P Holman Divisions Difficulties MT 1996

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Divisions & DifficultiesAuthor(s): Peter HolmanSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 137, No. 1836 (Feb., 1996), pp. 19-21Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1003688

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Divisions

&

difficulti

In

1763

Boswell had 'relished he

music'.

By

1814

Jane

Austen

had

grown very

ired' f t.PETER

HOLMAN introduces

Thomas

Arne'sArtaxerxes.

THOMAS

rnewas one of the

great

ur-

vivors f

18th-century

heatrical

ife.His

career

eganbrilliantly.

n his

early

wen-

ties

he

put

on an

unauthorised

roduction

ofAcis ndGalatea

hat

rodded

andel nto

aking

English

eriously

s a

language

or heatrical

orks.

A

few

ears

ater

is

own

masques

omus

nd

Alfred

established

im s the

eading

omposer

f

English

theatre

music,

reputation

hatwas confirmed

y

the

delightful

ncidental usiche wrote

n

the

arly

1740s

for

hakespeare'slays;

his

settings

re still

the nesmost eople ssociatewith he yricsBlow,

blow

thouwinter

ind',

Where he

bee

sucks' nd

'Under

he

greenwood

ree'.

hereafter,

or

ne rea-

son

or

another,

rne

id

not have a

major

uccess

for

nearly wenty ears.

He

wrote

n immense

amount f heatre usic

f ll

types

uring

his

e-

riod,

utmost

f t

was

failurend

wasnever

rint-

ed,

nd

s

thereforeost

oday.

e

was

dogged y

his

quarrelsomeisposition,

hefailure

fhis

marriage

(his

wife

Cecilia

was

his

eading ady),

nd

his ten-

dency

o

write

is own ibrettos he wasnowriter.

By

he ate

1750s

he was short

f

money,

nd had to

resort o

publishing

omeof hemusic

he

had writ-

ten over he two

previous

ecades:

olumes f or-

chestralantatas, arpsichordonatas, rio onatas,

andthe cores f the

masquesAlfred,

ritanniand

Eliza

appeared

n

quick

uccession.

Thus,

he

evival fhisfortunestthe

beginning

of

he

next

ecade

s all themore emarkable.

hings

began

o

ook

up

in

1759,

whenhereceived doc-

torate

rom

xford

niversity,

nd he aunched

he

stage

career

of

his

pupil

and mistress harlotte

Brent.n the next hree

ears

he had three mash

hits

n a

row,

ach

n

original

asterpiece

hat

ffec-

tively

reated new

genre.

homas

nd

Sally,

ro-

duced

t

Covent

Garden n 28 November

760,

was

an imitation

f La

serva

adrona

nd the

other ll-

sung

talian

urlettas

hat

adbeen

presented

o suc-

cessfullyy

talian

roupes

ll overnorthern

urope

inthe

1750s;

t

was,

n

effect,

hefirst

nglish

om-

ic

opera,

with

ecitativesnstead f

poken

ialogue.

Artaxerxes,

roduced

t

CoventGarden

n2

Febru-

ary

1762,

was

the erious

quivalent

f

Thomas

nd

Sally:

t was the first

ttempt

o set a full-blown

opera

eria ibretto

n

English.

ove n

a

village, ro-

ducedon8 Decemberfthe ame

year,

as

equally

novel:

t

was

a modernised

allad

opera,

with

or-

rowed talian rias nd

pecially omposed

umbers

mixedwith raditionalolk

unes,

ll

orchestrated

n

an

up-to-date

anner.t

began vogue

or

astiche

comic

opera

with

poken

dialogue

hat

asted

well

into he

19th

entury.

The ibretto rne

hose

or

is

opera

eria

wasnot

new. ietroMetastasio rote is taleof

ove

nd

n-

trigue

t the Persian

ourt s

Artaserse

n

1729,

when

t

was set

by

Hasse

and

Vinci,

nd

it

subse-

quently

ttractedhe ttention

fmore han

wenty

composers,

ncluding

luck,Graun,

ommelli,

C

Bach,Cimarosa,

nd

Cherubini;

rne

robably

new

the Hasseversion, or twas given n London n

1754.

