The Lighter Classics in Music by David Ewen

Archbishop, Wolfgang Amadeus disclosed his remarkable musical powers at a tender age. He began composition at the age of five, completed a piano sonata at seven, and a symphony at eight. Taught the harpsichord, also very early in his childhood, he revealed such phenomenal abilities at improvisation and sight reading that he was the wonder and awe of all who came into contact with him. His ambitious father exhibited this formidable prodigy for several years before the crowned heads of Europe; and wherever he appeared the child was acclaimed. Goethe said: “A phenomenon like that of Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.” In Milan in 1770 he was commissioned to write an opera _Mitridate, rè di Ponto_, successfully performed that year. In Bologna he became the only musician under the age of twenty to be elected a member of the renowned Accademia Filarmonica. And in Rome he provided dramatic evidence of his extraordinary natural gifts by putting down on paper the entire complex score of Allegri’s _Miserere_ after a single hearing. As he outgrew childhood he ripened as a composer, gaining all the time in both technical and creative powers. But he was a prodigy no more, and though he was rapidly becoming one of the most profound and original musicians in Europe he was unable to attract the adulation and excitement that had once been his. Between 1772 and 1777, as an employee in the musical establishment of the Salzburg Archbishop, he was treated like a menial servant. The remarkable music he was writing all the time passed unnoticed. Finally, in 1782, he made a permanent break with the Archbishop and established his home in Vienna where he lived for the remainder of his life. Though he received some important commissions, and enjoyed several triumphs for his operas, he did not fare any too well in Vienna either. He had to wait several years for a court appointment, and when it finally came in 1787 he was deplorably underpaid. Thus he lived in poverty, often dependent for food and other necessities of life on the generosity of his friends. And yet the masterworks kept coming in every conceivable medium—operas, symphonies, sonatas, quartets, concertos, choral music and so forth. A few people in Vienna were aware of his prodigious achievements, and one of these was Joseph Haydn who called him “the greatest composer I know either personally or by name.” During the last years of his life Mozart was harassed not only by poverty but also by severe illness. Yet his last year was one of his most productive, yielding his last three symphonies, the _Requiem_, the opera _The Magic Flute_ (_Die Zauberfloete_), the _Ave Verum_, and a remarkable piano concerto and string quintet. He died in Vienna on December 5, 1791 and was buried in a pauper’s grave with no tombstone or cross for identification. Through his genius every form of music was endowed with new grandeur, nobility of expression and richness of thought. He was a technician second to none; a bold innovator; a creator capable of plumbing the profoundest depths of emotion and the most exalted heights of spirituality. Yet he could also be simple and charming and graceful, in music remarkably overflowing with the most engaging melodies conceived by man, and characterized by the most exquisite taste and the most consummate craftsmanship. Thus Mozart’s lighter moods in music are often also endowed with extraordinary creative resources and original invention; yet they never lose their capacity to delight audiences at first contact. The music Mozart wrote directly for popular consumption were the hundred or so _Dances_ for orchestra: _Country Dances_, _German Dances_, _Minuets_. The greatest number of these consist of the _German Dances_. These are lively melodies in eight-measure phrases and with forceful peasant rhythms. Some of the best _German Dances_ are those in which Mozart utilized unusual orchestral resources or instruments to suggest extra-musical sounds. _The Sleighride_ (_Die Schlittenfahrt_), K. 605, in C major, simulates the sound of sleigh bells in the middle trio section, sounded in the tones A-F-E-C. _The Organgrinder_ (_Der Leiermann_), K. 602, imitates the sound of a hurdy-gurdy. In _The Canary_ (_Der Kanarienvogel_), K. 571, flutes reproduce the chirping of birds. The _Country Dance_, or _Contretanze_, is sometimes regarded as the first modern dance, forerunner of the quadrille. Structurally and stylistically these are very much like _German Dances_ with a peasant-like vitality and earthiness. Here, too, Mozart sometimes realistically imitates non-musical sounds as in _The Thunder Storm_ (_Das Donnerwetter_), K. 534, in which the role of the timpani suggests peals of thunder. Mozart’s most