THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 HOW TO LISTEN TO MUSIC
 
 HOW TO LISTEN 
 TO MUSIC 
 
 HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO 
 
 UNTAUGHT LOVERS 
 
 OF THE ART 
 
 Author of "Studies in tbe Wagnerian Drama," " Notes on 
 Cultivation of Choral Music," "Tbe Pbilbarmonic 
 Society of New York" ttc. 
 
 FOURTEENTH EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1908
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
 
 TO 
 
 W. J. HENDERSON 
 
 WHO HAS HELPED ME TO RESPECT MUSICAL CRITICISM
 
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 THE author is beholden to the Messrs. Harper & 
 Brothers for permission to use a small portion of the 
 material in Chapter I., the greater part of Chapter IV., 
 and the Plates which were printed originally in one 
 of their publications ; also to the publishers of " The 
 Looker-On " for the privilege of reprinting a portion 
 of an essay written for them entitled " Singers, Then 
 and Now."
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Purpose and scope of this book Not written for pro- 
 fessional musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art 
 neither for careless seekers after diversion unless they 
 be willing to accept a higher conception of what ' ' enter- 
 tainment " means The capacity properly to listen to mu- 
 sic as a touchstone of musical talent It is rarely found in 
 popular concert-rooms Travellers who do not see and 
 listeners who do not hear Music is of all the arts that 
 which is practised most and thought about least Popular 
 ignorance of the art caused by the lack of an object for 
 comparison How simple terms are confounded by lit- 
 erary men Blunders by Tennyson, Lamb, Coleridge, 
 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, F. Hopkinson Smith, Bran- 
 der Matthews, and others A warning against pedants and 
 rhapsodists Page 3 
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 The dual nature of music Sense-perception, fancy, 
 and imagination Recognition of Design as Form in its 
 primary stages The crude materials of music The co- 
 ordination of tones Rudimentary analysis of Form 
 Comparison, as in other arts, not possible Recognition 
 of the fundamental elements Melody, Harmony, and 
 Rhythm The value of memory The need of an inter- 
 
 IX 
 
 CHAP. 
 I. 
 
 CHAP. 
 II.
 
 CHAP. 
 II. 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Contents 
 
 mediary Familiar music best liked Interrelation of the 
 elements Repetition the fundamental principle of Form 
 Motives, Phrases, and Periods A Creole folk-tune an- 
 alyzed Repetition at the base of poetic forms Refrain 
 and Parallelism Key-relationship as a bond of union 
 Symphonic unity illustrated in examples from Beethoven 
 The C minor symphony and " Appassionata " sonata 
 The Concerto in G major The Seventh and Ninth sym- 
 phonies Page 15 
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 How far it is necessary for the listener to go into musi- 
 cal philosophy Intelligent hearing not conditioned upon 
 it Man's individual relationship to the art Musicians 
 proceed on the theory that feelings are the content of mu- 
 sic The search for pictures and stories condemned How 
 composers hear and judge Definitions of the capacity of 
 music by Wagner, Hauptmann, and Mendelssohn An ut- 
 terance by Herbert Spencer Music as a language Ab- 
 solute music and Programme music The content of all 
 true art works Chamber music Meaning and origin of 
 the term Haydn the servant of a Prince The charac- 
 teristics of Chamber music Pure thought, lofty imagina- 
 tion, and deep learning Its chastity Sympathy between 
 performers and listeners essential to its enjoyment A 
 correct definition of Programme music Programme music 
 defended The value of titles and superscriptions Judg- 
 ment upon it must, however, go to the music, not the com- 
 mentary Subjects that are unfit for music Kinds of Pro- 
 gramme music Imitative music How the music of birds 
 has been utilized The cuckoo of nature and Beethoven's 
 cuckoo Cock and hen in a seventeenth century compo- 
 sition Rameau's pullet The German quail Music that 
 is descriptive by suggestion External and internal attri- 
 butes Fancy and Imagination Harmony and the major 
 and minor mode Association of ideas Movement delin-
 
 Contents 
 
 eated Handel's frogs Water in the "Hebrides" over- 
 ture and "Ocean" symphony Height and depth illus- 
 trated by acute and grave tones Beethoven's illustration 
 of distance His rule enforced Classical and Romantic 
 music Genesis of the terms What they mean in litera- 
 ture Archbishop Trench on classical books The au- 
 thor's definitions of both terms in music Classicism as 
 the conservative principle, Romanticism as the progres- 
 sive, regenerative, and creative A contest which stim- 
 ulates life. , Page 36 
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 Importance of the instrumental band Some things 
 that can be learned by its study The orchestral choirs 
 Disposition of the players Model bands compared De- 
 velopment of instrumental music The extent of an or- 
 chestra's register The Strings : Violin, Viola, Violon- 
 cello, and Double-bass Effects produced by changes in 
 manipulation The wood-winds: Flute, Oboe, English 
 horn, Bassoon, Clarinet The Brass . French Horn, Trum- 
 pet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba The Drums The Con- 
 ductor Rise of the modern interpreter The need of him 
 His methods Scores and Score-reading. . . Page 71 
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 " Classical " and " Popular " as generally conceived 
 Symphony Orchestras and Military bands The higher 
 forms in music as exemplified at a classical concert 
 Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic Poems, Concertos, 
 etc. A Symphony not a union of unrelated parts History 
 of the name The Sonata form and cyclical compositions 
 The bond of union between the divisions of a Symphony 
 Material and spiritual links The first movement and the 
 
 XI 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 CHAP. 
 V.
 
 Xll 
 
 CHAP. 
 V. 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Contents 
 
 sonata form "Exposition, illustration, and repetition" 
 The subjects and their treatment Keys and nomen- 
 clature of the Symphony The Adagio or second move- 
 ment The Scherzo and its relation to the Minuet The 
 Finale and the Rondo form The latter illustrated in out- 
 line by a poem Modifications of the symphonic form by 
 Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint- 
 Saens and Dvorak Augmentation of the forces Sym- 
 phonies with voices The Symphonic Poem Its three 
 characteristics Concertos and Cadenzas M. Ysaye's 
 opinion of the latter Designations in Chamber music 
 The Overture and its descendants Smaller forms : Ser- 
 enades, Fantasias, Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Ex- 
 cerpts Page 122 
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 The Popularity of Pianoforte music exemplified in M, 
 Paderewski's recitals The instrument A universal me- 
 dium of music study Its defects and merits contrasted 
 Not a perfect melody instrument Value of the percus- 
 sive element Technique ; the false and the true estimate 
 of its value Pianoforte literature as illustrated in recitals 
 Its division, for the purposes of this study, into four 
 periods : Classic, Classic-romantic, Romantic, and Bravura 
 Precursors of the Pianoforte The Clavichord and Harp- 
 sichord, and the music composed for them Peculiarities 
 of Bach's style His Romanticism Scarlatti's Sonatas 
 The Suite and its constituents Allemande, Courante, 
 Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, and Gavotte The technique 
 of the period How Bach and Handel played Beethoven 
 and the Sonata Mozart and Beethoven as pianists The 
 Romantic composers Schumann and Chopin and the 
 forms used by them Schumann and Jean Paul Chopin's 
 Preludes, Etudes, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Ma- 
 zurkas, Krakowiak The technique of the Romantic pe-
 
 Contents 
 
 riod "Idiomatic" pianoforte music Development of 
 the instrument The Pedal and its use Liszt and his 
 Hungarian Rhapsodies. Page 154 
 
 At the Opera 
 
 Instability of popular taste in respect of operas Our 
 lists seldom extend back of the present century The peo- 
 ple of to-day as indifferent as those of two centuries ago 
 to the language used Use and abuse of foreign lan- 
 guages The Opera defended as an art-form Its origin in 
 the Greek tragedies Why music is the language of emo- 
 tion A scientific explanation Herbert Spencer's laws 
 Efforts of Florentine scholars to revive the classic tragedy 
 result in the invention of the lyric drama The various 
 kinds of Opera : Opera seria. Opera buffa. Opera semiseria, 
 French grand Optra, and Opera comique Operettas and 
 musical farces Romantic Opera A popular conception 
 of German opera A return to the old terminology led by 
 Wagner The recitative : Its nature, aims, and capaci- 
 ties The change from speech to song The arioso style, 
 the accompanied recitative and the aria Music and dra- 
 matic action Emancipation from set forms The orches- 
 tra The decay of singing Feats of the masters of the 
 Roman school and La Bastardella Degeneracy of the 
 Opera of their day Singers who have been heard in New 
 York Two generations of singers compared Grisi, Jenny 
 Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini, Adelina Patti, 
 Nilsson, Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba, 
 Eames, Calve, Mario, Jean and Edouard de Reszke 
 Wagner and his works Operas and lyric dramas Wag- 
 ner's return to the principles of the Florentine reformers 
 Interdependence of elements in a lyric drama Forms 
 and the endless melody The Typical Phrases : How they 
 should be studied. . Page 202 
 
 Xlll 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII.
 
 XIV 
 
 Contents 
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 CHAP. Value of chorus singing in musical culture Schu- 
 VIII. mann's advice to students Choristers and instrumental- 
 istsAmateurs and professionals Oratorio and Mdnner- 
 gesang The choirs of Handel and Bach Glee Unions, 
 Male Clubs, and Women's Choirs Boys' voices not adapt- 
 ed to modern music Mixed choirs American Origin of 
 amateur singing societies Priority over Germany The 
 size of choirs Large numbers not essential How choirs 
 are divided Antiphonal effects Excellence in choir sing- 
 ing Precision, intonation, expression, balance of tone, 
 enunciation, pronunciation, declamation The cause of 
 monotony in Oratorio performances A capella music 
 Genesis of modern hymnology Influence of Luther and 
 the Germans Use of popular melodies by composers 
 The chorale Preservation of the severe style of writing 
 in choral music Palestrina and Bach A study of their 
 styles Latin and Teuton Church and individual Mo- 
 tets and Church Cantatas The Passions The Oratorio 
 Sacred opera and Cantata Epic and Drama Charac- 
 teristic and descriptive music The Mass : Its seculariza- 
 tion and musical development The dramatic tendency 
 illustrated in Beethoven and Berlioz Page 253 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Musician, Critic and Public 
 
 Criticism justified Relationship between Musician, 
 Critic and Public To end the conflict between them 
 would result in stagnation How the Critic might escape 
 The Musician prefers to appeal to the public rather than 
 to the Critic Why this is so Ignorance as a safeguard 
 against and promoter of conservatism Wagner and 
 Haydn The Critic as the enemy of the charlatan Temp- 
 tations to which he is exposed Value of popular appro-
 
 Contents 
 
 bation Schumann's aphorisms The Public neither bad 
 judges nor good critics The Critic's duty is to guide pop- 
 ular judgment Fickleness of the people's opinions Taste 
 and judgment not a birthright The necessity of antece- 
 dent study The Critic's responsibility Not always that 
 toward the Musician which the latter thinks How the 
 newspaper can work for good Must the Critic be a Musi- 
 cian ? Pedants and Rhapsodists Demonstrable facts in 
 criticism The folly and viciousness of foolish rhapsody 
 The Rev. Mr. Haweis cited Ernst's violin Intelligent 
 rhapsody approved Dr. John Brown on Beethoven The 
 Critic's duty Page 297 
 
 PLATES 
 
 I. VIOLIN (CLIFFORD SCHMIDT). II. VIOLON- 
 CBLLO (VICTOR HERBERT). III. PICCOLO FLUTE 
 (C. KURTH, JUN.). IV. OBOE (JOSEPH ELLBR). V. 
 ENGLISH HORN (JOSEPH ELLER). VI. BASSOON 
 (FEDOR BERNHARDI). VII. CLARINET (HENRY 
 KAISER). VIII. BASS CLARINET (HENRY KAISER). 
 IX. FRENCH HORN (CARL PIEPBR). X. TROM- 
 BONE (J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER). XI. BASS TUBA 
 (ANTON REITER). XII. THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE. 
 
 Page 325 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 351 
 
 XV 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX.
 
 How to Listen to Music
 
 Introduction 
 
 '""PHIS book has a purpose, which is 
 1 as simple as it is plain ; and an un- 
 pretentious scope. It does not aim to 
 edify either the musical professor or 
 the musical scholar. It comes into the 
 presence of the musical student with all 
 becoming modesty. Its business is with 
 those who love music and present them- 
 selves for its gracious ministrations in 
 Concert-Room and Opera House, but 
 have not studied it as professors and 
 scholars are supposed to study. It is 
 not for the careless unless they be will- 
 ing to inquire whether it might not be 
 well to yield the common conception 
 of entertainment in favor of the higher 
 enjoyment which springs from serious 
 contemplation of beautiful things ; but 
 if they are willing so to inquire, they 
 
 The book's 
 appeal.
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Talent in 
 listening. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 shall be accounted the class that the 
 author is most anxious to reach. The 
 reasons which prompted its writing and 
 the laying out of its plan will presently 
 appear. For the frankness of his dis- 
 closure the author might be willing to 
 apologize were his reverence for music 
 less and his consideration for popular 
 affectations more ; but because he is 
 convinced that a love for music carries 
 with it that which, so it be but awak- 
 ened, shall speedily grow into an honest 
 desire to know more about the beloved 
 object, he is willing to seem unamiable 
 to the amateur while arguing the need 
 of even so mild a stimulant as his book, 
 and ingenuous, mayhap even childish, 
 to the professional musician while try- 
 ing to point a way in which better ap- 
 preciation may be sought. 
 
 The capacity properly to listen to 
 music is better proof of musical talent 
 in the listener than skill to play upon 
 an instrument or ability to sing accept- 
 ably when unaccompanied by that ca- 
 pacity. It makes more for that gentle- 
 ness and refinement of emotion, thought, 
 and action which, in the highest sense
 
 Introduction 
 
 of the term, it is the province of music 
 to promote. And it is a much rarer ac- 
 complishment. I cannot conceive any- 
 thing more pitiful than the spectacle of 
 men and women perched on a fair ob- 
 servation point exclaiming rapturously 
 at the loveliness of mead and valley, 
 their eyes melting involuntarily in ten- 
 derness at the sight of moss-carpeted 
 slopes and rocks and peaceful wood, or 
 dilating in reverent wonder at mountain 
 magnificence, and then learning from 
 their exclamations that, as a matter of 
 fact, they are unable to distinguish be- 
 tween rock and tree, field and forest, 
 earth and sky ; between the dark - 
 browns of the storm-scarred rock, the 
 greens of the foliage, and the blues of 
 the sky. 
 
 Yet in the realm of another sense, 
 in the contemplation of beauties more 
 ethereal and evanescent than those of 
 nature, such is the experience which 
 in my capacity as a writer for news- 
 papers I have made for many years. A 
 party of people blind to form and color 
 cannot be said to be well equipped for 
 a Swiss journey, though loaded down 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Ill 
 
 equipped 
 listeners.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Popular 
 ignorance 
 of music. 
 
 with alpenstocks and Baedekers ; yet 
 the spectacle of such a party on the top 
 of the Rigi is no more pitiful and anom- 
 alous than that presented by the major- 
 ity of the hearers in our concert-rooms. 
 They are there to adventure a journey 
 into a realm whose beauties do not dis- 
 close themselves to the senses alone, but 
 whose perception requires a co-opera- 
 tion of all the finer faculties ; yet of this 
 they seem to know nothing, and even 
 of that sense to which the first appeal 
 is made it may be said with profound 
 truth that " hearing they hear not, 
 neither do they understand." 
 
 Of all the arts, music is practised 
 most and thought about least. Why 
 this should be the case may be ex- 
 plained on several grounds. A sweet 
 mystery enshrouds the nature of music. 
 Its material part is subtle and elusive. 
 To master it on its technical side alone 
 costs a vast expenditure of time, pa- 
 tience, and industry. But since it is, in 
 one manifestation or another, the most 
 popular of the arts, and one the enjoy- 
 ment of which is conditioned in a pecul- 
 iar degree on love, it remains passing
 
 Introduction 
 
 strange that the indifference touching 
 its nature and elements, and the charac- 
 ter of the phenomena which produce it, 
 or are produced by it, is so general. I 
 do not recall that anybody has ever tried 
 to ground this popular ignorance touch- 
 ing an art of which, by right of birth, 
 everybody is a critic. The unamiable 
 nature of the task, of which I am keenly 
 conscious, has probably been a bar to 
 such an undertaking. But a frank diag- 
 nosis must precede the discovery of a 
 cure for every disease, and I have un- 
 dertaken to point out a way in which 
 this grievous ailment in the social body 
 may at least be lessened. 
 
 It is not an exaggeration to say that 
 one might listen for a lifetime to the po- 
 lite conversation of our drawing-rooms 
 (and I do not mean by this to refer to the 
 United States alone) without hearing a 
 symphony talked about in terms indic- 
 ative of more than the most superficial 
 knowledge of the outward form, that is, 
 the dimensions and apparatus, of such a 
 composition. No other art provides 
 an exact analogy for this phenomenon. 
 Everybody can say something contain- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Paucity of 
 intelligent 
 comment.
 
 8 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Want of a 
 model. 
 
 Simple 
 terms con- 
 founded. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ing a degree of appositeness about a 
 poem, novel, painting, statue, or build- 
 ing. If he can do no more he can go 
 as far as Landseer's rural critic who 
 objected to one of the artist's paintings 
 on the ground that not one of the three 
 pigs eating from a trough had a foot in 
 it. It is the absence of the standard of 
 judgment employed in this criticism 
 which makes significant talk about mu- 
 sic so difficult. Nature failed to pro- 
 vide a model for this ethereal art. 
 There is nothing in the natural world 
 with which the simple man may com- 
 pare it. 
 
 It is not alone a knowledge of the 
 constituent factors of a symphony, or 
 the difference between a sonata and a 
 suite, a march and a mazurka, that is 
 rare. Unless you chance to be listen- 
 ing to the conversation of musicians (in 
 which term I wish to include amateurs 
 who are what the word amateur implies, 
 and whose knowledge stands in some 
 respectable relation to their love), you 
 will find, so frequently that I have not the 
 heart to attempt an estimate of the pro- 
 portion, that the most common words
 
 Introduction 
 
 in the terminology of the art are mis- 
 applied. Such familiar things as har- 
 mony and melody, time and tune, are 
 continually confounded. Let us call a 
 distinguished witness into the box ; the 
 instance is not new, but it will serve. 
 What does Tennyson mean when he 
 says : 
 
 "All night have the roses heard 
 
 The flute, violin, bassoon ; 
 All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd 
 To the dancers dancing in tune ? " 
 
 Unless the dancers who wearied 
 Maud were provided with even a more 
 extraordinary instrumental outfit than 
 the Old Lady of Banbury Cross, how 
 could they have danced "in tune?" 
 
 Musical study of a sort being almost 
 as general as study of the " three Rs," 
 it must be said that the gross forms of 
 ignorance are utterly inexcusable. But 
 if this is obvious, it is even more obvi- 
 ous that there is something radically 
 wrong with the prevalent systems of 
 musical instruction. It is because of 
 a plentiful lack of knowledge that so 
 much that is written on music is with- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Tune and 
 time.
 
 10 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Blunders 
 of poets and 
 essayists. 
 
 out meaning, and that the most foolish 
 kind of rhapsody, so it show a colloca- 
 tion of fine words, is permitted to mas- 
 querade as musical criticism and even 
 analysis. People like to read about 
 music, and the books of a certain Eng- 
 lish clergyman have had a sale of stu- 
 pendous magnitude notwithstanding 
 they are full of absurdities. The clergy- 
 man has a multitudinous companion- 
 ship, moreover, among novelists, essay- 
 ists, and poets whose safety lies in more 
 or less fantastic generalization when 
 they come to talk about music. How 
 they flounder when they come to detail ! 
 It was Charles Lamb who said, in his 
 " Chapter on Ears," that in voices he 
 could not distinguish a soprano from a 
 tenor, and could only contrive to guess 
 at the thorough-bass from its being " su- 
 pereminently harsh and disagreeable ; " 
 yet dear old Elia may be forgiven, since 
 his confounding the bass voice with a 
 system of musical short-hand is so de- 
 lightful a proof of the ignorance he was 
 confessing. 
 
 But what shall the troubled critics 
 say to Tennyson's orchestra consisting
 
 Introduction 
 
 ll 
 
 of a flute, violin, and bassoon ? Or to 
 Coleridge's " loud bassoon," which made 
 the wedding-guest to beat his breast? 
 Or to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
 pianist who played " with an airy and 
 bird - like touch ? " Or to our own 
 clever painter-novelist who, in " Snub- 
 bin' through Jersey," has Brushes bring 
 out his violoncello and play " the sym- 
 phonies of Beethoven " to entertain his 
 fellow canal-boat passengers ? The ten- 
 dency toward realism, or " veritism," as 
 it is called, has brought out a rich crop 
 of blunders. It will not do to have a 
 character in a story simply sing or play 
 something ; we must have the names of 
 composers and compositions. The ge- 
 nial gentleman who enriched musical lit- 
 erature with arrangements of Beetho- 
 ven's symphonies for violoncello without 
 accompaniment has since supplemented 
 this feat by creating a German fiddler 
 who, when he thinks himself unnoticed, 
 plays a sonata for violin and contralto 
 voice ; Professor Brander Matthews 
 permits one of his heroines to sing 
 Schumann's " Warum?" and one of his 
 heroes plays " The Moonlight Concer- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Literary 
 realism 
 and musi- 
 cal termi- 
 nology.
 
 12 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A popular 
 need. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 to ; " one of Ouida's romantic creatures 
 spends hours at an organ " playing the 
 grand old masses of Mendelssohn ; " in 
 " Moths " the tenor never wearies of 
 singing certain "exquisite airs of Pal- 
 estrina," which recalls the fact that an 
 indignant correspondent of a St. Lou- 
 is newspaper, protesting against the 
 Teutonism and heaviness of an orches- 
 tra conductor's programmes, demanded 
 some of the " lighter " works of " Ber- 
 lioz and Palestrina." 
 
 Alas ! these things and the many oth- 
 ers equally amusing which Mr. G. Suth- 
 erland Edwards long ago catalogued in 
 an essay on " The Literary Maltreatment 
 of Music " are but evidences that even 
 cultured folk have not yet learned to 
 talk correctly about the art which is prac- 
 tised most widely. There is a greater 
 need than pianoforte teachers and sing- 
 ing teachers, and that is a numerous com- 
 pany of writers and talkers who shall 
 teach the people how to listen to music 
 so that it shall not pass through their 
 heads like a vast tonal phantasmagoria, 
 but provide the varied and noble de- 
 lights contemplated by the composers.
 
 Introduction 
 
 Ungracious as it might appear, it 
 may yet not be amiss, therefore, at the 
 very outset of an inquiry into the proper 
 way in which to listen to music, to utter 
 a warning against much that is written 
 on the art. As a rule it will be found 
 that writers on music are divided into 
 two classes, and that neither of these 
 classes can do sfiuch good. Too often 
 they are either pedants or rhapsodists. 
 This division is wholly natural. Mu- 
 sic has many sides and is a science 
 as well as an art. Its scientific side is 
 that on which the pedant generally ap- 
 proaches it. He is concerned with 
 forms and rules, with externals, to the 
 forgetting of that which is inexpressibly 
 nobler and higher. But the pedants are 
 not harmful, because they are not inter- 
 esting ; strictly speaking, they do not 
 write for the public at all, but only 
 for their professional colleagues. The 
 harmful men are the foolish rhapsodists 
 who take advantage of the fact that 
 the language of music is indeterminate 
 and evanescent to talk about the art in 
 such a way as to present themselves as 
 persons of exquisite sensibilities rather 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A warning 
 
 against 
 
 writers. 
 
 Pedants 
 and rhap- 
 sodists.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. I. than to direct attention to the real nat- 
 ure and beauty of music itself. To 
 them I shall recur in a later chapter de- 
 voted to musical criticism, and haply 
 point out the difference between good 
 and bad critics and commentators from 
 the view -point of popular need and 
 popular opportunity.
 
 II 
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 MUSIC is dual in its nature; it is 
 material as well as spiritual. Its 
 material side we apprehend through 
 the sense of hearing, and comprehend 
 through the intellect ; its spiritual side 
 reaches us through the fancy (or imagi- 
 nation, so it be music of the highest 
 class), and the emotional part of us. If 
 the scope and capacity of the art, and 
 the evolutionary processes which its 
 history discloses (a record of which is 
 preserved in its nomenclature), are to 
 be understood, it is essential that this 
 duality be kept in view. There is 
 something so potent and elemental in 
 the appeal which music makes that it 
 is possible to derive pleasure from 
 even an unwilling hearing or a hearing 
 unaccompanied by effort at analysis; 
 
 The nature 
 of music.
 
 i6 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Necessity 
 of intelli- 
 gent hear- 
 ing. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 but real appreciation of its beauty, 
 which means recognition of the quali- 
 ties which put it in the realm of art, is 
 conditioned upon intelligent hearing. 
 The higher the intelligence, the keener 
 will be the enjoyment, if the former be 
 directed to the spiritual side as well as 
 the material. 
 
 So far as music is merely agreeably 
 co-ordinated sounds, it may be reduced 
 to mathematics and its practice to handi- 
 craft. But recognition of design is a 
 condition precedent to the awakening 
 of the fancy or the imagination, and to 
 achieve such recognition there must be 
 intelligent hearing in the first instance. 
 For the purposes of this study, design 
 may be held to be Form in its primary 
 stages, the recognition of which is pos- 
 sible to every listener who is fond of 
 music ; it is not necessary that he be 
 learned in the science. He need only 
 be willing to let an intellectual process, 
 which will bring its own reward, ac- 
 company the physical process of hear- 
 ing. 
 
 Without discrimination it is impossi- 
 ble to recognize even the crude materials
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 of music, for the first step is already a 
 co-ordination of those materials. A 
 tone becomes musical material only by 
 association with another tone. We 
 might hear it alone, study its quality, 
 and determine its degree of acuteness 
 or gravity (its pitch, as musicians say), 
 but it can never become music so long 
 as it remains isolated. When we recog- 
 nize that it bears certain relationships 
 with other tones in respect of time or 
 tune (to use simple terms), it has be- 
 come for us musical material. We do 
 not need to philosophize about the nat- 
 ure of those relationships, but we must 
 recognize their existence. 
 
 Thus much we might hear if we were 
 to let music go through our heads like 
 water through a sieve. Yet the step 
 from that degree of discrimination to 
 a rudimentary analysis of Form is ex- 
 ceedingly short, and requires little more 
 than a willingness to concentrate the 
 attention and exercise the memory. 
 Everyone is willing to do that much 
 while looking at a picture. Who would 
 look at a painting and rest satisfied with 
 the impression made upon the sense of 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Tones and 
 
 musical 
 
 material. 
 
 The begin- 
 nings of 
 Form.
 
 i8 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Compari- 
 son with a, 
 model not 
 possible. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 sight by the colors merely ? No one, 
 surely. Yet so soon as we look, so as 
 to discriminate between the outlines, to 
 observe the relationship of figure to 
 figure, we are indulging in intellectual 
 exercise. If this be a condition prece- 
 dent to the enjoyment of a picture (and 
 it plainly is), how much more so is it in 
 the case of music, which is intangible 
 and evanescent, which cannot pause a 
 moment for our contemplation without 
 ceasing to be ? 
 
 There is another reason why we must 
 exercise intelligence in listening, to 
 which I have already alluded in the first 
 chapter. Our appreciation of beauty 
 in the plastic arts is helped by the cir- 
 cumstance that the critical activity is 
 largely a matter of comparison. Is the 
 picture or the statue a good copy of the 
 object sought to be represented ? Such 
 comparison fails us utterly in music, 
 which copies nothing that is tangibly 
 present in the external world. 
 
 It is then necessary to associate the 
 intellect with sense perception in listen- 
 ing to music. How far is it essential 
 that the intellectual process shall go?
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 This book being for the untrained, the 
 question might be put thus : With how 
 little knowledge of the science can an 
 intelligent listener get along ? We are 
 concerned only with his enjoyment of 
 music or, better, with an effort to in- 
 crease it without asking him to be- 
 come a musician. If he is fond of the 
 art it is more than likely that the capac- 
 ity to discriminate sufficiently to recog- 
 nize the elements out of which music 
 is made has come to him intuitively. 
 Does he recognize that musical tones 
 are related to each other in respect of 
 time and pitch? Then it shall not be 
 difficult for him to recognize the three 
 elements on which music rests Melody, 
 Harmony, and Rhythm. Can he recog- 
 nize them with sufficient distinctness to 
 seize upon their manifestations while 
 music is sounding ? Then memory 
 shall come to the aid of discrimina- 
 tion, and he shall be able to appreciate 
 enough of design to point the way to a 
 true and lofty appreciation of the beau- 
 tiful in music. The value of memory is 
 for obvious reasons very great in mu- 
 sical enjoyment. The picture remains 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 What de- 
 gree of 
 knowledge 
 is neces- 
 sary? 
 
 The Ele- 
 ments. 
 
 Value of 
 memory.
 
 20 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 An inter- 
 mediary 
 necessary. 
 
 upon the wall, the book upon the li- 
 brary shelf. If we have failed to grasp 
 a detail at the first glance or reading, 
 we need but turn again to the picture 
 or open the book anew. We may see 
 the picture in a changed light, or read 
 the poem in a different mood, but the 
 outlines, colors, ideas are fixed for fre- 
 quent and patient perusal. Music goes 
 out of existence with every perform- 
 ance, and must be recreated at every 
 hearing. 
 
 Not only that, but in the case of all, 
 so far as some forms are concerned, and 
 of all who are not practitioners in 
 others, it is necessary that there shall 
 be an intermediary between the com- 
 poser and the listener. The written or 
 printed notes are not music; they are 
 only signs which indicate to the per- 
 former what to do to call tones into ex- 
 istence such as the composer had com- 
 bined into an art-work in his mind. 
 The broadly trained musician can read 
 the symbols ; they stir his imagination, 
 and he hears the music in his imagi- 
 nation as the composer heard it. But 
 the untaught music-lover alone can get
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 nothing from the printed page ; he 
 must needs wait till some one else shall 
 again waken for him the 
 
 " Sound of a voice that is still." 
 
 This is one of the drawbacks which 
 are bound up in the nature of music; 
 but it has ample compensation in the 
 unusual pleasure which memory brings. 
 In the case of the best music, familiar- 
 ity breeds ever-growing admiration. 
 New compositions are slowly received ; 
 they make their way to popular appre- 
 ciation only by repeated performances ; 
 the people like best the songs as well as 
 the symphonies which they know. The 
 quicker, therefore, that we are in rec- 
 ognizing the melodic, harmonic, and 
 rhythmic contents of a new composi- 
 tion, and the more apt our memory in 
 seizing upon them for the operation of 
 the fancy, the greater shall be our pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 In simple phrase Melody is a well- 
 ordered series of tones heard succes- 
 sively ; Harmony, a well-ordered series 
 heard simultaneously ; Rhythm, a sym- 
 metrical grouping of tonal time units 
 
 21 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The value 
 of memory. 
 
 Melody, 
 Harmony, 
 and 
 Rhythm.
 
 22 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Compre- 
 hensiveness 
 of Melody. 
 
 Repetition. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 vitalized by accent. The life-blood of 
 music is Melody, and a complete con- 
 ception of the term embodies within it- 
 self the essence of both its companions. 
 A succession of tones without harmonic 
 regulation is not a perfect element in 
 music ; neither is a succession of tones 
 which have harmonic regulation but are 
 void of rhythm. The beauty and ex- 
 pressiveness, especially the emotional- 
 ity, of a musical composition depend 
 upon the harmonies which either ac- 
 company the melody in the form of 
 chords (a group of melodic intervals 
 sounded simultaneously), or are latent 
 in the melody itself (harmonic intervals 
 sounded successively). Melody is Har- 
 mony analyzed ; Harmony is Melody 
 synthetized. 
 
 The fundamental principle of Form 
 is repetition of melodies, which are to 
 music what ideas are to poetry. Melo- 
 dies themselves are made by repetition 
 of smaller fractions called motives (a 
 term borrowed from the fine arts), 
 phrases, and periods, which derive their 
 individuality from their rhythmical or 
 intervallic characteristics. Melodies are
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 2 3 
 
 not all of the simple kind which the 
 musically illiterate, or the musically ill- 
 trained, recognize as " tunes," but they 
 all have a symmetrical organization. 
 The dissection of a simple folk-tune 
 may serve to make this plain and also 
 indicate to the untrained how a single 
 feature may be taken as a mark of 
 identification and a holding-point for 
 the memory. Here is the . melody of a 
 Creole song called sometimes Pov* piti 
 Lolotte, sometimes Pov' piti Momzelle 
 Zizi, in the patois of Louisiana and 
 Martinique : 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 A melody 
 analysed. 
 
 lyiMt^j^ * r u . J B J j j j-p-j 
 
 F N i i \\ m i i ^5- ~ff. ^j j. mm 0^~ 
 
 L ''ij ''.i * B* 1 - J *'' LJ ' 
 
 i JTT"i HP i M i I^F^ i i j n i ^-H 
 
 1 J -*Jj*-*i |*-jj^-J j m \j J a j J j *|| 
 
 It will be as apparent to the eye of one 
 who cannot read music as it will to his 
 ear when he hears this melody played, 
 that it is built up of two groups of notes 
 only. These groups are marked off by 
 the heavy lines across the staff called 
 bars, whose purpose it is to indicate
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Motives, 
 phrases, 
 and 
 periods. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 rhythmical subdivisions in music. The 
 second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh 
 of these groups are repetitions merely 
 of the first group, which is the germ of 
 the melody, but on different degrees of 
 the scale ; the fourth and eighth groups 
 are identical and are an appendage 
 hitched to the first group for the pur- 
 pose of bringing it to a close, supplying 
 a resting-point craved by man's innate 
 sense of symmetry. Musicians call such 
 groups cadences. A musical analyst 
 would call each group a motive, and say 
 that each successive two groups, begin- 
 ning with the first, constitute a phrase, 
 each two phrases a period, and the two 
 periods a melody. We have therefore 
 in this innocent Creole tune eight mo- 
 tives, four phrases, and two periods ; 
 yet its material is summed up in two 
 groups, one of seven notes, one of five, 
 which only need to be identified and re- 
 membered to enable a listener to recog- 
 nize something of the design of a com- 
 poser if he were to put the melody to 
 the highest purposes that melody can 
 be put in the art of musical composi- 
 tion.
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 Repetition is the constructive princi- 
 ple which was employed by the folk- 
 musician in creating this melody ; and 
 repetition is the fundamental principle 
 in all musical construction. It will suf- 
 fice for many merely to be reminded of 
 this to appreciate the fact that while the 
 exercise of memory is a most necessary 
 activity in listening to music, it lies in 
 music to make that exercise easy. 
 There is repetition of motives, phrases, 
 and periods in melody ; repetition of 
 melodies in parts ; and repetition of 
 parts in the wholes of the larger forms. 
 
 The beginnings of poetic forms are 
 also found in repetition ; in primitive 
 poetry it is exemplified in the refrain 
 or burden, in the highly developed poe- 
 try of the Hebrews in parallelism. The 
 Psalmist wrote : 
 
 " O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, 
 Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure." 
 
 Here is a period of two members, the 
 latter repeating the thought of the for- 
 mer. A musical analyst might find in 
 it an admirable analogue for the first 
 period of a simple melody. He would 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Repetition 
 in music. 
 
 Repetition 
 in poetry.
 
 26 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Key rela- 
 tionship. 
 
 The 
 
 rhythmical 
 
 stamp. 
 
 divide it into four motives : " Rebuke 
 me not | in thy wrath | neither chasten 
 me | in thy hot displeasure," and point 
 out as intimate a relationship between 
 them as exists in the Creole tune. The 
 bond of union between the motives of 
 the melody as well as that in the poe- 
 try illustrates a principle of beauty 
 which is the most important element in 
 musical design after repetition, which is 
 its necessary vehicle. It is because this 
 principle guides the repetition of the 
 tone-groups that together they form a 
 melody that is perfect, satisfying, and 
 reposeful. It is the principle of key- 
 relationship, to discuss which fully 
 would carry me farther into musical 
 science than I am permitted to go. Let 
 this suffice : A harmony is latent in 
 each group, and the sequence of groups 
 is such a sequence as the experience of 
 ages has demonstrated to be most 
 agreeable to the ear. 
 
 In the case of the Creole melody the 
 listener is helped to a quick apprecia- 
 tion of its form by the distinct physiog- 
 nomy which rhythm has stamped upon 
 it ; and it is by noting such a character-
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 istic that the memory can best be aided 
 in its work of identification. It is not 
 necessary for a listener to follow all the 
 processes of a composer in order to en- 
 joy his music, but if he cultivates the 
 habit of following the principal themes 
 through a work of the higher class he 
 will not only enjoy the pleasures of 
 memory but will frequently get a 
 glimpse into the composer's purposes 
 which will stimulate his imagination 
 and mightily increase his enjoyment. 
 There is nothing can guide him more 
 surely to a recognition of the princi- 
 ple of unity, which makes a symphony 
 to be an organic whole instead of a 
 group of pieces which are only ex- 
 ternally related. The greatest exem- 
 plar of this principle is Beethoven ; and 
 his music is the best in which to study 
 it for the reason that he so frequently 
 employs material signs for the spiritual 
 bond. So forcibly has this been im- 
 pressed upon me at times that I am 
 almost willing to believe that a keen 
 analytical student of his music might 
 arrange his greater works into groups 
 of such as were in process of composi- 
 
 2 7 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The prin- 
 ciple of 
 Unity.
 
 28 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 A rhyth- 
 mical mo- 
 tive pur- 
 sued. 
 
 tion at the same time without refer- 
 ence to his personal history. Take the 
 principal theme of the C minor Sym- 
 phony for example : 
 
 Allegro con brio. ^ 
 
 V / 
 
 
 This simple, but marvellously preg- 
 nant, motive is not only the kernel of 
 the first movement, it is the fundamental 
 thought of the whole symphony. We 
 hear its persistent beat in the scherzo 
 as well : 
 
 L Allegro. 
 
 ff 
 
 and also in the last movement : 
 
 Allegro. 
 
 More than this, we find the motive 
 haunting the first movement of the
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 29 
 
 pianoforte sonata in F minor, op. 57, 
 known as the " Sonata Appassionata," 
 now gloomily, almost morosely, procla- 
 mative in the bass, now interrogative in 
 the treble : 
 
 
 if ' 
 
 poco rit. 
 
 
 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Schindler relates that when once he 
 asked Beethoven to tell him what the 
 F minor and the D minor (Op. 31, No. 2) 
 sonatas meant, he received for an answer 
 only the enigmatical remark : " Read 
 Shakespeare's ' Tempest.' " Many a stu- 
 dent and commentator has since read 
 the " Tempest " in the hope of finding a 
 clew to the emotional contents which 
 Beethoven believed to be in the two 
 works, so singularly associated, only to 
 find himself baffled. It is a fancy, which 
 rests perhaps too much on outward 
 things, but still one full of suggestion, 
 that had Beethoven said : " Hear my C 
 minor Symphony," he would have given 
 a better starting-point to the imagina- 
 
 Relation- 
 ships in 
 Beethoven * 
 works.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The C mi- 
 nor Sym- 
 phony and 
 ' ' Appas- 
 sionato. " 
 sonata. 
 
 tion of those who are seeking to know 
 what the F minor sonata means. Most 
 obviously it means music, but it means 
 music that is an expression of one of 
 those psychological struggles which 
 Beethoven felt called upon more and 
 more to delineate as he was more and 
 more shut out from the companionship 
 of the external world. Such struggles 
 are in the truest sense of the word tem- 
 pests. The motive, which, according 
 to the story, Beethoven himself said in- 
 dicates, in the symphony, the rappings 
 of Fate at the door of human existence, 
 is common to two works which are also 
 related in their spiritual contents. Sin- 
 gularly enough, too, in both cases the 
 struggle which is begun in the first 
 movement and continued in the third, 
 is interrupted by a period of calm reas- 
 suring, soul-fortifying aspiration, which 
 in the symphony as well as in the so- 
 nata takes the form of a theme with va- 
 riations. Here, then, the recognition of 
 a simple rhythmical figure has helped 
 us to an appreciation of the spiritual 
 unity of the parts of a symphony, and 
 provided a commentary on the poetical
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 contents of a sonata. But the lesson is 
 not yet exhausted. Again do we find 
 the rhythm coloring the first movement 
 of the pianoforte concerto in G major : 
 
 Symphony, concerto, and sonata, as 
 the sketch-books of the master show, 
 were in process of creation at the same 
 time. 
 
 Thus far we have been helped in 
 identifying a melody and studying re- 
 lationships by the rhythmical structure 
 of a single motive. The demonstration 
 might be extended on the same line 
 into Beethoven's symphony in A major, 
 in which the external sign of the poeti- 
 cal idea which underlies the whole 
 work is also rhythmic so markedly so 
 that Wagner characterized it most hap- 
 pily and truthfully when he said that it 
 was "the apotheosis of the dance." 
 Here it is the dactyl, U U, which in 
 
 3 1 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Beethoven's 
 G major 
 Concerto. 
 
 His Sev- 
 enth Sym- 
 phony.
 
 3 2 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Use of a 
 dactylic 
 figure. 
 
 one variation, or another, clings to us 
 almost as persistently as in Hood's 
 " Bridge of Sighs : " 
 
 " One more unfortunate 
 
 Weary of breath, 
 Rashly importunate, 
 Gone to her death." 
 
 We hear it lightly tripping in the first 
 movement : 
 
 gentle, sedate, tender, measured, through 
 its combination with a spondee in the 
 second : 
 
 J /3|J J; 
 
 cheerily, merrily, jocosely happy in the 
 Scherzo : 
 
 J J; 
 
 hymn-like in the Trio : 
 
 and wildly bacchanalian when subjected 
 to trochaic abbreviation in the Finale : 
 
 JTJ-3 
 
 Intervallic characteristics may place 
 the badge of relationship upon melodies
 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 
 33 
 
 as distinctly as rhythmic. There is no 
 more perfect illustration of this than that 
 afforded by Beethoven's Ninth Sym- 
 phony. Speaking of the subject of its 
 finale, Sir George Grove says : 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Intervallic 
 character- 
 istics. 
 
 "And note while listening to the simple tune 
 itself, before the variations begin how -very simple 
 it is ; the plain diatonic scale, not a single chro- 
 matic interval, and out of fifty-six notes only three 
 not consecutive."* 
 
 
 Earlier in the same work, while com- 
 bating a statement by Lenz that the re- 
 semblance between the second subject 
 of the first movement and the choral mel- 
 
 
 ody is a " thematic reference of the most 
 striking importance, vindicating the 
 unity of the entire work, and placing 
 the whole in a perfectly new light," Sir 
 George says : 
 
 The melo- 
 dies in 
 Beethoven s 
 Ninth 
 Symphony. 
 
 " It is, however, very remarkable that so many of 
 the melodies in the Symphony should consist of 
 consecutive notes, and that in no less than four 
 
 
 of them the notes should run up a portion of the 
 scale and down again apparently pointing to a 
 consistent condition of Beethoven's mind through- 
 out this work." 
 
 
 * " Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," p. 374.
 
 34 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Melodic 
 likenesses. 
 
 Like Goethe, Beethoven secreted 
 many a mystery in his masterpiece, but 
 he did not juggle idly with tones, or 
 select the themes of his symphonies at 
 hap-hazard; he would be open to the 
 charge, however, if the resemblances 
 which I have pointed out in the Fifth 
 and Seventh Symphonies, and those 
 disclosed by the following melodies 
 from his Ninth, should turn out through 
 some incomprehensible revelation to be 
 mere coincidences : 
 From the first movement: 
 
 J dolcc. fl 
 
 From the second : 
 
 EIS2 1 I 1 J 
 J pp 
 
 j. f ? i i jetc. 
 
 \-L.. E. .p. -if y j |f j j B> | 
 
 /. 4 etc. 
 
 -f o / X"^ J. f /^^^ -^- 
 
 fc; ^^. etc. 
 
 i/ f t *!r i>\rtf$ r r nf j rTr 

 
 Recognition of Musical Elements 
 The choral melody : 
 
 etc. 
 
 From a recognition of the beginnings 
 of design, to which identification of the 
 composer's thematic material and its 
 simpler relationships will lead, to so 
 much knowledge of Form as will enable 
 the reader to understand the later chap- 
 ters in this book, is but a step. 
 
 35 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Design 
 and Form.
 
 Metaphys- 
 ics to be 
 avoided 
 ktrtin. 
 
 III 
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 BEARING in mind the purpose of 
 this book, I shall not ask the 
 reader to accompany me far afield in 
 the region of aesthetic philosophy or 
 musical metaphysics. A short excur- 
 sion is all that is necessary to make 
 plain what is meant by such terms as 
 Absolute music, Programme music, 
 Classical, Romantic, and Chamber music 
 and the like, which not only confront us 
 continually in discussion, but stand for 
 things which we must know if we would 
 read programmes understandingly and 
 appreciate the various phases in which 
 music presents itself to us. It is inter- 
 esting and valuable to know why an art- 
 work stirs up pleasurable feelings within 
 us, and to speculate upon its relations to 
 the intellect and the emotions; but the
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 circumstance that philosophers have 
 never agreed, and probably never will 
 agree, on these points, so far as the art 
 of music is concerned, alone suffices to 
 remove them from the field of this dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 Intelligent listening is not conditioned 
 upon such knowledge. Even when the 
 study is begun, the questions whether 
 or not music has a content beyond itself, 
 where that content is to be sought, and 
 how defined, will be decided in each case 
 by the student for himself, on grounds 
 which may be said to be as much in his 
 nature as they are in the argument. 
 The attitude of man toward the art is 
 an individual one, and in some of its 
 aspects defies explanation. 
 
 The amount and kind of pleasure 
 which music gives him are frequently 
 as much beyond his understanding and 
 control as they are beyond the under- 
 standing and control of the man who sits 
 beside him. They are consequences 
 of just that particular combination of 
 material and spiritual elements, just 
 that blending of muscular, nervous, and 
 cerebral tissues, which make him what 
 
 37 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Personal 
 equation in 
 judgment.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 A musical 
 fluid. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 he is, which segregate him as an individ- 
 ual from th? mass of humanity. We 
 speak of persons as susceptible or insus- 
 ceptible to music as we speak of good 
 and poor conductors of electricity ; and 
 the analogy implied here is particularly 
 apt and striking. If we were still using 
 the scientific terms of a few decades ago 
 I should say that a musical fluid might 
 yet be discovered and its laws correlated 
 with those of heat, light, and electricity. 
 Like them, when reduced to its lowest 
 terms, music is a form of motion, and it 
 should not be difficult on this analogy 
 to construct a theory which would ac- 
 count for the physical phenomena which 
 accompany the hearing of music in some 
 persons, such as the recession of blood 
 from the face, or an equally sudden suf- 
 fusion of the same veins, a contraction 
 of the scalp accompanied by chilliness 
 or a prickling sensation, or that rough- 
 ness of the skin called goose-flesh, " flesh 
 moved by an idea, flesh horripilated by 
 a thought." 
 
 It has been denied that feelings are the 
 content of music, or that it is the mis- 
 sion of music to give expression to feel-
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 ings; but the scientific fact remains 
 that the fundamental elements of vocal 
 music pitch, quality, and dynamic in- 
 tensity are the results of feelings work- 
 ing upon the vocal organs; and even if 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer's theory be re- 
 jected, it is too late now to deny that 
 music is conceived by its creators as a 
 language of the emotions and so applied 
 by them. The German philosopher 
 Herbarth sought to reduce the ques- 
 tion to an absurdity by expressing sur- 
 prise that musicians should still believe 
 that feelings could be " the proximate 
 cause of the rules of simple and double 
 counterpoint ; " but Dr. Stainer found 
 a sufficient answer by accepting the 
 proposition as put, and directing at- 
 tention to the fact that the feelings of 
 men having first decided what was 
 pleasurable in polyphony, and the rules 
 of counterpoint having afterward been 
 drawn from specimens of pleasurable 
 polyphony, it was entirely correct to 
 say that feelings are the proximate cause 
 of the laws of counterpoint. 
 
 It is because so many of us have been 
 taught by poets and romancers to think 
 
 39 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Origin of 
 
 musical 
 
 elements. 
 
 Feelings 
 and coun- 
 terpoint.
 
 4 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 How com- 
 posers hear 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 that there is a picture of some kind, or 
 a story in every piece of music, and 
 find ourselves unable to agree upon 
 the picture or the story in any given 
 case, that confusion is so prevalent 
 among the musical laity. Composers 
 seldom find difficulty in understanding 
 each other. They listen for beauty, and 
 if they find it they look for the causes 
 which have produced it, and in appre- 
 hending beauty and recognizing means 
 and cause they unvolitionally rise to 
 the plane whence a view of the com- 
 poser's purposes is clear. Having 
 grasped the mood of a composition and 
 found that it is being sustained or va- 
 ried in a manner accordant with their 
 conceptions of beauty, they occupy 
 themselves with another kind of dif- 
 ferentiation altogether than the misled 
 disciples of the musical rhapsodists 
 who overlook the general design and 
 miss the grand proclamation in their 
 search for petty suggestions for pict- 
 ures and stories among the details of 
 the composition. Let musicians testify 
 for us. In his romance, " Ein Gliick- 
 licher Abend," Wagner says :
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 " That which music expresses is eternal and 
 ideal. It does not give voice to the passion, the 
 love, the longing of this or the other individual, 
 under these or the other circumstances, but to 
 passion, love, longing itself." 
 
