THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 MUSIC 
 UBKA8Y
 
 f ttritg in JUttsical 
 
 BY 
 
 ANTON FRIEDRICH JUSTUS THIBAUT 
 
 HEIDELBERG, 1825. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 BY 
 
 W. H. GLADSTONE 
 
 A fine book on Music is that ' On Purity in Musical Art," by Thibaut. 
 Read it often as you grow older. R. SCHUMANN. 
 
 LONDON 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 
 1877 
 
 [A 11 rights reserved,]
 
 Printed ly R. & R. CLARK. Edinburgh.
 
 
 
 Lib
 
 DEDICATED 
 BY THE TRANSLATOR 
 
 TO 
 
 Cfje 15acf) C&oir, 
 
 AND, IN PAETICULAK, TO ITS CONDUCTOK, 
 
 OTTO GOLDSCHMIDT.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. ON THE CHORALE .... 1 
 
 II. ON CHUKCH Music OTHER THAN THE CHORALE . 36 
 
 III. ON POPULAR MELODIES . . . .66 
 
 IV. ON THE INSTRUCTION TO BE DERIVED FROM 
 
 GOOD MODELS ..... 83 
 
 V. ON EFFECT ..... 94 
 VI. ON THE USE OF INSTRUMENTS . . . 106 
 
 VII. ON A CAREFUL JUDGING OF GREAT MASTERS' 
 
 WORKS . . . . . .127 
 
 VIII. ON A LIBERAL JUDGMENT . . .149 
 
 IX. ON MlSADAPTATIONS OF TEXT . . . 157 
 
 X. ON CHORAL SOCIETIES 168
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 THE fact that this Essay was first published 
 more than half a century ago, might seem, at 
 first sight, to render its translation now a 
 work of doubtful utility. But, inasmuch as 
 it is still in demand in Germany, as is proved 
 by the publication of the Fifth Edition as 
 recently as in 1875, and looking to the great 
 extension of the study and practice of music 
 in our own country, I am persuaded that it 
 will be read both with interest and with 
 profit in England. 
 
 Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut was first 
 Professor of Jurisprudence at Heidelberg, 
 and author of several important treatises on 
 Roman and modern law, published between 
 1797 and 1818. The present Essay appeared 
 
 Preface.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 in 1825, when the author was fifty-one years 
 of age. His friend, Dr. Bahr, who, after his 
 death in 1840, edited the fourth edition, 
 describes the book, on its first appearance, 
 as a voice crying in the wilderness, and sum- 
 moning men to a musical repentance. It 
 denounced in no measured terms the musical 
 vices of the day, and held up as a pattern 
 the great works of the early composers, which 
 posterity was not ashamed to ignore, and 
 even to despise. It condemned the folly of 
 sacrificing time and talent in ephemeral com- 
 positions, when so many immortal works only 
 needed to be brought to light and made 
 known to be appreciated, and pointed in par- 
 ticular to the Palestrina age, as the golden 
 period of Church music, and a mine of inex- 
 haustible wealth. At no other period, Thibaut 
 held, has so high an idea of the real nature 
 of Church music prevailed, or so masterly a 
 conformity to its true end been displayed.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Between Church and Oratorio music he 
 draws an important distinction, too often 
 forgotten in our day. In the former, the one 
 prevailing idea is the personal relation of the 
 individual to his Maker; in the latter, we 
 contemplate, as it were at some distance, the 
 most striking pictures of Sacred History. 
 And, in these two great departments, he 
 claims the foremost place as for Palestrina 
 in the one, so for Handel in the other. 
 
 Thibaut's undisguised admiration for the 
 old masters exposed him to a charge of 
 undue partiality, from which his editor de- 
 fends him. " I never saw," he says, " any 
 lover of music who was so exactly the re- 
 verse of one-sided, and who was less preju- 
 diced in favour of particular authors and 
 compositions. Antiquity was not with him 
 the test of excellence, but he rejoiced in 
 excellence wherever he found it, and never 
 asked from what author or from what period 
 
 Preface.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 it came. Nor, again, was he blind to the 
 weak points of those very composers whom 
 he accounted the greatest. The treasures 
 which, with an exceedingly fine instinct, he 
 restored to the light of day, are such as will 
 never grow old, but rather will bloom and 
 thrive when the more favourite productions of 
 to-day shall have long withered and decayed." 
 The last sentence refers to the large and 
 valuable collection of vocal music made by 
 Thibaut, and used by the small but famous 
 choir that held its practice-meetings in his 
 house and under his superintendence at 
 Heidelberg. It comprised works of the 
 principal Italian, Flemish, French, and Ger- 
 man composers, representing some forty of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some 
 seventy of the seventeenth and eighteenth ; 
 besides a large collection of ancient chorales 
 and of national melodies of all countries. 
 It may now be consulted in the Royal
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Library at Munich. Thus it will be seen 
 that Thibaut speaks to us not merely as a 
 cultivated musical student and amateur, but 
 with the authority attaching to personal ex- 
 perience in the conduct of a choral society. 
 Dr. Bahr, himself an active member of it, 
 speaks of the enthusiasm and the judgment 
 of his leader as revealing to him a new world 
 in music such as he had never previously 
 imagined a source of best and purest 
 pleasure. 
 
 In choosing for his Essay the title of 
 "Purity in Musical Art," Thibaut had in 
 view not so much technical as moral purity. 
 Music he considered not a mere study, nor 
 a mere amusement, but rather as a moral 
 agency. Pure music springs from a natural 
 and healthy impulse, and, in its turn, reacts 
 to the edifying and refining of the mind; 
 while music of a different origin operates, like 
 bad literature, to enervate and demoralise. 
 
 Preface.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 Hence he fiercely assails all musical shallowness 
 and frivolity, and, Dr. Bahr tells us, would only 
 admit into his choir those of whose sympathy 
 for what was high and pure he felt assured. 
 
 The lofty conception of music, and, in par- 
 ticular, of Church music, unfolded in the 
 following pages, is one that we may well 
 study and imbibe, for it will hardly be denied 
 that in England, music, in spite of the great 
 and growing interest taken in it, has certain 
 unwholesome tendencies, requiring an en- 
 lightened judgment for their correction. To 
 speak only of our Church music, we find the 
 lines of demarcation, here so strongly insisted 
 upon by Thibaut, between the Church and 
 the World, blurred and even obliterated in 
 all the branches of our musical Worship. 
 Technical skill and ability we have in abund- 
 ance, but the instinct to reject what is unfitted, 
 and to construct what is conducive, to the 
 highest purposes of religion is no less rare.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 While the noble traditions of our own 
 Cathedral school still, to some extent, survive, 
 the music of the Palestrina age the first- 
 fruits of genius and enthusiasm in the cause 
 of the Church is, practically, a sealed book 
 to us. Congregational singing, with its heart- 
 stirring power, is seldom to be heard. Words, 
 which should stand in the most intimate 
 relation to music, are often degraded into its 
 mere appendages. A fond idea of progress 
 seems ever to entice us away from what we 
 have, to something else that we know not of. 
 These are tendencies against which this little 
 volume is a,protest. Not a few, I hope, will 
 recognise the general truth and justice of that 
 protest will inhale the pure and healthy air 
 that breathes in its pages, and catch some- 
 thing of the enthusiasm that dictated them. 
 
 Were testimony wanting to the opportune- 
 ness of Thibaut's plea on behalf of the older 
 music, it might be found in the remarkable 
 
 Preface.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 activity and enterprise which have been 
 shown, particularly in Germany, since he 
 wrote, in the direction indicated by him. Its 
 nature and extent may be at once collected 
 by glancing at Eitner's Index (Berlin, 1871). 
 The list of compilations there given is far too 
 long to detail ; but I may mention the pub- 
 lications of the Musical Antiquarian Society 
 in our own country; the collection of the 
 Prince de la Moskowa in France ; that of D. 
 Hilarion Eslava in Spain ; the Anthologia 
 Classica de Milano, and Alfieri's fine edition 
 of " Palestrina " in Italy ; whilst in Germany 
 we have Proske and Schrems' " Musica 
 Divina," Von Witt's " Palestrina," the col- 
 lections of Rochlitz, Commer, and Bock ; 
 and last, not least, the annual issues of the 
 Bach and Handel Societies. 
 
 The way, then, is open, if only the will be 
 forthcoming, to the fulfilment of Thibaut's 
 exhortation to cultivate the great works of
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 all times and all nations. Such a task has 
 been from time to time essayed. It was 
 essayed by the Ancient Concerts of the last 
 generation ; and, considering the limited ma- 
 terial then at command, with great success. 
 It is now essayed with ampler resources and 
 with every good promise, by the Amateur 
 Society to whom this Translation is dedi- 
 cated. To all those who, in a right spirit, 
 combine for such a purpose our Author pro- 
 mises a rich reward. May the members of 
 the Bach Choir find in their labour of love 
 that bright sun and that life-long pleasure of 
 which Thibaut speaks as the result of his 
 own experience ! And may their example 
 revive and encourage the practice of Choral 
 Music, for its own sake, in its best and 
 noblest forms ! 
 
 W. H. G. 
 
 Preface.
 
 ON THE CHORALE. 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 IT has perhaps never been so generally ac- History 
 
 the 
 
 knowledged as at the present time that the ground- 
 groundwork of all true knowledge must know- 
 necessarily lie in the historical study and 
 acquisition of standard works that have come 
 down to us. It is only by thus profiting by 
 the lessons of others that fresh energy can 
 safely be applied towards the advancement 
 of truth. Acquaintance with the older mas- 
 terpieces may also have the great negative 
 advantage of convincing worthless preten- 
 sions of their futility, and of diverting them 
 from the business of production to the 
 quiet enjoyment and diffusion of the model 
 works we have inherited from past ages. 
 Men of real genius, like Plato, Raphael, 
 and Shakespeare, are phenomena of ex-
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 tremely rare occurrence; but it has been 
 theirs to sway generation after generation, 
 and to exert a beneficial influence for thou- 
 sands of years. Hence it is of all conceits the 
 most pitiable for any one to dispense with the 
 study of the classics from confidence in his 
 own powers, and so, in effect, declare that he 
 considers himself on a par with the great 
 spirits of bygone time. '' All our young men 
 of education make it almost a point of hon- 
 our to revert to the model authors of anti- 
 quity ; and any one who was setting up for a 
 painter would assuredly no more venture to 
 pronounce the study of the works of Raphael, 
 Michael Angelo, Van Eyck, and Diirer, to be 
 superfluous, than would a youthful poet ven- 
 ture to come out with a new Iliad, or a new 
 King Lear, without acquainting himself with 
 the immortal works of Homer or Shake- 
 speare. Hence in poetry, painting, and 
 architecture, we now have a freshness and 
 life which cannot but please, though it hap- 
 pens often enough that a want of genius
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 and power causes the best intentions to 
 fall short of the complete fulfilment of their 
 aim. 
 
 It is in music alone that an arrogance, 
 that disdains all history, is the order of 
 the day, although the greatest masters of 
 the period preceding our own showed us 
 a better example. There was nothing on 
 which Handel, Hasse, and Graun were more 
 eagerly bent than on the thorough prosecu- 
 tion of musical study in Italy. They did 
 not indeed follow the example of most of 
 our professors, who take every opportunity 
 of showing off with a few bravura pieces 
 laboriously mastered, and think that classical 
 taste is to be found among the audiences of 
 the concert-room ; but, whilst composing 
 fine works, and offering them to the judg- 
 ment of the public, they took care to study 
 the standard works of others for themselves, 
 and cultivated an intimate acquaintance 
 with the most eminent masters. Sebastian 
 Bach, again, who was prevented from travel- 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Neglect of 
 this prin- 
 ciple in 
 music at 
 the pre- 
 sent day, 
 and disre- 
 gard of the 
 example of 
 the most 
 distin- 
 guished 
 musicians.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 ling, studied intently the works of oilier mas- 
 ters Caldara, the immortal Venetian, being 
 one of his especial favourites. Even Mozart, 
 though his genius rendered him well nigh 
 independent of others, yet held the chief 
 works of his predecessors those of Handel 
 and Sebastian Bach in particular in high 
 esteem; and it is owing, primarily, to his 
 edition of the " Messiah" that Handel's repu- 
 tation has outlived an age of musical shal- 
 lowness. But now, how utterly changed is 
 all this ! We see now an almost absolute 
 reliance on individual powers, an unlimited 
 amount of original composition, and, for the 
 most part, a contemptuous disregard for 
 what is called antiquated. Authors, to whom 
 Handel and Hasse could bow the knee, such 
 as Antonio Lotti and Alessandro Scarlatti, are 
 nowadays not known even by name to most 
 people ; and even our own incomparable 
 Handel is, excepting in a few places, not 
 generally treated with that respect which is 
 due to his inexhaustible, and in many ways
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 unique genius. And this ignorance of and On the 
 indifference to history applies not merely to 
 what we call the Church and Oratorio styles. 
 Even with opera, historical knowledge does 
 not, in general, reach back beyond Gluck. 
 Handel's operas have fallen into disuse, and 
 if any one were to refer to those of Caldara 
 and Lotti, he would almost be laughed at. 
 It is just the same with the fugue. Things, 
 indeed, so named are strung together, after a 
 fashion, by thousands yearly, conformable to 
 rule, but destitute of life; but the kind of fugue 
 that Scarlatti wrote in the works which Hasse 
 and Handel admired, is known to hardly one 
 in a thousand of our self-complacent young 
 composers, organists, and teachers. In the 
 same way we are daily overwhelmed with a 
 deluge of songs; but the study of ancient 
 national airs, which often have an indescrib- 
 able charm, and afford a profound insight 
 into the character of different peoples, is 
 altogether out of date ; though here, were it 
 only from the vigour and vitality of the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Musical 
 treasures 
 difficult of 
 acquisi- 
 tion. 
 
 ancient communities, something remarkable 
 could not but have been looked for. 
 
 The causes of this sad state of things are, 
 indeed, sufficiently obvious. To comprehend 
 a Madonna of Raphael, to be impressed by a 
 cathedral like Cologne, to take in the great 
 things of Shakespeare, nothing more is re- 
 quisite than a healthy perception and taste, 
 and a more or less educated intelligence ; 
 and in architecture, painting, and poetry, it 
 is impossible to disguise failures. But the 
 masterpieces of music are as gold buried 
 deep in the earth, which few have the ability 
 and the will to bring to light. A number of 
 the finest things consist of MS. scores scat- 
 tered about here and there. Even a journey 
 to Italy is not of much avail without skilled 
 investigation, for even there the choicest 
 works (excepting several which are performed 
 in the Sistine Chapel) are as good as dead 
 and buried. One may travel from Milan to 
 Naples without hearing a syllable about Vit- 
 toria or Lotti. Now, who has the means of
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 obtaining these full scores ? and how many, 
 I ask in all seriousness, of our ordinary 
 musicians can read with facility scores that 
 are neither slight in texture, nor written in 
 the modern notation ? But, after the mate- 
 rial is found, and the notation understood, 
 we are still at the beginning of our task. 
 The picture must, as it were, be painted 
 afresh, so as to assume its due complexion ; 
 a competent staff must execute the piece with 
 a skill and enthusiasm corresponding to that 
 which produced it ; and where are the men 
 who can don the armour of the giants of old ? 
 Hence, our crack players, music-directors, 
 and teachers, are shy of the old music, and 
 try in every way to throw ridicule on the 
 countless musical treasures we have to boast 
 of; and in this they succeed with the utmost 
 ease. For the public, whether of low or high 
 degree, have no musical principles of their 
 own; they must just take what they find 
 offered ; and under these circumstances, the 
 professors have no difficulty in acquiring a 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Old music 
 shunned 
 by the 
 profession, 
 
 who guide 
 the public.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Vicious 
 elements 
 in music 
 easily 
 masked. 
 
 decisive influence by their mechanical skill. 
 Moreover, there is this danger with music. 
 If, in a picture, we find a limb out of draw- 
 ing, or anything immoral, a healthy eye at 
 once sees sufficient reason for censure, and 
 turns away for very shame, at least in the 
 presence of others. But in music there may 
 be concealed all manner of impure, morbid, 
 and immoral elements ; and thus the rubbish 
 that, if presented by the pen or pencil, could 
 not, for credit's sake, fail to be rejected, 
 comes to be swallowed wholesale by the un- 
 wary. Hence the composers and professors 
 of our day have an easy game to play. To 
 stoop to the sensational, the uncouth, the 
 absurd, and the meretricious, touches only 
 too many responsive chords ; and a connois- 
 seur, when he hears the exclamation, " Oh, 
 how beautiful !" often has to hold his tongue 
 for politeness' sake, because the true com- 
 ment on such a phrase could not be made 
 aloud without affront. When once the pub- 
 lic have their ears attuned to a vulgar and
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 depraved style of music, their taste becomes 
 fixed, and they, in their turn, become despots 
 over the professors ; just as in a case of in- 
 digestion and headache, the one aggravates 
 the other, till nothing remains but to wish 
 for a happy despatch. Plato, in his day, in- 
 veighed against demoralising music. What 
 would he say if he had to listen to the gym- 
 nastics of our day, which only require a few 
 extra fingers to extinguish all we 'call art? 
 compositions in such complete contradiction 
 to nature, ranging between the extremes of 
 feebleness and license, steeped in passion, 
 and yet rarely rising to the height of real in- 
 spiration ! We stand, in fact, in regard to 
 music, as we have it in everyday life (for here, 
 as elsewhere, I make no reference to the ex- 
 ceptions which, happily, there are), in scarcely 
 so good a position as we should in regard to 
 the drama, were the latter not still in some 
 degree influenced by a better spirit, and were 
 we reduced to whatever the fancy of our 
 ordinary actors was pleased to set before us. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Conse- 
 quent de- 
 pravity of 
 modern 
 taste.
 
 10 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Abuse of 
 music in 
 the Church 
 intoler- 
 able. 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Would that this could all be passed over 
 in silence, as applying only to concert-rooms 
 and theatres ! If it be too outrageous for us 
 there, we can stay away, and try to console 
 ourselves with something better. But the 
 church must not and ought not to be bur- 
 dened with the vices of music. For her 
 members are bound to her by a moral tie ; 
 and if, instead of religious fervour being 
 stimulated to the highest pitch, the perver- 
 sion of the noble and beautiful causes them 
 nothing but scandal, not a word can be said 
 for such an abuse. Yet this is, alas ! every- 
 where the case, though nowhere should it be 
 easier to preserve the best of the old music 
 from oblivion than in our very churches. 
 For if we paid no heed to the silly fancies of 
 fashion, we could safely reckon on the people, 
 of their own accord, always treating the 
 works of antiquity, as such, with the deepest 
 respect, because they perceive clearly that 
 this is almost the sole means by which health 
 and purity of manners can be preserved.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 ii 
 
 But, even apart from this, there were the 
 strongest reasons for preserving the original 
 chorales of each communion pure and unim- 
 paired. For, whatever art may do by way of 
 addition or embellishment, it will always 
 remain an indisputable fact that melodies 
 which are, as it were, the natural and trans- 
 parent outflow of an impassioned, deeply- 
 stirred spirit, possess an indefinable charm 
 that never grows old, and, as is the case with 
 many national airs, live on ever fresh and 
 blooming in a nation's memory, if they be 
 not destroyed by external influences. Now, 
 all our communions had, in the early days of 
 their existence, a period of intense enthu- 
 siasm, which will never return ; and, during 
 that period of burning zeal for religion, each 
 one did its utmost to improve its choral 
 music, under the guidance of men thoroughly 
 conversant with the true church modes. 
 How can we then explain the arrogance of 
 the present age, so cold, so feeble, and so 
 utterly worldly in religious matters, in dis- 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Folly of 
 neglecting 
 the an- 
 cient me- 
 lodies.
 
 12 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 The 
 
 Russian 
 Church 
 alone has 
 adhered 
 to the 
 ancient 
 tunes. 
 
 playing, even in the church, nothing but its 
 own productions, and heedlessly discarding 
 all that would fill true Christians with joy 
 and delight ? Yet this is what has happened 
 in the greatest degree where one would have 
 least expected it, and in the smallest degree 
 where one would have most expected it. 
 
 It is of the Russo-Greek Church that this 
 last must be predicated. She alone has ad- 
 hered to the past, so far as was possible in a 
 changeful world, with an almost iron tenacity, 
 and has retained much that may carry us 
 back perhaps to the second or third century. 
 The grandeur of her ancient tunes is ever 
 the wonder of competent judges ; and it was 
 a current anecdote in St. Petersburg, not 
 long ago, that a well-known Parisian com- 
 poser, after hearing some of them in the 
 Imperial Chapel, bitterly exclaimed on com- 
 ing out, "Is it to St. Petersburg that I 
 must come to hear for the first time real 
 church-music ? " It is, indeed, supposed that, 
 since the twelfth century, and especially since
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 the reign of Catherine II., much that is new 
 has crept in ; but as regards the liturgy and 
 the part to be taken by the congregation, the 
 music remains in all essential features un- 
 changed. This makes it all the more to be 
 regretted that no one has attempted to make 
 it known in its entirety to the public, because 
 the study of it would, without a doubt, as I 
 am convinced from experience, throw much 
 light upon the Greek modes. 
 
 The Roman Church had of all others, in 
 virtue of its constitution, the most cogent 
 reasons for retaining the great primitive tunes 
 known as Ambrosian or Gregorian ; those (so 
 far as my knowledge of them goes) truly 
 heavenly and sublime songs and intonations, 
 which, conceived by genius and adorned by 
 art in the early and best times of the Church, 
 lay hold of the soul more powerfully than 
 many of our modern compositions directly 
 aimed at effect. Yet the Sistine Chapel, 
 though remarkably constant to the works of 
 the intermediate period, scarcely seems to 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 The music 
 of the 
 Sistine 
 Chapel 
 is of a 
 later date.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 The Am- 
 brosian 
 and Gre- 
 gorian 
 melodies 
 ignored in 
 Germany. 
 
 Inferior 
 hymn- 
 books 
 issued by 
 authority. 
 
 view these primitive strains with equal favour. 
 Be that as it may, it is certain that any one 
 who wished to be thoroughly informed on 
 the subject of the Ambrosian and Gregorian 
 melodies, would be unable to obtain satis- 
 faction anywhere in Italy. In Germany he 
 would, at best, get a quotation or two from 
 Forkel's compilation ; as for anything further, 
 it would seem almost a point of honour to 
 profess entire ignorance. How indeed could 
 it be otherwise, when those who sit in high 
 places positively repudiate these tunes ? How 
 appropriate would it have been that the 
 Cathedral of Cologne should be the temple 
 wherein the sublime bequests of the great 
 olden time should find their sanctuary ! Yet 
 what has happened ? In 1741 there appeared 
 in Cologne, formally sanctioned by the Elector, 
 and highly praised by the Censors, the chorale 
 book, which has since come so extensively into 
 use, entitled " The new Church and House- 
 hold Hymn-book, sacred to God and the 
 Lamb, for the Daughter of Sion pursuing
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 the Triune path of perfection to the heavenly 
 Jerusalem ; " * and this very hymn-book is so 
 full of dance-like sing-song melodies as would 
 be absolutely incredible, did it not appear 
 from the preface that, to obtain sufficient 
 variety, the editor had been careful to engage 
 a number of different hands in its prepara- 
 tion ; " as most of the tunes of the old com- 
 mon hymn-book have become corrupt, or 
 because so few of them are of an edifying 
 character." It may, without exaggeration, 
 be said that the semi-sacred, semi-romantic 
 manual of devotion and entertainment, called 
 "The Mock Nightingale," and published, with 
 music by a Jesuit, at Cologne in 1649, is, 
 with all its romance, more spiritual in cha- 
 racter than this only too famous hymn- 
 book. 
 
 Proceeding now to the Hussites' hymns, 
 the only thing about them we find to console 
 
 *"Neues Gott und den Lamm geheiligtes Kirclien- 
 und Haus-Gesang der auf dem dreifachen "Wege der Vol- 
 kommenheit nach dem himmlischen Jerusalem wanderu- 
 den Tochter Sion." 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Admirable 
 character 
 of the 
 Hussite 
 Chorales.
 
 i6 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale, 
 
 us is that they were highly esteemed and used 
 by Luther, and that they are still to some 
 extent retained, modernised no doubt in many 
 respects, in Moravian churches. Yet these 
 tunes are of all others those which least de- 
 served to be forgotten. For, emanating from 
 a stock which has to this day distinguished 
 itself far and wide for eminent musical capa- 
 city the outpourings of intense fervency of 
 spirit under circumstances of oppression and 
 persecution these Hussite Chorales bear the 
 stamp of a spiritual power, an humble resig- 
 nation, and a moral dignity, that can scarcely 
 be matched elsewhere. Yet Lutherans have 
 clean forgotten them ; and all the more un- 
 pardonably so, because this Hussite hymn- 
 book is said to have been considered so 
 dangerous by the Jesuits, that, with the ex- 
 ception of a few copies, one of which has by 
 good luck fallen into my hands, they bought 
 it up and burnt it. This would have been 
 an admirable reason for patronising the pro- 
 scribed work by issuing a large new edition.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 But, until quite recently, no one thought of 
 such a thing ; while the most worthless com- 
 positions were all the time being published, 
 as though they were treasures necessary for 
 the public to possess. 
 
