The Standard Cantatas Part 7

"The fisherman who lies afloat, With shadowy sail in yonder boat, Is singing softly to the night.

A single step and all is o'er; And thou, dear Elsie, wilt be free From martyrdom and agony."

The eleventh scene is a spirited and beautifully-written male chorus of sailors ("The Wind upon our Quarter lies"). The twelfth reaches the climax in the scene at the college of Salerno between Lucifer, Elsie, and the Prince, with accompaniment of attendants, and is very dramatic throughout. It is followed by a tender love-duet for Elsie and the Prince on the terrace of the castle of Vautsberg, which leads to the epilogue, "O Beauty of Holiness," for full chorus and orchestra, in which the composer is at his very best both in the construction of the vocal parts and the elaborately worked-up accompaniments.

The Voyage of Columbus.

"The Voyage of Columbus" was written in 1885, and first published in Germany. The text of the libretto was prepared by the composer himself, extracts from Washington Irving's "Columbus" forming the theme of each of the six scenes, all of which are supposed to transpire at evening, and are therefore styled by the composer "night-scenes." Their arrangement, which is very skilfully accomplished, is as follows:--

Scene I. In the chapel of St. George at Palos, Aug. 2, 1492. "The squadron being ready to put to sea, Columbus, with his officers and crew, confessed themselves to the friar, Juan Perez. They entered upon the enterprise full of awe, committing themselves to the especial guidance and protection of Heaven."

Scene II. On the deck of the Santa Maria. "Eighteen years elapsed after Columbus conceived his enterprise before he was enabled to carry it into effect. The greater part of that time was pa.s.sed in almost hopeless solicitation, poverty, and ridicule."

Scene III. The Vesper Hymn. "In the evening, according to the invariable custom on board the admiral's ship, the mariners sang the Vesper Hymn to the Virgin."

Scene IV. Discontent and Mutiny. "In this way they fed each other's discontent, gathering into little knots, and fomenting a spirit of mutinous opposition ... finally breaking forth into turbulent clamor."

Scene V. In distant Andalusia. "He compares the pure and balmy mornings to those of April in Andalusia, and observes that they wanted but the song of the nightingale to complete the illusion."

Scene VI. Land and Thanksgiving. "As the evening darkened, Columbus took his station on the top of the castle or cabin, on the high p.o.o.p of his vessel, ranging his eye along the horizon, and maintaining an intense and unremitting watch."

The cantata opens with a brief orchestral prelude of a sombre character begun by the trombone sounding the Gregorian intonation, and leading to the barytone solo of the priest ("Ye men of Spain, the Time is nigh"), appealing to the crew to commit themselves to Heaven, to which the full male chorus responds with ever-increasing power, reaching the climax in the "Ora pro n.o.bis." Twice the priest repeats his adjuration, followed by the choral response, the last time with joy and animation as the flag of Castile is raised and they bid farewell to the sh.o.r.es of Spain. A short allegro brings the scene to a close.

The second scene is a ba.s.s aria for Columbus ("Eighteen long Years of Labor, Doubt, and Scorn"), of a vigorous and spirited character, changing to a solemn adagio in the prayer, "Lord of all Power and Might," and closing with a few spirited phrases in the opening tempo. It is followed by the Vesper Hymn, "Ave Maris Stella," a number in which the composer's eminent ability in sacred music is clearly shown. Its tranquil harmony dies away in the softest of pianissimos, and is followed by an agitated prelude introducing the furious chorus of the mutinous crew "Come, Comrades, come," which gathers intensity as it progresses, voices and instruments uniting in broken but powerful phrases, sometimes in full chorus and again in solo parts, until the climax is reached, when Columbus intervenes in brief solos of great dignity, to which the chorus responds, the scene closing with the renewal of allegiance,--a stirring ba.s.s solo with choral accompaniment.

