Chapter V: The Cantata in the Nineteenth Century (2)

‘The Crusaders’ is the first[69] secular choral work after ‘Paradise and the Peri’ to compare in importance and in richness of content and treatment with Schumann’s fine composition. It easily takes rank among the strongest and most beautiful of nineteenth-century cantatas. It was written in 1866 and performed in Copenhagen the same year. In 1876 Gade conducted this work as well as his ‘Zion’ at the Birmingham Festival, England. The central motive of the poem by Carl Andersen (much of whose material is drawn from Tasso’s ‘Jerusalem Delivered’) is the temptation of the brave crusader Rinaldo d’Este by the sorceress Armida and her sirens and his triumph over the powers of evil. The personages are three in number, Rinaldo (tenor), Armida (mezzo-soprano), and Peter the Hermit (bass); and the work is divided into three parts--(1) In the desert, (2) Armida, and (3) Towards Jerusalem. The first part opens with a chorus of pilgrims and women from the crusaders’ host, depicting the long, weary march and the sufferings in the struggle to gain the distant goal. The encouraging voice of Peter the Hermit is heard (‘Soon our God success will send us’) and Rinaldo sings the stirring Crusaders’ Song (‘Shine, holy sun, shine on my trusty sword’), to each stanza of which the chorus adds a vigorous, war-like refrain. The Hermit leads the crusaders in an evening prayer of impressive strength, beauty, and exalted devotion, and thus the first part closes. The second part begins with a long orchestral introduction, descriptive of the direful influence of Armida’s magic charms. The spirits of darkness appear and, as they dance, sing a weird pianissimo chorus (‘Silent, creeping so light’). In a fine dramatic solo Armida outlines her plans for the ensnarement of Rinaldo. The sirens, in a three-part chorus, sing a melody of truly wonderful sensuous beauty (‘The wave sweeps my breast’) and their enticing voices are frequently heard in the tumultuous music of the temptation scene that follows. Armida sings in seductive tones ‘O Rinaldo, come to endless joy and rest.’ The brave knight’s senses are enthralled and he is on the point of yielding when he hears a strain of the Crusaders’ Song as from the distance. A powerful concerted number is built up from this point. Rinaldo wavers, the sturdy Crusaders’ Song and the voluptuous music of the sirens and Armida struggle for the mastery. The former becomes more insistent, the magic spell of the sorceress is broken, and Rinaldo, now thoroughly roused, joins fervently in the crusaders’ refrain, ‘Of heaven the faithful soldier am I ever.’ Like Wagner’s ‘Parsifal,’ with which this cantata has many points in common, the first and third parts of ‘The Crusaders’ build a religious frame for the vividly contrasting temptation scene of the middle part. The third part is introduced by a calm and devotional morning hymn of the crusaders, their faces fixed toward Jerusalem. The penitent Rinaldo again vows allegiance to the cross (‘With holy thoughts seek holy things’). His solo leads into the choral March of Pilgrims (‘Forward! O weary feet’), stirring, confident, and exalted. Jerusalem appears in the distance; the Hermit calls the hosts to final combat, the Crusaders’ Song again resounds triumphantly and the work closes with a brilliant choral climax (‘To war! God wills it, up, arouse thee!’).

‘The Erl-King’s Daughter.’--Gade composed the music for this cantata in 1852, the text being founded on Danish legends quite different from the one made famous by Goethe’s familiar poem. The knight, Sir Oluf, has been bewitched by the Erl-King’s daughters as he slept in the twilight on a mound in the forest. Notwithstanding the warning of his mother, he fares forth on the eve of his wedding-day to seek again the alluring maidens. They invite him with enticing songs to join their moonlight revels and offer him a silken robe for his bride and a silver cuirass for himself. He refuses to dance with the fairest of them, she lays her hand upon his brow and predicts his death. He jumps on his steed and madly rushes home, where his mother tremblingly awaits him. In the morning light she sees him riding desperately through the fields without plume or shield; he draws rein at the castle door, briefly greets his terrified mother, and falls dead from his steed. A short epilogue draws a moral that youths who ride through the woods at night should turn aside from the Erl-King’s mound, for ‘danger will ever him betide who heeds the Erl-maidens’ singing!’ There are three solo voices--the Erl-King’s daughter (soprano), Sir Oluf (baritone), and Oluf’s mother (alto). The music throughout is very melodious, graceful, and pleasing. The most interesting numbers are the chorus of Erl-maidens, the enticing song of the Erl-King’s daughter, the morning hymn (‘The sun now mounts the eastern sky’) which opens the third part, and the dramatic finale, a concerted number of much vigor and animation.

