Part 5 (1/2)

Suddenly over the hushed motion in soothing harmonies sings the hymn in pious choir of all the bra.s.s. Then the gathering speed and volume is merged in a majestic tread as of ordered array (_Maestoso a.s.sai; Andante_); a brief spirited prelude of martial motives is answered by the soft religious strains of the organ on the line of the hymn:

”Crux fidelis, inter omnes Arbor una n.o.bilis, Nulla silva talem profert Fronde, flore, germine.

Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, Dulce pondus sustinet.”[A]

[Footnote A:

Faithful cross, among the trees Thou the n.o.blest of them all!

Forest ne'er doth grow a like In leaf, in flower or in seed.

Blessed wood and blessed nails, Blessed burden that it bears!]

As in solemn liturgy come the answering phrases of the organ and the big chorus in martial tread. As the hymn winds its further course, violins entwine about the harmonies. The last line ends in expressive strain and warm line of new major tone,--echoed in interluding organ and violins.

Suddenly a strict, solemn tread, with sharp stress of violins, brings a new song of the _choral_. Strings alone play here ”with pious expression”; gradually reeds add support and ornament. A lingering phrase ascends on celestial harmonies. With a stern shock the plain hymn strikes in the reed, against a rapid course of strings, with fateful tread. In interlude sound the battle-cries of yore. Again the hymn ends in the expressive cadence, though now it grows to a height of power.

Here a former figure (the first motive of the battle) reappears in a new guise of bright major,[A] in full, spirited stride, and leads once more to a blast of the hymn, with organ and all, the air in unison of trumpets and all the wood. The expressive cadence merges into a last fanfare of battle, followed by a strain of hymns and with reverberating Amens, where the organ predominates and holds long after all other sounds have ceased.

[Footnote A: In the whole tonality we may see the ”meteoric and solar light” of which the composer speaks in the letter quoted above.]

CHAPTER VI

THE SYMPHONIC POEMS OF SAINT-SAeNS

There is something charming and even ideal in a complete versatility, quite apart from the depth of the separate poems, where there is a never-failing touch of grace and of distinction. The Philip Sydneys are quite as important as the Miltons, perhaps they are as great. Some poets seem to achieve an expression in a certain cyclic or sporadic career of their fancy, touching on this or that form, illuminating with an elusive light the various corners of the garden. Their individual expression lies in the _ensemble_ of these touches, rather than in a single profound revelation.

A symptom of the eminence of Saint-Saens in the history of French music lies in his att.i.tude towards the art as a whole, especially of the German masters,--the absence of national bias in his perceptions. He was foremost in revealing to his countrymen the greatness of Bach, Beethoven and Schumann. Without their influence the present high state of French music can hardly be conceived.

It is part of a broad and versatile mastery that it is difficult to a.n.a.lyze. Thus it is not easy to find salient traits in the art of M.

Saint-Saens. We are apt to think mainly of the distinguished beauty of his harmonies, until we remember his subtle counterpoint, or in turn the brilliancy of his orchestration. The one trait that he has above his contemporaries is an inbred refinement and restraint,--a thorough-going workmans.h.i.+p. If he does not share a certain overwrought emotionalism that is much affected nowadays, there is here no limitation--rather a distinction. Aside from the general charm of his art, Saint-Saens found in the symphonic poem his one special form, so that it seemed Liszt had created it less for himself than for his French successor. A fine reserve of poetic temper saved him from hysterical excess. He never lost the music in the story, disdaining the mere rude graphic stroke; in his dramatic symbols a musical charm is ever commingled. And a like poise helped him to a right plot and point in his descriptions. So his symphonic poems must ever be enjoyed mainly for the music, with perhaps a revery upon the poetic story. With a less brilliant vein of melody, though they are not so Promethean in reach as those of Liszt, they are more complete in the musical and in the narrative effect.

_DANSE MACABRE_

Challenged for a choice among the works of the versatile composer, we should hit upon the _Danse Macabre_ as the most original, profound and essentially beautiful of all. It is free from certain lacks that one feels in other works, with all their charm,--a shallowness and almost frivolity; a facility of theme approaching the commonplace.

There is here an eccentric quality of humor, a daemonic conceit that reach the height of other cla.s.sic expression of the supernatural.

The music is founded upon certain lines of a poem of _Henri Calais_ (under a like t.i.tle), that may be given as follows:

Zig-a-zig, zig-a-zig-a-zig, Death knocks on the tomb with rhythmic heel.

Zig-a-zig, zig-a-zig-zig, Death fiddles at midnight a ghostly reel.

The winter wind whistles, dark is the night; Dull groans behind the lindens grow loud; Back and forth fly the skeletons white, Running and leaping each under his shroud.

Zig-a-zig-a-zig, how it makes you quake, As you hear the bones of the dancers shake.