VI
No composer in America has so completely arrived at an authentic and mature musical individuality along the line of ultra-modern European developments as Charles Martin Loeffler. Though of Alsatian birth, his long residence in this country has identified him with American musical life. Too much the artist to theorize about his art, he has enunciated no creed, although he has been known to suggest the idea that the composer's musical personality is largely constituted by the assimilation of all that is sympathetic to him in the range of his musical observation. Applying this principle to his own work, it is plain that his closest affiliation is with the school of modern France, although the work of no American composer is less closely identified than his with that of any one individual of the modern French group. There speaks through Loeffler's music a distinct personality, one that lives upon a high plane of poetic imagination, and whose intuitions are subtle and refined in a wholly extraordinary degree. Here is no convenient falling back upon modish scale effects or generic modern harmonies, but a pressing forward to the keenest and most poignant individualism. If it is an individuality that insists upon a veritable aristocracy of emotional and psychological subtlety, a total repudiation of the primitive passions which bind certain great composers to mother earth and lead them to brave the charge of occasional banality, on the other hand, it is one which gives an intense and unvitiated delight to those minds which are able to follow its excursions into the remote and unwonted regions of the soul. 'Tuneful' Loeffler's music cannot be called, but it sings constantly in its own preordained and peculiar way, and its motives are often haunting and always distinguished. Loeffler's literary researches are incredible in extent and singularity, and have undoubtedly had a far-reaching effect upon the character of his genius, as has also his intimate knowledge of and devotion to the Gregorian chant, of the austere arcanum of which he is a supreme master. He is a consummate master of orchestration and his orchestral works have been heard with most of the great orchestras of the world.
His serious claims as a composer were first made known through his Veillées de l'Ukraine, for violin and orchestra, a suite based upon tales by Gogol, which was heard in Boston, with the composer as soloist, in 1891, although an earlier string quartet in A minor had been previously heard in Philadelphia. A sextet for two violins, two violas, and two 'cellos next came into notice, and after that a 'Fantastic' concerto for 'cello and orchestra. The 'Divertimento in A Minor,' for violin and orchestra, the composer played at a Boston symphony concert in 1895. Loeffler's fame has rested chiefly upon his remarkably imaginative tone-poems, La Mort de Tintagiles, after Maeterlinck, La Bonne Chanson and La Villanelle du Diable, after Verlaine and Rollinat, respectively, and the 'Pagan Poem,' after Virgil, which includes a piano and three trumpets behind the scenes. The songs are exquisite reflections of the composer's subtle imagination; among them are: Harmonies du Soir, Dansons la Gigue, La Cloche fêlée, Timbres Oubliés, 'The Hosting of the Sidhe,' 'The Host of the Air,' and 'To Helen.' There are also an octet for strings, clarinets, and harp; a quintet for three violins, viola, and 'cello; two rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano; 'By the Waters of Babylon,' for women's chorus, two flutes, 'cello, harp, and organ; and other works. The composer was for many years second concert master of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and makes his home in Boston and Medfield, Mass.
Extreme ultra-modernism, stopping, however, on the hither side of futurism, has not been pushed farther in America than in the very remarkable work of Carl Engel. Except that he is himself, he might be regarded as a disciple of Loeffler. His published work consists of several groups of songs, in which the voice is treated in the modern French mode of lyrical declamation over an accompanying tone-poem of high refinement of mood, a positively diabolical ingenuity and subtlety of invention, and impeccable technical finish. In this scheme—determined by the most recent Gallic influences—Engel goes his individual way, producing work that is always interesting and often unusual in both originality and beauty. Of the six Chansons intimes, on poems by Jean Moréas, one is struck particularly by A l'Océan, which is extraordinarily bold in its assertion of tragic oceanic emotion. Rions is a fine piece of bitter ultra-modern irony—a companion piece to Loeffler's Dansons la Gigue. Trois Epigrammes, on poems by Paul Mariéton, have much of poignancy and eloquence and weave a dizzying web of ingenious ultra-modernism. One thinks—how far from Americanism is this remarkable work! Of 'Two Lyrics,' poems by Amy Lowell, 'The Sea Shell' is of most ingratiating charm, particularly with respect to its lilting motion; and here the composer has allowed himself to write a tune! 'Three Sonnets' present Lecture du Soir (Chantavoine), an excellent example of Engel's capacity for originality, Dors, ma Belle (Marsolleau), and En Voiture (Ajalbert), all of recent date. 'Four Lyrics' (poems by Cora Fabbri) are earlier songs and show the composer's point of departure.
