CHAPTER XVI
ORGAN MUSIC AFTER BACH AND HANDEL
The eclipse of organ music after Bach; Bach’s pupils and other organ masters of the classic period--Organ composers of the romantic period: Mendelssohn, Liszt, Rheinberger and others--Great French organists of the nineteenth century--English organists since Handel.
I
The hopelessness of maintaining organ-music on the height to which Bach had raised it was obvious enough as soon as he had passed from the stage of which he had been the most brilliant adornment. Johann Joachim Quantz, in his book, _Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte zu spielen_ (1752), expresses the fear that after his (Bach’s) death the art of organ-playing, which he had brought to the highest perfection, might deteriorate or possibly disappear, ‘as there are only a few that cultivate it.’ He complains that ‘good organists are very rare,’ but intimates that one reason is that they receive very little encouragement, since the majority of them are paid ‘such miserably small salaries.’ But while Bach’s creative genius had said the last word in organ music in the particular forms which he employed, he handed down his wonderful art of playing to a galaxy of brilliant pupils and especially to his oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.
For a century after Bach’s death, however, the attention of musical Europe was absorbed in following other lines of development and his influence was not immediately apparent. He was so far in advance of his age that the essence of his art had to wait several generations till the world had progressed enough to perceive it and in a few years after he had passed he became only a tradition. The organ was soon overshadowed in importance by new media of musical expression; the orchestra and the rapidly developing pianoforte, the opera and the oratorio, the symphony and the sonata, offered novel and more alluring opportunities for the imagination and creative fancy of composers than did the sombre, polyphonic forms that seemed best suited both to the church services themselves and to the organ of the period as an interpreting instrument. And neither the organ nor organ-music was rescued from the secondary and unimportant position into which both fell after Bach’s time, until organ-builders in the last half of the nineteenth century began to introduce mechanical improvements which made the instrument capable of meeting the modern requirements in expressional power.
Though the instrument itself lagged pitiably behind other instruments in development, Germany, France, and England continued to bring forth great organists. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), the special favorite of his father, was exceedingly talented as a performer and was considered the finest organist in Germany after his father’s death. He was organist of the _Sophienkirche_ in Dresden (1733-1747) and of the _Marienkirche_ in Halle (1747-1764). He had a great reputation for improvisation, of which he was especially fond, and he wrote very little for the organ--chorale-preludes, trios, canons, and some fugues, of which the one in F major is especially notable.
Several of Sebastian Bach’s pupils were famous organists in their time and good composers. Johann Philip Kirnberger (1721-1783) wrote chorale-preludes and fugues, but is best known to the musical world by his theoretical work, _Die Kunst des reinen Satzes_. Johann Frederick Doles (1715-1797) was cantor of the Thomas school in Leipzig from 1756 to 1789. He wrote in rather popular vein and, strange indeed for a pupil and successor of the great Cantor, actually demanded the banishment of the fugal form from the church service. Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780), whom Bach playfully called ‘_der einzige Krebs in meinem Bache_’ (‘the only crab in my brook’), was considered by Bach to be his best pupil. He wrote chorale-fugues, preludes, and fugues. His fugue in G major is still an attractive concert piece. Johann Schneider (1702-1787), organist at St. Nicholas’, Leipzig, gained great fame as an improvisator on the organ. Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809), the last pupil of Sebastian Bach, who brought his master’s traditions into the nineteenth century, was organist at Erfurt from 1756 till his death. He was a famous player and teacher and an excellent composer. Among his celebrated pupils were M. G. Fischer and J. C. H. Rinck.
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809), famous as a theoretical writer, composer, and teacher, was court-organist in Vienna (1772) and kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s (1792). For the organ he wrote eleven sets of fugues and three of preludes, but the vast majority of his 261 compositions are unpublished. His fame lingered longest as a theorist and among his pupils were names that later became celebrated--Seyfried, Hummel, and Beethoven. Beethoven studied counterpoint with him, but he expressed only a poor opinion of his pupil’s talent.
Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814), best known as Abbé Vogler and immortalized in Robert Browning’s well-known poem of that name, was a pupil of Padre Martini in Bologna and of Vilotti in Padua. After going to Rome he entered the priesthood, later returning to Germany and sojourning a few years in each of various places. He invented a system of simplification for the organ and applied it to a portable instrument which he called ‘orchestrion,’ with which he travelled over Europe as concert-organist. One of his inventions was the so-called ‘resultant’ 16-foot tone, produced by uniting an 8-foot pipe with a 5-1/3-foot (‘quint’) pipe. This device gave rise to the ‘resultant’ 32-foot tone still employed by some organ-builders. He also advocated discarding mixtures altogether. His compositions no longer possess interest. His presumption and self-confidence are well illustrated by the fact that he published (Peters’, Leipzig, 1810) twelve chorales by Sebastian Bach ‘corrected’ (_umgearbeitet_) by himself and analyzed by C. M. von Weber, who at that time was his pupil at Darmstadt.
Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846) was a voluminous writer for the organ. His compositions show fluent melody and clear form, and his style is dignified and simple, but his ideas lack musical depth. He was wise enough not to attempt to follow Bach in fugue writing, recognizing, as he said to Fétis, that if he were ‘to succeed in composing anything worthy of approval, it must be on different lines from his (Bach’s).’ Rinck’s ‘Organ School’ is still well-known in England and America.
Michael Gotthard Fischer (1773-1829), organist at Erfurt, was a most excellent player and a composer of many organ-works--preludes, fantasias, chorale-preludes--that even to-day have not lost their attractiveness.
II
Johann Gottlob Schneider (1789-1864) was one of the greatest German organ virtuosi of the nineteenth century and did a great deal to popularize organ-music by his many concert tours. His few published works--fugues, fantasias, preludes--occupy an honorable place. Like so many of the great organists of the earlier periods, he was famous for his improvisation.
Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809-1863), organist of St. Bernard’s, Breslau, was another celebrated and much admired organ virtuoso. He created a sensation by his performances, especially his pedal-playing, at the inauguration of the new organ at St. Eustache, Paris, in 1844. When later he concertized in England (1852) he protested vigorously against the unequal temperament of the English organs. He wrote preludes, fugues, fantasias, études--mostly practical works in clear form, with smooth-flowing melody and simple, popular content.
August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885), organist of the cathedral in Magdeburg, was one of the greatest German organ masters of the last century, famous alike for his wonderful improvisation and as a virtuoso. He wrote four fine sonatas for the organ, of which opus 19 in E minor and especially opus 23 in A minor (dedicated to Liszt) are of great value. Other works are chorale-preludes, fugues, and variations. Of greatest value are his _Kunst des Orgelspiels_, an instruction book in two volumes, and _Geschichte des Orgelspiels im 14-18 Jahrhunderts_, an admirable and scholarly scientific treatise, which has been freely drawn upon, since its publication in 1884, by most writers on organ history.
Karl August Haupt (1810-1891), organist of the Parochialkirche, Berlin (1849), and director of the Royal Academy of Church Music (1869), was an organ master of the first rank, equally great as virtuoso and extempore player in the style of Bach, for whose works he was ever an enthusiastic propagandist. He published the organ works of Thiele, his friend and predecessor at the Parochialkirche. He drew a host of American students to him. One of these, Mr. E. E. Truette in the _Étude_, is authority for the statement that they numbered over 150 and he mentions the names of Eugene Thayer, Clarence Eddy, J. K. Paine, George W. Morgan, Arthur Bird, and Philip Hale.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was an organist of fine attainments and wrote most gratefully for the instrument. Himself a Bach enthusiast and gifted with extraordinary contrapuntal facility, Mendelssohn was the first composer for the organ after Bach to approach him in the happy combination of nobility of musical ideas and technical finish of workmanship. He has earned the gratitude of organists by his three preludes and fugues (of which the ones in G major and C minor are possibly the best) and six sonatas, all free from pedantry and full of refreshing melodic invention, romantic warmth of harmony, and in attractive technical garb. The preludes are less valuable than the sonatas. Four of the six sonatas have chorales for their principal thematic material and these are the most valuable of the six. In the use of the chorale in his organ sonatas and his oratorios, Mendelssohn shows his close artistic