Master Hugues Of Saxe-Gotha

( Men and Women , 1855; Lyrics , 1863; Dramatic Lyrics , 1868.) An organist in a church where they have just concluded the evening service determines to have a colloquy with the old dead composer Master Hugues as to the meaning of the compositions known as fugues for which he was celebrated. They were mountainous in their structure—the ideas were piled one upon another till their meaning was lost in cloudland. So, while the church is emptying and the altar ministrants are putting things to rights, he will look into the matter of the old quaint arithmetical music in fashion before Pal estrin a brought back music to the service of melody. There is but one inch of candle left in the socket, so the composer must tell him what he has to say quickly. First he delivers his phrase; he gives but a clause. He a erts nothing, puts forward no proposition; neverthele there is an answer, though a needle one, and the two start off together. (It will be seen that the poet suggests five impersonations of characters taking part in the discu ion or mangle of the composition.) A third interposes, and volunteers his help; a fourth must have his say, and a fifth must needs interfere. So the disputation is like that of a knot of angry politicians, who all want to speak at once, and will scarcely allow each other to utter a complete sentence. This is a perfect description of a fugue, which even to the uninstructed listener is a musical wrangle plainly enough. In the fugue the organist sees a moral of life, with its zigzags, dodges, and ins and outs. Truth and Nature are over our heads. God’s gold here and there shines out in our soul-manifestations, if we would but let truth and Nature have their way with us, the gold would be all the plainer to see; but with our evasions, our pretences, shams and subterfuges we have all but obliterated it, just as the inventor of the fugue has buried his melody under a mountain of musical tricks and pedantic finger puzzles. The organist pauses; he will have no more of it as a moral of life. The Jesuit’s casuistry, which went to prove that all sorts of evil things might under certain circumstances and under such and such restrictions become actual virtues, was swept away by Pascal’s clear-sighted common sense. So Master Hugues and his fugues shall vanish before the full organ blaring out the mode Pal estrin a —the grave, pure, truthful music of the Church. As Pascal to Escobar, so is Pal estrin a to Master Hugues; quibbles, shams, fencings with truth, overlay God’s gold with the cobwebs of tradition, and must be brushed away. “Rochell has quite correctly perceived that the approximate best symbol of the uncreated heaven is music. In the evolution of harmonies in the upper and lower notes, and their mutual conflict; in the solution of strife and tension into ble ed calm; in the transmutation of the ever-recurring theme into new phrases; in the constant reappearance of the motif , of the question which seeks a reply through every evolution of the notes, and which leads the reply into a new proce —in this we see the temporal symbol of the eternal rhythm, the eternal circular movement in God’s heaven, where melodious colours and radiant notes are interwoven with each other; where nothing lies in stagnant repose, but all is in motion; where unity and harmony are eternally effected by means of the contrasted, movements and action.” (Marten sen’s Jacob Boehme , page 167.) Notes. — Hugues is a purely imaginary composer. Verse i. “ mountainous fugues ”: “A fugue is a short, complete melody, which flies (hence the name) from one part to another, while the original part is continued in counterpoint against it. The beginning of this art-form dates from very primitive times” (Sir G. Mac farren). Probably Bach’s fugues are meant in the poem, vi., Aloys and Jurien and Just , sacristan’s a istants; “ darn the sacrament lace ”: the lace on the altar linen. The actual sacrament linen is washed by the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. The church plate ( i.e. , chalice, paten, etc.) is cleaned by the clergy also, viii., claviers , the keyboard of the organ ix., “ great breves as they wrote them of yore ”: a breve is the longest note in music, and was formerly square in shape. In the old Spanish cathedrals I have seen the music-books used in the services of such a size that it required two men to carry them. The notes in such books are very large, xvi., “ O Danaides, O Sieve! ” the Danaides were the daughters of Danaus, who were condemned for their crimes to pour water for ever in the regions below into a ve el with holes in the bottom. xvii., Escobar , y Mendoza, was a Spanish casuist, the general tendency of whose writings was to find excuses for human frailties. Pascal severely criticised him in his Provincial Letters . His doctrines were disapproved at Rome. Escobar himself was a most excellent man. He died in 1669. xviii., “ Est fug a, volvitur rota ” == it is a flight, the wheel rolls itself round. xix., risposting == riposting, a term in fencing; in this case equal to making a repartee. xx., ticken == ticking, a twill fabric very closely woven. xxviii., meâ pœnâ == at my risk of punishment; Gorgon , a monster with a terrible head, with hair and girdle of snakes; “ mode Pal estrin a ”: Giovanni P. da Pal estrin a (1524-1594), now universally distinguished as the Prince of Music, emancipated his art from the trammels of pedantry, which, ignoring beauty as the most nece ary element of music, was tending to reduce it to mere arithmetical problems.