Le mélodrame musical de Rousseau au romantisme, ses aspects historiques et stylistiquesby Jan van...

Le mélodrame musical de Rousseau au romantisme, ses aspects historiques et stylistiques byJan van der VeenReview by: Hans TischlerNotes, Second Series, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jun., 1956), pp. 438-440Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/893330 .

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of the different nationalities and genera- tions in the content of the manuscript; the anonyma-which he ascribes mainly to German composers; the typological classification of the works; the problem of their confessional relationship; their liturgical function, and the practical purpose of the collection. Finally, the possible provenance of the content is examined by comparing it to the contents of certain prints, as also to those of the manuscripts of Johann Walther in Torgau, three manuscript collections in Zwickau, and the Kantorenbuch at Eise- nach. There is an appendix containing the incipits of the unknown compositions.

If one gets a whiff of the graduate seminar room now and then from the pages of the two preceding works, one breathes the genuine atmosphere of that workshop while reading Richard Hasel- bach's comprehensive monograph on a much-neglected Baroque composer, Gio- vanni Battista Bassani. Every pertinent detail, all the historical antecedents of his forms and style are recapitulated here, with references to and copious quotations from the Authorities, from Burney to Grove's Dictionary and from Professor Cherbuliez's article on the Swiss Alphorn to Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft. But, while the reader knows only too well that it was the Ph.D. candidate who included all the quotations of familiar passages in order to show that he is conversant with the literature on a wide range, he regrets sometimes the absence of less familiar but more recent findings. For example, the author explains (p. 155) all about the Roma- nesca on the authority of Riemann's Musiklexikon, but he ignores Gombosi's contributions to this subject.

Still, this book is very welcome, as any "new light" shed on composers-espe- cially those of other than the first magni- tude-would be. Conscientious and prag- matic research in the history of music being still less than 150 years old, there

are still too many hypotheses and un- documented assertions to be found in histories and encyclopedias-unavoid- ably even in MGG-and for the same reason: contributors copying from exist- ing secondary sources without checking. And it is also understandable that Machaut inspires more research than Senleches, or Monteverdi than Gagliano. Therefore it is good to have a painstak- ing work on Bassani and, incidentally, to learn that he was not a conductor in Bologna (p. 95 ff.), nor the teacher of Corelli, several years his senior (p. 97 ff.). It is also good to learn the num- ber and nature of his works, although the author admits that he was unable to examine their repositories personally, and that, in consequence, he regards his catalog mainly as an incentive to further research. This part of Haselbach's work is perhaps the most valuable, as his many notes and remarks will facilitate the eventual compiling of a definitive catalog. The second part, a biography of Bas- sani, would perhaps gain by some prun- ing of material not entirely relevant to the main topic.

Part III takes up in three chapters, subdivided into many sections, the analysis of Baroque music in general and of the instrumental and vocal works of Bassani in detail. Here, the reader will find all the minutiae expected in a dissertation, to an extent that makes the author himself exclaim: "Further ex- plaining of this piece would drive us into endless space (uferlose Weiten) !" (p. 199). The same could be said of the number and extent of quotations, of which the most valuable are those from Bukofzer's Music in the Baroque Era and Suzanne Clercx's Le Baroque et la Musique. Haselbach thoroughly agrees with them, and we agree with Haselbach, for it will be difficult to say something new on the subject for some time to come after those two brilliant books.

EcON F. KENTON

Le melodrame musical de Rousseau au romantisme, ses aspects historiques et stylistiques. Par Jan van der Veen. La Haye: Martinus Niihoff. 1955. rviii. 146 p., facsims.. music. bibl., 8vo: Fl. 8.501

The interesting subject of the melo- drama has been treated only a few times

in systematic fashion. Several French and German authors discussed it when

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it was born, in the 1770's, and Guilbert de Pix6r6court (1773-1844), the chief author of literary melodramas, devoted several essays to it; but aside from various early monographs only H. Marens (Das Melodram, 1933) has written a comprehensive study. Thus it is all the more to be regretted that this book is not entirely successful.

In his introduction the author rejects the new term melologue, created by Subira in his study on the Spanish melodramatist, Tomas de Iriarte (1750- 1791). He shows that the term melo- dramma up to 1775 was used as synony- mous with opera; then the terms mono- drama and duodrama came into use, soon to be replaced by melodrama in the new sense of spoken word combined with dramatic action and music.

Rousseau's Pygmalion, its music, its translations and new musical versions, and its influence, are discussed in Chap- ter 1. Pygmalion was an outgrowth of Rousseau's rejection of sung French, a notion he later changed. The music, consisting of small fragments without musical cohesion, alternates with the words and serves the pantomime of the little play. It thus follows the tradition of the French ballet, which, with the pantomimes of the ballerina Salle and Rameau's Les Indes galantes in which she danced (1734), emerged from the decorative ballet of Lully and became fully dramatic in the 1760's through the activities of Noverre and Gluck.