kinship with the great Cantor; the chorale made a deep appeal to him and stirred the flight of his imagination to finest effort. These are sonatas only in name, the strict sonata-form not being observed. In the powerful first movement of No. 1 (F minor), the chorale _Was mein Gott will, gscheh allzeit_ (‘What my God wills, be always done!’) is beautifully interwoven. The simple, expressive Adagio is followed by a very attractive Recitativo which leads into the brilliant and dashing Finale. The Adagio of No. 2 (C minor) is of finest beauty and the best movement of this sonata, which is clear in form and melodious, as Mendelssohn always is. No. 3 (A minor) has only two movements, the first of grand effect, presenting an excellent double fugue on the chorale _Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir_ (‘In deep distress I cry to Thee’). No. 4 (B-flat major) is constructed with four movements and is a brilliant, effective concert sonata, the Allegretto (F major) being especially attractive and written in Mendelssohn’s typical fluent manner. No. 5 (D major) is a beautiful work throughout. In No. 6 (D minor) Mendelssohn uses the chorale _Vater unser im Himmelreich_ as the basis of four variations built up to a great climax and a fugue constructed on the first line of the chorale. The Finale (D major) almost breathes vocal expression.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was never an organist, but his interest in contrapuntal study led him to write six fugues on the name B-A-C-H, of which No. 5, the little staccato fugue, is the most original. The canons which he wrote as studies for pedal-piano are also suitable and effective for organ. Of these the B minor Canon is best known as an effective concert-piece.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) contributed very original and effective music for the organ, most of which inclines towards orchestral effects and some of which opened up new possibilities for the organ, as his compositions for piano did for that instrument. In addition he wrote many smaller pieces (including transcriptions) for organ or harmonium, that are harmonically most piquant. His best works for organ are: Variations on a Basso Ostinato (_Crucifixus_ of the B minor Mass by Bach), Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, _Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine_, Litany: _Ora pro nobis_, and Fantasia and Fugue on _Ad nos, ad salutarem undam_ (theme by Meyerbeer), this last being his greatest work for organ.
Johann Friedrich Ludwig Thiele (1816-1848) was organist of the Parochialkirche, Berlin, from 1839 to 1848. Although his early death at the age of thirty-two prevented the full development of his extraordinary genius, Thiele has left several very important organ-works--‘Chromatic Fantasy,’ written at the age of seventeen; three concert-pieces, all majestic compositions; Theme and Variations in A-flat major and in C major, both brilliant and effective concert-pieces.
Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst (1823-1894), organist in Stuttgart and director of the Stuttgart Conservatory, published several organ pieces; his Sonata in E major is a masterly work.
The career of Julius Reubke (1834-1858), the son of an organ-builder and a fine pianist and organist, was cut short by death when he was only twenty-four years old. His only organ-work, a sonata entitled ‘The 94th Psalm,’ is one of the grandest and most powerful works that have ever been written for the instrument; its position in literature is really unique. It reveals the inexhaustible fantasy, the profound depth, and the impetuous temperament of the young composer, who with sure hand molded his own form by breaking the old sonata-form. This magnificent sonata introduced a new epoch, the orchestral treatment of the organ. The early death of Reubke and Thiele was the most serious blow to modern progressive organ-music in Germany.
Gustav Adolf Merkel (1827-1885), a pupil of Johann Schneider and organist of the Kreuzkirche and Hofkirche in Dresden, was one of the greatest organists and organ-composers of his period and he has left works of great beauty and value, though much of his writing sounds dry and pedantic now. He wrote nine sonatas, one of them for two performers and double pedal. Of these sonatas the best are opus 42 in G minor and opus 118 in D minor. Other works are fantasias, preludes, and études. Merkel was a masterly contrapuntist and falls in the direct line of succession to Bach and Mendelssohn. His sonatas are on the whole the best works of this class between Mendelssohn and Rheinberger.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), the great master of German song and symphony, gave a few valuable works to the organ: the very scholarly Fugue in A-flat minor, Chorale-Prelude and Fugue on _O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid_, and eleven chorale-preludes (his last work), of which two deserve especial mention--_Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen_ and _O Welt, ich muss dich lassen_.
