V. POST WAGNERIAN SCHOOL—INCLUDING MODERN RUSSIAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN, GERMAN, AND AMERICAN COMPOSERS.
Michael Ivanovitch Glinka is called the "Father of Russian Opera". He combined the technique, forms and counterpoint of Italy and Germany with the Russian folksong and rythm. He was choice of his subjects, and thought that the management of the plots ought to be more simple, and the music in the style of natural song. There is energy and also vitality in "La Vie pour le Tsar" and "Russlau et Ludmille". In Russian folk songs we find the music suitable to the words.
The Russian folk like acting and their customs in their wedding ceremonies, etc., are an ideal basis for an opera school. Glinka used the fierce struggle of the contending nations for a background, and let the story be related and enacted by four central figures. His realism surpassed the trivial impossibilities of the Italian school. He did not combine involved themes in a pot-pourri style so that none could be distinguished, but rather created atmosphere. His instrumentalism is sonorous and uses five-four, six-four and seven-four time.
The "Pique Dame" of Tschaikovsky has a style like that of other composers beyond set forms of the older operas though not of the music drama. The arias, duets, choruses and ballets are dramatically appropriate, and the orchestra is more of a function than an accompaniment. In "Boris Godonnow" there is no principle tenor part, no principle contralto part and no principle soprano part. If it is a singer's opera at all it is a basso's, but it really is more for chorus. The writing for solo declamatory passages occassioned the use of the lyric passages in the orchestra, which was made the purveyor of color. The atmosphere is not symphonic, though the development is important and we find a remarkable use of the leitmotiv but the composer never even heard of Wagner.
Nicolai Andreyevitch Rimski-Korsakov was a serious student of Russian folk lore. His music is free and expressive—so much so that when he studied technique seriously, it was almost impaired. His operas are versatile, but his "Snow Maiden" is a trifle old-fashioned, although he fails to express pathos, delicate tenderness etc. The stage phantasmoriga, of "Christmas Eve or Vakoul the Smith", especially at the transformation scenes is accompanied with music wild and bizarre, yet consummate in its descriptive finesse. He was dissatisfied with the foreign elements of the Italian form of opera which Glinka and Tschaikovsky could assimilate to excellent purpose. He cannot seem to decide whether opera is lyrical or symphonic. His orchestra suggests the soft freshness of a May night atmosphere in the steppes of Russia, the aroma of flowers, the enchanting long drawn notes of a nightingale interspersed with the love element, and the vocal characterization of the Mayor and the Bailiff in this "A May Night" is extremely clever. Like Strauss, he uses certain themes for certain instruments and has the Russian desire to mingle meaning and sound.
Wagner laid down the theories but his imitators have failed because they did not have his genius. Rimski-Korsakov is noted for his brilliant orchestration and the ugly and cruel music leading up to his situations, but he combines dignity and simplicity with realism and not with the romantic. The protogonists of his drama are, the Russian people, and that is the reason for the extended use of the chorus. There is no central situation, as the people and one character, or sometimes two, make up the drama. It is easy to omit or transpose a scene thus showing the loosenes of the dramatic construction, which is a merit in a musical play, for the composer can express the central ideas of the drama without being bound hand and foot by dramatic situations. In the modern music drama the orchestra expresses all that cannot be expressed by the dramatic action and the singers. Rimski-Korsakov's is mainly a subjective expression of composition, while Moussorgsky's orchestra is never subjective, but always objective. Borodini's "Prince Igor" is a colorful barbaric ballet while in Dargomysky's "The Water Sprite", "The Stone Guest" there are interesting intermediary recitative sections, although the recitative of "La Pskovitaine" is dry.
Xaver Schwarwenka'a opera "Mataswinthe" resembles those of Wagner of the "Lohengrin" period. They are thoroughly modern. The muted horns in the orchestra give dramatic expressiveness in harmony and the composer uses the free arioso style. There is not the set form of the Italian school, but the modern declamatory arioso, monologues and duets, discarding recitative, and introducing massive ensembles with key complexity, but never smothering them with the orchestra.
Balakirew and Borodini employ good airs, especially in the ballet, and color their orchestra wonderfully. Cesar Cui used melodic recitative with the interdiction of the repetitions of words, and there is an absence of duets and trios and every piece of ensemble, and every one affecting a definite and complete character. "Angelo" and "The Filibuster" are too extreme, for the three acts of recitaive become monotonous. This school's form is vague except for the audacious harmonization.
