Chapter IV (2)

A graceful overture, pastoral in style, leads to a chorus depicting the pleasures of rustic life. Galatea enters, seeking her lover, and sings a recitative, ‘Ye verdant plains and woody mountains,’ followed by a sweet melody, ‘Hush, ye pretty warbling choir!’ Acis responds with an aria of exquisite grace and beauty, one of Handel’s finest, ‘Love in her eyes sits playing and sheds delicious death.’ Galatea replies with the famous ‘As when the dove laments her love,’ after which the first part closes with a sparkling duet and chorus, ‘Happy we.’ Part II opens with a chorus of alarm, expressing fear of the love-sick giant and describing the phenomena of Nature at his angry approach. Then follows a recitative by the Cyclops, ‘I melt, I rage, I burn,’ and after it the well-known aria, ‘O ruddier than the cherry!’ Acis’ plaintive song, ‘Love sounds the alarm,’ follows in marked contrast. Galatea begs him to trust the gods and is joined by the other two in the trio, ‘The flocks shall leave the mountain.’ The Cyclops in a rage then seizes a fragment of Mt. Ætna and crushes the unhappy lover. Galatea’s sad lament follows, ‘Must I my Acis still bemoan?’ and the work closes with a consolatory chorus of the shepherds and shepherdesses, ‘Galatea, dry thy tears.’

‘Alexander’s Feast.’--The text for this work is Dryden’s famous poem, the full title of which is ‘Alexander’s Feast or the Power of Music, a Song in Honour of St. Cecilia’s Day, 1697.’ Handel composed the music in 1736, completing the first part January 5th, the second January 17th. The work came to its first performance at Covent Garden Theatre, February 19th, 1736, and met with remarkable success, winning a lasting popularity which even at the present time makes it one of the five best-known of Handel’s choral works. The chief solos are the stormy aria ‘"Revenge, Revenge!" Timotheus cries,’ and the great descriptive recitative, ‘Give the vengeance due to the valiant crew.’ Some of the choruses are among Handel’s finest, equalling those of the ‘Messiah’ or ‘Israel in Egypt.’ They are ‘Behold Darius great and good,’ ‘Break his bands of sleep asunder,’ ‘Let old Timotheus yield the prize,’ and ‘The many rend the skies with loud applause.’

_L’Allegro._--The full title of this work is _L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato_, Milton’s two descriptive poems, _L’Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, supplying the text for the first two movements; but instead of being preserved as separate poems in the musical work, they are made to alternate in sixteen contrasting strophes and anti-strophes. Allegro, represented by the tenor, sings the praises of pleasure and light-heartedness; Penseroso, a soprano, following each time with the regularity of a shadow, advocates meditation and seriousness and melancholy. The Moderato was an addition supplied by Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, and represented chiefly by a chorus, whose purpose it was to counsel both Allegro and Penseroso to adhere to a middle course as the safest; but this third part is rarely given. The work is in Handel’s best style--the Allegro is spirited, the Penseroso serious and tender, and the Moderato calm and sedate. The music was composed in the seventeen days between January 19th and February 6th, 1740, and was first performed on February 27th of the same year at the Royal Theatre, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.

Haydn’s (1732-1809) life-work was indissolubly associated with instrumental forms. The parentage and early development of the sonata and the modern orchestra can be traced directly to him. He wrote comparatively little in choral forms and the best of this was in the field of oratorio and church music.

In 1785 Haydn was commissioned to write ‘The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross,’ sometimes called ‘The Passion,’ as music for the Good Friday service for the cathedral of Cadiz. As first written it was an instrumental work of seven slow movements, which the composer later produced in London under the name _Passione Instrumentale_. Later still he introduced numbers for solo voices and chorus and, by inserting in the middle a _largo_ movement for wind instruments, divided it into two parts. In this form it was first presented at Vienna in 1796 and was published in 1801. The work is simple in structure and a similarity of mood and character pervades the various movements. It opens with an impressive orchestral number, after which each of the Seven Words is successively stated in the form of a chorale followed by a chorus. In conclusion comes a descriptive chorus in rapid movement, ‘The Veil of the Temple was rent in twain,’ which pictures vividly the darkness, the earthquake, the rending tombs, and the raising of the saints. Haydn frequently expressed a great fondness for this work, and by many of his contemporaries it was regarded as one of his most sublime creations.

