The Lighter Classics in Music

A Comprehensive Guide to
Musical Masterworks in a Lighter Vein
by 187 Composers

by David Ewen

Arco Publishing Company, Inc.
NEW YORK

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-17781
Copyright 1961 by Arco Publishing Company, Inc., New York
All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America,
by H. Wolff, New York

Contents

[Joseph Achron] 1 [Adolphe-Charles Adam] 2 [Richard Addinsell] 4 [Isaac Albéniz] 5 [Hugo Alfvén] 7 [Louis Alter] 8 [Leroy Anderson] 10 [Daniel François Esprit Auber] 12 [Johann Sebastian Bach] 15 [Michael Balfe] 18 [Hubert Bath] 19 [Ludwig van Beethoven] 20 [Vincenzo Bellini] 23 [Ralph Benatzky] 24 [Arthur Benjamin] 26 [Robert Russell Bennett] 27 [Hector Berlioz] 29 [Leonard Bernstein] 31 [Georges Bizet] 33 [Luigi Boccherini] 37 [François Boieldieu] 39 [Giovanni Bolzoni] 40 [Carrie Jacobs Bond] 41 [Alexander Borodin] 42 [Felix Borowski] 44 [Johannes Brahms] 45 [Charles Wakefield Cadman] 48 [Lucien Caillet] 49 [Alfredo Catalani] 50 [Otto Cesana] 51 [Emmanuel Chabrier] 52 [George Whitefield Chadwick] 54 [Cécile Chaminade] 55 [Gustave Charpentier] 56 [Frédéric Chopin] 57 [Eric Coates] 61 [Peter Cornelius] 63 [Noel Coward] 64 [César Cui] 65 [Claude Debussy] 66 [Léo Delibes] 68 [Gregore Dinicu] 71 [Gaetano Donizetti] 72 [Franz Drdla] 75 [Riccardo Drigo] 76 [Arcady Dubensky] 76 [Paul Dukas] 77 [Antonin Dvořák] 79 [Sir Edward Elgar] 83 [Duke Ellington] 86 [Georges Enesco] 87 [Leo Fall] 89 [Manuel de Falla] 90 [Gabriel Fauré] 91 [Friedrich Flotow] 92 [Stephen Foster] 94 [Rudolf Friml] 95 [Julius Fučík] 98 [Sir Edward German] 98 [George Gershwin] 100 [Henry F. Gilbert] 109 [Don Gillis] 111 [Alberto Ginastera] 112 [Alexander Glazunov] 113 [Reinhold Glière] 116 [Michael Glinka] 117 [Christoph Willibald Gluck] 119 [Benjamin Godard] 120 [Leopold Godowsky] 121 [Edwin Franko Goldman] 122 [Karl Goldmark] 123 [Rubin Goldmark] 125 [François Gossec] 126 [Louis Gottschalk] 127 [Morton Gould] 128 [Charles Gounod] 131 [Percy Grainger] 134 [Enrique Granados] 136 [Edvard Grieg] 137 [Ferde Grofé] 141 [David Guion] 143 [Johan Halvorsen] 144 [George Frederick Handel] 145 [Joseph Haydn] 147 [Victor Herbert] 149 [Ferdinand Hérold] 154 [Jenö Hubay] 155 [Engelbert Humperdinck] 157 [Jacques Ibert] 158 [Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov] 159 [Ivanovici] 160 [Armas Järnefelt] 160 [Dmitri Kabalevsky] 161 [Emmerich Kálmán] 162 [Kéler-Béla] 165 [Jerome Kern] 166 [Albert Ketelby] 169 [Aram Khatchaturian] 170 [George Kleinsinger] 171 [Fritz Kreisler] 172 [Édouard Lalo] 175 [Josef Lanner] 176 [Charles Lecocq] 177 [Ernesto Lecuona] 179 [Franz Léhar] 180 [Ruggiero Leoncavallo] 183 [Anatol Liadov] 185 [Paul Lincke] 186 [Franz Liszt] 187 [Frederick Loewe] 189 [Albert Lortzing] 191 [Alexandre Luigini] 192 [Hans Christian Lumbye] 193 [Edward MacDowell] 194 [Albert Hay Malotte] 196 [Gabriel Marie] 196 [Martini il Tedesco] 197 [Pietro Mascagni] 198 [Jules Massenet] 199 [Robert McBride] 203 [Harl McDonald] 204 [Felix Mendelssohn] 205 [Giacomo Meyerbeer] 208 [Karl Milloecker] 211 [Moritz Moszkowski] 212 [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart] 213 [Modest Mussorgsky] 215 [Ethelbert Nevin] 218 [Otto Nicolai] 220 [Siegfried Ochs] 221 [Jacques Offenbach] 222 [Ignace Jan Paderewski] 225 [Gabriel Pierné] 226 [Jean-Robert Planquette] 227 [Eduard Poldini] 228 [Manuel Ponce] 229 [Amilcare Ponchielli] 230 [Cole Porter] 231 [Serge Prokofiev] 233 [Giacomo Puccini] 235 [Sergei Rachmaninoff] 238 [Joachim Raff] 240 [Maurice Ravel] 241 [Emil von Rezniček] 243 [Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov] 244 [Richard Rodgers] 247 [Sigmund Romberg] 253 [David Rose] 256 [Gioacchino Rossini] 257 [Anton Rubinstein] 261 [Camille Saint-Saëns] 262 [Pablo de Sarasate] 267 [Franz Schubert] 268 [Robert Schumann] 272 [Cyril Scott] 274 [Jean Sibelius] 274 [Christian Sinding] 277 [Leone Sinigaglia] 278 [Bedřich Smetana] 280 [John Philip Sousa] 283 [Oley Speaks] 285 [Robert Stolz] 286 [Oscar Straus] 287 [Eduard Strauss] 288 [Johann Strauss I] 289 [Johann Strauss II] 291 [Josef Strauss] 298 [Sir Arthur Sullivan] 299 [Franz von Suppé] 311 [Johan Svendsen] 313 [Deems Taylor] 314 [Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky] 316 [Ambroise Thomas] 322 [Enrico Toselli] 324 [Sir Paolo Tosti] 325 [Giuseppe Verdi] 326 [Richard Wagner] 332 [Emil Waldteufel] 338 [Karl Maria von Weber] 339 [Kurt Weill] 341 [Jaromir Weinberger] 343 [Henri Wieniawski] 345 [Ralph Vaughan Williams] 346 [Jacques Wolfe] 347 [Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] 348 [Sebastian Yradier] 350 [Carl Zeller] 350 [Karl Michael Ziehrer] 352

The Lighter Classics in Music

Joseph Achron

Joseph Achron was born in Lozdzieje, Lithuania, on May 13, 1886. He attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied the violin with Leopold Auer and theory with Anatol Liadov, graduating in 1904. After teaching at the Kharkov Conservatory for three years, he toured Russia, Europe and the Near East as a concert violinist for about six years, and settled permanently in the United States in 1925. Some of his most ambitious and significant compositions were written in this country. Among these were three violin concertos, two violin sonatas, the Golem Suite for orchestra and the Stempenyu Suite for violin and piano. Achron died in Hollywood, California, on April 29, 1943.

When Achron was twenty-five years old, and still living in Russia, he became a member of the music committee of the Hebrew Folk Music Society of St. Petersburg. Its aim was twofold: to encourage research in Hebrew music, and to direct the enthusiasm of gifted Russian composers toward the writing of Hebrew music. It was as a direct result of this association, and the stimulus derived from the achievements of this society, that in 1911 Achron wrote a popular composition in a Hebraic vein which to this day is his most famous piece of music. It is the Hebrew Melody, Op. 33, for violin and orchestra. The melodic germ of this composition is an actual synagogical chant, amplified by Achron into a spacious melody following several introductory measures of descending, brooding phrases. This melody is first given in a lower register, but when repeated several octaves higher it receives embellishments similar to those provided a synagogical chant by a cantor. The composition ends with the same descending minor-key phrases with which it opened. This Hebrew Melody, in a transcription for violin and piano by Leopold Auer, has been performed by many of the world’s leading violin virtuosos.

Adolphe-Charles Adam

Adolphe-Charles Adam, eminent composer of comic operas, was born in Paris on July 24, 1803. He attended the Paris Conservatory, where he came under the decisive influence of François Boieldieu, under whose guidance he completed his first comic opera, Pierre et Catherine, first produced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on February 9, 1829. His first major success, Le Chalet, was given on September 25, 1834, enjoying almost fifteen hundred performances in Paris before the end of the century. Adam subsequently wrote almost fifty other stage works in a light style. With Boieldieu and Auber he became founder and leading exponent of the opéra-comique. His most celebrated work in this genre was Le Postillon de Longjumeau, first given at the Opéra-Comique on October 13, 1836. This work was frequently heard in the United States in the 1860’s and 1870’s, but has since lapsed into obscurity. Adam was also a highly significant composer of ballets, of which Giselle is now a classic; of many serious operas; and of a celebrated Christmas song, “Noël,” or “Oh, Holy Night” (“Cantique de Noël: Minuit, Chrétiens”), which has been transcribed for orchestra. In 1847, Adam founded his own theater—the Théâtre National—which a year later (with the outbreak of the 1848 revolution in France) went into bankruptcy. From 1849 on he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. Adam died in Paris on May 3, 1856.

Giselle is one of the proudest achievements of French Romantic ballet. Through the years it has never lost its immense popularity. With choreography by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli, it was introduced in Paris on June 28, 1841. Carlotta Grisi appeared in the title role. Giselle was an immediate triumph. Since then, the world’s foremost ballerinas have appeared as Giselle, including Fanny Elssler, Taglioni, Pavlova, Karsavina, Markova, Danilova, Margot Fonteyn, and Moira Shearer.

“What is the secret charm of this ballet?” inquires the famous scenic designer, Alexander Benois. He goes on to answer: “It is mainly due to its simplicity and clearness of plot, to the amazingly impetuous spontaneity with which the drama is developed. There is barely time to collect one’s thoughts before the heroine, who but a moment ago charmed everybody with her vitality, is lying stiff and cold and dead at the feet of the lover who deceived her.... It is deeply moving, and the magic of a true poet ... consists in making us accept without question any absurdities he may choose to offer us.... No one is inclined to criticize while under the spell of this strange idyl.”

The ballet text was the collaborative creation of Théophile Gautier, Vernoy de Saint-Georges, and Jean Coralli. Gautier had read a legend by Heinrich Heine in De L’Allemagne which described elves in white dresses (designated as “wilis”) who died before their wedding day and emerged from their graves in bridal dress to dance till dawn. Any man an elf met was doomed to dance himself to death. Gautier, recognizing the ballet potentialities of this legend, decided to adapt it for Carlotta Grisi. He interested Vernoy de Saint-Georges in assisting him in making this ballet adaptation and Jean Coralli in creating some of the dance sequences. “Three days later,” Gautier revealed in a letter to Heine, “the ballet Giselle was accepted. By the end of the week, Adam had improvised the music, the scenery was nearly ready, and the rehearsals were in full swing.”

The ballet text finds Giselle as a sweet, carefree peasant girl. Betrayed by Albrecht, the Duke of Silesia, she goes mad and commits suicide. Her grave is touched by the magic branch of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis. Giselle arises from the grave as a wili, and performs her nocturnal dance. Albrecht, who comes to visit her grave, is caught up by her spell and must dance to his doom.

A master of expressive and dramatized melodies, Adam here created a score filled with the most ingratiating tunes and spirited rhythms, all beautifully adjusted to the sensitive moods of this delicate fantasy. From this score the 20th-century English composer Constant Lambert extracted four melodic episodes which he made into a popular orchestral suite: “Giselle’s Dance”; “Mad Scene”; “Pas de deux, Act 2”; and “Closing Scene.”

From the repertory of Adam’s operas comes a delightful overture, a favorite in the semi-classical repertory, even though the opera itself is rarely heard. It is the Overture to If I Were King (Si j’étais roi). This comic opera was first performed in Paris on November 4, 1852; the libretto was by D’Ennery and Brésil. In Arabia, the fisherman, Zephoris, has managed to save the life of Nemea, beautiful daughter of King Oman. But Nemea is being pursued by Prince Kador, who does not hesitate to employ treachery to win her. Nemea is determined to marry none but the unidentified man who had saved her life. Eventually, the fisherman is brought to the palace, placed in command of the troops, and becomes a hero in a war against the Spaniards. Kador is sent to his disgrace, and Zephoris wins the hand of Nemea.

The oriental background of the opera permeates the atmosphere of the overture. A forceful introduction for full orchestra and arpeggio figures in harp lead to a skipping and delicate tune for first violins against plucked cello strings. The flutes and clarinets respond with a subsidiary thought. A crescendo brings on a strong subject for the violins against a loud accompaniment. After a change of tempo, another light, graceful melody is given by solo flute and oboes. The principal melodic material is then amplified with dramatic effect.

Richard Addinsell

Richard Addinsell was born in Oxford, England, on January 13, 1904. After studying law at Oxford, he attended the Royal College of Music in London and completed his music study in Berlin and Vienna between 1929 and 1932. In 1933 he visited the United States, where he wrote music for several Hollywood films and for a New York stage production of Alice in Wonderland. He has since made a specialty of writing music for the screen, his best efforts being the scores for Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Blithe Spirit, Dangerous Moonlight, Dark Journey, and Fire Over England. During World War II he wrote music for several documentary films, including Siege of Tobruk and We Sail at Midnight.

