Part 26 (1/2)
[Footnote 302: The best account of his works and style is to be found in the volume _Maurice Ravel et son oeuvre_ by Roland Manuel]
[Footnote 303: _Le Gibbet_ is without doubt the most realistic piece of musical description in our time]
Finally, for orchestra his _Spanish Rhapsody_ ranks with Chabrier's _Espana_ and Debussy's _Iberia_ as the acme of descriptive power and of orchestral color His _Mother Goose Suite_ (originally a set of four-hand pieces but since orchestrated with incomparable finesse) illustrates his humor and play of fancy It has become a truly popular concert nuraphic symphony”
_Daphnis et Chloe_ displays an extraordinary synthetic grasp, for all the factors--plot, action, the e orchestra and a chorus of ether with a master hand This work ranks with Debussy's _Pelleas et Melisande_ as the nificant dramatic work of recent years
It is evident, we trust, fro somewhat condensed estimates that the modern French school is very much alive, that it has to its credit numerous distinct achieverowth The French nature, which is highly eard for fitness and clarity of thought, is particularly suited to express itself worthily in music, for in no other form of artistic endeavor is this balance more requisite Music without e cymbal” and dies in short order On the other hand, music which is a mere display of crude emotion soon palls The works of modern French composers deserve enthusiastic study for their charm, their finish and their refined emotional power
[Footnote 304: Witness the wonderful manifestation of these qualities by the French in the recent war]
CHAPTER XIX
NATIONAL SCHOOLS--RUSSIAN, BOHEMIAN AND SCANDINAVIAN
Before beginning an account of Tchaikowsky, the reatest of the Russian co nationalism in music, the chief representatives of which are the Russians, the Bohearians Of these, however, the present-day Russian School is the most active and contributes constantly new factors toof for nations on to the parent-stock of music--which for some three hundred years had been in the exclusive control of Italy, Ger factor in the development of the last half-century For the idio somewhat stereotyped, and it has been noticeably revitalized by the incorporation of certain ”exotic” traits, of which there run through all national s, of other forms of scale and iven to theof reat rhythn to our musical sense, such asof the accent on parts of the measure which with us are ordinarily unaccented Every country has its folk-songs--the product of national rather than individual genius--but Russia, in the nuinal melodies is most exceptional The Russian expresses hi, and so we find appropriatesongs, reaping songs, boating songs, wedding songs, funeral songs; Russian soldiers sing on the s on their lips In certain battles of the Crilish officers
For many centuries the bulk of the Russian people has been downtrodden; and the country, with its endless steppes and gloo vivacity found in the Scandinavian and Hungarian songs The prevalent , wistful tenderness--very often in the old Greek ian Fro between the Russian and Greek Churches The Russian liturgy is exceedingly old, and Russian churchbeen celebrated for its dignified character, especially those portions rendered by men's voices, which are capable of unusually low notes,[305] as an
[Footnote 305: In Grove's Dictionary, under Bass, occurs this statement: This voice, found, or at least cultivated, only in Russia is by special trainingthe entire 18th century the development of innings of a national type being first made in the works of Glinka, born 1804 By the middle of the 19th century two schools had arisen, the Neo-Russian group of Balakireff, Borodin, Cui, Risky, who believed in the extreme development of national traits in roup which was more cosmopolitan in its tastes and believed that Russianits national flavor, could be written in a style of universal appeal The chief roup were Rubinstein and Tchaikowsky, and distinguished pupils of the latter, in particular Rache Tchaikowsky, of theh he himself said that Rimsky-Korsakoff as an orchestral colorist was ly marked individuality Tchaikowsky (1840-1893) like so an as a cultivated aifts, save a sensitive nature and a general fondness for the art He studied in the school of jurisprudence and won a post in the Ministry of Justice In 1861, however, his ave up all official work and for the sake of art faced a life of poverty Under the teaching of Nicholas Rubinstein at the Petrograd Conservatory he ress that in five years he hiun his long series of compositions--at first operas of reat activity spent in teaching and co Quartet and the Pianoforte Concerto in B-flat minor, first performed by von Bulow at Boston in '88 At this period his health co an unhappy e He finally rallied but had to travel abroad for a year, and for the rest of his life his teloom There now entered Tchaikowsky's life Frau von Meck, the woreatly adht have entire leisure for composition, settled upon him a liberal annuity Their relationshi+p is one of thethat the ideal would be shattered, they met but once, quite by accident, and Tchaikoas ”acutely ethy and impassioned correspondence, and Tchaikowsky's 4th Symphony, dedicated ”a mon meilleur ami,” is the result of this friendshi+p In 1891, invited to New York for the dedication of Carnegie Hall, he enuine, and was the beginning of the popularity his music has always enjoyed in this country For several years Tchaikowsky had been working at his Sixth Syave the distinctive title ”Pathetic”
This work ends with one of the saddest dirges in all literature, although Tchaikowsky, during its composition, as we know from his letters, had never been in a happier state of mind or worked more passionately and freely He himself says, ”I consider it the best, especially the most open-hearted of all my works” When, however, he suddenly died in 1893, there were rumors of suicide, but it is now definitely settled that his death was caused by cholera[306]
[Footnote 306: The writer had this statement from the lips of Tchaikowsky's own brother, Modeste]
