Chapter X: Part 10

Jacques Offenbach was born Jacques Oberst in Cologne, Germany, on June 20, 1819; his father was a cantor in one of the city synagogues. After attending the Paris Conservatory, Offenbach played the cello in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique. Then, in 1849 he became conductor at the Théâtre Français. In 1850 he achieved his initial success as a composer with the song, “_Chanson de Fortunio_” interpolated into a production of the Alfred de Musset drama, _Chandelier_. Three years later his first operetta, _Pepito_, was produced at the Théâtre des Variétés. Between 1855 and 1866 he directed his own theater where operettas were given, Les Bouffes Parisiens, which opened on July 5, 1855 with a performance of one of his own works, _Les Deux aveugles_. For his theater Offenbach wrote many operettas including his masterwork in that genre, _Orpheus in the Underworld_, in 1858. After closing down the Bouffes Parisiens, Offenbach went to Germany and Austria where he had produced several more of his operettas. But in 1864 he was back in Paris. The première of _La Belle Hélène_ at the Variétés that year enjoyed a spectacular success. Among his later operettas were _La Vie parisienne_ (1866), _La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein_ (1867), and _La Périchole_ (1868). In 1877 he toured the United States, an account of which was issued in America in 1957 under the title of _Orpheus in America_. Towards the end of his life Offenbach devoted himself to the writing of his one and only grand opera, _The Tales of Hoffmann_ (_Les Contes d’Hoffmann_). He did not live to see it performed. He died in Paris on October 5, 1880, about half a year before the première of his opera at the Opéra-Comique on February 10, 1881.

Offenbach was the genius of the opéra-bouffe, or French operetta. His music never lacked spontaneity or gaiety, sparkle or engaging lyricism. His writing had the warmth of laughter, the sting of satire, and the caress of sincere and heartfelt emotion. His lovable melodies woo and win the listener. The lightness of his touch and the freshness of his humor give voice to the joy of good living. Like his celebrated Viennese contemporary, Johann Strauss II, Offenbach is a giant figure in semi-classical music. To the lighter musical repertory he brings the invention and imagination of a master.

The _Apache Dance_ is the dashing music that invariably accompanies a performance of French Apache dances, though there are few that know Offenbach wrote it. Actually, the _Apache Dance_ is an adaptation of the main melody of a waltz (“_Valse des Papillons_”) from Offenbach’s comic opera, _Le Roi Carotte_ (1872).

_La Belle Hélène_ (_Fair Helen_), first performed in Paris on December 17, 1864, draws material for laughter and satire from mythology. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy prepared the text which is based on the love of Paris and Helen that led to the Trojan war. But this story is told with tongue-in-cheek frivolity, and the life of the Greeks is gaily parodied. One of the most familiar musical excerpts from _La Belle Hélène_ is whirling Can-Can music—the Can-Can being the voluptuous French dance which first became popular in Paris in 1830 and which contributed to the quadrille high kicks, skirt-lifting and other suggestive and at times vulgar movements. (Offenbach also wrote brilliant Can-Can music for _Orpheus in the Underworld_, _Barbe-Bleue_, and _La Vie parisienne_.) Other delightful episodes from this operetta are Helen’s invocation with chorus, “_Amours divins_,” and her highly lyrical airs, “_On me nomme Hélène_,” “_Un mari Sage_,” and “_La vrai! je ne suis pas coupable_.”

The Galop is almost as much a specialty with Offenbach as the Can-Can. This is a spirited, highly rhythmic dance of German origin introduced in Paris in 1829. Two of Offenbach’s best known Galops appear respectively in _La Grande Duchess de Gérolstein_ (1867) and _Geneviève de Brabant_ (1859).

It is perhaps not generally known that the famous “Marine’s Hymn” familiar to all Americans as “From the Halls of Montezuma” also comes out of _Geneviève de Brabant_. The Hymn was copyrighted by the Marine Corps in 1919. It is known that the lyric was written in 1847 by an unidentified Marine. The melody was taken from one of the airs in Offenbach’s operetta, _Geneviève de Brabant_.

_Orpheus in the Underworld_ (_Orphée aux enfers_) is Offenbach’s masterwork, first produced in Paris on October 21, 1858. This delightful comic opera, with book by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, is a satire on the Olympian gods in general, and specifically on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. _Orpheus in the Underworld_ was not at first successful since audiences did not seem to find much mirth in a satire on Olympian gods. But when a powerful French critic, Jules Janin, violently attacked it as a “profanation of holy and glorious antiquity,” the curiosity of Parisians was aroused, and the crowds began swarming into the theater. Suddenly _Orpheus in the Underworld_ became a vogue; it was the thing to see and discuss; its music (particularly the waltzes, galops, and quadrilles) were everywhere played. The operetta had a run of 227 performances.

The Overture is a perennial favorite of salon and pop orchestras throughout the world. It opens briskly, then progresses to the first subject, a light and gay tune for strings. The heart of the overture is the second main melody, a sentimental song first heard in solo violin, and later repeated by full orchestra.

The Can-Can music in _Orpheus in the Underworld_ is also famous. Much of its effect is due to the fact that Offenbach presented the can-can immediately after a stately minuet in order to emphasize the contrast between two periods in French history. A contemporary described this Can-Can music as follows: “This famous dance ... has carried away our entire generation as would a tempestuous whirlwind. Already the first sounds of the furiously playing instruments seem to indicate the call to a whole world to awake and plunge into the wild dance. These rhythms appear to have the intention of shocking all the resigned, all the defeated, out of their lethargy and, by the physical and moral upheaval which they arouse, to throw the whole fabric of society into confusion.”

