# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Song

​SONG. In relation to the study of music, a Song may be defined as a short metrical composition, whose meaning is conveyed by the combined force of words and melody, and intended to be sung with or without an accompaniment. The Song, therefore, belongs equally to poetry and music. For the purposes of this Dictionary the subject should undoubtedly be treated with exclusive regard (were it possible) to music; but the musical forms and structure of songs are so much determined by language and metre, that their poetic and literary qualities cannot be entirely put aside. In the strictest sense, lyrical pieces alone are songs; but adherence to so narrow a definition would exclude many kinds of songs whose importance in the history of music demands that they should be noticed here. Attention, however, will be directed only to homophonic forms of songs—i.e. songs for one voice or unisonous chorus. Polyphonic forms—madrigals, glees, part-songs, etc.—fall under other heads of this work, to which the reader will be referred. Mention will likewise be made only of songs in the language of the composer of their music, and with accompaniment for one instrument.
A distinction will also, as far as possible, be observed between songs which are, as it were, the rude spontaneous outcome of native inspiration, the wild indigenous fruit of their own soil, and those other more regular and finished compositions which are written with conscious art by men who have made music their study. For want of a better term it will be convenient, where the difference must be emphasized, to designate this class of songs by the German phrase Kunstlied, or Artistic Song; while the former class, whose origin and authorship are generally obscure, may be called National or Popular Songs. Such are the Volkslieder of Germany, the Canti Popolari of Italy, and the Ballads of England.
It should, moreover, be mentioned that the heads or subdivisions under which songs will be ranged must be geographical rather than chronological; that is to say, they will be grouped in regard to country and not to period. For the study of any other branch of modern music among the leading nations of Europe, a chronological arrangement would probably be more useful and instructive, because at each successive epoch their musical productions have been sufficiently similar to admit of collective treatment. But the Song is that branch of music in which national peculiarities linger longest, and international affinities grow most slowly. This is, of course, primarily due to the fact that language, which is local, is an integral element of song. Secondly, it is caused by the popular origin of songs. Being of the people and for the people, they flourish most in a sphere where the influences of foreign example and teaching can hardly reach them. Hence it happens that even where the Artistic Song has lost every trace of its native soil, national melodies preserve a distinctively local colour. In some countries of Europe the development of the Song can be followed from the primitive form of folk-song to the highest type of artistic composition; but in others the art of music has scarcely yet advanced beyond the stage of national melodies.
It remains only to add that, although the year 1450 has been fixed in the preface to this Dictionary as a convenient point of departure for a general study of modern music, an account of the Song in Europe would be incomplete without, at least, a brief reference to the Troubadours, whose epoch was anterior to that date.
Troubadours.
These versifiers, to whom the Song owes so much, derived their name from 'trobar' or 'trouver' (to find, orinvent), and they first appeared about the end of the 11th century, in the southern provinces of France. The earliest of the Troubadours on record was William, Duke of Guienne, who joined the first Crusade in 1096 and died in 1126. The 12th and 13th centuries gave birth to hundreds of ​them, but their prime was past when the Troubadour Academy of Toulouse was founded for the culture and preservation of their art. That Academy, known as 'The Seven Maintainers of the Gay Science' was founded in the year 1320, and a few years later was visited by Petrarch.
Some strong impulse was evidently given to the human mind in Europe towards the close of the 11th century, and the songs of the Troubadours, like the numerous schools of philosophy which illustrated the 12th century, were fruits of an awakened ardour for intellectual pursuits. It was not unnatural that in Languedoc and Provence the new life should especially manifest itself in music and verse, for the circumstances of those provinces were favourable to the development of sentiment and imagination. The leisure that is bred of peace and plenty was to be found there, for the country was prosperous and comparatively undisturbed by internal warfare. Its climate was sunny, and its people prone to gaiety and luxury. The spirit of the age of chivalry had refined their manners, and their flexible and melodious language—the Langue d'Oc or Romance tongue—was admirably fitted for lighter forms of poetic composition. The Provençal Troubadours were thus able to invent a variety of metrical arrangements, perfectly new to Europe. As might have been expected from their southern temperament and the customs of that chivalrous time, their effusions were principally love-songs. Satires, and panegyrics, exhortations to the crusade, and religious odes came to be intermingled with amatory poems; but love, which first inspired the song of the Troubadour, ever remained its favourite theme. The very names by which different classes of songs were distinguished reveal their origin. In the pastourelle the poet was feigned to meet and woo a shepherdess. The alba and serena, morning and evening songs, were obviously aubades and serenades. The tensons, or contentions, were metrical dialogues of lively repartee on some disputed point of gallantry. And the servente was of course an address of the devoted lover to his mistress. To this last form of composition, which was also much employed in satire, a special celebrity belongs from the fact that its metre—the terza rima or rhyme of alternate lines—was adopted by Dante for his 'Divina Commedia,' and by Petrarch in his 'Trionfi.' To the Troubadours likewise may be ascribed the canzo and canzone, the soula (solatium, soulagement), a merry amusing song, and the lai (lay), which was wont to be suffused with melancholy. The invention of the Troubadours was not less fertile in dance-songs, combining solo and chorus. Such were the famous carol or rondet de carol (Lat. chorea), and the espringerie or jumping dance. From the same source sprang the ballata, or ballad, which, as its name implies, was also a dance song.
During their palmy era, the Troubadours would seem to have been for the most part men of gentle birth and high rank; and there was no reward which they would deign to receive for their works but fame and the applause of the ladies to whom their homage was paid. At first, perhaps, they sang their own verses; but the functions of the poet and the singer soon became distinct. Hence a class of professional musicians came to be attached to the retinue of princes and nobles, and they sang the songs of their own lords or other composers. They were known as 'Jongleurs' or 'Chanteors'; or if their sole business was to be instrumental accompanyists of dances, they were called 'Estrumanteors.' To the musical accomplishments out of which their profession arose, the Jongleurs soon added other modes of popular diversion, such as juggling and acrobatic feats, and they were of course paid for the entertainment which they gave. It was their habit also to wander from country to country, and court to court. Inferior, therefore, as the Jongleur was to the Troubadour, the celebrity of the latter depended much on the former, and we can understand the earnestness with which Pierre d'Auvergne and other Troubadours entreated their Jongleurs not to alter their verses and melodies.
The rise of the Troubadours proper in southern France was quickly followed by the appearance of a corresponding class of versifiers in northern France and in Spain. In northern France they were called 'Trouvères,' and they wrote in the Langue d'Oil. There was less gaiety about the northern Troubadours than about the southern, but in other respects the resemblance between them was very close. The 'Menêtrier' or 'Ministrel' of the north corresponded to the Jongleur of the south; but the Menêtrier seems to have attained and kept a higher standard of culture and taste than the Jongleur. Indeed several poets of mark were Menêtriers. At the courts of our own Norman kings the Trouvère's art was held in honour. Henry I. was a votary of literature; Henry II. studiously encouraged poetry; and Richard Cœur de Lion was himself a Trouvère.
Among illustrious Troubadours or Trouvères of the 12th and 13th centuries whose names survive, there were (besides William Duke of Guienne, and Richard I.) Pierre Rogier; Bernart de Ventadour; Bertran de Born; Arnaut Daniel; Guirant de Borneil; the Chatelain de Coucy; Blondel des Nerles; Thibaut de Champagne, King of Navarre, etc. Many of their melodies have come down to us. The earliest are stiff, but the flowing grace and ease of the later compositions indicate a rapid improvement. Even about so old a piece as the Chatelain de Coucy's famous 'Quant le rossignol' there is a charm of pretty sentiment, but its merit is inferior to that of Thibaut's 'L'Autriér par la matinée.' We cite them both as illustrations of Troubadour music.
The melodies of the Spanish 'Trobadores' were naturally very similar to those of the Provençal Troubadours, and their system of notation was precisely the same. Spain too, like France, counted kings and princes among her Trobadores; such as Alphonso II., Peter III., and Alphonso X. The last has left 400 poems which, with their melodies, are still preserved in the Escurial.
Italy was more slowly caught by the poetic flame. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, visited the Emperor Frederick II. at Milan, bringing Troubadours and Jongleurs in his train; and not until then do we hear of them in Italy. A similar patronage was extended to them by Raymond's son-in-law Charles of Anjou King of Naples and Sicily. To the common people of Italy these singers appeared as retainers of princely courts, and they called them uomini di corti. They also called them ciarlatani, because the exploits of Charlemagne were a constant theme of their songs, and the word ciarle stood for 'Charles' in Italian pronunciation. Thus taught by foreigners, Italy soon produced her own 'Trovatori' and 'Giocolini.' But the first Italian Trovatori deemed their own dialect to be unsuitable to poetry, and wrote in the Provençal language. This practice, however, was not destined to last, for in the year 1265 Dante, the founder of the Italian language, was born. After him no Italian could longer doubt the capacities of his own tongue for all forms of poetry; and the verse of the Troubadour began to 'pale an uneffectual fire' before the splendours of the great poet of the Middle Ages.
Henceforward the history of the Song will be separately traced in the different countries of Europe, beginning with Italy.
Italy.
Notwithstanding the subordination of lyric song to other branches of music in Italy, her long and careful study of 'la melica poesia'—poetry wedded to music has not been surpassed elsewhere. Dante's sonnets and Petrarch's Trionfi, to which allusion has been made above, were among the earliest poems set to music. Dante's own contemporary and friend, Casella, who set his sonnet 'Amor che nella mente' to mnsic, is believed to have also composed the music for a Ballata by Lemmo da Pistoja, still extant in the Vatican. Both the Ballate and Intuonate were very old forms of composition, and both were love-songs sung to a dance. After them the Maggiolate, or Mayday songs, had their hour of popularity. These also were love-songs, and bands of young men sang them in springtime as they danced before the windows of the ladies whom they wooed. Later yet the Canti Carnascialeschi came into vogue. Originally they were mere carnival songs, but under the skilful hand of Lorenzo de' Medici a kind of consecutive drama grew out of them.
During the 14th century there existed a class of dilettante musicians called Cantori a liuto; and these were distinct from the Cantori a libro who were more learned musicians. It was the habit of the former class to improvise, for until the 16th century musical notation remained so complex and difficult, that only accomplished musicians were able to write down their songs.
In the 15th century, compositions of the Netherlands school of music, with their severe contrapuntal style, found their way into Italy, and began to exercise an influence there; but the prevailing type of Italian secular songs continued to be of a very light order. Petrucci, the first musical publisher, who published in 1502 the motets and masses of the Netherlands composers, had nothing better to offer of native productions than the Frottóle, tuneful but frivolous part-songs. Similar in levity were the ​rustic songs, Canzoni Villanesche, or Villanelle, or Villotte, which peasants and soldiers sang as drinking-songs. In form the Villanelle adhered to the contrapuntal style, though in spirit they were essentially popular. More refined and yet more trifling were the Villotte alla Napoletana, gallant addresses from singing-masters to their feminine pupils. The so-called Fa-la-la was a composition of somewhat later date, and more merit. Those which Gastoldi wrote (about 1591) were good; so too were his Balletti. Gradually the term Frottola disappeared; the more serious Frottole passed into the Madrigali, while the gayer and merrier type was merged in the Villanella. A Frottola, printed in Junta's Roman collection of 1526, evidently became ere long a Villanella, for it is still sung in Venice with the same words and melody, 'Le son tre fanticelli, tutti tre da maridar.' Originally it was a part-song, with the melody in the tenor. The Villanelle were, as a rule, strophical—the same melody repeated in each stanza—but the Frottole had different music for each verse.
The vocal music, to which our attention has thus far been directed, consisted either of partsongs or unisonous chorus, with little or no accompaniment. Sometimes the principal or upper voice had a sort of cantilene, but solo-singing was still unknown. The first instance of it is supposed to have occurred in 1539, in an Intermezzo, in which Sileno sings the upper part of a madrigal by Corteccio, accompanying himself on the violone, while the lower parts, which represented the Satyrs, are taken by wind instruments. But the piece itself shows that it was far from being a song for one voice with accompaniment. It will be noticed that the under parts are as much independent voices as the upper one.
Fragment of a Madrigal.
Sonato da Sileno con violone, sonando tutte le parti, e cantando il Soprano.
Corteccio, 1539.
According to the historian Doni, Galilei was the first composer who wrote actual melodies for one voice. Doni further tells us that Galilei set to music the passage of the 'Inferno' which narrates the tragic fate of Count Ugolino, and that he performed it himself 'very pleasingly' with viola accompaniment. But be that as it may, an epoch in musical history was undoubtedly marked by Giulio Caccini, when he published, in 1601, under the title of 'Le Nuove Musiche,' a collection of Madrigali, Canzoni, and Arie for one voice. These compositions have a figured bass, and some are embellished with fioriture. Caccini was promptly followed in the path which he had opened by numerous imitators, and thus the monodic system was virtually established. Indeed he may be regarded as the inventor of the 'expressive monodia,' for he was the first to attempt to render certain thoughts and feelings in music, and to adapt music to the meaning of words. Caccini is said to have sung his own pieces, accompanying himself on the theorbo; and in the preface to his collection he gives minute directions as to the proper mode of singing them. The airs are well supplied with marks of expression, as the following example from his 'Nuove Musiche' will show:—
Caccini.
​ Another example, and further information, will be found in the article on Monodia.
Caccini also prepared the way for the Cantata, which subsequently reached its highest perfection under Carissimi, Stradella, Scarlatti, and others. [See Cantata.] The composers of the transition period, which witnessed the growth of the Cantata, were Radesca da Foggia, who published five books of ' Monodie' in 1616; Brunelli, who published in the same year two books of 'Scherzi, Arie, Canzonette e Madrigali'; F. Capello, whose most remarkable work was a set of 'Madrigali a voce sola'; Fornacci, celebrated for his 'Amorosi respiri musicali' which appeared in 1617; Luigi Rossi, and Salvator Rosa.
If Corteccio's madrigal be compared with the following example from Capello's 'Madrigali a voce sola,' it will be seen how great a change and advance had been made in solo-singing during less than a century. And a striking resemblance may be observed between Capello and his successor Stradella.
Madrigale a voce sola.
Giovanni Francesco Capello.
The popular taste in music at any period can best be ascertained from the class of compositions which publishers then found to be most in demand. Thus Petrucci, at the beginning of the 16th century, was issuing Frottole, Villanelle, etc., but a hundred years later the Venetian publisher Vincento supplied the public with little pieces like those above-mentioned by Foggia, Capello, etc. The Madrigal and the Cantata were both important, at least as regards chamber-music, during the 16th and 17th centuries; but they were soon doomed to insignificance by the rise of a great and overshadowing rival, namely the Opera. For an account of the origin of the Opera and its marvellous popularity the reader must turn to the article on Opera. It need only be said here, that all other kinds of secular vocal music had to yield precedence in Italy to it and its offshoots, the Scena, the Cavatina, the Aria, etc. Ambros says that the Arie of early Operas were simply monodic Villanelle, Villotte, or Canzoni alla Napoletana; but he also tells us that favourite 'couplets' from Operas, which at first had nothing in common with Canti popolari beyond being melodies easily caught by the ear, acquired by degrees a place similar to that held by the Volkslied in Germany. Nevertheless, it is clear that Italian musicians held the popular songs of other countries in higher estimation than their own. The best songs in Petrucci's 'Canti Cento-cinquanta,' published in 1503, belong to France, Germany, and the Netherlands. And Italian masters preferred French or Gallo-Belgian themes for their masses. Traces, no doubt, of Canti popolari may be found in Italian compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries—as, for instance, in Adrian Willaert's 'Canzon di Ruzante'—but very few of them have come down to us in their complete or native form. Canzoni alla Francese (as they ​were called) were popular in Italy early in the 16th century. Of the popular hymns of Italy during the Middle Ages mention has been made under Laudi Spirituali.
Materials for a satisfactory treatment of the Canti popolari of Italy do not exist. Though much has been written about their words, no treatise exists on their tunes. Neither does there appear to be any collection which can safely be trusted to give us veritable old songs. Of late years large collections of modern Canti popolari have been published, such as the Canzonette Veneziane, Stornelli Toscani, Canti Lombardi, Napoletani, Siciliani, etc.; and as their titles indicate, these publications purport to be collections of local songs in the several provinces of Italy. But whether they can be accepted as the genuine productions which they profess to be, is questionable. They would rather seem to be new compositions or new arrangements and developments of old popular tunes. Moreover it is very doubtful whether any of them are really sung by the peasants of the districts to which they are attributed, except the Canti Lombardi. The melodies at least of these are for the most part genuine.
A far stronger claim than any which the songs of these collections can put forward to the title of Canti popolari, may be advanced in favour of countless popular melodies taken from favourite Operas. The immense popularity of operatic tunes in Italy cannot surprise us when we remember that the theatre is there an ubiquitous institution, and that the quick ear of the Italian instantly catches melodies with a distinct rhythm and an easy progression of intervals. Again, the chorus-singers of the Opera are often chosen from among the workmen and labourers of the place; and thus even difficult choruses may be heard in the streets and suburbs of towns which possess a theatre. Having regard, therefore, to the wide diffusion of the Opera in Italy, and its influence on all classes during two centuries and a half, it is reasonable to conclude that it must have checked the normal development of popular songs, and also, perhaps, obliterated the traces of old tunes. A good instance of the conversion of a theatrical melody not only into a popular, but even into a national song, is afforded by Monti's verses 'Bella Italia, amate sponde.' These were adapted in 1859 to the Cabaletta of the basso, in the first act of Bellini's 'Sonnambula,' 'Tu no' l sai, con quei begli occhi,' and were to be heard in every place of public resort in Northern Italy.
The so-called Canti nazionali belong to a period commencing about the year 1821. They have all been inspired by the political movements of this century for the regeneration of Italy, and their tone is naturally warlike. The most celebrated of them are 'Addio, mia bella, addio,' which is an adaptation of Italian words to 'Partant pour laSyrie'; 'Daghela avanti unpasso,' a ballet song written by Paolo Giorza in 1858; 'Oh, dolce piacer, goder libertà'; 'Inno di Mameli'; 'Fratelli d' Italia'; 'La bandiera tricolore'; 'All' armi, All' armi,' by Pieri; and the 'Inno di Garibaldi.' The years in which Italy was most deeply stirred by struggles for independence were 1821, 1848, and 1859, and all the songs just cited can be traced to one or other of those revolutionary periods.
The harmonic and formal structure of the Canti popolari is usually very simple. They are very rarely sung in parts, though sometimes an under part is added in thirds. Their accompaniments are also extremely simple. A weak and very modern colouring is imparted to the harmony by an excessive use of the chord of the dominant seventh; but otherwise the harmony adheres to the tonic chords, and very seldom modulates into anything except the nearest related keys. No Canti popolari written in the old scales are extant; indeed, since the time of Caccini their emancipation from the ecclesiastical modes has been complete. The form and rhythm of the songs are equally simple, consisting of four-bar phrases; the time is more frequently 3-8 or 6-8 than common time. The poetry is in stanzas of four lines, the accents occurring regularly, even in provincial dialects; and the songs are generally strophical that is, the melody is repeated for each stanza. It should be added, to avert misconception, that the terms Canti, Canzonetti, and Stornelli have been very loosely and indiscriminately employed. But, speaking ​generally, Stornelli are lively love-songs; Canzoni and Canzonette narrative songs, while Canto is a generic term applicable to almost any form. [See Stornelli.]
For about a century and a half—from the latter part of the 17th century to the earlier part of the present century—the Canzoni and Canzonette da Camera of Italy exhibited neither merit nor improvement. A few collections were published from time to time, but apparently very slight attention was paid to them. They were mostly of a religious tendency; not hymns, but Canzoni spirituali e morali, as they were called. Even when the Canzoni Madrigalesche were reduced to two voices (as, for instance, those of Benedetto Marcello, published at Bologna in 1717) they continued to be essentially polyphonic, one voice imitating the other. How poor and uninteresting was the true monodic Canzone of those days may be learnt from the following example by Gasparini, dating probably about 1730.
Gasparini, 1730.
For many important forms of music, such as the Opera, the Cantata, the Sonata, and the Fugue, etc., we are primarily and especially indebted to the Italians; but as regards the modern Artistic Song we owe them little. Just as the 'couplets' and favourite tunes of the Opera supplied the people with Canti popolari, so did its Arie and Cavatine provide the pieces which the educated classes preferred to hear at concerts and in drawing-rooms. Until quite a recent date there was no demand for songs proper; few composers, therefore, deemed it worth their while to bestow pains on this kind of work. To write an opera is the natural ambition of Italian musicians, and short indeed is the list of those who have devoted themselves to other branches of music. In the works of Cimarosa, Mercadante, Bellini, Donizetti, and other celebrated composers of operas, we find very numerous Ariette, Canzonette, Rondi, Romanze, and Notturni, but none evincing any serious thought or pains. They are too weak to stand the test of time: the popularity they may once have known has been brief and fleeting. An exception, however, must be made in favour of Rossini, some of whose songs are really beautiful.
Among composers of songs in the latter part of the last century, the names of Asioli, Barni, Federici, and Blangini may be mentioned, and Giordani, whose 'Caro mio ben' has been a general favourite. Of those who have lived nearer our own time Gordigiani is undoubtedly the best for simple popular songs. He wrote in the true Italian style, with the utmost fluency, spontaneity and simplicity. Next to him in merit though less well known stands Mariani. Injustice would be done to the living composers of songs in Italy, if our estimate of them were founded solely on the songs which have a circulation in England. Men like Tosti, Denza, and others, write, as it were, for the English market; but their work is too trivial to gain anything more than a very transient popularity. Far better writers than these exist in Italy, though they remain unknown beyond the borders of their own country. With few exceptions, however, Italian songs are marked, in a greater or less degree, by the same qualities. The voice part is ever paramount in them, and all else is made to yield to it. The beautiful quality and wide compass of Italian voices, and the facility with which they execute difficult vocal phrases, tempt the composer to write brilliant and effective passages, where a simple melody would be far more appropriate to the words. The words may indeed give the form to the song, and determine its number of sections and periods, and the music may substantially agree with the text, but we miss that delicate, subtle understanding between the poet and the musician which we find in German songs, where the music often acts as an interpreter to the words, or the sound of a single word gives importance to a note or passage. Again, in Italian songs the accompaniment holds a very subordinate place. Its sole use is to support the voice; it has rarely any artistic value of its own, and more rarely still does it assist in expressing the poetic intention of the piece.
It would be wrong, however, to apply these criticisms without reserve to all modern Italian composers. Rossini, for instance, knew how to rise above the common defects of his countrymen, and many of the accompaniments to his songs are most interesting. Take, for example, No. 2 ​of 'La Regata Veneziana,' where the rhythmical figure in the left hand represents the regular movement of oars, whilst the right hand has continuous legato passages in double notes.
'Co passa la Regata.'
Rossini.
Very clever accompaniments are also met with in the compositions of Marco Sala, Faccio, Bozzano, Coronaro, and Smareglia. The last two have paid especial attention to the words of their songs. But pre-eminent in every respect above other living writers of songs in Italy is a young Florentine, Benedetto Iunck by name. For beauty of melody, skilful accompaniment, originality and grace, a very high place would be assigned in any country to Iunck's publication 'La Simona,' which contains twelve songs for soprano and tenor. And such capacities as his encourage the hope that the standard of Italian songs may yet be raised by careful study to that higher level of thought and conception which has been reached in other lands.
For further information on the Troubadours and the Italian Song see—
'Leben und Werke der Troubadours'; Friedrich Diets. 'Ueber die Lais'; Ferdinand Wolff. 'The Troubadours'; F. Hueffer. 'Storia e Ragione'; Il Quadrio. 'Le Rivoluzioni del teatro musicale Italiano'; Arteaga. 'Histoire de la Musique en Italie'; Orloff. 'Dizionaria e Bibliografia della Musica'; Lichtenthal. 'Schicksale und Beschaffenheit des weltlichen Gesanges'; Kiesewetter. 'Cenno storico sulla scuola musicale di Napoli'; Florimo. 'Histoire de la Musique moderne'; Marcillac. 'Italienische Tondichter'; Naumann. 'Geschichte der Musik'; Ambros. The writer also owes her warmest thanks to Mr. G. Mazzucato for information given to her.
France.
What was done for music by the Troubadours of Provence and the 'Trouvères' of Northern France, has been briefly described above. Their development of the Song in France was carried further by the eminent 'Chansonniers' of the 13th century, Adam de la Hale and Guillaume Machaud. The former, surnamed 'le Bossu d' Arras,' was born in 1240; the latter in 1285; and they may be regarded as connecting links between the 'Trouvères' and the learned musicians of later times. Like the 'Trouvères,' they invented both the words and the melodies of their songs, but they also attempted to write in the polyphonic forms of vocal composition; and imperfect as these attempts were, they marked a step in advance of the 'Trouvères.' To Adam de la Hale and Machaud the Chanson owes much. Not only can the germ of the future Vaudeville be detected in Adam de la Hale's pastorale 'Robin et Marion,' but its chansons also are strictly similar in structure and character to those of the present day. In ancient and modern chansons alike, we find a strongly marked rhythm, easy intervals, repetition of one melodic phrase, paucity of notes, and extreme simplicity of general plan. Though nearly six hundred years have passed since 'Robin et Marion' was written, the song 'Robin m'aime' is still sung in Hennegau.
In the year 1747 two volumes of French and Latin poems, with descriptions of the music to which some of them were set, were discovered by Count de Caylus in a royal library of France, both words and music being the work of Guillaume de Machaud, 'poet and musician.' The subjects of the poems are very varied, and among them are a great number of lais, virelais, ballades, and rondeaux, some for a single voice, and others in four parts. And as in these full pieces the words are placed under the tenor part only, it may be inferred that this was the principal melody. The majority are in Old French, and the few Latin poems of the collection are chiefly motets, and for a single voice. Machaud seems to have been most renowned for his graceful and rhythmical ballettes, or dance-songs, which as a rule are written in triple or compound time. It should be noted that in the songs of this early period the melody is never protracted and drawn ​out to the detriment of the words, but closely follows the quick succession of syllables without visible effort. These old melodies often have the Iambic rhythm; for instance—
Adam de la Hale.
which in modern times has ceded place to the Trochaic; as—
Words: 'Les grandes Vérités.' Air: 'La fanfare de S. Cloud.'