 Moritz Hauptmann says : 
 
 " The same music will admit of the most varied 
 verbal expositions, and of not one of them can it be 
 correctly said that it is exhaustive, the right one, 
 and contains the whole significance of the music. 
 This significance is contained most definitely in the 
 music itself. It is not music that is ambiguous ; it 
 says the same thing to everybody ; it speaks to 
 mankind and gives voice only to human feelings. 
 Ambiguity only then makes its appearance when 
 each person attempts to formulate in his manner 
 the emotional impression which he has received, 
 when he attempts to fix and hold the ethereal 
 essence of music, to utter the unutterable." 
 
 Mendelssohn inculcated the same les- 
 son in a letter which he wrote to a 
 young poet who had given titles to a 
 number of the composer's " Songs 
 Without Words," and incorporated 
 what he conceived to be their senti- 
 ments in a set of poems. He sent his 
 work to Mendelssohn with the request 
 that the composer inform the writer 
 
 4 1 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Wagner's 
 axiom. 
 
 Haupt- 
 mann s. 
 
 Mendels- 
 sohn's.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The 
 
 " Songs 
 without 
 Words." 
 
 The tonal 
 language. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 whether or not he had succeeded in 
 catching the meaning of the music. 
 He desired the information because 
 " music's capacity for expression is so 
 vague and indeterminate." Mendels- 
 sohn replied : 
 
 "You give the various numbers of the book 
 such titles as ' I Think of Thee,' ' Melancholy,' 
 4 The Praise of God,' ' A Merry Hunt.' I can 
 scarcely say whether I thought of these or other 
 things while composing the music. Another might 
 find 4 1 Think of Thee ' where you find 4 Melan- 
 choly,' and a real huntsman might consider 4 A 
 Merry Hunt ' a veritable ' Praise of God.' But 
 this is not because, as you think, music is vague. 
 On the contrary, I believe that musical expression 
 is altogether too definite, that it reaches regions and 
 dwells in them whither words cannot follow it and 
 must necessarily go lame when they make the 
 attempt as you would have them do." 
 
 If I were to try to say why musi- 
 cians, great musicians, speak thus of their 
 art, my explanation would be that they 
 have developed, farther than the rest of 
 mankind have been able to develop it, 
 a language of tones, which, had it been 
 so willed, might have been developed 
 so as to fill the place now occupied by
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 articulate speech. Herbert Spencer, 
 though speaking purely as a scientific 
 investigator, not at all as an artist, de- 
 fined music as " a language of feelings 
 which may ultimately enable men 
 vividly and completely to impress 
 on each other the emotions they experi- 
 ence from moment to moment." We 
 rely upon speech to do this now, but 
 ever and anon when, in a moment of 
 emotional exaltation, we are deserted 
 by the articulate word we revert to the 
 emotional cry which antedates speech, 
 and find that that cry is universally un- 
 derstood because it is universally felt. 
 More than speech, if its primitive ele- 
 ment of emotionality be omitted, more 
 than the primitive language of gesture, 
 music is a natural mode of expression. 
 All three forms have attained their pres- 
 ent stage of development through con- 
 ventions. Articulate speech has led in 
 the development; gesture once occupied 
 a high plane (in the pantomimic dance of 
 the ancients) but has now retrograded ; 
 music, supreme at the outset, then neg- 
 lected, is but now pushing forward into 
 the place which its nature entitles it to 
 
 43 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Herbert 
 
 Spencers 
 
 definition. 
 
 Natural 
 expression.
 
 44 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Absolute 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 occupy. When we conceive of an art- 
 work composed of such elements, and 
 foregoing the adventitious helps which 
 may accrue to it from conventional idi- 
 oms based on association of ideas, we 
 have before us the concept of Absolute 
 music, whose content, like that of every 
 noble artistic composition, be it of tones 
 or forms or colors or thoughts expressed 
 in words, is that high ideal of goodness, 
 truthfulness, and beauty for which all 
 lofty imaginations strive. Such art- 
 works are the instrumental composi- 
 tions in the classic forms; such, too, 
 may be said to be the high type of ideal- 
 ized " Programme " music, which, like 
 the " Pastoral" symphony of Beethoven, 
 is designed to awaken emotions like 
 those awakened by the contemplation 
 of things, but does not attempt to depict 
 the things themselves. Having men- 
 tioned Programme music I must, of 
 course, try to tell what it is; but the 
 exposition must be preceded by an ex- 
 planation of a kind of music which, be- 
 cause of its chastity, is set down as the 
 finest form of absolute music. This is 
 Chamber music.
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 In a broad sense, but one not em- 
 ployed in modern definition, Chamber 
 music is all music not designed for per- 
 formance in the church or theatre. 
 (Out-of-door music cannot be consid- 
 ered among these artistic forms of aris- 
 tocratic descent.) Once, and indeed at 
 the time of its invention, the term meant 
 music designed especially for the delec- 
 tation of the most eminent patrons of 
 the art the kings and nobles whose 
 love for it gave it maintenance and en- 
 couragement. This is implied by the 
 term itself, which has the same etymol- 
 ogy wherever the form of music is 
 cultivated. In Italian it is Musica da 
 Camera; in French, Musique de Cham- 
 bre ; in German, Kammermusik. All the 
 terms have a common root. The Greek 
 Kapdpa signified an arch, a vaulted room, 
 or a covered wagon. In the time of the 
 Prankish kings the word was applied 
 to the room in the royal palace in which 
 the monarch's private property was 
 kept, and in which he looked after his 
 private affairs. When royalty took up 
 the cultivation of music it was as a pri- 
 vate, not as a court, function, and the 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Chamber 
 music. 
 
 History of 
 the term.
 
 4 6 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Haydn 
 a. servant. 
 
 Beethoven's 
 
 Chamber 
 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 concerts given for the entertainment of 
 the royal family took place in the king's 
 chamber, or private room. The musi- 
 cians were nothing more nor less than 
 servants in the royal household. This 
 relationship endured into the present 
 century. Haydn was a Hausojficier of 
 Prince Esterhazy. As vice-chapelmas- 
 ter he had to appear every morning in 
 the Prince's ante-room to receive orders 
 concerning the dinner-music and other 
 entertainments of the day, and in the 
 certificate of appointment his conduct 
 is regulated with a particularity which 
 we, who remember him and reverence 
 his genius but have forgotten his mas- 
 ter, think humiliating in the extreme. 
 
 Out of this cultivation of music in the 
 private chamber grew the characteris- 
 tics of Chamber music, which we must 
 consider if we would enjoy it ourselves 
 and understand the great reverence 
 which the great masters of music have 
 always felt for it. Beethoven was the 
 first great democrat among musicians. 
 He would have none of the shackles 
 which his predecessors wore, and com- 
 pelled aristocracy of birth to bow to
 
 The Content arid Kinds of Music 
 
 aristocracy of genius. But such was 
 his reverence for the style of music 
 which had grown up in the chambers 
 of the great that he devoted the last 
 three years of his life almost exclusively 
 to its composition ; the peroration of 
 his proclamation to mankind consists of 
 his last quartets the holiest of holy 
 things to the Chamber musicians of to- 
 day. 
 
 Chamber music represents pure 
 thought, lofty imagination, and deep 
 learning. These attributes are encour- 
 aged by the idea of privacy which is 
 inseparable from the form. Composers 
 find it the finest field for the display of 
 their talents because their own skill in 
 creating is to be paired with trained 
 skill in hearing. Its representative 
 pieces are written for strings alone 
 trios, quartets, and quintets. With the 
 strings are sometimes associated a 
 pianoforte, or one or more of the solo 
 wind instruments oboe, clarinet, or 
 French horn ; and as a rule the com- 
 positions adhere to classical lines (see 
 Chapter V.). Of necessity the mod- 
 esty of the apparatus compels it to fore- 
 
 47 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The 
 
 character' 
 istics of 
 Chamber 
 music.
 
 4 8 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Pro- 
 gramme 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 go nearly all the adventitious helps 
 with which other forms of composition 
 gain public approval. In the delinea- 
 tive arts Chamber music shows analogy 
 with correct drawing and good com- 
 position, the absence of which cannot 
 be atoned for by the most gorgeous 
 coloring. In no other style is sym- 
 pathy between performers and listeners 
 so necessary, and for that reason Cham- 
 ber music should always be heard in a 
 small room with performers and listen- 
 ers joined in angelic wedlock. Com- 
 munities in which it flourishes under 
 such conditions are musical. 
 
 Properly speaking, the term Pro- 
 gramme music ought to be applied on- 
 ly to instrumental compositions which 
 make a frank effort to depict scenes, 
 incidents, or emotional processes to 
 which the composer himself gives the 
 clew either by means of a descriptive 
 title or a verbal motto. It is unfortu- 
 nate that the term has come to be loose- 
 ly used. In a high sense the purest 
 and best music in the world is program- 
 matic, its programme being, as I have 
 said, that "high ideal of goodness,
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 truthfulness, and beauty" which is the 
 content of all true art But the origin 
 of the term was vulgar, and the most 
 contemptible piece of tonal imitation 
 now claims kinship in the popular mind 
 with the exquisitely poetical creations 
 of Schumann and the " Pastoral " sym- 
 phony of Beethoven ; and so it is be- 
 come necessary to defend it in the case 
 of noble compositions. A programme 
 is not necessarily, as Ambros asserts, a 
 certificate of poverty and an admission 
 on the part of the composer that his art 
 has got beyond its natural bounds. 
 Whether it be merely a suggestive title, 
 as in the case of some of the composi- 
 tions of Beethoven, Schumann, and Men- 
 delssohn, or an extended commentary, 
 as in the symphonic poems of Liszt 
 and the symphonies of Berlioz and Raff, 
 the programme has a distinct value to 
 the composer as well as the hearer. It 
 can make the perceptive sense more im- 
 pressible to the influence of the music ; 
 it can quicken the fancy, and fire the 
 imagination ; it can prevent a gross mis- 
 conception of the intentions of a com- 
 poser and the character of his composi- 
 
 49 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The value 
 of super- 
 scriptions.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The rule 
 of judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Kinds 
 of Pro- 
 gramme 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion. Nevertheless, in determining the 
 artistic value of the work, the question 
 goes not to the ingenuity of the pro- 
 gramme or the clearness with which its 
 suggestions have been carried out, but 
 to the beauty of the music itself irre- 
 spective of the verbal commentary ac- 
 companying it. This rule must be 
 maintained in order to prevent a deg- 
 radation of the object of musical ex- 
 pression. The vile, the ugly, the pain- 
 ful are not fit subjects for music ; music 
 renounces, contravenes, negatives itself 
 when it attempts their delineation. 
 
 A classification of Programme music 
 might be made on these lines : 
 
 I. Descriptive pieces which rest on 
 imitation or suggestion of natural 
 sounds. 
 
 II. Pieces whose contents are purely 
 musical, but the mood of which is sug- 
 gested by a poetical title. 
 
 III. Pieces in which the influence 
 which determined their form and de- 
 velopment is indicated not only by a 
 title but also by a motto which is relied 
 upon to mark out a train of thought for 
 the listener which will bring his fancy
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 into union with that of the composer. 
 The motto may be verbal or pictorial. 
 
 IV. Symphonies or other composite 
 works which have a title to indicate 
 their general character, supplemented 
 by explanatory superscriptions for each 
 portion. 
 
 The first of these divisions rests upon 
 the employment of the lowest form of 
 conventional musical idiom. The ma- 
 terial which the natural world provides 
 for imitation by the musician is exceed- 
 ingly scant. Unless we descend to 
 mere noise, as in the descriptions of 
 storms and battles (the shrieking of 
 the wind, the crashing of thunder, and 
 the roar of artillery invaluable aids to 
 the cheap descriptive writer), we have 
 little else than the calls of a few birds. 
 Nearly thirty years ago Wilhelm Tap- 
 pert wrote an essay which he called 
 " Zooplastik in Tonen." He ransacked 
 the musical literature of centuries, but 
 in all his examples the only animals the 
 voices of which are unmistakable are 
 four fowls the cuckoo, quail (that is 
 the German bird, not the American, 
 which has a different call), the cock, and 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Imitation 
 of natural 
 sounds.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The night- 
 infule. 
 
 Tktcat. 
 
 The cuckoo 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the hen. He has many descriptive 
 sounds which suggest other birds and 
 beasts, but only by association of idea ; 
 separated from title or text they sug- 
 gest merely what they are musical 
 phrases. A reiteration of the rhythmi- 
 cal figure called the " Scotch snap," 
 breaking gradually into a trill, is the 
 common symbol of the nightingale's 
 song, but it is not a copy of that song ; 
 three or four tones descending chromat- 
 ically are given as the cat's mew, but 
 they are made to be such only by plac- 
 ing the syllables Mi-au (taken from the 
 vocabulary of the German cat) under 
 them. Instances of this kind might 
 be called characterization, or descrip- 
 tion by suggestion, and some of the 
 best composers have made use of them, 
 as will appear in these pages presently. 
 The list being so small, and the lesson 
 taught so large, it may be well to give a 
 few striking instances of absolutely im- 
 itative music. The first bird to collabo- 
 rate with a composer seems to have 
 been the cuckoo, whose notes 
 
 Cnck - oo !
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 53 
 
 had sounded in many a folk-song ere 
 Beethoven thought of enlisting the lit- 
 tle solo performer in his " Pastoral " 
 symphony. It is to be borne in mind, 
 however, as a fact having some bearing 
 on the artistic value of Programme 
 music, that Beethoven's cuckoo changes 
 his note to please the musician, and, in- 
 stead of singing a minor third, he sings 
 a major third thus : 
 
 Cuck - oo ! 
 
 As long ago as 1688 Jacob Walter 
 wrote a musical piece entitled " Gallina 
 et Gallo," in which the hen was delin- 
 eated in this theme : 
 
 a. Gallina. 
 
 rrr rr 
 
 S 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Cock 
 and hen. 
 
 Bf> 
 
 r 
 
 while the cock had the upper voice in 
 the following example, his clear chal- 
 lenge sounding above the cackling of 
 his mate :
 
 54 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 i 
 
 The quail. 
 
 OaUo. 
 
 fMffi 
 
 ,r r^p j 
 
 
 
 gj-O- * i~> 
 
 m - f-^ m m m m 
 
 ^-U ^- 
 
 \r r r 1 
 
 -^ g 
 
 
 r^^m-f^ f- .... 
 
 FfcBl- f\ *-* m m m m 
 
 i ' r JL=- - "- r i -=-r d 
 
 The most effective use yet made of 
 the song of the hen, however, is in " La 
 Poule," one of Rameau's " Pieces de 
 Clavecin," printed in 1736, a delightful 
 composition with this subject : 
 
 Fzfe^-1 ^J JJ-MlB^ J*J*J*-M *rr= 
 
 HW + m * \* 44* tf \prjf* 
 Co co co co co co codai, etc. 
 
 The quail's song is merely a mono- 
 tonic rhythmical figure to which Ger- 
 man fancy has fitted words of pious ad- 
 monition : 
 
 E/ i > .ft > i 1 i fej^l 
 
 Furch-te Gott! Lo - be Gottl 
 
 The paucity of examples in this de- 
 partment is a demonstration of the state-
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 ment made elsewhere that nature does 
 not provide music with models for imi- 
 tation as it does painting and sculpture. 
 The fact that, nevertheless, we have 
 come to recognize a large number of 
 idioms based on association of ideas 
 stands the composer in good stead 
 whenever he ventures into the domain 
 of delineative or descriptive music, and 
 this he can do without becoming crudely 
 imitative. Repeated experiences have 
 taught us to recognize resemblances 
 between sequences or combinations of 
 tones and things or ideas, and on these 
 analogies, even though they be purely 
 conventional (that is agreed upon, as 
 we have agreed that a nod of the head 
 shall convey assent, a shake of the head 
 dissent, and a shrug of the shoulders 
 doubt or indifference), the composers 
 have built up a voluminous vocabulary 
 of idioms which need only to be helped 
 out by a suggestion to the mind to be 
 eloquently illustrative. " Sometimes 
 hearing a melody or harmony arouses 
 an emotion like that aroused by the con- 
 templation of a thing. Minor harmo- 
 nies, slow movements, dark tonal col- 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Conven- 
 tional 
 idioms. 
 
 Associa- 
 tion of 
 ideas.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Fancy and 
 imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 orings, combine directly to put a mu- 
 sically susceptible person in a mood con- 
 genial to thoughts of sorrow and death ; 
 and, inversely, the experience of sor- 
 row, or the contemplation of death, cre- 
 ates affinity for minor harmonies, slow 
 movements, and dark tonal colorings. 
 Or we recognize attributes in music 
 possessed also by things, and we consort 
 the music and the things, external attri- 
 butes bringing descriptive music into 
 play, which excites the fancy, internal 
 attributes calling for an exercise of the 
 loftier faculty, imagination, to discern 
 their meaning." * The latter kind is 
 delineative music of the higher order, 
 the kind that I have called idealized 
 programme music, for it is the imag- 
 ination which, as Ruskin has said, " sees 
 the heart and inner nature and makes 
 them felt, but is often obscure, mysteri- 
 ous, and interrupted in its giving out of 
 outer detail," which is " a seer in the 
 prophetic sense, calling the things that 
 are not as though they were, and for- 
 ever delighting to dwell on that which 
 
 * " Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," p. 
 
 22.
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 is not tangibly present." In this kind 
 of music, harmony, the real seat of emo- 
 tionality in musir, is an eloquent factor, 
 and, indeed, there is no greater mystery 
 in the art, which is full of mystery, than 
 the fact that the lowering of the second 
 tone in the chord, which is the starting- 
 point of harmony, should change an ex- 
 pression of satisfaction, energetic action, 
 or jubilation into an accent of pain or 
 sorrow. The major mode is " to do," 
 the minor, " to suffer : " 
 
 Hur - rah ! 
 
 A - las! 
 
 How near a large number of sugges- 
 tions, which are based wholly upon ex- 
 perience or association of ideas, lie to 
 the popular fancy, might be illustrated 
 by scores of examples. Thoughts of re- 
 ligious functions arise in us the moment 
 we hear the trombones intone a solemn 
 phrase in full harmony; an oboe melody 
 in ?ixth-eighth time over a drone bass 
 bri-ngs up a pastoral picture of a shep- 
 herd playing upon his pipe ; trumpets 
 and drums suggest war, and so on. The 
 
 57 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Harmony 
 and emo- 
 tionality. 
 
 Major 
 and minor.
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Music and 
 movement. 
 
 Handel's 
 frogs. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 delineation of movement is easier to the 
 musician than it is to the poet. Handel, 
 who has conveyed the sensation of a 
 " darkness which might be felt," in a 
 chorus of his " Israel in Egypt," by 
 means which appeal solely to the im- 
 agination stirred by feelings, has in the 
 same work pictured the plague of frogs 
 with a frank naivett which almost up- 
 sets our seriousness of demeanor, by 
 suggesting the characteristic movement 
 of the creatures in the instrumental ac- 
 companiment to the arioso, " Their land 
 brought forth frogs," which begins 
 thus: 
 
 Andante. 
 
 e^ 
 
 etc. 
 
 We find the gentle flux and reflux of 
 water as if it were lapping a rocky 
 shore in the exquisite figure out of
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 59 
 
 which Mendelssohn constructed his 
 " Hebrides " overture : 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 The move- 
 ment of 
 water. 
 
 High 
 and low. 
 
 k g S( --=r^r- m f~T == ^' | 1 i t r * r ^^^ 
 
 m n, t> ^fc_r_iL^ I h: + * 
 *> 
 
 571 ~f5~ Po 1 
 
 I*? *' e& _ -P ..-- _ -| 
 
 1 1 
 
 and in fancy we ride on mighty surges 
 when we listen to the principal subject 
 of Rubinstein's " Ocean " symphony : 
 
 ^ i&i-^ K&-*J 
 
 *) - 8^ 'nip " 3 ft 
 
 In none of these instances can the com- 
 poser be said to be imitative. Music 
 cannot copy water, but it can do what 
 water does, and so suggest water. 
 Some of the most common devices of 
 composers are based on conceptions that 
 are wholly arbitrary. A musical tone 
 cannot have position in space such as is 
 indicated by high or low, yet so famil- 
 iar is the association of acuteness of 
 pitch with height, and gravity of pitch 
 with depth, that composers continually
 
 6o 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Ascent, de- 
 scent, and 
 distance 
 delineated. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 delineate high things with acute tones 
 and low things with grave tones, as wit- 
 ness Handel in one of the choruses of 
 " The Messiah : " 
 
 
 Glo-ry to God in the highest, 
 
 1 
 
 and peace on earth. 
 
 Similarly, too, does Beethoven de- 
 scribe the ascent into heaven and the de- 
 scent into hell in the Credo of his mass 
 in D. Beethoven's music, indeed, is 
 full of tone-painting, and because it ex- 
 emplifies a double device I make room 
 for one more illustration. It is from 
 the cantata " Becalmed at Sea, and a 
 Prosperous Voyage," and in it the com- 
 poser pictures the immensity of the sea 
 by a sudden, extraordinary spreading 
 out of his harmonies, which is musical, 
 and dwelling a long time on the word 
 " distance " (Weite), which is rhetorical: 
 
 ' H> IS ..K= 
 
 fff 
 
 -rrw 
 
 In der un-ge-hen - 'ren "Wei 
 g_E % t gb: 
 
 dim. 
 - - - te. 
 
 1
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 The extent to which tone-painting 
 is justified is a question which might 
 profitably concern us ; but such a dis- 
 cussion as it deserves would far exceed 
 the limits set for this book, and must be 
 foregone. It cannot be too forcibly 
 urged, however, as an aid to the listener, 
 that efforts at musical cartooning have 
 never been made by true composers, and 
 that in the degree that music attempts 
 simply to copy external things it falls 
 in the scale of artistic truthfulness and 
 value. Vocal music tolerates more of 
 the descriptive element than instrumen- 
 tal because it is a mixed art ; in it the 
 purpose of music is to illustrate the 
 poetry and, by intensifying the appeal 
 to the fancy, to warm the emotions. 
 Every piece of vocal music, moreover, 
 carries its explanatory programme in its 
 words. Still more tolerable and even 
 righteous is it in the opera where it is 
 but one of several factors which labor 
 together to make up the sum of dra- 
 matic representation. But it must ever 
 remain valueless unless it be idealized. 
 Mendelssohn, desiring to put Bully Bot- 
 tom into the overture to " A Midsummer 
 
 6l 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Bald imi- 
 tation bad 
 art. 
 
 Vocal mu- 
 sic and de- 
 lineation.
 
 62 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Beethoven's 
 canon. 
 
 The " Pas- 
 toral" 
 symphony. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Night's Dream," did not hesitate to use 
 tones which suggest the bray of a don- 
 key, yet the effect, like Handel's frogs 
 and flies in " Israel," is one of absolute 
 musical value. The canon which ought 
 continually to be before the mind of the 
 listener is that which Beethoven laid 
 down with most painstaking care when 
 he wrote the " Pastoral " symphony. 
 Desiring to inform the listeners what 
 were the images which inspired the va- 
 rious movements (in order, of course, 
 that they might the better enter into the 
 work by recalling them), he gave each 
 part a superscription thus : 
 
 I. " The agreeable and cheerful sensations awa- 
 kened by arrival in the country. 
 
 II. " Scene by the brook." 
 
 III. " A merrymaking of the country folk." 
 
 IV. "Thunder-storm." 
 
 V. "Shepherds' song feelings of charity com- 
 bined with gratitude to the Deity after the storm." 
 
 In the title itself he included an ad- 
 monitory explanation which should have 
 everlasting validity: "Pastoral Sym- 
 phony ; more expression of feeling than 
 painting." How seriously he thought
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 63 
 
 on the subject we know from his sketch- 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 books, in which occur a number of notes, 
 
 III. 
 
 some of which were evidently hints for 
 
 
 superscriptions, some records of his 
 
 
 convictions on the subject of descriptive 
 
 
 music. The notes are reprinted in Not- 
 
 
 tebohm's "Zweite Beethoveniana," but 
 
 
 I borrow Sir George Grove's transla- 
 
 
 tion: 
 
 
 " The hearers should be allowed to discover the 
 
 Beethoven's 
 
 
 notes on 
 
 situations." 
 
 descriptive 
 
 " Sinfonia caracteristica, or a recollection of coun- 
 
 music. 
 
 try life." 
 
 
 "All painting in instrumental music, if pushed 
 
 
 too far, is a failure." 
 
 
 " Sinfonia pastorella. Anyone who has an idea 
 
 
 of country life can make out for himself the inten- 
 
 
 tions of the author without many titles." 
 
 
 " People will not require titles to recognize the 
 
 
 general intention to be more a matter of feeling 
 
 
 than of painting in sounds." 
 
 
 " Pastoral symphony : No picture, but something 
 
 
 in which the emotions are expressed which are 
 
 
 aroused in men by the pleasure of the country 
 
 
 (or), in which some feelings of country life are set 
 
 
 forth."* 
 
 
 * " Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," by George 
 
 
 Grove, C.B. , 2d ed., p. 191. 
 
 

 
 6 4 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Classic and 
 Romantic. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 As to the relation of programme to 
 music Schumann laid down an admi- 
 rable maxim when he said that while 
 good music was not harmed by a de- 
 scriptive title it was a bad indication if 
 a composition needed one. 
 
 There are, among all the terms used 
 in music, no words of vaguer meaning 
 than Classic and Romantic. The idea 
 which they convey most widely in con- 
 junction is that of antithesis. When the 
 Romantic School of composers is dis- 
 cussed it is almost universally presented 
 as something opposed in character to 
 the Classical School. There is little 
 harm in this if we but bear in mind that 
 all the terms which have come into use 
 to describe different phases of musical 
 development are entirely artificial and 
 arbitrary that they do not stand for 
 anything absolute, but only serve as 
 platforms of observation. If the terms 
 had a fixed meaning we ought to be 
 able, since they have established them- 
 selves in the language of history and 
 criticism, to describe unambiguously 
 and define clearly the boundary which 
 separates them. This, however, is im-
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 possible. Each generation, nay, each 
 decade, fixes the meaning of the words 
 for itself and decides what works shall 
 go into each category. It ought to be 
 possible to discover a principle, a touch- 
 stone, which shall emancipate us from 
 the mischievous and misleading notions 
 that have so long prompted men to 
 make the partitions between the schools 
 out of dates and names. 
 
 The terms were borrowed from liter- 
 ary criticism ; but even there, in the 
 words of Archbishop Trench, "they 
 either say nothing at all or say some- 
 thing erroneous." Classical has more to 
 defend it than Romantic, because it has 
 greater antiquity and, in one sense, has 
 been used with less arbitrariness. 
 
 " The term," says Trench, " is drawn from the 
 political economy of Rome. Such a man was rated 
 as to his income in the third class, such another in 
 the fourth, and so on, and he who was in the high- 
 est was emphatically said to be of the class, classi- 
 cus, a class man, without adding the number as in 
 that case superfluous ; while all others were infra 
 classem. Hence by an obvious analogy the best 
 authors were rated as classici, or men of the high- 
 est class ; just as in English we say ' men of rank ' 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Trench's 
 definition 
 of ' ' classi- 
 cal."
 
 66 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Romantic 
 in litera- 
 ture. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 absolutely for men who are in the highest ranks of 
 the State." 
 
 Thus Trench, and his historical defi- 
 nition, explains why in music also there 
 is something more than a lurking sug- 
 gestion of excellence in the conception 
 of " classical ; " but that fact does not 
 put away the quarrel which we feel 
 exists between Classic and Romantic. 
 
 As applied to literature Romantic 
 was an adjective affected by certain 
 poets, first in Germany, then in France, 
 who wished to introduce a style of 
 thought and expression different from 
 that of those who followed old models. 
 Intrinsically, of course, the term does 
 not imply any such opposition but only 
 bears witness to the source from which 
 the poets drew their inspiration. This 
 was the imaginative literature of the 
 Middle Ages, the fantastical stories of 
 chivalry and knighthood written in the 
 Romance, or Romanic languages, such 
 as Italian, Spanish, and Provencal. The 
 principal elements of these stories were 
 the marvellous and the supernatural. 
 The composers whose names first spring
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 into our minds when we think of the 
 Romantic School are men like Mendels- 
 sohn and Schumann, who drew much of 
 their inspiration from the young writers 
 of their time who were making war on 
 stilted rhetoric and conventionalism of 
 phrase. Schumann touches hands with 
 the Romantic poets in their strivings in 
 two directions. His artistic conduct, 
 especially in his early years, is inex- 
 plicable if Jean Paul be omitted from 
 the equation. His music rebels against 
 the formalism which had held despotic 
 sway over the art, and also seeks to dis- 
 close the beauty which lies buried in the 
 world of mystery in and around us, and 
 give expression to the multitude of emo- 
 tions to which unyielding formalism 
 had refused adequate utterance. This, 
 I think, is the chief element of Roman- 
 ticism. Another has more of an exter- 
 nal nature and genesis, and this we find 
 in the works of such composers as Von 
 Weber, who is Romantic chiefly in his 
 operas, because of the supernaturalism 
 and chivalry in their stories, and Men- 
 delssohn, who, while distinctly Roman- 
 tic in many of his strivings, was yet so 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Schumann 
 and Jean 
 Paul. 
 
 Weber's 
 operas. 
 
 Mendels- 
 sohn.
 
 68 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 A defini- 
 tion of 
 " Classi- 
 cal" in 
 music. 
 
 The crea- 
 tive and 
 conserva- 
 tive prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 great a master of form, and so attached 
 to it, that the Romantic side of him was 
 not fully developed. 
 
 If I were to attempt a definition it 
 would be this : Classical composers are 
 those of the first rank (to this extent we 
 yield to the ancient Roman conception) 
 who have developed music to the high- 
 est pitch of perfection on its formal side 
 and, in obedience to generally accepted 
 laws, preferring aesthetic beauty, pure 
 and simple, over emotional content, or, 
 at any rate, refusing to sacrifice form 
 to characteristic expression. Romantic 
 composers are those who have sought 
 their ideals in other regions and striven 
 to give expression to them irrespective 
 of the restrictions and limitations of 
 form and the conventions of law com- 
 posers with whom, in brief, content out- 
 weighs manner. This definition pre- 
 sents Classicism as the regulative and 
 conservative principle in the history of 
 the art, and Romanticism as the pro- 
 gressive, regenerative, and creative 
 principle. It is easy to see how the no- 
 tion of contest between them grew up, 
 and the only harm which can come from
 
 The Content and Kinds of Music 
 
 such a notion will ensue only if we shut 
 our eyes to the fact that it is a contest 
 between two elements whose very op- 
 position stimulates life, and whose union, 
 perfect, peaceful, mutually supplement- 
 al, is found in every really great art- 
 work. No law which fixes, and hence 
 limits, form, can remain valid forever. 
 Its end is served when it enforces it- 
 self long enough to keep lawlessness in 
 check till the test of time has deter- 
 mined what is sound, sweet, and whole- 
 some in the innovations which are 
 always crowding eagerly into every 
 creative activity in art and science. In 
 art it is ever true, as Faust concludes, 
 that " In the beginning was the deed." 
 The laws of composition are the prod- 
 ucts of compositions; and, being such, 
 they cannot remain unalterable so long 
 as the impulse freshly to create remains. 
 All great men are ahead of their time, 
 and in all great music, no matter when 
 written, you shall find instances of pro- 
 founder meaning and deeper or newer 
 feeling than marked the generality of 
 contemporary compositions. So Bach 
 frequently floods his formal utterances 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Musical 
 laws of ne- 
 cessity pro- 
 gressive. 
 
 Bach and 
 Romanti- 
 cism.
 
 7 
 
 CHAP. 
 III. 
 
 Creation 
 and con- 
 servation. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 with Romantic feeling, and the face of 
 Beethoven, serving at the altar in the 
 temple of Beauty, is transfigured for us 
 by divine light. The principles of crea- 
 tion and conservation move onward to- 
 gether, and what is Romantic to-day be- 
 comes Classic to-morrow. Romanticism 
 is fluid Classicism. It is the emotional 
 stimulus informing Romanticism which 
 calls music into life, but no sooner is it 
 born, free, untrammelled, nature's child, 
 than the regulative principle places 
 shackles upon it ; but it is enslaved only 
 that it may become and remain art.
 
 IV 
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 THE most eloquent, potent, and capa- 
 ble instrument of music in the 
 world is the modern orchestra. It is 
 the instrument whose employment by 
 the classical composers and the geniuses 
 of the Romantic School in the middle 
 of our century marks the high tide of 
 the musical art. It is an instrument, 
 moreover, which is never played upon 
 without giving a great object-lesson in 
 musical analysis, without inviting the 
 eye to help the ear to discern the cause 
 of the sounds which ravish our senses 
 and stir up pleasurable emotions. Yet 
 the popular knowledge of its constituent 
 parts, of the individual value and mission 
 of the factors which go to make up its 
 sum, is scarcely greater than the popu- 
 lar knowledge of the structure of a sym- 
 
 7 1 
 
 The orches- 
 tra as an 
 instrument.
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 What may 
 be heard 
 from a 
 band. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 phony or sonata. All this is the more 
 deplorable since at least a rudimentary 
 knowledge of these things might easily 
 be gained, and in gaining it the student 
 would find a unique intellectual enjoy- 
 ment, and have his ears unconscious- 
 ly opened to a thousand beauties in 
 the music never perceived before. He 
 would learn, for instance, to distinguish 
 the characteristic timbre of each of the 
 instruments in the band ; and after that 
 to the delight found in what may be 
 called the primary colors he would add 
 that which comes from analyzing the 
 vast number of tints which are the prod- 
 ucts of combination. Noting the ca- 
 pacity of the various instruments and 
 the manner in which they are employed, 
 he would get glimpses into the mental 
 workshop of the composer. He would 
 discover that there are conventional 
 means of expression in his art analogous 
 to those in the other arts ; and collating 
 his methods with the effects produced, 
 he would learn something of the crea- 
 tive artist's purposes. He would find 
 that while his merely sensuous enjoy- 
 ment would be left unimpaired, and the
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 73 
 
 emotional excitement which is a legiti- 
 mate fruit of musical performance un- 
 checked, these pleasures would have 
 others consorted with them. His intel- 
 lectual faculties would be agreeably 
 excited, and he would enjoy the pleas- 
 ures of memory, which are exemplified 
 in music more delightfully and more 
 frequently than in any other art, be- 
 cause of the rdle which repetition of 
 parts plays in musical composition. 
 
 The argument is as valid in the study 
 of musical forms as in the study of the 
 orchestra, but it is the latter that is 
 our particular business in this chapter. 
 Everybody listening to an orchestral 
 concert recognizes the physical forms 
 of the violins, flutes, cornets, and big 
 drum ; but even of these familiar instru- 
 ments the voices are not always recog- 
 nized. As for the rest of the harmoni- 
 ous fraternity, few give heed to them, 
 even while enjoying the music which 
 they produce ; yet with a few words 
 of direction anybody can study the in- 
 struments of the band at an orchestral 
 concert. Let him first recognize the 
 fact that to the mind of a composer an 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Familiar 
 instru- 
 ments.
 
 74 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The in- 
 strumental 
 choirs. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 orchestra always presents itself as a 
 combination of four groups of instru- 
 ments choirs, let us call them, with un- 
 willing apology to the lexicographers. 
 These choirs are : first, the viols of four 
 sorts violins, violas, violoncellos, and 
 double-basses, spoken of collectively as 
 the "string quartet ; " second, the wind 
 instruments of wood (the " wood-winds " 
 in the musician's jargon) flutes, oboes, 
 clarinets, and bassoons ; third, the wind 
 instruments of brass (the "brass") 
 trumpets, horns, trombones, and bass 
 tuba. In all of these subdivisions there 
 are numerous variations which need not 
 detain us now. A further subdivision 
 - might be made in each with reference 
 to the harmony voices (showing an anal- 
 ogy with the four voices of a vocal 
 choir soprano, contralto, tenor, and 
 bass) ; but to go into this might make 
 the exposition confusing. The fourth 
 " choir " (here the apology to the lexi- 
 cographers must be repeated with much 
 humility and earnestness) consists of the 
 instruments of percussion the kettle- 
 drums, big drum, cymbals, triangle, bell 
 chime, etc. (sometimes spoken of collec-
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 lively in the United States as " the bat- 
 tery"). 
 
 The disposition of these instruments 
 in our orchestras is largely a matter of 
 individual taste and judgment in the 
 conductor, though the general rule is 
 exemplified in the plan given herewith, 
 showing how Mr. Anton Seidl has ar- 
 ranged the desks for the concerts of 
 the Philharmonic Society of New York. 
 Mr. Theodore Thomas's arrangement 
 differed very little from that of Mr. 
 Seidl, the most noticeable difference 
 being that he placed the viola-players 
 beside the second violinists, where Mr. 
 Seidl has the violoncellists. Mr. Seidl's 
 purpose in making the change was to 
 gain an increase in sonority for the vio- 
 la part, the position to the right of the 
 stage (the left of the audience) enabling 
 the viola-players to hold their instru- 
 ments with the F-holes toward the lis- 
 teners instead of away from them. The 
 relative positions of the harmonious bat- 
 talions, as a rule, are as shown in the 
 diagram. In the foreground, the vio- 
 lins, violas, and 'cellos ; in the middle 
 distance, the wood-winds ; in the back- 
 
 77 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Haw or- 
 chestras 
 are seated. 
 
 Plan of the 
 New York 
 Philhar- 
 monic,
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 So/o in- 
 struments. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ground, the brass and the battery ; the 
 double-basses flanking the whole body. 
 This distribution of forces is dictated 
 by considerations of sonority, the most 
 assertive instruments the brass and 
 drums being placed farthest from the 
 hearers, and the instruments of the viol 
 tribe, which are the real backbone of 
 the band and make their effect by a 
 massing of voices in each part, having 
 the place of honor and greatest advan- 
 tage. Of course it is understood that I 
 am speaking of a concert orchestra. In 
 the case of theatrical or operatic bands 
 the arrangement of the forces is de- 
 pendent largely upon the exigencies of 
 space. 
 
 Outside the strings the instruments 
 are treated by composers as solo instru- 
 ments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or 
 other wind instrument sometimes do- 
 ing the same work in the development 
 of the composition as the entire body of 
 first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds 
 are used in pairs, the purpose of this 
 being either to fill the harmony when 
 what I may call the principal thought 
 of the composition is consigned to a
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 particular choir, or to strengthen a 
 voice by permitting two instruments 
 to play in unison. 
 
 Each choir, except the percussion in- 
 struments, is capable of playing in full 
 harmony ; and this effect is frequently 
 used by composers. In " Lohengrin," 
 which for that reason affords to the am- 
 ateur an admirable opportunity for or- 
 chestral study, Wagner resorts to this 
 device in some instances for the sake 
 of dramatic characterization. Elsa, a 
 dreamy, melancholy maiden, crushed 
 under the weight of wrongful accusa- 
 tion, and sustained only by the vision 
 of a seraphic champion sent by Heaven 
 to espouse her cause, is accompanied on 
 her entrance and sustained all through 
 her scene of trial by the dulcet tones of 
 the wood-winds, the oboe most often 
 carrying the melody. Lohengrin's su- 
 perterrestrial character as a Knight of 
 the Holy Grail is prefigured in the har- 
 monies which seem to stream from the 
 violins, and in the prelude tell of the 
 bringing of the sacred vessel of Christ's 
 passion to Monsalvat ; but in his chival- 
 ric character he is greeted by the mili- 
 
 79 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Groupings 
 for har- 
 mony ef- 
 fects. 
 
 Wagner's 
 instrumen- 
 tal charac- 
 terisation.
 
 8o 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 An instru- 
 mental 
 language. 
 
 Number 
 of instru- 
 ments 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tant trumpets in a strain of brilliant 
 puissance and rhythmic energy. Com- 
 posers have studied the voices of the 
 instruments so long and well, and have 
 noted the kind of melodies and harmo- 
 nies in which the voices are most effec- 
 tive, that they have formulated what 
 might almost be called an instrumental 
 language. Though the effective capac- 
 ity of each instrument is restricted not 
 only by its mechanics, but also by the 
 quality of its tones a melody conceived 
 for one instrument sometimes becoming 
 utterly inexpressive and unbeautiful by 
 transferrence to another the range of 
 effects is extended almost to infinity by 
 means of combination, or, as a painter 
 might say, by mixing the colors. The 
 art of writing effectively for instru 
 ments in combination is the art of in- 
 strumentation or orchestration, in which 
 Berlioz and Wagner were Past Grand 
 Masters. 
 
 The number of instruments of each 
 kind in an orchestra may also be said to 
 depend measurably upon the music, or 
 the use to which the band is to be put. 
 Neither in instruments nor in numbers
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 is there absolute identity between a 
 dramatic and a symphonic orchestra. 
 The apparatus of the former is general- 
 ly much more varied and complex, be- 
 cause of the vast development of variety 
 in dramatic expression stimulated by 
 Wagner. 
 
 The modern symphony, especially 
 the symphonic poem, shows the influ- 
 ence of this dramatic tendency, but 
 not in the same degree. A comparison 
 between model bands in each depart- 
 ment will disclose what is called the 
 normal orchestral organization. For 
 the comparison (see page 82), I select 
 the bands of the first Wagner Festival 
 held in Bayreuth in 1876, the Philhar- 
 monic Society of New York, the Bos- 
 ton Symphony Orchestra, and the Chi- 
 cago Symphony Orchestra. 
 
 Instruments like the corno di bas- 
 setto, bass trumpet, tenor tuba, contra- 
 bass tuba, and contra-bass trombone are 
 so seldom called for in the music played 
 by concert orchestras that they have no 
 place in their regular lists. They are 
 employed when needed, however, and 
 the horns and other instruments are 
 
 8i 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Symphony 
 and dra- 
 matic or- 
 chestras. 
 
 Instru- 
 ments 
 rarely 
 used.
 
 82 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Orchestras 
 compared. 
 
 The string 
 quartet. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 multiplied when desirable effects are to 
 be obtained by such means. 
 
 Instruments. 
 
 First violins 
 
 Second violins 
 
 Violas 
 
 Violoncellos 
 
 Double-basses 
 
 Flutes 
 
 Oboes 
 
 English horn 
 
 Clarinets 
 
 Basset-horn 
 
 Bassoons 
 
 Trumpets or cornets . . 
 
 Horns 
 
 Trombones 
 
 Bass trumpet 
 
 Tenor tubas 
 
 Bass tubas 
 
 Contra-bass tuba 
 
 Contra-bass trombone . 
 
 Tympani (pairs) 
 
 Bass drum 
 
 Cymbals (pairs) 
 
 Harps 
 
 16 
 16 
 
 12 
 12 
 
 8 
 3 
 3 
 I 
 
 3 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 i 
 
 2 
 2 
 I 
 I 
 2 
 I 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 fc-s 2 
 5 PL, g 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 H 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 I 
 
 3 
 o 
 
 3 
 4 
 4 
 3 
 o 
 
 2 
 2 
 I 
 O 
 2 
 I 
 I 
 I 
 
 16 
 16 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 3 
 3 
 i 
 
 3 
 o 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 i 
 o 
 i 
 
 2 
 I 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 The string quartet, it will be seen, 
 makes up nearly three-fourths of a well- 
 balanced orchestra. It is the only choir 
 which has numerous representation of
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 its constituent units. This was not al- 
 ways so, but is the fruit of development 
 in the art of instrumentation which is 
 the newest department in music. Vocal 
 music had reached its highest point be- 
 fore instrumental music made a begin- 
 ning as an art. The former was the 
 pampered child of the Church, the lat- 
 ter was long an outlaw. As late as the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in- 
 strumentalists were vagabonds in law, 
 like strolling players. They had none 
 of the rights of citizenship; the relig- 
 ious sacraments were denied them ; 
 their children were not permitted to in- 
 herit property or learn an honorable 
 trade ; and after death the property for 
 which they had toiled escheated to 
 the crown. After the instruments had 
 achieved the privilege of artistic utter- 
 ance, they were for a long time mere 
 slavish imitators of the human voice. 
 Bach treated them with an insight into 
 their possibilities which was far in ad- 
 vance of his time, for which reason he 
 is the most modern composer of the 
 first half of the eighteenth century ; but 
 even in Handel's case the rule was to 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Old laws 
 against 
 instrumen- 
 talists. 
 
 Early in- 
 strumenta- 
 tion.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Handel's 
 orchestra. 
 
 The mod- 
 ern band. 
 
 treat them chiefly as supports for the 
 voices. He multiplied them just as he 
 did the voices in his choruses, consort- 
 ing a choir of oboes and bassoons, and 
 another of trumpets of almost equal 
 numbers with his violins. 
 
 The so-called purists in England talk 
 a great deal about restoring Handel's 
 orchestra in performances of his orato- 
 rios, utterly unmindful of the fact that 
 to our ears, accustomed to the myriad- 
 hued orchestra of to-day, the effect 
 would seem opaque, heavy, unbalanced, 
 and without charm were a band of 
 oboes to play in unison with the vio- 
 lins, another of bassoons to double the 
 'cellos, and half a dozen trumpets to 
 come flaring and crashing 'into the mu- 
 sical mass at intervals. Gluck in the 
 opera, and Haydn and Mozart in the 
 symphony, first disclosed the charm of 
 the modern orchestra with the wind in- 
 struments apportioned to the strings so 
 as to obtain the multitude of tonal tints 
 which we admire to-day. On the lines 
 which they marked out the progress 
 has been exceedingly rapid and far- 
 reaching.
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 In the hands of the latter-day Ro- 
 mantic composers, and with the help 
 of the instrument-makers, who have 
 marvellously increased the capacity of 
 the wind instruments, and remedied 
 the deficiencies which embarrassed the 
 Classical writers, the orchestra has de- 
 veloped into an instrument such as 
 never entered the mind of the wildest 
 dreamer of the last century. Its range 
 of expression is almost infinite. It can 
 strike like a thunder-bolt, or murmur 
 like a zephyr. Its voices are multitu- 
 dinous. Its register is coextensive in 
 theory with that of the modern piano- 
 forte, reaching from the space immedi- 
 ately below the sixth added line under 
 the bass staff to the ninth added line 
 above the treble staff. These two ex- 
 tremes, which belong respectively to 
 the bass tuba and piccolo flute, are not 
 at the command of every player, but 
 they are within the capacity of the in- 
 struments, and mark the orchestra's 
 boundaries in respect of pitch. The 
 gravest note is almost as deep as any in 
 which the ordinary human ear can de- 
 tect pitch, and the acutest reaches the 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Capacity 
 of the 
 orchestra. 
 
 The ex- 
 tremes 
 of range.
 
 86 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The viols. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 same extremity in the opposite direc- 
 tion. 
 
 With all the changes that have come 
 over the orchestra in the course of the 
 last two hundred years, the string quar- 
 tet has remained its chief factor. Its 
 voice cannot grow monotonous or cloy- 
 ing, for, besides its innate qualities, it 
 commands a more varied manner of ex- 
 pression than all the other instruments 
 combined. The viol, which term I shall 
 use generically to indicate all the in- 
 struments of the quartet, is the only 
 instrument in the band, except the harp, 
 that can play harmony as well as mel- 
 ody. Its range is the most extensive ; 
 it is more responsive to changes in ma- 
 nipulation ; it is endowed more richly 
 than any other instrument with varie- 
 ties of timbre ; it has an incomparable 
 facility of execution, and answers more 
 quickly and more eloquently than any 
 of its companions to the feelings of the 
 player. A great advantage which the 
 viol possesses over wind instruments 
 is that, not being dependent on the 
 breath of the player, there is practically 
 no limit to its ability to sustain tones.
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 It is because of this long list of good 
 qualities that it is relied on to provide 
 the staff of life to instrumental music. 
 The strings as commonly used show 
 four members of the viol family, distin- 
 guished among themselves by their 
 size, and the quality in the changes of 
 tone which grows out of the differences 
 in size. The violins (Appendix, Plate I.) 
 are the smallest members of the family. 
 Historically they are the culmination of 
 a development toward diminutiveness, 
 for in their early days viols were larger 
 than they are now. When the violin of 
 to-day entered the orchestra (in the score 
 of Monteverde's opera " Orfeo ") it was 
 specifically described as a " little French 
 violin." Its voice, Berlioz says, is the 
 " true female voice of the orchestra." 
 Generally the violin part of an orches- 
 tral score is two-voiced, but the two 
 groups may be split into a great num- 
 ber. In one passage in " Tristan und 
 Isolde " Wagner divides his first and 
 second violins into sixteen groups. 
 Such divisions, especially in the higher 
 regions, are productive of entrancing 
 effects. 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The vitlin.
 
 88 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Violin 
 e/ects. 
 
