Part 44 (1/2)

”Do you, indeed?” he replied. ”That's more than I do.”

Of course he was jesting. He understands everything.

IV.

Dr. Dubbe was in his element yesterday. The trinity of B's--Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms--or, as Dr. Dubbe put it, the ”trinity of logicians,” was much to his taste: a truly Gothic program.

”But what a contrast is the second half,” said Dr. Dubbe. ”In the first we have the Kings of absolute music. In his youth Beethoven strayed from the path (for even he must sow his musical wild oats), but in his maturer years he produced no music that was not absolute. But in the second half we have Berlioz and program music.”

”I thought program music was music suitable for programs,” said Mrs.

Givu A. Payne.

”Berlioz,” continued Dr. Dubbe, ”inst.i.tuted the 'musical reform' in Germany--the new German school of Liszt and Wagner. Berlioz's music is all on the surface, while Brahms' music sounds the depths. He uses the contra-ba.s.soon in about all of his orchestral compositions (you will hear it to-day), and most of his piano works take the last A on the piano. If his ba.s.s seems at times muddy it is because he goes so deep that he stirs up the bottom.”

”How clear!” exclaimed Miss Gay Votte.

”Take measure sixty-five in Berlioz's 'Dance of the Sylphs,'” said Dr.

Dubbe. ”The spirits hover over Faust, who has fallen asleep. The 'cellos are sawing away drowsily on their pedal point D (probably in sympathy with Faust), and what sounds like Herr Thomas tuning the orchestra is the lone A of the fifth. The absent third represents the sleep of Faust.

This is a trick common to the new school. Wagner uses it in 'Siegfried,'

in the close of the Tarnhelm motive, to ill.u.s.trate the vanis.h.i.+ng properties of the cap. In measure fifty-seven of the Ballet you will find a chord of the augmented five-six, a harmony built on the first inversion of the diminished seventh of the key of the dominant, with lowered ba.s.s tone, and which in this instance resolves into the dominant triad. Others claim that this harmony is a dominant ninth with root omitted and lowered fifth.”

”It has always seemed so to me,” said Mrs. Fuller-Prunes. But I don't believe she knows a thing about it.

”I think it's all awfully cute,” said Miss Georgiana Gush.

”The harmony,” resumed Dr. Dubbe, frowning, ”really sounds like a dominant seventh, and may be changed enharmonically into a dominant seventh and resolve into the Neapolitan sixth. This is all clear to you, I suppose?”

”Oh, yes,” we all replied.

Dr. Dubbe then a.n.a.lyzed and played for us Brahms' First Symphony, after which Miss Ellenborough served doughnuts made in the shape of a Gothic B. We all had to eat them--one for Bach, one for Beethoven, and one for Brahms.

V.

Dr. Dubbe did not appear enthusiastic over this week's program. I guess because there was no Bach or Brahms on it. But we enjoyed his lecture just the same.

”Raff was the Raphael of music,” said Dr. Dubbe. ”He was handicapped by a superabundance of ideas, but, unlike Raphael, he did not constantly repeat himself. This week we will have a look at his Fifth Symphony, ent.i.tled 'Lenore.'”

”Oh!” exclaimed Miss Georgiana Gush, ”that's the one the hero of 'The First Violin' was always whistling.”

”As you all know,” said Dr. Dubbe, ”this symphony is based on Burger's well-known ballad of 'Lenore,' but as only the last movement is concerned with the actual ballad I will confine my remarks mainly to that. I wish, however, to call your attention to a curious harmony in the first movement. Upon the return of the first theme the trombones break in upon a dominant B major harmony with what is apparently a dominant C major harmony, D, F, and B. But the chords are actually enharmonic of D, E sharp, and B. This is a dominant harmony in F sharp.

Listen for these trombone chords, and pay special attention to the E sharp--a tone that is extremely characteristic of Raff.”

”I think I have read somewhere,” said Mrs. Givu A. Payne, ”that Raff was exceedingly fond of E sharp.”

”He was,” said Dr. Dubbe. ”He often said he didn't see how he could get along without it. But to resume: