179.—RAPID COMPOSITION.
There are many instances of rapid work on the part of the great composers; and their facility and quickness of composition causes great wonder and admiration. But our admiration is often misdirected. When we hear of some of the speedy writing of great works by Mozart or Mendelssohn we are apt to think that this speed was of the composing powers as well as of pen, but, in fact, such was seldom the case. These great musicians generally did their composition mentally without reference to pen or piano, and simply deferred the unpleasant manual labor of committing their music to paper until it became absolutely necessary. Then they got credit for incredible rapidity of composition. But it is no light matter to quickly and correctly pen a lung and complicated composition. One has only to copy a piece of music or to try to put into notes some piece of music previously memorized, to realize this. And then, when the instrumentation of a composition for twenty-five different kinds of orchestral instruments is considered, the arranging of the bars and the writing of the numerous signs of expression, the manual labor becomes no insignificant task. It is no infrequent thing to find over two hundred notes in a single measure of a full orchestral score.
While many shorter things, such as overtures, might be fully arranged in mind before touching pen to paper, that cannot be said of the larger works. In these, composition and writing probably went, to some extent, hand in hand.
That enormous work of Händel's, the oratorio, "Israel in Egypt," he wrote in the space of twenty-seven days; while that greatest of oratorios, the "Messiah," he composed in the remarkably short time of twenty-three days! The opera, "Rinaldo," Händel wrote in just two weeks.
Mendelssohn wrote his overture to "Ruy Blas" in two days. He was waited upon by a committee two days before the concert at which "Ruy Blas" was first given, and in the course of their remarks they said that owing to the lateness of the day they could not expect him to write an overture. This rather nettled Mendelssohn, and although he had another concert and rehearsals to attend in the intervening two days, he was ready with the "Ruy Blas " overture when the time arrived.
But few wrote music more rapidly than Mozart. The overture to "Don Giovanni" he wrote in one night, working with but slight intermission until seven next morning. He had it all arranged in mind, but had put off the writing until the last moment. That night the orchestra played it at sight. He composed the G major symphony in ten days; but a greater feat than this was the writing of the whole of the "Marriage of Figaro" in the month of April, 1786. The finale of the second act of this opera he wrote in one day, and that while he was so ill as to fall fainting from his chair ere it was finished.
But for rapid composition the palm must perhaps be awarded to the Italian composer, Coccia; for of him it is recorded, that he composed the opera of "Donna Caritea" in six days. This opera was first performed in Turin in 1818. But such rapidity cannot be conducive of valuable works unless it be by much greater composers than was Coccia.