Part 8 (2/2)

First movements are quick and energetic, and frequently full of dramatic fire. In them the psychological story is begun which is to be developed in the remaining chapters of the work--its sorrows, hopes, prayers, or communings in the slow movement; its madness or merriment in the scherzo; its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in the finale. Sometimes the first movement is preceded by a slow introduction, intended to prepare the mind of the listener for the proclamation which shall come with the _Allegro_. The key of the princ.i.p.al subject is set down as the key of the symphony, and unless the composer gives his work a special t.i.tle for the purpose of providing a hint as to its poetical contents (”Eroica,” ”Pastoral,”

”Faust,” ”In the Forest,” ”Lenore,” ”Pathetique,” etc.), or to characterize its style (”Scotch,” ”Italian,” ”Irish,” ”Welsh,”

”Scandinavian,” ”From the New World”), it is known only by its key, or the number of the work (_opus_) in the composer's list. Therefore we have Mozart's Symphony ”in G minor,” Beethoven's ”in A major,”

Schumann's ”in C,” Brahms's ”in F,” and so on.

[Sidenote: _The second movement._]

[Sidenote: _Variations._]

The second movement in the symphonic scheme is the slow movement.

Musicians frequently call it the Adagio, for convenience, though the tempi of slow movements ranges from extremely slow (_Largo_) to the border line of fast, as in the case of the Allegretto of the Seventh Symphony of Beethoven. The mood of the slow movement is frequently sombre, and its instrumental coloring dark; but it may also be consolatory, contemplative, restful, religiously uplifting. The writing is preferably in a broadly sustained style, the effect being that of an exalted hymn, and this has led to a predilection for a theme and variations as the mould in which to cast the movement. The slow movements of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies are made up of variations.

[Sidenote: _The Scherzo._]

[Sidenote: _Genesis of the Scherzo._]

[Sidenote: _The Trio._]

The Scherzo is, as the term implies, the playful, jocose movement of a symphony, but in the case of sublime geniuses like Beethoven and Schumann, who blend profound melancholy with wild humor, the playfulness is sometimes of a kind which invites us to thoughtfulness instead of merriment. This is true also of some Russian composers, whose scherzos have the desperate gayety which speaks from the music of a sad people whose merrymaking is not a spontaneous expression of exuberant spirits but a striving after self-forgetfulness. The Scherzo is the successor of the Minuet, whose rhythm and form served the composers down to Beethoven. It was he who subst.i.tuted the Scherzo, which retains the chief formal characteristics of the courtly old dance in being in triple time and having a second part called the Trio. With the change there came an increase in speed, but it ought to be remembered that the symphonic minuet was quicker than the dance of the same name. A tendency toward exaggeration, which is patent among modern conductors, is threatening to rob the symphonic minuet of the vivacity which gave it its place in the scheme of the symphony. The entrance of the Trio is marked by the introduction of a new idea (a second minuet) which is more sententious than the first part, and sometimes in another key, the commonest change being from minor to major.

[Sidenote: _The Finale._]

[Sidenote: _Rondo form._]

The final movement, technically the Finale, is another piece of large dimensions in which the psychological drama which plays through the four acts of the symphony is brought to a conclusion. Once the purpose of the Finale was but to bring the symphony to a merry end, but as the expressive capacity of music has been widened, and mere play with aesthetic forms has given place to attempts to convey sentiments and feelings, the purposes of the last movement have been greatly extended and varied. As a rule the form chosen for the Finale is that called the Rondo. Borrowed from an artificial verse-form (the French _Rondeau_), this species of composition ill.u.s.trates the peculiarity of that form in the reiteration of a strophe ever and anon after a new theme or episode has been exploited. In modern society verse, which has grown out of an ambition to imitate the ingenious form invented by mediaeval poets, we have the Triolet, which may be said to be a rondeau in miniature. I choose one of Mr. H.C. Bunner's dainty creations to ill.u.s.trate the musical refrain characteristic of the rondo form because of its compactness. Here it is:

[Sidenote: _A Rondo pattern in poetry._]

”A pitcher of mignonette In a tenement's highest cas.e.m.e.nt: Queer sort of a flower-pot--yet That pitcher of mignonette Is a garden in heaven set, To the little sick child in the bas.e.m.e.nt-- The pitcher of mignonette, In the tenement's highest cas.e.m.e.nt.”

[Sidenote: _Other forms for the Finale._]

If now the first two lines of this poem, which compose its refrain, be permitted to stand as the princ.i.p.al theme of a musical piece, we have in Mr. Bunner's triolet a rondo _in nuce_. There is in it a threefold exposition of the theme alternating with episodic matter. Another form for the finale is that of the first movement (the Sonata form), and still another, the theme and variations. Beethoven chose the latter for his ”Eroica,” and the choral close of his Ninth, Dvorak, for his symphony in G major, and Brahms for his in E minor.

[Sidenote: _Organic Unities._]

[Sidenote: _How enforced._]

[Sidenote: _Berlioz's ”idee fixe.”_]

[Sidenote: _Recapitulation of themes._]

I am attempting nothing more than a characterization of the symphony, and the forms with which I a.s.sociated it at the outset, which shall help the untrained listener to comprehend them as unities despite the fact that to the careless hearer they present themselves as groups of pieces each one of which is complete in itself and has no connection with its fellows. The desire of composers to have their symphonies accepted as unities instead of compages of unrelated pieces has led to the adoption of various devices designed to force the bond of union upon the attention of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in his symphony in C minor not only connects the third and fourth movements but also introduces a reminiscence of the former into the midst of the latter; Berlioz in his ”Symphonie Fantastique,” which is written to what may be called a dramatic scheme, makes use of a melody which he calls ”_l'idee fixe_,” and has it recur in each of the four movements as an episode. This, however, is frankly a symphony with programme, and ought not to be treated as a modification of the pure form. Dvorak in his symphony ent.i.tled ”From the New World,” in which he has striven to give expression to the American spirit, quotes the first period of his princ.i.p.al subject in all the subsequent movements, and then sententiously recapitulates the princ.i.p.al themes of the first, second, and third movements in the finale; and this without a sign of the dramatic purpose confessed by Berlioz.

[Sidenote: _Introduction of voices._]

[Sidenote: _Abolition of pauses._]

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