
+after column, about such brutal sports, is the survival of the same
+unsympathetic feeling. I am convinced that no one who really
+appreciates the poetic beauty of a Schubert song or a Chopin nocturne
+can read these columns of our newspapers without feelings of utter
+disgust. And I am as much convinced as I am of my own existence, that
+a man who derives more pleasure from good music than from these vulgar
+columns in the newspapers, is morally more trustworthy than those who
+gloat over them. Music can impart only good impulses; whereas, we hear
+every day of boys and men who, after reading a dime novel or the
+police column in a newspaper, were prompted to commit the crimes and
+indulge in the vices they had read about. Hence, if people could be
+weaned from the vulgar pleasure of reading about crimes and scandals,
+and taught instead to love innocent music, can any one doubt that they
+would be morally the better for it? Just as a tendency to drunkenness
+can best be combated by creating a taste for harmless light wines and
+beer in place of coarse whiskey and gin, so a love of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>demoralizing
+and degrading amusements can best be eradicated by educating the
+poetic and musical sensibilities of the masses. Why are the lower
+classes in Germany so much less brutal, degraded, and dangerous than
+the same classes in England? Obviously, because, after their day's
+labor, they do not drink poisonous liquor in a dirty den of crime, but
+go to sip a few glasses of harmless beer in a garden while listening
+to the merry sounds of music.</p>
+
+<p>Men <i>will</i> have, and <i>must</i> have, their pleasures. Social reformers
+and temperance agitators could not make a greater mistake than by
+following the example of the Puritans and tabooing <i>all</i> pleasures.
+They ought to distinguish between those that have a tendency to excess
+and vice, and those that are harmless and ennobling, encouraging the
+latter in every possible way. And first among those that should be
+encouraged is music, because it is always ennobling, and can be
+enjoyed simultaneously by the greatest number. Its effect is well
+described in Margaret Fuller's private journal: "I felt raised above
+all care, all pain, all fear, and every taint of vulgarity was washed
+out of the world." I think this is an extremely happy expression.
+Female writers sometimes have a knack of getting at the heart of a
+problem by instinct, more easily than men with their superior
+reasoning powers. "Every taint of vulgarity washed out of the world by
+music." That is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>precisely wherein the moral power of music lies; for
+vulgarity is the twin sister of vice. It is criminal to commit a
+murder; it is vulgar to gloat over the contagious details of it in
+books and newspapers. But how rampant vulgarity still is, and how rare
+&aelig;sthetic culture, is shown by the fact that two-thirds of the
+so-called news in many of our daily papers consist of detailed reports
+of crimes in all parts of the world, which are eagerly read by
+hundreds of thousands, while our concert halls have to be filled with
+dead-heads.</p>
+
+<p>There is one more way in which music affects our moral life, to which
+I wish to call attention, namely, through its value as a tonic. No
+operatic manager has ever thought of advertising his performances as a
+tonic, yet he might do so with more propriety than the patent medicine
+venders whose grandiloquent advertisements take up so much space in
+our newspapers. Plato, in the "Laws," says that "The Gods, pitying the
+toils which our race is born to undergo, have appointed holy festivals
+in which men rest from their labors." Lucentio, in "The Taming of the
+Shrew," advances the same opinion in more definite and pungent terms:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Preposterous ass! that never read so far<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To know the cause why music was ordain'd!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was it not to refresh the mind of man<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">After his studies, or his usual pain?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>There can be no doubt whatever that music has the most remarkable
+effect, not only on our minds, but on our bodies. Physiologists tell
+us that different kinds of mental activity are carried on in different
+parts of the brain, and that, in order to recover from fatigue, we
+need not rest altogether, but merely take up some other kind of work.
+Hundreds of times I have found that, however much I may be fatigued by
+a day's brain work, I can play all the evening, or attend a concert or
+opera, without in the least adding to my fatigue. On the contrary, in
+most cases it disappears altogether, the music acting on the mind as a
+surf bath does on the body. Like many others, I have found that the
+best way to cure a headache is to attend an orchestral concert. It
+works like a charm. It stirs up the circulation in the brain as a
+brisk walk does in the body. Even brain disease is eased in this way.
+The power of music even to cure insanity altogether, was frequently
+maintained in ancient and medi&aelig;val times. This claim is doubtless
+exaggerated, yet there is more than a grain of truth in it. There can
+be no doubt that violent maniacs can be calmed, and melancholy ones
+cheered and soothed, by music. To get an authoritative opinion on this
+subject, I wrote to Dr. Hammond. He answered: "I know of no cases of
+insanity that have been cured by music, but I have seen many cases in
+which music has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>quieted insane persons, exerting the same calming
+influence that it does on most of us when we are irritated by petty
+annoyances."</p>
+
+<p>"When we are irritated by petty annoyances." It is then that music
+becomes a medicine and a moral tonic. Writers on ethics have,
+hitherto, too much overlooked the moral importance of health. Where
+there is a lack of health, we rarely find any moral sweetness of
+temper. The vices may be small and peevish, but in their aggregate
+they are enough to poison the happiness of the household. If a man
+comes to ruin from drink and the crimes it leads him to commit, we
+call him immoral. But is he not also immoral if, from excess of work
+and worry, and wilful neglect of exercise, rest, and recreation, he
+breaks down and beggars his family, becoming a burden to them instead
+of a help? I think he is, and that, instead of pitying such a man, we
+should censure him. Ignorance of the laws of hygiene, physical and
+mental, is no valid excuse. He can buy a book on the subject for one
+dollar. But he does not even need to do that. Music, we read in
+Shakespere, has the power of "killing care and grief of heart," and
+what he needs, therefore, is to hear some good music every evening, at
+home or at the opera. This will draw the blood from the over-worked
+part of his brain to another part, and by thus relieving it of the
+tormenting persistency of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>worrying thoughts and business cares,
+enable him to enjoy refreshing, dreamless sleep afterward. In this way
+music may help to restore his health, cure his dyspepsia, and sweeten
+his moral temper.</p>
+
+<p>In America, more than anywhere else, is music needed as a tonic, to
+cure the infectious and ridiculous business fever which is responsible
+for so many cases of premature collapse. Nowhere else is so much time
+wasted in making money, which is then spent in a way that contributes
+to no one's happiness&mdash;least of all the owner's. We Americans are in
+the habit of calling ourselves the most practical nation in the world,
+but the fact is it would be difficult to find a nation less practical.
+For, what is the object of life? Is it to toil like a galley slave and
+never have any amusements? Every nation in Europe, except the English,
+knows better how to enjoy the pleasures of life than we do. Our
+so-called "practical" men look upon recreation as something useless,
+whereas in reality it is the most useful thing in the world.
+Recreation is re-creation&mdash;regaining the energies lost by hard work.
+Those who properly alternate recreation with work, economize their
+brain power, and are therefore infinitely more practical than those
+who scorn or neglect recreation.</p>
+
+<p>The utility and the moral value of refined pleasures is not
+sufficiently understood. It should be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>proclaimed from the housetops
+every day. Bread and butter to eat, and a bed to sleep in, are not the
+only useful things in the world, but, in the words of Shelley,
+"Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the
+imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful." Music is useful
+because it does this, and it is useful in many other ways. Singing
+strengthens the lungs, playing the muscles, and both stimulate the
+mind. Milton, Schiller, George Sand, Alfieri, and other geniuses have
+testified that music aroused their creative faculties; and in
+Beaconsfield's "Contarini" occurs this passage: "I have a passion for
+instrumental music. A grand orchestra fills my mind with ideas. I
+forget everything in the stream of invention." Furthermore, music is a
+stepping-stone to social success. A gifted amateur is welcomed at once
+into circles to which others may vainly seek admission for years; and
+a young lady with a musical voice has a great advantage in the period
+of courtship. But most important of all is the moral value of music as
+an <i>ennui</i> killer. <i>Ennui</i> leads to more petty crimes than anything
+else; and a devotee of music need never suffer a moment's <i>ennui</i>.
+There are enough charming songs and pieces to fill up every spare
+moment in our lives with ecstatic bliss, and to banish all temptation
+to vice. It is in reference to similar pleasures that Sir John
+Lubbock, in his essay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>on the "Duty of Happiness," exclaims: "It is
+wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw
+away." The art of enjoying life is an accomplishment which few have
+thoroughly mastered.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a></span><br />
+
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a></span>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Why is it that most persons are more interested in vocal than in
+instrumental music? Obviously because, as Richard Wagner remarks, "the
+human voice is the oldest, the most genuine, and the most beautiful
+organ of music&mdash;the organ to which alone our music owes its
+existence." And not only is the sound or quality of the human voice
+more beautiful than that of any artificial instrument, but it is
+capable of greater variation. Although a good artist can produce
+various shades of tone on his instrument, yet every instrument has a
+well-defined characteristic <i>timbre</i>, which justifies us in speaking,
+for instance, of the majestic, solemn trombone, the serene flute, the
+amorous violoncello, the lugubrious bassoon, and so on. The human
+voice, on the other hand, is much less limited in its powers of tonal
+and emotional coloring. It is not dependent for its resonance on a
+rigid tube, like the flute, or an unchangeable sounding-board, like
+the violin or the piano, but on the cavity of the mouth, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>can be
+enlarged and altered at will by the movements of the lower jaw, and
+the soft parts&mdash;the tongue and the glottis. These movements change the
+overtones, of which the vowels are made up, and hence it is that the
+human voice is capable of an infinite variety of tone-color, compared
+with which Wagner admits that even "the most manifold imaginable
+mixture of orchestral colors must appear insignificant."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding that the superiority of the voice is thus conceded,
+even by the greatest magician of the orchestra, we daily hear the
+complaint that the good old times of artistic singing are gone by, and
+have been superseded by an instrumental era, in which the voice merely
+plays the part of the second fiddle and is maltreated by composers,
+who do not understand its real nature. So far is this opinion from the
+truth that it must be said, contrariwise, that it is only within the
+last century&mdash;I might almost say the last half century&mdash;that composers
+have begun fully to recognize the true function of the human voice and
+its principal advantage over instruments.</p>
+
+<p>What is this advantage? It is the power of articulating, of uniting
+poetry with music, <i>definite words with indefinite tones</i>. Every
+instrument, as I have just said, has a characteristic emotional
+tone-color. But the emotions expressed by them are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>vague and
+indefinite. A piece of instrumental music can express an eager,
+passionate yearning for something, but it cannot tell what that
+something is&mdash;whether it is the ardent longing of an absent lover, or
+the heavenward aspiration of a religious enthusiast. The vocalist, on
+the other hand, can clearly tell us the object of that longing by
+using definite words. And by thus arousing reminiscences in the
+hearer's mind, and adding the charm of poetry to that of music, he
+doubles the power and impressiveness of his art.</p>
+
+<p>Now, a very brief sketch of the history of solo singing will show that
+this special advantage of the human voice over instruments was, if not
+entirely overlooked, at least considered of secondary importance in
+practice, until Gluck and Schubert laid the foundations for a new
+style, in which the distinctively <i>vocal</i> side of singing has
+gradually become of greater importance than the instrumental side; as
+we see in the music-dramas of Wagner, and the Lieder, or parlor-songs,
+of Schumann, Franz, Liszt, and others.</p>
+
+<p>Although <i>folk-song</i> appears to be as old as the human race, the
+history of <i>artistic</i> song, or song written by professional composers
+for the concert hall, can be traced back only about three centuries.
+Before that time vocal music was generally polyphonic, that is, for
+several voices; and a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>contrapuntal style of music had been introduced
+into Italy from the Netherlands, which was so complicated and
+artificial that the poetic text had no chance whatever of asserting
+its rights and being understood. Now, the modern opera, which was
+originated about three hundred years ago by a number of Florentine
+amateurs, although it sprang from a desire to revive the ancient Greek
+drama, in which music was united with poetry, represents at the same
+time a reaction against this unintelligible Netherland style. The new
+opera at first went to the opposite extreme, making the distinct
+declamation of the text its principal object and neglecting vocal
+ornamentation, and even melody, on purpose. The famous vocalist and
+teacher, Caccini, although he taught his pupils how to sing trills and
+roulades, declared that they were not essential to good singing, but
+merely a means of tickling the ear, and, therefore, generally to be
+avoided. He taught the Italian singers how to express the passions,
+and reproduce the meaning of the words they sang&mdash;an art which,
+according to the Roman, Pietro della Valle, was not previously known
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>The dry declamation of the first Italian operas, however, was not
+supported by a sufficiently rich accompaniment to be enjoyable after
+the first sense of novelty had passed away; and even the gifted
+Monteverde's ingenious innovations in instrumental <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>coloring and in
+the free use of expressive discords, could not ward off a second
+reaction, in favor of song pure and simple, which set in with
+Scarlatti, the founder of the Neapolitan school, whose first opera was
+produced a little over two centuries ago. From this time dates the
+supremacy, in Italy, of the <i>bel canto</i>, or beautiful song, which,
+however, gradually degenerated into mere circus music in which every
+artistic aim was deliberately sacrificed to sensuous tone-revelry and
+agility of execution, the voice being treated as a mere instrument,
+without any regard for its higher prerogative of interpreting poetry
+and heightening its effects.</p>
+
+<p>This period of Italian song prevailed throughout Europe until the time
+of Rossini. And in all the annals of music there is nothing quite so
+strange as the extraordinary craze which existed during this time for
+<i>the instrumental style of vocalism</i>. A special class of singers&mdash;the
+male sopranists&mdash;was artificially created, in order to secure the most
+dazzling results in brilliant, ornamental vocalization. Various kinds
+of trills, grace notes, runs, and other species of <i>fioriture</i>, or
+vocal somersaults, were introduced in every song, in such profusion
+that the song itself was at last barely recognizable; and this kind of
+stuff the audiences of that time applauded frantically. Everybody has
+heard of the vulgar circus tricks performed by the most famous of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>sopranists, Farinelli&mdash;how at one time he beat a famous German
+trumpeter in prolonging and swelling his notes, and how, at another
+time, he began an aria softly, swelled it by imperceptible degrees to
+such an astounding volume, and then decreased it again in the same way
+to pianissimo, that the public wildly applauded him for five minutes.
+Thereupon, Dr. Burney relates, he began to sing with such amazing
+rapidity that the orchestra found it difficult to keep up with him.
+Dr. Dommer justly comments on this story that, for such racing with an
+orchestra, a singer would be hissed to-day by musical people.</p>
+
+<p>It was not only quick and animated songs that were thus overloaded
+with meaningless embroideries by the sopranists and the prima donnas
+that followed them. Slow movements, which ought to breathe a spirit of
+melancholy, appear to have been especially selected as background for
+these vocal fireworks. I need not dwell on the unnaturalness of this
+style. To run up and down the scale wildly and persistently in singing
+a slow and sad song, is as consistent as it would be for an orator to
+grin and yodle while delivering a funeral oration.</p>
+
+<p>A question might be raised as to how far the great Italian composers
+are responsible for this degradation of the vocal art to the level of
+the circus. The public, it might be argued, wanted the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>florid style
+of song; and if Rossini and Donizetti had refused to write in the
+style admired by them, they would have been neglected in favor of
+other and less gifted composers. I do not agree with this reasoning.
+Rossini and Donizetti have revealed enough genius in some of their
+sparkling melodies to make it probable that, if they had not so often
+stooped to the level of a taste corrupted by the sopranists, they
+might have raised the public to a higher standard of musical taste.
+Rossini, in fact, <i>did</i> introduce many reforms in Italian opera. He
+enriched the orchestral accompaniments, removed some of the
+superfluous arias, and for the first time wrote leading solo parts for
+the bass&mdash;an innovation for which he was violently attacked, on the
+ludicrous conservative ground that the bass could only be properly
+used as a basis of harmonies. But Rossini's greatest merit lies in
+this, that he refused to write for the sopranists, and would not even
+let them sing in those of his operas which were brought out under his
+own supervision. Furthermore, to prevent the singers from spoiling his
+melodies with their florid additions, "he supplied his own
+decorations, and made them so elaborate that the most skilled adorner
+would have found it difficult to add to them" (Edwards). For thus
+emancipating the composers from the tyranny of the singers Rossini
+deserves great credit, and still greater honor is due him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>for having
+shown, in his "William Tell," which he wrote for Paris, and in which
+he discarded the florid style, that when he <i>did</i> have a public which
+appreciated simplicity of style and dramatic propriety in music, his
+genius was equal to the occasion. It is a great pity that he did not
+write several more operas in the style of "William Tell," for it is
+the only one of his works which has preserved a portion of its former
+popularity in Paris and elsewhere, thanks to its regard for dramatic
+propriety.</p>
+
+<p>Like the composers, the singing teachers in Italy consented to adapt
+their method to the universal clamor for decorative, florid singing.
+The audiences did not seem to care at all <i>what</i> was sung to them, as
+long as it was sung with sensuous beauty of tone, and facility of
+execution; consequently sensuous beauty of tone and facility of
+execution were almost the only things that the teachers aimed at. This
+is illustrated by an anecdote concerning the famous teacher Porpora
+and his pupil Caffarelli, which, although doubtless exaggerated,
+nevertheless describes the situation graphically. Porpora, it is
+related, gave Caffarelli a page of exercises to which he confined him
+for five years. And at the end of that time he exclaimed: "You have
+nothing more to learn! Caffarelli is the first singer in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>As if facility of execution or technical skill were not the mere
+beginning of vocal culture&mdash;the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>fashioning of the instrument, as it
+were, with which the singer must subsequently learn the higher arts of
+expressing human emotions in tones, of phrasing intelligently, and of
+pronouncing distinctly, so that the poetic qualities of the text may
+be appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>In looking over specimens of the vocal music written by Porpora and
+his contemporaries, we find passages in which a single syllable is
+extended over one hundred and fifty-eight, and even a hundred and
+seventy-five, notes. A more atrocious maltreatment of the text, and
+misconception of the true function of the human voice, could not be
+imagined. As Mr. H.C. Deacon remarks, "The passages in much of the
+music of that date, especially that of Porpora, are really
+instrumental passages ... and possessing but little interest beyond
+the surprise that their exact performance would create." People did
+not ask themselves whether it was worth while for singers to go
+through the most arduous training for five years, for the sake of
+learning to execute runs which any fiddler or flute-player could learn
+to play in a few weeks. Look at the fioriture which, to this day, Mme.
+Patti sings in "Lucia," "Semiramide," etc. She is the only living
+being who can sing them with absolute correctness and smoothness. Not
+another singer can do it&mdash;whereas <i>every member of her orchestra can
+play them at sight</i>. Does not this show, once and for all, that this
+style of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>singing (which still has numerous admirers) is instrumental,
+is unvocal, unsuited to the human voice, and should be abandoned
+forever? Rossini showed his real opinion of it by writing his best and
+most mature work in a different style; and Verdi has done the same in
+"Aida" and "Otello," in which there is hardly a trace of colorature,
+while the style often approaches to that of genuine dramatic song.</p>
+
+<p>The colorature or florid style, however, is only one of the varieties
+of Italian song. Side by side with it there has always been a
+charming, melodious <i>cantabile</i>, which in the later period of Italian
+opera gradually got the ascendancy. This <i>cantabile</i> is often of
+exquisite beauty, and gives Italian and Italianized singers a chance
+to show off the mellow qualities of their voices to the best
+advantage. The very word <i>cantabile</i> emphasizes, by antithesis, the
+unvocal character of the old florid style. <i>Fioritura</i> means
+embroidery, while <i>cantabile</i> means "song-like." But now, note how the
+sins of one period are visited on the next. The evils of the florid
+style did not terminate with its supremacy. They cast a shadow before,
+which prevented the real nature of human song from being discovered
+even after the vocal style had become more simple and rational. During
+the period in which the vocalists were in the habit of singing from a
+dozen to a hundred or more notes to a single syllable of the text,
+they, as well as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>the public, had become so indifferent to the words
+and their poetic meaning, that this habit could not at once be altered
+when the <i>cantabile</i> style came more into vogue. The singers continued
+to be careless in regard to pronunciation of the words, and the opera
+libretti were so very silly that the public really did not care
+whether the singers spoke their words correctly and distinctly or not.
+Hence even the <i>cantabile</i> style of Italian song continued to be more
+or less instrumental in character&mdash;telling the audience little more
+about the text than the flute or the violins told them about it.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wodehouse, in her article on song in Grove's "Dictionary of Music
+and Musicians," calls attention to the injurious action of Italian
+opera on the English School by breeding indifference to the text.
+"From Handel's time until a very recent date," she says, "Italian
+operas and Italian songs reigned supreme in England; Italian singers
+and Italian teachers were masters of the situation to the exclusion of
+all others. And the habit thus contracted of hearing and admiring
+compositions in a foreign and unknown tongue, engendered in the
+English public a lamentable indifference to the words of songs, which
+reacted with evil effect both on the composer and the singer.
+Concerned only to please the ears of his audience, the composer
+neglected to wed his music to words of true poetic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>merit; and the
+singer quickly grew to be careless in his enunciation. Of how many
+singers, and even of good ones, may it not fairly be affirmed that at
+the end of the song the audience has failed to recognize its
+language?"</p>
+
+<p>These remarks are quite as applicable to America as to England. We
+hear singers every week to whom we can listen attentively for five
+minutes without being able to tell what language they are singing in.
+Most of these singers were trained by the Italian method: And yet we
+are told every day that this Italian method, which has so little
+regard for the distinctively vocal side of singing, is the only true
+method for the voice. It is time to call a halt in this matter, time
+to ask if the Italian method is really the one best adapted for
+teaching pupils to sing in English. That it is the best and only
+method for singing in Italian, and for interpreting the style hitherto
+cultivated by the Italians, no one will deny. But whether it is the
+proper method for those who wish to sing in English, French, or
+German, and to devote themselves to the modern dramatic style, is
+quite another question, which must be, partly at least, answered in
+the negative.</p>
+
+<p>A careful examination of the situation, leaving aside all national
+prejudice, will show us that each of the two principal methods, as
+exemplified by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>Italian and German singers, has its dark and its
+bright side, and that the cosmopolitan American style of the future
+ought to try to combine the advantages of both, while avoiding their
+shortcomings. The dark side of Italian singing has been sufficiently
+dwelt upon; let us now consider the bright side.</p>
+
+<p>Italy owes much of her fame as the cradle of artistic song and "The
+Lord's own Conservatory," to climatic and linguistic advantages.
+Thanks to the mild climate, men and women can spend most of their time
+in the open air, and their voices are not liable to be ruined by
+constantly passing from a dry, overheated room into the raw and chilly
+air of the streets. The Italians are a plump race, with well-developed
+muscles, and their vocal chords share in the general muscular health
+and development; so that the average voice in Italy has a much wider
+compass than in most other countries; and an unctuous ease of
+execution is readily acquired. Their language, again, favors Italian
+singers quite as much as their climate. It abounds in the most
+sonorous of the vowels, while generally avoiding the difficult U, and
+the mixed vowels &Ouml; and &Uuml;, as well as the harsh consonants, which are
+almost always sacrificed to euphony. And where the language hesitates
+to make this sacrifice, the vocalists come to the rescue and
+facilitate matters by arbitrarily changing the difficult vowel or
+consonant into an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>easy one. In this they are encouraged by the
+teachers, who habitually neglect the less sonorous vowels and make
+their pupils sing all their exercises on the easy vowel A. No wonder,
+then, that the tones of an Italian singer commonly sound sweet: he
+makes them up of nothing but pure sugar. Characterization, dramatic
+effect, variety of emotional coloring, are all bartered away for
+sensuous beauty of tone; and hence the distinctive name for Italian
+singing&mdash;<i>bel canto</i>, or beautiful song&mdash;is very aptly chosen.</p>
+
+<p>Now, sensuous beauty of tone is a most desirable thing in music.
+Wagner's music, <i>e.g.</i>, owes much of its tonic charm to his fine
+instinct for sensuous orchestral coloring, and Chopin's works lose
+half their characteristic beauty if played on a poor piano, or by one
+who does not know how to use the pedal in such a way as to produce a
+continuous stream of rich saturated sound. Hence the Italians deserve
+full credit for the attention they bestow on sensuous beauty of tone,
+even if their means of securing it may not always be approved. Nor
+does this by any means exhaust the catalogue of Italian virtues. As a
+rule, Italian singers have a better ear for pitch, breathe more
+naturally, and execute more easily than German and French singers,
+whose guttural and nasal sounds they also avoid. The difference
+between the average Italian and German singers is well brought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>out by
+Dr. Hanslick, in speaking of the Italian performances which formerly
+used to alternate with the German operas in Vienna: "Most of our
+Italian guests," he says, "distinguish themselves by means of the
+thorough command they have over their voices, which in themselves are
+by no means imposing; our German members by powerful voices, which,
+however, owing to their insufficient training, do not produce half the
+effect they would if they had been subjected to the same amount of
+training. With the Italians great certainty and evenness throughout
+the r&ocirc;le; with the Germans an unequal alternation of brilliant and
+mediocre moments, which seems partly accidental."</p>
+
+<p>It is this element of accident and uncertainty that lowers the value
+of many German singers. Herr Niemann, for instance, has moments&mdash;and,
+indeed, whole evenings&mdash;when his voice, seemingly rejuvenated, not
+only rises to sublime heights of dramatic passion, but possesses rare
+sensuous beauty; while on other occasions the sound of his voice is
+almost unbearable. Niemann, of course, is fifty-eight years old, but
+many of the younger German singers too often have their bad
+quarter-hours; and even Lilli Lehmann&mdash;whom I would rather hear for my
+own pleasure than any other singer now on the stage&mdash;emits
+occasionally a disagreeable guttural sound. Nothing of the sort in
+Mme. Patti, whom Niemann <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>no doubt is right in pronouncing the most
+perfect vocalist, not only of this period, but of all times. I, for my
+part, have never cared much for the <i>bel canto</i> as such, because it is
+so often wasted on trashy compositions. Yet, when I heard Mme. Patti
+for the first time in New York, I could not help indulging in the
+following rhapsody: "The ordinary epithets applicable to a voice, such
+as sweet, sympathetic, flexible, expressive, sound almost too
+commonplace to be applied to Patti's voice at its best, as it was when
+she sang the <i>valse</i> Ombra Leggiera from 'Dinora,' and 'Home, Sweet
+Home.' Her voice has a natural sensuous charm like a Cremona violin,
+which it is a pleasure to listen to, irrespective of what she happens
+to be singing. It is a pleasure, too, to hear under what perfect
+control she has it; how, without changing the quality of the sound,
+she passes from a high to a low note, from piano to forte, gradually
+or suddenly, and all without the least sense of effort. Indeed her
+notes are as spontaneous and natural as those of a nightingale; and
+this, combined with their natural sweetness and purity, constitutes
+their great charm." A few months later, when Patti gave one of her
+innumerable farewell performances, I was again forced to admit that
+she is the greatest of living lyric sopranos, but took the liberty to
+express my conviction that "the charm of her voice is almost as purely
+sensuous as the beauty of a dewdrop or a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>diamond reflecting the
+prismatic colors of sunlight."</p>
+
+<p>Patti, in a word, is the incarnation of the Italian style. Her voice
+is flawless as regards beauty of tone, and spontaneity and agility of
+execution. Moreover, she avoids the small vices common to most Italian
+singers, such as taking liberties with the time and the sentiment of
+the piece for the sake of prolonging a trill or a loud final high
+note, and so on. At an early stage in her career she followed the
+custom of the time, and lavished such an abundance of uncalled-for
+scales and trills and arpeggios and staccatos on her melody, that even
+Rossini entered a sarcastic protest; but in her later years she has
+conscientiously followed the indications of the composers. At the same
+time, she has shown more and more anxiety to win laurels as a dramatic
+singer. But here the vocal style which she has exclusively cultivated
+has proved an insuperable obstacle. Although free from the smaller
+vices of the Italian school, she could not overcome the great and
+fatal shortcoming of that school&mdash;the maltreatment of the poetic text.
+She could not find the proper accents required in operas where the
+words of the text are as important as the melody itself; and she has
+failed therefore to give satisfaction even in such works as "Faust"
+and "A&iuml;da," which are intermediate between the old-fashioned opera and
+the music-drama <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>proper. I have been often surprised to hear how
+Patti, so conscientious in other respects, slights her texts,
+obliterating consonants and altering vowels after the fashion of the
+Italian school. Having neglected to master the more vigorous vowels
+and expressive consonants, she cannot assert her art in dramatic
+works. Her voice, in short, is <i>merely an instrument</i>. "Bird-like" is
+an epithet commonly applied to it by admirers. Is this a compliment? A
+dubious one, in my opinion. The nightingale's voice is very sweet, no
+doubt, but it is no better than a flute. A bird cannot pronounce words
+and sing at the same time. The human voice alone can do that&mdash;can
+alone combine poetry and music, uniting the advantage of both in one
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, have you ever heard anyone compare the voices of
+Lehmann, Materna, Sucher, or Malten to a bird's voice? Of course not;
+and the reason is obvious. The point of view is different. Although
+Lilli Lehmann's voice is almost as mellow in timbre as Patti's, and
+much richer and warmer, we never think of it as a bird-like or vague
+instrumental tone, but as a medium for the expression of definite
+dramatic emotion. And herein lies the chief difference between the
+Italian and the German schools. <i>An Italian adores singing for its own
+sake, a German as a means of definite emotional expression.</i></p>
+
+<p>Now, whether we look at nations or at individuals, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>we always find
+that simple beauty of tone and agility of execution in artistic
+singing are appreciated sooner than emotional expression and dramatic
+characterization. Hence it is that the Italian school came before the
+German school. Even in Germany, a few generations ago, the Italian
+school was so predominant that German composers of the first
+rank&mdash;Gluck, Weber, and Beethoven&mdash;found it difficult to assert their
+influence against it. In Vienna, during the season of 1823, the
+Rossini furore was so great that none but Rossini's operas were sung;
+and in Germany almost everyone of the three dozen big and little
+potentates supported his own Italian operatic company. To-day you look
+in vain through Germany or Austria for a single Italian company. The
+few Italian operas that have remained on the repertory are sung in
+German translations by German singers, and all of these operas
+together hardly have as many performances in a year as a single one of
+Wagner's.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a revolution in taste which may well excite our astonishment,
+and arouse our curiosity as to how it was brought about. It was
+brought about by the courage and perseverance of a few composers who,
+instead of stooping down to the crude taste of the <i>fioriture</i>-loving
+public, elevated that taste until it was able to appreciate the poetic
+and dramatic side of music; and it was brought about with the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>assistance of German singers, notwithstanding the great disadvantages,
+climatic and linguistic, under which these labor in comparison with
+Italian singers.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Germans are a more robust nation than the Italians, with
+more powerful muscles and voices, their climate is against them,
+leading to frequent throat troubles which endanger the beauty of the
+voice. Hence, the gift of mellow, supple song does not come to them so
+spontaneously as to the Italians. About a thousand years ago, an
+Italian compared the singing of some German monks to the noise made by
+a cart rattling down a frozen street; and even Luther compared the
+singing in cathedrals and monasteries at his time to the "braying of
+asses." At a more recent period, Frederick the Great, on hearing of
+the proposed engagement of a German singer, exclaimed: "What! hear a
+German singer! I should as soon expect to derive pleasure from the
+neighing of my horse!" Beethoven knew that the chief reason why he
+could not compete with Rossini on the stage was the lack of good
+German singers. He often lamented the inferiority of the German to the
+Italian singers, and one day exclaimed to the organist Freudenberg:
+"We Germans have no sufficiently cultivated singers for the part of
+<i>Leonora</i>; they are too cold and feelingless. The Italians sing and
+act with their whole souls." Nevertheless, Beethoven refused to adapt
+his music to the style of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>the Italian singers&mdash;fortunately; for, if
+he had, it would now be as obsolete as most of Rossini's and
+Donizetti's.</p>
+
+<p>When Berlioz made his famous tour in Germany, matters had somewhat
+improved, to judge from the following remarks in his "&Agrave; Travers
+Chants:" "They say that the Germans sing badly; that may seem true in
+general. I will not broach the question here, whether or not their
+language is the reason of it, and whether Mme. Sontag, Pischek,
+Tichatschek, Mlle. Lind, who is almost a German, and many others, do
+not form magnificent exceptions; but, upon the whole, German vocalists
+sing, and do not howl; the screaming school is not theirs; they make
+music." Nevertheless, about the same time, Liszt complained that a
+perfect training of the voice such as he admired in Viardot Garcia,
+had almost become a legend of the past; and only eight years ago, an
+excellent German critic, Martin Pl&uuml;ddemann, wrote that "Germany has
+many good orchestras and not a few excellent pianists, even among
+amateurs; but a city of 100,000 inhabitants seldom has ten vocalists
+whose voices are tolerable, and of these two or three at most deserve
+the name of artists."</p>
+
+<p>When Richard Wagner made his preparation for the great Nibelung
+festival in 1876, he had the greatest difficulty in securing a
+sufficient number of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>competent interpreters for the different r&ocirc;les
+of the trilogy, though he had all the German opera companies to choose
+from. His private letters and essays are full of lamentations
+regarding the rarity of singers able to interpret, not only his works,
+but those of Weber, Gluck, or Mozart. Good singers, he says in one
+place, are so rare that the managers have to pay their weight in gold
+and jewelry. But the cause of this, he continues, is not the lack of
+good voices, but their improper training in the wrong direction.
+German teachers have tried to adapt the voices of their pupils to the
+Italian <i>canto</i>, which is incompatible with the German language.
+"Hitherto," he says in another place, "the voice has been trained
+exclusively after the model of Italian songs; there was no other. But
+the character of Italian songs was determined by the general spirit of
+Italian music, which, in the time of its full bloom, was best
+exemplified by the sopranists, because the aim of this music was mere
+enjoyment of the senses, without any regard for genuine depth of
+feeling&mdash;as is also shown by the fact that the voice of young manhood,
+the tenor voice, was hardly used at all at this period, and later only
+in a sopranistic way, as falsetto. Now, the spirit of modern music,
+under the undisputed leadership of German genius, especially
+Beethoven, has succeeded in first rising to the true dignity of art,
+by bringing within the sphere of its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>incomparable expressiveness, not
+only what is agreeable to the senses, but also an energetic
+spirituality and emotional depth." Evidently, he concludes, a singer
+trained in the spirit of the old-fashioned, merely sensuous music, is
+unable to cope with modern dramatic music, and the result is the
+failure and premature collapse of so many promising singers, who might
+have become great artists had they been rationally instructed.</p>
+
+<p>Misinformed or prejudiced critics have told us countless times that
+Wagner assigned the voice a secondary place in his works because he
+cared less for it than for the orchestra, and did not understand its
+nature and uses. The fact is that no one can read his essays,
+especially those on Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and on Actors and
+Vocalists, without being impressed with his unbounded admiration for
+the voice, and his practical knowledge of its highest functions and
+correct use. As a vocal teacher, Wagner has perhaps never had an
+equal. A few words from him regarding tone emission, breathing, or
+phrasing, have often sufficed to show to a singer that a passage which
+he had considered unsingable, was really the easiest thing in the
+world, if only the poetic sense were properly grasped and the breath
+economized. It is difficult to realize how much of their art and
+popularity the greatest dramatic singers of the period owe to Wagner's
+personal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>instruction. Materna, Malten, Brandt, Tichatschek, Schnorr
+von Carolsfeld, Niemann, Vogl, Winkelmann, Betz, Scaria, Reichmann,
+and many others have had the benefit of his advice; and if Wagner
+could have carried out his plans of establishing a college of dramatic
+singing at Bayreuth&mdash;a plan which was frustrated by the lack of
+funds&mdash;the cause of dramatic art would have gained immeasurably. We
+speak with scornful contempt of the Viennese of a former generation,
+who allowed a rare genius like Schubert to starve; but posterity will
+look back with quite as great astonishment on the sluggishness of a
+generation which did not eagerly accept the offer of the greatest
+dramatic composer of all times, to instruct gratuitously a number of
+pupils in his own style and those of Gluck, Mozart, and Weber.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving out of consideration the instructions which they personally
+received from Wagner, the greatest dramatic singers of the time may be
+regarded as self-made men and women. Experience taught them their art,
+other teacher they had none; for it is only within a few years that a
+few teachers have begun to realize that the old methods of instruction
+are partly incorrect, and partly insufficient for the demands of
+contemporary art. Such teachers as Mme. Viardot-Garcia and Mme.
+Marchesi have done much good, and trained many excellent lyric
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>vocalists; but Mme. Marchesi herself admits that the great demand
+to-day is for dramatic, and not for lyric, singers. Formerly, it was
+the <i>bravura</i> singer who bought dukedoms with his shekels; to-day,
+with the solitary exception of Patti, it is the <i>dramatic</i> soprano or
+tenor that gets from $500 to $1,000 a night. When will teachers and
+pupils wake up and recognize the new situation? When will American
+girls cease flocking by the hundreds to Milan to learn such r&ocirc;les as
+<i>Lucia</i> or <i>Amina</i>, for which there is now no demand, either in Europe
+or America, if we except the wild Western audiences to which Emma
+Abbott caters. A good <i>Elsa</i> or <i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i> will get an engagement
+ten times sooner than a good <i>Lucia</i>; and young vocalists whose voices
+have not sufficient volume and power to cope with German dramatic
+music, will do well to devote their attention to the better class of
+French operas, for which there is a growing demand, as the French
+style has always been much more like the German than like the Italian,
+owing to the great attention paid by French composers, especially
+since the days of Gluck, to vigorous declamation and distinct
+enunciation. Wagner especially recommends the works of the older
+French schools as a preparation for his own more difficult operas.</p>
+
+<p>Director Stanton, of the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York, is
+obliged every summer to make a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>trip to Germany and look about for
+dramatic singers wherewith to replenish his casts. As a number of
+American singers have already won fame here and abroad, the time no
+doubt will come when he will be able to find the dramatic singers he
+needs at home, and when opera in English will have supplanted foreign
+opera, so far as the language is concerned. But until that happy epoch
+arrives every aspirant to operatic honors cannot be too strongly urged
+to begin his or her studies by learning the French and German
+languages. Almost all the greatest singers of the century have been
+able not only to sing but to speak in several languages. Above all
+things, students of song should learn to speak their own language. Mr.
+H.C. Deacon remarks that "no nation in the civilized world speaks its
+language so abominably as the English.... Familiar conversation is
+carried on in inarticulate smudges of sound which are allowed to pass
+current for something, as worn-out shillings are accepted as
+representatives of twelvepence.... When English people begin to study
+singing, they are astonished to find that they have never learned to
+speak."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Deacon's strictures do not apply in all their force to Americans,
+for the average American speaks English more distinctly than the
+average Englishman; yet there is room for vast improvement in the
+enunciation of our singers. Now, the great value <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>of the German style
+to English students lies in this, that it emphasizes above all things
+the importance of correct and distinct speech in song. Julius Hey, of
+Munich, who has just published a vocal method which will mark an epoch
+in the teaching of singing, devotes the whole of his first volume to
+an analysis of the elements of speech, and to exercises in speaking.
+The second and third volumes contain vocal exercises for male and
+female voices, while the fourth volume, which has just appeared,
+discusses the special characteristics of the German dramatic method,
+and gives detailed instructions for the development and training of
+each variety of voice, together with an appendix in which some of the
+most popular operatic r&ocirc;les are analyzed and described. It is a book
+which no teacher or student who wishes to keep abreast of the times
+can afford to be without.</p>
+
+<p>Although Herr Hey is a disciple of Wagner, he is a cosmopolitan
+admirer of all that is good in every style of the past and present. In
+the elaborate scheme for the establishment of a conservatory in Munich
+which Wagner submitted to King Ludwig, he dwells on the fact that
+every student of song, whatever his ultimate aims, should be
+instructed in Italian singing, in conjunction with the Italian
+language. Herr Hey, too, admits that there is no branch of the Italian
+method which the German teachers can afford to ignore. In the emission
+of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>mellow tone, the use of the portamento, in the treatment of
+scales, of trills, and of other ornaments, and in facile vocalization
+in general, all nations can learn from the Italians. But the Italian
+method does not go far enough. It does not meet the demands of the
+modern opera and the modern music-drama. It delights too much in
+comfortable solfeggios, in linked sweetness long drawn out, which soon
+palls on the senses. The modern romantic and dramatic spirit demands
+more characteristic, more vigorous, more varied accents than Italian
+song supplies. These dramatic accents are supplied by the German
+method, and in this chiefly lies its superiority over the Italian
+method.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Hey uses a very happy comparison in trying to show the bad
+consequences of relying too much on the Italian principles of vocal
+instruction which have been current until lately in Germany as in all
+other countries. Students, he says, are taught to fence with a little
+walking-cane, and when it comes to the decisive battle they are
+expected to wield a heavy sword. A most happy illustration this, I
+repeat, for it indicates exactly what vocal teachers of the old school
+are doing. They choose the easiest of the vowels and the easiest
+melodic intervals, and make the pupils exercise on those constantly,
+ignoring the more difficult ones; and the consequence is, that when,
+subsequently, the pupils are confronted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>with difficult intervals in a
+dramatic r&ocirc;le, they sing them badly and make the ludicrous protest
+that the composer "doesn't know how to write for the voice;" and when
+they come across difficult vowels they either change them into easier
+ones, and thus make the text unintelligible, or else they emit a crude
+tone because they have never learned to sing a sonorous U, I, or E
+(Latin).</p>
+
+<p>The German principle, on the other hand, is that all vowels (and the
+German language has a greater number of them than the Italian) must be
+cultivated equally, the difficult ones all the more because they are
+difficult. Herr Hey has found in practice that not only can the vowels
+which at first sound dull and hollow, like U, be made as sonorous as A
+(Ah), but that, by practising on U, the A itself is rendered more
+sonorous than it can ever become by exclusive practice on it alone.
+Not only does the German method in this way secure a greater variety
+of sonorous vowel sounds, useful for the expression of different
+dramatic moods, but the registers are equalized, and there is a great
+gain in the power and endurance of the voice, which is of immense
+importance to-day in grand opera.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. Stockhausen, the distinguished vocal teacher, recently remarked
+in the <i>Frankfurter Zeitung</i> that "the <i>mezza voce</i> is the natural
+song, the constant loud singing being only a struggle with unequal
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>weapons against our modern orchestra." No doubt he is right. But the
+orchestra has become such an important factor in modern opera that
+musicians would be unwilling to have it reduced in size&mdash;the tendency
+being, in fact, the other way; and at the same time opera is such an
+expensive luxury that it can only be made to pay in a very large
+theatre, which obliges the singers to have stentorian voices.
+Consequently, the German method, which develops the power and the
+sonority of the voice on <i>every</i> vowel, is the method of the future,
+all the more because the English language, which is the world language
+of the future, is even more difficult for vocal purposes than the
+German, and calls for similar treatment.</p>
+
+<p>In the treatment of consonants, the German method marks a still
+greater advance on the Italian method. Professor Ehrlich thinks that
+the reason why Italians care so much for melody and so little for
+harmony is because they are too indolent to make the mental effort
+which is required to follow a complicated harmonic score. They are,
+certainly, too lazy to pronounce any harsh or difficult consonants,
+and the Italian language therefore presents a picture of sad
+effeminate degeneracy compared with the more vigorous Latin and even
+Spanish. Now the English language and the English character have much
+more of German vigor and masculine strength <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>than of the Italian
+<i>dolce far niente</i>: hence, the English vocal style of the future will
+have to be modelled after the German style, which, instead of shirking
+difficult consonants boldly tackles and utilizes them. It will never
+be possible to sing so sweetly in the English and German languages as
+in Italian; but it is possible to sing with much more vigor, dramatic
+definiteness, and variety of emotional expression.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, the harshness of the consonants in German and
+English song must not be too much emphasized. Wagner has shown in his
+music-dramas, and Hey in his vocal method, that by means of a proper
+division of syllables and correct articulation, the harshness of
+consonants can be toned down as much as is desirable. On the
+desirability and effectiveness of strong consonants Liszt has some
+admirable remarks in speaking of the Polish language, which is noted
+for its melodious beauty, although it bristles with consonants: "The
+harshness of a language," he says, "is by no means always conditioned
+by the excessive number of consonants, but rather by the way in which
+they are united; one might almost say that the weak, cold color of
+some languages is due to the lack of characteristic and strongly
+accented sounds. It is only an unharmonious combination of dissimilar
+consonants that offends a refined ear. The frequent return of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>certain
+well-united consonants gives shading, rhythm, and vigor to language;
+whereas the predominance of vowels produces a certain pallor in the
+coloration, which needs the contrast of darker tints."</p>
+
+<p>Those who are always ready to insist on the superiority of the Italian
+language for song, would do well to ponder these remarks of Liszt, who
+knew what he was talking about, as he spoke a number of modern
+languages fluently. And when they have done that, they should procure
+a few of Wagner's later vocal scores and note the extremely ingenious
+manner in which he has made the peculiarities of German consonants
+subservient to his dramatic purposes. I refer especially to his use of
+alliteration&mdash;the repetition of a consonant in the same or in
+consecutive lines. This not only insures a smooth, melodious flow, but
+enables the composer to heighten the effect of any situation by
+choosing consonants that harmonize with it. What, for instance, could
+be more delightfully descriptive than the words sung by the three
+Rhine daughters as they merrily swim and gambol under the water in
+"Rheingold:"</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Weia! Waga!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Woge, du Welle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Walle zur Wiege!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wagalaweia!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wallala, weiala, weia!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>One need only look at this, without understanding the language, to
+feel the rhythmic motion of the water, and imagine the song of the
+merry maidens. Again, in the famous love duo in the "Walk&uuml;re," note
+the repetition of the liquid consonants, the l's and m's, which give
+the sound such a soft and sentimental background. Does it not seem
+incredible that the Italian operatic composers should have ignored
+such poetic means of deepening the emotional color of their songs?</p>
+
+<p>But this is by no means all. In the same scene in "Rheingold" to which
+reference has just been made, the ugly Nibelung <i>Alberich</i> appears
+presently and tries to catch one of the lovely maidens. But they elude
+his grasp and he angrily complains that he slips and slides on the
+slimy soil. Note the slippery character of these sounds:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Garstig glatter<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glitschriger Glimmer!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wie Gleit ich aus!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mit H&auml;nden und F&uuml;ssen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nicht fasse noch halt'ich<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Das schlecke Geschl&uuml;pfer."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin"><i>There</i> is a real Volap&uuml;k for you&mdash;a world language which all can
+understand, for it is onomatopoetic realism.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it is not "beautiful;" but is that a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>reasonable objection?
