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1877
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SECOND EDITION.
NOVELLO, EWER AND CO.'S MUSIC PRIMERS
EDITED BY DR. STAINER.
THE ELEMENTS
OF THE
BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC
BY
ERNST PAUER
Principal Professor of the Pianoforte at the National Training School for
Music, South Kensington.
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
LONDON: NOVELLO, EWER AND CO.,
I, BERNERS STREET (W.), AND 80 AND 81, QUEEN STREET (E.C.)
BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND PHILADELPHIA:
DITSON AND CO.
Music
ML
3847
P32
1877
NOVELLO, EWER AND CO.,
TYPOGRAPHICAL MUSIC AND GENERAL PRINTERS,
I, BERNERS STREET, LONDON.
PREFACE.
To one who has devoted his life to the study of music, it may
often be a subject of curious consideration, whether the uncon-
scious admiration of a fine work—the unreasoning enthusiasm
for a certain composer-the complacent feeling of enjoyment
produced in the majority of those who listen to masterpieces in
music—may not indeed be a state of mind which it would be cruel
to disturb. But then comes the consideration, how much greater
must be the enjoyment and pleasure derived from a "thing of
beauty” if we are able to analyse the elements of this beauty
and to justify our own admiration! How much our respect for the
composer will increase if, instead of “wondering with a foolish
face of praise," we can understand the relations between the
author and the musical art, and render to ourselves an account
of our enthusiasm, by investigating and appreciating the laws
and rules that govern the Beautiful! This consideration must
impress us with the necessity and usefulness of an analysis of
the Beautiful in Music:
Many volumes have at various times been written on the
nature of Beauty. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Longinus,
Dante, Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Oersted, and many others have
examined the question; and of late, also, much has been written
to throw light on a subject which, although its rules are fixed
and definite, allows a great latitude of personal or relative
4
PREFACE.
opinion. The immediate purpose of this little work is to eluci-
date and illustrate the laws and rules which must be observed in
constructing a really perfect and beautiful musical work of art.
The subject must be divided into three distinct parts, each
of which occupies a large field, and requires an attentive and
careful examination and discussion. It is exhaustively treated
in the valuable work, “ Æsthetics of Music,” by Professor Hand.
The learned professor evolved his theory chiefly from philosophical
principles.
This short treatise is based upon Hand's work; but I have
found it necessary, for practical purposes, to treat the subject from
a more popular point of view, with regard especially to musical
practice.
E. PAUER.
39C, Onslow SQUARE, LONDON, S.W., 1877.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
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7
t
FORMAL BEAUTY
9
1
រ
1
CHARACTERISTIC BEAUTY
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19
IDEAL BEAUTY
1
37
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1
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
In everything that concerns musical art, we have to recognise
three especial points: a free form, a full and vigorous life, and
an ideal animation. We may call these the three constituent
elements of the art. But we have not to consider these parts as
three different principles, but as comprising and containing one
principle only. This principle is also to be regarded from three
different points of view, according to the three elements, which,
taken together, constitute a perfect work of art. Every produc-
tion of art must first of all be considered as a thing, and con-
sequently as having a form; secondly, it is to be considered as
a separate thing, and consequently as possessing its own separate
and individual character; and, thirdly, it must be considered in
reference to a general motive or design, in so far as it originates
or reproduces an idea, which it has partly or wholly incorporated.
A beautiful work of art must necessarily possess perfection of
appearance or form, reality, and an ideal life. We therefore
recognise a threefold beauty--that of form, of character, and of
idea, The essence of formal beauty is harmony; that of charac-
teristic beauty, expression, and that of ideal beauty, power of
imagination, which latter accordingly is designated by the term
ideality. The possession of this ideality, united to a love of the
beautiful, is, in its higher development, one of the chief con-
stituents of creative genius. A real and perfect work of art
results from the union of these three elements or qualities, and
not one of them can be dispensed with ; but according as one or
another may preponderate, or appear in greater prominence, we
judge of the peculiar or specific quality of any separate work.
Where these elements are found in the highest perfection, they
reciprocally influence each other in equal proportions; and then
only do those three chief elements of the Beautiful—the formal,
the characteristic, and the ideal appear thoroughly in accordance.
We have now to examine the nature of these three musical
qualities or elements; and we proceed in the first place to con-
sider the subject of Formal Beauty
و
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
I.
as
or
FORMAL BEAUTY.
We designate as “formal” that beauty in which we recognise
the perfection of construction. The word formal is here em-
!
ployed in the sense of “belonging to form," and not
synonymous with "conventional " constrained." This free
form must be built upon a systematic and well-laid foundation;
there must be a perfect unity, harmony, and proportion of all
the component parts; and thus the work will be endued with
a harmonious life. Mere mechanical dexterity, without intellec-
tual activity and genius, will result in a regularity, confined to
the outward appearance of the work, and perhaps mathematically
faultless and correct, but yet destitute of beauty. We may take
for instance the most correctly constructed exercises in harmony
or thorough-bass-they will certainly not impress the hearer
with the feeling of beauty; just as a regular combination of
mathematical lines would not necessarily constitute a pleasing
drawing or a graceful design. Any one who desires to see a good
example of regularity, correctness, and excellent workmanship,
may find it in the fugues of Albrechtsberger, at one time the
teacher of Beethoven; but for beauty let these mechanical pro-
ductions be compared, or rather contrasted, with the fugues of
Sebastian Bach. The impression of formal beauty emanates
from an inward consciousness and appreciation of order,
symmetry, and proportion in a work. This feeling of order
must be an instinct with the composer, and must be felt by the
hearer; unconsciously indeed, but in such a complete degree
that the sense is thoroughly satisfied, and the hearer feels no
desire to examine or to measure the work in the way of testing
the rules, or analysing the method of construction. So soon as
there arises in the hearer the desire to investigate the correctness
and the systematic observance of the rules, the composition
may be called regular, but certainly cannot be called positively
IU
THE ELEMENTS OF
and undeniably beautiful; it lacks the spirit of freedom, of in-
dependence, inseparable from beauty.
Were we, for instance, to divide the surface of a statue into
squares, its beauty would certainly vanish; and very similar
would be the result were we to reduce a sonata of Beethoven
into mere numbers: we should simply miss its beauty. It is not
the aim of music to become a demonstration of mathematical
power; it ought to be. and to remain poetry in sounds. This maxim
we especially recognise in fugues, a form which originally
depends on abstract rules; and yet such men as Sebastian
Bach understood how to infuse into these apparently mechanical
works a spirit of freedom and beauty, so that we admire the
performance, and are actually not aware that we are listening to
a work eminently representative of the scientific or mathematical
part of music. Bach in his fugues compels the sounds to obey his
will; whilst in other fugues the sounds, so to speak, bear away
the composer as a helpless prisoner, compelled to follow them.
A piece of music may be constructed with such absolute
beauty of form that the sense of order and symmetry will be
pleased, though the heart of the hearer is not warmed or elevated
by it; just as an essay may be written with such exquisite
elegance, clearness, and polish of style that we admire it for
these merits, and yet do not feel a higher interest in the contents
of the work. An example is seen in Hummel's celebrated Duet-
Sonata in A flat. It is a model of perfection as regards smoothness
and harmony of form, and yet it leaves us cold and unimpressed.
Correctness can only be raised to beauty by the addition of
variety, of diversity, and by appearing in different phases and
degrees; a composition that is devoid of this diversity of thought
will remain, as Pope designated many of the productions of his
contemporaries, “correctly dull and regularly low."
duet, which moves only in thirds or sixths, might possess the
merit of being set according to rule, but certainly would not
rouse our interest, or be agreeable to our æsthetic feeling. The
desire in the hearer to measure, to examine the form, must be
charmed away by the genius of the composer., The hearer must
intuitively feel the presence of rule and order, without desiring to
analyse them; and yet, were we to analyse or dissect a sonata of
Mozart or Beethoven, we should be astonished to find how all
the free movement that delights us is kept within the rigorous
Thus a
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
II
bounds of strict and well-defined rule. Here the intellect does
not feel the necessity of analysis ; the hearer's sympathy is
roused and maintained by the excellence of the composition.
Who would measure the lines of Shakespeare with a foot-rule
to see if each contained the correct number of long and short
syllables? This magnetic attraction, this power of enchaining
attention, is a mysterious gift, and can only be described as the
irresistible sway exercised by genius. A discordant element be-
comes perceptible when a single part fails to harmonise with the
others; then the hearer's feeling of symmetry is disturbed. A
spasmodic use of discords, for instance, badly prepared and
unnecessarily repeated, will produce a disagreeable impression;
whilst a proper and rational use of discords, and their alternation
with concords, will gratify the ear, as the natural expression of a
pleasing, and indeed an indispensable contrast. It is the antithesis
of the discord and concord which fascinates and charms the ear;
it is the necessary solution and the return to unity which delights
us. In this juxtaposition of opposites the true and accurate
feeling of the composer finds its chief exponent; and here the
true musician detects and seizes a ready opportunity to display
the natural refinement of his art.
A perfect musical work could not exist without the use of
discords ; for these appear not only as a welcome relief, but as
an actual necessity, to bring out the concord in full power, and
rightly to display its importance. The experienced artist can
thus with truth say that the discordant material under his hand
becomes the chief ingredient of the beautiful.
Formal beauty does not strive to free itself from the just
responsibilities and the salutary limitation of order and rule, but
merely tries to eliminate the tyrannical element that confines
and oppresses. Where fancy does not recognise any limit or
any order, it loses itself in cloudy indistinctness, and appears at
last unhealthy or even absurd; on the other hand, where the rule
is obtrusively predominant, the impression will be that of
pedantry and stiffness. Thus Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart
were so intimately acquainted with the laws of the beautiful, and
at the same time so convinced of the indispensableness of order
and rule, that their fancy was always under the dominion of
these laws, even in their boldest flights of originality.
In music, formal beauty can only, appear in movement, in
I 2
THE ELEMENTS OF
progression; a single tone may be agreeable in itself, but taken
alone is not beautiful: a single chord may be euphonious, but
does not constitute music: only when tones and chords are
blended together in union, the whole will gain life, and a
musical entity will be formed. Even a single melody is not,
strictly speaking, expressive of formal beauty; but it becomes an
important element of the beautiful, and receives a more distinct
importance, when it is combined with harmonies and incorpo-
rated in the whole. If a melody is to connect itself harmoniously
with the structure of the whole piece, it is important to consider
relation and contrast of key. The less harmonisation a melody
requires to appear beautiful, the stronger will be its natural and
independent charm. When a melody requires many changes of
harmony to appear interesting and fascinating, it is in itself feeble
and unsatisfactory. Still, no rule is without an exception.
There are some melodies, so complete and perfect in themselves,
that they are sufficient to satisfy the craving for the beautiful,
without external ornament, and appear as instances of the axiom,
Beauty unadorned, adorned the most.”
