Chapter I: Part 1

_The Lighter Classics in Music_

_A Comprehensive Guide to
Musical Masterworks in a Lighter Vein
by 187 Composers_

_by David Ewen_

_Arco Publishing Company, Inc._
NEW YORK

_Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-17781
Copyright 1961 by Arco Publishing Company, Inc., New York
All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America,
by H. Wolff, New York_

Contents

Joseph Achron 1
Adolphe-Charles Adam 2
Richard Addinsell 4
Isaac Albéniz 5
Hugo Alfvén 7
Louis Alter 8
Leroy Anderson 10
Daniel François Esprit Auber 12
Johann Sebastian Bach 15
Michael Balfe 18
Hubert Bath 19
Ludwig van Beethoven 20
Vincenzo Bellini 23
Ralph Benatzky 24
Arthur Benjamin 26
Robert Russell Bennett 27
Hector Berlioz 29
Leonard Bernstein 31
Georges Bizet 33
Luigi Boccherini 37
François Boieldieu 39
Giovanni Bolzoni 40
Carrie Jacobs Bond 41
Alexander Borodin 42
Felix Borowski 44
Johannes Brahms 45
Charles Wakefield Cadman 48
Lucien Caillet 49
Alfredo Catalani 50
Otto Cesana 51
Emmanuel Chabrier 52
George Whitefield Chadwick 54
Cécile Chaminade 55
Gustave Charpentier 56
Frédéric Chopin 57
Eric Coates 61
Peter Cornelius 63
Noel Coward 64
César Cui 65
Claude Debussy 66
Léo Delibes 68
Gregore Dinicu 71
Gaetano Donizetti 72
Franz Drdla 75
Riccardo Drigo 76
Arcady Dubensky 76
Paul Dukas 77
Antonin Dvořák 79
Sir Edward Elgar 83
Duke Ellington 86
Georges Enesco 87
Leo Fall 89
Manuel de Falla 90
Gabriel Fauré 91
Friedrich Flotow 92
Stephen Foster 94
Rudolf Friml 95
Julius Fučík 98
Sir Edward German 98
George Gershwin 100
Henry F. Gilbert 109
Don Gillis 111
Alberto Ginastera 112
Alexander Glazunov 113
Reinhold Glière 116
Michael Glinka 117
Christoph Willibald Gluck 119
Benjamin Godard 120
Leopold Godowsky 121
Edwin Franko Goldman 122
Karl Goldmark 123
Rubin Goldmark 125
François Gossec 126
Louis Gottschalk 127
Morton Gould 128
Charles Gounod 131
Percy Grainger 134
Enrique Granados 136
Edvard Grieg 137
Ferde Grofé 141
David Guion 143
Johan Halvorsen 144
George Frederick Handel 145
Joseph Haydn 147
Victor Herbert 149
Ferdinand Hérold 154
Jenö Hubay 155
Engelbert Humperdinck 157
Jacques Ibert 158
Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov 159
Ivanovici 160
Armas Järnefelt 160
Dmitri Kabalevsky 161
Emmerich Kálmán 162
Kéler-Béla 165
Jerome Kern 166
Albert Ketelby 169
Aram Khatchaturian 170
George Kleinsinger 171
Fritz Kreisler 172
Édouard Lalo 175
Josef Lanner 176
Charles Lecocq 177
Ernesto Lecuona 179
Franz Léhar 180
Ruggiero Leoncavallo 183
Anatol Liadov 185
Paul Lincke 186
Franz Liszt 187
Frederick Loewe 189
Albert Lortzing 191
Alexandre Luigini 192
Hans Christian Lumbye 193
Edward MacDowell 194
Albert Hay Malotte 196
Gabriel Marie 196
Martini il Tedesco 197
Pietro Mascagni 198
Jules Massenet 199
Robert McBride 203
Harl McDonald 204
Felix Mendelssohn 205
Giacomo Meyerbeer 208
Karl Milloecker 211
Moritz Moszkowski 212
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 213
Modest Mussorgsky 215
Ethelbert Nevin 218
Otto Nicolai 220
Siegfried Ochs 221
Jacques Offenbach 222
Ignace Jan Paderewski 225
Gabriel Pierné 226
Jean-Robert Planquette 227
Eduard Poldini 228
Manuel Ponce 229
Amilcare Ponchielli 230
Cole Porter 231
Serge Prokofiev 233
Giacomo Puccini 235
Sergei Rachmaninoff 238
Joachim Raff 240
Maurice Ravel 241
Emil von Rezniček 243
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 244
Richard Rodgers 247
Sigmund Romberg 253
David Rose 256
Gioacchino Rossini 257
Anton Rubinstein 261
Camille Saint-Saëns 262
Pablo de Sarasate 267
Franz Schubert 268
Robert Schumann 272
Cyril Scott 274
Jean Sibelius 274
Christian Sinding 277
Leone Sinigaglia 278
Bedřich Smetana 280
John Philip Sousa 283
Oley Speaks 285
Robert Stolz 286
Oscar Straus 287
Eduard Strauss 288
Johann Strauss I 289
Johann Strauss II 291
Josef Strauss 298
Sir Arthur Sullivan 299
Franz von Suppé 311
Johan Svendsen 313
Deems Taylor 314
Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky 316
Ambroise Thomas 322
Enrico Toselli 324
Sir Paolo Tosti 325
Giuseppe Verdi 326
Richard Wagner 332
Emil Waldteufel 338
Karl Maria von Weber 339
Kurt Weill 341
Jaromir Weinberger 343
Henri Wieniawski 345
Ralph Vaughan Williams 346
Jacques Wolfe 347
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari 348
Sebastian Yradier 350
Carl Zeller 350
Karl Michael Ziehrer 352

_The Lighter Classics in Music_

Joseph Achron

Joseph Achron was born in Lozdzieje, Lithuania, on May 13, 1886. He attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied the violin with Leopold Auer and theory with Anatol Liadov, graduating in 1904. After teaching at the Kharkov Conservatory for three years, he toured Russia, Europe and the Near East as a concert violinist for about six years, and settled permanently in the United States in 1925. Some of his most ambitious and significant compositions were written in this country. Among these were three violin concertos, two violin sonatas, the _Golem Suite_ for orchestra and the _Stempenyu Suite_ for violin and piano. Achron died in Hollywood, California, on April 29, 1943.