_Ariadne auf Naxos._--This cantata, written for a solo voice (soprano) and orchestra, is dated 1782. It is one of the most perfect examples of the original cantata form, the Italian _cantata da camera_ already described. The story is that of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, who, desperately in love with Theseus, son of Ægeus, king of Athens, aids him with a thread to escape from the labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur, and accompanies him on his return to Athens. She awakens on the island of Naxos to find herself abandoned by her lover, and here the cantata opens. The music pictures her awakening, her gradual realization of Theseus’ perfidy, her anxiety, her anger, and her despair. The vocal score is intricate, demanding not only facility in execution, but also a noble style of musical declamation, great musical intelligence, and refinement of sentiment.

* * * * *

Outside of the instrumental forms in which his universal genius made him so preëminent, Mozart’s natural artistic instinct led him most strongly to dramatic music. He sought the opera as an opportunity for highest artistic endeavor; but other vocal forms he employed, not so much from choice as from the demands of special occasions. Like Haydn, he paid but passing attention to the cantata.

‘King Thamos.’--The foundation of this work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) was an historical drama, ‘Thamos, King of Egypt,’ written by Freiherr von Gebler. To this Mozart composed the incidental music, consisting of five entr’actes and three majestic choruses. The music was written in 1779 and 1780 at Salzburg; the work was presented a few times there under the direction of Boehm and Schikaneder and then was shelved. However, Mozart utilized some of the music by setting the choruses to Latin and German words, in which form they were used in the church service as hymns and motets. They are known to musicians now by the names _Splendente te Deus_, _Deus tibi laus et honor_, and _Ne pulvis et cinis_. Though a feeling of great solemnity pervades them, their original theatrical purpose cannot be entirely concealed behind their adopted sacred words.

_Davidde Penitente._--This cantata originated in Mozart’s vow, made before his marriage with Constance Weber, to write a mass to celebrate her arrival at Salzburg as his wife. The ‘half-mass’ which he actually wrote for this occasion comprised only the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Benedictus, the rest being supplied from an earlier mass. The work was given in this form at St. Peter’s Church, August 25, 1783, his wife taking the solo part. Early in 1785 Mozart received a commission to write a cantata for a Viennese festival; being short of time, he took the Kyrie and Gloria from the above mass, expanded them into five movements, added four new ones, and fitted them all out with Italian texts selected from the Psalms of David. In this form the work was presented at the Burg Theater, March 13th, under the title _Davidde Penitente_. It contains ten numbers, consisting of choruses, soprano and tenor arias and a terzetto, the tenth number, a final chorus and fugue, being called the ‘queen of vocal fugues’ by the critics of the time. This cantata is regarded as one of the finest examples of Mozart’s church style, notwithstanding the brilliant character of the solo parts, especially the bravura aria for soprano (_Fra le oscure ombre_).

The Masonic Cantatas.--Mozart became a Mason soon after he arrived in Vienna in 1784 and he entered into the activities of the fraternity with great ardor. The following year he composed a small cantata, _Die Maurerfreude_ (‘The Mason’s Joy’), for tenor and chorus, in honor of the master of his lodge, Herr Born. The second Masonic cantata,[63] _Lob der Freundschaft_ (‘Praise of Friendship’), was finished November 15th, 1791, only three weeks before his death. This work, which is on a larger scale than its predecessor, but less earnest in spirit, is pleasing and popular and consists of six numbers--two choruses, two recitatives, a tenor aria, and a duet. It was Mozart’s last completed composition. Two days after its performance at his lodge his last illness attacked him.

VI

In the second period of Anglican Church music, beginning after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, a distinct change in the character of anthem-writing is discernible. This was inaugurated by Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674), whose foreign study under Lulli and later in Italy brought him in touch with the greater freedom of the operatic style. In his church music and that of his immediate successors there is noticeable greater variety of plan and detail, more daring harmonies, more easy grace in the flow of voice-parts, and in general a faint echo at least of the brilliance reflected from the stage. The Italian art of solo-singing began to force its way into the domain of church music, adding relief and contrast to the severity of the old motet type of ‘full’ anthem. This style culminated in Henry Purcell (1658-1695), probably the most gifted and certainly the most versatile genius that English music has produced. In his hands the modern form of the anthem, as differentiated from the old motet, became clearly defined. Purcell, trained in the Chapel Royal and himself a ‘most distinguished singer,’ gave large emphasis to the ‘verse’ and ‘solo’ anthems, and these grew rapidly in favor. Although an operatic composer of profound ability, in many respects far in advance of his time, his religious music shows no trace of undue influence from this secular source, and many of his anthems[64] and ‘services’ are still cherished as among the finest examples of English church music of any period.