+What would you say to an artist who painted dramatic battle-scenes,
+but made all the soldiers' faces as pretty as he could and adorned
+with sweet smiles? <i>That</i> is precisely what the Italian opera
+composers have done in stage music; and it is because Wagner taught
+the singer to express not only <i>sweet</i> sentiments but <i>all</i> dramatic
+emotions, whether harsh or agreeable, that his new style marks an
+epoch in the evolution of the art of singing. At the same time, even
+these harsher passages in Wagner's vocal music are not really ugly,
+that is, disagreeable to the ear, <i>when properly sung</i>. Just as a
+homely face becomes attractive when it expresses a vivid emotion, so
+the harshest vocal measures in the realistic music-drama become a
+source of enjoyment if they are sung <i>with expression</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, there are only a few artists as yet who have
+sufficiently caught Wagner's intentions to be able to sing in this
+manner. Carl Hill, who created the part of the magician <i>Klingsor</i> at
+the Parsifal Festival, in 1882, was one of these exceptions. He
+reflected the spirit of the gruesome text assigned to him so admirably
+that Wagner was delighted; but afterward he complained that Hill's
+fine impersonation was not so widely appreciated as it deserved to be;
+and why? Apparently, because <i>Klingsor's</i> melodic intervals were not
+pleasing, nor his sentiments sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>We must conclude from this that, in regard to dramatic singing, many
+opera-goers are still a good deal like the honest Scotchman who, on
+his first visit to a theatre, climbed on the stage and administered
+the villain of the play a sound thrashing; or, like the Bowery
+audiences, which applaud the good man in the play, no matter how badly
+he acts, and hiss the villain, though he be a second Salvini.</p>
+
+<p>Until operatic audiences begin to understand that singing is
+commendable in proportion as it gives realistic expression, not only
+to sweet and pleasing moods, but to various kinds of dramatic emotion,
+the full grandeur and value of Wagner's vocal style cannot be
+appreciated. A real epicure does not care to eat cakes and candy all
+the time; he loves olives and caviare too. These may be acquired
+tastes, but all taste for high art is acquired. And the time is,
+apparently, not very distant when Wagner's realistic vocal style will
+no longer be caviare even to the public at large, but will be more
+enjoyed&mdash;even when it gives expression to emotions of anger, jealousy,
+and revenge&mdash;than the cloying, sugar-coated melodies of Bellini and
+Rossini, or those meaningless embroideries which even some of the best
+of the older Italians (Tosi, for example) regarded as the most
+beautiful part of song.</p>
+
+<p>The great enthusiasm frequently shown at performances of Wagner's
+operas in other countries as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>well as in Germany, seems to argue that
+the public at large <i>has</i> already entered into the real spirit and
+meaning of the Wagnerian style of singing. But numerous experiences
+lead me to believe the contrary. Allow me to quote, for example, an
+extract from one of those letters, abusive or censorious, which
+musical editors receive almost daily. "Is it not undeniable," writes a
+correspondent, "that as long as the world lasts, one of its greatest
+delights will consist in listening to the music furnished by the human
+voice? The more highly cultivated, pure, sweet, and flexible the
+voice, the more the enjoyment derived. And is it not equally true that
+Wagner's style of music discourages singing of this sort, or, in fact,
+singing of any sort? Are not the principal features of Wagner's operas
+the orchestra, acting, and general <i>mise-en-sc&egrave;ne</i>, and does not
+singing, pure and simple, have but little part in it?"</p>
+
+<p>If the writer of these questions had asked them in Wagner's presence I
+believe that Wagner would have jumped up and boxed his ears. Nothing
+so irritated him as this notion that the singing in his operas is
+subordinate to the orchestra, or, in other words, that he puts the
+statue in the orchestra and the pedestal on the stage. As early as
+1850, he complained to Liszt about his friend Dingelstedt, who, in his
+article on the first performance of "Lohengrin," had expressed a
+similar opinion. And <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>many years later, in writing of Schnorr von
+Carolsfeld's wonderful impersonation of <i>Tristan</i>, he begs the reader
+to note that the last act of this work contains "an exuberance of
+orchestral devices, such as no simple instrumental composer has ever
+had occasion to call into use. Then assure yourself," he continues,
+"that this complete gigantic orchestra, considered from an operatic
+point of view, is, after all, only related as <i>accompaniment</i> to the
+'solo' part represented by the monologue of the vocalist, who lies on
+his couch; and infer from this the significance of Schnorr's
+impersonation, if I call to witness every conscientious spectator at
+those Munich performances, that, from the first bar to the last, the
+attention and interest of all was centred on the vocalist actor, was
+chained to him, and never allowed a single word of the text to escape
+through a momentary absence of mind; and that the orchestra, as
+compared with the singer, completely disappeared, or, more correctly
+speaking, seemed to be a constituent part of his song."</p>
+
+<p>I have never had the privilege of hearing Schnorr, but I heard Scaria
+repeatedly at Bayreuth and Vienna, and he always impressed on me, in
+the manner here described by Wagner, the supreme importance of the
+vocal part in his scores. Not a word of the text was lost, and in the
+most difficult intervals his voice was always beautifully and
+smoothly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>modulated. He enabled me to realize for the first time, the
+truth of what Wagner said regarding his vocal style, in the following
+words: "In my operas there is no difference between phrases that are
+'declaimed' and 'sung,' but my declamation is at the same time song,
+and my song declamation." Scaria's method also afforded an eloquent
+illustration of the wonderful manner in which, in Wagner's vocal
+style, the melodic accent always falls on the proper rhetorical accent
+of each word of the text, which is one of the secrets of clear
+enunciation. He emphasized important syllables by dwelling on them,
+thus producing that dramatic <i>rubato</i> which Wagner considered of such
+great importance in his operas that, when he brought out "Tannh&auml;user"
+in Dresden, he actually had the words of the text copied into the
+parts of all the orchestral players, in order that they might be able
+to follow these poetic licenses in the dramatic phrasing of the
+singer. This dramatic <i>rubato</i> is, of course, a very different thing
+from the freedom which Italian singers often allow themselves on
+favorable high notes, which they prolong, not in order to emphasize an
+emotion but to show off the beauty and sustaining power of their
+voices.</p>
+
+<p>Scaria, unfortunately, was never heard in opera in this country. But
+we have had Materna and Niemann and Brandt and Fischer, and Alvary
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>Lehmann, who have given us correct ideas of the German vocal
+style. Surely no one can say, on listening to Lehmann's <i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i>,
+or Fischer's <i>Hans Sachs,</i> or Alvary's <i>Siegfried</i>, that the vocal
+part is inferior in beauty or importance to the orchestral. When
+Alvary sang <i>Siegfried</i> for the first time in New York, he presented a
+creditable but uneven impersonation, not having sufficiently mastered
+the details of the acting to feel quite at ease, and not being able to
+husband his vocal resources for the grand duo at the close. But at the
+end of the season, at the eleventh performance, he had become a
+full-fledged <i>Siegfried</i>, acting the part as by instinct, while his
+voice was as fresh at the close of the opera as at the beginning: thus
+affording a striking proof of Wagner's assertion, that the greatest
+vocal difficulties of his r&ocirc;les can be readily mastered if the singer
+will only take the pains to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the
+text and the dramatic situations. Alvary spent a whole year in
+learning this r&ocirc;le, availing himself of the hints given him by Herr
+Seidl, who has the Wagnerian traditions by heart; and to-day he might,
+if he felt so inclined, amass wealth and win honor by travelling about
+Europe and singing nothing but this one r&ocirc;le. Vienna and Brussels made
+strenuous efforts to entice him away from New York after his great
+success as <i>Siegfried</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This success is the more gratifying and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>encouraging because,
+previously, he had been only a second-rate singer. It was his
+conscientious and prolonged study of the German vocal style that
+enabled him to win his present lucrative and honorable position. If
+there were a few more young singers like him the operatic problem might
+be considered solved, for it is the rarity of well-trained singers that
+causes all the financial embarrassment in our opera-houses. They are so
+scarce, that as soon as one is discovered he is hurried on the stage,
+after a year's hasty preparation, and if his untrained voice soon gives
+out&mdash;as it must under the circumstances&mdash;the blame is laid on Wagner's
+shoulders. But, as Mme. Lucca remarks, "neither Wagner nor any other
+composer spoils the voice of any one who knows how to sing." She thinks
+that at least six years of faithful study are necessary to develop the
+voice in accordance with artistic principles. Herr Hey is somewhat more
+lenient, three years of thorough training sufficing, in his opinion, as
+a preparation for the stage. Much, of course, depends on individuals,
+and the number of hours given to study every day. In the old Italian
+vocal schools, two centuries ago, the pupils were kept busy six or
+eight hours a day, devoting one hour to difficult passages, another to
+trills and to accuracy of intonation, others to expression, to
+counterpoint, composition and accompaniment, etc. They often <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>practised
+before a mirror in order to study the position of the soft parts in the
+mouth, and to avoid grimaces; and sometimes they sang at places where
+there was a good echo, so as to hear their own faults, as if some one
+else were singing. Yet, as we have seen, the main stress was laid on
+agility of technical execution, whereas the modern German method,
+without in the least neglecting technique, calls upon pupils to devote
+more attention to the principles of soulful expression and dramatic
+accentuation. A singer who wishes to appear to advantage as <i>Euryanthe</i>
+or <i>Lohengrin</i> or <i>Tristan</i> must not only be entirely familiar with his
+own vocal parts but he ought to be as familiar with the orchestral
+score as the conductor himself: for, only then, can he acquire that
+ease which is necessary for producing a deep impression. As he has not
+the conductor's advantage of looking on the printed score while
+singing, he must therefore have an excellent memory. As Dr. Hanslick
+remarks, "the artists who sing 'Tristan and Isolde' by heart, if they
+do nothing more than sing the notes correctly, deserve our most sincere
+admiration. That they can do to-day what seemed almost impossible
+twenty years ago is indeed Wagner's achievement, an achievement which
+has hardly been noted hitherto." Let me add that in modern German
+music, <i>everything</i> is difficult to the singer&mdash;the consonants of the
+language, the unusual intervals <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>and accents, the necessity of being
+actor and singer at the same time, etc. Hence we ought to be charitable
+and condone an occasional slip. But the average opera-goer in this
+country is anything but charitable. If one of these dramatic singers,
+thus hampered by difficulties, makes the slightest lapse from tonal
+beauty (which may be even called for) he is judged as unmercifully as
+if he were a representative of the <i>bel canto</i>, whose art consists in a
+mere voice without emotion&mdash;<i>vox et pr&aelig;terea nihil</i>. This is as unfair
+as it is to judge Wagner's dramas by the music alone, and is, indeed a
+consequence of this attitude.</p>
+
+<p>It has been too much the habit in America and in England to sneer at
+German singers; and it is customary if a German singer has a good
+mellow voice to attribute that to his Italian method, while his
+shortcomings are ascribed to the German method. This, again, is as
+absurd as it is unjust; for, as I have endeavored to show, the real
+German method, by insisting on an equal treatment of all the vowels,
+develops a richer and more sonorous voice than the Italian method;
+and, indeed, the reason why powerful dramatic voices are so rare among
+Italians, is because of their one-sided preference, in their
+exercises, for the easiest vowels.</p>
+
+<p>When Mendelssohn travelled in Italy he noted that there were very few
+good singers at the opera-houses, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>and that one had to go to London
+and Paris to find them. To-day few of them can be found even in London
+and Paris; and, indeed, I could easily show, by giving lists of the
+famous singers of the past and present, that the Italians constitute a
+small minority as compared with the German, French, and Scandinavian
+singers of the first rank. The custom so long followed by singers of
+all nationalities of adopting Italian stage names has confused the
+public on the subject. And, finally, I could name a dozen German
+singers who have won first-class honors in Italian opera; but where is
+there an Italian <i>Tannh&auml;user</i> or <i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i> or <i>Wotan</i>? All honor,
+therefore, to the versatility of German singers, who, like Lilli
+Lehmann, for instance, can sing <i>Norma</i> and <i>Isolde</i> equally well.</p>
+
+<p>And still more honor to the German composers who have restored the
+true function of song. Everybody knows that in the popular songs, or
+folk songs, of <i>all</i> nations, including the Italian, the words are
+quite as important as the melody. It was only in the artificial songs
+of the Netherland school and the Italian opera composers that the
+voice was degraded to the function of a mere inarticulate instrument;
+and it remained for Wagner, following the precedence of Gluck, to
+restore it to its rank as the inseparable companion of poetry. And
+what led him to do this was not abstract reflection but artistic
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>instinct and experience. He does not even claim the honor of having
+originated the true vocal style, but confesses with pride that it was
+a <i>woman</i>, Frau Schroeder-Devrient, who first revealed to him the
+highest possibilities of dramatic singing, and he boasts that he was
+the only one that learned this lesson of the great German singer, and
+developed the hints regarding the correct vocal style unconsciously
+given by her.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be forgotten, however, that side by side with the
+music-drama and partly preceding it, another form of vocal music grew
+up in Germany, which in a very similar manner restored the voice to
+its true sphere as the wedded wife of poetry. I refer, of course, to
+the <i>Lied</i>, or parlor song, to which, indeed, I might have devoted
+this whole essay, quite as well as to the music-drama, if there were
+anything in Italian music that might have been compared to the songs
+of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Brahms, Liszt, Rubinstein, etc.</p>
+
+<p>As Sir George Grove poetically puts it, in Schubert's songs "the music
+changes with the words as a landscape does when the sun and clouds
+pass over it. And in this Schubert has anticipated Wagner, since the
+words in which he writes are as much the absolute basis of his songs
+as Wagner's librettos are of his operas." Liszt, too, notes somewhere
+that Schubert doubtless exerted an indirect influence on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>the
+development of the opera by means of the dramatic realism which
+characterizes the melody and accompaniment of his parlor songs (such
+as the "Erl King," the "Doppelg&auml;nger," etc.)&mdash;a realism which becomes
+still more pronounced in Schumann, Franz, and Liszt, in whose songs
+every word of the poem colors its bar of music with its special
+emotional tint, instead of merely serving, as in the old <i>bel canto</i>,
+as an artificial and meaningless scaffolding for the construction and
+execution of a melody.</p>
+
+<p>This parallel evolution of the parlor song and the music-drama cannot
+be too strongly emphasized: for the same tendency being followed by so
+many of the greatest geniuses (some of whom are not Germans) affords
+cumulative evidence of the fact that the German style (which, as I
+have explained, includes all that is valuable in the Italian method)
+is the true vocal style, the style of the future, the style which
+cosmopolitan American art will have to adopt. I have been told that
+since the revival of German opera in New York, the Italian teachers in
+the city have lost many of their pupils. Obviously, if they wish to
+regain them they will have to adopt the best features of the German
+method, just as the Germans have adopted all that is good in the
+Italian method. It cannot be denied that the pupils turned out by the
+average vocal teachers are quite unable to sing a Franz or even a
+Schubert song <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>correctly and with proper emotional expression. Now, it
+is evident, as Ehlert says, that "that art of singing which abides
+with the <i>bel canto</i> and is unable to sing Bach, Beethoven, and
+Schumann, has not attained to the height of their period. It becomes
+its task to adapt itself to these new circumstances, to renounce the
+comfortable solfeggios and acquire the poetic expression that they
+accept."</p>
+
+<p>The famous tenor Vogl, a contemporary of Schubert, wrote in his diary
+the following significant words: "Nothing shows so plainly the want of
+a good school of singing as Schubert's songs. Otherwise, what an
+enormous and universal effect must have been produced throughout the
+world, wherever the German language is understood, by these truly
+divine inspirations, these utterances of a musical clairvoyance! How
+many would have comprehended, probably for the first time, the meaning
+of such expressions as 'Speech and Poetry in Music,' 'Words in
+Harmony,' 'ideas clothed in music,' etc., and would have learned that
+the finest poems of our greatest poets may be enhanced and even
+transcended when translated into musical language." It is humiliating
+to be obliged to confess that good schools of singing, the absence of
+which Vogl deplored, are still lamentably rare, although he himself,
+by his example, did much to develop the correct method. We have just
+seen how Wagner obtained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>valuable hints from Schroeder-Devrient.
+Similarly, we find that Schubert learned from his friend Vogl, who
+alone at first could sing his songs properly, and by showing that they
+<i>could</i> be sung encouraged Schubert in developing his original style.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to me that these facts ought to be extremely gratifying and
+encouraging to students of vocal music, because they refute the notion
+that vocalists can only be interpretative and not creative, and their
+fame and influence, therefore, merely ephemeral. On the contrary, they
+can, like Vogl and Schroeder-Devrient, even aspire to guide composers
+and help to mark out new paths in art: which surely, ought to be more
+gratifying to their pride than the cheap applause which the sopranists
+and prima donnas of the <i>bel canto</i> period used to receive for the
+meaningless colorature arias which they compelled the enslaved
+composers to write, or manufactured for themselves. And there is
+another way in which singers of the new style can become creative.
+Chopin speaks in one of his letters of a violoncellist who played a
+certain poor piece so remarkably well that it actually appeared to be
+good music. Similarly, a good vocalist (like Fr&auml;ulein Brandt, for
+instance, who is very clever in this respect) can put so much art and
+feeling into the weaker parts and episodes of songs and operas as to
+make them entertaining where they are naturally tiresome. When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>we
+bear in mind these high possibilities of singing, we must admit that
+there is no nobler profession than that of a conscientious vocalist&mdash;a
+profession without which some of the deepest feelings that stir the
+human soul would remain unknown to the world.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a></span><br />
+
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a></span>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Perhaps it is not generally known that Mr. Theodore Thomas some years
+ago entertained the project of reviving German opera in New York, in a
+manner that should eclipse all previous operatic enterprises in this
+country. It was his intention to give in the leading American cities a
+series of performances of Wagner's Nibelung Tetralogy, and he looked
+forward to this as the crowning achievement of his busy life. For
+years he never gave a concert without having at least one Wagner
+selection on the programme, no matter how much some of the critics and
+patrons protested. In 1884 he considered the public sufficiently
+weaned of Italian sweets to stand a strong dose of Wagner; so he
+imported the three leading singers of the Bayreuth festivals&mdash;Materna,
+Winkelmann, and Scaria&mdash;for a number of festival concerts. The
+extraordinary success of these concerts seemed to indicate that the
+time was ripe for a complete theatrical production of Wagner's later
+music-dramas, and Mr. Thomas was already elaborating his plans when an
+accident <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>frustrated them and took the whole matter out of his hands.</p>
+
+<p>This accident was the signal failure of Italian opera at the
+Metropolitan Opera House during the first season of its existence. As
+Mr. Abbey lost over a quarter of a million dollars by this disaster,
+no other manager could be found willing to take his place and risk
+another fortune. Since Mr. Abbey's company included several of the
+most popular artists&mdash;Nilsson, Sembrich, Scalchi, Campanini, Del
+Puente, etc., and his repertory embraced the usual popular operas, the
+conclusion seemed inevitable that the public wanted a complete change.
+Dr. Damrosch was accordingly appealed to at the eleventh hour, and he
+hastened to Germany and brought over a company that scored an
+immediate success, surprising even to those who had long advocated the
+establishment of a German opera in New York. And this success became
+still more pronounced in the following seasons, when a better company
+was secured, with Herr Seidl as conductor.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is fortunate that Mr. Thomas's project was never realized.
+Had he succeeded, New York and several other cities would no doubt
+have enjoyed a series of interesting Wagner performances for one or
+two seasons; but after the first curiosity had been satisfied, it is
+very likely that the enterprise would have come to an end for lack of
+funds. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>For it is a well-established fact that grand opera, if given
+with the best singers, artistic scenery, and an orchestra of sixty to
+one hundred men, cannot be made self-supporting, however generously
+the public may contribute to it. The Paris opera is kept afloat by
+means of an annual subsidy of eight hundred thousand francs, and the
+imperial opera-houses of Berlin and Vienna, although similarly
+endowed, are burdened with large annual deficits which have to be
+covered by additional contributions from the imperial exchequers. New
+York can hardly claim so large a public interested in high-class opera
+as Vienna and Berlin; hence it would be unreasonable to expect that
+grand opera should fare better here. It was, therefore, one of the
+most lucky accidents in the history of American music that the
+Metropolitan Opera House was built, in opposition to the Academy of
+Music, by a number of the richest people in New York, who had made up
+their minds to spare no cost to make it successful and to annihilate
+the rival house. Having once built the new opera-house, it became
+necessary to continue giving in it the only kind of opera adapted to
+the vast dimensions of its auditorium, unless the stockholders should
+become willing to pay the high annual rent without any return at all.
+And thus German opera has been established in New York, if not for all
+time, at least for years to come.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>The fact cannot be too much emphasized that, properly speaking, there
+is <i>no deficit</i> at the Metropolitan Opera House. True, the total
+expenses of the operatic season of 1886-1887 were about four hundred
+and forty-two thousand dollars, and the receipts only two hundred and
+thirty-five thousand dollars, thus necessitating an assessment of two
+thousand five hundred dollars on each stockholder. But it must be
+borne in mind that this assessment simply represents the sum that the
+stockholders paid for their boxes. As there were forty-five
+subscription nights, and as each box holds six seats, the price of
+each was nine dollars, which can hardly be deemed too much for the
+best seats in the house, considering that outsiders have to pay ten
+dollars for these same seats, or sixty dollars for a box. A large part
+of the assessment (about one thousand dollars for each stockholder)
+would remain for covering the general expenses of the building
+(including the mortgage bonds), even if no opera were given at all;
+and surely the box-holders would be foolish if they refused to pay the
+extra sum (four dollars and eighty-eight cents for each seat), which
+insures them forty-five evenings of social and musical entertainment.
+To persons of their wealth this extra sum is, after all, a mere
+trifle; and it enables them to bask in the proud consciousness of
+taking the place, in this country, of royalty abroad in supporting a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>form of art that has always been considered pre-eminently
+aristocratic.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the stockholders make no secret of the fact that they would
+very much prefer Italian to German opera, which is Sanskrit to them;
+and every year, at the directors' meetings, the question of reviving
+Italian opera is warmly debated. There is also a considerable number
+of amateurs, editors, and correspondents who are eagerly waiting for
+some signs showing that German opera is losing ground, so that they
+may raise a war-whoop in behalf of Italian opera. But the powers that
+rule the destinies of the Metropolitan Opera House are too wise to
+heed the arguments of these prophets. They know that Italian opera can
+never again be successfully revived in New York, and that the only
+alternative for the present lies between German opera and no opera at
+all. Signor Angelo and Mr. Mapleson were as unsuccessful in their last
+efforts in behalf of Italian opera as Mr. Abbey. And although Mme.
+Patti fared better at her last appearance, it was only because a large
+number of people believed that she <i>really</i> was singing in New York
+for the last time; for when she returned a fortnight later for
+<i>another</i> "farewell," the sale of seats was so small that the spoiled
+prima donna refused to sing, and only one performance was given
+instead of two.</p>
+
+<p>The lovers of vocal tight-rope dancing and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>threadbare orchestral
+accompaniments who insist that Wagner is merely a fashion, and that
+ere long there will be a return to the saccharine melodies of Rossini
+and Bellini, show thereby that they have never studied the history of
+the opera. This history teaches a curious lesson, viz., that operas
+which had a great vogue at one time and subsequently lost their
+popularity can <i>never</i> be galvanized into real life again. What has
+become of the threescore and more operas of Donizetti, and the forty
+of Rossini&mdash;some of which for years monopolized the stage so
+completely the world over that Weber and Beethoven were ignored even
+in Vienna and the German capitals? They are dead, and all efforts to
+revive them have been futile. These operas had sprung into <i>sudden</i>
+popularity, whereas "Fidelio," "Euryanthe," "Lohengrin," and
+"Tannh&auml;user," which for years had to fight for every inch of ground,
+are now masters of the situation, and gaining in popularity every
+year. And this brings us to the second lesson taught by the history of
+the opera&mdash;that the works that thus had to <i>fight</i> their way into the
+hearts of the public are the immortal operas that are sure to gain
+more and more favor as years go by. Moreover, the statistics of German
+opera-houses show that Wagner's operas, from the "Flying Dutchman" to
+the "Nibelung's Ring," have been gaining in popularity and frequency
+of repetition, year by year, with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>constancy that might almost be
+expressed with mathematical exactness by means of a <i>crescendo</i>: <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 125%;">&lt;</span>.
+And we are by no means at the biggest end of the <i>crescendo</i> yet. For
+there are scores of cities where Wagner would be even more popular
+than he is, were it not for the woful rarity of competent dramatic
+singers and conductors.</p>
+
+<p>There is, therefore, no hope for the <i>Italianissimi</i>, who sigh for
+their maccaroni arias and their "Ernani" and "Gazza Ladra" soup.
+Italian opera has ceased to exist in New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna,
+and St. Petersburg, and even in Italy dramatic music of the modern
+school is gradually driving out the old-fashioned lyric and florid
+opera.</p>
+
+<p>In New York, moreover, the press is almost unanimous in favor of
+German opera, and the press, as a rule, is omnipotent in theatrical
+matters. I am convinced, for instance, that one of the principal
+reasons why Wagner was more rapidly acclimated in New York than in the
+German capitals is that most of the leading German critics are old
+men&mdash;too old to submit readily to Wagner's revolutionary tendencies;
+whereas in New York all the critics are young men, who only needed to
+hear a few good performances of Wagner's operas to be filled with an
+enthusiasm for them, with which many of their readers could not help
+being infected.</p>
+
+<p>Still another important point must be borne in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>mind: the fact that
+the vastness of the Metropolitan auditorium makes it impossible to
+hear the weak voices and the thin scores of Italians to advantage.
+<i>Ergo</i>, if this house remains the centre of music in New York, there
+can be no question that, as I have just stated, the prospect for the
+next decade or two is, either German Opera or No Opera.</p>
+
+<p>A series of interviews published in the newspapers indicate that the
+indifference of the stockholders to German music has been greatly
+exaggerated; and the vote that was taken on January 27, 1888, stood
+forty to nine in favor of continuing German opera, with an assessment
+of three thousand two hundred dollars on each box. Not a few of the
+stockholders would, indeed, prefer "Siegfried" to "Ernani," even if
+"Ernani" could be depended on for as large audiences as Wagner's
+opera, which is far from being the case; and I have myself heard some
+of them confess that after repeatedly hearing Wagner's later operas,
+they discovered in them a constant stream of melody where all had
+seemed to them at first a mere chaos of sound. Some of the
+stockholders, on the other hand, are so absolutely unmusical that they
+do not know the meaning of the words "tenor" and "soprano," and if
+blindfolded could not tell if "Faust" or "A&iuml;da" was being sung. (This
+is a real fact that I might prove by an amusing anecdote, were it not
+too personal.) To <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>this class of stockholders what difference can it
+make whether they have German or Italian opera? They merely go to the
+opera because it is a very fashionable thing to do so, and because the
+ownership of an opera-box confers on them a social distinction almost
+equal to an order, or a title of nobility, in foreign countries.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the stockholders have converted the ante-rooms to their boxes
+into luxurious parlors, into which they can retire and talk if the
+music bores them. But, unfortunately, there are some black sheep among
+them and their invited guests who do not make use of this privilege,
+but give the rest of the audience the benefit of their conversational
+accomplishments. The parquet often resents these interruptions, and
+hisses lustily until quiet is restored. There are not a few lovers of
+music who, although able to pay for parquet seats, frequent the upper
+galleries for fear of being annoyed by the conversation in the boxes.
+In the highest gallery the quiet of a tomb reigns supreme, and woe to
+any one who comes late, or whispers, or turns the leaves of his score
+too noisily: he is immediately pierced with a volley of indignant
+hisses.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted, however, that there is much less talking in the
+opera-house at present than there was a few years ago. This difference
+is especially noticeable on Wagner nights, and the change is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>simply
+one of the numerous operatic reforms introduced by Wagner and his
+followers. It must be borne in mind that in Italian opera conversation
+frequently is not at all out of place, but is a factor of the
+entertainment <i>recognized even by the composer</i>! Wagner brings out
+this point clearly in the following remarks: "In Italian opera," he
+says, "the public gives its attention only to the most brilliant
+numbers sung by the popular prima donna or her vocal rival; the rest
+of the opera it ignores almost entirely, and devotes the evening to
+mutual visits in the boxes and loud conversation. This attitude of the
+public led the composers of yore to confine their efforts at artistic
+creation to the solo numbers referred to, and to fill up deliberately
+all intermediate portions, the choruses and minor parts, with
+commonplace and empty phrases that had no other purpose than that of
+serving as noise to sustain the conversation of the audience."</p>
+
+<p>That this is not an exaggerated statement is shown by an extract from
+a private letter written by Liszt at Milan. Speaking of the famous
+Scala Opera House, he says: "In this blessed land putting a serious
+opera on the stage is not at all a serious thing. A fortnight is
+generally time enough. The musicians of the orchestra, and the
+singers, who are generally strangers to each other and get no
+encouragement from the audience (the latter are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>generally either
+chatting or sleeping&mdash;in the fifth box they either sup or play cards),
+assemble inattentive, insensible, and troubled with catarrh, not as
+artists, but as people who are paid for the music they make. There is
+nothing more icy than these Italian representations. No trace of
+<i>nuances</i>, in spite of the exaggeration of accent and gesture dictated
+by Italian taste, much less any effect <i>d'ensemble</i>. Each artist
+thinks only of himself, without troubling his thoughts about his
+neighbor. Why worry one's self for a public that does not even
+listen?"</p>
+
+<p>In German opera, on the other hand, the orchestral part and the
+choruses and declamatory sections are just as important as the lyric
+numbers, and many of the most exquisite passages in the operas of
+Weber and Wagner are a kind of superior pantomime music during which
+no voice at all is heard on the stage. Now I am convinced that much of
+the talking in opera-boxes is simply due to ignorance of this fact.
+Vocal music is much more readily appreciated than instrumental music,
+and those who have no ear for orchestral measures do not realize that
+others are enraptured by them. Hence they talk as soon as the singing
+ceases, unconscious of the fact that they are greatly annoying those
+who wish to listen to the orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>To a large extent the stupid custom of having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>music between the acts
+at theatres is responsible for the talking at the opera. For between
+the acts everybody, of course, wants to talk; and since at the theatre
+the orchestra merely furnishes a sort of background or support for the
+conversation, people naturally come to look upon the overtures and
+interludes and introductions to the second and third acts of an opera
+in similar light. Even if <i>entr'acte</i> music in theatres were much
+better than it is commonly, this consideration alone ought to suffice
+to banish it from the theatres. It degrades the art and spoils the
+public.</p>
+
+<p>Those of the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House who indulge
+in loud conversation while the music goes on, or who rent their boxes
+to irresponsible parties, should remember that it is their <i>pecuniary</i>
+interest to preserve quiet. For not a few amateurs, as already stated,
+are driven to the cheaper parts of the house, or discouraged from
+going at all, by the annoying conversation; and the losses thus
+resulting are of course added to their annual assessments.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it ought to be clear to any one who has the most elementary
+knowledge of the laws of etiquette that to disturb others needlessly
+in the enjoyment of a dearly purchased pleasure is evidence of very
+bad manners. Musical people suffer more from such interruptions than
+persons whose ears are not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>similarly refined can imagine; for the
+tone colors of a Wagnerian score are as exquisitely delicate and
+refined as the evanescent films and colors of a soap-bubble, so that
+the mere rustling of a fan or a programme mars them.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody has heard the story of Handel, who used to get very angry if
+any one talked in the room, even when he was only giving lessons to
+the Prince and Princess of Wales. At such times, as Barney relates,
+the Princess of Wales, with her accustomed mildness and benignity,
+used to say: "Hush! hush! Handel is in a passion." And Liszt never
+gave a finer exhibition of his wit and artistic courage than when, at
+an imperial soir&eacute;e in the Russian capital, he suddenly ceased playing
+in the midst of a piece, because the Czar was talking loudly with an
+officer. The Czar sent an attendant to inquire of Liszt why he
+stopped; whereupon Liszt retorted that it was the first rule of court
+etiquette that when the Czar was speaking others must be silent. The
+Czar never forgave him this well-merited rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>This anecdote has a moral for those who talk loudly at the opera; for
+it calls attention to the fact that they not only annoy those of the
+audience who wish to hear the music, but also insult the artists on
+the stage.</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of habitual silence during <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>operatic performances is
+only one of the beneficial changes introduced into operatic etiquette
+through German opera. The method of applauding has been revolutionized
+too. It is no longer customary to interrupt the flow of the orchestral
+music by applauding a singer. All the applause is now reserved for the
+end of the acts. I remember a performance of "Lohengrin," at the
+Academy of Music, at which the music was thrice interrupted by some
+ill-bred admirers of Campanini, who applauded him when he first
+appeared in sight on the swan-boat; again, when he stepped on shore,
+and a third time when he came to the front of the stage. Now here was
+one of the most poetic scenes on the whole operatic stage utterly
+marred for all refined listeners, merely for the sake of showing
+admiration for a singer which might as well have been expressed later
+on when the curtain was down. Campanini recognized all these
+interruptions, and bowed his thanks to the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Quite different was Herr Niemann's behavior when he made his <i>d&eacute;but</i>
+at the Metropolitan Opera House. Here was the greatest living dramatic
+tenor, an artist identified with the cause and the triumphs of Wagner,
+appearing on a new continent, in the same r&ocirc;le that he had created at
+the historic Bayreuth festival of 1876. The house, of course, was
+packed, and included many old admirers who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>had heard him abroad, and
+who, of course, received him with a volley of applause when he
+staggered into <i>Hunding's</i> hut. But Niemann did not acknowledge this
+applause with a bow or even a smile. He appeared before the public as
+<i>Siegmund</i>, and not as Herr Niemann. But when the curtain was down he
+promptly responded to the enthusiastic recalls, and was quite willing,
+and more than willing, to come forward as often as the audience
+desired and acknowledge their kindness with bowed thanks.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is to be noted in this case that Herr Niemann did not lose
+anything by refusing to recognize the applause that greeted him when
+he first appeared on the stage; on the contrary, it raised him in the
+estimation of all whose esteem was worth having; and these applauded
+him all the more vigorously for his self-denial when the curtain was
+down. Singers of the old school should take this lesson to heart and
+ponder it. They imagine success is measured by the number of times
+they are applauded, and consequently introduce loud, high notes and
+other clap-trap at the end of every solo, if possible. They forget
+that while they thus secure the applause of the uncultured, real
+connoisseurs are disgusted, and put them down in their mental
+note-books as second-rate artists or charlatans.</p>
+
+<p>Those artists who have followed Wagner's precepts, and merged their
+individuality and personal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>vanity in their r&ocirc;les, have never had
+occasion to regret their apparent self-sacrifice. They are the only
+kind of singers now eagerly sought for by managers; and an educated
+public that does not tolerate applause while the orchestra plays,
+never fails to vent its pent-up enthusiasm at the end of the act, as
+has been abundantly proved at the Metropolitan Opera House. A curious
+episode may be noted sometimes. As soon as the singing has ceased and
+the curtain begins to descend, a number of people begin to applaud.
+But the full-blooded Wagnerites wait until the last chord of the
+orchestra has died away before they join in. The volume of applause is
+then suddenly multiplied three or four times, to the bewilderment of
+novices, who do not understand what it all means. It simply means that
+the concluding strains of Wagner's acts, are usually among the most
+beautiful measures in the whole opera, which it is a pity and a shame
+to mar by premature applause.</p>
+
+<p>I have often wondered why people, who put on their overcoats during
+the final measures, are not ashamed thus to advertise their utter lack
+of artistic sensibility and indifference to other people's feelings.
+Nor can one wonder, in view of such facts, that the late King of
+Bavaria preferred to have opera given when no other spectator was in
+the house, or that the present Emperor of Germany is beginning to
+follow his example.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>Wagner does not merely ask his interpreters to scorn the usual methods
+of securing cheap applause, but he himself avoids them in his
+compositions with a heroic conscientiousness. There is a story of a
+well-known English conductor who objected to produce a piece by a
+noted German composer because it ended <i>pianissimo</i>. He was afraid
+that it would not be applauded if it did not end loudly. Now the
+finales of Italian operas are habitually constructed on this method.
+The chorus is brought in at the end, whether the situation calls for
+it or not, and made to sing as loudly as possible. This stirs up the
+audience to equally loud applause, and all ends well.</p>
+
+<p>How differently Wagner goes to work! In "Siegfried," for instance,
+there is no chorus at all. The first act ends with <i>Siegfried's</i>
+cleaving of the anvil with the sword which he has just forged before
+the eyes of the audience; and the third ends with the love duo. In
+these cases there are only two persons on the stage; and at the end of
+the second act <i>Siegfried</i> is <i>entirely alone</i>, and the curtain falls
+as he mutely follows the bird to the fire-girdled rock on which
+<i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i> lies asleep, amid the intoxicating and promising strains
+of the orchestra. The ending of "Die Walk&uuml;re" is equally quiet and
+poetic. <i>Wotan</i> has placed poor <i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i> on a mound of moss, for
+disobeying his orders, and covered her with her helmet, after plunging
+her into a magnetic sleep <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>which is to last until a hero shall come to
+wake her. He strikes the rock with his spear, whereupon a flame breaks
+out that quickly becomes a sea of fire encircling the rock. Then he
+disappears in the fire toward the background, and for several minutes
+there is no one on the stage but the sleeping Valkyrie, and nothing to
+be heard but the crackling and roaring of the flames, re-echoed in the
+orchestra; and this is the end of the opera.</p>
+
+<p>One more illustration: The greater part of the second act of "Die
+Meistersinger" is taken up with <i>Beckmesser's</i> serenade, comically
+interrupted by the songs and the hammering of <i>Hans Sachs</i> the
+cobbler. Toward the end the apprentice <i>David</i> sees <i>Beckmesser</i>, and
+imagining he is serenading <i>his</i> sweetheart, assaults and beats him
+most unmercifully. The noise attracts the neighbors, who all take part
+in the affray, and the scene culminates in a perfect pandemonium of
+noise. Now there is hardly an operatic composer who would not have
+closed the act with this exciting and tumultuous chorus. Not so
+Wagner. The sound of the watchman's horn suddenly clears the street,
+and no one is left but the watchman himself, who timorously toddles up
+the street with his lantern, while the moon rises above the roofs of
+the houses, and the muted strings of the orchestra softly and dreamily
+recall a few of the motives of the preceding scenes. I was sitting
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>next to Professor Paine, of Harvard, at a performance of this opera at
+the Metropolitan, one evening. He had not seen it before, and I shall
+never forget the expression of surprise on his face when he saw the
+curtain descending on this dreamy moonlight scene, with <i>a deserted
+stage</i>. He considered it a bold deviation from established operatic
+customs, and yet he could not for a moment deny that it was infinitely
+more poetic than the traditional final chorus, with its meaningless
+noise and pomp.</p>
+
+<p>Not that Wagner despised the chorus, as is sometimes said. He showed
+in the third act of this same opera, in the scene of the
+folk-festival, that when a chorus is called for by the situation no
+one can supply a more inspired and inspiring volume of concerted sound
+than he. With the possible exception of the last number in Bach's
+Passion music, I regard the choral music of this act as the most
+sublime ever written. Here, at any rate, the <i>vox populi</i> is divine.</p>
+
+<p>The magnificent quintet in this act of "Die Meistersinger" also
+affords proof that if Wagner banished concerted music from his later
+works, it was not because he lacked inspiration for that kind of work.
+Although extremely Wagnerian in its harmonies, it is one of those
+numbers which even Wagner's enemies admire. Some years ago I witnessed
+a curious scene in the Berlin Opera House. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>According to Wagner's
+directions, the curtain goes down after this quintet, but the music
+continues until the scene is changed. Now, on the occasion in
+question, the quintet evoked so much enthusiasm that a storm of
+applause arose. The extreme Wagnerites resented this interruption of
+the music, and began to hiss; whereupon the others redoubled their
+applause and their calls for an "encore," which finally had to be
+granted, as the only way of appeasing this paradoxical disturbance in
+which Wagnerites hissed while the others applauded!</p>
+
+<p>At the Metropolitan Opera House the stage arrangements are so clumsy
+that it is necessary to have an intermission of over a quarter of an
+hour, in order to change this scene. Consequently the last and most
+popular part of this master-work is never seen till after midnight;
+and many leave the house annoyed by the long intermission.</p>
+
+<p>And this brings us to the weakest part of modern opera. It lasts too
+long. Wagner is not the only guilty composer. Gounod's "Faust,"
+Weber's "Euryanthe," and most of Meyerbeer's operas, if given without
+cuts, would last over four hours. But in these cases no irreparable
+harm is done by a few cuts, whereas in Wagner's operas there are very
+few bars that can be spared, both on account of their intrinsic beauty
+and because they are required to keep up the dramatic continuity of
+the story. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>Nevertheless, Wagner's operas must be cut, in some cases
+most unmercifully, as in "Die G&ouml;tterd&auml;mmerung," in which Herr Seidl
+was obliged to omit the whole of the first prelude&mdash;the weirdly grand
+scene of the three Fates, and the scene between the two
+Valkyries&mdash;merely to prevent the opera from lasting till one o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Seidl is perhaps the greatest living interpreter of Wagner. He
+brings to his works the enthusiasm without which they can neither be
+interpreted nor fully understood; and his enthusiasm proves contagious
+to the orchestra and the singers. He not only rehearses every bar of
+the orchestral score with minute care, but each of the vocalists has
+to come to his room and go through his or her part until he is
+satisfied. Although he is invariably civil, his men obey him as they
+would the sternest general, and admiration of his superior knowledge
+makes them more attentive to their duty than fear ever would. I do not
+believe German opera would have won its present popularity under any
+other conductor excepting Hans Richter. One of the traits to which he
+owes his great success as a Wagner conductor is his instinctive
+perception of what parts can be omitted with the minimum of injury to
+the work he is interpreting. Except at Bayreuth, Wagner's later works
+did not especially prosper at first, because they were either too long
+or injudiciously cut. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>Herr Seidl, however, succeeded with them
+everywhere. One time Wagner wrote to him complaining that he made so
+many cuts in his operas. But Herr Seidl wrote back, giving his
+reasons, and explaining the situation; whereupon he received the
+laconic telegram from Wagner, "<i>Schiessen Sie los!</i>" (Fire away!).</p>
+
+<p>Eduard von Hartmann, in his recent work, "Die Philosophie des
+Sch&ouml;nen," has some just remarks on Wagner's mistake in making his
+operas so long that conductors are <i>obliged</i> to use the red pencil,
+which is not always done intelligently; whereas if he himself had
+undertaken the task of condensing his works their organic unity might
+have been preserved. True, Wagner did not intend his later works to be
+incorporated in the regular operatic repertory, but desired them to be
+sung only on certain festal occasions, as at Bayreuth, where people
+went with the sole object of hearing music, and with no other business
+oppressing them for the moment. But at a time when the struggle for
+existence is so severe as now it was chimerical on Wagner's part to
+hope that such a plan could be permanently realized. Few musical
+people can afford to journey to Bayreuth merely to gratify their taste
+for opera. Hence the Bayreuth festivals, although most delightful from
+an artistic point of view, would have never been financially
+successful, had not the vocalists given their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>services <i>gratis</i>; and
+it is doubtful if they will be continued after the death of Wagner's
+widow. Moreover, it would have been a musical calamity to have the
+treasures of melody and harmony that are stored away in the Nibelung
+scores reserved for the lucky few who are able to go to Bayreuth.
+Wagner himself must have felt this when, contrary to his original
+intention, he gave Neumann permission to perform the Tetralogy (under
+Seidl's direction) in Germany, Italy, and Belgium; and since that time
+it has been successfully incorporated into the repertory of all the
+leading German cities, and many smaller ones, such as Weimar,
+Mannheim, and Carlsruhe.</p>
+
+<p>In Germany the length of Wagner's and Meyerbeer's operas is not so
+objectionable as here, because there the opera commences at seven, or
+even at six thirty, and six, if it is a very long one; hence it is all
+over shortly after ten, and everybody has time to take supper before
+going to bed. But in New York, where it is not customary to sup, and
+where the dinner hour is between six and seven, it would hardly be
+advisable to commence the opera before eight. Nor is the interest in
+the opera sufficiently general to inspire the hope that for its sake
+any change will be made in the hour of dining. The danger rather lies
+the other way: that the custom of delaying dinner till eight, which is
+coming into vogue among the English (who care neither for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>music nor
+the theatre), will be followed in this city.</p>
+
+<p>Now consider the inevitable consequences of having excessively long
+operas. America has plenty of poor loafers, but few wealthy <i>rentiers</i>
+who spend their days in bed or in idleness, and are therefore
+insatiable in their appetite for entertainment in the evening. The
+typical American works hard all day long, whether he is rich or poor,
+and in the evening his brain is too tired to follow for four hours the
+complicated orchestral score of a music-drama. If he listens
+attentively, he will be exhausted by eleven o'clock, and the last act,
+which he might have enjoyed hugely if not so "played out," will weary
+him so much that he will probably resolve to avoid the opera in the
+future. Thus opera suffers in the same way that society suffers: the
+late hour at which all entertainments begin prevents the "desirable"
+men who have worked all day, and must be at their work bright and
+early the next day, from attending parties, balls, and operas.</p>
+
+<p>It must be said, on the other hand, in defence of long German operas,
+that it is only while they are novelties to the hearer that they
+fatigue his brain beyond endurance. After they have been heard a few
+times they cease to be a study that calls for a laborious
+concentration of the attention, and become a source of pure delight
+and recreation. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>difficulty lies in convincing people of this
+fact. There are in New York hundreds of persons, who, having read of
+the rare beauties of "Tristan" or "Siegfried," went to the opera to
+hear and judge for themselves. Of course, as everything was new to
+them, they found it hard work to follow all the intricacies of the
+plot and the music at the same time; hence, their verdict next day was
+that German opera was "too heavy" for them. These persons cannot be
+made to believe that if they would only repeat their visits, the labor
+of listening would be reduced to a minimum and the pleasure increased
+to enthusiasm. I know a man, one of the cleverest writers for the New
+York press, a man who can afford to go to the opera every evening, and
+who <i>does</i> go when Meyerbeer's operas are given, but who absolutely
+and stubbornly refuses to attend a Wagner performance at the
+Metropolitan. Why? Because a number of years ago he attended a
+wretched performance in Italian of "Lohengrin" which bored him! I
+believe there are many like him in New York.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carl Rosa, in an article which appeared in <i>Murray's Magazine</i> a
+year ago, remarks on this topic: "An Englishman, once bored [at the
+opera] will with difficulty be made to return; and this is the reason
+why light opera, opera bouffe, and burlesque have their advantage in
+this country. They are so easy to digest after dinner." And again:
+"There is no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>doubt that opera is, to some extent, an acquired taste;
+but the taste, once imparted, grows rapidly. From personal experience
+I know that <i>some of my best supporters had to be dragged to the opera
+at first</i>, and induced to sit it through."</p>
+
+<p>In these remarks lies a valuable hint to the lovers of German opera.
+The most important thing to do, if opera is to be permanently
+retained, is to <i>enlarge the operatic public</i>. This can only be done
+by means of a concerted action of all admirers of the opera. Let them
+keep on, with "damnable iteration," to drum into their friends' heads
+the fact that if they will only make up their minds to attend one good
+opera <i>three or four times in succession</i> they will become devoted
+admirers of it the rest of their lives. The friends will finally
+consent, in pure self-defence, to try the experiment; and in three
+cases out of four they will become converted and admit that German
+operatic music is indeed a thing of beauty and a joy forever.</p>
+
+<p>There is at present in New York a considerable number of musical
+Mugwumps, persons who formerly doted on Italian opera, but who now
+find it tiresome after hearing German opera. The distinguished English
+psychologist, Mr. James Sully, incidentally speaks of his experiences
+in regard to Wagner's operas, in his work on "Sensation and
+Intuition." "Although," he says, "I went to the first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>performance
+decidedly prejudiced against the noisy <i>Zukunftsmusik</i>, I found that
+after patient study of these operas I became so susceptible of their
+high dramatic beauties that I lost much of my relish for the older
+Italian opera, which began to appear highly unnatural. I heard from
+other cultivated Germans&mdash;among others from Professor Helmholtz&mdash;that
+they had undergone quite a similar change of opinion with respect to
+these operas."</p>
+
+<p>Who, on the other hand, has ever heard of a renegade Wagnerite? Such
+an animal does not exist, and if a specimen could be found, it would
+pay to exhibit him in a dime museum. The very expression seems a
+contradiction in terms. Wagner frequently asserted that no one could
+<i>understand</i> his music unless he admired it; and there is truth in
+this, for only enthusiasm can sharpen the mental faculties
+sufficiently to enable us to perceive the countless subtle beauties in
+Wagner's and Weber's scores. M. Saint-Sa&euml;ns, who is considered the
+best living score-reader, compares Wagner's scores to those
+master-works of medi&aelig;val architecture which are adorned with
+sculptured reliefs that must have required infinite care and labor in
+the chiselling. Now, just as a careless observer of such architectural
+works hardly notices the lovely figures sculptured on them, so the
+average opera-goer does not hear the exquisite harmonic and melodic
+miniature-work in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>Wagner's music-dramas. But if he has once taken the
+trouble to study them, he becomes an enthusiast for life; for he
+constantly discovers new and beautiful details which had previously
+escaped his notice.</p>
+
+<p>The eighth performance of "Siegfried" in New York was one of those
+events that will always live in the memory of those who were so
+fortunate as to be present. Everyone on the stage and in the orchestra
+seemed to be inspired, and the audience in consequence was
+electrified. For my part, although I had heard this music-drama at
+least a dozen times previously, and knew every bar by heart, it seemed
+as if I had never heard it before, so vividly were all its beauties
+revealed in the white heat of Conductor Seidl's enthusiasm. All the
+evening I sat trembling with excitement, and could not sleep for hours
+afterward. I have for twelve years made a special study of the
+emotions, but I could not conceive any pleasure more intense and more
+prolonged than that of listening to such a music-drama. Is not such a
+pleasure worth cultivating, even if it involves some toil at first?
+And have not musical people reason to regard with profound pity those
+poor mortals who can enjoy beauty only through the medium of their
+eyes, their ears being deaf to the charms of artistically combined
+sounds?</p>
+
+<p>At the "Siegfried" performance just referred to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>the audience
+fortunately was large; but there have been other performances, equally
+good, when the audience was meagre. On such occasions much of my
+enjoyment was marred by the melancholy thought that such glorious
+music should be wasted on empty stalls, when there were thousands of
+persons in the city who, if they only could have been induced to
+overcome their prejudices and devote a few hours of previous study to
+the libretto and the pianoforte-score of these operas, would not only
+have found them entertaining, but would have enjoyed them rapturously.</p>
+
+<p>The essence and perennial charm of German music lies in its <i>melodious
+harmony</i>. Nothing is more absurd than the notion that there is more
+melody in Italian than in German music. The only difference is that in
+Italian music the melody is more prominent, being unencumbered by
+complicated harmonies and accompaniments, while in German music the
+melody is interwoven with the various harmonic parts, which makes it
+difficult to follow at first. But when once this gift has been
+acquired, it is a source of eternal pleasure. Nor is it so difficult
+to cultivate the harmonic sense, if one takes pains to hear good music
+often and <i>attentively</i>. I once met a young lady on a transatlantic
+steamer, who frankly confessed she could not see any beauty in certain
+exquisite Wagnerian and Chopinesque modulations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>and harmonies which I
+played for her on the piano. When asked if she did not care for
+harmony at all, she replied: "Oh, yes! I know a chord which is <i>simply
+divine</i>!" Then she played&mdash;what do you fancy?&mdash;the <i>simple major
+triad</i>&mdash;A flat in the bass, and A flat, C, E flat an octave
+higher&mdash;which is the most elementary of all chords, the very alphabet
+of music. If she found this commonplace chord "simply divine," what
+would she have said could she have been made to realize that the
+modulations I had played were as superior to her chord in poetic charm
+as a line of Shakspere is to the letters A B C? And she <i>could</i> have
+been made to realize this truth in a few months, under proper
+instruction.</p>
+
+<p>I have dwelt so long on this matter because I have come to the
+conclusion, as already stated, that the greatest problem in connection
+with German opera is to enlarge the patronage, and induce persons to
+reserve their judgment of a "heavy" opera until they have heard it two
+or three times. They will soon find that the word "heavy" is a very
+relative and changeable term in music. To one who really admires
+Shakspere and Homer, a fashionable novel is tedious beyond endurance;
+just so, to one who can appreciate "Tristan" or "Euryanthe," Verdi's
+"Ernani" and Bellini's "Norma" are heavy as lead, soporific as opium.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulty of understanding subtle harmonies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>is perhaps the main
+reason why English-speaking people are so slow in appreciating and
+encouraging the opera. But there are two other important reasons which
+may be briefly referred to&mdash;religious rigorousness, and a certain
+predilection for the ornamental style of singing.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt there was a time when the stage was so profligate that the
+Puritans were justified in tabooing it altogether. But that is not now
+the case. There are many theatres where plays are given that are not
+only pure in tone, but exert a refining and educating influence on all
+who hear them. And as for operas, there is hardly one in the modern
+repertory that is open to censure on moral grounds. Mr. Carl Rosa
+refers to the curious fact that, when circumstances compel him to give
+an operatic performance in a hall instead of a theatre, the audiences
+are of quite a distinct character, including many who like opera, but
+do not wish to go to a theatre. Now, this general condemnation of the
+theatre because it is often used for frivolous purposes is just as
+unreasonable as it would be to condemn and avoid all novels because
+Zola writes novels.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, a positive harm that results from the tabooing of
+the theatre by religious people. Why is so large a proportion of our
+plays frivolous and vulgar? Because the frivolous and vulgar
+predominate among theatre-goers. If the large number <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>of refined
+people who avoid the theatre were to attend, this proportion might be
+reversed, and more of the managers would find it profitable to bring
+out clean and wholesome dramas. Some prominent clergymen have lately
+expressed themselves in this sense, and it is probable that a reaction
+is at hand that will benefit the cause of serious opera. There is
+absolutely nothing in any of the operas given at the Metropolitan that
+could not be fitly sung before a Sunday-school audience. Why, then,
+taboo the opera and jeopardize its existence, leaving the field to the
+frivolous operettas and farces?</p>
+
+<p>The other obstacle alluded to&mdash;the love of colorature song&mdash;is a thing
+that will cure itself with the advance of musical culture. The Germans
+and the French have long since turned their backs on the florid
+variety of vocalists, and the Italians are now following suit. An
+eminent Italian teacher in New York, who has made a specialty of
+teaching trills and runs and roulades and other vocal circus tricks,
+lately declared that he was tired of this style of singing, and began
+to prefer a more simple and dramatic style. The same is true of the
+modern Italian composers. It is well known that Bo&iuml;to, Ponchielli, and
+Verdi in his latest operas, approximate the German style; and their
+admirers will doubtless ere long adapt their taste to this change.
