CHAPTER XXX. VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC.
OTTFRIED, Baron van Swieten, was a man who exercised, in more than one respect, an important influence on Mozart's career. He was born in 1734, the son of the Empress Maria Theresa's celebrated and influential physician Gerhard van Swieten, who had removed with his family from Leyden to Vienna in 1745. Gottfried devoted himself to the study of the law, and pursued a diplomatic career,[ 1 ] but from his youth up he had been passionately fond of music, and had turned his studies in the art to practical, MUSIC IN BERLIN. though not very successful account. In 1769 Favart's "Rosière de Salency" was produced in Paris with music by different composers; Van Swieten wrote several of the songs, but they failed to attract much praise.[ 2 ] He also composed eight symphonies "as stiff as himself," as Haydn said.[ 3 ] In 1771 Joseph II. appointed him ambassador to the Court of Prussia,[ 4 ] and there Nicolai made his acquaintance, and speaks of him as "an enthusiastic amateur and connoisseur, and even a composer."[ 5 ] His residence in Berlin was important for the development of his musical taste and the ideas which he afterwards undertook to introduce in Vienna.
In 1740, Frederick the Great had erected the Berlin Opera House, and produced the Italian opera seria of the time with all the brilliancy of first-rate performers and scenic accessories.[ 6 ] Grand operas (interrupted, however, by the Seven Years War) were regularly given; the King used to sit in the pit immediately behind the conductor, so as to be able to look over his score.[ 7 ] He held firm to his original principles of taste; would admit nothing but opera seria, and no new works except those of Hasse and Graun. The Kapellmeister Carl Heinrich Graun (1709-1759) was obliged to compose the operas (to which the King furnished libretti in French, to be turned into Italian[ 8 ]), and hurried over his uncongenial task; they were always submitted to the King, and what he disapproved of had to be altered.[ 9 ] He preferred Hasse's composition on account of his greater fire and passion, while Graun (highly prized as a singer by his royal master)[ 10 ] heard little but blame for his shortcomings as a composer.
Notwithstanding this, he had to produce his opera year VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. after year, and matters continued unchanged.[ 11 ] Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774), who succeeded Graun in 1760, wrote little himself, except some pieces for insertion in old operas, which are kept in the same style. The King would have nothing to say to any other composers, and received Reichardt with the advice: "Have a care of the new Italians; the fellows write like pigs."[ 12 ]
Reichardt, in applying for Agricola's post after the death of the latter in 1775, was obliged to support his claims by the production of an opera, "modelled on the pattern of Graun and Hasse";[ 13 ] as kapellmeister, he must not dream of striking out in any other direction. For the last ten years of his life the King took little interest in musical matters; Italian opera lingered on with the pieces of Graun and Hasse, but it sank lower and lower.[ 14 ]
Side by side with the opera, however, which followed so closely the Italian tradition, there arose in Berlin a peculiar form of instrumental music founded on the Saxon school. The King, as is well known, gave a private concert every evening, and performed on the flute pieces composed by himself or his master Quanz, who wrote over three hundred such for Frederick.[ 15 ] Johann Joachim Quanz (1697-1773)[ 16 ] to whom the King had been much attached from his earliest years, was supreme in all matters musical, and was nicknamed the "Pope of the Berlin music."[ 17 ] He was the only man who presumed to cry "Bravo!" to the King's playing.[ 18 ] Next after Quanz in Frederick's favour stood Franz Benda (1709-1786),[ 19 ] an artist of originality and a first-rate THE BACH SCHOOL IN BERLIN. violin-player; his manner of execution was peculiar to himself, and rested mainly on a pure and expressive delivery. His brother Joseph (1724-1804) and the sons of both followed in his footsteps, and the Concertmeister J. Gottlieb Graun (1698-1771) highly esteemed as a violin-player and instrumental composer, may be said to have belonged to the same school. By these distinguished artists the Berlin orchestra was formed and trained to a degree of excellence second only to that of Dresden, and not until later surpassed by Mannheim and Vienna.
