Chapter VII: Part 7

Handel was a prolific composer of operas, oratorios, orchestral music, concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, sonatas, compositions for harpsichord, and chamber works. He was greatest in his religious music, in the deservedly world-famous oratorio _Messiah_, and in such somewhat less familiar but no less distinguished works as _Judas Maccabaeus_, _Samson_, _Solomon_, and _Israel in Egypt_. His greatest music is on such a consistently high spiritual plane, is filled with such grandeur of expression, and reveals such extraordinary contrapuntal skill that it does not easily lend itself to popular consumption. But one passage from the _Messiah_ is particularly famous, and especially popular with people the world over; it is probably the most celebrated single piece of music he ever wrote, and while originally for chorus and orchestra, is familiar in innumerable transcriptions for orchestra or for band. It is the sublime “Hallelujah Chorus,” about which the composer himself said when he finished writing it: “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.” This grandiose choral passage, a miracle of contrapuntal technique, is undoubtedly the climactic point of the entire oratorio. When the _Messiah_ was first heard in London on March 23, 1743 (a little less than a year after its world première which took place in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742) the awesome immensity of this music made such an impression on King George II, in the audience, that he rose spontaneously in his seat and remained standing throughout the piece. The audience followed their king in listening to the music in a standing position. Since then it has been a custom in performances of _Messiah_ for the audience to rise during the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

The _Harmonious Blacksmith_ is Handel’s best known composition for the harpsichord. This is the fourth movement of a harpsichord suite, No. 5 in E major, which the composer wrote in 1720; but most frequently it is played apart from the rest of the movements as a self-sufficient composition. The title _Harmonious Blacksmith_ was created not by the composer but by a publisher in Bath, England, when in 1822 he issued the fourth movement of the suite as a separate piece of music. There happened to be in Bath a blacksmith who often sang this Handel tune and who came to be known in that town as the “harmonious blacksmith.” The Bath publisher recognized the popular appeal of a title like “Harmonious Blacksmith” and decided to use it for this music. The story that Handel conceived this tune while waiting in a blacksmith’s shop during a storm is, however, apocryphal. The _Harmonious Blacksmith_ begins with a simple two-part melody which then undergoes five equally elementary variations.

The _Largo_, so familiar as an instrumental composition in various transcriptions, is really an aria from one of Handel’s operas. It was a tenor aria (“_Ombrai mai fu_”) from _Serse_ (1738) in which is described the beauty of the cool shade of a palm tree. In slower tempo it has become, in its instrumental dress, a broad, stately melody of religious character with the simple tempo marking of _Largo_ as its title.

The _Water Music_ (1717) is a suite for orchestra made up of charming little dances, airs and fanfares written for a royal water pageant held on the Thames River in London on July 19, 1717. A special barge held the orchestra that performed this composition while the musicians sailed slowly up and down the river. The king was so impressed by Handel’s music that he asked it be repeated three times. In its original form, this suite is made up of twenty pieces, but the version most often heard today is an adaptation by Sir Hamilton Harty in which only six movements appear: Overture, Air, Bourrée, Hornpipe, Air, and Fanfare.

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, on March 31, 1732. From 1740 to 1749 he was a member of the choir of St. Stephen’s in Vienna, attending its school for a comprehensive musical training. For several years after that he lived in Vienna, teaching music, and completing various hack assignments, while pursuing serious composition. In 1755 he was appointed by Baron Karl Josef Fuernberg to write music for and direct the concerts at his palace; it was in this office that Haydn wrote his first symphonies and string quartets as well as many other orchestral and chamber-music works. From 1758 to 1760 he was Kapellmeister to Count Ferdinand Maximilian Morzin. In 1761 Haydn became second Kapellmeister to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy at Eisenstadt, rising to the post of first Kapellmeister five years after that. Haydn remained with the Esterházys until 1790, a period in which he arrived at full maturity as a composer. His abundant symphonies, quartets, sonatas and other compositions spread his fame throughout the length and breadth of Europe. After leaving the employ of the Esterházys, Haydn paid two visits to London, in 1791 and again in 1794, where he directed orchestral concerts for which he wrote his renowned _London_ symphonies. At the dusk of his career, Haydn produced two crowning masterworks in the field of choral music: the oratorios _The Creation_ (1798) and _The Seasons_ (1801). Haydn died in Vienna on May 31, 1809.

Haydn was an epochal figure during music’s classical era. He helped to establish permanently the structures of the symphony, quartet, sonata; to arrive at a fully realized homophonic style as opposed to the contrapuntal idiom of the masters who preceded him; and to arrive at new concepts of harmony, orchestration, and thematic development. He helped pave the way for the giants who followed him, most notably Mozart and Beethoven, who helped carry the classical era in music to its full flowering. To his musical writing Haydn brought that charm, grace, stateliness, beauty of lyricism that we associate with classicism, and with it a most engaging sense of humor and at times even a remarkable expressiveness. Most of Haydn’s music belongs to the serious concert repertory. He did write some music intended for the masses—mainly the Contredanses, German Dances and Minuets which, after all, was the dance music of the Austrian people in Haydn’s time. Haydn’s _German Dances_ and Minuets are especially appealing. The former was the forerunner of the waltz, but its melodies and rhythms have a lusty peasant quality and an earthy vitality; the latter was the graceful, sedate dance of the European court. Twelve of Haydn’s _German Dances_ and twelve of his Minuets (the latter called _Katherine Menuetten_) were written in the closing years of his life and published in 1794; they were intended for the court ball held at the Redoutensaal in Vienna where they were introduced on November 25, 1792. The _German Dances_ here have sobriety and dignity, and are often filled with Haydn’s remarkable innovations in melodic and harmonic writing; the Minuets are consistently light and carefree in spirit.

