Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-02-06
HOW GREAT MUSIC is WRITTEN.
Old Tunes Picked Up by the Classic Com
posers and Then Worked Over.


Posers and Then Worked Over.
A complete edition of the works of
Handel has been in course of publication
during the last few years under the chief
editorship of Friedrich Chrysander. 1t
is illustrated with all the information
which can be collected about each work
and each step in the great composers s
career, including the circumstances
which gave birth to each work and un-
der which it was put together, not for
getting the sources laid under contribu.
ton by the master for the accomplish
ment of his task. The supplementary
volume of this edition, published in the
autumn of last year, contains collec-
ton of earlier pieces which served as
sources for several portions for the
Israel in Egypt" 1t is from this vol
ume and its notes that Julius Stock
hausen, writer in The Frankfurter
Zeitung, draws the materials for a brief
but interesting communication.
One hears often the complaint that this
or that piece of music is not "original." +"
1t is charged against the composer that
he has borrowed from others, sometimes
even from himself. If we had the cur
rent criticisms of the preceding periods
we might be amused or surprised by
finding similar diatribes on the contem-
porary musicians and their works. Trac-
ing up the history of musical compost
ton into the Middle Ages we find that
even the most distinguished composers
had neither difficulty nor scruple as to
borrowing from the works of those who
had gone before them.
One of the great facts of the history of
music is the free use, the very much too
free use, made of popular tunes by the
composers of church music down into
the Sixteenth century. Themes neither
reverent nor edifying were made the
basis of mass, developed into fugues
or canons, so that the less devout men,
bers of a congregation might have their
pleasurable faculties fully gratifed,
chanted by the choir or rolled out by
the organ while they were assisting at a
religious service. Even the great re-
former himself, Palestrina, borrowed in
more than one way. He himself wrote
church music on proper themes; he re-
constructed, if we may say so, more
than one work of former composer,
just as Shakespeare judiciously edited
an already existing play, and he directly
borrowed, as when he turned the "Ave
Maria" of the Spanish composer, Fer
nando de las Casas, into piece for sew
eral voices. No one dreams of imputing
as fault to Palestrina or the other
earlier composers of church music this
free use of materials ready to their hand,
any more than we should now censure
M. Gounod for developing theme of
Bach's into well known religious piece
Stockhausen, proceeding on the infor-
nation and the actual cases given by
Chrysander, puts before his readers a
list of the pieces from which the best
known and most favorite passages of the
"Israel in Egypt" are borrowed. Han
del was a great admirer and diligent
student of Italian music. This is not to
be wondered at, seeing that there was
practically little other music at the time,
at least in so advanced and organized a
condition. 1t is not, then, surprising
that "Magnifcat" of Erba, published
about 1890, and a serenade of Stradella,
who lived about the same time, have
been pressed into the service for the
"Israel." The editor, Chrysander, also
cites STE Deum" by Uric as having
furnished material. But the "Magnif-
cat" and the serenade are published in
the edition of Handels works as an ap-
pendix, while the "Te Deum' has not
yet appeared. 1t will be new and pos
sibly disappointing to many lovers of
Handelian oratorio to be told that no
less than fifteen numbers of the "Irael
in Egypt" have been taken from the
'Magnifcat' and the serenade, as any
one may verify by comparison. The
writer gives list of the passages en-
ployed in the oratorio by Handel. Nine
numbers have been taken from the
"Magni6cat." Among them are:
The chorus: "He is my God"
Soprano duet: "The Lord is my
strength"
The chorus: "He rebuked the Red sea. u
The fragment: "Thy right hand, O
Lord"
The great duet for two bases: "The
Lord is a man of war;"
The chorus: "Thy sendest forth thy
wrath"
Chorus: "And with blast of thy nos
trils."
Duet: "Thou in thy mercy"
Chorus: 'sThe earth swallowed them.
Six numbers are taken from the sere'
made. But there is this difference, that
while the passages from Erba's "Magnifi'
cat" are usually transferred with little
change, Stradella's music furnishes ordi
narily only the theme or suggestion which
Handel works out. Among these are:
Chorus: "He led them forth like Sheep
and the chorus: "He spoke the word"
The "Hailstone" chorus seems to have
been taken from both authors. Chrys
ander shows how Handel took more thar
the suggestion Of his italian chamber
duets" from an Italian composer, Stef
ami; and again, copying from himself
borrowed from those very duets some Of
choruses in "The Messiah;" among them
"For unto us a child is born," "Hii
yoke is sweet" He gives an astonish
ing List Of pieces by great composers
1 y A