The Masters and their Music Part 16

WILLIAM MASON.

The other American pianist born in the year 1829 had a totally different heredity, environment, and education. William Mason also showed his talent at an early age, and was seriously taught the piano under the direction of his father, the late very distinguished and eminent Dr. Lowell Mason, who at that time and for about twenty years later exerted a most commanding influence in Boston and the country at large. Mason's advance was so rapid that by the time he was thirteen or fourteen, or a little later, he appeared in public with orchestra in Boston, playing the Mendelssohn G minor concerto, and I think he had played the Weber "Concertstuck." In the season of 1846 and 1847 he played the piano part in the chamber concerts given by the Harvard Musical a.s.sociation. In 1849 he went to Leipsic and became a pupil in theory of the distinguished Moritz Hauptmann. Upon Hauptmann's death he went to Prague for a year with Dreyschock, and then to Liszt at Weimar. This was in 1851, or thereabouts, and here he remained some time. Returning to America in 1854 he removed to New York, and took the commanding position which he has almost ever since occupied as teacher and as concert pianist. While there are traces of American training in the musical compositions of Dr. Mason, these traces are very few, the general character of his work being distinctly German.

His musical talent was strong upon the harmonic side, but upon the melodic side his imagination was not so free. He has produced several volumes of compositions, probably about one hundred in all, almost every one being elegantly written and well made, and many of them of a cla.s.sical elegance of style. His reputation as a composer has suffered from his limiting his work always to the field of the salon, and especially to the piano. I believe he has never composed an original song, although he has arranged several which have been very useful indeed. It is as a composer for the piano that we have to speak of him.

The most sensational of the Mason pieces is his famous "Silver Spring,"

which was composed shortly after the late Scandinavian pianist, Haberbier, had visited Weimar and had played many brilliant effects of running work upon the piano, in which the hands were used "inter-locking," as it is called; that is, the left hand taking now and then one or two notes of the run. This method of dividing up a run has the effect of imparting a certain amount of arm element to the touch, whereby the tone becomes considerably heavier and more brilliant. It was thought at Weimar at that time that piano playing would very likely take this direction in future, and that the day of running work in the fingers of one hand alone had practically pa.s.sed. Accordingly, Mason experimented in these new effects which Haberbier had suggested, and worked out this piece, "The Silver Spring." As he told me, he first had to find out an accompaniment figure which pleased him, and then to discover in which chords it would go most easily, because the location of the black keys with reference to the white plays a very important part when the hand has to fall in its place in rapid motion. When he had ascertained these points, he then had to consider what key would afford the greatest number of chords of this character, and so at last he came to the key of A and the chords he has in "The Silver Spring."

When he had arrived at this point it was necessary to provide a melody, and, as the melody had to fit the accompaniment, the melody was made last, and in this way he arrived at the seeming "impromptu" of "The Silver Spring." This is his own story to me many years ago, and it may have had a humorous exaggeration in it, not to be taken too seriously.

I mention it because somewhere about the same time when Mason told it to me I had been talking with Dudley Buck one day, and we were speaking of Mason with very great admiration, especially for the elegance of his style as ill.u.s.trated in some of his then recently composed works, such as his "Cradle Song," his two impromptus, "At Evening" and "In the Morning," his "Romance etude" and the like, and Buck said, "If Mason ever had an inspiration it was in that beautiful melody in 'The Silver Spring.' I have arranged a church tune from it and my choir sings it with never failing delight. It will not do to undervalue Mason's gift for melody when he has produced a piece like that."

With reference to the trend of piano playing in the direction of this interlocking work, there were several years when it looked as if the Haberbier suggestions would bear no fruit, but latterly in the Tschaikowsky concerto, to some extent, and in the Schytte concerto in C-sharp minor, to a very great extent, the interlocking principle is employed.