+Nevertheless, there are not a few remaining who look upon opera as a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>sort of vocal acrobatics. They go once or twice to the Metropolitan,
+and feel defrauded of their money if the prima donna fails to come
+forward to the prompter's box to run up some breakneck scales, and,
+having arrived at the top, descend by means of a chain of trills or
+series of somersaults. Their interest in music is <i>athletic</i> (feats of
+skill), not <i>&aelig;sthetic</i> (artistic expression of emotions). Yet these
+people have the impudence to say that German opera is "stupid,"
+forgetting that their case might be analogous to that of the drunkard
+who thinks the earth is reeling when he is.</p>
+
+<p>This class of opera-goers never tire of abusing such singers as
+Fr&auml;ulein Brandt and Herr Niemann because their voices are no longer as
+mellow as in their youth, and sometimes weaken in a sustained note or
+swerve for a second from the pitch. Such blemishes are no doubt to be
+regretted, but they are a hundred times atoned for by the passion and
+the variety of emotional expression that animate their voices, and by
+their superb acting. Fr&auml;ulein Brandt's <i>Ortrud</i>, <i>Eglantine</i>, and
+<i>Fides</i> will be referred to generations hence as models, as will Herr
+Niemann's <i>Tannh&auml;user</i>, <i>Siegmund</i>, <i>Cortez</i>, <i>Lohengrin</i>, <i>Tristan</i>,
+etc. New Yorkers must consider themselves fortunate in having heard
+for two seasons the greatest of Wagnerian tenors&mdash;even though he is no
+longer in his prime&mdash;the man who sang the title <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span><i>r&ocirc;le</i> of
+"Tannh&auml;user" when that opera was produced in Paris in 1861; who
+created the part of <i>Siegmund</i> in 1876 at Bayreuth; and who, in his
+way, has done as much to popularize Wagner's operas as Liszt did
+during the Weimar period, when people had to go to that city to hear
+"Lohengrin" and "Tannh&auml;user," as they now go to Bayreuth to hear
+"Parsifal." He is not only valuable for the sake of his artistic
+qualities, but because of his enthusiasm for the cause of the best
+music. Wagner held him in the highest esteem; and he wrote in his
+review of the Bayreuth festival of 1876, that without Niemann's
+devotion and ardor its success would not have been assured. He
+regretted subsequently that he did not ask Niemann to create the
+<i>r&ocirc;le</i> of <i>Siegfried</i> in the last drama of the Tetralogy, as well as
+that of <i>Siegmund</i> in the second. Thanks to this mistake, New Yorkers
+had the privilege of hearing Niemann's <i>d&eacute;but</i> in this <i>r&ocirc;le</i>&mdash;at the
+age of fifty-seven, an age when most tenors have retired on their
+pensions.</p>
+
+<p>Three artists are included in the present company at the Metropolitan
+whom Mr. Stanton could not dispense with under any circumstances. One
+of these is Herr Fischer, who, now that Scaria is no more, is beyond
+comparison the finest dramatic bass on the stage. No Italian could have
+a more mellow and sonorous voice, and his method has all the
+conscientiousness, passion, and distinctness of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>enunciation that
+characterize the German style. His <i>Wotan</i> and his <i>Hans Sachs</i>,
+especially, are marvels of operatic impersonation. Herr Alvary, the
+second of the vocalists who unite Italian with German merits, is a
+young singer who has a great future before him, if his <i>Siegfried</i>, a
+most realistic and powerful impersonation, may be argued from. And as
+for the third of these artists&mdash;Lilli Lehmann&mdash;her equal can hardly
+to-day be found on the operatic stage. It is very characteristic of the
+late Intendant of the Berlin theatres&mdash;Herr von H&uuml;lsen (who waited nine
+years before he accepted "Lohengrin" for performance, and afterward
+repeated the same <i>faux pas</i> with the Nibelung Trilogy)&mdash;that he
+confined Fr&auml;ulein Lehmann for years to subordinate <i>r&ocirc;les</i>. Indeed,
+although she had acquired considerable fame abroad, it may be said that
+her real career did not begin till she came to New York. Here her rare
+merits were at once recognized, and instead of resting on her laurels,
+she has grown more admirable as an actress and singer every year. Her
+voice has a sensuous beauty that is matchless, and no other prima
+donna, except Materna, has emotion in her voice so deep and genuine as
+that which moves us in Lehmann's <i>Isolde</i> and <i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i>.</p>
+
+<p>She made her <i>d&eacute;but</i> in 1866, at Prague, and ten years later sang the
+small <i>r&ocirc;les</i> of the first Rhine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>maiden and the forest bird in
+"Rheingold" and "Siegfried," at the Bayreuth festival&mdash;little
+fancying, perhaps, that she would twelve years later be the queen of
+German opera in America. She takes excellent care of her voice, and
+never allows the weather to interfere with her daily walk of several
+miles. Her versatility is extraordinary, for she sings <i>Norma</i> and
+<i>Valentine</i> as well as she does <i>Isolde</i>. She scouts the idea that
+Wagner's music ruins the voice, agreeing on this point with the most
+famous vocal teacher of the day, Madame Marchesi. It is only when
+Wagner's music is sung to excess that it injures the voice, according
+to Fr&auml;ulein Lehmann, because it requires such extraordinary power to
+cope with the orchestra. Heretofore she has not always succeeded in
+holding her own against the full orchestra, but in her latest and
+greatest impersonation&mdash;<i>Br&uuml;nnhilde</i>, in "Die G&ouml;tterd&auml;mmerung"&mdash;her
+voice rivalled Materna's in power without losing a shade of its
+sensuous beauty, which is always enchanting.</p>
+
+<p>If it were possible to secure half a dozen more singers like Lehmann,
+Alvary, and Fischer, the operatic problem might be regarded as solved.
+It is the scarcity of first-class acting vocalists that makes opera so
+expensive, and prevents it from being self-supporting. The number of
+first-class singers is so small that every manager competes for them,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>and enables them to charge fancy prices, which are ruinous to any
+manager who has no government or other support to fall back on.</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious thing, this scarcity of good singers. We read so much
+about all professions being over-crowded; and yet here is a profession
+in which success literally means millions, and yet so few come forward
+in it that managers are at their wits' ends what to do, especially in
+the case of tenors. Herr Niemann obtains seven hundred and fifty
+dollars for every appearance; Fr&auml;ulein Lehmann gets six hundred
+dollars, and there are singers who are much better paid still because
+they appear under the star system. Surely this ought to be a
+sufficient bait to catch talented pupils. How many professions are
+there in which one can make between five hundred and two thousand
+dollars in three or four hours?&mdash;not to speak of the possibility of
+winning the great prize&mdash;Madame Patti's four or five thousand?</p>
+
+<p>It is sometimes said that the repertory is at fault; but I am
+convinced that if there were plenty of good singers in the field, many
+of the operas that were formerly in vogue might be revived
+successfully&mdash;always excepting the flimsy productions of Bellini and
+Donizetti. It was formerly believed for years that "Lohengrin" was the
+only one of Wagner's early operas that American audiences cared for.
+But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>"Tannh&auml;user" has, in a few years, become more popular than
+"Lohengrin," thanks largely to its better staging and interpretation.
+Owing in a large measure to Fr&auml;ulein Brandt's <i>Fides</i> and Fr&auml;ulein
+Lehmann's <i>Bertha</i>, Meyerbeer's "Proph&egrave;te" has been a success for
+several years. Spontini's "Cortez," Weber's "Euryanthe," Wagner's
+"Rienzi," and Beethoven's "Fidelio," are among the most interesting
+revivals during Mr. Stanton's enterprising <i>r&eacute;gime</i>.</p>
+
+<p>No composer, and few poets, have ever inspired so many artists to
+visualize their conceptions on canvas as the poetic scenes suggested
+in Wagner's dramas. A special exhibition of such pictures was held in
+Vienna some years ago. It is not too much to say that Wagner's scenic
+backgrounds are as much more artistic than those of other opera
+composers as his texts are more poetic than theirs. He avoids frequent
+changes, and generally has only three scenes for an opera. But each of
+these, if executed according to his directions, is a masterpiece, and
+impresses itself on the memory like the canvas of a master.</p>
+
+<p>The performance of the Trilogy in New York has naturally revived among
+the Wagnerites the question as to which of the master's works is the
+greatest. Leaving aside "Tristan" and "Die Meistersinger," which he
+never surpassed, many regard the first act of "Die Walk&uuml;re" the most
+finished of Wagner's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>creations; and certainly it has a marvellously
+impressive climax&mdash;<i>Siegmund's</i> drawing of the sword from the
+ash-tree, and the love duo which follows; and another in <i>Wotan's</i>
+farewell in Act III. But grand as these are, many consider the last
+act of "Die G&ouml;tterd&auml;mmerung" the supreme achievement of Wagner. The
+exquisite trio of the Rhine maidens swimming and singing in a
+picturesque forest scene; the death of <i>Siegfried</i>, and the procession
+that slowly carries his body by the light of the moon up the hill; and
+the burning of the funeral pyre at the end, until it is put out by the
+rising waters of the Rhine bearing the maidens on the surface; these
+scenes, with the glorious music accompanying, cannot be matched by any
+act of any other opera. Nevertheless, as a whole, "Siegfried" is, in
+my opinion, the grandest part of the Trilogy. In no other work of
+Wagner is there such a minute correspondence, every second, between
+the poetry, music, and scenery. Every action and gesture on the stage
+is mirrored in the orchestra; and I shall never forget the remark made
+to me in 1876, at Bayreuth, by a musician, that in "Siegfried" we hear
+for the first time music such as Nature herself would make if she had
+an orchestra.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p>
+<br />
+Page &nbsp; 92: &nbsp; removed extra 'to' in 'resorted to to rouse'<br />
+Page 158: &nbsp; Wilhelmj replaced with Wilhelm<br />
+Page 162: &nbsp; Erlich replaced with Ehrlich<br />
+<br />
+Since 'Erlking' (page 138) and 'Erl King' (page 237) are
+from two articles, and both are legitimate spellings of
+Schubert's music, these are left as is.<br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
+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
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+Title: Chopin and Other Musical Essays
+
+Author: Henry T. Finck
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18560]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS ***
+
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+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
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+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                          |
+    |                                                              |
+    | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected |
+    | in this text, while archaic spelling has been maintained.    |
+    | For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document. |
+    |                                                              |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHOPIN
+
+AND
+
+OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS
+
+
+
+
+  BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+  SPAIN AND MOROCCO. 12mo, $1.25.
+
+  THE PACIFIC COAST SCENIC TOUR.
+    Illustrated. 8vo, $2.50.
+
+  CHOPIN, AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS.
+    12mo, $1.50.
+
+  WAGNER AND HIS WORKS. With Portraits.
+    Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, $4.00.
+
+
+
+
+CHOPIN
+AND
+OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS
+
+
+
+
+BY
+HENRY T. FINCK
+AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY"
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+1894
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+
+TROW'S
+PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
+NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO
+
+MRS. JEANNETTE M. THURBER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+I. CHOPIN, THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE,               1
+
+II. HOW COMPOSERS WORK,                                        59
+
+III. SCHUMANN, AS MIRRORED IN HIS LETTERS,                    111
+
+IV. MUSIC AND MORALS,                                         141
+
+V. ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES,                           183
+
+VI. GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK,                                 233
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+CHOPIN
+
+THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE
+
+
+Leipsic, the centre of the world's music trade, exports about one
+hundred thousand dollars' worth of music to America every year. I do
+not know how much of this sum is to be placed to the account of
+Chopin, but a leading music dealer in New York told me that he sold
+three times as many of Chopin's compositions as of any other romantic
+or classical composer. This seems to indicate that Chopin is popular.
+Nevertheless, I believe that what Liszt wrote in 1850, a year after
+the death of Chopin--that his fame was not yet as great as it would be
+in the future--is as true to-day as it was forty years ago. Chopin's
+reputation has been constantly growing, and yet many of his deepest
+and most poetic compositions are almost unknown to amateurs, not to
+speak of the public at large. A few of his least characteristic pieces
+are heard in every parlor, generally in a wofully mutilated condition,
+but some of his most inspired later works I have never heard played
+either in private or in the concert hall, although I am sure that if
+heard there they would be warmly applauded.
+
+There is hardly a composer concerning whom so many erroneous notions
+are current as concerning Chopin, and of all the histories of music I
+have seen that of Langhans is the only one which devotes to Chopin an
+amount of space approximately proportionate to his importance. One of
+the most absurd of the misconceptions is that Chopin's genius was born
+in full armor, and that it did not pass through several stages of
+development, like that of other composers. Chopin did display
+remarkable originality at the very beginning, but the apparent
+maturity of his first published works is due to the fact that he
+destroyed his earliest efforts and disowned those works which are
+known as posthumous, and which may have created confusion in some
+minds by having received a higher "opus" number than his last works.
+
+Another misconception regarding Chopin is that his latest works are
+morbid and unintelligible. The same charge was brought by philistines
+against the best works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner. The fact is
+that these last works are of an almost matchless harmonic depth and
+originality, as superior to his earlier works as Wagner's last music
+dramas are to his first operas. I make this comparison with Wagner
+advisedly because, although I have the most exalted notions of
+Wagner's grandeur and importance, I do not for a moment hesitate to
+say that in his own sphere Chopin is quite as original and has been
+almost as revolutionary and epoch-making as Wagner. Schumann was the
+first to recognize the revolutionary significance of Chopin's style.
+"Chopin's works," he says, "are cannons buried in flowers;" and in
+another place he declares that he can see in "Chopin's G minor
+Nocturne a terrible declaration of war against a whole musical past."
+Chopin, himself, modest as he was in his manners, wrote to his teacher
+Elsner, in 1831, when he was twenty-two years of age: "Kalkbrenner
+will not be able to break my perhaps bold but noble determination to
+create a new epoch in art."
+
+Now, why has the world been so slow in recognizing that Chopin stands
+in the very front rank of creative musicians? One reason doubtless is
+that he was so quiet and retiring in his personal disposition. His
+still, small voice was lost in the din of musical warfare. He warmly
+defended the principles of the romantic school, if necessary, and had
+decided opinions of other musicians, especially of the popular
+pianists of his day who vitiated the public taste with their show
+pieces; but he generally kept them to himself or confided them only to
+his friends, whom he even occasionally implored to keep them secret.
+Had he, like Richard Wagner, attacked everybody, right and left, who
+stood in the way of the general recognition of his genius, his cause
+would have doubtless assumed greater prominence in the eyes of the
+public, even though the parlor piano does not afford so much
+play-ground for warfare as the operatic stage.
+
+The chief reason, however, why musical authorities have so long
+hesitated to acknowledge that Chopin is one of the very greatest
+explorers and pioneers in the domain of their art, is to be found in
+what, for want of a better term, may be called aesthetic Jumboism. When
+the late lamented Jumbo was in New York he attracted so much attention
+that his colleagues, although but little inferior in size, had "no
+show" whatever. Everybody crowded around Jumbo, stuffing him with
+bushels of oranges and apples, while the other elephants were entirely
+ignored. As elephants are intelligent animals, is it not probable that
+Pilot, the next in size to Jumbo, went mad and had to be shot because
+he was jealous of the exclusive attentions bestowed on his rival? In
+aesthetics, this Jumboism, this exaggerated desire for mammoth
+dimensions, seems to be a trait of the human mind which it is
+difficult to eradicate. It is a suggestive fact that the morbid, sham
+aestheticism which prevailed in England a few years ago, chose for its
+symbol the uncouth sunflower. And many who know that a sunflower is
+less beautiful and fragrant than a violet, will nevertheless, on
+visiting a picture gallery, give most of their attention to the large
+canvases, though the smaller ones may be infinitely more beautiful. It
+cannot be said that the critics of art or literature follow the
+popular disposition to measure genius with a yard-stick; but in music
+there seems to be a general tendency to do this. Liszt remarks,
+apropos, in his work on Chopin: "The value of the sketches made by
+Chopin's extremely delicate pencil has not yet been acknowledged and
+emphasized sufficiently. It has become customary in our days to regard
+as great composers only those who have written at least half a dozen
+operas, as many oratorios, and several symphonies."
+
+Even Schumann, and Elsner, Chopin's teacher, seem to have been
+affected a little by this irrational way of looking at music.
+Schumann, in a complimentary notice of Chopin's nocturnes, expresses
+his regrets that the composer should confine himself so strictly to
+the pianoforte, whereas he might have influenced the development of
+music in all its branches. He adds, however, on second thought, that
+"to be a poet one need not have written ponderous volumes; one or two
+poems suffice to make a reputation, and Chopin has written such."
+Elsner who was unusually liberal in his views of art, and who
+discovered and valued his pupil's originality long before Schumann
+did, nevertheless bowed before the fetish of Jumboism in so far as to
+write to Chopin in Paris that he was anxious, before he departed this
+Vale of Tears, to hear an opera from his pen, both for his benefit,
+and for the glory of his country. Chopin took this admonition to heart
+sufficiently to ask a friend to prepare for him a libretto; but that
+is as far as the project ever went. Chopin must have felt
+instinctively that his individual style of miniature painting would be
+as ineffective on the operatic stage, where bold, _al fresco_ painting
+is required, as his soft and dreamy playing would have been had he
+taken his piano from the parlor and placed it in a meadow.
+
+Besides Chopin's abhorrence of musical warfare and his avoidance of
+the larger and more imposing forms of the opera, symphony, and
+oratorio, there were other causes which retarded the recognition of
+his transcendent genius. The unprecedented originality of his style,
+and the distinct national coloring of his compositions, did not meet
+with a sympathetic appreciation in Germany and Vienna, when he first
+went there to test his musical powers. Some of the papers indeed had a
+good word for him, but, as in the case of Liszt and later of
+Rubinstein, it was rather for the pianist than for the composer. On
+his first visit to Vienna he was greatly petted, and he found it easy
+to get influential friends who took care that his concerts should be
+a success, because he played for their benefit, asking no pecuniary
+recompense. But when, some years later, he repeated his visit, and
+tried to play for his own pecuniary benefit, the influential friends
+were invisible, and the concert actually resulted in a deficit.
+
+Chopin's letters contain unmistakable evidence of the fact that, with
+some exceptions, the Germans did not understand his compositions. At
+his first concert in Vienna, he writes, "The first allegro in the F
+minor concerto (not intelligible to all) was indeed rewarded with
+'Bravo!' but I believe this was rather because the audience wished to
+show that they appreciated serious music than because they were able
+to follow and appreciate such music." And regarding the fantasia on
+Polish airs he says that it completely missed its mark: "There was
+indeed some applause by the audience, but obviously only to show the
+pianist that they were not bored." The ultra-Germans, he writes in
+another letter, did not appear to be quite satisfied; and he relates
+that one of these, on being asked, in his presence, how he liked the
+concert, at once changed the subject of conversation, obviously in
+order not to hurt his feelings. In a third letter, in which he gives
+his parents an account of his concert in Breslau, in 1830, he says
+that, "With the exception of Schnabel, whose face was beaming with
+pleasure, and who patted me on the shoulder every other moment, none
+of the other Germans knew exactly what to make of me;" and he adds,
+with his delicious irony, that "the connoisseurs could not exactly
+make out whether my compositions really were good or only seemed so."
+
+Criticisms culled from contemporary newspaper notices and other
+sources emphasize the fact that the Germans were at that time blind to
+the transcendent merits of Chopin's genius. The professional critics,
+after their usual manner, found fault with the very things which we
+to-day admire most in him--the exotic originality of the style, and
+the delightful Polish local color in which all his fabrics are "dyed
+in the wool," as it were. How numerous these adverse criticisms were,
+may best be inferred from the frequency with which Schumann defended
+Chopin in his musical paper and sneered at his detractors. "It is
+remarkable," he writes, "that in the very droughty years preceding
+1830, in which one should have thanked Heaven for every straw of
+superior quality, criticism, which it is true, _always lags behind
+unless it emanates from creative minds_, persisted in shrugging its
+shoulders at Chopin's compositions--nay, that one of them had the
+impudence to say that all they were good for was to be torn to
+pieces." In another article, after speaking in the most enthusiastic
+terms of Chopin's trio, in which "every note is music and life," he
+exclaims, "Wretched Berlin critic, who has no understanding for these
+things, and never will have--poor fellow!" And seven years later, in
+1843, he writes, with fine contempt for his critical colleagues, that
+"for the typical reviewers Chopin never did write, anyway." And this,
+be it remembered, was only six years before Chopin's death.
+
+Not a few of the composers and composerlings of the period joined the
+professional critics in their depreciation of Chopin's works. Field
+called his "a talent of the sick chamber." Moscheles, while admitting
+Chopin's originality, and the value of his pianistic achievements,
+confessed that he disliked his "harsh, inartistic, incomprehensible
+modulations," which often appeared "artificial and forced" to
+him--these same modulations which to-day transport us into the seventh
+heaven of delight! Mendelssohn's attitude toward Chopin was somewhat
+vacillating. He defended him in a letter against his sister's
+criticisms, and assured her that if she had heard some of Chopin's
+compositions "as he himself played them" for him, she too would have
+been delighted. He adds that Chopin had just completed "a most
+graceful little nocturne," of which he remembered much, and was going
+to play it for his brother Paul. Nevertheless, he did not recommend
+the pupils at the Leipsic Conservatory to study Chopin's works, and
+various utterances of his are on record showing that he had a decided
+artistic antipathy for the exotic products of Chopin's pen. To give
+only one instance. In one of the letters to Moscheles, first printed
+in _Scribner's Magazine_ for February, 1888, he complains that "a book
+of mazurkas by Chopin, and a few new pieces of his are so mannered
+that they are hard to stand."
+
+I have dwelt so much on the attitude of the Germans toward Chopin,
+because I am convinced that in this attitude lies one of the main
+reasons why no one has hitherto dared to place him in the front rank
+of composers, side by side with Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner. For the
+Germans are the _tonangebende_ (the standard-setting) nation in music
+to-day, and, as there seems to be a natural antipathy between the
+Slavic and the Teutonic mind, the Germans are apt, like Mendelssohn,
+to regard as mannerism what is simply the exotic fragrance which
+betrays a foreign nationality. The ultro-Teutons still persist in
+their depreciation of Chopin. In the latest edition of Brockhaus's
+"Conservations-Lexicon" we read, apropos to Chopin's larger works,
+that "he was deficient in the profounder musical attainments"(!) Dr.
+Hanslick, generally considered the leading German critic of the
+period, in a 534-page collection of criticisms, discussing twenty
+concert seasons in Vienna, has only about half a dozen and by no
+means complimentary references to Chopin. And even the late Louis
+Ehlert, in his appreciative essay on Chopin, comes to the conclusion
+that Chopin is certainly not to be ranked with such giants as Bach and
+Beethoven. This is Teutonism, pure and simple. No doubt Chopin is, in
+some respects, inferior to Bach and Beethoven, but in other respects
+he is quite as unquestionably superior to them. He wrote no mammoth
+symphonies, but there is a marvellous wealth and depth of ideas in his
+smaller works--enough to supply half a dozen ordinary symphony and
+opera writers with ideas for a lifetime. His works may be compared to
+those men of genius in whose under-sized bodies dwelt a gigantic mind.
+
+Schumann appears to have been the only contemporary composer who did
+not underrate Chopin. Whether he would have gone so far as to rank him
+with the greatest of the German composers, I cannot say, for he avoids
+direct comparisons. But if imitation is the sincerest form of
+flattery, then Schumann flattered Chopin more than any other master,
+for his pianoforte works are much more in the manner of Chopin than of
+Bach or Beethoven. I do not mean direct imitation, but that
+unconscious adoption of Chopin's numerous innovations in the treatment
+of the piano and of musical style, which are better evidence of
+influence than the borrowing of an idea or two. He himself testified
+to the "intimate artistic relations" between him and Chopin.
+Moreover, his praise of Chopin is always pitched in such a high key
+that it would seem as if praise could no higher go. It was he who
+first proclaimed Chopin's genius authoritatively, and to this fact he
+often referred subsequently, with special pride. The very first
+article in his volumes of criticisms is devoted to Chopin's variations
+on "La Ci Darem'," published as "opus 2." In those days, Schumann used
+to give his criticisms a semi-dramatic form. On this occasion he
+represents his _alter ego_, Eusebius, as rushing into the room with a
+new composition, and the exclamation "Hats off, gentlemen! a genius!"
+He then analyzes the variations in glowing poetic language and
+rapturously exclaims at the end that "there is genius in every bar."
+And this was only one of the _early_ works of Chopin, in which he has
+by no means attained his full powers. Of another quite early work, the
+second concerto, he writes that it is a composition "which none of us
+can approach except it be with the lips to kiss the hem;" and later
+on, the Preludes, the most inspired of his works, led Schumann to
+exclaim that Chopin "is and remains the boldest and noblest artistic
+spirit of the time."
+
+Schumann would have found it difficult to induce any of his countrymen
+to endorse his exalted opinion of Chopin, but the Hungarian Liszt
+joined hands with him heartily, and pronounced Chopin "an artist of
+the first rank." "His best works," he says, "contain numerous
+combinations of which it must be said that they did nothing less than
+create an epoch in the treatment of musical style. Bold, brilliant,
+enchanting, his pieces _conceal their depth behind so much grace,
+their erudition behind so much charm_, that it is difficult to
+emancipate one's self from their overpowering magic and estimate them
+according to their theoretic value. This fact is already recognized by
+some competent judges, and it will be more and more generally realized
+when the progress made in art during the Chopin epoch is carefully
+studied."
+
+That Elsner, Chopin's teacher, detected his pupil's originality, has
+already been stated. Fortunately he allowed it a free rein instead of
+trying to check and crush it, as teachers are in the habit of doing.
+But there are some passages in Chopin's early letters which seem to
+indicate that the general public and the professional musicians in his
+native Poland were not so very much in advance of the Germans in
+recognizing his musical genius. Liszt doubts whether Chopin's national
+compositions were as fully appreciated by his countrymen as the work
+of native poets; and Chopin writes to a friend, apropos of his second
+concert at Warsaw: "The _elite_ of the musical world will be there;
+but I have little confidence in their musical judgment--Elsner of
+course excepted." Elsewhere he complains of a patriotic admirer who
+had written that the Poles would some day be as proud of Chopin as the
+Germans were of Mozart. And when in addition to this the editor of a
+local paper told him he had in type a sonnet on him, Chopin was
+greatly alarmed, and begged him not to print it; for he knew that such
+homage would create envy and enemies, and he declared that after that
+sonnet was published he would not dare to read any longer what the
+papers said about him.
+
+Chopin's want of confidence in the judgment of his countrymen showed
+that, after all, the national Polish element in his compositions was
+not the main cause why they were not rated at once at their true
+value. It was their novelty of form, harmonic depth and freedom of
+modulation, that made them for a long time caviare to the general.
+This was again proved when he went to Paris. Chopin was a Pole only on
+his mother's side, his father having been a Frenchman, who had
+emigrated to Poland. It might have been supposed, therefore, that
+there would be a French element in Chopin's genius which would make it
+palatable to the Parisians. But this did not prove to be the case. In
+the remarkable group of musicians, poets, and artists who were
+assembled at that time in Paris, and who mutually inspired one
+another--a group which included Liszt, Meyerbeer, Hiller,
+Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Heine, George Sand, the Countess D'Agoult,
+Delacroix, etc.--there were no doubt not a few who knew what a rare
+genius their friend Chopin was. George Sand wrote in her
+autobiography: "He has not been understood hitherto, and to the
+present day he is underestimated. Great progress will have to be made
+in taste and in the appreciation of music before it will be possible
+for Chopin's work to become popular." Heine also wrote that his
+favorite pianist was Chopin, "who, however," he adds, "is more of a
+composer than a virtuoso. When Chopin is at the piano I forget all
+about the technical side of playing and become absorbed in the sweet
+profundity, the sad loveliness of his creations, which are as deep as
+they are elegant. Chopin is the great inspired tone-poet who properly
+should be named only in company with Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini."
+
+But aside from these select spirits and a small circle of aristocratic
+admirers, mostly Poles, Chopin was not understood by the Paris public.
+At first he could not even make his living there, and was in
+consequence on the point of emigrating to America when a friend
+dragged him to a _soiree_ at Rothschild's, where his playing was so
+much admired that he was at once engaged as a teacher by several
+ladies present. In a very short time he became the fashionable teacher
+in aristocratic circles, where his refined manners made him
+personally liked. As he refused to take any but talented pupils,
+teaching was not so irksome to him as it might have been. Nevertheless
+one cannot but marvel at the obtuseness of the Parisians who put into
+the utilitarian harness an artist who might have enchanted them every
+evening with a concert, had their taste been more cultivated. He _did_
+play once, when he first arrived, but the receipts did not even meet
+the expenses, and the audience received his work so coldly that his
+artistic sensibilities were wounded, and he did not again appear in
+public for fourteen years. Occasionally he played for the select
+aristocratic circles into which he had been introduced; but even here
+he did not often meet with the genuine appreciation and sympathy which
+the artist craves. "Whoever could read in his face," says Liszt,
+"could see how often he felt convinced that among all these handsome,
+well-dressed gentlemen, among all the perfumed, elegant ladies, not
+one understood him."
+
+As for the French critics they seem to have been as obtuse as their
+German colleagues. To give only one instance: M. Fetis, author of the
+well-known musical dictionary, states in his article on Chopin, that
+this composer is overrated to-day, and his popularity largely due to
+the fact that he is fashionable. And in his article on Heller, he
+asserts, more pointedly still, that "the time will undoubtedly come
+when the world will recognize that Heller, much more than Chopin, is
+the modern poet of the pianoforte." In this opinion Fetis probably
+stands alone; but many who have not studied Chopin's deepest works
+carefully, are still convinced that the pianoforte compositions of
+Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, are of greater importance than
+Chopin's. So far am I from sharing this opinion that if I had to
+choose between never again hearing a pianoforte piece by any or all of
+those composers, or never again hearing a Chopin composition, I should
+decide in favor of Chopin. Some years ago I expressed my conviction,
+in _The Nation_, that Chopin is as distinctly superior to all other
+piano composers as Wagner is to all other opera composers. A
+distinguished Cincinnati musician, Mr. Otto Singer, was horrified at
+this statement, and wrote in _The Courier_, of that city, that it
+could only have been made by "a patriotically inclined Frenchman or a
+consumptive inhabitant of Poland;" adding that "he would readily yield
+up possession of quite a number of Chopin's bric-a-brac for Schumann's
+single 'Warum.'" I am neither a patriotic Frenchman nor a consumptive
+Pole, and I am a most ardent admirer of Schumann; nevertheless I
+uphold my former opinion, and my chief object in this essay is to
+endeavor to justify it.
+
+All authorities, in the first place, admit that Chopin created an
+entirely new style of playing the pianoforte. Many have pointed out
+the peculiarities of this style--the use of extended and scattered
+chords, the innovations in fingering which facilitate _legato_
+playing, the spray of dainty little ornamental notes, the use of the
+capricious _tempo rubato_, and so on. But it has not been made
+sufficiently clear by any writer how it was that Chopin became the
+Wagner of the pianoforte, so to speak, by revealing for the first time
+the infinite possibilities of varied and beautiful tone-colors
+inherent in that instrument. To understand this point fully, it is
+necessary to bear in mind a few facts regarding the history of the
+pianoforte.
+
+The name of pianoforte was given about a century and a half ago to an
+instrument constructed by the Italian Cristofori, who devised a
+mechanism for striking the strings with hammers. In the older
+instruments--the clarichords and harpsichords--the strings were either
+snapped by means of crow's quills, or pushed with a tangent. The new
+hammer action not only brought a better tone out of the string, but
+enabled the pianist to play any note loud or soft at pleasure; hence
+the name _piano-forte_. But the pianoforte itself required many years
+before all its possibilities of tone-production were discovered. The
+instruments used by Mozart still had a thin short tone, and there was
+no pedal for prolonging it, except a clumsy one worked with the
+knee--a circumstance which greatly influenced Mozart's style, and is
+largely responsible for the fact that his pianoforte works are hardly
+ever played to-day in the concert hall. For, as the tone could not be
+sustained, it was customary in Mozart's time to hide its meagre frame
+by means of a great profusion of runs and trills, and other ornaments,
+with which even the slow movements were disfigured. Under the
+circumstances, these ornaments were justifiable to some extent, but
+to-day they seem not only in bad taste, but entirely superfluous,
+because our improved instruments have a much greater power of
+sustaining tones.
+
+Czerny, the famous piano teacher, touched in his autobiography on the
+peculiarities of Mozart's style. Beethoven, who gave Czerny some
+lessons on the piano, made him pay particular attention to the
+_legato_, "of which," says Czerny, "he was so unrivalled a master, but
+which at that time--the Mozart period, when the short staccato touch
+was in fashion--_all other pianists thought impossible_. Beethoven
+told me afterwards," he continues, "that he had often heard Mozart,
+whose style from his use of the clavecin, the pianoforte being in his
+time in its infancy, was not at all adapted to the newer instrument. I
+have known several persons who had received instruction from Mozart,
+and their playing corroborated this statement."
+
+In view of these facts, we can understand why Beethoven did not like
+Mozart's pianoforte works as well as those of Clementi, in which there
+was more _cantabile_, and which required more fulness of tone in the
+execution; and we can understand why even so conservative a critic as
+Louis Ehlert should exclaim, apropos of Chopin's "entirely new
+pianoforte life," "How uninteresting is the style of any previous
+master (excepting Beethoven) compared with his! What a litany of
+gone-by, dead-alive forms! What a feelingless, prosaic jingle! If
+anyone should, without a grimace, assure me sincerely that he can play
+pianoforte pieces by Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, and Ries, with real
+enjoyment even now, I will esteem him as an excellent man--yes, a very
+honest one; but I will not drink wine with him."
+
+Were it not for what I have ventured to call the fetish of Jumboism, I
+am convinced that Professor Ehlert would have written Mozart's name in
+this last sentence in place of Clementi's. By excepting Beethoven
+alone from the list of "uninteresting" composers preceding Chopin, he
+_implicitly_ condemns Mozart; but he does not dare to do so
+_explicitly_, although such a confession would not have affected
+Mozart's greatness in other departments of music, which is undeniable.
+Indeed, if Professor Ehlert had been perfectly sincere I am not quite
+sure that he would have excepted Beethoven's sonatas. Although they
+teem with great and beautiful ideas, these sonatas are not really
+adapted to the intrinsic nature of the pianoforte, and hence fail to
+arouse the enthusiasm of those whose taste has been formed by the
+works of Chopin and Schumann. It was no doubt an instinctive antipathy
+to Beethoven's unpianistic style (if the adjective be permissible),
+which prevented Chopin from admiring Beethoven as deeply as he did
+some other composers, whom he would have admitted to be his inferiors.
+And Beethoven himself does not seem to have regarded his pianoforte
+works with the same satisfaction as his other compositions. At least,
+he wrote the following curious sentence in a corner of one of his
+sketch books in 1805; "Heaven knows why my pianoforte music always
+makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."
+He must have felt that his ideas found a much more appropriate and
+adequate expression in the orchestra than on the piano. Not being a
+radical innovator he did not, in his treatment of the pianoforte, go
+beyond Clementi; and so it remained for Chopin to show the world that
+the pianoforte, if properly treated, will yield tones whose exquisite
+sensuous beauty can hardly be surpassed by any combination of
+orchestral instruments.
+
+The two principal means by which he accomplished these reforms were
+the constant employment of the pedal, and the use of extended and
+scattered chords, in place of the crowded harmonies and the massive
+movements of the older accompaniments.
+
+Very few pianists seem to comprehend the exact function and importance
+of the pedal. Many will be surprised to hear that the word "touch,"
+which they suppose refers to the way the keys are struck by the
+fingers, has quite as much to do with the feet--that is, the use of
+the pedal--as with the fingers. No matter how thoroughly a pianist may
+have trained his fingers, if he does not use the pedal as it was used
+by Chopin and Schumann, he cannot reveal the poetry of their
+compositions. In one of his letters Chopin notes that Thalberg played
+_forte_ and _piano_ with the pedals, not with his hands, and some
+piano bangers do so still; but every pianist who deserves the name
+knows that loudness and softness must be regulated by the hands (and
+very rarely the left-side pedal). Yet even among this better class of
+pianists the notion seems to prevail that the main object of the
+right-side pedal is to enable them to prolong a chord or to prevent a
+confusion of consecutive harmonies. This is one of the functions of
+the pedal, no doubt, but not the most important one. The chief service
+of the pedal is _in the interest of tone-color_. Let me explain.
+
+Every student of music knows that if you sing a certain tone into a
+piano (after pressing the pedal), or before a guitar, the strings in
+these instruments which correspond to the tone you sing will vibrate
+responsively and emit a tone. He also knows that when you sound a
+single note, say G, on the violin or piano, you seem to hear only a
+simple tone, but on listening more closely you will find that it is
+really a compound tone or a complete chord, the fundamental tone being
+accompanied by faint overtones, which differ in number and relative
+loudness in different instruments, and to which these instruments owe
+their peculiar tone-color.
+
+Now when you press the pedal of a pianoforte on striking a note you do
+not only prolong this note, but its vibrations arouse all the notes
+which correspond to its overtones, and the result is a rich deep
+tone-color of exquisite sensuous beauty and enchanting variableness.
+Hence, whenever the melodic movement and harmonic changes are not too
+rapid, a pianist should press the pedal _constantly_, whether he plays
+loudly or softly; because it is only when the damper is raised from
+the strings that the overtones can enrich and beautify the sound by
+causing their corresponding strings to vibrate in sympathy with them.
+Those who heard Schumann play say that he used the pedal persistently,
+sometimes twice in the same bar to avoid harmonic confusion; and the
+same is true of Chopin, concerning whose playing an English amateur
+says, after referring to his _legatissimo_ touch: "The wide arpeggios
+in the left hand, _maintained in a continuous stream of tone_ by the
+strict legato and fine and constant use of the damper pedal, formed an
+harmonious substructure for a wonderfully poetic _cantabile_."
+
+I have italicised and emphasized the words _maintained in a continuous
+stream of tone_, because it calls attention to one of the numerous
+resemblances between the style of Chopin and that of Wagner, who in
+his music dramas similarly keeps up an uninterrupted flow of richly
+colored harmonies to sustain the vocal part. Schumann relates that he
+had the good fortune to hear Chopin play some of his etudes. "And he
+played them very much _a la Chopin_," he says: "Imagine an AEolian harp
+provided with all the scales, commingled by an artist's hand into all
+manner of fantastic, ornamental combinations, yet in such a way that
+you can always distinguish a deeper ground tone and a sweet continuous
+melody above--and you have an approximate idea of his playing. No
+wonder that I liked best those of the etudes which he played for me,
+and I wish to mention specially the first one, in A flat major, a poem
+rather than an etude. It would be a mistake to imagine that he allowed
+each of the small notes to be distinctly audible; it was rather a
+surging of the A flat major chord, occasionally raised to a new billow
+by the pedal; but amid these harmonies a wondrous melody asserted
+itself in large tones, and only once, toward the middle of the piece,
+a tenor part came out prominently beside the principal melody. After
+hearing this etude you feel as you do when you have seen a ravishing
+picture in your dreams and, half awake, would fain recall it."
+
+Now it is obvious that such dreamy AEolian-harp-like harmonies could
+not have been produced without Chopin's novel and constant use of the
+pedal. And this brings out the greatest difference between the new and
+the old style of playing. In the pianoforte works of Mozart and
+Beethoven, and even in those of Weber, which mark the transition from
+the classical to the romantic school, there are few passages that
+absolutely require a pedal, and in most cases the pieces sound almost
+as well without as with pedal; so that, from his point of view, and in
+his days of staccato playing, Hummel was quite right in insisting that
+a pianist could not be properly judged until he played without the
+pedal. But as regards the romantic school of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt
+and their followers, it may be said with equal truth that a pianist's
+use of the pedal furnishes the supreme test of his talent. If he has
+not the delicacy of ear which is requisite to produce the "continuous
+stream of tone" in Chopin's compositions, without the slightest
+harmonic confusion, he should leave them alone and devote himself to
+less poetic composers.
+
+An amusing anecdote illustrates visibly how helpless Chopin would have
+been without his pedal. He was asked one evening at a party in Paris
+to play. He was quite willing to do so but discovered to his surprise
+that the piano had no pedals. They had been sent away for repairs. In
+this dilemma a happy thought occurred to Liszt, who happened to be
+present. He crawled under the piano, and, while Chopin was playing,
+worked the mechanism to which the pedals ought to have been attached
+so cleverly that they were not missed at all! He stooped that his
+friend might conquer.
+
+The fact that Chopin in his later works, often omitted the sign for
+the pedal on his MSS. must not be held to indicate that he did not
+wish it to be constantly used. In his earlier works he carefully
+indicated where it should be employed, but subsequently he appears to
+have reasoned rightly that a pianist who needs to be told where the
+pedal ought, and where it ought not, to be employed, is not
+sufficiently advanced in culture to play his works at all, and had
+therefore best leave them alone.
+
+Chopin's remarkable genius for divining the mysteries of the
+pianoforte enabled him, as it were, to anticipate what is a
+comparatively recent invention--the middle pedal which is chiefly used
+to sustain single tones in the bass without affecting the rest of the
+instrument. The melancholy "F sharp minor Prelude," for example,
+cannot be played properly without the use of this middle pedal. In
+another prelude, we have an illustration of how the pedal must often
+be used in order to help in forming a chord which cannot be stretched.
+And this brings us to the second important innovation in the treatment
+of Chopin's pianoforte--the constant use of scattered and extended
+chords.
+
+Karasovski relates that Chopin, a mere boy, used to amuse himself by
+searching on the piano for harmonies of which the constituent notes
+were widely scattered on the keyboard, and, as his hands were too
+small to grasp them, he devised a mechanism for stretching his hands,
+which he wore at night. Fortunately, he did not go so far as Schumann,
+who made similar experiments with his hands and thereby disabled one
+of them for life. What prompted Chopin to search for these widely
+extended chords was his intense appreciation of tonal beauty. To-day
+everybody knows how much more beautiful scattered, and widely extended
+harmonies are than crowded harmonies; but it was Chopin's genius that
+discovered this fact and applied it on a large scale. Indeed, so novel
+were his chords, that at first, many of them were deemed unplayable;
+but he showed that if his own system of fingering was adopted, they
+were not only playable, but eminently suited to the character of the
+instrument. The superior beauty of scattered intervals can be
+strikingly demonstrated in this way. If you strike four or five
+adjacent notes on the piano at once, you produce an intolerable
+cacophony. But these same notes can be so arranged by scattering them
+that they make an exquisite chord in suspension. Everything depends on
+the arrangement and the wideness of the intervals. Chopin's fancy was
+inexhaustible in the discovery of new kinds of scattered chords,
+combined into harmony by his novel use of the pedal; and in this way
+he enriched music with so many new harmonies and modulations that he
+must be placed, as a harmonic innovator, on a level with Bach and
+Wagner.
+
+These remarks apply especially to Chopin's later compositions; but his
+peculiarities are already distinctly traceable in many of his earlier
+works; and Elsner, his teacher, was sufficiently clear-sighted and
+frank to write the following words: "The achievements of Mozart and
+Beethoven as pianists have long been forgotten; and their pianoforte
+compositions, although undoubtedly classical works, must give way to
+the diversified artistic treatment of that instrument by the modern
+school." Mr. Joseph Bennett quotes this sentence in his Biography of
+Chopin, and adds an exclamation point in brackets after it, to
+express his surprise. Mr. Bennett is considered one of the leading
+London critics; yet I must say that I have never seen so much
+ignorance in a single exclamation point in brackets. Note the
+difference between Elsner and Bennett. Elsner adds to the sentence
+just quoted, that the _other_ works of Mozart and Beethoven--their
+symphonies, operas, quartets, etc., "will not only continue to live,
+but will, perhaps, remain unequalled by anything of the present day."
+This is genuine discriminative criticism, which renders unto Caesar
+what is Caesar's due: whereas, Mr. Bennett is guided by the vicious old
+habit of fancying that because Mozart and Beethoven are great masters,
+therefore they must be superior to everybody in everything. Is it not
+about time to put an end to this absurd Jumboism in music?
+
+The fact is, we are living in an age of division of labor and
+specialism; and those who, like Robert Franz and Richard Wagner,
+devote themselves to a single branch of music have a better chance of
+reaching the summit of Parnassus than those who dissipate their
+energies in too many directions. Chopin was the pianoforte genius _par
+excellence_, and in his field he stands above the greatest of the
+German composers, whatever their names. Mendelssohn once wrote to his
+mother that Chopin "produces effects on the piano as novel as those of
+Paganini on the violin, and he performs marvels which no one would
+have believed to be possible." Mendelssohn benefited to a slight
+extent by Chopin's example, but he did not add anything new to the
+treatment of the pianoforte. Nor does even Liszt mark an advance on
+Chopin from a purely pianistic point of view. Paradoxical as it may
+seem, Liszt, the greatest pianist the world has known, was really a
+born _orchestral_ composer. He was never satisfied with the piano, but
+constantly wanted to convert it into an orchestra. His innovations
+were all in the service of these orchestral aspirations, and hence it
+is that his rhapsodies, for example, are much more effective in their
+orchestral garb than in their original pianoforte version. The same is
+true of many of Rubinstein's pianoforte works--the Bal Masque, for
+instance, which always has such an electric effect on Mr. Theodore
+Thomas's audiences. Not so with Chopin. Liszt remarks, somewhere, that
+Chopin might have easily written for orchestra, because his
+compositions can be so readily arranged for it. I venture to differ
+from this opinion. Chopin's Funeral March has been repeatedly arranged
+for orchestra--first by Reber at Chopin's funeral (when Meyerbeer
+regretted that he had not been asked to do this labor of love); and
+more recently by Mr. Theodore Thomas. Mr. Thomas's version is very
+clever and effective, yet I very _much_ prefer this sublime dirge on
+the piano. In a small room the piano has almost as great a capacity
+for dynamic shading as the orchestra has in a large hall; and, as I
+have just pointed out, one who knows how to use the pedal can secure
+an endless (almost orchestral) variety of tone-colors on the piano,
+thanks to the hundreds of overtones which can be made to accompany the
+tones played. Chopin spoke the language of the piano. His pieces are
+so idiomatic that they cannot be translated into orchestral language
+any more than Heine's lyrics can be translated into English. Chopin
+exhausted the possibilities of the pianoforte, and the piano exhausts
+the possibilities of Chopin's compositions.
+
+The innovations of Chopin which I have so far alluded to, have been to
+some extent adopted by all modern composers, and the more they have
+adopted them the more their works ingratiate themselves in the favor
+of amateurs. But there is another epoch-making feature of Chopin's
+style, which is less easy, especially to Germans, because it is a
+Slavic characteristic; I mean the _tempo rubato_. This is a phrase
+much used among musicians, but if pressed for an exact definition, few
+would be able to give one. Let us see first what Chopin's
+contemporaries have to say of the way in which he himself treats it.
+Chopin visited England in 1848, and on June 21 gave a concert in
+London. Mr. Chorley, the well-known critic, wrote a criticism on this
+occasion for "The Athenaeum," in which he says: "The delicacy of M.
+Chopin's tone and the elasticity of his passages are delicious to the
+ear. He makes a free use of _tempo rubato_, leaning about within his
+bars more than any player we recollect, but still subject to a
+presiding sentiment of measure, such as presently habituates the ear
+to the liberties taken. In music not his own, we happen to know he can
+be as staid as a metronome; while his Mazurkas, etc., lose half that
+wildness if played without a certain freedom and license--impossible
+to imitate, but irresistible if the player at all feels the music.
+This we have always fancied while reading Chopin's works:--we are now
+sure of it after hearing him perform them."
+
+Moscheles wrote to his wife that Chopin's "_ad libitum_ playing,
+which, with the interpreters of his music degenerates into offences
+against correct time, is, in his own case, merely a pleasing
+originality of style." He compares him to "a singer who, little
+concerned with the accompaniment, follows entirely his feelings."
+Karasovski says that Chopin "played the bass in quiet, regular time,
+while the right hand moved about with perfect freedom, now following
+the left hand, now ... going its own independent way. 'The left hand,'
+said Chopin, 'must be like an orchestral conductor; not for a moment
+must it be uncertain and vacillating.'" Thus his playing, free from
+the fetters of _tempo_, acquired a unique charm; thanks to this
+_rubato_, his melody was "like a vessel rocked upon the waves of the
+sea."
+
+The world suffered a great loss when a band of ignorant soldiers found
+the bundles of letters which Chopin had written from Paris to his
+parents, and used them to feed the fire which cooked their supper. But
+it lost a still greater treasure when Chopin tore up the manuscript of
+his pianoforte method, which he began to write in the last years of
+his life, but never finished. In it he would no doubt have given many
+valuable hints regarding the correct use of the _rubato_. In the
+absence of other authentic hints beyond the one just quoted, Liszt
+must be depended upon as the best authority on the subject; for it is
+well known that Liszt could imitate Chopin so nicely that his most
+intimate friends were once deceived in a dark room, imagining that
+Chopin was playing when Liszt was at the piano. "Chopin," Liszt
+writes, "was the first who introduced into his compositions that
+peculiarity which gave such a unique color to his impetuosity, and
+which he called _tempo rubato_:--an irregularly interrupted movement,
+subtile, broken, and languishing, at the same time flickering like a
+flame in the wind, undulating, like the surface of a wheat-field, like
+the tree-tops moved by a breeze." All his compositions must be played
+in this peculiarly accented, spasmodic, insinuating style, a style
+which he succeeded in imparting to his pupils, but which can hardly be
+taught without example. As with the pedal, so with the _rubato_,
+Chopin often neglected to mark its use in later years, taking it for
+granted that those who understood his works would know where to apply
+it.
+
+Perhaps the importance of the _rubato_ in Chopin cannot be more
+readily realized than by his concession that he could never play a
+Viennese waltz properly, and by the fact that sometimes, when he was
+in a jocular mood, he would play one of his mazurkas in strict,
+metronomic time, to the great amusement of those who had heard him
+play them properly.
+
+When Liszt speaks of the _tempo rubato_ as a unique characteristic of
+Chopin's style, he must not be understood too literally. As a matter
+of fact, the _rubato_ is too important an element of expression not to
+have been partially anticipated in the works of some of Chopin's
+predecessors, just as Wagner's leading motives had imperfect
+prototypes in the works of some preceding composers. As early as 1602,
+the Italian, Caccini, describes what he calls the "Stile Nobile, in
+which the singer," he says, "emancipates himself from the fetters of
+the measure, by prolonging or diminishing the duration of a note by
+one-half, according as the sense of the word requires it." But it is
+probable that the Italian singers of that period, as to-day, used
+this kind of _rubato_ merely to display the beauty of their voice on a
+loud high note, and not, like Chopin, for the sake of emphasizing a
+pathetic or otherwise expressive note or chord.
+
+Of the Germans it may be said that, as a rule, they had, until
+recently, no special liking for the _tempo rubato_. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent Viennese critic, referred to it thirty years ago, as "a morbid
+unsteadiness of _tempo_." Mendelssohn, who always liked a "nice, swift
+_tempo_," repeatedly expressed his aversion to Chopin's _rubato_.
+Nevertheless, traces of it may be found in the rhythms of the
+classical school. Although Mozart's _tempo_ in general was as strict
+and uniform as that of a waltz in the ball-room, in playing an adagio
+he appears to have allowed his left hand some freedom of movement for
+the sake of expression (see Jahn I., 134). Beethoven, according to
+Seyfried, "was very particular at rehearsals about the frequent
+passages in _tempo rubato_;" and there are other remarks by
+contemporaries of Beethoven which indicate that although he wrote in
+the classical style, in his playing and conducting he often introduced
+a romantic _rubato_. Still, in the majority of his compositions, there
+is no room for the _rubato_, which cannot be said to have found a home
+in German music till it was assimilated by the Schumann school, under
+the influence of Chopin. Since then, it has leavened the spirit of
+modern music in a manner which has never been sufficiently emphasized.
