IV
After d'Indy, the other representative pupils of Franck have, with the exception of Guy Ropartz, had their careers cut short by premature death or illness. Nevertheless their accomplishment is far from being negligible, and adds lustre not only to the fame of their master but a very specific credit to French music.
Of these the most gifted was Ernest Chausson, born at Paris in 1855, who did not begin the serious study of music until after obtaining his bachelor's degree at law. Entering Massenet's composition class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1880, he tried for the prix de Rome in the following year and failed. He accordingly left the conservatory and worked arduously with César Franck until 1883. Chausson was a man of considerable property, who could thus afford to compose. A man of cultivation and polish, a gracious host and an amiable comrade in society, he was in secret almost obsessed by melancholy, lack of self-confidence despite his affectionate, lovable and gentle nature. He was retiring where his own interests were concerned, made no effort to push his works, and in consequence was not sought by managers. Possessing unusual discernment in literature and painting, he had a fine library, and a distinguished collection of paintings by Delacroix, Dégas, Lerolle, Besnard and Carrière. Thus like Chabrier before him and Debussy after him, Chausson's sympathies were keen in more than one branch of art. Chausson was eager to advance the cause of the Société Nationale and labored as its secretary for nearly a dozen years. His music was played at its concerts and elsewhere, and began to make its way. Chausson was just entering a new creative phase with greater self-confidence, assertion and technical preparedness. At work on a string quartet at his summer place Chimay, he went to refresh himself one afternoon with a bicycle ride, and was found by the roadside, his head crushed against a wall.
Chausson's music reflects his temperament with mirror-like responsiveness. With perhaps more native gifts than d'Indy, he lacked the latter's force of character and his passionate ambition for self-development. For long tormented by indecision as to whether to make music his profession or not, his technical facility was uncertain, and not always equal to the tasks he imposed upon it. Like d'Indy he was influenced both by Franck and Wagner. But he had a melodic vein that was his own, a personal harmonic idiom, expressed in music of poetic and delicately-colored romanticism. Perhaps the most prominent trait in his music is the indefinably affectionate sensibility of its emotion.
Chausson began as a composer of chamber music and songs. He soon entered the orchestral field with a prelude 'The Death of Coelio,' the symphonic poem Viviane, op. 5 (1882), and Solitude dans les bois (1886), later destroyed. If Viviane shows the insecure hand of the apprentice, its technical insecurity is more than counterbalanced by the exquisite poetry and romance which breathe from its pages. Chausson's orchestral masterpiece is his symphony in B-flat, op. 20 (1890), whose conception is noble and dignified, whose themes are mature and full of sentiment, and which has many eloquent pages. Though the work is deficient in rhythmic variety and flexibility of phrase, its underlying substance is too elevated to permit depreciation. Its orchestral style, despite Wagnerian obligations, shows a distinguished coloristic sense even in comparison with the unusual orchestral style of d'Indy. Despite certain defects, a Concert for piano, violin and string quartet, op. 21 (1890-91), a Poème, op. 25 (1896), for violin and orchestra, frequently played by Ysaye, a piano quartet, op. 30 (1897), and the unfinished string quartet bespeak the talent and promise of achievement which was never to be fulfilled. In the dramatic field, Chausson composed incidental music for performances at Bouchor's Marionette theatre of Shakespeare's Tempest, and Bouchor's Legend of St. Cecilia, a lyric drama Hélène (unpublished) and an opera, Le Roi Arthus (text by himself), performed at Brussels in the Théâtre de la Monnaie in 1903. That Chausson had dramatic instinct is especially evident in Le Roi Arthus, but there is immaturity in dramatic technique as well as a too lyrical treatment which detracts from the romantic atmosphere and imaginative conception of the whole. Among the songs, 'The Caravan,' 'Poem of Love' and 'The Sea' and the well-nigh perfect Chanson perpétuelle for voice and orchestra show Chausson's lyric gift at its best.
