The Masters and their Music Part 5

The universal type of Schubert's music is the melodic. This we find in the pianoforte sonatas quite as plainly as in the songs themselves. In the minuet and march on the present program the melodic ideas are the main thing. Charmingly nave are the little waltzes upon the present list. Beautifully simple, delightfully symmetrical, their simplicity relieved by short modulations into neighboring keys, it is not possible to find elsewhere compositions so short, so simple, and yet so beautiful. In spite of their brevity and simplicity, the student will find them worth knowing thoroughly. It is also an excellent exercise for the student to learn some of these by heart and to play them in several different keys.

As an ill.u.s.tration of Schubert's cleverness in treating the pianoforte, which is already sufficiently evident in the dramatic accompaniments of his larger songs, before mentioned, attention is called to the Impromptu in B-flat--the air and variations known as "The Fair Rosamunde," the t.i.tle due to the appearance of this melody in his opera of "Rosamunde." At least three of these variations display great finesse in treating the pianoforte. The first needs to be done with the utmost delicacy and lightness, the melody suggested rather than brought out. The third has a new rhythm and a melodic secondary figure in the left-hand part, which, taken with the treatment of the variation in the right-hand part, gives this piece a wholly new content and effect. The fourth, again, is equally novel and equally significant for the pianoforte. The remaining variations are of little importance, although, as a matter of course, all are to be played.

Mendelssohn as pianoforte composer represents two very important and characteristic moods--the scherzo and the song without words. It is probable that by the good fortune of the latter name for his collections of little piano pieces Mendelssohn rendered the musical world a greater service than he did even by the elegant quality of his compositions themselves. It was the happy thought of the t.i.tle which at once puts the listener upon the right track, and disposes him to try to discover what the words of the unworded songs ought to be. It was a fortunate guess rather than a something thought out by reason, and if he had been pressed to a.s.sign a reason for including some of these pieces under the name, he would probably have been driven to confess that they were so included because he did not know what else they were.

The "Songs Without Words" embody many types, the most important being the true cantabile--pieces in which there is a flowing lyric melody with a soft accompaniment. These pieces are in effect nothing else than "nocturnes," quite after the manner of Chopin, only less elaborate in treatment and less extended. Among the best types of this cla.s.s are to be mentioned the first, the two folk-songs in the program following, and the duetto. In all these the connected legato of the melody is of the first importance; and, second, the proper sinking and swelling of the melody in the true manner of impa.s.sioned singing. The accompaniment follows closely and shares in the fluctuations of intensity and mood.

Another type of these pieces is ill.u.s.trated by the eighth, in B-flat minor. This piece, which has the speed and restless movement of a scherzo, has also the true Mendelssohnian flavor of sweet melancholy.

It goes at great speed, and often the melody is suggested by an accent rather than fully expressed. Such cases are found in measures 3 and 4, and elsewhere. In these instances there is a fragment of melody in the middle voice.

Somewhat between the cantabile type and the scherzo is to be mentioned the "Table Song," No. 28, in G. This is like a part-song of light and pleasant yet somewhat sentimental character, suitable to be sung at table.

As a composer for voice, Mendelssohn attained a very high rank, producing melodies of great sweetness (yet often also of inherent coldness) and very singable. One of the most beautiful examples of this kind is found in the "O for the Wings of a Dove," first sung as soprano solo and then later for chorus, in his setting of a psalm.

Another well-known example for alto is the "O Rest in the Lord." The latter melody derives additional beauty from the contrast it makes with the rather dramatic place in the oratorio where it occurs. Further ill.u.s.trations of Mendelssohn's powers in this direction may be taken from the list above, which there is not time at present to discuss more fully.

The part-songs of Mendelssohn for mixed voices deserve to be more frequently sung. They are extremely beautiful and delightfully written for the voices. While of moderate difficulty, they belong among the very best of part-songs for unaccompanied mixed voices. The omission of the accompaniment is of very great importance, as these pieces are strictly written in such a manner that the voices have the complete ideas, both melody and harmony, and when given independent of accompaniment it is possible to obtain a purer intonation and better sympathy.

The present program permits a somewhat greater lat.i.tude of arrangement of parts than those of the preceding chapters. The works do not contrast with each other exactly as was sought in previous programs, but rather form phases of lyric melody, to be sung in such order and combination as best suits the performers, taking care however, that an agreeable succession of keys is generally observed.