Addinsell’s most frequently played composition is the Warsaw Concerto, for piano and orchestra. He wrote it for the English movie Dangerous Moonlight (renamed in the United States Suicide Squadron). Anton Walbrook here plays the part of a renowned concert pianist who becomes an officer in the Polish air force during World War II and loses his memory after a crash. The Warsaw Concerto, basic to the plot structure, recurs several times in the film. It first became popular, however, on records, and after that with “pop” and salon orchestras. Though the composer’s indebtedness to Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is pronounced, the Warsaw Concerto has enough of its own individuality and charm to survive. Structurally, it is not a concerto but a rhapsody. It opens with several massive chords, arpeggios, and scale passages in the piano. This dramatic opening leads to the sensitive and romantic principal melody, heard in the strings. Later on there appears a second lyric thought, but the rhapsodic character remains predominant. The composition ends with a final statement of the opening phrase of the first main melody.

Addinsell is also sometimes represented on semi-classical programs with a light-textured and tuneful composition called Prelude and Waltz, for orchestra. This also stems from a motion picture, in this case the British screen adaptation of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.

Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Albéniz, one of Spain’s most distinguished composers, was born in Camprodón, Spain, on May 29, 1860. He was a child prodigy who gave piano concerts in Spain after some spasmodic study in Paris with Marmontel. In 1868 he entered the Madrid Conservatory, but in his thirteenth year he ran away from home and spent several years traveling about in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the United States, supporting himself all the while by playing the piano. He was back in Spain in 1875, and soon thereafter undertook music study seriously, first at the Brussels Conservatory and then at the Leipzig Conservatory. He settled in Paris in 1893, where he wrote his first important works, one of these being his first composition in a national Spanish idiom: the Catalonia, for piano and orchestra, in 1899. After 1900 he lived in his native land. From 1906 to 1909 he devoted himself to the writing of his masterwork, the suite Iberia, consisting of twelve pieces for the piano gathered in four volumes. Iberia is a vast tonal panorama of Spain, its sights and sounds, dances and songs, backgrounds. Albéniz died in Cambo-Bains, in the Pyrenees, on May 18, 1909.

Albéniz may well be regarded as the founder of the modern Spanish nationalist school in music. This school sought to exploit the rhythms and melodies and styles of Spanish folk music within serious concert works, thus providing a musical interpretation to every possible aspect of Spanish life.

Albéniz’ first work in the national style is also one of his rare compositions utilizing an orchestra. It is the Catalonia, written in 1899, and introduced that year at a concert of the Société nationale de musique in Paris. This work is sometimes erroneously designated as a suite, but it is actually a one-movement rhapsody. A single theme, unmistakably Spanish, dominates the entire work. A brief rhythmic middle section for wind, percussion, and a single double bass provides contrast. This middle part is intended as a burlesque on a troupe of wandering musicians playing their favorite tune: the clarinet plays off key and the bass drum is off beat. The original dance melody returns to conclude the work.

Córdoba, a haunting nocturne, is the fourth and most famous number from the Cantos de España, a suite for the piano, op. 232. Córdoba is a vivid tone picture of that famous Andalusian city. Sharp chords, as if plucked from the strings of a guitar, preface an oriental-type melody which suggests the Moorish background of the city.

Fête Dieu à Seville, or El Corpus en Sevilla (Festival in Seville) is the third and concluding number from the first volume of Iberia. Besides its original version for the piano, this composition is celebrated in several transcriptions for orchestra, notably those by E. Fernández Arbós and Leopold Stokowski. This music depicts a religious procession in the streets of Seville on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. At the head of the procession is the priest bearing the Host, or Blessed Sacrament, under a lavishly decorated canopy. As the procession moves, worshipers who crowd the streets improvise a religious chant.

Fête Dieu à Seville opens with a brusquely accented march melody, against which emerges an improvisational-type melody similar to those sung by worshipers in the street. The march melody and the improvised chant alternate, but it is the chant that is carried to a thunderous climax. Then this chant subsides and fades away into the distance, as the composition ends.

Navarra is a poignant tonal evocation for piano of the Spanish province below the Pyrenees. Albéniz never completed this work; it was finished after his death by Déodat de Séverac. This composition is perhaps best known in Fernández Arbós’ transcription for orchestra. Against the provocative background of a jota rhythm moves a languorous and sensual gypsy melody.

Sevillañas (Seville) is the third number from Suite española for piano; it has become famous independent of the larger work and is often heard in transcription. The heart of the piece is a passionate song, typical of those heard in the haunts of Seville. As a background there is an incisive rhythm suggesting the clicking of castanets.

The Tango in D major, op. 165, no. 2, for piano, is not only the most famous one by Albéniz but one of the most popular ever written. With its intriguing flamenco-like melody and compelling rhythm it is Spanish to the core—the prototype of all tango music. The original piano version as written by the composer is not often heard. When it is performed on the piano, this tango is given in a brilliant but complex arrangement by Leopold Godowsky. But it is much more famous in various transcriptions, notably one for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler, and numerous ones for small or large orchestras.

Triana is the third and concluding number from the second book of Albéniz’ monumental suite for piano, Iberia. Triana, of which this music is a tonal picture, is a gypsy suburb of Seville. In the introduction, random phrases bring up the image of various attitudes and movements of Spanish dances. A triple-rhythmed figure leads to a light and graceful dance melody against a bolero rhythm. As the melody is developed and repeated it gains in intensity and is enriched in color until it evolves climactically with full force. A transcription for orchestra by Fernández Arbós is as famous as the original piano version.

Hugo Alfvén

Hugo Alfvén was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 1, 1872. His music study took place at the Stockholm Conservatory and, on government stipends, with César Thomson in Brussels, and in Germany and France. From 1910 to 1939 he was musical director and conductor of the student chorus at the Uppsala University. Alfvén was a nationalist composer of Romantic tendencies who wrote five symphonies together with a considerable amount of orchestral and choral music. He died in Faluns, Sweden, on May 8, 1960.

Midsummer Vigil (Midsommarvaka), op. 19 (1904), a Swedish rhapsody for orchestra, is his best known composition. It was produced as a ballet, La Nuit de Saint-Jean, in Paris on October 25, 1925, where it proved so successful that it was given more than 250 performances within four years. As a work for symphony orchestra it has received universal acclaim for its attractive deployment of national Swedish folk song idioms and dance rhythms. The music describes a revel held in small Swedish towns during the St. John’s Eve festival. The work opens with a gay tune for clarinet over plucked strings. This is followed by a burlesque subject for bassoon. Muted strings and English horns then offer a broad, stately, and emotional folk song. Repeated by the French horns, this song is soon amplified by the strings. The tempo now quickens, and a rustic dance theme is given softly by the violins. The mood gradually becomes frenetic. The violins offer a passionate subject over a pedal point. A climax is finally reached as the revelry becomes unconfined.

Louis Alter

Louis Alter was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on June 18, 1902, where he received his academic education in the public schools, and his initial instruction in music. Music study was completed with Stuart Mason at the New England Conservatory. In 1924 Alter came to New York, where for five years he worked as accompanist for Nora Bayes, Irene Bordoni and other stars of the stage; he also did arrangements for a publishing firm in Tin Pan Alley. Between 1925 and 1927 he wrote his first popular songs and contributed a few of them to Broadway productions. Since then he has written many song hits, as well as scores for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. His best known songs include “A Melody from the Sky” and “Dolores,” both of which were nominated for Academy Awards; also “Twilight on the Trail,” such a favorite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the manuscript, together with a recording by Bing Crosby, repose in the Roosevelt Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

Alter has been successful in writing skilful compositions for piano and orchestra in which the popular element is pronounced, encased within a symphonic structure. Some of them are now staples in the symphonic-jazz repertory. His best compositions were inspired by the sights, sounds and moods of New York City.

Jewels from Cartier (1953), as the title indicates, was inspired not by New York but by one of the city’s most famous jewelers when Alter was one day allowed to inspect its collection. In his suite, Alter attempts in eight sections to translate various jewels into tones. The first movement is “Emerald Eyes.” Since many beautiful emeralds come from South America, this section emphasizes the rumba beat and other Latin-American rhythms. “The Ruby and the Rose” is a romantic ballad in which voices supplement the instruments of the orchestra. “Pearl of the Orient” consists of an oriental dance. “Black Pearl of Tahiti” exploits exotic Polynesian rhythms and its languorous-type melodies. “Diamond Earrings” is a swirling waltz while “Star Sapphire” is a beguine. In “Cat’s Eye in the Night,” the music suggests a playful kitten darting about in a room. The finale, “Lady of Jade,” is in the style of Chinese processional music.

Manhattan Masquerade (1932) is the most dramatic of Alter’s New York murals. It consists of a Viennese-type waltz played in fox-trot time, a suggestion on the part of the composer that Vienna and New York are not too far apart spiritually.

Manhattan Moonlight (1932) is, on the other hand, atmospheric. It opens with four chords in a nebulous Debussy vein. The core of the work is an extended melody for strings against piano embellishments. A light and frivolous mood is then invoked before the main melody returns in an opulent scoring.

Manhattan Serenade (1928) is the most famous of all Alter’s instrumental works and the one that first made him known. He published it first as a piano solo, but soon rewrote it for piano and orchestra. Paul Whiteman and his orchestra made it popular in 1929 on records and in public concerts. This work is extremely effective in laying bare the nerves of the metropolis through syncopations, and jazz tone colorations. Its main melody is a plangent song to which, in 1940, Howard Johnson adapted a song lyric. Manhattan Serenade is often heard as background music on radio and television programs about New York.

Side Street in Gotham (1938) attempts to portray the city from river to river. The composition begins with a few notes suggesting “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” which is later elaborated in a vigorous and amusing tempo; the reason this theme is here used is because it is referred to in the lyric of “The Sidewalks of New York.” Some of the mystery of New York’s side streets can also be found in this music.

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson is one of America’s most successful and best known composers of light orchestral classics. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1908. His early musical training took place at the New England Conservatory, after which he studied the bass and organ with private teachers. In 1929 he was graduated from Harvard magna cum laude, and one year after that he received there his Master’s degree in music on a Naumberg Fellowship. For the next few years he served as organist and choirmaster in Milton, Massachusetts; as a member of the music faculty at Radcliffe College; and as director of the Harvard University Band. In 1935 he became a free-lance conductor, composer and arranger in Boston and New York. As orchestrator for the Boston Pops Orchestra, for which he made many orchestral arrangements over a period of several years, Anderson completed his first original semi-classical composition, Jazz Pizzicato, successfully introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1939. Since then the Boston Pops Orchestra has introduced most of Anderson’s compositions, many of which proved exceptionally popular in concerts throughout the country and on records. Anderson has also appeared frequently as guest conductor of important American symphony orchestras and has conducted his own compositions with his orchestra for records. In 1958, his first musical comedy, Goldilocks, was produced on Broadway.

Beyond possessing a most ingratiating lyric invention and a consummate command of orchestration, Anderson boasts an irresistible sense of humor and a fine flair for burlesque. He is probably at his best in programmatic pieces in which extra-musical sounds are neatly adapted to and often serve as a background for his sprightly tunes—ranging from the clicking of a typewriter to the meowing of a cat.

Blue Tango is the first strictly instrumental composition ever to achieve first place on the Hit Parade. For almost a year it was the leading favorite on juke boxes, and its sale of over two million records represents Anderson’s healthiest commercial success. Scored for violins, this music neatly combines an insistent tango rhythm with a sensual melody in a purple mood. Bugler’s Holiday is a musical frolic for three trumpets. A Christmas Festival provides a colorful orchestral setting to some of the best loved Christmas hymns, including “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Come All Ye Faithful.”

Fiddle-Faddle is a merry burlesque-escapade for the violins, inspired from a hearing of Paganini’s Perpetual Motion; this, then, is a modern style “Perpetual Motion.” In Horse and Buggy, the music nostalgically evokes a bygone day with a sprightly, wholesome tune presented against the rhythms of a jogging horse. The Irish Suite was commissioned by the Eire Society of Boston, and is a six-movement adaptation of six of Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies. They are: “The Irish Washerwoman,” “The Minstrel Boy,” “The Rakes of Mallow,” “The Wearing of the Green,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” Jazz Legato and Jazz Pizzicato are studies in contrasting moods and dynamics. The Jazz Pizzicato consists of a jazz melody presented entirely by plucked strings; its companion piece is a broader jazz melody for bowed strings. Plink, Plank, Plunk also makes effective use of pizzicato strings, this time attempting to simulate the sounds suggested by the descriptive title. Saraband brings about the marriage between the very old and very new in musical styles. The old classical dance in slow triple time and accented second beat is exploited with a quickening of tempo and with modern rhythmic and melodic embellishments.

In Sleigh Bells, jangling sleighbells and the sound of a cracking whip, provide a delightful background to a jaunty tune that has the bite and sting of outdoor winterland. This piece has become something of a perennial favorite of the Christmas season. In The Syncopated Clock, the rhythm of a clicking grandfather’s clock, presented by percussion instruments in a modern rhythm, is placed against a bouncy, syncopated melody. This number has become popular as theme music for the CBS-TV “Early Show.” The Trumpeter’s Lullaby is a sensitive melody with the soothing accompaniment of a lullaby.

