In the Magic Fire Scene in the finale of “Die Walküre,” Wagner wrote violin passages which not even the greatest soloist can play cleanly, yet which, when played by all the violins, simulate in sound the aspect of licking, circling flames. Indeed, the effects that Wagner understood how to draw from the orchestral 188 instruments are little short of marvellous. In the “Lohengrin” prelude the tone quality of the violins is absolutely angelic in purity; while in the third act of “Siegfried,” the upswinging violin passages as the young hero reaches the height where Brünnhilde slumbers, depict the action with a thrilling realism.
Besides the regular string band, Wagner made frequent use of the harp. It is related that at the Munich performance of “Rheingold,” when the harpist Trombo protested to him that some of the passages were unplayable, the composer replied: “You don’t expect me to play the harp, too, do you? You perceive the general effect I am aiming at; produce that and I shall be satisfied.” Liszt, in his “Dante Symphony,” uses the glissando of the harp as a symbol for the rising shades of Francesco da Rimini and her lover, and a very beautiful use of harmonics on the harp with their faint tinkle is to be found in the Waltz of the Sylphs in Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust.”
The Woodwind.
Flutes, oboes and clarinets form the woodwind. One of the best known passages for flute is in the third “Leonora Overture” of Beethoven, where it is employed with conspicuous grace. Probably, however, more fun has been made of the flute than of any other orchestral instrument, and a standard musical joke runs as follows:
“Are you musical?”
“No, but I have a brother who plays the flute.”
It has also been insinuated that in Donizetti’s 189 “Lucia” the heroine goes mad, not because she has been separated from Edgardo, but because a flute obbligato accompanies her principal aria. The piccolo is a high flute used for shrill effects.
The instruments of both the oboe and clarinet families are reed instruments, with this difference, however: the instruments of the oboe family have two vibrating reeds in the mouthpieces; those of the clarinet family, only one. The oboe family consists of the oboe proper, the English horn which is an alt oboe, and the bassoon which is the bass of this group of instruments. In Italian the bassoon is called a fagotto, a name derived from its supposed resemblance to a bundle of fagots. “Candor, artless grace, tender joy, or the grief of a fragile soul, are found in the oboe’s accents,” says Berlioz of this instrument, and those who remember the exquisite oboe melody, with which the slow movement of Schubert’s C major symphony opens, will agree with the French composer. Richard Strauss, in his “Sinfonia Domestica,” employs the almost obsolete oboes d’amore to represent an “innocent, dreamy, playful child.”
The English Horn in “Tristan.”
The most famous use of the English horn is found in the third act of “Tristan,” where it plays the “sad lay” while Tristan awaits news of the ship which is bearing Isolde toward him, and changes to a joyous strain when the ship is sighted. The bassoon and contrabassoon, besides their value as the bass of the oboe family, have certain humorous qualities, which are admirably 190 brought out in Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies and in the march of the clownish artisans in Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” music. In opera, Meyerbeer made the bassoon famous by his scoring of the dance of the Spectre Nuns in “Robert le Diable” for it, and he also used it for the accompaniment to the female chorus in the second act of “Les Huguenots.” The theme of the romanza, “Una fortiva lagrima,” in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore,” which Caruso sings so beautifully, is introduced by the bassoon, and with charming effect.