THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Professor Malbone W. Graham GiJ^e^vv^yv /"YVj, -WV.- or MUSIC HOW IT CAME TO BE WHAT IT IS MUSIC HOW IT CAME TO BE WHAT IT IS BY HANNAH SMITH ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1898 Copyright, 1898, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK A/jL 3 Cr TO MY FATHER 906321 PREFACE THIS little book is founded upon various courses of lectures which the writer has given before audiences of students and ama- teurs during the past few years. To put them into this form it has been necessary to make many changes. Something has been added and much omitted. What could easily be made clear by practical musical illustra- tion has had to be explained by mere words and an occasional reference to a familiar com- position, and where the treatment of a diffi- cult subject — that of temperament, for in- stance — could in a lecture be aided by an adjustable chart, it has been necessary to forego such aid and trust to verbal explana- tion alone. All reference to individual composers has been omitted, save as they have directly in- fluenced the development of the art, and the aim throughout has been to trace the growth viii Preface of music as concisely as possible — not, how- ever, by mere statement of facts, but also by indicating the causes which have led to re- sults — explaining everything so thoroughly and yet so simply that the reader with no more technical knowledge of the art than is necessary to comprehend a few notes may be able to follow intelligently the course of its development. There is, of course, nothing of original research or criticism ; but most of the standard works on the subject have been read, or consulted, and the knowledge thus acquired condensed into as few words as possible. If the result shall aid any lovers of good music toward a more intelligent hearing — which is sure to bring an increased love for the art — the writer will be more than satisfied. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Musicai Acoustics PAGE 3 Axciext Music CHAPTER I CHAPTER II Medi.eval Music 26 CHAPTER III The Belgian School , 54 CHAPTER IV Music in Italy 68 Contents chapter v PAGE Evolution of the Modern Scale . . . -75 CHAPTER VI The Opera 83 CHAPTER VII The Oratorio 112 CHAPTER VIII Instrumental Music 121 CHAPTER IX Precursors of the Piano-forte .... 148 CHAPTER X Development of Piano-forte Playing . .176 CHAPTER XT The Orchestra 200 Music INTRODUCTION Musical Acoustics ALL sounds are the result of atmospheric vibrations. The difference between mu- sical tone and mere sound, or noise, is that the vibrations which produce the former are regular, while those that produce the latter are irregular, or confused. The reason why some combinations of tones are more agreeable than others is that more undulations of the sound-waves coin- cide. The octave of any tone has two undu- lations to one — that is, every other wave of the higher tone fits into one of the lower. The fifth has three waves to every two — that is, every third wave of the higher tone coin- cides with one of the lower; the fourth has four to three, and so on. In combinations which are excessively dis- sonant, as C and C sharp, none of the undu- 3 4 Music lations coincide. If two sounds of equal in- tensity can be so produced — as is possible — that the elevations of one wave exactly coin- cide with the depressions of the other, the result is silence. The regular vibrations which produce mu- sical tone may be excited either by forcing air through a tube, by agitating a string in a state of tension, or by striking a resonant body, such as a bell ; and upon one or another of these principles every musical instrument is constructed. Strings, however, require to be associated with an elastic, sonorous body, called a sound-board, which takes up the comparatively feeble vibrations produced by Musical Acoustics the string- and communicates them through its entire surface to the surrounding air. The pitch of a musical tone depends upon the rapidity of the vibrations. Very slow vibrations do not affect the auditory nerve, and the pitch, or acuteness, of the sound in- creases in direct proportion to the number of vibrations in a given time. The human ear can perceive tones ranging from about sixteen vibrations in a second * to nearly forty thousand — more than eleven octaves — but only about seven octaves are used in music; the musical character of both highest and lowest extreme tones being very imperfect. There is a very ingenious little instrument, called a syren, which measures exactly the number of vibrations of a given tone. It consists, in its simplest form, of a tube through which air can be forced in a steady current, the tube ending in a box, which is air-tight save for sixteen small holes around the top at equal distances apart. A tightly fitted cover, pierced to correspond, is made to revolve at a regular speed, so that when the holes are opposite one another the air escapes in a series of little puffs ; and * Below that number the vibrations may be perceived as sound, but not as continuous tone. 6 Music when the cover of the box revolves once in a second, producing sixteen successive and regular puffs of air in that space of time, this series of pulsations gives the lowest C of the great organ. When the cover revolves twice in a second, giving thirty-two puffs or vibra- tions, we hear the C an octave above; four revolutions, sixty-four vibrations, give the C an octave above that, etc. ; and in this man- ner, by means of a registering apparatus, the number of vibrations required to produce any tone may be exactly determined. The force, or loudness, of a musical tone depends upon the size, or amplitude, of the vibrations; the greater the breadth of the sound-waves the louder the sound. The quality, or timbre, depends, according to Helmholtz, upon the proportion of harmon- ics or overtones combined with the principal or fundamental tone. When a string is made to vibrate, during the vibration of the whole length, the halves, thirds, quarters, etc., also at the same time vibrate independently, producing in rapid succession certain sounds which are called its harmonics, upper partials, or overtones — the tone produced by the whole length of the string being termed the prime, fundamental, Musical Acoustics or generator. The vibration of the whole length is followed by that of the halves, pro- ducing the octave to the fundamental tone ; then by that of the thirds, producing the fifth to that octave ; then by the quarters, produc- ing the double octave, and so on. Jt ,.- *m. B*. ^^E This series of overtones is called the har- monic chord, and every tone that can be 8 Music sounded is the generator of such a series. It is the fundamental, or prime, which most strikes the ear, that determines the pitch and intensity of the tone ; it is the overtones, or harmonics, combining with it in different proportions, that determine its quality. With the ear close to the strings of a grand piano it is possible to hear, faintly sounding, this series of harmonics, or overtones ; but it is possible also to reveal their presence more distinctly. When any string of the piano is sounded, all the other strings, or parts of strings, which are related to it through its harmonic chord, begin to vibrate in sym- pathy — that is, if they are freed from the dampers which usually prevent such vibra- tions. If the keys C, G, c, e, g, bb, are struck in succession, the tone ceases the instant the finger leaves the key , but if first, by carefully pressing down the key without striking it, the damper is raised from the C C string, which gives the fundamental tone of this series, all these tones will be heard prolonged as harmonics of the longer string. A proof that these tones are really sympathetic vibra- tions of the harmonic divisions of the funda- mental or generator, is this — that they cease the instant the damper falls upon the longer Musical Acoustics string. Another proof is, that if the same string is freed from the damper and an unre- lated series is sounded (Cft, Gft, eft, eft, gft, b, for instance), there is no response. The influence of harmonics upon the qual- ity of musical tone explains how the touch of a piano-forte player is able to affect the quality of the tone produced, even though the finger has after the first moment of impact no lon- ger any control of the hammer. The over- tones develop in regular order from the low- est to the highest, and the first five harmo- nize with the fundamental tone and add to its beauty. The higher harmonics, on the contrary, are dissonant, and their admixture produces a harsh quality of tone. A hard, stiff blow of the hammer on the string develops the overtones rapidly, so that the upper, dis- sonant harmonics are heard before the funda- mental tone dies away ; while an elastic blow, with flexible muscles, develops the overtones more slowly, and the sound vanishes before the high, dissonant harmonics are heard. Piano-forte manufacturers endeavor to elimi- nate these dissonant overtones by making the hammer strike the string at a node, or point where the string divides itself into vibrating io Music sections, and by various other mechanical de- vices ; but the touch of the player, also, is an important factor in determining the quality of the tone produced. The overtones obtained from the strings of a violin are so powerful that they are almost as commonly used as the natural tones of the instrument. The fundamental tone may be extinguished by lightly touching the string at a node, and entire passages are written by composers to be played with harmonics alone. Even from the strings of a grand piano it is possible to obtain this effect, though the tones are fainter. If, by carefully depressing the key, the middle c string is freed from the damper, and the e and g above and the c an octave below are sounded together, the har- monic g will be distinctly heard. If — with the same key still pressed down — f and a above and the F below the bass staff are struck, the harmonic c will be heard ; and in this manner an entire melody may be played with harmonics. This series of overtones is produced also by a column of air vibrating in a pipe or tube ; and these harmonics are the natural tones of all instruments which consist of tubes without pistons or valves — being obtained Musical Acoustics 1 1 by simply blowing with greater or less force into the mouth-piece. The organ by which we become conscious of these vibrations — the human ear — is the most wonderful of all musical instruments. Back of the membrane called the drum, which receives the vibrations, and the series of little bones which transmit them, is an ex- quisitely sensitive arrangement of nerve-fibres — a tiny harp of three thousand strings, each tuned to a different pitch. These are affected by external vibrations, just as the strings of a violoncello, or piano, are made to vibrate by sympathetic tones of sufficient strength on any other instrument near by. When the sound-waves enter the ear, the tiny string that is tuned to the pitch of the sound that is heard begins to vibrate in sympathy, and communicates its motion to the nerve which carries it to the brain. With this marvellous instrument we are able to separate sounds that come to us all in confusion, and by training and attention we can compel our minds to listen to those we wish to hear and be almost deaf to the others. The limits of hearing vary very much in different persons. Some ears recognize sounds in what is to others absolute silence ; 12 Music and even within the limits of the average human ear there are abnormal organs which are capable of perceiving what might almost be called inaudible sounds, and are at the same time deaf to sounds which are audible to everyone else within their reach. The writer has personally known a boy who played the violin with pleasure, but was ab- solutely deaf to the song of a bird — who knew when a bell was rung by hearing the vibra- tion of the wire that was pulled, but was quite unconscious of the sound of the gong. This inability to distinguish particular shades of sound, which is quite distinct from deafness, and seems to correspond to color- blindness of the eye, is probably the result of an imperfection in the delicate arrangement of sympathetic nerve-fibres which has just been described. Some of the tiny strings of the little harps are lacking ; and perhaps such a physical disability may explain also the absence of what is called an ear for music. The faculty of hearing is susceptible of cultivation and development, just as are the faculties of sight and mental perception. Travellers tell us that the lowest savages cannot distinguish colors, and perceive noth- ing in a picture but a piece of paper with Musical Acoustics 13 marks on it ; and teachers who labor for the education of such races consider that a great advance has been made when eye and brain acquire the power of recognizing in such rep- resentations even the most familiar natural objects. In the same manner the ear requires cultivation ; and just as the crudest and most glaring pictorial art is the first to be recog- nized and enjoyed by the eye of primitive man, so the first sounds that delight his ear are those which to a more refined and culti- vated sense often seem harsh and disagree- able. The aim of musicians throughout all time has been to arrange tones in succession and combination so as to give pleasure to their hearers, but the ears of those hearers have always had to be educated to perceive beauty where the keener instinct of the mu- sician assured him it was to be found. The early composers had no guide but this in- stinct ; they simply experimented until they obtained satisfactory results. They knew nothing of the physical facts and scientific principles involved, but the researches of modern science have completely justified their experiments. The evolution of the arts which appeal to eye and ear may possibly have begun simul- 14 Music taneously, but that which appeals to the hear- ing, being more subtle and having no neces- sary connection with practical life, was in its development soon distanced by painting, sculpture, and architecture, which had already attained their highest perfection while music was yet in its cradle. The design of this little book is to trace the growth of this youngest child of the gods in such a way as to give to the general reader, who does not care to fol- low it in works of greater volume and more detail, some intelligent idea of how music came to be what it is to-day. Ancient Music THE history of music should begin, prob- ably, with the history of mankind ; but the beginnings of the art, as of the race, are shrouded by the impenetrable mists which preceded the dawn of civilization. The myths and fables, however, concerning music are among the most ancient, and the art was always regarded as of divine origin. When men first built temples and dwell- ings, they copied the columns and arches of the trees, and the roofs of the caverns in which they had lived. The first painters and sculptors found their models in all natural objects. But the first musicians — how did they begin ? Nature, though full of musical sounds, has almost nothing that we can strict- ly call music. Bird-songs, which give us so much pleasure by their beautiful tones, have 15 16 Music seldom anything like a melody that can be written down in musical notation. Musical tones are sounds resulting from atmospheric vibrations which are both regular and rapid. Music is the succession and combination of such tones arranged by art. Since the human voice is older than any instrument, the first music was, of course, ex- clusively vocal. The theory has been ad- vanced that, as inarticulate sounds of varying pitch, quality, and intensity are the natural expression of emotion, men sang before they talked ; and it is a fact that the least civilized tribes of which we have any knowledge, those whose articulate language is the most limited, have always some rude songs or chants ex- pressive of grief and triumph. But musical sounds are not exactly music. To be music they must have regularly graduated pitch and rhythm. Now the feeling for rhythm — that is, the regular recurrence of accents — is almost universal, and one of the earliest to find expression. The baby claps its hands and moves its body in time to a tune with well-marked accents, and the undeveloped races of people whom we call savages find the same sort of pleasure in the same thing. They have all some rude instrument, drum Ancient Music 17 or gong, with which they mark the rhythm, or accent, and to the accompaniment of which they dance and sing ; and something of this kind was probably the first musical instru- ment. But all nations which have ever so little of culture or development have definite melo- dies, and in the very earliest ages of which we have any record they had also instruments capable of playing such melodies. The fables and stories which antedate history tell of the charm that was wrought upon beasts and trees and stones when Orpheus played be- fore them, and of Pan with his pipes, and of Apollo's lyre.* Kouie, a Chinese musician who lived a thousand years before Orpheus, said : " When I play upon my kin the animals range themselves before me spellbound with mel- ody ; " and in one of the first chapters of the Bible Jubal is mentioned as the father of all those that handle the harp and the organ. Now, what were all these instruments, and how did they come to have them ? * It is noticeable that in these myths and fables the wind in- struments, pipe and flute, were always associated with shep- herds, fauns, and satyrs, while the stringed instruments be- longed to gods and poets. i8 Music Probably the first idea of a wind instru- ment was suggested by the breezes whistling through broken reeds ; and when it was no- ticed that shorter reeds gave higher, and longer ones lower, tones, it would not require a great deal of cleverness to bind together a row of reeds of different lengths, so graduated as to produce a short musical scale. Such an instrument, called a syrinx, or Pan's pipes, was probably Jubal's organ, and it is from this simple ar- rangement of reeds or pipes that the modern or- gan has been developed. Tradition says that Mer- cury, finding that the filaments of dried skin stretched across the shell of a tortoise produced musical tones, took this as the model for the first stringed instrument — the lyre. More probably stringed instruments orig- inated in this way. In the early dawn of the Ancient Music 19 arts, when the poet recounted the great deeds of the nation's heroes, and the hunters and warriors in their excitement twanged their bowstrings by way of emphasis and approval, someone noticed that strings of different lengths and drawn more or less tightly gave forth sounds of different pitch ; and so, per- haps, Apollo's bow was metamorphosed into Apollo's lyre. From the monumental remains of Egypt and Asia, which are the oldest records of human civilization, we know that the art of music was early associated both with religion and with domestic life. On the walls of tombs and temples are numerous representations of in- struments, both wind and stringed, and bands of players and singers under leaders ; but of the music itself there is no record. The Hebrew music is frequently mentioned in the Bible, but we have no certain knowl- edge of its character. It was probably founded upon that of Egypt, and its introduction was very likely the result of the training which Moses received in " all the wisdom of the Egyptians." We know that for the temple service there were regularly trained singers under leaders, and that the} 7 had various in- struments, both wind and stringed ; but no 20 Music authentic melodies have been preserved. Probably they were not written down at all, but taught orally, and so passed on by one generation of singers to the next. The Greeks, also, probably derived the ru- diments of their musical art from the Egyp- tians. So much has been written by their au- thors upon the subject, that theoretically we know very well what Greek music was ; but about its practice we know very little. It seems to have been chiefly a sort of musical declamation — something between the recita- tive in an opera and the chants in the church service — accompanied by a few tones from the lyre and flute. In the Greek drama the language was sung, or intoned, not spoken. The theatres were enormous, roofless am- phitheatres, seating thousands of persons, and ordinary spoken words could scarcely have been heard. The performers even wore masks with metal mouth-pieces to add to the resonance. The poet was also the composer of the music (the Greek word is the same for both *), and, although Greek music consisted of melody only, the system was so elaborate that years of training were necessary to mas- ter its complications. * The musician (musikos) was the performer. Ancient Music 21 The Greeks had a system of musical nota- tion, but, unfortunately, all the compositions of their most brilliant period — four or five hundred years B.C. — have been lost or de- stroyed. They used the letters of their al- phabet to represent musical sounds, but varied them in many ways — dividing, inverting, turning them to right or left, etc. ; and these characters were written directly above the poetical text to which they were to be sung. The Greek scales were quite different from our modern ones. They were composed of tetrachords — groups of four consecutive notes comprising two whole tones, or steps, and a diatonic half-tone, or step * — and two tetra- chords joined together formed a scale. A modern scale also comprises two tetrachords, but the difference is this : the Greek tetra- chords were not all alike — in some the half- step came between the third and fourth sounds, in some between the second and third, in others between the first and second — * Diatonic means, literally, through the tones. A diatonic semitone or half-step is one which is represented by two degrees of the staff — two letters — as E F or Fjf G ; whereas a chro- matic semitone or half-step is represented on one degree of the staff — by one letter — as F F#, G G^, etc. , 22 Music whereas in a modern scale, no matter where it begins, by the use of sharps or flats the semitones, or half-steps, are made always to fall between the same degrees — i i =$=c =£=: i in the major scale between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees — that is, between the third and fourth degrees of the second tetrachord, so that the two tetra- chords precisely correspond. Scales of one octave beginning on each of the white kevs of the piano-forte key-board, leaving out all flats and sharps, give an approximately cor- rect idea of the Greek scales. Our modern major or minor scales differ among them- selves only in respect to pitch — the intervals follow in the same order, but some scales are higher or lower than others — but each of the Greek scales (or modes, as they were called) had a character of its own, and a distinctive name. The one beginning on D Ancient Music 23 was the Dorian (which Plato recommends to use chiefly in the education of youth, because of its severe and heroic character) ; that be- ginning on E i was the Phrygian ; that beginning on F the Lydian (called the mode of soft com- plaint, and considered effeminate); the one beginning on G 1 was the Mixolydian ; that beginning on A I the dorian (" suitable to pleasure, love, and good cheer ") ; that beginning on B i 1 the Locrian, and the one beginning on C i -?r=. -g- (corresponding to the modern scale of C ma- jor) was the Ionian.