The highest rank among the artists of Berlin must be accorded to Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788).[ 20 ] He was summoned to the Prussian capital in 1738 as accompanist to the then Crown Prince, and after 1756 he shared the office with Fasch. He was an accomplished and tasteful accompanist, but the wearisome monotony of the royal concerts disgusted him, and as an artist he could not but be annoyed at the King's narrow prejudices. He revenged himself by refusing to comply when Frederick, who liked to play in "various times" required his accompanist to give way to him. This led to a dislike on the King's part, which prevented him from duly appreciating Bach;[ 21 ] and the latter willingly obeyed a summons to Hamburg in 1767, to fill Telemann's place. His technical studies, founded on J. Sebastian Bach's system of fingering, and his clavier sonatas entitle him to be considered as the father of modem pianoforte-playing, and Haydn acknowledged him alone as his model.[ 22 ] He was held in unbounded reverence as a creative and original artist, especially in Berlin and Hamburg,[ 23 ] and deserved equal respect as a man of cultivation and good-breeding. Nicolai declares that what Quintilian says of Cicero may be applied VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. with equal truth to Bach: that those who have learnt to appreciate his works above all others have made a marked advance along the path of knowledge.[ 24 ] The school of Joh. Sebastian Bach was represented in all its severity and scholarly learning by his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), who passed the later years of his life in Berlin, as much admired as an artist of genius and scholarship[ 25 ] as he was dreaded and disliked by reason of his overbearing egotism and eccentric fancies.[ 26 ] Agricola was also a pupil, and like all his pupils, an enthusiastic admirer of Seb. Bach, but Kirnberger was undoubtedly his greatest apostle. It was he who represented the school of Bach in Berlin, side by side with the operatic school of Hasse and Graun, and he was mainly, though far from exclusively,[ 27 ] active in developing the instrumental style, which determined the taste of the Berlin musical world.[ 28 ]
The position of music in Berlin was peculiar in that it had gained recognition for itself, even in respect of its literature. Not a few musicians were cultivated and scientific men, ready with their pen and anxious to employ it in the KIRN BERGER—MARPURG. musical cause. Quanz's "Course of Flute-Playing" (1752) was followed by Ph. Em. Bach's "True Art of Playing the Clavier" (1753, 1761) and Agricola's "Introduction to the Art of Song" (1757); and together with these may be noted Marpurg's "Art of Playing the Clavier" (1750), "Introduction to Clavier-Playing" (1755, 1765), and "Introduction to Music and Singing" (1763); it was no small honour for Leop. Mozart's "Violin Method" to find recognition in this circle (Vol. I., p. 16). The writings of the advocate Krause on musical poetry (1752), of Nichelmann on melody (1755), and Marpurg's "Introduction to Vocal Composition" (1758) must not be omitted from the list.
The theory of harmony and counterpoint was studied with equal zeal, and Kimberger and Marpurg have earned for themselves a place of honour in the history of music.
Joh. Phil. Kimberger (1721-1783), Kammermusicus to the Princess Amalie, a pupil of Seb. Bach, was of small merit as a composer, but, being a sagacious man, and fond of research, he busied himself in tracing the principles and maxims of composition through the works of his revered master.[ 29 ] The gift of literary expression was denied to him by his education and manner of life; and unless he were assisted by friends such as Agricola, Sulzer, or his pupil Schulz, he found it difficult to express his views with clearness.[ 30 ] His intellect, knowledge, and study were considerable, his character open and estimable;[ 31 ] but he was embittered by the want of the recognition which he believed to be his due. Want of refinement led him to turn his critical acumen into a weapon of attack, which he often used in a manner both spiteful and unjust.[ 32 ] Quanz had maintained that a VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. genuine duet admitted of no bass, and published some duets to prove his point; Kimberger played the duets on the church organ while Quanz was receiving the communion, with a bass added.[ 33 ]
Friedr. Wilh. Marpurg (1718-1795) thereupon took up the cudgels, and endeavoured to prove from Kimberger's fugues that he was the last man who had a right to make himself conspicuous as a critic. This gave rise to a feud, which was carried on with great bitterness on both sides, respecting various principles of musical theory. Marpurg had the advantage of a thorough school and university education. As private secretary to General Bodenberg he had enjoyed intercourse with Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Maupertuis, and a lengthened stay in Paris in 1746 had made him familiar with the French cultivation of the time. After 1749 he lived in Berlin. In his youth he had been the friend of Winckelmann[ 34 ] and the companion of Lessing, in his jovial hours as well as in his studies and controversies.[ 35 ] Shrewd and thorough in matters of research, and of passionate temper, he could neither brook contradiction nor control his violence;[ 36 ] and superior as he was to Kirnberger in powers of expression, he yielded nothing to him in coarseness and virulence of attack.[ 37 ]
Yet another influence on musical affairs in Berlin remains to be noted, viz., the musical journals edited by Marpurg and the musicians and scholars associated with him—"The Musical Critic on the River Spree" (1749-1750), "Critical and Historical Contributions to the Study of Music" (1754-1762), and "Critical Letters on Music" (1760-1764).
