Kathryn Eleanor Browne

“ Music had usurped the place in lyric drama and music is a medium only and not an end of dramatic expression. His leitmotiv, infinite melody and symbolical themes gave his orchestra color. He used musical declamation for recitative secco, employed choruses with intelligent regard, and originated arias from the situations. Wagner lived for pure singing and did not make abnormal demands upon the voice like those of Strauss' "Electra". He has long solo passages and orderly development of orchestral themes, as different from Debussy whose sounds are not connected. ”

“ The orchestra discourses mournfully of the renunciation of love. Loga is depicted by fitful chromatic phrases which crackle and flash thru the orchestra. The sword phrase consists of major harmonies over sustained pedal point, and the thunderstorm of rushing figures in bass, and staccato lightning in short rapid figures in lighter instruments, crashing of the [30] wind in chromatic phrases, a hammering rythm for the Nibelung. Siegfried's boyhood is pictured as a wild forest lad with a hunting call, and when he gathers pieces of the spear the music accompaniment is in broken rythm. ”

“ Puccini, Humperdinck and Mascagni are considered by many to be the best living composers. "Königskinder" is chiefly declamatory and never sacrfices the human voice for the orchestra, and expounds and illustrates, but never fails to support the shapely arioso by rarely defined melody. ”

“ The vocal parts are reduced to a minimum of musical expressiveness and the music, a sort of rythmless chant, is subordinate to action. He is about the only composer who makes music dependent entirely on the drama. Wagner's orchestra is a bug driving force, while Strauss' delicate shifting of the background of the polyphony does not drown the voices. Debussy does not compose with the aim of orchestral composition as do Wagner and Strauss. With Puccini, Debussy and Charpentier, the human voice counts as a real medium. ”

“ The chorus takes up the broad sad theme. Orpheus cries, "Eurydice", twice, the third time he sings a note higher and stands against chords of diminished intervals, instead of blending with the chord of the minor third of the dominant, making a striking dramatic effect. The theme of the aria is echoed behind the scenes. In the accompanied recitative the orchestra has a share in producing the effect. In one aria when the sense of the words changes, the whole character of the music changes. Three fourth time, in the key of G, is used to depict the happiness of man. ”

“ In the days of Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, melody was supreme. The dramatic truth was lost sight of and the melody was not appropriate. In "William Tell" and "Der Freischutz" there was a step onwards towards the Wagner reform and a return to the first principles of dramatic art as applied to opera by the Bardi coterie. There was recitative, declamation and melody. Individualism was the prevailing tendency, and the success depends on the forcibleness of character development by means of the leitmotiv. Operatic art was here swaying between Wagnerism and the ancient Greek drama. ”

“ Wagner's orchestra acquired gradually the functions of the Greek chorus, in that it takes part in the action to publish that which is beyond the capacity of the personages alone to utter. He unfolds thoughts, emotions, motives and passions by means of mode, harmony, rythm, time and the orchestration. By applying the principles of augmentation to a phrase in the three phases of melodic, harmonic and instrumental structure, he illustrates the tragic growth of Siegfried. ”

“ In "Boris Godonnow" there is no principle tenor part, no principle contralto part and no principle soprano part. If it is a singer's opera at all it is a basso's, but it really is [35] more for chorus. The writing for solo declamatory passages occassioned the use of the lyric passages in the orchestra, which was made the purveyor of color. The atmosphere is not symphonic, though the development is important and we find a remarkable use of the leitmotiv but the composer never even heard of Wagner. ”

“ Japanese effects give beautiful lyric movements but they are not as great as Verdi's. There is intense dramatic vigor in "Manon Lescaut" which has spoken dialogue with running orchestral accompaniment and motives. "La Boheme" has neither overture nor intermezzo, and lacks sustained melody. Puccini is termed the only one with as much genius as Wagner, for he agrees that too much realism is cramping to good music, and he proves that music drama can be loosely constructed and need not conform to spoken drama standards. ”

“ Instruments should be employed in proportion to the degree of interest and passion. Above all he worked for simplicity; that opera must express life in aria and in recitative, and in similarity between the passion and the object called forth. His melody was supported by harmony and was varied in rythm. He strove for pictorial representation in his airs and accompanied his recitatives by figured bass and chords of the harpsichord, and employed several airs preceded by long instrumental solos. ”

“ Debussy makes music the servant of the drama and makes a symphonic use of motives which are not developed formally, but manipulated in an undercurrent of musical thought. He declares melody anti-dramatic, and in recitative with the orchestra there is freedom for individual interpretation. ”

“ The French opera helps to develop the tendency of individual expression while the German crushes it in striving for a whole general effect. Rameau's "Hyppolyte et Aricie" is the most highly developed study of character. Lulli's work is an amplification of Ramean's work. He combined simplicity, natural melody and dramatic intentions. He developed his attention to the orchestra, and employed the chorus as an integral factor in the situation. He invented the overture using a slow movement, followed by a quick fugal style with the third division, a short dance. ”

“ Mozart considered first music, then the book and lastly the performance. In "Figaro" the psychological handling of the characters is unconvincing. He has applied one invariable musical formula [25] to every character. He repeats one or two chords ad infinitum in the orchestra. The voice trips along on top of these in semi speed. He sanctioned formulas for cadences used in every situation. Even in "Don Giovanni" the formulas for the cadences are used in this manner. He uses the same method for light scenes as well as tragic situations, depicting indignant heroines and chorus in the same manner. ”

