François Frédéric Chopin, genius of music for the piano, was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, on February 22, 1810. He began to study the piano at six. One year later he made his first public appearance and wrote his first piece of music. His later music study took place privately with Joseph Elsner and at the Warsaw Conservatory from which he was graduated with honors in 1829. In that year he visited Vienna where he gave two successful concerts of his works. He left Poland for good in 1830, settling permanently in Paris a year after that. He soon became one of the most highly regarded musicians in France, even though he gave only a few public concerts. In 1837 he first met the writer, George Sand, with whom he was involved emotionally for about a decade, and under whose influence he composed some of his greatest music. Always sensitive in physique and of poor health, Chopin suffered physically most of his adult life. He died in Paris on October 17, 1849 and was buried in Père Lachaise.
Chopin produced 169 compositions in all. Practically all of them are for the piano, and most within the smaller forms. In writing for the piano he was an innovator who helped change the destiny of piano style and technique. He is often described as the poet of the keyboard, by virtue of his sensitive and deeply affecting lyricism (usually beautifully ornamented), his always exquisite workmanship, and his profound emotion. Many of his works are nationally Polish in expression.
The Etude in E major, op. 10, no. 3 (1833) is one of two of Chopin’s most famous works in the etude form. While an etude is essentially a technical exercise, Chopin produced twenty-seven pieces for piano which, though they still probe various technical problems, are nevertheless so filled with poetic thought and musical imagination that they belong in the realm of great art and must be numbered with his most significant compositions. That in E major is one of his most beautiful melodies, a soulful song rather than a technical exercise; Chopin himself regarded this as one of his most inspired pages. One of the many transcriptions of this composition existing is for the voice.
The so-called Revolutionary Etude—C minor, op. 10, no. 12 (1833)—was inspired by the tidings received by Chopin while he was traveling from Vienna to Paris that Warsaw had fallen to the Russians. His first impulse was to rush back home and join in the battle. He was dissuaded from doing this by his family, and instead he sublimated his intense patriotic feelings by writing a fiery piece of national music, full of the spirit of defiance. Since then this etude has become as inextricably associated with Poland and its national aspirations and ideals as, for example, is Sibelius’ Finlandia with Finland. This etude was repeatedly played over the Polish radio when Nazi Germany first attacked Poland in 1939, a continual inspiration to the defenders of Warsaw; it was the last piece of music played over the Polish radio before the Germans took over.
In the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, op. 66 (1834), Chopin makes a structural compromise between the forms of the fantasy and the impromptu. In doing so, he produced one of his best known melodies, a melody that appears after a fast bravura opening. This is a flowing sentimental song that was used for the popular American tune, “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.”
The Funeral March is surely the most celebrated funeral music ever written. It is found as the third movement of the Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, for piano, op. 35 (1839). In various arrangements, especially for orchestra, for band and for organ, this music has accompanied the dead to their final resting place in every part of the civilized world. In three-part form, the first section consists of a slow, mournful march. In the middle trio a more reflective mood is projected, almost like a kind of gentle recollection of the dead and the good he had performed. The opening mournful tread returns after this trio to bring the composition to its conclusion.
The fifty-five Mazurkas are among the most national of Chopin’s compositions, those in which he most fervently expressed his strong feelings about his native land. The Mazurka is a Polish dance in ¾ time, somewhat slower in tempo than the waltz, and highly varied in rhythm and emotion. In Chopin’s Mazurkas we find, on the one hand, brief mood pictures, and on the other, a fiery romantic temperament which expresses itself in rapid and at times abrupt alternations of feeling from the gay to the melancholy, from the energetic to the pensive. One of the most beautiful of the Mazurkas is that in A minor, op. 17, no. 4 (1833), of which Stokowski made an excellent orchestral arrangement. One of the most dramatic is that in B-flat minor, op. 24, no. 4 (1835) orchestrated by Stokowski, Auber, among others. Two other Chopin Mazurkas that have been orchestrated are found in Les Sylphides (see below): that in D major, op. 33, no. 2 (1838) and C major, op. 67, no. 3 (1835).
Chopin wrote nineteen Nocturnes, each one a slow, poetic and atmospheric piece of “night music.” “Chopin loved the night,” wrote James Gibbons Huneker, “and its soft mysteries, and his nocturnes are true night pieces, some with agitated, remorseful countenance, others seen in profile only, while many others are whisperings at the dusk.” The most celebrated of Chopin’s Nocturnes is that in E-flat major, op. 9, no. 2 (1833), truly a “whispering at the dusk.” This is a beautiful, romantic song that begins without preliminaries. As this spacious melody unfolds, it acquires even new facets of beauty through the most exquisite embellishments. Among the many transcriptions that have become popular, besides those for orchestra, is one for violin and piano by Pablo de Sarasate, and another for cello and piano by David Popper.