One of the first of Mason's pieces which attained anything like persistent popularity was the "Danse Rustique," which, by the way, is one of the best finger studies for piano students in the fourth grade of which I have any knowledge. It is one of those pieces which can always be learned even by a pupil who is not very smart, provided he will practise it carefully and earnestly enough. It is a piece which can not be played well without very careful practice, and which, when well played, produces a good effect. Hence it has a remarkable pedagogic value if the teacher knows when to put it in and how to handle it when it is once there. While this piece makes no very important figure in the esthetic world, it is by no means a composition to be treated with disrespect. There is a great deal of energy in it and the second subject is very pleasing indeed, and the modulating work in the middle of the piece, where the elaboration would naturally stand in a serious work, is of considerable range and ingenuity, and thoroughly characteristic of the author.

One who wishes to know Mason should study some of the lighter aspects of his productions; and first of these, since it is more nearly related to what I have just now been mentioning, is the "Romance etude" in G minor. This is a pretty melody, often in thirds, in G minor, lying in the convenient soprano range of the piano. Long runs cross this melody, in Thalbergian manner, from one end of the keyboard to the other, and at times the scale business gives place to charming arpeggios, figures which transfer themselves from one hand to the other. The scale is a curious minor scale with a sharp fourth, and is therefore anything but inviting to the fingers at first. The effect of the whole, when well played, is very charming, although it is more the effect of a study than of a poem.

Still lighter in their characteristics are his charming and half-jocose variations on the old French air, "Ah vous dirais-je maman," better known in school circles of my time as "Haste thee, winter, haste away."

There is a very playful effect in these variations, and in the t.i.tle Mason calls them "Variations Grotesques"; but when he sent a copy to Liszt, that amiable critic replied that the word "grotesque" had no place in piano playing--that they should properly be called jocose, or something of that sort.

Thoroughly interesting in every way is the remarkable series of duets for teacher and pupil. Here are eight little nursery melodies which at the time these variations were composed were among the best known in this field, and the pupil, supposed to be a small child, plays them generally with one hand alone, or with both hands in octaves, very rarely in parts. The teacher, meanwhile, adds the harmonies, and wonderfully interesting and highly diversified harmonies they are. And in the same line with these are two other pieces which were originally written for the Mason and Hoadley Method for beginners: a march in which the pupil plays under the five fingers entirely, while the teacher adds the most strange and diversified harmonies, and a waltz in which the pupil still has nothing more than five-finger positions to deal with. I consider these pieces superior to anything of this kind that I have ever seen in point of cleverness and harmonic wit.

It would be a mistake, however, to dismiss the work of Dr. Mason with these half-jocose ill.u.s.trations of his genius. He has a very elegantly written "Berceuse" which if very well done produces a lovely effect. A trifle more flexibility in the melody would have been an advantage, but it is a beautifully made piece and well worthy attention. He has also a ballad of very considerable dramatic force, and I have always been fond of his "Reverie Poetique," which is very much in the style of Henselt. A melody without a great range, but running in two parts upon rather diversified harmonies, const.i.tutes the first part of this piece, and it is afterward developed or varied in double notes, which are princ.i.p.ally sixths, in a very lovely manner. The only drawback, aside from the difficulty of playing it well, is the length to which it is spun out. Undoubtedly it is a little monotonous, owing to the same motive coming over so many times. On the other hand, however, it pretends at the start to be nothing more than a poetic "reverie," and it has the character of a reverie--something which dwells and muses and perhaps never arrives. I mentioned, before, two reveries called "In the Morning" and "At Evening." The first of these is a very clever study, and both are well worth studying.

The works of both these composers have a distinct and p.r.o.nounced pedagogic value, but in wholly different directions, and both appeal princ.i.p.ally to American pianists. The Gottschalk pieces now are mainly used in the earlier stages of instruction for forming good melody habits. They appeal to the poetic sensibility of the players who as yet are hardly ready for Chopin or any of the more elaborate composers.