When Achron was twenty-five years old, and still living in Russia, he became a member of the music committee of the Hebrew Folk Music Society of St. Petersburg. Its aim was twofold: to encourage research in Hebrew music, and to direct the enthusiasm of gifted Russian composers toward the writing of Hebrew music. It was as a direct result of this association, and the stimulus derived from the achievements of this society, that in 1911 Achron wrote a popular composition in a Hebraic vein which to this day is his most famous piece of music. It is the _Hebrew Melody_, Op. 33, for violin and orchestra. The melodic germ of this composition is an actual synagogical chant, amplified by Achron into a spacious melody following several introductory measures of descending, brooding phrases. This melody is first given in a lower register, but when repeated several octaves higher it receives embellishments similar to those provided a synagogical chant by a cantor. The composition ends with the same descending minor-key phrases with which it opened. This _Hebrew Melody_, in a transcription for violin and piano by Leopold Auer, has been performed by many of the world’s leading violin virtuosos.

Adolphe-Charles Adam

Adolphe-Charles Adam, eminent composer of comic operas, was born in Paris on July 24, 1803. He attended the Paris Conservatory, where he came under the decisive influence of François Boieldieu, under whose guidance he completed his first comic opera, _Pierre et Catherine_, first produced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on February 9, 1829. His first major success, _Le Chalet_, was given on September 25, 1834, enjoying almost fifteen hundred performances in Paris before the end of the century. Adam subsequently wrote almost fifty other stage works in a light style. With Boieldieu and Auber he became founder and leading exponent of the opéra-comique. His most celebrated work in this genre was _Le Postillon de Longjumeau_, first given at the Opéra-Comique on October 13, 1836. This work was frequently heard in the United States in the 1860’s and 1870’s, but has since lapsed into obscurity. Adam was also a highly significant composer of ballets, of which _Giselle_ is now a classic; of many serious operas; and of a celebrated Christmas song, “Noël,” or “Oh, Holy Night” (“_Cantique de Noël: Minuit, Chrétiens_”), which has been transcribed for orchestra. In 1847, Adam founded his own theater—the Théâtre National—which a year later (with the outbreak of the 1848 revolution in France) went into bankruptcy. From 1849 on he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. Adam died in Paris on May 3, 1856.

_Giselle_ is one of the proudest achievements of French Romantic ballet. Through the years it has never lost its immense popularity. With choreography by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli, it was introduced in Paris on June 28, 1841. Carlotta Grisi appeared in the title role. _Giselle_ was an immediate triumph. Since then, the world’s foremost ballerinas have appeared as Giselle, including Fanny Elssler, Taglioni, Pavlova, Karsavina, Markova, Danilova, Margot Fonteyn, and Moira Shearer.

“What is the secret charm of this ballet?” inquires the famous scenic designer, Alexander Benois. He goes on to answer: “It is mainly due to its simplicity and clearness of plot, to the amazingly impetuous spontaneity with which the drama is developed. There is barely time to collect one’s thoughts before the heroine, who but a moment ago charmed everybody with her vitality, is lying stiff and cold and dead at the feet of the lover who deceived her.... It is deeply moving, and the magic of a true poet ... consists in making us accept without question any absurdities he may choose to offer us.... No one is inclined to criticize while under the spell of this strange idyl.”

The ballet text was the collaborative creation of Théophile Gautier, Vernoy de Saint-Georges, and Jean Coralli. Gautier had read a legend by Heinrich Heine in _De L’Allemagne_ which described elves in white dresses (designated as “wilis”) who died before their wedding day and emerged from their graves in bridal dress to dance till dawn. Any man an elf met was doomed to dance himself to death. Gautier, recognizing the ballet potentialities of this legend, decided to adapt it for Carlotta Grisi. He interested Vernoy de Saint-Georges in assisting him in making this ballet adaptation and Jean Coralli in creating some of the dance sequences. “Three days later,” Gautier revealed in a letter to Heine, “the ballet _Giselle_ was accepted. By the end of the week, Adam had improvised the music, the scenery was nearly ready, and the rehearsals were in full swing.”

The ballet text finds Giselle as a sweet, carefree peasant girl. Betrayed by Albrecht, the Duke of Silesia, she goes mad and commits suicide. Her grave is touched by the magic branch of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis. Giselle arises from the grave as a wili, and performs her nocturnal dance. Albrecht, who comes to visit her grave, is caught up by her spell and must dance to his doom.

A master of expressive and dramatized melodies, Adam here created a score filled with the most ingratiating tunes and spirited rhythms, all beautifully adjusted to the sensitive moods of this delicate fantasy. From this score the 20th-century English composer Constant Lambert extracted four melodic episodes which he made into a popular orchestral suite: “Giselle’s Dance”; “Mad Scene”; “Pas de deux, Act 2”; and “Closing Scene.”

From the repertory of Adam’s operas comes a delightful overture, a favorite in the semi-classical repertory, even though the opera itself is rarely heard. It is the Overture to _If I Were King_ (_Si j’étais roi_). This comic opera was first performed in Paris on November 4, 1852; the libretto was by D’Ennery and Brésil. In Arabia, the fisherman, Zephoris, has managed to save the life of Nemea, beautiful daughter of King Oman. But Nemea is being pursued by Prince Kador, who does not hesitate to employ treachery to win her. Nemea is determined to marry none but the unidentified man who had saved her life. Eventually, the fisherman is brought to the palace, placed in command of the troops, and becomes a hero in a war against the Spaniards. Kador is sent to his disgrace, and Zephoris wins the hand of Nemea.

