The Great Composers. No. XV. Gluck Author(s): Christoph Willibald Gluck and Joseph Bennett Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 25, No. 497 (Jul. 1, 1884), pp. 389-392 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3357677 Accessed: 17-12-2015 09:32 UTC 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 129.82.28.144 on Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:32:56 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JULY I, 1884. 389 Rosa presents herself to Faust, but he is very cold to THE GREAT COMPOSERS her and sends her off in of the four unneces- charge BENNETT. saries, in order that he may have the whole street to BY JOSEPH himself while he sings a rather incoherent but No. XV.-GLUCK.* very brilliant and difficultscena, to the effect that All hailto thee,immortal Gluck! whose fame Admiring nations swell with one acclaim; he could be happy with either were t'other dear Whose genius, mocking death, shall soar sublime, charmer away, but the two are too much for him. Till the last period of recording time. One this is worth Matchless composer ! whose sweet strains disc!ose speech preceding really quoting :- Alceste's suffering-Iphigenia's woes- Faust (as he looks after the receding form of Cunegunda):-Ne'er Fair Helen's sorrows-andthe griefsthat melt hath the world beheld her compeer ! The memory of her fills up all O'er the sad tale of all fond Orpheus felt : my nature!-were I the Caesar over empires, they would prove but Whose wondrous genius, by all ranks adored, false coin wherewith to purchase her possession: Ha! in my soul The golden age of music has restored. there burns a fire she must quell; and shall I pit my copper penny Oh i whilethe world shall harmonyrevere 'gainst this gold? yon boy is he her match ? it must not, shall not be! Thy name to music's votaries shall be dear; Scene shows us the in the Long shall her sons thy bust with laurels crown, 3 banqueting-hall palace Adorethy memory, cherish thy renown; of Count Hugo. The wedding breakfast is on hand, Andwhile all low-bornjealousies theyspurn, and the guests sing a bold chorus of a martial Worship the myrtles that o'ershade thy urn. character :- YRIARTE. THE time and place of Gluck's birth, and even his name, were for a long period as much a matter of dispute as the identity of the city which had the of Homer son. Down to the while and have a little love-duet. proud right calling year Hugo Cunegunda the master's were correct in the guests are and his 1832 biographers nearly Among Faust unnecessaries, their facts and Forkel's Lexicon states that besides and for no obvious figures. Mephisto, Franz, Rosa, Gluck was born in in the on the reason as a so the invitations must 1714, Palatinate, disguised boy, frontiersof Bohemia but in his work on have been sent out rather the ; Lipowsky, recklessly. During the musicians of while as to the dance which a Bavaria, agreeing wedding follows, graceful Polonaise, as A Faust makes violent love to the subdued Palatinate, gives the date February 14, i712. bride, who, Bohemian Father who a his offers but faint resistance. priest, Dlabacz, published by magic powers, book of statistics his native came The wizard becomes so demonstrative that concerning country, Hugo, nearer the truth than either. He the of warned sees what is and gives place by Mephisto, going on, Rosa birth as in the and the too. There is a and Faust Weidenwang, Palatinate, year quarrel. Hugo fight, as that the father of Gluck while the four minions in check all the 1714, adding Christoph keep guests was a in the of Prince Lobkowitz. who seek to runs Faust head-keeper employ interfere; Cunegunda away; The same who seems to have been a who is in and Dlabacz, pains- brutally repulses Rosa, despair; Hugo makes a fuller statement in his falls beneath his a wild taking author, opponent's sword, during historisches Kiinstler- Lexikon chorus of "Allgemeines fiir dismay. that the famous musician had From this scene we are taken to the B6hmen "; asserting thrilling a second Christian name, Willibald; and that he Hartz Mountains a scene intro- again, apparently was born on his father's name duced for the sake of who has had but July 4, 1714; being Mephiistopheles, Alexander and his mother's Walburga. With this little, as yet, to do. He sings an Aria, over gloating the world was satisfied till, in 1832, the priest of ruin,in which the voice part is so Faust's