Dr. Mason's works, especially those I have here mentioned, appeal upon the opposite side to the harmonic sense, and to the sense of working out a theme with good consistency and persistency. While the Gottschalk pieces improve the style of melody and the sparkle of the playing, the Mason pieces conduce to system and regularity in study and to a serious and careful treatment of the left-hand part as well as the right, and they have in them some of that quality which belongs to nearly all the works of Bach, when undertaken by students: they promote seriousness and musical feeling.

Hence I propose the following program as on the whole affording a good idea of the works of these composers:

PROGRAM.

Gottschalk-Weber: Overture to "Oberon." Four hands.

Mason: Amitie pour Amitie. (Available for four hands if preferred.) Air and Variations Grotesques. "Ah Vous Dirais-je Maman."

Spring Dawn Mazurka.

Reverie Poetique.

Gottschalk: Marche de Nuit.

The Banjo. (Negro Sketch.) Song, "Slumber On."

Mason: Eight Duets for Teacher and Pupil. (Ditson Co.) Four hands.

March and Waltz for Teacher and Pupil. Four hands.

Gottschalk: Aeolian Murmurs.

The Last Hope.

Mason: The Tocctina.

Reverie, "Au Matin."

"The Silver Spring."

Gottschalk-Rossini: The Overture to "William Tell." Four hands.

CHAPTER VII.

MACDOWELL.

EDWARD ALEXANDER MACDOWELL.

By general consent of music lovers and connoisseurs, Mr. Edward Alexander MacDowell, or Prof. MacDowell as he should now be called, is the most finished and accomplished writer for the pianoforte that we have. Mr. MacDowell was born in New York on the 18th of December, 1861, and after having some instruction from his mother, who was a good musician, he received lessons for a while from Teresa Carreno. In 1877 he went to Paris and became a pupil of Marmontel and Savard. Later on he went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he studied composition with the late Joachim Raff and piano playing with Carl Heymann. In this manner five years of European student-life pa.s.sed, and in 1888 he was made piano teacher at the Darmstadt Conservatory; he remained there only one year, in 1882 going to Weisbaden, where his position was a very distinguished one. In 1888 he returned to America and located in Boston, where he immediately succeeded to an extremely fine clientele.

In Boston Mr. MacDowell naturally found very congenial surroundings.

He lived on West Cedar Street, a few doors from Arthur Foote, well down on the slopes of Beacon Hill, a short distance from the Common and not very far from Charles Street. The aristocratic desirability of this particular location in Boston is measured by its remoteness from street cars and all means of public transit. This, however, is a mere detail.

In 1896 Mr. MacDowell was appointed professor of music at Columbia University, after negotiations extending over several months.

It is impossible to read over the list of Mr. MacDowell's published works without realizing at once that here we have a composer of no small fertility of idea and great seriousness and ambition of purpose.

The list from which I take the following particulars is, no doubt, incomplete, since it reaches only to opus 50, which work was published in 1895. But the list contains four symphonic poems for orchestra, the First Suite, scored for orchestra, and the Second, or "Indian"

Suite,--in all, six large works for orchestra. There are two concertos for pianoforte and orchestra, both of which have been played very successfully, the first one many times over by Mme. Carreno and by Mr.

MacDowell himself. There is a romance for 'cello and orchestra; two numbers of four-hand pieces, originally so composed; twelve books of songs; and quite a long list of pieces for the pianoforte.

To take the more important of the latter, there are, first, twelve studies, opus 39, which are of various lengths, from two to six pages each; in part fancy pieces for the piano, and in part intended to serve as exercises in different styles of playing. Then there are twelve virtuoso studies, opus 46, much more difficult than the preceding and very interesting and marked in their characteristics. There are six Idylles, opus 28, and quite a number of other small pieces for piano, of no great ambition, but all poetic and seriously done. The most popular of the purely pianoforte pieces, perhaps, is the "Witches'

Dance," which has the advantage of being a most excellent finger study.

The only drawback to this piece is the rather commonplace character of the melody which serves as middle piece. This, however, is somewhat concealed by the cleverness of the treatment.