The oriental background of the opera permeates the atmosphere of the overture. A forceful introduction for full orchestra and arpeggio figures in harp lead to a skipping and delicate tune for first violins against plucked cello strings. The flutes and clarinets respond with a subsidiary thought. A crescendo brings on a strong subject for the violins against a loud accompaniment. After a change of tempo, another light, graceful melody is given by solo flute and oboes. The principal melodic material is then amplified with dramatic effect.

Richard Addinsell

Richard Addinsell was born in Oxford, England, on January 13, 1904. After studying law at Oxford, he attended the Royal College of Music in London and completed his music study in Berlin and Vienna between 1929 and 1932. In 1933 he visited the United States, where he wrote music for several Hollywood films and for a New York stage production of _Alice in Wonderland_. He has since made a specialty of writing music for the screen, his best efforts being the scores for _Goodbye, Mr. Chips_, _Blithe Spirit_, _Dangerous Moonlight_, _Dark Journey_, and _Fire Over England_. During World War II he wrote music for several documentary films, including _Siege of Tobruk_ and _We Sail at Midnight_.

Addinsell’s most frequently played composition is the _Warsaw Concerto_, for piano and orchestra. He wrote it for the English movie _Dangerous Moonlight_ (renamed in the United States _Suicide Squadron_). Anton Walbrook here plays the part of a renowned concert pianist who becomes an officer in the Polish air force during World War II and loses his memory after a crash. The _Warsaw Concerto_, basic to the plot structure, recurs several times in the film. It first became popular, however, on records, and after that with “pop” and salon orchestras. Though the composer’s indebtedness to Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is pronounced, the _Warsaw Concerto_ has enough of its own individuality and charm to survive. Structurally, it is not a concerto but a rhapsody. It opens with several massive chords, arpeggios, and scale passages in the piano. This dramatic opening leads to the sensitive and romantic principal melody, heard in the strings. Later on there appears a second lyric thought, but the rhapsodic character remains predominant. The composition ends with a final statement of the opening phrase of the first main melody.

Addinsell is also sometimes represented on semi-classical programs with a light-textured and tuneful composition called _Prelude and Waltz_, for orchestra. This also stems from a motion picture, in this case the British screen adaptation of Noel Coward’s _Blithe Spirit_.

Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Albéniz, one of Spain’s most distinguished composers, was born in Camprodón, Spain, on May 29, 1860. He was a child prodigy who gave piano concerts in Spain after some spasmodic study in Paris with Marmontel. In 1868 he entered the Madrid Conservatory, but in his thirteenth year he ran away from home and spent several years traveling about in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the United States, supporting himself all the while by playing the piano. He was back in Spain in 1875, and soon thereafter undertook music study seriously, first at the Brussels Conservatory and then at the Leipzig Conservatory. He settled in Paris in 1893, where he wrote his first important works, one of these being his first composition in a national Spanish idiom: the _Catalonia_, for piano and orchestra, in 1899. After 1900 he lived in his native land. From 1906 to 1909 he devoted himself to the writing of his masterwork, the suite _Iberia_, consisting of twelve pieces for the piano gathered in four volumes. _Iberia_ is a vast tonal panorama of Spain, its sights and sounds, dances and songs, backgrounds. Albéniz died in Cambo-Bains, in the Pyrenees, on May 18, 1909.

Albéniz may well be regarded as the founder of the modern Spanish nationalist school in music. This school sought to exploit the rhythms and melodies and styles of Spanish folk music within serious concert works, thus providing a musical interpretation to every possible aspect of Spanish life.

Albéniz’ first work in the national style is also one of his rare compositions utilizing an orchestra. It is the _Catalonia_, written in 1899, and introduced that year at a concert of the Société nationale de musique in Paris. This work is sometimes erroneously designated as a suite, but it is actually a one-movement rhapsody. A single theme, unmistakably Spanish, dominates the entire work. A brief rhythmic middle section for wind, percussion, and a single double bass provides contrast. This middle part is intended as a burlesque on a troupe of wandering musicians playing their favorite tune: the clarinet plays off key and the bass drum is off beat. The original dance melody returns to conclude the work.

_Córdoba_, a haunting nocturne, is the fourth and most famous number from the _Cantos de España_, a suite for the piano, op. 232. _Córdoba_ is a vivid tone picture of that famous Andalusian city. Sharp chords, as if plucked from the strings of a guitar, preface an oriental-type melody which suggests the Moorish background of the city.

_Fête Dieu à Seville_, or _El Corpus en Sevilla_ (_Festival in Seville_) is the third and concluding number from the first volume of _Iberia_. Besides its original version for the piano, this composition is celebrated in several transcriptions for orchestra, notably those by E. Fernández Arbós and Leopold Stokowski. This music depicts a religious procession in the streets of Seville on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. At the head of the procession is the priest bearing the Host, or Blessed Sacrament, under a lavishly decorated canopy. As the procession moves, worshipers who crowd the streets improvise a religious chant.

_Fête Dieu à Seville_ opens with a brusquely accented march melody, against which emerges an improvisational-type melody similar to those sung by worshipers in the street. The march melody and the improvised chant alternate, but it is the chant that is carried to a thunderous climax. Then this chant subsides and fades away into the distance, as the composition ends.

_Navarra_ is a poignant tonal evocation for piano of the Spanish province below the Pyrenees. Albéniz never completed this work; it was finished after his death by Déodat de Séverac. This composition is perhaps best known in Fernández Arbós’ transcription for orchestra. Against the provocative background of a jota rhythm moves a languorous and sensual gypsy melody.

_Sevillañas_ (_Seville_) is the third number from _Suite española_ for piano; it has become famous independent of the larger work and is often heard in transcription. The heart of the piece is a passionate song, typical of those heard in the haunts of Seville. As a background there is an incisive rhythm suggesting the clicking of castanets.

