GLUCK, CHEVALIER CHRISTOPHER, an eminent musical composer, was born in the Upper Palatinate, on the frontiers of Bohemia, in 1714. He commenced his studies at Prague, and at a very early period of life distinguished himself by the proficiency he had acquired upon several musical instruments, particularly the violoncello. In Italy, whither he went in the service of a nobleman, he received instructions from Martini, and produced his first opera at Milan. He came to England in the year 1745. The rebellion having then just broke out, foreigners were regarded with jealousy, and the opera was on that account closed; but through the exertions of Lord Middlesex it was reopened with a temporary political performance, called La Caduta de' Giganti, the music of which Gluck was employed to compose. He afterwards brought out his Piramo e Tisbe, which was little else than an assemblage of favourite airs from his previous works. The cold reception this opera met with first convinced him that music, to be effective, must be strictly adapted to the spirit and character of the poetical subject. This consideration induced Gluck to lay down certain general principles, which are said to have influenced all his subsequent labours in composition. These were, first, to impart to music all the force and expression it is capable of producing, and which was best attained by uniting it to the simple but animated poetry, full of natural and well-defined ideas; secondly, to make the air follow the rhythm and accents of the words, and construct the accompaniments so as to invigorate the sentiment, or contrast them with it. The system he adopted may be described as one entirely subservient to the effect of dramatic performance, where the music is never estranged from the scene and situations of the characters, and where the interest results from the perfect interfusion of sound with sense.
His unsuccessful attempts in England at length induced Gluck again to visit Italy, where he found leisure to cultivate his taste both in music and poetry. In pursuance of his new design, he studied the classical Italian poets, and derived from their writings more enlarged ideas as to the effects which might be elicited by the union of poetry with music. His darling object now was to connect himself, and act in conjunction, with some man of true poetic genius; and Gluck was so fortunate as to find such a co-operator in the person of Calzabigi, who undertook to write dramas exactly to his taste. In the following extract from the dedication of Alceste, Gluck assigned his reasons for deviating from the beaten track; and describes his ideas on operatic composition with much force and perspicuity. "When I undertook to set this poem, it was my design to divest the music entirely of all those abuses with which the vanity of singers, or the too great complacency of composers, has so long disfigured the Italian opera, and rendered the most beautiful and magnificent of all public exhibitions the most tiresome and ridiculous. It was my intention to confine music to its true dramatic province, of assisting poetical expression, and of augmenting the interest of the fable, without interrupting the action, or chilling it with useless and superfluous ornaments; for the office of music, when joined to poetry, seemed to me to resemble that of colouring in a correct and well-disposed design, where the lights and shades only seem to animate the figures, without altering the outline. I determined, therefore, not to stop an actor in the heat of a spirited dialogue, for a tedious rituel, nor to impede the progress of passion, by lengthen-
Gluck. ing a single syllable of a favourite word, merely to display agility of throat; and I was equally inflexible in my resolution not to employ the orchestra to so poor a purpose as that of giving time for the recovery of breath, sufficient for a long and unmeaning cadence. I never thought it necessary to hurry through the second part of a song, though the most impassioned and important, in order to repeat the words of the first part regularly four times, merely to finish the air where the sense is unfinished, and to give an opportunity to the singer of showing that he has the impertinent power of varying passages, and disguising them, till they shall be no longer known to the composer himself. In short, I tried to banish all those vices of the musical drama, against which good sense and reason have in vain so long exclaimed. I imagined, that the overture ought to prepare the audience for the action of the piece, and serve as a kind of argument to it; that the instrumental accompaniment should be regulated by the interest of the drama, and not leave a void in the dialogue between the air and recitative; that they should neither break into the sense and connection of a period, nor wantonly interrupt the energy or heat of the action. And, lastly, it was my opinion, that my first and chief care, as a dramatic composer, was to aim at a noble simplicity; and I have accordingly shunned all parade of unnatural difficulty in favour of clearness, nor have I sought or studied novelty, if it did not arise naturally from the situation of the character and poetical expression; and there is no rule of composition which I have not thought it my duty to sacrifice, in order to favour passion and produce effects."
The opera of Orfeo was the first attempt of Gluck in the new course he had shaped out for himself. It was produced at Vienna, and at first excited astonishment, which however soon gave way to delight; and the opera was performed in all the principal cities of Italy with rapturous applause. The Italians were transported with a style at once so novel and chaste, so masculine and energetic. When the Orfeo afterwards came to be translated into French, Rousseau was so much charmed with it that he did not miss a single representation; and it is in allusion to this circumstance that he says, "If so much exalted pleasure can be enjoyed in the space of two hours, it serves to convince us that life is really good for something."
