The work contains fourteen numbers. The first two verses, describing the castle and its haughty monarch, are sung by the narrator, and are followed by an alto solo, very bright and joyous in style, which tells of the arrival of the two minstrels. The fourth number is a Provençal song, full of grace and poetical feeling, sung by the youth, followed by full chorus. The King angrily interposes in the next number, “Enough of Spring and Pleasure,” whereupon the harper sings a beautiful ballad interpolated by the librettist. The queen follows with a quiet, soothing strain, appealing for further songs, and in reply the youth and harper once more sing of spring. The youth’s powerful song of love, which changes to a trio in the close, the queen and harper joining, indicates the coming tragedy, and from this number on the chorus follows the story as told by Uhland, with great power and spirit. The general style of the work is declamatory, but in many of its episodes the ballad form is used with great skill and effect.
SINGER.
Otto Singer was born in Saxony, July 26, 1833, and attended the Leipsic Conservatory from 1851 to 1855, studying with Richter, Moscheles, and Hauptmann. In 1859 he went to Dresden and for two years thereafter studied with Liszt, of whom he was not only a favorite scholar but always a most zealous advocate. In 1867 he came to this country to take a position in the Conservatory at New York, then under the direction of Theodore Thomas and William Mason. In 1873, upon Mr. Thomas’s suggestion, he went to Cincinnati and became the assistant musical director of the festival chorus of that city, a position which he filled with eminent ability for several years. At the festival of 1878 he conducted the first performance of Liszt’s “Graner Mass” in this country, and also his own “Festival Ode” set to a poem by F. A. Schmitt, and written to commemorate the dedication of the new Music Hall. In the same year the Cincinnati College of Music was organized, and he was engaged as one of the principal instructors, a position which he still holds, and in which he has displayed signal ability. Mr. Singer has written many compositions for piano and orchestra, and besides his “Festival Ode,” the cantata “Landing of the Pilgrims” (1876).
The Landing of the Pilgrims.
“The Landing of the Pilgrims,” written in 1876, was Mr. Singer’s Centennial offering to the patriotic music of that year. The text of the cantata is the familiar poem written by Mrs. Felicia Hemans, which was first set to music by her own sister, Miss Browne, though in somewhat different style from this work of the modern school.
The cantata opens with an instrumental prelude which gives out the principal motive as we afterwards find it set to the words, “With their Hymns of lofty Cheer;” and truly lofty cheer it is, that antique, strong melody. Breathed softly at first, as from afar, it is repeated after a rapid crescendo with the whole weight of the orchestra, to melt away again on an organ point in more subdued tone-color. In the second movement (andante) it appears in quadruple time, augmented in its cadence by a chromatic harmony which serves well to enrich the working-up of this fine piece of orchestral writing. A short interlude containing the germ of a second theme, which afterwards appears at the words, “This was their Welcome Home,” now prepares the entrance of the voices. To the words, “The breaking Waves dashed high,” the basses and tenors give out the first motive, and after declaiming the stormy opening lines of the poem break forth in unison with “When a Band of Exiles moored their Bark on the wild New England Shore.” The time again changing, the composer very happily contrasts the phrases, “Not as a Conqueror comes” and “They the true-hearted came.” Soon, however, the ever-pliable principal theme falls into a martial stride, and a very effective setting of the words, “Not with the Roll of stirring Drums,” concludes the opening male chorus. Here follows the Centennial Hymn as given out in the beginning, sung first by an alto voice, and repeated by the full chorus of mixed voices. After the close, the orchestra, dreaming along in the spell, as it were, seems to spiritualize the sturdy Pilgrim Fathers into meek Pilgrims of the Cross,—a piece of exquisite tenderness, Liszt-Wagnerish, and yet beautiful. After some alto recitatives and short choral phrases, the leading theme once more enters with heavy martial step to the words, “There was Manhood’s Brow,” etc. The musical setting of the question, “What sought they?” etc., is cast in simpler form, and the response, “They sought a Faith’s pure Shrine,” is given in six measures, a capella, for five voices. This brings us to the last movement, andante maestoso. The leading motive, now contracted into one measure, is tossed about in the double basses as on the waves of a heavy surf until it reaches the climax on the words “Freedom to worship God.” The cantata forms a valuable addition to our musical literature, and was first sung by the Cincinnati Harmonic Society, of which Mr. Singer was leader at the time.
