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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 The Schola Cantorum 3. The Schola Cantorum The Lamoureux Concerts had served their purpose, and, in their turn, their heroic mission came to an end. They had forced Wagner on Paris; and Paris, as always, had overshot the mark, and could...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 M. Saint-Saëns and M. Bourgault-Ducoudray In 1904, following the suggestions of M. Saint-Saëns and M. Bourgault-Ducoudray, class-singing was incorporated with other subjects in the programme of teaching,[254] and a free school of choral...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 complete upheaval It needed a complete upheaval of the nation–a political and moral upheaval–to change that frame of mind. Some indication of the change was making itself felt in the last years of the second Empire. Wagner, who...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Henri Duparc, Alexis de Castillon, Vincent d’Indy Among those who received his direct teaching[223] were Henri Duparc, Alexis de Castillon, Vincent d’Indy, Ernest Chausson, Pierre de Bréville, Augusta Holmes, Louis de Serres,...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF FRENCH MUSIC We have seen how the musical education of France is going on in theatres, in concerts, in schools, by lectures and by books; and the Parisian’s rather restless desire for knowledge seems to be...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Wagner’s success At this time Wagner’s success, in its turn, began to make itself felt. For this M. Lamoureux, whose concerts began in 1882, was chiefly responsible. Wagner’s influence considerably helped forward the...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 The influence of Franck The influence of Franck was twofold: it was artistic and moral. On the one hand he was, if I may so put it, an admirable professor of musical architecture; he founded a school of symphony and chamber-music such as...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 M. Claude Debussy For several years the leader of the young school, M. Claude Debussy, has, in his writings in the Revue Blanche and Gil Blas, attacked Wagnerian art. His personality is very French–capricious, poetic, and...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 the last thirty years MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS BEFORE 1870 It is not by any means the oldest and most celebrated musical institutions which have taken the largest share in this evolution of music in the last thirty years. The Académie des...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 music a la Palestrina They added to this, however, music à la Palestrina, and any music that conformed to its principles or was inspired by its example. Such archaic ideas would certainly never create a new kind of religious music, but at...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 spirit of Debussy This manifesto reflects in its own way the spirit of Debussy and his untrammelled musical impressionism; and though it shows a good deal of naïveté and some intolerance, there was in it a strength of youthful enthusiasm...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 corner stone of the edifice It was for a long time the corner-stone of the edifice of music in Paris. But although it has always numbered in its ranks many illustrious and devoted professors–among whom it recognised, a little late,...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 M. d’Indy M. d’Indy claims that this system may be applied as successfully to instrumentalists and singers as to future composers. «For it is as profitable for them to know,» he says, «how to sing a liturgic...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 lberic Magnard The road that stretches before us is long and difficult. But if we turn our heads and look back over the way we have come we may take heart. Which of us does not feel a little glow of pride at the thought of what has been...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 influence of the Conservatoire The influence of the Conservatoire is, in music especially, an influence of the past and of the Government. One may say much the same of the Opera. This ancient association, which bears the imposing name of...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 School exercises by its teaching Outside the influence that the School exercises by its teaching, its propaganda by means of concerts and publications is very active. From its foundation up to 1904 it had given two hundred performances in...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 the enormous stage at the Opera Without doubt, the enormous stage at the Opera does not lend itself well to modern musical dramas, which are intimate and concentrated, and would be lost in its immense space, which is more adapted for...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 marvellous activity And all this shows such a marvellous activity and gives evidence of such whole-hearted enthusiasm that I cannot bring myself to join issue with the critics who have lately attacked the Schola, though their attacks have...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 French music had already in the Opera NEW MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS 1. The Société Nationale Before 1870, French music had already in the Opera and the Opéra-Comique (without counting the various endeavours of the Théâtre Lyrique) an outlet...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 symphony concerts 4. The Chamber-Music Societies On parallel lines with the big symphony concerts and the new conservatoires, societies were formed to spread the knowledge of, and form a taste for, chamber-music. This music, so common in...