 Pizzicato. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 The halo of sound which streams 
 from the beginning and end of the 
 " Lohengrin " prelude is produced by 
 this device. High and close harmonies 
 from divided violins always sound ethe- 
 real. Besides their native tone quality 
 (that resulting from a string stretched 
 over a sounding shell set to vibrating 
 by friction), the violins have a number 
 of modified qualities resulting from 
 changes in manipulation. Sometimes 
 the strings are plucked (pizzicato), when 
 the result is a short tone something like 
 that of a banjo with the metallic clang 
 omitted ; very dainty effects can thus 
 be produced, and though it always 
 seems like a degradation of the instru- 
 ment so pre-eminently suited to a broad 
 singing style, no less significant a sym- 
 phonist than Tschaikowsky has writ- 
 ten a Scherzo in which the violins are 
 played pizzicato throughout the move- 
 ment. Ballet composers frequently re- 
 sort to the piquant effect, but in the 
 larger and more serious forms of com- 
 position the device is sparingly used. 
 Differences in quality and expressive- 
 ness of tone are also produced by varied
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 methods of applying the bow to the 
 strings : with stronger or lighter press- 
 ure ; near the bridge, which renders 
 the tone hard and brilliant, and over the 
 end of the finger-board, which softens 
 it ; in a continuous manner (legato), or 
 detached (staccato]. Weird effects in 
 dramatic music are sometimes pro- 
 duced by striking the strings with the 
 wood of the bow, Wagner resorting to 
 this means to delineate the wicked glee 
 of his dwarf Mime, and Meyerbeer to 
 heighten the uncanniness of Nelusktfs 
 wild song in the third act of " L'Afri- 
 caine.' ; Another class of effects results 
 from the manner in which the strings 
 are " stopped " by the fingers of the left 
 hand. When they are not pressed 
 firmly against the finger - board but 
 touched lightly at certain places called 
 nodes by the acousticians, so that the 
 segments below the finger are permitted 
 to vibrate along with the upper por- 
 tion, those peculiar tones of a flute-like 
 quality called harmonics or flageolet 
 tones are produced. These are oftener 
 heard in dramatic music than in sym- 
 phonies ; but Berlioz, desiring to put 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 ' ' Col legno 
 daW area . " 
 
 Harmonics.
 
 9 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Vibrato. 
 
 "Con 
 
 sordino. ' 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Shakespeare's description of Queen 
 Mab, 
 
 " Her wagon-spokes made of long spinner's legs ; 
 The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ; 
 The traces, of the smallest spider's web ; 
 The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams " 
 
 into music in his dramatic symphony, 
 " Romeo and Juliet," achieved a mar- 
 vellously filmy effect by dividing his 
 violins, and permitting some of them to 
 play harmonics. Yet so little was his 
 ingenious purpose suspected when he 
 first brought the symphony forward in 
 Paris, that one of the critics spoke con- 
 temptuously of this effect as sounding 
 " like an ill-greased syringe." A quiver- 
 ing motion imparted to the fingers of 
 the left hand in stopping the strings 
 produces a tremulousness of tone akin 
 to the vibrato of a singer ; and, like the 
 vocal vibrato, when not carried to ex- 
 cess, this effect is a potent expression 
 of sentimental feeling. But it is much 
 abused by solo players. Another modi- 
 fication of tone is caused by placing a 
 tiny instrument called a sordino, or 
 mute, upon the bridge. This clamps
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 the bridge, makes it heavier, and checks 
 the vibrations, so that the tone is muted 
 or muffled, and at times sounds mys- 
 terious. 
 
 These devices, though as a rule they 
 have their maximum of effectiveness in 
 the violins, are possible also on the 
 violas, violoncellos, and double-basses, 
 which, as I have already intimated, are 
 but violins of a larger growth. The 
 pizzicato is, indeed, oftenest heard from 
 the double-basses, where it has a much 
 greater eloquence than on the violins. 
 In music of a sombre cast, the short, 
 deep tones given out by the plucked 
 strings of the contra-bass sometimes 
 have the awfulness of gigantic heart- 
 throbs. The difficulty of producing the 
 other effects grows with the increase of 
 difficulty in handling the instruments, 
 this being due to the growing thickness 
 of the strings and the wideness of the 
 points at which they must be stopped. 
 One effect peculiar to them all the 
 most used of all effects, indeed, in dra- 
 matic music is the tremolo, produced 
 by dividing a tone into many quickly 
 reiterated short tones by a rapid motion 
 
 9 1 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Pizzicato 
 on the 
 basses. 
 
 Tremok.
 
 9 2 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The viola. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 of the bow. This device came into use 
 with one of the earliest pieces of dra- 
 matic music. It is two centuries old, 
 and was first used to help in the mu- 
 sical delineation of a combat. With 
 scarcely an exception, the varied means 
 which I have described can be detected 
 by those to whom they are not already 
 familiar by watching the players while 
 listening to the music. 
 
 The viola is next in size to the violin, 
 and is tuned at the interval of a fifth 
 lower. Its highest string is A, which is 
 the second string of the violin, and its 
 lowest C. Its tone, which sometimes 
 contains a comical suggestion of a boy% 
 voice in mutation, is lacking in incisive- 
 ness and brilliancy, but for this it com- 
 pensates by a wonderful richness and 
 filling quality, and a pathetic and inimi- 
 table mournfulnessin melancholy music. 
 It blends beautifully with the violon- 
 cello, and is often made to double that 
 instrument's part for the sake of color 
 effect as, to cite a familiar instance, in 
 the principal subject of the Andante in 
 Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 
 
 The strings of the violoncello (Plate
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 II.) are tuned like those of the viola, but 
 an octave lower. It is the knee-fiddle 
 (viola da gamba) of the last century, as 
 the viola is the arm-fiddle (viola da brac- 
 cio), and got its old name from the posi- 
 tion in which it is held by the player. 
 The 'cello's voice is a bass it might be 
 called the barytone of the choir and 
 in the olden time of simple writing, lit- 
 tle else was done with it than to double 
 the bass part one octave higher. But 
 modern composers, appreciating its 
 marvellous capacity for expression, 
 which is next to that of the violin, have 
 treated it with great freedom and inde- 
 pendence as a solo instrument. Its tone 
 is full of voluptuous languor. It is the 
 sighing lover of the instrumental com- 
 pany, and can speak the language of 
 tender passion more feelingly than any 
 of its fellows. The ravishing effect of a 
 multiplication of its voice is tellingly 
 exemplified in the opening of the over- 
 ture to " William Tell," which is written 
 for five solo 'celli, though it is oftenest 
 heard in an arrangement which gives 
 two of the middle parts to violas. When 
 Beethoven wished to produce the emo- 
 
 93 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The violon- 
 cello. 
 
 Violoncello 
 effects.
 
 94 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Thcdmtble- 
 fau. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tional impression of a peacefully rip- 
 pling brook in his " Pastoral " sym- 
 phony, he gave a murmuring figure to 
 the divided violoncellos, and Wagner 
 uses the passionate accents of four of 
 these instruments playing in harmony 
 to support Siegmund when he is pouring 
 out the ecstasy of his love in the first 
 act of " Die Walkiire." In the love 
 scene of Berlioz's " Romeo and Juliet " 
 symphony it is the violoncello which 
 personifies the lover, and holds con- 
 verse with the modest oboe. 
 
 The patriarchal double-bass is known 
 to all, and also its mission of providing 
 the foundation for the harmonic struct- 
 ure of orchestral music. It sounds an 
 octave lower than the music written for 
 it, being what is called a transposing 
 instrument of sixteen-foot tone. Solos 
 are seldom written for this instrument 
 in orchestral music, though Beethoven, 
 with his daring recitatives in the Ninth 
 Symphony, makes it a mediator between 
 the instrumental and vocal forces. Dra- 
 gonetti (1763-1846) and Bottesini (1823- 
 1889), tw Italians, won great fame as 
 solo players on the unwieldy instru-
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 ment. The latter used a small bass 
 viol, and strung it with harp strings ; 
 but Dragonetti played a full double- 
 bass, on which he could execute the 
 most difficult passages written for the 
 violoncello. 
 
 Since the instruments of the wood- 
 wind choir are frequently used in solos, 
 their acquaintance can easily be made 
 by an observing amateur. To this 
 division of the orchestra belong the 
 gentle accents in the instrumental lan- 
 guage. Violent expression is not its 
 province, and generally when the band 
 is discoursing in heroic style or giving 
 voice to brave or angry emotion the 
 wood-winds are either silent or are 
 used to give weight to the body of tone 
 rather than color. Each of the instru- 
 ments has a strongly characteristic 
 voice, which adapts itself best to a cer- 
 tain style of music ; but by use of dif- 
 ferent registers and by combinations 
 among them, or with the instruments of 
 the other choirs, a wide range of ex- 
 pression within the limits suggested has 
 been won for the wood-winds. 
 
 The flute, which requires no descrip- 
 
 95 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The wood- 
 winds.
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Tktfiute. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion, is, for instance, an essentially soul- 
 less instrument ; but its marvellous agil- 
 ity and the effectiveness with which its 
 tones can be blended with others make 
 it one of the most useful instruments 
 in the band. Its native character, heard 
 in the compositions written for it as a 
 solo instrument, has prevented it from 
 being looked upon with dignity. As a 
 rule, brilliancy is all that is expected 
 from it. It is a sort of soprano leggiero 
 with a small range of superficial feel- 
 ings. It can sentimentalize, and, as 
 Dryden says, be " soft, complaining," 
 but when we hear it pour forth a veri- 
 table ecstasy of jubilation, as it does 
 in the dramatic climax of Beethoven's 
 overture " Leonore No. 3," we marvel 
 at the transformation effected by the 
 composer. Advantage has also been 
 taken of the difference between its high 
 and low tones, and now in some roman- 
 tic music, as in Raff's " Lenore " sym- 
 phony, or the prayer of Agathe in " Der 
 Freischiitz," the hollowness of the low 
 tones produces a mysterious effect that 
 is exceedingly striking. Still the fact 
 remains that the native voice of the in-
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 strument, though sweet, is expression- 
 less compared with that of the oboe 
 or clarinet. Modern composers some- 
 times write for three flutes ; but in the 
 older writers, when a third flute is used, 
 it is generally an octave flute, or pic- 
 colo flute (Plate III.) a tiny instrument 
 whose aggressiveness of voice is out of 
 all proportion to its diminutiveness of 
 body. This is the instrument which 
 shrieks and whistles when the band 
 is playing at storm-making, to imitate 
 the noise of the wind. It sounds an 
 octave higher than is indicated by the 
 notes in its part, and so is what is called 
 a transposing instrument of four-foot 
 tone. It revels in military music, which 
 is proper, for it is an own cousin to the 
 ear-piercing fife, which annually makes 
 up for its long silence in the noisy days 
 before political elections. When you 
 hear a composition in march time, with 
 bass and snare drum, cymbals and trian- 
 gle, such as the Germans call " Turk- 
 ish " or " Janizary " music, you may 
 be sure to hear also the piccolo flute. 
 The flute is doubtless one of the 
 oldest instruments in the world. The 
 
 97 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The pic- 
 colo flute.
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The story 
 of the 
 flute. 
 
 Reed in- 
 struments. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 primitive cave-dwellers made flutes of 
 the leg -bones of birds and other ani- 
 mals, an origin of which a record is pre- 
 served in the Latin name tibia. The 
 first wooden flutes were doubtless the 
 Pandean pipes, in which the tone was 
 produced by blowing across the open 
 ends of hollow reeds. The present 
 method, already known to the ancient 
 Egyptians, of closing the upper end, 
 and creating the tone by blowing 
 across a hole cut in the side, is only a 
 modification of the method pursued, 
 according to classic tradition, by Pan 
 when he breathed out his dejection at 
 the loss of the nymph Syrinx, by blow- 
 ing across the tuneful reeds which 
 were that nymph in her metamorphosed 
 state. 
 
 The flute or pipe of the Greeks and 
 Romans was only distantly related to 
 the true flute, but was the ancestor of 
 its orchestral companions, the oboe 
 and clarinet. These instruments are 
 sounded by being blown in at the end, 
 and the tone is created by vibrating 
 reeds, whereas in the flute it is the re- 
 sult of the impinging of the air on the
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 edge of the hole called the embouchure, 
 and the consequent stirring of the col- 
 umn of air in the flue of the instrument. 
 The reeds are thin slips or blades of 
 cane. The size and bore of the in- 
 struments and the difference between 
 these reeds are the causes of the 
 differences in tone quality between 
 these relatives. The oboe or hautboy, 
 English horn, and the bassoon have 
 what are called double reeds. Two 
 narrow blades of cane are fitted closely 
 together, and fastened with silk on a 
 small metal tube extending from the 
 upper end of the instrument in the case 
 of the oboe and English horn, from the 
 side in the case of the bassoon. The 
 reeds are pinched more or less tightly 
 between the lips, and are set to vibrat- 
 ing by the breath. 
 
 The oboe (Plate IV.) is naturally as- 
 sociated with music of a pastoral char- 
 acter. It is pre-eminently a melody in- 
 strument, and though its voice comes 
 forth shrinkingly, its uniqueness of tone 
 makes it easily heard. It is a most lov- 
 able instrument. " Candor, artless grace, 
 soft joy, or the grief of a fragile being 
 
 99 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Double 
 
 reeds. 
 
 The oboe.
 
 1OO 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The Eng- 
 lish horn. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 suits the oboe's accents," says Berlioz. 
 The peculiarity of its mouth-piece gives 
 its tone a reedy or vibrating quality 
 totally unlike the clarinet's. Its natural 
 alto is the English horn (Plate V.), which 
 is an oboe of larger growth, with curved 
 tube for convenience of manipulation. 
 The tone of the English horn is fuller, 
 nobler, and is very attractive in mel- 
 ancholy or dreamy music. There are 
 few players on the English horn in this 
 country, and it might be set down as 
 a rule that outside of New York, Bos- 
 ton, and Chicago, the English horn parts 
 are played by the oboe in America. 
 No melody displays the true character 
 of the English horn better than the 
 Ranz des Vaches in the overture to Ros- 
 sini's " William Tell "that lovely Al- 
 pine song which the flute embroiders 
 with exquisite ornament. One of the 
 noblest utterances of the oboe is the 
 melody of the funeral march in Beet- 
 hoven's " Heroic " symphony, in which 
 its tenderness has beautiful play. It is 
 sometimes used effectively in imitative 
 music. In Haydn's " Seasons," and 
 also in that grotesque tone poem by
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 Saint-Saens, the " Danse Macabre," it 
 gives the cock crow. It is the timid 
 oboe that sounds the A for the orchestra 
 to tune by. 
 
 The grave voice of the oboe is heard 
 from the bassoon (Plate VI.), where, 
 without becoming assertive, it gains a 
 quality entirely unknown to the oboe 
 and English horn. It is this quality 
 that makes the bassoon the humorist 
 par excellence of the orchestra. It is a 
 reedy bass, very apt to recall to those 
 who have had a country education the 
 squalling tone of the homely instrument 
 which the farmer's boy fashions out of 
 the stems of the pumpkin-vine. The 
 humor of the bassoon is an unconscious 
 humor, and results from the use made 
 of its abysmally solemn voice. This 
 solemnity in quality is paired with as- 
 tonishing flexibility of utterance, so 
 that its gambols are always grotesque. 
 Brahms permits the bassoon to intone 
 the Fuchslied of the German students in 
 his " Academic " overture. Beethoven 
 achieves a decidedly comical effect by 
 a stubborn reiteration of key-note, fifth, 
 and octave by the bassoon under a rus- 
 
 101 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The 
 bassoon. 
 
 An orches- 
 tral hu- 
 morist.
 
 102 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Supernatu- 
 ral effects. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tic dance intoned by the oboe in the 
 scherzo of his " Pastoral " symphony ; 
 and nearly every modern composer has 
 taken advantage of the instrument's 
 grotesqueness. Mendelssohn intro- 
 duces the clowns in his " Midsummer- 
 Night's-Dream " music by a droll dance 
 for two bassoons over a sustained bass 
 note from the violoncellos ; but when 
 Meyerbeer wanted a very different ef- 
 fect, a ghastly one indeed, in the scene 
 of the resuscitation of the nuns in his 
 " Robert le Diable," he got it by taking 
 two bassoons as solo instruments and 
 using their weak middle tones, which, 
 Berlioz says, have " a pale, cold, ca- 
 daverous sound." Singularly enough, 
 Handel resorted to a similar device in 
 his "Saul," to accompany the vision of 
 the Witch of Endor. 
 
 In all these cases a great deal de- 
 pends upon the relation between the 
 character of the melody and the nature 
 of the instrument to which it is set. A 
 swelling martial fanfare may be made ab- 
 surd by changing it from trumpets to a 
 weak-voiced wood-wind. It is only the 
 string quartet that speaks all the musical
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 languages of passion and emotion. The 
 double-bassoon is so large an instrument 
 that it has to be bent on itself to bring 
 it under the control of the player. It 
 sounds an octave lower than the written 
 notes. It is not brought often into the 
 orchestra, but speaks very much to the 
 purpose in Brahms's beautiful variations 
 on a theme by Haydn, and the glorious 
 finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 
 
 The clarinet (Plate VII.) is the most 
 eloquent member of the wood -wind 
 choir, and, except some of its own mod- 
 ifications or the modifications of the 
 oboe and bassoon, the latest arrival in 
 the harmonious company. It is only a 
 little more than a century old. It has 
 the widest range of expression of the 
 wood-winds, and its chief structural dif- 
 ference is in its mouth-piece. It has a 
 single flat reed, which is much wider 
 than that of the oboe or bassoon, and is 
 fastened by a metallic band and screw 
 to the flattened side of the mouth-piece, 
 whose other side is cut down, chisel 
 shape, for convenience. Its voice is rich, 
 mellow, less reedy, and much fuller and 
 more limpid than the voice of the oboe, 
 
 103 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The double 
 
 bassoon. 
 
 The 
 clarinet.
 
 104 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The bass 
 clarinet. 
 
 Lips and 
 reeds. 
 
 which Berlioz tries to describe by anal- 
 ogy as " sweet-sour." It is very flexible, 
 too, and has a range of over three and a 
 half octaves. Its high tones are some- 
 times shrieky, however, and the full 
 beauty of the instrument is only dis- 
 closed when it sings in the middle reg- 
 ister. Every symphony and overture 
 contains passages for the clarinet which 
 serve to display its characteristics. 
 Clarinets are made of different sizes for 
 different keys, the smallest being that 
 in E-flat, with an unpleasantly piercing 
 tone, whose use is confined to military 
 bands. There is also an alto clarinet 
 and a bass clarinet (Plate VIII.). The 
 bell of the latter instrument is bent 
 upward, pipe fashion, and its voice is 
 peculiarly impressive and noble. It is a 
 favorite solo instrument in Liszt's sym- 
 phonic poems. 
 
 The fundamental principle of the in- 
 struments last described is the produc- 
 tion of tone by vibrating reeds. In the 
 instruments of the brass choir, the duty 
 of the reeds is performed by the lips of 
 the player. Variety of tone in respect 
 of quality is produced by variations in
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 size, shape, and modifications in parts 
 like the bell and mouth-piece. The forte 
 of the orchestra receives the bulk of its 
 puissance from the brass instruments, 
 which, nevertheless, can give voice to 
 an extensive gamut of sentiments and 
 feelings. There is nothing more cheery 
 and jocund than the flourishes of the 
 horns, but also nothing more mild and 
 soothing than the songs which some- 
 times they sing. There is nothing more 
 solemn and religious than the harmony 
 of the trombones, while " the trumpet's 
 loud clangor " is the very voice of a war- 
 like spirit. All of these instruments have 
 undergone important changes within the 
 last few score years. The classical com- 
 posers, almost down to our own time, 
 were restricted in the use of them be- 
 cause they were merely natural tubes, 
 and their notes were limited to the 
 notes which inflexible tubes can produce. 
 Within this century, however, they have 
 all been transformed from imperfect 
 diatonic instruments to perfect chro- 
 matic instruments ; that is to say, every 
 brass instrument which is in use now 
 can give out all the semitones within its 
 
 105 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The brass 
 instru- 
 ments. 
 
 Improve- 
 ments in 
 brass in- 
 struments.
 
 io6 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Valves and 
 slides. 
 
 The 
 
 French 
 
 horn. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 compass. This has been accomplished 
 through the agency of valves, by means 
 of which differing lengths of the sono- 
 rous tube are brought within the com- 
 mand of the players. In the case of the 
 trombones an exceedingly venerable 
 means of accomplishing the same end 
 is applied. The tube is in part made 
 double, one part sliding over the other. 
 By moving his arm, the player length- 
 ens or shortens the tube, and thus chang- 
 ing the key of the instrument, acquires 
 all the tones which can be obtained 
 from so many tubes of different lengths. 
 The mouth-pieces of the trumpet, trom- 
 bone, and tuba are cup -shaped, and 
 larger than the mouth-piece of the horn, 
 which is little else than a flare of the 
 slender tube, sufficiently wide to receive 
 enough of the player's lips to form the 
 embouchure, or human reed, as it might 
 here be named 
 
 The French horn (Plate IX.), as it is 
 called in the orchestra, is the sweetest 
 and mellowest of all the wind instru- 
 ments. In Beethoven's time it was but 
 little else than the old hunting-horn, 
 which, for the convenience of the
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 mounted hunter, was arranged in spiral 
 convolutions that it might be slipped 
 over the head and carried resting on 
 one shoulder and under the opposite 
 arm. The Germans still call it the 
 Waldhorn, i.e., " forest horn ; " the old 
 French name was cor de chasse, the 
 Italian corno di caccia. In this instru- 
 ment formerly the tones which were 
 not the natural resonances of the har- 
 monic division of the tube were helped 
 out by partly closing the bell with the 
 right hand, it having been discovered 
 accidentally that by putting the hand 
 into the lower end of the tube the flar- 
 ing part called the bell the pitch of a 
 tone was raised. Players still make use 
 of this method for convenience, and 
 sometimes because a composer wishes 
 to employ the slightly muffled effect of 
 these tones ; but since valves have been 
 added to the instrument, it is possible 
 to play a chromatic scale in what are 
 called the unstopped or open tones. 
 
 Formerly it was necessary to use 
 horns of different pitch, and composers 
 still respect this tradition, and designate 
 the key of the horns which they wish to 
 
 107 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Manipula- 
 tion of the 
 French 
 horn. 
 
 Kinds of 
 horns.
 
 io8 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The 
 trumpet. 
 
 The cornet. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 have employed ; but so skilful have the 
 players become that, as a rule, they use 
 horns whose fundamental tone is F for 
 all keys, and achieve the old purpose 
 by simply transposing the music as 
 they read it. If these most graceful 
 instruments were straightened out they 
 would be seventeen feet long. The con- 
 volutions of the horn and the many turns 
 of the trumpet are all the fruit of neces- 
 sity ; they could not be manipulated to 
 produce the tones that are asked of 
 them if they were not bent and curved. 
 The trumpet, when its tube is length- 
 ened by the addition of crooks for its 
 lowest key, is eight feet long; the tuba, 
 sixteen. In most orchestras (in all of 
 those in the United States, in fact, ex- 
 cept the Boston and Chicago Orches- 
 tras and the Symphony Society of New 
 York) the word trumpet is merely a 
 euphemism' for cornet, the familiar lead- 
 ing instrument of the brass band, which, 
 while it falls short of the trumpet in 
 the quality of its tone, in the upper reg- 
 isters especially, is a more easily ma- 
 nipulated instrument than the trumpet, 
 and is preferable in the lower tones.
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 Mendelssohn is quoted as saying 
 that the trombones (Plate X.) " are too 
 sacred to use often." They have, in- 
 deed, a majesty and nobility all their 
 own, and the lowest use to which they 
 can be put is to furnish a flaring and 
 noisy harmony in an orchestral tutti. 
 They are marvellously expressive in- 
 struments, and without a peer in the 
 whole instrumental company when a 
 solemn and spiritually uplifting effect is 
 to be attained. They can also be made 
 to sound menacing and lugubrious, de- 
 vout and mocking, pompously heroic, 
 majestic, and lofty. They are often the 
 heralds of the orchestra, and make so- 
 norous proclamations. 
 
 The classic composers always seemed 
 to approach the trombones with marked 
 respect, but nowadays it requires a very 
 big blue pencil in the hands of a very un- 
 compromising conservatory professor to 
 prevent a student engaged on his Opus i 
 from keeping his trombones going half 
 the time at least. It is an old story how 
 Mozart keeps the instruments silent 
 through three-fourths of his immortal 
 " Don Giovanni," so that they may 
 
 109 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The 
 trombone. 
 
 Trombont 
 effects.
 
 1)0 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The tuba. 
 
 Instru- 
 ments of 
 percussion. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 enter with overwhelming impressive, 
 ness along with the ghostly visitor of the 
 concluding scene. As a rule, there are 
 three trombones in the modern orches- 
 tra two tenors and a bass. Formerly 
 there were four kinds, bearing the 
 names of the voices to which they were 
 supposed to be nearest in tone-quality 
 and compass soprano, alto, tenor, and 
 bass. Full four-part harmony is now per- 
 formed by the three trombones and the 
 tuba (Plate XI.). The latter instru- 
 ment, which, despite its gigantic size, 
 is exceedingly tractable can " roar you 
 as gently as any sucking dove." Far- 
 away and strangely mysterious tones 
 are got out of the brass instruments, 
 chiefly the cornet and horn, by almost 
 wholly closing the bell. 
 
 The percussion apparatus of the mod- 
 ern orchestra includes a multitude of 
 instruments scarcely deserving of de- 
 scription. Several varieties of drums, 
 cymbals, triangle, tambourine, steel bars 
 (Glockenspiel), gongs, bells, and many 
 other things which we are now inclined 
 to look upon as toys, rather than as 
 musical instruments, are brought into
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 play for reasons more or less fantastic. 
 Saint-Saens has even utilized the bar- 
 barous xylophone, whose proper place 
 is the variety hall, in his " Danse Mac- 
 abre." There his purpose was a fan- 
 tastic one, and the effect is capital. The 
 pictorial conceit at the bottom of the 
 poem which the music illustrates is 
 Death, as a skeleton, seated on a tomb- 
 stone, playing the viol, and gleefully 
 cracking his bony heels against the 
 marble. To produce this effect, the 
 composer uses the xylophone with capi- 
 tal results. But of all the ordinary in- 
 struments of percussion, the only one 
 that is really musical and deserving of 
 comment is the kettle-drum. This in- 
 strument is more musical than the 
 others because it has pitch. Its voice 
 is not mere noise, but musical noise. 
 Kettle-drums, or tympani, are generally 
 used in pairs, though the vast multipli- 
 cation of effects by modern composers 
 has resulted also in the extension of this 
 department of the band. It is seldom 
 that more than two pairs are used, a 
 good player with a quick ear being able 
 to accomplish all that Wagner asks of 
 
 ill 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The 
 
 xylophone. 
 
 Kettle- 
 drums.
 
 112 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 P/utuTs 
 
 tuning 
 
 device. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 six drums by his deftness in changing 
 the pitch of the instruments. This 
 work of tuning is still performed gen- 
 erally in what seems a rudimentary 
 way, though a German drum-builder 
 named Pfund invented a contrivance by 
 which the player, by simply pressing 
 on a balanced pedal and watching an 
 indicator affixed to the side of the 
 drums, can change the pitch to any de- 
 sired semitone within the range of an 
 octave. 
 
 The tympani are hemispherical brass 
 or copper vessels, kettles in short, cov- 
 ered with vellum heads. The pitch of 
 the instrument depends on the tension 
 of the head, which is applied generally 
 by key -screws working through the 
 iron ring which holds the vellum. 
 There is a difference in the size of the 
 drums to place at the command of the 
 player the octave from F in the first 
 space below the bass staff to F on the 
 fourth line of the same staff. Formerly 
 the purpose of the drums was simply to 
 give emphasis, and they were then uni- 
 formly tuned to the key-note and fifth 
 of the key in which a composition was
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 set. Now they are tuned in many ways, 
 not only to allow for the frequent 
 change of keys, but also so that they 
 may be used as harmony instruments. 
 Berlioz did more to develop the drums 
 than any composer who has ever lived, 
 though Beethoven already manifested 
 appreciation of their independent musi- 
 cal value. In the last movement of his 
 Eighth Symphony and the scherzo of 
 his Ninth, he tunes them in octaves, his 
 purpose in the latter case being to give 
 the opening figure, an octave leap, of the 
 scherzo melody to the drums solo. The 
 most extravagant use ever made of 
 the drums, however, was by Berlioz in 
 his " Messe des Morts," where he called 
 in eight pairs of drums and ten players 
 to help him to paint his tonal picture of 
 the terrors of the last judgment. The 
 post of drummer is one of the most dif- 
 ficult to fill in a symphonic orchestra. 
 He is required to have not only a per- 
 fect sense of time and rhythm, but also 
 a keen sense of pitch, for often the com- 
 poser asks him to change the pitch of 
 one or both of his drums in the space 
 of a very few seconds. He must then 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Pitch of the 
 drums. 
 
 Qualifica- 
 tions of a 
 drummer.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The bass 
 drum. 
 
 The 
 
 conductor. 
 
 be able to shut all other sounds out of 
 his mind, and bring his drums into a 
 new key while the orchestra is playing 
 an extremely nice task. 
 
 The development of modern orches- 
 tral music has given dignity also to the 
 bass drum, which, though definite pitch 
 is denied to it, is now manipulated in a 
 variety of ways productive of striking 
 effects. Rolls are played on it with the 
 sticks of the kettle-drums, and it has 
 been emancipated measurably from the 
 cymbals, which in vulgar brass -band 
 music are its inseparable companions. 
 
 In the full sense of the term the or- 
 chestral conductor is a product of the 
 latter half of the present century. Of 
 course, ever since concerted music be- 
 gan, there has been a musical leader of 
 some kind. Mural paintings and carv- 
 ings fashioned in Egypt long before 
 Apollo sang his magic song and 
 
 " Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers," 
 
 show the conductor standing before his 
 band beating time by clapping his 
 hands ; and if we are to credit what we 
 have been told about Hebrew music,
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, when 
 they stood before their multitudinous 
 choirs in the temple at Jerusalem, pro- 
 moted synchronism in the performance 
 by stamping upon the floor with lead- 
 shodden feet. Before the era which de- 
 veloped what I might call "star" con- 
 ductors, these leaders were but captains 
 of tens and captains of hundreds who 
 accomplished all that was expected of 
 them if they made the performers keep 
 musical step together. They were time- 
 beaters merely human metronomes. 
 The modern conductor is, in a sense not 
 dreamed of a century ago, a mediator 
 between the composer and the audi- 
 ence. He is a virtuoso who plays upon 
 men instead of a key -board, upon a 
 hundred instruments instead of one. 
 Music differs from her sister arts in 
 many respects, but in none more than 
 in her dependence on the intermediary 
 who stands between her and the people 
 for whose sake she exists. It is this in- 
 termediary who wakens her into life. 
 
 " Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 
 Are sweeter," 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Time-beat- 
 ers *nd in- 
 terpreters.
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Tkt con- 
 ductor a 
 necessity. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 is a pretty bit of hyperbole which in- 
 volves a contradiction in terms. An un- 
 heard melody is no melody at all, and as 
 soon as we have music in which a num- 
 ber of singers or instrumentalists are 
 employed, the taste, feeling, and judg- 
 ment of an individual are essential to its 
 intelligent and effective publication. In 
 the gentle days of the long ago, when 
 suavity and loveliness of utterance and 
 a recognition of formal symmetry were 
 the " be-all and end-all " of the art, a time- 
 beater sufficed to this end ; but now the 
 contents of music are greater, the vessel 
 has been wondrously widened, the lan- 
 guage is become curiously complex and 
 ingenious, and no composer of to-day 
 can write down universally intelligible 
 signs for all that he wishes to say. 
 Someone must grasp the whole, ex- 
 pound it to the individual factors which 
 make up the performing sum and pro- 
 vide what is called an interpretation to 
 the public. 
 
 That someone, of course, is the con- 
 ductor, and considering the progress 
 that music is continually making it is 
 not at all to be wondered at that he has
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 become a person of stupendous power 
 in the culture of to-day. The one singu- 
 larity is that he should be so rare. This 
 rarity has had its natural consequence, 
 and the conductor who can conduct, in 
 contradistinction to the conductor who 
 can only beat time, is now a "star." At 
 present we see him going from place 
 to place in Europe giving concerts in 
 which he figures as the principal at- 
 traction. The critics discuss his " read- 
 ings " just as they do the performances 
 of great pianists and singers. A hun- 
 dred blowers of brass, scrapers of strings, 
 and tootlers on windy wood, labor be- 
 neath him transmuting the composer's 
 mysterious symbols into living sound, 
 and when it is all over we frequently 
 find that it seems all to have been done 
 for the greater glory of the conductor 
 instead of the glory of art. That, how- 
 ever, is a digression which it is not nec- 
 essary to pursue. 
 
 Questions and remarks have fre- 
 quently been addressed to me indica- 
 tive of the fact that there is a wide- 
 spread popular conviction that the 
 mission of a conductor is chiefly orna- 
 
 117 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 " Star " 
 conductors. 
 
 Mistaken 
 
 popular 
 
 notions.
 
 n8 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 What the 
 conductor 
 does. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 mental at an orchestral concert. That 
 is a sad misconception, and grows out 
 of the old notion that a conductor is 
 only a time-beater. Assuming that the 
 men of the band have played sufficiently 
 together, it is thought that eventually 
 they might keep time without the help 
 of the conductor. It is true that the 
 greater part of the conductor's work is 
 done at rehearsal, at which he enforces 
 upon his men his wishes concerning the 
 speed of the music, expression, and the 
 balance of tone between the different 
 instruments. But all the injunctions 
 given at rehearsal by word of mouth are 
 reiterated by means of a system of signs 
 and signals during the concert perform- 
 ance. Time and rhythm are indicated 
 by the movements of the baton, the 
 former by the speed of the beats, the 
 latter by the direction, the tones upon 
 which the principal stress is to fall being 
 indicated by the down-beat of the bat- 
 on. The amplitude of the movements 
 also serves to indicate the conductor's 
 wishes concerning dynamic variations, 
 while the left hand is ordinarily used in 
 pantomimic gestures to control indi-
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 vidual players or groups. Glances and 
 a play of facial expression also assist in 
 the guidance of the instrumental body. 
 Every musician is expected to count the 
 rests which occur in his part, but when 
 they are of long duration (and some- 
 times they amount to a hundred meas- 
 ures or more) it is customary for the 
 conductor to indicate the entrance of an 
 instrument by a glance at the player. 
 From this mere outline of the communi- 
 cations which pass between the con- 
 ductor and his band it will be seen how 
 indispensable he is if music is to have a 
 consistent and vital interpretation. 
 
 The layman will perhaps also be 
 enabled, by observing the actions of a 
 conductor with a little understanding 
 of their purposes, to appreciate what 
 critics mean when they speak of the 
 " magnetism " of a leader. He will un- 
 derstand that among other things it 
 means the aptitude or capacity for cre- 
 ating a sympathetic relationship be- 
 tween himself and his men which en- 
 ables him the better by various devices, 
 some arbitrary, some technical and con- 
 ventional, to imbue them with his 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Rests and 
 cues. 
 
 Personal 
 magnet- 
 ism.
 
 120 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 The score. 
 
 Its ar- 
 rangement. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 thoughts and feelings relative to a com- 
 position, and through them to body 
 them forth to the audience. 
 
 What it is that the conductor has to 
 guide him while giving his mute com- 
 mands to his forces may be seen in the 
 reproduction, in the Appendix, of a page 
 from an orchestral score (Plate XII.). 
 A score, it will be observed, is a repro- 
 duction of all the parts of a composition 
 as they lie upon the desks of the players. 
 The ordering of these parts in the score 
 has not always been as now, but the 
 plan which has the widest and longest 
 approval is that illustrated in our exam- 
 ple. The wood-winds are grouped to- 
 gether on the uppermost six staves, the 
 brass in the middle with the tympani 
 separating the horns and trumpets from 
 the trombones, the strings on the lower- 
 most five staves. The example has been 
 chosen because it shows all the instru- 
 ments of the band employed at once (it 
 is the famous opening tutti of the tri- 
 umphal march of Beethoven's Fifth 
 Symphony), and is easy of comprehen- 
 sion by musical amateurs for the reason 
 that none of the parts requires transpo-
 
 The Modern Orchestra 
 
 sition except it be an octave up in the 
 case of the piccolo, an instrument of 
 four-foot tone, and an octave down in the 
 case of the double-basses, which are of 
 sixteen-foot tone. All the other parts are 
 to be read as printed, proper attention 
 being given to the alto and tenor clefs 
 used in the parts of the trombones and 
 violas. The ability to " read score " is 
 one of the most essential attributes of a 
 conductor, who, if he have the proper 
 training, can bring all the parts together 
 and reproduce them on the pianoforte, 
 transposing those which do not sound 
 as written and reading the different 
 clefs at sight as he goes along. 
 
 121 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 Score 
 reading.
 
 122 
 
 Classical 
 and Popu- 
 lar. 
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 IN popular phrase all high-class music 
 is " classical," and all concerts at 
 which such music is played are " classi- 
 cal concerts." Here the word is con- 
 ceived as the antithesis of " popular," 
 which term is used to designate the or- 
 dinary music of the street and music- 
 hall. Elsewhere I have discussed the 
 true meaning of the word and shown its 
 relation to " romantic " in the terminol- 
 ogy of musical critics and historians. 
 No harm is done by using both " classi- 
 cal " and " popular " in their common 
 significations, so far as they convey a 
 difference in character between con- 
 certs. The highest popular conception 
 of a classical concert is one in which a 
 complete orchestra performs sympho- 
 nies and extended compositions in allied
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 forms, such as overtures, symphonic 
 poems, and concertos. Change the 
 composition of the instrumental body, 
 by omitting the strings and augmenting 
 the reed and brass choirs, and you have 
 a military band which is best employed 
 in the open air, and whose programmes 
 are generally made up of compositions 
 in the simpler and more easily compre- 
 hended forms dances, marches, fan- 
 tasias on popular airs, arrangements of 
 operatic excerpts and the like. These, 
 then, are popular concerts in the broad- 
 est sense, though it is proper enough to 
 apply the term also to concerts given 
 by a symphonic band when the pro- 
 gramme is light in character and aims 
 at more careless diversion than should 
 be sought at a " classical " concert. 
 The latter term, again, is commended 
 to use by the fact that as a rule the 
 music performed at such a concert ex- 
 emplifies the higher forms in the art, 
 classicism in music being defined as 
 that principle which seeks expression 
 in beauty of form, in a symmetrical or- 
 dering of parts and logical sequence, 
 " preferring aesthetic beauty, pure and 
 
 12 3 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Orchestras 
 and mili- 
 tary bands.
 
 12 4 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Sym- 
 phony. 
 
 Mistaken 
 ideas about 
 the for rn 
 
 simple, over emotional content," as I 
 have said in Chapter III. 
 
 As the highest type of instrumental 
 music, we take the Symphony. Very 
 rarely indeed is a concert given by an 
 organization like the New York and 
 London Philharmonic Societies, or the 
 Boston and Chicago Orchestras, at 
 which the place of honor in the scheme 
 of pieces is not given to a symphony. 
 Such a concert is for that reason also 
 spoken of popularly as a "Symphony 
 concert," and no confusion would nec- 
 essarily result from the use of the term 
 even if it so chanced that there was no 
 symphony on the programme. What 
 idea the word symphony conveys to the 
 musically illiterate it would be difficult 
 to tell. I have known a professional 
 writer on musical subjects to express 
 the opinion that a symphony was noth- 
 ing else than four unrelated composi- 
 tions for orchestra arranged in a certain 
 sequence for the sake of an agreeable 
 contrast of moods and tempos. It is 
 scarcely necessary to say that the writer 
 in question had a very poor opinion of 
 the Symphony as an Art-form, and be-
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 lieved that it had outlived its usefulness 
 and should be relegated to the limbo of 
 Archaic Things. If he, however, trained 
 in musical history and familiar with 
 musical literature, could see only four 
 unrelated pieces of music in a sym- 
 phony by Beethoven, we need not mar- 
 vel that hazy notions touching the nat- 
 ure of the form are prevalent among 
 the untaught public, and that people 
 can be met in concert-rooms to whom 
 such words as " Symphony in C minor," 
 and the printed designations of the dif- 
 ferent portions of the work the " move- 
 ments," as musicians call them are ut- 
 terly bewildering. 
 
 The word symphony has itself a sin- 
 gularly variegated history. Like many 
 another term in music it was borrowed 
 by the modern world from the ancient 
 Greek. To those who coined it, how- 
 ever, it had a much narrower meaning 
 than to us who use it, with only a con- 
 ventional change in transliteration, now. 
 By avfj,(f>Q>via the Greeks simply ex- 
 pressed the concept of agreement, or 
 consonance. Applied to music it meant 
 first such intervals as unisons; then 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 History of 
 the term.
 
 126 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Changes in 
 meaning. 
 
 Handets 
 " Pastoral 
 Sympho- 
 ny." 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the notion was extended to include 
 consonant harmonies, such as the fifth, 
 fourth, and octave. The study of the 
 ancient theoreticians led the musicians 
 of the Middle Ages to apply the 
 word to harmony in general. Then 
 in some inexplicable fashion it came 
 to stand as a generic term for instru- 
 mental compositions such as toccatas, 
 sonatas, etc. Its name was given to 
 one of the precursors of the pianoforte, 
 and in Germany in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury the word Symphoney came to 
 mean a town band. In the last century 
 and the beginning of this the term was 
 used to designate an instrumental intro- 
 duction to a composition for voices, 
 such as a song or chorus, as also an in- 
 strumental piece introduced in a choral 
 work. The form, that is the extent and 
 structure of the composition, had noth- 
 ing to do with the designation, as we 
 see from the Italian shepherds' tune 
 which Handel set for strings in " The 
 Messiah ; " he called it simply pifa, but 
 his publishers called it a " Pastoral 
 symphony," and as such we still know 
 it. It was about the middle of the eigh-
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 teenth century that the present signifi- 
 cation became crystallized in the word, 
 and since the symphonies of Haydn, in 
 which the form first reached perfection, 
 are still to be heard in our concert- 
 rooms, it may be said that all the mas- 
 terpieces of symphonic literature are 
 current. 
 
 I have already hinted at the fact that 
 there is an intimate relationship between 
 the compositions usually heard at a clas- 
 sical concert. Symphonies, symphonic 
 poems, concertos for solo instruments 
 and orchestra, as well as the various 
 forms of chamber music, such as trios, 
 quartets, and quintets for strings, or 
 pianoforte and strings, are but different 
 expressions of the idea which is best 
 summed up in the word sonata. What 
 musicians call the " sonata form " lies at 
 the bottom of them all even those which 
 seem to consist of a single piece, like the 
 symphonic poem and overture. Pro- 
 vided it follow, not of necessity slav- 
 ishly, but in its general structure, a cer- 
 tain scheme which was slowly developed 
 by the geniuses who became the law- 
 givers of the art, a composite or cyclical" 
 
 127 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The allied 
 forms. 
 
 Sonata 
 form.
 
 128 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Symphony, 
 sonata, and 
 concerto. 
 
 What a 
 symphony 
 
 composition (that is, one composed of a 
 number of parts, or movements) is, as 
 the case may be, a symphony, concerto, 
 or sonata. It is a sonata if it be written 
 for a solo instrument like the pianoforte 
 or organ, or for one like the violin or 
 clarinet, with pianoforte accompaniment. 
 If the accompaniment be written for or- 
 chestra, it is called a concerto. A sonata 
 written for an orchestra is a symphony. 
 The nature of the interpreting medium 
 naturally determines the exposition of 
 the form, but all the essential attributes 
 can be learned from a study of the sym- 
 phony, which because of the dignity and 
 eloquence of its apparatus admits of a 
 wider scope than its allies, and must be 
 accepted as the highest type, not merely 
 of the sonata, but of the instrumental 
 art. It will be necessary presently to 
 point out the more important modifica- 
 tions which compositions of this charac- 
 ter have undergone in the development 
 of music, but the ends of clearness will 
 be best subserved if the study be con- 
 ducted on fundamental lines. 
 
 The symphony then, as a rule, is a 
 composition for orchestra made up of
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 four parts, or movements, which are not 
 only related to each other by a bond of 
 sympathy established by the keys chosen 
 but also by their emotional contents. 
 Without this higher bond the unity of 
 the work would be merely mechanical, 
 like the unity accomplished by sameness 
 of key in the old-fashioned suite. (See 
 Chapter VI.) The bond of key-relation- 
 ship, though no longer so obvious as 
 once it was, is yet readily discovered by 
 a musician ; the spiritual bond is more 
 elusive, and presents itself for recogni- 
 tion to the imagination and the feelings 
 of the listener. Nevertheless, it is an 
 element in every truly great symphony, 
 and I have already indicated how it may 
 sometimes become patent to the ear 
 alone, so it be intelligently employed, 
 and enjoy the co-operation of memory. 
 It is the first movement of a sym- 
 phony which embodies the structural 
 scheme called the "sonata form." It 
 has a triple division, and Mr. Edward 
 Dannreuther has aptly denned it as 
 "the triune symmetry of exposition, 
 illustration, and repetition." In the 
 first division the composer introduces 
 
 129 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The bond of 
 unity be- 
 tween the 
 parts. 
 
 Thefirst 
 movement.
 
 130 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Exposition 
 of subjects. 
 
 Repetition 
 of the first 
 subdivi- 
 
 the melodies which he has chosen to 
 be the thematic material of the move- 
 ment, and to fix the character of the 
 entire work ; he presents it for identifi- 
 cation. The themes are two, and their 
 exposition generally exemplifies the 
 principle of key-relationship, which was 
 the basis of my analysis of a simple 
 folk tune in Chapter II. In the case of 
 the best symphonists the principal and 
 second subjects disclose a contrast, not 
 violent but yet distinct, in mood or 
 character. If the first is rhythmically 
 energetic and assertive masculine, let 
 me say the second will be more sedate, 
 more gentle in utterance feminine. 
 After the two subjects have been in- 
 troduced along with some subsidiary 
 phrases and passages which the com- 
 poser uses to bind them together and 
 modulate from one key into another, 
 the entire division is repeated. That is 
 the rule, but it is now as often " hon- 
 ored in the breach" as in the observ- 
 ance, some conductors not even hesi- 
 tating to ignore the repeat marks in 
 Beethoven's scores. 
 The second division is now taken up.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 131 
 
 In it the composer exploits his learn- 
 ing and fancy in developing his the- 
 matic material. He is now entirely 
 free to send it through long chains of 
 keys, to vary the harmonies, rhythms, 
 and instrumentation, to take a single 
 pregnant motive and work it out with 
 all the ingenuity he can muster ; to force 
 it up " steep-up spouts " of passion and 
 let it whirl in the surge, or plunge it 
 into " steep-down gulfs of liquid fire," 
 and consume its own heart. Techni- 
 cally this part is called the " free fan- 
 tasia " in English, and the Durch- 
 fuhrung " working out " in German. 
 I mention the terms because they some- 
 times occur in criticisms and analyses. 
 It is in this division that the genius of 
 a composer has fullest play, and there 
 is no greater pleasure, no more delight- 
 ful excitement, for the symphony-lover 
 than to follow the luminous fancy of 
 Beethoven through his free fantasias. 
 The third division is devoted to a repe- Repetition. 
 tition, with modifications, of the first 
 division and the addition of a close. 
 
 First movements are quick and ener- 
 getic, and frequently full of dramatic 
 
 The free 
 
 fantasia or 
 ' ' working- 
 out " por- 
 tion.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Introduc- 
 tions. 
 
 Keys and 
 Titles. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 fire. In them the psychological story 
 is begun which is to be developed in 
 the remaining chapters of the work 
 its sorrows, hopes, prayers, or com- 
 munings in the slow movement ; its 
 madness or merriment in the scherzo; 
 its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in 
 the finale. Sometimes the first move- 
 ment is preceded by a slow introduc- 
 tion, intended to prepare the mind of 
 the listener for the proclamation which 
 shall come with the Allegro. The key 
 of the principal subject is set down as 
 the key of the symphony, and unless 
 the composer gives his work a special 
 title for the purpose of providing a hint 
 as to its poetical contents (" Eroica," 
 " Pastoral," " Faust," " In the Forest," 
 " Lenore," " Pathtique," etc.), or to 
 characterize its style (" Scotch," " Ital- 
 ian," " Irish," " Welsh," " Scandina- 
 vian," " From the New World "), it is 
 known only by its key, or the number 
 of the work (opus) in the composer's 
 list. Therefore we have Mozart's 
 Symphony "in G minor," Beethoven's 
 "in A major," Schumann's "in C," 
 Brahms's " in F," and so on.
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 The second movement in the sym- 
 phonic scheme is the slow movement. 
 Musicians frequently call it the Adagio, 
 for convenience, though the tempi of 
 slow movements ranges from extremely 
 slow (Largo) to the border line of fast, as 
 in the case of the Allegretto of the Sev- 
 enth Symphony of Beethoven. The 
 mood of the slow movement is frequent- 
 ly sombre, and its instrumental coloring 
 dark ; but it may also be consolatory, 
 contemplative, restful, religiously uplift- 
 ing. The writing is preferably in a 
 broadly sustained style, the effect being 
 that of an exalted hymn, and this has 
 led to a predilection for a theme and 
 variations as the mould in which to 
 cast the movement. The slow move- 
 ments of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth 
 Symphonies are made up of varia- 
 tions. 
 
 The Scherzo is, as the term implies, 
 the playful, jocose movement of a sym- 
 phony, but in the case of sublime ge- 
 niuses like Beethoven and Schumann, 
 who blend profound melancholy with 
 wild humor, the playfulness is some- 
 times of a kind which invites us to 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The second 
 movement. 
 
 Variations. 
 
 The 
 Scherzo.
 
 J34 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Genesis f 
 the Scherzo. 
 
