Scan 11
Musical Courier 1895-06-26: Vol 30 Iss 799, 1895
105 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
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1BOSTON, Mass., June 23, 1895.
3I HAVE been much interested in A. Pirro's L'Orgue de Jean Sébastien Bach, and especially by the preface of Widor.
5Let me quote from this same preface. The views of Widor may provoke discussion. They throw light when you also consider the character of the organ at Saint Sulpice on his own compositions for the organ, which are a stumbling block to many.
7* * *
9"The art of organ playing has not changed since the time of J. S. Bach; on the other hand, organs have been remarkably improved. Listen to those in Saint Sulpice and Notre Dame, Paris, and in Saint Ouen, Rouen.
11"In the old instruments, the reeds were scarcely used except as basses reinforcing the pedal; or as solo stops, like the 'hautbois' and 'cromorne'; our sonorous luxuriosness of clarions, trumpets and 'bombardes' was then utterly unknown. 'Organo pleno' did not then mean a whole artillery of 4, 8, 16, 32 foot stops, but it was simply a direction to use some 'prestants' (4 foot) and mixtures with an open or stopped diapason. No one suspected the possibility of graduating the intensity of one and the same tone. * * *
13"To-day the general public believes that the organ is almost as expressive an instrument as the orchestra.
15"Grave mistake! I here repeat: expression conveyed by means of a modern organ can only be subjective; it is the result of mechanism, it knows not spontaneity. The string and wind instruments of the orchestra, the piano, human voices, reign only by the impulse of accent, the unexpectedness of attack; the organ, restricted by its original majesty, speaks as a philosopher. It is the sole instrument that can give forth indefinitely the same volume of tone, and thus give birth to the religious idea of infinity.
17"A thoroughly earnest organist will only employ expressive means architecturally; that is, by lines and by planes. By lines, when he passes slowly from piano to forte by an almost imperceptible grade, in constant progression, without halting or jolting. By planes, when he takes advantage of a rest to close suddenly the box, between a forte and a piano.
19"To endeavor to reproduce the expressive tones of an E string or a human throat is to turn the organ into an accordion.
21"The chief characteristic of the organ is its grandeur; that is, to say, its will, its force. Every unreasonable change in intensity of tone, every nuance that could only be represented in drawing by a straight line, is an outrage; it is a crime of high treason against art.
23"Organists that 'accordionize,' arpeggio, bind lamely, and are inexact in rhythm should be published as criminals, held up to public contempt.
25"There should be the greatest exactness on the organ, as in the orchestra; the ensemble of feet and hands is rigorously necessary, whether you attack or quit the keyboards. All tones placed by the composer in the same perpendicular should begin and stop at the same time, as obeying a conductor's baton. But you find here and there some unfortunate who keeps his feet on the pedals and forgets that they are there, although the composition was over long ago.
27"Such a one was the old viola player at the Opéra, who always fell asleep at the beginning of the fourth act and was roused by his good-natured companions at the end of the performance. It was a tradition. One fine day there was a change in the management; the tradition was also changed; it was forbidden to awaken him. They were singing The Prophet. Neither the orchestral din, nor the overthrow of the palace by shocks of dynamite, nor the noise of the players and the audience leaving the hall disturbed his dream. When he opened his eyes in the black darkness he thought that he was in the Shades, as Orpheus, and, endeavoring to get out, he ran his lowered head into the drums, which burst. The next day they allowed him to demand the pension of retirement.
29"I should like to know what a conductor would say if, when he had given the final beat of the stick, the third trombone continued tranquilly to hold his tone? From what savage cave could such a barbarous custom have emerged? And yet this fashion was widespread some years ago; it was a veritable epidemic.
31"Guilty indeed are those organists who do not bind together rigorously the four voices of polyphony—the tenor as the soprano, the alto as the bass. In the gigantic works of Bach you will find only two or three passages, two or three measures, that outstrip the hand's ability of extension. Now wonder at the art of the fine old fellow. A moment before, a moment after, rests are cunningly introduced, so there is time to push in and then to pull out the pedal 16 feet, and you can play with pedals coupled to the keyboard the notes impossible to play strictly legato with the fingers alone. With these few exceptions, justified fully by the walk of the voices, Bach's works are written admirably, judged from this point of view, as from other points of view.
33"Here let me digress: let us consider the matter of articulation.
35"A piano hammer strikes a string ten times in a second, and our ears perceive easily the ten attacks, as the sound immediately vanishes. If we wish to hear clearly on the organ the repetitions of attack in a lively movement or even in a movement of moderate pace, it is necessary to leave between each repetition a silence equal to the duration of the sound. I formulate this law thus: Every note of articulation loses half its value."
37Here Widor gives musical examples.
39"The rests"—the illustration is the dux of Bach's G major fugue—"are equal in duration to the sixteenths.
41"Now, if it is a question of long values in slow movements, it is clear that the spirit, not the letter, of this law should be regarded."
43Widor takes this example: Adagio, common time; C dotted half, C quarter, C half, C half, C whole.
45"Here it would be ridiculous to shorten the first C dotted half one half."
