Orchestration of Words

Author(s): Reginald R. Buckley

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 57, No. 883 (Sep. 1, 1916), pp. 402-403
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/909030
Accessed: 11-05-2017 11:17 UTC

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402 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-SEPTEMBER I, 1916.

believe that everything that comes from and

humming, them is
the singing of invented gollywog words
beautiful and great, even when it are
is mediocre
all part of theand
technique which modern music so
detestable, whilst indifference alone is declined
far has displayedto develop.
towards our own native productions.' It is not too much to say that nearly all composers
are professional musicians and amateur authors, and
that what literary technique they possess is of a
makeshift kind, the faults of which are covered up by
ORCHESTRATION OF WORDS. their ability in other directions.
In this article I will avoid altogether the subject-
BY REGINALD R. BUCKLEY.
matter of opera,* the public taste, and other things of
practical moment to a composer who wants to appeal
There was a time when such a phrase as 'verbal
to an audience-for until the alphabet of audibility
orchestration' would have been sent to Coventry,
is mastered, all we have to offer is a more or less
Putney, or Bath, along with such vile terms as 'word-
splendid
painting' or 'prose-poems.' But Bantock's setting of noise.
I have heard it stated that the reason why Delius
'Atalanta' showed the possibility of symphonic writing and others set Walt Whitman is that the author of
in which the words are subjected to a treatment
'Sea-Drift' wrote voidly and without form. If so,
hitherto reserved for tones. The up-to-date librettist
Swinburne
must forsake the 'metric system,' the safe guidance of would hardly have been among the first
admirers
lines and stanzas, and use a 'wireless telegraphy' that of Whitman's poetic writing. Whitman did
precisely what is required, namely, he wrote his
is adaptable to the several needs of choral-poems,
operas, or songs.
phrases as a grown man would speak them,
rhythmically and with emphasis, and when he wanted
What a musician needs in a text is audibility, terse-
to rub in dead facts he let you have them in a list. So
ness, and rhythm.
did Isaiah, and so was the song of lamentation for
It is seldom useful to seek for a 'fine English text'
among the poets, living or dead. It may be what Jonathan written, and the excellent choral work known
Lewis Carroll called 'the best butter,' but the to the ancients as the Song of Deborah and Barak.
Alliteration, and the relationship of vowels, comes
composer will slip if he tries to stand on it. The singer
is taught to enunciate, but unless he actually chewspartly from instinct and mostly from long practice.
The subject is dealt with in full by Wagner in the
and snaps his words they will not be audible in choral
writing, or through an orchestra, unless the textthird
is Part of 'Opera and Drama,' a work that
part of the music. I have heard Plunket Greenefrightens
sing the more timid composer because he is
afraid of meeting the ghost of Schopenhauer, which
Whitman's words in 'Ethiopia saluting the Colours'
and Frederic Austin in operatic work writtenhowever
and has been laid by Mr. Ernest Newman. It
must, however, be read by the practical musician who
composed organically. Both were perfectly audible.
wants to know how to make his words a part of his
And I have heard both sing a muffled text, poetically
musical work rather than a patchwork encumbrance
quite good, with the inevitable result.
written by a more or less 'literary friend.'
In English opera, as Sir Thomas Beecham probably
Here is the kind of phrase :
is aware, the practical musical value of the text
(however literary it may be) is almost nil. The all-knowing dwarfs,
The Savoy light operas are not fair examples, who dread the light of day,
because Gilbert and Sullivan begged the question by and hold their dwelling deep in central caverns .
introducing 'talk' where audibility was essential,That
and is not translated from 'Das Rheingold.'
the verses were written with a 'snap' that fell in Nein,
with mein Herr! It is from 'The Circle of Loda,'
Sullivan's particular idiom. written by George Meredith's father-in-law, one T. L.
Peacock,
In opera the chief technical difficulty is to evolve a and dates from I8oI. Here is another:
drama that moves slowly, with its emotional moments Alas,
strung together, along with the cumulative development fast fading hour,
of the music-requirements absolutely the opposite of O dark despair !
the spoken play, as different as forked lightning fromLet gloom gulf all the world, ye gods of death,
a furnace fire. For dead ye are.
The author must disabuse his mind of the idea that That dates from 1915.
his text will be a pleasure to read, if he writes These phrases are quoted purely as examples of
orchestrally. The essentially audible parts must beword-themes that have accented syllables and rounded
written like telegrams. Let me give an example: vowels that are consonant and sonorous.
Dark and Words suggest instrumentation. See the text of
Stark and 'Tristan,' opening of Act 3, and observe the scoring
of the words ' Kurwenal,' 'Kareol,' &c.
strong
The original Wagner texts are full of them,
Tintagel Castle
stands.
especially 'Die Walkiire.'
But Wagner's own method was such, that, whenever
What the audience actually hears is: 'Dark 'n, he varied a theme, it became a tag, or 'visiting card,'
stark 'n, strong, Tintage '1 Cas.. '1 stands.' as Debussy calls it, by association with an object such
That is to say, they get what I call the 'telegram,' as a sword. But where the motives originate with the
and the music gives them the poem. The function of words a far greater variety is possible, while retaining
the poet is to provide the emotional opportunity, the the same music, appropriately varied in instru-
telegraphic messages, and for the composer to hatch mentation. Here, for instance, is a variation on the
them out. phrase quoted above:
Take a more or less symphonic interlude in opera Let light gleam o'er the wold, O breath of dawn,
or oratorio where the composer wants to express sea The light of day.
birds whirling round the rocks. He can get the swirl I leave it to each composer to recall, if he can, the
of the sea, the aeroplanic whirr of the winging fowl,
process by which melodic ideas or harmonic treatment
and their raucous cries, but the chorus must infuse came
or into being. When Poe wrote of the 'glory that
'chip in'the words, 'sea birds' . . .' whirling' .
'wheeling' . and the old device of 'closed lips,' * See also 'The Growth of British Repertory,' October, 9I95.

