Felix Weingartner. Gustav Mahler.
Richard Strauss. Siegmund Hausegger.
LESSON L.
The Symphonic Poem in Germany.
Wagner’s Influence.—The genius of Wagner produced and applied to Opera a far richer and more complicated orchestration than had existed before his day. Since then, in many periods and in many countries, composers have tried to adopt his style, and apply it to the symphonic as well as to the operatic stage. In the field of purely orchestral music, Liszt and Berlioz had already formulated a free style, and their symphonic poems, departing from the set form of the symphony, have also served as models for later composers. Almost the only recent exponent of the strict form was Johannes Brahms, for Anton Bruckner, working on similar lines, did not achieve great success with the public.
Richard Strauss.—For many years it was thought that Wagner’s orchestration would remain unrivalled in the field of music. But Richard Strauss (born at Munich, Germany, 1864) has made a further advance in this respect, and handles the full modern orchestra with the utmost skill. Son of a court horn-player, his musical genius showed itself in his earliest years, and his studies with the court capellmeister, F. W. Meyer, resulted in the publication of several works. At first he followed Brahms and the stricter school, and his F-minor symphony is a worthy production in that form. A meeting with von Bülow led to his appointment as assistant-conductor at Meiningen. To show his ability, Strauss had to conduct, without rehearsal, his Serenade, Op. 7, for thirteen wind instruments; and the excellence of this work brought him the desired position. It was at this time that he met Alexander Ritter, a man of broad intellect and radical ideas. Under the new influence, Strauss renounced his classical style, and began to compose the tone-pictures and symphonic poems that have made his name so important. As he is the chief modern representative of the new school, his works merit detailed examination.
His Early Symphonic Poems.—After an Italian trip in 1886, Strauss gave his impressions of that country in the form of the symphonic fantasie “Aus Italien,” his first work in the free style of subjective emotion-painting. It is in four movements, each a complete tone-picture. The first, “On the Campagna,” gives a vivid impression of spacious solitude, with a hint of the pageants and battles once witnessed by this great Roman field. The second movement, “Amid Rome’s Ruins,” aims also to give “fantastic pictures of vanished splendor, feelings of sadness in the midst of the sunlit present.” The third movement, “On the Shores of Sorrento,” resembles the symphonic scherzo, while the finale gives an animated picture of “Neapolitan Folk-Life,” introducing the air of “Funiculi” and other popular Italian tunes.
After four years of conducting at the Munich court theatre, Strauss settled in Weimar, where he produced three more important works. The first of these, “Macbeth,” showed that he had abandoned the old form in favor of the symphonic poem, in which the different movements are fused into one large whole, free in form. The picture of Macbeth, ambitious and cruel in spite of his timidity, is ably developed, but the portrayal of Lady Macbeth brings a still stronger climax of magnificent orchestral power.
“Don Juan,” the second of the three, is founded on Lenau’s poem. The hero is not a ruffian adventurer, as in Da Ponte’s libretto, but is depicted as an arch pessimist, hunting through the world for perfection in pleasure, but never finding it. There are restless and uncertain melodies at the opening, to illustrate the hero’s unsatisfied longing. A knightly theme follows, typical of Don Juan himself. Then come various episodes, full of attractive enthusiasm, but always ending with the same vague unrest. A wild carnival, followed by sudden silence and the cutting theme of a trumpet, announce the hero’s end.
“Tod und Verklärung” (Death and Transfiguration) is a work of great power and beauty. It depicts an exhausted sufferer, asleep in the quiet sick-room, dreaming of the beauty of his lost youth. Then follows a more discordant episode, which may well picture a fierce contest with the powers of disease, ending in defeated exhaustion. A third portion brings renewed memories of the morning of life; passages of joyous enthusiasm and noble aspiration suggest the high hope of youth and the glorious achievement of manhood; but again comes the struggle with the powers of Fate, ending in despair and death. The fourth part is an apotheosis, representing the triumph of man’s upward striving over death. This section contains some of the most impressive orchestral beauties in the range of Strauss’ works.
Program Music.—In the older symphonic form, it was not necessary for the composer to suggest a title for his work. Many have done so—Beethoven in his “Pastoral Symphony,” Mendelssohn in the “Scotch,” for example; but the exquisite beauty of Schubert, or the romantic charm of Schumann will impress the hearer without the use of extraneous suggestions. In the modern school of program music, founded by Liszt, the composer gives the audience a more or less detailed account of the subject that inspired him, and tries to paint in tones the events or moods suggested by the title. Much, therefore, depends on the choice of the subject. If it is well-known, and gives definite suggestions of certain moods which can find expression in the orchestra, then it may receive legitimate treatment by being set to music. But if the subject is not one that lends itself to broad emotional treatment, or if the composer aims to picture definite events or objects, he is departing from the true function of his art. Music deals with expression of emotion, and should not attempt something that belongs rather to other arts, such as Literature or Painting. Many persons think that Strauss has gone too far in this direction, especially in his later works.