109.—MODULATIONS.
One prominent point of difference between the old classic and the modern schools of operatic composition is in the matter of modulation. The older writers, Mozart, Cimarosa, Spontini, et al, used comparatively few changes of key. The tonality was preserved, or on being departed from, was left in a formal and in a perfectly clear style.
But in the modern school, as represented by Wagner, Mascagni, and the older Verdi, abruptness of modulation is no rare thing. One of Wagner's theories was that a composer should not be confined to any given succession of keys, that he should be free to "swim in a sea of tone;" but many who have essayed this tonal sea have been drowned therein. Where Wagner could swim they could only flounder and sink.
In this modern school, changes in circumstances or plot of the opera are frequently accompanied by sudden modulations in key relationship, and often the composer does not wait for "something to happen," but changes his key at will, this being the theory of the new school.
As long ago as the time of Grétry, the French composer, the pros and cons of this subject were agitated.
A musician once asked him why he did not make use of some of those sudden transitions in key, and his reply was:—
"Some day I will give the public a taste of that sort of thing, but I must have my reasons for it."
"Oh, what are they?"
"Well, for example, suppose in the plot of the opera some amorous swain, in spite of a father's strict injunctions, should attempt to make love to a fair damsel,—if the father should steal on them unawares, and astonish our lover from behind with a hearty kick, then, I assure you, I will modulate very abruptly!"
Certainly the lover would think this good cause for a sudden change of base!