Part 5 (1/2)
Romanticism is fluid Cla.s.sicism. It is the emotional stimulus informing Romanticism which calls music into life, but no sooner is it born, free, untrammelled, nature's child, than the regulative principle places shackles upon it; but it is enslaved only that it may become and remain art.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] ”Studies in the Wagnerian Drama,” p. 22.
[C] ”Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies,” by George Grove, C.B., 2d ed., p. 191.
IV
_The Modern Orchestra_
[Sidenote: _The orchestra as an instrument._]
[Sidenote: _What may be heard from a band._]
The most eloquent, potent, and capable instrument of music in the world is the modern orchestra. It is the instrument whose employment by the cla.s.sical composers and the geniuses of the Romantic School in the middle of our century marks the high tide of the musical art. It is an instrument, moreover, which is never played upon without giving a great object-lesson in musical a.n.a.lysis, without inviting the eye to help the ear to discern the cause of the sounds which ravish our senses and stir up pleasurable emotions. Yet the popular knowledge of its const.i.tuent parts, of the individual value and mission of the factors which go to make up its sum, is scarcely greater than the popular knowledge of the structure of a symphony or sonata. All this is the more deplorable since at least a rudimentary knowledge of these things might easily be gained, and in gaining it the student would find a unique intellectual enjoyment, and have his ears unconsciously opened to a thousand beauties in the music never perceived before. He would learn, for instance, to distinguish the characteristic timbre of each of the instruments in the band; and after that to the delight found in what may be called the primary colors he would add that which comes from a.n.a.lyzing the vast number of tints which are the products of combination. Noting the capacity of the various instruments and the manner in which they are employed, he would get glimpses into the mental workshop of the composer. He would discover that there are conventional means of expression in his art a.n.a.logous to those in the other arts; and collating his methods with the effects produced, he would learn something of the creative artist's purposes. He would find that while his merely sensuous enjoyment would be left unimpaired, and the emotional excitement which is a legitimate fruit of musical performance unchecked, these pleasures would have others consorted with them. His intellectual faculties would be agreeably excited, and he would enjoy the pleasures of memory, which are exemplified in music more delightfully and more frequently than in any other art, because of the role which repet.i.tion of parts plays in musical composition.
[Sidenote: _Familiar instruments._]
[Sidenote: _The instrumental choirs._]
The argument is as valid in the study of musical forms as in the study of the orchestra, but it is the latter that is our particular business in this chapter. Everybody listening to an orchestral concert recognizes the physical forms of the violins, flutes, cornets, and big drum; but even of these familiar instruments the voices are not always recognized. As for the rest of the harmonious fraternity, few give heed to them, even while enjoying the music which they produce; yet with a few words of direction anybody can study the instruments of the band at an orchestral concert. Let him first recognize the fact that to the mind of a composer an orchestra always presents itself as a combination of four groups of instruments--choirs, let us call them, with unwilling apology to the lexicographers. These choirs are: first, the viols of four sorts--violins, violas, violoncellos, and double-ba.s.ses, spoken of collectively as the ”string quartet;” second, the wind instruments of wood (the ”wood-winds” in the musician's jargon)--flutes, oboes, clarinets, and ba.s.soons; third, the wind instruments of bra.s.s (the ”bra.s.s”)--trumpets, horns, trombones, and ba.s.s tuba. In all of these subdivisions there are numerous variations which need not detain us now. A further subdivision might be made in each with reference to the harmony voices (showing an a.n.a.logy with the four voices of a vocal choir--soprano, contralto, tenor, and ba.s.s); but to go into this might make the exposition confusing. The fourth ”choir” (here the apology to the lexicographers must be repeated with much humility and earnestness) consists of the instruments of percussion--the kettle-drums, big drum, cymbals, triangle, bell chime, etc. (sometimes spoken of collectively in the United States as ”the battery”).
[Ill.u.s.tration: SEATING PLAN OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.]