The first performance of Pygmalion in 1770 is usually taken as the birth of the melodrama. Mr. van der Veen men- tions an earlier melodramatic passage in Eberlin's Sigismundus (about 1760), but fails to mention a similar passage in Gr6try's first comic opera, Les mariages Samnites of 1768. The vogue of melo- drama in France was brief. Around 1790 it was transformed into the literary melodrama with scanty musical accom- paniment, which flourished until 1830 and whose sensational action led to our word "melodramatic." A performance of Pvgmalion at Madrid in 1788 led to the popularity of the melodrama in Spain for about thirty years. And when it had been performed in several new versions

in various German cities, after 1771, it led to the German melodrama, dis- cussed in Mr. van der Veen's second chapter.

The German founder was Georg Benda, whose Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) derives from the accompanied recitative of Italian opera and the incidental music of plays which go back to Lully and Moliere. Benda unified his music with the aid of leitmotifs and reminiscences, and at times combined words and music. Other composers, such as Neefe and Reichardt, tried to give the music better form by writing longer, better-rounded musical interludes.

Chapter 3 deals with the melodramatic technique as used in other species. One such species emerged with Zumsteeg's Friihlingsfeier (1777), an ode for dec- lamation without scenery, which found successors in spoken ballades by Schu- mann, Liszt, Meyerbeer, R. Strauss, Schillings, and others. A few works in which words were added to existing in- strumental works of C. P. E. Bach and Beethoven represent an interesting ex- periment. Another produced the sym- phonic poem with a spoken program: Berlioz's Lelio. In opera the melo- dramatic technique was first used in a Singspiel by Johann Andre (1778), and the opera comique also took it up begin- ning with Gretry, as some words of dialogue were spoken during the final ritornello of a preceding air; later ex- tenl(led scenes with programmatic refer- ences and pantomime occur, as also in German romantic operas such as Weber's Freischiitz. Only in Italian opera did melodrama remain rare. It also assumed importance in incidental music to plays. Beethoven first forced rhythm on spoken words in his Ruins of Athens, where they are spoken against an autonomous piece of music. The rhythm is not notated there, however; this is done first in Weber's Preciosa music (1821). With The Ruins of Athens there also begins the long tradition of background music (behind the scenes) to spoken words, which continues today in motion-picture music. In Humperdinck's Die Konigs- kinder (1897) not only the rhythm but also the approximate pitches are notated.

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a procedure followed by Pfitzner, Schoen- berg, Berg, and others.

Having discussed the varied opinions of French and German estheticians pro and con the melodrama, Mr. van der Veen shows in his final chapter how the melodrama anticipated romanticism and, forced to create some unity for its music, made mature use of the leitmotif long before the Wagnerian music drama. It would seem, however, that the origin of the melodrama is deeply rooted in the intellectualism of the Age of Reason.

A number of musical examples and facsimiles are gathered in the appendix of the book and a good, though not a

complete, bibliography is given. Un- fortunately an index is lacking, which makes the volume difficult to use despite a detailed table of contents. In Chap- ters 2 and 3, moreover. order is largely absent and analysis gives way mostly to cumbersome enumeration of names. The reader would have been much better served by a tabular presentation of the many works cited. This would have per- mitted greater inclusiveness and a good historical order. It would also have made this book a valuable reference tool, which it is not in its present form, even though it contains a good deal of valu- able information. HANS TISCHLER

Ernest Chausson; The Composer's Life and Works. By Jean-Pierre Barricelli & Leo Weinstein. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, r19551. rxiii. 241 D.. Dorts.. music. bibl.. 8vo: $4.001 "What composer was killed while rid-

ing a bicycle?" This is one of those nasty little Ph.D. examination questions where the name of Ernest Chausson figures for the first and only time. In attempting to shed some light on the composer's life and works Messrs. Bar- ricelli and Weinstein have labored under two severe handicaps: Chausson has always been considered a minor and rather unoriginal composer, even in his native France, and his life was even less exciting than his music.

This may explain why more than half of this volume is devoted to what pur- ports to be a study of Chausson's com- positions. In this section the authors make frequent and charming excursions into other literary and musical provinces and at times it is difficult to see any connection between these and the subject under discussion. Indeed, these digres- sions are the most convincingly written parts of the biography, for here the authors, professors in the "humanities" and French respectively, are treading surer ground.

In approaching their man they are filled with deep reverence and an evan- gelical zeal to make good the promise "Chausson, tu vivras!" and their study was completed in time to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the com- poser's birth. But the goal which they

have set for themselves is well-nigh impossible; even Racine, who was so adept at creating something out of nothing, would have given up in despair.

This desperation is best revealed in the adjectives "aristocratic," "subtle," "polished," and "refined" which appear time and time again before his composi- tions. Alas, it is the very best that may be honestly said about Chausson and hundreds of other competent and un- original composers. Everywhere in Chausson's music we feel the heavy hands of Wagner and Franck. On this score the authors write: "No man can escape the pace-setting tendencies of his time. We should even say that if he exerted himself to oppose them, the effort would have a deleterious effect upon him and warp his output." Although we may agree with them that even Dante and Rousseau were not completely un- heralded, it does not follow that great- ness in art is determined by the meas- ure of conformity to pace-setting ten- dencies. Tristan may well be the spiritual father of Pelleas, but it is Debussy's successful attempt to create a work that would come "after," rather than "in the style of," Wagner that stamps him as a musical genius. Chausson's Le Roi Arthuls reveals that the composer was a competent craftsman-polished, refined, subtle, and aristocratic, to be sure.

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