 What Luther did for the Chorale how 
 he, as it were, blazed and consumed away in 
 his passion for sacred music, singing with his 
 choir-boys right into the night how, accord- 
 ing to Walter, an eyewitness, it was impos- 
 sible for him to flag or tire of singing, and 
 how his soul seemed ever more and more 
 aglow with it all this is notorious. More- 
 over, many excellent observations of his on 
 music are in every one's mouth. Yet the 
 singing in the churches which he founded 
 speedily degenerated. As early as 1628 ap- 
 peared the Chorale boo^: of that eminent man 
 Henry Schiitz, which was in many respects 
 adapted to the newly prevalent taste. The 
 preface modestly declares that it was neces- 
 sary to make concessions to the spirit of the 
 time ; but the compiler adds, with a sort of 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Luther's 
 passion for 
 singing. 
 
 Subse- 
 quent de- 
 teriora- 
 tion of the 
 Chorale.
 
 i8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Bach's 
 treatment 
 of the 
 Chorale 
 not de- 
 signed for 
 popular 
 use. 
 
 Acquies- 
 cence in 
 ignorance 
 made 
 reform im- 
 possible. 
 
 compunction, " I must, however, confess that 
 I consider some of the old melodies to have 
 been the creation of celestial seraphims rather 
 than of men." Every one who knows anything 
 of music knows how these strains have in 
 later days been translated into modern scales, 
 and overladen with abrupt transitions and 
 modulations. Sebastian Bach, indeed, before 
 whose grandeur we are all ready to bow when 
 he exhibits himself to us in perfect simplicity, 
 might have proved a veritable saviour. But 
 his bent lay more towards perfecting his art 
 in the direction of florid part-writing, and of 
 rising to its loftiest flights (as indeed other 
 considerable masters have done since) with- 
 out regard to popular requirements. Hence 
 his four-part chorales, incomparable, no doubt, 
 in themselves, must be accounted unprofitable 
 as regards the people at large, and most of 
 our organists. In fact, so long as people 
 were content to be entirely ignorant of the 
 genuine old church-tones, any adequate re- 
 medy was out of the question ; for the merely
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 theoretical works on the subject then in 
 vogue threw no light upon them. It may be 
 said, indeed, that a general search should 
 have been made for ancient authorities which 
 might convey to intelligent minds the re- 
 quisite information. But laborious under- 
 takings like this were by no means agreeable 
 suggestions. And yet what a mine there was 
 to explore ! Palestrina, the most famous 
 master of the Church school, following trust- 
 worthy traditions, set the Magnificat, with 
 infinite ingenuity, eight times over to the 
 eight Church tones, for four voices. Any 
 one might have possessed himself of this 
 work, but it has been suffered to lie buried 
 in oblivion ; and Busby, in his " History of 
 Music," has lately rolled another large stone 
 over its grave, by informing us that " Pales- 
 trina composed a Magnificat for eight voices." 
 If, again, we take the tunes of the Cal- 
 vinists, we shall find that they too have their 
 share of innovations. Calvin caused the 
 Psalms to be put into French verse, and the 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Though 
 the means 
 were at 
 hand. 
 
 Similar 
 corruption 
 of the 
 Calvinistic 
 tunes.
 
 20 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the melodies to them to be then arranged, in 
 complete accordance with the original Church 
 tones, by Bourgeois, and that great master 
 Goudimel, who afterwards fell a victim to 
 religious fanaticism in the Massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew. The text of this splendidly 
 executed work was subsequently translated 
 into German by Ambrose Lobwasser, who 
 immediately revised the music, introduced 
 secular modes, and changed the plain song 
 into four-part harmony, while often giving 
 the leading part to the tenor. This secular 
 tendency is visible in the very first edition 
 (Herborn, 1666), and still more so in the 
 second (Frankfort, 1711), the preface to which 
 says, significantly enough, " We have omitted 
 what seemed to be devoid of any particular 
 edification, and changed each Psalm to its 
 natural and proper tune." Degglar, in his 
 edition (Schaffhausen, 1761), left the text as 
 it stood. Nevertheless, the excellence of the 
 work is visible on every page. 
 
 Thus, as time went on, has the genuine
 
 : 'PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 21 
 
 Chorale been always less and less excusably 
 maltreated and neglected. But there ac- 
 crued yet another evil. Our old organists 
 knew hardly anything besides sacred music, 
 and the fugues and canons which had been 
 associated with it ; but they were, as a rule, 
 well versed in thorough base. If they erred, 
 it was in using ornament for a spiritual, but 
 for no frivolous purpose. But what have we 
 now? Universal neglect of thorough base, 
 and an almost exclusive pursuit of common 
 opera and other inferior music. Anything 
 from this source that gets into the music- 
 master's head in the course of the week, 
 must needs be reproduced in church on 
 Sunday ; and in this way we have so often 
 to listen to so much that is secular and in- 
 appropriate, that it would be no wonder if 
 some day indignation broke out in the church 
 itself. In Italy also, if we except the Sistine 
 Chapel, the history of which has recently 
 been made known to us in Siever's very in- 
 teresting notices in the " Allgemeine Musik- 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Add to all 
 this the 
 secular 
 procli- 
 vities of 
 modern 
 organists, 
 
 in Italy 
 as well as 
 Germany.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Reaction 
 in favour 
 of reform . 
 
 alische Zeitung," utter lawlessness prevails in 
 this respect. Even in the noble Cathedral 
 of Milan common waltzes and operatic airs 
 are frequently played as preludes to the 
 hymns; and this in the very town where 
 Gregory the Great planted his magnificent 
 schools for singing, and where, 1500 years 
 ago, a whole troop of heathen soldiers, whose 
 duty it was to enter a church in pursuit of 
 Christians, were so deeply moved by the 
 divine hymn that went up from these fervent 
 hearts, that they became converts on the 
 spot. 
 
 Meanwhile these gross abuses had, in their 
 turn, a salutary effect in engendering among 
 the congregations an universal desire for the 
 improvement of the Chorale and its accom- 
 paniment. Noteworthy writers, too, of the 
 present day have openly declared themselves 
 most strongly in favour of bringing our 
 churches back, in this respect, to their an- 
 cient dignity and simplicity : Franz, in his 
 work on the old Church Chorales, 1818 ;
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Mortimer, in his " Choral Song of the time 
 of the Reformation," 1821 ; and Kocker, 
 both in his remarkable essay on church music, 
 1823, and also by the part he took, with 
 others, in editing the hymns for four voices 
 in 1825. 
 
 As it is of the first importance that so 
 grave a matter should be fully elucidated, I 
 take leave to make some further remarks 
 upon it, confining them, however, to the 
 Lutheran Church, to which I belong. 
 
 The promoters of a reform of church-music 
 have of late, in several instances, contended 
 for no more than adherence to such melodies 
 as have gained currency in particular locali- 
 ties, as having acquired, once for all, a firm 
 footing, and only requiring to be docked, so 
 to speak, of their wild shoots. But this 
 would seem, in truth, an excess of timidity. 
 If our congregations were capable of substi- 
 tuting inferior modern melodies for fine old 
 ones, they are also capable of retracing their 
 steps, provided organists are instructed where 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Such 
 reform 
 should be 
 bold and 
 thorough.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 No reli- 
 gious pr 
 judice 
 must stand 
 in the 
 way. 
 
 to find good music, and how to revive it. 
 The difficulty of doing this is very slight. 
 For the finer old melodies are easily caught, 
 and produce upon educated persons, as I 
 know from many trials, so deep an impres- 
 sion, that all that is necessary is to offer 
 them, and bespeak their acceptance. 
 
 But, with the return to ancient music, all 
 sectarian spirit among Protestant commu- 
 nions must disappear, and each must be 
 forward to adopt from another such tunes as 
 are really admirable. What reason can there 
 be that a Lutheran should not sing a fine 
 Calvinistic hymn, or a Calvinist an unexcep- 
 tionable Lutheran Chorale ? Or why should 
 the Hussite Chorales, some of which are 
 quite unapproachable, be abandoned to the 
 Moravians ? At this very moment the task 
 of collecting the finer Chorales used in vari- 
 ous churches has become a necessity, by 
 reason of a common form of worship having 
 been, in many places, agreed upon by the 
 Lutherans and Calvinists. If, as the result
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 of such wise forbearance, one might con- 
 template the possibility of a free choice, then 
 even Protestant communions ought to go 
 back to the Ambrosian and Gregorian tunes, 
 and appropriate the best of them. For these 
 tunes sprang from the purest inspiration, and 
 are among the choicest gifts handed down to 
 us by ancient churches; and they ought to 
 be preserved, even by Protestants, as holy 
 relics, because they would form a link with a 
 venerable antiquity, and would thus confer 
 upon Protestant churches an enhanced value 
 in the eyes of the people. Luther himself 
 openly declared for the retention of the fine 
 Catholic tunes, and had several of them 
 printed, remarking that it would be a pity 
 if such precious tunes were suffered to 
 perish. No doubt such an adoption of old 
 Catholic music might be an offence to some 
 of our straitlaced churchwardens. But if 
 we gave in to them, our intercourse with the 
 muses would be limited indeed ; and, at this 
 rate, all the old masterpieces of Gothic archi- 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Adoption 
 of Catholic 
 tunes by 
 Luther.
 
 26 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Difficulty 
 of ascer- 
 taining the 
 Ambrosian 
 and 
 
 Gregorian 
 chant. 
 
 tecture and painting must fall under the 
 Protestant ban, as being the production of 
 Catholic co-religionists. True Protestants 
 will see more clearly every day that their 
 church would be in the utmost peril if, to 
 favour the views of certain declaimers, all 
 old associations were wiped out ; and that 
 people who cannot live without enmity to- 
 wards those who differ from them in opinion, 
 are simply playing into the hands of Super- 
 stition and Mysticism, and by the intolerance 
 which they preach, and by their distrust of 
 all the venerable traditions which we have 
 inherited from the past, are bringing us near 
 to utter disruption. 
 
 In the case, however, of the Ambrosian 
 and Gregorian chant, there do seem to be 
 difficulties which hitherto I have not been 
 able to solve, and as to which I would gladly 
 await instruction from persons better in- 
 formed than myself. And the great ques- 
 tion is this Where are the genuine Ambro- 
 sian and Gregorian chants to be found ? Our
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 musical histories give scanty information on 
 the point, that of Forkel in particular, where 
 bald citations send us, as usual, from pillar to 
 post. There is no doubt that the "Anti- 
 phonarium Romanum " contains some of the 
 most ancient hymns and antiphons. But, as 
 it has always been the habit of musicians to 
 pervert and interpolate, that work cannot, 
 unfortunately, be regarded as quite genuine. 
 I have taken all imaginable pains, in Ger- 
 many, as also in Strasburg, to get a satis- 
 factory account of the Ambrosian and Gre- 
 gorian chants, but no one could help me. 
 I induced several friends to make inquiries 
 on the subject in Italy, and, in particular, 
 from the master of the papal choir ; but their 
 efforts also proved fruitless, though in Rome 
 I was seconded by a German gentleman of 
 high repute, and an influential scholar. This 
 person, however, subsequently made a dis- 
 covery at St. Gall, likely to prove extremely 
 important. For in the Library there is a 
 MS. of the ninth century, containing the 
 
 27 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Important 
 MS. at 
 St. Gall.
 
 28 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Question 
 as to the 
 congrega- 
 tion sing- 
 ing in 
 harmony. 
 
 whole Gregorian song, being perhaps the most 
 authentic and genuine document of the kind 
 now in existence. As my professional occu- 
 pations place it quite beyond my power to 
 devote myself to the deciphering of this MS., 
 I hereby bring it to the notice of musicians, 
 in the hope that some one of them at least 
 will exert himself for the honour of reviving 
 a standard work of bygone time.* Were the 
 only object to gratify ambition, it would be 
 quite within the mark to say that the under- 
 taking of such a task would confer far more 
 renown than any amount of tedious composi- 
 tion, which is, for the most part, about as 
 likely to confer immortality as scribbling on 
 the sand. 
 
 Another important point, now much dis- 
 puted, relates to the question whether cho- 
 rales should be arranged in four parts, to be 
 sung by the congregation. The reasons for 
 
 * A fac-simile of this MS., with, an historical notice, 
 is given by Lambillotte. Antiphonaire de St. Gregoire. 
 Brussels. 1851.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 29 
 
 and against have been so often set forth in On the 
 print, that the controversy may be considered 
 ripe for settlement. And here I have a word 
 to say in retractation of an error. In review- 
 ing Kocker's Essay on Church Music in the 
 "Theological Annals" of December 1824, I 
 took the intention of its esteemed author to 
 be, that the congregation should sing the 
 Chorales in florid four-part harmony. It was 
 against this that my main observations were 
 directed, and I should still adhere to them, 
 were the supposition on which they proceeded 
 correct. Herr Kocker has, however, himself 
 informed me differently ; and his subsequent 
 edition of the Chorales above referred to, 
 shows clearly that his intention, and that of 
 his associates, was merely to the effect 
 that the congregation should sing the most 
 simple tunes, harmonised as much as pos- 
 sible, in the common chord. This, no 
 doubt, quite alters the question ; and here 
 it seems to me that everything must de- 
 pend upon existing circumstances. That is
 
 3 
 
 On the 
 
 Chorale. 
 Under 
 favourable 
 circum- 
 stances the 
 people 
 should 
 sing in 
 harmony ; 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 to say, if a community be intelligent and 
 pious, observant of the sanctity of Sunday, 
 and of good musical capability ; if there be 
 an abundance of exemplary clergymen, in- 
 terested in the improvement of church music; 
 if they be seconded by the advice and co- 
 operation of thorough musicians, and if great 
 diligence be bestowed upon the teaching of 
 music in the national schools all of which 
 is at this moment the case, to a highly satis- 
 factory degree in the kingdom of Wurtem- 
 berg then good four-part congregational 
 singing may be considered possible ; and the 
 attainment of such a result would greatly 
 promote musical harmony, and call forth 
 the powers of individual members of the 
 congregation. But it is not everywhere that 
 circumstances are so favourable. How many 
 states and towns are there where spiritual 
 authority is weak from utter laxity and indif- 
 ference ; how many churches where the priest 
 will hear no voice but his own; how many 
 places where absolutely nothing is done in
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 earnest for musical schooling ! Wherever 
 this is the case, I would never advise that 
 four-part singing should be attempted at all 
 events, not before the first steps have been 
 taken. And here I would merely suggest 
 that people should confine themselves to a 
 selection of the best chorales, to be sung in 
 unison with adequate organ accompaniment, 
 and, next, that they should use their best en- 
 deavours to bring the melodies within such a 
 compass as, by singing in octaves, would be, 
 ordinarily, within the range of all voices ; and 
 thus avoid what has hitherto so often been the 
 case, viz. for the basses and altos, or, again, 
 the tenors and sopranos, to be half reduced 
 to silence, or else forced to scream. 
 
 I have, in conclusion, one more observation 
 to make, which is not aimed at any indivi- 
 dual, but which, as a reproof of general incom- 
 petence, will certainly not be relished by the 
 many to whom it will apply. It is to this 
 effect, that a healthy condition of church 
 music is hopeless, unless the organists be 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 but, in the 
 absence of 
 favourable 
 circum- 
 stances, in 
 unison. 
 
 Necessity 
 of a check 
 upon 
 organists.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the under control; at least so long as we can 
 point to but few such organists as Apel, 
 Ett, Rinck, and Umbreit. For what have 
 the organists brought us to ? To nothing less 
 than this, that any one with the slightest 
 knowledge of music but too often leaves the 
 church in disgust with the flippancy and in- 
 sipidity of the music. The prelude discom- 
 poses him for the chorale, the involved inter- 
 lude goes far to distract him, and the con- 
 cluding voluntary seems to have no other 
 aim than to obliterate the sermon and all 
 besides. Some allowance must of course be 
 made for these delinquencies. Our organists 
 are often in no position to get a sound 
 musical training ; they have, as a class, no 
 more than the mechanical abilities of ordinary 
 artisans; and lastly, if the emoluments of 
 their office are but scanty, they are obliged 
 to eke out a livelihood by mechanical instruc- 
 tion, in which the wants and wishes of the 
 pupil are hindrances to the cultivation of art. 
 But these are the very reasons why a congrega-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 33 
 
 tion should say, "We want none of your pre- On the 
 tended originality : all we ask of you is not to 
 disturb our devotions, and not to scandalise us 
 by making free with the church, and using it as 
 a place for playing pranks." In truth, it passes 
 comprehension how most of the clergy have 
 quietly endured the misdemeanours of organ- 
 ists. It is of the first importance that this 
 matter should be taken in hand ; and the few 
 organists of real talent cannot and ought not 
 to demand that, in deference to them, the 
 whole service should be at the mercy of the 
 thousands who disconcert and annoy the best 
 part of the congregation. Any organist, who 
 has a high opinion of himself, can always let 
 his light shine at organ recitals, or in any 
 other way he pleases. Only let Divine Ser- 
 vice proceed as it ought, simply and steadily 
 in its appointed order, and not seem to be a 
 recognised opportunity for every bad player 
 to make experiments, and in airing his own 
 profane conceits, to trample heedlessly upon 
 all that is most sacred.
 
 34 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Suggestion 
 of an 
 approved 
 compila- 
 tion of 
 church- 
 music for 
 general 
 
 If I were now shortly to express my own 
 wishes, I would say make a collection of the 
 best church-song, hearty, vigorous, and fer- 
 vent; choose for this purpose the finest 
 melodies that the old churches have left to 
 us, including everything that in modern times 
 masterly minds have added to them; and 
 lastly, provide organists with a song-book in 
 which everything shall be printed in full (for 
 there are many who cannot readily play from 
 a figured bass) ; and put into their hands also 
 a collection of approved preludes and post- 
 ludes, so that they can never waver or 
 wander from the path. But do not do all 
 this in any mean and paltry spirit, under the 
 advice of inferior men. Rather treat the 
 subject as a grave ecclesiastical question, re- 
 quiring the aid of first-rate counsellors ; and 
 spend upon it at all events not less than 
 what the Government contributes, perhaps in 
 a single year, to a middling theatre. Then 
 will a noble work have been accomplished 
 that may bid defiance to time. Such works
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 35 
 
 are more needful to Lutherans than to others, On the 
 if they would not end by making the temple 
 a place where, in the name of reason and 
 of art, little more is often to be heard than 
 the poor crotchets of the clergy and their 
 assistants. 
 
 Lastly, I would appeal to our Protestant 
 congregations collectively. Agree upon a 
 uniform chorale-book for all German Pro- 
 testants, and so upon a work which, exe- 
 cuted with the assistance of the first talent, 
 would impart to your body, ever more and 
 more, a happy consistency and unity. How- 
 ever, it is, I know, the very essence of the 
 German spirit, that every man should abstain 
 from troubling himself with his neighbour's 
 concerns, and should stand supreme upon 
 his own little patch of land. And so my 
 appeal may as well at once be resolved into 
 a sigh !
 
 On 
 
 Chtirch 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Natural 
 fondness 
 for good 
 music. 
 
 Gregory 
 the Great': 
 founda- 
 tions. 
 
 ON 
 
 CHUECH MUSIC OTHER THAN 
 THE CHOEALE. 
 
 THE popular mind, when left to itself, has a 
 natural sympathy for music that truly and 
 healthily reflects the genuine emotions of 
 mankind ; and there is no more eifectual 
 way of working upon it than by music of an 
 elevating kind. Inasmuch then as an ordi- 
 nary congregation can only be taught, as a 
 rule, to sing simple hymns, the execution of 
 sacred compositions of a higher type should 
 be entrusted to finished singers ; and thus it 
 may seem as if angels were singing in the 
 church, and the congregation may devoutly 
 listen to that which their OAVU numbers and 
 unfitness disqualify them from executing 
 themselves. 
 
 This great idea was first carried into prac-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART, 
 
 37 
 
 tical effect by Gregory the Great by the in- 
 stitution of numerous schools for singing; 
 and for more than a thousand years after- 
 wards every possible thing was done in the 
 more enlightened Christian states towards 
 this end. By degrees, however, people be- 
 came indifferent, and church music (in which 
 I do not here include the chorale) either 
 wholly disappeared, or became undistinguish- 
 able from profane compositions, which, in- 
 stead of ministering to piety, gave a place 
 and a voice in the temple to secularism pure 
 and simple. The very consideration of what 
 becomes a church seems to have been, at 
 last, utterly ignored. Nor is this difficult 
 to understand. For religious earnestness is 
 wont to wax cooler as mechanical skill in- 
 creases. Nothing good could emanate from 
 the majority of our musicians, because, if 
 the truth be told, they are, generally speak- 
 ing, utterly deficient in the higher education, 
 poetical, philosophical, and historical, and 
 because their aspirations go no farther than 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Gradual 
 secularisa- 
 tion of 
 church 
 music 
 
 as manipu- 
 lative skill 
 increased.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 The prin- 
 ciple that 
 ought to 
 pervade 
 church 
 music is 
 that of 
 modera- 
 tion. 
 
 to have the opportunity of offering to us in 
 church such pieces as they have happened to 
 practice, or have themselves composed. And 
 the accommodating ear of worldly-minded 
 church-goers has everywhere encouraged the 
 grossest abuses. 
 
 Happily there are still many who appre- 
 ciate the value of real church music, or whose 
 eyes could easily be opened to it. I shall 
 proceed therefore, in a hopeful rather than a 
 desponding spirit, humbly to contribute my 
 mite towards so excellent an object. 
 
 The church is not the place where all that 
 is enjoyable ought to be presented and en- 
 joyed. It is nothing less than the place 
 where man appears, as it were, in the sight 
 of God, and before God, to refresh and to 
 brace himself for his duties as a man, and 
 where in His presence he pours forth his 
 heart in grief, in penitence, in joy, and in 
 supplication. Now as in God's presence all 
 overweening self-confidence, all abject despair, 
 is out of place, so neither in the church should
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 39 
 
 there be any extravagance of jubilation nor 
 any abandonment to grief. He, therefore, 
 who desires to thank and praise God in all 
 joyousness of heart, will express his grati- 
 tude, not with unbounded exultation, but 
 with humble fervour ; and he who is bowed 
 down with sorrow, and who, outside the 
 church's walls, would give himself up to 
 melancholy and lamentation, must, within 
 the church, and in the sight of God, take 
 comfort to himself; not wringing his hands 
 and running to and fro with sighs and moans, 
 but, finding consolation through faith in a 
 present God, he must, with patience and 
 resignation, call on Heaven to witness and 
 pity his grie What it is that is becoming 
 in the church may best be seen by reflecting 
 for a moment on the duty of a preacher. In 
 the theatre it is well enough for an actor of 
 goodly mien to throw himself into all sorts of 
 attitudes, and, according to the nature of the 
 occasion, to bluster and to storm, to cringe and 
 to crouch, to bum and to blaze in a transport 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Example 
 of a 
 preacher.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 of passion, to crack jokes, and, in short, to 
 figure in characters taken from all countries 
 and all times. But what is it that we expect in 
 a priest, if we do not want the church turned 
 into a theatre, but seek there for nourishment 
 by God's word through the mouth of His 
 minister? We should assuredly look for a 
 sober, elevated, earnest address, delivered 
 with manly force, with manly calmness and 
 warmth, but without excitement, without 
 parade and trickery such, that is, as 
 may lead us to forget the trifles of this 
 world, and associate our thoughts with a 
 better, where frivolity, hurtful passion, and 
 consuming grief shall no more exist. There- 
 fore a priest in the pulpit should not shout 
 like a crier, who would intoxicate the people 
 with joy at the news of a victory ; should not 
 rail at vice with the anger of a man who 
 repels a personal insult; should not be all 
 sugar and honey in his language ; should not 
 whine and weep, like frail humanity, which 
 thinks itself deserted by God and man ;
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 should not rant and bluster, nor use all 
 kinds of gesture to express his emotions; 
 should not despairingly wring his hands ; 
 should not even, if he can control human 
 weakness, shed a single tear, however bitter 
 be the misery he may have to deplore. This, 
 and this only, is the demeanour that befits 
 the church. For it is hers not to stimulate 
 what is of the earth, not to fight with carnal 
 weapons, but, by the suggestion of that 
 Heaven, where all passion ceases, to soften 
 and to elevate those who are subject to its 
 influence. 
 
 This guiding principle, which should 
 always be present to a clergyman's mind, 
 must also be kept in view by all good 
 musicians, who would take part in the 
 Church's mission, and not use the sacred 
 fabric merely as a place wherein all manner 
 of sounds that may tickle the ear are to be 
 heard. To ask what particular style of 
 music belongs to the Church, is no more 
 worthy of attention than to ask whether it is 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Church 
 music 
 various in 
 style, but 
 uniform in 
 sobriety of 
 character. 
 
 open to a clergyman to declaim, to display 
 emotion, and to enforce his declamation by 
 gesticulations. All kinds of music are suit- 
 able for Church use, that do not of them- 
 selves call up purely secular associations, 
 such as a waltz, or a gay Siciliano. Thus a 
 Largo, an Adagio, a Grave, an Andante, an 
 Allegro, a fugal or non-fugal piece, can all 
 be performed in the Church, but should 
 each and all be measured, serious, and 
 dignified, should be throughout elevated 
 and unimpassioned, and of such a tone that 
 any preacher of note should be able to say, 
 " This fine music is a fitting prelude to my 
 discourse ; " or " Following upon my sermon, 
 it has stirred up the congregation to a lively 
 sense of its import ; " or again, as might in 
 certain cases be well, " After such singing, my 
 lips had better be closed, and the congrega- 
 tion left to their own silent devotions." 
 
