Finally, his "Creation" embodies successful expedients for descriptive writing. In this masterpiece, the strings, together with a full complement of wind instruments in pairs, are further augmented by the usual kettle-drums, a double-bassoon, and three trombones,—an aggregation which, apart from the manner of using it for the purpose of tone-painting, is typical of Beethoven's enlarged orchestra as employed in his crowning graphic movements. However, this demand for so huge an apparatus as the assistant to Haydn's mightiest choral and embryo-romantic composition was exceptional, and as the corollary of his orchestration, when reviewed as a whole, one might say that he worked with simple means, and although his pages do not present delicate combinations, he obtained vigorous and fresh results.[16]
II.
Mozart[17] (1756-1791), universal conqueror, peerless melodist, unrivalled purist, contributed equally to the development of orchestration as to all other branches of musical art. Opera, symphony, chamber and church music alike blossomed and ripened at his magic touch; and the tonal tints of his scoring assumed a mellow guise foreign to the lighter shading of Haydn's orchestration. Mozart was a cosmopolitan in so far as that he moulded his polyphony, formal structure and orchestration in accordance with the classicism of Teutonic lineage, imbibed the limpid suavity of Italian melody, and adapted the tragic energy and emotional interpretation of the text as initiated by Gluck in France. This vivid emotionalism is plainly to be seen in the dramatic scenes of "Idomeneo" and "Don Giovanni." His perfect command of contrapuntal subtleties, thematic development, and vocal composition, combined with the most precocious creative genius, enabled him not only to build upon the heirloom of Bach's church music and Haydn's symphonies and quartets, but to establish a basis for subsequent genuinely German opera. For it is beyond question that specifically the "Zauberflöte" contains the germ of Weber's romanticism.
For the form of his independent instrumental works, Mozart followed the precepts of Haydn, but he enlarged them, and imbued their contents with a certain strategic power for evoking more serious contemplation and enduring impressiveness. Adherence to tonality, not only in each individually complete movement, but also in successive and related complex forms, was one of the fundamental canons of Mozart's creed. This tonal consistency is to be found even in his operas, whether employed as the connecting link between the more gentle sections—suggestive of a delicate string of pearls, or as a mode of obtaining subtle continuity of thought and action in the dramatic portions.
In orchestration, Mozart combined the best characteristics of both Gluck and Haydn, and in his hands it gained counterpoise and vitality. As a natural outcome, the harpsichord was banished from the orchestra, but incidentally it should be remembered that by no means did Mozart undervalue this instrument in its proper sphere, for to him is due the ascendency of the pianoforte concerto, which he left as a direct bequest to Beethoven, who not only seized upon it with avidity, but even caused it to immortalize some of his most sublime conceptions. Mozart's writing for the orchestra is distinguishable for amalgamating as well as for contrasting the earlier polyphonic methods with the monophonic style that was being cultivated by his contemporaries. The last movement of the "Jupiter" symphony will at once be recalled as an admirable illustration of advanced orchestral polyphony.[18] As has just been said, Mozart followed and elaborated Haydn's symphonic instrumentation, but he added greater freedom to the strings,[19] more variety and contrast to the wood,[20] developed the art of combining wind accompaniment and instrumental solo effects,[21] and in general illustrated the capabilities and ideal functions of each specific instrument. Furthermore, constant application to operatic writing stimulated a desire for varied rhythm, and this attainment is reflected in his symphonic compositions. Finally, it should be said with emphasis that sensitive regard for individualistic tonal tints in instrumentation was one of the most conspicuous attributes of Mozart's genius, and despite the fact that already the masters of his epoch had had recourse to the application of variated tone-color, nevertheless Mozart is universally considered as having been the first to do so in a really successful manner. By relegating the harpsichord, it became necessary to write for the strings in such a manner as to insure independent solidity and coherence. Or, to put it the other way, Mozart's scoring for the string band made further employment of the harpsichord superfluous. This he accomplished in the face of frequent three-part writing. The danger of incurring caesuras in harmonic structure or lack in volume of sound was obviated by the skilful artifice of contrapuntal motion which, so to speak, generates warmth of tonal color—heat and motion being an equivalent one for the other, and, as Gevaërt suggests, this theorem is applicable to music. But Mozart by no means neglected four-part writing,[22] and both the violoncello and the hitherto much neglected viola were advanced to a position more in keeping with their worth.