Contemporary with Machaud, or a little his junior, was Jehannot Lescurel, who wrote romances still extant in MS., one of which has been translated into modern notation by M. Fétis. This romance—'A vous douce débonnaire'—exhibits a rather more developed melody and a more modern tendency than other productions of the same date.
Even if it be true, as some assert, that during the 14th and 15th centuries the Church exercised an exclusive dominion over music, she was, nevertheless, a friend to secular music. By taking popular tunes for the themes of their masses and motets—such as 'L'Omme armé,' 'Tant je me deduis,' 'Se la face ay pale,' used by Dufay; or 'Baisez-moi' by Roselli; 'Malheur me bat' by Josquin de Près, etc, the musicians of the Church preserved many a tune which would otherwise have perished. For want of such adoption by the Church we have lost the airs to which the curious Noëls, printed in black letter at the end of the I5th century, were sung. The names of the airs ('Faulce trahison,' etc.) remain as superscriptions to the text, but every trace of the airs themselves has vanished. In that great age of serious polyphonic music a high place was held by the French school, or, to speak more correctly, the Gallo-Belgian school, for during the 14th and 15th centuries no distinction, as regards music, can be drawn between Northern France and Belgium. The frontier between the two countries was an often-shifted line; in respect of race and religion they had much in common; and many a composer of Belgian birth doubtless had his musical education in France. By the Italians the French and Belgian composers were indiscriminately called Galli; and indeed no attempt has ever been made to distinguish a Belgian from a French school of music anterior to the end of the 16th century.
The direct use made of secular music for ecclesiastical purposes is remarkably illustrated by the works of Clément Marot. He was a translator of a portion of the Psalms; and the first thirty of them, which he dedicated to his king, Frangois I, were set or 'parodied' to the favourite dance airs of the Court. Popularity was thus at once secured for the Psalms which members of the Court could sing to their favourite courantes, sarabandes, and bourrées. After Marot's death Beza continued his work, at Calvin's instance. Much doubt long existed as to whom belonged the honour of having set the Psalms to music. Some ascribed it wholly to Marot, others to Goudimel: but M. Douen has now made it clear that these men, together with Jambe de Fer, Franc, Claudin, and perhaps others, adapted the Psalms to existing profane songs. In the 'Psautier Flamand Primitif' (1540) all the Psalms are for one voice, and, with only two exceptions, they can all be traced back to their sources in popular French and Flemish songs. For cantiques, moreover, as well as masses, secular airs have been openly utilised by composers of the Roman Catholic Church.
While secular music was thus made to minister to the Church, it had a separate, though less conspicuous, sphere of its own. This is attested by the vaux-de-vire, voix-de-ville (better known by their modern name of vaudevilles), and airs-decour, collected and published in the 16th century, but evidently belonging to the preceding century. Much grace, indeed, and gaiety were evinced in the French songs and romances of this period, and it would be wrong to disparage such composers as Noë Feignient, Guillaume le Heurteur, Pierre Vermont, and François I., whose song 'O triste départir' is full of feeling. More important work, undoubtedly, was however being done by their polyphonic contemporaries. A celebrated collection, with a dedication to Charles IX. by Ronsard, was published in 1572, under the title of 'Meslanges de Chansons,' containing songs for 4, 6, and sometimes 8 voices, by all the best-known Gallo-Belgian masters, such as Josquin, Mouton, Claudin, etc. These songs, like others of the same date, are full of canonic devices. Clément Jannequin, Crespel, and Raïf wrote many songs in four or more parts. Pierre Ronsard's sonnets were set to music by Philippe de Monte in 5, 6, and 7 parts; and his songs in 4 parts by Bertrand and Reynard. Mention ​should also be made of Gombert, Josquin's celebrated pupil. And Certon has shown in his 'Je ne fus jamais si ayse' what excellence the French polyphonic chanson can attain in capable hands.
The effects of the great change which came over vocal music at the end of the 16th century were, perhaps, more marked in France and Belium than elsewhere. Polyphonic music, whether masses or in madrigals, had been, as we have seen, the forte of the Gallo-Belgian school; but when once the monodic system had gained universal recognition, polyphonic music began to decline even where it had flourished most, and the Gallo-Belgian school surrendered its individuality by absorption into the Italian school. Thenceforward original melodies of their own invention were expected of musicians, and the old practice of choosing themes for compositions in popular songs or current dance-tunes died out, though its disappearance was gradual, for no ancient or inveterate usage ever ceases all at once. The French composers were likewise influenced by two other great innovations of this time, viz. the creation of discords by Monteverde, and the application of music to the drama. In latter years of the 16th century songs for one voice began to find favour and to drive airs for 3, 4, 5, or 6 voices from the ground which they had occupied for more than 150 years. And that most characteristic type of French songs, the romance, soon to commence, or rather to resume, a of popularity which is not yet ended.
Scudo defines the romance to be a song divided into several 'couplets.' The air of a romance is always simple, naïve, and tender, and the theme of its words is generally amatory. Unlike the chanson, it is never political or satirical. It was one of the very earliest fruits of French grace, sensibility, and gallantry; and, though its attributes may have varied from time to time, it has remained unchanged in its essence from the era of the Troubadours until now. There was, it is true, a period after the disappearance of the Troubadours, when the romance was threatened with extinction by its formidable rival, the polyphonic chanson, but the 17th century saw it again in possession of all its old supremacy. Louis XIII., who was more at home in music than in politics, wrote several romances; and his music-master, Pierre Guédron, was perhaps the foremost composer of romances of that time. Several charming examples of his works are extant, but the following, which was first published in a correct form a few years ago, is certainly one of the best. The modulations are truly remarkable for that date.
Guédron's son-in-law, Boësset, was the author of a very famous romance, 'Cachez beaux yeux.' And the names of Beaulieu, Deschamps, Colasse, Bernier, Lefêvre, Lambert, and Pierre Ballard may be recorded as other composers of this age. The last (whose 'Belle, qui m'avez blessé,' was a popular romance) was a member of the famous Ballard family of music-printers: others of the family also were composers. As printers, they preserved a large quantity of brunettes ('ou petits airs tendres'), drinking-songs, and dance-songs. Here we may mention the drone bass, which occurs so frequently in French musettes and other dance-songs.
Ah! mon beau laboureur! Chanson à danser.
Several brunettes were included in the great collection of old French popular songs, which A. Philidor copied out with his own hand and dedicated to Louis XIV. Many were undoubtedly written on old Noël airs, especially those in parts. After the 17th century they become scarcely distinguishable from romances.
For excellent and typical specimens of the romances of the 18th century, we may quote J. J. Rousseau's 'Le Rosier' and 'Au fond d'une sombre vallée,' both which are found in his collection entitled 'Lea Consolations des Miseres de ma Vie.' Simple, graceful, and pathetic as the former of these is, it is inferior to the latter in the descriptive power of the music. Its melody is as follows:—
while the soft murmur of the accompaniment ia sustained in semiquavers. The musicians of this period would seem to have been inspired by the grace and delicacy of the contemporary poetry to create melodies of great tenderness and simplicity. Insipid as these melodies must often appear to us, whose taste has been educated by great masters of the classical and romantic schools, they are thoroughly representative of the age which produced them. It was the time of that singular phase of thought and feeling which will for ever be associated with the name of J. J. Rousseau; a time of yearnings to return to some imagined state of native innocence; to an ideal pastoral life in some visionary Arcadia. All this was faithfully reflected in the works of its poets and musicians. What an idyll, for instance, is presented to us by 'Que ne suis-je la fougère,' the words of which were written by Riboutté, an amateur poet, to an old air wrongly attributed to Pergolesi. Among other favourite romances were 'O ma tendre musette'—words by La Harpe, and music by Monsigny; 'Il pleut, bergère,' by Simon; 'Les petits oiseaux,' by Rigel; 'L' Amour fait passer le temps, le temps fait passer l'amour,' by Solié; 'Annette et Lupin,' by Favart; and 'Que j'aime à voir les hirondelles,' by Devienne.
Although romances were so much in vogue and reached so high a degree of excellence, they were not the only noteworthy songs of the times in question. Songs of other kinds were written by such eminent composers of the 18th century as Grétry, Dalayrac, and Méhul. Amongst these, political songs are prominent. In no country have they been more important than in France. The temperament of the French has ever been favourable to the production of political chansons. The 'Mazarinade' of the 17th century was a vast collection of more than four thousand satirical effusions against Mazarin, adapted to popular airs. Early in the 18th century was heard the famous song 'Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre,' and later on, in the first throes of the Revolution, the Royalists of France were singing 'Pauvre Jacques,' by the Marquise de Travenet; and the air resounded with 'Ça-ira,' from the throats of the insurgent rabble of Paris. 'Richard ô mon roi,' and 'Où peut on étre mieux qu'au sein de sa famille' have become historical by their use at the same terrible period. [See vol. iii. p. 127a; vol. ii. p. 616b.] As might have been expected of so profound a movement, the Revolution gave birth to many remarkable songs. To the stormy years of the close of the 18th and the opening of the 19th centuries are due the finest chants or patriotic songs of France. Supreme among these ​stands the 'Marseillaise,' which has won immortality for its author and composer, Rouget de Lisle. Next in merit come three songs of Méhul's, viz. the 'Chant du Départ,' words by Chénier; the 'Chant du Retour'; and the 'Chant de Victoire.' And by the side of these may be placed the 'Reveil du Peuple,' by Souriquère de S. Marc, music by Gaveaux; and Desorgues' 'Père de l'Univers,' set by Gossec. Contemporary with the foregoing songs, but on a lower level of political importance, were 'Cadet Rousselle'; the 'Chanson du Roi Dagobert'; 'Fanf an la Tulipe'; the 'Chanson de Roland'; 'Te souviens-tu?'; 'Le récit du Caporal'; and many others which it would be tedious to enumerate.
It may here be observed, parenthetically, that from the first introduction of chansons balladées—that is, dance-songs—down to the present day, 6-8 time has predominated over every other measure in French songs. They still retain the peculiarity of giving each syllable (including the final e) a separate note; and so long as the tune be rhythmical and piquant, and the words witty and amusing, the French taste exacts but little in respect of harmony or accompaniment, or indeed of general musical structure. The success of these songs depends greatly on the way they are sung. These remarks, however, refer only to the lighter classes of chansons; and are not so applicable to patriotic or lyric songs.
After the accession of Napoleon and the accompanying revival of monarchical traditions, the demand for romances was more eager than ever, and there was no lack of composers ready to supply it. The most successful was Plantade, whose melodies were tuneful and tender, while his accompaniments exhibit a certain dramatic power. His best romances are 'Ma peine a devancé l'aurore'; 'Languir d'amour, gémir de ton silence'; and 'Te bien aimer, ô ma chere Zélie': of these the last is the best. Garat, Pradher, and Lambert were Plantade's chief rivals. Another popular contemporary was Dalvimare, who combined wit and knowledge of the world with much musical erudition: his 'Chant héroique du Cid' is really a fine song. For information respecting Choron, the author of 'La Sentinelle,' and the founder of a school whence issued Duprez, Scudo, Monpou, and others who were both singers and composers—the reader must turn to another page of this Dictionary. [See Choron.] Conspicuous among the numerous Italian composers who cultivated French romances with success was Blangini; from him the French romance caught, as M. Scudo has pointed out, some of the morbidezza of the Italian canzonetta. As a musician, however, Blangini was better known to the Parisians than to his own countrymen. And in any list of the distinguished writers of romances at this period, the names of two women, Mme. Gail and Queen Hortense, should certainly be included. The former was the better musician, and proofs of study are given by her romance 'Vous qui priez, priez pour moi.' About Queen Hortense there was more of the amateur composer. Having read some poem that took her fancy, she would sit down to the pianoforte and find an air that went to it; she would then play it to her friends, and if approved by them would confide it to Drouet, or Carbonnel, or Plantade, to put the air into musical shape, and provide it with an accompaniment. Her most successful songs were 'Partant pour la Syrie'; 'Vous me quittez pour aller a la gloire,' and 'Reposez-vous, bon chevalier.' Of these the first is the most famous, and the last has most musical merit.
As a general reflection on the songs which have just passed under our review, it may be said that their most common fault is the endeavour to express inflated sentiments with inadequate means. A discrepancy is constantly felt between the commonplace simplicity of the accompaniments and modulations and the intense sentimentality or turgid pomposity of the words. The disparity can only be concealed by an amount of dramatic and expressive singing which very few singers possess. This prevalent defect cannot, however, be imputed to Romagnesi, who began as a choir-boy under Choron; his 300 romances and chansonettes are free from it. The melodies are clearly defined and well adapted for the voice, and the accompaniments strike a mean between pretension and bald simplicity. 'L'attente,' 'La dormeuse,' 'L'Angelus,' and 'Le rêve' may be cited as good illustrations of his merits. The same praise may be accorded to A. de Beauplan, who in freshness and piquancy was even superior to Romagnesi. And of others who wrote about the same time and in the same style, it will suffice to mention the names of Panseron, Bruguiere, Jadin, Mengal, Dolive, Goulé, Berton, Pollet, Lis, Scudo, Mme. Malibran, the famous singer, and Mme. Duchambge. But perhaps the reputation of Mme. Duchambge was in no small degree due to the skill with which Nourrit sang her songs, such as 'L'ange gardien' and 'Penses-tu que ce soit aimer.'
Out of the revolutionary era of 1830 there came in France a splendid burst of lyric poetry. It was the era of Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Casimir Delavigne, Alfred de Musset and Béranger; and it was natural that the Song should be responsive to the poetic movement of the time. In 1828 Monpou published Béranger's 'Si j'etais petit oiseau ' for three voices, and at once attracted the notice of the poets of the Romantic ​school. His great popularity as a composer commenced in 1830, with his setting of Alfrec de Musset's 'L'Andalouse.' Many more of de Musset's ballads and romances were afterwards set by him; and he rendered the same service to poems by Victor Hugo. But Monpou was not a highly trained musician, and his music is very faulty. He was a slave to the influences of the Romantic school, and well illustrates the extreme exaggeration to which it was prone. Nevertheless, his songs are full of interest; the melodies are original and striking, and if the harmony be incorrect, and at times harsh, it is never without dramatic power. They are difficult to sing, but notwithstanding this drawback, 'Le lever,' 'Le voile blanc,' 'Les deux archers,' and 'La chanson de Mignon' have an established popularity. The last song reveals the best and most refined qualities of Monpou's imagination. Similar qualities were, likewise, displayed by an incomparably greater musician, Hector Berlioz, in whom there was a depth of poetic insight and a subtle sense of beauty, to which Monpou could make no pretension. Of all Berlioz's works, his songs are, perhaps, the least tinged with the characteristic exaggeration of the Romanticists; but to describe or classify them is by no means easy. He wrote about twenty-seven in all: some are for more than one voice, and some had originally an orchestral accompaniment, though they are now also published for the PF.; op. 2, 'Irlande,' consists of nine melodies for one or two voices, and sometimes chorus: the words are imitations of Thomas Moore's by Gounet; and nos. 1 and 7, 'Le coucher du soleil,' and 'L'origine de la harpe,' are perhaps the best. In op. 7, 'Nuits d'été,' there are six songs for one voice, with orchestral or PF. accompaniment, and these are perhaps the choicest of all; nos. 3 and 4, 'Sur les lagunes,' and 'L'absence,' are especially beautiful. Op. 12, 'La captive,' embodying a remarkable crisis of the writer's life, is a long piece, written for a contralto voice, and its chief interest attaches to the varied accompaniment, which has been reduced to PF. score by Stephen Heller. Op. 13, 'Fleurs des Landes,' consists of five romances or chansons, some for one voice, and some for two, or chorus, all bearing a distinctively local colouring. In op. 19, 'Feuillets d'Album,' the first piece is a bolero, the second an aubade, and the third a chorus for men's voices with a tenor solo. Three songs without an opus number—'La belle Isabeau,' 'Le chasseur danois,' and 'Une priere du matin' (which is really a duet)—complete the list of Berlioz's songs. No one can study them without being struck by the fragmentary character of the melodies, and the want of symmetry in the rhythmic phrases. But these defects are atoned for by the exquisite beauty of the melodic fragments; and the rhythmic phrases are never abruptly broken or disjointed without justification. An explanation for it will always be found in the words, which it was Berlioz's constant study to illustrate with perfect fidelity. What can be more poetical than the opening phrase in his song 'L'absence'!
And this, when repeated for the last time very softly, and as if in the far distance, produces a magic effect, especially when accompanied by the orchestra.
Berlioz's accompaniments are highly developed, and participate fully in the poetic intention of the words. A proof of his skill in this respect is afforded by the subjoined extract from 'Le spectre de la rose,' where, after a full, rich, and varied accompaniment throughout, he gives to the last words merely single notes, and thus unmistakeably marks the transition from the passionate tale of the rose to its epitaph.
​Many another example of Berlioz's poetic faculty might be adduced, but enough has already been said to indicate his exalted position among the song-composers of France. Although his eminence is now (perhaps a little too fully) recognised, far less of popular appreciation was granted to him in his lifetime than to several of his contemporaries, whose fleeting celebrity has since been eclipsed by his enduring fame. Among these lesser lights were Loïsa Puget (a favourite in pensions and convents), Th. Labarre, Grisar, Berat, de Latour, Thys, Lagoanère, Dupotz, Gatayes, Monfort, Chéret, Vimeux, Morel, etc. This group would be more correctly described as romance writers, since their songs are for the most part of a light character. More ambitious work has been done by Niedermeyer, Réber, and Gouvé, with whom may be classed the more modern writers, Saint-Saëns, Massé, Godard, Massenet, and Paladilhe.
Notwithstanding the manifest preference of the French for dramatic music, they have not neglected other forms. To operatic composers—for instance, such as Ambroise Thomas, Gounod, Delibes, Bizet, and David—France owes some of her choicest lyrics. And from German songs she has not withheld the tribute of genuine admiration. It is no mean glory to have been the first country outside Germany to give Schubert's songs an adequate interpretation. [See vol. iii. P. 357.] The art of singing is as well understood and taught in France as in any other country, and nowhere is a clear and correct pronunciation of the words more strictly exacted of singers. Indeed, from the fact that the syllables which are mute in speaking are pronounced in singing, the French language would be barely intelligible when sung, unless distinctly articulated.
In Paris and the other large cities of France the popular songs of the hour are only favourite tunes from Comic Operas, or which have been heard at a Café-Chantant. But in the provinces hundreds of national airs still exist, and their distinct attributes are generally determined by the locality to which they belong. The airs of Southern France are distinguishable by exuberant gaiety, deep poetic sentiment, and a religious accent. Many of them are said to resemble the graceful old Troubadour melodies. The following modern Provencal air, quoted by Ambros, bears a strong resemblance to an old dance-song anterior in date even to the 13th century:—
The songs of Auvergne are chiefly bourrées; and Burgundy is rich in Noëls and drinking-songs. The Béarnois airs are pathetic and melodious, and their words are mostly of love; while, on the other hand, the subjects of the songs of Normandy are generally supplied by the ordinary pursuits and occupations of life. Mill-songs are especially common in Normandy, and have a character of their own. Their 'couplets' are wont to consist of two lines with a refrain; and the refrain is the principal part of the song. It covers a multitude of failings in the rhyme, or even sense, and allows the singer ample scope to execute fantastic and complicated variations. These mill-songs, which often breathe a strong religious feeling, are curious and unique in their way; and when sung by the Norman peasants themselves on summer evenings they produce an effect, which is wholly wanting when sung in a drawing-room with a modern pianoforte accompaniment. In this respect they do not differ from all other national airs of Northern France. The songs of Brittany, for instance, equally defy description and translation into modern French. Rousseau says of them:—'Les airs ne sont pas piquants, mais ils ont je ne sais quoi d'antique et de doux qui touche a la longue. Ils sont simples, naïfs, souvent tristes,—ils plaisent pourtant.' And another author has likened their grave beauty to the scenery of their native districts, to the chequered landscapes of cloud and sunshine, of wild moorland and gray sea, which are familiar to the traveller on the coast of Brittany.
The works on which the foregoing account of the Song in France has been based are—
'Chants et Chansons populaires de la France'; Du Mersan. (3 vols.) 'Des Chansons populaires'; Nisard. 'Essai sur la Musique'; Delaborde. (4 vols.) 'La Clé du Caveau'; P. Capelle. 'Echos du Temps passe'; J. Wekerlin. (3 vols.) 'La Lyre Française'; G. Masson. 'Critique et Litterature Musicales'; Scudo. 'Clément Marot et le Psautier Huguenot'; O. Douen. (2 vols.) 'Histoire de la Notation Musicale'; Ernest David et Mathis Lussy. 'History of Music' (3 vols.): Burney. 'Les Chants de la Patrie'; Lacombe. 'Geschichte der Musik'; Ambros. (4 vols.) ​The articles on Chanson in this Dictionary, and Frankreich in Mendel's Musikalisches Lexicon. The present writer is also indebted to M. Mathis Lussy and M. Gustave Chouquet for valuable advice aud assistance.
Further information may be found in:—
'Barzas-Breiz, chants populaires de la Bretagne, par Hersart de la Villemarqué.' 'Chansons et Airs populaires du Béarn, recueillis par Frédéric Rivarez.' 'Chants populaires des Flamands de France, recueillis par M. de Coussemaker.' 'Noels Nouviaux, sur des vieux airs, par Ch. Ribault de Langardiere.' 'Noëls Bressans, par Philibert le Duc.' 'Album Auvergnat, par J. B. Bouillet.'
Spain.
In Spain and Portugal the Song can scarcely be said to have had a history. While both countries can boast of having produced celebrated composers of polyphonic and ecclesiastical music, in neither has there been any systematic development of the secular and monodic departments. The latter remains what it was in the earliest times; and all the best songs of Spain and Portugal are the compositions of untaught and unlettered musicians.
With regard to the national songs of Spain there is an initial difficulty in determining whether they are more properly Songs or Dances, because at the present day all the favourite songs of Spain are sung as accompaniments to dancing; but it is of course, as songs, and not as dances, that they concern us here.
Spanish literature is rich in remains of antique poetry, and of poetry which from the time of the 'Trobadores' was intended to be sung. Among such literary relics are the celebrated cancioneros of the 15th century, large miscellaneous collections of songs, containing a vast number of canciones, invenciones, motes, preguntas, villancicos and ballads. The ballads are in eight-syllabled asonante verses (i.e. with the vowels only rhyming), and they are stated to have been sung to 'national recitatives,' or as accompaniments to dances; but not a vestige of their music has been preserved. The villancicos, or peasants' songs, with their refrains and ritornelles, were also evidently sung, as the six-voiced villancicos of the 16th century by Puebla would show; but in proportion to the quantity of extant words to these songs very little of their music has come down to us. Again, in collections of the romanceros of the 16th century, the old ballads are said to have come from blind ballad-singers, who sang them in the streets; but not a note of music was written down, though hundreds of the ballads survive. And, these old ballads are still sung by the people in Spain to traditional airs which have passed from mouth to mouth through many a generation. Moreover such melodies as are really genuine in modern collections of Spanish songs have almost without exception been taken down from the lips of blind beggars, who are now, as they were in the mediæval times, the street-singers of Spanish towns.
The national songs of Spain may be divided into three geographical groups, those of (1) Biscay and Navarre; (2) Galicia and Old Castile; (3) Southern Spain (Andalusia). In the first of these groups are the songs of the Basques, who are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of the Peninsula.
(1) The exclusiveness with which the Basques have kept themselves a distinct and separate race has made it difficult, if not impossible, to trace their music to any primeval source. There bas been a good deal of speculation on this point; but it is not necessary to give the numerous conjectures put forward as to its origin. The time and rhythm of the Basque songs are most complicated; the zorzico, for instance, is in 5-8 or 7-4 time, thus—
or in alternating bars of 6-8 and 3-4 time. The melodies are apparently not founded on any definite scale; quarter tones regularly occur in the minor melodies; and the first note of a song is always surrounded by a grupetto, which gives it an indefinite and undecided effect. The last note, on the other hand, has always a firm, loud, and long-sustained sound. In Arragon and Navarre the popular dance is the jota, and according to the invariable usage of Spain, it is also the popular song. The jota is almost always sung in thirds, and has the peculiarity that in the ascending scale the minor seventh is sung in the place of the major. [See Jota.]
(2) The songs of the second group are less interesting. The rule of the Moors over Galicia and Old Castile was too brief to impart an Eastern colouring to the music of those provinces. It is, however, gay and bright, and of a strongly accented dance rhythm. The words of the songs are lively, like the music, and in perfect accord with it. To this geographical group belong the boleros, manchegas, and seguidillas; but this last ​class of songs was also heard in the Moorish provinces. [See Seguidilla.]
(3) The third group is the most worthy of study. Of all Spanish songs those of Andalusia are the most beautiful. In them the eastern element is deepest and richest, and the unmistakable sign of its presence are the following traits:—first, a profusion of ornaments around the central melody; secondly, a 'polyrhythmic' cast of music—the simultaneous existence of different rhythms in different parts; and thirdly, the peculiarity of the melodies being based on a curious scale, which is apparently founded on the intervals of the Phrygian and Mixolydian modes. Another indication of its presence is the guttural sound of the voices. Of these characteristics, the most obvious is the rhythm. In the Andalusian songs there are often three different rhythms in one bar, none predominating, but each equally important, as the different voices are in real polyphonic music. For example—
or it may be that the accents of the accompaniments do not at all correspond with the accents of the melody; thus:—
The songs of Southern Spain are generally of a dreamy, melancholy, and passionate type; especially the canas or playeras, which are lyrical. These are mostly for one voice only, as their varied rhythm and uncertain time preclude the possibility of their being sung in parts. In certain cases they are, however, sung in unison or in thirds. They always begin with a high note, sustained as long as the breath will allow; and then the phrase descends with innumerable turns, trills, and embellishments into the real melody. The canas are inferior, as regards simplicity both of poetry and music, to the dance-songs—fandangos, rondeñas, and malagueñas, which have also more symmetry and more animation. They usually consist of two divisions; viz. the copla (couplet), and the ritornel, which is for the accompanying instrument, and is frequently the longer and the more important of the two, the skilful guitar-player liking to have ample scope to exhibit his execution.