The harmonious changes and modulations in general, and the
ideas as to the conditions under which they may be considered
beautiful, have undergone important variations. Modulations
which appeared to our forefathers as harsh, unnatural, and
illogical, are readily accepted in our time, and are received with-
out the least hesitation. No strict rule as to the correctness or
incorrectness of certain modulations can be laid down; the
natural and instinctive feeling of the refined hearer is always the
best criterion; and Rossini's remark, " that what pleased his
ears he considered good and correct," is in his case very apt and
just. Real taste and true genius will never accept anything that
is against the law of nature. It may be considered as an advan-
tage that diversity of opinion and feeling exists in matters of
taste. This diversity does not preclude the existence of necessary
and rigid rules, to which even the most tolerant ear will pay
unconscious homage.
In modulations there ought to be at least one tone, which
acts, so to say, as the thread uniting it with the next. Another
requirement for clearness and beauty is a well-balanced and
natural relation of the melody to the bass ; for the bass is the
root of the harmony which forms its foundation and support;
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
13
therefore the composer will always treat it with due respect; but
he will, on the other hand, be careful not to crush or drown the
melody, or to retard its movement and interfere with its vitality
by too great a prominence or monotony of the bass.
The melodious movement forms groups which are called
figures; and in these figures various new melodies arise in a
completely free and natural manner. The good taste and sound
feeling of a composer is shown in the fact, that he will always
keep in view the important principal theme or subject. A good
composer uses the so-called tributary or companion melodies in
a certain definite order. He arranges them in proportion to
their respective interest, value, and beauty. No composer illus-
trates this maxim by such excellent and wonderful examples and
models as we find in Beethoven; to mention only two among
a great number, I would indicate his Quartett in F major
(Op. 59), and his great Trio in B flat (Op. 97).
Too great a prominence of subordinate figures will destroy
the beauty of the composition, and interfere with the adjustment
of the necessary balance. The too great prevalence and repeti-
tion of figures in our modern compositions is a serious blot in
modern music. The figure, used with taste and discrimination,
is one of the readiest means of introducing beauty and charm
into music; and no pleasure can be greater or more genuine than
the delight of observing the gradual growth and development of
figures out of the principal theme, and the appreciation of the
important part they play in succession-how they enrich, vary,
and consolidate the principal subject. This development resembles
the organic growth and enlargement of a plant that unfolds its
leaves and blossoms into beauty.
We find that figures-even more than harmony and melody-
are subject to the influence of time, and to the variations of
taste. If we examine an old piece of music, and are inclined to
pronounce it obsolete or antiquated, we shall generally perceive
that the antiquated nature shows itself more in the figures
(which the French called most aptly broderies) than in the
harmonies or in the melody. Many a piece of Handel, Corelli, or
Scarlatti, sounds old-fashioned, whilst it possesses a vigorous
and not antiquated substance, which, however, is surrounded
with figures that grate harshly upon our present taste. In fact,
the figure is the garb in which the composer clothes his thought.
I
THE ELEMENTS OF
It is exceedingly difficult to define precisely and appropriately
the meaning and the office of a leading musical idea. The art of
music belongs to the realm of feeling; the leading idea may be
called a tone-picture which portrays a certain emotion, and
which, as every part of it admits of different associations, is
capable of very varied development. We call an idea poor when
it consists of tones. put together at random or by mere chance,
and therefore wanting in that intellectual life which alone is able
to excite our interest and
sympathy.
As the principal idea is the starting-point of the entire
composition, like the text given out for a sermon, the composer
has to be careful to observe in it all the requirements of the
beautiful. If the composer relies only on the laws of harmony,
the consequence will be mere grammatical correctness, and
nothing more; it is necessary that not only the composition be
correct, but that beauty should pervade it. The principal idea,
and the piece which results from it, must show a free form and
an independent life, within harmoniously constructed and well-
ordered conditions. All that has to be seized by our intellectual
faculties, everything regular and systematic, should have free
scope in the work: a certain life must be breathed into the
whole. What was rigid ought to flow, what was cold and lifeless
to breathe; intellectual life ought to be everywhere noticeable.
In some of the modern pieces, instead of healthy and substantial
ideas, there appears a vacuum, which affords an opportunity for
the introduction of those elaborate passages in a barren work,
which Beethoven used sarcastically to term “gymnastic evolu-
tions." It is in the change of tones, in their height and depth,
in their increasing and decreasing force, in the melodious con-
nection of the respective periods and phrases, in figures and in
harmonies, in the rhythmical movement, that the composer show
his aptitude to treat the chief idea in an artistic form, and to
present the whole as a picture in which measure and freedom
appear simultaneously; so that the pleased auditor recognises
with delight the unity of different elements. Even in their
indispensable contrast the component parts ought to incline
towards each other; they may appear to be in contradiction, but
each has its appropriate place in the organisation of the whole,
and nothing is left to mere chance.
It is exceedingly interesting to observe how in musical
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
15
as
composition we meet with forms identical with those the literary
writer introduces into his work, and which are commonly known
figures and devices.” In music synonyms may be said to
occur in the varied expression of tones, whose signification is
identical ;-epithet there appears as a more detailed expression,
or an elaboration of a figure ;-inversion-in the variation in
sequence to previously expressed form ;-the “asyndeton”
appears as the unconnected sequence;-the " hyperbaton » in
the succession of various parts in apparent disorder, in repeti-
tions of groups, and phrases, in gradations towards a higher
phase or tone, in inclination towards the profound ;-the
"aposiopesis” in the suddenly interrupted sequence ;--the
"parenthesis” in the interpolation of a new phrase into a
passage already complete in itself. All these means of expression
belong to the formal beauty, although some critics considered
them as part of the characteristic expression. Thus, great com-
posers have been blamed for what are called faults, but are in
reality rather merits; at least, they are certainly not errors.
Beethoven, for instance, has been censured for passing, in the
scherzo of the Pastoral Symphony, from the key of F major
into that of D major, without any preparation; he has likewise
been found fault with for the stationary bass of the scherzo, and
for the change of three-four time into that of two-four, which
change occurs in the beginning of the trio. But these remarkable
features are certainly not faults. Beethoven has here merely put
the characteristic expression into the foreground; and, without
disturbing the balance or the symmetry of his formal structure, he
infuses into his piece a jovial and rustic expression; indeed, he
penetrates it with a thoroughly pastoral character and tone.
Another example is found in a composer who excelled in the
power of wonderfully combining the formal with the characteristic
beauty-namely, Sebastian Bach. In his dance-tunes, which
we find scattered through his so-called French and English
suites and partitas, the allemandes, courantes, sarabandes,
gavottes, bourrées, and gigues, we struck with the
highly finished, thoroughly rounded, and polished form; whilst
at the same time they also express in the happiest manner
the characteristic features of their respective nationalities.
The simplicity and the perfect unvarnished truthfulness in which
these little masterpieces of Bach speak to us, have sometimes
are
16
THE ELEMENTS OF
been mistaken for meagreness and poverty, whilst they are in
reality the highest proof of a correct and accurate feeling. In
listening to our great master's works, we are often surprised at
the agreeable feeling of comfort and ease, of equanimity and
calmness, which mingles with the entertainment and pleasure
they afford; this agreeable feeling of contentment and genuine
satisfaction is in no small degree owing to the innate order,
the plastic roundness, which exists in these works. The ear
feels unconsciously the exactitude and regularity with which the
different parts, phrases, and sentences follow each other; just as
the eye is pleased with the symmetrical dimensions, the exact
proportions of a building, though it may be difficult definitely to
analyse the pleasure this harmony of proportion affords.
Equally with the sequence of tones, the rhythmical form is
subject to the rules of formal beauty ; but in so far as rhythm, in
which the tones appear and obtain significance, is bound to a
systematic law or necessity, which we call measure or time,
symmetry, to produce a good and beautiful effect, must evince
itself in a free unrestricted movement; and the even proportions
must enter into manifold combinations in such a way, that in
the form given by rhythm, strict and limited though it be, we re-
cognise an intellectual life. We may take, for instance, the scherzo .
of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony; its movement is exceed-
ingly quick, and the rhythmical design the simplest possible--
three crotchets in a bar. At first the attention is arrested by the
rhythmical beat, and we listen with pleasure to that neat,
accurate, and industrious pulse, which seems redolent with young
life. But if Beethoven continued this quick repeated beat for
any length of time, we should soon be tired by the monotony,
and our interest would flag. But he makes it by degrees appear
that this limited rhythm enlarges itself to greater dimensions ;
four bars are combined into one effect, and thus the ear is
relieved from the narrow form, and we enter a wider field. After
a time we have again forgotten this last rhythmical design, and
are fascinated by the gradations of the harmonies, by the clever
alternation of the effects produced by the different groups of
wind and stringed instruments, which take up the theme alter-
nately; indeed, a variety of interesting features work upon our
intellectual faculties, which are delighted, refreshed, and fasci-
nated by the constant change which appears here in music, like
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
17
the prismatic sparkle in a diamond. Such treatment is the best
proof of a free and independent movement. A mere repetition of
the same figure must needs lead to monotony, and fatigue the
hearer.
The consideration of the beauty that may be imparted by the
performer to a musical work forms a very important part of the
subject. Every violation of the laws of rhythm naturally exercises
an injurious effect upon melody and harmony, and may even, if
such violation appears in prominent degree, result in the destruc-
tion of a musical work of art. But on the other hand, the
performance ought not to lack a legitimate freedom and inde-
pendence, within the bounds of rule, as shown in the measure or
bar. Freedom of time must not be confounded with licence, or
with disregard of time; for freedom is the highest perfection or
the ideal of legality and order, while licence leads to disorder and
anarchy. The alteration or dislocation of time at random, merely
to suit and please the whim of an individual-or intended, in clap-
trap fashion, to obtain by such extravagances the credit of an
original reading-is inartistic and inadmissible, and shows a
lamentable want of proper respect for the work to be interpreted.
As the syncopation, which means an inversion of the order of
notes, or a prolonging of a note begun on the unaccented part
of one bar, to the next bar, belongs to the domain of rhythm, it
follows that it is also one of the component parts of formal beauty.
The real and proper application of the syncopation is to be found
in the domain of the characteristic.
In conclusion, it must be borne in mind that the chief ingredient
of formal beauty is harmony. This word harmony comprises in
its entirety all that we have to recognise and to remember con-
cerning formal beauty. Lord Bacon says: “Equality and cor-
respondence are the causes of harmony;"_and if we take up
any sonata of Mozart or Beethoven, or any quartett or sym-
phony of our great composers, we shall find that equality reigns
in all the component parts, and that each phrase, sentence,
modulation, &c., corresponds exactly, and in the most natural
and complete manner with its predecessors; and thus harmony
results. Goethe says truly : “ Every form, even the most pleas-
ing, has something untrue in itself; but form is, after all, the
glass in which we collect the sacred rays of diffused nature, and
bring them together to kindle a fire in the hearts of mankind."