47And Widor gives this reading: C half tied to an eighth; eighth rest, eighth note; eighth rest—quarter tied to eighth; eighth rest—quarter tied to eighth; eighth rest; whole.
49"A freely detached note is not allowed by the organ. Such a note becomes on this instrument a staccato, like that of string instruments—i.e., a series of equal sounds separated from each other by equal rests. Such notes are played with fingers as near the keys as possible and with slightly stiffened wrist.
51"Two voices that succeed each other on the same tone should be bound together, not articulated.
53"Just now in my mentioning the outrages on art I included indifference in rhythm.
55"What is rhythm?
57"It is the constant manifestation of the will at the periodic return of the strong beat. It is only by rhythm that one commands attention. Especially on the organ do all accents and effects depend on rhythm. Push with all the might of your shoulders on the keyboard and you will gain nothing thereby. But delay for the tenth of a second the attack of a chord or prolong the chord almost infinitesimally and then judge of the effect produced. On a keyboard not inclosed in box, without applying any mechanism, with all the stops out, you obtain a crescendo by the simple augmentation of duration given progressively to chords or detached figures. To play the organ is to play with sense of chronometric values.
59"Woe to you if your pace is not absolutely regular, if your will is not manifested energetically at each respiration of the phrase, at each paragraph; if you allow yourself unconsciously to be led into hurrying.
61"Do you wish a lesson in rhythm? Listen to the enormous locomotives dragging behind them tons of merchandise; admire the formidable piston stroke, scanning each return of the strong beat, slowly but relentlessly, and you think you hear the footsteps of Fate. You shudder.
63"To be master of oneself it is necessary to abstain from useless motions, shiftings of body. A good organist sits upright on his bench, bending a little toward the keyboards, never resting his feet on the framework of the pedals, but letting his feet just touch the pedals, heels and knees each riveted together, so to speak.
65"Nature has granted us two very useful compasses; with the two heels pressed together the maximum of space between the toes is the fifth; with the two knees, it is the octave.
67"You will never gain sureness, precision, unless you bring this about; the shinbones as though bound together, the two feet incessantly in contact.
69"The foot should not attack the pedal perpendicularly, but from behind and advancing, skating a little, and noiselessly, the toe to one or two centimetres of the black keys.
71"Modern organ building has reached such a state of perfection that it is all we can do to avoid being dazzled by the brilliant riches at our disposal, and so turned far from the right path. We should not forget that all music, organ, orchestral, choral, rests on the quatuor. This is the true foundation of the language. Now the quatuor of the organ is the noble, clear sonority of the foundation stops of 8 feet. The basso continuo of some organists asleep on their pedals of 16 feet becomes quickly an intolerable persecution of the public. How angry you would be if you were obliged to hear the double basses growling away without stopping from the first to the last note of the symphony. Plainsong itself loses its eloquence, when it is thus interpreted; and yet the apparent monotony of its design, rigidly enclosed with the limits of an octave, would appear at first to accommodate itself better than any form of art to a uniform bass.
73"By no means, however. This apparent monotony exists only for those whose eyes do not see, whose ears do not hear.
75"Plainsong is of a complex order; it is two faced, like Janus. (Take, for instance, the most beautiful example of plainsong, the marvelous Te Deum. Vocalize it simply, sing it without words: accents, beauty, grandeur all disappear. Translate it, and sing the same music to a French or a German text—it is ridiculous. If the Catholic Church had not insisted on Latin as the liturgic language, we should not have had plainsong.) To understand plainsong you must hear at the same time words and music. By such synthesis in these times do the decadents, poets or musicians, strive after rejuvenescence.
77"The superb tones of the basses when the organ replies as a chorus should comment on the text, sustain it in its enthusiasm and not cheapen it by continual commonplace chattering.
79"The organ is a wind instrument; it must breathe. As has the literary phrase, so the musical phrase has its punctuation. As an orator changes his intonation, so the organ should vary its planes. Is there anything more insupportable than an improvisation, four-voiced, dawdling along monochromatically, without purpose, repose, contrast, design, beginning, middle or end? Maccaroni with cheese!"
81G. SCHIRMER'S COLLECTION OF STANDARD OPERAS.
83FAUST.
84Grand Opera in Five Acts.
85—BOOK BY—
86JULES BARBIER AND MICHEL CARRÉ.
87—MUSIC BY—
88CHARLES GOUNOD.
89Vocal Score.
90Price, Paper, $1.50 net; Cloth, $2.50 net.
91The only complete edition containing all the Ballet Music, Italian and English Text. A sumptuous edition, adorned with an engraving of the composer by Johnson.
92G. SCHIRMER, NEW YORK.
94WILLIAM C. CARL,
95CONCERT ORGANIST.
96Recitals AND Organ Openings.
97For dates, terms, &c address
986 W. 21st St.,
99NEW YORK.
101THE HENRY WOLFSOHN Musical Bureau.
102FOR THE BEST ARTISTS OBTAINABLE APPLY
103No. 131 East Seventeenth St.,
104NEW YORK CITY.
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