Part 14
Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–91) first attracted attention by his “Ossian” overture. The production of his first symphony, under Mendelssohn’s direction at the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, made his name generally known; and subsequently Gade was associated with Mendelssohn as conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts. Although Gade was under the influence of Mendelssohn and Schumann, his musical nature was not the reflex of theirs; on the contrary, his Danish nationality comes to light in his works. His style is truly poetical and vigorous.
William Sterndale Bennett (1816–75), the most gifted English composer since Purcell, should be mentioned here as the friend of Mendelssohn and Schumann. He profited by their advice and enthusiasm, but his style is his own, although undoubtedly influenced by Mendelssohn. His charming overtures, “The Naiads” and “The Wood Nymph,” have a place among classical orchestral music.
[Illustration:
FERDINAND HILLER.
From a photograph from life by Eilender, of Cologne. ]
Ferdinand Hiller (1811–85) followed more or less in the footsteps of Mendelssohn, and his works, though finished in form and pleasing, lack strong individuality, and, with few exceptions, have remained unfamiliar except to cultivated musicians. His pianoforte concerto in F sharp minor, and his oratorio “Destruction of Jerusalem” are among his best works. Hiller occupied a very influential position as a pianist, conductor and writer. His extended and intimate acquaintance with most of the musical celebrities of his time renders his writings of
## particular value. His “Aus dem Tonleben” and “Persönliches und
Musikalisches” are delightful reading and the source of useful information.
Julius Rietz (1812–77) was closely associated with Mendelssohn and influenced by his style. His concert overture in A major, Lustspiel overture, and Symphony in E flat are his most successful works. His best reputation rests on his great abilities as an orchestral conductor and his technical scholarship.
[Illustration:
CARL REINECKE.
From a photograph from life by Brokesch, of Leipsic. ]
While Rietz was conductor of the Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1848 to 1860, he accomplished the most important work of his life, namely, the correction of errors that had crept into the scores of the great masters. In the complete edition of Beethoven’s works, published by Breitkopf and Härtel, Rietz edited the symphonies. He was also editor of the complete edition of Mendelssohn’s works. Carl Reinecke (born 1827), the present conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts, stands at the head of musical life in Leipsic. As a composer he is to be considered to some extent as a follower of Schumann. He has been productive in nearly all forms of composition, and exhibits everywhere thorough practical experience and refined musical taste, yet few of his larger works have won great prominence. On the other hand, his smaller piano compositions are highly prized. His overture, “König Manfred,” and his piano concerto in F sharp minor are favorites.
Woldemar Bargiel (born 1828) is considered as one of the foremost disciples of Schumann. Some of his chamber music and especially his noble overture to “Medea” have taken high rank among later compositions.
Adolph Jensen (1837–79) was an enthusiast for Schumann, and took him as his model. He wrote cantatas and piano compositions that are much admired, and his songs have made his name famous. Jensen was a born song composer, and his melodies have rare sensuous charm and sentiment.
Friedrich Robert Volkmann (1815–83) belongs also to the romantic school. Schumann exercised a great influence on him in his piano works, which bear fanciful titles.
His two symphonies and his string quartets are admired for their solid style, yet this music is not sufficiently spontaneous in melody and marked in style to gain universality.
Norbert Burgmüller (1810–36) and Hermann Goetz (1846–76) were not spared to fulfil the promise of their gifts. Burgmüller left two symphonies, an overture, and other compositions which are of decided merit. Schumann declared that since the untimely death of Schubert there was no more deplorable event than the loss of Burgmüller.
Goetz was first made known to the musical world by his opera, “The Taming of the Shrew,” which achieved a rapid success. He did not live to finish his second opera, “Francesca di Rimini,” which was subsequently completed by his friend Frank. His Symphony in F has been played in Europe and America.
Franz Lachner (1804–90) was one of the most popular composers of South Germany. He sprang from a musical family. His father was an organist, and his brothers Ignaz and Vincenz were prominent musicians. Like so many other “Kapellmeister” composers, Lachner has been wonderfully prolific and facile in all forms of music, without accomplishing anything truly original or great. His best symphonies are those in C minor, D minor and D major. His suite in D has been much admired. Kalliwoda, Vierling, Dorn, and Taubert belong to this same class.