 The Trio. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 thoughtfulness instead of merriment. 
 This is true also of some Russian com- 
 posers, whose scherzos have the desper- 
 ate gayety which speaks from the music 
 of a sad people whose merrymaking is 
 not a spontaneous expression of exu- 
 berant spirits but a striving after self-for- 
 getfulness. The Scherzo is the successor 
 of the Minuet, whose rhythm and form 
 served the composers down to Beet- 
 hoven. It was he who substituted the 
 Scherzo, which retains the chief formal 
 characteristics of the courtly old dance 
 in being in triple time and having a sec- 
 ond part called the Trio. With the 
 change there came an increase in speed, 
 but it ought to be remembered that the 
 symphonic minuet was quicker than the 
 dance of the same name. A tendency 
 toward exaggeration, which is patent 
 among modern conductors, is threaten- 
 ing to rob the symphonic minuet of the 
 vivacity which gave it its place in the 
 scheme of the symphony. The entrance 
 of the Trio is marked by the introduc- 
 tion of a new idea (a second minuet) 
 which is more sententious than the first 
 part, and sometimes in another key,
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 the commonest change being from 
 minor to major. 
 
 The final movement, technically the 
 Finale, is another piece of large dimen- 
 sions in which the psychological drama 
 which plays through the four acts of 
 the symphony is brought to a conclu- 
 sion. Once the purpose of the Finale 
 was but to bring the symphony to a 
 merry end, but as the expressive capac- 
 ity of music has been widened, and mere 
 play with aesthetic forms has given place 
 to attempts to convey sentiments and 
 feelings, the purposes of the last move- 
 ment have been greatly extended and 
 varied. As a rule the form chosen for 
 the Finale is that called the Rondo. 
 Borrowed from an artificial verse-form 
 (the French Rondeau}, this species of 
 composition illustrates the peculiarity 
 of that form in the reiteration of a 
 strophe ever and anon after a new 
 theme or episode has been exploited. 
 In modern society verse, which has 
 grown out of an ambition to imitate 
 the ingenious form invented by me- 
 diaeval poets, we have the Triolet, which 
 may be said to be a rondeau in minia- 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Finale. 
 
 Rondo 
 form.
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 A Rondo 
 pattern, in 
 poetry* 
 
 Other 
 forms for 
 the Finale. 
 
 ture. I choose one of Mr. H. C. Bun- 
 ner's dainty creations to illustrate the 
 musical refrain characteristic of the 
 rondo form because of its compactness. 
 Here it is : 
 
 " A pitcher of mignonette 
 
 In a tenement's highest casement : 
 Queer sort of a flower-pot yet 
 
 That pitcher of mignonette 
 Is a garden in heaven set, 
 
 To the little sick child in the basement 
 The pitcher of mignonette, 
 
 In the tenement's highest casement." 
 
 If now the first two lines of this poem, 
 which compose its refrain, be permitted 
 to stand as the principal theme of a mu- 
 sical piece, we have in Mr. Bunner's 
 triolet a rondo in nuce. There is in it a 
 threefold exposition of the theme alter- 
 nating with episodic matter. Another 
 form for the finale is that of the first 
 movement (the Sonata form), and still 
 another, the theme and variations. Beet- 
 hoven chose the latter for his " Ero- 
 ica," and the choral close of his Ninth, 
 Dvorak, for his symphony in G major, 
 and Brahms for his in E minor. 
 
 I am attempting nothing more than a
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 characterization of the symphony, and 
 the forms with which I associated it at 
 the outset, which shall help the un- 
 trained listener to comprehend them as 
 unities despite the fact that to the care- 
 less hearer they present themselves as 
 groups of pieces each one of which is 
 complete in itself and has no connec- 
 tion with its fellows. The desire of 
 composers to have their symphonies ac- 
 cepted as unities instead of compages 
 of unrelated pieces has led to the adop- 
 tion of various devices designed to 
 force the bond of union upon the atten- 
 tion of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in 
 his symphony in C minor not only 
 connects the third and fourth move- 
 ments but also introduces a reminis- 
 cence of the former into the midst of 
 the latter ; Berlioz in his " Symphonic 
 Fantastique," which is written to what 
 may be called a dramatic scheme, makes 
 use of a melody which he calls " Vidte 
 fixe" and has it recur in each of the 
 four movements as an episode. This, 
 however, is frankly a symphony with 
 programme, and ought not to be treated 
 as a modification of the pure form. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Organic 
 Unities. 
 
 Haw en- 
 forced. 
 
 Berlioz's 
 "idle fixe.'
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Recapitu- 
 lation of 
 themes. 
 
 Introduc- 
 tion of 
 voices 
 
 Dvorak in his symphony entitled " From 
 the New World," in which he has striven 
 to give expression to the American 
 spirit, quotes the first period of his 
 principal subject in all the subsequent 
 movements, and then sententiously re- 
 capitulates the principal themes of the 
 first, second, and third movements in 
 the finale ; and this without a sign of 
 the dramatic purpose confessed by Ber- 
 lioz. 
 
 In the last movement of his Ninth 
 Symphony Beethoven calls voices to the 
 aid of his instruments. It was a daring 
 innovation, as it seemed to disrupt the 
 form, and we know from the story of 
 the work how long he hunted for the 
 connecting link, which finally he found 
 in the instrumental recitative. Having 
 hit upon the device, he summons each 
 of the preceding movements, which are 
 purely instrumental, into the presence 
 of his augmented forces and dismisses 
 it as inadequate to the proclamation 
 which the symphony was to make. 
 The double-basses and solo barytone 
 are the spokesmen for the tuneful host. 
 He thus achieves the end of connecting
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 the Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio with 
 each other, and all with the Finale, and 
 at the same time points out what it is 
 that he wishes us to recognize as the in- 
 spiration of the whole ; but here, again, 
 the means appear to be somewhat ex- 
 traneous. Schumann's example, how- 
 ever, in abolishing the pauses between 
 the movements of the symphony in D 
 minor, and having melodic material 
 common to all the movements, is a plea 
 for appreciation which cannot be mis- 
 understood. Before Schumann Men- 
 delssohn intended that his "Scotch" 
 symphony should be performed with- 
 out pauses between the movements, but 
 his wishes have been ignored by the 
 conductors, I fancy because he having 
 neglected to knit the movements to- 
 gether by community of ideas, they 
 can see no valid reason for the aboli- 
 tion of the conventional resting-places. 
 
 Beethoven's augmentation of the 
 symphonic forces by employing voices 
 has been followed by Berlioz in his 
 " Romeo and Juliet," which, though 
 called a " dramatic symphony," is a 
 mixture of symphony, cantata, and 
 
 139 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Abolition 
 of pauses. 
 
 Beethoven's 
 " choral" 
 symphony 
 followed.
 
 140 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Increase in 
 the number 
 of move- 
 ments. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 opera; Mendelssohn in his "Hymn of 
 Praise" (which is also a composite 
 work and has a composite title " Sym- 
 phony Cantata "), and Liszt in his 
 " Faust " symphony, in the finale of 
 which we meet a solo tenor and chorus 
 of men's voices who sing Goethe's Cho- 
 rus mysticus. 
 
 A number of other experiments have 
 been made, the effectiveness of which 
 has been conceded in individual in- 
 stances, but which have failed perma- 
 nently to affect the symphonic form. 
 Schumann has two trios in his sym- 
 phony in B-flat, and his E-flat, the so- 
 called " Rhenish," has five movements 
 instead of four, there being two slow 
 movements, one in moderate tempo 
 (Nicht schnell), and the other in slow 
 (Feierlich). In this symphony, also, 
 Schumann exercises the license which 
 has been recognized since Beethoven's 
 time, of changing the places in the 
 scheme of the second and third move- 
 ments, giving the second place to the 
 jocose division instead of the slow. 
 Beethoven's " Pastoral " has also five 
 movements, unless one chooses to take
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 the storm which interrupts the " Merry- 
 making of the Country Folk " as stand- 
 ing toward the last movement as an in- 
 troduction, as, indeed, it does in the 
 composer's idyllic scheme. Certain it 
 is, Sir George Grove to the contrary 
 notwithstanding, that the sense of a 
 disturbance of the symphonic plan is 
 not so vivid at a performance of the 
 "Pastoral" as at one of Schumann's 
 " Rhenish, " in which either the third 
 movement or the so-called " Cathedral 
 Scene " is most distinctly an interloper. 
 Usually it is deference to the demands 
 of a " programme " that influences com- 
 posers in extending the formal boun- 
 daries of a symphony, and when this is 
 done the result is frequently a work 
 which can only be called a symphony 
 by courtesy. M. Saint-Saens, however, 
 attempted an original excursion in his 
 symphony in C minor, without any dis- 
 coverable, or at least confessed, pro- 
 grammatic idea. He laid the work out 
 in two grand divisions, so as to have 
 but one pause. Nevertheless in each 
 division we can recognize, though as 
 through a haze, the outlines of the fa- 
 
 141 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Further 
 extension 
 of bound- 
 aries.
 
 142 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Saint- 
 Saens^s C 
 minor 
 symphony. 
 
 The 
 
 Symphonic 
 Poem. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 miliar symphonic movements. In the 
 first part, buried under a sequence of 
 time designations like this: Adagio 
 Allegro moderate Poco adagio, we dis- 
 cover the customary first and second 
 movements, the former preceded by a 
 slow introduction ; in the second divis- 
 ion we find this arrangement: Allegro 
 moderate Presto Maestoso Allegro, 
 this multiplicity of terms affording only 
 a sort of disguise for the regulation 
 scherzo and finale, with a cropping out 
 of reminiscences from the first part 
 which have the obvious purpose to im- 
 press upon the hearer that the sym- 
 phony is an organic whole. M. Saint- 
 Saens has also introduced the organ 
 and a pianoforte with two players into 
 the instrumental apparatus. 
 
 Three characteristics may be said to 
 distinguish the Symphonic Poem, which 
 in the view of the extremists who fol- 
 low the lead of Liszt is the logical out- 
 come of the symphony and the only 
 expression of its aesthetic principles 
 consonant with modern thought and 
 feeling. First, it is programmatic 
 that is, it is based upon a poetical idea,
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 H3 
 
 a sequence of incidents, or of soul- 
 states, to which a clew is given either 
 by the title or a motto ; second, it is 
 compacted in form to a single move- 
 ment, though as a rule the changing 
 phases delineated in the separate move- 
 ments of the symphony are also to be 
 found in the divisions of the work 
 marked by changes in tempo, key, and 
 character ; third, the work generally 
 has a principal subject of such plas- 
 ticity that the composer can body 
 forth a varied content by presenting it 
 in a number of transformations. 
 
 The last two characteristics Liszt has 
 carried over into his pianoforte con- 
 certo in E-flat. This has four distinct 
 movements (viz.: I. Allegro maestoso; 
 II. Quasi adagio ; III. Allegretto vivace, 
 scherzando ; IV. Allegro marziale anima- 
 td), but they are fused into a continuous 
 whole, throughout which the principal 
 thought of the work, the stupendously 
 energetic phrase which the orchestra 
 proclaims at the ooitset, is presented in 
 various forms to make it express a great 
 variety of moods and yet give unity to 
 the concerto. " Thus, by means of this 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Its charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 Liszt's 
 first piano- 
 forte con- 
 certo.
 
 144 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Other 
 
 cyclical 
 
 forms. 
 
 Pianoforte 
 and orches- 
 tra. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 metamorphosis," says Mr. Edward Dann- 
 reuther, " the poetic unity of the whole 
 musical tissue is made apparent, spite 
 of very great diversity of details ; and 
 Coleridge's attempt at a definition of 
 poetic unity unity in multiety is car- 
 ried out to the letter." 
 
 It will readily be understood that the 
 other cyclical compositions which I have 
 associated with a classic concert, that is, 
 compositions belonging to the category 
 of chamber music (see Chapter III.), 
 and concertos for solo instruments with 
 orchestral accompaniment, while con- 
 forming to the scheme which I have 
 outlined, all have individual character- 
 istics conditioned on the expressive ca- 
 pacity of the apparatus. The modern 
 pianoforte is capable of asserting itself 
 against a full orchestra, and concertos 
 have been written for it in which it is 
 treated as an orchestral integer rather 
 than a solo instrument. In the older 
 conception, the orchestra, though it 
 frequently assumed the privilege of in- 
 troducing the subject-matter, played a 
 subordinate part to the solo instrument 
 in its development. In violin as well as
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 pianoforte concertos special opportu- 
 nity is given to the player to exploit his 
 skill and display the solo instrument 
 free from structural restrictions in the 
 cadenza introduced shortly before the 
 close of the first, last, or both move- 
 ments. 
 
 Cadenzas are a relic of a time when 
 the art of improvisation was more 
 generally practised than it is now, and 
 when performers were conceded to 
 have rights beyond the printed page. 
 Solely for their display, it became cus- 
 tomary for composers to indicate by a 
 hold (/cs) a place where the perform- 
 er might indulge in a flourish of his 
 own. There is a tradition that Mo- 
 zart once remarked : " Wherever I 
 smear that thing," indicating a hold, 
 "you can do what you please;" the 
 rule is, however, that the only priv- 
 ilege which the cadenza opens to the 
 player is that of improvising on mate- 
 rial drawn from the subjects already 
 developed, and since, also as a rule, 
 composers are generally more eloquent 
 in the treatment of their own ideas than 
 performers, it is seldom that a cadenza 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Cadenzas. 
 
 Improvisa- 
 tions by the 
 player.
 
 146 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 M. Ysaye's 
 opinion of 
 Cadenzas. 
 
 Concertos. 
 
 contributes to the enjoyment afforded 
 by a work, except to the lovers of tech- 
 nique for technique's sake. I never 
 knew an artist to make a more sensible 
 remark than did M. Ysaye, when on the 
 eve of a memorably beautiful perform- 
 ance of Beethoven's violin concerto, he 
 said: "If I were permitted to consult 
 my own wishes I would put my violin 
 under my arm when I reach the fermate 
 and say : ' Ladies and gentlemen, we 
 have reached the cadenza. It is pre- 
 sumptuous in any musician to think that 
 he can have anything to say after 
 Beethoven has finished. With your 
 permission we will consider my cadenza 
 played.'" That Beethoven may him- 
 self have had a thought of the same 
 nature is a fair inference from the cir- 
 cumstance that he refused to leave the 
 cadenza in his E-flat pianoforte con- 
 certo to the mercy of the virtuosos but 
 wrote it himself. 
 
 Concertos for pianoforte or violin are 
 usually written in three movements, of 
 which the first and last follow the sym- 
 phonic model in respect of elaboration 
 and form, and the second is a brief move-
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 ment in slow or moderate time, which 
 has the character of an intermezzo. As 
 to the nomenclature of chamber music, it 
 is to be noted that unless connected with 
 a qualifying word or phrase, " Quartet " 
 means a string quartet. When a piano- 
 forte is consorted with strings the work 
 is spoken of as a Pianoforte Trio, Quar- 
 tet, or Quintet, as the case may be. 
 
 The form of the overture is that of the 
 first movement of the sonata, or sym- 
 phony, omitting the repetition of the 
 first subdivision. Since the original pur- 
 pose, which gave the overture its name 
 \Ouverture = aperture, opening), was to 
 introduce a drama, either spoken or 
 lyrical, an oratorio, or other choral 
 composition, it became customary for 
 the composers to choose the subjects of 
 the piece from the climacteric moments 
 of the music used in the drama. When 
 done without regard to the rules of con- 
 struction (as is the case with practically 
 all operetta overtures and Rossini's) the 
 result is not an overture at all, but a pot- 
 pourri, a hotch-potch of jingles. The 
 present beautiful form, in which Beet- 
 hoven and other composers have shown 
 
 H7 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Chamber 
 music. 
 
 The Over- 
 ture. 
 
 Pot-pourris,
 
 148 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Old sty Us 
 
 offfoer- 
 
 txres. 
 
 The 
 Prelude. 
 
 Glmck'i 
 principle. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 that it is possible to epitomize an entire 
 drama, took the place of an arbitrary 
 scheme which was wholly aimless, so far 
 as the compositions to which they were 
 attached were concerned. 
 
 The earliest fixed form of the over- 
 ture is preserved to the current lists of 
 to-day by the compositions of Bach and 
 Handel. It is that established by Lully, 
 and is tripartite in form, consisting of a 
 rapid movement, generally a fugue, pre- 
 ceded and followed by a slow movement 
 which is grave and stately in its tread. In 
 its latest phase the overture has yielded 
 up its name in favor of Prelude (Ger- 
 man, Vorspiel), Introduction, or Sym- 
 phonic Prologue. The finest of these, 
 without borrowing their themes from 
 the works which they introduce, but 
 using new matter entirely, seek to fulfil 
 the aim which Gluck set for himself, 
 when, in the preface to "Alceste," he 
 wrote : " I imagined that the overture 
 ought to prepare the audience for the 
 action of the piece, and serve as a kind 
 of argument to it," Concert overtures 
 are compositions designed by the com- 
 posers to stand as independent pieces in-
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 stead of for performance in connection 
 with a drama, opera, or oratorio. When, 
 as is frequently the case, the composer, 
 nevertheless, gives them a descriptive 
 title ("Hebrides," " Sakuntala "), their 
 poetical contents are to be sought in 
 the associations aroused by the title. 
 Thus, in the instances cited, " Heb- 
 rides" suggests that the overture was 
 designed by Mendelssohn to reflect the 
 mood awakened in him by a visit to the 
 Hebrides, more particularly to Fingal's 
 Cave (wherefore the overture is called 
 the " Fingal's Cave " overture in Ger- 
 many) " Sakuntala " invites to a study 
 of Kalidasa's drama of that name as 
 the repository of the sentiments which 
 Goldmark undertook to express in his 
 music. 
 
 A form which is variously employed, 
 for solo instruments, small combina- 
 tions, and full orchestra (though seldom 
 with the complete modern apparatus), 
 is the Serenade. Historically, it is a 
 contemporary of the old suites and 
 the first symphonies, and like them it 
 consists of a group of short pieces, so 
 arranged as to form an agreeable con- 
 
 149 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 ti-e iii'.t:. 
 
 Serenades.
 
 150 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Ser- 
 enade in 
 Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Out-of- 
 doors 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 trast with each other, and yet convey a 
 sense of organic unity. The character 
 of the various parts and their order 
 grew out of the purpose for which the 
 serenade was originated, which was 
 that indicated by the name. In the last 
 century, and earlier, it was no uncom- 
 mon thing for a lover to bring the 
 tribute of a musical performance to his 
 mistress, and it was not always a 
 " woful ballad " sung to her eyebrow. 
 Frequently musicians were hired, and 
 the tribute took the form of a nocturnal 
 concert. In Shakespeare's " Two Gen- 
 tlemen of Verona," Proteus, prompting 
 Thurio what to do to win Silvia's love, 
 says: 
 
 " Visit by night your lady's chamber window 
 With some sweet concert : to their instruments 
 Tune a deploring dump ; the night's dread silence 
 Will well become such sweet complaining griev- 
 ance." 
 
 It was for such purposes that the 
 serenade was invented as an instru- 
 mental form. Since they were to play 
 out of doors, Sir Thurio s musicians 
 would have used wind instruments in-
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 stead of viols, and the oldest serenades 
 are composed for oboes and bassoons. 
 Clarinets and horns were subsequently 
 added, and for such bands Mozart wrote 
 serenades, some of which so closely 
 approach the symphony that they have 
 been published as symphonies. A ser- 
 enade in the olden time opened very 
 properly with a march, to the strains of 
 which we may imagine the musicians 
 approaching the lady's chamber win- 
 dow. Then came a minuet to prepare 
 her ear for the " deploring dump " 
 which followed, the " dump " of Shake- 
 speare's day, like the " dumka" of ours 
 (with which I am tempted to associate 
 it etymologically), being a mournful 
 piece of music most happily character- 
 ized by the poet as a " sweet complain- 
 ing grievance." Then followed another 
 piece in merry tempo and rhythm, then 
 a second adagio, and the entertainment 
 ended with an allegro, generally in march 
 rhythm, to which we fancy the musicians 
 departing. The order is exemplified in 
 Beethoven's serenade for violin, viola, 
 and violoncello, op. 8, which runs thus : 
 March; Adagio ; Minuet ; Adagio with 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Old forms. 
 
 The 
 "Dump." 
 
 Beethoven's 
 Serenade, 
 op. 8.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 Orchtitrml 
 
 Suite. 
 
 Ballet 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 episodic Scherzo ; Polacca; Andante (va- 
 riations), the opening march repeated. 
 
 The Suite has come back into favor 
 as an orchestral piece, but the term no 
 longer has the fixed significance which 
 once it had. It is now applied to al- 
 most any group of short pieces, pleas- 
 antly contrasted in rhythm, tempo, and 
 mood, each complete in itself yet dis- 
 closing an aesthetic relationship with its 
 fellows. Sometimes old dance forms 
 are used, and sometimes new, such as 
 the polonaise and the waltz. The bal- 
 let music, which fills so welcome a place 
 in popular programmes, may be looked 
 upon as such a suite, and the rhythm 
 of the music and the orchestral coloring 
 in them are frequently those peculiar to 
 the dances of the countries in which the 
 story of the opera or drama for which 
 the music was written plays. The bal- 
 lets therefore afford an excellent oppor- 
 tunity for the study of local color. Thus 
 the ballet music from Massenet's " Cid " 
 is Spanish, from Rubinstein's " Fera- 
 mors " Oriental, from " Aida " Egyptian 
 Oriental rhythms and colorings being 
 those most easily copied by composers.
 
 At an Orchestral Concert 
 
 The other operatic excerpts common 
 to concerts of both classes are either be- 
 tween-acts music, fantasias on operatic 
 airs, or, in the case of Wagner's contribu- 
 tions, portions of his dramas which are so 
 predominantly instrumental that it has 
 been found feasible to incorporate the 
 vocal part with the orchestral. In ballet 
 music from the operas of the last century, 
 some of which has been preserved to the 
 modern concert-room, local color must 
 not be sought. Gluck's Greeks, like 
 Shakespeare's, danced to the rhythms of 
 the seventeenth century. Vestris, whom 
 the people of his time called " The god of 
 the dance," once complained to Gluck 
 that his " Iphignie en Aulide " did not 
 end with a chaconne, as was the rule. 
 " A chaconne ! " cried Gluck ; " when 
 did the Greeks ever dance a chaconne ? " 
 " Didn't they? Didn't they ? " answered 
 Vestris ; " so much the worse for the 
 Greeks. " There ensued a quarrel. 
 Gluck became incensed, withdrew the 
 opera which was about to be produced, 
 and would have left Paris had not Marie 
 Antoinette come to the rescue. But 
 Vestris got his chaconne. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Operatic 
 excerpts. 
 
 Gluck and 
 Vestris.
 
 154 
 
 Mr. Pade- 
 rewski s 
 concerts. 
 
 VI 
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 NO clearer illustration of the magi- 
 cal power which lies in music, 
 no more convincing proof of the puis- 
 sant fascination which a musical artist 
 can exert, no greater demonstration of 
 the capabilities of an instrument of 
 music can be imagined than was af- 
 forded by the pianoforte recitals which 
 Mr. Paderewski gave in the United 
 States during the season of 1895-96. 
 More than threescore times in the 
 course of five months, in the principal 
 cities of this country, did this wonder- 
 ful man seat himself in the presence of 
 audiences, whose numbers ran into the 
 thousands, and were limited only by 
 the seating capacity of the rooms in 
 which they gathered, and hold them 
 spellbound from two to three hours by
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 the eloquence of his playing. Each 
 time the people came in a gladsome 
 frame of mind, stimulated by the recol- 
 lection of previous delights or eager 
 expectation. Each time they sat listen- 
 ing to the music as if it were an evangel 
 on which hung everlasting things. 
 Each time there was the same growth 
 in enthusiasm which began in deco- 
 rous applause and ended in cheers and 
 shouts as the artist came back after the 
 performance of a herculean task, and 
 added piece after piece to a programme 
 which had been laid down on generous 
 lines from the beginning. The careless 
 saw the spectacle with simple amaze- 
 ment, but for the judicious it had a 
 wondrous interest. 
 
 I am not now concerned with Mr. 
 Paderewski beyond invoking his aid in 
 bringing into court a form of entertain- 
 ment which, in his hands, has proved to 
 be more attractive to the multitude than 
 symphony, oratorio, and even opera. 
 What a world of speculation and curi- 
 ous inquiry does such a recital invite 
 one into, beginning with the instrument 
 which was the medium of communica- 
 
 '55 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Pianoforte 
 recitals.
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The piano- 
 forte s un- 
 derlying 
 principles. 
 
 Their 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion between the artist and his hearers ! 
 To follow the progressive development 
 of the mechanical principles underlying 
 the pianoforte, one would be obliged to 
 begin beyond the veil which separates 
 history from tradition, for the first of 
 them finds its earliest exemplification 
 in the bow twanged by the primitive 
 savage. Since a recognition of these 
 principles may help to an understand- 
 ing of the art of pianoforte playing, I 
 enumerate them now. They are : 
 
 1. A stretched string as a medium of 
 tone production. 
 
 2. A key-board as an agency for ma- 
 nipulating the strings. 
 
 3. A blow as the means of exciting 
 the strings to vibratory action, by which 
 the tone is produced. 
 
 Many interesting glimpses of the 
 human mind and heart might we have 
 in the course of the promenade through 
 the ancient, mediaeval, and modern 
 worlds which would be necessary to 
 disclose the origin and growth of these 
 three principles, but these we must fore- 
 go, since we are to study the music of 
 the instrument, not its history. Let the
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 knowledge suffice that the fundamental 
 principle of the pianoforte is as old as 
 music itself, and that scientific learning, 
 inventive ingenuity, and mechanical 
 skill, tributary always to the genius of 
 the art, have worked together for cen- 
 turies to apply this principle, until the 
 instrument which embodies it in its 
 highest potency is become a veritable 
 microcosm of music. It is the visible 
 sign of culture in every gentle house- 
 hold ; the indispensable companion of 
 the composer and teacher; the in- 
 termediary between all the various 
 branches of music. Into the study of the 
 orchestral conductor it brings a trans- 
 lation of all the multitudinous voices 
 of the band ; to the choir-master it rep- 
 resents the chorus of singers in the 
 church-loft or on the concert-platform ; 
 with its aid the opera director fills his 
 imagination with the people, passions, 
 and pageantry of the lyric drama long 
 before the singers have received their 
 parts, or the costumer, stage manager, 
 and scene - painter have begun their 
 work. It is the only medium through 
 which the musician in his study can 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Signifi- 
 cance of the 
 pianoforte.
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Defects 
 of the 
 pianoforte. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 commune with the whole world of music 
 and all its heroes ; and though it may 
 fail to inspire somewhat of that sym- 
 pathetic nearness which one feels tow- 
 ard the violin as it nestles under the 
 chin and throbs synchronously with the 
 player's emotions, or those wind instru- 
 ments into which the player breathes 
 his own breath as the breath of life, it 
 surpasses all its rivals, save the organ, 
 in its capacity for publishing the grand 
 harmonies of the masters, for uttering 
 their " sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs 
 and harping symphonies." 
 
 This is one side of the picture and 
 serves to show why the pianoforte is the 
 most universal, useful, and necessary of 
 all musical instruments. The other side 
 shows its deficiencies, which must also 
 be known if one is to appreciate right- 
 ly the many things he is called upon 
 to note while listening intelligently to 
 pianoforte music. Despite all the skill, 
 learning, and ingenuity which have been 
 spent on its perfection, the pianoforte 
 can be made only feebly to approximate 
 that sustained style of musical utterance 
 which is the soul of melody, and finds
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 its loftiest exemplification in singing. 
 To give out a melody perfectly, presup- 
 poses the capacity to sustain tones with- 
 out loss in power or quality, to bind 
 them together at will, and sometimes to 
 intensify their dynamic or expressive 
 force while they sound. The tone of 
 the pianoforte, being produced by a 
 blow, begins to die the moment it is cre- 
 ated. The history of the instrument's 
 mechanism, and also of its technical 
 manipulation, is the history of an effort 
 to reduce this shortcoming to a mini- 
 mum. It has always conditioned the 
 character of the music composed for 
 the instrument, and if we were not in 
 danger of being led into too wide an 
 excursion, it would be profitable to 
 trace the parallelism which is disclosed 
 by the mechanical evolution of the in- 
 strument, and the technical and spirit- 
 ual evolution of the music composed 
 for it. A few points will be touched 
 upon presently, when the intellectual 
 activity invited by a recital is brought 
 under consideration. 
 
 It is to be noted, further, that by a 
 beautiful application of the doctrine of 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Lack of
 
 i6o 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The 
 
 percussive 
 
 element. 
 
 Melody 
 with drum- 
 teats. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 compensations, the factor which limits 
 the capacity of the pianoforte as a mel- 
 ody instrument endows it with a merit 
 which no other instrument has in the 
 same degree, except the instruments of 
 percussion, which, despite their useful- 
 ness, stand on the border line between 
 savage and civilized music. It is from 
 its relationship to the drum that the 
 pianoforte derives a peculiarity quite 
 unique in the melodic and harmonic 
 family. Rhythm is, after all, the start- 
 ing-point of music. More than melody, 
 more than harmony, it stirs the blood 
 of the savage, and since the most vital 
 forces within man are those which date 
 back to his primitive state, so the sense 
 of rhythm is the most universal of the 
 musical senses among even the most 
 cultured of peoples to-day. By them- 
 selves the drums, triangles, and cym- 
 bals of an orchestra represent music but 
 one remove from noise ; but everybody 
 knows how marvellously they can be 
 utilized to glorify a climax. Now, in 
 a very refined degree, every melody 
 on the pianoforte, be it played as deli- 
 cately as it may, is a melody with drum-
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 beats. Manufacturers have done much 
 toward eliminating the thump of the 
 hammers against the strings, and famil- 
 iarity with the tone of the instrument 
 has closed our ears against it to a great 
 extent as something intrusive, but the 
 blow which excites the string to vibra- 
 tion, and thus generates sound, is yet a 
 vital factor in determining the character 
 of pianoforte music. The recurrent 
 pulsations, now energetic, incisive, reso- 
 lute, now gentle and caressing, infuse 
 life into the melody, and by emphasizing 
 its rhythmical structure (without un- 
 duly exaggerating it), present the form 
 of the melody in much sharper outline 
 than is possible on any other instru- 
 ment, and much more than one would 
 expect in view of the evanescent char- 
 acter of the pianoforte's tone. It is this 
 quality, combined with the mechanism 
 which places all the gradations of tone, 
 from loudest to softest, at the easy and 
 instantaneous command of the player, 
 which, I fancy, makes the pianoforte, 
 in an astonishing degree, a substitute 
 for all the other instruments. Each in- 
 strument in the orchestra has an idiom, 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Rhythmi- 
 cal accent- 
 uation. 
 
 A univer- 
 sal substir 
 
 tute.
 
 l62 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The in- 
 strument's 
 mechanism. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 which sounds incomprehensible when 
 uttered by some other of its fellows, but 
 they can all be translated, with more or 
 less success, into the language of the 
 pianoforte not the quality of the tone, 
 though even that can be suggested, but 
 the character of the phrase. The pi- 
 anoforte can sentimentalize like the 
 flute, make a martial proclamation like 
 the trumpet, intone a prayer like the 
 churchly trombone. 
 
 In the intricacy of its mechanism the 
 pianoforte stands next to the organ. 
 The farther removed from direct utter- 
 ance we are the more difficult is it to 
 speak the true language of music. The 
 violin player and the singer, and in a 
 less degree the performers upon some 
 of the wind instruments, are obliged to 
 form the musical tone which, in the 
 case of the pianist, is latent in the instru- 
 ment, ready to present itself in two of 
 its attributes in answer to a simple 
 pressure upon the key. The most un- 
 musical person in the world can learn to 
 produce a series of tones from a piano- 
 forte which shall be as exact in pitch 
 and as varied in dynamic force as can
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 Mr. Paderewski. He cannot combine 
 them so ingeniously nor imbue them 
 with feeling, but in the simple matter of 
 producing the tone with the attributes 
 mentioned, he is on a level with the 
 greatest virtuoso. Very different is the 
 case of the musician who must exercise 
 a distinctly musical gift in the simple 
 evocation of the materials of music, like 
 the violinist and singer, who both form 
 and produce the tone. For them com- 
 pensation flows from the circumstance 
 that the tone thus formed and produced 
 is naturally instinct with emotional life 
 in a degree that the pianoforte tone 
 knows nothing of. 
 
 In one respect, it may be said that 
 the mechanics of pianoforte playing 
 represent a low plane of artistic ac- 
 tivity, a fact which ought always to be 
 remembered whenever the temptation is 
 felt greatly to exalt the technique of the 
 art; but it must also be borne in mind 
 that the mechanical nature of simple 
 tone production in pianoforte playing 
 raises the value of the emotional qual- 
 ity which, nevertheless, stands at the 
 command of the player. The emotional 
 
 163 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Tone for- 
 mation and 
 production. 
 
 Technical 
 manipula- 
 tion.
 
 164 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Touch and 
 emotional- 
 ity. 
 
 The tech- 
 nical cult. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 potency of the tone must come from 
 the manner in which the blow is given 
 to the string. Recognition of this fact 
 has stimulated reflection, and this in 
 turn has discovered methods by which 
 temperament and emotionality may be 
 made to express themselves as freely, 
 convincingly, and spontaneously in 
 pianoforte as in violin playing. If 
 this were not so it would be impossible 
 to explain the difference in the charm 
 exerted by different virtuosi, for, it has 
 frequently happened that the best- 
 equipped mechanician and the most in- 
 tellectual player has been judged in- 
 ferior as an artist to another whose gifts 
 were of the soul rather than of the brains 
 and fingers. 
 
 The feats accomplished by a piano- 
 forte virtuoso in the mechanical depart- 
 ment are of so extraordinary a nature 
 that there need be small wonder at the 
 wide prevalence of a distinctly techni- 
 cal cult. All who know the real nature 
 and mission of music must condemn 
 such a cult. It is a sign of a want of 
 true appreciation to admire technique 
 for technique's sake. It is a mistaking
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 of the outward shell for the kernel, a 
 means for the end. There are still many 
 players who aim to secure this admira- 
 tion, either because they are deficient in 
 real musical feeling, or because they 
 believe themselves surer of winning ap- 
 plause by thus appealing to the lowest 
 form of appreciation. In the early part 
 of the century they would have been 
 handicapped by the instrument which 
 lent itself to delicacy, clearness, and 
 gracefulness of expression, but had 
 little power. Now the pianoforte has 
 become a thing of rigid steel, enduring 
 tons of strain from its strings, and hav- 
 ing a voice like the roar of many waters; 
 to keep pace with it players have be- 
 come athletes with 
 
 " Thews of Anakim 
 And pulses of a Titan's heart." 
 
 They care no more for the " mur- 
 murs made to bless," unless it be occa- 
 sionally for the sake of contrast, but 
 seek to astound, amaze, bewilder, and 
 confound with feats of skill and endur- 
 ance. That with their devotion to the 
 purely mechanical side of the art they 
 
 165 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 A low form 
 of art.
 
 i66 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Technical 
 skill a 
 matter of 
 course. 
 
 The plan of 
 study in 
 this chap- 
 ter. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 are threatening to destroy pianoforte 
 playing gives them no pause whatever. 
 The era which they illustrate and adorn 
 is the technical era which was, is, and 
 ever shall be, the era of decay in 
 artistic production. For the judicious 
 technique alone, be it never so marvel- 
 lous, cannot serve to-day. Its posses- 
 sion is accepted as a condition precedent 
 in the case of everyone who ventures to 
 appear upon the concert-platform. He 
 must be a wonder, indeed, who can dis- 
 turb our critical equilibrium by mere 
 digital feats. We want strength and 
 velocity of finger to be coupled with 
 strength, velocity, and penetration of 
 thought. We want no halting or lisp- 
 ing in the proclamation of what the 
 composer has said, but we want the 
 contents of his thought, not the hollow 
 shell, no matter how distinctly its out- 
 lines be drawn. 
 
 The factors which present themselves 
 for consideration at a pianoforte re- 
 cital mechanical, intellectual, and emo- 
 tional can be most intelligently and 
 profitably studied along with the devel- 
 opment of the instrument and its music.
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 All branches of the study are invited by 
 the typical recital programme. The 
 essentially romantic trend of Mr. Pad- 
 erewski's nature makes his excursions 
 into the classical field few and short ; 
 and it is only when a pianist undertakes 
 to emulate Rubinstein in his historical 
 recitals that the entire pre-Beethoven 
 vista is opened up. It will suffice 
 for the purposes of this discussion to 
 imagine a programme containing pieces 
 by Bach, D. Scarlatti, Handel, and Mo- 
 zart in one group ; a sonata by Beetho- 
 ven ; some of the shorter pieces of 
 Schumann and Chopin, and one of the 
 transcriptions or rhapsodies of Liszt. 
 
 Such a scheme falls naturally into four 
 divisions, plainly differentiated from 
 each other in respect of the style of com- 
 position and the manner of performance, 
 both determined by the nature of the 
 instrument employed and the status of 
 the musical idea. Simply for the sake 
 of convenience let the period repre- 
 sented by the first group be called the 
 classic ; the second the classic-roman- 
 tic ; the third the romantic, and the last 
 the bravura. I beg the reader, how- 
 
 167 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 A typical 
 scheme of 
 pieces. 
 
 Periods in 
 pianoforte 
 music.
 
 i68 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Predeces- 
 sors of the 
 pia.no- 
 /rte. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ever, not to extend these designations 
 beyond the boundaries of the present 
 study ; they have been chosen arbitra- 
 rily, and confusion might result if the 
 attempt were made to apply them to 
 any particular concert scheme. I have 
 chosen the composers because of their 
 broadly representative capacity. And 
 they must stand for a numerous epigonoi 
 whose names make up our concert lists : 
 say, Couperin, Rameau, and Haydn 
 in the first group; Schubert in the sec- 
 ond ; Mendelssohn and Rubinstein in 
 the third. It would not be respectful 
 to the memory of Liszt were I to give 
 him the associates with whom in my 
 opinion he stands ; that matter may be 
 held in abeyance. 
 
 The instruments for which the first 
 group of writers down to Haydn and 
 Mozart wrote, were the immediate pre- 
 cursors of the pianoforte the clavi- 
 chord, spinet, or virginal, and harpsi- 
 chord. The last was the concert 
 instrument, and stood in the same rela- 
 tionship to the others that the grand 
 pianoforte of to-day stands to the up- 
 right and square. The clavichord was
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 generally the medium for the compos- 
 er's private communings with his muse, 
 because of its superiority over its fel- 
 lows in expressive power; but it gave 
 forth only a tiny tinkle and was inca- 
 pable of stirring effects beyond those 
 which sprang from pure emotionality. 
 The tone was produced by a blow 
 against the string, delivered by a bit of 
 brass set in the farther end of the key. 
 The action was that of a direct lever, 
 and the bit of brass, which was called 
 the tangent, also acted as a bridge and 
 measured off the segment of string 
 whose vibration produced the desired 
 tone. It was therefore necessary to 
 keep the key pressed down so long as it 
 was desired that the tone should sound, 
 a fact which must be kept in mind if 
 one would understand the shortcomings 
 as well as the advantages of the instru- 
 ment compared with the spinet or harp- 
 sichord. It also furnishes one explana- 
 tion of the greater lyricism of Bach's 
 music compared with that of his con- 
 temporaries. By gently rocking the 
 hand while the key was down, a tremu- 
 lous motion could be communicated to 
 
 169 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The Clavi- 
 chord. 
 
 ' Bebung. "
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Quilled in- 
 struments. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the string, which not only prolonged the 
 tone appreciably but gave it an expres- 
 sive effect somewhat analogous to the 
 vibrato of a violinist. The Germans 
 called this effect Bebung, the French 
 Balancement, and it was indicated by a 
 row of dots under a short slur written 
 over the note. It is to the special fond- 
 ness which Bach felt for the clavichord 
 that we owe, to a great extent, the can- 
 tabile style of his music, its many- 
 voicedness and its high emotionality. 
 
 The spinet, virginal, and harpsichord 
 were quilled instruments, the tone of 
 which was produced by snapping the 
 strings by means of plectra made of 
 quill, or some other flexible substance, 
 set in the upper end of a bit of wood 
 called the jack, which rested on the far- 
 ther end of the key and moved through 
 a slot in the sounding-board. When 
 the key was pressed down, the jack 
 moved upward past the string which 
 was caught and twanged by the plec- 
 trum. The blow of the clavichord tan- 
 gent could be graduated like that of the 
 pianoforte hammer, but the quills of the 
 other instruments always plucked the
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 strings with the same force, so that me- 
 chanical devices, such as a swell-box, 
 similar in principle to that of the or- 
 gan, coupling in octaves, doubling the 
 strings, etc., had to be resorted to for 
 variety of dynamic effects. The char- 
 acter of tone thus produced determined 
 the character of the music composed for 
 these instruments to a great extent. 
 The brevity of the sound made sus- 
 tained melodies ineffective, and encour- 
 aged the use of a great variety of em- 
 bellishments and the spreading out of 
 harmonies in the form of arpeggios. 
 It is obvious enough that Bach, being 
 one of those monumental geniuses that 
 cast their prescient vision far into the 
 future, refused to be bound by such me- 
 chanical limitations. Though he wrote 
 Clavier, he thought organ, which was his 
 true interpretative medium, and so it 
 happens that the greatest sonority and 
 the broadest style that have been de- 
 veloped in the pianoforte do not ex- 
 haust the contents of such a composi- 
 tion as the " Chromatic Fantasia and 
 Fugue." 
 
 The earliest music written for these 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Tone of the 
 karfst- 
 chord and 
 spinet. 
 
 Back's 
 "Music ef 
 thefut-
 
 172 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Scarlattfs 
 sonatas. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 instruments music which does not en- 
 ter into this study was but one remove 
 from vocal music. It came through 
 compositions written for the organ. 
 Of Scarlatti's music the pieces most 
 familiar are a Capriccio and Pastorale 
 which Tausig rewrote for the piano- 
 forte. They were called sonatas by 
 their composer, but are not sonatas 
 in the modern sense. Sonata means 
 "sound-piece," and when the term came 
 into music it signified only that the 
 composition to which it was applied 
 was written for instruments instead of 
 voices. Scarlatti did a great deal to 
 develop the technique of the harpsi- 
 chord and the style of composing for it. 
 His sonatas consist each of a single 
 movement only, but in their structure 
 they foreshadow the modern sonata 
 form in having two contrasted themes, 
 which are presented in a fixed key-rela- 
 tionship. They are frequently full of 
 grace and animation, but are as purely 
 objective, formal, and soulless in their 
 content as the other instrumental com- 
 positions of the epoch to which they 
 belong.
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 The most significant of the composi- 
 tions of this period are the Suites, which 
 because they make up so large a per- 
 centage of Clavier literature (using the 
 term to cover the pianoforte and its pred- 
 ecessors), and because they pointed the 
 way to the distinguishing form of the 
 subsequent period, the sonata, are deserv- 
 ing of more extended consideration. The 
 suite is a set of pieces in the same key, 
 but contrasted in character, based upon 
 certain admired dance-forms. Originally 
 it was a set of dances and nothing more, 
 but in the hands of the composers the 
 dances underwent many modifications, 
 some of them to the obvious detriment 
 of their national or other distinguish- 
 ing characteristics. The suite came 
 into fashion about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century and was also called 
 Sonata da Camera and Balletto in Italy, 
 and, later, Partita in France. In its fun- 
 damental form it embraced four move- 
 ments: I. Allemande. II. Courante. 
 III. Sarabande. IV. Gigue. To these 
 four were sometimes added other dances 
 the Gavotte, Passepied, Branle, Min- 
 uet, Bourr6e, etc. but the rule was that 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The suite. 
 
 Its history 
 andform.
 
 174 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The bond 
 between the 
 movements. 
 
 The 
 
 Allemandt. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 they should be introduced between the 
 Sarabande and the Gigue. Sometimes 
 also the set was introduced by a Prelude 
 or an Overture. Identity of key was 
 the only external tie between the vari- 
 ous members of the suite, but the com- 
 posers sought to establish an artistic 
 unity by elaborating the sentiments for 
 which the dance-forms seemed to offer 
 a vehicle, and presenting them in agree- 
 able contrast, besides enriching the 
 primitive structure with new material. 
 The suites of Bach and Handel are the 
 high-water mark in this style of com- 
 position, but it would be difficult to 
 find the original characteristics of the 
 dances in their settings. It must suffice 
 us briefly to indicate the characteristics 
 of the principal forms. 
 
 The Allemande, as its name indicates, 
 was a dance of supposedly German 
 origin. For that reason the German 
 composers, when it came to them from 
 France, where the suite had its origin, 
 treated it with great partiality. It is 
 in moderate tempo, common time, and 
 made up of two periods of eight meas- 
 ures, both of which are repeated. It
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 1 75 
 
 begins with an upbeat, and its metre, 
 to use the terms of prosody, is iambic. 
 The following specimen from Mer- 
 senne's " Harmonic Universelle," 1636, 
 well displays its characteristics : 
 
 i/&(b X? if r r ~^~\ r " ' r r j r i 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Iambics in 
 music and 
 poetry. 
 
 =1 - r* 
 
 i ' ' i i i i i i 1 ' ' i i 1 i i i 
 
 P r ^ r~i M rj : n : r^pr ^ r rn 
 
 | 1 1 1 p 1 jHf-i M 1 [= 
 
 j._r- r ^-f-p^^p-f^^ 
 
 \ \ \ nT f ' * r j tip f g gJcrHI 
 
 ! i M p - 1 i 77 T 7~ F ^fl 
 Robert Burns's familiar iambics, 
 
 " Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Boon, 
 How can ye bloom sae fair ? 
 How can ye chant, ye little birds, 
 And I sae fu' o' care ! " 
 
 might serve to keep the rhythmical 
 characteristics of the Allemande in 
 mind were it not for the arbitrary 
 changes made by the composers already 
 hinted at. As it is, we frequently find 
 the stately movement of the old dance
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The 
 Courante, 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 broken up into elaborate, but always 
 quietly flowing, ornamentation, as indi- 
 cated in the following excerpt from the 
 third of Bach's English suites: 
 
 ,~, IJ 
 
 W-^-j 
 
 * u=*. 
 
 etc. 
 
 The Courante, or Corrente (" Teach 
 lavoltas high and swift corantos," says 
 Shakespeare), is a French dance which 
 was extremely popular in the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries 
 a polite dance, like the minuet. It 
 was in triple time, and its movement 
 was bright and brisk, a merry energy 
 being imparted to the measure by the 
 prevailing figure, a dotted quarter-note, 
 an eighth, and a quarter in a measure, 
 as illustrated in the following excerpt 
 also from Mersenne : 

 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 The suite composers varied the move- 
 ment greatly, however, and the Italian 
 Corrente consists chiefly of rapid run- 
 ning passages. 
 
 The Sarabande was also in triple time, 
 but its movement was slow and stately. 
 In Spain, whence it was derived, it was 
 sung to the accompaniment of casta- 
 nets, a fact which in itself suffices to in- 
 dicate that it was originally of a lively 
 character, and took on its solemnity in 
 the hands of the later composers. Han- 
 del found the Sarabande a peculiarly 
 admirable vehicle for his inspirations, 
 and one of the finest examples extant 
 figures in the triumphal music of his 
 "Almira," composed in 1704: 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 ** "- 
 
 / 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 j. 
 
 177 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Sarabande. 
 
 A Sara- 
 
 bande 
 
 by Handel.
 
 J7 8 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ...... 4, .j- 
 
 shn 
 
 ij D j--j ] 
 
 & <=*-* 3- 
 
 i r~ r~ 
 
 j 
 
 ^ r- r . 
 
 y=fe 
 
 I / 
 
 1 dtm. 
 
 D. O. 
 
 1 
 
 3E 
 
 Seven years after the production of 
 " Almira," Handel recurred to this 
 beautiful instrumental piece, and out of 
 it constructed the exquisite lament be- 
 ginning " Lascia ch'io pianga " in his 
 opera " Rinaldo." 
 
 Great Britain's contribution to the 
 Suite was the final Gigue, which is our 
 jolly and familiar friend the jig, and 
 in all probability is Keltic in origin. It 
 is, as everybody knows, a rollicking 
 measure in 6-8, 12-8, or 4-4 time, with 
 twelve triplet quavers in a measure, 
 and needs no description. It remained 
 a favorite with composers until far into 
 the eighteenth century. Shakespeare 
 proclaims its exuberant lustiness when
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 he makes Sir Toby Belch protest that 
 had he Sir Andrew's gifts his " very 
 walk should be a jig." Of the other 
 dances incorporated into the suite, two 
 are deserving of special mention be- 
 cause of their influence on the music of 
 to-day the Minuet, which is the par- 
 ent of the symphonic scherzo, and the 
 Gavotte, whose fascinating movement is 
 frequently heard in latter-day operet- 
 tas. The Minuet is a French dance, 
 and came from Poitou. Louis XIV. 
 danced it to Lully's music for the first 
 time at Versailles in 1653, and it soon 
 became the most popular of court and 
 society dances, holding its own down 
 to the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. It was long called the Queen of 
 Dances, and there is no one who has 
 grieved to see the departure of gal- 
 lantry and grace from our ball-rooms 
 but will wish to see Her Gracious Maj- 
 esty restored to her throne. The rnu- 
 sic of the minuet is in 3-4 time, and of 
 stately movement. The Gavotte is a 
 lively dance-measure in common time, 
 beginning, as a rule, on the third beat. 
 Its origin has been traced to the moun- 
 
 179 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The 
 
 Minuet. 
 