The Tango in D major, op. 165, no. 2, for piano, is not only the most famous one by Albéniz but one of the most popular ever written. With its intriguing flamenco-like melody and compelling rhythm it is Spanish to the core—the prototype of all tango music. The original piano version as written by the composer is not often heard. When it is performed on the piano, this tango is given in a brilliant but complex arrangement by Leopold Godowsky. But it is much more famous in various transcriptions, notably one for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler, and numerous ones for small or large orchestras.

_Triana_ is the third and concluding number from the second book of Albéniz’ monumental suite for piano, _Iberia_. Triana, of which this music is a tonal picture, is a gypsy suburb of Seville. In the introduction, random phrases bring up the image of various attitudes and movements of Spanish dances. A triple-rhythmed figure leads to a light and graceful dance melody against a bolero rhythm. As the melody is developed and repeated it gains in intensity and is enriched in color until it evolves climactically with full force. A transcription for orchestra by Fernández Arbós is as famous as the original piano version.

Hugo Alfvén

Hugo Alfvén was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 1, 1872. His music study took place at the Stockholm Conservatory and, on government stipends, with César Thomson in Brussels, and in Germany and France. From 1910 to 1939 he was musical director and conductor of the student chorus at the Uppsala University. Alfvén was a nationalist composer of Romantic tendencies who wrote five symphonies together with a considerable amount of orchestral and choral music. He died in Faluns, Sweden, on May 8, 1960.

_Midsummer Vigil_ (_Midsommarvaka_), op. 19 (1904), a Swedish rhapsody for orchestra, is his best known composition. It was produced as a ballet, _La Nuit de Saint-Jean_, in Paris on October 25, 1925, where it proved so successful that it was given more than 250 performances within four years. As a work for symphony orchestra it has received universal acclaim for its attractive deployment of national Swedish folk song idioms and dance rhythms. The music describes a revel held in small Swedish towns during the St. John’s Eve festival. The work opens with a gay tune for clarinet over plucked strings. This is followed by a burlesque subject for bassoon. Muted strings and English horns then offer a broad, stately, and emotional folk song. Repeated by the French horns, this song is soon amplified by the strings. The tempo now quickens, and a rustic dance theme is given softly by the violins. The mood gradually becomes frenetic. The violins offer a passionate subject over a pedal point. A climax is finally reached as the revelry becomes unconfined.

Louis Alter

Louis Alter was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on June 18, 1902, where he received his academic education in the public schools, and his initial instruction in music. Music study was completed with Stuart Mason at the New England Conservatory. In 1924 Alter came to New York, where for five years he worked as accompanist for Nora Bayes, Irene Bordoni and other stars of the stage; he also did arrangements for a publishing firm in Tin Pan Alley. Between 1925 and 1927 he wrote his first popular songs and contributed a few of them to Broadway productions. Since then he has written many song hits, as well as scores for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. His best known songs include “A Melody from the Sky” and “Dolores,” both of which were nominated for Academy Awards; also “Twilight on the Trail,” such a favorite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the manuscript, together with a recording by Bing Crosby, repose in the Roosevelt Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

Alter has been successful in writing skilful compositions for piano and orchestra in which the popular element is pronounced, encased within a symphonic structure. Some of them are now staples in the symphonic-jazz repertory. His best compositions were inspired by the sights, sounds and moods of New York City.

_Jewels from Cartier_ (1953), as the title indicates, was inspired not by New York but by one of the city’s most famous jewelers when Alter was one day allowed to inspect its collection. In his suite, Alter attempts in eight sections to translate various jewels into tones. The first movement is “Emerald Eyes.” Since many beautiful emeralds come from South America, this section emphasizes the rumba beat and other Latin-American rhythms. “The Ruby and the Rose” is a romantic ballad in which voices supplement the instruments of the orchestra. “Pearl of the Orient” consists of an oriental dance. “Black Pearl of Tahiti” exploits exotic Polynesian rhythms and its languorous-type melodies. “Diamond Earrings” is a swirling waltz while “Star Sapphire” is a beguine. In “Cat’s Eye in the Night,” the music suggests a playful kitten darting about in a room. The finale, “Lady of Jade,” is in the style of Chinese processional music.

_Manhattan Masquerade_ (1932) is the most dramatic of Alter’s New York murals. It consists of a Viennese-type waltz played in fox-trot time, a suggestion on the part of the composer that Vienna and New York are not too far apart spiritually.

_Manhattan Moonlight_ (1932) is, on the other hand, atmospheric. It opens with four chords in a nebulous Debussy vein. The core of the work is an extended melody for strings against piano embellishments. A light and frivolous mood is then invoked before the main melody returns in an opulent scoring.

_Manhattan Serenade_ (1928) is the most famous of all Alter’s instrumental works and the one that first made him known. He published it first as a piano solo, but soon rewrote it for piano and orchestra. Paul Whiteman and his orchestra made it popular in 1929 on records and in public concerts. This work is extremely effective in laying bare the nerves of the metropolis through syncopations, and jazz tone colorations. Its main melody is a plangent song to which, in 1940, Howard Johnson adapted a song lyric. _Manhattan Serenade_ is often heard as background music on radio and television programs about New York.

_Side Street in Gotham_ (1938) attempts to portray the city from river to river. The composition begins with a few notes suggesting “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” which is later elaborated in a vigorous and amusing tempo; the reason this theme is here used is because it is referred to in the lyric of “The Sidewalks of New York.” Some of the mystery of New York’s side streets can also be found in this music.

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson is one of America’s most successful and best known composers of light orchestral classics. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1908. His early musical training took place at the New England Conservatory, after which he studied the bass and organ with private teachers. In 1929 he was graduated from Harvard _magna cum laude_, and one year after that he received there his Master’s degree in music on a Naumberg Fellowship. For the next few years he served as organist and choirmaster in Milton, Massachusetts; as a member of the music faculty at Radcliffe College; and as director of the Harvard University Band. In 1935 he became a free-lance conductor, composer and arranger in Boston and New York. As orchestrator for the Boston Pops Orchestra, for which he made many orchestral arrangements over a period of several years, Anderson completed his first original semi-classical composition, _Jazz Pizzicato_, successfully introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1939. Since then the Boston Pops Orchestra has introduced most of Anderson’s compositions, many of which proved exceptionally popular in concerts throughout the country and on records. Anderson has also appeared frequently as guest conductor of important American symphony orchestras and has conducted his own compositions with his orchestra for records. In 1958, his first musical comedy, _Goldilocks_, was produced on Broadway.

