Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/636

One song of the very highest merit was written by Haydn. His national air, 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser,' is perfect of its kind.^[1] Simple and popular, yet breathing a lofty and dignified patriotism, it satisfies the severest standard of criticism. But it was a unique effort; none of his other songs approach within measurable distance of it. It was his habit to conceive them entirely from the instrumental point of view. As Schneider truly says, Haydn 'treats the vocal melody exactly as a pianoforte or violin motif, under which he places some words which only superficially agree in rhythm with the melody.'^[2] For Haydn's true lyrics we must turn (as Schneider bids us turn) to the andantes and adagios of his quartets and symphonies; just as we must study the great choral works of Bach and Handel if we would understand and appreciate the action of those great masters on the Song.

The versatility of Mozart's powers is visible in his songs. Some of them might be described as arias, and others as volksthümliche Lieder; some are lyrical, and others dramatic, and yet Mozart cannot be said to have impressed his own great individuality upon the Song. He was not at his best in that field. The least happy of his songs are those in which he set homely or thoroughly popular words to music: his genius lived too much in an ideal world for work of that kind. Thus in his 'Ich möchte wohl der Kaiser sein' the music ceases after the first bar to be volksthümlich. It was in the opera that he put forth his full strength, and his operatic songs often derive from their simple joyous melodies a truly popular character. Most of his songs are in the aria form, and their exquisite melodies almost obliterate such faults of accentuation as occur in the following example:—

The reader will observe what exaggerated emphasis the music puts upon such unimportant syllables of the verse as 'mal' and 'ge.' Mozart's masterpiece in the Song was 'Das Veilchen,' which he wrote to Goethe's words; and had he written other songs of like excellence, his position as a song-writer would have been more on a level with his unsurpassed fame in other branches of music. In 'Das Veilchen' he treats every detail independently. When the song passes from narrative to the violet's own utterance, the character of the music changes; and the accompaniment also supplies a vivid though delicate representation of the narrative, while the unity of the Song is never lost amid varieties of detail.^[3] For such minute painting in music the ordinary harmonic basis of tonic and dominant is not wide enough. Modulations into other keys are requisite. In this song, therefore, Mozart does not confine himself to the principal keys, G major and D major, but introduces the keys of G minor, E♭, and B♭ major, though without any change of signature. Neither does he pay much heed to a clear demarcation of the strophic divisions, which had hitherto been regarded as indispensable, but by the simple force of a homogeneous rhythm fully sustains the unity essential to lyric song. The very little that yet remained to bring this class of song to perfection was subsequently accomplished by Schubert.

Some of Beethoven's earlier songs—such as 'An einen Säugling,' 'Das Kriegslied,' 'Molly's Abschied,' and 'Der freie Mann'—are volksthümlich, and resemble Schulz's compositions. For the accompaniment they have the melody

1. For the origin of this see Haydn (vol. i. p. 714), and Emperor's Hymn.
2. See Schneider, 'Ges. d. Liedes,' vol. iii. p. 369.
3. For expositions of this song see Schneider, vol. iii. p. 290, and Reissmann, 'Ges. d. deut. Liedes,' p. 207.