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GLUCK ,' CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD (1714-1787), operatic composer, See also:German by his See also:nationality, See also:French by his See also:place in See also:art, was See also:born at Weidenwang, near Neumarkt, in the upper See also:Palatinate, on the 2nd of See also:July 1714. He belonged to the See also:lower See also:middle class, his See also:father being gamekeeper to See also:Prince Lobkowitz; but the boy's See also:education was not neglected on that See also:account. From his twelfth to his eighteenth See also:year he frequented the Jesuit school of Kommotau in the neighbourhood of Prince Lobkowitz's See also:estate in Bohemia, where he not only received a See also:good See also:general education, but also had lessons in See also:music. At the See also:age of eighteen Gluck went to See also:Prague, where he continued his musical studies under Czemohorsky, and maintained himself by the exercise of his art, sometimes in the very humble capacity of fiddler at See also:village fairs and dances. Through the introductions of Prince Lobkowitz, however, he soon gained See also:access to the best families of the See also:Austrian See also:nobility; and when in 1736 he proceeded to See also:Vienna he was hospitably received at his See also:protector's See also:palace. Here he met Prince Melzi, an ardent See also:lover of music, whom he accompanied to See also:Milan, continuing his education under Giovanni
Not, as frequently spelt, Gluck.Battista See also:San See also:Martini, a See also:great musical historian and contrapuntist, who was also famous in his own See also:day as a composer of See also: But his stay in See also:England was not without important consequences for his subsequent career. Gluck at this See also:time was rather less than an See also:ordinary producer of Italian opera. See also:Handel's well-known saying that Gluck " knew no more See also:counterpoint than his See also:cook " must be taken in connexion with the less well-known fact that that cook was an excellent See also:bass See also:singer who performed in many of Handel's own operas. But it indicates the musical See also:reason of Gluck's failure, while Gluck himself learnt the dramatic reason through his surprise at finding that arias which in their See also:original setting had been much applauded lost all effect when adapted to new words in the pasticcio. Irrelevant as Handel's See also:criticism appears, it was not without bearing on Gluck's difficulties. The use of counterpoint has very little necessary connexion with contrapuntal display; its real and final cause is a certain See also:depth of See also:harmonic expression which Gluck attained only in his most dramatic moments, and for want of which he, even in his finest works, sometimes moved very lamely. And in later years his own mature view of the importance of See also:harmony, which he upheld in See also:long arguments with See also:Gretry, who believed only in See also:melody, shows that he knew that the dramatic expression of music must strike below the See also:surface. At this See also:early See also:period he was simply producing Handelian opera in an amateurish See also:style, suggesting an unsuccessful See also:imitation of See also:Hasse; but the failure of his pasticcio is as significant to us as it was to him, since it shows that already the effect of his music depended upon its characteristic treatment of dramatic situations. This characterizing See also:power was as yet not directly evident, and it needed all the See also:influence of the new instrumental resources of the rising See also:sonata-forms before music could pass out of what we may See also:call its architectural and decorative period and enter into dramatic regions at all. It is highly probable that the chamber music of his See also:master, San Martini, had already indicated to Gluck a new direction which was more or less incompatible with the older art; and there is nothing discreditable either to Gluck or to his See also:con-temporaries in the failure of his earlier works. Had the See also:young composer been successful in the ordinary opera seria, there is reason to fear that the great dramatic reform, initiated by him, might not have taken place. The See also:critical See also:temper of the London public fortunately averted this calamity. It may also be assumed that the musical See also:atmosphere of the See also:English See also:capital, and especially the great works of Handel, were not without beneficial influence upon the young composer. But of still greater importance in this respect was a See also:short trip to See also:Paris, where Gluck became for the first time acquainted with the classic traditions and the declamatory style of the French opera—a See also:sphere of music in which his own greatest. triumphs were to be achieved. Of these great issues little trace, however, is to be found in the works produced by Gluck during the fifteen years after his return from England. In this period Gluck, in a long course of works by no means See also:free from the futile old traditions, gained technical experience and important patronage, though his success was not See also:uniform. His first opera written for Vienna, La Semiramide riconosciuta, is again an ordinary opera seria, and little more can be said of Telemacco, although See also:thirty years later Gluck was able to use most of its See also:overture and an energetic See also:duet in one of his greatest works, Armide.