The Typewriter permits members of the percussion section to imitate the incisive, rigid rhythm of a functioning typewriter, punctuated by the regular tinkle of the bell to provide the warning signal that the carriage has come to the end of a line. Against this rhythm moves a vivacious message in strings. The Typewriter was played in the motion picture But Not for Me, starring Clark Gable, released in 1959. In The Waltzing Cat, an imaginary cat dances gracefully to a waltz melody made up mainly of meows.

Daniel François Auber

Daniel François Esprit Auber, genius of opéra-comique, was born in Caen, Normandy, France, on January 29, 1782. In his youth he lived in London, where he studied both the business of art, in which he hoped to engage, and music. There he wrote several songs which were heard at public entertainments. After returning to France and settling in Paris in 1804, he gave himself up completely to music. Two minor stage works with music were privately performed between 1806 and 1811 before his first opera received its première performance: Le Séjour militaire in 1813. His first success came seven years after that with La Bergère châtelaine. From then on he was a prolific writer of both light and grand operas, many to texts by Eugène Scribe. La Muette de Portici in 1828 was a triumph, and was followed by such other major successes Fra Diavolo (1830), Le Cheval de bronze (1835), Le Domino noir (1837) and Les Diamants de la couronne (1841). His last opera, Rêves d’amour, was completed when he was eighty-seven. Auber was one of France’s most highly honored musicians. From 1842 until his death he was director of the Paris Conservatory, and in 1857 he was made by Napoleon III Imperial Maître de Chapelle. Auber died in Paris on May 12, 1871.

With Adam and Boieldieu, Auber was one of the founding fathers of the opéra-comique. He was superior to his two colleagues in the lightness of his touch, surpassing wit, and grace of lyricism. But Auber’s charm and gaiety were not bought at the expense of deeper emotional and dramatic values; for all their lightness of heart, his best comic operas are filled with pages that have the scope and dimension of grand opera. As Rossini once said of him, Auber may have produced light music, but he produced it like a true master.

Overtures to several of his most famous operas are standards in the light-classical repertory.

The Black Domino (Le Domino noir), text by Eugène Scribe, was introduced in Paris on December 2, 1837. The central character is Lady Angela, an abbess, who attends a masked ball where she meets and falls in love with Horatio, a young nobleman. Numerous escapades and adventures follow before Angela meets up again with her young man. Now released from her religious vows by the Queen, Angela is free to marry him.

In the overture, a loud outburst for full orchestra emphasizes a strongly rhythmic theme. A staccato phrase in the woodwind and a return of the initial strong subject follow. This leads into a light dancing motive for the woodwind. Another forte passage is now the bridge to a melodious episode in the woodwind. A change of key brings on a gay bolero melody for clarinets and bassoons in octaves. After this idea is amplified, a jota-like melody is given by the full orchestra. The closing section is a brilliant presentation of a completely new jota melody.

The Crown Diamonds (Les Diamants de la couronne) was first produced in Paris on March 6, 1841, when it scored a major success. But it enjoyed an even greater triumph when it was first performed in England three years after that; from then on it has remained a great favorite with English audiences. The text, by Eugène Scribe and Saint-Georges, is set in 18th-century Portugal where the Queen assumes the identity of the leader of a gang of counterfeiters and uses the crown diamonds to get the money she needs to save her throne. When Don Henrique falls into the unscrupulous hands of these counterfeiters, the Queen saves his life and falls in love with him. The throne is eventually saved, and the crown jewels retrieved. The Queen now can choose Don Henrique as her husband.

The overture opens with a sustained melody for the strings that is dramatized by key changes. A rhythmic passage leads to a martial subject for the brass. Several other vigorous ideas ensue in the brass and woodwind. After their development there comes a lyrical string episode which, in turn, leads into a second climax. Contrast comes with a lyrical idea in the strings. A loud return of the first martial subject in full orchestra marks the beginning of a spirited conclusion.

Fra Diavolo was an immediate success when first given in Paris on January 28, 1830; it has remained Auber’s best known comic opera. It has even received burlesque treatment on the Hollywood screen in a comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. The text by Eugène Scribe has for its central character a bandit chief by the name of Fra Diavolo who disguises himself as an Italian Marquis. He flirts with a lady of noble birth, hides in the bedroom of Zerlina, the inn-keeper’s daughter, and is finally apprehended by Zerlina’s sweetheart, the captain of police.

This popular overture opens with a pianissimo drum roll, the preface to a march tune for strings. The march music is extended to other instruments, and as the volume increases it gives the impression of an advancing army. It attains a fortissimo for full orchestra, then subsides. The overture ends with several sprightly melodies from the first act of the opera.

The Mute of Portici (La Muette de Portici)—or, as it is sometimes called, Masaniello—is a grand opera that contributed a footnote to the political history of its times. First performed in Paris on February 29, 1828, it had profound repercussions on the political situation of that period, and it is regarded by many as a significant influence in bringing on the July Revolution in Paris in 1830. When first performed in Brussels the same year, it instigated such riots that the occupying Dutch were ejected from that country and Belgium now achieved independence.

The text by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne is based on an episode from history: a successful Neapolitan revolt against the Duke of Arcos, headed by Tommaso Anello in 1647. In the opera, Masaniello assumes Anello’s part, and toward the end of the opera after the insurrection is smothered, he is assassinated.

The overture begins with stormy music in full orchestra. After the tempo slackens, a sensitive melody is presented by clarinets and bassoons in octaves. The main section of the overture now unfolds, its main theme divided between the strings and the woodwind. After a fortissimo section for full orchestra, a second important melody is heard in the woodwind and violins. The two main subjects are recalled and developed. The overture closes with a coda in which percussion instruments are emphasized.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685. He was the most significant member of a family that for generations had produced professional musicians. His career can be divided into three convenient periods. The first was between 1708 and 1717 when, as organist to the Ducal Chapel in Weimar, he wrote most of his masterworks for organ. During the second period, from 1717 to 1723, he served as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold in Coethen. During this period he wrote most of his major works for orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber-music ensembles. The last period took place in Leipzig from 1723 until his death where he was cantor of the St. Thomas Church. In Leipzig he produced some of his greatest choral compositions. Towards the end of his life he went blind and became paralyzed. He died in Leipzig on July 28, 1750.

As the culmination of the age of polyphony, Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterworks are, for the most part, too complex and subtle for popular appeal. But from his vast and incomparable output of concertos, sonatas, suites, masses, passions, cantatas, and various compositions for the organ and for the piano, it is possible to lift a few random items of such melodic charm and simple emotional appeal that they can be profitably exploited for wide consumption. In these less complicated works, Bach’s consummate skill at counterpoint, and his equally formidable gift at homophonic writing, are always in evidence.

The Air is one of Bach’s most famous melodies, a soulful religious song for strings. It can be found as the second movement of his Suite No. 3 in D major for orchestra, but is often performed apart from the rest of the work. August Wilhelmj transcribed this music for violin and piano, calling it the Air on the G String. This transcription has been severely criticized as a mutilation of the original; Sir Donald Francis Tovey described it as a “devastating derangement.” Nevertheless, it has retained its popularity in violin literature, just as the original has remained a favorite in orchestral music.

Come Sweet Death (Komm, suesser Tod) is a moving chorale for voice and accompaniment: a simple and eloquent resignation to death. It does not come from any of Bach’s larger works but can be found in Schemelli’s collection (1736). It has become extremely popular in orchestral transcriptions by Leopold Stokowski and Reginald Stewart, but is also sometimes heard in arrangements for various solo instruments and piano, as well as for the organ.

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Jesu bleibt meine Freude) is probably Bach’s best known and most frequently performed chorale: a stately melody introduced by, then set against, a gracefully flowing accompaniment. This composition comes from the church cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. Various transcriptions have popularized this composition, notably that for piano by Myra Hess, for organ by E. Power Biggs, and for orchestra by Lucien Caillet.

The Prelude in E major is a vigorous and spirited piece of music whose rhythmic momentum does not relax from the first bar to the last. It appears as the first movement of the Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin. It is perhaps even better known in transcription than in the original version, notably in those for violin and piano by Robert Schumann and Fritz Kreisler, for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, and for orchestra by Stokowski, Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli, Sir Henry J. Wood, and Lucien Caillet.

The Siciliano is a beautiful, stately song—the first movement of the Sonata No. 4 in C minor for violin and accompaniment. Stokowski has made a fine transcription for orchestra.

The Wise Virgins is a ballet-suite comprising six compositions by Bach drawn from his literature for the church and transcribed for orchestra by the eminent British composer, Sir William Walton. It was used for a ballet produced at Sadler’s Wells in 1940. Frederick Ashton’s choreography drew its material from the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the 25th chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew; but this parable is seen through the eyes of the Italian Renaissance painters. “Ashton,” wrote Arnold Haskell, “has provided the perfect meeting place for music and painting. The inspiration was pictorial ... it is equally musical. The movement and unfolding of the narrative follow directly from the Bach music so brilliantly arranged and orchestrated by William Walton.”

All six movements of the suite are so lyrical and emotional that their impact on listeners is immediate. The first movement, “What God Hath Done Is Rightly Done” comes from the opening chorus of a cantata of the same name, No. 99 (Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan). A lively melody is first shared by strings and woodwind and then given fanciful embellishments. A strong chorale melody for the brass is then given prominent treatment. The second movement, “Lord, Hear My Longing” is a chorale from the Passion According to St. Matthew which is here given the treatment of an organ chorale-prelude with a tenderly expressive chorale melody in woodwind amplified by strings. The third movement, “See What His Love Can Do” is an expansive melody for strings and woodwind against a flowing accompaniment; this music is derived from Cantata No. 85, Ich bin ein guter Hirt. This is followed by “Ah, How Ephemeral,” a dramatic page for full orchestra highlighting a chorale for brass taken from Cantata No. 26, Ach, wie fluechtig. The fifth section is the most famous. It is “Sheep May Safely Graze” (“Schafe koennen sicher weiden”) from the secular Cantata No. 208, Was mir behagt. An introductory recitative for solo violin leads to a swaying melody for the woodwind. The lower strings then present a pastoral song which soon receives beautiful filigree work from other parts of the orchestra. The swaying subject for woodwind closes the piece. Sir John Barbirolli also made an effective orchestral transcription of this composition, while Percy Grainger arranged it for solo piano, and Mary Howe for two solo pianos. The finale of the suite is “Praise Be to God,” which is also the finale of Cantata No. 129, Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott. This is vigorous music that is an outpouring of pure joy.

Michael Balfe

Michael William Balfe was born in Dublin, Ireland on May 15, 1808. The son of a dancing master, Michael was only six when he played the violin for his father’s classes. In 1823, Balfe came to London where he studied the violin and composition with private teachers and earned his living as violinist and singer. Additional study took place in Italy in 1825, including singing with Bordogni. Between 1828 and 1833 he appeared as principal baritone of the Italian Opera and several other French theaters in Paris. In 1835, he initiated an even more successful career as composer of English operas, with The Siege of Rochelle, produced that year in London. He continued writing numerous operas, producing his masterwork, The Bohemian Girl, in 1843. Between 1846 and 1856 Balfe traveled to different parts of Europe to attend performances of his operas. In 1864 he left London to retire to his estate in Rowney Abbey where he died on October 20, 1870.

The Bohemian Girl is a classic of English opera. It was first produced at Drury Lane in London on November 27, 1843, when it enjoyed a sensational success. It was soon translated into French, German and Italian and was extensively performed throughout Europe. The libretto, by Alfred Bunn, was based on a ballet-pantomime by Vernoy de Saint-Georges. The setting is Hungary in the 18th century, and its heroine is Arline, daughter of Count Arnheim who, as a girl, had been kidnapped by gypsies and raised as one of them. She is falsely accused by the Count’s men of stealing a valuable medallion from the Count’s palace and is imprisoned. Appearing before the Count to ask for clemency, she is immediately recognized by him as his daughter.

Melodious selections from this opera are frequently heard. The most famous single melody is “I Dream’d That I Dwelt in Marble Halls” which Arline sings in the first scene of the second act as she recalls a dream. “The Heart Bowed Down,” the Count’s song in the fourth scene of the second act as he gazes longingly on a picture of his long lost daughter, and “Then You’ll Remember Me,” a tenor aria from the third act are also familiar.

Hubert Bath

Hubert Bath was born in Barnstaple, England, on November 6, 1883. He attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, after which he wrote his first opera. For a year he was conductor of an opera company that toured the world. After 1915 he devoted himself mainly to composition. Besides his operas, tone poems, cantatas and various instrumental works he wrote a considerable amount of incidental music for stage plays and scores for the motion pictures. He died in Harefield, England, on April 24, 1945.

