Chapter XI: Part III: Reuniting in Death (1)

_Allegro_

This, as has been said, is the only portion of the symphony which is explicitly derived from Bürger's poem. I quote Mr. George P. Upton's spirited commentary: "It opens with a plaintive theme ... suggestive of Lenore mourning for her lover as she wakes from troubled dreams. Then follows an intimation of her fate in a brief phrase for the trombones. The Trio[120] of the march tells the story of her despair, for the army has returned without her lover. Her blasphemy and the remonstrances of her mother are clearly indicated. The recurrence of the first theme lands up to a rhythmical figure for the viola, representing the tramp of the steed bearing the spectre bridegroom. The bell tinkles softly, and Lenore descends to meet her lover. Then the 'cellos take up the figure, retaining it to the close. The terrible ride begins. The bassoons and oboes carry on the dialogue between the spectre and his bride. One after another the constantly intensified and impetuous music pictures the scenes of the ride, the 'cellos and other strings keeping up their figure. A gloomy dirge tells us of the funeral train, and a weird theme in triple time of the spectres' dance about the gibbet, accompanied by wild cries of the night birds. More and more furious grows the ride until the graveyard is reached, when, after a moment of silence following the transformation, a chorale strain is heard, with a sad and tender accompaniment. The wretched maiden has at last found rest."

FOOTNOTES:

[115] Only eleven of the twelve are known to-day. A five-movement symphony in E minor, composed at Weimar in 1854, performed at a concert there on April 20, 1855, is not listed among Raff's works; the work remained unpublished, and the manuscript score is not extant.

[116] There is no end to the variety in which the legend of the Wild Hunt is preserved. Its best-known incarnation is to be found in the ballad of Gottfried August Bürger, _Der Wilde Jäger_, paraphrased by Scott in his "Wild Huntsman." See pages 106-7 for a description of César Franck's tone-poem, _Le Chasseur Maudit_ ("The Wild Huntsman"), based on this legend.

[117] "Dame Hulda," or "Holda," or _Frau Holle_: a goddess who was at first benign, then a seductress of men, later the sovereign temptress of the "Venusberg" (the _Venus_ of Wagner's "Tannhäuser"). "She became," says the inimitable Mr. Hale, "a wanton in league with Satan. She was still beautiful in front, but had a tail behind, as the master whom she served; 'to go with Holle' was to join a witch party; and at last she was an ugly old woman, long-nosed, snag-toothed, with bristling, thickly matted hair. All children that die unbaptized go to Holda, and they shriek behind her when she rides, clothed and in a coach, in company with the Wild Huntsman and Wotan."

[118] Gottfried August Bürger, born at Wolmerswende, near Halberstadt, January 1, 1748; died at Göttingen, in poverty, June 8, 1794. "Lenore" was published in 1773.

[119] This and the following translations are from the English version of Alfred Baskerville (New York, 1854).

[120] "Trio": see page 210 (foot-note).

RIMSKY-KORSAKOFF

(_Nicolas Andrejevitch Rimsky-Korsakoff: born in Tikhvin, in the
government of Novgorod, Russia, March 18,[121] 1844; now living in
St. Petersburg_)

"SADKO," A MUSICAL PICTURE: Op. 5

Rimsky-Korsakoff, who as a young man served as an officer in the Russian navy, has in his music shown a peculiar aptitude for delineating the moods and aspects of the sea. "Sadko," composed in 1867, and sometimes spoken of as "the first Russian symphonic poem," is music of the sea. It has this programme, which is prefaced to the score:

"The ship bearing Sadko [a hero of Russian legend, or, according
to some, a historical character], a famous gusli[122] player,
is becalmed on the high sea. He is thrown overboard by his
fellow-travellers as a propitiatory offering to the Sea King, who
receives him in his domain, while the ship sails on. There is a
great company beneath the waves, for the Sea King is celebrating the
wedding of his daughter to the Ocean. He compels Sadko to play on his
_gusli_, and they all dance to the music. Spectres appear; the dance
grows wilder and wilder; stormier and stormier are the billows. Sadko
breaks the strings of his instrument; an end is put to the dancing,
the sea grows calmer, and it is soon dark and still in the ocean
depths."[123]

In the music there is first (_Moderato assai_) a suggestion of the quiet sea, the becalmed ship. Following that, the picturesque intent of the music, heard in the light of the programme, is easily followed.

"ANTAR," SYMPHONY No. 2: Op. 15

1. _Largo_
_Allegro vivace_
2. _Allegro_
3. _Allegro risoluto alla Marcia_
4. _Allegretto vivace_
_Andante amoroso_

Antar was a famous Arabian warrior-poet of pre-Mohammedan times. He lived in the sixth century, and his eloquence and inspiration as a poet were so revered that one of his poems, inscribed upon deerskin, was hung up among the idols in the Kaaba[124] at Mecca for the adoration of worshippers. Rimsky-Korsakoff's symphony (first performed at Magdeburg in 1881) is based on a tale by Sennkowsky of which Antar is the hero. Its substance is condensed in the following note, in French and German, prefaced to the score:

I
[_Largo; allegro vivace_]

"Awful is the view of the desert of Sham;[125] mighty in their
desolation are the ruins of Palmyra, the city raised by the spirits
of darkness. But Antar, the man of the desert, braves them, and
dwells serenely in the midst of the scenes of destruction. Antar
has forever forsaken the company of mankind. He has sworn eternal
hatred on account of the evil they returned him for the good which he
intended.

"Suddenly a charming, graceful gazelle[126] appears. Antar starts to
pursue it. But a great noise seems pulsing through the heavens, and
the light of day is veiled by a dense shadow. It is a giant bird that
is giving chase to the gazelle.

"Antar straightway changes his intent, and attacks the monster, which
gives a piercing cry and flies away. The gazelle disappears at the
same time, and Antar, left alone in the midst of the ruins, soon goes
to sleep while meditating on the event that has happened.

"He sees himself transported to a splendid palace, where a multitude
of slaves hasten to serve him and to charm his ear with their song. It
is the abode of the Queen of Palmyra--the fairy Gul-nazar. The gazelle
that he has saved from the talons of the spirit of darkness is none
other than the fairy herself. In gratitude Gul-nazar promises Antar
the three great joys of life, and, when he assents to the proffered
gift, the vision vanishes, and he awakes amid the surrounding ruins."

II
[_Allegro_]

"The first joy granted by the Queen of Palmyra to Antar is the
delight of vengeance."

