Welsh Journals

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POETRY AND MUSIC NOT until quite recently have composers begun to realise that, when they attempt to set poetry to music, their function is not to cover the words with a filmy garment of sound, like a woman putting on a dress, but to express the very spirit, action and innermost feeling of the verses. A century and a quarter ago Mozart was writing operas to absolutely impossible librettos; the relationship between him and the writer of any of his operatic texts was more absurd than would have been the relationship between the late Joseph Bennett and Richard Wagner, if those two men could ever have conspired together to compose a work of art. Mozart did not care for poetry; it is doubtful if he even knew what it was it is certain that he made no real attempt to procure an operatic text that, in addition to being verse, was also poetical throughout. In fact, in only half- a-dozen of his works will you find that fundamental brain-work which Rosetti declared was necessary for the creation of really great art. But Mozart was not the only sinner in this respect; there were many other com- posers both of his own time and in later years who were composers and nothing else. They had a wonderful gift which was developed to its highest capacity, but, in its development, nearly all other gifts were sacrificed. In the worst sense of the word, they were half-educated. Even a mighty brain like that of Handel, with its quick intuitions and insatiable curiosity, does not seem to have been able to distin- guish between mere versifiers and true BY CYRIL JENKINS poets. His long-forgotten operas have quite charmingly stupid librettos, and it is nothing less than wonderful, that he should have been able to write so many exquisite arias to words, that would have disgraced even the popular monthly magazines of the present day. But only great com- posers, like Mozart and Handel, could afford to run the risks they so ignorantly faced at the same time, there can be no doubt that much of their work would be finer than it is, if they had been able to understand and appreciate poetry, and if they had ignored all verse that did not bear the clear impress of inspiration. At the beginning of the last century a great and almost revolutionary change took place in the attitude of composers towards the other arts. Berlioz, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Liszt, von Bulow, Cornelius, and many other notable men, were something more than in- spired and rather aimless composers of great music and interpreters of it their artistic susceptibilities were cultivated in every possible direction their minds were richly stored with literature; in a word, they were men of great culture. It is no part of my business in the present article to indicate the changes in social and pol- itical life that made possible this change in the habits of mind of composers; it is sufficient to indicate that such a change did actually take place. Hitherto, eminent musicians had been patronised by the wealthy, though many of the aristocracy still alluded to famous composers as 196 common fiddlers." Unfortunately, the expansion of the intellectual horizon of