The only other songs of Spain which remain to be noticed are the serenades, the patriotic songs, and the tiranas—these last not accompanied by dancing. In the artistic songs of Spain there is nothing on which it is profitable to dwell. If publishers' collections may be accepted as evidence, the favourite composers of these songs would appear to be Tapia, Sors, Leon, Garcia, Murgia, Saldoni, Eslava, etc. But much the best songs of even these composers are those written in the national vein, and with a faithful adherence to national characteristics in respect of melody, harmony, and rhythm. The limited capabilities of the guitar and mandoline, the invariable accompanying instruments, have naturally dwarfed and stunted the development of accompaniments in Spanish songs.
The collection of Spanish songs in which the harmony is accurately transcribed is entitled— 'Cantos Españoles'; by Dr. Eduardo Ocon (with a preface in Spanish and German). See also:— 'Echos d'Espagne'; by P. Lacome and J. Puig y Alsubide. 'Auswahl Spanischer und Portugiesischer Lieder für eine oder zwei Stimmen, mit deutscher Uebersetzung versehen'; by H. K. And for information on the subject, see:— 'Historia de la Musica Española'; by Soriano Fuertes (4 vols.) 'Diccionario biografico-bibliografico'; by Saldoni. (4 vols.) 'History of Spanish Literature'; by Ticknor. (3 vols.) Vol. 19, No. 1 of the 'Académie royale de Belgique'; Gevaert. 'Spanische Musik'; Mendel's Lexikon.
Portugal.
The popular music of Portugal bears a close affinity to that of Spain, especially in dance tunes. But there are clearly marked differences. The Portuguese is more pensive and tranquil than the fiery, excitable Spaniard; and as national music never fails to be more or less a reflection of national character, there is a vein of repose and subdued melancholy, and an absence of exaggeration in Portuguese music, such as are seldom, if ever, found in the more vivacious and stirring music of Spain. From the same cause, or perhaps because Moorish ascendancy was of briefer duration in Portugal than in Spain, there ​is less of ornament in Portuguese than in Spanish music. And the dance-music of Portugal is somewhat monotonous, as compared with that of Spain.
The popular poetry of the two countries has also much in common. Most of the Portuguese epic-romances are of Spanish origin, and none are anterior to the 15th century. Even at the present day the Spanish and Portuguese romance-forms are identical, except where a slight divergence necessarily springs from differences of language and nationality. In the lyrics of both races the rhyme follows the assonance principle, and is a more important element of composition than the metre.
The dance-songs are always written in the binary rhythm; and these are the least interesting of Portuguese songs. Though much less used than in Spain, the guitar is always employed for the fado, a dance-song seldom heard outside towns, and properly belonging to the lowest classes of urban populations, though it has recently acquired some popularity among the higher classes. There are many varieties of fados or fadinhos, but they all have this same rhythm:—
Other kinds of dance-songs are the chula, for accompanying which the machínho [see Machête, vol. i. p. 640b] or the viola chuleira is used; the malhão, the canninha verde, the landum, the fandango, and the vareira.
But Portugal (in this respect unlike Spain) also possesses a great quantity of genuine popular songs, which are not in any sense dance-music; and these are especially characteristic productions of the country. Though, as a rule, written in modern tonality, it is in them that the traces of oriental influence are most visible. There is about them a careless ease, tinged with melancholy, which is the secret of their charm. They are generally sung by one voice without any accompaniment, and to the ears of foreigners have the sound of recitatives, as the rhythmical idea is often wholly obscured by the singer. Scarcely more rhythmical are the festival-songs sung on certain days of the year; of which the principal ones are 'O São João,' sung on St. John the Baptist's day; 'As Janeiros,' sung at the New Year; and 'Os Reis,' sung at the Epiphany. 'São João' is a pretty little song, usually sung, as the Portuguese peasants love to sing, in thirds. The melody is—
—curiously recalling a portion of the Marseillaise.
Excepting the influence exercised upon the ecclesiastical music of Portugal during the 16th and 17th centuries by the Flemish school, Portuguese music may be said to have escaped all foreign influences, until it fell under the spell of the Italian opera,—a spell which has been strong upon it for a century or more. The modinha, the only kind of artistic song that Portugal has as yet produced, is its direct offspring. Though written by trained musicians, and sung by educated people, both in character and form it is purely exotic, a mixture of the French romance and the Italian aria. The modinhas were extremely popular in the first part of the present century; nor has there since been any great decline of their popularity. As artistic music, they cannot be said to hold a high rank, but the best of them are, at least, simple, fresh, and natural. Such are 'A Serandinha,' 'A Salvia,' 'As peneiras,' 'Mariquinhas meu amor.' The favourite composers of modinhas are Domingos Schioppetta; two monks, J. M. da Silva and José Marquis de Santa Rita; and Frondoni, an Italian long resident in Lisbon, and author of the popular hymn of the revolution of Maria da Fonte (1848).
The best collections of Portuguese songs are the 'Album de Musicas naciones Portuguezas,' by Ribas: the 'Jornal de Modinhas com acompanhamento de Cravo pelos Milhores Aútores,' by F. D. Milcent; and 'Musicas e Cançoãs populares colligidas da tradicão,' by Adeline Antonio das Neves e Mello (filho).
Information upon the subject has been most difficult to procure, since little seems to exist except in the prefaces to the collections. The writer of the present article is indebted to Señor Bernardo V. Moreira de Sa above all other sources of information for the substance of this notice of Portuguese songs: and to him her warm acknowledgments are due.
England.
Never within historic times has England been indifferent to the art of music. As France gave birth to the 'Trouvères,' and Germany to the 'Minnesingers,' BO did England in a remote age produce her own Bards, and afterwards her Scalds and Minstrels, her Gleemen and Harpers; all of whom were held in high repute by their countrymen. The earliest known piece of music in harmony is the part-song 'Sumer is icumen in,' written about 1225 by John of Fornsete, a ​monk of Reading Abbey, and itself implying a long previous course of study and practice. And there is record of a company or brotherhood formed by the merchants of London at the end of the 13th century for the encouragement of musical and poetical compositions. With this purpose they assembled periodically at festive meetings; and their rules were very similar to those of the German 'Meistersingers,' though their influence on contemporary music was much less widely diffused. This however is, at least in part, explained by the reluctance of the London brotherhood to admit any but members to its periodical meetings. Of the abundance of popular tunes in the 14th century, evidence is supplied by the number of hymns written to them. For instance, 'Sweetest of all, sing,' 'Have good-day, my leman dear,' and six others, were secular stage-songs, to which Richard Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory (1318–1360) wrote Latin hymns. (Chappell, p. 765.)
While the Minstrels flourished, notation was difficult and uncertain, and they naturally trusted to memory or improvisation for the tunes to which their tales should be sung. But with the end of the 15th century they disappeared, their extinction accelerated by the invention of printing; for when the pedlar had begun to traverse the country with his penny books and his songs on broadsheets, the Minstrel's day was past: his work was being done by a better agency. To the time of the Minstrels belongs however the famous 'Battle of Agincourt' song, the tune of which is given by Mr. Chappell as follows, with the date of 1415.
In the period between 1485 and 1553, which covers the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., social and political ballads multiplied fast; and among the best-known productions of those reigns are 'The King's Ballad,' by Henry VIII. himself; 'Westron wynde,' 'The three ravens,' and 'John Dory.' It should be noticed here that many variations in the copies of old tunes indicate uncertainty in oral traditions. Of the leading note—which the Church Modes do not recognise, but which has been very popular in English music—frequent variations are met with. But the copies exhibit most uncertainty as to whether the interval of the seventh should be minor or major. The general opinion now is that the old popular music of European countries was based upon the same scale or mode as the modern major scale, i.e. the Ionian mode; but numerous examples of other tonalities are extant. Thus, among others, 'The King's Ballad' and 'Westron wynde,' agree in some of their many versions with the Latin or Greek Dorian mode. The easy Ionian mode—il modo lascivo as it was termed—was the favourite of strolling singers and ballad-mongers, but the scholar and musician of the 16th century disdained it. Even if he sometimes stooped to use it, he felt it to be derogatory to his art. The subsequent adoption of the modern system by cultivated musicians in the next century was attributable to the influence of Italian music.
Of secular music antecedent to the middle of the 16th century but little has come down to us. Its principal relics are the songs in the Fayrfax MS. This manuscript, which once belonged to Dr. Robert Fayrfax, an eminent composer of the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., consists of forty-nine songs by the best musicians of that time. They are all written in 2, 3 and 4 parts, in the contrapuntal style; some in the mixed measure—common time in one part, and triple time in another—which was common at the end of the I5th century. But owing to the want of bars the time is often difficult to discover, and there is, likewise, a great confusion of accents. During the latter half of the 16th century musicians of the first rank seldom composed airs of the short rhythmical kind required for ballads. They generally wrote in the church scales, and there was a clear line of demarcation between their works and the ballads of the common people. The best-known ballads of Queen Elizabeth's reign, from 1558 to 1603, were 'The carman's whistle,' 'The British Grenadiers,' 'Near Woodstock Town,' 'The bailiff's daughter of Islington,' 'A poor soul sat sighing,' 'Greensleeves,' 'The friars of Orders Gray,' and 'The Frog Galliard.' This last, by John Dowland, is almost the only instance to be found in the Elizabethan period of a popular ballad-tune known to be from the hand of a celebrated composer. Dowland originally wrote it as a partsong, to the words 'Now, O now, I needs must part,' but afterwards adapted it for one voice, with accompaniment for the lute. This practice ​of writing songs for either one or many voices seems to have been common in England, as in Italy; and in both countries alike the lute or theorbo sustained the under parts when sung by one voice. Dowland's contemporary, Thomas Ford, published songs for one or four voices, one of which, 'Since first I saw your face,' not only still retains its popularity, but is remarkable as being one of the earliest melodies written by a trained musician in modern tonality.
With the 17th century there commenced a period of transition in the history of music, and especially in the history of the Song. This period was distinguished, as Mr. Hullah has observed, by the acceptance of many new principles in musical composition, and by a steady growth of skill in instrumental performance; but its most marked characteristic was a constant increase of attention to the conformity of notes with words; that is, to 'the diligent study of everything that goes to perfect what is called Expression in music.' And this was a natural development of the monodic revolution whose origin in Italy has already been described. But the success of the new departure was at first as partial and imperfect in England as it was elsewhere. In Burney's words, 'Harmony and contrivance were relinquished without compensation. Simplicity indeed was obtained, but without grace, accent, or invention. And this accounts for the superiority of Church music over secular in this period over every part of Europe, where harmony, fugue, canon and contrivance were still cultivated, while the first attempts at air and recitative were awkward, and the basses thin and unmeaning. Indeed the composers of this kind of music had the sole merit to boast of affording the singers an opportunity of letting the words be understood, as their melodies in general consisted of no more notes than syllables, while the treble accompaniment, if it subsisted, being in unison with the voice part, could occasion no embarrassment nor confusion.'
To the very beginning of the 17th century belongs Robert Johnson's beautiful air 'As I walked forth one summer's day'; and about 1609 Ferabosco, an Italian by parentage but a resident in England, published a folio volume of 'Ayres,' which includes the fine song 'Shall I seek to ease my grief.' He was also a contributor of several pieces to the collection published by Sir Wm. Leighton in 1614 under the title of 'The Teares and Lamentacions of a sorrowfulle Soule.' But the contents of this collection were mostly songs in four parts. It was reserved for Henry Lawes (born 1595), a professed writer of songs, to be the first Englishman who made it his study to give expression to words by musical sounds. Compared with the Madrigalists, Lawes was not a scientific musician. Moreover he failed in the development of his ideas, and his melody is often fragmentary; but the honour ascribed to him in Milton's well-known lines was justly his due. He—
First taught our English music how to span Words with just note and accent.
His care in setting words to music was recognised by the chief poets of his day, and they were glad to have their verses composed by him. One of his best-known songs, 'Sweet Echo,' is taken from Milton's Comus. Several books of 'Ayres and Dialogues for one, two or three Voices,' were published by him, with assistance from his brother, William Lawes, whose fame as a song-writer chiefly rests on his music to Herrick's words 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' The strong partiality displayed in the 17th century for 'Ayres and Dialogues' can plainly be traced to the influence upon all musicians of the Italian recitative style. Henry Lawes was undoubtedly familiar with the works of his Italian contemporaries and recent predecessors; and especially with Monteverde, whose blemishes and beauties his own music reflects. A good illustration both of his skill in setting words and of the fragmentary character of his melody will be found in his music to Waller's 'While I listen to thy voice,' which is here reprinted exactly from the original:
To a Lady singing.
​ Many other examples might be adduced, but the above will suffice.
Before descending further the stream of English 'Song,' it were well to remind the reader that the custom of poets in the 16th and 17th centuries to write new words to favourite old tunes has made it very difficult, if not impossible, to assign precise dates to many ballads. Thus, in Sir Philip Sidney's poems the heading, 'To the air of' etc., often an Italian or French air, constantly recurs; and many of the ballad tunes were sung to three or four sets of words, which were of different dates, and had little or nothing in common with one another. Among songs to be found in the principal collections of the first half of the 17th century, the tune of 'Cheerily and merrily' was afterwards sung to George Herbert's 'Sweet day,' and is better known by its later name. 'Stingo, or oil of barley,' 'The country lass,' and 'Cold and raw,' had all the same tune. Such was the case also with 'When the stormy winds do blow' and 'You gentlemen of England,' and in many another instance.
From the outbreak of the Civil War until the Restoration music languished in England. The Protectorate sanctioned only the practice of unisonous metrical psalmody; though ballads of the time of the Commonwealth (1649–1659) have been preserved, and among them are 'Love lies bleeding,' 'When the King enjoys his own again,' and 'I would I were in my own country.' The Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 introduced a great change, and during the last forty years of the 1 7th century a lighter and more melodious kind of music than England had previously heard was in vogue. For Charles II. in his exile had grown fond of French dance music, which was not composed on the church scales, as the English 'Fancies,' etc. were; and with this new taste he infected his kingdom. Ballads too came into popular favour again, as the King was partial to lively tunes and strongly marked rhythm. The cultivation of music became so general that even domestic servants could sing at sight; and taverns ceased to be the only places of musical entertainment. Banister's Concerts at the end of 1672 have been already noticed [Vol. i. p. 134b] and a vocal concert was first heard without the accessories of ale and tobacco in 1681, at a public concert-room in Villiers Street, York Buildings. The concerts of Thos. Britton 'The Small-coal man' also took place towards the end of this century. [Vol. i. p. 277a.] Of the abundant ballads of this period the most celebrated perhaps are 'Here's a health unto His Majesty,' 'Come lasses and lads,' 'Barbara Allen,' 'Under the greenwood tree,' 'Dulce Domum,' 'Lilliburlero,' and 'May Fair,' now better known as 'Golden slumbers.' It should be noted that the educated musicians of England were about this time very much under the influence of the Italian and French schools. The style of Pelham Humphrey (born in 1647), whom Charles II. sent to France to study under Lully, was entirely founded on that of his teacher; and on his return to England Humphrey effected a revolution in English music. Some of the results obtained by his work are described by Mr. Hullah in the following passage:—'In place of the overlapping phrases of the old masters, growing out of one another like the different members of a Gothic tower, we have masses of harmony subordinated to one rhythmical idea; in place of sustained and lofty flights, we have shorter and more timorous ones—these even relieved by frequent halts and frequent divergences; and in lieu of repetition or presentation of a few passages under different circumstances, a continually varying adaptation of music to changing sentiment of words, and the most fastidious observance of their emphasis and quantity.' Few artists ever exercised a more powerful influence on their countrymen and contemporaries than Humphrey, and his work was accomplished in the brief space of seven years. He returned from Paris in 1667, and died, at the early age of 27, in 1674. His song, 'I pass all my hours in a shady old grove,' which has hardly yet ceased to be sung, is a good example of his style; and other songs by him may be found in the various collections of the time. There too are preserved the songs of a fellow-student in the Chapel Royal to whom he taught much, viz. John Blow. In 1700 Blow published by subscription a volume of his own songs under the title of 'Amphion Anglicus,' and his song 'It is not that I love you less,' shows that he was capable of both tenderness and grace in composition. Matthew Lock is also worthy of mention, for he wrote 'The delights of the bottle,' a most popular song in its day, and the honour of an elegy by Purcell was paid to him at his death in 1677.
Had Henry Purcell never written anything but songs, he would still have established his claim to be regarded as the greatest of English musicians, for upon this ground he stands alone. In dignity and grandeur, in originality and beauty he has no equal among English song-writers. After his death these were collected, under the ​title of 'Orpheus Britannicus'; and 'Full fathom five,' 'Come unto these yellow sands,' 'From rosy bowers,' 'I attempt from Love's sickness to fly,' and others, were universal favourites down to our own times. He contributed several pieces to Playford's publication, 'Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues,' but for his finest songs the reader must turn to his operas, and to the tragedies and plays for which he composed the incidental music. A song which Purcell wrote at the age of 17, 'When I am laid in earth' or 'Dido's lament' (from Nahum Tate's 'Dido and Æneas') should be noted for the skill with which the whole song is constructed on a 'ground bass' of five bars. This is repeated without intermission in the lowest part, but so unconstrained are the upper parts, so free and developed is the rhythm, so pathetic and varied is the melody, that the device would certainly escape the observation of a hearer, and even the performer might be unconscious of it.
Between 1683 and 1690 Purcell devoted himself to the study of the great Italian masters, and the results are manifest in his music. He did not indeed lose any of his individuality; but the melodies of his songs were henceforth smoother and more flowing, and there was more variety of accompaniment. A common fault of the music of Purcell's time was a too servile adherence on the part of the composer to the meaning of the text. True, the notes should always reflect the force of the words they illustrate; but here the changing sense of the words was too often blindly followed to the sacrifice of everything like musical construction. Purcell shook himself clear of these defects; for with his fine genius for melody, his native taste in harmony, and his thoroughly scientific education, no strong or permanent hold could be laid on him by the extravagances of any school. To complete this rapid survey of the 17th century, it remains only to mention John Eccles and Richard Leveridge, who were popular composers at its close. To Leveridge we owe the famous songs 'Black-eyed Susan' and 'The Roast Beef of Old England,' which were sung everywhere throughout the 18th century, and are still 'familiar as household words.'
In the first quarter of the 18th century the popularity of ballads was not as great, but it rose again under George II. with the introduction of Ballad-operas, of which the 'Beggars' Opera' (1727) was the first. These operas formed the first reaction of the popular taste against the Italian music. They were spoken dramas with songs interspersed; and the songs were set to old ballad tunes, or imitations of them. [See English Opera, vol. i. p. 489b.] Between 1702 and 1745 a multitude of ballads and popular songs appeared, of which, among many others, the following became celebrated, 'Old King Cole,' 'Down among the dead men,' 'The Vicar of Bray,' 'Cease your funning,' 'Drink to me only,' etc.
​Until the time we have now reached—that is, about the middle of the 18th century—ballads, as a class of songs, may be said to have retained their popular origin. Not a few had, doubtless, already been written by scholars, but for the most part they were the spontaneous outpouring of uncultivated thought and feeling. Henceforth however, they were to be a special branch of art pursued by regular musicians. At this point, therefore, a few words may be fittingly introduced on the form of popular English ballads. In dance or march or ballad music, which has grown from the recitation of words to a chant or to a short rhythmical tune, the musical form or design is found to reside chiefly in the rhythm, and not in the balance of keys. The ordinary rhythm of ballads was the even fashion of four-bar phrases, as for instance in 'Now is the month of Maying' or 'The hunt is up':—
The three-bar phrase rhythm is generally met with in the jig and hornpipe tunes of England, such as 'Bartholomew Fair':—
but it sometimes occurs in songs of other kinds. Of the rhythm in 'My little pretty one'—
which has three phrases of two bars each and a fourth of three bars, there are several other examples; and indeed there are abundant varieties of irregular rhythms; but it may be held, as a general conclusion, that the musical rhythm follows the variations of the rhythm and metre of the words, and varies with them. And this tendency of the rhythm is seen to be natural when we reflect that popular music began with the recitation or declamation of historical poems, in which the music was subordinate to the words. Compound time is very common in English ballads, especially during and after the reign of Charles II, and may be accounted for by the influence of the French dance-music, which Charles II. brought into England. In modulation they exhibit but little variety. The most frequent arrangement is the half-close on the dominant and the leadingnote preceding the tonic at the end of the melody, as in 'The bailiff's daughter of Islington':—
In another arrangement the half-close is on the subdominant, and the penultimate note is the supertonic. In minor-key ballads the relative major key often takes the place which is held by the dominant key in the major-key ballads. Another peculiarity of many old ballads are Burdens. Sometimes the burden was sung by the bass or basses underneath the melody, and to support it, as in 'Sumer is icumen in'; or it took the shape of 'ditties,' the ends of old ballads, introduced to eke out the words of the story to the length of the musical phrase, as in the 'Willow Song'
In this case the burden is sung continuously by the solo voice, but in other instances it is taken up by the chorus at the end of a solo song; or solo and chorus combine, as for instance in the burden of 'Sir Eglamore':—
To the present writer some characteristics of English airs appear to be—the absence of chromatic notes in the melody, and of modulations into distantly related keys in the harmony. The tonic and dominant, and occasionally the subdominant, are often the only chords used in harmonising the tune. Another and most characteristic feature is the frequent occurrence of diatonic passing notes. Of this peculiarity 'Rule Britannia,' or 'The bailiff's daughter of Islington' are good examples. A third is the constant habit of English tunes to begin with the dominant on the last beat of a bar, and either descend or ascend to the tonic for the first beat of the new bar, as in 'The hunt is up,' 'The British Grenadiers,' 'Rule Britannia,' and numbers more. The partiality of English composers for the leading note has already been noticed.
The 18th century was rich in popular songs; and for most of them, especially of those which were produced in its latter half, we are indebted to educated musicians. The immense popularity which some of them acquired and long retained would entitle them to be regarded as national songs. Viewed in regard to musical structure they are generally ballads. As a rule, they have an easy accompaniment, often nothing more than the melody harmonised, a marked and striking rhythm, and a simple pleasing melody repeated for each stanza. Very popular in his day was Henry Carey—probably the composer of 'God save the King'—who published a hundred songs and ballads under the title of 'The Musical Century'; and the gems of this collection, on which Carey's posthumous fame mainly rests, were 'Death and the lady,' and 'Sally in our Alley'—now oftener sung to the older tune of 'The Country lass.' William Boyce (born 1710) claims a recognition, if only for the spirited song 'Come, cheer up my lads' (Heart of Oak), which he wrote to Garrick's words in 1759. In the year of Boyce's birth, a still greater composer was born, namely Arne, whom a competent critic has adjudged to be the most national of all our songwriters. 'Rule Britannia' was written by Arne in 1740, as a finale for the masque of 'Alfred'; and passing thence from mouth to mouth, soon grew to be pre-eminent among national airs. Wagner has said that the first eight notes of 'Rule Britannia' contain the whole character of the English people. If this is so, we may well be proud of it. The obligations of the English people to these opera writers, and of the latter to them, have been reciprocal; for while some of the best national airs are due to their imagination, they in turn courted applause by the free introduction of current popular songs into their operas. In the same year with 'Rule Britannia' Arne produced his beautiful settings of the songs in 'As you like it'; and the songs in other plays of Shakspeare were afterwards treated by him with equal felicity. The most perfect perhaps of these is his 'Where the bee sucks' of 'The Tempest.' In later years, however, a change crept over Arne's style, and a change for the worse. He came to crowd his airs with florid passages in a way which is conspicuous in the songs of his opera 'Artaxerxes.'