* Each scale (excepting * Lucien says: " Each species of harmony" (by harmony the ancients understood what we call melody) " should main- 24 Music the last) not only differs from the modern major and minor scales, but differs also from each of the other Greek scales ; so that Greek melodies must have been very different from modern ones, and with these scales harmo- nies, successions of chords such as are now used, would have been impossible. Besides the diatonic, the Greeks had also chromatic and enharmonic scales ; the latter comprising intervals smaller than a semitone, third and quarter tones, like the scales that are still used by Oriental nations. Music composed with such small intervals would seem to us simply out of tune. But Greek music, like that of the Orientals, was founded upon melody — upon tones in succession, not sounded together in harmony — and cannot be judged by our standard. The develop- ment of Oriental music has been limited ex- clusively to melody, and the history of mod- ern music is really the history of the Euro- pean development of the art. Harmony, as we understand it, is a product of the Occi- dent, and comprehensible only by Occidental civilization. To Oriental ears European tain its own character ; the Phrygian, its enthusiasm — the Ly- dian, its convivial tone — the Dorian, its solemnity — the Ionian, its gaiety." Ancient Music 25 harmonies are positively distasteful. The best Oriental melodies have, however, if we do not insist upon measuring- them by our standard, a charm and beauty of their own ; and it is impossible to believe that a people with so keen an artistic sense as that with which the ancient Greeks were en- dowed, should not have found more beauty in their music than is apparent to us in the few authentic specimens that have come down to our time. Some mediocre compo- sitions of the second century — composed long- after the Greeks as a nation had passed their prime — one or two fragments, and the hymn to Apollo, more than two thousand years old, which was found quite recently at Delphi, and is by far the most interesting and impor- tant known specimen of Greek musical art, are all that have been preserved. Greek music can be understood only in its connec- tion with poetry, from which it was never intended to be separated — the life and beauty of the melody being dependent upon the poetic rhythm. With the rhythms we are still familiar, but the melodies to which the poet-composers of ancient Greece wedded their immortal verse have vanished forever. II MedicEval Music THE history of the European develop- ment of the art of music begins in the fourth century of our era with the establish- ment in Rome of schools for the training of choristers. When the Church emerged tri- umphant from the darkness of persecution, and her service was conformed to a definite ritual, the simple song of the early Christians seemed incongruous; and about the middle of the fourth century a church council for- bade congregational singing, and prescribed that only the ordered singers in their ap- pointed place should take part in the service. From this time the choir became a distinct feature of ecclesiastical architecture, and sinsfinpf schools, which were at the same time orphan asylums (orphanotropia), were estab- lished in Rome ; at first one for the whole 26 Mediaeval Music 27 city, but afterward each of the greater Ro- man churches had its own school. The in- struction was limited to what was necessary for the church service, and the method of singing was probably antiphonal ; as this, according to Pliny, was customary among the early Christians. Toward the close of the fourth century St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, selected the four diatonic scales known as the au- thentic modes, and decreed that upon these all church melodies should be constructed. These scales were, apparently, selected be- cause of their severe religious character. In the heathen temples and theatres other scales and chromatic music were used, but these were forbidden to the Church. If tradition may be trusted, it was Greg- ory the Great who, two centuries later, added the four scales which are called the plagal modes ; * and in these eight scales, known as the Gregorian modes or tones, were written the Gregorian chants which are * It is thought to have been Gregory who named the tones after the first seven letters of the Roman alphabet, and as the lowest tone of the first of the plagal scales, which he introduced, is A, this would explain why this tone has the first letter of the alphabet. 28 Music still sung in Roman and Episcopal churches. These scales were named from the Greek scales upon which they are founded ; the pla- gal, ranging a fourth lower than the authen- tic, being distinguished by the prefix hypo. Dorian. Hypodorian. Phrygian. 1 1 a. — G>— ! J\ -&- -&>- ° ° " \ Hypophrygian. Lydian. f 1 — — £2 . 1 — «jl ■ & - s> " — — — — A /A ?>/lP/l • sA V2c-~ mint' tt»w turn -hi um cr crei buu tuv tt tt . /JlJt AAAjl. /M£S »>AA/ ii»y A / ATJt 4** mm — bie — -r wacm * ter-r-rt xw- gum a. Co Aff PUmL. £ sf v Ar-v r ,s>. . AAr inni tnu— m^-w- a t *■ vi a* 34 Music rise and fall of the melody. This was an im- provement; but as the neumas indicated the pitch less definitely than the letters, thev were fcr jice aref jiif meof iuje mitif a less certain guide as to the interval by which the voice was to ascend or descend. But about the beginning of the tenth century a omuttf mfc uf still greater improvement was introduced. A long , red line was drawn horizontally across the parchment, and all neumae placed directly Mediaeval Music 35 upon this line were understood to represent the note F ; the highest F in the bass of our modern system. The position of one note be- ing thus absolutely fixed, that of all the others was rendered much more definite ; and this new plan met with so much favor that a yel- low line, to represent C (middle C of the piano -forte key-board), was soon added. When the lines were drawn in black, the letters F and C were placed at the begin- ning, and so originated the clef signatures, f fr^T which are merely modifications of the old Gothic letters. i^ E3f: 3QE W VARIOUS FORMS OF THE F CLEF z^m mmm VARIOUS FORMS OF THE C CLEF Efi =ft=fe= tk=$> w VARIOUS FORMS OF THE G CLEF 36 Music In the tenth century a Flemish monk named Hucbald, or Hucbaldus, introduced a greater number of lines; writing the syllables to be sung in the spaces between them and the let- ter T or S (tonus or semitonus) at the be- T — T ttL U €c\ [STft T T cc\ J VCT«i ginning of each line, to show whether the in- terval was a tone or a semitone. About the same time, also, another stave was invented, the spaces of which were left vacant; the . H . X — * . e . — . . V$ — . * *y • * * • — ■ J3 m • « • ■■ & _♦ , ^ Mediaeval Music 37 notes being indicated by points or dots upon the lines, and the actual degrees of the scale by Greek letters at the beginning. The com- bination and modification of these ideas seem to have resulted in drawing a four-lined stave and writing the neumae on alternate lines and spaces. This invention is generally, though without sufficient proof, ascribed to Guido d'Arezzo — a Benedictine monk who lived in the elev- enth century — to whose book, the ' Microlo- gus,' we are indebted for much information concerning the music of his time. Guido, who was a practical musician with a decided talent for teaching, aroused much jealousy and dislike among his fellow-teachers by his superior cleverness and openly expressed dissatisfaction with their methods. " When the little boys," says Guido, " have finally learned to read the Psalter, they can read all other books, and even the common la- borers learn their work once for all — who- ever has once trimmed a vine or planted a tree will be able to do it again as well, or bet- 38 Music ter ; these wonderful singing teachers, how- ever, and their scholars may sing every day for a hundred years and yet will not be able to sing the smallest response without instruc- tion. How can anyone who cannot sing a new melody correctly at sight call himself a singer or musician?" — and in another place : " In the church service it often sounds, not as if we were praising God, but rather quarrel- ling among ourselves." Guido set to work to establish a better method of teaching, and in a month's time the boys were able to sing at sight absolutely new melodies — to the great amazement of the hearers. His envious and jealous fellow- monks, however, succeeded in having Guido formally expelled from the convent ; but after a time the pope, having heard of his wonder- ful new system of teaching, invited him to Rome. Guido explained his method so suc- cessfully that the pope himself was able to sing at sight a musical phrase, and Guido was invited to remain in Rome and found a sing- ing school for the clergy. Unfortunately, however, he could not endure the Roman cli- mate ; he fell ill and had to leave the city. But after being so honored by the head of the Church he thought it a favorable moment to Mediaeval Music 39 return to his convent ; and this time, as he naively, or sarcastically, remarks, the abbot was convinced of the excellence of his meth- ods — all of which we know from Guido's let- ters to his friend, Brother Michael. In one of these letters he explains the method of teaching which made him so fa- mous. " If," he says, " you would commit any sound or neuma to memory, to the end that whensoever you may wish, in whatsoever melody, whether known to you or unknown, it may quickly present itself so that you may at once enunciate it without any doubt, you must note that sound or neuma in the begin- ning of some well-known tune. And because for the purpose of retaining every sound in the memory after this manner it is necessary to have ready a melody which begins with that same sound, I have used the melody which follows for teaching children from first to last." * " You see, therefore," continues P Tit que - ant lax - - is Re - so - na - re fi - bris $ Mi - - ra ges - to - rum Fa - mu - li tu Hymn to St. John the Baptist. (Eighth century.) 4° Music Sane - - te Jo - ban - nes. Guido, " that this melody begins as to its six divisions with six different sounds. He, then, who through practice can attain the power of leading off with certainty the begin- ning of each division, will be in a position to strike these six sounds easily wheresoever he may meet with them." It is difficult for us, who have always at hand instruments of fixed intonation to give the singer the desired pitch, to realize the value of this device. But down to the end of the sixteenth century, unaccompanied vocal music was the rule in the service of the Italian Church, and, as confusion and false starts aris- ing from uncertainty in regard to pitch would have been most indecorous in the conduct of a religious service, it was indispensable that a chorister should be able infallibly to sound Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol and La without the aid of any instrument whatever. Guido, who was the most progressive mu- sician of his time, rearranged the scale itself in hexachords — groups of six consecutive Mediaeval Music 41 sounds with a diatonic semitone between the third and fourth, the remaining intervals being whole tones. The hexachords began on G, C and F, and in order to bring the semitone of the latter hexachord between its third and fourth sounds the note B was made fiat. This f 1 g; - -S>- B .B. -B_ _B_ JZL - i= - -■S>- — — B "^ -G>- -s>- -B- — «- .B. — — .B. —— —&— ^«- "B - -G>- B modern ears * — which crude accompaniment was called 'organum.' This was succeeded by a more elaborate system called ' discantus,' which was the tran- sition from organum to counterpoint. In dis- cant other intervals than fifths and fourths were permitted, and the voices moved some- times in opposite directions, instead of al- * The unpleasant effect of consecutive fifths seems to be due to their suggestion of different tonalities and abrupt passage from one to another. As in the Middle Ages the fifth repre- sented merely a perfect consonance — modern tonalities being as yet unrecognized — the succession of such intervals was probably not disagreeable to mediaeval ears. The Belgian School 57 ways parallel ; so that the harshness of the organum was generally avoided.* Singers were taught to improvise the dis- cant, and of this music we have, naturally, little or no record. The only music that has been preserved unchanged from the first thousand years of the Christian Church is the plain-song, or melody of the Gregorian tones or chants. "This," says Ambros, "is the true rock of Peter, around which ebbed and flowed the vanishing waves of the improvised discant." But discant, although a great improvement upon organum, was a mere succession of con- sonant intervals, and developed into real counterpoint only as the importance of dis- sonances became more fully recognized. Counterpoint is the art of combining mel- odies. Some old chant or familiar tune was taken as a foundation, spaced off in very long notes and given to the tenor voice. To this, which was called the 'canto fermo,' were added, both above and below, more or less * Because the discant was frequently higher in pitch than the melody to which it was added, the name was later applied to the soprano part, or the instrument playing that part, and so came to mean an air or melody. 58 Music elaborate melodies for the other voices — each melody independent and complete in itself. As the notes were in those days called points, the added melody was called the counter- point — point against point. If the foundation tune was not long enough for the words it was repeated — sometimes backward, for variety — with new counterpoint each time. Modern music is a melody with an accom- paniment built upon chords ; but contrapuntal music is formed of distinct and independent melodies which are sung or played together. Modern music is regarded, as it were, per- pendicularly ; the melody, and below, or sometimes above it, the harmony — chords, or arpeggios, or figures of any sort which form the accompaniment. Contrapuntal music must be regarded horizontally ; the melody upon which the composition is based — the canto fermo — and other melodies, either above or below it, which, though they may when combined form successions of chords, are yet distinct and independent melo- dies. In early days vocal music was the only im- portant branch of the art. The instruments were not capable of playing anything but the simplest melodies. The voices usually sang The Belgian School 59 without accompaniment, or, if instruments were used, they played just what the voices sang. Doubtless the early musicians, if they had had an instrument like the piano-forte upon which to experiment, would very quick- ly have discovered chords and all the har- monic figures that are now used in accom- paniments. But their instruments were very imperfect, while human voices were just as beautiful as they are to-day; so they com- posed exclusively for voices, and it was nat- ural that they should think of each voice separately and give to each an independent part. The early counterpoint was very formal and severe, and the rules for its composition extremely strict. The canto fermo — the mel- ody to which the counterpoint was added — was always arranged in long notes of equal length, and the counterpoint was carefully classified. There were two kinds — plain, or simple, and double. Plain counterpoint might be note against note fPr- 9^ -Gt- 2 ^r "*"£> *> '-»-'-=>- 6o Music two notes against one -l 1- J , J -J-.-J J_ r -J -J-rH 1 *« — ' ^ ' ^ — ^- P^ — *=>-+ - three or four notes against one =?—*—*- BE =3 i — I—. — I — I — L *=*= ^EE^i ^ g — j — i — U-4 *=*= i |__| I I | | , E^ r^ 1- ^=*= ++± =»:=:^ syncopated J -g»— -& I t3t=st fefe ^ ^ — -g* or florid. i^- "» i 1 1 | -#*« - 1— J -» -1 £w — — « — « — *~ — 1 — *3^- =*"*— — S> tr— ^ Us — =* I^J The Belgian School 61 When the parts might be inverted the counterpoint was called double. ^^ =t ' 3^ ±£zh±± 4=:t ^ Inversion. These examples are of the very simplest description, only one voice carrying a coun- terpoint against the canto fermo ; but by the addition of two, three, four, six, eight, or even more voices, each with its own melodious counterpoint, the richest and most elaborate musical works might be constructed — as, for instance, the great Italian masses of the six- teenth century. Although in strict counterpoint, which was essentially vocal, the canto fermo was always in notes of equal length, with the develop- ment of instrumental music a freer style was gradually introduced, in which notes of vari- ous lengths were permitted in all the parts. 62 Music It is in this freer style that the great works, both vocal and instrumental, of the eighteenth century (Bach and Handel) are composed. The northern musicians who in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries so elaborated the art of counterpoint are known as the Belgian school. The art did not originate with them — the earliest known polyphonic (contra- puntal) composition is English — but they took the lead of all other nations in its de- velopment. One of them, Guillaume Dufay (i 380-1430), is said to have invented the canon, which is the strictest kind of musical composition — the part for the first voice be- ing exactly repeated by all the others, begin- ning at different times. i m -£■ W r-J- A ^— U ^fc r r r P ^=^ r r f Coda. I <&= ^r This canon is brought to a conclusion, and is of the kind called finite ; but many canons The Belgian School 63 lead back to the beginning, and thus become perpetual, or infinite. t *& JlaEEg^gEE^t gStn ^ ±= ?