_The Tales of Hoffmann_ (_Les Contes d’Hoffmann_) is Offenbach’s only serious opera; but even here we encounter some semi-classical favorites. This opera, one of the glories of the French lyric theater, was based on stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, adapted into a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. It concerns the three tragic loves of the poet Hoffmann: Olympia, a mechanical doll; Giulietta, who is captive to a magician; and Antonia, a victim of consumption.

The “Barcarolle” from this opera is surely one of the most popular selections from the world of opera. It opens the second act. Outside Giulietta’s palace in Venice, Hoffmann hears the strains of this music sung by his friend Nicklausse and Giulietta as they praise the beauty of the Venetian night. Harp arpeggios suggest the lapping of the Venetian waters in the canal, providing a soothing background to one of the most radiant melodies in French music. It is interesting to remark that Offenbach did not write this melody directly for this opera. He had previously used it in 1864 as a ghost song for an opera-ballet, _Die Rheinnixen_.

Two dance episodes from _The Tales of Hoffmann_ are also frequently performed outside the opera house. One is the infectious waltz which rises to a dramatic climax in the first act. To this music Hoffmann dances with the mechanical doll, Olympia, with whom he is in love. The second is an enchanting little Minuet, used as entr’acte music between the first and second acts.

A collation of some of Offenbach’s most famous melodies from various operettas can be found in _La Gaieté parisienne_, an orchestral suite adapted from a score by Manuel Rosenthal to a famous contemporary ballet. This one-act ballet, with choreography by Leonide Massine and scenario by Comte Étienne de Beaumont, was introduced in Monte Carlo by the Ballet Russe in 1938. The setting is a fashionable Parisian restaurant of the 19th century; and the dance offers a colorful picture of Parisian life and mores of that period, climaxed by a stunning Can-Can. Musical episodes are used from _Orpheus in the Underworld_, _La Périchole_, _La Vie parisienne_, and several other Offenbach opéra-bouffes. Beloved Offenbach melodies from various opéra-bouffes were adapted for the score of a Broadway musical produced in 1961, _The Happiest Girl in the World_.

Ignace Jan Paderewski

Ignace Jan Paderewski, one of the world’s foremost piano virtuosos and one of Poland’s most renowned statesmen, was born in Kurylówka, Podolia, on November 18, 1860. A child prodigy, he was given piano lessons from his third year on. Several patrons arranged to send him to the Warsaw Conservatory, from which he was graduated in 1878. Between 1881 and 1883 he studied composition and orchestration in Berlin, and from 1884 to 1887 piano with Leschetizky in Vienna. Paderewski’s first major success as a pianist came in Vienna in 1889, a concert that was the beginning of a virtuoso career extending for about half a century and carrying him triumphantly to all parts of the world. In 1919 he temporarily withdrew from music to become the first Premier of the Polish Republic, but about a year later he resumed concert work. He made his American debut in New York in 1891, and his last American tour took place in 1939. During the early part of World War II he returned to political activity as President of the Parliament of the Polish Government in Exile. He died in New York on June 29, 1941. By order of President Roosevelt he was given a state burial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Paderewski produced many ambitious compositions, some in the style of Polish folk music; these included the opera _Manru_, a symphony, piano concerto, the _Polish Fantasy_ for piano and orchestra and numerous shorter compositions for the piano. Ironically it is not for one of his ambitious works that he is most often recalled as a composer, but through a slight piece: the _Minuet_ in G, or _Menuet à l’antique_, a graceful, well-mannered composition in an 18th-century style. This is one of the three most popular minuets ever written, the other two being by Mozart and Beethoven. Paderewski originally wrote it for the piano; it is the first of six pieces collectively entitled _Humoresques de concert_, op. 14. Fritz Kreisler transcribed it for violin and piano; Gaspar Cassadó for cello and piano. It has, of course, been frequently adapted for orchestra.

Gabriel Pierné

Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz, France, on August 16, 1863. He attended the Paris Conservatory for eleven years, a pupil of Massenet and César Franck. He won numerous awards there including the Prix de Rome in 1882. After returning from Rome, he succeeded Franck as organist of the Ste. Clothilde Church in Paris, retaining this post until 1898. From 1903 until 1932 he was, first the assistant, and from 1910 on the principal, conductor of the Colonne Orchestra. He combined his long and fruitful career as conductor with that of composer, producing a vast library of music in virtually every form, including operas, oratorios, ballets, symphonic and chamber music. He achieved renown with the oratorio _The Children’s Crusade_ (_La Croisade des enfants_), introduced in 1905 and soon after that winner of the City of Paris Award. Another major success came with the ballet, _Cydalise and the Satyr_ in 1923. A conservative composer, Pierné utilized traditional forms with distinction, and filled them with beautiful lyricism, well-sounding harmonies, and a poetic speech. In 1925 Pierné was elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He died in Ploujean, France, on July 17, 1937.

The _Entrance of the Little Fauns_ (_Marche des petites faunes_) is a whimsical little march for orchestra from the ballet, _Cydalise and the Satyr_ (_Cydalise et le chèvre-pied_), introduced at the Paris Opéra on January 15, 1923. A saucy tune for muted trumpet is juxtaposed against the wail of piccolos; all the while an incisive rhythm is projected not only by the snare drum and tambourine but also by the violinists tapping the wood of their bows on the strings. Within the ballet this march accompanies the appearance of a group of small fauns, led by their teacher, an old satyr, as they enter school to learn pan pipes.

The _March of the Little Lead Soldiers_ (_Marche des petits soldats de plomb_) originated as a piano piece in the _Album pour mes petits amis_, op. 14 (1887), but was subsequently orchestrated by the composer. It opens with a muted trumpet call. A snare drum then establishes the rhythm and sets the stage for the appearance of the main march melody in solo flute.

