Modern Song Writers. I. Robert Franz Author(s): Fr. Niecks Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 25, No. 491 (Jan. 1, 1884), pp. 5-10 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3356895 . Accessed: 22/12/2014 07:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 07:53:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL 5 TIMES.-JANUARY I, 1884. the feelings of others. More than nine-tenthsof our THE MUSICAL TIMES modern music (dramatic and symphonic music in- is All that in dramatic music is AND SINGING-CLASS CIRCULAR. cluded) lyrical. not lyrical is a poor make-shift necessitated by the JANUARY i, 1884. requirements of the verbal language and the limita- tions of the musical language; and all that in sym- phonic music is not lyrical is merely accessory, or MODERN SONG WRITERS. ought to be so-as, for instance, that kind of tone- I.-ROBERT FRANZ. painting which we may distinguish by the epithet FR. NIECKS. "material." What constitutes the superiority of BY S. Bach's over those Fuchs, ROBERT FRANZ J. fugues by Kirnberger, occupies an altogether unique posi- and id omne? and and Albrechtsberger, genus Chiefly tion among composers, not only among com- the element with which he vivified the of his own time. There mainly lyrical posers probably never was formal structure,or rather out of which the formal a musician in the same measure endowed with the structure grew like a tree from a seed-corn, his creative faculty and equipped with the craftsmanship the rich soil which nourished of personality being it. his art who like him confined the exercise of his Unless the artist infuses some of his best blood into to so narrow a of action. powers sphere Excepting his work his assiduities and ingenuities avail him a a for chorus and solo Kyrie cafpella four-part voices, naught or little. Indeed, wherever we findreal great- a of the Psalm a for setting Ii7th cappella eight-part ness of any kind, enduring power, there we findalso double chorus, and twelve vocal quartets (six for a close connection between the artist and the male and six for mixed his voices), original com- man. Hence it cannot but be always profitable to with which the has positions public been made inquire as far as possible into the life-circum- consist of for one acquainted entirely songs voice stances, actions, sayings, and mental experiences with pianoforte accompaniment. But as a song com- of an artist. In the case of Robert Franz this is his fruitfulnesshas been such as to be sur- poser especially interesting, as he gives so much of passed only by Franz Schubert,':-for the number of and subordinates the artist his himself, so entirely published songs exceeds 250. Nor is it quantity to the his and in the alone man, techniquebeing solely which distinguishes his achievements in min- most literal sense a means of to expression. Though strelsy. According the almost unanimous opinions the facts which I have been able to cull of the ablest and the biographical judges noblest of his brother- here and there fromthis and that publication * are he ranks with the artists, indisputably foremost in insufficientfor a finishedportrait, they go far towards this branch of the art-with Franz Schubert and supplying the needful material for an outline Robert whose Christian names sketch Schumann, curiously that may serve as a key to not a few peculiarities of enough coincide respectively with his Christian this mode of and name and I composer's feeling workmanship. surname. shall not attempt to charac- Robert Franz was born at Halle, the of Robert Franz birthplace terise by epigrams and antitheses. Handel, on 28, 1815. He himself relates that and antitheses are June Epigrams false even when true-- his firstmusical impression, of which, as he was then true to those who have a full of only knowledge the only two years of age, he has naturally only a very men and in and view things question them from the faint recollection, coincided with the ter-centenary same standpoint, false to every one else. Moreover, commemoration of the Reformation. " Also in Halle it would hardly be possible to find a subject less fit the festival was observed with and I for great solemnity, epigrammatic and antithetic treatment than our I hear as if in a dream, the sounds of a For imagine yet, composer. though he possesses a distinct in- trombone choir-which, as I of course after- of only dividuality-a style expression and a domain of wards learned, performed Luther's immortal hymn thought and feeling of his own-his excellence mani- ' Ein' feste ist unser fromthe fests itself not in Burg Gott'-descending glaring qualities, but in delicate towers of the principal church of the town." The harmonies and subtle gradations. most important of his early musical impressions work of art Every noteworthy embodies more or Robert Franz owed to his father,who occasionally less the of the artist: it personality is bone of his sang to his little ones his favourite religious hymns, flesh of his brain of his bone, flesh, brain ; the forms, and did so with a pure intonation and a proper and of the one passions, thoughts being reproduced accentuation of the quaint melodic graces fashionable in the other. Without a noble, without an interesting in his The children took so much pleasure a an youth. personality, noble, interesting work of art is im- in his singing that whenever he was in good humour The of an possible. qualities artist's work may be at they asked him to sing to them. This, however, he variance with those of his social acts-as he need was by no means always, or even frequently. Indeed, not, and indeed rarely does, express his whole self in he seems to have been a somewhat morose and unless art; but, they be mere shams, and conse- hard man; at all events a man devoid of of small sympathy quently value, they must correspond to with art, and shut in by the narrow horizon of the originals in his inward life. Even good formal (not inimical to music and the rest work practical. Though mechanical) requires ethical qualities: purity of the idle, beggarly sisterhood, he was yet the means in the work in the presupposes purity worker; strength of laying in his son's heart the foundation of the presupposes strength; delicacy, delicacy; and so on. love which afterwards produced such fruits. The of exquisite power music is commensurate with its lyrical None of the children listened, of course, to the contents. To be vital and effective the lyrical father's with more attention than little contents must be singing genuine, that is, must spring from Robert, who, now an old man, has some the artist's grown of personality. This, however, does not the tunes, with all the details of the rendering, still mean that he has to always express his individual ringing in his ears. For the furtherdevelopment of his own and woes. feelings, joys Nothing could be the germ thus involuntarily implanted nothing was fartherfrom the truth. Nay, it means that he must to be hoped for fromthe father,who, moreover, took have sensibility, and a capacity for sympathy, as even less pleasure in occupying himself with his otherwise he cannot truly understand and interpret " " * Franz Liszt's Robert Franz "; A. W. Ambros' Robert Franz "; * In making this statement I second and third-rate Dr. H. M. Schuster's " Robert Franz A. Saran's " Robert Franz und ignore song "; " composers, and leave out of account those who, though once considered das deutsche Volks- und Kirchenlied "; R. Franz's OffenerBrief an first-rate,are now no longer in vogue-for instance, J. F. Reichardt. Eduard Hanslick," and "Mitheilungen iiberJ. S. Bach's Magnificat,"&c. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 07:53:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 6 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JANUARY I, 1884. grown-up children than with the little ones. That, himself and some of his fellow-students thought so however, Robert's general education was not ne- likewise, and formed a secret society at the meetings glected is sufficientlyproved by the fact that he was of which they cultivated music according to their sent firstto the Biirgerschuleof the Francke Institute, own fancy. Likely enough, therefore, that Franz and afterwardsattended the Latin school of the same was not a fcrsoiza grata with Schneider. There institute. In the singing lessons of the former he is now, and there has been for the last fifty drew upon himself many punishments by his attempts years, a great deal of nonsense talked about the at adding a second part to the unison performances pedantry of teaching. I say " nonsense " with a full of the class.