Musical Myths and Facts Volume II Part 17

Such dramatic music of extra-European countries as has been derived from Europe does not come within the scope of our present inquiry. It happens, however, not unfrequently that the European music is to some extent modified, by being interspersed with national tunes of the extra-European country into which it has been introduced, or by being performed in a peculiar manner. Whenever this is the case, it deserves the special attention of the student of national music.

The Tagals, or the aborigines of the Philippine Islands, have theatrical performances in bamboo buildings. The characters consist princ.i.p.ally of fairies, demons, and other supernatural creatures; but, the musical part of these entertainments is said to contain much which has been borrowed from the Spaniards. Probably this is especially the case in Manilla. Besides the princ.i.p.al theatre, in which the actors are Spaniards, Manilla has two theatres of the natives. In South America we find, as might be expected, Spanish and Italian operas. In Lima the orchestra is deficient; Spanish dances, as the Bolero, Fandango, Don Mateo, are often performed instead of our ballets. At the theatre in Mexico, Spanish dances are frequently introduced between the plays. The Teatro de Tacon in Havana, said to be one of the finest edifices of the kind in the world, has singers who perform Italian operas, as in Europe.

The female spectators sit in places separate from those of the men.

There can hardly be a doubt that many operatic entertainments, which are now secular, had originally a sacred character. The ancient nations performed religious dances with pantomimic representations. Also the Chinese at the time of Confucius thus enhanced their sacred ceremonies.

The Burmese, at the present day, sing and dance by the coffin of a deceased priest. They are Buddhists. Funeral dances are common with several uncivilized races. Our Christian ancestors, during the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages, performed sacred dances in the church. The Christian priests of the Abyssinians still dance at certain religious ceremonies. In the Cathedral of Seville, boys, from the age of twelve to seventeen, dressed in an old Spanish costume, annually execute a ballet every evening during the Ottave del Corpus. Again, sacred dances with recitations, dialogues, and hymns are performed in several European countries during Christmastide. The Mysteries, Miracle Plays, or musical-dramatic entertainments on biblical subjects, so popular during the Middle Ages, have not entirely fallen into disuse. Pa.s.sion-Plays are still occasionally performed by the peasantry in Bavaria, in the Tyrol, and in Moravia. The "Mayings," or popular rejoicings with music, dancing, and processions, remains of which are still to be found in England as well as on the Continent, had probably in pagan time also a religious character, as they were intended to welcome the approach of the sunny season. Turning to America, we meet in Peru with musical entertainments which were introduced among the Indians by the Spanish monks, who accompanied Pizarro's army, and who dramatized scenes in the life of Christ, and had them represented to facilitate by this attractive means the conversion of the heathen aborigines. These plays are no longer performed in the larger towns of Peru, but are still kept up by the villagers of the Sierra. Good Friday especially is celebrated by them in this manner; and on Palm Sunday an image of the Saviour seated on an a.s.s is paraded through the princ.i.p.al streets of the town or village.[106] In Brazil we find on Hallelujah Sat.u.r.day (between Good Friday and Easter Sunday) the popular ceremony of burning effigies of Judas Iscariot, the traitor, in company with dragons, serpents and demons; and there are besides several other religious celebrations in which music is employed in combination with fire-works and dramatic representations.

Comic scenes were not excluded from the old Mysteries of mediaeval time.

On the contrary, they appear to have been highly relished by the worshippers, and contributed much to the popularity of the entertainments. In Paris a building was erected, in the year 1313, princ.i.p.ally for dramatic performances relating to the Pa.s.sion of Christ and the Resurrection, enacted with music and dancing. Soon, attempts were made to vary these entertainments by the occasional introduction of some play founded on a myth, or on a wonderful event recorded in secular history, or also by the admission of profane comedies and farces.

Although music, instrumental as well as vocal, did not const.i.tute the chiefest point of attraction in these plays, it certainly contributed much to the impressiveness of the whole.[107] During the second half of the thirteenth century, Adam de la Hale wrote dramatic plays with songs, founded on secular subjects. These plays, called Gieux (_jeux_), might perhaps be called operettas, since they contained dialogues interspersed with songs. In fact, although our opera may be said to date from about the year 1600, secular plays in which music and poetry were intimately a.s.sociated were known long before that time. The ancient Greeks used in their dramas the vocal music of choruses and the instrumental accompaniment of flutes and other instruments, in close connection with the poetry. The latter art was, however, the princ.i.p.al one, while in our present opera _music_ is the princ.i.p.al art.