III
[_Allegro risoluto alla Marcia_]
"The second joy--the delight of power."

IV
[_Allegretto vivace; andante amoroso_]

"Antar has returned to the fallen remains of Palmyra. The third and
last gift granted by the fairy to Antar is the joy of true love.
Antar begs the fairy to take away his life as soon as she perceives
the least estrangement on his side, and she promises to do his desire.

"After a long time of mutual bliss, the fairy perceives one day
that Antar is absent in spirit, and is gazing into the distance.
Straightway divining the reason, she passionately embraces him. The
fire of her love inflames Antar, and his heart is consumed away.

"Their lips meet in a last kiss, and Antar dies in the arms of the
fairy."[127]

The grave theme for violas and wood-wind which is heard in the opening _Largo_, and which recurs throughout the symphony, has been called the "Antar" motive; while the graceful motive for flute and accompanying horns in the succeeding _Allegro_ section has been said to characterize the transformed gazelle--the miraculously potent fairy queen through whose love Antar finally meets his end.

César Cui, to whom the score is dedicated, has thus commented on the music:

"First Part: Antar is in the desert--he saves a gazelle from a beast
of prey. The gazelle is a fay, who rewards her deliverer by granting
him three pleasures. The whole of this part, which begins and ends
with a picture of the desolate and boundless desert, is worthy of the
composer's magic brush.

"Second Part: The pleasure of Vengeance--a rugged, savage, unbridled
_Allegro_, with crescendos like the letting loose of furious winds.

"Third Part: The Pleasure of Power--an Oriental march. A masterpiece
of the finest and most brilliant interpretation.

"Last Part: The Pleasure of Love, amid which Antar expires--a
delicate, poetic, delicious _Andante_...."

And Alfred Bruneau speaks of the music's striking depiction of the three primal human passions: "These sentiments, passing severally through diverse measures, tonalities, and rhythms, over which hovers insistently the parent-phrase of Antar, are the faithful reflections of our tormented, vague, and mysterious souls."

"SCHEHERAZADE," SYMPHONIC SUITE AFTER
"A THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT": Op. 35

Prefixed to the score of this suite (published in 1889) is the following programme, printed in French and Russian:

"The Sultan Schahriar, convinced of the faithlessness of women, had
sworn to put to death each of his wives after the first night. But
the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by diverting him with stories
which she told him during a thousand and one nights. The Sultan,
conquered by his curiosity, put off from day to day the execution of
his wife, and at last renounced entirely his bloody vow.

"Many wonders were narrated to Schahriar by the Sultana Scheherazade.
For her stories the Sultana borrowed the verses of poets and the
words of folk-songs, and she fitted together tales and adventures.

"1. The Sea and Sindbad's Ship. 2. The Tale of the Kalendar-Prince.
3. The Young Prince and the Young Princess. 4. Festival at Bagdad.
The Sea. The Ship is Wrecked on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze
Warrior. Conclusion."

There is doubt as to Rimsky-Korsakoff's precise intention in the programme of this suite. Which one of Sindbad's voyages is described, which of the three Kalendars is referred to, and what adventure of what young prince and princess, the composer leaves to his hearers to decide. Moreover, the event mentioned in the last number of the suite--the wrecking of the ship upon a rock surmounted by a warrior of brass (not "bronze")--occurs in the story of the third Kalendar, while the wreck of Sindbad's ship occurred under different circumstances. The truth seems to be that Rimsky-Korsakoff has aimed at translating into music the spirit and atmosphere which unifies the various stories, and has not troubled himself about the accuracy or the consistency of his paraphrase. Like Scheherazade herself, he has strung together, without regard for continuity or coherence, whatever incidents and fragments suited his purpose. Thus his music is to be taken as a gloss on the tales as a whole--on their general and underlying mood, their color, their imaginative essence.

I. THE SEA AND SINDBAD'S SHIP

The first theme of this movement, heard at the opening, has been identified both as the motive of the Sea and of Sindbad. Later we hear (solo violin, with harp chords) the motive of Scheherazade. An undulating _arpeggio_ figure has been called the Wave motive, and a theme first sung by the solo flute that of the Ship. The Sea motive forms a climax of the full orchestra. There is a tranquil close.

II. THE TALE OF THE KALENDAR-PRINCE

After an introductory passage, we hear the Scheherazade theme on a solo violin with harp accompaniment, followed by a theme, _quasi recitando_, for solo bassoon, which seems here to have the rôle of narrator. There is an intermezzo of Oriental character. The end is spirited.

III. THE YOUNG PRINCE AND THE YOUNG PRINCESS

"Some think from the similarity of the two themes typical of prince and princess that the composer had in mind the adventures of Kamar al-Zaman (Moon of the age) and the Princess Budur (Full moon)." This movement is idyllic, a romanza evolved out of two themes of folk-song character.

IV. FESTIVAL AT BAGDAD. THE SEA. THE SHIP IS WRECKED ON A ROCK
SURMOUNTED BY A BRONZE WARRIOR

The motive of the Sea begins the movement; the Scheherazade theme follows; then (_Allegro molto e frenetico_) begins a brilliant depiction of the revels at Bagdad. Then, abruptly, we are transferred to a scene on shipboard. "We seem to plunge into the broad movement of the surging sea, straight on to the fateful event." While the jollification is at its height the ship strikes the dreadful rock. "The trombones roar out the Sea motive against the billowy Wave motive in the strings.... The storm dies.... There is a quiet ending with development on the Sea and Wave motives. The tales are told. Scheherazade, the narrator, who lived with Shahriar 'in all pleasance and solace of life and its delights till there took them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies, the Desolater of dwelling-places and the Garnerer of graveyards, and they were translated to the ruth of Almighty Allah,' fades away with the vision and the final note of her violin."

"A NIGHT ON MOUNT TRIGLAV": THIRD ACT OF THE OPERA-BALLET "MLADA"
(CONCERT ARRANGEMENT FOR ORCHESTRA)[128]

In 1872 Rimsky-Korsakoff, César Cui, Modest Moussorgsky, and Alexander Borodine (who, with Mily Balakireff, were the famous coterie who founded the "neo-Russian" school forty years ago)[129] wrote each the music of an act to an opera libretto by Gedeonoff, their chief of the Imperial Theatres, who had ordered the work. This composite opera was never produced, but Rimsky-Korsakoff made use of his share of the music for the third act of his opera-ballet "Mlada" (produced in 1893). The composer afterwards made a concert arrangement of the music of this act, and it was performed at Moscow in 1903, under the direction of Wassily Safonoff.