Passing on, we come to William Jackson of Exeter, who was thirty years younger than Arne. A certain tameness and insipidity about most of Jackson's songs speedily relegated them to obscurity; but he had his hour of celebrity, and there was a time when no collection was deemed complete without his 'Encompassed in an angel's frame,' 'When first this humble roof I knew,' from Burgoyne's 'Lord of the Manor,' or 'Time has not thinned my flowing hair,' from Jackson's Twelve Canzonets. Among his contemporaries, but a little junior to him, were Thomas Carter, Samuel Arnold, Samuel Webbe, and Charles Dibdin; the last a patriotic ballad-writer rather than a musician. The pathos of 'Tom Bowling' has rescued it from neglect, but only by sailors are Dibdin's other songs remembered now. Their fate is intelligible enough, for they evince no real musical skill, and the words of most of them are poor. But however defective these songs may have been as works of art, they will always merit an honourable mention for the pleasure ​which they gave to England's sailors in the days of her greatest naval glory. To Dibdin's generation also belonged John Percy, the composer of 'Wapping Old Stairs,' and James Hook, best known for 'The lass of Richmond Hill,' and ''Twas within a mile of Edinboro' town,' a pseudo-Scotch song, like Carter's 'Nanny, wilt thou gang with me!' Two better musicians than these appeared a very few years later, viz. William Shield and Stephen Storace, both remarkable for a great gift of melody; but their songs are seldom heard now, with the exception perhaps of 'The death of Tom Moody' by Shield, and Storace's 'With lonely suit and plaintive ditty.' Were it only for his song 'The Bay of Biscay,' the name of John Davy of Exeter should be noted among the celebrities of this period. John Braham, Charles Horn, and Henry Bishop, were all born in the 18th century, but so near its close that their works must be regarded as products of the 19th. Braham was himself a celebrated singer, and his national song, 'The death of Nelson,' deserves to live. To Horn we owe 'Cherry ripe,' and a song often sung by Mme. Malibran, 'The deep, deep sea.' And Sir Henry Bishop, who retained a firm hold on the English public for fully half a century, must be placed in the first rank of our composers of songs. As a musician he surpassed all his contemporaries and immediate predecessors in science, taste, and facility; and perhaps also in invention. He certainly advanced far beyond them with his accompaniments, which are varied and skilful; and his melodies are full of grace. So carefully did he study correctness of accent, that in his songs the metre of the poetry is seldom, if ever, disturbed by the rhythm of the music—a rare merit among English composers. Important, too, and interesting are the introductions, interludes, and conclusions of his songs, as for instance in 'Bid me discourse,' and 'Should he upbraid.' Of 'Home, sweet Home,' who has not felt the charm? Thomas Moore may be passed by here, for his songs are noticed elsewhere in this Dictionary. In further illustration of the songs of the first part of this century, the reader may be reminded of 'My boyhood's home' and 'Under the tree,' by Rooke; 'There's a light in her laughing eye,' by Loder; 'Love's Ritornella,' by Thomas Cooke; 'They mourn me dead, in my father's halls' and 'The banks of the blue Moselle,' by G. H. Rodwell; 'Isle of beauty,' by Haynes Bayly and T. A. Rawlings; 'Meet me by moonlight alone' and 'Love was once a little boy,' by Wade; 'Away to the mountain's brow,' 'The Soldier's tear,' and 'Come dwell with me,' by Lee; 'I'd be a butterfly,' by Haynes Bayly; 'Phillis is my only joy,' by J. W. Hobbs; of 'The bluebells of Scotland,' by Mrs. Jordan; of 'Alice Grey,' by Mrs. Millard; and of 'The Cuckoo,' by Margaret Casson. These songs, and innumerable others like them, follow, as a rule, the simple plan of the Ballad proper. And as a general criticism upon them, it may be said that being melodious and pleasant to sing is their principal, if not their sole recommendation. Written expressly to be sung, they have very easy accompaniments; and any good voice, even with slight musical knowledge, can render them effective in execution. When weighed, however, in the balance of pure and scientific music, they are felt to be worthless; and the popularity of such pieces, even at the present time, is suggestive of some reflections on the standard of English taste in relation to the Song.
While the taste of the English public in other branches of music has of late years been remarkably developed and elevated, there would seem to have been no corresponding advance in respect of the Song. At concerts where the instrumental pieces given are all of the highest and most classical type, the centre place of the programme is very frequently assigned to some slight and valueless song. The audience in no wise resent its intrusion; on the contrary, they greet it with a rapturous applause, which would probably be denied to a song of superior calibre. Encouragement, therefore, is wanting to the concert-singer to extend his répertoire in the right direction. But how comes it that audiences, whose ear is severely fastidious to instrumental music, relax and lower their standard of requirement for the Song? Whatever other reasons may be adduced for this inequality of taste, it can at all events be explained in a large degree by the action of the Italian Opera on the English vocal school. From Handel's time until a very recent date, Italian operas and Italian songs reigned supreme in England; Italian singers and Italian teachers were masters of the situation to the exclusion of all others. And the habit thus contracted of hearing and admiring compositions in a foreign and unknown tongue engendered in the English public a lamentable indifference to the words of songs, which reacted with evil effects both on the composer and the singer. Concerned only to please the ear of his audience, the composer neglected to wed his music to words of true poetic merit; and the singer quickly grew to be careless in his enunciation. Of how many English singers, and even of good ones, may it not fairly be affirmed that at the end of a song the audience has failed to recognise its language? But these singers have been secured from the just penalties of such defective enunciation by the habitual indifference of English hearers to the intellectual meaning of songs; they have neither forfeited applause, nor lost popularity. It is otherwise with nations accustomed to the Opera and the Song in their vernacular tongue. Germans and Frenchmen, for instance, expect to have the thought and sentiment of a song conveyed to them by its words as well as by its music. Naturally, therefore, they reckon a clear and distinct pronunciation to be among the first requisites of good singing; and there is no reason why the same quality should not be demanded of singers in England. How rarely in England is the name of the author of a song stated in a programme as well as that of ​the composer? In Germany, on the other hand, the one is quite as prominently given as the other, showing that the words are considered equally important with the music—as indeed they are. There is nothing in our language which makes it unsuitable for singing, though undoubtedly some difficulties in setting it to music arise out of the irregular occurrence of the accents in our poetry. But accentuation is a subject deserving of much more study than it has yet received. Even some of our best composers seem scarcely to have bestowed a thought on the due correspondence of the accents of the verse with the accents of the music. German songs, on the other hand, are seldom defective in this respect, except when they have been translated into English, and then, of course, the blame lies with the translator. Much injustice has too often been done to fine German and other foreign songs by the carelessness with which the translation of them has been confided to hasty or incompetent hands. Skilful translation is by no means an easy art, and its importance would seem to be better understood in Germany and France than in England. Adolphe Laun and Victor Wilder have shown what high accomplishments may worthily be employed in the art of translation for music; but how few are the English translators of whom the same could be said!
Of living and very recent English song-writers, a large section still adhere to the ever-popular ballad form. Regarding the voice-part as the paramount consideration, they attempt nothing more than the simplest harmonies and accompaniments. And within these narrow limits, by the force of natural gifts and instinctive taste, they have produced many songs of great merit, whose popularity has often been a sufficient reply to adverse criticism. Such were Knight's 'She wore a wreath of roses,' and 'Rocked in the cradle of the deep'; Wallace's 'Bell-ringer'; Balfe's 'Come into the garden, Maud,' and many another detached ballad; Madame Sainton Dolby's 'Sands of Dee'; Smart's 'Lady of the Lea' and 'Estelle,' etc., etc. But the English ballad can be of much lower grade than these, and is too often debased by a vulgarity which, to say the least, is not creditable to our national taste, though it is often loudly applauded. Perfectly distinct from these is another class of writers, whose aims are higher, and who follow more closely the footsteps of the German school. Pre-eminent among these are Sterndale Bennett, in his two sets of six songs (ops. 23 and 35); and, with the same correctness of form but more distinct English feeling, Macfarren, especially in his lyrics from Shelley and others; J. W. Davison ('Swifter far' and other songs from Shelley); Hullah ('The Storm,' 'I arise,' 'The Three Fishers'); C. K. Salaman; and in particular Edward Bache, whose six songs (op. 16) are among the most enduring relics of his too short career. [App. p.795 "among the English songs, Hatton's 'To Anthea' should be mentioned as one of the very best of its kind. Its omission was accidental."]
Of genuine English songs—that is, purely English in idiom or turn of expression—there has been of late a considerable revival. Few songs have ever been more popular than those of Sullivan, and few vary more widely in merit. His 'Orpheus' and other Shakespeare songs, his set or cycle of 'The Window, or the Loves of the Wrens,' to Tennyson's words; 'Sweet day so cool,' 'O fair dove,' are truly delightful, melody and accompaniment alike full of character, and with an unmistakeable individuality. 'I wish to tune' is a long scena, full of good points, but hardly coming within the category of the Song. Others are less carefully studied, and, with all their extraordinary popularity, can hardly last, or add a permanent tribute to the many merits of this composer. F. Clay and Seymour Egerton have both written good and graceful detached songs. Stanford's 'La belle dame sans merci' is powerful, and his 'Robin,' from Tennyson's 'Queen Mary,' though slight, is full of quaint charm. Hubert Parry's 'Three odes of Anacreon,' 'Why doth azure deck the sky,' 'The Poet's song,' 'I prithee give me back my heart,' and many more, are of a high degree of excellence and individuality.
But criticism in detail of the compositions of living or recent writers is always difficult and full of risk. We stand too near them to appraise their work without, at least, awakening suspicions of prejudice or partiality; and time may be trusted to discriminate the good from the bad with substantial, if not infallible justice. To the tribunal of posterity we must leave Barnby, J. F. Barnett, Bond-Andrews, Cowen, Davison, Duggan, Elliot, Virginia Gabriel, Gledhill, Lawson, Mounsey-Bartholomew, Marzials, Molloy, Stainer, Stirling, E. H. Thorne, Maude V. White, and many more.
The books from which the above information has been taken have been referred to en passant in the notes.
Scandinavia.
To this group belong Sweden, Norway, Denmark, parts of Finland, Iceland, and the adjacent islands. The Scandinavians have always been a music-loving nation; but it was not until recent times that systematic collections of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Volkslieder were made. In these collections the dates of the songs are nearly impossible to define; they may have been faithfully transmitted by ear from generation to generation for hundreds of years past, or they may have been invented by some gifted peasant of the present day. Very few were noted down until the end of the last century.
The poetry of Scandinavia is peculiarly rich in ballads, legends, and tales of the old heroes of the middle ages, the heroic-epic element being abundant, while the lyrical one plays little part except in the refrains to the ballads. The collectors of the Volkslieder have found great difficulty in noting down the music of these Kämpeviser, owing to the free, declamatory way in which they are sung. The formal melody only occurs in the refrain or Omkväd.
Little as we know of the ancient minstrelsy of the Scalds, it is probable that the same analogy that now exists between the heroic epics and the ​old Edda legends also existed in the music, and the same declamatory style prevailed.
As in all other national music, the musical instruments of Scandinavia largely influenced the songs. Thus in Finland the most popular instrument is the Kantele with five strings, tuned G, A, B♭, C, D, which forms the foundation for a whole quantity of Runos.
The harp with which the Scald was wont to accompany his lays has vanished; and the Langleike of Norway and Iceland, though shaped like a harp, is really a bow instrument. The Swedish Nyckelharpe is much the same. The Hardangerfele (fele = fiddle), which is mostly used in the Norwegian Highlands (near the Hardangerfjord), is the most perfect of their instruments, but is only used for marches and dances.
The national dances have also greatly influenced the melodies, though the Syvspring, Slängdansar, or Halling, are not usually accompanied by singing. On the other hand, in the Faroe Islands, musical instruments are unknown, and as the inhabitants are passionately fond of dancing, they accompany it with singing, and chiefly, strange to say, with the old epics and ballads. The Faroe Islands (especially the southern part of the group), Telemarken (in the S. W. of Norway), and the centre of Jutland, are the richest districts of Scandinavia in national songs.
Some of the epic songs collected in Telemarken are evidently of great antiquity, as for instance the following, relating to Sigurd's fight with the dragon, with its curious rhythm and melancholy original melody.
The character of the songs of north-Sweden and Norway, and especially of Denmark, is quite different. In these the eight-bar rhythm is usually well defined, with a refrain at the end, as in the following example taken down by Johann Lorentz in 1675.
Although lyrical songs are very rare in Scandinavia, there is a certain class of Kämpevise, or heroic, melodies found in parts of Sweden and Denmark, softer, more melancholy, and more romantic, and remarkable for having a refrain both in the middle and at the end.
An important section of Scandinavian songs are the herdsmen's. Their age is impossible to state, but they all bear the same character. The herdsman or maiden calls home the cattle from the mountain side, either with the cowhorn or Lur, or by singing a melody, with the echo formed on the intervals of that instrument. The following melody Dybeck gives amongst many others in his Vallvisor, p. 12.
It may safely be asserted that 9 out of every 12 Scandinavian songs are in the minor. Many begin in the major and end in the minor, or vice versa. Others recall the old church scales, especially the Mixolydian and Phrygian Modes; for instance, this Danish song which begins and ends thus—
They are also more frequently in simple time (usually 2-4) than any other. The affinity between Danish songs and those of Wales, Scotland, and even England, is very remarkable. Many of the tunes are almost identical, and the words often relate to the same subjects.
The so-called Scandinavian school of music is of very recent birth, for until the close of the last century it was greatly under foreign influences. Thus during the 16th century the court-music of Denmark was chiefly in the hands of Flemish musicians; whilst in the 17th, Dowland and many other Englishmen, besides French, Polish, and Italian musicians, visited the capital. The latter part of the 17th and the first half of the 18th were monopolised by the ballet, and French melodies were heard to the exclusion of all others. A fresh impulse was given to northern music by the operas and Singspiele of German composers, such as B. Keiser, J. A. P. Schulz, and Kunzen. The imitations of these by Weyse and Kuhlau, and Kuhlau's romantic play, 'Der Elfenhügel' (1828), were the first to introduce the Scandinavian Volkslied on the stage. The first compositions in which the vernacular was used were the sacred and secular cantata.
But the chief impulse towards a national Scandinavian school was given by the literature of the country. Towards the end of the 18th century the didactic school of poetry began to give way to a fresher, more natural and lyrical style, and by the beginning of the 19th (influenced perhaps by the 'Romanticism' of Germany), a great intellectual and national movement began in Northern poetry. It was greatly promoted in Denmark by Oehlenschläger; and in Sweden by the founding of the so-called Götiska förbundet (or Gothic union). About this time the first collections of Swedish and Danish national songs appeared. Poets and musicians became interested in the old epics and ballads with their beautiful melodies and their wealth of new materials, both in ideas and form, and hastened to avail themselves of the treasure. Thus, within the last hundred years a new school of music has arisen, containing in its ranks the distinguished names of Lindblad, Gade, Grieg, Kjerulf, and others.
Sweden. The Song first received artistic treatment in Sweden in the latter decades of the last century. Among the earliest song-writers is Carl M. Bellman, the author of the celebrated Bellmanslied. Olof Ahlström, Dupuy, and Crusell, all wrote songs in the early part of this century, but the first composers who drank in the romantic, national spirit, and sang the beautiful characteristic song-melodies of Sweden, were Nordblom, Blidberg, Arlberg, Arrhèn von Kapfelmann, Randel, Wennerberg, Josephson, Södermann, T. Söderberg, Runeberg, L. Norman, and above all A. F. Lindblad. The songs of the latter composer have a widespread and well-merited fame, for not only do they bear a strong national stamp, but are also, apart from their nationality, really beautiful and poetical compositions. Among the most interesting are those to Atterbom's words, especially 'Trohet'; and others worthy of mention are 'Nara,' 'Bröllopp-färden,' 'Saknad,' 'O kom, nej dröj' (one of Mendelssohn's especial favourites), 'Am Aarensee,' 'En Vardag,' 'En Sommardag.' Great service was also rendered to the Song by the collections of Swedish Volkslieder made by Afzelius, Dybeck, Arwidsson, and others.
Norway. The same service was rendered to Norwegian national airs by L. M. Lindemann, who also composed several sacred songs. Pre-eminent among Scandinavian composers are the two Norwegians, Kjerulf (1815–1868) and Grieg. Kjerulf's exquisite lyrics are at last receiving their due share of attention. Their long neglect is the more strange when we examine his two books of 'Sånger och Visor,' Lately published by Hirsch (Stockholm). The beauty of such songs as 'Lokkende Toner'; 'Kärlekspredikan'; 'Ved Sjoën den mörke,' op. 6, no. 2; 'Natten paa Fjorden,' op. 15, no. 6; 'Mit Hjerte og min Lyre' (My heart and lute 4 ), op. 16, no. 2; 'Serenade,' op. 16, no. 4; 'Saknaden,' op. 18, no. i; 'Eremiten,' op. 18, no. 2, can hardly be overrated.
Grieg's lyrical songs are universally known; ​not so however his Romanzen and Balladen, which are of their kind among the finest that have been written. (See especially op. 9 and 18, to words by H. C. Andersen, Munch, Rickardt, etc.) Numerous other songs with PF. accompaniment have been written by O. Winter-Hjelm, R. Nordraak, Cappelen, J. Selmer, Frau Agathe Gröndahl, Ole-Olsen, Teilmann, J. Svendsen, Neupert, etc.
Denmark. It is curious that the three founders of the Danish school of music—C. E. F. Weyse, Friedrich Kuhlau, and Johann Hartmann should have been Germans by birth. Hartmann is the composer of one of the most celebrated national songs of Denmark, 'Kong Christian stod ved hojen mast,' and also the founder of the Hartmann family of composers. Weyse is considered to be the creator of the Danish Romance. Full of romantic feeling, and possessing a great gift of melody, the songs from his Singspiele, and more especially his 'Neun dänische Lieder' (set to words by the national lyrists, Ewald, Oehlenschläger, Grundtvig, Heiberg, and Ch. Winther) are justly popular. Contemporary native musicians were less celebrated, and Sörenson, Glaus Schall, and Niels Schiörring, are names now scarcely remembered. But the improvement of literature by Oehlenschläger, Baggesen, and their followers, Heiberg, Palludan-Müller, Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Herzt, and others, soon proved highly profitable to music. J. P. Emil Hartmann (grandson of Joh. Hartmann) and Niels Gade, are the great Danish romanticists. This quality is less conspicuous in their songs than in their larger works, but they did much to develop both the voice and accompaniment in their songs. In all Gade's numerous songs there is the same northern colouring, but more subdued than in J. P. Emil Hartmann's. His songs are more gloomy, and their form is less perfect than Gade's. Hartmann's best songs are the set of nine under the title of 'Salomon and Sulamith,' and the six to Winther's poem 'Hjortens Flugt.' Another composer who would belong to this group is P. Heise. L. Zinck, Krossing, R. Bay, A. G. Berggreen, H. Rung, Gebauer, J. O. E. Hornemann, have treated the Song in a simpler and more popular form; and among the younger generation of song-writers may be named, Gläser, Barnekow, Winding, J. and O. Malling, E. Hartmann, Steenberg, Rosenfeld, Bechgaard, Lange-Müller, F. Rung, Liebmann, and C. F. E. Hornemann.
The principal work on which the above sketch is based is Dr. von Ravn's article on 'Skandinavische Musik' in the supplement to Mendel's Lexicon (1882).
The best collections of national airs are:
'Nordische Volkslieder,' edited by Leopold Rocke.
Swedish:— '100 Svenska Folkvisor'; Lundguist, Stockholm. 'Svenska Folkvisor,' edited by E. G. Geijer and A. A. Afzelius; Haepgström, Stockholm. 'Svenska Vollvisor och Hornlåtar' (med Norska Artfårändringar), edited by Richard Dybeck.
Norwegian:— 2 volumes of National Songs, edited by Lindemann; Warmuth, Chriatiania.
Danish:— 'Danske Folke sange og Melodier,' edited by A. P. Berggreen; Copenhagen. 'Danske Melodier,' published by B. Hansen: Copenhagen.
[App. p.795 "Finnish:— 'Valituita Suomalaisia Kansan-Lauluja,' harmonized by B. Logi, and published at Helsingfors.
Hungary.
The songs of Hungary comprise those both of the Slovaks and of the Magyars. But the music of the Slovaks, who inhabit the N.W. part of the kingdom, so closely resembles that of the Slavonic nations as not to require separate notice. [See Slavonic songs, p. 612.] The music of the Magyars generally accepted as the national music of Hungary is, as already remarked (vol. ii. p. 197) very largely influenced by the Gipsies, who give it its strong oriental colouring. The stamp of their race is however more distinctly perceptible in dances and instrumental music than in songs.
As in other countries, so in Magyar-land, the introduction of Christianity was followed by a burst of hymn-poetry. But so strong was the national spirit, that not only were the hymns sung, even in the churches, in the vernacular, and not in Latin, but the ecclesiastical tonal system never took the same strong hold of the sacred music that it did elsewhere, and it has undergone but little change since those early times. A few of these venerable hymns are still sung. Such are one to the Virgin by Andreas Vásárheli (printed at Nuremberg 1484), and another to King Stephen, the patron saint of Hungary. Here as elsewhere the influence of the Reformation was deeply felt both in music and poetry; and a large development of the national songs was the result, especially on their lyric side. Dramatic representations, interspersed with songs, were introduced by wandering minstrels and harp or cither players: and the last of these performers was the celebrated Tinódi ('Sebastian the Lutenist') who died in the 16th century.
The excitable temperament and sensitive organization of the Hungarian render him keenly susceptible to the refinements of melody and rhythm, and give him his wealth of national poetry and songs. But the very exclusiveness with which he loves his own music has, by excluding foreign influence, been a hindrance to its progress, and has condemned it to a long stagnation in the immature stage of mere national music. The list of Hungarian composers, from Slatkonia (born 1456), bishop and court chapelmaster to Maximilian I, does not present a single celebrated name, until we come to our own contemporaries, Liszt, Joachim, Vàgvölgyi, etc. Bela M. Vàgvölgyi requires notice here on account of his original and very popular songs entitled 'Szerelmi dalok,' and his collection and arrangement of national airs under the name of 'Népdalgyongyok.' It must, nevertheless, be admitted that the Hungarians can fairly plead the unsurpassed beauty of their national melodies as an excuse for their exclusive devotion. All their music has a strongly individual character. ​Peculiarities both melodic and rhythmic give it the charm of distinctive originality. And its abrupt transitions from deep melancholy to wild merriment, with the unexpected modulations which accompany them, never fail to produce an exquisite effect.
Hungarian songs are commonly sung in unison, and a semblance of harmony is imparted to them by the lavish embellishments of the accompanying instruments [see vol. ii. p. 198]. These embellishments are pure improvisations, played with extreme rapidity .and freedom, and the greatest precision. The intervals are said to be, ⅓ or even ¼ tones. The scale—
with the augmented intervals, offers no difficulties to instrumental music; but is much less favourable to vocal harmony. The Hungarian method of harmonising is, indeed, always peculiar. Thus, where the Germans employ 'contrary motion' they prefer 'direct'—and with very good results. But the most remarkable feature both of the poetry and the music of the Hungarians is its rhythm. At an early date their lyric poetry shaped itself into sharp and bold strophical sections, and their melodies underwent a corresponding division into distinct phrases and periods. But within these limits there is ample freedom. Great diversity of accents, and the unequal lengths of the lines, give richness and variety to the musical rhythm. Syncopation, and the shortening of the first note of the bar (like the Scotch snap), are common—
and the periods consist of three and four bars—generally of three, as in 'Golden is my steed,' 'The bold Hussar,' or 'The Fisherman' (all well-known national airs). Occasionally the periods run in five-bar phrases, as in a very beautiful popular song called 'Autumn.' And as this song further illustrates the sudden changes and the harmonic and rhythmic peculiarities already referred to, it will be convenient to insert it at length:—
The time of Hungarian national airs is mostly 2-4. Compound time is rare, excepting 5-4 or 5-8, which is more common than in many other countries. In any collection of Hungarian songs numerous examples may be found. Instances of 7-8 time are also not unknown, but where these eccentricities occur, they are probably due to the great freedom of the poetic metre.
Many collections of the national songs of Hungary have been published at Pesth and Vienna. The best are those edited by Gabriel Mátray, by Vàgvölgyi, and a smaller collection published by Pressel at Stuttgart, also by Boosey, London; edited by J. A. Kappey.
For further information see— 'Ungarische Volkslieder'; ubersetzt und eingeleitet von M. A. Greguss. 'National Songs of the Slovaks in Hungary,' by Kollar. 'Die Zigeuner und ihre Musik in Ungarn,' by Franz Liszt. Notices in the 'Neue Zeitschrift für Musik' vol. xxxvi; in the Cæcilia, vol. v, and in the article on Magyar Music in this Dictionary.
Russia and the Slavonic Nations.
Russia. From the cradle to the grave Song is the constant companion of the Russian's life. It is the delight of both sexes and of every age. The sports of childhood, the pleasures of youth, and all the varied occupations of mature years, have each their own appropriate accompaniment of song. The Khorovod, for instance, is a choral dance with which the boys and girls of the Russian villages greet the approach of spring. The Kolyadki, or Christmas songs, belong to a large group of ritual and mythic songs which mark successive stages of the year, and are sung respectively, at seed-time and harvest, midsummer and midwinter, the New Year and Whitsuntide. Another group of ceremonial songs belongs to betrothals and marriages, christenings and funerals, and embodies the feelings awakened by the principal incidents of life. And to sorrow, whatever its source, the Zaplachki, or wailing songs, bring relief. An epic element is supplied by songs which record historic events, or celebrate the exploits of soldiers, Cossack heroes, or noted robbers. Such are the long metrical romances, called Bylinas, sung or recited by village minstrels. And the love of the Russian peasant for his national airs is fully shared by his more educated countrymen, among whom the national operas of Verstovsky, Glinka, and other composers have a wide and lasting popularity.
Russian songs have, as a rule, a distinctively local character. In Great Russia, for example, their dominant qualities are gaiety and brightness; while the superior charm of the songs of Little Russia is due, for the most part, to a prevailing cast of melancholy. Inhabited by a people who vie with the Poles in susceptibility to poetic sentiment, Little Russia is naturally rich in songs. And we may note as peculiarities of these pieces, which have often a touching beauty, the presence of certain discords in their harmony, and a halt or drag in the rhythm, ​produced by shortening the first syllable and prolonging the second, thus:—
Indigenous to the Ukraine, and met with nowhere else, is a kind of epic song of irregular rhythm, recited to a slow monotonous chant. These Doumas (as they are called) were originally improvised by the Bandurists, but that class of wandering minstrels is now nearly extinct, and their function has devolved upon the native women who compose both the poetry and the melodies of the songs which they sing themselves. Among the peculiarities of these interesting songs we may mention that if a song of the Ukraine ends on the dominant or lower octave, the last note of the closing verse is sung very softly, and then without a break the new verse begins loud and accented, the only division between the two being such a shake as is described by the German phrase Bockhiller. Here is an example:—
Wendic folk-song.
This feature is common also to Cossack songs, and to the songs of that Wendic branch of the Slavonic race which is found in a part of Saxony. The Wendic songs (except when dance-tunes) are generally sung tremolando, and very slowly. And the exclamation 'Ha' or 'Haie,' with which they almost invariably commence, may be compared with the 'Hoj' or 'Ha' of Little Russia, the 'ach' of Great Russia, and the meaningless 'und' and 'aber' which are interspersed through German Volkslieder. To Lithuania belong the Dainos; and monotonous as they are, they are not without a certain grace, when sung by the people of their native districts. Servia, too, has her own characteristic songs, which often end on the supertonic, as for instance in the case of the Servian Hymn:—
This mode of ending may also be sometimes found in the songs of Bosnia and Dalmatia.
