MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 86

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

MUSIC A CENTURY AGO. What were the musical conditions 100 years ago? It is interesting to record a few bare facts. . Haydn, foi instance, was just dead, Mendelssohn in his cradle, a year old, Donizetti was Xk> Berlioz seven, and Bellini eight. Sir Henry Bishop had already composed his music to "The Circassian Bride" (the enthusiastic reception of which; in 1809, was suddenly arrested by the destruction by fire of Drury Lane Theatre along with the score), and had been engaged to conduct at Covent Garden. His efforts in the foundation of the Philharmonic Society were yet to come. Auber had already establfshed a certain reputation as a composer of instrumental and vocal music. At the beginning of the century he was in London nominally as a commercial clerk, but heart and soul devoted to music, and winning success with .11. compositions In fashionable drawing rooms. ",.-••'•■ But greater than these were at work. Cherubim for. 15 years had been head of 'the Conservatoire 'in Paris, and had produced all his finest works'for the stage, as a writer for which he was esteemed above all others of the day by Beethoven. Cherubini vieited Vienna in 1805, and Saw much of the great German. He was present at the first performances of '•'Fidelio." It is interesting to recall 3iis remark as to Beethoven's personal characteristics. . "II etait toujours brusque" The year 1810 saw the. first publication of "Fidelio" in its first revised form, reduced to two acts. The composer was then busy with the. "Egmont" music, the string quartet in F minor," and some eongs. He had- 1 just passed through a period of wonderful activity—the C minor and "Pastoral" ' symphonies, the "Emperor" concerto, the "Harp" quartet, and the beautiful F sharp pianoforte sonata, and that known as "Les Adieux;"

Meanwhile Rossini was a youth of 18, •who had ■ secured iirst prize Vat the Bologna Lioeo with a cantata which wias honoured with a public performance ak>ng~ .with an overture in the fugal style. The story is told of him that one day his master, Padre Mattei,. was explaining to him that the amount of counterpoint he had already acquired "was sufficient for a compose! - in the free style, but that for church rhusic much severer studies were required. "What!" cried young Rossini, "do you mean that I know enough to wirite operas?" "Cefrtainly,"' was the reply. "Tberr I went nothing more, for operas are all that I desire to write." Schubert in 1810 was in the Imperial school, taking part in . the performances of the boys' band and composing music whenever 1 he could afford to get paper on .which to put down the ideas which never seemed to ceaso to come into his head; Weber was pulling . himpelf to-, gethe'r and endeavouring to take life and his art more seriously than had been possible_in the frivolous. Court of Duke Ludwig.at Stuttgart; Meyerbeer had become an inmate of Abbe. Voglers house,..with whom he,was to learn the art of, fugue. ' One wonders what the verdict of. posterity will be upon the musical labours of to-day—whether as much can be said 1 of our efforts.—Pall Mall Gazette. THE OPERA" HOUSE. :• —The Refuge of the Incompetent} ■ Singer.— There is" more bad singing on the operatic stage' than any where- else. The -largest .salaries are paid to the largest voices.- That ..is the sum and substance of the entire scatter. '•. -.-. There is plenty of poor concert singers. The world of opera has «o > monopoly of defective vocal] art. But numerous rea'sons conspire to make the opera house the refuge of the incompetent singei\ What is meant-by the assertion that the largest salaries are paid to the largest voices is simply that small voices are unsuited to opera.- ......

And contrast the time when the opera was written wholly for the singer and the orchestration was subordinated to the vocal parts and the case, now, when the piling up of mass effects is one rf th© composer's favourite resources, and when th© thunders of instrumentation have brought the big tone habit to its greatest advance. -• ..:••. ''.'''"

Almost the _ first question asked about a singing voice, is whether it is large enough for opera," "or will she have, to confine herself to concert work?" Hence,, when it has been ascertained that the voice has sufficient power to make it adaptable to the requirements of the operatic stage the battle has been half won. It is an actual fact that there are opera singers who have never had two years of voice-training. There is a singer who boasts that she studied only six months. Yet the present writer has heard her style and technique discussed seriously by people who honestly believe themselves to be connoisseurs.