Gluck settled permanently at Vienna in 1756, having two years previously been appointed See also:court See also:chapel-master, with a See also:salary of 2000 florins, by the empress Maria See also:Theresa. He had already received the See also:order of See also:knighthood from the See also:pope in consequence of the successful See also:production of two of his works in See also:Rome. During the long See also:interval from 1756 to 1762 Gluck seems to have matured his plans for the reform of the opera; and, barring a See also:ballet named See also:Don Giovanni, and some airs nouveaux to French words with See also:pianoforte See also:accompaniment, no compositions of any importance have to be recorded. Several later pieces d'occasion, such as Il Trionfo di Clelia (1763), are still written in the old manner, though already in 1762 Orfeo ed Euridice shows that the composer had entered upon a new career. Gluck had for the first time deserted See also:Metastasio for Raniero Calzabigi, who, as See also:Vernon See also: The ascending See also:passion of the entries of the See also:solo (Dehl placatevi; Mille gene; Men tiranne), interrupted by the harsh but gradually softening exclamations of the See also:Furies, is of the highest dramatic effect. These melodies, moreover, as well as every declamatory passage assigned to Orpheus, are made subservient to the purposes of dramatic characterization; that is, they could not possibly be assigned to any other See also:person in the See also:drama, any more than See also:Hamlet's See also:monologue could be spoken by Polonius. It is in this power of musically realizing a See also:character—a power all but unknown in the serious opera of his day—that Gluck's See also:genius as a dramatic composer is chiefly shown. After a short relapse into his earlier manner, Gluck followed up his Orpheus by a second classical music-drama (1767) named Alceste. In his See also:dedication of the See also:score to the See also:grand-See also:duke of See also:Tuscany, he fully expressed his aims, as well as the reasons for his See also:total See also:breach with the old traditions. " I shall try," he wrote, " to reduce music to its real See also:function, that of seconding See also:poetry by intensifying the expression of sentiments and the See also:interest of situations without interrupting the See also:action by needless See also:ornament. I have accordingly taken care not to interrupt the singer in the See also:heat of the See also:dialogue, to wait for a tedious ritornel, nor do I allow him to stop on a sonorous vowel, in the middle of a phrase, in order to show the nimbleness of a beautiful See also:voice in a long cadenza." Such theories, and the stern consistency with which they were carried out, were little to the taste of the See also:pleasure-loving Viennese; and the success of Alceste, as well as that of Paris and See also:Helena, which followed two years later, was not such as Gluck had desired and expected. He therefore eagerly accepted the See also:chance of finding a See also:home for his art in the centre of intellectual and more especially dramatic See also:life, Paris. Such a chance was opened to him through the bailli Le See also:Blanc du Roullet, attache of the French See also:embassy at Vienna, and a musical See also:amateur who entered into Gluck's ideas with See also:enthusiasm. A classic opera for the Paris See also:stage was accordingly projected, and the See also:friends fixed upon See also:Racine's I phigenie en Aulide. After some difficulties, overcome chiefly by the intervention of Gluck's former See also:pupil the dauphiness See also:Marie Antoinette, the opera was at last accepted and performed at the See also:Academic de Musique, on the 19th of See also:April 1774. The great importance of the new work was at once perceived by the musical amateurs of the French capital, and a hot controversy on the merits of I phigenie ensued, in which some of the leading See also:literary men of See also:France took See also:part. Amongst the opponents of Gluck were not only the admirers of Italian vocalization and sweetness, but also the adherents of the earlier French school, who refused to see in the new composer the legitimate successor of Lulli and See also:Rameau. See also:Marmontel, Laharpe and D'See also:Alembert were his opponents, the See also:Abbe See also:Arnaud and others his enthusiastic friends. See also: Gluck did not anticipate See also:Wagner more clearly in his dramatic reforms than in his See also:caustic temper; and, as in Gluck's own estimation the difference between Armide and Alceste is that " l'un (Alceste) doit faire pleurer et l'autre faire eprouver une voluptueuse sensation," it was