The folk-songs of Russia are always metrical, and the metre is wont to be very free and elastic. But, unlike modern Russian poetry, which imitates German poetry, and is written in four-line stanzas and rhyme, the genuine folksongs of Russia are never rhymed, and rarely sung with instrumental accompaniment. If, however, there be an accompaniment, the instruments most commonly used are the Gudok, a three-stringed fiddle; or the Dudka, a reed instrument of two small parallel pipes; or the Gusla, which resembles a cymbal. Being, therefore, written in a vocal rather than an instrumental style, the songs of Russia want brilliancy and variety of rhythm, but what they lose in these qualities they gain in tenderness and expression. A large proportion of Russian and other Slavonic songs are of Gipsy origin, and are usually in dance rhythm, the dancers marking the time by the stamp of their feet. In short, if we roughly divide the songs of Russia they will fall into two groups:—(1) songs of a quick lively tempo, commonly sung to dances, in major keys, and in unison; (2) songs sung very slow, in harmony, and in minor keys. Of the two the latter are the best and most popular. It will not escape notice that florid passages on one syllable often occur in Russian songs, as in the 'Cossack of the Don':—
nor that some of the oldest Slavonic melodies are based on the ecclesiastical scales, more especially those of Poland and Bohemia, whose music bears the impress of contact with Germany.
The former feature has been well perpetuated by Rubinstein 'in his beautiful songs 'Gelb rollt'—
and 'Die helle Sonne leuchtet'—
The later composers of Russia, such as Glinka, Lvoff, Verstovsky, Dargomijsky, Kozlovsky, and others, have been true to the national spirit in their songs. So faithfully have the old national songs been imitated by them, that it is hard to distinguish the new from the old productions, and indeed some modern songs—for instance, Varlamof's 'Red Sarafan,' and Alabief's 'The Nightingale'—have been accepted as national melodies. Other composers, such as Gurilef, Vassilef, and Dübüque, have set a number of national airs, especially the so-called Gipsy tunes, to modern Russian words in rhyme and four-line stanzas, and have arranged them with PF. accompaniment. Even the greatest Russian composers, the style of whose other works is cosmopolitan, adhere to national peculiarities in their songs. The florid passages on one syllable, already noticed, are often met with in the songs of Rubinstein; and Tschaïkofsky frequently reproduces the characteristic harsh harmony of the ​old folk-songs. These two composers' German Lieder are of such beauty as to have found favour with every nation devoted to music. But this distinction is not the exclusive honour of Rubinstein and Tschaïkofsky; it is the due also of their countrymen, Borodin, Napravnik, Genischta, Serof, Davidof, and Dargomijsky. Others again, whose popularity is confined to Russia, have chosen to follow Italian models in their vocal compositions: and in this class Varlamof, Gurilef, Alabief, Vassilef, Bulachof, Paufler, and Derfeldt are all prolific writers. Flowing melodies, simple accompaniments, and an absence of striking modulations are characteristics of their songs. Lvof, Bortniansky, Bachmetief, and Dmitrief, true Russians, are chiefly known for their sacred music.
Poland. The songs of the Poles, also a Slavonic people, differ widely from those of Russia in rhythm and variety of metre. There is more fire and passion about them than about Russian songs, the Poles being more excitable and more keenly susceptible to romance than their neighbours. Polish songs have an instrumental rather than a vocal colouring, which reveals itself in their difficult intervals (such as the augmented fourth), syncopated notes, and intricate rhythms. Thus:—
In this they resemble the Hungarian music. The elasticity of their poetic metre is productive of great irregularity of melodic phrases, showing itself in constant deviation from the four-bar sections, in 7-8 time, and alternate bars of 3-8 and 2-8; thus—
The rare beauty of Polish songs is not due to fertility of melodic invention. The Poles indeed are rather poor in this quality, but the deficiency is hidden by the wonderful skill with which they vary and embellish their songs. The rhythm is always peculiar and striking, as for instance that of their famous national dances, the Polonez and Mazurek (Polonaise and Mazurka), which are constantly heard in their songs.
Of modern Polish songs, Chopin's are the best known and the most beautiful, but the purest national characteristics will also be found in the songs of Monïuszko.
[App. p.795: "Worthy of mention, likewise, are the songs of J. Brzowski, Ig. F. Dobrzynski, J. Elsner, E. Jenike, E. Kania, V. Kazynski, Ig. Komorowski, M. Madeyski, F. Mirec̨ki, J. Nowakowski, W. Prohazka, A. Sowinski, J. Stefani and K. Wysoc̨ki.
In 1818 the poet Niemcewicz published his great work Spiewny historyczne z muzykon (Historical songs with music), and at his invitation the most popular composers of the day wrote or adapted melodies to them. From these songs, cherished as household words by all classes of the people, Polish patriotism has drawn both inspiration on the battle-field and consolation under misfortune and oppression. The collection includes some of the oldest national hymns, arranged in modern notation; among them, for instance, St. Adalbert's hymn to the Virgin (Boga-Rodzic̨a), a hymn of the 10th century which is engraved in plain-chant on its writer's tomb in the Cathedral of Gnesa, and still sung there as well as at Dombrowa on the Warka every Sunday. The characteristics of the old Polish historic chants, such as the Hymn of the Virgin of Czenstochowska and the Hymn of St. Casimir, are their simplicity and dignity."]
Bohemia. The music of Bohemia has never attracted and influenced foreign composers, as that of Hungary has done; but its artistic value, especially in its songs, has of late been fully recognised. Bohemian songs may be divided into two classes. The first, and much the oldest, have a bold decisive character, with strongly marked rhythm, and are in the minor. The second class—in tunefulness and tenderness superior to the former are in the major, and of a simple rhythm. In many of the early songs we find a chorale, as in the middle of the celebrated and beautiful 'War Song of the Hussites,' which dates from about 1460. The more recent songs of Bohemia have a flowing, clear, and distinct cantilène, sometimes recalling Italian songs. Their rhythm is varied, but never exaggerated; and a vein of natural unaffected humour runs through them. Their harmony has been affected by the Dudelsack or bagpipe, a favourite national instrument.
Bohemia is preeminently rich in dances (such as the beseda, dudik, furiant, hulan, polka, trinozka, sedlak, etc.), which take their names from places, or from the occasions on which they are danced, or from the songs with which they are accompanied. There are numerous collections of Bohemian national songs; and of late years native composers, both vocal and instrumental, have brought them into public notice. They have been sung at concerts by Strakaty, Pischek, and Luker; while Simak, Smétana, Dvořák, and others, have arranged both songs and dances for the orchestra and piano. Among modern Bohemian composers Tomaschek (born 1774) was one of the first to introduce the national element into his works. Kníže followed him, and his ballad 'Břetislav a Jitka' became very popular. Krov and Skroup were also authors of many national and patriotic songs, and Skroup's 'Kde domov muj' (or 'Where is my home') may be cited as a characteristic example of their compositions. Skroup and the poet Chmelensky have edited a well-known collection, under the title of 'Věnec' (the Garland), containing songs by 33 Bohemian composers. Among them are Ružíǎka, Drechsler, Vašik, Skřivan, Tomaschek, and Rosenkranz, the author of the popular song 'Vystavim se skromnow chaloupka' ('Let us build a modest hut'). And to later editions of the 'Věnec,' issued by other editors, were added songs by Suchánek, Stasny, Veit, and Gyrowetz. In 1844 the Moravian composer Ludwig Ritter von Dietrich published a volume of 'Bohemian Songs,' including his well-known and patriotic air 'Morava, Moravička milá.' And Košek, Kaván, Pivoda, Zvonař, Bendl, Nápravnik, Zelensky, Krov, Škroup, Zahorsky, Rozkošny, Lahorsky, and Dvořák are all worthy of mention as national composers, whose songs have remained local in their colouring, notwithstanding the dominant influence of Germany.
For further information respecting Slavonic national songs the reader may be referred to Veselovsky's work on 'Slavonic Songs'; Yussupof's 'History of Music in Russia'; Ralston's 'Songs of the Russian people'; Chodzko's 'Historic Songs of the Ukrainians, etc.'; Haupt and Schmaler's 'Wendic Folk-Songs'; Talvi's 'History of Russian Literature.'
[App. p.795: "'Pastoralki i Kolendy z melodyami,' by Abbé M. Mioduszewski. (The Kolendas or Noëls are peculiar to the Polish people; they are mostly quaint old popular airs of the 13th century, and are sung at Christmas in every house and street. Numerous collections of them exist.) 'Polish National Melodies,' by Jules Fontana. 'Chants du peuple de Gallicie,' by C. Lipinski. 'Chants polonais nationaux et populaires,' by S. Sowinski. 'Piesni ludu polskiejo,' by O. Kolberg. (This is a very valuable collection.) 'Dainos oder Lithauische Volkslieder mit Musik,' by L. J. Rhésa. 'Polnische Liedergeschichte'; Eph. Oloff. 'Histoire de la musique en Pologne'; A. Jarzemski. 'Cent illustres Polonais'; S. Starowolski. 'Janociana'; D. Janǫcki (treating of old Polish composers). 'La littérature musicale polonaise'; Ig. Potoc̨ki. 'Les Musiciens polonais et slaves': A. Sowinski. See also the writings of Sikorski, Chodzko, Golembiowski, Grabowski, Woronicz and Elsner, for further information on Polish music."]
Germany.
The history of the Song in Germany has been so thoroughly explored by German writers, that its course may be followed from very remote times, when song was scarcely distinguishable from speech, and singen and sagen were convertible terms. But the musician is not concerned vith the Song until it has acquired a certain form in metre and melody. The 'Minnesinger' must, therefore, be our starting-point.
The 'Minnesinger' were the German counterparts of the Troubadours, but they were of rather later date than the Provençal minstrels, and the tone of their compositions was somewhat different. While the Troubadours sang almost exclusively of love and gallantry, the Minnesinger constantly introduced into their songs praises of the varied beauties of nature. And the expressions of homage to the Virgin, or of other devotional feeling, which burst so frequently from their lips, were the outcome of a deeper religious sentiment than any to which the light-hearted Provençals were ever subject. In social rank the Minnesinger were not as a body quite on a level with the Troubadours; there was a larger proportion among them of men whose birth and station were beneath nobility. Nevertheless their art was highly esteemed, and wherever they went they were honoured guests. They always sang and accompanied their own compositions, and took no remuneration for the entertainment which they gave. They were more numerous in Southern than in Northern Germany; Austria was especially prolific of them.
The era of the Minnesinger may be roughly divided into three epochs. The first was a period of growth and development, and ended somewhere about 1190. Its songs were of a popular cast, and its most representative names were von Kürenberc, Dietmar von Aiste, and Meinloh von Sevelingen. The second and best period, which was the stage of maturity, was covered by the last years of the 12th century and at least half of the 13th century. To this period belonged Heinrich von Veldecke, Friedrich von Hausen, Heinrich von Morungen, Reinmar der Alte (the master of Walther von der Vogelweide), Hartmann von Aue (the author of the celebrated poem 'Das arme Heinrich'), and Walther von der Vogelweide himself, whose fine lyrics won for him a place among national poets. Early in the 13th century the 'Sängerkrieg,' or Minstrel-contest, was held on the Wartburg by the Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia, and among the champions who took part in it were Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Tannhäuser, and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Wolfram's Minnelieder had no great success, but high renown was gained for him by his Wächterlieder and his 'Parsifal.' The third period was a time of decline, and of transition to the 'Meistersinger.' The art of the Minnesinger then descended to trivial or unpoetic themes, and a growing carelessness as to the forms of poetry plainly revealed its deterioration. Nithart v. Reuenthal (whose poems were chiefly descriptions of peasant-life), Ulrich v. Lichtenstein, Reinmar v. Zweter, der Marner, and Konrad v. Würzburg were the principal Minnesinger of this period.
Medieval MSS. contain a large number of the poems and melodies of the Minnesinger, and these remains attest the incomparable superiority of their poetry to their music. They bestowed especial pains on the poetic words, and treated the melody as a mere accessory. So finished were their verses as regards metre and rhythm, that in some cases even the music of the present day could hardly support them with an adequate setting. But this perfection was of course only reached by degrees. Beginning with alliterative words, they advanced to regular rhymes, and then rules of composition were laid down prescribing the number of lines of which different kinds of songs (such as the Lied and the Leich) should respectively consist.
The structure of the verses was closely followed by the Minnesinger's melodies, and as there was necessarily a pause wherever the rhyme fell, a certain form was thus imparted to them. Their mode of notation was similar to that then used in the Church, and their melodies were founded on the Church scales; and they exhibited the same monotony and absence of rhythm as the ecclesiastical melodies of that time. The following example will show how unlike their melodies were to the concise and clear rhythmical chansons of the Troubadours: —
In the 14th century feudalism had passed its prime, and power was slipping from the grasp of princes, prelates, and nobles into the hands of burghers and artisans. Out of these middle classes came the 'Meistersinger,' who supplanted the more patrician Minnesinger, while the 'Minnegesang' was succeeded by the 'Meistersang' of ​the burghers. Poetry lost in grace and tenderness by the change, but it gained in strength and moral elevation. The reputed founder of the Meistersinger was Heinrich von Meissen, commonly called Frauenlob. He came to Mainz in 1311, and instituted a guild or company of singers who bound themselves to observe certain rules. Though often stiff and pedantic, Frauenlob's poems evince intelligence and thought; and the example set by him was widely imitated. Guilds of singers soon sprang up in other large towns of Germany; and it became the habit of the burghers, especially in the long winter evenings, to meet together and read or sing narrative or other poems, either borrowed from the Minnesinger, and adapted to the rules of their own guild, or original compositions of their own. By the end of the 14th century there were regular schools of music at Colmar, Frankfurt, Mainz, Prague, and Strassburg. A little later they were found also in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Breslau, Regensburg, and Ulm. In short, during the 15th and 16th centuries there was scarcely a town of any magnitude or importance throughout Germany which had not its own Meistersinger. The 17th century was a period of decline both in numbers and repute. The last of these schools of music lingered at Ulm till 1839, and then ceased to exist; and the last survivor of the Meistersinger is said to have died in 1876.
Famous among Meistersinger were Hans Rosenblüt, Till Eulenspiegel, Muscatblüt, Heinrich von Mügeln, Puschmann, Fischart, and Seb. Brandt; but the greatest of all by far was Hans Sachs, the cobbler of Nuremberg, who lived from 1494 to 1576. Under him the Nuremberg school reached a higher point of excellence than was ever attained by any other similar school. His extant works are 6048 in number, and fill 34 folio volumes. 4275 of them are Meisterlieder, or 'Bar,' as they are called. To Sachs's pupil, Adam Puschmann, we are indebted for accounts of the Meistergesang. They bear the titles of 'Gründlicher Bericht des deutschen Meistergesanges' (Görlitz 1573); and 'Gründlicher Bericht der deutschen Reimen oder Rhythmen' (Frankfurt a. O. 1596).
The works of the Meistersinger had generally a sacred subject, and their tone was religious. Hymns were their lyrics, and narrative poems founded on Scripture were their epics. Sometimes, however, they wrote didactic or epigrammatic poems. But their productions were all alike wanting in grace and sensibility; and by a too rigid observance of their own minute and complicated rules of composition or 'Tablatur' (as they were termed), the Meistersinger constantly displayed a ridiculous pedantry.
Churches were their ordinary place of practice. At Nuremberg, for instance, their singing school was held in S. Katherine's church, and their public contests took place there. The proceedings commenced with the 'Freisingen,' in which any one, whether a member of the school or not, might sing whatever he chose; but no judgments were passed on these preliminary performances. After them came the real business of the day—the contest—in which Meistersinger alone might compete. They were limited to scriptural subjects, and their relative merits were adjudged by four 'Merker' or markers, who sat, behind a curtain, at a table near the altar. It was the duty of one of the four to see that the song faithfully adhered to scripture; of another to pay special attention to its prosody; of a third to its rhyme; and of the fourth to its melody. Each carefully noted and marked the faults made in his own province; and the competitor who had the fewest faults obtained the prize, a chain with coins. One of the coins, bearing the image of King David, had been the gift of Hans Sachs, and hence the whole 'Gesänge' were called the 'David,' and the prizemen were called the 'Davidwinner.' The second prize was a wreath of artificial flowers. Every Davidwinner might take pupils, but no charge was made for teaching. The term 'Meister,' strictly speaking, applied only to those who invented a new metre, or composed their own melodies; the rest were simple 'Sänger.' The instruments employed for accompaniments were the harp, the violin, and the cither.
The Meistersinger seem to have possessed a store of melodies for their own use: and these melodies were labelled, as it were, with distinctive though apparently unmeaning names, such as the blue-tone, the red-tone, the ape-tune, the rosemary-tune, the yellow-lily-tune, etc. A Meistersinger might set his poems to any of these melodies. The four principal were called the 'gekrönten Töne,' and their respective authors were Müglin, Frauenlob, Marner, and Regenbogen. So far were the Meistersinger carried by their grotesque pedantry, that in setting the words of the 29th chapter of Genesis to Heinrich Müglin's 'lange Ton,' the very name of the book and the number of the chapter were included; thus—
​ And many an instance may be found in their secular music where the melody includes the name of the poet and the page of the work.
The melodies of the Meistersinger (like those of the Minnesinger) had a close affinity to church music, or rather to the Gregorian Modes. For the most part they were poor and simple, and too devoid of rhythm ever to become really popular. A few however of their songs found sufficient favour to become Volkslieder in the 15th and 16th centuries. On the other hand, the Meistersinger themselves sometimes appropriated Volkslieder. Thus Hans Sachs has reproduced the beautiful old Mailied (May-song) in his Fastnachtsspiel 'Der Neydhart mit dem Feyhel,' written Feb. 7, 1562. He calls it a 'Reigen,' or roundelay, and its original date was evidently anterior to the 14th century. In its 16th century form it commences as follows:—
In fine, the Meistersinger cannot be said to have reached a high level of excellence either in poetry or in music, but they undoubtedly exercised an important influence on the formation of the Song by the attention they paid to rhyme, and by their numerous inventions of new metrical arrangements. And they rendered a still greater service to music when they carried it into every German home and made it a grace and pastime of domestic life.
While more regular and formal varieties of the Song were thus being studied and practised, it had never ceased to issue in its old spontaneous form of Volkslied from the untutored hearts of a music-loving people. From that source it came in native vigour, unforced and untrammelled. And far more was done for melody and harmony by the obscure authors of Volkslieder than was ever done by Minnesinger or Meistersinger. As Ambros has justly pointed out, the importance of the part played by the Volkslied in the history of the music of Western Europe, was second only to that of the Gregorian Modes. From the Volkslieder, the greatest masters borrowed melodies; and not only did they ingeniously arrange them as polyphonic songs in secular music, but they also made them the foundations of their greatest and most ambitious works; and it is notorious that whole masses and motets were often formed on a Volkslied.
Whoever were the authors of the Volkslieder, it was not their habit to write them down: the songs lived on the lips of the people. But happily, even in remote times, there were collectors who made it their business to transcribe these popular songs; and of collections thus made none are more important than the 'Limburg Chronicle' and the 'Locheimer Liederbuch.' The former work consists of Volkslieder which would seem to have been in vogue from 1347 to 1380; while songs of apparently little later date are found in the other collection, which is dated 1452. The 'Lehrcompendium' of H. de Zeelandia also contains some very fine Volkslieder of the first half of the 15th century. 'Her Conrad ging' is given by Ambros as an example of them, both in its original and modern notation. The subjects of the early Volkslieder were historical, they were indeed epic poems of many stanzas set to a short melody. But by the time that the Volkslied had attained its meridian splendour, about the beginning of the 16th century, almost every sentiment of the human heart and every occupation of life had its own songs. Students, soldiers, pedlars, apprentices, and other classes, all had their own distinctive songs. The conciseness and pleasant forms of the melody in the Volkslieder were the secret of their universal charm. The music was always better than the words. So loose was the structure of the verse, that syllables without any sense whatever were often inserted to fill up the length of the musical phrase, as in
Dort oben auf dem Berge— Dölpel, dölpel, dölpel— Da steht ein hohes Hans,
or a sentence was broken off in the middle, or meaningless unds and abers were lavishly interspersed. But notwithstanding these laxities of composition, there was a close connection between the words and the melody.
The Volkslied was always in a strophical form, and therein differed from the Sequences [see Sequence] and Proses of the Church, and from the Leichen of the Minnesinger, which had different melodies for each strophe. Another marked feature of the Volkslied was its rhyme. When the final rhyme had been substituted for mere alliteration and assonance, a definite form was imparted to the verse, and its outline was rendered clearer by the melody of the Volkslied, ​which emphasised the final rhyme, and by covering two lines of the poetry with one phrase of the melody constructed a symmetrical arrangement.
It will be noted in the above example that the half-close is on the dominant harmony; and this principle, which was originally a peculiar attribute of the Volkslied, has been gradually introduced into all other kinds of music, and it is now one of the most important factors of form. [See Form, vol. i. p. 543.] Many of the Volkslieder were composed in ecclesiastical modes; but untaught vocalists, singing purely by instinct, soon learnt to avoid the difficult and harsh intervals common to some of the modes, and by degrees used none but the Ionian mode, in which alone the dominant principle can have full weight. If the Ionian mode (our own modern scale of C major) be examined, it will be seen to fall into two exactly equal parts, with the semitones occurring in the same place of each division:—
| C, D, E, F. | G, A, B, C. |
As C, the tonic, is the principal note in the first divisions, so is G the dominant in the second. And it very soon became a practice to make the first half of a stanza pause on the dominant harmony, and the second half to close on the tonic.
The form is generally very concise, as in Example 5, but looser forms are sometimes met with, and were probably due to the influence of the Church. To the same influence we may undoubtedly ascribe the melodic melismas which now and then occur in strophical melodies. In the Gregorian music, where little attention was paid to rhythm, the melody might be indefinitely prolonged upon a convenient vowel; and similarly we sometimes find in the Volkslied many notes given to one word, simply because it is an easy word to sing; thus—
These melodic melismas also allow the voice great scope in the so-called 'Kehrreim' or refrain. Another noticeable peculiarity of rhythm in the Volkslied is the variety of ways in which the metre is treated. In many instances the time changes with every bar, and the following example illustrates a different representation of the metre in every line of the stanza:—
The metre of the verse is always simple, usually Trochaic or Iambic: dactyls or spondees are rare. Unlike the songs of many other countries, the melody of the Volkslied maintains a complete independence of the accompanying instrument, and is therefore always vocal and never instrumental.
The Volkslied would seem to have fixed as it were instinctively our modern major tonal system; and moreover songs even of the 15th century are extant which were undoubtedly written in minor keys. The following melody clearly belongs to the old system, but the care with which the leading note G♯ is avoided, and the intervals on which the principal rhymes fall, make it evident that the A minor key was intended.
Consideration has thus far been given to the very important contributions of the Volkslied ​to the determination of permanent form in music; but its influence on the contemporary music also requires notice.
It has already been shown that the composers of other countries, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, took secular tunes as themes for their masses, motets, and other sacred works. The German composers did the same to a certain extent, but they more commonly employed the secular tunes in their secular polyphonic works. Nevertheless, as regards church music, the Volkslied occupied a higher place in Germany than elsewhere; for it is not too much to say that more than half the melodies of the chorale-books were originally secular. Heinrich von Lauffenberg, in the 15th century, systematically set his sacred words to secular tunes; but the Reformation made the practice very much more common. The Reformers wished the congregations to join as much as possible in the singing of hymns, and with that object they naturally preferred melodies which were familiar to the people. A well-known example of the combination of sacred words and secular melody is the song 'Isbruck, ich muss dich lassen,' set by Heinrich Isaak in 4 parts in 1475, with the melody in the upper part—a rare arrangement at that time. After the Reformation this tune was adapted by Dr. Hesse to his sacred words 'O Welt, ich muss dich lassen'; and in 1633 Paul Gerhardt wrote to it the evening hymn 'Nun ruhen alle Walder,' in which form it still remains a favourite in all Lutheran churches. After many transformations, the old love-song, 'Mein gmüth ist mir verwirret,' now lives in one of the most beautiful and solemn chorales of both the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, namely, 'Haupt, voll Blut und Wunden,' which Bach has introduced so often in his Passionmusik according to S. Matthew. Again, 'Ich hört em frewlein klagen,' was adapted to 'Hillf Gott, wem soil ich klagen'; 'O lieber Hans versorg dein Gans,' to 'O lieber Gott, das dein Gebot'; and 'Venus, du und dein Kind' to 'Auf meinen lieben Gott.' Many dance-songs, especially the so-called 'Ringeltänze,' were likewise set to sacred words. It should however be understood, that even after the adoption of the Ionian mode in the Volkslied, and the consequent settlement of our modern tonality, a certain proportion of Volkslieder continued to be written in the old ecclesiastical modes. Most of those which the church used were originally written in the old tonal system. Such as are still sung in churches have nearly all undergone a change; but there are a few exceptions, like the hymn 'Ach Gott thu' dich erbarmen,' which, according to the modern chorale-books, is still sung in the old Dorian mode, although J. S. Bach, when using it, changed it into the modern D minor scale. In its original secular form it stands thus:
Until the end of the 16th century the common, though not invariable characteristics of the Chorale and Volkslied were—the melody or cantus firmus in the tenor, the key or mode steadily adhered to, a diatonic intervallic progression, and a note given to every syllable. Both were for the most part written in white notes, because, until Philippe de Vitry introduced notes of less value towards the close of the 16th century, breves and semibreves were the only notes employed. But we must beware of misconception as regards tempo, for according to our modern notation, the semibreves should be regarded and written as crotchets.
Whatever else may be affirmed of the Chorale, this at least is clear, that it gained rather than, lost by the adoption of secular melodies; they emancipated it from stiffness and formality, they gave it heart and living warmth. So far removed from irreverence were the secular melodies, and so appropriate to the sacred text, that the music is generally more expressive of the words in the Chorale than in the Volkslied. But perhaps the true explanation of this ​peculiarity is, that in the case of the Chorale, the words were either written expressly for a chosen melody, or the melody was selected for its appropriateness to particular words. The melody of that just mentioned, 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,' is undoubtedly secular, but what melody could better express a deep and poignant religious sorrow?
