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Lea diagrammes suivants iiluatrent la m^thoda. rata 3 elure, a 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 A PLEA FOR THE STUDY OF CLASSICAL jmCAL MUSIC. BY CHAS. E. SAUNDERS, PH.D. [Reprinted from the Canadian Society of Musicians' Report for 1895]. >F all musical 'nstruments (among v;hich we may include the human voice) the piano has probably the largest number of students at the present time. Next tc the ?^ piano in this respect comes the voice. But while vocal music is not perhaps very far behind in regard to the number of students, it can scarcely have escaped the notice of any thoughtful musician that in regard to the quality of the music generally studied, there is an enormous gap between these two branches of the art. This sad condition of afifairs is by no means confined to one city or to one countx-y, yet it is in its local aspect that we are chiefly c\ .\ .erned with it How often we see, in students' recitals, piano compositions by Beethoven Mozart and Chopin associated with songs by Mascheroni, Clay' De Koven and Jordan. I do not mean tc imply that such musicians as these have written no good songs (that being a question I do not wish to discuss at present), nor do I mean that we never hear, at our students' concerts, any vocal music by other and more important composers ; but the point I wish to emphasize is this : that the best vocal music— the music that corresponds to the piano compositions of Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin— is rarely heard. Let anyone look over a few pro- grammes of our ordine.y students' recitals, audit will at once be clear how rarely the songs of Schubert and Schumann, for instance, find a place upon them. I refer to these masters in particular because they have perhaps given us a larger number of really fine songs than any other two composers. The peculiarity of the present custom of combining serious piano music with trivial vocal music will become more striking if we consider how curious a programme would seem if con- structed on the opposite principle, with vocal numbers by Han- del, Schubert and Schumann, relieved of their supposed severity by piano compositions by Schulhoflf, Mills and Sidney Smith. Such a programme would meet with ridicule on all sides and yet would be no more absurd than many of those performed at th-: present time. 3 in sellT^^rT'" "^"^ f"^ P^^^^y J'"""'^ ^"-^ P^ftJy wofse than P n iJ- ^ f ' speaking only of solos, and shall not refer to the question of anthems . Thanks to the good old English radmons. we have Handel with us on many occasions, and he sa tov/er of strength. But. when we leave him. in o what mul r if 'r' T "'" °^^^" P^""^^^- P^^h^P^ iow.class sac ed music IS not really any poorer than the same type of secular t^hl'i;^"^'"'^' ' ■'' ^'^^"^^ ^° ''' ^^"^ it -«"1J be-but ft cer. taiPly is more irritating, more oF nsive to good taste, because we expect something refined and elevating in connexion wih TLtT u"'nT . ^^^^^ ^ ^•^^"^^ it i^ that the worship of th. Almighty should be desecrated with such sacrilegious trash a^ Lnd''' Tt° H too well-known) solos, •' Hosanrfa in Excelsis/ waltz r^iin ^ '^' °' " ^'^'^'^'^ ^"^ ^ts ill-disguised I cannot, of course, in the short time at my disposal, discuss all the reasons why the standard of vocal music is so low-so much lower than that of piano music. I merely wish to call hi I!. •°"^°'' two points, concerning which there seems to ,Lfn7 .^"^^""f^'-^tanding. It can scarcely be that, when pmnoplaytng and mus,c cite, taught together, it is impossible for sijinc/and music to be taught together also, unless we adopt -^^P^^hoH " '^T^^^ ^^^'^ advanced, that the Creator never frJSno ^^^°°'^ ''°'^- 'v? ^'^i"' to one individual. So dis- r.,.1. ^. f.i^ '^ "°^ ^'^^^y to be considered a satisfactory explanation of the existing conditions, and I shall therefore pro- ceed to discuss one or two objections sometimes urged by mnSi '^f K^iTT^^"^ ^^^i"'t the study of classical vocal music. The belief that these objections are valid no doubt of affairs ^° ^ ''^'^^'" ^''*^"^' *^^ P''^^^"t unhappy state It IS claimed that classical vocal music is very poorly auapted to the human voice or, to express the idea in another form, that t IS less truly vocal than music of a lower grade. This obiec tion IS not altogether unfoun^ d, but even after we have set aside all the good vocal music which is not well suited to any of the ordinary types of voice, there still remains a great mass of material against which this objection cannot be urged, and even those pieces we have rejected will occasionally prove useful for pupils whose voices possess some unusual characteristics This difficulty cannot therefore be considered as having any weiijht ■ when urged against classical music as a whole. -Another objection