Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SYMPHONY 787
as possible after one another, so that it may have
more or less the effect"of being one piece, Mendelssohn's
only other symphonic work was the
Lobgesang, a sort of ecclesiastical counterpart of
Beethoven's ninth Symphony. In this of course
the programme element is important, and is
illustrated by the calls of the brass instruments
and their reiteration with much effect in the
choral part of the work. The external form, as in
Beethoven's ninth Symphony, is that of the three
usual earlier movements (1) Introduction and
Allegro, (2) Scherzo, or Minuet and Trio, and
(3) Slow Movement (which in the present case
have purposely a pietistic flavour), with the
Finale or last movement supplanted by the long
vocal part.
The consideration of these works shows that
though Mendelssohn often adopted the appearance
of programme, and gained some advantages
by it, he never, in order to express his external
ideas with more poetical consistency, relaxed
any of the familiar principles of structure which
are regarded as orthodox. He was in fact a
thoroughgoing classicist. He accepted formulas
with perfect equanimity, and aimed at resting
the value of his works upon the vivacity of his
ideasand the greatmastery which he hadattained
in technical expression, and clearness and certainty
of orchestration. It was not in his disposition
to strike out a new path for himself.
The perfection of his art in many respects
necessarily appeals to all who have an appreciation
for first-rate craftsmanship ; butthe standard
of his ideas israther fitted'for average musical
intelligences, and it seems natural enough that
these two circumstances should have combined
successfully to obtain for him an extraordinaiy
popularity. He may fairly be said to present
that which appeals to high and pure sentiments
in men, and calls upon the average of them to
feel at their best. But he leads them neither
into the depths nor the heights which are beyond
them ;
and is hence more fitted in the end
to please than to elevate. His work in the
department of Symphony is historically slight.
In comparison with his great predecessors he
established positively nothing new ;
and if he
had been the only successor to Beethoven and
Schubert it would certainly have to be confessed
that the department of art represented by the
Symphony was at a standstill. The excellence
of his orchestration, the clearness of his form,
and the accuracy and cleverness with which he
balanced and disposed his subjects and his
modulations, are all certain and unmistakable ;
but all these things had been attained by great
masters before him, and he himself attained them
only by the sacrifice of the genuine vital force
and power of harmonic motion and dom of
^f
form in the ideas themselves, of which his
predecessors had made a richer manifestation
It is of course obvious that different orders of
minds require different kinds of artistic food,
and the world would not be well served without
many grades and standards of work. Mendelssohn
did good service in supplying a form of
symphony of such a degree of freshness and lightness
as to appeal at once to a class of people
for whom the sternness and power of Beethoven
in the same branch of art would often be too
severe a test. He spoke also in the spirit of his
time, and in harmony with it ; and as illustrations
of the work of the period in one aspect his
symphonies will be among the safest to refer to.
Among his contemporaries the one most
natural to bracket with him is Sterndale Bennett,
whose views of art were extraordinarily similar,
and who was actuated inmany respects by similar
impulses. His published contribution to the
department we are considering is extremely
slight. The symphony which he produced in
1834 was practically withdrawn by him, and the
only other work of the kind which he allowed
to be published was the one which was written
for the Philharmonic Society, and first played
in 1864. The work is slight, and it is recorded
that he did not at first put it forward as a
symphony. It had originally but three movements,
one of which, the charming minuet and
trio, was imported from the Cambridge Installation
Ode of 1862. A slow movement called
Eomanze was added afterwards. Sterndale
Bennett was a severe classicist in his views about
form in music, and the present symphony does
not show anything sufficiently marked to call for
record in that respect. It is singularly quiet
and unpretentious, and characteristic of the
composer, showing his taste and delicacy of
sentiment together with his admirable sense of
symmetry and his feeling for tone and refined
orchestral effect.
The contemporary of Mendelssohn and Stemdale
Bennett who shows in most marked contrast
vrith them is Robert Schumann. He seems to
represent the opposite pole of music ; for as they
depended upon art and made clear technical
workmanship their highest aim, Schumann was
in many respects positively dependent upon his
emotion. Wot only was his natural disposition
utterly different from theirs, but so was his
education. Mendelssohn and Sterndale Bennett
went through severe technical drilling in their
early days. Schumann seems to have developed
his technique by the force of his feelings, and
was always more dependent upon them in the
making of his works than upon general principles
and external stock rules, such as his two
contemporaries were satisfied with. The case
affords an excellent musical parallel to the
common circumstances of life : Mendelssohn and
Sterndale Bennett were satisfied to accept certain
rules because they knew that they were generally
accepted ; whereas Schumann was of the nature
that had to prove all things, and find for himself
that which was good. The result was, as
often happens, that Schumann affords examples