WHY NOT SCHUBERT?

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18419, 27 June 1925, Page 13

WHY NOT SCHUBERT?

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

(STECIALLS WEITTEX FOE "THS PBXSS.")

[By J.D.]

It has been good to see in recent concert programmes a. return to the songs of Schubert. In the little volume on Schubert , ("Mastersof Music,"'Vol. 32), recently published by Theodore Gerold, the writer lays stress on the fact that in the song Schubert reaches the climax of his art. Such masters • as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart used the song-form—and, as may be expected, used it supremely well —but when Schubert's Songs appeared —and unfortunately they were not appreciated in his day, nor for many decades after it—-they showed a range, a variety, a depth of beauty for above his predecessors: it wasnot until Schubert that the Lied reached its highest felicity and perfection—a perfection which may have been matched in his successors Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Wolf, but which has never been, and may never be, excelled. It is, a matter for keenest regret that the standard of our vocal music should fall so much lower than music for the pianoforte: for instance, we are accustomed to hearing on the piano such masters as Beethoven, Bach, Schumann, Chopin, Lizst, but when we come to vocal music, the falling off is pitiable. "We arc the saccharine and sickly melodies of the present day, the favourites of an hour, lasting only while their brief fashion lasts, rather than t V timeless and ageless songs of the great classical composers, songs which are an earnest expression of life rather than the flippant and meaningless evasions of it.

.It is a melancholy thought that Heine's did not appear until towards. the close of Schubert's life: some of his finest.achievements in song were composed to the verses of Heine. Here, in the romantic Heine, ' may well he the spirit of Schubert expressed in words, the early Schubert, before; the • glooms of. disappointment and;ill-health had finally engulfed him: "The earth opened her blue eyes; from 'her bosom there sprang forth ambrqus flowers and tuneful woods, the palaces .of nightingales. All nature laughed, and her mirth was spring. Then in me also a new spring awoke: new flowers budded'in my heart: sensations of'liberty blossomed, forth like rosea arid. secret longings, like-early violets, springing up between many. a useless nettle.", "What perennial magic- there is in Schubert, those spontaneous snatches of. song, . those undying lyrics, crystal-clear, drenched in tendernfess, dim. with'tears, bathed in morning dew, fragrant with tho perfume of flowers, singing' of • bubbling brooks and azure skiesr redolent of pine-woods -md rushing ,torrents and tJje fury of"-sudden stprms, the.storms that attack Nature, the' storms that assail the heart. Such melody, s&eer, pellucid melody, the w r or!d had never. known before this heaven-storming singer gave to us, his > matchless songs. Probably no more lyrical soul ever found utterance: certain it is, none conceived with such consummate'ease: the melodies seem to stream from bis glowing fancy ; '.'As effortless- as woodland nooks Ssnd violets up and paint thorn blue." -He- covers everything in his almost - Titanic scope from:ainaive little cbn,l eeit like ."Hedge-roses" (so like a folk- . song in its extreme.simplicity) to-stu-pendous creations like the "Erl-King." ( '- This, song, composed when he was but eighteen; has beenclaimed as the great- ; cpt of all sonfs —indeed, in its magni- * tilde of • design, it is almost a song- ■', drama. There, is in it a force and fervour -almost overwhelming, and who ■. ainoriguscould listen to the hammering triplets of the.bass unmoved? Another '' song, ,which for a certain massiveuess of. theme and structure approaches "The Erl-King" is "A Group in Tartarus," impressive in the hoarse, muttering thunder of the accompaniment, in the chromatic rise, semi-tone semi-tone until it piles up into a structure truly formidable, the end.of the song foreshadowing the curious modern toneeffects in use to-day. Schubert excels in

moods of the wild, wayward storm such as you find in "The Young Nun," "My Abode." "A Stormy Morning," "Kest-< less Love" (surely composed at the white heat of ecstasV!). and the song "Above Wildemann, ' beginning with ' such, magnificent' venve —

"The winds are roaring in tho pine-woods deep,' ' , The foaming " streams thro the valley sweep."