[Illustration: Modern Organ Composers:] Top: Alexandre Guilmant and Charles Marie Widor Bottom: Joseph Rheinberger and Max Reger
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) easily takes rank as one of the best German organists and teachers of the latter part of the nineteenth century and at the same time one of the greatest organ composers of the century. From 1867 he was professor of composition and organ-playing in the Munich Conservatory and in 1877 was appointed director of the Court Church music in Munich. He has exerted a marked influence on music in America through his numerous pupils, among whom may be mentioned Horatio W. Parker and George W. Chadwick. His many-sided genius expressed itself in various fields--orchestral, choral, church, chamber, pianoforte, and organ. In all of these fields he showed himself in close sympathy with modern harmonic development and tendencies, but, strange to say, not with Wagner’s methods and theories; yet he combined with a progressive modern spirit a mastery of fugal and contrapuntal forms equalled by none of his contemporaries. While he avoided treating the organ orchestrally, he was among the first to employ in organ-forms the rich harmonic vocabulary of the romantic composers who had already given to the literature of the pianoforte and the orchestra so many masterpieces of warm and glowing tone-color. His organ compositions are pure music of an elevated type, equal in their own individual way with the best orchestral art of his period. In most of Rheinberger’s music, however, there is present a certain quality of reserve that never permits the expression of exuberance of feeling or exalted enthusiasm. They reveal an astonishing variety, a fertile imagination, deep earnestness, and complete mastery of form and style. The most important of these works are two concertos for organ with orchestra in F major (opus 137) and G minor (opus 177), and twenty sonatas, which alone constitute a monumental contribution to organ literature. Rheinberger seems to have attempted for the organ-sonata something of the same task of setting free from the trammels of tradition and of developing along the line of its own inherent needs that Beethoven solved so successfully for the pianoforte-sonata. These two forms of the sonata, however, have very little in common and Rheinberger, in his remarkable series, gave the strongest impetus to the development of the organ-sonata as a distinct music-form since Mendelssohn’s noble works. The particular form which he seemed to adopt for it as a kind of type was in three movements, the first being in the nature of a prelude, the last a fugue or some distinctly contrapuntal form, and the intervening movement an intermezzo in slow tempo. Most of his sonatas are constructed in this form, though occasionally he employs four movements, as in the Sonata in E minor, No. 8, where a Scherzoso appears between the Intermezzo and the final movement. He frequently uses with telling effect the modern device of unifying the movements through the employment in the last movement of themes heard in the first. In the Pastoral Sonata, No. 3, the Eighth Gregorian Psalm Tone, upon which the opening movement (Pastorale) is constructed, appears again with fine effect as a contrasting subject to the fugal theme in the last movement. Plain-song melodies frequently appear in his earlier sonatas. Many of the sonatas--especially No. 8 (opus 132) in E minor, No. 9 (opus 142) in B-flat minor (dedicated to Guilmant), No. 12 (opus 154) in B-flat major, No. 14 (opus 165) in C major, and No. 20 (opus 196) in F--are among the noblest examples of organ-music. Among his shorter organ compositions of large value are Twelve Characteristic Pieces, many trios for two manuals and a pedal, besides several pieces for organ and violin.
III
French organ-music presents very little interesting material for the historian to dwell upon until after the middle of the nineteenth century, when a new stimulus broke in upon the dreary triviality which had been so long its chief characteristic. The most important French organist of the last half of the eighteenth century was Nicolas Séjan (1745-1819), who was appointed organist of Nôtre Dame in 1772, of St. Sulpice in 1783, of the Invalides in 1789, and of the Chapel Royal in 1814. Carlyle in his ‘French Revolution’ relates a thrilling experience through which this organist passed at the hands of the revolutionists in 1793, when they seized the church of Nôtre Dame and made it the scene of a sacrilegious orgy of unusually revolting character. Demoiselle Candeille, a dancer from the Opéra, was established at the altar as the Goddess of Reason and La Harpe harangued the crowd, declaring all religion abolished. As a crowning defiance to traditional religion this was followed by a ball, at which Séjan was forced to play dance-music on the great cathedral organ as the howling rabble danced and shouted street songs.
Alexandre Pierre François Boëly (1785-1858) was a musician of most serious aims and made persistent efforts to acquaint Frenchmen with the works of Bach and other great composers for the organ, but with no success. For several years he was organist at St. Germain l’Auxerrois, Paris, but his zeal in serving his own high artistic ideals cost him his position. He wrote four offertories and many other pieces for organ.
François Benoist (1794-1878), organist of the Royal Chapel and professor of organ-playing at the Conservatoire from 1819, left twelve books of organ works entitled _Bibliothèque de l’Organiste_. Pieces from this collection that have been reprinted, presumably the best, are in the prevailing sentimental and trivial style of this period. He was the organ-teacher of Saint-Saëns.