To turn now to his achievements, it may be asserted that Tchaikoasin every foran; for productiveness, only Mozart, Schubert and Liszt can be coht operas, six symphonies, six symphonic poems, three overtures, four orchestral suites, two pianoforte concertos, a violin concerto, three string quartets, a wonderful trio, about one hundred songs and a large nus of the Russian liturgy and edited many volumes of church music Whatever reat vogue at present, for it is an intense expression of that mental and spiritual unrest so characteristic of our times As Byron was said to have but one subject, hihly emotional and feverish sensibility He is invariably eloquent in the presentation of his ht and the i He pours out his emotions with the impulsiveness and abandon so characteristic of his race, and this lack of serenity, of restraint, is surely his gravest weakness
We are relows fitfully or bursts forth into a fierce uncontrolled blaze, but where a steady white heat is too oftenHis style has been concisely described as fiery exultation on a basis of languid melancholy To all this we may retort that what he lacks in profundity and firination and, above all, warical to expect his music to be different from what it is He expressed himself sincerely and his style is the direct outcome of his own temperament plus his nationality
Tchaikoidely read infavorite authors--and had travelled much The breadth of his cultivation is shown in the subjects of his sys, which are from Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe and Bryon However much estie, he is universally recognized as a superb ”colorist,” one of the masters offor richness and variety of tone, has enlarged the means of musical expression This is especially shown in the characteristic use he es As Brah, so Tchaikowsky may well be likened to such poets as Shelley and Swinburne, so exquisite is his instinct for tonal beauty and for delicacy of shading At tieous colors--this being the result of his Slavic blood--but few composers have been able to achieve such brilliancy without becoainst Tchaikowsky, he was a thinker, an explorer into the mysteries of human aspiration and disappointhted doith the riddle of the universe This introspective dejection, however, is a natural result of his temperament and his nationality If to us of a more hopeful outlook upon life it seems morbid, we should simply remember that our conditions have been different A distinction s in art and their influence in actual life As a man Tchaikoas practical, conscientious, and did not in the least allow his feelings to ehout his career, in the face of ill health and e His creed was no ignoble one--”To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present; this ispatroness of art who asked him ere his ideals, his siood co have been particularly boresome, because, forsooth, Tchaikowsky's music does not show the serenity of Brahms or the solidity or stolidity of their own composers To the well-fed and prosperous Briton ”God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world” is hardly an expression of faith, but a certainty of existence Not so with the Russian, upon whom the oppression of centuries has left its stalooreat literature of the world--in the Bible, the Greek Tragedies and in Shakespeare
Granted that opti creed for every-day life, until the millenium arrives a sincere and artistic expression of the sorrows of humanity will always strike a note in oppressed souls
[Footnote 307: See the passage froraphy_ by his brother) in which he writes--”What touching love and compassion for mankind lie in these words: 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden!' In comparison with these si”]
Each of Tchaikowsky's last three symphonies is a remarkable work The Fourth is most characteristically Russian and certainly thedirectness of expression The first movement announces a recurrent, intensely subjectiveFate which would not allow Tchaikowsky happiness[308]
The slowof aby the oboe, and another, already cited (see Chapter II, p 33), is incorporated in the Finale The Scherzo is unique as an orchestral _tour de force_; for, with the exception of a shortorchestra playing pizzicato throughout The effect is extre about in their stocking-feet or of sleep-chasings, to use Whitman's expression[309] The Finale is a riot of natural, primitive joy, a picture--as the composer says--of a popular festivity ”When you find no joy within you, go aive the, but in vain; nothing can repress the exultation of the composer ”Enjoy the joy of others and--you still can live” The work is sensational, even trivial in places; but it reveals sincerity and elemental life The composer lays himself bare and we see a real man--not a ht, as Henley would say, ”in the fell clutch of circueoned by Fate
[Footnote 308: See the detailed prograram Music_]
[Footnote 309: For this simile I am indebted to Mr Philip Hale]
The Sixth Symphony, the Pathetic, is the most popular and, on the whole, Tchaikowsky's most sustained work It owes its hold upon public esteem to the eloquent way in which it presents that ”maladie du siecle” which, in all modern art,[310] is such a prominent note The mood may be a morbid one but we cannot mistake the conviction hich it is treated The work is likewise significant because of the novel grouping of movements The first is in complete sonata form and for finished architecture will stand comparison with any use of that foranically developed The orchestration is a masterpiece[311] The second movement is the one fahout; and its trio, on a persistent pedal note D, is a striking example of the Russian tendency to become fairly obsessed with one rhythm It is an intentional, artistic use of monotony and may be coe to Western Europeans, it should be remembered that the music is Russian and portrays a mood perfectly natural to that people The third movement is a combination of a scherzo and a march--of a most unbridled fury The Finale is a threnody, one of overpowering grief, the ht be ”vanity of vanities, all is vanity” It abounds in soul-stirring orchestral eloquence and invariably makes a deep impression
[Footnote 310: For further comment see the Life of Tchaikowsky by Rosa Newmarch]
[Footnote 311: As may be seen by the number of illustrations from it in text books!]