Puccini adds to Wagner's reform, with the peculiar style of modern French and Italian composers which alternates light and varied orchestration and melody, with harsh, almost crude instrumentation. He demonstrates that the orchestra may be made to interpret shades and transitions of rapid and subtle emotion, and he produced an actual musical diction with some of the finest passages for the orchestra alone. His sense of melody is supreme in his combination of Italian and German methods. His impressive manner of intensifying and underscoring dramatic moments in the action is unparalleled as is also his capacity for forceful and succinct orchestral commentary. He uses his music to paint scenes and makes continuous use of distinctive and rythmic melody and there is an absence of any definite characterization by means of a leitmotiv, for his work is lighter than that of Wagner's. He maintains that opera must have local color, so therefore we find an interweaving of American airs in his "Girl of the Golden West" and American and Japanese airs in "Madame Butterfly". His score is genuinely Puccinean and an influence of Debussy is betrayed in an harmonic way.
The prelude to "Madame Butterfly" Is not an overture, though it does state some motives. His songs constantly contain one melody in the instrumental against the unrelated vocal part, and he reflects the modern moods and ideas in a score intricate in counterpoint, rich in embellishment, full of the melodic fluency of the Italian temperament and strength of the German school. The Japanese effects give beautiful lyric movements but they are not as great as Verdi's. There is intense dramatic vigor in "Manon Lescaut" which has spoken dialogue with running orchestral accompaniment and motives. "La Boheme" has neither overture nor intermezzo, and lacks sustained melody. Puccini is termed the only one with as much genius as Wagner, for he agrees that too much realism is cramping to good music, and he proves that music drama can be loosely constructed and need not conform to spoken drama standards.
Debussy, in "Pelleas and Melisande" places a statue on a stage, not a musical one, but one of dramatic action and declamation. The vocal parts are reduced to a minimum of musical expressiveness and the music, a sort of rythmless chant, is subordinate to action. He is about the only composer who makes music dependent entirely on the drama. Wagner's orchestra is a bug driving force, while Strauss' delicate shifting of the background of the polyphony does not drown the voices. Debussy does not compose with the aim of orchestral composition as do Wagner and Strauss. With Puccini, Debussy and Charpentier, the human voice counts as a real medium. In "Pelleas and Melisande" there is a tress on the naturalness of the recitative. Debussy makes music the servant of the drama and makes a symphonic use of motives which are not developed formally, but manipulated in an undercurrent of musical thought. He declares melody anti-dramatic, and in recitative with the orchestra there is freedom for individual interpretation. His "L'Enfant Prodigue" is composed along the regular lines and is his best work. He follows Cesar Franck's method of scattering a number of disconnected themes and leaving them to sort themselves.
In Dukas' "Ariane and Bluebeard", set melodies are avoided and everything is in plastic style of music drama, with shimmering tone color and a wealth of orchestral touches. Louis Aubert's "The Blue Forest", is an effective combination of modernity and simplicity with much use of leading motives and some fairly definite numbers. "Les Heretiques" displays enervating voluptuousness and languor in the duet. There are grave and large accents for the invocation to Venus by Daphne. The orchestral lamentation at the close is graceful and the choruses are charming, but the dialogue is wearisome. He is a disciple of Massenet in his correct portrayal of the suavity, sweetnes and fascination of women. In "Le Petite Boheme" the orchestration is rich and effective and the dramatic action is developed.
Franchetti's "Germania" is a lyric two act drama with a prologue and an epilogue, aping Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Tschaikovski. Delibes, a new dramatist, uses unusual discretion in the color expression of the orchestra but with very little acting. His modulation scheme is rich and more melodic, but it is almost as declamatory as that of Strauss. Saint Saens and Massenet are less radical with a light melodic orchestra. Massenet's music in "Le Jongleur" and "Griselidis" is not strong enough to atone for tiresome episodes in the plot. The chorus plays an important but invisible part, throughout.
The Charpentier orchestra and neither Strauss-like nor Wagnerian. His "Louise" is constructed according to Wagner but creates an atmosphere rather emphasizing themes. It has musical originality, dramatic novelty and picturesque reproductions of life, style, and a blend of romanticism and reality. He is influenced by Massenet in musical speech and orchestral style. He emphasizes the lyrical element by the use of melodic recitative rather than by aria. He develops motives for descriptive importance with polyphonic style. The individual sonority of the orchestra reduses the stress on the orchestra's departure from the Wagnerian ideas. He reduced the dependence of these ideas to a minimum, and asserted the value of reliance on the native sources of music and drama.