During the latter part of the seventeenth century instrumental music in England took on new importance, and its influence was felt in all branches of the art. Orchestral instruments were frequently employed in the ritual-music in addition to the organ, which instrument, it should be added, was far behind the German organ of this period in mechanical development and technical possibilities. Purcell wrote trumpet parts to his celebrated Te Deum and composed as many as twenty anthems with orchestra (besides over thirty with organ). His instrumental accompaniments began to assume quite independent outlines and his choruses were of such fine workmanship that Handel, who was thoroughly acquainted with his church music, gladly acknowledged his indebtedness to him. Other noted composers of anthems of this period were Dr. John Blow (1648-1708), William Croft (1678-1727), and Jeremiah Clarke (1670-1707), all of whom were choristers in the Chapel Royal and were brought up and trained in the atmosphere of the cathedral service.

No accession to the form of the anthem has been made since the beginning of the eighteenth century. All the forms now in use--the full, the verse, the solo--were well established in the public esteem and the old unaccompanied style had been permanently abandoned in favor of instrumental accompaniment. The eighteenth century was a period of general religious and intellectual apathy and this condition of thought brooded over English church-music. After the spontaneous and melodious Purcell, the compositions of the best church musicians of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries (constituting the third period of English church-music) sound dry and perfunctory, although admirable in construction and solid and worthy in content. If we except the Te Deums and anthems of Handel, this period presents nothing of striking worth. The composers of this period, the best of whose anthems are still to be found in the repertory of present-day choirs, include Maurice Greene (1696?-1755), William Hayes (1706-1777), William Boyce (1710-1779), and Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801), whose ‘Call to Remembrance’ is a work of eminent beauty, modern in conception beyond its time.

English psalmody of the eighteenth century, both among the Non-conformists and in the Established Church, had likewise fallen into melancholy ways. Although the good old solid psalm-tunes were still in the Psalters, the interest in them declined, the number in actual use gradually dwindled, the singing became dry and perfunctory, and the curious custom of ‘lining out’ the psalms became general. Especially in the Non-conformist services frivolous tunes were employed which smacked of the Italian opera style; and vocal flourishes were introduced in which several tones would be sung to a single syllable. But in the Church of England the gradual rise of the hymn to an independent place in the Psalter at the very beginning of the century served to keep alive the pure flame of sacred song and to inaugurate the long-delayed period of real English hymnody, a full century and a half after the corresponding outburst of sacred song among the Germans. Gawthorn’s _Harmonica Perfecta_ of 1730 included a large portion of the fine psalm-tunes of the Ravenscroft Psalter, together with some older ones and many new ones. These new hymn-tunes were in the main as solid and satisfying as the best of the old psalm-tunes, yet with more rhythmic freedom. The Church of England, however, was slow to give full recognition to the hymn, the first church hymn-book for general use (Madan’s ‘Collection of Psalms and Hymns,’ better known as the Lock Hospital Collection) not being published until 1769. The devotional hymns of Watts and Doddridge were just beginning to reach the public heart, when they received a magnificent accession from the Wesleyan movement, which, starting in the middle of the century, took full advantage of the liberty of worship newly conferred upon non-conformists and brought into English religious life something of the enthusiasm of the old German Reformation days. A revival of spiritual life took place in sections of England that let loose a great creative force of sacred verse and song, which operated not only to swell the ranks of Methodism with converts whose hearts were filled with exuberant song, but to bring into England real congregational singing and into English hymnody some of its richest gems of sacred lyrics. Thus the century closed with a distinct uplift in the religious song of the people, which did not bear full fruit in the Church of England, however, till the dawning years of the next century.

VII

After the glories of the Palestrina epoch, in which all forms of ecclesiastical music attained their highest point of perfection, the motet led a rather checkered existence. The English contemporaries of the great Roman had cultivated it with such success that the _cantiones sacræ_ (collections of Latin motets) of Tallis and Byrd are held to be second only to those of Palestrina himself. We have seen that the full anthem with English words superseded the Latin motet in the service of the Anglican Church, but, though the name was changed, the true motet style persisted until the Restoration; indeed, many of the anthems were actually written as Latin motets and afterward adapted to English words, as, for example, Byrd’s _Civitas sancti tui_, which is always sung to the words ‘Bow thine ear, O Lord.’ The last of the great motet writers in the Roman school were Vittoria, Morales, the two Anerios, the two Naninis, Luca Marenzio, and Suriano, all of whom closely approached the excellence of Palestrina’s superb motets; Orlandus Lassus sustained the reputation of the Netherlanders throughout his long career; while in Venice Willaert, de Rore, the two Gabrielis, and Giovanni Croce, the greatest of this school, produced compositions of wonderful delicacy and beauty. But after the first quarter of the seventeenth century the splendor of motet-writing disappeared. The solidity and grandeur of the old style of mass, motet, and madrigal were thoroughly undermined by the secularity of the monodic style, which now became all-pervasive. The same influences, in slightly varying degrees, crept into Catholic and Protestant church music alike. The rapid development of instrumental music toward the latter part of this century brought about the abandonment of unaccompanied motets in favor of those with instrumental accompaniment, and at the same time the modern major and minor keys gradually supplanted the old ecclesiastical modes. In Italy the best composers--Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Durante, Leo, and others--strove earnestly to reconcile the new style with church ideals and succeeded in producing effective works, though by no means always churchly.