‘Christmas Eve’ is a short meditation on the Nativity (poem by August von Platen), set in cantata-form for alto solo, eight-part chorus, and orchestra in 1851. A strongly devotional style is maintained throughout. In the opening number a seraph (alto) bids the hosts of angels to carry earthward the glad tidings of Christ’s coming. The second number is a double chorus of seraphim (‘Behold, a star appeareth’) and shepherds (‘Angelic hosts surround us’), the two uniting in rich and varied combinations. The seraph, in a solo of rare beauty (‘O! with pure devotion’), summons the world to worship the Child, and the chorus softly sings its ‘praise to the newly-born.’ The double chorus is handled antiphonally with great skill and effectiveness. The final number (‘But now a cheerful morning o’er-spreads the weary earth’) is a flowing, hymn-like melody for alto solo, repeated in elaborated form for full eight-part chorus, but sinking quietly to a reposeful close.

‘Comala,’ the earliest of Gade’s choral works, was first performed at Leipzig through Mendelssohn’s influence on March 3, 1843. The dramatic poem to which the music is written follows Ossian and relates the story of the Scottish princess Comala, daughter of Sarno, king of Innistore, whose ardent passion for Fingal, king of Morven, was as ardently returned. Disguised as a youth (in the manner of old Italian opera) she follows him on an expedition against Caracul, king of Lochlin. The royal lovers part before the battle, Fingal promising to return victorious in the evening. Filled with sad forebodings, the princess with her maidens awaits him on a height from which she can witness the battle. A furious storm arises and amid its roaring blasts the spirits of the warriors’ ancestors sweep by to guide home the souls of the slain. Comala imagines that the battle is lost and her lover killed. Overmastered by her grief, she dies, and Fingal, returning with his victorious warriors, hears from the weeping maidens the news of the tragedy. He sorrowfully calls upon the bards to sing her praises, and, with the maidens, they chant a farewell hymn to her as her departing soul is borne to the mansions of her fathers. Music and poetry alike are tinged with the darksome northern colors.

The solo work is distributed among four personages--Comala (soprano), her two maidens Dersagrena and Malicoma (mezzo-sopranos), and Fingal (bass). The graceful and, in the main, obvious character of the music has made this cantata a great favorite for more than a half-century. Many characteristic touches of northern harmony and melody are brought to view, as in the orchestral introduction and in the songs of Comala and the ballads sung by her maids to cheer her (‘There, lonely, sits Comala’ and ‘One day there came from Lochlin’). The parting duet between Fingal and Comala is melodious and sincere; but the main charm of the work springs from the choruses, which are about equally divided between Fingal’s warriors and Comala’s maidens. Of the male choruses the one accompanying Fingal’s victorious return (‘Far fled is the foe’) is particularly stately and forceful. The female chorus is used with fine effect in the agitated scene of Comala’s fatal forebodings and subsequent death. The chorus of spirits (‘Our pathway is the storm’) is weird and sepulchral, but becomes dramatic as the frightened princess raises her voice in supplication to spare her lover. The cantata closes with a full chorus of bards and maidens (‘In the darkness of clouds’), who, in imposing and majestic unison strains, rich in the sombre hues of the northern splendor, commend the soul of ‘the sweet loving maiden’ to the spirits of the fathers.

‘Zion’ is a sacred cantata for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra, written in 1860 when Gade was at the height of his creative powers. It consists of an introduction (‘Hear, O my flock Israel’) in which the chorus relates how the Lord God heard the groanings and cries of the children of Israel and wrought great wonders in their behalf. This is followed by two choruses--the first describing the departure from Egypt and closing with a tranquil fugal section (‘Like as a flock He hath gently led His people’), and the second portraying the captivity in Babylon. The final number, entitled ‘The Return,’ relates the prophecy of the New Jerusalem. The baritone solo takes up the theme in a dignified aria, followed by a female chorus and closing with an animated full chorus (‘Never shall thy sun be setting’) in impressive, sonorous phrases. The whole work is conceived in a broad oratorio style in which the influence of both Handel and Mendelssohn may be detected.