Jean-Robert Planquette

Jean-Robert Planquette was born in Paris on July 31, 1848. He attended the Paris Conservatory after which he supported himself by writing popular songs and chansonettes for Parisian _café-concerts_. He started writing operettas in 1874, and achieved world fame with _The Chimes of Normandy_ in 1877. He wrote many more operettas after that, the most successful being _Rip Van Winkle_ (1882), _Nell Gwynne_ (1884) and _Mam’zelle Quat’Sous_ (1897). He died in Paris on January 28, 1903.

_The Chimes of Normandy_ (_Les Cloches de Corneville_) is one of the most famous French operettas of all time, and it is still occasionally revived. Introduced in Paris at the Folies Dramatiques on April 19, 1877, its success was so immediate and permanent that within a decade it had been given over a thousand times in Paris alone. It was first seen in New York in 1877, and in London in 1888, major successes in both places. The book by Clairville and Gabet presents the life of fishing and peasant folk in Normandy during the regime of Louis XV. Germaine is in love with the fisherman, Jean, but finds opposition in her miserly old uncle, Gaspard, who has other plans for her. To escape her uncle, Germaine finds employment with Henri, a Marquis, who has suddenly returned to his native village to take up residence in the family castle rumored to be haunted. The mystery of the haunted castle is cleared up when the discovery is made that Gaspard has used it to hide his gold; and the bells of the castle begin to ring out loud and clear again. Gaspard, after a brief siege with insanity, is made to sanction the marriage of Germaine and Jean at a magnificent festival honoring the Marquis; at the same time it is suddenly uncovered that Germaine is in reality a Marchioness.

This is an operetta overflowing with ear-caressing melodies. The most famous are Germaine’s bell song, “_Nous avons, hélas, perdu d’excellence maîtres_”; the Marquis’ lilting waltz-rondo, “_Même sans consulter mon coeur_”; and Serpolette’s cider song, “_La Pomme est un fruit plein de sève_.”

Eduard Poldini

Eduard Poldini was born in Budapest, Hungary, on June 13, 1869. His music study took place at the Vienna Conservatory. Poldini subsequently established his home in Vevey, Switzerland, where he devoted himself to composition. His most significant works are for the stage—both comic and serious operas that include _The Vagabond and the Princess_ (1903) and _The Carnival Marriage_ (1924). He was also a prolific composer of salon pieces for the piano, familiar to piano studies throughout the world. In 1935 Poldini received the Order of the Hungarian Cross and in 1948 the Hungarian Pro Arte Prize. He died in Vevey, Switzerland on June 29, 1957.

_Poupée valsante_ (_Dancing Doll_) is Poldini’s best known composition, a fleet, graceful melody contrasted by a sentimental counter-subject. The composer wrote it for solo piano. Fritz Kreisler adapted it for violin and piano, and Frank La Forge for voice and orchestra. It has also often been transcribed for orchestra.

Manuel Ponce

Manuel Maria Ponce was born in Fresnillo, Mexico, on December 8, 1882. His main music study took place in Europe where he arrived in 1905: composition with Enrico Bossi in Bologna; piano with Martin Krause in Berlin. After returning to Mexico he gave a concert of his own compositions in 1912. For several years he taught the piano at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, and from 1917 to 1919 he was the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra there. During World War I he lived in Havana and New York. After the war he went to Paris for an additional period of study with Paul Dukas. From 1933 to 1938 he was professor of folklore at the University of Mexico. In 1941 he toured South America, and in 1947 he was the recipient of the first annual Mexican Arts and Sciences Award established by the President of Mexico. He died in Mexico City on April 24, 1948.

Ponce was a modernist who filled his orchestral compositions with the most advanced resources of modern harmony, counterpoint and rhythm. But in his songs he possessed a spontaneous and ingratiating lyricism, often of a national Mexican identity. It is one of these that has made him famous in semi-classical literature: “_Estrellita_” (“Little Star”), a song with such a strong Spanish personality of melody and rhythm that it was long believed to be a folk song. Ponce first published it in 1914 but it did not become universally popular until 1923 when it was issued in a new arrangement (by Frank La Forge) and translated into English.

Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Paderno Fasolaro, Italy, on August 31, 1834. For nine years he attended the Milan Conservatory where he wrote an operetta in collaboration with three other students. Following the termination of his studies, he became organist in Cremona, and after that a bandmaster in Piacenza. His first opera, _I Promessi sposi_, was introduced in Cremona in 1856, but it did not become successful until sixteen years later when a revised version helped to open the Teatro dal Verme in Milan. World renown came to Ponchielli with _La Gioconda_, first given at La Scala in Milan in 1876. Though Ponchielli wrote many other operas after that he never again managed to reach the high artistic level of this masterwork, nor to repeat its world success. From 1883 until his death he was professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory. He died in Milan, Italy, on January 16, 1886.

What is undoubtedly Ponchielli’s most famous orchestral composition, “The Dance of the Hours” (“_Danza della ore_”) comes from his masterwork, the opera _La Gioconda_. This opera—first performed in Milan on April 8, 1876—was based on Victor Hugo’s drama, _Angelo, tyran de Padoue_, adapted by Arrigo Boïto. The setting is 17th century Venice, and the principal action involves the tragic love triangle of Alvise, his wife Laura, and her beloved, Enzo.