The

ibretto as

published

nonymously,

ut

ithas

been ssumed o

be

his

ownwork:

n

the

pref-

ace

the

uthor dmits hat

t s his first

ttempt

f

thekind' nd

defends

t

byquoting ryden:

no crit-

ic

can

ustly

etermine

hemerit r

difficulty

f

writ-

ing

a

poem

for

music,

illhe

has been

frequently

conversant

ith ome kilful

usician,

nd

cquired,

by experience,

knowledge

fwhat s

most

roper

formusical

xpression.'

t must

e said that his

id

not aveArne rom

number

f

tilted

assages,

ut

in

general

he

adapted

ibretto

'leaving

ut

many

beauties

n

thenarrative

art

f the

drama,

or

he

sake

of

brevity')

s aneffectiveehicle or

hemusic.

Artaxerxesas not come down to us

complete.

We arefortunatehat e

published

t n

full core

n

1762

vocal

score

was

becoming

henorm n

Eng-

land at

the

time),

ut the three

olumes

mit he

recitativesnd thefinal horus

which,

ollowing

opera

eria

ractice,

as

probably

ssentially

n en-

semble

fthe oloists. he

original erforming

a-

terialwas

apparently

ost

n

thefire

hat

estroyed

the

first oventGarden heatren

1808,

but since

the

pera

was still n

the

epertory,

he

young

enry

Bishop

made

new,

hortenedersion

n

1813,

nd

this

was

subsequentlyublished

n

vocal

score

by

John

ddison,

ho

provided

n

nvaluable

tage

is-

tory

f thework

n

the

preface.

ddison ncluded

Bishop's

nachronistic

ettings

f

part

ofthe final

chorus ndone ofthe

accompanied

ecitatives,

s

well

as

about

half

he

ecco ecitatives

equired

y

the

1762 ibretto.

ccording

o a

manuscript

n

the

library

f

the

RoyalCollege

f

Music,

ntitledThe

RecitativefArtaxerxess

compressed

nto

Two

Acts&

Arranged

or

Full

Orchestra',

ishop

lso

added

tring arts

o the ecco

ecitatives,

resum-

ably

ecause

y

1813

here

as

no

onger keyboard

instrumentvailable

n

the

pit

t CoventGarden.

Peter

olman's

reconstructionf

Artaxerxess

now

available

rom

Hyperion

(CDA67051/2)

with cast

nclud-

ing

Christopher

Robson,

an

Par-

tridge,

atricia

Spence,

ichard

Edgar-Wilson,Catherineott nd

Philippa yde,

nd

the

Parley

f

Instruments

conducted

y

Roy

Goodman.

THE

MUSICAL

TIMES

/

FEBRUARY

1996 19






It

has been assumed

hat hese

ecco

recitatives

are also

Bishop's

ork,

omposed

fter rne's

ere

lost,

ut

the

ate

Roger

iske

pointed

ut that

hey

survive

n a

mangled

orm,

ith wkward

ey

ran-

sitions t

the

point

where

ishop

made

cuts,

r

n

those

laces

whereriashadbeen

ransposed

o

uit

changing

ocal

requirements.

hus,

they

eem to

precede

hese

changes,

nd

they

probably

erive

from

manuscript

f

the

original

ersion f the

work hat urvivedhe1808fire t CoventGarden.

Earlier

modern

evivals

conducted

y

Charles

arn-

combe t

the t

Pancras estival

n March

962

and

by

Maurits

illem

or

he

BBC

n

1979)

essentially

used the

Bishop-Addison

ersion,

ut

for

he new

Hyperionecording

havetried

o

get

loser

o the

work s

originallyerformed

n

1762.