‘Spring’s Message,’ for chorus and orchestra, is based on a poem by Geibel which depicts Spring as the season of hope, particularly of the Christian’s hope. This mood is maintained throughout and the composer’s gift of tuneful melody has thrown over voice-parts and accompaniment alike a charm that well befits this joyous season. This short work was written in 1853.

VII

Félicien David (1810-1876) was a prominent French composer of the nineteenth century who attained his maximum popularity in the fifties. Though he wrote numerous operas and compositions in various other fields, he is one of those composers whom posterity has remembered almost entirely by a single work, in this case, ‘The Desert,’ a composition of singular beauty and charm. While a comparatively young man David had sojourned for several years in the East, in Constantinople, Egypt, and the Holy Land, and his experiences there made an indelible impression upon his talents. The form of ‘The Desert’ is rather hard to classify. The composer calls it a ‘symphonic ode.’ It consists of orchestral numbers, male choruses, and tenor solos, grouped into three parts and interspersed with short descriptive recitations. The poem by Auguste Colin, which forms the text of the work, made an instant appeal to David and the very spontaneous music for it was composed in three months. When it was first performed in the hall of the Conservatoire, December 8, 1844, it was received with enormous applause and was repeated to crowded houses for a month. The popular estimate then placed upon it has been largely confirmed by its long-continued popularity. David wrote three other choral works--the oratorio ‘Moses on Sinai’ (1846), a second symphonic ode, ‘Christopher Columbus’ (1847), and ‘Eden,’ a ‘mystery’ in two parts, performed at the Grand Opéra in 1848--but none of these received popular approval.

‘The Desert.’--The theme of the work on which David’s fame chiefly rests is the desert with its silent vastness, its gloom, and its grandeur. The human interest is centred on a caravan in various situations, in the description of which the composer, with remarkable success, invokes genuine local color; his Arabs are no mere disguised Frenchmen. Throughout the orchestral introduction a sustained C symbolizes the dreary monotony of the boundless stretches of sand; a fantastic hymn of homage to Allah is sung; the march of the caravan is brilliantly depicted, first by the orchestra and then by the chorus; the caravan battles with a fierce simoon; calm is restored and the march is resumed until evening halts it. The second part, entitled ‘Night,’ opens with a charming tenor solo (‘O night, O lovely night’), after which the orchestra plays an ‘Arab Fantasia’ and a ‘Dance of the Dancing Girls.’ The chorus sings of freedom in the desert and the tenor indulges in an evening meditation, to an accompaniment in Oriental rhythm. The third part (‘Sunrise’) begins with a chant of the muezzin, founded on a real Arabian melody, calling the faithful to prayer, and then the caravan departs on its journey, to the choral music heard in the first part. The opening hymn to Allah, with some modifications, brings the work to a close. The Oriental atmosphere is preserved throughout to an astonishing degree.

It will be observed that the Germans have been given by far the most numerous representation among the choral works thus far mentioned, there being among them compositions by only three composers of other nationalities--Gade, a Dane, and Berlioz and David, both Frenchmen. This numerical difference represents a fair statement of the relative importance of choral music in continental countries in the period under present discussion (that is, from 1800 to about 1870). In France choral music was entirely overshadowed in artistic significance by the opera, as, indeed, were all other forms of music. The list of German composers of cantatas and shorter choral works might be even still further extended by the inclusion of Robert Franz (1815-1892), the writer of exquisitely refined songs, who also composed the 117th Psalm for double chorus _a cappella_, a Kyrie for four-part chorus and solos _a cappella_, and a Liturgy for the Evangelical service; and Franz Abt (1819-1885), chiefly known by ballads of a folk-song character and a large number of cantatas for female voices and male voices, all written in an easy, flowing, popular style.