PROGRAM.

Schubert: Waltzes.

Minuet, opus 79.

March, from four-hand collection.

"Fair Rosamunde and Variations."

Songs: "Hedge Roses."

"Wanderer."

"Hark! Hark! the Lark."

"Gretchen."

"Fruhlingsglaube."

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words. The first.

"Hunting Song," No. 3.

"Folk-song," No. 4.

"Gondellied," No. 6.

B-flat minor, No. 8.

"Table Song," No. 28.

Duetto, No. 18.

Overture to "Midsummer Night's Dream"; four hands.

"O rest in the Lord."

"If with all your hearts."

"It is enough."

Scene from "Elijah," "Lord G.o.d of Abraham," etc.

"Hunting Song," ) part-songs "Farewell to the Forest,"; )

CHAPTER VII.

ROBERT SCHUMANN.

ROBERT SCHUMANN.

Born January 8, 1810, at Zwickau in Saxony.

Died July 29, 1856, at Endenich, near Bonn.

Schumann was the son of a bookseller and a confirmed music lover. The boy showed marked talent for music, playing to some extent upon the more usual instruments, and even getting together and conducting a small orchestra of the school-boys. For this orchestra he very early composed pieces. His father died when the boy was sixteen and had nearly completed his gymnasium course, and in 1828 Schumann entered at the University of Leipsic as a student of law. After a time he left Leipsic in favor of Heidelberg, where some very celebrated lectures were at that time being given; but at Heidelberg he practically wasted his time, so far as the law studies were concerned, and devoted himself entirely to music. As early as 1829 he made a short vacation journey into Italy, and at Milan heard the famous violin virtuoso Paganini, and then became wholly influenced for music. Schumann's mother was extremely averse to his fitting himself for the musical profession, and it was only with great difficulty that she was brought to consent.

Accordingly, his serious musical studies began in 1830, when he came back again to Leipsic and became a music student with Frederick Wieck and Heinrich Dorn. It was Wieck's daughter Clara who afterward became Mme. Schumann.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Robert Schumann]

Schumann had a great determination to become a piano virtuoso, not so much for the repet.i.tion of effects already standard as for the invention of new ones. In this direction he devoted himself to practice with such a.s.siduity that he very soon reached a point where his fingers could not keep up with his imagination. In the effort to impart a greater individuality and strength to the fourth finger of the right hand, he made some experiments which resulted in disabling his finger for a while, and he never afterward regained the use of it to a complete degree. Thus his career as virtuoso was cut short, but the studies he made and the playing he was afterward able to do resulted in very singular and productive discoveries of musical effects possible to the piano, so that it is not too much to say that the piano playing of the present time is more indebted to Schumann than perhaps to any other master in the history of the instrument.

He began his creative career by the arrangement of a collection of Paganini's studies, in which he sought to reproduce upon the pianoforte some of the effects of the famous Paganini caprices for the violin. He made two collections of these, about four years apart, and prefaced the first book with many observations in regard to the methods of practice and innovations of technic. Almost simultaneously with this he began seriously as a composer upon his own account, and, quite characteristically, as a composer of short pieces. The Papillons, opus 2, or "Scenes at a Ball," consist of short pieces of from two to six lines in length, and among them are many of great beauty. Another of these early works is the so-called "Dances of the Davidsbundler against the Philistines." These consist of eighteen short pieces without individual t.i.tles. Already, by the time when the composition of this work was undertaken in 1835, Schumann had commenced to write as a musical literary man under two pseudonyms--Florestan and Eusebius, the one representing the sentimental and tender side, and the other the impa.s.sioned and vigorously moved. The different numbers in the "Davidsbundler Dances" are signed with one or the other of these initials, and sometimes with both. The name "Davidsbundler Dances" was in allusion to the term Philistine, which, in the German university towns, signified the old fogies, the conservative element, who take things as they find them and want nothing changed. Schumann belonged to the new party, who wanted about everything changed.