There are two Chopin Polonaises that are particularly favored by audiences everywhere. One is the Heroic, the other the Military. Chopin was especially successful in endowing artistic dimensions and significance to this old courtly folk dance which is technically characterized by its syncopations and accents on the half beat. He wrote twelve for piano. The Heroic, in A-flat major, op. 53, no. 6 (1842) is fiery music, its first robust theme being the reason why the entire work has been designated as “heroic.” This main melody was borrowed for the American popular song, “Till the End of Time,” a big hit in 1945. (Sigmund Spaeth has pointed up the interesting fact that while “Till the End of Time” was at the head of the “Hit Parade” in 1945, the polonaise itself from which this song was derived was in fifteenth place, “competing with all the light and serious music of the world.” And one of the reasons why the Polonaise suddenly became so popular was because it was featured prominently in the screen biography of Chopin released that year, A Song to Remember.) The Military Polonaise, in A major, op. 40, no. 1 (1839) is one of Chopin’s most commanding pieces of music. Both principal themes have a pronounced military character, though the second is somewhat more subdued and lyrical than the first. Glazunov’s transcription for orchestra, for the ballet Chopiniana, is one of several adaptations.
Of Chopin’s twenty-six Preludes, two should be singled out for their enormous popular appeal. Chopin’s Preludes are brief compositions suggesting a mood or picture, but at the end leaving the impression with the listener that much more could be spoken on that subject. These Preludes, as Robert Schumann wrote, “are sketches, the beginnings of studies, or, if you will, ruins; eagles’ pinions, wild and motley and pell-mell. But in every piece we find, in his own pearly handwriting, ‘this is by Frederic Chopin’; even in his pauses we recognize him by his agitated breathing.” There are twenty-four pieces in op. 28 (1839), each one in one of the keys of the major or minor scale, beginning with C major and A minor, and concluding with F major and D minor. The most popular is that in A major, one of the shortest in the group, a sixteen-bar melody in two short sentences; this is not only one of Chopin’s simplest lyrical thoughts, but also one of his most eloquent. Among the orchestral transcriptions is the one found in the ballet Les Sylphides (see below).
The second of Chopin’s most popular Preludes is the so-called Raindrop, in D-flat major, op. 28, no. 15. Some of the depression experienced by Chopin during a miserable stay in Majorca with George Sand—where he was plagued by illness, bad weather, and the antagonism and suspicions of his neighbors—can here be found. The melody is a somber reflection, through which is interspersed a repetitious figure that seems to suggest the rhythm of falling raindrops, the reason why this piece acquired its familiar nickname. The belief that Chopin was inspired to write this music by listening to the gentle sound of falling rain on the roof of his Majorca house is apocryphal.
Les Sylphides, one of the most popular works in the classic ballet repertory, makes extensive use of some of Chopin’s best-known compositions for the piano, orchestrated by Stravinsky, Alexander Tcherepnine, Glazunov, and Liadov. With choreography by Michel Fokine it was first presented by Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Paris on June 2, 1909 with Pavlova, Karsavina, and Nijinsky as principal dancers. There is no story line to this ballet. In place of characters there are only dancers dressed in long white dresses, and a danseur in black and white velvet. In place of an actual plot there is only atmosphere and mood. A subdued, introspective overture (Prelude in A major, op. 28, no. 7) leads to the rise of the curtain on an ancient ruin within a secluded wood. Girls in white are transfixed in a tableau; then they begin dancing to the strains of the Nocturne in A-flat, op. 32, no. 2. After that come various dances to the following Chopin compositions: Waltz in G-flat, op. 70, no. 1; Mazurka in C major, op. 67, no. 3; Mazurka in D major, op. 33, no. 2; a repetition of the opening A major Prelude; Waltz in A-flat, op. 69, no. 1, the L’adieu; a repetition of the opening A major Prelude; Waltz in C-sharp minor, op. 64, no. 2; Waltz in E-flat, op. 18, the Grande valse brillante.
Chopin’s fourteen waltzes are the last word in aristocratic elegance and refinement of style; they are abundant with the most beguiling lyrical ideas. Perhaps the best loved of all these waltzes is that in C-sharp minor, op. 64, no. 2 (1847). The waltz opens without preliminaries with music of courtly grace; two other equally appealing subjects follow. The so-called Minute Waltz—in D-flat major, op. 64, no. 1—is one of the shortest of Chopin’s compositions for the piano. The term “minute” does not refer to the sixty seconds supposedly required for its performance (actually that performance takes less than a minute) but to the French term, “minute” meaning “small.”
