A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Finale

by John Hullah

FINALE. (1) The last movement of a symphony, sonata, concerto, or other instrumental composition. (2) The piece of music with which any of the acts of an opera are brought to a close.

(1) The finales of the first great master of the symphony, Haydn, though developed with extraordinary skill and inexhaustible invention, are mostly of a somewhat playful character. Though their treatment is learned, their subjects are often trite. They are almost uniformly cast in the 'rondo,' as contradistinguished from the 'sonata' form. The finales of more recent masters exhibit a somewhat severer purpose, and are cast in forms for which, seeing their variety, no name has been, or seems likely to be, devised. In the finale to Mozart's so-called 'Jupiter Symphony' every conceivable contrapuntal resource is employed, with a freedom unsurpassed by the greatest masters of fugue, to give effect to ideas such as have been vouchsafed to few other composers. In those of Beethoven the great musical poet goes 'from strength to strength,' and having, as he would seem to have thought, exhausted all the capabilities for effect of the instrumental orchestra, brings the chorus to bear on his latest symphony—a colossal monument of the invention, and command of invention, of its composer; surpassing in scale, variety, and effect all former and indeed subsequent efforts of the kind.

(2) In the earlier operas, of whatever nation, each act was commonly terminated by an aria or at the most duet, constructed rather to exhibit the powers of the singer or singers employed in it, than to carry on or even emphasise the action. The last act was sometimes brought to a close with a chorus, generally brief and always of the simplest character. The finale proper—the great concerted piece in the course of which the interest of each act culminates—is a modern addition to the musical drama, having its origin in the earlier Italian opera buffa of the last century. The principal masters of this delightful variety of musical composition were Leo, Pergolesi, the Italianised German Hasse, and Logroscino; and it is in the operas of the last of these, otherwise greatly distinguished for their inventiveness and spirit, that the finale first appears, though in a somewhat primitive form. To Piccinni its development, if not its perfectionment, is subsequently due. His opera 'La Cecchina, ossia la Buona Figliuola' owed much of its extraordinary popularity to the introduction of finales in which the action was carried on, and which were first enlivened to the ear by the varieties of key and of rhythm given to the successive movements, and to the eye by the entrances and exits of the different persons of the drama.

Two of the finest specimens of this class form large portions of Mozart's 'Nozze di Figaro.' One of them—that to the second or, as it is commonly performed, the first act—consists of no less than eight movements, as various in character as are the nine personages who are concerned in it, and whose several accusations, defences, protests, recriminations, and alternations of success and failure are wrought into a work of musical art which, as has been well said, 'begins on an eminence and rises to the last note.'

The great concerted piece, whether introduced at the end of an act or elsewhere, has not been made an essential feature of modern opera without strong protest; and this by the same writer whose amusing designation of barytones and basses has already been quoted. [Bass.] Lord Mount-Edgecumbe (Musical Reminiscences, Sect, vii.) attributes its introduction to no other cause than the decline of the art of singing, and the consequent necessity for making compensation to the musical hearer for a deficiency of individual excellence by a superfluity of aggregate mediocrity. 'Composers,' he says, 'having (now) few good voices, and few good singers to write for, have been obliged to adapt their compositions to the abilities of those who were to perform in them; and as four, five, or six moderate performers produce a better effect jointly than they could by their single efforts, songs have disappeared, and interminable quartettes, quintettes, sestettos etc. usurp their place.' And again, 'It is evident that in such compositions each individual singer has little room for displaying either a fine voice or good singing, and that power of lungs is more essential than either; very good singers therefore are scarcely necessary, and it must be confessed that though there are now none so good, neither are there many so bad as I remember in the inferior characters. In these levelling days, equalisation has extended itself to the stage and musical profession; and a kind of mediocrity of talent prevails, which, if it did not occasion the invention of these melodramatic pieces is at least very favourable to their execution.' The most extraordinary thing connected with this passage is that it was written half a century after the production of Mozart's 'Nozze di Figaro,' with which the venerable critic was certainly well acquainted. From the most recent form of opera, that of Wagner, the finale, like the air, the duet, the trio or other self-contained movement, has entirely disappeared. Each act may be described as one movement, from the beginning to the end of which no natural pause is to be found, and from which it would be impossible to make a connected, or in itself complete extract. It is difficult to conceive that this 'system' should in its integrity maintain, or attain, extensive popularity; but it will no doubt more or less affect all future musical dramas.

[ J. H. ]