The

recita-

tives s

printed

y

Addison

ave

n

unstylishiano

part

which have

replaced

with n

18th-century

continuo

ine,

s well s an excessive umber

f

p-

poggiaturas,

hich

pparently

eflecthe aste f he

early

9th

entury

ather

han

hat

f

Arne's

wn

time.

have

lso

composed

he

missing

ecitatives,

and

haveborrowed

aterial

or

wonumbers

n

Co-

mus oprovide settingf thefinal horus. hus,

the

performance

n 16 March his

year,

iven

s

a

BBC nvitationoncert

tStationers'all

prior

othe

Hyperion

essions,

eems

ohave een he

irst

ince

at

east1809

of

the

full

762

ibretto,

omplete

x-

cept

or few

assages

marked

n

the ibrettoomit-

ted

n the

epresentation'.

In

part,

rtaxerxes

as successful

ecause

t was

an excellent ehicle or

reatinging.

n

the

riginal

production

harlotte

rentmadeher

peratic

ebut

in the irtuoso ole f

Mandane,

isterf he ersian

king

Artaxerxes,

ho is in love withthe central

character,

he

youth

rbaces.

he

part

fthevillain

Artabanes,

Persian

eneral

ndArbaces'

ather,

as

taken ythegreatHandelian enor ohn eard, y

then he

manager

f CoventGarden nd

near

the

endofhiscareer. rbaces nd

Artaxerxesere aken

by

two

astrati,

enducci nd

Peretti,

hile he

ess-

er roles of Rimenes

another

ersian

eneral

nd

Artabanes'

ccomplice)

nd

Semira

Arbaces'

ister,

in

lovewith

Artaxerxes)

ere

ungby George

Mat-

tocks nd

a

Miss Thomas.

The

spectacular

ole of

Arbaces asand

s

a

particularroblem,

ince twas

written

pecifically

or he elebrated iusto

erdi-

nando

Tenducci,

nd s too

high

or

ountertenors.

Afterhefirst

roduction

twas

usually layed

s a

breeches

art y

a female

mezzo-soprano,

hich

s

the solutionwe have

adopted

forthe

Hyperion

recording.irtuallyll thegreat ingersftheperi-

od

sang

n the

pera

ver he

next ew

ecades,

n-

cluding

Elizabeth

Billington,

harles

Incledon,

Charles Frederick

einhold,

Anne

Catley,

Anna

MariaCrouch nd ElizabethMara.Mandane's

pec-

tacular ria in Act

III,

'The soldier ir'd f war's

alarms',

emained

showpiece

or

opranoshrough

much of the

19th

entury,

nd has never

ntirely

dropped

utof he

epertory.

Charles

urney,

ho ouldnever esist

sly

ig

t

his former

eacher,

ccused

Arne n his

General

is-

tory

f

music

f

rowding

the

irs,

articularly

n the

part

of

Mandane

orMiss

Brent,

ithmostof the

Italian

ivisionsnd

difficultieshich adever een

heard t

the

pera', hough

e

admittedhat

t had

very

reat

uccess;

nd still ontinues

o

be

repre-

sentedwhenever

ingers

an be foundwho are

pos-

sessed f ufficientbilities

or ts

performance',

nd

added that

Arne

had the merit f first

dapting

many

f the

est

passages

f

taly,

hich

ll

Europe

admired,o ourown anguage,ndof ncorporating

themwith

is

own

property,

ndwithwhatwas

still

in

favour

f ormer

nglish omposers'.

n

fact,

rne

was

ust

the first

nglish omposer

o

expand

he

baroque

ocal

technique

stablished

n

England y

Handel,

nd

his

nnovations,

rilliantly

emonstrat-

ed in

performancey

Charlotte

rent,

ere oon

taken

p by

other

nglish omposers.

rnewas one

of

the

great inging

eachers

f

the

period,

witness

Thomas

Busby's

tory

n his

Concert oom nd

or-

chestranecdotes

1825):

Of

ll

he

nglishinging-masters

f he

ast en-

tury,

oonewas o ttentiveo

hat irst

f ocal x-

cellencies,rticulation,s DrArne. is favourite

scholar,

iss

Brent,

fterwardsrs

into,

nd

he

original

andane,

asmore

emarkableor he is-

tinctnessfher

ronunciation,

han

ny

ritish

ri-

madonnahat as ince

ppeared.

he

cquisition,

however,

asmadet he

xpense

f nfiniteabour

to he

utor,

nd

no

mall

mortificationo

he

upil.