+I am convinced that even Richard Wagner was, unconsciously, influenced
+by it through Liszt; for one of the chief peculiarities of his style
+is a sort of dramatic _rubato_ which emancipates his music from the
+tyranny of the strict dance measure. In his essay on the proper
+interpretation of Tannhaeuser, Wagner declares that the division of
+music into regular measures, or bars, is merely a mechanical means for
+enabling the composer to convey his ideas to the singer. As soon as
+the singer has grasped the idea, he says, the bar should be thrown
+aside as a useless incumbrance, and the singer, ignoring strict time,
+should be guided by his feelings alone, while the conductor should
+follow and preserve harmony between him and the orchestra.
+
+It might be said that this dramatic _rubato_ is something different
+from Chopin's _rubato_. _Rubato_ literally means "robbed," and it is
+generally supposed that the peculiarity of Chopin's style consisted
+simply in this, that he prolonged certain notes in a bar at the
+expense of the others--robbing from one what he gave to his neighbor.
+But this is a very inadequate conception of the term. Chopin's
+_rubato_ means much more than this. It includes, to a large extent,
+the frequent unexpected changes of time and rhythm, together with the
+_ritardandos_ and _accelerandos_. It includes, secondly, those unique
+passages, first conceived by Chopin, where the right hand has to play
+irregular groups of small notes--say twenty-two, while the left hand
+plays only twelve; or nineteen, while the left plays four--passages in
+which Chopin indicated as clearly as Wagner did in the words just
+quoted that the musical bar is a mere mechanical measure which does
+not sufficiently indicate the phrasing of the romantic or dramatic
+ideas that lie beyond the walls of a dance-hall.
+
+There is a third peculiarity of Chopin's style which may be included
+under the name of _rubato_, namely, his habit of "robbing" the note,
+not of its duration, but its _accent_. Every student of music knows
+that the symphony and sonata are called "idealized dance forms,"
+because they are direct outgrowths of the dances that were cultivated
+originally in Italy, France, and Germany. Now, one peculiarity of
+these dances is the fact that the accent always falls on the first
+beat of each bar. This is very appropriate and convenient for dancing,
+but from an artistic point of view, it is decidedly monotonous. Hence,
+Chopin conferred a vast benefit on modern art by introducing the
+spirit of Slavic music, in which the accent often falls on other beats
+beside the first. These regular accents produce the effect of the
+variable _tempo rubato_, and it is to them that Chopin's works largely
+owe their exotic, poetic color. As they open up new possibilities of
+emotional expression, they have been eagerly appropriated by other
+composers and have leavened all modern music. To Chopin, therefore,
+chiefly belongs the honor of having emancipated music from the
+monotony of the Western European dance-beat by means of the _tempo
+rubato_ in its varied aspects.
+
+But, it was not merely in the accent of the dance forms, that he
+introduced an agreeable innovation; he was one of the giants who helped
+to create a new epoch in art, by breaking these old forms altogether,
+and substituting new ones better suited to modern tastes. And here we
+come across one of the most ludicrous misconceptions which have been
+fostered concerning Chopin by shallow critics, and which brings us back
+again for a moment to the question of Jumboism. I do not know whether
+he was a German or a French critic who first wrote that Chopin,
+although great in short pieces, was not great enough to master the
+sonata form. Once in print, this silly opinion was repeated parrot-like
+by scores of other critics. _How_ silly it is may be inferred from the
+fact that such third-rate composerlings as Herz and Hummel were able to
+write sonatas of the most approved pattern--and that, in fact, _any_
+person with the least musical talent can learn in a few years to write
+sonatas that are absolutely correct as regards form. And yet we are
+asked to believe that Chopin, one of the most profound and original
+musical thinkers the world has ever seen, could not write a correct
+sonata! _Risum teneatis amici_! Chopin not able to master the sonata
+form? The fact is, _the sonata form could not master him_. He felt
+instinctively that it was too artificial to serve as a vehicle for the
+expression of poetic thought; and his thoroughly original genius
+therefore created the more plastic and malleable shorter forms which
+have since been adopted by composers the world over. The few sonatas
+which Chopin wrote do not deviate essentially from the orthodox
+structure, but one feels constantly that he was hampered in his
+movements by the artificial structure. Though they are full of genius,
+like everything he composed, he did not write them _con amore_.
+Concentration is one of Chopin's principal characteristics, and the
+sonata favors diffuseness. Too much thematic beating out is the bane of
+the sonata. A few bars of gold are worth more than many square yards of
+gold leaf; and Chopin's bars are solid gold. Moreover, there is no
+organic unity between the different parts of the sonata, whatever may
+have been said to the contrary. The essentially artificial character of
+the sonata is neatly illustrated by a simile used by Dr. Hanslick in
+speaking of Chopin. "This composer," he said, "although highly and
+peculiarly gifted, was never able to unite the fragrant flowers which
+he scattered by handfuls, into beautiful wreaths." Dr. Hanslick intends
+this as censure. I regard it as the greatest compliment he could have
+paid him. A wreath may be very pretty in its way, but it is artificial.
+The flowers are crushed and their fragrance does not blend. How much
+lovelier is a single violet or orchid in the fields, unhampered by
+strings and wires, and connected solely with its stalk and the
+surrounding green leaves. Many of Chopin's compositions are so short
+that they can hardly be likened unto flowers, but only to buds. Yet is
+not a rosebud a thousand times more beautiful than a full-blown rose?
+
+One more consideration. The psychology of the sonata form is false.
+Men and women do not feel happy for ten minutes as in the opening
+allegro of a sonata, then melancholy for another ten minutes, as in
+the following adagio, then frisky, as in the scherzo, and finally,
+fiery and impetuous for ten minutes as in the finale. The movements of
+our minds are seldom so systematic as this. Sad and happy thoughts and
+moods chase one another incessantly and irregularly, as they do in the
+compositions of Chopin, which, therefore, are much truer echoes of our
+modern romantic feelings than the stiff and formal classical sonatas.
+And thus it is, that Chopin's habitual neglect of the sonata form,
+instead of being a defect, reveals his rare artistic subtlety and
+grandeur. It was natural that a Pole should vindicate for music this
+emotional freedom of movement, for the Slavic mind is especially prone
+to constant changes of mood. Nevertheless, as soon as Chopin had shown
+the way, other composers followed eagerly in the new path, and in the
+present day the sonata may be regarded as obsolete. Few contemporary
+composers have written more than one or two--merely in order to show
+that they can do so if they want to; and even Brahms, the high priest
+of the conservatives, has, in his later period, devoted himself more
+and more exclusively to shorter modern forms in his pianoforte music.
+
+Strictly speaking, Chopin was not the first who tried to get away from
+the sonata. Beethoven, though he remained faithful to it, felt its
+fetters, as is shown by his numerous poetic licenses. Schubert wrote
+"Moments Musicals," Mendelssohn, "Songs without Words," Weber,
+Polonaises, and Field, Nocturnes. But these were merely straws which
+indicated in which direction Chopin's genius would sweep the field and
+clear the musical atmosphere. His polonaises and nocturnes are vastly
+superior to those of Weber and Field; and his poetic preludes, his
+romantic ballads, his lovely berceuse, his amorous mazurkas, are new
+types in art which have often been imitated but never equalled. Only
+in one field did Chopin have a dangerous rival among his predecessors,
+namely, in the Waltz. Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" is the source
+of the modern idealized waltz, because it was not written for the feet
+alone, but also for the heart and the imagination. Like Chopin's
+waltzes, it contains chivalrous passages, amorous episodes, and subtle
+changes of movement. And it seems as if the fact that there was less
+room for formal and emotional innovations in the waltz than in the
+other forms, had somewhat affected Chopin's imagination. For, although
+the most popular of his works, his waltzes are, with a few exceptions
+in which the _rubato_ prevails, less characteristic than his other
+pieces. Nevertheless, they are charming, every one of them. But they
+are fairy dances--mortals are too clumsy to keep time to them.
+
+Next to the waltzes in popularity come the polonaises; and they fully
+deserve their popularity. Liszt has given us a charming description of
+the polonaise as it was formerly danced in Chopin's native country. It
+was less a dance than a promenade in which courtly pomps and
+aristocratic splendor were on exhibition. It was a chivalrous but not
+an amorous dance, precedence being given to age and rank, before youth
+and beauty. And whereas, in other dances, the place of honor is
+always given to the fair sex, in the polonaise the men are in the
+foreground. In a word, the polonaise represents, both in its subject
+and the style of music, the masculine side of Chopin's genius.
+
+The feminine side is chiefly embodied in the mazurkas and the
+nocturnes. It has been said that the highest genius must combine
+masculine with feminine traits, and it is a remarkable fact that the
+works of two of the most spontaneous composers--Chopin and
+Schubert--are often characterized by an exquisite feminine tenderness
+and grace; as if, seeing that women have not done their duty as
+composers, they had tried to introduce the feminine spirit in music.
+Yet it is unfair to place too much emphasis on this side of their
+genius. In their bolder moments, Chopin and Schubert are thoroughly
+masculine.
+
+It seems strange at first sight that the mazurkas, these exquisite
+love poems, should be so much less popular than the waltzes, for they
+are quite as melodious and much easier--although here, as elsewhere,
+Chopin often introduces a few very difficult bars in an otherwise easy
+composition, as if to keep away bunglers. Perhaps the cause of their
+comparative neglect is, that they are so thoroughly Polish in spirit;
+unless they are played with an exotic _rubato_, their fragrance
+vanishes. There is more local color in the mazurkas than in any of
+his other works. The Mazurs are musically a highly gifted nation, and
+Chopin was impressed early in life with the quaint originality of
+their melodies. No doubt some of his mazurkas are merely artistic
+settings of these old love songs, but they are the settings of an
+inspired jeweller. If we can judge by the number of pieces of each
+class that he wrote, the mazurka was Chopin's favorite form. Even on
+his death-bed he wrote one. It was his last effort, and he was too
+weak to try it over on the piano. It is of heart-rending sadness, and
+exquisite pathos. Perhaps it was a patriotic rather than an aesthetic
+feeling which led him thus to favor the mazurka. His love for his
+country was exceeded only by his devotion to his art. "Oh, how sad it
+must be to die in a foreign country," he wrote to a friend in 1830;
+and when, soon afterward, he left home he took along a handful of
+Polish soil which he kept for nineteen years. Shortly before his death
+he expressed a wish that it should be strewn in his coffin--a wish
+which was fulfilled; so that his body rested on Polish soil even in
+Paris.
+
+A countless number of exquisite melodic rhythmic and harmonic details
+in the mazurkas might be dwelt upon in this place, but I will only
+call attention to the inexhaustible variety of ideas which makes each
+of them so unique, notwithstanding their strong family likeness. They
+are like fantastic orchids, or like the countless varieties of humming
+birds, those "winged poems of the air," of which no two are alike
+while all resemble each other.
+
+The nocturnes represent the dreamy side of Chopin's genius. They are
+sufficiently popular, yet few amateurs have any idea of their
+unfathomable depth, and few know how to use the pedal in such a way as
+to produce the rich uninterrupted flow of tone on which the melody
+should float. Most pianists play them too fast. Mozart and Schumann
+protested against the tendency to take their slow pieces too fast, and
+Chopin suffers still more from this pernicious habit. Mendelssohn in
+"A Midsummer Night's Dream," and Weber in "Oberon," have given us
+glimpses of dreamland, but Chopin's nocturnes take us there bodily,
+and plunge us into reveries more delicious than the visions of an
+opium eater. They should be played in the twilight and in solitude,
+for the slightest foreign sound breaks the spell. But just as dreams
+are sometimes agitated and dramatic, so some of these nocturnes are
+complete little dramas with stormy, tragic episodes, and the one in C
+sharp minor, _e.g._, embodies a greater variety of emotion and more
+genuine dramatic spirit on four pages than many popular operas on four
+hundred.
+
+One of Chopin's enchanting innovations, which he introduced
+frequently in the nocturnes, consists in those unique and exquisite
+_fioriture_, or dainty little notes which suddenly descend on the
+melody like a spray of dew drops glistening in all the colors of the
+rainbow. No less unique and original are the exquisite modulations
+into foreign keys which abound in the nocturnes, as, indeed, in all
+his works. Schucht calls attention to the fact that in his very opus 1
+Chopin permits himself a freedom of modulation which Beethoven rarely
+indulged in. But this is a mere trifle compared with the works of his
+last period. Here we find a striking originality and boldness of
+modulation that has no parallel in music, except in Wagner's last
+music-dramas. Now we have seen that Moscheles, and other
+contemporaries of Chopin, found his modulations harsh and
+disagreeable; and doubtless there are amateurs to-day who regard them
+in the same way. It seems, indeed, as if musical people must be
+divided into two classes--those who find their chief delight in melody
+pure and simple, and those who think that rich and varied harmony is
+the soul of music. Chopin fortunately wrote for both classes. Italy
+has produced no melodist equal to him, and Germany only one--Franz
+Schubert. No one has written melodies more soulful than those of the
+nocturne, opus 37, No. 2, the second ballad, the etudes, opus 10, No.
+3; opus 25, No. 7, etc. I distinctly remember the thrill with which I
+heard each of these melodies for the first time; but it was a deeper
+emotion still which I felt when I played for the first time the
+sublimest of his nocturnes--the last but one he wrote--and came across
+that wonderful modulation from five sharps to four flats, and, later
+on, the delicious series of modulations in the fourth and fifth bars
+after the Tempo Primo. I realized then that modulation is a deeper
+source of emotional expression than melody.
+
+In speaking of Chopin's melancholy character, the nocturnes are often
+referred to as illustrations of it. They do, indeed, breathe a spirit
+of sadness, but the majority represent, as I have said, the dreamy
+side of his genius. The real anguish of his heart is not expressed in
+the nocturnes but in the preludes and etudes, strange as these names
+may seem for such pathetic effusions of his heart. The etude, opus 10,
+No. 6, seems as if it were in a sort of double minor; as much sadder
+than ordinary minor, as ordinary minor is sadder than major. Chopin
+had abundant cause to be melancholy. He inherited that national
+melancholy of the Poles which causes them even to dance to tunes in
+minor keys, and which is commonly attributed to the long-continued
+political oppression under which they have suffered. But, apart from
+this national trait, Chopin had sufficient personal reasons for
+writing the greater part of his mazurkas and his other pieces in
+minor keys. Like other men of genius, he keenly felt the anguish of
+not being fully appreciated by his contemporaries. Moreover, although
+he was greatly admired by the French and Polish women in Paris, and
+was even conceded a lady-killer, he was, in his genuine affairs of the
+heart, thrice disappointed. His first love, who wore his engagement
+ring when he left Warsaw, proved faithless to the absent lover, and
+married another man. The second love deceived him in the same way,
+preferring a Count to a genius. And his third love, George Sand, after
+apparently reciprocating his attachment, for a few years, not only
+discarded him, but tried to justify her conduct to the world, by
+giving an exaggerated portraiture of his weaknesses, in her novel
+"Lucrezia Floriani."
+
+Nevertheless, it was in one respect fortunate for the world that
+George Sand was Chopin's friend so long, for we owe to her facile pen
+many interesting accounts of Chopin's habits and the origin of some of
+his compositions. The winter which he spent with her on the Island of
+Majorca was one of the most important in his life, for it was here
+that he composed some of those masterpieces, his preludes--a word
+which might be paraphrased as Introductions to a new world of musical
+emotion. There is a strange discrepancy in the accounts which Liszt
+and George Sand give of the Majorca episode in Chopin's life. Liszt
+describes it as a period of calm enjoyment, George Sand as one of
+discomfort and distress. As she was an eye-witness, her testimony
+appears the more trustworthy, especially as it is borne out by the
+character of the preludes which he composed there. There are among
+Chopin's preludes a few which breathe the spirit of contentment and
+grace, or of religious grandeur, but most of them are outbreaks of the
+wildest anguish and heart-rending pathos. If tears could be heard,
+they would sound like these preludes. Two of the saddest--those in B
+minor and E minor--were played by the famous organist Lefebure Wely,
+at Chopin's funeral services. But it is useless to specify. They are
+all jewels of the first water.
+
+Some years ago I wrote in "The Nation" that if all pianoforte music in
+the world were to be destroyed, excepting one collection, my vote
+should be cast for Chopin's preludes. If anything could induce me to
+modify that opinion to-day, it would be the thought of Chopin's
+etudes. I would never consent to their loss. Louis Ehlert, speaking of
+Chopin's F Major ballad, says he has seen even children stop in their
+play and listen to it enraptured. But, in the etudes I mentioned a
+moment ago, there are melodies which, I should think, would tempt even
+angels to leave their happy home and indulge, for a moment, in the
+luxury of idealized human sorrow. There is in these twenty-seven
+etudes, as in the twenty-five preludes, an inexhaustible wealth of
+melody, modulation, poetry and passion. One can play them every day
+and never tire of them. Of most of them one might say what Schumann
+said of one--that they are "poems rather than studies;" and much
+surprise has been expressed that Chopin should have chosen such a
+modest and apparently inappropriate name for them as "studies." Now, I
+have a theory on this subject: I believe it was partly an ironic
+intention which induced Chopin to call some of his most inspired
+pieces "studies." Pianists have always been too much in the habit of
+looking at their art from purely technical or mechanical points of
+view. They looked for mere five-finger exercises in Chopin's etudes,
+and finding at the same time an abundance of musical ideas, they were
+surprised. It did not occur to them that Chopin might have intended
+them also as studies in musical composition--studies in melody,
+harmony, rhythm and emotional expression. I believe he did so intend
+them; and finding that his contemporaries did not take his idea, he
+probably laughed in his sleeve, and exclaimed, "_O tempora!_"
+
+This conjecture seems the more plausible, from the fact that there was
+a pronounced ironic and comic vein in Chopin's character. The accounts
+of his melancholy, in fact, like those of his ill-health, have been
+too much exaggerated. He was often in a cheerful mood. Sometimes he
+would amuse himself for a whole evening playing blind-man's buff with
+the children. As a mere child he had formed the habit of mimicking and
+caricaturing pianists and other distinguished men. Liszt often
+suffered from this mischievous habit, but he did not complain, and
+even seemed to enjoy it. Of Chopin's wit, two specimens may be cited.
+A rich Parisian one day invited him to dinner, with the intention of
+getting him to entertain the guests afterward. In this case, however,
+the host had reckoned without the guest, for, when asked to play,
+Chopin exclaimed, "But, my dear sir, I have eaten so little." The
+other instance occurs in one of his letters, where he says of the
+pianist Aloys Schmitt, that he was forty years old, and his
+compositions eighty--a _bon mot_ worthy of Heine.
+
+There was much, indeed, in common between Chopin and Heine. Nothing is
+more characteristic of Heine than the way in which he works up our
+sentimental feelings only to knock us on the head with a comic or
+grotesque line at the end. Similarly, Chopin, after improvising for
+his friends for an hour or two, would suddenly rouse them from their
+reveries by a _glissando_--sliding his fingers from one end of the
+key-board to the other. In almost all of Chopin's or Heine's poems
+there is this peculiar mixture of the sad and the comic veins--even
+in the scherzos, which represent the gay and cheerful moods of
+Chopin's muse.
+
+Another point between these two poets is their elegance of style, and
+their ironic abhorrence of tawdry sentimentality and commonplace.
+Heine is the most elegant and graceful writer of his country, and
+Chopin the most elegant and graceful of all composers. Not a redundant
+note or a meaningless bar in all his compositions. Heine owed his
+formal finish to French influences, but Chopin did not need them, for
+the Poles are as noted as the French for elegance and grace. He
+avoided not only the modulatory monotony of the classical school, but,
+especially, the commonplace endings which marred so many classical
+compositions. "All's well that ends well," is a rule that was
+generally ignored by composers till Chopin taught them its value and
+effect. Chopin's pen always stopped when his thoughts stopped, and he
+never appends a meaningless end formula as if to warn the audience
+that they may now put on their hats. On the contrary, some of his
+later compositions, especially of the last period, end with exquisite
+miniature poems, connected in spirit with the preceding music and yet
+distinct--separate inspirations. I refer, especially, to the endings
+of his last two nocturnes and to the final bars of the mazurka, opus
+59, No. 3.
+
+George Sand has given us a vivid sketch of Chopin's conscientiousness
+as a composer. "He shut himself up in his room for entire days," she
+says, "weeping, walking about, breaking his pen, repeating and
+changing a bar a hundred times, and beginning again next day with
+minute and desperate perseverance. He spent six weeks over a single
+page, only to go back and write that which he had traced at the first
+essay." As regards his creativeness, George Sand says that "it
+descended upon his piano suddenly, completely, sublimely, or it sang
+itself in his head during his walks, and he made haste to hear it by
+rushing to the instrument." I have already mentioned the fact that
+when he wrote his last mazurka he was too weak to try it on the piano.
+In one of his letters he speaks of a polonaise being ready in his
+head. These facts indicate that he composed mentally, although, no
+doubt, during the improvisations, many themes occurred to him which he
+remembered and utilized. When he improvised he did not watch the
+key-board, but generally looked at the ceiling. Already as a youth he
+used to be so absorbed that he forgot his meals; and, in the street,
+he was often so absent-minded that he very narrowly escaped being run
+over by a wagon. Visions of female loveliness and patriotic
+reminiscences inspired many of his best works. Sometimes the pictures
+in his mind became so vivid as to form real hallucinations. Thus it
+is related that one evening when he was alone in the dark, trying over
+the A major polonaise which he had just completed, he saw the door
+open and in marched a procession of Polish knights and ladies in
+mediaeval costumes--the same, no doubt, that his imagination had
+pictured while he was composing. He was so alarmed at this vision that
+he fled through the opposite door and did not venture to return.
+Another illustration of the relations between genius and insanity.
+
+The foregoing remarks on Chopin's compositions suffice, I think, to
+show how absurd is the prevalent notion that he is the composer for
+the drawing-room, and that his pieces reflect the spirit of
+fashionable Parisian society. They do, perhaps, in their elegant form,
+but certainly not in their spirit. The frivolous aristocratic circles
+that heard Chopin could never have comprehended the depth of his
+emotional life. The pianists for them, the real drawing-room composers
+were Kalkbrenner, and Field, and Thalberg, with their operatic
+fantasias. Chopin is the composer for the few, and he is the composer
+_par excellence_ for musicians. From him they can get more ideas, and
+learn more as regards form, than from anyone else, except Bach and
+Wagner. In comparing his last works with his first, and noting their
+progress, the mind tries in vain to conceive where he would have led
+the world had he lived eighty instead of forty years. One thing is
+certain: he would have probably written more for other instruments.
+His pianoforte concertos belong to his early period, and betray a lack
+of experience in the treatment of the orchestra. But he wrote two
+pieces of chamber music which have never been excelled--a 'cello
+sonata and a trio. The 'cello sonata was the last of his larger works,
+and in my opinion it is superior to any of the 'cello sonatas of
+Mendelssohn, Brahms, and even Beethoven and Rubinstein. The trio,
+though an earlier work, is, like the 'cello sonata, admirably adapted
+to the instruments for which it is written. I once belonged to an
+amateur trio club. Our tastes naturally differed on many points, but
+in one thing we all agreed: we always closed our entertainment with
+this Chopin trio. It was the climax of the evening's enjoyment. Yet,
+only a few years ago, the leader of one of the principal chamber music
+organizations in New York admitted to me that he had never heard of
+this trio!--an incident which vividly illustrates the truth of my
+assertion that Chopin's genius is still far from being esteemed at its
+full value.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HOW COMPOSERS WORK
+
+
+Forty years ago Robert Schumann complained that the musical critics
+had so much to say about singers and players, while the composer was
+almost entirely ignored. To-day this reproach could hardly be made,
+for although vocalists still receive perhaps a disproportionate share
+of attention, compositions, new and old, are also discussed at great
+length in the press. Nevertheless, I believe that the vast majority of
+those who attend an operatic performance in New York, and are
+delighted with "Siegfried" or "Faust," have but vague and shadowy
+notions as to the way in which such an opera is composed. My object
+here is to illustrate the way composers work, and to prove that the
+creating of an opera is perhaps the most difficult and marvellous
+achievement of the human intellect.
+
+Professor Langhans notes, in his history of music, that in the Middle
+Ages, as late as Luther's time, it took two men to compose the
+simplest piece of music: one who conceived the melody, and the other
+who added the harmonic accompaniment. The theoretical writer,
+Glareanus, deliberately expressed his opinion, in 1547, that it might
+be _possible_ to unite these two functions in one person, but that one
+would rarely find the inventor of a melody able to work it out
+artistically. We have made much progress in music within these three
+hundred years, and to-day every composer is not only expected to
+invent his own harmonies and accompaniments to his melodies, but,
+since Wagner set the example, composers are beginning to consider it
+incumbent on them to write their own librettos; and, what is more
+remarkable, if we examine biographies of musicians carefully we find
+that, even _before_ Wagner, not a few composers assisted in the
+preparation of their operatic texts; and this remark applies even to
+some of the Italian composers, who were proverbially careless
+regarding their librettos. Rossini was, perhaps, too indolent to
+devote much attention to his texts, and he was apt to postpone even
+the _musical_ work to the last moment, so that he sometimes had to be
+locked up in his room by his friends, to enable him to finish his
+score by the date named in his contract. Yet it is worthy of note that
+during the composition of what Rossini's admirers commonly regard as
+his best and most characteristic work--the "Barber of Seville"--he
+lived in the same house with his librettist. "The admirable unity of
+the 'Barber,' in which a person without previous information on the
+subject could scarcely say whether the words were written for the
+music or the music for the words, may doubtless," as Mr. Sutherland
+Edwards suggests, "in a great measure be accounted for by the fact
+that poet and musician were always together during the composition of
+the opera; ready mutually to suggest and to profit by suggestions."
+
+"Donizetti," the same writer informs us, while at the Bologna Lyceum,
+"occupied himself not only with music, but also with drawing,
+architecture, and even poetry; and that he could turn out fair enough
+verses for musical purposes was shown when, many years afterward, he
+wrote--so rapidly that the word 'improvise' might here be used--for
+the benefit of a manager in distress, both words and music of a little
+one-act opera, called 'Il Campanello' founded on the 'Sonnette de
+Nuit' of Scribe. Donizetti also arranged the librettos of 'Betty' and
+'The Daughter of the Regiment,' and of the last act of 'Lucia' he not
+only wrote the words but designed the scenes."
+
+Concerning Verdi, Arthur Pougin says: "It is not generally known that,
+virtually, Verdi is himself the author of all his poems. That is to
+say, not only does he always choose the subject of his operas, but, in
+addition to that, he draws out the sketch of the libretti, indicates
+all the situations, constructs them almost entirely as far as regards
+the general plan, brings his personages and his characters on the
+stage in such a way that his _collaborateur_ has simply to follow his
+indications to bring the whole together, and to write the verses."
+
+One of Verdi's poetic assistants was Francesco Piave, who supplied the
+verses for "La Traviata," "Ernani" and several other of his operas. He
+was, Pougin informs us, "a tolerably bad poet, quite wanting in
+invention," but he had the most important quality (from Verdi's point
+of view) "of effacing himself completely, of putting aside every kind
+of personal vanity and of following entirely the indications and the
+desires of the composer, cutting out this, paring down that,
+shortening or expanding at the will of the latter--giving himself up,
+in short, to all his exigencies, whatever they might be."
+
+A question having arisen some years ago, as to the origin of the
+libretto of "Aida," the author of it, M. du Locle, wrote to a Roman
+paper that the first idea of the poem belongs to the celebrated
+Egyptologist, Mariette Bey. He adds: "I wrote the libretto, scene by
+scene, phrase by phrase, in French prose, at Busseto, under the eye of
+the maestro, who took a large share in the work. The idea of the
+finale of the last act, with its two stages, one above the other,
+belongs especially to him."
+
+The libretto for Verdi's last work, "Otello," was prepared by Boito,
+who had previously assisted him in rearranging his "Simon Boccanegra,"
+and who also wrote the poem of "La Gioconda" for Ponchielli. Boito is
+a thorough believer in Wagner's doctrine that every composer should
+write his own opera books, and he followed this rule in his
+interesting opera "Mefistofele."
+
+Mozart was altogether too careless in accepting librettos unworthy of
+his genius. Yet occasionally he took the liberty to improve the stuff
+that was submitted to him. As the learned librarian, Herr Pohl,
+remarks, "In the 'Entfuehrung' it is interesting to observe the
+alterations in Bretzner's libretto which Mozart's practical
+acquaintance with the stage has dictated, to the author's great
+disgust. Indeed, _Osmin_, one of the most original characters, is
+entirely his own creation, at Fischer's suggestion."
+
+Weber resembled Wagner, among other things, in the habit of carrying
+plans for operas in his head for many years. Thus we read that while
+on the look out for a subject for an opera he and Dusch hit upon "Der
+Freischuetz," a story by Apel, then just published. At the time,
+however, it did not get beyond the beginning; and not till seven years
+later did Weber begin the work which made his reputation, a work which
+in Dresden, where it was first produced, has had already more than a
+thousand performances, and which even in London was at one time
+played simultaneously at three theatres. When he finally did begin his
+work on the "Freischuetz" the libretto he used was by another author,
+Herr Kind, a man of considerable dramatic ability, but who--perhaps
+for that very reason--was subsequently so mortified by the fact that
+Weber's superior genius caused his music to receive the lion's share
+of the public's attention, that he refused to write another libretto
+for him. This was unfortunate, for, as ill luck would have it, Weber
+fell into the hands of a Leipsic blue stocking, Wilhelmine von Chezy,
+whose literary gifts were not of the most brilliant order. She
+submitted several subjects to him, from which he selected "Euryanthe;"
+but her sketch proved so unsatisfactory that he altered it entirely
+and compelled her to work it over nine times before he was
+sufficiently satisfied with it to set it to music. The libretto for
+his last opera, "Oberon," was prepared for him in London, but the
+subject, as usual, was his own choice and was based on Wieland's
+famous poem of that name. Weber's rare artistic conscientiousness is
+indicated by the fact that at this time, although he felt that his end
+was approaching, he set to work to learn the English language in order
+to avoid mistakes in adapting his melodies to the accent of the words
+and the spirit of the text.
+
+Having now caught a glimpse of the manner in which the great
+composers find subjects for their operas, and elaborate them, with or
+without the assistance of poets, we may go on to consider the sources
+of the musical inspiration which provides appropriate melodies and
+harmonies for these texts. Experience shows conclusively that the most
+powerful stimulant of the composer's brain is _the possession of a
+really poetic and dramatic text_. To take only one instance--it surely
+cannot be a mere coincidence that the best works of four great
+composers--Spohr, Berlioz, Gounod, and Schumann, are based on the
+story of "Faust." And Schumann, in one of his private letters,
+indicates very clearly why his "Faust" is such an inspired
+composition. Speaking of a performance of this work he says: "It
+appeared to make a good impression--better than my 'Paradise and
+Peri'--no doubt in consequence of the superior grandeur of the poem
+which aroused _my_ powers also to a greater effort."
+
+More significant still are the words which Weber wrote to Fran von
+Chezy when she was writing the libretto for "Euryanthe;" which he
+intended to make better than all his previous works. "When you begin
+to elaborate the text," he wrote; "I entreat you by all that is sacred
+to task me with the most difficult kinds of metre, unexpected rhythms,
+etc., which will force my thoughts into new paths and draw them out of
+their hiding-places."
+
+In one of his theoretical essays, Wagner emphasizes the value of a
+good poem in kindling the spark of inspiration in a composer's mind by
+exclaiming: "Oh, how I adore and honor Mozart because he found it
+impossible to compose for his 'Titus' as good music as for his 'Don
+Juan,' or for his 'Cosi fan Tutte' as good music as for 'Figaro.'"
+Mozart, he adds, always wrote music, but _good_ music he could only
+write when he was inspired, and when this inspiration was supplied by
+a subject worthy of being wedded to his muse.
+
+No doubt Wagner was right in maintaining that Mozart's operas contain
+his best music. Where among all his purely instrumental works is
+anything to be found as inspired as the music in the scenes where the
+ghostly statue nods at _Don Juan_, and subsequently where it enters
+his room and clutches his hand in its marble grasp? I venture to add
+that even Beethoven, although he is not generally regarded as an
+operatic composer _par excellence_, and although his fame chiefly
+rests on his symphonies and other instrumental works, nevertheless
+composed his most inspired music in connection with his one opera
+"Fidelio." I refer to the third "Leonora" overture, and to the music
+in the prison scene, where the digging of the grave is depicted in the
+orchestra with a realism worthy of Wagner, and where the music when
+_Leonora_ levels her pistol at the villain reaches a climax as
+thrilling as is to be found in any dramatic work, musical or literary.
+Obviously, it was the intensely dramatic situation which here inspired
+Beethoven to the grandest effort of his genius.
+
+It has often been asserted that the best numbers in "Fidelio" were
+directly inspired in Beethoven by the emotional exaltation resulting
+from one of his unhappy love affairs. Mr. Thayer doubts this story,
+because he could not find anything in Beethoven's sketch-books
+corroborating it; but even if it should be a myth, there are many well
+authenticated facts which show that Beethoven, like other composers,
+owed many of his best ideas to the magic influence of love in
+stimulating his mental powers. He dedicated thirty-nine compositions
+to thirty-six different women, and it is well known that he was
+constantly falling in love, had made up his mind several times to
+marry, and was twice refused. Female beauty always made a deep
+impression on him, and Marx relates that "even in his later years he
+was fond of looking at pretty faces, and used to stand still in the
+street and gaze after them with his eyeglasses till they were out of
+sight; if anyone noticed this he smiled and looked confused, but not
+annoyed. His little Werther romance he had lived at an early age in
+Bonn. In Vienna, he is said to have had more than one love affair and
+to have made an occasional conquest which would have been difficult
+if not impossible to many an Adonis."
+
+Weber's "Freischuetz" doubtless owes much of its beauty to the fact
+that it was written but a few months before the composer's marriage.
+In one of his letters to his betrothed he writes, "Yesterday I
+composed all the forenoon and thought of you _very often_, for I was
+at work on a scene of _Agatha_, in which I still cannot attain all the
+fire, longing, and passion that vaguely float before me." And his son
+testifies that Weber's love influenced all his work at the time. "It
+was the reason," he says, "that Weber took to heart, above everything
+else, the part of _Aennchen_, in which he saw an embodiment of his
+bride's special talent and characteristics, and it was under the
+fostering stimulus of this warm feeling that he allowed those parts of
+the opera in which _Aennchen_ appears to ripen first. The first note
+which he wrote down for the 'Freischuetz' belongs in the duo between
+_Aennchen_ and _Agatha_." He adds that his father, while composing,
+actually saw his bride in his mind's eye, and heard her sing his
+melodies, and accordingly as this imaginary vocalist nodded approval
+or shook her head, he was led to retain or reject certain musical
+ideas.
+
+Schumann's letters contain a superabundance of evidence showing how
+love suggested to him immortal musical thoughts. "I have discovered,"
+he writes to his bride, "that nothing transports the imagination so
+readily as expectation and longing for something, as was again the
+case during the last few days, when I was awaiting a letter from you,
+and meanwhile composed whole volumes--strange, curious, solemn
+things--how you will open your eyes when you play them. Indeed, I am
+at present so full of musical ideas that I often feel as if I should
+explode." This was in 1838, two years before his marriage. "Schumann
+himself admits," as Professor Spitta remarks, "that his compositions
+for the piano written during the period of his courtship reveal much
+of his personal experiences and feelings, and his creative work of
+1840 is of a very striking character. In this single year he wrote
+over a hundred songs, the best he ever gave to the world, and," as
+Professor Spitta continues, "when we look through the words of his
+songs, it is clear that here, more than anywhere, love was the
+prompter--love that had endured so long a struggle, and at last
+attained the goal of its desires. This is confirmed by the 'Myrthen,'
+which he dedicated to the lady of his choice, and the twelve songs
+from Rueckert's 'Springtime of Love'--which were written conjointly by
+the two lovers."
+
+The gay and genial Haydn appears to have been as great a favorite of
+women as Beethoven, and he doubtless owed some of his inspirations to
+their influence upon his susceptible heart. "He always considered
+himself an ugly man," Herr Pohl writes, "and could not understand how
+so many handsome women fell in love with him; 'at any rate,' he used
+to say, 'they were not tempted by my beauty,' though he admitted that
+he liked looking at a pretty woman, and was never at a loss for a
+compliment."
+
+Everybody has heard of the marvellous effect produced on Berlioz's
+ardent imagination by the _Juliet_ of Miss Smithson. He relates in his
+memoirs that an English critic said that after seeing Miss Smithson in
+_Juliet_ he had cried out, "I will marry that woman, and write my
+grandest symphony on this play." "I did both things," he adds, "but I
+never said anything of the sort." It is in "Lelio" that the story of
+his love is embodied; and other compositions of his might be mentioned
+which were simply the overflow of his passions.
+
+Poor Schubert, who enjoyed little of the fame and less of the fortune
+that were due him during his brief life, and who was as unattractive
+in personal appearance as Haydn and Beethoven, does not seem to have
+cared as much for women as most other composers. Nevertheless he fell
+deeply in love with a countess, who, however, was too young to
+reciprocate his feelings. But one day she asked him why he never
+dedicated any of his compositions to her, whereupon he replied, "Why
+should I? Are not all my compositions dedicated to you?" This was as
+neat a compliment as Beethoven once made Frau von Arnim--an incident
+which also gives us a glimpse of his manner of composing. One evening
+at a party Beethoven repeatedly took his note-book from his pocket and
+wrote a few lines in it. Subsequently, when he was alone with Frau von
+Arnim, he looked over what he had written and sang it; whereupon he
+exclaimed: "There, how does that sound? It is yours if you like it; I
+made it for you, you inspired me with it; _I saw it written in your
+eyes_."
+
+Many similar cases might be cited, showing that although women may
+have done little for music from a creative point of view, they are
+indirectly responsible for many of the most inspired products of the
+great composers. And the moral of the story is that a young musician,
+as soon as he has secured a good poetic subject for a song or an
+opera, should hasten to fall in love, in order to tune his
+heart-strings and devotions to concert pitch. And a patriotic wag
+might, perhaps, be allowed to maintain that, as America has more
+pretty girls than any other country in the world, it is easier to fall
+in love here than elsewhere, and that there is, therefore, no excuse
+whatever for American composers if they do not soon lead the world in
+musical inspiration.
+
+Feminine beauty, however, is not the only kind of beauty that arouses
+dormant musical ideas and brings them to light. The beauty of nature
+appeals as strongly to musicians as to poets, and is responsible for
+many of their inspirations. When Mendelssohn visited Fingal's Cave, he
+wrote a letter on one of the Hebrides, inclosing twenty bars of music
+"to show how extraordinarily the place affected me," to use his own
+words. "These twenty bars," says Sir George Grove, "an actual
+inspiration, are virtually identical with the opening of the wonderful
+overture which bears the name of 'Hebrides' or 'Fingal's Cave.'" And
+an English admirer of Mendelssohn, who had the honor of entertaining
+him in the country, notes how deeply he entered into the beauty of the
+hills and the woods. "His way of representing them," he says, "was not
+with the pencil; but in the evenings his improvised music would show
+what he had observed or felt in the past day. The piece which he
+called 'The Rivulet,' which he wrote at that time, for my sister
+Susan, will show what I mean; it was a recollection of a real, actual
+rivulet.
+
+"We observed" he continues, "how natural objects seemed to suggest
+music to him. There was in my sister Honora's garden a pretty creeping
+plant, new at that time, covered with little trumpet-like flowers. He
+was struck with it, and played for her the music which (he said) the
+fairies might play on those trumpets. When he wrote out the piece he
+drew a little branch of that flower all up the margin of the paper."
+In another piece, inspired by the sight of carnations, they found that
+Mendelssohn intended certain arpeggio passages "as a reminder of the
+sweet scent of the flower rising up."
+
+Mozart, as many witnesses have testified, was especially attuned to
+composition by the sight of beautiful scenery. Rochlitz relates that
+when he travelled with his wife through picturesque regions he gazed
+attentively and in silence at the surrounding sights; his features,
+which usually had a reserved and gloomy, rather than a cheerful
+expression, gradually brightened, and then he began to sing, or rather
+to hum, till suddenly he exclaimed: "If I only had that theme on
+paper." He always preferred to live in the country, and wrote the
+greater part of his two best operas, "Don Juan," and "The Magic
+Flute," in one of those picturesque little garden houses which are so
+often seen in Austria and Germany. In one of these airy structures, he
+confessed, he could write more in ten days than he could in his
+apartments in two months.
+
+Berlioz relates somewhere that the musical ideas for his "Faust" came
+to him unbidden during his rambles among Italian hills. Weber's
+melodies are so much like fragrant forest flowers that one feels sure
+before being told that he came across them in the woods and fields.
+His famous pupil, Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber took as
+great delight in taking his friends to see his favorite bits of
+landscape, as he did in composing a fine piece of music; and he adds
+that "this love of nature, and principally of forest life, may explain
+his predilection, in the majority of his operas, for hunting choruses
+and romantic scenery."
+
+Richard Wagner conceived most of his vigorous and eloquent leading
+melodies during his rambles among the picturesque environs of
+Bayreuth, or the sublime snowpeaks of Switzerland. How he elaborated
+them we shall see later on. Of Beethoven's devotion to nature many
+curious anecdotes are told by his contemporaries. A harp manufacturer
+named Stumpff met him in 1823 and wrote an account of his visit in
+"The Harmonicon," a London journal, in which occurs this passage:
+"Beethoven is a capital walker and delights in rambling for hours
+through wild, romantic scenery. I am told, indeed, that he has
+sometimes been out whole nights on such excursions, and is often
+absent from home for several days. On the way to the valley [the
+Hellenenthal, near the Austrian Baden] he often stopped to point out
+the prettiest views, or to remark on the defects of the new buildings.
+Then he would go back again to his own thoughts and hum to himself in
+an incomprehensible fashion; which, I heard, was his fashion of
+composing."
+
+Professor Kloeber, a well-known artist of that period, who painted
+Beethoven's portrait, relates that he often met Beethoven during his
+walks near Vienna. "It was most interesting to watch him," he writes;
+"how he would stand still as if listening, with a piece of music paper
+in his hands, look up and down and then write something. Dont had told
+me when I met him thus not to speak or take any notice, as he would be
+very much embarrassed or very disagreeable. I saw him once, when I was
+taking a party to the woods, clambering up to an opposite height from
+the ravine which separated us, with his broad-brimmed felt hat tucked
+under his arm; arrived at the top, he threw himself down full length
+and gazed long into the sky."
+
+Another contemporary of Beethoven, G.F. Treitschke, gives us an
+interesting glimpse of Beethoven's manner of creating and improvising.
+Treitschke had been asked to write the text for a new aria that was to
+be introduced in "Fidelio" when that opera was revived at Vienna in
+1814. Beethoven called at seven o'clock in the evening and asked how
+the text of the aria was getting on. Treitschke had just finished it,
+and handed it to him. Beethoven read it over, he continues, "walked up
+and down the room, humming as usual, instead of singing--and opened
+the piano. My wife had often asked him in vain to play; but now,
+putting the text before him, he began a wonderful improvisation,
+which, unfortunately, there were no magic means of recording. From
+this fantasy he seemed to conjure the theme of the aria. Hours passed
+but Beethoven continued to improvise. Supper, which he intended to
+share with us, was served, but he would not be disturbed. Late in the
+evening he embraced me and, without having eaten anything, hurried
+home. The following day the piece was ready in all its beauty."
+
+This anecdote appears to indicate that Beethoven sometimes composed at
+the piano. Meyerbeer, it is said, always composed at his instrument,
+and there is a story that he used to jot down the ideas of other
+composers at the opera and concerts, and, by thinking and playing
+these over, gradually evolve his own themes. It is rather more
+surprising to hear, from Herr Pohl, that Haydn sketched all his
+compositions at the piano. The condition of the instrument, he adds,
+had its effect upon him, beauty of tone being favorable to
+inspiration. Thus he wrote to Artaria in 1788: "I was obliged to buy a
+new forte-piano, that I might compose your clavier sonatas
+particularly well." "When an idea struck him he sketched it out in a
+few notes and figures; this would be his morning's work; in the
+afternoon he would enlarge this sketch, elaborating it according to
+rule, but taking pains to preserve the unity of the idea."
+
+Weber's son relates that it was his father's habit to sit at the
+window on summer evenings and jot down the ideas that had come to him,
+during his solitary walks, on small pieces of music paper, of which a
+large number were usually lying on his table. "No piano," he adds,
+"was touched on these occasions, for his ears spontaneously heard a
+full orchestra, played by good spirits, while he wrote down his neat
+little notes." And Weber himself remarks in one of his essays that,
+"the tone poet who gets his ideas at the piano is almost always born
+poor, or in a fair way of delivering his faculties into the hands of
+the common and commonplace. For these very hands, which, thanks to
+constant practice and training, finally acquire a sort of independence
+and will of their own, are unconscious tyrants and masters over the
+creative power. How very differently does _he_ create whose _inner_
+ear is judge of the ideas which he simultaneously conceives and
+criticises. This mental ear grasps and holds fast the musical visions,
+and is a divine secret belonging to music alone, incomprehensible to
+the layman."
+
+Mozart had already learned to compose without a piano when he was only
+six years old; and, as Mr. E. Holmes remarks, "having commenced
+composition without recourse to the clavier, his powers in mental
+music constantly increased, and he soon imagined effects of which the
+original types existed only in his brain."
+
+Schumann wrote to a young musician in 1848: "Above all things, persist
+in composing mentally, without the aid of the instrument. Turn over
+your melodic idea in your head until you can say to yourself: 'It is
+well done.'" Elsewhere he says: "If you can pick out little melodies
+at the piano, you will be pleased; but if they come to you
+spontaneously, away from the piano, you will have more reason to be
+delighted, for then the inner tone-sense is aroused to activity. The
+fingers must do what the head wishes, and not _vice versa_." And again
+he says: "If you set out to compose, invent everything in your head.
+If the music has emanated from your soul, if you have felt it, others
+will feel it too."
+
+Schumann had discovered the superiority of the mental method of
+composing from experience. In a letter dated 1838 he writes concerning
+his "Davidstaenze:" "If I ever was happy at the piano it was when I
+composed these pieces;" and it was well known that up to 1839 "he used
+to compose sitting at the instrument." We have also just seen how
+Beethoven practically composed one of his "Fidelio" arias at the
+piano. Nor was this by any means an isolated instance. To cite only
+one more case: Ries relates that one afternoon he took a walk with
+Beethoven, returning at eight o'clock. "While we were walking," he
+continues, "Beethoven had constantly hummed, or almost howled, up and
+down the scale, without singing definite notes. When I asked him what
+it was, he replied that a theme for the last allegro of the sonata had
+come into his head. As soon as we entered the room, he ran to the
+piano, without taking off his hat. I sat down in a corner, and he had
+soon forgotten me. For at least an hour he now improvised impetuously
+on the new and beautiful finale of the sonata [opus 57]." Another of
+Beethoven's contemporaries, J. Russell, has left us a vivid
+description of Beethoven when thus composing at the piano, or
+improvising: "At first he only struck a few short detached chords, as
+if he were afraid of being caught doing something foolish; but he soon
+forgot his surroundings, and for about half an hour lost himself in an
+improvisation, the style of which was exceedingly varied, and
+especially distinguished by sudden transitions. The amateurs were
+transported, and to the uninitiated it was interesting to observe how
+his inspirations were reflected in his countenance. He revelled rather
+in bold, stormy moods than in soft and gentle ones. The muscles of his
+face swelled, his veins were distended, his eyes rolled wildly, his
+mouth trembled convulsively, and he had the appearance of an enchanter
+mastered by the spirit he had himself conjured."
+
+Russell was probably one of the witnesses of whom Richard Wagner
+remarked, in his essay on Beethoven, that they have testified to the
+incomparable impression which Beethoven made by his improvisations at
+the piano. And Wagner adds the following suggestive words: "The
+regrets that there was no way of writing down and preserving these
+instantaneous creations cannot be regarded as unreasonable, even in
+comparing these improvisations with the master's greatest works, if we
+bear in mind the fact, taught by experience, that even _less_ gifted
+musicians, whose written compositions are not free from stiffness and
+inelegance, sometimes positively amaze us by the quite unexpected and
+fertile inventiveness which they display while improvising."
+
+A similar remark was made by De Quincey, in pointing out the
+spontaneous origin of some of his essays: "Performers on the organ,"
+he says, "so far from finding their own _impromptu_ displays to fall
+below the more careful and premeditated efforts, on the contrary have
+oftentimes deep reason to mourn over the escape of inspirations and
+ideas born from the momentary fervors of inspiration, but fugitive and
+irrevocable as the pulses in their own flying fingers."
+
+By way of illustrating this thesis a few more cases may be cited.
+Mozart used to sit up late at night, improvising for hours at the
+piano, and, according to one witness, "these were the true hours of
+creation of his divine melodies," a statement which, however, we shall
+presently see reason to modify somewhat. Schubert never improvised in
+public like Mozart, but only "in the intervals of throwing on his
+clothes, or at other times when the music within was too strong to be
+resisted," as Mr. Grove remarks. What an inestimable privilege it must
+have been to witness the spontaneous overflow of so rich a genius as
+Schubert! And once more, Max Maria von Weber writes that his father's
+improvisations on the piano were like delightful dreams. "All who had
+the good fortune to hear him," he says, "testify that the impression
+of his playing was like an Elysian frenzy, which elevates a man above
+his sphere and makes him marvel at the glories of his own soul."
+
+In reading such enthusiastic descriptions--and musical biographies are
+full of them--we cannot but echo De Quincey and Wagner in regretting
+that there has been no shorthand method of taking down and preserving
+these wonderful improvisations of the great masters. Future
+generations will be more favored, if Mr. Edison's improved phonograph
+fulfils the promises made of it. For by simply placing one of these
+instruments near the piano it will be possible hereafter to preserve
+every note and every accent and shade of expression, and reproduce it
+subsequently at will. And not only will momentary inspirations be thus
+preserved, but musicians will no longer be compelled to do all the
+manual labor of writing down their compositions, but will be able to
+follow the example of those German professors, who when they wish to
+write a book, simply engage a stenographer to take down their
+lectures, which they then revise and forward to the publisher. True,
+the orchestration will always have to be done by the master's own
+hands, but in other respects musicians of the future will be as
+greatly benefited as men of letters by the new phonograph which, it is
+predicted, will create as great a revolution in social affairs as the
+telegraph and railroad did when first introduced.
+
+The charm of improvisation lies, of course, in this, that we hear a
+composer creating and playing at the same time. This very fact,
+however, ought to make us cautious not to overestimate the value of
+such improvisations. For we all know how a great genius can invest
+even a commonplace idea with charm by his manner of expressing or
+rendering it. It is probable, therefore, that in most cases these
+improvisations, if noted down and played by _others_, would not make
+as deep an impression as the regularly written compositions of the
+great masters. It is with music as with literature. Schopenhauer says
+that there are three classes of writers: The first class, which is
+very numerous, never think at all, but simply reproduce echoes of what
+they have read in books. The second class, somewhat less numerous,
+think only while they are writing. But the third class, which is very
+small, only write _after_ thinking and because their thoughts clamor
+for utterance.
