Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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794 SYMPHONY
times, is Liszt ; and his adoption of the name
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Symphonic poem ' for such compositions sufficiently
defines their nature without bringing
them exactly under the head of symphonies. Of
these there are many, constructed on absolutely
independent lines, so as to appear as musical
poems or counterparts of actual existing poems,
on such subjects as Mazeppa, Prometheus,
Orpheus, the battle of the Huns, the Preludes
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of Lamartine, Hamlet, and so forth. A work
which, in name at least, trenches upon the old
lines is the Faust Symphony, ' ' in which the connection
with the programme-principle of Berlioz
is emphasised by the dedication of the piece to
him. In this work \he connection with the old
form of symphony is perhaps even less than in
the examples, of Berlioz. Subjects and figures
are used not for the purposes of defining the
artistic form, but to describe individuals, ideas,
or circumstances. The main divisions of the
work are ostensibly three, which are called
'character -pictures' of Faust, Margaret, and
Mephistopheles severally ; and the whole concludes
with a setting of the Chorus ' mysticus.
Figures are used after the manner of Wagner's
' Leit-motiven 'toportraygraphically such things
as bewildered inquiry, anxious agitation, love,
and mockery, besides the special figure or melody
given for each individual as a whole. These are
so interwoven and developed by modifications
and transformations suited to express the circumstances,
as to present the speculations of the
composer on the character and the philosophy
of the poem in various interesting lights ; and
his great mastery of orchestral expression and
fluency of style contribute to its artistic importance
on its own basis ; while in general the
treatment of the subject is more psychological
and less piotorially realistic than the prominent
portions of Berlioz's work, and therefore slightly
nearer in spirit to the classical models. But
with all its striking characteristics and successful
points the music does not approach Berlioz in
vitality or breadth of musical idea.
The few remaining modern composers of symphonies
belong essentially to the German school,
even when adopting the general advantage of
a vague title. Prominent among these are Raff
and Rubinstein, whose methods of dealing with
instrumental music are at bottom closely related.
Raff almost invariably adopted a title for his
instrumental works ; but those which he selected
admit of the same kind of general interpretationas
those of Mendelssohn, and serve rather as a
means of unifying the general tone and style of
the work than of pointing out the lines of actual
development. The several Seasons, for instance,
serve as the general idea for a symphony each.
Another is called Im Walde. ' ' In another
several conditions in the progress of the life of a
man serve as a vague basis for giving a certain
consistency of character to the style of expression,
in a way quite consonant with the pure type. In
one case Raff comes nearer to the Berlioz ideal,
namely in the Lenore Symphony, in some parts
of which he clearly attempts to depict a succession
of events. But even when this is most
pronounced, as in the latter part of the work,
there is very little that is not perfectly intelligible
and appreciable as music without reference
to the poem. As a matter of fact Raff
is always rather free and relaxed in his form ;
but that is not owing to his adoption of programme,
since the same characteristic is observable
in works that have no name as in those that
have. The ease and speed with which he wrote,
and the readiness with which he could call up a
certain kind of genial, and often very attractive
ideas, both interfered with the concentration
necessary for developing a closely-knit and compact
work of art. His ideas are clearly defined
and very intelligible, and have much poetical
sentiment ; and these facts, together with a very
notable mastery of orchestral resource and feeling
for colour, have ensured his works great success
but there is too little self-restraint and concentration
both in the general outline and in the statement
of details, and too little self-criticism in the
choice of subject-matter, to admit the works to
the highest rank among symphonies. In the
broadest outlines he generally conformed to the
principles of the earlier masters, distributing his
allegros, slow movements, scherzos, and finales,
according to precedent. And, allowing for the
laxity above referred to, the models which he
followed in the internal structure of the movements
are the familiar types of Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven. His finales are usually the most
irregular, attimesamounting almost to fantasias
but even this, as already described, is in conformity
with tendencies which are noticeable
even in the golden age of symphonic art. Taken
as a whole, Raff's work in the department of
symphony is the best representative of a characteristic
class of composition of modem times
the class in which the actual ideas and general
colour and sentiment are nearly everything,
while their development and the value of the
artistic side of structure are reduced to a
minimum.
Rubinstein's works are conspicuous examples
of the same class ; but the absence of concentration,
self-criticism in the choice of subjects, and
care in statement of details, is even more conspicuous
in him than in Kaff. His most impox-tant
symphonic work is called The Ocean
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—the general title serving, as in Raff's symphonies,
to give unity to the sentiment and tone
of the whole, rather than as a definite programme
to work to. In this, as in Raff, there is much
spontaneity in the invention of subjects, and in
some cases a higher point of real beauty and
force is reached than in that composer's works ;
and there is also a good deal of striking interest
in the details. The most noticeable external
feature is the fact that the symphony is in six