The Standard Cantatas Part 13

is remarkable for its pa.s.sionate intensity and dramatic strength. The clouds of despair close over her, and she calls down the vengeance of the G.o.ds upon the deserter. In the next two numbers, an adagio ("To whom can I turn me?"), and an andante ("Ah! how for Death I am longing"), the melodies closely follow the sentiment of the text, accompanied by very expressive instrumentation. An _allegro presto_, infused with the very spirit of hopeless gloom and despair, ends the cantata:--

"Woe's me! deceived, betrayed!

Earth holds no consolation."

In the mythological version, however, consolation came; for Bacchus, "ever young," and full of pity for lorn maids, married her, and gave her a crown of seven stars, which after her death was placed among the constellations. The music presents many difficulties for a singer, as it requires the n.o.blest style of declamation, peculiar refinement of sentiment, and rare musical intelligence, as well as facility in execution to give expression to its recitative and strongly contrasting melodies, which have no unity of key, but follow the varying sentiments, with their changes of tone-color, as closely as Theseus followed his thread.

HILLER.

Ferdinand Hiller, one of the most eminent of modern German composers, and a writer of more than ordinary ability, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Oct. 24, 1811. His musical talent displayed itself so early that in his tenth year he appeared in concerts. In 1825 he began his studies with Hummel, and two years afterwards accompanied him on a concert-tour to Vienna, where he published his first work, a piano-forte quartet. He next went to Paris, where he remained until 1835, occupying for a time the position of professor in Choron's "Inst.i.tution de Musique," but princ.i.p.ally devoting himself to piano-playing, composition, and concerts. In 1836 he returned to Frankfort, and for more than a year conducted the concerts of the Coecilienverein. He then went to Milan, where he met Rossini, and with his a.s.sistance brought out his opera "Romilda" at La Scala, but without much success. About the same time he began his oratorio "The Destruction of Jerusalem," one of his most important works. In 1841 he made a second journey to Italy and gave particular attention to church music. On his return he first resided at Frankfort, but was soon in Leipsic, where he conducted the Gewandhaus concerts (1843-44), and after that time in Dresden, where he produced two more operas, "Traum in der Christ-nacht" and "Conradin." In 1847 he was appointed munic.i.p.al capellmeister at Dusseldorf, and three years later took a similar position at Cologne, where he organized the Conservatory.

In that city he exercised a widespread influence, not alone by his teaching, but also by his direction of the famous Lower Rhine festivals.

He also made many musical tours which increased his fame. In 1852-53 he conducted opera in Paris; in 1870, gave a series of successful concerts in St. Petersburg; and in 1871-72 visited England, where he produced his works both in public concerts and festivals. His compositions are very numerous, including among the most prominent, five operas, four overtures, a festival march for the opening of the Albert Hall, the Spring Symphony, the oratorios "Destruction of Jerusalem" and "Saul," and the cantatas "Heloise," "Night," "Loreley," "O weint um Sie," "Ver sacrum," "Nala and Damajanti," "Song of Victory," "Song of the Spirits over the Water," "Prometheus," and "Rebecca." He has also enriched musical literature with many important works, among them, "Aus dem Tonleben unserer Zeit" (1867), "Personalisches und Musikalisches" (1876), "Recollections of Mendelssohn" (1874), and "Letters to an Unknown"

(1877). He died in May, 1885.

Song of Victory.

The "Song of Victory," a cantata for soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra, was first produced at the Cologne Festival of 1871, and was written to celebrate the victorious conclusion of the Franco-German war of 1870. It consists of eight numbers, all of which are sacred in character, though their purpose is to express grat.i.tude and joy over the triumph of the German arms.

The opening number is a vigorous, jubilant chorus ("The Lord great Wonders for us hath wrought"). It begins with a slow movement in ma.s.sive chords, gathering animation as it proceeds, and closing pianissimo on the words, "There is none that searcheth or understandeth." The second number is a soprano solo and chorus ("Praise, O Jerusalem, praise the Lord") declamatory in style. The third ("The Heathen are fallen in the Pit") is a.s.signed to chorus, and is the most dramatic in the work, describing as it does the terrors of war. In the fourth ("See, it is written in the Book of the Righteous"), a short soprano solo, the melody is a tender lament for the dead. The fifth ("He in Tears that soweth") is a soprano solo with chorus of first and second sopranos and altos. In this number lamentation gives way to hope and gladness, leading up to the last three numbers,--the six-part chorus ("Mighty is our G.o.d"), full of effective sustained harmony, and the soprano solos and choruses of praise and hallelujah which resume the triumphant style of the opening chorus with increased power and enthusiasm.

