III
Italian piano composers are few; only one of them touches the high-water mark. Franco da Venezia is his name and he has put to his credit a Konzertstück for piano and orchestra and some very unusual shorter pieces for pianoforte solo. The former is regarded as a splendid work. Of the morceaux we cannot say too much. Da Venezia is a man of strong physiognomy. He makes no compromises to win his public, he writes no salon music. Look at his 'Caravan and Prayer in the Desert' and you will know what he can do with the keyboard of the piano! Then turn the pages of a short poem for the piano, L'Isle des morts, in which there is more real feeling than in the volumes of many a fashionable modern Frenchman. Fire has been struck here; nor has it been lighted to express some happy little thought that might please amateur pianists. In this music a tone-poet speaks and his message is worth listening to. Paolo Frontini is another man who has written much for the piano. Not important music is his like that of da Venezia, but he has done some very agreeable pieces, musicianly in execution and certainly worthy of acquaintance. Mario Tarenghi, Muzio Agostini and a half dozen others, whose names would scarcely be worth recording, have contributed small shares. Modern Italy's piano composer is Signor da Venezia. It is to him that we must look for the Italian piano music of the day.
Corelli, Vivaldi, Vitali, Veracini and a host of others held the high standard of their country in violin music in the days of the classic foundations. We have not forgotten Corelli's La Follia, the sonatas of these other men, nor the superb chaconne of Vitali. These men were violinists and their répertoire was acquired and increased by their own compositions. Until Nicolo Paganini appeared in 1782 the Italian violin literature was scarcely enlarged. And Paganini's music had value only as violin music, whereas theirs had and has a place to-day both as music and as music for the violin. Now again an Italian violinist has come forward, the musician who has established a string quartet in Rome, where he gives his concerts every year for a discriminating public. Rosario Scalero has in a sense atoned for the woeful lack of violin composition in his country. Scalero is not perhaps as original a composer as we would like to have him; he has followed German models and has studied seriously. But his sonata in D minor for violin and piano is one of the best modern sonatas we have, and we must be grateful that it has come to us from a land that has done little since the seventeenth century in producing chamber music for the violin. This sonata leans a little on Brahms, but there is in it at the same time something of that Italian feeling which one recognizes so easily in music, whether it be for the violin, piano, orchestra or what not. Scalero has also put forth revisions of some of the classical sonatas by the old Italian masters, revisions that show his erudition and artistic judgment.
Some short compositions and a 'Piedmontese Rhapsody' by Sinigaglia constitute that very interesting musician's contribution to violin music. They are all of them idiomatically conceived and effective in performance. The Rhapsody is made up of folk-songs of Piedmont, quite as are the orchestral dances which have been discussed. It is an exceptionally felicitous piece to perform, and with orchestral accompaniment it should soon replace such hackneyed music as Saint-Saëns's Rondo Capriccioso. Beyond the efforts of these two men nothing of value is being written for the violin by the modern Italians.
Before turning to the discussion of the art-song we must speak of that curious musical personality, Don Lorenzo Perosi, born in 1872, who is the representative of oratorio in his land to-day. Also the Italian organ composers. Perosi began his career by startling all who knew him with his pretentious works in which he has employed Biblical narratives as the subject for long oratorios. His 'Resurrection of Lazarus' when first produced in Venice fixed the attention of the world upon him. It was said that a new Palestrina had been found. All kinds of honors were paid him. A street in his native Tortona was named after him. His services as conductor at presentations of his oratorios were sought. We cannot do better than to quote the remarks of Luigi Torchi, who seems to have examined his productions very carefully. He says: 'After all, why this hurrah about Perosi? He, whose recreation in times past was to compose cathedral church hymns after the pattern of the Protestant chorales, writes at present his vulgarly vaunted oratorios. This little abbé, born with theatrical, operatic talent, and not being permitted as a priest to write operas, in fault of religious feeling gives vent by way of compensation to the fullness of his romantic and sentimental exultations. And look at the form of his compositions: a frequency of tedious recitatives with words that follow literally the text of the Bible; little melodies, properly beginnings without endings, without any severe dignity of line, alternate with more or less long instrumental pieces of lyrical character; a couple of modern church anthems, in a work drawn from the New Testament; plain-song harmonized tragically, and some attempts at operatic realism, ecclesiastical harmonies and realistic operatic style.... He follows the lead of Wagner, and makes use of the leit-motif; soon after he delights in turning his back on him, and offers a badly made fugue on a subject that smells of too classic times. He has a fondness for instrumental phrases of much color, but his purely orchestral numbers are puerile, and betray no knowledge of modern orchestration. He has learned to compose pieces without ideas, fugues without developments, and, that he might not be too badly off, orchestral intermezzos, written and orchestrated with the knowledge of a schoolboy. Perosi has undertaken the task of illustrating the life of our Saviour in twelve oratorios. If he should keep his word, he should be pardoned.'
Thus this abbé-composer is disposed of. Marco Enrico Bossi, born in 1861 in Brescia, has written two oratorios, 'Paradise Lost' and 'Joan of Arc,' fine, sincere works along lines that add little to what has been done in the field before his time. He is at least dignified and knows his craft and so, unlike Perosi, cannot be charged with being a poseur. He is the foremost living organ composer that Italy owns. And it is in this department of activity that he is at his best. Some will think that he should have been mentioned with the orchestral composers. But his orchestral works are of the Sgambati-Martucci kind, and, since he is one of the younger men, it would be hardly proper to discuss academic essays along with the work of those men who are blazing paths. His chamber music, including a fine trio 'In Memoriam,' is creditable but undistinguished. It is only in his organ music that an individual note is found.
Cesare Galeotti, Oreste Ravanello, Polibio Fumagalli, Filippo Capocci, these are names of men who have written in recent years and are writing (some of them) organ music to-day. Capocci has done several sonatas of a pleasing type, as has Fumagalli, while the other two have confined themselves to working in the smaller forms, often with much success.
Two native Italians who have made their homes in America must be mentioned here. They are Pietro Alessandro Yon and Giuseppe Ferrata. Mr. Yon is a young man of unquestioned talent. He was born in Settimo in 1886 and occupies the post of organist of the Church of St. Francis Xavier, New York, devoting a good portion of his time, however, to composition. Just as it is the duty of organists of Anglican churches to turn out an occasional Te Deum or Jubilate, so must the Catholic church organist produce a Mass every now and then. Mr. Yon is one of those who when he comes forward with a Mass gives us a musical work of distinction, not a pièce d'occasion. He has written a number of them, but particularly fine is his recent Mass in A. Here the true ecclesiastical spirit of the Roman church is to be found; and what a mastery of polyphony does this young Italian exhibit! His organ compositions are also praiseworthy, a charming 'Christmas in Sicily' and a 'Prelude-Pastorale' (Dies est laetitiæ) being characteristic examples.
Giuseppe Ferrata (b. 1866) lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches and composes. His list of works is a long one, including a Messe solennelle for solo voices, chorus or mixed voices and organ or orchestra, a Mass in G minor for male voices and organ, numerous songs, piano pieces, and a dozen or more violin compositions in small forms. He should be praised especially for a very fine string quartet in G major and a group of sterling organ compositions. Mr. Ferrata's path to success has not been made easier by his living in America; it has, in a sense, taken him away from Italy and her ways and, though it has doubtless given him a freer viewpoint, he has had to struggle for a hearing. His compositions are only now being recognized and given performances. He has something to say, has a fine compositional technique, and he is disposed to add to his style the innovations of modern harmonic thought.