It is- admitted by candid writers in Germany that the root of the evils patent to every observer is .the conviction that success on the operatic stage can be won without thorough grounding- in the art of singing, and the appalling fact is ti at it is won bv singers' who know almost nothing at all about art. They have bi<» powerful, natural voices and splendid physiques. They spend about two years in preparation, one year in exercise to smooth out the scale, so that it is fairkmanageable, ruid to acquire some rudimentary facility, _ and another vfar in style and reoertbire. Then the »higer is ready for "Isolde" and "Brunhilde." or if ia man "Siegfried" and "Tristan." They don't care to sing anything els?. Furthermore, they could not if they fcrifd. If any one of these untrained singers essayed a Mozart role the first oassage of recitative secco would expose the pitiable poverty of his vocal resource. Wagner's /enerous orchestration covers un a few things and stops our ears to others.

In Wagner we have something to listen to besides the singer, but when it comes to the old works in which the statue was always on-the stage and the pedestal in the orchestra, the eins of the half-baked singer glow like the waves of Phle»-er,hon. In Italy it" is conceded by those_ who do not feel obliered to defend everything dene in that bewitching land that singers are no longer trained as they were in +he palmy days of her vocal ascendancy. TSe requirements of the Italian singing schools of the earlv eighteenth century would seem impossible to the operatic aspirant of to-day. He" is «ot seeking for success in the

artistic development of the music of Rossini, of Mozart, of Gluck, of Puccini; but for fame and glory, and, most of all, a large salary far- pealing the clarion measures of Verdi's later works, and for vociferating "Ridi Paliacci" at th« top of his lungs or reveling in the declamatory pages of Puccini. France has sunk so low in vocal apathy that it is quite futile.to discuss her. The singing at the Grand v Opera is ihe worst to be heard throughout all the great opera houses of Europe.—W. J. Henderson.

SIR HUBERT PARRY ON BACH

On a superficial and sentimental survey Bach might well be regarded as one of the -most tragic figures in the annals of art. Here was a colossal genius, a supreme creative artist, in whom unexampled wealth of ideas was united to a superb command of the resources of expression. Yet by the irony of fate he was condemned to spend his life in obscurity, winning .only partial recognition for the least of his talents, and practically none for the greatest; slighted by his official superiors, who regarded him merely as an inefficient schoolmaster; and so inadequately remunerated for his prodigious industry that his widow died in extreme poverty, and his last surviving daughter spent her declining years as a pensioner on the alms of the, J few musicians who remembered her father. ! More than this, Bach's fame .waited j nearly a hundred years for the beginning | of that xevival in which the majesty of ! his aims and the. completeness of; their j realisation have gradually assumed their '.true proportions, and 'won for him his unique position among the greatest masters of his art. ' One of the many services which Sir Hubert Parry has rendered in this noble tribute to Bach ["John Sebastian Bach. The' Story of the Development of a Great Personality." By G. Hubert H. Parry,"' London: G. P. Putnam's Sons.] is to show that, while the tardy acknowledgment of his genius is a matter for natural regret, there is no ground Tor supposing that he.was discouraged or embittered by lack of success or prosperity. The little that we' know of his surroundings' goes to show that he was happy in hie home life. For the rest, he was in the rare position of one who spent by far the greatest part of his life in the continuous exercise of the most exalted faculties. He was a miracle not only of industry but of achievement. No composer can have ever tasted the joys of attainment so fully, because none ever possessed an equipment more perfectly designed for the execution of his- ideals. ■ "Conversation' enriches the intellect, but : solitude is the true school for genius," and in a sense Bach lived in isolation; "he fought with none, for none was worth his strife." But Bach's serene 'isolation, was vastly different from that of Berlioz, who said he would be quite content, so far as recognition went, if he could live to be a hundred and twenty. As a matter of fact, Berlioz would never have been content. His nature and his equipment combined to forbid it. For all his prodigious cleverness—verflucht pfiffig, Wagner called him—there was a good deal ef>the amateur about his work, and he was probably conscious of it. Again, he. was always a rebel against constituted authority, consumed by a demon of unrest, and hungry for/ applause. His domestic life was disastrous, and he lacked the consolation of religious faith. Berlioz had indeed good cause to be unhappy. In every, respect that we have mentioned Bach was his antithesis. Maladie du Sieele, Welts* chmerz, and Sehrisucht may have existed in his time, but few people were aware of their ' existence, and still fewer attempted to express them in words or art. Bach was a great pioneer and innovator, ... but he stood upon the ancient ways, and learned all that there was to learn from his predecessors before striking out new naths of his own. So far as we can. tell, hie home life was not only blameless, but. as Sir Hubert Parry says, it is difficult not to feel a nersonal affection for Anna Magdalena, "whose life bad been so intertwined with his so long by the tenderest strands, whosn. handwriting appears so often ■ mimrled with his, whose musical nature had been nurtured so tenderly bv him." Above' all. he was sustained throughout his life by Jan/unquestioning 1 and unclouded faith.