popular Minuet—indeed, it is probably one of the most popular minuets ever written—comes from his opera _Don Giovanni_, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and first performed in Prague in 1787. The hero of this opera is, to be sure, the Spanish nobleman of the 17th century whose escapades and licentious life finally bring him to doom at the hands of the statue of the Commandant come to life to consign him to the fires of hell. The Minuet appears in the fifth scene of the first act. Don Giovanni is the gracious host of a party held in his palace, and there the guests dance a courtly minuet while Don himself is making amatory overtures to Zerlina. In a lighter mood, also, is the _Eine kleine Nachtmusik_ (_A Little Night Music_), K. 525, a serenade for string orchestra (1787). This work is consistently tuneful, gracious, charming. The first movement has two lilting little melodies, which are presented and recapitulated with no formal development to speak of. The second movement is a Romance, or Romanza, a poetic song contrasted by two vigorous sections; the main thought of this movement is then repeated between each of these two vigorous parts. After that comes a formal minuet, and the work ends with a brisk and sprightly rondo. Mozart’s popular _Turkish March_—in the pseudo Turkish style so popular in Vienna in his day—comes out of his piano Sonata in A major, K. 331 (1778), where it appears as the last movement. This march is extremely popular in orchestral transcription. Modest Mussorgsky Modest Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Russia, on March 21, 1839. When he was thirteen he entered the cadet school of the Imperial Guard in St. Petersburg, from which he was graduated to join the Guard regiment. In 1857 he met and befriended several important Russian musicians (including Balakirev and Stassov) under whose stimulus he decided to leave the army and become a composer. Until now his musical education had been sporadic, having consisted of little more than some piano lessons with his mother and a private teacher. He now began an intensive period of study with Balakirev, under whose guidance he completed a _Scherzo_ for orchestra which was performed in St. Petersburg in 1860, as well as some piano music and the fragments of a symphony. Associating himself with Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Cui he now became a passionate advocate of musical nationalism, becoming the fifth member of a new school of Russian music henceforth identified as “The Mighty Five” or “The Russian Five.” In 1863, with serfdom abolished in Russia, he lost the outside financial resources he had thus far enjoyed as the son of a landowner. To support himself he worked for four years as a clerk in the Ministry of Communications; in 1869 he found employment in the forestry department. During this period music had to be relegated to the position of an avocation, but composition was not abandoned. He completed the first of his masterworks, the orchestral tone poem, _A Night on the Bald Mountain_, in 1866. A lifelong victim of nervous disorders, melancholia and subsequently of alcoholism, his health soon began to deteriorate alarmingly; but despite this fact he was able to complete several works of crowning significance in 1874 including his folk opera, _Boris Godunov_, and his _Pictures at an Exhibition_, for piano. After 1874 his moral and physical disintegration became complete; towards the last months of his life he gave indications of losing his mind. He died in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1881. As one of the most forceful and original members of the “Russian Five” Mussorgsky’s greatest works certainly do not lend themselves to popular distribution. His writing is too individual in its melodic and harmonic construction; and his works show too great a tendency towards musical realism to make for palatable digest. However, several of the folk dances in his operas are strikingly effective for their rhythmic pulse and national colors and are by no means as elusive in their appeal as the rest of his production. Mussorgsky’s masterwork is his mighty folk opera, _Boris Godunov_, where we encounter one such delightful dance episode, the Polonaise. _Boris Godunov_, libretto by the composer based on a Pushkin drama, traces the career of the Czar from the years 1598 to 1605, from his coronation to his insanity and death. The Polonaise occurs in the first scene of the third act. At the palace of a Polish landowner, handsomely costumed guests perform this festive courtly dance in the adjoining garden. The première of _Boris Godunov_ took place in St. Petersburg on February 8, 1874. Two orchestral dances can also be found in another of Mussorgky’s folk operas, _The