Chausson remains a figure of importance, even if much of his work suggests the possibilities of the future rather than claims a final judgment on its own account. Viviane, the Poème for violin, the piano quartet, the Chanson perpétuelle and above all the Symphony will survive their technical flaws on account of their individualistic expression of noble thoughts and fastidiously poetic emotion.
Henri Duparc, born at Paris in 1848, studied law as did d'Indy and Chausson. One of the earliest pupils of César Franck, he was also one of the first Frenchmen to recognize Wagner, and made journeys with Chabrier and d'Indy to hear his works in Germany. From 1869, Duparc composed piano pieces, songs, chamber music and works for orchestra. A merciless critic of his own music, he has destroyed several works, including a sonata for violoncello and piano, and two orchestral studies. Since 1885 Duparc's career as a composer has been closed owing to persistent ill health. He is known by a symphonic poem Lénore (1875) after the ballad by Bürger, and something more than a dozen songs. The symphonic poem is interesting if not remarkable, but the songs reveal the born lyricist. Through thirty years of silence, the vitality of some of these persists, especially L'Invitation au voyage, Ecstase, Lamento, and Phydilé, as possessing distinctive qualities which place them in the front rank of French lyrics.
Guillaume Lekeu (1870-94), another tragically unfulfilled artist of Belgian descent, played the violin at fourteen, studied the music of Bach, Beethoven and Wagner by himself, and at the age of nineteen had an orchestral piece, Le Chant de triomphale délivrance, performed at Verviers, 'without having had a single lesson in composition.'[56] From 1888 he lived in Paris, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in philosophy. He became a friend of the poet Mallarmé, at whose gatherings of poets, painters and philosophers Claude Debussy found such illuminating inspiration. Lekeu completed the study of harmony with Gaston Vallin, a pupil of Franck, and soon came under the influence of Franck himself. After Franck's death, he continued composition lessons with d'Indy. D'Indy urged Lekeu, as a native Belgian, to compete for the Belgian prix de Rome. In 1891 he obtained the second prize with a cantata Andromède. Its performance later was so successful as to question the decision of the judges. In 1892 Lekeu wrote the sonata for piano and violin, which was frequently played by Ysaye. In the same year he finished a Fantasie symphonique on two folk-tunes of Angers. While working at a piano quartet, Lekeu died suddenly in 1894 from a relapse after typhoid fever. Despite the contrary indications in his music, Lekeu was of a gay, outgoing nature, full of spontaneity and exuberance.
Besides the works mentioned he left songs, a piano sonata, chamber music and orchestral pieces, among them symphonic studies on 'Hamlet' and 'Faust' (second part). It is perhaps inevitable that much of his music should be immature, but the sonata for piano and violin and the piano quartet show indisputable gifts of a very high order, in which melodic inspiration, frank harmonic experiments (some of them more felicitous than others), an original and thoughtful kind of beauty, and strong delineation of tragic moods are the most salient qualities.
Alexis de Castillon (1838-73) showed early aptitude for music, but was educated for the army in deference to the wishes of his family. After leaving the military school of Saint-Cyr, he became a cavalry officer. But the impulse toward music was too strong and after several years he resigned from the army. He had studied music in a desultory fashion before, and now turned to Victor Massé (the composer of a popular operetta, Les Noces de Jeannette). From him he learned little or nothing. In 1868 Duparc introduced de Castillon to César Franck, who gladly received him as a pupil. De Castillon served valiantly during the Franco-Prussian war and then returned to his chosen profession only to die two years later, leaving piano pieces, songs, some half a dozen chamber works including the piano and violin sonata op. 6, a concerto for piano, orchestral pieces, and a setting of the 84th Psalm. By reason of the vicissitudes of his life, de Castillon was never able to do justice to his gifts. The sonata, a string quartet, and a piano quartet, op. 7, show a native predisposition for chamber music, which assuredly would have ripened had the composer's life been spared. At his funeral were assembled Bizet, Franck, Lalo, Duparc, d'Indy, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, and others who had 'loved the artist and the man.'[57] Impressed by this assemblage one of de Castillon's relatives remarked: 'Then he really had talent!'[58]
Charles Bordes (1865-1905) should receive some mention, not only for his piano pieces, songs, sacred music, and orchestral works, but for innumerable transcriptions and arrangements of folk-songs, cantatas, vocal pieces by various French composers, and his anthology of religious music of the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Furthermore his organization of the Chanteurs de Saint Gervais gave a decided impulse toward the revival of sacred music, and his labors at the Schola in Paris and the branch established at Montpellier give evidence of his untiring devotion to the cause of art.
