Part III
Summary of
Chapter IX. The Romantic School
The German composers of the nineteenth century are for convenience classified in three general groups: “The Romantic School,” “The Classical Romanticists,” “The New Movement.” The so-called founders of the Romantic School, Spohr and Weber, were followed by such representative composers as Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann. The evolution of orchestration was conspicuously advanced by Weber. He stands at the head of modern instrumentation, for with him a new period began.
Spohr was instrumental in awakening a keener interest for the supernatural, and he aimed to illustrate certain definite ideas by means of musical expression. He contributed to the evolution of orchestration proper but little that was actually new, but his development of violin technique stimulated at least a freer and more elaborate manner of employing the strings. The equilibrium of his orchestra is admirably preserved and the general color-scheme enriched by frequent use of soft harmonies for the brass.
Weber’s true greatness lay in the power of orchestral portrayal and in rare appreciation of instrumental effects. Few composers contributed more than he to the independence of the wood-wind. He showed particular predilection for the clarinet as well as for horns, and was exceedingly modern in the use of small combinations. Weber’s scoring is above all dramatic, and serves as a model for all later composers.
Schubert displayed rare skill in the handling of orchestral instruments, whether in solo passages or in combination. His was the hand of a master who without hesitation knew what effects he desired and how to obtain them. Novel was his manner of writing for trombones, and the contrast of solo wood-instruments in dialogue.
Mendelssohn’s contributions to the details of instrumentation are both original and varied. The suavity of his melody, the purity of his form, and the delicacy of his scoring have been excelled by none. His orchestration is buoyant, transparent, and perfectly balanced.
Schumann holds the unusual position of being one of the few great masters who did not excel in orchestration.
Chapter X. The Classical Romanticists
The representatives of classical romanticism are Raff, Rubinstein, Goldmark, Brahms, Bruch, Rheinberger. Although all of these men displayed rare skill in the application of orchestral resources, none of them can take rank with the more conspicuous exponents of instrumentation.
Raff. Striking insignia of absolutely original scoring are not conspicuous in Raff’s orchestration, but its entire character gives evidence of fertile imagination and sound judgment.
Rubinstein. The instrumentation of the Russian, Rubinstein, is not of distinctive significance.
Goldmark, on the other hand, owes his reputation primarily to his gifts as an orchestrator. He atones for a certain lack of musical inspiration by mastery of material effects and power of vivid portrayal.
Brahms considered glowing orchestral color and sensational dramatic effect of secondary importance. In spite of his otherwise comprehensive and titanic achievements, one cannot point to him as a model for invariably felicitous instrumentation.
Bruch possesses supreme command of modern orchestral resources, but is at his best in the art of accompaniment, which displays perfect taste, genuine expression and an abundance of energetic force.
Rheinberger’s orchestral works cannot be regarded in the light of important contributions to musical literature. The instrumentation is thoroughly refined, marvellously smooth, and perfectly rounded in every detail; but the essential elements of individuality and novelty do not enter into the orchestral scheme to any appreciable extent.
Chapter XI. The New Movement
The “New Movement” dates from the innovations simultaneously introduced by Berlioz in France and by Liszt and Wagner in Germany.
Berlioz was practically the first representative of the New Movement, but contrary to the natural course of evolution, he was not only its founder but at once its most radical exponent as well. The laying out of his musical scheme was inseparably connected with a series of events or ideas. As the chief French representative of romantic musical art, he combined dramatic and symphonic effects. His contributions to the development of “program” music and to modern science of orchestration loom up in gigantic proportions. One of the primary objects of his orchestral conceptions was to display tone-color in its own right, an object that was foreign to the more æsthetic ideals of the classicists. The distinctive features of his orchestration are power of musical description; new combinations, new effects, new treatment; insight into the characteristics of the instruments whereby their possibilities both individual and collective are demonstrated; excessive polyphony and complicated rhythm. Berlioz must be accredited with having anticipated many effects subsequently elaborated upon by Wagner, as discovered, for example, by his frequent use of homogeneous tone-color in independent three and four part harmony. Berlioz represents the ultra-realistic school of instrumental music and was the most daring orchestral writer that has ever lived.
Liszt. The importance attached to the rich and heavy orchestration of Liszt consists of the bearing it has upon the unfettered form, the freedom of tonality and the novelty of treatment that characterize the New German School. His scoring is masterful, highly colored and ingenious, but contains nothing conspicuously new. He was led to modify the cyclic form of the symphony which became transformed into the symphonic poem with its continuity of music, monothematic principle and absence of conventional formulas.