Mozart's employment of the symphonic orchestra was one of conservatism in regard to compass, as illustrated by the G minor symphony, from which even trumpets and kettle-drums are debarred. Peculiar to the scoring of his greatest symphonies is the consistent use of but one flute, whereas the remaining wind is represented in pairs. Delicacy was the key-note for the wood-wind. For example, he delighted in embellishing a melody by the combination of violins redoubled in the octave by a flute and in the sub-octave by a bassoon. Another distinguishable trait of his was the substituting of an oboe for the violins in the above combination. These are but passing exemplifications of countless dainty conceptions that the most casual perusal of his pages will divulge; and they offer an unwearying source of delectation in consequence of their naïve and guileless character. It is true that for Tuttis, Mozart was satisfied with certain conventional methods, such as an exaggerated use of wood-wind passages in thirds and sixths. But this practice was common likewise to Beethoven, and not until after the advent of the Romanticists did it fall into disuse, indeed, no less a modern conservative than Brahms was content to adapt classical mannerisms of this nature. But only subsequent to Mozart's visit to Mannheim when he was twenty-one years of age, and not until after he had convinced himself of the indispensability of the clarinet—that sympathetic medium between high and low wood-wind—was it possible to give adequate variety of color and effect to this hitherto rather homogeneous secondary choir. And thus, concurrent with the emancipation of the wood-wind from many stereotyped formulas, was the recognition that clarinets began to command in Mozart's orchestral scheme. And although they were originally included only in the symphony in E flat,[23] he eventually added them to the one in G minor; and in the "Zauberflöte" the instrument received effective and original treatment. Again, although Mozart's sunny nature would not naturally conceive such morbid and sentimental effects as elicited by Weber from the lower tones of the clarinet, he at any rate appreciated a certain value of such tones by employing them in the course of flowing passages[24] as in the first Finale of "Don Giovanni." Mention is due, at this juncture, of the prominent appearance in the "Zauberflöte" of the obsolete basset-horn, since, as will be recalled, it belongs to the genealogy of clarinets and is now superseded by its descendant, the bass-clarinet. The classic literature of chamber music presents no more favorable examples for profitable study than do Mozart's divertissements, in which various combinations of wind instruments alone are treated with rare delicacy and effectiveness. Not being subjected, as in orchestral compositions, to comparison with the greater agility and more sensitive attributes of the strings, they are enabled to assert themselves, and to display in full measure their individual characteristics and expressive powers.
Mozart's requirements of the brass show but a slight improvement upon those of Haydn,[25] excepting that his style of writing for it betrays better judgment. A demand for more than two horns was rare, and occurs, strange to say, in his earlier works, for some of which he employed four. Later on he again exceptionally used this number in "Idomeneo." But of his representative creations, the G minor symphony is scored for but two horns, the E flat and C for two horns and two trumpets. Consistent with the usage of his predecessors, it was only in church music for redoubling the voices and in operatic works for dramatic effects that Mozart drew upon the trombones, at first sparingly, eventually, as in the "Zauberflöte," more freely; and Gluck's precedent of employing them in three-part harmony was sustained.
In so brief an outline, it is not possible to more than indicate the cardinal points of evolutionary advancement as contributed to orchestration by Mozart. But one prominent feature of his preëminent versatility reveals itself in the fact that whereas the long line of his illustrious predecessors had, with the one exception of Haydn, developed the art of writing for the orchestra more as a secondary means to some one particular and all-absorbing primary end, Mozart's genius devoted itself with impartiality and parallel success just as much to instrumentation and orchestration as to the formal structures of his instrumental works or to the contents of his operas and masses. And the laurels that crown the herculean achievements of his brief life are symbolic of the æsthetic, the chaste, the ideal.