In England, cantatas, especially those based on some story or legend, have long been exceedingly popular. The love of choral music has been a national characteristic of the English people for over two centuries. As early as the seventeenth century choral festivals were organized by various cathedral choirs acting conjointly. The celebration of St. Cecilia’s day was made the occasion of some of the earliest of these festivals and ‘The Musical Society’ was organized in London in 1683 in order to conduct them on a more artistic basis. Musical festivals and associations were later formed in the provinces and grew into great favor. As time went on these assumed large dimensions and exerted an artistic influence as in no other country. Some of those now in existence are extremely old, as the ‘Festivals of the Three Choirs’ of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, organized in 1724, and the Birmingham Festival, begun in 1768 by a series of concerts made up almost exclusively of Handel’s works. The tremendous popularity of Handel’s choral works in England not only resulted in the extension of the Handel worship which continued unabated until the frequent visits of Mendelssohn attracted much of its enthusiasm to his own superb oratorios, but caused a substantial increase in the number of choral societies throughout the kingdom. These societies have been unusually generous in giving native works abundant hearing and English composers were not slow to take advantage of the opportunities thus offered. English choral works, therefore, constitute a formidable array. From the time of Purcell until the present generation of composers, however, very few works have been produced that rise much above the general level of mere respectability or amiable reflection of Handelian and Mendelssohnian models that seems to be the chief characteristic of English choral music of the period thus bounded. Indeed, English choral works produced in this period before 1850 are practically a negligible quantity in the literature of this branch of musical art. But among English composers who were active in this field in the third quarter of the nineteenth century there are several who deserve special mention; these are Sir Julius Benedict, Sir Michael Costa, Sir George A. Macfarren, Sir William Sterndale Bennett, and Henry Smart.

Julius Benedict (1804-1885), an eminent German who made England his home during the last fifty years of his life, contributed frequently and successfully to the Norwich Festivals, of which he was the conductor from 1845 to 1878, inclusive. Here in 1860 his beautiful cantata ‘Undine’ was performed, in which the famous singer Clara Novello made her last public appearance. In 1863 at the same festival his cantata ‘Richard Cœur de Lion’ was produced and in 1866 ‘The Legend of St. Cecilia.’ The cantata ‘Graziella,’ intended for the Norwich Festival of 1881 but not completed in time, was produced at the Birmingham Festival of 1882. Of these cantatas, ‘The Legend of St. Cecilia’ is the most important. The poem, written by the English critic and author Henry F. Chorley, presents four characters--Cecilia (soprano), her husband, Valerianus (tenor), the Prefect of Rome (bass), and a Christian Woman (contralto)--and choruses of Roman citizens, Christians, and angels. It sets forth the wedding festivities, the conversion of Valerianus to Christianity by the angelic vision through Cecilia’s prayers, the discovery of his defection by the angry prefect of Rome who had just joined them in wedlock, his trial, the parting and finally the death of the pair--Valerianus by being beheaded and Cecilia by the slow martyrdom of the stake.

Michael Costa (1808-1884), an Italian composer and conductor who lived in England after 1830, was closely identified with English choral music as conductor of the Birmingham Festivals from 1849 to 1882, as conductor of the Sacred Harmonic Society and the Handel Festivals from 1857 to 1880, in which latter capacity he wrote additional accompaniments to most of Handel’s oratorios, and as composer of two important oratorios which will be mentioned in a later chapter, and of several shorter choral works. His serenata, ‘The Dream,’ which was written to a poem by William Bartholomew for the marriage festivities of the Princess Royal of England to Prince Frederick William of Prussia, afterward Emperor Frederick, is a short and delightfully melodious composition for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. Oberon (bass) commands the fairies to prepare a car for Queen Mab (alto), who charms the eyes and ears of The Lady (soprano) so that she may in her dreams see the form and hear the tones of adoration of ‘her beloved lover’ (tenor). The principal numbers are a dainty and bright chorus of fairies (‘Make the car of a golden king-cup’), an impassioned serenade by the lover (‘O the joy of truly loving’), and a closing choral serenade (‘Lady, arise! look forth and see’), tuneful and sparkling.

George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) was one of the most distinguished and scholarly English musicians of the nineteenth century. He was a prolific composer in many fields and in none was he more successful than in choral-writing. His operas, oratorios, and cantatas are numerous, and in the last-named group his important works are ‘Leonora,’ composed in 1851; ‘May-Day,’ written for the Bradford Festival, 1856; ‘Christmas,’ written in 1859 and first performed at a concert of the Musical Society of London on May 9, 1860; ‘The Lady of the Lake,’ founded on Scott’s poem and produced at the Glasgow Musical Festival, November 15, 1876; ‘Songs in a Cornfield,’ written in 1868 for female voices to words by Christina Rossetti; and ‘Outward Bound’ (1877). John Oxenford, a popular librettist of the period, furnished the texts for ‘Christmas,’ ‘May-Day,’ and ‘Outward Bound.’