B
18
THE ELEMENTS OF
Perfection of form is the result of perseverance and of the earnest
study of masters, whose characteristics every successor should
try to understand as soon as possible. It would be an incorrect
idea of originality, if every one were expected to grope about in
his own way after new forms, to re-discover perhaps in an imper-
fect way what we possess already in the greatest perfection. By
study the form is transmitted and imitated, and will perhaps be
improved and purified ; and thus we recognise progress in art.
Mozart improved the form used by Haydn ; Beethoven enlarged
upon the form used by Mozart. If this were not the case, every
one would have to begin anew ; but “art is long and time is
fleeting," and therefore it is advisable to husband our powers,
and to avail ourselves of what our predecessors have done for us.
To seek progress only in new forms, is a doubtful practice.
Goethe, in his practical and clear manner, says truly :
• Genius
conceives and understands the importance of form at once; and
it submits to its rules willingly and ungrudgingly. Only the
smatterer, only the pretender, misled by vanity, will desire to
substitute his limited peculiarity for the unconditional whole,
and to excuse his wrong maxims under the plea of an irresistible
feeling of originality and independence.”
In music, where the sounds pass rapidly before our ear, a
vigorous, decided, and concise form is an indispensable necessity,
if the hearer is to receive and retain a definite impression of the
whole and an insight into the working of a composition; so that
he may even recognise the smallest traits and what appear at
first the most insignificant parts of a composition. No better
advice can be given to the student than that he should take one
of our great masterpieces, and carefully and conscientiously
analyse it, reducing the composition to a skeleton, divesting it of
all its elaboration and ornament, and striving to understand what
are the most necessary and indispensable conditions of its
existence. The student will thus become convinced that order
and symmetry are the chief requisites of a production, whose aim
is to afford a lasting satisfaction to the intelligent hearer. Such
study, such careful and conscientious examination and investiga-
tion, will richly repay the trouble which it costs; and the result
will be not only satisfactory to the student's sense of order but
will afford him an insight into the depths and secret ways of the
musical art which he could in no other way have obtained.
!
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
19
II.
CHARACTERISTIC BEAUTY.
IX
In Formal Beauty we recognise the first principle of the musical
art; but taken alone it does not appear sufficient to fulfil all the
conditions of a perfect work. The characteristic element is
absolutely necessary, to infuse into the formal beauty that interest
which alone gives it life and animation.
life and animation. The characteristic
feature may be defined as that which marks or expresses the
distinctive qualities of a person or of a thing. The law of
characteristic beauty is expression and feeling, and these are the
qualities that impart interest and importance to a work. Charac-
teristic expression is therefore a highly important feature in the
beautiful, and can on no account be dispensed with ; for in a work
it is the life and soul. Defects in the rules of formal beauty are this
of less importance than the want of characteristic expression.
No composer illustrates this assertion better and more clearly in
his works than the general favourite C. M. von Weber,—who, by
no means perfect in regard to formal beauty, is still endowed with
a great and undeniable fascination, and that simply through the
fervour and animation of his characteristic expression.
In music, the innermost feelings of the composer are displayed ;
and in so far as the characteristic is founded on the individual X
or personal feeling, an original composition must in itself be
characteristic. The characteristic shows itself by means of the
tones and intervals, and finds expression through the minor and
majør keys, through the time and movement, through the accent,
the rest, the figures, and passages, and last, but not least,
through the melody. The high notes generally express the more
lively and the brighter emotions of the soul; yet these higher
notes may also portray anxiety, and even despair ; whilst the
lower notes express solemnity, calmness, dignity, and earnest-
ness, a certain resignation, and an intense though chastened
grief. There is also a physical reason for the more sedate and
quiet expression in the deeper notes: namely, the slower
vibration of the strings, which necessitates a slower progress of
the harmonies or figures. If brilliant passages, intended for the
ve
zmay
B 2
20
THE ELEMENTS OF
violin, were played on a tenor, we should be astonished at the
complete change of character produced, and at the loss of
brightness and distinctness that would ensue; and the same
impression would be made, if songs intended by the composer for
a soprano voice were sung by a contralto. If we turn to the
intervals, we shall find that the fifth may be regarded as the
centre, although it does not possess any characteristic expression
except when associated with the third. The third is certainly
the most important interval with respect to characteristic
expression ;—it decides the expression, and renders it either
cheerful or melancholy.' The major third expresses power,
quietness, and grandeur, concord and contentment; the minor
third, on the other hand, gives an idea of tenderness, grief, and
romantic feeling. Although both thirds, major and minor, are
full of expression, a frequent repetition of them, or parallel
sequences, will result in monotony. If the third is given an
octave higher, or as a tenth, its expression is that of calmness
and dignity. The fourth expresses doubt and uncertainty, the
seventh a longing for a solution; the second lacks a definite
expression, whilst the diminished second sounds harsh; the
expression of the sixth, major and minor, is almost identical
with that of the third. The expression of a single chord is
certainly not a grand one ; although we may recognise in the
major triad perfection and clearness, determination and solidity.
The diminished triad-
态 ​&
expresses indecision and doubt, and, like the interval of the
seventh, seems to demand a solution. The triad, in its first
position, appearing, namely, as a chord of the sixth, shows
greater brightness and grandeur ; whilst the chord ending with
the seventh is full of boldness and vigour, and requires a
solution, like the seventh as a single interval.
It would lead us too far, in a work like the present, to attempt
to point out the characteristic expression of every chord; but it
is certainly necessary to remark on the different character or
expression apparent in the various keys.
The key is in music what colour is in painting. The key fur-
nishes the tone to the piece; and if we desire to be impartial
and conscientious judges, we ought always, particularly in the
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
21
/
case of songs, which for the convenience of singers are so often
transposed, to inquire what was the original key in which the
composer wrote his work. To give only one short example,
Mendelssohn's celebrated song “ Auf Flügeln des Gesanges
("On Song's bright pinions"), originally written in the key of A flat
for a mezzo-soprano, loses its characteristic expression by being
sung in F major, as adapted for a contralto. The different
character of the various keys was already recognised by Plato
and Aristotle, who both speak of keys which act in an enervating
way, and of others which exert an awakening and invigorating
influence on the human mind. We may take it for granted that
every key has, to a certain extent, its particular domain, in
which it reigns with a decided supremacy, and in which it satis-
factorily expresses its individual character.
The proper choice of the key is of the utmost importance for
the success of a musical work; and we find that our great com-
posers acted in this matter with consummate prudence and with
careful circumspection. It would not be hypercritical, were we
to recognise in the greater frequence of the use of a certain key
a predilection or idiosyncrasy of the composer. Thus we find
that Beethoven was undoubtedly partial to the key of C; for
when we look in the catalogue of his works and count his
sonatas, duet-sonatas, quartetts, quintetts, overtures, symphonies,
we find that he wrote twenty-five works in the key of C, fifteen
in that of E flat, thirteen in that of F, thirteen in that of G, eleven
in the key of D and A flat, nine in A, eight in B flat, five in E, three
in C sharp, and only a solitary one in F sharp. In examining
the thematic catalogue of Mozart's works, we find that most of
his compositions are written in the keys of C, G, F, D, and B
flat. Again, an examination of the keys used for slow move-
ments will show us that Beethoven, more particularly in his first
compositions, had a predilection for the key of A flat, and Mozart
for that of F major.
Major keys express chiefly joy, power, brightness of feeling;
but they are also able to portray, in a highly effective manner,
a quiet and melancholy expression; and lend themselves readily
to depict seriousness, dignity, and grandeur. Examples: the
aria " Dove sono " in " Le Nozze di Figaro," Donna Anna's
great scena and aria in F major in “ Don Giovanni," and the
great air of Agatna,“ Softly sighs," in " Der Freischütz."
५
22
THE ELEMENTS OF
The expression of the minor keys is. of an indefinite and
suggestive character. Minor keys are chosen for expressing
intense seriousness, soft melancholy, longing, sadness, and
passionate grief; their colour may be called sombre, and when
compared with that of the major keys, appears somewhat pale.
The minor keys appeal directly to the feelings, but after some
time, have a somewhat debilitating effect; after a lengthened
minor, we rejoice once again to hear the major, which brings
with it renewed vigour and freshness. The songs of the Northern
nations, even the most joyous ones, are set in the minor keys.
In one respect this seems to be an anomaly; and yet it can
easily be explained. Partly it is the expression of sadness, of a
people held in political serfdom; partly it emanates from the
grave and melancholy character of the scenes amid which their
lot is cast.
When the composer has chosen his key, he will be careful to
handle it in such a manner that it does not attain too great a
prominence, which would result in monotony, and cause fatigue
and lack of interest in the listener ; but he will manage to suffuse
his work with the special characteristics of the key, which is thus
made to glimmer or shine through the piece without asserting
itself with undue strength. No better examples of such abso-
lutely perfect and artistic treatment of the key could be found
than that which we admire in Mozart's Symphony in G minor,
in Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, and in the “Overture to
the Hebrides” by Mendelssohn.
The task of marshalling different keys in a certain order,
according to their characteristic qualities, is not only a matter of
great difficulty but almost of impossibility, inasmuch as it cannot
be denied that one composer detects in a certain key qualities
which have remained entirely hidden from another. Mozart's
Symphony in E flat is in no other way related to Beethoven's
Eroica Symphony than that both are set in the key of E flat.
And yet it cannot be denied that each key possesses distinctive
characteristic qualities. If we maintain, for instance, that the
“sharp" keys have a brighter, a more lively, and a fresher
expression than those in flats, we lay down a rule which
admits of many exceptions. All that we can safely do is to
name the characteristic qualities of the keys as we deduce their
characteristic expression from universally admired and accepted
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
23
masterpieces: and thus we need not fear to misstate or to
misapprehend the bearings of the subject.
C major expresses feeling in a pure, certain, and decisive
manner. It is furthermore expressive of innocence, of a power-
ful resolve, of manly earnestness, and deep religious feeling.
Examples : Mozart's aria " Dove sono" is redolent of pure
feeling; his aria " Vedrai carino" is full of innocence ;
so is the “ Chorus of the Maidens” in Weber's “ Der Freischütz."
Beethoven's Quintett (Op. 29) is full of manly earnestness, and
Mendelssohn's air “Oh rest in the Lord” is expressive of the
deepest religious feeling. Powerful resolve and manly earnest-
ness shine forth in every note of the finale of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony, in Haydn's “The heavens are telling," and in
Mendelssohn's “ Lauda Sion."
C minor is expressive of softness, longing, and sadness; also of
earnestness and a passionate intensity. At the same time C
minor lends itself most effectively to the portraiture of the super-
natural; as Weber has shown in the famous Incantation scene
in “Der Freischütz.” Examples: Schubert's “The Maiden's
Lament” expresses a soft longing; the first movement of
Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, and his Overture to
“Coriolanus," convey through the key the impression of
intensity and passion; the Funeral March of the Eroica
Symphony impresses the listener by the solemnity and the dig-
nified earnestness of the sombre key.