Eric Coates, one of England’s most highly esteemed and widely performed composers of light music, was born in Hucknall, England, on August 27, 1886. While attending the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he specialized in the viola under Lionel Tertis, he supported himself by playing in several of London’s theater orchestras. Upon graduating from the Academy, Coates became violist with several string quartets, including the Hambourg String Quartet with which he toured South Africa in 1908. From 1912 to 1918 he was first violist of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. Meanwhile, in 1911 he realized his first success as composer of light music when his Miniature Suite was introduced at a Promenade Concert; after 1920 he devoted himself almost completely to composition, producing ballets, rhapsodies, suites, marches, and so forth, that were heard around the world. In 1930, his valse-serenade Sleepy Lagoon achieved a phenomenal success in London; with lyrics by Jack Lawrence and in a popular-song arrangement by Dr. Albert Sirmay, it made in 1942 seventeen appearances on the American “Hit Parade,” twice in first place. Coates appeared as guest conductor throughout the music world, visiting the United States in 1946 and 1955, on both occasions conducting concerts of his music over the radio networks. In 1957 he became president of the British Light Music Association. He died in Chichester, England, on December 21, 1957.
In Four Centuries, a suite for orchestra (1941), Coates created a four-movement work, each of which was in a musical style of a different century. The first movement is a fugue, the second pavane, the third Valse, and the last is called “Jazz.”
London Suite (1932), for orchestra, is one of his best known works inspired by the city dearest to his heart. As he himself wrote: “My best inspiration is to walk down a London street and a tune soon comes to me. When I can think of nothing I walk down Harley Street and there is a lamp post. Every time I catch sight of it a tune comes to my mind. That lamp post has been my inspiration for years.” The most celebrated movement of his suite is the stirring “Knightsbridge March,” one of the most popular marches by an Englishman, perhaps second only in universal appeal to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance. It has been used as the theme music for a program on the BBC, and when first used the radio station was swamped with over twenty thousand letters asking for its identification. Two other highly familiar movements from this suite are “Westminster” and “Covent Garden.” The former is a “meditation,” introduced by the chiming of bells of the Westminster clock and followed by tunes both gay and pensive suggesting different moods of people strolling in London streets below. The second is a tarantella, a lively dance recalling the fact that the famous opera house, Covent Garden, has also distinguished itself for the performances of comic and light operas.
The Three Bears is a realistic tonal picture of the famous fairy tale of Goldilocks and the three bears. An expressive Andante section is intended to depict the query of the three bears, “Who’s been sitting in my chair?” In the gentle waltz section that follows, Goldilocks goes to sleep in the small bear’s bed. A vigorous fast section demonstrates how the three bears discover Goldilocks and chase her wildly. They finally give up the pursuit, go home in good humor, while Goldilocks returns to her grandmother to tell her of her adventure that day.
In The Three Elizabeths (1944), Coates provides sensitive lyrical portraits of three English queens, Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen; Elizabeth, the Queen mother, widow of King George VI; and Elizabeth II.
Peter Cornelius was born in Mayence, Germany, on December 24, 1824. After studying theory with Dehn in Berlin from 1845 to 1852 he became a passionate advocate of the “music of the future” as promulgated by Liszt and Wagner. It was Liszt who introduced Cornelius’ comic opera, The Barber of Bagdad, in Weimar in 1858; Liszt was finally forced to resign his conducting post in Weimar because of the hostility of the audiences to this masterwork. From 1865 on Cornelius lived in Munich where he was reader to King Ludwig II and professor of harmony at the Royal Conservatory. He died in Mayence on October 26, 1874. He was a composer of operas and songs, but is today remembered almost exclusively for The Barber of Bagdad, one of the most delightful comic operas in the German repertory.
The Barber of Bagdad (Der Barbier von Bagdad)—whose world première took place in Weimar on December 15, 1858, Liszt conducting—has an amusing text written by the composer himself. The plot concerns a rendezvous between Nureddin and Margiana, daughter of the Caliph; Nureddin’s friend, the barber of Bagdad, stands guard. This amatory adventure is brightened by a series of episodes and accidents in which Nureddin (mistaking his friend for the Caliph) seeks refuge in a chest in which he almost suffocates. All turns out well in the end. The Caliph offers his parental blessings to Nureddin and Margiana.
The overture is famous. Its main melody is a chromatic Oriental subject which represents the barber. Another significant episode is the theme with which the overture opens: a tender melody for woodwind and muted strings. These two ideas, and several subsidiary ones derived from the opera score, are developed with considerable good humor and merriment until a dramatic conclusion is realized in the coda.