 These considerations will readily commend 
 themselves to, and be recognised as just by 
 all unprejudiced persons ; but I am well
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 aware of the objection so often advanced by 
 superficial minds, to the effect that church 
 music of this character would become mono- 
 tonous, and that genius casts off all restraint. 
 But the answer to this (and it cannot be too 
 often repeated) is, that genius no more de- 
 spises strict rules than it despises hard work ; 
 and to affect an off-hand freedom from con- 
 straint is merely a stupid vanity, which lacks 
 the ability necessary both for due submission 
 and legitimate superiority to rule. 
 
 To the Church, as such, belongs only what 
 is Church-like ; and, if this be set forth with 
 consummate skill, all purposes of devotion 
 are fully served. Men must not forget that 
 they are called upon to discharge various 
 heavy duties in everyday life, and that the 
 Church's office is not to minister to indolence, 
 but to fortify energy. Its duty, therefore, 
 will be to keep its proper bounds, and not 
 attempt to enlarge its domain beyond what 
 the Creator Himself intended. It is affecta- 
 tion to treat the inscrutable feelings and 
 
 43 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 The cluirch 
 essentially 
 the place 
 of religion.
 
 44 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Mrisic 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Three 
 great 
 branches 
 of music. 
 
 aspirations, which in the Church raise the 
 human soul aloft, as among the aims of every- 
 day life. Whilst it is repulsive and un- 
 natural for devoteeism, self-immolation, and 
 monasticism, to try and stifle everything in 
 life that Heaven has given to man for worldly 
 enjoyment, it is not less repulsive when busy- 
 bodies, because of the existence of abuses, 
 assail all that is holy, and, from detestation 
 of hypocrisy, are misled into dissociating reli- 
 gion from the Church, in order that the 
 world may be secured from clerical extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 A man of robust mind, who has found 
 edification within the Church, will, on that 
 account, throw himself afterwards into worldly 
 concerns with all his heart ; and, if he seek 
 mental enjoyment, he will try either to qualify 
 himself for great and lofty contemplations by 
 diligent study of philosophy and poetry, 
 or else to supply the necessary aliment to 
 mere pleasure and enjoyment of life. In this 
 way, then, there arise three styles of music :
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 45 
 
 the church style, which is alone appropriated 
 to devotional purposes; the oratorio style, 
 which illustrates great and serious themes 
 under human figures; and the operatic 
 style, representing the world of sense and 
 passion in a poetical form. As for a fourth 
 style, in which all these elements are com- 
 bined, passion surpasses itself, and every 
 possible eccentricity is represented in music, 
 it has no more place here than the cramp 
 would have in a sound constitution. 
 
 Let us, then, leave to the Church all that 
 properly belongs to it, and let us enhance it 
 with all the resources of art, but not on that 
 account neglect the other forms of music; 
 on the contrary, let us attend to these more 
 assiduously than to ecclesiastical music ; for 
 men's minds cannot long endure the region 
 of the sublime, and in this world the demands 
 of a busy life are more absorbing than the 
 worship of the Almighty. But the lines of 
 demarcation must not be confounded. Let 
 those who pray say their prayers at church, 
 
 On 
 
 CJntrch 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Church- 
 music one 
 thing ; 
 secular 
 music 
 another, 
 equally or 
 even more 
 engrossing.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 but not go on repeating them in the ball-room. 
 Conversely, the graces of the ballet have 
 no place among the solemnities of religion. 
 I should consider it inexcusable for a single 
 bar of a sacred work of Palestrina's to be in- 
 troduced into an opera ; but it would also be 
 abominable to find in a Mass the least trace 
 of the rich and ready fancy so peculiarly 
 characteristic of the Figaro of Mozart. The 
 judgment of the public can, indeed, always 
 be imposed upon, if an abuse be consecrated 
 by a plausible name. The blind followers of 
 fashion are perfectly well satisfied that the 
 music to the words " Liber scriptus profere- 
 tur," in Mozart's Requiem, should be of 
 precisely the same character as that in his 
 Figaro to the words of the melancholy female 
 jester " Little Needle." But what cultivated 
 person, in contemplating the Last Judgment, 
 would like to have the song of the " Little 
 Needle " put into his head, or to be reminded 
 by the joke about the " Little Needle" of the 
 terrors of the hell which might await him ?
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Turning now to the history of church 
 music, a very short examination of the sub- 
 ject will show that the most recent times are 
 the least deserving of commendation, and that, 
 as with painting and architecture, so also 
 with church music proper, the laurel crown 
 is due pre-eminently to the great old masters. 
 As early as the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries, the fine Church composers of the 
 old German and Flemish school exhibit such 
 power and such depth of feeling, together 
 with such skill in the ingenious interweaving 
 of voices, that one cannot sufficiently deplore 
 their utter neglect at the present day. If, 
 for instance, we compare Josquin's Stabat 
 Mater (he died 1475) for five voices with the 
 restless Stabat Mater of Pergolesi, or Christ's 
 Seven Words by SenfFel, Luther's contem- 
 porary, with those by Joseph Haydn, whose 
 setting passes and repasses from one style 
 into another, there can be no question on 
 which side lies the most evidence of religious 
 power. The last great master of the Flemish 
 
 47 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Historical 
 survey of 
 ancient 
 church - 
 music. 
 
 Josquin. 
 
 Senffel. 
 
 Orlando 
 di Lasso.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Palestrina. 
 
 school, Orlando di Lasso (Roland Lass, bora 
 1520), in the numerous works which have 
 come down to us, and which perhaps could 
 not be contained in sixty folios, appears to 
 our eyes a giant as mighty, as tranquil, as 
 serious, as tender, and as sympathetic, as the 
 Church could desire. Close beside him comes, 
 in Italy, Palestrina (Praenestinus), not less 
 prolific in production, but perhaps profounder 
 in conception. So perfect a master was he 
 of the church tones, and of the treatment of 
 the common chord, that there is, perhaps, 
 more repose and inward satisfaction to be 
 derived from his works than from those of any 
 other author. These, printed long ago, are 
 now, indeed, hardly to be procured in their 
 original form, and it is difficult to get correct 
 copies of them in manuscript. I would, 
 however, call the attention of those who 
 may at present be wholly ignorant of him to 
 the following easily obtainable work, which 
 appeared in Paris some years ago without 
 date, and, unfortunately, with a good many
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 49 
 
 misprints : " Collection des pieces de music On 
 
 religieuse qui s'executent tous les ans a 
 
 Rome durant la semaine sainte," par A. other thai, 
 
 the 
 
 Choron. In this collection are contained, chorale. 
 amongst other things, Palestrina's Respon- ms"Kes 
 soria, which cannot be too highly praised, 
 though the admirers of perpetual merry- 
 making and frivolity may perhaps see nothing 
 in them. One must, indeed, realise, first of 
 all, what it is that these dirges on Christ's 
 Passion, sung on Good Friday night, convey ; 
 and if, after that, they be sung through by 
 practised vocalists, the rest will quickly re- 
 veal itself ; always supposing that the voices 
 are good and pure, the necessary expression 
 accurately observed, and the time duly kept, 
 without hurrying on the one hand, or, on the 
 other, setting out with the notion, common 
 with Germans, that the prolonged notes of 
 Italian composers must necessarily exhaust 
 the breath. Special attention should be 
 given to those portions of the Responsoria 
 which are for three voices : their beauty, as
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Morales. 
 
 a whole, is never so conspicuous as when 
 rendered by first-rate female vocalists, one 
 to each part. If they are awkwardly played, 
 and the singing be harsh, wooden, and 
 shrieky, then the mirror will undoubtedly be 
 blurred ; just as it is easy to rain Goethe's 
 " Iphigenia " by a bald recitation, at all events, 
 a thousand times easier than such a play as 
 Kotzebue's " Misanthropy and Remorse." 
 
 But if Palestrina, who may fitly, in every 
 sense, be compared with Homer, be in his 
 way unsurpassed, and hence has given his 
 name to the most perfect style of church 
 music, yet it is a mistake to regard him as at 
 once the beginning and the end of the great 
 church style. The title of inventor here be- 
 longs, without doubt, rather to the earlier 
 German and Flemish musicians, among which 
 last must be named Palestrina's master Goudi- 
 mel. Thus there stand beside Palestrina, and, 
 generally, comparable to him, the Flemish 
 Lasso and the Spanish Morales, whose " La- 
 mentabatur Jacobus " was declared by Father
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Martini, the first historian of music, to be 
 the most perfect composition in existence. 
 Close upon Palestrina, again, follow two 
 great church composers, who can hardly be 
 said to be entirely formed by his writings ; 
 the German Hanel or Handl (James Gallus, 
 born 1550), and the Spanish Tomaso Ludo- 
 vico Vittoria (born 1560), the latter of whom 
 united most happily the devotional spirit with 
 the fire of the Spanish character. After these 
 come, in Italy, many more authors, who la- 
 boured, if not in all cases, yet frequently, with 
 success in the severe style ; in particular 
 Allegri, Alessandro Scarlatti, who wrote some 
 two hundred masses, and was highly esteemed 
 both by Handel and Hasse ; Bai, Lotti 
 (Hasse's favourite), Durante Bernabei, Father 
 Martini, and the occasionally admirable yet 
 unequal Jomelli, as well as several others, 
 whose works I have seen, and many more of 
 whom I know, so far, only by hearsay. 
 
 Meantime, after Palestrina there soon 
 sprang up a tendency towards what I have 
 
 On 
 
 CImrch 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Vittoria. 
 
 Scarlatti. 
 
 Lotti. 
 
 Jomelli. 
 
 Tendency, 
 
 after 
 
 Palestrina, 
 
 towards 
 
 the 
 
 Oratorio 
 
 style
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other t 'han 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 not 
 unnatural. 
 
 Caldara, 
 Durante, 
 Leo, etc. 
 
 before called the Oratorio style, which was 
 everywhere introduced into the churches ; 
 the Sistine Chapel excepted, which has never 
 quite abandoned ecclesiastical severity, and 
 so has stood, in regard to music, as a rock 
 in the sea. The progress of this tendency is 
 not at all difficult to understand. For it is 
 precisely the Sublime that soonest loses its 
 hold on the generality of people ; and, as in 
 old times musicians had to do without con- 
 cert-rooms and theatres, it was not unnatural 
 that they should use the church to give free 
 scope to their inventive faculties ; a con- 
 sideration which also explains the growth of 
 sacred comedy in former times within the 
 cloisters. The number of lively composers 
 who now arose is very large ; and among them 
 deserve special mention judging always by 
 the quality of most of their works Caldara 
 (born 1668), Marcello (born 1680), Durante 
 (born 1693), Leonardo Leo (born 1694), 
 Valotti (bora 1705), and Pergolesi (bora 
 1707). But it must be said to their credit
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 53 
 
 that, even in their most animated pieces, 
 there are abundant indications of their love 
 for the severe style ; that they seldom or 
 never stray into the frivolities of opera ; and 
 that they sought somehow to combine the 
 severe and the beautiful, and thus to satisfy 
 at once the devotional and the inventive 
 spirit. We need only take as an instance 
 Leo's celebrated Miserere for eight voices. 
 It is not indeed to be compared in many re- 
 spects with a Miserere of Lasso's, Allegri's, 
 Bai's, or one of Lotti's great Misereres. 
 But how dignified is it, as a whole, in char- 
 acter ; how delicately suggestive of true reli- 
 gious feeling the inweaving of Gregorian 
 melody ; and if the " Cor mundum crea in 
 me" be sung with perfect nicety, our thoughts 
 can only turn to the sweet angels of heaven, 
 not to the syrens of the stage. Moreover, in 
 these animated productions of the higher 
 sacred Italian composers, all defects are 
 generally compensated by this that all flows 
 from a genuine inspiration, and is written 
 
 On 
 
 Chiirch 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 The spirit 
 of the 
 older style 
 still re- 
 tained.
 
 54 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Oratorio 
 the chosen 
 field of 
 Handel 
 and Bach, 
 
 who 
 
 always 
 observed 
 its proper 
 limits. 
 
 with a freedom of spirit and a purity of taste 
 that may well make a man glad to forget for 
 the moment the sanctity of the spot where 
 he is standing. 
 
 This Oratorio style is the one to which 
 the best German masters of the last genera- 
 tion viz. Handel, Sebastian Bach, Hasse, 
 and Graun have, in their greater efforts, 
 almost exclusively devoted themselves; partly 
 because of the recent condition of German 
 churches, and partly, as cannot be denied, 
 because genius has far more scope when 
 untrammelled, and independent of eccle- 
 siastical obligations. But these authors have 
 never allowed their oratorios to travel away 
 into opera; and, in truth, Handel's strict 
 fidelity to the union of the solemn and the 
 spirited elements, whilst at the same time he 
 was doing, and was obliged to do, so much for 
 the opera, deserves the highest admiration. 
 
 But what shall I say of the works which 
 have appeared within the last fifty years in 
 the category of the Church and Oratorio
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 55 
 
 styles ? I state it once more as my con- 
 viction that the Church style is almost 
 utterly lost; the Oratorio style has almost 
 universally passed into the Operatic ; the 
 Operatic into a wild and silly extravagance : 
 and such is the medley which it is often 
 attempted to introduce into the church. I 
 cannot stop here to mention exceptions 
 which have to be made. Many German 
 composers now living, whom I scruple to 
 name, know perfectly well, from my opinion 
 of their works, that I am not one of those 
 who are blind to everything not ancient, and 
 who cast aside unregarded everything new, 
 because it is new. But if I were to ask 
 those who value real merit, and have an ade- 
 quate knowledge of modern music, whether, 
 in their conscientious opinion, all the many 
 works which, through fashion or through the 
 personal influence of their authors or pub- 
 lishers, or from local circumstances, have 
 obtained a sort of prominence, exhibit col- 
 lectively as much force of genius and depth 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Low state 
 of modern 
 music, as 
 seen in the 
 Church, 
 the 
 
 Oratorio, 
 and the 
 Opera.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale, 
 
 Practical 
 compari- 
 son sug- 
 
 Mozart 
 and Haydn 
 not Church 
 writers. 
 
 of feeling as Handel's Messiah alone, I can- 
 not think that any serious-minded and in- 
 telligent person would consider my question 
 an impertinent one. Put it to the proof 
 with good and practised singers. You will 
 find it difficult to bring forward any modern 
 piece after Handel's Messiah, worthily ren- 
 dered, that does not suffer by comparison. 
 But the finer pieces of Palestrina, Lasso, 
 Vittoria, Caldara, Marcello, Lotti, and Du- 
 rante, will never lose their charm, preceded 
 though they be by all the best selections 
 from Handel and Sebastian Bach. 
 
 The admirers of the modern school feel 
 themselves, indeed, much aggrieved by con- 
 clusions like these ; and it is, in particular, 
 usually regarded as an atrocious libel if 
 no exception be made in favour of Haydn's 
 and Mozart's Masses. But it is pretty well 
 known that neither of these masters set any 
 value upon their sacred compositions, as 
 such, that Mozart himself laughed at the 
 Masses which necessity compelled him to
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 57 
 
 write, and that Joseph Haydn unhesitatingly 
 yielded the palm in the true church style to 
 his brother Michael. I readily allow that 
 these Masses are well calculated to please, 
 possessing as they do much flow and ele- 
 gance; but I contend that their prevailing 
 character is sensuous, secular, in a word, 
 wholly unworthy, on the highest grounds, of 
 the church ; and that, within the walls of a 
 church they can give no pleasure to a devout 
 mind, acquainted with the older master- 
 pieces of the true church style, or even with 
 the finer examples of oratorio. It is the 
 same as with the church fabrics themselves. 
 We build now-a-days plenty of smart edi- 
 fices, variously coloured and ornamented, 
 1 :it not one capable of overwhelming us with 
 wonder and reverence, such as the portico of 
 Strasburg Cathedral. 
 
 I must, however, notice the retort some- 
 times made in haughty tones by many so- 
 called musicians about the glory of advanc- 
 ing with the spirit of the age, and about the 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Rhtsic 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 The plea 
 of progress 
 and 
 
 modern 
 improve- 
 ment.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 The 
 
 supposed 
 superiority 
 of modern 
 music no 
 reason for 
 neglecting 
 ancient. 
 
 gigantic strides that art has of late made. 
 Talk of this kind has already, in some in- 
 stances, brought us to this that the splendid 
 symphonies of our countryman Joseph Haydn 
 are shelved as obsolete or obsolescent stuff; 
 and even Mozart's pieces are taken much 
 faster than he himself intended ; just as if 
 the disquietude which armaments, expresses, 
 and steamboats have brought upon Europe, 
 must also invade the aesthetic domain of art. 
 Admitting, for a moment, the superiority 
 of the modern school, why, I would ask, 
 should music alone be stricken with poverty 
 and narrowness of spirit ? Go where you 
 will, it is an acknowledged necessity not 
 only to live in the present, but to make the 
 works of all ages one's own, as being the 
 best way to obtain instruction, and because, 
 as a rule, every period has its characteristic 
 excellence. Then why is music, forsooth, 
 to be an exception ? It is a remarkable 
 feature of our age, that as regards the 
 pleasures, not only of the mind, but like-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 59 
 
 wise of the table, we are unable properly to 
 digest our food, quickly become sated with 
 each dish, and yet never tire of sweetmeats. 
 This may be called the spirit of progress. 
 Yet ought we, after all, to be ashamed of 
 going back to our great ancestors, and bor- 
 rowing from them something of their repose, 
 their solidity, their strength, and therewith 
 something of the beautiful and lovely spirit 
 which has given us so many restful, cheering, 
 and refreshing melodies ? 
 
 That the art in its practical aspect has of 
 late made enormous strides is certain ; espe- 
 cially the art of instrumentation ; the art of 
 pourtraying by music purely sensible objects 
 and far-fetched fancies ; the art of painting 
 tone-pictures, and representing natural phe- 
 nomena ; the art of executing a shake with a 
 dying breath, and, above all, the art of link- 
 ing music to everything foreign to it. On 
 the other hand, justice requires us thankfully 
 to confess that, in the progress of the art, 
 much has been done for sound forms of 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Improve- 
 ment in 
 certain 
 ways un- 
 deniable.
 
 6o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Palestrina 
 not to be 
 compared 
 with 
 
 Handel or 
 Bach as a 
 fugue 
 writer. 
 
 Every 
 reason to 
 look for 
 superlative 
 merit in 
 the early 
 composers 
 
 music. For instance, I should consider it 
 childish to think for a moment of comparing 
 Palestrina's " Missa ad Fugam," lately pub- 
 lished in Paris, with one of Handel's or 
 Sebastian Bach's great fugues. But let us 
 not on that account forget the infinite 
 amount of trash and ugliness that modern 
 taste has at the same time brought into cir- 
 culation ; how, for instance, the fugue, 
 founded on certain easily acquired rules, has 
 become a miserable refuge for the inaptitude 
 of hundreds ; and how many new theories 
 have been trumped up (e.g., on consecutive 
 fifths) by modern harmonists, against which 
 protests founded on ancient models are even 
 now raised. 
 
 It must be acknowledged by any man of 
 intelligence and impartiality that ancient 
 masters were as well acquainted with the 
 essence of musical art as are modern masters; 
 they were acquainted therefore with melody 
 (as is best proved by their incomparable 
 chorales) as well as harmony ; and this last
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 61 
 
 was studied by them, the framers of all the 
 principal rules still in force, more profoundly 
 and more assiduously than it is now, as 
 many old theoretical treatises will show. The 
 departments of music to which they gave all 
 their attention were, therefore, brought to the 
 highest state of cultivation; and indeed it 
 would be surprising if the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries, which teemed with artists of 
 genius, had produced nothing remarkable in 
 music alone. We read of "Correggio, that in 
 his last sleep before death, he dreamt with 
 rapture that he had met Palestrina in heaven; 
 and we may suppose, therefore, that the 
 masterpieces of the great musician had in- 
 spired the gifted painter, while here below, 
 with reverence for their author. ( Let our 
 musical egotists, who often have to affect a 
 pitiable disdain to conceal their own desti- 
 tution, gladly avow what no discerning eye 
 can fail to see. We censure what we have 
 never seen; we refuse to be introduced to 
 what we can with difficulty comprehend and 
 
 On 
 
 C liter ch 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 No excuse 
 for our 
 ignorance 
 of their 
 works.
 
 62 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 The high- 
 est works 
 are due 
 to genius 
 rather 
 than to 
 cultiva- 
 tion : 
 
 and often 
 possess 
 more force 
 than 
 polish. 
 
 perform; moreover, both money and patience 
 are lacking to procure and study but half a 
 score of the thousands and thousands of 
 ancient works which have come down to us. 
 
 A work, to be classical, must always, accord- 
 ing to universal understanding, be the issue of 
 a great spirit, evincing the free action of a 
 powerful mind ; and, by such a right, it be- 
 longs to all time, so long as genius is had in 
 honour/ Plato can never, any more than 
 Shakespeare, cease to please from lapse of 
 years ; and Mozart, as a true genius, would 
 have been a brilliant example of any style, 
 whether he had lived earlier or later, among 
 Alpine goatherds, or in a cloister, or in regal 
 luxury. Increased cultivation may indeed 
 produce great improvement as regards polish; 
 but strength and vigour must ever well from 
 the fountain-head of genius ; and this vigour, 
 from the very fact of its deficiency in polish, 
 usually exhibits a quality and freshness that 
 a fully - developed condition of art cannot 
 give but may very easily destroy.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 For this reason I readily grant that if those 
 who are always raising petty objections ob- 
 stinately persist in shutting their eyes, and 
 refuse to wean themselves from the hysterical 
 and sensational fashion of the day, they must 
 leave the works of the great old masters of 
 the church and oratorio style alone. No 
 image can be clearly reflected in muddy water, 
 and Raphael's angels are as nothing to dazzled 
 eyes. But if they would only brace themselves 
 in earnest for those works, choose the hours 
 when they feel calm, serene, and amenable to 
 impressions that are not sensational, and do 
 their best to secure a first-rate execution, 
 they will find in them soon enough a source 
 of heavenly satisfaction, and will see that 
 those who now assume the part of censors 
 have nothing to complain of but their own 
 obtuseness and bigotry. 
 
 Inferior composers there have been, cer- 
 tainly, in former times, in Italy as well as in 
 Germany ; and it must be confessed that the 
 old opera suffers not unfrequently from a 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 They are 
 not likely 
 to be ap- 
 preciated 
 by those 
 who aban- 
 don them- 
 selves to 
 the sensu- 
 ous music 
 of the day. 
 
 Stiffness ol 
 old opera 
 music as 
 compared 
 with 
 modern.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 
 other than 
 
 the 
 
 Chorale. 
 
 Reversal 
 of relations 
 of the 
 church and 
 the stage. 
 
 Intrinsic 
 merits of 
 the old 
 opera. 
 
 certain stiffness, which the light and frivol- 
 ous manner now in favour has altogether obli- 
 terated. The fact is, that just as at first the 
 old church music, being the most ancient 
 type of music, often exercised an influence 
 upon the stage, so now, conversely, the sensu- 
 ousness of the modern stage is like to react 
 upon the church ; and I leave it to the high 
 and mighty critics of the day to try and answer 
 the question, whether it be as repulsive to 
 witness the somewhat awkward performance 
 of a nun, who has deserted the convent for 
 the stage, as to see the part of the Holy 
 Mother taken by a giddy actress in a church. 
 But what, it will be asked, would be a fair 
 estimate of the old opera ? Polished in a 
 particular way, and complete in itself like the 
 modern opera, it certainly was not. But if we 
 were to search out and to reckon up, by way of 
 comparison, all that is meritorious and strik- 
 ing in the earlier operatic works, how much 
 is there from the modern repertoire that 
 could weigh in the other scale, and how
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 many of the pieces now in favour would have 
 to shrink abashed into the background ! 
 We need only look into Handel's operas to 
 find the most admirable passages. Forkel 
 has, I know, somewhere ventured the remark 
 quite in accordance with his views that 
 it is not easy to find any air of Handel's fit 
 to do duty at the present day ; and this has 
 been repeated by others, who certainly knew 
 less of Handel than Forkel. But a more 
 ill-considered statement could scarcely be 
 made. Having a tolerably accurate know- 
 ledge of Handel's works, I am confident that 
 I could produce from them a long list of 
 airs, chiefly for soprano, alto, and bass, that 
 could not fail to delight any one amenable 
 to the charms of music, evincing, as they do, 
 a purity, a tenderness, and a power of sym- 
 pathy, not often to be found in modern com- 
 posers. 
 
 On 
 Church 
 
 Music 
 other than 
 the 
 Chorale. 
 
 Handel's 
 operas 
 full of 
 beauties.
 
 On v 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 The vir- 
 tues of 
 childhood. 
 
 ON POPULAE MELODIES. 
 