It is well known that some of the most famous folk-songs of different countries are founded on the same subject, whether it be a legendary or historical event, or an incident of ordinary life. The accessories of course vary, and impart a local colouring to each version of the song; but the central theme is in all the same. In like manner the same tunes are the property of different countries. Their identity may not, perhaps, be detected at first beneath the disguises in which it is enveloped by national varieties of scale and rhythm and harmony; but it cannot elude a closer examination, and it is probable that careful study would establish many identities hitherto unsuspected. A good example of these cosmopolitan songs is 'Ach Elslein liebes Elselein.' Its subject is the legend of the Swimmer, the classical story of Hero and Leander; and it has a local habitation in Holland, Sweden, Russia, etc., as well as in Germany. 'Der Bettler,' also, which is still sung in many parts of Germany and in Sweden, is identical with 'The Jolly Beggar' of Scotland.
During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries the spirit and power of the Volkslieder were felt in every branch of music. Not only did great masters introduce them into their polyphonic works, both sacred and secular, but lutenists were supplied from the same source with tunes for their instruments, and organists with themes for their extemporary performances. The progress of polyphonic music in Germany had been checked by the discontinuance of the Mass after the Reformation, as has been shown in another part of this work [see Schools of Composition], but a new impetus was given to it by the contrapuntal treatment of secular songs by great composers. As examples of such treatment we may mention—'Allein dein g'stalt,' 'Ach herzigs herz,' by Heinrich Finck; 'Mir ist ein roth Goldfingerlein'; 'Ich soil und muss ein Bulen haben,' by Ludwig Senfl; 'Elend bringt Pein,' by Benedict Ducis; 'Es wollt ein alt Mann,' by Stephan Mahu; 'Der Gutzgauch auf dem Zaune sass,' by Lorenz Lemlin; 'Ich weiss mir ein hübschen grünen Wald,' by Sixt Dietrich; 'Es geht gen diesen Sommer,' by Arnold von Bruck; etc.
This brings us to the Kunstlied, which in its primary sense signified only the contrapuntal treatment of the Song by learned musicians. With the polyphonic Kunstlied we have here no concern, beyond what just suffices to point out the changes through which it successively passed. The composers who used the Volkslied in polyphonic works were masters of every contrapuntal form; sometimes they worked one melody with another, as Arnold von Bruck, who combined the song 'Es taget vor dem Walde' with 'Kein Adler in derWelt'; or if they did not treat the selected melody as a canon (as Eckel treated 'Ach Jungfrau, ihr seid wolgemuth,'), they broke it up into fragments for imitation. When composing their own melodies, they always adhered to the church scales; and used the new system only when adopting a Volkslied. The contrapuntal treatment had, however, one great disadvantage—it constantly necessitated the severance of the melody into fragments, and thus the clear concise form of the Song, which the Volkslied had done so much to establish, was in danger of disappearance. But happily at this juncture (about 1600) Hans Leo Hassler came to its rescue. Having studied in Italy, he breathed into his songs the light secular spirit of Italian Villanelle and Fa-la-las, and gave more prominence to the melody than to the other voice-parts. His dance-songs also, with their short rhythmical phrases, did much to restore the concise form of the Song. Similar characteristics are noticeable in Melchior Franck's and Regnart's collections of songs. In the beginning of the 17th century solo songs were first heard in Germany; and there, as everywhere else, the introduction of the monodic system was due to the influence of Italy.
The revolution begun by Italy would seem to have first affected the church music rather than the secular music of Germany. Innovations of Italian origin are plainly discernible in the sacred works of Prätorius and Heinrich Schütz; but neither of these composers improved the secular monodic song. German poetry had now fallen to a debased condition. It produced nothing better than songs of vapid and artificial sentiment addressed to a conventional Phyllis or Amaryllis. And the language which it employed was a nondescript mixture of French, Latin, and stilted German. Since Luther's death the simple vernacular had ceased to be in repute. But on the 24th August, 1617, a meeting of German patriots was held, who set themselves to restore their native tongue to honour, and with that view to study the introduction of method and rule into its grammar and poetry. Other patriotic groups were soon formed with a like purpose, and by the year 1680 these associations numbered 890 members. Their labours quickly bore good fruit. The success of a group of Königsberg poets was specially remarkable, and was doubtless due in a great measure to the skill with which one of the best of them, Heinrich Albert ​[see Albert], set his own and his associates' songs to music. His compositions became extremely popular; and he has been styled 'the father of the volksthümliches Lied.' Schein and Hammerschmidt had preceded him on the right path, but their taste and talent were frustrated by the worthlessness of the words they set to music. The poetry on which Albert worked was not by any means of a high order, nor was he its slave, but it had sufficient merit to demand a certain measure of attention. This Albert gave to it, and he wrote melodiously. Several of his songs are for one voice with clavicembalo accompaniment, but their harmony is poor, as the following example shows:—
The movement begun by Albert was earned on by Ahle, and the Kriegers, Adam and Johann. Johann's songs are very good, and exhibit a marked improvement in grace and rhythm. The first bars of his song 'Kommt, wir wollen ' have all the clearness of the best Volkslieder:—
Meanwhile the Kunstlied or, polyphonic song had ceased to advance: other branches, especially instrumental and dramatic music, had absorbed composers, and songs began to be called 'Odes' and 'Arias.' Writing in 1698, Keiser says that cantatas had driven away the old German songs, and that their place was being taken by songs consisting of recitatives and arias mixed. Among the writers of the 18th century who called their songs 'arias,' and who wrote chiefly in the aria form, were Graun, Agricola, Sperontes, Telemann, Quantz, Doles, Kirnberger, C. P. E. Bach, Nichelmann, Marpurg, and Neefe (Beethoven's master). They certainly rendered some services to the Song. They set a good example of attention to the words, both as regards metre and expression; they varied the accompaniment by the introduction of arpeggios and open chords; and they displayed a thorough command of the strophical form. But, notwithstanding these merits, their songs, with few exceptions, must be pronounced to be dry, inanimate, and deficient in melody.
It might strike the reader as strange if the great names of J. S. Bach and Handel were passed by in silence; but, in truth, neither Bach nor Handel ever devoted real study to the Song. Such influence as they exercised upon it was indirect. Bach, it is true, wrote a few secular songs, and one of them was the charming little song 'Willst du dein Herz mir schenken,' which is essentially 'volksthümlich':
His two comic cantatas also contain several of great spirit; but it was through his choral works that he most powerfully affected the Song. The only English song which Handel is known to have written is a hunting-song for bass voice, of which we give the opening strain:—
but his influence upon the Song was through his operas and oratorios, and there it was immense. Equally indirect, as will be seen presently, were the effects produced on it by the genius of Gluck, Haydn, and even of Mozart.
At the period we have now reached, namely the end of the 18th century, a new and popular form of the Kunstlied appeared, and this was the 'volksthümliches Lied.' The decline of the Volkslied during the 17th century has been sometimes attributed to the distracted state of Germany; and certainly the gloomy atmosphere of the Thirty Years War and the desolation of ​the Palatinate, cannot have been favourable to it. But no political or social troubles could affect its existence so deeply as an invasion upon its own ground by the Kunstlied. As long as the artistic song dwelt apart, among learned musicians, the Volkslied had little to fear. But when once it had become simple and melodious enough to be easily caught by the people, the Volkslied was supplanted: its raison d'étre was gone. In churches and schools, at concerts and theatres, the public grew habituated to the artistic song, and the old Volkslieder faded from memory. The few that retained any popularity were in the modern tonal system. The volksthümliches Lied is, in short, a combination of the Volkslied and the Kunstlied, and its area of capacity is a very wide one. In the hands of a true master it rises to a high level of poetic beauty, and in the hands of a bad workman it can descend to any depths of stupidity or vulgarity, without ceasing to be volksthümlich. Songs there were, undoubtedly, before the time of J. A. Hiller, to which this epithet could properly be applied; but he was the first to secure for them a thoroughly popular recognition. He belonged to the second half of the 18th century, and was really an operatic composer. It was the songs in his 'Singspiele ' which took so strong a hold of the public. [See Hiller, J. A.; Singspiel.] A favourite tune from his Singspiel 'Die Jagd' will serve as a specimen of his style:—
Another, 'Ohne Lieb und ohne Wein,' taken from his Singspiel 'Der Teufel ist los,' and still sung in Germany with much zest, was one of the first of the Kunstlieder to be received into the ranks of the Volkslieder. J. Andre, the author of the 'Rheinweinlied,' was a contemporary of Hiller's; and so was J. A. P. Schulz, who did much for the volksthumliches Lied. He was careful above others of his time to select poetic words for his music; and the composer was now provided with a store of fresh and natural poems of the Volkslied type by Burger, Claudius, Hölty, the Stolbergs, Voss, and other poets of the Göttingen school. So long as Schulz kept to a simple form, he was always successful, and many of his songs are still the delight of German school children. In his more ambitious but less happy efforts, when he tried to give full expression to the words by the music, he abandoned the volksthümlich form, as his song 'Die Spinnerin' will show:—
Starting from Hiller and Schulz the volksthumliches Lied pursued two different roads. Its composers in the Hiller school, such as Ferdinand Kauer, Wenzel Müller, and Himmel, were shallow and imperfectly cultivated musicians. Their sentimental melodies had a certain superficial elegance which gave them for a time an undeserved repute. A few of Himmel's songs—for example, 'Vater ich rufe Dich' and 'An Alexis send' ich Dich'—are still in vogue among some classes of the German population, but, measured by any good standard, their value is inconsiderable. The dramatic composers, Winter and Jos. Weigl, may be reckoned to ​have been of this school, in so far as they were song-writers; and its tendencies reappeared in our own day in Reissiger and Abt. On the other hand, Schulz's followers were real musicians; and if they became too stiff and formal, their defects were a fruit of their virtues. Their stiffness and formality were the outcome of a strict regard to form and symmetry, and of a praiseworthy contempt for false sentiment. Most of them could write at will in more than one style. Whenever they chose the volksthümliches Lied, they proved their mastery of it; and in other kinds of composition they were equally at home. Their names must, therefore, be mentioned in connection with more than one class of song. The first and best of Schulz's school was Mendelssohn's favourite, J. F. Reichardt. He was singularly happy in his 'Kinderlieder,' but his most valuable services to the Song were given on other ground, as will appear later. Next to him came Anselm Weber, and Nägeli. Zelter, Klein, Ludwig Berger, and Friedrich Schneider, are entitled, by their songs for male chorus, to be counted among the followers of Schulz.
It would be wrong to leave the volksthümliches Lied without mentioning the names of Conradin Kreutzer and Heinrich Marschner, whose operatic songs proved themselves to be truly volksthümlich by their firm hold on the hearts of the people, and of Carl Krebs and Kücken, who have also set an honourable mark on this kind of song. It is, likewise, proper to add the titles of a few typical songs which are found in every modern collection of so-called Volkslieder, though really volksthümliche Lieder converted into Volkslieder. Some of them are by celebrated composers whose fame was chiefly won in other fields; some by men, like Silcher, Gersbach, and Gust. Reichardt, who wrote nothing but volksthümliche Lieder; of some the authorship is wholly unknown; and of others it is disputed.
Worthy to be mentioned as representative songs of this class are 'Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rath'; 'Ach, wie ists möglich dann'; 'Prinz Eugenius'; 'Zu Mantua in Banden'; 'Wir hatten gebaut ein stattliches Haus'; 'Es zogen drei Burschen'; 'Was klinget und singet die Strasse herauf'; 'Der Mai ist gekommen'; 'Bekränzt mit Laub'; 'Gaudeamus'; 'Es ging ein Frosch spazieren'; 'O Tannebaum, O Tannebaum'; 'Morgenroth, Morgenroth'; 'Ich hatt' einen Kameraden'; 'Was blasen die Trompeten'; 'Es geht bei gedämpftem Trommelklang'; 'Morgen müssen wir verreisen'; 'Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten'; 'In einem kühlen Grunde'; 'So viel Stern am Himmel stehen'; 'Es kann ja nicht immer so bleiben'; 'Nach Sevilla, nach Sevilla'; 'Es ist ein Schnitter der heisst Tod'; 'Der alte Barbarossa'; 'Die Fahnenwacht'; 'Mädele ruck, ruck, ruck'; 'Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland,' etc. None of these songs are vulgar, nor even commonplace. They are familiar to all classes, young and old; and the heartiness with which they are everywhere sung attests their vitality. Singing in unison is comparatively rare among Gennans; their universal love and knowledge of music naturally predispose them to singing in parts. A regiment on the march, a party of students on a tour, or even labourers returning from work, all alike sing these favourite songs in parts with remarkable accuracy and precision. And the natural aptitude of the nation for this practice is perpetually fostered by the 'Singvereine' or singing-clubs which exist even in the most obscure and secluded corners of Germany.
If it be asked by what qualities the volksthümliches Lied can be recognised, the answer would be, that it is strophical in form, and has an agreeable melody, easy to sing, a pure and simple harmony, an unpretending accompaniment, a regular rhythm, a correct accentuation, and words inspired by natural sentiment. The mere enumeration of these qualities explains its popularity. But it lacked the poetic and thoughtful treatment both of words and music, which subsequently raised the lyric song to the level of true art.
It is now time to inquire in what ways the Song was treated by some of the greatest composers of the 18th and 19th centuries—by Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr and Weber. Gluck was the contemporary of Graun, Agricola, and Kirnberger; and like them he called most of his songs odes. But the standpoint from which he regarded the Song was very different from theirs. Applying his theories about the Opera [see Gluck and Opera] to the Song, he steadfastly aimed at a correct accentuation of the words in the music, and the extinction of the Italian form of melody, which required the complete subordination, if not the entire sacrifice to itself, of every other element of composition. 'The union,' wrote Gluck to La Harpe in 1777, 'between the air and the words should be so close, that the poem should seem made for the music no less than the music for the poem'; and he conscientiously strove to be true to this ideal in all his work. But though he revolutionised the Opera, he left no deep mark on the Song; for indeed he never devoted to it the best of his genius. His few songs, chiefly Klopstock's odes, have no spontaneity about them, but are dry and pedantic, and with all his superiority to his contemporaries in aims and principles of composition, his odes are scarcely better than theirs. Here is an example:—
One song of the very highest merit was written by Haydn. His national air, 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser,' is perfect of its kind. Simple and popular, yet breathing a lofty and dignified patriotism, it satisfies the severest standard of criticism. But it was a unique effort; none of his other songs approach within measurable distance of it. It was his habit to conceive them entirely from the instrumental point of view. As Schneider truly says, Haydn 'treats the vocal melody exactly as a pianoforte or violin motif, under which he places some words which only superficially agree in rhythm with the melody.' For Haydn's true lyrics we must turn (as Schneider bids us turn) to the andantes and adagios of his quartets and symphonies; just as we must study the great choral works of Bach and Handel if we would understand and appreciate the action of those great masters on the Song.
The versatility of Mozart's powers is visible in his songs. Some of them might be described as arias, and others as volksthümliche Lieder; some are lyrical, and others dramatic, and yet Mozart cannot be said to have impressed his own great individuality upon the Song. He was not at his best in that field. The least happy of his songs are those in which he set homely or thoroughly popular words to music: his genius lived too much in an ideal world for work of that kind. Thus in his 'Ich möchte wohl der Kaiser sein' the music ceases after the first bar to be volksthümlich. It was in the opera that he put forth his full strength, and his operatic songs often derive from their simple joyous melodies a truly popular character. Most of his songs are in the aria form, and their exquisite melodies almost obliterate such faults of accentuation as occur in the following example:—
The reader will observe what exaggerated emphasis the music puts upon such unimportant syllables of the verse as 'mal' and 'ge.' Mozart's masterpiece in the Song was 'Das Veilchen,' which he wrote to Goethe's words; and had he written other songs of like excellence, his position as a song-writer would have been more on a level with his unsurpassed fame in other branches of music. In 'Das Veilchen' he treats every detail independently. When the song passes from narrative to the violet's own utterance, the character of the music changes; and the accompaniment also supplies a vivid though delicate representation of the narrative, while the unity of the Song is never lost amid varieties of detail. For such minute painting in music the ordinary harmonic basis of tonic and dominant is not wide enough. Modulations into other keys are requisite. In this song, therefore, Mozart does not confine himself to the principal keys, G major and D major, but introduces the keys of G minor, E♭, and B♭ major, though without any change of signature. Neither does he pay much heed to a clear demarcation of the strophic divisions, which had hitherto been regarded as indispensable, but by the simple force of a homogeneous rhythm fully sustains the unity essential to lyric song. The very little that yet remained to bring this class of song to perfection was subsequently accomplished by Schubert.
Some of Beethoven's earlier songs—such as 'An einen Säugling,' 'Das Kriegslied,' 'Molly's Abschied,' and 'Der freie Mann'—are volksthümlich, and resemble Schulz's compositions. For the accompaniment they have the melody ​harmonised, and a syllable is given to each note: they should therefore be declaimed rather than sung. The structure is similar in Gellert's sacred songs, op. 48, except in the 'Busslied,' where there is a fuller development of the accompanient. Of Beethoven's early songs the best known probably is 'Adelaïde,' and it is written in a larger form than those already referred to. Its form may be termed the scena-form. In it both voice and accompaniment are made to give exact expression to every word of the poem, and changes of tempo and key impart to it a dramatic cast. But our chief interest lies in Beethoven's lyric songs. He set six songs of Goethe's as op. 75, and three as op. 83. There is much in the style and spirit of these lyrics which might have tempted him to use either the scena or the cantata-form; but the strophical division corresponds so well with their general character that he could not disregard it. He left it therefore to the instrumental part to satisfy their dramatic requirements. In Mignon's song, 'Kennst du das Land,' each stanza has the same beautiful melody, and the accompaniment alone varies. In other cases, as in Goethe's 'Trocknet nicht' (Wonne der Wehmuth), the melody is a mere recitation, and all the importance of the song belongs to its accompaniment. In Jeitteles' Liederkreis, 'An die ferne Geliebte,' op. 98, the unity which makes the cycle is wholly the work of the composer, and not of the poet. It is Beethoven who binds the songs together by short instrumental interludes, which modulate so as to introduce the key of the next song, and by weaving the melody of the first song into the last. Most of the songs of this beautiful cycle are strophical, but with great variety of accompaniment, and the just balance of the vocal and instrumental parts equally contributes to the faithful expression of lyric thought and feeling. In songs which had more of the aria form Beethoven was less successful. In short, the principal result produced by him with regard to the song was the enlargement of the part sustained by the pianoforte. He taught the instrument, as it were, to give conscious and intelligent utterance to the poetic intentions of the words. His lyric genius rose to its loftiest heights in his instrumental works: and here again its full perfection must be looked for in the slow movements of his orchestral and chamber compositions.
Spohr also wrote lyric songs, a task for which his romantic and contemplative nature well fitted him. But his songs are marred by excessive elaboration of minutiæ, and in the profusion of details clearness of outline is lost, and form itself disappears. Again, his modulations, or rather transitions, though never wantonly introduced, are so frequent as to be wearisome. Of all his songs 'Der Bleicherin Nachtlied' and 'Der Rosenstrauch' are freest from these faults, and they are his best.
A greater influence was exercised upon the Song by Carl Maria von Weber. He published two books of Volkslieder, op. 54 and op. 64, with new melodies, of which the best-known are 'Wenn ich ein Vöglein war' and 'Mein Schatzerl ist hübsch.' Of his other songs the most celebrated are the cradle-song 'Schlaf Herzenssöhnchen' and the 'Leyer und Schwert' songs (for instance, 'Das Volk steht auf' and 'Du Schwert an meiner Linken'), and these songs deserve their celebrity. Others indeed, such as 'Ein steter Kampf,' are not so well known nor heard so often as they ought to be. Weber's fame as a song-writer has perhaps suffered somewhat, like Mozart's, from the circumstance that many of his best songs are in his operas; and it has been partially eclipsed by the supreme excellence of one or two composers who were immediately subsequent to him. It was also unlucky for him that he wrote most of his accompaniments for the guitar. But in the solos and choruses of 'Preciosa,' 'Der Freischütz,' and 'Euryanthe' there are romantic melodies of unfailing charm to the German people. 'They are filled,' says Reissmann, 'with the new spirit awakened in Germany by the War of Liberation—the spirit which inspired the lays of Arndt, Schenkendorf, R4ckert, and Körner. The dreamy tenderness of the old Volkslieder was united by Weber to the eager adventurous spirit of a modern time. His conceptions are never of great intellectual depth, nor are his forms remarkably developed, but the entrainante expression with which he writes gives his compositions an irresistible freshness, even after the lapse of half a century.'
Incidental reference has already been made more than once to Goethe, but a few words must be added on the obligations of the Song to him. The fine outburst of lyric song which enriched the music of Germany in his lifetime was very largely due to him. The strong but polished rhythm and the full melody of his verse were an incentive and inspiration to composers. Reichardt was the first to make it a systematic study to set Goethe's lyrics to music. Some of them were set by him as early as 1780; but in 1793 he published a separate collection entitled 'Goethe's lyrische Gedichte,' and containing thirty poems. In 1809 he issued a more complete collection, under the title of 'Goethe's Lieder, Oden, Balladen, und Romanzen mit Musik, v. J. Fr. Reichardt.' So long as Reichardt merely declaimed the words in melody, or otherwise made the music conscientiously subordinate to the verse, he was successful; but he failed whenever he allowed himself to think less of the words and more of the tune. Goethe's words were, in short, a sure guide for a talent like his. In the genuine volksthümliches Lied he did not shine; he spared no endeavour to catch the exact spirit of popular poetry, but in his intent pursuit of it he lost that natural spontaneity of melody which the volksthümliches Lied requires. Reichardt was not a great master, but he may claim the honour of having struck the true key-note of lyrical songs: and greater artists than himself immediately followed in his ​footsteps. Nothing that he ever wrote is better than his witting of Tieck's 'Lied der Nacht,' and in this song he clearly shows himself to be the forerunner of Schubert, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. A younger contemporary, Zelter, also made a reputation by setting Goethe's words to music. Zelter was himself a friend of Goethe's; and so great an admirer was the poet of Zelter's music for his own songs, that he preferred it to the settings of Reichardt, preferring Reichardt's settings to those of Beethoven and Schubert, and perhaps those of Eberwein to either of the three. Through some strange obliquity of taste or judgment, Goethe, as is well known, never recognised the merits of these two very great composers. Zelter, however, was a writer of considerable talent, and advanced beyond his predecessors in harmonic colouring and consistency of style. His early songs were strophical, without variety or ornamentation of melody, except sometimes in the last stanza: but in later years he recomposed some of these early songs with such different treatment that he seems occasionally to be the precursor of the so-called 'durchkomponirtes Lied'—in which every stanza has different music. Another of this group of writers, Ludwig Berger, worked on the same lines as Reichardt. But his excessive attention to the declamatory part of the Song has a tendency to break up the melody and destroy its consecutive unity. On the other hand, his pianoforte accompaniments are remarkably good. Without overpowering the melody they have a singular power of expression. His song 'Trost in Thränen,' op. 33, no. 3, may be cited as an illustration. Bernhard Klein may also be mentioned as a writer of music to Goethe's songs. His style was not unlike Zelter's; but he aimed at vocal brilliancy, and was somewhat negligent of the instrumental part.
If the general results of the period through which we have just passed be regarded as a whole, it will be seen that the various conditions requisite for the perfection of the Song had matured. The foundations and all the main parts of the structure had been built; it remained only to crown the edifice. Starting from the volksthümliches Lied, the Berlin composers had demonstrated the necessity of full attention to the words. Mozart and Weber had given it a home in the opera. Mozart and Beethoven had developed its instrumental and dramatic elements; and had, further, shown that the interest of the Song is attenuated by extension into the larger scena-form. Nothing therefore of precept or example was wanting by which genius might be taught how to make the compact form of the Song a perfect vehicle of lyrical expression. The hour was ripe for the man; and the hour and the man met when Schubert arose.
This wonderful man, the greatest of song-writers, has been so fully and appreciatively treated in other pages of this Dictionary that it would be superfluous to do more here than examine the development of the Song under him. So fertile was his genius that we have more than 600 of his songs, and their variety is as remarkable as their number. There was scarcely a branch of the subject to which he did not turn his hand, and nihil tetigit quod non ornavit. He was master of the Song in every stage—whether it were the Volkslied, or the Ode, or the volksthümliches Lied, or the pure lyric song, or the Ballade and Romanze. And his preeminent success was largely due to his complete recognition of the principle that in the. Song intellect should be the servant of feeling rather than its master.
The essence of true Song, as Schubert clearly saw, is deep, concentrated emotion, enthralling words and music alike, and suffusing them with its own hues. Full of poetry himself, he could enter into the very heart and mind of the poet, and write, as it were, with his own identity merged in another's. So wide was the range of his sympathetic intuition that he took songs of different kinds from all the great German poets, and widely as their styles varied, so did his treatment. Some demanded a simple strophic form; some a change of melody for every stanza; and others an elaborate or dramatic accompaniment. But whatever the words might call for, that Schubert gave them with unerring instinct.
