Erinnerungen an Meyerbeer de Oscar Fetrás. Despre cele trei opere-fantezie pentru orchestră de salon
Memories of Meyerbeer by Oscar Fetrás. About the three fantasy operas for salon orchestra

Summary/Abstract: This study shows why and how music was transcribed for salon orchestras and its variants in the decades around 1900, during the development of tourism as a separate branch of music. As an example, three transcriptions for salon orchestra of Giacomo Meyerbeer's operas by the composer Oscar Fetrás from Hamburg, known for the genre of Gebrauchsmusik, are analyzed: the transcriptions of the operas The Prophet, The Huguenots, and L'Africaine, which the author attributed to the genre of 'opera-fantasy'. After some reflections on this musical genre and parallels with other titles such as Erinnerung (memory), Souvenir, Remembrance, Recollection, Réminescence, or Mosaic and their appearances in other musical genres outside salon orchestra music, a detailed investigation of Fetrás's technique follows, starting from his transcription Erinnerung an Meyerbeer’s "Prophet" [Memory of Meyerbeer's "The Prophet"]. The selection and ordering of the numbers, the choice of instrumentation, and changes in the timbral characteristics are discussed, exemplified with an excerpt from the beggar's romance ('O gebt!' – 'Donnez!'), in which the trumpet was given, already by Meyerbeer, perhaps for the first time in opera history, noble feelings, prayers, and laments. The reduction of the opera orchestra to the salon orchestra probably became a model for the sound of the avant-garde ensemble, without its origin in entertainment music ever being revealed.

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