 THE inclination of an educated man will 
 and must be, principally, to seek instruction 
 and entertainment from intercourse with all 
 who are distinguished for their learning. 
 Still he ought not to lose all relish for the 
 charm of innocence ; for culture, as we see 
 it in the world, is by no means always a true 
 development of nature ; and, in this sense, it 
 is quite possible for an educated man to 
 rank beneath a child. It is said of children 
 in the Gospel that of them is the kingdom 
 of God; and herein lies an eminent truth. 
 Perfect openness, sincerity, and truthfulness 
 are the noblest traits of the human character. 
 But education, and the circumstances of life, 
 generally make a man more or less close, 
 calculating, disingenuous, and deceitful ;
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 whereas a child stands before us with his 
 virtues and his faults, a fresh and virgin 
 specimen of nature's handiwork. Therefore 
 he who knows not the child knows not the 
 man; and Rousseau says, with great truth, 
 that the time of youth that is to say, of 
 youth's frank intercourse is the time which 
 a wise man ought to study. 
 
 These remarks are also applicable to music. 
 The greatest treat that any man of mind can 
 have in music is, undoubtedly, a perfect work 
 of art. But how easy is it for art to become 
 unnatural ; how easy for a thing to be over- 
 done ; and how often do we find music, labo- 
 riously composed by mere, artifice, uninspired 
 by any real spontaneous emotion, and excit- 
 ing, therefore, at best admiration, but not 
 love ! It may be asserted, without exaggera- 
 tion, that one half of our music is destitute 
 of the natural element ; a species of mathe- 
 matics without a spark of life ; a mere display 
 for the honour and glory of nimble fingers ; 
 and such a compound of unwholesome in- 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Art a 
 supreme 
 delight, 
 yet liable 
 to failure.
 
 68 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Popular 
 airs the 
 artless ex- 
 pressions 
 of national 
 vouth. 
 
 Interest 
 attaching 
 to the 
 study of 
 the popu- 
 
 of all 
 countries. 
 
 gradients, that it may seriously be asked 
 whether it does not do us more harm than 
 good. On the other hand, all the songs that 
 emanate from the people themselves, or are 
 adopted by them and preserved as favourites, 
 are, as a rule, pure and clear in character, 
 like that of a child. Such songs almost in- 
 variably re-echo the emotions of vigorous, 
 unperverted minds, and for that very reason 
 have in various ways quite a peculiar value 
 from their connection with great national 
 events ; and, dating from times when nations 
 had all the innocence and freshness of youth, 
 they seize with irresistible force upon minds 
 which, however much warped, are still alive 
 to true and genuine impulse. 
 
 For this reason, I hold the study of popular 
 songs by which I do not mean ephemeral 
 street ballads, but such songs as live and 
 thrive in the popular mind to be of the 
 utmost importance. But if we wish to do 
 real service to art in reference to them, it is 
 necessary to look all around, and not confine
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 ourselves to the songs that are popular in 
 our own land, but to take all the world into 
 our survey, and endeavour to read each 
 nation's character in their songs. We travel, 
 and read accounts of travels, to gain an idea 
 of each country's peculiarities ; and why 
 should music, often so intensely character- 
 istic, be left unnoticed? I If Goethe, after 
 writing his " Goetz," had done no more than 
 give us other pictures of old German charac- 
 ter, he would have done a thing worthy of all 
 honour. But he has earned the title of the 
 Prince of our poets from the very fact that 
 in his " Iphigenia " he has also been able to 
 transport us into the fairest times of Greece, 
 as in his " East-and-West Divan" he has 
 taken us into Persia and India, and because 
 in his " Faust " he belongs to the universal 
 world of genius. 
 
 A man who, in bye-hours, resorts to the 
 bright and cheerful domain of art for recrea- 
 tion from severe professional labour, is wont 
 to do so with a keener relish than the regular 
 
 69 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Advantage 
 of the 
 amateur.
 
 7 o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 \On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Difficulties 
 in the way 
 of a col- 
 lector. 
 
 artist, who has his main occupation therein. 
 In other words, the sauce when taken in 
 small quantities is usually more savoury than 
 when taken in spoonfuls. And so I have 
 spared no pains in searching for materials to 
 satisfy my curiosity in connection with this 
 subject. But, though I have to a considerable 
 extent succeeded, I am still far from the de- 
 sired end. Any one who sets about historical 
 investigations in music has the misfortune 
 to find himself at a disadvantage. The gener- 
 ality of musicians entirely decline to listen to 
 history. From the few well-read musicians 
 and amateurs much could indeed be obtained; 
 but here again the prospect is often a dis- 
 couraging one. Collectors are, as a rule, 
 far readier to take than to give; they are 
 wonderfully reserved and forgetful, and are 
 only too glad to leave inquirers to their own 
 resources, with a tacit " Physician, heal thy- 
 self!" Others will undertake anything, but 
 oftentimes with no better result than good 
 wishes. By degrees, however, and by the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 active assistance of some generous friends, 
 I have collected a number of popular airs, on 
 which I set much value. Others may pos- 
 sess, or be acquainted with many more ; but 
 I am sure there are many who have and know 
 less. I may proceed, therefore, frankly to 
 specify those I have and know, hoping that 
 those who are richer than myself may supply 
 my deficiencies out of their abundance, or may, 
 at least, be so kind as to put me on the right 
 track if I go astray ; in return for which I 
 shall gladly place at their disposal any dupli- 
 cates I may happen to possess. 
 
 Our curiosity as to national songs must 
 naturally cause us first to look out for any 
 that may have been preserved from the ear- 
 liest times. But though some theoretical 
 treatises of the era before Christ have reached 
 us, we are yet without such good specimens 
 as are necessary for the object in view. 
 
 The old Israelitish melodies would possess 
 for us the deepest interest, inasmuch as they 
 probably exercised a direct influence upon 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Ineffectual 
 search for 
 fsraelitish 
 longs.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 the first Christian churches. Supposing 
 that Judaism obstinately adheres to ancient 
 customs, I made diligent inquiries in the 
 German synagogues ; but quite in vain. 
 The sole piece communicated to me, which 
 I was able to trace with certainty, was a 
 recitative from an opera of Mozart ! Mar- 
 cello is known to have made similar in- 
 vestigations, and several of the intona- 
 tions used by German and Spanish Jews, 
 given in his great Collection of Psalms, 
 have a peculiar Oriental character. But, 
 unfortunately, he does not give his authori- 
 ties ; nor is there any better foundation for 
 the very interesting work recently translated 
 from the English " Collection of National 
 Hebrew Melodies, with accompanying words 
 by Lord Byron," published by G. K. R. 
 Kretshmer, at the Magazine for art, geo- 
 graphy, and music in Berlin. No one will 
 deny that much of its contents is to be traced 
 to modern sources, particularly in the ac- 
 companiments.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 73 
 
 Genuine old Greek songs would, presum- 
 ably, prove as interesting as Pindar ; but 
 they are not to be found. Burney, in his 
 treatise on ancient music, has, indeed, given 
 us some songs taken from a Parisian MS., 
 which really seem referable to ancient Greece, 
 and which have since been several times 
 published, as, for instance, in Forkel's His- 
 tory. They are obviously highly original, 
 for which reason our great philologist, Wolf, 
 was beyond measure delighted with them. 
 But the inferences deducible from them as 
 to the general character of Grecian music 
 are very slender indeed. It is likely enough 
 that some traditions of old times may still 
 be extant among the modern Greeks. But 
 I know of no one who has turned his atten- 
 tion in this direction, except Sulzer in his 
 History of Transalpine Dacia (Vienna, 1781- 
 1782, 2 vols. 8vo), to which work some notable 
 modem Greek songs are appended. They are 
 also interesting as distinctly recalling some 
 of the tunes of the Russo-Greek Church. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Scant re- 
 mains of 
 Greek
 
 74 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Airs of the 
 Trouba- 
 dours, 
 Minne- 
 sanger, 
 Meister- 
 sanger. 
 
 Passing on to the period after Christ, the 
 airs of the Troubadours and Minnesingers, as 
 well as of the people called Meistersingers, 
 are of the highest importance in reference to 
 national melodies. But just where all ought 
 to be clear, had we always had historical 
 students of music, everything seems as yet 
 in utter obscurity. The specimens given by 
 Busby in his history, especially the fine song 
 of Ganelem on the death of King Richard I. 
 of England, prompted me to renew my re- 
 searches. But I met with nothing but bar- 
 ren quotations, such as Forkel usually gives. 
 It was only by accident that I got hold of 
 some capital melodies from a very old 
 Nuremberg MS., and again, from " Elips 
 von Zesen's Dramatic Vale of Roses and 
 Lilies," Hamburg, 1670, 8vo, in which there 
 are some highly original things ; and, lastly, 
 from the following little publications : " A 
 pocket Manual full of choice and lovely 
 popular songs," Berlin, 1777; and " Melodies 
 to a collection of German, Flemish, and
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 75 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 French popular songs," edited by Biisching 
 and Von der Hagen, and published in Berlin 
 by Braun. But they do not contain much 
 that is attractive ; and, as with many 
 poems that pass for old, one can never be 
 sure that unscrupulous editors may not have 
 interpolated their own handiwork. The 
 most original matter, and of true German 
 growth, may be found in the work entitled 
 " Popular Songs of Austria, with their airs, 
 collected and edited by Ziska and Schottky," 
 Pesth, 1819. Various editions of Swiss 
 songs should also be mentioned. They are 
 known to all musicsellers, and are to be seen 
 in Switzerland unfolded in the windows of 
 bookshops. It is highly probable that some 
 new light may be thrown on the Troubadour 
 songs. On the strength of the well-known 
 story that Queen Christina of Sweden made 
 a collection of them, and that the MS. was 
 in the Vatican Library, I begged an accom- 
 plished friend of mine in Rome to make an 
 examination. But I received poor comfort 
 
 Austrian 
 
 Swiss 
 
 Trouba-
 
 7 6 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Difficulty 
 of deci- 
 phering 
 these 
 last. 
 
 British 
 Airs. 
 
 in the news that the MS. contained only 
 words, and no notes. I then had recourse, 
 through another friend, to Raynouard, editor 
 of the "Choix des Poesies des Trouba- 
 deurs." He placed in my hands a song with 
 accompanying notes, adding that he possessed 
 many of them, and would send them all to 
 me, if I could decipher this one. This, 
 alas ! I was not skilful enough to do, and so 
 handed the treasure over to a friend more 
 competent than myself. He had no sooner 
 got it than he lost it ; and after this I had 
 never time or opportunity to revert to the 
 subject. I merely drop a hint to all true 
 musicians to make Paris the ground for further 
 search. It is not too much to say that real 
 lovers of fine music would gladly part with 
 a thousand variations, sonatas, and other 
 musical effusions of the day, if the old works 
 of art in their genuineness and integrity 
 could be procured in exchange. 
 
 The English have taken much pains with 
 their national songs; yet in the new edi-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 77 
 
 tions the words are quite modernised, and 
 new words frequently assigned to the airs. 
 The best notice of the subject is to be found 
 in the preface of the following work, contain- 
 ing the old Scottish songs without accompani- 
 ment : " Scotch Songs," in 2 vols. 8vo, pub- 
 lished by Johnson, London, 1794. Later, 
 again, there came out, without date, in Lon- 
 don, beautifully printed in fourteen small 
 folios, and prettily got up with illustrations, 
 a complete collection of Scotch, Irish, and 
 Welsh popular songs, enriched with several 
 modern additions, and with a pianoforte 
 accompaniment, comprising preludes, post- 
 ludes, and interludes, in which Pleyel, Joseph 
 Haydn, Kotzeluch, and Beethoven, had a 
 hand. The titles of these I am sorry to 
 say expensive works are, " A Select Collec- 
 tion of original Scottish airs for the voice," 
 etc. : London, printed by Preston, 4 vols. 
 folio ; " A Selection of Irish Melodies," ibid. 
 8 vols. folio ; " A Selection of Welsh Melo- 
 dies," 2 vols. folio. These three works, the 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popiilar 
 Melodies. 
 
 Russian 
 Airs. 
 
 Danish 
 Airs. 
 
 two last especially, comprise, together (as 
 might be expected) with much that is insig- 
 nificant, an extensive series of the most ten- 
 der, vigorous, and animated pieces, which 
 quite captivated no less a person than Joseph 
 Haydn. 
 
 The national songs of Russia, some of 
 which have quite an Oriental flavour, are 
 most remarkable. My knowledge of them 
 is derived from the following works, to which 
 a pianoforte accompaniment is added I give 
 the titles in Russian, with Latin characters : 
 " Pjesennik' ulu polroe sobranie stariich'u 
 nobiich' Rossiiskiich' narodniich' " (Peters- 
 burgh, without date, 8vo) ; " Sobranie Russ- 
 kiich' narodniich' pjesen' s' Uch golosami, 
 poloschenniich na musuku Iwanom' Prats- 
 chem' : " Petersburgh, 1806, 2 vols. 4to. 
 
 Very fine old Danish airs are to be found, 
 though without accompaniment, in the fifth 
 volume of "Danske's Melodies from the 
 Middle Ages," byNierup and Rahbek: Copen- 
 hagen, 1814, 8vo.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 79 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Swedish 
 
 and 
 
 Finnish 
 
 Some very interesting old Swedish and 
 Finnish songs are given, in part with an 
 accompaniment added, in Geyer and Afze- 
 lius's " Swedish Popular Melodies:" Stock- 
 holm, 1814-1816, 3 vols. 8vo ; and in 
 Schotter's " Finnish Runes : " Upsala, 1819, 
 8vo. 
 
 I know of no printed edition of the popu- Italian 
 lar songs of Italy ; but I possess a good 
 number of them in MS. Every one knows 
 how enchanting some of them are. 
 
 The national songs of Spain I know only 
 
 Airs. 
 
 from the lips of Spanish female singers. All 
 my efforts to obtain the best of them, whether 
 in print or MS., from Madrid have been 
 fruitless. Considering the gifts and the un- 
 common fire of the Spanish people, recollect- 
 ing only their Morales and their Vittoria, 
 and seeing that in former times nearly all 
 the best singers of the Papal Chapel were 
 Spaniards, one can hardly doubt that any 
 person who had the will and the opportunity 
 to search for popular melodies in Spain, 
 
 Spanish
 
 8o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 Brazilian 
 Airs. 
 
 Indian 
 Airs. 
 
 would be sure to find things of remarkable 
 and possibly transcendent merit. 
 
 Popular songs of Brazil, and songs and 
 dances of the American Indians, appeared 
 some years ago in an appendix to Spix's and 
 Martin's "Travels in Brazil." But the 
 Brazilian songs seem to have their origin in 
 modern Portuguese operas. The popular 
 influence of the opera is now-a-days such, 
 that any one who does not observe the land- 
 marks of history is almost certain to be 
 deluded. In the summer of 1824 I got 
 together the best female vocalists among the 
 Alps of the Bernese Oberland, that I might 
 enjoy the old melodies; but, lo and behold ! 
 one of the first pieces was a new operatic 
 air. 
 
 Sir William Jones, in his work on Indian 
 music, has given us Indian, Persian, and 
 Moorish songs, often without words, and 
 always without accompaniment. An assort- 
 ment of them, chosen at random, together 
 with much accessory matter, has recently
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 81 
 
 appeared in London, very showily, but often 
 very poorly arranged, under the title, " Indian 
 Melodies, arranged for the Voice and Piano- 
 forte in Songs, Duets, and Glees, by C. E. 
 Horn," 1 vol. folio. 
 
 There is also a good deal in the narratives 
 of various travellers that deserves attention. 
 But pains must always be taken to collect 
 the spirit of each particular piece ; and this 
 is often difficult to do, especially when the 
 key is doubtful ; from which cause it is not 
 uncommon to this day for the finest pieces to 
 be quite spoilt by false harmonisation, and 
 particularly from not understanding the 
 superscribed thirds and fifths. 
 
 Often have I wished that I were qualified, 
 as a musical theorist and thorough linguist, 
 to devote my whole time, but for a single 
 year, to an arrangement of the best songs of 
 all countries. I should soon obtain a col- 
 lection which would give pleasure alike to 
 educated and uneducated. But I leave it to 
 those who have more knowledge, talent, time, 
 
 On 
 Popular 
 
 Melodies. 
 
 Foreign 
 airs not 
 always 
 easy to ap- 
 preciate. 
 
 Value of a 
 compila- 
 tion of 
 
 National 
 Melodies.
 
 82 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Popular 
 Melodies. 
 
 and opportunity, to bethink themselves seri- 
 ously of a compilation of this kind. A return 
 to simple and natural ways is daily becoming 
 in every respect more and more necessary. 
 Music, in truth, can boast but little of having 
 escaped all share in the false tendencies of 
 the age.
 
 ON THE 
 
 INSTRUCTION TO BE DERIVED 
 FROM GOOD MODELS. 
 
 KANT says somewhere of mathematics, that 
 they are but a poor science, because an 
 unfit subject for philosophy. The same 
 might almost be said of music, as regards 
 its influence upon education at the present 
 day. Execution and flourish we have every- 
 where ; mountains of amazing difficulty ; a 
 plethora of notes in place of completeness 
 and perspicuity; but, apart from the satis- 
 faction of vanity or professional whims, 
 little of comfort or pleasure ; so that our 
 good maidens, when they get a hearth of 
 their own, and can settle down there, gladly 
 throw to the winds all the so-called art they 
 have learnt. 
 No art is without a living principle ; and 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Music, as 
 now prac- 
 tised, 
 
 abounds in 
 difficulties, 
 but is de- 
 ficient in 
 zest. 
 
 A living 
 principle 
 issential 
 
 ;o Music, 
 as to other 
 arts.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 The 
 
 essence of 
 Music is 
 expression 
 of feeling, 
 not con- 
 formity to 
 rule. 
 
 this may be easily found in music, by going 
 back to the point where it took its rise, and 
 became a want. In other words, music is, 
 in its essence, nothing but, as it were, the 
 overflowing of emotion of mental ecstasy 
 in sound; and, whenever a piece of music 
 answers to this description, it will never fail 
 to move and enchant all unprejudiced minds, 
 barring, of course, that exceptional class that 
 have no sense of tune, and to whom music is 
 a sealed book, like a statue to a blind man. 
 Music requires, indeed, a code of rules, just as 
 poesy requires a system of versification. But 
 true excellence in a musical work can no 
 more follow from conformity to rule, or from 
 artifice, than it can in a poem from regu- 
 larity of versification. A composition that 
 appeals in no way to the heart, or which jars 
 upon the feelings, can never be anything 
 better than a practice- piece, however much 
 in favour it may be with the admirers of bra- 
 vura. A Dutch preacher succeeded, after 
 thirty years' labour, in engraving with a pin
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 a whole troop of soldiers upon a small coin ; 
 but I imagine that no one would hang 
 up the coin as a worthy companion to a 
 Madonna of Raphael. I freely grant that 
 music may be really embellished by art, just 
 as a fair maiden by dress. But the incidents 
 must not be mistaken for the essence. The 
 divinity of music is only revealed when it 
 transports us into an ideal state of being ; 
 and the composer who cannot do this for us 
 is, so far, a mere hewer of wood and drawer 
 of water. 
 
 If, in judging of musical works, we seek 
 for a common point of comparison in men's 
 sentiments and instincts (such instincts, that 
 is, as are a worthy subject-matter for art, 
 and so may serve in some sort as a standard), 
 we find a hopeless difficulty in attempting 
 to reduce all classes of people to one common 
 measure. For, as to instincts, every one 
 has his own standard, often so interwoven 
 with the whole nature of the individual, that 
 no human power can prevail against it. 
 
 On the 
 Instrttc- 
 tion to be 
 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Music 
 pleases ac- 
 cording to 
 accidental 
 tastes and 
 habits.
 
 86 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Take, first, the untamed savage, who repro- 
 duces in his songs and in his dress his 
 highest idea, brute force; and then go on 
 through innumerable gradations, to the lan- 
 guid heroine of romance, who recoils from 
 all that is vigorous and pure ; where, among 
 these, is the talent of the musician to find 
 a proper basis for its creations ? Take into 
 account, too, the fanciful interpretations, and 
 the semi-philosophical, semi-poetical mean- 
 ings perpetually attributed to plain things in 
 the present day; and that precious indolence 
 which refuses to pursue or acquire anything 
 solid, and so tries to deafen us by rude noise. 
 I know persons who have studied, or pre- 
 tended to study, but twenty or thirty modern 
 pieces, but who imagine that they have 
 thereby rendered themselves such complete 
 masters of musical science that they turn a 
 deaf ear to everything else, loudly talk the 
 silliest nonsense, and cannot refrain from a 
 smile of commiseration if any hint is dropped 
 of Lasso, Palestrina, Morales, Lotti, and
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 Durante, not to mention Luther's favourite, 
 Senffel, whose name, moreover, will not be 
 
 relished by their dainty palates.* 
 
 / 
 
 Formerly, when I received the first im- 
 pressions of those great compositions, which 
 will ever possess for me a life-long charm, I 
 used to be impatient if others would not un- 
 derstand them, and could listen to nothing 
 but the fragments they had in their heads. 
 Now that experience has made me wiser, 
 though I still feel something of the same kind, 
 yet I sit still calmly and civilly, and recall to 
 myself the story of a minister of state coming 
 to Frederick the Great, and depreciating 
 Homer, Virgil, Plato, and such like, while 
 praising to the skies the first catcher of her- 
 rings ; whereupon the king merely remarked, 
 " I suppose you are very fond of herrings ! " 
 In truth, there can hardly be a more erro- 
 neous idea than that music can make a man. 
 It can do no more than respond to what good 
 a man may have in him, or else rouse some- 
 
 * Senf Angl. Mustard. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Bad taste 
 must be 
 borne 
 with. 
 
 Music ran- 
 not make 
 a man ; it 
 presup- 
 poses a 
 healthy 
 nature.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Musical 
 taste not 
 to be im- 
 parted by 
 Lectures. 
 
 thing that lies dormant in him. A cold, 
 vain man, of contracted ideas, and debased 
 affections, will never appreciate a grand 
 piece of music ; and if there be added to this 
 a quarrelsome temper, or the usual profes- 
 sional conceit, as disagreeable as it is barren ; 
 or if lowest of all conditions when he 
 attends a concert, his small soul has no room 
 for aught beside the two or three pieces he 
 has at some former time acquired, or has 
 heard in his own beloved town, then, indeed, 
 are all attempts at conversion idle. 
 
 Words and theories can no more enlighten 
 the mind on the subject of music than can 
 abstract principles of painting give a correct 
 eye for colour. Those who talk of musical 
 theorems are much addicted to descriptions, 
 but are not sensible of the small effect pro- 
 duced by them. The human frame admits 
 of description much more easily than an in- 
 visible note; and yet no one ever found it 
 on inspection the same as he had imagined 
 from description. But there is one great
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 resource always open to the lover of good 
 music, which must always rank as the best 
 means for influencing taste and feeling ; and 
 this is the information and improvement 
 derivable from classical models. However 
 much a mistaken culture may warp and nar- 
 row most people's minds, it is certain that, 
 if the taste is not utterly depraved nor ruined 
 by artificialism, the better element is not 
 wholly quenched, but, at the worst, only 
 slumbers; and it will be found, as a rule, 
 that the study of great models leads in the 
 end to a just estimate of their worth. I 
 have known passionate admirers of Kotzebue, 
 but not one who remained of the same mind 
 after attentively reading Shakespeare ; and I 
 used myself, fifteen years ago, to admire 
 musical works, which now, with more his- 
 torical knowledge, I scarcely care to look at. 
 And such has been the case with others. 
 It is hardly to be believed how speedily the 
 influence of good examples is felt. I have 
 more than once found one-sided people, 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Classical 
 authors 
 the great 
 teachers. 
 
 Personal 
 experience 
 of their 
 influence.
 
 9 o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Works of 
 less than 
 the highest 
 order have 
 their legi- 
 timate use. 
 
 who, from certain hybrid pieces, had con- 
 ceived a great idea of certain modern com- 
 posers. These pieces I had sung, having 
 previously selected others by Lasso, Pales- 
 trina, Lotti, and Sebastian Bach, not exactly 
 of a profound, but of pure and dignified 
 character. The question was decided in a 
 moment, and never did a similar experiment 
 fail. What actually occurred, to my great 
 satisfaction, was this : a young man came to 
 me with his head fall of wrong ideas, and, 
 after listening to a Mass of Lotti's, exclaimed 
 in ecstasy, " This evening I can bear ill-will 
 to no man." Effects like this might often be 
 noticed, if people wished for them, and were 
 not content to cling with miserable obstinacy 
 to the approved fashion of the day. 
 
 Works of mediocrity may have their place, 
 provided only they be healthy and un- 
 affected. Men are not disposed to be read- 
 ing the Psalms, or Homer, every hour of the 
 day. They crave variety to entertain them, 
 and help them to pass the time without
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 mental strain. A large portion of the public 
 have neither taste nor capacity for anything 
 beyond mediocrity. Hence I should not be 
 disposed to criticise several songs now in 
 fashion so severely as some connoisseurs 
 may have done. I merely ask those who 
 can only understand and enjoy indifferent 
 music, to abstain from pronouncing upon 
 works of real genius, and not to expect 
 masterpieces like the Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor and Don Quixote from the same pen as 
 " The Provincials " and " The Bard with the 
 Iron Helm."* 
 
 In all this, I wish to warn people against 
 a certain prejudice and narrowness, which 
 meets one at every turn. For instance, if an 
 amateur has mastered certain pieces, and 
 takes due pleasure in them, he is apt, for 
 that very reason, to think them beautiful, 
 nay, more beautiful than all others ; and he 
 will very likely take umbrage, if it be hinted 
 that there are other more beautiful far 
 
 * By Kotzebue. 
 
