Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/101

 MUSIC 93 sacrificed the higher form of art to the spec- tacle, that years of labor were devoted to the careful study of form, and that the soul es- caped ; in a word, that while his operas evinced a prodigious talent and industry, the genius was lacking. However this may be, the world has had reason to admire the splendid results of the patient labor which this composer be- stowed on his operas. Among the French composers HaleVy holds an honorable place. His opera La Juive, produced 40 years ago, has maintained its place with undiminished ef- fect, though in his later compositions he was less successful. The most popular of recent French composers are Gounod and Ambroise Thomas. The Faust of the former and Mignon of the latter are performed wherever French or Italian opera has a foothold. In Germany the modern composers wielding the greatest influence have been Von Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Wagner. Von Weber, grasp- ing all the extensions and improvements in or- chestration, wrote overtures of a larger tex- ture and clearer dramatic form than any pre- decessor, and infused into his operas quali- ties which placed him at the head of the new school, the romantic. His vocal writing often wants fluency, though this is less apparent in Der Freischutz than in EuryantJie ; had his metres been better, his music would not have been amenable to this charge. But the tran- scendentalism of his music was the most daring ever attempted. In a certain class of passion- ate expression he was without a rival ; certain- ly no such intense portraiture of womanly love was drawn in music before his Agatha. The influence of Mendelssohn was exercised part- ly through his orchestral works, but mainly through his two great oratorios " St. Paul " and " Elijah." Schumann manifested his strength in the vigor and novel form of his pianoforte works, and in the intensely poetic feeling, the dramatic fervor, and the variety of color of his compositions for orchestra ; while Wagner has made his power felt through the earnestness with which he has put forth his ideas in his critical writings and through his great works based upon those ideas. The opposition and discussion that have been aroused by the the- ories broached by him are far greater even than those that were excited when Gluck propound- ed somewhat similar ones a century ago. But Wagner has gone much further than Gluck dared in carrying out his ideas. As briefly stated by himself, his objection to previous methods upon which operatic composition has proceeded is this: "The error of opera as a form of art has consisted in the fact that music, which is only a means of expression, has been made the end, while the drama, which is the true end of expression, has been made the means; and thus the actual lyric drama has been made to rest upon the basis of absolute music." If this theory is accepted and acted upon by future composers in the same spirit in which it is carried out by its promulgator, it will revolutionize the art of operatic compo- sition. Among its immediate consequences is the subordination of the composer to the poet. The drama is the thing first to be considered, the music being only a means through which the emotion excited by the dramatic situation is deepened and intensified. In the opera the aria has always been one of the principal means through which the music found expression.; but the aria being a formal thing, constructed according to certain fixed rules and centring attention on itself and its own melodic beauty, this retarded the action and distracted the au- ditor from the thing sung about to the thing sung. Accordingly, this could find no place under the new. theory, and Wagner cast it aside, putting in its place the melos or " endless melody," a kind of musical declamation spring- ing naturally out of the sentiment of the words that are being sung. The orchestra also ceases to be a mere instrument of accompaniment, and is made by Wagner to enter into the dra- matic situation and express it with every va- riety of tone and harmonic combination. The operas, or rather musical dramas as Wagner prefers to call them, written upon these the- ories, he avers should have a poetical basis; and he finds the proper subjects in the myths of his own country, making the Nibelungenlied the text of his later works. He has deemed it essential for the true exposition of his ideas that his latest operas should not be brought out in any of the German opera houses, but should have a building constructed expressly with a view to their fit and complete presen- tation. Such a building is now in course of erection at Baireuth, Bavaria, and there in the spring of 1876 Wagner proposes to put his theories to the final test. The four dramas composing the tetralogy, Der Ring der Nibe- lungen, will there be produced, each on a separate day. They consist of Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried,, and Goiter dammerung. Upon the success or failure of the magnificent and costly experiment there to be made, the future of the opera will in a measure depend. A very decided influence has been exercised upon the musical art of our own day by the composers for the pianoforte. The extensions and improvements of that instrument, now carried so far as to make it the epitome of the orchestra, have been of great use to composers of every class. Through the grand piano and the organ the intricacies of the science of har- mony have been explored, chords analyzed, the relations of keys made clear, and melody de- veloped. About 1840 Thalberg began to write dramatic music for the piano, in which he gave the precise vocal pitch of the airs, and at the same time surrounded and embellished them with an arabesque of brilliant execution. Then came Liszt, remarkable as a conductor and composer, but chiefly as a pianist. He carried the difficulties of pianoforte playing to their utmost limit, and placed himself by his aston- ishing powers at the head of modern pianists.