Music was treated also by literary men from a more general point of view. Sulzer included music in his LIBBHABERCONCERT IN BERLIN "Treatise on the Fine Arts" (1771-1774), and sought counsel of professional men better versed in the art than himself. He selected Kirnberger as the fittest man for his purpose, and after him his pupil J. A. P. Schulz, who was inferior to his master in scholarly acquirements, but far superior to him in clearness and facility.[ 38 ] The great influence which Sulzer's work exercised in Germany caused his views upon music therein expressed to be appealed to as a sort of final authority. Fr. Nicolai was exceedingly fond of music, and made it a practical study.[ 39 ] He was personally acquainted with all the great musicians, especially Agricola, Marpurg, and Reichardt, and he set himself seriously to form musical opinions founded on his own observation. When he undertook the German Universal Cyclopedia in 1765, he included music in the list of subjects treated. Nicolai's influence in Berlin was great,[ 40 ] and a literary organ of so much importance could not fail to give weight and consideration to musical criticism.
The practical result of these musical efforts, so far as they did not proceed immediately from the King, consisted mainly in the "Liebhaberconcert," founded in 1770, and held every Friday evening under Nicolai's direction.[ 41 ] All available forces were assembled on these occasions; orchestral works, native or foreign, were performed, vocal and instrumental virtuosi found an audience, and great vocal compositions were frequently produced, such as Graun's and Ph. Eman. Bach's sacred music, and what is more noteworthy, Handel's oratorios, especially "Judas Maccabæus," the "Feast of Alexander," and the "Messiah."[ 42 ] Earnest and VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. upright intention, and efforts after intellectual comprehension in art, deserve all recognition, even when united with partiality, pedantry, and quarrelsomeness. The supremacy claimed by Frederick the Great's capital, even in music, extended to South Germany, and especially to Vienna. Wagenseil and Steffan, at that time men of considerable note in Vienna, are complacently taken to task by Marpurg.[ 43 ] Nicolai openly says[ 44 ] that after Fux's death Vienna had various good composers, but no extraordinary genius worthy to rank with Seb. and Ph. Em. Bach, Telemann, Graun, or Hasse, men who had determined the course of musical progress in North Germany until Haydn appeared. The Viennese, on the other hand, were entirely ignorant of all that concerned music in North Germany, and especially in Berlin.[ 45 ]
Youthful impulses could not altogether fail, however, to stir the musical world of Berlin. The French operetta, conducted for a long time by Schulz,[ 46 ] and still more the German opera after 1771,[ 47 ] had the effect of gradually reforming the taste of the general public. Prince Henry, who had an excellent band in his pay, was by no means so devoted to old music and the old composers as the King.[ 48 ] His concertmeister Joh. Pet. Salomon (1745-1815), whom Reichardt heard perform Bach's violin solos without accompaniment exceedingly well,[ 49 ] produced Haydn's symphonies and quartets HAYDN'S MUSIC IN BERLIN. with zeal and energy.[ 50 ] His successor, J. A. P. Schulz (1747-1800), a pupil of Kirnberger's, who had made a lengthened tour in Italy, and become personally acquainted with Haydn,[ 51 ] followed his natural inclination—to the great dissatisfaction of his master—in composing after the new style,[ 52 ] and wishing to produce not only Haydn's but Gluck's music. His attempts were unsuccessful, but Haydn's music was admired by others besides the more youthful of the public. There were, it is true, supporters of the old music, who made a noisy exit whenever Haydn's music was performed; but others, such as Marpurg, laughed at such folly, and did not withhold their recognition of his genius;[ 53 ] Nicolai speaks of him with frank and enlightened approbation.[ 54 ] Reichardt, as kapellmeister to the king, could not afford an independent judgment;[ 55 ] but he endeavoured, by the "Concert spirituel''[ 56 ] which he set on foot, and by his compositions and writings,[ 57 ] to turn the interest of the public in new directions.[ 58 ]
It was into this peculiar musical atmosphere, so different from that of Vienna, that Van Swieten entered at Berlin. His turn of mind being essentially rational and methodical,[ 59 ] disposed him to sympathy with the severe Berlin school, and to a partiality for a concise style; he was enchanted with the music of Handel and Bach, which he brought back with him to Vienna, and turned to account by means of his personal VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. friendship with Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He commissioned Ph. Em. Bach to compose, in 1774, six grand orchestral symphonies, with the express wish that he would allow his genius full play, without any regard to difficulty of execution.