Two or three years later a second work of very similar import, called the "Carnaval," was produced, consisting of thirty-one short pieces, each bearing a characteristic t.i.tle. This work is of a very extraordinary character. The moods of the pieces are extremely individual and marked, and the range of pianoforte expression covered by them is as great as can be found in the compositions of any master for the instrument. Another characteristic set of pieces at this time was the "Fantasy Pieces," opus 12, each of which had its own t.i.tle; also the "Kreisleriana," a series of queer sayings after the manner of one Kreisler, an eccentric old musician in a novel popular at that time. There are also what he called "Novelettes," a series of eight somewhat elaborate pianoforte pieces.

In 1834 Schumann, in connection with two other young men, founded the "Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik" as an organ of musical progress. He remained editor of this for ten years, writing there a great variety of articles, and in 1844 resigned the editor's chair to Brendel and removed to Dusseldorf. It was from Dusseldorf that he wrote his famous article about the newly-risen star of Johannes Brahms.

In 1840 he succeeded in overcoming Wieck's objections to a marriage with the young Clara, who was then a very distinguished piano virtuoso, and in the same year he received a doctorate from the University of Jena. In 1839 and 1840 he composed a very large number of songs--viz., one hundred in all. In 1841 his first symphony was played at the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, and in 1843, upon the founding of the Leipsic Conservatory by Mendelssohn, Schumann was appointed teacher of playing from score. As he was practically no teacher at all, and found the duties irksome, he soon resigned this position and lived for a while at Dresden, and made a number of concert tours to various foreign countries with his wife, his own works forming generally a part of the program. It is told of one of these journeys that at some court or other where they were graciously received, the amiable prince, after complimenting the brilliant young pianist upon the solidity of her work, continued, "And is your husband also musical?" At that time Mr.

Schumann was the husband of Clara Wieck, rather than Clara Wieck the wife of Robert Schumann.

Early in 1851 Schumann's mind began to show signs of giving way, and in 1853 he was removed to a retreat for the insane, where he died in 1856.

Schumann's compositions comprise four rather large volumes of piano works, four symphonies for grand orchestra, and a number of chamber works of different kinds, of which the quintet for piano and strings is perhaps the most successful; about 100 songs, one opera, several cantatas, a series of music pieces for "Faust," to be played in connection with the drama, etc.

In his lifetime his piano music had very slight recognition from any quarter, its novelties both in the subject-matter of the music and in the manner of treating the piano making it practically impossible for piano players at that day, and it was only about the time of Schumann's death that his piano music began to attract attention upon a considerable scale. Schumann's Symphony in B-flat had a great success under Mendelssohn's direction in Leipsic in 1841, but it was played in very few other places for a number of years, although it was an extremely bright and interesting production. When William Mason was in Leipsic in 1850 he sent home a score and parts to the orchestra in Boston. They held two rehearsals of this symphony and then laid it upon the shelf in the belief that the composer must have been crazy, and it was only five or six years later that they mustered up nerve to produce the work and were astonished to find that it pleased the hearers.

The universal currency of Schumann's piano music can not be said to have made much progress until the appearance of Rubinstein. In the early days of Schumann's productivity he composed his enormously difficult and beautiful "Fantasie," opus 17, and dedicated it to Liszt.

Accordingly, not to be outdone in politeness, Liszt introduced some of Schumann's pieces in his programs once or twice, but the effect of them upon the audience was so much less than that of his own music or of the Chopin pieces which at that time he was very fond of playing, that he discontinued further efforts to aid Schumann's cause, although he wrote him very polite and encouraging letters. The first real Schumann player was Rubinstein, who had the qualities of tone and of emotionality which Schumann's music imperatively required; and since Rubinstein, Schumann's music has entered more and more into the world-current of piano music, until at the present time it occupies a position inferior to none other.

Of a composer so varied in his capacities, so original, so influential upon the later course of development in his art, and so interesting in every way, it is not possible from a single program--no matter how carefully selected the works may be--to gain a complete idea. The most that can be done is to give a glimpse of the man, to bring out a few of his moods, and to observe the more salient features of his style. The following list of selections has been influenced by the same idea as that underlying all the previous programs of this series--namely: A preference for selections of moderate difficulty, both for performer and hearer; and a representation of what might be called the more elementary characteristics of his art.

PROGRAM.

Kinderscenen. Opus 15.

"From Strange Lands and People."

"A Curious Story."

"Playing Tag."

"Happy Enough."

"Traumerei."

Alb.u.m for the Young. Opus 68.

"The Jolly Farmer."

"A Little Romance."

Papillons. Opus 2.