G major, that favourite key of youth, expresses sincerity of
faith, quiet love, calm meditation, simple grace, pastoral life, and
a certain humour and brightness. Examples: the well-known
air" But the Lord,” from Mendelssohn's “St. Paul,” breathes true
sincerity of faith; Don Ottavio's second air in “ Don Giovanni”
is expressive of quiet and devoted love; Mozart's Andante in
six-eight time, from his Symphony in D major, is entirely
characteristic of a calm and peaceful meditation ; the same
master's Finale from his celebrated String Quintett in G minor is
a model of unadorned, genuine gracefulness; Rossini's “Ranz
des Vaches,” in his Overture to “Guillaume Tell,” and Haydn's
first chorus in the Spring” of his
“
Seasons" give us
splendid instances of faithful portraiture of pastoral life; the
Finale of Beethoven's Fourth Concerto for the Piano affords an
illustration of quaint humour; and as an unrivalled example
24
THE ELEMENTS OF
of brightness we have Handel's chorus “ See the conquering
hero comes."
G minor expresses sometimes sadness, sometimes, on the
other hand, quiet and sedate joy—a gentle grace with a slight
touch of dreamy melancholy—and occasionally it rises to a
romantic elevation. It effectively portrays the sentimental; and
when used for expressing passionate feelings the sweetness of
its character will deprive the passion of all harshness and
fierceness. Examples: Mozart's Symphony in G minor,
Mendelssohn's sweet barcarole in the first book of his “ Songs
without Words," and Spohr's beautiful air “Onori militari," in
his opera “Jessonda.” This process of enumeration would result
in a somewhat lengthy and confusing catalogue; therefore I will
merely state the qualities of the remaining keys, without supple-
menting them by examples.
D major expresses majesty, grandeur, and pomp, and adapts
itself well to triumphal processions, festival marches, and pieces
in which stateliness is the prevailing feature.
D minor expresses a subdued feeling of melancholy, grief,
anxiety, and solemnity.
A major, full of confidence and hope, radiant with love, and
redolent of simple genuine cheerfulness, excels all the other keys
in portraying sincerity of feeling. Almost every composer of
note has breathed his sincerest and sweetest thoughts in that
favourite key.
A minor is expressive of tender, womanly feeling; it is at the
same time most effective for exhibiting the quiet melancholy
sentiment of Northern nations, and, curiously enough, lends
itself very readily to the description of Oriental character, as
shown in Boleros and Mauresque serenades. But A minor also
expresses sentiments of devotion mingled with pious ſesignation.
E major, the brightest and most powerful key, expresses joy,
magnificence, splendour, and the highest brilliancy.
E minor represents grief, mournfulness, and restlessness of spirit.
B major, a key but seldom used, expresses in fortissimo
boldness and pride; in pianissimo purity and the most perfect
clearness.
B minor, that very melancholy key, tells of a quiet expecta-
tion and patient hope. It has often been observed that nervous
persons will sooner be affected by that key than by any other.
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
25
F sharp major sounds brilliant and exceedingly clear; as G
flat major it expresses softness coupled with richness.
Fsharp minor, that dark, mysterious, and spectral key, is at
the same time full of passion.
C sharp major is scarcely ever used; as D flat major it is
remarkable for its fulness of tone, and its sonorousness and
euphony. It is the favourite key for Notturnos.
D flat minor, only used as C sharp ininor, is undoubtedly the
most intensely melancholy key.
A flat major is full of feeling, and replete with a dreamy ex-
pression.
A flat minor adapts itself well to funeral marches, and is full
of a sad and almost heart-rending expression ; in it we seem to
hear the wailing of an oppressed and sorrowing heart.
E flat major is the key which boasts the greatest variety of
expression. At once serious and solemn, it is the exponent of
courage and determination, and gives to the piece a brilliant,
firm, and dignified character. It may be designated as emi-
nently a masculine key.
E flat minor is the darkest, most sombre key of all. It is but
rarely used.
B flat major, the favourite key of our classical composers, has
an open, frank, clear, and bright character, which also admits the
expression of quiet contemplation.
B flat minor, a key full of gloomy and sombre feeling, like E
flat minor, is but seldom used.
F major is at once full of peace and joy, but also expresses
effectively a light, passing regret-a mournful, but not a deeply
sorrowful feeling. It is, moreover, available for the expression
of religious sentiment.
F minor, a harrowing key, is especially full of melancholy, at
times rising into passion.
Some persons may have remarked the fact that our older
masters wrote in a few keys only, and abstained from using keys
with many sharps or flats. The reason for this abstinence was
a mechanical one, and resulted from the imperfect state of the
instruments in their time; the pieces also had to be adapted to
the very imperfect technical execution of the orchestral per-
formers. To thoroughly appreciate the true relation of the
different keys with their various sentiments and feelings, no
26
THE ELEMENTS OF
be
better example for study could be named than · Beethoven's series
of songs, “An die entfernte Geliebte."! In this marvellous
work Beethoven has bequeathed to us a true psychological study
expressed in sounds. Nothing is here left to chance; the sense
of the words finds its truest expression in the well-selected
character of the keys. Another study much to be recommended
is the practice of transposing any favourite piece from its
original key into another, to discover the difference of the effect.
Another interesting study is that of different settings of the same
words by various composers. We shall often find that the
general character of a key may be changed by peculiarities and
idiosyncrasies of the composer; and thus a key may appear to
possess a cheerful character in the hands of one writer, whilst
another composer infuses into it a melancholy expression; all
depends on the treatment, on the individual feeling of the
composer, and on his acute understanding of all the different
characteristic qualities of the key he employs. The modulations
from one key into another depend very much upon the intensity
of feeling in the composer. In this respect composers may
compared with painters, some of whom require brighter, some
quieter colours, to portray their subject with perfect truth. In
national songs, for example, we perceive but a limited use of
modulations; and even the most gifted composers, whose
command over all the artistic means and resources is absolutely
supreme, will, if they write in the mode of national songs, limit
themselves to the most simple harmonies, and to a sparing use
of modulations, so as truly and faithfully to preserve the
national tone.
In so far as the words of the song are a decided form of
expression, vocal music requires only a moderate use of modula-
tions; instrumental music depends much more on modulations,
and, indeed, cannot dispense with their liberal use. But in this
respect also we have to admire the wise moderation of our great
composers, who were well aware that a too frequent use of
modulations produces unsteadiness, indistinctness, and ultimate
confusion.
The judicious and thoughtful composer will always know how
to combine truth of expression with beauty of form, although
too great an anxiety to render formal beauty prominent may
sometimes weaken the immediate effect of the characteristic
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
27
X
!
expression; and for this reason we find that the best composers
of instrumental music are not always the most successful
writers of vocal music, and more particularly of songs.
We now have to examine the relations of the rhythmical to
characteristic beauty. The rhythmical movement of music has
to be considered as an expression of our inner life. Thus, as
movement is always associated with physical life, certain phases
of the life of the soul, of our inner consciousness, may be illus-
trated or described by music. It is natural and evident that such
illustrations are represented by different kinds of rhythmical
expression. The hearer feels sympathetically all that gives
a characteristic importance and expression to the rhythm. We
call the rhythm characteristic when it expresses in a correct and
truthful manner the particular or especial feeling; and the
rhythmical expression becomes characteristically beautiful when
it is expressed in a free and intellectual manner.
In the commonest forms of musical expressions, in national
dances, and in some of the national songs, we meet with an
ordinary and rough kind of rhythmical expression. Even
children, marching to or from school, or holding hands as they
move round in a circle, instinctively keep time in their song.
But here we must admire how this primitive and uncouth form
of musical expression has been improved and refined by the
genius of our composers. Although almost all our great writers
have done something towards bringing this rhythmical portion
of their art to perfection, we must accord the highest praise in
this department to Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, all of whom
undoubtedly show in their works the greatest variety of rhythmi-
cal life.
The rhythmical movement exhibits itself in the emphasis, in
the measure or bar, and in the time or movement. Generally speak-
ing, the even measures, two-eight, two-four, and common time,
appear more concentrated and precise than the uneven time of
three-eight, and three-four, which express a vague and less intense
feeling. The common or even time lends itself readily to the
representation of passion and excitement; but on the other
hand it is also expressive of quiet meditation or contemplation.
Compare the most celebrated slow movements of Beethoven
with each other, and it will be found that those written in two-
four or common time express in a greater degree that peaceful
28
THE ELEMENTS OF
tranquillity and undisturbed calmness, which may be considered
the chief aim of the slow movement, than the slow movements
written in three-eight or three-four time. We must except those
adagios or largos in three-four time which move in so slow a
manner that they almost entirely lose the characteristic of
rhythmical movement. The two-eight and the two-four time differ
from the common time by their greater vivacity and cheerfulness;
two-four time in its original spondaic form possesses the least
characteristic expression, and thus soon becomes monotonous;
we generally find it in the national dances of those nations least
endowed with natural musical feeling.
The two-four time expresses a certain cheerfulness; and if
taken slowly it can express, in the happiest manner, a quiet,
contemplative, even devotional feeling. Examples: the slow
movement of Beethoven's A major Symphony, and of the same
master's Adagio in his Sonata Appassionata ; again, Beethoven, -
in the first movement of his celebrated Pastoral Symphony,
found this two-four time best adapted to express truthfully
and accurately “the awaking of cheerful sentiments on the
arrival in the country ;” and again we find that tender, sincere
feelings, like those of Agatha in Weber's “ Der Freischütz," or
those of the page Cherubino in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro,”
are most happily expressed in this time.
The common time expresses the quiet life of the soul, a solid
earnestness, an inward peace—but also strength, energy, and
courage. Passion, expressed in common time, will be a passion
confined within reasonable bounds. Almost all the grand,
majestic music that our great composers wrote, the majority of
hymns, chorales, and solemn choruses, have been set in com-
mon time ; and there is no doubt that the elevated and superb,
the powerful and the deepest feeling, expresses itself. in this time
with an even balance, and with a decided beat or rhythm.
Examples: Handel's “Hallelujah Chorus," the " « March of the
Priests in Mozart's “Il Flauto Magico," and the Finale of
Beethoven's C minor Symphony.
The three-eight time expresses joy, a bright and sincere
pleasure, which less affects our feeling, than it carries us insen-
sibly along in an unpretending and agreeable manner. It also
lends itself admirably to scherzos. But when the three-eight
time is used for describing passion, it is remarkably expressive
1
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
29
of suddenness and impulse; and when employed in dance
movements, these will soon degenerate into the expression of a
frantic excitement, and of a kind of bacchanalian frenzy, and result
at last in a wild noise and tumult. The best and most beautiful
characteristic of this kind of time is that of innocence, and the
charm of simplicity. Examples: Zerlina's Air, "Vedrai carino;'
Beethoven's Andante, Second Symphony, and Andante in F.
