How To Listen To Music Part 5

Romanticism is fluid Cla.s.sicism. It is the emotional stimulus informing Romanticism which calls music into life, but no sooner is it born, free, untrammelled, nature's child, than the regulative principle places shackles upon it; but it is enslaved only that it may become and remain art.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," p. 22.

[C] "Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," by George Grove, C.B., 2d ed., p. 191.

IV

_The Modern Orchestra_

[Sidenote: _The orchestra as an instrument._]

[Sidenote: _What may be heard from a band._]

The most eloquent, potent, and capable instrument of music in the world is the modern orchestra. It is the instrument whose employment by the cla.s.sical composers and the geniuses of the Romantic School in the middle of our century marks the high tide of the musical art. It is an instrument, moreover, which is never played upon without giving a great object-lesson in musical a.n.a.lysis, without inviting the eye to help the ear to discern the cause of the sounds which ravish our senses and stir up pleasurable emotions. Yet the popular knowledge of its const.i.tuent parts, of the individual value and mission of the factors which go to make up its sum, is scarcely greater than the popular knowledge of the structure of a symphony or sonata. All this is the more deplorable since at least a rudimentary knowledge of these things might easily be gained, and in gaining it the student would find a unique intellectual enjoyment, and have his ears unconsciously opened to a thousand beauties in the music never perceived before. He would learn, for instance, to distinguish the characteristic timbre of each of the instruments in the band; and after that to the delight found in what may be called the primary colors he would add that which comes from a.n.a.lyzing the vast number of tints which are the products of combination. Noting the capacity of the various instruments and the manner in which they are employed, he would get glimpses into the mental workshop of the composer. He would discover that there are conventional means of expression in his art a.n.a.logous to those in the other arts; and collating his methods with the effects produced, he would learn something of the creative artist's purposes. He would find that while his merely sensuous enjoyment would be left unimpaired, and the emotional excitement which is a legitimate fruit of musical performance unchecked, these pleasures would have others consorted with them. His intellectual faculties would be agreeably excited, and he would enjoy the pleasures of memory, which are exemplified in music more delightfully and more frequently than in any other art, because of the role which repet.i.tion of parts plays in musical composition.

[Sidenote: _Familiar instruments._]

[Sidenote: _The instrumental choirs._]

The argument is as valid in the study of musical forms as in the study of the orchestra, but it is the latter that is our particular business in this chapter. Everybody listening to an orchestral concert recognizes the physical forms of the violins, flutes, cornets, and big drum; but even of these familiar instruments the voices are not always recognized. As for the rest of the harmonious fraternity, few give heed to them, even while enjoying the music which they produce; yet with a few words of direction anybody can study the instruments of the band at an orchestral concert. Let him first recognize the fact that to the mind of a composer an orchestra always presents itself as a combination of four groups of instruments--choirs, let us call them, with unwilling apology to the lexicographers. These choirs are: first, the viols of four sorts--violins, violas, violoncellos, and double-ba.s.ses, spoken of collectively as the "string quartet;" second, the wind instruments of wood (the "wood-winds" in the musician's jargon)--flutes, oboes, clarinets, and ba.s.soons; third, the wind instruments of bra.s.s (the "bra.s.s")--trumpets, horns, trombones, and ba.s.s tuba. In all of these subdivisions there are numerous variations which need not detain us now. A further subdivision might be made in each with reference to the harmony voices (showing an a.n.a.logy with the four voices of a vocal choir--soprano, contralto, tenor, and ba.s.s); but to go into this might make the exposition confusing. The fourth "choir" (here the apology to the lexicographers must be repeated with much humility and earnestness) consists of the instruments of percussion--the kettle-drums, big drum, cymbals, triangle, bell chime, etc. (sometimes spoken of collectively in the United States as "the battery").

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEATING PLAN OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.]

[Sidenote: _How orchestras are seated._]

[Sidenote: _Plan of the New York Philharmonic._]

The disposition of these instruments in our orchestras is largely a matter of individual taste and judgment in the conductor, though the general rule is exemplified in the plan given herewith, showing how Mr. Anton Seidl has arranged the desks for the concerts of the Philharmonic Society of New York. Mr. Theodore Thomas's arrangement differed very little from that of Mr. Seidl, the most noticeable difference being that he placed the viola-players beside the second violinists, where Mr. Seidl has the violoncellists. Mr. Seidl's purpose in making the change was to gain an increase in sonority for the viola part, the position to the right of the stage (the left of the audience) enabling the viola-players to hold their instruments with the F-holes toward the listeners instead of away from them. The relative positions of the harmonious battalions, as a rule, are as shown in the diagram. In the foreground, the violins, violas, and 'cellos; in the middle distance, the wood-winds; in the background, the bra.s.s and the battery; the double-ba.s.ses flanking the whole body.