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 menaces music in Germany And, lastly, I want to speak of the greatest danger of all that menaces music in Germany; there is too much music in Germany. This is not a paradox. There is no worse misfortune for art than a super-abundance of...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 new generation A new generation was growing up, however,–a generation that was serious and thoughtful, that was more attracted by pure music than by the theatre, that was filled with a burning desire to found a national art. To this...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 sonatas, trios, and quartettes These performances of sonatas, trios, and quartettes, were attentively listened to by an audience of five or six hundred persons, the greater part of them cultured people, students from the poly-technics and...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 specially French character The cause of the artistic success of Pelléas et Mélisande is of a more specially French character, and marks a reaction that is at once legitimate, natural, and inevitable; I would even say it is vital–a...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Salle Pleyel The first concert was given on 25 November, 1871, in the Salle Pleyel; and it is worthy of note that the first work played was a trio of César Franck’s. Since then the Society has given three hundred and fifty...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Musical Learning and the University 5. Musical Learning and the University While this movement was going on in the artistic world, scholars were taking their share in it, and music was beginning to invade the University. But the thing was...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 opposed to the Bayreuth ideal From a scenic point of view, Pelléas et Mélisande is also quite opposed to the Bayreuth ideal. The vast proportions–almost immoderate proportions–of the Wagnerian drama, its compact structure and...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 French music has been derived Nothing is truer. The Société Nationale is indeed a guest-chamber, where for the past thirty years a guest-chamber art and guest-chamber opinions have been formed; and from it some of the profoundest and most...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 International Congress of Music This movement with regard to musical study grew rapidly; and the first International Congress of Music, held in Paris at the time of the Universal Exhibition of 1900, gave historians of music an opportunity...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Lully and Rameau In France we have never had–apart from a few attempts in opéra-comique–a recitative that exactly expressed our natural speech. Lully and Rameau took for their model the high-flown declamation of the tragedy...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 The Grand Symphony Concert 2. The Grand Symphony Concerts Although it was an urgent matter that young French composers should unite to withstand the general indifference of the public, it was more urgent still that that indifference should...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Music and the People 6. Music and the People Thus music had almost come back to its own, as far as the higher kind of teaching and the intellectual world were concerned. It remained for a place to be found for it in other kinds of...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Perfect eclecticism Perfect eclecticism had been exercised in the making up of the programme. One found mixed together the names of Mozart, Wagner, and Brahms; César Franck and Gustave Charpentier; Richard Strauss and Mahler. There were...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 conducted by Gustav Mahler Sunday, May 21st. Cinquième Symphonie: Gustav Mahler (conducted by Gustav Mahler). Rhapsodie, for contralto, choir, and orchestra: Johannes Brahms (conducted by Ernst Münch). Strasburg Concerto in G major, for...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 annoyed M. Chevillard But what seemed inconceivable, and what justly annoyed M. Chevillard, was that the whole of Les Béatitudes was not given, but only a section of them. And on this subject I shall take the liberty of recommending that...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 conditions of the combat Such were the conditions of the combat; and they were, whether intentionally or not, unfavourable to France. And yet to the eyes of an impartial observer the result was full of hope and encouragement for us. I have...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Gustave Charpentier’s And so, to make up for the austere grandeur of Les Béatitudes they had it immediately followed by Gustave Charpentier’s Impressions d’Italie. You should have seen the relief of the audience. At last...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 German artists are gradually losing the power The most remarkable thing of all is that German artists are gradually losing the power of understanding their own splendid classics and, in particular, Beethoven. Strauss, who is very shrewd...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Kalischt in Bohemia He was born at Kalischt in Bohemia, and became a pupil of Anton Bruckner at Vienna, and afterwards Hofoperndirecktor («Director of the Opera») there. I hope one day to study this artist’s work in...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Man lies in greatest misery The law is proclaimed with: «Was entstanden ist, dass mus vergehen, Was vergangen, auferstehen!»[197] [Footnote 194: Man lies in greatest misery; Man lies in greatest pain; I would I were in Heaven!]