The strongest motet writing of the eighteenth century, however, flourished in Germany. Many of the motets of the early German Protestant composers were simple polyphonic adaptations of chorales, and in the seventeenth century a simple, often trivial, style prevailed, but in the opening years of the eighteenth century a group of composers appeared who strove to revive the solid, elaborate style of the earlier masters. Beginning with Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) and continued by Karl Heinrich Graun (1701-1759) and Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783), a Catholic composer of attractive style, this movement culminated in Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), who clothed the motet in all the dignity and elaborateness of the old sixteenth century period. His motets represent the most perfect type of unaccompanied music in the Protestant church-service, as Palestrina’s do in the Roman, and in their way are quite as incomparable. Bach wrote about 200 motets, among the best-known of which are _Komm, Jesu, komm_ (‘Come, Jesu, come’), _Jesu, meine Freude_ (‘Jesu, priceless treasure’), _Nun ist das Heil_ (‘Now shall the grace’), and _Singet dem Herrn_ (‘Sing ye to the Lord’). A score of others equally fine might easily be mentioned. The motets of Handel, which have only in recent years been snatched from obscurity by the German Handel Society, are works of transcendent beauty, full of youthful vigor and strength, and worthy of his best period.

The madrigal also participated in the common ruin that befell the old polyphonic style, and after 1620 the true madrigal practically disappeared. In Italy it was displaced by the interest in the new chamber-cantata; it was wholly forgotten in Flanders and France; in England it merged into the glee; and in Germany the rise of the part-song compensated somewhat for its disappearance.

_From on old print_

The glee[65] is a form peculiar to England, having a certain native folk-song flavor and quite impossible of transplantation; no other country except, to a degree, America, has bestowed on it any attention at all. A whole century separates its appearance from the decline of the madrigal. The intervening transitional style is well illustrated by the lovely canzonets of Thomas Ford (about 1580-1648), such as ‘Since first I saw your face’ and ‘There is a Ladie sweete and kind,’ which breathe something of the spirit of both madrigal and glee. Unlike the madrigal, the glee is always sung by solo voices, usually male, of which there are at least three, but, like the madrigal, it is always unaccompanied. The first glees were produced in the early years of the eighteenth century, and the period of its finest achievement includes the years between 1750 and 1825, a period which is almost exactly contemporaneous with the long life of the greatest master of this form, Samuel Webbe (1740-1816). The more obvious traits of the glee that distinguish it from the madrigal are (1) the modern major and minor system of keys instead of ecclesiastical modes, (2) absence of conscious contrapuntal development in the treatment of the voice-parts and the consequent frequent employment of chord-masses, (3) short phrases with frequent full cadences, and (4) greater freedom in changes of rhythm and rate of speed. Notwithstanding these general characteristics, there are many real glees, such as Stevens’ ‘Ye spotted snakes,’ that exhibit a high quality of melodic development, sustained power, and constructional design. While not intended to be contrapuntal, the glee maintains a high degree of melodic independence among the parts, so that the impression given is that of several interweaving melodies. Among the finest specimens of glees are ‘When winds breathe soft,’ ‘The mighty conqueror,’ ‘Come live with me,’ and ‘Hence, all ye vain delights’ by Samuel Webbe; ‘Ye spotted snakes,’ ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind,’ and ‘Sigh no more, ladies’ by Richard Stevens (1757-1837); ‘By Celia’s arbour,’ ‘Mine be a cot,’ and ‘Cold is Cadwallo’s tongue’ by William Horsley (1774-1858). In addition to the above the principal glee composers are: John Wall Calcott (1766-1821), Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), Jonathan Bittishill (1738-1801), Benjamin Cooke (1734-1793), John Danby (1757-1798), Reginald Spoffarth (1770-1827), and Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855).

