Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/148

136 latter half or even the close of his life, for only in these does he give his full measure.

In default of operas we have, as far as this period is concerned, oratorios and dramatic cantatas. Those published by Herr Max Schneider in the Denkmäler der Tonkunst—Der Tag des Gerichts (The Day of Judgment) and Ino—are almost as interesting to study, with regard to the history of the musical drama, as the operas of Rameau and Gluck.

The poem of the Day of Judgment —"ein Singgedicht voll starker Bewegungen" (a libretto full of strenuous action)—was written by an ex-pupil of Telemann's at the Hamburg Gymnasium, Pastor Ahler. He was a free pastor, by no means a pietist. At the opening of this work the faithful are awaiting the arrival of the Christ; the unbelievers are deriding them, like good eighteenth-century philosophers, in the name of science and reason. After a prefatory Meditation, rather weak and abstract, the cataclysm commences. The waves rise: the stars shine; the planets falter and fall; the angel appears and the trumpet sounds. Behold the Christ! He calls His faithful to Him, and their chorus sings His praises; and He hurls into the abyss the sinners, who howl aloud. The fourth part describes the joys of the blessed.—From the second part to the fourth the work consists of a mighty crescendo, and we may say that the third and fourth parts are really one whole, closely bound together, without interruption. "After the second Meditation there is no longer a pause between the sections; the music flows on, a single current, to the end. Even the airs da capo, frequently employed at the outset,