Noel Coward, one of England’s most brilliant and versatile men of the theater in the 20th century, was born in Teddington, on December 16, 1899. He made his stage debut in 1911 in a fairy play, and for the next few years appeared regularly in various other productions. His career as performer was interrupted by military service during World War I. After the war he decided upon a career as writer. His first major success came with the play The Vortex, in 1924. From then on he wrote dramas and comedies which placed him in the front rank of contemporary playwrights. But his achievements in the theater do not end here. He has also distinguished himself as an actor, night-club entertainer, producer, lyricist, composer, and on occasion even as a conductor. He wrote the texts, lyrics, and the music to several musical productions, the most famous of which is the operetta, Bitter Sweet, in 1929. Other musicals by Coward include Year of Grace (1928), Words and Music (1932), Conversation Piece (1934) and After the Ball (1954). Out of some of these have come such celebrated Coward songs as “Mad About the Boy,” “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” “Some Day I’ll Find You” and “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart.” An anthology of fifty-one Noel Coward songs from his various musical productions called The Noel Coward Song Book was published in New York in 1953. Never having received any musical training, Coward can play the piano only in a single key, and must call upon the services of an amanuensis to get his melodies down on paper.
Bitter Sweet is his most famous musical, first produced in London on July 18, 1929, and in New York on November 5, 1929. It was twice adapted for motion-pictures, the first time in 1933 in England, and the second time in 1940 in the United States in a production starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In Bitter Sweet, Noel Coward made a conscious effort at writing a romantic, sentimental, nostalgic operetta in the style so long favored in Vienna; indeed it was a hearing of a recording of Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus that proved to be the immediate stimulus in the writing of his text. The setting is for the most part Vienna, and the time the 1880’s. Sari, an English girl, is about to marry an English man of means when she suddenly decides to elope with Carl, a music teacher. They go to live in Vienna. Carl comes to his sudden death in a duel, after which Sari continues to live in Vienna where she becomes a famous singer. In her old age, after an absence of half a century, she returns to London.
Three melodies from Bitter Sweet have become extremely popular. The first is a nostalgic waltz, “I’ll See You Again,” from the first act, the love song of Sari and Carl; the song recurs again in the third act, and its closing measures serve to bring the play to a dramatic conclusion. “Zigeuner,” also sung by Sari is, as its name suggests, in the gypsy style so favored by the Viennese public. The third famous melody from Bitter Sweet is “If Love Were All.”
“I’ll Follow My Secret Heart” comes from Conversation Piece, first produced in London on February 16, 1934, and in New York the same fall. The setting of this sentimental and nostalgic operetta is the English resort town of Brighton in 1811 where Paul, a duke turned adventurer, and Melanie, a Parisian chanteuse, are involved in a stormy romance that ends happily. As sung by Yvonne Printemps in London, “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart” was the pivot on which the story rotated, and the main reason for this operetta’s enormous success.
César Cui was born in Vilna, Russia, on January 18, 1835. He was graduated as an engineer from the St. Petersburg Engineering Academy in 1857; following that he served for many years as a topographer, as an authority on fortifications, and as an engineering professor. All the while his principal avocation was music, which he had studied from childhood on. Between 1864 and 1900 he was active as music critic for various Russian newspapers and journals. As a composer, he belonged to the nationalist group known as the “Russian Five” or “Mighty Five,” but unlike his distinguished colleagues (Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Borodin) his influence proved far greater than his music. He wrote many operas and large orchestral works, but none have remained alive in the repertory. He was probably at his best in miniature for the piano, and in his songs. He died in St. Petersburg on March 24, 1918.
It is with one of his miniatures that his name is still remembered. This piece is the Orientale, a composition originally for violin and piano, the ninth number in a suite of twenty-four pieces collectively entitled Kaleidoscope, op. 50. The principal melody is in oriental style, introduced and then accompanied by a persistent rhythm (which in the original version is produced by plucked strings, while the melody itself is first given by the piano. This melody is soon taken over by the violin.) Transcriptions for orchestra have made this a salon favorite.
Achille-Claude Debussy, father of musical Impressionism, was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, France, on August 22, 1862. From 1873 to 1884 he attended the Paris Conservatory where he was both a rebellious and a brilliant student. He won many prizes, including the Prix de Rome in 1884. In the compositions written in Rome under the provisions of the Prix he already revealed his independence of thought and unorthodoxy of style. After returning from Rome to Paris he became influenced not only by the Impressionist movement in French art and the Symbolist movement in French literature but also by the iconoclastic musical approaches and idioms of Erik Satie. Debussy now began to develop his own techniques and mannerisms and to crystallize his highly personal style. His first masterworks appeared between 1892 and 1893: the orchestral prelude, The Afternoon of a Faun (L’Après-midi d’un faune), and his string quartet. With later works for orchestra and for solo piano—and with his remarkable opera, Pelleas and Melisande, introduced at the Opéra-Comique on April 30, 1902—he brought musical Impressionism to its highest technical development and to its most advanced stage of artistic fulfillment. He became the musical poet of the most subtle suggestions, elusive moods, and delicate impressions. A victim of cancer, Debussy suffered severely in the closing years of his life. He died in Paris on March 25, 1918, on a day when the city was being bombarded by the Germans during World War I. Because of the war, his death passed unnoticed except by a handful of friends.