As regards the secular dances of the ancient Greeks, it may be observed that some of them were similar to the pantomimic exhibitions which are still relished by several nations. The Pyrrhic dance, which was executed according to fixed rules, to the sound of the flute, depicted a combat of warriors. Lord Broughton, during his stay in Albania, was struck with the resemblance between some of the dances of the Albanians and those of the ancient Greeks. He notices especially the Pyrrhic dance.[108] The war-dance of the Jajis, a wild and hostile tribe in the mountainous districts of Afghanistan, is probably quite as picturesque and exciting as was the Pyrrhic dance. A European eye-witness of the war-dance of the Jajis states that it is performed by about twelve or fifteen men placed in a ring before a number of spectators who are arranged in a semi-circle. "The performers commenced chanting a song, flourishing their knives overhead, and stamping on the ground to its tones; and then each gradually revolving, the whole body moving round together and maintaining the circle in which they first stood up. Whilst this was going on, two of the party stepped into the centre of the ring and went through a mimic fight, or a series of jumps, pirouettes, and other movements of a like nature, which appeared to be regulated in their rapidity by the measure of the music; for, towards the close of the performance the singing ceased, and the whole party appeared twirling and twisting about in a confused ma.s.s amidst the flashing of their drawn knives, their movements being timed by the rapid roll of their drums.

It was wonderful that they did not wound each other in these intricate and rapid evolutions with unsheathed knives. On the conclusion of the dance the whole party set up a shrill and prolonged yell, which reverberated over the hills, and was caught up by those in the neighbouring heights and thus prolonged for some minutes. Whilst all this was going on upon the heights around our camp, several parties of armed Jajis ranged in columns, three or four abreast, and eight or nine deep, followed each other in succession round and round the skirt of our camp, all the time chanting an impressive and pa.s.sionate war-song in a very peculiar sonorous tone that seemed to be affected by the acoustic influences of the locality, which was a deep basin enclosed for the most part by bare and rocky eminences and hills."[109]

Not less characteristic, and equally descriptive, are the sword-dances of the Anazehs, in Syria, and of the warriors in Little Thibet, which are not unfrequently acted with too much reality, since the performers, having worked themselves up to a state of frenzy, are apt to forget that they ought only to feign fighting.

Some of the sword-dances still in use in European countries represent scenes with poetry and music. There is, for instance,--or, at any rate, there was still in the eighteenth century,--an ancient sword-dance occasionally performed in some villages of North Germany, in which the princ.i.p.al dancer, or "The King," addresses the people in a speech.[110]

Here may also be noticed the "Fool Play" still popular in some villages of Northern England, which is described as "a pageant that consists of a number of sword-dancers dragging a plough, with music, and with one, sometimes two, in very strange attire; the Bessey, in the grotesque habit of an old woman; and the Fool, almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on, and the tail of some animal hanging from his back." And the sword-dance performed in the North Riding of Yorkshire, from St.

Stephen's Day till New Year's Day. "The dancers usually consist of six youths dressed in white ribands, attended by a fiddler, a youth with the name of Bessey, and also by one who personates a Doctor. They travel from village to village. One of the six youths acts the part of the King in a kind of farce which consists chiefly of singing and dancing, and the Bessey interferes while they are making a hexagon with their swords, and is killed."[111]

The Cavalcade, or procession on horse-back, is supposed to have been originally connected with the Mysteries of the Middle Ages. It is still occasionally performed in Belgium, and its Flemish name is 'Ommegang.' A number of persons dressed in historical and fanciful costumes ride on horse-back and drive in carriages through the princ.i.p.al streets of the town in which the Cavalcade takes place, with the object of representing scenes from sacred or profane history, or allegorical subjects. The procession is made imposing by the splendid dresses of the princ.i.p.al characters, by the gorgeous gildings of their carriages, and the display of baldachins and flags. This show is supposed to have been introduced into the Netherlands by the Spaniards during their former possession of the country. At a certain religious festival, held in Malines in the year 1838, the entire Litany to the Virgin Mary was represented, each Invocation being written on a beautiful flag, carried by a beautiful and richly-dressed young girl, who was riding on a gorgeously-caparisoned horse led by men. The Invocations: "Queen of the Angels!" "Queen of the Patriarchs!" etc.,--were depicted by groups of characters in open carriages; each carriage, splendidly decorated, having the Virgin Mary seated on a high throne, while at her feet were placed picturesquely on steps the angels, patriarchs and prophets, all of whom were dressed in their appropriate costumes, and provided with their requisite attributes. Again, at a festival which was held at Brussels, in September, 1839, two parishes of the town arranged a grand Cavalcade, in which a scene was represented commemorating a political event from the history of Belgium. Many of the riders were dressed in mediaeval costume, while some appeared in Oriental dresses. The sons and daughters of the most influential citizens generally undertake the representation of the princ.i.p.al characters in these processions. Music is, of course, an indispensable a.s.sistance for the solemnity of such pageants. However, as recitations are of secondary importance in them, or are even entirely omitted, the first attempts at dramatic music are less traceable in these remains of mediaeval entertainments than they are in the rude amus.e.m.e.nts of savages noticed in the beginning of this survey.