sometimes brought is this : that most of the classical vocal music is written to foreign words and that translations are exceedingly unsatisfactory. To this several replies may be made. While admitting that'many of the English 3 translations are very poor, so poor in some cases as to be posi- tively offensive, it should not be forgotten that the words of many of our inferior En;^iish songs are quite a^ silly as the translations usually attached to foreign classical music. So that the objection holds good to a certain extent against both classes^ and merely serves to bring out this point : that no song should be given tc a pupil until the wordi, have been carefully examined and, if necessary, altered. and '• Roses culld at night by the darksome wayside Breath'd me sweeter baim than they e'er by day sighed!" "Yet in spirit stirr'd thou like yonder bowers Weptest dewy showers." are sufficiently impotent couplets and represent about the lowest ebb which translations ever reach, the second couplet being rendered particularly absurd by the fact that the music allows not the slightest pause after the word /liou but connects it with like. Yet, after all, is not such a translation preferable to the marvellous foolishness of or " O my love I lov'd her so, My love that lov'd me years ago ; " " When hollow hearts shall wear a mask 'Twill break your own to see?" It is clear that classical music is by no means alone in sometimes offering undesirable words to the English vocalist. As a second, and more nearly complete answer to the objec- tion we are now considering against classical music, I claim that in nearly every case it is possible to obtain good transla- tions of foreign words. In oratorios, especially, vve have trans- lations so admirable that in many cases it is difficult to realize that the original words were m a foreign tongue. In secular music good translations do not perhaps always stare us in the face when we enter a music store, and in some instances it may even be a difficult matter to find them. We may be obliged to search, to select, and to prune before a good translation is obtained. But this should be no serious obstacle. We are not supposed to be teaching singing because it is easy, and no diffi- culties should be able to deter us from doing our utmost for our pupils. But there may be some teacher or vocalist who says : " I object to translations on principle, no matter how good they may seem to be." What answer can be given to this ? I 4iould be inclined, first of all, to question closely to see whethei even such a musician IS really consistent in his opposition lo tranclations. I should ask whether, if he t.aches operatic music, he always insists that the original French text shall be used in sS selections as the P.ge's song from " Les Hugueno/s"" he -Shadow Song " from the opera commonly called " Dinorah," the ana " O mon Fernand " from " La Favorite.'" and the numerous selection ■ often given from Gounod's "Faust" Or does he not occasionally allow an Italian translation to be sun- !nst3ad of he original words, a translation mvolving sometimes considerab'. alteration .f " . .r.u- c ; Th. u.e of I translatTon trom one loreign language into another can scarcely be defended under any circumstances. If there are any who rigorously exclude translations I should Fnll i"'' '"^""°" '° ''^^ ^"^* '^'^' ^h^^^ '^ - f^'^ ^'"0"nt of linglish vocal music worthy of the name of classical, but which IS much neglected. Even here we are not living up to our highest privileges. And f..rther, it seems clear that all pupils expecting to take up vocai music as a profession, should obtain a working knowledge of at least iwo foreign languages, and enthusias ic or specially gifted amateurs should do the same This would make the field of good music much broader for these students, without the use of translati-jns The teacher himself should, of course, have sufficient knowledge of Italian l^rench and German to be abie to correct any ser.ous defects of pronunciation in his pupils. I trust I have been able to make it clear in these rather dis- connected remarks that there is no good reason for neglecting the study of the best vocal music. The advantages of such study need not be mentioned. I do not mean to advise the teaciiing of classical music exclusively. Beginners and such advanced pupils as are ignorant of rood music must be led upward gradually, but as rapidly as their development will allow lo give to an ignorant pupil onlj such music as he is not yet able to see the beauty of might, in some cases, be fatal to his progress. Yet we owe it both to our pupils and to ourselves to make classical music our chief study, to aim to be not merely singing teachers but musicians as well, unwilling to stand second to even the best of our pianists in earnest effort for the progress of our art.