The score of the work in its purely orchestral form is prefaced by a descriptive programme, of which the following is a translation:

"The stage is covered with thick clouds. Darkness. The clouds
disperse little by little, and finally disappear completely. Falling
stars. A clear, moonless night. A gorge on Mount Triglav. Souls of
the dead approach floating, and begin a fantastic round (_Kolo_).
The full moon, which rises, lights up the gorge; in its rays appears
the wraith of the princess Mlada, making signs to Jaromir to follow
her. Lightly she glides above the rocks and precipices. Jaromir
follows her. The shades interrupt the _Kolo_. Jaromir, in a wild
burst of passion, seeks to approach Mlada, who disappears. Jaromir
pursues her. The moon grows red. Subterranean thunder. Seized with
terror, the shades of the dead disappear. Night birds wing their
way across the stage. Evil spirits issue from all the caverns and
crevasses--demons, spectres, and sorcerers come forth, and serpents
and toads crawl out. Revels and dances of the spirits of darkness.
From the midst of the infernal round, Chernobog arises, in the
form of a black stag, with his followers. He evokes the souls of
Jaromir and of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Impenetrable darkness.
The stage is transformed into a splendid Egyptian hall. Queen
Cleopatra is reclining upon a sumptuous couch of purple, surrounded
by dancing-girls and slaves. Dances of the slaves, the dancing-girls,
and Cleopatra. She seeks passionately to draw Jaromir towards her;
the soul of the latter grows animated; the wraith of Mlada hides
its face in its hands and weeps. A cock crows. Suddenly everything
vanishes. Deep night; a peal of underground thunder. Quiet. The
clouds successively disperse. First gleam of dawn. The wooded slope
of Mount Triglav. Jaromir is sleeping. Nature awakes; the leaves
rustle and the birds twitter. A ray of the rising sun falls on
Jaromir. Full daylight."

SUITE, "CHRISTMAS EVE"

TABLEAU 1. INTRODUCTION: CHRISTMAS EVE
TABLEAU 2. IN SPACE
TABLEAU 3. BRILLIANT BALL IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE
TABLEAU 4. NIGHT, IN SPACE

Rimsky-Korsakoff composed, in 1895, an opera, "Christmas Eve," based on a story by Gogol.[130] It was produced at St. Petersburg December 10, 1895. Excerpts from it were afterwards made into a suite by the composer. Mr. H. E. Krehbiel has paraphrased Gogol's tale, as it has been utilized by Rimsky-Korsakoff, with a clearness and concision which could not well be bettered:

"[The story] is concerned with one of the adventures of the hero,
a young, handsome, herculean, and stout-hearted blacksmith named
Wakula, in an effort to win the hand of a wilful and capricious damsel
named Oxana. She commands him to bring her the _tscherewitschki_
(embroidered slippers, or little shoes) of the Empress Catherine the
Great. To understand how he achieved this feat it is necessary to
relate that his mother, Ssoloka, is a mistress of the magic arts,
and also a buxom dame, who counts among her four lovers not only the
father of the whimsical Oxana, but the devil himself. One day, the
day before Christmas, her four lovers appear at her house in such
rapid succession that she is obliged to hide them in sacks, one after
another, to prevent discovery of the numerous rivalry. In her haste
two are put into one sack. She has just disposed of the last when
Wakula comes home, and to him she gives the sacks (as containing so
much coal) to carry away to various destinations. Wakula shoulders the
three sacks at once and is off. After depositing two of them in the
street, he discovers that he has trapped the devil in the third, and
under threat of baptizement unless he consents, compels his satanic
majesty to transport him instanter to St. Petersburg, and help him
get the empress's slippers. Here the suite begins, and, since most of
it is of the descriptive order, the rest of the tale may best be told
with hints intended to identify the scenes with the music.

"TABLEAU I. INTRODUCTION: CHRISTMAS EVE

"The scene pictures Dikanka, a village in Little Russia, on a clear,
cold night (_Adagio_).

"TABLEAU II. IN SPACE

"The stars group themselves upon the clouds (_Andante_). The stars
engage in games and dances (Ballet). Mazurka, _Allegro assai_....
A procession of comets (_Adagio_). A round dance, revolution of
the constellations about the pole (_Andante non troppo_). A shower
of meteors ( ... _Allegro_). Clouds descend and hide the stars. A
wizard rides into view, seated in a kettle, which he drives with an
oven-fork; after him, a rout of wizards, in pots, kettles and bowls,
carrying forks, frying-pans, tongs, and pokers; witches astride of
brooms. Dance of the witches. Wakula rushes by upon the devil, in
the shape of a winged horse; wizards and witches skurry after him
(_Allegro assai_, with a dactyllic figure to suggest the infernal
ride). The lights of St. Petersburg are seen (_Moderato_).

"TABLEAU III. BRILLIANT BALL IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE

"(Polonaise, _Allegro non troppo, alla Polacca_.) The devil enters
with Wakula (the dactyllic figure is resumed). Darkness comes over
the scene.

"TABLEAU IV. NIGHT, IN SPACE

"Glimpses of the setting moon are had through rifts in the clouds
(_Andante_). Flying through the clouds, a multitude of empty pots
and kettles, brooms, forks, and other kitchen utensils (_Allegro_).
Wakula dashes past, in the opposite direction, upon his devil-horse
(_Allegro assai_). The clouds disperse and vanish. The moon sets,
and the morning star (Venus) appears (_Moderato_). Dawn. Kolyada, in
a golden sledge, and Ovsen, on a boar with golden bristles, appear
with a train of light elves who hymn them (_Andante_). Kolyada is
an ancient Slavic sun goddess. In an old ceremony she used to be
represented by a maiden, clad in white robes, who was driven from
house to house in the yuletide, while _kolyadki_ (_i.e._, Kolyada
songs) were sung by the youths and maidens who attended her, and
received gifts from the people in return for their songs. The sun
rises through the frosty mists, and Dikanka becomes visible. Wakula
is returned with the shoes in time for early mass. The bells of the
village church are heard, and the people singing the pious Christmas
canticle."

FOOTNOTES:

[121] Some authorities give May 22d.

[122] "Gusli": an instrument peculiar to the Russian people. "Originally it had a small, flat sounding-box, with a maple-wood cover, and strung with seven strings."