As his latest biographer remarks', it "was natural and appropriate "that when the northern kingdoms and provinces established- their independence from the ancient •ecclesiastical domination, it should fall to their lotto find the highest expression of the purified religion -in music." Devotional as distinguished from pietistic, or even ecclesiastical, music found its purest utterance in Bach, who combined ' with his supreme mastery of resource' adeen spiritual fervour born unshaken belief As Sir Hubert Papry deserves in one of his acute oharasteriisti«ations, "Bach had so constantly used his highest skill for the purpose of devotional cxv.Tes.eion. that, he seems to have arrived at the frame of mind which, through assocV felt the skill itself to be something sacred and devotional." It is a renm.pkable and significant fact that Bach, though deeplv moved by .the idea of death, which forms the theme of many of his noblest cantatas, liiever resra.rded it in a sinster or gloom v a'.3pect. but "as a thought suffused with mystery and tenderness."- Sometime before bis <leath it is said that hf began a chorale prelude on the tune " When we are m deepest need." He completed it on his deathbed., "and with touching sincerity of devotion he altered the title from the piteous ■expression of deepest need t>n the words Vor defneii "Thron tre*-' Ich ('I come before Thy throne'). Death had always had a strange fascination for him. aiid many of his most beautiful compositions have been inspired bv the thoughts which it susrarested. And now he met it. not with repininsrs or fear of the unknown, but with the expression of exaui*ite peace and while the latest book on Handsl should have been devoted to exhibit him as a great pagan poet, the newest, and in some ways ihe grea.test, literarv act of homage to the genius of Bach should freely acknowledge that his worksi were never so sublime as when thev were." animated bv his living faith in the creed of Christianity. .

The popular •misconceptions about Bach —many or them inherent, in the difficulty of obtaining 1 a comprehensive knowledge of hit disn&saionately cashiered in Sir Hubert Parry's book. In this context it is worth recalling' the la*+

that one of 'J.e earliest and most eloquent vindications of Bach's genius in the British press was from the pen of Sir George Grove, and appeared in the Spectator of June 11th, 1853. Vicuxtemps, the famous violinist, had • played the "Chaeonne" at a concert of the Musical Union, and Gtovc wrote to combat the notion then generally current in England that Bach "was a man who wrote fiiguesj that he was prodigiously learned and equally crabbed and difficult to comprehend; and that, in consequence, to all but professionals and the most initiated of amateurs, his pieces are utterly uninteresting." Grove contends per contra that Bach's .learning was a very subordinate thing, and that "not it, but feeling, tender, passionate .' sentiment, a burning genius, and prodigious flow and inarch of ideas are his characteristics." Sir Hubert Parry's study abounds in felicitous illustrations of this contention. He rightly insists on Bach's catholic sympathies and his sensitiveness to external influences, Italian_and French. So far from beig pedantic, in many ways the greatest of musical adventurers and experimentalists, "Even the composers who appear to aim at being several generations ahead of their time are glad to take a hint from him no<v and again, and do not always surpass him in the issue." So far from being dull or dry, he was unsurpassed in the brilliancy and profusion of his ornament. In fine, Bach's personality "combined the primitive human qualities in large measure with the amplest outfit of the intellectual qualities." His devotional fervour did not cramp his broad and spacious humanity, which was manifested, inter alia, by his love of frank rhythm and melody. For he was not merely capable of coining magnificent straightforward tunes. Ho was even more ■wonderful "in the deeply expressive rhapsodical melody, the outpouring of copious

f and genuine feeling, such as is displayed ! in his ariosos, the slow movements for . solo violin, and the slow movement of the | Italian concerto." We have only dwel f on a few points* ! suggested hy the perusal of a work of which it is-enough to. say that it is not unworthv of its august and memorable subject." It is hard for any one who. admires Bach to write of him without running the risk of lapsing into extravagance. Sir Hubert Parry has surmounted this difficulty with conspicuous skill. His eulogy is. affectionate and reverent, yet discriminating; it is never marred by, effusiveness or disfigured by unnecessary, comparisons. ( He has, in fine, supplemented the minute and laborious research of Spitta with a study of the underlying! significance, personal and artistic, of Bach's works so penetrating and sincere as to ensure the abiding association of his name with that of the most majestic o£ all the great masters."—C. L. G. in the Spectator. ■ ,