+
+If we apply this classification to music we see at once that
+improvising comes under the second head: improvising is thinking or
+composing while playing. But the greatest musical ideas are those
+which are conceived entirely in the mind, which needs no pen or piano
+mechanically to stimulate its creative power. Of this there can be no
+question, whatever. With an almost absolute unanimity we find that the
+greatest composers conceived their immortal ideas in the open air,
+where there was no possibility of coaxing them out of an instrument.
+And not only is the bare outline thus composed mentally, but the whole
+composition with all its involved harmonies and varied orchestral
+colors is present in the composer's mind before he puts it down on
+paper. The composition of "Der Freischuetz" affords a remarkable
+confirmation of this statement. Weber began to compose this opera
+mentally on February 23, but did not write down a single note before
+the second of July. That is, he kept the full score of this wonderful
+work in his brain for more than four months, and, as his son remarks,
+"there is not a number in it which he did not work over ten times in
+his mind, until it sounded satisfactory and he could say to himself
+'That's it,' and then he wrote it down rapidly without hesitation and
+almost without altering a note."
+
+This power of elaborating a musical score in the mind, and hearing it
+inwardly, is a gift which unmusical people find it difficult to
+comprehend, and which even puzzles many musical people. Yet it is a
+power which all students of music ought to possess; and, like other
+capacities, it can be easily cultivated and strengthened.
+
+A comparison with two other senses will throw some light on the
+matter. Most of us can, by thinking fixedly of some appetizing dish,
+recall its flavor sufficiently to start a nerve current and stimulate
+the salivary glands. The image of the flavor, so to speak, makes the
+mouth water. What do we do when we go to a restaurant and look over
+the bill of fare? We simply, on reading the list, recall a faint
+gastronomic image, as it were, of each dish, and the one which is most
+vivid, owing to the peculiar direction of the appetite, decides our
+choice.
+
+The sense of sight presents many curious analogies. Mr. Galton, in his
+"Inquiries into Human Faculty," gives the results of a series of
+investigations which show that there are great differences among
+persons of distinction in various kinds of intellectual work in the
+power of recalling to the mind's eye clear and distinct images of what
+they have seen. Some, for instance, in thinking of the breakfast
+table, could see all the objects--knives, plates, dishes, etc., in the
+mental picture as bright as in the actual scene, and in the
+appropriate colors; others could recall only very dim or blurred
+images of the scene, or none at all; and all stages, from the highest
+to the lowest visualizing power, were represented in the letters he
+received on the subject.
+
+Sometimes these mental images are as vivid as the actual images, or
+even more vivid. Everybody has heard the story of Blake, who, when he
+was painting a portrait, only required one sitting, because
+subsequently he could see the model as distinctly as if he were
+actually sitting in the chair. Mrs. Haweis wrote to Mr. Galton that
+all her life she has had at times a waking vision of "a flight of pink
+roses floating in a mass from right to left," and that before her
+ninth year they were so large and brilliant that she often tried to
+touch them; and their scent, she adds, was overpowering.
+
+Much has been written regarding the remarkable feats of Zuckertort and
+Blackburn who can play as many as sixteen to twenty games of chess at
+once, and blindfolded. Of course the only way they can do this is by
+having in the mind a clear picture of each chess-board, with all the
+figures arranged in proper order.
+
+Mr. Galton says he has among his notes "many cases of persons mentally
+reading off scores when playing the pianoforte, or manuscripts when
+they are making speeches;" and he knows a lady, the daughter of an
+eminent musician, who often imagines she hears her father's playing.
+"The day she told me of it," he says, "the incident had again
+occurred. She was sitting in her room with her maid, and she asked the
+maid to open the door that she might hear the music better. The moment
+the maid got up the music disappeared."
+
+It is obvious that this case, like that of the eminent painter just
+referred to, borders closely on the hallucinations of the insane, and
+Blake _did_ become insane subsequently. But usually there is nothing
+abnormal or pathologic in the power of mentally recalling sights or
+sounds, and it would be well if everybody cultivated this power. Mr.
+Galton mentions an electrical engineer who was able to recall forms
+with great precision, but not color. But after some exercise of his
+color memory he became quite an adept in that, too, and declared that
+the newly-acquired power was a source of much pleasure to him.
+
+In music most of us have the power of recalling a simple melody; and
+who has not been tormented at times by an unbidden melody persistently
+haunting his ears until he was almost ready to commit suicide? But to
+recall a melody at will _with any particular tone-color_, _i.e._, to
+imagine it as being played by a flute, or a violin, or a horn, is much
+less easy; and still more difficult is it to hear two or more notes
+_at once_ in the mind, that is to recall harmonies. It is for this
+reason that people of primitive musical taste care only for operas
+which are full of "tunes." These they can whistle in the street and be
+happy, while the harmonies and orchestral colors elude their
+comprehension and memory. Consequently they call these works "heavy,"
+"scientific," or "intellectual;" whereas if they took pains to educate
+their musical imaginations, they would soon revel in the magic
+harmonies of modern operas, with their infinite variety of gorgeous
+orchestral colors.
+
+Every student of music should carefully heed Schumann's advice.
+"Exercise your imagination," he says, "so that you may acquire the
+power of remembering not only the melody of a composition, but also
+the harmonies which accompany it." And again he says, "You must not
+rest until you are able to understand music on paper." I remember
+that, as a small boy, I used to wonder at my father, who often sat in
+a corner all the evening looking over the score of an opera or
+symphony. And I was very much surprised at the time when he informed
+me that this simple reading of the score gave him almost as vivid a
+pleasure as if he heard it with full orchestra. This power of hearing
+music with the eyes, as it were, is common to all thorough musicians,
+and is, of course, most highly developed in the great composers.
+Schumann even alludes to the opinion, which some one had expressed,
+that a thorough musician ought to be able, on listening for the first
+time to a complicated orchestral piece, to _see_ it bodily as a score
+before his eyes. He adds, however, that this is the greatest feat that
+could be imagined; and I, for my part, doubt whether even the
+marvellously comprehensive mind of a musical genius would be able to
+accomplish it.
+
+These facts illustrate the manner in which composers, being virtuosi
+of the musical imagination, are able to elaborate mentally, and keep
+in the memory, a complete operatic or symphonic score, just as, for
+example, Alexander Dumas, when he wished to write a new novel, used to
+hire a yacht and sail on Southern waters for several days, lying on
+his back--which, by the way, is an excellent method of starting a
+train of thought--and thus arranging all the details of the plot in
+his mind.
+
+The exact way in which _original_ ideas come into the mind is, of
+course, a mystery in music as in literature. Every genius passes
+through a period of apprenticeship, in which he _assimilates_ the
+discoveries of his predecessors, reminiscences of which make up the
+bulk of his early works. Everybody knows how Mozartish, _e.g._,
+Beethoven's first symphony is, and how much in turn Mozart's early
+works smack of Haydn. Gradually, as courage comes with years, the
+gifted composer sets out for unexplored forests and mountain ranges,
+attempting to scale summits which none of his predecessors had trod. I
+say, as courage comes, for in music, strange to say, it requires much
+courage to give the world an entirely new thought. An original
+composer needs not only the courage that is common to all explorers,
+but he must invariably come back prepared to face the accusation that
+his new territory is nothing but a howling wilderness of discords.
+This has been the case quite recently with Wagner, as it was formerly
+with Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, the early Italian composers, and
+many others, including even Rossini, who certainly did not deviate
+very far from the beaten paths. Seyfried relates that when Beethoven
+came across articles in which he was criticised for violating
+established rules of composition, he used to rub his hands gleefully
+and burst out laughing. "Yes, yes!" he exclaimed, "that amazes them,
+and makes them put their heads together, because they have not seen it
+in any of their text-books."
+
+Fortunately for their own peace of mind, the majority of the minor
+composers never get beyond a mere rearrangement of remembered melodies
+and modulations. Their minds are mere galleries of echoes. They write
+for money or temporary notoriety, and not because their brains teem
+with ideas that clamor for utterance. The pianist Hummel was one of
+this class of composers. But whatever his short-comings, he had at
+least, as Wagner admits, the virtue of frankness. For when he was
+asked one day what thoughts or images he had in his mind when he
+composed a certain concerto, he replied that he had been thinking of
+the eighty ducats which his publisher had promised him!
+
+Yet even the greatest composers cannot always command new thoughts at
+will, and it is therefore of interest to note what devices some of
+them resorted to rouse their dormant faculties. Weber's only pupil,
+Sir Julius Benedict, relates that Weber spent many mornings in
+"learning by heart the words of 'Euryanthe,' which he studied until he
+made them a portion of himself, his own creation, as it were. His
+genius would sometimes lie dormant during his frequent repetitions of
+the words, and then the idea of a whole musical piece would flash
+upon his mind, like the bursting of light into darkness."
+
+I have already referred to the manner in which Weber, while composing
+certain parts of the "Freischuetz," got his imagination into the proper
+state of creative frenzy by picturing to himself his bride as if she
+were singing new arias for him. Now, in one of Wagner's essays there
+is a curious passage which seems to indicate that Wagner habitually
+conjured his characters before his mental vision and made them sing to
+him, as it were, his original melodies. He advises a young composer
+who wishes to follow his example never to select a dramatic character
+for whom he does not entertain a warm interest. "He should divest him
+of all theatrical apparel," he continues, "and then imagine him in a
+dim light, where he can only see the expression of his eyes. If these
+speak to him, the figure itself is liable presently to make a
+movement, which will perhaps alarm him--but to which he must submit;
+at last the phantom's lips tremble, it opens its mouth, and a
+supernatural voice tells him something that is entirely real, entirely
+tangible, but at the same time so extraordinary (similar, for
+instance, to what the ghostly statue, or the page _Cherubin_ told
+Mozart) that it arouses him from his dream. The vision has
+disappeared; but his inner ear continues to hear; an idea has
+occurred to him, and this idea is a so-called musical _motive_."
+
+As this passage implies, and as he has elsewhere explained at length,
+Wagner looked on the mental process of composing as something
+analogous to dreaming--as a sort of clairvoyance, which enables a
+musician to dive down into the bottomless mysteries of the universe,
+as it were, thence to bring up his priceless pearls of harmony.
+According to the Kant-Schopenhauer philosophy, of which Wagner was a
+disciple, objects or things in themselves do not exist in space and
+time, which are mere forms under which the human mind beholds them. We
+cannot conceive anything except as existing either in space or in
+time. But there is one exception, according to Wagner, and that is
+harmony. Harmony exists not in time, for the time-element in music is
+melody; nor does it exist in space, for the simultaneousness of tones
+is not one of extension or space. Hence our harmonic sense is not
+hampered by the forms of the mind, but gives us a glimpse of things as
+they are in themselves--a glimpse of the world as a superior spirit
+would behold it. And hence the mysterious superterrestrial character
+of such new harmonies as we find in the works of Wagner and
+Chopin--which are unintelligible to ordinary mortals, while to the
+initiated they come as revelations of a new world.
+
+Without feeling the necessity of accepting all the consequences of
+Wagner's mystical doctrine, which I have thus freely paraphrased, no
+one can deny that the attitude of a composer in the moment of
+inspiration is closely analogous to that known as clairvoyance. The
+celebrated vocalist, Vogel, tells an anecdote of Schubert which shows
+strikingly how completely this composer used to be transported to
+another world, and become oblivious of self, when creating. On one
+occasion Vogel received from Schubert some new songs, but being
+otherwise occupied could not try them over at the moment. When he was
+able to do so, he was particularly pleased with one of them, but as it
+was too high for his voice, he had it copied in a lower key. About a
+fortnight afterwards they were again making music together, and Vogel
+placed the transposed song before Schubert on the desk of the piano.
+Schubert tried it through, liked it, and said, in his Vienna dialect,
+"I say, the song's not so bad; _whose is it?_" so completely, in a
+fortnight, had it vanished from his mind. Grove recalls the fact that
+Sir Walter Scott once similarly attributed a song of his own to Byron;
+"but this was in 1828, after his mind had begun to fail."
+
+There is no reason for doubting Vogel's story when we bear in mind the
+enormous fertility of Schubert. He was unquestionably the most
+spontaneous musical genius that ever lived. Vogel, who knew him
+intimately, used the very word _clairvoyance_ in referring to his
+divine inspirations, and Sir George Grove justly remarks that, "In
+hearing Schubert's compositions, it is often as if one were brought
+more immediately and closely into contact with music itself, than is
+the case in the works of others; as if in his pieces the stream from
+the great heavenly reservoir were dashing over us, or flowing through
+us, more directly, with less admixture of any medium or channel, than
+it does in those of any other writer--even of Beethoven himself. And
+this immediate communication with the origin of music really seems to
+have happened to him. No sketches, no delay, no anxious period of
+preparation, no revision appear to have been necessary. He had but to
+read the poem, to surrender himself to the torrent, and to put down
+what was given him to say, as it rushed through his mind."
+
+Schubert was the most omnivorous song composer that ever lived. He
+could hardly see a poem--good, bad, or indifferent, without being at
+once seized by a passionate desire to set it to music. He sometimes
+wrote half a dozen or more songs in one day, and some of them
+originated under the most peculiar circumstances. The serenade, "Hark,
+hark, the lark," for instance, was written in a beer garden. Schubert
+had picked up a volume of Shakespeare accidentally lying on the
+table. Presently he exclaimed, "Such a lovely melody has come into my
+head, if I only had some paper." One of his friends drew a few staves
+on the back of a bill of fare, and on this Schubert wrote his
+entrancing song. "The Wanderer," so full of original details, was
+written in one evening, and when he composed his "Rastlose Liebe,"
+"the paroxysm of inspiration," as Grove remarks, "was so fierce that
+Schubert never forgot it, but, reticent as he often was, talked of it
+years afterward."
+
+These stories remind one of an incident related by Goethe, who one day
+suddenly found a poem spontaneously evolved in his mind, and so
+complete that he ran to the desk and wrote it diagonally on a piece of
+paper, fearing it might escape him if he took time to arrange the
+paper.
+
+In a word, Schubert _improvised with the pen_, and he seems to have
+been an exception to Schopenhauer's rule, that the greatest writers
+are those whose thoughts come to them before writing, and not while
+writing. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that much of the music
+which Schubert composed in this rapid manner is poor stuff; and
+although his short songs are generally perfect in their way, his
+longer compositions would have gained very much had he taken the
+trouble to think them out beforehand, or to revise and condense them
+afterward, which he very rarely did.
+
+With a strange perversity and persistency, musical students and the
+public have been led to believe that the surest sign of supreme
+musical inspiration is the power to dash off melodies as fast as the
+pen can travel. Weber relates in his autobiographic sketch that he
+wrote the second act of one of his early operas in ten days, and adds,
+significantly, that this was "one of the many unfortunate results of
+the wonderful anecdotes about great masters, which make a deep
+impression on youthful minds, and incite them to imitation."
+
+Mozart has always been pointed to by preference to show how a really
+great master shakes his melodies from his sleeves, as it were. Yet, on
+reading Jahn's elaborate account of Mozart's life and works, nothing
+strikes one more than the emphasis he places on the amount of
+preliminary labor which Mozart expended on his compositions, before he
+wrote them down. It appears to be a well-authenticated fact that
+Mozart postponed writing the overture to "Don Giovanni," until the
+midnight preceding the evening when the opera was to be performed in
+public; and that at seven o'clock in the morning, the score was ready
+for the copyist, although he had been drinking punch and was so sleepy
+that his wife had to allow him to doze for two hours, and kept him
+awake the rest of the time by telling him funny stories. But this
+incident loses much of its marvellous character, when we bear in mind
+that Mozart, according to his usual custom, must have had every bar of
+the overture worked out in his head, before he sat down to commit it
+to paper. This last labor was almost purely mechanical, and for this
+reason, whenever he was engaged in writing down his scores, he not
+only worked with amazing rapidity, but did not object to conversation,
+and even seemed to like it; and on one occasion when at work on an
+opera, he wrote as fast as his hands could travel, although in one
+adjoining room there was a singing teacher, in another a violinist,
+and opposite an oboeist, all in full blast!
+
+Mozart himself tried to correct the notion, prevalent even in his day,
+that he composed without effort--that melodies flowed from his mind as
+water from a fountain. During one of the rehearsals of "Don Giovanni,"
+at Prague, he remarked to the leader of the orchestra: "I have spared
+neither pains nor labor in order to produce something excellent for
+Prague. People are indeed mistaken in imagining that art has been an
+easy matter to me. I assure you, my dear friend, no one has expended
+so much labor on the study of composition as I have. There is hardly a
+famous master whose works I have not studied thoroughly and
+repeatedly."
+
+Jahn surmises, doubtless correctly, that the reason why Mozart
+habitually delayed putting down his pieces on paper, was because this
+process, being a mere matter of copying, did not interest him so much
+as the composing and creating, which were all done before he took up
+the pen. "You know," he writes to his father, "that I am immersed in
+music, as it were, that I am occupied with it all day long, that I
+like to study, speculate, reflect." He was often absent-minded and
+even followed his thoughts while playing billiards or nine pins, or
+riding. Like Beethoven, he walked up and down the room, absorbed in
+thought, even while washing his hands; and his hair-dresser used to
+complain that Mozart would never sit still, but would jump up every
+now and then and walk across the room to jot down something, or touch
+the piano, while _he_ had to run after him holding on to his pigtail.
+
+Allusion has been made to the fact that it was almost always in the
+open air that new ideas sprouted in Mozart's mind, especially when he
+was travelling. Whenever a new theme occurred to him he would jot it
+down on a slip of paper, and he always had a special leather bag for
+preserving these sketches, which he carefully guarded. These sketches
+differ somewhat in appearance, but generally they contained the melody
+or vocal part, together with the bass, and brief indications of the
+middle parts, and here and there mention of a special instrument.
+This was sufficient subsequently to recall the whole composition to
+his memory. In elaborating his scores he hardly ever made any
+deviations from the original conception, not even in the
+instrumentation; which seems the more remarkable when we reflect that
+he was the originator of many new orchestral combinations, the beauty
+of which presented itself to his imagination before his ears had ever
+heard them in actuality. These new tone-colors, as Jahn remarks,
+existed intrinsically in the orchestra as a statue does in the marble;
+but it remained for the artist to bring them out; and that Mozart was
+bound to have them is shown by the anecdote of a musician who
+complained to him of the difficulty of a certain passage, and begged
+him to alter it. "Is it possible to play those tones on your
+instrument?" Mozart asked; and when he was told it was, he replied,
+"Then it is your affair to bring them out."
+
+Beethoven's way of mental composing appears at first sight to differ
+widely from Mozart's. But if we had as many specimens of Mozart's
+preliminary sketches as we have of Beethoven's, the difference would
+perhaps appear less pronounced, and would to a large extent resolve
+itself into the fact that Beethoven did not trust his memory so much
+as Mozart did, and therefore put more of his _tentative_, or rough
+sketches, on paper. He always carried in his pockets a few loose
+sheets of music paper, or a number of sheets bound together in a
+note-book. If his supply gave out accidentally, he would seize upon
+any loose sheet of paper, or even a bill of fare, to note down his
+thoughts. In a corner of his room lay a large pile of note-books, into
+which he had copied in ink his first rough pencil-sketches. Many of
+these sketch-books have been fortunately preserved, and they are among
+the most remarkable relics we have of any man of genius. They prove
+above all things that rapidity of work is not a test of musical
+inspiration, and that Carlyle was not entirely wrong when he defined
+genius as "an immense capacity for taking trouble." In the "Fidelio"
+sketch-book, for example, sixteen pages are almost entirely filled
+with sketches for a scene which takes up less than three pages of the
+vocal score. Of the aria, "O Hoffnung," there are as many as eighteen
+different versions, and of the final chorus, ten; and these are not
+exceptional cases by any means. As Thayer remarks: "To follow a
+recitative or aria through all its guises is an extremely fatiguing
+task, and the almost countless studies for a duet or terzet are enough
+to make one frantic." Thayer quotes Jahn's testimony that these
+afterthoughts are invariably superior to the first conception, and
+adds that "some of his first ideas for pieces which are now among the
+jewels of the opera are so extremely trivial and commonplace, that one
+would hardly dare to attribute them to Beethoven, were they not in
+his own handwriting."
+
+On the other hand these sketch-books bear witness to the extreme
+fertility of Beethoven's genius. Thayer estimates that the number of
+distinct ideas noted in them, which remained unused, is as large as
+the number which he used; and he refers to this as a commentary on the
+remark which Beethoven made toward the close of his life: "It seems to
+me as if I were only just beginning to compose." And Nottebohm, who
+has studied these sketch-books more thoroughly than any one else,
+thinks that if Beethoven had elaborated all the symphonies which he
+began in these books we should have at least fifty instead of nine.
+
+The sketch-books show that Beethoven was in the habit of working at
+several compositions at the same time; and the ideas for these are so
+jumbled up in his books that he himself apparently needed a guide to
+find them. At least, when ideas belonging together are widely
+separated he used to connect them by writing the letters VI over the
+first passage and DE over the second. He also used to write the word
+"better" in French on some pages, or else the figures 100, 500, 1,000,
+etc., probably, as Schindler thinks, to indicate the relative value of
+certain ideas.
+
+When his mind was in a creative mood, Beethoven was as completely
+absorbed (or "absent-minded," as we generally say) as Mozart. This is
+illustrated by an amusing trait described by his biographers.
+"Beethoven was extremely fond of washing. He would pour water
+backwards and forwards over his hands for a long time together, and if
+at such times a musical thought struck him and he became absorbed, he
+would go on until the whole floor was swimming, and the water had
+found its way through the ceiling into the room beneath" (Grove).
+Consequently, as may be imagined, he not infrequently had trouble with
+his landlord. He was constantly changing his lodgings, and always
+spent the summer in the country, where he did his best work. "In the
+winter," he once remarked to Rellstab, "I do but little; I only write
+out and score what I have composed in the summer. But that takes a
+long time. When I get into the country I am fit for anything."
+
+On account of his deafness, Beethoven affords a striking instance of
+the power musicians have of imagining novel sound effects which they
+never could have heard with their ears. In literature we blame a
+writer who, as the expression goes, "evolves his facts from his inner
+consciousness;" but in music this proceeding is evidence of the
+highest genius, because music has only a few elementary "facts" or
+prototypes, in nature. Beethoven was deaf at thirty-two. He never
+heard his "Fidelio," and for twenty-five years he could hear music
+only with the inner ear. But musicians are in one respect more
+fortunate than painters. If Titian had lost his eyesight, he could
+never have painted another picture; whereas Beethoven after losing his
+principal sense still continued to compose, better than ever. Mr.
+Thayer even thinks that from a purely artistic point of view
+Beethoven's deafness may have been an advantage to him; for it
+compelled him to concentrate all his thoughts on the symphonies in his
+head, undisturbed by the harsh noises of the external world. And that
+he did not forego the _delights_ of music is obvious from the fact
+that the pleasure of creating is more intense than the pleasure of
+hearing; and is, moreover illustrated by the great delight he felt in
+his later years when he read the compositions of Schubert (for he
+could not hear them) and found in them the evidence of genius, which
+he did not hesitate to proclaim.
+
+In considering Beethoven's deafness, it is well to bear in mind the
+words of Schopenhauer: "Genius is its own reward," he says. "If we
+look up to a great man of the past we do not think, How fortunate he
+is to be still admired by all of us; but, How happy he must have been
+in the immediate enjoyment of a mind the traces of which refresh
+generations of men." Schumann, Weber, and others, repeatedly testify
+in their letters to the great delight they felt in creating; and at
+the time when he was arranging his "Freischuetz" for the piano, Weber
+wrote, more forcibly than elegantly, that he was enjoying himself like
+the devil.
+
+I have already stated that Weber, like Beethoven, generally got his
+new ideas during his walks in the country; and riding in an open
+carriage seems to have especially stimulated his brain, as it did
+Mozart's. The weird and original music to the dismal Wolf's-Glen scene
+in the "Freischuetz" was conceived one morning when he was on his way
+to Pillnitz, and the wagon was occasionally shrouded in dense clouds.
+
+A curious story is told by a member of Weber's orchestra, showing how
+a musical theme may be sometimes suggested by incongruous and
+grotesque objects. He was one day taking a walk with Weber in the
+suburbs of Dresden. It began to rain and they entered a beer garden
+which had just been deserted by the guests in consequence of the rain.
+The waiters had piled the chairs on the tables, pell mell. At sight of
+these confused groups of chairs and tables Weber suddenly exclaimed,
+"Look here, Roth, doesn't that look like a great triumphal march?
+Thunder! hear those trumpet blasts! I can use that--I can use that!"
+In the evening he wrote down what his imagination had heard, and it
+subsequently became the great march in "Oberon."
+
+Some psychological interest also attaches to the remark with which
+Weber's son prefaces this story--namely that Weber was constantly
+transmuting forms and colors into sounds; and that lines and forms
+seemed to stimulate his melodic inventiveness pre-eminently, whereas
+sounds affected his harmonic sense.
+
+My subject is by no means exhausted, but for fear of fatiguing the
+reader with an excess of details I will close with a few facts
+regarding Richard Wagner's method of composing. I am indebted for
+these facts to the kindness of Herr Seidl, of the Metropolitan Opera
+House in New York, who was Wagner's secretary for several years, and
+helped him prepare "Goetterdaemmerung" and "Parsifal" for the press.
+
+Like his famous predecessors, Wagner always carried some sheets of
+music paper in his pocket, on which he jotted down with a pencil such
+ideas as came to him on solitary walks, or at other times. These he
+gave to his wife, who inked them over and arranged them in piles. In
+these sketches the vocal part was always written out in full, while
+the orchestral part was roughly indicated in two or more additional
+staves. Frau Cosima has preserved most of these sketches, and they
+will doubtless some day be reproduced in fac-simile, like some of
+Beethoven's.
+
+Whenever Wagner was in the mood for composing he would say to Herr
+Seidl, "Bring me my sketches." Then he would retire to his composing
+room, to which no one was ever admitted, not even his wife and
+children. At lunch-time, the servant would bring something to the
+ante-room, without being allowed to see the master in his sanctum. How
+Wagner conducted himself there is not known, except that strange vocal
+sounds, and a few passionate chords on the piano would occasionally
+reach the ears of neighbors. Wagner appears to have used his piano
+just as Beethoven did his, even after he had become deaf:--as a sort
+of lightning-rod for his fervent emotions.
+
+Much nonsense has been written concerning the fact that Wagner used to
+wear gaudy costumes of silk and satin while he was composing, and that
+he had colored glass in his windows, which gave every object a
+mysterious aspect. He was called an imitator of the eccentric King of
+Bavaria, and some went so far as to declare him insane. But in truth,
+Wagner was simply endeavoring to put himself into an atmosphere most
+favorable for dramatic creation. We all know how much clothes help to
+make a man, in more than one sense; and any one who has ever taken
+part in private theatricals will remember how much the costume helped
+him to get into the proper frame of mind for interpreting his role.
+This was all that Wagner aimed at in wearing his mediaeval costumes;
+and the wonderful realism and vividness of his dramatic conceptions
+certainly more than justify the unusual methods he pursued to attain
+them.
+
+After elaborating the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic details of his
+scores, Wagner considered his main task done, and the orchestration
+was completed down-stairs in his music room. In his earliest operas
+Wagner did not write his scenes in their regular order, but took those
+first which specially proffered themselves. Of the "Flying Dutchman,"
+for instance, he wrote the spinning chorus first, and he was delighted
+to find on this occasion, as he himself says, that he could still
+compose after a long interruption. He used a piano but rather to
+stimulate and correct than to invent. In his later works the piano is
+absolutely out of the question. He wrote the music, scene after scene,
+following the text; and the conception of the whole score is so
+absolutely orchestral that the piano cannot even give as faint a
+notion of it as a photograph can give of the splendors of a Titian.
+Wagner, as he himself tells us, was unable to play his scores on the
+piano, but always tried to get Liszt to do that for him.
+
+It is possible that some of my readers have never seen a full
+orchestral score of "Siegfried" or "Tristan." If so, I advise them to
+go to a music store and look at one as a matter of curiosity. They
+will find a large quarto volume, every page of which represents only
+one line of music. There are separate staves for the violins, violas,
+cellos, double basses, flutes, bassoons, clarinets, horns, tubas,
+trombones, kettle-drums, etc., each family forming a quartette in
+itself, and each having its own peculiar emotional quality. In
+conducting an opera the Kapellmeister has to keep his eye and ear at
+the same time on each of these groups, as well as on the vocal parts
+and scenic effects. If this requires a talent rarely found among
+musicians, how very much greater must be the mind which created this
+complicated operatic score! No one who tries to realize what this
+implies, and remembers that Wagner wrote several of his best music
+dramas among the mountains of Switzerland, years before he could dream
+of ever hearing the countless new harmonies and orchestral tone-colors
+which he had discovered, can deny, I think, that I was right in
+maintaining that the composing of an opera is the most wonderful
+achievement of human genius.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+SCHUMANN
+
+AS MIRRORED IN HIS LETTERS
+
+
+Clara Schumann, the most gifted woman that has ever chosen music as a
+profession, and who, at the age of sixty-nine, still continues to be
+among the most fascinating of pianists, placed the musical world under
+additional obligations when she issued three years ago the collection
+of private letters, written by Schumann between the ages of eighteen
+and thirty (1827-40), partly to her, partly to his mother, and other
+relatives, friends, and business associates. She was prompted to this
+act not only by the consciousness that there are many literary gems in
+the correspondence which should not be lost to the world, but by the
+thought that more is generally known of Schumann's eccentricities than
+of his real traits of character. Inasmuch as a wretched script was one
+of the most conspicuous of these eccentricities, it is fortunate that
+his wife lived to edit his letters; but even she, though familiar with
+his handwriting during many years of courtship and marriage, was not
+infrequently obliged to interpolate a conjectural word. Schumann had
+a genuine vein of humor, which he reveals in his correspondence as in
+his compositions and criticisms. He was aware that his manuscript was
+not a model of caligraphy, but, on being remonstrated with, he
+passionately declared he could not do any better, promising, however,
+sarcastically that, as a predestined diplomat, he would keep an
+amanuensis in future. And on page 245 begins a long letter to Clara
+which presents a curious appearance. Every twentieth word or so is
+placed between two vertical lines, regarding which the reader is kept
+in the dark until he comes to this postscript: "In great haste, owing
+to business affairs, I add a sort of lexicon of indistinctly written
+words, which I have placed within brackets. This will probably make
+the letter appear very picturesque and piquant. The idea is not so
+bad. Adio, clarissima Cara, cara Clarissima." Then follows the
+"lexicon" of twenty words, including his own signature.
+
+Although, in a semi-humorous vein, Schumann repeatedly alludes in
+these letters to the "foregone conclusion" that they will some day be
+printed, there is hardly any indication that such a thought was ever
+in his mind while writing them. They are, in fact, full of confidences
+and confessions, some of which he could not have been very ambitious
+to see in print; such as his frequent appeals for "more ducats,"
+during his student days, and his sophistically ingenious excuses for
+needing so much money, placed side by side with his frank admission
+that he had no talent for economy, and was very fond of cigars, wine,
+and especially travelling. In one of the most amusing of the letters,
+he advances twelve reasons why his mother should send him about $200
+to enable him to see Switzerland and Italy. As a last, convincing
+argument, he gently hints that it is very easy for a student in
+Heidelberg to borrow money at 10 per cent. interest. He got the money
+and enjoyed his Swiss tour, mostly on foot and alone; but in Italy
+various misfortunes overtook him--he fell ill, his money ran out, and
+he was only too glad to return to Heidelberg in the same condition as
+when he had first arrived there, on which occasion the state of his
+purse compelled him to make the last part of the journey from Leipsic
+on foot.
+
+On this trip he enjoyed that unique emotional thrill of the German,
+the first sight of the Rhine, with which he was so enchanted that he
+went to the extreme forward end of the deck, smoking a good cigar
+given him by an Englishman: "Thus I sat alone all the afternoon,
+revelling in the wild storm which ploughed through my hair, and
+composing a poem of praise to the Northeast wind"--for Schumann often
+indulged in poetic efforts, especially when inspired to flights of
+fancy by his favorite author, Jean Paul.
+
+At Heidelberg, which he called "ein ganzes Paradies von Natur," he
+spent one of the happiest years of his life. Student life at this town
+he thus compares with Leipsic:
+
+"In and near Heidelberg the student is the most prominent and
+respected individual, since it is he who supports the town, so that
+the citizens and Philistines are naturally excessively courteous. I
+consider it a disadvantage for a young man, especially for a student,
+to live in a town where the student only and solely rules and
+flourishes. Repression alone favors the free development of a youth,
+and the everlasting loafing with students greatly limits
+many-sidedness of thought, and consequently exerts a bad influence on
+practical life. This is one great advantage Leipsic has over
+Heidelberg--which, in fact, a large city always has over a small
+one.... On the other hand, Heidelberg has this advantage, that the
+grandeur and beauty of the natural scenery prevent the students from
+spending so much of their time in drinking; for which reason the
+students here are ten times more sober than in Leipsic."
+
+Schumann himself, as we have said, was fond of a glass of good wine.
+On his first journey, at Prague, he tells us, the Tokay made him
+happy. And in another place he exclaims, "Every day I should like to
+drink champagne to excite myself." But, though of a solitary
+disposition, he did not care to drink alone, for "only in the intimate
+circle of sympathetic hearts does the vine's blood become transfused
+into our own and warm it to enthusiasm." Schumann's special vice was
+the constant smoking of very strong cigars; nor does he appear to have
+devoted to gastronomic matters the attention necessary to nourish such
+an abnormally active brain as his. At one time he lived on potatoes
+alone for several weeks; at another he saved on his meals to get money
+for French lessons; and although he took enough interest in a good
+_menu_ to copy it in a letter, he repeatedly laments the time which is
+uselessly wasted in eating. Such tenets, combined with his smoking
+habit, doubtless helped to shatter his powers, leading finally to the
+lunatic asylum and a comparatively early death.
+
+His frequent fits of melancholy may also perhaps be traced in part to
+these early habits. Though probably unacquainted with Burton, he held
+that "there is in melancholy sentiments something extremely attractive
+and even invigorating to the imagination." Attempts were frequently
+made by his friends to teach him more sociable habits. Thus, at
+Leipsic, "Dr. Carus's family are anxious to introduce me to
+innumerable families--'it would be good for my prospects,' they
+think, and so do I, and yet I don't get there, and in fact seldom go
+out at all. Indeed, I am often very leathery, dry, disagreeable, and
+laugh much inwardly." That his apparent coldness and indifference to
+his neighbors and friends were due chiefly to his absorption in his
+world of ideas, and his consequent want of sympathy with the
+artificial usages of society, becomes apparent from this confession,
+written to Clara in 1838:
+
+"I should like to confide to you many other things regarding my
+character--how people often wonder that I meet the warmest expressions
+of love with coldness and reserve, and often offend and humiliate
+precisely those who are most sincerely devoted to me. Often have I
+queried and reproached myself for this, for inwardly I acknowledge
+even the most trifling favor, understand every wink, every subtle
+trait in the heart of another, and yet I so often blunder in what I
+say and do."
+
+In these melancholy moods nature was his refuge and consolation.
+He objected to Leipsic because there were no delights of
+nature--"everything artificially transformed; no valley, no mountain,
+where I might revel in my thoughts; no place where I can be alone,
+except in the bolted room, with the eternal noise and turmoil below."
+Although he had but a few intimate friends, he was liked by all the
+students, and even enjoyed the name of "a favorite of the Heidelberg
+public." One of his intimate friends was Flechsig, but even of him he
+paradoxically complains that he is too sympathetic: "He never cheers
+me up; if I am occasionally in a melancholy mood, he ought not to be
+the same, and he ought to have sufficient humanity to stir me up.
+That I often need cheering up, I know very well." Yet he was as often
+in a state of extreme happiness and enjoyment of life and his
+talents. He even, on occasion, indulged in students' pranks. On his
+journey to Heidelberg he induced the postilion to let him take the
+reins: "Thunder! how the horses ran, and how extravagantly happy I
+was, and how we stopped at every tavern to get fodder, and how I
+entertained the whole company, and how sorry they all were when I
+parted from them at Wiesbaden!!" At Frankfort, one morning, he
+writes: "I felt an extraordinary longing to play on a piano. So I
+calmly went to the nearest dealer, told him I was the tutor of a
+young English lord who wished to buy a grand piano, and then I
+played, to the wonder and delight of the bystanders, for three hours.
+I promised to return in two days and inform them if the lord wanted
+the instrument; but on that date I was at Ruedesheim, drinking
+Ruedesheimer." In another place he gives an account of "a scene
+worthy of Van Dyck, and a most genial evening" he spent with some
+students at a tavern filled with peasants. They had some grog, and at
+the request of the peasants one of the students declaimed, and
+Schumann played. Then a dance was arranged. "The peasants beat time
+with their feet. We were in high spirits, and danced dizzily among
+the peasant feet, and finally took a touching farewell of the company
+by giving all the peasant girls, Minchen, etc., smacking kisses on
+the lips."
+
+Were women, like men, afflicted with retrospective jealousy,
+Schumann's widow, in editing these letters, would have received a pang
+from many other passages revealing Schumann's fondness for the fair
+sex. He allowed no good-looking woman to pass him on the street
+without taking the opportunity to cultivate his sense of beauty. After
+his engagement to Clara he gives her fair warning that he has the
+"very mischievous habit" of being a great admirer of beautiful women
+and girls. "They make me positively smirk, and I swim in panegyrics on
+your sex. Consequently, if at some future time we walk along the
+streets of Vienna and meet a beauty, and I exclaim, 'Oh, Clara! see
+this heavenly vision,' or something of the sort, you must not be
+alarmed nor scold me." He had a number of transient passions before he
+discovered that Clara was his only true love. There was Nanni, his
+"guardian angel," who saved him from the perils of the world and
+hovered before his vision like a saint. "I feel like kneeling before
+her and adoring her like a Madonna." But Nanni had a dangerous rival
+in Liddy. Not long, however, for he found Liddy silly, cold as marble,
+and--fatal defect--she could not sympathize with him regarding Jean
+Paul. "The exalted image of my ideal disappears when I think of the
+remarks she made about Jean Paul. Let the dead rest in peace."
+
+Several of his flames are not alluded to in this correspondence. On
+his travels he appears to have had the habit of noting down in his
+diary the prevalence and peculiarities of feminine beauty. He
+complains that from Mainz to Heidelberg he "did not see a single
+pretty face." Yet, as a whole, the Rhine maidens seem to have won his
+admiration:
+
+"What characteristic faces among the lowest classes! On the west shore
+of the Rhine the girls have very delicate features, indicating
+amiability rather than intelligence; the noses are mostly Greek, the
+face very oval and artistically symmetrical, the hair brown; I did not
+see a single blonde. The complexion is soft, delicate, with more white
+than red; melancholy rather than sanguine. The Frankfort girls, on the
+other hand, have in common a sisterly trait--the character of German,
+manly, sad earnestness which we often find in our quondam free
+cities, and which toward the east gradually merges into a gentle
+softness. Characteristic are the faces of all the Frankfort girls:
+intellectual or beautiful few of them; the noses mostly Greek, often
+snub-noses; the dialect I did not like."
+
+The English type of beauty appears to have especially won his
+approval. "When she spoke it sounded like the whispering of angels,"
+he says of an Englishwoman, "as pretty as a picture," whom he met.
+Elsewhere he says, laconically: "On the 24th I arrived at Mainz with
+the steamer, in company with twenty to thirty English men and women.
+Next day the number of English increased to fifty. If I ever marry, it
+must be an English woman." Some years later, however, with the
+fickleness of genius, he writes about Ernestine, the daughter of a
+rich Bohemian Baron, "a delightfully innocent, childish soul, tender
+and pensive, attached to me and to everything artistic by the most
+sincere love, extremely musical--in short, just the kind of a girl I
+could wish to marry." He did become engaged to her, but the following
+year the engagement was dissolved; and soon after this he discovered
+that his artistic admiration for Clara Wieck had assumed the form of
+love. Although her father opposed their union several years, on
+account of Schumann's poverty, the young couple often met, and not
+only in the music-room. In 1833 he writes to his mother regarding
+Clara: "The other day, when we went to Connewitz (we take a two or
+three hours' walk almost daily), I heard her say to herself, 'How
+happy I am! how happy!' Who would not like to hear that! On this road
+there are a number of very useless stones in the midst of the
+footpath. Now, as it happens in conversation that I more frequently
+look up than down, she always walks behind me and gently pulls my coat
+at every stone, lest I may fall."
+
+It was most fortunate for Schumann that his bride and wife was one of
+the greatest living pianists. For, owing to the accident to his hand,
+though he could still improvise, he could not appear in public to
+interpret his own compositions, which depended so much for their
+success on a sympathetic performance, since they differed so greatly
+from the prevalent style of Hummel and the classical masters, that
+even so gifted a musician as Mendelssohn failed to understand them.
+But Clara made it the task of her life to secure him recognition, and
+this was an additional bond that united their souls. "When you are
+mine," he writes, "you will occasionally hear something new from me; I
+believe you will often inspire me, and the mere fact that I shall then
+frequently hear my own compositions will cheer me up;" and: "Your
+Romance showed me once more that we must become man and wife. Every
+one of your thoughts comes from my soul, even as I owe all my music
+to you." To Dorn he writes that many of his compositions, including
+the Noveletten, the Kreisleriana, and the Kinderscenen, were inspired
+by Clara; and it is well known that his love became the incentive to
+the composition, in one year, of over a hundred wonderful songs--his
+previous compositions, up to 1840, having all been for the piano
+alone. In the last letter of this collection he says: "Sometimes it
+appears to me as if I were treading entirely new paths in music;" and
+there are many other passages showing that he realized well that the
+very things which his contemporaries criticised and decried as
+eccentric and obscure (Hummel, _e.g._, objects to his frequent changes
+of harmony and his originality!), were really his most inspired
+efforts. Though he never allowed the desire for popularity to
+influence his work, yet he occasionally craves appreciation. "I am
+willing to confess that I should be greatly pleased if I could succeed
+in composing something which would impel the public, after hearing you
+play it, to run against the walls in their delight; for vain we
+composers are, even though we have no reason to be so." It must have
+given him a strange shock when an amateur asked him, at one of his
+wife's concerts in Vienna, if he also was musical!
+
+In her efforts to win appreciation for her husband, Clara was nobly
+assisted by Liszt. Just like Wagner, Schumann was not at first very
+favorably impressed with Liszt, owing to the sensational flavor of his
+early performances. But he soon changed his mind, especially when
+Liszt played some of his (Schumann's) compositions. "Many things were
+different from my conception of them, but always '_genial_,' and
+marked by a tenderness and boldness of expression which even he
+presumably has not at his command every day. Becker was the only other
+person present, and he had tears in his eyes." And two days later:
+"But I must tell you that Liszt appears to me grander every day. This
+morning he again played at Raimund Haertel's, in a way to make us all
+tremble and rejoice, some etudes of Chopin, a number of the Rossini
+soirees, and other things." Of other contemporary pianists Hummel,
+"ten years behind the time," and Thalberg, whom he liked better as
+pianist than as composer, are alluded to. Yet he writes in 1830 that
+he intends going to Weimar, "for the sly reason of being able to _call
+myself_ a pupil of Hummel." Wieck, his father-in-law, he esteemed
+greatly as teacher and adviser, but it offended him deeply that Wieck
+should have followed the common error of estimating genius with a
+yard-stick, and asked where were his "Don Juan" and his "Freischuetz?"
+His enthusiasm for Schubert, Chopin, and especially for Bach, finds
+frequent expression. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavichord" he declares is
+his "grammar, and the best of all grammars. The fugues I have
+analyzed successively to the minutest details; the advantage resulting
+from this is great, and has a morally bracing effect on the whole
+system, for Bach was a man through and through; in him there is
+nothing done by halves, nothing morbid, but all is written for time
+eternal." Six years later: "Bach is my daily bread; from him I derive
+gratification and get new ideas--'compared with him we are all
+children,' Beethoven has said, I believe." One day a caller remarked
+that Bach was old and wrote in old-fashioned manner: "But I told him
+he was neither old nor new, but much more than that, namely, eternal.
+I came near losing my temper." Concerning the unappreciative
+Mendelssohn, he writes to Clara:
+
+"I am told that he is not well disposed toward me. I should feel sorry
+if that were true, since I am conscious of having preserved noble
+sentiments toward him. If you know anything let me hear it on
+occasion; that will at least make me cautious, and I do not wish to
+squander anything where I am ill-spoken of. Concerning my relations
+toward him as a musician [1838], I am quite aware that I could learn
+of him for years; but he, too, some things of me. Brought up under
+similar circumstances, destined for music from childhood, I would
+surpass you all--that I feel from the energy of my inventive powers."
+
+Concerning this energy he says, some time after this, when he had
+just finished a dozen songs: "Again I have composed so much that I am
+sometimes visited by a mysterious feeling. Alas! I cannot help it. I
+could wish to sing myself to death, like a nightingale."
+
+One of the most interesting bits of information contained in this
+correspondence is that, when quite a young man, Schumann commenced a
+treatise on musical aesthetics. In view of the many epoch-making
+thoughts contained in his two volumes of collected criticisms, it is
+very much to be regretted that this plan was not carried out. On one
+question of musical psychology light is thrown by several of these
+letters. Like many other composers, it seems that Schumann often, if
+not generally, had some pictorial image or event in his mind in
+composing. "When I composed my first songs," he writes to Clara, "I
+was entirely within you. Without such a bride one cannot write such
+music." "I am affected by everything that goes on in the
+world--politics, literature, mankind. In my own manner I meditate on
+everything, which then seeks utterance in music. That is why many of
+my compositions are so difficult to understand, because they relate to
+remote affairs; and often significant, because all that's remarkable
+in our time affects me, and I have to give it expression in musical
+language." One of the letters to Clara begins: "Tell me what the first
+part of the Fantasia suggests to you. Does it not bring many pictures
+before your mind?" Concerning the "Phantasiestuecke" he writes: "When
+they were finished I was delighted to find the story of Hero and
+Leander in them.... Tell me if you, too, find this picture fitting the
+music." "The Papillons," he says once more, are intended to be a
+musical translation of the final scene in Jean Paul's "Flegeljahre."
+
+Believers in telepathy will be interested in the following additional
+instance of composing with a visual object in mind: "I wrote to you
+concerning a presentiment; it occurred to me on the days from March
+24th to 27th, when I was at work on my new composition. There is a
+place in it to which I constantly recurred; it is as if some one
+sighed, 'Ach, Gott!' from the bottom of his heart. While composing, I
+constantly saw funeral processions, coffins, unhappy people in
+despair; and when I had finished, and long searched for a title, the
+word 'corpse-fantasia' continually obtruded itself. Is not that
+remarkable? During the composition, moreover, I was often so deeply
+affected that tears came to my eyes, and yet I knew not why and had no
+reason--till Theresa's letter arrived, which made everything clear."
+His brother was on his death-bed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The collection of Schumann's letters so far under consideration met
+with such a favorable reception that a second edition was soon called
+for, and this circumstance no doubt promoted the publication of a
+second series, extending to 1854, two years before Schumann's sad
+death in the lunatic asylum near Bonn. This second volume includes a
+considerable number of business letters to his several publishers. In
+one of these he confides to Dr. Haertel his plan of collecting and
+revising his musical criticisms, and publishing them in two volumes.
+But as this letter was, a few months later, followed by a similar one
+addressed to the publisher Wigand, who subsequently printed the
+essays, it is to be inferred that Breitkopf & Haertel, though assured
+of the future of Schumann's compositions, doubted the financial value
+of his musical essays--an attitude pardonable at a time when there was
+still a ludicrous popular prejudice against literary utterances by a
+musician. In 1883, however, after Wigand had issued a third edition of
+the "Collected Writings on Music and Musicians" (which have also been
+translated into English by Mrs. Ritter), Breitkopf & Haertel atoned for
+their error by purchasing the copyright.
+
+Schumann's letters to his publishers show that he used to suggest his
+own terms, which were commonly acceded to without protest. For his
+famous quintet he asked twenty louis d'or, or about $100; for
+"Paradise and the Peri," $500; the piano concerto, $125; Liederalbum,
+op. 79, $200; "Manfred," $250. He frequently emphasizes his desire to
+have his compositions printed in an attractive style, and in 1839
+writes to Haertel that he cannot describe his pleasure on receiving the
+"Scenes of Childhood." "It is the most charming specimen of musical
+typography I have ever seen." The few misprints he discovers in it he
+frankly attributes to his MS. In a letter to his friend Rosen he
+writes that "it must be a deucedly comic pleasure to read my
+Sanskrit." But his musical handwriting appears to have been nearer to
+Sanskrit than his epistolary, if we may judge by the specimen
+fac-similes printed in Naumann's "History of Music."
+
+The promptness with which all the leading music publishers of Germany
+issued complete editions of Schumann's vocal and pianoforte
+compositions, as soon as the copyright had expired, shows how
+profitable they must be. But during his lifetime it was quite
+otherwise, and in a letter to Kossmaly he adduces the following four
+reasons for this state of affairs: "(1) inherent difficulties of form
+and contents; (2) because, not being a virtuoso, I cannot perform them
+in public; (3) because I am the editor of my musical paper, in which I
+could not allude to them; (4) because Fink is editor of the other
+paper, and would not allude to them." Elsewhere he remarks, concerning
+this rival editor: "It is really most contemptible on Fink's part not
+to have mentioned a single one of my pianoforte compositions in nine
+[seven] years, although they are always of such a character that it is
+impossible to overlook them. It is not for my name's sake that I am
+annoyed, but because I know what the future course of music is to be."
+It was in behalf of this tendency that he toiled on his paper, which
+at first barely paid its expenses, having only 500 subscribers several
+years after its foundation. And he not only avoided puffing his own
+compositions, but even inserted a contribution by his friend Kossmaly
+in which he was placed in the second rank of vocal composers! Yet,
+though he printed the article, he complains about it in a private
+letter: "In your article on the Lied, I was a little grieved that you
+placed me in the _second_ class. I do not lay claim to the first, but
+I think I have a claim to a place of _my own_, and least of all do I
+wish to see myself associated with Reissiger, Curschmann, etc. I know
+that my aims, my resources, are far beyond theirs, and I hope you will
+concede this and not accuse me of vanity, which is far from me."
+
+Many of the letters in the present collection are concerned with the
+affairs of Schumann's paper, the _Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_,
+detailing his plans for removing it to a larger city than Leipsic, and
+the atrocious red-tape difficulties and delays he was subjected to
+when he finally did transfer it to Vienna. Although the paper was
+exclusively devoted to music, the _Censur_ apparently took three or
+four months to make up its mind whether the state was in danger or not
+from the immigration of a new musical periodical. The editor confesses
+that he did not find as much sympathy as he had expected in Vienna;
+yet the city--as he writes some years later at Duesseldorf--"continues
+to attract one, as if the spirits of the departed great masters were
+still visible, and as if it were the real musical home of Germany."