■- m--.-*-^ t=t= -* m- & I ^ IB FirP: 1 For such compositions as these it was suf- ficient to write a single part, appending a rule, or canon, for the entrance of the voices; and from this, which was a very common manner of writing, probably originated the name. These rules, or canons, were often riddles or puns which the singer was ex- pected to guess. By the canon ' Crescit in duplo ' the composer indicated that the fol- lowing voice should double the value of the 6 4 Music notes. By the canon ' Qui se exaltat humi- liabitur' the second voice was directed to rise when the first descended and fall when it ascended, etc. The Belgian musicians wrote canons in the most fantastic ways. Some could be sung equally well with the book upside down, or backward. Here is one of the kind called ' cancrizans ' — crablike — because of its retrograde motion. ^£^gg^ S EEE j==t T=£ ■*tt* Backwards. p Eta* -4 — I 1 — — U h- =ra=c: — i — ' * »-*-' — > — — i— ~ -m- -&- *■ ' It seems to have been the aim of these old contrapuntists to produce canons which are almost incomprehensible. They wrote them The Belgian School 65 in circles and triangles and other shapes, or even simply indicated them by monograms and symbols, concealing in an enigma the key to the solution. These curious old compositions seem to us rather trivial, though they must have cost their composers much labor and pains, and they have no trace whatever of beauty — the composers caring only for the correct ordering of the intervals — but it was really by means of such experiments that the early musicians discovered the relations of tones and all the possibilities of combination which their successors turned to such good account. It was this severe training in the strict school of dry and artificial counterpoint that pre- pared the way for the glorious development of the sixteenth century. One of the most noted of the Belgian mu- sicians was Josquin des Pres (1440-1521), of whom Luther said that he " was master of notes while others were mastered by them." The historian Ambros says that he is the first composer whose works create an im- pression of genius. Des Pres certainlv seems to have had a new revelation concern- ing music. He says : " It is not enough that the contrapuntal voices shall appear in well- 66 Music sounding and dignified combinations — music hath also a speech and capacity for the ex- pression of the pain and pleasure of the hu- man breast." Des Pres is the first composer whose works have survived in sufficient quan- tity to fairly represent his achievements — the invention of printing music by movable types,* which so stimulated publication, dat- ing from his day. Before that time music had been printed only in coarse wood-cuts. All really fine copies of musical works were made with pen and brush — generally in char- acters so large and distinct that the whole choir could sing from one enormous folio opened before it on a reading-desk. Such richly illuminated volumes in costly bindings are to-day counted among the greatest treas- ures of cathedrals and monasteries. *Ottaviano dei Petrucci, about 1500. xi etafrfcroc teen? fum -it Iduu pofm fti fopcrmc ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT (FIFTEENTH CENTURY) IN THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY, VIENNA. The Belgian School 67 But the greatest of the Belgian musicians was Orlando Lassus (1520-95), who spent most of his life as director of the ducal chapel in Munich, where honors and riches were showered upon him. He was called the ' Prince of Music,' received letters of nobility from the emperor, and from the pope the coveted order of the Golden Spur. Lassus, who excelled in both sacred and secular mu- sic, produced an immense number of works (about two thousand), and his fame, even during his lifetime, was widespread. He was undoubtedly the greatest composer of the sixteenth century, with the single exception of his illustrious contemporary, Palestrina. IV Music in Italy THE Italians of the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries had a lively apprecia- tion of music and much natural talent, and the art of improvisation, which they held in the highest esteem, was widely practised. But this kind of emotional song, though it did much for the development of melody, could not lead to the higher art which is founded upon tones in combination — harmony — and the impulse toward this higher art was first given in Italy by the Netherlanders. In the fifteenth century Dutch singers, com- posers, teachers and theoreticians held the first positions all over Italy, and exerted a decisive influence upon the development of music in that country. When, about the beginning of the four- teenth century, Pope Clement V. transferred 68 Music in Italy 69 the papal chair to Avignon, the papal choir remained in Rome, and in the new capital a new choir was formed consisting largely of Flemish singers, who, as had been their cus- tom, added discant and vocal ornaments to the plain-song of the church service. Though efforts were made (notably by Pope John XXII.) to purify the Gregorian chant from these additions, under later pontiffs the papal court at Avignon became the seat of such luxury and magnificence that vocal display in the service was encouraged rather than repressed. When, toward the close of the century, Gregory IX. finally returned to Rome, the Avignon choir accompanied him and was amalgamated with the Roman chapel ; and with the admission of the Neth- erlanders and their compositions into the papal choir was decided their predominant influence in Italy. Music, by this time, had ceased to be the monopoly of the Church, and the Nether- landers worked in all directions for its de- velopment. One of them, Adrian Willaert (1490-1563), chapelmaster at St. Mark's in Venice, is thought to have been the inventor of the madrigal, which is an unaccompanied song for several voices in the polyphonic 70 Music (contrapuntal) style, and in the sixteenth cen- tury represented the highest form of secular, as the mass the highest form of sacred, music. The madrigal flourished chiefly in Italy and in England. In the latter country during the reign of Queen Elizabeth it became ex- tremely popular in aristocratic circles, and not to be able to sing a part at sight was counted as a lack of culture and education. The madrigals of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries are probably the best music that England has produced. In a few generations the teachings and in- fluence of northern musicians in Italy had developed a school of native composers, who first rivalled and then outshone the former, and of which the culminating glory was Giovanni da Palestrina (1528-94), who died just as the dawn of the monodic style — the new music, as it was called — began to glow above the horizon.* * In polyphonic (contrapuntal) music all the parts are of equal importance and all equally melodious, while in monodic (homo- phonic) music the chief melody is given to one prominent part or voice, to which all the others are subordinated to form an ac- companiment. The choruses of Handel's ' Messiah ' are splen- did examples of polyphony, while the solos " He shall feed his flock," and " I know that my Redeemer liveth," are homopho- nic or monodic. Music in Italy 71 Palestrina's name is most prominently as- sociated with the attempted reformation of ecclesiastical music by the celebrated Coun- cil of Trent. Complaints against the abuse of contrapuntal elaborations in the music of the church service had become so loud that in 1562 the council seriously contemplated the prohibition of figural (contrapuntal) music altogether, and the restoration in its place of the ancient, simple Gregorian chant. It was not the reform of the art of music, however, at which the council aimed, but the reform of the church ritual. The Gregorian chants were designed to add to the impressiveness of this ritual — the words being the principal thing, the music of value only as it enhanced their importance. But although the masses and motets were generally founded upon these old chants, they were so obscured by the elaborate counterpoint of the composers and the ornaments added by the singers as to be quite unrecognizable, and a few syllables were made the occasion for such a vast num- ber of notes as to become absolutely unintel- ligible. Moreover, the masses and motets were often founded upon secular melodies, which, though they in like manner disap- peared beneath the complications of the 72 Music counterpoint, yet gave their names to the compositions and were often actually sung to the words with which they were habitually associated ; so that with the most solemn phrases of the mass were mingled the re- frains of indecorous songs. It would, however, be unjust to infer that the Netherlanders, to whom the introduction of secular songs as canti fermi for sacred com- positions is due, had any thought of profana- tion or indecorum. They were used to the intermingling of every-day life with sacred art — their own portraits appear in altar-pieces with saints and angels — apostles and martyrs are depicted with the most realistic Dutch surroundings — and it seemed to them natural enough that their popular songs should be used in the service of the Church. In Rome, where the custom would, perhaps, not have originated, the fame of the Netherland mu- sicians and the real merit of their composi- tions secured for them admittance into the papal chapel and acceptance as models by the Italian composers. In the council the most zealous of the re- formers advocated the restriction of music in the church service to the ancient, Gregor- ian plain-chant ; but, fortunately, there were Music in Italy 73 also true music-lovers and cultivated ama- teurs, and the decree was finally modified to a warning against the abuse of contrapuntal devices and the introduction of words foreign to the prescribed text, and to the exclusion of masses founded upon secular melodies. As to what kind of contrapuntal music would not interfere with the clear understanding of the words, it was resolved to make a prac- tical test ; and Palestrina, whose reputation was already great, was invited to compose a work which should prove that artistic music could be made to heighten, rather than les- sen, the effect of the words. With what zeal and devotion he undertook the task is shown by the motto he chose — " Lord, illumine mine eyes " — and by the fact that, in place of one, he wrote three masses ; the last of which, dedicated to Pope Marcellus and known as the ' Missa Papse Marcelli,' is universally recognized as the greatest musical composi- tion of the sixteenth century. Its perform- ance before a commission of cardinals was so convincing, that figural music was tacitly, if not formally, received into ecclesiastical favor and accorded the protection which was nec- essary to insure the future development of the art. 74 Music The pope's verdict upon Palestrina's mass has become celebrated. " These," said he, " are the harmonies of the new song which the Apostle John heard out of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of which an earthly John (Giovanni) in an earthly Jerusalem gives us a foretaste." V Evolution of the Modem Scale AS long as music consisted of melody only, the ecclesiastical modes, or scales, an- swered every purpose. It is a mistake to consider the modern major and minor forms as the standard scales. They are only the standard scales of the musical development of the last three centuries in western Eu- rope. A composer may use any scale that his hearers can understand, and are willing to accept. The Arabian scale comprises sev- enteen degrees to the octave — our step of a whole tone being divided into three — and is perfectly comprehensible and acceptable to ears which are familiar with it. In primitive music the most common scale is the penta- tonic, consisting of but five degrees and cor- $ 75 76 Music responding exactly to the modern major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted. The melodies of the American Indians and ne- groes are largely constructed upon this scale, NEGRO MELODY (PENTATONIC). as are also those of man)' Asiatic nations. CHINESE MELODY (PENTATONIC). This pentatonic scale is characteristic of Scotch music also. The familiar old tune of ' Bonnie Doon ' is a pentatonic melody. Evolution of the Modern Scale 77 A characteristic Hungarian scale has two augmented seconds, * and still other scales are used in other countries. $ -*= ±= I Since the sixteenth century, music has been composed mostly in the modern major and minor scales, or keys, but many melo- dies with which we are quite familiar are in scales exactly corresponding to the an- cient ecclesiastical modes. The Scotch and Irish tunes that sound so weird and strange are generally constructed upon scales in which, according to the standard of the modern scale, the semitones are displaced. This beautiful old Irish melody is in a scale having semitones between the second and third, and sixth and seventh degrees. f = I Three half-tones or steps. 78 Music r~T~i= J=J= Here is another, in a scale which has semi- tones between the second and third, and fifth and sixth degrees. ¥ ^2J=. "s^ "*^*T»- ^^^fl =p=J=^==t=^=qi=P= i fa — I 1 1 1- =ra -^.. r r — =F=?»= m— £9 Evolution of the Modern Scale 79 Modern composers sometimes use these old scales to produce special effects. The ballad of the ' King of Thule' in Gounod's ' Faust* is an example. ^^ * • If it were in the modern scale of A minor, the G in the second measure would be made sharp. In one of Beethoven's later quartets is a movement which he entitles ' Song of Thanksgiving in the Lydian Mode, offered to the Almighty by a Convalescent;'* and many other examples might be quoted to il- lustrate the occasional use of ancient scales by modern composers. Until about the beginning of the seven- teenth century all musical compositions were in the ecclesiastical modes, or scales. These may be pretty well represented on the white keys of the piano-forte key-board, each scale beginning with a different letter and the semi- tones, or half-steps, falling between different degrees — thus giving to each a distinctive character ; whereas our modern major or * It was the Lydian mode, or scale, which mediaeval writ- ers called Modus Laetus, the Joyful Mode — most appropriate for a convalescent. 8o Music minor scales are virtually the same scale transposed higher or lower — the sharps and flats being used to bring the semitones al- ways between the same relative degrees. A characteristic of all modern scales is the leading note — that on the seventh degree — which is always a semitone below the key- note, or tonic, into which it seems naturally to lead. This note is essential to the modern system of harmony. But in most of the ec- clesiastical scales the note immediately below the tonic was separated from it by the inter- val of a whole tone, and a few of the simplest chord progressions transposed into one of them will show how impossible they were for harmonic combinations. Scale of A Major. iEolian Mode. £8 -gr 1 — -j Scale of D Major. Dorian Mode. m^^^ =^ ^=z== =s=\ Evolution of the Modern Scale 81 It was early discovered that a really well- sounding counterpoint, or accompanying melody to a canto fermo, could not be writ- ten without occasionally introducing acci- dentals to change the position of the semi- tones. As the voices combined to form chords it was found that to make them agreeable to the ear the seventh note of the scale must be a semitone, or half-step, below the ton- ic, or key-note ; and as the appreciation of harmonic relations became more and more definite, the raising of this seventh by an ac- cidental became more and more common. Zarlino, the most progressive theoretician of the sixteenth century, says : " Nature herself demands the leading note— even the peasants who know nothing of the art of music sound it naturally as the proper interval." But among educated musicians there long existed a prejudice against the use of these acciden- tals, and in the canto fermo — the plain-song of the Church — they were expressly forbidden by ecclesiastical authority ; so they seldom appeared in writing, but the choristers were taught to introduce them correctly at sight, and trained singers so resented the introduc- tion of what they considered an unnecessary 82 Music accidental that they called it ' signum asini- num ' — an ass's mark.* By the middle of the seventeenth century the ecclesiastical scales had become so altered by the introduction of these accidentals that their essential characteristics had entirely disappeared, and they were finally fused into the two forms of the Ionian (C major) and iEolian (which, with the raised seventh, is the modern scale of A minor). For a long time the scale of C major was called the Ionian and the scale of A minor the ^Eolian — the other scales, in which the same succes- sion of whole and half-steps was obtained by the use of flats and sharps, being regarded as transpositions of these two. * Even now, in the modern minor scale the raising of the seventh is effected by an accidental, instead of being indicated in the signature, as it logically should be. VI The Opera M°. ODERN music dates from the birth of talian opera in the year 1600. The union of music with dramatic poetry to heighten the emotional effect of the words existed, however, centuries before that date. It seems to be established almost beyond a doubt that the Greek drama, which probably originated in the religious pantomimic dances that were always accompanied by song, was intoned, or chanted, and the choruses sung to the best music of their time. Unfortunately, we have no means of knowing what this mu- sic was, for no manuscripts of Greek music- dramas have been preserved, and for many centuries both music and drama were alike forgotten. But after the night of the dark ages and the twilight of the Middle Ages came the dawn of the Renaissance, in which S3 84 Music the admiration for everything classical be- came a predominating influence in the devel- opment of all the arts; and modern opera was the result of an effort on the part of some enthusiastic Italians to revive the style of musical declamation which they supposed had been used by the Greek dramatists. Toward the close of the sixteenth century a little circle of classical scholars and cult- ured amateurs met frequently at the house of Giovanni Bardi, in Florence, to discuss, from an intellectual stand-point, the revival of the classic drama — that is, a drama in which the expression and effect of the poetry are heightened and intensified by union with mu- sic. Among them were also two or three mu- sicians who endeavored to put their theories into practice. But the musical art of the six- teenth century, which consisted exclusively of the artificial devices and puzzling intricacies of counterpoint, was quite incapable of ex- pressing anything like dramatic emotion; so they concentrated their efforts upon the inven- tion of a new style, resembling, as they fondly hoped, the musical declamation of the ancient Greeks. This new style of music was called homophonic, or monodic, in contradistinction to polyphonic. The Opera 85 It is indispensable to have a clear idea of the difference between the two. Polyphonic music is constructed bv interweaving melo- dies — " its harmonies are not aim, but result." Although some one melody is taken as the foundation of a polyphonic composition, this melody is generally so obscured by the ad- dition of others as to become almost unrec- ognizable, and has absolutely no influence as to character or rhythm upon the composition as a whole. Homophonic, monodic music, on the contrary, seeks to intensify the char- acter of the melody by an accompaniment of subordinate harmonies, so that the composi- tion as a whole is dominated by the melody. Contrapuntal (polyphonic) music is strictly impersonal in its nature — though each part is in itself complete all are equally subordi- nate to the whole ; while in music intended to arouse personal emotion, that is, dramatic music, individualism predominates — every- thing else being subordinated to one promi- nent melodic idea. Dramatic performances associated with music were by no means unknown in the six- teenth century. In Italy there were classical allegories, in England and France masques and ballets, with songs, choruses, dance tunes 86 Music and instrumental interludes. But in these pieces the dialogue was spoken, and the music merely interpolated to increase the pleasing effect of the whole. Toward