Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/433

WEBER. his music when considered simply as music, without regard to dramatic fitness, and such defects are therefore much less noticeable in performance, so accurately does he hit the appropriate musical development for each moment of the action. He has also a wonderful power of keeping up one prevailing idea throughout the piece, so that amid all the variety of successive emotions there is unity. A striking example of his ingenuity is the duet between Agathe and Aennchen in the beginning of the 2nd Act, where two wholly different and equally characteristic melodies are given in the most charming manner. For this, however, he had a model in the duet between Verbel and Florestan (à la polonaise) in 'Lodoïska,' by Cherubini, a composer to whom he looked up with great admiration.

8. The play of 'Preciosa' was adapted from a novel (1613) of Cervantes' by an actor named Pius Alexander Wolff, of Weimar, engaged in Berlin in 1816. Before Weber undertook, at Count Brühl's desire, to write music for it, he had several times used his pen in a similar way. I may mention his music for Schiller's 'Turandot,' consisting of an overture and six smaller instrumental pieces (1809); for Müllner's 'König Yngurd,' 11 Nos. (1817); and for Gehe's 'Heinrich IV,' 9 Nos. (1818), besides many smaller works of the same kind, all bearing witness to his extraordinary talent for illustrating a dramatic situation in the clearest and most distinct manner by music, and therefore of great importance in forming an estimate of his musical organisation. Personally he found this kind of work uncongenial, as affording few opportunities to the independent musician; besides which, a play may be very good as a play, without offering any incitement to a composer. Luckily, however, this was not the case with Preciosa, and with the additional incentive of his wish to please Count Brühl, a work was produced which may truly be said to rank as the finest music written for a play, after Mozart's 'König Thamos,' and Beethoven's 'Egmont.' A predilection for Spanish subjects is observable in Weber about this period, and may be attributed to the influence of Tieck. Columbus, Pizarro, Don Juan of Austria, and the Cid, all passed before him, as subjects for operas, and in 1820–21 he completed a sketch of the 1st Act, and a duet out of the 2nd, of 'Die drei Pintos,' a Spanish comic opera. This, however, he laid aside for Euryanthe and Oberon, and died without completing a work full of promise. It was, therefore, in all probability, its Spanish local colouring which attracted him to Preciosa. One of the signs of his natural gift for dramatic composition was his love for strong contrasts, not only between different parts of the same work, but between the different works he took in hand. In the Freischütz the prevailing colour was derived from the life of German foresters and huntsmen; in Preciosa we have the charm of the South in lovely Spain, then the type of all that was romantic, with the picturesque life of the roving gipsy. Euryanthe, again, takes us back to the Middle Ages, and the palmy days of French chivalry, which reappear to some extent in Oberon, mingled with scenes from Oriental life, and from fairyland. The phrase 'local colouring' in music may be defined as that which conjures up before our minds the associations connected with certain scenes, races, and epochs. Weber's unusual gift for this kind of illustration was most probably connected with the peculiar manner in which his musical faculties were set in motion. This is a point on which we are thoroughly informed by means of his own expressions preserved by his son and biographer. As a rule, it took place through external impressions, presented to his imagination as tone-pictures. As he sat in his travelling carriage, the scenery through which he passed would present itself to his inner ear as a piece of music, melodies welling up with every hill or valley, every fluttering bush, every waving field of corn. While too the forms of visible objects supplied him with melodies, any accidental sound would suggest the accompanying harmonies. These walks and drives remained fixed in his mind as pieces of music, by means of which he was in the habit of recalling the events and experiences of his life. Other composers, as we know, have been occasionally incited to production by external impressions, but while with them it was exceptional, with Weber it appears to have been the rule. With him any external impression at once clothed itself in musical form, and this peculiarity of mental constitution undoubtedly contributed to give his music its individual character. All his musical progressions reflect some external movement; indeed in this respect his art is plasticity itself. This constant striving after plasticity was what made him lay so much stress on one prevailing, sharply defined, local colour. For what end could it serve but that of bringing out the distinction between scenes, races, and epochs, heightening the contrast between his own and other representations, and giving animation and individuality to the picture as a whole?

The music to Preciosa does, no doubt, reflect the then prevailing idea of Spain, its scenery, its people, and its art. In fact, he hit the keynote of Spanish nationality in a marvellous manner. The prevailing impression is heightened by the introduction of gipsy-rhythms and Spanish national airs. Instances of the former are the march, appearing first in the overture, and then as No. 1, No. 9a, and No. 10a; of the latter the three dances forming No. 9. This method of characterisation he had made use of several times before, as in