Just before the middle of the nineteenth century a movement for the restoration of Catholic church-music was inaugurated in Bavaria by Dr. Karl Proske (1794-1861), and Ratisbon became the centre of this movement. A collateral movement for the reform of plain-song was started by the ‘Benedictines of Solesmes,’ an order of the ‘Congregation of France’ founded at this monastery in 1833 by Dom Prosper Guéranger. Two French organists who had taken holy orders allied themselves to this latter movement and aided greatly in the reformation of church-music, especially by their writings on the relation of the organ to plain-song and on other aspects of Gregorian music. These were Louis Lambillotte (1797-1857) and Théodore Nisard, the pen name of Abbé Xavier Normand (born in 1812).
The first of the modern French organists to have any perceptible influence on present-day organists was Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869), who was organist at the Madeleine, Paris, from 1847 to 1858 and of St. Sulpice from 1863 till his death. He was a thorough musician, a skillful performer on the organ and piano, and a composer in many fields. He was regarded as possessing marvellous powers of improvisation and his compositions for a time enjoyed great popularity (‘The Monastery Bells’ was the best known of his salon-music for pianoforte). Much of his organ-music partakes of the nature of his ‘fashionable’ pianoforte-music; it is light, if not trivial, and is very melodious, but, despite its former great popularity, devoid of artistic value. However, his name frequently appears on present-day organ recital programs.
Antoine Édouard Batiste (1820-1876), organist of St. Nicolas des Champs (1842-1854) and of St. Eustache (1854-1876), was a fine teacher, one of the best performers of his time, and a prolific composer of organ music, much of which, however, is of the popular, tuneful, ear-tickling, and easy-to-play variety. Several of his nearly 300 compositions rise above this level and, though showy and somewhat sentimental, are excellent for their type. Few organ compositions have had such widespread popularity as some of Batiste’s, as, for example, the Communion in G, the Offertory in E, and several of the ‘Grand Offertories,’ including the St. Cecilia Offertories, among the best known of which are the ones in D minor, C minor, and F. The vogue of Batiste is by no means full-spent, but the gradually widening demand for organ-music of a more serious nature and a finer workmanship is automatically lessening the appeal of such music, which is merely sensuously pleasing.
Much more serious in artistic purpose and effective in healthy influence was Nicolas Jacques Lemmens (1823-1881), an eminent Belgian organist and composer who early came under the influence of German organ-music while a student of Adolph Hesse at Breslau, whither he was sent at government expense. Here he spent a year in study (1846), cultivating a deep love for Sebastian Bach and acquiring the traditions of his great organ-works. When he returned to Belgium, he carried with him a testimonial from his teacher, stating that he could play Bach as well as he himself did. As professor of organ-playing at the Brussels Conservatory (1849-1858) he exerted a wide influence and in 1879 founded a school at Malines, Belgium, under the auspices of the Belgian clergy for the training of Catholic organists and choirmasters. Among his famous pupils were Guilmant and Widor. He wrote many excellent organ compositions, about sixty in all, including sonatas (especially the Sonata Pontificale), offertories, fantasias, etc., and his instruction book _École d’Orgue_ was adopted in the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires and in other schools; but his chief influence was in laying the foundations of a more serious style of organ-music in Flanders and France. He was far more successful than Boëly in arousing interest in Bach and he astonished the French by his fine playing of the great German master’s organ works. His example in this direction was followed by many of the most distinguished French organists, as Franck, Saint-Saëns, Widor, Guilmant, Salomé--all of whom were enthusiastic worshippers of the genius of the Leipzig cantor. The most widely known of Lemmens’ organ pieces, though by no means the best, is probably the Fantasia in D minor, popularly called ‘The Storm.’
Jan Albert van Eijken or Eyken (1823-1868), a distinguished Dutch organist in Amsterdam and later in Elberfeld, received his musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory and later, at Mendelssohn’s suggestion, under Johann Schneider at Dresden. He wrote important works of great merit for the organ, including three sonatas, of which the third in A minor deserves special mention, twenty-five preludes, a large number of chorale-preludes, a toccata and fugue on B-A-C-H, and other pieces, all in the elevated style of German Protestant organ-music.
Samuel de Lange (born 1840) is another Dutch organist and composer who was celebrated in Germany, Austria, France, and England as a concert performer. He taught successively in the Music Schools of Rotterdam and Basel, and in the Conservatories of Cologne (1876) and Stuttgart (1893). He wrote seven organ-sonatas and many smaller pieces--all containing valuable music.