Wagner. The highest ideals of German opera culminated in the music dramas of Wagner. He aimed to substitute a noble form of art in the place of mere pleasure-giving and sensational fabrications. Music, poetic ideas, action and stage setting were all to be worthy of the subject intended for presentation. By developing the so-called Leit-motiv, Wagner discovered a most potent factor for recalling past events, for emphasizing those present, and for anticipating those of the future. To-day Wagner stands forth as the accepted champion of dramatic reforms, as the most eminent composer of the nineteenth century, and as the greatest master of orchestration in the annals of the world. Although at first susceptible to tone-color as an end to itself, he learned to subordinate it to the demands of the musical and poetic ideas of the immediate dramatic situation. He emphasized solidity, made the orchestra firm and supple, increased its melodic as well as harmonic force, and used it for two definite purposes: to render emotion and to portray action and situations. His orchestration does not deviate from well-established and approved traditions, but the grouping and treatment of instruments are entirely new. Every phase of his inexhaustible variety in string writing is of surpassing beauty. The use of deep, sonorous basses never interferes with harmonic clearness or with the outline of melodic and rhythmic movement. The modern extreme development of unsupported wood-wind and their numerical distribution are entirely due to Wagner. The most radical changes are those affecting the brass. Of incalculable value was the permanent employment of valve-horns and valve-trumpets, the immense development in horn writing, the discarding of opheicleides, and the introduction of a complete group of tubas. Much of Wagner’s warm and rich orchestration is due to a substratum of soft brass harmonies that are apparently not audible at all. No composer knew better than he how to obtain the best effects from instruments of percussion without overstepping the bounds of artistic refinement. Greatest of masters for the orchestra, Wagner brought that organization to its highest point of evolution.
Further prominent representatives of the “New Movement” are Cornelius, Bruckner, Lassen, Ritter, Draeseke, Weingartner, Nicodé, Richard Strauss. The masterful and ingenious instrumentation of Cornelius proves him a worthy follower of Wagner. Bruckner’s orchestration, though clever, lacks buoyancy and warmth. That of Lassen, Ritter, Draeseke and Weingartner contains many sterling qualities, but has not advanced the evolution of orchestration to any perceptible degree. Nicodé’s methods present some of the most interesting specimens of modern orchestration.
Richard Strauss. The greatest cosmopolitan master of orchestration after Wagner is Richard Strauss. He has progressed step by step through various stages of development. Conforming at first to the conservative romanticism of Mendelssohn and Schumann, he soon came to admire and emulate the doctrines of Brahms, but eventually leaned more and more upon Liszt and Wagner for the dominating thought of his conceptions. With “Till Eulenspiegel” and “Also sprach Zarathustra” Strauss inaugurated a permanent and ever advancing method of procedure distinctly individualistic and unprecedented that has so far culminated in the vast realistic conceptions of “Don Juan” and “Ein Heldenleben.” His works embody flowing cantilena, intricate polyphony, freely used chromatic harmony, daring harmonic combinations, complex rhythm, startling contrasts, monumental climaxes, clever orchestral devices, and extreme realism. In order to grasp the true significance of the contrapuntally synthesized harmonic Melos it is of utmost importance to trace the complicated melodic delineations as independent factors flowing in a horizontal direction. His orchestral conceptions are vast color-pictures and display a wealth of melodic utterance in all the principal orchestral voices, a prolific number of themes and sub-themes, and the most intimate acquaintance with the specific characteristics of the various instruments as well as with orchestral combinations and the resultant mixture of tonal tints thereby to be obtained. Like Berlioz, Strauss secures dramatic effects by means of vivid orchestration, and displays an insatiable craving for the discovery of novel combinations. His themes are arrayed in a kaleidoscopic sequence of instrumental color rather than being subjected to elaborate thematic treatment, and climaxes are reached by means of dynamic effects instead of by melodic evolution. An elaborately conceived program justifies the requisition for vast orchestral resources. There is further evidence of genuine inspiration, of a true gift for thematic development forming a marvellous filigree of contrapuntally interwoven leading motives, of intellectual power, philosophical reflection, poetic revery, and naïve humor.
Germany still leads the van in the art of orchestration, of which she possesses many eminent exponents such as Max Shillings and Cyrill Kistler,—slavish imitators of extreme Wagnerism, and Humperdinck, Thuille, Kienzl, Georg Schumann, Mahler,—less extreme in their views but more successful in their results.
During the nineteenth century a small group of men were especially instrumental in transplanting the daintiness and refinement of modern French light opera into indigenous German productions. Conspicuous among these is Lortzing, supported by Nicolai, Flotow, Suppé and Johann Strauss junior.