[ 60 ] In Berlin also Van Swieten became better acquainted with Haydn than was possible in Vienna, and like Mozart and the youthful Beethoven, he' loved and reverenced him next to Handel and Bach. "As far as music is concerned," he writes (December, 1798), "I have gone back to the times when it was thought necessary before practising an art to study it thoroughly and systematically. In such study I find nourishment for my mind and heart, and support when any fresh proof of the degeneracy of the art threatens to cast me down. My chief comforters are Handel and the Bachs, and with them the few masters of our own day who tread firmly in the footsteps of the truly great and good, and either give promise of reaching the same goal, or have already attained to it. In this there can be no doubt that Mozart, had he been spared to us, would have succeeded; Joseph Haydn stands actually at the goal."[ 61 ] On his return to Vienna (which took place about 1778) he at once assumed a position of great importance. He succeeded to his father's office as Prefect of the Imperial Library, was appointed President of the Education Commission in 1781, and intrusted with the conduct of the educational scheme which was introduced throughout the Empire in 1783. Knowledge, intelligence, and zeal he certainly possessed;[ 62 ] but he was wanting in the energy and decision necessary to carry out the projects he conceived.[ 63 ] His influential position, rank, and wealth, the hereditary fame of his family, and the importance of his mission at the court of Frederick the Great, gave him the right to a place among the most distinguished society. He exerted all his influence in the cause of music, even for so subordinate an VAN SWIETEN'S PERSONAL INFLUENCE. end as to enforce silence and attention during musical performances. Whenever a whispered conversation arose among the audience, his excellency would rise from his seat in the first row, draw himself up to his full majestic height, measure the offenders with a long, serious look, and then very slowly resume his seat. The proceeding never failed of its effect.[ 64 ] Van Swieten was not liberal in money matters; he always had it in his power to collect money among his friends of high rank for musical purposes, and he did not fail on such occasions to contribute his own quota;[ 65 ] but he was not by any means generous for a wealthy and childless man. Haydn's experience supported this view,[ 66 ] and the eulogies pronounced on Van Swieten's benevolence to Mozart's family after his death[ 67 ] have no foundation; in fact, he did nothing worth mentioning for them. In his intercourse with artists, however highly he might estimate them and their works, his demeanour was always that of a grand seigneur, and he enforced his own views with an air of somewhat overbearing superiority. This was again Haydn's experience,[ 68 ] and Mozart can scarcely have escaped some measure of annoyance from the same source.
But such personal failings as these are cast into the shade by the merit which is due to Van Swieten as the man who awoke interest in Vienna for severe and classical music. His influence upon Mozart is unmistakable. At the beginning of 1782 we find them in constant intercourse, and Mozart habitually present at Van Swieten's musical Sunday mornings, at which music in the severe style only was performed. He had, as Mozart writes to his sister (April 20, 1782), "a stock of music good in point of value, but small in quantity"; and in order to add to it, Mozart requests his father to send him both his own church compositions, and VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. some select works of Michael Haydn and Eberlin, which he had formerly copied (Vol. I., p. 238); they were performed with great applause in the little circle, These performances were clearly not intended for an audience; for Van Swieten sang tenor, Mozart alto (at the same time playing the pianoforte), Starzer[ 69 ] tenor, and young Tebery,[ 70 ] who had just returned from Italy, bass (Märch 12, 1783). But in this way they became familiar with the best works of masters who had been hitherto unheard in Vienna. "It is a fact," writes Mozart (April 12,1783), "that the change of taste has extended even to church music, which is much to be regretted; so it comes that the best church music lies worm-eaten in the garret."[ 71 ]
Clavier music of the same school also found a place in Van Swieten's musical meetings. Mozart writes to his father (April 10, 1782):—
I wish you would send me Handel's six fugues and the toccata and fugues by Eberlin. I go every Sunday morning to the Baron van Swieten, and nothing is played there but Handel and Bach. I am making a collection of the Bach fugues, Sebastian's as well as Emanuel's and Friedemann's, and also of Handel's, and I want just these six. Also, I should like to let the Baron hear Eberlin's.
Concerning the latter, however, he writes soon after to his sister (April 20, 1782):—
If my father has not yet had Eberlin's works copied, pray countermand them. I have found them here, and see (now that I refresh my memory of them) that they are very trivial and unworthy of a place with Handel and Bach. His four-part movement deserves all respect, but his clavier fugues are simply versetti spun out to great length.