Of all the piano works, the three upon which Mr. MacDowell's reputation in the higher musical circles will rest are his First Suite and his two sonatas, the one called "Tragic," the other "Heroic." The First Suite dates from the time when he was with Raff at Frankfort, and it was published in Germany by Breitkopf and Hartel. It is perhaps modeled somewhat on a suite by Raff. The first movement, praeludium, is quite in the old style at first. Presently, a flowing melody in the ba.s.s begins against a pianissimo, arpeggiated accompaniment in the right hand, with a very charming and thoroughly pianistic effect, and the praeludium is carried through on this motive. The second movement, presto, is practically a scherzo with a strong flavor of fugue at the beginning. It is very fully developed, extending to eight pages. Then follows the slow movement, andantino and allegretto, bearing a motto, "_Per arnica silentia lunae_" (Virgil); and "by the friendly silence of the moon" the sweet cantilena goes on, now for soprano, now for tenor.

The middle piece is of a more dramatic character perhaps. This is followed by an intermezzo, like a quick minuet, which is very successful; and this in turn by a rhapsody, which bears a motto from Dante's "Inferno," "Those who enter here leave hope behind"--surely not a very inviting suggestion to the student who takes it for the first time. Fortunately the period when hope forsakes the reader is short, being really of only one page, after which a sort of mitigated grief ensues, and in another page this movement ends. Then follows the finale--a fugue in E major, well made and effective but by no means easy to play. At the end of the fugue there is a coda of a stormy character.

This suite, as a whole, is a very brilliant piano piece, and also difficult to play; but it is musical and well done and therefore worth playing.

The latest of his large works in a serious form is the second sonata, called the "Eroca." This is designated by the composer as a "flower from the realm of King Arthur," and it is dedicated to Dr. William Mason. Beginning very seriously and slowly, it almost immediately rises to intense vigor, which, after a while, gives place to a second subject--a song-melody in the folk-tone; and out of these two ingredients--or three, more properly (the motive of the first page, the second page, and the song-form already noticed)--the movement is carried to completion. It is very difficult to play, but when well done is effective and serious. The second movement is a very playful scherzo, which is designated as elf-like--as light and swift as possible. The third movement is designated "tenderly, longingly, yet with pa.s.sion"; the hero is now in love, very much so; his being is stirred to its utmost core; his rhythm is shaken up so that two's and three's intermingle in the most inviting confusion; and his harmonic foundations are also subjected to fast and loose experiences very trying to the outsider who would represent all this inner commotion.

Nevertheless the movement, when well done, is very lovely. The finale is designated "fiercely and very fast"--a very strong and tumultuous movement.

Throughout his career as a composer Mr. MacDowell has placed great importance upon the advantage a composer gains from a poetic standpoint or conception. He has often maintained that one could write better music if inspired by poetry than when he merely gives rein to his musical fancy, as such; and that, in fact, the only salvation for the modern composer, and his only protection from falling into mere rhapsody, is in having a poetic story in mind to which the music should conform. Accordingly, in all these large works of Mr. MacDowell's, especially in the two sonatas, and perhaps even more so in the second than in the first, the transitions of mood in the music are very noticeable indeed, and the work needs to be played with a great deal of taste as well as mastership in order to prevent it from having a certain fragmentary effect. This, in the production of a composer so masterly in musical treatment as Mr. MacDowell, is rather curious, and I have never been able fully to account for it. The disposition to lean on poetic suggestion is very evident in the books of studies already mentioned. For instance, in the opus 46 there are such t.i.tles as "Wild Chase," "Elfin Dance," "March Wind"; and in the former book the "Dance of the Gnomes," "The Shadow Dance," "In the Forest"; in the opus 37, "By the Light of the Moon," "In the Hammock," "Dance Andalusian "; in the opus 32,--ent.i.tled "Four Little Poems,"--"The Eagle," "The Brook," "Moonshine," "Winter"; then, again, in the latest of Mr. MacDowell's works which I have seen--the "Woodland Sketches,"

opus 51--there are ten little pieces, with such t.i.tles as "To a Wild Rose," "Will o' the Wisp," "At an old Trysting Place," "In Autumn,"