Fair at Sorochinsk_, which was not introduced until October 26, 1917, in St. Petersburg. The libretto was by the composer based on Gogol’s story, _Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka_. Tcherevik, a peasant, wants his daughter to marry Pritzko, whereas the peasant’s wife is partial to the pastor’s son. However, when the pastor’s son compromises the peasant’s wife she realizes that Pritzko is, after all, the right man for her daughter. In the third act of this opera comes the lively _Hopak_, or _Gopak_, a folk dance with two beats to a measure. Folk dances of a completely different nature—more oriental and exotic than the previously discussed Russian variety—will be found in _Khovanschina_, a musical drama with libretto by the composer and Stassov; this opera was first given, in an amateur performance, in St. Petersburg on February 21, 1886. Here the setting is Moscow during the reign of Peter the Great, and the plot revolves around the efforts of a band of radicals known as the Streltsy who try to overthrow the Czar. Prince Ivan Khovantsky, who is in league with the Streltsy, is murdered by assassins, and the insurrection is suppressed. But before the leaders of the Streltsy can destroy themselves they are given an official pardon by the Czar. A high moment in this opera comes with the _Dances of the Persian Slaves_, which takes place in the first scene of the fourth act. At the country house of Khovantsky, the Prince is being entertained by an elaborate spectacle, the main attraction of which is the sinuous, Corybantic dancing of the Persian slaves. Almost as popular as these Persian dances are the Prelude to the first act and an entr’acte between the first and second scenes from this opera; these two episodes for orchestra are highly atmospheric, graphic in the pictures of Russian landscapes. The first act Prelude has been named by the composer, _Dawn on the Moskava River_. This is a subtle tone picture made up of a folk melody and five variations. The entr’acte offers another kind of landscape, this time a bleak one describing the vast, lonely plains of Siberia. Ethelbert Nevin Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin was born in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1862. A precocious child in music, he wrote his first piano piece when he was eleven. A year later he wrote and had published a song that became exceedingly popular, “Good Night, Good Night Beloved.” After studying music with private teachers, he went to Berlin in 1884, studying for two years with Hans von Buelow and Karl Klindworth. He returned to the United States in 1886. Soon after that he made his formal American concert debut as pianist with a program on which he included some of his own compositions. By 1890 he decided to give up his career as a virtuoso and to concentrate on being a composer. In 1891 he completed _Water Scenes_, a suite for the piano in which will be found one of the most popular piano pieces by an American, “Narcissus.” In 1892 and again 1895 Nevin traveled extensively through Europe and Morocco. In 1897 he settled in New York City where he wrote one of the best-selling art songs by an American, “The Rosary.” In 1900 Nevin went to live in New Haven. During the last year of his life he was a victim of depressions which he tried to alleviate through excessive drinking. He died of an apoplectic stroke in New Haven, Connecticut, on February 17, 1901. “Mighty Lak a Rose” and “The Rosary” are Nevin’s two most famous art songs; they are also among the most popular art songs written in America. “Mighty Lak a Rose” was one of Nevin’s last compositions, written during the closing months of his life. He never lived to see the song published and become popular. The song is a setting of a poem by Frank L. Stanton, and is described by John Trasker Howard (Nevin’s biographer) as “probably the simplest of all his songs ... [with] a freshness and whimsical tenderness that make its appeal direct and forceful.” “The Rosary,” words by R. C. Rogers, was an even greater success. From 1898 to 1928 it sold over two and a half million copies of sheet music. When Nevin had finished writing this song in 1898, he invited the singer Francis Rogers to dinner, after which he handed him a scribbled piece of music paper. “Here is a song I just composed,” he told Rogers. “I want you to sing it at your concert next week.” Rogers deciphered the notes as best he could while Nevin played the accompaniment from memory. The little audience listening to this first informal presentation of “The Rosary” was enthusiastic, but one of its members insisted it would be impossible for Rogers to memorize the song in time for the concert the following week. The guest bet Nevin a champagne supper for all present