We have seen already how Mozart's interest in the study of these masters was still further kindled by the pleasure his wife took in fugues (Vol. II., p. 267). When he sent his sister a three-part fugue with a prelude, he wrote to her (April 20, 1782) that if time and opportunity served, he meant to write five more fugues, and present them all to Van Swieten; she must therefore keep this one to herself, learn it by heart, and play it; "it is not so easy to play fugues." A second (39 Anh. K.) has only the theme with one answer written down:—[See Page Images]
A third is rather more finished (40 Anh. K.), and its very original subject promises an interesting elaboration—
which causes the more regret that it should have stopped short of completion.
Mozart twice projected arranging Frohberger's "Phantasia supra Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la" for the pianoforte,[ 72 ] but neither time did he accomplish his intention (292 Anh. K.). The three-part fugue in C major, which has been published (394 K.), probably the same that Mozart sent to his sister with a prelude, gives an idea of his intentions. A four-part fugue in G minor, wanting only a few bars, was finished and published by Stadler (401 K.). Only sketches remain of other clavier fugues. The most finished (26 bars) is a fugue in G major (23 Anh. K.):—[See Page Images (next page)]
VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC.
To the same time and school belongs the great fugue for two pianofortes in C minor, composed on December 29,1783 (426 K.). The beginning is preserved of another fugue for two pianofortes in G major of a totally different character (45 Anh. K.):—[See Page Image]
We may judge of the manner in which Mozart wished his fugues to be played from an expression to his sister, when he sent her the first of them (April 20, 1782):—
I have taken care to write "andante maestoso" on it, that it may not be played too fast; for, if a fugue is not played slowly, the recurring subject is not distinctly and clearly heard, and so loses its effect.
Afterwards (in June, 1788) Mozart arranged the C minor fugue for his string quartet, and wrote "a short adagio" as an introduction (546 K.), probably for Van Swieten, with whom he was then in closer intercourse than ever, in consequence of the instrumentation and performance of Handel's oratorios.
The ease and distinctness with which four-part movements of this metrical style could thus be executed, had already suggested to Mozart the arrangement of five fugues from Bach's "Wohltemperirte Klavier," for stringed instruments (405 K.). The handwriting points to 1782 or 1783, when Van Swieten's influence was at its highest. The fugues selected, doubtless with a view to their suitability for the purpose, were (in Breitkopf and Härtel's edition): KLAVIERSUITE, 1782-1783. No. 2, in C minor; No. 7, in E fiat major; No. 9, in E major; No. 8, transposed from D sharp major to D major; and No. 5, in D major.
An interesting illustration of the pleasure with which Mozart sought to follow in the steps of Handel and Bach, is afforded by the unfinished "Klaviersuite" (399 K.) belonging to 1782 or 1783. It begins, according to rule, with an overture (C major) consisting of two movements, a slow introduction in imitation, and a fugued Allegro closing on the dominant. Then follows, after traditional usage, an Allemande (C minor), a Courante (E flat major), and a Sarabande (G minor); of this last, however, only six bars are written. The imitation of the older masters is unmistakable in the design and many of the details of the movements, the only novelty being the changes of key. They may, in this sense, be considered as studies; but Mozart's originality constantly asserts itself, and the Courante in especial is completely imbued with it. Still more original and free is the "Short Gigue for the Klavier," which Mozart wrote on May 17, 1789, "in the album of Herr Engel, court organist in Leipzig" (574 K.), no doubt in remembrance of Bach, whose motetts he had there heard for the first time with unbounded delight. The light and flexible gigue had been transformed by Bach's freer, and at the same time severer, treatment into a fantastic, almost humorous movement, which took the same place in the suite that was afterwards given to the scherzo in the sonata. Mozart selected the severer style, and the intellectual skill with which the strictest forms of counterpoint, harmony, and rhythm are so freely and archly treated, as to make both player and listener hold their breath from surprise, renders this little composition a masterpiece. It causes regret that the suite, containing as it did so many elements capable of development, was not seriously taken up and carried to perfection by Mozart.
It must not be supposed that Mozart's study of Bach and Handel had no result but to teach him to write fugues; his earlier compositions show him to have been no novice in the art of counterpoint. What he found most admirable in VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. these masters was their power of making forms strict even to rigidity the medium of a natural expression of their musical ideas and emotions; their use of all the available wealth of contrapuntal combinations was no mere trick of barren speculation, but a deliberate selection of a means of expression from the inexhaustible fund of their productive powers. That this was the sense in which Mozart reverenced his masters is proved by his criticism of Eberlin and of Hassler, who had learnt Bach's harmonies and modulations by heart, but was unable to work out an original fugue; and it is proved more satisfactorily still by his own works.
