Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/545

Rh rather what a Painter would call an ébauche: an outline, indicating the contours of a finished design with a touch so firm, that not one note would have needed alteration, during the process of filling in the later details, had the Composer so far departed from his usual custom as to complete a MS. once laid aside, and forgotten. In truth, it exactly represents a canvas, fully prepared to receive the future painting; and may, therefore, be fairly accepted as evidence that Schubert was not addicted to the practice of sketching, a conclusion which is strengthened by the Score of the unfinished Symphony in B minor, No. 8, the first two Movements of which are completely finished, while, of the remainder, nine bars only were ever committed to writing.

Mendelssohn, on the other hand, sketched freely; though, less for the purpose of registering stray thoughts for future use, than for the sake of the Sketches themselves. Thus, we constantly find him heading a letter with some little passage, through the medium of which he strove to express the feelings of the moment more perfectly than he could have done in words. Still, cases were not wanting, in which he turned the record of some momentary impression to splendid subsequent account. A notable instance of this is afforded by the germ of the Overture to 'The Isles of Fingal,' which first appears in a letter to his family, dated 'Auf einer Hebride, den 7 August, 1829'; and beginning 'To show you how more than ordinarily pleasing I have found the Hebrides, the following has just suggested itself to me.' A facsimile of this interesting memorandum will be found in 'The Mendelssohn Family,' i. 208. A more extended Sketch for two of the Movements of a Symphony in C has been printed in our own vol. ii. p. 305.

We need not quote the memoranda of later writers. We have, indeed, purposely illustrated the subject by aid of examples left us by the greatest of the Great Masters only. And, in contrasting the methods pursued by these great geniuses, we find it no easy task to arrive at a just conclusion with regard to their comparative value. When carefully analysed, the methods of Mozart and Beethoven will be found to bear a closer analogy to each other than we should, at first sight, feel inclined to suppose. Mozart was a mental sketcher; Beethoven, a material one. The former carried on, in his brain, the process which the latter worked out upon paper—et voilà tout. Whether or not the mental embryo was as simple in its origin as the written one, we cannot tell. Probably not. Mozart tells us, that, when he was in a fitting mood for composition, he heard the conceptions which presented themselves to his mind as distinctly as if they had been played by a full Orchestra. But, we know that he gradually brought them to perfection, afterwards: and he himself implied as much, when he said, that, after all, the real perfonnance of the finished work was the best. Beethoven heard his thoughts, also, with the mental ear, even after the material organ had failed to perform its office; and it would be unsafe to assume, that, because he was more careful than Mozart to record his conceptions in writing, their development was really more gradual. If Mozart's mental Sketches could be collected, it is quite possible that they might outnumber Beethoven's written ones. And the same with pentimenti. It matters nothing, when the Composer has determined on a change, whether he puts it on paper at once or not. Two examples will illustrate our meaning, the more forcibly because in neither case is the composition affected by the pentimento. 1. In the original autograph of Mozart's 'Phantasia' in C minor (Köchel no. 475), now in the collection of Mr. Julian Marshall, three flats were, as usual, placed at the signature, in the first instance; but Mozart afterwards erased them, and introduced each flat, where it was needed, as an Accidental. 2. Among the Handel MSS. at Buckingham Palace is a volume labelled 'Sonatas,' which contains two pages of the Harpsichord Suite in E minor, in Alla breve time, with the three B's which begin the subject written as Minims, instead of Crotchets, and the following passage as Quavers. But Schubert only very rarely made such changes as these. He made no sketch either mental or written. The ideaa rushed into the world, in the fullest form of development they were fated to attain. One's first impulse is, to pronounce this the highest manifestation of creative genius. Yet, is it the most natural? Surely not. It is true, we recognise, in the material Creation, the expression of a preconceived Idea, infinitely perfect in all its parts, and infinitely consistent in its unbroken unity and ineffable completeness: but, each individual manifestation of that Idea attains perfection, under our very eyes, by slow development from a primordial germ, to all outward appearance more simple in its construction than the slightest of Beethoven's Sketches. And, if the mortal frame of every man who walks the earth can be proved to have originated in a single nucleated cell, we surely cannot wonder that the 'Pastoral Symphony' was developed from a few notes scratched upon a sheet of music-paper. [ W. S. R. ]

SILVANA: also called 'Silvana das Waldmädchen,' or 'das stumme Waldmädchen'—the dumb Wood-maiden. A romantic opera in 3 acts; words by F. K. Hiemer, music by Weber; his 6th dramatic work, completed Feb. 23, 1810; produced at Frankfort, Sept. 16, 1810. It is probably founded to some extent on his early opera 'Das Waldmädchen' (1800), afterwards burnt; and was to a small extent employed in 'Abu Hassan' and 'Freischütz.' The overture was used by Weber as the prelude to his music for the wedding of Prince John of Saxony; and he wrote 7 variations for clarinet and PF., for H. Barmann, on an air from it, 'Warum musst' ich.' [ G. ]

SIMONE BOCCANEGRA. An opera in 3 acts, with Prologue; libretto by Piave, music by Verdi. Produced at the Fenice theatre, Venice, March 12, 1857; remodelled and rescored, with a fresh libretto by Boito, and reproduced at La Scala, Milan, March 24, 1881. [ G. ]