Beyond possessing a most ingratiating lyric invention and a consummate command of orchestration, Anderson boasts an irresistible sense of humor and a fine flair for burlesque. He is probably at his best in programmatic pieces in which extra-musical sounds are neatly adapted to and often serve as a background for his sprightly tunes—ranging from the clicking of a typewriter to the meowing of a cat.

_Blue Tango_ is the first strictly instrumental composition ever to achieve first place on the Hit Parade. For almost a year it was the leading favorite on juke boxes, and its sale of over two million records represents Anderson’s healthiest commercial success. Scored for violins, this music neatly combines an insistent tango rhythm with a sensual melody in a purple mood. _Bugler’s Holiday_ is a musical frolic for three trumpets. _A Christmas Festival_ provides a colorful orchestral setting to some of the best loved Christmas hymns, including “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Come All Ye Faithful.”

_Fiddle-Faddle_ is a merry burlesque-escapade for the violins, inspired from a hearing of Paganini’s _Perpetual Motion_; this, then, is a modern style “Perpetual Motion.” In _Horse and Buggy_, the music nostalgically evokes a bygone day with a sprightly, wholesome tune presented against the rhythms of a jogging horse. The _Irish Suite_ was commissioned by the Eire Society of Boston, and is a six-movement adaptation of six of Thomas Moore’s _Irish Melodies_. They are: “The Irish Washerwoman,” “The Minstrel Boy,” “The Rakes of Mallow,” “The Wearing of the Green,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” _Jazz Legato_ and _Jazz Pizzicato_ are studies in contrasting moods and dynamics. The _Jazz Pizzicato_ consists of a jazz melody presented entirely by plucked strings; its companion piece is a broader jazz melody for bowed strings. _Plink, Plank, Plunk_ also makes effective use of pizzicato strings, this time attempting to simulate the sounds suggested by the descriptive title. _Saraband_ brings about the marriage between the very old and very new in musical styles. The old classical dance in slow triple time and accented second beat is exploited with a quickening of tempo and with modern rhythmic and melodic embellishments.

In _Sleigh Bells_, jangling sleighbells and the sound of a cracking whip, provide a delightful background to a jaunty tune that has the bite and sting of outdoor winterland. This piece has become something of a perennial favorite of the Christmas season. In _The Syncopated Clock_, the rhythm of a clicking grandfather’s clock, presented by percussion instruments in a modern rhythm, is placed against a bouncy, syncopated melody. This number has become popular as theme music for the CBS-TV “Early Show.” _The Trumpeter’s Lullaby_ is a sensitive melody with the soothing accompaniment of a lullaby.

_The Typewriter_ permits members of the percussion section to imitate the incisive, rigid rhythm of a functioning typewriter, punctuated by the regular tinkle of the bell to provide the warning signal that the carriage has come to the end of a line. Against this rhythm moves a vivacious message in strings. _The Typewriter_ was played in the motion picture _But Not for Me_, starring Clark Gable, released in 1959. In _The Waltzing Cat_, an imaginary cat dances gracefully to a waltz melody made up mainly of meows.

Daniel François Auber

Daniel François Esprit Auber, genius of opéra-comique, was born in Caen, Normandy, France, on January 29, 1782. In his youth he lived in London, where he studied both the business of art, in which he hoped to engage, and music. There he wrote several songs which were heard at public entertainments. After returning to France and settling in Paris in 1804, he gave himself up completely to music. Two minor stage works with music were privately performed between 1806 and 1811 before his first opera received its première performance: _Le Séjour militaire_ in 1813. His first success came seven years after that with _La Bergère châtelaine_. From then on he was a prolific writer of both light and grand operas, many to texts by Eugène Scribe. _La Muette de Portici_ in 1828 was a triumph, and was followed by such other major successes _Fra Diavolo_ (1830), _Le Cheval_ _de bronze_ (1835), _Le Domino noir_ (1837) and _Les Diamants de la couronne_ (1841). His last opera, _Rêves d’amour_, was completed when he was eighty-seven. Auber was one of France’s most highly honored musicians. From 1842 until his death he was director of the Paris Conservatory, and in 1857 he was made by Napoleon III Imperial Maître de Chapelle. Auber died in Paris on May 12, 1871.

With Adam and Boieldieu, Auber was one of the founding fathers of the opéra-comique. He was superior to his two colleagues in the lightness of his touch, surpassing wit, and grace of lyricism. But Auber’s charm and gaiety were not bought at the expense of deeper emotional and dramatic values; for all their lightness of heart, his best comic operas are filled with pages that have the scope and dimension of grand opera. As Rossini once said of him, Auber may have produced light music, but he produced it like a true master.

Overtures to several of his most famous operas are standards in the light-classical repertory.

_The Black Domino_ (_Le Domino noir_), text by Eugène Scribe, was introduced in Paris on December 2, 1837. The central character is Lady Angela, an abbess, who attends a masked ball where she meets and falls in love with Horatio, a young nobleman. Numerous escapades and adventures follow before Angela meets up again with her young man. Now released from her religious vows by the Queen, Angela is free to marry him.

In the overture, a loud outburst for full orchestra emphasizes a strongly rhythmic theme. A staccato phrase in the woodwind and a return of the initial strong subject follow. This leads into a light dancing motive for the woodwind. Another _forte_ passage is now the bridge to a melodious episode in the woodwind. A change of key brings on a gay bolero melody for clarinets and bassoons in octaves. After this idea is amplified, a jota-like melody is given by the full orchestra. The closing section is a brilliant presentation of a completely new jota melody.