extremely annoying for him to be told by Laharpe that he had made Armide a sorceress instead of an enchantress, and that her part was " une criaillerie monotone et fatiguante." He replied to Laharpe in a long public letter worthy of Wagner in its venomous See also:sarcasm and its tremendous value as an See also:advertisement for its recipient. Gluck's next work was I phigenie en Tauride, the success of which finally disposed of Piccinni, who produced a work on the same subject at the same time and who is said to have acknowledged Gluck's superiority. Gluck's next work was See also:Echo et Narcisse, the See also:comparative failure of which greatly disappointed him; and during the See also:composition of another opera, See also:Les Danaides, an attack of See also:apoplexy compelled him to give up work. He left Paris for Vienna, where he lived for several years in dignified leisure, disturbed only by his declining See also:health. He died on the 15th of See also:November 1787. (F. H.; D. F. T.) The great interest of the dramatic aspect of Gluck's reforms is See also:apt to overshadow his merit as a musician, and yet in some ways to idealize it. One is tempted to regard him as condoning for technical musical deficiencies by sheer dramatic power, whereas unprejudiced study of his work shows that where his dramatic power asserts itself there is no lack of musical technique. Indeed only a great musician could so reform opera as to give it See also:scope for dramatic power at all. Where Gluck differs from the greatest musicians is in his See also:absolute dependence on literature for his See also:inspiration. Where his librettist failed him (as in his last See also:complete work, Echo et Narcisse), he could hardly write tolerably good music; and, even in the finest works of his French period, the less emotional situations are sometimes set to music which has little interest except as a document in the history of the art. This must not be taken to mean merely that Gluck could not, like See also:Mozart and nearly all the great song-writers, set good music to a See also:bad See also:text. Such inability would prove Gluck's See also:superior literary taste without casting a slur on his musicianship. But it points to a certain weakness as a musician that Gluck could not be inspired except by the more thrilling portions of his libretti. When he was inspired there was no question that he was the first and greatest writer of dramatic music before Mozart. To begin with, he could invent See also:sublime melodies; and his power of producing great musical effects by the simplest means was nothing short of Handelian. Moreover, in his peculiar sphere he deserves the See also:title generally accorded to See also:Haydn of " father of See also:modern orchestration." It is misleading to say that he was the first to use the timbre of See also:instruments with a sense of emotional effect, for See also:Bach and Handel well knew how to give a whole See also:aria or whole See also:chorus peculiar See also:tone by means of a definite See also:scheme of See also:instrumentation. But Gluck did not treat instruments as part of a decorative See also:design, any more than he so treated musical forms. Just as his sense of musical See also:form is that of Philipp See also:Emmanuel Bach and of Mozart, so is his treatment of instrumental tone-See also:colour a thing that changes with every shade of feeling in the dramatic situation, and not in accordance with any purely decorative scheme. To accompany an aria with strings, oboes and flutes, was, for example, a perfectly ordinary See also:procedure; nor was there anything unusual in making the See also:wind instruments See also:play in unison with the strings for the first part of the aria, and See also:writing a passage for one or more of them in the middle See also:section. But it was an unheard-of thing to make this passage consist of long appoggiaturas once every two bars in rising sequence on the first See also:oboe, answered by deep See also:pizzicato bass notes, while See also:Agamemnon in despair cries: " J'entends retentir clans mon sein le cri See also:plain/if de la nature." Some of Gluck's most forcible effects are of great subtlety, as, for instance, in Iphigenie en Tauride, where See also:Orestes tries to reassure himself by saying: " Le calme rentre dans mon cceur," while the intensely agitated accompaniment of the strings belies him. Again, the sense of orchestral See also:climax shown in the See also:oracle See also:scene in Alceste was a thing inconceivable in older music, and unsurpassed in artistic and dramatic spirit by any modern composer. Its influence in Mozart's Idomeneo is obvious at a first glance.
