“Go, fetch the Indian’s borrowed plume,
Though richer far than that you bloom.”
“I’m but a lodger in her heart,
Where more than me, I fear, have part.”
The result of one voice entering after another is, that the first seems to be shouting, “A house a-fire!” the second excitedly answers, “Go, fetch the engines!” whilst the third excuses himself by saying, “I’m but a lodger!” After all, these could only be considered ingenious trifles, and most of the singing clubs have turned their attention to the more interesting and higher forms of madrigal, glee, and part song, which, as a later development, we will now speak of.
Part Song.
A part song is most likely to prove itself a melody harmonised, in three, four, or more parts—that is to say, there will be but little contrapuntal or imitative writing about it. It is of German origin; but it has been imported into our country, and our native composers have written some very beautiful specimens.
Part songs have been written either for sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses, or for male or female voices only. Many are in the ballad form, in which the same music is repeated to any number of verses; others are more elaborate, and contain portions allotted to solo voices, or to a single voice accompanied by a chorus. Part songs may be set to either secular or sacred poems. Schubert’s, Weber’s, and Mendelssohn’s contributions to this form of music are of great value and of wonderful variety.
Those of the latter helped to revive the taste for part music in England, and assisted in the foundation of the many classes and smaller choral societies which nowadays are in existence all over the country, from Penzance to the north of Scotland, and the formation of which creates the demand in our country for composition of this kind. Amongst modern English writers may be named Henry Smart, Sullivan, Samuel Reay, Barnby, Macfarren, Miss Macirone, Eaton Faning, and last and greatest, J. L. Hatton. I might add to this list many names, for the making of part songs is without end.
Whether in two, three, or more parts, the part song should be sung by a number of voices, the proportion, of course, being carefully balanced. I must tell you before I finish that there are also many duets, trios, and quartets which do not come within the range of the part song, it being intended that they shall be rendered by a single representative of each part, but many of these are extracted from works in which each part is taken by one of the dramatis personæ. Such excerpts we cannot include in our consideration of complete works. In my next sketch I hope to conclude the subject of vocal forms, and to turn your attention to instrumental varieties.