_The Crown Diamonds_ (_Les Diamants de la couronne_) was first produced in Paris on March 6, 1841, when it scored a major success. But it enjoyed an even greater triumph when it was first performed in England three years after that; from then on it has remained a great favorite with English audiences. The text, by Eugène Scribe and Saint-Georges, is set in 18th-century Portugal where the Queen assumes the identity of the leader of a gang of counterfeiters and uses the crown diamonds to get the money she needs to save her throne. When Don Henrique falls into the unscrupulous hands of these counterfeiters, the Queen saves his life and falls in love with him. The throne is eventually saved, and the crown jewels retrieved. The Queen now can choose Don Henrique as her husband.

The overture opens with a sustained melody for the strings that is dramatized by key changes. A rhythmic passage leads to a martial subject for the brass. Several other vigorous ideas ensue in the brass and woodwind. After their development there comes a lyrical string episode which, in turn, leads into a second climax. Contrast comes with a lyrical idea in the strings. A loud return of the first martial subject in full orchestra marks the beginning of a spirited conclusion.

_Fra Diavolo_ was an immediate success when first given in Paris on January 28, 1830; it has remained Auber’s best known comic opera. It has even received burlesque treatment on the Hollywood screen in a comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. The text by Eugène Scribe has for its central character a bandit chief by the name of Fra Diavolo who disguises himself as an Italian Marquis. He flirts with a lady of noble birth, hides in the bedroom of Zerlina, the inn-keeper’s daughter, and is finally apprehended by Zerlina’s sweetheart, the captain of police.

This popular overture opens with a _pianissimo_ drum roll, the preface to a march tune for strings. The march music is extended to other instruments, and as the volume increases it gives the impression of an advancing army. It attains a _fortissimo_ for full orchestra, then subsides. The overture ends with several sprightly melodies from the first act of the opera.

_The Mute of Portici_ (_La Muette de Portici_)—or, as it is sometimes called, _Masaniello_—is a grand opera that contributed a footnote to the political history of its times. First performed in Paris on February 29, 1828, it had profound repercussions on the political situation of that period, and it is regarded by many as a significant influence in bringing on the July Revolution in Paris in 1830. When first performed in Brussels the same year, it instigated such riots that the occupying Dutch were ejected from that country and Belgium now achieved independence.

The text by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne is based on an episode from history: a successful Neapolitan revolt against the Duke of Arcos, headed by Tommaso Anello in 1647. In the opera, Masaniello assumes Anello’s part, and toward the end of the opera after the insurrection is smothered, he is assassinated.

The overture begins with stormy music in full orchestra. After the tempo slackens, a sensitive melody is presented by clarinets and bassoons in octaves. The main section of the overture now unfolds, its main theme divided between the strings and the woodwind. After a _fortissimo_ section for full orchestra, a second important melody is heard in the woodwind and violins. The two main subjects are recalled and developed. The overture closes with a coda in which percussion instruments are emphasized.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685. He was the most significant member of a family that for generations had produced professional musicians. His career can be divided into three convenient periods. The first was between 1708 and 1717 when, as organist to the Ducal Chapel in Weimar, he wrote most of his masterworks for organ. During the second period, from 1717 to 1723, he served as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold in Coethen. During this period he wrote most of his major works for orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber-music ensembles. The last period took place in Leipzig from 1723 until his death where he was cantor of the St. Thomas Church. In Leipzig he produced some of his greatest choral compositions. Towards the end of his life he went blind and became paralyzed. He died in Leipzig on July 28, 1750.

As the culmination of the age of polyphony, Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterworks are, for the most part, too complex and subtle for popular appeal. But from his vast and incomparable output of concertos, sonatas, suites, masses, passions, cantatas, and various compositions for the organ and for the piano, it is possible to lift a few random items of such melodic charm and simple emotional appeal that they can be profitably exploited for wide consumption. In these less complicated works, Bach’s consummate skill at counterpoint, and his equally formidable gift at homophonic writing, are always in evidence.

The _Air_ is one of Bach’s most famous melodies, a soulful religious song for strings. It can be found as the second movement of his Suite No. 3 in D major for orchestra, but is often performed apart from the rest of the work. August Wilhelmj transcribed this music for violin and piano, calling it the _Air on the G String_. This transcription has been severely criticized as a mutilation of the original; Sir Donald Francis Tovey described it as a “devastating derangement.” Nevertheless, it has retained its popularity in violin literature, just as the original has remained a favorite in orchestral music.

_Come Sweet Death_ (_Komm, suesser Tod_) is a moving chorale for voice and accompaniment: a simple and eloquent resignation to death. It does not come from any of Bach’s larger works but can be found in Schemelli’s collection (1736). It has become extremely popular in orchestral transcriptions by Leopold Stokowski and Reginald Stewart, but is also sometimes heard in arrangements for various solo instruments and piano, as well as for the organ.

_Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring_ (_Jesu bleibt meine Freude_) is probably Bach’s best known and most frequently performed chorale: a stately melody introduced by, then set against, a gracefully flowing accompaniment. This composition comes from the church cantata No. 147, _Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben_. Various transcriptions have popularized this composition, notably that for piano by Myra Hess, for organ by E. Power Biggs, and for orchestra by Lucien Caillet.

The _Prelude in E major_ is a vigorous and spirited piece of music whose rhythmic momentum does not relax from the first bar to the last. It appears as the first movement of the Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin. It is perhaps even better known in transcription than in the original version, notably in those for violin and piano by Robert Schumann and Fritz Kreisler, for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, and for orchestra by Stokowski, Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli, Sir Henry J. Wood, and Lucien Caillet.

The _Siciliano_ is a beautiful, stately song—the first movement of the Sonata No. 4 in C minor for violin and accompaniment. Stokowski has made a fine transcription for orchestra.