The three-four time expresses in a mitigated form all that the
three-eight time expresses passionately. The three-four time
is also expressive of longing, of supplication, of sincere hope,
and of love. It possesses singular tenderness and a remarkable
fund of romantic expression. It lends itself also very effectively
to the description of sincere devotional feelings, and has therefore
been often most happily used in sacred music. When applied to
dance-music it impresses us with a certain dignity combined with
an easy grace; the regular German valses, the polonaises, the
boleros, and other dances are set in this time.
The six-eight time is the natural interpreter of a spontaneous
joviality and pleasure; but it also unites gracefulness with dignity,
and may sometimes be used as expressive of a mournful senti-
ment; yet the sorrow it indicates is rather that of young persons,
who do not yet feel so deeply and intensely as their elders.
Example: Pamina's Air in G minor in Mozart's - Il Flauto
Magico.
The six-eight time is the favourite time for national songs, and
hunting-songs, for barcaroles, and similar compositions. When
it occurs as six-four time it obtains a much greater dignity, a
certain broad and even pompous and majestic flow. Examples:
Weber's overture, “Ruler of the Spirits,” and Mendelssohn's
Forty-second Psalm.
The nine-eight time is mostly used for depicting quiet grief
and calm melancholy. Beethoven has given us a beautiful
specimen of these characteristic qualities in the short movement
descriptive of the death of Clärchen, in Goethe's tragedy of
" Egmont.”
The twelve-eight time may be described as covering the widest
space, and is particularly adapted for expressing copiousness of
thought and a certain wealth of invention in the composer; at
the same time it lends itself especially to the description of
sincerity and grandeur. Beethoven, in his Pastoral Symphony,
30
THE ELEMENTS OF
uses the twelve-eight time to express the good-natured content-
ment and the genial feeling of the people in the scene near the
brook. Again, the twelve-eight time appears with great effect
in the Lacrymosa of Mozart's “Requiem ;” and there can be no
doubt that the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata Appassionata
truthfully expresses an earnest and sincere feeling.
Specimens of mixed times are found in Mendelssohn's Overture
to “Ruy Blas," where the most impassioned allegro is suddenly
interrupted, as if at the word of command, by the magnificent
lento. Spohr, in his much admired Symphony “ The Conse-
cration of Sounds," Mozart, in the first finale of “ Don Giovanni,"
and Beethoven, in the latter part of the scherzo of his Eroica
Symphony, have each and all furnished excellent examples of the
effective use of this natural, yet stirring, means of expression:
The respective movements of time may be classified under five
heads : first, the very slow movements ; second, the moderately
slow movements; third, the moderately quick movements; fourth,
the quick movements; and fifth, the very quick movements. Under
the first head are comprised largo, “ broad;" largo assai and the
adagio, "very broad”-the word adagio comes from the verb
adagiare, which means "to take one's ease;" lento means
" slow, idle, dragging;" and grave, “grave and heavy." The
moderately slow movements are larghetto, a little broad;
andante (from andare, "to go?:)--it should be not fast, but certainly
not dragging; andantino is the diminutive of andante, and its
movement is consequently less quick than that of the andante,
although andantino is generally, but erroneously, taken as
a quicker time than the andante; sostenuto means
6 held
back, sustained,” showing a lingering on the movement; and
commodo means “easily, pleasantly.” The moderately quick
movements are allegretto, “a little lively;" moderato,
66 with
a moderate movement;" allegramento, “in the manner of an
allegro;" allegro moderato, “ moderately quick;" allegro ma non
troppo, " quick and lively, but not in too great a degree." The
quick movements are allegro, which means “
66 cheerful and
lively;" animato, "animated ;" allegro con brio, “with fresh-
ness ;” allegro con moto, “ with a lively movement;' allegro con
fuoco, “quick, with fire;" allegro agitato, “agitated;" and allegro
appassionato, “ with a passionate movement.” The quickest
movements are allegro assai or allegrissimo, "very lively and
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
31
very quick ;" allegro vivace, “ with vivacity;" vivace and viva-
cissimo, "exceedingly quick" and " with extreme vivacity;" and
presto, presto assai, and prestissimo, "quick" "exceedingly quick"
and "as quickly as possible.”
Although the composer designates by the above names the
time in which he wishes his composition to be performed, the
performer, on the other hand, has to consult his own taste and
feeling in modifying the prescribed movement.
C. M. von
Weber says truly that “there is not a single slow movement
in which passages do not occur which demand a greater anima-
tion; and, vice versâ, that there is not a single quick movement
which would not at times demand a certain slackening of the
time.” The tempo rubato, however, which actually means
" stolen time," is inadmissible ; in short, any dragging or
quickening of the time which does not originate in the absolute
feeling or in the character of the piece, and which appears
entirely as the result of the peculiar or individual taste of
the performer, is devoid of artistic feeling, and destroys
truth and correctness. One of the happiest musical effects
consists in the simultaneous application of a slow and a quick
movement, a slow and a quick time together. Example: the
duet of Agatha and Annie in Weber's “ Der Freischütz,” in which
Agatha, with her loving and sorrowful heart, sings in a slow
movement, whilst the bright and somewhat mischievous Annie
warbles her brilliant scales in quite a lively strain.
As in speaking, the proper accentuation and emphasising of
words will assist the hearer to understand the meaning of the
sentence, so in music the accent helps the hearer to seize the real
meaning of a phrase, to understand what may be called the
plastic form of the composition. As in speech, so in music
accentuation is indispensable. In songs, the accent is suggested
by the words; in instrumental music, however, it originates in
the feeling; the accent gives to music the characteristic design,
invests it with importance, and becomes ultimately an individual
language of the soul.
The syncopated passages (those in which the accent is trans-
posed) are a development of the ordinary accent; and, if sparingly
used, may produce the happiest effect. In fact, it is by a judicious
and tasteful combination of tones, or again by an appropriate
division of them, and by a judicious prominence given to a certain
32
THE ELEMENTS OF
note, that the piece receives the proper life, the effective light
and shade. The accent is in music what a ray of light is in
painting. It gives life to the whole.
But besides giving
clearness, the accent may impart a certain liveliness, charm,
interest, and originality. The principal fascination of modern
French music, for instance, is to be found in the sometimes highly
original accentuation of the different phrases. Examples are seen
in Auber's operas.
The pause is not merely a necessity, but may be made the
vehicle of the greatest effect. The listener's attention at times
demands a certain rest; and such a rest seems requisite to allow
the auditory impression to die away, so as to leave the ear free
to appreciate the next effect. A continued movement may be
followed with undivided attention for a certain time; but when
the limit of the hearer's power of concentration is reached, there
must be a pause, or fatigue and even indifference will follow. It is
related that Mozart was asked what in his opinion produced the
greatest effect in music. “No music," was the laconic reply.
He meant the cessation of music. But a pause does not only act
beneficially; it likewise depicts the greatest excitement, heightens
the expectation of the hearer, and is particularly effective in
sacred music. The sudden cessation of glorious sound produces
an impression of awe, and gives the hearer a moment to realise
the sensation the music has produced on his mind. Again, in a
piece which expresses the wildest passion, a sudden pause may
indicate terror, shuddering, and fear. It is like the sudden
suspension of the beating of the heart; when the pulsation stops
and life seems for the moment to be arrested. Haydn, on the
other hand, succeeded in extracting a comical effect from the
pause. In some of his symphonies and quartetts the unexpected
produce an intentionally whimsical expression.
In the melody, characteristic beauty shows itself most promi-
nently; and this beauty does not consist only in the greater
or smaller distance between the different notes, but also in the
combination of the tones into figures, which fill the rhythmical
space commonly called the bar. It is the expression, the intel-
lectual life of the principal theme, which gives the characteristic
colour to the piece; while the logical and clear relation of the
minor or tributary melodious phrases to the principal subject
strengthens and intensifies the character of the whole work.
THE BEAUTIFUI. IN MUSIC.
33
But precision and correctness of accent are indispensable in the
principal theme, as without these we should not be able to under-
stand the logical sequences that result from the principal subject.
It is evident that a well-chosen harmonisation must greatly
help to give due prominence to the accent; characteristic beauty
has its basis in formal beauty. The composer uses the form,
replete as it is with beauty and variety, free life and har-
mony; and with this he unites truth of expression—which union
will result in a more striking, vivid effect. But it may also
happen that the characteristic element preponderates in such a
degree that the formal element appears only as a secondary or
minor feature. We have instances in which this preponderance
of the one element over the other appears entirely to disturb the
necessary balance; and when this is the case an unsatisfactory
patchwork will be the result.
But again, we may point out examples which show that the
characteristic element may possess such irresistible charm and
power, that the occasional absence of the formal element is
wholly unnoticed. No one will deny that Weber's overtures
to “Oberon," “ Euryanthe," “ Der Freischütz," &c., carry us
away with an irresistible might, and excite us to real enthusiasm ;
yet, were we to compare their formal construction with that
of the overtures of Mozart or Beethoven, we should find
them somewhat inferior. It was certainly in the characteristic
expression, full of life and animation, replete with truth and
correctness, that Weber displayed and cultivated his chief
strength; and his Huntsmen's Choruses, the Incantation scene
in “ Der Freischütz," the romantic feeling of Adolar in the opera
“ Euryanthe," and the delicious, fairylike tone of the “Oberon"
music, are marvels of characteristic beauty.
A classification of the different means for characteristic
expression is exceedingly difficult. The impressions that dwell
in our soul and heart, that linger in our memory, that excite our
inteliect, are inexpressibly varied; and only the artist, who
clearly understands his own innermost feelings, and is able to
realise them, will find the suitable means to express these
feelings in an outward form.
If we divided the domain of our feelings as it were into
provinces, we should find a region of hidden or suppressed
activity, grief, and passion ; again, a free and elevated life,
с
34
THE ELEMENTS OF
bursting forth in joy and cheerfulness. Our soul may be alter-
nately swayed by feelings of seriousness and mirth, solemnity
and cheerfulness, dignity and carelessness, reality and dreams ;
and for each of these phases of feeling music possesses an ade-
quate expression. But were we to attempt to lay down a
theoretical rule, and, for instance, to declare that devotion,
solemnity, grief, must be expressed in long and heavy notes, or
in a slow succession of chords—and cheerfulness and brightness
in quick notes, with shakes and runs—we should give but a poor
and very incomplete description of the musical means, because
the same means of expression may produce very different effects.
Thus we find, for instance, that a tremulous movement may at
one time express agitation and anxiety, and at another may very
effectively portray the grand and sublime. It is always a
difficult problem to unite the general with the specific; only
: when the individual feeling of the composer is thoroughly
suffused and penetrated by the general feeling, and only when
it recognises the absolute laws of nature, will a true and
thoroughly effective work of art be the result.