“The Dance of the Hours” comes in the second scene of the third act. Alvise is entertaining his guests at a sumptuous ball in his palace, the highlight of which is a magnificent ballet, intended to symbolize the victory of right over wrong. The dancers in groups of six come out impersonating the hours of dawn, day, evening, and night. The music begins with a slight murmur, shimmering sounds passing through the violins and woodwind. Dawn appears. The music is carried to a dramatic climax with a strong rhythmic pulse as the day unfolds. When the music achieves mellowness and tenderness, the softness of evening touches the stage; and with the coming of night the music acquires a somber character. At midnight, the music is reduced to a sigh. The harp presents some arpeggios, and a broad melody unfolds. The mood then becomes excitable as all the twenty-four hours plunge into a spirited dance, as light conquers darkness.

The most familiar vocal excerpts from this opera are La Cieca’s romanza from the first act, “_A te questo rosario_”; Barnaba’s fisherman’s barcarolle (“_Pescator, affonda l’esca_”) and Enzo’s idyll to the beauty of the night (“_Cielo e mar_”) from the second act; and La Gioconda’s dramatic narrative in which she plans to destroy herself (“_Suicidio_”).

Cole Porter

Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9, 1893 to an immensely wealthy family. Precocious in music, he began studying the violin when he was six, and at eleven had one of his compositions published. He pursued his academic studies at the Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and at Yale; music study took place at the School of Music at Harvard and subsequently in Paris with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum. At Yale he participated in all its musical activities and wrote two football songs still favorites there, “Yale Bull Dog” and “Bingo Eli Yale.” In 1916 he wrote the music for his first Broadway musical comedy, _See America First_, a failure. During the next few years he was a member of the French desert troops in North Africa, while during World War I he taught French gunnery to American troops at Fontainebleau. Just after the close of the war he contributed some songs to _Hitchy Koo_ of 1918, and in 1924 five more songs to the _Greenwich Village Follies_, both of them Broadway productions. Success first came in 1928 with his music for _Paris_ which included “Let’s Do It” and “Let’s Misbehave.” For the next quarter of a century and more he was one of Broadway’s most successful composers. His greatest stage hits came with _Fifty Million Frenchmen_ (1929), _The Gay Divorce_ (1932), _Anything Goes_ (1934), _Leave It to Me_ (1938), _Panama Hattie_ (1940), _Let’s Face It_ (1941), _Kiss Me Kate_ (1948), _Can-Can_ (1953) and _Silk Stockings_ (1955). From these and other stage productions came some of America’s best loved popular songs, for which Porter wrote not merely the music but also the brilliant lyrics: “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Love for Sale,” “You Do Something to Me,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and so forth. He was also a significant composer for motion pictures, his most successful songs for the screen including “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “In the Still of the Night,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” and “True Love.”

The most successful of all the Cole Porter musical comedies was _Kiss Me Kate_ which began a Broadway run of over one thousand performances on December 30, 1948, then went on to be a triumph in Vienna, Austria, where it became the greatest box-office success in the history of the Volksoper where it was given. In Poland it was the first American music performed in that country. The text by Bella and Sam Spewack was based partly on Shakespeare’s _Taming of the Shrew_, but it was really a play within a play. A touring company is performing the Shakespeare comedy in Baltimore, Maryland. The musical comedy moves freely from scenes of that production to the backstage complications in the private lives of its principal performers. In the end, the amatory problems of the two stars are resolved within a performance of the Shakespeare comedy. This was not only Cole Porter’s most successful musical comedy but also the finest of his scores. Never before (or since) was he so prolix with song hits in a single production; never before was his style so varied. The repertory of semi-classical music has been enriched by a symphonic treatment given the best of these melodies by Robert Russell Bennett. Bennett’s symphonic presentation of _Kiss Me Kate_ opens with “Wunderbar,” a tongue-in-cheek parody of a sentimental Viennese waltz. It continues with the sprightly measures of “Another Openin’, Another Show,” and after that come the plangent, purple moods of “Were Thine That Special Face,” “I Sing of Love,” and the show’s principal love song, “So In Love.”

Serge Prokofiev

Serge Prokofiev was born in Sontzovka, Russia, on April 23, 1891. He was extraordinarily precocious in music. After receiving some training at the piano from his mother, he completed the writing of an opera by the time he was ten. Preliminary music study took place with Glière. In his thirteenth year he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov among others and from which he was graduated with the Rubinstein Prize for his first piano concerto. His advanced musical thinking was already evident in his first major work for orchestra, _The Scythian Suite_, introduced in St. Petersburg in 1916. He continued to develop his own personality, formulating his highly individual style and creative idiosyncrasies in works like the ballet _Chout_, the first violin concerto, and the _Classical Symphony_, all written during the era of World War I. In 1918 he toured the United States, making his American debut with a New York piano recital on November 20. While in the United States he was commissioned to write the opera _The Love for Three Oranges_ for the Chicago Opera. From 1919 to 1933 Prokofiev made his home in Paris, but in 1933 he returned to his native land to stay there for the rest of his life. Though he was honored in the Soviet Union as one of its great creative figures—and was the recipient of the Stalin Prize for his monumental Seventh Piano Sonata inspired by World War II—he did not escape censure in 1948 when the Central Committee of the Communist Party denounced Soviet composers for their partiality towards experimentation, modernism and cerebralism, in their musical works. Nevertheless, Prokofiev soon recovered his high estate in Soviet music; in 1951 he received the Stalin Prize again, this time for his oratorio _On Guard for Peace_ and the symphonic suite, _Winter Bonfire_. His sixtieth birthday, that year, was celebrated throughout the country with concerts and broadcasts. Prokofiev died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow on March 5, 1953.

Prokofiev was one of the giants of 20th-century music. His seven symphonies, five piano concertos, nine piano sonatas, the opera _War and Peace_, ballets, chamber music, piano compositions and various shorter orchestral works are among the most significant contributions made in our time to music. The highly personal way of writing melodies, his unusual progressions, his harmonic vocabulary are all present in the few lighter and simpler works with which he made a significant contribution to the contemporary repertory of semi-classics.