[123] The translation is by Mr. Philip Hale.

[124] El Kaaba (or, more properly, Al, or Ul Kaaba), the sacred shrine of the Islamites at Mecca, is said by tradition to have been created by God out of cloud and mist at the beginning of the world. Adam gave it a more substantial form, building it of stones and rock. It was rebuilt by Noah after the flood; destroyed in war, and erected again by Ishmael and Abraham. It was built in its present form by Moslem caliphs in the eighth century. Before the days of Mohammed it was the shrine of some six hundred idols, among which were six examples of supreme poetic eloquence. It was to these that Antar's poem was added.

[125] The desert that lies to the east of Damascus.

[126] The gazelle figures with curious persistence in Arabic poetry, especially as a symbol, even as a standard, of feminine grace and beauty.

[127] Translated by Mr. P. H. Goepp.

[128] Without opus number.

[129] This was the group of iconoclastic and restless young composers who, at St. Petersburg, set forth, under the banner of "nationalism," to open new paths for Russian music, and by whom Tschaikowsky was cast into outer darkness as being too "eclectic," too little "national," in his art.

[130] Nicolas Gogol (1809-1852), a prolific and popular Russian novelist. Tschaikowsky compared him with Dickens: "He [Dickens] has the same inimitable and innate humor, and the same masterly power of depicting an entire character in a few strokes. But he has not Gogol's depth."

SAINT-SAËNS

(_Camille Saint-Saëns: born in Paris, October 9, 1835; still living
there_)

"OMPHALE'S SPINNING-WHEEL," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 1: Op. 31

_Le Rouet d'Omphale_, composed in 1871, was first a piano piece; it was afterwards made over for orchestra and performed in Paris at a _Concert Populaire_ on April 14, 1872.

The following note, in French, prefaces the score:

"The subject of this symphonic poem is feminine seductiveness, the
triumphant contest of weakness against strength. The spinning-wheel
is merely a pretext; it is chosen simply for the sake of its
rhythmical suggestion and from the viewpoint of the general form of
the piece."

The note conveys the further slightly ironical information that "those who are interested in the study of details will see on page 19 (letter J) [of the score] Hercules groaning in the bonds which he cannot break [a laboring phrase in the 'cellos and double-basses, repeated with cumulative expression], and on page 32 (letter L) Omphale mocking the hero's futile efforts [a theme sung by the oboe]."

The music has been interpreted as falling naturally into the three following sections: "(1) The power of feminine allurement. Triumphant struggle of weakness against strength; in fact, Omphale's fascination of Hercules. (2) Hercules in bondage; or, as the author has it, 'Hercules groaning under the bonds which he cannot break.' (3) Omphale deriding the vain efforts of the hero."

"PHAËTON," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 2: Op. 39

_Phaëton_ was produced in Paris, under Eduard Colonne, at a concert at the _Théâtre du Châtelet_, December 7, 1873. The score has this preface:

"Phaëton has obtained leave to drive his father's, the Sun's, chariot
through the heavens. But his unskilful hands lead the steeds astray.
The flaming chariot, thrown out of its course, approaches the
terrestrial regions. The whole universe is about to perish in flames,
when Jupiter strikes the rash Phaëton with his thunderbolt."[131]

The portentous drive is first pictured, the gallop of the horses being indicated by an imitative figure in the strings, wood-wind, and horns. A suave and noble theme for the horns has been said to suggest celestial visions glimpsed by the charioteer in the course of his daring flight.[132] The furious rhythm of the drive is heard again, increasing to a precipitate pace. It is cut short by the Jovian thunderbolt (kettle-drums, bass-drum, cymbals, tam-tam). Then, as its reverberations die away, we hear again the august harmonies of the second theme; there is a reminiscence of the opening motive (of the ride), and the music ends _ppp_.

"DANCE OF DEATH" ["DANSE MACABRE"], SYMPHONIC POEM No. 3: Op. 40

This symphonic poem illustrates a fantastic poem by Henri Cazalis, lines from which are prefixed to the score. They are as follows (in a prose translation made by Mr. W. F. Apthorp):

"Zig and Zig and Zig, Death plays in cadence,
Beating time with his heel upon a tombstone;
Death plays a dance-tune, Zig and Zig and Zig, on his fiddle.
The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;
Groans come from under the lindens;
White skeletons flit across the gloom,
Running and skipping in their capacious shrouds.
Zig and Zig and Zig, capers every one;
You hear the dancers' bones rattle.

* * * * *

"But whist! Of a sudden they quit their dance;
They rush off helter-skelter, the cock has crowed."

* * * * *

A violin solo impersonates Death the fiddler, while the rattling of the bones of the grewsome dancers is delineated by the xylophone (wood-harmonica). The uncanny dance increases in wildness and abandon until it is cut short by the cock-crow (oboe).

"THE YOUTH OF HERCULES," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 4: Op. 50

_La Jeunesse d'Hercule_, first performed in Paris, at a concert in the _Théâtre du Châtelet_, January 28, 1877, bears as a preface to the score the following note (in French):

"LEGEND

"Mythology relates that Hercules, upon entering life, saw two paths
opening before him, the path of pleasure and the path of virtue.

"Indifferent to the seductions of Nymphs and Bacchantes, the hero
chooses the path of struggles and combats, at the end of which he
perceives, through the flames of the funeral pyre, the reward of
immortality."

The music has been interpreted as a succession of characterizations in this order: "(1) Irresolution [_Andante sostenuto_: muted[133] violins; wood-wind, strings, and wood]; (2) character of the path of virtue [_Allegro moderato_: strings, without mutes, in full harmony]; (3) seductiveness of the nymphs [_Andantino_]; (4) allurements of the Bacchantes [_Allegro_: flutes at first, later other wood-wind, strings and wood, full orchestra]; (5) renewed questionings [_Adagio_: strings, horns, wood-wind]; (6) choice of the path of virtue and consequent struggles [_Andante sostenuto_ and _Allegro animato_: the theme of Virtue played by clarinet, afterwards by oboe; later, the theme of pleasure heard in the wood-wind against harp arpeggios]; (7) the funeral pyre and immortality beyond [_Maestoso_: triumphant supremacy of the theme of Virtue, in an orchestral apotheosis]."

FOOTNOTES:

[131] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

[132] This theme has also been said to represent "nymphs bemoaning Phaëton's danger, and, at last, his death."