"From an Indian Lodge," "To a Water Lily," "From 'Uncle Remus,'" "A Deserted Farm," "By a Meadow Brook," "Told at Sunset." These t.i.tles may or may not have been in the mind of the composer at the moment of producing the work. It is quite possible that a significant musical idea, upon being developed, suggested the name, and that the fanciful name was taken for the sake of the student. These "Woodland Sketches"

in particular are very simple pieces indeed, rarely presenting difficulties beyond the fourth grade, and all of them musical.

Mr. MacDowell has also shared the opinion of many writers that something new is to be reached by the modern composer from the suggestion of characteristic folk-songs, and in his "Indian" Suite he has made use of themes derived from the North American Indians or suggested by some of their melodies. The "Indian" Suite is undoubtedly a very beautiful and poetic work for orchestra. I can not say that I find it better by reason of its barbarous themes, but the treatment of those themes has in it nothing that is barbarous, but, on the contrary, everything that is highly finished and polished, with a keen sense of the comely and well sounding.

On the whole, therefore, considering the mastery with which he has worked out his different pieces, and the characteristic and modern manner in which his poetical suggestions are realized upon the piano, we are obliged to take Mr. MacDowell very seriously, and to rank him among the first of writers at the present time. As he is still a young man, and has accepted the professorship of music at Columbia primarily for the purpose of having more leisure for composition, other and greater works ought to follow from his pen. I have been informed that he has in hand, or already finished, a symphony for full orchestra, and no doubt his portfolio contains a mult.i.tude of other pieces which as yet he is not ready to give to the world. Many of the songs which he has published are upon his own verses, and some of them are very beautiful. In fact, you will rarely find eight songs together so pleasing and well worth knowing in every way as the "Eight Songs" by Mr. MacDowell, opus 47.

At the same time, there is a certain amount of make-believe in these fantastic t.i.tles for piano pieces, which, after all, can be nothing else than more or less legitimate developments of certain musical motives, as such; and can be satisfactory only in proportion as the ideas are legitimately unfolded and adequately treated, and contrasted with other material. Even the marks of expression are arbitrary, a very amusing ill.u.s.tration of which I am able to give from my own experience. It happened some months ago that an out-of-town pupil, connected with a musical club, brought me a program of MacDowell's works which she had to play at one of the club meetings, and in the list was the difficult chord study ent.i.tled "March Wind." This was marked pianissimo. It is rather a difficult thing to bring down to smoothness, and I spent a great deal of time in getting it played softly, in order to represent the distance of the wind and the rise and fall of the intensity. A few days later Mr. MacDowell played a recital in Chicago, and among the other selections was this same "March Wind,"

which he played fortissimo throughout. When I saw him the next day I began, in that irreverent manner which critics and composers have with one another (for Mr. MacDowell was not yet a professor): "You're a fine fellow! To mark your own 'March Wind' pianissimo and then play it fortissimo. What's the good of my working two hours with a pupil to get it down fine when you upset everything by playing it in this tumultuous way?" To which Mr. MacDowell answered: "Did I mark that pianissimo? When I got ready to play it I could n't remember whether it was pianissimo or fortissimo, and I said, 'March Wind,' 'March Wind,' that must be very loud and roaring; and so I played it fortissimo."

But however this may be, it can be said of Mr. MacDowell that he has ill.u.s.trated his talents as a composer in a wide variety of styles, and always in a delicate and finished manner. He is, therefore, a composer to be treated seriously, and to be looked up to as a master, with an expectation of even more beautiful and satisfactory works still to follow.

PROGRAM.

I. First Suite. Opus 10.

Praeludium.

Presto.

Andantino and Allegretto.

Intermezzo.

Rhapsodie.