icture 1 HECTOR BERLIOZ from a photograph
STUDIES
IN MODERN MUSIC
HECTOR BERLIOZ
ROBERT SCHUMANN
RICHARD WAGNER
BY
W. H. HADOW, M.A.
fellow of Worcester College, Oxford
With Portraits
FORTH EDITION
LONDON
SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
1898
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Dedicated
TO
C. HUBERT H. PARRY
NOTE
THE writer wishes to express his indebtedness to the following works: —
Sir George Grove — 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians,' particularly Dr Spitta's article on
Schumann, and Mr Dannreuther's on Wagner.
Dr Parry — 'Studies of the Great Composers.'
Berlioz—'Mémoires'
(including the Voyage Musical) Letters, edited by M. Bernard. 'À
Travers Chants,' 'Grotesques de la Musique.' 'Soirées de I'Orchestre.'
'Berlioz', by M. Jullien.
Schumann — 'Gesammelte Schriften,' edited by Dr Simon (Weltbibliothek, 3 vols.);
'Letters,' translated by Miss Herbert. 'Music and Musicians' (selections from the Neue Zeitschrift
Essays, translated by Miss Ritter. 2 vols.).
'Schumann, Eine Biographie,' by Herr Wasielewski.
'Schumann.' by Dr Reissmann, translated by Mr Algen (Bohn).
'Schumann,' by Mr J. A. Fuller-Maitland. (Great Musicians Series).
Wagner — 'Gesammelte Schriften' (10 vols. Leipsic 1871-1883)*; 'Letters
translated by Dr Hueffer; 'Letters to Dresden Friends, 'translated by Mr J. S. Shedlock.
'Richard Wagner's Leben und Wirken,' by Herr Glasenapp.
'Richard Wagner d'apres lui-même,' by M. Noufflard (vol. I.).
Wagner, 'by M. Jullien. 'Wagner as I knew him,' by Dr Praeger.
' Wagner,' by Herr Muncker, translated by Herr D. Landmann.
'Wagner en Caricatures,' by M. Grand-Carteret.
Wagner — 'Musiciens, Poétes, et Philosophes,' by M. Camille Benoit.
'Le Wagnerisme hors d'Allemagne,’ by M. Evenepoel.
to Liszt,'
* A detailed table of contents will be found in the article on Wagner in Grove's Dictionary.The essays are in process of translation by Mr Ashton
Ellis; while those on 'The Music of the Future', on 'Beethoven',and on 'Conducting,' have already been translated by Mr Dannreuther.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ICTURE 1HECTOR BERLIOZ FROM A PHOTOGRAPH........................................................... 1
ICTURE 2 HENRIETTA SMITHSON FROM A PORTRAIT BY DUBUFE, ............................. 34
ICTURE 3 CLARA WIECK, FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY F. GIERE.......................................... 59
ICTURE 4 ROBERT SCHUMANN, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE............................................ 66
ICTURE 5 RICHARD WAGNER, FROM A PORTRAIT BY C. JAGER ...................................... 89
CONTENTS
MUSIC AND MUSICAL CRITICISM A DISCOURSE ON METHOD.......................................................................4
I THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM...................................................................................................................4
II PRINCIPLES OF MUSICAL JUDGMENT .............................................................................................................10
III PRINCIPLES OF MUSICAL JUDGMENT — CONTINUED................................................................................16
IV ECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS....................................................................................................................................21
HECTOR BERLIOZ AND THE FRENCH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.................................................................27
I STUDENT DAYS ......................................................................................................................................................28
II THE SIEGE OF PARIS.............................................................................................................................................37
III ESTIMATES AND APPRECIATIONS ..................................................................................................................47
ROBERT SCHUMANN AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN GERMANY..................................................56
I. THE BEGINNINGS OF A CAREER........................................................................................................................57
II.MARRIED LIFE .......................................................................................................................................................65
III.SCHUMANN AS COMPOSER AND CRITIC.......................................................................................................74
RICHARD WAGNER AND THE REFORM OF THE OPERA................................................................................86
I. A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE ...........................................................................................................................87
II ART AND REVOLUTION.......................................................................................................................................96
III THE IMPORT OF THE MUSIC DRAMA............................................................................................................108
INDEX............................................................................................................................................................................119
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Music and musical criticism
MUSIC AND MUSICAL CRITICISM A DISCOURSE ON METHOD
Sur les objets dont on se propose l'étude il faut chercher non pas les opinions d'autrui, ou ses
propres conjectures, mais ce que l'on peut voir clairement avec évidence, ou déduire avec certitude;
car la science ne s'acquiert pas autrement.
