But the personal influence of the character and the art of Zachau
reacted no less strongly on Handel than did his methods of instruction.
One is struck by the relationship of his works[14] to those of Handel;
they are similar in character and style. The reminiscences of motives,
figures, and of subjects count for little;[15] there is the same essence
in the art of both master and pupil; there is the same feeling of light
and joy; there is nothing of the pious concentration and introspection
of Bach, who goes down into the deeps of thought, and who loves to probe
into all the innermost recesses of the heart, and--in silence and
solitude--converse with his God. The music of Zachau is the music of
great spaces, of dazzling frescoes, such as one sees on the domes of the
Italian cathedrals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but
Zachau's work contains more religion than these. His music pulses with
action like the bounding and rebounding of great springs of steel. It
has triumphant subjects with expositions of great solemnity. There are
victorious marches, carrying everything before them, which go crashing
on without stopping, ever spurring on the sparkling and joyous patterns.
There are also pastoral themes, pure and voluptuous reveries,[16]
dances, and songs accompanied by flutes, with a Grecian perfume,[17] and
a smiling virtuosity, a joy intoxicated with itself, twisting lines, and
vocal arabesques, vocalizations, trills for the voice which gambol
light-heartedly with the little wave-like arpeggios of the violins.[18]
Let us unite these two traits: the heroic and the pastoral, the
warriors' marches and the jubilant dances. There you have the Handelian
tableaux: the people of Israel and the women dancing before the
victorious army. You find in Zachau a sketch for the monumental
constructions of Handel in his Hallelujahs; those mountains of sound
which resound their joy, the colossal _Amens_ which crown his oratorios
like the dome of St. Peter at Rome.[19]
Add to this also Zachau's marked liking for instrumental music,[20]
which makes him combine it so happily with the vocal solos; and very
often he imagines the voice as an instrument, which combines and gambols
with the other instruments, thus forming a decorative garland
harmoniously woven.
To sum up, it was an art less intimate than expansive, an art newly
born; not devoid of emotion though,[21] but above all, restful, strong,
and happy--an optimistic music like that of Handel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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