His best compositions are lyrical, and the most perfect are the songs which he wrote to Goethe's words. If Schubert had a fault as a song- writer, it was his 'love of extension'; and from this temptation he was guarded by the concise and compact form of Goethe's songs. These lyrics are, therefore, his masterpieces, and it is scarcely possible to conceive higher excellence than is displayed in his 'Gretchen am Spinnrad,' the 'Wanderer's Nachtlied,' the songs from 'Westöstlicher Divan,' and 'Wilhelm Meister.' In these songs, beauty and finish are bestowed with so even a hand, both on the voice-part and on the accompaniment, that it would be impossible to say that either takes precedence of the other. In the songs which he wrote to Schiller's words, especially in the earlier ones, the accompaniment is more important than the voice-part. This however is demanded by the dramatic form of ballads like 'Der Taucher' and 'Ritter Toggenburg.' And Schubert perceived that a somewhat similar kind of setting was appropriate to antique, mythological, or legendary songs, such as Schiller's 'Dithyrambe' and 'Gruppe aus dem Tartarus,' Mayrhofer's 'Memnon' and 'Der entsühnte Orest,' Goethe's 'Schwager Kronos,' 'Ganymed,' 'Grenzen der Menschheit,' and some of Ossian's songs. These last are also noticeable as an illustration of his practice of writing songs in sets. Some of these sets had been written as cyclic poems by their authors, and to this category belonged the 'Müllerlieder' and the 'Winterreise': others—such as the Ossian Songs, and Walter Scott's poems—were made cyclic by Schubert's handling of them. He did not join and weld together ​the songs of a set, as Beethoven had done in the cycle of 'An die ferne Geliebte,' but bound them to one another by community of spirit. They can all be sung separately; but the 'Mülllieder' and 'Winterreise,' which tell a coninuous tale, lose much of their dramatic power if they be executed otherwise than as a whole. The publication known as the 'Schwanengesang' contains some of Schubert's most beautiful songs, and among them his settings of Heine's words. Heine appeared on the stage of literature too late to have much to do with Schubert; his influence was more deeply felt by Schumann: but Schubert at once recognised, as did Schumann after him, the extreme importance of a musical accompaniment for his words. Other poets for whom Schubert composed were Klopstock, Matthison, Hölty, Rückert, Rellstab, Craigher, Kosegarten, Schober, Müller, Schmidt, etc.; and some of these are perhaps indebted to the composer for all the fame now left to them.
Many of Schubert's finest songs are strophical in form, and resemble the best Volkslieder; with this difference however, that where the latter rigidly adhered to the simple tonic and dominant harmony, Schubert uses the most varied modulations. He was the equal of the composers of the Volkslieder in strict regard to the accents of the verse, and their superior in attention to the meaning of the words. When he wishes to mark an important word, he does so by giving it two or three notes, or a striking harmony; but rarely departs from the concise strophical form. And he can raise a song with the simplest melody to dramatic level by the power of rhythm in the accompaniment. But none knew better than Schubert that the strophical form is not applicable to all poems, and that some require different music for every stanza. Without being ballads or narrative poems, such songs range over too broad and varied a field for the strophical form; but through all diversities they retain a true lyric unity, and this unity as a whole, with variety in parts and details, has been faithfully reproduced by Schubert. Reissmann has shown how he preserved the unity by returning to the melody of the first strophe as a refrain—as in 'Meine Ruh' ist hin'—or by keeping the same figure in the accompaniment, as in 'Waldesnacht,' or by simple development of the same melody in each stanza. All the resources of Schubert's genius displayed in the durchkomponirtes Lied.
Enough, however, has been said to indicate his merits as a song-writer, and it is time to turn to another name. In Mendelssohn the characteristics of the Berlin school of song-writers are seen at their best. His songs exhibit all the care and effort of that school to combine the volksthümliches form with a minutely faithful representation of the words; but the object at which he aimed, and which indeed he attained, tended sometimes to hamper the free play of his art. And with all his comprehension and finished culture, Mendelssohn could not, like Schubert, surrender himself completely to the poet whose words he was setting, and compose with such identity of feeling that words and music seem exactly made for each other, and incapable of separate existence. Mendelssohn remained himself throughout, distinct and apart. The poet's words were not to him, as they were to Schubert, the final cause of the song; they were only an aid and incentive to the composition of a song preconceived in his own mind. In his songs, therefore, we miss Schubert's variety; and his influence upon the Song in Germany has been limited. In Mendelssohn's op. 9, three songs especially deserve mention—'Wartend,' a true Romanze; the 'Herbstlied,' concise in form, and expressive of deep melancholy; and 'Scheiden,' which is a song of tranquil beauty. The 'Frühlingslied' of op. 19 reminds one of Berger, and 'Das erste Veilchen' is suggestive of Mozart. The 'Reiselied' inclines more to the scena-form, but is marked by some of Mendelssohn's most characteristic modulations and transitions in the harmony. The songs which produced most effect were, 'Auf Flügeln des Gesanges' of op. 34, and 'Wer hat dich, du schöner Wald' of op. 47; both volksthümlich in the best sense of the word, melodious, pure, and refined, but withal brilliant and striking. The most perfect, perhaps, of his songs is the 'Venetian Gondellied,' op. 57, without a blemish either in melody, accompaniment, harmony, or rhythm. And the truest Volkslied of modern birth is the little song 'Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rath.' All Mendelssohn's other songs, with few exceptions, are simple and pleasing. Take as an eminent instance, 'Lieblingsplätzchen' (op. 99, no. 3). Nevertheless, with all their charms, his songs for one voice are inferior to his part-songs, and indeed to his compositions in other branches of music.
If any song-writer could dispute Schubert's pre-eminence, it would be Robert Schumann. His songs are the very breath of romantic poetry elevated by austere thought. Where Schubert is completely one with the poet, his exact alter ego, Schumann is wont to be a little more than the poet's counterpart or reflection. With scrupulous art he reproduces all that runs in the poet's mind, be it ever so subtle and delicate, but permeates it with a deeper shade of meaning. This may be seen especially in his settings of the poems of Heine, Reinick, Burns, Kerner, Geibel, Chamisso, Rückert and Eichendorff. Of these poets the last five were thoroughly romantic writers, and exercised a great influence on Schumann's kindred imagination. It was stimulated into full activity by the supernatural splendour and mystic vagueness of their conceptions. Visions of midnight scenes arise in prompt obedience to the spell of Schumann's ​music. It conjures up for eye and ear the dark vault of the starry heavens, the solitudes of haunted woods, the firefly's restless lamp, the song of nightingales, the accents of human passion idealised, and all else that makes the half-real and the half-unreal world in which the romantic spirit loves to dwell.
In Schumann's music to Eichendorff's words, the accompaniments have even more importance and beauty than the melodies; while the latter seem only to suggest, the former unfold the sentiment of the song. This is the case in the 'Frühlingsnacht,' the 'Schöne Fremde,' and the 'Waldesgespräch': and in another song of the same opus, 'Ich karm wohl manchmal singen' (Wehmuth), the melody is fully developed in the accompaniment, and merely doubled in the voice part. Of like kind is the work of Schumann's hand in the 'Liederreihe,' op. 35, containing 12 songs by Justinus Kerner, and in Rückert's 'Liebesfrühling,' op. 37; but Rückert's verse did not perhaps evoke in him so full a measure of spontaneous melody as Eichendorff's and Kerner's. The simplest and most melodious, and probably the best known of the Rückert collection, are Nos. 2, 4, and 11; and they are by Frau Clara Schumann. Chamisso's cycle, 'Frauenliebe und Leben,' op. 42, is described elsewhere in this Dictionary, and does not require further notice here.
To the poems of Reinick and Burns Schumann imparts more of the Volkslied form; but the poet to whom his own nature most deeply responded was Heine. There was not a thought or feeling in his poetry which Schumann could not apprehend and make his own. Whether Heine be in a mood of subtle irony or bitter mockery, of strong passion or delicate tenderness, of rapturous joy or sternest sorrow, with equal fidelity is he pourtrayed in the composer's music. What Schubert was to Goethe, Schumann was to Heine; but the requirements of the two poets were not the same. Goethe's thought is ever expressed in clear and chiseled phrase; but it is a habit of Heine's to adumbrate his meaning, and leave whatever is wanting to be supplied by the reader's imagination. The composer who would adequately interpret him must, therefore, have poetic fancy no less than a mastery of his own art. This Schumann had, and none of his songs rank higher than the splendid cycle 'Dichterliebe,' from Heine's 'Buch der Lieder,' which he dedicated to a great dramatic singer, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. Their melodic treatment is declamatory—not in recitative, but in perfectly clear-cut strophes. The metrical accents of the verse are carefully observed, and, if possible, still more attention is bestowed on the accentuation of emphatic words. That there may not be even the semblance of a break or interruption in the continuous flow of the phrases, the same rhythmical figure is retained throughout the accompaniment, however the harmony and the melody may change. As a general rule, the instrumental part of Schumann's songs is too important and too independent to be called an 'accompaniment'; it is an integral factor in the interpretation of the poem. Thus in the 'Dichterliebe' cycle, the introductory and concluding symphonies to 'Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,' 'Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen,' 'Die alten bösen Lieder,' and 'Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen,' have all a closer relation to the poem than to the music, and seem to evolve from it a fuller significance than it could ever have owed to the poet's own unaided art. Further proof of the importance of Schumann's accompaniments is afforded by the peculiarity that in many of his songs the voice part ends on a discord, and the real close is assigned to the accompaniment. In 'Ich grolle nicht' the accompaniment is occasionally used to strengthen the accents, and discords also enhance the grand effect; only rarely does he allow the independence of the accompaniment to remain in abeyance throughout a whole song. In short, his songs should be both played and sung by true artists; and the riper the intellect, the more poetic the temperament of the artist, the better will the execution be. No composer is more worthy of thoughtful and finished execution than Schumann; together with Schubert in music, and Goethe and Heine in literature, he has lifted the Song to a higher pinnacle of excellence than it ever reached before. Whether such work will ever be surpassed, time alone can show.
We will here allude to another branch of modern German Song, which has been handled by the greatest composers, and comprises the Ballade, the Romanze, and the Rhapsodie. In the ordinary English sense, the ballad is a poem simply descriptive of an event or chain of incidents; it never pauses to moralise or express emotion, but leaves the reader to gather sentiment and reflections from bare narrative. But the Ballade, as a form of German song, has some other properties. Goethe says that it ought always to have a tone of awe-inspiring mystery, to fill the reader's mind with the presence of supernatural powers, and subdue the soul to submissive expectancy. The Romanze is of the same class as the Ballade, but is generally of more concise form, and by more direct references to the feelings which its story evokes, approaches nearer to the lyric song. As distinguished from the Ballade and the Romanze, the Rhapsodie is deficient in form, and its general structure is loose and irregular. The first poet who wrote such poems was Burger; his example was followed by Goethe, Schiller, Uhland, and others: and then the attention of composers was soon caught. Inspired by Schiller, Zumsteeg first composed in this vein, and his work is interesting as being the first of its kind; but cultivated and well-trained musician though he was, Zumsteeg had too little imagination to handle the Ballade successfully. He generally adhered to the Romanze, and 'Bleich flimmert in stürmender Nacht' is ​good specimen of his style. Sometimes he fused the Romanze into the Rhapsodie by dramatising incidents; and to such efforts he owed most of his contemporary popularity; but it was not in produce the true Ballade. Neither did Reichardt or Zelter succeed any better in it. They treated the 'Erlkönig' as a Romanze, and Schiller's Ballades, 'Ritter Toggenburg' and 'Der Handschuh,' as rhapsodies. And even Schubert, for whom in youth this ballad poetry had a great charm, even he was inclined to compose for Balladen too much in Rhapsody-form. In some of his longer pieces, such as 'Der Taucher,' 'Die Bürgschaft,' 'Der Sänger,' where he is faithful to the Ballade form, there are exquisite bits of melody appositely introduced, and the accompaniments are thoroughly dramatic; but the general effect of the pieces is overlaid and marred by a multiplicity of elaborate details. When sung, therefore, they do not fulfil the expectations awakened by silent study of them. To the Romanze, Schubert gave the pure strophical form, as, for instance, in Goethe's 'Heidenröslein.'
The founder of the true Ballade in music was J. C. G. Löwe, who seems to have caught, as it were instinctively, the exact tone and form it required. His method was to compose a very short, though fully rounded melody, for one or two lines of a stanza, and then repeat it throughout the Ballade with only such alterations as were demanded by the tenor of the narrative. This method secures unity for the piece, but it necessitates a richly developed accompaniment, and calls upon the pianoforte to be the sole contributor of dramatic colouring to the incidents. The simpler the metrical form of the Ballade, the better will this treatment suit it. Take, for example, Uhland's 'Der Wirthin Töchterlein.' All Löwe's music to it is developed from the melody of the first line; though other resources are brought into play as the tragic close draws near, the original idea is never lost to view, and the character with which the accompaniment began is preserved intact to the end. Still more importance is given by Löwe to the pianoforte part in the gloomy northern Ballades, 'Herr Olaf and 'Der Mutter Geist.' But his really popular Balladen are 'Heinrich der Vogler,' 'Die Glocken zu Speier,' and 'Goldschmieds Töchterlein': in these the melodies fresh and genial, the accompaniments full of characteristic expression, and stroke upon stroke the best Ballade style effect a vivid presentment of animated scenes.
Mendelssohn never touched the Ballade form the solo voice; and Schumann greatly preferred the Romanze. To his subjective lyric cast of mind the underlying thought was of more concern than external facts. In his beautiful music to Kerner's 'Stirb Lieb' und Freud,' he treats the melody as a Romanze, and puts the Ballade form into the accompaniment. On the same plan are his 'Entflieh' mit mir,' 'Loreley,' and 'Der arme Peter,' from Heine. 'Die Löwenbraut' and 'Blondel's Lied' are more developed Ballades; but the most perfect of his Ballades is 'Die beiden Grenadiere,' op. 49. Its unity in variety is admirable; it stirs and moves the heart, and its impressiveness is wonderfully augmented by the introduction of the Marseillaise. When Schumann essayed to treat the Ballade melodramatically he failed. Singing, in his opinion, was a veil to the words; whenever therefore he wished them to have emphatic prominence, he left them to be spoken or 'declaimed,' and attempted to illustrate the narrative of the song by the musical accompaniment. But the Ballade form was too small and contracted for this kind of treatment, which is better suited to larger and more dramatic works. It is a vexed question whether the repetition of the melody for every verse, or its variation throughout, is the better structure for the Ballade; the former arrangement, at any rate, would seem best adapted for short and simple pieces like Goethe's 'Der Fischer,' and the latter for lengthier ones. If the melody be repeated for every verse in long Balladen an impression of monotony is inevitably created, and the necessarily varying aspects of the poem are imperfectly represented in the music.
The Song continues to hold in Germany the high place to which it was raised by Schubert and Schumann; their traditions have been worthily sustained by their successors, the foremost of whom are Robert Franz and Johannes Brahms. Franz has devoted himself almost exclusively to it. At first sight his work seems to be similar to Schumann's, but on closer examination it will be found to have marked characteristics of its own. There is no lack of melody in his voice-parts, but the chief interest of his songs generally lies in the accompaniments, which are as finished as miniatures, though concealing all traces of the labour expended on them. In form and harmony Franz's songs are akin to the old Volkslied and Kirchenlied. Their harmony frequently recalls the old church scales; and the peculiar sequential structure of the melody (as, for instance, in his 'Zu Strassburg an der Schanz,' op. 12, no. 2; 'Es klingte in der Luft,' op. 13, no. 2, and 'Lieber Schatz, sei mir wieder gut,' op. 26, no. 2), is so common with him, that some critics have condemned it as a mannerism. Most of his songs are strophical as regards the voice-part, the richness and fulness of the accompaniment growing with each successive stanza; or else the harmony is slightly altered to suit the words, as in that subtle change which occurs in the second stanza of 'Des Abends,' op. 16, no. 4. Indeed the perfection of truth with which Franz renders every word is his highest merit. Like Schumann, he is wont to leave much to the closing bars of the ​pianoforte part or to the whole accompaniment; and he has a further resemblance to Schumann in his thoroughly lyrical temperament. His favourite poets are writers of dreamy, quiet, pensive verse, like Osterwald, Eichendorff, Lenau and Mirza Schaffy; but he has composed several songs by Heine and Burns. There is not, perhaps, enough of passion in his compositions to carry us away in a transport of enthusiasm, but the refinement of his poetic feeling, and the exquisite finish of his workmanship compel our deliberate and cordial admiration.
Very different is the standpoint from which Brahms approaches the Song. It has been said of him that he 'defends his art-principles on the ground of absolute music.' And this criticism may justly be applied to his songs. No modern composer has ever studied less than he to render each word with literal accuracy; but while he allows himself the amplest liberty in respect of the letter of a song, he is scrupulously observant of its spirit. If we listen, for instance, to any of his fifteen romances from Tieck's Magelone, or to his settings of Daumer's translations of Oriental poems, we shall have no fault to find with his interpretation of the words in the music, as a whole, though in parts it may not correspond to our own preconceived ideas. When quite new to us his songs excite a certain sense of strangeness, but the feeling quickly disappears before the irresistible spell of his strong individuality and concentrated force. To the form of his songs he pays great heed. Some have the same melody and harmony unchanged for every verse, others have a succession of varied melodies for the voice and pianoforte part throughout. His accompaniments are among the most difficult and interesting that have ever been written, and need to be studied with as much care as any solo piece. They stand in the same relation to the voice part as the pianoforte part stands to the violin in a sonata written for those two instruments. The accompaniment sometimes leads, sometimes follows the voice; and again at other times pursues its own independent way. This may be seen for instance in the fine impassioned song 'Wie soll ich die Freude,' op. 33, no. 6. The task of the singer in Brahms's songs is as hard as that of the player. Sudden changes of key and awkward intervals create difficulties for the voice, and the very length of the songs renders them fatiguing. But with a good singer and a good pianist his songs cannot fail to produce a remarkable effect, though Brahms himself would never stoop to write for mere effect. He is far too high and severe an artist to admit any false or trivial matter into his work; and his noble songs may justly be reckoned among the greatest treasures of modern music.
A composer whom it would be wrong to pass by here without notice is Hugo Brückler. The elaborate and refined accompaniments to his songs remind us in some respects of Brahms. And his songs of the 'Trompeter von Säkkingen' set, and the posthumous ones edited by Jensen, deserve a wider fame, for they are full of intellect and beauty. Jensen's own is a better-known name. The melody of his songs is remarkably sweet, and his accompaniments are both rich and interesting. Jensen, however, has been the enemy of his own reputation by constantly choosing to set words which had already been dealt with by greater masters than himself. Had he not thus challenged comparison, the merits of his tender and delicate songs might have been more fully recognised. Herzogenberg belongs to the same group of composers. Another group has worked more on the lines laid down by Mendelssohn; and it includes Curschmann, Taubert, Franz Lachner, Dorn, Carl Eckert, Julius Rietz, Reinecke, Josephine Lang, and Fanny Hensel. The best work of these writers is unpretending and simple: not that they are themselves deficient in thought or culture, but they attach such a paramount value to purity of form and melodiousness combined, that other high qualities of the song are sparingly introduced.
Consideration is, likewise, due to the manner in which the Song has been treated by Franz Liszt. In such cases as his 'Kennst du das Land?' and 'Ich weiss nicht was soil es bedeuten,' he not only disregards the strophical form, but ignores the metre and rhyme of the verse until the poetry stiffens into prose. In his endeavours to render every word effectively and dramatically, form, both of poetry and music, escapes him. Some of these songs are mere recitations; or the melody is broken up into short phrases with a few chords in the accompaniment—as in 'Du bist wie eine Blume,' which contains striking modulations and abrupt transitions. In fact, they produce an effect like that of delicate but unfinished landscape sketches. 'Es muss ein Wunderbares sein' may be mentioned as an example of more regular form. But Liszt has not been allowed to remain alone in his indifference to rule and form: his irregularities have been imitated by younger writers of the so-called 'New German School.' When his followers have had real talent and true poetic feeling, as Cornelius and Goetz undoubtedly had, considerable latitude in composition has been shown to be compatible with very good work. Nevertheless, the example set by Liszt is a dangerous one, for, if the high artistic sense be wanting, a scant regard for form very easily degenerates into sheer chaos. If other names of modern contributors to the song in Germany be asked for, the following may be given:—Blume, Brah-Muller, Bruch, Ehlert, Gernsheim, Henschel, Hiller, Krigar, Lassen, Ludwig, Raff, Ramann, Rheinberger, Röntgen, Semon, Urspruch, and Volkmann; but the list is very far from exhausted by the recital of these names. The German Song has, moreover, been enriched by foreigners, such as Niels Gade, Lindblad, Grieg, Dvořák, and, especially, Rubinstein, to whose songs some judges assign a place in the very first rank.
​Enough has now been said to show how thoroughly and with what diversity of talent the Song has been cultivated in Germany as a branch of pure art. The torch has passed from artist to artist; and if the reverent devotion with which it is still tended by German students of music be an earnest and augury of what is to come, it is not too much to hope that the radiance of the flame may be as bright in the future as it has been in the past.
The following works contain the best information on the history of the Song in Germany.
'Das musikalische Lied in geschichtlicher Entwickelung'; Dr. K. C. Schneider. (3 vols.) 'Geschichte des deutschen Liedes im xviii Jahrhundert'; Krnst O. Lindner. 'Geschichte des deutschen Liedes'; August Reissmann. 'Das deutsche Lied in seiner historischen Entwickelung'; August Reissmann. 'Die Hausmusik in Deutschland im 16ten, 17ten, and 18ten Jahrhundert'; Becker. 'Unsere volksthümliche Lieder'; Hoffmann von Fallersleben. 'Altdeutsches Liederbuch aus dem 12 bis zum 17 Jahrhundert'; Franz M. Böhme. 'Der evangelische Kirchengesang'; Karl von Winterfeld. 'Robert Franz und das deutsche Volkslied'; August Saran. The collections of Volkslieder are too numerous to name. But the reader will find at pp. 769–805 of Böhme's 'Altdeutsches Liederbuch' an ample catalogue with annotations, entitled 'Quellen für das deutsche Volkslied und seine Weisen in alter und neuer Zeit.' (Böhme includes both MS. and printed collections.)
In conclusion, a few general reflections may be added to the foregoing historical sketch. Vocal music is probably the eldest branch of the art; but from the number of ancient dance-songs still extant, and from the fact that dance-songs preponderate in the music of nations whose musical culture remains in a primitive stage, it is reasonable to conclude that vocal music was at first a mere accessory of the dance. Choral singing at religious and other festivals was also a practice of very remote antiquity. Recitations by bards commemorative of the exploits of heroes were a further and distinct development of vocal music. But the Song proper had no existence anterior to the Troubadours; their graceful lyrics and appropriate rhythmical tunes were its earliest form.
In the sections of this article which relate to France and Germany, attention has been called to the reciprocal influences upon one another of church music and secular music; but it should be noticed that the influence of the former was not of unmixed advantage to the latter. The scientific development of the Song was doubtless advanced by the church composers, but their polyphonic style injured it in other respects. Such peculiarities of that style as constant repetitions of the same words, and breaking up the verse into fragmentary syllables, could only disfigure the true Song, which requires an even adjustment of words and music, without any sacrifice of one to the other.
The Opera, on the other hand, was of immense benefit to the Song by establishing the monodic system, and thus teaching composers to attend to the meaning of the words they set, with a view to its reproduction in the music. But it would be superfluous to dwell again on the value of that 'expressive monodia' which was introduced by Caccini in Italy, by Lawes in England, and by Albert in Germany. [Monodia, vol. ii. 354.]
The reader will also have observed the necessary dependence of the Song upon poetry. Until the poet supplies lyrics of adequate power and beauty of form, the skill of the composer alone cannot develope the full capacities of the Song. When however poets and composers of the first rank have worked together in mutual sympathy and admiration, as did the German poets and composers of Goethe's age, the Song has quickly mounted to the loftiest heights of art. Again, poets and composers are alike the children of their times, and vividly reflect the dominant emotions of the hour and the scene in which they live. History colours every branch of Art, and none more so than the Song, for it is the first and simplest mode of giving expression to strong feeling. Men naturally sing of that of which their heads and hearts are full; and thus there is a close correspondence between great historic events and the multitude of songs to which they almost invariably give birth. From wars have issued songs of victory, and other martial odes; from keen political struggles, songs or satire; from religious reformations, majestic hymns and chorales; and from revolutions, impassioned songs of liberty.
Time alone can produce men of genius and breathe the inspiration of great events; but even with these reservations, there is ample scope for the improvement of the Song in our own country by talent and conscientious study. In wealth of splendid poetry England has no superior; and it is singular that her great poets have not left deeper marks upon the Song in music. No effect, for instance, was produced on it by the group of fine poets to which Byron and Shelley belonged, comparable with the effect which the lyrics of Goethe and his contemporaries had upon it in Germany. Some would explain the anomaly by the deficient culture of English musicians at most periods of our history. Others might justly point to the irregular accentuations of English verse as presenting special difficulties to the composer. But no single circumstance has been more injurious to English Song than our extravagant and long-cherished preference for the Italian opera. Of that indifference to the meaning of words, in which it trained the English public, enough has been said already and need not be repeated here. Happily now there is a change for the better, and English composers are at last alive to the importance of the words.
No branch of music has been so freely handled by inferior and unpractised composers as the Song. It certainly does not require so accurate a knowledge of formal principles as other kinds of music; and thus seems to invite the inexperienced hand. But in truth it demands, and is worthy of the most serious study. The simple 'guitar accompaniments' of other days no ​longer satisfy: full and elaborate accompaniments, having a beauty of their own apart from the voice, are now looked for. And although exception has been taken to this development of the accompaniment as a device to conceal poverty of melodic invention, it cannot be gainsaid that the charm and interest of a song are enhanced by a well conceived and appropriate pianoforte part. Again, no song can be really good without correct accentuation and emphasis; but how few composers seem to have studied this element of composition. If the reader will only turn to the article on Accent in this Dictionary, he will soon perceive its immense importance. It is much to be desired that we had in English some work like M. Matthis Lussy's excellent Treatise on Musical Expression. Clear rules will be found there for the correspondence between the musical rhythm and the verse rhythm, with examples showing how the sense of the musical phrase may be destroyed, if it be interrupted by a new line of the verse, and how the verse in turn may be marred by the interruption of rests or pauses in the musical phrase. There the student may learn why the strong and weak accents of the music should coincide with the long and short syllables of the verse, and the cases in which departures from this rule are justifiable. There also the proper relation of musical cadence to grammatical punctuation, and many another point in the art of composition, are illustrated by instructive examples.