DESCARTES: Règles pour la direction de l'esprit.
Mu s i c and Mu s i c a l Cr i t i c i s m
A DISCOURSE ON METHOD
I THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM
IT has often been observed, in various tones of reproach or protest, that we are all growing
into a practice of accepting any statement that we hear frequently or authoritatively repeated. From
our systems of government and philosophy down to the advertisements in our daily papers
everything bears witness to a policy of reiteration. We are, indeed, inclined to be suspicious of new
ideas, especially those of unknown origin or authorship: in dealing with any proposition we like,
above all things, to know who framed it, and how many people believe it to be true. But if we are
satisfied on these points, if we can see the image and superscription of some recognised potentate,
and feel the edges smooth with the usage of many hands, we scruple no longer, but take the
assertion for sterling, without examining its reverse side or testing the genuineness of its ring.
Hence we are at the mercy of our great men, without even the materials for determining a definition
of greatness, and with the risk, if they fail us, of falling into that most hopeless form of poverty
which consists in a pocketful of counterfeit coin.
Amid the false currency that has thus been brought into circulation is a belief that perception
of the beautiful requires not only special training but certain rare and precious qualities as well. We
are always hearing of pictures that are 'not intended for the common gaze,' or of poems which are
'not written with any design of pleasing the public,' until we begin to think that we are outsiders and
profane persons who have no right to admire, much less to appraise and criticise. We have been, as
Blake puts it, 'connoisseured out of our senses,' browbeaten out of all reliance on our own
judgment, and driven at last to the comfortless conclusion that all our ideas of beauty are heretical,
and that the only true faith is expressed in the warring voices of our æsthetic cliques.
This doctrine is all the more dangerous because of the half-truth that it contains. No doubt
popularity may mean nothing. It may be merely the idle applause of an ignorant mob, ready to burn
to-morrow what it adores to-day. But, on the other hand, popularity may mean everything. There is
no permanent reputation which has not been built on the suffrages of the people — no lasting
Palace of Art which has not national feeling for its corner-stone. The love of beauty, in short, is not
the monopoly of a privileged class — it is the universal inheritance of all mankind. And while this
is true of every art it is particularly true of Music. The laws by which effects of tone are conditioned
have as wide a scope as any principles in human thought, and draw their validity from the most
fundamental characteristics of our common nature.
Evidence lies ready to hand in the whole history and record of national melodies. Mozart
himself never wrote a finer tune than 'Ye banks and braes' or 'Dear Kitty'; the Volkslieder of
Germany and Russia, of France and Italy, of Hungary and Scandinavia, contain gems of purest
lustre and inestimable value; Troubadours and Trouvères were writing delightful songs while the
accredited professors of the art were quarrelling over tritones; wherever the voice of the people has
found free expression there we have a living spring of beauty, a fountain of melodious waters at
which generations have slaked their thirst. Undoubtedly the gradual elaboration of scientific rule
has been of conspicuous service in musical training, but it has nothing whatever to do with musical
inspiration; undoubtedly a misdirection of popular taste has often made a bad tune fashionable, but
it has never made one immortal. Time passes, true feeling reasserts itself and the false art vanishes
into oblivion: while the songs of the people remain as fresh as when they were created. Nor, as a
rule, have these melodies owed their birth to the genius of some celebrated musician; on the
contrary, they have sprung from the very heart of the nations that cherish them. In some cases the
Composer was an amateur, like Count Rakóczy or Martin Luther; in a far larger number he is
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Music and musical criticism
absolutely unknown; some peasant-bard who lived and died in obscurity, with no reward of fame
for the priceless gift that he was bestowing on mankind.