."Who Bings this most extraordinary and electrifying song battles with tho .* very elements; but in all its wild exaltation there is an undertone of sadness '-4n "Courage" there is a similar mood, an impetuous defiance which seems to dispel, but cannot entirely conceal, gloom. There was never to be ' ease, never to bo rest for that stormy Schubert can be marvellously realistic, and it a literal and dull transcription, but rather a realism which approaches the impressionistic jnethbd. In '' The Hurdy-Gurdy Man the -drone-basa is. repeated incessantly throughout the whole song, producing aa effect.of quiet and wistful pathos. One is made to feel the lot of the poor liurdy-gnrdy man standing shivering m ■ the cold, with no one "to put a penny . ■ imhis little plate." The fluttering of the leaves is delicately conveyed m "The Linden Tree." And note the whirring, monotonous figure of tho accompaniment of "Gretchen at the Spin-ning-Wheel" (it is almost inconceivable ' that this mature conception should have been composed in Schubert's early ''■ teens!): note how, when she is over- -' come with'emotion, Gretchen gradually '■' breaks, off her spinning. There ".s -genius in. the way-Schubert uses this -j.break—how it is made to enhance the i monotonous whirring of the wheel, ' - which continues to the end.' 1 And who knows so well how to render the rippling unsteadiness of water r ;_«Tb>be Sung on the Water" posi- : ';v«tively scintillates? It .is so with aU his Vater-songs: to mention a few, there C is: his "Whither," so joyous-hearted .-and happy, gushing and. bubbling like :'■ the brook itself. "Fisher-ways" also '/■ : - expresses Schubert at his. gayest r na .lightest, and there ia the most poetical >. tand delicate "Love's,Message,''wher'K■■■■ again. the accompaniment is the broo*. M '%' the Sea" represents m : iolusVost exalted and. spiritual flights. CThe opening chords (which »*»-clos. S at once suggest the dept* ox which the song « ™ nc *} v ™' :Sl^i ß ~one: of the greatest songs ofjhe S|; fi ea, indeed, one of .tho e™*™ Sfsongs, having a beauty almost unm**mi: "The Town" (which s water or boating too) is the profundity of the lab. next column.)

song's; and singularly moving is the recurring broken chord. ■ Schubert understands the clouds more than the sunshine: .Schumann's songs are full of the brooding, melancholy of the poetical temperament, but Schumann found'love'and happiness in life, and it is reflected in his lovely songs—while to Franz Schubert, it was decreed that he should find-neither: and the question :he was always asking of life, the Divine hunger he was for ever doomed to feel: .wails-for ever through his.'.'ongs. So thai he understands lest the tueines that are quietly and irremediably sad: is there anything, so plaintive, so exquisite in its plaintiveness as "The Rose," the rose that dies lintimely while yet it is a bud* and praises life in dying. .In " The Bose '' he modulates from major to minor key, concluding with much subtlety on the major key. (Hib modulations of key are ■ frequent and - always a delighj;, - being. skilfully employed to indicate the . slightest change in mood.) Even in thejbappiest of. his moods there breaks in tho minor chord, the hopeless, unnnswerable question. The unsatisfied longing which was always to be his breathes pnignantlv (even in the lightest, even in the wildest) .through all his Lieder. It is no more strongly felt than in the noble "Wanderer" with its concluding words —

"There where thou art not, Deepest-joy dwells there";

in "Spring's yearnings," which ends on a question —

"And each finds the goal of his longing in sight, but thou?";

in the concluding mournful cadence o* "The Stream" —

"But my joy on earth I find not."

It is ' a story of unfulfilment, but wedded to such perfect art, an d such a power of emotion that his songs will .live, for ever. V>g look in vain for humour m the Schubert Lieder— gaiety there may ; be. cut ot humour the humour that so abounds in Schumann's songs—never a trace: '.it© left on him too deep a mark. But every cfiga of suffering he has known, so th'-vt-*l»e' remains unsurpassed for tha iioe D elegiac and spiritual note he touches m many of his songs-such a* "Death and the Maiden," "My* Phantom Double," "Who Ne'er His Bread with Tear-Drops Ate " "The Inn, "\tlas," so tragic and dark —the nnai nhrase' "The weighty world of sorrows is my burden" ends in a-n agony ot woe. "What/more poignant"than that terrihle upper F flat! ' It is a tragic. thought that Schubert lived poor, -lonely, unknown, unrecognised practically friendless and loveless, died at 31! ; But out of his suffering he made his songs. He lies beside . the great. Beethoven, who said D f him before he died: "Truly he has the divine spark!'? • < ....-■