The capacity for broad melody always implies a true sense of form, whether that be developed by skill or not; and thus Gluck, in rejecting the convenient formalities of older styles of opera, was not, like some reformers, without something better to substitute for them. Moreover he, in consultation with his librettist, achieved great skill in holding together entire scenes, or even entire acts, by dramatically apposite repetitions of short arias and choruses. And thus in large portions of his finest works the music, in spite of frequent full closes, seems to move pari passu with the drama in a manner which for naturalness and continuity is surpassed only by the finales of Mozart and the entire operas of Wagner. This is perhaps most noticeable in the second See also:act of Orfeo. In its original Italian version both scenes, that in Hades and that in See also:Elysium, are indivisible wholes, and the See also:division into single movements, though technically obvious, is aesthetically only a natural means of articulating the structure. The unity of the scene in Hades extends, in the original version, even to the See also: He failed only in what may be called the business capacities of artistic technique; and there is less " business " in Orfeo than in almost any other music-drama. It was Gluck's first great inspiration, and his theories had not had time to take action in See also:paper warfare. Alceste contains his grandest music and is also very free from weak pages; but in its original Italian version the third act did not give Gluck scope for an adequate climax. This difficulty so accentuated itself in the French version that after continual retouchings a part for See also:Hercules was, in Gluck's See also:absence, added by See also:Gossec; and three pages of Gluck's music, dealing with the supreme crisis where Alceste is rescued from Hades (either by See also:Apollo or by Hercules) were no longer required in performance and have been lost. The Italian version is so different from the French that it cannot help us to restore this passage, in which Gluck's music now stops short just at the point where we realize the full height of his power. The comparison between the Italian and French Alceste is one of the most interesting that can be made in the study of a musician's development. It would have been far easier for Gluck to write a new opera if he had not been so justly attached to his second Italian masterpiece. So radical are the See also:differences that in retranslating the French libretto into Italian for performance with the French music not one See also:line of Calzabigi's original text can be retained. In Iphigenie en Aulide and Iphigenie en Tauride, Gluck shows signs that the controversies aroused by his methods began to interfere with his musical spontaneity. He had not, in Orfeo, gone out of his way to avoid rondos, or we should have had no " Che faro senza Euridice." We read with a respectful smile Gluck's assurance to the bailli Le Blanc du Roullet that " you would not believe Armide to be by the same composer " as Alceste. But there°is no question that Armide is a very great work, full of melody, colour and dramatic point; and that Gluck has availed himself of every See also:suggestion that his libretto afforded for orchestral and emotional effects of an entirely different type from any that he had attempted before. And it is hardly relevant to blame him for his inability to write erotic music. In the first place, the libretto is not erotic, though the subject would no doubt become so if treated by a modern poet. In the second place a conflict of passions (as, for instance, where Armide See also:summons the demons of Hate to exorcise love from her See also:heart., and her courage fails her as soon as they begin) has never, even in Alceste, been treated with more dramatic musical force. The work as a whole is unequal, partly because there is a little too much action in it to suit Gluck's methods; but it shows, as does no other opera until Mozart's Don Giovanni, a sense of the development of characters, as distinguished from the mere presentation of them as already fixed.
In Iphigenie en Aulide and Iphigenie en Tauride, the very subtlety of the finest features indicates a certain self-consciousness which, when inspiration is lacking, becomes mannerism. Moreover, in both cases the libretti, though skilfully managed, tell a rather more complicated story than those which Gluck had hitherto so successfully treated; and, where inspiration fails, the musical technique becomes curiously• amateurish without any corresponding naivete. Still these works are immortal, and their finest passages are equal to anything in Alceste and Orfeo. Echo et Narcisse we must, like Gluck's contemporaries, regard as a failure. As in Orfeo, the pathetic story is ruined by a violent happy ending, but here this artistic disaster takes place before the pathos has had time to assert itself. Gluck had no opportunities in this work for any higher qualities, musical or dramatic, than prettiness; and with him beauty, without visible emotion, was indeed skin-deep. It is a pity that the See also:plan of the great See also:Pelletan-Damcke critical edition de luxe of Gluck's French operas forbids the inclusion of his Italian Paride e Elena, his third opera to Calzabigi's libretto, which was never given in a French version; for there can be no question that, whatever he owed to France, the
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