This distribution of forces is dictated by considerations of sonority, the most a.s.sertive instruments--the bra.s.s and drums--being placed farthest from the hearers, and the instruments of the viol tribe, which are the real backbone of the band and make their effect by a ma.s.sing of voices in each part, having the place of honor and greatest advantage. Of course it is understood that I am speaking of a concert orchestra. In the case of theatrical or operatic bands the arrangement of the forces is dependent largely upon the exigencies of s.p.a.ce.

[Sidenote: _Solo instruments._]

Outside the strings the instruments are treated by composers as solo instruments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or other wind instrument sometimes doing the same work in the development of the composition as the entire body of first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds are used in pairs, the purpose of this being either to fill the harmony when what I may call the princ.i.p.al thought of the composition is consigned to a particular choir, or to strengthen a voice by permitting two instruments to play in unison.

[Sidenote: _Groupings for harmony effects._]

[Sidenote: _Wagner's instrumental characterization._]

[Sidenote: _An instrumental language._]

Each choir, except the percussion instruments, is capable of playing in full harmony; and this effect is frequently used by composers. In "Lohengrin," which for that reason affords to the amateur an admirable opportunity for orchestral study, Wagner resorts to this device in some instances for the sake of dramatic characterization. _Elsa_, a dreamy, melancholy maiden, crushed under the weight of wrongful accusation, and sustained only by the vision of a seraphic champion sent by Heaven to espouse her cause, is accompanied on her entrance and sustained all through her scene of trial by the dulcet tones of the wood-winds, the oboe most often carrying the melody. _Lohengrin's_ superterrestrial character as a Knight of the Holy Grail is prefigured in the harmonies which seem to stream from the violins, and in the prelude tell of the bringing of the sacred vessel of Christ's pa.s.sion to Monsalvat; but in his chivalric character he is greeted by the militant trumpets in a strain of brilliant puissance and rhythmic energy. Composers have studied the voices of the instruments so long and well, and have noted the kind of melodies and harmonies in which the voices are most effective, that they have formulated what might almost be called an instrumental language. Though the effective capacity of each instrument is restricted not only by its mechanics, but also by the quality of its tones--a melody conceived for one instrument sometimes becoming utterly inexpressive and unbeautiful by transferrence to another--the range of effects is extended almost to infinity by means of combination, or, as a painter might say, by mixing the colors. The art of writing effectively for instruments in combination is the art of instrumentation or orchestration, in which Berlioz and Wagner were Past Grand Masters.

[Sidenote: _Number of instruments._]

The number of instruments of each kind in an orchestra may also be said to depend measurably upon the music, or the use to which the band is to be put. Neither in instruments nor in numbers is there absolute ident.i.ty between a dramatic and a symphonic orchestra. The apparatus of the former is generally much more varied and complex, because of the vast development of variety in dramatic expression stimulated by Wagner.

[Sidenote: _Symphony and dramatic orchestras._]

The modern symphony, especially the symphonic poem, shows the influence of this dramatic tendency, but not in the same degree. A comparison between model bands in each department will disclose what is called the normal orchestral organization. For the comparison (see page 82), I select the bands of the first Wagner Festival held in Bayreuth in 1876, the Philharmonic Society of New York, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

[Sidenote: _Instruments rarely used._]

Instruments like the corno di ba.s.setto, ba.s.s trumpet, tenor tuba, contra-ba.s.s tuba, and contra-ba.s.s trombone are so seldom called for in the music played by concert orchestras that they have no place in their regular lists. They are employed when needed, however, and the horns and other instruments are multiplied when desirable effects are to be obtained by such means.

[Sidenote: _Orchestras compared._]

New York Instruments Bayreuth. Philharmonic. Boston. Chicago.

First violins 16 18 16 16 Second violins 16 18 14 16 Violas 12 14 10 10 Violoncellos 12 14 8 10 Double-ba.s.ses 8 14 8 9 Flutes 3 3 3 3 Oboes 3 3 2 3 English horn 1 1 1 1 Clarinets 3 3 3 3 Ba.s.set-horn 1 0 0 0 Ba.s.soons 3 3 3 3 Trumpets or cornets 3 3 4 4 Horns 8 4 4 4 Trombones 3 3 3 3 Ba.s.s trumpet 1 0 0 1 Tenor tubas 2 0 2 4 Ba.s.s tubas 2 1 2 1 Contra-ba.s.s tuba 1 0 1 0 Contra-ba.s.s trombone 1 0 0 1 Tympani (pairs) 2 2 2 2 Ba.s.s drum 1 1 1 1 Cymbals (pairs) 1 1 1 1 Harps 6 1 1 2

[Sidenote: _The string quartet._]