What ewould

nly

llow obe

difficult,

hewould

often

ronounce

obe

mpossible:

ut enever e-

laxed

n

his xactionsf er

pplication,

ill is

uc-

cess

onvinced

er f ermistake.none

ccasion,

the

ady

ave

t

once

striking

roof

fher

mpa-

tiencend

her

aste.

xasperated

ith

atigue,

he

absolutely

efusedo

practiseny

onger

particular

song,

nwhich he octor as nxioushe hould

beperfect;ponwhich e hreatenedofindnoth-

er

singer

or er

ntended

art

n Artaxerxes.he

menace asno sooner ttered

han heburstnto

tears,

nd

aid,

hewould ather

ractise

ight

nd

day,

ill

he

leased

imn

he

ong,

han ot eone

of the

performers

f the

xquisite

usic f that

opera,

bout

alf

f

which as hen

omposed.

Artaxerxes

s also

remarkable

or

herichness f

its

scoring.

rne

wrote

ffectively

or he

orchestra

in a Handeliandiom rom he

beginning

fhis ca-

reer,

ut

began

obe much

more

dventurous

n the

1750s.

He was thefirst

nglish omposer

o use the

clarinet,

nd

n

Artaxerxes

e

deploys

wind nstru-

mentswith erve ndbrilliance,houghn such a

way

hat he ound f

complete

lassical rchestra

could

be

produced y

a small

pit

orchestra:he

oboistswould lso have

played

lutes

nd

clarinets,

while

the

occasional

trumpet

nd

timpani arts

might

avebeen taken

y pare

iolinists.

he first

act ofArtaxerxes

pens

with

striking

vocation f

the

awn,

endered

y

wind andwith ouble ass

and continuo utwithout

ellos. n 'Water

arted

fromhe

ea',

he amousimile ria

ung y

Arbaces

inAct

,

the

lowing

ivers

beautifullyortrayedy

20

THE

MUSICAL

TIMES

/

FEBRUARY 1996






dense

writing

or

airs

f

clarinets,

orns nd bas-

soonswith

trings.

utArne idnot

elyust

onrich

wind

writing.

n

O

too

ovely,

oo

unkind',

ung

by

Arbaces

n

Act

1,

he achieved

qually triking

ffects

with

trings

lone,

muting

he

violins,

ividing

he

violas,

and

mixing

pizzicato

and arco. William

Shield

ingled

utthisnumber

n

his ntroductiono

harmony

London,

800)

as an

admirable

xample

of the

Cantabile',

bserving

hat

in

this

racefulart

of musicalComposition',the ccompanimentan-

not

be

too

simple,

nd the best masters

enerally

avoid xtraneous

odulations'

ex.1).

Shield lso devoted

fascinatingassage

f his

book

to an

analysis

f Arne's

riginal

raft f

The

soldier ir'd

withwar's larms'. e

printed

n

extract

in

quasi-facsimile

f the

riginal

S

in

the uthor's

hand

writing',omplete

ith econd

houghts,

or-

rectionsnd

deletions,

ointing

utthatthe

reatest

men,

whenever

hey

re tudious o

please, requent-

lygain

heir

oint

y

econd

houghts'.

hield hows

how

Arne

ontinually

voided

he

bvious,

efusing

to extend

sequence

hat

might

ave become e-

dious

by prolixity',

emoving

rumpet

anfares

hat

'wouldhave disturbed he Voiceduring he divi-

sions',

nd

rewriting

he

ccompaniment

f brilliant

vocal

passage

n

triplets.

hieldcommented:The

Oboe's

ustaining

henotewhich he

voice

had

ust

quitted

s an

ngenious

econd

hought',

nd added:

A Theatrical

anager

howas

present

t the

first

epresentation

f n

opera

n

Paris,

oldme hat

the

majorart

f he

ongs

eretolenromhe ol-

dier

ired;

afterwardsbtained

sight

f

he

core,

and oundhemodulationsobe

very

ifferent,

ut

the

Composer

howrites ivisions

n

triplets,

s

lucky

fhe

scapes

he ame f

plagiary.