The com-
poser has to see that the form he has chosen for his representa-
tion contains and reproduces with correctness and truth all that
the feelings of the soul and the psychological laws require.
Truth of expression is therefore an absolute necessity. A
composer who introduces brilliant and florid passages into an
air which is to describe pious and sincere devotion will simply
produce an absurd effect. Yet our greatest masters have sinned
in this respect; and the only excuse they can plead for such
offences against natural rules is the necessity of complying with
the tyrannical dictates of a fleeting taste and fashion.
• Chromatic passages afford very effective means for charac-
teristic expression. They can be used to illustrate the uproar
of the elements, the feeling of sorrowful anxiety, and the storm
of angry passions. If written in a slower time, they easily
degenerate into sickly sentimentality, into a morbid expression,
and soon become monotonous. Chromatic passages may be
used most effectively to describe something mysterious, some-
thing that is merely whispered, and is supposed to remain a
secret. Too liberal an application of chromatic passages deprives
the piece of its characteristic colour. In painting, the chromatic
science is actually that of mixing the colours.
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
35
Enharmonic changes are often happily applied, and highly
suggestive of a sudden change or an unexpected impulse. Again,
if harmonies are varied on one and the same tone, they express
the greatest solemnity, and sometimes gloom and dismay.
Examples : Schubert's song, “Death and the Maiden,” and the
warning of the Commander in “Don Giovanni."
Not every figure possesses in itself a characteristic expression ;
only when the figure is properly used, and when it is combined
with harmony and melody, does it become of great, almost of
supreme importance. It will then intensify and heighten the
character of the melody, and can never fail to increase its
beauty. It will float round the melody as the graceful folds of a
veil encircle a charming face; it furnishes a relief that takes
away all appearance of bareness or poverty from the theme.
Sincerity and purity of feeling will always produce the greatest
effect in music. We often find that the simplest and most
entirely unadorned national song awakens our sympathies,
whilst a carefully elaborated work may leave us cold and
indifferent. Our enjoyment certainly reaches the highest point,
if to the sympathy which a work arouses in our mind is added
an intellectual interest; we seem to be initiated into a kind of
mystery, which we are by degrees able to solve, and whose
intricacies we can unravel.
The different voices offer to the composer a rich mine of
characteristic expression, by their varied application. Soprano,
contralto, tenor, and bass, have each their own specific character.
The soprano voice is expressive of a lofty and graceful feeling;
the contralto voice portrays the sentiment of resignation, of a
subdued earnestness, of consolation ; the tenor voice expresses
passion, ardent love, and manly courage; the bass voice, again,
is redolent of dignity, solemn earnestness, severity, and warlike
ardour.
The different instruments possess each a separate characteristic
expression; and the happiest effects sometimes result from a
union of the human voice with an obbligato instrument. Ex-
ample : Zerlina's Air, Batti, batti,” in which she tries to
conciliate the jealous Masetto; the cordial, honest-toned vio-
loncello seconds her supplications most effectively. It helps
to soothe Masetto's anger and assists in pouring oil on the
troubled waters of his wrath. Again, the wonderful soprano Air
X
C2
36
THE ELEMENTS OF
in B minor in Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, is admirably
supplemented by the solo violin, which, with sustained and ex-
pressive tones, brings out in its greatest intensity the pervading
feeling of grief and genuine sadness.
The instruments afford to the composer inexhaustible and
ever-varying means of characteristic expression. We might
truly say that every instrument has a soul of its own, which has
its bright and dark phases; and the proper and thorough study
of the nature of the instruments might not inaptly be compared
to the psychological studies of the philosopher; the surprising
effects some composers have drawn from the resources of the
instruments warrant us in supposing that a rigorous study, a
complete abandonment to the earnest part of the art, is necessary
for the recognition of all the manifold beauties which lie hidden
in the instrument. And how interesting, how suggestive is the
fact that one and the same instrument shows quite different
qualities under the appreciative genius of different composers !
The flute, which accompanies Pamina on his passage through
water and fire in Mozart's “Il Flauto Magico,” is a very different
instrument from Mendelssohn's fanciful reed in the incomparable
scherzo of his “Midsummer Night's Dream” music. The oboe
of Haydn is quite different from that of Auber. Spohr's clarionet.
has little affinity with that of Beethoven. The instruments are
indeed to the musician what colours are to the painter.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON CHARACTERISTIC BEAUTY.
We thus find that music Yspeaks its own language in the
characteristic element; a language not indeed so distinct and
precise as human speech, but one that, on the other hand, soars
to heights which human language can hardly attain. The sounds
cannot indeed describe distinctly and literally the entire thought
that filled the brain of the composer during the progress of his
work; but they undoubtedly express his feelings, and excite in
us, the listeners, an intellectual activity, an earnest sympathy.
Every feeling and every emotion that reigns within the vast
regions of our inner spirit-world proves its existence through the
characteristic, which again uses for its representation expression,
with all the various means we have named. Character is the
chief and principal condition for the existence and appearance of
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
37
a tone-picture ; it is the most important element of a musical
work of art, the one which most surely arouses our sympathy
and interest.
All that is characteristically correct and true is in itself
beautiful. It pleases, without requiring to be examined with our
reasoning faculties; it acts immediately on our feeling; on
hearing it our interest is thoroughly aroused, and the chords of
our soul vibrate irresistibly. We have seen that there is a great
difference between general and musical ideas. The former result
from logical reasoning, and may be evolved from mathematical
rules; the latter, on the other hand, are the offspring of the real
and sincere feeling, and thus possess a greater charm, a higher
beauty, a deeper intrinsic power. ! All who feel in a lively, quick,
and ready manner will instinctively understand characteristic
expression. It will speak to them in an intelligible language; in
short, it will be felt and appreciated, though they may not under-
stand the process.
The mental qualities which are necessary for
the proper study and recognition of the different elements of the
Beautiful in music are a quiet power of contemplation, and an
innate sense of order and symmetry for the appreciation of the Huma
formal beauty; a. lively fancy, quick perception, and spontaneous
feeling for the conception of the characteristic beauty; and
elevation of mind, purity of soul, and innate enthusiasm for all
that is good and noble, for the proper recognition of ideal beauty. 373
57
L
III.
IDEAL BEAUTY.
If we accept the maxim often enunciated--that beauty does
not exist where every one of its elements is not present in a
higher or lower degree, and that the special beauty of any par-
ticular work lies, therefore, not in the presence, but in the pre-
dominance of one of the elements of beauty—it follows that we
must consider ideal beauty as a particular and special expression
of the beautiful, and also as one of the principles which must
penetrate every beautiful and perfect work of art. When the
sculptor presents in his work absolute formal beauty, when the
painter gives in his picture a characteristic and faithful reproduc-
38
THE ELEMENTS OF
tion of the important inner life, they have both given specimens
of real beauty considered from the respective points of view—the
formal and the characteristic; their productions will be regarded
as something important, and will be praised and valued accord-
ingly. And yet, in the work of neither does the highest beauty
appear, in its absolute essence, and in its fulness. Real life has
here clothed itself in a beautiful form, and expresses pleasantly
the importance of an intellectual activity; but material nature
cannot be divested of its reality, nor can the limits of the actual
be exceeded.
But now we will suppose a third and a higher quality united
with the formal and characteristic beauty; and let this third
quality penetrate the before-mentioned representation of nature
with an ideal inspiration-let there appear in the artist's work
the predominating principle of ideal beauty--and then the beauty
that will result will be of the highest kind, and absolutely com-
plete and perfect. That animation which impresses upon the
work the stamp of the infinite comes immediately from the
ideal world; from ideas, which are present in the domain of
the intellect, which soar above reality. The infinite appears in
the beautiful, and the idea receives a perceptible and intelligible
form, when the soul of the composer reveals itself with the
greatest clearness; since the representation of the illimitable-
the perfectly and purely intellectual-awakens presentiments of
the soul, which cause it to soar beyond the limits of time and
space, and transport it into an invisible and inaudible world
since feelings are thus expressed and suggested, through which
the distant regions of the infinite announce themselves and
appear to us like a halo—a glory surrounding the heights and
depths of nature.
This element of the infinite can never be entirely absent in
a beautiful work, even though that work be but a simple national
song, a pastoral scene, a sweet tune; for if this element is absent,
the work cannot in the higher sense be beautiful, though on the
other hand the ideal is not always recognised. It may be present
in so small a degree that it fails to be distinctly perceived, -
and being hidden by the other features, those of the formal and
the characteristic beauty, it is overlooked. We are therefore,
in matters of beauty, entitled to recognise a higher or lower
degree, a lofty or a moderate standard. While the character-
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
39
istically beautiful expresses something peculiar in its nature, and
reproduces fact, the ideal, on the other hand, raises us into the
sphere of the universal, and endeavours to seize in pictures the
lofty meaning of the ideas, which appertain to the domain of
symbolic representation. And this symbolic significance is
peculiar to the ideal phase of the beautiful.
This idea of the three kinds of beauty, the formal, the
characteristic, and the ideal, may be readily explained by an
analogy drawn from a sister art, that of painting. Three
pictures may be presented to our notice : the first represents,
we will say, a boy--a lovely form, showing, in its outlines
and in its free grace, proportion and completeness of design
penetrated by life. This is a picture of formal beauty, and
pleases through the literal charm of its outward loveliness.
In the second picture, let there be represented once more the
same boy, but not alone ; now he is wrestling with another boy.
They are in full activity; and in every line, and in the bodily
action of each, is expressed youthful vigour, and a certain
exuberance of effort ; this second is a characteristic picture, and
excites the interest of the looker-on by its vigorous life. In the
third picture, let the boys appear once more ; but they are here
shown as beings of a higher order, not belonging to common
humanity; they are represented as genii or angelic spirits, as
denizens of a higher world; in fact, they are idealised. Something
purely intellectual, not borrowed from nature, is here represented.
One of the figures, we will say, holds aloft a palm branch, the other
strives to grasp it; but this action expresses a hidden meaning,
and the spectator tries to understand the mystery of the symbolic
incident he finds represented. Thus also feelings, pronounced
in music, may express themselves in a lofty manner that seems
to elevate the hearer above the real and actual. Beethoven's
symphonies may be cited as works possessing ideal beauty in
the highest degree.
