Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck was born in Erasbach, Upper Palatinate, on July 2, 1714, the son of a forester on the estate of Prince Lobkowitz. Gluck received his early music instruction in his native country from local teachers. He then earned his living playing the violin and cello in rural orchestras. In 1736 he came to Vienna where soon thereafter he began to serve as chamber musician for Prince Lobkowitz. After a period of study and travel in Italy he returned to Vienna, now to become one of its most influential musicians. In Vienna he had produced several of his early operas, all of them in the traditional Italian style of that period. But he soon drew away from the stilted conventions of the Italian opera to achieve a fusion of music and drama new to opera, as well as dramatic truth, simplicity, and directness of emotional appeal. His works in this new style, with which a new epoch in opera was launched, included Orfeo ed Euridice in 1762, Alceste in 1767, and Iphigénie en Aulide in 1774, the last written for the Paris stage. After living in Paris from 1773 to 1779, Gluck returned to Vienna to remain there the rest of his life. During his last years he was an invalid. He died in Vienna on November 15, 1787.
Gluck was a giant in the early history of opera. With Rameau, he was a pioneer in establishing music drama as opposed to formal Italian opera. Orfeo ed Euridice, produced in Vienna on October 5, 1762—with which Gluck first set forth his new ideas and theories about opera—is the earliest opera to have survived in the permanent repertory.
A delightful Ballet Suite, adapted by Felix Mottl from various orchestral dances from several of Gluck’s greatest operas, is an orchestral work by which the composer is most often represented on semi-classical as well as symphonic programs. This suite includes the following: “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Orfeo ed Euridice; “Air gai” and “Lento” from Iphigénie en Aulide; and two old baroque dances, the “Musette” and “Sicilienne” from Armide.
The “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” is one of the loveliest of all Gluck’s melodies, and one of the most famous from 18th century opera. This is a beatific song mainly for flute solo and strings, describing Elysium, to which Orfeo has come in search of his wife, Eurydice. Fritz Kreisler’s transcription for violin and piano is entitled Mélodie. Sgambati arranged it for piano solo, and Gruenfeld for cello and piano.