 The 
 
 Gavotte.
 
 i8o 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Technique 
 of the 
 Clavier 
 players. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tain people of the Dauphine" called 
 Gavots whence its name. 
 
 The transference of this music to the 
 modern pianoforte has effected a vast 
 change in the manner of its perform- 
 ance. In the period under considera- 
 tion emotionality, which is considered 
 the loftiest attribute of pianoforte 
 playing to-day, was lacking, except 
 in the case of such masters of the 
 clavichord as the great Bach and his son, 
 Carl Philipp Emanuel, who inherited 
 his father's preference for that instru- 
 ment over the harpsichord and piano- 
 forte. Tastefulness in the giving out 
 of the melody, distinctness of enuncia- 
 tion, correctness of phrasing, nimble- 
 ness and lightness of finger, summed up 
 practically all that there was in virtuoso- 
 ship. Intellectuality and digital skill 
 were the essential factors. Beauty of 
 tone through which feeling and tem- 
 perament speak now was the product 
 of the maker of the instrument, except 
 again in the case of the clavichord, in 
 which it may have been largely the 
 creation of the player. It is, therefore, 
 not surprising that the first revolution
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 in technique of which we hear was ac- 
 complished by Bach, who, the better to 
 bring out the characteristics of his poly- 
 phonic style, made use of the thumb, 
 till then considered almost a useless 
 member of the hand in playing, and 
 bent his fingers, so that their move- 
 ments might be more unconstrained. 
 
 Of the varieties of touch, which play 
 such a role in pianoforte pedagogics 
 to-day, nothing was known. Only on 
 the clavichord was a blow delivered 
 directly against the string, and, as has 
 already been said, only on that instru- 
 ment was the dynamic shading regu- 
 lated by the touch. Practically, the 
 same touch was used on the organ and 
 the stringed instruments with key-board. 
 When we find written praise of the old 
 players it always goes to the fluency 
 and lightness of their fingering. Han- 
 del was greatly esteemed as a harpsi- 
 chord player, and seems to have in- 
 vented a position of the hand like 
 Bach's, or to have copied it from that 
 master. Forkel tells us the movement 
 of Bach's fingers was so slight as to be 
 scarcely noticeable ; the position of his 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Change in 
 technique. 
 
 BacKs 
 touch.
 
 l82 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Handel's 
 playing. 
 
 Scarlatti's 
 style. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 hands remained unchanged throughout, 
 and the rest of his body motionless. 
 Speaking of Handel's harpsichord play- 
 ing, Burney says that his fingers 
 "seemed to grow to the keys. They 
 were so curved and compact when he 
 played that no motion, and scarcely the 
 fingers themselves, could be discovered." 
 Scarlatti's significance lies chiefly in an 
 extension of the technique of his time 
 so as to give greater individuality to the 
 instrument. He indulged freely in brill- 
 iant passages and figures which some- 
 times call for a crossing of the hands, also 
 in leaps of over an octave, repetition 
 of a note by different fingers, broken 
 chords in contrary motion, and other 
 devices which prefigure modern piano- 
 forte music. 
 
 That Scarlatti also pointed the way 
 to the modern sonata, I have already 
 said. The history of the sonata, 
 as the term is now understood, ends 
 with Beethoven. Many sonatas have 
 been written since the last one of that 
 great master, but not a word has been 
 added to his proclamation. He stands, 
 therefore, as a perfect exemplar of the
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 second period in the scheme which we 
 have adopted for the study of piano- 
 forte music and playing. In a general 
 way a sonata may be described as a 
 composition of four movements, con- 
 trasted in mood, tempo, sentiment, and 
 character, but connected by that spirit- 
 ual bond of which mention was made in 
 our study of the symphony. In short, 
 a sonata is a symphony for a solo instru- 
 ment. 
 
 When it came into being it was 
 little else than a convenient formula 
 for the expression of musical beauty. 
 Haydn, who perfected it on its formal 
 side, left it that and nothing more. 
 Mozart poured the vessel full of beauty, 
 but Beethoven breathed the breath of a 
 new life into it. An old writer tells us 
 of Haydn that he was wont to say that 
 the whole art of composing consisted in 
 taking up a subject and pursuing it. 
 Having invented his theme, he would 
 begin by choosing the keys through 
 which he wished to make it pass. 
 
 " His exquisite feeling gave him a perfect knowl- 
 edge of the greater or less degree of effect which 
 
 183 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The sonata. 
 
 Haydn,
 
 184 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Beethoven. 
 
 Mozart's 
 manner of 
 playing. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 one chord produces in succeeding another, and he 
 afterward imagined a little romance which might 
 furnish him with sentiments and colors." 
 
 Beethoven began with the sentiment 
 and worked from it outwardly, modify- 
 ing the form when it became necessary 
 to do so, in order to obtain complete 
 and perfect utterance. He made spirit 
 rise superior to matter. This must be 
 borne in mind when comparing the 
 technique of the previous period with 
 that of which I have made Beethoven 
 the representative. In the little that 
 we are privileged to read of Mozart's 
 style of playing, we see only a reflex of 
 the players who went before him, sav- 
 ing as it was permeated by the warmth 
 which went out from his own genial 
 personality. His manipulation of the 
 keys had the quietness and smoothness 
 that were praised in Bach and Handel. 
 
 "Delicacy and taste," says Kullak, "with his 
 lifting of the entire technique to the spiritual aspi- 
 ration of the idea, elevate him as a virtuoso to a 
 height unanimously conceded by the public, by con- 
 noisseurs, and by Artists capable of judging. Cle- 
 menti declared that he had never heard any one
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 play so soulfully and charmfully as Mozart ; Dit- 
 tersdorf finds art and taste combined in his play- 
 ing ; Haydn asseverated with tears that Mozart's 
 playing he could never forget, for it touched the 
 heart. His staccato is said to have possessed a 
 peculiarly brilliant charm." 
 
 The period of C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, 
 and Mozart is that in which the piano- 
 forte gradually replaced its predeces- 
 sors, and the first real pianist was Mo- 
 zart's contemporary and rival, Muzio 
 dementi. His chief significance lies in 
 his influence as a technician, for he 
 opened the way to the modern style of 
 play with its greater sonority and ca- 
 pacity for expression. Under him pas- 
 sage playing became an entirely new 
 thing ; deftness, lightness, and fluency 
 were replaced by stupendous virtuoso- 
 ship, which rested, nevertheless, on a full 
 and solid tone. He is said to have been 
 able to trill in octaves with one hand. 
 He was necessary for the adequate in- 
 terpretation of Beethoven, whose music 
 is likely to be best understood by those 
 who know that he, too, was a superb 
 pianoforte player, fully up to the re- 
 quirements which his last sonatas make 
 
 '85 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 dementi. 
 
 Beethoven 
 as a 
 fianist.
 
 i86 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Beethoven's 
 technique. 
 
 Expression 
 supreme. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 upon technical skill as well as intellect- 
 ual and emotional gifts. 
 
 Czerny, who was a pupil of Beethoven, 
 has preserved a fuller account of that 
 great composer's art as a player than we 
 have of any of his predecessors. He de- 
 scribes his technique as tremendous, bet- 
 ter than that of any virtuoso of his day. 
 He was remarkably deft in connecting 
 the full chords, in which he delighted, 
 without the use of the pedal. His man- 
 ner at the instrument was composed and 
 quiet. He sat erect, without movement 
 of the upper body, and only when his 
 deafness compelled him to do so, in 
 order to hear his own music, did he con- 
 tract a habit of leaning forward. With 
 an evident appreciation of the necessi- 
 ties of old-time music he had a great 
 admiration for clean fingering, especi- 
 ally in fugue playing, and he objected to 
 the use of Cramer's studies in the in- 
 struction of his nephew by Czerny be- 
 cause they led to what he called a 
 " sticky " style of play, and failed to 
 bring out crisp staccatos and a light 
 touch. But it was upon expression that 
 he insisted most of all when he taught.
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 More than anyone else it was Beet- 
 hoven who brought music back to the 
 purpose which it had in its first rude 
 state, when it sprang unvolitionally 
 from the heart and lips of primitive 
 man. It became again a vehicle for 
 the feelings. As such it was accepted 
 by the romantic composers to whom 
 he belongs as father, seer, and prophet, 
 quite as intimately as he belongs to the 
 classicists by reason of his adherence to 
 form as an essential in music. To his 
 contemporaries he appears as an image- 
 breaker, but to the clearer vision of to- 
 day he stands an unshakable barrier to 
 lawless iconoclasm. Says Sir George 
 Grove, quoting Mr. Edward Dannreu- 
 ther, in the passages within the inverted 
 commas : 
 
 "That he was no wild radical altering for the 
 mere pleasure of alteration, or in the mere search 
 for originality, is evident from the length of time 
 during which he abstained from publishing, or even 
 composing works of pretension, and from the like- 
 ness which his early works possess to those of his 
 predecessors. He began naturally with the forms 
 which were in use in his days, and his alteration of 
 them grew very gradually with the necessities of 
 his expression. The form of the sonata is ' the 
 
 i8 7 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Music and 
 emotion. 
 
 Beethoven 
 ci Roman- 
 ticist.
 
 i88 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Schumann 
 
 and 
 
 Chopin. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 transparent veil through which Beethoven seems to 
 have looked at all music.' And the good points of 
 that form he retained to the last the ' triune sym- 
 metry of exposition, illustration, and repetition,' 
 which that admirable method allowed and enforced 
 but he permitted himself a much greater liberty 
 than his predecessors had done in the relationship 
 of the keys of the different movements, and parts of 
 movements, and in the proportion of the clauses 
 and sections with which he built them up. In other 
 words, he was less bound by the forms and musical 
 rules, and more swayed by the thought which he 
 had to express, and the directions which that 
 thought took in his mind." 
 
 It is scarcely to be wondered at that 
 when men like Schumann and Chopin 
 felt the full force of the new evangel 
 which Beethoven had preached, they 
 proceeded to carry the formal side of 
 poetic expression, its vehicle, into re- 
 gions unthought of before their time. 
 The few old forms had now to give way 
 to a large variety. In their work they 
 proceeded from points that were far 
 apart Schumann's was literary, Cho- 
 pin's political. In one respect the lists 
 of their pieces which appear most fre- 
 quently on recital programmes seem to 
 hark back to the suites of two centu-
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 ries ago they are sets of short composi- 
 tions grouped, either by the composer 
 (as is the case with Schumann) or by 
 the performer (as is the case with 
 Chopin in the hands of Mr. Paderew- 
 ski). Such fantastic musical miniatures 
 as Schumann's " Carnaval " and " Papil- 
 lons" are eminently characteristic of the 
 composer's intellectual and emotional 
 nature, which in his university days had 
 fallen under the spell of literary ro- 
 manticism. 
 
 While ostensibly studying jurispru- 
 dence at Heidelberg, Schumann de- 
 voted seven hours a day to the piano- 
 forte and several to Jean Paul. It was 
 this writer who moulded not only 
 Schumann's literary style in his early 
 years, but also gave the bent which his 
 creative activity in music took at the 
 outset. To say little, but vaguely hint 
 at much, was the rule which he adopted ; 
 to remain sententious in expression, but 
 give the freest and most daring flight 
 to his imagination, and spurn the con- 
 ventional limitations set by rule and cus- 
 tom, his ambition. Such fanciful and 
 symbolical titles as " Flower, Fruit, and 
 
 189 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Jean 
 
 Paul's 
 
 influence.
 
 190 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Schumann's 
 inspira- 
 tions. 
 
 Chopin's 
 music. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Thorn Pieces," "Titan," etc., which 
 Jean Paul adopted for his singular mixt- 
 ures of tale, rhapsody, philosophy, and 
 satire, were bound to find an imitator 
 in so ardent an apostle as young Schu- 
 mann, and, therefore, we have such com- 
 positions as " Papillons," " Carnaval," 
 " Kreisleriana," " Phantasiestiicke," and 
 the rest. Almost always, it may be 
 said, the pieces which make them up 
 were composed under the poetical and 
 emotional impulses derived from liter- 
 ature, then grouped and named. To 
 understand their poetic contents this 
 must be known. 
 
 Chopin's fancy, on the other hand, 
 found stimulation in the charm which, 
 for him, lay in the tone of the piano- 
 forte itself (to which he added a new 
 loveliness by his manner of writing), as 
 well as in the rhythms of the popular 
 dances of his country. These dances 
 he not only beautified as the old suite 
 writers beautified their forms, but he 
 utilized them as vessels which he filled 
 with feeling, not all of which need be 
 accepted as healthy, though much of 
 it is. As to his titles, " Preludes " is
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 purely an arbitrary designation for 
 compositions which are equally indefi- 
 nite in form and character; Niecks 
 compares them very aptly to a portfolio 
 full of drawings " in all stages of ad- 
 vancement finished and unfinished, 
 complete and incomplete compositions, 
 sketches and mere memoranda, all 
 mixed indiscriminately together." So, 
 too, they appeared to Schumann: 
 " They are sketches, commencements of 
 studies, or, if you will, ruins, single 
 eagle-wings, all strangely mixed to- 
 gether." Nevertheless some of them 
 are marvellous soul-pictures. 
 
 The " fitudes " are studies intended to 
 develop the technique of the pianoforte 
 in the line of the composer's discoveries, 
 his method of playing extended arpeg- 
 gios, contrasted rhythms, progressions 
 in thirds and octaves, etc., but still they 
 breathe poetry and sometimes passion. 
 Nocturne is an arbitrary, but expres- 
 sive, title for a short composition of a 
 dreamy, contemplative, or even elegiac, 
 character. In many of his nocturnes 
 Chopin is the adored sentimentalist of 
 boarding - school misses. There is 
 
 191 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Preludes. 
 
 Etudes. 
 
 Nocturnes.
 
 192 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The 
 
 Polonaise. 
 
 The 
 
 Mazurka. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 poppy in them and seductive poison for 
 which Niecks sensibly prescribes Bach 
 and Beethoven as antidotes. The term 
 ballad has been greatly abused in litera- 
 ture, and in music is intrinsically un- 
 meaning. Chopin's four Ballades have 
 one feature in common they are writ- 
 ten in triple time ; and they are among 
 his finest inspirations. 
 
 Chopin's dances are conventionalized, 
 and do not all speak the idiom of the peo- 
 ple who created their forms, but their 
 original characteristics ought to be 
 known. The Polonaise was the stately 
 dance of the Polish nobility, more a 
 march or procession than a dance, full 
 of gravity and courtliness, with an im- 
 posing and majestic rhythm in triple 
 time that tends to emphasize the second 
 beat of the measure, frequently synco- 
 pating it and accentuating the second 
 half of the first beat : 
 
 etc. 
 
 J. 
 
 National color comes out more clearly 
 in his Mazurkas. Unlike the Polonaise 
 this was the dance of the common peo-
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 pie, and even as conventionalized and 
 poetically refined by Chopin there is 
 still in the Mazurka some of the rude 
 vigor which lies in its propulsive 
 rhythm : 
 
 etc. 
 
 J 
 
 J 
 
 J|orJ3J. 
 
 The Krakowiak (French Cracovienne, 
 Mr. Paderewski has a fascinating speci- 
 men in his " Humoresques de Concert," 
 op. 14) is a popular dance indigenous to 
 the district of Cracow, whence its name. 
 Its rhythmical elements are these : 
 
 |JJJJ|JJJJ jand/ J J* 
 
 In the music of this period there is 
 noticeable a careful attention on the 
 part of the composers to the peculiari- 
 ties of the pianoforte. No music, save 
 perhaps that of Liszt, is so idiomatic. 
 Frequently in Beethoven the content 
 of the music seems too great for the 
 medium of expression ; we feel that the 
 thought would have had better expres- 
 sion had the master used the orchestra 
 instead of the pianoforte. We may 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The 
 Krakowiak. 
 
 Idiomatic 
 music.
 
 194 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Content 
 higher 
 than idiom. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 well pause a moment to observe the 
 development of the instrument and its 
 technique from then till now, but as 
 condemnation has already been pro- 
 nounced against excessive admiration 
 of technique for technique's sake, so now 
 I would first utter a warning against 
 our appreciation of the newer charm. 
 " Idiomatic of the pianoforte " is a good 
 enough phrase and a useful, indeed, but 
 there is danger that if abused it may 
 bring something like discredit to the 
 instrument. It would be a pity if music, 
 which contains the loftiest attributes of 
 artistic beauty, should fail of apprecia- 
 tion simply because it had been ob- 
 served that the pianoforte is not the 
 most convenient, appropriate, or effec- 
 tive vehicle for its publication a pity 
 for the pianoforte, for therein would 
 lie an exemplification of its imperfec- 
 tion. So, too, it would be a pity if the 
 opinion should gain ground that music 
 which had been clearly designed to 
 meet the nature of the instrument was 
 for that reason good pianoforte music, 
 i.e., "idiomatic" music, irrespective of 
 its content.
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 In Beethoven's day the pianoforte 
 was still a feeble instrument compared 
 with the grand of to-day. Its capac- 
 ities were but beginning to be ap- 
 preciated. Beethoven had to seek and 
 invent effects which now are known 
 to every amateur. The instrument 
 which the English manufacturer Broad- 
 wood presented to him in 1817 had a 
 compass of six octaves, and was a whole 
 octave wider in range than Mozart's 
 pianoforte. In 1793 dementi extended 
 the key-board to five and a half oc- 
 taves ; six and a half octaves were 
 reached in 1811, and seven in 1851. 
 Since 1851 three notes have been added 
 without material improvement to the 
 instrument. This extension of compass, 
 however, is far from being the most 
 important improvement since the clas- 
 sic period. The growth in power, so- 
 nority, and tonal brilliancy has been 
 much more marked, and of it Liszt 
 made striking use. 
 
 Very significant, too, in their relation 
 to the development of the music, were 
 the invention and improvement of the 
 pedals. The shifting pedal was invented 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Develop- 
 ment of the 
 pianoforte. 
 
 The 
 
 Pedals.
 
 196 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Shifting 
 pedal. 
 
 Damper 
 pedal. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 by a Viennese maker named Stein, who 
 first applied it to an instrument which 
 he named " Saiten-harmonika." Before 
 then soft effects were obtained by inter- 
 posing a bit of felt between the hammers 
 and the strings, as may still be seen in 
 old square pianofortes. The shifting 
 pedal, or soft pedal as it is popularly 
 called, moves the key-board and action 
 so that the hammer strikes only one or 
 two of the unison strings, leaving the 
 other to vibrate sympathetically. Beet- 
 hoven was the first to appreciate the 
 possibilities of this effect (see the slow 
 movement of his concerto in G major 
 and his last sonatas), but after him came 
 Schumann and Chopin, and brought 
 pedal manipulation to perfection, especi- 
 ally that of the damper pedal. This is 
 popularly called the loud pedal, and the 
 vulgarest use to which it can be put is 
 to multiply the volume of tone. It was 
 Chopin who showed its capacity for 
 sustaining a melody and enriching the 
 color effects by releasing the strings 
 from the dampers and utilizing the ethe- 
 real sounds which rise from the strings 
 when they vibrate sympathetically.
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 It is no part of my purpose to indulge 
 in criticism of composers, but some- 
 thing of the kind is made unavoidable 
 by the position assigned to Liszt in our 
 pianoforte recitals. He is relied upon 
 to provide a scintillant close. The 
 pianists, then, even those who are his 
 professed admirers, are responsible if 
 he is set down in our scheme as the 
 exemplar of the technical cult. Tech- 
 nique having its unquestioned value, we 
 are bound to admire the marvellous 
 gifts which enabled Liszt practically to 
 sum up all the possibilities of pianoforte 
 mechanism in its present stage of con- 
 struction, but we need not look with 
 unalloyed gratitude upon his influence 
 as a composer. There were, I fear, two 
 sides to Liszt's artistic character as well 
 as his moral. I believe he had in him a 
 touch of charlatanism as well as a mag- 
 nificent amount of artistic sincerity 
 just as he blended a laxity of moral 
 ideas with a profound religious mysti- 
 cism. It would have been strange in- 
 deed, growing up as he did in the 
 whited sepulchre of Parisian salon life, 
 if he had not accustomed himself to 
 
 1 97 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Liszt. 
 
 Adttal 
 character.
 
 198 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Liszt's 
 
 Hungarian. 
 
 Rhapsodies. 
 
 sacrifice a little of the soul of art for 
 the sake of vainglory, and a little of its 
 poetry and feeling to make display of 
 those dazzling digital feats which he in- 
 vented. But, be it said to his honor, he 
 never played mountebank tricks in the 
 presence of the masters whom he re- 
 vered. It was when he approached the 
 music of Beethoven that he sank all 
 thought of self and rose to a peerless 
 height as an interpreting artist. 
 
 Liszt's place as a composer of original 
 music has not yet been determined, but 
 as a transcriber of the music of others 
 the givers of pianoforte recitals keep 
 him always before us. The showy 
 Hungarian Rhapsodies with which the 
 majority of pianoforte recitals end are, 
 however, more than mere transcrip- 
 tions. They are constructed out of the 
 folk-songs of the Magyars, and in their 
 treatment the composer has frequently 
 reproduced the characteristic perform- 
 ances which they receive at the hands 
 of the Gypsies from whom he learned 
 them. This fact and the belief to which 
 Liszt gave currency in his book " Des 
 Bohmiens et de leur musique en Hon-
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 grie " have given rise to the almost uni- 
 versal belief that the Magyar melodies 
 are of Gypsy origin. This belief is er- 
 roneous. The Gypsies have for centu- 
 ries been the musical practitioners of 
 Hungary, but they are not the compos- 
 ers of the music of the Magyars, though 
 they have put a marked impress not 
 only on the melodies, but also on popu- 
 lar taste. The Hungarian folk-songs 
 are a perfect reflex of the national char- 
 acter of the Magyars, and some have 
 been traced back centuries in their lit- 
 erature. Though their most marked 
 melodic peculiarity, the frequent use of 
 a minor scale containing one or even 
 two superfluous seconds, as thus : 
 
 may be said to belong to Oriental mu- 
 sic as a whole (and the Magyars are 
 Orientals), the songs have a rhythmical 
 peculiarity which is a direct product of 
 the Magyar language. This peculiarity 
 consists of a figure in which the empha- 
 sis is shifted from the strong to the 
 
 199 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 Gypsies 
 
 and 
 
 Magyars. 
 
 Magyar 
 scales.
 
 2OO 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 The Scotch 
 snap. 
 
 Gypsy 
 epics. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 weak part by making the first take only 
 a fraction of the time of the second, 
 thus : 
 
 n. s j. 
 
 In Scottish music this rhythm also 
 plays a prominent part, but there it 
 falls into the beginning of a measure, 
 whereas in Hungarian it forms the mid- 
 dle or end. The result is an effect of 
 syncopation which is peculiarly force- 
 ful. There is an indubitable Oriental 
 relic in the profuse embellishments 
 which the Gypsies weave around the 
 Hungarian melodies when playing 
 them ; but the fact that they thrust the 
 same embellishments upon Spanish and 
 Russian music, in fact upon all the mu- 
 sic which they play, indicates plainly 
 enough that the impulse to do so is na- 
 tive to them, and has nothing to do with 
 the national taste of the countries for 
 which they provide music. Liszt's con- 
 fessed purpose in writing the Hunga- 
 rian Rhapsodies was to create what he 
 called " Gypsy epics." He had gath- 
 ered a large number of the melodies 
 without a definite purpose, and was
 
 At a Pianoforte Recital 
 
 20 1 
 
 pondering what to do with them, when 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 it occurred to him that 
 
 VI. 
 
 " These fragmentary, scattered melodies were 
 
 
 the wandering, floating, nebulous part of a great 
 
 
 whole, that they fully answered the conditions for 
 
 
 the production of an harmonious unity which would 
 
 
 comprehend the very flower of their essential prop- 
 
 
 erties, their most unique beauties," and " might be 
 
 
 united in one homogeneous body, a complete work, 
 
 
 its divisions to be so arranged that each song would 
 
 
 form at once a whole and a part, which might be 
 
 
 severed from the rest and be examined and enjoyed 
 
 
 by and for itself ; but which would, none the less, 
 
 
 belong to the whole through the close affinity of 
 
 
 subject matter, the similarity of its inner nature and 
 
 
 unity in development." * 
 
 
 The basis of Liszt's Rhapsodies being 
 
 
 thus distinctively national, he has in a 
 
 
 manner imitated in their character and 
 
 
 tempo the dual character of the Hunga- 
 
 
 rian national dance, the Czardas, which 
 
 The 
 
 consists of two movements, a Lassu, or 
 
 Czardas. 
 
 slow movement, followed by a Friss. 
 
 
 These alternate at the will of the 
 
 
 dancer, who gives a sign to the band 
 
 
 when he wishes to change from one to 
 
 
 the other. 
 
 
 * Weitzmann, *' Geschichte des Clavierspiels," p. 197. 

 
 202 
 
 Instability 
 of taste. 
 
 VII 
 
 At the Opera 
 
 POPULAR taste in respect of the 
 opera is curiously unstable. It is 
 surprising that the canons of judgment 
 touching it have such feeble and fleeting 
 authority in view of the popularity of 
 the art-form and the despotic hold which 
 it has had on fashion for two centuries. 
 No form of popular entertainment is 
 acclaimed so enthusiastically as a new 
 opera by an admired composer; none 
 forgotten so quickly. For the spoken 
 drama we go back to Shakespeare in the 
 vernacular, and, on occasions, we revive 
 the masterpieces of the Attic poets who 
 flourished more than two millenniums 
 ago ; but for opera we are bounded by 
 less than a century, unless occasional 
 performances of Gluck's " Orfeo " and 
 Mozart's " Figaro," " Don Giovanni,"
 
 At the Opera 
 
 and " Magic Flute " be counted as sub- 
 missions to popular demand, which, un- 
 happily, we know they are not. There 
 is no one who has attended the opera 
 for twenty-five years who might not be- 
 wail the loss of operas from the current 
 list which appealed to his younger fancy 
 as works of real loveliness. In the sea- 
 son of 1895-96 the audiences at the Met- 
 ropolitan Opera House in New York 
 heard twenty-six different operas. The 
 oldest were Gluck's " Orfeo " and Beet- 
 hoven's " Fidelio," which had a single 
 experimental representation each. After 
 them in seniority came Donizetti's " Lu- 
 cia di Lammermoor," which is sixty-one 
 years old, and has overpassed the aver- 
 age age of " immortal " operas by from 
 ten to twenty years, assuming Dr. Hans- 
 lick's calculation to be correct. 
 
 The composers who wrote operas for 
 the generation that witnessed Adelina 
 Patti's ctibut at the Academy of Music, 
 in New York, were Bellini, Donizetti, 
 Verdi, and Meyerbeer. Thanks to his 
 progressive genius, Verdi is still alive 
 on the stage, though nine-tenths of the 
 operas which made his fame and fortune 
 
 203 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The age of 
 operas. 
 
 Decima- 
 tion of the 
 operatic 
 list.
 
 204 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Depend- 
 ence on 
 singers. 
 
 An un- 
 stable 
 art-form. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 have already sunk into oblivion ; Mey- 
 erbeer, too, is still a more or less potent 
 factor with his " Huguenots," which, 
 like " Lucia," has endured from ten to 
 twenty years longer than the average 
 " immortal ; " but the continued exist- 
 ence of Bellini and Donizetti seems to 
 be as closely bound up with that of two 
 or three singers as was Meleager's life 
 with the burning billet which his mother 
 snatched from the flames. So far as the 
 people of London and New York are 
 concerned whether or not they shall 
 hear Donizetti more, rests with Mes- 
 dames Patti and Melba, for Donizetti 
 spells " Lucia; " Bellini pleads piteously 
 in " Sonnambula," but only Madame 
 Nevada will play the mediator between 
 him and our stiff-necked generation. 
 
 Opera is a mixed art-form and has 
 ever been, and perhaps must ever be, in 
 a state of flux, subject to the changes of 
 taste in music, the drama, singing, act- 
 ing, and even politics and morals ; but 
 in one particular the public has shown 
 no change for a century and a half, and 
 it is not quite clear why this has not 
 given greater fixity to popular appre-
 
 At the Opera 
 
 elation. The people of to-day are as 
 blithely indifferent to the fact that their 
 operas are all presented in a foreign 
 tongue as they were two centuries ago 
 in England. The influence of Wagner 
 has done much to stimulate a serious 
 attitude toward the lyric drama, but 
 this is seldom found outside of the audi- 
 ences in attendance on German repre- 
 sentations. The devotees of the Latin 
 exotic, whether it blend French or Italian 
 (or both, as is the rule in New York and 
 London) with its melodic perfume, enjoy 
 the music and ignore the words with the 
 same nonchalance that Addison made 
 merry over. Addison proves to have 
 been a poor prophet. The great-grand- 
 children of his contemporaries are not 
 at all curious to know " why their fore- 
 fathers used to sit together like an audi- 
 ence of foreigners in their own coun- 
 try, and to hear whole plays acted be- 
 fore them in a tongue which they did 
 not understand." What their great- 
 grandparents did was also done by their 
 grandparents and their parents, and 
 may be done by their children, grand- 
 children, and great-grandchildren after 
 
 205 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Careless- 
 ness of the 
 public. 
 
 Addison's 
 criticism.
 
 206 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Indiffer- 
 ence to the 
 words 
 
 Past and 
 fresent. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 them, unless Englishmen and Americans 
 shall take to heart the lessons which 
 Wagner essayed to teach his own peo- 
 ple. For the present, though we have 
 abolished many absurdities which grew 
 out of a conception of opera that was 
 based upon the simple, sensuous delight 
 which singing gave, the charm of music 
 is still supreme, and we can sit out an 
 opera without giving a thought to the 
 words uttered by the singers. The 
 popular attitude is fairly represented by 
 that of Boileau, when he went to hear 
 " Atys " and requested the box-keeper to 
 put him in a place where he could hear 
 Lully's music, which he loved, but not 
 Quinault's words, which he despised. 
 
 It is interesting to note that in this 
 respect the condition of affairs in Lon- 
 don in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century, which seemed so monstrously 
 diverting to Addison, was like that in 
 Hamburg in the latter part of the seven- 
 teenth, and in New York at the end of 
 the nineteenth. There were three years 
 in London when Italian and English 
 were mixed in the operatic representa- 
 tions.
 
 At the Opera 
 
 " The king or hero of the play generally spoke in 
 Italian and his slaves answered him in English ; the 
 lover frequently made his court and gained the 
 heart of his princess in a language which she did 
 not understand." 
 
 At length, says Addison, the audience 
 got tired of understanding half the 
 opera, " and to ease themselves entirely 
 of the fatigue of thinking, so ordered it 
 that the whole opera was performed in 
 an unknown tongue." 
 
 There is this difference, however, be- 
 tween New York and London and Ham- 
 burg at the period referred to : while the 
 operatic ragout was compounded of Ital- 
 ian and English in London, Italian and 
 German in Hamburg, the ingredients 
 here are Italian, French, and German, 
 with no admixture of the vernacular. 
 Strictly speaking, our case is more des- 
 perate than that of our foreign predeces- 
 sors, for the development of the lyric dra- 
 ma has lifted its verbal and dramatic ele- 
 ments into a position not dreamed of two 
 hundred years ago. We might endure 
 with equanimity to hear the chorus sing 
 
 " La soupe aux choux se fait dans la marmite, 
 Dans la marmite on fait la soupe aux choux " 
 
 207 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Polyglot 
 opera. 
 
 Perversions 
 of texts. 
 
 "Robert le 
 Diable."
 
 208 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 'Fidelia. ' 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 at the beginning of " Robert le Diable," 
 as tradition says used to be done in 
 Paris, but we surely ought to rise in 
 rebellion when the chorus of guards 
 change their muttered comments on 
 Pizarro's furious aria in "Fidelio" from 
 
 to 
 
 " Er spricht von Tod und Wunde ! " 
 " Er spricht vom todten Hunde / " 
 
 as is a prevalent custom among the ir- 
 reverent choristers of Germany. 
 
 Addison confesses that he was often 
 afraid when seeing the Italian perform- 
 ers " chattering in the vehemence of ac- 
 tion," that they were calling the audi- 
 ence names and abusing them among 
 themselves. I do not know how to 
 measure the morals and manners of our 
 Italian singers against those of Addi- 
 son's time, but I do know that many of 
 the things which they say before our 
 very faces for their own diversion are 
 not complimentary to our intelligence. 
 I hope I have a proper respect for Mr. 
 Gilbert's "bashful young potato," but 
 I do not think it right while we are 
 sympathizing with the gentle passion of
 
 At the Opera 
 
 Siebel to have his representative bring 
 an offering of flowers and, looking us 
 full in the face, sing : 
 
 " Le palate d'amor, 
 O carifior ! " 
 
 It isn't respectful, and it enables the 
 cynics of to-day to say, with the poetas- 
 ters and fiddlers of Addison's day, that 
 nothing is capable of being well set to 
 music that is not nonsense. Operatic 
 words were once merely stalking-horses 
 for tunes, but that day is past. We used 
 to smile at Brignoli's " Ah si! ah si! ah 
 si/" which did service for any text in 
 high passages ; but if a composer should, 
 for the accommodation of his music, 
 change the wording of the creed into 
 " Credo, non credo, non credo in unum 
 Deum," as Porpora once did, we should 
 all cry out for his excommunication. 
 
 As an art-form the opera has fre- 
 quently been criticised as an absurdity, 
 and it is doubtless owing to such a con- 
 viction that many people are equally in- 
 different to the language employed and 
 the sentiments embodied in the words. 
 Even so serious a writer as George 
 
 209 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 'Faust." 
 
 Porpora s 
 "Credo,"
 
 21O 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Are 
 
 words un- 
 essential f 
 
 "II Trova- 
 tore." 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Hogarth does not hesitate in his " Me- 
 moirs of the Opera" to defend this care- 
 less attitude. 
 
 " The words of an air are of small importance to 
 the comprehension of the business of the piece," he 
 says ; " they merely express a sentiment, a reflection, 
 a feeling ; it is quite enough if their general import 
 is known, and this may most frequently be gathered 
 from the situation, aided by the character and ex- 
 pression of the music." 
 
 I, myself, have known an ardent lover 
 of music who resolutely refused to 
 look into a libretto because, being of a 
 lively and imaginative temperament, 
 she preferred to construct her own 
 plots and put her own words in the 
 mouths of the singers. Though a con- 
 stant attendant on the opera, she never 
 knew what " II Trovatore " was about, 
 which, perhaps, is not so surprising 
 after all. Doubtless the play which she 
 had fashioned in her own mind was 
 more comprehensible than Verdi's med- 
 ley of burnt children and asthmatic 
 dance rhythms. Madame de Stae'l went 
 so far as to condemn the German com- 
 posers because they " follow too closely 
 the sense of the words," whereas the
 
 At the Opera 
 
 Italians, " who are truly the musicians 
 of nature, make the air and the words 
 conform to each other only in a general 
 way." 
 
 Now the present generation has wit- 
 nessed a revolution in operatic ideas 
 which has lifted the poetical elements 
 upon a plane not dreamed of when 
 opera was merely a concert in cos- 
 tume, and it is no longer tolerable that 
 it be set down as an absurdity. On 
 the contrary, I believe that, looked 
 at in the light thrown upon it by the 
 history of the drama and the origin of 
 music, the opera is completely justified 
 as an art-form, and, in its best estate, is 
 an entirely reasonable and highly ef- 
 fective entertainment. No mean place, 
 surely, should be given in the estima- 
 tion of the judicious to an art-form 
 which aims in an equal degree to charm 
 the senses, stimulate the emotions, and 
 persuade the reason. This, the opera, 
 or, perhaps I would better say the 
 lyric drama, can be made to do as effi- 
 ciently as the Greek tragedy did it, so 
 far as the differences between the civili- 
 zations of ancient Hellas and the nine- 
 
 211 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The opera 
 defended as 
 an art- 
 form.
 
 212 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The classic 
 tragedy. 
 
 Genesis of 
 the Greek 
 plays. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 teenth century will permit. The Greek 
 tragedy was the original opera, a fact 
 which literary study would alone have 
 made plain even if it were not clearly 
 of record that it was an effort to restore 
 the ancient plays in their integrity that 
 gave rise to the Italian opera three cen- 
 turies ago. 
 
 Every school-boy knows now that the 
 Hellenic plays were simply the final 
 evolution of the dances with which the 
 people of Hellas celebrated their re- 
 ligious festivals. At the rustic Bac- 
 chic feasts of the early Greeks they 
 sang hymns in honor of the wine-god, 
 and danced on goat-skins filled with 
 wine. He who held his footing best on 
 the treacherous surface carried home 
 the wine as a reward. They contended 
 in athletic games and songs for a goat, 
 and from this circumstance scholars 
 have surmised we have the word trag- 
 edy, which means " goat-song." The 
 choric songs and dances grew in variety 
 and beauty. Finally, somebody (tradi- 
 tion preserves the name of Thespis as 
 the man) conceived the idea of intro- 
 ducing a simple dialogue between the
 
 At the Opera 
 
 strophes of the choric song. Generally 
 this dialogue took the form of a recital 
 of some story concerning the god whose 
 festival was celebrating. Then when 
 the dithyrambic song returned, it would 
 either continue the narrative or com- 
 ment on its ethical features. 
 
 The merry-makers, or worshippers, as 
 one chooses to look upon them, mani- 
 fested their enthusiasm by imitating the 
 appearance as well as the actions of the 
 god and his votaries. They smeared 
 themselves with wine-lees, colored their 
 bodies black and red, put on masks, 
 covered themselves with the skins of 
 beasts, enacted the parts of nymphs, 
 fauns, and satyrs, those creatures of 
 primitive fancy, half men and half goats, 
 who were the representatives of natural 
 sensuality untrammelled by convention- 
 ality. 
 
 Next, somebody (Archilocus) sought 
 to heighten the effect of the story or 
 the dialogue by consorting it with in- 
 strumental music ; and thus we find the 
 germ of what musicians not news- 
 paper writers call melodrama, in the 
 very early stages of the drama's de- 
 
 21 3 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Mimicry 
 and dress. 
 
 Melodrama.
 
 214 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Factors in 
 
 ancient 
 
 tragedy. 
 
 Operatic 
 elements. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 velopment. Gradually these simple 
 rustic entertainments were taken in 
 hand by the poets who drew on the 
 legendary stores of the people for sub- 
 jects, branching out from the doings of 
 gods to the doings of god-like men, the 
 popular heroes, and developed out of 
 them the masterpieces of dramatic 
 poetry which are still studied with 
 amazement, admiration, and love. 
 
 The dramatic factors which have been 
 mustered in this outline are these : 
 
 1. The choric dance and song with 
 a religious purpose. 
 
 2. Recitation and dialogue. 
 
 3. Characterization by means of imi- 
 tative gestures pantomime, that is 
 and dress. 
 
 4. Instrumental music to accompany 
 the song and also the action. 
 
 All these have been retained in the 
 modern opera, which may be said 
 to differ chiefly from its ancient model 
 in the more important and more in- 
 dependent part which music plays 
 in it. It will appear later in our 
 study that the importance and inde- 
 pendence achieved by one of the ele-
 
 At the Opera 
 
 ments consorted in a work by nature 
 composite, led the way to a revolution 
 having for its object a restoration of 
 something like the ancient drama. In 
 this ancient drama and its precursor, the 
 dithyrambic song and dance, is found 
 a union of words and music which 
 scientific investigation proves to be not 
 only entirely natural but inevitable. 
 In a general way most people are in 
 the habit of speaking of music as the 
 language of the emotions. The ele- 
 ments which enter into vocal music (of 
 necessity the earliest form of music) 
 are unvolitional products which we 
 must conceive as co-existent with the 
 beginnings of human life. Do they 
 then antedate articulate speech ? Did 
 man sing before he spoke ? I shall not 
 quarrel with anybody who chooses so 
 to put it. 
 
 Think a moment about the mechan- 
 ism of vocal music. Something occurs 
 to stir up your emotional nature a 
 great joy, a great sorrow, a great fear; 
 instantly, involuntarily, in spite of your 
 efforts to prevent it, maybe, muscular 
 actions set in which proclaim the emo- 
 
 215 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Words and 
 
 music 
 
 united. 
 
 Physiology 
 of singing.
 
 2l6 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Herbert 
 
 Spencer's 
 
 laws. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion which fills you. The muscles and 
 organs of the chest, throat, and mouth 
 contract or relax in obedience to the 
 emotion. You utter a cry, and accord- 
 ing to the state of feeling which you are 
 in, that cry has pitch, quality (timbre 
 the singing teachers call it), and dy- 
 namic intensity. You attempt to speak, 
 and no matter what the words you 
 utter, the emotional drama playing on 
 the stage of your heart is divulged. 
 
 The man of science observes the phe- 
 nomenon and formulates its laws, say- 
 ing, for instance, as Herbert Spencer 
 has said: "All feelings are muscular 
 stimuli ;" and, " Variations of voice are 
 the physiological results of variations 
 of feeling." It was the recognition of 
 this extraordinary intimacy between 
 the voice and the emotions which 
 brought music all the world over into 
 the service of religion, and provided 
 the phenomenon, which we may still 
 observe if we be but minded to do so, 
 that mere tones have sometimes the 
 sanctity of words, and must as little be 
 changed as ancient hymns and prayers. 
 
 The end of the sixteenth century saw
 
 At the Opera 
 
 a coterie of scholars, art-lovers, and 
 amateur musicians in Florence who de- 
 sired to re-establish the relationship 
 which they knew had once existed be- 
 tween music and the drama. The re- 
 vival of learning had made the classic 
 tragedy dear to their hearts. They 
 knew that in the olden time trag- 
 edy, of which the words only have 
 come down to us, had been musical 
 throughout. In their efforts to bring 
 about an intimacy between dramatic 
 poetry and music they found that noth- 
 ing could be done with the polite mu- 
 sic of their time. It was the period of 
 highest development in ecclesiastical 
 music, and the climax of artificiality. 
 The professional musicians to whom 
 they turned scorned their theories and 
 would not help them ; so they fell back 
 on their own resources. They cut the 
 Gordian knot and invented a new style 
 of music, which they fancied was like 
 that used by the ancients in their stage- 
 plays. They abolished polyphony, or 
 contrapuntal music, in everything ex- 
 cept their choruses, and created a sort of 
 musical declamation, using variations of 
 
 21 7 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Invention 
 of Italian 
 opera. 
 
 Musical 
 declama- 
 tion.
 
 2l8 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The music 
 of the Flor- 
 entine re- 
 formers. 
 
 The solo 
 style, har- 
 mony, and 
 declama- 
 tion. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 pitch and harmonies built up on a sim- 
 ple bass to give emotional life to their 
 words. In choosing their tones they 
 were guided by observation of the vocal 
 inflections produced in speech under 
 stress of feeling, showing thus a recog- 
 nition of the law which Herbert Spen- 
 cer formulated two hundred and fifty 
 years later. 
 
 The music which these men pro- 
 duced and admired sounds to us mo- 
 notonous in the extreme, for what little 
 melody there is in it is in the choruses, 
 which they failed to emancipate from 
 the ecclesiastical art, and which for that 
 reason were as stiff and inelastic as the 
 music which in their controversies with 
 the musicians they condemned with 
 vigor. Yet within their invention there 
 lay an entirely new world of music. 
 Out of it came the solo style, a song 
 with instrumental accompaniment of a 
 kind unknown to the church composers. 
 Out of it, too, came harmony as an in- 
 dependent factor in music instead of 
 an accident of the simultaneous flow of 
 melodies ; and out of it came declama- 
 tion, which drew its life from the text.
 
 At the Opera 
 
 The recitatives which they wrote had 
 the fluency of spoken words and were 
 not retarded by melodic forms. The 
 new style did not accomplish what its 
 creators hoped for, but it gave birth to 
 Italian opera and emancipated music in 
 a large measure from the formalism that 
 dominated it so long as it belonged 
 exclusively to the composers for the 
 church. 
 
 Detailed study of the progress of 
 opera from the first efforts of the Floren- 
 tines to Wagner's dramas would carry 
 us too far afield to serve the purposes of 
 this book. My aim is to fix the attitude 
 proper, or at least useful, to the opera 
 audience of to-day. The excursion into 
 history which I have made has but the 
 purpose to give the art-form a reputable 
 standing in court, and to explain the 
 motives which prompted the revolution 
 accomplished by Wagner. As to the 
 elements which compose an opera, only 
 those need particular attention which 
 are illustrated in the current repertory. 
 Unlike the opera audiences of two 
 centuries ago, we are not required to 
 distinguish carefully between the vari- 
 
 219 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Fluent rec- 
 itatives. 
 
 Predeces- 
 sors of 
 Wagner.
 
 220 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Old oper- 
 atic dis- 
 tinctions. 
 
 Opera 
 tuffa. 
 
 Opera 
 seria. 
 
 Recitative. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ous styles of opera in order to under- 
 stand why the composer adopted a par- 
 ticular manner and certain fixed forms 
 in each. The old distinctions between 
 Opera seria, Opera buffa, and Opera semi- 
 seria perplex us no more. Only because 
 of the perversion of the time-honored 
 Italian epithet buffa by the French mon- 
 grel Ope'ra bouffe is it necessary to ex- 
 plain that the classic Opera buffa was a 
 polite comedy, whose musical integu- 
 ment did not of necessity differ from 
 that of Opera seria except in this that 
 the dialogue was carried on in " dry " 
 recitative (recitative secco, or parlante) in 
 the former, and a more measured decla- 
 mation with orchestral accompaniment 
 (recitative stromentatd) in the latter. So 
 far as subject-matter was concerned the 
 classic distinction between tragedy and 
 comedy served. The dry recitative was 
 supported by chords played by a double- 
 bass and harpsichord or pianoforte. In 
 London, at a later period, for reasons of 
 doubtful validity, these chords came to 
 be played on a double-bass and violon- 
 cello, as we occasionally hear them to- 
 day.
 
 At the Opera 
 
 221 
 
 Shakespeare has taught us to accept 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 an infusion of the comic element in 
 
 VII. 
 
 plays of a serious cast, but Shake- 
 
 
 speare was an innovator, a Romanticist, 
 
 
 and, measured by old standards, his 
 
 
 dramas are irregular. The Italians, 
 
 
 who followed classic models, for a rea- 
 
 
 son amply explained by the genesis of 
 
 
 the art-form, rigorously excluded com- 
 
 
 edy from serious operas, except as in- 
 
 
 termezzi, until they hit upon a third 
 
 
 classification, which they called Opera 
 
 Opera sem- 
 
 semiserza, in which a serious subject 
 
 iseria. 
 
 was enlivened with comic episodes. 
 
 
 Our dramatic tastes being grounded 
 
 
 in Shakespeare, we should be inclined 
 
 
 to put down " Don Giovanni " as a 
 
 ' ' Don Gio- 
 
 musical tragedy ; or, haunted by the 
 
 vanni." 
 
 Italian terminology, as Opera semiseria ; 
 
 
 but Mozart calls it Opera buff a, more in 
 
 
 deference to the librettist's work, I 
 
 
 fancy, than his own, for, as I have 
 
 
 suggested elsewhere,* the musician's 
 
 
 * " But no real student can have studied the score deep- 
 
 
 ly, or Kstened discriminatingly to a good performance, 
 
 
 without discovering that there is a tremendous chasm be- 
 
 
 tween the conventional aims of the Italian poet in the 
 
 
 book of the opera and the work which emerged from the 

 
 222 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 An Optra 
 tufa. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 imagination in the fire of composition 
 went far beyond the conventional fancy 
 of the librettist in the finale of that most 
 wonderful work. 
 
 It is well to remember that " Don 
 Giovanni " is an Opera buffa when 
 watching the buffooneries of Leporello, 
 
 composer's profound imagination. Da Ponte contem- 
 plated a dramma giocoso ; Mozart humored him until his 
 imagination came within the shadow cast before by the 
 catastrophe, and then he transformed the poet's comedy 
 into a tragedy of crushing power. The climax of Da 
 Ponte's ideal is reached in a picture of the dissolute 
 Don wrestling in idle desperation with a host of spec- 
 tacular devils, and finally disappearing through a trap, 
 while fire bursts out on all sides, the thunders roll, and 
 Leporello gazes on the scene, crouched in a comic atti- 
 tude of terror, under the table. Such a picture satisfied 
 the tastes of the public of his time, and that public 
 found nothing incongruous in a return to the scene im- 
 mediately afterward of all the characters save the repro- 
 bate, who had gone to his reward, to hear a description 
 of the catastrophe from the buffoon under the table, and 
 platitudinously to moralize that the perfidious wretch, 
 having been stored away safely in the realm of Pluto 
 and Proserpine, nothing remained for them to do ex- 
 cept to raise their voices in the words of the " old 
 song," 
 
 " Questo i il fin di chi fa mal : 
 
 E dei perfidi la morte 
 
 Alia vita i sempre ugual." 
 
 " New York Musical Season, 1889-90."
 
