Scan 22
Musical Courier 1898-01-19: Vol 36 Iss 933, 1898
44 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 23. See the scan on archive.org.
1BOSTON, Mass., January 16, 1898.
3IN answer to a question proposed by you, I stated lately in THE COURIER that Reichardt was the first to set to music Goethe's "Erl King." I found no reason to doubt the men of authority whom I consulted. Alas! they prove to be blind leaders of the blind.
5I was in Albany the other day, and my friend, John Kautz—a musician of rare talent and deep learning—held a lanthorn to my feet which stumbled in darkness. He referred me to an article by Wilhelm Tappert, which was published in 1870. It is enough to say that the first composer of music to this ballad was a woman, Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schröter. Born at Warsaw in 1748, she was one of the most famous singers of the eighteenth century. She was especially admired for her delivery of adagio. In 1766 she was the chief ornament of the Leipzig Great Concerts. There she became acquainted with Goethe. Perhaps this friendship led to her being called to Weimar in 1778 as a ducal chamber-singer. She was pensioned in the nineties of the last century, and she tried play-acting, and sang in parlors to please her friends. She died at Weimar in 1802.
7Now, Corona composed as well as sang. Two collections of songs by her were published. The first is entitled "Fünf und zwanzig Lieder. In Musik gesetzt von Corona Schröter. Weimar, 1786." The "Erl King" is No. 17 of this collection.
9It is a little song. Eight measures are the same for each of the verses. The key is A major, hardly the key you would choose in these days for such a text, but Tappert recalls the remark of Mattheson in "Neueröffnetem Orchestra" (1713): "A major is more suitable for lamentation and mournful passions than for diversion." The compass is from B below the staff to C sharp. The tune is singularly cheerful—the cheerfulness of fatuous people—the cheerfulness that provokes murder.
11The song is now before me. The direction is "etwas langsam und abenteuerlich." There are sharp contrasts between storzato and piano.
13And of other settings of the "Erl King"—some of them curious—I may speak at a later day.
15The Eleventh Symphony Concert was given January 8, in Music Hall. The concert opened with Mendelssohn's smug overture to "Ruy Blas," which has not been played at these concerts since the season of 1891-'92, and no wonder. You remember that Mendelssohn described the play as "really of no value—absolutely below contempt—wretched." What a finical Miss he was! The overture, the result of a cross between the beer garden and the salon, reminded me of Aubrey Beardsley's biting caricature of the composer.
17After this overture came the latest composition of Charles Martin Loeffler, symphonic poem, "The Death of Tintagiles" (after the drama by Maeterlinck), for orchestra, and two violes d'amour obbligate (MS). It was the first performance. The violes d'amour were played by Mr. Kneisel and the composer.
19This piece is scored for one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, one bass clarinet (the part, however, was given at the concert to a double bass clarinet, played by Mr. Kohl, of New York, the inventor), four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, one bass tuba, two pairs of kettle drums, cymbals, bass drum, gong, two harps, two violes d'amour and the usual strings.
21Let me now quote a few lines from Mr. Apthorp's program book: "From a poetico-dramatic point of view the two violes d'amour, which never appear separated, may be taken as the musical incarnation of the characters of the child Tintagiles and his sister, Ygraine, in Maeterlinck's drama, but the music in nowise seeks to follow out the action of the drama, scene by scene, but rather to depict the struggle between two opposing forces—the Queen and her Handmaids on the one hand and Tintagiles and Ygraine on the other."
23My friend, Mr. Apthorp, was delighted to find that Mr. Loeffler did not neglect wholly the sonata form. Whether he neglected it or respected it is to me of little moment.
25Do you remember what Smetana wrote to Joseph Srb explaining his quartet, "Aus meinem Leben?"
27"I send you herewith the score of a string quartet, which is in manuscript, and until now has never been out of my hands. I gladly leave the style to the judgment of another, and I shall not be offended if it does not please, because it is opposed to the style in which all preceding quartets have been composed. It was not my intention to make a quartet after a set receipt and in conventional form. As a youngster at school I studied theory sufficiently, so that I know what style means, and I am master of it. I prefer to have circumstances determine form. And so I wrote this quartet in the form which it itself demanded."
29Now, suppose the hearer to be without knowledge of Maeterlinck's little drama, which is to me one of the most moving and pathetic works of literary man. Suppose the piece were entitled simply Symphonic Poem.
31He would—and he is the stumbling-block at the beginning—at least I think he would at once become conscious of warring elements, in nature or in the mind of human persons. He would admire the swing and the passion of the opening; he would find the more cantabile motive of greater breadth and more sustained swoop than is often the case in Mr. Loeffler's music. The cantilena in the bass clarinet, accompanied by the violes d'amour, in thirds would change his mood. He would be reminded of battle or triumph by the fanfares. He would hear complaint in the wailing of the violes d'amour. He would count twelve strokes of the harps and think of midnight, for on the stage the stroke of twelve never announces noon. Renewed strife and passion and complaint until the final dying away of the cantabile theme which returned to the violes d'amour.
33He would say, remembering that this is the first serious work of Mr. Loeffler which is purely orchestral, "The man knows a marvelous use of the orchestra; he has found out combinations and tonal effects that did not exist before this in orchestral literature. Occasionally he errs, perhaps; for instance I find one speech of the muted trumpet incongruous and destructive; but in ensemble and in detail there are frequent revelations of orchestral genius. To me he is a greater colorist than Richard Strauss."
35And to all this I would agree. But what would he say to the violes d'amour? Might he not say, "Truly an interesting instrument, historically, and I am glad to hear it. Yet I find the sweet-sick complaint soon becomes indescribably monotonous and irritating to the nerves. I suppose he chose the two violes for an express purpose. I think he made a mistake; or at least he used them too much. For the very measures that he thought would thus be most effective are to me less impressive than the other portions of the work. And yet I shall never forget how they sounded. And even now I hear the voice of their complaint."
37From time to time articles against "decadents" in music are written and published. Writers will name Ibsen, Zola, Verlaine and Maeterlinck in a sentence, declaim bitterly against the lot, and censure musicians who derive any kind of inspiration from the works of such wretched beings. The very grouping shows that these declaimers know little or nothing of the books against which they rail.
39It would be easy for such a man to listen to Mr. Loeffler's symphonic poem, call him a decadent, and then be-take himself cheerfully to bed, sustained and soothed by the reflection that he had done society a service.
41Mr. Loeffler, however, is no more to be snuffed out by such orthodox breath than is Verlaine or Maeterlinck. Whether he is or is not a decadent is not the question; the question is this: Is the music good or bad? or you may put the question in this way: Does the music thrill or move or console me, or does it bore me?
43While it is true that program-music should be of musical worth and musical interest without the aid of a detailed program, the composer of such music has a right to demand of the hearer some acquaintance with the drama or
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