The _Gypsy Rondo_—often heard in various transcriptions, including one for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler—comes from the Piano Trio No. 1 in G major, op. 73, no. 2 (1795) where it is the concluding movement (Rondo all’ ongarese). It is in Hungarian style, vivacious in rhythmic and melodic content; it is for this reason that Haydn himself designated this music “in a gypsy style” and Kreisler’s transcription bears the title of _Hungarian Rondo_.

Of Haydn’s more than one hundred symphonies the one occasionally given by pop orchestras is a curiosity known as the _Toy Symphony_. Actually we now know that Haydn never really wrote it, but it was the work of either Mozart’s father, Leopold, or Haydn’s brother, Michael. But it was long attributed to Joseph Haydn, and still is often credited to him. This little symphony in C major, which is in three short movements, was long believed to have been written by Haydn during his visit to Berchtegaden, Bavaria, in 1788 where he became interested in toy instruments. The symphony uses numerous toy instruments (penny trumpet, quail call, rattle, cuckoo, whistle, little drum, toy triangle, and so forth) together with three orthodox musical instruments, two violins and a bass.

Joseph Haydn was also the composer of Austria’s national anthem, “_Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser_.” He was commissioned to do so in 1797 by the Minister of the Interior to help stir the patriotic ardor of Austrians; it was first performed in all Austrian theaters on the Emperor’s birthday on February 12, 1797. The Emperor was deeply impressed by the anthem. “You have expressed,” he said, “what is in every loyal Austrian heart, and through your melody Austria will always be honored.” Haydn himself used the same melody in one of his string quartets: as the slow second movement in which it receives a series of variations. It is for this reason that this quartet, in C major, op. 76, no. 3, is popularly known as the _Emperor Quartet_.

Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland, on February 1, 1859. He received a sound musical training at the Stuttgart Conservatory, following which he studied the cello privately with Bernhard Cossmann in Baden-Baden. For several years after that he played the cello in many German and Austrian orchestras. His bow as a composer took place with two ambitious works, a suite and a concerto, both for cello and orchestra. They were introduced by the Stuttgart Symphony (the composer as soloist) in 1883 and 1885 respectively. After marrying the prima donna, Therese Foerster, in 1886, Herbert came to the United States and played the cello in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, his wife having been engaged by that company. He soon played the cello in other major American orchestras, besides conducting symphonic concerts, concerts of light music, and performances at important festivals. In 1893 he succeeded Patrick S. Gilmore as bandleader of the famous 22nd Regiment Band, and from 1898 to 1904 he was principal conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. After 1904 he was the conductor of his own orchestra.

Herbert won world renown as a composer of operettas for which he produced a wealth of melodies that have never lost their charm or fascination for music lovers. His first produced operetta, _Prince Ananias_, in 1894 was a failure. But one year later came _The Wizard of the Nile_, the first of a long string of stage successes Herbert was henceforth to enjoy. From then on, until the end of his life, Herbert remained one of Broadway’s most productive and most significant composers. Many of his operettas are now classics of the American musical stage. Among these are: _The Fortune Teller_ (1898), _Babes in Toyland_ (1903), _Mlle. Modiste_ (1905), _The Red Mill_ (1906) and _Naughty Marietta_ (1910). A facile composer with an extraordinary technique at orchestration and harmonization, and a born melodist who had a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of beautiful tunes, Herbert was a giant figure in American popular music and in the music for the American popular theater. He died of a heart attack in New York City on May 26, 1924.

Victor Herbert produced a considerable amount of concert music—concertos, symphonies, suites, overtures—most of which has passed out of the more serious repertory. A few of these concert works have enough emotional impact and melodic fascination to enjoy a permanent status in the semi-classical repertory. Potpourris from the scores of his most famous operettas—and orchestral transcriptions of individual songs from these productions—are, of course, basic to any pop or semi-classical orchestra repertory. For Herbert’s greatest songs from his operettas are classics, “as pure in outline as the melodies of Schubert and Mozart” according to Deems Taylor.

_Al Fresco_ is mood music which opens the second act of the operetta, _It Happened in Nordland_ (1904). Herbert had previously written and published it as a piano piece, using the pen-name of Frank Roland, in order to test the appeal of this little composition. It did so well in this version that Herbert finally decided to include it in his operetta where it serves to depict a lively carnival scene.

_The American Fantasia_ (1898) is a brilliantly orchestrated and skilfully contrived fantasy made up of favorite American national ballads and songs. It is the composer’s stirring tribute to the country of his adoption. The ballads and songs are heard in the following sequence: “Hail Columbia,” “Swanee River,” “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” “Dixie,” “Columbia the Gem of the Ocean.” This composition comes to an exciting finish with “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a Wagnerian-type orchestration.

The operetta _Babes in Toyland_, which opened in New York on October 13, 1903, was an extravaganza inspired by the then-recent success on Broadway of _The Wizard of Oz_. Herbert’s operetta drew its characters from fairy tales, _Mother Goose_, and other children’s stories, placing these characters in a rapid succession of breath-taking scenes of spectacular beauty. The complicated plot concerned the escape of little Jane and Alan from their miserly uncle to the garden of Contrary Mary. They then come to Toyland where they meet the characters from fairy tales and Mother Goose, and where toys are dominated by the wicked Toymaker whom they finally bring to his destruction. Principal musical numbers from this score include the delightful orchestral march, “March of the Toys,” and the songs “Toyland” and “I Can’t Do the Sum.”

_Dagger Dance_ is one of the most familiar pieces in the semi-classical repertory in the melodic and rhythmic style of American-Indian music. It comes from Herbert’s opera _Natoma_, whose première took place in Philadelphia on February 25, 1911. This spirited Indian dance music appears in the second act, at a climactic moment in which Natoma, challenged to perform a dagger dance, does so; but during the performance she stabs and kills the villain, Alvarado.