[Sidenote: _Old laws against instrumentalists._]

[Sidenote: _Early instrumentation._]

[Sidenote: _Handel's orchestra._]

The string quartet, it will be seen, makes up nearly three-fourths of a well-balanced orchestra. It is the only choir which has numerous representation of its const.i.tuent units. This was not always so, but is the fruit of development in the art of instrumentation which is the newest department in music. Vocal music had reached its highest point before instrumental music made a beginning as an art. The former was the pampered child of the Church, the latter was long an outlaw. As late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries instrumentalists were vagabonds in law, like strolling players. They had none of the rights of citizenship; the religious sacraments were denied them; their children were not permitted to inherit property or learn an honourable trade; and after death the property for which they had toiled escheated to the crown. After the instruments had achieved the privilege of artistic utterance, they were for a long time mere slavish imitators of the human voice. Bach treated them with an insight into their possibilities which was far in advance of his time, for which reason he is the most modern composer of the first half of the eighteenth century; but even in Handel's case the rule was to treat them chiefly as supports for the voices. He multiplied them just as he did the voices in his choruses, consorting a choir of oboes and ba.s.soons, and another of trumpets of almost equal numbers with his violins.

[Sidenote: _The modern band._]

The so-called purists in England talk a great deal about restoring Handel's orchestra in performances of his oratorios, utterly unmindful of the fact that to our ears, accustomed to the myriad-hued orchestra of to-day, the effect would seem opaque, heavy, unbalanced, and without charm were a band of oboes to play in unison with the violins, another of ba.s.soons to double the 'cellos, and half a dozen trumpets to come flaring and crashing into the musical ma.s.s at intervals. Gluck in the opera, and Haydn and Mozart in the symphony, first disclosed the charm of the modern orchestra with the wind instruments apportioned to the strings so as to obtain the mult.i.tude of tonal tints which we admire to-day. On the lines which they marked out the progress has been exceedingly rapid and far-reaching.

[Sidenote: _Capacity of the orchestra._]

[Sidenote: _The extremes of range._]

In the hands of the latter-day Romantic composers, and with the help of the instrument-makers, who have marvellously increased the capacity of the wind instruments, and remedied the deficiencies which embarra.s.sed the Cla.s.sical writers, the orchestra has developed into an instrument such as never entered the mind of the wildest dreamer of the last century. Its range of expression is almost infinite. It can strike like a thunder-bolt, or murmur like a zephyr. Its voices are mult.i.tudinous. Its register is coextensive in theory with that of the modern pianoforte, reaching from the s.p.a.ce immediately below the sixth added line under the ba.s.s staff to the ninth added line above the treble staff. These two extremes, which belong respectively to the ba.s.s tuba and piccolo flute, are not at the command of every player, but they are within the capacity of the instruments, and mark the orchestra's boundaries in respect of pitch. The gravest note is almost as deep as any in which the ordinary human ear can detect pitch, and the acutest reaches the same extremity in the opposite direction.

[Sidenote: _The viols._]

[Sidenote: _The violin._]

With all the changes that have come over the orchestra in the course of the last two hundred years, the string quartet has remained its chief factor. Its voice cannot grow monotonous or cloying, for, besides its innate qualities, it commands a more varied manner of expression than all the other instruments combined. The viol, which term I shall use generically to indicate all the instruments of the quartet, is the only instrument in the band, except the harp, that can play harmony as well as melody. Its range is the most extensive; it is more responsive to changes in manipulation; it is endowed more richly than any other instrument with varieties of timbre; it has an incomparable facility of execution, and answers more quickly and more eloquently than any of its companions to the feelings of the player. A great advantage which the viol possesses over wind instruments is that, not being dependent on the breath of the player, there is practically no limit to its ability to sustain tones. It is because of this long list of good qualities that it is relied on to provide the staff of life to instrumental music. The strings as commonly used show four members of the viol family, distinguished among themselves by their size, and the quality in the changes of tone which grows out of the differences in size. The violins (Appendix, Plate I.) are the smallest members of the family. Historically they are the culmination of a development toward diminutiveness, for in their early days viols were larger than they are now. When the violin of to-day entered the orchestra (in the score of Monteverde's opera "Orfeo") it was specifically described as a "little French violin." Its voice, Berlioz says, is the "true female voice of the orchestra." Generally the violin part of an orchestral score is two-voiced, but the two groups may be split into a great number. In one pa.s.sage in "Tristan und Isolde" Wagner divides his first and second violins into sixteen groups. Such divisions, especially in the higher regions, are productive of entrancing effects.

[Sidenote: _Violin effects._]

[Sidenote: _Pizzicato._]

[Sidenote: _"Col legno dall'arco."_]

[Sidenote: _Harmonics._]