III
Among the most earnest and advanced leaders of American music stands Arne Oldberg (b. 1874), a musical personality of the highest nobility and idealism, and a consummate master of his art. Unquestionably as fully equipped master of thematic development in the cyclic forms as America has produced, his loftily conceived chamber music and orchestral works present themselves in a spiritual and technical serenity, artistic authenticity and completeness, which baffle the critical beholder. Indeed, it is with the music-makers who wrote before relentless Beethoven forced the skyey goddess down into the world-struggle that Oldberg has the closest spiritual kinship. Never since Mozart has music been more bafflingly 'absolute' than in the bulk of his works in orchestral and chamber music, and piano forms. The appearance of these works, so modern from the standpoint of thematic and formal development in this epoch, seems to call for a revision of modern musical psychology and philosophy. Much of modern 'pure' music is too dramatic to endure a comparison in this respect, or else too philosophical and too deeply involved in the world-problem. To Brahms' technical system that of Oldberg more nearly corresponds than to any other.
In this music, at the same time, there is no reversion to the style of an earlier day; it carries no slogan of 'back to Mozart.' Trained as he was in the severe school of Joseph Rheinberger, to Oldberg, to be sure, the modern French school does not exist, but neither, for that matter, does the traditional shadow of turgidity and heaviness which hangs about the Teutonic genius even at its most idealistic. Those who think to perceive a measure of old-fashionedness in his music are looking at the letter rather than the spirit, which is ever onward and creative, though in its own way, and without admitting that modern progress lies only in the adoption of the Gallic idiom. It is the music of spiritual upliftment and refreshment, waiting its day until sensationalism and mere color-riot shall have lost their power to appeal.
The two quintets for piano and strings (opera 16 and 24) present a joyous and upspringing lyricism all but unknown to the music of the day, together, especially in the latter and more mature work, with a thematic involution that would be appalling were it not for the exuberant spontaneity of their inspiration. A string quartet in C minor (opus 15) is a less complete revelation of the composer's powers. A woodwind quintet in E flat major (opus 18), on the other hand, is a miracle of gladness and of grave and haunting loveliness.
A symphony in F (opus 23), twice rewritten but not yet performed, contains a slow movement that represents the composer at his highest level of contemplative beauty. The overture 'Paolo and Francesca' (opus 21) marks a departure from his usual absolutism; it is a work of large dimensions and great warmth of feeling, and made a deep impression upon the listeners when performed by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra on January 17-18, 1908. The same orchestra has given performances of Oldberg's 'Academic Overture,' written for the Northwest University at Evanston, Ill., a 'Theme and Variations' (opus 19), and a set of 'Symphonic Variations,' for organ and orchestra (opus 35), the variation form being one in the possibilities of which Oldberg has great faith. An almost uniform success has followed these various performances. A second symphony, in C minor (opus 34) has followed the first in F, and there is a recent 'Orchestral Rhapsody' (opus 36). An 'Arabesque' for piano (opus 31) shows the composer in a new vein. The admirable 'Symphonic' concerto for piano and orchestra (opus 17), and the horn concerto (opus 20), are almost entirely unknown. There are besides these works a considerable number of piano works, a sonata (opus 28) of great lyrical charm, a very extraordinary set of 'Thematic Variations,' a poetic and stirring 'Legend,' a set of three beautiful and highly interesting 'Miniatures,' and various other works.
Mr. Oldberg was born at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1874. He is of Norse extraction, being of the third generation on American soil, and holds the chair of music at the Northwestern University.
Much space would be required in which to give an adequate account of the creative activities of Henry Hadley (b. 1871), one of the most spontaneous and prolific of American composers, and one of the best known, at home and abroad.
By temperament and choice of subject matter Hadley places himself in the ranks of the romanticists, but his tenacious loyalty to the symphonic form, among a wide variety of other forms, bespeaks a neo-classical leaning and is scarcely to be explained by a mere desire to essay expression in all forms. Moreover, while in orchestral technique Hadley is a student and, in some sort, a disciple of Richard Strauss, unlike that composer he inclines, in his orchestral works other than symphonic, to the overture form rather than the less closely knit 'tone-poem.' In orchestral realism he follows Strauss but a short way, eschewing violence and holding a rather unique middle course between realism and impressionism; something more than impressionist merely, a suggestive realist he might be termed.
Everywhere in Hadley's music is energy, fancy, the spirit of youth. It bubbles and glints, running an inexhaustible gamut of varying tints and ingenious and poetic tonal designs. It is the music of immense enjoyment of objective life, of actions, sights, emotions. Too eager and full of action to be deeply reflective, too happy to be philosophic, it is the part of Hadley's music to quicken the sense of life and of delight in the teeming visible world about us. Sombre, pensive, or bleak it may be at times, according to the composer's expressive need, but it is the tone-poet's fancy that decrees it, never a confession of Weltschmerz on the composer's part.
