Part 9
Philip Thicknesse is one of the undeservedly forgotten figures of the eighteenth century. He wrote twenty-four books, including the first Life of Thomas Gainsborough, whom he claims to have discovered and which contains accounts of pictures which have disappeared, "A Treatise on the Art of Decyphering and of Writing in Cypher with an Harmonic Alphabet," and the aforementioned account of a journey through France and Spain which contains one of the earliest sympathetic descriptions of Montserrat. Thicknesse led far from a dull life and its course was marked by a series of violent quarrels. Born in 1719 he was in Georgia with General Oglethorpe in 1735. Later he fought wild negroes in Jamaica and cruised in the Mediterranean with Admiral Medley. In 1762 he had a dispute with Francis Vernon (afterwards Lord Orwell and Earl of Shipbrooke) then Colonel of the Suffolk militia; and having sent the Colonel the ridiculous present of a wooden gun became involved in an action for libel with the result that he was confined three months in the King's Bench Prison and fined £300. He was married three times. For his son, by his second marriage, Baron Audley, he conceived a deep hatred of which there is an echo in his will wherein he desires his right hand to be cut off and sent to Lord Audley to remind him of his duty to God after having so long abandoned the duty he owed to his father. The title of his last book also bears witness to this feud: "Memoirs and Anecdotes of Philip Thicknesse, late Lieutenant Governor of Land Guard Fort and unfortunately father to George Touchet, Baron Audley." In 1774 his twenty year friendship with Gainsborough ended in a wretched squabble. In 1775 a decree of chancery ratified by the House of Lords, to which he appealed, deprived him of what he considered his right to £12,000 from the family of his first wife. Feeling himself driven out of his country, accompanied by his third wife, two children and a monkey, he went to live in Spain, but he was back in England in a year and published the book from which I have quoted. His third wife, Anne Ford, was celebrated as a musician and you may find some account of her in the old Grove's Dictionary. She played the guitar, the viola de gamba, and the "musical glasses" and sang airs by Handel and the early Italians. The customs inspector at Cette on the way to Spain found "a bass viol, two guittars, a fiddle, and some other musical instruments" in Thicknesse's baggage. Thicknesse died in 1792 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Boulogne. The greater part of his work in Spain is devoted to an account of Montserrat, which he visited before its despoliation.
P. 56. "Mr. Philip Hale found the following account of it (the fandango somewhere"): In the anonymous, incomplete, and somewhat incorrect translation of Gaston Vuillier's "La Danse" (Hachette et Cie., 1898). In the original work this description of the fandango seems to be attributed to Tomás de Iriarte although the text is a little ambiguous, In the English translation called, "A History of Dancing," Chapter VIII is mainly devoted to Spanish dancing; in the original work it is Chapter IX. Vuillier derived most of his material from the Baron Charles Davillier's elaborate work, "l'Espagne," which is illustrated by Gustave Doré. Vuillier quotes Davillier very freely. Davillier's chapters on Spanish dancing (Chapters XIV and XV) are extremely interesting and much of their material the Baron gathered himself. There is for example a description of La Campanera dancing to the indifferent music provided by a blind violinist whose tunes prove so uninspiring that Doré seizes the violin from his trembling old fingers and plays it himself with great effect. Davillier describes Doré as a violinist of the first order who had won praise from Rossini. On another occasion Davillier and Doré, stimulated by the dancing of gipsies, enter into the sport themselves, wildly tap their heels, wave their arms, and circle with the gitanas while a large group applauds. This book which was published by Hachette in Paris in 1874 was brought out in New York, in J. Thomson's translation, with the original illustrations, by Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong in 1876. In the American edition the two French chapters are rolled into one, Chapter XIV.
P. 57. "cannot be transplanted, but remains local": James Huneker's Spanish experiences as related in the chapter on Madrid in "The New Cosmopolis" seem to have been unfortunate. There are those who would disagree with every separate statement in the following paragraph: "The best Spanish dancing is not to be found in Spain today. You must go to Paris for Otero and Carmencita. Nor is the most characteristic cookery in Spain; at least not in Madrid. The greatest Spanish opera was composed by the Frenchman Bizet."