Debussy’s greatest works are, to be sure, too complex in technique and too subtle in style to enjoy ready consumption by the general public. But a few of his compositions have a wide appeal because their charm and sensitivity are easily comprehended, even at first hearing. One of these is the delightful piano suite, Children’s Corner (1908) written by the composer for the delight of his little daughter, Chou-Chou. In it Debussy evokes the imaginative world of the child; but he also produces unsophisticated descriptive music that is readily appreciated by the very young. Debussy used English rather than French titles for this work because he wished to suggest the kind of stories and games that involve an English governess and a French child. André Caplet’s orchestration of this suite is famous.
There are six brief movements. The first, “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum,” is a satire on young pianists and their struggles with five-finger exercises. This is followed by “Jimbo’s Lullaby,” a tender lullaby crooned by a child to his toy elephant named Jimbo. In the third movement, “Serenade for a Doll,” the child turns from his pet elephant to his pet doll to croon to it a sensitive serenade. “The Snow Is Falling” is a tone picture of a snowfall, seen by a child from his window. “The Little Shepherd” is a pastoral piece of music. The most famous movement of the suite is the last one, “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” in which the composer exploits the style and rhythm of a Negro dance popular in America in the 19th century, the cakewalk. In this movement, the composer maliciously interpolates a fragment from the Prelude of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde.
The beloved Clair de Lune (Moonlight) is probably the composer’s most celebrated melody. This is a poetic, sensitive evocation of the peace and beauty of a moonlight light. It comes from his Suite bergamasque for piano (1890), where it can be found as the third of four movements. Orchestral transcriptions have made this piece of music world-famous.
The Girl With the Flaxen Hair (La Fille aux cheveux de lin) is an exquisite portrait, in the composer’s most felicitous impressionist style. It is the eighth number of his Preludes for the piano, Book I (1910), and like Clair de lune is often heard in various orchestral transcriptions; Arthur Hartmann’s adaptation for violin and piano is also familiar.
The Petite Suite (Little Suite) for piano duet (1889) is early Debussy, more in the Romantic vein of Delibes than in the provocative idiom Debussy later made famous. As orchestrated by Henri Busser it is in the repertory of many salon and pop orchestras. There are four short movements. The first, “En Bateau” (“In a Boat”) is particularly popular. In the orchestration a gentle barcarolle melody for flute suggests the gentle course of the boat in a placid lake. This is followed by turns by a vigorous episode and a passionate section, both of them for the strings. The flute then restores placidity, and the opening sensitive melody returns in the violins. “Cortège” (“March”) is a pert little march tune shared by the woodwind and strings. “Menuet” is of classic grace while the finale, “Ballet,” has a compelling rhythmic vigor.
Rêverie (1890) is a brief, atmospheric piece for the piano which has became a favorite with Americans because in 1938 it was adapted into the popular song, “My Reverie.”
Léo Delibes was born in St. Germain-du-Val, France, on February 21, 1836. After attending the Paris Conservatory from 1848 on, he became an accompanist for the Théâtre Lyrique and organist of the Church of St.-Jean et St.-François in Paris in 1853. Between 1855 and 1865 he wrote a dozen operas, none of them successful. In 1865 he was appointed chorusmaster of the Grand Opéra where he was encouraged to write music for ballet; the first of these was La Source in 1866 (renamed Naila when later given in Vienna). His most successful ballets were Coppélia in 1870 and Sylvia in 1876, both still vital in the repertory. In 1873 his most important opéra-comique, Le Roi l’a Dit, was introduced by the Opéra-Comique; Delibes’ most important opera, Lakmé, was first performed on April 14, 1883 by the Paris Opéra. Meanwhile, in 1881, Delibes was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory. Three years after that he became a member of the French Academy. He died in Paris on January 16, 1891.
Delibes is often described as the creator of modern ballet music. He was the first composer to write symphonically for the dance, to bring to ballet music the fullest creative and technical resources of the skilled serious composer. Thus he opened a new field of compositions which later composers (Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Ravel among many others) cultivated with fertility. The elegance of Delibes’ style, the caressing warmth of his lyricism, the richness of his harmonic and rhythmic language, the delicacy of his orchestration endow his ballet music with interest even when it is divorced from its choreography.