It has probably already occurred to the reader that the "Opera of the Future," aimed at by Wagner, will be in some respect a return to the opera in its infancy, inasmuch as it will be devoid of the various artistically-written forms of composition which greatly contribute to the clearness and impressiveness of the music, and which Mozart has developed in his operas to the highest degree of perfection. Much might be said on this subject, were here the proper place for it. Enough if the facts which have been noticed convince the reflecting musician that the contemplated innovations alluded to might as well be termed retrocessions. Gluck was also a reformer of dramatic music, who aimed at truth in its n.o.ble simplicity; but, his objection to anything artificial in the opera did not mislead him to disregard the artistic beauties dependent upon form, which ensure the impressive total effect essential to a true work of art.

Furthermore, the examples given in the preceding pages will probably have convinced the reader that the origin of the opera can be traced more minutely in the first dramatic attempts of uncivilized races of the present time, than by a reference to the theatrical performance of the ancient nations. At any rate, the latter research does not render the former superfluous; they should go hand-in-hand.

[84] 'Popular Customs, etc., of the South of Italy,' by Charles Mac Farlane, London, 1846; p. 68.

[85] 'Voyage pittoresque autour du Monde, par M. Louis Choris;'

Paris, 1822; p. 9.

[86] 'Polynesian Researches,' by William Ellis; London, 1827.

Vol. I., p. 285.

[87] 'A Voyage round the World, in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop "Resolution," commanded by Captain James Cook, during the years 1772-75;' by George Forster; London, 1777. Vol. I., p. 398.

[88] 'An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, compiled and arranged from the extensive communications of Mr. William Mariner, several years resident in those Islands, by John Martin;' London, 1817. Vol. II., p. 309.

[89] 'An Account of a Government Mission to the Fiji Islands, in the years 1860-61;' by Berthold Seeman; Cambridge, 1862. p. 116.

[90] 'A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, etc.,'

by James Morier; London, 1818. p. 104.

[91] 'Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, etc.,' by Sir Robert Ker Porter; London, 1822; Vol. II., p. 272.

[92] 'Travels in Greece, Russia, etc.,' by Bayard Taylor; London, 1859; p. 282.

[93] 'A Lady's Second Journey round the World,' by Ida Pfeiffer; London, 1855; Vol. I., p. 211.

[94] 'The Kingdom of Siam.' By Sir John Bowring. London, 1857; Vol. II., p. 325.

[95] 'A Voyage to Cochin-China.' By John White. London, 1824; p. 302.

[96] 'An Authentic Account of an Emba.s.sy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China,' etc. By Sir George Staunton. London, 1797; Vol. I., p. 344.

[97] 'A Voyage to Cochin-China in the years 1792 and 1793,' by John Barrow. London, 1806; p. 295.

[98] 'A Seaman's Narrative of his Adventures in Cochin-China,' by Edward Brown. London 1861; p. 221.

[99] '_Nats_' are sprites corresponding to the Hindu _Dewas_ whose place they take in the Burman Buddhist system. They are supposed to have been the objects of Burman worship in pre-Buddhistic times.

[100] 'A Narrative of a Mission, sent by the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava, in 1855,' by Captain Henry Yule. London, 1858; p.

368.

[101] 'Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, during the years 1838-42,' by Charles Wilkes; London, 1845; Vol. V.; p. 389.

[102] 'Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, during the years, 1844-46,' by M. Huc; Vol. II.; p. 238.

[103] 'Twelve Years in China,' by a British Resident, (John Scarth), Edinburgh, 1860; p. 56.

[104] 'An Authentic Account of an Emba.s.sy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, etc., taken chiefly from the papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney,' by Sir George Staunton; London, 1797.

Vol. II.; p. 31.

[105] 'j.a.pan and the j.a.panese,' by Captain Golownin (of the Russian Navy); London, 1853. Vol. II.; p. 149.

[106] 'Travels in Peru, by J. J. von Tschudi.' London, 1847; p. 377.

[107] 'Wesen und Geschichte der Oper, von G. W. Fink.' Leipzig, 1838; p.

53.

[108] 'Travels in Albania, etc., by the Right Hon. Lord Broughton.'

London, 1855; Vol. I., p. 145.

[109] 'Journal of a Political Mission to Afghanistan, by H. W. Bellew.'

London, 1862; p. 143.

[110] 'Das deutsche Volk, geschildert von Eduard Duller.' Leipzig, 1847; p. 183.

[111] 'Observations on Popular Antiquities, by John Brand, revised by Henry Ellis.' London, 1813; Vol. I., pp. 396, 401.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A SHORT SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC.

The perusal of Chronological Tables ill.u.s.trating the history of music must appear to many readers a dry occupation. Still, it enables the lover of music to obtain in a short time a comprehensive and clear view of the gradual development of the art from the earliest period of its cultivation recorded in history to the present day. Perhaps a coloured chart contrived like the "Stream of Time," which at a glance shows the great events in universal history, might answer the purpose even better.