the close of the century one very curious and in- teresting attempt was made to illustrate the drama by high class, polyphonic music. In this work, which the composer, Orazio Vec- chi (1551-1605), calls a "harmonious com- edy," the story is told in a series of madrigals for five voices in the true polyphonic style. There is no attempt at instrumental accom- paniment, but the characters who appear upon the stage are supported by the other voices behind the scenes ; these voices cor- responding in a measure to the modern or- chestra. But this kind of music was quite incompe- tent to illustrate dramatic poetry. The po- lyphonic style, so perfect an exponent of re- ligious sentiment, failed utterly to express hu- man stress and passion, and the founders of the Florentine school of opera started out in quite a different direction. It was upon aesthetic grounds, however, not musical, that the in- ventors of the lyric drama rejected poly- phony. As music they acknowledged the val- ue of the older compositions, but dramatic The Opera 87 expression demanded another style. Their first invention was the cantata — a musical recitation of a short story in verse by a single person accompanied by a single instrument — and some of these compositions were pub- lished under the title of ' The New Music' These cantatas, which were quite different from the modern compositions known by the same name, consisted exclusively of recita- tive. The aim of the composers was not to make tunes, but to intensify the expression of the words by declaiming them to musical sounds. Rhythmic and melodious phrases were purposely avoided, as being absolutely detrimental to the desired effect. " The new music," says a contemporary writer (Giovanni Battista Doni), " is a kind of melody so sung by a single voice that the words are well un- derstood, with little dwelling upon single tones; so that the song approaches somewhat to ordinary speech, but is more expressive." Simple melody, with little or no accompani- ment, was not heard for the first time in Flor- ence at the close of the sixteenth century. It had existed in popular song and dance tunes ages before the birth of those enthusiasts who then and there introduced it to the amateurs of the city. But it had been accepted by 88 Music educated musicians only as the canto fermo on which to build their great polyphonic com- positions, and even the inventors of the lyric drama, who repudiated polyphony, avoided formal tunes and aimed solely at the exact rhetorical rendering of the words by what is called recitative. In 1597 the first opera,' Dafne,' by Jacopo Peri, was privately performed at the Palazzo Corsi in Florence. This work, which has, unfortunately, been lost, was called ' Dramma per la Musica,' and it was not till half a cen- tury later that the word opera was applied to such compositions. The success of Peri's first effort was so decided that he was invited to provide a similar work for the festivities attending the marriage of King Henry IV. of France with Maria de' Medici, and in the year 1600 was produced in Florence his fa- mous ' Euridice ' — the first Italian opera ever performed in public. Seven years later was brought out in Mantua, on the occasion of another great marriage, an opera by Claudio Monteverde (1 566-1650), a composer whose innovations in the use of chords had already attracted much attention. Monteverde's chief innovations were in the use of the imperfect, or diminished, triad and the unprepared dis- The Opera 89 sonances of the chords of the seventh and ninth. Triads are of three kinds : major, minor, and imperfect, or diminished, and the use $ Major. Minor. j Imperfect or I I diminished, j of the diminished triad was permitted only under restrictions by the older school. Triads are the only chords which are consonances — that is, which are in themselves satisfactory to the ear and do not demand to be followed by other harmonies — and they are the basis of all other chords, which are formed from them by the addition of superimposed thirds. $ Triad. I Chord of the ) C Chord of the ) ) Seventh, j \ Ninth. J In these chords the seventh and ninth are dissonances and require resolution — that is, to be followed by their nearest related triads. ( Chord of the ) i Chord of the I 1 Seventh, } Resolution. ( Ninth. ) Resolution. 90 Music A dissonance is said to be prepared when the dissonant tone appears first as a conso- nance in the immediately preceding chord. I Prepara- Disso Resolu- tion, nance. tion. In later times the use of unprepared dis- sonances has become so common that a com- poser may even begin with a chord of the seventh or ninth without exciting remark; but in Monteverde's day these harmonies aroused as much opposition and controversy as any of Wagner's have done in more recent ) T ears. Monteverde's genius insured the success of the new style. He not only emancipated the dissonances, making them a principal means of passionate expression, but not, like the Florentines, content merely to illustrate the text word by word with appropriate melody, he aimed also at dramatic characterization by the orchestra, which he largely increased. At first there were no public opera-houses — the musical drama was an entertainment reserved for the courts of princes and made The Opera 91 the occasion for fabulous display on occa- sions of public festivity — but in 1637 the first opera-house was opened in Venice, and the passion for musical representations soon spread throughout ItSly. In Venice, Cavalli (1 599-1676), a pupil of Monteverde, first in- troduced fluent, rhythmic melody — what we call tune — into the opera, and with him begins a departure from the ideal of the Florentines. Their first principle was that the music should be only a means of intensifying the expression of the poetry. They had no thought of mak- ing tunes — melodies which might be sepa- rated from the text and played on an instru- ment with pleasing effect. The recitatives which they composed are absolutely meaning- less without the words. But with Cavalli the music begins to assert an independence that rapidly developed into a mastery, and before long dominated the whole structure of the opera to the destruction of all dramatic effect. An immense number of operas was pro- duced during the seventeenth century; slight works, often little more than mere excuses for the display of gorgeous costumes and the art of the stage machinist. The Ital- ians had long been accustomed to displays of great magnificence upon occasions of public 92 Music great magnificence upon occasions of public festival, and a splendid setting soon became in- dispensable to the success of a musical drama. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-172 5), the father of the famous harpsichord player, was by far the best composer of this period. He developed and fixed the form of the aria by the addition of a second part followed by that repetition of the first part known as the Da Capo — which monotonous form predomi- nated in the opera for more than a century. Scarlatti, who was thoroughly trained in the science of composition, did much for the de- velopment of instrumental music, also ; his accompaniments being far superior to those of any of his predecessors. The earlier dra- matic composers thought the study of coun- terpoint unnecessary, and were content to accompany their recitatives with only a few simple chords; but Scarlatti brought all the resources of musical art to the support of the new style, and thus placed modern music upon a secure foundation. The ' Euridici ' of Peri, performed at Flor- ence in the year 1600, excited an extraordi- nary amount of attention throughout the mu- sical world, and everywhere composers were fired with ambition to emulate its success. England in the seventeenth century produced The Opera 93 her greatest native composer, Henry Purcell (1658-95), whose operas are quite equal to those of his contemporaries. He, unfortunate- ly, died too young to found a school and has had no worthy successor. As early as 1627, ' Dafne,' translated into German, and set to music by Heinrich Schtitz (1 585-1672), was performed at Torgau, but the real founda- tions of German opera were laid at Hamburg by Reinhard Keiser (1673- 1739), who has the honor of being the first of that great German school to which the world is indebted for its finest dramatic composers. In France the first opera performed in public was ' Pomone ' (1669), by Cambert and Perrin, but the true founder of French opera was Giovanni Bat- tista Lulli (1633-87), an Italian, brought as a child to France, and early taken into favor by the king for his skill in composing the ballets in which the youthful monarch, who was passionately fond of dancing, himself took part. Lulli invented a style of recita- tive so perfectly adapted to illustrate the best French dramatic poetry that it became the foundation of the French grand opera.* * In the French grand opera every word is sung to orchestral accompaniment. In the opera comique, on the contrary, the dialogue is spoken. 94 Music He was also the inventor of the overture. The early Italian operas were preceded only by a very brief introduction, called sinfonia. Even Monteverde, with whom the orchestra becomes of greatly increased importance, in- troduces ' Orfeo ' with only a short prelude of nine measures twice repeated. But Lulli's overture consisted of a slow introduction fol- lowed by an allegro and ending with a dance movement — a form which became extremely popular, and long served as a model for com- posers. Lulli's greatest follower was Jean Philippe Rameau (1683- 1764), who is better known to-day as theorist than as musician. In his celebrated treatise on harmony he shows for the first time the derivation of chords from roots, or fundamental basses, and, also for the first time, advances the theory, since quite generally accepted, that all chords are formed by the addition of superimposed thirds to the triad. The bass of a mu- sical composition is its lowest part; but as chords may be inverted, or rearranged, the lowest tone is not always that which would be the lowest in the original form, or first position, of the chord. That tone, although transferred to an upper part, is still its root, The Opera 95 or fundamental bass. Before harmony was reduced to a science, each chord was con- sidered as a distinct and individual combina- tion. Modern harmonists regard chords as belonging to groups, or families, related through their roots, or fundamental basses, and classify them accordingly. Rameau's operas are chiefly remembered in connection with the 'guerre des bouffons.' The 'opera buffa' originated in the inter- mezzi, or interludes, which in very early times it was customary to present between the acts of a serious drama. The old Roman comedies had their satires, the mysteries and miracle plays of the Middle Ages hymns and carols sung between the acts, and early Italian plays were almost always relieved by intermezzi. At first these consisted merely of madrigals, or canzonette, but gradually the intermezzi came to embody a distinct little story of their own, having no connection whatever with that of the principal drama ; and finally they became so popular that they were given entire as separate pieces. One of the most celebrated of these intermezzi, ' La Serva Padrona,' of Pergolesi— that brill- iant young Italian, the flame of whose genius was scarcely lighted before it was extin- 96 Music guished by death — was the occasion of the 'guerre des bouffons' which split the Paris- ian public into partisans of French and Ital- ian music, enlisting in support of the latter the genius of Rousseau, and arousing an ex- citement surpassed only by the Gluck and Piccini feud a few years later. By the middle of the eighteenth century the lyric drama had become a favorite, though always aristocratic, entertainment in all the principal cities of Europe. Modern music was firmly established, and already highly developed.* But the great development of music, and es- pecially of extreme virtuosity among singers, had destroyed the balance between music and poetry in the opera. The drama had be- come of little importance save as affording opportunities for musical display, and the singer ruled both poet and composer. In the * However, the very best of the operas which the earlier composers turned out by the dozen, or even by the hundred, was a very slight affair compared to anything that we should consider worthy of the name. A few airs, the elaboration and embellishment of which were entrusted to the singers, con- nected by recitatives with the simplest of accompaniments, a figured bass to be filled out with chords by the harpsichord player, and parts for strings and a few wind instruments were all that was required of the composer. The Opera 97 earliest Italian operas the characters were divided between men and women ; but in the time of Cavalli the artificial male sopranists began to usurp the roles of the latter, and after the pope forbade the appearance of women upon the Roman stage the soprano and contralto parts were sung almost entire- ly by these artificial voices. Even in those operas in which women sang the female roles the artificial sopranos and contraltos monopo- lized all the principal airs, compelling the composer to minister to their vanity without any regard to the development of the drama; and as great singers became numerous the opera degenerated into a mere collection of arias with a pretence of connection by a thread of recitative. These arias, though dif- fering as to the character of the music, were all alike constructed upon the same plan — the first and second parts followed by the inevit- able Da Capo. Some of them contain most amazingly difficult passages, composed especi- ally for those great vocalists whose art appar- ently consisted in the perfect mechanical de- livery of brilliant passages and elaborate em- bellishments. The famous singing master, Niccolo Porpora, is said to have spent five years training his pupil, the celebrated so- 98 Music pranist Caffarelli, in the execution of one page of transcendently difficult exercises, and then dismissed him, saying : " I have nothing more to teach you — you are the greatest singer in Europe." It is not as music that the aria has been condemned by critics and reformers. Some arias will always delight the most cultured and critical hearers. But when in the most dramatic situations the action is suspended while the hero or heroine, or both captivate the audience with elaborate displays of vo- calism, and the development of the drama is constantly hindered by the music which was intended to illustrate it, there is room for just criticism. At the climax of its degeneracy, when the drama was completely dominated by the music and the composer ruled by the singer, upon whom the success of his work in no small degree depended, appeared the first re- former of these abuses, Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-87). Gluck, who in his early days had himself composed successfully in the Italian style, becoming convinced that it was based upon wrong principles, set to work deliberately and conscientiously to effect a reform. In his celebrated dedication of ' Al- The Opera 99 ceste ' he says : " I endeavored to reduce music to its proper function — that of second- ing poetry by enforcing the expression of the sentiment and the interest of the situation without interrupting the action or weakening it by superfluous ornament. My object was to put an end to all those abuses which had crept into Italian opera through the mistaken vanity of singers and the unwise compliance of composers, and against which good taste and good sense have long protested in vain." The first tangible embodiment of these ideas was ' Orpheus,' a work which, produced first in Vienna, soon made Gluck's name known all over Europe. But his greatest success was in Paris under the patronage and protec- tion of his former pupil, the dauphiness Marie Antoinette. On the French stage dramatic propriety had never been entirely sacrificed to musical effect, and audiences accustomed to the fine declamation of Lulli and Rameau were well prepared to comprehend the aes- thetic principles upon which Gluck's reform was based. He at first carried everything before him. ' Iphigenia in Aulis,' ' Orpheus,' and ' Alceste ' were produced, and received with great enthusiasm. But such success was certain to excite opposition. Piccini, an ex- i oo Music cellent musician, although no match for Gluck, was brought from Italy to be its instru- ment, and court and society alike separated into hostile ranks. Everybody, who was any- body, declared himself either Gluckist or Piccinist, and the wit and eloquence of the day were divided between the opposing fac- tions. Criticism was answered by epigram and satire with abuse, and the excitement aroused is almost incredible. Gluck was re- proached with having no melody and making his singers shriek, with his" noisy orchestra" and "harsh harmonies." Write Wagner for Gluck and one can almost fancy one's self a century later. However, ' Iphigenia in Tau- rus,' which was the most complete embodi- ment of Gluck's ideas, assured him a victory over all rivals. Those ideas have already been presented in his own words. His ideal was the same as that to which the Florentine founders of the lyric drama sought to give expression in the as yet imperfect medium of the ' new music ; ' and Gluck showed that the highest development of musical art might be used in the interest of the drama, instead of sacrificing all dramatic effect to gratify the desire of singers and hearers for brilliant dis- play. The Opera 101 While the strife of the Gluckists and Pic- cinists was at its height, there came to Paris, where he failed to obtain even a hearing, the most remarkable prodigy and precocious musical genius the world has ever seen — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91). This gifted youth, who at the age of fourteen had written a successful opera, was now at twenty- one a master of every form of composition. But the musical world of Paris was so blinded by the excitement of the Gluck and Piccini controversy that it failed to perceive the new- ly risen star ; and Mozart returned to his na- tive land, where, beset by trials and disap- pointments and always under the pressure of extreme poverty, he lived out his brief ex- istence. Mozart did much for the development of dramatic music, inspiring the forms of Italian opera with fresh vitality, but he was never a reformer of its abuses. Although he greatly increased the capacity of music for illustrat- ing poetic intention, and far surpassed all his predecessors in his use of the orchestra as a medium of dramatic effect, he made no effort to change the relation of music and drama in the opera. He was too exclusively a musi- cian — interested in the drama only as afford- 102 Music ing opportunities for his own art. The per- fect musical expression of the sentiment of each situation and the genuine touches of true dramatic pathos which will always compel admiration for Mozart's music, are not incompatible with the fact that he did not hesitate to interrupt the action for its introduction. He, " the most absolute of all musicians," would never for a moment have thought of subordinating music to the drama. The principles formulated by Gluck were followed by Cherubini (1760- 1842), whose operas were so much admired by Beethoven, and by Spontini (1784-185 1), whose gorgeous dramatic and spectacular productions domi- nated the great operatic stages of Europe for many years. Both these composers were Italians by birth and training whose genius was developed under the influence of the great German reformer, and whose greatest successes were made in the French capital. But their influence upon French opera was transitory, and it was in Germany that their works met with the most enduring apprecia- tion. Probably the most representative com- poser of the modern French grand opera is Meyerbeer (1791-1864), to whose admixture The Opera 103 of gorgeous spectacular effects and ballet with music which is by no means lacking in truly dramatic moments, its brilliant reputa- tion is largely due. ' Fidelio,' Beethoven's single opera, stands alone, and seems to have had no influence whatever upon the development of this form of art. Beethoven (1 770-1 827) was pre-emi- nently an instrumentalist, and beautiful as is the music of ' Fidelio,' it is yet, as has been said, "more like a symphony for voices and orchestra than the musical complement of a dramatic poem." In the early part of the present century the genius of Rossini (1792- 1868) effected a tem- porary regeneration of Italian opera — his wonderful gift of melody infusing new life into the old forms and captivating all Europe. But the glamour of this wealth of melodious beauty could not long conceal the fact that the poetic foundation was still a mere excuse for the display of brilliant ornamentation and fascinating dance rhythms, and it is only tow- ard the close of the century that we find, at the hands of the venerable maestro Ver- di (181 3- ), who is, perhaps, the most re- markable example of artistic progress and de- velopment on record — a real regeneration of 104 Music Italian art ; so real that it seems almost to foreshadow for Italy, the birthplace of opera, the recovery of her ancient position at the head of musical Europe. The founder of what is known as the Ger- man Romantic school of opera was Carl Maria von Weber (i 786-1 826), a composer whose influence is apparent in even the latest development of German art. The derivation of the word romantic explains its meaning — the mediaeval legends and tales of love and chivalry written in the old Romance dialects being called romances. The group of Ger- man writers who about the beginning of the present century rescued these old romances from oblivion, came to be known as the Ro- mantic school of literature ; and the term was applied also to Weber's operas, all of which are founded upon romantic subjects. The music which illustrates a romantic poem is naturally less restricted by form than that which is called classical — it must express, as freely and directly as possible, the poetic imaginings of the composer ; so, when these terms are applied to pure, absolute music, not associated with words, classical music is mu- sic composed in the established forms (sym- phony, sonata, rondo, etc.), while romantic The Opera 105 music seeks simply to give the most direct and vivid expression to the thoughts and feelings of the composer. Classical composers are those who have developed accepted musical forms into an adequate medium for the ex- pression of their thoughts. Romantic com- posers are those who have expressed their ideas in the most direct manner, irrespective of any formal limitations. But since the word classical * means, primarily, of the first rank, when a musician of to-day composes in the re- gular, established forms, we do not say that his work is classical, but only in the classical style. If time proves that his work is really of the first rank, classicus, then it is called classical. Weber's opera is founded on the ' volkslied ' — that form of song which, Ambros says, is in its importance for the European develop- ment of music second only to the Grego- rian chants. A volkslied is a song of the people. It is a composition without a com- poser. When the improvised melody of * From the division of the citizens of ancient Rome into ranks or classes according to their incomes, for purposes of tax- ation. The citizen of the highest rank was called simply clas- sicus — of the class — just as we say men of rank, implying of the first rank. — Trench. 