_The Fortune Teller_ whose New York première took place on September 26, 1898, is an operetta that starred Alice Neilsen in the dual role of Musette, a gypsy fortune teller, and Irma, a ballet student. Against a Hungarian setting, the play involves these two girls in love affairs with a Hungarian Hussar and a gypsy musician. Hungarian characters and a Hungarian background allowed Herbert to write music generously spiced with Hungarian and gypsy flavors, music exciting for its sensual appeal. The most famous song from this score is “Gypsy Love Song,” sometimes also known as “Slumber On, My Little Gypsy Sweetheart,” sung by Sandor, the gypsy musician, in tribute to Musette.

_Indian Summer: An American Idyll_ (1919) is a tone picture of Nature which Herbert wrote in two versions, for solo piano, and for orchestra. Twelve years after the composer’s death, Gus Kahn wrote lyrics for its main melody, and for fourteen weeks it was heard on the radio Hit Parade, twice in the Number 1 position.

_The Irish Rhapsody_ for orchestra (1892) is one of several concert works in which Herbert honored the country of his birth. This work is built from several familiar Irish ballads found by the composer in Thomas Moore’s _Irish Melodies_, published in 1807. “Believe Me if All These Endearing Young Charms” comes immediately after a harp cadenza. This is followed by a variation of “The Rocky Road to Dublin,” “To Ladies’ Eyes,” “Thamma Hulla,” “Erin, Oh Erin,” and “Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore.” An oboe cadenza then serves as the transition to “St. Patrick’s Day.” The rhapsody ends with “Garry Owen” set against “Erin, Oh Erin” in the bass.

_Mlle. Modiste_, introduced in New York on December 25, 1905, is the operetta in which Fritzi Scheff, once a member of the Metropolitan Opera, became a star of the popular musical theater. This is also the operetta in which she sang the waltz with which, for the rest of her life, she became identified, “Kiss Me Again.” Fritzi Scheff was cast as Fifi, an employee in a Parisian hat shop. Her lowly station precludes her marriage to the man she loves, Capt. Etienne de Bouvray. An American millionaire becomes interested in her, and provides her with the funds to pursue her vocal studies. Fifi then becomes a famous opera star, thereby achieving both the fame and the fortune she needs to gain Capt. Etienne as a husband.

Early in this operetta, Fifi tries to demonstrate her talent as a singer by performing a number called “If I Were On the Stage,” in which she offers various types of songs, including a polonaise, a gavotte, and a waltz. The waltz part was originally intended by Herbert as a caricature of that kind of dreamy, sentimental music and consisted of the melody of “Kiss Me Again” which he had written some time earlier, in 1903. On opening night the audience liked this part of the number so well, and was so noisy in its demonstration, that Herbert decided to feature it separately and prominently in his operetta, had new sentimental lyrics written for it, and called it “Kiss Me Again.” This, of course, is the most celebrated single number from this operetta, but several others are equally appealing, notably one of Herbert’s finest marches, “The Mascot of the Troop,” another waltz called “The Nightingale and the Star,” and a humorous ditty, “I Want What I Want When I Want It.”

The operetta, _Naughty Marietta_—first New York performance on November 7, 1910—was set in New Orleans in 1780 when that city was under Spanish rule. The noble lady, Marietta (starring the prima donna, Emma Trentini) had come to New Orleans from Naples to avoid an undesirable marriage. There she meets, falls in love with, and after many stirring adventures wins, Captain Dick Warrington. A basic element of this story is a melody—a fragment of which has come to the heroine in a dream. Marietta promises her hand to anybody who could give her the complete song of which this fragment is a part, and it is Dick Warrington, of course, who is successful. This melody is one of Herbert’s best loved, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.” Other favorites from _Naughty Marietta_ are “I’m Falling in Love With Someone,” “Italian Street Song,” the serenade “’Neath the Southern Moon,” and the march, “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.”

_Pan Americana_ (1901) is a composition for orchestra described by Herbert as a “_morceau caractéristique_.” He wrote it for the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 (where President McKinley was assassinated). The three sections are in three different popular styles, the first in American-Indian, the second in ragtime, and the third in Cuban or Spanish.

_Punchinello_ and _Yesterthoughts_ (1900) are two evocative tone pictures originally for piano from a suite of pieces describing the natural beauties of scenes near or at Lake Placid, New York. Herbert orchestrated both these numbers.

_The Red Mill_, which came to New York on September 24, 1906, was an operetta starring the comedy team of Fred Stone and David Montgomery in a play set in Holland. They are two Americans stranded and penniless at an inn called “The Sign of the Red Mill.” When they discover that little Gretchen is in love with Capt. Doris van Damm and refuses to marry the Governor to whom she is designated by her parents, they come to her assistance. After numerous escapades and antics they help her to win her true lover who, as it turns out, is the heir to an immense fortune. The following are its principal musical episodes: the main love duet, “The Isle of Our Dreams,”; “Moonbeams”; and the comedy song, “Every Day Is Ladies’ Day for Me.”

The _Suite of Serenades_, for orchestra (1924) was written for the same Paul Whiteman concert of American music at Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924 in which Gershwin’s _Rhapsody in Blue_ was introduced. This is a four movement suite which represented Herbert’s only attempt to write directly for a jazz orchestra, and parts of it are characterized by jazz scoring and syncopations. Herbert wrote a second version of this suite for symphony orchestra. In the four movements the composer skilfully simulates four national styles. The first is Spanish, the second Chinese, the third Cuban, and the fourth Oriental.

Another familiar orchestral suite by Herbert is the _Suite Romantique_ (1901). Herbert’s vein for sentimental melody is here generously tapped. The four movements are mood pictures named as follows: “_Visions_,” “_Aubade_” (a beautiful solo for the cellos), “_Triomphe d’amour_” (a glowing love duet), and “_Fête nuptiale_.”

_The Woodland Fancies_, for orchestra (1901) also consist of four evocative and pictorial mood pictures, this time inspired by the Adirondack mountains where Herbert maintained a summer home and which he dearly loved. Here the four movements are entitled: “Morning in the Mountains,” “Forest Nymphs,” “Twilight,” and “Autumn Frolics.”

