Part 6 (1/2)
[Music: ”J'ai perdu mon Eurydice”
Sort cruel, quelle rigueur! Je succombe a ma douleur, a ma douleur, a ma douleur!
(As sung by Mme. Viardot-Garcia, Theatre-Lyrique, Paris; the part being restored to the original voice and key, but the change at the end, made for Legros, retained.)]
The finale to the first act was also changed; a tumultuous ”hurry” for strings, evidently designed to accompany the change of scene to Hades, being now replaced by a florid air, probably introduced at the desire of the princ.i.p.al singer as a medium for the display of his vocal virtuosity; a concession often exacted from composers of opera. This interpolated air was for a long time attributed to a composer--Bertoni--who had himself composed an opera on the subject of _Orphee_. Later researches have, however, proved that this air is by Gluck himself, taken from _Aristeo_, one of his earlier works. When the famous revival of _Orphee_ took place at the old Theatre-Lyrique in Paris, the role of Orphee was restored to the type of voice--contralto--for which it was originally composed, and confided to Mme. Pauline Viardot-Garcia. She retained the air introduced for the tenor Legros, but of course transposed, and with a reorchestration by Camille Saint-Saens; the now famous composer having at that time, by the request of Berlioz, undertaken to continue and complete the revision of Gluck's complete works, known as the Pelletan Edition.[3]
[Footnote 3: See very interesting article signed C. Saint-Saens in the _echo de Paris_ for July 23, 1911.]
Other changes from the first Italian score were also made by Gluck in the later French version. Here is an example; being the recitative immediately preceding the great air of Orpheus in the last act:
[Music: (Original Italian version, as written for Vienna.)
Misero me! la perdo, e di nuovo, e per sempre! O legge! O morte! O ricordo crudel! Non ho soccorso, non m'avanza consiglio! Io veggo solo (Oh fiera vista!) il luttuoso aspetto dell'orrido mio stato! Saziati, sorte rea! son disperato!]
[Music:
C'est moi, c'est moi, qui lui ravis le jour.
Loi fatale! Cruel remords!
Ma peine est sans egale, Dans ce moment funeste, Le desespoir, la mort, C'est tout ce qui me reste!
(As written for the Paris version, the role of Orphee being then sung by a tenor.)]
[Music:
C'est moi, c'est moi, qui lui ravis le jour.
Loi fatale! Cruel remords!
Ma peine est sans egale, Dans ce moment funeste, Le desespoir, la mort, C'est tout ce qui me reste!
(As sung by Mme. Viardot-Garcia, the role being then restored to the contralto voice as in the Italian version, while the changes made by Gluck for the Paris version were retained. This is now definitively adopted at the Opera-Comique.)]
Again, discrepancies exist between various published copies of the same work, arising from the fact that sometimes the editors of these revisions may have mistaken the intentions of the composer. Or, influenced by pardonable human vanity, they may have felt impelled to collaborate more directly with the composer, by adding something of their own.
There is valid reason for the additional accompaniments, with which Mozart has enriched the original scores of Handel's _Messiah_ and _Alexander's Feast_; and we have evidence of the skill, and can divine the reverence, with which these additions were accomplished. But how fatal would have been the results, had the delicate task been attempted by one in whom these qualities were lacking! Also, there is every excuse for the additions made to Gluck's _Armide_ by Meyerbeer for the Opera of Berlin; and we have the direct testimony of Saint-Saens, who has examined this rescoring, as to the rare ability and artistic discretion with which the work has been done.[4]
[Footnote 4: See _echo de Paris_, _op. cit._]
From this evidence it appears that in the score as left by Gluck, the trombones do not appear at all in _Armide_. The drums, and stranger still, the flutes, are heard only at rare intervals; while the whole orchestration--sometimes a pale sketch of the composer's intentions--shows a haste and lack of care in marked contrast with the pains bestowed on the scoring of _Alceste_, _Iphigenie_, and _Orphee_.
The revisions and additions spoken of were undertaken by highly competent authorities, actuated only by the wish to restore in its purity the idea of the composer; and who to zeal, added the more valuable quality of discretion.
Ancient music, owing to the development of and changes in the instruments for which it was composed, can rarely be given as written by the author. Even if the instruments of modern invention be eliminated, the orchestra of to-day is not the orchestra of Handel.
The oboe, for example, has so gained in penetrating power that one instrument to each part now suffices; in Handel's time the feeble tone of the oboe rendered a considerable number necessary. The perfection of certain instruments, too, is the cause of modifications in the music written for them. The limited compa.s.s of the pianoforte, for example, was certainly the sole reason why Beethoven failed to continue in octaves the entire ascending scale in one of his sonatas.
Had the piano in his day possessed its present compa.s.s, he would undoubtedly have written the pa.s.sage throughout in octaves, _i.e._, as modern pianists play it. If a rigid adherence to the printed letter of ancient music is to be strictly observed, without consideration of the many causes that render this procedure undesirable, let consistency be observed by pus.h.i.+ng the argument to its logical conclusion, _viz._, returning to the instruments used, and the composition of the orchestra that obtained, when these works were written. Those who accuse artists of introducing changes, of not performing the music as the composer wrote it, should be quite sure as to what the composer really did write, since many changes are made both before and after the work is printed. They should also be certain that these changes are not such as the composer may have, or would have, sanctioned, seeing that by their use his meaning is more clearly expressed.
At the _Concerts Spirituels_, given at the Church of the Sorbonne, Paris, may be heard very excellent performances of Oratorio by ancient and modern composers, from Handel and Bach to Claude Debussy; though I do not know whether or no _l'Enfant prodigue_ (The Prodigal Son), by Debussy, is properly styled an oratorio, seeing that it was recently given in London on the stage as an opera. These performances at the Sorbonne are marked by a reverential attention to detail; the soloists, chorus and orchestra being very competent, and the conductor--M. Paul de Saunieres--a musician of ability and experience.