While in a strict sense all the vocal forms thus far mentioned are part-songs, in choral literature this term is restricted to apply only to those unaccompanied vocal compositions in which one melody stands out conspicuously, all the others being more in the nature of harmonic background. In this respect it differs sharply from the glee, though in general musical mood the two forms may be very similar. The part-song has its origin in Germany, where from early times the custom prevailed of giving simple harmonic setting to the folk-songs,[66] usually note against note. Modelled largely after the harmonized folk-songs, secular part-songs in profusion were written by German composers, particularly after the decline of the madrigal. As an importation from Germany the part-song was heartily welcomed in England, where it was cultivated side by side with the madrigal, the two forms often presenting many points of similarity and constantly reacting on each other. The great madrigalists wrote many such compositions (which they frequently called canzonets) on the borderland between the two forms. Such are Morley’s ‘My bonny lass she smileth’ and ‘Now is the month of Maying,’ and the canzonets of Thomas Ford mentioned above. The eighteenth-century part-song in England is, on the whole, unimportant; in Germany its chief value after 1800 lay in the incentive and impetus it gave to the formation of numerous choral societies and in the resultant diffusion of choral culture. The real glories of the part-song belong to the nineteenth century. Before that period the three principal secular _a cappella_ vocal forms may be thus briefly characterized: the madrigal, as the secular counterpart of the motet, is modal and contrapuntal; the glee is harmonic, devoid of strict counterpoint, but all the voices are melodically interesting; the part-song is harmonic, but concentrates the melodic interest in one part, usually the highest.

Before passing to the consideration of nineteenth-century choral music, it remains to give brief mention to two other forms, the masque and the ode, both of which are characteristically English and belong essentially to the seventeenth century. The masque occupied a place midway between the cantata and the opera, and enjoyed great popularity at court and among the aristocratic classes as a kind of private entertainment from the time of the early Tudors to the Civil War. Originally an importation from Italy, it received special development at the hands of the best English poets--Ben Jonson, Fletcher, Chapman, Campion, Milton, and others. It was an elaborate dramatic entertainment based on some mythological or allegorical subject, calling for dialogue, declamation, airs, madrigals, much dancing, and gorgeous scenery and costume, and performed for the most part by personages of high rank in disguise, whence the name. The best English composers of the seventeenth century gave their talents to the writing of masque music--Nicholas Lanier, Matthew Locke, Pelham Humfrey, Henry Purcell, John Eccles, and, in the next century, Dr. Thomas Arne. The ode also found much favor with the English seventeenth and eighteenth-century poets, such as Milton, Dryden, Gray, and Collins, but the composer whose name is most closely allied with it is Henry Purcell (about 1658-1695), who alone wrote twenty-nine odes and welcome songs for various public and royal occasions, among them four for St. Cecilia’s Day festivals and four in consecutive years (1690-1693) for Queen Mary’s birthday. Handel wrote four--‘Alexander’s Feast,’ ‘Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day,’ ‘Birthday Ode,’ and _L’Allegro ed il Penseroso_,[67] two of which have been already analyzed.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Peri’s first opera, _Dafne_, composed in collaboration with Caccini, had been privately performed in Florence in 1597 (1594?).

[50] The success of Cavalieri’s _La Rappresentazione_ was apparently swallowed up by the greater interest in the success of opera, so that twenty years elapsed before a second oratorio was written.

[51] ‘History of Music,’ Vol. IV, p. 144.

[52] ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. III, p. 153.

[53] The library of the Paris Conservatoire alone possesses eight volumes of his cantatas in MS.

[54] Grove’s ‘Dictionary of Music and Musicians,’ Art. ‘Scarlatti,’ by E. J. Dent.

[55] ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. III, p. 393.

[56] For example, Beethoven’s _Ah, perfido!_ and Mendelssohn’s _Infelice_.

[57] Andreas Hammerschmidt published ‘Dialogues between God and the Believing Soul’ (Dresden, 1647) for various groups of voices from two up to six.

[58] Mattheson, _Das beschütze Orchestre_, p. 142.

[59] Philipp Spitta, ‘The Life of Johann Sebastian Bach,’ Vol. I, p. 484.

[60] _Op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 486.

[61] Bach seldom used the word ‘cantata,’ preferring the terms ‘concerto’ and ‘dialogue.’

[62] Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ p. 301.

[63] Catalogued in Köchel, _Eine kleine Freimauer Cantate_.

[64] Among them are ‘O give thanks,’ ‘O God Thou hast cast us out,’ and ‘O Lord God of Hosts.’

[65] This word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _gligg_--‘music,’ and has no direct relation to the specific mood of mirth or gaiety. The glee, therefore, may be either cheerful or serious.

[66] Similarly in Italy the _villanella_ was a harmonized popular melody, but it failed to exert any further influence on choral forms.

[67] This is called an oratorio in the list of the German Handel Society.