106 Music some primitive singer pleases the hearers, it is naturally remembered and repeated — oc- casionally with variations which, if they com mend themselves to their audience, are ac- cepted as part of the song ; and so, from gen- eration to generation the melody is passed on, and modified by one singer after another un- til it is finally written down by some collec- tor of volkslieder. A melody which is com- posed in the style of a volkslied is called ' volksthiimlich,' but a true volkslied has no recognized composer. The charm of the volkslied lies in its concise and regular form and its direct expression of popular feeling ; and these qualities Weber embodied in his music. Weber excelled all of his predecessors in his use of the orchestra as a means of dra- matic characterization. Before his time, in- struments were used chiefly to support the voices and impart sonority to the general ef- fect, but Weber, with a marvellous compre- hension of the capacity of each instrument, uses them to characterize both situations and personages. Richard Wagner (1813-83) is the most re- cent reformer of the opera, and his reform is so radical, and apparently so enduring, that The Opera 107 all the dramatic music of the last few decades is more or less affected by his ideas. With unwonted generosity nature made him both poet and musician, and his dual genius seems finally to have reached the goal toward which the Florentine enthusiasts of the year 1600 set their faces, and successfully united the sis- ter arts of music and poetry — born twins, but long associated under such unnatural condi- tions as made them often appear like enemies. Wagner starts with the assumption that there is no possibility of further development for music exxept in connection with the dra- ma ; that the composer must be inspired by a definite poetic idea, and that the mission of music is to receive this idea and bring it forth again transfigured and sublimated. He himself has told us how unintentionally he became a reformer. He was always his own librettist, and having early decided that mythical and legendary subjects are best for musical treatment, he says that the freedom of mythical types implied the liberation of the music itself. " Therefore," says Wagner, " the nature of the subject could not induce me in sketching my scenes to consider in ad- vance their adaptability to any abstract musi- cal form, the particular kind of musical treat- 108 Music ment being necessitated by these scenes themselves. It could not enter my mind to engraft on this my musical form, growing as it did out of the nature of the scenes, the tra- ditional forms of operatic music, which could only have marred and interrupted its organic progress. I, therefore, never thought of con- templating on principle and as a deliberate reformer the destruction of the aria, the duet and other operatic forms, but the dropping of these forms followed consistently from the nature of my subjects." For these musical forms Wagner substi- tutes the continuous melody which glorifies the poetic text. This melody is upborne by the orchestra, which is no longer merely an accompaniment, but has become one of the most important factors in the exposition of the drama. Wagner's orchestra has been com- pared to the chorus of Greek tragedy, which, sometimes continuing the narrative, some- times commenting upon it, always heightened the dramatic effect. Liszt says in his essay on ' Lohengrin ' : " To the orchestra he en- trusts the function of revealing to us the soul, the passions, the feelings, even the most transient emotions of his characters. His orchestra becomes the echo, the transparent The Opera 109 veil through which we note all their heart- beats. In it we hear the angry cry of hatred, the raving of revenge, the whisperings of love, the ecstasy of adoration." It is by the use of what are called lead- ing motives that Wagner's orchestra is thus intimately associated with the action of the drama. With every agency concerned in its development is identified a typical musical phrase, that recurs whenever the agency with which it is associated is present, even by sug- gestion. From these themes Wagner, with an unsurpassed command of the orchestra, weaves a grand symphony, which constantly enforces the action of the drama and intensi- fies its passion. These leading motives are not stereotyped, but are like living organisms, changing and developing with the characters and situations which they illustrate. Though typical phrases that might be called leading motives are to be found in the works of ear- lier composers, their marvellous use as a dis- tinct principle in the construction of an or- chestral exposition of the drama is entirely original with Wagner. For the realization of his ideal of the true music-drama Wagner demands the co-oper- ation of all the arts — laying almost as much no Music stress upon scenic effects and the mimetic art as upon the poetry and music, but mak- ing each and all subservient to the develop- ment of the drama. In his perception of chord relationships Wagner went far beyond any of his predeces- sors. It is not a matter for wonder that his daring use of harmonic progressions as yet unrecognized should have repelled conserva- tive musicians and excited harsh criticism. It is difficult for the present generation, which has been brought up on such harmonies, to realize the first effect of these progressions. The same old story is repeated everywhere in human history — the strife of conservatism against progress, the opposition of tradition and aspiration. The conservative element, well called the ballast of human society, has always opposed innovation ; and, after all, it is right that what is new should be tested by opposition before being accepted. Nothing really worthy of acceptance has ever been hindered by it longer than was necessary for comprehension and appreciation. Innovat- ing musicians have always been compelled to educate a new generation of hearers, and these in their turn become conservatives. Perhaps there is even now in the world a com- The Opera 1 1 1 poser who will use chords in yet more distant relationships, and the present generation may in its old age shake its head in disapproval and point to Wagner as a model of simplici- ty and clearness. VII The Oratorio FROM very early times dramatic perform- ances have been used to teach moral and religious truth and instruct the people in history and legend. Long before any but priests and a few scholars were able to read for themselves, or, indeed, before there were any books, save a few precious manuscripts, there were the miracle plays and myster- ies and moralities which are so often men- tioned in mediaeval records, and which did more for the instruction of the people in sa- cred history than could possibly have been accomplished by the mere reading of the Scriptures in the churches. They were a kind of object teaching for a population which was still in the kindergarten de- partment of education. The subjects of the plays were the stories of the Old and New 112 The Oratorio 113 Testaments, the lives of saints, or allegories intended to teach religion and morality,* and it is from these primitive performances, which were usually associated with music, that the modern oratorio has been developed. There is no record of when or where the dramatic representation of a sacred story was first attempted. As early as the twelfth century crude performances of scenes from Scripture history were not uncommon, and were recognized by the Church as a valuable means of enforcing her own principles and precepts. But though these performances were often under the supervision of the Church, the majority of them were given by strolling companies, who frequently travelled about in a kind of carriage which could be turned into a theatre. This was usually made ready in the inn courtyard, the open galleries surrounding it being occupied by the spec- tators, but frequently such movable theatres were set up in the city streets, where an audi- ence was always at hand ; and though these mediaeval performances may seem to us gro- tesque, and perhaps irreverent, they assur- * The miracle play in Longfellow's ' Golden Legend ' gives a very good idea of one. 114 Music edly were not so to either performers or on- lookers. Finally, however, they became so corrupted by the introduction of absurd stories and traditions, and of comic and vul- gar soliloquies and dialogues, that they were prohibited by the Church ; yet there were many who advocated their reformation rather than their absolute discontinuance. San Fil- ippo Neri, who was a friend of Palestrina and a great lover of music, thought very highly of them as a means of instruction, and had them frequently performed in the oratory of his church — whence the performances them- selves came to be called oratorios. The year 1600, which saw the birth of monodic music in the Florence opera, wit- nessed also the production in Rome of the first real oratorio — ' L'Animo e Corpo,' by Emilio del Cavalieri. In this work, which is an allegory and the direct descendant of the moralities that were so popular in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the same ideas regarding music reform were applied to a moral and religious text. The composer, who had been ' inspector of arts ' in Florence, had there heard not only the first opera, but also, probably, the discussions which resulted in the invention of the new style of music ; The Oratorio 1 1 £ and the influence of the new ideas is appar- ent in his work. The directions for its per- formance included scenery, costumes, acting and even dancing on a regular stage — for at first the oratorio differed from the opera only in the choice of its subjects. The development of early Italian oratorio corresponded exactly with that of early Italian opera — both being treated by the same com- posers in very nearly the same manner — and the musical value of both operas and oratorios is exceedingly small, judged by our standard. But as monodic music rapidly developed and great singers became numerous, the oratorio, like the opera, began to degenerate into a mere occasion for vocal display. Although the music of Palestrina and his associates re- mained the officially recognized style of the papal chapel, the enthusiastic admirers of the new music succeeded in introducing it and its virtuoso effects into the churches, which became almost like concert-halls. Nuns were as renowned for their performances as prima donnas, and a difference between religious and secular music was scarcely dreamed of. The German composers were never so car- ried away by the new style of music — the monodic — as to neglect the science of com- n6 Music position, like the Italians, and, moreover, they never forgot the distinction between sacred music and secular. In Germany the devel- opment of oratorio was much influenced by the chorale — that form of song from which our modern hymn tune is derived. We know from the New Testament narra- tive that it was customary for the Jews to sing hymns. The early Christians carried the custom to Rome, and in all probability the melodies which echoed through the cata- combs were the same that had been heard in Jerusalem. But when the Church emerged from her obscurity and began to be housed in stately edifices and her service celebrated with an elaborate and impressive ritual, the congregational singing was superseded by that of trained choirs. However, the people continued to sing hymns, and as early as the fifteenth century collections of these began to be published. For many centuries hymns were sung by all the voices in unison ; but after the invention of discant and counter- point the original tunes were supported and surrounded by accompanying melodies, both below and above. In the hymns of all an- cient collections the principal melody is al- ways given to the tenor voice ; which, indeed, The Oratorio 117 received its name because it held or kept the principal part. In early times, when women were not permitted to sing - in the church choirs, it was natural that what we now call the tenor voice should lead the singing-. At first voices were divided only into low and high — bassus, bass, and medius, tenor — but even when a third and higher part,* the alto,f was added, the tenor still carried the principal melody. But with the Reformation appeared a great number of hymns intended for the general congregation. These were adapted to the favorite melodies of the day, both sa- cred and secular, and in order that all might sing — men, women, and children — the melo- dy was placed in the upper voice and the construction of the tunes made more regu- lar. And so, upon the volkslied was founded the chorale, which has had the greatest influence upon the development of Ger- man music. It was adopted by compos- ers, as the plain-song melodies had been in Italy, and developed to the utmost by the * Called triplum — from which comes the word treble. t From altus, high ; originally the male voice of the highest pitch — the counter tenor, or falsetto. The word soprano comes from the Italian sovrano — sovereign or chief. ii8 Music genius of John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Bach's greatest compositions in the line of oratorio are his settings of the ' Passion of our Lord.' The history of the passion has always formed part of the service for holy week, and very early the custom was intro- duced of reciting the words to a kind of chant. But besides being a part of the church service the story of the passion was a peren- nial theme for the miracle plays and myste- ries of the Middle Ages. These were always associated with music, and from these primi- tive works may be traced the development which culminated in Bach's magnificent ' Pas- sion according to St. Matthew.' In this, the words of the Gospel narrative are combined with dramatic choruses and beautiful cho- rales, sung, not by the choir alone, but by the choir in harmony and by the whole congre- gation in unison — just as they are sung to- day in the German Protestant churches. But Germany was not the country destined to witness the most splendid development of sacred music. In the great English oratorios which have immortalized his name and fixed themselves in the affections of his adopted countrymen with a hold that is scarcely re- laxed even at the present day, Handel (1685- The Oratorio 119 1759) developed this form of art to the high- est pitch of perfection, and proved himself the greatest of choral composers. When, before the close of the seventeenth century, oratorio began to separate itself from opera by the elimination of scenery, costume and acting, the choral element, which would have been a hindrance to dramatic action, was lifted into prominence. The Italian com- posers, who concentrated their efforts upon dramatic recitative, deeming contrapuntal skill unnecessary, did comparatively little for its development; but the Germans, who al- ways respected the art of counterpoint, turned all its ingenious devices to account in the service of oratorio — the choruses of Bach's ' Matthew Passion' and of Handel's ' Messiah ' and ' Israel in Egypt ' being the finest in the world. The closing years of the eighteenth cen- tury witnessed the production of two de- lightful oratorios, composed by a man who had so nearly reached the allotted term of human life that we can never cease to won- der at the youthful freshness and springlike beauty with which they are pervaded. These were the ' Creation' and ' Seasons' of Joseph Haydn (1 732-1 809). no Music Haydn's choruses cannot, of course, be compared with those of the great genius who has been called the " High Priest of the Sub- lime," but the fluent grace of his melodies and the charm of his instrumental accompani- ments were in his own day quite unsur- passed. Beethoven's single oratorio, like his single opera, stands apart, and exercised no influ- ence upon the development of this form of art. The composer of the nineteenth century who has embodied in the most glorious forms the noblest ideal of the true oratorio is Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47). ' St. Paul ' and ' Eli- jah ' rank second only to the works of the giants, Bach and Handel. VIII Instrumental Music VOCAL music was already highly devel- oped before instrumental music came into existence. Mediaeval art was always the child of the Church, and vocal music had been fostered with especial care. In the pa- pal chapel — the typical choir of the Roman church — no instrument was ever used, not even the organ, and the rich treasure of mu- sical compositions preserved in its archives consists exclusively of vocal works. In the Netherlands the voices were sometimes ac- companied by instruments, but for these no separate parts were written ; they played just what the voices sang. In the sixteenth cen- tury independent instrumental music had hardly made a beginning, though we occa- sionally meet with mention of some clever or- ganist or lute player who was famed for his 122 Music improvisations. In mediaeval times ordinary instrumentalists, pipers, fiddlers, etc., were ranked as vagabonds and outlaws. As late as the eighteenth century in Germany, where music, aside from the church service, was con- sidered chiefly as an aristocratic addition to the domestic establishments of noblemen and great ecclesiastics, musicians not connected with some such establishment were regarded as little better than tramps and vagrants ; and even great composers like Haydn and Mo- zart were reckoned in the list of domestics with cooks and footmen. In Italy music was from the first held in much higher esteem. The musician was regarded as ennobled by his art, and the nobleman did not think it in- compatible with his position to practise it himself as an amateur, though the lute was considered to be the only instrument fit for a gentleman. Until the sixteenth century instruments were not sufficiently perfected to make a real art of playing possible. The clumsy key-boards of the early organs and the great exertion required to produce the sound, pre- cluded the possibility of performing upon these instruments mure than the plain-song melody with single accompanying tones; Instrumental Music 12 3 and even this often required two players. Clavichord and harpsichord were invented but not perfected. The favorite instrument among cultivated amateurs was the lute, whose clear, silvery tones were much to be pre- ferred to the feeble sounds of the as yet imperfect clavier.