 At the Opera 
 
 for that alone justifies them. The 
 French have Grand Optra, in which 
 everything is sung to orchestra accom- 
 paniment, there being neither spoken 
 dialogue nor dry recitative, and Optra 
 comique, in which the dialogue is spoken. 
 The latter corresponds with the honor- 
 able German term Singspiel, and one will 
 not go far astray if he associate both 
 terms with the English operas of Wal- 
 lace and Balfe, save that the French and 
 Germans have generally been more deft 
 in bridging over the chasm between 
 speech and song than their British 
 rivals. Optra comique has another char- 
 acteristic, its denouement must be happy. 
 Formerly the Theatre national de I'Optra- 
 Comique in Paris was devoted exclu- 
 sively to Optra comique as thus defined 
 (it has since abolished the distinction 
 and Grand Optra may be heard there 
 now), and, therefore, when Ambroise 
 Thomas brought forward his " Mig- 
 non," Goethe's story was found to be 
 changed so that Mignon recovered and 
 was married to Wilhelm Meister at the 
 end. The Germans are seldom pleased 
 with the transformations which their 
 
 223 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 French 
 Grand 
 Opira. 
 
 Optra 
 mique. 
 
 "Mignon.'
 
 224 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Faust:' 1 
 
 Grosse 
 Opcr. 
 
 Comic 
 opera and 
 operetta. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 literary masterpieces are forced to un- 
 dergo at the hands of French librettists. 
 They still refuse to call Gounod's 
 " Faust " by that name ; if you wish to 
 hear it in Germany you must go to the 
 theatre when " Margarethe " is per- 
 formed. Naturally they fell indig- 
 nantly afoul of " Mignon," and to pla- 
 cate them we have a second finale, a 
 denouement allemand, provided by the 
 authors, in which Mignon dies as she 
 ought. 
 
 Of course the Grosse Oper of the 
 Germans is the French Grand Optra 
 and the English grand opera but all 
 the English terms are ambiguous, and 
 everything that is done in Covent Gar- 
 den in London or the Metropolitan 
 Opera House in New York is set down 
 as " grand opera," just as the vilest imi- 
 tations of the French vaudevilles or Eng- 
 lish farces with music are called " comic 
 operas." In its best estate, say in the 
 delightful works of Gilbert and Sullivan, 
 what is designated as comic opera ought 
 to be called operetta, which is a piece 
 in which the forms of grand opera are 
 imitated, or travestied, the dialogue is
 
 At the Opera 
 
 spoken, and the purpose of the play is to 
 satirize a popular folly. Only in method, 
 agencies, and scope does such an oper- 
 etta (the examples of Gilbert and Sulli- 
 van are in mind) differ from comedy in 
 its best conception, as a dramatic com- 
 position which aims to " chastise manners 
 with a smile " (" Ridendo castigat mores"']. 
 Its present degeneracy, as illustrated in 
 the Optra bonffe of the French and the 
 concoctions of the would-be imitators 
 of Gilbert and Sullivan, exemplifies lit- 
 tle else than a pursuit far into the depths 
 of the method suggested by a friend to 
 one of Lully's imitators who had ex- 
 pressed a fear that a ballet written, but 
 not yet performed, would fail. " You 
 must lengthen the dances and shorten 
 the ladies' skirts," he said. The Ger- 
 mans make another distinction based 
 on the subject chosen for the story. 
 Spohr's " Jessonda," Weber's " Frei- 
 schutz," " Oberon," and " Euryanthe," 
 Marschner's " Vampyr," " Templer und 
 Jiidin," and " Hans Heiling " are "Ro- 
 mantic" operas. The significance of 
 this classification in operatic literature 
 may be learned from an effort which I 
 
 225 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Opira 
 bouffe. 
 
 Romantic 
 operas.
 
 226 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Modern 
 designa- 
 tions. 
 
 German 
 opera and 
 Wagner. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 have made in another chapter to dis- 
 cuss the terms Classic and Romantic as 
 applied to music. Briefly stated, the 
 operas mentioned are put in a class by 
 themselves (and their imitations with 
 them) because their plots were drawn 
 from the romantic legends of the Middle 
 Ages, in which the institutions of chiv- 
 alry, fairy lore, and supernaturalism 
 play a large part. 
 
 These distinctions we meet in reading 
 about music. As I have intimated, we do 
 not concern ourselves much with them 
 now. In New York and London the 
 people speak of Italian, English, and 
 German opera, referring generally to 
 the language employed in the perform- 
 ance. But there is also in the use of 
 the terms an underlying recognition of 
 differences in ideals of performance. As 
 all operas sung in the regular seasons at 
 Covent Garden and the Metropolitan 
 Opera House are popularly spoken of as 
 Italian operas, so German opera popu- 
 larly means Wagner's lyric dramas, in 
 the first instance, and a style of perform- 
 ance which grew out of Wagner's in- 
 fluence in the second. As compared
 
 At the Opera 
 
 with Italian opera, in which the princi- 
 pal singers are all and the ensemble noth- 
 ing, it means, mayhap, inferior vocalists 
 but better actors in the principal parts, 
 a superior orchestra and chorus, and a 
 more conscientious effort on the part 
 of conductor, stage manager, and ar- 
 tists, from first to last, to lift the gen- 
 eral effect above the conventional level 
 which has prevailed for centuries in the 
 Italian opera houses. 
 
 In terminology, as well as in artistic 
 aim, Wagner's lyric dramas round out a 
 cycle that began with the works of the 
 Florentine reformers of the sixteenth 
 century. Wagner called his later operas 
 Musikdramcn, wherefore he was sound- 
 ly abused and ridiculed by his critics. 
 When the Italian opera first appeared 
 it was called Dramma per musica, or 
 Melodramma, or Tragedia per musica, all 
 of which terms stand in Italian for the 
 conception that Musikdrama stands for 
 in German. The new thing had been 
 .in existence for half a century, and was 
 already on the road to the degraded 
 level on which we shall find it when we 
 come to the subject of operatic singing, 
 
 227 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Wagner's 
 
 "Musik- 
 drama."
 
 228 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Modern 
 Italian ter- 
 minology. 
 
 Recitative. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 before it came to be called Opera in 
 musica, of which " opera " is an abbrevi- 
 ation. Now it is to be observed that 
 the composers of all countries, having 
 been taught to believe that the dra- 
 matic contents of an opera have some 
 significance, are abandoning the vague 
 term " opera " and following Wagner in 
 his adoption of the principles underly- 
 ing the original terminology. Verdi 
 called his " Aida " an Opera in quattro 
 atti, but his " Otello " he Designated 
 a lyric drama (Dramma lirico), his 
 " Falstaff " a lyric comedy (Commedia 
 lirica), and his example is followed 
 by the younger Italian composers, 
 such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and 
 Puccini. 
 
 In the majority of the operas of the 
 current list the vocal element illustrates 
 an amalgamation of the archaic recita- 
 tive and aria. The dry form of rec- 
 itative is met with now only in a few 
 of the operas which date back to the 
 last century or the early years of the 
 present. " Le Nozze di Figaro," " Don 
 Giovanni," and " II Barbiere di Siviglia" 
 are the most familiar works in which it
 
 At the Opera 
 
 is employed, and in the second of these 
 it is used only by the bearers of the 
 comedy element. The dissolute Don 
 chatters glibly in it with Zerlina, but 
 when Donna Anna and Don Ottavio 
 converse, it is in the recitativo stromen- 
 tato. 
 
 In both forms recitative is the vehicle 
 for promoting the action of the play, 
 preparing its incidents, and paving the 
 way for the situations and emotional 
 states which are exploited, promul- 
 gated, and dwelt upon in the set music 
 pieces. Its purpose is to maintain the 
 play in an artificial atmosphere, so that 
 the transition from dialogue to song 
 may not be so abrupt as to disturb the 
 mood of the listener. Of all the factors 
 in an opera, the dry recitative is the 
 most monotonous. It is not music, but 
 speech about to break into music. Un- 
 less one is familiar with Italian and 
 desirous of following the conversation, 
 which we have been often told is not 
 necessary to the enjoyment of an opera, 
 its everlasting use of stereotyped falls 
 and intervallic turns, coupled with the 
 strumming of arpeggioed cadences on 
 
 229 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The object 
 of recita- 
 tive.
 
 230 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Defects 
 of the 
 recitative. 
 
 What it 
 can do. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the pianoforte (or worse, double-bass 
 and violoncello), makes it insufferably 
 wearisome to the listener. Its expres- 
 sion is fleeting only for the moment. 
 It lacks the sustained tones and struct- 
 ural symmetry essential to melody, and 
 therefore it cannot sustain a mood. It 
 makes efficient use of only one of the 
 fundamental factors of vocal music 
 variety of pitch and that in a rudi- 
 mentary way. It is specifically a prod- 
 uct of the Italian language, and best 
 adapted to comedy in that language. 
 Spoken with the vivacity native to it 
 in the drama, dry recitative is an im- 
 possibility in English. It is only in the 
 more measured and sober gait proper to 
 oratorio that we can listen to it in the 
 vernacular without thought of incon- 
 gruity. Yet it may be made most ad- 
 mirably to preserve the characteristics 
 of conversation, and even illustrate 
 Spencer's theory of the origin of music. 
 Witness the following brief example 
 from " Don Giovanni," in which the vi- 
 vacity of the master is admirably con- 
 trasted with the lumpishness of his ser- 
 vant:
 
 At the Opera 
 
 23 1 
 
 Sempre totto wee. 
 DON GIOVANNI. LEPOKELLO. 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 An exam- 
 ple from 
 Mozart. 
 
 Its charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 1/wLi. B S* P^J.UU^ U |- 
 
 Le-po-rel - lo, o - ve tei? Son qui per 
 Le - po - rel - lo, where are you ? I'm here and 
 
 D. G. LEP. 
 
 u u ' a * z ^* * F 5=3 
 
 dw - jrra - zi - a! e vo - i? Son-qui. Chi 
 mote's the pit-y! and you. Sir? Here too. Who's 
 
 ^ r D.G. 
 
 m g ^ -p V _g g 
 
 [.._ u . U u 9- U # #~^ 
 
 mor - to, voi o, U vec - chiol Ohe do- 
 been killed, yon or the old one ? What a 
 
 ^. .^. LEP. 
 
 P f g P U | n | . =f==lcz 
 
 man - da da be tia 1 U vec - chin. Bra - vo ! 
 ques - tion, you boo - by ! the old one. Bra - vo ! 
 
 Of course it is left to the intelligence 
 and taste of the singers to bring out the 
 effects in a recitative, but in this speci- 
 men it ought .to be noted how slug- 
 gishly the disgruntled Leporello replies 
 to the brisk question of Don Giovanni, 
 how correct is the rhetorical pause 
 in " you, or the old one ? " and the 
 greater sobriety which comes over the 
 manner of the Don as he thinks of the 
 murder just committed, and replies, 
 "the old one." 
 I am strongly inclined to the belief
 
 232 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Recitative 
 of some sort 
 necessary. 
 
 The speak- 
 ing voice 
 in opera. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 that in one form or the other, preferably 
 the accompanied, recitative is a neces- 
 sary integer in the operatic sum. That 
 it is possible to accustom one's self to 
 the change alternately from speech to 
 song we know from the experiences 
 made with German, French, and Eng- 
 lish operas, but these were not true 
 lyric dramas, but dramas with inci- 
 dental music. To be a real lyric drama 
 an opera ought to be musical through- 
 out, the voice being maintained from 
 beginning to end on an exalted plane. 
 The tendency to drop into the speaking 
 voice for the sake of dramatic effect 
 shown by some tragic singers does not 
 seem to me commendable. Wagner 
 relates with enthusiasm how Madame 
 Schroeder-Devrient in " Fidelio " was 
 wont to give supreme emphasis to the 
 phrase immediately preceding the 
 trumpet signal in the dungeon scene 
 ("Another step, and you are dead!"} 
 by speaking the last word " with an 
 awful accent of despair." He then 
 comments : 
 
 " The indescribable effect of this manifested itself 
 to all like an agonizing plunge from one sphere into
 
 At the Opera 
 
 another, and its sublimity consisted in this, that 
 with lightning quickness a glimpse was given to us 
 of the nature of both spheres, of which one was the 
 ideal, the other the real." 
 
 I have heard a similar effect produced 
 by Herr Niemann and Madame Leh- 
 mann, but could not convince myself 
 that it was not an extremely venture- 
 some experiment. Madame Schroeder- 
 Devrient saw the beginning of the 
 modern methods of dramatic expres- 
 sion, and it is easy to believe that a 
 sudden change like that so well de- 
 fined by Wagner, made with her sweep- 
 ing voice and accompanied by her 
 plastic and powerful acting, was really 
 thrilling; but, I fancy, nevertheless, 
 that only Beethoven and the intensity of 
 feeling which pervades the scene saved 
 the audience from a disturbing sense of 
 the incongruity of the performance. 
 
 The development which has taken 
 place in the recitative has not only as- 
 sisted in elevating opera to the dignity 
 of a lyric drama by saving us from al- 
 ternate contemplation of the two spheres 
 of ideality and reality, but has also 
 made the factor itself an eloquent vehi- 
 
 2 33 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Wagner 
 and 
 
 Schroeder- 
 Devrient. 
 
 Early 
 forms.
 
 234 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The dia- 
 logue of the 
 Floren- 
 tines. 
 
 An ex- 
 
 amplefrom 
 Peri. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 cle of dramatic expression. Save that 
 it had to forego the help of the instru- 
 ments beyond a mere harmonic sup- 
 port, the stilo rappresentativo, or musica 
 parlante, as the Florentines called their 
 musical dialogue, approached the sus- 
 tained recitative which we hear in the 
 oratorio and grand opera more closely 
 than it did the recitativo secco. Ever 
 and anon, already in the earliest works 
 (the " Eurydice " of Rinuccini as com- 
 posed by both Peri and Caccini) there 
 are passages which sound like rudimen- 
 tary melodies, but are charged with 
 vital dramatic expression. Note the 
 following phrase from Orpheus 's mono- 
 logue on being left in the infernal re- 
 gions by Venus, from Peri's opera, per- 
 formed A.D. 1600, in honor of the 
 marriage of Maria de' Medici to Henry 
 IV. of France : 
 
 E voi, deh per pie - to, del mio mar - ti re 
 
 m 
 
 
 Ohe nel mi - te - ro cor di - mo - rae -ter - no. 
 
 
 La crt - ma - te al mio pian-to om bre d'in-fer - no!
 
 At the Opera 
 
 Out of this style there grew within a 
 decade something very near the arioso, 
 and for all the purposes of our argu- 
 ment we may accept the melodic de- 
 vices by which Wagner carries on the 
 dialogue of his operas as an uncircum- 
 scribed arioso superimposed upon a 
 foundation of orchestral harmony ; for 
 example, Lohengriris address to the 
 swan, Elsas account of her dream. The 
 greater melodiousness of the recitative 
 stromentato, and the aid of the orchestra 
 when it began to assert itself as a factor 
 of independent value, soon enabled this 
 form of musical conversation to become 
 a reflector of the changing moods and 
 passions of the play, and thus the value 
 of the aria, whether considered as a 
 solo, or in its composite form as duet, 
 trio, quartet, or ensemble, was lessened. 
 The growth of the accompanied recita- 
 tive naturally brought with it emanci- 
 pation from the tyranny of the classical 
 aria. Wagner's reform had nothing to 
 do with that emancipation, which had 
 been accomplished before him, but 
 went, as we shall see presently, to a 
 liberation of the composers from all 
 
 2 35 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Develop- 
 ment of the 
 
 The aria 
 supplanted.
 
 236 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 the formal dams which had clogged 
 
 VII. 
 
 the united flow of action and music. 
 
 
 We should, however, even while admir- 
 
 
 ing the achievements of modern com- 
 
 
 posers in blending these elements (and 
 
 
 I know of no more striking illustration 
 
 
 than the scene of the fat knight's dis- 
 
 
 comfiture in Ford's house in Verdi's 
 
 
 " Falstaff ") bear in mind that while we 
 
 
 may dream of perfect union between 
 
 
 words and music, it is not always possi- 
 
 Music and 
 
 ble that action and music shall go hand 
 
 action. 
 
 in hand. Let me repeat what once I 
 
 
 wrote in a review of Cornelius's opera, 
 
 
 " Der Barbier von Bagdad : " * 
 
 
 " After all, of the constituents of an opera, action, 
 
 
 at least that form of it usually called incident, is 
 
 
 most easily spared. Progress in feeling, develop- 
 
 
 ment of the emotional element, is indeed essential 
 
 
 to variety of musical utterance, but nevertheless all 
 
 
 great operas have demonstrated that music is more 
 
 
 potent and eloquent when proclaiming an emo- 
 
 
 tional state than while seeking to depict progress 
 
 
 toward such a state. Even in the dramas of Wag- 
 
 
 ner the culminating musical moments are pre- 
 
 
 dominantly lyrical, as witness the love -duet in 
 
 
 '[Tristan,' the close of ' Das Rheingold,' Sieg- 
 
 
 * " Review of the New York Musical Season, 1889- 
 
 
 9," P- 75-
 
 At the Opera 
 
 mund's song, the love-duet, and Wotan's farewell 
 in ' Die Walkiire,' the forest scene and final duet 
 in ' Siegfried,' and the death of Siegfried in 
 'Die Gotterdammerung.' It is in the nature of 
 music that this should be so. For the drama 
 which plays on the stage of the heart, music is a 
 more truthful language than speech ; but it can 
 stimulate movement and prepare the mind for an 
 incident better than it can accompany movement 
 and incident. Yet music that has a high degree of 
 emotional expressiveness, by diverting attention 
 from externals to the play of passion within the 
 breasts of the persons can sometimes make us for- 
 get the paucity of incident in a play. ' Tristan 
 und Isolde ' is a case in point. Practically, its out- 
 ward action is summed up in each of its three acts 
 by the same words : Preparation for a meeting of 
 the ill-starred lovers ; the meeting. What is out- 
 side of this is mere detail ; yet the effect of the 
 tragedy upon a listener is that of a play surcharged 
 with pregnant occurrence. It is the subtle al- 
 chemy of music that transmutes the psychological 
 action of the tragedy into dramatic incident." 
 
 For those who hold such a view with 
 me it will be impossible to condemn 
 pieces of set forms in the lyric drama. 
 Wagner still represents his art -work 
 alone, but in the influence which he 
 exerted upon contemporaneous com- 
 posers in Italy and France, as well as 
 
 237 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 How music 
 can replace 
 incident. 
 
 Set forms 
 not to be 
 condemned.
 
 2 3 8 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Wagner's 
 influence. 
 
 His or- 
 chestra. 
 
 Germany, he is quite as significant 
 a figure as he is as the creator of the 
 Musikdrama. The operas which are most 
 popular in our Italian and French reper- 
 tories are those which benefited by the 
 liberation from formalism and the ex- 
 altation of the dramatic idea which he 
 preached and exemplified such works 
 as Gounod's " Faust," Verdi's " Aida " 
 and "Otello," and Bizet's " Carmen." 
 With that emancipation there came, as 
 was inevitable, new conceptions of the 
 province of dramatic singing as well as 
 new convictions touching the mission 
 of the orchestra. The instruments in 
 Wagner's latter-day works are quite 
 as much as the singing actors the ex- 
 positors of the dramatic idea, and in 
 the works of the other men whom I 
 have mentioned they speak a language 
 which a century ago was known 
 only to the orchestras of Gluck and 
 Mozart with their comparatively lim- 
 ited, yet eloquent, vocabulary. Coupled 
 with praise for the wonderful art of 
 Mesdames Patti and Melba (and I am 
 glad to have lived in their generation, 
 though they do not represent my ideal
 
 At the Opera 
 
 2 39 
 
 in dramatic singing), we are accustomed 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 to hear lamentations over the decay of 
 
 VII. 
 
 singing. I have intoned such jeremiads 
 
 
 myself, and I do not believe that music 
 
 
 is suffering from a greater want to-day 
 
 
 than that of a more thorough train- 
 
 
 ing for singers. I marvel when I read 
 
 
 that Senesino sang cadences of fifty 
 
 Vocal 
 
 seconds' duration ; that Ferri with a 
 
 feats. 
 
 single breath could trill upon each note 
 
 
 of two octaves, ascending and descend- 
 
 
 ing, and that La Bastardella's art was 
 
 
 equal to a perfect performance (perfect 
 
 
 in the conception of her day) of a flour- 
 
 
 ish like this : 
 
 
 r r f f- r^F^T 
 
 La Bastar- 
 della's 
 
 
 flourish. 
 
 
 
 ^p 
 
 
 ^ yj *^~ 
 
 
 r-^gS? Ejjjjj 1 *j , ~ ~ , 
 
 
 1 ' ^ |J^ J !^*I|-J 
 
 

 
 240 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Character 
 of the op era 
 a century 
 and a half 
 ago. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 MM=ggig^^ 
 
 I marvel, I say, at the skill, the gifts, 
 and the training which could accom- 
 plish such feats, but I would not have 
 them back again if they were to be em- 
 ployed in the old service. When Sene- 
 sino, Farinelli, Sassarelli, Ferri, and their 
 tribe dominated the stage, it strutted 
 with sexless Agamemnons and Caesars. 
 Telemachus, Darius, Nero, Cato, Alex- 
 ander, Scipio, and Hannibal ran around 
 on the boards as languishing lovers, 
 clad in humiliating disguises, singing 
 woful arias to their mistress's eye- 
 brows arias full of trills and scales and 
 florid ornaments, but void of feeling as 
 a problem in Euclid. Thanks very 
 largely to German influences, the opera
 
 At the Opera 
 
 is 
 
 returning to its original purposes. 
 Music is again become a means of dra- 
 matic expression, and the singers who 
 appeal to us most powerfully are those 
 who are best able to make song subserve 
 that purpose, and who to that end give 
 to dramatic truthfulness, to effective 
 elocution, and to action the attention 
 which mere voice and beautiful utter- 
 ance received in the period which is 
 called the Golden Age of singing, but 
 which was the Leaden Age of the lyric 
 drama. 
 
 For seventy years the people of New 
 York, scarcely less favored than those 
 of London, have heard nearly all the 
 great singers of Europe. Let me talk 
 about some of them, for I am trying to 
 establish some ground on which my 
 readers may stand when they try to 
 form an estimate of the singing which 
 they are privileged to hear in the opera 
 houses of to-day. Madame Malibran 
 was a member of the first Italian com- 
 pany that ever sang here. Madame 
 Cinti-Damoreau came in 1844, Bosio in 
 1849, Jenny Lind in 1850, Sontag in 
 1853, Grisi in 1854, La Grange in 1855, 
 
 241 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Music and 
 
 dramatic 
 
 expression. 
 
 Singers 
 heard in 
 New York.
 
 2 4 2 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Grisi. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Frezzolini in 1857, Piccolomini in 1858, 
 Nilsson in 1870, Lucca in 1872, Titiens in 
 1876, Gerster in 1878, and Sembrich in 
 1883. I omit the singers of the German 
 opera as belonging to a different cate- 
 gory. Adelina Patti was always with 
 us until she made her European debut 
 in 1 86 1, and remained abroad twenty 
 years. Of the men who were the ar- 
 tistic associates of these prime donne, 
 mention may be made of Mario, Bene- 
 detti, Corsi, Salvi, Ronconi, Formes, 
 Brignoli, Amadeo, Coletti, and Cam- 
 panini, none of whom, excepting Mario, 
 was of first-class importance compared 
 with the women singers. 
 
 Nearly all of these singers, even those 
 still living and remembered by the 
 younger generation of to-day, exploited 
 their gifts in the operas of Rossini, Bel- 
 lini, Donizetti, the early Verdi, and Mey- 
 erbeer. Grisi was acclaimed a great 
 dramatic singer, and it is told of her 
 that once in " Norma " she frightened 
 the tenor who sang the part of Pollio by 
 the fury of her acting. But measured 
 by the standards of to-day, say that set 
 by Calve's Carmen, it must have been a
 
 At the Opera 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 "Jenny 
 
 simple age that could be impressed by 
 the tragic power of anyone acting the 
 part of Bellini's Druidical priestess. 
 The surmise is strengthened by the cir- 
 cumstance that Madame Grisi created 
 a sensation in " II Trovatore " by show- 
 ing signs of agitation in the tower scene, 
 walking about the stage during Man- 
 ricos " Ah ! che la morte ognora" as if she 
 would fain discover the part of the castle 
 where her lover was imprisoned. The 
 chief charm of Jenny Lind in the mem- 
 ory of the older generation is the pa- 
 thos with which she sang simple songs. 
 Mendelssohn esteemed her greatly as a 
 woman and artist, but he is quoted as 
 once remarking to Chorley : " I cannot 
 think why she always prefers to be in 
 a bad theatre." Moscheles, recording 
 his impressions of her in Meyerbeer's 
 " Camp of Silesia " (now " L'Etoile du 
 Nord"), reached the climax of his praise 
 in the words : " Her song with the two 
 concertante flutes is perhaps the most 
 incredible feat in the way of bravura 
 singing that can possibly be heard." 
 She was credited, too, with fine powers 
 as an actress; and that she possessed 
 
 2 43
 
 244 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Lilli 
 
 Lehmann. 
 
 Sontag. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 them can easily be believed, for few of 
 the singers whom I have mentioned had 
 so early and intimate an association with 
 the theatre as she. Her repugnance to 
 it in later life she attributed to a preju- 
 dice inherited from her mother. A vastly 
 different heritage is disclosed by Ma- 
 dame Lehmann's devotion to the drama, 
 a devotion almost akin to religion. I have 
 known her to go into the scene-room 
 of the Metropolitan Opera House in 
 New York and search for mimic stumps 
 and rocks with which to fit out a scene 
 in " Siegfried/' in which she was not 
 even to appear. That, like her super- 
 human work at rehearsals, was " for the 
 good of the cause," as she expressed it. 
 Most amiable are the memories that 
 cluster around the name of Sontag, 
 whose career came to a grievous close 
 by her sudden death in Mexico in 1854. 
 She was a German, and the early part 
 of her artistic life was influenced by 
 German ideals, but it is said that only 
 in the music of Mozart and Weber, 
 which aroused in her strong national 
 emotion, did she sing dramatically. 
 For the rest she used her light voice,
 
 At the Opera 
 
 which had an extraordinary range, brill- 
 iancy, and flexibility, very much as 
 Patti and Melba use their voices to-day 
 in mere unfeeling vocal display. 
 
 " She had an extensive soprano voice," says Ho- 
 garth ; " not remarkable for power, but clear, brill- 
 iant, and singularly flexible ; a quality which seems 
 to have led her (unlike most German singers in 
 general) to cultivate the most florid style, and even 
 to follow the bad example set by Catalan i, of seek- 
 ing to convert her voice into an instrument, and to 
 astonish the public by executing the violin variations 
 on Rode's air and other things of that stamp." 
 
 Madame La Grange had a voice of 
 wide compass, which enabled her to sing 
 contralto roles as well as soprano, but I 
 have never heard her dramatic powers 
 praised. As for Piccolomini, read of 
 her where you will, you shall find that 
 she was " charming." She was lovely 
 to look upon, and her acting in soubrette 
 parts was fascinating. Until Melba 
 came Patti was for thirty years peer- 
 less as a mere vocalist. She belongs, 
 as did Piccolomini and Sontag, to the 
 comic genre ; so did Sembrich and 
 Gerster, the latter of whom never knew 
 it. I well remember how indignant she 
 
 2 45 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 La Grange. 
 
 Piccolo- 
 mini. 
 
 Adelina 
 Patti.
 
 246 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Gerster. 
 
 Lucca and 
 Nilsson. 
 
 Sembrich. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 became on one occasion, in her first 
 American season, at a criticism which 
 I wrote of \\erAmina in "La Sonnam- 
 bula," a performance which remains 
 among my loveliest and most fragrant 
 recollections. I had made use of Cata- 
 lani's remark concerning Sontag : " Son 
 genre est petit, mats elle est unique dans 
 son genre," and applied it to her style. 
 She almost flew into a passion. " Mon 
 genre est grand ! " said she, over and 
 over again, while Dr. Gardini, her hus- 
 band, tried to pacify her. " Come to 
 see my Marguerite next season." Now, 
 Gounod's Marguerite does not quite be- 
 long to the heroic roles, though we can 
 all remember how Lucca thrilled us by 
 her intensity of action as well as of 
 song, and how Madame Nilsson sent 
 the blood out of our cheeks, though she 
 did stride through the opera like a com- 
 bination of the grande dame and Ary 
 Scheffer's spirituelle pictures ; but such 
 as it is, Madame Gerster achieved a 
 success of interest only, and that be- 
 cause of her strivings for originality. 
 Sembrich and Gerster, when they were 
 first heard in New York, had as much
 
 At the Opera 
 
 execution as Melba or Nilsson ; but 
 their voices had less emotional power 
 than that of the latter, and less beauty 
 than that of the former beauty of the 
 kind that might be called classic, since 
 it is in no way dependent on feeling. 
 
 Patti, Lucca, Nilsson, and Gerster 
 sang in the operas in which Melba and 
 Eames sing to-day, and though the 
 standard of judgment has been changed 
 in the last twenty -five years by the 
 growth of German ideals, I can find no 
 growth of potency in the performances 
 of the representative women of Italian 
 and French opera, except in the case of 
 Madame Calv6. For the development 
 of dramatic ideals we must look to the 
 singers of German affiliations or ante- 
 cedents, Mesdames Materna, Lehmann, 
 Sucher, and Nordica. As for the men 
 of yesterday and to-day, no lover, I am 
 sure, of the real lyric drama would 
 give the declamatory warmth and 
 gracefulness of pose and action which 
 mark the performances of M. Jean de 
 Reszke for a hundred of the high notes 
 of Mario (for one of which, we are told, 
 he was wont to reserve his powers 
 
 2 47 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Melba and 
 Eames. 
 
 Calvt. 
 
 Dramatic 
 singers. 
 
 %<z de 
 Restke.
 
 248 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Edouardde 
 Reszke and 
 Plangon. 
 
 Wagner's 
 operas. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 all evening), were they never so lovely. 
 Neither does the fine, resonant, equable 
 voice of Edouard de Reszke or the 
 finished style of Plangon leave us with 
 curious longings touching the voices 
 and manners of Lablache and Formes. 
 Other times, other manners, in music 
 as in everything else. The great sing- 
 ers of to-day are those who appeal to 
 the taste of to-day, and that taste differs, 
 as the clothes which we wear differ, 
 from the style in vogue in the days of 
 our ancestors. 
 
 A great deal of confusion has crept 
 into the public mind concerning Wag- 
 ner and his works by the failure to 
 differentiate between his earlier and 
 later creations. No injustice is done 
 the composer by looking upon his 
 " Flying Dutchman," " Tannhauser," 
 and " Lohengrin " as operas. We find 
 the dramatic element lifted into noble 
 prominence in " Tannhauser," and ad- 
 mirable freedom in the handling of the 
 musical factors in " Lohengrin," but 
 they must, nevertheless, be listened to 
 as one would listen to the operas of 
 Weber, Marschner, or Meyerbeer.
 
 At the Opera 
 
 They are, in fact, much nearer to the 
 conventional operatic type than to the 
 works which came after them, and were 
 called Musikdramen. " Music drama " 
 is an awkward phrase, and I have taken 
 the liberty of substituting " lyric drama " 
 for it, and as such I shall designate 
 " Tristan und Isolde," " Die Meister- 
 singer," " Der Ring des Nibelungen," 
 and " Parsifal." In these works Wagner 
 exemplified his reformatory ideas and 
 accomplished a regeneration of the 
 lyric drama, as we found it embodied 
 in principle in the Greek tragedy and 
 the Dramma per musica of the Floren- 
 tine scholars. Wagner's starting-point 
 is, that in the opera music had usurped 
 a place which did not belong to it.* It 
 was designed to be a means and had 
 become an end. In the drama he found 
 a combination of poetry, music, panto- 
 mime, and scenery, and he held that 
 these factors ought to co-operate on 
 a basis of mutual dependence, the in- 
 spiration of all being dramatic expres- 
 
 * See " Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," chap- 
 ter I. 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Wagner's 
 
 lyric 
 
 dramas. 
 
 His 
 theories.
 
 250 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The mis- 
 sion of 
 music. 
 
 Distinc- 
 tions abol- 
 ished. 
 
 The 
 
 typical 
 
 phrases. 
 
 sion. Music, therefore, ought to be 
 subordinate to the text in which the 
 dramatic idea is expressed, and simply 
 serve to raise it to a higher power by 
 giving it greater emotional life. So, 
 also, it ought to vivify pantomime and 
 accompany the stage pictures. In or- 
 der that it might do all this, it had to 
 be relieved of the shackles of formal- 
 ism ; only thus could it move with the 
 same freedom as the other elements 
 consorted with it in the drama. There- 
 fore, the distinctions between recitative 
 and aria were abolished, and an "endless 
 melody " took the place of both. An 
 exalted form of speech is borne along 
 on a flood of orchestral music, which, 
 quite as much as song, action, and 
 scenery concerns itself with the exposi- 
 tion of the drama. That it may do this 
 the agencies, spiritual as well as ma- 
 terial, which are instrumental in the 
 development of the play, are identified 
 with certain melodic phrases, out of 
 which the musical fabric is woven. 
 These phrases are the much mooted, 
 much misunderstood " leading motives " 
 typical phrases I call them. Wagner
 
 At the Opera 
 
 has tried to make them reflect the 
 character or nature of the agencies with 
 which he has associated them, and 
 therefore we find the giants in the 
 Niblung tetralogy symbolized in heavy, 
 slowly moving, cumbersome phrases ; 
 the dwarfs have two phrases, one sug- 
 gesting their occupation as smiths, by its 
 hammering rhythm, and the other their 
 intellectual habits, by its suggestion 
 of brooding contemplativeness. I can- 
 not go through the catalogue of the 
 typical phrases which enter into the 
 musical structure of the works which I 
 have called lyric dramas as contra-dis- 
 tinguished from operas. They should, 
 of course, be known to the student of 
 Wagner, for thereby will he be helped 
 to understand the poet-composer's pur- 
 poses, but I would fain repeat the 
 warning which I uttered twice in my 
 " Studies in the Wagnerian Drama : " 
 
 " It cannot be too forcibly urged that if we con- 
 fine our study of Wagner to the forms and names 
 of the phrases out of which he constructs his mu' 
 sical fabric, we shall, at the last, have enriched 
 our minds with a thematic catalogue and nothing 
 else. We shall remain guiltless of knowledge un- 
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 Character- 
 istics of 
 some 
 motives.
 
 CHAP. 
 VII. 
 
 The 
 
 phrases 
 should be 
 studied. 
 
 The ques- 
 tion of ef- 
 fectiveness. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 less we learn .something of the nature of those 
 phrases by noting the attributes which lend them 
 propriety and fitness, and can recognize, measur- 
 ably at least, the reasons for their introduction and 
 development. Those attributes give character and 
 mood to the music constructed out of the phrases. 
 If we are able to feel the mood, we need not care 
 how the phrases which produce it have been 
 labelled. If we do not feel the mood, we may 
 memorize the whole thematic catalogue of Wolzo- 
 gen and have our labor for our pains. It would be 
 better to know nothing about the phrases, and con- 
 tent one's self with simple sensuous enjoyment 
 than to spend one's time answering the baldest of 
 all the riddles of Wagner's orchestra ' What am I 
 playing now ? ' 
 
 " The ultimate question concerning the correct- 
 ness or effectiveness of Wagner's system of compo- 
 sition must, of course, be answered along with the 
 question : ' Does the composition, as a whole, 
 touch the emotions, quicken the fancy, fire the im- 
 agination ? ' If it does these things, we may, to a 
 great extent, if we wish, get along without the in- 
 tellectual processes of reflection and comparison 
 which are conditioned upon a recognition of the 
 themes and their uses. But if we put aside this in- 
 tellectual activity, we shall deprive ourselves, among 
 other things, of the pleasures which it is the prov- 
 ince of memory to give ; and the exercise of memory 
 is called for by music much more urgently than by 
 any other art, because of its volatile nature and the 
 role which repetition plays in it."
 
 2 53 
 
 VIII 
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 NO one would go far astray who 
 should estimate the extent and 
 sincerity of a community's musical 
 culture by the number of its chorus 
 singers. Some years ago it was said 
 that over three hundred cities and 
 towns in Germany contained singing 
 societies and orchestras devoted to the 
 cultivation of choral music. In the 
 United States, where there are com- 
 paratively a small number of instru- 
 mental musicians, there has been a 
 wonderful development of singing so- 
 cieties within the last generation, and it 
 is to this fact largely that the notable 
 growth in the country's knowledge and 
 appreciation of high-class music is due. 
 No amount of mere hearing and study 
 can compare in influence with participa- 
 
 Choirs a 
 touchstone 
 of culture.
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The value 
 of choir 
 singing. 
 
 Singing 
 societies 
 and or- 
 chestras. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion in musical performance. Music is 
 an art which rests on love. It is beau- 
 tiful sound vitalized by feeling, and it 
 can only be grasped fully through man's 
 emotional nature. There is no quicker 
 or surer way to get to the heart of a 
 composition than by performing it, and 
 since participation in chorus singing 
 is of necessity unselfish and creative of 
 sympathy, there is no better medium of 
 musical culture than membership in a 
 choir. It was because he realized this 
 that Schumann gave the advice to all 
 students of music: "Sing diligently in 
 choirs; especially the middle voices, 
 for this will make you musical." 
 
 There is no community so small or 
 so ill-conditioned that it cannot main- 
 tain a singing society. Before a city 
 can give sustenance to even a small 
 body of instrumentalists it must be large 
 enough and rich enough to maintain a 
 theatre from which those instrumental- 
 ists can derive their support. There 
 can be no dependence upon amateurs, 
 for people do not study the oboe, bas- 
 soon, trombone, or double-bass for 
 amusement. Amateur violinists and
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 amateur flautists there are in plenty, 
 but not amateur clarinetists and French- 
 horn players ; but if the love for music 
 exists in a community, a dozen families 
 shall suffice to maintain a choral club. 
 Large numbers are therefore not essen- 
 tial ; neither is wealth. Some of the 
 largest and finest choirs in the world 
 flourish among the Welsh miners in 
 the United States and Wales, fostered 
 by a native love for the art and the na- 
 tional institution called Eisteddfod. 
 
 The lines on which choral culture has 
 proceeded in the United States are two, 
 of which the more valuable, from an 
 artistic point of view, is that of the ora- 
 torio, which went out from New Eng- 
 land. The other originated in the Ger- 
 man cultivation of the Mannergesang, 
 the importance of which is felt more in 
 the extent of the culture, prompted as it 
 is largely by social considerations, than 
 in the music sung, which is of necessity 
 of a lower grade than that composed for 
 mixed voices. It is chiefly in the im- 
 pulse which German M tinner ge sang car- 
 ried into all the corners of the land, and 
 especially the impetus which the festi- 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Neither 
 numbers 
 nor wealth 
 necessary. 
 
 Lines of 
 choral cult- 
 ure in the 
 United 
 States.
 
 256 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Church 
 and or a- 
 torio. 
 
 Secular 
 choirs* 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 vals of the German singers gave to the 
 sections in which they have been held 
 for half a century, that this form of cult- 
 ure is interesting. 
 
 The cultivation of oratorio music 
 sprang naturally from the Church, and 
 though it is now chiefly in the hands of 
 secular societies, the biblical origin of 
 the vast majority of the texts used in 
 the works which are performed, and 
 more especially the regular perform- 
 ances of Handel's " Messiah " in the 
 Christmastide, have left the notion, more 
 or less distinct, in the public mind, that 
 oratorios are religious functions. Nev- 
 ertheless (or perhaps because of this fact) 
 the most successful choral concerts in the 
 United States are those given by orato- 
 rio societies. The cultivation of cho- 
 ral music which is secular in character 
 is chiefly in the hands of small organi- 
 zations, whose concerts are of a semi- 
 private nature and are enjoyed by the 
 associate members and invited guests. 
 This circumstance is deserving of notice 
 as a characteristic feature of choral mu- 
 sic in America, though it has no partic- 
 ular bearing upon this study, which
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 must concern itself with choral organ- 
 izations, choral music, and choral per- 
 formances in general. 
 
 Organizations of the kind in view dif- 
 fer from instrumental in being composed 
 of amateurs ; and amateur choir-singing 
 is no older anywhere than in the United 
 States. Two centuries ago and more 
 the singing of catches and glees was a 
 common amusement among the gentler 
 classes in England, but the performances 
 of the larger forms of choral music were 
 in the hands of professional choristers 
 who were connected with churches, 
 theatres, schools, and other public insti- 
 tutions. Naturally, then, the choral 
 bodies were small. Choirs of hundreds 
 and thousands, such as take part in the 
 festivals of to-day, are a product of a 
 later time. 
 
 " When Bach and Handel wrote their Passions, 
 Church Cantatas, and Oratorios, they could only 
 dream of such majestic performances as those 
 works receive now ; and it is one of the miracles of 
 art that they should have written in so masterly a 
 manner for forces that they could never hope to 
 control. Who would think, when listening to the 
 4 Hallelujah ' of ' The Messiah," or the great double 
 choruses of ' Israel in Egypt,' in which the voice 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Amateur 
 
 choirs 
 
 originated 
 
 in the 
 
 United 
 
 States. 
 
 The size of 
 old choirs.
 
 258 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Handel's 
 choirs. 
 
 Choirs a 
 
 century 
 
 ago. 
 
 of the composer is ' as the voice of a great mul- 
 titude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the 
 voice of many thunderings, saying, " Alleluia, for 
 the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! ' " that these 
 colossal compositions were never heard by Handel 
 from any chorus larger than the most modest of 
 our church choirs ? At the last performance of 
 ' The Messiah ' at which Handel was advertised to 
 appear (it was for the benefit of his favorite charity, 
 the Foundling Hospital, on May 3, 1759 he died 
 before the time, however), the singers, including 
 principals, numbered twenty-three, while the instru- 
 mentalists numbered thirty-three. At the first great 
 Handel Commemoration, in Westminster Abbey, 
 in 1784, the choir numbered two hundred and 
 seventy-five, the band two hundred and fifty ; and 
 this was the most numerous force ever gathered to- 
 gether for a single performance in England up to 
 that time. 
 
 " In 1791 the Commemoration was celebrated by 
 a choir of five hundred and a band of three hundred 
 and seventy -five. In May, 1786, Johann Adam 
 Hiller, one of Bach's successors as cantor of the St. 
 Thomas School in Leipsic, directed what was 
 termed a Massenaujfuhrung of ' The Messiah,' in 
 the Domkirche, in Berlin. His ' masses ' con- 
 sisted of one hundred and eighteen singers and one 
 hundred and eighty-six instrumentalists. In Han- 
 del's operas, and sometimes even in his oratorios, 
 the tutti meant, in his time, little more than a 
 union of all the solo singers; and even Bach's 
 Passion music and church cantatas, which seem as 
 much designed for numbers as the double choruses
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 259 
 
 of ' Israel,' were rendered in the St. Thomas 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Church by a ludicrously small choir. Of this fact a 
 
 VIII. 
 
 record is preserved in the archives of Leipsic. In 
 
 
 August, 1730, Bach submitted to the authorities a 
 
 Bacffs 
 
 plan for a church choir of the pupils in his care. In 
 
 choir. 
 
 this plan his singers numbered twelve, there being 
 
 
 one principal and two ripienists in each voice ; with 
 
 
 characteristic modesty he barely suggests a prefer- 
 
 
 ence for sixteen. The circumstance that in the 
 
 
 same document he asked for at least eighteen in- 
 
 
 strumentalists (two more if flutes were used), taken 
 
 
 in connection with the figures given relative to the 
 
 
 ' Messiah ' performances, gives an insight into the 
 
 
 relations between the vocal and the instrumental 
 
 
 parts of a choral performance in those days." * 
 
 
 This relation has been more than re- 
 
 
 versed since then, the orchestras at 
 
 
 modern oratorio performances seldom 
 
 
 being one -fifth as large as the choir. 
 
 Proportion 
 
 This difference, however, is due largely 
 
 of voices 
 and instru- 
 
 to the changed character of modern 
 
 ments. 
 
 music, that of to-day treating the instru- 
 
 
 ments as independent agents of ex- 
 
 
 pression instead of using them chiefly to 
 
 
 support the voices and add sonority to 
 
 
 the tonal mass, as was done by Handel 
 
 
 and most of the composers of his day. 
 
 
 * " Notes on the Cultivation of Choral Music," by 
 
 
 H. E. Krehbiel, p. 17. 

 
 260 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Glee 
 
 unions and 
 male 
 choirs. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 I omit from consideration the Glee 
 Unions of England, and the quartets, 
 which correspond to them, in this coun- 
 try. They are not cultivators of choral 
 music, and the music which they sing 
 is an insignificant factor in culture. 
 The male choirs, too, need not detain us 
 long, since it may be said without injus- 
 tice that their mission is more social 
 than artistic. In these choirs the sub- 
 division into parts is, as a rule, into 
 two tenor voices, first and second, and 
 two bass, first and second. In the glee 
 unions, the effect of whose singing is 
 fairly well imitated by the college clubs 
 of the United States (pitiful things, in- 
 deed, from an artistic point of view), 
 there is a survival of an old element in 
 the male alto singing above the melody 
 voice, generally in a painful falsetto. 
 This abomination is unknown to the 
 German part-songs for men's voices, 
 which are written normally, but are in 
 the long run monotonous in color for 
 want of the variety in timbre and regis- 
 ter which the female voices contribute 
 in a mixed choir. 
 
 There are choirs also composed ex-
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 clusively of women, but they are even 
 more unsatisfactory than the male 
 choirs, for the reason that the absence 
 of the bass voice leaves their harmony 
 without sufficient foundation. Gener- 
 ally, music for these choirs is written 
 for three parts, two sopranos and con- 
 tralto, with the result that it hovers, sus- 
 pended like Mahomet's coffin, between 
 heaven and earth. When a fourth part 
 is added it is a second contralto, which 
 is generally carried down to the tones 
 that are hollow and unnatural. 
 
 The substitution of boys for women 
 in Episcopal Church choirs has grown 
 extensively within the last ten years in 
 the United States, very much to the 
 promotion of aesthetic sentimentality in 
 the congregations, but without improv- 
 ing the character of worship -music. 
 Boys' voices are practically limitless in 
 an upward direction, and are naturally 
 clear and penetrating. Ravishing effects 
 can be produced with them, but it is 
 false art to use passionless voices in mu- 
 sic conceived for the mature and emo- 
 tional voices of adults ; and very little of 
 the old English Cathedral music, written 
 
 261 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Women's 
 choirs. 
 
 Boys' 
 choirs.
 
 262 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Mixed 
 choirs. 
 
 Origin of 
 amateur 
 singing 
 societies. 
 
 for choirs of boys and men, is preserved 
 in the service lists to-day. 
 
 The only satisfactory choirs are the 
 mixed choirs of men and women. Upon 
 them has devolved the cultivation of 
 artistic choral music in our public con- 
 cert-rooms. As we know such choirs 
 now, they are of comparatively recent 
 origin, and it is a singular commentary 
 upon the way in which musical history 
 is written, that the fact should have so 
 long been overlooked that the credit 
 of organizing the first belongs to the 
 United States. A little reflection will 
 show this fact, which seems somewhat 
 startling at first blush, to be entirely 
 natural. Large singing societies are of 
 necessity made up of amateurs, and the 
 want of professional musicians in Amer- 
 ica compelled the people to enlist ama- 
 teurs at a time when in Europe choral 
 activity rested on the church, theatre, 
 and institute choristers, who were prac- 
 tically professionals. 
 
 As the hitherto accepted record stands, 
 the first amateur singing society was 
 the Singakademie of Berlin, which Carl 
 Friedrich Fasch, accompanist to the roy-
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 al flautist, Frederick the Great, called 
 into existence in 1791. A few dates will 
 show how slow the other cities of mu- 
 sical Germany were in following Berlin's 
 example. In 1818 there were only ten 
 amateur choirs in all Germany. Leip- 
 sic organized one in 1800, Stettin in 1800, 
 Miinster in 1804, Dresden in 1807, Pots- 
 dam in 1814, Bremen in 1815, Chemnitz 
 in 1817, Schwabisch-Hall in 1817, and 
 Innsbruck in 1818. The Berlin Sing- 
 akademie is still in existence, but so also 
 is the Stoughton Musical Society in 
 Stoughton, Mass., which was founded 
 on November 7, 1786. Mr. Charles C. 
 Perkins, historian of the Handel and 
 Haydn Society, whose foundation was 
 coincident with the sixth society in Ger- 
 many (Bremen, 1815), enumerates the 
 following predecessors of that venerable 
 organization : the Stoughton Musical 
 Society, 1786 ; Independent Musical So- 
 ciety, " established at Boston in the same 
 year, which gave a concert at King's 
 Chapel in 1788, and took part there in 
 commemorating the death of Washing- 
 ton (December 14, 1799) on his first suc- 
 ceeding birthday ; " the Franklin, 1804 ; 
 
 263 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The Ger- 
 man record. 
 
 American 
 priority. 
 
 The 
 
 American 
 
 record.
 
 264 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Choirs in 
 the West. 
 
 The size of 
 choirs. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the Salem, 1806; Massachusetts Musical, 
 1807 ; Lock Hospital, 1812, and the Nor- 
 folk Musical, the date of whose founda- 
 tion is not given by Mr. Perkins. 
 
