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LXVI
time music called from him a rarer enthusiasm than poetry could attain
to. In the Parleying with Charles Avison, written two years before his
death, the poet gave expression to such a burst
I state it thus:
tained in his home. His father was a gifted amateur in many fields, and
like his distinguished son was a lover of odd learning. It is probable that
Browning's training in music was more systematic than his education in
any other field. His teachers in music, such as "the great John Relfe"
and Nathan, author of the Hebrew Melodies, were more distingiushed
than Browning's other tutors in French and Italian. The training Relfe
and Nathan gave the boy was effective and he remained all his life a
lover of music, capable of playing the piano or the organ, singing, improvising, and in his youth composing. He thought well enough of himself as a musician to instruct his own son, Pen Browning, in the piano.
Nevertheless, the question has often been raised concerning the depth
of Browning's technical knowledge of music. For example, Sir Charles
1095
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the superficiality and exiguity of his technical knowledge. When Jebb was writing
his masterly Greek translation of "Abt Vogler," he too became well aware of
this weakness, and was able with infinite skill to gloss over the solecisms of the
original. "Sliding by semitones till I sink to the minor," is indeed the refuge of
the destitute amateur improviser.'
deserves to be quoted here. After a reference to the meeting of the Society at which Spaulding had read his paper, and after commenting upon
the ignorance of most English writers in regard to music, the writer of
the article continues:
With Browning the case is different. He belongs to our own time, to a period
when the art of music is developed to tenfold what it was in Shakespeare's day,
and is capable of delicate subtleties undreamt of then. To call Browning a thorough musician would be going too far. Thorough musicians do not grow on every
bush, even within the circle of the profession itself. That he is a man of genuinely
musical instincts, of rather keen musical insight, and of some specific culture,
may safely be assumed. Certainly he knew enough to give music lessons to his
son, and make him a fair pianist for a boy of ten or eleven; exactly how far his
knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, and musical form went were hard to say,
but he probably possessed something more than a smattering of such knowledge.
When he uses musical terms he almost invariably shows that he knows fully
I Pages from an Unwritten Diary (London, 1914), p. 176.
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Herbert E. Greene
1097
what he is about. The following passage from his "A Toccata of Galuppi's" has
been much quoted, and Mr. Spaulding made especial reference to it in his address:
Browning's notion of exactly what the "mode Palestrina" was seems a little hazy
here, by the way, but it would be needlessly uncharitable to suppose that he did
not know that Palestrina never wrote a note for the organ in his life. Still,
"Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha" is an almost unique instance of a musical form
being made per se the subject of poetic treatment in the English language, and
Browning is undoubtedly the only English poet competent to attempt such a
task.
But where Browning shows himself most truly musical is where he speaks of
music untechnically. In all the varied suggestiveness he finds in great music, and
in the vivid way he embodies in glowing verse the mental picture it calls up in
his poet's brain, he makes it clear that this suggestiveness is a personal matter
between the music and himself-that the composer has little, if anything, to do
with it. He does not try to impute his own fancy to the composer, and one feels
instinctively that, when he listens to music, he listens musically, and not merely
sentimentally. The music he mentions in his poems, too, is almost invariably of a
high order; his sympathies are not with the musical populace but with the aristocracy of the art. In how far what he has written about music can open a door,
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1098
Browning has written about it. His exegesis lies in a more purely psychical direction. But, surely, what he has written on music can be read with delight by all
music-lovers, and need awaken no contempt in the breast of the most thorough
musician.
the Transcript. Browning replied within the month and showed considerable appreciation for Spaulding's interest in his poetry. The letter
follows:
29 De Vere Gardens, W.
June 30, '87
Dear Mr. Spaulding,
I receive, this morning only, probably in consequence of the change in my
address, your kind letter and pleasant accompaniment of notices which evidence
the sympathy I so greatly value: who would not feel grateful for such proof that
the work of a long life-time meets, even at the eleventh hour, with such generous
recognition from friends I shall never be privileged to see?
On the points mentioned in your letter, and those I notice in the paper from
the "Boston Transcript," I may observe generally that whatever may-be the
profit I gained by the study of music, mine has been a serious one: John Relfe,
my instructor in counterpoint was a thoroughly learned proficient, as his two
works on the subject show sufficiently. The latter "Lucidus Ordo" was a proposal
for substituting a "figured bass" of his own, for the barbarous contrivance in
use at the beginning of the present century. I used to disconcert him (easily done,
and sometimes with unhappy effects) by solving his musical problems "by ear"
and not according to rule. Under other masters I learnt what I once knew of the
method of playing on the Violoncello, Violin, and Piano-forte: and quite enough
of this survives to keep me from slipping when touching on what is connected
with it. As for "singing," the best master of four I have, more or less, practised
with, was Nathan, Author of the Hebrew Melodies: he retained certain traditional
Jewish methods of developing the voice.
As to "Master Hughes (sic)," had he been meant for the glorious Bach it were
a shame to me indeed; I had in my mind one of the dry-as-dust imitators who
would elaborate some such subject as
for a dozen pages together. The "mode Palestrina" has no reference to organplaying; it was the name given by old Italian writers on Composition to a certain
simple and severe style like that of the Master; just as, according to Byron,
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Herbert E. Greene
1099
"the word Miltonic means sublime." As for Galuppi, I had once in my possession
two huge manuscript volumes almost exclusively made up of his "Toccatapieces"-apparently a slighter form of the Sonata to be "touched" lightly off.
The sample by Litolf is a more regular and elaborate thing. The "March" by
Avison is his very own,-and, I rather think, exists in the form of a Trio. Avison
was a considerable man in his day; pupil and friend of Gemignani-who maintained he was equal to Handel! I have the "March" in my Father's notation.
All this will show that I have given much attention to music proper-I believe to the detriment of what people take for "music" in poetry, when I had to
consider that quality. For the first effect of apprehending real musicality was to
make me abjure the sing-song which, in my early days, was taken for it. With
repeated thanks, believe me,
Yours sincerely
Robert Browning.
It remains only to remark that a good deal that Browning states in his
letter has been inferred by later scholars;2 it is well to have the matter
in Browning's own words.
HERBERT EVELETH GREENE3
2 See, for example, Griffin and Minchin, Life of Robert Browning (London, 1910), passim;
and DeVane, Browning's Parleyings (New Haven, 1927), Ch. vII, "The Parleying with
to 1925. He died on September 3, 1942. The present paper, in a more extended form,
entitled "An Unpublished Letter by Browning," was read at a meeting of the Modem
Language Association in 1924. The present form of the paper is mainly owing to the edi-
torial work of William Chase Greene, of the Department of Classics of Harvard University,
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