Coppélia is a staple in the classic ballet repertory. It was introduced at the Paris Opéra on May 25, 1870, choreography by A. Saint-Léon, and scenario by C. Nuitter and A. Saint-Léon based upon The Sandman, a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Coppélia is the first successful ballet to utilize the subject of a doll become human. Coppélia is a doll created by Dr. Coppélius. She comes to life and gets out of control. Franz, thinking she is human, falls in love with her. But when he realizes she is but a doll he becomes reconciled with his former sweetheart, Swanilda.
Delibes’ score is one of the earliest in ballet to make successful use of such folk dances as the Mazurka and the Czardas; because of his success in this direction, many later composers of ballet music were encouraged to follow suit.
An orchestral suite adapted from the score never ceases to delight audiences at both symphonic and semi-classical concerts. It opens with the “Valse lente,” a suave waltz to which Swanilda dances as she strives to attract the attention of Coppélia, of whom she is jealous. This is followed by the “Mazurka,” a gay episode danced by a group of villagers after Franz has mistaken Coppélia for a human and salutes her. The “Ballade” then comes as a pensive interlude; to this music Swanilda puts a stalk of wheat to her ear, following a long existing superstition, to discover if Franz has been faithful to her. When the answer is in the negative, she breaks the stalk savagely before his very eyes. “Theme Slave Varié” is danced by Swanilda; this section comprises a tuneful Polish melody and five variations. The stately and at times fiery “Czardas” which concludes the first act is a corybantic in which all villagers join. “Valse de la poupée” (or “Dance of the Doll”) is probably the most familiar musical number in the entire ballet, an elegant waltz danced by Swanilda as she assumes the dress, and imitates the actions, of Coppélia.
The Naila Waltz (or Pas des Fleurs) was written by Delibes in 1867 as an intermezzo for the revival in Paris of Adolph Adam’s opera Le Corsaire, in Paris. When Delibes’ early ballet, La Source, was introduced in Vienna as Naila, this waltz was interpolated into the production. A short, vigorous introduction for full orchestra and several notes in the basses lead to the lilting waltz melody in strings, with the woodwinds soon joining in. Ernst von Dohnányi made an effective transcription of this waltz for the piano.
Le Roi l’a dit (The King Said So) is an opéra-comique with libretto by Edmond Gondinet, introduced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on May 24, 1873. The plot revolves around a peasant boy whom a Marquis is trying to pass off before the king as his own son. The peasant makes the most of this situation to the continual embarrassment and chagrin of the Marquis who finally manages to get rid of him by marrying him off to a maid with whom the boy is in love.
The popular overture to this light opera opens with a brisk march in full chords. A gracious little melody then unfolds in the strings. After a return of the march music in a more subdued vein, a romantic song is offered by the clarinets against plucked strings. The music now grows livelier as a principal thought is given by chattering strings and woodwind. Extended use is now made of the first graceful melody. The opening march is at last recalled to bring the overture to a boisterous end.
The second of Delibes’ famous ballets, Sylvia, was introduced at the Paris Opéra on June 14, 1876. The choreography was by Louis Mérante, and the text by Jules Barbier and Baron de Reinach. The classical subject is derived from mythology. Aminta, a shepherd, comes to a sacred grove seeking a huntress he had once seen there. She is Sylvia, who soon appears with her nymphs. She is later captured by Orion, the black huntsman. But her escape is effected by Eros, and she and Aminta are reunited in love.
Like Coppélia, Sylvia has a popular orchestral suite adapted from the ballet score. After a brief Prelude comes “Les Chasseresses” (“The Huntresses”), sprightly music with which Sylvia and her nymphs make their first appearance; to its rhythmic strains they dance before a statue of Eros. A gentle “Intermezzo” follows, describing the nymphs as they rest near a stream. In the “Valse lente” Sylvia dances to a graceful musical episode. The “Barcarolle” highlights a saxophone solo; to this background music appears a ship bearing Eros, disguised as a pirate. The most celebrated single number in the entire suite comes next, the “Pizzicato,” a delicate dance performed by Sylvia disguised as a slave. The “Cortège de Bacchus” (“March of Bacchus”) is the dynamic music with which a bacchanalian rite is being celebrated.