The Cornish Rhapsody, for piano and orchestra, is one of his last compositions and the most famous. He wrote it for the British motion picture Love Story, released in 1946, starring Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger. Lockwood plays the part of a concert pianist, and the Cornish Rhapsody is basic to the story which involves the pianist with a man in love with another woman. The rhapsody begins with arpeggio figures which lead to a strong rhapsodic passage in full chords. A bold section is then contrasted by a gentle melody of expressive beauty, the heart of the composition. A cadenza brings on a return of the earlier strong subject, and a recall of the expressive melody in the orchestra to piano embellishments. The composition ends with massive passages and strongly accented harmonies.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. He received his earliest musical training in his native city where he early gave strong evidence of genius. He published his first works when he was eleven, and soon thereafter was performing publicly on the organ, cembalo, and the viola. He also disclosed a phenomenal gift at improvisation. He established permanent residence in Vienna in 1792. Three years later he made there his first public appearance, and from then on began to occupy a high position in Viennese musical life as a piano virtuoso. His fame as a composer soon superseded that of virtuoso as he won the support of Vienna’s aristocracy. He entered upon a new creative phase, as well as full maturity, beginning with 1800, when his first symphony was introduced in Vienna. His creative powers continually deepened and became enriched from that time on. As he restlessly sought to give poetic and dramatic expression to his writing he broke down the classical barriers so long confining music and opened up new horizons for style and structure. Meanwhile, in or about 1801 or 1802, he realized he was growing deaf, a discovery that swept him into despondency and despair, both of which find expression in a unique and remarkable document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament. Deafness led to personal idiosyncrasies and volatile moods which often tried the patience of even his closest friends, but it did not decrease the quantity of his musical production nor prevent him from achieving heights of creative expression achieved by few, if any. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827 after having ushered in a new age for music with his symphonies, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, and masterworks in other categories including opera and choral music.

The grandeur of expression, the profundity of thought, and the independence of idiom we associate with Beethoven is not to be found in his lighter music which, generally speaking, is in a traditional mold, pleasing style, and in an inviting lyric vein. This is not the Beethoven who was the proud democrat, whose life was a struggle with destiny, and who sought to make music the expression of his profoundest concepts. This is rather, another Beethoven: the one who liked to dance, though he did it badly; who flirted with the girls; and who indulged in what he himself described as “unbuttoned humor.”

Beethoven wrote twelve Contredanses (Contretaenze) in 1801-1802. These are not “country dances” as the term “contretaenze” is sometimes erroneously translated. The Contredanse is the predecessor of the waltz. Like the waltz it is in three-part form, the third part repeating the first, while the middle section is usually a trio in contrasting mood. In 1801-1802, when Beethoven wrote his Contredanses, he was already beginning to probe deeply into poetic thought and emotion in his symphonies, sonatas, and concertos. But in the Contredanses the poet becomes peasant. This is earthy music, overflowing with melodies of folksong vigor, and vitalized by infectious peasant rhythms. The Contredanse No. 7 in E-flat major is particularly famous; this same melody was used by the composer for his music to the ballet Prometheus, for the finale of his Eroica Symphony, and for his Piano Variations, op. 35. The key signatures of the twelve Contredanses are: C major, A major, D major, B-flat major, E-flat major, C major, E-flat major, C major, A major, C major, G major and E-flat major.

A half dozen years before he wrote his Contredanses Beethoven had completed a set of twelve German Dances (Deutsche Taenze). The form, style, and spirit of the German Dance is so similar to the Contredanse that many Austrian composers used the terms interchangeably. Beethoven’s early German Dances, like the later Contredanses, are a reservoir of lively and tuneful semi-classical music with an engaging earthy quality to the melodies and a lusty vitality to the rhythms.

Few Beethoven compositions have enjoyed such universal approval with budding pianists, salon orchestras, and various popular ensembles as the Minuet in G. It is not too far afield to maintain that this is one of the most famous minuets in all musical literature. Beethoven wrote it originally for the piano; it is the second of a set of six minuets, written in 1795, but published as op. 167. It is even more celebrated in its many different transcriptions than it is in the original. The composition is in three-part form. The first and third parts consist of a stately classical melody; midway comes a fast-moving trio of contrasting spirit.

The first movement of the Moonlight Sonata is also often heard in varied transcriptions for salon or “pop” orchestras. The Moonlight Sonata is the popular name of the piano sonata in C-sharp minor, op. 27, no. 2 which Beethoven wrote in 1801 and which he designated as Sonata quasi una fantasia mainly because of the fantasia character of this first movement. The poetic and sensitive mood maintained throughout the first movement—with a romantic melody of ineffable sadness accompanied by slow triplets—is the reason why the critic Rellstab (and not the composer) provided the entire sonata with the name of “Moonlight.” To Rellstab this first movement evoked for him a picture of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland at night time, gently touched by the moonlight. The fact that Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom he was then in love, leads to a legend that he wrote this music to express frustrated love, but this was not the case. Another myth about this first movement is that Beethoven improvised this music while playing for a blind boy, as moonlight streamed into the window of his room; after he had finished playing he identified himself to the awe-stricken youngster. It was the opinion of the eminent critic, Henry E. Krehbiel, that the sonata was inspired by a poem, Die Beterin by Seume, describing a young girl kneeling at an altar begging for her father’s recovery from a serious illness; angels descend to comfort her and she becomes transfigured by a divine light.

Beethoven wrote two Romances for violin and orchestra: in F major, op. 50 (1802) and G major, op. 40 (1803). Rarely do we encounter in Beethoven’s works such a fresh, spontaneous and entirely unsophisticated outpouring of song—a song that wears its beauty on the surface—as in these two compositions. The two Romances are companion pieces and pursue a similar pattern. Each opens with the solo violin presenting the main melody (in the F major accompanied by the orchestra, in the G major, solo). Each then progresses to a pure outpouring of lyricism followed by virtuoso passages for the solo instrument. In each, violin and orchestra appear to be engaging in a gentle dialogue.

The Turkish March (Marcia alla turca) is one of several numbers (the fourth) comprising the incidental music to a play by Kotzebue, The Ruins of Athens (Die Ruinen von Athen), op. 113 (1811). The production of this play with Beethoven’s music was intended for the opening of a theater in Pesth on February 9, 1812. The Turkish March is in the pseudo-Turkish melodic style popular in Vienna in the early 19th century, and it employs percussion instruments such as the triangle which the Viennese then associated with Turkish music. The march, with its quixotic little melody, begins softly, almost like march music heard from a distance. It grows in sonority until a stirring climax is achieved. Then it dies out gradually and ebbs away in the distance. Leopold Auer made a famous transcription for violin and piano, while Beethoven himself transcribed it for piano, with six variations, op. 76 (1809).

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania, Sicily, on November 3, 1801. Born to a musical family, he received music instruction in childhood, and while still very young started composing. He then attended the San Sebastiano Conservatory in Naples; during his stay there he completed a symphony, two masses, and a cantata among other works. He made his bow as opera composer with Adelson e Salvini, introduced at the Conservatory in 1825. He continued writing operas after that, and having them produced in major Italian opera houses with varying degrees of success. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, given in Venice in 1830, was a triumph. Then came the two operas by which Bellini is today most often represented in the repertory: La Sonnambula and Norma, both produced in 1831. In 1833 he came to Paris where he completed his last opera, I Puritani, given in Paris in 1835. He was at the height of his fame and creative powers when he died in Puteaux, near Paris, on September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-four, a victim of intestinal fever.

Bellini was the genius of opera song. His fresh, pure lyricism—perfect in design and elegant in style—elevates his greatest operas to a place of significance. His masterwork is Norma, introduced at La Scala in Milan on December 26, 1831, where it was at first a failure. The libretto by Felice Romani was based on a tragedy by L. A. Soumet. In Gaul, during the Roman occupation, in or about 50 B.C., Norma, high priestess of the Druids, violates her vows by secretly marrying the Roman proconsul, Pollione, and bearing him two sons. Pollione then falls in love with Adalgisa, virgin of the Temple of Esus. Unaware that Pollione is married, Adalgisa confides to Norma she is in love with him. With Pollione’s infidelity now apparent, he is brought before Norma for judgment. She offers him the choice of death or the renunciation of Adalgisa. When Pollione accepts death, Norma confesses to her people that, having desecrated her vows, she, too, must die. Moved by this confession, Pollione volunteers to die at her side in the funeral pyre.

The overture is famous. Loud dramatic chords in full orchestra are succeeded by a soft lento passage. A strong melody is then presented by flutes and violins against an incisive rhythm. There follows a graceful, sprightly and strongly accented tune in the strings. Both melodies are then amplified, dramatized, and repeated; particular emphasis is placed on the delicate, accented tune. The overture then proceeds to an energetic conclusion.

One vocal episode from Norma is also extremely popular and is often heard in orchestral transcriptions. It is Norma’s aria, “Casta diva,” surely one of the noblest soprano arias in all Italian operatic literature. It comes in the first act and represents Norma’s prayer for peace, and her grief that the hatred of her people for the Roman invaders must also result in their hatred for her husband, Pollione, the Roman proconsul.

Ralph Benatzky

Ralph Benatzky was born in Moravské-Budejovice, Bohemia, on June 5, 1884. He acquired his musical training in Prague and with Felix Mottl in Munich, after which he devoted himself to light music by composing operettas. While residing at different periods in Vienna, Berlin, and Switzerland, he wrote the scores for over ninety operettas and 250 motion pictures, besides producing about five thousand songs. His most successful operettas were The Laughing Triple Alliance, My Sister and I, Love in the Snow, Axel at the Gates of Heaven, and The White Horse Inn. He came to live in the United States in 1940, but after World War II returned to Europe. He died in Zurich on October 17, 1957.

The White Horse Inn (Im weissen Roess’l) is not only Benatzky’s most celebrated operetta, but also one of the most successful produced in Europe between the two world wars, and possibly the last of the great European operettas. It was first performed in Berlin in 1930, after which it enjoyed over a thousand performances in Europe. Its première in America in 1936 (the book was adapted by David Freedman, lyrics were by Irving Caesar, William Gaxton and Kitty Carlisle starred) was only a moderate success. The operetta book of the original—freely adapted by Erik Charell and Hans Mueller, from a play by Blumenthal and Kadelburg—is set in the delightful resort of St. Wolfgang on Wolfgangsee in Austria, in the era just before World War I. Leopold, headwaiter of The White Horse Inn, is in love with its owner, Frau Josepha, who favors the lawyer, Siedler. In a fit of temper she fires Leopold, but upon learning that Emperor Franz Josef is about to pay the inn a visit, she prevails upon him to stay on. Leopold makes a welcoming speech to the Emperor, during which his bitter resentment against Frau Josepha gets the upper hand. Later on, when Frau Josepha confides to the Emperor that she is in love with Siedler, he urges her to consider Leopold for a husband. Leopold then comes to Josepha with a letter of resignation, which she accepts, but only because she is now ready to give him a new position, as her husband.

Selections from this tuneful operetta include the main love song, “Es muss ein wunderbares sein,” the ditty “Zuschau’n kann ich nicht,” and the lively waltz, “Im weissen Roess’l am Wolfgangsee.”

It is mainly the worldwide popularity of this operetta (even more than the natural beauty of Wolfgangsee) that brings tourists each year to the White Horse Inn at St. Wolfgang, for a sight of the operetta’s setting, and to partake of refreshments on the attractive veranda overlooking Wolfgangsee. The inn is now generously decorated with pictures in which the two main songs of the operetta are quoted, supplemented by a portrait of Benatzky. Souvenir ashtrays also carry musical quotations from the operetta.

Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin was born in Sydney, Australia, on September 18, 1893. His music study took place at the Royal College of Music in London. After serving in World War I, he became professor at the Sydney Conservatory, and in 1926 he assumed a similar post with the Royal College of Music in London. Meanwhile in 1924 he received the Carnegie Award for his Pastoral Fantasia, and in 1932 his first opera, The Devil Take Her, was produced in London. For five years, beginning with 1941, he was the conductor of the Vancouver Symphony. He has written notable concertos, a symphony, and other orchestral music, together with chamber works and several operas including A Tale of Two Cities which won the Festival of Britain Prize following its première in 1953. He also wrote a harmonica concerto for Larry Adler. Though many of his compositions are in an advanced style and technique, Benjamin was perhaps best known for his lighter pieces, particularly those in a popular South American idiom. He died in London on April 10, 1960.

The Cotillon (1939) is a suite of English dances derived from a medley entitled The Dancing School, published in London in 1719. Presented by Benjamin in contemporary harmonic and instrumental dress, these tunes—popular in England in the early 18th century—still retain their appeal. A short introduction, built from a basic motive from the first dance, leads to the following episodes with descriptive titles: “Lord Hereford’s Delight” for full orchestra; “Daphne’s Delight” for woodwind and strings; “Marlborough’s Victory,” for full orchestra; “Love’s Triumph” for strings; “Jig It A Foot” for full orchestra; “The Charmer” for small orchestra; “Nymph Divine” for small orchestra and harp solo; “The Tattler” for full orchestra; and “Argyll” for full orchestra. A figure from the final tune is given extended treatment in the coda.

Benjamin’s best known piece of music is the Jamaican Rumba (1942). This is the second number of Two Jamaican Pieces for orchestra. A light staccato accompaniment in rumba rhythm courses nimbly through the piece as the woodwinds present a saucy melody, and the strings a countersubject. Consecutive fifths in the harmony, a xylophone in the orchestration, and the changing meters created by novel arrangement of notes in each measure, provide particular interest. The Jamaican Rumba has been transcribed for various solo instruments and piano as well as for piano trio.