‘May-Day,’ for soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra, is a brief cantata full of the jollity of this old-time festival, with its ancient ceremony of choosing the May-Queen and the accompanying rustic revels. It contains many examples of the quaint style of part-writing prevalent in the preceding century, among them the delightful part-song ‘The Hunt’s up.’[70] ‘The Lady of the Lake’ is a work of large dimensions demanding five solo voices--Ellen, the Lady of the Lake (soprano), Blanche of Devan (contralto), James FitzJames, the Knight of Snowdoun (tenor), Roderick Dhu (baritone), and James, Earl of Douglas (bass). The most interesting music in this cantata is assigned to the chorus, and here the composer demonstrates his fine ability in effective part-writing, at the same time introducing many touches borrowed from the idiom of Scottish folk-melodies.

Henry Smart (1813-1879) was one of the earliest of the modern English composers to come under the influence of the romantic movement. He is most widely known for his part-songs, organ music, and anthems and other Anglican ritual-music, but his best work is the cantata ‘The Bride of Dunkerron.’ He produced several other cantatas of less merit--‘King René’s Daughter’ (1871) and ‘The Fishermaidens,’ both for female voices, and the sacred cantata ‘Jacob,’ written for the Glasgow Festival and performed there November 10th, 1873.

‘The Bride of Dunkerron’ was written for the Birmingham Festival of 1864. The poem by Frederick Enoch is founded on a legend concerning a Lord of Dunkerron, whose castle was on the coast of Kerry, who fell in love with a sea-maiden and followed her to her watery home. She seeks the Sea-King’s consent to their union, which he not only refuses to give but condemns her to death for loving a mortal and drives her lover from his realm by a tempest which casts his body upon the shores. There are solo parts for the Sea-Maiden (soprano), Dunkerron (tenor), and the Sea-King (bass). The solos are numerous and uniformly grateful, the most conspicuous ones being Dunkerron’s simple but charming song as he waits on the seashore for the maiden’s appearing (‘The full moon is beaming’), the Sea-King’s aria (‘Oh, the earth is fair in plain and glade’), and the maiden’s graceful song (‘Our home shall be on this bright isle’) which she sings as she departs to win the consent of the Sea-King. The chorus has important work to do and Smart shows conspicuous skill in handling this factor. The opening number is in reality a double chorus of peasants who tell of Dunkerron’s nightly watch by the sea, and sea-maidens who sing the enticing songs that prove to be his undoing. After the long love-duet between Dunkerron and the maiden, there ensues a brisk and stirring chorus which depicts the journey of the lovers through the waters to the maiden’s dwelling-place. The sea-maidens sing several attractive choruses and a chorus of storm-spirits (‘Roar, wind of the tempest, roar’) foretells the impending tragedy and leads to a dramatic trio for the three characters. The king’s angry edict dooms the lovers and the double chorus of peasants and sea-maidens closes the work as it began it, but the mood is now one of sad lament over the tragic dénouement.

‘King René’s Daughter’ is a cantata for female voices, written in 1871. The poem by Frederick Enoch is based on a lyric drama by Henrik Hertz. King René, of Provence, had betrothed his infant daughter Iolanthe to the son of the Count of Vaudemont. She became suddenly blind before she had emerged from babyhood, and, in order to keep from her the realization of her loss, her father brought her up without any knowledge of what sight means. A magician offered to restore her sight, making only the one condition that she first be told of the lost faculty, but this her father refused to do. One day her betrothed passed through the valley where she dwelt, singing his troubadour songs. He beheld Iolanthe for the first time and was fascinated by her beauty. Through the song which he sang to her of the lovely rose she realized the existence of the lost sense, and, this having been disclosed to her and the magician’s condition thus fulfilled, she was healed. There are thirteen numbers in the cantata and the solo parts are Iolanthe (soprano), Martha (mezzo-soprano), and Beatrice (contralto), though other solo voices are added in a trio and later in a quartet which, as narrator, tells of the troubadour’s song to Iolanthe. The entire work is written in a melodious, graceful style and closes with a chorus of exuberant joy at the restoration of sight to ‘King René’s daughter the fair.’

Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) has not infrequently been called ‘the English Mendelssohn,’ not because he was a conscious imitator of his great German contemporary and intimate friend, but because his music exemplifies the same qualities of polished refinement and exquisite workmanship, although of far less inspirational value and emotional content. Bennett was a ‘shy and reticent’ composer in point of the number of his works, and of these (there are only 46 opera in all) only three were in extended choral forms, namely, an ‘Ode for the Opening of the International Exhibition,’ 1862, to words by Tennyson, ‘The May Queen,’ a pastoral cantata, and ‘The Woman of Samaria,’ a sacred cantata usually classed as an oratorio.

‘The May Queen’ was written for the Leeds Festival of 1858 and, notwithstanding the poorly-written libretto by Henry F. Chorley, is replete with musical beauties of striking power. The solo parts are assigned to the May Queen (soprano), the Queen (alto), the Lover (tenor), and the Captain of the Foresters, as Robin Hood (bass). The story relates the celebration of May-Day in ancient times on the banks of the Thames, which is interrupted by a quarrel between the jealous and despondent lover of the May Queen and Robin Hood, who enters at the head of a band of rollicking foresters and openly makes love to the May Queen. The Queen enters, the lover is arrested for having struck the forester, the May Queen intercedes for his release and thereby reveals her affection for him, the forester is banished for having stooped to woo a peasant girl, the Queen orders the wedding of the May Queen and her lover on the following morning, and everything ends happily. The music (there are ten numbers in the cantata) is characterized throughout by utmost refinement and grace of expression and is distinctly individualized in respect to the different personages. The finest solos are the lament of the disconsolate lover (‘O meadow, clad in early green’) and the forester’s robust song (‘Tis jolly to hunt in the bright moonlight’). The chorus-writing is scholarly, always effective without over-taxing the singers, bright, spirited, and spontaneous. This cantata is to be numbered among the most beautiful compositions of this class.

VIII

Anglican ritual-music of the nineteenth century falls into two natural groups. The first group comprises the compositions up to about 1850 which complete the third period of English church-music (see page 93) overlapping from the preceding century; the second group begins with the evidences of new life that crept into English church-music about the middle of the century and brought to it refreshing vigor and regeneration. Most of the anthems and ‘services’ of the first half of the century repeat the colorless and listless style of the preceding century, yet several composers produced music of real worth, dignity, and solidity. Such were William Crotch (1775-1847); Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), a pupil of Mozart and a close friend of Mendelssohn (to whom the latter dedicated his three preludes and fugues for organ), whose ‘I was glad,’ written for the coronation of George IV with full orchestral accompaniment, is a remarkably fine work of imposing breadth; and Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814-1856). Among the most representative examples of the work of this group of composers will be found the following anthems: Attwood’s ‘Withdraw not Thou’ and ‘Grant we beseech Thee,’ Walmisley’s ‘Remember, O Lord’ and ‘O give thanks.’ With the melodious music of Sir John Goss (1800-1880) and the notable series of anthems and ‘services’ by Rev. S. S. Wesley (1810-1876) and Sir George A. Macfarren (1813-1887), what might be called the middle modern school of English anthem-music comes to an end. On the whole academic and respectable rather than inspired, the religious music of this period is only the outward expression of the drowsy and apathetic inner life of the Church.

The motets of the nineteenth century and the decades just preceding have, in the main, far closer kinship to the sacred cantata than to the typical form whose name they assume. Beautiful as the motets of Haydn, Mozart, and Cherubini are as music, they are far removed from the old motet in spirit, even though they were written to be sung at High Mass. The best motets written for the German Evangelical service were attempts to revive the glories of Bach’s motet style. In this field Mendelssohn achieved noteworthy success (see page 151) and the well-known motets of Moritz Hauptmann (1792-1868), cantor of the Thomasschule at Leipzig for over twenty years, attest how deeply he imbibed the spirit of his great predecessor. The motets of these two composers represent the best examples of this form in the period covered by this chapter. But as the years move on, the old motet is becoming more and more archaic.