The fifth scene is a tenor recitative and love-song of a most graceful character, and one which will become a favorite when it is well known:--

"In Andalusia the nightingale Sings,--sings through the live-long night; Sings to its mate in pure delight: But, ah me! ah, my love!

Vanished and lost to my sight In distant Andalusia."

The final scene is very elaborate in its construction, and brings the work to a sonorous and stately close. It opens with a very dramatic recitative by Columbus ("The Night is dark, but many a Sign seen through this Day proclaims the Goal at Hand"), at the close of which there is a short orchestral prelude, which serves to introduce a trio ("Here at your Bidding") for Columbus and two officers (first tenor and first ba.s.s). At the cry of a seaman, "Land ho!" the chorus responds with animation.

Columbus bids his crew join him "in prayer and grateful praise." The answer comes in a splendidly-written "Hallelujah," which is fairly majestic in its progression, reaching its close in full broad harmony, with the accompanying strains of trumpets.

The Light of Asia.

Mr. Buck's latest cantata, "The Light of Asia," well-nigh reaches the dimensions of an opera or oratorio. It was written in 1886 and first published in England. Its name reveals its source, and the composer has made compensation for the privilege of using Mr. Edwin Arnold's beautiful poem, by a graceful dedication of the work to him. The libretto was prepared by the composer himself, who has shown great skill in making his selections in such manner as not to disturb the continuity of the story.

The purely philosophical portions are omitted, and only those are retained which have a human interest. In this manner he has avoided the obstacle which the lack of human sympathy in the poem, beautiful as it is, would otherwise have placed in his way. The text, as will be remembered, has no definite metre, much of it being in blank verse, and does not readily lend itself to musical expression; but it will be conceded that the composer has also overcome this difficulty in a very remarkable manner. The cantata is divided into four parts,--Prologue, the Renunciation and Temptation, the Return, and Epilogue and Finale.

The first part has nine numbers. A brief prelude leads to the opening chorus:--

"Below the highest sphere four regents sit, Who rule the world; and under them are zones Nearer, but high, where saintliest spirits dead, Wait thrice ten thousand years, then live again."

It begins with a fugue, opened by the ba.s.ses, simple in its construction but stately in theme and very dignified throughout. It is followed by a ba.s.s solo of descriptive character ("The King gave Order that his Town should keep high Festival"), closing with a few choral measures, _sotto voce_, relating that the King had ordered a festival in honor of the advent of Buddha, and how a venerable saint, Asita, recognized the divinity of the child and "the sacred primal signs," and foretold his mission. The third number is the description of the young Siddartha, set in graceful recitative and semi-chorus for female voices, with a charming accompaniment. The fourth is a spring song ("O come and see the Pleasance of the Spring"), begun by tenors and ba.s.ses and then developing into full chorus with animated descriptive effects for the orchestra, picturing "the thickets rustling with small life," the rippling waters among the palms, the blue doves' cooings, the jungles laughing with the nesting-songs, and the far-off village drums beating for marriage feasts.

A recitative for ba.s.s ("Bethink ye, O my Ministers"), in which the King counsels with his advisers as to the training of the child, leads to a four-part song for tenors and ba.s.ses ("Love will cure these thin Distempers"), in which they urge him to summon a court of pleasure in which the young prince may award prizes to the fair. Then

"If one or two Change the fixed sadness of his tender cheek, So may we choose for love with love's own eye."

The King orders the festival, and in the next number--a march and animated three-part chorus for female voices--Kapilavastu's maidens flock to the gate, "each with her dark hair newly smoothed and bound." Then comes the recognition, briefly told in soprano recitative. Yasodhara pa.s.ses, and "at sudden sight of her he changed." A beautiful love-duet for soprano and tenor ("And their Eyes mixed, and from the Look sprang Love") closes the scene. The next number is a ba.s.s solo narrating the triumph of Siddartha over all other suitors, leading to a jubilant and graceful wedding chorus ("Enter, thrice-happy! enter, thrice-desired!"), the words of which are taken from the "Indian Song of Songs."