In contrast to the pathetic incompleteness of the careers of Chausson, Lekeu, de Castillon, and Bordes, Guy Ropartz has been enabled by reason of his long activity to round out his talent. Joseph-Guy-Marie Ropartz was born at Guincamp in the north of France in 1864. After completing his general education he graduated from the law school at Rennes and was admitted to the bar. Then, like d'Indy and Chausson, he gave up law for music, entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Dubois and Massenet. In 1887 he left the Conservatoire to be a pupil of Franck. In 1894 he became director of the conservatory at Nancy, a position which he still holds.
Ropartz has been an industrious composer, and among his works are incidental music for four dramas, including Pierre Loti's and Louis Tiercelius' drama Pêcheur d'Islande; a music drama, Le Pays; four symphonies; a fantasia; a symphonic study, La Chasse du Prince Arthur; several suites for orchestra; two string quartets; a sonata for violoncello and piano, and one for violin and piano; many songs and vocal pieces including a setting of the 137th Psalm.
Following the principles of Franck, he tends toward cyclical forms on generative themes, and in addition employs Breton folk-songs in orchestral and dramatic works. The symphony in C major, by its treatment of a generative phrase, emphasizes his fidelity to his master, but despite effective and transparent orchestration the work is lacking in strong individuality and in inherent logic and continuity in development. The sonatas for violin and for violoncello with piano display adequate workmanship and conception of style but do not possess concrete musical persuasiveness. Ropartz appears in the most favorable light when his music gives free utterance to nationalistic sentiment and 'local color.' His Breton suite and the Fantasia have a rustic piquancy and rhythmic verve which give evidence of sincere conviction.
Le Pays is said by no less an authority than Professor Henri Lichtenberger to belong to 'the little group of works which, like Pelléas et Mélisande of Debussy, Ariane et Barbe-bleue of Dukas, Le Cœur du Moulin of Déodat de Séverac, L'Heure espagnole of Ravel, have distinct value and significance in the evolution of our French art.'[59] But a study of the music does not entirely bear this out. Ropartz shows in this music drama an obvious gift for the stage, and his music clearly heightens the dramatic situations. In its freedom from outside influence it undoubtedly possesses historical significance, but in compelling originality it does not maintain the level of the works mentioned above.
The foregoing pupils of Franck are those who have best illustrated the didactic standpoint of their revered master, both as regards technical treatment and uncompromising self-expression. Of these d'Indy is incomparably the most distinguished by virtue of the continuity of his development, the intrinsic message of his music, and his remarkable faculty for organization in educative propaganda. If Chausson, Lekeu, and Bordes were prevented from reaping the just rewards to which their gifts entitled them, they attained not only enough for self-justification but have left a definite imprint on the course of modern French music.
In conclusion, though Franck's pupils are not iconoclastic, though they seem ultra-reactionary in some respects, their united efforts have preserved intact the traditions of one of the noblest figures in French music, and in their works is to be found music of such lofty conception, admirable technical execution, and fearless expression of personality as to make the task of disparagement futile and ungrateful. Moreover, this influence has not ceased with the actual pupils of Franck. The names and works of Magnard,[60] Roussel, de Séverac and Samazeuilh attest the fact that the Franckian tradition is still a living force.