HOFMANN.

Heinrich Karl Johann Hofmann was born Jan. 13, 1842, at Berlin. In his younger days he was a scholar at the Kullak Conservatory, and studied composition with Grell, Dehn, and Wuerst. Prior to 1873 he devoted himself to private instruction, but since that time he has been engaged exclusively in composition. Among his works which first attracted public attention by their intrinsic excellence as well as by the knowledge of orchestration which they displayed, were an "Hungarian Suite" and the "Frithjof Symphony." Among his piano compositions are the following four-handed pieces, which have been remarkably popular: "Italienische Liebesnovelle," "Liebesfruhling," "Trompeter von Sackingen,"

"Steppenbilder," and "Aus meinem Tagebuch." His choral works are "Nonnengesang," "Die Schone Melusine," "Aschenbrodel," and "Cinderella."

Among his operas are "Cartouche" (1869), "Armin" (1878), and "Annchen von Tharau" (1878). He has also written several works for mixed chorus and mannerchor, piano pieces, songs, duets, a violoncello concerto, piano trios and quartets, and a string s.e.xtet.

Melusina.

The beautiful story of Melusina has always had an attraction for artists and musicians. Moritz von Schwind, the painter, has ill.u.s.trated it in a cycle of frescos; Julius Zellner has told it for us in a series of orchestral tone-pictures; and Mendelssohn has chosen it as the subject of one of his most charming overtures. The version which Hofmann uses in his cantata ent.i.tled "The Fable of the Fair Melusina" (written in 1875) runs as follows: Melusina, the nymph of a beautiful fountain in the Bressilian forest, and Count Raymond have fallen in love with each other. They declare their pa.s.sion in the presence of her nymphs, and plight their troth. Melusina engages to be his dutiful wife the first six days of the week, but makes Raymond promise never to inquire or seek to discover what she does on the seventh, which, she a.s.sures him, shall "never see her stray from the path of duty." On that day she must a.s.sume her original form, half fish and half woman, and bathe with her nymphs. Raymond promises, calls his hunters, introduces his bride to them, and the wedding cortege moves joyfully on to the castle. In the second part Raymond's mother, Clotilda, and her brother, Sintram, intrigue against Melusina. They denounce her as a witch, and the accusation seems to be justified by a drought which has fallen upon the land since the marriage.

The suffering people loudly clamor for the surrender of the "foul witch."

After long resistance Raymond is induced to break into the bathing-house which he had erected over the fountain. Melusina and her nymphs, surprised by him, call upon the king of the water-spirits to avenge his treason. The king appears and consigns him to death. Seized with pity, Melusina intercedes for him, and the king agrees to spare his life upon condition that they shall separate. Raymond once more embraces her, neither of them knowing that it will be fatal to him, dies in her arms, and the sorrowing Melusina returns to the flood.

The prologue describes Melusina's fountain, and contains a leading motive which characterizes Raymond. The chorus part is very romantic in its style, and is set to a graceful, poetical accompaniment. The opening number introduces Melusina and her nymphs in a chorus extolling their watery abode ("For the Flood is life-giving"). In the second number she describes the pa.s.sion she feels when thinking of Raymond. The song is interrupted by horn signals indicating the approach of her lover and his hunters, who join in a fresh, vigorous hunting-song and then disperse. In the fourth number Raymond gives expression to his love for Melusina, followed by a fervid duet between them, in which the lovers interchange vows of constancy. The sixth number, describing their engagement in presence of the nymphs, and concluding with a stirring chorus of nymphs and hunters, closes the first part.