* The lute, however, had one very great defect — the difficul- ty of keeping it in tune. Matheson says that if a lute player lived eighty years he had certainly spent sixty of them in tuning his instrument. Among bowed instruments the viol held the chief place. The stringed instruments of ancient times were always played by being plucked with the fingers, or with a plectrum, but in manuscripts and architectural sculpt- ures of the twelfth century, and even earlier, * Clavier was the general name for all stringed instruments played by means of a key-board. 124 Music we find representations of such instruments played with a bow ; indicating that the bow was by that time in common use throughout Europe. By reason of the deep curves in its 3Diffc4ttht*i Instrumental Music 125 sides, which permitted a freer use of the bow, the viol was a distinct improvement upon any of its predecessors and the direct precursor of the violin. Viols were at first used, as the older instruments had been, merely to sup- port the voice, and were made in different sizes corresponding to the different voices. A chest of viols — that is, a set of five or six of graduated size and compass — was in the sixteenth century a regular part of the fur- nishing of a well-appointed house, just as a piano is at the present time. As the madri- gals of the sixteenth century were often ex- tremely elaborate and consequently difficult to sing, the parts were frequently accompan- ied by viols ; and sometimes, if there were not voices enough, a voice part was represented by a viol having the same compass. From this it was but a step to playing all the parts with viols, without the voices, and then to composing music professedly intended to be either sung or played.* Sir John Hawkins writes that " when the practice of singing madrigals began to decline, and gentlemen * ' Buone da cantare e suonare ' (good to sing and play) — 'Apt for voices or viols' — 'Convenient for voices or for all kinds of instruments ' — are frequently found on the title-pages of early compositions. 126 Music and others began to excel in their perform- ances on the viol, the musicians of the time conceived the thought of substituting instru- mental music in the place of vocal ; and for this purpose some of the most excellent mas- ters of that instrument betook themselves to the framing of compositions called fantazias, which were generally in six parts, answer- ing to the number of viols in a chest, and abounded in fugues, little responsive pas- sages, and all those other elegancies observa- ble in the structure and contrivance of the madrigal." Early instrumental music is always vocal in character — that is, it is music which could just as well be sung as played. But as in- struments of increased compass and capacity were invented, or perfected, instrumental music began to be separated from vocal and to develop a style and character of its own. With the establishment of the monodic style, when the foundation melody, instead of being surrounded by contrapuntal parts of equal importance, was simply supported by an accompaniment of subordinate harmonies, the element of form, which is of such great importance in modern music, begins to ap- pear in instrumental compositions. Instrumental Music 127 In modern terminology the form of a mu- sical work is the arrangement of distinct sec- tions of melody, with such reference to har- monic relationships that the whole impresses the mind as a complete and logical work of art. In vocal compositions the form of the music depends upon the words, but in the construction of purely instrumental works some principle of arrangement and develop- ment must be followed. The association of song and dance early developed definite rhythms and distinct melo- dic periods — what are commonly called tunes — in popular music, but it was long before these were used by educated musicians ex- cept as canti fermi on which to found their counterpoint. The great vocal works of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, although they are founded upon distinct melodies, are conspicuously deficient in definite rhythms and phrases ; for the tune is so obscured by the accompanying counterpoint that its char- acter and rhythm are utterly lost. Form in its modern sense depends upon defined tonal- ity, and this element, also, is conspicuously absent from the great polyphonic works of the early composers. There could be no de- velopment in that direction until the modern 128 Music scales were accepted and modern principles of harmony fixed; and it was not until the ecclesiastical modes were finally superseded by the major and minor scales, and the re- lation between chords and distinct keys defi- nitely established, that formal melodies began to be accepted by composers as an important element of high-class music. The subject of a musical composition is like the text of a sermon — it is the theme upon which the composer discourses — and, like a text, it may consist of a long musical sentence, or a short one, or even a simple phrase; and as a sermon may have several texts, so a musical composition may be devel- oped from several subjects. A complete mu- sical sentence is called a period. As rhythms in music correspond to rhythms in poetry, so musical periods correspond to poetical ; and as the most common form of verse is the little four-lined stanza, so the musical period most frequently met with is that consisting of four phrases which correspond, or rhyme, by twos. But musical periods, like poetical stanzas, may consist of six, or eight, or more phrases ; or even an irregular number, like five or seven. As in poetry, so in music, a Instrumental Music 129 great variety of both rhythms and periods is found. A period may be divided into sections of (usually) two phrases each ; generally two, the first commonly ending with a half-close — that is, a pause on the dominant harmony, while the full close is, of course, on the tonic chord.* The close and the half-close corre- =3^ H , . 1 1 1 , ^m 1 Halt-close. Full close. spond to punctuation marks — the full close corresponding to full stop, or period, and the half-close to comma or semicolon. These ca- dences, the close and the half-close, which are a very important factor in the definition of form, are also one of its earliest indications in popular music. < = - s££Q£5^= a i^ 'I * The tonic is the first note of a scale, the key-note ; the dominant is the fifth of the same scale or key. 130 Music A motive is the shortest possible complete musical idea — -it may consist of only two or three notes — and motives may be modified in many ways and yet be recognizable by the rhythm and relative positions of the notes.* ipgi pgppsJ5gi | i5EgiP|ip gl Melodies are constructed from repetitions of motives arranged in phrases, sections and periods. Period. Section. Section Phrase. | j Phrase. j Phrase. j Phrase. Before the development of forms founded upon distinct melodic periods, instrumental music was largely constructed from motives arranged in sequences. A sequence is the * It has been estimated that a motive may appear in no less than eighty-seven transformations. Instrumental Music 131 repetition of a definite group of notes (or chords) on different degrees of the scale. 3=^&=\ F ill/ [Ljj' rrrrTTTr :S^=f^fcsd - — S ^ — ;»3 — LA f\ 5 v /i I l|r*i^* Y/\ MizY MONOCHORD. From the Theorica Musice (1490) of Franchinus Gafurius. On the sound-board under the string were marked the divisions corresponding to the different degrees of the scale; if the whole length of the string gave the tone G, eight- ninths would give the tone A ; four-fifths Precursors of the Piano-forte 151 would give B; three-quarters C; two-thirds D ; etc. With this one-stringed instrument, of course, no two tones could ever be sounded together. Very early, therefore, other strings were added, all tuned in unison and each furnished with its own movable bridge. In the earliest monochords the strings were stretched by means of weights, and Greek theoreticians mention such instruments with as many as four strings. A primitive sort of key-board, which had been already applied to the organ, was early applied also to the mono- chord. To the inner end of the key-lever was attached an upright wedge, like a flat- tened pin, which, when the key was de- pressed by the finger, struck the string, set it in vibration and at the same time shortened it to the length indicated by the position of the key ; thus taking the place of the movable bridge. Guido d' Arezzo, who lived in the eleventh century and was a famous music- teacher, advises students to "exercise the hand in the use of the monochord," and from this it has been inferred that there were in his day monochords with some sort of a key- board. But the only definite information we have concerning earl} 7 musical instruments is from representations in sculpture and painting 152 Music and descriptions in books, and the earliest mention of a clavichord is in the year 1404. It is impossible to fix exactly the date of its in- vention, which, however, the historian Am- bros thinks cannot be earlier than the middle of the fourteenth century. There is a rare and curious old book en- titled ' Musica getutscht und ausgezogen durch Sebastianum Virdung, Priesters von Amberg,' * which is the oldest work describing the precursors of modern musical instruments. It was published in 1511,1s illustrated with wood-cuts, and begins with a description of key-board instruments showing distinctly the difference between the two classes represented by clavichord and harpsichord. Virdung de- scribes the oldest monochord known to him as having twenty white keys, from G to I, and in each of the upper two octaves a single black key for the tone B flat — which was nec- essary for the Guidonian system of hexa- chords. Seven strings were sufficient to al- low these twenty-two tones to be heard, and these strings were all tuned in unison to the lowest tone of the instrument, G, which was sounded bv the first key causing the whole * Music Depicted and Set Forth by Sebastian Virdung, Priest of Amberg. Precursors of the Piano-forte 153 length of the string to vibrate. The second key shortened the same string by a ninth and sounded A ; the third shortened it by a fifth and sounded B ; but the tangent of the fourth key touched the second string, and shortening it by one-quarter gave the tone C ; etc. A strip of cloth, which was the common damper for all the strings, prevented the vibration of that portion which was not desired to sound. Since the tones G, A and B were all pro- duced from the same string, they of course could never be sounded together, and in the lowest octave the first possible accord would be G C. But with the growing appreciation of harmony it became necessary to have at least so many strings that all the consonances of the ecclesiastical modes, which were then exclusively in use, might be sounded. How- ever, even when clavichords were manufact- ured with key-boards on which the white and black keys alternated as they do at present, the tangents of three or four different keys produced their tones from one and the same string by causing different lengths of it to vibrate. These clavichords were called 'ge- bunden,' and it was not until the eighteenth century that a so-called ' bundfrei ' clavichord *54 Music was manufactured, having a separate string for each key. The clavichord always retained its original shape — derived from the monochord — that of a long, rectangular box, which at first stood upon a table but was finally provided with feet of its own, and, despite the fact that the number of both keys and strings was con- stantly increased, this instrument continued to be known as a monochord down into the sixteenth century, when it begins to be called clavichord.* The early clavichords had all the strings of the same length, and this had one great ad- vantage : when the bridges or tangents were once fixed exactly in the required places it was only necessary to keep the strings tuned * From clavis, a key, and chorda, string. Precursors of the Piano-forte 155 in unison. But as the compass of the in- struments increased this was found to be inconvenient, and finally a long, wooden bridge was placed diagonally under the strings, which were turned around small pegs and so gradually shortened up to the highest tone. The introduction of the bridge made it possible to give to the upper tones not only shorter but at the same time thinner strings, and to the lower tones longer and heavier ones. The thinner the string the greater must be its length in order to produce a given tone. If the bass strings of modern pianos were no thicker than those in the treble they would have to be enormously long in propor- tion. Consequently, as the compass of the key-board increased it became more and more 156 Music desirable to be able to use strings of greater weight for the bass and lesser for the treble ; and this, of course, involved the giving up of the unisonal tuning. With the giving up of the unison of the strings and the gradual superseding of the ecclesiastical modes by the modern tonalities, began that series of experiments in search of a rule for the tuning of instruments of fixed intonation, which occupied both theoreticians and practical musicians for many decades, and finally resulted in the universal adoption of the system of equal temperament. In order to understand what is meant by equal temperament it is indispensable to dis- abuse our minds of the idea — the result of early familiarity with the piano-forte key- board—that the series of sounds produced by striking in succession the row of white keys from C to C is the natural, or true, scale. That series of sounds comprises two consecu- tive whole tones, or steps, a semitone, or half- step, three consecutive whole tones and an- other semitone. Precursors of the Piano-forte »57 But the intervals of the true major diatonic scale really are the following : I .1 •s? a a -s> .s "s a S 3 $ s 3 3 £ a greater tone, a lesser tone, a semitone, an- other greater tone, a lesser tone, a greater tone and another semitone. There are, more- over, in addition to the seven sounds of the diatonic scale, certain chromatic tones, which are only imperfectly represented on the piano- forte key-board. Between C and D are C sharp and D flat — the interval from C to C sharp being greater than that from C to D flat — between G and A are G sharp and A flat, and so on. The twelve scales or keys which are in common use require eleven chromatic, in addition to the seven diatonic, tones, making eighteen within the compass of a single octave. The human voice can, of course, produce all these tones, no matter how small the intervals which separate them, and instruments like the violin and trombone also can be played with just intonation ; be- cause the player can modify the pitch as he pleases. But with instruments whose tones 158 Music are fixed, like the piano and organ, the pitch does not depend upon the player, but upon the tuner, and the number of tones in the oc- tave being limited, if some scales are tuned perfectly certain tones which belong to other scales will be missing. If, on such an instru- ment, the scale of C is tuned correctly accord- ing to the standard of the true major diatonic scale, given above, every other scale will be out of tune ; because the intervals will not fit into their proper places in the series. The interval D E, which in the scale of C is the second step and, when the scale is perfectly tuned, smaller than the first step, must in the scale of D serve for the first step, which should be the larger ; and so with all the other intervals. Numerous experiments have been made which endeavored to supply on key-board instruments the number of tones in the octave necessary to produce all the scales with just intonation. Zarlino (1517-93), the most in- genious and progressive theoretician of his day, describes an instrument which he had made. Its compass was but two octaves, and the lower, or white, keys were arranged as they are at the present time. Between B and C, however, and E and F, were keys in form Precursors of the Piano-forte 159 and position like our black ones, but white in color, and between all the other lower keys were pairs of upper ones of which one was black and the other white ; so that in each octave instead of twelve there were nineteen keys, representing as many different tones. " But," says Zarlino, " even by the addition of many more it would never be possible to at- tain perfect purity of all intervals, nor to pro- duce more agreeable consonances than those already known." About the same time an- other instrument was manufactured having five key-boards one above another, and upon this, it is said, all scales could be perfectly tuned. The impracticability of manufacturing and of tuning such instruments, to say nothing of the immense difficulty of playing upon them, effectually prevented their general use, and efforts were made to attain by other means the desired end ; that of producing upon the same instrument all the scales with an equal degree of purity — or impurity, as many of the musicians of the time considered it. From the sixteenth century onward ex- periments in tuning were constantly made in the endeavor to attain this end with only twelve keys to the octave. Innumerable 160 Music methods were proposed— and opposed — and many books published, in which, as Matheson, writing in the eighteenth century, says: "As much ado is made about it as if the welfare of the whole world depended upon the tuning of a single clavier." Rameau was the first to propose a really practical system — that which, in principle at least, is followed by the tuners of the present day. By this, the difference between C and the B sharp at which we arrive in following a succession of twelve consecutive fifths up- ward is evenly divided between all the inter- vening fifths, so that the B sharp stands to C in the relation of an octave ; and the same with the difference between C and the D flat which we find by following a succession of twelve fifths downward. As this difference is only about one-fifth of a semitone, each fifth loses only about one - sixtieth ; a compara- tively small deviation from the absolute puri- ty of the interval. Tuning by equal temper- ament is really a system of compromise — what is taken from one interval being added to an- other — the result being the division of the octave into twelve equal parts, each of which differs but slightly from the corresponding interval of the true scale. One of these parts Precursors of the Piano-forte irji is taken as the standard of measurement for a semitone, and two for a whole tone, and On an instrument of fixed intonation tuned by this PSALTERY. From the painting by Orcagna, in the National Gallery, London. duodecimal division of the octave a scale con- sisting of steps and half-steps will fit any where. 