The North American Square Dances, for two pianos and orchestra (1955), is a delightful treatment of American folk idioms. The work comprises eight fiddle tunes played at old-time square dances. The native flavor is enhanced in the music by suggestions and simulations of feet-stamping, voice calling, and the plunking of a banjo. In the Introduction there appear fragments of the first dance; these same fragments return in the coda. There are eight sections: Introduction and “Heller’s Reel”; “The Old Plunk”; “The Bundle Straw”; “He Piped So Sweet”; “Fill the Bowl”; “Pigeon on the Pier”; “Calder Fair”; and “Salamanca” and “Coda.” The fourth and seventh dances are in slow tempo, while all others are fast.

Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 15, 1894. He began his music study in Kansas City: piano with his mother; violin and several other instruments with his father; and harmony with Carl Busch. While still a boy he wrote and had published several compositions. He came to New York in 1916, worked for a while as copyist at G. Schirmer, then during World War I served for a year in the United States Army. After the war he spent several years in Paris studying composition with Nadia Boulanger; during this period he was twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1926-1927 he received honorable mention for his first symphony, in a contest sponsored by Musical America; in 1930 he received two awards from RCA Victor, one for Sights and Sounds, an orchestral tone poem, the other for his first successful and widely performed work, the symphony Abraham Lincoln. Since then Bennett has worked fruitfully in three distinct areas. As a composer of serious works he has produced several operas (including Maria Malibran), symphonies and other significant orchestral compositions. As an orchestrator for the Broadway theater, he has been involved with some of the foremost stage productions of our times including musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Lerner and Loewe, and many others. He has also written compositions of a more popular nature, compositions which, while fully exploiting the resources of serious music, are nevertheless filled with popular or jazz materials. Among the last are his effective symphonic adaptations of music from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; Oklahoma! and South Pacific of Rodgers and Hammerstein; and Kiss Me Kate of Cole Porter. In each instance, the main melodies are brilliantly orchestrated and skilfully combined into an integrated synthesis so that each becomes a coherent musical composition.

The March, for two pianos and orchestra, (1930) makes delightful use of jazz melodies and rhythms. There are here four connected movements, each in march time. The first movement, in a vigorous style, leaps from one brief motive to another without any attempt at development. In the second, a sustained melody, first for solo oboe and later for the piano with full orchestra, is placed against a shifting rhythm. The third is a serious recitative culminating in an episode in which the classic funeral march is given sophisticated treatment. The fourth movement begins with a marche mignonne and concludes with a forceful, at times overpowering, statement of the funeral-march theme of the third movement.

While the Symphony in D (1941) is scored for symphony orchestra and has been played by many leading American orchestras, it is music with its tongue in the cheek, and is consistently light and humorous. This symphony was written to honor the Brooklyn Dodger baseball team (that is, when they were still in Brooklyn)—ironically enough an ode to a colorful team by a composer who has been a lifelong rooter of its most bitter rival, the New York Giants (once again, when they were still at the Polo Grounds). There are four brief movements. The first, subtitled “Brooklyn Wins,” “means to picture the ecstatic joy of the town after the home team wins a game,” as the composer has explained. This is followed by a slow (Andante lamentoso) movement, appropriately designated as “Brooklyn Loses”—music filled with “gloom and tears, and even fury.” The third movement, a scherzo, is a portrait of the club’s then (1941) president, Larry MacPhail, and his pursuit of a star pitcher. “We hear the horns’ bay call—then we hear him in Cleveland, Ohio, trying to trade for the great pitcher, Bob Feller. He offers Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Bridge as an even trade, but the Cleveland management says ‘No’ in the form of a big E-flat minor chord. After repeated attempts we hear the hunting horns again, as he resumes the hunt in other fields.” The finale is a choral movement, and like that of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, an ode to joy. “It is purely fictitious, this text, but it speaks for itself. The subtitle of this finale is ‘The Giants Come to Town.’”

Bennett has written two delightful orchestral compositions derived from the songs of Jerome Kern. One is Symphonic Study, a synthesis of some of Kern’s best-loved melodies, and Variations on a Theme by Jerome Kern. Both of these compositions are discussed in the section on Kern. Bennett’s symphonic treatment of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, entitled Symphonic Picture, is commented upon in the Gershwin section, specifically with Porgy and Bess; Bennett’s symphonic treatment of the music of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, and of Oklahoma! and South Pacific is spoken of in the sections devoted to Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, respectively. Bennett has also orchestrated, and adapted into a symphonic suite, the music from Richard Rodgers’ Victory at Sea, described in the Richard Rodgers section.

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was born in Côte-Saint-André, France on December 11, 1803. As a young man he was sent to Paris to study medicine, but music occupied his interests and he soon abandoned his medical studies to enter the Paris Conservatory. Impatient with the academic restrictions imposed upon him there, he left the Conservatory to begin his career as a composer. From the very beginning he set out to open new horizons for musical expression and to extend the periphery of musical structure. His first masterwork was the Symphonie fantastique, inspired by his love for the Shakespearean actress, Harriet Smithson. It was introduced in Paris in 1830, a year in which Berlioz also won the Prix de Rome. In his later works, Berlioz became one of music’s earliest Romantics. He was a bold innovator in breaking down classical restraint; he helped extend the dramatic expressiveness of music; he was a pioneer in the writing of program music and in enriching the language of harmony, rhythm, and orchestration. Among his major works are the Requiem, Harold in Italy for viola solo and orchestra, the Roman Carnival Overture, the dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet, and The Damnation of Faust. Berlioz married Harriet Smithson in 1833. It proved to be a tempestuous affair from the outset, finally ending by mutual consent in permanent separation. From 1852 until his death Berlioz was a librarian of the Paris Conservatory. He was active throughout Europe as a conductor and was a trenchant writer on musical subjects; among his books is a volume of Memoirs. He died in Paris on March 8, 1869.

The compositions by which Berlioz is most often heard on semi-classical programs are three excerpts from The Damnation of Faust: “The Dance of the Sylphs” (“Danse des sylphes”); “The Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps” (“Menuet des feux-follets”), and “Rakóczy March” (“Marche hongroise”).

The Damnation of Faust, op. 24, described by the composer as a “dramatic legend,” took many years for realization. It was based on a French translation of Goethe’s Faust, published in 1827. A year later, Berlioz completed a musical setting of eight scenes as part of an ambitious project to prepare a huge cantata based on the Faust legend. He did not complete this project until eighteen years after that. Upon returning to it, he revised his earlier material, and wrote a considerable amount of new music. This work was first performed in oratorio style in Paris on December 6, 1846 and was a fiasco. It was given a stage presentation in Monte Carlo in 1903. Since then it has been performed both in concert version and as an opera.

“The Dance of the Sylphs” is graceful waltz music, its main melody assigned to the violins. It appears in the second part of the “legend.” Faust is lulled to sleep by sylphs who appear in his dream in a delicate dance which brings up for him the image of his beloved Marguerite. “Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps” comes in the third part of the legend. Mephisto summons the spirits and the will-of-the-wisps to encircle Marguerite’s house. The dance tune is heard in woodwind and brass. After the trio section, the minuet melody is repeated twice, the second time interrupted by chords after each phrase. The “Rakóczy March” is based on an 18th-century Hungarian melody. It is logically interpolated into the Faust legend by the expedience of having Faust wander about in Hungary. A fanfare for the brass leads to the first and main melody, a brisk march subject begun quietly in the woodwind. It gains in force until it is exultantly proclaimed by full orchestra. A countersubject is then heard in strings. After the march melody returns, it again gains in volume until it is built up into an overpowering climax.

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918. Early music study took place with private piano teachers, and subsequently with Helen Coates and Heinrich Gebhard. He was graduated from Harvard in 1939 after which he attended the Curtis Institute of Music (a pupil of Fritz Reiner in conducting) and three summer sessions of the Berkshire Music Center as a student and protégé of Serge Koussevitzky. He made a sensational debut as conductor with the New York Philharmonic in 1943, appearing as a last-minute substitute for Bruno Walter who had fallen ill. Since that time he has risen to the front rank of contemporary symphony conductors, having led most of the world’s leading organizations, and being appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958. As a serious composer he first attracted attention with the Jeremiah Symphony in 1944, which was performed by most of America’s leading orchestras, was recorded, and received the New York City Music Critics Award. He subsequently wrote other major works for orchestra as well as the scores to successful ballets, an opera, and several Broadway musical comedies that were box-office triumphs; the last of these included On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953) and West Side Story (1957). Bernstein has also distinguished himself as a musical commentator and analyst over television, concert pianist, and author.

Whether writing in a serious or popular vein Bernstein consistently reveals himself to be a master of his technical resources, endowed with a fine creative imagination, a strong lyric and rhythmic gift, and a restless intelligence that is ever on the search for new and fresh approaches in his writing. High on the list of favorites in the semi-classical repertory are the orchestral suites he adapted from his two popular and successful ballets.

Facsimile, choreography by Jerome Robbins, was introduced in New York in 1946. The ballet scenario revolves around three lonely people—a woman and two men—who find only frustration and disenchantment after trying to find satisfactory personal relationships. The orchestral suite from this vivacious score, vitalized with the use of popular melodies and dance rhythms, is made up of four parts. I. “Solo.” The principal musical material here is found in a solo flute. This is a description of a woman standing alone in an open place. II. “Pas de Deux.” Woman meets man, and a flirtation ensues to the tune of a waltz. The scene achieves a passionate climax, and is followed by a sentimental episode, romanticized in the music by a subject for muted strings and two solo violins and solo viola. The love interest dies; the pair become bored, then hostile. III. “Pas de trois.” The second man enters. This episode is a scherzo with extended piano solo passages. A triangle ensues between the two men and one woman, there is some sophisticated interplay among them, and finally there ensue bitter words and misunderstandings. IV. “Coda.” The two men take their departure, not without considerable embarrassment.

Fancy Free was Bernstein’s first ballet, and it is still his most popular one; he completed his score in 1944 and it was introduced by the Ballet Theater (which had commissioned it) on April 18 of that year. It was a success of major proportions, received numerous performances, then became a staple in the American dance repertory. It is, wrote George Amberg, “the first substantial ballet entirely created in the contemporary American idiom, a striking and beautifully convincing example of genuine American style.” The scenario, by Jerome Robbins, concerned the quest of girl companionship on the part of three sailors on temporary shore leave. Bernstein’s music, though sophisticated in its harmonic and instrumental vocabulary, is filled with racy jazz rhythms and idioms and with melodies cast in a popular mold. The orchestral suite is made up of five parts: “Dance of the Three Sailors”; “Scene at the Bar”; “Pas de deux”; “Pantomime”; “Three Variations” (Galop, Waltz, Danzon) and Finale.

When this Suite was first performed, in Pittsburgh in 1945, with Bernstein conducting, the composer provided the following description of what takes place in the music. “From the moment the action begins, with the sound of a juke box wailing behind the curtain, the ballet is strictly Young America of 1944. The curtain rises on a street corner with a lamppost, side street bar, and New York skyscrapers tricked out with a crazy pattern of lights, making a dizzying background. Three sailors explode onto the stage; they are on shore leave in the city and on the prowl for girls. The tale of how they meet first one girl, then a second, and how they fight over them, lose them, and in the end take off after still a third, is the story of the ballet.”

Fancy Free was expanded into a musical-comedy by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for which Bernstein wrote his Broadway score. Called On the Town it started a one-year Broadway run on December 28, 1944, and subsequently was twice revived in off-Broadway productions, and was made into an outstanding screen musical.

Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet was born in Paris on October 25, 1838. Revealing a pronounced gift for music in early childhood he was entered into the Paris Conservatory when he was only nine. There—as a pupil of Marmontel, Halévy, and Benoist—he won numerous prizes, including the Prix de Rome in 1857. In that year he also had his first stage work produced, a one-act opera, Le Docteur miracle. After his return from Rome to Paris he started to write operas. Les Pêcheurs de perles (Pearl Fishers) and La jolie fille de Perth were produced in Paris in 1863 and 1867 respectively. Success came in 1872 with his first Suite from the incidental music to Daudet’s L’Arlésienne. After that came his masterwork, the opera by which he has earned immortality: Carmen, introduced in Paris two months before his death. Bizet died in Bougival, France, on June 3, 1875.

His gift for rich, well-sounding melodies, and his feeling for inviting harmonies and tasteful orchestration make many of his compositions ideal for programs of light music, even salient portions of Carmen.

Agnus Dei is a vocal adaptation (to a liturgical Latin text) of the intermezzo from Bizet’s incidental music to L’Arlésienne. It is also found as the second movement of the L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2. A dramatic dialogue between forceful strings and serene woodwinds leads into a spiritual religious song.

The Arlésienne Suite No. 1 is made up of parts from the incidental music, which Bizet wrote for the Provençal drama of Alphonse Daudet, The Woman of Arles (L’Arlésienne). The play, with Bizet’s music consisting of twenty-seven pieces, was given at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris in 1872. Out of this score the composer selected four excerpts and assembled them into an orchestral suite, which has become his most celebrated instrumental composition, and his first success as a composer. A knowledge of the plot and characters of the Daudet play is by no means essential to a full appreciation of Bizet’s tuneful suite.

