MUSIC.
CHARLES SANTLEY.
Trtz late Lord Bowen, in an address delivered before the Working Men's College in 1893, illustrated the uncritical spirit of the age in an often-quoted passage in which he observed that " we pursue successful men and women to their downsitting and uprising : we enjoy descriptions of their household furniture We write long biographies of nobody, and we celebrate the centenaries of nothing." Lord Bowen's criticism is certainly not less needed now than when it was uttered fourteen years ago, and there are few subjects in regard to which it is more appropriate than the worship of popular singers and actors. Happily, there are bright excep- tions, and the recent celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Charles Santley's entrance on the calling which he still adorns was very far from being an exercise in unnecessary laudation. Indeed, to put it in this negative way is a niggardly and churlish expression of the truth. Here, for a wonder, was a public tribute to a "servant of the public" which did not exceed the merits of the recipient. The occasion was well chosen, and the interest of the celebration was enhanced by the fact that the central figure was not merely a passive spectator, but an active participant in the concert organised in his honour.
Popularity in the world of music is not synonymous with the possession of the highest artistic qualities. The agreeable feature about Mr. Santley's popularity is that it is entirely due to causes which redound to his credit If we were asked what was the quality in Mr. Santley's singing which more than anything else had endeared him to the British public, we should be inclined to say that it was manliness. Neither in dress nor in appearance nor in manner was there ever anything about him that savoured of affectation or effeminacy. He never relied on the "capillary attraction" of the pianist; indeed, you could never Lave told from his bearing that he was a musician at all. He was simply contented to look like an ordinary, unaffected, burly Englishman, with a certain ash sae tangere air about him, as of one who would stand no nonsense and would be a good man in a tight place. Mr. Santley, in short, never experienced the temptation, which has assailed so many of his colleagues, "to belong to other nations" either in name or deportment. He just remained an Englishman all through, and we have no doubt that his good sense and sincerity in this regard have contributed not a little to his popularity. We do not wish to imply that he stood alone in this patriotic resolve, but that he embodied the best national qualities more thoroughly and successfully than any of his contemporaries. But if Mr. Santley stood for four- square British manliness, his solidity was tempered and inspired by fire, energy, élan. "The roast beef of Old England " occasionally enters rather too deeply into the soul of British singers, but the last thing that could be said of Mr. Santley was that he was stolid or beefy. Admirable in music which called for, a passionate or pathetic intensity— witness his singing of "Is not His Word Like a Fire ? " and "It is Enough" in Elijah—lie was equally successful in expressing the spirit of comedy or genial humour. How delightfully he used to sing " Time was when Love and I were Acquainted "; how incomparable he was (and is) in "O Ruddier than the Cherry," in "The Leather Bottel," "Simon the Cellarer," and "Father O'Flynn" ! The last- named song, it may be added, reminds us of the fact that Mr. Santley is about the only English singer who can sing an Irish song without offending Hibernian susceptibilities by parodying or misrepresenting the brogue.
But the qualities which we have mentioned, admirable and valuable though they were as legitimately appealing to the sympathies of the public, were greatly reinforced by his more purely musical equipment. The weakest point in most British singers and players is their sense of rhythm. Now in Mr. Santley the sense of rhythm was exceptionally fine and sensi- tive, and lent a peculiar magic to his singing. This was shown not only in songs of an essentially rhythmic character—e.g., "0 Ruddier than the Cherry "—but in his declamation, his delivery of recitative, and his realisation of the organic cohesion of a musical phrase. His long and arduous apprenticeship in the best Italian school of bed canto, alike as a student under Nava and as an operatic singer on the boards both in Italy and in England, gave him a complete control of the bravura as well as the cantabile styles, and his singing of florid passages and Handelian divisions was always delightfully clean and finished. Another great advantage that he possessed in com- parison with most British singers of his generation was his command of languages. Mr. Edward Lloyd, admirable singer, musician, and artist, never ventured on either French or German, and was rarely beard in Italian. These languages, so indispensable to an interpreter of the beat music, had no terrors for Mr. Santley, who, as we have seen, added to them a proficiency, so rare in the benighted Sausenach, in the Irish brogue. Brahma used to say of Stockhausen that he was the best musician of all the singers. Adapting this appreciatidn, we may safely say that Mr. Santley was the best musician among British male singers of his generation. His interesting volume of autobiographical reminiscences, published in 1892, is entitled "Student and Singer," and the claim involved in the title is fully justified by his career, in which he made it his aim, musically speaking, to realise the ambition of Solon, quotidie aliquid addiscentem sevens fieri.
Mr. Santley's reminiscences are worth attentive study, not merely as a record of a life of honourable achievement, but as a revelation of a strong if somewhat prejudiced individuality. It is refreshing to learn that, of all the great singers of his time, he regards Pauline Viardot- Garcia and Ronconi as. the Mount Everest and Aconcagua of the mountain-peaks of song. It will be a surprise to not a few readers to hear that all the triumphs which he won on the concert platform and as an oratorio singer failed to compensate him for the abandonment of the operatic stage. His scepticism as to the educational value of musical academies and colleges is more pronounced than convincing. In regard to his taste in music it must be admitted that he has shown a certain disinclination to tread the new paths. His repertory was large, but it had con- spicuous gaps. Thus, in spite of his command of German, he
left the inexhaustible treasury of German Lieder unexplored, confining his attention to a few popular masterpieces. It cannot be maintained that he gave much encouragement tc native composers of high aims. In a word, while keeping wel. abreast of sound popular taste, he did little pioneer work in enlarging the horizon of the average concert-goer. Yet, with all deductions, he has rendered signal services to the art of song. His methods were above reproach. His natural gifts had been assiduously cultivated, and were exercised with a happy blending of intelligence and emotional force. He always gave of his best ; whatever he did, he did with his might. The late Hans von Billow declared that a tenor was a disease. Mr. Santley has proved that a baritone is all the
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