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The suite includes a "Misericordia" depicting a midnight cortège along the Arno, and modelled on Chopin's funeral march in structure with its hoarse dirge and its rich cantilena. The best number of the suite is surely the "Rusignuolo," an exceedingly fluty bird-song.
Perhaps the blunder will appear less inexplicable, if it is remembered that this second cantilena, which towards the close is treated as a chant of joy, was, already at its very first appearance, made to trot on at the pace of the principal Allegro: like a pretty captive girl tied to the tail of a hussar's charger and it would seem a case of simple practical justice that she should eventually be raised to the charger's back when the wicked rider has fallen off whereat, finally, the Capellmeister is delighted, and proceeds to apply the great whip.
He whispered it mezza voce, but it was incomparable in the cantilena, infinitely perfect in the phrasing of the structure, ideally beautiful, but FEMININE! Beethoven is a man and never ceases to be one! Chopin played on a Pleyel, he made it a point never to give lessons on another instrument; they were obliged to get a Pleyel.
Elektra herself is perhaps more truly incarnate fury than Salome is incarnate luxury; ugliness and demoniacal brooding, madness and cruelty are here more sheerly powerfully expressed than in the earlier score; the scene of recognition between brother and sister is more large and touching than anything in "Salome"; Elektra's paean and dance, for all its closeness to a banal cantilena, its tempo di valse so characteristic of the later Strauss, is perhaps more grandiosely and balefully triumphant than the dancer's scene with the head.
Foolish as the libretto is, the bitterest opponent of Italian cantilena could scarcely refuse to acknowledge the pathetic beauty of many of the songs. It is a matter for regret, as well as for some surprise, that Bellini's works should now be entirely banished from the Covent Garden repertory, while so many inferior operas are still retained.
The turn, too, based on the consistent connection of the tonal figure with the nasal quality, which is obtained by pronouncing the oo toward the nose, and firmly held there, permits no interruption for an instant to the vowel sound. How often have I heard the ha-ha-ha-haa, etc., a wretched tumbling down of different tones, instead of a smooth decoration of the cantilena.
Where the cantilena appears, every melodic tone must stand apart from the tones of the accompaniment as if in "relief." Compare with this etude the introduction to the Capriccio in B minor, with orchestra, by Felix Mendelssohn, first page. Aside from a few rallentando places, the etude is to be played strictly in time.
Obviously the proper pace of a piece of music is determined by the particular character of the rendering it requires; the question, therefore, comes to this: does the sustained tone, the vocal element, the cantilena predominate, or the rhythmical movement? The conductor should lead accordingly.
Elman, like every great virtuoso of his caliber, is influenced in his revisions by the manner in which he himself does things. I remember in one instance I could see no reason why he should mark the third finger for a cantilena passage where a certain effect was desired, and questioned it.
Almost any really good melodic line, especially a cantilena, will sound with a fitting harmonic development. Violinists of former days like Spohr, Rode and Paganini were more intent on composing music out of the violin! The modern idea lays stress first of all on the idea in music.
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