Part 12 (1/2)
Recognizing that the trouble with ”America” was not at all due to the n.o.ble words written by the man whom ”fate tried to conceal by naming him Smith,” Converse has written a new air to this poem.
Unfortunately, however, his method of varying the much-borrowed original tune is too transparent. He has not discarded the idea at all, or changed the rhythm or the spirit. He has only taken his tune upward where ”G.o.d Save the Queen” moves down, and bent his melody down where the British soars up. This, I fancy, is the chief reason why his national hymn has gone over to the great majority, and has been conspicuously absent from such public occasions as torchlight parades and ratifications.
Except the work issued under the alias ”Karl Redan,” or the anagrams, ”C.O. Nevers” and ”C.E. Revons,” his only secular musics that have been put into print are his American Overture, published in Paris, and a book of six songs, published in Germany.
Music is called the universal language, but it has strongly marked dialects, and sometimes a national flavor untranslatable to foreign peoples. So with these six songs, not the words alone are German. They are based on a Teutonic, and they modulate only from Berlin to Braunschweig and around to Leipzig. While the songs repay study, they are rather marked by a pianistic meditation than a strictly lyric emotion. ”Aufmunterung zur Freude” is a tame allegretto; ”Wehmuth” is better; ”Tauschung” is a short elegy of pa.s.sion and depth; ”Ruhe in der Geliebten” is best in its middle strain where it is full of rich feeling and harmony. The ending is cheap. ”Der gefangene Sanger” is only a slight variant at first on the ”Adieu” credited to Schubert; it is thereafter excellent.
Converse has a large body of music in ma.n.u.script, none of which I had the pleasure of examining save a tender sacred lullaby. There are two symphonies, ten suites, and concert overture, three symphonic poems, an oratorio, ”The Captivity,” six string quartettes, and a ma.s.s of psalmodic and other vocal writing.
Of these works three have been produced with marked success: the ”Christmas Overture,” at one of the public concerts of the Ma.n.u.script Society, under the direction of Walter Damrosch; the overture ”Im Fruhling,” at concerts in Brooklyn and New York, under the baton of Theodore Thomas; and the American overture, ”Hail Columbia!” at the Boston Peace Jubilee under Patrick Gilmore, at the Columbian Exposition under Thomas, and in New York under Anton Seidl.
This last overture received the distinction of publication at Paris, by Schott et Cie. It is built on the rousing air of ”Hail, Columbia!”
This is suggested in the slow minor introduction; the air itself is indicated thematically as one of the subjects later appearing in full swing in a coda. The instrumentation is brilliant and the climax overwhelming.
Altogether the work is more than adroit musical composition. It is a prairie-fire of patriotism.
_L.A. Coerne._
[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS ADOLPHE COERNE.]
A grand opera by an American on an American subject is an achievement to look forward to. Though I have not seen this opera, called ”A Woman of Marblehead,” it is safe to predict, from a study of its composer's other works, that it is a thing of merit.
Louis Adolphe Coerne, who wrote the music for this opera, was born in Newark, N.J., in 1870, and spent the years from six to ten in music study abroad, at Stuttgart and Paris. Returning to America, he entered Harvard College and studied harmony and composition under John Knowles Paine. He studied the violin under Kneisel. In 1890 he went to Munich, where he studied the organ and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, under Rheinberger, and the violin under Hieber. He now decided to give up the career of a violinist for that of composer, conductor, and organist. In 1893 he returned to Boston and acted as organist. A year later he went to Buffalo, where for three years he directed the Liedertafel.
While in Harvard, Coerne had composed and produced a concerto for violin and 'cello with string orchestra accompaniment, a fantasy for full orchestra, and a number of anthems which were performed at the university chapel. While in Munich and Stuttgart he wrote and produced a string suite, an organ concerto with accompaniment of strings, horns, and harps, three choral works, and a ballet, ”Evadne,” on a subject of his own. His symphonic poem on Longfellow's ”Hiawatha” was also produced there with much success under his personal direction, and later by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was invited then by Theodore Thomas to attend the World's Fair at Chicago, to give recitals on the great organ in Festival Hall.
It has been my misfortune not to have heard or seen hardly any of his writings except the published ”Character Pieces” from the ballet ”Evadne” (op. 155). A ”Clown's Dance” in bolero rhythm is delightful.
The ”Introduction to Act II.” contains many varied ideas and one pa.s.sage of peculiar harmonic beauty. A ”Valse de Salon” has its good bits, but is rather overwrought. A ”Devil's Dance” introduces some excellent harmonic effects, but the ”Waltz with Chorus and Finale” is the best number of the opus. It begins in the orchestra with a most irresistible waltz movement that is just what a waltz should be. A chorus is then superimposed on this rhapsody, and a climax of superb richness attained.
For the organ Coerne has written much and well. There is an adaptation of three pieces from the string quartette (op. 19); a graceful Minuet, a quaint Aria, and a Fugue. Then there are three Marches, which, like most marches written by contemplative musicians, are rather thematic than spirited, and marked by a restless and elaborate preparation for some great chant that is longed for, but never comes. Besides these, there are a very pleasant Pastoral, a good Elevation, and a Nocturne.
Coerne's symphonic poem, ”Hiawatha,” has been arranged for the piano for four hands, and there is also an arrangement for violin or violoncello and piano, but I have not seen these. The thing we are all waiting for is that American grand opera, ”A Woman of Marblehead.” It is to be predicted that she will not receive the marble heart.
CHAPTER IV.
THE COLONISTS.
Art does not prosper as hermit. Of course, every great creator has a certain aloofness of soul, and an inner isolation; but he must at times submit his work to the comparison of his fellow artists; he must profit by their discoveries as well as their errors; he must grow overheated in those pa.s.sionate musical arguments that never convince any one out of his former belief, and serve salutarily to raise the temper, cultivate caloric, and deepen convictions previously held; he must exchange criticisms and discuss standards with others, else he will be eternally making discoveries that are stale and unprofitable to the rest of the world; he will seek to reach men's souls through channels long dammed up, and his achievements will be marred by nave triteness and primitive crudeness.
So, while the artistic tendency may be a universal nervous system, artists are inclined to ganglionate. The nerve-knots vary in size and importance, and one chief ganglion may serve as a feeding brain, but it cannot monopolize the activity. In America, particularly, these ganglia, or colonies, are an interesting and vital phase of our development. For a country in which the different federated states are, many of them, as large as old-world kingdoms, it is manifestly impossible for any one capital to dominate. Furthermore, the national spirit is too insubordinate to accept any centre as an oracle.
New York, which has certainly drawn to itself a preponderance of respectable composers, has yet been unable to gather in many of the most important, and like the French Academy, must always suffer in prestige because of its conspicuous absentees. In the second place, New York is the least serious and most fickle city in the country, and is regarded with mingled envy and patronage by other cities.
Boston is even more unpopular with the rest of the country. And New York and other cities have enticed away so many of the leading spirits of her musical colony, that she cannot claim her once overwhelming superiority. And yet, Boston has been, and is, the highest American representative of that much abused term, culture. Of all the arts, music doubtless gets her highest favor.
The aid Boston has been to American music is vital, and far outweighs that of any other city. That so magnificent an organization as its Symphony Orchestra could be so popular, shows the solidity of its general art appreciations. The orchestra has been remarkably willing, too, to give the American composer a chance to be heard. Boston has been not only the promulgator, but in a great measure the tutor, of American music.
In Boston-town, folk take things seriously and studiously. In New York they take them fiercely, whimsically. Like most generalizations, this one has possibly more exceptions than inclusions. But it is convenient.