Music Trade Review

158
Music Trade Review
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namm.org
July 5th, 1881.
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
ring the 'Angelus' in Italy carelessly; the bells swing irregularly, and leave eye? I think this is the natural explanation. As the art of violin-playing
off, and the cadences are often broken up thus;" and he began a little sway- improved, violinists took to holding their fiddles well up, and to playing
ing passage in the treble—like bells tossing high up in the evening air: it without notes; the head was thus the first thing which caught the eye;
ceased, but so softly that the half bar of silence made itself felt, and the whereas before there is every reason to believe that the old viol players held
listening ear still carried the broken rhythm through the pause. The their instruments down, like bad orchestra players now, with violin scroll or
Abbate himself seemed to fall into a dream; his fingers fell again lightly on head almost" between their knees, and unseen. That head might, indeed,
the keys, and the bells went on, leaving off in the middle of a phrase. Then be a finely-carved human head; but, if so, it could only be seen as an orna-
rose from the bass the song of the " Angelus," or rather, it seemed like the ment when the violin was hanging up; it could only be seen, if at all, upside
vague emotion of one who, as he passes, hears in the ruins of some wayside down when the violin was being played. Look at all old violins ; they are
cloister the ghosts of old monks humming their drowsy melodies, as the sun rubbed by the board on both sides. Now we never place the chin on the
goes down rapidly, and the purple shadows of Italy steal over the land, out off-side—always on the inside; but if a man has to crowd in dim churches
of the orange west! We sat motionless—the disciple on one side, I on the over
flickering oil lamps and scrape old chaunts, he will get slovenly, his
other. Liszt was almost as motionless; his fingers seemed quite indepen- r iolinhead will droop between his knees, and his chin will most naturally
dent, chance ministers of his soul. The dream was broken by a pause; then lip over the tail-piece and lie on the offside, while his ear reposes on the
came back the little swaying passage of bells, tossing high up in the even- ail-piece, and the top of his violin has a tendency to disappear over his left
ing air, the half bar of silence, the broken rhythm—and the " Angelua " was shoulder.
rung.
ROSSINI'S RECIPES FOB OVERTURES.
MUSICAL TERMS IN THE REVISED VERSION.
O OME of the verbal changes which the Revision Committee of the New
f"T^HE Voltaire publishes a letter written by Rossini, or, at all events, attri- O Testament made so freely, and which, though much commented on,
JL buted to Rossini, on the subject of the difficulties attending overtures, have been held not to change the sense of the passages in which they occur,
and the proper mode of remedying them. The document takes the form of may, on special examination, turn out to be not entirely harmless. The
a reply to a young musician who had consulted the maestro. It runs as fol- injury to melody and rhythm in some instances was the most venial of the
lows: "General and invariable rule: Do not compose the overture before " ommittee's offences. It would seem as though the substitution of two
the very eve of the first representation. Nothing produces inspiration so words for the old in Matthew ix, 23, had disturbed, if not obliterated, the
much as necessity, the inciting presence of the copyist who is awaiting your lear picture there presented of a very interesting social custom among the
work strip by strip, and the terrifying sight of a despairing manager tearing ancients. In the Authorized Version the verse reads: "And when Jesus
out his hair by the roots. The real chefs d'ceuvre have never been composed ame into the ruler's house and saw the minstrels and the people making a
under other circumstances. In Italy, in my day, managers were bald before noise, He said unto them, Give place; for the maid is not dead but sleepeth."
they were thirty.