While Emmanuel Chabrier and Gabriel Fauré showed the way for new vitality in musical expression and the pupils of Franck demonstrated that the resources of conservatism were not yet exhausted, new movements were also on foot which may be classified as belonging to the 'impressionistic or atmospheric' school. A consideration of this movement, together with some unclassifiable figures and an indication of the work of some younger men, will follow in the next chapter.
E. B. H.
FOOTNOTES:
[44] Vincent d'Indy: César Franck, pp. 82 et seq.
[45] Romain Rolland: Musiciens d'aujourd'hui, pp. 230 et seq.
[46] Octave Séré: Musiciens français d'aujourd'hui, p. 83.
[47] Ibid., p. 83.
[48] S. I. M., April 15, 1911.
[49] Vincent d'Indy: César Franck.
[50] Autobiographical Sketch in 'The Music-Lover's Calendar,' Boston, 1905.
[51] Charles Bordes founded the Chanteurs de St. Gervaise in 1892 to perform sixteenth-century music, and more worthy later choral works. Including the study of plain-chant, better standards in modern church music, and higher requirements in organists, this association became the Schola Cantorum in 1894. As a school it was incorporated as above.
[52] The theme of the Beloved, employed in the orchestral poem Souvenirs, op. 62.
[53] From the Cévennes region.
[54] Melody employed in the service proper to the Feast of the Assumption.
[55] 'On accuse les compositeurs de debussysme, on ne leur reproche plus d'être wagnériens.'—Preface to 2nd edition, Fervaal, Étude thématique, by Pierre de Bréville and Henri Laubers Villars.
[56] Octave Séré: Musiciens français d'aujourd'hui, p. 272.
[57] Louis Gallet: Notes d'un Librettist, quoted by Octave Séré in Musiciens français d'aujourd'hui, p. 73.
[58] Ibid.
[59] Lowell Institute Lecture, Jan. 7, 1915. Reported in the 'Boston Transcript.'
[60] Magnard died in September, 1914, somewhat quixotically defending his cause against the Germans.
CHAPTER X
DEBUSSY AND THE ULTRA-MODERNISTS
Impressionism in Music—Claude Debussy, the pioneer of the 'atmospheric' school; his career, his works and his influence—Maurice Ravel, his life and work—Alfred Bruneau; Gustave Charpentier—Paul Dukas—Miscellany; Albert Roussel and Florent Schmitt.
The trend of ultra-modern French music has been so swift in its development that the significant episodes crowd upon one another's heels when they do not stride along side by side. Within a year or two after the death of César Franck and Edouard Lalo, while Saint-Saëns was in the full tide of his ceaseless productivity, while Massenet, then famed as the composer of Manon, was shortly to meditate his Thaïs and La Navarraise, while the irrepressible Chabrier was beginning to pay the toll of his strenuous activity, while Fauré's songs had already won recognition for their subtle mixtures of sensuousness and mysticism, while d'Indy and Chausson were evolving their individuality on the lines laid down by their revered master, there arose strikingly new principles of musical expression, involving a new æsthetic standpoint, an enlargement of harmonic resource, supplying a new and vital idiom which is perhaps the most characteristically Gallic of the ultra-modern movements centred in Paris. These principles have crystallized into the impressionistic or 'atmospheric' school, whose rise during the past fifteen or twenty years has been little short of meteoric.
The subject of parallelism between the arts with a definite interacting influence is a fertile one for discussion. While but little space can be devoted here to enlargement upon this topic, it may be observed that with the advance of culture the intervening time before one art reacts upon another becomes shorter. If the Renaissance was relatively slow in affecting music, the revolutionary outbreaks of 1830 and 1848 were more nearly synchronous, while in the case of realism and impressionism, the resulting confluence of principles was nearly simultaneous. Fortunately the basic methods of impressionism in painting and poetry are so well understood that no definition of their purposes is needful beyond a reminder that they aim to subordinate detail in favor of the effect as a whole. In music impressionism is obtained by procedures analogous if markedly dissimilar from those employed in painting. The results are alike in that both arts have gained enormously in scope of subject as well as in greater brilliancy, elusive poetry and human significance in their treatment.