Gregore Dinicu, who was born in Bucharest, Rumania, on April 5, 1889, is a gypsy violinist who became popular in leading Rumanian cabarets and restaurants. In 1939 he visited the United States, scoring a major success with his gypsy orchestra at the New York World’s Fair. His Hora Staccato, for violin and piano (or violin and orchestra)—a virtuoso piece of folk character—is his only composition to become famous outside Rumania. Jascha Heifetz, the famous virtuoso, heard Dinicu play it in Rumania and was so delighted with it that he transcribed it, and popularized it both at his concerts and on records. The Hora is an exciting Rumanian folk dance with lively rhythms and a vertiginous melody that shifts flexibly from major to minor or modal scales. These traits are all found in Dinicu’s electrifying Hora Staccato.
Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo, Italy, on November 29, 1797. His early music study took place in Bergamo and Naples and was completed at the Liceo Filarmonico in Bologna. Despite his strong bent not only for music but also for art, literature, and architecture, he aspired for a military career. While serving in the Austrian army he completed his first opera, Enrico di Borgogna, introduced in Venice in 1818. Success came four years after that in Rome with Zoraide di Granata. Now exempted from further military duty, Donizetti was able to devote himself entirely to composition. Between 1822 and 1829 he wrote twenty-three operas. In 1830 he achieved renown throughout Europe with Anna Bolena, introduced in Milan. In the five succeeding years he produced two masterworks by which he is still represented in the operatic repertory: L’Elisir d’amore in 1832 and Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835. From 1837 to 1839 he was the director of the Naples Conservatory. In 1839 he went to live in Paris where he wrote and had produced several highly successful operas including The Daughter of the Regiment and La Favorita in 1840 and Don Pasquale in 1843. Soon after this he returned to his native city where he was stricken by a mental disorder and for a time confined to an asylum. He died in Bergamo on April 8, 1848.
The facility with which Donizetti wrote his sixty-seven operas is apparent in the easy flow of his lovable melodies and in the spontaneity of his aurally agreeable harmonies. He also possesses a fine theatrical gift, and much of his best music combines delightful lyricism and affecting emotion with dramatic force.
The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du régiment, or La figlia del reggimento) was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on February 11, 1840. The French libretto by Jean François Bayard and Vernoy de Saint-Georges was translated into Italian by the composer. The setting is Tyrol in 1815, then being invaded by Napoleon’s troops. Marie is the vivandière (canteen manager) of the 21st Regiment of the French army. In love with Tonio, who is suspected by the French of being a spy, she is able to prevail on the troops to save his life. But Marie is soon compelled to be separated from both Tonio and the French soldiers when it is discovered that she is the long lost niece of the Countess of Berkenfeld and must return with her aunt to her castle. The Countess wants Marie to marry the Duke of Crackenthorp. When the French troops, with Tonio among them, storm the Berkenfeld castle and want to reclaim Marie, the Countess now reveals that Marie is not her niece but her daughter and thus must obey her wishes. However, the French soldiers finally prevail on the Countess to permit Marie to marry Tonio.
The most popular selections from this tuneful, and occasionally martially stirring opera are: Marie’s moving tribute to her regiment (“Ah, chacun le sait, chacun le dit”) and her tender farewell as she is about to leave for Berkenfeld (“Il faut partir, mes bons compagnons”) and a spirited French war song to victory (“Rataplan”) all from the first act; and from the second act, Marie’s moving aria (“Par le rang, et l’opulence”), the orchestral entr’acte “Tyrolienne,” and the dramatic paean to France (“Salut à la France”) with which the opera ends.
Don Pasquale is a classic in the literature of opera buffa. It received its première in Paris on January 3, 1843; its libretto (by the composer and Giacomo Ruffini) is based on a libretto created by Angelo Anelli for another opera. The central character is an old bachelor who objected to the marriage of his young nephew with a beautiful widow, Norina. To teach him a lesson, Norina puts on a disguise, involves the old man in a mock marriage, and then tortures him with her shrewish ways. Pasquale finally becomes so relieved to discover that he has merely been the victim of an intrigue, rather than a catastrophic marriage, that he does not hesitate any longer to give Norina and his nephew his consent to their marriage.
In the case of Don Pasquale its overture is heard far more often than potpourris of principal sections. It opens with heavy descending chords which lead into an opulent song for cellos, soon assumed by horns and the woodwind. The heart of the overture is a saucy melody for strings. The music now becomes dramatized with transitional material, but a new gay melody is offered by the woodwind and strings. The main string melody and the succeeding sprightly tune are recalled to finish the overture in a gay mood.
L’Elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) like Don Pasquale, is a delightful comic opera, one of the most effervescent ever written. It received its first performance in Milan on May 12, 1832. The libretto, by Felice Romani, was based on Eugène Scribe’s Le Philtre. Nemorino, in love with Adina who rejects him, purchases a love elixir from the quack, Dr. Dulcamara. But a sudden inheritance from his uncle, which forthwith makes Nemorino extremely popular with the girls, proves even more potent in winning Adina’s love than the potion itself.