The nineteenth-century part-song had a brilliant history. The enthusiasm with which it was cultivated in Germany under certain patriotic stimuli, later spread to England and France with happy results. The first German choral society made up wholly of amateur singers was the Berlin _Singakademie_, founded on May 27th, 1791, by Karl Christian Fasch (1736-1800). Male choruses, as much social as musical in nature, had existed in Germany since the seventeenth century, but they did not attain much popularity or influence until Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) established the first _Liedertafel_ in Berlin in 1808, composed of twenty-four men from the _Singakademie_. The political effect of Weber’s stirring part-songs, especially his setting of the patriotic songs in Körner’s _Leyer und Schwert_, as, for example, ‘Bright sword of liberty’ and ‘Lützow’s wild hunt,’ has been already mentioned. The love of choral singing became contagious, and, stimulated by the new feeling of nationalism, both male choruses (_Liedertafeln_) and choral societies (_Gesangvereine_) began to multiply rapidly, especially after 1818. Though much of the part-music written for their consumption was weak and tasteless, many of the great composers bountifully contributed of their best ideas. Schubert wrote some fifty pieces of this class, twenty-two of which are for unaccompanied male voices. Among these seldom-sung pieces are many of astonishing beauty, as his setting of _Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt_. Schumann wrote about a dozen part-songs for male voices and some twenty for mixed voices, many of them as poetic and charmingly melodic as his songs. Mendelssohn’s part-songs, however, exerted an overpowering influence not only in his own country but especially in England, where he was imitated _ad nauseam_ for nearly fifty years by native composers. Here, however, they were instrumental in creating such a revival of choral singing among the people, well-nigh dead since the old madrigal days, that singing societies were established far and wide throughout the land, even in remote communities. So many of these part-songs of Mendelssohn are familiar household songs in Germany, England, and America that it will be unnecessary to name any here. Among the German part-song writers of less importance are Ignaz Seyfried (1776-1841), Julius Otto (1804-1877), Friedrich Kücken (1810-1882), Friedrich Truhn (1811-1886), Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885), Robert Franz (1815-1892), Carl Wilhelm (1815-1873), composer of _Die Wacht am Rhein_, Franz Abt (1819-1885), and Joachim Raff (1822-1882).

Though Mendelssohn’s part-songs set the prevailing style in England for many years, many native compositions of sterling worth were produced. Sterndale Bennett wrote only three, but they are fine examples of this class, especially ‘Come, live with me.’ John L. Hatton (1809-1886), Henry Smart (1813-1879), Sir George A. Macfarren (1813-1887), Henry Leslie (1822-1896), Ciro Pinsuti (1829-1888), and other composers in England have written fine part-songs that have been deservedly popular. But Robert L. de Pearsall (1795-1856), who wrote almost exclusively in this form, succeeded in a remarkable degree in combining the quaintness of the old madrigal with the freedom and grace of the more modern style. He published about sixty madrigals and part-songs, a large proportion of which will remain a permanent part of the literature of this field. Among the finest of these may be mentioned the ten-part song ‘Sir Patrick Spens,’ probably the most elaborate and successful part-song in existence, the genuinely humorous ‘Who shall win my lady fair,’ the melodious ‘When last I strayed,’ ‘Purple glow,’ and ‘O who will o’er the downs so free,’ and others equally masterly.

About 1835 a general movement was started in France for the establishment of singing societies called _Orphéon_. These were organized in the communal schools, among working people, and at the universities, but were for male singers only. They became very popular and spread with great rapidity. The corporation of Paris recognized their importance and made choral singing one of its municipal departments, in 1852 placing Gounod at the head of the _Orphéon_. Annual contests and festivals were instituted which attracted choral societies from every part of France. In 1867 these choral societies numbered 3,243 with a membership of 147,500. The rapid increase in interest in choral singing naturally led to the composition of numberless unaccompanied part-songs, which were on the whole more elaborate than the English part-songs and which admitted the dramatic element very frequently. Among French composers who wrote expressly for these societies were Halévy, Adolphe Adam, Félicien David, Ambroise Thomas, Gounod, Delibes, Massenet, Dubois, Bazin, and particularly Laurent de Rillé, whose compositions in this form number over a hundred.

FOOTNOTES:

[68] An adaptation of this melody is associated in England and America with Charles Wesley’s Christmas hymn, ‘Hark! the herald angels sing.’

[69] Though most of Berlioz’s ‘Damnation of Faust’ was written in 1845-6, it really antedated Schumann’s work both in inception and in the actual composition of many of its finest numbers (see page 158).

[70] Any morning song of a lively, spirited nature, even a love-song, was called a ‘Hunt’s-up’ in olden English times.