To advance this contention is, of course, to join direct issue with Berlioz's famous statement
that Music is not made for all, and that a large number of men must always remain outside the range
of its influence. But if the matter come to a conflict of authorities, there is Wagner to set against
Berlioz, and Shakespeare to overtop them both, and the popular side has no lack of advocates. It is
of more moment to examine the brief, and consider the arguments on which this democratic theory
may be supported.
All Art aims at the presentation of an idea of beauty in accordance with certain formal laws.
These formal laws, though they differ somewhat, according to the medium employed, yet rest on a
common æsthetic basis, and appeal, through the different senses, to a common action of the
æsthetic faculty. Pure beauty of colour affects the eye in much the same way as pure beauty of tone
affects the ear, and both together derive the pleasure that they afford from certain psychological
conditions which belong to all the Arts alike. But if we have to consider the nature of the idea
presented we shall find that there is one fundamental distinction which separates off Music from all
the so-called 'Representative Arts' in a body. It may be expressed briefly as follows: Painting,
Sculpture, and Poetry, apart from the media which they employ, necessarily involve some reference
to Nature — Music does not. The three former Arts are in a sense dependent for their subjects on
material phenomena external to the artist, the latter requires only the bare fact of sound which
serves as its medium. So far as relates to its subject, Music could exist if there were no world of
Nature at all.
The distinction will be made clearer if we take the Arts in detail. Painting, for instance,
whether we hold with Schopenhauer that it is ultimately ideal, or with Plato that it is a mere copy of
objects in Nature, we cannot regard as possible without the existence of natural phenomena.
However abstract the idea which the Painter has conceived, it requires a concrete fact round which
to crystallise before it can be presented in the artistic product. The Dresden Madonna may not be a
'copy' of a beautiful woman, but unless there were beautiful women it could never have been
painted. Turner saw in landscape truths so magnificent that they blinded his weak-eyed critics, but
to phrase them in language that men should understand he required that there should be the sunset,
and the sea, and the long golden haze in the valley. Even a painter whose avowed aim is to 'bring
about a certain harmony of colour' must found that harmony on a material keynote, and must
fashion his exquisite nocturnes round the piers of Battersea Bridge or along the vague shadows of
Chelsea Reach. A picture, in short, presupposes a model, and can be estimated in some degree by
the fidelity with which the characteristics of that model are reproduced.
Sculpture is more abstract than Painting, since it is more restricted both in subject and in
treatment, leaving out the important fact of colour, and trusting for its effect mainly to graciousness
of line and pose. But it is obvious that, however much the Sculptor idealises his facts, he cannot
dispense with them altogether. The Farnese Hercules would be unintelligible and unmeaning if
there were not thews and muscles to be observed in man. The Venus of Praxiteles was not, as we
know, a portrait of the goddess, but even as a 'guess' it must have had some data to work upon. Of
course the element of abstract beauty is supreme in Sculpture as it is in Painting, but it is to be
found in the representation and treatment of its material subjects, not in their invention or creation.
Arts which appeal to the eye may partly improve Nature, as Aristotle says, but there can be no
doubt that they partly copy her.
To this rule an exception may perhaps be urged in regard of decorative art: the curves of
metal work or the columns and traceries of Architecture. And, indeed, it is true that the art of
decoration is only partly representative. Some of its effects are certainly drawn from originals of
leaf and tendril, of sloping rock and basalt pillar, and so far it is concrete in subject and bears
analogy to Painting and Sculpture. But some are, with equal certainty, expressions of pure beauty in
line, and so far it is abstract and bears analogy to Music. Thus, to avoid obscuring the issue, it will
be best to omit decoration altogether. The contrast is between Music and the representative Arts: if,
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