[133] See page 12 (foot-note).

SCHUMANN

(_Robert Schumann: born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810; died in
Endenich, near Bonn, July 29, 1856_)

SYMPHONY No. 1, IN B-FLAT MAJOR ["SPRING"]: Op. 38

1. _Andante un poco maestoso; Allegro molto vivace_
2. _Larghetto_
3. _Scherzo: Molto vivace_
4. _Finale: Allegro animato e grazioso_

Although Schumann never publicly avowed it, the inspiration for this symphony sprang from a poem by Adolph Böttger (1815-1870), _O Geist der Wolke_. The music was composed early in 1841. In October of the following year Schumann sent a portrait of himself to his friend Böttger, accompanied by an inscription consisting of the opening phrase of the symphony in notation, and the words: "Beginning of a symphony inspired by a poem of Adolph Böttger. To the poet, in remembrance of Robert Schumann."

The verses of Böttger have been translated (in prose) as follows:

"Thou Spirit of the Cloud, murky and heavy, fliest with menace over
land and sea; thy gray veil covers in a moment the clear eye of
heaven; thy mist seethes up from afar, and Night hides the Star of
Love. Thou Spirit of the Cloud, murky and damp, how thou hast
frightened away all my happiness, how thou dost call tears to my face
and shadows into the light of my soul! O turn, O turn thy course--In
the valley blooms the spring!"

The crux of this poem, and the key to an understanding of the mood of Schumann's music, lies in the concluding line:

"In the valley blooms the spring!"

("_Im Thale blüht der Frühling auf!_")

Schumann himself spoke of this work as "a Spring symphony," though it is not so titled on the score. In a letter to Spohr he wrote (November 23, 1842): "I composed the symphony ..., if I may say so, under the impulse of that vernal ardor which sways men even at the most advanced age, and seizes them anew each year. I did not aim to portray or to describe; but I do believe that the season in which the symphony was conceived influenced its character and its form and made it what it is." He wrote also, on January 10, 1843, to Wilhelm Taubert (who was to produce the symphony in Berlin): "Could you imbue your orchestra with something of the springtime mood, which I had particularly in mind when I wrote the symphony in February, 1841? The trumpet-call at the entrance I should like to have sound as if it came from on high like an awakening summons. By what follows I might then suggest how on every side it begins to grow green; how, perhaps, a butterfly appears; and, by the Allegro, how gradually all springtime things burst forth. These, it is true, are fancies which occurred to me after I had finished the work. I should like to say, however, concerning the last movement, that I imagined it to suggest the departure of spring, and I would have it played in a manner not too frivolous." It will be observed that Schumann makes no reference whatever in these elucidations to what he has elsewhere alleged as the particular source of his inspiration.

That the composer originally intended to give descriptive titles to the different movements has been declared with particularity, and these are said to have been the superscriptions he planned to use: (1) "Spring's Beginning" (_Frühlingsbeginn_); (2) "Evening" (_Abend_); (3) "Merry Companions" (_Frohe Gespielen_); (4) "Spring at the Full" (_Voller Frühling_). The last of these would seem to conflict with what Schumann himself wrote to Taubert concerning the Finale.

OVERTURE TO BYRON'S "MANFRED": Op. 115

For Byron's dramatic poem, "Manfred," Schumann, in 1848, wrote incidental music, which was first performed at Weimar under the direction of Liszt on June 13, 1852, in connection with a version of Byron's work prepared by Schumann for the stage. The overture has, not unnaturally, survived the rest of the music to the poem, and has long been a familiar number in the concert-room. It is, of all Schumann's works, says Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, "the most profoundly introspective. It is, as consistently as the prelude to Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde,' an effort to delineate soul states and struggles without the help of external things. To understand it one must recall the figure in Byron's poem--the strong man torn by remorse, struggling with himself, bending supernatural powers to his will, yearning for forgiveness and death, tortured by a pitiless conscience, living in a solitude which was solitude no more, 'but peopled with the furies,' condemned by his own sin to number

'Ages--ages--
Space and eternity--and consciousness,
With the fierce thirst of death--and still unslaked!'

"The mood of the slow introduction, into which the listener is plunged at once by the three syncopated chords at the opening, is the mood of Manfred weighed down by the reflection:

"'Old man! there is no power in holy men,
Nor charm in prayer--nor purifying form
Of penitence--nor outward look--nor fast--
Nor agony--nor, greater than all these,
"The innate tortures of that deep despair,
Which is remorse without the fear of hell,
But all in all sufficient to itself
Would make a hell of heaven--can exorcise
From out the unbounded spirit, the quick sense
Of its own sins, wrongs, sufferance, and revenge
Upon itself; there is no future pang
Can deal that justice on the self-condemn'd
He deals on his own soul.'"

"The sombreness," says Mr. Frederick Niecks, "is nowhere relieved, although contrast to the dark brooding and the surging agitation of despair is obtained by the tender, longing, regretful recollection of Astarte, the destroyed beloved one. And when at last life ebbs away, we are reminded of Manfred's dying words to the Abbot:

"'Tis over--my dull eyes can fix thee not;
But all things swim around me, and the earth
Heaves, as it were, beneath me....
Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.'

"From the first note to the last," says Mr. W. H. Hadow, "it is as magnificent as an Alpine storm--sombre, wild, impetuous, echoing from peak to peak with the shock of thunderbolts and the clamor of the driving wind."

SIBELIUS

(_Jan Sibelius: born in Tavastehus, Finland, December 8, 1865; now
living in Helsingfors_)

"LEMMINKAINEN," SYMPHONIC POEM IN FOUR PARTS: Op. 22

"THE SWAN OF TUONELA"
"LEMMINKAINEN'S HOME-FARING"

Sibelius, sometime prior to February, 1906, informed Mrs. Rosa Newmarch, the author of the first authoritative study in English of the Finnish composer, that he was writing a symphonic poem in four parts under the general title "Lemminkainen," based on episodes in "The Kalevala."[134]

Two of these parts have been produced--"The Swan of Tuonela" and "Lemminkainen's Home-Faring"; the others are said to be still (1907) incomplete. Of the two completed portions Mrs. Newmarch writes as follows:

"THE SWAN OF TUONELA

"Tuonela was the name of the Finnish Hades. Those wending their way
to the final abode had to traverse nine seas and one river--the
equivalent of the Styx--whereon sang and floated the sacred swan--

"'... the long-necked, graceful swimmer,
Swimming in the black death-river,
In the sacred stream and whirlpool.'