Even in compositions avowedly written as studies, Mozart's originality appears, and in his later works there is no trace of any attempt at servile imitation of Bach or Handel.[ 73 ] He imitated, not their work, but their way of working, drew from the sources to which they had given him access, and employed that which he received from them in accordance with his own nature and the task before him.[ 74 ]
Master-strokes of genius in many pieces of his chamber music—as also in the last movement of the C major symphony, and in the overture to the "Zauberflote," where art reaches its highest pitch in the union of strictest form with freest fancy—may be ascribed in no small degree to the impulses arising from his study of Bach and Handel. But their influence reaches beyond his compositions in the severe style. The perfection of polyphonic composition which characterises all Mozart's works, and wherein consists one of his chief merits, rests, even in its broadest and freest development, upon the foundations laid by those PIANOFORTE FUGUES. masters. So, too, the fertility and boldness of Mozart's harmonic treatment may be traced back to the same source. Harmonic beauties, novel and striking transitions and turns, are frequent enough in his earlier works, but they are simply harmonic combinations, whereas in his later works they appear as a free and intellectual development of the polyphonic principle.
Again, the influence of the older masters and their works is observable in a certain harshness occasioned by independence in the disposition of parts, which Mozart does not by any means seek to avoid. In this respect he makes demands upon his audience as great and greater than those, for instance, of Bach and Beethoven, and may be compared to Sophocles, who, admired as he justly was by the ancients for his sweetness and charm, did not hesitate upon occasion to startle his hearers with his harsh severity. Mozart's severity is never the result of clumsy workmanship, but is a conscious and deliberate choice of means; neither is it employed as a stimulant, but rather as an incentive to a better appreciation of passages of perfect beauty. The sense of deliverance from conflict and obscurity, and passage into calmness and light, is so striking that it cannot be wondered at if the means whereby it is attained are little analysed.[ 75 ]
Among the compositions in precise or metrical style special interest attaches to the three-part pianoforte fugue in C major (394 K.). It opens with an introduction, more elaborate than a prelude, and entitled, therefore, a "fantasia." Such introductions, not always in free form (sometimes called "toc-cate"), were usually prefixed to a fugue or other composition in order to give it the character of an improvisation; several others by Mozart exist. The one in question, after a few slow bars, is a lively movement, varies its key continually, and does not carry out fully any motif or passage; this agitated unrest gives it a pathetic character, and excites expectation; the whole movement is brilliant and effective.
It closes on the dominant, thus announcing its nature as an VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. introduction. The fugue which follows is in striking contrast, firm and quiet, yet full of life and latent emotion:—[See Page Image]
The two first bars, with their intervals of fourths, announce a more serviceable than individually expressive subject, but the agitated motif which follows has a very original character, heightened by its auxiliary notes and by its rapid succession of sharp dissonants. A gentle, almost melancholy, tone pervades the whole fugue, and is expressed also by its frequent passage into a minor key. Apart from its interesting technical elaboration, it is important by reason of its characteristic expression, and may serve as an illustration of Mozart's complete mastery of the fugue form. To this it may be added that the fugue we are considering is essentially adapted for the pianoforte both in conception and composition. This is not the case in the same degree with the G minor Fugue (401 K.), which is artistically worked out, but not equal to the C major either in breadth of expression or adaptation to the nature of > the instrument. The same may be said of the three-part fugue in D major, of which Mozart has written thirty-seven bars (443 Anh., 67 K.). The effect of the C minor fugue (426 K), also, rests neither on the sound effects of the pianoforte nor on those of the stringed instruments. It is so broadly conceived, so earnestly and with such ruthless severity carried out, that the external means of expression fall into the background before the energetic enunciation of the laws of form, obeyed consciously, but without servility.[ 76 ] Quite otherwise is the FUGUE FOR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. case with the introduction, which, written originally for strings, is expressly adapted to their peculiarities of sound effect. The harmonic treatment, and more especially the enharmonic changes, are of extraordinary beauty and depth, and occasion remarkable effects of suspense and climax. Most admirable is the art with which the character of the movement as an introduction is maintained, and the defiant style of the following fugue clearly indicated, at the same time that the mind is tuned to a pitch of longing and melancholy which makes the entry of the categorical fugue a positive relief and stimulant.
A fugue for four stringed instruments in D minor, of which the first elaboration is indicated in the sketch (76 Anh. K.)—[See Page Image]
appears well suited to the instruments. Whether it was to form a movement in a quartet or an independent piece we have no means of ascertaining.
