Two composers whose achievements are the strongest of the younger generation are Albert Roussel and Florent Schmitt. The former, born in 1869, entered the navy, and even visited Cochin-China. In 1898 he entered the Schola, where he studied with d'Indy for nine years. Since 1902 he has taught counterpoint at the Schola. His principal works are the piano pieces Rustiques (1904-6), a Suite (1909), a Trio (1902), a Divertissement for wind instruments (1906), a Sonata for piano and violin (1907-08), the orchestral works 'A Prelude,' after Tolstoy's novel 'Resurrection' (1903), Le poëme de la Forêt, a symphony (1904-6) and three symphonic sketches, 'Evolutions' (1910-11), the last with chorus, a ballet-pantomine, Le Festin de l'Araignée (1913). Of these the best known are the orchestral works and the ballet. If the symphony suggests many traits of d'Indy, there is in it no lack of individual ideas and treatment. The 'Evolutions' seem far more personal, and in both style and contents convince that Roussel is a genuine creative force. The ballet, 'The Festival of the Spider,' is an ingenious dramatic conception in which the characters are the spider, flies, beetles and worms. The music in its delicate subtlety is ingeniously adapted to the action, and in addition is picturesquely orchestrated with a minimum of resource. Roussel has undergone a long and severe apprenticeship and his later achievements have proved its efficacy.
Florent Schmitt, born 1870, is of Lorraine origin. After some preliminary study, he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889. Dubois and Lavignac were his first teachers; subsequently he joined the classes of Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. Leaving the Conservatory to undergo his military service, he obtained a second prix de Rome in 1897. In 1900 he was awarded the first prize with the cantata Semiramis. After his prescribed stay at the Villa Medicis in Rome, Schmitt travelled to Germany, Austria and Hungary and even Turkey.
Schmitt has been a prolific composer and space will not permit a consideration of all his works. Those upon which his rising reputation rests are a Quintette for piano and strings (1905-08), the 47th Psalm for solo, chorus, orchestra and organ (1904) and two symphonic poems, Le Palais hanté after Poe, and La Tragédie de Salomé (1907), in its original form danced as a drame muet by Loie Fuller. In addition are many piano pieces for two and four hands, and for two pianos, songs and choruses.
In Florent Schmitt's music is to be found alike the solid contrapuntal workmanship of the Conservatory and the atmospheric procedures of Debussy. These are combined with a striking homogeneity and a dominating force that make Schmitt perhaps the most promising figure among French younger musicians of to-day. If this praise must be qualified, it must be acknowledged that he is overfluent, and that the triviality of many of his ideas is only saved by his extraordinary skill in treating them. In this respect his resourcefulness is surprising and well-nigh infallible. The massive architectural quality of the quintet, the barbaric splendor of the 47th Psalm,[72] and the passionate and sinister mood of La Tragédie de Salomé make these works significant of the future even in the face of previous achievements by his older contemporaries.
If this survey of modern French composers seem oversanguine in its assertions, even the most conservative critic must admit that their work within the last thirty years has possessed a singularly unified continuity. Striving deliberately to attain racial independence, the various composers have attained their end with a unity of achievement which is not surpassed in modern times. Whether following the counsel of the naturalized Franck, or heeding the iconoclastic tendencies of Chabrier, Fauré and Debussy, and the realistic aspirations of Bruneau and Charpentier, the impressions of Ravel with its added graphic touches of realism, French music has had a distinctive style, a personal explanation of mood and a racial individuality such as it has not shown since the days of Rameau. The question as to its durability may be raised, as has been done in many epochs and countries, but its position in the immediate past, and in certain aspects of the present, leaves no doubt as to its conviction and its import.
E. B. H.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Louis Laloy Monograph on Debussy, Paris, Dorbon ainé, 1909, p. 12.
[62] Laloy: op. cit. p. 52.
[63] Ibid., pp. 20-21, 24-26.