“ In the modern music drama the orchestra expresses all that cannot be expressed by the dramatic action and the singers. Rimski-Korsakov's is mainly a subjective expression of composition, while Moussorgsky's orchestra is never subjective, but always objective. Borodini's "Prince Igor" is a colorful barbaric ballet while in Dargomysky's "The Water Sprite", "The Stone Guest" there are interesting intermediary recitative sections, although the recitative of "La Pskovitaine" is dry.
Xaver Schwarwenka'a opera "Mataswinthe" resembles those of Wagner of the "Lohengrin" period. ”

“ The extreme limit of Wagner's methods is "Salome", which is really a symphonic poem for a gigantic orchestra to the accompaniment of dramatic action with a voice obligato.
Gounod did not use prolonged themes unless for a dramatic or purely ethical reason. "Faust" is the best suited for the human voice. The orchestra never submerges the voice and is only a factor and not a sum total. At this time the Italian school was at the height where flimsy librettos only served to string together duets, quartets or choruses. ”

“ It is easy to omit or transpose a scene thus showing the loosenes of the dramatic construction, which is a merit in a musical play, for the composer can express the central ideas of the drama without being bound hand and foot by dramatic situations. ”

“ The style is more that of Donizetti's than Bellini's, although critics declare the music of "Ernani" noisy and commonplace, with too much brass in the orchestra. His chorus was written in unison, and passed too abruptly from one piece to another, and his effects were not sufficiently prepared, but under his direction the brassiness was kept down, and a proper balance maintained. There is genuine emotion in his strains, significance in his melodies, characterization of personages and forcible construction of scenes, though he did not surpass "William Tell". ”

“ His realism surpassed the trivial impossibilities of the Italian school. He did not combine involved themes in a pot-pourri style so that none could be distinguished, but rather created atmosphere. His instrumentalism is sonorous and uses five-four, six-four and seven-four time.
The "Pique Dame" of Tschaikovsky has a style like that of other composers beyond set forms of the older operas though not of the music drama. The arias, duets, choruses and ballets are dramatically appropriate, and the orchestra is more of a function than an accompaniment. ”

“ They are thoroughly modern. The muted horns in the orchestra give dramatic expressiveness in harmony and the composer uses the free arioso style. There is not the set form of the Italian school, but the modern declamatory arioso, monologues and duets, discarding recitative, and introducing massive ensembles with key complexity, but never smothering them with the orchestra. ”

“ He abandoned the symphony in three pieces making his overture lead into the opening aria. His two themes begin finely in contra-distinction but they degenerate into bravura style. Gluck studied literature and filled in the void for recitative so that the audience could-not play chess in between numbers.
"Orpheus" is lyrical and noticeable for the dramatic interest of the recitative, and the importance of the work given to the chorus. His duo-thematic treatment of the orchestra here is not successful. In his short orchestral prelude he breaks away from the spirit of the overture. ”

“ Franchetti's "Germania" is a lyric two act drama with a prologue and an epilogue, aping Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Tschaikovski. Delibes, a new dramatist, uses unusual discretion in the color expression of the orchestra but with very little acting. His modulation scheme is rich and more melodic, but it is almost as declamatory as that of Strauss. Saint Saens and Massenet are less radical with a light melodic orchestra. Massenet's music in "Le Jongleur" and "Griselidis" is not strong enough to atone for tiresome episodes in the plot. The chorus plays an important but invisible part, throughout. ”

“ The chorus chanted their parts. This would not be termed music by us today, but was more of a recitative. Later the chorus chanted while the principals sang, forming a sort of background accompaniment. [6] The slow developement of the music in the mass must not be forgotten, but there is nothing which definitely resembles opera until the thirteenth century. "Noel" was supposed to be a song which the angels sang, and is found in many festivals. Perhaps this may be termed one of the sources of Wagner's ideas, the association of a particular song with one group of people. ”

“ In "Iphigenia en Tauris" the chorus works into a background which appropriately and dramatically supports the singer. The two tendencies in Gluck are, to neglect all sensuous aesthetic pleasure for attainment of dramatic intensity through declamation, and to realize his purpose through emotional pleasure, harmony of color, greater unity of scenes, the carrying out of one dramatic idea from the beginning to the end, making each individual [18] part stronger. ”

“ Beethoven and Weber followed Gluck. Beethoven gave to the orchestra the explanatory character of the chorus. He employs twenty phrases for a single character in "Fidelio". Weber used spoken dialogue and recitative sparingly but when neccessary composed with originality and dramatic vividness. He tried to construct drama by means of melody and failed. The first example of a grand orchestral prelude is written in six-fourth time to "Der Beberrscher der Geister." The overture to "Der Freischutz", by the use of leading themes, relates the entire story. ”

“ Our American composers seem to follow different schools and styles without establishing one of their own. "Mona" by Horatio Parker assigns not a motive for a label to each character but a tonality, though only one blessed with absolute pitch can appreciate this. ”

“ III. ROSSINI AND HIS SCHOOL UP TO WAGNER.
In 1814 the operatic conditions were deplorable. Vocalists were masters over the composers. They accepted the mere skeleton of a tune, and so adorned it with their own trills and flourishes that the poor composer could scarcely recognize it. The solos were placed to suit their convenience, whether or not they were suited dramatically. The tenor singers were very prominent and the bass singers had not as yet emerged from the background. ”

“ Table III. This table develops "F" of Table I showing the entire percentage of orchestration in each of the thirty-four operas, and further the division of this percentage into that devoted to overtures, ballets and interludes.
Table IV. This table develops column "G" of Table I concerning solo works. The percentage of the entire solo work is given and this is then divided into the percentage devoted to that of soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass. ”