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 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-SEPTEMBER I, 1916. 403

was Greece' and 'the grandeur that was Rome' Schdnberg went a-sailing, and he himself may possibly
almost the same ideation must have been at work as have now abandoned hope of obliterating Bach,
the pom-pom-ic impulse that moved Bantock to
Beethoven, and Wagner. Though an extreme case,
compose the music of 'Some for the glories itofis this a salutary warning not to waste time in argument,
world' in his 'Omar.' One can hear almost Keats's or in the words of the apostle, 'be no more tossed to
'magic casement' opening, and imagine how and frotowith
hisevery wind of doctrine.'
inner ear there came the 'wauning' and 'ripple' of with Mr. Colles's statement that 'no
In connection
seas faery and perilous. And while we muse theme, (i.e.,
however rhythmic, will appeal as a melody
prepare and attune ourselves to compose)unless therethe is amind can correlate it to some previously-
gap of silence, a loneliness that is the invisible comprehended scheme of tonality and harmony,' some
companion of beauty. In such moments either poet or quotations from a letter 15 years old will, I think,
be acceptable. It was written (June 2, 1765) by
composer equally may develop musical ideas, incapable
of verbal expression, until conference has taken place.Benjamin Franklin to the Scottish judge, Lord Kames.
This need for expression may take the form of ' WhatIn it he explains the scheme of tonality and harmony
on earth am I to say here ?' Whether an idea comes on which the old Scotch songs are based. He, however,
as a vision or as a joke, first in music or first in scene
first expresses regret
or words, only conference can make it useful. The that Kames in his 'Elements of Criticism' did
worst that can happen to a libretto is that it should be
complete in itself, and then be subjected to a sort of not fully examine the subject of music, and show
vivisection. Conference is the only hope of opera.
how the pleasure artists feel in hearing much of
There is another way. In the 'Omar Khayyam' that composed in the modern taste is not the
pleasure arising from melody or harmony, but
aforesaid the composer unpicks the silken quatrains of
Persian Omar and Suffolk Fitzgerald, and weaves a of the same kind with the pleasure we feel on
rug which has the rich colours of the East. The seeing the surprising feats of tumblers and rope-
result is good because there is unity. But as a rule dancers who execute difficult things.
the use of regular sets of verses results either in sing-
Many modern pieces are to Franklin 'mere
song or the destruction of the poem's beauty. When
composition of tricks,' and he adds, 'People who
one thinks of the regularity of 'John Gilpin ' one really
listen to such music disdain a plain old Scotch tune.'
wonders how the bottle-necks got broken. But if our
Every age has its pieces consisting of mere tricks,
good friend Mr. Holbrooke set it, there would be no
but even the good modern music of Franklin's day was
doubt about it. John would beat the Valkyries. based on a scheme which he did not understand, one
What I have written applies equally to the more orin which there was art as well as nature, though
less robust type of opera that we need. Musical Polixenes, in 'The Winter's Tale,' tells of an art:
comedy is largely written on the stage. Comedy
opera needs formal treatment, but also suggestion and Which does mend nature-change it rather ; but
discussion. Pace Wagner no man has yet lived, nor The art itself is nature.
(with deference to Dr. Smyth) woman either, who could
double the parts of author and composer. Franklin continues as follows :