The first symphony, 'Youth and Life' (opus 25), is highly characteristic of the buoyancy, the nervous energy, and the imaginative fertility of the composer. The second, 'The Four Seasons' (opus 30), is a delicate balance, within the classical form, of romanticism, impressionism, and symbolism. It is romanticism that predominates, however, although such distinct impressions as those of wintry blasts and falling autumn leaves are happy and noteworthy features of the work. The languor and sun-warmed luxuriance of mid-summer finds poignant and beautiful expression. The third symphony, in B minor (opus 60), seems to be less well known than the others. The fourth symphony, 'North, East, South, West' (opus 64), was received with enthusiasm when produced under the direction of the composer at a meeting of the Litchfield County Choral Union, on June 6, 1911. Hadley indulges in a little aboriginal Americanism in the 'South' and 'West' movements, though his only definitely discernible 'nationalism' lies in his inherent temperamental character. The four symphonies reveal a constantly progressive growth in modern harmonic vision and in orchestral mastery. The only American composer to enter the field of symphonic conducting as a profession, Hadley, in his technical development, has made the most of his contact with the orchestra.
There are three overtures, 'Hector and Andromache,' the jubilant 'In Bohemia,' and one of sombre character to Stephen Phillips' 'Herod.' A tone-poem, 'Salome,' finds him at his nearest to Strauss in ideals, even if not in style. His most recent orchestral work, produced in 1914, is entitled 'Lucifer.' From earlier days are several 'Ballet Suites,' an 'Oriental Suite' and a 'Symphonic Fantasie.' The still more recent 'Culprit Fay,' after Rodman Drake's poem, has won various and deserved honors. Hadley's one grand opera, 'Safie,' dating from his incumbency as opera conductor in Mainz, Germany, was produced there on April 4, 1909, but has not been heard in America. There are songs in great number and variety, several cantatas, a number of works in different small forms, and considerable church music.
Hadley is a native of Massachusetts, and comes of a musical family. Among his teachers are, first, his father, and later Chadwick in Boston and Mandyczewski in Vienna. He has several times been a prize-winner with his compositions, the second symphony winning the Paderewski Prize and one offered by the New England Conservatory, both in 1901, and the 'Culprit Fay' winning the National Federation of Musical Clubs' Prize in 1909. Mr. Hadley became conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in 1909 and the San Francisco Orchestra in 1911, which latter post he still holds.
One of the sturdiest musical figures in the ranks of American arrivés is Frederick Shepherd Converse (b. 1871), artistically of strong romantic leanings, although brought up under the classic influences of the widely influential course in theory conducted by the late James K. Paine at Harvard University. A taker of honors here, as well as at Munich under Rheinberger, where he went after a period of study with Chadwick in Boston, Converse has realized a degree of scholarship seldom attained or even aspired to in America. He is typically representative of what might be called the second generation of modern American composers, the one following immediately upon that of Foote, Chadwick, and their colleagues. Like all the active minds of his generation, he exhibits the tendency to break the shackles of classical tradition while still preserving reverence for its ideals. With the exception of one retrospective inspiration, the string quartet (opus 18), he appears to be done with the sonata form at about the eighth opus number. Previous to that he had produced a symphony in D minor (opus 7), a sonata for violin (opus 1), a string quartet, and an overture. The later string quartet has qualities of admirable lyrical beauty.
It is in his large romantic outreachings that Converse is best and most favorably known. Indeed, the composer himself styles his first orchestral tone-poem, the 'Festival of Pan,' a 'romance.' Subsequent orchestral works in so-called 'free' form (an absurd term, since every authentic form gains its strength through conformity to some law, even if not a familiar one) are 'Endymion's Vision,' a bit too 'free' in form but of rich and imaginative orchestral color, and, better known and more highly appraised, 'The Mystic Trumpeter,' after Walt Whitman. 'Night' and 'Day,' two poems for piano and orchestra, and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, ballade for baritone and orchestra, as well as the orchestral works mentioned, have all been produced by orchestras and artists of the first prominence and with marked success.
Mr. Converse has made two heroic ventures onto the still unwon but yielding field of American grand opera. 'The Pipe of Desire,' with text by George E. Barton, a one-act opera, is in mood a reflection from the poets of the Celtic twilight. It was given a special production of three performances in Boston, in 1906, and experienced a brief revival, in March, 1910, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and in the following January in Boston. A second opera, in three acts, 'The Sacrifice,' dealing with a romantic Spanish-Californian subject, is regarded as showing a marked advance in operatic style. It was produced by the Boston Opera Company in March, 1911, with a measure of success, but the scope of its bearings has not yet been extended. Mr. Converse's most recent large work was the composition of the music for the 'Pageant and Masque of St. Louis,' May 28-31, 1914, a broad and vigorous piece of writing. In general, his music is of strong fibre, harmoniously and melodically and warm in color, though his style has not yet broken wholly away from its academic moorings. For several years after 1902 he served as instructor and professor in the musical department of Harvard University.