Orchestral selections from his gay opera include one of the best loved tenor arias in the operatic repertory. It is “Una furtiva lagrima,” a soulful song by Nemorino in the second act with which he hopes to console Adina when he sees her jealousy suddenly aroused by the fact that he had become the favorite of the village girls. Other familiar episodes include a merry comic number “Udite, Udite” in which Dr. Dulcamara boasts of the power of his potions, and a beautiful aria, “Quanto è bella,” in which Nemorino discloses his love and longing for Adina, both in the first act.
Lucia di Lammermoor is Donizetti’s most famous grand opera, and the title role has been favored by the world’s foremost coloratura sopranos. The libretto, by Salvatore Cammarano, was based on the Sir Walter Scott romance, The Bride of Lammermoor. The opera was first performed in Naples on September 26, 1835. Lucia, sister of Lord Ashton, is in love with Edgar; but in planning to have her marry the wealthy Lord Arthur Bucklaw, Lord Ashton uses lies and wiles to convince his sister that Edgar does not love her. On the day of the signing of the marriage contract between Lucia and Bucklaw, Edgar invades the Lammermoor castle and curses its family. Maddened by her grief, Lucia kills her husband soon after the wedding, and then dies. When Edgar learns that Lucia has loved him all the time, he commits suicide.
The favorite selections from this opera include one of the most famous ensemble numbers in all opera, the sextet “Chi mi frena.” It is sung in Act 2, Scene 2, by Lucia, Edgar, Bucklaw, Raimond, Ashton and Alisa after Edgar had invaded the Lammermoor castle and witnessed the signing of the marriage contract between Lucia and Bucklaw. Each of the characters here gives voice to his or her personal reaction to this dramatic situation: Lucia speaks of her despair at the treachery of her brother; Edgar wonders why he does not commit an act of vengeance; Lord Ashton is led to sympathy at his sister’s despair; Lucia’s companion, Alisa, and Bucklaw hope that bloodshed might be averted; and Raimond, a chaplain, invokes divine help.
Another highly popular excerpt from the opera offered in orchestral potpourris includes Lucia’s “Mad Scene” from Act 3, Scene 2 (“Ardon gl’incensi”). Dressed in a white gown, Lucia appears and mistakes her brother for her beloved Edgar, who she believes has come to marry her. Then she entreats those around her to place a flower on her grave and not to weep at her death (“Spargi d’amaro pianto”).
Several other selections often played include Lucia’s lyrical cavatina from Act 1, Scene 2 (“Quando rapita in estasi”) as she thinks of her beloved Edgar; the love duet of Lucia and Edgar from the same scene (“Verrano a te sull’aure”); and the wedding music from Act 3, Scene 1 that precedes the “Mad Scene” (“D’immenso giubilo”).
Franz Drdla was born in Saar, Moravia on November 28, 1868. He attended the Conservatories in Prague and Vienna, winning at the latter place first prize in violin playing and the medal of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. After serving for several years as a violinist in the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera, he toured Europe as a concert violinist. From 1923 to 1925 he lived in the United States, making many concert appearances. He died in Bad Gastein, Austria, on September 3, 1944.
Drdla’s most famous compositions are slight but lyrical pieces for the violin, of which he wrote over two hundred fifty. His most famous composition is the Souvenir, with its familiar upward skip in the main melody and its broad sentimental middle section in double stops. In a similarly sentimental and gentle melodic vein (they might aptly be described as instrumental songs) are the Romance, Serenade in A (No. 1), and Vision. All are familiar to violin students, and to lovers of light classics in transcriptions for orchestra.
Riccardo Drigo was born in Padua, Italy, on June 30, 1846. He first became famous as conductor of orchestral concerts at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg. After World War I, he continued his activities as conductor in his native city. He died there on October 1, 1930.
Drigo was the composer of ballets and operas, none of which have survived. He is today remembered almost exclusively for two slight but well loved items. One is the melodically suave Serenade, popular in every conceivable transcription. It comes out of a ballet entitled I milioni d’Arlecchino (Harlequin’s Millions) and consequently is sometimes known as the Harlequin’s Serenade. The other is Valse bluette, an elegant waltz melody, which the composer originally wrote for salon orchestra, but which is in the violinist’s repertory by virtue of a famous transcription.
Arcady Dubensky was born in Viatka, Russia, on October 15, 1890. After being graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1909 he played the violin in the orchestra of the Moscow Opera. In 1921 he came to the United States, where he later became a citizen. He served as violinist of the New York Symphony Society, and after that of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, until his retirement in 1953.