The first movement, “Prelude,” begins with a march melody based on an old French Christmas song. This is subjected to a series of variations. After the march tune has been repeated vigorously by the full orchestra there appears a pastoral interlude, scored originally for saxophones, but now usually heard in clarinets. This, in turn, is succeeded by a passionate song for strings, with brass and woodwind accompaniment. The second movement is a “Minuet,” whose principal theme is a brisk and strongly accented subject. In the trio section, the clarinet appears with a flowing lyrical episode. As the violins take this material over they become rapturous; the harp and woodwind provide intriguing accompanying figures. A brief “Adagietto” comes as the third movement. This is a sensitive romance for muted strings. In the finale, “Carillon,” we get a picture of a peasant celebration of the Feast of St. Eloi. The horns simulate a three-note chime of bells which accompanies a lively dance tune, first in strings, then in other sections of the orchestra. A soft interlude is interposed by the woodwind. Then the lively dance reappears, once again to be accompanied by vigorous tolling bells simulated by the horns.

There exists a second suite made up of four more numbers from the incidental music to L’Arlésienne. This was prepared after Bizet’s death by his friend, Ernest Guiraud. This second suite is rarely played, but its second movement, “Intermezzo,” is celebrated in its liturgical version as “Agnus Dei” (which see [above]). The other movements are Pastorale, Minuet and Farandole.

If the name of Bizet has survived in musical history and will continue to do so for a long time to come, it is surely because of a single masterwork—his opera Carmen. This stirring music drama—based on the famous novel of Prosper Mérimée, adapted for Bizet by Meilhac and Halévy—never fails in its emotional and dramatic impact. Carmen is the seductive gypsy girl who enmeshes two lovers: the bull fighter Escamillo, and the sergeant, Don José. Both she and Don José meet a tragic end on the day of Escamillo’s triumph in the bull ring. The background to this fatal story of love and death is provided by the Spanish city of Seville—its streets, bull ring, taverns, and nearby mountain retreat of smugglers.

Carmen was introduced at the Opéra-Comique on March 3, 1875. Legend would have us believe it was a fiasco, and further that heartbreak over this failure brought about Bizet’s premature death two months after the opera was first heard. As a matter of historic truth, while there were some critics at that first performance who considered the text too stark and realistic for their tastes, Carmen did very well, indeed. By June 18th it enjoyed thirty-seven performances. At the start of the new season of the Opéra-Comique it returned to the repertory to receive its fiftieth presentation by February 15, 1876. It was hailed in Vienna in 1875, Brussels in 1876, and London and New York in 1878. Many critics everywhere were as enthusiastic as the general public, and with good reason. For all the vivid color of Spanish life and backgrounds, and all the flaming passions aroused by the sensual Carmen, were caught in Bizet’s luminous, dramatic score.

The Prelude to Carmen represents a kind of resumé of what takes place in the opera, and with some of its musical material. It opens with lively music for full orchestra describing the festive preparations in Seville just before a bull fight. After a sudden change of key, and several chords, the popular second-act song of Escamillo, the bullfighter, is first given quietly in strings, then repeated more loudly. Then there is heard an ominous passage against quivering strings which, in the opera, suggests the fatal fascination exerted by Carmen on men. This is repeated in a higher register and somewhat amplified until a dramatic chord for full orchestra brings this episode, and the overture itself, to a conclusion.

The Prelude to Act II is constructed from a motive of an off-stage unaccompanied little song by Don José in the same act praising the dragoons of Alcala. The Prelude to Act III is actually an entr’acte, a gentle little intermezzo which Bizet originally wrote for L’Arlésienne. The Prelude to Act IV is also an entr’acte, this time of dramatic personality. The brilliant and forceful music is based upon an actual Andalusian folk song and dance; it sets the mood for the gay festivities in a public square on the day of a gala bull-fight with which the fourth act opens.

It is sometimes a practice at concerts of semi-classical or pop music to present not merely one of the four orchestral Preludes but also at other times salient musical episodes from the opera, arranged and assembled into fantasias or suites. These potpourris or suites are generally made up of varied combinations of the following excerpts. From Act I: the “Changing of the Guard”; Carmen’s seductive and extremely popular aria, the Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”), which was not by Bizet but borrowed by him from a song by Sebastian Yradier (see [Yradier]); the duet of Micaëla and Don José, “Qui sait de quel démon”; and Carmen’s Séguidille, “Près des ramparts de Séville.” From Act II: “The March of the Smugglers,”; Carmen’s “Chanson bohème”; the rousing Toreador Song of Escamillo; and Don José’s poignant “Flower Song” to Carmen, “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée.” From Act III: Carmen’s Card Song, “En vain pour éviter”; and Micaëla’s celebrated Air, “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante”. From Act IV: the Chorus, March, and Finale.

Utilizing many of these selections, Ferruccio Busoni and Vladimir Horowitz each prepared striking concert fantasias for solo piano; Pablo de Sarasate, for violin and piano; and Franz Waxman for violin and orchestra for the motion picture, Humoresque, starring John Garfield.

Children’s Games (Jeux d’enfants) is a delightful suite of twelve pieces for piano (four hands) for and about children. Bizet wrote it in 1871, but shortly afterwards orchestrated five of these numbers and assembled them into a suite, op. 22. The first movement is a march entitled “Trumpeter and Drummer” (“Trompette et tambour”) music punctuated by trumpet calls and drum rolls, accompanying a troop of soldiers as it approaches and then disappears into the distance. This is followed by a tender berceuse for muted strings, “The Doll” (“La Poupée”). The third movement is “The Top” (“La Toupie”), an impromptu in which the violins simulate the whirr of a spinning top while the woodwinds introduce a jolly dance tune. The fourth movement, “Little Husband, Little Wife” (“Petit mari, petite femme”) is a quiet little dialogue between husband and wife, the former represented by first violins, and the latter by the cellos. The suite ends with “The Ball” (“Le Bal”), a galop for full orchestra.

The Danse bohèmienne is a popular orchestral episode that comes from a comparatively unknown (and early) Bizet opera, La jolie fille de Perth, introduced in Paris in 1867. This vital dance music appears in the second act, but it is also often borrowed by many opera companies for the fourth act ballet of Carmen. The harp leads into, and then accompanies, a soft, sinuous dance melody for the flute. The tempo rapidly quickens, and the mood grows febrile; the strings take over the dance melody in quick time, and other sections of the orchestra participate vigorously.

La Patrie Overture, op. 19 (1873) is music in a martial manner. A robust, strongly rhythmed march tune is immediately presented by the full orchestra. After some amplification it is repeated softly by the orchestra. The second main theme is a stately folk melody first given by the violins, clarinets and bassoons, accompanied by the double basses. This new subject receives resounding treatment in full orchestra and is carried to a powerful climax. After a momentary pause, a third tune is heard, this time in violas and cellos accompanied by brasses and double basses, and a fourth, in violas, clarinets and English horn with the muted violins providing an arpeggio accompaniment. Then the stirring opening march music is recalled and dramatized. The overture ends in a blaze of color after some of the other themes are brought back with enriched harmonies and orchestration.

This music was written for a play of the same name by Sardou.

Luigi Boccherini

Luigi Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy, on February 19, 1743. After studying music with various private teachers in Rome, he gained recognition as a cellist both as a member of theater orchestras in Lucca and later on tour throughout Europe in joint concerts with Filippo Manfredi, violinist. He served as court composer in Madrid from 1785 to 1787, and from 1787 until 1797 for Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. His last years were spent in Madrid in poverty and poor health, and he died in that city on May 28, 1805.

Boccherini, a contemporary of Haydn, was a prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, and a considerable amount of chamber music which were all-important in helping to develop and crystallize a classical style of instrumental writing and in establishing the classic forms of instrumental music.

Despite the abundance of his creation in virtually every branch of instrumental music, and despite the significance of his finest works, Boccherini is remembered today by many music lovers mainly for a comparatively minor piece of music: the sedate Minuet which originated as the third movement of the String Quintet in E major, op. 13, no. 5. Transcribed for orchestra, and for various solo instruments and piano, (even for solo harpsichord) this light and airy Minuet has become one of the most celebrated musical examples of this classic dance form.

Several of Boccherini’s little known melodies from various quintets and from his Sinfonia No. 2 in B-flat were used by the contemporary French composer, Jean Françaix, for a ballet score, from which comes an enchanting little orchestral suite. The ballet was The School of Dancing (Scuola di Ballo), with book and choreography by Leonide Massine; it was introduced by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Monte Carlo in 1933. The book was set in the dancing school of Professor Rigadon. The professor tries to palm off one of his backward pupils on an impresario, while withholding his star; in the end all pupils leave him in disgust. The suite is in four parts. The first consists of “Leçon” and “Menuet”; the second, “Larghetto,” “Rondo,” and “Dispute”; the third, “Presto,” “Pastorale,” and “Danse allemande”; the last, “Scène du notaire” and “Finale.” An unidentified program annotator goes on to explain: “An occasional stern note in the ‘Leçon’ and strong chords in the ‘Menuet’ suggest the teacher. The violin and bassoon play a duet which very clearly pictures the inept pupil. Further atmosphere is furnished by a guitar-like accompaniment heard on the harp from time to time. One is soon acquainted with the characters who reappear in the various sections. The ‘Larghetto’ closely resembles a movement in one of Haydn’s symphonies, which suggests a tempting line of speculation. The orchestration of the ‘Rondo’ and the syncopation of the ‘Danse allemande’ are noteworthy.”

François Boieldieu

François-Adrien Boieldieu, genius of opéra-comique, was born in Rouen, France, on December 16, 1775. After studying music with Charles Broche, Boieldieu became a church organist in Rouen in his fifteenth year. Two years later his first opera, La fille coupable, was successfully given in the same city. In 1796 he came to Paris where from 1797 on his operas began appearing in various theaters, climaxed by his first major success, Le Calife de Bagdad in 1801. In 1798 he was appointed professor of the piano at the Paris Conservatory. From 1803 until 1811 he lived in Russia writing operas for the Imperial theaters and supervising musical performances at court. After returning to Paris in 1811, he reassumed his significant position in French music. From 1817 to 1826 he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory, and in 1821 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. All the while he kept on writing operas and enjoying considerable popularity. His most significant work was the opéra-comique, La Dame blanche, a sensation when introduced in Paris in 1825. Ill health compelled him to abandon his various professional activities in 1832. Supported by an annual government grant, he withdrew to Jarcy where he spent the last years of his life devoting himself mainly to painting. He died there on October 8, 1834. Boieldieu, with Adam and Auber, was one of the founders of French comic opera, and his best works are still among the finest achieved in this genre.

The Overture to The Caliph of Bagdad (Le Calife de Bagdad) is Boieldieu’s most famous piece of music. The opera was a triumph when introduced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on September 16, 1801. The libretto, by Saint-Just, is set in Bagdad where Isaaum is a benevolent Caliph, but given to mischievous pranks and tricks, including parading around the city in various disguises. Once, as an army officer, he meets and makes love to Zeltube. Her mother, suspicious of him, orders his arrest. When the Caliph reveals himself, he also discloses his intentions were honorable and that he intends making Zeltube his bride.

The overture opens with a mellow song for strings. When the tempo changes, a sprightlier tune is heard in strings and brought to a forceful climactic point. The music now assumes a dramatic character after which a new subject, again in a sensitive lyrical vein, is offered by the strings.

The Overture to La Dame blanche (The White Lady) is also popular. La Dame blanche is the composer’s greatest work in the opéra-comique form. It was received with such sensational acclaim when introduced in Paris on December 10, 1825 that, temporarily at any rate, the sparkling comic operas of Rossini (then very much in vogue) were thrown into a shade. In time, La Dame blanche received universal acceptance as a classic in the world of opéra-comique. Between 1825 and 1862 it enjoyed over a thousand performances in Paris; by World War I, the total passed beyond the fifteen hundred mark. The libretto, by Eugène Scribe, is based on two novels by Sir Walter Scott, The Monastery and Guy Mannering. The setting is Scotland, and the “white lady” is a statue believed to be the protector of a castle belonging to the Laird of Avenel. The castle is being administered by Gaveston who tries to use the legend of the white lady for his own selfish purposes, to gain possession of the family treasures. Anna, Gaveston’s ward, impersonates the white lady to help save the castle and its jewels for the rightful owner.

The vivacious overture is made up of several of the opera’s principal melodies. The introduction begins with a motive from the first-act finale, and is followed by the melodious and expressive “Ballad of the White Lady.” The Allegro section that follows includes the drinking song and several other popular arias, among these being the ballad of “Robin Adair” which appears during the hero’s first-act revery and as a concert piece in the third act.

Giovanni Bolzoni

Giovanni Bolzoni was born in Parma, Italy, on May 14, 1841. He attended the Parma Conservatory, then achieved recognition as a conductor of operas in Perugia and Turin. In 1887 he became director of the Liceo Musicale in Turin. Bolzoni wrote five operas, a symphony, overtures, and chamber music, but all are now in discard. He died in Turin on February 21, 1919.

About the only piece of music by Bolzoni to survive is a beguiling little Minuet which comes from an unidentified string quartet and which has achieved outstanding popularity in various transcriptions, including many for salon orchestras with which it is a perennial favorite.

