Part 10 (1/2)
A Pa.s.sage in ”Die Walkure.”
In the Magic Fire Scene in the finale of ”Die Walkure,” Wagner wrote violin pa.s.sages which not even the greatest soloist can play cleanly, yet which, when played by all the violins, simulate in _sound_ the _aspect_ of licking, circling flames. Indeed, the effects that Wagner understood how to draw from the orchestral instruments are little short of marvellous. In the ”Lohengrin” prelude the tone quality of the violins is absolutely angelic in purity; while in the third act of ”Siegfried,” the upswinging violin pa.s.sages as the young hero reaches the height where _Brunnhilde_ slumbers, depict the action with a thrilling realism.
Besides the regular string band, Wagner made frequent use of the harp.
It is related that at the Munich performance of ”Rheingold,” when the harpist Trombo protested to him that some of the pa.s.sages were unplayable, the composer replied: ”You don't expect me to play the harp, too, do you? You perceive the general effect I am aiming at; produce that and I shall be satisfied.” Liszt, in his ”Dante Symphony,” uses the _glissando_ of the harp as a symbol for the rising shades of _Francesco da Rimini_ and her lover, and a very beautiful use of harmonics on the harp with their faint tinkle is to be found in the Waltz of the Sylphs in Berlioz's ”d.a.m.nation de Faust.”
The Woodwind.
Flutes, oboes and clarinets form the woodwind. One of the best known pa.s.sages for flute is in the third ”Leonora Overture” of Beethoven, where it is employed with conspicuous grace. Probably, however, more fun has been made of the flute than of any other orchestral instrument, and a standard musical joke runs as follows:
”Are you musical?”
”No, but I have a brother who plays the flute.”
It has also been insinuated that in Donizetti's ”Lucia” the heroine goes mad, not because she has been separated from _Edgardo_, but because a flute obbligato accompanies her princ.i.p.al aria. The piccolo is a high flute used for shrill effects.
The instruments of both the oboe and clarinet families are reed instruments, with this difference, however: the instruments of the oboe family have two vibrating reeds in the mouthpieces; those of the clarinet family, only one. The oboe family consists of the oboe proper, the English horn which is an alt oboe, and the ba.s.soon which is the ba.s.s of this group of instruments. In Italian the ba.s.soon is called a _f.a.gotto_, a name derived from its supposed resemblance to a bundle of f.a.gots. ”Candor, artless grace, tender joy, or the grief of a fragile soul, are found in the oboe's accents,” says Berlioz of this instrument, and those who remember the exquisite oboe melody, with which the slow movement of Schubert's C major symphony opens, will agree with the French composer. Richard Strauss, in his ”Sinfonia Domestica,” employs the almost obsolete oboes d'amore to represent an ”innocent, dreamy, playful child.”
The English Horn in ”Tristan.”
The most famous use of the English horn is found in the third act of ”Tristan,” where it plays the ”sad lay” while _Tristan_ awaits news of the s.h.i.+p which is bearing _Isolde_ toward him, and changes to a joyous strain when the s.h.i.+p is sighted. The ba.s.soon and contraba.s.soon, besides their value as the ba.s.s of the oboe family, have certain humorous qualities, which are admirably brought out in Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies and in the march of the clownish artisans in Mendelssohn's ”Midsummer Night's Dream” music. In opera, Meyerbeer made the ba.s.soon famous by his scoring of the dance of the _Spectre Nuns_ in ”Robert le Diable” for it, and he also used it for the accompaniment to the female chorus in the second act of ”Les Huguenots.” The theme of the romanza, ”Una fortiva lagrima,” in Donizetti's ”L'Elisir d'Amore,” which Caruso sings so beautifully, is introduced by the ba.s.soon, and with charming effect.
The clarinets have a large compa.s.s. Usually three kinds of clarinets (in A, B flat and C because they are transposing instruments) are employed in the orchestra, besides the ba.s.s clarinet. The possibilities of the clarinet group have been enormously developed by Wagner. It is necessary only to recall the scene of _Elsa's_ bridal procession to the cathedral in the second act of ”Lohengrin”; _Elisabeth's_ sad exit after her prayer in the third act of ”Tannhauser,” in which the melody is played by the ba.s.s clarinet, while the accompaniment is given to three flutes and eight other clarinets; the change of scene in the first act of ”Gotterdammerung,” when clarinets give forth the Brunnhilde Motive; and pa.s.sages in the second act of ”Die Meistersinger,” in the scene at nightfall; while for a generally skillful use of the woodwind the introduction to the third act of ”Lohengrin” is a s.h.i.+ning example.