+"Eating and drinking here are incomparable. You would be delighted
+with the Opera. Such singers and such an _ensemble_ we do not have."
+"The admirable Opera is a great treat for me, especially the chorus
+and orchestra. Of such things we have _no conception_ in Leipsic. The
+ballet would also amuse you." "A more encouraging public it would be
+difficult to find anywhere; it is really too encouraging--in the
+theatre one hears more applause than music. It is very merry, but it
+annoys me occasionally." "But I assure you confidentially that long
+and alone I should not care to live here; serious men and affairs are
+here in little demand and little appreciated. A compensation for this
+is found in the beautiful surroundings. Yesterday I was in the
+cemetery where Beethoven and Schubert are buried. Just think what I
+found on Beethoven's grave: _a pen_, and, what is more, a steel pen.
+It was a happy omen for me and I shall preserve it religiously." On
+Schubert's grave he found nothing, but in the city he found Schubert's
+brother, a poor man with eight children and no possessions but a
+number of his brother's manuscripts, including "a few operas, four
+great masses, four or five symphonies, and many other things." He
+immediately wrote to Breitkopf & Haertel to make arrangements for their
+publication.
+
+It is anything but complimentary to the discernment of Viennese
+publishers and musicians of that period that, eleven years after
+Schubert's death, another composer had to come from Leipsic and give
+to the world the works of a colleague who not only had genius of the
+purest water, but the gift of giving utterance to his musical ideas in
+a clear style, intelligible to the public. Schubert died in 1828, and
+in 1842 Schumann could still write to one of his contributors: "It is
+time, it seems to me, that some one should write something weighty in
+behalf of Schubert; doesn't this tempt you? True, his larger works are
+not yet in print. But his vocal and pianoforte compositions suffice
+for an approximate portrait. Consider the matter. Do you know his
+symphony in C? A delightful composition, somewhat long, but
+extraordinarily animated, in character entirely new." To a Belgian
+friend who intended to write an article on the new tendencies in
+pianoforte music, he wrote: "Of older composers who have influenced
+modern music I must name above all Franz Schubert.... Schubert's songs
+are well known, but his pianoforte compositions (especially those for
+four hands) I rate at least equally high."
+
+Of the numerous criticisms of well-known composers contained in this
+correspondence, a few more may be cited. They are mostly favorable in
+tone, but concerning the "Prophete" he writes: "The music appears to me
+very poor; I cannot find words to express my aversion to it."
+"Lortzing's operas meet with success--to me almost incomprehensible."
+To Carl Reinecke he writes that he is "no friend of song-transcriptions
+(for piano), and of Liszt's some are a real abomination to me." He
+commends Reinecke's efforts in this direction because they are free
+from pepper and sauce _a la_ Liszt. Nevertheless, those of Liszt's
+song-transcriptions in which he did not indulge in too much bravura
+ornamentation are models of musical translation, and the collection of
+forty-two songs published by Breitkopf & Haertel should be in every
+pianist's library. "Of Chopin," he writes in 1836, "I have a new ballad
+[G minor]. It seems to me to be his most enchanting (though not most
+_genial_) work; I told him, too, that I liked it best of all his
+compositions. After a long pause and reflection he said: 'I am glad you
+think so, it is also my favorite.' He also played for me a number of
+new etudes, nocturnes, mazurkas--everything in an incomparable style.
+It is touching to see him at the piano. You would be very fond of him.
+Yet Clara is more of a _virtuoso_, and gives almost more significance
+to his compositions than he does himself."
+
+Brendel having sent him some of Palestrina's music, he writes that "it
+really sounds sometimes like music of the spheres--and what art at the
+same time! I am convinced he is the greatest musical genius Italy has
+produced." Nineteen years previous to this he had written from
+Brescia: "Were not the Italian language itself a kind of eternal music
+(the Count aptly called it a long-drawn-out A-minor chord), I should
+not hear anything rational. Of the ardor with which they play, you can
+form no more conception than of their slovenliness and lack of
+elegance and precision." Handel appears to be mentioned only once in
+all of Schumann's correspondence ("I consider 'Israel in Egypt' the
+ideal of a choral work"), but Bach is always on his tongue. The
+following is one of the profoundest criticisms ever written: "Mozart
+and Haydn knew of Bach only a few pages and passages, and the effect
+which Bach, if they had known him in all his greatness, would have had
+on them, is incalculable. The harmonic depth, the poetic and humorous
+qualities of modern music have their source chiefly in Bach:
+Mendelssohn, Bennett, Chopin, Hiller, all the so-called Romanticists
+(I mean those of the German school) _approximate in their music much
+closer to Bach than to Mozart_."
+
+To Wagner there are several references, betraying a most remarkable
+struggle between critical honesty and professional jealousy. Thus, in
+1845, Schumann writes to Mendelssohn of "Tannhaeuser:"
+
+"Wagner has just finished a new opera--no doubt a clever fellow, full
+of eccentric notions, and bold beyond measure. The aristocracy is
+still in raptures over him on account of his 'Rienzi,' but in reality
+he cannot conceive or write four consecutive bars of good or even
+correct music. What all these composers lack is the art of writing
+pure harmonies and four-part choruses. The music is not a straw better
+than that of 'Rienzi,' rather weaker, more artificial! But if I should
+write this I should be accused of envy, hence I say it only to you, as
+I am aware that you have known all this a long time."
+
+But in another letter to Mendelssohn, written three weeks later, he
+recants: "I must take back much of what I wrote regarding
+'Tannhaeuser,' after reading the score; on the stage the effect is
+quite different. I was deeply moved by many parts." And to Heinrich
+Dorn he writes, a few weeks after this: "I wish you could see Wagner's
+'Tannhaeuser.' It contains profound and original ideas, and is a
+hundred times better than his previous operas, though some of the
+music is trivial. In a word, he may become of great importance to the
+stage, and, so far as I know him, he has the requisite courage. The
+technical part, the instrumentation, I find excellent, incomparably
+more masterly than formerly."
+
+Nevertheless, seven years later still, he once more returns to the
+attack, and declares that Wagner's music, "apart from the performance,
+is simply amateurish, void of contents, and disagreeable; and it is a
+sad proof of corrupt taste that, in the face of the many dramatic
+master-works which Germany has produced, some persons have the
+presumption to belittle these in favor of Wagner's. Yet enough of
+this. The future will pronounce judgment in this matter, too." Poor
+Schumann! His own opera, "Genoveva," was a failure, while "Tannhaeuser"
+and "Lohengrin" were everywhere received with enthusiasm. This was a
+quarter of a century ago; and the future _has_ judged, "Tannhaeuser"
+and "Lohengrin" being now the most popular of all works in the
+operatic repertory.
+
+What caused the failure of Schumann's only opera was not a lack of
+dramatic genius, but of theatrical instinct. He believed that in
+"Genoveva" "every bar is thoroughly dramatic;" and so it is, as might
+have been expected of the composer of such an intensely emotional and
+passionate song as "Ich grolle nicht" and many others. But Schubert,
+too, could write such thrilling five-minute dramas as the "Erlking"
+and the "Doppelgaenger," without being able to compose a successful
+opera. Like Schumann, he could not paint _al fresco_, could not
+command that bolder and broader sweep which is required of an operatic
+composer. It is characteristic of Schumann that he did not write an
+opera till late in life, whereas born operatic composers have commonly
+begun their career with their specialty. Indeed, it was only ten years
+before he composed his opera that Schumann wrote to a friend: "You
+ought to write more for the voice. Or are you, perhaps, like myself,
+who have all my life placed vocal music below instrumental, and never
+considered it a great art? But don't speak to anyone about this."
+Oddly enough, less than a year after this he writes to another friend:
+"At present I write only vocal pieces.... I can hardly tell you what a
+delight it is to write for the voice as compared with instruments, and
+how it throbs and rages within me when I am at work. Entirely new
+things have been revealed to me, and I am thinking of writing an
+opera, which, however, will not be possible until I have entirely
+freed myself from editorial work."
+
+Like other vocal composers, Schumann suffered much from the lack of
+suitable texts. In one letter he suggests that Lenau might perhaps be
+induced to write a few poems for composers, to be printed in "The
+Zeitschrift:" "the composers are thirsting for texts." In several
+other letters we become familiar with some of his plans which were
+never executed, owing, apparently, to the shortcomings of the
+librettists. One of these was R. Pohl, who in all earnestness sent
+Schumann a serious text in which the moon was introduced as one of the
+vocalists! Schumann mildly remonstrated that "to conceive of the moon
+as a person, especially as singing, would be too risky." So the
+project of "Ritter Mond" was abandoned, and it is to be regretted that
+Schumann did not reject his "Genoveva" libretto, which was largely
+responsible for the failure of the opera.
+
+One project of Schumann's is mentioned which it is to be very much
+regretted he never carried out. "I am at present [1840] preparing an
+essay on Shakspere's relations to music, his utterances and views, the
+manner in which he introduces music in his dramas, etc., etc.--an
+exceedingly fertile and attractive theme, the execution of which
+would, it is true, require some time, as I should have to read the
+whole of Shakspere's works for this purpose." His object was to send
+this to Jena as a dissertation for a Doctor's degree, with which he
+hoped to soften the heart of the obdurate Wieck, who opposed his
+marriage with Clara, and at the same time to make an impression on the
+public. Schumann had had painful experience of the fact that for
+genius itself there is little recognition in Germany unless it has a
+handle to its name--a "von" or a "Herr Doctor." Clara, however, loved
+him for his genius, and for the impassioned pieces and songs he wrote
+to express his admiration of her and of woman in general; and, like
+other German men of genius, he had his reward--after death. "No tone
+poet," says Naumann, "has been more enthusiastic in the praise of
+woman than Robert Schumann; he was a second Frauenlob. This was
+acknowledged by the maidens of Bonn, who, at his interment, filled the
+cemetery, and crowned his tomb with innumerable garlands."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MUSIC AND MORALS
+
+
+Although music in the complex harmonic form known to us is only a few
+centuries old, simple rhythmic melodies were sung, or played on
+various instruments, by all the ancient civilized nations, and are
+sung or played to-day by African and Australian savages who have never
+come into contact with civilization. And what is more, the remarkable
+influence which music has in arousing human emotions has been
+appreciated at all times.
+
+Tourists relate that in some of the inland countries of Africa,
+scarcely any work is done by the natives except to the sound of music;
+and Cruikshank, speaking of the coast negroes, says it is laughable to
+observe the effect of their rude music on all classes, old and young,
+men, women, and children. "However employed, whether passing quietly
+through the street, carrying water from the pond, or assisting in some
+grave procession, no sooner do they hear the rapid beats of a distant
+drum, than they begin to caper and dance spontaneously. The bricklayer
+will throw down his trowel for a minute, the carpenter leave his
+bench, the corn grinder her milling stone, and the porter his load, to
+keep time to the inspiriting sound."
+
+Dr. Tschudi, in his fascinating work on Peru, describes two of the
+musical instruments used by the Indians, and their emotional function.
+One is the Pututo, "a large conch on which they perform mournful
+music, as the accompaniment of their funeral dances." The other is
+called Jaina, and is a rude kind of clarionet made from a reed. "Its
+tone," says Tschudi, "is indescribable in its melancholy, and it
+produces an extraordinary impression on the natives. If a group of
+Indians are rioting and drinking, or engaged in furious conflicts with
+each other, and the sound of the Jaina is suddenly heard, the tumult
+ceases, as if by a stroke of magic. A dead stillness prevails, and all
+listen devoutly to the magic tones of the simple reed; tones which
+frequently draw tears from the eyes of the apathetic Indians."
+
+If the untutored primitive man can be thus overpowered by the charm of
+such simple music, we can hardly wonder at the extravagant power
+ascribed to this art by the ancient civilized nations. The fairy tale
+of Orpheus, who tamed wild animals and moved rocks and trees with his
+singing and playing, and the story of the dolphin that was attracted
+by Arion's song and carried him safely across the sea, are quite as
+significant as if they were true stories, for they show that the
+Greeks were so deeply moved by music that they could readily imagine
+it to have a similar effect on animals, and even on inanimate objects.
+Almost three thousand years ago, Homer represented Achilles as
+"comforting his heart with the sound of the lyre," after losing his
+sweet Briseis; "stimulating his courage and singing the deeds of the
+heroes." And, as Emil Naumann fancies, there is a moral underlying the
+myth of the siren; "for, as Homer elsewhere suggests, noble and manly
+music invigorates the spirit, strengthens wavering man, and incites
+him to great and worthy deeds, whereas false and sensuous music
+excites and confuses, robs man of his self-control, till his passions
+overcome him as the waves overwhelmed the bewitched sailor who
+listened to the voice of the charmer."
+
+At a later period in Greek history, the philosophers, including Plato
+and Aristotle, continued to attribute to music power so great, that we
+can only understand them if we bear in mind that with the Greeks the
+word music was a comprehensive term for all the arts presided over by
+the Muses, and that, even when music in our sense is alluded to by
+them, the reference is at the same time to the poetry which was almost
+always associated with music, and made its meaning and expression more
+definite. Thus, we can realize how Terpander could, by the power of
+his song, reconcile the political factions in Sparta, and how Plato
+could write, in the "Republic," that "any musical innovation is full
+of danger to the state and ought to be prevented." He looked upon
+music as a tonic which does for the mind what gymnastics do for the
+body; and taught that only such music ought to be tolerated by the
+state as had a moral purpose, while enervating forms should be
+suppressed by the law makers.
+
+Yet, after making due allowance for the fact that the word music was
+used in this comprehensive sense, enough remains to show that the
+power of music proper, the power of rhythmic melody, was profoundly
+appreciated by the Greeks. If they had not felt how greatly music
+intensifies and quickens the emotions, they would not have wedded all
+their poetry to it, nor have resorted to it on all solemn and festive
+occasions; nor would the Pythagoreans have found anyone willing to
+believe in their doctrine that music has power to control the
+passions. "They firmly believed," says Naumann, "that sweet harmony
+and flowing melody alone were capable of restoring the even balance of
+the disturbed mind, and of renewing its harmonious relations with the
+world. Playing on the lyre, therefore, formed part of the daily
+exercises of the disciples of the renowned philosopher, and none dared
+seek his nightly couch without having first refreshed his soul at the
+fount of music, nor return to the duties of the day without having
+braced his energies with jubilant strains. Pythagoras is said to have
+recommended the use of special melodies as antidotal to special
+passions, and indeed, it is related of him that on a certain occasion
+he, by a solemn air, brought back to reason a youth who, maddened by
+love and jealousy, was about setting fire to the house of his
+mistress."
+
+Similar marvellous powers were ascribed to music by the other nations.
+The Chinese have an old saying that "Music has the power to make
+Heaven descend upon earth." This art was constantly kept under rigid
+supervision by the government, and 354 years before Christ, one of the
+Emperors issued a special edict against weak, effeminate music; to
+which, therefore, a demoralizing influence was obviously attributed.
+The Japanese, we read, likewise "revere music and connect it with
+their idol worship," and in olden times it seems to have had even a
+political function, for it is said that "formerly an ambassador, in
+addressing a foreign court to which he was accredited, did not speak,
+but sang his mission." The Hindoos, again, attributed supernatural
+power to music. Some melodies had the power, as they believed, to
+bring down rain, others to move men and animals, as well as lifeless
+objects. The fact that they traced the origin of music to the gods
+shows in what esteem they held it; and their quaint story of the
+16,000 nymphs and shepherdesses, each of whom invented a new key and
+melody in her emulous eagerness to move the heart and win the love of
+the handsome young god Krishna, shows that the amorous power of music
+was already understood in those days.
+
+Once more, the exalted notions which the ancient Hebrews had of the
+dignity and importance of music, is indicated by the fact that,
+according to Josephus, the treasures of Solomon's Temple (which was
+also a great school of music) included 40,000 harps and psalteries of
+pure copper, and 200,000 silver trumpets. In the schools of the
+prophets, musical practice was an essential item. During the period of
+captivity the Israelites at first gave way to despondency, exclaiming,
+"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" "But by and by
+they would take down their harps again from the willow bows and seek
+solace for the sorrows of the long exile in recalling the loved melody
+of their native land, and the sacred psalmody of their desolated
+temple" (McClintock and Strong). There was hardly an occasion arising
+above the commonplace events of everyday life, when the ancient
+Hebrews did not resort to music. Trumpets were used at the royal
+proclamations and at the dedication of the Temple. There were doleful
+chants for funeral processions; joyous melodies for bridal
+processions and banquets; stirring martial strains to incite courage
+in battle and to celebrate victories, religious songs, and domestic
+music for private recreation and pleasure; and even "the grape
+gatherers sang as they gathered in the vintage, and the wine-presses
+were trodden with the shout of a song; the women sang as they toiled
+at the mill, and on every occasion the land of the Hebrews, during
+their national prosperity, was a land of music and melody." And
+finally, the therapeutic value of music and its power to stimulate the
+creative faculties were recognized. The prophets composed their songs
+and uttered their prophecies to the sound of musical instruments, and
+David drove out the evil spirit from Saul, as we read in the Bible:
+"And it came to pass when the spirit from God was upon Saul, that
+David took a harp and played with his hands. So Saul was refreshed,
+and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him."
+
+The preceding facts sufficiently illustrate the effects of music on
+the emotions and morals of ancient and primitive nations. Now, within
+the Christian era music has made enormous strides in its evolution as
+an art, and it seems therefore reasonable to infer that its emotional
+and moral power has also increased. Yet, strange to say, a tendency
+has manifested itself of late, in many quarters, to flatly deny the
+emotional and moral potency of music. The late Richard Grant White,
+for instance, in a series of articles on the Influence of Music, in
+"The Atlantic Monthly," comes to the conclusion that "a fine
+appreciation of even the noblest music is not an indication of mental
+elevation, or of moral purity, or of delicacy of feeling, or even
+(except in music) of refinement of taste." "The greatest, keenest
+pleasure of my life," he adds, "is one that may be shared equally with
+me by a dunce, a vulgarian, or a villain;" and he ends by asserting,
+dogmatically, that a taste for music has no more to do with our minds
+or morals than with our complexions or stature. Dr. Hanslick, the
+eminent critic and professor of musical history in the University of
+Vienna, goes even farther. "There can be no doubt," he says, "that
+music had a much more direct effect on the ancient nations than it has
+on us." To-day, "the feelings of the layman are affected most, those
+of an educated artist least, by music." "The moral influence of tones
+increases in proportion as the culture of mind and character
+decreases. The smaller the resistance offered by culture, the more
+does this power strike home. It is well known that _it is on savages
+that music exerts its greatest influence_."
+
+Let us briefly test these sceptical paradoxes in the light of mediaeval
+history and modern biography. Is it only among the ancient and
+primitive people, and among the musically uneducated, that the divine
+art exerts an emotional influence? St. Jerome evidently did not think
+so. He believed, at any rate, that music can exert a _demoralizing_
+influence, and he taught that Christian maidens should know nothing of
+the lyre and the flute. The eminent divine was guided in this matter
+by the same process of illogical reasoning of which, later, the
+Puritans were guilty when they banished music from the churches. In
+view of the fact that music was used to heighten the charms of wanton
+Roman festivities or Pagan rites, St. Jerome condemned the art itself,
+ignorant of the fact that music can never be immoral in itself, but
+only through evil associations. St. Augustine took a different view of
+music from St. Jerome. When he first heard the Christian chant at
+Milan he exclaimed: "Oh, my God! When the sweet voice of the
+congregation broke upon mine ear, how I wept over Thy hymns of praise.
+The sound poured into mine ears and Thy truth entered my heart. Then
+glowed within me the spirit of devotion; tears poured forth, and I
+rejoiced." Here we have an illustration of how music intensifies and
+exalts the emotions of educated men. St. Augustine's devotion "glowed
+within him" when he heard the music. It is for this power that the
+church has always employed music as a hand-maid; and those
+ecclesiastics who would to-day banish it arbitrarily from the church,
+know not what a valuable ally they are blindly repulsing in these
+days of religious scepticism. As Mr. Gladstone very recently remarked:
+"Ever since the time of St. Augustine, I might perhaps say of St.
+Paul, the power of music in assisting Christian devotion has been upon
+record, and great schools of Christian musicians have attested and
+confirmed the union of the art with worship."
+
+But the greatest musical enthusiast in the ranks of mediaeval churchmen
+was Martin Luther. To judge by the extraordinary influence which music
+had on him, Luther must doubtless be classed among the lowest of
+savages, if Dr. Hanslick is right in saying that it is on savages that
+music exerts its greatest influence. He wrote a special treatise on
+music, in which he placed it next to theology. "Besides theology," he
+wrote in a letter to the musician Senfel, "music is the only art
+capable of affording peace and joy of the heart like that induced by
+the study of the science of divinity. The proof of this is that the
+devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles,
+flees before the sound of music almost as much as he does before the
+Word of God. This is why the prophets preferred music before all the
+other arts ... proclaiming the Word in psalms and hymns.... My heart,
+which is full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by
+music when sick and weary."
+
+Luther had a good voice and a knowledge of musical composition. He
+played the flute and the lute, and in church he introduced
+congregational singing, in which the people took an active part in
+worship by means of the chorales. It is related that, as a child, he
+used to sing with other boys in the street in winter, for his daily
+bread, and that on one occasion, Frau Cotta frantically rushed from
+her house on hearing his pleading tones, took him in, and gave him a
+warm meal. Later in life, when he was an Augustine monk, he often
+chased away his melancholy and temptations by playing on his lute, and
+the story goes that "one day, after a self-inflicted chastisement, he
+was found in a fainting condition in his cell, and that his cloistered
+brethren recalled him to consciousness by soft music, well knowing
+that music was the balsam for all wounds of the troubled mind of their
+'dear Martinus.'"
+
+Coming to more recent times, we find that some of the greatest
+composers and other men of genius were "savages," judged by Dr.
+Hanslick's standard.
+
+When Congreve wrote that "music hath charms to soothe the savage
+breast," did he not mean to imply that educated people are not
+affected by it? Take the case, for instance, of that old barbarian,
+Joseph Haydn, and note how he was affected by the "Creation" when he
+heard it sung. "One moment," he said to Griesinger, "I was as cold as
+ice, and the next I seemed on fire, and more than once I feared I
+should have a stroke." Another "savage," Cherubini, when he heard a
+Haydn symphony for the first time, was so greatly excited by it that
+it forcibly moved him from his seat. "He trembled all over, his eyes
+grew dim, and this condition continued long after the symphony was
+ended. Then came the reaction. His eyes filled with tears, and from
+that instant the direction of his work was decided." (Nohl.)
+
+Similar incidents might be quoted from the biographies of almost all
+the great composers. Berlioz, in his essay on Music, after referring
+to the story of Alexander the Great, who fell into a delirium at the
+accents of Timotheus, and the story of the Danish King Eric, "whom
+certain songs made so furious that he killed some of his best
+servants," dwells on the inconsistency of Rousseau, who, while
+ridiculing the accounts of the wonders worked by ancient music,
+nevertheless, "seems in other places to give them enough credence to
+place that ancient art, which we hardly know at all, and which he
+himself knew no better than the rest of us, far above the art of our
+own day." For himself, Berlioz believed that the power of modern music
+is of at least equal value with the doubtful anecdotes of ancient
+historians. "How often," he says, "have we not seen hearers agitated
+by terrible spasms, weep and laugh at once, and manifest all the
+symptoms of delirium and fever, while listening to the masterpieces of
+our great masters." He relates the case of a young Provencal musician,
+who blew out his brains at the door of the Opera after a second
+hearing of Spontini's "Vestale," having previously explained in a
+letter, that after this ecstatic enjoyment, he did not care to remain
+in this prosaic world; and the case of the famous singer Malibran,
+who, on hearing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for the first time, at the
+Conservatoire, "was seized with such convulsions that she had to be
+carried out of the hall." "We have in such cases," Berlioz continues,
+"seen time and again, serious men obliged to leave the room to hide
+the violence of their emotions from the public gaze." As for those
+feelings which Berlioz owed personally to music, he affirms that
+nothing in the world can give an exact idea of them to those who have
+not experienced them. Not to mention the moral affections that the art
+developed in him, and only to cite the impressions received at the
+moment of the performance of works he admired, this is what he says he
+can affirm in all truthfulness: "While hearing certain pieces of
+music, my vital forces seem at first to be doubled; I feel a delicious
+pleasure, in which reason has no part; the habit of analysis itself
+then gives rise to admiration; the emotion, growing in the direct
+ratio of the energy and grandeur of the composer's ideas, soon
+produces a strange agitation in the circulation of the blood; my
+arteries pulsate violently; tears, which usually announce the end of
+the paroxysm, often indicate only a progressive stage which is to
+become much more intense. In this case there follow spasmodic
+contractions of the muscles, trembling in all the limbs, a total
+numbness in the feet and hands, partial paralysis of the optic and
+auditory nerves. I can no longer see, I can hardly hear: vertigo ...
+almost swooning...." Such was the effect of music on Berlioz.
+
+As in a matter of this sort personal testimony is of more value than
+anything else, I may perhaps be permitted to refer to some of my own
+experiences. I have often been in the state of mind and body so
+vividly described by Berlioz, except as regards the numbness of the
+extremities and the partial paralysis of the sensory nerves. Hundreds
+of times I have enjoyed that harmless aesthetic intoxication which I
+believe to be more delicious to the initiated than the sweet delights
+of an opium eater--a musical intoxication which does not only fill the
+brain with floods of voluptuous delight, but sends thrills down the
+spinal column and to the very finger-tips, like so many electric
+shocks. As a boy, every experience of this sort fired my imagination
+with ambition, and led to all sorts of noble resolutions, some of
+which, at any rate, were carried into execution. The deepest
+impression ever made on me by any work of art was at Munich, ten years
+ago, when I heard for the first time Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde,"
+which I was already familiar with through the pianoforte score. The
+performance began at six o'clock, and I had had nothing to eat since
+noon. It lasted till eleven o'clock, and one might imagine that, after
+all this emotional excitement, I must have been ravenously hungry. So
+I was; but without the slightest affectation, I was horrified at the
+mere thought of indulging in such a coarse act as eating after
+enjoying such ravishing music. So I hurried back to the hotel, eager
+to get into my room and indulge in a long fit of weeping; and not a
+wink did I sleep that night, the most passionate scenes from the opera
+haunting me persistently, and almost as vividly as if I had been back
+in the theatre.
+
+Indeed, it was the irresistible power of Wagner's music that first
+made me go to Europe, and that changed the whole current of my life.
+After graduating from Harvard I had only a few dollars in my pocket;
+but instead of trying to find employment and earn my daily bread, I
+recklessly borrowed $500 of a good-natured uncle and went to Europe,
+for the sole purpose of attending the first Bayreuth Festival. I had
+about four hundred dollars when I arrived in Bayreuth, and of these I
+spent two hundred and twenty-five dollars for tickets for the three
+series of Nibelung performances, not knowing what would become of me
+after the remaining one hundred and seventy-five dollars was spent. It
+was several weeks before the performances, and Wagner had given strict
+orders that no one, without exception, should be admitted to the
+rehearsals. But I was not to be so easily baffled, and one afternoon I
+sneaked into the lobby and succeeded in catching some wonderful
+orchestral strains by applying my ear to a keyhole. But my pleasure
+was short-lived. An attendant espied me and summarily ordered me off
+the premises, despite my humble entreaties and attempts at bribery. I
+now resolved to make a personal appeal to Wagner; so, a few days
+later, as he was entering the theatre, arm in arm with Wilhelm, I
+boldly walked up to him and told him I had bought tickets to all the
+performances, but was very anxious to attend the rehearsals, adding
+that I represented a New York and a Boston journal. At the mention of
+the word newspaper, a frown passed over his face, and he said, rather
+abruptly, "I don't care much about newspapers. I can get along without
+them." But, in a second, a smile drove away the frown and he added: "I
+have given orders that no one shall be admitted. However, you have
+come a long way--and as I have found it necessary to make some
+exceptions, I will admit you too." He then asked for my card and told
+me I would be admitted by mentioning my name to the doorkeeper. That
+he did not bear any deep resentment against me for unfortunately being
+a newspaper man, he showed the next day, by walking up to me and
+asking me if I had succeeded in getting in.
+
+I mention these incidents because I think they help to disprove the
+notion that modern music has less power over the actions and feelings
+of men than primitive and ancient music. It was the wild enthusiasm
+inspired in me by Wagner's earlier operas that led me irresistibly to
+Bayreuth, and I really would have been willing to toil as a slave for
+years rather than miss this festival. And my experience was that of
+hundreds who had saved up their pennies for this occasion, or had
+formed pools and drawn lots if the sum was too small. I met three men
+in Bayreuth who had scraped together enough money for a third-class
+trip from Berlin, but not enough to pay for a complete Nibelung ticket
+for each. So they took turns and each heard his share of the Trilogy.
+The artists, moreover, the greatest in Germany, were prompted by their
+enthusiasm to give their services at this festival without any
+pecuniary compensation. Such actions are more eloquent of deep feeling
+than any words could be. How trivial are those ancient _myths_ about
+Arion and Orpheus compared with this modern _fact_--the building of
+the Bayreuth Theatre with the million marks contributed by Wagner's
+admirers in all parts of the world!
+
+It is easy to see how Prof. Hanslick fell into the error of imagining
+that music exerts its greatest influence on savages. He probably
+inferred this from the fact that savages are more obviously excited by
+it, and gesticulate more wildly, than we do. But this does not prove
+his point. Savages are more _demonstrative_ in their expression of
+_all_ their emotions than we are; but this does not indicate that
+their emotions are _deeper_. On the contrary, as the poet has told us,
+it is the shallow brooks and the shallow passions that murmur; "the
+deep are dumb." It is a rule of etiquette in civilized society to
+repress any extravagant demonstration of feeling by gestures; and this
+is the reason why we are apparently less affected by music than
+savages. Yet, how difficult it is even to-day to repress the muscular
+impulses imparted by gay music, is seen in the irresistible desire to
+dance which seizes us when we hear a Strauss waltz played with the
+true Viennese swing; and in the provoking habit which some people have
+of beating time with their feet. Would anyone assert that a man who
+thus loudly beats time with his boots is more deeply affected by the
+music than you or I who keep quiet? Fiddlesticks! He shows just the
+contrary. If he had as delicate and intense an appreciation of the
+music as you have, he would know that the noise made by his boots
+utterly mars the purity of the musical sound, and jars on refined ears
+like the filing of a saw. If demonstrativeness is to be taken as a
+test of feeling, then the ignorant audiences who stamp and roar over
+the vulgar horse-play in a variety show have deeper feelings than the
+educated reader who, in his room, enjoys the exquisite works of humor
+of the great writers without any other expression than a smile.
+
+Granted, then, that music has as much power to move our feelings as
+ever, if not more, and bearing in mind that feeling is the chief
+spring of action, does it not follow that music affects our _moral_
+conduct, making us more refined and considerate in our dealings with
+other people? Not necessarily and obviously, it seems, for there are
+authorities who, while conceding the emotional sway of music, deny
+that it has any positive moral value. The eminent critic, Prof.
+Ehrlich, takes this sceptical attitude, in his "History of Musical
+AEsthetics." If music, and art in general, has power to soften the
+hearts of men, how is it, he asks, that the citizens of Leipsic did
+not come to the rescue of the last daughter of the great Bach, but
+allowed her to live in abject poverty? And how is that, in Florence
+and Rome, some of the greatest patrons of art were princes who were
+extremely unscrupulous in their manner of getting rid of their
+enemies? Other instances might be added to those given by Prof.
+Ehrlich. African tourists say that the Dahomans, although passionately
+fond of singing and of instrumental music, are probably the most cruel
+of all negroes. Nero, the cruelest of emperors, is said to have
+regaled his ears with music after setting fire to Rome; and you have
+all heard the story of the two famous prima donnas whose vicious
+temper and jealousy drove them to a tooth and nail contest on the
+stage, right before the public. Everybody knows, furthermore, what a
+lot of scamps and vagabonds are included in the number of so-called
+music teachers, and what irregular lives some composers have led.
+
+At first sight, these facts look formidable and discouraging; but they
+are nothing of the sort. If anyone asserted that music is _a moral
+panacea_, an infallible cure for all vices, these facts would, of
+course, be fatal to his argument; but no one would be so foolish as to
+make such an extravagant claim in behalf of music. Music may be, and
+doubtless is, a moral force, but it is not strong enough to overcome
+all the various demoralizing forces that counteract it; hence, it must
+often fail to show triumphant results. If we take the cases just
+cited, and examine them separately, we see that they are delusive. Is
+it not asking a good deal of the Leipsic citizens to support the poor
+relatives and descendants of all the great men that city has produced?
+If Bach himself had lived to claim their charity, I am convinced he
+would have been cared for, notwithstanding the fact that probably most
+of those who love his music are poor themselves, while the public at
+large does not even understand it, and cannot, therefore, be morally
+affected by it. Similarly, the reason why the Viennese allowed
+Schubert to starve was not because his music failed to make them
+generous, but because he died before they had learned even to
+understand it. To-day they worship his very bones, and build Schubert
+museums and monuments.
+
+Again, if savages and emperors can be musical and cruel at the same
+time, this only proves, as I have just said, that music is not strong
+enough to overcome _all_ the vicious inherited and cultivated habits
+of civilized and uncivilized barbarians. As for the fighting prima
+donnas, it is obvious that a singer whose success is constantly
+dependent upon the whims of a fickle public, is more subject than
+almost any other mortal to constant attacks of envy and jealousy, so
+that it is unfair not to make some allowance for temper in her case.
+Allowances must also be made for music teachers, who, from the very
+nature of their profession, rarely hear music as it ought to be, and
+therefore naturally become impatient and irritable. They illustrate,
+not the normal, but the abnormal effects of music. Moreover, owing to
+the lamentable ignorance of so many parents and pupils, the
+profession of music teachers is invaded with impunity by hundreds of
+tramps who know so little of music that, if they tried to become
+cobblers or tailors with a corresponding amount of knowledge, they
+would be ignominiously kicked out of doors. Surely it is unfair to lay
+the sins of these vagabonds on the shoulders of music.
+
+Finally, as regards the moral character and temper of composers, it
+should be remembered that, if some of them occasionally gave way to
+their angry passion, they were generally provoked to it by the
+obtuseness and insulting arrogance of their contemporaries. Had these
+contemporaries honored and commended them for enlarging the boundaries
+of art and the sphere of human pleasures, instead of tormenting them
+with cruel and ignorant criticisms, the great composers would, no
+doubt, have been amiable in their public relations, as they appear to
+have been almost invariably toward their friends. Wagner's pugnacity
+and frequent ill-temper, for instance, arose simply from the fact
+that, while he was toiling night and day to compose immortal
+master-works, his contemporaries not only refused to contribute enough
+for his daily bread, but assailed him on all sides with malicious
+lying, stupid criticisms, with as much obvious enjoyment of this
+flaying alive of a genius as if they were a band of Indians torturing
+a prisoner of war. Among his friends, Wagner was one of the most
+gentle, tender, and kind-hearted of men, and it made him frantic to
+see even a dumb animal suffer. He wrote a violent pamphlet against
+vivisection, and one day missed an important train because he stopped
+to scold a peasant woman who was taking to the market a basket of live
+fish in the agony of suffocation. I hardly know of a great composer
+who, in his heart of hearts, was not gentle and generous. Bach,
+Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Gluck, Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann,
+Mendelssohn, Weber, Liszt, and a dozen others who might be named,
+though not without their faults, were kind and honest men, living
+arguments for the ennobling effects of music.
+
+In no other profession can men and women be found so ready to aid a
+colleague in distress. Take the case of poor Robert Franz, for
+instance, who lost his hearing through the whistle of a locomotive,
+and thereby lost his professional income, and was brought to the verge
+of starvation because his stupid contemporaries (I mean ourselves)
+refused to buy his divine songs. Hardly had his misfortune become
+known when Liszt, Joachim, and Frau Magnus arranged a concert tour for
+his benefit which netted $23,000, and insured him comfort for the rest
+of his life.
+
+And in general, let me ask, why is it that, whenever a charitable
+project is organized, musicians are invariably called upon first to
+give their services? Does not this amount to an eloquent and universal
+presumption that musical people are generous and kind-hearted?
+
+Nor is this the only kind of presumption indicating that music
+commonly goes hand in hand with kindness. The English in the days of
+Elizabeth, as Chappell tells us, "had music at dinner, music at
+supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at
+dawn, music at work, music at play. He who felt not, in some degree,
+its soothing influence, was viewed as a morose unmusical being, whose
+converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and
+distrust." That this was the general sentiment in England is also
+proved by the oft-quoted passage in "The Merchant of Venice," where
+Shakspere notes the magic effect of music on men and animals, and
+concludes with the verses--
+
+    "The man that hath no music in himself
+    Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
+    Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
+    The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
+    And his affections dark as Erebus;
+    Let no such man be trusted."
+
+This, of course, is a poetic exaggeration, for we know that there are
+other sources of refinement besides music, and that some of the
+noblest men and women can hardly tell two tunes from one another.
+Nevertheless, the general presumption remains that music and jolly
+good-nature go together, and that music is incompatible with crime. An
+experience I once had in Switzerland brought home this fact to my mind
+in a forcible manner. I was taking a fortnight's tramp, all alone, and
+one day I came near the summit of a mountain pass where, some time
+previously, a solitary tourist had been robbed and murdered. There was
+no house within five miles, and I had not met a soul that morning
+until I approached this place, when I suddenly saw a shabbily dressed
+man coming down the road. Not having any weapon, I could not but feel
+nervous, and my heart began to beat almost audibly. Presently the man,
+who had apparently not yet noticed me, began to sing a Tyrolese
+melody. With the first notes all my fear instantly vanished, and I
+breathed freely again; for an instinctive feeling had told me that a
+man intent on murder and robbery would not sing.
+
+Such presumptions, however, although they have some weight as
+arguments, do not amount to full proof. Our feelings may mislead us,
+and cannot be accepted in lieu of facts. We must therefore confront
+our problem more directly. In what manner does music affect our moral
+character? Does it make us less inclined to murder, stealing, lying,
+lust, avarice, anger, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty, cruelty, and other
+vices? And if so, by what means?
+
+I find among writers on Music and Morals, a curious tendency to dodge
+the direct question, and indulge in side issues and digressions. Mr.
+Haweis, in his book on the subject, talks glibly about the training of
+the emotions, and has much to tell about the lives of the composers,
+but very little bearing directly on his subject. Wagner, in one of his
+essays, asserts that music has as much influence on tastes and morals
+as the drama itself. A frivolous and effeminate taste, he says, cannot
+but affect our moral conduct. The Spartans understood this when they
+forbade certain kinds of music as demoralizing. He believes that men
+who are inspired by Beethoven's music make more active and energetic
+citizens than those who are charmed by Rossini, Bellini, and
+Donizetti; and he refers to the fact that in Paris, at a certain
+period, music became more and more frivolous as the people degenerated
+morally. At the same time he is obliged to admit that this, perhaps,
+proves rather the effect of morals on music than of music on morals;
+and so our problem remains in a vague twilight.
+
+To gain more light on the subject, let us take a few specific cases.
+Does the influence of music make us less inclined to perpetrate
+murder, suicide, or cruel practices? Everybody has heard the story of
+the famous Italian composer and vocalist, Stradella, whose wonderful
+singing in an oratorio made such a profound impression on two men who
+had been hired to murder him, that they not only spared him, but gave
+him warning that his life was in danger. This story is now regarded as
+a myth by some of the best authorities; but the fact that it was so
+long believed universally is not without significance. Take another
+case, which, though occurring in a ficticious drama, might easily be
+true. Faust, in Goethe's drama, when on the point of committing
+suicide, is brought back to his senses on suddenly hearing the Easter
+hymn. But in this case it might be said it was not the music itself,
+but the religious and other associations and memories awakened by it,
+that prevented Faust from carrying out his criminal intention. Such
+associations must always be taken into account when estimating the
+moral value of music; and yet they do not explain everything. A
+residue is left which must be placed to the credit of music.
+
+Perhaps the vice best adapted to illustrate the direct influence of
+musical culture is cruelty. If you find a boy in the back yard
+torturing a cat or a dog, or bullying and maltreating his playmates,
+it will probably do no good to sing or play to him by way of softening
+his heart. On the contrary, he will probably not appreciate or
+understand the music at all, and the interruption will only annoy and
+anger him. But if you take that same boy and put him in a house where
+there is an _infectious musical atmosphere_, the chances are that
+before long his feelings will undergo a change, and he will no longer
+derive any pleasure from cruelty. This pleasure is one which boys
+share with savages, and the best way to eradicate it is by cultivating
+the aesthetic sensibilities. "It cannot be doubted," says Eduard von
+Hartmann, in his "Philosophie des Schoenen," "that aesthetic culture is
+one of the most important means of softening the moral sentiments and
+polishing coarse habits;" and Shelley, in his "Defence of Poetry,"
+says, "It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious
+citizens of Syracuse and Alexandria who were delighted with the poems
+of Theocritus were less cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of
+their tribe."
+
+Now, music seems to be better adapted to bring about a regeneration of
+the heart than even poetry, and for two reasons: In the first place,
+poetry can, and often does, inculcate immoral sentiments, whereas
+music, pure and simple, can never be immoral. As Dr. Johnson remarks,
+"Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice." Secondly, it is in
+childhood that our moral habits are formed, and it is well known that
+children are susceptible to the influence of music at least five or
+ten years before they can really understand poetry. The infant in arms
+has its impatience and anger subdued countless times by the charms of
+a cradle song; and in this way music sweetens its temper, turns its
+frowns into smiles, and prevents it from becoming habitually cross and
+vicious. True, some young children also like to read and recite
+poetry, but what delights them in this case is the _musical_ jingle of
+rhyme and rhythm, rather than the specific qualities of the verse.
+
+Later in life, when the children go to school, they are, as expert
+testimony proves, beneficially affected by singing together, which
+rests and refreshes the brain, and teaches them the value and beauty
+of co-operation. While thus singing, each child experiences the same
+joyous or sad feelings as its classmates, and learns in this way the
+great moral lesson of _sympathy_. And this brings us back to what was
+said a moment ago regarding the vice of cruelty. Sympathy is the
+correlative and antidote of cruelty. If savages were not utterly
+devoid of sympathy, they would not take such strange delight in
+witnessing the cruel tortures they inflict upon their prisoners.
+Indeed, it may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack
+of sympathy, and modified forms of cruelty. If you reflect a moment,
+you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic--that is, who
+rejoices in his neighbor's happiness and grieves over his
+misfortunes--can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous,
+nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious, etc.; and one need not
+therefore be a pantheist to agree with Schopenhauer, that Mitleid, or
+sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown
+that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy,
+its far-reaching moral value will become apparent. And this can be
+done easily.
+
+Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
+Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
+Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
+first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
+should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
+the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
+music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
+always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
+music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over
+with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them share
+the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby! I know of no other art
+that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for
+sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the
+arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be seen
+by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by
+5,000 or more at a time--the more the merrier. I have already stated
+that in public schools music helps to develop a sympathetic feeling of
+mutual enjoyment. And why is it that music, ever since the days of the
+ancient Hebrews and Greeks, has been always provided at political
+meetings and processions, at picnics, dances, funerals, weddings--in
+short, at all social and public gatherings? Obviously, because it has
+the power of uniting the feelings of many into one homogeneous and
+sympathetic wave of emotion. It has a sort of _compulsive_ force which
+hurries along even those who are sluggish or unwilling. Plato, in his
+Republic, gives the curious advice that, at meetings of older people
+wine should be distributed, in order to make them more pliable and
+receptive to the counsel of sages. Many would object to such a risky
+policy, which, moreover, can well be dispensed with, since music has
+quite as much power as wine to arouse a sympathetic and enthusiastic
+state of mind at a public assembly, and without any danger of
+disastrous consequences. It is the special function of music to
+intensify all the emotions with which it is associated. It inflames
+the courage of an army of soldiers marching on to defend their
+country, their homes and families. It exalts the religious feelings of
+church-goers, and makes them more susceptible to the minister's moral
+counsels. Is it not absurd to say that such an art has no moral value?
+One of the most eloquent of modern preachers, the late Henry Ward
+Beecher, went so far as to admit that "In singing, you come into
+sympathy with the Truth as you perhaps never do under the preaching of
+a discourse."
+
+The Rev. Dr. Haweis also bears testimony to the moral value of music,
+in the following words: "I have known the Oratorio of the Messiah draw
+the lowest dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during
+the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and attentive
+throng. Will anyone say that for these people to have their feelings
+for once put through such a noble and long-sustained exercise as that,
+could be otherwise than beneficial? If such performances of both
+sacred and secular music were more frequent, we should have less
+drunkenness, less wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, less
+winter pauperism. People get drunk because they have nothing else to
+do; they beat their wives because their minds are narrow, their tastes
+brutal, their emotions, in a word, ill-regulated."
+
+These remarks suggest one of the most important moral functions of
+music--that of _weaning the people from low and demoralizing
+pleasures_. In proportion as the masses are educated to an
+appreciation of the subtle and exquisite pleasures afforded by the
+fine arts, and especially by music, will they become indifferent to,
+and abhor, exhibitions which involve cruelty to man and animals, such
+as dog-fights, boxing-matches, dangerous and cruel circus tricks,
+executions of criminals, etc. The pleasure derived from such brutal
+exhibitions is the same in kind as that which prompts savages to flay
+alive their prisoners of war. And the morbid pleasure which so many
+apparently civilized people take in reading in the newspapers, column
+after column, about such brutal sports, is the survival of the same
+unsympathetic feeling. I am convinced that no one who really
+appreciates the poetic beauty of a Schubert song or a Chopin nocturne
+can read these columns of our newspapers without feelings of utter
+disgust. And I am as much convinced as I am of my own existence, that
+a man who derives more pleasure from good music than from these vulgar
+columns in the newspapers, is morally more trustworthy than those who
+gloat over them. Music can impart only good impulses; whereas, we hear
+every day of boys and men who, after reading a dime novel or the
+police column in a newspaper, were prompted to commit the crimes and
+indulge in the vices they had read about. Hence, if people could be
+weaned from the vulgar pleasure of reading about crimes and scandals,
+and taught instead to love innocent music, can any one doubt that they
+would be morally the better for it? Just as a tendency to drunkenness
+can best be combated by creating a taste for harmless light wines and
+beer in place of coarse whiskey and gin, so a love of demoralizing
+and degrading amusements can best be eradicated by educating the
+poetic and musical sensibilities of the masses. Why are the lower
+classes in Germany so much less brutal, degraded, and dangerous than
+the same classes in England? Obviously, because, after their day's
+labor, they do not drink poisonous liquor in a dirty den of crime, but
+go to sip a few glasses of harmless beer in a garden while listening
+to the merry sounds of music.
+
+Men _will_ have, and _must_ have, their pleasures. Social reformers
+and temperance agitators could not make a greater mistake than by
+following the example of the Puritans and tabooing _all_ pleasures.
+They ought to distinguish between those that have a tendency to excess
+and vice, and those that are harmless and ennobling, encouraging the
+latter in every possible way. And first among those that should be
+encouraged is music, because it is always ennobling, and can be
+enjoyed simultaneously by the greatest number. Its effect is well
+described in Margaret Fuller's private journal: "I felt raised above
+all care, all pain, all fear, and every taint of vulgarity was washed
+out of the world." I think this is an extremely happy expression.
+Female writers sometimes have a knack of getting at the heart of a
+problem by instinct, more easily than men with their superior
+reasoning powers. "Every taint of vulgarity washed out of the world by
+music." That is precisely wherein the moral power of music lies; for
+vulgarity is the twin sister of vice. It is criminal to commit a
+murder; it is vulgar to gloat over the contagious details of it in
+books and newspapers. But how rampant vulgarity still is, and how rare
+aesthetic culture, is shown by the fact that two-thirds of the
+so-called news in many of our daily papers consist of detailed reports
+of crimes in all parts of the world, which are eagerly read by
+hundreds of thousands, while our concert halls have to be filled with
+dead-heads.
+
+There is one more way in which music affects our moral life, to which
+I wish to call attention, namely, through its value as a tonic. No
+operatic manager has ever thought of advertising his performances as a
+tonic, yet he might do so with more propriety than the patent medicine
+venders whose grandiloquent advertisements take up so much space in
+our newspapers. Plato, in the "Laws," says that "The Gods, pitying the
+toils which our race is born to undergo, have appointed holy festivals
+in which men rest from their labors." Lucentio, in "The Taming of the
+Shrew," advances the same opinion in more definite and pungent terms:
+
+    "Preposterous ass! that never read so far
+    To know the cause why music was ordain'd!
+    Was it not to refresh the mind of man
+    After his studies, or his usual pain?"
+
+There can be no doubt whatever that music has the most remarkable
+effect, not only on our minds, but on our bodies. Physiologists tell
+us that different kinds of mental activity are carried on in different
+parts of the brain, and that, in order to recover from fatigue, we
+need not rest altogether, but merely take up some other kind of work.
+Hundreds of times I have found that, however much I may be fatigued by
+a day's brain work, I can play all the evening, or attend a concert or
+opera, without in the least adding to my fatigue. On the contrary, in
+most cases it disappears altogether, the music acting on the mind as a
+surf bath does on the body. Like many others, I have found that the
+best way to cure a headache is to attend an orchestral concert. It
+works like a charm. It stirs up the circulation in the brain as a
+brisk walk does in the body. Even brain disease is eased in this way.
+The power of music even to cure insanity altogether, was frequently
+maintained in ancient and mediaeval times. This claim is doubtless
+exaggerated, yet there is more than a grain of truth in it. There can
+be no doubt that violent maniacs can be calmed, and melancholy ones
+cheered and soothed, by music. To get an authoritative opinion on this
+subject, I wrote to Dr. Hammond. He answered: "I know of no cases of
+insanity that have been cured by music, but I have seen many cases in
+which music has quieted insane persons, exerting the same calming
+influence that it does on most of us when we are irritated by petty
+annoyances."
+
+"When we are irritated by petty annoyances." It is then that music
+becomes a medicine and a moral tonic. Writers on ethics have,
+hitherto, too much overlooked the moral importance of health. Where
+there is a lack of health, we rarely find any moral sweetness of
+temper. The vices may be small and peevish, but in their aggregate
+they are enough to poison the happiness of the household. If a man
+comes to ruin from drink and the crimes it leads him to commit, we
+call him immoral. But is he not also immoral if, from excess of work
+and worry, and wilful neglect of exercise, rest, and recreation, he
+breaks down and beggars his family, becoming a burden to them instead
+of a help? I think he is, and that, instead of pitying such a man, we
+should censure him. Ignorance of the laws of hygiene, physical and
+mental, is no valid excuse. He can buy a book on the subject for one
+dollar. But he does not even need to do that. Music, we read in
+Shakespere, has the power of "killing care and grief of heart," and
+what he needs, therefore, is to hear some good music every evening, at
+home or at the opera. This will draw the blood from the over-worked
+part of his brain to another part, and by thus relieving it of the
+tormenting persistency of worrying thoughts and business cares,
+enable him to enjoy refreshing, dreamless sleep afterward. In this way
+music may help to restore his health, cure his dyspepsia, and sweeten
+his moral temper.