Carrie Jacobs Bond

Carrie Jacobs Bond, whose art songs are among the most popular by an American, was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on August 11, 1862. Coming from a musical family, she was given music instruction early, and made appearances as a child-prodigy pianist. After marrying Dr. Frank L. Bond, a physician, she went to live in Chicago where her husband died suddenly, leaving her destitute. For a while she earned a living by renting rooms, taking in sewing, and doing other menial jobs. Then she began thinking of supplementing this meager income with the writing of songs. To issue these compositions, she formed a modest publishing firm in New York with funds acquired from her New York song recital; for a long time her office was in a hall bedroom. Her first publication, just before the end of the century, was Seven Songs, which included “I Love You Truly” and “Just a Wearyin’ For You,” each of which she subsequently published as separate pieces. In 1909 she achieved a formidable success with the famous ballad, “The End of a Perfect Day,” of which more than five million copies of sheet music were sold within a few years. Her later songs added further both to her financial security and her reputation. She was invited to give concerts at the White House, received awards for achievement in music from various organizations, and was singled out in 1941 by the Federation of Music Clubs as one of the two outstanding women in the field of music. She died in Hollywood, California, on December 28, 1946.

Carrie Jacobs Bond knew how to write a song that was filled with sentiment without becoming cloying, that was simple without becoming ingenuous, and which struck a sympathetic universal chord by virtue of its mobile and expressive lyricism. Besides “I Love You Truly,” “Just a Wearyin’ for You” and “The End of a Perfect Day,” her most famous songs included “His Lullaby,” “Life’s Garden,” “I’ve Done My Work,” and “Roses Are in Bloom.” Her songs are so popular that they have been often heard in various transcriptions for salon orchestras and band.

Alexander Borodin

Alexander Borodin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 11, 1833. He was trained in the sciences, having attended the Academy of Medicine in St. Petersburg and in 1858 receiving his doctorate in chemistry. He continued after that to devote himself to scientific activities, both in and out of Russia. He produced several significant papers and, from 1859 to 1862, served on an important scientific mission.

He had also received some musical training in his boyhood. In 1862 he began to direct his energies with equal vigor to music as well as to science. He soon joined four colleagues (Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Cui, and Rimsky-Korsakov) in forming a national school of composition henceforth identified as “The Mighty Five” or “The Russian Five.” Like the other members of this group, Borodin concerned himself with the creation of a national Russian musical art, well grounded in Russian folk song and dance, Russian culture and history. In this style he produced three symphonies, the folk opera Prince Igor, two string quartets, and various operas and instrumental compositions. He differed from the other members of the “Russian Five” by his partiality to Oriental melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and instrumental colors, and by his preference for exotic subjects. Borodin died in St. Petersburg on February 27, 1887.

In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880) is a popular tone poem for orchestra, one of several tableaux vivants (“living pictures”) commissioned from various composers to honor the 25th anniversary of the reign of Czar Alexander II. Each tableau vivant was intended to portray an incident from the Russian past, or a picture of a Russian scene. Borodin prepared his own programmatic note to explain his music; it appears in the published score. “Over the uniformly sandy steppes of Central Asia come sounds of a peaceful Russian song. Along with them are heard the melancholy strains of Oriental melodies, then the stamping of approaching horses and camels. A caravan, accompanied by Russian soldiers, traverses the measureless waste. With full trust in its protective escort, it continues its long journey in a carefree mood. Onward the caravan moves. The songs of the Russians and those of the Asiatic natives mingle in common harmony. The refrains curl over the desert and then die away in the distance.”

The peaceful Russian song is given by the clarinet, while the “melancholy strains of Oriental melodies” is an expressive song for English horn. These two melodies are the core of a composition that is free in form.

The Nocturne (Notturno) is a haunting, poetic song for strings, the third movement of the composer’s String Quartet No. 2 in D major (1885). It is often heard apart from the rest of the work, particularly in various transcriptions for orchestra, or for violin and piano. In 1953, furnished with lyrics and adapted into a popular song by Robert Wright and George “Chet” Forrest, it was heard in the Broadway musical Kismet as “This Is My Beloved” and became an outstanding hit.

The Polovtsian Dances come from Prince Igor, a folk opera with libretto by Vladimir Stassov based on an old Russian chronicle. It was introduced at the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg in 1890. The setting is 12th-century Central Asia where a Tartar race, known as the Polovtzi, capture Prince Igor and his son, Vladimir. Though captives, Prince Igor and his son are regaled by the leader of the Tartars with a lavish feast and Oriental dances. It is at this point in the opera (Act 2) that the popular Polovtsian Dances appear. They are exciting aural experiences because of their primitive rhythms, exotic Oriental melodies, and flaming instrumental colors. One of the dances is a poignant melody for flute and oboe; another is a dance of savage men in which the main melody in clarinet is set against a sharply accented phrase of four descending notes; a third is barbaric, a syncopated melody for strings accompanied by crash of cymbals; a fourth is a haunting Oriental song divided by violins and cellos. This last melody was used by Robert Wright and George “Chet” Forrest for their popular song hit of 1953, “Stranger in Paradise,” in their Broadway musical, Kismet. The concluding dance is again in a savage manner. A passionate melody is begun by the woodwind and carried on by the strings, while receiving a vigorous horn accompaniment.

Felix Borowski

Felix Borowski was born in Burton, England, on March 10, 1872. He received his musical training at the Cologne Conservatory and with private teachers in England. In 1897 he settled in the United States where he later became a citizen. From 1897 to 1916 he was professor of harmony and counterpoint at Chicago Musical College, and from 1916 to 1925 its president. His career in music criticism began in 1905. From 1907 to 1917 he was music critic of the Chicago Record-Herald and from 1942 until his death, of the Chicago Sun. He was also program annotator for the concerts of the Chicago Symphony from 1908 on, some of these annotations being published in the books, Standard Concert Guide and Encyclopedia of the Symphony. Borowski died in Chicago, Illinois, on September 6, 1956.

As a composer, Borowski produced three symphonies, three string quartets, several ballet-pantomimes, various tone poems and other instrumental compositions. His major works are now rarely given, but his smaller salon pieces have retained their popularity through the years. The best of these are the Adoration, for violin and piano, the La Coquette and Valsette for piano, all transcribed for orchestra. All three pieces are in simple song structure and unashamedly Romantic in their lyricism and emotional content. The uninhibited sentimentality of Adoration has made that piece a particular favorite.

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833. He received instruction in music from his father, Otto Cossel, and Eduard Marxsen. At fourteen he gave his first public concert as pianist, in which he introduced one of his own compositions. In 1853 he toured with the Hungarian violinist, Eduard Reményi, as his accompanist. During this period he met and aroused the interest of such notable musicians as Joachim, Liszt, and Schumann. The last of these was one of the first to give Brahms public recognition, through a glowing article in the Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik. After a considerable amount of travel in Germany and Austria, and after holding various musical positions, Brahms established himself permanently in Vienna in 1863. The promise he had shown in his early piano and chamber music became fully realized with his first piano concerto in 1857, the German Requiem written between 1857 and 1868, and the first symphony completed in 1876. In his later orchestral, piano, and chamber music he assumed a position of first importance in the German Romantic movement, the spokesman for absolute music, the genius who succeeded in combining respect for classical discipline and tradition with the Romanticist’s bent for emotion, poetry, and flexible thought. Brahms died in Vienna on April 3, 1897.

The supreme craftsmanship, mature thought, and profound feelings of Brahms’ music do not lend themselves to popular consumption. Occasionally, though not frequently, he chose to give voice to a lighter mood, as he did in his ever-popular Hungarian Dances. In such music, as in his more ambitious works, he is always the master of form and style, and a powerful and inventive creator.

The Cradle Song (Wiegenlied) is Brahms’ universally loved art song, one of the most famous lullabies ever written. It is the fourth in a collection of five songs, op. 49 (1868). Its lyric is a folk poem (“Guten Abend, Gute Nacht”). In its many and varied transcriptions, this lullaby has become an instrumental favorite.

The Hungarian Dances was originally published in 1869 in two volumes for four-hand piano. The first book contained dances Nos. 1 through 5, while the second book had Nos. 6 through 10. Brahms took special pains to point out that these melodies were not his own, but were adaptations. On the title page there appeared the phrase “arranged for the piano.” Brahms further refused to place an opus number to his publication as another indication that this was not original music; and in a letter to his publisher, Simrock, he explained he was offering this music “as genuine gypsy children which I did not beget but merely brought up with bread and milk.”

Despite Brahms’ open candor about the origin of these melodies, a storm of protest was sounded by many newspapers and musicians accusing Brahms of plagiarism. Fortunately, the general public refused to be influenced by this unjust accusation. The two volumes of Hungarian Dances were a formidable success, the greatest enjoyed by Brahms up to that time.

In 1880, Brahms issued two more volumes of Hungarian Dances, still for four-hand piano. Book 3 had dances Nos. 11 through 16, and Book 4, Nos. 17 through 21. This time many of the melodies were original with Brahms, even if modeled after the style and idiosyncrasies of actual Hungarian folk dances and gypsy melodies.

The Hungarian Dances are most popular in transcriptions for orchestra. Brahms himself transcribed Dances Nos. 1, 3, and 10; Andreas Hellen, Nos. 2, 4, and 7; Dvořák, Nos. 7 through 21; and Albert Parlow, the rest. Walter Goehr and Leopold Stokowski also made transcriptions of several of these dances for orchestra. In addition, Brahms adapted Book 1 for piano solo, and Joachim all the dances for violin and piano.

The dances range from sentimental to passionate moods. They abound with abrupt contrasts of feeling and dynamics; they are often vital with vertiginous rhythms and changing meters. These gypsy melodies, both the gay and the sad, warm the heart like Tokay wine; the pulse of the rhythm is similarly intoxicating. As Walter Niemann wrote of these dances: “They are pure nature music, full of unfettered, vagrant, roving spirit, and a chaotic ferment, drawn straight from the deepest well springs of music by children of Nature. It seems impossible to imprison them in the bonds of measure, time, and rhythm, to convert their enchantingly refreshing uncivilized character, their wild freedom, their audacious contempt for all order into a civilized moderation and order.”

Yet Brahms was able to discipline this music with modern techniques without robbing it either of its personality or popular appeal. “He has maintained,” continues Niemann, “and preserved the essential, individual genuine features of gypsy music in his musical idiom: the dances sound like original Hungarian folk music ... and for this reason they delight and enchant everybody: the amateur by their natural quality, the specialist by their art.”

The most famous of these dances is the fifth in F-sharp minor, its passionate, uninhibited dance melody released at once by the strings against a strong rhythm.

The following are some other popular dances.

No. 1, in G minor. A slow and languorous dance unfolds in strings, and then is contrasted by a slight, tripping theme in woodwind; a second languorous dance melody follows in the strings.

No. 6 in D-flat major. A slow syncopated melody begins sensually but soon gains in tempo and volume; a second arresting dance tune is then offered by strings against strong chords in the rest of the orchestra.

No. 7 in A major. This dance opens with a vivacious melody in strings, but through most of the piece a comparatively restrained mood is maintained.

No. 12 in D minor. The first dance melody is presented in a halting rhythm by the woodwind against decorative figures in the strings. This is followed by two other dance tunes, the first in strings with trimmings in the woodwind, and the second in full orchestra.

No. 19 in B minor and No. 21 in E minor. Both are fleet and graceful both in melody and rhythm.

The Waltz in A-flat major, a graceful dance which is given without any introduction or coda, originated as a piece for piano duet: the fifteenth of a set of sixteen such waltzes op. 39 (1865). All of Brahms’ waltzes reveal their Viennese identity in their charm and lightness of heart. Some are derivative from the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, but the one in A-major is more in the character of a Schubert Laendler than a Strauss waltz, though it does boast more delicacy and refinement than we usually find in peasant dances. David Hochstein’s transcription for violin and piano is in the concert violin repertory.

Charles Wakefield Cadman

Charles Wakefield Cadman was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on December 24, 1881. As a boy he played the organ in a church near Pittsburgh, and wrote a march that was published. His main music study took place with private teachers: Leo Oehmler, Luigi von Kunits, and Emil Paur. From 1908 to 1910 he was the music critic of the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Meanwhile, a meeting in 1902 with the lyric writer Nellie Richmond Eberhart, turned him to the writing of songs in which he achieved his initial outstanding successes as composer. Some of these were inspired by the American Indian. Later researches in the field of American-Indian ceremonials and music led him to write his opera Shanewis, produced by the Metropolitan Opera in 1918, as well as several significant instrumental works including the Thunderbird Suite and To a Vanishing Race. From 1917 until his death he lived in California where he wrote several major orchestral and chamber-music works, but none in the American-Indian idiom with which he became famous. He died in Los Angeles on December 30, 1946.

The American Suite, for strings (1938), is an engaging piece of music in which Cadman makes use of several different American folk idioms. In the first movement he borrows his melodies from the tribal music of Omaha Indians. In the second movement we hear Negro folk tunes indigenous to South Carolina. And in the third movement, two old fiddle tunes are effectively employed, “Sugar in the Gourd,” and “Hoop-de-den-do.”

“At Dawning” is one of Cadman’s two most famous songs. It sold millions of copies of sheet music and records, and has been translated into many languages. Though originally published in 1906, it reposed forgotten and unknown on the shelves of the publisher (Oliver Ditson) until John McCormack sang it at one of his recitals in 1909 and was given an ovation. “At Dawning” was transcribed for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler.

Dark Dancers of Mardi Gras, for orchestra with piano, (1933), is one of Cadman’s most popular symphonic compositions. The composer explains: “The work takes its name from the Negro side of the Mardi Gras, though no Negro themes are used. The Negroes of New Orleans have a Mardi Gras of their own. The fantasy is supposed to reflect the fantastic, the grotesque, the bizarre spirit of the carnival. The original theme goes into a major key in the central section, and might represent the romantic feeling of the King and Queen, and the Court in carnival fashion.”

