Part 4 (2/2)

The first movement of Bach's Italian concerto is much more ra the modern conception of the lyric, it at least approaches it closely at times, and produces a beautiful effect

Of the Mozart fantasia there is not room to speak in detail Note, however, the very clever es, and the entrance of the lovely slow e The latter is Mozart-like in the extreme

CHAPTER VI

SCHUBERT AND MENDELSSOHN

FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT

Born January 31, 1797, at Lichtenthal, near Vienna

Died Novereat song-writer, was born, the son of a parish schoolmaster, at Lichtenthal, near Vienna The family was musical, and the father and a few of his friends used to hold quartet parties every Sunday afternoon, at which the works for string quartet then current were played, also coood composers The boy very early showed such talent that his father taught him the violin, and occasionally allowed him to take part with the rest He had a beautiful soprano voice, which, attracting the attention of the director of the music at St Stephen's Cathedral, secured him admission to the choir and to the I the choristers for the Court-chapel, where, besides the usual branches of education, he was taught hly This continued until his voice broke, whereupon he was turned out to shi+ft for hi he assisted his father in the school, teaching the lowest class in it, and proved himself, it is pretty certain, a very indifferent teacher

Later he resigned this position, and struggled on during his short life mainly by the assistance of friends, one of whoable composer was supplied with music paper; another shared his room with hiarian estate of the great Prince Esterhazy, teaching the daughtersmusic for the household Here many of his works ritten In Vienna he had an orchestra of school-boys for quite a long time, which probably played his works occasionally, as well as those of composers of less complicated works

[Illustration: Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn]

Schubert began to compose in earnest very early, and by the tie he had written about 400 of his songs His works coht works for piano, about 600 songs, nine syreatest we have, one opera, several e number of compositions for chamber music

FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY

Born February 3, 1809, at Ha

Died November 4, 1847, at Leipsic

He was the nephew of the celebrated Jewish philosopher and reformer, Moses Mendelssohn, and a son of the well-known banker, Abraham Mendelssohn

The faht up a Lutheran The boy was of a very ahtful disposition, and ell instructed inbeen the celebrated theorist, Zelter His first appearance in concert was e of nine, in the piano part of a trio by Wolf A year later he appeared as a singer His acquaintance with the orchestra commenced very early There was a small orchestra which met at his father's house on Sunday afternoons, and by this means the compositions of the boy were tried and he himself acquired his experience as a director His activity as a composer commenced about 1820 In this year he wrote a violin sonata and two clavier sonatas, a little cantata, and an operetta In 1821 Zelter brought hireat poet Goethe, who heard his reat interest The friendshi+p with Goethe continued forvisited the poet and having had a long conversation with hiel's lectures on esthetics, which Mendelssohn had heard that winter in Berlin, and in which Goethe was very much interested on account of the novelty of the ideas presented

The first of the important compositions of Mendelssohn to be published and played was the overture to the ”Midsuht's Dream,” which ritten in 1826 and played immediately He see it piece by piece as he beca Shakspere's co out and of thorough originality, and scarcely anything of his later works surpasses it in merit as a finished coh Mendelssohn's influence that the ”St Matthew Passion” of Bach was brought out and given entire in Berlin, in 1829, just one hundred years after its first production in Leipsic

Mendelssohn was the conductor, and it was given in the Sing-Akade could speak ave hi to conitude in a city like Berlin at so early an age He made many journeys for pleasure and instruction Full accounts of these will be found in his charhtful contributions of this kind that any literaryone of these journeys he visited the Hebrides, and afterward produced his overture called ”Fingal's Cave,” as a reat celebrity as a pianist and organist, the latter h he has the credit of having been one of the first to play Bach's fugues in England The late August Haupt, however, told one of his pupils that Mendelssohn, in his time, never had an adequate pedal technic but played upon a sort of hit-or-rasp of the music He early produced his concerto for pianoforte in G reat deland He became director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipsic in 1835, and in 1843, with very distinguished artist associates, he founded the Conservatory of Music at Leipsic, which, under his ement, became so celebrated

Mendelssohn produced works in alreat variety of chae collection of an Probably his fah the influence of three works--viz, the ”Midsuht's Dream” overture, which opened the neorld of the romantic; the oratorio of ”Elijah,” which is in very many respects one of the most beautiful ever written, just as it is also fortunate in the selection of subjects and of the episodes for treats Without Words” for the pianoforte, which, while not of remarkable depth, are very beautiful and poetic compositions of such quality as to awaken in the musical world a new appetite and a new appreciation of an instrument which has now become the most universal in use

All the works of Mendelssohn are distinguished for clearness of forance of sentiment, and delicate fancy They are reat deal of strength His pianoforte writing is not so well suited to the instrument as that of some other coh very popular, are not ranked a the master works of this form of composition Of all the pianoforte music which he produced, the ”Rondo Capriccioso” is the one which e of his iination

The two couished themselves in ale quantity of manuscript,of about 700 songs, nine symphonies, various pieces of chamber music, pianoforte sonatas, dances, marches, overtures, one opera, and many miscellaneous compositions In every department of this vast activity there are a feorks which stand out as in at the top, his ”Unfinished Syreat Symphony in C are in the very first line of orchestral reatest of Beethoven, and with an originality of style and beauty wholly independent of the overshadowing Beethoven, as, just at the ed in his last works, including the immortal Ninth Syreat in all musical directions, he marked an epoch in one direction, and therefore has a fareatest the world has ever known His fame in this department rests upon tholly different considerations, the union of which in the sa peculiarity already mentioned As a melodist he stands in a rank by himself His melodies move easily, noithin the diatonic enerally, within the limits of each period, in the diatonic able, and natural Each comes up, lives its day, and dies away into silence, like a lovely flower unfolding froerm in the moment of the year when the sunshi+ne and the showers have brought the ti external cause leading to the appearance of one of these melodies is found in the poem chosen for text Whatever Schubert read, if it interested him, immediately called up within him a melodic forrees of indescribably delicate gradation, but each as it coave it birth These lovely melodies, moreover, are supported by pianoforte accompaniments which at times rise to a co-ordinate rank with the melody itself as part of the expression of the poem Sometimes the so-called acco Such cases are found in ”The Erl King,”

”To Be Sung on the Waters,” and ”Gretchen at the Spinning-wheel” At other times the accompaniment is as simple as thethe voice A typical case of this kind is found in ”Hedge Roses,” and in ”Hark! Hark! the Lark”

It is another peculiarity of Schubert that, beginning with an entirely siresses to a reoes quite as siain immediately to the main key The ”Hark! Hark! the Lark” is a case of this kind

(Note the transition to G-flat in the ninth measure)