_The Wise Virgins_ is a ballet-suite comprising six compositions by Bach drawn from his literature for the church and transcribed for orchestra by the eminent British composer, Sir William Walton. It was used for a ballet produced at Sadler’s Wells in 1940. Frederick Ashton’s choreography drew its material from the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the 25th chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew; but this parable is seen through the eyes of the Italian Renaissance painters. “Ashton,” wrote Arnold Haskell, “has provided the perfect meeting place for music and painting. The inspiration was pictorial ... it is equally musical. The movement and unfolding of the narrative follow directly from the Bach music so brilliantly arranged and orchestrated by William Walton.”

All six movements of the suite are so lyrical and emotional that their impact on listeners is immediate. The first movement, “What God Hath Done Is Rightly Done” comes from the opening chorus of a cantata of the same name, No. 99 (_Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan_). A lively melody is first shared by strings and woodwind and then given fanciful embellishments. A strong chorale melody for the brass is then given prominent treatment. The second movement, “Lord, Hear My Longing” is a chorale from the _Passion According to St. Matthew_ which is here given the treatment of an organ chorale-prelude with a tenderly expressive chorale melody in woodwind amplified by strings. The third movement, “See What His Love Can Do” is an expansive melody for strings and woodwind against a flowing accompaniment; this music is derived from Cantata No. 85, _Ich bin ein guter Hirt_. This is followed by “Ah, How Ephemeral,” a dramatic page for full orchestra highlighting a chorale for brass taken from Cantata No. 26, _Ach, wie fluechtig_. The fifth section is the most famous. It is “Sheep May Safely Graze” (“_Schafe koennen sicher weiden_”) from the secular Cantata No. 208, _Was mir behagt_. An introductory recitative for solo violin leads to a swaying melody for the woodwind. The lower strings then present a pastoral song which soon receives beautiful filigree work from other parts of the orchestra. The swaying subject for woodwind closes the piece. Sir John Barbirolli also made an effective orchestral transcription of this composition, while Percy Grainger arranged it for solo piano, and Mary Howe for two solo pianos. The finale of the suite is “Praise Be to God,” which is also the finale of Cantata No. 129, _Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott_. This is vigorous music that is an outpouring of pure joy.

Michael Balfe

Michael William Balfe was born in Dublin, Ireland on May 15, 1808. The son of a dancing master, Michael was only six when he played the violin for his father’s classes. In 1823, Balfe came to London where he studied the violin and composition with private teachers and earned his living as violinist and singer. Additional study took place in Italy in 1825, including singing with Bordogni. Between 1828 and 1833 he appeared as principal baritone of the Italian Opera and several other French theaters in Paris. In 1835, he initiated an even more successful career as composer of English operas, with _The Siege of Rochelle_, produced that year in London. He continued writing numerous operas, producing his masterwork, _The Bohemian Girl_, in 1843. Between 1846 and 1856 Balfe traveled to different parts of Europe to attend performances of his operas. In 1864 he left London to retire to his estate in Rowney Abbey where he died on October 20, 1870.

_The Bohemian Girl_ is a classic of English opera. It was first produced at Drury Lane in London on November 27, 1843, when it enjoyed a sensational success. It was soon translated into French, German and Italian and was extensively performed throughout Europe. The libretto, by Alfred Bunn, was based on a ballet-pantomime by Vernoy de Saint-Georges. The setting is Hungary in the 18th century, and its heroine is Arline, daughter of Count Arnheim who, as a girl, had been kidnapped by gypsies and raised as one of them. She is falsely accused by the Count’s men of stealing a valuable medallion from the Count’s palace and is imprisoned. Appearing before the Count to ask for clemency, she is immediately recognized by him as his daughter.

Melodious selections from this opera are frequently heard. The most famous single melody is “I Dream’d That I Dwelt in Marble Halls” which Arline sings in the first scene of the second act as she recalls a dream. “The Heart Bowed Down,” the Count’s song in the fourth scene of the second act as he gazes longingly on a picture of his long lost daughter, and “Then You’ll Remember Me,” a tenor aria from the third act are also familiar.

Hubert Bath

Hubert Bath was born in Barnstaple, England, on November 6, 1883. He attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, after which he wrote his first opera. For a year he was conductor of an opera company that toured the world. After 1915 he devoted himself mainly to composition. Besides his operas, tone poems, cantatas and various instrumental works he wrote a considerable amount of incidental music for stage plays and scores for the motion pictures. He died in Harefield, England, on April 24, 1945.

The _Cornish Rhapsody_, for piano and orchestra, is one of his last compositions and the most famous. He wrote it for the British motion picture _Love Story_, released in 1946, starring Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger. Lockwood plays the part of a concert pianist, and the _Cornish Rhapsody_ is basic to the story which involves the pianist with a man in love with another woman. The rhapsody begins with arpeggio figures which lead to a strong rhapsodic passage in full chords. A bold section is then contrasted by a gentle melody of expressive beauty, the heart of the composition. A cadenza brings on a return of the earlier strong subject, and a recall of the expressive melody in the orchestra to piano embellishments. The composition ends with massive passages and strongly accented harmonies.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. He received his earliest musical training in his native city where he early gave strong evidence of genius. He published his first works when he was eleven, and soon thereafter was performing publicly on the organ, cembalo, and the viola. He also disclosed a phenomenal gift at improvisation. He established permanent residence in Vienna in 1792. Three years later he made there his first public appearance, and from then on began to occupy a high position in Viennese musical life as a piano virtuoso. His fame as a composer soon superseded that of virtuoso as he won the support of Vienna’s aristocracy. He entered upon a new creative phase, as well as full maturity, beginning with 1800, when his first symphony was introduced in Vienna. His creative powers continually deepened and became enriched from that time on. As he restlessly sought to give poetic and dramatic expression to his writing he broke down the classical barriers so long confining music and opened up new horizons for style and structure. Meanwhile, in or about 1801 or 1802, he realized he was growing deaf, a discovery that swept him into despondency and despair, both of which find expression in a unique and remarkable document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament. Deafness led to personal idiosyncrasies and volatile moods which often tried the patience of even his closest friends, but it did not decrease the quantity of his musical production nor prevent him from achieving heights of creative expression achieved by few, if any. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827 after having ushered in a new age for music with his symphonies, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, and masterworks in other categories including opera and choral music.