The second part opens with a soprano solo describing his pleasure with Yasodhara, in the midst of which comes the warning of the Devas:--

"We are the voices of the wandering wind, That moan for rest and rest can never find.

Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life,-- A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife."

This number is a semi-chorus, set for female voices, interspersed with brief phrases for tenor, and after a ba.s.s solo, relating the King's dream and the hermit's interpretation, which induces him to doubly guard Siddartha's pleasure-house, leads up to a beautiful chorus, divided between two sopranos, alto, two tenors, and two ba.s.ses:--

"Softly the Indian night sunk o'er the plain, Fragrant with blooms and jewelled thick with stars, And cool with mountain airs sighing adown From snow-flats on Himala high outspread.

The moon above the eastern peaks Silvered the roof-tops of the pleasure-house, And all the sleeping land."

The next scene opens with a soprano solo ("Within the Bower of inmost Splendor"), in which Yasodhara relates her dream of the voice crying "The Time is nigh," to Siddartha, and closes with a tender duet for soprano and tenor. The next number is a brief chorus ("Then in her Tears she slept"), followed by the tenor solo, "I will depart," in which Siddartha proclaims his resolve "to seek deliverance and the unknown light," and leading to a richly-colored and majestic chorus:

"There came a wind which lulled each sense aswoon Of captains and of soldiers: The gates of triple bra.s.s rolled back all silently On their grim hinges; Then, lightly treading, where those sleepers lay, Into the night Siddartha pa.s.sed, While o'er the land a tremor spread, As if earth's soul beneath stirred with an unknown hope, And rich celestial music thrilled the air From hosts on hosts of shining ones."

A tenor solo describes the six long years of wandering, followed by a characteristic chorus of voices of earth and air bidding him pa.s.s to the tree under whose leaves it was foretold that truth should come to him for the saving of the world. A short ba.s.s recitative leads to a vigorous descriptive chorus relating the temptations of Siddartha, in which the orchestra is used with masterly effect. A brief soprano solo, the apparition of Yasodhara among the wanton shapes floating about the tree, imploring him to return, and the tenor response, bidding the shadow depart, intervene; and then the chorus resumes with increased vigor, reaching a furious climax as the legions of h.e.l.l tempt him, but dying away in the close to phrases of tender beauty:--

"Radiant, rejoicing, strong, Buddha arose, And far and near there spread an unknown peace.

As that divinest daybreak lightened earth, The world was glad."

The third part (the Return) opens with a soprano solo of a slow and mournful character, relating the sorrow of Yasodhara and the visit of her damsels, who announce the arrival of merchants with tidings of Siddartha.

They are summoned, and tell their story in a short chorus, which is followed by a brief soprano solo ("Uprose Yasodhara with Joy"), an exultant chorus ("While the Town rang with Music"), and another brief phrase for soprano, leading to a fine choral outburst ("'Tis he!

Siddartha, who was lost"). The next number, a ba.s.s solo describing the King's wrath when he learns that Siddartha has returned as a yellow-robed hermit instead of with "shining spears and tramp of horse and foot," is very sonorous as well as dramatic, and is followed by a tenor and ba.s.s dialogue developing into a trio of great beauty ("Thus pa.s.sed the Three into the Way of Peace"). The final number is a masterpiece of choral work both in the elaborateness of its construction and the majesty of its effect, and brings the cantata to a close with the mystic words:--

"The Dew is on the Lotus! Rise, great Sun!

And lift my leaf and mix it with the wave.

The Sunrise comes! the Sunrise comes!

The Dewdrop slips into the shining sea.

Hail, High Deliverer, Hail!"

CORDER.