 When the Bremen Singakademie was 
 organized there were already choirs in 
 the United States as far west as Cincin- 
 nati. In that city they were merely 
 church choirs at first, but within a few 
 years they had combined into a large 
 body and were giving concerts at which 
 some of the choruses of Handel and 
 Haydn were sung. That their perform- 
 ances, as well as those of the New Eng- 
 land societies, were cruder than those of 
 their European rivals may well be be- 
 lieved, but with this I have nothing to do. 
 I am simply seeking to establish the pri- 
 ority of the United States in amateur 
 choral culture. The number of Ameri- 
 can cities in which oratorios are per- 
 formed annually is now about fifty. 
 
 In size mixed choirs ordinarily range 
 from forty voices to five hundred. It 
 were well if it were understood by chor- 
 isters as well as the public that numbers 
 merely are not a sign of merit in a sing- 
 ing society. So the concert-room be
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 265 
 
 not too large, a choir of sixty well-trained 
 voices is large enough to perform almost 
 everything in choral literature with 
 good effect, and the majority of the best 
 compositions will sound better under 
 such circumstances than in large rooms 
 with large choirs. Especially is this 
 true of the music of the Middle Ages, 
 written for voices without instrumental 
 accompaniment, of which I shall have 
 something to say when the discussion 
 reaches choral programmes. There is 
 music, it is true, like much of Handel's, 
 the impressiveness of which is greatly 
 enhanced by masses, but it is not exten- 
 sive enough to justify the sacrifice of 
 correctness and finish in the perform- 
 ance to mere volume. The use of large 
 choirs has had the effect of developing 
 the skilfulness of amateur singers in an 
 astonishing degree, but there is, never- 
 theless, a point where weightiness of 
 tone becomes an obstacle to finished 
 execution. When Mozart remodelled 
 Handel's " Messiah " he was careful to 
 indicate that the florid passages (" divis- 
 ions " they used to be called in England) 
 should be sung by the solo voices alone, 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Large 
 numbers 
 not essen- 
 tial. 
 
 How " di- 
 visions " 
 used ta be 
 sung.
 
 266 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The 
 
 division 
 of choirs. 
 
 Five-part 
 music. 
 
 Eight 
 part. 
 
 but nowadays choirs of five hundred 
 voices attack such choruses as " For 
 unto us a Child is Born," without the 
 slightest hesitation, even if they some- 
 times make a mournful mess of the " di- 
 visions." 
 
 The normal division of a mixed choir 
 is into four parts or voices soprano, 
 contralto, tenor, and bass ; but com- 
 posers sometimes write for more parts, 
 and the choir is subdivided to corre- 
 spond. The custom of writing for five, 
 six, eight, ten, and even more voices was 
 more common in the Middle Ages, the 
 palmy days of the a capella (i.e., for the 
 chapel, unaccompanied) style than it is 
 now, and, as a rule, a division into more 
 than four voices is not needed outside of 
 the societies which cultivate this old mu- 
 sic, such as the Musical Art Society in 
 New York, the Bach Choir in London, 
 and the Domchor in Berlin. In music 
 for five parts, one of the upper voices, 
 soprano or tenor, is generally doubled ; 
 for six, the ordinary distribution is into 
 two sopranos, two contraltos, tenor, and 
 bass. When eight voices are reached a 
 distinction is made according as there
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 are to be eight real parts (a otto voci 
 reali), or two choruses of the four nor- 
 mal parts each (a otto voci in due cori 
 realt). In the first instance the arrange- 
 ment commonly is three sopranos, two 
 contraltos, two tenors, and one bass. 
 One of the most beautiful uses of the 
 double choir is to produce antiphonal 
 effects, choir answering to choir, both 
 occasionally uniting in the climaxes. 
 How stirring this effect can be made 
 may be observed in some of Bach's 
 compositions, especially those in which 
 he makes the division of the choir sub- 
 serve a dramatic purpose, as in the first 
 chorus of "The Passion according to 
 St. Matthew," where the two choirs, 
 one representing Daughters of Zion, the 
 other Believers, interrogate and answer 
 each other thus : 
 
 I. " Come, ye daughters, weep for anguish ; 
 
 See Him ! 
 II. "Whom? 
 
 I. " The Son of Man. 
 See Him ! 
 
 II. "How? 
 I. " So like a lamb. 
 See it ! 
 
 II. "What? 
 
 267 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Antipho- 
 nal music. 
 
 Back's" St. 
 
 Matthew 
 
 Passion."
 
 268 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIIl. 
 
 Antiphony 
 in a motet. 
 
 Excellence 
 in choral 
 singing. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 I. " His love untold. 
 
 Look! 
 
 II. " Look where ? 
 I. " Our guilt behold." 
 
 Another most striking instance is in 
 the same master's motet, "Sing ye to 
 the Lord," which is written for two 
 choirs of four parts each. (In the ex- 
 ample from the " St. Matthew Passion " 
 there is a third choir of soprano voices 
 which sings a chorale while the dra- 
 matic choirs are conversing.) In the 
 motet the first choir begins a fugue, in 
 the midst of which the second choir is 
 heard shouting jubilantly, "Sing ye! 
 Sing ye ! Sing ye ! " Then the choirs 
 change roles, the first delivering the in- 
 junction, the second singing the fugue. 
 In modern music, composers frequently 
 consort a quartet of solo voices, so- 
 prano, contralto, tenor, and bass, with a 
 four-part chorus, and thus achieve fine 
 effects of contrast in dynamics and 
 color, as well as antiphonal. 
 
 The question is near : What consti- 
 tutes excellence in a choral perform- 
 ance ? To answer : The same qualities 
 that constitute excellence in an orches-
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 tral performance, will scarcely suffice, 
 except as a generalization. A higher 
 degree of harmonious action is exacted 
 of a body of singers than of a body of 
 instrumentalists. Many of the parts in 
 a symphony are played by a single 
 instrument. Community of voice be- 
 longs only to each of the five bodies of 
 string -players. In a chorus there are 
 from twelve to one hundred and fifty 
 voices, or even more, united in each 
 part. This demands the effacement of 
 individuality in a chorus, upon the 
 assertion of which, in a band, under the 
 judicious guidance of the conductor, 
 many of the effects of color and ex- 
 pression depend. Each group in a 
 choir must strive for homogeneity of 
 voice quality; each singer must sink 
 the ego in the aggregation, yet employ 
 it in its highest potency so far as the 
 mastery of the technics of singing is 
 concerned. In cultivating precision of 
 attack (i.e., promptness in beginning a 
 tone and leaving it off), purity of intona- 
 tion (i.e., accuracy or justness of pitch 
 " singing in tune " according to the 
 popular phrase), clearness of enuncia- 
 
 269 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Community 
 of action. 
 
 Individual- 
 ism.
 
 270 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Dynamics, 
 
 Beauty of 
 tone. 
 
 Contralto 
 voices. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 tion, and careful attention to all the 
 dynamic gradations of tone, from very 
 soft up to very loud, and all shades of 
 expression between, in the development 
 of that gradual augmentation of tone 
 called crescendo, and the gradual diminu- 
 tion called diminuendo, the highest order 
 of individual skill is exacted from every 
 chorister ; for upon individual perfection 
 in these things depends the collective 
 effect which it is the purpose of the 
 conductor to achieve. Sensuous beauty 
 of tone, even in large aggregations, is 
 also dependent to a great degree upon 
 careful and proper emission of voice by 
 each individual, and it is because the 
 contralto part in most choral music, 
 being a middle part, lies so easily in the 
 voices of the singers that the contralto 
 contingent in American choirs, espe- 
 cially, so often attracts attention by the 
 charm of its tone. Contralto voices are 
 seldom forced into the regions which 
 compel so great a physical strain that 
 beauty and character must be sacrificed 
 to mere accomplishment of utterance, 
 as is frequently the case with the so- 
 prano part.
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 Yet back of all this exercise of indi- 
 vidual skill there must be a spirit of 
 self-sacrifice which can only exist in 
 effective potency if prompted by univer- 
 sal sympathy and love forthe art. A self- 
 ish chorister is not a chorister, though 
 possessed of the voice of a Melba or 
 Mario. Balance between the parts, not 
 only in the fundamental constitution of 
 the choir but also in all stages of a per- 
 formance, is also a matter of the highest 
 consideration. In urban communities, 
 especially, it is difficult to secure per- 
 fect tonal symmetry the rule is a pov- 
 erty in tenor voices but those who go 
 to hear choral concerts are entitled to 
 hear a well-balanced choir, and the pres- 
 ence of an army of sopranos will not 
 condone a squad of tenors. Again, I 
 say, better a well-balanced small choir 
 than an ill-balanced large one. 
 
 I have not enumerated all the ele- 
 ments which enter into a meritorious 
 performance, nor shall I discuss them 
 all ; only in passing do I wish to direct 
 attention to one which shines by its 
 absence in the choral performances not 
 only of America but also of Great 
 
 271 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Selfishness 
 fatal to suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Tonal bal- 
 ance. 
 
 Declama- 
 tion.
 
 272 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Expres- 
 sion. 
 
 The cho- 
 ruses in 
 
 ' The 
 Messiah. ' 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Britain and Germany. Proper pro- 
 nunciation of the texts is an obvious 
 requirement; so ought also to be dec- 
 lamation. There is no reason why 
 characteristic expression, by which I 
 mean expression which goes to the 
 genius of the melodic phrase when it 
 springs from the verbal, should be 
 ignored, simply because it may be diffi- 
 cult of attainment from large bodies of 
 singers. There is so much monotony 
 in oratorio concerts because all oratorios 
 and all parts of any single oratorio are 
 sung alike. Only when the " Hallelu- 
 jah " is sung in "The Messiah "at the 
 gracious Christmastide is an exaltation 
 above the dull level of the routine 
 performances noticeable, and then it is 
 communicated to the singers by the act 
 of the listeners in rising to their feet. 
 Now, despite the structural sameness in 
 the choruses of " The Messiah," they 
 have a great variety of content, and if 
 the characteristic physiognomy of each 
 could but be disclosed, the grand old 
 work, which seems hackneyed to so 
 many, would acquire amazing freshness, 
 eloquence, and power. Then should we
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 2 73 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Variety of 
 declama- 
 tion in 
 Handel's 
 oratorio. 
 
 be privileged to note that there is ample 
 variety in the voice of the old master, 
 of whom a greater than he said that 
 when he wished, he could strike like a 
 thunderbolt. Then should we hear the 
 tones of amazed adoration in 
 
 n Largo. 
 
 hfl7frk( f =1 . f .' 6 "~K ^~t= 
 
 ttnr '' PS - ^ -2-1- 
 
 J p =t J J 
 
 Be - hold the Lamb of God! 
 
 of cruel scorn in 
 
 / Allegro. ^ ^ 
 
 pfeju'.* r J J^fr- f vp=^=r=\ 
 
 |>*l>b<' * -J - 1 *- * |k * ^ ^ *\ 
 He trust - ed in God that he would de- 
 
 h F m T= - * r r T^ r i* 
 
 U fc ..".,_U U U J- y 1 
 liv - er Him, let him de - liv - er him 
 
 1 ; C r r~l ^ ^ =i= 
 
 if he de - light in him. 
 
 of boastfulness and conscious strength 
 in 
 
 a '*'*' e 
 
 h^ x u r -g ^ 1 ^ ^^^-y- 
 
 Let us break their bonds a - sun - der. 
 
 and learn to admire as we ought to 
 admire the declamatory strength and
 
 274 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Medieeval 
 music. 
 
 Madrigals. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 truthfulness so common in Handel's 
 choruses. 
 
 There is very little cultivation of 
 choral music of the early ecclesiastical 
 type, and that little is limited to the 
 Church and a few choirs specially organ- 
 ized for its performance, like those that 
 I have mentioned. This music is so 
 foreign to the conceptions of the ordi- 
 nary amateur, and exacts so much skill 
 in the singing of the intervals, lacking 
 the prop of modern tonality as it does, 
 that it is seldom that an amateur body 
 can be found equal to its performance. 
 Moreover, it is nearly all of a solemn 
 type. Its composers were churchmen, 
 and when it was written nearly all that 
 there was of artistic music was in the 
 service of the Church. The secular 
 music of the time consisted chiefly in 
 Madrigals, which differed from ecclesi- 
 astical music only in their texts, they be- 
 ing generally erotic in sentiment. The 
 choristers of to-day, no less than the 
 public, find it difficult to appreciate 
 them, because they are not melodic in 
 the sense that most music is nowadays. 
 In them the melody is not the privileged
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 possession of the soprano voice. All 
 the voices stand on an equal footing, 
 and the composition consists of a weav- 
 ing together, according to scientific 
 rules, of a number of voices counter- 
 point as it is called. 
 
 Our hymn -tunes are homophonic, 
 based upon a melody sung by one voice, 
 for which the other voices provide the 
 harmony. This style of music came 
 into the Church through the German 
 Reformation. Though Calvin was a 
 lover of music he restricted its practice 
 among his followers to unisonal psal- 
 mody, that is, to certain tunes adapted 
 to the versified psalms sung without ac- 
 companiment of harmony voices. On 
 the adoption of the Genevan psalter he 
 gave the strictest injunction that neither 
 its text nor its melodies were to be al- 
 tered. 
 
 " Those songs and melodies," said he, " which 
 are composed for the mere pleasure of the ear, and 
 all they call ornamental music, and songs for four 
 parts, do not behoove the majesty of the Church, 
 and cannot fail greatly to displease God." 
 
 Under the influence of the German 
 reformers music was in a very different 
 
 2 75 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Homopho- 
 nic hymns. 
 
 Calvin's 
 
 restrictive 
 
 influence.
 
 276 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Luther and 
 the German 
 Church. 
 
 A German 
 mass. 
 
 Secular 
 tunes used. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 case. Luther was not only an amateur 
 musician, he was also an ardent lover 
 of scientific music. Josquin des Pres, 
 a contemporary of Columbus, was his 
 greatest admiration ; nevertheless, he 
 was anxious from the beginning of his 
 work of Church establishment to have 
 the music of the German Church Ger- 
 man in spirit and style. In 1525 he 
 wrote : 
 
 " I should like to have a German mass, and I am 
 indeed at work on one ; but I am anxious that it 
 shall be truly German in manner. I have no objec- 
 tion to a translated Latin text and Latin notes ; but 
 they are neither proper nor just (aber es lautet nicht 
 artig noch rechtschaffen} ; text and notes, accent, 
 melodies, and demeanor must come from our mother 
 tongue and voice, else will it all be but a mimicry, 
 like that of the apes." 
 
 In the Church music of the time, com- 
 posed, as I have described, by a scientific 
 interweaving of voices, the composers 
 had got into the habit of utilizing secu- 
 lar melodies as the foundation on which 
 to build their contrapuntal structures. 
 I have no doubt that it was the spirit 
 which speaks out of Luther's words 
 which brought it to pass that in Ger-
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 many contrapuntal music with popular 
 melodies as foundations developed into 
 the chorale, in which the melody and not 
 the counterpoint was the essential thing. 
 With the Lutheran Church came con- 
 gregational singing ; with congrega- 
 tional singing the need of a new style 
 of composition, which should not only 
 make the participation of the people 
 in the singing possible, but should also 
 stimulate them to sing by freeing the 
 familiar melodies (the melodies of folk- 
 songs) from the elaborate and ingenious, 
 but soulless, counterpoint which fettered 
 them. 
 
 The Flemish masters, who were the 
 musical law-givers, had been using sec- 
 ular tunes for over a century, but only 
 as stalking-horses for counterpoint ; and 
 when the Germans began to use their 
 tunes, they, too, buried them beyond rec- 
 ognition in the contrapuntal mass. The 
 people were invited to sing paraphrases 
 of the psalms to familiar tunes, it is true, 
 but the choir's polyphony went far to 
 stifle the spirit of the melody. Soon 
 the free spirit which I have repeatedly 
 referred to as Romanticism, and which 
 
 2 77 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Congrega- 
 tionalsing- 
 ing. 
 
 Counter- 
 point.
 
 2 7 8 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The first 
 fongrega- 
 tional 
 hymns. 
 
 The Church 
 and con- 
 servatism. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 was powerfully encouraged by the Ref- 
 ormation, prompted a style of composi- 
 tion in which the admired melody was 
 lifted into relief. This could not be 
 done until the new style of writing in- 
 vented by the creators of the opera (see 
 Chapter VII.) came in, but as early as 
 1568 Dr. Lucas Ostrander published 
 fifty hymns and psalms with music so 
 arranged " that the congregation may 
 join in singing them." This, then, is in 
 outline the story of the beginning of 
 modern hymnology, and it is recalled to 
 the patrons of choral concerts whenever 
 in Bach's " Passion Music " or in Men- 
 delssohn's "St. Paul" the choir sings 
 one of the marvellous old hymns of the 
 German Church. 
 
 Choral music being bound up with 
 the Church, it has naturally participated 
 in the conservatism characteristic of the 
 Church. The severe old style has sur- 
 vived in the choral compositions of to- 
 day, while instrumental music has grown 
 to be almost a new thing within the cen- 
 tury which is just closing. It is the se- 
 vere style established by Bach, however, 
 not that of Palestrina. In the Church
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 compositions prior to Palestrina the emo- 
 tional power of harmony was but little 
 understood. The harmonies, indeed, 
 were the accidents of the interweaving 
 of melodies. Palestrina was among the 
 first to feel the uplifting effect which 
 might result from a simple sequence of 
 pure consonant harmonies, and the three 
 chords which open his famous " Stabat 
 Mater" 
 
 5fe 
 
 e 
 
 Sta - bat ma - ter 
 
 are a sign of his style as distinct in its 
 way as the devices by means of which 
 Wagner stamps his individuality on his 
 phrases. His melodies, too, compared 
 with the artificial motivi of his predeces- 
 sors, are distinguished by grace, beauty, 
 and expressiveness, while his command 
 of aetherial effects, due to the manner in 
 which the voices are combined, is abso- 
 lutely without parallel from his day to 
 this. Of the mystery of pure beauty he 
 enjoyed a wonderful revelation, and has 
 
 279 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Harmony 
 and emo- 
 tion. 
 
 Palestrina s 
 " Stabat 
 Mater" 
 
 Character- 
 istics of 
 his music.
 
 280 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Palestrintfs 
 music not 
 dramatic. 
 
 A church- 
 man. 
 
 Effect of 
 the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 handed it down to us in such works as 
 the " Stabat Mater," " Missa Papae Mar- 
 celli," and the " Improperia." 
 
 This music must not be listened to 
 with the notion in mind of dramatic ex- 
 pression such as we almost instinctively 
 feel to-day. Palestrina does not seek to 
 proclaim the varying sentiment which 
 underlies his texts. That leads to indi- 
 vidual interpretation and is foreign to 
 the habits of churchmen in the old con- 
 ception, when the individual was com- 
 pletely resolved in the organization. 
 He aimed to exalt the mystery of ihe 
 service, not to bring it down to popular 
 comprehension and make it a personal 
 utterance. For such a design in music 
 we must wait until after the Reforma- 
 tion, when the ancient mysticism began 
 to fall back before the demands of rea- 
 son, when the idea of the sole and suffi- 
 cient mediation of the Church lost some 
 of its power in the face of the growing 
 conviction of intimate personal relation- 
 ship between man and his creator. 
 Now idealism had to yield some of its 
 dominion to realism, and a more rugged 
 art grew up in place of that which had
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 been so wonderfully sublimated by mys- 
 ticism. 
 
 It is in Bach, who came a century 
 after Palestrina, that we find the most 
 eloquent musical proclamation of the 
 new regime, and it is in no sense dis- 
 respectful to the great German master 
 if we feel that the change in ideals was 
 accompanied with a loss in sensuous 
 charm, or pure aesthetic beauty. Effect 
 has had to yield to idea. It is in the 
 flow of the voices, the color effects which 
 result from combination and registers, 
 the clarity of the harmonies, the repose- 
 fulness coming from conscious ease of 
 utterance, the loveliness of each individ- 
 ual part, and the spiritual exaltation of 
 the whole that the aesthetic mystery of 
 Palestrina's music lies. 
 
 Like Palestrina, Bach is the culmina- 
 tion of the musical practice of his time, 
 but, unlike Palestrina, he is also the 
 starting-point of a new development. 
 With Bach the old contrapuntal art, now 
 not vocal merely but instrumental also 
 and mixed, reaches its climax, and the 
 tendency sets in which leads to the 
 highly complex and dramatic art of to- 
 
 28l 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The source 
 of beauty 
 in Pales- 
 trind's 
 music. 
 
 Bach.
 
 282 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Bach a 
 
 German 
 
 Protestant. 
 
 Church 
 
 and indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 day. Palestrina's art is Roman ; the 
 spirit of restfulness, of celestial calm, 
 of supernatural revelation and supernal 
 beauty broods over it. Bach's is Gothic 
 rugged, massive, upward striving, hu- 
 man. In Palestrina's music the voice 
 that speaks is the voice of angels ; in 
 Bach's it is the voice of men. 
 
 Bach is the publisher of the truest, 
 tenderest, deepest, and most individual 
 religious feeling. His music is pecul- 
 iarly a hymning of the religious sen- 
 timent of Protestant Germany, where 
 salvation is to be wrought out with 
 fear and trembling by each individual 
 through faith and works rather than the 
 agency of even a divinely constituted 
 Church. It reflects, with rare fidelity 
 and clearness, the essential qualities of 
 the German people their warm sympa- 
 thy, profound compassion, fervent love, 
 and sturdy faith. As the Church fell 
 into the background and the individual 
 came to the fore, religious music took 
 on the dramatic character which we 
 find in the " Passion Music " of Bach. 
 Here the sufferings and death of the 
 Saviour, none the less an ineffable mys-
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 tery, are depicted as the most poignant 
 experience of each individual believer, 
 and with an ingenuousness that must 
 forever provoke the wonder of those 
 who are unable to enter into the Ger- 
 man nature. The worshippers do not 
 hesitate to say : " My Jesus, good- 
 night ! " as they gather in fancy around 
 His tomb and invoke sweet rest for His 
 weary limbs. The difference between 
 such a proclamation and the calm voice 
 of the Church should be borne in mind 
 when comparing the music of Palestrina 
 with that of Bach ; also the vast strides 
 made by music during the intervening 
 century. 
 
 Of Bach's music we have in the rep- 
 ertories of our best choral societies a 
 number of motets, church cantatas, a set- 
 ting of the " Magnificat," and the great 
 mass in B minor. The term Motet lacks 
 somewhat of definiteness of the usage of 
 composers. Originally it seems likely 
 that it was a secular composition which 
 the Netherland composers enlisted in 
 the service of the Church by adapting 
 it to Biblical and other religious texts. 
 Then it was always unaccompanied. In 
 
 28 3 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Ingenuous- 
 ness of 
 feeling. 
 
 The motet.
 
 284 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Church 
 
 cantatas. 
 
 The "Pas- 
 sions." 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the later Protestant motets the chorale 
 came to play a great part ; the various 
 stanzas of a hymn were given differ- 
 ent settings, the foundation of each be- 
 ing the hymn tune. These were inter- 
 spersed with independent pieces, based 
 on Biblical words. 
 
 The Church Cantatas (Kirchencanta- 
 teri) are larger services with orchestral 
 accompaniment, which were written to 
 conform to the various religious festi- 
 vals and Sundays of the year ; each has 
 for a fundamental subject the theme 
 which is proper to the day. Again, a 
 chorale provides the musical founda- 
 tion. Words and melody are retained, 
 but between the stanzas occur recita- 
 tives and metrical airs, or ariosos, for 
 solo voices in the nature of commenta- 
 ries or reflections on the sentiment of 
 the hymn or the gospel lesson for the 
 day. 
 
 The " Passions " are still more ex- 
 tended, and were written for use in 
 the Reformed Church in Holy Week. 
 As an art-form they are unique, com- 
 bining a number of elements and hav- 
 ing all the apparatus of an oratorio
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 plus the congregation, which took part 
 in the performance by singing the 
 hymns dispersed through the work. 
 The service (for as a service, rather 
 than as an oratorio, it must be treated) 
 roots in the Miracle plays and Myste- 
 ries of the Middle Ages, but its origin 
 is even more remote, going back to 
 the custom followed by the primitive 
 Christians of making the reading of the 
 story of the Passion a special service 
 for Holy Week. In the Eastern Church 
 it was introduced in a simple dramatic 
 form as early as the fourth century A.D., 
 the treatment being somewhat like the 
 ancient tragedies, the text being intoned 
 or chanted. In the Western Church, 
 until the sixteenth century, the Passion 
 was read in a way which gave the ser- 
 vice one element which is found in 
 Bach's works in an amplified form. 
 Three deacons were employed, one to 
 read (or rather chant to Gregorian 
 melodies) the words of Christ, anoth- 
 er to deliver the narrative in the words 
 of the Evangelist, and a third to 
 give the utterances and exclamations of 
 the Apostles and people. This was 
 
 285 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Origin of 
 the " Pas- 
 sions. " 
 
 Early Holy 
 Week ser- 
 vices.
 
 286 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The ser- 
 vice ampli- 
 fied. 
 
 BacKs 
 settings. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the Cantus Passionis Domini nostri Jesu 
 Christe of the Church, and had so strong 
 a hold upon the tastes of the people 
 that it was preserved by Luther in the 
 Reformed Church. 
 
 Under this influence it was speedily 
 amplified. The successive steps of the 
 progress are not clear, but the choir 
 seems to have first succeeded to the 
 part formerly sung by the third deacon, 
 and in some churches the whole Passion 
 was sung antiphonally by two choirs. 
 In the seventeenth century the intro- 
 duction of recitatives and arias, distrib- 
 uted among singers who represented 
 the personages of sacred history, in- 
 creased the dramatic element of the 
 service which reached its climax in the 
 " St. Matthew " setting by Bach. The 
 chorales are supposed to have been in- 
 troduced about 1704. Bach's " Passions " 
 are the last that figure in musical his- 
 tory. That " according to St. John " 
 is performed occasionally in Germany, 
 but it yields the palm of excellence to 
 that " according to St. Matthew," which 
 had its first performance on Good Fri- 
 day, 1729, in Leipsic. It is in two parts,
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 which were formerly separated by the 
 sermon, and employs two choirs, each 
 with its own orchestra, solo singers in 
 all the classes of voices, and a harpsi- 
 chord to accompany all the recitatives, 
 except those of Jesus, which are distin- 
 guished by being accompanied by the 
 orchestral strings. 
 
 In the nature of things passions, ora- 
 torios, and their secular cousins, canta- 
 tas, imply scenes and actions, and there- 
 fore have a remote kinship with the 
 lyric drama. The literary analogy which 
 they suggest is the epic poem as contra- 
 distinguished from the drama. While 
 the drama presents incident, the oratorio 
 relates, expounds, and celebrates, pre- 
 senting it to the fancy through the ear 
 instead of representing it to the eye. A 
 great deal of looseness has crept into 
 this department of music as into every 
 other, and the various forms have been 
 approaching each other until in some 
 cases it is become difficult to say which 
 term, opera or oratorio, ought to be ap- 
 plied. Rubinstein's " sacred operas " 
 are oratorios profusely interspersed with 
 stage directions, many of which are im- 
 
 287 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Oratorio*. 
 
 Sacred 
 oferas.
 
 288 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 vm. 
 
 Imjhumcf 
 of the 
 Oatrck 
 
 G r igvt 
 of the 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 possible of scenic realization. Their 
 whole purpose is to work upon the 
 imagination of the listeners and thus 
 open gate-ways for the music. Ever 
 since its composition, Saint - Saens's 
 " Samson and Delilah " has held a place 
 in both theatre and concert-room. Liszt's 
 "St. Elizabeth" has been found more 
 effective when provided with pictorial 
 accessories than without. The greater 
 part of " Elijah " might be presented in 
 dramatic form. 
 
 Confusing and anomalous as these 
 things are, they find their explanation in 
 the circumstance that the oratorio never 
 quite freed itself from the influence of 
 the people's Church plays in which it 
 had its beginning. As a distinct art- 
 form it began in a mixture of artistic 
 entertainment and religious worship 
 provided in the early part of the six- 
 teenth century by Filippo Neri (now a 
 saint) for those who came for pious in- 
 struction to his oratory (whence the 
 name). The purpose of these entertain- 
 ments being religious, the subjects were 
 Biblical, and though the musical prog- 
 ress from the beginning was along the
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 line of the lyric drama, contempora- 
 neous in origin with it, the music natu- 
 rally developed into broader forms on 
 the choral side, because music had to 
 make up for the lack of pantomime, cos- 
 tumes, and scenery. Hence we have 
 not only the preponderance of choruses 
 in the oratorio over recitative, arias, 
 duets, trios, and so forth, but also the 
 adherence in the choral part to the old 
 manner of writing which made the ex- 
 pansion of the choruses possible. Where 
 the choruses left the field of pure reflec- 
 tion and became narrative, as in " Israel 
 in Egypt," or assumed a dramatic char- 
 acter, as in the " Elijah," the composer 
 found in them vehicles for descriptive 
 and characteristic music, and so local 
 color came into use. Characterization 
 of the solo parts followed as a matter of 
 course, an early illustration being found 
 in the manner in which Bach lifted the 
 words of Christ into prominence by sur- 
 rounding them with the radiant halo 
 which streams from the violin accom- 
 paniment. In consequence the singer 
 to whom was assigned the task of sing- 
 ing the part of Jesus presented himself 
 
 289 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIIL
 
 290 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 The chorus 
 in opera 
 and ora- 
 torio. 
 
 The Mass. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 to the fancy of the listeners as a repre- 
 sentative of the historical personage 
 as the Christ of the drama. 
 
 The growth of the instrumental art 
 here came admirably into play, and so it 
 came to pass that opera and oratorio 
 now have their musical elements of ex- 
 pression in common, and differ only in 
 their application of them opera fore- 
 going the choral element to a great ex- 
 tent as being a hindrance to action, and 
 oratorio elevating it to make good the 
 absence of scenery and action. While 
 oratorios are biblical and legendary, 
 cantatas deal with secular subjects and, 
 in the form of dramatic ballads, find a 
 delightful field in the world of romance 
 and supernaturalism. 
 
 Transferred from the Church to the 
 concert-room, and considered as an art- 
 form instead of the eucharistic office, 
 the Mass has always made a strong ap- 
 peal to composers, and half a dozen 
 masterpieces of missal composition 
 hold places in the concert lists of the 
 singing societies. Notable among these 
 are the Requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, 
 and Verdi, and the Solemn Mass in D by
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 Beethoven. These works represent at 
 one and the same time the climax of ac- 
 complishment in the musical treatment 
 and the secularization of the missal text. 
 They are the natural outcome of the ex- 
 pansion of the office by the introduction 
 of the orchestra into the Church, the 
 departure from the a capella style of 
 writing, which could not be consorted 
 with the orchestra, and the growth of a 
 desire to enhance the pomp of great 
 occasions in the Church by the produc- 
 tion of masses specially composed for 
 them. Under such circumstances the 
 devotional purpose of the mass was 
 lost in the artistic, and composers gave 
 free reign to their powers, for which 
 they found an ample stimulus in the 
 missal text. 
 
 The first effect, and the one which 
 largely justifies the adherents of the old 
 ecclesiastical style in their crusade 
 against the Catholic Church music of 
 to-day, was to make the masses senti- 
 mental and operatic. So little regard 
 was had for the sentiment of the words, 
 so little respect for the solemnity of the 
 sacrament, that more than a century ago 
 
 291 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Secular- 
 ization of 
 the Mass. 
 
 Sentimen- 
 tal masses.
 
 292 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Mozart 
 and the 
 Mass. 
 
 The masses 
 for the 
 dead. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 Mozart (whose masses are far from 
 being models of religious expression) 
 could say to Cantor Doles of a Gloria 
 which the latter showed him, " Sist ja 
 alles nix" and immediately sing the 
 music to "Hoi's der Geier, das geht 
 flink ! " which words, he said, went 
 better. The liberty begotten by this 
 license, though it tended to ruin the 
 mass, considered strictly as a liturgical 
 service, developed it musically. The 
 masses for the dead were among the 
 earliest to feel the spirit of the time, for 
 in the sequence, Dies irce, they con- 
 tained the dramatic element which the 
 solemn mass lacked. The Kyrie, Credo, 
 Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are 
 purely lyrical, and though the evolu- 
 tionary movement ended in Beethoven 
 conceiving certain portions (notably the 
 Agnus Dei} in a dramatic sense, it was 
 but natural that so far as tradition fixed 
 the disposition and formal style of the 
 various parts, it should not be dis- 
 turbed. At an early date the compos- 
 ers began to put forth their powers of 
 description in the Dies ir&, however, and 
 there is extant in a French mass an
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 2 93 
 
 amusing example of the length to 
 which tone-painting in this music was 
 carried by them. Gossec wrote a Re- 
 quiem on the death of Mirabeau which 
 became famous. The words, Quantus 
 tremor est futurus, he set so that on 
 each syllable there were repetitions, 
 staccato, of a single tone, thus : 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Gossec s 
 Requiem. 
 
 W *M Vh~1 1 1 4 1 4 4 44 4444 
 
 \J W-J-JL-J. -J.-J.jL..'- 'iLJ-S-i J5--5--S5- ' 
 
 f}f) Quaii - - tus tre - - - mor, 
 
 gji^F^^S j I* 1 H Jjp3=j==^-j=iL^ 
 
 
 etc. 
 
 p^F"^"^ i*^^7""i 1 1-5 1 r^ 
 
 
 -rrr jljji '^iii aii^ 
 
 
 M^B^^V f ^ 
 
 j j j j ->i-|j-i^=^j j^ s ; ;^^ 
 
 
 f-'ff rr_L, ^_jLLf_g_c-t-f 
 
 This absurd stuttering Gossec de- 
 signed to picture the terror inspired by 
 the coming of the Judge at the last 
 trumpet. 
 The development of instrumentation 
 placed a factor in the hands of these 
 writers which they were not slow to 
 utilize, especially in writing music for 
 
 The orches- 
 tra in the 
 Mass.
 
 294 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Beethoven 
 
 and 
 
 Berlioz. 
 
 Berlioz's 
 Requiem. 
 
 the Dies ires, and how effectively Mo- 
 zart used the orchestra in his Requiem 
 it is not necessary to state. It is a safe 
 assumption that Beethoven's Mass in D 
 was largely instrumental in inspiring 
 Berlioz to set the Requiem as he did. 
 With Beethoven the dramatic idea is 
 the controlling one, and so it is with 
 Berlioz. Beethoven, while showing a 
 reverence for the formulas of the Church, 
 and respecting the tradition which gave 
 the Kyrie a triple division and made 
 fugue movements out of the phrases 
 " Cum sane to spiritu in gloria Dei pair is 
 Amen," " Et vitam venturi" and " Osanna 
 in excelsis" nevertheless gave his com- 
 position a scope which placed it beyond 
 the apparatus of the Church, and filled 
 it with a spirit that spurns the limita- 
 tions of any creed of less breadth and 
 universality than the grand Theism 
 which affectionate communion with nat- 
 ure had taught him. 
 
 Berlioz, less religious, less reverential, 
 but equally fired by the solemnity and 
 majesty of the matter given into his 
 hands, wrote a work in which he placed 
 his highest conception of the awfulness
 
 Choirs and Choral Music 
 
 of the Last Judgment and the emotions 
 which are awakened by its contempla- 
 tion. In respect of the instrumentation 
 he showed a far greater audacity than 
 Beethoven displayed even in the much- 
 mooted trumpets and drums of the Ag- 
 nus Dei, where he introduces the sounds 
 of war to heighten the intensity of the 
 prayer for peace, " Dona nobis pacem" 
 This is talked about in the books as a 
 bold innovation. It seems to have es- 
 caped notice that the idea had occurred 
 to Haydn twenty-four years before and 
 been realized by him. In 1796 Haydn 
 wrote a mass, " In Tempore Belli," the 
 French army being at the time in Stey- 
 ermark. He set the words, " Agnus Dei 
 qui tollis peccata mundi" to an accompan- 
 iment of drums, "as if the enemy were 
 already heard coming in the distance." 
 He went farther than this in a Mass in 
 D minor, when he accompanied the Be- 
 nedictus with fanfares of trumpets. But 
 all such timid ventures in the use of in- 
 struments in the mass sink into utter 
 insignificance when compared with Ber- 
 lioz's apparatus in the Tuba mirum of 
 his Requiem, which supplements the or- 
 
 295 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 Dramatic 
 effects in 
 Haydn's 
 masses. 
 
 Berlioz's 
 orchestra.
 
 296 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 dinary symphonic orchestra, some of its 
 instruments already doubled, with four 
 brass bands of eight or ten instruments 
 each, sixteen extra drums, and a tam- 
 tam.
 
 IX 
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 I HAVE been told that there are 
 many people who read the news- 
 papers on the day after they have at- 
 tended a concert or operatic represen- 
 tation for the purpose of finding out 
 whether or not the performance gave 
 them proper or sufficient enjoyment. 
 It would not be becoming in me to 
 inquire too curiously into the truth of 
 such a statement, and in view of a de- 
 nunciation spoken in the introductory 
 chapter of this book, I am not sure that 
 it is not a piece of arrogance, or impu- 
 dence, on my part to undertake in 
 any way to justify any critical writing 
 on the subject of music. Certain it is 
 that some men who write about music 
 for the newspapers believe, or affect to 
 believe, that criticism is worthless, and 
 
 297 
 
 The news- 
 papers and 
 the public.
 
 298 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Relation- 
 ship be- 
 tween 
 musician, 
 critic, and 
 public. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 I shall not escape the charge of incon- 
 sistency, if, after I have condemned the 
 blunders of literary men, who are lay- 
 men in music, and separated the major- 
 ity of professional writers on the art 
 into pedants and rhapsodists, I never- 
 theless venture to discuss the nature 
 and value of musical criticism. Yet, 
 surely, there must be a right and wrong 
 in this as in every other thing, and just 
 as surely the present structure of so- 
 ciety, which rests on the newspaper, 
 invites attention to the existing rela- 
 tionship between musician, critic, and 
 public as an important element in the 
 question How to Listen to Music. 
 
 As a condition precedent to the dis- 
 cussion of this new element in the case, 
 I lay down the proposition that the 
 relationship between the three factors 
 enumerated is so intimate and so strict 
 that the world over they rise and fall 
 together ; which means that where the 
 people dwell who have reached the 
 highest plane of excellence, there also 
 are to be found the highest types of 
 the musician and critic ; and that in 
 the degree in which the three factors,
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 299 
 
 which united make up the sum of mu- 
 sical activity, labor harmoniously, con- 
 scientiously, and unselfishly, each striv- 
 ing to fulfil its mission, they advance 
 music and further themselves, each 
 bearing off an equal share of the good 
 derived from the common effort. I 
 have set the factors down in the order 
 which they ordinarily occupy in popu- 
 lar discussion and which symbolizes 
 their proper attitude toward each other 
 and the highest potency of their collab- 
 oration. In this collaboration, as in so 
 many others, it is conflict that brings 
 life. Only by a surrender of their 
 functions, one to the other, could the 
 three apparently dissonant yet essen- 
 tially harmonious factors be brought 
 into a state of complacency ; but such 
 complacency would mean stagnation. 
 If the published judgment on composi- 
 tions and performances could always be 
 that of the exploiting musicians, that 
 class, at least, would read the news- 
 papers with fewer heart-burnings ; if the 
 critics had a common mind and it were 
 followed in concert - room and opera- 
 house, they, as well as the musicians, 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The need 
 
 and value 
 of conflict.
 
 300 
 
 CHAP 
 IX. 
 
 The critic 
 an hh' 
 tnaelite. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 would have need of fewer words of dis- 
 placency and more of approbation ; if, 
 finally, it were to be brought to pass that 
 for the public nothing but amiable di- 
 version should flow simultaneously from 
 platform, stage, and press, then for the 
 public would the millennium be come. 
 A religious philosopher can transmute 
 Adam's fall into a blessing, and we can 
 recognize the wisdom of that dispensa- 
 tion which put enmity between the seed 
 of Jubal, who was the " father of all 
 such as handle the harp and pipe," and 
 the seed of Saul, who, I take it, is the 
 first critic of record (and a vigorous one, 
 too, for he accentuated his unfavorable 
 opinion of a harper's harping with a 
 javelin thrust). 
 
 We are bound to recognize that be- 
 tween the three factors there is, ever 
 was, and ever shall be in sacula seeculorum 
 an irrepressible conflict, and that in the 
 nature of things the middle factor is the 
 Ishmaelite whose hand is raised against 
 everybody and against whom every- 
 body's hand is raised. The compla- 
 cency of the musician and the indiffer- 
 ence, not to say ignorance, of the public
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 ordinarily combine to make them allies, 
 and the critic is, therefore, placed be- 
 tween two millstones, where he is vigor- 
 ously rasped on both sides, and whence, 
 being angular and hard of outer shell, 
 he frequently requites the treatment 
 received with complete and energetic 
 reciprocity. Is he therefore to be pit- 
 ied ? Not a bit ; for in this position he 
 is performing one of the most significant 
 and useful of his functions, and disclos- 
 ing one of his most precious virtues. 
 While musician and public must per- 
 force remain in the positions in which 
 they have been placed with relation to 
 each other it must be apparent at half 
 a glance that it would be the simplest 
 matter in the world for the critic to ex- 
 tricate himself from his predicament. 
 He would only need to take his cue 
 from the public, measuring his commen- 
 dation by the intensity of their applause, 
 his dispraise by their signs of displeas- 
 ure, and all would be well with him. 
 We all know this to be true, that people 
 like to read that which flatters them by 
 echoing their own thoughts. The more 
 delightfully it is put by the writer the 
 
 301 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The critit 
 not to be 
 pitied. 
 
 How he 
 might 
 extricate 
 himself.
 
 3 02 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The public 
 like to be 
 flattered. 
 
 Thf critic 
 generally 
 outsfoken. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 more the reader is pleased, for has he 
 not had the same idea? Are they not 
 his ? Is not their appearance in a public 
 print proof of the shrewdness and sound- 
 ness of his judgment? Ruskin knows 
 this foible in human nature and con- 
 demns it. You may read in " Sesame 
 and Lilies : " 
 
 " Very ready we are to say of a book, ' How good 
 this is that's exactly what I think ! ' But the 
 right feeling is, ' How strange that is ! I never 
 thought of that before, and yet I see it is true ; or 
 if I do not now, I hope I shall, some day.' But 
 whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure 
 that you go at the author to get at his meaning, not 
 to find yours. Judge it afterward if you think 
 yourself qualified to do so, but ascertain it first." 
 
 As a rule, however, the critic is not 
 guilty of the wrong of speaking out the 
 thought of others, but publishes what 
 there is of his own mind, and this I laud 
 in him as a virtue, which is praisewor- 
 thy in the degree that it springs from 
 loftiness of aim, depth of knowledge, and 
 sincerity and unselfishness of purpose. 
 
 Let us look a little into the views 
 which our factors do and those which 
 they ought to entertain of each other.
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 The utterances of musicians have long 
 ago made it plain that as between the 
 critic and the public the greater meas- 
 ure of their respect and deference is 
 given to the public. The critic is bound 
 to recognize this as entirely natural ; 
 his right of protest does not accrue 
 until he can show that the deference is 
 ignoble and injurious to good art. It is 
 to the public that the musician appeals 
 for the substantial signs of what is called 
 success. This appeal to the jury instead 
 of the judge is as characteristic of the 
 conscientious composer who is sincere- 
 ly convinced that he was sent into the 
 world to widen the boundaries of art, 
 as it is of the mere time-server who 
 aims only at tickling the popular ear. 
 The reason is obvious to a little close 
 thinking : Ignorance is at once a safe- 
 guard against and a promoter of con- 
 servatism. This sounds like a paradox, 
 but the rapid growth of Wagner's music 
 in the admiration of the people of the 
 United States might correctly be cited 
 as a proof that the statement is true. 
 Music like the concert fragments from 
 Wagner's lyric dramas is accepted 
 
 303 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Musician 
 and public. 
 
 The office 
 of igno- 
 rance.
 
 34 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Popularity 
 of Wag- 
 ner's music 
 not a sign 
 of intelli- 
 gent appre- 
 ciation. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 with promptitude and delight, because 
 its elements are those which appeal 
 most directly and forcibly to our sense- 
 perception and those primitive tastes 
 which are the most readily gratified by 
 strong outlines and vivid colors. Their 
 vigorous rhythms, wealth of color, and 
 sonority would make these fragments 
 far more impressive to a savage than the 
 suave beauty of a symphony by Haydn ; 
 yet do we not all know that while 
 whole-hearted, intelligent enjoyment of 
 a Haydn symphony is conditioned up- 
 on a considerable degree of culture, an 
 equally whole-hearted, intelligent ap- 
 preciation of Wagner's music presup- 
 poses a much wider range of sympathy, 
 a much more extended view of the ca- 
 pabilities of musical expression, a much 
 keener discernment, and a much pro- 
 founder susceptibility to the effects of 
 harmonic progressions ? And is the 
 conclusion not inevitable, therefore, 
 that on the whole the ready acceptance 
 of Wagner's music by a people is evi- 
 dence that they are not sufficiently cult- 
 ured to feel the force of that conserva- 
 tism which made the triumph of Wag-
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 ner consequent on many years of agita- 
 tion in musical Germany? 
 
 In one case the appeal is elemental ; 
 in the other spiritual. He who wishes 
 to be in advance of his time does wisely 
 in going to the people instead of the 
 critics, just as the old fogy does whose 
 music belongs to the time when sen- 
 suous charm summed up its essence. 
 There is a good deal of ambiguity about 
 the stereotyped phrase " ahead of one's 
 time." Rightly apprehended, great 
 geniuses do live for the future rather 
 than the present, but where the public 
 have the vastness of appetite and scant- 
 ness of taste peculiar to the ostrich, 
 there it is impossible for a composer to 
 be ahead of his time. It is only where 
 the public are advanced to the stage of 
 intelligent discrimination that a Ninth 
 Symphony and a Nibelung Tetralogy 
 are accepted slowly. 
 
 Why the charlatan should profess to 
 despise the critic and to pay homage 
 only to the public scarcely needs an 
 explanation. It is the critic who stands 
 between him and the public he would 
 victimize. Much of the disaffection be- 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 ' ' Ahead of 
 one s time." 
 
 The 
 charlatan.
 
 306 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Influenc- 
 ing the 
 critics. 
 
 tween the concert-giver and the concert- 
 reviewer arises from the unwillingness 
 of the latter to enlist in a conspiracy to 
 deceive and defraud the public. There 
 is no need of mincing phrases here. 
 The critics of the newspaper press are 
 besieged daily with requests for notices 
 of a complimentary character touching 
 persons who have no honest standing 
 in art. They are fawned on, truckled 
 to, cajoled, subjected to the most seduc- 
 tive influences, sometimes bribed with 
 woman's smiles or manager's money 
 and why ? To win their influence in 
 favor of good art, think you ? No ; to 
 feed vanity and greed. When a critic 
 is found of sufficient self-respect and 
 character to resist all appeals and to 
 be proof against all temptations, who 
 is quicker than the musician to cite 
 against his opinion the applause of the 
 public over whose gullibility and igno- 
 rance, perchance, he made merry with 
 the critic while trying to purchase his 
 independence and honor ? 
 
 It is only when musicians divide the 
 question touching the rights and merits 
 of public and critic that they seem able
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 to put a correct estimate upon the value 
 of popular approval. At the last the 
 best of them are willing, with Ferdi- 
 nand Hiller, to look upon the public as 
 an elemental power like the weather, 
 which must be taken as it chances to 
 come. With modern society resting 
 upon the newspaper they might be 
 willing to view the critic in the same 
 light ; but this they will not do so long 
 as they adhere to the notion that criti- 
 cism belongs of right to the professional 
 musician, and will eventually be handed 
 over to him. As for the critic, he may 
 recognize the naturalness and reason- 
 ableness of a final resort for judgment 
 to the factor for whose sake art is 
 (i.e., the public), but he is not bound to 
 admit its unfailing righteousness. Up- 
 on him, so he be worthy of his office, 
 weighs the duty of first determining 
 whether the appeal is taken from a 
 lofty purpose or a low one, and whether 
 or not the favored tribunal is worthy to 
 try the case. Those who show a will- 
 ingness to accept low ideals cannot ex- 
 act high ones. The influence of their 
 applause is a thousand-fold more injuri- 
 
 37 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The -public 
 an ele- 
 mental 
 force. 
 
 Critic and 
 public.
 
 3 o8 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Schumann 
 and popular 
 approval 
 
 Deprecia- 
 tion of the 
 critic. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 ous to art than the strictures of the 
 most acrid critic. A musician of Schu- 
 mann's mental and moral stature could 
 recognize this and make it the basis of 
 some of his most forcible aphorisms : 
 
 " ' It pleased,' or ' It did not please,' say the peo- 
 ple ; as if there were no higher purpose than to 
 please the people." 
 