The _March_ so familiar to radio listeners throughout the United States as the theme music for the program “The F.B.I. in Peace and War” comes from the opera _The Love for Three Oranges_ (1921). The libretto by the composer based on a tale of Carlo Gozzi is a charming fantasy in which a prince saves himself from death through gloom by means of laughter, and who then goes at once to rescue a princess from her prison in an orange. The march occurs in the second act where an effort is being made to get the Prince to laugh, for which purpose a festival is being arranged. The march music is played as the court jester drags the reluctant Prince to these festivities. The quixotic skips in the melody, the grotesquerie of the musical style, and the pert discords are all typical of Prokofiev’s creative manner.

_Peter and the Wolf_, a “symphonic fairy tale” for narrator and orchestra op. 67 (1936) was intended by the composer to teach children the instruments of the orchestra. But the music is so consistently delightful for its sprightly lyricism and wit that it has proved a favorite at symphony and semi-classical concerts. The story here being told is about a lad named Peter who turns a deaf ear to his grandfather’s warning and goes out into the meadow. There a wolf has frightened, in turn, a cat, bird, and duck. But Peter is not afraid of him. He captures the wolf, ties him up with a rope and takes him to the zoo.

The composition opens with the following explanation by the narrator: “Each character in the tale is represented by a different instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute; the duck by an oboe; the cat by a clarinet in the low register; grandpapa by the bassoon; the wolf by three French horns; Peter by the string quartet; and the hunter’s rifle shots by the kettledrums and bass drums.” Then, as the story of Peter and the wolf unfolds, little melodies appear and reappear, each identifying some character in the story. Peter’s theme is a lyrical folk song with a puckish personality for strings. Vivid and realistic little tunes represent the cat, bird, and duck, each tune providing an amusing insight into the personality of each of these animals.

_Summer Day_, opp. 65a and 65b (1935) is another of the composer’s compositions for children which makes for delightful listening. It started out as a suite of twelve easy piano pieces for children called _Music for Children_. Later on the composer orchestrated seven of these sections and called the new work _Summer Day_. In the first movement, “Morning,” a whimsical little tune is heard in first flute against a contrapuntal background by other woodwinds, strings, and bass drum. Midway a secondary melody is given by bassoons, horns and cellos. “Tag,” the familiar child’s game, is represented in a tripping melody for violins and flutes; the music grows increasingly rhythmic in the intermediary section. In the “Waltz,” a saucy waltz tune with an unusual syncopated construction is presented by the violins, interrupted by exclamations from the woodwind with typical Prokofiev octave leaps. “Regrets” opens with a tender melody for cellos, but is soon taken over by oboes, and then the violins. This melody is then varied by violins and clarinets. “March” offers the main march melody in clarinets and oboes. “Evening” highlights a gentle song by solo flute, soon joined by the clarinet. As the violins take over the melody the pensive mood is maintained. The concluding movement, “Moonlit Meadows” is dominated by a melody for solo flute.

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, to a family which for several generations had produced professional musicians. As a boy, Giacomo attended the Istituto Musicale in his native city, played the organ in the local church, and wrote two choral compositions. A subsidy from Queen Margherita enabled him to continue his music study at the Milan Conservatory with Bazzini and Ponchielli. The latter encouraged Puccini to write for the stage. Puccini’s first dramatic work was a one-act opera, _Le Villi_, given successfully in Milan in 1884, and soon thereafter performed at La Scala. On a commission from the publisher, Ricordi, Puccini wrote a second opera that was a failure. But the third, _Manon Lescaut_—introduced in Turin in 1893—was a triumph and permanently established Puccini’s fame. He now moved rapidly to a position of first importance in Italian opera with three successive master-works: _La Bohème_ (1896), _Tosca_ (1900) and _Madama Butterfly_ (1904). Puccini paid his first visit to the United States in 1907 to supervise the American première of the last-named opera; he returned in 1910 to attend the world première of _The Girl from the Golden West_ which had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Puccini’s subsequent operas were: _La Rondine_ (1917), _Il Trittico_, a trilogy of three one-act operas (1918), and _Turandot_ (1924), the last of which was left unfinished but was completed by Franco Alfano. Operated on for cancer of the throat, in Brussels, Puccini died of a heart attack in that city on November 29, 1924.

Though Puccini was an exponent of “Verismo,” a movement in Italian opera which emphasized everyday subjects treated realistically, he poured into his operas such a wealth of sentiment, tenderness, sweetness of lyricism, and elegance of style that their emotional appeal is universal, and he has become the best loved opera composer of the 20th century. Selections from his three most popular operas are basic to the repertory of any semi-classical or “pop” orchestra.

_La Bohème_ was based on Murger’s famous novel, _Scènes de la vie de Bohème_ adapted into an opera libretto by Giacosa and Illica. When first introduced (Turin, February 1, 1896) the opera encountered an apathetic audience and hostile critics. It had no big scenes, no telling climaxes, and most of its effects were too subtle emotionally to have an instantaneous appeal. But the third performance—in Palermo in 1896—received an ovation. From that time on it never failed to move opera audiences with its deeply moving pathos and its vivid depiction of the daily problems and conflicts of a group of Bohemians in mid 19th-century Paris. The central theme is the love affair of the poet, Rodolfo, and a seamstress, Mimi. This love was filled with storm and stress, and ended tragically with Mimi’s death of consumption in Rodolfo’s attic. The following are some of the episodes heard most often in potpourris or fantasies of this opera: Rodolfo’s celebrated narrative in the first act, “_Che gelida manina_,” in which he tells Mimi about his life as a poet; Mimi’s aria that follows this narrative immediately, “_Mi chiamano Mimi_,” where she tells Rodolfo of her poignant need for flowers and the warmth of springtime; the first act love duet of Mimi and Rodolfo, “_O soave fanciulla_”; Musetta’s coquettish second-act waltz, “_Quando m’en vo’ soletta_,” sung outside Café Momus in the Latin Quarter on Christmas Eve, informing her admirers (specifically Marcello the painter), how men are always attracted to her; Rodolfo’s poignant recollection of his one time happiness with Mimi, “_O, Mimi, tu più_” in the fourth act; and Mimi’s death music that ends the opera.