Bruneau was a pupil of Massenet with undistinguished melodic patterns. He followed Wagner in the close continuity of drama and accurate characterization in music, fitting a characterization for varying dramatic atmospheres. His "Kerim" displays militarism and is a contrast to the pastoral elements in "L'Attaque du Moulin". His thematic manipulation is not flexible enough but his harmonic idiom is ingenuous and true to the qualities of race and time. D'Albert's "Tiefland" has a prologue and two acts, and combines the Wagner and Puccini swift and pliant orchestra, which colors and intensifies, but dispenses with the elaboration of Wagner's symphonic chorus. Chenier's "Liberia", strange to say, has one strain repeated and repeated. Chabrier is noted for his delicate expression and his fidelity and vigor of delineation. In "Briseis" the fresh aroma of the sea is suggested by the soft singing of the sailors without any overture or prelude. Bruneau in "Zola" writes flexible music and has a capacity for unmetred prose used for vocal purposes, a caustic rugged sincerity with an element of passion and little tenderness. Charpentier's "Louise" has the quick lithe movement of the Parisian character; gay, amused and amusing.
Richard Strauss uses a more complex orchestra than Wagner and we find leading motives as in Wagner. He is one of the most severely criticized composers of modern times. He has been accused of outrageous infraction of every musical law. The mood in "Electra" is implicit in the play, but it is reinforced by Strauss' orchestration. Where Beethoven or Wagner entrances are splendid, the instrumental equivalent of Strauss grates. He is typical to the moods, etc., of the play. He uses discords to represent a mad woman, but is musically beautiful in the recognition of brother and sister and love. The chief characters are depicted by leading motives, dissonance and orchestral bewilderments, and his power of characterization is extraordinary. There are forty-five themes in "Electra". He uses different instruments to represent the different animals, etc. For instance, the grunting of the pigs is represented by six bassoons and a flute.
There are one hundred and four musicians in "Salome", with sixty strings and an organ celeste. Three men carry on an excited conversation, one in seven eighth time, one in five eighth time and one in four four time, while the orchestra continues its original tempo.
Puccini, Humperdinck and Mascagni are considered by many to be the best living composers. "Königskinder" is chiefly declamatory and never sacrfices the human voice for the orchestra, and expounds and illustrates, but never fails to support the shapely arioso by rarely defined melody.
"Conchita" by Riccardo Zandonai embraces a few fragmentary themes and the voice parts are declamatory without a melodic line or the shapeliness of an arioso. Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" shows the introduction of a new device with the performance of the orchestral interlude and division of the work into two parts, with the curtain remaining up and showing the empty stage. Both he and Leoncavello have written short operas with effective librettos, and they stand for dramatic verities. Our American composers seem to follow different schools and styles without establishing one of their own. "Mona" by Horatio Parker assigns not a motive for a label to each character but a tonality, though only one blessed with absolute pitch can appreciate this. Walter Damrosch's "Cyrano" is in a post-Wagnerian style, a sort of melodious arioso frequently broadening into definitely shaped airs, with numerous ensembles, trios, quartets and choruses and the orchestra plays an important part, being continuously melodious, but not monopolizing melodic interest with leading motives attached to characters. "The Pipe of Desire", by F. S. Converse, has passages in a later Wagnerian style, and there are four prominent motives while the orchestra is exceedingly good, especially in depicting the "Naioa" theme. Victor Herbert's music is replete with local color and drama, and the representative themes are not developed, although his music is rather light and better suited for the operetta and the salon.
Thus we see how the musical forms of the opera have changed from the older more vocal feats to the newer well developed music drama. Gluck and Wagner brought back the undying principles of dramatic truth. In the days of Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, melody was supreme and the dramatic truth was lost sight of. In "William Tell" and "Der Freischütz" there was a step onward, and with Wagner we find a return to, or reform, of the first principles of true dramatic art as applied to the opera by the Bardi coterie. Individualism is the prevailing tendency and succes depends on the forcibleness of the characters and the development of the leitmotiv.
In our consideration of the operas, from "Rappresentatione di Anima" to "Madeleine" we find the number of characters growing larger, the orchestra more complex and perhaps usurping more time, the solo work increasing considerably, recitative increasing, ensemble almost vanishing and chorus work reduced to a minmum. The opera of the future will be a medium between Wagner and Strauss, orchestral music drama, and the Debussy incidental music, and the melodiousness of the Italian school. The most vital music dramas of the day do not abandon nor drown out the voice, nor do they cast aside all musical connections, but combine orchestra, voice and dramatic action in an artistic way.