 " The most difficult thing in the world to endure 
 is the applause of fools ! " 
 
 The belief professed by many musi- 
 cians professed, not really held that 
 the public can do no wrong, unquestion- 
 ably grows out of a depreciation of the 
 critic rather than an appreciation of the 
 critical acumen of the masses. This de- 
 preciation is due more to the concrete 
 work of the critic (which is only too 
 often deserving of condemnation) than 
 to a denial of the good offices of crit- 
 icism. This much should be said for 
 the musician, who is more liable to be 
 misunderstood and more powerless 
 against misrepresentation than any 
 other artist. A line should be drawn 
 between mere expression of opinion and 
 criticism. It has been recognized for
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 ages you may find it plainly set forth 
 in Quintilian and Cicero that in the 
 long run the public are neither bad 
 judges nor good critics. The distinc- 
 tion suggests a thought about the differ- 
 ence in value between a popular and a 
 critical judgment. The former is, in 
 the nature of things, ill considered and 
 fleeting. It is the product of a momen- 
 tary gratification or disappointment. In 
 a much greater degree than a judgment 
 based on principle and precedent, such 
 as a critic's ought to be, it is a judgment 
 swayed by that variable thing called 
 fashion " Qual pikm al vento" 
 
 But if this be so we ought plainly to 
 understand the duties and obligations 
 of the critic ; perhaps it is because there 
 is much misapprehension on this point 
 that critics' writings have fallen under 
 their own condemnation. I conceive 
 that the first, if not the sole, office of the 
 critic should be to guide public judg- 
 ment. It is not for him to instruct the 
 musician in his art. If this were always 
 borne in mind by writers for the press 
 it might help to soften the asperity felt 
 by the musician toward the critic ; and 
 
 309 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Value of 
 
 public 
 
 opinion. 
 
 Duties of 
 the critic.
 
 310 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The musi- 
 cian s duty 
 toward the 
 critic. 
 
 The critic 
 should 
 steady pub- 
 lic judg- 
 ment. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 possibly the musician might then be 
 persuaded to perform his first office tow- 
 ard the critic, which is to hold up his 
 hands while he labors to steady and 
 dignify public opinion. No true artist 
 would give up years of honorable esteem 
 to be the object for a moment of fever- 
 ish idolatry. The public are fickle. 
 " The garlands they twine," says Schu- 
 mann, " they always pull to pieces again 
 to offer them in another form to the 
 next comer who chances to know how 
 to amuse them better." Are such gar- 
 lands worth the sacrifice of artistic 
 honor ? If it were possible for the critic 
 to withhold them and offer instead a 
 modest sprig of enduring bay, would 
 not the musician be his debtor? 
 
 Another thought. Conceding that 
 the people are the elemental power that 
 Hiller says they are, who shall save 
 them from the changeableness and in- 
 stability which they show with relation 
 to music and her votaries ? Who shall 
 bid the restless waves be still ? We, in 
 America, are a new people, a vast hotch- 
 potch of varied and contradictory ele- 
 ments. We are engaged in conquering
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 a continent ; employed in a mad scram- 
 ble for material things ; we give feverish 
 hours to win the comfort for our bodies 
 that we take only seconds to enjoy ; the 
 moments which we steal from our labors 
 we give grudgingly to relaxation, and 
 that this relaxation may come quickly 
 we ask that the agents which produce 
 it shall appeal violently to the faculties 
 which are most easily reached. Under 
 these circumstances whence are to come 
 the intellectual poise, the refined taste, 
 the quick and sure power of analysis 
 which must precede a correct estimate 
 of the value of a composition or its per- 
 formance ? 
 
 " A taste or judgment," said Shaftesbury, " does 
 not come ready formed with us into this world. 
 Whatever principles or materials of this kind we 
 may possibly bring with us, a legitimate and just 
 taste can neither be begotten, made, conceived, or 
 produced without the antecedent labor and pains of 
 criticism." 
 
 Grant that this antecedent criticism 
 is the province of the critic and that he 
 approaches even remotely a fulfilment 
 of his mission in this regard, and who 
 shall venture to question the value and 
 
 3 11 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Taste and 
 judgment 
 must be 
 achieved.
 
 3 12 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Compara- 
 tive quali- 
 fications of 
 critic and 
 pitblic. 
 
 The critic's 
 responsi- 
 bilities. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 the need of criticism to the promotion 
 of public opinion? In this work the 
 critic has a great advantage over the 
 musician. The musician appeals to the 
 public with volatile and elusive sounds. 
 When he gets past the tympanum of the 
 ear he works upon the emotions and the 
 fancy. The public have no time to let 
 him do more ; for the rest they are will- 
 ing to refer him to the critic, whose 
 business it is continually to hear music 
 for the purpose of forming opinions 
 about it and expressing them. The 
 critic has both the time and the obliga- 
 tion to analyze the reasons why and the 
 extent to which the faculties are stirred 
 into activity. Is it not plain, therefore, 
 that the critic ought to be better able to 
 distinguish the good from the bad, the 
 true from the false, the sound from the 
 meretricious, than the unindividualized 
 multitude, who are already satisfied 
 when they have felt the ticklings of 
 pleasure? 
 
 But when we place so great a mission 
 as the education of public taste before 
 the critic, we saddle him with a vast re- 
 sponsibility which is quite evenly divided
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 between the musician and the public. 
 The responsibility toward the musician 
 is not that which we are accustomed to 
 hear harped on by the aggrieved ones 
 on the day after a concert. It is toward 
 the musician only as a representative of 
 art, and his just claims can have nothing 
 of selfishness in them. The abnormal 
 sensitiveness of the musician to criti- 
 cism, though it may excite his commis- 
 eration and even honest pity, should 
 never count with the critic in the per- 
 formance of a plain duty. This sensi- 
 tiveness is the product of a low state in 
 music as well as criticism, and in the 
 face of improvement in the two fields it 
 will either disappear or fall under a kill- 
 ing condemnation. The power of the 
 press will here work for good. The 
 newspaper now fills the place in the 
 musician's economy which a century 
 ago was filled in Europe by the courts 
 and nobility. Its support, indirect as 
 well as direct, replaces the patronage 
 which erstwhile came from these power- 
 ful ones. The evils which flow from the 
 changed conditions are different in ex- 
 tent but not in kind from the old. Too 
 
 3*3 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Toward the 
 musician. 
 
 Position 
 and power 
 of the news- 
 paper.
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 The musi- 
 cian should 
 help to ele- 
 vate the 
 standard of 
 criticism. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 frequently for the good of art that sup- 
 port is purchased by the same crookings 
 of " the pregnant hinges of the knee " 
 that were once the price of royal or 
 noble condescension. If the tone of 
 the press at times becomes arrogant, it 
 is from the same causes that raised the 
 voices and curled the lips of the petty 
 dukes and princes, to flatter whose van- 
 ity great artists used to labor. 
 
 The musician knows as well as any- 
 one how impossible it is to escape the 
 press, and it is, therefore, his plain duty 
 to seek to raise the standard of its utter- 
 ances by conceding the rights of the 
 critic and encouraging honesty, fearless- 
 ness, impartiality, intelligence, and sym- 
 pathy wherever he finds them. To this 
 end he must cast away many antiquated 
 and foolish prejudices. He must learn 
 to confess with Wagner, the arch-enemy 
 of criticism, that " blame is much more 
 useful to the artist than praise," and 
 that " the musician who goes to de- 
 struction because he is faulted, deserves 
 destruction." He must stop the conten- 
 tion that only a musician is entitled to 
 criticise a musician, and without abat-
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 ing one jot of his requirements as to 
 knowledge, sympathy, liberality, broad- 
 mindedness, candor, and incorruptibility 
 on the part of the critic, he must quit 
 the foolish claim that to pronounce 
 upon the excellence of a ragout one 
 must be able to cook it ; if he will not 
 go farther he must, at least, go with the 
 elder D' Israeli to the extent of saying 
 that " the talent of judgment may exist 
 separately from the power of execu- 
 tion." One need not be a composer, but 
 one must be able to feel with a com- 
 poser before he can discuss his produc- 
 tions as they ought to be discussed. 
 Not all the writers for the press are 
 able to do this ; many depend upon ef- 
 frontery and a copious use of technical 
 phrases to carry them through. The 
 musician, alas ! encourages this method 
 whenever he gets a chance ; nine times 
 out of ten, when an opportunity to re- 
 view a composition falls to him, he ap- 
 proaches it on its technical side. Yet 
 music is of all the arts in the world the 
 last that a mere pedant should discuss. 
 
 But if not a mere pedant, then neither 
 a mere sentimentalist. 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 A critic 
 must not 
 necessarily 
 be a musi- 
 cian. 
 
 Pedantry 
 not wanted.
 
 316 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Intelligence 
 versus 
 emotional' 
 ism. 
 
 Personal 
 
 equation. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 " If I had to choose between the merits of two 
 classes of hearers, one of whom had an intelligent 
 appreciation of music without feeling emotion ; the 
 other an emotional feeling without an intelligent 
 analysis, I should unhesitatingly decide in favor of 
 the intelligent non-emotionalist. And for these rea- 
 sons : The verdict of the intelligent non-emotion- 
 alist would be valuable as far as it goes, but that of 
 the untrained emotionalist is not of the smallest 
 value ; his blame and his praise are equally un- 
 founded and empty." 
 
 So writes Dr. Stainer, and it is his 
 emotionalist against whom I uttered a 
 warning in the introductory chapter of 
 this book, when I called him a rhapsodist 
 and described his motive to be prima- 
 rily a desire to present himself as a per- 
 son of unusually exquisite sensibilities. 
 Frequently the rhapsodic style is 
 adopted to conceal a want of knowl- 
 edge, and, I fancy, sometimes also be- 
 cause ill -equipped critics have per- 
 suaded themselves that criticism being 
 worthless, what the public need to read 
 is a fantastic account of how music af- 
 fects them. Now, it is true that what 
 is chiefly valuable in criticism is what a 
 man qualified to think and feel tells us 
 he did think and feel under the inspira-
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 tion of a performance ; but when car- 
 ried too far, or restricted too much, this 
 conception of a critic's province lifts 
 personal equation into dangerous promi- 
 nence in the critical activity, and depre- 
 ciates the elements of criticism, which 
 are not matters of opinion or taste at 
 all, but questions of fact, as exactly 
 demonstrable as a problem in mathe- 
 matics. In musical performance these 
 elements belong to the technics of the 
 art. Granted that the critic has a cor- 
 rect ear, a thing which he must have if 
 he aspire to be a critic at all, and the 
 possession of which is as easily proved 
 as that of a dollar-bill in his pocket, 
 the questions of justness of intonation 
 in a singer or instrumentalist, balance 
 of tone in an orchestra, correctness of 
 phrasing, and many other things, are 
 mere determinations of fact ; the facul- 
 ties which recognize their existence 
 or discover their absence might exist 
 in a person who is not " moved by con- 
 cord of sweet sounds " at all, and 
 whose taste is of the lowest type. It 
 was the acoustician Euler, I believe, 
 who said that he could construct a so- 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Exact 
 criticism.
 
 CHAP 
 IX. 
 
 The Rhap- 
 sadists. 
 
 An English 
 exemplar. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 nata according to the laws of mathe- 
 matics figure one out, that is. 
 
 Because music is in its nature such a 
 mystery, because so little of its philos- 
 ophy, so little of its science is popularly 
 known, there has grown up the tribe of 
 rhapsodical writers whose influence is 
 most pernicious. I have a case in mind 
 at which I have already hinted in this 
 book that of a certain English gentle- 
 man who has gained considerable emi- 
 nence because of the loveliness of the 
 subject on which he writes and his 
 deftness in putting words together. On 
 many points he is qualified to speak, 
 and on these he generally speaks enter- 
 tainingly. He frequently blunders in 
 details, but it is only when he writes 
 in the manner exemplified in the fol- 
 lowing excerpt from his book called 
 " My Musical Memories," that he does 
 mischief. The reverend gentleman, 
 talking about violins, has reached one 
 that once belonged to Ernst. This, he 
 says, he sees occasionally, but he never 
 hears it more except 
 
 " In the night . . . under the stars, when 
 the moon is low and I see the dark ridges of the
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 clover hills, and rabbits and hares, black against the 
 paler sky, pausing to feed or crouching to listen to 
 the voices of the night. . . . 
 
 " By the sea, when the cold mists rise, and hol- 
 low murmurs, like the low wail of lost spirits, rush 
 along the beach. . . . 
 
 " In some still valley in the South, in midsum- 
 mer. The slate-colored moth on the rock flashes 
 suddenly into crimson and takes wing ; the bright 
 lizard darts timorously, and the singing of the grass- 
 hopper " 
 
 Well, the reader, if he has a liking 
 for such things, may himself go on for 
 quantity. This is intended, I fancy, for 
 poetical hyperbole, but as a matter of 
 fact it is something else, and worse. 
 Mr. Haweis does not hear Ernst's vio- 
 lin under any such improbable condi- 
 tions ; if he thinks he does he is a 
 proper subject for medical inquiry. 
 Neither does his effort at fine writing 
 help us to appreciate the tone of the in- 
 strument. He did not intend that it 
 should, but he probably did intend to 
 make the reader marvel at the exquisite 
 sensibility of his soul to music. This is 
 mischievous, for it tends to make the in- 
 judicious think that they are lacking in 
 musical appreciation, unless they, too, 
 
 3*9 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Ernst's 
 violin. 
 
 Mischiev- 
 ous writ- 
 ing.
 
 320 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Musical 
 sensibility 
 and sanity. 
 
 A place for 
 rhapsody. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 can see visions and hear voices and 
 dream fantastic dreams when, music is 
 sounding. When such writing is popu- 
 lar it is difficult to make men and women 
 believe that they may be just as suscep- 
 tible to the influence of music as the 
 child Mozart was to the sound of a 
 trumpet, yet listen to it without once 
 feeling the need of taking leave of their 
 senses or wandering away from sanity. 
 Moreover, when Mr. Haweis says that 
 he sees but does not hear Ernst's violin 
 more, he speaks most undeserved dis- 
 praise of one of the best violin players 
 alive, for Ernst's violin now belongs to 
 and is played by Lady Hall6 she that 
 was Madame Norman-Neruda. 
 
 Is there, then, no place for rhapsodic 
 writing in musical criticism ? Yes, de- 
 cidedly. It may, indeed, at times be the 
 best, because the truest, writing. One 
 would convey but a sorry idea of a com- 
 position were he to confine himself to a 
 technical description of it the number 
 of its measures, its intervals, modula- 
 tions, speed, and rhythm. Such a de- 
 scription would only be comprehensible 
 to the trained musician, and to him
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 would picture the body merely, not the 
 soul. One might as well hope to tell of 
 the beauty of a statue by reciting its di- 
 mensions. But knowledge as well as 
 sympathy must speak out of the words, 
 so that they may realize Schumann's 
 lovely conception when he said that the 
 best criticism is that which leaves after 
 it an impression on the reader like that 
 which the music made on the hearer. 
 Read Dr. John Brown's account of one 
 of Hallo's recitals, reprinted from " The 
 Scotsman," in the collection of essays 
 entitled " Spare Hours," if you would 
 see how aptly a sweetly sane mind and 
 a warm heart can rhapsodize without 
 the help of technical knowledge : 
 
 " Beethoven (Dr. Brown is speaking of the So- 
 nata in D, op. 10, No. 3) begins with a trouble, 
 a wandering and groping in the dark, a strange 
 emergence of order out of chaos, a wild, rich con- 
 fusion and misrule. Wilful and passionate, often 
 harsh, and, as it were, thick with gloom ; then 
 comes, as if ' it stole upon the air,' the burden of 
 the theme, the still, sad music Largo mesto so 
 human, so sorrowful, and yet the sorrow overcome, 
 not by gladness but by something better, like the 
 sea, after a dark night of tempest, falling asleep in 
 the young light of morning, and ' whispering how 
 
 321 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Intelligent 
 rhapsody. 
 
 Dr. Brown 
 
 and 
 
 Beethoven.
 
 322 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 Apollo and 
 the critic 
 a fable. 
 
 The critic's 
 duty to ad- 
 mire. 
 
 How to Listen to Music 
 
 meek and gentle it can be.' This likeness to the 
 sea, its immensity, its uncertainty, its wild, strong 
 glory and play, its peace, its solitude, its un- 
 searchableness, its prevailing sadness, comes more 
 into our minds with this great and deep master's 
 works than any other." 
 
 That is Beethoven. 
 
 Once upon a time it is an ancient 
 fable a critic picked out all the faults 
 of a great poet and presented them to 
 Apollo. The god received the gift 
 graciously and set a bag of wheat be- 
 fore the critic with the command that 
 he separate the chaff from the kernels. 
 The critic did the work with alacrity, 
 and turning to Apollo for his reward, 
 received the chaff. Nothing could 
 show us more appositely than this 
 what criticism should not be. A crit- 
 ic's duty is to separate excellence from 
 defect, as Dr. Crotch says ; to admire 
 as well as to find fault. In the propor- 
 tion that defects are apparent he should 
 increase his efforts to discover beauties. 
 Much flows out of this conception of 
 his duty. Holding it the critic will 
 bring besides all needful knowledge a 
 fulness of love into his work. " Where
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public 
 
 sympathy is lacking, correct judgment 
 is also lacking," said Mendelssohn. The 
 critic should be the mediator between 
 the musician and the public. For all 
 new works he should do what the sym- 
 phonists of the Liszt school attempt to 
 do by means of programmes ; he should 
 excite curiosity, arouse interest, and 
 pave the way to popular comprehen- 
 sion. But for the old he should not 
 fail to encourage reverence and admira- 
 tion. To do both these things he must 
 know his duty to the past, the present, 
 and the future, and adjust each duty to 
 the other. Such adjustment is only 
 possible if he knows the music of the 
 past and present, and is quick to per- 
 ceive the bent and outcome of novel 
 strivings. He should be catholic in 
 taste, outspoken in judgment, unaltera- 
 ble in allegiance to his ideals, unswerv- 
 able in integrity. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 A mediator 
 between 
 musician 
 and public. 
 
 Essential 
 virtues.
 
 PLATES
 
 PLATE 1 
 
 VIOLIN (CLIFFORD SCHMIDT)
 
 PLATE II
 
 PLATE III 
 
 PICCOLO FLUTE (C. KURTH, JUN.)
 
 PLATE TV 
 
 OBOE (JOSEPH ELLER)
 
 PLATE V 
 
 ENGLISH HORN (JOSEPH ELLER)
 
 PLATE VI 
 
 BASSOON (FEDOR BERNHARDI)
 
 PLATE VII 
 
 CLARINET (HENRY KAISER)
 
 PLATE VIII 
 
 BASS CLARINET (HENRY KAISER)
 
 PLATE IX 
 
 FRENCH HORN (CARL PIEPER)
 
 PLATE 
 
 TROMBONE (J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER)
 
 PLATE XI 
 
 BASS TUBA (ANTON REITER)
 
 PLATE XII 
 
 Flauto piccolo, 
 
 Flauti. 
 
 Oboi. 
 
 Clarinetti b C. 
 
 Fagotti. 
 
 Contrafagotto. 
 
 Corn! la C. 
 
 Trombe ! C. 
 Timpani la C. G. 
 Trombone Alto. 
 Trombone Tenure. 
 Trombone Batio. 
 
 Violino I . I 
 Violino D. 
 
 Viola. 
 
 Violoncello. 
 
 Basso. 
 
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 THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE 
 
 FIRST PAGE, FINALE OF BEETHOVEN'S C MINOR SYMPHONY
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABSOLUTB music, 36 
 Academy of Music, New York, 
 
 203 
 
 Adagio, in symphony, 133 
 Addison, 205, 206, 208 
 Allegro, in symphony, 132 
 Allemande, 173, 174 
 Alto clarinet, 104 
 Alto, male, 260 
 Amadeo, 241 
 
 Ambros, August Wilhelm, 49 
 Antiphony, 267 
 Archilochus, 213 
 Aria, 235 
 Arioso, 235 
 Asaph, 115 
 
 BACH, C. P. E., 180, 185 
 
 Bach, Johann Sebastian, 69, 83, 
 148, 167, 169, 170, 171, 174, 176, 
 180, 181, 184, 192, 257, 259, 267, 
 268, 278, 281, 282, 283, 286, 287, 
 289 ; his music, 281 et seq. ; his 
 technique as player, 180, 181, 
 184 ; his choirs, 257, 259 ; com- 
 pared with Palestrina, 278 ; 
 ' Magnificat," 283; Mass in 
 B minor, 283 ; Chromatic Fan- 
 tasia and Fugue, 171 ; Suites, 
 174, 176 ; ll St. Matthew Pas- 
 sion," 267, 278, 282, 286, 289 ; 
 
 Motet, "Sing ye to the Lord," 
 268; "St. John Passion, 1 ' 286 
 
 Balancement, 170 
 
 Balfe, 223 
 
 Ballade, 192 
 
 Ballet music, 152 
 
 Balletto, 173 
 
 Bass clarinet, 104 
 
 Bass trumpet, 81, 82 
 
 Basset horn, 82 
 
 Bassoon, 74, 82, 99, 101 et seq. 
 
 Bastardella, T_,a, 239 
 
 Bayreuth Festival orchestra, 81, 
 82 
 
 Bebung, 169, 170 
 
 Beethoven, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 
 
 33- 34- 35. 44, 46, 47. 49- S3, 6 - 
 62, 63, 70, 92, 94, 101, 102, 103, 
 106, 113, 120, 125, 131, 132, 133, 
 136, 137, 138, 140, 141, 146, 147, 
 151, 167, 182, 184, 186, 187, 193, 
 195, 196, 203, 208, 232, 292, 321, 
 322 ; likenesses in his melodies, 
 33, 34 ; unity in his works, 27, 
 28, 29 ; his chamber music, 47 ; 
 his sonatas, 182 ; his democ- 
 racy, 46 ; not always idiomat- 
 ic, 193 ; his pianoforte, 195 ; 
 his pedal effects, 196; missal 
 compositions, 292, 294 ; his 
 overtures, 147 ; his free fan-
 
 352 
 
 Index 
 
 tasias, 131 ; his technique as a 
 player, 186; " Eroica " sym- 
 phony, 100, 132, 136 ; Fifth 
 symphony, 28, 29, 30, 31, 92, 
 103, 120, 125, 133 ; " Pastoral" 
 symphony, 44, 49, 53, 62, 63, 
 94, 102, 132, 140, 141 ; Seventh 
 symphony, 31, 32, 132, 133; 
 Eighth symphony, 113; Ninth 
 symphony, 33, 34, 35. 94, 133, 
 136, 138, 305 ; Sonata, op. 10, 
 No. 3, 321 ; Sonata, op. 31, 
 No. 2, 29; Sonata "Appassi- 
 onata," 29, 30, 31 ; Pianoforte 
 concerto in G, 31 ; Pianoforte 
 concerto in E-flat, 146 ; Violin 
 concerto, 146 ; ' ' Becalmed at 
 Sea," 60 ;" Fidelio," 203, 208, 
 232 ; Mass in D, 60, 292, 294 ; 
 Serenade, op. 8, 151 
 
 Bell chime, 74 
 
 Bellini, 203, 204, 242, 245 ; u La 
 Sonnambula," 204, 245 ; " Nor- 
 ma," 242 
 
 Benedetti, 242 
 
 Berlin Singakademie, 262 
 
 Berlioz, 49, 80, 87, 89, 90, 94, 100, 
 102, 104, 113, 137, 138, 139, 
 294, 295 ; " L'icUe fixe" 137 ; 
 '' Symphonic Fantastique," 
 137; "Romeo and Juliet," 90, 
 94, 139; Requiem, 113, 294, 
 
 295 
 
 Bizet, " Carmen," 238, 242 
 Boileau, 206 
 Bosio, 241 
 Boston Symphony Orchestra, 81, 
 
 82, 108 
 
 Bottesini, 94 
 Bourree, 173 
 Brahm's "Academic overture," 
 
 101 
 
 Branle, 173 
 Brass instruments, 74, 104 // 
 
 seq. 
 
 Brignoli, 209, 242 
 Broadwood's pianoforte, 195 
 Brown, Dr. John, 321 
 Bully Bottom in music, 61 
 Bunner, H. C., 136 
 Burns's " Ye flowery banks," 175 
 
 CACCINI, " Eurydice," 234 
 
 Cadences, 23 
 
 Cadenzas, 145 
 
 Calve, Emma, 242, 247 
 
 Calvin and music, 275 
 
 Campanini, 242 
 
 Cantatas, 290 
 
 Cat's mew in music, 52 
 
 Catalan!, 245, 246 
 
 Chaconne, 153 
 
 Chamber music, 36, 44 et seq., 
 144 
 
 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 
 81, 82, 108 
 
 Choirs, 253 et seq.\ size of, 257 et 
 seq,, 264, 271 ; men's, 255, 260; 
 boys', 261 ; women's, 261 ; 
 mixed, 262, 264 ; division of, 
 260, 266 ; growth of, in Ger- 
 many, 262 ; history of, in Amer- 
 ica, 263 ; in Cincinnati, 264 ; 
 contralto voices in, 270 
 
 Choirs, orchestral, 74 
 
 Chopin, 167, 188, 190, 191, 192,
 
 Index 
 
 353 
 
 196 ; his romanticism, 188 ; 
 Preludes, 190; Etudes, 191; 
 Nocturnes, 191 ; Ballades, 192 ; 
 Polonaises, 192 ; Mazurkas, 
 192 ; his pedal effects, 196 
 
 Choral music, 253 et seq.; anti- 
 phonal, 267 ; mediaeval, 274 ; 
 Calvin on, 275 ; Luther's influ- 
 ence on, 276 ; congregational, 
 277 ; secular tunes in, 276, 277 ; 
 Romanticism, influence on, 
 277; preponderance in orato- 
 rio, 289 ; dramatic and descrip- 
 tive, 289 
 
 Chorley, H. F. , on Jenny Lind's 
 singing, 243 
 
 Church cantatas, 284 
 
 Cicero, 309 
 
 Cincinnati, choirs in, 264 
 
 Cinti-Damoreau, 241 
 
 Clarinet, 47, 74, 78, 82, 103 etseq., 
 
 IS* 
 
 Classical concerts, 122 etseq. 
 
 Classical music, 36, 64, 122 etseq. 
 
 Clavichord, 168, 181 
 
 Clavier, 171, 173 
 
 Clementi, 185, 195 
 
 Cock, song of the, 51, 53, 54 
 
 Coleridge, n, 144 
 
 Coletti, 242 
 
 Comic opera, 224 
 
 Composers, how they hear music, 
 
 40 
 
 Concerto, 128, 144 et sty. 
 Conductor, 114 et seq. 
 Content of music, 36 et seq. 
 Contra-bass trombone, 81, 82 
 Contra-bass tuba, 81, 82 
 
 Co-ordination of tones, 17 
 
 Coranto, Corrente, 173, 176 
 
 Cornelius, " Barbier von Bag- 
 dad," 236 
 
 Cornet, 73, 82, 108 
 
 Corno di bassetto, 81, 82 
 
 Corsi, 242 
 
 Couperin, 168 
 
 Courante, 173, 176 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre, London, 
 224, 226 
 
 Cowen, " Welsh " and " Scandi- 
 navian " symphonies, 132 
 
 Cracovienne, 193 
 
 Creole tune analyzed, 23, 24 
 
 Critics and criticism, 13, 297 et 
 seq. 
 
 Crotch, Dr., 322 
 
 Cuckoo, 51, 52, 53 
 
 Cymbals, 74, 82 
 
 Czardas, 201 
 
 Czerny, 186 
 
 DACTYLIC metre, 31 
 Dance, the ancient, 43, 212 
 Dannreuther, Edward, 129, 144, 
 
 187 
 Depth, musical delineation of, 
 
 S9,6o 
 
 De Reszke, Edouard, 248 
 De Reszke, Jean, 247 
 Descriptive music, 51 et seq. 
 Design and form, 16 
 De Stael, Madame, 210 
 D'Israeli, 315 
 Distance, musical delineation of, 
 
 60 
 Dithyramb, 212, 213
 
 354 
 
 Index 
 
 " Divisions," 265 
 
 Doles, Cantor, 292 
 
 Donizetti, 203, 204, 242; "Lu- 
 cia," 203, 204 
 
 Double-bass, 74, 78, 82, 94 
 
 Double-bassoon, 103 
 
 Dragonetti, 94 
 
 Dramatic ballads, 290 
 
 Dramatic orchestras, 81, 82 
 
 Dramma per musica, 227, 249 
 
 Drummers, 113 
 
 Drums, 73, 74, 82, no et seq. 
 
 Duality of music, 15 
 
 " Dump' 1 and Dumka, 151 
 
 Durchfiihrung, 131 
 
 DvoMk, symphonies, " From 
 the New World," 132, 138 ; in 
 G major, 136 
 
 EAMES, EMMA, 247 
 Edwards, G. Sutherland, 12 
 Elements of music, 15, 19 
 Emotionality in music, 43 
 English horn, 82, 99, 100 
 English opera, 223 
 Ernst's violin, 320 
 Esterhazy, Prince, 46 
 Euler, acoustician, 317 
 Expression, words of, 43 
 
 FAMILIAR music best liked, 21 
 
 Fancy, 15, 16, 58 
 
 Farinelli, 240 
 
 Fasch.C. F.,262 
 
 Feelings, their relation to music, 
 
 38 et seq., 215, 216 
 Ferri, 239, 240 
 Finale, symphonic, 135 
 
 First movement in symphony, 
 131 
 
 Flageolet tones, 89 
 
 Florentine inventors of the op- 
 era, 217, 227, 234, 249 
 
 Flute, 73, 74, 78, 82, 95 etseq. 
 
 Form, 16, 17, 22, 35 
 
 Formes, 242, 248 
 
 Frederick the Great, 263 
 
 Free Fantasia, 131 
 
 French horn, 47, 106 et seq, 
 
 Frezzolini, 242 
 
 Friss, 201 
 
 Frogs, musical delineation of, 
 58. 62 
 
 "GALLINA ET GALLO," S3 
 
 Gavotte, 173, 179 
 
 German opera, 226 
 
 Gerster, Etelka, 242, 245 
 
 Gesture, 43 
 
 Gigue, 173, 174, 178 
 
 Gilbert, W. S. , 208, 224 
 
 Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, 
 224 
 
 Glockenspiel, HO 
 
 Gluck, 84, 148, 153, 202, 203, 238 ; 
 his dancers, 153 ; his orches- 
 tra, 238; "Alceste," 148; 
 " Iphigenie en Aulide," 153; 
 " Orfeo," 202, 203 
 
 Goethe, ?4, 140, 223 
 
 Goldmark, " Sakuntala " over- 
 ture, 149 
 
 Gong, no 
 
 Gossec, Requiem, 293 
 
 Gounod, " Faust," 209, 224, 238, 
 246
 
 Index 
 
 355 
 
 Grand Optra, 223, 224 
 
 Greek Tragedy, 211 ft seq. 
 
 Grisi, 241, 242 
 
 Grosse Oper, 224 
 
 Grove, Sir George, 33, 63, 141, 
 
 187 
 Gypsy music, 198 et seq. 
 
 HALLK, Lady, 320 
 
 Hamburg, opera in, 206, 207 
 
 Handel, 58, 60, 62, 83, 102, 126, 
 148, 174, 177, 178, iSi, 182, 184, 
 256, 257, 258, 259, 265, 272 ; his 
 orchestra, 84 ; his suites, 174 ; 
 his overtures, 148 ; his tech- 
 nique as a player, 181, 182, 184 ; 
 his choirs, 257 ; Commemo- 
 ration, 258 ; his tutti, 258 ; 
 % " Messiah," 60, 126, 256, 257, 
 265, 272 ; '' Saul," 102 ; " Al- 
 mira," 177; " Rinaldo," 178; 
 " Israel in Egypt," 58, 62, 257, 
 259, 289 ; " Lascia cK 1 io pi- 
 anga," 178 
 
 Hanslick, Dr. Eduard, 203 
 
 Harmonics, on violin, 89 
 
 Harmony, 19, 21, 22, 218 
 
 Harp, 82 
 
 Harpsichord, 168, 170 
 
 Hauptmann, M. , 41 
 
 Hautboy, 99 
 
 Haweis, the Rev. Mr., 318 et 
 seq. 
 
 Haydn, 46, 84, 100, 127, 168, 183, 
 295 ; his manner of composing, 
 183 ; dramatic effects in his 
 masses, 295 ; " Seasons," 100 
 
 Hebrew music, 114 ; poetry, 25 
 
 Height, musical delineation of, 
 
 59. 60 
 
 Heman, 115 
 Hen, song of, in music, 52, 53, 
 
 54 
 
 Herbarth, philosopher, 39 
 Hiller, Ferdinand, 307, 310 
 Hiller, Johann Adam, 258 
 Hogarth, Geo., " Memoirs of the 
 
 Opera," 210, 245 
 Horn, 82, 105, io6etsfg., 151 
 Hungarian music, 198 et seq. 
 Hymn-tunes, history of, 275 
 
 IAMBICS, 175 
 *' Idle fixe," Berlioz's, 137 
 Identification of themes, 35 
 Idiomatic pianoforte music, 193, 
 
 194 
 
 Idioms, musical, 44, 51, 55 
 Imagination, 15, 16, 58 
 Imitation of natural sounds, 51 
 Individual attitude of man tow- 
 ard music, 37 
 Instrumental musicians, former 
 
 legal status of, 83 
 Instrumentation, 71 etseq.; in the 
 
 mass, 293 et seq. 
 Intelligent hearing, 16, 18, 37 
 Intermediary necessary, 20 
 Intermezzi, 221 
 
 Interrelation of musical ele- 
 ments, 22 
 
 JANIZARY music, 97 
 Jean Paul, 67, 189, 190 
 Jeduthun, 115
 
 356 
 
 Index 
 
 Jig. 179 
 Judgment, 311 
 
 KALIDASA, 149 
 Kettle-drums, in et seq. 
 Key relationship, 26, 129 
 Kinds of music, 36 et seq, 
 Kirchencantaten, 284 
 Krakowiak, 193 
 Kullak, 184 
 
 LABLACHB, 248 
 
 La Grange, 241, 245 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 10 
 
 Language of tones, 42, 43 
 
 Lassu, 20 1 
 
 Laws, musical, mutability of, 69 
 
 Lehmann, Lilli, 233, 244, 247 
 
 Lenz, 33 
 
 Leoncavallo, 228 
 
 Lind, Jenny, 241, 243 
 
 Liszt, 132, 140, 142, 143, 167, 168, 
 *93i J 97. 1 9%> 228 ; his music, 
 168, 193, 197 ; his transcrip- 
 tions, 167 ; his rhapsodies, 167, 
 198 ; his symphonic poems, 
 142; " Faust" symphony, 132, 
 140 ; Concerto in E-flat, 143 ; 
 " St Elizabeth," 288 
 
 Literary blunders concerning 
 music, 9, 10, IT, 12 
 
 Local color, 152, 153 
 
 London opera, 206, 207, 226 
 
 Louis XIV. , 179 
 
 Lucca, Pauline, 242, 246, 247 
 
 Lully, his overtures, 148 ; min- 
 uet, 179 ; " Atys," 206 
 
 Luther, Martin, 276 
 
 Lyric drama, 231, 234, 237, 251 
 
 MADRIGAL, 274 
 
 Magyar music, 198 et seq, 
 
 Major mode, 57 
 
 Male alto, 260 
 
 Male chorus, 255, 260 
 
 Malibran, 241 
 
 Mannergesang, 255, 260 
 
 Marie Antoinette, 153 
 
 Mario, 242, 247, 271 
 
 Marschner, "Hans Heiling," 
 225; ''Templer und Jiidin," 
 225 ; " Vampyr," 225 ; his op- 
 eras, 248 
 
 Mascagni, 228 
 
 Mass, the, 290 et seq. 
 
 Massenet, " Le Cid," 152 
 
 Materials of music, 16 
 
 Materna, Amalia, 247 
 
 Matthews, Brander, 11 
 
 Mazurka, 192 
 
 Melba, Nellie, 204, 238, 245, 247, 
 271 
 
 Melody, 19, 21, 22, 24 
 
 Memory, 19, 21, 73 
 
 Mendelssohn, 41, 42, 49, 59, 61, 
 67, 102, 409, 132, 139, 140, 149, 
 168, 243, 278, 288, 289, 322 ; on 
 the content of music, 41, 42 ; 
 his Romanticism, 67 ; on the 
 use of the trombones, 109 ; 
 opinion of Jenny Lind, 243 ; 
 " Songs without Words," 41 ; 
 " Hebrides " overture, 59, 149 ; 
 '* Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 61, 102 ; " Scotch " symphony,
 
 Index 
 
 357 
 
 132, 139 ; " Italian " symphony, 
 132 ; " Hymn of Praise," 140 ; 
 "St. Paul," 278; "Elijah," 
 288, 289 
 
 Mersenne, " Harmonic univer- 
 selle," 175, 176 
 
 Metropolitan Opera House, New 
 York, 203, 224, 226, 244 
 
 Meyerbeer, 89, 102, 203, 204, 208, 
 242, 243, 244; "L'Africaine," 
 89; "Robert le Diable," 102, 
 208, 244; "Huguenots," 204; 
 " L'Etoile du Nord," 243 
 
 Military bands, 123 
 
 Minor mode, 57 
 
 Minuet, 134, 151, 173, 179 
 
 Mirabeau, 293 
 
 Model, none in nature for music, 
 8, 180 
 
 Monteverde, " Orfeo," 87 
 
 Moscheles, on Jenny Lind's sing- 
 ing. 243 
 
 Motet, 283 
 
 Motives, 22, 24 
 
 Mozart, 84, 109, 132, 145, 151, 
 168, 183, 184, 195, 202, 203, 221, 
 224, 228, 230, 238, 244, 265, 292 ; 
 his pianoforte technique, 184 ; 
 on Doles's mass, 292 ; his or- 
 chestra, 238 ; his edition of 
 Handel's " Messiah," 265 ; on 
 cadenzas, 145 ; his pianoforte, 
 195 ; his serenades, 151 ; " Don 
 Giovanni," 109, 202, 221, 222, 
 228, 230 ; " Magic Flute," 203 ; 
 G-minor symphony, 132; " Fi- 
 garo," 202, 228 
 
 Musica parlante, 234 
 
 Musical instruction, deficiencies 
 
 in, 9 
 
 Musician, Critic, and Public, 297 
 MusiMrama, 227, 238, 249 
 
 NERI, FILIPPO, 288 
 Nevada, Emma, 204 
 Newspaper, the modern, 297, 298, 
 
 313 
 
 New York Opera, 206, 226, 241 
 Niecks, Frederick, 192 
 Niemann, Albert, 233 
 Nightingale, in music, 52 
 Nilsson, Christine, 242, 246, 247 
 Nordica, Lillian, 247 
 Norman-Neruda, Madame, 320 
 Notes not music, 20 
 Nottebohm, " Beethoveniana," 
 
 63 
 
 OBOE, 47, 74, 78, 82, 84, 98 et seq. 
 
 Opera, descriptive music in, 61 ; 
 history of, 202 et seq. ; language 
 of, 205 ; polyglot performances 
 of, 207 et seq. ; their texts per- 
 verted, 207 et seq. words of, 
 209, 210 ; elements in, 214 ; in- 
 vention of, 216 et seq. ; varie- 
 ties of, 220 et seq. ; comic ele- 
 ments in, 221 ; action and 
 incident in, 236 ; singing in, 
 239 ; singers compared, 241 et 
 seq. 
 
 Optra bouffe, 220, 221, 225 
 
 Opera buffa, 220 
 
 Oplra comique, 223 
 
 Optra^ Grand, 223 
 
 Opera in music a, 228
 
 358 
 
 Index 
 
 Opera semiseria, 221 
 
 Opera seria, 220 
 
 Opus, 132 
 
 Oratorio, 256, 287 et seq. 
 
 Orchestra, 71 et seq. 
 
 Ostrander, Dr. Lucas, 278 
 
 " Ouida," 12 
 
 Overture, 147 et seq., 174 
 
 PADEREWSKI, his recitals, 154 
 et seq. ; his Romanticism, 167 ; 
 " Krakowiak," 193 
 
 Painful, the, not fit subject for 
 music, 50 
 
 Palestrina and Bach, 278 et seq. ; 
 his music, 279^ seq. ; " Stabat 
 Mater," 279, 280 ; " Imprope- 
 ria," 280 ; " Missa Papae Mar- 
 celli," 280 
 
 Pandean pipes, 98 
 
 Pantomime, 43 
 
 Parallelism, 25 
 
 Passepied, 173 
 
 " Passions," 284 et seq. 
 
 Patti, Adelina, 203, 204, 238, 242, 
 
 245- 247 
 
 Pedals, pianoforte, 195, 196 
 Pedants, 13, 315 
 Percussion instruments, no et 
 
 seq. 
 
 Peri, " Eurydice," 234 
 Periods, musical, 22, 24 
 Perkins, C. C., 263 
 Pfund, his drums, 112 
 Philharmonic Society of New 
 
 York, 76, 77, 81, 82 
 Phrases, musical, 22, 24 
 Physical effects of music, 38 
 
 Pianoforte, history and descrip- 
 tion of, 154 et seq. ; its music, 
 154 et seq. , 166 et seq. ; concer- 
 tos, 144 ; trios, 147 
 
 Piccolo flute, 85, 97 
 
 Piccolomini, 242, 245 
 
 Pictures in music, 40 
 
 Pi/a, Handel's, 126 
 
 Pizzicato, 88, 91 
 
 Plancon, 248 
 
 Polonaise, 192 
 
 Polyphony and feelings, 39 
 
 Popular concerts, 122 
 
 Porpora, 209 
 
 " Pov piti Momzelle Zizi," 23 
 
 Preludes, 148, 174 
 
 Programme music, 36, 44, 48 et 
 seq., 64, 142 
 
 Puccini, 228 
 
 QUAIL, call of, in music, 51, 54 
 
 Quartet, 147 
 
 Quilled instruments, 170 
 
 Quinault, " Atys," 206 
 
 Quintet, 147 
 
 Quintillian, 309 
 
 RAFF, 49, 96, 132 ; " Lenore " 
 symphony, 96, 132 ; " Im 
 Walde " symphony, 132 
 
 Rameau, 168 
 
 Recitative, 219, 220, 228 et seq. 
 
 Reed instruments, 98 et seq. 
 
 Reformation, its influence on 
 music, 275, 278, 280 
 
 Refrain, 25 
 
 Register of the orchestra, 85 
 
 Repetition, 22, 25
 
 Index 
 
 359 
 
 Rhapsodists among writers, 13, 
 
 315 et seq. 
 
 Rhythm, 19, 21, 26, 160 
 " Ridendo castigat mores," 225 
 Rinuccini, " Eurydice," 234 
 Romantic music, 36, 64 et seq., 
 
 71. 277 
 
 Romantic opera, 225 
 Ronconi, 242 
 Rondeau and Rondo, 135 
 Rossini, 147, 228, 242 ; his over- 
 tures, 147; "II Barbiere," 
 228 ; " William Tell," 93, 100 
 Rubinstein, 59, 152, 167, 168, 
 287 ; his historical recitals, 
 167 ; his sacred operas, 287 ; 
 " Ocean " symphony, 59 ; 
 " Feramors," 152 
 Ruskin, John, 302 
 Russian composers, 134 
 
 SACRKD OPBRAS, 287 
 
 Saint-Saens, " Danse Macabre," 
 101, in ; symphony in C mi- 
 nor, 141 ; " Samson and Deli- 
 lah," 288 
 
 Salvi, 242 
 
 Sarabande, 173, 174, 177 
 
 Sassarelli, 240 
 
 Scarlatti, D. , 167, 172, 182 ; his 
 technique, 172 ; ' ' Capriccio " 
 and " Pastorale," 172 
 
 Scheffer, Ary, 246 
 
 Scherzo, 133, 179 
 
 Schroder-Devrient, 232 
 
 Schubert, 168 
 
 Schumann, 49, 64, 132, 133, 139, 
 140, 141, 167, 188, 189, 190, 196, 
 
 254, 308, 310 ; his Romanticism, 
 188 ; and Jean Paul, 189 ; his 
 pedal effects, 196 ; on popular 
 judgment, 308, 310 ; symphony 
 in C, 132 ; symphony in D mi- 
 nor, 139 ; symphony in B-flat, 
 140; "Rhenish" symphony, 
 140, 141; "Carnaval," 189, 
 190 ; " Papillons," 189, 190 ; 
 " Kreisleriana," 190 ; " Phan- 
 tasiestucke," 190 
 
 Score, 120 
 
 " Scotch snap," 52, 200 
 
 Second movement in symphony, 
 
 133 
 
 Seidl, Anton, 77 
 
 Sembrich, Marcella, 242, 245 
 
 Senesino, 239, 240 
 
 Sense-perception, 18 
 
 Serenade, 149 et seq. 
 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 311 
 
 Shakespeare, his dances, 153, 
 179 ; his dramas, 202 ; a Ro- 
 manticist, 221 ; " Two Gentle- 
 men of Verona," 150 ; Queen 
 Mab, 90 
 
 Singing, physiology of, 215, 218 ; 
 operatic, 239 ; choral, 268 
 
 Singing Societies, 253 et seq. 
 
 Singspiel, 223 
 
 Smith, F. Hopkinson, II 
 
 Sonata da Camera, 173 
 
 Sonata, 127, 182, 183 
 
 Sonata form, 127 et seq. 
 
 Sontag, 241, 244, 245, 246 
 
 Sordino, 90 
 
 Space, music has no place in, 59 
 
 Speech and music, 43
 
 3 6 
 
 Index 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 39, 43, 216, 
 
 218, 230 
 Spinet, 168, 170 
 Spohr, " Jessonda," 225 
 Stainer, Dr., 39, 316 
 Stein, pianoforte maker, 196 
 Stilo rappresentativo, 234 
 Stories, in music, 40 
 Strings, orchestral, 74, 82, 86 tt 
 
 seq., 102 
 
 Sucher, Rosa, 247 
 Suite, 129, 152, 173 et seq. 
 Symphonic poem, 142 
 Symphonic prologue, 148 
 Symphony, 124 et seq., 183 
 Syrinx, 98 
 
 TALENT in listening, 4 
 
 Tambourine, no 
 
 Tappert, " Zooplastik in T6- 
 
 nen," 51 
 Taste, 311 
 
 Technique, 163 et seq. 
 Tennyson, 9 
 Terminology, musical, 8 
 Theatre natienale de FOpera- 
 
 Comique, 223 
 Thespis, 212 
 Thomas, " Mignon," 223 
 Tibia, 98 
 Titiens, 242 
 Tonal language, 42, 43 
 Tones, co-ordination of, 17 
 Touch, 163 et seq. 
 Tragedia per musica, 227 
 Tremolo, 91 
 
 Trench, Archbishop, 65, 66 
 Triangle, 74, no 
 
 Trio, 134 
 
 Triolet, 136 
 
 Trombone, 82, 105, 106, 109 et 
 seq. 
 
 Trumpet, 105, 108 
 
 Tschaikowsky, 88, 132 ; " Sym- 
 phonic Pathe'tique," 132 
 
 Tuba, 82, 85, 106, 108 
 
 " Turkish " music, 97 
 
 Tympani, 82, in et seq. 
 
 UGLY, the, not fit for music, 50 
 United States, first to have am- 
 ateur singing societies, 257, 
 262 ; spread of choral music 
 in, 263 
 Unity in the symphony, 27, 137 
 
 VAUDBVILLBS, 224 
 
 Verdi, 152, 203, 210, 228, 236, 
 238, 242, 243; " Aida," 152, 
 228, 238 ; " II Trovatore," 210, 
 243 ; " Otello," 228, 238 ; 
 " Falstaff," 228, 236 ; Requiem, 
 290 
 
 Vestris, 153 
 
 Vibrato, 90 
 
 Vile, the, unfit for music, 50 
 
 Viola, 74, 77, 82, 92, 93 
 
 Viole da braccio, 93 
 
 Viole da gamba, 93 
 
 Violin, 73,74, 77, 82, 86 et seq., 
 144, 162 
 
 Violin concertos, 145 
 
 Violoncello, 74, 77, 82, 92, 93, 94 
 
 Virginal, 168, 170 
 
 Vocal music, 61, 215 
 
 Vorspiel^ 148
 
 Index 
 
 361 
 
 WAGNBR, 41, 79, 80, 81, 88, 89, 
 94, in, 205, 206, 219, 226, 227, 
 232, 235, 237, 238, 244, 248, 249, 
 250, 251, 303, 305, 314 ; on the 
 content of music, 41 ; his in- 
 strumentation, 80, in ; his 
 dramas, 219, 226, 227, 248 ; 
 Musikdrama, 227, 249 ; his di- 
 alogue, 235 ; his orchestra, 238, 
 250 ; his operas, 248 ; his theo- 
 ries, 249 ; endless melody, 250 ; 
 typical phrases, 250 ; ' ' lead- 
 ing motives," 250 ; popularity 
 of his music, 303 ; on criticism, 
 314; " Flying Dutchman," 248; 
 " Tannhauser," 248 ; " Lohen- 
 grin,' 1 79, 88, 235, 248; "Die 
 Meistersinger," 249; " Tristan 
 und Isolde," 87, 237, 249 ; 
 " Rheingold," 237 ;" Die Wal- 
 kure," 94, 237; "Siegfried," 
 337, 244 ; " Die Gotterdamme- 
 
 ning," 237 ; " Ring of the 
 Nibelung," 249, 251, 305; 
 " Parsifal," 249 
 
 Waldhorn, 107 
 
 Wallace, W. V., 223 
 
 Walter, Jacob, 53 
 
 Water, musical delineation of, 
 
 58,59 
 
 Weber, 67, 96, 244, 248 ; his Ro- 
 manticism, 67; " Der Freis- 
 chutz," 96, 225 ; " Oberon," 
 225; " Euryanthe," 225 
 
 Weitzmann, " Geschichte des 
 Clavierspiels, " 201 
 
 Welsh choirs, 255 
 
 Wood- wind instruments, 74, 77, 
 78,95 
 
 XYLOPHONE, in 
 YSAYE, on Cadenzas, 146
 
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