_Madama Butterfly_—libretto by Illica and Giacosa based on David Belasco’s play of the same name, which in turn came from John Luther’s short story—was first performed in Milan on February 17, 1904 when it was a fiasco. There was such pandemonium during that performance that Puccini had to rush on the stage and entreat the audience to be quiet so that the opera might continue. Undoubtedly, some of Puccini’s enemies had a hand in instigating this scandal, but the opera itself was not one able to win immediate favor. The exotic setting of Japan, the unorthodox love affair involving an American sailor and a geisha girl ending in tragedy for the girl, and the provocatively different kind of music (sometimes Oriental, sometimes modern) written to conform to the setting and the characters—all this was not calculated to appeal to Italian opera lovers. But three months after the première the opera was repeated (with some vital revisions by the composer). This time neither the play nor the music proved shocking, and the audience fell under the spell of enchantment which that sensitive opera cast all about it. From then on, the opera has been a favorite around the world.

The most celebrated single excerpt from the opera is unquestionably Madame Butterfly’s poignant aria, her expression of belief that her American lover, so long absent from Japan with his fleet, would some day return to her: “_Un bel di_.” Other popular episodes include the passionate love music of Madame Butterfly and the American lieutenant with which the first act ends, “_Viene la sera_”; the flower duet of the second act between Madame Butterfly and her servant in which the heroine excitedly decorates her home with cherry blossoms upon learning that her lover is back with his fleet (“_Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio_”); the American lieutenant’s tender farewell to Madame Butterfly and the scene of their love idyl from the third act (“_Addio fiorito_ _asil_”); and Madame Butterfly’s tender farewell to her daughter before committing suicide (“_Tu, tu piccolo iddio_”).

_Tosca_—based on the famous French drama of the same name by Sardou, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica—was introduced in Rome on January 14, 1900. It was a blood and thunder drama set in Rome at the turn of the 19th century; the dramatic episodes involved murder, horror, suicide, sadism. The heroine, Floria Tosca, is an opera singer in love with a painter, Mario Cavaradossi; she, in turn, is being pursued by Scarpia, the chief of police. To save her lover’s life, she stands ready to give herself to Scarpia. The latter, nonetheless, is responsible for Cavaradossi’s execution. Scarpia is murdered by Tosca, who then commits suicide.

Two tenor arias by Cavaradossi are lyrical highlights of this opera. The first is “_Recondita armonia_,” in the first act, in which the painter rhapsodizes over the beauty of his beloved Tosca; the second, “_E lucevan le stelle_,” comes in the last act as Cavaradossi prepares himself for his death by bidding farewell to his memory of Tosca. The third important aria from this opera is that of Tosca, “_Vissi d’arte_,” a monologue in which she reflects on how cruel life had been to one who has devoted herself always to art, prayer, and love. In addition to these three arias, the opera score also boasts some wonderful love music, that of Cavaradossi and Tosca (“_Non la sospiri la nostra casetta_”) and the first act stately church music (“_Te Deum_”).

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Oneg, Novgorod, Russia, on April 1, 1873. He attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory for three years, and his musical training ended at the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 when he received a gold medal for a one-act opera, _Aleko_. In that same year he also wrote the Prelude in C-sharp minor with which he became world famous. His first piano concerto and his first symphony, however, were dismal failures. In 1901 he scored a triumph with his Second Piano Concerto which, since then, has been not only the composer’s most celebrated composition in a large form but also one of the best loved and most frequently performed piano concertos of the 20th century. Rachmaninoff combined his success as composer with that as piano virtuoso. Beginning with 1900 he toured the world of music achieving recognition everywhere as one of the most renowned concert artists of his generation. The first of his many tours of America took place in 1909. He also distinguished himself as a conductor, first at the Bolshoi Theater between 1904 and 1906, and later with the Moscow Philharmonic. As a composer he enhanced his reputation with a remarkable second symphony, two more piano concertos, and sundry works for orchestra. He was a traditionalist who preferred working within the structures and with the techniques handed down to him by Tchaikovsky. Like Tchaikovsky whom he admired and emulated, he wore his heart on his sleeve, ever preferring to make his music the vehicle for profoundly felt emotions. His broad rhapsodic style makes his greatest music an ever stirring emotional experience. In 1917 Rachmaninoff left Russia for good, establishing his permanent home first in Lucerne, Switzerland, and in 1935 in the United States. All the while he continued to tour the world as concert pianist. His last years were spent in Beverly Hills, California, where he died on March 28, 1943.

The Prelude in C-sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2 (1892) is Rachmaninoff’s most popular composition; the transcriptions and adaptations it has received are of infinite variety. He wrote it when he was nineteen and instantaneously the piece traveled around the globe. Unfortunately, the composer never profited commercially from this formidable success, having sold the composition outright for a pittance. The Prelude opens in a solemn mood with a theme sounding like the tolling of bells, or the grim pronouncement by some implacable fate. The second theme is agitated and restless, but before the composition ends the solemn first theme recurs. Numerous efforts have been made to provide this dramatic music with a program, including one which interpreted it in terms of the burning of Moscow in 1812.