"The majestic, but intensely sad, swan melody is heard as a solo for
_cor anglais_ [English horn], accompanied at first by muted[135]
strings and the soft roll of drums. Now and then this melody is
answered by a phrase given to 'cello or viola, which might be
interpreted as the farewell sigh of some soul passing to Tuonela.
For many bars the brass is silent, until suddenly the first horn
(muted[136]) echoes a few notes of the swan-melody with the most
poignant effect. Gradually the music works up to a great climax, ...
followed by a treble _pianissimo_, the strings playing with the back
of the bow. To this accompaniment, which suggests the faint-flapping
pinions, the swan's final phrases are sung. The strings return to
the natural bowing, and the work ends in one of the characteristic,
sighing phrases for 'cello.

"LEMMINKAINEN'S HOME-FARING

"It was in pursuit of the Swan of Tuonela that Lemminkainen, the
reckless magician-hero of 'The Kalevala,' lost his life. The capture
of the sacred bird was the last test of his courage and devotion
before he could win the bride of his heart. But Nasshut, the crippled
shepherd, who bore a grudge against Lemminkainen, watched for his
approach, hurled at him a serpent snatched from the death-stream, and
flung him, mortally wounded, into the 'coal-black waters':

"'There the blood-stained son of death-land
There Tuoni's son and hero
Cuts in pieces Lemminkainen.'

"The Finnish hero shares the fate of Osiris. But the fifteenth rune
relates how his aged and faithful mother implores 'the immortal
blacksmith' Ilmarinen to forge her a huge rake:

"'Lemminkainen's faithful mother
Rakes the river of Tuoni,

* * * * *

"To her belt in mud and water
Deeper, deeper rakes the death-stream,
Rakes the river's deepest caverns.'

"By untiring perseverance she recovers all the missing members, knits
them together by her incantations, and finally restores her son to
life. When his thoughts revert to the woman he loves, for whose sake
he has accomplished a series of heroic exploits, his mother persuades
him in these words:

"'Let the swan swim on in safety
In the whirlpool of Tuoni.
Leave the maiden in the Northland
With her charms and fading beauty
With thy fond and faithful mother
Go at once to Kalevala
To thy native fields and fallows.'[137]

"Then the hero, consoled by the maternal love, which inflicts no sting
and exacts no useless sacrifices, starts on his homeward way."

FOOTNOTES:

[134] Elias Lönnrot, the Finnish scholar, issued the "Kalevala" ("a word which signifies the dwelling of the heroes, 'sons of Kaleva'--the Walhalla of Scandinavian mythology"), the result of his researches and labors among the national folklore of the Finns, in 1835. "The 'Kalevala' depicts the ancient Finnish people as a race of free barbarians endowed with many noble qualities, whose religion was a mild nature-worship, demanding no blood sacrifices. The primitive inhabitants of Finland--or Suomi, as it is still called in the vernacular--believed that all objects in nature were inhabited and ruled by invisible deities. They had more faith in the _word_ than in the _sword_; therefore the bard and the rune-singer--he who possessed _the word of origin_--was more honored by them than the warrior, the shedder of blood. For them the word of origin lay concealed in the heart of nature. This tendency to seek mind in the visible world is also characteristic of all the literature and art of modern Finland. It has been transmitted to a whole series of poets, whether, like Runeberg, Franzen, and the elder Topelius, they sang in Swedish, or adopted the Finnish idiom with Lönnrot and his successors. To this imaginative people the making of songs was a part of existence--almost a primal instinct. Of the three principal personages of 'The Kalevala,' Vainamoinen, the Finnish Orpheus, stands out as the ideal hero of the race. Profound wisdom and the power of magic song are his special attributes."--ROSA NEWMARCH.

[135] See page 12 (foot-note).

[136] See page 75 (foot-note).

[137] This and the preceding verse translations are from the English version of "The Kalevala" by John Martin Crawford.

SMETANA

(_Friedrich Smetana: born in Leitomischl, Bohemia, March 2, 1824;
died in Prague, May 12, 1884_)

"MY FATHERLAND," A CYCLE OF SIX SYMPHONIC POEMS[138]

Smetana, an ardent nationalist and incorrigible patriot, composed for the glorification of his country a cycle of six symphonic poems under the general title, "My Fatherland" (_Má Vlast_), dedicated to the city of Prague. The titles and the programmes (in outline) of the six parts of the cycle are as follows:

I. "VYSEHRAD"
[1874]

A famous and historic Bohemian citadel at Prague. The splendid life there in its past day of glory and renown. The poet, at the sight of the fortress, beholds visions of the past. "Vysehrad rises up before his eyes in its former glory, crowned with gold-decked shrines and the edifices of the Premslide princes and kings, rich in warlike renown. The brave knights assemble in the castle courts, to the sound of cymbals and trumpets, for the festal tourney; here are drawn up beneath the reflected rays of the sun rows of warriors in rich, glittering armor, ready for victorious contests.... Whilst contemplating the past glory of the sublime dwelling of princes, the poet sees also its downfall. Unchained passion overthrows the mighty towers in bitter strife, lays waste the glorious sanctuaries and proud, princely halls. Instead of inspiring songs and jubilant hymns, Vysehrad is become dumb, a deserted monument of past glory; from its ruins resounds the echo of the long-silent song of the singer-prince Lumir through the mournful stillness!"[139]

II. "VLTAVA"
[1874]

The river Moldau--the scenes through which the course of the beloved river leads--beauties of nature, historic edifices, deeds and achievements of men, apparitions of nymphs and naiads.

III. "SÁRKA"
[1875]

Sárka, the "noblest of the Bohemian Amazons," was betrayed in love by one of the hated race of men against whom the Amazons wage ceaseless war. Craving vengeance, she has herself bound to a tree, and, in simulation of distress, impels the knight Ctirad, who is swayed by her beauty, to release her. Ctirad and his warrior band, striking camp for the night, fall asleep after long-continued revels. Sárka then summons her companions by a blast of her horn; they fall furiously upon the sleeping warriors and put them to the sword.

IV. "FROM BOHEMIA'S FIELDS AND GROVES"
[1875]

A tonal celebration of natural beauties; music of pastoral character.

V. "TABOR"
[1878]

The fortress of the Hussites.--A sonorous tribute to the Taborites, their valor, and their heroic devotion to their cause.