“From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water” is the second of Cadman’s two outstandingly successful songs. It is one of four songs with lyrics by Nellie Richmond Eberhart appearing in American-Indian Songs, op. 45, a cycle which was published in Boston in 1909 and in the same year received a prize in a contest sponsored by the Carnegie Institute. This song was first swept to national fame by the prima donna, Lillian Nordica, in her song recitals. It soon entered the repertory of virtually every leading concert singer in America. Fritz Kreisler transcribed it for violin and piano.

Lucien Caillet

Lucien Caillet was born in Dijon, France on May 22, 1891. After attending the Dijon Conservatory he came to the United States in 1918 and settled first in Pennsylvania, and later in California. He has distinguished himself by his skilful symphonic transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mussorgsky, and others. In his own works he frequently makes skilful use, and astute adaptations, of some famous pieces of popular music.

The Fantasia and Fugue on Oh, Susanna! (1942) for orchestra has for its point of departure the famous song of Stephen Foster, “Oh, Susanna!” Caillet’s composition begins with a preface: a tutti for orchestra which quotes the melody only partly. This leads into a fantasia section featuring the solo string quartet and presenting a quiet version of the melody. A fugue follows, the germ of the “Susanna” melody found in first and second violins in unison.

In Pop Goes the Weasel for orchestra (1938) Caillet brings the full resources of his harmonic and instrumental skill to a famous American folk tune. “Pop Goes the Weasel” is a Western two-part melody, long a favorite of country fiddlers since before the Civil War. After presenting this melody, Caillet subjects it to intriguing variations, sometimes with comic effect.

Alfredo Catalani

Alfredo Catalani was born in Lucca, Italy, on June 19, 1854. After receiving preliminary instruction in music from his father he was allowed to enter the Paris Conservatory without examinations. He concluded his music study at the Milan Conservatory, where in 1886 he succeeded Ponchielli as professor of composition. In 1880 he had his first opera, Elda, produced in Turin. He continued to confine himself to the stage, his most successful operas being Loreley in 1890, and La Wally in 1892. In his own time, and shortly thereafter, his operas were outstandingly successful in Italy. Today they are remembered almost exclusively because of some orchestral excerpts. Catalani died in Milan on August 7, 1893.

The most popular episodes from Catalini’s two most famous operas are dances often performed by salon orchestras. “The Dance of the Waves” (Danza delle ondine) and “The Waltz of the Flowers” (Valzer dei fiori) appear in Loreley, an opera introduced in Turin in 1890. In this opera the action takes place on the banks of the Rhine. Walter, about to marry Anna, is loved by the orphan girl, Loreley. When Loreley learns she is about to lose her beloved, she calls upon the nymphs and the sprites of the Rhine to help her; throwing herself into the river, she becomes one of them. During the wedding ceremonies, Loreley appears and entices Walter away from his bride. Anna dies of grief; and Walter meets his doom in the Rhine, to which he is helplessly drawn through enticements by the sprites and by Loreley.

“The Dance of the Waves” takes place in the last act. After Anna’s funeral procession passes by, Walter comes to the edge of the Rhine, grief-stricken. Out of the waters come the sprites to dance seductively before Walter and to beckon him on into the river. “The Waltz of the Flowers” is a graceful, even gentle, dance performed in the second act, during the wedding ceremonies of Walter and Anna.

“The Waltz of the Kiss” (Valzer del bacio) is a segment from La Wally, Catalani’s most famous opera, which was such a particular favorite of Arturo Toscanini that not only did he conduct it frequently in Italy but he also named his son after its heroine. La Wally was introduced at La Scala in Milan in 1892. The text, by Luigi Illica, was based on a novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern. The setting is 19th century Switzerland where Wally and Hagenbach are in love, and meet their death in an avalanche; all the while Wally is being sought after by Gellner, whom she detests. The “Waltz of the Kiss” is a caressing piece of music from the second act which accompanies a dance by Wally and Hagenbach, in which they first discover they are in love and yield to passionate kissing while the hateful Gellner watches.

Otto Cesana

Otto Cesana was born in Brescia, Italy, on July 7, 1899. He came to the United States in boyhood and studied music with private teachers. After working in Hollywood, where he wrote a considerable amount of music for motion pictures, he came to New York to become arranger for Radio City Music Hall, and for several important radio programs. In his own music he has been particularly successful in using within large forms popular American elements, at times folk idioms. In a more serious attitude he has produced half a dozen symphonies and various concertos for solo instruments and orchestra.

Negro Heaven for orchestra is one of his more popular attempts to use an American folk idiom within a symphonic mold. He explains: “Here follows a musical interpretation of the fluctuating moods that seize the colored man—now gay, now sad, always, however migrating towards carefreeness and abandon, as exemplified in the return of the first subject, which is soon followed by one of those superlative moods, a Negro in the throes of nostalgia.”

Swing Septet (1942), for string orchestra, guitar and percussion is in three short movements, the first in sonata form, and the last two in three-part song form. “The chief purpose,” says the composer, “is to give the string players an opportunity to compete with the ad lib boys who, while they improvise the wildest phrases imaginable, are ‘floored’ whenever an approximation of that material is set down on paper.”

Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier was born in Ambert, France, on January 18, 1841. He was trained as a lawyer; from 1862 to 1880 he was employed at the Ministry of the Interior in Paris. But he had also received a sound musical training with private teachers. Composition began for him in earnest in the 1870’s, with two of his operettas receiving performances in Paris between 1877 and 1879. In 1879 he made a pilgrimage to Germany to hear Wagner’s music dramas whose impact upon him proved so overwhelming that he finally decided to give up his government work and concentrate on music. Returning to Paris in 1880 he published the Pièces pittoresques for piano. Following a visit to Spain he produced in 1883 his first major work for orchestra and realized with it his first major success as a composer—the rhapsody España. He also wrote two operas, Gwendoline produced in 1886, and Le Roi malgré lui introduced one year later. Some of his best writing was for the piano and included such distinguished works as the Habanera, Bourrée fantasque, and Trois valses romantiques. Chabrier became a victim of paralysis in the last two years of his life, and just before his death he began losing his sanity. He died in Paris on September 13, 1894.

While in his operas he revealed his profound indebtedness to the Wagnerian idiom, Chabrier was at his best either in music that interpreted Spain or to which he brought a natural bent for laughter, gaiety, and the grotesque.

España, an orchestral rhapsody, is his most famous composition, as popular in the semi-classical literature as it is in the symphonic repertory. Chabrier wrote it in 1883 after a Spanish holiday, and its première in Paris on November 4 of that year was a sensation. This rhapsody is built from three principal subjects, two borrowed from Spanish folk melodies, and one Chabrier’s own. A nervous rhythm in plucked strings leads to a strongly accented malagueña, first heard in the wind instrument. Different sections take it over before soaring strings arrive with a lyrical jota melody. Chabrier’s own theme, a stately subject for trombones, is then heard, set against the background of the malagueña melody. The French waltz-king, Waldteufel, used Chabrier’s themes from España for one of his most famous waltzes, also entitled España.

The Joyeuse marche (1888) reveals the composer in one of his satirical moods. Chabrier wrote it at first as a piano composition to be used for a sight-reading class at the Bordeaux Conservatory. It proved too difficult to fulfil this function, and Chabrier decided to orchestrate it, calling it Joyeuse marche and presenting it as one of his more serious endeavors. The music is in a burlesque style, believed to be a musical description of drunken musicians staggering home after a festive evening. The work opens with an orchestral flourish, following which the oboe offers a capricious subject. This gaiety is maintained in the lively second theme for the violins.

The Suite pastorale (1880) is an orchestral adaptation of four of the ten piano pieces in Pièces pittoresques. In the first, “Idylle,” a beautiful melody is accompanied by plucked strings. The second, “Danse villageoise” is a country dance in which the lively dance tune is first heard in clarinets. The third piece, “Sous bois” has a pastoral character, while the concluding number, “Scherzo-Valse” is a protracted piece of pulsating music.

George Chadwick

George Whitefield Chadwick was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1854. Most of his music study took place in Germany. When he was being graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory in 1879, his overture Rip Van Winkle received its première performance. He then studied organ and composition with Rheinberger in Munich. After returning to the United States in 1880, he became a teacher of harmony and composition at the New England Conservatory, rising to the post of director in 1897. He was also active for several years as director of the Worcester Music Festival. He died in Boston on April 4, 1931.

Chadwick was a prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, and various other orchestral and choral works. He never freed himself from the influence of German Romanticism, with which he had been infected during his student days. He wrote with a sure craftsmanship, usually filling his classical structures with winning melodies and often lush harmonies and orchestration.

Two compositions for orchestra are of particular popular appeal: Jubilee and Noël. Both are movements from the Symphonic Sketches (1895) which received its world première in Boston in 1908. (The other two movements, the third and fourth, are “Hobgoblin” and “A Vagrom Ballad.”) Jubilee is a vigorous tonal picture of a carnival. A spirited melody is loudly presented by the full orchestra and is elaborated upon. A second virile subject is then presented by bass clarinet, bassoons, violas and cellos. Following a lively return of the opening carnival theme, the woodwind and horns appear with a lyrical subject. The music then gains in vitality until it comes to a rousing conclusion with a coda built from the carnival motive.

Noël has been described as “a little Christmas song.” It is a haunting orchestral nocturne in which a serene Yuletide melody is offered by the English horn.

Cécile Chaminade

Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris on August 8, 1857. Music study took place in Paris with Marsick and Godard among others. In 1875 she launched her career as concert pianist by touring Europe in programs that often included her own compositions. At her American debut, on November 7, 1908, she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of her own Concerstueck. She wrote many other ambitious works including a symphony, two orchestral suites, and ballets. She died in Monte Carlo on April 18, 1944.

Though Chaminade staked her future as composer on her larger, serious works for orchestra and the ballet stage, she is today remembered almost exclusively for her slight morsels of the salon variety. Most of these originated as compositions for the piano; her piano music numbers about two hundred works including arabesques, etudes, impromptus, valse-caprices, and so forth. Automne, a sentimental melody, and Sérénade espagnole, in a pseudo-Spanish style, come from her piano music: Automne from the Concert Etudes, op. 35. It has been transcribed for popular orchestra by Melachrino. Sérénade espagnole has been adapted for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler. Chaminade’s most popular piece, Scarf Dance, comes from a ballet, Callirhoë, produced in Marseilles in 1888. It is often heard in its original orchestral version and in various transcriptions for solo piano, and solo instrument and piano.

Gustave Charpentier

Gustave Charpentier was born in Dieuze, France, on June 25, 1860. He received his musical training in the Conservatories in Lille and Paris, winning the Prix de Rome in 1881. During his stay in Rome he wrote Impressions of Italy for orchestra, with which he realized his first success upon its première performance in Paris in 1892. Charpentier’s fame, however, rests securely on a single opera, Louise, a triumph when introduced in Paris on February 2, 1900, and since become recognized as one of the major achievements of the French lyric theater. A sequel, Julien (1913), was a failure. From 1913 on, Charpentier wrote almost nothing more, living a Bohemian existence in the Montmartre section of Paris where he died on February 18, 1956.

Impressions of Italy, a suite for orchestra (1890) is a nostalgic picture of five Italian scenes. The first movement is “Serenade,” in which is described a picture of young men emerging from a bistro at midnight, singing love songs under the windows of their girl friends. “At the Fountain” depicts girls parading with dignified steps near a waterfall by a ravine; from the distance come the sounds of a shepherd’s tune. “On Muleback” tells of evening as it descends on the Sabine Mountains. The mules trot along, and there rises the song of the muleteer followed by the sweet love song of girls riding in their carts to the village. “On the Heights” presents noontime on the heights overlooking Sorrento. All is peace, though the toll of bells can be heard from a distance. The finale is a musical tribute to a great city, “Naples.” In this music we see the crowds of the city, the parading bands. A tarantella is being danced in the streets. The strains of a sentimental folk song drift in from the quay. Evening falls, and fireworks electrify the sky.

Frédéric Chopin

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

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

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

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

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.

Claude Debussy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Dubensky had written many works for orchestra, whose sound technique and fresh approaches command respect. One or two of these are of popular appeal without sacrificing sound musical values. Of particular interest is the Stephen Foster Suite for orchestra (1940), in which Dubensky quotes five Stephen Foster songs: “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair,” “Some Folks,” “I See Her Still in My Dreams,” and “Camptown Races.” The composer goes on to explain: “The first part represents to me a beautiful summer evening in the country. From far away I hear a choir, coming gradually closer and then fading into the distance. It sings to me the wonder song, ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ The second part is built around ‘Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.’ Here the melody is given to a tenor solo, with a soft, gentle orchestral accompaniment beginning with a short introduction. The last two parts are for orchestra. The fourth part centers around the song ‘I See Her Still In My Dreams.’ It is a dreamy song, and I have given it the character of an intermezzo played by string orchestra, muted. If this movement is played in slow tempo, and pianissimo, it sounds not at all realistic but like the dream it portrays. The fifth part, ‘Camptown Races’ is the focal point of the suite. The theme is treated in a number of different keys and always in a different character. Sometimes it is delicate and graceful, and sometimes rude and robust, but always it is gay.”

Paul Dukas