But not only Beethoven possesses this elevated feeling;
Mozart, Bach, Handel, Haydn, may also bé credited with it. If
we analyse, for example, Sarastro's air in “Il Flauto Magico"
we must at once admit that it belongs to the domain of ideal
beauty. We do not recognise in Sarastro the priest of the
temple of Isis : he appears before us as the representative of the
high and holy in humanity. In Haydn's chorus, " The heavens
40
THE ELEMENTS OF
are telling," we hear a hymn of praise sung by creation in
honour of the Eternal. Just as deeply are we moved by Handel's
“Messiah;” by the opening chorus of Bach's St. Matthew Passion;
by Elijah's air, “ It is enough.” The intense devotion of a broken
and contrite heart; the utterances of a soul which prays for
wings, to be enabled to soar from this nether world to happier,
brighter regions; and the three sweet voices which bring con-
solation to the aching heart of the Prophet, seem in reality the
voices of angels. Thus also, in many of Schubert's and Schu-
mann's songs, we find traces of undeniable ideal beauty; and,
indeed, were we to examine some of the greater works more
closely and diligently, instead of giving ourselves up wholly to
the charm of enjoyment-were we to analyse our feeling and
exert our intellect-we should discover many a beauty which lies
hidden, and does not reveal itself to the superficial hearer. He
orily who penetrates into the heights and depths of the ideal can
understand its true meaning.
No supposition could be more erroneous than that which would
limit ideal beauty to serious, grand, or sacred compositions. Ideal
beauty can be contained in a scherzo, a minuet, and even in still
shorter and lighter forms. Equally erroneous is the notion that
ideal beauty necessarily shows itself in everything that is original.
If such false maxims were followed out to their ultimate con-
sequences, we might go so far as to call everything beautiful that
is strange and odd, curious and unexpected-everything that sets
) the customary rules at defiance, or that exhibits unusual harsh-
ness; and thus we should consider eccentricity as naturally
belonging to the domain of ideal beauty. Daily experience
proves that an unpoetical farrago and an unmusical confusion of
sounds arrest the attention of the uneducated masses; and we
have too many examples of the fact that admiration of the
extravagant and the unusual can become a fashion. We often
find that people seek the ideal in the combination of materials,
even of heterogeneous materials, which are in themselves dull
and lifeless; and such people think that a great victory has been
achieved by collecting and throwing together these worthless
elements. But on closer examination we shall recognise the
shallowness and worthlessness of such productions, as the
intellectual essence' never appears in them, for the simple reason
that it does not exist. If, on the one side, the law of ideal
Whic
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
41
zhu
1
beauty demands a defined and a pure form and perfect clearness,
só, on the other hand, no variety of devices, were they ever so
various-no use of the most far-fetched effects—will supply the
place of the pure intellectuality and vastness, whose expression
is found in the ideal.
Every art employs the simplest means for attaining ideal
beauty, which is its culminating point; and each has generally
obtained a favourable result, in proportion as it has been able
to combine a certain number of important elements into har-
monious unity. Shakespeare's Imogen appears in her simplicity,
gracefulness, and pure softness as a really ideal picture, whilst many
tragical characters, overflowing with rhetorical and bombastic
phrases, fail, notwithstanding their varied flourishes and their
seeming superabundance of power, to impress themselves on
our souls.*
In ideal beauty each work of art reaches its climax, its highest
point of perfection ; and it is by means of ideal beauty that
the composer is able to raise us above the sublunary sphere of
actual life into the higher regions of the sublime. The effect
which this ideal beauty produces on an educated mind will rise
in proportion to the fulness with which the ideal has been felt
and understood. It is only through the inward feeling of the
soul that we can follow the ideal; for the colder power of the
intellect is incapable of receiving and assimilating the thought
whose very essence and characteristic consists in the fact that it
cannot be subjected to the analysis of measure and of rule. A
Don Giovanni in real life would, at best, awaken in us a kind
of amused curiosity not unmingled with contempt; neither his
character nor his adventures would
his adventures would arouse in
arouse in our hearts
anything akin to a feeling of sympathy; but in Mozart's opera he
* Beethoven could not have chosen anything more unpretentious and simple
than the subject for the minuet in his Eighth Symphony; and yet he succeeded
in filling the little work with ideal beauty. In its transparent clearness it
developes a most important unity. The trio of the minuet may be called a
model of ideal beauty, combined with the most unpretending simplicity; the
effect is in the first instance produced by two horns and one clarionet, round
which the violoncello, as a faithful companion, weaves a figure in triplets; then
the violins come in and give the melody in C major, afterwards transposing
it into the key of A flat, and ultimately bringing it back in the most natural
harmonious order, but withal in a most artistic and intellectual manner, into
the principal key of F, where the horns take up the subject again.
42
THE ELEMENTS OF
approaches us, and becomes not an example to be imitated or
avoided, but simply the exponent of some very charming music.
He is thus entirely an ideal creation. A second work of the same
master, “Il Flauto Magico," contains many characteristic and
also many ideal beauties, which, if the beauty as appreciated by
the ear is separated from the impression made upon the eye,
moves the hearer so spontaneously that all connection with the-
outward and real will be forgotten. Often the characteristic
serves as a foundation to the ideal; but the former recedes to
such a degree as to leave the individual expression of the
composer as the great and prominent feature. This is the basis
of all the rules of ideality, which latter does not merely consist in
an ennobling and beautifying of the natural, but soars to the
higher regions of the imaginative, and looks from earth to
heaven. Right well has Shakespeare said :-
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
In Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony the characteristic beauty is
throughout a prominent feature; þut no one would dare to assert
that because this is the case this masterwork is destitute of the
higher or ideal beauty. We have already stated that a work of
art receives its highest stamp from the ideal; but ideality is in
fact present in such a marked degree in everything that is
beautiful that nothing can, strictly speaking, be called really
beautiful where ideality does not leaven the mass. It must be
present, and, though it may show itself only in a minor degree,
it must nevertheless animate the whole in every really beautiful
work of art. To an artistic mind, to an appreciative spirit, even
this impalpable essence will be discernible, although it will not
obtrude itself or even obtain general recognition. Indeed, in
speaking of the appreciation of ideal beauty we may use the
words of the poet Cowper, and say, as he says of conversation,
that though this appreciation
In its better part
May be esteemed a gift, and not an art;
Yet much depends, as in the tiller's toil,
On culture, and the sowing of the soil.
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC,
43
The composer whose works may be taken pre-eminently as a
type of ideal beauty in music is Beethoven. This master
possessed in an eminent degree the powerful intellect, the depth
of feeling, and the warmth of enthusiasm which combine to
make up the perfect composer. His special domain, the region
in which he worked and created, was the ideal. This fact shows
- itself in the animation of his melodies, which glow with a higher
power that, as it were, transforms his sounds into loftier
utterances; it reveals itself through the mighty efforts with
which he dives into the very depths of the soul, and brings to
- light its hidden treasuresefforts in which we find a reflection of
a supernatural world, and from which there shines forth the reflex
of a great and noble life, with all its joys and all its sorrows.
With him the intellectual, the grand and genial, as exhibited in
the modulations and combinations of sound, oversteps the regular
form, and is not the result of a passing mood of feeling, or of
chance moments of inspiration; it is, in fact, the exhibition of
tone-pictures, all possessing the richest fulness of power, and
revelling in an inexhaustible wealth of variety, in which they
strike on our enraptured ear. With respect to that wonderful
genius, Schiller's lines in his poem, “ The Ideal and the Actual
Life," are exceedingly appropriate :
For never, save to Toil untiring, spoke
The unwilling Truth from her mysterious well;
The statue only to the chisel's stroke
Wakes from its marble cell.
But onward to the sphere of beauty! Go
Onward, O Child of Art! and, lo,
Out of the matter which thy pains control,
The statue springs ! Not as with labour wrung
From the hard block, but as from Nothing sprung,
Airy and light, the offspring of the soul !
The pangs, the cares, the weary toils it cost,
Leave not a trace when once the work is done;
The artist's human frailty merged, and lost,
In Art's great victory won !
The faults which have been imputed to Beethoven, and
which appear perhaps here and there in his works, are faults
arising neither from ignorance nor from negligence; but they
are the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities which may never be
wholly dissociated from the human intelligence, when it soars
44
THE ELEMENTS OF
away on the track of ideal enthusiasm. “ The giants must live
alone.” They are above ordinary mortals and ordinary rules.
There may be condemned before the tribunal of criticism, for
incorrectness or for a forbidden licence, many a passage which
revealed itself to the composer's spirit during its highest flight,
and appeared to him combined in a unity far above the
conditions of daily rule or common perception. It has been
said in some quarters that Beethoven's works, here and there,
exhibit too great an elaboration, resulting in a want of unity :
but the critics who thus judged these works did not consider
that so full an energy, and so deep a conception of the importance
of the world of ideal feeling, required for its expression a larger
space, and a steadily increasing wealth of material. In the
last years of his life, this craving for melody increased in Beet-
hoven to the highest degree, even to an extreme ;. there arose
in him an absolute desire that everything, even minor parts,
and secondary, and supplementary instruments, should sing.
But, in spite of the carpings of dissatisfied critics, there can be no
doubt that the sonatas, quartetts, and symphonies of Beethoven
contain a sequence and a series of harmonies, which seem to
include in themselves a whole world of music; they unfold
ideal designs which no abstract process of intelligence can
correctly explain or satisfactorily interpret.
As the ideal beautiful is founded on the accurate and truth-
ful expression of the purely intellectual and the absolute,
and thus the content of the representation appears subjected
to, and influenced by, the varying views natural to the human
intellect, it naturally results that the difference between the
fashion of the old and the modern time, and the position
which mankind maintained in the different conditions of
life, must have a great and lasting influence. The art of
the ancient ages, and particularly that of old Greece, showed
the ideal beauty as a rounded and complete symbol of the
infinite and divine; and if this was realised in its greatest
extent, in the objective plastic art, and in epic and dramatic
poetry, we may reasonably assume that music, which at that
time was confined more to the rhythmical, possessed an expres-
sion, or rather a suggestion, of ideal beauty.
But when music became the vehicle for the elucidation of the
inner life of the soul, so rich in presentiments of a higher destiny
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
45
nea
endi
jhis
-when it had to portray feelings, too deep to be expressed in
words_when the sentiments of devotion and love were awakened
by a higher revelation of religion-then our delightful art became
able to give an ideal tendency to its productions.
By degrees the art advanced, and took full advantage of this
element, obtaining it chiefly through the discovered wealth of
harmony, which, at first uncouth and consequently simple and
poor, as we find it appearing in the most ancient sacred hymns,
in due time proceeded to build up the noble structure on a
characteristic foundation, and succeeded, by the combination of
the most various means, in expressing all the phases of feeling
which embrace the idea of the Sacred, Divinė, and Eternal-
all the feelings which we recognise in the sublime works of
Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.
It will be well now to revert for a time to the point from
which we started. A work of art deserves the epithet perfect,
and its beauty may be considered as the highest, when the three
elements of the formal, characteristic, and ideal appear in com-
plete purity; and when there is manifested a free and intellectual
nature in the proportions of the form, in the portraiture of the
peculiar life, and in the revelation of the lofty and infinite; and
when it thus entirely satisfies the requirements of the con-
templative mind.
If one of these elements appears in greater prominence, or
even gives to the work its tone and expression, we are thus
justified in calling the whole or part of it, according to the
particular sphere in which it moves, either formally, charac-
teristically, or ideally beautiful.