Three modern Belgian organists have achieved substantial reputations. Alphonse Jean Ernest Mailly (born 1833), ‘first organist to the King,’ became known as a brilliant virtuoso and teacher (in the Brussels Conservatory from 1868), and the composer of many compositions for the organ, among them fantasias, characteristic pieces, and a much-played sonata. His pupil, Edgar Tinel (1854-1912), wrote one valuable work for the organ, Sonata in G minor, of which the Finale is especially vigorous in content and treatment. In 1881 he succeeded Lemmens as director of the Institute for Sacred Music at Malines and in 1896 accepted an appointment as teacher of counterpoint and fugue in the Brussels Conservatory. His fame as composer rests more largely on his choral and church music. Joseph Callaerts (1838-1901), a native of Antwerp and a pupil of Lemmens at the Brussels Conservatory, was organist of the Cathedral of Antwerp and teacher of organ in the Music School from 1867. Some of his organ-music borders on the popular, yet much of it possesses dignity, if not great depth of thought.
The greatest figure in French organ-music is César Auguste Franck (1822-1890). What Sebastian Bach is to German musical art, Franck is to French--the great Gothic cathedral architect in tones. By virtue of his works, which in many respects overshadow everything before or after him in French organ literature, and the beneficent effect of his personal influence, which included within its radius many of the greatest of present-day French composers, Franck was an epoch-making personality and the spiritual head of a new French school which has powerfully effected French music since his time. A deep sincerity, religious in its intensity, coupled with a certain indefinable mysticism, pervades all of his compositions. Never writing for effect or applause and possessing a Bach-like fondness and capacity for intricate polyphonic structure joined with an extremely modern freedom in his use of harmonies, Franck created works of sublime beauty that will live long after the works of many of his now famous contemporaries are forgotten. His abilities as an organist (he had the reputation of being a fine one) were overshadowed by his compositions, but he was professor of organ-playing at the Paris Conservatoire and organist at St. Clotilde from 1872 till his death.
His organ works are not numerous, but they are exceedingly important, consisting of three sets of pieces.[111] In the first set of six pieces, No. 2, _Grande Pièce Symphonique_ in F-sharp minor, is appropriately called symphonic. Its themes are noble and full of deepest expression, and are developed with consummate mastery, while the harmonic scheme is always novel and fascinating. No. 3--Prelude, Fugue, and Variations in B minor--is a work of the first rank and displays to fine advantage his mastery of the resources of the organ and the technical means of expression. The Pastorale in E major, No. 4, is an especially interesting and grateful concert-piece and the Finale, No. 6, is brilliantly built up to a powerful climax. In a second set, consisting of three chorales, though all are valuable, the best are the first one in E major with its beautiful melodic lines and its ingenious harmonic effects, and the third one in A minor, which is Bach-like in its imposing dignity. The third set comprises three effective concert numbers--Fantasia in C major, which again reveals his indebtedness to Bach in the skill with which he superimposes a most expressive theme upon a delicately constructed canon, Cantabile in B major, and _Pièce Héroique_. Of these the best is the Cantabile with its rich and interesting harmonies and expressive melodies. Despite the marvellous beauty and noble power of Franck’s musical thoughts, one cannot refrain from the occasional wish that he had exercised more conciseness in their development. At the organ he was a dreamer of seraphic visions and he sometimes forgot that his listeners were apt to be uninspired mortals.
IV
The reluctance of English organ-builders, referred to in a previous chapter, to adopt the mechanical improvements introduced into Continental organs, naturally retarded the progress of English organ-music. After Handel, although England had good organists, little of value was produced in organ composition until almost the present generation. Excellent compositions were written in the style of Handel and, later, of Mendelssohn, but originality in musical material or treatment was almost wholly absent.
The best English organists and organ-composers of the eighteenth century were the following: Dr. Thomas Arne (1710-1778), William Boyce (1710-1779), John Stanley (1713-1786), a remarkable organist who was blind from the age of two and yet who distinguished himself as composer, performer, and teacher; James Nares (1715-1783), Benjamin Cooke (1734-1793), in one of whose fugues the pedal takes the subject, an unusual procedure in English organ-music of this century; Thomas Sanders Dupuis (1733-1796), one of the best organists of his time; Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801), a remarkable extempore performer; John Christmas Beckwith (1751-1809), also famous for his improvisations; and Charles Wesley (1756-1834), a nephew of the great Methodist leader. The musical forms employed by these organist-composers (all of the above wrote more or less for the organ except Boyce, Arnold, and Battishill) were chiefly concertos and fugues in the style of Handel, and voluntaries. In the time of Dupuis a form of voluntary came into vogue that soon became stereotyped, conventional, and banal. It consisted of three or four movements usually in this order--a slow movement in three-pulse rhythm for the diapasons, a solo for cornet or trumpet with accompaniment of bass only, and closing with a fugue. The first two movements were almost invariably uninteresting and dull, but the fugues showed that English composers of the period could acquit themselves creditably in forms that demanded learning rather than originality and musical feeling.