There are individual songs from several other Herbert operettas that are part of the semi-classical repertory in orchestral transcriptions. Among these are: “The Angelus” and the title song from _Sweethearts_ (1913); “I Love Thee, I Adore Thee” which recurs throughout _The Serenade_ (1897); “A Kiss in the Dark” from _Orange Blossoms_ (1922); “Star Light, Star Bright,” a delightful waltz from _The Wizard of the Nile_ (1895); and “Thine Alone” from the Irish operetta, _Eileen_ (1917).

Ferdinand Hérold

Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold was born in Paris on January 28, 1791. He began to study music when he was eleven. From 1805 to 1812 he attended the Paris Conservatory where his teachers included Adam and Méhul. In 1812 he received the Prix de Rome. Following his three-year stay in Rome he settled in Naples where he was pianist to Queen Caroline and had his first opera, _La Gioventù di Enrico_, produced in 1815. After returning to his native city he completed a new opera, _Charles de France_, which was successfully produced in 1816 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris where, from this time on, all his operas were given. Hérold wrote many serious operas before turning to the field in which he earned his importance and popularity, the opéra-comique. His first work in this genre was _Marie_ in 1826; his most successful, _Zampa_, in 1831. He also enjoyed a triumph with his last opéra-comique, _Le Pré aux clercs_, produced in 1832. Hérold died of consumption in Paris on January 19, 1833 before reaching his forty-second birthday.

About all that has survived from Hérold’s most famous opera, _Zampa_, is its overture, a semi-classical favorite everywhere. _Zampa_—libretto by Mélesville—was introduced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on May 3, 1831. The hero, Zampa, is the leader of a band of pirates who invade an island. He meets Camille and compels her to desert her lover and marry him. During the marriage festivities the pirate leader mockingly tries to place a ring on the finger of a statue. The statue suddenly comes to life and brings Zampa to his doom by drowning.

The overture opens with a robust subject for full orchestra (derived from the pirates’ chorus of the first act). A brief pause separates this section from a slower one in which timpani rolls and loud chords in the wind precede a stately melody for wind instruments. After some development, in which the mood becomes dramatic, two new subjects are heard: the first is a sensitive melody for clarinet against plucked strings, and the second is a soaring song for the violins.

Jenö Hubay

Jenö Hubay was born in Budapest, Hungary, on September 15, 1858. His father, a professor of the violin at the Budapest Conservatory, gave him his first violin lessons. Jenö made his public debut as violinist when he was eleven, then completed his violin studies with Joachim in Berlin and with Vieuxtemps in Belgium. In 1886 he was appointed professor of the violin at the Budapest Conservatory, and from 1919 to 1934 he was its director. Hubay was one of Europe’s most eminent violinists, violin teachers, and performers of chamber music, the last with the Hubay Quartet which he founded. He died in Vienna on March 12, 1937.

Hubay was the composer of several operas, four symphonies, four violin concertos, and many pieces for the violin. He was at his best when he drew both his inspiration and materials from Hungarian folk music. Perhaps his best known work is a set of fourteen pieces for violin and orchestra collectively known as _Scènes de la Csárda_, or _Hungarian Czardas Scenes_. The czardas is a popular Hungarian folk dance in duple time characterized by quick syncopations, and exploiting alternating slow and rapid passages. These _Scènes_ are often presented as orchestral compositions. The fourth, _Hejre Kati_, is the most popular of the group, a piece of music electrifying for its rhythmic momentum. The second, known as _Hungarian Rhapsody_, and the fifth, _Waves of Balaton_, are also familiar. Besides their rhythmic vitality these compositions are of interest for their sensual melodies, and dramatic contrasts of tempo and mood.

From Hubay’s most famous opera, _The Violin Maker of Cremona_, comes a sensitively lyrical “Intermezzo,” for orchestra. Hubay wrote this one-act opera in 1894, and it was introduced in Budapest the same year. The text by Francois Coppé and Henri Beauclair concerns a violin-making contest in Ferrari, Italy, in which the prize is the beautiful girl, Giannina. A hunchback, Filippo, makes the best violin, but he generously permits Giannina to marry Sandro, the man she really loves. A transcription of the “Intermezzo” for violin and piano is popular in the repertory and bears the title of the opera. The Intermezzo had also been adapted by Stoll as a composition for voice and orchestra under the name “Lonely Night.”

Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck was born in Sieburg, Germany, on September 1, 1854. He attended the Cologne Conservatory where his teachers included Hiller (who was the first to recognize his talent), Jensen and Gernsheim. After winning the Mozart Scholarship of Frankfort in 1876, Humperdinck continued his music study in Munich with Franz Lachner and Rheinberger. In Munich he published his first important composition, a _Humoreske_ for orchestra (1880). In 1881, he received the Meyerbeer Prize and in 1897, the Mendelssohn Prize, both for composition. Between 1885 and 1887 he was professor of the Barcelona Conservatory in Spain and in 1890 he became professor at Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfort, and music critic of the _Frankfurter Zeitung_. He achieved his greatest success as a composer with the fairy opera, _Hansel and Gretel_, produced in Weimar in 1893. After 1896, Humperdinck devoted himself exclusively to composition, and though he wrote several fine operas none was able to equal the popularity of his fairy-opera. He died in Neustrelitz, Germany, on September 27, 1921.

_Hansel and Gretel_ scored a sensational success in its own day; and, in ours, it is the only opera by which Humperdinck is remembered. Following its première in Weimar, Germany, on December 23, 1893, it was performed within a year in virtually every major German opera house. In 1894 it came to London, and in 1895 to New York. The text by Adelheid Wette (Humperdinck’s sister) is based on the Ludwig Grimm fairy tale familiar to young and old throughout the world.

The overture, and two orchestral episodes, are often performed outside the opera house. The Overture is made up of several melodies from the opera beginning with the so-called “prayer melody,” a gentle song for horns and bassoons. A rhythmic passage then describes the spell effected by the witch on the children. After this comes the lovable third-act melody in which the children are awakened by the dewman. The happy dance of the children from the close of the opera leads back to the opening prayer with which the overture comes to a gentle conclusion.