162 Music The method of tuning by equal tempera- ment is now almost universally applied to instruments with fixed tones — though even in modern times organs have been built with key-boards on which the black keys are di- vided, one-half producing the flat, and the other the sharp, tone. " There can be no question," says Helmholtz, " that the system of tuning by equal temperament has, by its extreme simplicity, extraordinary advantages for instrumental music ; that any other sys- tem would necessitate a very complicated mechanism and increase in proportion the difficulties of performance ; and that, there- fore, the high development of instrumental music has become possible only by the gen- eral adoption of the system of tempered tun- ing." Without this system modern musical forms, a fundamental principle of which is key relationship and contrast, would be much restricted, and the enharmonic modulations * * The word enharmonic, applied in the Greek system to in- tervals smaller than a semitone, is in modern music referred to the difference between two tones which on keyed instruments tuned by equal temperament are represented by one and the same sound ; as, for instance, C sharp and D flat. If we con- sider the tone represented in one chord by a sharp as that rep- resented in another chord by a flat we shall have an enharmonic modulation. Precursors of the Piano-forte 163 that play such an important part in modern compositions would be impossible. The mu- sician who contributed most toward the gen- eral adoption of equal temperament was John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Bach, who al- ways tuned his own instruments, tested the system in his famous work, ' The Well-tempered Clavi- chord ; ' which is a collection, in two parts, of forty-eight preludes and fugues in all keys, major and minor — in each part a prelude and fugue in each key. The tone of the clavichord, though agreeable and sensitive to the touch of the player, was always feeble and wavering; and the natural desire for an instru- ment whose strings could be excited to stronger vibrations seems to have resulted in the addition of a keyboard to the JACK psaltery and the production of the class of instruments represented by the harpsichord. The psaltery is a trapeze-shaped instrument played by plucking the strings with the fingers, or with plectra of ivory or 164 Music metal held in the hand or fastened into rings worn on the fingers of the player. In the harpsichord the strings were set in vibration by points of some hard substance which twitched or plucked them as the depression of the keys forced the points upward ; and the jack which twangs the string of the harp- sichord corresponds to the plectrum of the psaltery, just as the tangent of the clavichord TANGENT. corresponds to the bridge of the monochord. About the end of the fifteenth centurv quills were substituted for the points of shell or ivory which had previously been used, and from that time the instrument was known also by the name of spinet.* The virginal, which was identical with the spinet, received its name, according to an an- cient lexicographer, " because maids and vir- gins do most commonly play on them." The * From spina, a thorn or point, though the name has also been derived from Spinetti, who was a manufacturer of musical instruments. Precursors of the Piano-forte 165 long harpsichords, like a grand piano, were sometimes described as spinet or virginal, but the rectangu- lar instruments were never called harpsich or ds. In France the harpsichord was called clavegin. Early stringed in- struments with key-boards were made in many shapes and sizes and known b v m a n v names — clavicymbel, clavicytherium, rlivirpmhllo From ' Musica getutscht und ausgezogen ' (1511) by Sebastian Virdung. (or simply cem- balo), arpicordo, etc. (see illustrations at the end of this volume), but whatever the CLAVICYTHERIUM. * The shorter strings are, apparently, opposite the bass keys, and the longer opposite the treble. For this seeming irregu- larity of construction the responsibility rests with the sixteenth century artist, who has drawn the instrument upon the wood exactly as it appeared to him — the impression, of course, show- ing everything reversed. i66 Music variations in shape or nomenclature they can all be referred to the two classes of clavi- chord and harpsichord ; that is, instruments on which the sound was produced by press- ure and shortening of the string by means of tangents, and instruments on which the sound was produced by plucking the strings by means of jacks and quills. The cases of these old instruments were often exquisitely ornamented ; carved, inlaid with ivory and other precious substances, and sound-board, cover and side-panels decorated with appropriate mottoes, or paintings by ar- tists of renown. (See illustrations at the end of this volume.) The compass of the key-board was about four and a half octaves, and in the older Ger- man instruments the natural keys are often black and the sharps white ; the Italian rule being the reverse : Precursors of the Piano-forte 167 With instruments whose strings were made to vibrate by being twitched, or plucked, modification of tone by means of touch was not possible; but some of these instruments possessed considerable power. The harpsi- chord was the most important of all the keyed instruments that preceded the piano-forte, and until nearly the close of the last century it had a place in the orchestra. Harpsichord playing was most esteemed in France and Italy, while in Germany the clavichord was always the favorite instrument. The clavi- chord was comparatively inexpensive, easily tuned and kept in order, while the cost of tuning a harpsichord and renewing the quills must have been considerable. This may have contributed to recommend the former to the frugal German mind, but in any case the fact remains that the " gentle and intimate clavi- chord " was always the favorite instrument in German households. An old German lexi- cographer characterizes the clavichord as "the comfort of the sufferer and the sympathizing friend of cheerfulness." Its tone, though weak and tremulous, could be varied by the touch of the player, while the tone of the harpsi- chord was monotonous and always staccato. From the clavichord both staccato and legato 1 68 Music effects might be obtained, and by an inter- mittent pressure of the finger a continuous repetition of the tone could be produced. This effect, which was called ' bebung,' was much admired. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1713-88) in his work on ' The true Art of Playing the Clavier ' says : " I believe that a good clavichord possesses, with the excep- tion of its weaker tone, all the beauties of the piano-forte, and in addition the ' bebung.' " He says also that the clavichord is the instru- ment upon which one can best form his judg- ment of a player. The clavichord undoubt- edly required more nicety of execution than the harpsichord, and the greater capacity of the instrument for expressive playing de- manded correspondingly greater capacity in the performer. Matheson, writing in the early part of the eighteenth century, says that " for the clavichord one must have a delicate hand and execute all the ornaments distinctly, while upon the harpsichord, with its loud and echoing tones, much slovenly playing will be passed over." The clavichord was the favor- ite instrument of the great Bach, and even Beethoven is reported to have said that on the clavichord one could best control tone and expression. Precursors of the Piano-forte 169 The pedal, which was first used to double the bass tones of the organ, was early applied to the clavier and connected with dampers for producing different degrees and qualities of tone. There were also contrivances worked by the knees of the player, like the swell in the modern reed organ, and stops for differ- ent registers, couplers and other organ de- vices. The shifting key-board also was an early invention. Praetorius describes an in- strument of the sixteenth century on which the key-board could be moved four semitones to the right, so that a composition might be easily transposed from C into E or any of the intervening keys. In the course of the eigh- teenth century inventions and combinations of all kinds were applied to keyed instru- ments with strings ; some to vary the quality of tone or increase its duration, some to pro- duce crescendo or diminuendo effects; but most of them seem to have endeavored by means of stops to imitate all the tones of the full orchestra. Various keyed instruments also were invented which sought to produce sustained tone by some application of the principle of the bow. In some of these the strings were made to vibrate by being rubbed with small wheels ; in others, the depression 170 Music of the key pressed the string against a bow of horse-hair, the motion of which was con- trolled by a pedal ; but as the piano-forte gradually approached perfection it drove all its rivals from the field. The piano-forte * was invented in Florence about the year 17 10 by a harpsichord maker named Bartolomei Christofori. As the harp- sichord seems to have been derived from the psaltery, and the clavichord from the mono- chord, so the piano-forte shows clearly its connection with the dulcimer; which is an instrument almost identical in construction with the psaltery, but played in an entirely different manner — the strings of the dulcimer being struck with small hammers, while in the psaltery the sound is produced by pluck- ing the strings.f * Piano e forte — soft and loud. t The dulcimer is the cymbal of the Hungarian gypsies. Precursors of the Piano-forte 171 Indeed, the performances of a celebrated virtuoso upon the dulcimer, Pantaleon He- benstreit, seem to have suggested in more than one mind the possibility of substituting hammers for the jack of the harpsichord. Although the honor of being the inventor of the piano-forte belongs to Christofori, to Gottfried Silbermann, of Dresden, is due the credit of the development and improve- ment which first rendered its acceptance by musicians in any degree general. The mech- anism of the early models was very imper- fect, and good harpsichords were preferable to poor piano-fortes. Silbermann, who seems to have had great perseverance and tenacity of purpose, spent the larger portion of his working years in effort and experiment toward the improvement of the piano-forte. Agricola, Bach's pupil, says: "With him all workmanship must be genuine and good ; he would have nothing for show, and defect- ive work, even finished piano-fortes, he de- stroyed." The same writer goes on to say : " Herr Silbermann at first finished two of these instruments, one of which the late Herr Capellmeister, Herr Johann Sebastian Bach, examined and played upon. He ad- mired and praised the tone, but censured 172 Music the weakness of the upper notes and the heaviness of the action. This criticism Herr Silbermann, who could never endure to have any fault found with his work, took very ill, and kept for a long time his anger against Herr Bach. Nevertheless, his conscience told him that Herr Bach was right, and he held it for better not to give out any more of these instruments, but strove industriously to correct the faults which Herr Bach had pointed out. To this end he labored many years, and that this was the true reason of his delay he candidly acknowledged to me himself. Finally, however, Herr Silbermann, having really made many improvements, sold one of these instruments to the court at Rudolstadt, and shortly after his Majesty the King of Prussia ordered several " (which are yet in the various palaces at Potsdam). " On all these instruments could be seen and heard, particularly by those who, like myself, had already seen the older ones, how indus- triously and perseveringly Herr Silbermann had labored for their improvement. Herr Silbermann had also the praiseworthy ambi- tion to show one of these later instruments to the Herr Capellmeister Bach, and obtained from him the fullest approbation." Precursors of the Piano-forte 173 Although the greatest musicians acknowl- edged the value of the piano-forte, it was many years before it took the rank which it deserved ; the main reason being, probably, that the new instrument demanded a new technique. The first writer who notices Christofori's invention says: "Many musi- cians will not give to this instrument the praise which is due, because the tone is too soft and dull ; although one becomes easily accustomed to it, and soon prefers the piano- forte to all other instruments. But the chief objection which is raised is this : that one must learn to play upon it after an entirely new fashion, even if one is already well prac- tised in playing upon other keyed instru- ments. Being, however, an entirely new in- vention, it is, of course, necessary first to study its nature in order to bring forth with taste and skill its special excellencies." Prej- udice never yields so slowly as when sup- ported by habit. A writer in the year 1782 says: "With the harpsichord the heart can- not speak — there is no light nor shade, but only a clear, definite outline. The piano-forte stands higher, especially if it be a good in- strument. With it the heart can already speak, and express with its light and shade 174 Music manifold emotions. But highest of all stands the clavichord. Excluded by its nature from the public concert, it is so much the more the confidant of loneliness and solitude. With the clavichord can the heart give itself fullest expression. To know a virtuoso," he con- cludes, "one must hear him at the clavichord, not at the piano-forte, least of all at the harp- sichord." Another writer says: " The harp- sichord exercises the hand after the correct manner, therefore a beginner should first practise on the harpsichord. The piano-forte must be handled very differently, and this in- strument is very far from giving all shades of expression. But the clavichord — that soli- tary, melancholy, unspeakably sweet instru- ment — has advantages above both. By the pressure of the finger, the trembling of the strings, by the strongei or more delicate touch of the hand, the swelling and dimin- ishing of the tone, the melting trill, the por- tamento, every impulse of emotion can find expression." The great step in the construction of the piano-forte was made when metal began to be used, first for strengthening and afterward as the sole material for the frame. This made possible the use of heavy strings under great Precursors of the Piano-forte 175 tension, and such strings give the purest and most brilliant tone. In a modern concert grand the strings exert a force of about 75,000 pounds, and only the solid iron frame preserves the instrument from destruction. The thickest bass string of the first pianos was thinner than the smallest treble string of a modern instrument, and when the only resist- ing material was wood the tension had to be correspondingly slight. It was not until metal bracing had been successfully applied to the piano-forte that the newer instrument definitely superseded the older ones. X Development of Piano-forte Playing THE technique of the clavier seems to have been at first identical with that of the organ. The early composers apparently rec- ognized no difference, as far as technical treat- ment was concerned, between the two instru- ments, and even as late as the seventeenth century music was published with the indica- tion ' for organ or clavier ' upon the title-page. It was in Venice, that great commercial re- public of the Middle Ages which early be- came a centre of art and learning, that the difference between organ and clavier seems first to have been definitely recognized. Venice was in the sixteenth century cele- brated for her excellent organists, many of whom were known also as clavier players, and one of these, Claudio Merulo, contributed very materially to the formation of a style of 176 Piano-forte Playing 177 composition suited especially to the clavier as distinguished from the organ — his toccatas exhibiting the broken chords, quick runs and lively figures which were peculiarly appro- priate to the delicate and evanescent tone of the older instruments.* Here is a letter written nearly four centu- ries ago, which proves that even at that early date the clavichord — monochord it was then called — was a favorite instrument in private circles, and that it was even then customary for the daughters of wealthy and cultivated families to learn to play upon it as a part of their regular education. In the sixteenth century such young maidens were generally sent to the convents to be educated, and we know that some of the best organists in Ven- ice were at the same time music-teachers in various convents. About the year 1529 the daughter of Pietro Bembo, well known as a poet and man of letters, wrote to beg permis- sion to share such instruction — to take music- lessons, as we should say — and this is a por- tion of the father's answer : " Touching thy desire to learn to play upon the monochord, * A toccata — literally a touch piece, as a sonata was a sound piece and a cantata a piece to be sung — was a composition de- signed to exhibit the technique of the performer. 178 Music I answer, since because of thy tender years thou canst not know of thyself, that playing is suited only for vain and frivolous women ; but I desire thee to be the purest and most lovable maiden in the world. Moreover, thou wouldst have but little pleasure or renown if thou playedst badly, and to play well it would be necessary for thee to spend ten or twelve years in practice, without being able to think on anything else. Consider for thyself if that would be proper for thee. If now thy friends and companions desire thee to learn to play in order to give them pleasure, so say to them that thou wishest not to make thyself ridiculous before them, and content thyself with learning and handiwork." Bembo's opinions have been shared by many sensible fathers in later times. Besides the toccatas there were for early clavier players canzone ' per sonar ' — to dis- tinguish them from the canzone which were to be sung — and so-called sonatas. There were also the more strictly contrapuntal com- positions, canons and fugues, and finally the popular melodies and dance-tunes. These had long been used by composers as the foun- dation for vocal works, but being spaced off in very long notes and surrounded by the Piano-forte Playing !79 elaborate counterpoint of the other parts, had in such compositions entirely lost all charac- ter. But these melodies and dance-tunes ar- ranged simply for clavier became extremely popular, and from them was developed the artistic partita or suite. Until the seventeenth century all music was constructed contrapuntally — that is, all the parts or voices were independent, and each complete in itself. There were as many staves as voices, and these were not always written one over the other, but sometimes even on different pages of the book; so that the diffi- culty for the player who had to unite these separate voices in chords was great.