Humour in, Music.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 136, 9 June 1906, Page 10

Humour in, Music.

In a sense, no doubt, it may be con.tended that there is no such thing as humour in music, and certainly it is true that so far as instrumental music is concerned the humour alleged is more often read into it by the listener than inherent in tho music itself. Music may be gay, bright, and vivacious certainly, and induce a corresponding state of feeling in its hearer, but this does not necessarily imply humour. Let the music of a Sullivan comic opera, bo played to someone previously unacquainted with it and its humorous quality wil) hardly be recognised. Music can no more convey a joke than it can tell a story without the aid of words. It can merely suggest a, mood and induce a state of feeling. Nearly all tho -humorous m.usic in existence achieves its purpose with the aid of words, in which case its possibilities, if not unlimited, are at all events very considerable. But even instrumental music i 3 not incapable of humorous effects. When in the "Pastoral" symphony Beethoven makes his bassoon play after the manner of a villago performer amusement is always excited — though probably only on tho part of thoso who hnppen to know what was intended by the music. How largely the appreciation of such instrumental facetiae- depends upon the listener is illustrated by the diverse interpretations which have been placed upon an equally famous passage m another of Beethoven's symphonics — namely, that towards the end of the first movement in "Eroica," where the horns make what sounds like a manifest false entry. All music-lovers know the passage and relish it as one of the most characteristic ever written by-seethoyen, but whereas some regard it as a joke of the first water, others (the late Sir George Grove, for instance} • are impressed by its poetry and pathos. And this is a danger which is apt to attend all attempts (if such an attempt it was in this case} at instrumental humour. Unless explained beforhand tho humour is likely ,to be misconstrued. It was a favourite- practice of tho late Professor Hanslick, who held such strong views as to the descriptive limitations of the art, to establish his case by eliciting the most diverse interpretations from different hearers of a given passage ; and such an cxampla as that quoted would "claubtleffs have been cited by, him. Who, again, listening to Beethoven's wellknow "Lost Groschen" rondo capriccio, would guess, if not informed, tho inner meaning of that engaging composition — oy, evdn suppose that it had any ipner meaning whatever? It is so difficult in these cases not to be influenced by the suggestion of a title or an avowed intontion. Certainly the humorous and quasihumorous effects achieved by eccentricities of instrumentation can hardly be accepted as proving tho possibilities of humour in music* To raise a smile by tho employment of the bassoon, say, or the horn or the drum in an eccentric passage is doubtless easy enough, but the humour in this caso, such as it id, resides in the instrument rather than in ( the music. Very rarely the music itself' possesses what can be regarded as an element of genuine humour, though now and again such music is written. Bich--arc! Strauss, for example, has done the thing more than once. Even if you knew nothing of the programme of "Till Eulenspiegel," and apart altogether from its characteristic instrumentation, few musicians could listen to that "Humoreske" without detecting a humorous | purposo in its themes — notably that identified with "Till" himself — and their treatment. In ' "Don- Quixote" also tnere is undeniable suggestion of humour in Sancho Panza's theme, and elsewhere — or so at leo-st ono fancies when assisted by knowledge of the composer's purpose. Then, again, thero is humour of a purely musical kind — as that derived from the performers being made to play out of tune, to play wrong notes, with exaggerated expression, and so forth. A famous work of this class is Mozart's so-called '.'Peasants' Symphony," in which a performande of unskilled players is burlesqued, and you have all sorts of blunders and errors perpetrated by this and that' instrument—the horns playing a solo passage all wrong, the first violin attempting a cadenza and stopping half a tone too high, the accompaniment being continued alone at one point, and so on. Another work in the same category, but on different lines, is Hadyn's "Farewell" symphony, in which the players take their departure one by one as the perfdrmance proceeds, until all arc gone and the orchestra is deserted ; while a musical joke of yet another kind is that which iho same merry master was also fond of perpetrating in the shape of an unexpected fortissimo interrupting a very soft passage. Tchaikovsky has the same effect in the first movement of the j "Pathetic" symphony in the shape of the deafening crash of the whole orchestra_ — ono of the most startling passages_ in all music — which begins the working out section of tho movement in question. But there was certainly no humorous intention in this oase. In the same composer's "Casse Noisette" anite, on tho other hand, there is at least one deliberately comic passage — that which opens tho Chinese Danco section — which «t is impossible to hear withouj, smiling, so grotesque and irresponsible is its melodic outline. The v introduction of imitations constitutes nnother phaso of the hnmorous in music, thongh this is o branch of the art which comes more properly perhaps under the head of programme bjusic. Ihe bird notes iatrodnced by Bocthoven in the slow movement of the "Pastoral" symphony are, of course, a classical instanre under this head. Nor was Ecothoven by any means tho first to display his humour in this form. A famous Italian organist, Bernardo Pnsquini, of the seventeenth century composed » piece based entirely on this idea, which might bo described ns tho Cuckoos' 'Duet, while Rumeau took tho homely but eminently characteristic cry of the domestic hen as the themo for an elaborate contrapuntal movemenu whoso origin would hardly be susperted by the uninitiated. Then ther,e is Scarlatti's "Cat's Fuguo" — bnsed on a themo suggested by the random pasßngo of the household cnt across the keyboard of a harpsichord — though lieithor these nor any other such examplesyjf musical humour, as Haydn's or KombVg's "Toy" symphonies, go .far towards proving that 4 music in itself is really capable of humour

When words are employed or a definite programme is adopted the case stands differently, of course, as might be illustrated by a thousand instances ancient and modern. Everyone can appreciate the humour of Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" music, for instance, with its diverting hee-haw (an effect which Bach himself was not superior to employing) at one point, while among more modern instances such things as Elgar's "Cockayne" overture and Mackenzie's "London Day by Day" suite (which ought to be heard more often) are examples in point. Sir Hubert Parry, too, has displayed his abounding sense of humour in other compositions besides the "Pied Piper" — as every one will bo aware who is acquainted with the mnsic which he wrote not long ago to accompany a performance of the "Clouds" at Oxford. Here you had snatches of Nibelungen motives mixed up with bits of "Rule Britannia," musichall ditties of the day, "For' he's a jolly good fellow," scraps from "Die Meistersinger," the "Pathetic" symphony, Beethoven's violin concerto, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Richard Strauss, all making up a musical medley of the most diverting kind. * - - , At same timo musical high jinks of this ordor must not be accepted as proof Of the theory that music itself can know the abstract quality of humour. Let the same music be played to a hearer unacquainted with the works introduced, and it would hot raise asnr'-. — H.A.S., in the Westminster Gazette.