It is not the aim of music to imitate the appearances of
reality, as is continually done in painting, sculpture, and
architecture, or to transport reality into the intellectual spheres;
music finds its vocation in this, that it firmly seizes the life of
the human soul with its sorrows and joys; and, subjecting these
feelings to the idea of the beautiful, represents by sounds the
expressions of individual truth, and, as it were, the presentiment
of an infinite life.
To contemplate these different beauties—to examine, to find
out which of the different elements preponderates, or in which
part of a work they appear simultaneously—all this affords to the
judicious mind refined pleasure of the highest order. Not only
46
THE ELEMENTS OF
Hei
Wionale
do we penetrate into the mysteries of the art in general, but we
become acquainted with the individual qualities of the composers,
we take a natural interest in the development of their intellectual
faculties, we try to find out the circumstances which influenced
the composition of such or such a work. Indeed, the veil is lifted
from our eyes, we see clearly and distinctly; and the power of
insight we thus acquire, the improved acuteness of our critical
faculties, far from rendering us more realistic, enhances our
love for the art, increases our sincere admiration for those, its
votaries, who fulfilled their mission with such devotion, with
such pure and lofty enthusiasm.
Uneducated intellects will never reach the pure heights of
perfection. He who aims at the greatest, the highest, must
summon all his strength. The real master shows himself ready
to submit to natural restrictions ; it is only through the honest
observance of the laws and the rules of art that we can obtain
real and true freedom. The history of art tells us how, according
to the time and the national influences brought to bear, one or
other of the three elements of beauty predominated, and served
as the basis of the productions.
In music and painting the characteristically beautiful is the
first achievement which appears. In painting, it manifests itself
in pictures of religious subjects; in music, it appears in the
form of songs of the people. Both these arts pursued the same
course and reached the goal-music in the so-called tone-
painting, the pictorial art in the allegorical treatment of the
subject. Italian music always leaned towards formal beauty;
German music, taken from a general point of view, inclined
towards the characteristic; but in all great composers, whether
Italian or German, existed the consciousness that the highest
perfection could only be obtained by that ideal life which gives to
works of art elevation, purity, and lasting fame.
In one respect only the beauty of art surpasses that of nature
herself; and this applies not to musical art especially, but to art
in general. In saying that art surpasses nature, we do not assert
this because a statue, for example, has a longer existence than the
human being it represents; but for another, and a higher reason.
A great philosopher, Schelling, has remarked: "Every product
of nature has only one single moment of perfect beauty, namely,
the moment of its highest development, the culminating point
THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
47
of its entire life, just as the sun has only one moment in which
it reaches its highest point in the heavens. Only in the one
moment of highest development is a natural product what it
ought to be according to its design; before and after this moment
we recognise in it a growth and a decline.” And this culminating
moment of nature can be seized by the artist. It ought to be
sought out, so to say, from the life, and ought to be fixed. This is
the true idealisation; this is the real, the only faithful portraying of
nature; for the power of invention is a faculty which resides by
nature in the human soul, and acts voluntarily; and this advan-
tage artistic beauty has, that it can perpetuate and retain in
permanence the fleeting charm that nature possesses. Foremost
in all other respects, art has yet to take nature as the highest,
truest model, and must submit to her rules.
It is the aim of true art to reproduce the original beauty of the
'products of nature, and more particularly to idealise and per-
petuate human beauty. Art has to exhibit to humanity the
ideal picture of what perfect human beauty can be.
It is evident that religion and art are closely connected; and
we find from history that art, which originated in religion,
meets it again as it runs its course, and assists religion faithfully
in its great mission to ennoble and purify the moral and intel-
lectual faculties of mankind. Art, when separated from religion,
becomes vapid, and loses its highest application. Religious
services, deprived of art, would lose a valuable means of lifting
the souls of worshippers to higher aspirations and emotions.
The service of religion is the highest aspiration of art. Art,
again, may be the “decent and seemly” garment of religion.
Art, like religion, conceives and creates from the infinite; and
therefore we find that the truest and greatest artists were sincerely
religious, perhaps not in a conventional, but certainly in the
substantial point of view; for history testifies that an artist
without sincere religion has never raised himself above the
worldly spirit of his time.
The effect which a real work of art produces depends on
the feeling of affection or sympathy. If such sympathy is
evoked, the result will be that the hearer will experience the same
feeling by which the composer was inspired during the creation
of his work; and this feeling in the hearer is called admiration.
These feelings of sympathy and admiration are an indestructible
48
THE ELEMENTS OF THE BEAUTIFUL IN MUSIC.
part of human intelligence; they afford the purest and sincerest
joy to the heart,--they raise us above all the barriers of time and
space. Music has become so popular, it has obtained such
undisputed supremacy as a means of amusement and enjoyment,
and sometimes of education and refinement, that we often forget to
consider whence comes its surprising effect, its irresistible strength.
Thousands of people rush to concerts and to operas, are de-
lighted with the sweet sounds, the rich harmonies, the enchant-
ing melodies which salute their ears; yet not one in each thousand
will take the trouble to analyse the source of his enjoyment; and
many, even if they endeavoured to do so, would be unable to
account for it. In musical art nothing is left to mere chance.
The composer has not only to learn all the hundreds of rules
which regulate the prosaic part of his work, but he has to study
nature; he must dive into the psychological mysteries of the
human heart, must identify himself with the feeling which his
subject demands ; in short, the composer has to pass many an
anxious hour, before he can lay his pen down with the conscious-
ness that he has faithfully served his art, that he has made good
use of the talent which a Divine Power intrusted to his care.
Therefore it should be the duty and the privilege of the student
to do everything in his power to make himself worthy of the noble
and rich legacy bequeathed by the great masters,—by trying with
zeal and heartiness, with energy and perseverance, to recognise
all that is beautiful and admirable in the great works of our mag-
nificent composers, and by seeking to deserve the praise which,
in Goethe's " Apotheosis of the Artist” the Muse grants to the
young painter :-
Within his eye the heartiest wish doth shine,
To catch the impress of thy soul divine.
And thus, with might, each noble man
For centuries doth work upon his kind.
For what a good man's power can do and plan,
Ye cannot in a life's short limit bind.
Therefore, e'en after death hath closed his eyes,
He lives, in good for which he's striven;
The lofty deed, the noble word, ne'er dies-
The gift's immortal, though by mortal given.
Novello, EWER AND Co., Printers, 69 and 70; Dean Street, Soho, W.
Novello's Original Octavo Edition.
THE CHORUSES
OF THE
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IN VOCAL SCORE, WITHOUT ACCOMPANIMENT,
ESPECIALLY FOR THE
USE OF CHORAL SOCIETIES.
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Bach's Passion (St. Matthew).
Bennett's May Queen
Handel's Messiah
Judas Maccabæus
Samson
j
Hercules (with Accompaniment)
Haydn's Creation
Mendelssohn's Elijah
St. Paul
Hymn of Praise
Rossini's Stabat Mater
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(To be continued.)
ALL THE ABOVE WORKS MAY BE HAD IN PAPER BOARDS,
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LONDON: NOVELLO, EWER & CO.
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THOMAS ANDERTON.
WRECK OF THE HESPERUS
E. ASPA.
THE GIPSIES
ENDYMION
ܝܕ ܘ ܘ
2
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GRAUN.
THE PASSION (DER TOD JESU)
TE DEUM
J. O. GRIMM.
THE SOUL'S ASPIRATION
I 0
HANDEL.
THE MESSIAH, EDITED BY V. NOVELLO 2
THE MESSIAH, DITTO, POCKET EDITION I
THE MESSIAH, EDITED BY W. T. BEST 2
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
ISRAEL IN EGYPT, POCKET EDITION -
JUDAS MACCABÆUS
JUDAS MACCABÆUS, POCKET EDITION
SAMSON
SOLOMON
JEPHTHA
JOSHUA
DEBORAH
SAUL
BELSHAZZAR
THEODORA
SUSANNA
ESTHER
3.0
ATHALIAH
.:3
HERCULES
ALEXANDER BALUS
TIME AND TRUTH
3
SEMELE
3
THE PASSION. (112 the press.)
CHANDOS TE DEUM -
6
DETTINGEN TE DEUM.
UTRECHT JUBILATE -
Ι Ο
THE CORONATION AND FUNERAL
ANTHEMS (Cloth)
- 5 0
or, singly,
THE KING SHALL REJOICE
o 8
ZADOCK THE PRIEST -
MY HEART IS INDITING
8
LET THY HAND BE STRENGTHENED O 6
THE WAYS OF ZION
6
ALEXANDER'S FEAST
ACIS AND GALATEA.
ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY
6
L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSIEROSO, ED IL
MODERATO
30
HAYDN.
THE CREATION
2 O
THE CREATION, POCKET EDITION
THE SEASONS
3
SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN
AND WINTER
each Ι ο
First MASS IN B Flat (LATIN AND
ENGLISH)
THIRD MASS (IMPERIAL) DITTO
THE PASSION (THE SEVEN WORDS or
Our Saviour ON THE Cross)
TE DEUM (ENGLISH AND LATIN)
O
I
I
THE PASSION (S. MATTHEW)
THE PASSION (S. JOHN)
CHRISTMAS ORATORIO
3
GOD'S TIME IS THE BEST
I
MY SPIRIT WAS IN HEAVINESS -
0 LIGHT EVERLASTING
MAGNIFICAT
BIDE WITH US -
A STRONGHOLD SURE
I WRESTLE AND PRAY
4
BE NOT AFRAID
6
BLESSING, GLORY, AND WISDOM
J. BARNBY.
REBEKAH
• 2 0
BEETHOVEN.
RUINS OF ATHENS.
ENGEDI; OR, DAVID IN THE WILDER-
NESS (MOUNT OF OLIVES)
MASS IN C (LATIN AND ENGLISH WORDS) I
MASS IN D
SIR JULIUS BENEDICT.
ST. PETER
SIR W. s. BENNETT.
THE MAY QUEEN
3
J. BRAHMS.
A SONG OF DESTINY
I o
CHERUBINI.
REQUIEM MASS IN C MINOR (LATIN
AND ENGLISH WORDS) -
Ι ο
E. T. CHIPP.
JOB -
4
NAOMI
5
HENRY FARMER,
MASS IN B FLAT (LATIN AND ENGLISH
WORDS)
2 0
NIELS W. GADE.
COMALA
ZION
6
THE CRUSADERS
THE ERL-KING'S DAUGHTER
6
SPRING'S MESSAGE -
8
HENRY R. GADSBY.
ALCESTIS-
CH. GOUNOD.
DE PROFUNDIS (PSALM cxxx.)
4
GALLIA
6
MESSE SOLENNELLE
Ditro, COMMUNION SERVICE
6
THE SEVEN Words OF Our SAVIOUR
ON THE Cross (FILIÆ JERUSALEM) Ι ο
DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM (ANTIEM
FOR LENT)
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