persistently Neustadt, a village on the Bohemian frontier,dis- kept to the bass or middle of the harmony-according to the old custom-that it has little or no interest. covered in the parish register an entryrelating to the baptism of Christoph Gluck under date i1oo. The The witches then come on, and renew their dance record ran thus: and chorus, which was not worth repeating. "25 martii anno 17oo00 baptizatus est a me M. The last scene is in Faust's house. Cunegunda is Andrea co-operator, Christophorus, in despair, consequently she dresses in black, lets Dozier, Joannes Adami Gluck, venatorii aulici, et Annme her hair down, and sings a most exhausting scena. Joannis Catherinae filiuslegitimus, tenante Domino To her enters Rosa, and the two quarrel. Faust now praenobili finds himself in difficulties. Rosa rushes off and Joanne Christophoro Pfreimbderde Bruckenthurn et Alstensteinreith." commits suicide, Cunegunda tries to stab him, his The father, jealous for the honour of his minions inform him that justice is on his track for good village, lost no time in making his discovery known. the murder of Hugo, and finally de- Mephistopheles For a while it obtained credence, and, as late as 1836, clares that his time is up. On hearing of his true Lewald, in his journal, Europa, referred to it in position, all flee in terror from him; the room be- terms of faith. The new date, however, comes a yawning gulf of flame, into which the sinner perfect involved some difficulties; amongst others that the is dragged by a chorus of demons, while Mephisto master was years old when he exults. The long concerted piece which composes eighty-two brought out his last opera. But it is useless to argue on such this scene is of small musical interest, though the conclusion has some grounds against a parish register, and Neustadt power. have on an honour due else- It is how can have ac- might gone enjoying really astonishing Spohr where had not Alois a singer in the such a mass of as this libretto. It Fuchs, Imperial cepted absurdity at collected some documents is a chaotic of unconnected melo- Chapel Vienna, very heap totally germane to the issue, and had not Anton Schmid (in dramatic incidents, no part of which "yearns for musical expression"; on the contrary,the musical his " Christoph Wilibald Ritter von Gluck. Dessen Leben und tonkinstlerisches Werken" Leipzig, 1854) numbers seem, one and all, dragged in by the heels. * If " Euryanthe" and " Genoveva" have failed be- proved the actual facts to demonstration. Schmid cause of their bad librettos, it is inconceivable that puts in evidence five documents: first, a baptismal " Faust," however charming some of the music, register, discovered at Weidenwang in 1842, bearing should have survived its first performance. And we date July 4, 1714; second, the certificate of Gluck's cannot consider it Spohr's best work either, his next marriage with Marianne Pergin (September 15, 1750); effort," Zemire und Azor " is far superior in merit, * Under the original idea of this series the few extant letters of having really not a weak number in it, a thing which Gluck were considered in a single article (MUSICAL TIMES, December, no one dare assert of " Faust." i88o). The more extensive plan subsequently adopted enables us now to deal with the master's interesting career from beginning to end.- (To be continucd.) J.B. This content downloaded from 129.82.28.144 on Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:32:56 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 390 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JULY I, 1884. third, a " certificate of existence " delivered to the ment of general knowledge, music being in some master in 1785 by the Marquis de Noailles, French sort a relaxation, or, at most, a second study. He Ambassador at Vienna; fourth, the register of was taught the violin, clavecin, and organ, and sang Gluck's death (November 15, 1787), and, last, his regularly in the choir at the church of St. Ignatius. genealogical tree, compiled with infinite care and Beyond this, little or nothing is known regarding the research. The " certificate of existence," which was six years at Kommatau. Probably, if all could be required in order that Gluck might receive some ascertained, it would not amount to much, for the money coming to him from the French King, ran as precocity of the " wonder-child" was withheld from follows:- young Gluck.