 On the 
 Instrtic- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Superficial 
 knowledge 
 likely to 
 mislead.
 
 9 2 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models. 
 
 Good 
 judgment 
 in Music 
 accrues by 
 degrees, 
 and from 
 mature ex- 
 perience. 
 
 more beautiful pieces. Such narrowness is 
 mischievous in the highest degree. Music is 
 essentially a matter of taste, but taste is first 
 formed by slow degrees. Test it by the 
 analogy of Painting and Poetry. What 
 pleased the boy fails to satisfy the young 
 man ; what transported the young man the 
 grown man often finds empty and defective. 
 By such tests and comparisons we shall at 
 last realise what is truly classical, and attain 
 therein a happy repose, because its character- 
 istic is that it can be enjoyed over and over 
 again, and rather gains than loses by repe- 
 tition. So, if it be that heretofore a person 
 has had but little knowledge, no one can 
 say whither an educated taste may not lead 
 him ; and it is therefore mere indolence, or 
 want of spirit, on the strength of the known 
 to presume on the unknown, and doggedly 
 refuse to go further. There can be wisdom 
 in such conduct only when any one possessed 
 of complete knowledge puts into your hands 
 that which is of the highest and most un-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 93 
 
 questionable merit, and in this way excludes 
 all that is indifferent and worthless a most 
 valuable educational help. But, in the case 
 of music, it is seldom that such a mentor is 
 at hand, and then many trials must be made 
 before the object is attained. Ambition is 
 not indeed disposed to confess its errors. 
 But what harm can there be in saying, 
 " What a simpleton I was up to such and 
 such a year !" if you are happily able to add 
 the reflection, " But how knowing I am 
 now!" 
 
 On the 
 Instruc- 
 tion to be 
 derived 
 from good 
 Models.
 
 On Effect. 
 
 The pro- 
 duction of 
 effect not 
 a proper 
 function 
 of art. 
 
 ON EFFECT. 
 
 THOROUGH-GOING admirers of modern art 
 plume themselves particularly on their efforts 
 to produce what is termed effect, as a striking 
 feature in the modern practice of music. But 
 it is precisely here that the lover of true art 
 finds most cause for censure. For this much- 
 loved effect either betrays the hand of a bad 
 workman, or else of a coward who is for 
 serving and pleasing everybody. Nature 
 does not go by fits and starts ; nor do our 
 emotions, in their normal state, oscillate 
 irregularly, or exceed their bounds. Thus, 
 your favourite symphonies, fantasias, pot- 
 pourris, and so on, are frequently the most 
 absurd things in the world. First a myste- 
 rious introduction ; then a terrific bang ; a 
 sudden silence ; unexpectedly some dance
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 95 
 
 movement ; then, to keep up the excitement, 
 by an equally happy thought, a rapid transi- 
 tion to the profound and the pathetic. 
 Thence we are launched into the midst of a 
 tempest ; from amid the tempest we pass, 
 after a tantalising pause, to a playful strain, 
 and at the close to a storm of applause, in 
 which everybody embraces everybody with 
 obstreperous ardour. All this finds favour 
 indeed, but why? The truth is simply 
 this that few have the capacity for giving 
 serious and sustained attention to any- 
 thing great, even though it were Love itself 
 that wooed them. When a miscellan- 
 eous programme is placed before a mixed 
 audience, each person can find something to 
 his taste ; and, as he obtains the needful 
 repose during the intervals, he will gladly 
 allow others, during those intervals, to enjoy 
 their favourite pieces. So, if one takes 
 a glance around at operas and concerts, 
 one often finds the ladies noticing the 
 dresses, and the men eyeing the young 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 Yet effect, 
 in one 
 shape or 
 another, is 
 what at- 
 tracts the 
 many.
 
 9 6 
 
 On E/ect. 
 
 Sensa- 
 tional 
 Music 
 significant 
 of absence 
 of real 
 power. 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 ladies, whilst the piece they want is waiting 
 its turn; but the moment that love and 
 dancing come forward, every pleasure-seeking 
 eye is eagerly bent upon the performers. In 
 Milan, where people are not accustomed as 
 in Germany to put much constraint on them- 
 selves, and to conceal their natural emotion, 
 it has long been the custom for persons of 
 education to occupy themselves without cere- 
 mony with card-playing, but to clap loudly 
 if anything in the music takes their fancy, or 
 at any feat of vocal gymnastics. A great 
 German player, w r hom I told openly, after a 
 concert, that he had played a bad piece in- 
 comparably well, confessed laughingly that 
 his compositions written for the public were 
 not Avorth a charge of powder. 
 
 The prime cause of such unnatural jumb- 
 ling lies clearly in this, that so very few 
 musicians have the capacity and the gifts 
 necessary to a thorough inspiration by their 
 art. When Handel soars above the clouds, 
 it is the eagle only beginning his heaven-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 97 
 
 ward flight. Many of our fashionable 
 favourites rise "with difficulty to the moun- 
 tain heights, there get giddy, and go back 
 home on foot. Where Handel, unconscious 
 of limitation in his splendid powers, has just 
 made a beginning to an animated chorus, 
 there modern inventiveness usually comes to 
 a stop, and tries to eke itself out by repro- 
 ducing a former passage perhaps a couple of 
 tones higher, or to supplement its poverty 
 by recitatives, metrical passages, and other 
 make-shifts; whilst, again, where Handel, 
 with a few masterly strokes, closes his pas- 
 sages of grief or bravado, modern mawkish- 
 ness must whine and bluster on. 
 
 But the worst of it is, that under the spe- 
 cious name of effect, the most deadly poison 
 is administered, in the shape of this spas- 
 modic and exaggerated music this rampant 
 and deafening confusion of sound stirring 
 up everything ignoble in man, and threaten- 
 ing eventually to annihilate all true sense of 
 music. How can one have patience when it 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 Debasing 
 tendency 
 of Effect.
 
 9 8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 is announced with much unction that a Te 
 Deum is to be performed in a church with 
 an accompaniment of eighty drums ; or 
 when, as recently in one of the foremost 
 towns of Germany, the clashing, drumming, 
 and screaming in a opera was so bad that an 
 excellent connoisseur of classical music, on 
 coming out into the street just as forty 
 drummers passed by beating the tattoo, 
 could not help exclaiming, " Thank heaven, 
 we have soft music once more ! " If this 
 continues, the result will inevitably be that 
 at our musical repasts we shall never be able 
 to eat our melon without Cayenne pepper, 
 and, like most Russians, must give up brandy 
 and take to aquafortis. There is nothing for 
 it but to put these fuddled musical gluttons 
 and drunkards upon their fast, in order to 
 restore elasticity to their shattered nerves, 
 and to rescue from extinction a pure taste for 
 music as such, and those fine sensibilities, 
 which are ennobled by music, but will not 
 be dragged into and allied with vulgarity
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 99 
 
 and extravagance. In saying this, I would 
 not be supposed to confine my affections 
 wholly to soft plaintive music. Music should 
 portray all states of sensibility, feeling, and 
 passion ; but it should treat them poetically ; 
 not in their deformity, but in their purity 
 and vigour. Vent your indignation if you 
 please, but do not foam at the mouth ; let 
 love burn, as it may, with an all-consuming 
 fire, but not so that the lover, as was recently 
 represented, should, in the very midst of her 
 passionate entreaty, suddenly expire with 
 a light skip. It is incredible what nonsense 
 of this kind the German public have hither- 
 to submitted to. Many of our virtuous 
 maidens, if they knew what they have often 
 to listen to, or themselves to play and sing, 
 and for what purposes one of our most 
 popular composers wrote several pieces with 
 peculiar and masterly skill, would be over- 
 whelmed with shame and indignation. Cer- 
 tain peasants in South Germany are probably 
 the only laymen who hitherto have checked 
 
 On Effect.
 
 100 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 Effect less 
 objection- 
 able in 
 Oratorio 
 and Opera 
 than in 
 Church 
 music. 
 
 abuses, by more than once complaining bit- 
 terly to the priest of being obliged by the 
 organist to listen to some low song among 
 his light and trivial pieces. 
 
 But, however much the lovers of healthy 
 elevating music may lament its unnatural 
 perversions, they will scarcely effect any ap- 
 preciable good as regards oratorio and opera, 
 because polite society is in a high state of 
 ferment, because spasmodic and delirious 
 music often harmonises well with poetry 
 and philosophy itself, and also because 
 people regard with favour the claim made, 
 under the pretext of genius, to a certain 
 amount of freedom and license. But, in the 
 case of church music proper, this rage for 
 effect may still be checked ; because, as has 
 been already said, the church has nothing to 
 say to the promptings of passion and its ac- 
 cessories. Besides, we may be sure that those 
 who still are warmly attached to the church 
 will gladly hail a worthy style of church 
 music. For the sense of what becomes the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 101 
 
 church is by no means extinct ; and it will 
 be found that those preachers who are not 
 content with the poetry of the Psalms of 
 David, but borrow verses from modern 
 poems, or simply give out from the pulpit 
 the name of a modern poet, always create 
 the gravest displeasure. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, musicians them- 
 selves are almost invariably the obstacle to 
 improvement in this direction. For it often 
 happens that they can only play or write for 
 us music of a profane and trivial character, 
 and laymen who would find fault are bluntly 
 told they know nothing about it. Just as 
 we Germans have a way of at once refer- 
 ring all favourite solecisms to an uniform 
 rule, so our musicians are ever ready with 
 theories to prove black is white ; so that it 
 has come to this that the very works which 
 are the peculiar property of the church are 
 dismissed with a lofty air in the name of so- 
 called science. 
 
 Such ill-grounded and unjustifiable mis- 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 Musicians 
 themselves 
 an obstacle 
 to reform 
 of Church 
 music. 
 
 Even 
 acknow- 
 ledged 
 master- 
 pieces are 
 flouted ;
 
 102 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 such as 
 the Mise- 
 reres of 
 Allegri 
 and Bai. 
 
 apprehensions on the part of those who are 
 called theorists have now extended to the 
 whole body of old church music ; amongst 
 other pieces to the Misereres of Allegri and 
 Bai, which are among the principal perform- 
 ances of Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel, 
 and which have never failed to make the 
 profoundest impression upon listeners; for 
 which reason it was that Mozart made a 
 journey to Rome for the purpose of purloin- 
 ing the music, which had never before been 
 entrusted to any one. The fact that, having 
 been privately communicated to the Emperor 
 Joseph II., they were not appreciated in 
 Vienna, is to be accounted for by both 
 singers and audience being unfavourably pre- 
 disposed towards them. But that persons 
 professing to have studied music could so 
 superciliously pass by these beautiful pieces, 
 after they had been made known by Burney 
 at least in their main features, as is evident 
 from other copies and could positively cast 
 them aside for their want of rhythm, or be-
 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 cause their harmony is in the common chord, 
 is one of those incredible things, to be de- 
 plored by the lovers of true church music as 
 much as the lately threatened destruction of 
 the chorale itself. I can only express myself 
 upon it in the same language as I have used 
 elsewhere. So once more I say : Is it con- 
 ceivable that great compositions, based upon 
 a most profound conception, should be thus 
 coldly dismissed that conception being this, 
 that the satisfaction of a soul, alive to a 
 sense of resignation and blessedness, must lie 
 in what is smooth and unconstrained, again 
 and again recurring to it, and abiding with 
 it. Never yet did any man of fine feeling, 
 who, in solemn reflection gazed on the setting 
 sun, or to whose mind the song of nightin- 
 gales on a spring evening, or the sighing of 
 the wind in the trees, brought graver thoughts 
 and fancies never did such an one complain 
 of monotony, and desire, in addition, the 
 embellishment of art. It is precisely in 
 accordance with this great conception that 
 
 103 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 The 
 
 conception 
 
 underlying 
 
 music 
 
 of this 
 
 character 
 
 explained.
 
 104 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Effect. 
 
 those Misereres were composed, in perfect 
 keeping with the prayer, Lord, have mercy 
 on me ! uttered in all sincerity and abase- 
 ment of spirit. There is, therefore, in them 
 no striving after varied effects from love 
 of pretended art, but the burden of the 
 music is developed in constantly recurring 
 passages of Plain-song ; and it is the simple 
 beauty of these alternations, with one and 
 the self-same ruling character throughout, 
 which appeals to those devout frames of 
 mind, which are moved, but not agitated. 
 Why is it then that people will not have 
 nowadays more of that which never palls ? 
 I possess twenty Cantus Populi in Proces- 
 sione Palmarum by Lasso, from the library 
 of the Conservatoire at Paris, composed in 
 this very style throughout, which, when 
 chastely rendered by a choir in a devotional 
 spirit, cannot fail to produce the most pro- 
 found impression, entirely written, as they 
 are, in the common ' chord, evincing in every 
 part the most delicate feeling, and, last not
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 105 
 
 least, always appealing to the same leading 
 idea. 
 
 This same conception may be traced in 
 many hundred pieces of the old church 
 music; and thus there yet remains to the 
 lover of sterling music the consolatory 
 thought that the principles, uniformly ob- 
 served by so many classical writers in the 
 most vigorous period of composition, must 
 rest upon solid ground ; and at any rate are 
 more deserving of attention than the bewil- 
 dering vagaries whereby people would nowa- 
 days fain convey the appearance of genius. 
 
 On Effect, 
 
 The pre- 
 valence of 
 this con- 
 ception 
 attests its 
 truth and 
 value.
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 High esti- 
 mation of 
 the orches- 
 tra in the 
 present 
 day. 
 
 ON THE USE OF INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 I HAVE often seen musicians shrug their 
 shoulders, if a composition has no instru- 
 mental score, and I have heard, not less often, 
 a great deal about the necessity of improving 
 such and such orchestral parts, and heard 
 heaven praised that the instrumentation of 
 the present day was what it is, and that the 
 art of it had never been fully understood till 
 now. That this instrumentation has done 
 much for the legitimate objects of serious 
 music, I do not recollect to have heard. On 
 the other hand, in my old friend Luther 
 I read, " Singing is the best art and exercise. 
 It has nothing to do with the world ; it is 
 subject to no tribunals or lawsuits. Singers 
 are never troubled, but are glad, and drown 
 their cares in song." So again farther on :
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 107 
 
 " Music is, as it were, a mistress and a disci- 
 plinarian, that makes people softer, gentler, 
 soberer, and more reasonable. Bad fiddlers 
 and violinists serve for our seeing and hearing 
 what a fine art music is ; for white is easier 
 seen when in contrast with black." Let us, 
 then, examine the matter somewhat closer, 
 especially with reference to true church 
 music. 
 
 No reasonable man will deny that instru- 
 ments have a great and peculiar advantage, 
 in that they can be much more easily 
 managed than the human voice, have a 
 much larger compass, and, so far, help us to 
 multiply indefinitely the varieties of music. 
 But everything has its time and place, and 
 musicians, as well as others, must conform to 
 this rule. 
 
 Our principal churches are lofty and spa- 
 cious structures, and can only be properly 
 filled by tones possessing roundness, volume, 
 and resonance. Now, this is what is com- 
 monly wanting in all but a few wind instru- 
 
 ct the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Advan- 
 tages of 
 instru- 
 ments over 
 the voice. 
 
 Few in- 
 struments 
 well 
 adapted 
 for large 
 spaces.
 
 io8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Vocal 
 sound of 
 fine quality 
 injured by 
 instru- 
 ments. 
 
 The 
 
 tongue the 
 real organ 
 of the 
 soul. 
 
 ments, with the notable exception of the 
 trombone, which resembles the human voice 
 in the sonorous tone it gives out, and there- 
 fore has always been acceptable in a church. 
 Strings are much too thin for a church, and 
 so are flutes. Twelve good voices would 
 drown fifty such instruments in a church ; and 
 when voices have a clear, precise, and sus- 
 tained intonation, the addition of instru- 
 ments is almost offensive to the ear. Perhaps 
 it was on this account that Pythagoras said 
 that the ring of metal was like the voice of 
 an imprisoned spirit. If we are to indulge 
 in pranks, and, as is now often done, impor- 
 tune the Almighty with drums and fifes, as 
 though we could make merry without Him, 
 then the less said about the laws of art the 
 better. But so far as devotion, humility, and 
 that tempered joy and satisfaction of the inner 
 man which alone befit God's House, are con- 
 cerned, then it should be by the tongue alone, 
 which, after all, is the truest and sincerest 
 exponent of the wants of the soul, that the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 109 
 
 heart's emotions should be outpoured. Grant 
 for a moment that a pianissimo can best be 
 rendered by instruments a point of which 
 much has been made. But, for the purposes 
 of devotion, we no more want maudlin senti- 
 mentality than we do conventional death 
 scenes and starting eyeballs. The Jews' 
 harp, more than any other instrument, dies 
 away, as it were, into nothing ; yet I would 
 far rather hear it in a musical box than in a 
 church. It has often been said, and rightly 
 said, that the vocal arts of concert-singers 
 are out of place in a church. On the 
 other hand, I freely confess that the whole 
 Papal choir would be incompetent to take 
 part in a military march, a tattoo, parade- 
 music, or even in that popular song which 
 has lately come out, and which, beginning 
 with muffled drums, passes in the third 
 bar, not to forte nor double forte, but to 
 fortissimo. 
 
 An incident occurred not long ago in Paris, 
 very much to the point, which ought to be 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Special in- 
 strumental 
 effects not 
 requisite 
 for devo- 
 tional pur- 
 poses.
 
 no 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Anecdote 
 showing 
 matchless 
 effect of 
 vocal 
 
 Pre- 
 sumption 
 against 
 use of in- 
 struments 
 in Church 
 music 
 from their 
 omission 
 by the old 
 writers. 
 
 instructive. At Napoleon's coronation the 
 Parisians wished to distinguish themselves by 
 some unprecedented music, and the church 
 was occupied by an orchestra of eighty harps 
 thus far outdoing King David. Their 
 performance made a great sensation. Imme- 
 diately afterwards the Pope entered the 
 church, and was received with Scarlatti's 
 mighty "Tu es Petrus," from some thirty 
 singers whom he had brought from Rome, to 
 the utter and instantaneous annihilation of 
 the previous effect. I was told by an eye- 
 witness that the Parisians were so deeply 
 mortified, that they always regarded it as a 
 taunt if any one alluded to the grandeur of 
 their eighty harps. 
 
 Had there been no sufficient reason for 
 excluding instruments from the church, the 
 great old masters, who worked with enthu- 
 siasm for the church, would not have failed 
 to avail themselves of them; but, in the main, 
 they do not do so at all. It was not till the 
 vocal music of the Church passed into the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 in 
 
 oratorio style that accompaniments and inter- 
 ludes were thought of; and then the prac- 
 tice continued to spread the more so as, 
 eventually, even the operatic style, was im- 
 pressed into the service of edification. Hap- 
 pily, we have still two churches in which the 
 magnificence of pure vocal music is preserved 
 in its integral purity; the one, the Sistine 
 Chapel ; the other, the Imperial Church at 
 St. Petersburg. Both of these have ever 
 been, and are at the present moment, the 
 admiration alike of those who understand 
 music and those who do not, by reason of the 
 music there performed ; and only quite lately 
 a German musician, who had returned from 
 Rome, and had no leanings to the Roman 
 Church, but was much opposed to it, told me 
 that he had for the first time discovered what 
 the perfection of devotional music was, from 
 the singing in the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 I do not for a moment deny the peculiar 
 charm of instruments for certain purposes. 
 I do not deny, for instance, that gracefulness 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Purely 
 vocal 
 
 music still 
 preserved 
 at Rome 
 and St. 
 Peters- 
 burg. 
 
 Instru- 
 ments in- 
 valuable 
 for certain 
 purposes :
 
 112 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 but their 
 associa- 
 tions es- 
 sentially 
 secular. 
 
 Instances 
 of extreme 
 abuse in 
 this re- 
 spect. 
 
 and rapidity; that romping, bustle, and 
 tumult, and dancing, may be a far fitter sub- 
 ject a thousand times fitter if you will for 
 instruments than for the voice. But let us 
 put all things in the places for which they are 
 fitted. Bright red and bright yellow are 
 very beautiful colours; yet we should not 
 endure a figure of Christ draped in a bright 
 yellow mantle, and a bright rose-coloured 
 girdle. Any one who, with devout purpose 
 of mind, listens in church to well-known 
 instrumental pieces, will always find, that as 
 soon as ever the instruments become busy, 
 the world enters into his thoughts. I know 
 that this is what many people like. But 
 why ? For no other reason than that they 
 are only too glad to be reminded in church 
 of the things which please them outside it. 
 
 But the most unendurable thing is, that 
 instruments have of late been employed to 
 mark a climax, suggestive of orgies in a 
 church ; that an Amen, or an Hallelujah, or 
 a Gloria in Excelsis Deo, has been accom-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 panied by the thunder of drums and the 
 crash of trumpets ; and even that resort has 
 not unfrequently been had to guns and can- 
 non discharged in the vicinity of the church. 
 Is it possible so utterly to forget what we are, 
 and what we ought to be ? When we praise 
 God in church, there should be no room for 
 any other thought but that we are standing 
 before God's throne. But is it possible to 
 imagine a congregation entering Heaven with 
 songs of praise, and introducing first timbrels 
 and trumpets, and behind them a train of 
 artillery, and then, as they draw near to God's 
 throne, rushing forward with profane plaudits? 
 Singular is it, indeed, how prone we are to 
 overlook the good we possess, and to pursue 
 something wrong. For we have within the 
 church itself, in the collective voice of the 
 congregation, the simplest and grandest of all 
 means for attaining a climax worthy of divine 
 worship. Let Hallelujah, Amen, be sung by 
 the choir from the organ-loft or chancel ; and 
 then, if the whole congregation simply recite 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Showing 
 utter for- 
 getfuluess 
 of the 
 nature of 
 worship. 
 
 Amazing 
 effect of 
 the congre- 
 gational
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 St. Chry- 
 sostom's 
 view of the 
 singers' 
 office. 
 
 Choirs 
 neglected. 
 
 the words after them, one might imagine 
 oneself transported into Heaven, or, further, 
 realise to oneself that such is the manner 
 after which God is worshipped in Heaven. 
 St. Chrysostom, in his exposition of the 41st 
 Psalm, has said, and said very well, much 
 that bears upon this point. But he goes on 
 to speak of a purified mind, and of mortifica- 
 tion of the flesh ; and so, alas ! of qualities 
 to which our restless dazed amateurs are 
 strangers. For which reason it is not easy 
 to say to them, as Chrysostom did to his 
 well -disciplined singers, "When you take 
 your place in God's choir, you may count 
 yourselves as at David's side. There no 
 zithers or strings are required." 
 
 It must, however, be confessed that, with 
 our present choirs, but little can be achieved. 
 In utter disregard of the example and pre- 
 cepts of Gregory the Great in the Roman, 
 and of Luther in the Protestant Church, 
 hardly anything has been done of late in 
 Germany for a supply of good voices ; and
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 even the choristers whom we could have con- 
 trolled have been allowed to disperse, partly, 
 as I know for a fact, because the music is 
 said to interfere with the sermon, though it 
 must be evident that sermons of real merit 
 can only gain by hearts being prompted to 
 devotion by fine and truly spiritual music. 
 
 We must, however, consider the subject 
 of instrumentation, without reference to time 
 or place, more distinctly. 
 
 It seems to have become a favourite 
 idea to keep all the instruments constantly 
 employed. That a timid composer, who can- 
 not face the frowns of players obliged to be 
 temporarily silent, should be governed by this 
 idea, is quite natural ; and this probably is 
 the origin of a French opera, which has been 
 given in Germany times innumerable within 
 the last ten years, in the overture to which 
 all singing birds strike up on all sides. But 
 though even a lover of art can, in a pleasure 
 hour, heartily enjoy this kind of thing, inas- 
 much as its sheer absurdity renders it harm- 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 stniments. 
 
 Instru- 
 mentation 
 in general. 
 
 Too con- 
 stant use 
 of the 
 whole or- 
 chestra.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Each in- 
 strument 
 has its 
 proper 
 character. 
 
 Illustra- 
 tion : 
 Handel's 
 Dead 
 March. 
 
 less, yet it is necessary to protest most 
 seriously against its becoming the rule. 
 
 As, with the human voice, each variety 
 has its own qualities ponderous passages 
 being, for instance, suitable for a bass ; ele- 
 gant, tender, and fanciful ones for a tenor or 
 soprano ; and melancholy, pathetic ones for a 
 contralto; so, too, each instrument has its 
 own domain. The trombone may perchance 
 sound in Heaven, but upon earth never to a 
 soft amorous air ; and the delicate flute must 
 be silent when a weightier wind-instrument 
 utters its graver note, and may fitly be asso- 
 ciated with the viola. As an example, I 
 would adduce Handel's famous Dead March 
 in Saul the work of a composer who worked 
 with the might of a Jupiter, gave with un- 
 erring instinct to each voice the music that 
 suited it, who knew and frequently employed 
 all the principal instruments of the present 
 day, and who, therefore, it may fairly be in- 
 ferred, had his own good reasons whenever 
 he omitted to employ one of the usual in-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 117 
 
 struments. In this march the flutes in the 
 earlier bars are altogether silent ; then they 
 make themselves heard ; presently they break 
 off, but soon after again enter and predomi- 
 nate to the end. The reason is obvious that 
 Handel, great and healthful spirit that he 
 was, treats deep sorrow with respect, but 
 does not leave us in unmanly despondency; 
 and therefore, as a friend who consoles and 
 sustains, he laments with those that lament, 
 but at last lets in the sun ; and hence it is 
 that, after hearing one of his mourning 
 choruses, we often feel more composed and 
 serene than after the most cheerful effusions 
 of modern sentimentalism. Thus, the March 
 begins with utter prostration in grief, which 
 the subsequent entry of the flutes seeks to 
 alleviate ; and after a relapse, which again is 
 entirely in accordance with nature, the flutes 
 attend the mourners to the close. All this 
 is as clear as day. Nevertheless, I have 
 heard a performance of this March, speci- 
 ally designed for effect, in which the flutes 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments.
 
 n8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use ofln- 
 struments. 
 
