II
We shall now consider some of these 'transition' composers in detail; first the Germans, then the French.
Certain attributes they all have in common. Most of them lived long and prospered, enjoying a wide influence or popularity in their day; Lachner and Reinecke both came near to ninety; Volkmann near eighty; Saint-Saëns is still hale at eighty. All of them were highly productive: Hiller, Reinecke, Raff, and Lachner surpassed 200 in their opus-numbers; Saint-Saëns has gone well over a hundred; and Massenet has written no less than twenty-three operas alone. Nearly all of them were either virtuosos or conductors: Hiller, Reinecke, Saint-Saëns, Bülow, Henselt, Heller were brilliant pianists; Lachner, Saint-Saëns, and Widor also organists; Godard a violinist. The first four of these were eminent conductors. Most of them were pedagogues besides; some, such as Reinecke, Hiller, Jadassohn, Rietz, and Massenet, among the most eminent of their generation.
Franz Lachner is the oldest of them. He was born, 1803, in Rain (Upper Bavaria), and died, 1890, in Munich. Thus he came near filling out four-score and ten, antedating Wagner by ten years and surviving him by seven. His career came into actual collision with that of the Bayreuth master too, since the latter's coming to Munich as the favorite of the newly ascended King Ludwig II forced Lachner from his autocratic position as general musical director.
Many forces must have reacted upon an artist whose life thus spans the ages. He was a friend of Schubert in Vienna, where he became organist in 1824, and is said to have found favor even with Beethoven. Sechter and Abbé Stadler gave him the benefit of their learning. After holding various conductor's posts in Vienna and in Mannheim he finally found his way to Munich, where he had already brought out his D minor symphony with success. As court kapellmeister he conducted the opera, the church performances of the royal chapel choir and the concerts of the Academy, meanwhile creating a long series of successful works, nearly all of which exhibit his astounding contrapuntal skill. His seven orchestral suites, a form which he and Raff revived, occupy a special place in orchestral literature, as a sort of direct continuation of Bach's and Händel's instrumental works. They are veritable treasure stores of contrapuntal art. Perhaps another generation will appreciate them better; to-day they have fallen into neglect. This is even more true of his eight symphonies, four operas, two oratorios, etc. Of his chamber music (piano quartets, string quartets, quintets, sextets, nonet for wind, etc.), his piano pieces and songs, influenced by Schubert, some few numbers have survived.
Most prominent in Mendelssohn's immediate train is Ferdinand Hiller. His junior only by two years (he was born Oct. 24, 1811, in Frankfurt), he followed closely in the footsteps of that master. Like him, he came of Jewish and well-to-do parents; like him, he had the advantage of an early training, a broad culture and wide travel. A pupil of Hummel and a brilliant pianist, he was presented to Beethoven in Vienna; in Paris he hobnobbed with Cherubini, Rossini, Chopin, Liszt, Meyerbeer and Berlioz, taught and concertized; in Milan he produced an opera (Romilda) by the aid of Rossini. Mendelssohn, already his friend, brought out his oratorio 'Jerusalem Destroyed' at the Gewandhaus in 1840, and in 1843-44 (after a sojourn in Rome) he himself directed the Gewandhaus concerts made famous by Mendelssohn. Shortly after, he inaugurated a series of subscription concerts in Dresden, also conducting a chorus, and there brought out two operas (Traum in der Christnacht, 1845, and Konradin, 1847). Finally he did for Cologne what Mendelssohn had done for Leipzig by organizing the conservatory and the Gewandhaus concerts: he established the Cologne conservatory (1850) and became conductor of the Konzertgesellschaft and the Konzertchor, both of which participated in the famous Gürzenich concerts and the Rhenish music festivals. The eminence of his position may be deduced from the fact that in 1851-52 he was asked to direct the Italian opera in Paris. As teacher and pianist he was no less renowned. For that reason alone history cannot ignore him.
As a composer Hiller illustrates what we have said of the degeneration of the early romantic school into musical genre, though as a contemporary of Mendelssohn he must be reckoned as a by-rather than a post-romantic. He commanded only the small forms, in which, however, he displayed great technical finish, polished grace and a 'clever pedantry.' In short piano pieces, Rêveries (of which he wrote four series), impromptus, rondos, marches, waltzes, variations, and études he was especially happy. An F-sharp major piano concerto, sonatas and suites, as well as his chamber works (violin and 'cello sonatas, trios, quartets, etc.), are grateful and pleasing in their impeccable smoothness. But his six operas, two oratorios, three symphonies and other large works have gone the way of oblivion. His numerous overtures, cantatas, choral ballads, vocal quartets, duets and songs stamp him as a real, miniature-loving romantic. In productivity, too, he remains true to the breed; his opus numbers exceed two hundred. Hiller died in Cologne in 1885.