...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 conducted at Strasburg His Fifth Symphony, which he conducted at Strasburg, convinced me, more than all his other works, of the urgent necessity of adopting this course. In this composition he has not allowed himself the use of the...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 complete contrast to Mahler Richard Strauss is a complete contrast to Mahler. He has always the air of a heedless and discontented child. Tall and slim, rather elegant and supercilious, he seems to be of a more refined race than most other...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 a man, a woman, and a child The first part shows you three people: a man, a woman, and a child. The man is represented by three themes: a motif full of spirit and humour, a thoughtful motif, and a motif expressing eager and enthusiastic...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Strauss and Mahler Upon the whole, these works make one see that, in spite of their apparent audacity, Strauss and Mahler are beginning to make a surreptitious retreat from their early standpoint, and are abandoning the symphony with a...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Alsace-Lorraine FRENCH AND GERMAN MUSIC In May, 1905, the first musical festival of Alsace-Lorraine took place at Strasburg. It was an important artistic event, and meant the bringing together of two civilisations that for centuries had...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Wagner came to Vienna in 1875 But of all these influences, the strongest was that of Wagner. Wagner came to Vienna in 1875 to conduct Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. There was then among the younger people a fever of enthusiasm similar to that...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Wolf and Wagner Wolf and Wagner did not see each other again. But Wolf fought unceasingly on Wagner’s behalf. He went several times to Bayreuth, though he had no personal intercourse with the Wagner family; but he met Liszt, who,...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 M. d’Indy will be associated in history His devotion and his faith have not been in vain. The name of M. d’Indy will be associated in history, not only with fine works, but with great works: with the Société Nationale de...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Brahms read Wolf’s articles Brahms read Wolf’s articles, but his attacks did not seem to stir his apathy. The «Brahmines,» however, never forgave Wolf. One of his bitterest enemies was Hans von Bülow, who found...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Heldenleben RICHARD STRAUSS The composer of Heldenleben is no longer unknown to Parisians. Every year at Colonne’s or Chevillard’s we see his tall, thin silhouette reappear in the conductor’s desk. There he is with his...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Lieder on poems of Goethe He had hardly finished the Mörike-Lieder when he began a series of Lieder on poems of Goethe. In three months (December, 1888, to February, 1889) he had written all the Goethe-Liederbuch–fifty-one Lieder,...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Nietzsche dreamed Like the musician that Nietzsche dreamed of,[169] he seems «to hear ringing in his ears the prelude of a deeper, stronger music, perhaps a more wayward and mysterious music; a music that is super-German, which,...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Wolf’s genius flowed again Suddenly, at Döbling, on 29 November, 1891, the stream of Wolf’s genius flowed again, and he wrote fifteen Italian Lieder, sometimes several in one day. In December it stopped again; and this time for...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 The Wanderers Sturmlied I shall not say much about the four first works, where the mind and manner of the artist is taking shape. The Wanderers Sturmlied (the song of a traveller during a storm, op. 14) is a vocal sextette with an...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 the piano score of Corregidor In March, 1895, Wolf lived once more, and in three months had written the piano score of Corregidor. For many years he had been attracted towards the stage, and especially towards light opera. Enthusiast...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Strauss has directed Wagner’s dramas Strauss has directed Wagner’s dramas at Weimar since 1889. While breathing their atmosphere he turned his attention to the theatre, and wrote the libretto of his opera Guntram. Illness...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 He worked furiously He worked furiously, «like a steam-engine,» as he said, and was so absorbed in the composition of Manuel Venegas (September, 1897) that he went without rest, and had hardly time to take necessary food. In a...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 the princes celebrate In the second act, the princes celebrate their victory in the Duke’s castle. After some pompous talk on the part of the official Minnesänger, Guntram is invited to sing. Discouraged beforehand by the wickedness...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 Wolf was taken to an asylum at Vienna In the autumn of 1898 Wolf was taken to an asylum at Vienna. At first he was able to receive a few visits and to enjoy a little music by playing duets with the director of the establishment, who was...
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SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019 symphonic poem But the rancour of his failure at the theatre still remained with Strauss, and he turned his attention again to the symphonic poem, in which he showed more and more marked dramatic tendencies, and a soul which grew daily...