Bra.s.s Instruments.
People usually a.s.sociate the bra.s.s instruments with noise. But as a matter of fact, wonderfully rich and soft tone effects can be produced on the bra.s.s by a composer who knows how to score for it. Just as the pianissimo of many violins is a finer pianissimo than that of a solo violin, so a much more exquisitely soft effect can be produced on a large bra.s.s group than on a few bra.s.s instruments or a single one.
When modern composers increase the number of instruments in the bra.s.s group, it is not for the sake of noise, but for richer effects.
The trumpet is the soprano of the bra.s.s family. The fanfare in ”Fidelio” when at the critical moment aid approaches; the Siegfried Motive and the Sword Motive, in the ”Ring of the Nibelung,” need only be cited to prove the effectiveness of the instrument in its proper place; and Richard Strauss instances the demoniacal and fateful effect of the deep trumpet tones in the introduction to the first act of Bizet's ”Carmen.”
Although the notes of the trombone are produced by a slide, this instrument belongs to the trumpet family. For this reason, in the ”Ring of the Nibelung,” Wagner, in addition to the usual three tenor trombones, reintroduced the almost obsolete ba.s.s trombone. He wanted a trombone group complete in itself, and thus to be able to utilize the peculiar tone color of the instrument; as witness in the Walhalla Motive, where it is scored for the three tenor trombones and ba.s.s trombone, resulting in a wonderfully rich and velvety quality of tone.
Excepting Wagner and Richard Strauss, there probably is not a composer who would not have used the ba.s.s tuba here instead of taking the trouble to revive the ba.s.s trombone. But Wagner wanted an unusually rich tone which should be solemn without a trace of sombreness, and his keen instrumental color sense informed him that he could secure it with the ba.s.s trombone, which, as it belongs to the trumpet family, has a touch of trumpet brilliancy, whereas the tone of the ba.s.s tuba is darker.
[Music ill.u.s.tration]
Mozart employed the trombone with fine effect in _Sarastro's_ solo in the ”Magic Flute”; Schubert showed his genius for instrumentation by the manner in which he used them in the introduction to his C major symphony, as well as in the first movement of that symphony, in which a theme is given out by three trombones in unison; and another familiar example of good scoring for trombones is in the introduction to the third act of ”Lohengrin.” In the Death Prophecy scene in the second act of ”Die Walkure,” a trumpet melody is supported by the four trombones, another instance of Wagner's sense of h.o.m.ogeneity in sound, since trumpets and trombones belong to the same family. In fact, throughout the ”Ring,” as Strauss points out, Wagner wrote for his trombones in four parts, adding the ba.s.s trombone in order to differentiate wholly between it and the tuba, which latter he used with the horns, with which it is properly grouped.
Wagner has a tremendous tuba recitative in a ”Faust Overture,” and in the Funeral March in the ”Gotterdammerung” he introduces tenor tubas in order, again, to differentiate between the tone color of tubas and trombones and not to be obliged to employ trombones in this particular scene, the general tone color of the tuba being far more sombre than that of the trombone.
Richard Strauss's Tribute to the Horn.
To mention tubas and trombones before the horns is very much like putting the cart before the horse, but I have reserved the horns for the last of the bra.s.s on account of the great tribute which Richard Strauss has paid them. In the early orchestras one rarely found more than two horns. Beethoven used four in the Ninth Symphony, and now it is not at all unusual to find eight.
”Of all instruments,” says Richard Strauss, ”the horn is perhaps the one that best can be joined with other groups. To substantiate this in all its numerous phases, I should be obliged to quote the entire 'Meistersinger' score. For I do not think I exaggerate when I maintain that the greatly developed technique of the valve horn has made it possible that a score which, with the addition of a third trumpet, a harp and a tuba, employs the same instruments as Beethoven used in his Fifth Symphony, has become with every bar something entirely different, something wholly new and unheard of.