VI. "BLANIK"
[1879]

The name of the mountain on which are sleeping in glorious death the Hussite warriors, awaiting the resurrection which will restore them to renewed service for the faith.

FOOTNOTES:

[138] Without opus number.

[139] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

SPOHR

(_Louis Spohr: born in Braunschweig, Germany, April 5, 1784; died in
Cassel, November 22, 1859_)

SYMPHONY No. 4, "THE CONSECRATION OF SOUND":[140] Op. 86

1. RIGID SILENCE OF NATURE BEFORE THE CREATION OF TONE
(_Largo_)
ACTIVE LIFE AFTER THE SAME. SOUNDS OF NATURE.
TURMOIL OF THE ELEMENTS
(_Allegro_)

2. CRADLE SONG. DANCE. SERENADE
(_Andantino_)

3. WAR MUSIC. GOING OFF TO BATTLE. FEELINGS OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND.
RETURN OF THE VICTORS. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
(_Tempo di marcia_)

4. FUNERAL MUSIC
(_Larghetto_)
CONSOLATION IN TEARS
(_Allegretto_)

_Die Weihe der Töne_, composed in 1832, is founded on a poem of the same title by Karl Pfeiffer. In a letter dated October 9, 1832, Spohr wrote: "I have ... lately completed a grand instrumental composition, a fourth symphony, which differs greatly in form from the preceding ones. It is a musical composition inspired by a poem of Karl Pfeiffer's--_Die Weihe der Töne_--which must be printed or recited aloud before it [the symphony] is performed. In the very first part my task was to construct a harmonious whole out of the sounds of nature. This, as indeed the whole work, was a highly attractive programme [Schumann afterwards described it as 'eulogizing music with music']."

Pfeiffer's poem is as follows, divided in accordance with its relation to the four movements of the symphony:

[I. RIGID SILENCE OF NATURE BEFORE THE CREATION OF TONE: _Largo_.
ACTIVE LIFE AFTER THE SAME. SOUNDS OF NATURE. TURMOIL OF THE ELEMENTS:
_Allegro_]

"Solitary lay the fields in the flower-splendor of spring; amid the
silent forms wandered Man through the night, following only his wild
impulse, not the mild footprints of the heart; Love found no tones,
Nature no language.

"Then eternal Kindness wished to announce itself, and breathed
Sound into the breast of Man! And it let Love find a language that
penetrated to its heart and made it happy. The nightingale greets
him with tones of love, the forest rustles forth harmonies to him,
the Zephyr's murmur fills his breast with longing, the brook's waves
whisper him to rest. Then, at the tones' sacred wafting, the spirit,
freed from every earthly bond, soars triumphant to the heights of
Heaven, and greets the fair fatherland of dreams."

[II. CRADLE SONG. DANCE. SERENADE: _Andantino_]

"Holy tones, sounds of peace from the unknown world! Ye are given
to us as faithful companions 'mid life's joy and sternness! At the
child's first griefs on its faithful mother's breast, ye already
penetrate the little heart, and turn the grief to gladness. Ye also
invite all-puissantly to the merry dance of Youth, and the dark cares
are hushed when the jubilant dance rings out. The clouds have flown
swiftly from the brow, the befogged spirit grows serene, and, borne
lightly on sounding billows, the winged foot hovers on its way.

"In the secret husk of night ye sound from the youth's mouth; ye bear
tidings of the plenitude of his love to the beloved one. Holy tones!
Sounds of love! Your magic power softens the loved heart's sternness,
and the youth's complaint is still."

[III. WAR MUSIC. GOING OFF TO BATTLE. FEELINGS OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND.
RETURN OF THE VICTORS. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING: _Tempo di marcia_]

"But ye call also with the power of inspiration to the mêlée of
battles, teaching the youth to despise life when the trumpet calls to
the fight. Cares and fear and dangers vanish behind the triumphant
tones, and the fiery glance darts forward, to bind the brow with
bloody laurels.

"But, when ye have begun boldly and wildly with the call to fight
and the battle-song, then, when the victory is won, ye beckon
backward with gentle sounds of peace. Then ye bear, on the pinions of
devotion, the heart aloft to the eternal God, and the victors' joyous
chorus teaches us to give thanks to the God of Battles."

[IV. FUNERAL MUSIC: _Larghetto_. CONSOLATION IN TEARS: _Allegretto_]

"Holy tones, your peace still follows the tired one down, when he,
parted from the world, has sunk silently into his grave. Ye whisper
granting of prayers to the dumb yearning of his loves, and to the
tearless ye give tears, to the departed everlasting rest.

"Holy tones, are ye fair dreams from the unknown fatherland? Are ye
children of those blessed spaces, sent to us as messengers of peace?
O never leave me, sweet tones! May I fancy myself in your home, and
not think of the fetters that hold me fast!"[141]

FOOTNOTES:

[140] This is the version of _Die Weihe der Töne_ by which the symphony is generally known in America and England. It has also been called "The Power of Sound." A more precise translation is "The Consecration of Tones." The symphony has this sub-title: "A Characteristic Tone-Painting in the Form of a Symphony, after a Poem by Karl Pfeiffer."

[141] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

STRAUSS

(_Richard Strauss: born in Munich, June 11, 1864; now living in
Berlin_)

"FROM ITALY," SYMPHONIC FANTASIA: Op. 16

1. ON THE CAMPAGNA
(_Andante_)

2. AMID ROME'S RUINS
(_Allegro molto con brio_)

3. ON THE SHORE OF SORRENTO
(_Andantino_)

4. NEAPOLITAN FOLK-LIFE
(_Allegro molto_)

"_Aus Italia_," the first of Strauss's descriptive works for orchestra, was composed in 1886, a year in which the composer visited Rome and Naples. The score is avowedly programmatic, however, only to the extent of the titling of the different movements, except that the second, "Amid Rome's Ruins," bears this additional superscription: "Fantastic Pictures of Vanished Splendor; Feelings of Sadness and Grief in the Midst of the Sunniest Present."

Of the first movement Mr. Vernon Blackburn has remarked: "... the Campagna is absolutely destitute of scenery, its tragic secret lying, for the most part, too deep even for the modern explorer; its 'dim warm weather' is an attribute which exactly describes its general aspect of loneliness and locked quietude. These are the points which Strauss makes apparent in his music, and proves the constancy of that mood in the second portion of his Fantasia, in which he only completes the hidden tragedy of the Campagna--in the section which he has entitled ['Amid Rome's Ruins']."