Perhapshemost trikingeaturefArne'spera

is ts

tylistic

iversity.

n

opera

eria

haracters

re-

vealed

hrough

series f ontrasted

rias,

aried

n

scoring

nd

mood;

he

eading

oles

ppear

s

more

rounded

haracters

ainly

ecause

they

have the

mostnumbers.

n

Artaxerxes

rne

ook this ech-

nique

a

stage

further,

eserving

he

most

dvanced

and

richly-scored

rias

or he

main

haracters. ost

of those

ungby

Arbaces nd Mandane re

n

the

galant tyle,

nd have

prominent

ind

olos,

while

the three

ung

by

Rimenes re scored

only

for

strings;

ne s n

theHandelian

tyle,

nd the thers

are n the

imple

nd

charming

olk-likediomArne

had

pioneered

nthe

1730s.

Variety

fthis ort id-

ed characterisation,nd made large-scaleworks

agreeably

aried,

ut modern

ritics,

nfluenced

y

19th-century

deasof

progress

nd

unity

n

art,

end

to

ee

t

as

a

weakness.

Two centuries

n,

t s hard o understandow

important

rtaxerxesas at the

time,

nd

how m-

portant

t

might

avebeen.Arnefollowed

p

the

success fArtaxerxesith n

all-sung

pera

n

Ital-

ian,

EL'Olimpiade,

iven

y

the

talian

pera ompany

at the

King's

Theatren the

Haymarket

n

1765.

EL'Olimpiade

s lost and was

a

flop Roger

Fiske

Ex.l:

Extract rom

O

too

ovely,

oo

unkind',

rom

rtaxerxes,

ct

1

r

---------------------------------------

-

-

-

- - - - - -

-

- -

- -

violini

on

ordinisafl

izzicati

ungy

Tenducc

-8

-

Sung

b-,

\,1'Tenducci.

u

nq

obligati

duplicati

Vol?

?

rWr

v io

V FF-

(

r e Stron n

h-..tue

6

Firm ix

Lo,

,?

uitl

J

I

9

1

If

0

to3L

ps

ar

-

IN.

itd .

,0

irem

rat mD Her

ohatth

I

...,TA,.

.

,.

.

- . .

...

pointed

ut that the

talians

n

London

believed

passionately

n a

Closed

hop,

nd

they

wouldhave

taken are hat n

opera

y

non-Italian ould

have

failedwhateverts

merits'

andwe know hat t

did

not

ead to the

founding

f

national

chool f ll-

sung

erious

pera.

Londoners

ontinued o

be en-

tertained

y

talian

pera

eria nd

pastiche

nglish

comic

peras

with

poken

ialogue

ar

nto

he

19th

century

ut

hat

was notobvious

n

the

1760s,

nd

subsequent

evelopments

ere

mainly

heresult f

a series f

historicalccidents.

rtaxerxes

ertainly

inspired number f mitations,nd hadtheright

composer

een

on

hand o

develop

whatArne

tart-

ed,

thingsmight

ave

been

very

ifferent.

s t

was,

the

pera

held

he

tage

or

more han

eventy

ears,

and must avebeen

familiaro

virtually

very

du-

cated

erson

n

London.

ames

oswell

relishedhe

music'

n

1763,

while

ane

Austen

as

very

ired'

f

it

by

1814.

Haydn,

ho

aw t

n

1791,

was

delight-

ed with

t,

nd

reportedly

aid

he

had no

idea we

had such an

opera

n the

English

anguage'.

ew

people

n

modern imes an

have aid

nything

lse.

THE

MUSICAL TIMES

/ FEBRUARY

1996

21




Documents

P Holman Divisions Difficulties MT 1996