P. 62. "Spanish folk-tunes": The Spanish catalogue of the Victor Phonograph Company offers a splendid opportunity for the study of Spanish and gipsy folk-music. You may find therein even examples of gipsy songs, conceived in esoteric scales, sung by gipsies, accompanied by the guitar. Mr. Caro-Delvaille has brought to my attention Nos. 62365 (Petenaras) and 62289 (Soleares). Nos. 62078 (Sevillanos and Ferruca) and 62077 (Jotas Nuevas), sung by Pozo, are also good. Most of Pozo's records will be found to be interesting.
P. 62. When Dmitri Slaviansky visited Barcelona with his Russian choir in 1895, introducing Russian folk-music to Spain, he became very much interested in the folk-music of Catalonia. His enthusiasm was contagious and Spanish musicians themselves caught the fever. In that very year Enrique Morera made a harmonization of the first verse of _Sant Ramón_, a traditional melody from the island of Mallorca, which was performed by the Russian Choir. Later Amadeo Vives founded the Orfeó Catalá, a choral society which devotes itself for the most part to the exploitation of the old folk and religious music, arranged by Morera, Pedrell, and other Spanish composers. Lluis Millet is now the director of this organization, which visited Paris and London in the spring of 1914. In both these cities the Choir was received with enthusiasm. Henry Quittard wrote in "Le Figaro": "We must confess that we have never heard anything that could approach this extraordinary ensemble." Emile Vuillermoz said, "A most varied program showed all the resources of this miraculous instrument, which ravishes and at the same time humiliates us profoundly. The comparison of our most reputed French choruses with this splendid phalanx is singularly sad for our own pride. Never have we had such discipline in a group which unites voices of such quality. Now we know what can be done. It is impossible to imagine the degree of technical perfection, of collective virtuosity, which human voices can attain, before one has heard the colossal living organ which Lluis Millet has presented Barcelona." Lluis Millet has issued a book with musical illustrations on "The Religious Folk-Song of Spain." On January 15, 1918, the Schola Cantorum of New York under the direction of Kurt Schindler gave a concert at Carnegie Hall in which the major part of the program was devoted to songs in the répertoire of the Orféo Catalá, sung in the original tongues. Strictly speaking these can no longer be called folk-songs as they have all been re-arranged. In some instances, aside from an occasional use of a folk-melody, they may be considered original compositions. Several of the songs were arranged, in some instances one might almost say composed, by Kurt Schindler and presented for the first time in their new form. One of these, _A Miracle of the Virgin Mary_, a fourteenth century canticle of Spanish Galicia, in which Mabel Garrison's lovely voice was assigned an important rôle, proved to be very beautiful. The whole program, indeed, aroused the deepest interest.
P. 62. "After the bull-fight": E. E. Hale ("Seven Spanish Cities") achieved the almost impossible feat of writing a book about Spain without having seen a bull-fight. One might as well attempt to write a history of opera, after refusing to listen to Wagner's _Ring_. H. T. Finck ("Spain and Morocco") was satisfied and disgusted with half a bull-fight. His attitude is quoted and reflected in Baedeker.... More sympathetic and detailed accounts of this very popular Spanish diversion may be found in Richard Ford's "Gatherings from Spain," Gautier's "Voyage en Espagne," Havelock Ellis's "The Soul of Spain," and de Amicis's "Spain and the Spaniards." Edward Penfield has illustrated a bull-fight in his "Spanish Sketches." The chapter on the bull-fight in John Hay's "Castilian Days" is very readable. The best descriptions in fiction of the tauromachian sport that I know of are in Frank Harris's very vivid story "Montes the Matador" (Gautier, by the way, devotes many nervous pages to Montes) and in Edgar Saltus's early novel, "Mr. Incoul's Misadventure."
P. 64. "often introduce dialogue of their own": This is no longer true, Mr. John Garrett Underhill informs me, as the Sociedad de Autores has forbidden such interpolations.