It appears fitting to cast a glance in this place on two works belonging to a later time, but falling within the same school of composition. These are the two "Pieces for an VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. organ in a clock," in F minor,[ 77 ] which have been published, and are well known as Fantasia and Sonata for the Pianoforte, for four hands. They both consist of a slow movement and another in lively, metrical style; their design is similar, but not identical. The first, composed in December, 1790 (594 K), opens with a solemn Adagio, whose impression of great gentleness is not disturbed by some harmonic harshness; it keeps strictly within the limits of an introduction. The Allegro in F major, formed by the imitative treatment of an agitated motif, is divided sonata-like into two parts, and returns through an harmonic transition to the Adagio, which is modified in a masterly way, and leads to a calm conclusion. The whole piece is marvellously rounded off; and the restlessness of the Allegro contrasts with, but does not oppose, the gentle expression of the Adagio. Each forms the fitting complement to the other.
The second piece (608 K.), composed on March 3, 1791, is more broadly planned, and has a greater depth of feeling. It begins with the Allegro, the first bars of which serve to introduce a fugue, admirably disposed and full of lovely melody, with a general tone of serious contemplation. When the fugue has been brought to a close by a stretto with the subject inverted, a striking harmonic transition leads back to the opening motif, which passes into the Andante in A flat major. Its treatment as a middle movement is more weighty and elaborate. A well-developed motif recurs again and again in varied figuration, connected by different interludes, and gives a general impression of pure and satisfied grace, touched with a breath of melancholy recollection, the natural development of the powerful feeling and contemplative spirit of the Allegro. But this happy calm is of short duration. The first movement returns; the fugue recommences, rendered more animated than before by a countersubject, and breaks off with a passionate conclusion.
These two compositions are a fresh proof of Mozart's deep insight into the nature of the forms of counterpoint, which gave him power to use them as the free expression of his individual nature; he is entitled to the praise of having brought these forms to their fullest perfection, an incalculable gain to the development of music, which has proceeded in other directions since his time. It is sometimes regretted that Mozart should have wasted his genius and his labour upon compositions for a toy clock.[ 78 ] We may rather remark how like a true artist he set himself to perform the task before him, and produced a work which, keeping within its given conditions, forms, nevertheless, a great and harmonious whole.
Mozart, having become acquainted through Van Swieten with the vocal compositions of Handel, Bach, and other masters of the church style, turned, as might be expected, with renewed zeal to this branch of musical art. Unfortunately, upon the introduction of the new regulations in church matters in 1783, the Emperor Joseph prohibited the performance of figured or instrumental church music in the churches of Vienna, and it was only at the court chapel or St. Stephen's cathedral, when the Archbishop celebrated, that musical masses could be performed. German congregational singing was substituted in other cases;[ 79 ] it was not liked, and many complaints were made that the total abolition of church music should have been deemed the only remedy for its abuses.[ 80 ] Thus Mozart was deprived of all hope of success in this direction. But he had undertaken in 1782, in performance of a vow, to compose a Mass for Salzburg; and this work bears distinct traces of the studies which were occupying him at the time. Mozart completed the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Benedictus of this Mass in C minor (427 K.); the first movement of the Credo is VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. complete as to the choir parts and bass, and the essential points of the accompaniment are indicated; in the same way the voices, obbligato wind instruments, and bass of the Incarnatus are fully written out, the rest of the accompaniment being only indicated. The whole plan and treatment of the Mass differ from those of the earlier ones. In the latter, limitation to a narrow standard and the subservience of the parts to the whole are the prevailing principles, while in the former the effort is evident to give as wide a signification as possible to each part in itself. With this object each section of the text is treated as an independent movement; the Gloria consists of seven completely detached pieces. The mechanism corresponds to its external divisions, and the treatment throughout is thematic and elaborate, for the most part in strict form. A wealth of resource is displayed in the means employed to give the desired effect; several of the choruses are five-part, one is eight-part, and then again four solo voices are introduced in various ways. The orchestra necessarily complies with the usual Salzburg conditions; the brass instruments are completely appointed, but neither flutes nor clarinets are used with the oboes and bassoons—all the effect of independence possible is given, chiefly by the skilful introduction and treatment of obbligato instruments. It cannot be said, however, that the instrumental part of this work is as brilliant and full of colour as others composed at the same period; the tone-colouring is on the whole monotonous; but there are not wanting some original instrumental effects, principally of the wind instruments. Such is the employment of the trombones (usually only a support to the voices), with independent effect in several parts of the Kyrie and Sanctus. The effect of the whole accompaniment consists mainly in the independence with which it contrasts with the voices, and is produced partly by effective passages and partly by skilful contrapuntal elaboration. That which most strikes us on a careful examination of this Mass is the dissimilarity of the movements in many respects, suggesting that it was undertaken as a study. The solo movements are the most important, more especially by reason of their bravura THE C MINOR MASS, 1782. treatment. Bravura was not considered by any means out of place in church music, and even the classical masters of the last century—such as Handel and Bach—did not exclude it from their sacred works. But it is curious that Mozart, who only introduced bravura into his dramatic music from complaisance to the singers, should have made concessions to the taste for it in this Mass. The first grand soprano solo is quite after the pattern of an old bravura aria, and displays little or nothing of Mozart's originality. It is so suggestive of the style of Graun or Hasse that we are inclined to suspect the influence of these masters through Van Swieten. More of Mozart's own character is given to the Incarnatus est, accompanied by the wind instruments, and containing touches of delicacy and grace; but the bravura goes beyond all bounds, especially in the twenty-two bars of cadenza for the voice and wind instruments. The duet for two sopranos, Domine Deus, and the terzet for two sopranos and tenor, Quoniam tu solus, are written in stricter form, both for voice and accompaniment, and are simpler and more dignified in expression.