[Sidenote: _How orchestras are seated._]
[Sidenote: _Plan of the New York Philharmonic._]
The disposition of these instruments in our orchestras is largely a matter of individual taste and judgment in the conductor, though the general rule is exemplified in the plan given herewith, showing how Mr. Anton Seidl has arranged the desks for the concerts of the Philharmonic Society of New York. Mr. Theodore Thomas's arrangement differed very little from that of Mr. Seidl, the most noticeable difference being that he placed the viola-players beside the second violinists, where Mr. Seidl has the violoncellists. Mr. Seidl's purpose in making the change was to gain an increase in sonority for the viola part, the position to the right of the stage (the left of the audience) enabling the viola-players to hold their instruments with the F-holes toward the listeners instead of away from them. The relative positions of the harmonious battalions, as a rule, are as shown in the diagram. In the foreground, the violins, violas, and 'cellos; in the middle distance, the wood-winds; in the background, the bra.s.s and the battery; the double-ba.s.ses flanking the whole body.
This distribution of forces is dictated by considerations of sonority, the most a.s.sertive instruments--the bra.s.s and drums--being placed farthest from the hearers, and the instruments of the viol tribe, which are the real backbone of the band and make their effect by a ma.s.sing of voices in each part, having the place of honor and greatest advantage. Of course it is understood that I am speaking of a concert orchestra. In the case of theatrical or operatic bands the arrangement of the forces is dependent largely upon the exigencies of s.p.a.ce.
[Sidenote: _Solo instruments._]
Outside the strings the instruments are treated by composers as solo instruments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or other wind instrument sometimes doing the same work in the development of the composition as the entire body of first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds are used in pairs, the purpose of this being either to fill the harmony when what I may call the princ.i.p.al thought of the composition is consigned to a particular choir, or to strengthen a voice by permitting two instruments to play in unison.
[Sidenote: _Groupings for harmony effects._]
[Sidenote: _Wagner's instrumental characterization._]
[Sidenote: _An instrumental language._]
Each choir, except the percussion instruments, is capable of playing in full harmony; and this effect is frequently used by composers. In ”Lohengrin,” which for that reason affords to the amateur an admirable opportunity for orchestral study, Wagner resorts to this device in some instances for the sake of dramatic characterization. _Elsa_, a dreamy, melancholy maiden, crushed under the weight of wrongful accusation, and sustained only by the vision of a seraphic champion sent by Heaven to espouse her cause, is accompanied on her entrance and sustained all through her scene of trial by the dulcet tones of the wood-winds, the oboe most often carrying the melody. _Lohengrin's_ superterrestrial character as a Knight of the Holy Grail is prefigured in the harmonies which seem to stream from the violins, and in the prelude tell of the bringing of the sacred vessel of Christ's pa.s.sion to Monsalvat; but in his chivalric character he is greeted by the militant trumpets in a strain of brilliant puissance and rhythmic energy. Composers have studied the voices of the instruments so long and well, and have noted the kind of melodies and harmonies in which the voices are most effective, that they have formulated what might almost be called an instrumental language. Though the effective capacity of each instrument is restricted not only by its mechanics, but also by the quality of its tones--a melody conceived for one instrument sometimes becoming utterly inexpressive and unbeautiful by transferrence to another--the range of effects is extended almost to infinity by means of combination, or, as a painter might say, by mixing the colors. The art of writing effectively for instruments in combination is the art of instrumentation or orchestration, in which Berlioz and Wagner were Past Grand Masters.
[Sidenote: _Number of instruments._]
The number of instruments of each kind in an orchestra may also be said to depend measurably upon the music, or the use to which the band is to be put. Neither in instruments nor in numbers is there absolute ident.i.ty between a dramatic and a symphonic orchestra. The apparatus of the former is generally much more varied and complex, because of the vast development of variety in dramatic expression stimulated by Wagner.