Wilhelm Taubert (born 1811) was fellow-student with Mendelssohn under Ludwig Berger. He was a brilliant pianist and well-trained composer. For many years he was conductor of the Royal Opera at Berlin. His operas, symphonies and other large works have not prominence, but his songs have a pleasing quality that has made them universal favorites.
Mention should be made of Julius Otto Grimm (born 1827), whose ingenious and effective “Suite in Canon form” has found a place everywhere on concert programmes; and Salomon Jadassohn (born 1831), the eminent musical theorist of the Leipsic Conservatorium. His treatises on Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue, etc., are among the best. His powers as a composer have been displayed in his symphonies, chamber music, etc. His serenades for orchestra are especial favorites. He shows great facility in canonic writing.
[Illustration:
FRIEDRICH ROBERT VOLKMANN.
From a photograph from life by Keller & Borsos, of Budapest. ]
Among German composers of choral works, during the present century, the following have been prominent:—
Friedrich Schneider (1786–1853) was eminent as a teacher and conductor, and as a composer excelled in the church and oratorio style. His oratorios, “Das Weltgericht” and “The Deluge,” are his best known works. (Robert Franz was one of his pupils.) Bernhard Klein (1793–1832) was also a worthy representative of the sacred style. His oratorio of “Job,” his motets and other church compositions are pure and religious in feeling.
Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868), one of the most eminent musical theorists of the nineteenth century, was also a composer of true merit. His earlier compositions were mainly for the violin, in which he showed his affinity with Spohr. His vocal works are more important, and include two masses, motets, three-part vocal canons, and sacred songs; these works hold a place among classical church music.
Eduard Grell (1800–86), director of the Berlin Singakademie, was an able representative of _a capella_ choral music. His sixteen-part mass is a masterpiece of polyphonic skill.
Friedrich Kiel (1821–85) is pre-eminent among recent masters of sacred music for his depth of religious feeling and perfect polyphonic art. His “Requiem,” “Missa Solemnis” and oratorio, “Christus,” are noble and profound works.
Albert Becker (born 1834), the well-known Berlin conductor, is the composer of a “Reformation Cantata” and “Mass in B flat minor” which take high rank among compositions of their class. Among numberless works for male voices, none have been more highly esteemed than those of Carl Friedrich Zöllner (1800–60) and Heinrich Esser (1818–75). The latter is distinguished for his refined and melodious style. His numerous songs and part songs are universal favorites, and are held in high esteem by cultivated musicians. His symphonies and suites are also well known. Wagner entrusted Esser with the arrangement of his “Meistersinger” for the piano. Esser’s arrangements for orchestra of Bach’s organ “Passacaglia” and “Toccata in F” are skilfully done.
The lighter style of opera has been well represented in Germany, during the present century, by Lortzing, Flotow, Von Suppe, Brühl, Johann Strauss and others.
Albert Lortzing (1803–51) is known and loved by all Germans in his operas, “Die beiden Schützen,” “Czar und Zimmermann,” “Der Wildschütz” and “Der Waffenschmied.” These are stock pieces in the repertory of every German theatre, and never fail to delight audiences. The “Czar und Zimmermann” is a universal favorite. His serious opera, “Undine,” on the contrary, is a labored effort in an uncongenial field; but it has succeeded in holding its place on the German stage. As a composer of comic opera, Lortzing is thoroughly delightful in his naturalness and straightforwardness. His opera texts—written by himself—are full of movement and variety, and their _naïveté_ is never synonymous with dulness. His “character” _rôles_ are especially full of possibilities for clever actors. Lortzing’s pleasing operas have shed the light of wholesome and lively entertainment into many millions of lives.
The “Nachtlager in Granada,” by Conradin Kreutzer (1782–1849), is familiar enough to all German theatregoers, although its composer has retained his popularity rather by his songs and male choruses.
More famous than Lortzing, though less meritorious, was Friedrich Flotow (1812–83). Of his fifteen or more operas, “Stradella” and “Martha” are the only ones universally known. The artistic aim of Flotow was not high, yet his talent enabled him to make a distinct contribution to the “light literature” of music. Certain of the melodies of “Stradella” and “Martha” have more sentiment than is usual with the music of this class. Nevertheless, the popularity of these two operas seems to be on the wane, and it is possible that Flotow may be known only by name to the next generation.
[Illustration:
FRANZ LACHNER.
From a photograph from life by Luckhardt, of Vienna.
(See page 595.) ]
Otto Nicolai (1810–49), director of the Domchor and Royal Opera of Berlin, composed a number of conventional Italian operas and other works. His “Merry Wives of Windsor” is one of the most popular comic operas of the present time. The overture is especially charming, and a great favorite in the concert-room.
Franz von Suppe (1820–92), “the German Offenbach,” composed an immense number of pleasing operettas and vaudevilles, of which his “Fatinitza” is celebrated. His overture to the “Poet and Peasant” is one of the most popular light overtures ever written.
Ignaz Brüll in his opera “Golden Cross,” and Victor Nessler in his “Piper of Hamelin” and “Trumpeter of Säkkingen,” have achieved success. Their great popularity in Germany is an illustration of the fact that the opera public in general have a different standard of taste than cultivated musicians.
Johann Strauss (born 1825), the younger, has won great success with his operettas. His “Fledermaus” and “Der Lustige Krieg” are known all over the world.
In the field of dance music Germany leads the world. The strains of Lanner, Gungl, Waldteufel and Strauss are heard in every land. For piquancy, sensuous charm of melody, rhythmical swing, thematic contrast and effective orchestration, the waltzes of Lanner and Strauss are to be classed with the most artistic productions of modern Germany.
Since Schubert’s day, the German Lied-form has been cultivated by many composers, the noblest of whom are Loewe, Schumann, Franz, Rubinstein and Brahms. Loewe and Franz were specialists, but their songs are very unlike. In Germany, Loewe has been especially popular with the masses, while Franz, by his exquisite taste and feeling, appeals more strongly to cultivated musicians. In certain respects Franz and Schumann share with Schubert in the fulfilment of the highest ideal of the German Lied.
Carl Loewe (1796–1869) was a productive composer in various fields of music, but his reputation rests on his merits as a ballad composer.
The number of his ballads which have gained universal popularity is very great. Among them may be mentioned “Edward,” “Herr Oluf,” “Abschied,” “Goldschmieds Töchterlein,” “Der Wirthin Töchterlein,” “Die Braut von Corinth,” “Heinrich der Vogler,” “Erlkönig,” and “Die Gruft der Liebenden.” His musical style is remarkable for its dramatic picturesqueness and justness of declamation. With him everything is made to contribute to a full rendering of the meaning of the text. His works have become very popular, and their popularity is by no means on the wane. It is remarkable, however, that beyond the boundaries of Germany his ballads are but little known.
The musical productiveness of modern Germany has been displayed in no single branch so overwhelmingly as in songs. It may truly be said that every composer, great and small, has produced his sets of Lieder, though it has been vouchsafed to only a chosen few to merit distinction in this over-crowded field. Among the multitude who have composed songs in a light style are several whose services to popular music ought not to be underestimated. The most prominent of this class are Heinrich Proch (1809–78), Friedrich Kücken (1810–82), and Franz Abt (1819–85). Of these, Abt is the ablest and the most widely known. Most of his songs are trivial in character, but a few, like “When the Swallows Homeward Fly,” have touched the popular heart and deserve their widespread fame.
The preceding brief account of the minor composers of Germany, belonging to the “classical” and “romantic” periods, may serve to show that in art as well as nature the “survival of the fittest” seems to be the governing principle of evolution. Comparatively few works of musical art are monumental, and survive the changes of fashion, the inconstancy of the public, and the ravages of time. Among the crowd of masters who are grouped around the central figures are some who merit a better fate than has befallen them. Some day, no doubt, their now forgotten works will be revived, just as those of neglected poets and painters have been. Surely fame is to some extent the accident of fortune. The case of Sebastian Bach is the most striking illustration. Of the majority of imitators or epigones, however, it may briefly be written, as the abstract of the historian’s page,—they lived—and died.
