Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/623

SONG. not so however his Romanzen and Balladen, which are of their kind among the finest that have been written. (See especially op. 9 and 18, to words by H. C. Andersen, Munch, Rickardt, etc.) Numerous other songs with PF. accompaniment have been written by O. Winter-Hjelm, R. Nordraak, Cappelen, J. Selmer, Frau Agathe Gröndahl, Ole-Olsen, Teilmann, J. Svendsen, Neupert, etc.

Denmark. It is curious that the three founders of the Danish school of music—C. E. F. Weyse, Friedrich Kuhlau, and Johann Hartmann should have been Germans by birth. ../Hartmann/ is the composer of one of the most celebrated national songs of Denmark, 'Kong Christian stod ved hojen mast,' and also the founder of the Hartmann family of composers. Weyse is considered to be the creator of the Danish Romance. Full of romantic feeling, and possessing a great gift of melody, the songs from his Singspiele, and more especially his 'Neun dänische Lieder' (set to words by the national lyrists, Ewald, Oehlenschläger, Grundtvig, Heiberg, and Ch. Winther) are justly popular. Contemporary native musicians were less celebrated, and Sörenson, Glaus Schall, and Niels Schiörring, are names now scarcely remembered. But the improvement of literature by Oehlenschläger, Baggesen, and their followers, Heiberg, Palludan-Müller, Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Herzt, and others, soon proved highly profitable to music. J. P. Emil Hartmann (grandson of Joh. Hartmann) and Niels Gade, are the great Danish romanticists. This quality is less conspicuous in their songs than in their larger works, but they did much to develop both the voice and accompaniment in their songs. In all Gade's numerous songs there is the same northern colouring, but more subdued than in J. P. Emil Hartmann's. His songs are more gloomy, and their form is less perfect than Gade's. Hartmann's best songs are the set of nine under the title of 'Salomon and Sulamith,' and the six to Winther's poem 'Hjortens Flugt.' Another composer who would belong to this group is P. Heise. L. Zinck, Krossing, R. Bay, A. G. Berggreen, H. Rung, Gebauer, J. O. E. Hornemann, have treated the Song in a simpler and more popular form; and among the younger generation of song-writers may be named, Gläser, Barnekow, Winding, J. and O. Malling, E. Hartmann, Steenberg, Rosenfeld, Bechgaard, Lange-Müller, F. Rung, Liebmann, and C. F. E. Hornemann.

The principal work on which the above sketch is based is Dr. von Ravn's article on 'Skandinavische Musik' in the supplement to Mendel's Lexicon (1882).

The best collections of national airs are:

The songs of Hungary comprise those both of the Slovaks and of the Magyars. But the music of the Slovaks, who inhabit the N.W. part of the kingdom, so closely resembles that of the Slavonic nations as not to require separate notice. [See songs, p. 612.] The music of the Magyars generally accepted as the national music of Hungary is, as already remarked (vol. ii. p. 197) very largely influenced by the Gipsies, who give it its strong oriental colouring. The stamp of their race is however more distinctly perceptible in dances and instrumental music than in songs.

As in other countries, so in Magyar-land, the introduction of Christianity was followed by a burst of hymn-poetry. But so strong was the national spirit, that not only were the hymns sung, even in the churches, in the vernacular, and not in Latin, but the ecclesiastical tonal system never took the same strong hold of the sacred music that it did elsewhere, and it has undergone but little change since those early times. A few of these venerable hymns are still sung. Such are one to the Virgin by Andreas Vásárheli (printed at Nuremberg 1484), and another to King Stephen, the patron saint of Hungary. Here as elsewhere the influence of the Reformation was deeply felt both in music and poetry; and a large development of the national songs was the result, especially on their lyric side. Dramatic representations, interspersed with songs, were introduced by wandering minstrels and harp or cither players: and the last of these performers was the celebrated Tinódi ('Sebastian the Lutenist') who died in the 16th century.

The excitable temperament and sensitive organization of the Hungarian render him keenly susceptible to the refinements of melody and rhythm, and give him his wealth of national poetry and songs. But the very exclusiveness with which he loves his own music has, by excluding foreign influence, been a hindrance to its progress, and has condemned it to a long stagnation in the immature stage of mere national music. The list of Hungarian composers, from Slatkonia (born 1456), bishop and court chapelmaster to Maximilian I, does not present a single celebrated name, until we come to our own contemporaries, Liszt, Joachim, Vàgvölgyi, etc. Bela M. Vàgvölgyi requires notice here on account of his original and very popular songs entitled 'Szerelmi dalok,' and his collection and arrangement of national airs under the name of 'Népdalgyongyok.' It must, nevertheless, be admitted that the Hungarians can fairly plead the unsurpassed beauty of their national melodies as an excuse for their exclusive devotion. All their music has a strongly individual character.