The Prelude in G minor, op. 23, no. 5, for piano (1904), is almost as famous. The opening subject has the character of a brisk military march, while the contrasting second theme is nostalgic and reflective.

The _Vocalise_, op. 34, no. 14 (1912) is one of the composer’s best known vocal compositions. This is a wordless song—a melody sung only on vowels, a “vocalise” being actually a vocal exercise. Rachmaninoff himself transcribed this work for orchestra, a version perhaps better known than the original vocal one. Many other musicians have made sundry other transcriptions, including one for piano, and others for solo instruments and piano.

Joachim Raff

Joseph Joachim Raff was born in Lachen, on the Lake of Zurich, Switzerland, on May 27, 1822. He was mostly self-taught in music, while pursuing the career of schoolmaster. Some of his early compositions were published through Mendelssohn’s influence, a development that finally encouraged Raff to give up schoolteaching and devote himself completely to music. An intimate association with Liszt led to the première of an opera, _King Alfred_, in Weimar in 1851. In 1863, his symphony, _An das Vaterland_, received first prize from the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. From 1877 until his death he was director of Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfort, Germany. He died in that city on June 25, 1882.

A prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, overtures, quartets, sonatas and sundry other works, Raff was a major figure in the German Romantic movement, highly regarded by his contemporaries, but forgotten since his death. Only some of his minor pieces are remembered. The most popular is the _Cavatina_ in A-flat major, op. 85, no. 3, for violin and piano, a perennial favorite with violin students and young violinists, and no less familiar in various orchestral adaptations. A “cavatina” is a composition for an instrument with the lyric character of a song. Raff’s broad and expressive melody has an almost religious stateliness.

Another popular Raff composition in a smaller dimension is the picturesque piano piece, _La Fileuse_ (_The Spinner_), op. 157, no. 2, in which the movement of the spinning wheel is graphically reproduced.

Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, France, on March 7, 1875. After studying music with private teachers in Paris he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889, remaining there fifteen years, and proving himself a brilliant (if at times an iconoclastic) student. While still at the Conservatory his _Menuet antique_ for piano was published, and _Les Sites auriculaires_ for two pianos was performed. By the time he left the Conservatory he was already a composer of considerable stature, having completed two remarkable compositions for the piano—_Pavane pour une Infante défunte_ and _Jeux d’eau_, both introduced in 1902—and an unqualified masterwork, the String Quartet, first performed in 1904. The fact that a composer of such attainments had four times failed to win the Prix de Rome created such a scandal in Paris that the director of the Paris Conservatory, Théodore Dubois, was compelled to resign. But Ravel’s frustrations from failing to win the Prix de Rome did not affect the quality of his music. In the succeeding years he produced a succession of masterworks: the ballet _Daphnis and Chloe_, its première by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Paris on June 8, 1912; the _Spanish Rhapsody_ (_Rapsodie espagnole_) for orchestra; the suite _Miroirs_, for piano. During World War I, Ravel served at the front in an ambulance corps. After the war, he withdrew to his villa in Montfort l’Amaury where he lived in comparative seclusion, devoted mainly to creative work. Nevertheless, in 1928, he toured the United States, making his American debut in Boston with the Boston Symphony on January 12, 1929; Ravel died in Paris on December 28, 1937, following an unsuccessful operation on the brain.

One of the most significant of Impressionists after Debussy, Ravel was the creator of music that is highly sensitive in its moods, elegant in style, exquisite in detail, and usually endowed with the most stunning effects of instrumentation, rhythm, and harmony. Some of his best-known works derive their inspiration and material from Spanish sources. It is one of these that is probably his most popular orchestral composition, and one of the most popular of the 20th century, the _Bolero_. A “bolero” is a Spanish dance in ¾ time accompanied by clicking castanets. Ravel wrote his _Bolero_ in 1928 as ballet music for Ida Rubinstein who introduced it in Paris on November 22, 1928. But _Bolero_ has since then separated itself from the dance to become a concert hall favorite. When Toscanini directed the American première in 1929 it created a sensation, and set into motion a wave of popularity for this exciting music achieved by few contemporary works. It was performed by every major American orchestra, was heard in theaters and over radio, was reproduced simultaneously on six different recordings. It was transcribed for every possible combination of instruments (including a jazz band); the word “Bolero” was used as the title of a motion picture. Such immense appeal is not difficult to explain. The rhythmic and instrumental virtuosity of this music has an immediate kinaesthetic effect. The composition derives its immense impact from sonority and changing orchestral colors. The bolero melody has two sections, the first heard initially is the flute, then clarinet; the second is given by the bassoon, and then the clarinet. This two-part melody is repeated throughout the composition against a compelling rhythm of a side drum, all the while gradually growing in dynamics and continually changing its colors chameleon-like through varied instrumentation. A monumental climax is finally realized, as the bolero melody is proclaimed by the full orchestra.

Another highly popular Ravel composition has a far different personality—the _Pavane pour une Infante défunte_ (_Pavane for a Dead Infante_). Where the appeal of the _Bolero_ is strong, direct, immediate and on the surface, that of the Pavane is subtle, elusive, sensitive. A Pavane is a stately court dance (usually in three sections and in ⁴/₄ time) popular in France. Ravel’s _Pavane_ is an elegy for the death of a Spanish princess. Ravel wrote this composition for piano (1899) but he later transcribed it for orchestra. An American popular song was adapted from this haunting melody in 1939, entitled “The Lamp Is Low.”