The reason why the Scotch tunes have lived so

long, and will probably live for ever (if they
escape being stifled in modern affected ornament),
MELODY AND MODERN MUSIC. is merely this, that they are really compositions
of melody and harmony united, or rather that their
BY J. S. SHEDLOCK. melody is harmony. * And then he adds :
To the sane remarks of Mr. H. C. Colles on Now the construction of the old Scotch tunes is
the above subject I should like to add something
this, that almost every succeeding emphatical note
concerning a few of his statements, also to refer
is a 3rd, a 5th, an 8'", or in short some note that is
to an interesting and unfamiliar letter. Mr. Colles
in concord with the preceding note. Thirds are
does not believe-and I agree with him-that chiefly used, which are very pleasing concords. I
the question whether the lines of the post- use the word emnhatical to distinguish those notes
impressionists are worth working on can be settled bywhich have a stress laid on them in singing the
any dogmatic expression of opinion. Such a coursetune, from the lighter connecting notes, that serve
would lead to argument-i.e., to a cul de sac. The merely like grammar articles in common speech
theorising and arguing of Wagner only provoked to tack the whole together.
opposition and deepened prejudice. His music,
however, once the new in it had become fairly After some remarks on the power of memory, he
familiar, began to make a strong appeal. But to go
explains the circumstances under which the old Scotch
further back. The famous false relation in Mozart's tunes were composed, namely,
Quartet in C, which roused the anger of Sarti, and
e . . by the minstrels of those days to be played
the opening of Beethoven's first Symphony,onwere the harp accompanied by the voice. The
contrary to long-established rules and in that sense
harp was strung with wire (which gives a sound
new. Had these composers announced that all of rules
long continuance) and had no contrivance,
were fetters, and deliberately tried to shake them off,
like that of modern harps, by which the sound of
they themselves would soon have been forgotten.
the preceding could be stoppt the moment a
But only when the daitowv within prompted defiance
succeeding note began. It was therefore necessary
of rule and custom did they forsake the beaten path.
Again, Mr. Colles says: 'Our tonal sense has that the succeeding emphatic note should be in
concord with the preceding, as their sounds must
changed from that of 350 years ago; it may change exist at the same time. Hence arose that beauty
again, or, at any rate, expand to a wholly unexpectedin those tunes that has so long lived, and will
dimension.' Judging the future by the past, there please
is for ever, though men scarcely know why.
surely every reason to expect further evolution on
similar lines. 'The post-impressionist,' continues the
*Franklin defines melody and harmony thus: 'In common
writer, 'wants neither: he wants it to be abandoned,
acceptation indeed only an agreeable succession of sounds is called
obliterated.' Perilous was the sea of sound on which Melody, and only the co-existence of agreeing sounds, Harmony.'

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