Another friend of Mendelssohn was Julius Rietz (1812-77), whose brother Eduard, the violinist, had been the friend of the greater master's youth. He, too, after conducting in Düsseldorf, came to the Leipzig Gewandhaus as Gade's successor in 1848, took Mendelssohn's place as municipal musical director and taught at the conservatory until he became court kapellmeister and head of the conservatory in Dresden. His editorial work, the complete editions of the works of Bach, Händel, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Mozart, published by the house of Breitkopf and Härtel, are important. His compositions are wholly influenced by Mendelssohn.
Among the few who actually had the benefit of Mendelssohn's personal tuition is Richard Wüerst (1824-81), whose activities were, however, centred in Berlin, where he was musical director from 1874, royal professor from 1877, and a member of the Academy. His second symphony (op. 21) was prize-crowned in Cologne and his cantata, Der Wasserneck, is a grateful composition for mixed chorus. Several of his songs also have become popular.
Karl Reinecke is less exclusive in his influence. He divides his allegiance at least equally between Mendelssohn and Schumann. He is the example par excellence of the professional musician, the cobbler who sticks to his last. He did not, like Hiller, indulge in literary chit-chat about his art, confining himself to writings of pedagogical import. He learned his craft from his father, an excellent musician and drill-master, and never had to go outside his home for direct instruction. Thus he became an accomplished pianist (unrivalled at least in one department—Mozart), at nineteen appeared as virtuoso in Sweden and Denmark, and in 1846-48 was court pianist to King Christian VIII. After spending some time in Paris he joined Hiller's teaching staff in Cologne conservatory, then held conductor's posts in Barmen and Breslau, and finally (1860) occupied Mendelssohn's place at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. There, when the new building was dedicated in 1884, his bust in marble was placed beside those of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and not till 1885 was he dethroned from his seat of authority—with the advent of Nikisch. At the conservatory, too, his activity was continuous from 1860 on—as instructor in piano and free composition. From 1897 to his retirement in 1902 he was director of studies.
Reinecke was born in 1824 at Altona, near Hamburg, and enjoyed the characteristic longevity of the 'transition' composers, living well into the neighborhood of ninety. In fecundity he surpasses even Hiller, for his works number well-nigh three hundred. Besides Mendelssohnian perfection, well-rounded classic form and fine organization in workmanship, flavored with a touch of Schumannesque subjectivity, Reinecke shows traces of more advanced influences. The idioms of Brahms and even the 'New Germans' crept into his work as time went on. Of course, since Reinecke was a famous pedagogue, his piano compositions (sonatas for two and four hands, sonatinas, fantasy pieces, caprices, and many other small forms) enjoyed a great reputation as teaching material, which somewhat overshadowed their undoubted intrinsic value as music. His four piano concertos are no longer heard, nor are those for violin, for 'cello, and for harp. But his chamber music—the department where thorough musicianship counts for most—is no doubt the most staple item in his catalogue. There are a quintet, a quartet, seven trios, besides three 'cello sonatas, four violin sonatas, and a fantasy for violin and piano, also a sonata for flute. His most popular and perhaps his best work are the Kinderlieder, 'of classic importance in every sense, easily understood by children and not without interest for adults.'[3] Again it is the miniature form that prevails. Similarly in the orchestral field, the overtures (Dame Kobold, Aladin, Friedensfeier, Festouvertüre, In memoriam) and the serenade for string orchestra have outlasted the three symphonies, while the operas ('King Manfred,' 1867, three others, and the singspiel 'An Adventure of Händel'), as well as an oratorio, masses, etc., have already faded from memory, though the smaller choral works, with orchestra and otherwise (including the Fairy Poems for women's voices and the cycle Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe), still maintain themselves in the repertoire of German societies.
Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902) was still more of a pedagogue and less of a composer. Yet he wrote copiously, over one hundred works being published. It is to be noted that he was a pupil of Liszt as well as Moritz Hauptmann, but he gravitated to Leipzig and lived there from 1852 on. He has a particular fondness for the canon form and makes his chief mark in orchestral and chamber music. But his teaching manuals on harmony and counterpoint are his real monument.