The art of music, Vol. 03 (of 14), A narrative history of music. Book 3, modern music

The art of music, Vol. 03 (of 14), A narrative history of music. Book 3, modern music - A Comprehensive Library of Information for Music Lovers and Musicians

The direct sources of modern music are to be found in the works of Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, and Wagner. This assertion savors of truism, but, since the achievement of these four masters in the enlargement of harmonic idiom, in diversity of formal evolution, and in intrinsic novelty and profundity of musical sentiment and emotion remains so unalterably the point of departure in modern music, reiteration is unavoidable and essential. It were idle to deny that various figures in musical history have shown prophetic glimpses of the future. Monteverdi's taste for unprepared dissonance and instinct for graphic instrumental effect; the extraordinary anticipation of Liszt's treatment of the diminished seventh chord, and the enharmonic modulations to be found in the music of Sebastian Bach, the presages of later German romanticism discoverable in the works of his ill-fated son Wilhelm Friedemann, constitute convincing details. The romantic ambitions of Lesueur as to program-music found their reflection in the superheated imagination of Berlioz, and the music-drama of Wagner derives as conclusively from Fidelio as from the more conclusively romantic antecedents of Euryanthe. But, despite their illuminating quality, these casual outcroppings of modernity do not reverse the axiomatic statement made above. The trend of modern music, then, may be traced first along the path of the pervasive domination of Wagner;[Pg viii] second, the lesser but no less tenacious influence of Liszt; it includes the rise of nationalistic schools, the gradual infiltration of eclecticism leading at last to recent quasi-anarchic efforts to expand the technical elements of music. If the critics of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries have successfully exposed not only the sthetic flaws in Wagner's theory of the music-drama, but also his own obvious departures in practice from pre-conceived convictions, as well as the futility of much of his polemic and philosophical writings, European composers of opera, almost without exception, save in Russia, have frankly adopted his methods in whole or in part. Bruckner, Bungert, d'Albert, Schillings, Pfitzner, Goldmark, Humperdinck, Weingartner, and Richard Strauss in Germany; Saint-Sans (in varying degree), Chabrier, Lalo, Massenet (temporarily), Bruneau and Charpentier (slightly), d'Indy, Chausson, and Dukas in France; Verdi (more remotely), Puccini, and possibly Wolf-Ferrari in Italy; Holbrooke in England, are among the more conspicuous whose obligation to Wagner is frankly perceptible. In Germany the most prominent contributors to dramatic literature, aside from Cornelius, with Der Barbier von Bagdad, and Goetz with Der Widerspenstigen Zhmung, have been Goldmark, Humperdinck, and Richard Strauss. The latter, with an incredibly complex system of leading motives, an elaborately contrapuntal connotation of dramatic situations, aided by an intensely psychological orchestral descriptiveness, has reached the summit of post-Wagnerian drama. His later dramatic experimentsa ruthless adaptation of Molire's Bourgeois gentilhomme, containing the one-act opera Ariadne auf Naxos, and the ballet 'The Legend of Joseph'are distinctly less representative examples of[Pg ix] his dramatic resourcefulness. In France, the Wagnerian influence is typified in such works as Chabrier's Gwendoline, d'Indy'sFervaal, and to a lesser extent Chausson's Le Roi Arthus. Bruneau's realistic operas and Charpentier's sociological Louise belong, first of all, to the characteristically French lyric drama in which the Wagnerian element is relatively unimportant. In Debussy's Pellas et Mlisande, Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue, Ravel's L'Heure espagnole, and Faur's Pnlope, we find a virtually independent conception of opera which may be almost described as anti-Wagnerian. In Italy, the later Verdi shows an independent solution of dramatic problems, although conscious of the work of Wagner. Puccini is the successor of Verdi, rather than the follower of Wagner, although his use of motives and treatment of the orchestra shows at least an unconscious assimilation of Wagnerian practice, Mascagni and Leoncavallo are virtually negligible except for their early successes, and one or two other works. Younger composers like Montemezzi and Zadonai are beginning to claim attention, but Wolf-Ferrari, combining Italian instinct with German training, seems on the way to attain a renascence of the opera buffa, provided that he is not again tempted by the sensational type represented by 'The Jewels of the Madonna.' Opera in England has remained an exotic, save for the operettas of Sullivan, despite the efforts of British composers to vitalize it. Holbrooke's attempt to produce an English trilogy seems fated to join previous failures, notwithstanding his virtuosity and his dramatic earnestness. Russian composers for the stage have steadily resisted the invasion of Wagnerian methods. Adhering, first of all, to the tenets of Dargomijsky, individuals have gradually adopted their own standpoint. The most characteristic works are Borodine's Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakoff's Snigourutchka, Sadko, Mlada, Le Coq d'Or,[Pg x] and Moussorgsky's Boris Godounoff and Khovanshchina. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68990
Author: Hill, Edward Burlingame
Release Date: Sep 14, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: National Society of Music
Publication Date: 1915
Publisher Country: United States

Contributors

Editor: Hill, Edward Burlingame, 1872-1960 , Saerchinger, César, 1889-1971