In the third movement, "On the Shore of Sorrento," Mr. Hermann Kretzschmar finds (in the middle portion) a picture of the sea ruffled by the wind. "A boat appears, and in it a singer sings a genuine native melody, sprung from the noble sicilianos, which since the end of the seventeenth century have passed over Europe, journeying from the region near Sorrento." "The strings," says another commentator, furnish "a rich background for the sparkling flashes of melody which emanate from the other instruments, the whole being suggestive of a water-picture. The almost constant shimmer in the strings might easily be construed as a description of the restlessness of the ocean, over which the melodies of the wood-wind play like the glintings of sunlight."

In the last movement, "Neapolitan Folk-life," the famous song "Funiculi, Funicula," serves as the principal theme, announced by violas and 'cellos. "The finale is brilliant, tumultuous, audacious."

"'My desolation doth begin to make a better life.' Such," remarks Mr. Blackburn, "might have been the motto upon which Strauss has built the labor of this extraordinary work. He makes you feel through every bar how completely his musical spirit is oppressed by a sense of tragic thought which, if anywhere, is surely appropriate in the presence of the wreckage of that huge civilization which reached the zenith of its glory in the genius of Julius Cæsar."

"DON JUAN," TONE-POEM: Op. 20

This work is usually placed first on the list of Strauss's remarkable series of tone-poems; yet, though it bears an earlier opus number, it was actually preceded, in point of composition, by "Macbeth," op. 23, which was written in 1887, a year earlier than "Don Juan."

The subject of this tone-poem is the "Don Juan" of Nicolaus Lenau (1802-1850), and quotations from Lenau's poem are prefixed to the score. They are as follows:

DON JUAN [_to Diego, his brother_]

"O magic realm, illimited, eternal,
Of gloried woman--loveliness supernal!
Fain would I, in the storm of stressful bliss,
Expire upon the last one's lingering kiss!
Through every realm, O friend, would wing my flight,
Wherever Beauty blooms, kneel down to each,
And if for one brief moment, win delight!"

* * * * *

DON JUAN [_to Diego_]

"I flee from surfeit and from rapture's cloy,
Keep fresh for Beauty service and employ,
Grieving the One, that All I may enjoy.
The fragrance from one lip to-day is breath of spring:
The dungeon's gloom perchance to-morrow's luck may bring.
When with the new love won I sweetly wander,
No bliss is ours upfurbish'd and regilded;
A different love has This to That one yonder--
Not up from ruins be my temples builded.
Yea, Love life is, and ever must be new,
Cannot be changed or turned in new direction;
It cannot but there expire--here resurrection;
And, if 'tis real, it nothing knows of rue!
Each Beauty in the world is sole, unique:
So must the Love be that would Beauty seek!
So long as Youth lives on with pulse afire,
Out to the chase! To victories new aspire!"

DON JUAN [_to Marcello, his friend_]

"It was a wond'rous lovely storm that drove me:
Now it is o'er; and calm all round, above me;
Sheer dead is every wish; all hopes o'ershrouded--
'Twas p'r'aps a flash from heaven that so descended,
Whose deadly stroke left me with powers ended,
And all the world, so bright before, o'erclouded;
And yet p'r'aps not! Exhausted is the fuel;
And on the hearth the cold is fiercely cruel."[142]

Lenau is said to have observed of his creation: "My 'Don Juan' is no hot-blooded man eternally pursuing women. It is the longing in him to find a woman who is to him incarnate womanhood, and to enjoy, in the one, all the women on earth, whom he cannot as individuals possess. Because he does not find her, although he reels from one to another, at last Disgust seizes hold of him, and this Disgust is the Devil that fetches him." Elaborate and inexorably detailed commentaries have been written on Strauss's tone-poem; yet this brief exposition by Mr. Philip Hale is more truly illuminating than are the exhaustive excursions of the German analysts:

"Lenau's hero is a man who seeks the sensual ideal. He is constantly
disappointed. He is repeatedly disgusted with himself, men and women,
and the world; and when at last he fights a duel with Don Pedro, the
avenging son of the Grand Commander, he throws away his sword and lets
his adversary kill him.

"'_Mein Todfeind ist in meine Faust gegeben;
Doch dies auch langweilt, wie das ganze Leben._'

"('My deadly foe is in my power; but this, too, bores me, as does
life itself.')"

Of the tragic end of the Don's insatiable experimenting--as Strauss has turned it into music--he says:

"Till the end the mood grows wilder and wilder. There is no longer
time for regret, and soon there will be no time for longing. It is the
Carnival, and Don Juan drinks deep of wine and love.... Surrounded
by women, overcome by wine, he rages in passion, and at last falls
unconscious.... Gradually he comes to his senses, the themes of the
apparitions, rhythmically disguised as in fantastic dress, pass like
sleep-chasings through his brain, and then there is the motive of
'Disgust.' Some find in the next episode the thought of the cemetery,
with Don Juan's reflections and his invitation to the Statue. Here
the jaded man finds solace in bitter reflection. At the feast,
surrounded by gay company, there is a faint awakening of longing, but
he exclaims:

"'The fire of my blood has now burned out.'

"Then comes the duel, with the death scene. The theme of 'Disgust'
now dominates. There is a tremendous orchestral crash; there is long
and eloquent silence. A _pianissimo_ chord in A minor is cut into by
a piercingly dissonant trumpet F, and then there is a last sigh, a
mourning dissonance and resolution (trombones) to E minor.

"'Exhausted is the fuel,
And on the hearth the cold is fiercely cruel.'"

"MACBETH," TONE-POEM: Op. 23

_Macbeth, Tondichtung für grosses Orchestrer (nach Shakespeare's drama)_, was composed in 1887. It is actually, in date of composition, the first of Strauss's orchestral tone-poems, though "Don Juan" (see the preceding pages), composed in 1888, bears an earlier opus number--20.

Beyond the title and the acknowledgment--"after Shakespeare's drama"--the score bears no programme or explanation save the word "Macbeth" printed over an imperious phrase for violins, horn, and wood-wind near the beginning, and a quotation from the play, in German, placed above a passage on page 11 of the orchestral score, where flutes and clarinets, _pianissimo_, give out, over muted[143] horns and strings tremolo, a phrase whose expression is marked _appassionata, molto rubato_.[144] The quotation is from Lady Macbeth's speech in Act I., Scene V.: