Italy, subjected to a much lighter form of stimuli than England or Germany, has not yet ceased to manifest her short-duration-excitability, her love of the merely sensuous in beauty, which shows that the ancient intense disturbances of her real depths have not been repeated in recent times.
The period from 1800 to 1848 presents a mental state of little disturbance, the Italian social mind having not yet awakened from its Eighteenth century submissiveness and inaction. It will be interesting to analyze emotions of this period and their expression in Music.
Was tragedy the dominant factor in economic life? No. The social pressure of this period was light, even merry, with the lightness of lazy enjoyment in an unambitious mind. Curiosity was awakened but it was in its wonder stage, acting slowly upon hints received from the cynicism of France, from the power of labor ideas from England, and from the disrespect for Papal authority coming from Germany. Like a mirror for the reflection of the sharp but shallow emotions produced by these stimuli, were the musical works of Rossini constituting the public emotional valves. The “Barbiere di Sevilla,” with its witching humor, its delicate satire, its political allusions, and its portraits of the life of the nation, was a constant source of delight to unreflecting Italian thought. Rossini’s skill in the opera-buffa was marked. For the party of the Catholic faith he composed his “Stabat Mater,” equally fine, but picturing even in these more serious emotion-valves, those superficial moulds in which the public thought was cast. The works of Donizetti were no less bewitching and no less trivial, while the soft and sentimental character of Bellini’s genius found answering echoes in every Italian ideal. Dramatic passion was not lacking in “Norma,” but the atmosphere of even this glimpse of future depth in Italian emotionalism, was never quite free from the weak traits of Bellini’s school. Vocalism extraordinary was the demand of the opera, and the display in voice technique was remarkable. This was not, however, out of place in comedy opera, where depth of sentiment never reached the modern ridiculous spectacle of vocalized heart breakings, tuneful murders, and death gasps upon assigned tone pitches. The over-dressed orchestrations of present day operas, the senseless howling of a single voice above the combined vibrations of a hundred or more active instruments, the absurd idea of profound vocal passion, had not yet distorted the original operatic idea, which still dwelt in the true realm of its effectiveness, namely, that of the presentation of the lovely, the gay, the pathetic, the comic. The supremacy of the human voice as a vehicle of expression was in no way endangered by the abnormal taste of our own day. Toward the middle of the Nineteenth century, as the spirit of the time deepened in intensity, operas of a more serious nature held their share of public attention. Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” was presented in 1844, after several others of dramatic color, among which Rossini’s “William Tell” and “Othello” were works of real dramatic power.
For several centuries the State had exercised control over musical education in Italy. In Rome, from its earliest days, institutions of Music had existed. Music was regarded as a necessity rather than as a luxury. Such will be the attitude assumed toward Music in the future, when psychologists and sociologists shall have studied more deeply into the relations of artificially created rhythm to bodily rhythm, and also into the need of re-establishing disturbed bodily rhythm, manifested in the abnormal pulse during emotional states of mind.
During the Eighteenth century each of the large towns of Italy supported its own opera house and one cannot estimate to what extent these emotion valves were instrumental in the easy subjugation of the people.
Were Music to be banished from any one of the civilized countries today, anarchy might very shortly result. Who can say that the frenzied license which followed Cromwell’s suppression of musical indulgence, was not due in part to the closing of England’s emotion valves?
The present craze for the violent action dances, represented in the turkey-trot and the tango, is, in the opinion of the author, a natural expression of the human need of pronounced rhythm. It is a sub-conscious effort to supply the lack of pronounced rhythmic stimulus in economic life. The late tendency in musical composition has also been away from the old rhythmic accent and in the direction of disturbed harmonies, and lack of restful melodies. Thus the over-stimulated nerves of humanity have been exposed to an unchecked abnormality of their motions. The dances above mentioned partly remedy this defect in bodily action, and restore relative equilibrium—hence the craze for this form of amusement. Notice, however, that people will not take part in either of these dances for a moment, without the Music. The movement alone is not the need; the Music is the chief factor, the rhythm of which is merely accented and accentuated by the movements. These dances may be saving the sanity of countless thousands. Why then the suggested ban on this human need? If these dance forms are not desirable, then sweep away the present musical abominations and bring melody and—above all—marked rhythm within reach of the masses.
We shall now proceed to take up the thread of Italian musical life at 1848 when social pressure was assuming a darker hue, acute even in its short-lived terrors, as befits the Italian temperament. This temperament, unlike that of Germany under tragic conditions, must either die in despair or recover quickly. It is ever in short runs between sobs and a jest, ever in fiery moments and merry half-hours, ever child-like at heart, yet marvellously gifted, beauty-loving and sentimental. Italy might not live through a “Thirty Years War,” but with the inspiration of the right leaders, she might create a new Roman Republic, under the forceful stimulus of oft-relieved bursts of enthusiasm.
The strenuous years from 1848 to 1860, sufficiently aroused the Italian spirit to produce much that has since developed to the credit of the country. A deeper tone had been struck in Italian ideals, though not sufficiently deep to revolutionize completely the nation’s taste for those old forms of Music, so essentially a part of the melody loving race.
Still tragedy shadowed the public mind, and Verdi pictured these gloomy years in the operas “Rigoletto” (1851), “La Traviata” (1853), “Il Trovatore” (1853), and “Aida” (1871). Verdi was the idol of the people, because his genius fitted into the conditions of his time, illustrating the theory of the present investigation.