The grandeur of expression, the profundity of thought, and the independence of idiom we associate with Beethoven is not to be found in his lighter music which, generally speaking, is in a traditional mold, pleasing style, and in an inviting lyric vein. This is not the Beethoven who was the proud democrat, whose life was a struggle with destiny, and who sought to make music the expression of his profoundest concepts. This is rather, another Beethoven: the one who liked to dance, though he did it badly; who flirted with the girls; and who indulged in what he himself described as “unbuttoned humor.”

Beethoven wrote twelve _Contredanses_ (_Contretaenze_) in 1801-1802. These are not “country dances” as the term “_contretaenze_” is sometimes erroneously translated. The Contredanse is the predecessor of the waltz. Like the waltz it is in three-part form, the third part repeating the first, while the middle section is usually a trio in contrasting mood. In 1801-1802, when Beethoven wrote his _Contredanses_, he was already beginning to probe deeply into poetic thought and emotion in his symphonies, sonatas, and concertos. But in the _Contredanses_ the poet becomes peasant. This is earthy music, overflowing with melodies of folksong vigor, and vitalized by infectious peasant rhythms. The _Contredanse_ No. 7 in E-flat major is particularly famous; this same melody was used by the composer for his music to the ballet _Prometheus_, for the finale of his _Eroica Symphony_, and for his Piano Variations, op. 35. The key signatures of the twelve _Contredanses_ are: C major, A major, D major, B-flat major, E-flat major, C major, E-flat major, C major, A major, C major, G major and E-flat major.

A half dozen years before he wrote his _Contredanses_ Beethoven had completed a set of twelve _German Dances_ (_Deutsche Taenze_). The form, style, and spirit of the _German Dance_ is so similar to the _Contredanse_ that many Austrian composers used the terms interchangeably. Beethoven’s early _German Dances_, like the later _Contredanses_, are a reservoir of lively and tuneful semi-classical music with an engaging earthy quality to the melodies and a lusty vitality to the rhythms.

Few Beethoven compositions have enjoyed such universal approval with budding pianists, salon orchestras, and various popular ensembles as the _Minuet in G_. It is not too far afield to maintain that this is one of the most famous minuets in all musical literature. Beethoven wrote it originally for the piano; it is the second of a set of six minuets, written in 1795, but published as op. 167. It is even more celebrated in its many different transcriptions than it is in the original. The composition is in three-part form. The first and third parts consist of a stately classical melody; midway comes a fast-moving trio of contrasting spirit.

The first movement of the _Moonlight Sonata_ is also often heard in varied transcriptions for salon or “pop” orchestras. The _Moonlight Sonata_ is the popular name of the piano sonata in C-sharp minor, op. 27, no. 2 which Beethoven wrote in 1801 and which he designated as _Sonata quasi una fantasia_ mainly because of the fantasia character of this first movement. The poetic and sensitive mood maintained throughout the first movement—with a romantic melody of ineffable sadness accompanied by slow triplets—is the reason why the critic Rellstab (and _not_ the composer) provided the entire sonata with the name of “Moonlight.” To Rellstab this first movement evoked for him a picture of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland at night time, gently touched by the moonlight. The fact that Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom he was then in love, leads to a legend that he wrote this music to express frustrated love, but this was not the case. Another myth about this first movement is that Beethoven improvised this music while playing for a blind boy, as moonlight streamed into the window of his room; after he had finished playing he identified himself to the awe-stricken youngster. It was the opinion of the eminent critic, Henry E. Krehbiel, that the sonata was inspired by a poem, _Die Beterin_ by Seume, describing a young girl kneeling at an altar begging for her father’s recovery from a serious illness; angels descend to comfort her and she becomes transfigured by a divine light.

Beethoven wrote two _Romances_ for violin and orchestra: in F major, op. 50 (1802) and G major, op. 40 (1803). Rarely do we encounter in Beethoven’s works such a fresh, spontaneous and entirely unsophisticated outpouring of song—a song that wears its beauty on the surface—as in these two compositions. The two _Romances_ are companion pieces and pursue a similar pattern. Each opens with the solo violin presenting the main melody (in the F major accompanied by the orchestra, in the G major, solo). Each then progresses to a pure outpouring of lyricism followed by virtuoso passages for the solo instrument. In each, violin and orchestra appear to be engaging in a gentle dialogue.

The _Turkish March_ (_Marcia alla turca_) is one of several numbers (the fourth) comprising the incidental music to a play by Kotzebue, _The Ruins of Athens_ (_Die Ruinen von Athen_), op. 113 (1811). The production of this play with Beethoven’s music was intended for the opening of a theater in Pesth on February 9, 1812. The _Turkish March_ is in the pseudo-Turkish melodic style popular in Vienna in the early 19th century, and it employs percussion instruments such as the triangle which the Viennese then associated with Turkish music. The march, with its quixotic little melody, begins softly, almost like march music heard from a distance. It grows in sonority until a stirring climax is achieved. Then it dies out gradually and ebbs away in the distance. Leopold Auer made a famous transcription for violin and piano, while Beethoven himself transcribed it for piano, with six variations, op. 76 (1809).

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania, Sicily, on November 3, 1801. Born to a musical family, he received music instruction in childhood, and while still very young started composing. He then attended the San Sebastiano Conservatory in Naples; during his stay there he completed a symphony, two masses, and a cantata among other works. He made his bow as opera composer with _Adelson e Salvini_, introduced at the Conservatory in 1825. He continued writing operas after that, and having them produced in major Italian opera houses with varying degrees of success. _I Capuleti e i Montecchi_, given in Venice in 1830, was a triumph. Then came the two operas by which Bellini is today most often represented in the repertory: _La Sonnambula_ and _Norma_, both produced in 1831. In 1833 he came to Paris where he completed his last opera, _I Puritani_, given in Paris in 1835. He was at the height of his fame and creative powers when he died in Puteaux, near Paris, on September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-four, a victim of intestinal fever.