Another extreme ultra-modern of Gallic musical sympathies is Henry Eichheim, who is known by a group of 'Seven Songs,' a showing not great in quantity but of a quality revealing at once a convincing distinction of achievement. It is not, however, the emotional refinements of the French poets to which Eichheim responds, but to the alluring and shadowy tints of the 'Celtic Twilight.' From Yeats he has chosen 'The Heart of the Woman' and 'Aedh Wishes His Beloved were Dead'; from Fiona Macleod, 'When the Dew is Falling,' 'The Undersong,' 'Across the Silent Stream,' and 'The Lament of Ian the Proud'; while he has made a single departure in the 'Autumn Song' of Rossetti. Individual and subtly felt as these songs are, Eichheim is concerned not so much with sheer or extreme ingenuity of means as with the attainment of the expression of deep and dreamful moods, modern in poetic expression, and hence demanding an equally modern musical treatment. This the composer gives them, finding a deeply sincere expression through the highly modern means employed. Perhaps the most eloquent of the 'Seven Songs' is 'Aedh Wishes His Beloved were Dead,' its solemn march of rich harmonic progressions conveying an emotion of singular depth and beauty. Eichheim has also written three symphonic poems.
Victor Herbert has made departures into the realms of serious music, notably of late years, in two grand operas, 'Natoma,' in three acts, and 'Madeleine.' 'Natoma,' the text of which is by Joseph D. Redding, was first produced on February 23, 1911, in Philadelphia and subsequently in New York and Chicago. It deals with a story of Spanish and Indian life in California in the early part of the last century. The opera has had a very considerable measure of success and reveals Herbert's skillful handling of the orchestra, his power in broad concerted forms, and his unsuspected knowledge of Indian music. 'Madeleine,' produced at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in the season of 1913-14, was not regarded with an equal favor.
Besides some already included in this chapter there are other composers of foreign birth who either live or have sojourned here, as well as American composers who have preferred to live chiefly abroad.
Walter Morse Rummel, who makes his home in Berlin and Paris, has made for himself an individual and significant place in modern music. The tonal emancipation which Debussy gained through a basic devotion to the Gregorian chant, Rummel with increasing success seeks and finds in certain mediæval songs of the folk, in particular those of the troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. His earlier works, for example the 'Five Songs,' dating from 1906, seem conventional in scheme, although one notes their essential refinement and esprit. The 'Ten Songs for Children, Young and Old,' are of another stamp. Innocently simple in appearance, they reveal on closer observation all the sophistication of a profound devotee of the ecclesiastical modes, or, it may be, the spontaneous utterance of one with whom these have become 'second nature.' Like 'Alice in Wonderland,' they will speak with equal pertinence to children and grown-ups. 'A Fairy Suite,' for piano, being 'Five Short Stories Preceded by a Prologue and Followed by a Moral,' are an achievement of similar intent, scintillating with fancy, charm, humor, and modern interest. As the 'Prologue' and 'Moral' are practically identical, the purpose of the latter would seem to be to exhort us always, in art, to return to our main subject.
'Hesternæ Rosæ' consists of a collection of troubadour and other mediæval songs, rhythmically reconstructed from the original neumes, and hence hypothetical. They are profoundly interesting and merit close study. Rummel has composed also a quartet for strings, a violin sonata, for piano a 'Prelude,' 'Sea Voices,' and 'Seven Little Impressions for a Simple Mind,' and many songs.
Hugo Kaun, an American resident of Berlin, has been a prodigious producer, his work being in keeping with the modern German musical scheme. He has much structural power, a fertile imagination, and a considerable sense of beauty. His chief works are three symphonies, a piano concerto, a violin concerto, a Fantasiestück for violin, eight chamber music works, five symphonic poems, and an enormous quantity of songs, the best known, perhaps, being 'My Native Land,' and many short piano pieces. He has also written two oratorios, the most important being 'Mother Earth.'
Paul Allen, of Boston, has lived chiefly in Italy, where, as one would expect, he has produced operas. Two of these are 'The Philtre' and 'Milda,' each in one act. They follow the modern Italian operatic scheme and show the composer's close sympathy with the spirit of modern Italian stage music. He has written extensively for the piano also, among his writings in this form being an Alla Tarantella, an excellent and refined little work, sensitive to the genius of Italian folk-music, and a 'Meditation' having remarkable depth of feeling, a work emerging from a real emotion and expressed in unusually beautiful terms.
Kurt Schindler, of German birth, and latterly a resident of New York, has put out about twenty-five songs possessing charm and simplicity, though not of a very strong modernity. One of the best, and a work of true beauty, is the 'Faery Song' on Keats' poem. 'Adoration' is another of the Keats group, and in another group the composer has set poems of Wilde, Swinburne, and—a strange third to companion such a pair—Meredith. He has also 'Five Folk-Song Paraphrases,' the originals drawn from Italy, Russia, and France.
Platon Brounoff, a Russian living in New York, has composed, among other works, an overture, 'Russia,' which has been performed at the Central Park concerts under Arnold Volpe's direction, and a characteristic piano suite, 'In the Village.'
The Suite Fantastique for piano and orchestra by the pianist Ernest Schelling has been heard in New York. It is a clever and brilliant work, and makes ingenious use of 'Yankee Doodle,' 'Dixie,' and the 'Swanee River.'
Arthur Fickenscher, at present living in Berlin, has developed a highly refined and highly modernized art of which more is likely to be heard later. One of his most important works is a setting of Rossetti's 'Willowwood' for chorus and orchestra.
A. F.
CHAPTER XV
THE LIGHTER VEIN
Sources of American popular music—Its past and present phases—American comic opera: Reginald de Koven; Victor Herbert; John Philip Sousa; other writers of light opera—The decline of light opera and the present state of theatrical music.
It cannot be too often reiterated that, however highly developed an art a nation's music may become, it inevitably springs from the germ of popular expression that voices itself in the simple songs of its masses, the folk-music. In this lies the essence of its being and to this it owes its vitality. America's history has been such as to deprive her in a great measure of a folk-music in the true sense of the word. Many causes have contributed to this; the decidedly non-idyllic character of its early phases and the suppressing hand of Puritanism were undoubtedly potent factors, but the fundamental reason lies in the absence of a national consciousness, which is necessarily lacking in a country of mixed peoples developing a borrowed civilization. Now that America is able to boast the beginnings of a sophisticated art, it is beginning to be more deplored that there is not present the rich vein of folk-music to lend to our native art that vital and distinctive touch that should give it its place among the nation's music.
The course of our national life has brought, however, from time to time, certain moments when there has emanated from the people a voice more distinctly local in its suggestions, not entirely lacking the influence of a borrowed expression, but blending with it a certain flavor of its own and thereby creating a sort of music in the folk-manner. Such were the songs of Stephen Foster, and such were the patriotic songs of the Civil War times, and in these two contributions to our native music we have the most genuinely and deeply emotional expressions that have yet sprung from Americans of European origin. Previous to the appearance of these, the complexion of our music had been almost entirely English, consisting as it did of patriotic or sentimental songs either actually imported from England or locally written songs which copied the English models so slavishly as to lose all distinction.
The negro element began at an early epoch to bear an influence on our expressions. As the one keenly suffering people in our midst, leading a life of elemental toil and possessing richly endowed musical natures, the negro, with his intensely emotional expression, was bound to make himself heard and felt throughout the land, and his songs entered largely into the fibre of our own expression. But even the most ardent supporter of the practice of employing the negro element as a basis for American music must admit that there is much of the exotic about it, and that by its employment alone our native art will never attain to that desideratum of the American composer, a nationalistic feeling.
It has already been remarked in commenting on this subject how Dvořák in handling this negro element remained unequivocally Slavic in idiom, and it has been noted, also, with what scant success our own composers have pursued the same efforts toward concocting what would seem an indigenous art. That such a nationalistic art, when it does finally evolve, will contain a strong strain of these various influences is undoubtedly the case, but the tinge of real local atmosphere which will constitute its nationalism will be an intangible quality not existing in any defined formula. It will not possess salient external features which our own composers may seize upon, but it will be charged with a consciousness that shall be inherent in the composers themselves and shall find unconscious voicing in their melodies. It is not unreasonable to suppose that it is from what we generally designate as our 'popular music' that such an art will emanate; from the street, the theatre, the dance hall, and more particularly from the sentimentalities of the popular songs which periodically hold the affections of such a vast public. Ephemeral as is the mass of this music that annually sweeps over our country, each phase of it leaves its mark, some deeper than others, but all contributing to the upbuilding of the national character of our music.