P. 64. "The Zarzuela": I am indebted to Mr. John Garrett Underhill for the following remarks anent the zarzuela: "The zarzuela was originally a three act romantic operetta, partly sung and partly spoken, and it continued in this form until the introduction of the one act form in the early eighties. The performances given at the Teatro de Zarzuela were mostly in the more elaborate form, while the _género chico_ (lesser genre) made its home at the Apolo. With the change to one act, the zarzuelas became more realistic--minute pictures of local customs, etc., built up around characteristic songs and dances, so that now the name has come to be pretty well synonymous with this species of entertainment, while the longer older form is generally spoken of as operetta. In other words a zarzuela is rather a musico-dramatic entertainment that is strongly Spanish than merely a mixed form. _The Land of Joy_ illustrates precisely this quality, although, having no dramatic element, it is not a zarzuela.
"The most popular zarzuelas are all strongly coloured. They are _La Alegría de la Huerta_, music by Federico Chueca, built up about a scene of provincial merry-making, _La Verbena de la Paloma_ by Bretón, dealing with a popular religious festival in Madrid, Manuel Nieto's _Certamen Nacional_, Fernández Caballero's _El Cabo Primero_ and _Gigantes y Cabezudos_, and Chapí's _El Puñao de Rosas_. All these are in one act and the spoken parts are broad low comedy. To these must be added Emilio Arrieta's _Marina_, in three acts, the best example of the old form, showing strong Italian influence. _Marina_ is the sort of operatic classic with Spaniards that _Pinafore_--another nautical work--is with us.
"What is most distinctive in the zarzuela is its low comedy and Spanish _sal_, together with that peculiar indiscipline so well exemplified by _The Land of Joy_. In other words, the zarzuela is a state of mind, just as Spanish music is an expression of Spanish life, and unintelligible without some understanding of its symbols.
"It would be safe to say that every zarzuela has either a realistic low comedy element or otherwise exhibits some direct form of theatricalism, differentiating it in this respect from works of a purely artistic category. Yet it is difficult to draw the line. The zarzuela is not without a tang similar to that of our burlesque stage. The analogue would be American burlesque written by playwrights of high intelligence. Had Harrigan's _Mulligan Guards Ball_ been compressed into one act, it would have been a typical zarzuela."
P. 65. "_La Gran Vía_": See note to page 14.
P. 65. "Usually four separate zarzuelas are performed in one evening before as many audiences": At the Apolo. "The evening is divided into separate sections--four or five are the usual number," writes Mr. Underhill. "These are called _funciones_, each consisting of a single play. If the first _función_ begins at eight, the second will follow at nine or nine-fifteen, the third at ten, the fourth shortly after eleven, and the last, which is commonly a farce, appealing perhaps to the less puritanical elements in the community, at twelve or a quarter after twelve. A similar system prevails in the afternoons. There is considerable variation in the hours of the _funciones_ in different cities, according to the character and habits of the population. In some theatres performances are practically continuous.... A separate admission is charged to each _función_.... Spacious and comfortable waiting rooms are provided in which the audience gathers for the succeeding _función_ previously to the conclusion of that actually in progress, so that the delay incident to the necessary change is reduced to a minimum, never exceeding a quarter of an hour. Meanwhile ushers circulate through the aisles and boxes taking up the tickets of those who remain, although in these popular theatres the reconstitution of the audience is practically complete."
P. 69. "_villancicos_": On the program of the second historical concert given by M. Fétis in Paris, November 18, 1832, devoted to music of the sixteenth century, I find: "_Vilhancicos espagnols, à 6 voix de femmes, avec 8 guitars obligées, composés par Soto de Puebla et exécutés dans un concert à la cour de Philippe II (1561)._"
P. 70. George Henry Lewes gives some account of the drama in Spain, touching on the zarzuela, in Chapter XIV of "On Actors and the Art of Acting."
P. 70. "the Italian opera": In Gautier's day Bellini was the favourite composer (see P. 215, "Voyage en Espagne").
John Hay writes in "Castilian Days" (1871): "It (Madrid) has a superb opera house, which might as well be in Naples, for all the national character it has; the Court Theatre, where not a word of Castilian is ever heard, nor a strain of Spanish music.... The champagny strains of Offenbach are heard in every town of Spain oftener than the ballads of the country. In Madrid there are more _pilluelos_ who whistle _Bu qui s'avance_ than the Hymn of Riego. The Cancan has taken its place on the boards of every stage in the city, apparently to stay; and the exquisite jota and cachucha are giving way to the bestialities of the Casino Cadet."