+
+In America, more than anywhere else, is music needed as a tonic, to
+cure the infectious and ridiculous business fever which is responsible
+for so many cases of premature collapse. Nowhere else is so much time
+wasted in making money, which is then spent in a way that contributes
+to no one's happiness--least of all the owner's. We Americans are in
+the habit of calling ourselves the most practical nation in the world,
+but the fact is it would be difficult to find a nation less practical.
+For, what is the object of life? Is it to toil like a galley slave and
+never have any amusements? Every nation in Europe, except the English,
+knows better how to enjoy the pleasures of life than we do. Our
+so-called "practical" men look upon recreation as something useless,
+whereas in reality it is the most useful thing in the world.
+Recreation is re-creation--regaining the energies lost by hard work.
+Those who properly alternate recreation with work, economize their
+brain power, and are therefore infinitely more practical than those
+who scorn or neglect recreation.
+
+The utility and the moral value of refined pleasures is not
+sufficiently understood. It should be proclaimed from the housetops
+every day. Bread and butter to eat, and a bed to sleep in, are not the
+only useful things in the world, but, in the words of Shelley,
+"Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the
+imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful." Music is useful
+because it does this, and it is useful in many other ways. Singing
+strengthens the lungs, playing the muscles, and both stimulate the
+mind. Milton, Schiller, George Sand, Alfieri, and other geniuses have
+testified that music aroused their creative faculties; and in
+Beaconsfield's "Contarini" occurs this passage: "I have a passion for
+instrumental music. A grand orchestra fills my mind with ideas. I
+forget everything in the stream of invention." Furthermore, music is a
+stepping-stone to social success. A gifted amateur is welcomed at once
+into circles to which others may vainly seek admission for years; and
+a young lady with a musical voice has a great advantage in the period
+of courtship. But most important of all is the moral value of music as
+an _ennui_ killer. _Ennui_ leads to more petty crimes than anything
+else; and a devotee of music need never suffer a moment's _ennui_.
+There are enough charming songs and pieces to fill up every spare
+moment in our lives with ecstatic bliss, and to banish all temptation
+to vice. It is in reference to similar pleasures that Sir John
+Lubbock, in his essay on the "Duty of Happiness," exclaims: "It is
+wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw
+away." The art of enjoying life is an accomplishment which few have
+thoroughly mastered.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES
+
+
+Why is it that most persons are more interested in vocal than in
+instrumental music? Obviously because, as Richard Wagner remarks, "the
+human voice is the oldest, the most genuine, and the most beautiful
+organ of music--the organ to which alone our music owes its
+existence." And not only is the sound or quality of the human voice
+more beautiful than that of any artificial instrument, but it is
+capable of greater variation. Although a good artist can produce
+various shades of tone on his instrument, yet every instrument has a
+well-defined characteristic _timbre_, which justifies us in speaking,
+for instance, of the majestic, solemn trombone, the serene flute, the
+amorous violoncello, the lugubrious bassoon, and so on. The human
+voice, on the other hand, is much less limited in its powers of tonal
+and emotional coloring. It is not dependent for its resonance on a
+rigid tube, like the flute, or an unchangeable sounding-board, like
+the violin or the piano, but on the cavity of the mouth, which can be
+enlarged and altered at will by the movements of the lower jaw, and
+the soft parts--the tongue and the glottis. These movements change the
+overtones, of which the vowels are made up, and hence it is that the
+human voice is capable of an infinite variety of tone-color, compared
+with which Wagner admits that even "the most manifold imaginable
+mixture of orchestral colors must appear insignificant."
+
+Notwithstanding that the superiority of the voice is thus conceded,
+even by the greatest magician of the orchestra, we daily hear the
+complaint that the good old times of artistic singing are gone by, and
+have been superseded by an instrumental era, in which the voice merely
+plays the part of the second fiddle and is maltreated by composers,
+who do not understand its real nature. So far is this opinion from the
+truth that it must be said, contrariwise, that it is only within the
+last century--I might almost say the last half century--that composers
+have begun fully to recognize the true function of the human voice and
+its principal advantage over instruments.
+
+What is this advantage? It is the power of articulating, of uniting
+poetry with music, _definite words with indefinite tones_. Every
+instrument, as I have just said, has a characteristic emotional
+tone-color. But the emotions expressed by them are vague and
+indefinite. A piece of instrumental music can express an eager,
+passionate yearning for something, but it cannot tell what that
+something is--whether it is the ardent longing of an absent lover, or
+the heavenward aspiration of a religious enthusiast. The vocalist, on
+the other hand, can clearly tell us the object of that longing by
+using definite words. And by thus arousing reminiscences in the
+hearer's mind, and adding the charm of poetry to that of music, he
+doubles the power and impressiveness of his art.
+
+Now, a very brief sketch of the history of solo singing will show that
+this special advantage of the human voice over instruments was, if not
+entirely overlooked, at least considered of secondary importance in
+practice, until Gluck and Schubert laid the foundations for a new
+style, in which the distinctively _vocal_ side of singing has
+gradually become of greater importance than the instrumental side; as
+we see in the music-dramas of Wagner, and the Lieder, or parlor-songs,
+of Schumann, Franz, Liszt, and others.
+
+Although _folk-song_ appears to be as old as the human race, the
+history of _artistic_ song, or song written by professional composers
+for the concert hall, can be traced back only about three centuries.
+Before that time vocal music was generally polyphonic, that is, for
+several voices; and a contrapuntal style of music had been introduced
+into Italy from the Netherlands, which was so complicated and
+artificial that the poetic text had no chance whatever of asserting
+its rights and being understood. Now, the modern opera, which was
+originated about three hundred years ago by a number of Florentine
+amateurs, although it sprang from a desire to revive the ancient Greek
+drama, in which music was united with poetry, represents at the same
+time a reaction against this unintelligible Netherland style. The new
+opera at first went to the opposite extreme, making the distinct
+declamation of the text its principal object and neglecting vocal
+ornamentation, and even melody, on purpose. The famous vocalist and
+teacher, Caccini, although he taught his pupils how to sing trills and
+roulades, declared that they were not essential to good singing, but
+merely a means of tickling the ear, and, therefore, generally to be
+avoided. He taught the Italian singers how to express the passions,
+and reproduce the meaning of the words they sang--an art which,
+according to the Roman, Pietro della Valle, was not previously known
+to them.
+
+The dry declamation of the first Italian operas, however, was not
+supported by a sufficiently rich accompaniment to be enjoyable after
+the first sense of novelty had passed away; and even the gifted
+Monteverde's ingenious innovations in instrumental coloring and in
+the free use of expressive discords, could not ward off a second
+reaction, in favor of song pure and simple, which set in with
+Scarlatti, the founder of the Neapolitan school, whose first opera was
+produced a little over two centuries ago. From this time dates the
+supremacy, in Italy, of the _bel canto_, or beautiful song, which,
+however, gradually degenerated into mere circus music in which every
+artistic aim was deliberately sacrificed to sensuous tone-revelry and
+agility of execution, the voice being treated as a mere instrument,
+without any regard for its higher prerogative of interpreting poetry
+and heightening its effects.
+
+This period of Italian song prevailed throughout Europe until the time
+of Rossini. And in all the annals of music there is nothing quite so
+strange as the extraordinary craze which existed during this time for
+_the instrumental style of vocalism_. A special class of singers--the
+male sopranists--was artificially created, in order to secure the most
+dazzling results in brilliant, ornamental vocalization. Various kinds
+of trills, grace notes, runs, and other species of _fioriture_, or
+vocal somersaults, were introduced in every song, in such profusion
+that the song itself was at last barely recognizable; and this kind of
+stuff the audiences of that time applauded frantically. Everybody has
+heard of the vulgar circus tricks performed by the most famous of the
+sopranists, Farinelli--how at one time he beat a famous German
+trumpeter in prolonging and swelling his notes, and how, at another
+time, he began an aria softly, swelled it by imperceptible degrees to
+such an astounding volume, and then decreased it again in the same way
+to pianissimo, that the public wildly applauded him for five minutes.
+Thereupon, Dr. Burney relates, he began to sing with such amazing
+rapidity that the orchestra found it difficult to keep up with him.
+Dr. Dommer justly comments on this story that, for such racing with an
+orchestra, a singer would be hissed to-day by musical people.
+
+It was not only quick and animated songs that were thus overloaded
+with meaningless embroideries by the sopranists and the prima donnas
+that followed them. Slow movements, which ought to breathe a spirit of
+melancholy, appear to have been especially selected as background for
+these vocal fireworks. I need not dwell on the unnaturalness of this
+style. To run up and down the scale wildly and persistently in singing
+a slow and sad song, is as consistent as it would be for an orator to
+grin and yodle while delivering a funeral oration.
+
+A question might be raised as to how far the great Italian composers
+are responsible for this degradation of the vocal art to the level of
+the circus. The public, it might be argued, wanted the florid style
+of song; and if Rossini and Donizetti had refused to write in the
+style admired by them, they would have been neglected in favor of
+other and less gifted composers. I do not agree with this reasoning.
+Rossini and Donizetti have revealed enough genius in some of their
+sparkling melodies to make it probable that, if they had not so often
+stooped to the level of a taste corrupted by the sopranists, they
+might have raised the public to a higher standard of musical taste.
+Rossini, in fact, _did_ introduce many reforms in Italian opera. He
+enriched the orchestral accompaniments, removed some of the
+superfluous arias, and for the first time wrote leading solo parts for
+the bass--an innovation for which he was violently attacked, on the
+ludicrous conservative ground that the bass could only be properly
+used as a basis of harmonies. But Rossini's greatest merit lies in
+this, that he refused to write for the sopranists, and would not even
+let them sing in those of his operas which were brought out under his
+own supervision. Furthermore, to prevent the singers from spoiling his
+melodies with their florid additions, "he supplied his own
+decorations, and made them so elaborate that the most skilled adorner
+would have found it difficult to add to them" (Edwards). For thus
+emancipating the composers from the tyranny of the singers Rossini
+deserves great credit, and still greater honor is due him for having
+shown, in his "William Tell," which he wrote for Paris, and in which
+he discarded the florid style, that when he _did_ have a public which
+appreciated simplicity of style and dramatic propriety in music, his
+genius was equal to the occasion. It is a great pity that he did not
+write several more operas in the style of "William Tell," for it is
+the only one of his works which has preserved a portion of its former
+popularity in Paris and elsewhere, thanks to its regard for dramatic
+propriety.
+
+Like the composers, the singing teachers in Italy consented to adapt
+their method to the universal clamor for decorative, florid singing.
+The audiences did not seem to care at all _what_ was sung to them, as
+long as it was sung with sensuous beauty of tone, and facility of
+execution; consequently sensuous beauty of tone and facility of
+execution were almost the only things that the teachers aimed at. This
+is illustrated by an anecdote concerning the famous teacher Porpora
+and his pupil Caffarelli, which, although doubtless exaggerated,
+nevertheless describes the situation graphically. Porpora, it is
+related, gave Caffarelli a page of exercises to which he confined him
+for five years. And at the end of that time he exclaimed: "You have
+nothing more to learn! Caffarelli is the first singer in the world!"
+
+As if facility of execution or technical skill were not the mere
+beginning of vocal culture--the fashioning of the instrument, as it
+were, with which the singer must subsequently learn the higher arts of
+expressing human emotions in tones, of phrasing intelligently, and of
+pronouncing distinctly, so that the poetic qualities of the text may
+be appreciated.
+
+In looking over specimens of the vocal music written by Porpora and
+his contemporaries, we find passages in which a single syllable is
+extended over one hundred and fifty-eight, and even a hundred and
+seventy-five, notes. A more atrocious maltreatment of the text, and
+misconception of the true function of the human voice, could not be
+imagined. As Mr. H.C. Deacon remarks, "The passages in much of the
+music of that date, especially that of Porpora, are really
+instrumental passages ... and possessing but little interest beyond
+the surprise that their exact performance would create." People did
+not ask themselves whether it was worth while for singers to go
+through the most arduous training for five years, for the sake of
+learning to execute runs which any fiddler or flute-player could learn
+to play in a few weeks. Look at the fioriture which, to this day, Mme.
+Patti sings in "Lucia," "Semiramide," etc. She is the only living
+being who can sing them with absolute correctness and smoothness. Not
+another singer can do it--whereas _every member of her orchestra can
+play them at sight_. Does not this show, once and for all, that this
+style of singing (which still has numerous admirers) is instrumental,
+is unvocal, unsuited to the human voice, and should be abandoned
+forever? Rossini showed his real opinion of it by writing his best and
+most mature work in a different style; and Verdi has done the same in
+"Aida" and "Otello," in which there is hardly a trace of colorature,
+while the style often approaches to that of genuine dramatic song.
+
+The colorature or florid style, however, is only one of the varieties
+of Italian song. Side by side with it there has always been a
+charming, melodious _cantabile_, which in the later period of Italian
+opera gradually got the ascendancy. This _cantabile_ is often of
+exquisite beauty, and gives Italian and Italianized singers a chance
+to show off the mellow qualities of their voices to the best
+advantage. The very word _cantabile_ emphasizes, by antithesis, the
+unvocal character of the old florid style. _Fioritura_ means
+embroidery, while _cantabile_ means "song-like." But now, note how the
+sins of one period are visited on the next. The evils of the florid
+style did not terminate with its supremacy. They cast a shadow before,
+which prevented the real nature of human song from being discovered
+even after the vocal style had become more simple and rational. During
+the period in which the vocalists were in the habit of singing from a
+dozen to a hundred or more notes to a single syllable of the text,
+they, as well as the public, had become so indifferent to the words
+and their poetic meaning, that this habit could not at once be altered
+when the _cantabile_ style came more into vogue. The singers continued
+to be careless in regard to pronunciation of the words, and the opera
+libretti were so very silly that the public really did not care
+whether the singers spoke their words correctly and distinctly or not.
+Hence even the _cantabile_ style of Italian song continued to be more
+or less instrumental in character--telling the audience little more
+about the text than the flute or the violins told them about it.
+
+Mrs. Wodehouse, in her article on song in Grove's "Dictionary of Music
+and Musicians," calls attention to the injurious action of Italian
+opera on the English School by breeding indifference to the text.
+"From Handel's time until a very recent date," she says, "Italian
+operas and Italian songs reigned supreme in England; Italian singers
+and Italian teachers were masters of the situation to the exclusion of
+all others. And the habit thus contracted of hearing and admiring
+compositions in a foreign and unknown tongue, engendered in the
+English public a lamentable indifference to the words of songs, which
+reacted with evil effect both on the composer and the singer.
+Concerned only to please the ears of his audience, the composer
+neglected to wed his music to words of true poetic merit; and the
+singer quickly grew to be careless in his enunciation. Of how many
+singers, and even of good ones, may it not fairly be affirmed that at
+the end of the song the audience has failed to recognize its
+language?"
+
+These remarks are quite as applicable to America as to England. We
+hear singers every week to whom we can listen attentively for five
+minutes without being able to tell what language they are singing in.
+Most of these singers were trained by the Italian method: And yet we
+are told every day that this Italian method, which has so little
+regard for the distinctively vocal side of singing, is the only true
+method for the voice. It is time to call a halt in this matter, time
+to ask if the Italian method is really the one best adapted for
+teaching pupils to sing in English. That it is the best and only
+method for singing in Italian, and for interpreting the style hitherto
+cultivated by the Italians, no one will deny. But whether it is the
+proper method for those who wish to sing in English, French, or
+German, and to devote themselves to the modern dramatic style, is
+quite another question, which must be, partly at least, answered in
+the negative.
+
+A careful examination of the situation, leaving aside all national
+prejudice, will show us that each of the two principal methods, as
+exemplified by Italian and German singers, has its dark and its
+bright side, and that the cosmopolitan American style of the future
+ought to try to combine the advantages of both, while avoiding their
+shortcomings. The dark side of Italian singing has been sufficiently
+dwelt upon; let us now consider the bright side.
+
+Italy owes much of her fame as the cradle of artistic song and "The
+Lord's own Conservatory," to climatic and linguistic advantages.
+Thanks to the mild climate, men and women can spend most of their time
+in the open air, and their voices are not liable to be ruined by
+constantly passing from a dry, overheated room into the raw and chilly
+air of the streets. The Italians are a plump race, with well-developed
+muscles, and their vocal chords share in the general muscular health
+and development; so that the average voice in Italy has a much wider
+compass than in most other countries; and an unctuous ease of
+execution is readily acquired. Their language, again, favors Italian
+singers quite as much as their climate. It abounds in the most
+sonorous of the vowels, while generally avoiding the difficult U, and
+the mixed vowels Oe and Ue, as well as the harsh consonants, which are
+almost always sacrificed to euphony. And where the language hesitates
+to make this sacrifice, the vocalists come to the rescue and
+facilitate matters by arbitrarily changing the difficult vowel or
+consonant into an easy one. In this they are encouraged by the
+teachers, who habitually neglect the less sonorous vowels and make
+their pupils sing all their exercises on the easy vowel A. No wonder,
+then, that the tones of an Italian singer commonly sound sweet: he
+makes them up of nothing but pure sugar. Characterization, dramatic
+effect, variety of emotional coloring, are all bartered away for
+sensuous beauty of tone; and hence the distinctive name for Italian
+singing--_bel canto_, or beautiful song--is very aptly chosen.
+
+Now, sensuous beauty of tone is a most desirable thing in music.
+Wagner's music, _e.g._, owes much of its tonic charm to his fine
+instinct for sensuous orchestral coloring, and Chopin's works lose
+half their characteristic beauty if played on a poor piano, or by one
+who does not know how to use the pedal in such a way as to produce a
+continuous stream of rich saturated sound. Hence the Italians deserve
+full credit for the attention they bestow on sensuous beauty of tone,
+even if their means of securing it may not always be approved. Nor
+does this by any means exhaust the catalogue of Italian virtues. As a
+rule, Italian singers have a better ear for pitch, breathe more
+naturally, and execute more easily than German and French singers,
+whose guttural and nasal sounds they also avoid. The difference
+between the average Italian and German singers is well brought out by
+Dr. Hanslick, in speaking of the Italian performances which formerly
+used to alternate with the German operas in Vienna: "Most of our
+Italian guests," he says, "distinguish themselves by means of the
+thorough command they have over their voices, which in themselves are
+by no means imposing; our German members by powerful voices, which,
+however, owing to their insufficient training, do not produce half the
+effect they would if they had been subjected to the same amount of
+training. With the Italians great certainty and evenness throughout
+the role; with the Germans an unequal alternation of brilliant and
+mediocre moments, which seems partly accidental."
+
+It is this element of accident and uncertainty that lowers the value
+of many German singers. Herr Niemann, for instance, has moments--and,
+indeed, whole evenings--when his voice, seemingly rejuvenated, not
+only rises to sublime heights of dramatic passion, but possesses rare
+sensuous beauty; while on other occasions the sound of his voice is
+almost unbearable. Niemann, of course, is fifty-eight years old, but
+many of the younger German singers too often have their bad
+quarter-hours; and even Lilli Lehmann--whom I would rather hear for my
+own pleasure than any other singer now on the stage--emits
+occasionally a disagreeable guttural sound. Nothing of the sort in
+Mme. Patti, whom Niemann no doubt is right in pronouncing the most
+perfect vocalist, not only of this period, but of all times. I, for my
+part, have never cared much for the _bel canto_ as such, because it is
+so often wasted on trashy compositions. Yet, when I heard Mme. Patti
+for the first time in New York, I could not help indulging in the
+following rhapsody: "The ordinary epithets applicable to a voice, such
+as sweet, sympathetic, flexible, expressive, sound almost too
+commonplace to be applied to Patti's voice at its best, as it was when
+she sang the _valse_ Ombra Leggiera from 'Dinora,' and 'Home, Sweet
+Home.' Her voice has a natural sensuous charm like a Cremona violin,
+which it is a pleasure to listen to, irrespective of what she happens
+to be singing. It is a pleasure, too, to hear under what perfect
+control she has it; how, without changing the quality of the sound,
+she passes from a high to a low note, from piano to forte, gradually
+or suddenly, and all without the least sense of effort. Indeed her
+notes are as spontaneous and natural as those of a nightingale; and
+this, combined with their natural sweetness and purity, constitutes
+their great charm." A few months later, when Patti gave one of her
+innumerable farewell performances, I was again forced to admit that
+she is the greatest of living lyric sopranos, but took the liberty to
+express my conviction that "the charm of her voice is almost as purely
+sensuous as the beauty of a dewdrop or a diamond reflecting the
+prismatic colors of sunlight."
+
+Patti, in a word, is the incarnation of the Italian style. Her voice
+is flawless as regards beauty of tone, and spontaneity and agility of
+execution. Moreover, she avoids the small vices common to most Italian
+singers, such as taking liberties with the time and the sentiment of
+the piece for the sake of prolonging a trill or a loud final high
+note, and so on. At an early stage in her career she followed the
+custom of the time, and lavished such an abundance of uncalled-for
+scales and trills and arpeggios and staccatos on her melody, that even
+Rossini entered a sarcastic protest; but in her later years she has
+conscientiously followed the indications of the composers. At the same
+time, she has shown more and more anxiety to win laurels as a dramatic
+singer. But here the vocal style which she has exclusively cultivated
+has proved an insuperable obstacle. Although free from the smaller
+vices of the Italian school, she could not overcome the great and
+fatal shortcoming of that school--the maltreatment of the poetic text.
+She could not find the proper accents required in operas where the
+words of the text are as important as the melody itself; and she has
+failed therefore to give satisfaction even in such works as "Faust"
+and "Aida," which are intermediate between the old-fashioned opera and
+the music-drama proper. I have been often surprised to hear how
+Patti, so conscientious in other respects, slights her texts,
+obliterating consonants and altering vowels after the fashion of the
+Italian school. Having neglected to master the more vigorous vowels
+and expressive consonants, she cannot assert her art in dramatic
+works. Her voice, in short, is _merely an instrument_. "Bird-like" is
+an epithet commonly applied to it by admirers. Is this a compliment? A
+dubious one, in my opinion. The nightingale's voice is very sweet, no
+doubt, but it is no better than a flute. A bird cannot pronounce words
+and sing at the same time. The human voice alone can do that--can
+alone combine poetry and music, uniting the advantage of both in one
+effect.
+
+On the other hand, have you ever heard anyone compare the voices of
+Lehmann, Materna, Sucher, or Malten to a bird's voice? Of course not;
+and the reason is obvious. The point of view is different. Although
+Lilli Lehmann's voice is almost as mellow in timbre as Patti's, and
+much richer and warmer, we never think of it as a bird-like or vague
+instrumental tone, but as a medium for the expression of definite
+dramatic emotion. And herein lies the chief difference between the
+Italian and the German schools. _An Italian adores singing for its own
+sake, a German as a means of definite emotional expression._
+
+Now, whether we look at nations or at individuals, we always find
+that simple beauty of tone and agility of execution in artistic
+singing are appreciated sooner than emotional expression and dramatic
+characterization. Hence it is that the Italian school came before the
+German school. Even in Germany, a few generations ago, the Italian
+school was so predominant that German composers of the first
+rank--Gluck, Weber, and Beethoven--found it difficult to assert their
+influence against it. In Vienna, during the season of 1823, the
+Rossini furore was so great that none but Rossini's operas were sung;
+and in Germany almost everyone of the three dozen big and little
+potentates supported his own Italian operatic company. To-day you look
+in vain through Germany or Austria for a single Italian company. The
+few Italian operas that have remained on the repertory are sung in
+German translations by German singers, and all of these operas
+together hardly have as many performances in a year as a single one of
+Wagner's.
+
+Here is a revolution in taste which may well excite our astonishment,
+and arouse our curiosity as to how it was brought about. It was
+brought about by the courage and perseverance of a few composers who,
+instead of stooping down to the crude taste of the _fioriture_-loving
+public, elevated that taste until it was able to appreciate the poetic
+and dramatic side of music; and it was brought about with the
+assistance of German singers, notwithstanding the great disadvantages,
+climatic and linguistic, under which these labor in comparison with
+Italian singers.
+
+Although the Germans are a more robust nation than the Italians, with
+more powerful muscles and voices, their climate is against them,
+leading to frequent throat troubles which endanger the beauty of the
+voice. Hence, the gift of mellow, supple song does not come to them so
+spontaneously as to the Italians. About a thousand years ago, an
+Italian compared the singing of some German monks to the noise made by
+a cart rattling down a frozen street; and even Luther compared the
+singing in cathedrals and monasteries at his time to the "braying of
+asses." At a more recent period, Frederick the Great, on hearing of
+the proposed engagement of a German singer, exclaimed: "What! hear a
+German singer! I should as soon expect to derive pleasure from the
+neighing of my horse!" Beethoven knew that the chief reason why he
+could not compete with Rossini on the stage was the lack of good
+German singers. He often lamented the inferiority of the German to the
+Italian singers, and one day exclaimed to the organist Freudenberg:
+"We Germans have no sufficiently cultivated singers for the part of
+_Leonora_; they are too cold and feelingless. The Italians sing and
+act with their whole souls." Nevertheless, Beethoven refused to adapt
+his music to the style of the Italian singers--fortunately; for, if
+he had, it would now be as obsolete as most of Rossini's and
+Donizetti's.
+
+When Berlioz made his famous tour in Germany, matters had somewhat
+improved, to judge from the following remarks in his "A Travers
+Chants:" "They say that the Germans sing badly; that may seem true in
+general. I will not broach the question here, whether or not their
+language is the reason of it, and whether Mme. Sontag, Pischek,
+Tichatschek, Mlle. Lind, who is almost a German, and many others, do
+not form magnificent exceptions; but, upon the whole, German vocalists
+sing, and do not howl; the screaming school is not theirs; they make
+music." Nevertheless, about the same time, Liszt complained that a
+perfect training of the voice such as he admired in Viardot Garcia,
+had almost become a legend of the past; and only eight years ago, an
+excellent German critic, Martin Plueddemann, wrote that "Germany has
+many good orchestras and not a few excellent pianists, even among
+amateurs; but a city of 100,000 inhabitants seldom has ten vocalists
+whose voices are tolerable, and of these two or three at most deserve
+the name of artists."
+
+When Richard Wagner made his preparation for the great Nibelung
+festival in 1876, he had the greatest difficulty in securing a
+sufficient number of competent interpreters for the different roles
+of the trilogy, though he had all the German opera companies to choose
+from. His private letters and essays are full of lamentations
+regarding the rarity of singers able to interpret, not only his works,
+but those of Weber, Gluck, or Mozart. Good singers, he says in one
+place, are so rare that the managers have to pay their weight in gold
+and jewelry. But the cause of this, he continues, is not the lack of
+good voices, but their improper training in the wrong direction.
+German teachers have tried to adapt the voices of their pupils to the
+Italian _canto_, which is incompatible with the German language.
+"Hitherto," he says in another place, "the voice has been trained
+exclusively after the model of Italian songs; there was no other. But
+the character of Italian songs was determined by the general spirit of
+Italian music, which, in the time of its full bloom, was best
+exemplified by the sopranists, because the aim of this music was mere
+enjoyment of the senses, without any regard for genuine depth of
+feeling--as is also shown by the fact that the voice of young manhood,
+the tenor voice, was hardly used at all at this period, and later only
+in a sopranistic way, as falsetto. Now, the spirit of modern music,
+under the undisputed leadership of German genius, especially
+Beethoven, has succeeded in first rising to the true dignity of art,
+by bringing within the sphere of its incomparable expressiveness, not
+only what is agreeable to the senses, but also an energetic
+spirituality and emotional depth." Evidently, he concludes, a singer
+trained in the spirit of the old-fashioned, merely sensuous music, is
+unable to cope with modern dramatic music, and the result is the
+failure and premature collapse of so many promising singers, who might
+have become great artists had they been rationally instructed.
+
+Misinformed or prejudiced critics have told us countless times that
+Wagner assigned the voice a secondary place in his works because he
+cared less for it than for the orchestra, and did not understand its
+nature and uses. The fact is that no one can read his essays,
+especially those on Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and on Actors and
+Vocalists, without being impressed with his unbounded admiration for
+the voice, and his practical knowledge of its highest functions and
+correct use. As a vocal teacher, Wagner has perhaps never had an
+equal. A few words from him regarding tone emission, breathing, or
+phrasing, have often sufficed to show to a singer that a passage which
+he had considered unsingable, was really the easiest thing in the
+world, if only the poetic sense were properly grasped and the breath
+economized. It is difficult to realize how much of their art and
+popularity the greatest dramatic singers of the period owe to Wagner's
+personal instruction. Materna, Malten, Brandt, Tichatschek, Schnorr
+von Carolsfeld, Niemann, Vogl, Winkelmann, Betz, Scaria, Reichmann,
+and many others have had the benefit of his advice; and if Wagner
+could have carried out his plans of establishing a college of dramatic
+singing at Bayreuth--a plan which was frustrated by the lack of
+funds--the cause of dramatic art would have gained immeasurably. We
+speak with scornful contempt of the Viennese of a former generation,
+who allowed a rare genius like Schubert to starve; but posterity will
+look back with quite as great astonishment on the sluggishness of a
+generation which did not eagerly accept the offer of the greatest
+dramatic composer of all times, to instruct gratuitously a number of
+pupils in his own style and those of Gluck, Mozart, and Weber.
+
+Leaving out of consideration the instructions which they personally
+received from Wagner, the greatest dramatic singers of the time may be
+regarded as self-made men and women. Experience taught them their art,
+other teacher they had none; for it is only within a few years that a
+few teachers have begun to realize that the old methods of instruction
+are partly incorrect, and partly insufficient for the demands of
+contemporary art. Such teachers as Mme. Viardot-Garcia and Mme.
+Marchesi have done much good, and trained many excellent lyric
+vocalists; but Mme. Marchesi herself admits that the great demand
+to-day is for dramatic, and not for lyric, singers. Formerly, it was
+the _bravura_ singer who bought dukedoms with his shekels; to-day,
+with the solitary exception of Patti, it is the _dramatic_ soprano or
+tenor that gets from $500 to $1,000 a night. When will teachers and
+pupils wake up and recognize the new situation? When will American
+girls cease flocking by the hundreds to Milan to learn such roles as
+_Lucia_ or _Amina_, for which there is now no demand, either in Europe
+or America, if we except the wild Western audiences to which Emma
+Abbott caters. A good _Elsa_ or _Bruennhilde_ will get an engagement
+ten times sooner than a good _Lucia_; and young vocalists whose voices
+have not sufficient volume and power to cope with German dramatic
+music, will do well to devote their attention to the better class of
+French operas, for which there is a growing demand, as the French
+style has always been much more like the German than like the Italian,
+owing to the great attention paid by French composers, especially
+since the days of Gluck, to vigorous declamation and distinct
+enunciation. Wagner especially recommends the works of the older
+French schools as a preparation for his own more difficult operas.
+
+Director Stanton, of the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York, is
+obliged every summer to make a trip to Germany and look about for
+dramatic singers wherewith to replenish his casts. As a number of
+American singers have already won fame here and abroad, the time no
+doubt will come when he will be able to find the dramatic singers he
+needs at home, and when opera in English will have supplanted foreign
+opera, so far as the language is concerned. But until that happy epoch
+arrives every aspirant to operatic honors cannot be too strongly urged
+to begin his or her studies by learning the French and German
+languages. Almost all the greatest singers of the century have been
+able not only to sing but to speak in several languages. Above all
+things, students of song should learn to speak their own language. Mr.
+H.C. Deacon remarks that "no nation in the civilized world speaks its
+language so abominably as the English.... Familiar conversation is
+carried on in inarticulate smudges of sound which are allowed to pass
+current for something, as worn-out shillings are accepted as
+representatives of twelvepence.... When English people begin to study
+singing, they are astonished to find that they have never learned to
+speak."
+
+Mr. Deacon's strictures do not apply in all their force to Americans,
+for the average American speaks English more distinctly than the
+average Englishman; yet there is room for vast improvement in the
+enunciation of our singers. Now, the great value of the German style
+to English students lies in this, that it emphasizes above all things
+the importance of correct and distinct speech in song. Julius Hey, of
+Munich, who has just published a vocal method which will mark an epoch
+in the teaching of singing, devotes the whole of his first volume to
+an analysis of the elements of speech, and to exercises in speaking.
+The second and third volumes contain vocal exercises for male and
+female voices, while the fourth volume, which has just appeared,
+discusses the special characteristics of the German dramatic method,
+and gives detailed instructions for the development and training of
+each variety of voice, together with an appendix in which some of the
+most popular operatic roles are analyzed and described. It is a book
+which no teacher or student who wishes to keep abreast of the times
+can afford to be without.
+
+Although Herr Hey is a disciple of Wagner, he is a cosmopolitan
+admirer of all that is good in every style of the past and present. In
+the elaborate scheme for the establishment of a conservatory in Munich
+which Wagner submitted to King Ludwig, he dwells on the fact that
+every student of song, whatever his ultimate aims, should be
+instructed in Italian singing, in conjunction with the Italian
+language. Herr Hey, too, admits that there is no branch of the Italian
+method which the German teachers can afford to ignore. In the emission
+of a mellow tone, the use of the portamento, in the treatment of
+scales, of trills, and of other ornaments, and in facile vocalization
+in general, all nations can learn from the Italians. But the Italian
+method does not go far enough. It does not meet the demands of the
+modern opera and the modern music-drama. It delights too much in
+comfortable solfeggios, in linked sweetness long drawn out, which soon
+palls on the senses. The modern romantic and dramatic spirit demands
+more characteristic, more vigorous, more varied accents than Italian
+song supplies. These dramatic accents are supplied by the German
+method, and in this chiefly lies its superiority over the Italian
+method.
+
+Herr Hey uses a very happy comparison in trying to show the bad
+consequences of relying too much on the Italian principles of vocal
+instruction which have been current until lately in Germany as in all
+other countries. Students, he says, are taught to fence with a little
+walking-cane, and when it comes to the decisive battle they are
+expected to wield a heavy sword. A most happy illustration this, I
+repeat, for it indicates exactly what vocal teachers of the old school
+are doing. They choose the easiest of the vowels and the easiest
+melodic intervals, and make the pupils exercise on those constantly,
+ignoring the more difficult ones; and the consequence is, that when,
+subsequently, the pupils are confronted with difficult intervals in a
+dramatic role, they sing them badly and make the ludicrous protest
+that the composer "doesn't know how to write for the voice;" and when
+they come across difficult vowels they either change them into easier
+ones, and thus make the text unintelligible, or else they emit a crude
+tone because they have never learned to sing a sonorous U, I, or E
+(Latin).
+
+The German principle, on the other hand, is that all vowels (and the
+German language has a greater number of them than the Italian) must be
+cultivated equally, the difficult ones all the more because they are
+difficult. Herr Hey has found in practice that not only can the vowels
+which at first sound dull and hollow, like U, be made as sonorous as A
+(Ah), but that, by practising on U, the A itself is rendered more
+sonorous than it can ever become by exclusive practice on it alone.
+Not only does the German method in this way secure a greater variety
+of sonorous vowel sounds, useful for the expression of different
+dramatic moods, but the registers are equalized, and there is a great
+gain in the power and endurance of the voice, which is of immense
+importance to-day in grand opera.
+
+Prof. Stockhausen, the distinguished vocal teacher, recently remarked
+in the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ that "the _mezza voce_ is the natural
+song, the constant loud singing being only a struggle with unequal
+weapons against our modern orchestra." No doubt he is right. But the
+orchestra has become such an important factor in modern opera that
+musicians would be unwilling to have it reduced in size--the tendency
+being, in fact, the other way; and at the same time opera is such an
+expensive luxury that it can only be made to pay in a very large
+theatre, which obliges the singers to have stentorian voices.
+Consequently, the German method, which develops the power and the
+sonority of the voice on _every_ vowel, is the method of the future,
+all the more because the English language, which is the world language
+of the future, is even more difficult for vocal purposes than the
+German, and calls for similar treatment.
+
+In the treatment of consonants, the German method marks a still
+greater advance on the Italian method. Professor Ehrlich thinks that
+the reason why Italians care so much for melody and so little for
+harmony is because they are too indolent to make the mental effort
+which is required to follow a complicated harmonic score. They are,
+certainly, too lazy to pronounce any harsh or difficult consonants,
+and the Italian language therefore presents a picture of sad
+effeminate degeneracy compared with the more vigorous Latin and even
+Spanish. Now the English language and the English character have much
+more of German vigor and masculine strength than of the Italian
+_dolce far niente_: hence, the English vocal style of the future will
+have to be modelled after the German style, which, instead of shirking
+difficult consonants boldly tackles and utilizes them. It will never
+be possible to sing so sweetly in the English and German languages as
+in Italian; but it is possible to sing with much more vigor, dramatic
+definiteness, and variety of emotional expression.
+
+At the same time, the harshness of the consonants in German and
+English song must not be too much emphasized. Wagner has shown in his
+music-dramas, and Hey in his vocal method, that by means of a proper
+division of syllables and correct articulation, the harshness of
+consonants can be toned down as much as is desirable. On the
+desirability and effectiveness of strong consonants Liszt has some
+admirable remarks in speaking of the Polish language, which is noted
+for its melodious beauty, although it bristles with consonants: "The
+harshness of a language," he says, "is by no means always conditioned
+by the excessive number of consonants, but rather by the way in which
+they are united; one might almost say that the weak, cold color of
+some languages is due to the lack of characteristic and strongly
+accented sounds. It is only an unharmonious combination of dissimilar
+consonants that offends a refined ear. The frequent return of certain
+well-united consonants gives shading, rhythm, and vigor to language;
+whereas the predominance of vowels produces a certain pallor in the
+coloration, which needs the contrast of darker tints."
+
+Those who are always ready to insist on the superiority of the Italian
+language for song, would do well to ponder these remarks of Liszt, who
+knew what he was talking about, as he spoke a number of modern
+languages fluently. And when they have done that, they should procure
+a few of Wagner's later vocal scores and note the extremely ingenious
+manner in which he has made the peculiarities of German consonants
+subservient to his dramatic purposes. I refer especially to his use of
+alliteration--the repetition of a consonant in the same or in
+consecutive lines. This not only insures a smooth, melodious flow, but
+enables the composer to heighten the effect of any situation by
+choosing consonants that harmonize with it. What, for instance, could
+be more delightfully descriptive than the words sung by the three
+Rhine daughters as they merrily swim and gambol under the water in
+"Rheingold:"
+
+    "Weia! Waga!
+    Woge, du Welle,
+    Walle zur Wiege!
+    Wagalaweia!
+    Wallala, weiala, weia!"
+
+One need only look at this, without understanding the language, to
+feel the rhythmic motion of the water, and imagine the song of the
+merry maidens. Again, in the famous love duo in the "Walkuere," note
+the repetition of the liquid consonants, the l's and m's, which give
+the sound such a soft and sentimental background. Does it not seem
+incredible that the Italian operatic composers should have ignored
+such poetic means of deepening the emotional color of their songs?
+
+But this is by no means all. In the same scene in "Rheingold" to which
+reference has just been made, the ugly Nibelung _Alberich_ appears
+presently and tries to catch one of the lovely maidens. But they elude
+his grasp and he angrily complains that he slips and slides on the
+slimy soil. Note the slippery character of these sounds:
+
+    "Garstig glatter
+    Glitschriger Glimmer!
+    Wie Gleit ich aus!
+    Mit Haenden und Fuessen
+    Nicht fasse noch halt'ich
+    Das schlecke Geschluepfer."
+
+_There_ is a real Volapuek for you--a world language which all can
+understand, for it is onomatopoetic realism.
+
+Of course it is not "beautiful;" but is that a reasonable objection?
+What would you say to an artist who painted dramatic battle-scenes,
+but made all the soldiers' faces as pretty as he could and adorned
+with sweet smiles? _That_ is precisely what the Italian opera
+composers have done in stage music; and it is because Wagner taught
+the singer to express not only _sweet_ sentiments but _all_ dramatic
+emotions, whether harsh or agreeable, that his new style marks an
+epoch in the evolution of the art of singing. At the same time, even
+these harsher passages in Wagner's vocal music are not really ugly,
+that is, disagreeable to the ear, _when properly sung_. Just as a
+homely face becomes attractive when it expresses a vivid emotion, so
+the harshest vocal measures in the realistic music-drama become a
+source of enjoyment if they are sung _with expression_.
+
+Unfortunately, there are only a few artists as yet who have
+sufficiently caught Wagner's intentions to be able to sing in this
+manner. Carl Hill, who created the part of the magician _Klingsor_ at
+the Parsifal Festival, in 1882, was one of these exceptions. He
+reflected the spirit of the gruesome text assigned to him so admirably
+that Wagner was delighted; but afterward he complained that Hill's
+fine impersonation was not so widely appreciated as it deserved to be;
+and why? Apparently, because _Klingsor's_ melodic intervals were not
+pleasing, nor his sentiments sympathetic.
+
+We must conclude from this that, in regard to dramatic singing, many
+opera-goers are still a good deal like the honest Scotchman who, on
+his first visit to a theatre, climbed on the stage and administered
+the villain of the play a sound thrashing; or, like the Bowery
+audiences, which applaud the good man in the play, no matter how badly
+he acts, and hiss the villain, though he be a second Salvini.
+
+Until operatic audiences begin to understand that singing is
+commendable in proportion as it gives realistic expression, not only
+to sweet and pleasing moods, but to various kinds of dramatic emotion,
+the full grandeur and value of Wagner's vocal style cannot be
+appreciated. A real epicure does not care to eat cakes and candy all
+the time; he loves olives and caviare too. These may be acquired
+tastes, but all taste for high art is acquired. And the time is,
+apparently, not very distant when Wagner's realistic vocal style will
+no longer be caviare even to the public at large, but will be more
+enjoyed--even when it gives expression to emotions of anger, jealousy,
+and revenge--than the cloying, sugar-coated melodies of Bellini and
+Rossini, or those meaningless embroideries which even some of the best
+of the older Italians (Tosi, for example) regarded as the most
+beautiful part of song.
+
+The great enthusiasm frequently shown at performances of Wagner's
+operas in other countries as well as in Germany, seems to argue that
+the public at large _has_ already entered into the real spirit and
+meaning of the Wagnerian style of singing. But numerous experiences
+lead me to believe the contrary. Allow me to quote, for example, an
+extract from one of those letters, abusive or censorious, which
+musical editors receive almost daily. "Is it not undeniable," writes a
+correspondent, "that as long as the world lasts, one of its greatest
+delights will consist in listening to the music furnished by the human
+voice? The more highly cultivated, pure, sweet, and flexible the
+voice, the more the enjoyment derived. And is it not equally true that
+Wagner's style of music discourages singing of this sort, or, in fact,
+singing of any sort? Are not the principal features of Wagner's operas
+the orchestra, acting, and general _mise-en-scene_, and does not
+singing, pure and simple, have but little part in it?"
+
+If the writer of these questions had asked them in Wagner's presence I
+believe that Wagner would have jumped up and boxed his ears. Nothing
+so irritated him as this notion that the singing in his operas is
+subordinate to the orchestra, or, in other words, that he puts the
+statue in the orchestra and the pedestal on the stage. As early as
+1850, he complained to Liszt about his friend Dingelstedt, who, in his
+article on the first performance of "Lohengrin," had expressed a
+similar opinion. And many years later, in writing of Schnorr von
+Carolsfeld's wonderful impersonation of _Tristan_, he begs the reader
+to note that the last act of this work contains "an exuberance of
+orchestral devices, such as no simple instrumental composer has ever
+had occasion to call into use. Then assure yourself," he continues,
+"that this complete gigantic orchestra, considered from an operatic
+point of view, is, after all, only related as _accompaniment_ to the
+'solo' part represented by the monologue of the vocalist, who lies on
+his couch; and infer from this the significance of Schnorr's
+impersonation, if I call to witness every conscientious spectator at
+those Munich performances, that, from the first bar to the last, the
+attention and interest of all was centred on the vocalist actor, was
+chained to him, and never allowed a single word of the text to escape
+through a momentary absence of mind; and that the orchestra, as
+compared with the singer, completely disappeared, or, more correctly
+speaking, seemed to be a constituent part of his song."
+
+I have never had the privilege of hearing Schnorr, but I heard Scaria
+repeatedly at Bayreuth and Vienna, and he always impressed on me, in
+the manner here described by Wagner, the supreme importance of the
+vocal part in his scores. Not a word of the text was lost, and in the
+most difficult intervals his voice was always beautifully and
+smoothly modulated. He enabled me to realize for the first time, the
+truth of what Wagner said regarding his vocal style, in the following
+words: "In my operas there is no difference between phrases that are
+'declaimed' and 'sung,' but my declamation is at the same time song,
+and my song declamation." Scaria's method also afforded an eloquent
+illustration of the wonderful manner in which, in Wagner's vocal
+style, the melodic accent always falls on the proper rhetorical accent
+of each word of the text, which is one of the secrets of clear
+enunciation. He emphasized important syllables by dwelling on them,
+thus producing that dramatic _rubato_ which Wagner considered of such
+great importance in his operas that, when he brought out "Tannhaeuser"
+in Dresden, he actually had the words of the text copied into the
+parts of all the orchestral players, in order that they might be able
+to follow these poetic licenses in the dramatic phrasing of the
+singer. This dramatic _rubato_ is, of course, a very different thing
+from the freedom which Italian singers often allow themselves on
+favorable high notes, which they prolong, not in order to emphasize an
+emotion but to show off the beauty and sustaining power of their
+voices.
+
+Scaria, unfortunately, was never heard in opera in this country. But
+we have had Materna and Niemann and Brandt and Fischer, and Alvary
+and Lehmann, who have given us correct ideas of the German vocal
+style. Surely no one can say, on listening to Lehmann's _Bruennhilde_,
+or Fischer's _Hans Sachs,_ or Alvary's _Siegfried_, that the vocal
+part is inferior in beauty or importance to the orchestral. When
+Alvary sang _Siegfried_ for the first time in New York, he presented a
+creditable but uneven impersonation, not having sufficiently mastered
+the details of the acting to feel quite at ease, and not being able to
+husband his vocal resources for the grand duo at the close. But at the
+end of the season, at the eleventh performance, he had become a
+full-fledged _Siegfried_, acting the part as by instinct, while his
+voice was as fresh at the close of the opera as at the beginning: thus
+affording a striking proof of Wagner's assertion, that the greatest
+vocal difficulties of his roles can be readily mastered if the singer
+will only take the pains to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the
+text and the dramatic situations. Alvary spent a whole year in
+learning this role, availing himself of the hints given him by Herr
+Seidl, who has the Wagnerian traditions by heart; and to-day he might,
+if he felt so inclined, amass wealth and win honor by travelling about
+Europe and singing nothing but this one role. Vienna and Brussels made
+strenuous efforts to entice him away from New York after his great
+success as _Siegfried_.
+
+This success is the more gratifying and encouraging because,
+previously, he had been only a second-rate singer. It was his
+conscientious and prolonged study of the German vocal style that
+enabled him to win his present lucrative and honorable position. If
+there were a few more young singers like him the operatic problem might
+be considered solved, for it is the rarity of well-trained singers that
+causes all the financial embarrassment in our opera-houses. They are so
+scarce, that as soon as one is discovered he is hurried on the stage,
+after a year's hasty preparation, and if his untrained voice soon gives
+out--as it must under the circumstances--the blame is laid on Wagner's
+shoulders. But, as Mme. Lucca remarks, "neither Wagner nor any other
+composer spoils the voice of any one who knows how to sing." She thinks
+that at least six years of faithful study are necessary to develop the
+voice in accordance with artistic principles. Herr Hey is somewhat more
+lenient, three years of thorough training sufficing, in his opinion, as
+a preparation for the stage. Much, of course, depends on individuals,
+and the number of hours given to study every day. In the old Italian
+vocal schools, two centuries ago, the pupils were kept busy six or
+eight hours a day, devoting one hour to difficult passages, another to
+trills and to accuracy of intonation, others to expression, to
+counterpoint, composition and accompaniment, etc. They often practised
+before a mirror in order to study the position of the soft parts in the
+mouth, and to avoid grimaces; and sometimes they sang at places where
+there was a good echo, so as to hear their own faults, as if some one
+else were singing. Yet, as we have seen, the main stress was laid on
+agility of technical execution, whereas the modern German method,
+without in the least neglecting technique, calls upon pupils to devote
+more attention to the principles of soulful expression and dramatic
+accentuation. A singer who wishes to appear to advantage as _Euryanthe_
+or _Lohengrin_ or _Tristan_ must not only be entirely familiar with his
+own vocal parts but he ought to be as familiar with the orchestral
+score as the conductor himself: for, only then, can he acquire that
+ease which is necessary for producing a deep impression. As he has not
+the conductor's advantage of looking on the printed score while
+singing, he must therefore have an excellent memory. As Dr. Hanslick
+remarks, "the artists who sing 'Tristan and Isolde' by heart, if they
+do nothing more than sing the notes correctly, deserve our most sincere
+admiration. That they can do to-day what seemed almost impossible
+twenty years ago is indeed Wagner's achievement, an achievement which
+has hardly been noted hitherto." Let me add that in modern German
+music, _everything_ is difficult to the singer--the consonants of the
+language, the unusual intervals and accents, the necessity of being
+actor and singer at the same time, etc. Hence we ought to be charitable
+and condone an occasional slip. But the average opera-goer in this
+country is anything but charitable. If one of these dramatic singers,
+thus hampered by difficulties, makes the slightest lapse from tonal
+beauty (which may be even called for) he is judged as unmercifully as
+if he were a representative of the _bel canto_, whose art consists in a
+mere voice without emotion--_vox et praeterea nihil_. This is as unfair
+as it is to judge Wagner's dramas by the music alone, and is, indeed a
+consequence of this attitude.
+
+It has been too much the habit in America and in England to sneer at
+German singers; and it is customary if a German singer has a good
+mellow voice to attribute that to his Italian method, while his
+shortcomings are ascribed to the German method. This, again, is as
+absurd as it is unjust; for, as I have endeavored to show, the real
+German method, by insisting on an equal treatment of all the vowels,
+develops a richer and more sonorous voice than the Italian method;
+and, indeed, the reason why powerful dramatic voices are so rare among
+Italians, is because of their one-sided preference, in their
+exercises, for the easiest vowels.
+
+When Mendelssohn travelled in Italy he noted that there were very few
+good singers at the opera-houses, and that one had to go to London
+and Paris to find them. To-day few of them can be found even in London
+and Paris; and, indeed, I could easily show, by giving lists of the
+famous singers of the past and present, that the Italians constitute a
+small minority as compared with the German, French, and Scandinavian
+singers of the first rank. The custom so long followed by singers of
+all nationalities of adopting Italian stage names has confused the
+public on the subject. And, finally, I could name a dozen German
+singers who have won first-class honors in Italian opera; but where is
+there an Italian _Tannhaeuser_ or _Bruennhilde_ or _Wotan_? All honor,
+therefore, to the versatility of German singers, who, like Lilli
+Lehmann, for instance, can sing _Norma_ and _Isolde_ equally well.
