Part 4 (1/2)
A reading of this poem conveys to the player the correct mood in which to interpret the impromptu
By way of contrast I follow these careless raptures--careless only in their effect of spontaneity--with the famous ”Marche Funebre,” the funeral march which forms the third movement of Chopin's sonata in B flat minor, Op 35 This has been called the best funeral march ever written for the pianoforte At Chopin's own funeral it was played scored for orchestra In my opinion it is not only ”the best funeral march ever written for the pianoforte,” but the most intrinsically beautiful and sad funeralof great bells, the heavy ives the effect of the slow procession of elike rows in power like the measured, inflexible rhythm of fate Then it seerave, for themelody, pure and tender and sweet; then the ain and the procession leaves the grave, theaway in the distance This is the funeral march of a nation, of Chopin's own beloved Poland
Chopin wrote two sets of twelve ”Etudes” They gave an entirely new significance to the term For the Chopin etudes not only are supreme as studies They are supreme as music as well Before they were published the usualvery dry and set How different these superb compositions are from studies such as are comprised in Czerny's ”School of Velocity,” whichthe ”velocity” you have acquired to run away as quickly as possible from the ”school,” whereas the Chopin etudes are so full of melody and of the rarest and the most beautiful musical effects, that to play any one of them suffices to whet the appetite for the others
The pianolist h the entire two sets of twelve It would open up a new musical world to him Here I can only point out three Opus 10, No 5, is the ”Black Key” etude, so called because all the notes of the right hand are on black keys This is a brilliant study with a very char Opus 25, No 9, is the so called ”butterfly Wings” etude, a designation which expresses its general characteristic of lightness and grace, but fails toand descending passage that occurs about the ht out when it is correctly interpreted--which usually it is not The greatest of all the etudes is the ”Revolutionary,” Op 10, No 12 It ritten by Chopin in 1831, when he heard the news that Warsaw had been taken by the Russians, and it expresses the tornado of emotion that swept over him when he realized that Poland was about to sink beneath the triple onslaught of Russia, Austria and Geroes by the simple name of ”study,” is one of the most tremendous outbursts of wrath in music--a storm of the soul without even such lyric episodes as those which form islands of calht Sonata” Well s out like the crack of creation It is elemental”
This etude, certain of the ”Polonaises,” the ”Scherzos,” the ”Ballades” and the ”Fantaisie” in F minor, reveal a fire, passion and virile power that will surprise those who have formed their estimate of Chopin from the mournful nocturnes and brilliant waltzes The so-called ”Military Polonaise,” Op 40, No 1, is so replete with the spirit of war that in the middle portion it is easy to hear the roll of drums and the clash of battle It was of this polonaise Chopin said, ”If I had the strength to play it as it should be played I would break all the strings of the pianoforte”
The most effective of the polonaises, his opus 53, also breathes forthcall to ar ests soldiery on prancing steeds and with flashi+ng sabres, defiling in review before battle This is followed by a ”trio” in which a rapid octave figure in the bass, beginning softly and growing louder and louder until it reaches a crashi+ng cli out above it, depicts a cavalry charge co past with athis polonaise, he was so affected when playing over the nearly completed work, that, seized by a peculiar hallucination, he saw the walls of the rooht, a band of hts mounted and in arraves and ridden on the clouds to appear in response to the sue which follows the clie and leads back to the e experience
Unfortunately there is no opportunity here to take up the ”Scherzos,”
so unlike the coquettish, bantering pieces of the saedythe B flat minor ”Scherzo,” Op 31, may hear for himself; the ”Ballades,” so eloquently narrative of love and adventure, the A flatespecially popular in the pianolist's repertory; and the ”Fantaisie,” in F reatest compositions for pianoforte As for the ”Mazurkas” and ”Preludes,” pieces that are a their composer's happiest creations, I can do no more than call the pianolist's attention to their existence and advise hilect them
VI NOTES ON SOME OTHER MASTERS
Besides those composers, one or more of whose works I have described in some detail, there are others who at least should be touched on, always bearing in mind, however, that one of the aims of this book is to stimulate the pianolist to explore for himself Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart can be studied most profitably in connection with the courses that are referred to in the chapter on Educational Factors which follows There too will be found reference to the thorough courses on Wagner, one a general course on that co of the Nibelung”
A line of composers that may well interest the pianolist has come to the front in Russia Rubinstein, whose ”Melody” in F and ”Ka the popular selections in the pianolist's repertory was a Russian, who, however, from a musical standpoint, expressed himself in German To a certain extent the same is true of Tschaikowsky His music is ”universal” rather than national It has, nevertheless, the Russian tang to a greater degree than Rubinstein's, and Tschaikowsky is classed correctly as the head of the Russian school and one of the greatest of modern composers His ”Pathetic Symphony,” which has been uished French orchestral conductor, is a noble work A smaller pieces which the pianolist readily will appreciate, are the ”Song without Words,” Op 2, No 2; an attractive ”Valse a cinq Temps,” with its oddly extended rhythm; the very characteristic ”November, in the Troika,” Op 37, No 11; an expressive ”Barcarolle”