Frederick Corder, the English composer and conductor, was born at Hackney, London, Jan. 26, 1852. He was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in 1874, and in the following year gained the Mendelssohn scholarship. From 1875 to 1878 he studied at Cologne with Hiller, and in 1879 returned to London, where he engaged for a time in literary pursuits. His abilities as a writer are very clearly shown in the librettos to his works. In 1880 he was appointed conductor of the orchestra at the Brighton Aquarium, and since that time he has devoted himself to teaching and composition. His princ.i.p.al works are "In the Black Forest," an orchestral suite, and "Evening on the Seash.o.r.e," idyl for orchestra (1876); the opera "Morte d'Arthur" (1877); the one-act opera "Philomel" (1879); cantata, "The Cyclops" (1880); "Ossian," a concert overture for orchestra, produced by the London Philharmonic Society (1882); the cantata "Bridal of Triermain" (1886); and the opera "Nordisa," founded upon a Norwegian subject and brought out with great success in January, 1887 by the Carl Rosa opera troupe. Mr. Corder is one of the most ambitious and promising of all the younger English composers, and his music shows in a special degree the influence of Wagner. That he has also literary talent of a high order is evinced by his contributions to periodical literature and the librettos of his last two works,--"The Bridal of Triermain" and "Nordisa."

The Bridal of Triermain.

"The Bridal of Triermain" was written for the Wolverhampton (England) Festival of 1886, and was one of the most notable successes in the festival performances of that year. The subject is taken from Walter Scott's poem of the same name. The adaptation has been made in a very free manner, but the main incidents of the poem have been carefully preserved. Sir Roland's vision of the "Maid of Middle Earth;" the bard Lyulph's recital of the Arthurian legend, which tells of Gyneth's enchantment in the valley of St. John by Merlin, where she must sleep

"Until a knight shall wake thee For feats of arms as far renowned As warrior of the Table Round;"

the magic wrought by Merlin in the valley to delude Roland and thwart his effort to rescue Gyneth; his daring entrance into the palace grounds; the discovery of the Princess in the enchanted hall, and her final rescue are the themes which the composer has treated. In arranging his libretto he has, as has been said, made a free adaptation of the poem, sometimes using verses entire, at other times changing the text and rearranging it to suit the composer's musical demands, even at the expense of the original beauty and symmetry of the work.

The cantata has no overture, but opens with a choral introduction ("Where is the Maiden of Mortal Strain?"). An orchestral interlude in the form of a tender graceful nocturne follows, leading up to the tenor solo, "The Dawn of an autumn Day did creep," in which the Baron relates the apparition he has seen in his dream. A short ba.s.s recitative by Lyulph the bard introduces the Legend, which is told in an effective number for soprano solo, ba.s.s solo, and chorus ("In Days e'en Minstrels now forget"). The next number, a very dramatic dialogue for soprano and tenor, gives us the conversation between Arthur and Gyneth, and leads to an energetic full chorus with very descriptive accompaniment, picturing the b.l.o.o.d.y tourney and its sudden interruption by the appearance of Merlin the enchanter. The first part closes with a charming number ("'Madmen,' he cried, 'your Strife forbear'") arranged for ba.s.s solo, quartet, and chorus, in which is described the spell which Merlin casts upon Gyneth.

The second part, after a short allegro movement for orchestra, opens with a contralto solo ("Of wasted Fields and plundered Flocks") which prepares the way for a concerted number for solos and chorus ("And now the Moon her Orb has hid"), describing the magical arts which Merlin employed to thwart the Baron. This number alone is sufficient to stamp Mr. Corder as a composer of extraordinary ability. A succession of ba.s.s, tenor, and contralto recitatives ("Wroth waxed the Warrior") leads to another powerful chorus ("Rash Adventurer, bear thee back"), the song of the "four maids whom Afric bore," in which the composer has caught the weird, strange color of the scene and given it vivid expression. A tenor recitative ("While yet the distant Echoes roll") leads up to a graceful, sensuous soprano solo and female chorus ("Gentle Knight, awhile delay").