The _Dream Pantomime_ comes in the second act and is an orchestral episode in which is described the descent of the fairies who provide a protective ring around the children, alone and asleep in the deep forest. The _Gingerbread Waltz_ (_Knusperwalzer_) from Act 3 is the joyous music expressing the children’s delight after they have succeeded in pushing the witch inside the oven and burning her to a crisp.

Among Humperdinck’s many works for symphony orchestra one is occasionally performed by semi-classical or pop orchestras. It is the _Moorish Rhapsody_ (1898) written for the Leeds Festival in England. The first movement, “Tarifa—Elegy at Sunrise” reflects the sorrow of a shepherd over the decay of the Moorish people. “Tangiers—A Night in a Moorish Café” is a coffee-house scene highlighted by the sensual chant of a café singer. The suite concludes with “Tetuan—A Rider in the Desert,” depicting a desert ride with a view of Paradise in the distance. To carry into his music an Oriental atmosphere, Humperdinck modeled some of his principal themes after actual Moorish melodies, such as the second theme of the first movement for English horn, and the main melody for woodwind in the second movement.

Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert was born in Paris on August 15, 1890. He attended the Paris Conservatory between 1911 and 1919, with a hiatus of several years during World War I when he served in the French Navy. In 1919 he won the Prix de Rome. While residing in the Italian capital he wrote a symphonic work with which he scored his first major success, the suite _Escales_, introduced in Paris in 1924. From 1937 to 1955 he was director of the Academy of Rome. During this period he also served for a while as director of the combined management of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique.

Ibert has written many works in virtually every form, which have placed him in the front rank of contemporary French composers. Many of these compositions are in a neo-classical idiom. Occasionally, however, he has made a delightful excursion into satire. It is with one of the latter works, the _Divertissement_ for orchestra (1930) that he has entered the semi-classical repertory, though to be sure this composition is also frequently given at symphony concerts. The _Divertissement_ begins with a short Introduction in which the prevailing mood of levity is first introduced. Then comes the “_Cortège_.” A few introductory bars suggest two march themes, the first in strings, and the second in trumpet. After that appears a loud quotation from Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” from his _A Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite_. The “Nocturne” is a dreamy little melody which precedes a delightful “Waltz” and a breezy “Parade.” The finale is in the style of an Offenbach can-can, with the piano interpolating some impudent dissonant harmonies.

Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov

Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov was born in Gatchina, Russia, on November 19, 1859. He was graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 where he was a pupil in composition of Rimsky-Korsakov. From 1882 to 1893 he was associated with the Tiflis Music School, first as teacher, then as director. In 1893 he was appointed professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory on Tchaikovsky’s recommendation, and from 1906 to 1922 he served as its director. He also distinguished himself as a conductor of opera in Moscow. He died in that city on January 28, 1935.

Ippolitov-Ivanov’s best music profited from his intensive researches into Caucasian folk music. His principal works have assimilated many of the Oriental melodic and rhythmic idioms of songs and dances from that region. His most popular work of all is the _Caucasian Sketches_ for orchestra, op. 10 (1895). The first movement, “In the Mountain Pass,” brings up the picture of a mountain scene. Horn calls are here used prominently. “In the Village” opens with a cadenza for English horn and proceeds to a beautiful melody for viola set against a persistent ⅜ rhythm. “In the Mosque” dispenses with the strings while describing an impressive religious ceremony. The suite ends with the stirring “March of the Sirdar,” a “sirdar” being an Oriental potentate.

Ivanovici

Neither Ivanovici’s first name nor details of his life are known. He was born in Banat, Rumania, in 1848, distinguished himself as a bandleader in his native country, and died in Bucharest on April 1, 1905. For his band concerts he wrote many popular concert numbers. One of these is the concert waltz, _The Waves of the Danube_ (_Donauwellen_), written in 1880, and achieving from the first phenomenal popularity throughout Europe. The main waltz melody of this set of waltzes was expropriated by Al Dubin and Dave Franklin for the American popular song “The Anniversary Song,” (lyrics by Saul Chaplin), which was effectively used in the motion picture _The Jolson Story_ in 1946, sung on the sound track by Jolson himself.

Armas Järnefelt

Armas Järnefelt was born in Viborg, Finland, on August 14, 1869. He studied music in Helsingfors with Ferruccio Busoni and Martin Wegelius; in Berlin with A. Becker; and in Paris with Massenet. Beginning with 1898, and for several years thereafter, he conducted opera performances in Viborg and Helsingfors. In 1907 he settled in Sweden where three years later he became a citizen. There he became court composer and the conductor of the Royal Opera. After returning to Helsingfors in 1932, he directed the Opera for four years and the Helsingfors Municipal Theater for one. He also appeared as guest conductor of many important Finnish orchestras, distinguishing himself particularly in performances of music by Jean Sibelius (his brother-in-law). In 1940, Järnefelt received the official title of Professor. He died in Stockholm in June 1958.

Järnefelt wrote many works for orchestra, including suites, overtures, and shorter works. One of the last is _Berceuse_ for two clarinets, one bassoon, two horns, violin solo and strings (1905), a moody and sensitive piece of music. The romantic main melody appears in solo violin after four introductory bars for muted strings.

His most popular composition is the _Praeludium_ for chamber orchestra. It opens with a three-measure introduction for plucked strings. This is followed by a brisk march subject for oboe which is soon discussed by other winds, and after that by the violins over a drone bass. A passage for solo violin leads to the return of the march melody.

Dmitri Kabalevsky

Dmitri Kabalevsky was born in St. Petersburg on December 30, 1904, and received his musical training in Moscow, at the Scriabin Music School and the Moscow Conservatory. He was graduated from the latter school in 1929, and in 1932 he was appointed instructor there. His first success as composer came in 1931 with his first symphony, commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Russian revolution; this was followed in 1934 by his second symphony, which enjoyed an even greater triumph both in and out of the Soviet Union. In 1939 Kabalevsky was elected a member of the Presidium of the Organizing Committee of the Union of Soviet Composers; in 1940 he was given the Order of Merit; and in 1946 he received the Stalin Prize for the second string quartet. He has also written operas, concertos, additional symphonies, and piano music.