The Revised Version changes " minstrels "to " flute players," and " noise "
" First Recipe—I composed the overture to ' Othello ' in a little room in to "tumult." The passage occurs in the episode of the raising of Jairus's
the Babaja Palace, in which the most ferocious and baldest of managers shut daughter. The "minstrels" and people were the hired mourners who
me up, with macaroni a I'eau, and the threat that he would only let me out among the Greeks and Romans and other ancient peoples, performed the
alive if provided with the last note of the said overture.
singular ceremony of bemoaning the dead, a relic of which is preserved in
"Second Recipe—I composed the overture to the ' Gazza Ladra,' not on the Irish wake. The "noise " was the music of the pipes, and the wailing
the eve, but on the very day of the first representation, in the ' flies' of the and chanting of the singers. The word used to describe the musicians in
La Scala Theatre, at Milan, whither the manager, a worthy rival of Barbaja, the original Greek is auletas, meaning players on the aulos. But nothing is
had relegated me under the guard of four machinists. These four wretches better established concerning antique music than that aulos is a generic
were ordered to throw down my work, sheet by sheet, to copyists who sat term applied to wind instruments. Its root means " to blow." Moreover,
below in the body of the theatre, transcribing and sending the manuscript the majority of the instruments of this olass, as the old pictures, sculptures
bit by bit to the chef tTorchestre, who had it rehearsed. If a due amount and descriptions, as well as preserved specimens, attest, were not instru-
were not forthcoming, the barbarians in question were directed to throw me ments like the modern flute, but reed instruments like the clarionet and
oboe. They had mouthpieces to which were fixed vibrating splints or
in propria persona to the copyists.
" Third Recipe—I did better in the ease of the overture to • II Barbiere,' tongues. The Greek writers, profane and sacred, have preserved even the
which I did not compose at all, having made use of the overture to ' Elisa- name of the box in which the musicians kept these reeds ; it was called
betta,' an excessively seria opera instead of the one written for the above glossokomeion—a word which the lexicographers translate " a case to keep
mouthpieces, a tongue-box. The " bag" which Judas carried was a glosso-
equally buffa piece. The public seemed delighted by the substitution.
" Fourth Recipe—I composed the overture, or, more properly speaking, komon, and Dr. Stainer thinks it quite possible that the betrayer of Christ
the musical introduction, to the ' Con\te Ory ' while fishing in company carried the money in a reedbox. To call the musicians " flute players" is to
with M. Aguado, who never ceased talking to me the whole time about give them a specific character not warranted by the text and to create a false
impression concerning ancient musical instruments. "Pipers," a form
Spanish finances.
"Fifth Recipe—I composed the overture to 'Guillaume Tell,' under which is used in other passages, is better, yet in Revelations xviii, 22, this,
somewhat analogous circumstances, in some rooms on the Boulevard Mont- too, is changed to "flute players." A mingling of clarinet tones and wail-
martre, which were filled night and day with a posse of fellows smoking, ings (if the latter were anything like the " Irish cries" of to-day), might well
drinking, talking, singing and bellowing in my ears, while I was working be described as a "noise," but surely not as a "tumult," which word
implies a commotion, an uproar, a violent stir. The Old Testament tells of
away with might and main.
ordering of this queer funeral ceremony among the Hebrews, and many
" Sixth Recipe—I never composed any overture at all for ' Moise,' which the
is the easiest way of all, and was followed by my good friend Meyerbeer for authors of its features with the Greeks and Romans.
'Robert le Diable' and the ' Huguenots,' as well as, so they say, for the
Another noteworthy change made by the Revisers consists in the sub-
' Prophete.' "•—Qalignani.
stitution of "clanging cymbal" for "tinkling cymbal" in the famous
chapter on charity (I. Corinthians xiii.). This change has long been fore-
CURIOSITIES OF THE VOICE.