Emil von Rezniček

Emil Von Rezniček was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 4, 1860, the son of a princess and an Austrian field marshal. For a time he studied law, but then devoted himself completely to music study, mainly at the Leipzig Conservatory. From 1896 to 1899 he was the conductor of several theater orchestras in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In 1902 he settled in Berlin where he founded and for several years conducted an annual series of orchestral concerts. Subsequently he was the conductor of the Warsaw Opera and from 1909 to 1911 of the Komische Oper in Berlin. He also pursued a highly successful career as teacher, principally at the Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin and from 1920 to 1926 at the Berlin High School of Music. He went into retirement in 1929, and died in Berlin on August 2, 1945.

Rezniček was the composer of several operas, five symphonies, three tone poems and various other compositions. His greatest success came with the comic opera, _Donna Diana_, introduced in Prague on December 16, 1894, and soon thereafter heard in forty-three European opera houses. The opera—libretto by the composer based on a Spanish comedy by Moreto y Cabana—is consistently light and frothy. Carlos is in pursuit of Princess Diana, and to effect her surrender he feigns he is madly in love with her. Princess Diana plays a game of her own. Coyly she eludes him after seeming to fall victim to his wiles. In the end they both discover they are very much in love with each other.

The opera is almost never heard any longer, but the witty overture is a favorite throughout the world; it is the only piece of music by the composer that is still often performed today. A sustained introduction leads into the jolly first theme—a fast, light little melody that sets the prevailing mood of frivolity. The heart of the overture is an expressive melody shared by basses and oboe. It grows in passion and intensity as other sections of the orchestra develop it. When this melody comes to a climax, the passionate mood is suddenly dissipated, and the frivolous first theme of the overture returns to restore a mood of reckless gaiety.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, Russia, on March 18, 1844. Trained for a naval career, he was graduated from the Naval School in St. Petersburg in 1862, after which he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year cruise as naval officer. From earliest boyhood he had been passionately interested in music, especially the folk operas of Glinka and Russian ecclesiastical music. When he was seventeen, he was encouraged by Balakirev to essay composition. After returning to Russia in 1864, Rimsky-Korsakov associated himself with the national Russian school then being realized by Balakirev and Mussorgsky among others, and completed his first symphony, introduced in St. Petersburg in 1865. He plunged more deeply into musical activity after that by completing several ambitious works of national character, including the _Antar Symphony_ and an opera, _The Maid of Pskov_. In 1873 he was relieved by the government of all his naval duties and allowed to devote himself completely to music. At that time the special post of Inspector of Military Orchestras was created for him. He soon distinguished himself as a conductor of the Free Music Society in St. Petersburg and as professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He did not neglect composition, producing many significant operas and orchestral works. In his music he remained faithful to national ideals by filling his music with melodies patterned after Russian folk songs, harmonies derived from the modes of Russian church music, and rhythms simulating those of Russian folk dances. To all his writing he brought an extraordinary technical skill in structure, orchestration and harmony. He died of a heart attack in Liubensk, Russia, on June 21, 1908.

The exotic personality and harmonic and instrumental brilliance of Eastern music are often encountered in Rimsky-Korsakov. They are found in two extremely popular excerpts from his opera _Le Coq d’or_ (_The Golden Cockerel_): “Bridal Procession” and “Hymn to the Sun.”

_Le Coq d’or_ is a fantasy-opera, introduced in Moscow on October 7, 1909; the libretto, by Vladimir Bielsky, is based on a tale by Pushkin. A golden cockerel with the talent of prophecy is presented to King Dodon by his astrologer. In time the cockerel accurately prophesies the doom of both the astrologer and the King.

The oriental, languorous “Hymn to the Sun” (“_Salut à toi soleil_”) appears in the second act, a salute by the beautiful Queen of Shemaka. After the Queen has captured the love of King Dodon with this song, they marry. There are many transcriptions of this beautiful melody, including one for violin and piano by Kreisler and for cello and piano by Julius Klengel.

The third act of this opera opens with the brilliant music of the “Bridal Procession.” The royal entourage passes with pomp and ceremony through the city accompanied by the cheers of the surrounding crowds.

In the vital “Dance of the Tumblers” or “Dance of the Buffoons” for orchestra, Rimsky-Korsakov skilfully employs folk rhythms. This dance comes from the composer’s folk opera, _The Snow Maiden_ (_Snegourochka_). The third act opens with a gay Arcadian festival celebrated by the Berendey peasants during which this gay and exciting folk dance is performed.

The pictorial, realistic “Flight of the Bumble Bee” is an excerpt from still another of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas, _The Legend of Tsar Saltan_. This is an orchestral interlude in the third act describing tonally, and with remarkable realism, the buzzing course of a bee. This piece retains its vivid pictorialism even in transcriptions, notably that for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, and for violin and piano by Arthur Hartmann.

The “Hindu Chant” or “The Song of India” is also an operatic excerpt, this time from _Sadko_. It appears at the close of the second tableau of the second act. Sadko is the host to three merchants from foreign lands. He invites each to tell him about his homeland, one of whom is a Hindu who proceeds in an Oriental melody to speak of the magic and mystery of India.

The _Russian Easter Overture_ (_La Grand pâque russe_), for orchestra, op. 36 (1888) was one of the fruits of the composer’s lifelong fascination for Russian church music. The principal thematic material of the overture comes from a collection of canticles known as the _Obikhod_ from the Russian Orthodox Church. Two of these canticles are heard in the solemn introduction, a section which the composer said represented the “Holy Sepulcher that had shone with ineffable light at the moment of the Resurrection.” The first is given loudly by strings and clarinets, the second quietly by violins and violas accompanied by woodwind, harps, and pizzicato basses. A brief cadenza for solo violin is the transition to the main body of the overture where the two canticles from the introduction are amplified and developed. A brilliant coda leads to the conclusion of the work where the second of the two melodies is given for the last time by trombones and strings.