 Modern 
 accom- 
 paniments 
 not always 
 creditable. 
 
 were from the commencement brought into 
 necessary collision with the weightier wind 
 instruments, and by sheer sweetness spoilt 
 the whole character of the piece. With re- 
 gard to this, however, it might be said that 
 Handel's masterpieces are incapable of being 
 utterly ruined ; and, accordingly, on the occa- 
 sion in question, the audience were pretty 
 well satisfied. 
 
 If it be true that modern instrumentation 
 deserves especial praise, it should be shown 
 that the furnishing of suitable accompani- 
 ments has been undertaken with diligence 
 and success. But the evidence on this point 
 is extremely doubtful. The whole manner 
 in which rocking, rolling, skipping, noisy 
 accompaniments are associated with the most 
 pensive and gentle airs, shows clearly enough 
 the utter absence of taste. The accompani- 
 ment to a song is often positively distressing ; 
 what would be effective under other circum- 
 stances being often clumsily introduced in 
 the wrong place. Take for instance a Con-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 119 
 
 tinuo, as it is called, Avhere the bass goes its 
 own way with a decided and rapid move- 
 ment, under certain circumstances with really 
 fine effect ; its tendency in an imposing pas- 
 sage being to inspire the singers, and urge 
 them ever higher and higher. It is in this 
 way that B.Durante has used it in his "Magni- 
 ficat," Caldara in a "Lauda Sion Salvatorem," 
 and Handel in the Chorus " But the waters." 
 Tempted by the device, a modem composer 
 has in an oratorio given us a continue by 
 way of support to a supplicatory duet for two 
 tenors, which travels along like a storm wind, 
 and can only be appreciated when the voice 
 parts are omitted. Even Mozart, in spite of 
 his marvellously fine taste, has, in this matter 
 of accompaniments, forgotten himself, as only 
 his blind admirers can fail to see. This is 
 signally the case in his edition of the Messiah, 
 where, more than anywhere else, he should 
 have observed the greatest caution. Every 
 page of it shows such overloading and inter- 
 polating as would unquestionably have been 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Mozart has 
 sinned in 
 this re- 
 spect in his 
 additions 
 to the 
 " Messiah."
 
 120 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 repudiated as misplaced by the great author 
 of that immortal work. I shall only men- 
 tion, by way of example, the fine bass air, 
 " The people that walked in darkness." This 
 incomparable piece is throughout serious in 
 character, and requires corresponding repose 
 in the accompaniment. Here, therefore, 
 Handel employs violins and basses only, 
 which, with him, assuredly does not mean, as 
 appears to be supposed, a couple of thin 
 violins, and a single bass player, but just as 
 much effective support as the vocalist can 
 bear a hundred instruments if you like, 
 supposing he has the throat of a giant. But 
 Mozart has unadvisedly called in the aid of 
 flutes, clarionets, and bassoons. They enter 
 at the fourth bar, as if some one had to be 
 wakened up, cease directly afterwards, but, with 
 an unhappy tendency to tone-painting, come 
 in again at the words " A great light ; " again 
 are silent, presently return, and so on. It 
 may be said that this treatment is but a fresh 
 illustration of Mozart's genius, but in this
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 121 
 
 passage he has murdered Handel, and 
 -^rfo.^a away the whole character of the solo. 
 The heart - stirring bass air, " For this 
 mortal," has suffered a similar fate in 
 Schwenck's pianoforte arrangement. Mozart 
 had unaccountably omitted it; Schwenck 
 re -annexed it, but with a peculiar and 
 agitated accompaniment, which may tax the 
 dexterity of a good player, but is incom- 
 patible with the profound intention of the 
 piece. 
 
 The modern practice of filling up has, 
 indeed, been alleged to be necessary in the 
 case of Handel's oratorio scores, on the 
 ground that he supplemented them so fully 
 by his masterly organ-play. Then why do we 
 not aim at that same masterly rendering, 
 those very same conditions which originally 
 gave to his oratorios their perfect fulness and 
 dignity? And is it to be supposed that 
 Handel, in this organ-play, showed himself 
 off, and spoilt his own work ? This I do be- 
 lieve that at those passages where, in the 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments, 
 
 Handel's 
 Oratorios 
 should be 
 repre- 
 sented as 
 intended 
 by him.
 
 122 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 A bad 
 band the 
 worst ac- 
 compani- 
 ment. 
 
 vocal score, we find the brief direction " full 
 organ," the almightiness of sound was to be 
 heard when Handel played the organ, such 
 a volume of sound as a thousand fiddlers or 
 flutists could not now reproduce. And, indeed, 
 to sum the matter up, who would ever dream 
 of tricking out a Homer, a Dante, or a Shak- 
 speare in a modern dress ? 
 
 Lastly, I must say this to all those who 
 love truth. If it be insisted upon that no 
 good can come without an instrumental ac- 
 companiment, let us at all events have some- 
 thing better offered to us than is usually the 
 case. Let us have, I would say, not a row 
 of players half of whom are like stocks, in- 
 capable of grasping the spirit of a work, 
 paying no attention to the voices, caring 
 only to make their own instruments heard, 
 and regardless of the quality of the tones 
 they produce. Better have but three cho- 
 risters in a church than charlatans who bring 
 shame upon music. Whilst, for this reason, 
 I verily believe that Handel's oratorios, if
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 123 
 
 not given in a church, nor again in a theatre, 
 but in a good hall, with a not too numerous 
 body of singers, and with an efficient piano- 
 forte accompaniment, would come out far 
 more impressively than if supported by a bad 
 orchestra; at the same time I am free to 
 confess that a clear and full instrumental 
 accompaniment, such as was employed under 
 Handel's own direction, must enhance two- 
 fold the splendour of his oratorios. But in 
 speaking of a pianoforte accompaniment, I 
 am supposing that the player is no blun- 
 derer, that he does not strum through his 
 part, or lose sight of the voices, or try to 
 create a sensation by rapid fingering, but has, 
 on the contrary, so to speak, all the voices 
 in his ten fingers, supports them wherever 
 they falter, and occupies his right hand with 
 the full tones of the middle octaves as much 
 as possible, always endeavouring, by giving 
 the chords fully, to make it readily felt to 
 what key a particular passage belongs. For 
 this last reason I much dislike the pianoforte 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 An intelli- 
 gent piano- 
 forte ac- 
 compani- 
 ment to 
 Handel's 
 Oratorios 
 preferable 
 to a bad 
 orchestra.
 
 124 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Over- 
 powering 
 of voices 
 by Instru- 
 ments. 
 
 arrangements which have come into such 
 favour. For the high notes which sound full 
 and melodious with strings and wind instru- 
 ments, become in the same octave on the 
 keys a miserable jingle : besides which these 
 arrangements prevent a close attention to 
 the full score, without which no good can 
 be achieved. Had Handel foreseen the 
 possibility of his Messiah being rendered 
 without full organ and instrumental accom- 
 paniment, and merely with the pianoforte, 
 and had he himself written a special ac- 
 companiment for this purpose, it would cer- 
 tainly have been something quite different 
 from Schwenck's overburdened arrangement, 
 much as we may recognise his exemplary 
 fidelity. 
 
 However highly we may value and extol 
 the orchestra, we must never go so far as to 
 connive at the offence, so common of late, 
 of utterly disregarding the voices in church 
 music, and allowing an extravagant and 
 meddlesome predominance to the instru-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 125 
 
 mental accompaniment. I shall not now 
 instance living German composers, for that 
 might be considered personal. I shall only 
 mention a foreigner of the present day, and 
 of much genius, whom my thoughts are 
 not likely to reach Cherubini. Examine 
 his sacred publications, and a little reflec- 
 tion will at once show that his orchestral 
 accompaniments conflict with his vocal parts. 
 Yet his great name as an opera-writer has 
 hitherto blinded his undiscerning admirers to 
 his shortcomings in church music ; although 
 he himself would hardly set much value on 
 those works, and would much more likely 
 complain of having been the victim of the 
 miserable Parisian taste. For he is the very 
 man who promoted the recent publication of 
 old Italian works, and especially of Marcello's 
 great Psalm-book ; and I am assured that 
 he always has Palestrina by his side. More- 
 over, following the example of the great old 
 masters, he has set the Creed for eight voices, 
 filling a whole folio, and containing some 
 
 On the 
 Use of In- 
 struments. 
 
 Cherubini 
 an offender 
 in this re- 
 spect.
 
 126 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On the 
 
 Use of In- 
 strument?,. 
 
 incomparable pieces, but never handed to the 
 printer, because the gay Parisian world did 
 not appreciate it, and was not worthy of it : 
 and the whole of this fine work is laid out 
 for voices only.
 
 ON A CAREFUL JUDGING OF 
 GREAT MASTERS' WORKS. 
 
 IT is undeniable that in one way an immense 
 deal is being done for music in Germany 
 at the present time infinitely more than 
 in Italy, the land of so many immortal 
 composers. In other words, we are labour- 
 ing with burning zeal to acquire execution, 
 and those who are thorough adepts in cross- 
 ing the hands and intertwining the fingers, 
 even sacrifice bodily and mental health 
 to compass impossibilities. Thus it is that 
 those who have attained a certain amount 
 of execution are often very irritable and 
 capricious, passionately extolling the merits 
 of their favourite pieces, but wholly incom- 
 petent to form an intelligent judgment upon 
 a composition's intrinsic worth. Such is 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 Execution 
 now the 
 chief ob- 
 ject of 
 study.
 
 128 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 As such it 
 is merely 
 lost la- 
 bour, 
 
 ever the case when the essence of a thing is 
 lost sight of; and yet how easily might the 
 right path be found ! 
 
 In music it can be of no concern to us to 
 stand gaping at a player's fingers, or to see 
 trashy pieces wonderfully elaborated ; but it 
 is the ear that ought to be charmed, without 
 regard to what mechanical difficulties may 
 be in the way. It is, perhaps, excusable in 
 peripatetic performers to play the surest 
 game in their tours, and to show the outside 
 of which they are capable and nothing less, 
 because the public would, as a rule, sooner 
 see a rope-dancer stand on his head than 
 that he should attempt to set before them 
 patterns of form by graceful and easy move- 
 ments. But it grieves one to the heart that 
 on all sides time, money, and health should 
 be flung away for the sake of acquiring what 
 is without value or meaning ; and that, from 
 a constant straining after startling effects, the 
 art of rendering simple pieces with passion, 
 tenderness, and good phrasing, should almost
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 129 
 
 utterly perish. The music now in vogue 
 possesses no kind of moral influence what- 
 ever, unless it be the encouragement of 
 vanity, and of addiction to dancing and 
 pleasure. There is only this consolation, 
 that when the years of childishness and 
 pleasure-seeking are passed, these tours-de- 
 force are usually given up, and those who 
 were so fortunate as to learn in their youth 
 soothing, delightsome, and elevating melo- 
 dies, retain for them, even in extreme old 
 age, the liveliest interest. The present 
 condition of things may enable us to under- 
 stand the lamentations of Greek authors 
 over the injurious effects of their later 
 music ; and well might one wish to return 
 to the schools of which Aristophanes tells 
 us in the "Clouds," that the boys there 
 were taught to sing the songs of their fore- 
 fathers slowly and soberly, and that they got 
 some sharp raps if they attempted to embel- 
 lish them by flourishes. 
 
 The mistake of overdoing things is cer- 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging' 
 of Great 
 Masters* 
 Works. 
 
 and with- 
 out any 
 moral in- 
 fluence for
 
 I 3 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 
 judging- 
 
 of Great 
 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 Modern 
 straining 
 of instru- 
 mental 
 and vocal 
 compass. 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 tainly far more prevalent in our time than it 
 was in that of our forefathers. For our in- 
 struments are much more various, and each 
 one has properties pertaining to itself, and not 
 to others. Yet nothing is considered to be be- 
 yond an instrument's reach, and players seem 
 fondest of being heard when their instru- 
 ments outstep their respective provinces, or 
 show their weakest points. The Jew's harp 
 and French horn must needs execute light 
 runs, like a violin ; the violin copies the 
 poverty of the pianoforte ; the trumpet must 
 be tender like the flute ; and the venerable 
 cumbrous double-bass has lately tried to 
 imitate the graceful turns of every sort of in- 
 strument. The audacity of excess has even 
 invaded the domain of the voice, and evi- 
 dently many composers care not a rush where 
 mortal basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos 
 have their bounds. It is certain, for instance, 
 that the alto proper, which sings down to 
 
 cannot well rise above 
 
 And
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 yet E flat, E natural, and F, and even more, 
 are frequently required from them, even by 
 C. P. E. Bach, in his " Holy, Holy, Holy," 
 though in such a way as to admit of remedy, 
 
 as he does not take the altos below 
 
 so that the alto part can be taken by the 
 second soprani. Even choir-masters, who 
 were all for the modern style, have more 
 than once expressed to me their regret at 
 such liberties. But whence the abuse ? Our 
 great old writers have never countenanced it 
 in their works. How well suited to each 
 voice is Handel's score ; and how careful in 
 this matter were even the most animated 
 Italian masters, such as Caldara, Marcello, 
 and Durante, although as a rale Italian 
 voices are higher, deeper, and clearer than 
 German ! Durante studied moderation of 
 this kind, even when he wrote for practice, 
 and sought, like a very Mephistophiles, to 
 lay all sorts of traps for his female singers 
 e.g. in his twelve duets for soprano and alto, 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works.
 
 132 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 Confusion 
 of means 
 and ends 
 in this 
 respect. 
 
 in his eighteen duets for solfaing for soprano 
 and bass, in his "Lezione del Venerdi Santo," 
 for soprano, and in his Seven Cantate Morali 
 for contralto. As then our composers cannot 
 plead, like Hasse, that their Faustinas can 
 reach anything, and as they write for those 
 whose name is legion, such extremes must 
 be utterly condemned, howsoever they may 
 be explained. For pedantry is one of our 
 marked characteristics, and leads us to con- 
 found means and ends. Thus, what is pro- 
 perly only a part of training must needs be 
 exhibited in public, and hence naturally 
 arises the evil in question. Any one who 
 wants to sing a high note perfectly should be 
 able to sing some notes yet higher. These 
 extreme notes must indeed be practised, 
 but, thereafter, they have no proper place 
 in a performance that must be faultless ; 
 just as the Paris dancing-masters put leaden 
 soles on the children's feet some hours 
 before they dance, and then, when the 
 time comes, take off the weight, and thus
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 obtain the most perfect facility for the result. 
 But our musicians are only too ready to let 
 their leaden soles remain on as parts of the 
 costume; and so bravura practice-pieces, 
 which might have qualified a person to ren- 
 der works of simpler character and of real 
 feeling, come, in general, to usurp their place. 
 
 Meanwhile, the true basis of musical 
 knowledge simple thorough-bass is, in 
 spite of all good theoretical treatises, often 
 most unjustifiably neglected, not merely by 
 amateurs, but even by music-masters, pre- 
 centors, and organists, though it admits of no 
 doubt that a fine sense of harmony can only 
 be properly formed by thorough-bass, ' and 
 even that perfect facility and certainty of 
 execution is impossible without it. Unhap- 
 pily, our musicians, engrossed in their arti- 
 ficial lucubrations, generally lose sight of 
 the essence of music, fail to perceive the 
 dignity of their art, and think by display to 
 establish a pretension to talent. 
 
 This display is in every craft the bane of 
 
 133 
 
 On a 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 Neglect of 
 thorough- 
 bass.
 
 134 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 
 judging 
 
 of Great 
 
 Masters 
 
 Works. 
 
 To judge 
 of a coin- 
 poser 
 rightly the 
 scrutiny 
 must be 
 thorough 
 and com- 
 plete. 
 
 Inequality 
 a trait of 
 the great- 
 est genius. 
 
 our times. For it diverts us from labour; 
 and without labour, trouble, and care, 
 nothing can legitimately prosper. To get 
 at the real essence of music, a man must 
 study full scores closely; must, with vocal 
 pieces, sing them through himself, passing 
 from one part to another, so as to see exactly 
 where lies the gist of the music ; and he must 
 endeavour to familiarise himself with the 
 great masters in their entirety. For it is 
 just the characteristic of the greatest geniuses 
 that they do not, like middling composers, 
 maintain an uniform level, but flag at times, 
 when the spirit needs to recover from a great 
 creative effort. Hume says somewhere that 
 Frenchmen are like cucumbers, a nice fruit, 
 but like the one to the other : Englishmen 
 are like melons; five out of ten may be 
 thrown aside as fit for nothing, but the rest 
 taste all the more delicious. And so it often 
 is with the works of really great composers, 
 and young musicians will be led astray if 
 they form their judgment from this or that
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 '35 
 
 piece, without taking trouble to acquaint 
 themselves with their author in his entirety. 
 I regard Palestrina as a very angel among 
 composers; yet I possess six of his masses 
 in which I find nothing of special note, while 
 I consider his Missa Papas Marcelli a colossal 
 work of art, and many of his other works as 
 altogether unique and unsurpassed. The 
 same may be said of Caldara, Lotti, Durante, 
 and many others even of Handel himself; 
 for he composed rapidly, was often compelled 
 to work, often mentally harassed, and for 
 some years suffered from gout ; so that his 
 operas and oratorios (of course with some 
 exceptions) may be likened to boxes con- 
 taining jewels wrapped in cotton wool ; and I 
 can only pity those who impose upon them- 
 selves the unconditional duty of giving an 
 oratorio of Handel's in its entirety, as if they 
 were thereby achieving something wonderful. 
 It is notorious that our performers, com- 
 posers, and music-masters, are, as a rule, 
 utterly ignorant of all works more than fifty 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 E.g. with 
 Palestrina 
 and Han- 
 del. 
 
 Unac- 
 countable 
 ignorance 
 of old com- 
 posers.
 
 136 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 Of Senffel, 
 for in- 
 stance ; 
 
 years old. Whilst in all other pursuits in 
 poetry, in painting, in architecture, and the 
 rest, we labour diligently to bring to light the 
 collective productions of a great Past, to make 
 them clear, and to bring them back to life ; 
 the masterpieces of the greatest musical 
 composers are meantime doomed to remain 
 buried, and, one might even say, a laughing- 
 stock to shallow ignorant babblers. Our 
 musicians are not even influenced by any 
 worldly curiosity and ambition. Luther, 
 man of loftiest, healthiest spirit, was devoted, 
 heart and soul, to music. His great favourite 
 was Senffel. There is an old story of him that 
 one evening, after having had a motett of 
 Senffel's sung, he exclaimed in ecstasy, " If 
 I were to die for it, I could not write a 
 motett like that ; " and yet antiquarians of 
 Lutheran sympathies take not the slightest 
 trouble to obtain a notion of the manner and 
 method of this great musician. Yet more 
 unpardonable is it that, excepting some 
 attempts in Munich, absolutely nothing has
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 137 
 
 been done for Orlando di Lasso, the change 
 of whose name from the Flemish Roland 
 Lass into the soft Italian form, has not de- 
 spoiled him of German vigour. For in his 
 day (he was born 1520, and died in 1594) he 
 was accounted, not only in Germany, but in 
 other countries, as almost one of the wonders 
 of the world. Summoned to Munich, he 
 presided there over a choir, the like of which 
 Germany never saw before, and is scarcely 
 likely to see again. Most of his numerous 
 compositions were printed, disseminated all 
 over Europe, and everywhere highly esteemed. 
 By favour of a member of the Pope's choir, I 
 have in my possession a mass of his for four 
 voices, upon the title-page of which the 
 old Roman copyists have written "Hie est 
 Lassus, qui lassum recreat orbem : " (this 
 is the Lassus (i.e. the weary one), who re- 
 freshes the weary world.) Charles IX., in 
 order to obtain repose for his soul after the 
 massacre of St. Bartholomew, commissioned 
 him to set the Penitential Psalms to music. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 of Orlando 
 di Lasso ;
 
 138 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 
 judging 
 
 of Great 
 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 of Lotti 
 
 and of 
 Handel. 
 
 This colossal work still exists in the Library 
 at Munich, adorned with gold and jewels, 
 and portraits of the composers of that date. 
 But where, I should like to know, is the 
 young musician who has ever travelled thither 
 to study this and other works of this incom- 
 parable master there to be found ? I might 
 add that the authorities of St. Mark at Venice 
 could easily write upon their little finger- 
 nails the names of the German virtuosi who, 
 within the last thirty years, have inquired 
 there for the works of Lotti. 
 
 But what is unpardonable upon any con- 
 sideration is the general neglect of Handel, 
 whose works may be collected without much 
 trouble in English editions in full score, and 
 in correct and very readable type, forming an 
 inestimable treasury of the most genuine and 
 masterly music of nearly every style. Handel 
 was the Shakspeare of music, and well 
 deserved to be laid near the great poet in 
 Westminster Abbey. At home in every 
 species of musical contrivance, to a degree
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 139 
 
 rarely seen, he stands out in all kinds of 
 musical form as an immortal pattern for 
 imitation, fresh, animated, and adroit, as 
 though all were sport to him. In all styles, 
 from the fond and playful to the sublime, he 
 has furnished us with incomparable speci- 
 mens of inspiration and refinement. In the 
 staid music of the great church style alone 
 has he done but little, because his communion 
 and his entourage were not such as to impel 
 him thereto; but of his genius and know- 
 ledge in that branch there can be no question, 
 as is proved (to go no farther) by the first 
 chorus in " Susanna," and the chorus, " The 
 earth swallowed them," in " Israel." 
 
 In Germany, we usually hear mentioned 
 first the Messiah, next, perhaps, Judas Mac- 
 cabseus, Samson, Alexander's Feast, and, 
 quite recently, now that there are arrange- 
 ments for the piano for the benefit of the un- 
 skilled, certain other pieces ; but nothing is 
 more certain than that Handel's works, if 
 we refuse to single out for animadversion 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 
 judging 
 
 of Great 
 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 Versatility 
 of his
 
 140 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 His 
 
 Oratorios. 
 
 some particular portion that is defective 
 or indifferent, deserve to be described as a 
 very ocean-world of splendour. I shall make 
 no reference to his pianoforte works, nor 
 to his more important instrumental works, 
 which together fill more than eighty folios ; 
 nor to his forty or fifty operas, some of which 
 were received, even in Italy, with rapture ; 
 but only to those works which were most 
 congenial to his lofty spirit when circum- 
 stances allowed it free play I mean to his 
 oratorios in the broadest sense. His chamber- 
 duets and cantatas, written as early as be- 
 tween 1710 and 1721, his Grand Jubilate 
 (Hundredth Psalm), the Dettingen Te Deum, 
 the Utrecht Te Deum, and the twelve Anthems 
 written for the Duke of Chandos, disclose 
 the giant strength and the rare qualities of 
 this mighty artist. After the production of 
 these works, circumstances caused him to 
 turn his attention almost entirely to the 
 theatre. But after the appearance of Esther 
 in 1731, his genius became more and more
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 141 
 
 addicted to high enterprise ; and now there 
 appear, prior to the " Messiah," and contain- 
 ing, without exception, incomparable num- 
 bers, Deborah, Athalia, Acis and Galatea, 
 Alexander's Feast, Ode to St. Cecilia, Israel 
 in Egypt (a work of infinite grandeur), the 
 Allegro and Penseroso, Saul, and other short 
 pieces of similar calibre. In 1741 and 1742 
 follow the marvellous and transcendent 
 Messiah and Samson. Yet is the solid 
 strength of the master in no way reduced by 
 all this, but only set in motion. For there 
 follow now in rapid succession, and studded 
 with brilliant gems, Semele, Belshazzar, 
 Susanna, Hercules, Choice of Hercules, Time 
 and Truth, the Occasional, Joseph, Judas 
 Maccabasus, Joshua, Alexander Balus, Solo- 
 mon, Theodora, and, lastly, the oratorio of 
 Jephtha, written with such freshness and ani- 
 mation, as though his advancing years were 
 still inspired with the full vigour of youth 
 and manhood. Hence I yield, upon the 
 whole, a hearty assent to all that the English 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works.
 