In the year 1774 Gluck came to Paris, and after studying with great assiduity and careful examination the characteristics of the French language, he composed his famous operas of Iphigénie en Aulide and Alceste, which were received with a degree of enthusiasm unparalleled in the annals of music. By these successes Gluck came to be regarded as the national musician of France. The congeniality of his style with the standard favourites Lulli and Rameau called forth general admiration. "The almost universal cry at Paris," says Burney, "was now that he had recovered the dramatic music of the ancient Greeks; that there was no other worth hearing; that he was the only musician in Europe who knew how to express the passions. These and other encomiums preparatory to his apotheosis, were uttered and published in the journals and newspapers of Paris, accompanied with constant and contemptuous censures of Italian music, when Piccini arrived. This admirable composer, the delight and pride of Naples, as Gluck was of Vienna, had no sooner erected his standard in France, than all the friends of Italian music, of Rousseau's doctrines, and of the plan, if not the language, of Metastasio's dramas, enlisted in his service. A furious war broke out; all Paris was on the qui vire. No door was opened to a visitor, without this question being asked, previously to his admission, "Monsieur, estes vous Picciniste ou Gluckiste?" But these disputes were obviously futile as regarded the merits of Gluck and Piccini; for the genius and particular styles of these great composers were
so essentially different, that to praise the one was by no means to detract from the powers of the other.
Gluck composed in 1774 his opera of Armide, which was followed by Iphigénie en Tauride, and some others; and after having completely revolutionized the music of France, he returned to Vienna, where he remained until his death in the year 1787.
Gluck has been well called the Michel Angelo of music. He was the originator of a school which has opened up great and various sources of enjoyment to taste, and mightly influenced the character of the whole art. His genius was of the highest order. His invention was unequalled, particularly in dramatic painting and theatrical effect. Some critics complain that he is defective in song; but an intimate acquaintance with his works disproves the assertion; and we have the emphatic declaration of Rousseau, "que le chant lui sortait par les pores." It is true that we cannot perhaps cull from his compositions such melodious flowers as luxuriate in the chef-d'œuvres of Cimarosa, Mozart, and Rossini, and which gratify the sense frequently as much when detached, as when blended in their original wreath. The melodies of Gluck will not, with a few exceptions, stand the test of such a partition. They are essentially musical phrases which belong to a great and expanded work of imagination. They are the links of a chain, the component elements of a comprehensive design, which must be judged of relatively, and with reference to combination.
Thus it is that, when we criticise Gluck, we should not examine his operas in detail. We must consider them as we would a noble edifice, in the aggregate of its beauty. The same spirit that actuates us in reading the epics of Virgil and Tasso should exercise its dominion when we listen to the music of Gluck. His aim was rather to satisfy the mind than to flatter the ear; his music appears only to impart energy or softness to the declamation, as the different situations of the several characters require; and such is the effect of his operas when properly performed, that many persons who hear them become so deeply interested, that they cannot for an instant withhold their eyes from the stage, and are kept in perpetual anxiety till the denouement of the drama; so fervently does he appeal to the sympathies of mankind, and gratify the sweetest yearnings of our nature.
Whilst we admire the perfect symmetry and almost indefinable beauty of the operas of Gluck, we are equally charmed with the amazing fertility of his inventive powers. His airs are invariably original; he never copies himself. If his melodies do not always catch the ear, it is because we do not take them in connection with the passion or sentiment they are meant to express. Tried by that test, we find them exquisitely appropriate. In recitative Gluck is universally allowed to be greatest among the great. In this department he is still the model which the best masters copy, and nothing can surpass his movements for sublimity, boldness, and sustained beauty. The choruses in his operas are full of animation and imposing effect. His judicious employment of orchestral accompaniments, and the striking effects which he thereby produced, was a new feature in music; and much as this has since been studied, nothing can better assure us of his superlative genius, than the fact, that up to this day, he stands highest in that essential branch of operatic composition, which indeed it may almost be said he created.
Whatever may be the opinion of some persons in regard to the general effect of the music of Gluck, all are agreed in assigning to him the palm of superiority in his treatment of classical subjects, and depicting scenes of deep and overpowering grief. "He is," says an anonymous author, "the only master capable of grappling with a classical subject; he could give us, better than any,
Lovers, tyrannically separated for ever, have the despair of his. "It is," says a writer in the Harmonicon, "in scenes of great distress, in which the human heart is first by complicated misery, or in situations where it is torn by the tempestuous fury of unbridled passions, that Gluck, transported beyond the bounds of ordinary genius, awns such energy and colouring of passion, as to become a once poet, painter, and musician. It may be that his expression of passion is sometimes too strong for common hearers; but
l'échappe souvent des sons à la douleur,
Qui sont faux pour l'oreille, mais sont vrais pour le cœur."
The operas of Gluck, much to the discredit of modern taste, are seldom heard in France or England; but in Germany they are frequently performed; and in Berlin, even any of his great operas are given, the theatres are crowded to excess. The Germans indeed regard Gluck as the greatest of all dramatic composers. The style of his airs is studied, and great attention bestowed on their effect; and there is a warmth and an intensity displayed in the performers in taking the recitative, and an energy in their action, which nothing but such music as Gluck's could inspire.
Gluck is described as having been of a frank and open character, although his temper was hasty and choleric. He was very rigid in exacting from performers the utmost purity and correctness of execution. (z. z.)