that the song would not be on Rogers’ program. He lost the bet. The following week, on February 15, 1898, Rogers introduced the song at the Madison Square Concert Hall. The _Water Scenes_, suite for piano, op. 13 is remembered principally because one of its movements is “Narcissus,” often considered one of the most popular compositions ever written in this country. Nevin himself provided information about the origin of “Narcissus.” “I remembered vaguely that there was once a Grecian lad who had something to do with the water and who was called Narcissus. I rummaged about my old mythology and read the story over again. The theme, or rather both themes, came as I read. I went directly to my desk and wrote out the whole composition. Afterwards, I rewrote it and revised it a little. The next morning I sent it to my publishers. Until the proofs came back to me I never tried it on the piano. I left almost immediately for Europe and was surprised when a publisher wrote to me of the astonishing sale of the piece.” During Nevin’s lifetime, the piece sold over 125,000 copies of sheet music, and was heard throughout America both in its original piano version (a favorite repertory number of piano students and budding piano virtuosos) and in transcriptions. It went on to circle the globe. As Vance Thompson wrote: “It was thrummed and whistled half around the world. It was played in Cairo as in New York and Paris; it was played by orchestras, on church organs, and on the mouth harps of Klondike miners; it became a mode, almost a mania.” The other movements of _Water Scenes_ are: “Barcarolle,” “Dragon Fly,” “Water Nymph,” “At Twilight,” and “Ophelia.” Each is a sensitive piece of tone painting, as lyrical and as unashamedly sentimental as the beloved “Narcissus.” Otto Nicolai Otto Nicolai was born in Koenigsberg, Germany, on June 9, 1810. After completing his music study with Zelter and Bernhard Klein, he came to Paris in 1830 where he remained three years. In Berlin he completed several works for orchestra, and some for chorus. In 1834 he went to Italy where he was organist in the Prussian Embassy at Rome and became interested in opera. From 1837 to 1838 he was principal conductor at the Kaerthnerthor Theater in Vienna. Then he returned to Italy to devote himself to the writing of operas, the first of which, _Rosmonda d’Inghilterra_ was a failure when produced in Turin in 1838. His second opera, however, was a major success when first given in Turin in 1840: _Il Templario_ based on Sir Walter Scott’s _Ivanhoe_; it was produced in Naples and Vienna. In 1841 Nicolai came to Vienna to serve for six years as Kapellmeister to the court. During this period, in 1842, he helped to found the renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1847 he came to Berlin to become conductor of the Domchor. It was here that he completed the work upon which his reputation rests, the comic opera, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (_Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor_). He died in Berlin of an apoplectic stroke on May 11, 1849, only two months after the première performance of his famous comic opera. _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (_Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor_) is Nicolai’s only opera to survive; and its overture is his only work for orchestra which retains its popularity. The opera received a highly successful première in Berlin on March 8, 1849. Its libretto, by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, is based on Shakespeare’s comedy and follows that play with only minor modifications. Falstaff’s cronies (Bardolph, Pistol and Nym) are omitted; only slight reference is made to the love of Anne and Fenton; and considerable attention is paid to Falstaff’s comical amatory overtures to Mistresses Ford and Page. The overture opens with a slow introduction in which a flowing melody is given against a high G in the violins. This melody is repeated by several different sections of the orchestra, then treated in imitation. The main part of the overture is made up of two vivacious melodies, the second of which, in the violins, is intended to depict Mistress Page. The development of both themes is in a gay mood, with a robust passage in F minor representing Falstaff. The overture concludes with an animated coda. From the opera itself come three melodious vocal selections, prominent in all orchestral potpourris: Falstaff’s drinking song, a long time favorite of German bassos, “_Als Bueblein klein_”; Fenton’s serenade to Anne Page, “_Horch, die Lerche singt in Haim_”; and Mistress Page’s third-act ballad of Herne the Hunter. Siegfried Ochs Siegfried Ochs was born in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, on April 19,