It is well to remember in this connection that the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and Covent Garden Theatre in London "might as well be in Naples" too, "for all the national character" they have. Our symphony orchestras, too, perform works by native composers as infrequently as those in Madrid.
P. 75. To fill in the period between 1850-70 four names, inadvertently omitted from the original text of "Spain and Music," are necessary, those of Joaquín Gaztambide, Emilio Arrieta, Baltasar Saldoni, and Francisco A. Barbieri. Joaquín Gaztambide, born February 7, 1822, was a pupil of the Madrid Conservatory, and conductor of the "Pensions" concerts at the Conservatory. He was the composer of at least forty zarzuelas of which some of the titles follow: _La Cisterna Encantada_, _La Edad en la Boca_, _Matilda y Malek Adel_, _El Secreto de la Reina_, _Las Señas del Archiduque_, and _El Valle de Andorra_. He died March 18, 1870.
Emilio Arrieta, born October 21, 1823, was a pupil of the Milan Conservatory from 1842 until 1845. Many of the best Spanish musicians have received their training outside of Spain. His first opera, _Ildegonda_, was produced at Milan. He returned to Spain in 1848. In 1857 he became a teacher of composition in the Madrid Conservatory and later became director of that institution. He died February 11, 1894. The extensive list of his zarzuelas and operas (there are about fifty altogether) includes the following titles: _La Conquista de Granada_, _La Dama del Rey_, _De Madrid à Biarritz_, _Los Enemigos Domesticos_, _La Tabernera de Londres_, _Un Viaje á Cochinchina_, and _La Vuelta del Corsario_.
Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, born at Madrid, August 3, 1823, studied in the Conservatory there and after a varied career as member of a military band, a theatre orchestra, and an Italian opera troupe, became secretary and chief promoter of an association for instituting a Spanish national opera and encouraging the production of zarzuelas, in opposition to the Italian opera. _Gloria y Peluca_ (1850), _Jugar con Fuero_ (1851) were the first of these zarzuelas, of which he wrote seventy-five in all. He was also a teacher and a critic. He died in Madrid, February 19, 1894.
Baltasar Saldoni (1807-1890), born at Barcelona and educated at the monastery of Montserrat, was organist and teacher as well as composer. His works include a symphony for orchestra, military band and organ, _A mi patria_, a _Hymn to the God of Art_, operas and zarzuelas, and a great quantity of church and organ music.
P. 76. "Felipe Pedrell": _El Último Abencerraje_ was sung in Italian when it was produced in Barcelona in 1874. _Quasimodo_ is an operatic version of Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris." _Mazeppa_ (after Byron) is in one act as is _Tasso_; _Cleopatra_ is in four acts. _Los Pireneos_ is the first part of a triptych of which _La Celestina_ is the second. The three parts are named respectively, Fatherland, Love, and Faith. So far as I know the third part has not yet appeared. _La Matinada_ is called "a musical landscape," for solo, chorus, and an invisible orchestra.
Henri de Curzon, who translated _La Celestina_ into French, has an exhaustive and extremely interesting account of Pedrell in "La Nouvelle Revue," Vol. 25, P. 72, under the title "Un maître de la Musique Espagnole." A highly laudatory essay on _La Celestina_ by Camille Bellaigue may be found in his book entitled, "Notes Brèves." Bellaigue tells how he received the score in 1903 but only found time to study it during the rainy summer of 1910. His enthusiasm is unrestrained although he has not heard the work performed. The title of the essay is "Un Tristan Espagnol" and he says: "la joie et la douleur, l'amour et la mort partout se touchent et se fondent ici. De leur contact et de leur fusion, jamais encore une fois, depuis _Tristan_, l'art lyrique n'avait aussi fortement exprime le sombre mystère." He calls the work "le plus originale et le plus admirable peut-être, après _Boris Godunow_, qui, depuis les temps déjà lointains de _Falstaff_, nous soit venu de l'étranger."