 142 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 Busby's 
 estimate of 
 Handel. 
 
 writer Busby has recently said about Handel 
 in his History of Music, to the following 
 effect: "As a man, Handel may justly be 
 ranked among the moral and the pious ; as a 
 scholar, with the general class of the well- 
 educated ; but, as a musician, he is above all 
 rank, for no one ranks with him. His ideas 
 had never any alliance with tameness or 
 inanity ; his invention appears to have been 
 always ready, rich, and wonderfully accommo- 
 dating to the subject in hand, whether gay 
 or serious, cheerful or solemn, light or grand. 
 He wrote quickly ; but the motion of his pen 
 could rarely keep pace with the rapidity of his 
 imagination, and most of his finest thoughts 
 were the birth of a moment. For the most 
 part, he is very original ; and, where he shines 
 the brightest, the lustre is uniformly his own; 
 yet whatever he appropriates, he improves. 
 It has been said of him, as of Cicero, that 
 whatever he touched he turned to gold ; but 
 it might with more correctness be affirmed 
 that his judgment rejected what was not on-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 143 
 
 ginally gold, and that the gold he borrowed 
 he refined. In some composers we find sweet- 
 ness, in others grace ; in these tenderness, in 
 those dignity; here we feel the sentiment 
 and force of character proper to the theatre, 
 there are struck with the grandeur and the so- 
 lemnity claimed by the service of the church ; 
 but in Handel we discover all these proper- 
 ties ; and what indisputably entitles him to 
 pre-eminence over all other musicians, ancient 
 and modern, is the truth, that, while he equals 
 all others in every style but one, in that one 
 he transcends them all : his mellifluous soft- 
 ness and dignified mirth, fire, energy, and 
 purity of pathos, have been approached by 
 various masters ; but to his sublimity no one 
 has been able to soar. While I listen to 
 his 'Hallelujah' Chorus in the ' Messiah,' 
 his * Horse and his Rider ' in ' Israel in 
 Egypt,' or the nobler portions of his Det- 
 tingen Te Deum, the massy grandeur ap- 
 peals not only to my ear but to my soul ; 
 it seems even to excite another sense ; I 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works.
 
 144 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 areful 
 udging 
 ' Great 
 tasters' 
 Works. 
 
 Unjustifi- 
 able treat- 
 ment of 
 Handel a1 
 the hands 
 of Editors 
 
 see the glory that is celebrated, and am 
 profane enough to extend its image to the 
 composer." 
 
 Anybody who knows the principal works of 
 Lasso, Palestrina, Lotti, and Sebastian Bach, 
 must certainly pronounce this last dictum, so 
 far as it excludes all other composers, an 
 exaggeration ; but an exaggeration may easily 
 be forgiven where the object of eulogy is not 
 over-estimated in itself, and when it proceeds 
 from so just an appreciation of the great and 
 true. 
 
 In conclusion, I take leave to address to 
 my fellow-countrymen a few remarks on the 
 arrangements of Handel's Oratorios. 
 
 In these arrangements one of two objects 
 must be in view; either to have selected 
 pieces for those who cannot compass entire 
 works (and this must, as a rule, be the case 
 with all choral societies) ; or else to have a 
 faithful reproduction of the original work as 
 composed by its author. To take a middle 
 course by a process of dismemberment and
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART, 
 
 145 
 
 re-arrangement, is a piece of barefaced pre- 
 sumption, which may perhaps be pardoned 
 for once in a Mozart, but in no one else. 
 Who is there that may stand near Handel, 
 or should I not say, above Handel ? and why 
 should we disguise the original text, and 
 forestal the free judgment of those who do 
 not share our taste ? These musical trans- 
 mogrifications are as reprehensible as Wie- 
 land's arbitrary version of Shakspeare ; and 
 it is to be hoped, for the honour of musi- 
 cians, that such abuses will no longer find 
 apologists. I know, indeed, that my country- 
 men will dare everything. But it is time to 
 have done with these perversions, for we have 
 had enough of them. To begin with, Mozart 
 treated the "Messiah" with the utmost free- 
 dom, not merely re-scoring it, but likewise 
 leaving out several airs, an entire chorus, 
 and one of the finest recitatives, and also 
 transposing for a bass a whole piece which 
 Handel had divided between bass and soprano. 
 So, again, in the editions of the Hundredth 
 
 On a 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 As in the 
 "Messiah;'
 
 146 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 
 Works. 
 
 and in 
 "Samson." 
 
 Psalm, the fine alto lead has been excised 
 with unsparing hand. Lastly, in the edition 
 of Samson, published by Marchetti in Vienna, 
 Mosel has crowned the career of license. It 
 was, indeed, hard to believe that this editor 
 would have permitted himself the smallest 
 alteration of such a work. For Handel him- 
 self doubted Avhether he ought not to place 
 Samson above even the " Messiah ; " so that 
 it should have been the first obligation to 
 eschew the slightest falsification of the text. 
 Yet, what do we find in this edition ? First- 
 rate choruses are omitted; the most beautiful 
 airs, duets, and recitatives are omitted; a 
 weak translation is appended, one of the 
 finest bass pieces is reconstructed, in order to 
 join on with the one that follows, intervening 
 portions having been expunged ; and in the 
 second chorus an interpolated Presto has 
 been foisted into the 31st bar, for which 
 there is neither rhyme nor reason. Conse- 
 quently, one can only connect this Samson 
 with the hero himself, by conceiving of
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 him with his eyes put out and his hair 
 cut off! 
 
 If, then, selections are given, they may be 
 determined according to your taste, after 
 previous consultation with competent musi- 
 cians ; but be sure to choose the very best 
 specimens from the entire range of Handel's 
 works. They will form an ample supply for 
 years for a vocal society that has only one 
 evening free in a week. But if the wants of 
 connoisseurs are to be studied, give every- 
 thing, without exception, in its original form ; 
 especially as all persons have moments of in- 
 attention, and fail to catch on one day what 
 they will appreciate the next. This is par- 
 ticularly applicable to works of real genius, 
 for their authors do not usually write to an 
 uniform standard. Moreover, knowledge of 
 a master's whole nature, his faults, there- 
 fore, as well as his virtues, is an indispen- 
 sable condition to a well-grounded estimate 
 of him. Shakspeare and Cervantes contain 
 paradoxes, like Durante or Handel ; but no 
 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 Works. 
 
 Selections 
 good for 
 particular 
 purposes, 
 but insuf- 
 ficient for 
 real know- 
 ledge.
 
 148 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 careful 
 judging 
 of Great 
 Masters' 
 \ Works. 
 
 man of intelligence would wish them away, 
 inasmuch as they afford matter for reflection, 
 and because the mere petulance of genius 
 may well indicate its commanding power.
 
 ON A LIBERAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 A THOROUGH study of individual authors 
 is indispensable : yet it may prove highly 
 dangerous ; for men seldom possess compre- 
 hensiveness of judgment, indefatigability, and 
 largeness of mind. Hence, they are far too 
 eager to be great in a confined sphere, and 
 affect a vast importance for their own narrow 
 views. 
 
 And this is a mischief that obtains, unfor- 
 tunately, to a large extent in music. Han- 
 delians decline acquaintance with Mozart; 
 the admirers of Mozart do likewise by Han- 
 del ; followers of Bach ignore Marcello ; and 
 thus the foibles of each favourite come to be 
 regarded as paragons ; blind admiration being 
 less troublesome than thoughtful criticism. 
 Even style is not beyond the reach of this 
 
 On a 
 
 liberal 
 judgment, 
 
 Evil of 
 
 addiction 
 to par- 
 ticular 
 authors,
 
 ISO 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 liberal 
 
 and par- 
 ticular 
 styles. 
 
 folly. It would be every bit as sensible to 
 dispute on the respective beauties of crimson 
 and purple, or blue and green, as upon the 
 question, whether a love-song is more beau- 
 tiful than a bravado one, or a soft plaintive air 
 than a wild and vehement one. Nevertheless, 
 it always happens after a miscellaneous per- 
 formance, that, instead of thanking God for 
 providing them with all the forms of beauty, 
 good folk worry themselves to death as to 
 which piece, after all, when maturely con- 
 sidered, and minutely examined, and probed 
 to its depths, is strictly the best ; and then, 
 perhaps, are much injured if others see no 
 point in their doggedness. 
 
 It is impossible to utter too emphatic a 
 warning against such miserable narrowness. 
 Why, when we find ourselves in a country 
 abounding in flowers of all kinds, should we 
 be transfixed by the beauty of only one, and, 
 instead of studying variety in our nosegay, 
 pass over all others for the sake of one ? 
 or why, at a well -furnished table, should
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 we refuse all sorts of good things out of 
 preference for one favourite dish ? We de- 
 prive ourselves of the highest enjoyment 
 in music, if we aim at extinguishing every 
 composer and every style but one. For, 
 as a rule, every composer has his own par- 
 ticular charm ; and herein lies the infinite 
 power of perfect music, that it can stir, 
 purify, and ennoble the heart and soul of 
 man in all kinds of ways. Graun (and like- 
 wise Rolle and Homilius) had not Handel's 
 genius ; but the devotional and childlike 
 spirit of his " Death of Jesus" will and must 
 render it immortal, like Handel's " Messiah." 
 So, again, Gliick certainly had not that ex- 
 quisite refinement, and that delicate and 
 ethereal fragrance that distinguishes Mozart ; 
 but who would assert that Mozart's writings 
 were pervaded by the same fresh and vigorous 
 instinct of romance and grandeur that are 
 so conspicuous in every line of Gliick's great 
 works? I have already expressed in more 
 than one place my unbounded admiration of 
 
 On a. 
 
 liberal 
 
 judgment. 
 
 Different 
 
 composers 
 
 have 
 
 different 
 
 points of 
 
 excellence.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 liberal 
 judgment. 
 
 Palestrina ; yet I affirm that he could never 
 have written Mozart's " Don Juan," any more 
 than Homer could have written Hamlet; 
 while I also affirm, on the other hand, that 
 Mozart could not have written the " Missa 
 Papas Marcelli," the " Song of Solomon," the 
 eight-part Magnificat, and the Responsoria 
 of Palestrina. The question what Mozart 
 might have produced under different circum- 
 stances is one I of course cannot answer ; 
 and it must be understood that I only speak 
 of the prevailing tendency of his genius as 
 continually evidenced by his works precisely 
 the same ground upon which rests my esti- 
 mate of Palestrina. Occasionally the most 
 superb passages occur side by side with egre- 
 gious failures. The tawdiy poverty of Mar- 
 cello's Cantatas, and his great collection of 
 Psalms, is quite terrible; yet, where is a 
 bolder composer than he, and where the 
 music that reveals the spirit of the profound 
 and stately Greek modes so well as Mar- 
 cello's ? We may be sure that his country-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 'S3 
 
 men, who upon an average have a better 
 musical instinct than the Germans, had good 
 ground for calling him the Pindar of their 
 musicians. 
 
 There is yet another mischievous habit to 
 encounter in our assault upon one-sidedness, 
 and that is national and even local exclu- 
 siveness, which has ever stood in the way, not 
 of adopting a bad style and manner from 
 foreign countries, but of fairly estimating 
 their chief works. Of late years, now that 
 everything German has become an object of 
 native worship for the most part, I admit, 
 with the best intentions, but seldom with 
 discrimination and reflection this evil has 
 greatly increased ; and there are certain 
 estimable young men of my acquaintance 
 who will not hear of any but German pic- 
 tures and compositions. 
 
 Such well-meant ungraciousness may be 
 all very well where arms are concerned ; but 
 in the case of the arts and sciences, and, 
 above all, in the case of music, it is folly. 
 
 On a 
 
 liberal 
 judgment. 
 
 German 
 
 exclusive- 
 
 iiess. 
 
 Folly of 
 depreciat- 
 ing Italian 
 music.
 
 154 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 liberal 
 judgment. 
 
 Imputa- 
 tion of ef- 
 Feminacy 
 to Italian 
 music mis- 
 placed. 
 
 German music has many splendid and in- 
 comparable works to show, of the very first 
 order of beauty; but Italian music is also for 
 its part so infinitely rich, of such character- 
 istic genius, so completely the reflex of the 
 ever-blue Italian sky which lends to all their 
 works an almost unearthly charm, that to 
 cast aside their masterpieces, and, as it were, 
 to refuse a journey to Naples and Sicily, be- 
 cause of our own beautiful pine forests, can 
 only be called the most downright national 
 pedantry. Have we, indeed, come to this, 
 that, to be consistent, every one, according to 
 his birthplace, is to have his own particular 
 favourite in music ; and, according as he may 
 have been born in Vienna or Berlin, to ignore 
 Sebastian Bach, Handel, Hasse, and Graun, 
 on the one hand, and Gliick, Haydn, Mozart, 
 and Beethoven on the other ? 
 
 We often, indeed, hear ignorant and foolish 
 talk of German music being masculine and 
 robust, Italian simply effeminate. But what 
 if it were so ? We always thank Heaven for
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 155 
 
 providing Adam with an amiable wife ; and 
 should we not laugh, if it were gravely asked 
 whether a perfectly beautiful and refined 
 youth were a higher prize than a perfectly 
 beautiful and refined maiden ? But the im- 
 putation rests upon a pure figment. True it 
 is that Italian music often has much more 
 softness, delicacy, grace, and angelic purity 
 than German ; but there are Italian authors 
 who do not yield in vigour to the Germans. 
 Durante is often far softer than Handel ; yet 
 we may confidently place his "Dixit Do- 
 minus" beside Handel's Hundredth Psalm. 
 Nor would Handel, again, have allowed for an 
 instant that Alessandro Scarlatti was an 
 effeminate composer. On the contrary, in 
 that very Hundredth Psalm, he has borrowed 
 from that great master; just as Graun, in his 
 " Death of Jesus," has borrowed from 
 several of Durante's works, hitherto un- 
 known in Germany. 
 
 Let us then, as our own great composers 
 did in times past, apply ourselves with a will 
 
 On a 
 liberal 
 judgment.
 
 1 5 6 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On a 
 
 liberal 
 judgment. 
 
 All 
 
 jealousy 
 to be put 
 aside. 
 
 to learn from Italians not only music, but 
 impartiality. Handel was well-nigh wor- 
 shipped in Italy, and one of his operas had 
 to be repeated in Florence twenty-seven con- 
 secutive times. Hasse obtained in Rome, and 
 retains to this day, the appellation of " the 
 divine Saxon," and was in many respects 
 imitated by Italians. How they have never 
 ceased to honour Mozart is well known. So 
 let us, on our part, set aside all egotism, and 
 repeat with Hasse "the divine Lotti," and 
 with Sebastian Bach " the glorious Caldara."
 
 ON MISADAPTATIONS OF TEXT. 
 
 To the mistaken ideas of music in the pre- 
 sent day is mainly due the growing evil of 
 texts altogether wanting in taste, and not un- 
 frequently devoid of meaning. Music has no 
 better ally than well -chosen words. An 
 appropriate text directs the soul to the object 
 which it is the office of music still further to 
 enhance ; and to choose a bad text would 
 be as great a folly as to adorn a maiden's 
 head with a dish in lieu of a wreath. Is 
 it not from the text that Cherubini's de- 
 lightful Water-carrier derives a portion of 
 his charm ? and are not the sublime words 
 of Handel's " Messiah " quite incomparable 
 as a support and enhancement of the music ? 
 And in Zumsteg's most successful work 
 " Colma," it is certain that the declamatory 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Alliance ol 
 words and 
 music.
 
 i 5 8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Mutilation 
 of the 
 hymn 
 " Stabat 
 Mater." 
 
 merit of the text had a marked influence 
 upon the music. 
 
 Of the opera I have nothing farther to 
 say. It is no better than a feather in the 
 eddy of a whirlwind ; and all we can do is to 
 wonder when it will abate its extravagance. 
 Serious music, however, is not so dependent 
 on the vagaries of unenlightened fashion ; and 
 there is the more hope of its improvement, 
 as the taste for ancient poetry, and so for 
 simplicity and vigour, is on the increase. 
 
 It must be owned that our esteemed 
 countryman Klopstock has set a bad ex- 
 ample in the way of text-mutilation. We 
 have no grander, I might say, no more 
 stupendous church hymn than the Stabat 
 Mater. Every word of it is as weighty as 
 fine gold. Klopstock adapted the German 
 text to Pergolesi's music; but how did he 
 do it ? The opening words, " Stabat Mater 
 dolorosa juxta crucem lacrimosa, dum pen- 
 debat Films," are thus rendered : " Jesus 
 Christ hung on the Cross, downwards sank
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 159 
 
 His bleeding head, bleeding to the shades of 
 death." The words that follow, " Cujus 
 animam gementem, contristantem, pertrans- 
 ivit gladius," have been thus embellished : 
 " By the Mediator's Cross stood distressfully 
 Mary and John, His Mother and His friend. 
 Through the Mother's sad soul, yea through 
 her very soul, pierced the sword." And in 
 this whining and mincing strain runs the 
 whole passage. The " Amen " alone is faith- 
 fully rendered by another Amen. It may, 
 certainly, be said that if we except the first 
 magnificent " grave," the translation, for the 
 most part, accords with the music. But 
 upon this point I must pronounce upon both 
 the one and the other what Chateaubriand 
 has said upon the latter in very eloquent 
 language (Genius of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 
 5-6) : " Pergolesi has unfolded in the Stabat 
 Mater all the resources of his art ; but has 
 he outdone the Plain-song of the Church ? 
 He has varied the music at each stanza, not- 
 withstanding that the essential character of 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Pergolesi's 
 setting of 
 which is 
 also open 
 to excep- 
 tion ;
 
 i6o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 departing, 
 as Cha- 
 teaubriand 
 points out, 
 from the 
 monotony 
 proper to 
 grief. 
 
 sorrow lies in the repetition of the same sen- 
 timent, and, so to speak, in the monotony of 
 grief. Tears may flow from various causes, 
 but they have always a common bitterness ; 
 besides, it is seldom that people weep for a 
 multitude of ills in the aggregate, and, when 
 wounds are numerous, there is always one 
 more poignant than the rest, which event- 
 ually engrosses the lesser pains. Such is the 
 secret of the charm of our old French ro- 
 mances. The same melody, recurring at 
 each couplet to different words, is a perfect 
 counterpart of nature. A person who is 
 distressed in mind allows his thoughts to 
 range over a variety of subjects, while the 
 foundation for his sorrows is always one and 
 the same. Now Pergolesi has failed to recog- 
 nise this truth, which flows from the theory of 
 the passions ; for, according to his treatment, 
 no one mental sigh resembles the one that pre- 
 ceded it. Wherever there is variety, there will 
 always be found to be distraction; and wher- 
 ever there is distraction, sadness is at an end."
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 161 
 
 Grievous, indeed, is it to find so renowned 
 a sacred poet as Klopstock holding up to 
 others so bad an example ; but yet more 
 grievous that many living composers should 
 connive at the same thing among them even 
 Beethoven, who, with his great and original 
 gifts, should have been the last to admit 
 anything of inferior quality. Yet how con- 
 strained, how theatrical, how often utterly 
 vapid is the text upon which his oratorio of 
 " Christ at the Mount of Olives " is founded ! 
 But I pass this over, because, according to 
 modern fashion, it has become an almost 
 invariable rale that the material of oratorios 
 and operas should be drawn from a common 
 stock ; a practice whereof the work in ques- 
 tion affords, I fear, abundant evidence. But 
 what is it that Beethoven has been content 
 to do in his purely ecclesiastical composi- 
 tions, or, at least, what is it that others have 
 unworthily put upon him? A reference to 
 his Mass in C for four voices (Op. 86) will 
 show. The opening words are quite simple, 
 
 M 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Text of 
 Beetho- 
 ven's 
 
 " Mount ol 
 Olives ; " 
 
 of the 
 M ass in C.
 
 1 62 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 but lofty in character, when sung with unaf- 
 fected fervour, and because they are so sung, 
 the singer dwells with satisfaction upon a 
 single idea. In place of the old " Kyrie 
 eleison, Christe eleison," we now find in this 
 Mass the following prosaic piece of poetry, in 
 which, too, Christ is altogether forgotten : 
 " Low in the dust we adore Thee, Eternal 
 Ruler of the world, the Almighty One. Who 
 can name Thee, who comprehend Thee ? 
 Thou Infinite ! Yea, immeasurable, unspeak- 
 able in Thy might ! Like children lisp we 
 the Name of God." The wonderful " Gloria 
 in excelsis Deo " which follows, is, again, in- 
 terlarded with honey in exactly the same 
 way : " Praise, love, and thanks be to Thee ; " 
 and the simple " Et in terra pax hominibus 
 bonas voluntatis," is represented by " In 
 silent awe we behold thy wonders, for by 
 Thee and through Thee, we exist, live, and 
 breathe." And so it goes on ; so that we 
 may picture the great composer to ourselves 
 as like Demosthenes, who studied the art of
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 163 
 
 speaking beside a roaring waterfall, with his 
 mouth full of stones. Better a text of pure 
 prose, unhampered by rhyme or rhythm, yet 
 plain and weighty if indeed there is to be 
 a translation at all than this bombastic, 
 flowery language, altogether unsuited to the 
 church. 
 
 The worst trick is that played with Mozart's 
 " Misericordias Domini," very methodically 
 composed on a given plan. The text con- 
 sists, if I may so say, of two short phrases, 
 "Misericordias Domini" (the loving-kindness 
 of the Lord), "cantabo in sternum" (will I 
 sing for ever) ; but substantially of one only. 
 For either the " Misericordias Domini," or 
 the " Cantabo in Eeternum," must be taken as 
 the main idea. If the former, then the 
 " Cantabo " must be subordinated to it ; but 
 if the latter, a singer whose soul is in the 
 music must temper his jubilation with the 
 thought of mercy. Could any one help 
 laughing at a preacher who began softly with 
 " the mercy of the Lord," and then immedi- 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Character 
 of 
 
 Mozart's 
 " Miseri- 
 cordias 
 Domini " 
 ruined by 
 the Ger- 
 man text.
 
 164 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 ately continued exultingly, " I sing for ever"? 
 Yet, for the sake of producing an artist's 
 favourite contrast of colour an object to 
 which even Handel sacrificed much Mozart 
 has so contrived that the " Misericordias 
 Domini " should be sung softly as a " grave," 
 and the "Cantabo in asternum " loudly, to 
 a brisk fugal subject. When this has been 
 fully worked out, the " grave" recurs, and 
 then once more the fugue. In the German 
 edition, in common use, we find such pretty 
 phrases given us to sing as in place of 
 " Misericordias Domini," " My praise ever 
 ascends to the Lord," and so on. In this way 
 exultation is turned into supplication, and 
 humility into exultation. Thousands of 
 similar instances might be adduced, and, 
 conversely, perhaps, just as many cases where 
 good words are coupled to totally unsuitable 
 music. 
 
 In making these remarks I am by no 
 means asserting that, with the old church 
 music, the diction invariably breathes the
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 165 
 
 spirit of poetry, or that the great ancient 
 composers for the church always paid due 
 regard to prosody. I am quite as well aware 
 that the earlier hymns contain many re- 
 dundant words, as that the musicians of 
 those times were not sufficiently attentive to 
 metre. But I have a right to ask that the 
 case should be fairly judged as a whole ; and 
 I would therefore ask, what sacred poems of 
 our time there are which in depth, in spirit, 
 and in fervour, approach the old hymns ; or 
 what modern musicians are there of real 
 talent who have proved themselves masters 
 of prosody ? Moreover, this has to be con- 
 sidered. The text must, by its leading ideas, 
 directly influence the setting ; but a precise 
 observance of the quantity of each particular 
 syllable is not unfrequently impossible from 
 the exigencies of the music : nay, carried be- 
 yond a certain point, it becomes positively 
 pedantic, as it would be in mere speech. A 
 schoolmaster, who made his boys scan, might 
 make them read the Lord's Prayer in so 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Faults of 
 prosody in 
 the old 
 church 
 music.
 
 1 66 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text. 
 
 Accent 
 not to be 
 too much 
 insisted 
 
 strictly correct a manner as to bring the 
 long and short syllables into sharp contrast. 
 But an impassioned preacher will be com- 
 pelled in the glow of his declamation to 
 soften down much of this; just as in the 
 recital of a poem we should expect, as a 
 matter of taste, the framework of the versifi- 
 cation not to be brought too prominently 
 into view. The strictures, therefore, passed 
 upon the old composers entirely disappear 
 when we regard their truly inspired, sustained, 
 and measured music, and when they are ren- 
 dered with that refinement of feeling that the 
 words go hand in hand with the music, yet 
 not so as if it were the sole object doggedly to 
 impress upon the notes the quantity of each 
 long and short syllable. The true theory of 
 music should aim, therefore, at laying down 
 with judgment such rules as shall reconcile 
 dry prosody with instinctive feeling. Such 
 rules, however, have, I fear, not been hitherto 
 evolved in our day ; though, perhaps, when 
 a composition is by way of being framed
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 167 
 
 according to rule, we sometimes have regu- 
 larly constructed pieces with notes accurately 
 dotted and tailed, which no more breathe a 
 poetical spirit than if a whole school were 
 to pronounce their syllables to a prescribed 
 musical beat. Perhaps, however, in this last 
 I am saying too much ; and I shall content 
 myself with asking this question for my own 
 information : which of our modern theorists 
 has written exhaustively on the question 
 whether the prosody of each word is to be 
 allowed absolutely to govern the music ; and 
 are our compositions to be such that a punc- 
 tilious teacher of grammar could prescribe 
 their periods ? 
 
 On Mis- 
 adapta- 
 tions of 
 Text.
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Public 
 
 concerts 
 unsatis- 
 factory. 
 
 Value of 
 
 private 
 
 societies. 
 
 ON CHORAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 OUR public performances of music are subject 
 to so many paramount influences, that no 
 mere individual can effect anything towards 
 the removal of their numerous defects. No- 
 thing short of positive exhaustion will some 
 day bring it about, that, disgusted with the 
 rubbish they ought from the first to have re- 
 jected, people will, for the sake of change, 
 once more have recourse to forgotten trea- 
 sures. 
 