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), brother of the Charles Wesley mentioned above, was the foremost English organist of his time and the first really great figure in English organ-music. He was a fine extempore player, the composer of much excellent organ-music (11 concertos and a large number of voluntaries, interludes, preludes, and fugues), and a close student and ardent admirer of Bach. From 1800 he was a most zealous and persistent propagandist for the German master’s works and especially excelled as a performer of his fugues. As he was an excellent violinist, Bach’s violin works also received frequent performances in public concerts at his hands. The first English edition of the ‘Well-tempered Clavichord’ was published by him in 1810 in collaboration with C. F. Horn and he was instrumental in procuring the publication of an English translation of Forkel’s life of Bach. His music is more serious than the prevalent style and while he is not a great composer, judged by Continental standards, his influence was far-reaching and of utmost importance to English musical life, in that he gave substantial dignity to the organ as an interpreting instrument and induced a widespread interest in more solid organ-music, especially in Bach.
Early in the nineteenth century ‘arrangements’ began to be made for organ from other works, vocal and instrumental, chiefly of German and Italian classical composers. One of the earliest to start this custom was John Clarke-Whitfeld (1770-1836), organist of Hereford Cathedral and professor of music at Cambridge University. His arrangements were from the vocal works of Handel (1809), and as a substitute for the ability to create original music, they presented worthy compositions of a contrapuntal character suitable for organists to perform. But the arranging of pieces for the organ soon extended to other kinds of vocal music, to symphonies and forms of instrumental music quite foreign to the nature and idiom of the instrument, and this practice developed into a craze for arrangements and adaptations which lasted throughout the nineteenth century and which still persists, especially in England and America.
William Crotch (1775-1847) was a prominent organist and composer whose appointments were mostly at Oxford. He wrote concertos for organ with orchestral accompaniment and fugues for the organ alone, and made many adaptations of Handel’s oratorios for the organ. He was evidently a scholarly composer, for some of his themes were carefully phrased, an unusual procedure for his time. Crotch was one of the earliest to indicate the exact tempo he desired for his music by such mechanical means as a swinging pendulum. In a footnote to an Introduction and Fugue on a subject by Muffat, written in 1806, he says: ‘A pendulum of two feet length will give the time of a crotchet (quarter-note).’ About twenty-five years later Maelzel’s metronome was beginning to be known in England, and, when he published some fugues and canons in 1835, he indicated the tempo by such comments as ‘Crotchet equals a pendulum of sixteen inches; Maelzel’s metronome, 92.’
It will be of interest in this connection to note an earlier method of determining the tempo of a piece by the ingenious device of comparison with the duration of the pulse-beat. Johann Joachim Quantz (the music teacher of Frederick the Great), in his _Anweisung die Floete zu spielen_ (1752), gives the following interesting table for determining the rate of speed:
‘In ordinary time (measure),
_Allegro assai_, for every half-measure, the time of one beat of the pulse,
_Allegretto_, for every quarter-note, the time of one beat of the pulse,
_Adagio cantabile_, for every eighth-note, the time of one beat of the pulse,
_Adagio assai_, for every eighth-note, the time of two beats of the pulse.’
Vincent Novello (1781-1861), the founder of the well-known publishing house of Novello and a celebrated organist and composer, wrote no organ-music, but his name became familiar to every English organist through his ‘Cathedral Voluntaries,’ These were motets and anthems by the old English church writers, such as Gibbons, Blow, and Tye, arranged for organ use, much as the early Venetian organists arranged the motets and sacred madrigals of their time for keyboard instruments.