[Illustration:
SALOMON JADASSOHN.
From a photograph from life by Naumann, of Leipsic.
(See page 595.) ]
We come now to the more recent and widely celebrated composers, Raff, Brahms, Rubinstein, Goldmark, Bruch and Rheinberger, who form the subject of special articles in this work. These masters are not to be classed with the new movement inaugurated by Berlioz and Liszt in concert music and by Wagner in the music-drama, but with the “classical-romantic” masters. Raff, it is true, wrote “program” music, but he differs from Berlioz and Liszt in holding almost strictly to the regular construction of the symphonic form. Though Raff, in his earlier days, was a warm advocate of the ideas of Wagner, his own music bears little relation to the great works of the musical dramatist. Raff has a style of his own. He never repeated himself, notwithstanding the enormous amount of music he composed. This fertility of ideas was in fact a source of weakness, since it rendered him careless in the choice of themes, and blunted his feeling for what was truly refined and elevated. He often failed to keep to the high level of the true symphonic spirit and style. His “salon” style crops out here and there. The “Lenore” and “Im Walde” symphonies are his most celebrated works.
[Illustration:
MORITZ HAUPTMANN.
From a portrait loaned for reproduction by C. Weikert, of New York.
(See page 595.) ]
No living German composer represents the tragic and intellectual side of modern subjective music so impressively as Brahms. The strong outlines of his character are impressed on all his music. He is entirely opposed to the so-called “new German school” of Liszt and Wagner, and adheres strictly to the classical forms. No comparison, however, ought to be made between him and Wagner, as Brahms has never turned his attention to dramatic music. Brahms defends his own art-principles on the ground of absolute music. His love for the strict, logical process of thematic development proves his affinity with Bach. The leading theme is the germ of the whole movement; and notwithstanding the episodes and secondary themes, he is not usually drawn away from the main idea. Brahms has no living peer in the art of developing themes; here he shows wonderful ingenuity and infinite skill. In general, however, his themes do not captivate us like the heaven-born melodies of Schubert and Schumann. Strength, purity, nobility and profundity of thought, rather than sensuous beauty, grace, lightness, naturalness and spontaneousness, are his leading characteristics as a composer. A certain heaviness of spirit and gloom, nay, asceticism, prevail in his music. He appears at his best in his “German Requiem,” which many musicians consider to be his greatest work. His symphonies and other instrumental compositions occupy the foreground at present. Although musicians are still divided in opinion as to the ultimate position of Brahms among the great masters, no one can deny that his music is gaining public appreciation year by year. He is universally recognized as the foremost living composer of Germany.
The so-called “musical reform,” inaugurated in Germany more than a generation ago, was not incited by Germans, but by the adopted composers, Berlioz and Liszt. Their aim was simply to make poetical ideas the motive and governing principle of the form and material of their tone-works. The idea of “program” music, however, was not original with them; in fact, it is centuries old. Beethoven was the first great master to write elaborate program music; but his “Pastoral Symphony” was, in his own words, “more expression of emotions than tone-painting.” In this short statement of his faith he has clearly defined the true scope of descriptive music. He gave poetic titles to certain other works, as, for instance, the “Heroic Symphony,” the “Passionate” and “Farewell” sonatas, which serve to indicate in a general way the poetical motive that swayed his imagination. Spohr, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Raff, Rubinstein and other later composers have followed Beethoven’s example. Most of the program music of these masters does not modify the traditional form of musical construction. Berlioz went much further, and conceived the idea of using elaborate word descriptions to give a detailed and minute exposition of his pseudo-symphonies. Berlioz shot beyond his mark. Berlioz made his program serve as a kind of running commentary on the music. Liszt did not attempt this; his aim was a simpler and a better one. Symphonic Poem is the happy name for an original form which he created in orchestral music. Some character or event was chosen as a poetical motive easily realizable in music; as, for instance, the Lament and Triumph of Tasso, in which the passion and struggle of the great poet are vividly portrayed, or the wild ride of Mazeppa, which, as in Victor Hugo’s poem, has a symbolical meaning. Mazeppa represents the gifted man, or genius, tied down by fate, but destined to free himself and ultimately to triumph over evil. The galloping horse is suggested by wild triplets, and the final triumph is expressed in the march with which the work culminates.