 The materials at the command of indivi- 
 duals are generally insufficient for the forma- 
 tion of more than a private musical society; 
 and it is devoutly to be wished that such 
 societies were established universally. They 
 will bring their own reward with them. For
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 169 
 
 a faithful miniature copy has almost the 
 same value as the full-size picture ; and the 
 executive skill and sympathetic feeling of a 
 small body may, perhaps, make up for the 
 absence of performances on a large scale. 
 There is, too, fine vocal part-music, which is 
 best heard when rendered by skilled vocalists 
 in single parts. Latrobe, in the preface to 
 the third volume of his Selection of Sacred 
 Music (London, 1806), speaks with rapture 
 of a musical family in England, and adds, " I 
 have heard the best vocal pieces of Handel 
 and other great masters rendered with greater 
 precision and true feeling in this family 
 circle than one usually hears from profes- 
 sionals at public performances." 
 
 Private societies may have for their objects 
 either instrumental or vocal music. Delight- 
 ful in the highest degree it is when there are 
 both kinds ; at the same time it will not be 
 easy to combine them satisfactorily in a 
 simultaneous performance : and it can well 
 be afforded that they should be independent 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Better, as 
 a rule, ex- 
 clusively 
 vocal or ex- 
 clusively 
 instru- 
 mental.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Vocal 
 societies 
 superior 
 in moral 
 influence. 
 
 of each other ; for there are a multitude of 
 the most beautiful pieces for instruments 
 only, and a still larger number of first-rate 
 works adapted for vocal rendering only. 
 Vocal works which confessedly cannot be got 
 up at all without instrumental accompani- 
 ment, like Haydn's Creation, may be left to 
 such localities as rejoice in an abundance of 
 musical talent of all kinds. But this will 
 still leave a large store as the peculiar pos- 
 session of good private societies, music 
 which must be regarded as almost extinct ; 
 viz., genuine old Chorales, old music of the 
 pure church style, and national songs, besides 
 the greater part of compositions, chiefly 
 Italian, of the oratorio class. 
 
 If the object be to raise and edify the 
 mind by music, choral societies are certainly 
 entitled to rank as the foremost means to that 
 end. For if composers have been inspired by 
 beautiful words, their inspiration must have 
 impressed itself distinctly upon the music 
 they wrote ; and what is there that can be
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 171 
 
 compared to the human voice when lofty ideas 
 sway the singer's soul ? 
 
 For a number of years I have taken an 
 active part in a choral society, which may 
 pride itself on having, with the utmost 
 zeal, and upon an extensive historical 
 plan, made a high standard its aim and 
 object. Thus, observing what went on im- 
 mediately around me, and taking note of the 
 proceedings of others, I have had much 
 opportunity for reflection upon choral socie- 
 ties; whence it may not improbably be of 
 general service, if I take leave to offer the 
 following remarks upon them, particularly as 
 attention can be more readily compelled by 
 print than by word of mouth. In doing this, 
 I do not pretend to dictate to masters of the 
 art. It would be worse than presumption if 
 I were to read a lecture to men like Zelter 
 upon their duties in any respect whatsoever. 
 But inasmuch as the best men, those who 
 have acquainted themselves with the history 
 of the subject, are just the most reticent, 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Personal 
 experience 
 on the 
 subject.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Essential 
 difference 
 between 
 two types 
 of choral 
 societies. 
 
 it may perhaps be permitted to an amateur, 
 who has reflected upon it, to put in a word, 
 and at all events to try to give a helping 
 hand to a good cause. 
 
 If we take choral societies as a whole, it is 
 impossible to lay down absolutely what is the 
 best way of conducting them. Thus, if the 
 object be light entertainment, they are as 
 laudable as any social gathering can be ; but 
 then, of course, the way in which they are 
 conducted will differ altogether from what it 
 would be if the society met together for the 
 enjoyment of classical music, with a view to 
 the edification and refinement of the mind, 
 and its diversion from the ordinary affairs of 
 life. It is only of this latter class that I 
 shall here speak, for it is through them alone 
 that some sort of relief can be given to the 
 pressing musical wants of the day; so far, 
 that is, as such societies are steadily bent on 
 becoming familiar with the purest and most 
 finished specimens of every type, and admit 
 works of indifferent merit, not from choice, but
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 173 
 
 simply as a makeshift from time to time, con- 
 ducing to a better knowledge of what is 
 highest and best. 
 
 ' ' The first and most essential condition for 
 such a society is that the members are judi- 
 ciously chosen, that genuine lovers of art 
 combine together, that care is taken to secure 
 an equal distribution of voices, and to nourish 
 to the full the love and enjoyment of true art. 
 Consequently, an evening devoted to singing 
 must take precedence of all ordinary eating 
 and drinking engagements ; and all the mem- 
 bers must feel that an association that re- 
 quires their united efforts to form and main- 
 tain must not be at the mercy of other 
 ordinary pleasures, especially as, while in 
 other gatherings the absence of one is not 
 much felt, here the absence of a single voice 
 may quite possibly bring the whole thing to a 
 deadlock, and this even in choruses, where a 
 single efficient voice may be an indispensable 
 support to the rest. The conductor of the 
 choral society must, therefore, exert himself to 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Necessary 
 conditions 
 of a good 
 society. 
 
 Regular 
 attend-
 
 174 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Earnest- 
 ness 
 
 and good 
 music. 
 
 the utmost to prevent the intrusion, to the 
 detriment of its interests, of the frivolity and 
 idleness permitted and permissible in relation 
 to other amusements. If this line of action 
 be steadily pursued from the first, and if the 
 members of the society can count with cer- 
 tainty upon having classical compositions of 
 all kinds put into their hands, the love of the 
 thing will very quickly engender the needful 
 interest without further prescription. If the 
 society consist of members who may be 
 credited with a high moral aim, they will 
 soon see that there is a brighter sun in a 
 cultivated and enthusiastic choir than in all 
 the brilliant circles of fashion ; nor will there 
 then be any occasion for finding fault with 
 any who profess themselves unable to devote 
 themselves, heart and soul, for three hours in 
 a week out of the hundred and sixty-eight, 
 to so divine an art. When the society con- 
 sists promiscuously of good and bad mem- 
 bers, some indulgence is necessary, because 
 the just distribution of the voices becomes
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART, 
 
 175 
 
 impracticable, and the better members must 
 endure the vexation of having to put up 
 with what is called the general effect, i.e. such 
 bawling as penetrates through doors and 
 windows. 
 
 A second prime requisite for a good choral 
 society is a large musical library. For the 
 very finest music is apt to pall from a con- 
 tinued absence of variety ; whence it not 
 unfrequently happens that the oftener the 
 most beautiful pieces are gone through, the 
 worse they are sung. So, again, instru- 
 mentalists find that the piece they have 
 practised is often best played when resumed 
 after being laid aside for a while. A scanty 
 library is likely enough to cause people to 
 contract bad likings for want of better mate- 
 rial, and swallow grain and husk with equal 
 relish. A point should therefore be made of 
 representing side by side, in their finest 
 works, a variety of masters, from the re- 
 motest to the present time. No one style, 
 no one composer, nor the composers of any 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Necessity 
 of a large 
 library for 
 sake of 
 
 variety.
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 one country, should be allowed an absolute 
 predominance, nor should a whole evening 
 on any account be devoted to the grave and 
 measured music of the old church style, 
 which, unaided by the imposing effect of a 
 church, is apt to exhaust and overstrain the 
 attention, while, even in a church, it is diffi- 
 cult to endure a long uninterrupted musical 
 performance. Above all else, care should be 
 taken to have not only four-part pieces, but 
 pieces in one, two, or three parts, for all the 
 different voices, and especially pieces in eight 
 parts or more, the peculiar beauty of which 
 last lies in their rising to a climax, not by 
 dint of increased vocal effort, but by the 
 accession of parts. It may often happen 
 that there are only a few voices of the highest 
 excellence, and this renders it very important 
 to have the resource of an ample library, in 
 order to make the fullest use of individual 
 talent. 
 
 The acquisition of a good library has, how- 
 ever, many difficulties difficulties which are,
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 177 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Certain 
 
 works 
 
 recom- 
 
 of course, insurmountable if the members of 
 the society share the disposition of those 
 many persons who can spend any amount on 
 finery, trinkets, balls, and dinners, but de- 
 cline acquaintance with good music unless 
 offered gratuitously. No good can be done 
 where such a paltry spirit prevails; but, if 
 due liberality be forthcoming, good results 
 may be hoped for. The best works of our 
 countrymen, Handel, and Sebastian Bach, 
 
 mended. 
 
 are, in great part, in print Handel's almost 
 without an exception in England, and par- 
 tially in German editions, which, though a 
 good deal mutilated, always contain much 
 admirable matter. The original Hussite, 
 Lutheran, and Calvinistic chorales may easily 
 be got together. A choral society might 
 even be content with the specimens appended 
 to Mortimer's " Choral Music of the Period 
 of the Reformation," Berlin, 1821, 4 vols. 
 I have already indicated the national songs 
 that may be had in print. The compositions 
 of the old Flemish and Dutch school are
 
 1 7 8 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 indeed very hard to meet with. For Italian 
 music, one is forced, as a rule, to search 
 everywhere for manuscripts, not only in Rome 
 (where, certainly, much may be obtained from 
 Signor Fortunate Santini), but also in other 
 places, because in Italy, as in Spain, a bad 
 habit has always prevailed of each locality 
 keeping its own productions to itself, or rating 
 them as superior to anything else. There 
 exist, however, in print, several considerable 
 Italian works, either sacred or otherwise in- 
 teresting to choral bodies : in particular, I 
 may mention L. Leo's " Miserere " for eight 
 voices, Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater," which is 
 entirely ruined in Killer's German edition, a 
 Litany and Mass by Durante, for four voices, 
 and the Collection mentioned at page 49, 
 comprising Allegri's and Bai's " Misereres," 
 and Palestrina's " Lamentationes," " Respon- 
 soria," " Popule meus," " Stabat Mater," and 
 " Fratres ego enim." To these I should add 
 some duets, and a Magnificat of Durante, 
 lately published at Leipsig and Berlin, as
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 179 
 
 well as Marcello's magnificent edition of 
 the Psalms, recently prepared in Florence 
 under Cherubim's directions, in 12 folio 
 volumes. I do not mention other smaller 
 pieces printed in periodicals, miscellaneous 
 collections, or elsewhere ; moreover, I may 
 have overlooked a good many that have 
 been printed, because I have always made 
 it my chief object to procure from Italy itself 
 the most authentic available MSS. 
 
 A further duty attaching to the conductor 
 of a society devoted to classical music is to 
 look carefully after the practising of the 
 separate parts. Thus, previous to the 
 execution of the piece, all the sopranos 
 should be practised together, so far as they 
 need assistance, then the altos, and the 
 rest each part separately and that too 
 under the conductor's own direction, so that 
 when he comes to direct the final perform- 
 ance, he may have no cause to be dissatisfied 
 with the work of others. In this way only 
 can the requisite steadiness and refinement 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Method of 
 conducting 
 practices.
 
 i8o 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 be secured. Numberless points, too, can 
 can thus be noticed, which in simultaneous 
 singing would remain unsettled, one part 
 easily drowning another, and politeness and 
 delicacy preventing corrections being made as 
 freely as in more private intercourse. For ac- 
 complished vocalists, indeed, such preparations 
 may be unnecessary, but in most cases they 
 are indispensable. As a rule, too, it will be 
 found that those who have a real taste for 
 art are far from averse to practices, so long 
 as compositions of first-rate quality in their 
 different kinds are tendered to them ; for the 
 greater the effort involved in the pursuit of 
 Beauty, the greater the appreciation of it. 
 Accomplished vocalists have also the satis- 
 faction of administering by their own example 
 salutary encouragement and instruction to 
 those who are not so proficient. And how 
 easy is it to spare a couple of by-hours, pro- 
 vided a man knows how in other respects to 
 economise his time ! 
 
 Thus far, I have made no reference to
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 181 
 
 public performances, to which many persons 
 are very partial, either from vanity, or be- 
 cause from good-nature they would have all 
 the world share in their pleasure. If choral 
 societies aim at comprehensive historical 
 knowledge, and devote their best energies to 
 those masterpieces that take us aside from 
 worldly ways, a constant appearance in public 
 on their part would be as paradoxical a pro- 
 ceeding as to invite educated and uneducated 
 alike, without distinction of persons, to listen 
 to the recital of a profoundly conceived poem. 
 That certain pieces may be brought to a public 
 hearing, and under certain circumstances must 
 be so brought, as showing a wish to give 
 pleasure, is natural enough. But I have 
 become more convinced every year that 
 privacy, except for a few intimate friends, is 
 of the greatest consequence to choral socie- 
 ties ; for thus, and thus only, can be engen- 
 dered that calm and even temper essential 
 to a serious passion for music. It secures 
 you, moreover, from laboured effort ; for in a 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Frequent 
 perform- 
 ances in 
 public 
 better 
 avoided, if 
 the society 
 has a high 
 musical
 
 182 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Obstacles, 
 such, as 
 prejudice 
 and bad 
 training, 
 requiring 
 patience to 
 surmount. 
 
 public performance the smallest errors must 
 be avoided, and their complete avoidance 
 usually requires over much pains from un- 
 pretending amateurs. It is always better 
 quietly to pass over slight defects, but to 
 atone for them by abundant excellence. 
 Similarly, in literature it is far better to 
 have a general acquaintance with classic 
 authors, and to risk the misapprehension of 
 a word here and there, than to exhaust the 
 whole of one's energies over one favourite 
 volume. 
 
 But while the society closes its doors to 
 the outside world, in order to essay at leisure 
 the execution of first-rate musical works with 
 a select few, it will always be necessary for 
 the conductor of a well-constituted society to 
 exercise an unwearied patience and a kindly 
 indulgence; for, from the education, or, I 
 should say, mis-education of our people, their 
 minds are usually, not as a fresh and virgin soil, 
 but preoccupied with certain notions, which 
 prevent the highest form of art from being
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 183 
 
 appreciated at first, though afterwards it 
 reveals its overpowering charm, as I well 
 know from experience. It must be remem- 
 bered, too, that classical music must always 
 have its particular foes, whose censure is 
 in reality its highest praise, as well as that 
 we have in this lower world of ours a pretty 
 large number who can see quickly enough a 
 great deal in what is gay and lively, but are 
 unable without much effort to grasp the pro- 
 found intention and angelic purity of a dif- 
 ferent style. This indeed is more to be 
 expected now than ever, as a youthful taste 
 for music of this latter kind is hardly 
 cherished by one of our churches, whereas 
 it is of infinite importance that the apprecia- 
 tion of the highest art should be inculcated 
 in the time of youth. We have only to read 
 Zelter's most interesting memoir of his friend 
 Fasch (Berlin, 1801) to realise the difficul- 
 ties with which high art has to contend. To 
 the want of preparatory training and faculty 
 of apprehension must be added the dearth of 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies
 
 1 84 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 The choice 
 of a con- 
 ductor all- 
 important. 
 
 strong deep altos and basses, which are much 
 needed for a good many of the older master- 
 pieces, those especially of Josquin, Senflel, 
 Lasso, and Palestriua. For such works as 
 these I have to be content, as best may be, 
 with a woodcut instead of a picture, and to 
 draw upon my imagination to supply the de- 
 ficiency. But many will not be disposed to 
 tax their imagination for such kindly assist- 
 ance, and so at times it may be necessary to 
 leave several most admirable compositions 
 unessayed. 
 
 But in every case the cardinal point is the 
 choice of a good conductor ; one versed in 
 classical music, able to grasp the score, and 
 unyielding either to self-conceit or to the 
 vanity of others. But this, alas ! is precisely 
 the point, where with musical societies of every 
 kind, least care is taken. Only too often there 
 are found installed in arbitrary authority either 
 amateurs, who know little or nothing of their 
 duty, and like the cook in Lichtenberg's Short 
 Essays, can at best assert themselves to be
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 185 
 
 endowed with capital appetites, or else as- 
 suming professionals, in whose eyes their 
 own laboured handiwork and their own 
 compositions are superior to anything else. 
 Either way the case is deplorable, but the 
 latter decidedly more so than the former. I 
 mean that ignorance is at all events usually 
 disposed to profit with a good grace by the 
 superiority of others, whilst a musical auto- 
 crat of the ordinary stamp is the most in- 
 tolerable creature on earth. He has so high 
 an opinion of himself, and is so constantly 
 occupied with composing, that he never gives 
 his attention to classical music, and his self- 
 esteem generally causes him to fall foul of 
 all around him, so that he himself may be- 
 come conspicuous on the ground he has 
 levelled. Our unceasingly prolific composers 
 often remind me of a learned old friend who 
 was always writing himself, but never read 
 the writings of others. When a pointed 
 allusion to it was made to his wife, the good 
 woman haughtily replied, " My husband has 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies,
 
 1 86 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Caution as 
 to con- 
 ductors' 
 own com- 
 positions. 
 
 no need to buy books, for he writes his own 
 books." This applies to thousands at the 
 present day, who plume themselves on their 
 own writings, and would suppress all classical 
 music. For the same reason certain concerts, 
 given much too frequently, can only be de- 
 scribed as pitiful exhibitions, where bald and 
 soulless exercitations are to be heard. It 
 would be well to say to the conductors of most 
 of our choral societies, as well as to most 
 of our young poets, " Do as you please, but 
 spare us your own compositions." No doubt 
 a healthy germ may sometimes be crushed by 
 so stringent a rule ; but it will be consoling 
 to know that the conductor is thus left free 
 to select the choicest works of acknowledged 
 classical authors for practice. So it is that 
 nature allows many a small bird to perish 
 that eagles may be nourished. At the same 
 time there may well be exceptions, where the 
 conductor may really rank as a great com- 
 poser. It would be found a good safeguard, 
 the society being provided in the first in-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 187 
 
 stance with the best standard works, and 
 having practised them diligently, not to allow 
 a conductor who is so much given to com- 
 posing to put forward his own productions, 
 unless requested to do so ; but take care that 
 he does not show beforehand that he would 
 wish to be so requested, and that he does not 
 set himself up for a great composer. If the 
 society does not possess a good library, want 
 of material may indeed throw you back upon 
 your conductor's own resources, or upon the 
 perpetual repetition of the same pieces. But 
 the proverb, "Necessity is above law," can 
 never prove, except for the truth it conveys, 
 an agreeable lesson. 
 
 Then, I unhesitatingly recommend the 
 entire exclusion of operas, at any rate of the 
 modern popular operas, much talent though 
 there be in portions of them. The range of 
 classical works outside of opera is of bound- 
 less extent, and demands an even balance 
 of mind, especially nowadays when the 
 music that one hears from one's earliest days 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Opera 
 should be 
 excluded.
 
 1 88 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 onwards has a wanton and worldly influence, 
 which causes everything lying outside opera 
 to wear a strange sort of look from want of 
 familiarity with it ; and this strangeness can 
 only be dispelled by reserving certain hours, 
 in which the whole attention may be concen- 
 trated on other styles than the operatic. 
 Moreover, one really hears the modern opera 
 music wherever one goes. Germany is now 
 overrun with theatres; the music brought 
 out in them is sedulously reproduced at con- 
 certs ; and social gatherings are always seek- 
 ing their musical cheer in opera music. The 
 whole time, too, that remains out of the one 
 hundred and sixty-eight hours of the week, 
 after deducting therefrom the short harmonic 
 evening, may be devoted, if need be, to 
 a diligent cultivation of opera at home. Any 
 one, then, who, in view of all this worldly 
 enjoyment, would still demand that a choral 
 society should undertake modern opera, and 
 thereby expose itself to an imputation of 
 frivolity, is like the smoker who, at the con-
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 189 
 
 fessional, took his lighted pipe out of his 
 mouth, and, holding it behind his back, 
 began his confession with the request to be 
 allowed to continue smoking meanwhile. 
 
 Several other points, too often regarded as 
 of secondary moment, deserve the most care- 
 ful attention. Foremost among them I reckon 
 this that the conductor of the society should 
 make the expression clearly and accurately 
 understood, to which end he should, with all 
 possible care, go through those parts in 
 which the expression is left, as is usually 
 done in all the old scores, to the individual 
 judgment. It is almost incredible how much 
 a piece gains by the simultaneous observance 
 of its fortes, pianos, crescendos, and dimi- 
 nuendos. If these are not clearly indicated 
 in the copies of the parts, two evils must 
 necessarily arise, the one as bad as the other 
 either the singing will be without feeling, 
 and so spiritless throughout, or else each 
 singer will be guided by his own feeling, and 
 the requisite unity of effect be entirely lost. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Marks of 
 expression 
 to be in- 
 serted, in 
 score of 
 old music.
 
 190 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Transla- 
 tions some 
 times ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 Full indications of expression have indeed 
 their great difficulties, and, in attempting 
 them it will not be found easy exactly to 
 reconcile different tastes ; yet a fixed rule is 
 always preferable to untutored liberty, which 
 either remains inactive from timidity, or else 
 throws the whole choir into confusion. 
 
 Next, it is extremely important for the 
 society to engage a skilful translator. For 
 while it is in my judgment quite necessary, 
 on account of the beauty of the words, to 
 have the Latin and Italian text sung in the 
 original, the meaning of the words must 
 always be made perfectly clear to the singers. 
 But as regards other languages this practice 
 cannot hold good, and there German words 
 must be substituted for singing in lieu of the 
 original text, because otherwise it is impos- 
 sible to reckon upon its being even correctly 
 pronounced. Such substitution is often, 
 must be confessed, a very troublesome task 
 but who that cares for the object in view will 
 shrink from the labour ?
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 191 
 
 Lastly, I would point out a matter on 
 which, small as it may appear, a great deal 
 depends ; and that is the desirability of indi- 
 cating, by progressive numbers, the bars in 
 the score of every piece, and in the separate 
 vocal parts, and of continuing them, so far as 
 may be, uninterruptedly throughout. This 
 is the only means of specifying quickly 
 and accurately the places where a stumble 
 occurs, and to which, therefore, it will be 
 necessary to revert. To be always counting 
 with the finger is most troublesome, and 
 may easily cause confusion, miscalculation on 
 somebody's part being generally inevitable. 
 Those who have taken part in sonatas for 
 two players will at once see how greatly the 
 labour of practising would be lightened if 
 each bar were numbered. I should also 
 advise that, in writing out the parts, the 
 same cleff should invariably be used for each 
 respective part. For example, the alto part 
 should be always transcribed in the alto cleff, 
 or always in the violin cleff; for few singers 
 
 On 
 Choral 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Bars to be 
 numbered. 
 
 Cleffs to 
 be uni- 
 form.
 
 192 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 Attention 
 to details 
 well 
 
 worth the 
 trouble. 
 
 Pleasures 
 of classical 
 music 
 infinite, 
 enduring, 
 and divine. 
 
 of either sex are equally familiar with dif- 
 ferent cleffs, and no advantage can accrue 
 from choosing at one time one cleff, at 
 another time another, merely because scores 
 may be marked with different cleffs. Copy- 
 ists easily acquire the requisite facility of 
 transposing if they are properly looked after 
 at first. 
 
 Many persons may not like my plea for a 
 strict observance of rule in what may be 
 called trifling matters, no less than in all 
 others. I, on the other hand, have still less 
 liking for a choral society being converted 
 into a Babel. Without attention to details 
 there can be no perfection, and regularity 
 is, as Kant used to say, quite as easy, and 
 even easier, to any one habituated to it, than 
 irregularity. 
 
 Once more : if classical music has to en- 
 counter the prejudice of being considered as 
 of too serious and exacting a nature, such 
 prejudice can only proceed from levity or 
 ignorance. On the part of well-conducted
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 193 
 
 choral societies it can be, at all events, only 
 senseless prejudice. For if such societies 
 occupy themselves with the four descriptions 
 of music commended in the foregoing pages 
 viz. genuine old chorales of various churches, 
 compositions in the pure ecclesiastical style, 
 compositions in the oratorio style, and, lastly, 
 select national songs of all countries they 
 will then have at their command so abundant 
 a store of the grave and gay, of the vehement 
 and the tender, of the devotional and the 
 racy, of the profound and the romantic, that 
 it would be no exaggeration for any one to 
 express the thought that has often come to 
 me, and is no mere fancy, [that I could never 
 grow old in spirit if a kind destiny were to 
 preserve to me all my life long an unimpaired 
 enjoyment of fine music/] Such has also been 
 the feeling of the many accomplished ama- 
 teurs who have been associated with me for 
 a series of years. And I can assert that 
 nothing has confirmed me in, and prompted 
 me to, the contemplation of what is noble and 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies.
 
 194 
 
 On 
 
 Choral 
 Societies. 
 
 PURITY IN MUSICAL ART. 
 
 great, so much as the enthusiasm and the 
 lively appreciation of which I have seen so 
 many gratifying proofs throughout almost the 
 whole of my intercourse with them. And 
 thus to me, engaged as I am in the assiduous 
 discharge of laborious professional duties, 
 fine music, nourishing a bright flame in the 
 soul, has become as precious as the noonday 
 sun. Often have I repeated from my very 
 soul with Luther, and will here repeat once 
 more : "Music is a fair and glorious gift from 
 God. I would not for the world renounce 
 my humble share of Music."
 
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