and the selections from his ”Casse Noisette” (Nutcracker) ballet suite
Next to Tschaikowsky's ”Song without Words” the most widely known short piece for pianoforte by a Russian composer is Rachmaninoff's ”Prelude,” Op 3, No 2, a broad and sonorous ith a splendid cli; and a ”Serenade,” Op 3, No 5, has an originality and charm quite its own
A very beautiful ”Moment Musical,” Op 16, No 5, does not seeue of music rolls, an honor to which it clearly is entitled Arensky, Balakirew, Cesar Cui, Glazounow, Karganoff, Liapounow, Ri figures of the ”New-Russian” school of which so much is heard at present
Dvorak as a Bohely characteristic of his native land He was, however, broad enough in his tastes to recognize, during his sojourn of three years in Aro plantation melodies and to compose upon several of these as themes, his symphony ”From the New World,” sometimes called more briefly the ”American Symphony” This sy his residence in America, and his compositions in his native Boheher than his more cosmopolitan efforts His ”Humoreske,” Op 101, No 5, the ”Slavic Dances” and ”On the Holy Mount” are ain
While Saint-Saens, having worked er orchestral for contemporary French composers, and Chaminade leads as a composer of clever salon music, the pianolist can add some attractive pieces to his repertory from the compositions of Delibes and Godard Delibes is the composer of the opera ”Lakme,” and the Airs de Ballet from this, as well as the selections from his ”Coppelia” and ”Sylvia” ballets, will be found spontaneous and original In fact in all instances in which music composed in dance forms has survived, this will be found due to a decided strain of individuality and resulting originality in the co the hundred most popular pieces in the pianolist's repertory; and well up in the saraceful ”Second Mazurka,” Op 54
Auished modern composers is the A, but his work is over; for, unfortunately, his raphic ainst a rockbound coast and its lyric episode consisting of a trist Scotch ballad, is highly dra the most poetic of contemporary cohly descriptive, and in whatever direction the pianolist may familiarize hihly original, eloquent and expressive coroith the lapse of tily be concluded with a brief reference to two great Gerh ”popular” is not a word ordinarily associated with Schumann, two of his shorter pieces, ”Traureat favorites Schumann didand his works frequently bear titles that are suggestive of so, sometimes translated as Excelsior), ”Carnaval,” a series of twenty-one pieces descriptive of carnival scenes; and the ”Novelettes”
Brahive him credit for, but his clearness of expression is interfered with by the relentless scientific accuracy hich he works out his ideas, to which method he is apt to sacrifice only too often the innate beauty of his thoughts He seeh his songs than through his instru those of chamber in with the shorter pianoforte pieces, Op 76 and Op 116-119, will find old, where, perhaps, he least expected to discover them Entirely different in style froarian Dances,” in which he has taken dance thearian Gypsies and skillfully worked them up into pieces that areand unreservedly popular
They are ain, here, that, however unsysteement of this book may seem to the musical pedant, I have followed a certain sequence--one of ive the pianolist a bowing acquaintance with soreat composers that would lead him to wish for a closer intimacy with these and others What I have kept inwith a player for whom all technical difficulties have been eliminated by the very instruives him of all technical resources is whatto their historical sequence not only unnecessary but futile in a book of this kind Nevertheless, so perfectly does this instrument adapt itself to all music, that any one who desires to trace up the technical evolution of the art from Bach to the present day, will find it the readiesthis purpose, especially if he uses in conjunction with it the educational courses referred to in the next chapter
VII EDUCATIONAL FACTORS
It is not overstating the case to say that the pianola is the first practical eneral, whether they have had previous instruction in music or not, can become familiar with the world's best musical compositions Not only can they familiarize themselves with the past, they are able to keep up with the present For exa selections from ”Salome,” are to be found on the rolls prepared for this modern instrunificance is represented in the catalogue ofto attend an opera or a concert It would have to be a very peculiar opera or a very peculiar concert program which he could not obtain and try over beforehand
Needless to say that, by trying it over beforehand, his appreciation of the perforers who cannot accompany themselves on the pianoforte, will find this new instrument a boon For there is a special list of accompaniments in which the principal works in the vocalist's repertory are represented Lovers of chaures, will find pieces like sonatas for pianoforte and violin or violoncello, trios for pianoforte, violin and violoncello, pianoforte quartets, quintets and sied so that the pianolist can play the pianoforte part ”This is the first time I ever have heard every note of the pianoforte part of the Schumann quintet,”