P. 78. "_La Bruja_": Manrique de Lara says of this work: "This score of our greatest composer broke abruptly with the Italian tradition which, in form at least, had enslaved our musical productions until that time. A new influence, having its high origin in works of pure classical style whether symphonic or dramatic, led our steps down fresh pathways in _La Bruja_."
P. 80. "_La Verbena de la Paloma_": Raoul Laparra told me that Saint-Saëns admired this work so much that he had committed it to memory and played and replayed it on his piano.
P. 81. A name that should be inserted here is that of Emilio Serrano, born in the Basque city of Vitoria. He went early to Madrid, where he studied the piano under Zabalza and composition, at the Conservatory, with both Eslava and Arrieta. While very young he began to write zarzuelas, the best of which belonging to this period is probably _El Juicio de Friné_. His opera, _Mithradates_, in the Italian manner, was produced in 1882 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Later he produced at the same house _Doña Juana la Loca_ and _Irene de Otranto_, for which José Echegaray supplied the libretto. He wrote his own book for _Gonzalo de Córdoba_, an opera in a prologue and three acts (1898). His latest opera, _La Maja de Rumbo_, designed for the Lírico (now the Gran) has been performed only in Buenos Ayres. He has written a quartet, a symphony, a piano concerto and at least two symphonic poems, _La Primera Salida de Don Quijote_ and _Los Molinos de Viento_. Emilio Serrano succeeded Arrieta as professor of composition at the Madrid Conservatory and there are few Spanish composers of the past two decades who have not been his pupils.
P. 82. "Albéniz": G. Jean-Aubry writes of this composer: "One and all the young composers of Spain owe to him a debt. Albéniz is Spain, as Moussorgsky is Russia, Grieg Norway, and Chopin Poland.... _Iberia_ marks the summit of the art of Albéniz. Albéniz alone could venture to place this title, both simple and proud, at the head of the twelve divisions of this poem. One finds here all that emotion and culture can desire. The composer here reached a sureness of touch and grasped an originality of technique which demand much attention and which have no ulterior object. He even at times sacrificed perfection of form. There are no doubt fastidious critics who will find blemishes, but such blemishes as exist are not detrimental to expression, and this alone is important. In music there are many excellent scholars but few poets. Albéniz has all the power of the poet--ease and richness of style, beauty and originality of imagery, and a rare sense of suggestion.... The _Preludes_ and _Studies_ of Chopin, the _Carneval_ and _Kreisleriana_ of Schumann, the _Years of Pilgrimage_ of Liszt, the _Prelude_, _Choral and Fugue_, and the _Prelude_, _Aria and Finale_ of Franck, the _Islamey_ of Balakirew, the _Estampes_ and _Images_ of Debussy, and the twelve poems of _Iberia_ will mark the supreme heights of music for the pianoforte since 1830."
P. 82. "_Catalonia_": Henry J. Wood conducted a performance in London, March 4, 1900.
P. 84. Tradition and often necessity have driven many Spanish composers out of the peninsula to make their careers abroad. Victoria went to Rome; Arrieta to Milan; Albéniz, Valverde, de Falla (and how many others!) to Paris. Of late, indeed, Paris has been the haven of ambitious Spanish composers who have been received with open arms by their French confrères and where their music has been played by Ricardo Viñes, the Spanish pianist, and by J. Joachim Nin, the Cuban pianist. Viñes, indeed, has been friendly to the moderns of all nations. His programs embrace works of Satie, Albéniz, and Ravel ... doubtless, indeed, Leo Ornstein.
As a result some of the zarzuela writers who have stayed at home have produced more characteristic Spanish music than some of their more ambitious brethren. One of the reasons is explained by Mr. Underhill in his essay on the Spanish one-act play: "Spaniards are very particular about these things (the strict Spanish tradition without foreign influence). They insist upon the national element, upon the perpetuation of indigenous forms of expression, both in the matter of literary type and convention, and in mere questions of speech as well. Few writers of the first rank belonging to the past generation have escaped reproach upon this score. They were expected not only to spring from the soil but to taste of it." Equal demands are made upon the zarzuela writers. As a consequence the zarzuela, although scarcely taken seriously by either Spanish musicians or public, and always, according to the pedants, in a tottering decadent stage, may be considered the most national form of Spanish musical art.