A composer who has always been partial to the more conventional means and techniques, and has relied heavily on broad and stately melodies and subjective feelings, Kabalevsky has managed to produce several compositions that have wide appeal. One is the sprightly _Colas Breugnon Overture_. _Colas Breugnon_ was an opera adapted by V. Bragin from a novel by Romain Rolland; it was first performed in Leningrad on February 22, 1938. The central character is a 16th-century craftsman—a jovial man who enjoys life and has a spicy sense of humor and a happy outlook on all things. The overture is essentially a study of that man, consistently gay and sprightly. There are two main melodies, both of them lively, and both derived from Burgundian folk songs.

Another popular work by Kabalevsky is _The Comedians_, op. 26 (1938), an orchestral suite made up of selections from the incidental music to a children’s play, _The Inventor and the Comedians_. The play is about the varied and picaresque adventures of a group of wandering performers in various towns and at public fairs. There are ten episodes in the suite, each in a light, infectious style that makes for such easy listening that this work is often given at children’s concerts. The ten sections are: Prologue, Galop, March, Waltz, Pantomime, Intermezzo, Little Lyrical Scene, Gavotte, Scherzo, and Epilogue.

Emmerich Kálmán

Emmerich Kálmán was born in Siófok, Hungary, on October 24, 1882. He studied composition in Budapest. In 1904 one of his symphonic compositions was performed by the Budapest Philharmonic, and in 1907 he received the Imperial Composition Prize. After settling in Vienna he abandoned serious composition for light music. From this time on he devoted himself to and distinguished himself in writing tuneful operettas. His first success came in 1909 with _Ein Herbstmanoever_, presented in New York as _The Gay Hussars_. Subsequent operettas made him one of Europe’s leading composers for the popular theaters. The most famous are: _Sari_ (1912), _The Gypsy Princess_ (1915), _Countess Maritza_ (1924) and _The Circus Princess_ (1926). In 1938 he left Vienna, and after a period in Paris, he came to the United States where he remained until 1949. He completed his last operetta, _The Arizona Lady_, a few days before his death in Paris, on October 30, 1953; it was presented posthumously in Berne, Switzerland, in 1954.

Kálmán’s forte in writing music for operettas was in combining the charm, _Gemuetlichkeit_ and sentiment of Viennese music in general, and the Viennese waltz in particular, with the hot blood and sensual moods of Hungarian gypsy songs and dances.

_The Circus Princess_ (_Die Zirkusprinzessin_)—first performed in Vienna in 1926, and in New York in 1927—was set in St. Petersburg and Vienna during the period immediately preceding World War I. When Fedora rejects the love of Prince Sergius by insisting she would sooner marry a circus performer, he seeks revenge by engaging a famous circus performer to pose as a member of nobility and woo and win Fedora. After their marriage, Fedora discovers the true identity of her husband, and leaves him. But she soon comes to the realization she is really in love with him and promises to come back if he in turn offers to give up his profession—a profession she now despises not from snobbery but because of fears for his safety. Two delightful waltz melodies—“_Leise schwebt das Glueck vorueber_” “_Im Boudoir der schoensten Frau_”—and an intriguing little melody that recurs throughout the operetta, “_Zwei maerchenaugen_” are the principal selections from this operetta.

_Countess Maritza_ (_Die Graefin Mariza_) is Kálmán’s most popular and successful operetta. It was first produced in Vienna in 1924, and in New York in 1926. The setting is Hungary in 1922. An impoverished count, Tassilo, finds employment on the estate of Countess Maritza under the assumed name of Torok. He falls in love with her, but when she learns of his real background she feels he is a fortune hunter interested only in her wealth. About to leave the employ of the countess and to bid her permanent farewell, Tassilo’s fortune suddenly takes a turn for the better when his aunt, a Princess, comes to inform him that Tassilo is a wealthy man after all, due to her manipulations of his tangled business affairs. Now convinced that he loves her for herself alone, the Countess Maritza is only too happy to accept him as her husband.

This score contains some of Kálmán’s finest and most beguiling music in a Hungarian-gypsy style. The most famous song is in this sensual, heart-warming idiom: “Play Gypsies, Dance Gypsies” (“_Komm Zigan, Komm Zigan, spiel mir was vor_”). This number begins with a languorous, romantic melody that soon lapses into a dynamic Hungarian-gypsy dance. Austrian waltz-music in a more sentimental manner is found in three winning songs: “Give My Regards to the Lovely Ladies of Fair Vienna” (“_Gruess mir die reizenden Frauen im schoenen Wien_”), “I Would Like to Dance Once More” (“_Einmal moecht’ ich wieder tanzen_”) and “Say, Yes!” (“_Sag ja, mein Lieb_”).

_The Gypsy Princess_ (_Die Csárdásfuerstin_) was first performed in Vienna in 1915, and produced in New York in 1917 under the title of _The Riviera Girl_. The heroine is Sylvia Varescu, a performer in a Budapest cabaret, who is loved and pursued by Prince Edwin. But the Prince’s father insists that he marry the Countess Stasi. Eventually the father’s heart is softened and he becomes more tolerant towards having Sylvia as a daughter-in-law when he is discreetly reminded that once he, too, had been in love with a cabaret singer. The principal selections from his score include two soaring waltz melodies: “_Machen wir’s den Schwalben nach_” and “_Tausend kleine Engel singen hab mich lieb_.” The score also includes a dynamic Czardas, and a pleasing little tune in “_Ganz ohne Weiber geht die Chose nicht_.”