The second part begins with a theme from the love-duet, followed by a significant theme in the minor, ominous of approaching danger. In the eighth number the people clamor in furious chorus for the witch. In the ninth, a trio and chorus, Clotilda warns her son of the misery he has brought upon his house and people, and urges him to discover what his wife does on the seventh day. The next number introduces Melusina and her nymphs in the bath, the former singing a plaintive song ("Love is freighted with Sorrow and Care"). A noise is heard at the gate, and the nymphs join in a chorus in canon form ("Hark! hark! Who has come to watch"). As Raymond appears, the scene grows very dramatic. The king of the water-spirits is summoned; but before he rises from the water Melusina, in very melodious recitative, laments her lover's treason. The scene culminates in the sentence, "Let Death be his lot." He is spared by her intercession, but she is commanded to return to the flood. Raymond appeals for forgiveness, and a part of the love-duet is repeated. The final embrace is fatal to him, and he dies in her arms. The chorus repeats the melody of the opening number ("For the Flood is life-giving"), and she bids her dead lover a last farewell, and disappears with the nymphs and water-spirits, singing, "Forget with the Dwellers on Earth all earthly Woe." The epilogue is substantially the same as the prologue.

LESLIE.

Henry David Leslie was born in London, June 18, 1822, and in his sixteenth year began his musical studies with Charles Lucas, a famous violoncellist and for a long time princ.i.p.al of the Royal Academy of Music. Like his master, Leslie played the violoncello several years in the concerts of the Sacred Harmonic Society, subsequently becoming its conductor,--a position which he held until 1861. In 1855 he organized the famous Leslie choir of one hundred voices, which took the first prize at the international compet.i.tion of 1878 in Paris. In 1863 he was chosen conductor of the Herefordshire Philharmonic Society, and in the following year became princ.i.p.al of the National College of Music. In 1874 he was appointed conductor of the Guild of Amateur Musicians in London. He has been a prolific and very popular composer, among his works being the following: Te Deum and Jubilate in D (1846); symphony in F (1847); anthem, "Let G.o.d arise" (1849); overture, "The Templar" (1852); oratorio, "Immanuel" (1853); operetta, "Romance, or Bold d.i.c.k Turpin" (1857); oratorio, "Judith," written for the Birmingham Festival (1858); cantata, "Holyrood" (1860); cantata, "The Daughter of the Isles" (1861); and the opera "Ida" (1864). In addition to these he has written a large number of songs, anthems, part songs, madrigals, and piano pieces, besides music for his choir.

Holyrood.

"Holyrood" was written in 1861, and was first produced in February of that year at St. James's Hall, London. Leslie's collaborator was the accomplished scholar Chorley, who has certainly prepared one of the most refined and attractive librettos ever furnished a composer. The story represents an episode during the period of Queen Mary's innocent life, overshadowed in the close by the dismal prophecy of the terrible fate so rapidly approaching her. The characters are Queen Mary (soprano), Mary Beatoun (Beton), her maid of honor (contralto); Rizzio, the ill-fated minstrel (tenor); and John Knox (ba.s.s). The scene is laid in a court of the palace of Holyrood, and introduces a coterie of the court ladies and gentlemen engaged in one of those joyous revels of which Mary was so fond. In the midst of the pleasantry, however, the Queen moves pensively about, overcome with sadness, as if her thoughts were far away. Her favorite maid tries in vain to rouse her from her melancholy with a Scotch ballad. The minstrel Rizzio is then urged to try his skill. He takes his lute and sings an Italian canzonet which has the desired effect. The sensuous music of the South diverts her. She expresses her delight, and seizing his lute sings her new joy in a French romance. It is interrupted by a Puritan psalm of warning heard outside. The revellers seek to drown it; but it grows in power, and only ceases when the leader, John Knox, enters with stern and forbidding countenance. The Queen is angry at first, but bids him welcome provided his mission is a kindly one. He answers with a warning. As he has the gift of prophecy, she orders him to read her future. After the bridal, the murder of the bridegroom; after the murder, battle; after the battle, prison; after the prison, the scaffold, is the tragic fate he foresees. The enraged courtiers call for his arrest and punishment, but the light-hearted Queen bids him go free:--

"Let him go, and hear our laughter!

Mirth to-day, whate'er come after."

The cantata opens with a chorus for female voices in three divisions, with a contralto solo, in the Scotch style:--

"The mavis carols in the shaw, The leaves are green on every tree, And June, whose car the sunbeams draw, Is dropping gold on bank and lea; The hind is merry in the mead, The child that gathers gowan flower, The Thane upon his prancing steed, The high-born lady in her bower,-- Gay, gay, all are gay, On this happy summer day."