shadowed by the commentators. It is not vital to the sense of the passage,
R. DELAUNAY, in a paper read recently before the French Academy and the new adjective unquestionably reflects better than the old popular
of Medicine, gives some details on the history and limits of the human conception of the sound of a cymbal. The change has also a better philo-
voice, which he obtained after much patient research. According to the logical basis than the one in Matthew, inasmuch as the root of the Greek
doctor, the primitive inhabitants of Europe were all tenors ; their descend adjective, alalazon, seems to be alala, a war cry. But there was no pressing
ants of the present day are baritones, and their grandsons will have semi-bass need of a " bow-wow" word, for St. Paul's plain meaning was that his ora-
voices. Looking at different races, he calls attention to the fact that inferior tory, however beautiful, unless inspired by charity would be as vague and
races, such as negroes, &c., have higher voices than white men. The voice empty as instrumental music, and " clanging" is no more potent to this end
has also a tendency to deepen with age—the tenor of sixteen becoming the than " tinkling," and less musical. Luther in his German translation of
baritone at twenty-five, and bass at thirty-five. Fair complexioned people the Bible rendered the phrase klingende Schelle—"ringing bell." Besides,
have higher voices than the dark-skinned, the former being usually sopranos much would depend on whether St. Paul when he wrote Kumbalon, meant
or tenors, and the latter contraltos or basses. Tenors, says the doctor, are the common Greek cymbals (which were the size of the smallest now used),
slenderly built and thin; basses are stoutly made and corpulent. This may or the tinkling cymbals, which were fastened to the forefingers and thumbs
be so, as a rule, but one is inclined to think there are more exceptions to it of the players.
than are necessary to prove the rule. The same remark applies to the asser
The whole subject is one of the most difficult with which the translators
tion that thoughtful intelligent men have always a deep-toned voice; wherea! of the Holy Scriptures have had to contend, and the questionable character
trifiers and frivolous persons have soft, weak voices. The voice is percepti- of the work of the revisers of the New Testament in these few instances gives
bly higher, he says, before than after a meal, which is the reason why tenors a premonition of the task before the Old Testament Company whose work
dine early, in order that the voice may not suffer. It is almost superfluous will compass an exposition of an elaborate musical system, of which nothing
for him to remind his learned audience that singers who were pruden is preserved except the names. Despite the advance of this century in
eschewed strong drinks and spirituous liquors, especially tenors, for th< archaeological knowledge, even riper scholarship than the present will be
basses can eat and drink generally with impunity. The South, says th< required to give to questions as to the character of the old instruments and
doctor, furnishes the tenors, the North the basses; in proof of which he add the meaning of the headings of some of the Psalms determinations which
that the majority of French tenors in vogue come from the south of France will meet with general acceptance from musical scholars. The Authorized
while the basses belong to the northern department.
Version of the Old Testament is faulty in its nomenclature of the ancient
instruments, and the mistakes are of a kind calculated to create erroneous
impressions concerning the musical art of the Hebrews. Even the division
A GASPAR 2 1 SALO VIOLIN.
into families of stringed, wind and percussion instruments was not always
BY KEV. H. B. HAWEIS.
regarded, and in some instances the names of instruments of comparatively
E is in splendid condition, still bulgy, but a notable and significant recent origin were given as equivalents for old Hebrew, Chaldaic and
reduction from the old viol type, which Gaspar doubtless continued Assyrian names—a confusion which the Seventy promoted by their* transla-
to make. The head is charmingly long and queer and antique. The idea of tion. The King James translators and their predecessors were very gropers
putting character and great finish into the scroll belongs to a later period in a province that exacts ingenious study, and their carlessness in this regard
was of a piece with that of many translators of ancient works, who, lacking
Human and animal heads were, no doubt, common enough in the place of
scroll, but they belong to the carving, cabinet decoration, over-puffing technical knowledge of some of the subjects treated, made use of modern
period, when tone was second to ornament. As the great tone period ap- terms regardless of the anachronisms which resulted. An instance comes to
proached carving for the sake of carving was abandoned; ornament was kep mind in the work of Whiston, the translator of Josephus, who in translating
simple, subordinate, but full of finish, and avowedly the mark of sign- plektronhj "a bow," put an instrument of the viol tribe into the sacred
manual. The exquisite yet unpretending and simple scrolls of Amiti and band employed in the temple at Jerusalem, whereas diligent research has
Stradivarius arose along with the rise of violin tone. But why such finish, failed to discover any bowed instrument of music in the possession of any of
such evident intention to be noticed, such distinct cachet and appeal to th the peoples of Holy Writ.
D
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