_Sari_ was introduced in New York in 1914. Pali is a gypsy violinist who has grown old and is eclipsed at one of his own concerts by his son, Laczi. Pali throws his beloved Stradivarius into the flames. Since both father and son have fallen in love with the same girl, the older man also renounces her. He wants Laczi to have her as well as his musical success. A bountiful score includes such delights as “Love Has Wings,” “Love’s Own Sweet Song,” “My Faithful Stradivari,” and “Softly Through the Summer Night.”

Kéler-Béla

Kélér-Béla was born Albert von Keler in Bartfeld, Hungary, on February 13, 1820. He studied law and worked as a farmer before turning to music in his twenty-fifth year. After studying in Vienna with Sechter and Schlesinger he played the violin in the orchestra of the Theater-an-der-Wien. In 1854 he went to Berlin where he became conductor of Gungl’s Orchestra. He was soon back in Vienna to take over the direction of the famous Joseph Lanner Orchestra. From 1856 to 1863 he conducted an army band, and from 1863 to 1873 an orchestra in Wiesbaden. He died in that city on November 20, 1882.

Kéler-Béla wrote about one hundred and thirty compositions in the light Viennese style of Lanner and the two Johann Strausses. His works include waltzes, galops, and marches, a representative example of each being the waltz _Hoffnungssterne_, the _Hurrah-Sturm_ galop, and the _Friedrich-Karl_ march.

His most popular work is the _Hungarian Comedy Overture_ (_Lustspiel Ouverture_). It opens in a stately manner with forceful chords and a sustained melody in the woodwind. But the comedy aspect of this overture is soon made evident with two lilting tunes for the woodwind, separated by a dramatic episode for full orchestra. These two tunes receive extended enlargement. The overture ends with a succession of emphatic chords.

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was born in New York City on January 27, 1885. He first studied the piano with his mother. After being graduated from Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey, he attended the New York College of Music where he was a pupil of Alexander Lambert, Albert von Doenhoff, Paolo Gallico and Austen Pearce. He received his apprenticeship as composer for the popular theater in 1903 in London, where with P. G. Wodehouse as his lyricist he wrote a topical song, “Mr. Chamberlain” that became a hit. After returning to the United States he worked in Tin Pan Alley and immediately became a prolific contributor of songs to the musical stage. In 1905 his song “How’d You Like to Spoon With Me?” was interpolated into _The Earl and the Girl_ and became an outstanding success. From that time on, and up to the end of his life, he wrote over a thousand songs for more than a hundred stage and screen productions, thereby occupying an imperial position among American popular composers of his generation. His most famous Broadway musicals were: _The Girl from Utah_ (1914), _Very Good, Eddie_ (1915), _Oh, Boy!_ (1917), _Leave it to Jane_ (1917), _Sally_ (1920), _Sunny_ (1925), _Show Boat_ (1927), _The Cat and the Fiddle_ (1931), _Music in the Air_ (1932), and _Roberta_ (1933). His most significant motion pictures were _Swingtime_ with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, _You Were Never Lovelier_ and _Cover Girl_ both with Rita Hayworth, and _Centennial Summer_. Over a dozen of his songs sold more than two million copies of sheet music including “All the Things You Are,” “They Didn’t Believe Me,” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” and “Look for the Silver Lining.” Two of his songs received the Academy Award: “The Way You Look Tonight” from _Swingtime_ and “The Last Time I Saw Paris” interpolated into _Lady Be Good_. Kern died in New York City on November 11, 1945.

Kern wrote two compositions for symphony orchestra which have entered the semi-classical repertory even though they are also performed by major symphony orchestras. These were his only ventures into the world of music outside the popular theater. One was _Mark Twain: A_ _Portrait for Orchestra_ which he wrote on a commission from André Kostelanetz, who introduced it with the Cincinnati Symphony in 1942. This is a four movement suite inspired by the personality and life of Kern’s favorite author, Mark Twain. The first movement, “Hannibal Days,” describes a sleepy small town on a summer morning a century ago. The cry “Steamboat comin’!” pierces the silence. The town suddenly awakens. In the second movement, “Gorgeous Pilot House” Mark Twain leaves home to become a pilot’s assistant on the Mississippi steamboat; this period in Mark Twain’s life, which spans about nine years, ends with the outbreak of the Civil War. In “Wandering Westward,” Twain meets failure as a Nevada prospector, after which he finally turns to journalism. The suite ends with “Mark in Eruption,” tracing Twain’s triumphant career as a writer.

Kern’s second and only other symphonic work is _Scenario_ in which he drew his basic melodic materials from his greatest and best loved musical production, _Show Boat_. Kern prepared _Scenario_ at the behest of Artur Rodzinski, conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, who felt that the music of _Show Boat_ had sufficient artistic validity to justify its use in a major symphonic work. Rodzinski introduced _Scenario_ in Cleveland with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1941, and since that time it has been performed by most of the major American orchestras.

A discussion of _Show Boat_ is essential before _Scenario_ can be commented upon. The libretto and lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on the famous novel by Edna Ferber. _Show Boat_, in a lavish Florenz Ziegfeld production, was introduced in New York in 1927 and was an instantaneous box-office and artistic triumph. It has, to be sure, become a classic of the American stage, continually revived in all parts of the country, three times adapted for motion pictures, and has been given by an American opera company in its regular repertory. It proved a revolution in the American musical theater by avoiding the usual stilted routines and patterns of musical comedy—chorus girls, production numbers, synthetic humor, set dances and so forth—and arriving at an integrated musical play filled with authentic characterizations, backgrounds, atmosphere and dramatic truth. The story opens and closes on _Cotton Blossom_, a show boat traveling along the Mississippi to give performances at stops along the river. The principal love action involves Magnolia, daughter of Cap’n Andy (owner of the boat) and the gambler, Gaylord Ravenal. They run off and get married, but their happiness is short-lived. Magnolia, though pregnant, leaves her irresponsible husband. After the birth of Magnolia’s daughter, Kim, the mother earns her living singing show boat songs in Chicago where she is found by her father and brought back to _Cotton Blossom_. Eventually, Magnolia and Ravenal are reconciled, and their daughter Kim becomes the new star of the show boat.