+
+And still more honor to the German composers who have restored the
+true function of song. Everybody knows that in the popular songs, or
+folk songs, of _all_ nations, including the Italian, the words are
+quite as important as the melody. It was only in the artificial songs
+of the Netherland school and the Italian opera composers that the
+voice was degraded to the function of a mere inarticulate instrument;
+and it remained for Wagner, following the precedence of Gluck, to
+restore it to its rank as the inseparable companion of poetry. And
+what led him to do this was not abstract reflection but artistic
+instinct and experience. He does not even claim the honor of having
+originated the true vocal style, but confesses with pride that it was
+a _woman_, Frau Schroeder-Devrient, who first revealed to him the
+highest possibilities of dramatic singing, and he boasts that he was
+the only one that learned this lesson of the great German singer, and
+developed the hints regarding the correct vocal style unconsciously
+given by her.
+
+It must not be forgotten, however, that side by side with the
+music-drama and partly preceding it, another form of vocal music grew
+up in Germany, which in a very similar manner restored the voice to
+its true sphere as the wedded wife of poetry. I refer, of course, to
+the _Lied_, or parlor song, to which, indeed, I might have devoted
+this whole essay, quite as well as to the music-drama, if there were
+anything in Italian music that might have been compared to the songs
+of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Brahms, Liszt, Rubinstein, etc.
+
+As Sir George Grove poetically puts it, in Schubert's songs "the music
+changes with the words as a landscape does when the sun and clouds
+pass over it. And in this Schubert has anticipated Wagner, since the
+words in which he writes are as much the absolute basis of his songs
+as Wagner's librettos are of his operas." Liszt, too, notes somewhere
+that Schubert doubtless exerted an indirect influence on the
+development of the opera by means of the dramatic realism which
+characterizes the melody and accompaniment of his parlor songs (such
+as the "Erl King," the "Doppelgaenger," etc.)--a realism which becomes
+still more pronounced in Schumann, Franz, and Liszt, in whose songs
+every word of the poem colors its bar of music with its special
+emotional tint, instead of merely serving, as in the old _bel canto_,
+as an artificial and meaningless scaffolding for the construction and
+execution of a melody.
+
+This parallel evolution of the parlor song and the music-drama cannot
+be too strongly emphasized: for the same tendency being followed by so
+many of the greatest geniuses (some of whom are not Germans) affords
+cumulative evidence of the fact that the German style (which, as I
+have explained, includes all that is valuable in the Italian method)
+is the true vocal style, the style of the future, the style which
+cosmopolitan American art will have to adopt. I have been told that
+since the revival of German opera in New York, the Italian teachers in
+the city have lost many of their pupils. Obviously, if they wish to
+regain them they will have to adopt the best features of the German
+method, just as the Germans have adopted all that is good in the
+Italian method. It cannot be denied that the pupils turned out by the
+average vocal teachers are quite unable to sing a Franz or even a
+Schubert song correctly and with proper emotional expression. Now, it
+is evident, as Ehlert says, that "that art of singing which abides
+with the _bel canto_ and is unable to sing Bach, Beethoven, and
+Schumann, has not attained to the height of their period. It becomes
+its task to adapt itself to these new circumstances, to renounce the
+comfortable solfeggios and acquire the poetic expression that they
+accept."
+
+The famous tenor Vogl, a contemporary of Schubert, wrote in his diary
+the following significant words: "Nothing shows so plainly the want of
+a good school of singing as Schubert's songs. Otherwise, what an
+enormous and universal effect must have been produced throughout the
+world, wherever the German language is understood, by these truly
+divine inspirations, these utterances of a musical clairvoyance! How
+many would have comprehended, probably for the first time, the meaning
+of such expressions as 'Speech and Poetry in Music,' 'Words in
+Harmony,' 'ideas clothed in music,' etc., and would have learned that
+the finest poems of our greatest poets may be enhanced and even
+transcended when translated into musical language." It is humiliating
+to be obliged to confess that good schools of singing, the absence of
+which Vogl deplored, are still lamentably rare, although he himself,
+by his example, did much to develop the correct method. We have just
+seen how Wagner obtained valuable hints from Schroeder-Devrient.
+Similarly, we find that Schubert learned from his friend Vogl, who
+alone at first could sing his songs properly, and by showing that they
+_could_ be sung encouraged Schubert in developing his original style.
+
+It seems to me that these facts ought to be extremely gratifying and
+encouraging to students of vocal music, because they refute the notion
+that vocalists can only be interpretative and not creative, and their
+fame and influence, therefore, merely ephemeral. On the contrary, they
+can, like Vogl and Schroeder-Devrient, even aspire to guide composers
+and help to mark out new paths in art: which surely, ought to be more
+gratifying to their pride than the cheap applause which the sopranists
+and prima donnas of the _bel canto_ period used to receive for the
+meaningless colorature arias which they compelled the enslaved
+composers to write, or manufactured for themselves. And there is
+another way in which singers of the new style can become creative.
+Chopin speaks in one of his letters of a violoncellist who played a
+certain poor piece so remarkably well that it actually appeared to be
+good music. Similarly, a good vocalist (like Fraeulein Brandt, for
+instance, who is very clever in this respect) can put so much art and
+feeling into the weaker parts and episodes of songs and operas as to
+make them entertaining where they are naturally tiresome. When we
+bear in mind these high possibilities of singing, we must admit that
+there is no nobler profession than that of a conscientious vocalist--a
+profession without which some of the deepest feelings that stir the
+human soul would remain unknown to the world.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK
+
+
+Perhaps it is not generally known that Mr. Theodore Thomas some years
+ago entertained the project of reviving German opera in New York, in a
+manner that should eclipse all previous operatic enterprises in this
+country. It was his intention to give in the leading American cities a
+series of performances of Wagner's Nibelung Tetralogy, and he looked
+forward to this as the crowning achievement of his busy life. For
+years he never gave a concert without having at least one Wagner
+selection on the programme, no matter how much some of the critics and
+patrons protested. In 1884 he considered the public sufficiently
+weaned of Italian sweets to stand a strong dose of Wagner; so he
+imported the three leading singers of the Bayreuth festivals--Materna,
+Winkelmann, and Scaria--for a number of festival concerts. The
+extraordinary success of these concerts seemed to indicate that the
+time was ripe for a complete theatrical production of Wagner's later
+music-dramas, and Mr. Thomas was already elaborating his plans when an
+accident frustrated them and took the whole matter out of his hands.
+
+This accident was the signal failure of Italian opera at the
+Metropolitan Opera House during the first season of its existence. As
+Mr. Abbey lost over a quarter of a million dollars by this disaster,
+no other manager could be found willing to take his place and risk
+another fortune. Since Mr. Abbey's company included several of the
+most popular artists--Nilsson, Sembrich, Scalchi, Campanini, Del
+Puente, etc., and his repertory embraced the usual popular operas, the
+conclusion seemed inevitable that the public wanted a complete change.
+Dr. Damrosch was accordingly appealed to at the eleventh hour, and he
+hastened to Germany and brought over a company that scored an
+immediate success, surprising even to those who had long advocated the
+establishment of a German opera in New York. And this success became
+still more pronounced in the following seasons, when a better company
+was secured, with Herr Seidl as conductor.
+
+Perhaps it is fortunate that Mr. Thomas's project was never realized.
+Had he succeeded, New York and several other cities would no doubt
+have enjoyed a series of interesting Wagner performances for one or
+two seasons; but after the first curiosity had been satisfied, it is
+very likely that the enterprise would have come to an end for lack of
+funds. For it is a well-established fact that grand opera, if given
+with the best singers, artistic scenery, and an orchestra of sixty to
+one hundred men, cannot be made self-supporting, however generously
+the public may contribute to it. The Paris opera is kept afloat by
+means of an annual subsidy of eight hundred thousand francs, and the
+imperial opera-houses of Berlin and Vienna, although similarly
+endowed, are burdened with large annual deficits which have to be
+covered by additional contributions from the imperial exchequers. New
+York can hardly claim so large a public interested in high-class opera
+as Vienna and Berlin; hence it would be unreasonable to expect that
+grand opera should fare better here. It was, therefore, one of the
+most lucky accidents in the history of American music that the
+Metropolitan Opera House was built, in opposition to the Academy of
+Music, by a number of the richest people in New York, who had made up
+their minds to spare no cost to make it successful and to annihilate
+the rival house. Having once built the new opera-house, it became
+necessary to continue giving in it the only kind of opera adapted to
+the vast dimensions of its auditorium, unless the stockholders should
+become willing to pay the high annual rent without any return at all.
+And thus German opera has been established in New York, if not for all
+time, at least for years to come.
+
+The fact cannot be too much emphasized that, properly speaking, there
+is _no deficit_ at the Metropolitan Opera House. True, the total
+expenses of the operatic season of 1886-1887 were about four hundred
+and forty-two thousand dollars, and the receipts only two hundred and
+thirty-five thousand dollars, thus necessitating an assessment of two
+thousand five hundred dollars on each stockholder. But it must be
+borne in mind that this assessment simply represents the sum that the
+stockholders paid for their boxes. As there were forty-five
+subscription nights, and as each box holds six seats, the price of
+each was nine dollars, which can hardly be deemed too much for the
+best seats in the house, considering that outsiders have to pay ten
+dollars for these same seats, or sixty dollars for a box. A large part
+of the assessment (about one thousand dollars for each stockholder)
+would remain for covering the general expenses of the building
+(including the mortgage bonds), even if no opera were given at all;
+and surely the box-holders would be foolish if they refused to pay the
+extra sum (four dollars and eighty-eight cents for each seat), which
+insures them forty-five evenings of social and musical entertainment.
+To persons of their wealth this extra sum is, after all, a mere
+trifle; and it enables them to bask in the proud consciousness of
+taking the place, in this country, of royalty abroad in supporting a
+form of art that has always been considered pre-eminently
+aristocratic.
+
+Some of the stockholders make no secret of the fact that they would
+very much prefer Italian to German opera, which is Sanskrit to them;
+and every year, at the directors' meetings, the question of reviving
+Italian opera is warmly debated. There is also a considerable number
+of amateurs, editors, and correspondents who are eagerly waiting for
+some signs showing that German opera is losing ground, so that they
+may raise a war-whoop in behalf of Italian opera. But the powers that
+rule the destinies of the Metropolitan Opera House are too wise to
+heed the arguments of these prophets. They know that Italian opera can
+never again be successfully revived in New York, and that the only
+alternative for the present lies between German opera and no opera at
+all. Signor Angelo and Mr. Mapleson were as unsuccessful in their last
+efforts in behalf of Italian opera as Mr. Abbey. And although Mme.
+Patti fared better at her last appearance, it was only because a large
+number of people believed that she _really_ was singing in New York
+for the last time; for when she returned a fortnight later for
+_another_ "farewell," the sale of seats was so small that the spoiled
+prima donna refused to sing, and only one performance was given
+instead of two.
+
+The lovers of vocal tight-rope dancing and threadbare orchestral
+accompaniments who insist that Wagner is merely a fashion, and that
+ere long there will be a return to the saccharine melodies of Rossini
+and Bellini, show thereby that they have never studied the history of
+the opera. This history teaches a curious lesson, viz., that operas
+which had a great vogue at one time and subsequently lost their
+popularity can _never_ be galvanized into real life again. What has
+become of the threescore and more operas of Donizetti, and the forty
+of Rossini--some of which for years monopolized the stage so
+completely the world over that Weber and Beethoven were ignored even
+in Vienna and the German capitals? They are dead, and all efforts to
+revive them have been futile. These operas had sprung into _sudden_
+popularity, whereas "Fidelio," "Euryanthe," "Lohengrin," and
+"Tannhaeuser," which for years had to fight for every inch of ground,
+are now masters of the situation, and gaining in popularity every
+year. And this brings us to the second lesson taught by the history of
+the opera--that the works that thus had to _fight_ their way into the
+hearts of the public are the immortal operas that are sure to gain
+more and more favor as years go by. Moreover, the statistics of German
+opera-houses show that Wagner's operas, from the "Flying Dutchman" to
+the "Nibelung's Ring," have been gaining in popularity and frequency
+of repetition, year by year, with a constancy that might almost be
+expressed with mathematical exactness by means of a _crescendo_: <.
+And we are by no means at the biggest end of the _crescendo_ yet. For
+there are scores of cities where Wagner would be even more popular
+than he is, were it not for the woful rarity of competent dramatic
+singers and conductors.
+
+There is, therefore, no hope for the _Italianissimi_, who sigh for
+their maccaroni arias and their "Ernani" and "Gazza Ladra" soup.
+Italian opera has ceased to exist in New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna,
+and St. Petersburg, and even in Italy dramatic music of the modern
+school is gradually driving out the old-fashioned lyric and florid
+opera.
+
+In New York, moreover, the press is almost unanimous in favor of
+German opera, and the press, as a rule, is omnipotent in theatrical
+matters. I am convinced, for instance, that one of the principal
+reasons why Wagner was more rapidly acclimated in New York than in the
+German capitals is that most of the leading German critics are old
+men--too old to submit readily to Wagner's revolutionary tendencies;
+whereas in New York all the critics are young men, who only needed to
+hear a few good performances of Wagner's operas to be filled with an
+enthusiasm for them, with which many of their readers could not help
+being infected.
+
+Still another important point must be borne in mind: the fact that
+the vastness of the Metropolitan auditorium makes it impossible to
+hear the weak voices and the thin scores of Italians to advantage.
+_Ergo_, if this house remains the centre of music in New York, there
+can be no question that, as I have just stated, the prospect for the
+next decade or two is, either German Opera or No Opera.
+
+A series of interviews published in the newspapers indicate that the
+indifference of the stockholders to German music has been greatly
+exaggerated; and the vote that was taken on January 27, 1888, stood
+forty to nine in favor of continuing German opera, with an assessment
+of three thousand two hundred dollars on each box. Not a few of the
+stockholders would, indeed, prefer "Siegfried" to "Ernani," even if
+"Ernani" could be depended on for as large audiences as Wagner's
+opera, which is far from being the case; and I have myself heard some
+of them confess that after repeatedly hearing Wagner's later operas,
+they discovered in them a constant stream of melody where all had
+seemed to them at first a mere chaos of sound. Some of the
+stockholders, on the other hand, are so absolutely unmusical that they
+do not know the meaning of the words "tenor" and "soprano," and if
+blindfolded could not tell if "Faust" or "Aida" was being sung. (This
+is a real fact that I might prove by an amusing anecdote, were it not
+too personal.) To this class of stockholders what difference can it
+make whether they have German or Italian opera? They merely go to the
+opera because it is a very fashionable thing to do so, and because the
+ownership of an opera-box confers on them a social distinction almost
+equal to an order, or a title of nobility, in foreign countries.
+
+Many of the stockholders have converted the ante-rooms to their boxes
+into luxurious parlors, into which they can retire and talk if the
+music bores them. But, unfortunately, there are some black sheep among
+them and their invited guests who do not make use of this privilege,
+but give the rest of the audience the benefit of their conversational
+accomplishments. The parquet often resents these interruptions, and
+hisses lustily until quiet is restored. There are not a few lovers of
+music who, although able to pay for parquet seats, frequent the upper
+galleries for fear of being annoyed by the conversation in the boxes.
+In the highest gallery the quiet of a tomb reigns supreme, and woe to
+any one who comes late, or whispers, or turns the leaves of his score
+too noisily: he is immediately pierced with a volley of indignant
+hisses.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that there is much less talking in the
+opera-house at present than there was a few years ago. This difference
+is especially noticeable on Wagner nights, and the change is simply
+one of the numerous operatic reforms introduced by Wagner and his
+followers. It must be borne in mind that in Italian opera conversation
+frequently is not at all out of place, but is a factor of the
+entertainment _recognized even by the composer_! Wagner brings out
+this point clearly in the following remarks: "In Italian opera," he
+says, "the public gives its attention only to the most brilliant
+numbers sung by the popular prima donna or her vocal rival; the rest
+of the opera it ignores almost entirely, and devotes the evening to
+mutual visits in the boxes and loud conversation. This attitude of the
+public led the composers of yore to confine their efforts at artistic
+creation to the solo numbers referred to, and to fill up deliberately
+all intermediate portions, the choruses and minor parts, with
+commonplace and empty phrases that had no other purpose than that of
+serving as noise to sustain the conversation of the audience."
+
+That this is not an exaggerated statement is shown by an extract from
+a private letter written by Liszt at Milan. Speaking of the famous
+Scala Opera House, he says: "In this blessed land putting a serious
+opera on the stage is not at all a serious thing. A fortnight is
+generally time enough. The musicians of the orchestra, and the
+singers, who are generally strangers to each other and get no
+encouragement from the audience (the latter are generally either
+chatting or sleeping--in the fifth box they either sup or play cards),
+assemble inattentive, insensible, and troubled with catarrh, not as
+artists, but as people who are paid for the music they make. There is
+nothing more icy than these Italian representations. No trace of
+_nuances_, in spite of the exaggeration of accent and gesture dictated
+by Italian taste, much less any effect _d'ensemble_. Each artist
+thinks only of himself, without troubling his thoughts about his
+neighbor. Why worry one's self for a public that does not even
+listen?"
+
+In German opera, on the other hand, the orchestral part and the
+choruses and declamatory sections are just as important as the lyric
+numbers, and many of the most exquisite passages in the operas of
+Weber and Wagner are a kind of superior pantomime music during which
+no voice at all is heard on the stage. Now I am convinced that much of
+the talking in opera-boxes is simply due to ignorance of this fact.
+Vocal music is much more readily appreciated than instrumental music,
+and those who have no ear for orchestral measures do not realize that
+others are enraptured by them. Hence they talk as soon as the singing
+ceases, unconscious of the fact that they are greatly annoying those
+who wish to listen to the orchestra.
+
+To a large extent the stupid custom of having music between the acts
+at theatres is responsible for the talking at the opera. For between
+the acts everybody, of course, wants to talk; and since at the theatre
+the orchestra merely furnishes a sort of background or support for the
+conversation, people naturally come to look upon the overtures and
+interludes and introductions to the second and third acts of an opera
+in similar light. Even if _entr'acte_ music in theatres were much
+better than it is commonly, this consideration alone ought to suffice
+to banish it from the theatres. It degrades the art and spoils the
+public.
+
+Those of the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House who indulge
+in loud conversation while the music goes on, or who rent their boxes
+to irresponsible parties, should remember that it is their _pecuniary_
+interest to preserve quiet. For not a few amateurs, as already stated,
+are driven to the cheaper parts of the house, or discouraged from
+going at all, by the annoying conversation; and the losses thus
+resulting are of course added to their annual assessments.
+
+Again, it ought to be clear to any one who has the most elementary
+knowledge of the laws of etiquette that to disturb others needlessly
+in the enjoyment of a dearly purchased pleasure is evidence of very
+bad manners. Musical people suffer more from such interruptions than
+persons whose ears are not similarly refined can imagine; for the
+tone colors of a Wagnerian score are as exquisitely delicate and
+refined as the evanescent films and colors of a soap-bubble, so that
+the mere rustling of a fan or a programme mars them.
+
+Everybody has heard the story of Handel, who used to get very angry if
+any one talked in the room, even when he was only giving lessons to
+the Prince and Princess of Wales. At such times, as Barney relates,
+the Princess of Wales, with her accustomed mildness and benignity,
+used to say: "Hush! hush! Handel is in a passion." And Liszt never
+gave a finer exhibition of his wit and artistic courage than when, at
+an imperial soiree in the Russian capital, he suddenly ceased playing
+in the midst of a piece, because the Czar was talking loudly with an
+officer. The Czar sent an attendant to inquire of Liszt why he
+stopped; whereupon Liszt retorted that it was the first rule of court
+etiquette that when the Czar was speaking others must be silent. The
+Czar never forgave him this well-merited rebuke.
+
+This anecdote has a moral for those who talk loudly at the opera; for
+it calls attention to the fact that they not only annoy those of the
+audience who wish to hear the music, but also insult the artists on
+the stage.
+
+The establishment of habitual silence during operatic performances is
+only one of the beneficial changes introduced into operatic etiquette
+through German opera. The method of applauding has been revolutionized
+too. It is no longer customary to interrupt the flow of the orchestral
+music by applauding a singer. All the applause is now reserved for the
+end of the acts. I remember a performance of "Lohengrin," at the
+Academy of Music, at which the music was thrice interrupted by some
+ill-bred admirers of Campanini, who applauded him when he first
+appeared in sight on the swan-boat; again, when he stepped on shore,
+and a third time when he came to the front of the stage. Now here was
+one of the most poetic scenes on the whole operatic stage utterly
+marred for all refined listeners, merely for the sake of showing
+admiration for a singer which might as well have been expressed later
+on when the curtain was down. Campanini recognized all these
+interruptions, and bowed his thanks to the audience.
+
+Quite different was Herr Niemann's behavior when he made his _debut_
+at the Metropolitan Opera House. Here was the greatest living dramatic
+tenor, an artist identified with the cause and the triumphs of Wagner,
+appearing on a new continent, in the same role that he had created at
+the historic Bayreuth festival of 1876. The house, of course, was
+packed, and included many old admirers who had heard him abroad, and
+who, of course, received him with a volley of applause when he
+staggered into _Hunding's_ hut. But Niemann did not acknowledge this
+applause with a bow or even a smile. He appeared before the public as
+_Siegmund_, and not as Herr Niemann. But when the curtain was down he
+promptly responded to the enthusiastic recalls, and was quite willing,
+and more than willing, to come forward as often as the audience
+desired and acknowledge their kindness with bowed thanks.
+
+Now, it is to be noted in this case that Herr Niemann did not lose
+anything by refusing to recognize the applause that greeted him when
+he first appeared on the stage; on the contrary, it raised him in the
+estimation of all whose esteem was worth having; and these applauded
+him all the more vigorously for his self-denial when the curtain was
+down. Singers of the old school should take this lesson to heart and
+ponder it. They imagine success is measured by the number of times
+they are applauded, and consequently introduce loud, high notes and
+other clap-trap at the end of every solo, if possible. They forget
+that while they thus secure the applause of the uncultured, real
+connoisseurs are disgusted, and put them down in their mental
+note-books as second-rate artists or charlatans.
+
+Those artists who have followed Wagner's precepts, and merged their
+individuality and personal vanity in their roles, have never had
+occasion to regret their apparent self-sacrifice. They are the only
+kind of singers now eagerly sought for by managers; and an educated
+public that does not tolerate applause while the orchestra plays,
+never fails to vent its pent-up enthusiasm at the end of the act, as
+has been abundantly proved at the Metropolitan Opera House. A curious
+episode may be noted sometimes. As soon as the singing has ceased and
+the curtain begins to descend, a number of people begin to applaud.
+But the full-blooded Wagnerites wait until the last chord of the
+orchestra has died away before they join in. The volume of applause is
+then suddenly multiplied three or four times, to the bewilderment of
+novices, who do not understand what it all means. It simply means that
+the concluding strains of Wagner's acts, are usually among the most
+beautiful measures in the whole opera, which it is a pity and a shame
+to mar by premature applause.
+
+I have often wondered why people, who put on their overcoats during
+the final measures, are not ashamed thus to advertise their utter lack
+of artistic sensibility and indifference to other people's feelings.
+Nor can one wonder, in view of such facts, that the late King of
+Bavaria preferred to have opera given when no other spectator was in
+the house, or that the present Emperor of Germany is beginning to
+follow his example.
+
+Wagner does not merely ask his interpreters to scorn the usual methods
+of securing cheap applause, but he himself avoids them in his
+compositions with a heroic conscientiousness. There is a story of a
+well-known English conductor who objected to produce a piece by a
+noted German composer because it ended _pianissimo_. He was afraid
+that it would not be applauded if it did not end loudly. Now the
+finales of Italian operas are habitually constructed on this method.
+The chorus is brought in at the end, whether the situation calls for
+it or not, and made to sing as loudly as possible. This stirs up the
+audience to equally loud applause, and all ends well.
+
+How differently Wagner goes to work! In "Siegfried," for instance,
+there is no chorus at all. The first act ends with _Siegfried's_
+cleaving of the anvil with the sword which he has just forged before
+the eyes of the audience; and the third ends with the love duo. In
+these cases there are only two persons on the stage; and at the end of
+the second act _Siegfried_ is _entirely alone_, and the curtain falls
+as he mutely follows the bird to the fire-girdled rock on which
+_Bruennhilde_ lies asleep, amid the intoxicating and promising strains
+of the orchestra. The ending of "Die Walkuere" is equally quiet and
+poetic. _Wotan_ has placed poor _Bruennhilde_ on a mound of moss, for
+disobeying his orders, and covered her with her helmet, after plunging
+her into a magnetic sleep which is to last until a hero shall come to
+wake her. He strikes the rock with his spear, whereupon a flame breaks
+out that quickly becomes a sea of fire encircling the rock. Then he
+disappears in the fire toward the background, and for several minutes
+there is no one on the stage but the sleeping Valkyrie, and nothing to
+be heard but the crackling and roaring of the flames, re-echoed in the
+orchestra; and this is the end of the opera.
+
+One more illustration: The greater part of the second act of "Die
+Meistersinger" is taken up with _Beckmesser's_ serenade, comically
+interrupted by the songs and the hammering of _Hans Sachs_ the
+cobbler. Toward the end the apprentice _David_ sees _Beckmesser_, and
+imagining he is serenading _his_ sweetheart, assaults and beats him
+most unmercifully. The noise attracts the neighbors, who all take part
+in the affray, and the scene culminates in a perfect pandemonium of
+noise. Now there is hardly an operatic composer who would not have
+closed the act with this exciting and tumultuous chorus. Not so
+Wagner. The sound of the watchman's horn suddenly clears the street,
+and no one is left but the watchman himself, who timorously toddles up
+the street with his lantern, while the moon rises above the roofs of
+the houses, and the muted strings of the orchestra softly and dreamily
+recall a few of the motives of the preceding scenes. I was sitting
+next to Professor Paine, of Harvard, at a performance of this opera at
+the Metropolitan, one evening. He had not seen it before, and I shall
+never forget the expression of surprise on his face when he saw the
+curtain descending on this dreamy moonlight scene, with _a deserted
+stage_. He considered it a bold deviation from established operatic
+customs, and yet he could not for a moment deny that it was infinitely
+more poetic than the traditional final chorus, with its meaningless
+noise and pomp.
+
+Not that Wagner despised the chorus, as is sometimes said. He showed
+in the third act of this same opera, in the scene of the
+folk-festival, that when a chorus is called for by the situation no
+one can supply a more inspired and inspiring volume of concerted sound
+than he. With the possible exception of the last number in Bach's
+Passion music, I regard the choral music of this act as the most
+sublime ever written. Here, at any rate, the _vox populi_ is divine.
+
+The magnificent quintet in this act of "Die Meistersinger" also
+affords proof that if Wagner banished concerted music from his later
+works, it was not because he lacked inspiration for that kind of work.
+Although extremely Wagnerian in its harmonies, it is one of those
+numbers which even Wagner's enemies admire. Some years ago I witnessed
+a curious scene in the Berlin Opera House. According to Wagner's
+directions, the curtain goes down after this quintet, but the music
+continues until the scene is changed. Now, on the occasion in
+question, the quintet evoked so much enthusiasm that a storm of
+applause arose. The extreme Wagnerites resented this interruption of
+the music, and began to hiss; whereupon the others redoubled their
+applause and their calls for an "encore," which finally had to be
+granted, as the only way of appeasing this paradoxical disturbance in
+which Wagnerites hissed while the others applauded!
+
+At the Metropolitan Opera House the stage arrangements are so clumsy
+that it is necessary to have an intermission of over a quarter of an
+hour, in order to change this scene. Consequently the last and most
+popular part of this master-work is never seen till after midnight;
+and many leave the house annoyed by the long intermission.
+
+And this brings us to the weakest part of modern opera. It lasts too
+long. Wagner is not the only guilty composer. Gounod's "Faust,"
+Weber's "Euryanthe," and most of Meyerbeer's operas, if given without
+cuts, would last over four hours. But in these cases no irreparable
+harm is done by a few cuts, whereas in Wagner's operas there are very
+few bars that can be spared, both on account of their intrinsic beauty
+and because they are required to keep up the dramatic continuity of
+the story. Nevertheless, Wagner's operas must be cut, in some cases
+most unmercifully, as in "Die Goetterdaemmerung," in which Herr Seidl
+was obliged to omit the whole of the first prelude--the weirdly grand
+scene of the three Fates, and the scene between the two
+Valkyries--merely to prevent the opera from lasting till one o'clock.
+
+Herr Seidl is perhaps the greatest living interpreter of Wagner. He
+brings to his works the enthusiasm without which they can neither be
+interpreted nor fully understood; and his enthusiasm proves contagious
+to the orchestra and the singers. He not only rehearses every bar of
+the orchestral score with minute care, but each of the vocalists has
+to come to his room and go through his or her part until he is
+satisfied. Although he is invariably civil, his men obey him as they
+would the sternest general, and admiration of his superior knowledge
+makes them more attentive to their duty than fear ever would. I do not
+believe German opera would have won its present popularity under any
+other conductor excepting Hans Richter. One of the traits to which he
+owes his great success as a Wagner conductor is his instinctive
+perception of what parts can be omitted with the minimum of injury to
+the work he is interpreting. Except at Bayreuth, Wagner's later works
+did not especially prosper at first, because they were either too long
+or injudiciously cut. Herr Seidl, however, succeeded with them
+everywhere. One time Wagner wrote to him complaining that he made so
+many cuts in his operas. But Herr Seidl wrote back, giving his
+reasons, and explaining the situation; whereupon he received the
+laconic telegram from Wagner, "_Schiessen Sie los!_" (Fire away!).
+
+Eduard von Hartmann, in his recent work, "Die Philosophie des
+Schoenen," has some just remarks on Wagner's mistake in making his
+operas so long that conductors are _obliged_ to use the red pencil,
+which is not always done intelligently; whereas if he himself had
+undertaken the task of condensing his works their organic unity might
+have been preserved. True, Wagner did not intend his later works to be
+incorporated in the regular operatic repertory, but desired them to be
+sung only on certain festal occasions, as at Bayreuth, where people
+went with the sole object of hearing music, and with no other business
+oppressing them for the moment. But at a time when the struggle for
+existence is so severe as now it was chimerical on Wagner's part to
+hope that such a plan could be permanently realized. Few musical
+people can afford to journey to Bayreuth merely to gratify their taste
+for opera. Hence the Bayreuth festivals, although most delightful from
+an artistic point of view, would have never been financially
+successful, had not the vocalists given their services _gratis_; and
+it is doubtful if they will be continued after the death of Wagner's
+widow. Moreover, it would have been a musical calamity to have the
+treasures of melody and harmony that are stored away in the Nibelung
+scores reserved for the lucky few who are able to go to Bayreuth.
+Wagner himself must have felt this when, contrary to his original
+intention, he gave Neumann permission to perform the Tetralogy (under
+Seidl's direction) in Germany, Italy, and Belgium; and since that time
+it has been successfully incorporated into the repertory of all the
+leading German cities, and many smaller ones, such as Weimar,
+Mannheim, and Carlsruhe.
+
+In Germany the length of Wagner's and Meyerbeer's operas is not so
+objectionable as here, because there the opera commences at seven, or
+even at six thirty, and six, if it is a very long one; hence it is all
+over shortly after ten, and everybody has time to take supper before
+going to bed. But in New York, where it is not customary to sup, and
+where the dinner hour is between six and seven, it would hardly be
+advisable to commence the opera before eight. Nor is the interest in
+the opera sufficiently general to inspire the hope that for its sake
+any change will be made in the hour of dining. The danger rather lies
+the other way: that the custom of delaying dinner till eight, which is
+coming into vogue among the English (who care neither for music nor
+the theatre), will be followed in this city.
+
+Now consider the inevitable consequences of having excessively long
+operas. America has plenty of poor loafers, but few wealthy _rentiers_
+who spend their days in bed or in idleness, and are therefore
+insatiable in their appetite for entertainment in the evening. The
+typical American works hard all day long, whether he is rich or poor,
+and in the evening his brain is too tired to follow for four hours the
+complicated orchestral score of a music-drama. If he listens
+attentively, he will be exhausted by eleven o'clock, and the last act,
+which he might have enjoyed hugely if not so "played out," will weary
+him so much that he will probably resolve to avoid the opera in the
+future. Thus opera suffers in the same way that society suffers: the
+late hour at which all entertainments begin prevents the "desirable"
+men who have worked all day, and must be at their work bright and
+early the next day, from attending parties, balls, and operas.
+
+It must be said, on the other hand, in defence of long German operas,
+that it is only while they are novelties to the hearer that they
+fatigue his brain beyond endurance. After they have been heard a few
+times they cease to be a study that calls for a laborious
+concentration of the attention, and become a source of pure delight
+and recreation. The difficulty lies in convincing people of this
+fact. There are in New York hundreds of persons, who, having read of
+the rare beauties of "Tristan" or "Siegfried," went to the opera to
+hear and judge for themselves. Of course, as everything was new to
+them, they found it hard work to follow all the intricacies of the
+plot and the music at the same time; hence, their verdict next day was
+that German opera was "too heavy" for them. These persons cannot be
+made to believe that if they would only repeat their visits, the labor
+of listening would be reduced to a minimum and the pleasure increased
+to enthusiasm. I know a man, one of the cleverest writers for the New
+York press, a man who can afford to go to the opera every evening, and
+who _does_ go when Meyerbeer's operas are given, but who absolutely
+and stubbornly refuses to attend a Wagner performance at the
+Metropolitan. Why? Because a number of years ago he attended a
+wretched performance in Italian of "Lohengrin" which bored him! I
+believe there are many like him in New York.
+
+Mr. Carl Rosa, in an article which appeared in _Murray's Magazine_ a
+year ago, remarks on this topic: "An Englishman, once bored [at the
+opera] will with difficulty be made to return; and this is the reason
+why light opera, opera bouffe, and burlesque have their advantage in
+this country. They are so easy to digest after dinner." And again:
+"There is no doubt that opera is, to some extent, an acquired taste;
+but the taste, once imparted, grows rapidly. From personal experience
+I know that _some of my best supporters had to be dragged to the opera
+at first_, and induced to sit it through."
+
+In these remarks lies a valuable hint to the lovers of German opera.
+The most important thing to do, if opera is to be permanently
+retained, is to _enlarge the operatic public_. This can only be done
+by means of a concerted action of all admirers of the opera. Let them
+keep on, with "damnable iteration," to drum into their friends' heads
+the fact that if they will only make up their minds to attend one good
+opera _three or four times in succession_ they will become devoted
+admirers of it the rest of their lives. The friends will finally
+consent, in pure self-defence, to try the experiment; and in three
+cases out of four they will become converted and admit that German
+operatic music is indeed a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
+
+There is at present in New York a considerable number of musical
+Mugwumps, persons who formerly doted on Italian opera, but who now
+find it tiresome after hearing German opera. The distinguished English
+psychologist, Mr. James Sully, incidentally speaks of his experiences
+in regard to Wagner's operas, in his work on "Sensation and
+Intuition." "Although," he says, "I went to the first performance
+decidedly prejudiced against the noisy _Zukunftsmusik_, I found that
+after patient study of these operas I became so susceptible of their
+high dramatic beauties that I lost much of my relish for the older
+Italian opera, which began to appear highly unnatural. I heard from
+other cultivated Germans--among others from Professor Helmholtz--that
+they had undergone quite a similar change of opinion with respect to
+these operas."
+
+Who, on the other hand, has ever heard of a renegade Wagnerite? Such
+an animal does not exist, and if a specimen could be found, it would
+pay to exhibit him in a dime museum. The very expression seems a
+contradiction in terms. Wagner frequently asserted that no one could
+_understand_ his music unless he admired it; and there is truth in
+this, for only enthusiasm can sharpen the mental faculties
+sufficiently to enable us to perceive the countless subtle beauties in
+Wagner's and Weber's scores. M. Saint-Saens, who is considered the
+best living score-reader, compares Wagner's scores to those
+master-works of mediaeval architecture which are adorned with
+sculptured reliefs that must have required infinite care and labor in
+the chiselling. Now, just as a careless observer of such architectural
+works hardly notices the lovely figures sculptured on them, so the
+average opera-goer does not hear the exquisite harmonic and melodic
+miniature-work in Wagner's music-dramas. But if he has once taken the
+trouble to study them, he becomes an enthusiast for life; for he
+constantly discovers new and beautiful details which had previously
+escaped his notice.
+
+The eighth performance of "Siegfried" in New York was one of those
+events that will always live in the memory of those who were so
+fortunate as to be present. Everyone on the stage and in the orchestra
+seemed to be inspired, and the audience in consequence was
+electrified. For my part, although I had heard this music-drama at
+least a dozen times previously, and knew every bar by heart, it seemed
+as if I had never heard it before, so vividly were all its beauties
+revealed in the white heat of Conductor Seidl's enthusiasm. All the
+evening I sat trembling with excitement, and could not sleep for hours
+afterward. I have for twelve years made a special study of the
+emotions, but I could not conceive any pleasure more intense and more
+prolonged than that of listening to such a music-drama. Is not such a
+pleasure worth cultivating, even if it involves some toil at first?
+And have not musical people reason to regard with profound pity those
+poor mortals who can enjoy beauty only through the medium of their
+eyes, their ears being deaf to the charms of artistically combined
+sounds?
+
+At the "Siegfried" performance just referred to the audience
+fortunately was large; but there have been other performances, equally
+good, when the audience was meagre. On such occasions much of my
+enjoyment was marred by the melancholy thought that such glorious
+music should be wasted on empty stalls, when there were thousands of
+persons in the city who, if they only could have been induced to
+overcome their prejudices and devote a few hours of previous study to
+the libretto and the pianoforte-score of these operas, would not only
+have found them entertaining, but would have enjoyed them rapturously.
+
+The essence and perennial charm of German music lies in its _melodious
+harmony_. Nothing is more absurd than the notion that there is more
+melody in Italian than in German music. The only difference is that in
+Italian music the melody is more prominent, being unencumbered by
+complicated harmonies and accompaniments, while in German music the
+melody is interwoven with the various harmonic parts, which makes it
+difficult to follow at first. But when once this gift has been
+acquired, it is a source of eternal pleasure. Nor is it so difficult
+to cultivate the harmonic sense, if one takes pains to hear good music
+often and _attentively_. I once met a young lady on a transatlantic
+steamer, who frankly confessed she could not see any beauty in certain
+exquisite Wagnerian and Chopinesque modulations and harmonies which I
+played for her on the piano. When asked if she did not care for
+harmony at all, she replied: "Oh, yes! I know a chord which is _simply
+divine_!" Then she played--what do you fancy?--the _simple major
+triad_--A flat in the bass, and A flat, C, E flat an octave
+higher--which is the most elementary of all chords, the very alphabet
+of music. If she found this commonplace chord "simply divine," what
+would she have said could she have been made to realize that the
+modulations I had played were as superior to her chord in poetic charm
+as a line of Shakspere is to the letters A B C? And she _could_ have
+been made to realize this truth in a few months, under proper
+instruction.
+
+I have dwelt so long on this matter because I have come to the
+conclusion, as already stated, that the greatest problem in connection
+with German opera is to enlarge the patronage, and induce persons to
+reserve their judgment of a "heavy" opera until they have heard it two
+or three times. They will soon find that the word "heavy" is a very
+relative and changeable term in music. To one who really admires
+Shakspere and Homer, a fashionable novel is tedious beyond endurance;
+just so, to one who can appreciate "Tristan" or "Euryanthe," Verdi's
+"Ernani" and Bellini's "Norma" are heavy as lead, soporific as opium.
+
+The difficulty of understanding subtle harmonies is perhaps the main
+reason why English-speaking people are so slow in appreciating and
+encouraging the opera. But there are two other important reasons which
+may be briefly referred to--religious rigorousness, and a certain
+predilection for the ornamental style of singing.
+
+No doubt there was a time when the stage was so profligate that the
+Puritans were justified in tabooing it altogether. But that is not now
+the case. There are many theatres where plays are given that are not
+only pure in tone, but exert a refining and educating influence on all
+who hear them. And as for operas, there is hardly one in the modern
+repertory that is open to censure on moral grounds. Mr. Carl Rosa
+refers to the curious fact that, when circumstances compel him to give
+an operatic performance in a hall instead of a theatre, the audiences
+are of quite a distinct character, including many who like opera, but
+do not wish to go to a theatre. Now, this general condemnation of the
+theatre because it is often used for frivolous purposes is just as
+unreasonable as it would be to condemn and avoid all novels because
+Zola writes novels.
+
+There is, indeed, a positive harm that results from the tabooing of
+the theatre by religious people. Why is so large a proportion of our
+plays frivolous and vulgar? Because the frivolous and vulgar
+predominate among theatre-goers. If the large number of refined
+people who avoid the theatre were to attend, this proportion might be
+reversed, and more of the managers would find it profitable to bring
+out clean and wholesome dramas. Some prominent clergymen have lately
+expressed themselves in this sense, and it is probable that a reaction
+is at hand that will benefit the cause of serious opera. There is
+absolutely nothing in any of the operas given at the Metropolitan that
+could not be fitly sung before a Sunday-school audience. Why, then,
+taboo the opera and jeopardize its existence, leaving the field to the
+frivolous operettas and farces?
+
+The other obstacle alluded to--the love of colorature song--is a thing
+that will cure itself with the advance of musical culture. The Germans
+and the French have long since turned their backs on the florid
+variety of vocalists, and the Italians are now following suit. An
+eminent Italian teacher in New York, who has made a specialty of
+teaching trills and runs and roulades and other vocal circus tricks,
+lately declared that he was tired of this style of singing, and began
+to prefer a more simple and dramatic style. The same is true of the
+modern Italian composers. It is well known that Boito, Ponchielli, and
+Verdi in his latest operas, approximate the German style; and their
+admirers will doubtless ere long adapt their taste to this change.
+Nevertheless, there are not a few remaining who look upon opera as a
+sort of vocal acrobatics. They go once or twice to the Metropolitan,
+and feel defrauded of their money if the prima donna fails to come
+forward to the prompter's box to run up some breakneck scales, and,
+having arrived at the top, descend by means of a chain of trills or
+series of somersaults. Their interest in music is _athletic_ (feats of
+skill), not _aesthetic_ (artistic expression of emotions). Yet these
+people have the impudence to say that German opera is "stupid,"
+forgetting that their case might be analogous to that of the drunkard
+who thinks the earth is reeling when he is.
+
+This class of opera-goers never tire of abusing such singers as
+Fraeulein Brandt and Herr Niemann because their voices are no longer as
+mellow as in their youth, and sometimes weaken in a sustained note or
+swerve for a second from the pitch. Such blemishes are no doubt to be
+regretted, but they are a hundred times atoned for by the passion and
+the variety of emotional expression that animate their voices, and by
+their superb acting. Fraeulein Brandt's _Ortrud_, _Eglantine_, and
+_Fides_ will be referred to generations hence as models, as will Herr
+Niemann's _Tannhaeuser_, _Siegmund_, _Cortez_, _Lohengrin_, _Tristan_,
+etc. New Yorkers must consider themselves fortunate in having heard
+for two seasons the greatest of Wagnerian tenors--even though he is no
+longer in his prime--the man who sang the title _role_ of
+"Tannhaeuser" when that opera was produced in Paris in 1861; who
+created the part of _Siegmund_ in 1876 at Bayreuth; and who, in his
+way, has done as much to popularize Wagner's operas as Liszt did
+during the Weimar period, when people had to go to that city to hear
+"Lohengrin" and "Tannhaeuser," as they now go to Bayreuth to hear
+"Parsifal." He is not only valuable for the sake of his artistic
+qualities, but because of his enthusiasm for the cause of the best
+music. Wagner held him in the highest esteem; and he wrote in his
+review of the Bayreuth festival of 1876, that without Niemann's
+devotion and ardor its success would not have been assured. He
+regretted subsequently that he did not ask Niemann to create the
+_role_ of _Siegfried_ in the last drama of the Tetralogy, as well as
+that of _Siegmund_ in the second. Thanks to this mistake, New Yorkers
+had the privilege of hearing Niemann's _debut_ in this _role_--at the
+age of fifty-seven, an age when most tenors have retired on their
+pensions.
+
+Three artists are included in the present company at the Metropolitan
+whom Mr. Stanton could not dispense with under any circumstances. One
+of these is Herr Fischer, who, now that Scaria is no more, is beyond
+comparison the finest dramatic bass on the stage. No Italian could have
+a more mellow and sonorous voice, and his method has all the
+conscientiousness, passion, and distinctness of enunciation that
+characterize the German style. His _Wotan_ and his _Hans Sachs_,
+especially, are marvels of operatic impersonation. Herr Alvary, the
+second of the vocalists who unite Italian with German merits, is a
+young singer who has a great future before him, if his _Siegfried_, a
+most realistic and powerful impersonation, may be argued from. And as
+for the third of these artists--Lilli Lehmann--her equal can hardly
+to-day be found on the operatic stage. It is very characteristic of the
+late Intendant of the Berlin theatres--Herr von Huelsen (who waited nine
+years before he accepted "Lohengrin" for performance, and afterward
+repeated the same _faux pas_ with the Nibelung Trilogy)--that he
+confined Fraeulein Lehmann for years to subordinate _roles_. Indeed,
+although she had acquired considerable fame abroad, it may be said that
+her real career did not begin till she came to New York. Here her rare
+merits were at once recognized, and instead of resting on her laurels,
+she has grown more admirable as an actress and singer every year. Her
+voice has a sensuous beauty that is matchless, and no other prima
+donna, except Materna, has emotion in her voice so deep and genuine as
+that which moves us in Lehmann's _Isolde_ and _Bruennhilde_.
+
+She made her _debut_ in 1866, at Prague, and ten years later sang the
+small _roles_ of the first Rhine maiden and the forest bird in
+"Rheingold" and "Siegfried," at the Bayreuth festival--little
+fancying, perhaps, that she would twelve years later be the queen of
+German opera in America. She takes excellent care of her voice, and
+never allows the weather to interfere with her daily walk of several
+miles. Her versatility is extraordinary, for she sings _Norma_ and
+_Valentine_ as well as she does _Isolde_. She scouts the idea that
+Wagner's music ruins the voice, agreeing on this point with the most
+famous vocal teacher of the day, Madame Marchesi. It is only when
+Wagner's music is sung to excess that it injures the voice, according
+to Fraeulein Lehmann, because it requires such extraordinary power to
+cope with the orchestra. Heretofore she has not always succeeded in
+holding her own against the full orchestra, but in her latest and
+greatest impersonation--_Bruennhilde_, in "Die Goetterdaemmerung"--her
+voice rivalled Materna's in power without losing a shade of its
+sensuous beauty, which is always enchanting.
+
+If it were possible to secure half a dozen more singers like Lehmann,
+Alvary, and Fischer, the operatic problem might be regarded as solved.
+It is the scarcity of first-class acting vocalists that makes opera so
+expensive, and prevents it from being self-supporting. The number of
+first-class singers is so small that every manager competes for them,
+and enables them to charge fancy prices, which are ruinous to any
+manager who has no government or other support to fall back on.
+
+It is a curious thing, this scarcity of good singers. We read so much
+about all professions being over-crowded; and yet here is a profession
+in which success literally means millions, and yet so few come forward
+in it that managers are at their wits' ends what to do, especially in
+the case of tenors. Herr Niemann obtains seven hundred and fifty
+dollars for every appearance; Fraeulein Lehmann gets six hundred
+dollars, and there are singers who are much better paid still because
+they appear under the star system. Surely this ought to be a
+sufficient bait to catch talented pupils. How many professions are
+there in which one can make between five hundred and two thousand
+dollars in three or four hours?--not to speak of the possibility of
+winning the great prize--Madame Patti's four or five thousand?
+
+It is sometimes said that the repertory is at fault; but I am
+convinced that if there were plenty of good singers in the field, many
+of the operas that were formerly in vogue might be revived
+successfully--always excepting the flimsy productions of Bellini and
+Donizetti. It was formerly believed for years that "Lohengrin" was the
+only one of Wagner's early operas that American audiences cared for.
+But "Tannhaeuser" has, in a few years, become more popular than
+"Lohengrin," thanks largely to its better staging and interpretation.
+Owing in a large measure to Fraeulein Brandt's _Fides_ and Fraeulein
+Lehmann's _Bertha_, Meyerbeer's "Prophete" has been a success for
+several years. Spontini's "Cortez," Weber's "Euryanthe," Wagner's
+"Rienzi," and Beethoven's "Fidelio," are among the most interesting
+revivals during Mr. Stanton's enterprising _regime_.
+
+No composer, and few poets, have ever inspired so many artists to
+visualize their conceptions on canvas as the poetic scenes suggested
+in Wagner's dramas. A special exhibition of such pictures was held in
+Vienna some years ago. It is not too much to say that Wagner's scenic
+backgrounds are as much more artistic than those of other opera
+composers as his texts are more poetic than theirs. He avoids frequent
+changes, and generally has only three scenes for an opera. But each of
+these, if executed according to his directions, is a masterpiece, and
+impresses itself on the memory like the canvas of a master.
+
+The performance of the Trilogy in New York has naturally revived among
+the Wagnerites the question as to which of the master's works is the
+greatest. Leaving aside "Tristan" and "Die Meistersinger," which he
+never surpassed, many regard the first act of "Die Walkuere" the most
+finished of Wagner's creations; and certainly it has a marvellously
+impressive climax--_Siegmund's_ drawing of the sword from the
+ash-tree, and the love duo which follows; and another in _Wotan's_
+farewell in Act III. But grand as these are, many consider the last
+act of "Die Goetterdaemmerung" the supreme achievement of Wagner. The
+exquisite trio of the Rhine maidens swimming and singing in a
+picturesque forest scene; the death of _Siegfried_, and the procession
+that slowly carries his body by the light of the moon up the hill; and
+the burning of the funeral pyre at the end, until it is put out by the
+rising waters of the Rhine bearing the maidens on the surface; these
+scenes, with the glorious music accompanying, cannot be matched by any
+act of any other opera. Nevertheless, as a whole, "Siegfried" is, in
+my opinion, the grandest part of the Trilogy. In no other work of
+Wagner is there such a minute correspondence, every second, between
+the poetry, music, and scenery. Every action and gesture on the stage
+is mirrored in the orchestra; and I shall never forget the remark made
+to me in 1876, at Bayreuth, by a musician, that in "Siegfried" we hear
+for the first time music such as Nature herself would make if she had
+an orchestra.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                      |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Page  92: removed extra 'to' in 'resorted to to rouse'       |
+    | Page 158: Wilhelmj replaced with Wilhelm                     |
+    | Page 162: Erlich replaced with Ehrlich                       |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Since 'Erlking' (page 138) and 'Erl King' (page 237) are     |
+    | from two articles, and both are legitimate spellings of      |
+    | Schubert's music, these are left as is.                      |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chopin and Other Musical Essays, by Henry T. Finck
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS ***
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