* To facilitate this task a series of bass notes Figured bass. 7 4 5 6:! §s 6 4 — 9 8 5 — 4 3 Solution. * The concentration of all the parts upon a system of two staves only, as in modern piano-forte music, dates from the latter part of the seventeenth century 180 Music called basso continuo, or thoroughbass, was provided, and to this were added the figures and signs of transposition indicating the chords, from which it afterward received the name of figured bass. For nearly two centuries oratorios and operas were always accompanied by organ or harpsichord, in ad- dition to the other instruments, and the ac- companist was expected to construct the harmonies from this basso continuo, or fig- ured bass, which was all that was ever fur- nished by the composer ; so the study of this branch of musical art became a very impor- tant part in the education of every organ and clavier player. Toward the close of the sixteenth century the first regular instruction-book for clavier and organ was published at Venice. In this the author, Girolamo Diruta, draws especial attention to the difference between clavier and organ playing, and gives rules for the position of the hands and for fingering. At that time, and for long afterward, the thumb and little finger were almost never used in playing. In fingering the scales the right hand, ascending, used alternately the middle and ring fingers — descending, the middle and forefingers; for the left hand the rule was Piano-forte Playing 181 the reverse. This kind of fingering was not altogether unreasonable as applied to the in- struments then in use. The key-boards of the earlier organs were so high above the l82 Music seat of the player that the elbows were con- siderably lower than the hands, and music for both organ and clavier, which were then not tuned by equal temperament, was written ORGAN WITH PROJECTING KEVBOARD. From an early sixteenth century picture. Piano-forte Playing 183 in only the simplest tonalities; so that the black keys were but seldom required. More- over, the tone was produced by pressure, and this could best be applied by the three longer fingers straightened out ; while the thumb and little finger would be below the level of the key-board, which in the older instruments projected beyond the frame- work. But in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury three great players in three different countries — France, Italy, and Germany — revolutionized existing methods. These were Francois Couperin (1668- 1733), Domenico Scarlatti (1683-1757) and John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), and to them we are chiefly in- debted for the definite establishment of a dis- tinct clavier style, and the development in technique of lightness, elegance and grace. Scarlatti, who was a remarkably brilliant and clever player, was the first to introduce a rapid crossing of the hands, running passages in thirds and sixths, quick repetition of a tone by striking the key with successive fingers, and many other technical devices now famil- iar, but in his day absolutely novel. Couperin, though a less brilliant player than Scarlatti, was a very elegant and refined musician. His 184 Music melodies are profusely ornamented with all those graceful turns, trills, etc., by which the early composers endeavored to disguise the thin tone of the older instruments, and he was one of the first to give to instrumental compositions distinctive titles expressive of the character of the music. Couperin was also one of the first to use the thumb in play- ing, and in his work, ' L'Art de toucher du Clavegin,' gives numerous, though irregular, examples of its employment. But to John Sebastian Bach, who was by far the greatest genius of the three, fingering owes its devel- opment into a system. He fixed the place of the thumb in the scale, and made free use of both that and the little finger, raising the wrists and curving the fingers, which in play- ing, it is said, he drew gently inward with- out moving the rest of the hand. We must remember, however, that the instrument upon which Bach habitually played was the clavi- chord, the tone of which was produced by pressure, not by the blow necessitated by the hammer of the piano-forte, which compels the raising of the fingers. The clavichord was Bach's favorite instrument. He said that he found no soul in the clavecin, or spinet, and the early piano-fortes, the mechan- Piano-forte Playing 185 ism of which was still imperfect, he thought clumsy and harsh. Before the piano-forte came into general use clavier technique was already highly developed and the literature of key-board in- struments both extensive and valuable. But the quality of the tone produced and the limitations of the technique required to pro- duce it unite to determine the character of the music composed for any instrument, and with the perfecting of the piano-forte not only the manner of playing but also the style of composition altered very materially. In the clavichord, the tone of which was pro- duced by pressure of the tangent on the string, the tone might be prolonged by con- tinued pressure, but was always weak and tremulous. Since the key must be kept pressed down as long as the sound was de- sired to continue, and as too strong a pressure sharpened the pitch of the tone, a brilliant style was hardly to be cultivated on the clav- ichord. But on the more brilliant harpsi- chord the player had absolutely no control over the tone beyond the mere staccato twanging of the string by the jack, and flu- ency and rapidity were the qualities demand- ed by compositions for that instrument ; 186 Music while in music for both clavichord and harp- sichord a profusion of embellishments was considered necessary to disguise the tonal deficiencies and compensate for the lack of sustained melody. But with the introduc- tion of the hammer, producing a more pro- longed tone the dynamic force of which could be controlled by the touch of the player, was gained greater power of expressing personal sentiment; and in compositions for the piano- forte the lyrical element begins to appear. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1713-88) was the first to practically recognize the change of treatment demanded by the new instrument. In his essay on ' The True Art of Playing the Clavier' he lays much stress upon the impor- tance of a singing style. " Methinks," he says, " music ought principally to move the heart ; and in this no performer on the piano-forte will succeed by merely thumping and drum- ming, or by continual arpeggio playing. Dur- ing the last few years my chief endeavor has been to play the piano-forte, in spite of its deficiency in sustaining the sound, as much as possible in a singing manner, and to compose for it accordingly." In this essay, which was the first really im- portant work on clavier playing, he bases fin- Pianoforte Playing 187 gering on scientific principles. He says that the hands should swing freely in a horizontal position over the key-board, with the fingers curved ; that playing with straightened fin- gers separates the longer ones too far from the thumb, and renders this, which is really the principal finger, incapable of performing its duty. The black keys, which are shorter and lie higher than the white ones, belong natu- rally to the three longer fingers ; and this, he says, is the reason for the first and principal rule — that the little finger is seldom, and the thumb only in case of absolute necessity, to be used upon the black keys. He also gives rules for the performance of the numerous ornaments that were so conspicuous in the music of his day, counsels the player to train and develop the left hand equally with the right, advises practice upon the harpsichord, which required more strength of finger than the light-actioned clavichord, and finally treats, with great good sense, of expression and the manner of performance. " Good ex- ecution," he remarks, " is the art of so pre- senting musical thoughts that the hearers shall comprehend their true meaning and emotional content; for by the manner of per- formance one and the same thought may re- 188 Music ceive quite different interpretations. There- fore, take not an adagio too quickly nor an allegro too slowly ; give to all notes the values which belong to them, and let the execution be everywhere clear, flowing and distinct. From the soul must one play, and not like a trained bird ; for a musician cannot touch the feelings of others without being moved by the same feelings himself — he must share all those emotions which he desires to excite in the breasts of his hearers." Emanuel Bach was the representative musician of his day, and as regards both playing and composition he exercised a decided influence. Haydn (1732-1809) and Mozart (1756-91) acknowl- edged their indebtedness to him, and in all their compositions the lyrical element, upon which he laid such stress, predominates.* Mozart's contemporaries all testify to the excellence of his playing. Clementi declared that he had never heard anyone play with so much charm as Mozart, and Haydn said that Mozart's playing " went to the heart." " ' Three things are necessary for a good per- former,' said Mozart, pointing significantly * Mozart was one of the first to compose pieces for two per- formers at one key-board. Before his day the compass of the instruments was hardly sufficient for this. Piano-forte Playing 189 to his head, to his heart and to the tips of his fingers, as symbolical of understanding, sym- pathy and technical skill." Yet Mozart, with all his genius and charm, was hardly a piano-forte player in the mod- ern sense, his technique being rather that of the harpsichord. The founder of modern piano-forte technique was Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), who may be regarded as the first gri;at piano-forte virtuoso, his compositions heading the list of those that pay the greatest attention to merely mechanical skill. Cle- menti, who seems to have divined almost by instinct the kind of treatment to which the piano-forte best responds, introduced many technical novelties — passages in double thirds and sixths, runs in octaves, etc. (see his cele- brated collection of studies, the ' Gradus ad Parnassum ') — and his compositions demand for their performance much greater muscular force and endurance than had been required by anything before his day. Clementi was for many years a partner in an English piano manufacturing firm, and made many impor- tant improvements in the construction of the instrument. As his intimate practical ac- quaintance with every detail of its mechanism enabled him to make use of every technical 190 Music device for developing to the utmost its re sources of tone and brilliancy, so, recipro- cally, his immense and ever increasing tech- nique, making constantly greater and greater demands upon the capacity of the instrument, led him continually to improve its mechan- ism. The compass of the key-board, which had been but five or five and a half octaves, was extended to six and six and a half, and the piano-forte became for the first time pow- erful and sonorous, well adapted to the playing of sustained melody and vigorous passages. Beethoven (1770-1827), whose achievements as a composer have quite overshadowed his fame as a pianist, introduced the dramatic element into instrumental music. With de- menti as his model for technical development he acquired the perfect command of the in- strument which is necessary for the success- ful performance of his greatest compositions, but cared nothing for mere brilliancy and polish of execution. One of his pupils says that in the lesson he was " comparatively care- less as to the right notes being played, but angry at once at any failure in expression, or in comprehension of the character of the piece ; saying that the first might be an acci- dent, but that the other showed want of knowl- Piano-forte Playing 191 edge, or feeling, or attention." With his ex- tempore playing he roused his audiences to the highest pitch of excitement. Czerny says: " Frequently not an eye remained dry, while many would break out into loud sobs; for there was something wonderful in his ex- pression." Beethoven's playing has been characterized as tone painting and compared to dramatic recitation. Schindler, his friend and biographer, says that in the performance of his piano-torte works Beethoven laid the greatest stress upon the musical declama- tion ; " for," said he, " although the poet in his monologue or dialogue follows a regular and definite rhythm, yet the actor or reciter, to insure a perfect comprehension of the mean- ing of the poem, makes rests and pauses even where the poet would not venture to indicate them, so must a player employ this art of dec- lamation in his performance of the music." Almost any mature work of Beethoven re- veals this dramatic element. In some there are passages of distinct recitative, the words of which we seem almost to hear ; in others, the intensity of the passion gives to the mu- sic the force of a personal utterance, at times the immensity of the thought even obscuring its expression. 192 Music dementi's most celebrated pupil was the talented Irishman, John Field (1 782-1837), whose influence, both as player and com- poser, has been felt by all later pianists, de- menti kept him in the warerooms to show off the instruments, which at that time were con- stantly improving in the direction of power and quality of tone, and Field made good use of his opportunities ; his touch surpassing, in beauty and sustaining power, all that had been heard before. Liszt says that Field, who was the inventor of the nocturne, was the first to free piano - forte compositions from the fetters of the custom which made it obligatory for such a piece to be a sonata, rondo, or the like. He says: "Field intro- duced a new race of compositions in which feeling and song predominated, free from the shackles of any superimposed pattern. He opened the way for that long series of 4 Songs without Words,' ' Impromptus,' ' Bal- lades,' etc., which have since appeared, and to him may be traced the origin of all those compositions which seek through the medium of tones to give expression to the most inti- mate moods and innermost feelings of the soul." In the first half of the present century Piano-forte Playing 193 piano-forte technique sustained an extraordi- nary development. Before its commence- ment the difference between the piano-forte and its predecessors had been definitely rec- ognized and the principles of fingering es- tablished. The construction of the instru- ment steadily improved, and as its resources became better understood the capacity of the human hand, also, was carefully studied and systematically developed. The heavier ac- tion of the newer instruments compelled the lifting of the fingers and demanded increased muscular force, and the quiet position of the older players was gradually superseded by free movements of wrist and arm. Technical efficiency is the legitimate and necessary means by which a musical work is presented to the hearer ; but often what should be only the means is regarded as the end of artistic effort. In the earlier part of this century technical execution was brought to a very high degree of perfection by a num- ber of players who regarded the art of com- position merely as affording opportunities for the exhibition of mechanical skill. Thalberg (18 1 2-71) was probably the greatest virtuoso of this class. The perfection of his technique justly commanded admiration, being the re- 194 Music suit of a diligent and complete training of the fingers upon legitimate principles, but his compositions were almost exclusively bravura pieces intended for the display of his own wonderful manual dexterity. It was the leaders of the romantic school — Mendelssohn (1809-47), Schumann (1810-56), Chopin (1810-49), Liszt (181 1-86)— who final- ly restored the musical idea to its rightful position of first importance ; recognizing virtuosity only as serving to give the clear- est and most intelligent expression to the thoughts of the composer. Mendelssohn's influence was felt chiefly through his per- formance of works of masters greater than himself, and Schumann's in the amount of poetical material with which he enriched the literature of the instrument, but Chopin and Liszt revolutionized piano -forte playing. Chopin's compositions abound in innovations. Player j, even the most skilful, trained only in the older methods found their technique quite inadequate to the rendering of Chopin's music. His extended and irregular arpeggios, which sometimes compel the passing of the thumb under the little finger, or the little fin- ger over the thumb, irregular grouping of three, four, five, seven or more notes against Piano-forte Playing 195 two or three, and much of the delicate and fantastic ornamentation of his melodies are entirely original. But his greatest innova- tions were in the use of the pedal, upon which his most poetic effects depend. The older pianists used the pedal very sparingly ; most of their music can be played just as well with- out it, but its aid is indispensable to the rendering of Chopin's sustained melodies. Chopin, moreover, utilized its capacity for beautifying tone by allowing the sympathetic vibrations of related strings.* If any key of the piano is struck and the tone prolonged by holding the key down — that is, by keeping the damper raised from the single string — as the tone dies away it loses not only in force but also in quality. But if the same key is struck while all the dampers are raised by the pedal, as the tone dies away it becomes richer and fuller, gathering into itself the sympathetic vibrations of all the strings to which it is related through its har- monic chord. Chopin's recognition of the ef- fects to be obtained from this use of the pedal enabled him to add the charm of increased tonal beauty to his seductive melodies and fascinating harmonies; and these effects have * See Introduction. 196 Music become the common property of all later composers for the piano-lorte. Chopin's playing was characterized by a novel freedom of rhythm, which he often in- dicated by the direction ' tempo rubato ' — in consequence of which he has suffered so much at the hands of sentimental amateurs. Of this, his own peculiarly characteristic manner of performance, it has been said that " the measure wavered, rose and fell like a flame touched with the living breath." Liszt com- pares it to tree-tops stirred by the breeze while their trunks are still immovably rooted in the ground. Rubato playing is one of those artistic inexactitudes which in all de- partments distinguish the superstructure of art from its foundation of mathematics — too slight to impair the accuracy of the outline, yet imparting life and warmth to the cold calculation of the design. To Franz Liszt is due the present amazing development of piano-forte virtuosity. The stories of his performances and of the charm by which he held his hearers spellbound read almost like the ancient myths that tell of the miraculous power of tone. The immense de- velopment which the art of piano-forte play- ing received at his hands brought about a Piano-forte Playing 197 complete revolution in technique, in thelitera- ture, and in the construction of the instrument itself; his enormous muscular force, which would have annihilated the instruments of an earlier day, necessitating an increased power of resistance in all parts of the mechanism. Liszt's compositions are full of technical and tonal effects which, though familiar to the present generation, were in his day entirely novel. In fingering he scarcely recognizes any difference between the black and white keys, using the thumb and little finger as freely upon one as upon the other. For trills in double thirds or sixths or octaves he often uses both hands. His transcriptions of violin passages exhibit technical figures never be- fore applied to the piano, and in his arrange- ments of orchestral works he expands the chords to such impossible dimensions as to compel the passing of one hand over the other for the extreme tones — making their success ful performance possible only by a skilful use of the pedal. The majority of Liszt's special effects depend upon the co-operation of the pedal, and through his utilization of what was long considered an almost useless part of the instrument, he opened many new possibilities to composers. What an important factor the 198 Music pedal is in modern piano-forte playing we all know, but possibly we do not realize how it has revolutionized the style of composing for that instrument. Its use as illustrated in Liszt's transcriptions and arrangements so multiplies, as it were, the fingers of the player that every note of a whole orchestral score may be represented on the key-board ; and all later composers of piano-forte music have profited by Liszt's revelation of the possibili- ties of the damper pedal. It is difficult to imagine a development of piano-forte technique beyond that repre- sented by Liszt's performance and demanded by his compositions. In a letter written at the height of his fame he says : " It remains my firm resolution to renounce the piano- forte only when I shall have accomplished on it all that is possible for me to accomplish in my day." Could it be that when Liszt closed his career as a virtuoso he felt that he had indeed developed to the utmost the re- sources of the piano-forte and accomplished upon it all that was possible even to his genius? None of the disciples he trained in the school at Weimar have reached the height upon which the master stood; the greatest players known to the present generation have Piano-forte Playing 199 gone no farther, and it seems indeed impossi- ble that piano-forte virtuosity — save by the aid of improved mechanical appliances, such as new key-boards which remove or lessen physical impediments — should ever be de- veloped beyond the point at which Liszt left it. XI The Orchestra THE highest and most perfect exponent of absolute music — that is, music not associ- ated with words — is the orchestra. In the ancient Greek theatre the orchestra was the semicircular space between the stage and the seats of the spectators, in which space dances and various evolutions were per- formed by the chorus to the accompaniment of musical instruments ; and the correspond- ing space in a modern theatre is still called the orchestra. But in modern usage the word orchestra is chiefly applied to a body of performers upon instruments among which those of the violin family predominate ;* and, collectively, to the instruments upon which they play. * A body of performers using principally wind instruments is generally called a band. 200 The Orchestra 201 The instruments of the orchestra are usu- ally disposed according to the following plan : Drums. Tubas. o,- Trombones. Trumpets. % 4>