The symphonic poems of Liszt, and those who follow strictly his example, are not divided into a number of distinct, separate movements like the symphony, but the changes of tempo or movement follow each other without break. Liszt made a prominent use of the Leitmotiv (leading-motive) principle, which he adopted from Wagner. It will be observed that the result, however, is wholly different, for Wagner in the course of one of his music-dramas uses a variety of dissimilar and strongly contrasted leading motives. His music, therefore, is based on the _polythematic_ principle, whereas the symphonic poems of Liszt are generally _monothematic_. The leading-motive is one thing in connection with the drama, another as employed in the concert-room. In the latter case it serves the same purpose that it has in the fugues of Bach (mostly founded on one theme) or in certain movements of symphonies. It is simply the working up on the imitative principle of a leading idea, which is modified, enlarged, curtailed and varied according to the conditions of counterpoint, harmony, rhythm, etc. So far as thematic imitation is concerned, the symphonic poem is an offshoot of the symphony or overture. What the symphonic poem has gained in conciseness of form it has lost in grandeur and impressiveness. The symphonic poem relates to the symphony as a noble and beautiful church does to a grand, awe-inspiring cathedral. In treating his grandest subjects—“The Divine Comedy” of Dante, and “Faust” of Goethe—Liszt returned to the general outlines of the symphony.
[Illustration:
ALBERT LORTZING
(See page 595.) ]
The symphonic poem is a welcome addition to modern music, but it is capable of further development both in form and character. There is no reason why the polythematic principle should not be applied to it, or why the movements should not be extended. In the future the symphonic poem may rival the symphony, but is not likely to supplant it. The symphony has undergone many changes of detail since Beethoven, and in the course of time it is probable that new forms of instrumental music will be invented, but it will be difficult to reach as high an ideal as that attained by the great masters of the symphony. In grandeur, emotional intensity, thematic variety, contrast of movements, the symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and others stand on a higher plane than the symphonic poems of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and many less conspicuous composers who have cultivated this form.
It would much exceed the narrow limits set by this article to attempt to discuss the far-reaching questions connected with the great musical and dramatic reform of Wagner. This forms the subject of an able special article, to which the reader is referred. Wagner’s world-wide influence has not been confined to the dramatic stage. His bold independence of thought and creative originality served to break down the barriers of formalism and conservatism, which held back German music after the death of Mendelssohn and Schumann. The Napoleon of music cleared the way, not only for himself, but other young composers who were struggling for recognition. Since his death no German has yet appeared able to follow in his footsteps, or to strike out a path for himself in dramatic music. At the same time all serious dramatic composers, Italian, French, etc., of the present day, have consciously or unconsciously been affected by Wagner’s musico-dramatic ideas.
Among all the German composers who have gathered inspiration from the theories and music of Wagner, only a single one seems to have produced a musical drama which bears the stamp of real genius and clearly defined individuality.
[Illustration:
FRIEDRICH von FLOTOW.
From a steel portrait engraved from a photograph by Weger, of Leipsic.
(See page 596.) ]
Peter Cornelius (1824–74) first became prominent at the time when Liszt at Weimar was doing so much for the advancement of the so-called “new German school of composition.” Cornelius at once identified himself with this modern movement. It was on account of the indifference of the court and the public toward Cornelius’s “The Barber of Bagdad” that Liszt gave up his directorship of the theatre at Weimar in 1858. In the same year, Cornelius’s opera, “The Cid,” was produced at Weimar. The completion of a third opera, “Gunlöd,” was prevented by his death, which occurred at Mayence in 1874.