In connection with essential requisites of the Song, much might be said about the sound of the words in the voice part, about the incidence of open words on certain notes, and careful combinations of consonants. Much, too, of the duties and responsibilities of the singer with regard to accentuation and phrasing. But the discussion of such topics would carry us far beyond the history of the Song, and the space already traversed is more than wide enough.
[ A. H. W. ]
* ↑ Thus in Greek the poet was the ποιητής, or 'maker.'
* ↑ Burney and Perne put these examples into modern notation, and where they differ, Burney's are the small notes. See Ambros, 'Geschichte,' ii. 224–228.
* ↑ Arteaga, in his 'Le Rivoluzioni del Teatro Musicale Italiano," gives the words of a Ballata of the 13th century by Frederick II.; and of another Ballata by Dante. (See pp. 187 and 190.)
* ↑ For examples by Cambio (1547) and Donati (about the same date), see Kiesewetter's 'Schicksale und Beschaffenheit des weltlichen Gesanges,' Appendices Nos. xxii. and xxlii. Several collections of Villanelle still exist, and amongst others an important one in Naples.
* ↑ 'Without keeping to the time, as if speaking in accordance with, the already expressed disdain.'
* ↑ For the existing collections of Rossi's 'Monodie' see the article on Rossi.
* ↑ Salvator Rosa certainly was Carissimi's contemporary, but the examples Burney gives in his History show that he wrote much like the abovementioned composers.
* ↑ 'L'Homme arme' is a well-known example.
* ↑ The Canzoni alla Francese were mostly written in four parts; many of them were canons.
* ↑ This adaptation was probably made during the war of 1859, in which France assisted Italy to liberate herself from the yoke of Austria.
* ↑ This most popular air is a striking illustration of the fortuitous manner in which songs sometimes acquire a national renown. The circumstances which made 'Daghela avanti un passo' famous were as follows. In 1858, when Milan was a hot-bed of Italian conspiracy and intrigue against the Austrian rule in Lombardy, the performance of a ballet-dancer at the Teatro della Cannoblana was received by the spectators with mingled expressions of approval and disapproval, which gave rise to disorder in the theatre. The police interfered, and took the part of the majority, whose opinion was adverse to the danseuse. This at once enlisted the popular sympathies on her side, and her cause was thenceforth identified with patriotic aspirations. Further disturbances followed, and the police stopped the run of the ballet. Thereupon the tune to which the ballet-girl danced her passo a solo passed into the streets of Milan and was heard everywhere, sung by the populace with words partly Italian and partly Milanese. It was a hybrid song of love and war. with the refrain 'daghela avanti un passo' (meaning 'move a step forward'), and it was received by the public as an exhortation to patriotic action. To Austrian ears the tune and the words were an insolent challenge, and they were not forgotten when war was declared a few months later between Austria and the kingdom of Piedmont. 'Daghela avanti un passo' was then played in derision by the military bands of Austria, while her troops were advancing from Lombardy into Piedmont. But Austria was soon compelled to evacuate Piedmont, and her retreating armies ever heard the same song sung by the advancing soldiers of Italy. Province after province was subsequently annexed to Piedmont and with each successive annexation the area of the popularity of 'Daghela avanti un passo' was extended, until it was heard all over the Italian kingdom. This is its melody:— Audio playback is not supported in your browser. You can download the audio file.
* ↑ It is curious to note how limited is the compass of voice for which modern Italian composers write songs intended to circulate and be sung in foreign countries, while the songs that they write for the home market of Italy often exceeds two octaves.
* ↑ This example is taken from MM. Mathis Lussy's and Ernest David's 'Histoire de la Notation Musicale,' p. 106.
* ↑ Burney, History of Music, vol. ii. p. 803. These volumes are still preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
* ↑ See Ambros, Geschichte der Musik, vol. ii. p. 295.
* ↑ See Du Mersan, 'Chants et Chansons populaires.'
* ↑ This song is to be found in the 'Revue Musicale,' vol. xii. no. 34.
* ↑ See Ambros, 'Gesch. d. Musik,' vol. iii. pp. 15, 16, etc.
* ↑ 'Wekerlin says, in his 'Echos du Temps passé.' vol. iii, p. 136, that when any dance air became popular, rhymers immediately 'parodied' it; i.e. put words to it, so that it could be sung. The term 'parody' thus used had no sense of burlesque, but simply meant adaptation. The celebrated publishers and editors, 'La famille Ballard,' issued a quantity of these songs: 'L'Abeille,' a well-known example, is really a minuet.
* ↑ See Douen, 'Clément Marot et le Psautier Hugenot,' vol. i. p. 606.
* ↑ According to Douen (vol. i. pp. 688 and 703) the Roman Catholics have never ceased to adapt secular airs to ecclesiastical uses from the 16th century down to the present time; and he supports the statement by reference to 'La pieuse Alouette avec son tire-lire: Chansons Spirituelles, le plupart sur les air mondains, par. Ant. de la Cauchie. 1619'; 'Imitation de Jésus-Christ en Cantiques sur des airs d'Opéras et de Vaudevilles, par Abbé Pelegrin, 1727 (Paris)'; and 'Concerts Spirituelles,' a collection published at Avignon in 1835, of masses, requiems, hymns, prayers, proses, etc., on operatic melodies by Gluck, Piccinni, Mozart, Cimarosa, Rossini, Méhul, and others.
* ↑ In attributing the invention of the vaudeville to Basselin, a musician of the second half of the 15th century, Rousseau and others have confused it with the vaux-de-vire. Basselin and Jean le Houx who lived in the little valley (vaux) around Vire, in Normandy, wrote many favourite drinking-songs, and hence drinking-songs came to be called vaux-de-vire. But vaudeville is a corruption of voix-de-ville, an old term originally applied to chansons sung in the streets, and afterwards extended to all songs with gay airs and light words.
* ↑ Pierre Vermont is mentioned by Rabelais in the prologue to the second book of 'Pantagruel.'
* ↑ When public opinion first ceased to approve this practice, composers did not at once abandon it, but they no longer produced pieces which were avowedly parodies or adaptations; it now became their habit to attach their names to all their melodies, whether they were original or borrowed. As Scudo, for instance, observes in his 'Critique et Literature musicales,' the words of 'Charmante Gabrlelle' were no more written by Henri IV. than its music was written by his matire de chapelle, Du Caurroy. The air is really an old Noël of unknown authorship; and probably some court poet, Desportes perhaps, wrote the words by order of the king. [See Gabrielle, Charmante, vol. 1. p. 672.]
* ↑ See Wekerlin, 'Echos du Temps passé,' vol. iii. p. 10.
* ↑ Pierre Guédron, bora about 1565, was a singer in the King's band at Paris, and in 1601 succeeded Claude Lejeune as composer to the same. He was a great composer of Ballets, and was one of the chief persons to bring about the great monodic revolution, by which solo songs ousted the polyphonic compositions that had for so long ruled. A large number were published by the Ballards between 1606 and 1650. Guédron's son-in-law, Antoine Boësset, was not only the favourite song-composer, but also the best lutenist of his time. [See Boesset, vol. i. p. 296.]
* ↑ Brunette is defined by Diderot and d'Alembert. In their encyclopædia, to be a kind of chanson, with an easy and simple air, and written in a style which is gallant, but without affectation, and often tender and playful. The term is generally believed to have come from the young girls, 'petites brunes' or 'brunettes,' to whom these songs were so frequently addressed. Ballard however maintains that the term was derived from the great popularity of a particular song in which the word was used. A well-known specimen is 'Dans notre village,' called in some collections 'Nous étions trois filles à marier,' and attributed to Lefêvre.
* ↑ See Wekerlin, 'Echos du Temps passé,' vol. ii. p. 118.
* ↑ Still extant in tbe Conservatoire in Paris. [See Philidge.]
* ↑ For further mention of these political songs see Dict.
* ↑ This song has been called the 'Marseillaise' of the Thermidor reaction. ('La Lyre Française,' by G. Masson.)
* ↑ An old song of irregular metre, set to an old tune, and extremely popular from 1792 to about 1802.
* ↑ Scudo, In his 'Littérature et Critique musicales,' tells the following story of 'Reposez-vous, bon chevalier,' on the authority of Mlle. Cochelet, who was for a long time attached to Queen Hortense, 'Notwithstanding a slight cough, and the doctor's prohibition, the Queen continued to sing more than was good for her. In the morning she used to compose her romances, being then alone, and in the evening she played them in her salon, allowing her audience to criticise. M. Alexandre de Laborde was the author whose words she generally selected to set to music. His was "Partant pour la Syrie." Such was the ease with which the Queen composed the melodies of her romances that she attached little value to them. And she was on the point of tearing up "Reposez-vous, bon chevalier," because in the evening when she gave it, several persons confessed that they did not like it. Luckily, Carbonnel was consulted, and he pronounced the air to be the very best that the Queen had as yet composed.'
* ↑ See 'Geschichte der Musik,' vol. ii. p. 242.
* ↑ With good reason therefore Villemarqué, in his admirable collection, gives the songs in their own dialect besides the translation. (See 'Barzas Brelz. chants populaires de la Bretagne. par H. de la Villemarqué.')
* ↑ The fashion of making such collections of poetry, generally called cancioneros, was very common in Spain just before and after the introduction of printing. Many of these collections, both In manuscript and printed, are preserved. The Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, contains no less than seven. See 'Catalogo de MSS. Españoles en la Biblioteca Real de Paris,' Paris 1844, 4to. pp. 378–525. For further information see Ticknor's 'History of Spanish Literature,' chap, xxiii. p. 391.
* ↑ There may, however, still be in existence more of ancient Spanish music, both polyphonic and monodic, both ecclesiastical and secular, than we are aware of. Owing to the jealousy with which foreigners are excluded from Spanish libraries valuable specimens of ancient music may yet survive, unknown to us. In an account of Spanish music, published in the 19th vol. (No. I) of the 'Académic Royale de Belgique,' Gevaert complains of the difficulties thrown in his way.
* ↑ See 'Echos de l'Espagne,' p. 83, where MM. Lacome and J. Pulgy Alsubide give a Malagueña faithfully transcribed from the lips of blind beggars. The blindness of these singers gives a certain value to the derivation of the name Chaconne, from cisco 'blind.'
* ↑ 'Une sorte de grupetto intraduisible, qui est à la phrase musical ce qu'est une paraphe précurseur d'une majuscule dans certaines exercises calligraphiques.' (Madame, de la Villehélio's 'Airs Basques.') Thus the Austrian violin-player at Milan began the Adagio of the Kreutzer Sonata (Mendelssohn's letter, May 1831); and thus too does Mendelssohn's own Quartet in E♭ begin with a grupetto.
* ↑ See 'An Introduction to the Study of National Music' (p. 350), by the late Carl Engel.
* ↑ Songs and dances often derive their names from the provinces or towns in which they are indigenous; thus rondena from Ronda, malagueña from Malaga, etc., etc.
* ↑ Though the last two composers have made contributions to song-literature, they have really won their laurels in other fields of music. [See Eslava, vol. i. p. 194b.]
* ↑ Nos. 3, 7, and 11 in the collection called 'Album de Musicas Nacionaes Portuguezas,' by J. A. Ribas, will give the reader some idea of this kind of song; but they are spoilt by the modern accompaniment.
* ↑ 'As Janeiros' and 'Os Reis' are especially sung on the respective eves of the New Year and of the Epiphany. The minstrels go from door to door in the evening, singing the praises of the inmates of the houses, and accompanying their songs with metal triangles, bells, etc. They are generally rewarded by the master of the house with money, sausages, or dried figs. But if they get nothing they sing— 'Esta casa cheira a breu Aqui mora algum judeu' (This house smells of tar; Some Jew lives here); or else— 'Esta casa cheira a unto Aqui mora algum defunto' (This house smells of ointment; there is a dead body in it).
* ↑ The last two are contained in the collection by Ribas, to which reference is made in a preceding note.
* ↑ See vol. iii. p. 268; also {{sc|Sumer is icumen in.
* ↑ See Riley's 'Liber Custumarum,' p. 589.
* ↑ Chappell's 'Popular Music,' vol. i. p. 45.
* ↑ Mr. Chappell further says that when Henry V entered the city of London in triumph after the battle of Agincourt.… 'boys with pleasing voices were placed in artificial turrets singing verses in his praise. But Henry ordered this part of the pagentry to cease, and commanded that for the future no ditties should be made and sung by Minstrels or "others," in praise of the recent victory; "for that he would whollie have the praise and thanks altogether given to God." Nevertheless, among many others, a minstrel piece soon appeared on the Seyge of Harflett (Harfleur) and the Battayle of Agynkourte, "evidently," says Warton, "adapted to the harp," and of which he has printed some portions. (Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. ii. p. 257.) Also the following song (see above) which Percy has printed in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, from a MS. In the Pepysian Library, and Stafford Smith, in his collection of English Songs (1779 fol.), in fac-simile of the old notation, as well as in modern score.'—'Popular Music,' i. 39.
* ↑ Miss O. Prescott, 'Form or Design in Vocal Music,' Musical World, vol. 59.
* ↑ See Burney, vol. ii. p. 539.
* ↑ See Chappell's 'Popular Music.' vol. 1. p. 106. Most of the information in the text relating to Ballads has been taken from Mr. Chappell's work.
* ↑ Orlando Gibbons's 'Silver swan,' a 5-part madrigal, is given in the 'Echos du Temps passé,' as a soprano solo with accompaniment—'Le chant du croisé'—an unjustifiable act no doubt, but a strong testimony to Gibbons's melody. 'In going to my lonely bed,' by Edwardes—50 years earlier than Gibbons might be similarly treated.
* ↑ Hullah's 'Transition Period,' p. 183.
* ↑ See Monodia.
* ↑ Burney's 'History,' vol. iii. p. 395.
* ↑ The reader will find the dates, biographies, and lists of works of the composers mentioned in the text under the separate notices of them in this Dictionary.
* ↑ See Sonnet addressed to Lawes by Milton in 1645–6.
* ↑ Page 13 of 'Ayres and Dialogues For One, Two and Three voyces. By Henry Lawes Servant to his late Ma$^{tie}$ in his publick and private Musick. The First Booke. London, Printed by T. H. for John Playford, and are to be sold at his Shop, in the Inner Temple, near the Church door, 1653.' (The words are by Waller.) Reprinted in Book I. of Playford's 'Treasury of Musick' in 1669. The song will be found with an expanded accompaniment in Hullah's English Songs.
* ↑ Hullah's 'Transition Period of Musical History,' p. 203.
* ↑ See Hullah's preface to 'English Songs of the 17th and 18th centuries.'
* ↑ The remarks in the text are largely borrowed from an article by Miss O. Prescott, entitled 'Form or Design in Vocal Music.' See Musical World, 1881, col. 59.
* ↑ The reiteration of the final note In the cadences of this song would seem to indicate an Irish origin. [See vol. ii. p. 21b.]
* ↑ Most indeed of the best songs of a period extending from Purcell's time down to the early part of the present century were once as it were embedded in dramatic pieces; but those pieces have faded into oblivion, while the songs have survived, without their original environment, in the favour of successive generations. As dramatic forms of song these compositions lie outside the scope of the present article, but as national and popular songs they come within it. A list of 40 operas, entirely set to current popular airs, and produced between 1728 and 1740, is given under English Opera, vol. 1. p. 489.
* ↑ See Moore; and Irish Music.
* ↑ The 'Old English Gentleman,' published in 1832, and still popular, is a variation by C. H. Furday of a song or chant called 'The Old Queen's Courtier,' first published in 1667.
* ↑ Runo means 'air,' or 'ballad,' and has nothing to do with the Anglo-Saxon or German runes, or runic writing stones. The singer Is called by the Fins Runoja or Runolainen.
* ↑ Marking the time by double tapping of the toe and heel is unInterruptedly carried on by the peasant whilst playing all the while brilliantly on this instrument.
* ↑ This district was called the Strichgegend, or knitting-district, because until quite recently the peasants used to meet of a winter's evening in different homes, knitting woollen goods and relating or singing tales, songs, ballads, and legends. Their wealth of songs was so great that in many places the same song was not allowed to be sung more than once a year. (See Dr. von Ravn's article on Scandinavian Music, p. 587.)
* ↑ See Engel, 'National Music,' pp. 84, 174.
* ↑ Carl Michael Bellman, 1740–1795, was a very remarkable and original lyrical genius. It is true that he was more of a poet than a musician, for he himself wrote most of his wonderful 'Fredmans Epistlar' and 'Sånger' (among which the splendid humorous pictures from the life of the people in Stockholm are especially noticeable); but he set them chiefly to popular French melodies, which were at that time greatly in vogue. His original melodies are inferior to those he borrowed from foreign sources.
* ↑ On the death of the poet's wife, whose friend he was.
* ↑ Kjerulf seems to have had a special prelerence for English poets, many of his finest songs being set to the words of Moore, Byron, Burns, and Mackay.
* ↑ 'King Christian stood by the lofty mast.' This song, with an excellent translation, is to be found in Boosey's Royal Song Books (Scandinavia).
* ↑ Arranged by Dr. Pressel, whose account of Hungarian Music, in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. xxxvi. is both accurate and interesting. It is included in Boosey's Royal Song Books. (See p. 80 of Songs of Eastern Europe.)
* ↑ Bach has a long and not dissimilar passage on the word 'weinete,' à propos to Peter's weeping, in his Passion Music of S. Matthew and S. John.
* ↑ If it were possible, it would be convenient to trace the rise and decline of particular kinds of songs in separate and clearly defined sections of time; but this is altogether impossible, because their respective periods are interlaced with one another. Thus, the volksthümliches Lied had come into existence while the Ode and the Aria were at their zenith; and, again, composers were using the Aria form ven after the introduction of the lyric song.—Another observatioi should be made here. Some German musical terms have no exact English equivalents: attempts to translate them would simply mislead. They are, therefore, used in the text, but the reader will find explanations of their meaning.
* ↑ Fr. Heinrich v. d. Hagen's work on the 'Minnesinger' is the best authority to consult. The reader will find in its fourth volume a very instructive essay on the music of the Minnesinger, together with many examples of their melodies, some of which are transcribed la facsimile, while others are given in modern notation.
* ↑ From the Jena MSS. Hagen gives this example in its original notation (iv. 843. No. xxix).
* ↑ The origin of the term 'Meistersinger' is uncertain. Ambros says that it was applied to every Minnesinger who was not a noble, and thus became the distinguishing appellation of the burgher minstrels. Reissmann, however, maintains that the title Meister indicated excellence in any act or trade; and that having been at first conferred only on the best singers, it was afterwards extended to all members of the guilds.
* ↑ A complete collection of Frauenlob's poems was published in 1843 by Ettmüller at Quedlinburg.
* ↑ The celebrated chorale 'Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz' was long believed to be the work of Hans Sachs; but it has been conclusively shown by Böhme in his 'Altdeutsches Liederbuch,' p. 748, that the words were written by Georgius Aemilius Oemler, and then set to the old secular melody Dein gsund mein freud.'
* ↑ Both are partially reprinted in Büsching's 'Sammlung für altdeutsche Literatur.'
* ↑ A similar thing occurs in the 'Lamentations' of the Roman Church, which begin 'Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiæ prophetæ. Aleph.'
* ↑ According to Böhme, in the Preface to his 'Altd. Liederbuch,' p. xxiii, the writers of the Volkslieder never signed their names, while the Meistersinger generally introduced his own name, and very often the date of his composition, into the last rhyme of the poem. A Meistersinger's song can thus be distinguished from a true Volkslied.
* ↑ See Böhme's 'Altd. Liederbuch,' p. 366.
* ↑ Ambros, Gesch. der Musik. ii. 276.
* ↑ ii. 277.
* ↑ See iii. 375.
* ↑ One of the best modern collections of these old Volkslieder is by R. von Lillencron, published in Leipzig, 1865–9, under the title of 'Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen vom 13ten bis 16ten Jahrhundert,' and containing many annotations.
* ↑ See Böhme, p. 335. The melody and words of this example are taken from the 'Gassenhawerlin,' 1535, no. 1. There are many versions of this fine melody: we often find it in collections subsequent to 1540. set to the morning hymn 'Ich dank Dir, Hebe Herre,' and with this setting it appears in all chorale-books down to the present day.
* ↑ Georg Forster, 'Ein Ausszug guter alter, neuer Teutschen Liedlein in fünf Theilen und mehrfach neu aufgelegt in der Zeit von 1539–1556,' i. 49. This is one of the numerous versions of the old legend of the Swimmer. Another version commences 'Ach Eislein, liebes Eiselein,' which is found in all the old collections of the 16th century. For instance, in Joh. Ott, 1534, no. 37; Schmeltzel, Quodlibet x. 1544; Rhaw, Bicinia ii. 1545. no. 19. etc. In Hans Judenkönig's (1523) and Hans Neusledler's (1536) Lute-books, the melody is always in A minor with the G♯ marked. In the singing-books the sharp was never marked, but undoubtedly always used. In Neusledler's Lutebook it stands thus:—
* ↑ Ambros, iii. 375.
* ↑ Georg Forster, i. no. 36.
* ↑ Böhme, Altd. Liederbuch, p. 332; and Isaak, in this Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 22.
* ↑ The song is to be found in Hans Leo Hassler's 'Lustgarten neuer teutsches Gesänge, Palletti, Galliarden, Intraden, etc.' Nürnberg, 1601.
* ↑ See Böhme, pp. 368, 369. etc.
* ↑ See the Erfurt Chorale-book for instance.
* ↑ See Böhme, pp. 521, 522, 523.
* ↑ As to the Swedish version of the song, see Svenska Volksvisor, vol. i. p. 108, and vol. ii. p. 210.
* ↑ See Crosby's 'Scottish Songs,' p. 58.
* ↑ All these songs, and numerous others, are contained in the different numbers of Johann Olt's [App. p.795 "for Olt read Ott"] and Georg Forster's collections.
* ↑ The very much wider signification which the term Kunstlied afterwards acquired has been referred to at the outset of this article.
* ↑ See Reissmann. Gesch. d. deutschen Liedes, p. 69.
* ↑ Ibid. p. 72.
* ↑ See 'Tricinia nova lieblicher amorosischer Gesänge mit schönen poetischen Texten gezieret und etlicher Massen nach Italienischer Art mit Fleiss componirt durch Melchior Francken,' Nürnberg, 1611; and 'Kurzweilige teutsche Lieder zu dreien Stimmen nach Art der Neapolitanen oder Welschen Villanellen durch Jacobus lieguart in Druck verfertigt,' Nürnberg, 1578.
* ↑ In this song the voice has the upper melody, and the clavicembalo the two under parts.
* ↑ See the preface to his Cantata collection. See also Lindner, 'Geschichte des deutschen Liedes im xviii Jahrhundert,' p. 53.
* ↑ Full information respecting these songs, and abundant examples will be found in Lindner's work referred to in the preceding note.
* ↑ But the authenticity of this is much questioned by Spitta (Bach i. 834).
* ↑ In the Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge.
* ↑ See Schneider, 'Das musikalische Lied.' vol. iii. p. 190.
* ↑ The term 'volksthümliches Lied,' defies exact translation; but speaking broadly, means a simple popular form of the artistic song.
* ↑ The reader will find a multitude of others in the various collections which are constantly issuing from the musical press of Germany. He may, for instance, consult Fink's 'Musikalischer Hausschatz,' or the 'Commers-Buch für den deutschen Studenten,' containing Studenten-, Soldaten-, Trink-, Fest-, National-, Mädchen-, Kinderlieder, etc.
* ↑ For the origin of this see Haydn (vol. i. p. 714), and Emperor's Hymn.
* ↑ See Schneider, 'Ges. d. Liedes,' vol. iii. p. 369.
* ↑ For expositions of this song see Schneider, vol. iii. p. 290, and Reissmann, 'Ges. d. deut. Liedes,' p. 207.
* ↑ See Reissmann, p. 167. It is worth while to note that Weber himself says, in his literary works, that 'strict truth in declamation is the first and foremost requisite of vocal music … any vocal music that alters or effaces the poet's meaning and intention is a failure.'
* ↑ The reader should also consult Reissmann's 'Das deutsche Lied in seiner historischen Entwicklung,' and his 'Ges. d. deutsch. Liedes.'
* ↑ Reissmann, in his Gesch. d. deutsch. Liedes,' p. 220, compares the handling of Goethe's songs by the Berlin composers with Schubert's handling of them, and conclusively shows the great superiority of the latter.
* ↑ These, however, have no cyclical intention, but were put together by the publisher after Schubert's death.
* ↑ Of this kind is the 'durchkomponirtes Lied,' i.e. through-composed song, in which each stanza is differently treated.
* ↑ See his 'Gesch. d. deutsch. Liedes,' pp. 220 to 242.
* ↑ It has been remarked that the mere playing through of a song of Schubert enables a practised ear to recognise at once the poet to whose words the music was written. It would be quite impossible to do this with regard to Mendelssohn's songs.
* ↑ See Schumann, vol. iii. p. 412.
* ↑ See under Schumann, vol. iii. p. 412.
* ↑ See the end of 'Frauenllebe und Leben,' and of the exquisita 2-part song 'Grossvater und Grossmutter.'
* ↑ See Vischer's 'Aesthetik,' part iii. p. 996; and Reissmann's 'Das deutsche Lied,' p. 236.
* ↑ 'It was the result of an irresistible necessity,' wrote Franz to a friend, 'that I cultivated the Song-form almost exclusively, and wrote very little else: I afterwards became convinced that my own particular talent culminated in this form. On principle, therefore, I have kept to this path, and should with difficulty be persuaded to try my luck in any other.'
* ↑ See Ambros, 'Bunte Blätter.' p. 801.
* ↑ Reissmann. 'Gesch. d. deutschen Liedes,' p. 279.
* ↑ See Brahms, vol. i. p. 270.
* ↑ See his 'Weihnachtslieder.' op. 8.
* ↑ Examples, for instance, are given from Schubert of declamatory and interrogative accents.
* ↑ Traité de l'expression musicale, par M. Matthis Lussy. Paris, 1881.