But the inflexibility of form has something in it of pedantry; the work seems to be done as an exercise, and we seek in vain for the fresh wellings-up of inspiration which delight us even in less important compositions of Mozart. The same remark holds good of the choruses. The first five-part choral movement of the Credo accords most in design with the style of the earlier Masses. A lively subject shared between the strings and wind instruments forms, as it proceeds, the thread which binds the choral passages together; the latter are contrapuntally treated, and the whole movement is more solemn in tone than was usual in earlier works. The long fugue "Cum Sancto Spiritu" is admirably worked out, and, in spite of its difficulty, very clear. Notwithstanding all this, the nervous force of individual life is wanting to the work, and cannot be replaced by the artistic workmanship displayed in the different parts, even when these have force and character of their own, as for instance in the magnificent ending, when the voices in unison maintain the theme against a florid accompaniment.
VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC.
The Osanna has more of independent life; it is a long, elaborately fugued movement, the technical interest of which has engrossed the composer longer than was necessary.[ 81 ] The Benedictus in four parts, and worked out at length, is remarkable on account of its earnest, somewhat dry tone, which effectually distinguishes it from the same movement in other masses, to which a soft and pleasing character was given. The Kyrie, Gloria, and Sanctus are very fine movements, in which the skilful rendering of strictest form does not overpower the expression of feeling and the truly musical proportions of the work. The varied expression of the different passages is so suitable, so clear and telling, that we may see at once how firm a grasp Mozart had taken of the true spirit of church music. The crown of the composition, however, is the five-part Gratias with the eight-part Qui tollis, which are planned and executed in masterly fashion, and are penetrated with Mozart's spirit and life. Their earnestness, severe even to harshness, their breadth of outline and massive effects, are worthy of the great examples who were vividly present to his mind; and we cannot fail to discern the master who was stimulated by these very examples to draw more deeply on the resources of his own creative genius, and to soar to higher realms of art by the exertion of his own powers.
After the first performance of the Mass in its unfinished state at Salzburg, in 1783, Mozart laid it aside for more pressing work. But when in 1785 he was commissioned to write an oratorio for the concert for the Musical Fund DAVIDE PENITENTE," 1785. (March 13 and 14; Vol. II., p. 174), he determined to make use of the Kyrie and Gloria to which, with slight alterations, the Italian words of the "Davide Penitente" (469 K.) were adapted. He added (on March 6 and 11) two new arie for Mdlle. Cavalieri and Adamberger.[ 82 ] The work lost in unity of style more than it gained by the addition of these two songs, of which the orchestral accompaniment is in Mozart's later style, and the design and treatment are different from those of the other movements. They are both in the style of the concert arie of the time, and are quite equal to the best in expression and treatment of the voice. The Mozart-like character is more marked than in the rest of the work, but it does not reach its fullest development; and the arie are too florid for an oratorio. But the mixture of styles was then customary, and indeed brilliant solos were looked for by the public as a relief to the more serious choral movements.
At the present day there cannot be two opinions as to the impropriety of such a mixture.[ 83 ] The important point to be noted, however, is that just at the time when the instrumental and operatic music of Vienna threatened to banish altogether the severer and more classical style, Mozart became familiar through Van Swieten with the works of the classical masters. They laid deep hold on his imagination and intellect, giving him a powerful impulse to classical studies, without which his genius would not have arrived at a full mastery of his art; these studies, combined with his ever-growing powers of production, have impressed their indelible stamp upon the works of this period.[ 84 ]