English organ-music continued to be either obvious imitation of Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and, after 1845, Mendelssohn, or arrangements and adaptations of German classical music. Thomas Adams (1785-1858), noted for his improvisations; Sir John Goss (1800-1880), the greatest church musician of his time and organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral for thirty-four years; Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876), son of Samuel Wesley mentioned above, who, like his father, was an enthusiastic admirer of Bach’s works and an exceptionally fine extempore player, and who for a time was considered the finest organist in England--all wrote voluntaries, interludes, fugues, and andantes for organ in this style, though some of their anthems and ‘services,’ particularly those of Wesley, belong to the finest examples of English church-music of any period.
Henry Smart (1813-1879), who became blind about 1864 and henceforth was compelled to dictate his compositions to an assistant, was an exceptional organist and a composer who displayed many modern qualities of interesting harmony in advance of most of his English contemporaries. He wrote voluminously for the organ--fifty preludes and interludes, andantes (especially the one in A major), marches, variations, and postludes.
Edward John Hopkins (1818-1901), for nearly sixty years organist of Temple Church, London, possessed the sterling qualities of the best English organists and exerted a wide influence through his church-music and particularly his book, ‘The Organ: Its History and Construction,’ written in conjunction with Dr. E. F. Rimbault (1816-1876), which has long enjoyed the distinction of being a standard work on this subject.
William Spark (1823-1897), a pupil of S. S. Wesley, was a celebrated recitalist and from 1860 organist of Leeds Town Hall. While holding an appointment at St. George’s, Leeds, he had organized the People’s Concerts, the popularity of which had led to the erection of the Town Hall. A magnificent instrument of four manuals and 110 stops was installed in it and dedicated in 1859, and soon thereafter Dr. Spark received the appointment of borough organist and for years he gave two public recitals on it each week. He was a noted lecturer and writer on musical subjects and from 1869 till his death was editor of ‘The Organists’ Quarterly Journal,’ devoted to original compositions. His compositions (a Fantasia, a Sonata in D minor, and other pieces) were strongly influenced by Mendelssohn, whose music was now the model for all English musicians as Handel’s had been in the years preceding Mendelssohn’s advent.
Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley (1825-1889) presents the unusual spectacle of an amateur musician rising to the important position of professor of music at Oxford University and becoming one of the most influential musicians in the United Kingdom. Though an excellent organist and composer for organ, he never held a position as organist. He devoted a considerable fortune to the founding and maintenance of a church[112] in which the musical service was of the highest order and a college for the special training of choristers. Through these channels and his Oxford professorship he wielded a large influence on the young church musicians of his time. His organ compositions--eighteen preludes and fugues, a sonata, three andantes, etc.--were for the most part in the style of Mendelssohn.
The first place among English concert-organists was long held by William Thomas Best (1826-1897), who was one of the greatest virtuosos of the nineteenth century. For nearly forty years (from 1855 to 1894) he was organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, where his recitals became a feature of the city’s musical life and gained for him an international reputation. An event in his life that attracted world-wide notice was his journey in 1890 to Sydney, Australia, where he inaugurated the mammoth organ in the new Town Hall with a series of twelve recitals. This organ, the largest in the world, has five manuals and 126 speaking stops. He published several valuable contributions to organ-literature--six concert-pieces, a Sonata in D, a Toccata in A, several fantasias and fugues on English Psalm-tunes, and many preludes on Psalm-tunes in the style of Bach’s chorale-preludes, etc. He was best known, however, through his admirable ‘Organ Arrangements from the Great Masters,’ his editions of Handel’s organ-concertos and Mendelssohn’s and Bach’s organ-works, and his two text-books, ‘The Art of Organ-Playing’ and ‘Modern School for the Organ.’
Of recent years composers in England have been less exclusively occupied with choral and church music, for the so-called musical renaissance, which is now bringing England once more to the forefront of musical nations, is due largely to the deeper interest composers have been taking in the modern orchestral idiom, the impressionistic tendencies of contemporary instrumental music and the nationalistic expression which owes its impulse to the recent folk-song revival movement. Nevertheless meritorious works for the organ continue to be produced by most of the present-day English composers, and more especially by men like Alan Gray, A. M. Goodhart, Ernest Halsey, James Lyon, T. Tertius Noble, C. B. Rootham and W. Wolstenholme.
FOOTNOTES:
[111] Edition Durand, Paris.
[112] The college and church of St. Michael and All Angels, Tenbury, Worcestershire, of which he was rector in addition to his Oxford professorship, were dedicated in 1856.
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