The most famous songs from this incomparable Kern score are: “Only Make Believe” and “Why Do I Love You?”, both of them love duets of Magnolia and Ravenal; two poignant laments sung by the half-caste Julie, a role in which Helen Morgan first attained stardom as a torch-song performer, “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” and “Bill” (the latter with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse); and a hymn to the Mississippi which has acquired virtually the status of an American folk song, “Ol’ Man River.”

_Scenario_ makes extended use of these songs in an integrated piece of music. It opens with a sensitive passage for muted strings and continues with a theme for horn; both subjects are intended to portray the Mississippi River and are the motto subjects of the entire work. The main melody of this tone poem is “Ol’ Man River,” first given softly by violas and bass clarinet. Other major songs of the musical play follow, among them being “Only Make Believe” and “Why Do I Love You?”, after which “Ol’ Man River” is heard for the last time.

Many of Kern’s more than a thousand popular songs are now classics in the popular repertory. They are so fresh and spontaneous in their lyricism, so inventive in the harmonic background, so filled with charm and grace that their survival seems assured. Two symphonic compositions by Robert Russell Bennett are constructed from one or more of Kern’s best known songs. One is _Symphonic Study_, a tone poem introduced in 1946 by the NBC Symphony under Frank Black. This work presents several Kern songs in correct chronological sequence beginning with “They Didn’t Believe Me.” After that come “Babes in the Wood,” “The Siren’s Song,” “Left All Alone Again Blues,” “Who?”, “Ol’ Man River,” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” and “All the Things You Are.” The second of Bennett’s symphonic compositions is the _Variations on a Theme by Jerome Kern_, written in 1934 and soon after that introduced in New York by a chamber orchestra conducted by Bernard Herrmann. The theme here used for an effective series of variations is “Once in a Blue Moon” from the Broadway musical _Stepping Stones_.

Albert Ketelby

Albert William Ketelby was born in Birmingham, England, in or about 1885. Precocious in music he completed a piano sonata when he was only eleven. For six years he attended the Trinity College of Music in London where he captured every possible prize. When he was sixteen he became a church organist in Wimbledon, and at twenty-one he conducted a theater orchestra in London. He later distinguished himself as a conductor of some of London’s most important theater orchestras, besides appearing as a guest conductor of many of Europe’s major symphonic organizations, usually in performances of his own works. For many years he was also the music director of the Columbia Gramophone Company in England. He died at his home on the Isle of Wight on November 26, 1959.

A facile composer with a fine sense for atmospheric colors and for varied moods, Ketelby produced a few serious compositions among which were a _Caprice_ and a _Concerstueck_ (each for piano and orchestra), an overture and _Suite de Ballet_ (both for orchestra) and a quintet for piano and woodwind. He is, however, most famous for his lighter compositions, two of which are known and heard the world over. _In a Monastery Garden_ opens with a gentle subject describing a lovely garden populated by chirping birds. After that comes a religious melody—a chant of monks in a modal style. _In a Persian Garden_ is effective for its skilful recreation of an exotic background through Oriental-type melodies, harmonies, and brilliant orchestral colors. Ketelby wrote several other compositions in an Oriental style, the best of which is _In a Chinese Temple Garden_.

Aram Khatchaturian

Aram Khatchaturian was born in Tiflis, Russia, on June 6, 1903. He was of Armenian extraction. He came to Moscow in 1920, and enrolled in the Gniessen School of Music. From 1929 to 1934 he attended the Moscow Conservatory. He first achieved recognition as a composer in 1935 with his first Symphony, and in 1937 he scored a major success throughout the music world with his first piano concerto, still a favorite in the modern concert repertory. As one of the leading composers in the Soviet Union he has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Order of Lenin in 1939, and the Stalin Prize in 1940 and 1942. In 1954 he visited London where he led a concert of his own music, and early in 1960 he toured Latin America.

Khatchaturian’s music owes a strong debt to the folk songs and dances of Armenia and Transcaucasia. It is endowed with a sensitive and at times exotic lyricism, a compulsive rhythmic strength, and a strong feeling for the dramatic.

The most popular single piece of music by Khatchaturian comes from his ballet, _Gayne_ (or _Gayaneh_), first performed in Moscow on December 9, 1942, and the recipient of the Stalin Prize. The heroine of this ballet is a member of a collective farm where her husband, Giko, proves a traitor. He tries to set the farm afire. The farm is saved by a Red Commander who falls in love with Gayne after Giko has been arrested.

Khatchaturian assembled thirteen numbers from his ballet score into two suites for orchestra. It is one of these pieces that has achieved widespread circulation: the “Saber Dance,” a composition whose impact comes from its abrupt barbaric rhythms and vivid sonorities; midway, relief from these rhythmic tensions comes from a broad folk song in violas and cellos. “Saber Dance” has become popular in numerous transcriptions, including an electrifying one for solo piano. In 1948 Vic Schoen made a fox-trot arrangement that was frequently played in the United States.

Two other excerpts from these _Gayne_ suites are also familiar. “Dance of the Rose Girls” presents a delightful Oriental melody in oboe and clarinet against a pronounced rhythm. “Lullaby” has a gentle swaying motion in solo oboe against a decisive rhythm in harp and bassoon; flutes take up this subject, after which the melody grows and expands in full orchestra, and then subsides.

_Masquerade_ is another of Khatchaturian’s orchestral suites, this one derived from his incidental music to a play by Mikhail Lermontov produced in 1939. Each of the five numbers of this suite is appealing either for sensitive and easily assimilable melodies or for rhythmic vitality. Gentle lyricism, of an almost folk-song identity, characterizes the second and third movements, a “Nocturne” and “Romance.” The first and the last two movements are essentially rhythmic: “Waltz,” “Mazurka,” and “Polka.”

George Kleinsinger