Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

784 SYMPHONY
The work approaches more nearly to the
ordinary outlines of the Symphony than his
previous experiments in programme, and does
not seem to demand so much detailed description.
In fact, but for his having been so early
in the field as a writer of thoroughgoing programme-music,
Spohr's position in the history
of the Symphony would not be an important
one ; and it is worthy of remark that his being
so at all appears to have been an accident.
The ' Weihe der Tone ' would not have been a
programme symphony but for the fact that
Pfeiffer's poem did not turn out to be very
suitable for a musical setting. It is not likely
that the work would have attained such popularity
as it did but for its programme ; but
after so good a result in relation to the
public, it was natural that Spohr should try
further experiments on the same lines ; and
hence he became one of the earliest representatives
of artistic speculation in a direction
which has become one of the most conspicuous
subjects of discussion among modern musical
philosophers. As far as intrinsic qualities are
concerned it is remarkable how very little
influence he has had upon the subsequent
history of the Symphony, considering the reputation
he enjoyed in his lifetime. His
greatest excellence was his treatment of his
orchestra, which was delicate, refined, and
extremely clear ; but it must be confessed
that he erred on the side natural to the
virtuoso violinist, and was too fond of bringing
his first violins into prominence. His
ideas and style generally were not robust
or noble enough to stand the test of time.
His melodies are not broad or strong ; his
harmonisation, though very chromatic to look
at, is not radically free and vigorous ; and his
rhythm, though sometimes complicated and
ingenious, is neither forcible nor rich in variety.
None of his works, however, can be said to be
without their good points, and the singularity
of his attempts at programme-music give them
an interest which the unlikelihood of many
performances in the future does not by any
means diminish.
Au interesting fact in connection with Spohr
and the history of the Symphony is that he was
the first to conduct an orchestra in England
with a baton ; the practice having previously
been to conduct ' at the pianoforte. ' The occasion
was one of the Philharmonic Concerts in
1820. [See Baton, Conducting, Spohk.]
The habit of conducting at the pianoforte was
evidently a tradition continued from the days
when the Symphony was an appendage of the
Opera, when the principal authority, often the
composer in person, sat at the principal clavier
in the middle of the orchestra giving the time
at his instrument, and filling in the harmonies
under the guidance of a figured bass.
Almost all the earlier independent symphonies,
including those of Philip Emanuel Bach
of 1776, and some of Haydn's earlier ones,
have such a figured bass for the olaviel'-
player, and an extra bass part is commonly
found in the sets of parts which may be
reasonably surmised to be for his use.' The
practice was at last abrogated in England by
Spohr, possibly because he was not a clavier but
a violin player. In Germany it was evidently
discontinued some time earlier.
The most distinguished composers of symphonies
who wrote at the same time as Spohr,
were entirely independent of him. The first of
tjjese is Mendelssohn, whose earliest symphonies
even overlap Beethoven, and whose better-known
works of the kind, as before mentioned, begin
about the same time as Spohr's best examples,
and extend over nearly the, same period as his
later ones. The earliest which survives in
print is that in C minor dedicated to the London
Philharmonic Society. This work was
really his thirteenth symphony, and was finished
on March 31, 1824, when he was only fifteen
years old, in the very year that Beethoven's
Choral Symphony was first performed. The
work is more historically than musically interesting.
It,shows, as might be expected, how
much stronger the mechanical side of Mendelssohn's
artistic nature was, even as a boy, than his
poetical side. Technically the work is extraordinarily
mature. It evinces not only a perfect
and complete facility in laying the outline and
carrying out the details of form, but also the
acutest sense of the balance and proportion of
tone of the orchestra. The limits of the attempt
are not extensive, and the absence of strong
feeling or aspiration in the boy facilitated the
execution. The predominant influence is clearly
that of Mozart. Not only the treatment of the
lower and subordinate parts of the harmony, but
the distribution and management of the different
sections and even the ideas are like. There is
scarcely a trace of the influence of Beethoven,
and not much of the features afterwards characteristic
of the composer himself. The most
individual movements are the slow movement
and the trio.. The former is tolerably free from
the influence of the artificial and mannered slow
movements of the Haydn and Mozart style, and
at the same time does not derive its inspiration
from Beethoven : it contains some very free
experiments in modulation, enharmonic and
otherwise, a few characteristic figures similar to
some which he made use of later in his career,
and passages of melody clearly predicting the
composer of the Lieder ohne Worte and the short
slow movements of the organ sonatas. The
Trio is long and very original in intention, the
chief feature being ingenious treatment of
arpeggios for the strings in many parts. The
other movements are for the most part formal.
1 Mendelaflohn'B early Symphonies are marked ' Kl.ivier mit dem
Baase.' [See vol. iii. p. il4a, notel.]