After a short recitative pa.s.sage in which Mary Beatoun appeals to the revellers to lure the Queen from her loneliness, and their reply ("O Lady, never sit alone"), the maid sings a very characteristic and engaging Scotch ballad:--

"There once was a maiden in Melrose town (Oh! the bright Tweed is bonny to see!) Who looked on the best in the country down, Because she had lovers, one, two, three.

The first was a lord with his chest of gold, The second a ruddy shepherd so tall, The third was a spearsman bluff and bold,-- But Pride, it goeth before a fall.

"One hour she smiled, the next she wept (Oh! the bright Tweed is bonny to see!) And with frowns and blushes a chain she kept Round the necks of her hapless lovers three.

For the lord in her lap poured wide his gold, And the shepherd ran at her beck and call, And the spearsman swore she was curst and cold, But Pride, it goeth before a fall.

"At last it fell out on a bleak March day (Oh! the bright Tweed is bonny to see!) There sate at her window the maiden gay And looked o'er the frost for her lovers three.

But the lord had to France sailed forth with his gold, And the shepherd had married her playmate small, And the spearsman in battle lay stark and cold,-- So Pride, it goeth before a fall."

As might have been expected, this mournful ditty fails to rouse the Queen from her melancholy, whereupon Rizzio takes his lute and sings the canzonet "Calla stagion novella," a very slow and graceful movement, closing with a sensuous allegro, written in the genuine Italian style, though rather Verdi-ish for the times of Rizzio. The canzonet has the desired effect, and is followed by a delightful French romance, sung by the Queen, in which a tender minor theme is set off against a fascinating waltz melody, closing with a brilliant finale:--

"In my pleasant land of France There is gladness everywhere; In the very streams a dance, Full of life, yet debonair, Ah, me! ah, me!

To have left it was a sin, Even for this kind countrie.

But we will not mourn to-day, Bid the harp and rebec play, Merrilie, merrilie, Sing and smile, and jocund be; If my father's land is dear, Mirth and valor still are here; Maidens faithful, champions gay, France has melted far away Beyond the sea."

At the close of the pretty romance, the revel begins with a stately minuet and vocal trio ("Fal, lal, la") for the Queen, Mary Beatoun, and Rizzio. It is interrupted by the unison psalm-tune of the Puritans, a stern, severe old melody set to a "moving ba.s.s" accompaniment:--

"O thou who sittest on the throne And wilt exalt thine horn on high, While captive men in prison groan, And women poor of hunger die, Beware! albeit a Haman proud, Served by thy slaves on bended knee, The heaven can speak in thunder loud And rend to dust both them and thee."

There is a temporary pause in the revels, but at the Queen's command they are resumed with a quick-step introduced by the pipes and full of the genuine Scotch spirit and bustle, the "Fal lal" trio and chorus still accompanying it. It is interrupted afresh by a repet.i.tion of the psalm ("A Hand of Fire was on the Wall"), after which John Knox enters. With his entrance the gay music closes and the work a.s.sumes a gloomy tragic cast as the dialogue proceeds and the terrible incidents of the prophecy are unfolded. It is a relief when they join in a hopeful duet ("E'en if Earth should wholly fail me") which is very quiet and melodious. It leads to the Queen's farewell, a quaintly-written bit, with an old-fashioned cadenza, followed by the final chorus, which takes up a theme in the same joyous spirit as the opening one:--

"Hence with evil omen, Doleful bird of night, Who in tears of women Takest chief delight!

Think not to alarm her, As with mystic power; Nought shall ever harm her, Scotland's lily flower."

LISZT.

Franz Liszt, the most eminent pianist of his time, who also obtained world-wide celebrity as a composer and orchestral conductor, was born at Raiding, Hungary, Oct. 22, 1811. His father was an accomplished amateur, and played the piano and violoncello with more than ordinary skill. He was so impressed with the promise of his son that he not only gave him lessons in music, but also devoted himself to his artistic progress with the utmost a.s.siduity. In his ninth year Liszt played for the first time in public at Oedenburg. His performances aroused such enthusiasm that several Hungarian n.o.blemen encouraged him to continue his studies, and guaranteed him sufficient to defray the expenses of six years' tuition.